Recognizing and Believing the Sure, Steadfast and Eternal LOVE of God for Mankind!

08 Aug 2025 Leave a comment

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

1 John 4:19.        We LOVE Him, because he first LOVED us.

And did the ‘TGIF’s! Thank God it’s Friday!’ ever go up this morning, but in a rather tired and halfhearted manner, as last weekend’s celebrations and this week’s work put a damper on the usual enthusiasm for the weekend. The great hope and expectation for this one is not to party, but to rest. (smile) Yes friends, if you want to call the tune, then you have to be able to pay the piper. And if you can’t, then you’ll simply have to suffer the consequences. Sermon done! (smile) 

And today we’re going to check out  a rather interesting poem from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin, simply titled ‘Who, Me?’  Yes, You! (smile) I don’t know if I’ve shared this poem before, but we know that they are all worth sharing over and over.

So please read with me: ‘Lord All of a sudden today you picked me up And hugged me And hugged me For no discernible reason. I was puzzled. After all – I hadn’t picked up my toys Or practiced my lessons Or brought You a daisy bouquet – Hesitantly, I asked why. You smiled and said I LOVE you, that’s all.  Then You added: I long to hug you more often. Why don’t You, Lord? You are too busy. Too busy, Lord? Too busy hugging yourself.’ 

Ah my fellow believers, can that admonishment apply to us? Are we too busy hugging ourselves, too taken up with our own cares and worries to pay any attention to our wonderful and ever-LOVING God? Somehow, I think that many of us are guilty of just such unwise actions. The cares and the materialism of this crazy world occupy too much of our time. We all feel so busy. But busy doing what?

Most of the time it’s not any earth moving circumstance, but simply something we feel we ought to do. On the other hand, how often do we feel like we should be hugging our great God eh? Certainly not enough! Meanwhile, He’s there  starving, longing for our affection. Remember He created us so that we could have good and constant communion with Him. But unfortunately, we’re not living up to our part of the bargain.

And the Bible verse for the poem is a simple but very telling one: The Book uses this translation: ‘We LOVE because He first LOVED us.’ But we like our good ole King James version which says: ‘We LOVE Him, because he first LOVED us.’ (1 John 4:19) Now that is such a very poignant and important statement; one that we should know and keep uppermost in our hearts, souls, bodies and minds at all times!

Why? Because it’s the very reason for our existence, our salvation and our eternal destiny! Remember we said that God created us because he wanted a people to LOVE and have constant communication with. And then, when we disobeyed His commands and thus brought sin into the world, He was heartbroken and therefore sought a way to return us to His flock. And that way was to Have His Son, Jesus Christ come to earth and selflessly offer His sinless blood as propitiation for our sins.

Why do you think the Lord did that eh? Why did He go to such great lengths to obtain a just and righteous reconciliation eh? Because He LOVED us! Else why would He break His own heart by sacrificing His only Son for a bunch of sinful ingrates eh? There’s only one logical answer; overwhelming LOVE for His sinful creation! And John explains that earlier on in the epistle, when he writes: ‘Herein is LOVE, not that we LOVED God, but that he LOVED us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ (1 John 4:10)  

Oh my fellow believers, that’s the greatest showing of LOVE there’s ever been, and will ever be! And I don’t understand why we don’t appreciate it so much more than we do. But that’s why the Lord gave us free will, so we could make our own choices, even though they may turn out to be the wrong ones. And how can we not appreciate and reverence these amazing words of Bruh Paul to the church at Rome eh?

‘For when we were yet without strength, in due time (at the right time) Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure (perhaps) for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth (demonstrated) his LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:6-8)

Oh my people, what else will it take for us to recognize and truly appreciate God’s great, undying LOVE for us eh? All through the Bible it’s said, written and actioned! So why do we still refuse to believe it and live like it mattered? Only each disbelieving individual and our all- knowing God know. Nuff said. Now it’s time to go to the throne of grace, through our Friday Chant, seeking divine help for our numerous problems.

Altogether: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough…  because our many serious problems are escalating instead of improving. And it’s obvious we can’t fix them on our own, so Lord, we’re desperately crying out for your help. Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat the simmering unrest in our land. We therefore ask you Lord to give our leaders the wise guidance to handle these unexpected storms properly. And please help the rest of us to be responsible and to stay safe amidst all the anxiety and confusion of these ungodly times.

We fervently pray too Lord that you’ll use the discontent and dissatisfaction in our land as a means of restoring faith in you. Return backsliders to your fold. Show them the error of their ways. And please introduce a new flock of believers, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. So that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, wake up and smell it sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’ 

Unfortunately though friends, it’s not only the sinful world that needs to wake up and smell the coffee, but also we underperforming supposed believers. And until we improve our witness for Christ, we won’t see much, if any divine help! Much LOVE!

…with all the positive evidence available…if you can’t believe God’s great LOVE for mankind…how can you believe anything else…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

The Overwhelming Importance of Sincerely Believing In Jesus Christ although We have never seen Him!

28 Jun 2025 Leave a comment

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

John 20:29b.        blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

So we move on to Saturday, our lazy-day Saturday, where we try to do as little as possible, after a hard and frustrating week’s work. (smile) And it’s a beautiful day, with more sunshine than cloud, plus a brisk, cool breeze, and temps supposedly on the rise. But Mother Earth is clean, after a thorough cleansing in the midnight hour, when the thunder roared, the lightning flashed and the rain fell in torrents.

And by the way, yesterday afternoon, the sun did valiantly overpower the clouds and come out shining in all its glory, so it’s not impossible for us to be valiant and get up and do God’s will. Just a reminder that we need to get up and get a move on, if we ever hope to make any productive and positive changes in our chaotic world. (smile) And we can begin right now by offering up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer.

As one strong and sincere 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!’

Ah friends, how good it is to be close to our God; our Creator and Controller, the One who LOVES us more than we can ever think or imagine, so much so that He gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven! Now, if that doesn’t show true and real LOVE, I don’ know what does! And it’s ever so wise for us to get close and stay close to Him, so that He can LOVE us the way He desires, to bask in it, while returning it through our surrender to and trust in Him and His awesome Son Jesus Christ!

That brings to mind the situation after Christ rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples. Thomas though was absent, and after hearing about it, claimed that He would not believe unless he put his hands in the nail prints of Jesus’ hands and the javelin wound in His side. And you must LOVE the wit of Jesus, for He specifically chose a time when Thomas was with the other disciples to appear again.

Jesus headed straight for him, and said, ‘Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless (unbelieving), but believing. And Thomas said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’ (John 20:27-29)

Yes friends, Jesus is there talking about people like us, who did not see Him in the living flesh while He was here on earth, but nonetheless have believed His story, and fervently placed our trust and lives in His faithful and trustworthy hands. That’s why Bruh Paul could write thus to the Corinthians: ‘(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) (1 Cor. 5:7) And to the Romans: ‘For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience (perseverance) (eagerly) wait for it.’ (Rom. 8:24-25)

And that’s what our faith is all about; eagerly waiting with perseverance for Christ’s return! As the author of Hebrews writes: ‘Now faith is the substance (realization) of things hoped for, the evidence (conviction) of things not seen.’ (Heb. 11:1) So faith and hope help us to understand as well as wait for those wonderful things that Jesus promised would eventually come to pass.

And I like how Peter puts it when talking about an Incorruptible Inheritance that’s laid up for us. He says: ‘That the trial (genuineness) of your faith. being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried (tested) with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing (revelation) of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye LOVE; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.’ (1 Pet. 1:7-8)

Wow! What a manifestation of our faith! Though we haven’t seen Jesus in the flesh, like so many others did, yet we LOVE Him like no other; more than any human being, and rejoice with unspeakable joy and give Him all the glory! Now, many other beings have the power to entice others into joyfully LOVING them and basking in their glory, but NONE of them have the power to keep the promises that Jesus made and instill the marvellous and miraculous faith that He’s been able to instill down through the ages in so many humans who have never seen Him in person, and is still instilling in numerous believers.

And I believe these are some excellent words for us to go out on this lazy-day Saturday, the last one of June 2025. They come from the first epistle of John, where he confidently declares: ‘We LOVE Him, because he first LOVED us. If a man say, I LOVE God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that LOVETH not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he LOVE God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who LOVETH God LOVE his brother also.’ (1 John 4:19-21)

Oh my people it could not be any clearer than that. We cannot say we truly LOVE God while hating our brother. Remember the second great commandment is to LOVE our neighbours as ourselves, (Matt. 22:39) and our neighbours are all those we come into contact with. So, I implore us this lazy-day Saturday, to spend some time considering our faith; if we truly believe in Jesus, although we’ve not seen Him, and if so, how are we relating to our brothers and neighbours in this crazy and ungodly world. That ought to give us much pause for thought! (smile) Much LOVE!

…saying we LOVE God is easy…but doing it in real life is definitely not easy…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit 7 November 2015 1 John 4:18

07 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

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

1 John 4:18.   There is no fear in LOVE; but perfect LOVE casteth out fear: because fear hath (involves) torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in LOVE!

Well my brethren, our little summer fling is over! Chuh! And I was just beginning to enjoy it; going out the street in shirtsleeves, sitting out on my porch in the early morning hours, quietly communing with my heavenly Father and releasing all the day’s anxieties and stress. 

Yes, Friends, this past week where we experienced temps in the mid to high teens all week was certainly a wonderful blessing. Glory to God! But it’s all over now, we’re reverting back to normal temps like ten and lower. Anyway, as long as that cold, white stuff is not flying around, I am happy.

 Once it starts making a mess on the roads, then I get miserable. I don’t even mind if it’s packed up on the banks and shoulders of the road, but not on the road itself which makes driving even more treacherous than it already is, with so many cars and bad drivers out there nowadays. Sometimes it can be really fearful to drive on the dry roads, much less the snow filled ones. 

However, since you all are such wonderful patrons, and I’m in such a generous frame of mind, (smile) I will offer two of our Friend Anselm’s quotes from this past week, which speak rather appropriately to our topic. 

The first one says: ‘If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.’ And that’s very true. The only way to conquer fear is to rise up over it; to do the thing(s) of which you are afraid, with God’s faith and trust in your heart, standing on His promise that He won’t let us go through more than we can handle. 

And the second quote declares that ‘Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.’ And that’s no lie either my people! I am sure all of us have come upon situations at some stage of our lives where we thought we did not have the wherewithal to handle them, but once we decided to step out in faith, we realized that we actually had the parts to deal with the situations. 

Sometimes we need God to pour down some extra courage on us, but at other times we discover that what we already have is quite sufficient. And once we consider the assuring words Bruh Paul spoke to young Timothy, our fears should subside. ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of LOVE, and of a sound mind.’ (2 Tim.7) 

So technically speaking, we’re not suppose be afraid of anything. But we all know that is easier said than done. And I like how Sister Joyce (Joyce Meyer) puts it: just do it afraid. (smile) But she does have a point, we can’t allow fear to ruin our lives. And the only way to conquer fear is rearing up over it with faith! 

And our Bit today hits the nail right on the head of the subject. ‘There is no fear in LOVE; but perfect LOVE casteth out fear: because fear hath (involves) torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in LOVE!’ What a powerful verse of scripture my fellow believers! 

Now here is how the scholars explain that verse. ‘4:18. Fear hath torment: Abject fear of God is based on dread of punishment. But God’s LOVE for us renders such dread obsolete. Fear is still part of the Christian walk-in the sense of profound reverence, the unwillingness to violate God’s trust in us (see Acts 10:35; 13:26; 2 Cor.7:1; Eph.5:21; Phil.2:12; 1 Pet.1:17) 

Believers need not fear eternal rejection as a result of God’s judgement. (John 5:24), but this does not mean a Christian’s approach to God is to be flippant and casual.’ 

Of course not! Our attitude towards our heavenly Father should be one of reverence, respect, awe and joy that we have such a wonderful God! 

Now, since I know that very few of us will bother to check the scriptures noted in the scholars explanations, I will quote a few of them for our benefit. Aren’t I nice? (smile) We will begin with Acts 13:26, where Paul and Barnabas are talking to the people of Antioch. 

Bruh Paul says to them: ‘Men and brethren, children (sons) of the stock (family) of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.’ (Acts 13:26) 

And in 2 Corinthians, Bruh Paul opens Chapter 7 thus: ‘Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.’ (2 Cor.7:1) 

And to the Ephesians, Bruh Paul writes: ‘Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.’ (Eph.5:20-21) 

Oh Friends, you see it’s all about the reverential awe of God, about putting Him first in our lives, not being afraid to talk to Him. We have that right to confidently approach Him on the basis of Jesus’ work at the cross. That work reconciled us to Him, and we are once more His beloved children. So there is absolutely nothing to fear if we are children of the Most High God! 

As John states after our Bit: ‘We LOVE him, because he first LOVED us. If a man say, I LOVE God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that LOVETH not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he LOVE God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who LOVETH God LOVE his brother also.’ (1John 4:19-21) 

There we have it Friends; a sermon… sorry, (smile) a teaching on fear, LOVE and reverence. Please, let’s carve it into the depths of our souls, so that we can always have it for our timely reference. That’s wisdom at its zenith! Much LOVE!

…the only antidote for fear…is faith…backed by the unconditional LOVE of Almighty God…

 

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