It’s High Time Christians Stop Being So Lethargic and Wake Up to Their Responsibilities, and the Imminent Second Coming of Jesus!

24 Feb 2026 Leave a comment

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

Romand 13:11.         And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we (first) believed.

And after Monday comes Tuesday… just like the Lord designed it. Yes mih bredrin, it’s a brand new day, and we’re still alive and kicking so let’s give our wonderful Lord and Saviour much thanks for the breath of life that’s still flowing through our finite, fragile, mortal bodies, not forgetting the hope of salvation and eternal life that He so selflessly died to provide for us. And all God’s people sent up a sincere prayer of ‘Thank You Jesus! You are the Greatest! And we LOVE and worship you with all of our hearts, souls, bodies and minds! Amen!’

Ah friends, it’s so good when we give God thanks for His wonderful attention and blessings to us underserving children of men. And it’s something I don’t think we do often enough, because we don’t truly understand/or appreciate how good God has been to us, when He had no reason whatsoever to be. Instead, He had, and still has, every reason to destroy us completely for our prideful and rebellious attitude towards Him.

But as the Bible tells us He LOVED us so dearly and is so longsuffering or patient with us, and didn’t want any of His most wonderful creation to perish, but that all should come to repentance, (2 Pet. 3:9) that He broke His own heart and sent His ONE Son, yes His ONLY Son to earth to die for our rebelliousness, so that all who believed in Him could have everlasting life and not perish in the fires of hell, where we were all destined for, before Christ’s death ransomed us. (John 3:16)

So, when we talk about being indebted to our heavenly Father, it’s no joke or simple matter, because it’s a debt we can never repay. But the good thing about our God is that He doesn’t require repayment, all He needs is for us to sincerely accept His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and thus gain salvation and eternal life. And why is that? Because it’s Jesus who, in obedience to the Father’s will, paid our sin debt in full with the selfless sacrifice of His sinless life.

That’s why the Word says: ‘Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of (those) things in heaven, and (those) things in earth, and those (things) under the earth; And that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ (Phil. 2: 9-11)

Now that’s how the Father rewards those who do His will. Are we in line for rewards…are we doing His will to the best of our ability? I doubt it. Otherwise, neither Christ’s body, the church, nor the world would be in such a terrible state, with dissensions, divisions, hate, greed, strife and all the negative aspects front and centre, rather than in the background.

And it’s no wonder that Satan is ruling the roost, because we supposed Christians, supposed believers in Christ Jesus, are not doing what He desires of His followers, namely to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, and thus show others how living with and for Him is the best life possible. In other words, we’re not doing as Jesus says: ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ (Matt. 5:16)

And that’s the sad truth! We believers are not stepping up to the plate sufficiently and hitting the many home runs that we need to turn things around in this evil and ungodly world. Remember that doing nothing to improve matters, is the same as encouraging them to be bad. So, sitting on the sidelines and seeing evil and ungodliness being perpetrated all over the world when you’re in a position to make some small improvement, makes you just as guilty as the perpetrators of the evil and ungodliness.

Consequently, a whole lot of us supposed Christians are guilty of plenty evil and ungodliness, for there’s always some small way that we can mitigate those negative circumstances, if it’s even in our own families or neighbourhoods. Oh friends, any evil or ungodliness mitigated is a win for Christ! Most of us can’t be big movers and shakers of the world, but we can certainly do stuff right in our backyards to improve the situation. It’s just that too many of us who call ourselves Christians, are either afraid of what others might say and/ or do, or too lazy and comfortable in our material wellbeing, and thus we refuse to get up off of our fat fannies and do something worthwhile for Christ!

But under those circumstances, here are two scriptures that we should consider well. The first comes from Bruh Paul to his protégé Timothy, regarding fear. ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of LOVE, and of a sound (disciplined) mind.’ (2 Tim. 1:7) And the second in Jesus words, is like unto it: ‘And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’ (Matt. 10:28)

Now, that means you should not fear mankind, because they can only kill your body and not your soul. But the One to be truly afraid of is Almighty God, who can kill both body and soul in the roaring fires of hell! And it’s a sad fact that many, if not most of us are more afraid of man than of God. How foolish! But I guess we are more concerned about our bodies than our souls. However, let’s remember there are consequences for every misdeed, and sometimes those consequences can be mind boggling and also life-altering.

Anyway, let’s hope what we’ve spoken of today will jumpstart our consciences, will wake us from our stupor, for as Bruh Paul says to the Roman church: ‘And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we (first) believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.’ (Rom. 13:11-12) And as this commentary explains: ‘That means there’s no place for spiritual lethargy in the Christian life. Believers must live in urgent expectation and wide-awake preparedness for what is coming because “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20)

So, nuff said. Let’s go home now declaring (chuh!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong, lock stock and barrel! As one strong and sincere voice: ‘In God’s eyes, 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 my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

And with those words, we’ve now become duty bound to go out and share the amazing LOVE and friendship of Christ with others, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…it’s time for believers to heed the wake up call…for who knows what will happen tomorrow…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

The Overwhelming Importance of the Cross of Christ to the Christian Faith

01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment

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

Ephesians 2:8.          For by grace are ye saved (you have been saved) through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:        

It’s that day again friends; Sunday, the Lord’s Day, bright, sunshiny and cold, (smile) which means we need to gather in the Lord’s sanctuary, or wherever, so we can fellowship with joy, giving thanks and singing praises to His holy name, while receiving His grace and mercy to strengthen us for another week. And our song of worship today is this time a fairly new one, only written in 2003 by Bob Somma and Bill Batstone, and is most appropriately titled for a time such as this: ‘I come to the Cross.’ 

It’s all about repentance, salvation, grace and mercy, four of the most wonderful and most important things in this rather ungodly world of ours. So, let’s offer up our sweet sacrifices of praise in a soulful, sincere, heartfelt mid-tempo version, pouring all we have and are into it. 

Singing: ‘I come to the cross seeking mercy and grace, I come to the cross where You died in my place. Out of my weakness and into Your strength, Humbly, I come to the cross. I come to the cross seeking mercy and grace, I come to the cross where You died in my place. Out of my weakness and into Your strength, Jesus, I come to the cross. Your arms are open, You call me by name, You welcome this child that was lost. You paid the price for my guilt and my shame, Jesus, I come, Jesus I come, Jesus, I come to the cross. 

I come to the cross seeking mercy and grace, I come to the cross where You died in my place. Out of my weakness and into Your strength, Jesus, I come to the cross. Jesus, I come, Jesus I come, Jesus, I come to the cross Your arms are open, You call me by name, You welcome this child that was lost. You paid the price for my guilt and my shame, Jesus, I come, Jesus I come, Jesus, I come to the cross Jesus, I come to the cross…Jesus, I come to the cross….’ 

Oh my people, that was wonderful! Anyone hearing it would know that we were truly sincere, and the words we sang came directly from the depths of our hearts. And they ought to, since Jesus made Himself to be such a selfless sacrifice on our behalf, on the cross at Calvary. It’s on that dreadful cross that Jesus paid for our sins, through His shed innocent blood. That’s why the cross is such an important aspect of our faith, and Christians ought to venerate it much more than they do since it was through it that we received the wonderful options of salvation and eternal life. 

If Jesus had not died there, and paid our sin debt in full, we would never be able to talk about those things, much less stuff like mercy and grace. Note the opening line of the song: ‘I come to the cross seeking mercy and grace, I come to the cross where You died in my place.’ And that’s the place where every believer ought to bow their knees and give everlasting thanks to Christ. That’s where our journey ought to begin and end…at the cross of Calvary! For everything else pales in comparison to it. 

We have salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life with the Father because of the cross. We also have grace, which is God’s undeserved divine favour because of the cross. For as Bruh Paul writes to the Ephesians: ‘For by grace are ye saved (you have been saved) through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.’ (Eph. 2:8-9) In other words, only through faith in Jesus Christ’s completed work on the cross can we acquire that saving grace. God gives it freely when we believe in His Son Jesus Christ. No works of ours can save us. 

Bruh Paul explains it to the Colossians, as being dead to the world yet alive. ‘And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh (spiritual not physical circumcision), hath he quickened (made alive) together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us (certificate of debt with its decrees), which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross.’ 

And what does all of that mean? Simply that God through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, gave us new spiritual life. And the handwriting of ordinances refers to the Mosaic Law, which the Jews had contracted to obey, and to which the Gentiles by conscience were obligated. But owing to man’s inability to fulfill this obligation of obedience, he was therefore indebted to God. However, through Christ this debt was graciously blotted out.’ 

All praise, honour, thanks and glory to God for doing that! He must have LOVED us a whole lot, for the Bible tells us: ‘But God commendeth (demonstrated) his own LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:8) Yes, although we deserved God’s judgement for our sinfulness, Christ died in our place. What a great God we serve my people! 

And I like how the song talks about:’ Out of my weakness and into Your strength, Jesus, I come to the cross.’ That reminds us of the Lord’s words to Bruh Paul when he asked three times to have a thorn removed from his flesh. ‘And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength (power) is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Cor. 12:9a) 

And as this commentary explains: ‘It means that when human strength fails and weakness is acknowledged, God’s grace and power are most fully displayed and effective. It shifts focus from self-reliance to dependence on divine strength, allowing, as Paul did, for boasting in limitations so that Christ’s power may rest upon the believer.’  Now, let’s not forget these most meaningful words of the song. ‘Your arms are open, You call me by name, You welcome this child that was lost. You paid the price for my guilt and my shame,’ 

Yes friends, Jesus surely did it all, and His arms are open wide, as we can see from  the Great invitation He extends to all the lost, and weary: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ (Matt. 11:29) Who else offers such an invitation eh? No one but Jesus! So, on this first day of February in this new year of 2026, it behooves all who call themselves Christians to pay serious attention to the emblem of our faith; the cross of Christ, to bow before it and cherish it with heartfelt respect and LOVE, for it’s the essence of our very lives, both physical and spiritual. Much LOVE!

…oh the cross…the cross…but for the cross… 

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien