Time with Jesus - 1 Nov 2013
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THE NICENE
CREED
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WE BELIEVE
in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that
is, seen and unseen.
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We believe
in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the
Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not
made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.
For us and
for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our
sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended
into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will
come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will
have no end.
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We believe
in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father
and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He
has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and
apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We
look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN
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In 1951 at the age of 9, I was in the boarding establishment
of Kingswood College in Grahamstown. Being away from home for the first time was
traumatic, but after a couple of days with the other boys, life settled down
into a comfortable and normal pattern.
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| Kingswood College |
Mondays to Fridays were busy with the
usual school activities in the morning and sports in the afternoons. Saturday
was mostly devoted to sport and Sunday was a “day off” if such a thing can happen
in a boarding school. We were all encouraged to attend a Church Service on
Sunday morning.
For me that was the big Anglican Cathedral in the middle of
town. It wasn’t all that far away so we all walked to town. Some of the boys
went to the Methodist Church. Others went to the Cathedral. I don’t recall
being with Roman Catholic boys back then. I suspect the reason was the presence
in Grahamstown of St Aiden’s College, which was primarily for the Catholic
boys. (As far as I know, it’s closed now. It was last time we were in
Grahamstown.) |
| Scrolls |
Before Kingswood, I hadn’t been much of a church goer in spite
of a number of Catholic friends. Now, things were slightly different. Going to
the Cathedral was a welcome break from the school grounds.
It was in Kingswood that, unbeknown to me, I began to feel the
vague promptings of God.
Thus it was on Sunday mornings, there I was in the
Cathedral going through the Anglican prayer book and listening to the liturgy. That’s
where I came across the Nicene Creed. I’d already learned the Apostles Creed by
attending Marist Brothers Schools. So I was somewhat surprised to find there
were other creeds. 
Why there needed to be two creeds was a mystery.
Nevertheless, every Sunday morning, there I was in one of the pews, in the
middle of the church, listening and watching as the priest and congregation,
went through the set morning worship ritual. 
Frankly, I loved it. One thing
that puzzled me then, was that when the congregation read the portion, “For us
and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man”, all the congregation
knelt briefly on the “kneelers”. 
It was never done sacrilegiously and certainly
wasn’t offensive. But for a 9 year old boy it was strange! I presumed it was
something to do with expressing reverence for Jesus Christ for what He had
done.
Two passages from the Nicene C had me puzzled. These were:
1)
Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of
the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten,
not made, of one Being with the Father. The problem was the word “begotten”. My
guess was that it meant that He was the Son of the Father. His Father didn’t
“make” Him, He was begotten. Now I’d come across the word “beget”.
The Old
Testament was full of “he begot him”, indicating he was the son of. By
implication, somewhere in the “begetting” there had to be a mother. For a 9
year old boy, this was obvious, even though I knew nothing of the birds and the
bees. 
So who was Jesus’ Mother? My Catholic friends always told me it was the
Virgin Mary. I could tell this was true on a human level. But what about in the
Spirit? In simple terms, who was God’s wife? That’s about as far as my juvenile
ignorance could take me.
It was many years later that I came to realise we can’t deal
with matters in the Spirit, the way we do in our dimension. The clue is in the
meaning of the word, “begat”. Another meaning is “cause”. What a relief. I can
understand the Father, “causing” the Son. This resolved the problem of God’s
“wife”. 
It also made sense of Him being of one substance with the Father.
Suddenly the expression, “a chip off the old block” helped me sort out this
difficulty in my own mind. Not completely. The Father may be the “cause” of
Jesus. But they are eternally one with each other. I guess it’s a bit like the
question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” In the case of The Father
and the Son we can say they are eternally one and at the same time eternally
unique.
2)
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of
life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he
is worshiped and glorified. It’s the word “proceeds” that is another puzzle. Once
again, understanding what is meant is a bit of problem.
Here again a good
dictionary clears the air a bit. It’s got nothing to do with stealing the days
proceeds from the till! It doesn’t mean to go forward after an interruption. It
can mean “to come from a source; originate or issue”. Now we get to grips with
the Holy Spirit’s “origin”. He “comes from” the Father and the Son. They are
His “source”. |
| Inside the Cathedral in Grahamstown |
To sum all this up, we can now get a slightly better idea of
the Holy Trinity. At the same time they are eternally one and eternally individual.
They are interdependent yet independent!
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| Anglican Cathedral Grahamstown |
Occasionally, when I try and take a look at the Great Mystery
of our God, I am inclined to want to go back to those Kingswood College days
and revert to be 9 again. It’s a longing for the innocence of youth. Sadly,
those days are no more.
Shalom
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – 01 Nov. 2013
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
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©
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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
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©
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INTRODUCTION
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DAILY
LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES
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THE
SPIRIT IN ACTION
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The
Holy Trinity: Father Son and Holy Spirit. The Three In One. Three persons –
One God. If you understand this truth, please explain it to every other
Christian in the World. How Three can be One and at the same time be
separate? If I really understood it I’d be a super-genius.
People
have used a number of ideas in an attempt to illustrate this. One is an egg.
It is one egg but it has a shell, a white and a yoke. It helps, but doesn’t
describe our Infinite God adequately. Another I’ve come across is Water, Ice
and Steam. Indeed they are the same substance, H2O. But this is
also very inadequate. Another is; draw a circle and divide it up into three
equal segments. Then imagine compressing it down to a minute dot, all three
will be one. It boggles the mind a bit and may help some. Sadly, it doesn’t
help me. Frankly, none of these ideas are completely helpful. What they do
show is our inability to describe our Creator. If we could explain Him, He
would not be God. Furthermore, such a description would enable us to concoct
a mental impression of God. That would be an idol of our own making. It may
be done for all the right reasons. But to our Lord, it would be an idol in
the mind. As offensive to Him as building a golden calf and worshiping it.
Something
that has helped me is the fact that in the Bible we are told 8 But anyone who does not love, does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 NLT
In
order to love there must be someone to love. I suppose you can love a thing.
But love is not really something you can do on your own. It takes at least
two “people” for love to be real. If we take a ‘sideways” look at the same
Scripture, we could conclude that God must be more than One or He could not
love. So for God to be Love, there must be more than One. You may not like my
logic, but it seems fairly clear that there must be at least “Two Persons in
One” Of course with “Three in One”, love is not centred on one Person.
Complete devotion to only one person could become a selfish relationship. So
we’ve settled for the belief that God is Three Persons in One, committed to
each other in a covenantal totally unselfish relationship!
Now
let me rattle all our cages? Could it be that there are more than three?
Personally, I don’t think so. But when I read about the “Seven Spirits of
God”, my theology gets a bit rattled. In the poem today, I’ve looked at
Isaiah 11:1-8 and it sort of threatens my comfort zone! We are dealing here
with the Infinite God so it doesn’t have to make sense. But I just may be
“treeing” up the wrong “bark” if you follow what I mean. My late Dad would
say, “It’s a ‘can-ack-a-ler’”. What’s that? An unanswerable question.
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland
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6 For
to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on
his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful
Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting , Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 TNIV
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The gracious Holy Spirit! Isaiah clearly shows,
How He will be recognised; so everybody knows,
That this is nothing “spooky”. In fact, He’s rather grand!
He will give us wisdom; He’ll help us understand,
What our Holy God requires; so we can recognise
That what we are looking at is Jesus in disguise!
We need to know for certain that it is not a trick;
Sent to us by Satan dressed up as someone slick.
For He’ll bring us counsel and demonstrate the way,
To walk with God Almighty, on each and every day.
He will give us power. The strength that we all need,
To walk in true obedience and not in selfish greed!
His power will be gentle and yet as strong as steel.
To do that which is proper and not just how we feel.
Show the way to knowledge, that we may be equipped,
To walk the Christian tightrope, without our being tripped!
For wisdom goes with knowledge. You cannot separate,
What one does for the other. Together they equate,
To showing us the way to go when everything goes black;
When we’ve been confronted by a spiritual attack.
Knowledge gives us wisdom, to fear the Lord Most High.
Without which, our foolishness, would cause us all to die.
But we’ll be delighted, when we obey the Lord.
Rejoicing in the Spirit where Jesus is adored.
He won’t make a judgement by the way that we appear.
Nor draw a conclusion from the rumours which He hears.
He’ll make fair decisions and bring justice to the poor.
If they have been cheated, they won’t have to endure,
Wicked exploitation and find there’s no relief.
All their persecutors will be treated like a thief.
He’ll clothe the Messiah, with wisdom and with grace.
Give Him the authority, to look in Satan’s face,
And to overcome him by the power of God’s Word.
Thus God’s Holy Spirit will be both seen and heard!
He will bring God’s righteousness which Jesus will dispense.
For that is what’s needed; it makes lots of sense.
We can’t live for God the way that Jesus Christ requires.
But with the Spirit’s filling we get our heart’s desires.
Jim Strickland
Written 1st Nov. 2012
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2 The life-giving Spirit of GOD will hover over him, the
Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding, The Spirit that gives direction
and builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-GOD.
3 Fear-of-GOD will be all his joy and
delight. He won't judge by appearances, won't decide on the basis of
hearsay.
Isaiah 11:2-3 MSG
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1 Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her
voice?
Proverbs 8:1 ESV
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4 (Wisdom says) "To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the
children of man. 5 O simple ones, learn prudence;
O fools, learn sense. 6 Hear,
for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right,
Proverbs 8:4-6 ESV
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14 I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have
strength.
Proverbs 8:14 ESV
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29 This
also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful
in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
Isaiah 28:29 ESV
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5 If any of you need wisdom, ask God for it. He will give
it to you. God gives freely to everyone. He doesn't find fault.
James 1:5 NIrV
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5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Do not depend on
your own understanding. 6 In
all your ways remember him. Then he will make your paths smooth and straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIrV
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