Today’s Scrip-Bit 17 April 2021 Psalm 139:14a.

17 Apr 2021 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 139:14a.     ​I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

Saturday, Saturday! Thank God that lazy day called Saturday is here! Yes friends, Saturday has arrived…and we’re happy, despite the tighter lockdown restrictions we were handed in our province of Ontario yesterday. Ah Lord eh! When will it all end? The vaccines don’t seem to me making much of a difference, because every day we’re hitting record highs in new cases of the covid virus, be they the regular one or the variants. And no one seems to understand why this is happening. So, the only recourse is to lock down tighter. 

But again, that will only work if people responsibly adhere to the rules, which they have not been doing in the past, and why the virus has been proliferating for so long, until it had a chance to rework itself and become even more dangerous. But friends, the one constant in it all is the amazing presence of Christ Jesus in our lives! That has not changed, so as the song says, let’s keep Jesus shining through us, and together with Him, we’ll shine over the whole world, and let His glory fill the land. 

And since it’s Saturday, we need to check out the quotes that our friend Anselm sent us this past week, as he aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. Now they all seem to be centred around personal image and improvement, so obviously they will have some overlap. And the first one says: ‘Be yourself. An original is so much better than a copy.’ And is that ever the awesome truth! Have you ever noticed when you make a copy of something, it’s never as good as the original? 

Well that also applies to our lives. We come off much better when we let our real selves show and not try to be a copy of someone else. And that’s all the Lord is asking of us – to be who He created us to be, not try to be someone else. That’s why He made each of as a unique specimen and not copies or clones. As Bruh David says in Psalm 139: ‘I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right (very) well.’ (Ps. 139:14) 

Consequently, this next quote speaks very well to the first. ‘Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.’ Truer words were never spoken my people! We must be true to what God made us, and whatever we do, make sure we put our very heart and soul in it, because our heavenly Father always expects the best of us. And if we find that we can’t put our hearts sincerely in something, then we should not get involved in it. As Bruh Paul told the church at Colossae, re Christian virtues and advice for domestic life. ‘And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.’ (Col. 3:17) 

And the scholars offer this explanation on that verse. ‘3:17. The beneficial influence produced by the indwelling word of Christ is not only to affect public and private worship (vs. 16), (where he admonishes them to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with grace in their hearts to the Lord), but it is also to control all areas of a Christian’s life.’ 

And later on, Bruh Paul advises the slaves and servants thus: ‘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. 3:23-24) Yes friends, even slaves and servants were to perform their menial tasks wholeheartedly, doing their best, because they were not doing it so much for their earthly master but for the heavenly One, who promised them the reward of salvation in their Christian faith. 

That brings us to this quote: ‘If you’re searching for that one person that will change your life, take a look in the mirror.’ Now that’s something we should do everyday friends. Take a good look in the mirror and try to discern who or whom we really are! Everything in our lives begins and ends with us. We can’t expect others to improve our lives if we don’t first put in the effort and energy to do it. As the old saying goes; no one can make you happy but yourself. 

Just look at all the toys and conveniences we have in today’s modern world, but so many of us are still bored and miserable. That’s partly because we are expecting, looking for other things and people to make and/or keep us happy. But if we can’t first find happiness within ourselves, then we’ll never find it anywhere else. 

And the next quote fits nicely into the framework. ‘You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.’ That should be obvious my brethren. We can’t give away something we don’t have, be it money, time, talent or LOVE! That means we first have look after ourselves, to grow in us, or our lives, whatever it is we want to share with others. So if it’s money; then we have to work to get some. With time, we must arrange our schedule so that we have some to spare. And for talent, we have to learn, or improve ourselves in whatever area we desire to help others. 

But you know the amazing thing about wanting to share LOVE: you need to do all of the above, especially spending time with the Master of LOVE, Jesus, and learning from Him and His word! Oh glory be mih people! As Jesus says, the two most important things in this world are to LOVE God with everything you have, and to LOVE your neighbour as yourself. (Matt. 22:37-40) And as we were just saying, if you don’t have LOVE for yourself, how can you give it to anybody else? But Jesus can teach us! 

And the last quote tells us: ‘Be proud of who you are, and not ashamed of how someone else sees you.’ Now that’s the gospel truth friends! Far too many of us are ashamed of ourselves for stupid, worldly reasons! God might be disappointed in us, but He’s never ashamed of us. So why do we allow mortal men like ourselves, to make us feel ashamed eh? Granted, some of us may be down on our luck, for whatever reason, but that’s no reason to be ashamed. Remember what Bruh David said; we’re ALL fearfully and wonderfully made, unique creatures of God’s sophisticated engineering, so there’s no need to be ashamed. 

We can always turn to God for His faithful help. Just look at Bruh Paul’s life, how he turned from destroying believers to lifting them up, with Christ’s help obviously, to the point where he could boast. ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.’ (Rom. 1:16) 

And what better scripture to close with than this one from Christ Himself. ‘For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.’ (Luke 9:26). Yes friends, Jesus, as always, puts it in plain language. If we refuse to stand up for Him now, then, when He comes in all His glory, He won’t bother with us either. That just seems fair, doesn’t it?Much LOVE!

…human beings are God’s greatest creation…let’s truly reflect it in our earthly lives nuh…

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 7 November 2020 Nehemiah 8:10.

07 Nov 2020 Leave a comment

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

Nehemiah 8:10.     ​…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Well it’s a bright Saturday morning in my area, and there seems to be nothing new under the sun, (smile) as Cousin Sol said so long ago. (Eccl. 1:9). The vote counting and ridiculous claims and incitement to unruly behaviour is still happening down south in the U.S. What a ridiculous example is being set by a once proud and mighty nation eh! But I guess as the ole people would say, ‘after one time is two.’ 

And as it happens with men and nations, when we get too big for our britches, we generally end up falling to our knees in misery and discord. Anyway, we’re still waiting to see how the drama, that rodeo down there plays out. But however it does play out, one thing is for sure, the results and ongoing sentiments won’t be nice and sweet and friendly. (smile) 

Enough on that topic now. It’s Saturday, so let’s see what quotes our friend Anselm sent us this past week, as he aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. We only got three quotes this week, so that should make my life easier. (smile) And he is still prefacing them with ‘Positive affirmation: you should tell yourself to remind yourself just how awesome you are.’ So I won’t repeat it the preface, but please be careful to remember that we are only awesome in and with Jesus in our lives. (smile) 

And the first quote is ‘I don’t need someone else to feel happiness.’ And that’s oh so true. Too often though we depend on others to do or say things to make us happy. But please note that happiness is a feeling, a feeling which can be turned on and off at a whim, or change of circumstance. It’s a frail and fickle state or emotion, ofttimes with no suitable or strong foundation to keep it flowing. However, we are quite capable of raising that feeling of ebullience on our own. 

It’s become a habit though, to claim that so and so has made me unhappy, or happy. But the truth is that no one can really make us happy or unhappy but ourselves. We hold the key to either situation, by allowing others to influence us one way or another. Now joy is a different thing. That comes from a strong state of inward satisfaction, a solid foundation, which doesn’t change with every change of direction of the wind or life, and which even in tough situations, like we’re now facing, keeps us strong and steadfast. 

And it’s under those conditions that we can claim the next quote: ‘I’m calm, happy, and content. My imperfections make me unique.’ Now let’s deal with the last part of that quote first. Our imperfections don’t need to make us unique nuh, because our Creator has already done that. He made us in His own image, (Gen. 1:26) He blew His breath of life into our nostrils, (Gen. 2:7) That means each and every one of God’s creation is a unique being! There are no two people exactly alike. 

As Bruh David so famously said in Psalm 139 – The everlasting presence and power of God – ‘I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.’ (Ps. 139:14) Yes my people, we are all magnificent and unique creatures, but unfortunately not enough of us can lay true claim to the first part of the quote, because too many of us are not calm, happy and contented. Yes, the current situation of a pandemic and all sorts of strife is stressful and can tend to erode our calm and contented situation. 

However, if one’s foundation is built on Jesus, then friends, you can withstand anything, any kind of stress or strain or evil circumstance that tries to steal your joy and calm and contentment! For Jesus is our rock, our solid foundation! As Nehemiah said way back when, ‘for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ (Neh. 8:10) 

Mama Mia! What a marvellous acclamation and truthful proclamation eh! (smile) That’s why joy and happiness are different. For true joy comes from having Jesus in our hearts, but happiness is from man, that’s why it’s ephemeral; short-lived, flaky, vapour-like, with no solid foundation. And years later, Bruh Paul put it bluntly to the church at Corinth: ‘For no other foundation can no man lay than that that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.’ Yes my people, Jesus Christ is the ONE and ONLY true foundation of this world. He built it, and if and when necessary, He will destroy it. No man can do it unless He allows it. 

As the psalmist so avidly proclaimed long ago. ‘The stone which the builders refused (rejected) is become the headstone of the corner (chief headstone). This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.’ (Ps.118:22-23) Ah my fellow saints, Jesus came to earth to build His kingdom, but oh so many rejected and abused Him, and He even quoted that scripture in His relating of the parable of the wicked husbandmen. (Matt. 21:42) 

But thankfully, down through the ages, mankind has slowly woken up to the reality that Jesus is the only real Saviour available to ease hurts and pains and bring joy and gladness to the soul, and we have begun accepting Him as the foundation of our lives, though certainly not on a wide enough scale, so no wonder the minions of the evil one now have the world in grip, in a strangle hold, and causing endless strife and negative commotion. 

But my brethren, if Jesus is in our lives, then we will be okay, for He has promised never to leave nor forsake us, and to work everything out for our good eventually. And He’s awesomely faithful in keeping His promises! So if things are rough right now and we are hurting and wounded and seeing no avenue for healing, don’t worry, come to Jesus, just as you are, and He will gladly accept and heal you. 

And that brings us to the last quote: ‘I’m allowed to take the time to heal.’ Oh hurting ones, fear not, Jesus is the original Healer, and He will take His take His time with ALL those who come to Him for succour in sincerity and truth! Hear His Great Invitation nuh: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of (from) me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (gentle and humble): and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matt. 11:28-30) 

And that’s the gospel truth people! Only in Jesus can a body find true joy and rest and healing and salvation! So please accept him today nuh. He’s knocking at the door to the hearts of ALL men. For your benefit, open up your heart and let Him in nuh. It will be the wisest decision you’ve ever made! Much LOVE!

…JESUS…the only place for ONE STOP shopping…He satisfies ALL your needs and wants…