Today’s Scrip-Bit   27 November 2022 Exodus 34:6.

27 Nov 2022 Leave a comment

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

Exodus 34:6.        The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.

Sunday, oh Sunday! Time for God’s people to gather in praise and worship, to honour His day with thanksgiving for all that He’s done, is currently doing, and has promised to do for us! And all, with one accord said: ‘Praise the Lord for His goodness to the children of men.’ 

And that segues us right into our song of worship today, titled ‘The Goodness of God.’ It’s a song of praise to our good and faithful God, written by Jenn Johnson, one half of the worship duo Brian and Jenn Johnson. She claims that ‘the song was inspired by the process of adopting her fourth child, as she had been singing impromptu into her phone while driving on a long country road about the faithfulness and kindness of God. The song was then developed from the impromptu recording.’  

Now there have been many renditions of the song down through the years, most of them slow and soulful, but today we’re going to do a soulful but lively version a la Jenn Johnson and the Bethel Church, with plenty sincere exuberance and enthusiasm, as if we truly mean what we’re singing. So, lets’ get with the sacrificial praise to high heaven.  

‘I love You Lord Oh Your mercy never fails me And all my days I’ve been held in Your hands From the moment that I wake up Until I lay my head down, Oh I will sing of the goodness of God (Chorus: All my life You have been faithful And All my life You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, Oh I will sing of the goodness of God.) I LOVE your voice. You have led me through the fire. In my darkest night, you were close like no other. I’ve known you as a Father, I’ve known you as a friend, Oh I have lived, in the goodness of God. 

(Chorus: Yeahhh! And all my life You have been faithful…I will sing of the goodness of God) Yeah, yeah, it’s so good! Your goodness is running after, It’s running after me. Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me. With my life laid down, I’m surrendered now, I give you everything, cause your goodness is running after, It’s running after me. Oh cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me. With my life laid down, I’m surrendered now, I give you everything, cause your goodness is running after, It’s running after me. Your goodness is running after, it keeps running after me. 

And All my life You have been faithful And All my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able, Oh I’m going to sing, Oh I’m going to sing of the goodness of God. For all my life you have been faithful, all my life you have been so good. Oh you lead me in glory…ever-faithful, you are my anchor in the wind and the waves… you are my provider…Oh yeah…and you lead me in glory by your spirit…you are my joy…my joy…every day…Oh shepherd of my soul…what a joy to know you…Oh, the joy of knowing you God…you’re everything to me…so wonderful…so wonderful in all your ways…in all your ways. That’s why I will always sing of your goodness Lord…always sing of your goodness Lord.’  

And that’s exactly the way it ought to be my faithful brethren; be grateful for God’s amazing goodness, and continually let Him know it! And what’s this goodness, what’s it’s spiritual meaning? They say that ‘Goodness is action; it’s not something we do only for the sake of being virtuous. When we strive to be “good” only for our own benefit, it is not truly goodness that we possess. In Greek, the word goodness, “agathosune,” means “an uprightness of heart and life” And that’s the gospel truth! Jesus desires us to show goodness, or kindness to all we meet, ‘to be compassionate, understanding;  to care for others with a pure spirit; and to realize that true life only comes through Christ.’ 

That’s His basic agenda. And how do we experience the goodness of God? One commentary says: ‘It’s through the promises of God’s Word that we partake of His nature—a nature that is peace, abundance, healing, victory, guidance and protection. His promises are a pipeline that connects us with His nature. And His promises are exceedingly great and precious’ 

And that commentator referenced (2 Peter 1:3-4), which tells us: ‘According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.’ Yes friends, we experience God’s goodness through the many wonderful promises found in His Word. 

And James further tells us that ‘Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness (variation), neither shadow of turning.’ (James 1:17) Oh my people, ALL the good things we have in this life comes from and unchanging and ever-generous God! I like How Bruh David says it in Psalm 27: ‘I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.’ (Ps. 27:13) Can you imagine the terrible state we’d be in if the goodness of God wasn’t available in these turbulent and dangerous times? Hn! I don’t even want to think about it. 

That’s why the psalmist so avidly declares (yesss!!!) in Psalm 107: ‘Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness (LOVING-kindness), and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.’ (Ps. 107:8-9) And the Lord Himself spoke of His goodness when Moses went back up Mt. Sinai the second time to receive the Ten Commandants. He descended in a cloud and passed before Moses and proclaimed: ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.’ (Ex, 34:6) 

And we know our God does not lie, neither does Jesus Christ, thus His reply to the rich, young ruler who called Him ‘Good Master (Teacher)’ when enquiring how to obtain eternal life. Jesus said to him, ‘Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.’ (Mark 10:18) Now that’s something for us to chew on, to ponder this Sunday as we sincerely contemplate our relationship to our good God. Much LOVE!

…oh…give thanks unto the Lord…for he is good…for his mercy endureth for ever… (1 Chr. 16:34)  

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Today​’s Scrip-Bit 13 March 2019 Matthew 19:21.

13 Mar 2019 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 19:21.   ​Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be (want to be) perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
 
What did the man say? ‘Fight one more round…just one more round…before giving up!’ Ah friends, that’s exactly what the ole fella’s doing; fighting one more round, as in going into the big city of T.O. for another medical appointment, and that’s also why he’s up so early writing the Bit! Aren’t you proud of him? I know you are! (smile) 

Yeh, it’s a pain in the rear end to be always going into the city for these medical appointments, but the long and short of the story is that they are for my benefit, not the doctors. So if I don’t go, who’s going to suffer eh? They might not even make less money since there are oodles of people lining up to see them. 

And today, in this season of Lent, where we all aspire to get more spiritual, (smile) we’ll look at an interesting situation in Jesus’ time that still holds good even today, and possibly more so than ever. It all begins with this quote from Uncle John (John Hagee), which says: ‘Your spiritual strength is measured not by what you can believe, but in what you can obey.’ Living truth that my people! Believing is easy, but obeying cuts right to the quick of our sinful hearts and desires! 

And we have a great example of that in the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking about eternal life. The Good Book reports it thus: ‘And behold, one came and said unto him (Jesus), Good Master (Teacher), what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 

And he (Jesus) said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt (want to) enter into life, keep the commandments. He (the man) saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: And thou shalt LOVE thy neighbour as thyself.’ (Matt.19:16-19) 

Now that’s standard fare for us all, the basic dictates of the Ten Commandments that the Lord gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai, for the Israelites and all those who believed in Him to follow. And the Good Book continues: ‘The young man saith unto him (Jesus), All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? 

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be (want to be) perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.’ (Matt.19:20-22) 

Ah friends, yuh see what we talking about? Spiritual strength is so much more than just believing! That young rich ruler believed, but he just couldn’t obey. Selling his many possessions and then giving away the resultant funds to the poor was just too much for him to handle. And so it is for many of us in today’s very materialistic society. We believers who are supposed to be in the world but not of the world, are too often caught up in those same very materialistic situations like that young man of old. 

And the scholars offer this insightful explanation. ‘19:18-22. This list of commands in verse 18 centres on outward duties, rather than inward nature, which was the young man’s real problem. He protests that he had kept these outward demands. His luxurious wealth and self-righteousness had blinded him to his real weakness. To expose this, Jesus orders, go and sell all your possessions and give to the poor…and come…follow me (v.21). 

This he would not do and went away sorrowful. Jesus thus shows him that he had not kept the commandments at all. He LOVED himself more than he LOVED his neighbour (the poor), and he LOVED his possessions more than he LOVED God (“me”). This passage teaches the seriousness of true discipleship, but it in no way teaches the average man that he must sell his possessions in order to be a Christian.’  

No friends, the average Joe does not have to give away all his stuff, but I’m sure that we’d all agree that there is certainly too much poverty in our society, when overall there is immense prosperity. This therefore means that too few have too much, and too many have too little. Consequently there needs to be a touch of equalization, where some of us who have a lot, give to those who don’t have much. 

And that was the original purpose of the church; to help those in need, as we see from Acts 2:44-45. ‘And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted (distributed) them to all men, as every man had need.’ 

Yes friends, I know the church was much smaller then and they could do that kind of communal living, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the church today, meaning all of us believers, is definitely not as sympathetic and giving to the needy as Jesus would like us to be, because we are too attached to our earthly possessions. 

 Remember we are the hands and feet, the body of Jesus down here on earth, and whatever we do will reflect on Him. So for Jesus’ sake, my fellow believers, please, I implore us, let’s try and do better nuh. In this way, the world will have a much more accepting disposition to our Lord and Saviour and thus less souls will be lost to the enemy. 

Now let’s go home wailing our Wednesday Wail, telling all and sundry our sure-fire position in Christ. As one strong voice now: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! 

I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’ 

Now that’s a future that none of us should  want to miss! Much LOVE!

…getting is very dependent on giving…you’ll get…as you give…