Today’s Scrip-Bit 18 January 2021 Deuteronomy 30:19b

18 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

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

Deuteronomy 30:19b.     ​I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

Okay people, it’s a new day; Monday, to be specific, and we’re all on tenterhooks waiting to see what takes place this coming Wednesday in the U.S. of A, as the new President is inaugurated. One thing is for sure, it won’t be a quiet day. Be assured there will be lots of shenanigans all around the country and around the world, as we look on in further amazement after last week’s assault on the Capitol Building. Only in America, you say. Not really. In any other part of the world, all hell would have already broken loose. But let’s be thankful that the situation did not deteriorate to that ungodly level. 

And just for your info, the corona virus and it’s several variants are also still alive and well and kicking butt… and the vaccines are still in short supply and not being properly distributed. I don’t think we want to get rid of it nuh, else we would be following the rules of engagement: stay home unless it’s absolutely necessary; then wear a mask, stay physically distant from those not of your own household, wash your hands. What’s so hard to understand in that eh? 

I guess we either think we’re supermen or we want to die. It reminds me of when the Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh with instructions to release His people Israel from bondage, the Egyptian monarch blatantly refused. The Lord sent some ten different kinds of plague upon Egypt, but Pharaoh still refused. Possibly because the Good Book says: ‘But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.’ (Ex. 10:27) 

Is He hardening our hearts now so that we are refusing to take the necessary precautions to stem the worldwide attack of the virus? Or is it Satan’s evil influence? I really don’t know nuh. What I know is that we’re not being very wise or godly, else our many negative situations would not have progressed to the disastrous levels they are at right now. Please people, let’s remember these memorable words of Moses to the children of Israel in the wilderness after they had left Egypt and were giving trouble. 

‘See. I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. In that I command thee this day to LOVE the Lord thy God, to walk in his way, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgements, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land which thou goest to possess.’ (Deut. 30:15-16) Very straightforward talk my brethren! And since the Lord our God does not change, that promise also holds good for us in these trying times. 

So too do the rest of Moses’ words. ‘But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but wilt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce (announce) unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whiter thou passest over the Jordan to go to possess it.’ (Deut. 30:17-18) More straightforward talk my people. Our God doesn’t mince words, He tells it like it is, which means the onus is on us to be obedient or not. 

And Moses makes it even plainer and more straightforward for them. ‘I call heaven and earth to record (as witnesses) this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.’ (Deut. 30:19) It’s set out so clearly in black and white, choose death, or choose life: ‘That thou mayest LOVE the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.’ (Deut. 30:20) 

And we all know what the Israelites did? When they got prosperous they forgot the Lord, foolishly thinking that they had achieved prosperity through their own efforts, and they paid the price for that pride and stupidity. Friends, I am putting it to us today, that we have done the very same thing. With our recent amazing technological revolution we have forgotten the Lord and prided ourselves for it all. But please remember the Good Book says, ‘it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.’ (Deut. 8:18) 

And though we have turned away from God, like the Israelites did, and are now suffering the consequences, let’s keep on following their example and turn back to Him nuh. He welcomed them back with opened arms and will do the same for us. So let’s turn to Him in prayer nuh, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, so that He can cleanse our hearts, and renew a right spirit with us. 

Altogether now: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You that this Monday morning we’re alive and standing in faith despite the mass confusion that’s currently prevailing in our world. We desperately need Your divine help, for You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems; the pandemic of Covid -19, the racial, political, and religious strife that’s ignited worldwide, plus the natural disasters like storms, famine, drought, plagues, climate change, wildfires, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes that suddenly seem to be blossoming more and more as time goes by. 

Heavenly Father, we admit that we have all sinned and seriously come short in obedience and compliance to Your Word, but we know that You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, and You have faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. That’s why we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading with You to give us, ordinary folks, as well as our leaders, employers and medical personnel, wise guidance and direction to bring our problems under control. 

And for those who are currently suffering from the many negative situations, we pray that You will ease their suffering and heal them. Father, please show them Your awesome grace and mercy, and keep Your promise that You’ll hear our prayer, forgive us, and heal our land if we turn from our evil ways. Show this evil world that You are indeed Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals! We pray this in the holy and blessed name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen! And again we say: Amen!’ 

It’s up to us now to keep our vows, so the Lord will answer our prayer. Much LOVE!

…the best way to live this life…obey God…and leave all the consequences to Him…. (Uncle Charles – Charles Stanley)  

Today’s Scrip-Bit 7 September 2019 Joshua 1:8.

07 Sep 2019 Leave a comment

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

Joshua 1:8.    ​This book of the law shall not depart out of (be continually in) thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
 

What a crying shame it is friends when one can’t lie abed late on a cloudy Saturday morning because the various aches and pains in your aching body won’t allow you to find a comfortable position in that place that’s supposed to be one of quiet peace and refreshing rest! Hn, hn! 

Yeh mih people, getting old is nice in many ways, but not so nice in others. The wisdom and experience one accumulates, plus the ability to say most of what you want and get away with it (smile) is marvellous, but I can’t say the same for the many debilitating effects age brings to one’s body. However, we can’t seem to have one without the other, so I’ll just say thank you for the good parts and just grin and bear the bad ones. And that’s enough complaining for this morning! (smile) 

Let’s see what quotes our friend Anselm sent us this week, as he sincerely aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. And I like this first one: ‘There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.’ Now is that ever so true! 

We all know that regardless of what today brings, tomorrow will show up right on schedule, because that’s the way our great God and Creator planned it! That means we can always have hope and faith that tomorrow, the new rising of the sun, will bring a different and better outcome to our circumstances. So please hang in there…and have hope for tomorrow! 

Now hear this one: ‘Try to find pleasure in the speed that you’re not used to. Changing the way you do routine things allows a new person to grow inside of you. But when all is said and done, you’re the one who must decide how you handle it.’ That’s somewhat complicated, but it does contain some truth. In this world we’re usually creatures of habit and comfort, and nothing’s wrong with that, because we can’t have excitement all the time. 

But the same old, same old routine does get boring and frustrating if we don’t occasionally add a li’l zing and zest to it. That’s why every so often we need to take a risk, do something new and/or different, get out of our comfort zone for a spell, take a different way home from work, eat at a new restaurant, so we can add a touch of spice to our humdrum, mundane lives. 

But having said that though, we have to be careful that we don’t change just for change sake, which is what so many of us are doing these days. We use words like ‘this is the twenty first century; this is 2019, the Old Testament doesn’t matter anymore, etc.’ insinuating that because we’ve reached a certain level of time and space and evolution that things must necessarily change. But please note the old saying, that the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

And that’s gospel truth friends! If you really check it out, most of the things we’re doing, and the reactions we’re showing to the various changes in our world, the same things have been going on for ages, possibly just on a different level. So please, especially in these explosive times of social media and technological revolution, don’t change just for change sake, or because others are doing it. The Good Book containing the Lord’s wise and precious Word must still be our guiding light! 

And I’d like to take the last two quotes as one, because they are closely intertwined. Hear them: ‘When you fail, that is when you get closer to success.’ ‘Success will be within your reach only when you start reaching out for it.’ And they are both full of awesome truth since you generally don’t have success unless you have first failed, and you can only have success if you reach out for it. 

But what do we mean by success eh? Is it how the world terms it; the accumulation of power and fame and money and worldly glory, or celebrity status? Or is it how Jesus describes it; serving the lost, the poor and downtrodden, LOVING our God with all our being, and LOVING our neighbours as ourselves, overcoming evil with good and going the second mile when it’s not necessary? 

Whichever path we choose though, the results will still be the same: we won’t always succeed the first time, or even the fourth and fifth, and we’ll never succeed if we don’t try, and that means try sincerely and wholeheartedly, give our all! Anyway, here’s the best path to any kind of success at all. Obviously it comes from the Good Book, God’s direct words of wisdom and warning to His servant Joshua when He made him leader of the Israelites after Moses’ death. 

‘This book of the law shall not depart out of (be continually in) thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.’ 

Oh mih people, that’s Success 101 right there! And it hasn’t changed one iota since the Lord said them to Joshua! That formula for success remains constant forever because it’s God’s Word and his Word doesn’t change! And here’s something I LOVE about our God, although I don’t always appreciate it in my dealings with Him. (smile) 

He doesn’t just tell you something and leave you floundering, He often drives it home with another suitable and well placed nail, to oftimes encourage us, like He did there with Joshua, continuing thus: ‘Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.’ (Josh.1:9) 

And that’s after telling him basically the same thing two verses before. But He knew that Joshua would need a lot of strength and courage to lead the wayward and stubborn Israelites and that was His way of encouraging Him. And He does the same with us friends! The Lord will NEVER leave us alone and ‘unencouraged’ when He knows that we definitely need encouragement! Please remember that! All we have to do is call on Him in sincerity and truth and He will answer appropriately. 

Now let’s end with Jesus’ wise and faithful words on the matter of success. ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ (Matt.6:33) No truer words were ever spoken friends! And if we’re wise, we’ll take them to heart and sincerely and diligently put them into action in our lives! Much LOVE!

…following Jesus and His righteous ways…is the ONLY path to true success…

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 4 April 2014 Proverbs 3:23

04 Apr 2014 Leave a comment

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

  Proverbs 3:23.    Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.
 
Oh Friends, it’s Friday, it’s Friday! The weekend’s come, and labour’s done! Thank God it’s Friday!

Yeh mih people, it is indeed Friday, but it never fails to amaze me at how much our society looks forward to those two days off. This was once supposed to be the generation of leisure, of take it easy, of so much wealth etc. that we didn’t need to work our sorry tails off any longer.
 
Hn! But what’s happened eh? In the midst of all the technological revolution, we’re now working harder than ever, often at several jobs, and still can’t make ends meet!
 
We’re the most stressed out and anxiety wired generation ever, in times of supposed peace. There’s also more poverty, homelessness, sickness, crime – both white and blue collar – plus oodles of resentment, anger and strife, accompanied by unforeseen ungodliness and evil, in what’s been amongst the wealthiest of times.
 
Oh my brethren, how did we ever get this way eh? Whatever happened to the dreams of a four and three day work-week, and early retirement with pensions we could afford to live on? Steups!
 
Unfortunately, those are not even pipe dreams nowadays, but more like impossible ones! Ah Lord eh! We certainly have been very poor stewards of God’s largesse.
 
I guess there are many reasons for our sad demise, but one of the biggest is the distribution of wealth. The rich have indeed been getting richer and the poor poorer! And once that great inequality in wealth exists, society cannot function in a healthy, much less happy manner.
 
When so many don’t even have the wherewithal to purchase the basic necessities of life, there must be confusion and calamity – especially when you also remove Jehovah God from the equation!
 
Anyway Friends, this wasn’t meant to be a treatise on the shortcomings of our society, just a brief edification. (smile) So let’s get to the matter at hand and chant our Friday Chant with much sincerity and hope, to keep us strong and thoroughly focused on what we need to do to survive in this rat-race world.
 
So let’s chant up a storm this Friday morning nuh! ‘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.’
 
Awright mih people, that ought to give us enough of the right perspective in how to handle the weekend! So let’s move on to our Bit, one of God’s great promises. ‘Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.’
 
Yes Friends, when we give Jehovah God sovereignty over our lives, we WILL indeed walk in the safety and security of His everlasting LOVE and omnipotence!
 
What can be more assuring and comforting than that eh? Nothing my brethren! Nothing at all!
 
If we can’t trust the Creator and Controller of this great and wonderful universe, whom then can we really trust? Certainly not mortal and fallible man!
 
Now let’s check out some scripture that corroborates our Bit, from two of the most godly and God endowed men that ever lived.
 
First up is Cousin Sol with a proverb of eternal truth. ‘He that walketh uprightly walketh surely (securely, safely): but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.’ (Prov.10:9)
 
And that’s an indisputable fact Friends, as we’re seeing every day, as more and more evil doers are being brought to light.
 
Now hear Bruh David; a man after God’s own heart. ‘The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again (does not repay): but the righteous showeth mercy, and giveth. For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth (land); and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off (destroyed). The steps of a good man are ordered (established) by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
 
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed (descendants) begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed (descendants) is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.’ (Ps.37: 21-27)
 
Oh mih people, my fellow believers, what words of grace and godly assurance! And Bruh David lived them! It wasn’t any hearsay, but a true testimonial of his life. Though he occasionally stumbled and fell, the Lord never entirely cast him adrift. Of course he paid a price for some of his more heinous sins, but his name still reverberates throughout the Good Book as a man of God.
 
All I can say Friends, is that if you deal sincerely and truthfully with Almighty God, He will do the same with you. But you have to put your trust in Him first. He has already done His part by sacrificing Jesus to pay for our sins. It’s up to us now to receive His awesome grace, mercy, LOVE and forgiveness. And if we’re truly endowed with godly wisdom, then we’ll do just that! Much LOVE!
 
…if you can believe you’re in good hands with All State…a company run by fallible men…why can’t you believe you’ll be in even better…the best hands…with infallible, immortal…Almighty God…