Today’s Scrip-Bit 1 April 2017 Jeremiah 29:13.

Jeremiah 29:13.   And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall seek me with all your heart.

And would you believe friends, that that rain I spoke about yesterday morning, fell all day, until early this morning. Good thing it didn’t come down in torrents, but mostly drizzles, otherwise there would have been much flooding. Thank the Lord for that! 

And though today is All Fool’s or April Fools Day, we won’t play any tricks or tell any falsehoods. (smile) But since it’s also Saturday, we’ll get right to some of our friend Anselm’s quotes this week, as he aspires to inspire us to have a better tomorrow. And this week he was still talking about ‘How to Motivate Yourself.’

And our first quote declares: ‘Take The Positivity Challenge! Learn to think more positively most of the time. Learn to let to go of negative threads of thought before they have a chance to take hold of you. You might not be able to be positive all the time no matter what happens. But I think most of us can improve on our positive thinking and the results it can lead us to. Perhaps more than you realize right now.’ 

No doubt about that my people! Too many of us nowadays focus on the negative rather than the positive. And even though you can’t be positive all the time, as Anselm states, the more positive you are, the more productive and joyful you’ll be. When the enemy comes at you with all the negative thoughts, just run him out. For remember the battle is fought in the mind, and as you think, so you become. 

The second quote advises us to ‘Remember your successes. And let them flow through your mind instead of your failures. Write down your successes. Consider using a journal of some kind since it’s easy to forget your successes.’ 

Now that just segues well with the scriptural advice that when God seems to be not answering your heartfelt pleas, to remember all the earlier times He did, and the good things He provided. It’s always better to remember successes, though you must also endeavour to learn from failures. The important thing is not to dwell too much on the latter. 

And this last quote is my favourite of the week. ‘Cut down on TV. Do you watch it too much? Watch less of what they are doing in TV-land and do more of what you want to do in life.’ 

Oh friends, there are too many of us who don’t know that what’s shown on T.V is a lot of make believe! Very little of what’s shown there is actually true. And we waste too much time watching the stuff, either foolishly believing it, or using it as an excuse or way to run from real life. 

And believe you me, if you are a fan of things like the foolish soaps and reality shows, that only feature rich people in strife and deceit all the time, then you will eventually gravitate to that kind of thinking and it will have a negative effect on your own life. So please choose carefully what you watch on the tube, because there is much more nonsense there than sense. Leave the TV alone, and go live your own life! (smile) 

And the best way to do that my people, is by seeking out our heavenly Father and letting Him lead and guide our lives, for He will never lead us astray. He will help us to do all the things we’ve just spoken about above. But we need to genuinely go looking for Him. As our Bit declares: ‘And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall seek me with all your heart.’ 

Yes friends, if we seek the Lord, we will find Him, but the most important, the truly operative words in that sentence are ‘with all your heart.’ You can’t just go seeking Him in a selfish manner, to simply accommodate your selfish wants and demands. You have to go with a genuine, humble heart, sincerely wanting to be in a right relationship with Him. 

And Jeremiah continues after our Bit. ‘And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away (bring you back from) your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.’ (Jer.29:14) 

And none of that has changed my brethren! We might not be talking about actual captivity now, but metaphorical captivity by the enemy. When the enemy has our thoughts and actions under his evil, negative spell, the ONLY WAY to escape is by turning to God and seeking Him with a sincere heart. 

Listen to Bruh David’s command to Cousin Sol when he turned over the building of the Lord’s temple to him. ‘Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord.’ (1 Chr.22:19) 

Now that was wise and godly advice on Bruh David’s part, for if Cousin Sol wasn’t in wonderful relationship with the Lord, the temple would either not have been built, or would not have been so magnificent. It’s the close relationship with the Lord that gave Cousin Sol the wherewithal, both of materials and wisdom to put up such a beautiful sanctuary to Him. 

Likewise my people, it’s our close relationship with the Lord that both inspires us, and helps us to do His work in an excellent manner. So whatever is troubling us today, please let’s be wise and seek our heavenly Father in humility and sincerity nuh, but also with a confidence that He will hear us and help to alleviate our problems. That’s the wisdom and power of Christ’s gospel! Much LOVE!

…sincerely and diligently seek…and you shall find…

 

 

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 11 March 2017 Luke 21:34.

Luke 21:34.   And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged (weighed down) with surfeiting (carousing), and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

Aye mih people, how all yuh doing this cold winter’s morn eh? The ole fella’s feeling a bit under the weather this morning, seems like I’m getting a cold or something of the sort. But not to worry, for the Lord is bearing me up, as He faithfully promised in His word, and I’m soon going to get into the full swing of things and begin writing the Bit like a champion. (smile) 

Ah friends, how could I not LOVE the Lord eh after all the faithfulness and LOVING-kindness He’s shown me over the years? I come to write, and I don’t know what to write, and He leads and guides me. I come to write, and I’m not feeling up to scratch, and He uplifts me, gives the wherewithal to do His bidding. 

Consequently my heart rejoices and my lips offer Him much thanks and praise, for He is a most wonderful God! Amen! So now that I’m uplifted, (smile) let’s get on with writing the Bit nuh. And since today is Saturday, we’ll look at a couple of quotes from our friend Anselm, who aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. 

The first one is fairly long, and says: ‘Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.’ 

Now all of that is quite true, but the problem is, how many more tomorrows do we have eh? Moses in his only Psalm, Psalm 90 – From everlasting to everlasting thou art God – pleaded with the Lord: ‘So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom (gain a heart of wisdom). (Ps.90:12) 

Yes my fellow believers, none of us know when we’ll depart this earth, so we have to use our time wisely. That’s why we have to do what the second quote advises. ‘Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.’ 

Ah friends, we can’t afford to be like amateurs and sit on our fat fannies and wait for inspiration. We just have to get up and do whatever needs doing! That’s the only way to make a positive difference in our world and also enjoy our tomorrows, regardless of how many we have left. And that segues very nicely into out Bit; Jesus warning re His Second Coming, and the way we should not live our lives. 

‘And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged (weighed down) with surfeiting (carousing), and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.’ 

That means we ought always to be prepared, be ready for whenever He returns, be it today tomorrow or many years hence. The important thing to remember here friends, is that Our Lord and Saviour will one day come back as the Warrior King, on His white charger, breathing fire and ready to exterminate the evil doers. 

That we know for a fact, but we just don’t know when. And since it could be at any time, we can’t afford to be caught with our knickers down at our feet. (smile) So we cannot live a licentious lifestyle and be caught unawares, either by our passing, or His return, for then there will be no further opportunity to make amends and plead for forgiveness. 

Now yesterday we saw where Bruh Paul told the Thessalonians that the Lord’s return might come like a thief in the night (1 Thess.5:2) Today we’ll continue his message. ‘But ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. But ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober (self-controlled). 

For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and LOVE; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together (encourage each other), and edify (build up) one another, even as also ye do (are doing).’ (1 Thess.5: 4-11) 

There we have it friends, straight from the mouth of Bruh Paul! We are not children of darkness but of light, and as such ought to live sober and self-controlled lives, watching out for Jesus’ return. And if we do that, then we won’t be affected by the trials and tribulations, the agony that the wicked, the children of darkness will suffer on the Lord’s Day. 

As true believers, we will be spared the Lord’s wrath. So let’s be sensible and wisely redeem whatever time we have left nuh mih breddren, for that time could be up at any second, without any warning. Much LOVE! 

…either your last breath…or Jesus’ return…can spell the end of your time…so please be prepared…