Today’s Scrip-Bit 3 February 2021Colossians 3:23.

03 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

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

Colossians 3:23.     And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 

Welcome, welcome one and all to a bright new day in God’s great universe! In my part of the world it’s sunny but brrrr… cold. (smile) The snow is still frozen on the banks and yards and roof tops, and it doesn’t look like it intends to move for a while yet, but who cares eh? 

We know that with the great God Jehovah on our side, we can handle anything that comes against us. So be it flood, fire, earthquake, famine, disease, like the pandemic that has us all wrapped up now, we know that with God’s awesome and divine help we will be fine, and it will all pass eventually. 

Why? Because He’s promised that ‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgement thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of (from) me, saith the Lord.’ (Is. 54:17) Wow! What a powerful promise! 

And hear this other one nuh, from Isaiah too. ‘But now thus saith the Lord that created thee , O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Fear not: for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon (scorch) thee. 

For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee (in thy place). Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable (honoured), and I have LOVED thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.’ (Is. 43:1-4) 

Oh mih people, what marvellous promises from our Creator! The problem is do we believe them, and do we live like we believe them? And don’t tell me foolishness bout that is Old Testament scripture and don’t have any use today, because it’s in the New Testament that the Lord redeemed us through our Saviour Jesus Christ, His only Son, proving how much He LOVED us and wanted us to be able to spend eternity with Him. So, there are no excuses for not believing  the Lord’s promises in His holy word! 

But coming back to our earlier question about whether we believe the promises and live them out in our lives, I’d venture to say not as much as we ought to. Why? I guess our faith is just not strong enough, especially with the entitled, easy lives we’re accustomed to living in these hitherto prosperous times. 

We’ve gotten soft and flabby and weak by the entitlement and easy living, lost what little backbone we had, and can’t handle hardship like our forefathers of even one generation ago. Just look at how so many of us are fumbling, bumbling and going under with the lockdown caused by the Corona virus. 

Granted, many of us are suffering economic and emotional loss and that will surely cause concern, but plenty others are simply complaining and grumbling because they can’t go out and refuse to adhere to the few rules we have for keeping the virus in check. And it’s not like we don’t see the rebellious fools who take matters into their own hands dropping like flies. 

But we so stupid and selfish that we still want to do it our way. Ah Lord eh. Even supposed Christians refusing to comply and holding physical church services as though the virus can’t harm them, when they seeing that it harming plenty others who behaving like them. 

But what does the ole fella know eh friends? Apparently not a whole lot. (smile) I go out, when necessary, but I try and abide by the rules because I believe that the Lord will keep me safe if I abide by the rules. It’s all about obedience my people; obedience to God and to our earthly rulers, whom God has put in place over us. Obviously, we must put obedience to God first. 

As Bruh Paul said to the Colossians: Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but with singleness of heart (sincerity), fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.’ (Col. 3:22-24) 

Yes friends, whatever we do, we must do it as though we’re doing it unto the Lord, for as believers, in the overall scheme of things, it is the Lord that we’re serving. That means always doing our best work, not only when our bosses are watching, for the Lord is always watching, and He will eventually reward us with the promise of salvation if we are obedient to His commands. 

So what am I trying to say in this message eh? Simply that if we call ourselves believers in Christ, then we must believe and show ourselves thus. We can’t just talk the talk, but even more importantly we need to walk it, to be worthy examples to the unbelievers and the naysayers. Just like Jesus was a worthy example to us, we must be worthy examples for His purpose, which we claim to represent. 

Therefore, we can’t be wishy-washy and disobedient and insincere and all those other things that the unbelievers display. Oh my brethren we spout a lot of scripture, like we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, please, please let’s show that it’s for real nuh and not just idle talk nuh! 

That’s what Christ expects of those who claim to be His followers. And now is the opportune time for us to show how wonderful, powerful and LOVING He is! And we promise to do exactly that! Glory be! So let’s go home now declaring (awright!) our Wednesday Wail letting all and sundry know of our wonderful and enviable position in Christ Jesus. Wow! 

Altogether now: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’ 

And as we all know, if we endure sincerely until the end, that glorious future will be even more glorious than we can ever ask or imagine! So let’s staunchly hang in there nuh mih people! Much LOVE!

…let your light so shine before men…that they may see your good works…and glorify your Father in heaven… (Matt. 5:16)

P.S. Sorry it’s a tad late, but both the computer and I had issues that ate up some valuable time. (smile) But as always, better late than never!  Much LOVE!

Today’s Scrip-Bit 1 December 2016 1 Peter 4:12.

01 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

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

1 Peter 4:12.   Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.

Oh friends, can you believe that it’s already the beginning of December? Wow! This year of 2016 has passed rather quickly, and before you know it, we’ll be into Christmas and then the New Year of 2017. 

Wonder what that will hold for us eh? Hopefully it will be better than this one, more blessings and less trials and tribulations. But what we need to ask ourselves right now, is did we grow and mature in our faith this year? 

Did we have a closer relationship with Jesus? Did God play a larger, a more significant role in our lives? Are we closer to where we’re supposed to be, and further away from where we started? Have we matured to the point where we are eating solid food and not drinking milk still? 

I do hope the answer to all those questions are in the affirmative, otherwise we have wasted precious time, lost our way in the most important aspect of our lives; our personal relationship to Almighty God. 

But the good news is that it’s not too late to begin, we can begin right now! Our God ALWAYS receives those who sincerely come to Him with open arms. There is no condemnation, just lots of LOVE and affirmation. 

So if you haven’t done as well as you should have this year, then simply turn to Him right this moment and ask for His help. He will not refuse it. But be forewarned, the journey with Jesus will not always be smooth, but oftimes rough and rocky, just like Jesus’ earthly life was. 

However, with all of His faithful promises and the guidance, leading and comfort of His Holy Spirit we will be able to overcome anything that comes against us. Remember we are more than conquerors through him that LOVED us. (Rom.8:37)  

So we have conquering power over what’s in the world, ‘because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.’ (1 John 4:4) Yes friends, our Lord and Saviour is greater than the prince of darkness who rules this evil world! 

That means we have nothing to fear in our earthly pilgrimage, for God and us, are a majority against any foe. 

This brings us to our Bit, which can be very discouraging to some. ‘Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.’ 

Yeh mih people, we should not be afraid when trials come upon us because God uses these trials to test us, to mold and grow us in the likeness of His wonderful, sinless Son Jesus Christ. 

None of us likes these trials, especially when they suddenly spring up against us, but as I keep on saying, with God’s help we can over come any and everything. Listen to this awesome promise of our omnipotent God from Isaiah. 

‘Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon (scorch) thee. 

For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.’ (Is.43:1-3) 

What an awesome promise my brethren! And the Lord kept it by redeeming us through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. So what’s there to fear eh? NOTHING, once we are in league with Jesus! 

Now, remember yesterday, we saw after our Bit, Peter talking about rejoicing in trials and tribulations, because if we suffered with Christ, we will eventually rejoice with Him. Hear now James’ take on the subject. 

‘My brethren, count it all joy, when ye fall into divers temptations (various trials). Knowing this, that the trying (testing) of your faith worketh (produces) patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire (complete), wanting (lacking) nothing. (James 1:2-4) 

And the scholars give us this info: ‘1:2-3 …These “negative” experiences are to be accepted with great joy, not for the sake of the trial itself but because of the positive work God can accomplish through the testing…. 

It is not merely one’s presence in such trials but one’s victory over them that brings spiritual growth and maturity. Those Christians whom God can use the most are those whom God has bruised the most.’ 

Ah friends, that says it all; unless we are bruised, victoriously come through fiery trials, we are of no use to God. Anyway, let’s end on a brighter note; instead of trials, let’s end with blessings. Remember, a blessing is not a blessing, until it’s been spoken over someone. 

So, as one strong voice, let’s declare our Thursday Blessings with sincere passion and strong belief. ‘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 everyday! Amen!’ 

And don’t forget to also bless those around us, our friends and families, for they need blessings too. Much LOVE!

…working for the Lord is not easy…but it’s surely interesting and adventurous…