Today’s Scrip-Bit 6 May 2018 Matthew 9:29.

06 May 2018 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 9:29.    According to your faith be it unto you.

Well friends, it’s the big day, Sunday, the time we make our way to the Lord’s sanctuary to fellowship and worship and receive reassurance and confidence in our faith walk.  Unfortunately I couldn’t make it today because of my illness, but my Pastor, Fr. Jeff has promised to come and visit and give me communion after church. So I’m still in the loop. (smile) 

Anyway, as usual, let’s get prepared to hear the word, soften our hearts, by offering up some praise and worship to heaven. And today we’ll offer up that old spiritual song from the movie ‘Student Prince,’ made famous by Mario Lanza. It’s called ‘I’ll walk with God,’ and is such a beautiful way of reaffirming our faith, in this most appropriate time of spring rebirth and a troubled world. 

Let’s sing my brethren, with sincere hearts and strong lungs. ‘I’ll walk with God from this day on. His helping hand I’ll lean upon. This is my prayer, my humble plea, May the Lord be ever with me. There is no death, tho’ eyes grow dim. There is no fear when I’m near to Him. I’ll lean on Him forever And He’ll forsake me never. 

He will not fail me As long as my faith is strong, Whatever road I may walk along. I’ll walk with God, I’ll take His hand. I’ll talk with God, He’ll understand. I’ll pray to Him, each day to Him And He’ll hear the words that I say. His hand will guide my throne and rod And I’ll never walk alone While I walk with God.’ 

And is all of that ever so true my people! If we walk faithfully with God, He’ll look after us. That’s his promise! And He doesn’t ever break promises. I particularly like that last line, about I’ll never walk alone, while I walk with Him. Glory be people! What an awesome statement of truth! 

But first, before all of the above can happen, we need to have the faith to submit, to completely surrender our lives to Him, because God wants to be involved in EVERY aspect of our lives. He can’t be included in some things and not in others. And that’s where the problems come in. We either don’t have faith, or we suffer from weak faith, but a sincere and successful walk with God requires strong faith. 

Oh I know that faith is a process, a continuum along which we grow, from glory to glory, but we have to make the solid, and conscious commitment to do it. We can’t be wishy- washy and stop, or faint as soon as problems arise, because its those same problems that cause our faith to grow. Yeh friends, unfortunately faith only grows by experiencing God’s LOVE, mercy and favour at work in our lives, especially during the rough periods. 

And to show that I know what I’m talking about (smile) listen to this testimony. It’s been a year and half since I’ve been diagnosed with head and heart problems, and in the natural, you’d expect them to be fixed much sooner than they have been. 

Oh, only the head problem has been fixed so far, and that just last week, the heart still remains an enigma. I went into the hospital a month ago to fix the heart problem, but some other thing cropped up and they changed their minds. I’m still waiting to hear from them. 

But what amazes me is that everybody claimed I was so sick, but yet they had me traipsing from hospital to doctor to heart clinic and back again, taking all different kinds of medication and nothing was getting done. Now I could have given up hope and said, ‘Chuh! Forget all this nonsense yes!’ 

But I didn’t, because I’ve been walking with God long enough now to understand that He will keep His promise to work everything out for our good, but in His own time. That’s the cut-tail part about walking with God; in His own time. And unfortunately, His time is seldom our time. He uses these opportunities to grow our faith. 

So if you’re going through some tough and dark times, please, please don’t give up or lose faith. The Lord WILL see you through eventually. He’s just checking to see if you’re truly into Him, as you claim. It isn’t easy people, but our God is faithful, that much I can tell you for sure. And if He sees that you’re willing to take up your cross and walk with Him, without a doubt, He’ll help you to carry it, just like He sent Simon the Cyrene, to help Jesus carry His on that fateful day. (smile) 

He will NEVER leave you in the lurch. And until you sincerely believe that, your faith won’t grow. If you want to work for God, you better had be prepared to suffer stuff, because he doesn’t want people without the necessary experiencing telling His people a whole set of Anansi stories, on subjects they know nothing about. That’s why, most of the stuff I tell you, I can vouch for it from personal experience. 

And I have to chuckle here, because this was never meant to be a personal testimony, but that’s what the Lord apparently wanted. And who am I to say him nay eh? (smile) 

And we’ll end with this most pertinent scripture, when two blind men came to Jesus to receive their sight. ‘And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.’ (Matt.9:28-29) 

Yes friends, according to the level of our faith, the Lord will work in our lives. It’s as simple as that. He’ll meet us at whatever point we are, but we have to first believe that He can do what He’s promised. That’s what faith is all about. Much LOVE!

…faith is believing without seeing…

 

 

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 5 February 2017 Ecclesiastes 5:4.

05 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

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

Ecclesiastes 5:4.   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.

Oh friends, we’ve been granted the great privilege of seeing another of the first and best days of the week- Sunday! Glory to God! So let’s gather in sincere fellowship and worship Him in all truth, as we are supposed to on this special day nuh. And we’ll begin the celebrations, the sacrifices of praise by singing this popular Christian song, ‘I’ll Walk with God.’ 

Now let’s belt it out like we truly mean and believe it my people, because God is looking at our hearts to see if what comes out of mouths is truly what’s buried there. Now with a great outpouring of LOVE, let’s raise the roof of heaven. 

‘I’ll Walk with God from this day on. His helping hand I’ll lean upon. This is my prayer, my humble plea, May the Lord be ever with me. There is no death, tho’ eyes grow dim. There is no fear when I’m near to Him. I’ll lean on Him forever And He’ll forsake me never. He will not fail me As long as my faith is strong, Whatever road I may walk along. 

I’ll Walk with God, I’ll take His hand. I’ll talk with God, He’ll understand. I’ll pray to Him, each day to Him And He’ll hear the words that I say. His hand will guide my throne and rod And I’ll never walk alone While I walk with God.’ 

Oh my fellow believers, that was magnificent! And God heard it in His high heaven and was immensely thrilled! 

However, let me remind us of what we just did there: we just made a promise, or rather several promises to Almighty God – to walk and talk with Him and hold His hand. So that means we cannot renege on those promises, for as the Preacher tells us in our Bit from 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.’ 

And we have good authority for that from way back when in Numbers, when Moses gave the Israelites the law concerning vows. ‘If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond (binding himself by some agreement); he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.’ (Num.30:2) 

The same applied to women too, unless her father or husband heard her sware the vow and squashed it right then and there. (Num.30:3-8) Meanwhile, the same went of widows and divorcees, unless their vows were made when they were still with their husbands and they said nothing to the contrary. (Num.30.9-15) 

So you see friends, vows were taken rather seriously back in those days, and even until recently, with our sudden explosion of irresponsibility and fraudulent behaviour.  Therefore it’s not only to God that we shouldn’t make vows and not keep them, but to ALL people. It should be a general way of life amongst believers. 

And the keeping of vows was, and still is, so important that the writer of Ecclesiastes solemnly advised us. ‘Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not (do not let) thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel (messenger, priest), that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice (excuse), and destroy the work of thine hands.’ (Eccl.5:5-6) 

So friends, that just puts us in a beautiful bind; we just have to keep those promises now, and sincerely walk with the Lord. (smile) Believe me though friends, walking with God is not always easy, but the rewards are worth every ounce of pain and/or disappointment. And I am not talking from hearsay, but from personal testimony. 

Ah mih breddren, in the last little while I’ve been going through a whole set of medical problems, and though at times I was tired of the pain and uncertainty, I could always see the Lord’s grace and mercy and favour riding along with me. And even though I’m feeling somewhat better now, the fact is that none of my medical problems have been solved or corrected. But at least we know about them and are in the process of doing something about them. 

But even then, making things right will still take time, the Lord’s time, so all I can do is stay faithful and walk with God, because He has promised to work everything out for my eventual good. And I know from past experiences that He is ever faithful to His vows. He NEVER reneges on any of them. How yuh think I can write the Bit every day, despite my unfortunate circumstances eh?  So why should I get all worried and anxious eh? That’s not going to solve the problem(s), only make me feel worse. 

Now listen to the psalmist talk about vows, as he extols the great works of God in Psalm 66. ‘I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows (promised deeds), which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams: I will offer bullocks with goats.   Selah.’ (Ps.66:13-15) 

Yuh see friends, that is how we must behave as true believers in Jesus Christ our wonderful Lord and Saviour! Anything else will just place a serious blemish on His godly character. Remember we are His ambassadors down here on earth, and all that we do reflects on Him, for either good or bad. 

And we’ll close with another pearl of wisdom from the Preacher. ‘For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities (futility abounds): but fear thou God.’ (Eccl.5:7) 

That’s indeed the long and short of the story my people, so let’s pursue it diligently and sincerely nuh. Much LOVE!

…walking with God…is the ONLY path of wisdom in this crazy world…

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 16 October 2016 1 Timothy 1:12.

16 Oct 2016 Leave a comment

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

1 Timothy 1:12.    And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into ministry.

Aye mih people, is fellowship day; the Lord’s Day – the Sabbath, the day of the week that we concentrate on our most wonderful God to a greater extent than other day! 

That leads us to gather in His sanctuary to fellowship with each other, to give great shouts of praise, worship and thanksgiving for His goodness during the past week, and to receive strength, faith, courage, confidence and LOVE to face the upcoming seven days. 

So, in light of all that, let’s offer up heartfelt praise in preparation for hearing the Word. And believe me friends, there’s nothing I like better than to just sit and hear the Word and feel it filter into my soul, like osmosis. Anyway, enough talk, (smile) let’s get to some sacrifice of praise and worship to Almighty God by singing this old but magnificent spiritual song made popular by Mario Lanza many moons ago, ‘I’ll Walk with God.’ 

Let’s raise the rafters with our song now: ‘I’ll walk with God From this day on His helping hand I’ll lean upon This is my prayer my humble plea May the Lord be ever with me There is no death though eyes grow dim There is no fear when I’m near to him I’ll lean on him forever And He’ll forsake me never 

He will not fail me as long as my faith is strong What ever road I may walk alone I’ll walk with God I’ll take his hand I’ll talk with God He’ll understand I’ll pray to him Each day to him I’ll walk with God from this day on.’ 

Oh what faith raising and encouraging words my precious people! Remember though, we can’t just leave all those sentiments, those faithful promises behind when we leave church, we need to take them with us and action them in the world during the week. 

And having softened our hearts for the Word, let’s hear it nuh, as we lead of with our Bit. ‘And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into ministry.’ Heartfelt words from Bruh Paul the mentor, to young Timothy, the protégé, re his becoming an apostle. And he tells of Christ’s mercy that saved and enabled him, several times in other letters. 

Listen to him from 1 Corinthians, as he talks about the resurrection of Christ. ‘And last of all he (Christ) was seen of me also, as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet (worthy) to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’ (1 Cor.15:8-10) 

Ah friends, Bruh Paul did labour hard in spreading Christ’s gospel. But as he says, it’s God’s grace that enabled him to do all that work and withstand all those trials. Likewise God’s grace will help each and every one of us to do the work He has entrusted us to do. And I can personally testify to that, through the writing of this Bit. I can only do it because God grant’s me the grace to do it.  

Now hear his acknowledgement to the Ephesians, re his mission to the Gentiles. ‘That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Whereof I was made (became) a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual (effective) working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ.’ (Eph.3:6-8) 

And isn’t that the indisputable truth? Bruh Paul would have had no power to preach the Word unless it was given to him by God. Meanwhile to the church at Rome, he writes. ‘Nevertheless brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort (on some points), as putting you in mind (reminding you), because of the grace that is given to me of God. 

That I should be the (a) minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory (reason to glory) through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.’ (Rom.15:15-17)  

And to the Colossians, he points out: ‘If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled (steadfast) and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister. 

Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind (lacking) of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is in the church. Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation (stewardship) of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God.’ (Col.1:23-25) It’s all grace friends, nothing but grace! 

And the scholars offer this explanation: 1:25. The expression according to the dispensation of God might be rendered “because of the divine assignment.”  Paul was a minister or servant to the church because of the divine assignment given him. That assignment was to fulfill the word of God, that is, to preach the gospel over a wide geographical area, winning converts to Christianity. The Greek word translated here as “fulfill” is rendered in Romans 15:19 as “fully preached.” 

Ah mih breddren, two thousand years later, nothing has really changed, for we as believers have also been given the divine assignment to spread the gospel wherever we can, even to the farthest reaches of the earth. Now we might not all have Bruh Paul’s zeal and miraculous anointing, but in our own small way, we all can make a difference in winning souls for Christ. 

So please, let’s get serious and get on with the job of seriously and sincerely promoting Christ’s gospel nuh, because that’s what He expects of each and every follower. Much LOVE!

…every Christian…with no exceptions… has a part to play in furthering the gospel…be it big or small…