JIMERICKS DARKNESS OR LIGHT

Time with Jesus - 11 Dec 2013

Hi all,

Today’s meditation is an attempt, on my behalf, to present seven of the daily Scriptures in Limerick form. Basically they are two eight “beat” couplets. There is a slight difference. The first and second line rhyme, along with the fourth and fifth lines; In addition, the third line rhymes with the sixth. 

It’s an interesting method of composing poems. Since they do not follow the exact pattern of a Limerick, I’ve called them Jimericks. When experts in the English language tell me there is no such thing, the only comment I can make is, “Well there is now”.

Writing the sort of poems I write is fun. I’m not trying to be a Shakespeare, a Milton or a Wordsworth. I never will be. Their language and style of writing is different from mine. Their works are “classics”. Good English with masterly style and grace. That’s not me. I’d like to be in their league. I’m not. If Jesus tarries, 100 years from now, their writing will still be known.

That’s the beauty of writing poetry. It may easily be forgotten. However, the author has had the satisfaction of stringing the words together in a simple way trying to convey a very simple message.

In this regard, Phyllida and I have given considerable thought as to how long to continue with what we are presently doing. We’ve concluded that from 1^st January 2014, we will be taking time off to establish the next step.

What is happening at the moment? I’m compiling an anthology of what I’ve written. It’s being published and will come out next year as an e-book, probably toward the middle of the year. There may be one or two books in paper-back which could be made available for sale to those who are interested. 

I’m not sure what the cost will be. However the book will have ±500 X A5 pages. (250 X A5 sheets printed on both sides.) The book is a daily devotional. It will have a Scripture reference, followed by a poem, similar in style to those published by a number of well-known writers. The difference is mine will be mostly verse and rhyme.

January will be our Sabbatical and we are both looking forward to it. Not that we plan on going anywhere. As an old “comic” said, “We are going to Romania and do the garden route”. i.e. We will remain here; go out the front door, round the garden and back in again. No external costs. No hotel bills. No petrol to buy. It should be great fun. 

We will also spend time with the Lord establishing what He wants us to do next. Christians seldom retire; they usually re-tyre!

 We would love to pay another trip to Israel next year. Loving Jesus Christ has given us a love for the Jewish people and their land and we feel we must return to drink in the places where Jesus walked ±2000 years ago.

Shalom

Jim & Phyllida Strickland 

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Wednesday, 11 December 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	JIMERICKS DARKNESS OR LIGHT
As this introduction is being written, I’m vividly reminded of the story of the genie in the bottle. Not the “Open Sesame” variety. It must have been his little brother. The story goes that one of our great golf lovers had a question he would like to ask someone who could answer. He wanted to know if there were golf courses in heaven. With this thought in mind he found a magic bottle. He opened it and a huge genie appeared. “I’m a different sort of genie” it said. “I only answer questions and always tell the good news and the bad news.” “You are just the genie I need to talk to”, said the man. “I have a question to ask you.” “Fire away” replied the genie. “Remember I will tell you the good news and the bad news.” “Fine. Tell me are there golf courses in heaven” the man asked. “Do you really want to know?” asked the genie somewhat perplexed. “Yes!” replied the man. “The good news is that there are definitely golf courses in heaven! The bad news is you tee-off at 01h23 tomorrow morning! I’ve mentioned this story because of the similarity it has with Christian life. We don’t have a genie living in a bottle. We have the Son of The Living God in our heart! He is always available, so we don’t have to coax Him out. In one respect, Jesus and the genie are similar. Jesus will always only tell you the truth. It could be good news or bad news. He will tell it, as it is! This is very important for all of us. If you are feeling smug and comfortable in your Christian walk, here’s a question to ask Him. Ask only if you really want to know. The question is, “Lord is there anything in my life You want me to change?” I must confess that I’ve never had the courage to ask this question. I’m not sure I’d be able to cope with His answer. Incidentally for the perfectionists among us, I must confess that today I’ve missed out one Scripture and the associated poetry. There was no way I could include them in the space available. There’s a beautiful theme running behind today’s Scriptures. Jesus’ love for His bride and His bride’s love for Him. This is a love that is more than anything we have experienced or can experience in this dimension. It is a supernatural love. On our behalf it stems from our realisation of the lengths God went to, in order to re-establish a relationship with us. When I think of the way I was when He went looking for me, I get carried away with the wonder of it all. What I mean is I have no problem loving and being loved by people I like. Also, those who have the same attitude toward me. That’s easy. But to think that infinite love and perfection would even consider bothering with me. That, I do not and probably never will understand! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			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 6:11 NLT	Darkness or Light”? You were made right, By the glory that comes from the Lord. You called out His Name, And Jesus Christ came. Now He is loved and adored!		His blood washed you clean, From all you have been. His righteousness shines in your eyes! Satan’s retreated, Because he’s defeated, And you have expunged all his lies.
			7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 NLT	Follow His ways, For the rest of your days, In fellowship with one another. If you do this, You never will miss, The wonder of knowing your brother.		His blood is the glue, In all that you do. Keeping brother and sister in place. His blood disinfects, Our dreadful defects; And lets us look into His face!
			5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 ESV	He was wounded for me. When He died on the tree. My sins and transgressions are gone. He felt Himself crushed, As his flowing blood gushed. From Him who had done nothing wrong!		His body was stripped, And brutally whipped. A flogging that brought us all peace. And it is revealed, By these stripes we are healed, And all of our sicknesses ceased!
			25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV	Men; lay down your lives. Love your wonderful wives. By His word wash her thoroughly clean. Without any spot; Wrinkled are not; She is your glorious queen! With a soft velvet glove, Place all of your love, On the woman you chose to make yours.		Give her your all. Make her feel ten feet tall! And you’ll be the man she adores. She’ll always be “cute”, If the holiness route, Is the way she is constantly led. Do this every day. She’ll submit and obey, And continually make you her head!
			8 She has been given the privilege of wearing dazzling, pure linen." This fine linen represents the things that God's holy people do that have his approval. Revelation 19:8 GW	It’s a glorious sight. His Bride is in white. As pure and as white as the snow. No spot or defect, Can onlookers detect. She’ll follow wherever He goes.		The linen she wears, Are the hopes and the prayers, And deeds that God’s people have done. They’ve been prepared, For a life that is shared, As the Bride of God’s wonderful Son!
			22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22 ESV	With a heart sprinkled clean, From all we have been, And a conscience that’s been purified. There’s nothing to fear, As we seek to draw near. No reason for wanting to hide!		With faith in our heart, We need not stay apart. Come; let us draw near to our God! His Son’s made the way, So let’s enter today. The Master has given His “nod”!
			A Maskil of David. 1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Psalms 32:1-2 ESV	Blessed is the one, Whose transgressions are gone. Since Jesus Christ suffered and died. They feel they’re in clover, Their Sin’s covered over. From God, they no longer need hide.		Iniquity’s ended, Christ Jesus has mended, The bridge between heaven and man! Deceit doesn’t stay, In our spirit’s today. There’s no other way that it can!
				Jim Strickland Written 11th December 2012

WAIT ON THE LORD

Time with Jesus -10 Dec 2013

Hi all,

Alert Einstein was right. Time is relative and often depends on our relatives. Old people will not be hurried. Some of them freely admit that they would like to “hurry up”, but time has a habit of making a mockery of earlier abilities. In other words, top speed for pensioners is ±slow motion to those under 40.

If we think about this for a moment we conclude that this is normal. Time is relative to our individual thinking. As a child, waiting from Monday to Saturday, was interminable. Although time passed at the same “rate” we tend to measure it subjectively. 

When we were 4 years old, we had been alive for ±1460days. So 5 days represents 3.4% of your life. But at 40 years of age (±14600days), 5 days represents 0.034% of your life. It’s not rocket science to realise that the same time interval, although exactly the same in terms of hours, minutes and seconds, (HMS) seems to grow “shorter” as we get older.

Why is this important? It accounts for many of the mistakes we make as young men or women. When we are in our late teens and fall “passionately in love with someone”, parents usually suggest, “You’ll get over it in a week or two!” True enough in terms of HMS. But two weeks to a teenager seems a lifetime. It did for me anyway. 

I remember going to boarding school at the beginning of a new term. I remember calculating the number of days before going home again. Typically it would be ±80 days. Then it was a question of counting off the days. At first it was done with enthusiasm. Then, as the days went by, school life became great fun and “time” mattered less and less.

In the mid 1960’s, I came across Peter’s comment on time relativity. 

He wrote ⁸ But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. ⁹ The Lord isn't really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 2 Peter 3:8-9 NLT

What bothered me was that along with His other “qualities”, God is omniscient. If so, how can He see “a thousand years is like a day”? It contradicted all my engineering studies. It was a real “canackler”. How could such a statement be true? As an added complication, I believed (and still do) in the inerrancy of Scripture. So how could God see a day like a thousand years? 

That’s when I started to think back on those seemingly interminable days between the holidays in boarding school and my “time jottings”. Then it dawned on me. 1 day of our time, to God in infinity; and a thousand years of our time, to God in infinity/ was the same. 1/∞ is ± the same as 365 X 1000 /∞ In other words, Peter was a pretty good mathematician, although he probably didn’t know it.

Another way to look at it, is to think about Jesus’ ascension into heaven. It took place on a Thursday. Since then approximately 2000 years have passed. According to God’s “clock” that is ±2 days. So in terms of God’s timing, we are now somewhere in the middle of Saturday. i.e. Jesus hasn’t been away for the weekend yet! We are somewhere in the Divine Sabbath. “Tomorrow is “The Lord’s Day” (Sunday). Presumably we can expect Him to return on the third day. i.e. on Sunday. (The Lord’s Day) According to this mathematics, we can expect Him at any instant.

In this sense, we are waiting for the Lord. However, we are encouraged to wait on the Lord. What’s the difference? It’s considerable. If we are waiting for Him, we could be anywhere at any time on any day. He is expected. We just don’t know when. Next week; next month; next year; we simply don’t know when it will be. Many people have tried to predict exactly when He will return. 

It seems their predictions are no better than my mathematics. Jesus pointed this out as follows: ³⁵ "Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. ³⁷ Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. ⁴⁰ You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Luke 12:35-36 & 40 ESV

But the instruction to “wait on the Lord” is not exactly the same thing. It goes beyond awaiting His arrival. It implies being actively involved serving Him. The Psalmist states: ¹⁴ Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Psalm 27:14 KJV John Gill comments on this Scripture as follows: - It is good to wait upon the Lord; many are the favours and blessings such receive now, and eye has not seen what God has prepared for them that wait for him.

Christianity is not intended to be a time of idly standing by, looking at others and waiting for Jesus to return. Paul’s first letter to Timothy, from the beginning of chapter 4 to about the middle of chapter 6, gives us his comments on living a Godly life. Even a superficial reading gives a clear idea of correct and proper behaviour.

During Bible days, Paul came across believers in Thessalonica who expected Jesus to return at any moment. They were not wrong in believing that to be the case. What was wrong was for them to “sit around” waiting for it to happen! Paul corrected this perception and told them to get to back to work. 

If Paul wandered round Christianity in the Western World today, he would see much the same. No doubt he would deal with it the way he did all those years ago. More important, Jesus would react in much the same way.

Shalom

Jim & Phyllida Strickland 

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Tuesday, 10 December 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	WAIT ON THE LORD
Do you remember asking the question when you were little, “How many more sleeps ‘til Christmas”? How about when your children asked the same question? Do you remember counting down the days? Later in life it became something like, “How many days until the end of term?” or “How many days until the wedding?” I remember that so well? As a 14 year old, I travelled from Port Elizabeth to Vereeniging on the train. The train left PE at about 19h00. The train journey was fun. We were up and messing round for all the next day and arrived in Vereeniging Station at about 04H30 the following day. The journey seemed to take an eternity. But the SAR food was wonderful. The stewards would serve meals in the Dining Car. They had learned the art of swaying with the motion of the train and very seldom was anything spilled or broken. I’ll never forget the cutlery. Big heavy knives, forks and spoons stamped SAR. The cups, saucers and plates had a similar identifying pattern. I particularly remember the small coffee cups. You don’t see this size all that often these days. I remember an unsuccessful effort to get the entire cup into my mouth. I was never successful. I wonder what the other passengers thought about these schoolboys and their pranks? Waiting for things back then didn’t seem to be half as difficult for us as it does now. We know that the perception of the passing of time is relative. As someone pointed out many years ago, ten seconds sitting on the hot plate seems much longer than ten minutes spent talking with a pretty girl. But time definitely has a relative concept. As a schoolboy, a month seemed like a lifetime. For Phyllida and me, the years slip by at breakneck speed and seem to fly past more quickly with each successive year. It’s a bit like the old song from Fiddler on the Roof, Sunrise, sunset / Sunrise, sunset / Swiftly fly the years - One season following another / Laden with happiness and tears. These lyrics were sung by the women with a poignancy we can almost feel. And why not? Our life here is so short. As the Psalmist, probably David, wrote, 11 My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows. I am withering away like grass. Psalm 102:11 NLT One “sneeze” in eternity and we are gone. But not the Lord. He is timeless, infinite and changeless. He can “afford” to wait. He is never in a hurry. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is at the beginning and the end. Both instants are the same for Him. Peter tells us, 8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 2 Peter 3:8 NLT The point is, He will act when everything is ready; in His own good “time”. We have no other choice but to wait for Him. Waiting gives us an opportunity to exercise patience. Grab it now! Jim & Phyllida Strickland			1 "On my bed night after night I sought him Whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him. Song of Solomon 3:1 NASB	Waiting for the Master. I wonder what it means. Is it lying on the bed and pondering our dreams? Is it like a lover, longing for her mate, Thinking of the glory they had on their last date? Is it like a traveller, waiting for the train, Hoping that it’s punctual and isn’t late again? Is it like an athlete when the training’s done. “On your marks, Get ready. Where is that starter’s gun?” Is it like a woman waiting to give birth, But that nine month interval’s the longest time on earth. Is it like a family whose men folk went to war, Fearing for they safety. Will they come home once more? Is it like a faithful pet at his master’s tomb? Hoping that he’ll see him. Will he be coming soon? Is it like a mother sitting by the bed Of her infant daughter. Her face all stained and red Is it going to happen? “Lord, let her survive. Lord I will do anything to take her home alive!” Is it like a murderer in the condemned cell. Thinking in an hour or two he’ll be consigned to hell? Yes, it could be all of them. It also could be none. It could be the certainty that when the time is done Jesus will embrace them and they will hear Him say “My good and faithful servant, you’re here with Me to stay!” All of us have been there in a scenario. Muttering and grumbling, “The time is going slow”. “When is He arriving? It’s getting very late. I would have done the washing if I’d known I’d have to wait!” We all have a problem understanding time. We talk of punctuality. But Jesus Christ Divine Is not in our dimension the way we understand. There’s no “time” in eternity. So anything we’ve planned May not be in the sequence which we anticipated. The last is first. The first is last, This cannot be equated With Father God’s priority. And He will only act When all of His requirements are an established fact. So if we’re sitting waiting and champing at the bit. A little word from Jesus. “I think it’s time you quit!” Jim Strickland Written 10th December 2012
			1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for your sins have brought you down. 2 Bring your confessions, and return to the LORD. Say to Him, "Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer You our praises. Hosea 14:1-2 NLT
			13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, "God is tempting me." God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. 16 So don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. James 1:13-17 NLT
			14 Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD. Psalms 27:14 NLT
			26 It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:26 TNIV
			7 Won't God give his chosen people justice when they cry out to him for help day and night? Is he slow to help them? Luke 18:7 GW
			For the choir director; according to Jeduthun; a psalm by David. 1 My soul waits calmly for God alone. My salvation comes from him. 2 He alone is my rock and my saviour-my stronghold. I cannot be severely shaken. 3 How long will all of you attack a person? How long will you try to murder him, as though he were a leaning wall or a sagging fence? 4 They plan to force him out of his high position. They are happy to lie. They bless with their mouths, but in their hearts they curse. Selah 5 Wait calmly for God alone, my soul, because my hope comes from him. Psalms 62:1-5 GW