SCRIP-BITS

Isaiah 51:12.      I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass.
 
Oh Friends, isn’t it most excellent to see another blessed day on God’s wonderful earth? It certainly is! So let’s all take a deep breath, hold it for a moment, then slowly let it out, while simultaneously contemplating the miracle of life that exists in us, and the goodness of God that enables us to keep on breathing minute after minute, day by day. And having done that, and realizing what rich and exquisite gifts the Lord has bestowed on us, both through ordinary physical life and spiritual rebirth, reconciliation through His Son Jesus Christ, all His earth bound children declared a heartfelt: ‘Thank You Lord! We LOVE You and praise Your Holy Name! We know that it’s nothing we’ve done, but Your monumental, unconditional LOVE for us that causes You to continue looking upon us with such awesome and amazing LOVING-kindness. We faithfully pray that our wonderful LOVE relationship will continue forever, throughout eternity. In Jesus Name. Amen.’ Yes Friends, what a great LOVE our heavenly Father bears towards us, and consequently desires us to bear to each other. No wonder St. Therese of Liseux, the Saint of the Little Flower, emphasized in her short, rough but productive earthly sojourn, that ‘What matters in life, is not great deeds, but great LOVE.’ And if that isn’t an undeniable truth, then I don’t know what is! Sadly though, of all the emotions, that noble emotion of LOVE, which we need the most, is what we have the least of. Granted, the word is constantly bandied about, but there’s no true substance to it. It’s used mostly in a worldly, carnal manner, oftimes as a synonym for fleshly lust. But when coming to true LOVE for God, and true LOVE for our fellow man, our world is sadly lacking. True LOVE for God doesn’t mean continually disparaging Him and removing Him from our society. And true LOVE for our neighbours certainly doesn’t mean the worldwide strife, resentment, bitterness and other stressful emotions that currently dominate our days and nights. And unfortunately my people, without real LOVE, we’re just spinning our wobbly wheels in self-destruct mode. That’s because the negative emotions opposed to LOVE aren’t conducive to building or creating, but are all forces of destruction. And if we keep letting those negative forces rule the roost, then we’ll just keep going the way we are now…falling, falling, falling into the disastrous pit of an earthly hell. It doesn’t take a genius to see that my brethren. But it does take a wise, considerate and LOVING human being to want to do something to stop the carnage, the ever-quickening downward trend. And as I keep reminding us, it’s only the true believers who are capable of catching the reins of this runaway horse and carriage we call modern-day life and bringing it to a halt and then reversing its sordid direction to that which leads to sincere repentance, praise worship, glorification and LOVE for our Creator, Jehovah God. Ah mih people, unless this reversal of directions happens, and happens soon too, we’ll all end up in dire circumstances. The terrible plight of our world is there for all to see; what with the tough and getting tougher economic situations creating worldwide joblessness, the immense poverty, sickness, homelessness, famine, drought, climate change and all the other negatives now consuming us. None of that speaks of real LOVE, especially when there’s more than enough of everything to go around. And we haven’t even mentioned the numerous social uprisings, the wars and rumours of wars that are concurrently taking place alongside all the other disastrous situations. Oh Friends, what a mess we’ve made of God’s wonderful creation! And it all stems from a sad lack of LOVE. The unfortunate thing about LOVE though, is that it takes time to build, because it needs trust and faith, things that cannot be had instantly. Meanwhile, hate, anger and strife can be raised up immediately and produce immense destruction at the proverbial drop of a hat. Anyway my fellow believers, the moral of the story, the purpose of this epistle (smile) is to have us wake up and realize that it’s imperative we get the ball of LOVE rolling as quickly as possible. There’s absolutely no time to lose, since Lucifer and his wicked cronies already have a substantial head start on us. That means we have lots of ground to make up, before we can even think of forging ahead of the evildoers. So please, if we seriously and sincerely LOVE Jesus and want to please Him, want to help build His glorious kingdom, then let’s get it together nuh. Let’s cut out all the pussyfooting and blah blah blah, and get some real action going. We can’t allow the immense sacrifice of Christ’s sinless life on Calvary’s cross to be wasted, to go for naught under the evil onslaught, because we’re too comfortable, lazy and/or afraid. Remember Bruh Paul’s strong assurance to Timothy: ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of LOVE, and of a sound mind.’ (2 Tim.1:7) Therefore, as true believers, we ought to come out swinging, giving no quarter to the workers of iniquity in this LOVE Revolution, if we want to see a return to God and all the things that make for a safe, satisfied, wonderful, godly and righteous life. Now let’s allow our Bit, and the three verses after it, to take us home, so that we can ponder on the truth contained in them, and how our lives reflect that truth. ‘I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a (mortal) man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready (preparing) to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name.’ (Is.51:12-15) Oh my people, please let’s contemplate today on those harsh words of our mightily displeased God. Yes, He is mightily displeased because we’re doing just like, and even worse than the Israelites of old, to whom Isaiah directed those words. And having pondered them, let’s then rise up and do better. If not for our sakes, then for Jesus and our children’s. It’s the wisdom of the ages. Much LOVE!…he who has ears to hear…let him hear…otherwise he’ll surely feel the wrath of God…