SCRIP-BITS

Psalm 145:4.       One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

And it’s another sunshiny day in my neck of the woods! Thanks be to God! Unfortunately though, our fellow human beings in Southern Florida are not so enthused this Friday morning, as Hurricane Helene has dealt them a disastrous blow coming ashore and creating mayhem in their area! I’m sure they didn’t send up loud and grateful shouts of ‘TGIF! Thank God it’s Friday and the weekend is here at long last!’ Definitely not! Let’s pray for them in their time of dire need, and hope that Helene will not cause any more damage, but head out to sea and spiral down to nothing. 

But it’s certainly been a fierce hurricane season. Before one can be quite done, another has taken its place. Brother! Can we lay all of that at the feet of climate change? Our world has become such a disastrous place recently; what with numerous natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and a whole lot of man-made ones too, like wars and rumours of wars. It’s a sad time for children to be growing up amongst all this chaos and indeterminate behaviour, for they can only be indoctrinated with all the negative and ungodly sentiments that are currently filling our world. 

That’s why it’s so important that we believers are busy doing God’s work, spreading the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ work on our behalf. For if we don’t, who will teach the young ones the truth, who will lead them on the straight and narrow path? Definitely not Satan and his evil cronies! Right now my fellow believers we’re facing a major crisis in our faith and in our world, and if we don’t step up to the plate and do better than we’re currently doing, all will be lost. It’s as simple as that! 

As ambassadors and disciples of Jesus, He is expecting us to make a substantial, positive difference in the world, being the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, which we’re certainly not doing, otherwise our world would not be in such a chaotic state, where hate is paramount, and LOVE can hardly be found. It’s a time when all Christians ought to start behaving like true Christians, for if we lose this generation to the evil one then things will get even worse. Let’s remember these words of the psalmist Asaph from Psalm 78 – titled ‘Teach Children God’s laws.’ 

Please read with me: ‘Give ear (listen), O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old (speak obscure sayings or riddles). Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make known to their children: 

That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers; a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright (did not prepare their heart), and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.’ (Ps. 78:1-8) 

Ah friends, teaching the next generation about God has been the responsibility of the parents from time immemorial. That’s how we learned about God. Unfortunately though, we have not done a good job in teaching our children about God, but have allowed the schools and other places to teach them all the other foolishness that now fills their heads. 

And I don’t know if it’s a misdeed we can ever live down, because if this generation doesn’t know God, then who is going to teach the next one about Him? We had better get busy teaching our grandchildren what we unwisely didn’t teach our children, otherwise Satan will be laughing all the way to hell and damnation, since His avowed purpose is to take as many of us with him as possible down to Hades. 

And there are so many scriptures that tell about one generation teaching the next one about God and His awesome works. Like this one from Psalm 145; Bruh David’s Psalm of praise to God’s Unsearchable Greatness, where he writes: ‘Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable (beyond our understanding). One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.’ (Ps. 145:3-4) 

And then there are these words from Isaiah. ‘For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall  make known thy truth.’ (Is. 38:18-19) Yes friends, when we’re in the grave we cannot tell the children about God, it’s only when we alive and kicking. 

And Moses gave the same instructions to the Israelites way back when. ‘Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul (yourself) diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them to thy sons, and thy sons’ sons; Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ (Deut. 4:9-10) 

Yes my fellow saints, the Lord’s instructions and desires for us to teach our children about Him could not be any clearer! And it’s to our sad record and history that we have not done a better job. However, it’s never too late, so let’s begin right now by going to the throne of grace, through our Friday Chant asking for help to restore ourselves in God’s good grace. 

Altogether: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough…  because our many serious problems are escalating instead of improving. And it’s obvious we can’t fix them on our own, so Lord, we’re desperately crying out for your help. Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat the simmering unrest in our land. We therefore ask you Lord to give our leaders the wise guidance to handle these unexpected storms properly. 

And please help the rest of us to be responsible and to stay safe amidst all the anxiety and confusion of these ungodly times. We fervently pray too Lord that you’ll use the discontent and dissatisfaction in our land as a means of restoring faith in you. Return backsliders to your fold. Show them the error of their ways. And please introduce a new flock of believers, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. So that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, wake up and smell it sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’ 

But please note, that divine aid won’t be forthcoming until we begin setting better examples of Christian living! Much LOVE!

…how can the young learn about Jesus…if the elders don’t teach them…

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