Today’s Scrip-Bit   22 April 2024 Psalm 133:1.

22 Apr 2024 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 133:1.      Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Oh Monday… you beautiful day! Thanks for coming around again so that I can get back out into the dark and dangerous world and share the light and LOVE-filled gospel of Jesus with all those I meet; for that’s my major purpose and greatest desire! Ah friends, I wish that we could all truly feel that way as we return to work on this Monday morning, because it’s only through believers like you and I, as we sincerely spread the enlightening words and deeds of Christ that any real positive and productive changes will ever be made in our rebellious and disobedient world. 

For right now Satan and his evil cronies are running amuck on God’s great earth, and we cannot allow that to go on without trying to stop, or at least curb it. Yes, we believers in Christ Jesus need to put up a valiant fight against that overriding evil that’s currently enveloping our planet. We desperately need to do like Bruh Paul did, when he told Timothy: ‘I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course (race), I have kept the faith.’ (2 Tim. 4:7) And do we ever need to run our race with steadfast faith and trust in Almighty God to help us do His earthly will. 

But because fighting the enemy is not an easy task, we therefore need to do like Bruh Paul also warned Timothy: ‘Thou therefore endure harness (hardship), as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’ (2. Tim. 2:3) And remember these words of Jesus re discipleship: ‘If any man will (desires to) come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’ (Luke 9:23) Now, that means being willing to sacrifice our own desires every day if Jesus so desires. And this verse of scripture is also a very telling one: ‘And he (Jesus) spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (lose heart) (Luke 18:1) 

However, those are the very problems that Christians are having; we’re either too soft or too afraid to enjoin the battle as needs be with the enemy, while some of us just prefer to enjoy the comfortable life and don’t intend to sacrifice anything and/or engage the enemy in spiritual battle at all. But yet we expect to see positive and productive changes in our society and our world. But that’s just a pipe dream my people, because no war will be one if one party just sits on the sidelines and watches the other plunder the spoils, which is what we Christians are doing to a great extent. 

In other words, our efforts and energy are not good or great enough to make a substantial difference in this spiritual war in which we’re currently engaged, whether we like it, or even want to acknowledge it. The long and short of the story is that the enemy is putting up a better fight than we are, that’s why he’s currently ruling the roost, and the only way to turn that around is for us to get busy and significantly increase our puny efforts as one great body of believers. Remember what Psalm 133 says: ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Ps, 133:1) 

And the awful truth of the matter is that Christ’s church is not living in unity, nowhere near it. There’s absolutely too much dissension and division amongst what is supposed to be a unified whole. And until we seriously recognize that and are determined to do something about it, the enemy will be delighted to see us remain disunited, so he can further divide and conquer us! Church unity is the first problem we need to fix before we can even think of making any successful headway against Beelzebub and his crowd of evil doers. 

Unfortunately, what’s happening is that we are fighting each other over mostly petty and unimportant issues; we’re seeing the individual trees instead of the forest as a whole. Consequently, we’re playing right into the enemy’s hands. That reminds me of the time in the reign of King Jehoshaphat, when several of the enemies of Judah came together to war against them. The enemy army consisted of the children of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir. However when Jehoshaphat and the people prayed for protection, the Lord told them through Jahaziel, not to worry, for He would be with them. 

So, the next day, they went out with worshippers in their front ranks singing praises unto the Lord, and He so discombobulated their enemies that they eventually ended up destroying each other without Judah lifting a hand, and they gained so much spoil that it took them three days to collect it. (2 Chr. 20:1-30) Now that infighting between Judah’s enemies resembles what’s happening in Christ’s church today. We’re falling all over each other, trying to gain the upper hand, but sadly the evil one is reaping all the profits. 

But my fellow saints, I’m pleading with us, if not for our sakes, but for those of our children and their children, let’s wake up and smell the proverbial roses nuh, and truly get together as ONE body in Christ, so that we can fight the enemy in unity, for that’s the only way we’ll ever make any headway against him. End of Sermon! Now, for divine help to do just that, let’s go to the throne of grace in humble confidence, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn. 

Altogether: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You this Monday morning for life and strong faith in Christ, despite the mass confusion in our world. Heavenly Father, You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems. Yes, we have all sinned and seriously disobeyed Your Word, but You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, who has faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. 

So, we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading for wise guidance and direction to alleviate our problems. Oh Father, please ease the pain of the many suffering from negative situations, show them Your awesome grace and mercy. And faithfully keep Your promise to prosper us 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!’ 

And it will be to our benefit if we remember on what conditions God promised to help us; if we humble ourselves turn from our evil ways and sincerely seek his face in prayer! Much LOVE!

…no battle can ever be won…unless there’s unity in the ranks…

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 11 September 2014 James 1:5

11 Sep 2014 Leave a comment

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

James 1:5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not (without reproach); and it shall be given him.

Aye Friends, I don’t know if this early going to bed thing is going to work nuh. Chuh! I tried going to bed even earlier last night, but all to no avail. I just tossed and turned, kept waking up every hour or so, and still got up late …tired too, because it’s only in the late hours of the morning that I fell into a half decent sleep pattern.
 
So don’t say I didn’t try. (smile) At least when I go to bed late, I get a solid few hours of sleep, and not the tossing and turning kind I got last night.
 
And my people you’ll be proud of the ole fella and happy to know that yesterday, at long last, I paid my mother Molly her yearly visit at her last resting place here on earth. The duchess and I braved the cloudy skies and travelled to the northeastern part of the Greater Toronto Area to where she’s buried.
 
It was also a good excuse to get out of the house since they were doing some belated maintenance work on the water mains in my area, and thus there was no water between 9 a.m and 5 p.m.
 
We had a good, though short visit, about half an hour, because of the overcast skies. She obviously forgave her wonderful son for not coming to visit her before. But what else did you expect eh? (smile) In death she was just as generous and forgiving as in life.
 
Luckily the weather held until we got back home. But around 5 o’clock the rain began, then the wind started huffing and puffing too. And they both carried on all night long. The rain seems to have eased off now, but the wind is still out there harassing the poor trees.
 
Consequently, in my late night commune on my porch, it definitely wasn’t a calm and peaceful Mother Nature. You couldn’t even hear the insects singing their praise, if they were even singing, and not taking shelter from the stormy weather. But we communed anyway. (smile)
 
In light of all that, I decided that we needed to remember and recite the Serenity Prayer. So please pray with me. ‘Oh gracious God, please grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.’
 
Yes Friends, in these very trying, confusing and evil times, it is of the utmost importance to have the wisdom to know good from bad, as well as what you can change and what you cannot change, because a lot of us waste precious time trying to change stuff and people that we simply cannot change.
 
That wisdom will certainly enhance our choices and improve our lifestyle. But the only place that kind of wisdom is available is from Almighty God. For as James so wisely says in our Bit: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not (without reproach); and it shall be given him.’
 
Yes my people, true wisdom is only obtained through communication with our heavenly Father!
 
The scholars though point out: ‘1:5. This verse is not a blanket promise of wisdom for any situation. In the context of life’s trials, it probably speaks of a believer being granted (1) wisdom as to the reason for his trials and (2) wisdom to endure them.’
 
In any case, whenever, and for whatever reason we need true wisdom, it can ONLY be obtained from Almighty God!
 
However, there are some stipulations for obtaining it, as James continues: ‘But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (not doubting). For he that wavereth (doubts) is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.’ (James 1:6-8)
 
Now that is where our faith truly comes in my brethren! We need to have a strong, secure and constant faith and trust in God, not a wish-washy, sometimes on, sometimes off kind of faith, like so many of us have today. One minute we’re driven by lust for the things of the world, then we turn to God, then we turn back to the things of the world, and keep on vacillating without any real or strong anchor.
 
That is not the kind of faith that God answers my Friends! But that, unfortunately, is the state of our world today! We don’t stick with anything for long. As soon as some new fad or toy comes along, we jump on the bandwagon, quickly forgetting what and who had brought us to the party.
 
And sadly my brethren, that’s a big part of the reason why Christianity is so weak and colourless today; we’ve lost our focus and stick-to-itiveness qualities. Nothing is sacred anymore, not even Jehovah God. But my fellow believers, we cannot operate successfully in an already fallen world without proper standards and values, those gleaned from the Word of God.
 
Now let’s look at our Bit. The first part says: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…’
 
And we have the perfect example of that in Cousin Sol’s response to God’s offer of what he desired. ‘Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?’ (1 Kin.3:9)
 
Yes Friends, Cousin Sol realized that he needed lots of wisdom to rule such a populous and stubborn, stiff-necked people as Israel. And God was so pleased with his request, that He gave him the wisdom that he’d asked for, as well as wealth and power and majesty like no man before or after him!
 
Wow! That’s the magnanimous kind of God we serve and worship my people! When we come to him in humble confidence, He will grant our wishes, in His own time and manner, provided that they fall into line with His overall plan for our lives. For remember that it is His WILL that must be done, both in heaven and on earth! 
 
And we’ll close today with that very important thought uppermost in our minds, for the rest of stuff I wanted to say will definitely make the Bit too long. (smile)
 
So my people, let’s go forth today with the blessings of God surrounding us, His wisdom and peace permeating our hearts, minds, souls and bodies, and His wonderful, never-ending LOVE shining through us like a beacon on a hill, lighting up our dark and dreary world, as He so eagerly desires. Much LOVE!
 
…let’s truly LOVE our God…sincerely LIVE our Faith…and diligently SPREAD His Word…   
 
P.S. Oh Friends, in our prayers today, let’s remember those who were sacrificed for us in the horrible attack on the World Trade Centre on this day, thirteen years ago. Unfortunately, indiscriminate and senseless killing has now become the modus operandi of the evil powers on the earth. Oh, when will it all end eh? Much LOVE!