Today’s Scrip-Bit 3 April 2013 Malachi 3:10

03 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Malachi 3:10.    Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Oh Friends, it’s Wednesday morning and I am very unhappy because I just opened my mailbox and found it had all been changed to the foolish, stupid looking and very inconvenient Outlook nonsense. I don’t know who designs these sites, but as far as I’m concerned they should be shot! It’s a very poor use of space and I can’t move anything the way I want to or am accustomed to doing. But I guess we’re at the mercy of the owners of the websites, unless we want to pay for it, so as I keep saying we just have to grin and bear it. I now have to develop a whole new way of working or move to a different provider, which will just be like starting over again. Okay, I’ve had my rant (smile) but I’m still not happy, and since I know the Lord will provide a way, where there seems to be no way, let’s forget them and move on to our Bit. ‘Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat (food) in mine house, and prove (test) me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.’ Oh Friends, yesterday we saw where tithes first came into being; from Abram, to Jacob and then the official law through Moses. Today we’ll look at some more scripture dealing with that very contentious and controversial topic of tithes. First, let’s see how it cropped up in our Bit. The prophet Malachi was talking to his people about the approach of the day of judgement, (Mal.3:1-5) re who would survive it, and what the people needed to do to get on God’s right side. ‘Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein (in what way) shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. (Mal.3:7b-9) Then our Bit comes in, and the Lord continues. ‘And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field (fail to bear fruit), saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome (delightful) land, saith the Lord of hosts.’ (Mal.3:11-12) Now before we go any further, listen to the scholars on those verses (&-12). ‘These Israelites have done what no man should presume to attempt, namely, to defraud God in tithes and offerings. The payment of tithes and heave offerings was a recognition of their subjection to God and that He owned them and all that they had. To withhold the tithe is to renounce the sovereign authority of God and to be guilty of the same sin as Lucifer in the beginning. Pour you out a blessing: The blessings come not because God received His due portion, but because in giving the tithe the believers put themselves in the place of proper obedience and subjection to God. Tithing was clearly commanded in the Old Testament and served as the minimum standard for giving in the New Testament. See Matthew 6:1-4 in the Sermon on the Mount, where true spirituality exceeds the outward demands of the Law.’ Wow! What challenging words! Now here’s the billion dollar question my people. Having taken all that’s been said above, both by the scholars and the Good Book, can the fact that our land is not delightsome today be because of our robbing God, like the Israelites did way back then? Can it be because we’re not giving Him His rightful due, what’s lawfully His, that our countries and our world are plagued by such wide scale negativity and disasters, from economic to physical and spiritual? I want to strongly suggest that there is a direct correlation between our dealing with God and the sad state of our world. How can turning away from Him and desperately trying to eradicate Him from our society and our consciences not have a negative effect on us eh? As He says earlier: ‘For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.’ (Mal.3:6-7a) And that’s the undeniable truth my brethren! So the logic here is really simple: If we want to have true prosperity, then we have to return to sincerely and diligently worshipping Almighty God, the Creator of the universe and all therein, paying whatever He requires of us from whatever He allows us to have. End of story Friends! If we continue with our current foolish attitude of ignoring God and trying to remove Him from our society, then we’re simply going to continue paying a serious and hefty price for that disobedience. Remember Friends, our God doesn’t change, neither do His laws. So basically all the stuff in the Good Book still pertains to us today, and we’ll be well advised to return to Him, rather than trying to get away from Him. That, my people, is wisdom at its very zenith. More on this tithing subject tomorrow, God in favour. Till then, please let’s all consider our situations, re our personal relationships with God and fellow believers, and try our best to work for a speedy return to worshipping and serving the Most High God Jehovah in truth and deed, per the LOVE Revolution, so that all may be well with our societies and our world, as true wisdom dictates. Much LOVE!…he who has ears to hear…let him hear…else He will certainly feel…

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 18 March 2013 2 Peter 2:9

18 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Peter 2:9.    The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished.
 
And then it was Monday…! And all of God’s children shouted a joyous, ‘Thank God is Monday yes! Time to go back to work. Ah tired being cooped up in this ole house all weekend, just washing and cooking and cleaning and looking after children and a lazy spouse. Steups! Ah doh work so hard in the government work nuh!’ Yes Friends, that’s the dilemma we often find our selves in. Home for the weekend, saddled with all the housework and dying to get out. Then by Tuesday evening, crawling in the endless traffic, we yearn for Friday and the weekend. No need to feel badly, we all experience that type of situation sometimes. Let’s just sing our Monday Morning Battle Hymn and get ourselves in a right frame of mind to handle the outside world. As one loud, sweet, harmonious choir now. Let Jesus and all the heavenly host sit up and take notice. ‘Oh Lord God Almighty, Creator of the universe and all therein! We, your humble servants, praise your Holy Name and thank you that this Monday morning we have jobs to go to; jobs we don’t like, jobs that are unfair, difficult and even dangerous, but which serve a useful purpose here on earth; keeping lives and families together. We also thank you Father for the renewed vitality and enthusiasm you’ve wrought in our weary souls over the last two days. It’s that rejuvenation of Spirit which allows us now to sally forth with confidence into the evil, ungodly world that surrounds us, to begin a new week of work, constantly buffeted and bombarded by the enemy’s wicked taunts, wiles and lies. But heavenly Father, we’re not afraid, for we know we’re invincible, sure conquerors, once we’re wearing your powerful, protective spiritual armour. We surrender our all to you, and humbly ask that you let your incredible aura of LOVE, the Holy Spirit, lead and guide all your servants as we go out to meet the enemy in battle. Fill us with steadfast faith, so that we can make worthwhile inroads into the enemy’s ranks, and thereby further your glorious kingdom. We pray this in the Holy Name of your Son, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. AMEN!’ Awright mih breddren! The whole heavenly host was pleased. There was plenty applause, and we even got a standing O. Wow! So let’s go out into the evil world in which we work, carrying that same enthusiastic, faith filled, Christ-LOVING, people- LOVING attitude and win some needy souls for Christ, because that’s our earthly mandate! Now let’s see what wisdom we can glean from our Bit: ‘The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished.’ And that’s the living truth Friends! Our God certainly knows how to bail out or help the faithful through the trials of temptation, but He also knows how to handle the evil pack that will be destroyed when He decides to wrap up this whole creation thing in the final judgement. Oh my brethren, I’m sincerely pleading, please don’t let us be found on the wrong side of the mighty ledger, the unjust and wicked side, because our end, come that final day, which only the Lord knows, will be real painful and sorrowful. And there’s nothing wrong with temptation, unless we give in to it, since we all are tempted sometime, in one fashion or another. And as Bruh Paul warned the church at Corinth, re Israel being used as a warning example: ‘Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition (instruction), upon whom the ends of the world (ages) are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken (overtaken) you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able bear (endure) it.’ (1 Cor.10:11-13) Yes my people, our wonderful God will always help us in temptations. But the scholars bring up an interesting point here. ‘Make a way to escape (lit. “an egress” or “way out”): In early Greek usage, this term had the sense of a landing place for a ship. The idea is thus not that He will enable us to escape temptation, but that He will enable us to land intact on the other side.’ So it’s not that Lord will always keep temptation away, make us never suffer it, but more that we won’t get more than we can handle, and after undergoing it, He promises to bring us out safely. In other words, though we may get caught up in the temptation, with it swallowing us, like the fish did Jonah, the Lord will enable us to bear the burden, just like He did for Jonah, after he’d understood and repented of his wrong doing. So, please don’t despair when temptation comes, you’re not alone, all humans are tempted by the evil one and his evil cronies. Just hold on tight and fight with all your might, knowing that our God has promised to see you through it, and He faithfully keeps all His promises. The temptation may last longer than we like, or be more difficult than we appreciate, but note that there’s always a very good reason for whatever the Lord allows in our lives, and will not waste anything we’ve gone through, but use it for our eventual good. It’s all part of maturing us, bringing us more like Jesus. Don’t forget that, keep the faith and fight on strong like a good soldier of Christ. In time we’ll reap the rewards. Much LOVE!…when the going gets tough…that’s when the tough…the followers of Jesus get going…with His help of course…

 
 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 4 March 2013 Isaiah 40:8

04 Mar 2013 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 Isaiah 40:8.      The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Oh Friends, it’s Monday!   And I’m suddenly inundated by a whole setta ‘Steups’! and ‘Chuhs!’ and ‘Go away nuh! Yuh can’t see that people tired and want to sleep?’ ‘But it’s Monday,’ I insist. ‘Time to get up and go to work.’ Finally I receive a gruff, unenthusiastic, ‘Awright, Awright. Steups! This work thing cutting into mih party scene yes! Chuh man!’ And believe me Friends, some of us really feel that way, though it should be the other way around; work first -especially Jesus’ work – then partying a distant second. Ah mih people, whatever happened to the great progress we appeared to be making in being enthusiastic about Monday mornings and work eh? Was it only a pipe dream on my part? Because it surely seems like we’ve regressed right back to square one. But don’t think that I’m giving up on us. Not by a long shot! I’m making it my life’s work to see that we’re enthusiastic about getting up and rearing to go out to battle for Jesus on a Monday Morning. (smile) Anyway, since we seem to be in an unusually grumpy mood and testy frame of mind this morning, I’m not going to push my luck. I don’t want to be physically attacked, because I hear violence lurking in the background. Hn, hn! So let’s just sing our Monday Morning Battle Hymn with as much gusto as we can muster. As one, in harmony now. ‘Oh Lord God Almighty, Creator of the universe and all therein! We, your humble servants, praise your Holy Name and thank you that this Monday morning we have jobs to go to; jobs we don’t like, jobs that are unfair, difficult and even dangerous, but which serve a useful purpose here on earth; keeping lives and families together. We also thank you Father for the renewed vitality and enthusiasm you’ve wrought in our weary souls over the last two days. It’s that rejuvenation of Spirit which allows us now to sally forth with confidence into the evil, ungodly world that surrounds us, to begin a new week of work, constantly buffeted and bombarded by the enemy’s wicked taunts, wiles and lies. But heavenly Father, we’re not afraid, for we know we’re invincible, sure conquerors, once we’re wearing your powerful, protective spiritual armour. We surrender our all to you, and humbly ask that you let your incredible aura of LOVE, the Holy Spirit, lead and guide all your servants as we go out to meet the enemy in battle. Fill us with steadfast faith, so that we can make worthwhile inroads into the enemy’s ranks, and thereby further your glorious kingdom. We pray this in the Holy Name of your Son, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. AMEN!’ Ah mih breddren, that wasn’t as good as it usually is nuh, but hopefully it got our motors going and with the Spirit of Jesus diligently working in us, we’ll soon get up to speed, and hopefully recognize the great significance of our Bit: ‘The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.’ Now that my fellow believers is one of the most absolute truths that exist in this universe! In fact Friends, it’s what our entire belief system is based upon; the infallibility of the Word of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! If there’s no assurance, no surety or security to that, then all we think and believe as Christians is inaccurate, immaterial and serves no useful purpose whatsoever. If there’s no truth to the Creation Story: ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth… and God said, Let there be light: and there was light… And God said, Let us make man in our own image…’ (Gen1:1,3,26) And also no truth to this most provocative statement: ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty,’ (Rev.1:8) then there’s no real authority, or even plausibility to our Christian boasts. But fortunately my brethren, there are facts, figures and scripture to back up those supposedly extreme positions we Christians hold as truth. And they ought to be extreme, otherwise there’s no need for a God. Who wants a God that’s just like us eh? To be a genuine God, One must be way out, way above the heads of mere mortals in all aspects. And this, our immortal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God made extremely clear from early times, through His prophet Isaiah: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ (Is.55:8-9) That says it all my people! And I like what the scholars say about that verse. ‘God’s sovereignty and omniscience are extolled by the statement that His thoughts (i.e., purposes or intentions) and ways (derakim, or “directions“) are higher than ours. While God may certainly be known by men, He is still incomprehensible in the totality of His person and purposes.’  And that’s the way it should be fellow believers! Now let’s look at some scripture that corroborates the contention of our Bit, that the Lord’s Word will last forever. And what better way to begin than with Isaiah’s famous prophecy. ‘For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.’ (Is.9:6-7) What powerful words my people! And the great thing about them is that we know the prophecy was partly fulfilled by the first coming of Jesus, the remainder will be fulfilled when He comes again, as He’s so faithfully promised. Anyway Friends, that’s enough for today. We’ll continue this Bit tomorrow, the Lord in favour. Till then, let’s stand steadfast and strong in faith, relying completely on the absolute infallibility and gospel truth of the Lord’s Word, for there’s nothing else in this fallen world to compare to it. Much LOVE!…if the Word of God isn’t true…then man’s earthly journey is pointless…his suffering meaningless…and his fullness of joy a bitter lie…

 

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