Sunday, November 10, 2013

TRUE RICHES

Time with Jesus - 11 Nov 2013

Hi all,
God surely loves poor people. Look how many He has made! Please don’t think I have any objection to those who are wealthy. Jesus didn’t seem to have any objection toward them either. He knew His ministry was being financed. Yes, His Father was financing Him. But He did it through the hands of others. The gifts of the wise men provided much of the wherewithal to take care of Jesus while He was young. Later, He worked with His hands in Joseph’s carpentry business. No doubt He earned a reputation as an honest and skilled carpenter. He certainly didn’t waste His time lolling around the home doing nothing except waiting for the day when His ministry would start. He was too honest for that. We know He had younger brothers and sisters. As an able bodied male, He would have shouldered some of the responsibility for their care. His father and mother were not wealthy. There was no large retinue of servants. 
That was not the role planned for Him by the other members of the Trinity; a role He would have thoroughly endorsed before He was born. Every second of every day of His life was planned down in minute detail. No opportunity would have been given to Satan to catch Him unawares while He was young. Even the flight to Egypt was known about. No doubt this accounts for the purpose of the gifts from the Wise Men. You don’t flee from Bethlehem to Egypt without provision of some sort. Flight in those days did not involve Jumbo Jets. Mind you, flight today and flight in His days were far from cheap!

From a very young age, I’ve had a call from God. Exactly how or what it was I had no idea. To be honest, I didn’t know I had a call. That only happened to other deeply spiritual people and I’ve never thought I was one of them. It’s not necessary for me to go through the details of my finding faith, discarding it and returning, much chagrined. What I did know was that I would have to work for a living much as my relations had all done. Thus, the idea of dropping everything and dashing off to “Bongo-Bongo land” was not on my radar screen. To me, the idea of struggling to survive, the way generations of missionaries had done in the past, was a none-starter. I suppose people would say “Jim hasn’t got the faith for that.” Instead, I became an engineer. Not a very good one, but enough to earn a living. Then, when I might have reconsidered the possibility, I had a wife and children to support. Now it’s not unreasonable for someone to take a chance on his starving to death. To expect the family to do the same was and still is a no-no. That didn’t comply with the sense of responsibility for my family the Lord had placed in me.

After the divorce and subsequent marriage to Phyllida, such a decision was still a non-starter. In fact, I was offered the opportunity of starting a church in Rustenburg. Phyllida and I talked it over and agreed that the time was not right. I was still financially responsible for the education of my own two children plus one of Phyllida’s children. Our covenant of marriage meant that suddenly, instead of two children to care for, we had six. How Phyllida and I would cope with a new life in Rustenburg, as well as starting a new church with no income! Forget it. I would actually have been violating one of my own principles. We have always taught that you stay out of ministry on a full time basis until the Lord grabs you and pulls you kicking and screaming into the ministry. So I’d have to stick with engineering and Eskom until there was no other choice.
Please don’t be under the misapprehension that I was unhappy working for Eskom. In my day they were an excellent employer who took care of their employees. Historically this had always been the case. It was significantly influenced by two critical requirements; water and coal. As surprising as it may seem, you cannot operate a conventional power station without water. Water is the coolant. Steam drives the turbines. Coal turns water into steam. In the interests of economy, power stations in South Africa were been built as close to the coal face as possible. This meant employees lived in Eskom houses in villages built close to the power stations. More often than not, this was in the middle of nowhere. Eskom thus became a “nanny employer”. No people = no electricity.
It was only in the 1980’s this began to change. Employees bought their own houses in towns close to the power station and organised their own transport to and from work. This was very good for Phyllida and me because it meant we were able to buy our own home in Middleburg. It was our first step to being able to leave Eskom and enter full time work for the Lord. Shortly after moving to Middleburg, my health started to deteriorate. It got progressively worse and Eskom decided to give me early retirement on the grounds of ill-health. 
So it was that exactly 30 years to the month after beginning my apprenticeship, I left Eskom with a small pension. To use my own expression, I was dragged “kicking and screaming” into full time service for the Lord. We hadn’t planned it in any way. What actually happened was that the financial pressure was removed and we were where we had both wanted to be when we married in 1981. It was worth the wait.
Since then, we have known what it is like to be truly rich. Not in the sense that we are financially wealthy. But we have been able to follow the leading of the Lord to wherever He has directed. Worcester, Fish Hoek, Syria and Jo’burg. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians wrote, 11 Not that I was ever in need, for I (we) have learned how to be content with whatever I (we) have. Philip 4:11 NLT Indeed, this is true riches! To be content in all situations.
Shalom

Jim & Phyllida Strickland



Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give
Time with Jesus
Mon 11 Nov 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
TRUE RICHES
For many people, our churches focus on money rather than on the Kingdom of God. There is a certain amount of justification in this statement but it’s a bit like throwing the baby out with the bath-water. What’s more, I understand that Jesus devoted a considerable amount of time teaching about money. Jesus was not against it per se’. He was against money having you. Many years ago, Bob Mumford said, “I’ve known being rich. I’ve known being poor. Rich is better. One of Jesus’ best known statements was: 24 "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Matthew 6:24 ESV In spite of this our churches appear to be obsessed with the pursuit of money. The “prosperity gospel” has had an unfortunate effect on many. In the pursuit of wealth, people have lost everything they possessed. The root problem was the prosperity gospel insisted that God wanted everyone to have lots of money. It’s a wonderful teaching. Many Christians have followed those principles and become wealthy. Not the great majority. They remain as impoverished as they were.
What is particularly sad is that many of these disillusioned Christians have left the church. Many are sitting at home licking their wounds and deeply regretting what they had done to themselves and their family. Most of them don’t blame God. They blame those who persuaded them to get into the message. To put it into practice without first making certain with Jesus that it was something they should do themselves. The real problem is establishing God’s will for them individually. People say quite correctly that God’s will is His Word. For you and me, the question is which words in His Word? We always assume we will enjoy being in His will. But that’s not always true. God’s will for Joseph was to be taken and sold as a slave in Egypt. For the best part of 400 years, God’s will for His people was for them to be the slaves of the Egyptians. God intended that it would not be forever. But how many children of Israel during that time knew nothing other than slavery? That was certainly not prosperity. God’s will for hundreds of thousands of Christians was to die during the persecution at the hands of the Romans. Much the same has happened all down the centuries. Death for being faithful to Jesus. Death in most cases in a cruel and horrendous way at the hands of torturers well trained in their evil trade. Not exactly prosperity. The accusation from the people in the faith movement today is these things happened because those men, women and children didn’t have faith! “Foxes book of Martyrs” shows that this is not true. These folk died because of their faith. Nothing could turn them away from Jesus. All some of them had to say was, “Caesar is Lord”. Then they could have walked away free. Their faith in Jesus was such that torture and death was better than denying Jesus! That’s the sort of faith I admire. Not the sort that is influenced by the size of your bank account. Off the coast of South America there was an island owned by a rich man. He hated Christianity and vowed no Christian would ever live there. His slaves had never heard of Jesus. Because of their love for Jesus, two young Dutchmen sold themselves as slaves to this rich man. They went to the island having bid farewell to all they had ever known. All this for the love of Jesus! Prosperity? Yes indeed!
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland


11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV

There was a time when all of us were, not what we are now.
When we would worship anything. We loved the golden cow.
Whose udders gave us money, dispensed upon a plate,
Along with gross dishonesty, debauchery and hate!
I didn’t love my brother, if he had more than me.
And we’d “max out” our credit card, on every shopping spree.
Our debts were indescribable. How could they be repaid?
The postman was avoided, because we were afraid,
We would get a letter, a final, last demand.
Advising, if we didn’t pay, the sheriff would command,
The bailiffs, “take your furniture to pay that which was owed”.
We were only reaping the crop which we had sowed.
Then we came to Jesus. We knelt down and we cried.
Confessed all our stupidity; our sins we did not hide.
He took us in His loving arms and said, “I’m glad we met.
Now I’m going to teach you how to pay off all your debt.
Throw away your credit cards. Cut them all in two.
They are too convenient for spend-thrifts such as you.
You must start to budget and from this very day.
I will make suggestions, whereby you can repay,
Every cent you’re owing. You’ll find, ‘blood sweat and tears’
Will keep your budget balanced; and in a few short years,
You’ll find all your creditors at last are fully paid.
Be strong; be of good courage; and do not be afraid.
First you must start walking in transparency and light.
Doing what I show you, to help you put things right.
Always please remember, for you, debt is a sin.
You will have to pay it off, if you are going to win.
The whip of every creditor could beat you black and blue.
You’ll be sequestrated and no one will trust you.
Go and tell your creditors that they will be repaid.
But the last instalment is going to be delayed.
They’ll be understanding, when they begin to see,
You’re working on “debt-mountain” and looking to be free.
Child, I want to help you. But I won’t wave a wand.
So My first instruction is consolidate your bond.
Sell your big Mercedes and get a smaller car.
Petrol is expensive and you’ll get just as far.
In a smaller vehicle. Don’t go out for meals.
I will give you good Ideas for doing business deals.
Discipline is needed. And I will show you how,
To break the evil monster, that horrible cash cow.
Do you want to do it? My child it’s up to you.
This is just the starting point of what you need to do”.
Jim Strickland
Written 
11th November 2012


7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7 ESV



5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 ESV



25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV



8 She was given a bridal gown of bright and shining linen. The linen is the righteousness of the saints.
Revelation 19:8 MSG



22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:22 NLT

33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one--for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself.
Romans 8:33 NLT


A Maskil of David. 1 Blessed is the one whose lawless acts are forgiven. His sins have been taken away. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD never counts against him. He doesn't want to cheat anyone.
Psalms 32:1-2 NIrV

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