TerryLema

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD Almighty!” [Revelation 4:8]

In my heart, it seems fitting to close this week of learning what it means to say, “In God We Trust,” with God’s Holy, Holy, Holy Nature.

John MacArthur writes about God’s holiness: “Of all the attributes of God, holiness is the one that most uniquely describes Him and in reality is a summation of all His other attributes. The word holiness refers to His separateness, His otherness, the fact that He is unlike any other being. It indicates His complete and infinite perfection. Holiness is the attribute of God that binds all the others together.”

God’s Holiness is the foundation of His trustworthiness. It is also the attribute that makes us fall to our knees as Isaiah did in recognition of our own unworthiness. We cry out as he did, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” [Isaiah 6:7]

As He sent the angel with the coal to cleanse Isaiah’s “unclean lips,” He sent Jesus, His Precious Son, to cleanse our souls with His Precious Blood.

God is perfect. We are imperfect. God is holy. We are not. Yet He loves us. He sent His Son to die on our cross in our place. He invites us to call Him Father, to come boldly to His throne. He has given us an inheritance in His presence, reserved in the heavenlies for us. How could we not love Him and serve Him.

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen!

“The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star And reaches to the lowest hell …. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure—The saints’ and angels’ song.” [The Love of God, Frederick M Lehman, 1917]

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” [1John 4:7-8]

The love of God is eternal, sovereign, unchanging, and infinite. God’s love is active. He draws us to Himself. It is personal – He doesn’t just love all of mankind in some generic sense – He loves you and He loves me. Nothing in us – nothing we do – can change God’s love for us.

While we can please or displease God, we cannot by our meager actions change God’s love for us. His love is as His nature – it knows no beginning and no end.

To learn to abide in that love should be the goal of every human heart. “Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure—The saints’ and angels’ song.”

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen

“The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.” [Psalm 145:8]

Oh, the grace of God – the Amazing, Wondrous Grace of God. The grace that seeks out human misery and guilt and provides merit where none is due. That grace that provides the way to the very Presence of God. That grace that flows from the cross – from the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Savior and LORD, Christ Jesus, God’s Precious Son.

That common grace that “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” [Matthew 5:45]

That saving grace that flows in abundance to those who put their faith in Christ Jesus. That grace that provides all we need so that we can live for Him here and enjoy Him for all eternity.

Oh, the grace of God – the Amazing, Wondrous Grace of God.

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen

Yesterday I wrote about God being All-Powerful. And how that power is governed by His goodness. I grew up in a denomination that gave me the impression that Our Father God was always looking for ways to keep us out of heaven. One misstep and our name disappeared from the Book of Life.

Then someone told me about the love and the goodness of God. Psalm 34:8 invites us to “Taste and see that the LORD is good.”

It is easy to affirm the goodness of God when things are going well. But when life becomes difficult, we can question God’s goodness. The thing we must remember is that God’s goodness is not controlled by our circumstances. His goodness is birthed in His unchanging (immutable) nature.

It is interesting that just a little further in Psalm 34, David declares “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” [vs 19]

God’s goodness does not eliminate “the afflictions of the righteous.” Good people still suffer. But it does carry us through them and promises deliverance out of them. Whatever difficulty we face in this life stays in the grave. It cannot follow us into our eternal inheritance. God is good.

Thank you LORD. Amen & Amen

As we begin this Thanksgiving Season, I am thinking about this God we trust. Trust, even trust in God, does not come easily. To trust our God, we need to know exactly Who He is. We need to understand His character revealed in the Scriptures. We must see how His character ensures His trustworthiness.

Our God is “All Powerful” (Omnipotent). Psalm 33:6: “By the Word of the LORD, the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth.” (Just try answering the questions in Job 38 to see the power of our God!)

Scripture is clear that God is strong and mighty, and nothing is too hard for Him to accomplish. He has all the power to fulfill every promise made in the Scriptures.

Power in the hands of men and women can be frightful. It can be corrupt. (That old saying: Power corrupts; Absolute power corrupts absolutely). And corrupted power is often cruel and deadly.

God’s power, however, is governed by His Goodness (another characteristic of God). John MacArthur wrote: “Although such power might seem frightful, remember that God is good. He can do anything according to His infinite ability, but will do only those things that are consistent with Himself. That’s why He can’t lie, tolerate sin, or save impenitent sinners.”

Thank you Lord! Amen & Amen

As I was reminded recently, trust, even trust in God, does not come easily. If we are going to trust anyone, even God, we must know that they are trustworthy. God’s attributes and characteristics speak to God’s trustworthiness.

One of God’s attributes is that He is Self-Sufficient. That means He Has No Needs. John 5:26: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.”

I don’t know about you, but I have incredible needs. I need goodness, peace, mercy and grace. I need strength, direction, discernment, and wisdom. The list is endless and changes from day to day. God, however, possess everything in perfection. I know I can go to Him and trust that He has exactly what I need when I need it.

But this attribute tells me something else. God doesn’t need me. He can accomplish all He wants to do without my help … YET … it is the most amazing thing that God WANTS me! He willingly and lovingly uses me (and you) with all our limitations and failings to accomplish His purposes.

God WANTS me! God LOVES me! God WANTS you! God LOVES you! So much so that He made the way for us to be His Children. Thank you LORD! Amen.

“In God we trust,” is the official motto of the United States, adopted in 1956, and placed on all U.S. currency beginning in 1957. The phrase replaced “E pluribus unum” (Latin: “Out of many, one”), which had been the country’s unofficial motto since the 1780s.

I am not sure if, as a country, we place much trust in “God.” We seem to be more interested in what our politicians are doing than what “God” is doing.

As I was reminded recently, trust, even trust in God, does not come easily. I think that is because to trust someone, we must know that person is trustworthy. If we say we trust in God, then we must know the God in whom we trust.

For me, one of the most wonderful attributes or characteristics of our God is that He is immutable.  Malachi 3:6 proclaims, “I the LORD do not change,” and Hebrews 13:8 promises, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

The God Who Saved US and Whom we worship and serve never changes. He never gets better or worse. He is absolutely dependable. And because His promises to us are based on His character, they will never change.

That can be difficult for us to understand – because we change all the time. Sometimes we get better and sometimes we get worse. The promises we make are based on our character, which is always subject to our changing nature. BUT OUR GOD and HIS PROMISES remain ROCK SOLID, STEADFAST, IMMUTABLE – just like His character! Thank you LORD! Amen and AMEN!

November! I love it when the calendar turns from thoughts of Halloween to thoughts of Thanksgiving! I love the changing atmosphere. November 1^st is one of my favorite days of the year.

I know the world will rush headlong into Christmas – that’s already begun. After all, there isn’t much commercial profit in the Thanksgiving holiday (except perhaps for turkey farmers and cranberry growers!). But oh, the personal profit that flows from gratitude and giving thanks.

Today, I simply want to obey Psalm 100. Those five short verses contain so much truth! Read it today – whatever your translation – and “Shout triumphantly to the LORD” for “we are His.”

“Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth. ² Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.³ Acknowledge that Yahweh is God. He made us, and we are His—His people, the sheep of His pasture. ⁴ Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. ⁵ For Yahweh is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations.” [HCSB]

Amen & Amen

I am not a fan of Halloween. I never have found anything delightful in this commercially energized holiday. I hate the gore, the occultic proclamations of witches, demons and devils that too often take a front row seat. I find no beauty, nor goodness, nor grace in this day. There is enough evil in this world without dressing our children in it.

Whenever this date rolls around, I think about what Paul wrote. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” [Phil 4:8-9]

I love those words … true … noble … right … pure … lovely … admirable … excellent … praiseworthy. I don’t see many of those words in this day. I sometimes wonder if those words have even become archaic in our day and age.

We no longer talk about true … we talk about relevant. We don’t call out noble or right, we lift success and power. As for lovely, admirable, or excellent, we highlight defiance, opposition, and failure. Praiseworthy? I’m not sure we even know what that means any more.

It’s time, beloved, to focus on Paul’s words again, not the words we see touted in media and politics. If I am going to think about anything on this day, I want it to be defined by one or more of those words.

Today, it’s the true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy that will capture my attention and inspire my thanksgiving. AMEN!

God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good. We say it, but do we think about what it says? Do we believe it? Is God good? Is He good when the circumstances around us are not? Is He good when illness strikes? Is He good all the time? Or is He good only during the times all is going well?

Do you know that what you think or know about God will either invite you to know Him more or it will become a wall to knowing Him at all?  What do I mean by that?

Remember the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. Jesus told the story of a master who called three servants into his presence before he went on a trip. He gave one five talents, another two talents and the last one talent. When the master returned, he called each back into his presence.

The first with the five talents had doubled them and returned ten to the master, the second with the two had also doubled his and returned four talents to the master. The master’s response, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” [vs 21-22]

The last servant, however, had not done anything with his talent. He simply buried it and gained nothing to give back. This servant viewed the master differently. The first two saw him as a good master, one who would reward them for their faithfulness. The third viewed the master as a hard, demanding man, so he did nothing to please him. He gained nothing, returned nothing, and ultimately received nothing.

Our view of our Great and Almighty Master will determine whether we gain or lose, whether we pursue or ignore Him. So, is God good? All the time? For me, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”