THE JUBILEE

Time with Jesus - Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Hi all,

In computer technology, as far as I am aware, there are only two types of memory. These are the RAM and the ROM. i.e. random access memory and read only memory. What the difference is between them, I don’t know. My guess is that it has something to do with being able to communicate with the memory. If I that’s true, then I need to advise you of a third and more significant type of memory. It’s the CAM – the “can’t access memory”; or better described as a “forgettery”. Mine is in excellent condition.

On one or two occasions ,I’ve tried to “trawl” back through the years, to find what I’m seeking to recall; usually without success. Fortunately, computer “Geeks” have “come up” with a useful gadget for dummies. It’s called “Google”. Type in a few words and low and behold, there is more information than a RAM and a ROM can handle together.

To come to the point; this morning, as I was looking for a dim memory, about money being the root of all evil, I discovered where this particular expression came from. It was a wartime song by the Andrews sisters. And went:-

Money is the root of all evil. X 2. Won’t contaminate myself with it. Take it away X 3

Now, we all know that the secular world produces lyrics which look or sound Biblical.  In fact they are not. After all, what does it matter, as long as it makes money? But for the record, Scripture states, ¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. 1Tim 6:10 NLT

What has this got to do with the year of Jubilee? The common factor is money. God had a perfect plan for dealing with inflation. Every 50 years, all debts were cancelled and all properties were returned to the original owner. In addition, all Hebrew male or female slaves were allowed to go home without having paid anything further to their former owners. It seems that God’s plan was that everyone in the world would get a chance to start afresh. On the day in question, the trumpet would sound introducing the new way of things. It was Jubilee!

What excites me about this, is that Christians are awaiting the sound of the trumpet. This will announce that the day has come for the second coming of Christ. Then we will get a chance to start afresh in a new world and in a new body. I can hardly wait.

There is also another way to look at things. When you and I were the slaves of Satan, the only way out was for someone to come and buy our freedom. Jesus did exactly that. My day of Jubilee had come. I was set free to serve Jesus as my Lord and Master. For me, that was a huge time of celebration. He made me a new creature in Him. But I’m still stuck in this old ageing body. The only way to change it is for the trumpet to sound. His second coming will be with us. That really will be a time of celebration. A Day of Jubilee!

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland  

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Tuesday, 19 February 2013			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	The Jubilee
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. 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, the year of Jubilee was the year in which God blew all the bells and whistles. He added, 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 its seven year Sabbath, there is even less likelihood, they celebrated Jubilee. It’s also worth noting, 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, 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. In the current international financial crisis, wouldn’t it be great if every nation in the world, was able to scrap former debts and start again? Or would it? Jim & Phyllida Strickland			4 I planned the day of vengeance. The year for my reclaiming you has come. 5 I looked, but there was no help. I was astounded that there was no outside support. So with my own power I won a victory. My anger supported me. 6 In my anger I trampled on people. In my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground." Isaiah 63:4-6 GW 10 Set apart the fiftieth year as holy, and proclaim liberty to everyone living in the land. This is your jubilee year. Every slave will be freed in order to return to his property and to his family. 11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Don't plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land. Lev 25:11-12 GW 19 Your dead will live. Their corpses will rise. Those who lie dead in the dust will wake up and shout for joy, because your dew is a refreshing dew, and the earth will revive the spirits of the dead. Isaiah 26:19 GW 16 For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thess 4:16-17 NLT 14 "Should I ransom them from the grave? Should I redeem them from death? O death, bring on your terrors! O grave, bring on your plagues! For I will not take pity on them. Hosea 13:14 NLT 34 But the One who redeems them is strong. His name is the LORD of Heaven's Armies. He will defend them and give them rest again in Israel. But for the people of Babylon there will be no rest! Jer 50:34 NLT	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 a 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. Alongside 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 19th February 2012

LIBERTY IN JESUS

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Time with Jesus - Monday, 18 February 2013

Hi all,

One of my favourite books of the Bible is Genesis. This book, which many consider to be a myth, is sometimes called the seed-plot of the Bible. Most of what we find therein is found in Genesis in very basic form. Genesis Chapter 1 is sufficient to get theologians and commentators into wonderful and pointless arguments about time, dates, the length of days as well as the size of the universe. The following table expresses the Biblical sequence in very condensed form.

THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF CREATION
Preparation and Separation		Completion and filling
Day 1	Light - heavens & earth – time and space	Day 4	Lights - heavenly bodies - Earth rotates
Day 2	Air & water- Atmospheric conditions regulated	Day 5	Birds & Fish
Day 3	Land & plants established above receding water	Day 6	Animals, Man, Garden of Eden, Woman

Without going into the general details, let’s look at day six of the creation account; in particular at the creation of man. We are told, ²⁷ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Gen 1:27 NASB

I’ve struggled with this verse for some time and have come to a conclusion. I submit to you for consideration. God created Adam with Eve somewhere within him. Please don’t think the Adam was “pregnant” in a way we would recognise today. I understand from this Scripture, God created the male and female “portions” together, both of which were “in” Adam. Thus men and women are equal in the sight of God. From the point of gender, one is not superior to the other. This is vitally important because it indicates the “one” may contain two “parts”. Rather like the Holy Trinity, where there is three persons in One God, God created a “twinity”! Two people in one! Later, God removed the “female” from him and made Eve. Now they were two separate entities. But they were and are still equal in the sight of God. The difference between them was primarily functional. Adam’s responsibilities were to provide and protect Eve and family. Eve’s responsibilities were to nurture and assist. It was not God’s intention that there is a “gender war” between the sexes. Even today in our fallen state, you find that most men want to provide for and protect their wife and children. That’s how men are. Speaking for me, there is something in me that is only satisfied when I am taking care of and protecting my wife. It’s got nothing to do with making theological decisions. It’s the way I’m “wired”; to provide for and protect Phyllida. At the same time there is an incredible drive in most women to have children and nurture her family; it’s the way women are “wired”. It’s part of the heritage of being a man or a woman. It’s the way God made us. In this regard, the one is not superior to the other. But we are different from each other. We are delightfully different or there would be no physical attraction between male and female. We don’t compete, we complete!

In today’s meditation we look at this more deeply.

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland  

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Monday, 18 February 2013			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	liberty in Jesus
The fall of man had a terrible effect on Adam, 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. A careful reading of Gen 3:1-6 NIrV gives me 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 the 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. 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. So why do we? God alone knows! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			3 When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him--in his very image. He named his son Seth. Gen 5:3 NLT 4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one! Job 14:4 NLT 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:5 TNIV 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Eph 2:1-3 ESV 14 We know that the law is holy. But I am not. I have been sold to be a slave of sin. 15 I don't understand what I do. I don't do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate to do. 16 I do what I don't want to do. So I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, I am no longer the one who does these things. It is sin living in me that does them. 18 I know there is nothing good in my sinful nature. I want to do what is good, but I can't. Rom 7:14-18 NIrV 12 Sin entered the world because one man sinned. And death came because of sin. Everyone sinned, so death came to all people. Rom 5:12 NIrV 19 Many people were made sinners because one man did not obey. But one man did obey. That is why many people will be made right with God. Rom 5:19 NIrV 15 But there is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and His gift of forgiveness to many through this other Man, Jesus Christ. Rom 5:15 NLT 2 I am now controlled by the law of the Holy Spirit. That law gives me life because of what Christ Jesus has done. It has set me free from the law of sin that brings death. Rom 8:2 NIrV 57 But let us give thanks to God! He wins the battle for us because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done. 1 Cor 15:57 NIrV	According to the records, Seth was son number three. The first son was a murderer; what a catastrophe! Cain had murdered Abel, because 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 they had something that they shared throughout all their days. A heart inclined to evil and to follow Satan’s ways. It came in at conception; a hankering to 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. And Satan wasn’t willing to ever set us free. He thought he was victorious; that 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 18 February 2012