JIMMETS – COVENANT GIFT

Time with Jesus - Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Hi all,

Today we meditate on God’s Promise to David and on Ephesians 1:3-6. There is also reference to Romans 8:28 in the introduction. 2 Tim 1:12 is not referred to directly, but Paul’s conviction that God is able to guard that with which He has been trusted is clear. This conforms with Romans 8:28. Thus all four Scripture references are utilised. Expressing Ephesians 1:3-6 in Jimmet form was fun!

Blessings
Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus Tuesday, 14 August 2012			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	JIMMETS – COVENANT GIFT
A couple of days ago we looked at an occasion early in David’s reign. At that time he had wanted to build a “house” for God. The Temple that would be built by his son Solomon. David was told by the Lord through His prophet that he was not permitted do this. He was a man of war with blood on his hands. The temple would be built by his son who would be a man of peace. However, he was informed that God would build him a house! A throne on which his descendants would always sit. David’s reaction to this was that he felt completely overwhelmed. It’s worth pointing out that God would build this line. He would be the One who would design and supervise the building of David’s “house”. In a way, David would emulate what God had promised to do. He became the architect of the Temple and went about accumulating materials for the task. He also made provision so that on his death, all his personal wealth would be donated for the building of the temple. In this respect, although Solomon built the temple, it was based on his father’s provision. Perhaps we should refer to the Temple as “David’s Temple” rather than “Solomon’s Temple”. We don’t do that for good reasons. But we do remember Sir Christopher Wren as the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Does anyone know who did the building? In today’s first Scripture, we move in time to the end of David’s reign. By now, he was an old man. In spite of this, we notice that he had not forgotten God’s everlasting covenant with him. It’s interesting to read how confident David was that God would do this. The New Living Translation expresses his confidence in God’s undertaking to him and his family: 5 "Is it not my family God has chosen? Yes, He has made an everlasting covenant with me. His agreement is arranged and guaranteed in every detail. He will ensure my safety and success. 2 Samuel 23:5 NLT David’s attitude sheds additional light on the assurance Paul describes in Romans 8: 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. Romans 8:28 NLT  David had no idea that it would be some 1000 years before Jesus would be manifest in the flesh. During the interim, David’s line had almost disappeared. But it could be traced back through his mother’s antecedents as well as His stepfather’s antecedents. Here was the fulfilment of God’s promise to David; the everlasting King of Kings! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			25 "Is it not my family God has chosen? Yes, He has made an everlasting covenant with me. His agreement is arranged and guaranteed in every detail. He will ensure my safety and success. 2 Samuel 23:5 NLT 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. 2 Timothy 1:12 TNIV 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. Ephesians 1:3-6 TNIV 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Romans 8:27-30 TNIV	EVERLASTING COVENANT An everlasting covenant was cut; That David would forever have a son, Who sat upon the throne; no ifs or buts; Until creation’s time on earth was done. I wonder if He really understood, How God would bring this promise into fact? He realised that God, the Father, would Keep His Word and was obliged to act; The way He had declared to him that day. Who else but God had the ability, To bring about the things he heard God say, And keep it going for eternity? But there was one thing David knew for sure. God’s promises forever would endure. Jim Strickland written 14th August 2012     HIS FREE GIFT Praise be unto the Farther of our Lord; Who blessed us in the heavenly realms above. All Spiritual blessings He has poured, On us, through Jesus Christ, the King of Love. In Him. He chose us in the “days” before, He started to create the things we see. Predestined our adoption to be more, Than creatures who are lost eternally. This was according to His Sovereign will; The Sons of God; Not merely men of mud. And by His grace, decided He would spill Christ Jesus’ own and very precious blood! O what a plan! To take our punishment! The very reason why His Son was sent! Jim Strickland written 14th August 2012

BEHAVIOUR

Time with Jesus - Monday, 13 August 2012

Hi all,

Today’s meditation is on the topic of behaviour. It was written 28 years ago as a result of my observation of what was taking place in and around where we were living. Today’s Scriptures strongly reminded me of that poem. I’d like to say things are different today. It seems that little has changed since then.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Monday, 13 August 2012			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					©
	BEHAVIOUR - 1		DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	BEHAVIOUR - 2
There's such a contradiction in things that I have seen. The sinners love each other and say just what they mean. When something doesn't please them, they speak and spit it out. Perhaps they're not God's children, but that's what love's about! They do not judge each other. They know they all fall short, Of how they know they ought to live. They do not resort, To sifting through the Bible to find out what it says, And then draw a comparison with all their brother's ways! They do not use The Word of God as some form of excuse, For leaving people helplessly to suffer man's abuse. They do not spend their waking hours, holding in their fist, Some doctrinal barometer or spiritual checklist. Few of them are hypocrites; They do just what they feel; Following their consciences with fervency and zeal! It's true they are not 'Christians'. They do not 'Praise The Lord', But sometimes it occurs to me, THEY should get the reward! We Christians have missed it! We've heard all about love, But in our 'willingness to serve', we push and pull and shove Anyone who's different right out of the way. We cannot help each other because we have to pray........! We have to go to 'meetings', organised at 'Church' And leave our friends and neighbours alone and in the lurch. It seems that all that's missing are our phylacteries, For most of us behave like the Scribes and Pharisees. Even all the artefacts and clothing that we wear Are frequently selected to make the sinner stare; And gaze in admiration as we walk proudly by, Pretending that we're 'holy' with noses in the sky. The language we keep using is pious and a pain. The sinners know we're different and most of them complain, About the way we witness. They say it’s 'verbal stones', Thrown by 'whited sepulchres, filled with dead men's bones'. It seems there's little difference between the things You saw, When, Lord, You dwelt among us. Except, perhaps, we're more Adept at self-deception. Religiosity, Is just as much in evidence, as what You used to see. It's just the mode that's altered; our ways are more refined; Our 'brand' of legalism's doctrinally defined;			28 God chose things despised by the world; things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 1 Corinthians 1:28 NLT 9 Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people--none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NLT 1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil--the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. Ephesians 2:1-3 NLT 5 He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Titus 3:5-6 NLT 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	All is compartmentalised, clinical and pure, Organised and marketed and packaged to ensure, That everything is perfect; designed and guaranteed, To meet specifications, religious men decreed! O Lord! Where is Your Spirit? Why have we gone so far, From what, in the beginning, You wanted? Lord, we are, Exactly what men stated ... Pious, pompous freaks, Peddling religion and stealing from the weak; Living as it pleases, in immorality, While paying our lip service to what we know should be. Only You can change us. Only You know how, To help us see what we should be, right in the here and now. Lord please consecrate us to being what we could; To live as men and women, who really love You should. Father, dedicate us to being, day by day, The love of God incarnate to all along the way; To crucifying everything that doesn't glorify, The God of all Creation. Lord Jesus, please draw nigh And take away religion. Replace it with a verve, To serve You, Lord and Master, with sinew, bone and nerve. All that we comprise of, Lord, please purify, In order that, in what we are, with You, we do comply. Mould us by Your Spirit; Bring us to our knees; Modify our attitudes and make us what does please. Until the final product is Christian in fact. Not Religious Thespians whose life is just an act! Jim Strickland Written 1984
				This 1984 poem seems as fresh today as it was 28 years ago. Almost nothing has changed. Sadly I find myself stumbling into this sort of thing too often. What makes it a bigger problem is we fail to see our own behaviour in this light. The English say, “The pot is calling the kettle black”. Recently the Lord has been whispering the word “rebellion” in my ears. First Samuel states: 22 Samuel said, (to king Saul) "What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to His voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the LORD, He has rejected you as king."1 Samuel 15:22-23 NLT. I rather suspect The Lord is asking all of us to check out our behaviour. Are we in any form of rebellion and/or stubbornness? Jim & Phyllida Strickland  13th August 2012

DEATH SENTENCE

Time with Jesus - Sunday, 12 August 2012

Hi all,

Today’s meditation is about heroes; heroes of all types. The greatest superhero this world has ever seen is Jesus Christ. Furthermore, He is real. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Spiderman and Hulk etc. are figments of imagination. But Jesus outshines them all and He is the only one!

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Sunday, 12 August 2012			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	DEATH SENTENCE
Heroes and super-heroes. We live in a world which admires heroics and shuns cowards. It’s not really surprising in a world that has gone through two world wars in the past 100 years. If we try and add to these the other “international conflicts” we notice that our world thrives on conflicts and death. Anglo-Boer, Korea, Viet Nam, Arab-Israeli, Kosovo and the rest we begin to ask if there has ever been a time when war has not been in vogue. It’s strange that we shout and sing about peace. But the one thing this world does not experience is peace. The world established the League of Nations and later the United Nations with the intention of attaining peace. But peace is still a pipe-dream. Satan thrives on man’s inhumanity to man, greed and torture. So while he runs the world, the only place we will find peace is in the hearts of believers and in the dictionary. As a youngster, my hero was Superman. Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Gotham City were more familiar to me than most world leaders. Mom even made me a Superman outfit for the local fancy dress contest. I didn’t win. There were probably other boys wearing the same outfit. Then we had the Saturday morning “bioscope”. The youngsters from all over Port Elizabeth would meet at the “Grand” to swap comics and watch the latest edition of our hero. Mostly it was Tarzan, Batman and Robin, Superman and the inevitable Western. Who remembers “High Noon” starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly? It came out in 1952. I’m not sure how many times I sat through it. Later it became standard viewing at least once per year on British TV during the Christmas season. For many years I wondered why we had such a fascination for superheroes. After Becoming a Christian in 1960, the “penny dropped”! Everyone is looking for a superhero. But there is one! His name is Jesus Christ. As God, He is the superhero of all superheroes! Suddenly the deeds of many of the Biblical heroes began to make sense. Every one of them in their day stood against evil and oppression of some sort. In today’s Scriptures, four are mentioned by name. Ehud, Shamgar, Gideon and Zerubbabel. What the first three did is recorded for us in the book of Judges. No doubt most are familiar with the deeds of Gideon and Samson. These are firmly etched into our memory. But what about the deeds of the other Judges? How many can you remember? I have to refresh my memory by going back to the Bible! To find the name Zerubbabel among the list of superheroes is a bit unusual. What was so special about him? His name is one of the very few men in the list of Jesus’ ancestors after the Babylonian captivity. Two lines are quoted in Luke and Matthew. The one line lists Mary precedents. The other Joseph’s precedents. What is so important about this? It illustrates the difference between what is important to man and what is important to God. Zerubbabel is important to God. We think in terms of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and other little men who litter the pages of history. Men who we think have achieved great things. To God, the most important people are those through whom Jesus descended. Thus Zerubbabel is the most important person to Him from the Babylonian captivity to the birth of Jesus! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:27 NIrV 15 Again the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. Then he gave them a man to save them. His name was Ehud, the son of Gera. Ehud was left-handed. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. The people of Israel sent Ehud to Eglon, the king of Moab. They sent him to give the king what he required them to bring him. Judges 3:15 NIrV 31 After Ehud came Shamgar, son of Anath. He killed 600 Philistines with a sharp stick used for herding oxen. So he, too, rescued Israel. Judges 3:31 GW 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!" 15 "But Lord," Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!" Judges 6:14-15 NLT 2 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to Me that they saved themselves by their own strength. Judges 7:2 NLT 6 Then he said to me, "This is what the LORD says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven's Armies. Zechariah 4:6 NLT 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Ephesians 6:10 ESV	Ehud; Shamgar; Gideon; were Judges in their day. Ehud was left handed and killed Eglon in this way. Shamgar killed the Philistines, six hundred with a stick, That’s used for herding oxen. It wasn’t just a trick, Gideon was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat; There wasn’t any other way his family could eat. But they were all assisted, when God was on their side. The enemy discovered that it was their time to hide. Throughout the book of Judges, the story’s much the same. God came to deliver when people called His Name. The problem was their lifestyle. They’d slip and would backslide. The enemy would then return.  They couldn’t be denied! Right through the Old Testament the story changes not. And when they’d been delivered, they very soon forgot, That God came to their rescue. Just like a round-about, The story was repeated. The cure was, “Be Devout”! The kings they chose to rule them were very much the same. Some of them were very good. The bad ones got the blame. The problem was idolatry; they broke the Lord’s commands; So they were invaded and went to foreign lands. The Father brought them back again, so that they could restore, A sample of the glory they’d known so long before. Kings were not permitted. A governor would do. They built the temple once again, the walls rebuilt as new. Zerubbabel was leader; he would have been their king. But they were not permitted to have that very thing. They’d learned a great big lesson while in captivity. Don’t pursue the things that will annoy our Deity! Idols were forbidden, and images were out. The priests had all concluded, it was far beyond a doubt, That it had been idolatry that had led them all astray. They vowed it wouldn’t happen to them again that way. Instead they started worshipping God’s pure and Holy Law. They added several fences in ways not done before. These became traditions, which they would never break. Then Jesus came and told them that they should all forsake, These little bitty extras than none of them could do; Unless they had the money to help them see it through! Of course, they were offended. “Get rid of Him they cried!” And this became the reason why God was crucified! How sad to be a people who worshipped God Most High And through their misplaced zealousness, to sentence Him to die! Jim Strickland Written 12th August 2012