The Overwhelming Importance of Christians Understanding How Badly We Need Heaven’s Help in This Evil and Ungodly World!

20 Sep 2026 Leave a comment

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   20 September 2026   Matthew 5:7 & 9.

Matthew 5:7 & 9.        Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy … Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

One more Sunday friends, which means one more trip to God’s house to celebrate His day with our fellow saints! There’s nothing better than when the saints get together and begin to sing and worship and praise and give thanks to our most wonderful God; He of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! So, let’s get right to our song of worship for today, a very appropriate song for today’s tough and uncertain times. It’s a song composed by Ron Miller in 1970 titled ‘Heaven Help Us All,’ and first performed by Stevie Wonder in an earthy, gospel infused manner. 

And yuh better believe in these days of much woe and oppression, we certainly need heaven’s help to keep us going strong. Therefore, let’s offer up our sweet sacrifices of praise in a soulful, heartfelt, mid-tempo, version of the song as performed by Ray Charles and Gldys Knight. Singing: ‘Heaven help the child who never had a home Heaven help the girl who walks the street alone And Heaven help the roses if the bombs begin to fall Lord, won’t you help us all? Heaven help the black man if he struggles one more day Heaven help the white man if he turns his back away Heaven help the man who kicks the man who has to crawl Heaven help us all.

(Chorus: Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all, help us all Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call) Oh, yeah Heaven help the boy who won’t reach twenty-one And Heaven help the man who gave that child a gun And Heaven help the people with their backs against the wall Lord, won’t you help us all? (Chorus: Heaven help us all…when we call) Gladys’ – monologue: ‘I want everybody within the sound of my voice this evening to fall down on their knees and say a prayer; asking for His guidance, His grace, His mercy.

You might want to say: Lord, Lord, Lord, have mercy! Now I lay me down before I go to sleep In a troubled world, I pray the Lord, the Lord to keep. Keep hatred from the mighty and the mighty from the small Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all, help us all Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call. We need You Jesus so won’t you hear us when we call. We can’t do without You, so please hear us when we call. Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all, help us all Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call. Heaven help us all…’

Ah friends that was wonderful, but it’s such a sad heartbreaking song, and although it was written some fifty-six years ago, it’s still ever pertinent to today’s confused, warlike, angry and oppressive world. Just listen to the opening sentiments about a child who never had a home, and a girl who walks the street alone, and unfortunately, there are still way too many of those who fall into those categories in this wealthy and highly informed society.

No other generation has ever been as rich and well educated, with unimagined levels of technology and education, yet the majority of the world’s population still lives in terrible poverty, while a small percentage holds most of the world’s wealth and live like kings, or even better than kings. It’s been said that one percent of the population owns 99 percent of the wealth, while the other 99 percent of the population, only own one percent of the wealth. And in these very inequitable times, it’s not hard to believe those figures.

Then the next cry from the song is one that’s being heard all around the world: ‘ Heaven help the roses if the bombs begin to fall.’ And yuh better believe that bombs are falling all over our world, for there’s more warfare today than peace. Bombs are falling in places like Russia, the Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Gaza, Sudan and places too numerous to mention. In some of these places the bombs have been falling for so long that there’s no time nor place for roses to grow.

And the racial hatred is still going on; in fact, it’s getting more blatant every day. The minorities are being sadly oppressed, often kicked and made to crawl, while the majority looks the other way. And yuh know what, a lot of this ‘sufferation’ is going on right under the noses of Christ’s church. In some cases, the church is also a part of the oppression, instead of being a part of the solution as it was meant to be. Tell me nuh, whatever happened to Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount eh? ‘Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.’ (Matt. 5:7 & 9)

What’s happening in our world? Are there so many more powerful and wealthy, unmerciful warmongers than wealthy, merciful, peace LOVERS? I don’t know nuh. But I do know that Christ’s church is supposed to help the poor, sick and suffering, and the church as a whole is wealthy enough to do much more than we’re currently doing. However, that old problem of division and disunity will never allow Christ’s church to function the way it’s supposed to function. And Satan and his evil cronies are just laughing all the way to the top, because Christ’s people cannot get together and do what they ought to do.

And what about LOVING our enemies eh? Jesus was very explicit about it: ‘But I say unto you, LOVE your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully (spitefully) use you: That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.’ (Matt. 5:44-45)

And what about forgiveness eh? We pray it every day: ‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’ (Matt. 6:12) But Jesus added a most important footnote to that prayer. ‘For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.’ (Matt. 6:14-15) That’s very clear my people! But sadly, if you look around our world today, you won’t see a whole lot of forgiveness and LOVING of enemies going on. No sir!

You’ll possibly see and hear more of this: ‘Heaven help the boy who won’t reach twenty-one And Heaven help the man who gave that child a gun.’ Yes friends, that’s happening right in our own backyard! It seems that there are adults who are giving guns to minors to do their dirty work for them, and minors who are ever so glad to do it for a small sum of money. What does that say about the children we’re raising today eh?

I don’t know all the answers nuh, but I know this one: until and unless Christ’s church gets together, throwing aside all the petty differences and the religious sentiments that separate us into denominations, cliques, etc. etc. the awful situation in our world will never improve, for Christ is depending on His church to turn things around. Much LOVE!

…a church divided…can never win a war… 

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   13 February 2022 Exodus 20:3.

13 Feb 2022 Leave a comment

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

Exodus 20:3.     Thou shalt have no other gods before me… ​

It’s another cold, cold Sunday! But what do we expect eh? It’s the middle of winter, so it ought to be cold. (smile) The problem is that over the last few years we’ve been spoiled with comparatively mild winters, and that’s what we now expect to be the norm. But Mother Nature has other ideas, and now that she’s turned up the heat (smile) or rather turned down the cold, we can’t handle it and are complaining like the soft, entitled, whiny specimens we’ve become. But please remember friends, we are true believers in Jesus, the Saviour of the world, a li’l cold weather shouldn’t stop us from congregating on the Lord’s Day, where possible, or joining in worship by technological means where it’s not. 

So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s opening song. It’s something we all know; a soulful, gospel infused song, composed by Ron Miller and first recorded by Stevie Wonder, way back in 1970. It’s appropriately titled ‘Heaven Help Us All.’ And do we ever need heaven’s help just as badly right now, as we needed it then, because our world is in a terrible mess, with serious conflagration ever so possible, as everyone’s geared up for a worldwide conflict during this time of serious pandemic. So let’s offer up our sacrifice of praise, singing the Ray Charles and Gladys Knight version; that’s a mid-tempo, soulful, sincere plea for help, with plenty sweet background vocals. 

‘Heaven help the boy who never had a home Heaven help the girl who walks the street alone And Heaven help the roses if the bombs begin to fall Lord, won’t you help us all? Heaven help the black man if he struggles one more day Heaven help the white man if he turns his back away Heaven help the man who kicks the man who has to crawl Heaven help us all. (Chorus: Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all, help us all Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call) Oh, yeah Heaven help the boy who won’t reach twenty-one And Heaven help the man who gave that child a gun And Heaven help the people with their backs against the wall Lord, won’t you help us all? 

(Chorus: Heaven help us all…when we call) Gladys – monologue: “I want everybody within the sound of my voice this evening to fall down on their knees and say a prayer; asking for His guidance, His grace, His mercy. You might want to say: Lord, Lord, Lord, have mercy!” Now I lay me down before I go to sleep In a troubled world, I pray the Lord, the Lord to keep Keep hatred from the mighty and the mighty from the small. Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all, help us all Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call. We need You Jesus so won’t you hear us when we call. We can’t do without You, so please hear us when we call. Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all, help us all Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we call.’ 

Yes friends, our world is once again at the edge of the precipice like it was back when the song was written some fifty years ago. We survived then, but who knows if we will right now, because the problems are so many and people are so angry and divided and willing to do almost anything to project their cause…anything but serious talk and a li’l compromise. And the only thing I can compare it to, is one of the two great prayer situations in the Good Book, when Nehemiah and Daniel prayed for their people Israel when they were held captive in Babylon, for their safety and the reconstruction of Jerusalem that was in shambles.

 It’s only sincere prayer and repentance of that magnitude that will keep us from going over the edge of the yawning precipice. Today we’ll look at Daniel’s prayer, where he wrote. ‘And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful (awesome) God, keeping the covenant and mercy (LOVING-kindness) to them that LOVE him, and to them that keep the commandments. 

We have sinned and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judgements. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land…O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face (shame), to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him.’ (Dan. 9:3-6, 8-9) 

Oh my fellow believers, it’s the same things that have brought us to this untenable situation in which our world is currently mired; rebellion against Almighty God and a stubborn refusal to keep His commandments, despite the prodding of His prophets and even His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. It seems like we have forgotten, or simply ignored the first commandment the Lord gave to Israel, and consequently to all the earth. ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me… For I the Lord thy God is a jealous God, visiting (punishing) the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. (Ex. 20:3, 5b) 

Now what is difficult to understand in those clear and precise statements eh? And as the scholars so simply and plainly explain. ‘Thus the first commandment teaches that no deity, real or imagined, is to rival the one true God, who is the only One who matters. It demands an exclusive covenant relationship with Yahweh (cf. Ps. 81:9-10).’ And we know friends, that neither our God or His word changes, He’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Furthermore, we’ve seen plenty evidence down through the years of the Lord punishing people for disobedience and rebellion, while rewarding them for steadfastness in His name. 

However, even after the Lord sent His Son Jesus Christ to be sacrificed on the cross at Calvary for our abominable sins, we still continue to rebel, be disobedient, worship other gods, even to the extent of trying to remove Jehovah from our society. What utter foolishness and stupidity! That’s NEVER going to happen! 

But we’ve become so enamoured of Satan and his disgusting lies and deceptions that we keep doing his evil bidding, even to our detriment. And yet we wonder why our world is in such a chaotic state. But that’s the nature of the enemy; to create chaos and confusion. And unfortunately, though so many of us claim to sincerely believe in Jesus, we can’t seem to fathom that and move away from Satan’s evil work. 

And I like this later verse in Daniel’s prayer, because he tells it like it is. ‘Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil (kept the disaster in store) and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous, in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.’ (Dan. 9:14) That says it all my people! And it’s not like we haven’t heard it a million times, but for some unknown, ungodly reason, many of us still choose not to believe it. And now we are paying the price. 

Now, the Lord might not be actively causing our problems, but He’s certainly not intervening to help us with them. Like we want, He’s allowing us to handle our lives on our own. And it’s oh so obvious that we cannot do it properly, therefore we are now suffering the consequences. And until we sincerely and wholeheartedly return to God’s fold, our problems will always be more than we can handle. That’s the long and short of the story! Much LOVE!

…I am the Lord…that is my name…and my glory…will I not give to another…neither my praise to graven images… (Is. 42:8) 

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