Today’s Scrip-Bit 21 December 2020 Romans 5:8.

21 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

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

Romans 5:8.     ​But God commendeth (demonstrated) his (own) LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

‘Good golly Miss Molly! It’s Monday!’ Yes friends, the Monday before Christmas, four more days to the Big One! Are you ready for it? Have you done all your Christmas shopping? Hn, hn! It will certainly be a different kind of Christmas this pandemic year of 2020; not as much physical gathering, nor even eating and drinking and exchanging of gifts, as lots of people can’t afford the stuff they are accustomed buying. But that doesn’t mean the season can’t be festive, if we remember the real reason for the season in the first place -the birth of Christ. 

Now that was the first step in God’s long promised, great gift of reconciling us to Himself and providing salvation and eternal life through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. But to die as a man, Christ first had to be born, born of that virgin mother, in that li’l town called Bethlehem, before He could eventually make His way to the cross in Jerusalem and pay our sin debt in full. 

Wow! No other supposed deity is as magnanimous as our God! All those other supposed gods want us to sacrifice our lives to them, but the wonderful God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sacrificed His Son for us woeful sinners to show His amazing unconditional LOVE! As the Good Book says: ‘But God commendeth (demonstrated) his (own) LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:8) All praise and glory to His holy name! 

And all He asks of us is to believe in His Son and be obedient to His word. But because of the free will God gave us, too many of us are filled with pride and lust and big egos and hard hearts, and thus refuse to bow down to the name that’s above every other name. Now though our God is gracious and merciful and all those other wonderful things, He’s also a stickler for justice and righteousness and obedience, and the non-doing of those things usually cause serious consequences in our lives. And when plenty of us refuse to toe the line, like right now, that means there are plenty of serious consequence in our world, like right now. 

Jesus also said: ‘If ye LOVE me, keep my commandments.’ (John 14:15) And though we claim to LOVE Him, we definitely aren’t keeping His commandments the way He desires, otherwise our world would not be in such a terrible mess. Even this big do we make about Christmas, a lot of it is false and/or pseudo-Christianity, because our attention is more wrapped up in the gifts and food and shopping, the commercial aspect of the situation, not truly in the birth of Christ and what it really meant, and still means for mankind. 

The celebration has taken on too much of a worldly and commercial overtone these days, meaning, that like so much else in this world, the things of God have taken a step or two back, and no longer predominate in our society. And that should give us serious cause for concern my people, for when a society has lost its way, when Almighty God is not first and foremost in the equation, then that society, like Humpty Dumpty, is slated for a fall, and ofttimes a rather big fall at that, from which it never recovers its previous prosperity. 

And right now, I believe we are at that stage, at the brink of the precipice, because God is no longer Number One in our society. Oh yes, we talk the talk, but remember He looks at our hearts, and currently the motives therein are not God-centred. So what’s the position eh? It’s dark and dreary…unless we come to our senses and return to the ways of God; ways that our forefathers embraced more faithfully than we have done. 

Friends, the only thing that can save us now is a revolution; a LOVE Revolution, for there is way more hate and negativity in our world right now than there is LOVE! And remember God is LOVE! So the less LOVE we have, the less of God we will also have. But we are people of faith, great faith, and anything we put our minds to, we can do, provided we have God involved. So if we require a LOVE Revolution to save our world, then we need to go to God to help us. As Jesus specified: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ (Matt. 7:7) 

And the way we go to God is in prayer; that’s His desire. So as one sincere voice, let’s take all our problems to Him now nuh, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn. ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You that this Monday morning we’re alive and standing in faith despite the mass confusion that’s currently prevailing in our world. 

We desperately need Your divine help, for You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems; the pandemic of Covid -19, the racial, political, and religious strife that’s ignited worldwide, plus the natural disasters like storms, famine, drought, plagues, climate change, wildfires, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes that suddenly seem to be blossoming more and more as time goes by. 

Heavenly Father, we admit that we have all sinned and seriously come short in obedience and compliance to Your Word, but we know that You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, and You have faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. 

That’s why we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading with You to give us, ordinary folks, as well as our leaders, employers and medical personnel, wise guidance and direction to bring our problems under control. And for those who are currently suffering from the many negative situations, we pray that You will ease their suffering and heal them. 

Father, please show them Your awesome grace and mercy, and keep Your promise that You’ll hear our prayer, forgive us, and heal our land if we turn from our evil ways. Show this evil world that You are indeed Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals! We pray this in the holy and blessed name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen! And again we say: Amen!’ 

Now let me remind us again, that the Lord looks at the motives of our hearts before He answers our prayers, so if they weren’t right just now, and we’re not prepared to turn back to Him in true repentance, then we’ll be left out in the darkness, with no forthcoming light, a rather sad situation indeed. Much LOVE!

…to have a successful society…the LOVE of God…must predominate… 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 25 July 2012 Proverbs 22:6

25 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Inspirational Living Tags: , , , , , , ,

Proverbs 22:6.    Train up a child in the way he should go: and (even) when he is old, he will not depart from it.
 
Oh Friends, I don’t know if you all are like me, but some days I just get tired of people and their foolish antics. I maintain that there’s only one thing wrong with this world, and that’s human beings. Without them the world would be such a beautiful, uncomplicated place. Yesterday was one of those days when I got fed up with people. I won’t get into the whys and wherefores, but suffice it to say that I was very disappointed in certain people, who, to my thinking, could surely have acted better than they did. Anyway, I’m over that now. The Lord gave me the strength of purpose to put it behind me and to just concentrate my focus on Him, since He’s the One leading me and guiding my life, not the untrustworthy people around me. Oh Friends, that’s a very important lesson for all who intend to be serious, diligent workers for Christ, because the enemy and those whom he cajoles into doing his dirty work can cause us to be seriously distracted and lose our sense of priority, which should ALWAYS BE GOD, FIRST AND FOREMOST! I now realize why Christianity is not further ahead than it is; in great part because of the way we treat each other. We often treat perfect strangers much better than fellow believers. And what did Bruh Paul say to the Galatians about that? ‘As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.’ (Gal.6:10) That means we’re to be especially nice to other believers. But unfortunately that advice is not heeded by too many of us believers. We show a lot of jealousy, anger and resentment towards each other, with so many little cliques and gossip-mongering groups within Christ’s church today. It must certainly break His heart to see His people fighting amongst themselves over petty, worldly things and causes, and not doing nearly as much of what He’s asked us to do; namely spread the good news of His teachings and help the poor, sick, hurting and needy. Yes Friends, believe it or not, admit it or not, Christ’s people are still too taken up, too fascinated by the glitzy, worthless things of the world and amassing earthly possessions. And the only way to overcome the desire for those things that are not of God is to get real close to Him, concentrate all our efforts on doing His will, truly surrender our lives to Him, and let Him lead and guide us where He wants, for He has a Master Plan for all our lives. My people, Jesus is somewhat disappointed in His Church. We’ve stood by and allowed the minions of Lucifer to remove Him and His worship from a large part of our society. His Name and His Word are no longer spoken in schools and in many homes where the young can hear it, thereby breaching some of His very specific rules. ‘…Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ (Deut.4:10) ‘And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.’ (Deut.6:6-7) Oh Friends, those words were so important that Moses repeated them in Deut.11:18-19. For if the young are not taught about God, how will Christ’s Church survive from generation to generation? But instead of teaching our children about God, we give them all the junk that the world wrongfully considers important and plunk them in front of the television for hours on end so that they can absorb more worldly mores that definitely go against God’s Word and Will. The television has become such a handy tool for parents now, that it’s widely said and believed that it’s the television and not the parents who raise children these days. So what else can we expect eh Friends? And I’m chuckling here now because I never intended to write about my disappointment, but the Spirit in His wisdom led me to it, either as a testimony to others, or because He knew that if I didn’t get it off my chest it would just stay there and rankle my soul. Anyway, He killed two birds with one stone. (smile) I didn’t even know what our Bit was until a moment ago when the Spirit led me to the gospel truth of Cousin Sol’s words. ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and (even) when he is old, he will not depart from it.’ Yes Friends, that’s the only way to leave a legacy of God behind us. It has to be a part of the children, of the future generations so that it can last. Otherwise it’s just going to die, and when Jesus asks us at the judgement why we didn’t teach the children His Word, as was required of us, what will our answer be eh? ‘Sorry Jesus, we were too busy running behind Beelzebub and his foolish, worthless things and indulging in our selfish, lustful pleasures.’ Oh Friends, that definitely won’t cut it! And we’ll end with some more wise words on the subject from Bruh Paul to the Ephesians. ‘And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture (training) and admonition of the Lord.’ (Eph.6:4) Oh my people, it couldn’t get any plainer than that, so let’s start teaching the Word to our children and grandchildren nuh. And please note, that though some of our children may now be adults, it’s never too late for us to guide them to the Word, we just have to do it diplomatically. (smile) So let’s get a move on, so that we won’t be blamed too much for the lost generation. Much LOVE!…it’s never too late to learn about God…or come to rest in the warm and caring arms of Jesus…   P.S. I hope it’s coherent, since I didn’t plan it. But then as I always say, true believers know how to pick sense from nonsense. (smile) Much LOVE!