Today’s Scrip-Bit   4 March 2024 Exodus 20:8-9.

04 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

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

Exodus 20:8-9.       Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work:

Here it is again friends, Monday, the first day of our work week! The day that so many of us so wrongly blaspheme, putting all our problems on it, like the Father placed all our sins on the sinless shoulders of Jesus. But poor Monday gets a bad rap just because it’s the day we return to work after a short and pleasurable weekend. Unfortunately, whatever we call the first day of the work week, it would no doubt come in for some sort of abuse. (smile) But as we’ve said before Monday ought to be our biggest and best day, because we’re fresh and confident after a couple days of rest, including fellowship with other believers in the Lord’s sanctuary on Sundays. 

That ought to just have us bopping, on our toes, rearing to get out into the crazy world and do our thing for Jesus. But sadly it doesn’t happen that way very often. No. Too many of us are too tired from the overzealous partying on the weekend, and thus our spirits are at a rather low ebb, with work the last thing on our minds. Consequently we get out there on a Monday morning, late, tired, grumpy and in no mood to do a good and full days work, so our work and attitude are not up to scratch, which only reflects poorly on our claim to be this big Christian, this sincere follower of Jesus Christ. And Christianity takes another unnecessary hit! 

Oh my people, one of the reasons we so highly recommend church on Sundays is because of the positive influence it has on our Mondays, and thus on our Christian behaviour. Why do you think the Lord stipulated in the Ten Commandments: ‘Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work…. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.’ (Ex. 20:8-11) 

Yes friends, the Lord in His eternal wisdom knew that our frail human bodies would need rest after working for a whole week, else both our work and our bodies would suffer irreparable damage. But obviously we don’t pay close attention to what the Lord says, figuring that we know best, so we work long unwise hours and days, just to get ahead in this material centred world, then wonder why there’s so much stress and sickness in our lives. And yes, it’s good to have nice things and live a good life, but at what cost? 

Remember NONE of the material things we accumulate will go with us when we depart his earthly life, so why kill ourselves to accumulate them eh? That’s why it’s so much wiser to adhere to Jesus’ timely advice: ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt (ruin), and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt (ruin), and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ (Matt. 6:19-21) 

And we all know that that’s the gospel truth! Wherever our treasures are stored, there will our hearts be focused. That means if we concentrate on storing up earthly treasures, then our focus will be on earthly things, but if we concentrate on storing up heavenly treasures, then our focus will be heavenward, where in all wisdom it ought to be, since you cannot carry any earthly treasures there with you, and neither do moth and rust corrupt, or thieves break through and steal. And what most of us don’t seem to realize is that when you focus on the Lord God Jehovah, He is also able to enrich you with earthly treasures, as well as heavenly ones. 

Remember what Bruh David declares (chuh!!!) in the opening verse of Psalm 24: ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.’ (Ps. 24:1) That means He made the world and thus everything in it belongs to Him and only Him. Thus anything He wants to give to His people He can do it. Yuh see how He enriched Cousin Sol when he ascended the throne of Israel after his father, Bruh David died. Cousin Sol asked for wisdom and understanding to rule his people, but because the Lord was so impressed with his decisions, He also gave Him wealth and wisdom untold, more than any man before or after him! (1 Kin. 3:6-15) 

That just goes to show we don’t have to sell our souls to Satan to get earthly wealth and wisdom, we can also get them from Jehovah God. But even then, we cannot carry the earthly stuff when we depart this earth, that’s why it’s oh so necessary to store up heavenly treasures, so when we get there we’ll have stuff to our name. And with all those words of wisdom under our belts, the most sensible thing to do right now, is to go to the Lord in prayer, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, asking for His divine help to do and live like we ought to on this His great earth. 

As one voice: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You this Monday morning for life and strong faith in Christ, despite the mass confusion in our world. Heavenly Father, You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems. Yes, we have all sinned and seriously disobeyed Your Word, but You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, who has faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. 

So, we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading for wise guidance and direction to alleviate our problems. Oh Father, please ease the pain of the many suffering from negative situations, show them Your awesome grace and mercy. And faithfully keep Your promise to prosper us 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!’ 

And lest we forget, or didn’t pay serious attention to our prayer; the Lord promised to prosper us if we turned from our evil ways. That means if we expect divine assistance, then we have to get the ball rolling by doing just that! Much LOVE!

…a Christian’s best day should be Monday…not Friday…

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 29 July 2018 Psalm 24:1-2.

29 Jul 2018 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 24:1-2.   The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods (rivers).

Aye mih people, can you believe that once again it’s Sunday, and in a few hours it will be Monday and time to go back out to work! Ah Lord eh! The days are certainly passing quickly. As the Duchess likes to tell me when I complain about how time seems to be going by so quickly: ‘Stay there, yuh think time’s waiting on you nuh?’ And friends, it certainly isn’t, that means we have to make the best use of it that we can. 

And one of the best uses we can make of our time is to go to church and praise our wonderful God, worship and give thanks in fellowship with other believers. And on that point of going to church, I recently came across and interesting exercise in an article by Russ Ramsey titled ‘The Art of Reverence’ featured in May’s In Touch Magazine. 

In the article Ramsey states: ‘But don’t just go to church; prepare to go to church. Before you arrive ask the Lord to give you a sense of His power and greatness. Ask Him to give you ears to hear and eyes to see. Ask Him to give you a desire to feast upon His Word, to repent, to receive the assurance of His pardon, and to come to the Lord’s Table spiritually hungry. Remember, God is the audience of our worship.’ 

Now that’s how we should really approach going to church my breddren! So let’s start doing stuff like that nuh. Just as so many of us prepare ourselves physically with clean bodies and clean, good looking clothes, let’s prepare ourselves spiritually too nuh, that way we will derive much more satisfaction from visiting the Lord’s sanctuary and participating in all the activities that take place therein. 

Now let’s open the proceedings with a song of praise to soften our hearts and prepare it for the Lord’s Word. And today we’ll sing a traditional American spiritual song with which many of us old fogies are quite familiar. (smile) It’s titled ‘He’s got the whole world in His hands.’ And He certainly does! 

Apparently the song was first published in 1927, but became an international pop hit in 1957-58 in a recording by English singer Laurie London, and over the years has been recorded by many other singers and choirs. So let’s follow suit now and belt it out in heartfelt enthusiasm and sincerity nuh. 

‘He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the wind and the rain in his hands. (Sing three times) He’s got the whole world in his hands. He’s got the itty bitty baby in His hands (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got a-you and me brother in His hands (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in his hands. 

He’s got you and me, sister, in his hands. (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got everybody here in his hands. (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands.’ 

Yes my people, the Lord God Almighty has the whole world and everything in it in His omnipotent hands. Unlike the false god Atlas who carried the world on his shoulders, like it was a heavy burden, our true and living God carries His awesome creation in the palms of His hands both to protect it and enable Him to see all that’s happening in one glance and make whatever alterations He needs to, so that His long term plan will eventually come to fruition in His time. (good sentence -smile) 

And Bruh David confidently proclaims that God owns and controls the earth in our Bit: ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods (rivers).’ And if anybody should know, it’s Bruh David, since he had such a close relationship with God, being known as His friend and a man after His own heart. 

And if you don’t believe Bruh David, peradventure you might believe the Lord Himself. Listen to the message He gave Moses on Mt. Sinai to give to the Israelites, when he went up there to get the Ten Commandments. 

‘Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar (special) treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.’ ((Ex.19:4-5) 

And Moses reiterates that message in Deuteronomy. ‘Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.’ (Deut.10:14) Yes friends, the universe and all therein belongs to Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Lord and King, which means we ought to pay much more respect to it as well as to Him, if we want to survive hellfire and damnation that will eventually befall the unbelievers. 

And we’ll end with some appropriate words of the psalmist Asaph on the topic. Speaking on God’s behalf, he declares: ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.’ (Ps.50:12) And if the world was ours, we wouldn’t have to tell anybody that we were hungry either, we’d just go and get whatever we wanted. Have a blessed day in fellowship my brethren! Much LOVE!

…the universe was created by God…and contrary to any other opinions…He still owns it…lock, stock and barrel…