Today’s Scrip-Bit   11 June 2024 Romans 8:28.

11 Jun 2024 Leave a comment

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

Romans 8:28.         And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to them that LOVE God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

And then it was Tuesday, with Monday lost and forgotten in the annals of history! So, if we can forget Monday so easily and so quickly, after all the anxiety it causes us as it approaches, then we need to welcome and cherish each and every day that we draw the Lord’s breath of life. Therefore, let’s do the right thing and fully enjoy this Tuesday, not going overboard, but to a godly limit. (smile) 

Now, today, I want to share a prayer that a friend shared with me some time ago. It’s one I say every day before I begin writing the Bit. I truly don’t know or remember how that came to be, but that’s how it is. And I believe that I’ve shared this prayer before, but just now as I offered it up, I got a zeppo that I should share it again today. (smile) 

So please pray with me. ‘Heavenly Father, I call on You right now in a special way. It is through your power that I was created. Every breath I wake, I live under your power. Father, I ask You now to touch me with that same power. For if You created me from nothing, You can recreate me. Fill me with the healing power of Your Spirit. Cast out anything that should not be in me. Mend what is broken. Root out any unproductive cells, open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection. Let the warmth of your healing LOVE pass through my body to make new any unhealthy areas so that my body will function the way You created it to function. And Father, restore me to full health in mind, body and spirit so that I may serve You for the rest of my life. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.’ 

Oh friends, I don’t know about you all nuh, but at my advanced age and all the things that can and will go wrong, or rather that are currently wrong with my unpredictable body, I do need a prayer like that everyday to keep me moving on and being able to fight the good fight in Jesus’ name. And many of you, like me (smile) also need the benefits of this prayer, so please copy it and use it to your advantage. And yes, some of the younger believers might laugh at and deny the power of prayer, but give them time, for it’s only when you become a more experienced believer, that you truly realize its awesome power and truly value it. 

Let’s remember that in its simplest form, prayer is merely communication with our heavenly Father, and like we share so many of our joys and sorrows with our earthly fathers, likewise, we ought to share all of our joys and sorrows with the One who created us to be His LOVING children, for that’s what He desires of us. And like a true Father, He’s always there to help us, to lead and guide us through the power of his Holy Spirit that indwells all believers. And since He’s so much more powerful and affectionate and compassionate than our earthly fathers, it’s obvious that we should be going to Him for much more help than our earthly fathers. 

But please, let’s remember that the Lord is not a doting grandfather who gives us whatever we want, when we want it. No, He is the sovereign Lord of this universe and our desires must align with His holy will, and even when we don’t get what we desire at the time we desire it, or never get it at all, we must keep our faith by remembering His awesome promise found in Bruh Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. ‘And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to them that LOVE God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.’ (Rom. 8:28) 

Now that, my believing brethren, ought to be the underlying foundation for our walk of faith with Christ. That’s because with all the confusion in the world, and God’s holy will, things won’t always work out the way we want them to, but be assured that in the long run, God will use everything and in the end, bring it all together for our good. That’s His faithful promise. And if you’re a true believer, and not one of those wishy washy ones, who selfishly want what they want when they want it, then you’ll accept the fact that because of the Lord’s omnipotence, His far superior knowledge and power, He knows what’s best for us. 

However, that should deter us from going to our heavenly Father in prayer, for we know not when He might say yes to our most outlandish prayers and requests. (smile) That’s the beauty of walking with the Lord; He surprises us at every turn. That’s why we ought to listen to and activate in our own lives, Bruh Paul’s entreaty and exhortation in his epistle to the Philippians, namely: ‘Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.’ (Phil. 4:6) 

Yes friends, that’s the basic motto of Christian living. In EVERYTHING, give thanks and praise and communicate ALL of our desires to the Lord! And though our problems might not be solved, one thing is for sure: ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’ (Phil. 4:7) Wow! What an awesome promise my fellow believers! Though our circumstances may not improve, our minds will certainly be free from worry, because they will be filled with the peace of God which mankind cannot understand, but which is ever so powerful and useful in our earthly lives. 

And now with all that ammunition under our belts, let’s go home declaring (yesss!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong, lock, stock and barrel. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

Now, having made that declaration (awright!!!) it’s our bounden duty to go out and share the amazing LOVE and friendship of Christ with others, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…don’t ever give up on prayer…or be afraid to pray…because it’s meant for our good…and we can never go wrong by praying….

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   6 February 2024 Psalm 150:6.

06 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 150:6.       Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

And there’s an awesome outpouring of bright sunshine in my area, this first Tuesday in February! Exactly like it ended up being yesterday! And who says that light isn’t greater than darkness eh? That the sun won’t find a way to dissipate the dark clouds? No way Jose! Not if Jesus has anything to say about it. And He does have something to say about it. In fact He has something to say about EVERYTHING, for the universe belongs to Him, and He rules it as he sees fit! Glory to God, our Creator and Controller; our Saviour and our Heavenly Father!  Give Him some thanks and praise my fellow believers, for all the wonderful things He’s done, is doing, and has promised to do for us underserving children of men! 

And all God’s children offered up this loud and grateful thanks: ‘Praise ye the Lord, (shout Hallelujah!) Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power (His mighty expanse of power). Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet (cornet): praise him with the psaltery (lute or lyre) and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord (shout Hallelujah to the glory of His holy and precious name!)’ (Ps. 150. 1-6) 

Oh friends, if you didn’t realize it, we were just praying, giving praise to our great God from Psalm 150, the last one in the Psalter, that advises us to praise God for His mighty acts. And as you can see the last verse so rightly and wisely admonishes: ‘Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.’ (Ps. 150:6) That means all of God’s creatures, creations, whatever you choose to call them, ought to give much praise and thanks to their most wonderful Creator. Unfortunately though, that’s a command that too many of us either disobey completely or do in a half-hearted manner, with little, if any sincerity. 

But, on the other hand, when we cry out to God for help, we expect Him to rush to our rescue, although when life’s good with us, we don’t have any time for Him, don’t even remember that He exists. However friends, let’s get one thing straight; God isn’t there for our selfish and personal benefit, neither is He a doting grandfather who will succumb to our every selfish desire. No! He’s the Creator of the universe and all therein! That means we are His to do with as He pleases. We are the ones to be doing His will, rather than He doing ours. So, in blatant layman’s terms; the Lord is the Boss and we are the workers, and if we don’t do what He says, there will be serious consequences to our disobedience and rebellion. 

And we all talk a big talk, but like the whiney ingrates that we really are, when those consequences arise, we’re quick to hold our heads and bawl, forgetting the pride and arrogance we displayed when the Lord tried to direct our steps in a godly manner. And we’re quick to beg for forgiveness and make all sorts of promises that we don’t intend to keep, but in the heat of the moment all sorts of stuff quickly flows from our vile and evil hearts through our lying lips, and we unwisely tell the Lord that we’ll pull up our bootstraps if He helps us. 

But please note these words of wisdom from Cousin Sol as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes. ‘When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer (delay) not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.’ (Eccl. 5:4-5) Yes friends, let’s not go about making hasty and rash promises to God nor man, for there are always consequences, sometimes dire ones, to unkept promises. 

And sadly, in these evil  and ungodly times, unkept promises litter our world like never before. It seems the adage of ‘promises are made to be broken,’ has taken on a whole new meaning in these last days. We all desire that others keep their promises to us, but cannot stand the sacrifice needed to keep ours to others. What a selfish and unchristian-like thing to do. Remember what Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Judge (condemn) not, that ye might not be judged (condemned). For with what judgement (condemnation) ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete (use) it shall be measured to you again.’ (Matt. 7:1-2) 

Now all that means basically is what you sow you’ll reap. Whatever you say or do to or about someone else, the same will come back to you. And as Uncle Charles (Dr. Charles Stanley) would say: ‘You reap what you sow, more than you sow, and later than you sow.’ And that’s the gospel truth my people! Whatever you do, either for good or bad, like a boomerang, tends to accumulate back to you, sooner or later. Thus the wisdom in closely watching what we say and do. 

As Jesus simply puts it: ‘Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.’ (Matt. 7:12) In other words, my fellow saints, our Lord and Saviour, our Leader, is simply telling us to follow the Golden Rule:  ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you.’ And there’s no better way to live, even if you’re not a believer in Christ Jesus. But if you are, then that’s the ONLY way to live! End of Sermon! (smile) 

Now let’s go home declaring (chuh!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong, lock, stock and barrel. As one sincere voice: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

And, having made that serious proclamation, it’s our duty now to go out and share the amazing LOVE and friendship of Christ with all we meet, so that they too can come to know and LOVE him like we do! Much LOVE!

…praise God without ceasing…for that is the wise and comely thing to do…

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   14 December 2022 John 1:12.

14 Dec 2022 Leave a comment

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

John 1:12.       But as many as received him, to them gave he power (the right) to become the sons (children of God), even to them that believe on his name:

Unfortunately friends, Wednesday didn’t open as bright and sunshiny as Tuesday, but it’s not totally overcast, the sun is still making a valiant effort to come out and overcome the dark clouds. And that’s how we believers in Jesus ought to be; making valiant efforts to shine like Jesus in the darkness of this evil world! That’s supposing we want to spend eternity with Jesus and not with the devil in sinful and fiery bondage. It seems though, that many of us are intent on doing just that, because so many of us are shamefully turning away from God, from our Creator and Provider to live the evil and ungodly life that Satan promotes. 

Why is that eh? I really don’t know, but I guess it’s because we’re angry with God since He didn’t give us what we wanted, when we wanted it, and we haven’t seen the goodness and LOVING-kindness that’s been so bandied about. But what we’ve failed to realize is that Almighty God is not our doting grandfather, who is just there to cater to our every whim and fancy. Instead, He is a just and righteous God, who cannot stand sin, and we are supposed to be obedient to His will, not Him to ours. 

We’ve got the slave and Master relationship all backward. In fact, the Lord is not bound to give us anything at all, unless we are obedient to His will. Oh yes, He does LOVE us unconditionally, but that doesn’t mean He’ll spoil us like we’ve spoilt our children by falsely thinking that we’ve got to make life easy for them and give them everything they desire. His Son Jesus didn’t have it easy down here on earth, and most of us parents didn’t have easy growing up either, but that’s what built our sense of godliness and responsibility. We had to learn to depend on God! 

And that’s where our generation of parents have fallen down and done a grave injustice to our children, so much so that they don’t have a clue about the word responsibility, and furthermore, think that they are entitled to whatever catches their fancy, and are thus rather sinful and godless. And we’ve no one to blame but ourselves. The simple fact of the matter is that too few of us are willing to do as Jesus says: ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto us.’ (Matt. 6:33) We want all these things added to us before we seek the Lord’s kingdom and His righteousness, but there’s no guarantee that we will if He gives us all we ask first. 

Anyway, we all know that we’ve screwed up as parents because our children are as far removed from God as they can be, but it’s not too late for us to try and bring them back into God’s LOVING fold. And remember yesterday we were talking about the choices available for the next life; either with Jesus in heaven, or with Satan in the lake of fire. We finished up with Daniel’s prophecy of what would happen at the end times. And I know some of you think that’s all hogwash, everybody is going to heaven because the Lord is such a LOVING and merciful God. 

But friends, please remember what John said of Jesus’ first coming. ‘He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (the right) to become the sons (children of God), even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ (John 1:11-13) Yes, Jesus’ people, the Jews, rejected him, but He gave the power to anyone, Jew or Gentile to become a child of God by sincerely believing in Him. And those who don’t believe will die a sad eternal death. That’s just how the cookie crumbles. There’s not much any of us can do about it. 

And if you didn’t believe Daniel yesterday, then hopefully you’ll believe Jesus today, when He says: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgement); but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. 

And hath given him authority to execute judgement also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (condemnation). I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just (righteous); because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.’ (John 5:24-30) 

Ah my fellow saints, all the way down through the Good Book it’s the same story, of eternal life and eternal condemnation according to our choices in this life. Jesus doesn’t lie, neither does the Good Book, so let’s boost our spirits and faith by looking at what it says will happen at the end. 

John writes in Revelation of seeing the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. ‘And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.’ (Rev. 21:3-4) 

Oh my people, isn’t that a wonderful ending! It surely is, but we will only get to enjoy it if we accept Jesus and live the way He desires of us. Please believe that and turn to Him RIGHT NOW! And for those of us who already believe and are doing our best to live for Him, let’s go home declaring (awright!!!) our Wednesday Wail, letting all and sundry know of our wonderful position in Christ Jesus. 

As one strong and sincere voice: ‘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 believe me my fellow saints, if we endure to the very end with Jesus, then that future will be even more glorious than we can ever ask or imagine! So please let’s use that as encouragement and incentive to endure with Jesus for the long haul nuh! Much LOVE!

…living for Satan is extremely foolish…living for Jesus is the epitome of wisdom… 

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