SCRIP-BITS

Oh Friends, it’s Monday, that wonderful day! And all God’s people responded with a rousing, ‘Yeah! Thank God it’s Monday, and we get to go out to work!’ Wow! What wonderful believers! (smile) Okay, so I’m a tad on the crazy side, but that’s how our LOVING, Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ wants us to react on a Monday morning, not with the moaning and groaning, the pity party and foul moods we usually exhibit. And foolishly or otherwise, I’ve promised Him that I will eventually get us to be as enthusiastic about Mondays as we are about Fridays. Now I’m sure you all don’t want to see me break my promise to Jesus. So please help the ole fella here nuh, help me by changing the gloomy Monday morning outlook, starting RIGHT NOW, as we sing our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, with plenty vim and vigour. All together 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!’ Most excellent my people, most excellent! Jesus was proud of us. Now let’s go out into the evil, ungodly world and win some souls for Him, as He commissioned us to do. (Matt.28:19-20) And what shall we talk about today eh? I don’t have a clue. (smile) Okay Lord, okay, if that’s Your wish, I’ll finally obey. And I’m referring to a couple of things that have been bugging me for the last few days, but I’ve resisted the urge to say anything. However the Lord seems to want me to bring it up. Regular readers will remember that a couple days ago we were dealing with not talking or writing as much as we do in general, but even more so in the social media that’s chocked full of negative consequences. Well after the second day, I read about a couple things that greatly disturbed me about our ever so wonderful Internet, but I pushed it aside. However, it kept coming back through the newspapers and the television, and I guess now’s the time for me to get it off my chest. By the way, if we’re going to talk about talking too much, we can use the same Bit, since it’s still very appropriate. ‘I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep (restrain) my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.’ Oh Friends, if what I’m about to say displeases you, then too bad, but it’s at sad times like these we, especially parents, have to take a serious look at our selves and our methods of rearing the children God gave us. Our society has sadly plummeted to rather deplorable and dumb standards, but what else can we expect from our general behaviour? Anyway, it seems that a couple of years ago, a grade 7 female student in British Columbia, Canada’s western coast province, in concert with supposed friends, published a picture of her breasts on Facebook. Steups! Right there the stupidity began! What in heaven’s name are you taking half-naked pictures of yourself and putting them out there for, especially at such a tender age? She must have been around 12 or 13, because she’s fifteen now. But unfortunately, a year later some evil type sent her a note that he wanted her to take more pictures of herself and send them to him, otherwise he was going to spread the old one all over the place. She claims she didn’t know who he was, or how he got hold of her earlier picture. But that’s relatively easy if you know how the systems work. But to make a long story short, he ended up doing exactly what he’d promised; sent the stuff to her friends, school mates etc. etc. That resulted in her being ostracised by all and sundry. Changing schools and cities didn’t make any difference the evil followed her everywhere she went. She was even physically beaten in addition to the jeers and verbal abuse. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she put out a warning to others using flash cards, then apparently committed suicide this week. Oh she’d tried it before, by drinking bleach, but fortunately she was saved. And here’s the headline on the story in Saturday’s Toronto Star newspaper. ‘Death by anti-social media.’ And as is our usual habit, we’re nicely calling that kind of criminal blackmail, cyber bullying, and everybody’s up in arms about it. Steups! When are we going to learn eh people? Everyday we hear about more and more criminal activities being perpetrated through and over the Internet, and it’s difficult to find the culprits, but yet still we go ahead and put stuff out there that has no reason whatsoever to be out there. And the sad part is that even after Amanda Todd’s terrible demise, many people are still gloating and happy and calling her terrible names. Now is that a nice society? I wouldn’t even ask about it being godly, because you don’t have to be godly to be nice or sympathetic. Oh Friends, we’ve run out of time and space, so I’ll leave the rest of my rant for tomorrow. But please, please learn from this disastrous mistake, that the Net is not all that the evil perpetrators and financial benefactors want us to believe it is. It does have it uses, but one of them is certainly not spreading your life history in cyber space for every Tom, Dick and Harry to see and be able to use and abuse. Much LOVE!…anything man-made…can always…and WILL eventually be used for evil…against society in general…or another man in particular…