TASTE AND SEE

Time with Jesus - 17 Sept. 2013

Hi all,

Sir Winston Churchill

Recently, we looked at the question of the difficulty associated with having all knowledge. The question asked at the time is, what one thinks about, when you already have all the answers? You and I think primarily for two reasons. 

The one is to remember the things of yesterday. Memory is a wonderful faculty. Usually we reminisce about the good things in the past. We even have favourite memories we keep going back to in order to try and “recreate” what had taken place. 

One of mine goes back to 1955 when I was 13. Mom, Dad and I went to UK so that Dad could have a six months “refresher course”. We set out at the end of the first school term and arrived back in time for me to attend the final school term. It was a great adventure. I’d be meeting relations I didn’t really know. We had been away from UK for 8 years. I was only 4 when we originally left for South Africa, so I had only very sketchy memories of those days.

In 1955, UK was still recovering from WW2. Rationing had been eliminated except for sweets, which came off rationing that year. There were still a number of bomb sites dotted here and there. Winston Churchill at ±81 was the Prime Minister. The general feeling of the people was that recovery was taking place but was very slow.

Bomb Damage around
St Paul's Cathedral 

Bomb damage is a terrible thing. I don’t really remember seeing much of it. What I did see was very depressing; almost enough to cause you want to weep. Buildings that had once been family homes had been burned out and gutted and were little more than a scar on the landscape. 

Bomb Damage

The UK had been badly damaged. I remember looking at these remains and wondering where the right place would be to start. The main towns in Germany had been reduced, almost to rubble. Fortunately for Germany, the people are hard-working. 

Bomb Damage Berlin

They also are obedient and have a “military” attitude to life. It follows that they got “stuck in” and within ten years much had been rebuilt. The USA provided financial assistance, without which recovery would have been much slower.

Bomb Damage Berlin

In some respects, rebuilding a broken world is similar to beginning a world from scratch. What is needed for both is a plan. Rebuilding is easier when details of what had formerly been in place, is known. How do you start from scratch if there is no such knowledge? Johannesburg is a good example. Before 1886 it was little more than a piece of bare veld. According to the 2007 Community Survey, the population of the city of Johannesburg was 4,434,827 and the population of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area was 7,151,447. If Ekurhuleni, the West Rand, Soweto and Lenasia are included, the population was 10,267,700! If someone had been asked in 1886, to plan from ±10 million people by 2007, I’ve no doubt “home” would be very different from what it is today.

Johannesburg RSA

When it comes to the knowledge of God, He knew before He started creating the universe, that Jo’burg would be home to ±10 million people by 2007. Name any city, town or country anywhere in the world. God would have been able to tell us every detail down to the numbers of the hairs on the heads of every man woman and child alive in that place on that date. Such knowledge is intimidating!

Johannesburg RSA

Let’s take a step further back into eternity. What do you do and how do you go about things, when starting from nothing in the Spirit dimension? 

Where do you begin? Where do you start putting in place the basics of all we know today? How do you create a time/space continuum? As a further difficulty, what is a time/space continuum? Can it be created? How? We think we know why? God so enjoyed fellowship with the other members of the Trinity, He thought a bigger family would be even better. Now we are beginning to touch on the “thoughts” of God.

Rather Son & Holy Spirit
Who are the Children?

If a young married couple decide they want a bigger family, it’s not really a problem. Assuming there are no medical or other unfavourable conditions, they are able to have their bigger family. However, what must Deity do to increase from a Trinity to a “Fourity” a “Fiveity” or even a “Multiity”? Moreover, what do they do if they want their bigger family to love them voluntarily? Sure, angels are OK. But they don’t quite fit the bill for what They had in mind. This new creature would have to have free will to love or even hate the “Trinity”. The next step truly is thinking “outside the box”!

Did the Trinity have a conference to sort this out? If They did, it wouldn’t be the sort of conference we would recognise or understand. Communication within the “Trinity” has not been revealed to us. How “long” would this take in eternity? It’s a silly question when They live in the eternal now. So somehow it was done “now”!

One final complication that needed to be incorporated into the plan was what to do with those They created who decided not to love Them. Giving them freewill made this not only possible, but quite likely. Hopefully, the numbers would be very small if the creatures would have a little “taste” of their immense goodness. 

David spotted this when he pretended to be mad while in the clutches of Abimelech. David convinced him that he was mad. He’d had a small taste of God’s goodness. Thus, in praise of the Lord he wrote, ⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him! Psalm 34:8 NLT Have you had a taste? You should!

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – 17 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	TASTE AND SEE
Occasionally I’ve pondered on God and His creation. We know He decided to create someone in His image. We understand that this has more to do with character than appearance. It must be. God is spirit and in that dimension, as best we know, He has neither shape nor form. I presume that, for reasons best known to Himself, He could not or would not create us as spiritual creatures like His angels. I suspect that free will in the heavenly realm was not favoured as a result of Lucifer and his gang. No! If He decided to create, He would do so in a dimension we know, but was unknown in the heavenly realm. But where to start? God has no problems with this. He knows everything. So when it came to creating man, He knew exactly where to begin to achieve His goal. You and I are not so fortunate. Furthermore, we can only function within the limits He has imposed. We would have to think in terms of the end product and work backwards from there. In a way we would be compelled to think of how man would live in that environment. So where did God start? In all likelihood He would start by creating a new dimension. He decided on a time/space continuum. With one word it was created. Was that a big bang? Difficult to know. What happens when something comes from nothing at God’s command? If anything, His Words were that bang. Every basic thing necessary for a dimension in which man would live, came into existence with the words, “Light be!!” Refinements would come later as, block by block, everything was put into place. The creation story is logical in a step by step fashion. God tells us it all happened in 6 days. It could not have been our six day week. That couldn’t begin until our planet was created and began to rotate in its orbit round our sun. If you choose to believe He created everything “ready-made” feel free to do so. It doesn’t worry me at all. My guess is that gravity was created at the same time as light. In some way, everything in this universe is affected by gravity. It would not have been a good idea for Adam to drift off into outer space. Gravity prevented this. It seems likely that, at this point, what we call the basic laws of nature came into being. Laws of motion, light, sound and everything we know which makes it possible for us to live here, in comparative safety. When eventually God created man, we are told that He “squeezed together” the “mud”. Here is the creator of the universe putting everything together that needs to be in us. A brain, eyes, ears, the blood system, the lymph system, the skeleton, the nerves. The complexity is staggering. It is physically impossible for something as complicated as a human being to come about as a series of random chances. But I digress. One of the most beautiful “things” God gave us was our faculties. Within our environment we may “enjoy” life. See things beautiful. Be touched with the sound of music. Hear the footsteps of our beloved. Touch and feel priceless objects. Caress our nearest and dearest. Smell the sweet delightful aroma of jasmine and the smell of a favourite perfume. Not the least of these delights is flavour. The taste of our favourite dish. This faculty is one of the very first we ever experience. The taste of nourishment from a bottle, or better still, from Mom’s breast. Most importantly we may “taste and see” the goodness of God. Jim & Phyllida Strickland			8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalms 34:8 ESV	Hearing, smelling, seeing; touching, thinking, taste. God gave these to all of us; His gifts were not misplaced. Life is very difficult, if we cannot hear. Smell a nice aroma. “You smell so good my dear”. Sight, we undervalue and if we could not see, We’d be groping in the dark; how dreadful that would be. Could we love our partner? Life would be a mess, If a lover couldn’t feel a gentle, soft caress. We would all be vegetables, without the power to think. How would we establish what we would eat or drink? We’d be like a baby. Instinctively we’d cry. Then, in all our ignorance, each one of us would die. The one we least appreciate it seems to me is taste. Think of chocolate ice-cream, brake fluid and fish paste. Could that be delicious? I don’t think that it would. Too much salt or sugar would both be just as good. All of these “abilities” originate from God. He knew they’d be needed, when daily, life is trod. We need them all to function within the world He made. If one or more is missing, a price is always paid. In spite of all He’s given by way of faculties, We are not conscious of our God and His abilities. He wants us all to seek Him. But where to go and look? He’s given us a method within His Holy Book. Therein we find a treasure. A quality unknown. Beyond all of the senses, He’s given as our own. We know the world we live in, is not reality. Faith’s the only method to contact Deity. By faith alone we hear Him. By faith alone we see. By faith He tells us all to taste how good He’ll always be. Taste His perfect righteousness. Taste His hidden power. The water that He turns to wine is sweet and never sour. Roll His “flavour” on your tongue and “taste” what He has said. I know it sounds unusual, but He’s our daily bread! His “essence” is delightful; like manna for the Jews. Whatever flavour you desire, He says you’re free to choose. You will not comprehend Him. But He is always there. Live within His shadow. There’s nothing to compare, With being like the Master and tasting the Sublime. Other food can’t satisfy, so come to Him and dine. Jim Strickland Written 17th September 2012
			9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. 10 "A host always serves the best wine first," he said. "Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!" John 2:9-10 NLT
			3 Our tongues tell us what tastes good and what doesn't. And our ears tell us what's true and what isn't. Job 34:3 NIrV
			13 It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 2 Corinthians 4:13 TNIV 10 I believed, even when I spoke, "I am greatly afflicted";  Psalms 116:10 ESV
			12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. 2 Timothy 1:12 TNIV
			3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Song of Solomon 2:3 ESV
			4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? Romans 2:4 NASB
			32 Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won't He also give us everything else? Romans 8:32 NLT
			2 Like new-born infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2-3 ESV
			11 But let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread Your protection over them, that all who love Your name may be filled with joy. Psalms 5:11 NLT