Time with Jesus - Friday, 04 January 2013
Hi all,
Our meditation today is on the fact that Jesus has
conquered death and the grave. To do so, He had to die and be raised from the
dead. In the Old Covenant, various animals were sacrificed and offered to God.
In every case, the prescribed animal was ritually killed. The exception was the
Grain offering in which no animal was included. However, this offering included
a drink offering, usually wine. As we know, Jesus likened His blood to wine
when He lifted the cup and said, “This is my blood shed for you!” So under the
New Covenant we also have a drink offering! His blood poured out for us which
we commemorate when we take communion!
Blessings,
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – Friday, 04 January 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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DEATH IS
CONQUERED
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Do you remember your twenty
first birthday? In some cultures it’s a very important date. Within that
culture you’ll find that some are very fussy about keeping the celebration
and having a slap up “wing-ding” of a party. For many it’s the second most
important function in their lives. Only a wedding is thought to be of greater
importance. Personally, a big bash for my 21st wasn’t all that important.
So it was a very quiet occasion in a little town called Basildon with my
parents. It was all I really wanted.
Most of the religions of the
world have special days for celebrating events. In the West, Easter and
Christmas are very important; some for all the wrong reasons. In Jewish life
in terms of the Old Covenant, there were seven feasts every year. Passover,
Unleavened Bread, First-fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and
Tabernacles. Partially associated with them, the family made sacrifices or
offerings to God for unintentional sin. No sacrifice was available for
deliberate sin. These offerings were the Burnt, Fellowship/Peace, Grain/food
or Meat, Sin and the Trespass or Guilt offerings. These sacrifices or offerings
to God were, to a large extent, prescribed. Each of them represented a
specific aspect of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. You
couldn’t just pitch up at the tabernacle with a camel or a dog and say that
you wanted to offer them as a sacrifice to God!
With the Burnt and the Meat
offerings along with the morning and evening sacrifices, ±one quart, of wine
was poured out onto the altar fire for each animal sacrificed. The quantity
varied in accordance with the size of the animal. It’s been suggested that the
offering of an animal, grain, oil, and wine in combination produced a smoke that
metaphorically was a “soothing aroma to the LORD”
Pouring out a drink offering
is also a metaphor for the blood Jesus spilled on the cross. Jesus spoke of
this directly in Luke 22:20 when He instituted the New Covenant. He picked
up a cup of wine and said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new
covenant in My blood.” Jesus’ sacrifice fulfilled the need of a drink
offering, His blood literally pouring out when the soldier pierced His side
with a spear John 19:33. Paul used the metaphor twice. He used the
image of a drink offering to describe his service to the Lord. Phil
2:17; 2
Tim 4:6.
The burnt offering and the
meat offering were both voluntary offerings to God. For Paul this would be
important. He voluntarily “gave his life to God” There was no compulsion.
It’s our prayer that we will all follow him and voluntarily “pour out our own
sacrificial life blood” for Jesus.
Jim
& Phyllida Strickland
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55 Death, where is
your victory? Death, where is your sting?" 56 Sin gives death its sting, and God's standards
give sin its power.
1 Cor. 15:55-56 GW
26 If that had been necessary, Christ would have
had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, He has appeared at the end
of the age to remove sin by His own death as a sacrifice. 27
And just as each person is destined to die once
and after that comes judgment, 28 so
also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of
many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring
salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for Him.
Heb. 9:26-28 NLT
14 Because God's
children are human beings--made of flesh and blood--the Son also became flesh
and blood. For only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could He
break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15
Only in this way could He set free all who have
lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
Heb. 2:14-15 NLT
6 My life is coming
to an end, and it is now time for me to be poured out as a sacrifice to God.
7 I have fought the good fight. I have
completed the race. I have kept the faith. 8 The prize that shows I have God's approval is now waiting
for me. The Lord, who is a fair judge, will give me that prize on that
day. He will give it not only to me but also to everyone who is eagerly
waiting for him to come again. (The Crown of Righteousness)
2 Timothy 4:6-8 GW
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What is it folk are frightened of? For most of them, it’s death.
They don’t know what will happen when they’ve breathed their final
breath.
It’s surely understandable, for all of us must die;
No matter how we put it off, it comes for you and I!
It happened to the Master, when He was on the cross.
He took in death and swallowed it. Now He’s become death’s boss.
As Christians, we should know it; but most of us still fear,
The prospect of what happens, when we get out of here!
We know the way it happened. Adam disobeyed.
So Satan was his master and death came in and stayed.
The devil thought he’d triumphed. This world became his own.
He thought that he could never lose his well established throne.
He knew that the sin nature would always be passed down.
It would require a perfect man to take away his crown.
He knew that if a perfect man would ever pass away,
That God would raise him up again, for death could never stay,
On someone who was perfect. Before the corpse could rot,
That God would raise Him back to life. Corruption just could not;
Hold him in its icy grip. Perfection couldn’t stay,
Forever in an earthly grave. There wasn’t any way,
That Satan’s hosts could keep him. His wages were not death.
In fact the very life of God would dwell in every breath.
And that is just what happened. He had the victory.
Because He lived a perfect life, there was no way that He,
Could stay within death’s bondage. He died and so His soul,
Could never be held captive; and death was swallowed whole!
So why are people frightened of all that death can bring?
The truth is that in Jesus Christ, that death has lost its sting.
We may have the experience of what it is to die.
But Jesus Christ will raise us up to heights above the sky.
It has no power over us that He does not permit.
And any instant He decides, He’ll lift us out of it!
So dying is a victory that Jesus turns around.
The grave can’t hold us in its grip. We just wait for the sound.
A trumpet blast in heaven will raise us from the grave;
And we will rise to be with Him, no longer Satan’s slave!
And live with Christ forever; and death will disappear;
No longer can it terrify for Jesus Christ is near.
Jim Strickland
Written
Wed. 4th January
2012
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