Today’s Scrip-Bit   9 November 2023 Acts 5:11.

09 Nov 2023 Leave a comment

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

Acts 5:11.       And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

Awright! So I’ve finally caught up on all my backlogged tasks and can now devote my time seriously to the Bit! Glory Be! And we had our first spell of winter weather yesterday evening and night with freezing rain amidst some heavy showers. The warnings had been sounded, but you know these days we’ve become so obstinate and know-it-all that we don’t pay sufficient attention to the warnings. And I’m sure many people paid for that lack of attention last evening as they made their way home from work. Anyway, that situation has now been rectified (smile) and there’s some sunshine out there amongst the clouds with a decent non-freezing temperature. So all’s right with the world! 

Not true at all friends. Nothing seems to be right with our crazy, war-like, power hungry, hateful world, for everywhere you turn, there’s disaster and chaos aplenty. And most of it is man made. And when you add the many natural disasters constantly occurring, it balloons to a situation that only our great, omnipotent, omniscient and omni-present God can fix! That is, if He so desires. But are we giving Him occasion to have that desire? Certainly not! For even His supposed believers are not living as right as we should be, and living more like the devil’s children than those of Almighty God. 

There’s no way on earth, nor in heaven for that matter, for our world to be in such man-made chaos if the majority of Christians were actually living a truly Christian life. That is truly having God as the Number One priority in our lives, by doing as Jesus demanded. ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ (Matt. 6:33) We only pay lip service to that scripture. As well as to this one about the great commandment in the law. To which Jesus answered: ‘Thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.’ (Matt. 22:37-38) 

What’s so difficult in that to understand eh? Nothing whatsoever! It says quite plainly that you must LOVE the Lord with every fibre of your being, not to LOVE Him partially, or conveniently, as so many of us do. With the Lord it’s ALL or NOTHING at ALL! And until many more of us realize that and begin giving ALL of ourselves to Him, our lives won’t improve and thus our world will continue to sink into the evil mire that the devil so eagerly wants to happen. And we’re aiding and abetting him by not concentrating fully on our Christian duties. Oh friends, what will it take for us to shake up ourselves and rise to the occasion for which we’ve been called eh? 

And I recently heard a pastor mention what might just be our problem. We don’t FEAR the Lord! Don’t truly reverence Him and consider His awesome power and sense of justice and righteousness. We claim to LOVE the Lord, trust Him, believe in His infinite grace and mercy, but you never hear us talking about fearing Him, both in terms of reverence and outright fear. Jesus said it thus: ‘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) 

No my faithful brethren, let’s not be afraid of people, who can only kill our body, but cannot harm our souls. However, we should fear God who can destroy both our bodies and souls in hell. And Cousin Sol pointed that out right at the very beginning of Proverbs when he so wisely wrote: ‘The fear (reverential awe) of the Lord is the beginning (the principal beginning or very start) of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.’ (Prov. 1:7) There it is in black and white, written thousands of years ago, but it’s still the God-awesome truth! 

You don’t achieve any kind of true, serious or lasting wisdom unless it comes from God, and you first have to fear and reverence Him to get it. As James so correctly said: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not (without reproach); and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (not doubting). for he that wavereth  (doubts) is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. a double minded man is unstable in all is ways.’ (James 1:5-8)  

And I like the reference the pastor pointed out in the New Testament pertaining to God’s awesome sense of justice and righteousness. The scripture is found in Acts 5, where the New Testament church was growing and people were sharing what they had with each other. But this bumptious husband and wife (Ananias and Sapphira) decided to try and pull a fast one. They went out and sold a piece of land, but only decided to give a portion of the proceeds to the church. And that was quite okay, everybody only had to give what they wanted. But the fools went up to John and Peter, and said they’d given all they got for the land. 

‘But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own, and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power (control)? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost (died): and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound (wrapped) him up, and carried him out, and buried him.’ (Acts 5: 3-6) 

Yes friends, there was no need for him to lie. But that’s not the whole story. Listen to this next part that’s even more interesting. The Bible tells us: ‘And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt (test) the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then she fell down straightway (instantly) at his feet, and yielded up the ghost (breathed her last): and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.’ (Acts 5:7-11) 

And yuh know what happened after that friends? The church settled down and it grew in numbers and grace and goodness to each other! And I believe we need some such awakening like that, or whatever it takes to bring great fear on the church today, so that we can get up off our fat, lazy, comfortable fannies and do what we’re supposed to do, instead of fighting each other and doing the things we ought not to do. And the sad part is that we have all the tools to do it in what we call our Thursday Blessings, conveniently bestowed on us for the express purpose of doing our earthly work. So let’s activate them right now by declaring (yesss!!!) them out loud. 

As one 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 time to rise up, to get out and use those blessings just as generously on Christ’s behalf, so that we can make the productive and positive difference we were placed here to make! Much LOVE!

…Christ’s church cannot positively affect the world…until it positively cleans up its own house… 

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   24 March 2022 ​Proverbs 1:7.

24 Mar 2022 Leave a comment

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

Proverbs 1:7.      The fear (reverential awe) of the Lord is the (principal) beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and understanding.

It was a stormy night, with strong winds and plenty rain! But the earth is cleansed now, and the sun is striving against ominous dark clouds to come out and light our world, just like we believers are expected to light this dark, evil world in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour! 

And since the Lord has granted us the amazing privilege of seeing another beautiful day in His wonderful universe, let us keep the promise we made yesterday to continue looking at the second part of that marvellous verse of scripture we couldn’t finish because of time and space restraints. It says: ‘The fear (reverential awe) of the Lord is the (principal) beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and understanding.’ (Prov. 1:7) 

Oh friends, what a powerful and true scripture that is! Now yesterday we learned that the  ‘The fear of the Lord means submission to the Lord and His revelation.’ And that ‘The beginning does not mean that ‘the fear of the Lord’ is left behind in the course of acquiring wisdom, but that it is the controlling principle of wisdom.’ 

Therefore, to keep on acquiring wisdom throughout out earthly lives, ‘we must always have the reverence of God blossoming in our souls, bodies and spirits, for without it, true wisdom is not obtainable, no matter how hard we try.’  And remember that we’re talking about the wisdom that comes from God, the true source of it all, not what the world considers wisdom. 

Awright! ‘So, now that we have some understanding of true wisdom and understanding, (smile)’ let’s turn to the second part of our Bit – ‘but fools despise wisdom and instruction.’ Now that, unfortunately, is also a glaring truth!  And Cousin Sol talks about it in Proverbs 9, where he compares invitations from Wisdom and Folly, the latter being showed as the invitation of an adulterous woman. 

Wisdom says: ‘Whoso is simple (naïve), let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth (lacks) understanding, she saith to him, Come eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled (mixed). Forsake the foolish (foolishness), and live; and go in the way of understanding. He that reproveth (rebukes) a scorner (scoffer) getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot (only harms himself). Reprove not a scorner (scoffer), lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will LOVE thee.’ (Prov. 9:4-8) 

Jesus also alluded to those last two verses when He spoke about judging in the Sermon on the Mount. ‘Give that not which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your peals before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you (tear you apart).’ (Matt. 7:6) 

In other words, be careful of ‘those who have deliberately rejected the message of truth.’ Like the foolish woman on the other side of the coin who sits at her door in the high places of the city and invites passersby into her den of iniquity. (Prov. 9:13-15) Cousin Sol then says: Whoso is simple (naïve), let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ (Prov. 9:16-17) 

And how many of us have fallen for that line eh, much to our chagrin. For as Cousin Sol so wisely ends. ‘But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.’ (Prov. 9:18) Oh my brethren, that’s where we usually end up when we don’t listen to wisdom. 

And Cousin Sol reinforces his argument with these verses on the side of wisdom. ‘Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy (One) is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased (years of life will be added to you).’ (Prov. 9:9-11) 

So, we have two invitations: one representing the offer to the wise man and the other to the mocker or scoffer. Now, how do they differ, and how do we decide which one to choose? The scholars tell us, that ‘ The response to these two invitations can be that of the scoffer or mocker (vs. 7-8), or that of the wise man (vs. 9-11). To listen to Wisdom is to live (vs.6), or to gain abundant life; to listen to Folly is to die (vs.18), or tragically miss out on what life is all about. The father has properly taught the son. It is now the son’s decision as to whom to follow. One way leads to life, the other to death.’  

We certainly can’t argue with that conclusion because it’s gospel truth. And being human on this sinful earth, each of us has been personally acquainted with, or seen the benefits of true wisdom and the disadvantages of folly, but it is still our decision as to which path we choose. And believe me, the sooner we choose the path of wisdom, that’s living for Jesus, the sooner our lives will improve; the sooner we will be able to have true joy and peace in our souls despite the ‘sufferation’ currently happening in our world. 

And for those of us who have already made the wise decision to live for Jesus, let’s go home declaring (yesss!!!) what we call our Thursday Blessings, blessings that have been generously bestowed on us to do Christ’s earthly work. Altogether now: ‘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!’ 

In return for all those wonderful blessings, it now behooves us to go out and share them just as generously with others, as the Lord shared them with us. Much LOVE!

…when it comes to living wisely or foolishly…it’s clear sailing…since the first offers eternal life…and the second eternal death… 

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