The Amazing Feeling One gets from being in the Awesome Presence of God!

02 Nov 2024 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 16:11b.       in thy presence is fullness of joy;

So we’ve finally come to our lazy-day Saturday, where we can loll around as much as we want with no activities to accomplish within a certain time period. And isn’t that a good feeling? It certainly is. But before we get started, I want to point out a couple of incidents that happened in the recent Halloween celebrations. First of all, two people were killed and six injured in a celebration in Orlando, Florida, while a razor blade was found in a chocolate bar in Cochrane, Ontario. 

And I’m sure those are not all the negative incidents that occurred because of the foolish celebration, but just those that reached the news media. What’s it going to take for us to cut out the pagan nonsense eh? What kind of evil society are we living in, if we can consciously put a razor blade in a chocolate bar that a child is going to eat. And I guess it won’t be banished until someone from the family of a high government official or one of the money men that profit from it suffers some negative repercussions from the unwise celebration. 

And now that I’ve had my say, (smile) let’s move on to the more pleasant aspects of the day, like offering up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer. As one sincere voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And that’s a perfect prayer for a lazy-day Saturday, where we have the time to foment greater intimacy with our wonderful God. To simply bask in His awesome presence and listen to whatever He has to share with us. It’s a time to just run amok, as it were, in the awesome glory and presence of Almighty God! (smile) Yes friends, being in God’s presence is as good as it gets! And we ought to enjoy it while we have the opportunity. 

And I don’t mean we should use it as a time to complain and ask for stuff, but simply to enjoy being in God’s presence, like when you’re with a friend, whose company you enjoy, and you can just sit quietly and be happy, or do simple, joyful things together. The important aspect of it being the togetherness. That’s how we ought to spend this lazy time with our God…just being together with Him, and enjoying the joy that His presence brings. 

And there are numerous scriptures that talk about being in the Lord‘s presence and how good and joyful it can be. Like this verse from Psalm 16 – God Preserves His People. Bruh David ends it thus: ‘Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ (Ps. 16:11) 

Meanwhile the Sons of Korah put it like this in Psalm 84 – Rejoicing in God’s Tabernacle: ‘For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.’ (Ps. 84:10-12) 

Then there’s Psalm 139, one of the grandest psalms in the psalter, where Bruh David recounts the omnipresence of our magnificent God. Now listen to these verses that speak of that presence. ‘Whither shall (can) I go from thy spirit? or whither shall (can) I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell. Behold thou art there. 

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. yea, the darkness hideth not from thee (is not dark to thee); but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.’ (Ps. 139:7-12) 

Wow! Our God is everywhere; be it day or night, be it in heaven or in hell; in the sea or on the earth! We simply cannot hide from His presence, although many of us still foolishly try to do it. And every time I read those verses or hear them read, I always remember the first time I heard them being acted out many years ago by Dr. Robert H Schuller in an ‘Hour of Power Sermon’ in the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. His actions and the words have stuck with me down through the years.  

And we have this faithful promise from God found in Hebrews: ‘Let your conversation (conduct) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake tee.’ (Heb. 13:5) Then James exhorts us: ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh (near) to God, and he will draw nigh (near) to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded… Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.’ (James 4:7-8, 10)

Yes my fellow believers, God’s greatest desire is for His human creation to draw near to Him, not be far away, but the truth is that in these trying times we need to avidly seek His presence, not wait for Him to come to us. Anyway, He’s already done that through the earthly work of Jesus; now it’s our turn to sincerely seek Him. And we’ll close with this marvellous promise from Jesus: ‘…and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’ (Matt. 28:20b) 

Now we couldn’t want for a more faithful promise than that, especially since it’s been kept by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, to remind us of all that Jesus is, and to guide us to where He desires us to go. So let’s spend some time today and just consider the awesome presence of God in our lives nuh. We can never go wrong doing that! Much LOVE!

…in God’s presence…there’s always joy…

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 1 May 2012 Galatians 5:22-23

01 May 2012 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Inspirational Living Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Galatians 5:22-23.     But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
 
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! Yes Friends, it’s May Day, the first of May already. Imagine that nuh! The year’s really moving along at a fast clip, though the first sentence doesn’t refer to the month of May, but an ice-hockey player, Brad May, who scored a winning goal for the Buffalo Sabres some years ago, and the announcer got so excited that that was his call. May 1st is a day of celebration all over the world, with Maypole dancing and such. It seems to have originated from a pagan celebration. But it is also an important day in the Labour field, called International Workers Day, with marches and such, commemorating and celebrating some of the hard fought victories won by dedicated workers and unions against a rigid, greedy, inhumane employer class in the last century. Unfortunately though, a lot of those rights and the power of workers are now being systematically eroded by governments and employers, trying to take us back to feudal times. Oh my people, we can’t afford to let that happen! Our world is already in a serious recession, many call it a depression, but whatever it is, we can’t afford to sink any lower. And as you well know it’s always the poor, the suffering, the ordinary workingman who suffers the most, bears the brunt of misfortune in those desperate and trying times. We all have to stand up as best we can and fight again, keep on fighting for those benefits so many fought and died for, because the employers are getting greedier and more inhumane and selfish, if that’s possible. They keep on paying themselves huge, unwarranted sums while cutting back the wages and benefits of the ordinary man, or simply laying him off, all in the name of the most important capitalist principle; boosting the bottom line. However Friends, there is one person who can help us in all our trials and tribulations; His name is Jesus, before whom all heads and knees will eventually bow. So don’t worry too much about the wicked, they will get their comeuppance in due time. Now here’s the last quote from the book, My Jesus is…Everything, by Anne Graham Lotz. It says: ‘Jesus – the only One – makes: God visible And change possible And happiness attainable And resources ample And suffering understandable And sin forgivable And heaven available! My Jesus is…EVERYTHING!’ And we all know that as gospel truth Friends, like money in the bank, so let’s take it to heart nuh and put it into action, the way Jesus desires, for truly He is the only way that we can inherit God’s kingdom. And our Bit tells us exactly what attributes we need to successfully walk with Jesus: ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness (kindness), goodness, faith (faithfulness), Meekness, temperance (self-control): against such there is no law.’ But before delving into them individually, let’s get a general overview from the scholars: ‘In contrast to the works (plural) of the flesh, which any individual is capable of performing, the fruit (singular) of the Holy Spirit can be produced only by God. Christian character thus results from ‘Christ living in me.’ For this fruit to develop, all nine aspects of the fruit of the Spirit must mature. Illustration: The character of Christ is the fullest manifestation of this fruit in the New Testament. Though Jesus did not recognize the traditions of men, His enemies were unable to prove any charge against Him. Application: So today Christians should allow the Holy Spirit to develop this character within them, so they might be blameless before others and not hinder the testimony of Christ.’ And we’ll end with two scriptural references the scholars point out, both from Exodus, when the Israelites were about to build God’s tabernacle. ‘And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship…And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work….’ (Ex.35:30-31, 34-35) ‘And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred (lifted) him up to come unto the work to do it.’ (Ex.36:2) Yes Friends, the Holy Spirit, can, and will do wonders within us, if we’ll only allow it to. So let’s pray and ask the Father for tender, malleable hearts that will listen and bear plenty, beautiful fruits of His Holy Spirit. More on this tomorrow, if we wake up alive. (smile) Sadly Friends, many of us are only alive in body, but certifiable dead in spirit. Much LOVE!…being saved is fine…but then we need to show it…by our works…by our actions…by the fruit of our spirit…