Today’s Scrip-Bit 17 July 2018 Matthew 7:24.

17 Jul 2018 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 7:24.   Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a (the) rock.

And yes, a savage thunderstorm hit my area early yesterday evening and cooled down the heat and humidity some! I have to laugh though, because I went out on my front porch to check it out, but could only stay a couple of minutes as the wind soon began blowing the rain in on me and the incessant lighting wasn’t too appealing. Let’s hope that today is not as hot and humid. 

Anyway, today I want to share something from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin, something appropriately titled ‘A Family Pledge,’ and it’s oh so appropriate to individual families as well as the family of Christ, His church. 

Please pledge with me. ‘We will permit God to use our conflicts and mixed emotions as lessons in quiet growth. With LOVING patience, without ridicule or judgement, we will support each other in the gradual untangling of built-in defenses. We will focus on each other as persons made in the image of God. 

We will seek to please rather than to pressure, to delight rather than to demand, to give rather than to get. We will share the humdrums as well as the highlights, the tears as well as the laughter, the defeats as well as the victories. We will not insist on perfection – rather we will anticipate growth. 

We will not compete for the mountaintop, rather we will climb the mountain together. We will wait for each other if one of us gets behind. We will lift our hearts in a celebration of gratitude for God’s amazing LOVE, which makes our family LOVE possible. We will LOVE each other as we do these things.’ 

Oh friends, can you imagine the joy, especially in heaven, the goodwill, the glorious relationships in our cruel and evil world if we were to put those pledges into real action! And the sad part is that they don’t represent anything new, it’s just what we’re supposed to be doing all along, what we know we’re supposed to do but simply aren’t doing, 

That’s why Jesus died; so that we could be one big, happy and righteous family! Instead we’re allowing the prince of darkness and his evil cronies to invade our families and Christ’s church and turn them into dens of devilry. How sad my people! 

And the Bible Promise for that poem is also our Bit; immortal words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: ‘Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a (the) rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a (the) rock.’ (Matt.7:24-25) 

My friends and fellow believers, have we built our houses, both literally and figuratively on a rock? I certainly hope so for all our sakes, especially the figurative house that wisdom dictates must be built on the rock that’s Jesus in order for our souls to survive. 

Now listen to Jesus as he details the other side of the equation. ‘And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.’ (Matt.7:26-27) 

Unfortunately my brethren there are way too many of us who have built and are still building our lives and our houses on sinking sand; meaning not on the words and instructions of Jesus. Now that’s a seriously irresponsible and foolish way to go, for Jesus is the ONLY way to a secure, sincere and eventual eternal life with our magnificent and magnanimous Maker and Godhead. Anything else is simply foolishness and not true. 

But hear the scholars. ‘7:24-27. In drawing His concluding illustration of the two foundations, Jesus begins with the word therefore. On the basis of all that He has taught and illustrated, He concluded that all who both hear and do His sayings shall be saved. As a great Master Counselor, Jesus reminded His listener that hearing this message alone will not change his life. He must both hear and do what Jesus has said. 

The elements of the closing illustration are drawn from the simplicity of nature itself, the rock, the rain, and the winds. The man whose house collapsed was at fault, not because he failed to labour, but because he did not lay the proper foundation. The shifting sand represents human opinion and the doctrines of men as opposed to “these sayings” (vs.28).’ 

Ah mih people, please let us not be numbered amongst those who have laboured hard, but have built their lives on the wrong foundation; the opinions and doctrines of mortal men and not those of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, our Rock and safe place of Refuge. 

And for those of us who have built wisely, let’s go home now declaring to the world who and whose we are in our Tuesday Mantra. In strong voice with sincere hearts: ‘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 the world.  Amen!’ 

Glory be my people! Now let’s go out and do what we’ve just pledged; share Jesus’ LOVE and friendship with the world. Much LOVE!

…to LOVE…to LOVE…and yet to LOVE…that is the truly Christian way…

 

 

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 18 July 2017 Matthew 7:24.

18 Jul 2017 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 7:24.   Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a (the) rock.

Greetings to all you faithful saints of Jesus! Just want to remind us that it’s a new day, a beautiful one in my area, and that it’s filled with new mercies, grace and forgiveness, all courtesy of our magnificent and magnanimous heavenly Father! 

Mama Mia! What generosity, what magnanimity! So, if we’re wise and truly believe, then we’ll enjoy it all and give thanks and praise to the One who created us in His own holy image. 

And all God’s people said a loud and thankful: ‘All praise and honour and glory be to our great God! May He continue to bless us even though we don’t deserve it, and may He reign forever more! Amen!’ 

Don’t worry friends, our wonderful God will do all those things because He is indeed the most powerful and generous force in the universe which He created. 

Now here is one of the many ways we can serve Him faithfully; it’s through something called ‘A Family Pledge,’ and it’s taken from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin. I don’t know if I’ve ever shared it before, but when I noticed it recently, it just cried out for sharing. 

Please make this prayerful family pledge with me. ‘We will permit God to use our conflicts and mixed emotions as lessons in quiet growth. With LOVING patience, without ridicule or judgement, we will support each other in the gradual untangling of built in defenses. We will focus on each other as persons made in the image of God. 

We will seek to please rather than to pressure, to delight rather than to demand, to give rather than to get. We will share the humdrums as well as the highlights, the tears as well as the laughter, the defeats as well as the victories. We will not insist on perfection – rather we will anticipate growth. 

We will not compete for the mountaintop, rather we will climb the mountain together. We will wait for each other if one of us gets behind. We will lift our hearts in a celebration of gratitude for God’s amazing LOVE, which makes our family LOVE possible. We will LOVE each other as we do these things.’ 

Oh friends what a beautiful pledge! Can you imagine if even a small proportion of the numerous supposed Christian families in our world, makes such a pledge and keep it! 

What a marvellous impression it would have on both believers and naysayers! Then the critics would surely have to agree that there was much more to the LOVE of Jesus Christ and His Movement than they had hitherto believed. 

So please, I implore us this Tuesday morning to try and bring our families together through some such pledge nuh, some such beneficial agreement. But also, please contemplate what we can implement in that pledge as individuals, because there are many things we can put into effect on our own. 

It’s got to start somewhere, so please let it begin with us nuh. We can be the catalyst for such productive and progressive action. It would certainly bring more families closer together, than the current negative actions that seem to proliferate in family affairs, and which are driving us apart, killing the bedrock, the true foundation of our society. 

Yeh friends, please remember that when families wither and die in a society, that means the society is also withering and dying. That brings us to our Bit, which is also the Bible verse that our pledge was based on: Jesus famous last words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the most explosive, controversial and far-reaching sermon ever preached! 

‘Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a (the) rock.’ 

Oh friends, please note that Jesus was saying that hearing all the stuff that He’d spoken about was fine, but it mattered not unless you put it into practice, into action. And unfortunately that’s what a lot of supposed Christians are doing in these end times; we hearing, but we’re not doing. 

Obviously the crowds did not understand Jesus’ words, so He ended by explaining: ‘And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a (the) rock. 

And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.’ (Matt.7:25-27) 

Ah mih people, sadly, in this supposed enlightened day and age, a lot of people still don’t understand what Jesus was trying to say. And, as always, it was fairly simple: I am the rock of this world! Believe in me and do what I say, then you will be considered wise and your house will stand strong and tall! 

Otherwise…. crapaud smoke yuh pipe! Two simple choices friends; believe in Jesus and live, or don’t believe and die. 

Now, for all of us wise ones (smile) who have chosen to live for Jesus, let’s go home proudly and loudly declaring our Tuesday Mantra nuh. 

‘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 the world.  Amen!’ 

Awright mih Christian breddren, let’s go out now and behave as God’s beloved nuh, and share the LOVE OF Jesus with those who don’t know Him. That’s all He asks of us. Much LOVE!

…as for me and mine…we will most definitely follow the Lord…

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 4 February 2014 Ephesians 1:3

04 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

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

Ephesians 1:3.    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.  

Oh Friends, oh Friends, the ole fella’s moaning in his cups, crying in his wine, because he only has two more days left in Paradise. ‘Bahhh!’ Then I won’t be able to rise every morning, come out to my balcony and greet my wonderful God and the new day rising above the trees on the eastern horizon.

In two more days, I won’t be able to gaze out at the lush greenery and rejoice in the peace and awe of God’s majesty that it provides my soul. How sad my people. (smile) But as we keep saying, while there is life, there’s always hope, and while I’m alive, I will keep on hoping and praying that the God of my salvation will enable me to live out my days, or some portion thereof, in Sweet Tobago.

If it’s His will, then it will undoubtedly come to pass. But if not, then I will just have to grin and bear it. But in the meantime, I’m making memories so that in whatever physical space or state I might eventually find myself, there will be lots of joyful and entertaining thoughts flowing through my mind. For as we all know, memories are one of the few things which never leave us. So Friends, let’s all try and make as many good memories as possible today nuh, to enliven and enlighten our later years.
 
And mih breddren, I made some excellent ones yesterday. I don’t remember how it all went, but these are the highlights. I took my uncle Foster down to the airport around 9 a.m. to buy his ticket back to Trinidad. We also bought breakfast down there. Oh mih people, Tobago has certainly become a real food industry place; everywhere food is being sold.
 
We dropped him home, then came home ourselves, and had breakfast; fry bake and saltfish, washed down with some cold, gloriously tasting mauby. Hn! Then after writing the Bit, we headed for the beach.
 
In my contrariness (smile) and since I was the only one bathing, I went to Grange Beach, far from the madding crowd, and also close to an area in which I wanted to check out a friend. I was the only person on the beach, and though the tide was coming in, making the water somewhat choppy, I enjoyed myself. And while there, under a clear blue sky, a shower of rain suddenly came down.
 
Now the forecast had called for rain all day, but that was the first time we’d seen any. And Friends, just like there’s nothing sweeter than playing mas in rain, so there’s nothing better than being in the sea during a heavenly downpour! The pellets of heavenly blessing just kept falling on my head, as I laughed and swam, while the Duchess hid out in the car.
 
And since it didn’t make sense to come out of the water and get wet again in the rain, I just stayed there until the rain ended, some ten to fifteen minutes later. By the time I came out, an older Indian gentleman had set up a coconut stall by the side of the road, next to the beach, and since we hadn’t had any coconuts yet, we decided to check them out.
 
They weren’t bad, but the amusing thing is that while enjoying the nuts, the rain came down again. The wife ran back to the car, while I stood out there in my bathing trunks and my already wet towel around my neck, enjoying the coconut and chatting with the gentleman. 
 
Some ten minutes later the rain ended and we headed out to find this friend, whom I’d been unable to find a couple days earlier. But this time with better directions, I eventually found him. His name is Rees Jack. Apparently he suffered a stroke some two months ago, which unfortunately left him with little movement on his right side. But thankfully, otherwise he was mentally and emotionally alert, and still full of the joy of life. We had a short but excellent visit, recalling old times.
 
That reminds me of another old friend that I’d visited two days before. His name is Harvey Anthony, and he’s sort of housebound too, the result of an infected wound on his right foot, which isn’t healing as it should because he’s also a diabetic.
 
Friends, please remember them in our prayers. Ask the Lord to heal and comfort them in their time of trial and need. For remember that prayer is the greatest power on earth, and that the prayer of a righteous person can be very effective.
 
Now after visiting Rees, we stopped in at Cowie’s Bakery in Carnbee, one of the oldest, and in my youth, the most popular bakery in Tobago. And though they now seem to be a shadow of their former selves, with much more competition around, they still have some of the finest baked goods around. Their butter bread is still to die for, while their coconut tart is the best I’ve tasted so far, and their currants roll is still mouth-watering. 
 
After that, the Duchess and I ran around looking for food, but couldn’t find anything to thrill us, and we ended up in the mall, sitting on high chairs at a high table, eating ice-cream and gazing like awe-struck lovers into each other’s eyes. Hn, hn, hn! She might not agree with that description though. Then we came home and sampled the delights from Cowie’s Bakery. Now those were major good memories I made yesterday.
 
And finally let’s turn to our Bit: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.’
 
And my fellow believers, as our Bit so wisely points out, and as I keep asking everyday, how can we not LOVE and serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when He’s done so much for us, simply because of His great, unconditional LOVE for us undeserving souls? 
 
Yesterday we talked about His redemption, forgiveness and showers of grace, through the shed blood of Jesus. Today let’s continue with a couple more verses of Bruh Paul’s first letter to the Ephesians, outlining how Jehovah God had planned to, and eventually redeemed us.
 
‘Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence (understanding); Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.’ (Eph.1:8-9)
 
Ah Friends, yuh see again, that all the Lord has done is through His own LOVING-kindness, not through any actions on our part. In fact our actions would normally have caused Him to eradicate us. But His LOVE was so strong and awesome, that it caused Him to come up with a plan to save us from our sinful selves.
 
Now let’s hear the scholars’ comments on those verses. ‘1:8. This verse could be rendered, “He lavished upon us this grace which consists in all sorts of wisdom and prudence (or, insight). The word ‘wisdom’ refers to a knowledge of the true nature of things; prudence has to do with the practical application of this wisdom leading to the right course of action. But the specific “wisdom and prudence” Paul has in view here concerns a future aspect of God’s will, as delineated in verses 9,10.’
 
And re ‘1:9. This verse more precisely identifies that “wisdom and prudence” (v.8) that God lavished on us. This “wisdom and prudence” have to do with God’s making known unto us the mystery of his will. “Mystery” here refers to a divine truth that is incapable of being discovered by human ingenuity and that, until recently, has been kept secret. Why did God disclose this mystery to us? It was according to (because of) his good pleasure which he hath purposed (planned) in himself.’
 
So there we have it my fellow believers! God planned His plan, and when the time was right, laid it out one step at a time to his greatest creation, mankind. So why aren’t we more appreciative and grateful eh? I can’t explain it.
 
I can only say that if we don’t change our sinful ways and turn back to Almighty God soon, then many of us will be left out in the cold, or rather in the eternal ‘sufferation’ of hell fire. And I don’t think that is going to be a fun time. So please let’s err on the side of caution and wisdom. Much LOVE!
 
…to him who obeys the call of disobedience…will the wrath of God surely fall upon…