Today’s Scrip-Bit 13 July 2021 2 Corinthians 5:21.

13 Jul 2021 Leave a comment

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

2 Corinthians 5:21.     For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Now what’s the good news this new Tuesday morning eh friends? Well, let me tell you about it… It’s big, it’s wonderful, it’s exciting and everlasting! Yes my bredrin, the good news this morning is that Jesus is LOVE! Wow! He’s the One whom we can turn to for all the necessities of life! And be assured that He won’t let us down. He’s the One who can heal us, who can lead and guide us successfully through every which kind of storm or problem. 

His is the power…and the glory…the joy and the promise of eternal salvation. He’ll pick you up when you fall, heal you when the world’s medics can’t, help you to hold on when you seem to be slipping, and comfort you when the cares of this evil and ungodly world get you down. Now, ONLY Jesus can do all of that my people! ONLY Jesus! 

So, if this Tuesday morning, in these pandemic times you need any of that stuff, then the best advice, the best thing you can do, is turn to Jesus; surrender your life to Him, make Him the captain and pilot of your life. I promise you that you will never regret it. In fact, when you look back at your life, you will recognize that it was the best decision you ever made! And you’ll jump for joy and sing His praises loud, while giving Him much thanks for the awesome work He’s done in your life. 

You’ll sit down and wonder, how you ever could have lived so long without Him, and bless His holy name that He finally came and found you and scooped you up in His wonderful comforting arms when your whole world was about ready to fall apart. Yes friends, that’s the kind of person our Jesus is! He comes to you when you are at your lowest point and picks you up both literally and figuratively and changes your whole life, brings it into alignment with His heavenly kingdom, providing hope for a brighter day, taking away the negativity that’s all this world offers. 

And you know what precious people, the most important thing is, when you accept him as Lord and Saviour, when you surrender your soul to Him, He never, never, never leaves nor forsakes you! Wow! He seals you as His child, as His brother, friend and co-heir in righteousness forever! Now how could the news get any better than that eh? 

But it does! In all that Jesus is and does, we find mercy, grace, forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life! And they endure forever, based on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, where He shed His holy, sinless blood so that we could be forgiven, took ALL of our sin on His shoulders and gave us His righteousness. And it says so right in the Bible, the Good Book, the Word of God: ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’ (2 Cor. 5:21) 

Now what does that verse mean eh? The first thing we need to understand was that Jesus NEVER sinned, as several Bible verses tell us. Hear John in his first epistle. ‘And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.’ (1 John 3:5) He came to take away sin, but had no sin Himself. And Peter in his first epistle, quoting Isaiah 53:9 says of Jesus. ‘Who did no sin, neither was guile (deceit) found in his mouth.’ (1 Pet. 2:22) 

Even the demons knew Him, as recorded in Mark when He cast them out of an unclean man. They said to Him: ‘Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.’ (Mark 1:24) So that all points to Jesus as being totally sinless. And furthermore, if He had even had one spot of sin on Him, then He would have ceased being God, and would therefore would not have been able to save us, or pay for our sins, because only a sinless being could do that. 

Anyway, I found this interesting explanation on the Biblical website ‘Got Question.’ It says: ‘If He became sin for us does not mean Jesus was sin, or a sinner, or guilty of sin, the proper interpretation can only be found in the doctrine of imputation. This is confirmed by the second part of 2 Corinthians 5:21: “So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

To impute something is to ascribe or attribute it to someone. On the cross, our sin was imputed to Christ. That is how Christ paid our sin debt to God. He had no sin in Himself, but our sin was imputed (attributed) to Him so, as He suffered, He took the just penalty that our sin deserves. At the same time, through faith, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. Now we can stand before God sinless, just as Jesus is sinless. We are not righteous in ourselves; rather, Christ’s righteousness is applied to us. 

So, “God made him . . . to be sin for us” means that Jesus, although sinless, was treated as if He were not. Although He remained holy, He was regarded as guilty of all the sin in the world. Through imputation of our sin to Him, He became our substitute and the recipient of God’s judgment against sin. Having saved those who believe, He is now “our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” 

So that’s how we are saved; our sins were imputed to Jesus and now, all that He was and is, are imputed to us. ‘But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us (became for us) wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.’ (1 Cor. 1:30) 

And the scholars explain: ‘Because of the Father’s work we have become intimate with Christ Jesus. Paul concludes that all of the riches of salvation exist in Christ Jesus. All that the Corinthian believers are (and consequently all believers), they owe to Him. Thus it is not in oneself, or in party alignment, or in supposed human ability that any believer ought to glory. Paul tabulates the qualities that belong to the believer in Christ. Wisdom is not merely the acquisition of intellectual skills but the gaining of spiritual discernment based on the wisdom of God as demonstrated in the cross. 

Righteousness is a legal concept and has in mind the righteousness that is applied to the believer’s account the moment he believes (Rom. 5). Sanctification has already been mentioned in verse 2, “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” This contemplates the work of Christ “in” the believer, as opposed to that which he does “for” the believer in justification. Redemption underlies all the above. Christ’s redemptive work opened the way for God to extend His grace to sinful man and to pour out upon him such benefits as wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification.’ 

Mama Mia! What more can I say eh friends? Christ has done so much for us, that we would be very foolish not accept His selfless sacrifice, for if we don’t, we will, without a doubt, end up eternally separated from God. And that can by no means be a good thing! So, for those of us who are serious about accepting Christ, let’s go home now declaring (yeahhh!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know who and whose we are. 

Altogether now: ‘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 the world. Amen!’ 

Our next step is to now go out and share that awesome LOVE and friendship of Jesus with others, so that they too can come to know him. Much LOVE!

…without Jesus’ awesome sacrifice…where would be eh…heading directly for hell…with no means of escape…                                                                                                  

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


Today’s Scrip-Bit 12 September 2020 Matthew 6:19.

12 Sep 2020 Leave a comment

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

Matthew 6:19.     ​Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt (ruin), and where thieves break through and steal:

So it’s Saturday! What’s new with the world eh? Nothing nuh! Just more of the same old, same old; overwhelming evil, violence, hate and strife, with not enough peace, LOVE, forgiveness and godly attitudes to quell those negative enemy traits. But if there’s one thing we believers know, is that there’s a righteous, graceful and merciful God sitting on His throne in the high heavens watching down on us, and contrary to popular opinion He IS in control of ALL things, and in His time, in His own inimitable style, will right ALL that’s wrong with this world, working ALL things out for good to those who LOVE Him! 

And that’s the gospel truth friends, so let’s just hang in there in strong faith and blessed assurance, knowing that ALL promises will be fulfilled in due course of time. Now let’s see what goodies our friend Anselm sent us this week nuh, as he sincerely aspires to inspire us to a better tomorrow. Hear this first one, which is simple logic. ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.’ Now that’s obvious isn’t it. As Sister Joyce (Joyce Meyer) likes to say, ‘You can’t do the same thing all the time and expect to get a different result.’ 

But that’s exactly what a lot of us do. We keep going round the same mountain with the same attitudes, but expect things to change. That’s impossible friends! And it leads us nicely into this next quote: ‘Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.’ And isn’t that the unfortunate truth! That’s why we keep going around the same old mountain, with the same old results. Things will only change when we fess up to our problems, face them squarely in the face and get to work on them! 

Good example is the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years because they were afraid to go into the Promised Land when the Lord told them to. And when they said they were ready, He said no, it’s not your timing but mine. So He let them continue wandering, allowing the old ones to die, while He built up the courage and strength of the younger ones. So that only Joshua and Caleb of those who came out of Egypt ever set foot in the Promised Land. But please note that during all that time, their clothes nor shoes never wore out, and He fed them continually with manna! Such is the magnanimity of our God, even when He’s trying to teach us a lesson. 

Then there’s this: ‘If you don’t ask the right questions, you don’t get the right answers. A question asked the right way often points to its own answer. Asking questions is the ABC of diagnosis.’ Again, that’s simple logic. But sadly, logic is something that’s being constantly levered out of our society. We’re now been barraged by things and people called ‘influencers’ paid to influence us with their lifestyle, regardless of how foolish or distasteful and useless it is. And too many of us don’t ask questions as to why these things are being done. We just follow them blindly! 

Ah the pull, the power of social media to dictate our lives! Steups! What a foolish, gutless, monkey see, monkey do society we’ve become. Yes friends, we can’t see or understand what’s happening unless we ask questions, and the right ones at that! Let’s wake up and start doing that nuh, instead of merely accepting whatever social media and the supposed experts say nuh! Let’s start charting our own God-led paths, instead of those the world is setting out for us. And here’s one way to do that: ‘A relentless barrage of “why’s” is the best way to prepare your mind to pierce the clouded veil of thinking caused by the status quo. Use it often.’ 

Not foolishly though. Don’t just ask questions for the sake of asking questions, but develop a strategy of asking sensible and to the point questions on matters that interest you. Nobody likes a body who just keeps pestering them, asking questions willy nilly, without any good or apparent reason. Questions though, wisely asked and with proper timing can lead to a well-spring of growth and phenomenal understanding of the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of this world and our earthly existence. 

That brings us to the last quote: ‘Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.’ Well how could they eh, when they inherently pertain to growth and progress? The problem though is what we consider growth and progress. Is it the world’s version, or God’s version? I suggest that God’s version is the much better one! Here’s why in a nutshell. This from Jesus, the Son of God, and if He doesn’t know the truth, then who knows it eh? (smile) 

‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon 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, and where thieves do not break through and steal.’ (Matt. 6:19-20) 

Wow! What wonderful advice my brethren! So if that’s a fact – and if Jesus says so, then it is so – why would I want to have the worldly version of growth and progress eh? Then all my treasures would be liable to theft and ruin by rust and moth. But when I desire the godly version of growth and progress, then all that I achieve is safely stored in heaven. As Peter says so awesomely: ‘To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that faded not away, reserved in heaven for you.’ (1 Pet. 1:4) 

Oh my people, nothing bad or evil can touch anything we store away in heaven, there is never any loss or lessening of our treasures stored there. However, to be able to store away stuff in heaven we need to follow this golden rule – from Jesus again, which means it must be true. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you.’ (Matt. 6:33) That means we need to have Almighty God as our Number ONE priority!And just like He looked after the Israelites for forty years in the wilderness, He will look after us, granting us ALL the necessities we need for earthly living and also storing up some for us in heaven! 

Now how does the world’s version of growth and progress compare to that eh? Not very well, because all the wealth and power you may amass under the world’s evil prince, can be lost in the bat of an eye, like the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:16-21, where the rich, greedy man decided to break down and build bigger storehouses for his wealth, but that same night the Grim Reaper came calling as he generally does rather unexpectedly. And what did the rich fool leave with eh? Nothing! 

And neither did he have anything stored in heaven, because in his earthly life, he was not rich towards God. So all his earthly work, progress, growth and possessions turned out to be of absolutely no use to him. My people, please let’s learn from his story nuh, and be wise and be rich towards God in our earthly lives. That’s wisdom to the nth degree!Much LOVE!

…earthly things are nice…but heavenly ones look better and last longer…