Today’s Scrip-Bit 20 March 2016 Zechariah 9:9

20 Mar 2016 Leave a comment

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

Zechariah 9:9.    Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just (righteous), and having salvation; lowly (humble), and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Welcome friends to the first day of spring in the North Country, although it’s still pretty chilly outside. (smile) It’s also Sunday my people, which means it’s time to get thee hither to church, to gather with other believers to praise and worship and give thanks and glorify Almighty God and receive His power, strength, energy, wisdom, confidence and enthusiasm to face the upcoming week. 

Now this is not my suggestion, but God’s command: ‘Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day, thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. (Ex.23:12) 

And in modern day Christian society we have chosen Sundays to be our day of rest and worship, and in a convoluting kind of way, also the first day of the week. The important thing though, is that we take off one day a week from our labour and rest and worship the Lord as a group, regardless of which day it might be. 

Now listen to this other scripture about the observance of the Sabbath from the prophet Isaiah. ‘If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the  high places of the earth (the hills), and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ (Is.58:13-14) 

What more can we ask for re the observance, the celebration of the Sabbath eh my brethren? Nothing at all! The Lord has promised us a joyride if we faithfully observe it. (smile) 

And fortunately, today also happens to be Palm Sunday; that magnificent day of celebration, when our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was ushered into Jerusalem in kingly fashion, but on a humble donkey, where the people spread their garments and branches they cut down from trees along the roadway for Him to ride over. 

‘And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.’ (Matt.20:8-9) 

Oh my people what a day of celebration that must have been in ole Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, that a week later the same fickle souls were then fiendishly crying out ‘crucify Him, crucify Him!’ That just shows what a bunch of ingrates and turncoats and hypocrites we are. 

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. (smile) Today, let’s enjoy the pomp and pageantry that was Palm Sunday, for it will be indeed a fleeting, though rather important moment in time. 

And the breathtaking aspect of the day, is as the Good Book says: ‘And all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek (lowly), and sitting upon an ass (donkey), and a colt the foal of an ass.’ (Matt.21:5)  

Oh my people, how wonderful is our God eh, who can foretell stuff centuries and eons before they come to pass! ‘Behold the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.’ (Is.42:9) 

And the Lord did tell us about Palm Sunday long before it happened. The words of our Bit spell it out loud and clear: ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just (righteous), and having salvation; lowly (humble), and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.’ 

What an awesome God we serve and worship my people! No other supposed deity has done, or can do those things; only the Almighty and Everlasting God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! 

‘And all God’s people joyfully sang: ‘Praise Him, praise him, Glory Hallelujah, He is LOVE, He is LOVE!’ That He certainly is my people! 

Now here is some info from the scholars. ‘9:9-10. The ass (donkey) was an animal of peace. The kings of the earth come to bring destruction and devastation: Israel’s King comes to bring peace. The prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.’ 

Yes my people, our God is so mighty, majestic, magnificent and magnanimous that I can’t understand how so many of us can fail to appreciate, LOVE, serve and worship Him with all our hearts, minds, bodies and souls nuh! 

He has never lied to us, never led us astray, has proven His great and unconditional LOVE for us unworthy reprobates by sending His only son Jesus to die on the cross so that we could be free, washed clean of our disgusting sins, thus reconciling us to Him, bringing us back into a right relationship with Him, offering us a free gift of grace that leads to salvation and eternal life with the Holy Trinity in heaven till time immemorial! 

What more does He have to do to convince us eh mih breddren? The only thing left is for us to be able to worship the prince of darkness and lust after and enjoy the things of the world and still get to heaven. But I can assure you friends, that’s NEVER going to happen. 

The Lord in His righteousness and holiness and justice could not agree to that. Yuh see the great heartbreaking lengths He went to, to secure our freedom; sacrificing His only Son? Now if it were possible to get into heaven another way than through Jesus sacrifice, don’t you think He would have taken it? 

Anyway, that is all now hypothetical; Jesus was sacrificed to pay for our sins, and He’s the ONLY way to get to heaven. So let’s go out and celebrate, have a wonderful Palm Sunday, sing and praise and joyfully shout ‘Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!’ Much LOVE my fellow believers!

…sing and rejoice…O daughter of Zion…for, lo, I come (am coming)…and I will dwell in the midst of thee…saith the Lord…  (Zech.2:10)

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 9 November 2014 Exodus 20:8

09 Nov 2014 Leave a comment

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

Exodus 20:8.  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

And then it was Sunday…the Sabbath Day – the Day of the Lord – a special day set aside for fellowship, to give and receive encouragement from fellow believers, wherein our faith in Jehovah God is renewed, hope is engendered, and thus the strength of our spiritual man is increased!
 
Yes Friends, the Sabbath Day is very important in the life of the believer. So let’s take it from the beginning nuh, from that time when the Lord handed down the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, through Moses, at the foot of Mt. Sinai (Horeb).
 
And the Lord considered the Sabbath Day so important that He included it in those Ten Commandments, as stated so simply but rather directly in our Bit. ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ A simple, but no nonsense statement my people!
 
And to further testify to the high esteem the Sabbath day held in God’s eyes, He went on to explain in this addendum. ‘Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
 
For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.’ (Ex.20:9-12)
 
There can therefore be no argument about the observation of the Lord’s Day my brethren! We might argue –as we so foolishly do – as to exactly which day, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, is the seventh day, and the real Sabbath. But the undeniable fact of the matter is that whichever day we choose to celebrate it, we must seriously reverence the Lord in it.
 
And it’s interesting to note that as the Israelites made their pilgrimage through the wilderness, as the Lord gave Moses directions and instructions on how His chosen people were to live, the celebration of the Sabbath was raised several times. Let’s spend the rest of the Bit looking at some of them.
 
In Exodus 23, in the section on ‘Judgements concluded,’ Moses throws in this timely reminder. ‘Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.’ (Ex.23:12)
 
There you have it Friends, in black and white, from the mouth of the Lord through Moses; the Sabbath day, besides being blessed, hallowed and holy, is a day for refreshing both body and soul!
 
And moving right along, we come to Exodus 31, where the Sabbath is highlighted as a sign. Listen to the Good Book tell it: ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you (set you apart).
 
Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth (profanes) it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul (person) shall be cut off (by death) from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
 
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’ (Ex.32:12-17)
 
Yuh see mih breddren, the Lord’s Day was considered so important that if you breached it, death was to be the punishment!
 
Luckily for us though, we don’t go to those drastic lengths today, since Jesus came and declared: ‘The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.’ (Mark 2:27-28)
 
And the scholars explain that thus: ‘2:27-28. Jesus’ reasoning is that divine intuitions on earth are to have a God-honouring, noble, and liberating function. Sabbath laws had for some degenerated into a mockery of God’s intent. Jesus, the Son of man and Lord…of the sabbath, having power to forgive sin, can also teach rightly regarding proper observance of the Jewish Sabbath. Jesus here touches a raw nerve, as the next incident shows.’ That’s His healing of a lame man on the Sabbath day. (Mark 3:1-6)
 
However Friends, it still behoves us to keep the Sabbath day holy, and fellowship with each other, because that is exactly what Jesus did. Wherever He was on the Sabbath day, He made sure that He attended the synagogue to fellowship and hear the Word.
 
Then in Leviticus 19, re the laws of holiness and justice, this little tidbit on the Sabbath is thrown in. ‘Ye shall keep (observe) my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.’ (Lev.19:30) And the same thing is thrown in again on the chapter on Idolatry. (Lev.26:2)
 
Then in Deuteronomy 5, when Moses reminds them of the covenant at Mt. Sinai (Horeb), he goes through the Ten Commandments again, including: ‘Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it (keep it holy), as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.’ (Deut.5:12)
 
And we’ll close with a word from Isaiah on the observance of the Sabbath. ‘If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
 
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places (hills) of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ (Is.58:13-14)
 
Yes Friends, if we truly honour the Lord on the Sabbath, then we will surely be blessed! That’s God’s promise. And we know He never breaks them, so let’s go out and honour Him today nuh, on His special day, and keep it as holy and restful as we can. That’s the wisdom of heaven! Much LOVE!
 
…if the Creator of the universe could rest from His labour for one day…why can’t His greatest creation faithfully do the same eh…