Time with Jesus - Saturday, 15 December 2012
Hi all,
When I was little my mother had a dream for my future.
She wanted me to be a Chartered Accountant. It sounded good. But to this day I
have an “addition” problem. I get the numbers switched round so that 67 looks
like 76. Engineers cope with this sort of problem with adding machines, log
tables, abacuses, slide rules, pocket calculators, fingers and toes. There is
one thing I do remember from my brief excursion into bookkeeping. It was the
delightful expression E&OE, meaning “errors and omissions excepted”. Armed with those four letters I may have made it as a
Charted Accountant. Can you imagine a detailed financial audit with those 4
letters included? Incidentally, our balance sheet with Satan is liberally
sprinkled with these four letters on every page. Accuracy is irrelevant. One
sin and you’re in!
Blessings,
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – Saturday, 15 December 2012
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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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THE
BUILDER
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Solomon
ben David has been called the wisest man who ever lived. If we exclude Jesus
from the list, this may well be the case. Certainly some of the decisions he
made and revealed to us in the Bible could qualify him to be on the list. But
when it comes to women, he must be at the opposite extreme. We are told, 3
He had seven hundred
wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines,
and his wives led him astray.1 Kings 11:3
TNIV I find that a bit difficult to equate with wisdom. Nevertheless,
he impressed the Queen of Sheba greatly, although her reasons may not have
been entirely “kosher”.
Solomon
is supposedly the author of Ecclesiastes as well as the major contributor to
the Book of Proverbs and one or two of the Psalms. A verse in Ecclesiastes
that comes to mind is, 11 He has made
everything beautiful in its time. He has
also set eternity in the human heart; yet
no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Eccl. 3:11 TNIV
This
issue of having eternity in our hearts speaks directly to you and me. Somehow
we know instinctively, that we were not originally created to die. We were
made for eternity. Think for a moment of a baby being born and growing. That
infant should go on and on indefinitely. It doesn’t happen because of some
“death factor” written into us. It shouldn’t be there. We were not made for
it to be there. This heinous killer is on the rampage and will get each and
every one of us. We can’t duck, dodge or avoid it. It will get us all sooner
or later. This killer is worse than any virus or bacteria we have known. It
has no pity, no sympathy and is always terminal. It’s called sin! We are all
born with it within us. Humanly there is no way for us to deal with it. Only
one sin in a lifetime is sufficient for it to ravage us. Babies are probably
born with it latent within them. Very early in the child’s development the
sin factor is energised by some small seemingly insignificant action. But
that’s all it takes for this sickness to take control. It’s not in a hurry.
It knows very well that in the end it will deal with the individual. It is inherited
from fathers and mothers. No one is immune. We are all condemned. Our
situation is hopeless. We need a cure. The cure requires a miracle from God!
The
problem is “The Wages of Sin is Death!” It’s not a slogan, its fact. Sin
demands death. Someone’s death. To be correct, if I sin, my wages are
compulsory. We all deserve payment! There are no special discounts. But if
someone is found Who is worth more than all humanity, if He dies for us, the
cost is covered. God’s Son is worth more than all of us. So His death for sin
covers the full cost. No E&OE! It’s done!
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
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10 For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us
anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long
ago.
Ephesians 2:10 NLT
17 At the king's command, they quarried large blocks of
high-quality stone and shaped them to make the foundation of the Temple.
1 Kings 5:17 NLT
7 The stones used in the construction of the Temple were
finished at the quarry, so there was no sound of hammer, axe, or any other
iron tool at the building site.
1 Kings 6:7 NLT
5 And you are living stones that God is building into His
spiritual temple. What's more, you are His holy priests. Through the
mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.
1 Peter 2:5 NLT
20
Together, we are His house, built on the
foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ
Jesus Himself. 21 We are
carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
22 Through Him you Gentiles are also being made
part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit.
Ephesians 2:20-22 NLT
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's
people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received
mercy.
1 Peter 2:10 ESV
9 For
we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field,
God's building.
1 Corinthians 3:9 ESV
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who
has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 5:5 ESV
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Jesus is a builder of a very different kind.
He builds things out of nothing; which sort of blows my mind.
I’ve always needed mortar, bricks and sand and stone.
I also need an architect, or folk will surely moan,
And say that it looks ugly. It’s beautiful to me.
But they have a perspective that I will never see.
All that Jesus ever builds is absolute perfection.
Everything He touches, from the instant of conception,
Everyone a masterpiece. Not one of them is flawed.
I think that is a reason why He’s worshipped and adored.
Each one an original and thoroughly unique.
To walk, to sit and contemplate, to hear, to look, to speak.
I know I cannot do that but if I cooperate,
A new one is created, courtesy my mate!
But neither of us did it. He fashioned in the womb,
A masterpiece of DNA who’d be a bride or groom.
We look at man-made marvels. Of course they look OK.
But none of them are “living” and in this world today.
We like to fashion buildings. We like to watch them grow.
They keep on getting taller. As tall as man can go.
And when they are completed, they reach into the sky,
We look and we admire them. But they’ll collapse and die.
They’ll quickly be outdated; and in a hundred years,
They’ll be reduced to rubble and quickly disappear.
The pyramids of Egypt, the Parthenon, the Sphinx.
Will someday be a pile of sand – much sooner than man thinks.
The Temple of King Solomon assembled with great care.
It’s pointless looking for it. It is no longer there!
We know Nebuchadnezzar, had the place destroyed.
Other temples have been built but Solomon’s is void.
All our human effort is just a Babel tower.
Only that which Jesus builds, won’t have a final hour.
And Jesus Christ is building a temple made of men;
And women out of people, who have been born again;
Of folk from every nation, who worship and adore,
The author of Salvation; Who lives forevermore.
His precious new creation, whose purpose is to be,
Anything which He desires, for all eternity.
Jim Strickland
Written
15th December
2012
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