TerryLema

I was talking to a precious lady at a recent Senior Potluck. We are about the same age, we both have health challenges, and we both love the LORD. We both share the same desires for the future. We want to have clarity of mind to be able to testify about our Wonderful LORD and have a body that will allow us to be active in ministry until our LORD calls us home to Him.

I know for me, also, that means going about these things despite the pain that accompanies my days. When I was young, I looked forward to “getting over” those times of discomfort and pain that would hit me occasionally. I got over colds. I got over the flu. I got over a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Now I realize there is no “getting over” an aging body. Each day is a challenge to ignore the pain and fatigue and keep moving. Sometimes I can do that, and sometimes I must simply give in and rest, hoping tomorrow will be better.

The Bible does not ignore the challenges of old age and the fact that strength does fade. Psalm 71 is a prayer for God’s continuing faithfulness: “And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside. Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing.” [vs 8-10 NLT]

But Psalm 92 is God’s promise that He will remain faithful – that those who are planted in the House of the LORD “will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green, to declare: ‘The Lord is just; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” [vs 13-15 HCSB]

Amen & Amen

I joined a discipleship program at church. It’s a program called “Rooted” and lasts for ten weeks. There is a weekly meeting with a small group and daily devotional readings. At the end of each devotional are questions. I am so enjoying the small group! I really like the daily devotional. But those questions!

There are just a couple after each day’s devotion along with a direction to write a prayer. Wouldn’t you think that after being a Christian for more than five decades and reading my Bible cover to cover multiple times, that it would be a snap to answer those questions? Instead, I struggle.

How would you answer the very first question after the very first devotion, “What false or incomplete images of God do you have?” and the second, “What new thoughts do you have about God?”

I thought … ALL my images and thoughts about God are “incomplete!”  I only have a small finite understanding about our Infinite God! I also realized that I need to continue (yes, even after five decades) to dig deeper into the images and thoughts about God that He wants to reveal to me. I need to be eager to still learn and grow.

 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.” [2Timothy 2:15 HCSB]

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet, IN all these things we are more than conquerors THROUGH Him who loved us.” [NKJV emphasis mine]

To be a conqueror, or Super Conqueror as promised in this passage, we must have something to conquer, things like tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. The Word of God promises that as we face these things we will have victory.

The victory we have, however, is not a victory we generate on our own. It is bestowed and sustained by God. Perhaps the most important words in this passage are the two small prepositions that set the parameters of our victory.

Yet IN all these things – IN is the Greek preposition EN and is the state in which something operates from the INSIDE (within).

THROUGH Him who loved us – is the preposition DIA and is the channel through which something occurs.

What that means is that we don’t become conquerors by avoiding difficulties nor by surrendering to them, nor by watching others go through them, nor by trying to self-generate enough courage to face them on our own.

We become super-conquerors when we are WITHIN those difficulties—right in the midst of them. And we become super-conquerors not through our own strength, wisdom, and power, but THROUGH Christ Jesus “who loved us.” Amen and Amen

Common sense says that if we want to be a conqueror, we must have something to conquer—something like tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. At least that is what I read in Romans 8:35-37.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through Him who loved us.” [NKJV emphasis mine]

More than conquerors is a compound word using one Greek word meaning to vanquish and adding “huper” which means exceedingly abundantly above or beyond. We could say we are “Super-Conquerors,” not just your average “run-of-the-mill-ordinary’ conquerors.

That compound word also gives the image of a victory so complete that the enemy is not merely subdued but rendered powerless to threaten the believer’s standing in Christ.

Paul doesn’t ignore or deny there is a bitter reality in the battles we face. He uses a quote from Psalm 44:22. That psalm was a communal lament during a time of national despair. The psalmist begins by recounting all God had done for Israel in the past but moves quickly into her feelings of being abandoned by God despite their faithfulness.

We, too, can probably remember and be thankful for all God has done for us in the past while still feeling alone or abandoned in the present. Our feelings, however, do not negate the fact that God has promised that we are “Super-Conquerors” in Christ!

(Tomorrow the means of being a Super Conqueror.)

1 John 4:16a: “We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.” [HCSB]

 As I was reading in 1 John two words in verse 16 drew my interest: know and believe.  John is emphatic when he says that we know and believe [trust] the love that God has for us. I asked myself, “Do we? Do we really know and believe that love?”

*Know: ginosko (ghin-oce’-ko); to “know” absolutely.

*Believe: pisteuo (pist-yoo’-o); to have faith in, to entrust, especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ

Wow. John uses a word that means to know absolutely. Absolutely says we know God’s love without even a hint of doubt. And because we know absolutely, we can entrust our spiritual well-being to Christ Jesus.

I watch news magazine shows on occasion. What I see so often is the trouble that happens when people become so eager to be loved that they entrust their well-being to the wrong ones. This yearning to be loved often overpowers good sense. It places people in desperate situations and at times even leads to death.

But to know absolutely the love that God has for us, to entrust our spiritual well-being to Christ Jesus, always leads to life, eternal life.

God loves me! God loves you!  Do you know absolutely and believe that love?

Happy Mothers’ Day to all you wonderful women who make this world so beautiful!

Twice in the Book of Isaiah, God refers to Himself with qualities we often associate with mothers.

Isa 49:15-16:  “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

Isa 66:13: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”  

One of my favorite parables is the one of the Prodigal Son. After everything that boy did, insulting his father by asking for his inheritance while his dad was still alive and then running off and squandering that inheritance on what some translations call “wild living,” his father was watching and waiting with compassion for his son to return. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” [Luke 15:20 NIV]

How our God loves us. He watches and waits for us to return to Him. He yearns with compassion for his lost sons and daughters. What comfort is ours when we return to Him and find that He is not angry with us, that He does not reject us, but instead throws His arms around us and kisses us to welcome us home.

Father, what comfort is found in You, what compassions flow from You. Amen.

I love Jesus’ disciples. They are so human! Whenever I wonder what I can do, an old woman, I remember what those men did—they turned the world around in one generation through the power of the Holy Spirit within them. Still, they were very ordinary men, often knuckleheaded and sometimes dense.

Jesus had just told them to wait in Jerusalem until the Father sends the Holy Spirit as He promised. And what are the next words out of their mouths? “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” [Acts 1:6 NLT]

Despite everything that had happened, they were still looking for Jesus to oust the Romans from their land, they wanted their earthly kingdom and they wanted it now. Jesus had a different promise and a work for them …

“The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” [Acts 1:7-8 NLT]

I love the promise – “You will receive power” and I love the work – “You will be my witnesses.”

There was no equivocation in Jesus’ promise. You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit, not you might, or you could. There was no “maybe” in His declaration. Power would be theirs when the Holy Spirit descended upon them on Pentecost. And that power would energize their work to be Jesus’ witnesses.

What is God doing? How often have I asked that question when I didn’t understand what was going on in my life, when I could not see the end from the middle of the problem. But that aside, “What is God doing?” is a valid question for the church today. After all, should not our greatest desire be to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church?

Just before Jesus ascended to heaven following His resurrection, He told those gathered with Him to not leave Jerusalem. “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” [Acts 1:4-5 NLT]

Many scholars tell us that Jesus did not say this to just the eleven apostles, but to more than 500 people gathered to hear His great commission and witness His ascension. [Matthew 28:18-20, 1 Corinthians 15:6]

Notice the time frame Jesus gave them – ‘until’. They were to wait ‘until’. Humans have a difficult time with ‘until’. We want to know when, down to the day and the hour. And if it is going to take too long, then let’s go on to something we can achieve in a shorter time.

God, however, often requires us not just to wait, but to wait ‘until’. Of the 500 who may have been present that day, when the ‘until’ arrived on the Day of Pentecost, only 120 were left in the Upper Room to have an encounter with God that not only changed them but changed the world.

So, what is God doing? He’s bringing about an ‘Awakening’ across our land, across our world. The enemy senses it’s coming and doing everything in his power to stop it. The church must heed what the Spirit is saying, we are to wait (and pray) ‘until’ we see God’s outpouring!

I find it very interesting that there are references for revival in the Old Testament but could not find any in the New. Maybe that’s because we aren’t supposed to need “reviving” once we have Jesus and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.

Well, no matter what is supposed to be, unfortunately, we often need to seek a spiritual re-awakening when we have allowed ourselves to grow cold or have turned away from obedience and heeded voices not those of our God. When that happens, there are guidelines for awakening, two of which are found in Isaiah 57, humility and contriteness.

Isaiah 57:15: “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” [NKJV]

To be revived we must first admit that we need to be revived! That takes humility. Only the humble will find spiritual awakening because the proud never admit that they need it.

We must also be contrite. That’s not a word used much in our generation. In the Hebrew it is dakka’ (dak-kaw’); and means to crush (like we might crush something into powder). Our egos, our pride, our arrogance must be crushed for our hearts to be re-awakened.

I am willing (Lord, make me willing) to do anything and everything to be spiritually awakened, to sense Your Presence more than ever before. Amen.

A W Tozer is one of my favorite authors. Tozer wrote, “The only Christians you want to listen to are the ones who give you more of a hunger for God.” (The Crucified Life; How to Live out a Deeper Christian Experience.)

That is my greatest desire. When I write a daily devotion or talk to someone about the LORD, I don’t just want to inform or spoon-feed my thoughts or ideas, I want to make you hungry, hungry for more of God.

Have you ever walked into a store and been assaulted with a delightfully sweet fragrance and immediately were hungry for what they were baking. The aromas emanating from the ovens triggered something in your brain that can even override the fact that you have just eaten!

That should be the way it is with us spiritually. Our preachers should be creating in us a hunger for more of God. They should be making the love of Jesus our Lord the all-consuming desire of our life. We should walk away from our church services wanting more of what we experienced there.

It was at the end of Paul’s life, after walking with and serving the Lord for so long, that he wrote: “I want to know Christ.”  [Philippians 3:10]

May we be like Paul, even more hungry for Christ at the end of our life than we are now.