Jim & Phyllida Wedding 12/12/1081 |
Time with Jesus - Saturday, 27 April 2013
Hi all,
Today’s meditation is a bit
personal. It’s a poem about Phyllida and me getting married. It’s also a
comment on marriage from a historical point of view.
Jim & Phyllida Wedding 12/12/108 |
Some of the customs concerning
the wedding ceremony and which are now symbolic and historic only, are referred
to in the meditation. I’ve been in favour of equality between men and women for
as long as I can remember. One thing can be said in favour of some of the
issues of yesterday’s customs. There was very little by way of contraception
back then. Large families were quite normal. Susanna Wesley had 19 children.
She herself was one of 25 children. It follows that with such large families;
mothers would not have been able to go out to work, even if they wanted to! They
were far too busy working at home.
Wedding Crowd |
This is possibly one of the major reasons
why the role of men and women, fathers and mothers, in society, became very
much stereotyped. Indeed, many of those archaic customs were intended to
protect women. There’s not much a woman could do about anything else. Not if
she spent so many of her child-bearing years being almost continuously
pregnant! God help them.
Phyllida the Bride 12/12/1981 |
All that has passed; a woman is
free to decide, with her husband, the size of their family. Furthermore, with
all the laboursaving home appliances, women can do anything they would like to
do. This has resulted in a bit of an over swing. Today in a number of cases,
the wife has become the bread winner and the husband has become the housewife.
Rightly or wrongly, that’s the way things are today.
Rings with Vows Inscribed |
As a Christian I welcome these
changes. A wife was never intended to be her husband’s servant. Neither is a husband
intended to be his wife’s servant. It’s difficult to enjoy married life
together as a couple, unless both are free to be themselves. I’m glad we are.
Furthermore marriage is intended to be a covenant. The idea is that both of
them imitate Jesus and lay down their lives for each other.
Shalom,
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
Matt
10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – Saturday,
27 April 2013
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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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THY WILL BE DONE
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Weddings and wedding ceremonies are ubiquitous. No
matter the country or custom, men and women marry. It has always been this
way. Marriage is God’s idea. Marriage is under attack at the moment. Many
young people are living together without being married. My wife and I do not
approve. But our approval is irrelevant. People will do what they wish, without
our sanction. What they will say to God about this, is something they must
worry about. All we can do is share His message.
Many of our Anglo Saxon and American marriage
customs have fascinating origins. For example, brides almost always have
someone who “gives them away”. It’s a beautiful part of any wedding and the
privilege of “giving away” the bride is generally carried out by her father.
In the event that her father is unavailable, one of her sons is asked to do
so. If the bride is young and no longer has a father and no children, she
usually selects a man who has a special significance in her life.
What modern women seem to have forgotten is the
origin of this custom. In bygone days a woman had no rights of her own. She
belonged to her father. She could only do what he said. In history, fathers
sometimes sold their daughters as slaves. A good cure for disobedience?
When it came to marriage, she was given to the husband
he had chosen. Since she was her father’s “property” her opinion was irrelevant.
She had no choice. Fortunately, most parents loved their daughters and referred
the matter to her.
As a further difficulty, a woman was completely
under the authority of her husband. It wasn’t optional. If she didn’t obey,
there could painful repercussions. A cane less that 50mm diameter could be used
to beat his wife.
Ownership or authority over the woman passed from
the father to the husband at the marriage ceremony. Her father gave her hand
in marriage to her husband. From then on, her husband was her authority.
In the Bible, the King would offer to give his
daughter to the man who did something he required. For instance, Saul
promised his eldest daughter Merab, to the man who defeated Goliath.. It is a
long story in 1 Samuel 17: 25 The men
of Israel said, "Did you see that man coming from the Philistine lines?
He keeps coming to challenge Israel. The king
will make the man who kills this Philistine very rich. He will give his
daughter to that man to marry and elevate
the social status of his family."1
Samuel 17:25 GW. In spite of this history, a lady still wants someone
to “give her away”.
I could continue writing about other customs and
traditions associated with the wedding ceremony. Taking each other by the
right hand; the wedding ring; white wedding dresses; taking her husband’s
name etc.
For us, the highpoint in our lives was when Phyllida
became Mrs Strickland on 12th Dec. 1981. Phyllida took my name and
became Mrs. Ernest James Strickland, by which she is known today. I’m unashamedly
proud to call her my wife. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we mean
everything to each other. If we could remain this way for eternity, it would
not be long enough. We also know that unless the Lord returns, death will end
our marriage. Either way, His will remains the desire of our heart.
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland
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17
"Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what
He is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some
of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one
a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a
new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.
Revelation 2:17 NLT
25 Then
Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul. 26 When he found him,
he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for
a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It
was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.)
Acts 11:25-26 NLT
19 But God's
solid foundation stands firm. Here is the message written on it. "The
Lord knows who his own people are." (Numbers
16:5) Also, "All who say they believe
in the Lord must turn away from evil."
2 Timothy 2:19 NIrV
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their
corrupt nature along with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:24 GW
19 Or do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have
of God? And you are not your own, 20 for
you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your
spirit, which are God's.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 MKJV
14 But it's unthinkable that I could ever brag about
anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. By his cross my
relationship to the world and its relationship to me have been crucified.
15 Certainly, it doesn't matter
whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new
creation.
Galatians 6:14-15 GW
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved
children. 2 And walk in love, as
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice
to God. 3 But sexual immorality
and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is
proper among saints.
Ephesians 5:1-3 ESV
8 At one time
you were in the dark. But now you are in the
light because of what the Lord has done. Live like children of the light.
Ephesians 5:8 NIrV
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She walked into the gathering of
family and friends.
They’d come to see her married the way
the Lord intends.
She knew that it would happen, because
some time before,
The Lord said that a husband, He’d
placed within her store.
She hadn’t ever met him; but knew he
was defined;
And pictured in Psalm forty five. She
knew he was designed,
To love her and to cherish her and all
along the way,
To be her special soul mate. And from
that very day,
Would be her life’s companion and
always do her good,
The way a
faithful husband throughout their lifetime should.
They had
both been excited as day succeeded day.
His Spirit
had confirmed it, whenever they did pray.
And as they stood together, she now
would change her name.
From this moment onward things could
never be the same.
The former life of struggle and bad
experience,
Was gone. New life before them made
such a lot of sense.
She was born Miss Brownlee and later
she had wed,
A man who had misused her; but that
was done and dead.
Today she was quite willing, to wear
Jim’s wedding band.
From now on she’d be a spoken of as Phyllida
Strickland.
She’d follow the tradition established
years ago.
She would take her husband’s name; and
willingly do so!
Name change is significant. The Lord
had shown the way.
Abram changed to Abraham right from
that very day.
Jacob became Israel; a Prince of God
was he.
No longer a deceiver; a man of
destiny.
That day in nineteen eighty-one was
special for them both.
There before the witnesses, their
everlasting troth,
They plighted to each other. God
joined the two as one,
And in the strength of Jesus Christ
they both would carry on.
They have a happy marriage. But that
is not their boast
The cross of Jesus Christ the Lord is
what excites them most.
Both have known the trauma of a marriage
that went wrong.
Now they live for Jesus. They know it
won’t be long.
Before they go to be with Him. This
way it has to be!
And they have asked Him please Lord,
don’t take us separately.
We’ve been so long together and life
has been such fun;
You have been the centre, of all that
we have done,
In ways that only You can tell; we’re
walking in Your light.
You mean everything to us. We know You’ll
do what’s right!
Yet Lord above our preference, Your
will we will embrace.
We know it may be difficult for one of
us to face,
A life without each other. But this
one thing is true.
The will of Jesus Christ our Lord is
what we’ll gladly do.
Jim Strickland
Written
27th
April 2012.
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