SCRIP-BITS

Oh Friends, like the snow took umbrage at my disparaging, belittling remark yesterday and decided to show me what’s what. (smile) So it fell all night and intermittently throughout the day. Now there’s no mistaking it’s winter. So be careful with your words, for they’re liable to come back to haunt you. By the way, it’s also Friday, the eve of New Year’s Eve! Wow! So you can just imagine the mas (carnival atmosphere) that’s predominating all over the world as people make plans to celebrate the incoming year, many in high style, some not so high, and others in very low style. Me? I think I’ll do it in low style. Too many headaches involved; with celebrations too far away, thus having to fight traffic and snow to get there, then on the way home, constantly being on the look out for Babylon, who’s on the lookout for you drinking and driving. (smile) I’m a little too old for that rigmarole now, so I think I’ll just stay home and celebrate quietly with the duchess. But most everybody will do some kind of celebrating. And since New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, like Christmas Day, that means Monday is a holiday for many, further meaning we’re enjoying back to back long weekends. Can you imagine the feasting and partying? But hopefully also some fellowshipping, worshipping and thanksgiving too will take place, for all God’s goodness to us, His undeserving children. Don’t forget Jesus is still the reason for the season. Now because of all those exuberant circumstances, Lucifer is very alert, gleefully walking around looking for any unsuspecting person(s) he can waylay and infiltrate. I therefore need to remind us to be careful not to give him even one miniscule opening into our lives. Or to put it in the idiom that most of us understand: drunk or sober, mind yuh business. (smile) Oh Friends, we can never be reminded of that too often because the enemy never takes a break, he’s always on the lookout for prey, so we always have to be on our p’s and q’s to avoid him getting his evil fangs into us. And to help us do that, let’s chant our Friday Chant nuh, with plenty feeling too, because this is a real big weekend. Altogether now: ‘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.’ Yes my people, we can never afford to let our guard down where Lucifer and his evil cohorts are concerned. That’s why we need to routinely stick to the wise advice Jesus gives in our Bit: ‘Labour not for the meat (food) which perisheth, but for that meat (food) which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.’ And that’s the living truth Friends! Now what’s this meat, this food that perishes? It’s simply the things of the world, the things the world considers important. And the food that perishes not? Those are the things associated with heaven, as Jesus so compellingly spells out: ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt (ruin), and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt (ruin), and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ (Matt.6:19-21) Oh my brethren, that’s just pure common sense! Wherever the things we hold dear are stored, then there will our minds and hearts be focused. And if those things held dear are on earth, even our bodies will often be there too. As believers we should not be focused on earthly things because we can’t take them with us when we leave this earth, so why get all hot and bothered about accumulating them? We’ll only leave all that earthly wealth for others to fight over. Job said it quite nicely when he was battered by trials and tribulations, losing all of his earthly possessions. ‘Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ (Job 1:21) Now obviously most of us will be clothed when we return to the earth, but it’s just that we won’t be carrying any of those earthly possessions with us, so why kill ourselves to get them, and why make them so important that they become like idols, taking away our focus from God? Note in Jobs’ speech there, though the Lord had dealt him a rough hand, Job never once blamed God or cursed Him, instead he blessed Him. Now Friends, that’s the way believers ought to operate. It’s not easy, but it’s what our heavenly Father and our Saviour Jesus desires of us, so let’s put our shoulders to wheel and do our best to please and bless Them nuh. It’s what we signed up for as Christians. More on this tomorrow – if we don’t make the obits. (smile) Much LOVE!…earthly things are useful…but when they entice us away from Jesus…then problems set in…