Time with Jesus - 12 August
2013
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| WWI Soldiers |
For Phyllida and me, the Bible is the most wonderful
book ever written. What makes it so important is the author. Sure, lots of men
and women argue about who wrote it. We have no fight with them arguing about the
man or woman, who held the pen or whatever was used to write with. For us, the
human author is irrelevant. We know that the one, who held the pen, was so “tapped
in” to God the Holy Spirit, every word in the original language was His.
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| WWI Graves |
Please don’t ask us how it was done. If we could answer that
question in such a way that others could also “do it”, we’d be able to spend
what little time is left for us, feeding all the world’s hungry people! Not
being able to “do it” is very comforting. It proves that we are very ordinary
people. We have no illusions of grandeur. We are fully aware that if the Lord
tarries, one hundred years from now we will be forgotten. We will be little
more than a microdot on discarded pages of history.
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| More WWI Graves |
I mention this is because we have been watching a DVD series
of six episodes about World War I in colour. Watching it is a very humbling
experience. Next year will mark the centenary of the outbreak of the “war to
end all wars”. The DVD includes pictures of masses of nameless people; those
who have “strutted and fumed
their hour upon the stage and now are seen no more.” (Shakespeare - Macbeth
– courtesy memory!)
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| Their Name Liveth |
Just after the retreat from Mons and the victory of the Marne,
the English Poet, Laurence Binyon wrote his well know poem, “For the Fallen.
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| A "Sea" of Names of The Fallen |
The line he
was referring to inspired the establishment of “TocH” an international Christian movement.
The name is an abbreviation for Talbot House, 'Toc' signifying the letter T in
the signals spelling alphabet used by the British Army in World War I. The
founders were Neville Talbot, then a senior army chaplain, and the Reverend
Philip Thomas Byard (Tubby) Clayton. Talbot House was styled as an "Every
Man's Club", where all soldiers were welcome, regardless of rank. It was
"an alternative for the 'debauched' recreational life of the town". (Courtesy Google)
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| TocH Memorabilia |
The real tragedy is, in spite of our best intentions and
the cunning of our minds and hands, we do not remember them. We cannot. We do
not live in the past. We live in the here and now. The only thing we seem to
learn from history is that we don’t learn from history!
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| Rev P T B "Tubby" Clayton |
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| WWI Soldiers 1914-1918 By now all will have departed |
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| WWI Photograph Mud, Snow, Disease & Enemy Guns Took Them |
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| The Risen Lord Jesus Christ He Lives Forever! |
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – 12 August 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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DEATH
SENTENCE
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Heroes and super-heroes. We live in a world which
admires heroics and shuns cowards. It’s not really surprising in a world that
has gone through two world wars in the past 100 years. If we try and add to
these the other “international conflicts” we notice that our world thrives on
conflicts and death. Anglo-Boer, Korea, Viet Nam, Arab-Israeli, Kosovo and
the rest, we begin to ask if there has ever been a time when war has not been
in vogue. It’s strange that we shout and sing about peace. But the one thing
this world does not experience is peace. The world established the League of
Nations and later the United Nations with the intention of attaining peace.
But peace is still a pipe-dream. Satan thrives on man’s inhumanity to man,
greed and torture. So while he runs the world, the only place we will find
peace is in the hearts of believers and in the dictionary.
As a youngster, my hero was Superman. Clark Kent,
Lois Lane and Gotham City were more familiar to me than most world leaders.
Mom even made me a Superman outfit for the local fancy dress contest. I
didn’t win. There were probably other boys wearing the same outfit. Then we
had the Saturday morning “bioscope”. The youngsters from all over Port
Elizabeth would meet at the “Grand” to swap comics and watch the latest
edition of our hero. Mostly it was Tarzan, Batman and Robin, Superman and the
inevitable Western. Who remembers “High Noon” starring Gary Cooper and Grace
Kelly? It came out in 1952. I’m not sure how many times I sat through it.
Later it became standard viewing at least once per year on British TV during
the Christmas season.
For many years I wondered why we had such a
fascination for superheroes. After Becoming a Christian in 1960, the “penny
dropped”! Everyone is looking for a superhero. But there is one! His name is
Jesus Christ. As God, He is the superhero of all superheroes! Suddenly the
deeds of many of the Biblical heroes began to make sense. Every one of them
in their day stood against evil and oppression of some sort. In today’s
Scriptures, four are mentioned by name. Ehud, Shamgar, Gideon and Zerubbabel.
What the first three did is recorded for us in the book of Judges. No doubt most
are familiar with the deeds of Gideon and Samson. These are firmly etched
into our memory. But what about the deeds of the other Judges? How many can
you remember? I have to refresh my memory by going back to the Bible!
To find the name Zerubbabel among the list of
superheroes is a bit unusual. What was so special about him? His name is one
of the very few men in the list of Jesus’ ancestors after the Babylonian
captivity. Two lines are quoted in Luke and Matthew. The one line lists Mary
precedents. The other Joseph’s precedents. What is so important about this?
It illustrates the difference between what is important to man and what is
important to God. Zerubbabel is important to God. We think in terms of
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and other little men who litter the pages
of history. Men who we think have achieved great things. To God, the most
important people are those through whom Jesus descended. Thus Zerubbabel is
the most important person to Him from the Babylonian captivity to the birth
of Jesus!
Jim & Phyllida
Strickland
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27 But God chose the foolish things of the
world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the
strong.
1 Corinthians 1:27 NIrV
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Ehud;
Shamgar; Gideon; were Judges in their day.
Ehud was left handed and killed Eglon in this way.
Shamgar
killed the Philistines, six hundred with a stick,
That’s used for herding oxen. It wasn’t just a trick,
Gideon
was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat;
There wasn’t any other way his family could eat.
But
they were all assisted, when God was on their side.
The enemy discovered that it was their time to hide.
Throughout
the book of Judges, the story’s much the same.
God came to deliver when people called His Name.
The
problem was their lifestyle. They’d slip and would backslide.
The enemy would then return. They
couldn’t be denied!
Right
through the Old Testament the story changes not.
And when they’d been delivered, they very soon forgot,
That
God came to their rescue. Just like a round-about,
The story was repeated. The cure was, “Be Devout”!
The
kings they chose to rule them were very much the same.
Some of them were very good. The bad ones got the blame.
The
problem was idolatry; they broke the Lord’s commands;
So they were invaded and went to foreign lands.
The
Father brought them back again, so that they could restore,
A sample of the glory they’d known so long before.
Kings
were not permitted. A governor would do.
They built the temple once again, the walls rebuilt as new.
Zerubbabel
was leader; he would have been their king.
But they were not permitted to have that very thing.
They’d
learned a great big lesson while in captivity.
Don’t pursue the things that will annoy our Deity!
Idols
were forbidden, and images were out.
The priests had all concluded, it was far beyond a doubt,
That
it had been idolatry that had led them all astray.
They vowed it wouldn’t happen to them again that way.
Instead
they started worshipping God’s pure and Holy Law.
They added several fences in ways not done before.
These
became traditions, which they would never break.
Then Jesus came and told them that they should all forsake,
These
little bitty extras than none of them could do;
Unless they had the money to help them see it through!
Of
course, they were offended. “Get rid of Him they cried!”
And this became the reason why God was crucified!
How
sad to be a people who worshipped God Most High
And through their misplaced zealousness, to sentence Him to die!
Jim Strickland
Written 12th
August 2012
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15 Again the people of
Israel cried out to the LORD. Then he gave them a man to save them. His name
was Ehud, the son of Gera. Ehud was left-handed. He was from the tribe
of Benjamin. The people of Israel sent Ehud to Eglon, the king of Moab. They
sent him to give the king what he required them to bring him.
Judges
3:15 NIrV
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31 After Ehud came Shamgar, son of Anath. He
killed 600 Philistines with a sharp stick used for herding oxen. So he, too,
rescued Israel.
Judges 3:31 GW
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14 Then the LORD turned to him and said,
"Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the
Midianites. I am sending you!" 15
"But Lord," Gideon replied, "how
can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh,
and I am the least in my entire family!"
Judges 6:14-15 NLT
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2 The LORD said to Gideon, "You have
too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the
Israelites will boast to Me that they saved themselves by their own strength.
Judges 7:2 NLT
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6 Then he said to me, "This is what the LORD says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by My Spirit,
says the LORD of Heaven's Armies.
Zechariah 4:6 NLT
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10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his might.
Ephesians 6:10 ESV
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