Today’s Scrip-Bit   1 March 2023 Psalm 118:6.

01 Mar 2023 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 118:6.       The Lord is on my side: I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

And then it was a damp, cloudy, middle of the week Wednesday, the first day of March 2023. Can you believe it, February’s already over and done with, assigned to the annals of history! The days are certainly not waiting on anyone, they’re just ploughing ahead unceasingly in their God-given duties. And so should it be with us Christian believers; we ought to be relentlessly moving forward with the spreading of Christ’s marvellous gospel, the good news of salvation, forgiveness and eternal life! 

Nothing ought to stop us, least of all the devil and his evil doing cronies. And why do we allow those evil doers to prevent us from doing Christ’s work eh? A lot of it is based on fear. But one of the biggest repeated commands in the Bible is ‘Fear not!’ And Jesus also asked several times, ‘Where is your faith?’ Then He also admonished ‘O ye of little faith!’ So, I guess a lot of our hesitation in doing Christ’s work is based on fear and lack of sufficient faith to overcome our fear. But we have to realize that FAITH is the ONLY thing that overcomes FEAR. 

And today, it seems like a faith versus fear day, with scriptures that will enable us to build our faith and thus lessen our fear. And I guess the most alluring and confidence building scripture to start our journey is that marvellous one from the prophet Isaiah, where he instructs the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people thus: ‘Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded (disgraced): they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.’ (Is. 41:10-11) 

Wow! What awesome words of encouragement my people! That’s the Creator and Controller of the universe, the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob telling us not to fear, that He will look after us with His mighty right hand! What more do we want eh? And please don’t tell me that that’s from the Old Testament and that the Lord was speaking to His chosen people of Israel, for who are you? 

You are also His chosen. He sent His sinless Son Jesus Christ to sacrifice himself on the rugged cross of Calvary so that all of His creation, both Jews and Gentiles could be forgiven, reconciled to Him, and receive salvation and eternal life. That means, in no uncertain terms, that those scriptures on fear in both the Old and New Testament apply to all supposed believers in Christ Jesus! 

And having cleared that up, (smile) let’s move on to this interesting scripture from Psalm 118, which says: ‘I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large (broad) place. The Lord is on my side: I will not fear: what can man do unto me? The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.’ (Ps. 118:5-9) 

Yes friends, when you trust in the Lord, put your faith in Him, He works out everything for your good. The only problem is that you first have to put your faith and trust in Him, before you can see Him working in your life. And the more you trust Him, the more you will see His good works, and the more your faith will grow. Remember, Christianity is not for cowards. 

Please note the strong tone the Lord used with Joshua when he made him the leader of the Israelites after the death of Moses. Having already told Joshua to be strong and courageous several times, (Josh. 1:2-8) He admonished him one last time for good measure. ‘Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.’ (Josh. 1:9) Now, I can’t say exactly why, but those scriptures from Joshua 1:7-9 are some of my favourite scriptures. They just light a fire in my bones. (smile) 

And Bruh David adds his two cents worth to the situation, when he writes in Psalm 56, after the Philistines took him in Gath. ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God have I put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me…When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.’ (Ps. 56:3-4, 9) 

Oh my fellow believers can we sincerely utter those words? Do we know without a doubt that our great and wonderful God is for us? I certainly hope so. For until we do, we will not enjoy all of the many blessings available under His most generous umbrella of care and compassion. 

And what does Jesus say about fear, you ask? Listen up as He warns. ‘And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both the soul and body in hell.’ (Matt. 10:28) And that person my friends is none other than the Lord God Jehovah; the ONLY ONE who can destroy both body and soul. So that’s where our first fear should lie, not in Satan and his evil doers. But even then, it’s not so much fear of God, but more a reverential awe of Him, because we know His awesome power. 

By the way, here’s an interesting point from the scholars. They say: ‘Notice that God is the One who has authority to cast men into hell, and not Satan, who will himself be ultimately cast into everlasting fire.’  Now that’s something we should also consider, Satan can’t cast us into hell, but he can certainly help us get there, which is his raison d’etre, his reason for being, to inveigle us to go against God and eventually end up with him in hades. Conversely, Jesus wants us to end up with Him in heaven, so whom will you choose eh? Let’s hope Jesus. 

And it seems like there’s so much to say on the subject of faith versus fear that we’ve run out of time and space today. That means, the Lord willing, we’ll continue this most important topic tomorrow. In the meanwhile, let’s go home declaring (yesss!!!) our Wednesday Wail, letting all and sundry know of our 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!’ 

Yes friends that’s the gospel truth! And when you add this langniappe, this li’l extra to it, that if we endure to the end, that future will be even more glorious than we can ever ask or imagine, it encourages us even more to stick with Jesus to the very end. Now, that’s wisdom to the nth degree! Much LOVE!

…when fear comes a knocking…the best response…send faith to answer it… 

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ        

Today’s Scrip-Bit   15 December 2022 Psalm 118:8.

15 Dec 2022 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 118:8.       It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. (the middle verse of the Bible) 

Well friends, today, Thursday, the penultimate day of the workweek is supposed to bring us a big snowstorm. Thankfully though, so far we’ve only seen wind and freezing rain in my area. But if the weather forecast holds true, the evening commute home will be terrible. Let’s hope and pray that they are somewhat wrong about the intensity of the storm. And why would we desire an intense physical storm when we already have so many intense emotional and spiritual ones eh? 

No way! However, those latter storms can be lessened and controlled by being in association with Jesus Christ, the divine storm calmer. But the physical ones are a different story. Oh, He can calm those too, if He so desires, like he did back on the sea of Galilee, when ‘He rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (Mark 4:39) But usually, in those cases, He allows Mother Nature to take her course without interference. (smile) 

And I believe the best way to handle that situation is to have Jesus calm our own personal storms, so that we can concentrate on the physical ones around us. But you know another li’l ‘secrat’? Jesus can also help us handle the physical storms around us, help us to stay calm in them and navigate our way safely through them. And all God’s children gave a loud shout of gratitude: ‘All glory and honour be to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who enables us to handle whatever storms come into our lives, be they physical, emotional or whatever!’ 

Ah friends, Jesus’ reach is infinite, and His awesome power is unimaginable, unstoppable, without end! As Jesus said so clearly when talking about it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven. ‘With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.’ (Matt. 19:26) That my people, is one of the first things we need to believe when we come to Jesus. As Jesus said to the disciples after calming the storm we spoke of above. ‘Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? (Mark 4:40) But without that staunch faith, everything else is useless. 

As the Big Library (smile) clearly spells it out in the book of Hebrews: ‘But without faith it is impossible to please him (God): for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ (Heb. 11:6) Yes my faithful brethren, we must believe that God exists and rewards those who diligently seek Him. And Hebrews goes on to give us examples of the patriarchs who exhibited that kind of strong faith in God and saw most of their dreams and His promises come true. People like, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, etc. etc. 

And in these difficult, evil and turbulent times, it’s that kind of strong faith we believers need to stop the drain of people from Christ’s church, and instead bring them back to His fold, and also bring new believers to Him. But that can only happen if we the current and supposed faithful believers do our jobs; talk about Jesus to others and live the kind of life that will endear them to us and therefore to Him. We have to stop being lazy and lethargic, and override our fear of man and the world, and trust our heavenly Father to take care of us, as He’s so faithfully promised to do. 

At this most important time in the annals of history, we believers need to grab the words of Psalm 118 and eat them, let them fill us up with faith. We must be able to unequivocally declare: (steups!!!) ‘I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large (broad) place. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.’ (Ps. 118:5-9) 

Wow mih bredrin! That says it all right there! If we sincerely put our trust in Almighty God, we won’t fear what finite and frail man can do to us. And that brings us right to the crux of the problem: fear and faith; their interconnectivity. You simply can’t have both at the same time. It’s either one or the other; for fear kills faith and faith drives out fear. As they say, when faith comes a knocking, send faith to answer the door. And some of Jesus most popular words down here on earth were ‘Fear not.’ 

Yes friends, He was either telling people to not fear, or complimenting them on the strength and power of their faith. And you can find a great example of the latter in Mark 10:46-52, when the blind beggar Bartimaeus kept crying out to Jesus as He was passing through the streets of Jericho: ‘Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.’ (Mark 10:47) Jesus finally had the blind man brought to Him and asked what he wanted. Without hesitation, he replied ‘Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.’ (Mark 10:51-52) 

Now that’s the kind of staunch and believing faith we need today. Unfortunately though, today’s church seems mostly filled with fear and very little faith, otherwise we would be more industrious in working and living for Jesus, and the devil would not have such a stranglehold on the world, especially on our children of this generation. Ah mih people, we can’t allow this fearmongering and strife-filled situation to continue in our world. It’s our job to clean it up. When Jesus comes back, He expects to find a strong, unified, and diligent church. 

Has it ever occurred to us that the reason, or one of the reasons He has not yet returned, is that His church is weak, fearful, disunited and lazy? But even in our unfaithfulness, He’s seen it fit to shower us with undeserved blessings which enable us to do His earthly work. We call them our Thursday Blessings, and they need to be declared (chuh!!!) out loud to be activated. So, let’s do that right now nuh. 

As one strong and sincere voice: ‘I declare that I am blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for my life! I declare today that I am blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance! I am blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline! I am blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favour and fulfillment! 

I am blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection! I am blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life! I declare that any curse or negative word that’s ever been spoken over me is broken right now in the name of Jesus! I declare that everything I put my hands to, will prosper and succeed! I declare it today and every day! Amen!’ 

And I’m chuckling here as I think what a nightmare it would be if I had to write ‘declare’ (steups!!!) so often every week. Thanks for the power of copying. But seriously though my fellow saints, we now need to take those blessings and go out into this evil world and sincerely and diligently use them to proclaim Christ’s wonderful name and His magnificent gospel as we have been commissioned to do! Much LOVE!

…go ye therefore…and teach all nations…that’s our Great Commission… 

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ