The Very Serious Consequences Of Rejecting Almighty God, Despite His Free and Gracious Offer Of Salvation!

22 Mar 2025 Leave a comment

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

Proverbs 8:117.       I LOVE them that LOVE me; and those that seek me early (diligently) shall find me.

And it’s another lazy-day Saturday friends, but a windy, chilly and cloudy one, until a short while ago, around mid-day, when the sun, fighting a valiant battle, finally overcame the clouds and shone forth in all its bright and manly presence. (smile) Now that’s a good omen for us believers in Christ Jesus, reassuring us that if we stand strong and fight the foes of darkness, we too can overcome and bask in the glorious light of Jesus! 

And with that reassurance under our belt, let’s offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer with all sincerity and truth. As one strong 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 there isn’t a more rewarding prayer than one seeking sincere intimacy with our heavenly Father, for that’s one of His heart’s greatest desires. It warms the cockles of His heart when we come sincerely seeking Him. That’s why there are several scriptures in God’s Word that specifically speak about seeking Him. Let’s check out a few of them nuh, like this one from Isaiah, where He writes: ‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.’ (Is. 55:6-7) 

Right there my people, we see the wisdom of seeking God; He’ll pardon and have mercy on all who seek Him. But there’s one important proviso, as stated in this scripture from Jeremiah that we all know, where he declares: ‘Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto (listen to) you. And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with your whole heart.’ (Jer. 29:12-13) Yes friends, there is a necessity to seeking God sincerely, or with all of your soul, body, mind and heart if you want to find Him. 

Meanwhile Cousin Sol who has something to say on every subject, (smile) says it thus in Proverbs: ‘I LOVE them that LOVE me; and those that seek me early (diligently) shall find me.’ (Prov. 8:17) There again, more sincere and whole hearted seeking of God is necessary to find Him. We just can’t go with any wishy-washy, double-minded attitude and find Him. No! It must be with all of our being! And Cousin Sol further intimates that we must seek God as though we’re seeking for silver or gold, for hidden treasure; that’s with total undivided attention, putting all we have into it. (Prov. 2:4) 

So, now that we have heard all about the benefits of sincerely seeking the Lord, let’s look at what happens if we don’t seek Him. And Cousin Sol puts it right out there when he talks in the beginning of Proverbs about ‘Wisdom Cries in the Streets.’ The scholars explain that He personifies her as a prophetess calling out in public places to everyone to come to her and learn.  

He writes: ‘Wisdom crieth without (calls aloud in the street); she uttereth (raises) her voice in the streets (plazas). She crieth in the chief place of concourse (concourses), in the opening of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple (naïve) ones, will ye LOVE simplicity (naivety)? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?’ (Prov. 1:20-22) Now those are very good questions my brethren, questions that many of us need to seriously consider today, since our world is currently so full of exactly what Cousin Sol’s talking about; naivety or lack of knowledge, the scorning of scoffers, hatred of wisdom by fools or the morally dull. 

But then we have this graceful invitation that was also turned down. ‘Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought (disdained) all my counsel, and would (have) none of my reproof:’ (Prov. 1:23-25) Yes friends, that’s exactly what too many of us have done; rejected God and His awesome help, and what our foolish and mentally disturbed world is adamantly continuing to do. 

But hear what’s in the works for such of us nuh! ‘I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear (terror) cometh; When your fear (terror) cometh as desolation (a storm), and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.’ (Prov. 1:26-27) Now is that what we truly desire? I doubt it. And the story is not yet finished. 

Listen up: ‘Then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early (diligently), but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear (reverence) of the Lord: They would (have) none of my counsel: they despised all of my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away (waywardness) of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity (complacency) of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet (be secure or at ease) from fear of evil.’ (Prov. 1:28-33) 

There you have it my fellow believers, the pros and cons for seeking God diligently and with our whole being, and also being foolish and rejecting Him. Now, it’s up to each of us to choose the path we shall tread, but first, please let’s very seriously contemplate the consequences of each decision! Much LOVE!

…the time to sincerely seek God is…NOW…for as the old song says…if you wait too late…when you run to the Rock for rescue…there’ll be no rock…

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit 14 April 2021 Isaiah 10:1.

14 Apr 2021 Leave a comment

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

Isaiah 10:1.     ​Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness (misfortune) which they have prescribed;

Morning mih bredrin. Yuh know, I was just thinking of how to begin today’s sermon, (smile) that’s what a friend of mine calls it, and for a moment I was lost in thought, thinking in my own strength, when suddenly it occurred to me, ‘Why not check the Good Book and see what it says eh?’ Yes friends, wisdom in spades! So I turned to the Lord’s Word, to check what it says at the place where I had opened it. And, lo, and behold, it had opened at this very appropriate scripture in Isaiah. 

Listen up closely please. ‘Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness (misfortune) which they have prescribed; To turn aside (deprive) the needy from judgement (of justice), and to take away the right (what is right) from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!’ (Is. 10:1-2) 

And yuh better believe that Isaiah could be writing to our very society right now, because it is so tarnished with greed, corruption and every evil thing in the corridors of power that those words written so long ago about the evils in Israel, also apply most appropriately to this current time. But what saddens me ever so much, is not the evil itself, but the blatant manner in which it is now perpetrated. 

Oh, there’s always been greed and corruption and all the other negative stuff in leadership circles, but it’s never been as blunt, blatant and doh-care as it is now! Our current leaders simply don’t care about anything or anybody else but themselves and their evil cronies and just do whatever suits their evil and ungodly purposes, and who don’t like it, tough! They feel they are so entrenched in power, that the ordinary man in the street, the ones to whom they owe allegiance, fidelity and good governance, can’t touch them, so they’ve become bold faced enough to be thinking about dictatorship. 

Yes friends, another era of strongmen, of dictators, is currently blossoming all over our world, and it doesn’t augur well for the lowly and downtrodden, because that’s where dictators, the morally empty and inept cowards usually plant their heavy yoke. But my people, those fools who crave earthly power so badly that they are willing to sell their souls to Satan and his evil dominion for it, unfortunately don’t realize that there is a power greater than all of us, including the evil one, and when that august personage, the Lord of hosts is his name, is ready to wreak vengeance on the perpetrators of evil, they don’t stand a chance of escape, like a snowball in the fiery chambers of hell! 

Hear how the prophet describes that time of awakening nuh. ‘And what will ye do in the day of visitation (punishment), and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under (among) the prisoners, and they shall fall under (among) the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still (in judgement)’ (Is. 10:3-4) Oh my faithful believers in Christ, what a sad day it will be for the evil ones, when the Lord of hosts unfurls His awesome plan of justice for the poor and downtrodden! As the prophet queries: ‘To whom will ye flee for help?’ 

That reminds me of an old reggae song ‘Johnny yuh too bad,’ by the Slickers, featured in the Jimmy Cliff movie, ‘The Harder They Come.’ And the lyrics say: ‘Walking down the road With your pistol in your waist, Johnny yuh too bad. Walking down the road With your ratchet in your waist, Johnny yuh too bad. Yuh just robbing and yuh stabbing and yuh looting and yuh shooting And yuh too bad. 

Yuh just robbing and yuh stabbing and yuh looting and yuh shooting, And yuh too bad. One of these days When you hear a voice say come, Where you gonna run to? One of these days When you hear a voice say come Where you gonna run to? Yuh gonna run to the rock for rescue There will be no rock, Yuh gonna run to the rock for rescue There will be no rock.’ 

Oh my fellow believers, in the day of judgement, that fateful day, when the Lord of hosts comes seeking justice for His people, the wicked will run to their rock, the evil one, for protection, but he will not be around, because the Mighty One of Israel will have already tethered him, securely imprisoned him in the fiery realms of hell! 

For the life of me, I just can’t fathom what’s so grand and enthralling about a lot of power nuh, because the more power you have the more responsibility comes with it. And likewise money: the more you have, the more you have to take care of. But mankind just seems fascinated by the aura of power and prestige and money. But please remember what Bruh Paul told Timothy about the LOVE of money: ‘For the LOVE of money is the root of all evil (all kinds of evil): which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.’ (1 Tim. 7:10) 

Yes my brethren, whenever we covet something, it leads us astray, and often to ruin, because the inherent power of the word means we will do anything to get what we covet. And sadly, that’s what happens to so many of us, we covet the wrong things in life, like power, money, social status, and the things the world considers so important and must have.

But in the truthful words of Jesus, what we need to do is seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all those things shall be added unto us. (Matt. 6:33) And the beauty of getting those things from Jesus is that once we get them from Him, the probability of losing them is very low, unlike when we get them through selling our souls to Satan. 

As the scholars explain: ‘10:1-4. A prophetic Woe is pronounced against those administrators who pervert justice. These government officials have abused their power and are now called to God’s bar of justice.’ And my Scrip-Bit friends and family, I sincerely hope that none of us will be amongst the sad and sorry lot that will eventually be called to God’s bar of justice, because it will be a sad day of reckoning. So for those of us who sincerely try to keep evil out of our souls, let’s go home now declaring (awright!) our Wednesday Wail, letting all and sundry know of our most wonderful position in Christ Jesus. 

Altogether now: ‘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 there’s indeed no better place for us to be focused my fellow saints, because if we persevere to the end, that promised future will be even more glorious and amazing than we can either think or imagine. Much LOVE!

…the option of heaven…is definitely more appealing…than that of hell… 

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8