Today’s Scrip-Bit 13 November 2017 John 16:24.

13 Nov 2017 Leave a comment

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

John 16:24.   Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

Welcome once again friends, to the merry go round that’s our workweek. We’ve got get back on that train, the gravy train, (smile) and ride the rails again, because it’s Monday; the day that stirs up so much negative emotion in us. So if we want to eat, and have a roof over our heads, then it’s simple, we have to work, and it makes much more sense working with a joyful feeling than with a miserable, unhappy one. 

But just in case this morning you are not feeling up to scratch, we have the perfect antidote for whatever is ailing you. We call it our Monday Morning Battle Hymn! Yeh friends, it drives away the blues and gets our spirits up and running in fine form. So let’s just sit back, relax and sing it out with as much spunk and gusto as we can muster nuh. 

As one now: ‘Oh Lord God Almighty, Creator of the universe and all therein! We, your humble servants, praise your Holy Name and thank you that this Monday morning we have jobs to go to; jobs we don’t like, jobs that are unfair, difficult and even dangerous, but which serve a useful purpose here on earth; keeping lives and families together. 

We also thank you Father for the renewed vitality and enthusiasm you’ve wrought in our weary souls over the last two days. It’s that rejuvenation of Spirit which allows us now to sally forth with confidence into the evil, ungodly world that surrounds us, to begin a new week of work, constantly buffeted and bombarded by the enemy’s wicked taunts, wiles and lies. 

But heavenly Father, we’re not afraid, for we know we’re invincible, sure conquerors, once we’re wearing your powerful, protective spiritual armour. We surrender our all to you, and humbly ask that you let your incredible aura of LOVE, the Holy Spirit, lead and guide all your servants as we go out to meet the enemy in battle. Fill us with steadfast faith, so that we can make worthwhile inroads into the enemy’s ranks, and thereby further your glorious kingdom. We pray this in the Holy Name of your Son, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. AMEN!’ 

Ah mih people, I hear you sigh, like a breath of fresh air wafted over you and raised you up from your misery. (smile) I told you, our Battle Hymn will fix whatever is wrong. Consequently, it’s time for us to get out on the road and run our race with excellence, diligence, humility, forgiveness, grace, mercy and LOVE as our Lord and Saviour, our fearless Leader, Jesus Christ expects of us. 

Remember, it’s all about Him friends, about His LOVE Revolution, not about us. We’re just His servants, His friends, His brethren, His saints, His warriors, here to do His awesome bidding. And according to our Bit, He wants us to do His bidding with joy. ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.’ 

Oh my people, contrary to a popular opinion, Jesus did not come to earth to be sad and miserable and make sad, miserable followers out of us.  We all know His famous pronouncement: ‘The thief cometh not, but (except) to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’ (John 10:10) 

What part of that says that Christians ought to walk around as though they were suffering so much and on their last breath eh? None of it! So why do so many of us supposed Christians go around like a bunch of ‘poe (poor) me ones’, like we’re struggling so much, with no real joy in our souls. Chuh man! That’s not why Jesus died. Hear what He told the disciples when talking about the vine and the branches. ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.’ (John 15:11) 

Yeh mih breddren, Jesus had joy in His soul, and wherever he went others felt and experienced it. And John in his second set of writings, his epistles, penned the same message to the believers. ‘And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.’ (1 John 1:4) 

And the scholars tell us: ‘1:4. The major purpose of 1 John is stated in 5:13 (tell of salvation and eternal life), but another purpose is stated here: for the recipients, and no doubt John as well, to enjoy and share in the deep sense of satisfaction and purpose that knowing Christ and walking with Him brings.’  

Why then are so many of us believers joyless eh? If we are to be truly His followers, we must cultivate a reasonable amount of joy in our souls too. Remember what they say in Nehemiah: ‘for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ (Neh. 8:10b) That means, if you don’t have any joy, then you won’t have any strength either. 

And Peter, talking about Christ declares: ‘Whom having not seen, ye LOVE; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.’ (1 Pet. 1:8-9) 

Oh fellow Christians, if we are saved and believe the promise of salvation and eternal life, then that’s the biggest reason to be joyful! And we’ll end with this prayer request of Jesus to His heavenly Father on behalf of the disciples, and consequently to us. ‘And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.’ (John 17:13) 

What more can we ask eh friends? Jesus even prayed to the Father that we might be filled with His joy. So let’s get ourselves together and stop behaving so pitifully, like we’re orphans or something nuh, with no one to LOVE us. We have Jesus…and that’s more than enough! Much LOVE!

…Christians…should be the most joy-filled and joyful people…on God’s good earth…

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 31 July 2013 1 John 1:4

31 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

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

1 John 1:4.   And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
 
Oh Friends, yesterday’s gone bye, bye. What a pity! And tomorrow is yet to come, so we have to wait patiently on it. But the good news is that today is here in all its glory and splendour!
 
Wow! Are you ready for it? Are you ready to receive the blessings and all the other good things that today is scheduled to bring? I sure hope so, else you’ll miss out on a lot of goodies that our omnipotent and magnanimous God has in store for you.
 
Remember too that the early bird gets the best worms, so you’ve got to be prepared. And we’ve got to live life in the present, not in the past or the future, for today is all we’re guaranteed.
 
And talking of the future, here’s a relevant quote form the famous American playwright, Thomas Lanier Williams III, (1911-1983), better known as Tennessee Williams, author of such popular plays as ‘A Streetcar named Desire,’ and ‘Cat on a hot tin roof.’ Tennessee says that ‘The future is called “perhaps,” which is the only thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.’
 
Now there’s a lot of truth to those statements, since we cannot truly predict the future with any real sense of accuracy, for none of us know for sure what’s coming down God’s pipeline, nor when. So we can only make ‘guesstimates’ based on the happenings of yesterday and today.
 
The important thing though is we cannot be afraid of the future, otherwise when it finally arrives, in the form of today, we’ll find ourselves up the creek, because we hadn’t planned for it.
 
However, by the same token, we cannot afford to have fixed and absolute goals, because the future is so finicky, it can throw a spanner into the best laid of plans. So we need to have some flexibility built into our plans for the future, while hoping and praying that it won’t be too different than what we expect.
 
And Friends, the only way to do all that is to stay in close contact with our heavenly Father, basking in the sunshine of His LOVE!
 
That’s why John wrote in today’s Bit: ‘And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.’ Yes my brethren, Christians are supposed to be full of joy! Otherwise, Christ’s death, His sacrifice on the cross would be all in vain. He would have died for nothing.
 
And we keep hearing that the joy of the Lord is our strength. (Neh.8:10) Now that’s the awesome truth! For if we don’t have that joy in Christ, which brings us strength, and enables us to repel the enemy, we’ll be weak and miserable and easily fooled by Lucifer. 
 
And if you don’t believe me, then listen to Jesus when talking to His disciples re the vine and its branches. ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.’ (John 15:11)
 
And later on, re the subject of their sorrow turning to joy, Jesus tells the disciples: ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.’ (John 16:24) 
 
So why then, do so many of us Christians walk around with these sad, hang dog looks, shoulders drooping, with false piety, behaving like ‘poor-me-ones’ eh? That was never the image Jesus wanted His followers to portray.
 
Oh Friends, I know that life can really be rough at times, and it’s often not easy to keep a smile on one’s face, much less in one’s heart. But as I keep reminding us, if all the stuff we teach about Jesus is true, and we sincerely believe it, then Christians should be the happiest and most joyful people in the world! For with all the wonderful things we’ve got to look forward to: mercy, grace, forgiveness, salvation and eternal life, what’s there to be sad and miserable about?
 
And as Peter declares of those believers who never actually walked with Jesus, which includes us: ‘Whom having not seen, ye LOVE; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.’ (1 Pet.1:8-9)
 
Oh my people, if we are to save the world, or even just make it a little better, then we believers need to have more joy, more spunk, more confidence and assurance in our beliefs, then show it to the unbelievers that they too can believe. For why would anyone want to embrace a sad, joyless, haphazard, inconsistent, hypocritical belief system eh?
 
Oh Friends, people out there in this turbulent and unfriendly world are looking for a reason, a purpose to believe in, and we have the best reason and purpose there is; Jesus Christ! But we’re just not putting Him forward properly, not stirring up the emotions of the unbelievers, so that they too will want all that He has to offer.
 
And we’ll end with a word from the scholars re our Bit. ‘The major purpose of 1 John is stated in 5:13, (please take a moment and read it) but another purpose is stated here: for the recipients, and no doubt John as well, to enjoy and share in the deep sense of satisfaction and purpose that knowing Christ and walking with Him brings.’
 
And all God’s people declared in a loud, grateful and joyous voice: ‘All praise and thanks be to Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, Author and Finisher of our Faith!’ 
 
Now Friends, I implore us to go out into the unholy world and let our lights, our saltiness and our joy shine brightly before the heathen, because that’s the only way we can bring them to Jesus. And that’s what He desires more than anything else, that’s why He gave His sinless life as a sacrifice for sin! Much LOVE!
 
…in this world ye shall have tribulation…but be of good cheer…I have overcome the world… (John 16:33)