Time with Jesus - 30 Dec 2013
Hi all,
There are two huge errors among
those who claim to be followers of Jesus.
The first one is the think that
Grace is cheap. Here we only have ourselves to blame. We think about the state
we were in before we met Jesus. For most of us, and here I quote Paris
Riedhead, we find we are “Monsters of Iniquity”; in full rebellion against His
just demands for our love and obedience.
We were completely indifferent to any
claim He might have on us as His creatures. When we hear the truth about our
hopeless condition, we repent and begin to follow Jesus Christ. Almost
immediately we relax. 
He has saved me from the consequences of all that sin.
Now I’m a brand new creature in Him. His grace has reached down into the gutter
and lifted me out of that miry pit. But since He has already done this for me,
now it doesn’t matter what I do. If His grace has cleansed me from all
unrighteousness, it doesn’t really matter what I do now. I can sin as much as I
want. 
His grace will keep me clean, regardless what I do. He understands. He
knows how difficult it is to live the way He did. I know I can’t do that; so a
bit more sin won’t make any difference. He “gave me a ticket to heaven” when he
saved me. It has no expiry date so why bother trying?
The problem with this is the fact
that it’s a lie. Paul makes this abundantly clear in his second letter to the
Corinthians. 1 Dear friends, we have
these promises from God. So let us make ourselves pure from everything that
pollutes our bodies and spirits. Let us be
completely holy. We want to honour God. 2 Cor. 7:1 NIrV.
The fact of the matter is holiness
is not an option. The author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us, 14
Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at
living a holy life, for those who are not holy
will not see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14 NLT In simple language this means
that if you are not separated to God to live a Holy life, you are not saved.
The choice is yours. He will never leave you. But if you choose to leave Him,
you are on your own.
The second error is to be too
confident and imagine you can do it
yourself. This was my big problem. Without going into details, there was
something in my life I couldn’t give up. Much like a drug habit today, no
matter what you do, you can’t break free.
An alcoholic often has this problem.
He wants to quit, but the effort of staying “dry” is too much to cope with. So
he/she takes another drink of alcohol. This sets off an alcohol “binge” that
reinforces and intensifies the problem. Very few people have managed to break
free of alcoholism on their own. Then, Alcoholics Anonymous was started by an
alcoholic gentleman who believed that “a power greater than themselves” could
help them.
They formed a type of mutual support club to help each other. In a
way their “motto” was “one day at a time”. I know the system works. I have a
dear friend who was a pastor in a church in Johannesburg. He does not hesitate
to stand up at an AA meeting. He tells them, “My name is xxxxxx and I’m an
alcoholic. With the help of Jesus Christ and the assistance of my fellow
alcoholics, I’ve been “dry” for 35 years”. In the power of the Lord, one day at
a time is the way to break free of anything.
To return to my own problem, I
tried to break the hold it had on me for almost 3 years. I couldn’t. On
reflection now, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I really wanted to
stop. Not deep down inside. Up until then I tried my best to break free. All my
promises to God and myself didn’t work. “But I’ll do it myself” was my proud
boast.
Of course, His attitude was very simple. “If you want to do it yourself,
over to you”. The real issue, as far as I was concerned, was that it was
incompatible with Christian behaviour. Now I don’t like hypocrisy. Not in any
shape or form. So after almost 3 years of effort, I decided that I couldn’t
carry on that way. So I quit. The problem didn’t go away. To make things worse,
secretly I still hungered for God.
My choice of a marriage partner was
disastrous. We had two children and I qualified as an engineer. Then ± 17 years
later, the marriage disintegrated and culminated in divorce. At that time, in
February 1981, in spite of still having the same problem, I returned to the
Lord. Jesus was most understanding. But the same problem confronted me. I didn’t
know what to do.
That’s when I turned to Him, was filled with the Holy Spirit
and confessed I was completely unable to deal with the problem. I admitted that
I actually enjoyed what I was doing! That’s when I came to Him in tears and
asked for His strength, just for today. The next day, my prayer was the same. “One
day at a time” seemed to be the message the Lord was telling me.
I was through
with self-effort. As I prayed at the time, “Lord this is far too big for me. If
you don’t help and strengthen me, I’ll go to the grave this way”. Jesus Christ
came to my aid. One day lapsed into one week. That became a month, then a year.
That was 32 years ago! The only way to get the victory over anything by the Lord
is to surrender to Him. It sounds terribly weak. The image of a big “macho”
Christian must be destroyed.
One of the most beautiful portions
of Scripture is called the Magnificat. It
is Mary's song of praise when she was greeted by her cousin Elizabeth before
the birth of Christ (Luke 1:46-55). In Latin
the song begins with the word magnificat. Mary's song is modelled on the Song
of Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10). Like Mary, Hannah
was a godly woman who miraculously bore a son through the intervention of God.
Hannah's son, Samuel, anointed David as king in Israel (1 Samuel 16); Mary's Son would be the final and permanent
Davidic King (Luke1:32-33).
The Magnificat
has two main sections. Luke 1:46-49 are very
personal. They celebrate God's graciousness in choosing this humble maiden to
be the mother of the Messiah. Luke1:50-55 connect
God's activity in the coming of Jesus with God's age-long pattern of putting
down the proud, the mighty, and the rich, and of raising up the lowly and the
hungry. (Courtesy e-Sword)
The magnificat is the testimony of Mary;
a very ordinary and humble young girl selected to be Jesus’ mother. This is
surely the supreme honour that God could bestow on any woman. No man could possibly
aspire to such an honour. Men prefer the macho image that has no value in God’s
eyes. In Luke 1:53 the magnificat includes
the words, 53“He has filled the hungry with
good things but has sent the rich away empty”. (Luke
1:53 TNIV)
As stated many times in these devotions, “In God’s eyes, the
way up is down!” If you think you have, even that which you think you have will
be taken away. Humble yourself, or you will be humbled. This is confirmed by my
own personal experience.
Shalom,
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – 30 Dec 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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CHEAP
GRACE
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For how long have you been a Christian? A week; a month; a year; 50
years? The vast majority of Christian men and women have a good idea when
they committed their lives to Jesus. Some of us can tell the precise date and
time. You do not qualify as a Christian by remembering dates and times. Not
unless you are speaking about the date and time of Jesus’ death. All other
dates are comparatively unimportant. If you can remember; that’s great. If
you can’t remember, don’t go into a downward spiral and celebrate with a pity
party. The reason why many can remember is because of something specific. For
me, I had just begun working as an apprentice. I was in a strange city in a
strange land. All this contributed to the way I was.
Most of us come to Jesus Christ with high expectations from ourselves
and from other Christians. You know what I mean. “Now, I should be perfect. God is on my side and I’m on His.
Everything should be tickety-boo! All that’s missing was my own personal
halo! Within twenty four hours, most of us find that there is no halo and we
are worse sinners than we thought. Then, to our horror, we find that the
others in the church are little different from ourselves. When we make this
discovery, there are three possible reactions. The first is to say, “So what!
We are all like that. God loved me when He saved me. So why change? He gave
me a ticket to heaven. It has no expiry date so I might as well carry on
living the way I was. I may look like a sinner to everyone else, but God
knows the truth. It happened 50 years ago so I’m safe from Hell!
The second way is to start going down the, “Sorry Lord, I failed but I can do it” route. It’s the way of rededication. The way I started. “Yesterday I failed. Today I won’t. Watch
me now. I’ll show you I can live like You did. Others may have failed. Not
me. I can do it and I will do it”. Incidentally, I was on that road for
almost 3 years. Then I quit. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t live with my own
hypocritical failures.
The third way is the only one that works. You recognise that you can’t
change. You know you have failed more times than you can count. So you come
to Him helplessly on your knees. “Lord,
I know I’m a failure. I can’t live the Christian life. It’s impossible for
me. But I know You love me and I love You Lord. Please change me. Give me the
grace to live for you for the next five minutes. Five minutes is all I ask
Lord. This is what happened to me when I returned to Him after 17 years
in the Wilderness. My prayer was, “Lord, just for today”. I know I can’t last
for a week. So, just for today!” He touched me. I wept for my wasted years.
But for that day, I was able to do what I couldn’t do 17 years previously.
That was 32 years ago. He’s still doing it! Thank you Lord!
Jim
& Phyllida
Strickland
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9 "He will guard the feet of his
faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by
might shall a man prevail.
1 Samuel 2:9 ESV
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What is the description of the normal Christian flake?
Someone who’s not faithful and who God’s Word forsakes. 1 Sam 2:9
A man who walks in darkness and says he’s in the light.
A lady we refer to as a woman of the night.
A man without integrity; who doesn’t keep his word.
A woman who will gossip about everything she’s heard.
He doesn’t treat his servants with kindness and respect.
He cheats them from the wages they rightfully expect.
She makes them work long hours in excess of what they should.
And when they make an error, she says they are no good.
They’re good at church attendance; they even praise the Lord.
But woe betides the pastor if they think they’ve been ignored!
They boast to everybody about how much they give.
But they pay no attention to the way that they should live.
Behaviour doesn’t matter. Why bother? Grace is free!
Jesus came and saved them back in nineteen twenty three!
They have got their “ticket” and they are heavenward bound.
“Sin is quite irrelevant”, is what they think they’ve found.
Their claim to be in fellowship with God is just a lie. 1 John 1:6
If you live in darkness, in your sin you’ll die!
If we walk with Jesus, we’ll do the things we should.
Live the way He’s told us, transparent, true and good.
If we walk in darkness we are wicked in God’s sight.
Not because we’re perfect! His blood has made us right! 1 John 1:7
We required cleansing; He washed our sins away.
If our feet are grubby; by sin from day by day, John 13:10
Jesus Christ will cleanse them, provided we repent;
Otherwise, sin sticks to us like huge blocks of cement.
In the book of Proverbs, He tells us to be wise. Pro 4:11
Do not follow Satan and his myriad of lies.
You will not be hampered. You won’t stumble when you run,
If you are obedient to Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
Stay away from evil. Avoid all crooked speech, Pro 4:24
Demonstrate a lifestyle in line with what you preach.
Then the Lord will rescue you from every evil deed. 2 Tim 4:18
To His Heavenly Kingdom your steps He’ll surely lead.
If we follow Jesus, everyone will know.
We are truly Christian and God’s glory, He will show.
Jim Strickland
Written
30th December 2012
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6 So we are lying if we
say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we
are not practicing the truth. 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
1:6-7 NLT
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10 Jesus replied, "A
person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to
be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you."
John 13:10
NLT
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1 I have taught you the
way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness. 12
When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
and if you run, you will not stumble. 13 Keep hold of
instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life. 14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in
the way of the evil. 15 Avoid
it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
Proverbs
4:11-15 ESV
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24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious
talk far from you. 25 Let your eyes
look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 26
Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways
will be sure. 27 Do not swerve
to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Proverbs
4:24-27 ESV
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18 The Lord will rescue me
from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be
the glory forever and ever. Amen.
2 Timothy 4:18 ESV
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