JIMMETS; SPEAK TRUTH – NO BOASTING

Time with Jesus - 1 Oct 2013

Hi all,

Praise is one of those things we all enjoy. Praise for having done something well. The little boy who has begun with piano lessons needs some form of encouragement to continue practising his scales and finger exercises. No matter how far he/she has proceeded on the road to being a competent pianist, he/she needs praise and appreciation. A simple “Well done!” is often quite sufficient.

A good illustration of this goes back to infancy. Do you remember playing “peek-a-boo” with a small child? Mom or dad peers over the cot and says something inane such as “coo-ey” After a couple of repeats, the child responds with a giggle of some sort. It then becomes a game for the child. Soon the adult and the child have developed the game into something meaningful as well as amusing. The child is rewarded by laughter and the expression on mom’s face. Mom is rewarded by the child’s response to the little game. In a way, both are being praised for responding to each other in such a delightful way. 

As the infant grows and begins to understand the things happening around him/her, mom and the child will develop the game into something more meaningful. In time, they will talk to each other and perhaps remember the “fun” times they had with “peek-a-boo”. I suppose we could say that praise is their joint reward!

As we grow up, we find that praise plays an ever-increasing role in improving our competence in the things we do. If it we aren’t praised, we tend to wane in enthusiasm and ability. Now I’m not talking about appreciation like that in “The Music Man”. Seventy-six trombones led the big parade, with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand. They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos, the cream of every famous band. All that is needed is a sincere “Well done young lady/man!”

School sports and competitions play an important part in developing talent in young people. At that age, few things in life are more rewarding than knowing mom and dad are watching from the side-lines. All the way home in the car the youngster will relive every moment of personal or team success. The youngster knows his/her parents are listening and offering encouragement. Even when the team lost the match, parents listen to their kids and do their best to take away the sting of defeat. The result may have been disappointing or worse. The youngster will always do better next time if mom and dad listen with understanding and a few words of, “Next time you’ll do better!”

As the youngster goes through puberty, praise becomes vital. The young woman will want to know she looks the very best and that her clothes go with shoes and handbag. It’s not much easier for the young man either. He may have cut himself accidentally when experimenting with his first shave. 

What about the braces the orthodontist insists are only taken out when the youngster goes to bed? What about her fear that she may spend the entire evening dancing with girlfriends and not with the one she has her eye on? What about his “fear” that if he approaches her and asks her to dance with him, she will say no? What if she spills purple cool drink on her white dress? What if she notices that when it comes to dancing, he has two left feet? What if she is “stood up”? What if he doesn’t have the courage to ask her to dance with him?

All these “fears” are quite normal at this time of life. She may gather with a group of her friends and sob because she has been ignored. He may “sidle off” with a couple of buddies bemoaning the fact that girls don’t like him! There is only one way to resolve “growing pains” of this nature. Appreciation and praise from parents, brothers and sisters. What the youngster doesn’t know, is that his parents were there themselves not many years previously.

We all need praise, provided it is genuine. One of the first lessons we need is to learn to distinguish between praise and flattery. It’s not an easy lesson. Furthermore, looking for motives behind what you are being told tends to make you cynical. Nevertheless it is a vital lesson we must learn as we mature. Very often we can spot it by listening carefully to the person as he/she praises you. If they are too effusive; excessively emotional, what you are hearing may be flattery. 

Another clue is to see if you can find a reason why they are saying what you have heard. If you detect a possible financial connection, you would be well advised to take what is being said with “a pinch of salt”. Accolades are worth receiving only when these are well founded and deserved.

There is a danger today of overdoing “self-talk”. Most of us have been told that attitude is one of the key components of success. Athletes are told to say, “I can do it!” repeatedly until it becomes part of who they are.

Self-talk can easily become self-praise. Those who indulge in self-praise, also begin to harbour the illusion that all others have a faulty make­up. They can think that others lack merit and talent and are inferior beings when compared to themselves. A man who either praises himself all the time or loves to hear praises from others soon becomes conceited. Praise soothes, quietens and comforts the listener, creating a false sense of pride.

Christians have not been “vaccinated” such that they don’t need praise. It’s essential, provided it is genuine. It is no coincidence that Jesus in Matthew’s gospel stated: ²¹ "The master was full of praise. ’Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!' Mat 25:21 NLT. For His followers, that’s really what makes life worth living!

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – 1 Oct 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
©	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					©
	INTRODUCTION		DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	JIMMETS; SPEAK TRUTH – NO BOASTING
In the early 1980’s, Christianity went through a time of great transition. Here in South Africa, what is now called the “Faith Movement” arrived in Johannesburg with the emergence of “Rhema”. It was not really a denomination in the sense that the Methodist Church or the Anglican Church were. But this movement “took off”. Many of the people who joined Rhema or several similar churches were men and women who felt underutilised in the denominations. Many were rebelling against the inflexible “Clergy” and “Laity” attitude. They recognised that Scripturally there is no such distinction and were not prepared to continue as a “second class” citizen in that denomination. As a result, many “Charismatics” are former Anglicans or Methodists etc. There was also a move toward believing the Bible and accepting the contents at face value. Phyllida and I were and still are convinced of the veracity of God’s Word. Yes, it was necessary to read God’s Word with due regard to context, who is “speaking” to whom, along with common sense and understanding. For example when Jesus said, 9 I am the gate. John 10:9 NLT, we did not go round hunting for handles and hinges. We understood He was speaking figuratively. One of the books we devoured back then was “What You Say Is What You Get” by Don Gossett. It was a revolutionary idea. We immediately put it into practice. At that time we had a golden spaniel called Pippa. She was one of the smelliest dogs we’ve ever come across. It was so bad, we started to call her “stink dog”. We tried a variety of solutions, all without success. The smell was unbearable. Then we came across Don Gossett’s book. We read it with great enthusiasm. At that point we decided to change our confession over Pippa. We began to call her a sweet smelling dog. In spite of the unbearable smell, we stuck with our “confession”. About two weeks later we had to consult a new vet. We had moved away from the area so it was not possible to consult the previous one. The new vet took one look at Pippa and said he knew exactly what the problem was. He asked us to leave Pippa with him until the morning and the smell would be gone. The next morning we went to collect our sweet smelling dog! He was right. He had discovered what he called “lip-fold eczema”. All that needed doing was to cut the affected tissue away, apply a disinfectant and all was well. He was right. We had no more “stink dog” problem! Since then, we have been very particular about the things we say. The main difficulty is to distinguish between telling a lie and making a positive or negative confession. It can be something of a tightrope. But there is a way! Ask the Lord! He will always tell you! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church. Ephesians 4:15 NLT	Speak the Truth in Love Speak the truth in love. That’s how we grow, In every way, to be more like the Lord. We will always reap the crop we sow. This is stated clearly in God’s Word No one plants tomatoes and gets beans. Horticulture doesn’t work that way. If you stop and think what all this means, You could be a better man today. Every word you say is like a seed, Planted in God’s rich and fertile ground. It could satisfy your deepest need, Or cause all life’s problems to abound. Prosperity or massive mounds of debt? What you say is always what you get. Jim Strickland  Written 1st Oct 2012 Reflect His Glory If you want to boast, boast in the Lord! Without Him, there is nothing you can do. Pride in what you’ve done will bring a sword, That will quickly cut your life in two. Men have seen this time and time again. “Look at all the things which I have done”. Understand your boasting is in vain. Stealing glory from God’s only Son, Surely will bring canker to your soul. Very soon you’ll falter and will fall. You will lose your purpose and your goal. You may even miss God’s Holy call. Give Him all the glory! You will see, His reflected glory come on thee. Jim Strickland  Written 1st Oct 2012
			28 All by itself the soil produces grain. First the stalk comes up. Then the head appears. Finally, the full grain appears in the head. Mark 4:28 NIrV
			13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Ephesians 4:13 NLT
			12 Oh, don't worry; we wouldn't dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant! 2 Corinthians 10:12 NLT
			17 As the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD." 18 When people commend themselves, it doesn't count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them. 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 NLT
			17 For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ Himself is that reality. 18 Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19 and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For He holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. Colossians 2:17-19 NLT
			18 Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen. 2 Peter 3:18 NLT

MOSES’ PRAYER IN THE TENT OF MEETING

Ark of the Covenant

Time with Jesus - 30 Sept 2013

Hi all,

For me, Genesis is the most important book in the Old Testament. The reason is, without this book, the remainder of the Old Testament would be meaningless. Certainly the other books are important. But Genesis takes us back to the very beginning of sacred history. 

It gives us a “birds-eye” view concerning why the world is in the state that it is currently in. It introduces us to the perfection of God’s creation. It touches on the place of man in God’s creation. We learn of the fall of man because of sin. We see how sin was “ingested” into Adam and the way it distorted our genetics. 

Death suddenly became a part of life. It became “normal” for living creatures to die. We learn of the utter impossibility of man finding a solution to the “death” problem. More importantly, we see how God is committed to finding a perfect solution to His problem. Then we see how, step by step, God started on the road to bringing a solution for the human race.

Noah's Ark

Perhaps the best reason for the presence of Genesis in the Scripture is because without it, the Bible would begin with a bunch of slaves in Egypt. Would anyone be interested in the adventures of a murderer and a bunch of slaves coming out of Egypt? It would be of interest to an historian. But why would you and I have a desire to read it? After all, there are dozens of other tales from antiquity that also might be worth reading?

Genesis is often called the “seed plot” of the Bible. In it almost every other part, is laid out for us in pictorial form. It is said, “The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.” This famous statement by Saint Augustine expresses the remarkable way in which the two testaments of the Bible are so closely interrelated. The key to understanding the New Testament in its fullest is to see in it the fulfilment of those things that were revealed in the background of the Old. It points forward in time, preparing God’s people for the work of Christ in the New Testament. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Abraham Willing to
Sacrifice Isaac

Genesis 15 speaks of God cutting a Covenant with Abram. Many Christians fail to spot the significance of this portion of Scripture. In it is recorded the step by step procedure for cutting covenant. This is not the time to look at covenant in detail. What must be said is that part of covenant includes making promises. If we read the vows made at a wedding service, we see what this means. Bride and groom “swear” before God they will be true to each other. These are supposed to be unbreakable promises. 

In fact, a wedding is a covenant between two people before God. In Genesis 15 God made an unbreakable covenant with Abram, later called to Abraham. ¹³ Then the LORD said to Abram, "You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth…. ¹⁶ After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction."…

¹⁸ So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, "I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River. -- ¹⁹ the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites." Gen 15:13-14, 16 & 18-19 NLT God does not break covenant. His word is His promise. He tells us that only by death – His death – would His covenant be broken.

Moses and the
Burning Bush

History tells us that precisely what God had promised, happened. The book of Exodus commences from the point in history where God was about to bring to reality, His promise to Abraham. Just as God had said, His people were enslaved by the Egyptians. God would release them from slavery.

In this world, we find God works in and through men and women. To liberate His people, God would use a liberator. That liberator was Moses. Exodus is defined as: a going out; a departure or emigration, usually of a large number of people. 

Moses found in Basket

That’s exactly what we find in this book. We find Moses, a somewhat reluctant liberator, being commissioned by God to bring His people out of Egypt. We read of Moses birth and later his call at the burning bush. We read of the way God dealt with the gods of Egypt and of the Egyptians. We read of God’s miracles which culminated in the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians. 

We see the hand of God leading His people through the Red Sea. We read of the miracle of the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night; a sort of Divine air-conditioning to keep His people safe. We read of the miracle of the people being fed with “manna” in the Wilderness. It’s a book filled with the miracles God wrought, because of the suffering of His people and because of the covenant promise God had made to Abraham.

Pillar of Cloud by Day
& Fire by Night 

We learn in particular of the special relationship God had with Moses. We read of Moses speaking with God, “face to face”. We read of the terrible sin (the golden calf) committed by the people. We learn that Moses was willing to lay his life down for God’s people. In this we see Moses as a “type” of Jesus. Moses offered. Jesus did it. 

In the Cleft
of the Rock

We learn of Moses standing on the rock and being hidden in a cleft so he could get a glimpse of God’s glory. “What a book!”

Show me Your Glory

Our meditation today comes from Exodus 33. It focuses on Moses’ prayer asking God to be with them on the journey from Horeb to the Promised Land. Part of the prayer deals with Moses’ relationship with the Lord.

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Mt Sinai

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – 30 Sept 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
©	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					©
	INTRODUCTION		DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	MOSES’ PRAYER IN THE TENT OF MEETING
Have you heard people question God’s decisions? Those who do, imply that they could do things better than He does. Essentially it means that they are better than God and would make a better job of running things than Him. Perhaps the most common statement is, “How could a God of love send anyone to hell?” Two comments are warranted here. The first is that God doesn’t send people to Hell. They go there because they choose to do so. Hell was made for the devil and his angels. But people will go there by their own choice. God does not want anyone to be lost. Being lost is their own choice. The second comment is that God’s patience with sinners is beyond anything we can understand. A promise God gave to Abraham immediately prior to Him entering into a covenant with him was: 16 "Your children's grandchildren will come back here. That is because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached the point where I must judge them." Genesis 15:16 NIrV God is aware of each and every sin ever committed or will be committed. At that time the Amorites were one of many nations in Canaan. Sin was rampant. God knew that between the date of this Covenant and the date of the Israelite invasion of Canaan, sin would escalate. It would reach the point where He would have to destroy the inhabitants and their animals. He had used the flood to cleanse the world on one occasion. He would not repeat that. Instead He would send a “flood” of His people into the land to cleanse it by totally annihilating the inhabitants and their livestock. Science has examined this. It has been established that the Canaanite sexual perversions were disgusting and included bestiality of the worst possible sort. Abraham lived ± 700 years before Canaan was invaded. It follows that it would be a further 700 years before sin of the Canaanites would be “full”. Such patience is incredible! Somewhere between these two events, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt. The dialog between God and Moses in Exodus 33 took place in Moses’ tent of meeting. It is unlikely that this was the tabernacle built according to the pattern given to him by God. God’s tabernacle had not yet been made. It’s more likely that it was a tent or tabernacle of Moses’ own design. What of this dialog? Do we know the details? We only know what has been recorded in Scripture. Today’s meditation is an extrapolation of what Moses may have said to the Lord. It is not intended as a new revelation. It is merely my own idea of what may have been said by Moses to the Lord. Jim & Phyllida Strickland			4 Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Psalms 25:4 TNIV	“O Lord You have been telling me”, “These people you must lead”. But who will You send with me, to finish off the deed? You’ve told me You are with me. My name, You’ve said You know. That I have found Your favour; for You have said it’s so. I know You aren’t a liar and since all this is true, Tell me please My Lord and God, just what I need to do! I know the destination. It’s called the Promised Land. Where Abraham first heard about the things which You have planned, To give as his inheritance, upon some future date. His family had lived there. But they would have to wait, Until the people living there, could be obliterated; For all the wicked practices that You’ve abominated, For Lord, you have a measure by which you judge men’s sin. And only when that measure’s full may we all enter in. I know about their wickedness. The news has reached my ears. They practise their perversions and now, Lord, it appears That what they have been doing is so utterly depraved. It is no longer possible that any could be saved. I’m told the same perversions took place before the flood. That even all their animals had this perverted blood. The only way to cleanse the land was to destroy the lot. That’s why You brought the deluge; and that is what they got! You’ve said that I’ve found favour. You know me by my name Help me know You better, so that I will remain; And stay within Your favour. O Lord, Teach me Your ways. That I might get to know You, throughout my earthly days. O Lord, these are Your people. They are all Jacob’s seed. We really can’t go up from here O Lord unless You lead. Unless we know Your presence is with us from the start, We dare not take another step, or even less, depart. How will the other nations know that we belong to You? How can they differentiate the false from what is true? How will they know that You’re with us, unless they understand, That You have brought Your people to take the Promised Land! And Lord, how will they ever know that You are always near. Lord, if You do not stay with us, don’t send us up from here.” Jim Strickland Written 30th Sept. 2012
			12 One day Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Take these people up to the Promised Land.' But You haven't told me whom You will send with me. You have told me, 'I know you by name, and I look favourably on you.' 13 If it is true that You look favourably on me, let me know Your ways so I may understand You more fully and continue to enjoy Your favour. And remember that this nation is Your very own people." 14 The LORD replied, "I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest--everything will be fine for you." Exodus 33:12-14 NLT
			7 He let Moses know his ways. He let the Israelites know the things he had done. Psalms 103:7 GW
			9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. Psalms 25:9 TNIV
			12 Who, then, are those who fear the LORD? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. Psalms 25:12 TNIV
			5 Trust the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths smooth. Proverbs 3:5-6 GW
			11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalms 16:11 ESV
			8 The LORD says, "I will instruct you. I will teach you the way that you should go. I will advise you as my eyes watch over you. Psalms 32:8 GW
			18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. Proverbs 4:18 NIV