WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE

Time with Jesus - Friday, 11 January 2013

Hi all,

In today’s meditation we reflect on what the Lord has done. Most of us have seen Him active in the lives of other people. Our problem is what happens when He is active in our own lives? How do we react? Many of us regard it as something like winning the Lotto. “That only happens to other people!” But when you find that He has been busy in your own life, it’s a different kettle of fish! It may be unbelievable!

Blessings,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Friday, 11 January 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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INTRODUCTION			DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE
As a nine year old schoolboy at Kingswood College in Grahamstown, we would sing hymns from the Methodist Hymnbook. This happened every Wednesday after supper and before bed time. One of those Hymns still “lives in my soul!’ The words were: - In loving kindness Jesus came / My soul in mercy to reclaim, / And from the depths of sin and shame / Through grace He lifted me. CHORUS From sinking sand He lifted me / With tender hand He lifted me / From shades of night to plains of light / O Praise His name He lifted me! (Hymn 336) Charles Homer Gabriel 1856 - 1932 As a 9 year old I had no idea what I was singing about. Somehow those words just seemed to be right. I don’t know if I believed what I was singing. After all, that was 61 years ago. What I do know is that they stirred up something in me that I can never forget. I wish I had understood them and had done something about them. How was I to know that the Spirit of the Lord was drawing me to Him? Who do you talk to about something like this? Most children at that age don’t talk about God. There were other things to discuss. Top of the list was Vic Towel and his fight with Jimmy Caruthers. Then there was cricket, rugby and the latest edition for our favourite comic. On Sunday mornings we were allowed to walk to the Anglican Church for the morning service. But we had to dash back to school or we would be late. Our teacher was a lady so I couldn’t talk to her. There were prefects and other teachers. But you didn’t talk about God with men in such “lofty positions”. So it was pushed down into the sub-conscience and left until I’d grown up. There is no doubt in my mind now that the Lord was calling me into something. Back then it seemed beyond the realms of possibility. I always did well in Scripture and was very excited some 6 years later while at Marist Brothers in Walmer. We were allowed to attend confirmation classes. Of course, part of the excitement was being out of the school grounds legally for a couple of hours. After I’d been confirmed there was a sense of newness in me. But I couldn’t possibly be called by the Lord. There were no tingling sensations, No hand writing on the wall, No special letters. No burning bushes. No angels with messages. No heavenly voices. Nothing to suggest I was called. In any case, I didn’t fancy the idea of going to China or India or elsewhere for that matter. Everything was so ordinary. At the thought of going into ministry I would have freaked out. Yet all this time the Lord had been preparing me. In 1960 after ruining my life in South Africa I ended up in UK. There I came face to face with Jesus and wanted to go into the Methodist Ministry. It didn’t happen. In 1981, 30 years after singing “Sinking Sands” God opened the door. He has kept Phyllida and me ever since. Jim & Phyllida Strickland			Of David. 1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Psalm 103:1-5 ESV 33 The LORD who rules over all says, "The people of Israel are being treated badly. So are the people of Judah. Those who have captured them are holding them. They refuse to let them go. 34 But I am strong and will save them. My name is The LORD Who Rules Over All. I will stand up for them. I will bring peace and rest to their land. But I will bring trouble to those who live in Babylonia. Jer 50:33-34 NIrV 14 "I want to free them from the power of the grave. I want to reclaim them from death. Death, I want to be a plague to you. Grave, I want to destroy you. I won't even think of changing my plans." Hosea 13:14 GW 14 Because God's children are human beings--made of flesh and blood--the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could He set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. Heb 2:14-15 NLT 36 That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that." John 3:36 MSG 3 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators - is with Christ in God. He is your life. 4 When Christ, your real life, shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too - the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. Col 3:3-4 MSG	Let’s reflect a little on what the Lord has done. Go into our memory to where we’d first begun. It gets a little scratchy. Perhaps it is unclear? Ask the Lord to show us what happened yesteryear. I haven’t any memories before the age of five. Except brief mental images that somehow do not jive. A funny looking building where once a church had been. Thick and heavy curtains which were not very clean. A very special tearoom with chairs like Micky Mouse. A great big heap of rubble where once had stood a house.  A journey on a mail boat, with just a glimpse or two, Of stairs and great big dormitories and the unending view, Of miles and miles of ocean, which never seemed to end. And of two loving parents on whom I could depend. I think that they were memories, but there are very few. Enough for me to thank the Lord, for all that He did do. Enough for me to praise Him and bless His Holy name,      Psalm 103:1-5 For bringing us to Africa. Life wouldn’t be the same, As it had been in England. It looked like fairy land. With pretty lights and beaches, with miles of golden sand! The memories get clearer in nineteen forty nine. We’d settled down in Durban and I was doing fine. The goodness of the Master was spotted all around. This land is so amazing, is truly what we found. We’d been released from bondage; the rule of God was near. Jer. 50:33-34 And we were very grateful; He’d brought us over here. The country we had left behind was in a dreadful state. The cost of reconstruction was like a ten ton weight. That great big conflagration, meant death was like the plague. Hos. 13:14 God had brought the victory; we couldn’t just renege! Christ Himself had “taken part”; the Axis power destroyed. Heb. 2:14-15 The Nazi’s looked invincible, but they were null and void. We had trusted Jesus! He had not let us down.                      John 3:36 The praying women of the land, deserved the victor’s crown! Thank God all that is over. A brand new life is ours. And where the rubble once had been, is just a sea of flowers. The old life was behind us. A new life stood before.                Col 3:3-4 Here at the foot of Africa. Lord, banish every war! Jim Strickland Written 11 January 2013