Time with Jesus - Wednesday, 26 Sept. 2012
Hi all,
Today’s meditation is a tongue in cheek comment on
death and the ramifications.
Blessings
Jim
& Phyllida Strickland
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – Wednesday, 26 September 2012
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
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©
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These
devotionals are the intellectual property of Jim Strickland and copyright
protected. You are welcome to copy and distribute them to anyone provided it
is for non-commercial Christian purposes
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©
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INTRODUCTION
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DAILY
LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES
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THE
FINAL MEETING
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Horace Mann, the great
American education reformer is reported to have said, “Education is the great
equalizer of the conditions of men”. Our experience in South Africa doesn’t
really prove this to be always true. We find highly educated idiots in
government along with ignorant uneducated idiots in governments. Education
has not made them equal, the ANC has! There is another “equalizer”. One that
has no regard for wealth, education, talent or the needs of the family. The
great “equalizer” is death.
Every person who has lived on
this earth, has shared or will share, the experience of death. It’s
guaranteed. God said so and only He can change it. Adam got the ball rolling
when he disobeyed God and decided to “lunch” on the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately he didn’t only get indigestion. He
ingested an incurable condition. It was a “blight” which was passed on to the
creation and all Adam’s descendants. Sadly it’s an incurable condition. Hollywood
does not have a hero who will leap in front of the camera and shout, “’Eureka!’
I’ve fixed it.” Medical science has done everything it can to interfere with
the process. All it can do is postpone the event. Charmers can’t charm it
away. No legal system can prevent it. Even our Constitutional court is
hamstrung. There have been dreams of somehow discovering the “elixir of
youth”. All to no avail. You and I are going to die. Only God can change it.
Someday He will. Only those who are still alive at that point in time will
“miss out”. (Ag shame!)
People
have asked, what was so serious about eating the fruit of that tree? My
answer is that it was toxic. Perhaps not within 24 hours. I understand it
took Satan the best part of a millennium to figure out a way to have Adam
laid out. But we all have our problems and this one was uniquely Satan’s.
Since then, Satan has become a bit more adept at putting a nail in our
coffins. But persistence is the one virtue he emulates. So now that he knows
that it takes him ±70 years, to put the X at the end of our equations. Some
go a little earlier. Some go a little later. But in the end, every man-jack
of us has to go!
But
there is an answer. Not one of our making. We need a change of ownership.
Since the fall of Adam, we have all belonged to Satan. He has called the
shots. Today, we can change ownership; our registration on heavens computer.
Then, when we end in the junkyard of life, our owner may claim what is left
over. It doesn’t take much. A bit of stray DNA is quite adequate. Then when
the scrapyard hands over the bits for a fancy piece of reconstruction, the
records will say, “property of Jesus Christ”. Satan will “smart” a bit. But
he isn’t smart anyway!
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
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54 When
the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality,
then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 55
"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 56
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 ESV
14 Because God's children are human beings--made of flesh
and blood--the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being
could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who
had the power of death. 15 Only
in this way could He set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the
fear of dying.
Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT
7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from
the power of sin. 8 And since we died
with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the
dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him.
10 When He died, He died once to break
the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God.
11 So you also should consider yourselves
to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:7-11 NLT
35 Can
anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves
us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute,
or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say,
"For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like
sheep.") 37 No, despite all these
things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither
death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor
our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from
God's love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth
below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from
the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39 NLT
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We need a change in attitude to many different things.
It isn’t just a matter of angels having wings.
That answer is irrelevant; they don’t affect your life.
But how you love your husband, or how you love your wife,
Is absolutely critical. It’s what we have to do.
It is the Lord’s commandment for folk like me and you.
It really doesn’t matter if the body is cremated.
A grave is just an overcoat where left overs are gated.
The gender’s not important. A woman or a man,
Are equally significant in God the Father’s plan.
We have one thing in common. Each one of us must die.
It truly is a certainty. No matter how we cry.
We’ll end in a container which then is put away,
To be consumed by fire, or to rot and to decay.
Only two have “missed it” Enoch was the first.
Perhaps it was the “rapture” that had to be rehearsed?
The other was Elijah, in a chariot from God.
Even the Lord Jesus “died” so death’s not something odd.
We have to get our wages! Death is the “price” of sin.
And we are going to get them and death is going to win.
There isn’t an alternative till Jesus comes again.
And none of us are certain just what will happen then!
We know that we will meet Him in a body that is new.
What happens to the old one? Why should that bother you?
Perhaps it will be left behind as no longer required.
The new one will be better; that’s all that is desired.
Until the day it happens, we’ll go through the routine,
Of living and then dying; regardless how we’ve been.
It all began when Eve thought she should alter Adam’s diet.
“The snake said it will make us wise. So here’s a bit, just try it.”
And so he took a little bit and tested it for taste.
That’s when the Lord’s creation by sin was put to waste.
We wish it hadn’t happened. But now it’s far too late.
And Jesus Christ is needed to come and change our fate.
So do not get excited while you’re waiting for your turn.
Do you want the carcass to be planted or to burn?
It really doesn’t matter. You will not feel a thing.
The next thing you will know is when you meet with Christ the King!
Jim Strickland
Written 26th September 2012 |
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