It’s High Time Christians Stop Being So Lethargic and Wake Up to Their Responsibilities, and the Imminent Second Coming of Jesus!

24 Feb 2026 Leave a comment

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

Romand 13:11.         And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we (first) believed.

And after Monday comes Tuesday… just like the Lord designed it. Yes mih bredrin, it’s a brand new day, and we’re still alive and kicking so let’s give our wonderful Lord and Saviour much thanks for the breath of life that’s still flowing through our finite, fragile, mortal bodies, not forgetting the hope of salvation and eternal life that He so selflessly died to provide for us. And all God’s people sent up a sincere prayer of ‘Thank You Jesus! You are the Greatest! And we LOVE and worship you with all of our hearts, souls, bodies and minds! Amen!’

Ah friends, it’s so good when we give God thanks for His wonderful attention and blessings to us underserving children of men. And it’s something I don’t think we do often enough, because we don’t truly understand/or appreciate how good God has been to us, when He had no reason whatsoever to be. Instead, He had, and still has, every reason to destroy us completely for our prideful and rebellious attitude towards Him.

But as the Bible tells us He LOVED us so dearly and is so longsuffering or patient with us, and didn’t want any of His most wonderful creation to perish, but that all should come to repentance, (2 Pet. 3:9) that He broke His own heart and sent His ONE Son, yes His ONLY Son to earth to die for our rebelliousness, so that all who believed in Him could have everlasting life and not perish in the fires of hell, where we were all destined for, before Christ’s death ransomed us. (John 3:16)

So, when we talk about being indebted to our heavenly Father, it’s no joke or simple matter, because it’s a debt we can never repay. But the good thing about our God is that He doesn’t require repayment, all He needs is for us to sincerely accept His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and thus gain salvation and eternal life. And why is that? Because it’s Jesus who, in obedience to the Father’s will, paid our sin debt in full with the selfless sacrifice of His sinless life.

That’s why the Word says: ‘Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of (those) things in heaven, and (those) things in earth, and those (things) under the earth; And that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ (Phil. 2: 9-11)

Now that’s how the Father rewards those who do His will. Are we in line for rewards…are we doing His will to the best of our ability? I doubt it. Otherwise, neither Christ’s body, the church, nor the world would be in such a terrible state, with dissensions, divisions, hate, greed, strife and all the negative aspects front and centre, rather than in the background.

And it’s no wonder that Satan is ruling the roost, because we supposed Christians, supposed believers in Christ Jesus, are not doing what He desires of His followers, namely to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, and thus show others how living with and for Him is the best life possible. In other words, we’re not doing as Jesus says: ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ (Matt. 5:16)

And that’s the sad truth! We believers are not stepping up to the plate sufficiently and hitting the many home runs that we need to turn things around in this evil and ungodly world. Remember that doing nothing to improve matters, is the same as encouraging them to be bad. So, sitting on the sidelines and seeing evil and ungodliness being perpetrated all over the world when you’re in a position to make some small improvement, makes you just as guilty as the perpetrators of the evil and ungodliness.

Consequently, a whole lot of us supposed Christians are guilty of plenty evil and ungodliness, for there’s always some small way that we can mitigate those negative circumstances, if it’s even in our own families or neighbourhoods. Oh friends, any evil or ungodliness mitigated is a win for Christ! Most of us can’t be big movers and shakers of the world, but we can certainly do stuff right in our backyards to improve the situation. It’s just that too many of us who call ourselves Christians, are either afraid of what others might say and/ or do, or too lazy and comfortable in our material wellbeing, and thus we refuse to get up off of our fat fannies and do something worthwhile for Christ!

But under those circumstances, here are two scriptures that we should consider well. The first comes from Bruh Paul to his protégé Timothy, regarding fear. ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of LOVE, and of a sound (disciplined) mind.’ (2 Tim. 1:7) And the second in Jesus words, is like unto it: ‘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 soul and body in hell.’ (Matt. 10:28)

Now, that means you should not fear mankind, because they can only kill your body and not your soul. But the One to be truly afraid of is Almighty God, who can kill both body and soul in the roaring fires of hell! And it’s a sad fact that many, if not most of us are more afraid of man than of God. How foolish! But I guess we are more concerned about our bodies than our souls. However, let’s remember there are consequences for every misdeed, and sometimes those consequences can be mind boggling and also life-altering.

Anyway, let’s hope what we’ve spoken of today will jumpstart our consciences, will wake us from our stupor, for as Bruh Paul says to the Roman church: ‘And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we (first) believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.’ (Rom. 13:11-12) And as this commentary explains: ‘That means there’s no place for spiritual lethargy in the Christian life. Believers must live in urgent expectation and wide-awake preparedness for what is coming because “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20)

So, nuff said. Let’s go home now declaring (chuh!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong, lock stock and barrel! As one strong and sincere voice: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

And with those words, we’ve now become duty bound to go out and share the amazing LOVE and friendship of Christ with others, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…it’s time for believers to heed the wake up call…for who knows what will happen tomorrow…

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   11 August 2022   James 2:18.

11 Aug 2022 Leave a comment

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

James 2:18.      …show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.

Well, we on the homestretch now friends; it’s Thursday and we counting down to that day we all so look forward to, Friday and the exciting possibilities of the weekend. But we have to get through Thursday before we ever arrive at Friday, so let’s just concentrate on doing that nuh, and let the chips fall wherever they please when Friday comes. As Jesus so wisely said: ‘Take therefore no thought for the morrow (do not worry about tomorrow): for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil (trouble) thereof.’ (Matt. 6:34) 

Ah mih bredrin, unfortunately though many of us worry about what will happen tomorrow and thus don’t pay sufficient attention to today. We don’t live a full life on the present day because our thoughts are slanted too much to tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. But yuh know what, some wise person once said, ‘tomorrow never comes.’ And that’s the indisputable truth, for when the day we call tomorrow comes, it comes as today. So, in actual fact, we never live the tomorrows we dream of, it’s always the todays. (smile) 

And the scholars offer this very perceptive explanation. They say: ‘When our priority is spiritual, that’s “seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” God will take care of the material, for where God guides, He provides. We need not even worry about tomorrow, for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. This means that each day has its own troubles and challenges to be responsibly handled, without worrying about the hypothetical problems that could arise tomorrow.’ 

Yes friends, when we think too much about what might happen tomorrow, we are not able to give enough attention to the things that are happening today. And if you’ve ever sat down and contemplated the number of times those troubles you expect to happen tomorrow actually take place, I’m sure you’ve noticed that they are certainly not as many as we expected. 

So a lot of the stuff we’re concerning ourselves about is merely our projection, our anxiety and worry, and Jesus has already commanded us not to fear or worry. ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ (John 14:27) Then, later on He reiterated the very same sentiments. ‘’These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’ (John 16:33) 

And if we are true followers of Christ then we ought to listen to and believe what He tells us, because He only speaks truth. But too often in this confused and evil world, we allow the enemy to deceive us into thinking that things are so bad that we cannot handle them, or they will never get good and all our fears will come to pass. However, the truth is that as a believer in Christ we can handle ANYTHING that comes against us! For Jesus has promised never to leave nor forsake us, and also that we can do anything through Him, because He strengthens us to accomplish His will! 

But we must truly believe all of that stuff and then put it into action into our lives, otherwise it’s of no real use. We’re talking here about faith in action! And that’s really the only kind of faith there is! You can talk all the talk you want and don’t engage your talk, then it’s not faith. As James, Jesus’ brother so correctly points out. ‘Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.’ (James 2: 17-18) 

Oh my fellow saints in Christ, we must remember that Christianity is simply faith in action! It’s more of a doing, a helping and caring rather than talking concept. Note how Jesus got up every day and went out and did stuff; helped people, healed the sick and suffering, and generally spread His LOVE around to those who needed and wanted it. But He was always doing or going somewhere to do something, except when He was teaching. And remember Jesus also told us that if we had even a li’l bit of faith as a mustard seed, that we could move mountains. (Matt. 17:20) 

But we first have to believe it, then put it into action. And that’s where our Christian faith is falling down. There is not enough action on our part in our society. I’m sure you’re seeing how the evil doers, the iniquity workers are doing their best to control the world, while too many of us supposed believers are merely sitting on the sidelines, scared, or just not interested enough to make a positive difference. But we spout a whole lot of foolishness about being Christians. Steups! 

We clap and shout and sing ‘Praise the Lord’ in church, but outside of the church in the rough and tough places where we’re desperately needed, we’re nowhere to be found. Read the Good Book friends. Jesus didn’t just sit around talking, He was out there in all the places where the hypocrite Pharisees thought He shouldn’t be. But that’s because He came to save the lost, the sick and suffering, not the righteous. And you can’t save people unless you go where they are or have them come to you. 

And that’s exactly what He did, and what He expects of us, His supposed ambassadors down here on earth. And why do you think He was so generous to give us what we call our Thursday Blessings eh? Because we deserved them? Obviously not, but that we could use them to do His work, to help others, teach them of His grace, goodness and mercy, so that they too could come to Him, like we did, and find salvation and relief for their souls. 

So, right now, let’s activate those blessings by declaring (yesss!!!) them out loud. 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!’ 

Now, it’s our bounden duty to go out and share those blessings with others, just as generously as Christ shared them with us! Much LOVE!

…Christians need to stop talking so much faith…and instead…begin doing plenty more faith… 

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