Time with Jesus - Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Hi all,
The Scriptures today take on a melancholy note today.
Isaiah spoke of the desperate thirst for God which only He can slake. Jeremiah
spoke of the cisterns the people had dug for themselves; cracked cisterns that
can’t hold water. These comments have been taken up in two “Jimmets” which are
today’s meditation.
Blessings,
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – Wednesday, 24 October 2012
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
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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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Jimmets
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Thirst & Cracked Cisterns |
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Stick-ability. This quality
in most people is lacking. If I said unstick-ability the word would better
reflect the built in fickleness we find all around us. Perhaps the best
example to describe this generically is to look at pop-stars. Some are
remembered. The Beatles, the BG’s, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra are
among the best known and best loved. Some are now distant memories. Al
Jolson, Peter Sellers, Sidney James, Doris Day, Gertrude Lawrence and scores
of others spring to mind. There’s also been a few one day wonders. Debbie
Boone, Leapy Lee and Johnny Ray spring to mind. The fact I barely remember
their names suggests they were little more than one day wonders!
Ladies fashions also come and
go. Who remembers the mini-skirt? For some inexplicable reason, men seem to
remember them much better than the ladies. I wonder why? When we look at
photographs taken more than 20 years ago, we are surprised how much fashions
have changed. For the ladies, skirts went up and down; became fuller and
slenderer. Swim suits went from one piece all concealing to two piece all
revealing. Well, revealing as much as modesty and the law permit. Men’s shoes
from long and pointed “winkle-pickers” to square toes. Trousers from turn-ups
to no turn-ups. String ties to cravats.
Sadly this has also happened
with people and their relationship with God. During WW2, the Brits were a
God-fearing nation. No longer. A recent survey revealed Britain as second on
the list of the most Godless nations. We are now nearing the end of the third
generation since WW2. People have no thirst for God because they think they
have no need for God. Why should they? The state provides just about everything.
Taxes are high but what can you expect from a nation where there is very
little incentive to work. Why bother with a job when you can get as much “on
the dole” as you would from an employer? It is not grossly different in RSA.
Except the people have replaced God with politicians!
Today, people look everywhere
to find God! Ancestor worship, Politicians, Islam, Buddhism and New Age to
name but a few. Jeremiah commented that the people had deserted the One true
God and dug themselves cisterns. Broken cisterns than cannot hold water. They
had looked for God everywhere except where He can be found.
Our nation is dying from
thirst. There is no stick-ability. No thirst for the only God Who can save. Instead
they search and experiment with the false gods of the nations. Nothing has
changed in ±2500 years. People continue to search for their own gods. Then
they die, thirsty and empty, just as has happened since the fall. Help Lord
Jesus!
Jim
& Phyllida Strickland
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"Those who are poor and needy search for
water. But there isn't any. Their tongues are dry because they are thirsty.
But I will help them. I am the LORD. I will not desert them. I am
Israel's God.
Isaiah 41:17 NIrV
6 Many are saying, "Who can show us anything good?"
Let the light of your presence shine on us, O LORD.
Psalms 4:6 GW
22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart
with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a
vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is
vanity.
Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 ESV
17 So I
hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:17 ESV
13
"For My people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned Me--the fountain of living water. And they have dug for
themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!
Jeremiah 2:13 NLT
37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me. I
will never turn away anyone who comes to me.
John 6:37 GW
3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and
floods on the dry ground. I will pour My spirit on your seed, and My blessing
on your offspring;
Isaiah 44:3 MKJV
6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6 ESV
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 1
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my
soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalms 63:1 ESV
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Thirst
Isaiah 41:17
Are you truly longing for a drink,
That will banish thirst for evermore?
Does it so consume you that you think,
“Isn’t there a way I can restore,
Sanity to find that which I crave?
I have scratched this itch until it bleeds!
This will surely drive me to the grave.
Anything to gratify my needs.
Something that will slake this dreadful thirst,
Nothing ever seems to satisfy!
I’ve become so desperate I will burst!
Help me Lord or I will surely die!”
“Come to Me my child and drink of Me.
Thirst will pass away eternally”.
Jim
Strickland
2012/10/24
Cracked Cisterns
Jeremiah 2:13
Why is it My people seldom learn?
Why is it they try to catch the breeze?
Why is it they always seem to turn?
Why is it they go on bended knees,
Worshipping their gods made out of gold?
Why is it they dig wells of their own?
Cisterns that are cracked and will not hold,
Water and are just as dry as bone?
They’ve abandoned Me the only One,
Who can bring the rain upon the land.
Why is it that when the water’s gone,
They don’t even try to understand;
That while walking in apostasy,
Blessing will not flow to them from Me?
Jim
Strickland
2012/10/24
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