SCRIP-BITS

Isaiah 39:8.     Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.
 
Oh Friends, what shall we say to this new day that the Lord has made eh? The best thing we can do is be thankful for it; be thankful that we’re blessed more than most of the other earthlings. Then to show our true Christian brotherhood, we should make a decision to actually share some of those many blessings with the less fortunate, because that’s why we’re so blessed. Yes Friends, please remember that all we’re blessed with is not solely for ourselves and our immediate families, but also to share with friends, neighbours and strangers, any others who are in need. We’re supposed to be generous sharers not greedy hoarders. But I doubt that we’re doing a very good job of it since there are so many in need who are not receiving any blessings from us. And please note, we cannot fulfill Jesus’ mandate unless we’re willing to give of what we have, sometimes even sacrificially. ‘Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’ (Matt.25:40) Remember true Christianity isn’t only talk, but also plenty action! It’s good to tell people about God, but how does that help the hungry, the homeless, naked and sick eh? We first need to minister to their physical wants, then tell them the good news of the gospel. That way they can actually see and experience the gospel in real action. And having reminded us of our basic purpose, let’s turn to our Bit. ‘Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good (Just) is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For (at least) there shall be peace and truth in my days.’ Yesterday we saw how the story unfurled that caused our Bit. Today, we’ll look at a few other examples where men of faith simply accepted the Lord’s authority and wisdom without fighting back. We’ll begin way back in Genesis 24, when Abraham sent his servant back to his homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac. The servant, as the Lord would have it ended up at the city of Nahor. Using his smarts, he stopped by a well outside the city because he knew that at that hour the women came out to draw water. Then he implored the Lord to show kindness to his master Abraham. ‘And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master.’ (Gen.24:14) And before he was even done speaking, the beautiful Rebecca appeared and did exactly as he had implored the Lord. Ah mih people, here we see how our God really works in mysterious ways His high-level plans to accomplish. Because Rebecca ‘who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother…’ (Gen.24:15) I believe that made her Abrahams grand-niece. Anyway, the long and short of the story is that Rebecca’s brother Laban and father Bethuel came out to the well to meet Abraham’s servant, and after he told them what had happened; ‘Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold Rebecca is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master’s son’s wife, as the Lord hath spoken.’ (Gen.24:50-51) Yes Friends, our God is wonderful! Is there a better dramatist, a better matchmaker? No way! Everything just fell into place like a jigsaw puzzle, that Laban and Bethuel had no choice but to give their approval. Now here’s another example of simply accepting the Lord’s word, this time though because of wrongdoing. We find it in 1 Samuel chapter 3. This happens when Samuel tells Eli, the chief priest what God had said about the destruction he would cause to Eli’s family, because of his failure to rein in his two evil sons. And when Samuel was done telling Eli of the promised demise, Eli’s words were simply: ‘It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good.’ (1 Sam.3:18) Oh my brethren, sometimes we just have to bow to the Lord’s actions without a fuss or fight. Remember He’s the omnipotent One, whose intellect, purpose and plans are higher than ours. He is the controller of everything. And besides, causing a fuss when the Lord’s made a decision, doesn’t usually do us any good. So why bother and get all upset eh? Sometimes the Lord’s even trying to test us, to see our response to calamity and to His dictates. And we’ll end with one more example, that from Acts 5, where the Jewish council in Jerusalem is trying to figure out how to stop Peter and the apostles from preaching Christ crucified to the multitudes, since they hadn’t listened the first time, telling them, ‘We ought to obey God rather than man.’ (Acts 5:29) Then they preached Christ to the council. (Acts 5:30-32) Hn! This only made them angry. ‘When they heard that, they were cut to the heart (furious), and took counsel to slay them.’ (Acts 5:33) However, one of the wise and respected council members, Gamaliel, Bruh Paul’s teacher, cautioned them. After recalling two other religious upstarts, Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, who eventually perished and their followers dispersed, he declared: ‘And now I say unto you, Refrain (keep away) from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.’ (Acts 5:38-39) Oh Friends, let’s ponder  on those examples today nuh, and see if are any things going on in our lives where we are fighting God, and stop it. That’s wisdom at its zenith, because we’re never going to win those battles. Much LOVE!…the best way to function on this earth…is just to let God be God in our lives…