The Overwhelming Importance of Christians Knowing They Now Belong to God, through the Shed Blood of Christ!

02 Sep 2026 Leave a comment

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   2 September 2026   1 Corinthians 19b-20a.

1 Corinthians 19b-20a.        and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price:

It’s a cloudy, rainy, second wind Wednesday morning, but most importantly, it’s a warm day! Yes my faithful brethren, the early days of September have stayed warm, so we have no need to be aggrieved. (smile) A little rain and dark clouds never hurt anyone yet, so let’s be glad that we’re alive and living in a fairly, strife-free society, and give the Lord much thanks and praise for the many blessings He’s bestowed on us. And all God’s children said a loud and grateful: ‘Praise the Lord! Bless His holy Name! Amen!’

And to help us catch our second wind, we’re going to check out an interesting poem from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin, simply titled ‘Indelible Ink.’ Now, it’s the poem dedicated to September second. Remembering that the last poem we did was on the actual day dedicated to it, I decided to see if today’s poem would also be suitable and it was not one we had recently used. And to tell the truth I don’t know if we have used it before, (smile) but we’ll do so today.

So please read with me: ‘I LOVE her exuberance, Lord, Her refreshing spontaneity. I smile when I think How she rushed into the house (Blue eyes aglow) And thrust her new book Into my hands: “Please write my name on my book In great big letters So everybody knows It belongs to me.” Yes, Lord Yes. I want that too. Write Your name On the chapters of my life – My thoughts Motives Secret dreams … Write Your name On my total being So everybody knows I belong to You. And Lord Indelible ink, please.’

Oh friends isn’t that a most wonderful sentiment! It surely is! Just like a young child is exuberant when they get new book and wants their name written in it, so that everyone knows it’s theirs, we should also want the Lord’s name written on our lives, on each and every chapter, so that everyone knows we belong to Him, lock, stock and barrel! And please note we want it written in indelible ink, meaning it cannot be erased. (smile)

The truth though is that many of us don’t want anyone else to know that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, for although we claim to believe in Him, there’s still that little fear of what people will say if they know. Perhaps they’ll call me a ‘Jesus freak,’ or laugh at me and don’t invite me to their gatherings because they fear that I will only want to talk about Jesus and scriptures, and/or expose their sinful habits. It’s like Bruh Paul says in Ephesians. ‘And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (expose) them.’ (Eph. 5:11)

Yuh see friends, it works both ways. We’re afraid of what others would say, but they are also wary about how we’ll affect them. However, we should never be ashamed of proclaiming Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour for remember what Jesus said to the disciples when He was sending them out to preach: ‘Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.’ (Matt. 10:32-33)

That’s how it is! If you are proud to talk about Jesus before mankind, then He’ll also put in a good word for you to His heavenly Father. But if you’re too afraid to talk about Him to unbelievers, then He’ll not put in a good word for you with His Father in heaven. Yes, working for Jesus can be hard and dangerous, but He’s asking us, His followers, to stay brave and openly admit our faith, even when people around us are hostile.

And we do have a great responsibility to do that as noted by the Bible verses for today’s poem which come from 1 Corinthians. ‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods.’ (1 Cor. 6:19-20) That says it all my fellow believers! Once we claim Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we no longer belong to ourselves, but to Him, because He paid for our sins and salvation with the awesome price of His shed blood on Calvary.  

And in the next chapter, when talking about marriage, Bruh Paul again makes the point. ‘For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.’ (1 Cor. 7:22-24)

And Peter is also forceful and adamant on the subject. ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible (perishable) things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation (aimless conduct) received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest (revealed) in these last times to you. Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.’ (1 Pet. 1:18-21)

Ah mih people, Christ gave His all for us, and the least we can do is give our all for Him. So lets’ go home now declaring our Wednesday Wail, letting the whole world know of our wonderful position in Christ Jesus. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’ 

And it’s promised that if we endure to the end with Christ, we will enjoy a future so glorious that we cannot ever comprehend or imagine it. So please, let’s stay faithful to the very end nuh, so that we can enjoy that more than glorious future together! Much LOVE!

…you can’t be a Christian…and deny or be ashamed of Christ…the One who saved you…

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

The Overwhelming Importance of not Defiling our Bodies with Carnal Appetites, because they are the Holy and Living Temples of God!

18 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

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

1 Corinthians 6:19.        What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

And then it was Tuesday, working time for all again. Thankfully, most of the serious clean-up has been completed after this weekend’s severe snowstorm. And it’s turned out to be another bright, sunshiny day in my neighbourhood, with the dazzling light of the sun reflecting so beautifully off of the white snow. It’s truly a thing of beauty, like all God’s creations, when untouched by man! (smile) 

Now, yesterday we dealt with a somewhat touchy subject to some people, but a rather important one to God. So today, let’s clarify and expand on it nuh. It says: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile (destroys) the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which ye are.’ (1 Cor. 3:16-17) 

According to scholars those verses refer primarily to the people of the local church and not so much to the individual believer. They say that ‘Paul seems to have in mind unsaved people who may or may not be in the assembly, but who are in fact false believers. The prospect for such a one is fearful.’ Now if the penalty for the unsaved masquerading as saved is fearful, what can be said about the price that the saved will pay if they defile their bodies, which is also the Holy Temple of God? 

Bruh Paul lays it out quite clearly later in 1 Corinthians, when He again asked, but on an individual basis this time: ‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.’ (1 Cor. 6:19-20) So as the scholars say: ‘Not only is the local church a temple of the Holy Spirit, but the individual believer’s body itself is also a temple of the Holy Spirit.’ 

Yes friends, we are not our own, we do not belong to us, but to Jesus Christ who bought us with the enormous price of His shed blood on the cross of Calvary. That means we ought to keep our bought and paid for bodies as clean and wholesome as possible. And per being bought with a price,  the scholars offer this interesting explanation. ‘The blessed fact that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit has two sides: one, that He is ours; the other, that we are His. The believer was purchased on Golgotha’s hill. The price paid was the blood of God’s only Son. (Acts 20:28). This has profound significance for the believer  (cf.1 Tim.  4:10; 1 Pet. 2:9).’ 

Now, I’ll leave you to look up the first two references, and we’ll look at that from Peter, where he’s talking about believers being of a Holy Priesthood. He writes: ‘But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people (Christ’s special people); that ye should shew forth (proclaim) the praises of him who hath called us out of a darkness into his marvellous light: 

Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation (conduct) honest (honourable) among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.’ (1 Pet. 2:9-12) 

Oh my people, you know what all that says? Per the scholars: ‘The priesthood of the believer and his unique relationship to God are described by the terms a chosen generation … a royal priesthood … an holy nation. Thus, the New Testament church stands in a unique relationship to God as did Old Testament Israel.’ Now, isn’t that marvellous…we have a special relationship with God! But you know what that also means…we cannot defile our bodies which belong to God with too much sinful and carnal stuff. We’ll never be perfect like Jesus, but our job is to work as close to perfection as possible. 

That means treating our bodies with holy respect as they now belong to God. And that’s why this warning from James is also very important. He writes: ‘Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of (with) the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be (wants to be) a friend of the world is (makes himself) the enemy of God.’ (James 4:4) 

It could not get any clearer than that my brethren. If we choose to associate with the world, and live by its tenets instead of God’s, then we automatically become enemies of God, and that’s the worst thing that can ever happen to us, because in the long run we’ll be destroyed with all His other enemies, separated eternally from His LOVE, mercy and grace. 

And here’s the last scripture passage for today on the subject of keeping our bodies, the temple of God holy and clean. Bruh Paul writes thus to the Galatians: ‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so ye cannot do that things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’ (Gal. 5:16-18) 

And that’s a fact; if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, then we’re not going to continually participate in all the things this sinful world considers right and good. As the scholars explain: ‘The Spirit-led person is not under the law. The Christian does not need the restraints of the law because his moral life is governed by the spirit.’ And all God’s people said a loud and grateful, ‘Amen!’ 

Now let’s go home declaring our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong, lock, stock and barrel. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

And having made that pledge, it now becomes our bounden duty to go out and share the awesome LOVE and friendship of Christ with others, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…keeping our bodily temples clean…means constantly renewing our minds with God’s Word…while keeping our old man at bay…

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