Today’s Scrip-Bit 1 December 2012 Proverbs 8:32
01 Dec 2012 Leave a comment
in Inspirational Living Tags: awesome truths, blessed, eternal pleasures, family reunion, fleeting pleasures, freedom from sin, Hallelujah, happy hour, liberty, lies, Mosaic Law, mysterious ways, obedience, Parang party, perfect law, rain, reminiscing, reverence, walk the talk, wiles
Today’s Scrip-Bit 26 August 2012 Psalm 112:1
26 Aug 2012 Leave a comment
in Inspirational Living Tags: blessed, blessings, burdens, common sense, conversing with Jesus, follow Jesus, fruit of thy labour, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, refreshed spirit, renewed faith, riches, seek God first, wealth, wrong decisions
Psalm 112:1. Praise ye the Lord (Hallelujah). I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.
Oh Friends, I was just sitting here asking the Lord to give me a good intro for today’s Bit, because I couldn’t come up with anything on my own, when suddenly this question popped into my mind. I’m going to ask it of all of us believers. When last have we sat down, leaned up or stood up or even laid down somewhere quiet with Jesus and really talked to Him, truly unburdened our hearts to Him, right down to the smallest detail, and have Him just listening, nodding and occasionally asking a leading question or giving us some insight into our problems? I’m not sure when last I did that, and I sure hope you all are better than me in that respect. I know I did it a lot last summer. Maybe that’s because my prostate cancer surgery had me more or less housebound for a couple of months. But I remember many a night I’d sit out on my front porch, mostly in the late hours, and Jesus would sit on the step below me, never above, and focus His full attention on whatever I was saying to Him, whether it was about my pain, my family, my finances, or the troubles of our ungodly world. But one thing, He was always attentive to my words and my feelings. And yuh know Friends, after those little tete a tetes, (sorry, couldn’t get the accents properly) I remember my spirit always being refreshed, my faith renewed and strengthened, regardless of the problems, because Jesus reasoned them out so simply and straightforwardly to me. But somehow, this year I don’t remember enjoying any of those small but serious chats with Jesus. I guess, since I’m more or less healthy now, I just got too busy with the affairs of the world, or simply figured I didn’t need Him that much again. What a sad mistake my brethren! And obviously my great loss too! Oh my people, please, I implore us not to ever get too busy or important to engage in that kind of heartening, enlightening conversation with Jesus. When we forgo genuine conversations with Jesus, we lose big time. And I’m not talking about prayer here, but just conversing with Him as a Friend, which is indeed one of the many portfolios He holds in our lives. And that’s another great thing about walking this earthly life with Jesus; He’s at once our Lord, Saviour, Advocate, Sibling and Friend! And I have to laugh yes, because from not knowing what to write, that one little seed, that grain of thought flowered into all that talk. (smile) However, let’s turn our attention now to our Bit: ‘Praise ye the Lord (Hallelujah). I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.’ Now that Friends, is wisdom of the highest order! And why so many of us neglect to follow it sincerely is a mystery to me. Hear what following our Bit leads to: ‘His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth (stands) for ever.’ (Ps.112:2-3) Now how many of us don’t want that for our friends, families and ourselves eh? We all want it, but apparently expect to get it without doing what it takes, not only to get it, but also to keep it; reverencing the Lord God Jehovah, plus delighting in, and doing His will. Instead we follow the rules of the world and try to kill ourselves working to amass whatever it is we desire, when there is indeed a better way; that prescribed by Jesus. Remember His promise that if we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first, have that as our main priority, all the earthly things will be given to us, because our heavenly Father knows we need them. (Matt.6:33) And Friends those sentiments are found throughout the Good Book, even before Jesus declared them. Listen to just a couple instances. The longest chapter in the Bible begins with this declaration: ‘Blessed are the undefiled (blameless) in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.’ (Ps.119:1-3) Now why wouldn’t we follow those directives eh, especially when Psalm 128, the rewards of faithfulness, proclaims these great rewards? ‘Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands (fruit of thy labour): happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides (in the heart) of thine house: thy children like olive plants (luscious and plentiful) round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.’ (Ps.128:1-6) Oh my people, that isn’t rocket science, just basic common sense with a little wisdom thrown in for good measure! If our omnipotent Creator promises to bless us so greatly when we walk according to His will, why aren’t many many more of us doing it? Oh, I forgot, common sense doesn’t rule, or even exist anymore in these unrighteous times. But the foolish wisdom, as we saw yesterday, is now in ascendance, the same one that’s leading us down the broad highway to death, destruction, eternal separation from God, and eternity in Hades with Lucifer. Hn! The sad part Friends is that we all have to make individual decisions as to whom we’ll follow, and too many people are making the wrong one, opting to follow the sinful, unreliable, unpredictable world, rather than the true and seasoned plans of Jesus. I urge us all to get wise, get smart, get some common sense, whatever it takes and try to sincerely follow Jesus, for He is truly, the Way, the Light, the Life and the Truth of this dark, sorrowful world. Much LOVE!…that trite, age old adage…he who doesn’t hear will eventually feel…still holds true even today…
Today’s Scrip-Bit 17 July 2012 Proverbs 24:28
17 Jul 2012 Leave a comment
in Inspirational Living Tags: blasphemy, deceive not, don't think evil, false witness, gospel music, gossip, Hallelujah, lies, lightning strikes, renew your mind, slander, speak truth, Thank God for Jesus, what comes out defiles
Proverbs 24:28. Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips.
Oh Friends, the hot times they continue! It’s supposed to be up to something like 35 today in my area, but with showers though. Hn! Showers eh! I’ll believe them when I see them. And talking about showers, yesterday I left out the length of time that the few scattered showers fell in my area. It was less than ten minutes. However, it seems that the City of Toronto itself, as well as its eastern environs had oodles of rain in a very short time period. So much that it caused power outages and flooding in several areas, and some people even got injured by lightning strikes. Let’s pray that they are okay. So while I was belly-aching about the little rain in my area on the western side of Toronto, those folks in the centre and on the other side were complaining about too much all at once. Anyway, here’s something, or rather someone, whom we can all be thankful for. It’s from the chorus of a Caribbean Gospel song I heard on Wack 90.1 FM yesterday morning, during their Gospel Time, between 4 and 6 a.m. Monday to Friday. If you LOVE West Indian Gospel, and to me it’s the BEST – so what if I’m biased about many things West Indian eh – (smile) then tune into Wack 90.1 on your computers in the early morning hours. I guarantee that you will get a wonderful treat of beautiful West Indian Gospel. And the chorus of the song I’m talking about says: ‘Thank God for Jesus! Thank God for Jesus! Thank God for Jesus – Everyday! Thank God for Jesus! He is my Saviour! He is the Truth! He is the Light! He is the Way!’ And all God’s people raised a loud shout of ‘Hallelujah! Amen!’ to heaven. Those are truly words of wisdom and truth mih breddren! And it segues in quite nicely to our Bit: ‘Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips.’ Yes Friends, as followers of Jesus, the truth should be on our lips, emanate from our mouths at all times. And not only should it come out of our mouths, but also from our hearts. In fact, if there isn’t truth in our hearts, then how will it come from our lips eh? Remember Jesus’ words to the multitude re things that defile: ‘Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.’ (Matt.15:10-11) So my brethren, let’s work faithfully and diligently at getting truth rather than lies and evil into our souls and minds nuh, because only if we first put it in, can we later get it to come out. Then we have these fateful words of Bruh Paul to the Ephesians, re the new life in Christ: ‘But ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation (conduct) the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts; And be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.’ (Eph.4:21-25) Ah mih people, if we’re truly born again in Christ, then truth should be the only thing that comes out of us, because that’s what Christ is all about! Now listen to the Lord thy God, from way back when, speaking through the prophet Zechariah, re things that must be done when the promised restoration of Jerusalem occurs. ‘For thus saith the Lord of hosts; As I thought (determined) to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath…and I repented not (would not relent): So again have I thought (determined) in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not. These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgements of (for) truth and peace in your gates. And let none of you imagine (think) evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and LOVE no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord.’ (Zech.8:14-17) Yes Friends, it’s all there, plain and simple in black and white. And by the way, that’s where Bruh Paul got his words to the Ephesians from, re speaking truth to one’s neighbour. So it’s obvious that things like outright lies, false accusations, slander and blasphemy should not be numbered amongst the traits of a true believer. And the Lord knows that it’s difficult to always stay on the straight and narrow path when such a conglomeration of evil and ungodliness surrounds us, where lies, gossip, half-truths and other erroneous messages proliferate, and can easily lead us astray. But as with everything else in our Christian walk my people, we need to make a conscious and diligent effort to remove the ungodly things from our lives, obviously with the help of the Lord. If we come to Him with transparent hearts and lay all our cards before Him, He will enable us to bear our burdens and resist the evil that’s tempting us. Oh Friends that’s the wise and ONLY way we’ll ever be able to resist and/or avoid some of the many problems that will surely invade our earthly lives! So till we meet again tomorrow, God willing, please go in Peace, Harmony and LOVE, to serve and bless our great and wonderful God! Much LOVE!…when problems bring us to our knees…run to the Lord…and with a sincere heart say…Father, help me please…
