true brotherhood | SCRIP-BITS

John 17:16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

And it’s a sunshiny, but cold lazy-day Saturday with clean streets and a modicum of the white snow on the banks and roof tops. What more can we ask for in this winter and Christmas season eh? Only the arrival of Jesus, which is only four days away…and then…Wow! The whole world will go crazy with excitement, celebrations, joyful worship and thanksgiving, peace, LOVE and goodwill to all men! Even the non-believers will join in the merriment and have a modicum of LOVE towards their neighbours.

That’s the beauty and power of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Even the unbeliever is affected by His glorious coming to earth, through our celebrations. Our task is then to take that receptiveness of the unbeliever and show them the benefits of truly believing in Jesus, the One and Only Saviour of the World, and without whom they don’t stand a chance of spending eternity in the wonderful realm of heaven with Him.

Ah my fellow believers, this Christmas season where so much LOVE and true brotherhood abounds, is the time when we need to up our witness for Christ, because our world is fast going to hell in a bucket and that’s not why He underwent so much ‘sufferation,’ to see it lamely fall into the hands of Beelzebub!

No! Jesus sacrificed His sinless life so that we could take it back from the devil through our spreading of the good news of His gospel and living the life that it mandates. So, while we are celebrating Christ’s birth, please, let’s throw in some comments, some remarks, some examples of His goodness and mercy, that will hopefully touch someone’s heart and make them give it to Him, as they ought to. (smile)

Now, let’s offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer in all sincerity and truth. As one 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!’

Yes friends, I can feel the peace and presence of the Lord increasing, and there’s a big smile on His face as He welcomes our desire for greater intimacy with Him. As I keep telling us, there’s nothing that warms the cockles of God’s heart more than the desire of His people for greater intimacy with Him, because that’s exactly why He created us in the first place! It’s like when our young children come and desire to sit in our laps, to cuddle up there and just fall asleep in our warm, LOVING embrace and presence. It warms our hearts with joy.

Well, it’s the same way the Lord feels when we go to Him seeking fellowship and greater intimacy. And I can’t understand why many more of us don’t do it, because it brings such joy and peace to all parties. But then again, I’m just a mere mortal and my mind is not attuned to the whys and wherefores of other mortals. I can just do what I believe I ought to do, and offer simple advice to others, who will have to make their own decisions, with their own free will.

Ah friends, I’m chuckling here because I don’t know how we got to this point, the words just kept flowing. (smile) The important thing though, is that the sentiments are wise and true, and surely worth following. And with only four more days to go to Christmas Day, I hope we are all ready for it, with all the shopping, the wrapping of presents, the baking, the cooking, and all the other things we seem to do at Christmas time completed and just waiting to explode at the given time.

But that would indeed be a miracle, for many of us are never finished with all the stuff we need to do even on Christmas morning. Anyway, let’s hope that the LOVE for Jesus is imbued in everything we do, and it’s not simply a matter of lust for worldly things. For remember Jesus’ fateful words about our association with this world, in His prayer to the Father.

‘And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil (the evil one). They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.’ (John 17:13-19)

Yes my fellow saints, Jesus went out of His way to ensure the Father would keep us in the world, but not as a part of the world! To sanctify or set us apart to do His mission, like Christ came to do the Father’s mission. We are here to do Christ’s bidding, of spreading the truth of His word, not getting ourselves entangled with the evil and ungodliness of this world. And as this Christmas season progresses, with all the hoopla and hullabaloo it brings, I believe it would do many of us some good to remember those words. We are in the world, but not a part of the world. This is not our home. We are merely pilgrims passing through, on our way to heaven…our real home.

So, on this lazy-day Saturday before Christmas, please, let’s take a moment and ponder, compare our actual lives to those words, and with the Lord’s help, make any necessary adjustments! That’s my prayer for us today! Much LOVE!

…everything that glistens is not gold…but the world tries to fool us…with a lot of glistening stuff…

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 14 March 2013 Matthew 12:33

Matthew 12:33. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is know by his fruit.

Oh Friends, it’s another new today! Please, let’s use it wisely and fruitfully. And all God’s children joyfully declared: ‘This is the day the Lord has made, we WILL rejoice and be glad in it!’ Yes my brethren, that’s why the Lord insists on giving us new mercies, manna and blessings every day, so that we can start each one afresh on a new foot, in praise, thanksgiving and rejoicing in His Holy Name. And I guess the most noteworthy news today is the announcement of a new Pope, a new leader of the Roman Catholic Church, who took the papal name of Francis. It also brings up a couple of firsts; the first South American Pope, as well as the first Papal Leader of Argentinean descent. He seems to be an honourable and humble man, but please remember, that though we might be good regional or small town leaders, when we hit the big stage, step up to the world level of leadership, all our problems and constraints are multiplied a thousand fold. So it’s not going to be easy for him to bring unity to a mightily divided church. But let’s all pray nonetheless, that the Lord will enable him to bring some lessening of the strife, tension and divisions that’s currently engulfing His church, due to all the unsavoury goings on and controversies recently exposed, eventually bringing some peace, LOVE and true brotherhood to the legion of followers. That brings us to our Bit; a most interesting statement of Jesus: ‘Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt (bad), and his fruit corrupt (bad): for the tree is know by his fruit.’ Now that’s an astute observation, if there ever was one! (smile) Jesus was here commenting on the good and the evil that exists within men. And it’s just basic logic that a tree cannot produce both good and bad fruit at the same time. By the laws of nature, it simply has to be one or the other. But just like James asks: ‘Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.’ (James 3:11-12) That’s why believers should not be blessing and cursing from the same receptacle, our souls. And as Jesus told the multitude, re things that defile: ‘Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.’ (Matt.15:10-11) Yes Friends, what we put into ourselves doesn’t defile us, but what comes out certainly does. For as Jesus further enlightens us, and the scribes and Pharisees surrounding Him: ‘O generation (brood or offspring) of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.’ (Matt.12:34-37) Oh my people, so much truth is contained in those words, it isn’t funny! In the first place, we usually speak what’s plentiful in our hearts, unless we’re being consciously hypocritical. So as Jesus says, if our hearts are filled with good stuff, then good stuff is what will emanate from our mouths. However, if evil reigns in our hearts, then only evil can come forth from our inner man. And above all Friends, please note that second to last verse, where Jesus warns that we’ll have to answer for every idle word we’ve ever spoken, come the judgement day. That should wake some of us up, who just curse and gossip and spread false stories, because, as He says, we will either be justified or condemned by our own words. Yes my fellow believers, we’ll either stand strong and live by the good words that we utter, or we’ll end up weak and fall by the evil words that proceed from our lips. The choice is ours, my Friends. Each individual has to make that most important choice as to whether he’ll be a propagator of good or evil. No one can do it for us. So please, I encourage and plead with us, today let’s take inventory of what’s truly in our hearts and try and replace any evil we might find there with good, by seriously asking the Lord’s help, so that come judgement time, we won’t have to answer for too many idle and evil words. More on this topic tomorrow, if the Lord so desires. Till then Friends, please, let’s pay close attention to what reigns in our hearts, and thus what titillates our tongues and eventually comes out of our mouths. That’s wisdom at its zenith! Much LOVE!…a single receptacle can only hold one kind of matter at a time…so it’s only wise to fill man’s heart…a single receptacle…with good stuff…

SCRIP-BITS

Christians are IN the World ONLY to pursue Christ’s Mission, not to be OF the World!

Today’s Scrip-Bit 14 March 2013 Matthew 12:33

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