Today’s Scrip-Bit   23 April 2022 John 8:32.

23 Apr 2022 Leave a comment

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

John 8:32.      And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ​

And then it was Saturday; the Jack of all trades day, meaning you can work, rest and/or party comfortably, without any self-recriminations on Saturdays. (smile) Some of us choose to work, especially around the house, doing the personal things we don’t have time for during the work week. Others choose to be simply couch potatoes for the entire day, in front of the boob-tube. And then there are those of us who think that Saturdays were simply made for partying…and nothing else. 

For us though here on the Bit, Saturday means checking out the quotes that our friend Anselm sent us this past week as he aspires to inspires us for a better tomorrow. And the first one says: ‘Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.’ And that seems true enough, for you can’t do something or go somewhere unless you’ve first decided what you’re going to do or where you’re going to go. It all begins in the mind’s eye. And that’s also the first law of Christ’s kingdom: You’ll see it when you believe it. That means walking by faith and not by sight. (1 Cor. 5:7) 

Remember Jesus’ words to Martha before He raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. ‘Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?’ (John 11:40) The same thing applies to us today my faithful brethren; we won’t see the glory of Almighty God unless and until we believe that He is able to do anything and everything. Likewise, in our personal lives, we won’t bring anything to reality unless we first envision it in our minds and then believe, with God’s help we can make it real. 

That brings us to this next quote: ‘On any given Monday I am one sale closer and one idea away from being a millionaire.’ And that’s no lie! On any new day it’s possible to do great things, because we are always, only one step away from greatness, from doing the improbable, especially if the Lord God Jehovah is in our corner and He thinks the time is right for a monumental blessing. And surprisingly, it often takes only ONE of anything, to propel us to lofty heights. Which seems sort of contrary to this next quote, which tells us that ‘If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.’

 Now that’s gospel truth, especially in the entertainment business. Somebody who we’ve never heard of before comes up with a hit song or something, and we quickly claim that they’re an overnight success. But we never hear of the years they been toiling in the trenches for a pittance, begging for breaks they never got, or being ripped off by unscrupulous promoters. Most of them have done their time, have spent time learning their craft, living hand to mouth, doing odd jobs so they can survive. But we never hear about that, just the seemingly quick path to success. 

However, there are some true overnight successes, but they never last. They are here today and gone tomorrow. And the truth is, if we want to make it big in anything at all, and remain at a decent level, we have to put in the time, the elbow grease, the disappointments, the wondering if we will ever succeed, or if we made a mistake doing what we’re doing. But remember too, that without perseverance and endurance you will never get to the winner’s circle. 

And there’s no field of endeavour in which that’s truer than in our Christian walk of faith. Without taking up our crosses and bearing them with a good attitude, which can only be fuelled by serious meditation on God’s word and serious time spent talking to Him, we will never become model Christians for others to see and want to emulate. It’s why Christ calls us, or rather desires us, to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are needed to add flavour and light to a dark and desolate world, which, unfortunately, we are not doing such a good job at, otherwise the world would still not be as dark and desolate as it is currently. 

This Easter Season, we’ve made a big fuss over Jesus, His death and resurrection, just like we do over his birth at Christmas, but then in the twinkling of an eye we forget all the wonderful things we claim He’s done, is doing, and will do for us, and we revert to our normal behaviour; that of living more in the world than in the kingdom of God. No wonder the world doesn’t get any better. Shame on us friends! 

Then we come to this quote: ‘There is no harm in repeating a good thing.’ Technically speaking, that’s true, especially where learning is concerned, but in our current society nobody wants to hear, see, or do the same thing over and over. Our penchant nowadays is for something new, with new seasons for cars, clothes, phones, even for people, (smile) although we have not understood or hardly used the last new thing. That’s made us into a ‘throwaway society.’ And then we wonder why there is so much junk in our world and why our environment is being so badly abused. 

The hard fact of the matter though is that we only learn anything by repetition, doing it over and over. And again, that is oh so true of our Christian faith. We can only learn God’s ways by reading and studying His word over and over. And that’s exactly what He said to Joshua when he made him leader of the Israelites after the death of Moses. ‘This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.’ (Josh. 1:8) 

And I guess that explains why so many of us supposed Christians aren’t prosperous and don’t have good success: we don’t meditate on God’s word, and therefore don’t do what it says. That brings us to this last quote. ‘No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.’ And I’m in a quandary over that one, because we all hate those who tell lies, but at the same time if we consider the word of God as being the truth, then many are disliked when they speak it. And we are all supposedly searching for and seeking truth, which is basically facts, the actuality of things or events and reality. 

But with Jesus, truth comes from Him, as He says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life…’ (John 14:6) His truth stems from the fact that we are all purveyors of sin, but He tells us that, ‘If ye continue (abide) in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ (John 8:31-32) But by the same token, Jesus warned about those who hold to His truth. ‘And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.’ (Mark 13:13) 

Yes, my fellow saints, there’s no better way to end this Saturday morning than on those words of truth. The world doesn’t like followers of Christ and will do its best to make our lives miserable, but we know the truth, that’s Jesus, and that awesome knowledge has set us free, and we WILL abide in it right to the very end! Much LOVE!

…in this world…EVERYTHING revolves around Jesus…from Creation to Salvation…that’s the truth…

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Today​’s Scrip-Bit 23 March 2019 Joshua 1:8.

23 Mar 2019 Leave a comment

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

Joshua 1:8.   ​This book of the law shall not depart out of (shall be constantly in) thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
 
Well it’s a big Saturday morning in the springtime, but it’s cold as ever, like a puppy dog’s nose, (smile) something like minus 5 or 6 in my area. And before we go on, let’s make one thing perfectly clear, the idea that because a date on the calendar says that the Spring Equinox has arrived, does not mean it suddenly gets warm! That is pure foolishness and fallacy yes! (smile) It’s still so and so cold – all like yesterday when the wind lent its support to the cold, though it was a bright and sunshiny day! 

And the wind itself played havoc with my area yesterday, from late afternoon into the middle of the night, just howling like crazy every few minutes, having stuff creaking and clanking and whatever, leaving homeowners hopeful that no part of their houses or property got damaged by it. But it seems to have settled down now, and no serious damage seems to have been done in my area. Thank God for small mercies yes! 

Anyway, since it’s Saturday let’s take a gander at some of the quotes our friend Anselm sent us this week, in his noble attempt to inspire us for a better tomorrow. And I laughed when I first read this one: ‘If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.’ I suppose that’s because we refer to opportunity as knocking on a door, and it only knocks once and that sort of thing. 

So it’s only logical to assume that if opportunities aren’t making themselves available, then the problem might be that there is no door for them to knock on. In that case the sensible thing to do will be to build a door for them to knock on! (smile) 

And the next one says: ‘I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that will not work.’ Now that is the way we have to view our mistakes and supposed failures! We can’t ever give up, or stop trying, because in truth, failure is not failure until we stop trying, and that idea is found nowhere in Jesus’ philosophy. 

So if you’re a believer, you can’t ever give up or stop trying; you’ve got to keep moving ahead, learning more about Christ and becoming more like Him every day, moving from glory to glory. Praise His holy name! 

And this next quote segues nicely with the others: ‘The secret of getting ahead is getting started.’ Yeh friends, we can’t get anywhere until we begin going somewhere! Likewise, we can’t make any progress in our projects and/or ambitions until we begin doing stuff related to them. Everybody wants to write the great American Novel, but no one will ever do so, until and unless they begin writing it. As the Chinese Proverb so eloquently puts it: ‘The longest journey begins with the first step.’ Matter fix! 

This upcoming quote is also quite relevant to our everyday lifestyle. It says: ‘To create more positive results in your life, replace ‘if only’ with ‘next time.’ So true my people, so true! We have a bad habit of saying, ‘if only so and so had happened,’ moaning about some past circumstance. But that only gets us in the negative stream of life. What we ought to be saying is ‘next time, I’ll do so and so.’ Try and keep it in the positive stream of the future. We’ll all be better for it. 

And the last quote declares (right ho): ‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.’ Gospel truth that my brethren! It’s like the saying goes, give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. But teach him how to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime! 

And I want to put that into perspective with the Lord’s Word: If I just tell you about it, most likely you’ll forget about it shortly thereafter. If I teach you about it, you’ll remember it for a longer period of time. However, if I involve you in the whole process, then you’ll probably learn more than in the two previous scenarios, because you are hands on in the situation, getting down and dirty with the subject matter. 

 Consequently friends, it is all well and good to go to church and hear sermons, but most of us, by the time we get in the parking lot have forgotten what the sermon was about, although we clapped and said numerous ‘Amen’s’ during it.’ And that’s no lie! (smile) Now, if we then go home and read up the scripture that the sermon was based on, we’ll have a better idea on what the pastor was talking about. 

But better still, if we sit down and begin to contemplate, meditate, think seriously on those scriptures, then eventually we will really know them. That’s the only way to truly learn the Word my brethren! We need to get totally involved in it, seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit, asking Him to talk to our hearts about it, show us how it affects or can be successfully made a part of our lives. 

Please remember friends that scripture is a guideline for our lives, and until we make it such, it will be of no real use to us. Knowing it and not putting it to use is a complete waste of time. We’ll never get ahead until we begin living our earthly lives by the heavenly values found in the Lord’s Word!  

And I have to chuckle here friends, because I’ve been writing all of the above with no thought of what scripture we could use to tie it all together. Then I went looking for something in the Good Book, asking the Lord to show me an appropriate one. For a couple minutes nothing happened; my flipping through the word produced nothing useable…

Then Bingo! It suddenly happened. The light went on, and I knew the perfect scripture for out Bit today! Oh, how can I ever doubt the Lord’s faithfulness eh? He doesn’t always make it easy, but He ALWAYS comes through! And the scripture we’re talking about is when the Lord spoke to Joshua, making him the leader of the Israelites after Moses’ death. 

‘This book of the law shall not depart out of (shall be constantly in) thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.’  

Ah mih people, it couldn’t get any plainer and more straightforward than that nuh! And here it’s the Lord Himself speaking to Joshua; straight from the horse’s mouth as it were, not secondhand info.

And if the Lord thought it important enough for Him to personally tell Joshua about the importance of keeping the Law, then it’s obviously important for us to follow the same path, for therein we too shall be prosperous and have good success. What more needs to be said eh…? Much LOVE!

…he who has ears to hear…let him hear…else he’ll certainly feel…