Today’s Scrip-Bit 16 April 2016 1 Chronicles 16:34

16 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

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

1 Chronicles 16:34.     O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

Well my people in the northern climes, this weekend’s temperatures are supposed to reach into the high teens… And all God’ people declared a loud and thankful ‘Glory Hallelujah!’ 

Yeh friends, I know the frustration that’s been running through our mortal souls for the last couple weeks, with the cold, unseasonable winter weather. But I think spring has finally sprung, and I know that you will be all out in the bright sunshine half-naked, tooling around in your sports cars, revving your motorbikes, getting your tans, and of course the backyards and decks will be crowded, with barbecues blazing, while the beer is being greedily chugged down in large quantities! (smile) 

But please remember Granny’s advice; ‘drunk or sober, mind your business,’ because I know after the long winter hibernation, this sudden summer type weather can go to our heads and have us do foolish things, and thus allow Lucifer to get a foot hold in our souls, which is definitely not a good thing. 

But enough of my rambling, I have something I want to share with you. I recently received a form letter from Fr. Bob Colaresi, the Director of The Monastery of Mount Carmel Society of the Little Flower – the Society that’s associated with St. Therese – and the opening paragraphs were so beautiful, I just had to share them with you. 

The letter begins: ‘Beloved Friend, The heart is our centre. It pumps blood throughout. It beats with LOVE, longing and power. When we give our heart away, it signifies us giving ourselves away to someone. 

In some ways our heart is who we are, especially as women and men created in the “image and likeness of God” Who is LOVE.  We are created from LOVE, in LOVE and for LOVE. We believe in a God Who is recklessly in LOVE with us and longs for union. 

Pope Francis has challenged the Church to celebrate a Jubilee Year of Mercy. Mercy is the heartbeat of God. For reasons hard to explain or understand we re-created a God of judgement. 

Somehow we seem to forget the Good News: that God reveals Himself as Mercy and LOVE – the God who gives us the benefit of the doubt. The God Who is always present with unconditional LOVE – Who never leaves us and always forgives.’ 

Oh friends, what a wonderful description of our amazing God! But do we truly live like we are LOVED and shown mercy by our magnanimous heavenly Father? Of course not! Too many of us simply pay lip service to God’s LOVE and mercy, and only come running to Him when we find ourselves in a heap of trouble from which we cannot extricate ourselves. 

But that’s certainly not wisdom for a true believer. For the true believer, living in the lap and luxury of God’s LOVE and mercy is an everyday, all day thing. It’s not something to embrace only when it suits our convenience, but we should be gloriously wallowing in it all the time, like pigs in mud. (smile) 

That’s when we truly get all the benefits of being in a personal relationship with Christ. Otherwise we are foolishly shortchanging ourselves.  And I don’t know about you all, but I definitely would like to receive all that God has earmarked for me, and the only way to do that is to live continuously in His LOVE and mercy, receiving stuff that we don’t deserve. That is true wisdom! 

And when I went looking for a Bit to match the words and sentiments of Fr. Bob above, I came upon this sentiment of indisputable truth that was ever so appropriate.  And it is also found in numerous places of the Good Book, which means it must be true and important. ‘O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.’ 

Now my brethren, if there ever was gospel truth, those words certainly qualify! And I simply cannot fathom why we are turning away from such a wonderful Deity in these turbulent and trying times. If there ever was a time for us to be running to God, it’s NOW!  

Now when we are being rocked by so much strife and disasters, both natural and man-made. Just look at how Japan was turned topsy-turvy by two strong earthquakes in the last couple of days. Only with a strong and true belief in a powerful and living God can we find the strength and wherewithal to overcome that sort of thing. But this modern day, selfish, egotistic society is running away from God instead! Steups! 

Ah Lord eh mih people! Sometimes I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall, all to no purpose, because people are not listening, they’re just too giddy, running behind the material things of the world. Anyway, that seems to be my cross to bear, so I’ll just have to bear it as best as I can. (smile) 

Now let’s look at some of the times and occasions where our Bit can be found in the Good Book. The instance we’re using is found when Bruh David brought up the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and the people celebrated and he wrote a glorious psalm of thanksgiving. 

Then later on in 2 Chronicles, when Cousin Sol completed the Lord’s temple and dedicated it, the celebration was amazing. Listen to the Good Book describe it. 

‘It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. 

So that the priests could not stand to minister (continue ministering) by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.’ (2 Chr.5:13-14)  

Oh friends, we’ve run out of space and time, but yuh see what sincere praise and worship can do? It can cause our God to do miraculous stuff, because He just LOVES it when we praise and worship and glorify His Holy Name! That’s why He made us. 

So in this Easter season, when God gave us the biggest gift of all, eternal life, through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, please let’s consider ramping up our praise and worship nuh, both as individuals and in fellowship, as the Church, the body of Christ. There could be no better reason. Then we’ll see our magnificent and magnanimous God do amazing and wonderful things in our lives! Much LOVE!

…there’s nothing in this world…to beat God’s LOVING-kindness and mercy…ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 20 April 2013 Isaiah 40:18

20 Apr 2013 Leave a comment

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

Isaiah 40:18.     To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
 
Ah Friends, this weather situation is really getting ridiculous yes! The last two days the temperature has been in the high teens, almost summer weather, with people running around half naked. But today and tomorrow it’s only supposed to reach a high of 4 and 5 degrees Celsius respectively, and then go back up to double digits on Monday and Tuesday. Steups! No wonder people get all sorts of ailments in the land of the four seasons. The weather used to be fairly predictable, season by season, but now, with all the climate changes, global warming and what have you, you’re never sure what one day or the next is going to bring. And just to prove that point, I happened to look outside just now, and what do you think I saw? Snowflakes raining down from the sky! Ah Lord eh! Most likely that won’t last long or cause much inconvenience, but just the very thought that you can go from warm sunshine to weather suitable for snow in only a few hours doesn’t warm the heart. And I understand that earlier on a tornado touched down north of Toronto, but I don’t know the extent of the damage. However, it’s certainly a good thing that we don’t have a wishy-washy, unpredictable God like the weather, one that spins back and forth like a yo-yo, but rather a strong, reliable, unchanging, same for all seasons Deity. So though we may be annoyed by the current unpredictable weather patterns, we don’t have to agonize or fret too much over them, since we can rely on the Most High God to get us through anything to which He brings us. The prophet Isaiah, in talking of our God’s majesty, rightly proclaims: ‘All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity (worthless)’ (Is.40:17) Oh my fellow believers, those are words of undeniable truth! There’s no one, or nothing on the face of the earth, or beneath the seas, in fact in this entire universe to compare to our omnipotent, omniscient, omni-present, all knowing God! No wonder the prophet asks then in our Bit, with a touch of scorn: ‘To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?’ And the correct answer my brethren is, NO ONE or NOTHING! For if He made the universe and all therein, how could any part or person of His creation be greater than Him eh? That’s what the fallen angel Lucifer and the other numbskulls that rebelled with him, failed to understand. And just for good measure, in case we don’t believe or understand, the prophet goes on to argue the situation in rhetorical question form. ‘The workman melteth (moulds) a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and (the silversmith) casteth (casts) silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation (no such offering) chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning (skillful) workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved (totter and fall)’ (Is.40:19-20) Yes Friends, that’s how many mortal men operate. That’s how they initiate a god into their lives, for it seems that whoever, or wherever we are, we always seem to feel this deep need inside of us to worship something or other. That’s just the natural call of the living God, He of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But unfortunately mankind doesn’t always understand or heed that call, and eventually ends up bowing to man made objects, which in the Lord’s eyes is the most contemptuous sacrilege possible, as He proclaims from the earliest times. ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to (worship) them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting (punishing) the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto them that LOVE me, and keep my commandments.’ (Ex.20:3-6) Ah mih people, it couldn’t be put any clearer or simpler than that! That’s why Isaiah continues: ‘Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundation of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon (above) the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. That bringeth (reduces) the princes to nothing: he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity (useless). Yea, they shall not (scarcely) be planted; yea, they shall not (scarcely) be sown; yea, their stock shall not (scarcely) take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.’ (Is.40:21-24) That’s the story in living colour Friends! The scholars point to ‘Genesis 1:26, where man is created in the image and likeness of God as a personal and moral being.’ So how can a graven image, a dead, lifeless, man made object ever be compared to our God eh? No way Jose! Ah mih people, I just don’t understand how supposedly intelligent humans can worship dead, lifeless objects nuh, many of them made with their own hands. As I asked earlier on, how can something you make be so powerful that you have to bow to it? It just doesn’t follow logically, especially when there’s a wonderful living God in existence who watches over all our comings and goings with LOVING-kindness. And having had time and plenty info to contemplate the question in our Bit, we’ll end by asking it in a slightly different form. ‘To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.’ (Is.40:25) Oh Friends, the answer remains the same: NOBODY! NOBODY OR NOTHING is greater than our God! Please remember that, and all will be well with you, for that is indeed wisdom of the very highest order. Much LOVE!…once you know Jehovah God…there’s only one thing you can do…that’s LOVE Him…with all your heart, mind, body and soul…