Today’s Scrip-Bit 27 June 2014 Ephesians 5:21

27 Jun 2014 Leave a comment

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

Ephesians 5:21.   Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
 
‘Friday, oh Friday! How I LOVE that day! Friday, oh Friday! The weekend’s coming my way! Oh thank God it’s Friday! And I’m feeling okay! Friday, oh Friday! How I LOVE that day…’
 
Ah Friends, the amount of little ditties we can make up to celebrate Fridays eh. And rightly so, because Friday is a day when we finally see some daylight at the end of the work-week tunnel and envision a wonderful weekend of pleasure.
 
But please remember that the weekend is not only for pleasure, but should also include rest and fellowship with other believers. So let’s chant our Friday Chant, which gives us a better perspective on how to handle the weekend.
 
As one now: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through another week of work! It hasn’t been easy, but with your generous help, I made it through.
 
Now, please help me to get sufficient fun, fellowship, rest and relaxation in these two short days off, so that I can be renewed and refreshed in soul, body and mind, to go back out and do it all over again next week, furthering your glorious kingdom with each step I take. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.’
 
Now that’s more like it! (smile) And today we’ll continue looking at our simple sounding, but oh so important Bit: ‘Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.’
 
And why is it so important? Because it deals with harmony, unity, like-mindedness, goals and values that please God, in His church. And right now there’s certainly not enough of that in the body of Christ.
 
Christianity is way too fractured, and thus dysfunctional to the serious work it’s called upon to do. In too many churches, regardless of religion or denomination, the congregations are divided in to cliques resentful of, and sometimes outright warring against each other.
 
Bruh Paul saw it happening even in the young churches he founded and strenuously pointed out the error to them. Here is what he said to the Galatians on the matter. ‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
 
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’ (Gal.5:16-18)
 
Basically, he’s saying that ‘the flesh seeks to thwart the Spirit, who in turn attempts to frustrate the flesh’s evil desires…. The Spirit-led person is not under the law. The Christian does not need the restraints of the law because his moral life is governed by the Spirit.’
 
And then Bruh Paul goes on to list the works of the flesh (Gal.5:19-21)…’and they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness (kindness), goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance (self-control): against such there is no law.
 
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections (its passions) and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory (conceited), provoking one another, envying one another.’ (Gal.5:21b-26)
 
Yes Friends, as true believers, the Holy Spirit ought to lead us to produce fruit that is harmonious, united and uplifting to God’s church. But unfortunately too many of us have not sufficiently crucified our flesh, and thus worldly lusts like vanity, envy, resentment and spitefulness still characterize Christ’s church today. What an awful shame!
 
Meanwhile, Peter, who also recognizes the problem, puts it this way. ‘Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
 
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
 
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in (experienced by) your brethren that are in the world.
 
But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish (confirm), strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.’ (1 Pet.5:5-11)
 
Oh Friends, I couldn’t say it any better! And my wish for all of us today, is that we walk carefully, recognizing that Beelzebub is constantly circling, like the vulture that he is, that we stand strong and steadfast, yet humble and reverent before Almighty God, living in harmony and unity, thus bringing untold glory to His Holy Name. Much LOVE!
 
…unity and harmony between God’s people…will not come simply by wishing it…but by diligently working together to make it happen…

 

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 4 June 2012 Acts 1:5

04 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Inspirational Living Tags: , , , , , , ,

Acts 1:5.     For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
 
Oh Friends, it’s Monday; back to labouring for massa’s crumbs! And don’t fool yuhself, if he has his way, we’ll soon be labouring for crumbs! But hopefully we’ve used the weekend wisely, so now we’re ready, set and able to go out into Lucifer’s cruel, evil world and give him heck. And to further boost our enthusiasm and strength of purpose, let’s proudly sing our Monday Morning Battle Hymn with much gusto! All together now: ‘Oh Lord God Almighty, Creator of the universe and all therein! We, your humble servants, praise your Holy Name and thank you that this Monday morning we have jobs to go to; jobs we don’t like, jobs that are unfair, difficult and even dangerous, but which serve a useful purpose here on earth; keeping lives and families together. We also thank you Father for the renewed vitality and enthusiasm you’ve wrought in our weary souls over the last two days. It’s that rejuvenation of Spirit which allows us now to sally forth with confidence into the evil, ungodly world that surrounds us, to begin a new week of work, constantly buffeted and bombarded by the enemy’s wicked taunts, wiles and lies. But heavenly Father, we’re not afraid, for we know we’re invincible, sure conquerors, once we’re wearing your powerful, protective spiritual armour. We surrender our all to you, and humbly ask that you let your incredible aura of LOVE, the Holy Spirit, lead and guide all your servants as we go out to meet the enemy in battle. Fill us with steadfast faith, so that we can make worthwhile inroads into the enemy’s ranks, and thereby further your glorious kingdom. We pray this in the Holy Name of your Son, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. AMEN!’ And now for the last time, (smile) let’s turn to our wonderful Bit; prophetically promised by Christ, then so amazingly fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, and since then, down through the ages, in each new believer, in so many different ways. ‘For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.’ And in Bruh Paul’s case, none more mysterious and miraculous, who, after being a serious persecutor of the early Christians, through the intervention of Christ’s Spirit, became the most famous, zealous and expert authority on the subject. Though, as the scholars point out, he was commissioned to work in Christ’s name by a God-appointed disciple, Ananias (Acts 9:15-17), by contrast, his apostolic authority did come directly from Christ, not by succession through one of the apostles. As he says at the beginning of Galatians: ‘Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.)’ (Gal.1:1) Unlike the other apostles, he received his call from the resurrected, glorified and exalted Jesus. Wow! Yes Friends, in Bruh Paul we certainly see the amazing and mysterious workings of our God. He didn’t know Jesus in the flesh, but yet wrote most of the New Covenant (Testament) that Jesus made with man. How? Through the workings of the Spirit, revealing God’s desire and intent to him. It’s amazing that he preached and wrote about the workings of the Spirit more than all the other apostles, even those who personally walked with Christ on earth. He certainly impacted the lives of the Gentiles, to whom he was commissioned to preach the gospel, with the importance of the Spirit. Today, I just want to highlight some of his extraordinary, but oh so truthful remarks on the ways of the Holy Spirit. And we’ll begin with when he talks about ministers in the New Testament to the Corinthians. ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able (sufficient as) ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.’ (2 Cor.3:5-6) He’s talking here about the difference between the external ways of the Old Testament, as opposed to the internal approach of the New. Bruh Paul bombards both the Galatians and the Ephesians with much talk on the Spirit, but unfortunately we only have time and space for a few of the more famous ones. In Galatians it’s Chapter 5, re walking in the Spirit: ‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’ (Gal.5:16-18) Then there’s oft the quoted one later on in the same chapter. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness (kindness), goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance (self-control): against such there is no law…If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory (conceited), provoking one another, envying one another.’ (Gal.5:22-23, 25-26) And the last one from Galatians: ‘For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.’ (Gal.6:8) From Ephesians comes first a prayer for inner growth: ‘That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.’ (Eph.3:16)  And re the armour of God; ‘And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.’ (Eph.6:18) And in Colossians, re false teaching he reminds them: ‘For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your (good) order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.’ (Col.2:5) Oh Friends, Bruh Paul talks about the Spirit so much in his writings, that you’ll have to look up the Concordance of your Bible to see them all. However, we’ll end this series of messages on the Holy Spirit with a rather appropriate reminder from Ephesians: ‘And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess (dissipation); but be filled with the Spirit.’ (Eph.5:18) Yes my people, if we have to be filled with, be under the influence or controlled by anything, please let it be the Holy Spirit of Jesus which will leads us aright. And in closing, I sincerely hope that our conversations on the Spirit have been useful, have increased our knowledge and will benefit us immensely in the future. Much LOVE!…remember…it’s the Spirit…the worker bee of the Holy Trinity…that’s been commissioned to lead and guide all believers…but He can’t do it without your conscious permission…