The Overwhelming Importance of Christians Learning to Stay Close to God with Sincere Hearts for Their Own Benefit!

31 Oct 2026 Leave a comment

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   31 October 2026   2 Chronicles 16:9a.

2 Chronicles 16:9a.       For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

Well what do you know? It’s another sunshiny autumn day on this lazy-day Saturday, the last day of October. Yes, October’s done like dinner! Can you imagine it? We not too long ago celebrated our Thanksgiving weekend, and by the time you turn around the month’s done. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles these days my brethren, you just have to ensure that you use every day to the fullest, beginning each with sincere communion with our heavenly Father. So let’s do that right now nuh, by offering up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer, in all sincerity and truth.

As one strong voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’

And in these trying and troubled times, do we ever need to get closer to God and know Him so much more, that we can properly handle the many situations that are coming against us. Remember God desires to be in everything that pertains to us, and since He’s the most powerful person in the universe, it only makes sense to be in tight with Him. But unfortunately that doesn’t come about by simply mouthing insincere prayers and only coming to Him when you’re in trouble. No! It takes sincerity and right motives, plus a regular communication with God for Him to be sensitive to our prayers.

And some of you might be tired hearing this particular scripture, but it’s the basis of our sincere communion with Almighty God. He firmly states through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto (listen to) you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart.’ (Jer. 29:12-13) That says it quite clearly my people; we have to seek God, and do so with a sincere heart, else we won’t find Him.

It’s like when the arrogant Pharisee lawyer, asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment. He replied without hesitation: ‘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)  Yes friends, LOVING our God with all that we have is the first requirement of Christianity! And remember that’s one of the reasons why the Lord created us human beings in the first place; so that He could have a reciprocal LOVE relationship with us. But sadly, we have strayed far from Him, while He has remained faithful.

However, it’s never too late to turn back to Him, for once His breath of life is still flowing through our bodies, He will hear our sincere cry and come to us, for although we are far from Him, He’s always near to us, looking out for us, even though we don’t pay Him any attention. As Cousin Sol so wisely states in Proverbs: ‘The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.’ (Prov. 15:3) Of course! Whatever is done in God’s universe, be it good or bad, He sees it and takes note of it for further use.

Meanwhile in Job, his friend Elihu asserts: ‘For his (God’s) eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.’ (Job 34:21-22) And if you still don’t believe that Lord is everywhere and sees everything, then listen as the seer Hanani, informs King Asa of Judah of his mistake by getting in league with Syria to help him fight against the northern kingdom of Israel. ‘For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him (at peace with, or loyal to Him). Herein thou hast done foolishly; therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.’ (2 Chr. 16:9)

Hopefully those scriptures will convince us that God is always on guard, looking to see what’s happening in His universe. And nobody says it as good as Bruh David in Psalm 139. ‘Whither shall (can) I go from thy spirit? or whither shall (can) I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee (it is not dark to thee); but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.’ (Ps. 139:7-12)

In other words, there’s nowhere we can go to hide from the Lord, or nothing we can do that He doesn’t know about, because He keeps close tabs on His universe. Therefore, the wise thing for us to do is seek Him sincerely with all of our hearts, souls, bodies and minds, and then cling tenaciously to Him, after we’ve made contact, (smile) for He’s the ruler of the universe, and as He directs, so everything goes. Remember too, that his ways and thoughts are much higher than ours, (Is, 55:9) So there will be lots of stuff happening in and around, and with us, that we won’t understand, but through strong faith we will trust Him to do what’s best for us and work everything out eventually for our good. (Rom. 8:28)

And on this beautiful lazy-day autumn Saturday, it will do us good to spend some time pondering our association with Almighty God, and considering how we can get closer to Him, for there’s always room to do that! Much LOVE!

…you might run from God…but you certainly can’t hide from him…

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

The Amazing Feeling One gets from being in the Awesome Presence of God!

02 Nov 2024 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 16:11b.       in thy presence is fullness of joy;

So we’ve finally come to our lazy-day Saturday, where we can loll around as much as we want with no activities to accomplish within a certain time period. And isn’t that a good feeling? It certainly is. But before we get started, I want to point out a couple of incidents that happened in the recent Halloween celebrations. First of all, two people were killed and six injured in a celebration in Orlando, Florida, while a razor blade was found in a chocolate bar in Cochrane, Ontario. 

And I’m sure those are not all the negative incidents that occurred because of the foolish celebration, but just those that reached the news media. What’s it going to take for us to cut out the pagan nonsense eh? What kind of evil society are we living in, if we can consciously put a razor blade in a chocolate bar that a child is going to eat. And I guess it won’t be banished until someone from the family of a high government official or one of the money men that profit from it suffers some negative repercussions from the unwise celebration. 

And now that I’ve had my say, (smile) let’s move on to the more pleasant aspects of the day, like offering up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer. As one sincere voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And that’s a perfect prayer for a lazy-day Saturday, where we have the time to foment greater intimacy with our wonderful God. To simply bask in His awesome presence and listen to whatever He has to share with us. It’s a time to just run amok, as it were, in the awesome glory and presence of Almighty God! (smile) Yes friends, being in God’s presence is as good as it gets! And we ought to enjoy it while we have the opportunity. 

And I don’t mean we should use it as a time to complain and ask for stuff, but simply to enjoy being in God’s presence, like when you’re with a friend, whose company you enjoy, and you can just sit quietly and be happy, or do simple, joyful things together. The important aspect of it being the togetherness. That’s how we ought to spend this lazy time with our God…just being together with Him, and enjoying the joy that His presence brings. 

And there are numerous scriptures that talk about being in the Lord‘s presence and how good and joyful it can be. Like this verse from Psalm 16 – God Preserves His People. Bruh David ends it thus: ‘Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ (Ps. 16:11) 

Meanwhile the Sons of Korah put it like this in Psalm 84 – Rejoicing in God’s Tabernacle: ‘For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.’ (Ps. 84:10-12) 

Then there’s Psalm 139, one of the grandest psalms in the psalter, where Bruh David recounts the omnipresence of our magnificent God. Now listen to these verses that speak of that presence. ‘Whither shall (can) I go from thy spirit? or whither shall (can) I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell. Behold thou art there. 

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. yea, the darkness hideth not from thee (is not dark to thee); but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.’ (Ps. 139:7-12) 

Wow! Our God is everywhere; be it day or night, be it in heaven or in hell; in the sea or on the earth! We simply cannot hide from His presence, although many of us still foolishly try to do it. And every time I read those verses or hear them read, I always remember the first time I heard them being acted out many years ago by Dr. Robert H Schuller in an ‘Hour of Power Sermon’ in the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. His actions and the words have stuck with me down through the years.  

And we have this faithful promise from God found in Hebrews: ‘Let your conversation (conduct) be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake tee.’ (Heb. 13:5) Then James exhorts us: ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh (near) to God, and he will draw nigh (near) to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded… Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.’ (James 4:7-8, 10)

Yes my fellow believers, God’s greatest desire is for His human creation to draw near to Him, not be far away, but the truth is that in these trying times we need to avidly seek His presence, not wait for Him to come to us. Anyway, He’s already done that through the earthly work of Jesus; now it’s our turn to sincerely seek Him. And we’ll close with this marvellous promise from Jesus: ‘…and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’ (Matt. 28:20b) 

Now we couldn’t want for a more faithful promise than that, especially since it’s been kept by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, to remind us of all that Jesus is, and to guide us to where He desires us to go. So let’s spend some time today and just consider the awesome presence of God in our lives nuh. We can never go wrong doing that! Much LOVE!

…in God’s presence…there’s always joy…

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   23 September 2021 John 8:12.

23 Sep 2021 Leave a comment

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

John 8:12.     I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Oh no friends, it did not clear up nicely in my area yesterday. In fact, it rained all day and during most of the night. But thankfully it seems to have stopped now and the sun is poking it’s bright and beautiful face out through the remaining dark clouds. And that’s how our God, our Jesus works in our lives; when the rain and dark clouds threaten to consume us, if we just keep our hope alive, we will soon see the power and light and LOVE of Jesus begin to shine through all the darkness that threatens to swallow us up without a prayer. 

But we always have a prayer, and when we use it, our Jesus will turn our darkness into light. Yes, He will turn it around with His majestic power and glory. And why do I think that eh? Because I’ve seen him do it numerous times in my life and the lives of others who sincerely believe in Him. And if you know His Word, you will know this major pronouncement He made many years ago while dwelling here on earth. He truthfully declared: ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ (John 8:12) 

And if you take the leap of faith and trust Him on that matter, then you will see much more light in your life than darkness. For He is faithful that promised! But if you want to see light, the light of Christ, flooding your soul, life and spirit, then you have to take Him up on His promise and lay your burdens at the foot of His cross. And it’s not a promise that was just made in Jesus’ time, but long, long ago, the Lord promised it through the prophet Isaiah, when he prophesied: ‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.’ (Is. 9:2) 

And that light was the promise of Jesus coming to save the world from the sin and darkness that contaminated it. The prophet Malachi also told us about the coming of Light when he declared on the Lord’s behalf: ‘But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall (grow fat like stall fed calves). And ye shall tread (trample) down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.’ (Mal. 4:2-3) 

And the Father kept His promise when He sent Jesus to earth to save our souls from death and eternal separation from Him, by paying the price of our sins on the cross of Calvary and defeating hell, death and the grave when He rose triumphantly from the bowels of hell on that glorious Easter morn some two thousand years ago! Now that momentous occasion birthed the presence of the Light of Jesus in our lives, where, if we accept Him as Lord and Saviour, His Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, to help dispel the darkness of this world, and we will forever live in His glorious Light! 

As John so eloquently and truthfully says in the beginning of his gospel: ‘All things were made by him (Jesus); and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended (apprehended) it not.’ (John 1:3-5) Yes friends, the darkness of this world cannot comprehend, apprehend or take hold of the Light that’s Jesus Christ! And there are so many important scriptures that deal with light and Jesus being light, that I don’t know what to choose. (smile) So let’s choose a few random ones to refresh our memories. 

Hear Jesus to the Jewish rulers of His time. ‘I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.’ (John 12:46-47) Oh my people, Jesus didn’t come to judge, but to save, so please let’s remember that nuh. 

Now here is this most appropriate scripture, as Jesus says: ‘And this is the condemnation, that (the) light is come into the world, and men LOVED darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth (practices) evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, less his deeds should be reproved (exposed). But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.’ (John 3:19-21) That was true in Jesus’ time, and it’s still true in our time. Evil doers hate the light because they don’t want their evil deeds to be exposed. 

And unfortunately, right now, the evil deeds in our society seem to be outweighing the good and truthful ones, that’s why so many of us are hiding from the light in the darkness. But friends, please remember that the darkness doesn’t hamper the sight of our God, for as Bruh David says in Psalm 139: ‘Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee (is not dark to thee); but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.’ (Ps. 139:12) So friends, trying to hide in the darkness from God is useless, as trying to hide from Him period! 

Then listen to some more useful words on light from the psalms. Bruh David declares in Psalm 18: ‘For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high (haughty) looks. For thou wilt light my candle (lamp): the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by thee I have run through (can run against) a troop; and by my God have I leaped (can leap) over a wall.’ (Ps. 18:27-29) And if that didn’t do anything for you, then listen to this most mighty verse of scripture from Psalm 119: ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.’ (Ps. 119:105) 

Yes friends, the word of God indeed lights our way as we walk through this dark and sinful world. And if we are wise, we will take it to heart and practice it sincerely as these words of Jesus so wisely advised. ‘Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.’ (John 12:35-36) 

Now that’s the crux of the problem right there my fellow saints; we must be children of light. Jesus was the light of the world while He was here on earth, but after He went back to heaven, He declared that His followers, that’s us, are now the light of the world. (Matt. 5:14) And as Bruh Paul told the Ephesians: ‘For ye were sometimes (once) darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light.’ (Eph. 5:8) Yes, my fellow believers, that’s exactly how we ought to walk in this dark and evil world, ‘as children of light,’ so that we can fulfill Jesus’ desire. ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.’ (Matt. 5:16) 

And the wonderful thing about our Lord and Saviour is that He doesn’t just tell us what to do, but He also gives us the wherewithal to do it. Consequently, we have his Word, His Holy Spirit and numerous other tools that we call our Thursday Blessings that enable us to shine brightly in this dark world. So please, let’s declare those blessings now nuh, that we can invoke them in our spirits. 

As one 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 let’s go out and shine brightly for Jesus, by sharing those blessings just as generously with others as he shared them with us. Much LOVE!

…to shine brightly for Jesus…in this dark world…that’s the believer’s bounden duty…                                                                                                                         

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