Today’s Scrip-Bit 1 January 2020 Psalm 146:2.

Psalm 146:2.    ​While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
 

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR !

Well we’re wishing all and sundry a Happy 2020 indeed! Yes 2019 was sort of rough for many of us, but we’re definitely going to keep keeping on in 2020, fighting the good fight, hoping for, and by our strong faith, eagerly expecting the best! Our God is a good God, so why shouldn’t we expect the best from Him eh? No reason whatsoever! And I hope that you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration last night, but didn’t give the evil Lucifer any room to raise his ugly head in your affairs. My celebrations were minimal, but I did get to bed rather late, hence the tardiness of the Bit. (smile) 

But most of all, I hope that we ALL made the significant resolution to walk with Jesus even closer in this new year, this new decade! Why? Because it’s the most significant and productive resolve we can ever have in this life. If He’s truly the Way, the Truth and the Life, then who else can you follow and be successful eh? NOBODY! So let’s wake up and smell the roses, the coffee, whatever will put sense and wisdom in our heads, and help us to get as tight as possible with Jesus this year my people. 

Remember, He is the great ‘butterer’ of our bread, the one who enables us to get true wealth and success! He is also a maker and keeper of wonderful promises, the giver of second chances and new beginnings. So on this first day of this new year of 2020, let’s celebrate all of God’s goodness with this poem from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin, appropriately titled ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR!’ 

Please pray with me: ‘This very first day Of the fresh new year I sing a new song – A joyful, exalted song! With Israel’s sweet singer I exclaim: “How good it is to sing God’s praise How delightful and how right.” The volume increases The tempo accelerates. With glorious anticipation I shout a rousing welcome To the up-and-coming days. The future cannot daunt me Every inscrutable mystery Becomes a consolation of joy For with You in control, dear God The worst may happen but the best is yet to come.’  

And isn’t that the God awesome truth my faithful brethren! The Best is yet to come for all true believers in Christ Jesus! Wow! What a way to begin this new year with high and glorious expectations and a rousing shout of joy, knowing that our Most Venerable Father God is still on the throne, running things, with His most able assistant and right hand man Jesus in the wings watching over our every move and step, providing heavenly and angelic hands to guide us and keep us from falling. And all God’s people gave a loud and proud and grateful cheer of: ‘Hallelujah! The Lord is great! Great and most worthy to be praised in all the earth and heavens! Amen!’ 

And thus our Bit for today is the same as the Bible Promise for our poem; the magnificent words of the psalmist as he declares (yeah!) the blessedness of  trusting God. So please sing with me in loud and sincere voice: ‘Praise ye the Lord (shout Hallelujah). Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.’ (Ps.146:1-2) Yes my people, praising our great God is indeed wisdom of the highest order! 

And that’s not all, the psalmist continues his wise advice: ‘Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man (a human being), in whom there is no help (no salvation). His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.’ (Ps.146:3-4) What gospel truth my brethren! Mankind really doesn’t have much to offer because he was made from the dirt and that’s where he eventually returns when the Lord recovers his breath of life. 

But hear the ultimate wisdom nuh: ‘Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.’ (Ps.146:5) Mamma Mia! What an awesome bit of advice and everlasting truth! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the ONLY ONE worthy of worship! 

Why? Because Hs is the ONE ‘Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: Which executeth judgement (justice) for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth (gives freedom to) the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord LOVETH the righteous: The Lord preserveth (watches over) the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down (makes crooked).’ (Ps.146:6:9) 

Now friends, if you can show me another deity who does all of that, plus give us Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, then I’ll certainly bow down and worship him. But until then, I’ll stick with the One I know, He of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because there simply is not another capable of His mighty deeds, amazing compassion and unconditional LOVE, neither is there any other who can provide salvation. End of story! 

Now let’s go home declaring (yeah!) our Wednesday Wail, with much gusto and sincerity, letting the world know in no uncertain terms our awesome position in Christ. As one now: ‘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 my people, what a truly glorious future that will be if we persevere and endure in strong faith till the end. Much LOVE!

…let’s up the ante in 2020…by walking closer to, and with God…each and every day…it’s true wisdom…

Today’s Scrip-Bit 31 December 2017 Psalm 146:2.

Psalm 146:2.   While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

Welcome friends and neighbours to this last Sunday of fellowship in 2017! It has been indeed a tumultuous year, and let’s just hope and pray that 2018 will be quieter and more God-like, because our world doesn’t need another disastrous year like this one. We need something in which we can quietly lick our wounds, recuperate from all the disasters, natural and manmade, and get back to serving Almighty God the way we ought to. 

Anyway, on this last Sunday of fellowship, let’s open with this old but beautiful hymn by Frances Crosby, ‘Praise Him, Praise Him.’ Yes friends, regardless of what our year has been like, our great God is worthy of much thanks and praise, so please lets offer up the sacrifice of praise from our thankful hearts through our grateful lips as one harmonious choir. 

In full voice now: ‘Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer! Sing, O Earth, His wonderful love proclaim! Hail Him! Hail Him! Highest archangels in glory; Strength and honor give to His holy Name! Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children, In His arms He carries them all day long. (Refrain: Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness; Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song!) 

Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer! For our sins He suffered, and bled, and died. He our Rock, our hope of eternal salvation, Hail Him! Hail Him! Jesus the Crucified. Sound His praises! Jesus who bore our sorrows, Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong. (Refrain) 

Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer! Heav’nly portals loud with hosannas ring! Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever; Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King! Christ is coming! over the world victorious, Pow’r and glory unto the Lord belong. (Refrain: Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness; Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song!)’ 

Oh my people, what an excellent song of praise! Jesus deserves every word of it because He did put His sinless life filled with Godly LOVE on the line for us while we were yet sinners! Wow! No other supposed deity has, or will ever come close to that. All the other deities want to take what little we have from us, while Jesus comes to give of the plenty, of the abundance that He has. 

Glory to God my precious people! How can we not LOVE, praise, honour and worship Him eh? No wonder the psalmist proudly declares in our Bit: ‘While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.’ 

Yes my faithful brethren, that is exactly what we need to do while there is any breath of life left in our mortal bodies! For we were made to sing praises to and glorify our heavenly Father, the One who blessed us with His awesome breath of life. 

Hear the psalmist as he continues his song of praise. ‘Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help (salvation). His breath goeth forth (spirit departs), he returneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.’ (Ps.146:3-5) 

Words of gospel truth my friends! If we don’t have the help of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob then we’re in plenty trouble. And that is why this year of 2017 has been such a disastrous year; we haven’t had God’s help, because as a society, we have turned away from Him. How can He help us if we don’t cry out to Him for help eh? 

Instead, we foolishly cry down, blemish, and blaspheme His holy name, while trying our best to get rid of him completely from our society. How stupid, arrogant and high minded can we get eh people? How can you remove the One who created the society from the society eh? 

We’ve become so blinded by the supposed brilliance of our small, finite minds that we refuse to see ourselves as we truly are; in comparison to God, mere insects scurrying around aimlessly, like the boll weevil in the old Brook Benton song, looking for a home. 

And the truth of the matter friends, the ONLY home there really is, is that provided by Jesus Christ, for all else will eventually be destroyed. But let’s place these truthful words of the psalmist deep in our hearts and souls nuh. ‘The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.’ (Ps.104:31-32)  

Well then people, if that’s the awesome truth, then the only sensible recourse we have is to do like the psalmist says: ‘I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more: Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord, (sing Hallelujah).’ (Ps.104:33-35) 

Yeh my fellow believers, there is no better road down which we can travel than one of praise and glory to our great God. So let’s seriously resolve to do that this upcoming year nuh, because that’s the ONLY way our fortunes will be changed. Much LOVE!

…if Jesus isn’t a big part of our life and our world…then we’re surely doomed…