THE BUILDER

Time with Jesus - Saturday, 15 December 2012

Hi all,

When I was little my mother had a dream for my future. She wanted me to be a Chartered Accountant. It sounded good. But to this day I have an “addition” problem. I get the numbers switched round so that 67 looks like 76. Engineers cope with this sort of problem with adding machines, log tables, abacuses, slide rules, pocket calculators, fingers and toes. There is one thing I do remember from my brief excursion into bookkeeping. It was the delightful expression E&OE, meaning “errors and omissions excepted”. Armed with those four letters I may have made it as a Charted Accountant. Can you imagine a detailed financial audit with those 4 letters included? Incidentally, our balance sheet with Satan is liberally sprinkled with these four letters on every page. Accuracy is irrelevant. One sin and you’re in!

Blessings,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Saturday, 15 December 2012			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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INTRODUCTION			DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	THE BUILDER
Solomon ben David has been called the wisest man who ever lived. If we exclude Jesus from the list, this may well be the case. Certainly some of the decisions he made and revealed to us in the Bible could qualify him to be on the list. But when it comes to women, he must be at the opposite extreme. We are told, 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.1 Kings 11:3 TNIV I find that a bit difficult to equate with wisdom. Nevertheless, he impressed the Queen of Sheba greatly, although her reasons may not have been entirely “kosher”. Solomon is supposedly the author of Ecclesiastes as well as the major contributor to the Book of Proverbs and one or two of the Psalms. A verse in Ecclesiastes that comes to mind is, 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Eccl. 3:11 TNIV This issue of having eternity in our hearts speaks directly to you and me. Somehow we know instinctively, that we were not originally created to die. We were made for eternity. Think for a moment of a baby being born and growing. That infant should go on and on indefinitely. It doesn’t happen because of some “death factor” written into us. It shouldn’t be there. We were not made for it to be there. This heinous killer is on the rampage and will get each and every one of us. We can’t duck, dodge or avoid it. It will get us all sooner or later. This killer is worse than any virus or bacteria we have known. It has no pity, no sympathy and is always terminal. It’s called sin! We are all born with it within us. Humanly there is no way for us to deal with it. Only one sin in a lifetime is sufficient for it to ravage us. Babies are probably born with it latent within them. Very early in the child’s development the sin factor is energised by some small seemingly insignificant action. But that’s all it takes for this sickness to take control. It’s not in a hurry. It knows very well that in the end it will deal with the individual. It is inherited from fathers and mothers. No one is immune. We are all condemned. Our situation is hopeless. We need a cure. The cure requires a miracle from God! The problem is “The Wages of Sin is Death!” It’s not a slogan, its fact. Sin demands death. Someone’s death. To be correct, if I sin, my wages are compulsory. We all deserve payment! There are no special discounts. But if someone is found Who is worth more than all humanity, if He dies for us, the cost is covered. God’s Son is worth more than all of us. So His death for sin covers the full cost. No E&OE! It’s done! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			10 For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 NLT 17 At the king's command, they quarried large blocks of high-quality stone and shaped them to make the foundation of the Temple. 1 Kings 5:17 NLT 7 The stones used in the construction of the Temple were finished at the quarry, so there was no sound of hammer, axe, or any other iron tool at the building site. 1 Kings 6:7 NLT 5 And you are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. What's more, you are His holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 1 Peter 2:5 NLT 20 Together, we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through Him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit. Ephesians 2:20-22 NLT 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:10 ESV 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:9 ESV 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 2 Corinthians 5:5 ESV	Jesus is a builder of a very different kind. He builds things out of nothing; which sort of blows my mind. I’ve always needed mortar, bricks and sand and stone. I also need an architect, or folk will surely moan, And say that it looks ugly. It’s beautiful to me. But they have a perspective that I will never see. All that Jesus ever builds is absolute perfection. Everything He touches, from the instant of conception, Everyone a masterpiece. Not one of them is flawed. I think that is a reason why He’s worshipped and adored. Each one an original and thoroughly unique. To walk, to sit and contemplate, to hear, to look, to speak. I know I cannot do that but if I cooperate, A new one is created, courtesy my mate! But neither of us did it. He fashioned in the womb, A masterpiece of DNA who’d be a bride or groom. We look at man-made marvels. Of course they look OK. But none of them are “living” and in this world today. We like to fashion buildings. We like to watch them grow. They keep on getting taller. As tall as man can go. And when they are completed, they reach into the sky, We look and we admire them. But they’ll collapse and die. They’ll quickly be outdated; and in a hundred years, They’ll be reduced to rubble and quickly disappear. The pyramids of Egypt, the Parthenon, the Sphinx. Will someday be a pile of sand – much sooner than man thinks. The Temple of King Solomon assembled with great care. It’s pointless looking for it. It is no longer there! We know Nebuchadnezzar, had the place destroyed. Other temples have been built but Solomon’s is void. All our human effort is just a Babel tower. Only that which Jesus builds, won’t have a final hour. And Jesus Christ is building a temple made of men; And women out of people, who have been born again; Of folk from every nation, who worship and adore, The author of Salvation; Who lives forevermore. His precious new creation, whose purpose is to be, Anything which He desires, for all eternity. Jim Strickland  Written 15th December 2012