The Urgent Need for Christians to Raise Their Level of Discipleship in this Evil and Ungodly World!

22 Sep 2025 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 5:13a, 14a.        Ye are the salt of the earth: Ye are the light of the world.

Another Monday…another new work week friends, and everything should be nice and clean after the thunder, lightning, and showers of heavenly blessings we received during the night. And did we ever need the rain, for it’s something we haven’t seen for almost a couple of weeks, what with all the unaccustomed warm, sunshiny weather we’ve been having in this month of September 2025. But I do have the feeling that things will soon return to normal, and the customary cooler and wetter weather at this time of year, will shortly assert itself.

However, be that as it may, even in the cold, wet, cloudy weather, we are still required to keep the fires of Christ burning hot and bright, and make a proactive, positive and productive difference in these uncertain and ungodly times. And right now, when faith is being besieged by evil, and many of us are having a hard time to simply hold on, much less to grow in spiritual maturity, we do need a reminder of that most salient fact.

It’s like Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount. ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost its savour (flavour), wherewith (by what) shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’ (Matt. 5:13) And sadly friends, in these disastrous and strife-filled times, it would certainly seem that Christ’s people have lost their salt, their salty flavour, since we’re not making much of a positive difference in the world today.

And I like how the scholars explain that verse. They say: ‘Again the phrase “ye are” indicates that only the genuinely born-again person is salt and can help meet the needs of the world. Salt adds flavouring, acts as a preservative, melts coldness, and heals wounds. Thus, it is a very appropriate description of the believer in his relationship to the world in which he lives.’

The question now is whether we can genuinely say that we are living up to those important responsibilities of helping our world, of helping the lost and blind find life and light in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? And if we are truthful, we would have to say that we are indeed NOT living up to our responsibilities, that’s why so many still don’t know about Christ, and many who do know about Him, refuse to accept Him.

And if being the salty, mouthwatering, wanting more flavour of the world wasn’t enough, then listen to what Jesus also says of His loyal followers. ‘Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle (a lamp), and put it under a bushel (basket), but on a candlestick (lampstand); and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ (Matt. 5:14-16)

Now that’s another aspect of our discipleship of Christ; letting our lights shine brightly so that others can see it and come to know, understand and worship our great God Jehovah! That makes it necessary for us to again ask the question, are we shining our lights sufficiently to make, not even a big difference, but simply a recognizable one, in our needy and dysfunctional world? And sadly, again, if we are truthful, we would have to say NO, we are not making a worthwhile difference in the world, otherwise it would not be currently overrun with evil and evildoers!

And what do the scholars say about those verses? ‘Ye are the light of the world describes the essential mission of the Christian to the world. He is the condition (salt) to meet the world’s needs, and he has a mission (light) to the world. His light is to clearly shine forth into the darkness of human depravity. He is to set his light upon a candlestick, not hide it under a bushel, that is, a basket. Darkness is the absence of light; and darkness alone cannot dispel the light, but the smallest light can dispel the greatest darkness.’

That means we don’t have to go overboard with either our salt or light, but simply have our saltshakers constantly sprinkling our salty flavour, and our lights also constantly shining to light up the world’s darkness. It cannot happen overnight, but persistence and perseverance are the keys to unlocking those closed doors behind which all kinds of evil and darkness lurk. So please, let’s try and do better nuh. We all know that we have much room for improvement, and right now we are not doing a commendable job as followers of Jesus.

And to help us get things turned around, let’s go to the throne of grace, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, seeking divine aid for our lackadaisical discipleship! Altogether: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You this Monday morning for life and strong faith in Christ, despite the mass confusion in our world. Heavenly Father, You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems. 

Yes, we have all sinned and seriously disobeyed Your Word, but You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, who has faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. So, we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading for wise guidance and direction to alleviate our problems. 

Oh Father, please ease the pain of the many suffering from negative situations, show them Your awesome grace and mercy. And faithfully keep Your promise to prosper us if we turn from our evil ways. Show this evil world that You are indeed Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals! We pray this in the holy and blessed name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen! And again, we say: Amen!’ 

And our prayer shows us some important aspects that need improving before we can receive divine aid; like praying, humbling ourselves, sincerely seeking God’s face and turning from our evil ways. Those are only some of the things we need to do friends to recover our salty flavour, and clean our lampshades, so that bright light can emanate from them again! Much LOVE!

…Jesus’ followers…must take discipleship much more seriously…than they are currently doing… 

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit 5 June 2021 Matthew 28:19.

05 Jun 2021 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 28:19.     ‘Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

It’s a bright but cool Saturday morning with a strong breeze blowing through my area, however the weather people have issued a heat warning for today and the next few ahead. Temps are supposed to get up into the thirties. Bubba! Like the heatwave has begun…and so has the lively human activity on the streets, despite the lockdown is still mostly in place. 

People are walking without much on, cars and motorbikes are constantly revving up with their loud mufflers, unnecessarily disturbing the peace of the neighbourhood. At one stage in the early morning hours, I could swear that I heard car noises that indicated road racing not too far away from my house. But I guess that is all a part of the summertime activity. (smile) 

Anyway, let’s get down to our Saturday business, that of checking out the quotes our friend Anselm sent us this past week, as he aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. And the first one says: ‘I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.’ And that is the gospel truth my people, because things are so terrible now that if they don’t change, and change for the better, then God help us all yes! 

I don’t know if our world has ever been in such a controversial and strife filled state, even with all the supposed enlightened advancements we’ve made in our day. And unless it improves soon, implosion will be the obvious result, since we already have explosion with all the active volcanoes around. (smile) That brings us to this next quote: ‘Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.’ 

Ah mih people, so many of us have big dreams, desires and plans to change the world, but it’s not an easy task, and though our motivation is admirable, sometimes we just have to wise up and realize that the more important cause is to change our life. And ofttimes the sequence is changing ourselves before we try changing the world, because so many of us need changes in our lives before we can think about changing anyone else. 

And that’s where the following quote becomes important. ‘Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.’ Now that is wisdom in spades my brethren! And the most important change we can ever need or have in our lives is receiving Christ Jesus as our Lord and Saviour! And if you haven’t done that yet, then you better had hurry up and do it today, right now, because Christ can come back any time, even today, and if you don’t have Him as the light of your life then you are going to end up in eternal damnation with Satan and all his wicked minions! 

Now is that the life you want to live after your physical bodies dies? I don’t think so. That means you must make the biggest decision of your earthly life right now, because it will affect where you spend eternity. Remember Jesus’ wise words: ‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and LOVE the other; or else he will hold (be loyal) to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ (Matt. 6:24) 

That’s the awesome truth friends: you cannot serve Almighty God and at the same time immerse yourself in accumulating the riches of the world. As the old people would say; is either one or the other. The beautiful fact is that you can get earthly wealth from God, if He so desires to bless you, but there’s no way to get God from earthly wealth! 

And so we come to this quote: ‘True life is lived when tiny changes occur.’ I don’t think that is completely true, because many of us need big changes in our lives if we are ever to get on the right track. But it is important that we make small adjustments over time, and that we do acknowledge their benefits in the betterment of our everyday circumstances. And I believe that’s one area in which a lot of believers are weak. We all look for the big miracles in our lives, which are usually few and far between, but we never pay attention to the many small miracles that the Lord performs in our lives each day that we are alive. 

Now that possibly derives from the fact that many of us don’t believe that the Lord is interested in the small, mundane things in our lives, and there is nothing further from the truth than that! Our God is actively interested in EVERY aspect of our lives, from the biggest to the smallest. He wants to get thoroughly involved in our business. 

And that’s exactly what many of us are afraid of. (smile) Some areas are okay, but not others. But friends, don’t you think that He knows the parts that we are trying to hide from Him? He certainly does, because He is omniscient, He knows everything. So trying to hide stuff from Him is pure foolishness. What He wants is for you to bring everything to Him in sincere prayer, be it good or bad. If you don’t take it to Him, then He can’t help you. 

And I believe that this last quote is the way to go. ‘I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.’ Yes friends, changing the world by ourselves is rather difficult, if not impossible, but spreading our diligent efforts across several areas, or even one area, can cause small, but important differences to be made. You’ll notice that’s how Jesus did it. He alone came down from heaven, and being in fashion as a man, He couldn’t go very far to spread His Word. So he got a few men together and taught them what He wanted them to teach others. 

Thus some of His last words to them. ‘Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ (Matt. 28:19-20) Then they did what he asked; went out and recruited others, and those others did the same, until now, two thousand years later, the Word of God has been spread over most of His universe, just like He desired. 

Strangely enough, speaking of it like that makes it resemble a pyramid scheme that’s become so prevalent and heartbreaking today, when used for evil purposes. But we all know that Jesus’ words were not designed for evil or heartbreak, but to give us a sincere hope and an eternal future with Him in heaven. 

And you know what, right here, we have two good examples of casting a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Yes, brother Anselm’s sending quotes to us, and then my sending them to others through the Bit, that’s certainly a method of casting a stone across the waters, hoping to create many ripples. And I do hope that we are successful in our small way, making a difference, by bringing hope and faith, as well as the peace and LOVE of Jesus to someone who needs it this Saturday morning! And it’s in Jesus’ name we pray! Much LOVE!

…changes…big or small…are of no use…unless Christ is involved in them…                                                            

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit 12 July 2018 Lamentations 3:22-23.

12 Jul 2018 Leave a comment

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

Lamentations 3:22-23.   It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Ah friends, I thought when one went to bed, one was supposed to wake up feeling fresh and strong and revitalized? So why is it when I get up these days I’m tired and full of more pain than when I went to bed eh? Does that only happen to me? Chuh! It just defeats the purpose of going to bed. (smile) 

And I really don’t want to have to continually be taking painkillers, because they cause their own set of problems. So we’ll just have to grin and bear it and move along as best we can with the Lord’s help and daily compassion. Oh yes, it’s still compassion time! That’s the Lord’s decree, not mine! 

And Jeremiah said it best: ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.’ 

Ah mih breddren, I don’t know about you all nuh, but right now I’m waiting for some of that new compassion and mercy to kick in in my life, especially my ole bod, that will enable me to go about doing the Lord’s work with definitely more strength and enthusiasm than I now feel. But enough about me, let’s turn to the scriptures.  

And hear this first scripture for today on compassion. It deals with Jesus healing two blind men. As Jesus passed by, they cried out to Him; ‘Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And the multitude rebuked them (told them to keep quiet), because they should hold their peace; but they cried out the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. 

And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.’ (Matt.20:30-34) 

Oh what a wonderful person is our Jesus! And friends, yuh see there another essential trait of Jesus: He was never too busy to stop and help others. It’s something that we modern day believers ought to acquire too. We claim we’re so busy nowadays, but half the time we’re busy doing nothing, or busy doing inconsequential stuff when more important stuff is there to be done. 

Now listen to Jude, Jesus’ half brother on the subject. ‘But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying by the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the LOVE of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference (distinction) And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted (defiled) by the flesh.’ (Jude 20-23) 

And the scholars offer these explanations on those verses. ’20. The antidote for error is not simply to pull back from wrong but also to be built up in what is right, especially through clinging to God in prayer.’ 

’21. Here Jude stresses our role in being kept. In verse 1 he has already used a form of the same word ‘preserved’, most likely to denote God’s own role and ability in “keeping” His children in His grasp. Jude expects a literal return of Jesus.’ 

’22-23. An important factor in keeping one’s own faith active and vibrant is exercising it serving others. Even where there is danger or extreme immorality involved, God call on believers to mediate His LOVE for the fallen and share the gospel with the lost.’ 

Hope those explanations are helpful in understanding Jude’s words. And isn’t it interesting how Jesus’ two brothers, James and Jude did not believe Him while He was here on earth, but became faithful believers after He left. I guess that’s a most pertinent example of God’s saying through Zechariah: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.’ (Zech.4:6b) 

And this last scripture on compassion comes from Peter, as he talks about the behaviour of wives and husbands. ‘Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, LOVE as brethren, be pitiful (tenderhearted), be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing (reviling) for railing (reviling): but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.’ (1 Pet.3:8-9) 

Yeh friends, it’s all about living in understanding, compassion and brotherly LOVE; not returning evil for evil, but rather consuming evil with good as God desires of us, knowing that in so doing, we will be well rewarded in due course of time. 

And yuh know what, the Lord hasn’t even waited till heaven comes to reward us, He’s had great compassion on us right down here on earth through the wonderful blessings that He’s already bestowed on us in our Thursday Blessings. Let’s declare them now in strong voice and sincere hearts. 

‘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 everyday! Amen!’ 

Yes mih people, ALL those blessings are ours, we just have to receive them, then go out and share them with others. That’s why they were given to us. Much LOVE!

…unless we show true compassion…we cannot be considered true believers…