Time with Jesus - Saturday, 18 May 2013
Hi all,
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| Mirror Mirror on the Wall! |
The English language has some
fascinating “sayings”. One of those my dad used fairly often was, “You can’t
see for looking at it”. In other words, “it’s there, why can’t you see it?”
Most of our ladies will identify with this immediately. Phyllida certainly
does. When I’m looking for something and “can’t find it”, I frequently go and
ask her if she has seen whatever it I’m looking for. At one time she would ask
if I’d had a good look for it? She stopped doing that when she knew that my
answer would be “Yes”.
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| There it is! |
At one time, when I was a child, Mom would say, “Have
you looked properly, or the way you usually do”? I suspect this was Phyllida’s
unspoken question! Then Phyllida puts down whatever it is she is busy with. She
then gets up and walks directly to the missing object.
Much chagrined, I
usually mutter something unmentionable under my breath and then say, “Thank you
darling!” Where was it? Exactly where it should be! For Phyllida, history has
repeated itself. For me, the thing was deliberately hiding in the open. It was
“camouflaged” such that I “couldn’t see it for looking at it”.
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| Not even wearing glasses |
I understand
this syndrome exists in most marriages. Ladies, be encouraged. You are not
alone! This confirms the proverb, “Women have many failings. Men have only one.
Everything they’ve ever said and all they’ve ever done”! Thankfully, the Lord
Jesus Christ did not suffer from this problem. Back then He didn’t have a wife
so we can’t very well check it out. Nevertheless I’m convinced He didn’t experience
this syndrome, because He had no “syn”. He was sinless.
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| Feeding the 5000 |
Several years ago, I came across
a “system” that is of great help. When undecided about a course of action, I
ask myself, what is it my flesh would like to do? Then, I do the very opposite.
You know what I mean. I’d like to punch someone on the nose. The opposite is to
buy him a bar of chocolate! It works quite well. Try it yourself. I can’t
guarantee the result. What I do suspect is you will get things right more
often.
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| Walking on Water |
In today’s meditation we look at
being free. We will only be free, when we focus on Jesus completely. We must
get past our little inter-gender skirmishes in marriage and relax in the joy He
brings.
We must learn to “tune in” to the voice of the Lord. The more we try,
the more we will succeed. In our relationships with others, we need to be generous
in the way we deal with others. Focus on the good things others do, rather than
on our own selfish preferences. We will succeed in doing this if our eyes are
firmly fixed on Jesus. Then we will be “free indeed!”
Shalom,
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
Matt
10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – 18 May 2013 |
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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LOOK
TO HIM AND BE FREE
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The
vast majority of men and women are either arrogantly, over self- confident,
or pathetically under self-confident. People say they can do anything and
everything and others say they cannot do anything. Both concepts do not follow
the perfect pattern of Jesus. He was completely aware of Who He was. He
didn’t behave like a slave driver and was not a wimp.
Jesus
wasn’t proud. That is sinful. He was also not a push-over. He was always
fully in control of everything around Him. Everything He did, was motivated
by love for His Father and love for people. He allowed the people to do their
best, or their worst, without any attempt to control them. Because of His love
for people, he fed 5000 using a schoolboy’s lunch. Then he avoided the same
people, because He didn’t want them to see Him, merely as someone who would
give them a free lunch!
He
walked on the water of the sea of Galilee, in order to reach His disciples.
This was not merely a whim, to demonstrate his Divine ability. He invited
Peter to do the same. Peter was partly successful. He stopped focusing on
Jesus.
We
forget that Jesus could walk on water because He was focussed on His Father,
not because He was Divine. His Father told Him to walk on the water, so He
did. John expressed it as follows: 30
By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I
hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek
not to please myself but him who sent me.
John 5:30 TNIV
In
the Christian life, there is no such thing as “luck”! Jesus didn’t get lucky
and walk on water. His Father told Him to do it, or He wouldn’t have even
tried. Then, when Peter asked Him if he could walk on water, Jesus agreed.
There is no question in my mind that His Father said “Yes”. So Jesus also
said “Yes”. The tragedy of the situation was Peter stopped looking to Jesus.
He could easily have drowned.
This
really is the central issue in this morning’s meditation. The moment we take
our eyes off Jesus, we start sinking. If He doesn’t rescue us, we will drown
in a sea of complaints and dissatisfaction. It’s a regular occurrence for most
of us and often strikes after significant achievement in His Kingdom. Poor
old Elijah won the Lord’s battle on Mount Carmel. Almost immediately
thereafter, he was running away from a woman! He stopped looking to God. So
Peter and Elijah had a similar problem. So do we.
Often
as I look at the circumstances confronting me, I feel overwhelmed by the task
Very quickly I start to sink into what John Bunyan called “The Slough of
Despond’. You’ll find that his “Pilgrim” did the same. In that “slough”
things get worse and we have our own “Pity Party”. There is only one “cure”.
Fix your eyes on Jesus. In Hebrews we read: 2 Keep your eyes on
Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of
where he was headed--that exhilarating finish in and with God--he could put
up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there,
in the place of honour, right alongside God. Hebrews
12:2 MSG Jesus is the only “cure” for this sickness. If you don’t
focus on Him, you’ll drown. Look to Him and win!
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland
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26 Let us not become proud. Let us not make each
other angry. Let us not want what belongs to others.
Galatians 5:26 NIrV
24 Then Gideon said to them, "Do me a favour. Each of
you give me the earrings from your loot." (Their enemies, the Ishmaelites,
wore gold earrings.) 25 The men
of Israel answered, "Yes, we'll give them to you." So they spread
out a coat. Each man took the earrings from his loot and dropped them on it.
26 The gold earrings Gideon had asked for weighed 40 pounds. This
did not include the half-moon ornaments, the earrings, the purple clothes
worn by the kings of Midian, and the chains from their camels' necks. 27
Then Gideon used the gold to make an idol and
placed it in his hometown, Ophrah. All Israel chased after it there as though
it were a prostitute. It became a trap for Gideon and his family.
Judges 8:24-27 GW
5 Are you looking for great things for yourself? Don't
look for them, because I'm going to bring disaster on all people, declares
the LORD. But wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.'"
Jeremiah 45:5 GW
7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations
from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I
was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me
and keep me from becoming proud.
2 Corinthians 12:7 NLT
3 Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be
humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don't look out
only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Philippians 2:3-4 NLT
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or
boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not
demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being
wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices
whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses
faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT
28 Then
Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take
My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is
easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."
Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
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Sometimes as I read Scripture I simply shake my head.
I think I’ll never get this right before the day I’m dead!
The standards are impossible for me to ever scale;
And every time I look at them, I’m certain I will fail!
It isn’t the right attitude; I know this fact for sure.
But for this sort of sickness, they haven’t found a cure!
Sicknesses like laziness, like sloth and unbelief,
Are sure to bring a Christian to a place of utter grief!
I’m only in the first grade in Father’s School of life,
Designed to make us “better” and keep us free from “strife”.
But His is the Professor, and the standard He has set,
Is far beyond the “doing” of anyone I’ve met.
I know that there are people who are different from me;
They like to face the challenge of impossibility!
For them it is the “essence” that gets them on the go.
Are they the Christian superstars whom no one gets to know?
I’ve never ever met one. Perhaps they don’t exist,
Except in the appearance of some thick and foggy mist?
But this is a comparison between the pair of us.
And this is rather odious; it makes me want to cuss;
And take it to the Father and moan, “O woe is
me.
I’ll never ever get there as sure as sure can be”.
It’s called a “pity-party” We have them on our own.
We belly-ache and mumble and grit our teeth and moan.
I wonder if there’s any folk who act the same as me?
I hope not, for that’s surely isn’t Christianity.
But I’ve a sort of feeling that I am not unique.
I never seem to hear it from those to whom I speak.
They seem to ooze with confidence and say that all is fine,
When secretly their problems are just as bad as mine!
There has to be an answer. Perhaps my faith is small?
But Jesus is the answer to folk like me who fall.
Then, when my party’s over and I come to my sense;
Admit I have a problem; confess that I am dense.
That’s when my Lord and Master appears upon the scene;
He points out just how silly that I have surely been,
And draws me to His bosom and says to me, “My Son
You have to keep on going ‘til the race of life is won.”
Jim Strickland
Written
18th
May 2012
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