Today’s Scrip-Bit 16 August 2019 John 1:5.

John 1:5.    ​And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended (apprehended) it not.
 

Welcome to a glorious Friday friends! And it’s all the Lord’s doing on our behalf! All praise and glory to His holy name! So please, let’s make the effort, show the necessary gratitude and rejoice and be glad in it nuh! That’s the only wise and sensible thing to do in light of His wonderful gesture. But yuh know, sometimes it seems that the unbelievers are more grateful for the good days they enjoy than we believers. 

Listen to the ordinary workingman, as he sings his Friday song nuh. ‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday oui! My most favourite day, because it heralds the start of the weekend, where my time is my own, to do with as I like and please. And I can tell anybody to go jump in the lake if I don’t like their suggestions for how I’m spending, or planning to spend my time! 

And it sure feels good when you can tell some farse or nosy somebody to mind their own business! Too many people in this world today don’t have no business of their own, or just like to mind other people’s business! Chuh! I don’t mind theirs, so why they have to bother with mine eh? But enough about them yes! Today is Friday, and it bright and sunshiny, so me and mine going to enjoy it to the fullest. 

I’m even going to take a half-day off from the slave master work – tough if he doh like it – and go home and spend it with the children. Might even take them down to the Ex; that big country fair down by the CNE grounds on the Lakeshore. They would certainly enjoy that! But let’s see how the day plays out nuh, before we make any firm commitments. We’ll just be thankful that it’s Friday and the start of the weekend! Praise God for that yes!’ 

Ah mih fellow saints, how many of us get so excited about another supposed ordinary day eh? Not too many of us, who are supposed to be the most joyful people in the world. But we not going to preach on the subject (smile), let’s just chant our Friday Chant, sing our weekend song. 

As one, strong voice now: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through another week of work! It hasn’t been easy, but with your generous help, I made it through. Now, please help me to get sufficient fun, fellowship, rest and relaxation in these two short days off, so that I can be renewed and refreshed in soul, body and mind, to go back out and do it all over again next week, furthering your glorious kingdom with each step I take. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen!’ 

Yeh, it’s not as enthusiastic and colourful as the workingman’s offering, but it sure does keep us on the straight and narrow. And today, I want to share the scriptures I had planned to share yesterday when the Lord guided me in a different direction. It’s the same Bit: ‘And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended (apprehended) it not.’ And unfortunately that hasn’t changed much since John wrote that some two thousand years ago. And why is that eh? 

Possibly because as Jesus explains: ‘And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men LOVED darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth (practices) evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved (exposed).’ (John 3:19-20) And isn’t that the awesome truth my fellow believers? We hide what we don’t want others to see in the darkness, behind closed doors. 

But please remember Jesus’ warning: ‘Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed, neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets (secretly in inner rooms) shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.’ (Luke 12:1b-3) 

Oh my people, all the things we hide and do in the darkness will one day be revealed publicly! And besides the Lord sees them when we do them now, so what’s the purpose of hiding eh? As they say, our true self is reflected in what we do in darkness, behind closed doors, when no one else is around. So anything else we do differently in the light is pure hypocrisy. 

As the scholars explain: ‘12:1-2. Hypocrisy, piety just for the sake of appearance is futile; for even hidden motives will one day be laid bare by God.’  Please believe that my people, and let’s try our best to only deal with true and godly motives, it will pay big dividends for us in the long run. Now let’s see how many of those original scriptures on light we can get in now, because the Bit’s again gone in a slightly different direction than I had planned. (smile) 

And I guess the best one to begin with is Bruh David’s proclamation in Psalm 27: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?’ (Ps.27:1) Not a single soul my people! Then in Psalm 119, the psalmist declares: ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.’ (Ps.119:105) So true friends, the Lord’s Word is our guidebook for earthly living! 

And Isaiah declares: ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.’ (Is.5:20) Yuh better believe it! And what better way to end than with John’s poignant declaration: 

‘This the is the message which we have heard of him (Jesus), and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not (practice) the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ (1 John 1:5-7) 

Please friends, let’s ponder on those oh significant and important words today nuh, and see if we’re truly walking in the light or just fooling ourselves, and actually walking in darkness. But whatever answer we get, please let’s also ask the Lord for His awesome help to truly walk in His Light. That’s wisdom of undeterminable proportions! Much LOVE!

…you can’t truly walk in the Light of Christ…and in the darkness of Satan…at the same time…

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 15 August 2019 John 1:5.

John 1:5.    ​And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended (apprehended) it not.
 

And then it was Thursday… Wow! The week almost finish already! In one way that’s good because it means that the weekend and rest from work will soon be here. But on the other hand, the quicker August finishes, the quicker summer and the holiday season will also be over, and it seems like it’s just begun! 

Yes mih people, we can’t have it all our way, but through our strong and sincere faith in our wonderful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we can bear anything that comes against us; yes, we’re able to handle any circumstance that comes our way, be it storm or calm! And when I asked the Lord what He wants me to write about today, He led me to this little card on my desk from the Anglican Diocese of Toronto that has a prayer printed on either side. 

I shared one sometime ago, which began with ‘Sustain us, O Lord, with Your Holy Spirit.’ Now here’s the next one. Please pray with me: ‘O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgement. And light riseth up in the darkness for the godly. Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what thou wouldest have us to do, that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!’ 

Yes my fellow saints in Christ, every day, with our many doubts and fears, we need a recharge of wisdom and grace to save us from making wrong choices in this dark and evil world in which we’re currently living!  And it’s only through Christ, our Guiding Light that we can ever hope to counter that evil darkness with light and find the safe and straight path so that we won’t stumble and fall. 

And in these days of numerous colourful and addictive distractions, that’s often a hard task. But as John so wisely and truthfully tells us: ‘In him (Jesus) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended (apprehended) it not.’ (John 1:4-5) 

Yes friends, darkness cannot comprehend or apprehend or be superior to light under any circumstance at all! For as Cousin Sol, as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us, during his search for man’s purpose on earth he eventually saw the futility of it all. ‘Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.’ (Ecl.2:13) And that’s the gospel truth! 

Now here’s a note from the scholars. ‘1:4-5. Life…light: See also 8:12; 9:5; 11:25; 14:6. In John’s writings, life represents salvation and deliverance through Christ, and light denotes Jesus’ revelation of God which calls men to accountability.’ 

And friends I’m chuckling here because I had intended to take the rest of the Bit in an entirely different direction, but after checking out those verses that the scholars mentioned I realized that there was only one way to go, and that’s sharing those verses because they are all Jesus’ words, as pertains to Him being the LIGHT in our Darkness. 

So here goes. Jesus said it out loud and clear: ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ (John 8:12) He made this immortal statement to the Pharisees who obviously doubted Him because they said He was witnessing to Himself. But Jesus knew who He was and didn’t need the approval of the Pharisees who were darkness personified, as He told them later on in the chapter. 

Then hear Him as He healed a blind man: ‘I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ (John 9:4-5) And yuh know what my people? Now that Jesus no longer walks this earth as a human being, it means that WE are now the light of the world, as He said in Matt.5:14. Let’s remember that, and shine forth accordingly nuh! 

Now hear the Lord to Martha after He tarried in coming to Lazarus’ sick bed and so he eventually died. ‘Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead (may die), yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?’ (John 11:25-26) 

Oh friends, Jesus Christ is also asking that explosive and monumental question of us this morning? Do we believe that He’s the Giver of Life? Now that’s something we have to very seriously ask ourselves. And hopefully the answer will be a resounding YES! Because if it isn’t, then crapaud smoke yuh pipe! And the scholars tell us: ‘11:25. I am the resurrection is one of Jesus’ greatest “I am” statements, signifying His power to give eternal life.’ 

Now listen to this other immortal statement to Doubting Thomas, when he queried Jesus about the way to go. ‘Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’ (John 14:6) Oh mih people, mih people, if you don’t believe that then there’s no light in you, only darkness! 

That means there’s no hope of salvation! For as the scholars note: ‘14:6. Jesus does not tell them about the way, nor does He show them the way. He does not even guide them along the way. He says He is the WAY!’ And so He is my faithful brethren! Please, please believe it, because your very existence through eternity depends on it! 

And now, having seen the LIGHT, (smile) let’s go home declaring our Thursday Blessings, that that very same LIGHT has so generously bestowed on us to enable us to do His earthly work. In strong voice and sincere belief: ‘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 everyday! Amen!’ 

And if you were sincere, then let’s go out and share those wonderful blessings with others, as Jesus so greatly desires. Much LOVE!

…hoarding of blessings…means you’re living in darkness…generously sharing blessings…means you’re living in the LIGHT…