TEN OUT OF TEN

Time with Jesus - Wed. 26 December 2012

Hi all,

Our meditation this today comes out of our first Scripture. ²⁵ Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 ESV The before and after difference the Lord has wrought in us is phenomenal. I recall a comment made that we have been saved from the “gutter most” to the “uttermost”.  So that’s where we started!

Blessings,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Wednesday, 26 December 2012			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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INTRODUCTION			DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	TEN OUT OF TEN
Science fiction has always fascinated me. I think it’s the “impossible” aspect that catches my attention. If it has a touch of the ludicrous, it really draws my attention. For example I thoroughly enjoyed the one about the metal coat hangers in the closet. The number seemed to grow day by day. So the author began to write about a closet in which coat hangers reproduced! After observing this for a day or two, he wondered if anything else would multiply in that closet. It didn’t work with money. But it did work with bicycles. That really amused me. The thought of someone trying to get a bicycle into the closet is hilarious. The other was a story by Isaac Asimov. He was a professor of bio-chemistry. In the course of his experiments, he came across a substance that dissolved in water astonishingly quickly. It occurred to him that if it was any more soluble, it would dissolve before it was added to the water. Since he was busy writing a doctoral thesis at the time, he decided to write a “scientific report” about this mythical substance. He said he needed practice writing in the typical “turgid” style demanded of science reports. So he wrote the “report”, complete with graphs and experimental results. He included references to other equally mythical reports found in science journals. It was great fun to read and was popular in the biochemical world! As we all know, Prof Asimov’s report about this mythical substance is strongly representative of Christian behaviour and the Lord. We live in a delusional society. Men and women all around us believe they are Christians when it is not true. You know what I mean. They go to church. The same one their family has attended for more years than anyone can remember. They live a perfectly normal life and think they are Christians by default. After all if you live in USA or UK and you are not Jewish or Muslim, you must be a Christian! As long as they aren’t involved with any of the sects, they are on God’s side. In the end He’ll receive them to His great reward. After all, that’s what God does! What makes this thinking so dangerous is the fact that there is a passing grade for everything in life. In my day you required 40% to pass into the next grade. In any case, nobody got 100% in the exams. That was unreasonable. Sadly, the thinking is that God works like that too! I mean, after all, if the University only needs 50%, surely God won’t require much more. That’s what I thought. I knew I was a sinner. On my own, I still have those tendencies. But to find out that one false move resulted in complete rejection wasn’t even on my radar. Then Jesus found me! That’s when I saw I was a “Monster of Iniquity”! I deserved hell. But Jesus loved and saved me. I still don’t know why? Jim & Phyllida Strickland			25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Hebrews 7:25 TNIV 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 TNIV 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12 ESV 27 My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from Me, John 10:27-28 NLT 6 I'm convinced that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 GW 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son." Genesis 18:14 NLT 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25 ESV	He saves us from the “gutter-most”, wherever we have been. He saves us to the “uttermost”; He’s washed and made us clean! Who can understand this? I’ve tried to work it out. But it’s incomprehensible. Of that there is no doubt. I thought I was a good guy. That’s what I perceived. A sort of “average sinner” and that I hadn’t grieved, God’s precious Holy Spirit. “I can’t be all that bad!” When I looked at others! If I’d done what they had, Then I’d deserve His judgement. But fifty one per cent, Was all I thought I needed and what God really meant. Perhaps I wasn’t perfect. This fact I would concede. But surely fifty one per cent was all a man would need! I hadn’t murdered anyone. I hadn’t been a thief. Apart from pens and pencils; which much to my relief, I thought was not important. The bosses didn’t mind, Because they also did it. So wasn’t in a bind. I know I was a liar; but they were little tales. Not enough to tell me that my percentage fails. I wasn’t very envious about the things I saw. Except the Aston Martin the people owned next door. I hadn’t been adulterous. I hadn’t had the chance. But I have looked at ladies with a most erotic glance! I hadn’t worshiped other gods. It’s really not my way. But I followed my football team on each and every day. I didn’t go with sinners. With them I didn’t mix. So, on a scale of one to ten, I must deserve a six. This meant I’m so much better than the average man around. It follows that to heaven I certainly was bound. And then I came to Jesus. What was it that He saw? Someone who depended on a more than average score. He said that He demanded, from all the sons of men, Absolute perfection. A score, ten out of ten! Its then I came to realise that I had been a fool. Life is not a game you play like kids in Sunday School. In fact it is impossible to ever get it right. But absolute perfection was demanded in God’s sight. So I fell before Him. O Lord what can I do? “Let me take away your sin and wash you through and through. Man can never do it. It’s done in Me alone. For your myriad of sins, I only can atone. Come and be My servant. Repent and let Me be, The one who has the power to live a holy life in thee! Then you’ll have My righteousness. Your sins I’ll take away. We will be together, with Me you’ll always stay.” Jim Strickland  Written 26th December 2012