Today​’s Scrip-Bit 22 April 2019 Romans 12:17.

22 Apr 2019 Leave a comment

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

Romans 12:17.   Recompense (repay) to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest (have regard for good things) in the sight of all men.
 
Ah my fellow believers, what an anti-climatic situation! Yes, in the heat, in the heart of our Easter Celebrations, the most important event in our faith, or rather the most important event in man’s history since the Creation, Easter Monday rolls around and many of us have to go back out to labour for our daily bread! 

Chuh! How unfortunate that the evil and ungodly world doesn’t consider Easter important enough to make the Monday following a public holiday. But some of them do think that it’s okay, in fact quite right to massacre Christians in their churches and elsewhere at Easter, as was so shamelessly done this past weekend in Sri Lanka! Ah Lord eh! When will the foolishness end eh? 

But let’s leave that topic alone for now and consider the importance of what happened at Easter time; the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ from the grave! Glory to God! And yuh know what friends, even though the ungodly world would like to trample on our physical celebrations, they can’t trample on the joy that the resurrection of Jesus Christ stimulates in our hearts, minds, bodies and souls! Absolutely not!!! And yes we need three exclamations marks there! (smile) 

For by God’s great grace, mercy and forgiveness, they can’t destroy the assurance of our own resurrection, and the ever-faithful promise of salvation and eternal life that Jesus’ triumphant victory over hell, death, the grave and our arch-foe Satan provides! Glory to God my people!

Give Him overwhelming praise and thanks for the overwhelming and unconditional LOVE He showed for us undeserving sinners when He sacrificed His only, sinless Son so selflessly for us on that old rugged cross of Calvary! 

So today, even if you’re out labouring, please keep that joy and assurance flowing freely and joyfully as you go about your tasks diligently and excellently, as Jesus desires of His followers.

And yes, you might have needed this a tad earlier, but it’s NEVER too late to pray. So let’s declare our Monday Morning Battle Hymn with the gumption, confidence and enthusiasm that Easter Sunday has raised up in us! 

Altogether now: ‘Oh Lord God Almighty, Creator of the universe and all therein! We, your humble servants, praise your Holy Name and thank you that this Monday morning we have jobs to go to; jobs we don’t like, jobs that are unfair, difficult and even dangerous, but which serve a useful purpose here on earth; keeping lives and families together. 

We also thank you Father for the renewed vitality and enthusiasm you’ve wrought in our weary souls over the last two days. It’s that rejuvenation of Spirit which allows us now to sally forth with confidence into the evil, ungodly world that surrounds us, to begin a new week of work, constantly buffeted and bombarded by the enemy’s wicked taunts, wiles and lies. 

But heavenly Father, we’re not afraid, for we know we’re invincible, sure conquerors, once we’re wearing your powerful, protective spiritual armour. We surrender our all to you, and humbly ask that you let your incredible aura of LOVE, the Holy Spirit, lead and guide all your servants as we go out to meet the enemy in battle. 

Fill us with steadfast faith, so that we can make worthwhile inroads into the enemy’s ranks, and thereby further your glorious kingdom. We pray this in the Holy Name of your Son, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. AMEN!’ 

Oh friends, by the enthusiasm, gravelly voices and slurred words, I can tell that I’m not the only one caught up in the throes of excitement and celebration of this most wonderful Easter Season! As always, those of us not going to work are rather vociferous on these occasions, but please remember Granny’s warning, ‘Sonny boy, please, please, ah beg yuh, drunk or sober, please mind yuh business!’ 

Yes my brethren, at times like these the evil one and his evil cohorts are out there seriously trolling for believers who might slip and allow them a foot or toehold into their righteous souls. So we do have to be careful and curtail our celebrations with a modicum of circumspection. 

But coming back to the massacre of Christians recently in Sri Lanka, it seems like it’s open season on believers these days. All over the world somebody or other is killing believers for no apparent reason other than that they believe! Hn! And to tell the truth, I think it’s high time that we retaliate in kind, because these people only understand one thing, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, in other words, violence! 

Are we going to be continually led like sheep to the slaughter with no resistance? I certainly hope not! Oh, I know our faith and the Good Book says: ‘Recompense (repay) to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest (have regard for good things) in the sight of all men.’ But that’s extremely difficult friends, when the enemy is killing us with such joy and gay abandon with no one doing anything worthwhile to stop them! 

There must be something we can do to curtail this offensive and sinister state of affairs. It’s obvious that the governments of supposed Christian countries aren’t really interested in doing anything but talk when these senseless murders occur, because they soon get back into bed with the same offenders in search of money and power. So it’s definitely up to us believers to stand up in some form and fashion and do something about it. 

But then again we are constrained by our faith as to what we can actually do, for the Good Book purposefully says: ‘Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.’ (Rom.12:21) Now that’s a real hard row to hoe friends, but we just have to find some way to mitigate this senseless slaughter of our fellow believers in certain parts of the world. 

And please don’t ask me how, because you’ll just get me in trouble with the Lord! (smile) But some of you deeper and better thinkers than me, will have to come up with something, else the nonsense will just continue unabated…and possibly get worse, as the enemy begins to believe they have an open license to do their evil work. Much LOVE!

…the darkness and evil of Good Friday…has now been overcome…by the light and goodness of Easter Sunday…please…in Jesus’ name…let’s keep it going…

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 19 December 2014 Romans 12:6

19 Dec 2014 Leave a comment

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

Romans 12:6.  Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy, according to the proportion of faith. 

The day is Friday, the season is Christmas… And all God’s people joyfully shouted: ‘TGIF! Thank God it’s Friday! TGFJ! Thank God for Jesus!’

Yes Friends, we do have cause to be thankful for both situations! We’re thankful for Friday because it means we have a brief respite from our labours. And we’re thankful for Jesus because He saved our spiritual lives and reconciled us to the Father.

Now what we need to do is to truly show that gratitude in our actions too, not only in our talk. We Christians are well known for our talk, but not as much for our actions. And that’s where we fall down; we don’t practice what we preach, as much as we ought to.

So this Christmas season, let’s promise ourselves to do better in the sharing and spreading of true Christian LOVE in action, as Jesus would have us do.

It’s the best way to tell others about our wonderful Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary on Christmas Day, died on the cross at Calvary on Good Friday, redeeming us of our abominable sins.

He then  rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, ascended into heaven some fifty days later, and has since been sitting at the Father’s right hand, waiting patiently and eagerly until the Father decides the time is right for the next installment of His great world drama; the Second Coming of His wonderful Son, in all might and power, splendour, glory and triumphant victory!

Wow! What a story! Nothing man can conceive can ever come up to its tear-jerking, heart-warming, soul-satisfying, spirit-filled, joy giving, LOVE endowing nature!

Therefore Friends, it is imperative that we go out and make it known to all the world, as Jesus requested in His last instructions, the Great Command to the disciples: ‘Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always(s), even unto the end of the world.’ (Matt.28:19-20)

Unfortunately my people, it is a world full of evil, hatred and ungodliness. Consequently, we desperately, and as quickly as possible, need to spread the gospel, the good news of His story and of His teachings around the world, so that every living human being can have a chance to come to Him in humility, sincerity and truth, to receive His wonderful free gifts of salvation and eternal life.

And with the worldwide communication revolution now in progress, this is the best opportunity we have ever had to obey that Great Command. That means we have to get busy and help spread the Word in whatever fashion is convenient and expedient to us.

But spread it we must! Otherwise, on that fateful day of Judgement, when the Lord asks us why we didn’t do better with the talents and resources He’d given us, what answer will we give eh? Sadly my brethren, there will be no plausible answer available, and we’ll just have to pay whatever price is decreed.

Now we obviously don’t want to find ourselves in that untenable situation, and the best and only way to prevent it is by going into action RIGHT NOW, sincerely and diligently doing our part to educate the world, or even our small corner of it, on the wonderful benefits of knowing and following Jesus.

And let’s not say that we can’t, because our Creator, in His everlasting wisdom, has given each of us certain talents and resources to enable us to do His work. We just have to figure out, with His help of course, in what area(s) those talents lie, and then go to work in those areas.

For example, I seem to have been given the gift of using words, of writing, therefore I’m using those writing skills to spread the Word as best I can through this Scrip-Bit.

And in Romans 12, Bruh Paul spells it our for us, starting with our Bit: ‘Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity (liberality); he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let LOVE be without dissimulation (hypocrisy). Abhor that which is evil; cleave (cling) to that which is good.’ (Rom.12:6-9)

Yes my brethren, those are the kinds of things I’m talking about! We each have gifts given to us by Almighty God, so let’s use them nuh. What’s the purpose of having them, if we don’t use them eh? None whatsoever!

And as Cousin Sol so wisely tells us in Proverbs 17: ‘A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: withersoever it (he) turneth, it (he) prospereth.’ (Prov.17:8)

So my people, let’s rise up and use our God-given gifts nuh, so that we can prosper wherever we go. That’s not only simple common sense, but also heavenly wisdom! Much LOVE!

…a cardinal rule in life and living is…if you don’t use it…you will lose it…and that’s gospel truth… 

P.S. Oh Friends, I didn’t forget our Friday Chant, I just couldn’t find anywhere to seamlessly put it in, so that it wouldn’t disrupt the flow of the narrative. However, we can chant it now. So let’s chant with all sincerity and truth.

‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through another week of work! It hasn’t been easy, but with your generous help, I made it through. Now, please help me to get sufficient fun, fellowship, rest and relaxation in these two short days off, so that I can be renewed and refreshed in soul, body and mind, to go back out and do it all over again next week, furthering your glorious kingdom with each step I take. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.’

Till we meet again tomorrow, God willing! Much LOVE!