Israel’s king | SCRIP-BITS

Zechariah 9:9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just (righteous), and having salvation; lowly (humble), and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Welcome friends to the first day of spring in the North Country, although it’s still pretty chilly outside. (smile) It’s also Sunday my people, which means it’s time to get thee hither to church, to gather with other believers to praise and worship and give thanks and glorify Almighty God and receive His power, strength, energy, wisdom, confidence and enthusiasm to face the upcoming week.

Now this is not my suggestion, but God’s command: ‘Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day, thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. (Ex.23:12)

And in modern day Christian society we have chosen Sundays to be our day of rest and worship, and in a convoluting kind of way, also the first day of the week. The important thing though, is that we take off one day a week from our labour and rest and worship the Lord as a group, regardless of which day it might be.

Now listen to this other scripture about the observance of the Sabbath from the prophet Isaiah. ‘If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth (the hills), and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ (Is.58:13-14)

What more can we ask for re the observance, the celebration of the Sabbath eh my brethren? Nothing at all! The Lord has promised us a joyride if we faithfully observe it. (smile)

And fortunately, today also happens to be Palm Sunday; that magnificent day of celebration, when our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was ushered into Jerusalem in kingly fashion, but on a humble donkey, where the people spread their garments and branches they cut down from trees along the roadway for Him to ride over.

‘And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.’ (Matt.20:8-9)

Oh my people what a day of celebration that must have been in ole Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, that a week later the same fickle souls were then fiendishly crying out ‘crucify Him, crucify Him!’ That just shows what a bunch of ingrates and turncoats and hypocrites we are.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. (smile) Today, let’s enjoy the pomp and pageantry that was Palm Sunday, for it will be indeed a fleeting, though rather important moment in time.

And the breathtaking aspect of the day, is as the Good Book says: ‘And all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek (lowly), and sitting upon an ass (donkey), and a colt the foal of an ass.’ (Matt.21:5)

Oh my people, how wonderful is our God eh, who can foretell stuff centuries and eons before they come to pass! ‘Behold the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.’ (Is.42:9)

And the Lord did tell us about Palm Sunday long before it happened. The words of our Bit spell it out loud and clear: ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just (righteous), and having salvation; lowly (humble), and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.’

What an awesome God we serve and worship my people! No other supposed deity has done, or can do those things; only the Almighty and Everlasting God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

‘And all God’s people joyfully sang: ‘Praise Him, praise him, Glory Hallelujah, He is LOVE, He is LOVE!’ That He certainly is my people!

Now here is some info from the scholars. ‘9:9-10. The ass (donkey) was an animal of peace. The kings of the earth come to bring destruction and devastation: Israel’s King comes to bring peace. The prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.’

Yes my people, our God is so mighty, majestic, magnificent and magnanimous that I can’t understand how so many of us can fail to appreciate, LOVE, serve and worship Him with all our hearts, minds, bodies and souls nuh!

He has never lied to us, never led us astray, has proven His great and unconditional LOVE for us unworthy reprobates by sending His only son Jesus to die on the cross so that we could be free, washed clean of our disgusting sins, thus reconciling us to Him, bringing us back into a right relationship with Him, offering us a free gift of grace that leads to salvation and eternal life with the Holy Trinity in heaven till time immemorial!

What more does He have to do to convince us eh mih breddren? The only thing left is for us to be able to worship the prince of darkness and lust after and enjoy the things of the world and still get to heaven. But I can assure you friends, that’s NEVER going to happen.

The Lord in His righteousness and holiness and justice could not agree to that. Yuh see the great heartbreaking lengths He went to, to secure our freedom; sacrificing His only Son? Now if it were possible to get into heaven another way than through Jesus sacrifice, don’t you think He would have taken it?

Anyway, that is all now hypothetical; Jesus was sacrificed to pay for our sins, and He’s the ONLY way to get to heaven. So let’s go out and celebrate, have a wonderful Palm Sunday, sing and praise and joyfully shout ‘Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!’ Much LOVE my fellow believers!

…sing and rejoice…O daughter of Zion…for, lo, I come (am coming)…and I will dwell in the midst of thee…saith the Lord… (Zech.2:10)

Psalm 57:5. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

Oh Friends, the human mind is a most wonderful bit of machinery yes! Possibly our God’s greatest invention, for so far man can replicate most of what happens in the human body, but he’s still completely baffled by the exquisite and exotic workings of the mind.

And I bring this up because during the night I got up a couple of times, looked at the clock and decided it was too early to get up, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. However, at some stage after the last roll over, I discovered that I had gotten up and was putting on my day clothes.

Then something struck me as being not right. I realized that I was really dreaming about getting up and putting on my clothes. Hn, Hn! But yuh know what’s so significant about that dream?

I was dreaming about putting on the very same clothes that I had actually put out to put on whenever I got up. Now does that tell us something about the magnificence of the mind or what!

The same way Friends, when we keep our attention and focus on God, we see and do life the way He desires. Like Bruh David holed up in the cave, hiding from Saul, instead of bemoaning his unfortunate fate, for he was innocent of any wrongdoing against Saul, he instead declares our Bit. ‘Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.’

And that’s how ALL believers ought to operate, my people!

Now yesterday we ended by saying that our God was and is the greatest Comforter and Healer in the universe. Today, I want to share a couple scriptures to drive home those most important points. Listen to Bruh Paul as he talks to the Corinthians re his personal afflictions.

‘Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble (tribulation), by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.’ (2 Cor.1:3-4)

Yes my brethren, our great and wonderful God comforts us in our time of need, so that we can also comfort others in need of comforting. (smile) And re the healing power of Christ, hear what Matthew says about our Lord and Saviour when He walked this evil, ungodly earth.

‘And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of (every) sickness and all manner of (every) disease among the people.’ (Matt.4:23)

Yes Friends and neighbours, Jesus went about healing all sorts of diseases and sickness when He walked this earth. And the beauty of it all is, now that He’s sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven, entreating on our behalf, He’s still in the business of healing; healing souls, bodies and minds!

So whenever we’re in need of comfort and healing, the first place to turn to is heaven and Jesus, like Bruh David did in that solitary cave in the wilderness. Remember too, that though Bruh David was anointed to be Israel’s next king at a young age, he went through a lot of hell and high water, plenty testing, before it became a reality.

The Lord tested him in many ways before He actually promoted him. And this is one of those times. Listen to his beautiful words of trust, faith and exaltation though his life was in serious turmoil.

After declaring our Bit, he continues: ‘They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah. My heart is fixed (steadfast), O God, my heart is fixed (steadfast): I will sing and give praise.

Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery (lute) and harp: I myself will awake early (awaken the dawn). I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations (Gentiles). For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.’ (Ps.57:6-11)

Oh my fellow believers, that’s how ALL believers should feel, believe, talk and act! For those words portray the epitome of a true believer.

So today, if we’re being plagued, being beset by troubles that we can’t quite get a handle on, please release them all to our omnipotent, wonderful and ever-LOVING God! Let Him deal with them, for He’s promised to do just that if we come to Him in sincere faith.

The essence of the situation is therefore, instead of concentrating on our troubles, our negative circumstances, let’s do like Bruh David did in his time of need; let’s focus our thoughts and energy instead on our omnipotent, omniscient, all-knowing God; our Creator, Comforter, Guide, Healer and Provider.

That’s wisdom at its highest level, at its very zenith. Much LOVE!

…Bruh David found his exaltation of God so nice…that he had to say it twice… (vs.5,11) (smile)

SCRIP-BITS

Today’s Scrip-Bit 20 March 2016 Zechariah 9:9

Today’s Scrip-Bit 13 February 2014 Psalm 57:5

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