Time with Jesus - Saturday, 29 September 2012
Hi all,
Today’s meditation is about “Like Father, Like Son”.
Jesus said to Philip. 9 "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 14:9 NLT In this instance, not so much a
photograph as in character.
Blessings,
Jim
& Phyllida Strickland
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – Saturday, 29 September 2012
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
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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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INTRODUCTION
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DAILY
LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES
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LIKE
FATHER LIKE SON
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Dad met Mom in Hull, Yorkshire in 1938. She was his
first and only girlfriend. They married the day after Mom’s 21st
birthday in 1940. I arrived two years later. Mom died in 2001 so their
marriage had lasted 61 years. Dad passed away 8 months before his 90th
birthday in 2007.
Life in England was very different in 1940. Many
thought the UK was finished. They expected an invasion by Germany.
Mercifully, it didn’t happen. There were no TV services in UK in those days.
All they had was dance halls, the theatre and the movies; mostly black and
white silent movies. Radio had started and was used to help keep up the
morale of the people. Programs like ITMA, Flanagan and Allen, Jimmy Edwards
and Dick Bentley, George Formby, Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn along with the
sounds of the big dance bands like Glen Miller, Billy Cotton and numerous
others, helped the people in the UK endure the Blitz. All able-bodied men
were called up. Only the few men who were in reserved occupations were not
conscripted. Even the women were called up. They were used to keep up wartime
production. This included Dad’s two elder sisters. Suddenly women were
required to do work that previously was reserved for men only.
Dad was not conscripted. He spent most of the war
repairing and overhauling equipment in power stations and factories damaged
by bombing. Very often he was only in one place for a few days or perhaps a
week. He told me that the company didn’t want to give him a week off to get
married. They did in the end, so Mom and Dad had one week for their
honeymoon. All this was marvellous experience for a young man who had just
completed his apprenticeship. This was the foundation for his remarkable
engineering skills.
In September 1960, I started as an apprentice in the
same company my Dad worked for. I must confess that I was not a patch on him.
But there was a major difference. In the following month I committed my life
to Jesus Christ in the Methodist Church. I went there because I noticed that
all the pretty girls went there. For a young man of 18, nothing is more
important than pretty girls. In spite of my questionable motives, He “saved”
me. At times I think this was His way of getting me “saved”. Almost
immediately I wanted to be a Methodist Minister. Dad in his wisdom said “No.
You must first finish your engineering training!” He was so right. One of the
problems was other peoples’ expectations. They thought I would be as good an
engineer as he was. Anyway, I stuck it out and when it was time for me make a
decision to go into the ministry, I was comfortable doing what I was doing.
Furthermore, as I grew older the more like my dad I became in appearance.
People would say, “If you’ve seen Jim you have seen Ernie. (dad) It remained
that way up to the day he died. I tried to be like him. I just didn’t have
his skill!
Now, much to my amazement, young men have said they
would like to be like me. So I tell them to follow me as I follow Jesus. It’s
rather difficult for me to think that I’m now standing in dad’s shoes. Not in
engineering, but in Christian service. I suppose to some extent it’s understandable.
Sadly, unlike my dad in engineering, I have feet of clay. Hopefully Phyllida
and I will stand long enough to let the Light of Jesus shine out of us
clearly and visibly. Only time will tell.
Jim &
Phyllida Strickland
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19 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can
do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
John 5:19 ESV
6 The LORD gives wisdom. From his mouth
come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:6 GW
15 For I will give you
words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist
or contradict.
Luke 21:15
TNIV
14 Wait for the LORD; be
strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Psalms
27:14 ESV
9 But he said to me, "My
grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak."
So I am very happy to brag about how weak I am. Then Christ's power can rest
on me.
2
Corinthians 12:9 NIrV
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of
James, To those who are called, beloved in God
the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Jude 1:1
ESV
11 For He who sanctifies
and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not
ashamed to call them brothers,
Hebrews
2:11 ESV
24 Can anyone hide from Me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?"
says the LORD.
Jeremiah
23:24 NLT
23 The church is Christ's body. It is filled by Christ. He fills everything in every way.
Ephesians
1:23 NIrV
11 I, yes I, am the LORD,
and there is no other Saviour.
Isaiah
43:11 NLT
42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe
just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know
that this man really is the Saviour of the
world."
John 4:42
TNIV
4 I am writing to Titus, my true son in the faith
that we share. May God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Saviour give you grace and peace.
Titus 1:4
NLT
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I loved my father very much. He was a
special man.
He always seemed to do things, far
better than I can.
His hands, once rough through working,
appeared to have a skill,
Which I would love to emulate, but
think I never will.
In engineering he was good. He worked
throughout the war,
Mending broken turbines, that England
needed for,
Producing electricity, for armament
and tanks;
To help with the war effort and to
support the Yanks.
They didn’t supervise him. They left
him on his own,
Because his problem-solving was best
done all alone!
He was my boyhood hero and later, as I
grew,
I found I was more like him than
anyone I knew.
They’d look at me and father. He looked
so like his son!
They thought we were twin brothers; I
thought that it was fun.
The people said to “see me” was also
seeing him.
Though twenty five years older some
thought he was my twin!
The thing that I was missing was his
ability.
His touch for engineering and his
dexterity,
Was something I could emulate, but
never quite succeed.
And though I am well qualified, his
life I’d never lead.
I tried to only ever do, the things
which he had said.
I tried to do them his way, so I could
get ahead.
If this could have continued, I’m sure
I could have been,
A somewhat better engineer than what
my peers have seen!
He passed away five years ago. His age
was eighty nine.
And everything that he possessed; each
little bit is mine.
But it is not a substitute for walking
with my Dad,
The way that I have tried to do since
I was just a lad.
But now there is a problem which came
as quite a shock.
I know in engineering, he surely was
my rock.
But now the strangest thing I’ve found
is happening to me.
I’ve found there are some menfolk,
who’ve said they want to be,
Touched by what I’ve learned about,
upon life’s busy road.
I didn’t think they’d see it; but
somehow I have sowed,
A life in Christianity these people
have admired!
A life that every one of them has said
they have desired.
This makes me very frightened; for
Jesus Christ has done,
A sovereign work within me, as an
adopted son.
We have the self-same Father. But when
men look to me,
It isn’t the Lord Jesus whom all these
people see.
So I have told them follow me as I
follow the Lord.
He is the one to emulate and ought to
be adored.
So life has gone full circle and I
will soon be gone
And in the strength of Christ alone,
they all must carry on.
Jim Strickland –
Written 29th September 2012
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