Today’s Scrip-Bit 28 August 2020 Ecclesiastes 9:16.

28 Aug 2020 Leave a comment

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

Ecclesiastes 9:16.     ​Then said I, wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

Welcome to another day of celebration friends; another day of excitement, adventure and purpose on God’s great earth as we set out to do His awesome will! And is that ever a marvellous thing, because we don’t know what’s in store for us, but we are assured that whatever it is, God will make it all good eventually! That’s His promise, and He is ever-faithful to keep them. And remember today is Friday, the day we let our hair down in preparation for the weekend. (smile) 

So let’s see what the ordinary workingman has to offer us today nuh. And he seems to be getting His energy and zest for living back after the long Covid-19 lockdown, for he declares (steups!) with great enthusiasm: ‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday at last, and the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and all’s right with my world, or as right as it can be under the circumstances! (smile) Well we still have to be careful with this Corona virus thing, but it’s not as bad as it was before with the reopening of plenty places, and above all, people not behaving as stupid as they did in the beginning, finally realizing the deadliness of the virus and how we have to be ever so careful in dealing with it. 

And yes, I know that it still have the odd ones who going to behave foolish, and those who still believe that is all fake and the numbers are boosted to make it look bad, but the fact of the matter is that people still dying from it, and once that is happening, yuh have to pay attention to yuh lifestyle. I guess that’s what they calling the new normal… Hn! And I really can’t complain too much nuh, because ah working, mih children healthy, mih wife not as stressed out as before… 

But ah don’t know bout this school business though, with li’l children wearing mask whole day, and so many a them in li’l cubby hole classrooms with no proper ventilation… I guess school’s important, but look how many days we break beach, played hooky from school, and we still turn out okay. (smile) Don’t see why the rush to send them back to school when they know it not safe nuh. But we’ll see how it turns out. Till then we have to give thanks to God for Fridays and the weekends oui!’ 

Ah mih people, as always, the ordinary workingman raises some good points, but who’s going to listen to him eh? As Cousin Sol said so long ago in Ecclesiastes: ‘There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks (barriers, siege works) against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.’ (Eccl. 9:14-16) 

And that’s the gospel truth! The wisdom of the poor man is seldom considered important; that is if it’s ever thought that poor people can be wise. But we all know better than that eh my brethren. And there’s no better example of the poor being despised re wisdom than Jesus’ appearance and teaching in his own hometown of Nazareth. (Mark 6:2-3) When he began to teach in the temple they were astonished at His wisdom, wondering how the simple carpenter boy from their town got so wise. ‘And they were offended at him.’ 

Imagine that nuh. But it happens all the time, all over the world. As Jesus so wisely said to them. ‘A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin (relatives), and in his own house.’ (Mark 6:4.) And because of their offense and disbelief, Jesus was unable to do any mighty work in His own home town. (Mark 6: 5-6) How sad! 

That brings us back to Cousin Sol in Ecclesiastes. Hear these awesome words on wisdom. ‘For wisdom is a defense (shade, shadow), and money is a defense: but the excellency (advantage) of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.’ (Eccl. 7:12) Mama Yo! What wisdom! (smile) And it’s the gospel truth! Wisdom offers something to its holder that money or any other material substance cannot. That’s why Cousin Sol said in Proverbs that ‘Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.’ (Prov. 4:7) 

Oh my people, wisdom should be the number one thing we seek after in this earthly life. And what’s so wonderful about wisdom is that it comes from God, as James says: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not (without reproach); and it shall be given to Him. But you have to ask in faith, not wavering.’ (James 1:4-5)  That means, to truly seek wisdom, you have to truly seek God, and that’s our raison d’etre, our reason for being here on earth; to seek Him, to LOVE and adore and worship Him, our God and our Creator. 

So let’s go to Him now seeking wisdom nuh; wisdom to handle all the difficulties we’re now engulfed in. Let’s chant our Friday Chant. All together now, with sincere hearts. ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. Yuh know it’s been rough… what with all the anxiety, the confusion and havoc that the Covid-19 virus and the racial strife causing. We not accustomed to that kind of life Lord, and it really telling on us. And we know we can’t handle it on our own, that we desperately need your help. 

Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat both the virus and the unrest in our streets. So Lord, we sincerely ask you today to give the governments and those involved in the forefront of this serious and unexpected storm, the sure and wise guidance to handle the situation properly, with the least amount of loss to life and property as possible. And please help those of us who must go out to work amidst all the confusion, to be responsible and to stay safe, so that we can avoid any more serious setbacks. 

And Lord, we fervently pray that You’ll use this situation to also bring a lot of backsliders back to your fold, show them the error of their ways. It’s also a good opportunity to introduce a whole new flock, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion because of the way we, your faithful believers, handle the situation. Yes Lord, please use this pandemic and the unrest in the streets as a means of restoring faith in You, so that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’ 

Now let’s go out and handle the situation like we promised – like real faithful believers! Much LOVE!

…money can’t buy you wisdom…but wisdom will help you make money… 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 13 July 2019 Matthew 13:57.

13 Jul 2019 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 13:57.    ​A prophet is not without honour, save (except) in his own country, and in his own house.
 

Oh my people, you’ll notice that the Bit is rather early today. (smile) That’s because I went to bed fairly early last night, slept through the night and got up early this morning! Brother! No fun in that at all. (smile) Neither was there any fun in what was supposed to be my last radiation treatment yesterday…

Steups! What a fiasco! Especially since I had a whole entourage (smile) (3 people) there to witness and record the end circumstances for posterity. Chuh man! But I guess it just wasn’t in the Lord’s plan for me yesterday, possibly because I was too vociferous and boastful early on in the Bit. Who knows? 

But everything that could go wrong went wrong; with both bowels and bladder, so we had to cancel the last treatment until Monday. But what yuh going to do eh? If that’s the Lord’s will, then you just have to grin and bear it. Anyway, it’s Saturday, so let’s turn to the quotes that our friend Anselm sent us this week, as he aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. 

And the first one says: ‘Don’t find the fault, find the remedy.’ Now I’m going to play the devil’s advocate here (smile) by asking, if there’s no fault, then how can there be a remedy eh? But most likely he means that so many of us like to complain and find fault, that instead of always focusing on the problem, we should more often focus on the solution to the problem. 

And that’s the gospel truth, especially in this feeble and fragile world of today that’s littered with more complaints than anything else. We complain about everything, find fault with everything, and are never satisfied, even when we get what we asked for. But that’s just the world eh friends, not we believers in Christ…Hn! I wish! 

Now the next one is similar to the first: ‘The goal of an effective leader is to recondition your team, to be solution focused and not problem focused.’ The same thing applies here, except to leaders. They must be focused on finding solutions, not dwelling on problems, because as they go, so will their followers. So if a leader is always harping on the problems, more likely than not the followers will be doing the same, and no organization can grow and thrive unless they are all looking to the positive side of the ledger. 

And the third quote tells us: ‘To handle yourself, use you head; to handle others, use your heart.’ I’m not sure I understand what he means there, but I’m supposing that in looking after your own interests, you should use your head, head knowledge and wisdom, but in dealing with others, it should all come from your heart, in a godly and generous manner. 

Now if that’s what he means, then there is a fair amount of truth in it, but please friends, in this greedy, deceitful and fraudulent world, we can’t always let out godly hearts and intentions run away with us, since people are liable to take serious advantage of the goodness of our nature. 

The world’s not as trustworthy as it once was, and contracts and agreements nowadays are meant to be broken. There is always some fine writing that you never look at that let’s them off the hook. So please make sure that your head is looking out for your heart. 

And the last quote tells us: ‘Great things never came from comfort zones.’ And that’s the living truth! No one who’s ever done great things has ever done it comfortably sitting in their living rooms. They always had to go out on a limb, take a risk, face disappointment and seeming failure, as well as condemnation from friends and families. 

Just read the stories of people like Thomas Edison, who gave us the light bulb; Walt Disney, who was touted as failure in his early years, but look at what he created. And look at Henry Ford. Yuh think he had it easy building his cars. Not on your life. But the greatest example of them all is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 

Just look at how he moved from being the God and creator of this world to being a humble, lowly man, born in a manger, not even a palace, but a smelly animal barn. Then grew up as a carpenter, and no, he didn’t have all the power tools that we have today, so it was hard, physical labour all the way. 

Then when He began His ministry, it was as an itinerant preacher, as He told the scribe who wanted to follow Him. “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.’ (Matt.8:20) Not only didn’t He have a permanent place of residence, but He was also mocked and scorned by those around Him, the very ones he had come to save. Even His family didn’t believe in Him. 

And yuh see how they treated Him in His own hometown of Nazareth after He read the scripture from Isaiah and intimated that it related to Him. They all got hot and bothered thinking that the carpenter’s son, whom they all knew growing up was getting a bit uppity, taking such airs and graces upon Himself and tried to throw him off a cliff. ‘But He passing through the midst of them went on his way.’ (Luke 4:16-30) 

And it was in His own hometown of Nazareth that Jesus mouthed these words of immortal truth. ‘A prophet is not without honour, save (except) in his own country, and in his own house.’ How true that is my fellow saints in Christ. Many a great person has been looked on with disfavour by those close to them. And strangely enough, Nazareth was one of the very few places that Jesus did no miracles or mighty works, simply because of their unbelief. 

And we don’t have time to talk about all the unfair, and unjust ‘sufferation’ that Jesus endured so that He could build the greatest body, the most powerful organization the world has ever seen, the Christian church, which has lasted for over two thousand years, and is set down to last until eternity. 

So friends, if we want to do great things, we can’t only sit down and talk about them, we have to get up off of our comfortable fannies and put in the blood, sweat and tears required of every great and or lasting achievement; just like Christ did! And please note, He did it all on our behalf. 

He didn’t have to, but the Father asked, and being the obedient Son that He was, He got up off His comfortable rear end in heaven and came down to the hellhole we call earth and selflessly and sacrificially suffered to atone for our abominable sins and bring us into reconciliation with the Father. Now that is indeed the greatest deed ever done on this earth! Please acknowledge and respect it like you ought to. Much LOVE!

…doing great and worthwhile stuff…requires…great and worthwhile effort…