THE JUBILEE

Time with Jesus - Sunday, 19 February 2012

Hi all,

In the past 30 years I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard anyone speak about the year of Jubilee. I confess that I have not spoken about it very often either. So I’m in good company or bad company depending upon the way you look at it.

Much of the teaching on the Year of Jubilee can be found in Leviticus 25 and this chapter is well worth reading. It was supposed to take place every 50 years. What was intended was that every seventh year the land was to lie fallow. This would give the land an opportunity to rest for one whole year. It was a Sabbath for the land. After seven Sabbath years for the land, (49 years) the year of Jubilee was to be declared. I remember Malcolm Smith saying that the year of Jubilee was the year in which God blew all the bells and whistles and said it was time for everyone to start again. What I particularly liked about this was that theoretically every Israelite should experience the year of Jubilee once in their lifetime.

It was supposed to be a very special year; a year in which everyone started again. I rather liked the illustration from the board game “Monopoly”. The “old game” was over. Everything was restored to the families. Then a new game would start. What appealed to me was the fact that a family may have had a bad time during the previous 50 years. Now, with everything being restored, they were able to begin a new 50 year cycle.

A careful reading of Leviticus 25 gives a good idea of what was supposed to happen.

Whether or not the Israelites ever celebrated the year of Jubilee is something I’m unable to establish. It seems unlikely. If they didn’t give the land it’s seven year Sabbath, there is even less likelihood that they celebrated Jubilee. It’s also worth noting that Jesus commenced His ministry in the Nazareth synagogue by referring to the Year of Jubilee. He was quoting from Isaiah. (Isaiah 61:1,2) –¹⁸ "The Spirit of the Lord is on me. He has anointed me to tell the good news to poor people. He has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners. He has sent me so that the blind will see again. He wants me to free those who are beaten down. ¹⁹ And he has sent me to announce the year when he will set his people free." Luke 4:18-19 NIrV

The aspect that blessed me most is the application of the year of Jubilee for Christians. We were all slaves of sin, living, bankrupt in prison in a loveless society. Then Jesus appeared on the scene. His presence declared that the time had come for us to be restored. Everything the devil had stolen was to be returned. The prison doors were opened and I could walk free. Few things could be more exciting.

It follows that He is our Jubilee. He gave us a chance to start over. Everything anticipated and referred to in Leviticus 25 has been done by Jesus for you and me. I’m so glad it happened just as was promised.

Today’s meditation looks at the Day of Jubilee and one or two of the associated implications.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

The Jubilee

God’s answer to inflation was the year of Jubilee. All the debts were cancelled and all Jewish slaves set free. The ram’s horn was the trumpet that cancelled every debt. That was The Lord’s direction. The finest method yet! If you had sold your property, because you were in need,      It had to be returned to you. You kept the title deed.

If you had sold your daughter as the slave to a Hebrew, The trumpet blast at Jubilee said “She’s returned to you!” It took place every fifty years. That’s what the Lord had planned. And was supposed to happen, throughout the Promised Land. I’m not sure that they did it. I doubt that it was done. But Jesus is our Jubilee, God’s One and only Son. We also have the promise that He’ll come back some day. We’ll know He took our burdens and cast them far away. He took our sins and sicknesses. Our health He will restore. A resurrection body we’ll have for ever-more. I cannot understand it but He has set me free, Because He is my Master – my Day of Jubilee! So many folk will be there. Far more than we can count. Along those who've passed away, we’ll all meet at the Mount. There’ll be so many people, the crowd that gathers there,      Will need their brand new bodies, to float up in the air.

The things that the apostles saw their Lord and Master do, When He was resurrected, will be done by me and you. Our former limitations will never more apply. Perhaps the very finest is that we’ll no longer die. To vanish and to reappear, for us will be routine; And do a lot of other things we’ve neither known nor seen. Is any of this possible or are we self-deceived? It sounds to be ridiculous and shouldn't be believed. But it is in the Bible, so doubt is put away. And I believe the Master in spite of what men say. With God, all things are possible, and He’s still in control. No person can resist Him or His power over the soul. So though it sounds irrational, God cannot be confined, Within the feeble limits of the greatest human mind. He is the Lord Almighty who made the Jubilee. And anything He’s said He’ll do is what I’m sure we’ll see. Jim Strickland – Written Sunday, 19th February 2012

LIBERTY IN JESUS

Time with Jesus - Saturday, 18 February 2012

Hi all,

The fall of man had a terrible effect on Adam and Eve and all their offspring all the way down to us today. They may have been tricked into Disobeying God. The fact remains, Adam was influenced by his wife and he ate the forbidden fruit. This is not intended as a slur on women. If we look carefully at the dialog between the serpent and Eve it is clear that she wasn’t quite sure of her facts. She should have been.

In the world God created, God spoke initially with Adam. At that time, Eve was only there in the sense that she was still within Adam. God gave very clear instructions to Adam. ¹⁵ The LORD God put the man in the Garden of Eden. He put him there to work its ground and to take care of it. ¹⁶ The LORD God gave the man a command. He said, "You can eat the fruit of any tree that is in the garden. ¹⁷ But you must not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you can be sure that you will die." Gen 2:15-17 NIrV

There is nothing ambiguous about this statement. Before the fall Adam, was in full possession of his faculties. It’s likely that he was able to do and understand things that we cannot begin to comprehend. There’s no question about it. He was “the boss” on earth. He was the pinnacle of God’s creation with authority over the entire planet. Now Eve was taken out of Adam. God did all that was necessary with one of Adam’s ribs. Personally, I cannot possibly believe that the woman brought to Adam was a great big “dumb blond”. She wasn’t there as his plaything. She was his companion; His helpmeet. There is no evidence to suggest that she was mentally inferior to Adam.

Now God usually says things once only. In normal circumstances, once is sufficient. It follows that God expected Adam to communicate His prohibitions and restrictions. The question is, did he do it properly. This seems unlikely. Look at the dialog; ¹ The serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. The serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat the fruit of any tree that is in the garden'?" ² The woman said to the serpent, "We can eat the fruit of the trees that are in the garden. ³ But God did say, 'You must not eat the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. Do not even touch it. If you do, you will die.'" ⁴ "You can be sure that you won't die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "God knows that when you eat the fruit of that tree, you will know things you have never known before. You will be able to tell the difference between good and evil. You will be like God." ⁶ The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good to eat. It was also pleasing to look at. And it would make a person wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. And he ate it. Gen 3:1-6 NIrV

Reading this I get an uncomfortable suspicion that Adam had not briefed Eve adequately. So she didn’t tell the serpent what God had told them. Then, after eating her forbidden fruit, she gave some to Adam. He was standing with them. Adam should have sent Satan packing. He didn’t. He copped out and did what his wife told him to do. At that point they submitted to Satan, sinned and lost their liberty.

It was a catastrophe. Satan was now in charge and sin was the order of the day. Sin would be passed down from generation to generation. As far as Satan was concerned, it was permanent. As far as man was concerned, liberty was lost forever and they were slaves of sin. As far as God was concerned, He would redeem man and destroy Satan. As we know, He achieved this in and through Jesus.

In some ways, the entire Bible is the account of how God achieved this. In and through Jesus Christ, man again has access to liberty. In Romans, Paul expounds on this. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Rom 8:2 NASB

To misquote Shakespeare; “To sin or not to sin; that is the question”. This is now the situation confronting us. Through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been given liberty. We are no longer compelled to sin. It is no longer a foregone conclusion.

Today’s meditation traces our Biblical history from the birth of Seth to where we are today and deals with what took place in more detail.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

liberty in Jesus

According to the records, Seth was son number three. The first son was a murderer; what a catastrophe. Cain had murdered Abel, ‘cause Abel did what’s right. He offered up a sacrifice; one pleasing in God’s sight. Cain brought God the produce he’d worked for with his hands. Abel brought a sacrifice in line with God’s commands. Cain became so jealous; he simply had to kill And Abel was his victim in defiance of God’s will. The line of Cain was wicked. The line of Seth did right. They tried to do their very best to keep God’s ways in sight. But Cain and Seth had something they shared throughout out their days. A heart inclined to evil and to follow Satan’s ways. It came in at conception; a drive to follow sin. They couldn’t really help themselves and Satan had to win. We have the self-same problem because we are sin’s slave. We have an inner instinct to always misbehave. Even if we want to, we cannot change our ways. We’re dead in sin and trespasses, until we end our days. But there is a solution. The Lord has bought us back. The cost was astronomic for us to change our tack. We have to trust in Jesus, that He has paid the price; Believe He’s done it properly by His blood sacrifice. For as we start to follow Him and trust in Him alone, We know His Spirit tells us, we’re no longer on our own. The spirit that was ruling us and bringing sin and death, No longer is controlling our each and every breath. Instead, His Holy Spirit, seeks to make us whole; And live a life for Jesus Christ, where He is in control. It’s Jesus Christ Who does this. It isn’t you or me. Satan wasn’t willing to ever set us free. He thought he was victorious and Jesus Christ had lost. It was a little later he found what it had cost. Jesus had defeated him and set His people free. We’re not in Satan’s kingdom, in chains of slavery. We needn’t be entangled by sin and death and law. And liberty in Jesus means we’re Satan’s pawns no more! So let us praise the Father, for all that has been done. And thank Him for the freedom; we have in Christ His Son. Jim Strickland – Written 18th February 2012

GOOD AND TRUE AND PURE

Time with Jesus - Friday, 17 February 2012

Hi all,

Directly above my computer and slightly to the right I have two special pictures. One is a photograph of Phyllida taken sitting on the rock where she made her decision to follow Jesus Christ back in 1951. I keep telling friends that I have a “pin up” of my favourite woman in my study. The other is a photograph taken on Christmas Day in 1921. It has a strong resemblance to Phyllida. It should have. It’s a picture of her mother.

When we look at photographs, they give us a moment “frozen” in time. That’s how it was on that date. Perhaps it’s the best illustration we have of timelessness. These images do not change. In 50 years we can look at them and they will be the same. In the interim, we have changed; changed significantly. Perhaps we look at a photograph taken 50 years ago. Then as we look at someone else – perhaps a grandchild – we say something like, “he is the spitting image of his father at that age”. We mean that they look alike. It may well be the case. But there is an error in our statement. We regard an image as a “look-alike”. But God is spirit and has no “appearance”. So we are like Him and also unlike Him!

John’s Gospel records the following: ⁸ Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." ⁹ Jesus replied, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don't know who I am? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father! So why are you asking Me to show Him to you? John 14:8-9 NLT

This could not have been a physical likeness. It must have been something else. Probably Jesus was “like” the Father because of the things He said and did. It was His character. Now we cannot “see” character. But we can see behaviour; and behaviour is a function of character. So Jesus’ words to Philip were not about physical appearance, but the way Jesus was; the way He behaved. Jesus was the “image” of His Father. He only did what He saw His Father do!

Now this makes sense to me. According to Jesus’ description, being like His Father is to display His character. It follows that when God created man in His “image”, He referred to character rather than appearance. Furthermore, Paul gives us a description of the character displayed by someone who is “filled with the Spirit”. These are the fruit of the Spirit. (See Paul’s letter to the Galatians) ²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Gal 5:22-23 NLT

Essentially I’m suggesting that to be made in the image of God means to have a lifestyle in which the fruit of the Spirit is constantly and consistently on display. This is walking in the Spirit in a way we have only observed in Jesus Christ.

Today’s meditation follows this line of reasoning and concludes with observing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the life of Adam, Eve and their subsequent offspring. I suppose it can be said that when I behave like God, I’m in His image. And when I’m in His image I behave like Him! Have a look at the meditation and decide whether this “novel” theory of mine describes the way in which a man or woman can be in His image in the 21^st Century.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Good and True and Pure

What was it God intended when He first created man? I do not understand it. I’m not sure others can, Give an explanation of what was in His mind. He made him male and female. That’s how he was designed. The fullness of the meaning is way above my head. I’ll guess I’ll have to stick with what Almighty God has said. He made us in His image. I cannot comprehend, What people should decipher! And what did He intend? I always think of photographs when looking at this word. But saying that we look like Him is utterly absurd. We know that God is Spirit. He has no formal shape. His need for shoes and clothing or anything to drape, Upon His sort of “body” is only in man’s thought. Because the Lord Almighty has no needs of any sort. So how can we be “like” Him? What does His “image” mean? To say He “looks” like anything is actually obscene. If we concoct a “look alike” of something in our head, Would be to make an idol we would worship in His stead! So it is not a picture. Of this we can be sure. It has to be perfection that will evermore endure. To satisfy these limits, God’s image cannot be, Anything we look upon, or think about, or see. Which means it must be abstract; a quality like love. Not some sort of valentine, but something high above, The road on which we travel, or we could understand; A quality of living that’s lofty, high and grand. It must include such qualities as love and joy and peace. Goodness, patience, faithfulness. These qualities release, Into His world His gentleness; where kindness is our goal; And where all of God’s creatures can practice self-control. We know about these qualities. God wanted us to be, Filled with Holy Spirit and live eternally, Within a strange environment which we have never seen. Surely that’s God’s image and what His Words could mean? It sounds to me like heaven, where perfect people dwell; Where everything that’s wicked has been consigned to Hell! Perhaps this was His meaning? This much we know for sure. The Lord made His creation to be good and true and pure. Jim Strickland – Written 17th February 2012

THE DEATH OF DEATH

Time with Jesus - Thursday, 16 February 2012

Hi all,

I suspect that I can say without contradiction, none of us celebrate the fact that, unless Jesus Christ returns before it happens, every one of us will die. When it will happen we do not know. Frankly, we don’t want to know. If we did know in advance, would anyone celebrate the date every year? Even if the date was many years in the future, how would we react? Perhaps we would call it our “death-day” and start counting backwards toward it. It sounds a bit macabre but would it help us live better lives? It’s more likely to encourage us to live a more debauched lifestyle. We would probably invent a man-made repentance program. It could commence when our death was a defined number of days ahead. I suspect the Lord would see any such repentance as repulsive. But it is the sort of thing on which wickedness in the heart of man would thrive

Something which exacerbates the situation is that we have never seen or known a place where death doesn’t rule. Our gardens are fertilised with the decayed remains of flowers and leaves. We eat slaughtered animals and dead fish. We know that we are all going to die. In spite of this, we reproduce children with death written into their genes. We look around us at creation and we have never seen it death-free. In fact death is so familiar to us that it has become a normal part of daily living.

Jesus Himself recognised that mankind was subject to dying and death. He referred to this obliquely in John’s Gospel. ²⁴ I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives. ²⁵ Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. John 12:24-25 NLT Since He is the author of creation, I’ve no doubt these words were spoken with great sadness in His heart. Reading His words we get the feeling that He is saying, “This is what My creation has come to!” Like a man looking at the remains of his home after being struck by a tornado, the difference between what it had been and what it had become would be sufficient to drive Him to tears. Thankfully there was an “upside”. He knew what His future death upon the cross would achieve. He also knew the “fullness” of what it would be. His followers can only accept by faith what the resurrection will mean.

We are told that medically, there is no reason why we should die. Our bodies should be capable of living indefinitely. Our cells should be able to continue functioning ad infinitum. They don’t! It seems there is something in our genes which triggers a self destruction process. After a certain interval, the cells are contaminated. This guarantees our eventual death. We think it is a purely medical certainty. But that’s not the complete story. The body is contaminated by sin. To defeat it we need a miracle from God. We need new bodies. We need the fullness of the new creation. In and through Jesus Christ we know that it is the heritage of a Christian.

Without arguing about theological interpretations, we can state that the return of Christ will trigger the miracle of our being physically recreated. The actual sequence and process of this keeps Bible students disagreeing with each other in a most unchristian way. Frankly, there is no reason why we shouldn’t simply accept the fact that it will happen. It will take place according to His agenda. Our theological opinions are all irrelevant. In fact I’m rather looking forward to fellowshipping with those who disagree with my views completely. It will be wonderful to be able to embrace each other in His presence and forget about the things that have divided us. We will probably laugh with each other and rejoice in His love. I can hardly wait. Even so, Come Lord Jesus!

Today’s meditation looks takes a look at death and concludes with our celebrating Jesus Christ and the death of death.

Blessings

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

The Death of death

There’s something very tragic in the fact that we will die. Eternity is in us. So why should death apply? Knowledge deep within us, revolts against this fact. There’s nothing about dying that could possibly attract, Anyone to long for it. It’s never been our goal! It seems to contradict the things which seek to make us whole. It can’t be made appealing. It’s horribly rude! It seems to come upon us at any interlude. No matter what we’re doing, it strikes us down at will. It always interrupts us when the time has come to kill. We struggle to postpone it. But it won’t stay away. And when it comes to call for us, we cannot tell it nay! There in Ecclesiastes, we read the human heart, Is something rather beautiful. Death couldn’t ever start, Unless it had permission to interfere in life. Satan brought in sin and death, through Adam and his wife. They swallowed the forbidden fruit and so the deal was done. The only way to fix it, was for God to send His Son, To capture death and swallow it; then sin could reign no more. So Jesus Christ our Saviour came and neutralised that score. No longer are we victims; We’re never going to die. The instant that we “pass away”; we’ll be with Christ on high. Our bodies may not function. Besides, they’re getting old. And we will get a new one! That’s what God’s Word’s foretold! We know we’ll be with Jesus while our new one’s being made. It has some better features we are told will never fade. We know it will be timeless and always at its best. It will not wilt or perish and forever will be blessed. We’ll walk upon the water and we will never sink. We never will grow weary; our one and only drink, Will be His living water; We’ll dine on Heaven’s bread. And know that for eternity to Jesus we’ll be wed. I know it sounds fantastic; but there is so much more.

We’ll gaze upon the Holy One; we’ll worship and adore, The One Who made it possible. We’ll be with God Most High, Living in a home were death itself has had to die. A recreated paradise that Jesus Christ designed. That’s the place God’s Holy Word has promised we will find! Jim Strickland – Written 16th February 2012