Today’s Scrip-Bit   9 March 2024   John 15:12 & 17) 

09 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

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

John 15:12 & 17.         This is my commandment, That ye LOVE one another, as I have LOVED you… These things I command you, that ye LOVE one another.

And like the weather forecasters got it right! This lazy-day Saturday has started out wet, windy and cloudy, let’s hope that it will improve as the day goes along. And even if it doesn’t, we still have Jesus! Glory be! We have Jesus to ease our problems, give us His peace and comfort us, guide us in the direction He desires us to go, and so many other wonderful things, that with Him, we want for NOTHING in this world! As Bruh Paul so confidently and truthfully writes; ‘We can do ALL things, through Christ who strengthens us.’ (Phil. 4:13) And just as importantly and truthfully: ‘My God will supply ALL your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’ (Phil. 4:19) 

And with those two foundation scriptures bubbling in our souls, let’s turn our eyes and hearts heavenward and offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer. As one sincere voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

Wow! It never ceases to amaze me, how such a simple, heartfelt prayer can usher us into the presence of God, just have His amazing and calming presence engulfing us with His awesome LOVE and compassion! But that’s what prayer is all about my people; to bring us closer to God, and allow us to pour out our hearts to Him, and then listen for His answers to our concerns. Prayer is indeed the greatest privilege we have as believers, but so many of us refuse to believe in it and thus don’t use it, thinking it’s a complete waste of time. Some of us have indeed prayed but did not receive the answers we were looking for, and were thus soured on it. 

But let’s remember that prayer is a convenience granted to us by Almighty God to help us do His Will, not to foster our own advantages. Thus, if you don’t pray in God’s Will, then obviously your prayer won’t be answered. For God is not a doting grandfather who just sits there waiting to do our every selfish and evil bidding. That’s why James admonishes us: ‘From whence come wars (conflicts) and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts (desires for pleasure) that war in your members? 

Ye lust, and have not: ye kill (murder), and desire (covet) to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war (battle), yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not , because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (pleasures). Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of (with) the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will (wants to) be a friend of the world is (makes himself an) enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy (yearns jealously)?’ (James 4:1-5) 

No, the scripture does not lie. That takes us back to the very  beginning, where the word says: ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination (intent) of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’ (Gen. 6:5) That’s why the Lord chose to destroy the world in a flood. Oh friends, the same situation exists in our world today; evil thoughts and intents abound from North to South and East to West. There is such widespread strife, hatred and anger like we’ve never seen before. 

And most of it stems from exactly what James writes about; our unsatisfied, selfish desires. As supposed believers, we ask the Lord for stuff to satisfy our lustful pleasures, instead of to do His holy will, and when we don’t get it, we end up striving and fighting with each other. And as the scholars explain: ‘As Israel was a spiritual adulteress, unfaithful to God, so the church is a spiritual adulteress when she is the unfaithful bride of Christ. (cf. Hos. 2:5, 19-20; Matt. 12:39). One cannot be both a LOVER of God and a LOVER of the world.’ 

And believe me, today’s church is certainly something else! The many unnecessary denominations, cliques, petty squabbles over doctrine and other even pettier stuff, plus the too many evils that go on in it, makes Christ church a laughing stock amongst the heathen, who gleefully apply the moniker ‘hypocrite’ to us all. And they’re not  wrong nuh, for too many of us talk one talk, then walk an entirely different walk. And if a bunch of people who claim to believe in the same Leader, cannot get along, and show the Leader’s major attribute to each other, how can others be expected to believe in that Leader and His cause eh? 

Ah mih people, Christianity will never conquer the world until Christians learn to live and work together and get rid of all the petty stuff that’s keeping them apart. So please, on this dreary-looking lazy-day Saturday, let’s spend some time pondering these ever so important words of Jesus re His followers. ‘This is my commandment, That ye LOVE one another, as I have LOVED you… These things I command you, that ye LOVE one another.’ (John 15:12, 17) 

Yes my fellow saints, the most important thing that should be happening between us is the LOVE of Christ! But sadly, that’s exactly what’s not happening! No wonder the world is in such an evil and ungodly mess like way back before the Lord destroyed it. And yuh know what, this time the Lord won’t even have to destroy us, because if we continue along our current path, we will eventually destroy ourselves. Please ponder the foolishness and lack of wisdom in that nuh, when the Lord has given us such a glorious universe and earthly life to enjoy! Much LOVE!

…if Christians can’t show LOVE for each other…then how can we expect the heathens to show LOVE for us…

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ

Today’s Scrip-Bit   10August 2023 Matthew 7:7.

10 Aug 2023 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 7:7.       Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

And August has now moved into double digits on this cool, sunshiny Thursday morning. So you know what’s not too far ahead… (smile) But yuh know what, the enemy only uses the threat of winter and those cold months to frighten us into reneging on all the promises that we’ve made to Jesus to help Him with His worldwide campaign of salvation. Yes friends, that’s all it is… the devil’s empty threats! 

Remember he is now merely a de-fanged, toothless, loudmouth of a lion, with plenty bark but no bite, having been soundly defeated, in fact totally trounced by Jesus in the battle for the keys of hell, death and the grave. And though we should not let him frighten us with his idle threats, please, I beg you, let’s not discount him totally, because he is still the master of wiles and deceptive schemes, the veritable wolf in sheep’s clothing, who can fool you quite easily, if you’re not on your p’s and q’s. 

Yuh see how he fooled Eve our first mother, with apparently one statement that appeared quite harmless but was very ingenious. The Lord had told Adam and her not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the Garden of Eden, for the day they did, they would surely die. (Gen. 2:17) However, the serpent, the evil Satan was smarter than Eve, and changed the story around telling Eve that she wouldn’t die if she ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, but God knew that if she did, ‘then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods (God), knowing good and evil.’ (Gen. 3:5) 

And fool that she was, Eve listened to his glib tongue and ate of the fruit,  then offered it to Adam. And the even bigger fool, who should certainly have known better, he also ate it. And the devil smirked as sin, disobedience to God’s word, then entered the world. And the deceitful enemy hasn’t changed any since then, perchance he’s gotten worse, so please be very careful with any arguments he brings up to you, make sure you take them to God first and verify them with Him, the ultimate decision maker. 

Now, yesterday we left off with a promise to continue our discourse on things that take us away from God and His Word. And having talked about LOVING the things of the world too much, and not those of God enough, not having the peace of Christ, and the loud noises that stop us from hearing the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, here is another problem we encounter in our faith journey. That is, we take the good-looking scriptures and either use them out of context, or use them in the wrong manner. 

And a very good example of that is when Jesus talked about asking and receiving. He said: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocekth it shall be opened.’ (Matt. 7:7-8) And yes, we ought to ask and keep on asking; seek and keep on seeking; knock and keep on knocking, we must never faint or give up in working for Jesus. However, many of us use those instructions in the wrong manner, then get annoyed with God when we don’t get what we asked, sought, or knocked for. 

And James, explains why most of our requests go unanswered. ‘From whence come wars (conflicts) and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts (desires for pleasure) that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill (murder), and desire to have (covet), and cannot obtain: ye fight and war (battle), yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (pleasures). Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of (with) the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will (wants to) be a friend of the world is (makes himself) the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy (yearns jealously)?’ (James 4:1-5) 

Oh my fellow saints, it’s exactly what we were talking about earlier on, our foolish LOVE for the things of the world! And the scholars tell us that ‘James is here emphasizing the strife so common amongst us, stemming from our unsatisfied, selfish desires. Instead of wrestling with God in prayer, these believers are striving with one another.’ And is that ever the gospel truth! Instead of going to God in prayer, too many of us concentrate on fighting with each other. 

And I like how this commentary explains James’ words. ‘Here in this verse, James reveals that when they did ask God for what they wanted, they were simply trying to manipulate Him. Their prayers were not really requests, they were an effort to make God serve their selfish desires.’ And don’t we do that all the time? For sure! We try to get God to do our will instead of us doing His. But let’s remember there are consequences to all our actions, and the only way to avoid most of the negative ones is by being obedient to, and truthful with God, for He knows all and sees all, and we can’t ever fool Him. 

And until we wake up and realize that, we’ll always be at the mercy of the enemy, and thus find ourselves in more negative circumstances than are necessary. Now let’s go home declaring (chuh man!!!) our Thursday Blessings that the Lord so generously bestowed on us so we can do His earthly work. In strong and sincere voice: ‘I declare that I am blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for my life! I declare today that I am blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance! 

I am blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline! I am blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favour and fulfillment! I am blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection! I am blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life! I declare that any curse or negative word that’s ever been spoken over me is broken right now in the name of Jesus! I declare that everything I put my hands to, will prosper and succeed! I declare it today and every day! Amen!’ 

And now friends, having activated those amazing blessings, it’s now our bounden duty to go out and share them with others, so that they too can come to know Christ and LOVE Him like we do! Remember that’s our Great Commission! Much LOVE!

…you cannot use scripture successfully…for your own selfish purposes… 

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ       

Today’s Scrip-Bit 30 September 2020 Psalm 4:7.

30 Sep 2020 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 4:7.     Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn (grain) and their wine increased.

Well it’s another brand new day in the life my friends and fellow believers. And yes, like always, it’s filled with all the new mercies and compassions that our Lord God has promised! What a divine blessing and incomparable benefit! But we have to joyfully accept them and then productively use them, for them to be of any real benefit to us. So let’s hope, like the manna the Lord fed the Israelites with so long ago in the wilderness, we have gathered up our mercies and compassions for this day and have put them to work to the benefit of His holy name and will. For that’s the main purpose of our lives on this planet Earth; doing His Will while obeying His Word. 

And that’s all I have to say this morning! (smile) But our friend Ruth Harms Calkin has something wonderful to share with us; it’s a poem called ‘Beautiful Things Happen,’ and it’s taken from our One Year Book of Bible Promises. So please pray with me: ‘O God such beautiful things happen when I meet You day by day In quietness and confidence. There is a deep inner wholeness And the assurance of Your guidance.

 I am not so easily disturbed By changing circumstances. I am less dependent on others And more dependent on You. My eyes may be full of tears But my heart is full of joy. In discovering Your hidden treasures I learn how deeply I am treasured by You. When day by day I am responsive To Your whispered secrets You do more for me in one day Than I could do for myself in a lifetime.’ 

Now isn’t that the gospel truth my brethren! The Lord does more for us in one single, solitary day than we could ever do for ourselves in a whole lifetime! But all those things don’t just come automatically; we have to seek Him and meet and greet and reverence and worship and enjoy His friendship,LOVE, grace and mercy that He gives so freely to those who ask for and receive it. Remember friends, in God’s economy, asking and receiving are very important. Remember these crucial words of Jesus: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ (Matt. 7:7) 

And his brother James follows that up with these immortal words: ‘Ye lust, and have not: ye kill (murder), and desire to have (covet), and cannot obtain: ye fight and war (battle), yet ye have not, because ye ask not.’ (James 4:2) Yes friends, we try to do all those things in our own strength, but the true answer to life is going to our heavenly Father and asking Him for whatever we desire. And James spells out the problem even further: ‘Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (pleasures).’ (James 4:3) 

And isn’t that the indisputable truth? It certainly is, because when we do ask, we too often ask for unimportant things, lustful things of the world, things that don’t pair up with God’s will for us. And we have this interesting explanation on the subject from the website www.ibelieve.com/faith: ‘Tragedy and shock often prompt us to panic, when it should prompt us to pray. The most powerful weapon we’ve been given to wield often gets shelved for worry, manipulation, and comparison.’ And that’s another indisputable truth! In times of trouble, instead of turning to God with the most powerful tool in the universe, prayer, we unwisely try to manipulate and work things out on our own. 

So the long and short of the story is that we must not only ask, but ask for the right things. And I’m chuckling here because I went off on a tangent there. It wasn’t my intention to talk about all that asking stuff, but it just seemed right and important to mention at this time. 

Anyway, getting back to our poem: ‘Beautiful Things Happen.’ Beautiful things do happen when we surrender our all to God and come humbly and confidently to Him each and every day to renew our fellowship with Him. And though our circumstances might be somewhat rough and difficult, like they are right now, when we encounter Christ, right where we are, though the tears may be flowing like a river from our eyes, because of those unfortunate circumstances, our hearts will be overflowing with joy because we know that our great and wonderful God is ALWAYS near and will ALWAYS look after us once we place our lives in His mighty and oh so compassionate hands. 

Yes friends, our God deeply LOVES and treasures each of His creation. He made NOTHING that He doesn’t LOVE! Remember the remarkable words the Good Book says about the creation? ‘And God saw that it was good…’ (Gen. 1:25) And yes, our sins have disappointed Him greatly, but He still LOVES us so much that He sent His Only Son, Jesus Christ to die for us so that we could be saved from hell fire and eternal damnation! But we need to come to Him! I can’t declare (yeahhh!) how important that is my people. The onus is now on us to accept God’s grace and mercy! 

Now listen to these most reassuring words of Bruh David from Psalm 4 – An evening prayer of trust in God, which are the Bible Promises for our Poem and also our Bit. ‘There may be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn (grain) and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.’ (Ps. 4:6-8) 

Mama Mia! Oh mih people, yuh read them marvellous words of Bruh David! Brother! What could be better than that eh? NOTHING really! When you fellowship and commune with the Lord during the day, you can sleep like a baby at nights, without any worries or real concerns, because He makes those who trust and sincerely believe in Him to sleep in peace! Glory Be! 

Yes, the ole fella’s excited! And if you aren’t excited after reading all that we’ve said today, then ah sorry for yuh yes! And then yuh wonder why life treating yuh so rough and tough. Chuh! It’s simply because yuh not putting enough trust and faith in the Lord God Almighty and living the way He desires you to. And He knows you won’t be perfect, because He’s never made any perfect human beings. But He does require us to come to Him and commune with Him on a regular basis, so that He can give us the desires of our hearts. And not the lustful, ungodly desires, but the true and godly ones! (smile) 

Ah mih people, there’s so much more useful scripture I wanted to quote, but time and space have run out. Maybe tomorrow we can continue, God willing. But now let’s go home declaring (awright!) our Wednesday Wail, letting the whole world know of our most wonderful position in Christ Jesus! 

All together now in strong voice with sincere hearts: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’ 

And we need to remember, that if we do endure until the end, our future will be even more glorious than we can ever ask or imagine! Give our wonderful God some much deserved praise my people!Much LOVE!

…to know, know, know Him…is to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Him…