Time
with Jesus - 20 Dec 2013
Hi all,
Do we expect too much from fellow Christians? This is a strange way to
begin a message to brothers and sisters in Christ. It is however a legitimate
question and one which needs to be asked. Allow me to explain.
As I’ve mentioned on several occasions, I committed my life to Jesus Christ
in October 1960. At the time I was 18 and had just begun to work for the same
company that employed my father at the tender age of 15. He was following in
the footsteps of his father who joined them before WW1. That must have been
somewhere in the very early 1900’s. I think it was in 1905, but that’s purely a
guess.
In their days, there was a very set pattern of behaviour demanded from
society. My grandfather had a university degree and was a qualified school
teacher. So he was regarded as slightly above the average working man. Don’t be
surprised, the world was still very class conscious at that time. Accordingly,
someone who had been to university was seen as a little above the workers of
the day. But he was not “classed” among the landed gentry. That changed after
WW1 when barriers began to slip.
My father started working as what was called a
“line lad” at 15. Apprentices only commenced working at 16 and concluded at 21.
A line lad was a sort of general factotum who ran errands for the foremen and
carried the work details – the lines – to the tradesmen. It follows that a “line
lad” was not quite the “lowest form of human life” in the factory. However, it
was regarded as akin to the common labourer who was unskilled and often
uneducated. It also meant that Dad had to “look lively” and run around at the
beck and call of anyone. He wasn’t resentful. That was a part of life in those
days. If a line lad was told to jump, he did so immediately. The only
permissible question was, “How high?” which you asked when you had started
jumping. It was a part of life. You did it because that was what was expected.
A bit like school initiation routines; you got on with it, knowing that you
would get your chance to treat line lads the same way, when your apprenticeship
was complete and you began working as what they called “a journeyman”. Dad did
tell me how much he was paid per week as a line lad. I can’t remember what it
was but it was shillings not pounds. Dad loved it and was well liked by the
workers, leading hands and foremen before he started working as an apprentice.
What you didn’t do was give your elders any “lip”. If you did, you could
easily get a “clip round the earhole”. Behaviour was constantly scrutinised.
Courtesy was demanded. If you tried to interrupt a conversation, you were in deep
trouble. You took off your cap to greet anyone in authority over you. You stood
up and gave a lady your seat on a bus. “Ladies first” was drummed into you. If
you didn’t observe these niceties of life, someone would deal with you very
quickly. It had better not be the “Bobbie on the Beat”, or your dad would meet
out retribution. When I was growing up I remember a comment made to me by dad. “If
I hear you’ve been misbehaving and get caned at school, I’ll give you another
hiding!” I learned to say nothing!
Judgement was meted out very swiftly to children, even in my day. I
remember being a bit “rude” to mom one day while we were out driving in the
car. Dad reached over into the back of the car while he was driving and I got a
wallop that I’ll never forget. It wasn’t so much the sting of the wallop. I was
reminded that children should never be rude to their elders.
By the time I became an apprentice in 1960, things had changed
significantly. No doubt WW2 influenced or brought about many of the changes. The
other factor was the strong influence of what we call human rights and children’s
rights. Suddenly, if you so much as gave a child a black look you were in
trouble with parents. Another was the rise of the women’s liberation movement.
From personal experience, I recall a man standing up and offering a woman his
seat on a bus. She verbally abused him. “Women
are as good as men” she stated. “I don’t need you to stand up for me”. It was a
bit shocking but it soon became a way of life. It became so bad I recall seeing
a heavily pregnant woman standing on the London Underground train. Many of the
seats were occupied by young men and children who could have given her a seat.
The days of “chivalry” were gone. Let her stand was the general attitude.
This type of behaviour is contagious and impacts every part of society. “Ladies
first” is an anachronism. “If you want something, push in and get it”, became
the norm. As recently as 2010 when Phyllida and I were on a European bus tour,
we were warned about behaviour. When we arrived at the next café if we wanted
service, push in and get it. That’s what everyone was doing.
As early and 1981, I recall attending a large church in Jo’burg. After the
service, I wanted to speak to the Pastor. I approached him and waited politely
for him to finish speaking to the person with whom he was conversing. I was waiting
my “turn” so to speak. When he finished his conversation and I tried to speak,
we were interrupted. This happened three times before I realised that it was a
waste of time standing aside. Other “Christians” simply butted in and verbally “pushed
me out of the way. The next example comes from a large convention held in Jo’burg
in 1982. When the doors opened, the rush for seats was more like a rugby scrum.
People were rude to each other and didn’t seem to care what happened to others.
If this had taken place at a department store sale, it would be
understandable. But this was at a Christian event, where you would expect some
sense of decorum and reasonable behaviour. Phyllida and I wondered if this was
perhaps an unusual aberration associated with a special event. We were rudely
awakened to find that this was the norm. Sadly seeing this taking place in a “Christian
environment” shook us to the core.
What is particularly saddening about this is this. People say they are
Christians. Their behaviour proves them to be anything but Christian. Paul, in
his letter to the Philippians instructs us, 3 Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don't look out only for
your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. 5 You
must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Philip 2:3-5 NLT Sometimes we get the impression
that these words are deliberately left out of the Scriptures when it comes to
the way we behave.
Phyllida and I know that all of us slip up on this instruction at times. We
know that we err far more often than we should. But bad behaviour appears to be
normal among Christians. The question that needs to be asked about this, is to
look again at Jesus words in Matthew’s gospel. 33 "Make a tree good, and then its fruit will be good. Or
make a tree rotten, and then its fruit will be rotten. A person can recognize a tree by its fruit. Mat 12:33 GW As
I understand this Scripture, we are Christians not by what we say, but by what
we do. I can train a parrot to quote Scripture. But the parrot cannot and never
will be a Christian. If we behave like an unbeliever, then that’s what we are.
Let me now go back to the beginning of this message. Do we expect too much
from fellow Christians? The answer is “Yes” and “No”. Clearly we “set the bar
too high” for others and never “high enough” for ourselves.
The only way we will
ever be able to achieve this is when we see others as better than ourselves. Will
we do it? I’d like to think we will. Lord we ask you for the grace to always
treat others this way. Then our Christianity will be seen and, hopefully, not
heard.
Shalom
|
Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – 20 Dec 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
|
TOUCH
NOT
GOD’S ANOINTED |
||||
|
Matthew’s Gospel tells
us, “With God, all things are possible!” Matt
19:26 NLT. God can do anything. This is an overwhelming truth. The
fact is if there was anything God couldn’t do, He would not be God. Having
stated that, how do we deal with the statement in Hebrews, 18 So God has given both His promise and His oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible
for God to lie. Therefore, we who have
fled to Him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that
lies before us. Hebrews 6:18 NLT
Let me start by stating
that I have not found a contradiction in God’s Word. The answer has to do
with the nature of God Himself. Within the overall ability of God, He is able
to lie and He is able to break covenant. If this was not true, He could not
be God. But God, in His infinite wisdom, has decided how He would be to all
His creation. He has defined that which he will never do. He will never lie
and He will never break covenant. Not because He is unable to do it but
because He has made an unbreakable decision with Himself not to do so.
An easy way to
understand this stems from my own personal experience. I stopped smoking in
1981. I decided that I would never smoke again. It doesn’t mean that I am
unable to do so. It means my decision not to smoke again is unbreakable.
There is however, one enormous difference between God and me. I do not have
His moral perfection. He will not break His Word. Because of my moral
imperfection, I could.
Another way to look at
it is to say that God cannot forget my sins. If He could forget, He could not
be God. But God has perfect control over His memory. He can choose not to
remember. In Jeremiah 31:34 God tells His people. “I
will remember their sin no more." For our purposes, for Him to
not remember our sins, is the same as Him forgetting them!
This introduces today’s
meditation. Elisha brought a word from God to the King of Israel, concerning
the provision of food for his people. The king’s officer did not believe
Elisha. This is where we need to be careful. Telling Elisha it could not happen
implied Elisha was lying. He was accusing Elisha of being a Lying Prophet.
But Elisha had brought a genuine message from the Lord. Thus the Officer was
indirectly calling God a liar! Elisha then spoke to the Officer and brought
him a further word from the Lord. The officer would see God deliver the
people from the Arameans. But he would die before he had a chance to eat any
of it. It came to pass exactly as Elisha had said.
We need to bear in mind
at all times that accusing God of being a liar is blasphemy. The penalty for
blasphemy is death. This was very much the case in the Old Testament. In the
New Testament, in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira died for telling lies to Peter
about the sale price of their land. He said they were “lying to the Holy
Spirit”. In Rev. 21:8 we are told "But
cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice
witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars--their fate is in the
fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the
second death.” Being truthful is not optional. It is a requirement of
God. Rev 21:8 is a warning to Christians as much as it is to unbelievers.
Sadly we find today many Christians are liars. Ananias, Sapphira and the King
of Israel’s officer showed the danger of lying to or about God. Am I a liar?
Are you?
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland
|
2 The servant on whose arm the king was leaning answered
the man of God, "Could this happen even if
the LORD poured rain through windows in the sky?" Elisha replied,
"You will see it with your own eyes, but you won't eat any of it."
2 Kings
7:2 GW
|
Be very, very careful
when you’re speaking to God’s man.
Nothing is impossible for
God and so He can,
Bring about a judgement
on the foolish words you’ve said.
And it is very simple for
God to strike you dead!
That is just what
happened in our reading for today.
Elisha brought a message;
“Hear what God does say.
By this time tomorrow the
flour and the wheat
Will be such that the
people will again begin to eat.”
The Aramean army was all
around the town.
Samaria was starving; the
walls could be torn down.
That was when Elisha
brought that message from the Lord.
Food would be abundant at
a price men could afford.
The officer who heard
him, questioned what the Lord had said.
“This could never happen though rain poured upon
the head,
Through the very windows
of God’s heaven in the sky.”
Meaning that Elisha’s
words were empty and a lie!
“With your eyes you’ll see it” Elisha
then declared.
“But you will not eat it!” The man
would not be spared.
That night the Arameans
turned around and fled.
“The Hittites and Egyptians are attacking us!” they said.
The sound of a great army
they thought that they could hear,
Came from God Almighty
and they ran away in fear.
You can read the story in
the Second Book of Kings.
Look at chapter seven;
see how God arranged these things.
The Aramean army had left
all their goods behind.
Everything was left for
the Samaritans to find.
The King said to that
officer “Go and control the gate”.
The people were so hungry
that they could hardly wait.
And so they stormed the
gateway with one great mighty rush.
That officer fell over and
was trampled in the crush.
It was the fulfilment of
what the Lord had said.
Food was in abundance and
that officer was dead!
So be very careful; don’t
question what God says.
He can discipline you in
a hundred thousand ways.
Criticise His prophet and
God could deal with you,
In a way you’d rather
that He didn’t ever do.
Touch not God’s anointed,
for you are touching God;
You could be the victim
of His death inflicting rod!
Jim Strickland
Written
20th
December 2012
|
||||
|
22 Jesus said to them "Have
faith in God!
Mark 11:22
GW
|
||||||
|
6 But without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He
is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews
11:6 MKJV
|
||||||
|
26 But Jesus looked on them and said to them, With men
this is impossible, but with God all things are
possible.
Matthew
19:26 MKJV
|
||||||
|
2 When I came to save you, why didn't anyone welcome
me? When I called out to you, why didn't anyone answer me? Wasn't my arm powerful enough to set you free? Wasn't I
strong enough to save you? I dry up the sea with a single command. I
turn rivers into a desert. Then fish rot because they do not have any water.
They die because they are thirsty.
Isaiah
50:2 NIrV
|
||||||
|
8 "My thoughts are
nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And My ways are far
beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Isaiah
55:8-9 NLT
|
||||||
|
10 Bring all the tithes
into the storehouse so there will be enough food in My Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies,
"I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing
so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put Me to the test!
Malachi
3:10 NLT
|
||||||
|
1 Behold, the LORD's hand
is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
Isaiah
59:1 ESV
|
||||||
|
11 And Asa cried to the LORD his God, "O LORD, there is none like you to help, between
the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you,
and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our
God; let not man prevail against you."
2
Chronicles 14:11 ESV
|
||||||
|
9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves & learned to rely
only on God, who raises the dead.
2
Corinthians 1:9 NLT
|
||||||
