The Overwhelming Importance of Christians Knowing They Now Belong to God, through the Shed Blood of Christ!

Today’s Scrip-Bit   2 September 2026   1 Corinthians 19b-20a.

1 Corinthians 19b-20a.        and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price:

It’s a cloudy, rainy, second wind Wednesday morning, but most importantly, it’s a warm day! Yes my faithful brethren, the early days of September have stayed warm, so we have no need to be aggrieved. (smile) A little rain and dark clouds never hurt anyone yet, so let’s be glad that we’re alive and living in a fairly, strife-free society, and give the Lord much thanks and praise for the many blessings He’s bestowed on us. And all God’s children said a loud and grateful: ‘Praise the Lord! Bless His holy Name! Amen!’

And to help us catch our second wind, we’re going to check out an interesting poem from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin, simply titled ‘Indelible Ink.’ Now, it’s the poem dedicated to September second. Remembering that the last poem we did was on the actual day dedicated to it, I decided to see if today’s poem would also be suitable and it was not one we had recently used. And to tell the truth I don’t know if we have used it before, (smile) but we’ll do so today.

So please read with me: ‘I LOVE her exuberance, Lord, Her refreshing spontaneity. I smile when I think How she rushed into the house (Blue eyes aglow) And thrust her new book Into my hands: “Please write my name on my book In great big letters So everybody knows It belongs to me.” Yes, Lord Yes. I want that too. Write Your name On the chapters of my life – My thoughts Motives Secret dreams … Write Your name On my total being So everybody knows I belong to You. And Lord Indelible ink, please.’

Oh friends isn’t that a most wonderful sentiment! It surely is! Just like a young child is exuberant when they get new book and wants their name written in it, so that everyone knows it’s theirs, we should also want the Lord’s name written on our lives, on each and every chapter, so that everyone knows we belong to Him, lock, stock and barrel! And please note we want it written in indelible ink, meaning it cannot be erased. (smile)

The truth though is that many of us don’t want anyone else to know that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, for although we claim to believe in Him, there’s still that little fear of what people will say if they know. Perhaps they’ll call me a ‘Jesus freak,’ or laugh at me and don’t invite me to their gatherings because they fear that I will only want to talk about Jesus and scriptures, and/or expose their sinful habits. It’s like Bruh Paul says in Ephesians. ‘And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (expose) them.’ (Eph. 5:11)

Yuh see friends, it works both ways. We’re afraid of what others would say, but they are also wary about how we’ll affect them. However, we should never be ashamed of proclaiming Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour for remember what Jesus said to the disciples when He was sending them out to preach: ‘Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.’ (Matt. 10:32-33)

That’s how it is! If you are proud to talk about Jesus before mankind, then He’ll also put in a good word for you to His heavenly Father. But if you’re too afraid to talk about Him to unbelievers, then He’ll not put in a good word for you with His Father in heaven. Yes, working for Jesus can be hard and dangerous, but He’s asking us, His followers, to stay brave and openly admit our faith, even when people around us are hostile.

And we do have a great responsibility to do that as noted by the Bible verses for today’s poem which come from 1 Corinthians. ‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods.’ (1 Cor. 6:19-20) That says it all my fellow believers! Once we claim Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we no longer belong to ourselves, but to Him, because He paid for our sins and salvation with the awesome price of His shed blood on Calvary.  

And in the next chapter, when talking about marriage, Bruh Paul again makes the point. ‘For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.’ (1 Cor. 7:22-24)

And Peter is also forceful and adamant on the subject. ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible (perishable) things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation (aimless conduct) received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest (revealed) in these last times to you. Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.’ (1 Pet. 1:18-21)

Ah mih people, Christ gave His all for us, and the least we can do is give our all for Him. So lets’ go home now declaring our Wednesday Wail, letting the whole world know of our wonderful position in Christ Jesus. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘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!’ 

And it’s promised that if we endure to the end with Christ, we will enjoy a future so glorious that we cannot ever comprehend or imagine it. So please, let’s stay faithful to the very end nuh, so that we can enjoy that more than glorious future together! Much LOVE!

…you can’t be a Christian…and deny or be ashamed of Christ…the One who saved you…

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

The Overwhelming Necessity for Christians to Know and Understand the Importance of pursuing and embracing Righteousness, instead of Sin!

Today’s Scrip-Bit   26 May 2026   Proverbs 12:7.

Proverbs 12:7.         The wicked are overthrown, and are not (no more): but the house of the righteous shall stand.

Oh boy, we’ve beaten our nemesis Monday into the ground! But please, don’t think that will make Tuesday an easy target. It most likely won’t be, for Monday might give us starting problems after the weekend break, but each day is very capable of bringing tough circumstances to the forefront. That means every day is a challenge in itself, and we cannot afford to lower our expectations, otherwise we can be caught with out pants below our knees. (smile)

And on this bright, warm, sunshiny Tuesday, with temps in the mid-twenties, we’re going to look at a few verses from the wisdom of Cousin Sol in Proverbs, re the difference between the wicked and the righteous. He expounds thus: ‘The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them. The wicked are overthrown, and are not (no more): but the house of the righteous shall stand.’ (Prov. 12:5-7)

Oh friends, how many times in the Bible have we been told the same basic story eh – that the wicked shall be destroyed and the righteous saved? But too many of us seem not to believe it, otherwise there would not be so many wicked people in the world practicing their wicked behaviour, and not so few seeking righteousness. And right at the beginning of Proverbs, Cousin Sol warns us about walking in the way of sinners with a very wise and perceptive passage.

‘My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay wait for blood (to shed blood), let us lurk privily (secretly) for the innocent without cause: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down to the pit: We shall find all precious substance (wealth), we shall fill our houses with spoil (plunder): Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain (keep) thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain (futility) the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily (secretly) for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.’ (Prov. 1:10-19)

Yes my brethren, we could not get a better discourse on the actions of the wicked and advice not to fall into their snare. As the scholars explain: ‘The wise son rejects the invitation of criminals who promise wealth without work (vs.13). The verse stresses the individual’s responsibility to avoid the tempter’s snare (cf. James 1:14-15).’ And that’s the point we’re trying to make, it’s our responsibility, not anybody else’s, to avoid  getting involved with the deeds and schemes of the wicked.

As James states it: ‘Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust (desire), and enticed. Then when lust (desire) hath conceived, it bringeth forth (gives birth to) sin: and sin, when it is finished (full grown), bringeth forth death. Do not err (be deceived), my beloved brethren.’ (James 1:13-16) So when we’re tempted to sin, we cannot say it’s God tempting us, but it’s our own lustful, carnal desires that are driving us to sin. And in the end, that sinful desire only causes death!

How many times do we need to hear that before we turn away from sin eh? Obviously some of us must like death, the way we live such a sinful life. But that’s a shortsighted and very unwise situation, for you cannot carry any of the wealth and pleasures you amass here into the next life; in fact you’ll forfeit it all to someone else. As Cousin Sol writes as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes:

‘Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken (toiled) under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity (futility).’ (Eccl. 2:18-19) Yes, you’ll leave all your earthly wealth for someone else to possibly use and abuse. So what’s the point in toiling hard to  amass it eh?

And if you don’t believe Cousin Sol or James, or me, (smile) then listen to Bruh David from Psalm 37, titled ‘Trust in the Lord.’ where he confidently declares: ‘Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree (a native green tree). Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Mark the perfect (blameless) man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust him’ (Ps. 37:34-40)

Oh my people, it could not be said any clearer than that! Stay away from evil and trust in the Lord and your life will be saved. It as simple as that! So please, let’s cut out, turn away from all the foolish and death-bringing sinfulness that we’re currently involved in nuh, because it certainly doesn’t do us any good, neither now or in the hereafter. And furthermore, sin always brings painful consequences right here on earth. So why pursue it eh?

Now, let’s go home declaring our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong, lock, stock and barrel. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

That makes us duty bound to go out and share the amazing LOVE and friendship of Christ with others, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…sin might bring some earthly pleasures…but its end is always…death and destruction…

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