THE JEWELS OF SPEECH

Time with Jesus - Monday, 20 May 2013

Hi all,

Over the past 50 odd years, I’ve had the privilege of listening to many great speakers. Some have been inspiring. Some have made a deep and lasting impression on me. Four spring to mind immediately; Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, David Pawson and Billy Graham. These four men have had remarkable ministries. What I have particularly enjoyed is the humble attitude in which they have brought their messages. 

Among the ladies, I’ve deliberately excluded my wife whom I regard as one of the most gifted women in the church today. The other ladies are Joyce Meyer, Caroline Savelle and Lizanne Verkuil. Caroline Savelle is included because at the 1982 Rhema Faith Convention in Johannesburg, she brought a message called, “Made to be a Blessing”. It lacked the histrionics of the men at the convention that year. It was spoken in a quiet and moving way that I’m not sure I’ve seen or heard since. I can’t say it was life changing. What was brought was the voice of a lady passionately in love with her Saviour, determined to be a blessing. 

Here was the voice of a modern Mary Magdalene without any of the baggage Mary carried.

Lizanne Verkuil was a friend of Phyllida going back to the late 1970’s. Phyllida attended the Rosebank Bible College for their Old and New Testament Bible Survey. Lizanne was one of her lecturers. Her ability to get people excited about the contents of the books of the Bible is legendary. 

In the 1980’s she wrote a booklet entitled “Polished Arrows” It was aimed at helping people become better preachers and public speakers. I recall asking her why she had chosen that particular title. She pointed out that preaching and speaking was a verbal gift from the Lord to excite and inspire others. Her comment reminded me of a verse in Proverbs that has been with me since the early 1980’s. ¹¹ A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Pro 25:11 ESV

Some people have been gifted by God to touch the hearts of others through the spoken word. I’m told that Spurgeon was such a man. His words did not always, “cut to the quick”, as we so often believe is necessary. Instead, they came to people like a special gift from God, presented on a plate of verbal delicacies, that delighted the ear. These were words spoken at exactly the right time and changed the direction of those who were paying attention.

These were spoken words; “Golden words” from the Spirit of Truth. They were “Apples of gold”. When those words touched the hearts of the listeners, those people were enriched. The recipients became those “setting of silver”. They were the better for having heard them. Indeed their lives became transporters of joy to all around.

Solomon is said to have been the wisest man who ever lived. We are told that he spent many years collecting the proverbs of his people in something like a book. That book is called “Proverbs” in our Bible. 

Whether or not all that is written in the book of Proverbs were collected by Solomon is anyone’s guess. It matters little. What does matter is that God has used this book like a polished arrow to bring apples of gold in settings of silver to His people.

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – 20 May 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	THE JEWELS OF SPEECH
To the best of my knowledge, Mary Magdalene was the first person to see and recognise Jesus, after He had risen from the dead. Many people have asked, “Why did Jesus appear to Mary first?” It’s a good question and there are no real answers. What can be said is that this appearance was perhaps the most poignant of all. The dialog “oozes” love in an extraordinary way. Her grief that He was not in the tomb where she had last seen His body. Her extreme anguish as she blurted out her request to the “gardener”, asking where they had put His body? There is a tone of desperation in these words that speak volumes about her love for Him. Then, while her eyes were looking anywhere and everywhere in a frantic desire to find Him. It only took one word. “Mary” spoken in His familiar voice in a tone of loving understanding. She spun round and threw herself at His feet in abandoned joy while crying out the word, “Rabboni”. “Master, my Master” or “Teacher.” All her pent up emotion since the crucifixion exploded out of her. If you look hard enough you will find expressed in this one word the voice of humanity. The trial is over. The guilt and shame of the fall pours out of her. It’s stated in a way that only the pure devotion of a woman for the man she loves supremely can be expressed. This is the sound of the Bride of Christ desperately, passionately wanting to be with Him forever. It may be knowledge of this which prompts Him to gently release Himself from her adoring grip on His feet. “Not Yet Mary” He seems to be saying. “First I must Go to My Father and your Father!” I must prepare a place for my bride. Then in the fullness of time I will come back for you and bring you to where I am. If I’m reading more into this than I should, I must say it comes from my imagination. A gift from the Lord that I enjoy. It also gives me the opportunity to speak what is on my heart. They tell me that silence is golden. By logical deduction, speech must be silver. Today’s meditation was composed in 1998. At that time it was composed to bring encouragement for a certain brother in the Lord. In a way he was looking round desperately to find direction. The poem helped Him get focussed on Jesus so that he could love and serve Him to the best of his ability. I could sense the desperation in his quest. It reminded me of Mary Magdalene at the garden tomb. Our love for Him and His love for us inspires much like Mary’s love for Jesus. He has become an unquenchable fire in the heart which only He can satisfy. All else is secondary. “Rabboni” we cry. Jim & Phyllida Strickland			16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him. Then she cried out in the Aramaic language, "Rabboni!" Rabboni means Teacher. John 20:16 NIrV 1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1 ESV 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. John 10:3-4 ESV 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Isaiah 49:16 TNIV 19 But God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: "The LORD knows those who are His," and "All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil." 2 Timothy 2:19 NLT 14 Now that we know what we have--Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God--let's not let it slip through our fingers. Hebrews 4:14 MSG 9 Next take two onyx stones and engrave the names of the sons of Israel on them in the order of their birth, Exodus 28:9 MSG 12 Fasten the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the Ephod--they are memorial stones for the Israelites. Aaron will wear these names on his shoulders as a memorial before GOD. Exodus 28:12 MSG 15 "Now make a Breast piece of Judgment, using skilled craftsmen, the same as with the Ephod. Use gold; blue, purple, and scarlet material; and fine twisted linen. 16 Make it nine inches square and folded double. 17 Mount four rows of precious gemstones on it. First row: carnelian, topaz, emerald. Exodus 28:15-17 MSG 21 The twelve stones correspond to the names of the Israelites, with twelve names engraved, one on each, as on a seal for the twelve tribes. Exodus 28:21 MSG 30 Place the Urim and Thummim in the Breast-piece of Judgment. They will be over Aaron's heart when he enters the presence of GOD. In this way Aaron will regularly carry the Breast-piece of Judgment into the presence of GOD. Exodus 28:30 MSG	The colour of the jewels God wears upon His crown Are black & white & yellow & sometimes red & brown. These colours are His people; The jewels He has made To bring mankind deliverance; To comfort those afraid; Each child of His is different and each one has a gift; And God has made you eloquent so that your voice can lift The people to His presence; To minister with fire; To speak of what is on your heart, so that you can inspire His people with the message which He desires to bring. So thunder with compassion; erupt and duly sing A new song to His people, though they be black or white. Spread wide your arms to call them home and you will see the sight Of people in repentance before His royal throne; Of others with a heart of flesh instead of hearts of stone! For men will be delivered through what you have to say. The power of His Holy Word will hold men in His sway To do what He desires. You'll be His instrument To bring about revival and cause men to repent! So use all of your learning to exercise your tongue; Speak forth the word of wisdom and prophesy among The people you are sent to. Like Barnabas and Paul, Be strong in your anointing. Lift up your head! Walk tall!!! Declare The Lord our Righteousness and all His Holiness And watch His Holy Spirit move out to save and bless The men and women listening. For that is what must be. For you've been called to minister for Christ, His Majesty, To those of different colours! To black and white and grey! Be not afraid of what's ahead, but hurry to obey! For then you'll know His fullness far more than you can think; Of green and blue and purple; Of orange and of pink! A multi-coloured people of huge variety Alive and well and living for Christ eternally. Jim Strickland Written 1998 Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver

IT IS WRITTEN!

Time with Jesus - Sunday, 19 May 2013

Hi all,

Those of us who love the Word of God, seldom ask ourselves how we got it in our hands. We look at the Old and New Testaments. The thought hardly ever occurs to us, how it came to be. I don’t want to go into all the details of the transmission of God’s Word from the very beginning. I can’t do that anyway. I simply don’t know enough. But this morning, let’s focus on one particular aspect; the actual writing of the “books” which constitute the Canon of Scripture.

Adam and Eve in Eden

In my young days and when I committed my life to Jesus Christ, I made a foolish assumption. I thought that God had written it down in some form. Then someone “found” the writing, recognised the writing or the “paper” on which it was written. Thus we acquired the Old and New Testaments. It was, I suppose, the naivety of youth. There it was laid out on extraordinarily thin paper and wrapped in a beautiful leather cover. In some instances, the words, “The Holy Bible”, were etched onto the front in what appeared to be gold! 

How to Sew Fig Leaves

For me, it was exactly what I would have expected from a loving and astronomically wealthy God. The fact that they were printed on that beautifully thin and high quality paper was not even “on my radar”. After all, back then there were more urgent matters to think about. These were “maidens and moola”. (girls & money - What else?) Finally, sanity prevailed and the question of how we came to get the Bible, nudged its way into my thinking process.

Having ploughed through some or the Old and New Testament books, I realised that, except for one or two passages, they were written by men. Genesis 1 and much of 2 for example could not have originated from man. There were not around then. I also noticed that the style of the books were different. The only way to account for this was that different people had done the actual writing. But if men had written it, how dare we call it the Word of God? It was a “canackler”.

Finally, I was introduced to the following verses written by the apostle Peter. ²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21 TNIV

When I learned that the word “Prophecy” referred primarily to the Jews and meant the written word of God, the “penny dropped”. Men had written the Scripture. They did so as they were “carried along by the Holy Spirit”. 

Moses is given the 10 Living Words
Carved on Stone

I can confirm this from personal experience. I make no claims to have written anything that we could call “God’s Word”. But on occasions, Phyllida and I have looked at something I’ve written and we’ve asked ourselves, “Where on earth did that come from?” Neither of us had any idea. All we knew is that there in front of us was something which had been in some way inspired by the Holy Spirit. That’s when we realised that if the Lord could prompt me to write anything, how much more could He inspire others to write what we now call the Word of God?

Scripture Writers

We believe that’s exactly what happened. The writer wrote something. It was very special. So much so, others were inspired by it. Then over a period of time people recognised that these words had come from the Holy Spirit. 

Not a Scripture Writer

Personally, I have never done that! In all probability, I never will. The Canon of Scripture is closed. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to! For me it’s a bit like climbing Mt Everest. As a dear friend says to me, “Jim, you have more chances of falling pregnant!”

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Sunday, 19 May 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	IT IS WRITTEN!
Most of us appear to have a “What if” mentality. For example, “What if Adam had not sinned?” There would have been major ramifications. Where would we be? What about Cain and Abel? Perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ would not have come? It’s a bit vague. We know Adam and Eve were put out of the garden. The details are sketchy but they are all we need to know. We know that there were fig trees in the garden. If not they wouldn’t have been able to sew them together. What they used for a needle and thread I’ll leave with the skilled seamstresses to advise me. The reason we know even the little we do, is because it was written down. Traditionally it is believed Moses did the writing. He is also thought to be the author of Genesis to Deuteronomy.  It’s a reasonable assumption with the exception of the last portion of Deuteronomy. These must have been inserted by Joshua – Moses was beyond writing, he was dead. The information recorded in Genesis 3 to 50 was probably handed down by the oral tradition. We don’t come across it these days. But back then it was the only way. Writing had not yet been invented. Furthermore since young Jewish boys learned the first 5 books (The Torah) by heart, it’s not difficult to assume the oral tradition functioned well in Moses’ day. Genesis 1 and 2 is a puzzle. The only way for Moses to get this information was directly from God. God may have dictated it for the oral tradition. It’s more likely that the Lord gave it directly to Moses. Moses’ education must have included reading and writing, so that would have been OK. Today we don’t have trained memories. We forget things. I tell people I don’t have a good memory. Instead I’ve got an excellent “forgetery”. So the only way for me to store information is to write it down somewhere. As a Rabbi, Jesus would have known the Scriptures “off by heart”. Since He was also the original “author”, He would have been able to quote Scripture instantly and accurately. So when Satan came to tempt Him in the wilderness, He would have been able to say, “It is written”. This was not just to defeat Satan, although that’s exactly what He did. He was also pointing out to future generations that the Word of God was in writing. I can’t fool you with so called Scripture quotations if it is written somewhere. You could easily say, “Show me”. Today we can say exactly the same thing. Certainly this is true for what was originally written. Those initial writings – the autographs - were copied by hand for posterity by scribes. These copies were in turn copied. This has happened all down through the centuries. Today the autographs have been lost. Probably they were so dog-eared by scribes they became illegible and were thrown away. The various schools of scribes demanded accuracy and rules were in place to prevent errors in transcription. So we are reasonably sure that what is available today is accurate. However, we know some men have changed the text to correspond with their own doctrines. Sad but true. They will be called to account. One day God will judge them.  He will deal with them very severely. No person has authority to change His Word. Jim & Phyllida Strickland			5 I can do this because of the partnership (fellowship) we've had with you in the Good News from the first day you believed until now. Philippians 1:5 GW 12 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts--limbs, organs, cells--but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. 13 By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain--his Spirit--where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves--labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free--are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 MSG 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9 ESV 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. 1 John 1:3-4 NLT 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 NLT 1 After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so He can give glory back to You. John 17:1 NLT 20 "I'm not praying only for them. I'm also praying for those who will believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that all of these people continue to have unity in the way that you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they may be united with us so that the world will believe that you have sent me. John 17:20-21 GW	I can’t remember all the things said to me by my dad, When I was busy growing up and was still just a lad. There’s lots of things he said to me concerning growing up; He laid the first foundation for my drinking from life’s cup. To me he was so special. The wisdom that he shared, Assisted me to know that I’d been properly prepared, To be the sort of father that Jesus Christ desired. And how to be a husband, my precious wife required! If I’d been really diligent, I’d have written in a book, Everything he said. Then I could always take a look, And know without a question, exactly what he said; Before my memory of things had vanished from my head. I should have kept a diary. I should have made a file, To keep all of his sayings in; to look back on and smile. The followers of Jesus, all heard the things He said. But in the course of history, they’d very soon be dead. Their first-hand information would have passed away and gone. They wondered how their followers could ever carry on. And so they started writing on some sort of ancient scroll, The things they could remember deep down within the soul! The task was rather daunting. They had to get it right. It needed to be accurate, so people wouldn’t fight, And say it never happened; or that it wasn’t true. So putting it on “parchment” was the proper thing to do. They had a secret helper who didn’t say a thing. The Holy Spirit prompted them, so that His Words would ring, Forever to His followers in future generations. They’d know they were not reading man’s vain imaginations. And so we have the things He said recorded in a form, That people kept and valued in a way that was the norm. We call it the “New Testament”. It speaks of Jesus’ day; And tells us just what happened as they walked along the way. And now this written record is the Word of God Most High. Nobody may alter it. They mustn’t even try, To change what has been written. To follow and obey, Their thinking of the things they feel that surely it should say! To do what Jesus taught us, will keep us in the light. It’s better to obey the Lord and get our thinking right. For no one has been authorised to change the Words He said. And everyone who does it will suffer when they’re dead. We cannot change the Scripture and think we’ll get away! To mess with what God’s written, will on the Judgement Day, Bring about a sentence too “bad” to think about! A place among the wicked. That’s sure; beyond a doubt. Jim Strickland Written 19th May 2012 Cain & Able