The Creation, Fall of And Redemption of Man!

06 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

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

Romans 6:23.          For the wages of sin is eternal death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Well, it certainly seems like the snow season is here to stay. Note I didn’t say winter, because that’s not officially due for another couple of weeks, but the snow has made it’s appearance and looks like it intends to stay, for although the roads are fairly clean, the land and roof tops are clothed with it, while occasional flurries continue to drift down aimlessly. I must say though that the wintry white look is indeed beautiful! And why not eh, for everything our marvellous and artistic God has made is beautiful! 

Remember what the Bible says about His creation of the universe? At then of each day, He looked at what He had created that day, ‘and God saw that it was good.’ (Gen. 1:12)  Then at the end, the Bible says: ‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.’ (Gen. 1:31) Yes friends, our God was indeed pleased with His creations, especially mankind, whom He actually created with His own hands. It was the only thing He did not speak into existence. 

The Bible tells it thus: ‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.’ (Gen. 2:7) What a magnanimous, generous and LOVING God we serve my people! One who made us in His own image from the dust of the earth and imbued us with His Holy, Life-Giving Spirit, filled us with the breath of life! What could be more awesome and amazing that that eh? And the Lord had such great plans for us. 

Sadly though, our forefathers Adam and Eve screwed everything up when they allowed the evil serpent, Satan in snake’s clothing, to bamboozle them into not believing what God had said to them about eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil; that they would surely die. The smooth talking serpent said unto Eve: ‘Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods (God), knowing good and evil.’ (Gen. 3:4-5) 

And Eve fell for the sweet talk, and ate of the forbidden fruit, which I believe was not a crusty apple as many suppose, but rather a Julie mango, the sweetest and juiciest fruit the Lord has made. (smile) And it’s obvious that when they ate the Julie mango their eyes were opened, such was the sweetness of it! (smile) They even knew that they were naked and sewed fig leaves together to make aprons (girding coverings). (Gen. 3:6-7) Then foolishly, when the Lord came looking for them they went and hid themselves. 

How foolish can one be? But that’s because they now knew good from evil, and realized that they had disobeyed the one thing that God had told them not to do. And when the Lord asked Adam why they had disobeyed His one command, he laid the blame on Eve for eating of the forbidden fruit. And when He asked Eve, she replied: ‘The serpent beguiled (deceived) me.’ (Gen. 3:13) Right there the blame game began! Then God unceremoniously kicked them out of the Garden of Eden, to fight life on their own. 

And since then, mankind has been in a sort of free falling mode, lost in sin and shame and pain, having to till the ground, by the sweat of his brow to get bread, and suffer all kinds of trials and tribulations. All for ONE act of disobedience! That’s how seriously God takes disobedience! And sadly nothing has changed down through the ages; man is still a most sinful and disobedient being, and sill not willing to accept responsibility for his actions. This might possibly be the most sinful and disobedient generation of all. 

But thankfully, there’s also another side to our God; the LOVING, compassionate side, where He doesn’t wish to see His greatest creation suffer eternal separation from Him for their sinful behaviour; ‘For the wages of sin is eternal death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6:23) Thus He sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to die on the cross at Calvary and thus redeem us from our abominable sinful condition. And all we have to do is believe and endeavour to live a godly life. 

Jesus, as was His wont, said it very simply. ‘For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.’ (John 3:16-17) Yes friends, contrary to what many believe, Christ came to save the world, not condemn it. If He desired to condemn it, He would simply have left it as it was, sinful and sorrowful. But no, He left heaven purposely to come and save us. 

And as we said earlier, all you have to do is believe in Christ to be saved. Here’s how He puts it: ‘He that believeth on him (Christ) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’ (John 3:18) Ah friends, it’s so simple: believe and you will be saved; don’t believe and you will be condemned! And yes, the serpent is still out there trying to beguile and deceive as many of us as he can, but when we believe in Jesus, He also gives us the tools to resist that deception, with His Holy Spirit indwelling us to lead the way. 

So although living the holy and righteous life might not always be easy, we can certainly do it, if we seriously put our minds and hearts to the task. And to help us in that endeavour, let’s go to the throne of grace through our Friday Chant seeking divine aid to stay afloat and thrive. Altogether: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough…  because our many serious problems are escalating instead of improving. And it’s obvious we can’t fix them on our own, so Lord, we’re desperately crying out for your help. 

Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat the simmering unrest in our land. We therefore ask you Lord to give our leaders the wise guidance to handle these unexpected storms properly. And please help the rest of us to be responsible and to stay safe amidst all the anxiety and confusion of these ungodly times. We fervently pray too Lord that you’ll use the discontent and dissatisfaction in our land as a means of restoring faith in you. Return backsliders to your fold. Show them the error of their ways. 

And please introduce a new flock of believers, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. So that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, wake up and smell it sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’ 

Now, let’s realize that no divine aid will be forthcoming until we buck up and become better witnesses for Christ! Much LOVE!

…obey God…and leave all the consequences to Him… (Uncle Charles – Dr. Charles Stanley)…

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   10August 2023 Matthew 7:7.

10 Aug 2023 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 7:7.       Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

And August has now moved into double digits on this cool, sunshiny Thursday morning. So you know what’s not too far ahead… (smile) But yuh know what, the enemy only uses the threat of winter and those cold months to frighten us into reneging on all the promises that we’ve made to Jesus to help Him with His worldwide campaign of salvation. Yes friends, that’s all it is… the devil’s empty threats! 

Remember he is now merely a de-fanged, toothless, loudmouth of a lion, with plenty bark but no bite, having been soundly defeated, in fact totally trounced by Jesus in the battle for the keys of hell, death and the grave. And though we should not let him frighten us with his idle threats, please, I beg you, let’s not discount him totally, because he is still the master of wiles and deceptive schemes, the veritable wolf in sheep’s clothing, who can fool you quite easily, if you’re not on your p’s and q’s. 

Yuh see how he fooled Eve our first mother, with apparently one statement that appeared quite harmless but was very ingenious. The Lord had told Adam and her not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the Garden of Eden, for the day they did, they would surely die. (Gen. 2:17) However, the serpent, the evil Satan was smarter than Eve, and changed the story around telling Eve that she wouldn’t die if she ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, but God knew that if she did, ‘then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods (God), knowing good and evil.’ (Gen. 3:5) 

And fool that she was, Eve listened to his glib tongue and ate of the fruit,  then offered it to Adam. And the even bigger fool, who should certainly have known better, he also ate it. And the devil smirked as sin, disobedience to God’s word, then entered the world. And the deceitful enemy hasn’t changed any since then, perchance he’s gotten worse, so please be very careful with any arguments he brings up to you, make sure you take them to God first and verify them with Him, the ultimate decision maker. 

Now, yesterday we left off with a promise to continue our discourse on things that take us away from God and His Word. And having talked about LOVING the things of the world too much, and not those of God enough, not having the peace of Christ, and the loud noises that stop us from hearing the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, here is another problem we encounter in our faith journey. That is, we take the good-looking scriptures and either use them out of context, or use them in the wrong manner. 

And a very good example of that is when Jesus talked about asking and receiving. He said: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocekth it shall be opened.’ (Matt. 7:7-8) And yes, we ought to ask and keep on asking; seek and keep on seeking; knock and keep on knocking, we must never faint or give up in working for Jesus. However, many of us use those instructions in the wrong manner, then get annoyed with God when we don’t get what we asked, sought, or knocked for. 

And James, explains why most of our requests go unanswered. ‘From whence come wars (conflicts) and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts (desires for pleasure) that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill (murder), and desire to have (covet), and cannot obtain: ye fight and war (battle), yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (pleasures). Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of (with) the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will (wants to) be a friend of the world is (makes himself) the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy (yearns jealously)?’ (James 4:1-5) 

Oh my fellow saints, it’s exactly what we were talking about earlier on, our foolish LOVE for the things of the world! And the scholars tell us that ‘James is here emphasizing the strife so common amongst us, stemming from our unsatisfied, selfish desires. Instead of wrestling with God in prayer, these believers are striving with one another.’ And is that ever the gospel truth! Instead of going to God in prayer, too many of us concentrate on fighting with each other. 

And I like how this commentary explains James’ words. ‘Here in this verse, James reveals that when they did ask God for what they wanted, they were simply trying to manipulate Him. Their prayers were not really requests, they were an effort to make God serve their selfish desires.’ And don’t we do that all the time? For sure! We try to get God to do our will instead of us doing His. But let’s remember there are consequences to all our actions, and the only way to avoid most of the negative ones is by being obedient to, and truthful with God, for He knows all and sees all, and we can’t ever fool Him. 

And until we wake up and realize that, we’ll always be at the mercy of the enemy, and thus find ourselves in more negative circumstances than are necessary. Now let’s go home declaring (chuh man!!!) our Thursday Blessings that the Lord so generously bestowed on us so we can do His earthly work. In strong and sincere voice: ‘I declare that I am blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for my life! I declare today that I am blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance! 

I am blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline! I am blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favour and fulfillment! I am blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection! I am blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life! I declare that any curse or negative word that’s ever been spoken over me is broken right now in the name of Jesus! I declare that everything I put my hands to, will prosper and succeed! I declare it today and every day! Amen!’ 

And now friends, having activated those amazing blessings, it’s now our bounden duty to go out and share them with others, so that they too can come to know Christ and LOVE Him like we do! Remember that’s our Great Commission! Much LOVE!

…you cannot use scripture successfully…for your own selfish purposes… 

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ       

Today’s Scrip-Bit   1 October 2022 Matthew 5:16.

01 Oct 2022 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 5:16.        Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Ah friends, the tiredness and laziness are certainly permeating the ole fella’s body and spirit this lazy, somewhat cloudy Saturday morning, the first day of October 2022. Now I like that sentence because it tells us so many things all in one go. (smile) But I think this lazy Saturday thing is getting into me, becoming a habit, and I don’t like it. I was up earlier on, did a couple of things, then went back to bed, claiming I was still sleepy. But the truth is, an hour or so later, I don’t know if I’m feeling any better than I did the first time I got up. 

Nonetheless, there’s God’s work to be done, which is one of the reasons I’m beginning to dislike the lazy Saturday idea, because rain or shine, sleet or snow, in sickness or health, I still have to do it. (smile) And God’s work on Saturdays entails looking at the quotes our friend Anselm sent us the past week and make something Christian-like of them, as he aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. And that’s not always easy, but with God’s awesome help, I always manage to turn out something respectable. ‘Thank You Lord!’ 

And we’ll begin with this interesting quote, which says: ‘If you make your internal life a priority, then everything else you need on the outside will be given to you and it will be extremely clear what the next step is.’ Now, there’s a lot of truth in that, provided Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour and you make Him, or your spiritual life, your priority, for He sincerely and faithfully promised: ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ (Matt. 6:33) That’s food, clothing, and all the other necessities of life. But we first have to believe in Him, and then put Him first in all that we do. 

But I question the last part of the quote, for everything will definitely not be made extremely clear. Yes, somethings will be made clear, but a lot of it we will be expected to walk by faith and trust in Christ Jesus. For what’s the purpose of a God eh, if He tells us everything clearly and leaves nothing to our imagination or faith eh? None whatsoever! 

And that segues very nicely into this next quote. ‘You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens.’ And that’s the gospel truth! But you can only do that when your faith and trust in Jesus is strong, and you’ve already had some experience with Him. If He is your guide and protector, then you have to let go sometimes and just let Him lead and guide you. We call him the Good Shepherd, and that’s what shepherds do; lead and guide their flock safely and compassionately. And Jesus is the epitome, the master example of shepherds and shepherding. (smile) 

But in any case, as Cousin Sol so wisely tells us in Proverbs: ‘A man’s heart deviseth (plans) his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.’ (Prov. 16:9) Yes my brethren, our God is sovereign over our scheming and planning, that’s why so many of our bright schemes and plans go astray. (smile) If they are not in His will, then ofttimes He won’t allow them to happen. And even if they are in His will, sometimes it’s just not the right time, so they won’t happen either. That means it’s very important to recognize God’s sovereignty and will over our lives, otherwise His yays and nays will eventually drive us crazy, and possibly turn us away from Him, which is the worst thing we can ever do. 

Then there’s this quote: ‘No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.’ Now there should be absolutely no doubt to that, since it’s been words and ideas that have been changing the world since the beginning of time. They are put in place before any action happens. And we have a great example in the fall of man. Satan spoke to Eve with words, planting ideas in her mind, re eating from the tree of Good and Evil. 

‘And the serpent said unto the woman (Eve), Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods (God), knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes (a desirable thing), and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons (girding coverings)’ (Gen. 3:4-7) 

And there we have it; the first words and ideas that changed the world, that brought sin and disobedience into the life of mankind! And I like how the scholars describe verse six, in terms of 1 John 2:16. ‘Good for food, appeals to appetite, or ‘lust of the flesh.’ ‘Pleasant to the eyes,’ turns us to the law against coveting in Ex. 20, showing as ‘lust of the eyes.’ And ‘to be desired to make one wise,’ according to the use of the verb ‘desired’ in Deut. 5 for coveting, appeals to ‘the pride of life.’ So that just set us on that path of lust and sinful desires. 

But there’s also another great example where words and actions wrought a substantive change to that first foolish and disobedient action of our forefathers. That’s the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God to sacrifice His sinless life so that man could be redeemed, be forgiven of his disgusting sins and disobedience and be once again reconciled to the Father. And how did Jesus put forward His plan to the people, with words and ideas, just like Satan did. And you’ll notice the amazing change in people when those words and ideas sank in. 

Then, when He followed them up with appropriate action…Wow! There was such an uprising of change and clamour like the world’s never seen before, and it’s been taking place down through the ages, even to this day! And in between, we’ve had all sorts of words and ideas that have changed our world, but none as big and lasting as those two. 

And this next quote also follows on nicely to the last. ‘What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.’ More gospel truth my people. What has happened to you, and what will happen to you in the future, depends to a great extent on what lies inside of you. If you have the evil spirit of Satan lurking and working within you, then most likely you will be bound for evil doings and eventual damnation and hellfire. However, if you have the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Ghost, dwelling within you, as all believers have, and you’re listening to His lead and guidance, then you will be able to accomplish marvellous things in this world. 

Why? Because the Spirit of Jesus dwelling within believers bears wonderful fruit. Fruit like, LOVE, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness and self-control! Now how can those marvelous things dwelling and growing within you not produce most excellent stuff eh? That brings us to this last quote, another interesting one. ‘Do not allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded. Tell them to put some sunglasses on.’ Now that’s putting it nicely! 

Yes, friends, when that fruit of the Spirit begins producing good stuff in us and in our actions, then others will become jealous, disgruntled, or some other negative reaction, because they don’t want to see us shine, especially if we’re shining for Jesus. But as the quote advises, tell them to get a grip, to put on some sunglass if your light is too bright for them, because that’s exactly what Jesus wants to see from His followers. Like He said: ‘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 with that exhortation ringing in our ears, my fellow saints, let’s get out there and SHINE! SHINE for Jesus! SHINE like we’ve never shone before! Our world desperately needs us to shine in these very depressing and destructive times! And Jesus is counting on us to do just that! Much LOVE!

…the darkness of the world…can only be overcome by…the blazing light of Christian LOVE… 

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8​