TO BE LIKE HIM

Time with Jesus - 13 July 2013

Hi all,

When it comes to reading the maker’s manual, we seem to be distinctly reticent. We know that the maker has provided step by step instructions so that any moron is able to put the thing together. Well, that’s the theory anyway. 

But there are those among us (me for example) who have a built in aversion to reading them. So we look at the bits in the box and decide, “Who needs that anyway? After all, I’m not a moron!” So we leave the instructions in the original packaging and step out on our venture into the unknown. Ten minutes later, the thing is broken. So you think you can take it back and get it replaced. 

This is where you qualify for moron of the week. The salesman takes one look at you and asks the question, “Did you follow the instructions?” Suddenly you realise he is testing your “capacity for veracity”. Will you tell him the truth or will you “sling him another line?”

I’ve been caught out by this problem on several occasions. I’ve found out that the salesman has a PhD in the principles of honesty and the customer. So I have to admit that I didn’t read the instructions. At this point he takes on a look of utter superiority and suggests you buy another and follow the instructions.

Now please be so kind as to admit that you too suffer from the same problem. Do you buy a brand new mobile phone and struggle with turning it on? Can you use it? Mmmm! I thought not. So welcome to the club. You are a paid up member of the “Hearers and not Doers Brigade”.

Top of the pops on this list are those who attend sports meetings as a spectator. Usually you sit among the other spectators watching the game. If it’s rugby you watch 30 men at the peak of physical fitness running round and round madly in pursuit of an oblong ball. Of course, it’s not really a ball. Balls are round. Nevertheless the players have an obsession. They want to get that oblong ball behind their opponent’s end-zone. 

Obedient to Death
Death on a Cross

Now here’s the interesting point about all this. There are as many as 50 000 spectators watching this sporting contest. Most of them are grossly unfit. (me for instance) Each spectator has a far greater knowledge of the game than any of the players. So much so, they shout out instructions and wildly encourage the team of their choice. No one on the field really knows what the spectators are shouting. Sadly their expert instructions are ignored and the game continues until the man in the middle with a funny whistle sends everyone off the field. The game is over. The players are utterly exhausted and the crowd is hoarse.

Delayed obedience is
DISOBEDIENCE!

Jesus’ half-brother James identified this problem some 2000 years ago and wrote a general letter dealing with spectator mentality. It seems he had the same problem as we have today. He wrote: ²² Don't just listen to the word. You fool yourselves if you do that. You must do what it says. James 1:22 NIrV Today, people don’t read the Maker’s instructions and don’t listen to the Maker either. There isn’t time to do that. We have to sit in the pews and direct their opinions silently to the team they support on Sunday mornings. Shouting is forbidden, unless the speaker says, “Amen?” Then every spectator is expected to respond “amen” as loudly as possible. Then we are all expected to go home and wait for the next installment on the following Sunday. 

James 1:22

Please don’t ask anyone to “do” anything about what the preacher or God was saying. After all, the next exciting episode will be on at the same time in the same place one week later, with you in the same seat next week. This goes on year after year for a lifetime.

My question is this. “If you do this year exactly what you did last year, do you think the outcome at the end of this year will be any different from what it was at the end of last year?” You Do?  Mmmm! I don’t see that anywhere in the Maker’s Instruction Manual. What I do see is the wonderful comment of Jesus’ half-brother, James. If I may be permitted to paraphrase James’ comments they would be;

“GET OUT OF THE PEW.
GET BUSY AND DO”

“What am I supposed to do? I am frequently asked. The answer is simple. Instead of “Do it yourself Christianity”, read the Maker’s instructions. There are plenty of them around in almost every language you could select. It’s called “The Bible”. Yes it is a big book. But it really is the Maker’s Instructions. It’s the “Word of God”. If you feel intimidated by its size, don’t be. If you read ±4 chapters per day, you will have read it all in ±1 year. To many former friends you will be regarded as somewhat odd. Don’t let it worry you. The Lord understands. He says,

“IT ISN’T ODD TO WALK WITH YOUR GOD.
DO WHAT HE SAYS, FOR ALL OF YOUR DAYS!”

So, don’t be a moron. Be a student of the Word of God. Then, when you’ve read it, DO IT!

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – 13 July 2013					Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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	INTRODUCTION		DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES			TO BE LIKE HIM
How many of us were boy scouts or girl guides? Probably a few less than those who were cubs or brownies. Their origin, supposedly, was in South Africa during the Anglo Boer War. Baden Powell found the assistance of young men and boys invaluable during the siege of Mafeking. He “invented” the movement in England in 1907. I loved my time in the scouts. It was great fun and an excellent way for youngsters to develop character. We did all sorts of things. Some have helped me in later life. Knotting has proved to be very useful, as has basic first aid techniques. We also played games. How many of you remember “O’Grady says”? The leader would stand at the front facing us. He would then say “O’Grady says do this” and would move his hands or legs or both. We were expected to do the same, provided the instruction was preceded by the words, “O’Grady says. If he just said “Do this” and moved his hands and or legs, we were not supposed to do it. It was a great laugh. Most of us would be caught out very quickly doing what was said. Oddly enough, learning to respond correctly was extremely difficult. We responded to him like a flock of “sheep”. We just did what he did. The modern expression is, “Monkey see, monkey do”! I suppose we could say this was my first experience of “going along with the crowd”. The Psalmist was right. We are like a flock of sheep. We do what we see others are doing. We call it “Peer Pressure”. The fashion industry is linked with this intimately. The main function of a fashion designer is to sell his “creations”. It has to be. If he doesn’t sell his fashions, he won’t get paid. He needs to get paid so that he can design new fashions and get paid again. It’s a bit like a treadmill. It would be great if everyone stopped getting trapped in this cycle. It doesn’t happen, because everyone wants to be the first to wear the latest “Paris” designs! Sadly, Christianity suffers from the same scourge. We follow the “flavour of the day” and flock to see them. We listen to them, but don’t seem to hear. We fill up our heads with what men say we should know. How many can say they only do what the Lord says? Not many. We are too busy looking for the next “flavour of the day” and going to his/her meeting. So we become intellectually “fat”. An excellent caricature of 21st century Western Christianity would be an enormous ear. We hear and don’t do. How can we do anything? The next “flavour of the day” will be with us next Sunday and we must go and hear what he says. I strongly suspect that the apparent lack of answers to prayer today stems from this. We hear and don’t do. So God hears and doesn’t do either. He meets us where we are. So of we are hearers only; that’s what He does too. In today’s meditation we look at the relationship between hearing and doing. It’s not good. The Jews wear phylacteries because it’s easy. The Lord provided them with a method whereby they could assimilate His Word and make it part of daily life. On the forehead implies in the mind. On the hands implies action. But, if they write it on a piece of paper and stick it in a box on hands and head, it makes them look spiritual. Just like the average “Christian”. It’s all show and no go! God help us! Jim & Phyllida Strickland				16 Search the book of the LORD, and see what He will do. Not one of these birds and animals will be missing, and none will lack a mate, for the LORD has promised this. His Spirit will make it all come true. Isaiah 34:16 NLT	The Christian life is simple. God tells us what to do. But do we ever do it? My friend it’s up to you. There’s several possibilities and choices we must make. But each and every one of them will tell us to forsake, The things which we’ve been doing, that leads us into sin. Only by obedience will any person win. But how can we distinguish between what’s right and wrong? Only God’s Word tells us how to sing His victory song. It cannot be the knowledge we stuff into our head. We have to be like Jesus the only living bread. There is a way to do it. We must assimilate, Everything He tells us; and we must emulate, The lifestyle He was living. No matter what we learn, If we fail to do it, in hell we’re sure to burn! The secret is in knowing what’s in God’s Holy Word. And then we must take action on that which we have heard. We are not just recorders, who get things down on tape, That sort of thing is easy for chimpanzee or ape. So that is not what’s wanted. We have to do much more. We have to do the things He says, or we will find our score, Is totally inadequate, to pass the Master’s test. We need a “memory prompter” to follow Jesus best. Keep things in your memory and meditate thereon. So Satan won’t deceive you and conscience has all gone. Another way to do it is to keep it close at hand. A sort of easy reckoner, to do the things He planned. To wear it in phylacteries on hands or on the head, Can serve no useful purpose. We may as well be dead. His law must be our treasure. A gem of highest price. Always to be acted on and not on man’s advice! If we meditate thereon, His word will be alive. Our goal, a special target, for which we have to strive, To put in operation. Then, even if we trip, He’ll come to our assistance, intending to equip, His people with what we must do, to rise and carry on. And He will keep on doing this, ‘til all our life is gone. He plans that every one of us should see the Morning Star. And follow Him completely. Though it is near or far. For that is what we’re called to. To be like God Most High, From when we have been born again, until the day we die. Jim Strickland – Written 13 July 2012
				18 "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 11:18 ESV
				8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8 TNIV
				31 God's law is in their hearts. Their feet do not slip. Psalms 37:31 NIrV
				4 I don't do the things other people do. By obeying your word I have kept myself from acting like those who try to hurt others. Psalms 17:4 NIrV
				11 Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You. Psalms 119:11 NASB
				19 We couldn't be more sure of what we saw and heard--God's glory, God's voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. You'll do well to keep focusing on it. It's the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19 MSG
				4 Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. Romans 15:4 MSG