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TerryLema

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee …

by TerryLema

“How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is the man the Lord does not charge with sin and in whose spirit is no deceit!” [Psalm 32:1-2 HCSB]

I am singing this morning with the psalmist … how joyful it is to have our sin forgiven, our transgressions cast into the midst of the sea never to be held against us again!

Sin is heavy, and the guilt and shame we bear before our God for our sin even more so. It weighs us down. It is like a great rock on our necks so that we cannot lift our heads. When we repent, confessing our sins (both as individuals and as the church corporate) that great rock is lifted from us. Suddenly we are free to dance before our LORD, to sing joyfully in His presence.

The psalmist declares the joy of the person whose sin has been put away, the person who can stand before His LORD with a clear conscience, “a spirit in which there is no deceit.”

No longer are we seeking to hide from Him, lest He see the unrighteousness in us. Now because of all that Christ Jesus has done for us, our forgiveness is there – it is complete and makes us whole.

Ephesians 1:7: “We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” [HCSB]

What a glorious day! Thank you, Jesus! Amen & Amen. 

 https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=joyful+joyful+we+adore+thee&docid=608024475698004297&mid=FAB5EEA47D8F08E45D14FAB5EEA47D8F08E45D14&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
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God’s Favor …

by TerryLema

Yesterday was our last day in 2 Chronicles 7:14, a call to God’s people for repentance and turning back to Him. It is not always easy to admit we need to humble ourselves, pray and seek His Face and turn from our wicked ways, but it has a glorious result if we do.

“Sing to Yahweh, you His faithful ones, and praise His holy name. For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor, a lifetime. Weeping may spend the night, but there is joy in the morning.” [Psalm 30:4-5: HCSB]

If we spend our nights weeping before Him in godly sorrow for our sins (both individually and corporately), a new dawn breaks – that dawn brings joy and God’s favor.

God promises that His anger is only momentary, and we know it is designed to bring renewal and restoration not punishment. When we respond correctly to His anger with godly sorrow and repentance, joy abounds. Then His favor descends.

God’s favor. Grace. I live in God’s grace. I must. It is the only thing that gives me strength for each day. I know that on my own, without the grace of God each day, I will not survive this world with its temptations and allure. Without God’s grace each day, my old sin nature will rise and dominate. Without God’s grace each day, I will not have either the desire or the power to live for Him.

But I do not worry that God will take His grace from me. I am promised that His favor, His grace, will be with me for a lifetime. It will be there on the other side of those nights of weeping and sorrow, abounding with joy, ready to envelope me in His love.

Oh LORD, how GRACIOUS and COMPASSIONATE Your LOVE is to us! Amen.

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If … Then …

by TerryLema

In God’s Word we see promises from God that are simply His promises to us. No string attached, they are given from His heart of love to His children.

There are also promises from God that are contingent upon an action we must take. The verse we have spent days studying in 2 Chronicles is one of those contingent promises … what we might call an “if … then …” promise.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV]

God promises His people that “if” they are humble and repentant, turning back from their wicked way to seek His face, “then” He will not only hear them, He will also forgive their sin and bring healing to them.

That is our goal as individuals and as the church corporate, to see forgiveness and healing. We desire to see sin vacate our own hearts and our churches and hopefully as a result our nation. We desire to see God’s righteousness take up residency among God’s people once again.

God’s promise is here, but it is hinged on our action. If, as the church, we abandon God’s truth and His Spirit and continue with our own agendas, the church will remain sick and weak. If we fail, the church fails. If the church fails, it is a certainty that our nation fails also.

Of course, there is no guarantee that even if God’s people return to Him, the nation will turn around, but if the church remains unrepentant, our country is truly without hope.

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Turn, turn, turn …

by TerryLema

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV]

I have been in six, yes six, automobile accidents—none of which were my fault. I have been hit from behind three times, once t-boned on the driver’s side, once on the passenger side, and I have t-boned a woman who made an illegal left turn in front of me on an overpass. Each one of those accidents gave me whiplash.

I now have cervical disk degeneration and have had physical therapy on my neck several times. All I can say is that it pops, crackles and snaps when I move it, it hurts most of the time and it is stiff. I am a stiff-necked person. Because of that stiffness, I have trouble turning my head very far to the right or left. I usually must turn my shoulders rather than my neck. I think I understand what God meant when He called people “stiff-necked.” They cannot turn.

Yet, turning is exactly what repentance is, turning away from the direction we are heading and turning back toward Him. God is calling his “stiff-necked” people to repent, to turn around from the wrong direction, that self-generated direction, and face Him fully and completely.

It means turning away from “our way” which we have elevated to super-star status and surrendering to His Way through the power of His Holy Spirit. It means getting out of our comfortable chairs and hitting our knees to find out where He wants to go, and then it means going with Him.

Isaiah 48:17: “This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you in the way you should go.” [HCSB]

Father, forgive us “our way,” and lead us in the Your Way Everlasting. We surrender to Your Will. Amen.

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Pray & Seek …

by TerryLema

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV]

Pray and seek His Face. I lost it last Sunday at church. We were singing Chris Tomlin’s “Jesus Loves Me.” (link below). My heart just felt like it was breaking, and the tears began to run. I remembered that for so long I believed the greatest of all lies, that God could not love me because of my sin, my guilt, my shame. I was raised in a church that reinforced those lies constantly – after all it was “because of me” that Jesus was tortured and crucified on that cross.

My family life was rough. My mother loved my brother best, which in her mental condition probably did more harm to him than me. I rebelled, acted out, ran away, came back, forced to confess all my sins. I skipped school, cut classes, ran around with the wrong crowd, started smoking. All the while, reminded by the marred face of Jesus on that cross that He was there “because of me.”

I was saved at 26, but it took a while for me to see the face of Jesus in a different light. It changed when someone changed one word. That one word, “because” was changed to “for.” Jesus died “for me.”  That one word changed guilt and shame to a love that often takes my breath away.

I do understand that it was “because” of my sin that Jesus died, but, the greater truth now is that Jesus died “for” me. He did it for love.  When I seek His face now, I see love shining toward me. My heart sometimes feels like it will explode from His love as it reaches me.

To pray and seek His face – even in repentance, is to remember that “Jesus Loves Me, He is For Me.”

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jesus+he+loves+me+tomlin+video&&view=detail&mid=3B952958020BDD9DF9493B952958020BDD9DF949&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djesus%2Bhe%2Bloves%2Bme%2Btomlin%2Bvideo%26FORM%3DHDRSC3
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Will we humble ourselves …?

by TerryLema

Every now and again on Facebook you see those videos of preschoolers who have used their own faces or the faces of their younger siblings as canvases for their artwork, often using indelible markers. Sometimes they have used scissors to cut their own hair. Mom catches them standing there with the scissors or markers in their hands, an impish grin on their faces.

The questions start, “did you cut your hair?” or “did you draw on your brother/sister?” Of course, there is the immediate shaking of the head, “No!” And usually the identifying of that elusive culprit, “Not Me!”

The attempt to deflect attention for wrongdoing begins incredibly early in life. We hate to admit our misconduct.  While that may be cute in a three-year-old, it is not so cute when that child becomes an adult. One the most profound jobs of a parent is to teach their children accountability for their own actions instead of deflecting blame on someone else.

One of the most profound jobs of our Father God is to teach His children accountability.  He reminds us of that in the verse we have looked at the last couple of days. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV]

God’s people, those who are called by His name, must humble themselves before Him. We must be accountable for our misconduct, our wrongdoings, our sins. As we look at the church in our nation today, our sins are obvious. We have allowed ourselves to grow complacent, comfortable, unholy, greedy, and cold.

God is calling us today to humble ourselves before Him. The question is, “will we?”

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My People …

by TerryLema

Do you remember in English class when you had to diagram a sentence to show all its grammar parts? Or how about in college when they gave you a story written by someone and asked you to dissect it to determine what the author was getting at?  I do, but I admit I was not very good at either. Still, as I look at the verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that is so familiar, I have the urge to do a little dissecting.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV]

“My people who are called by My name ….”

 It seems clear to whom God is directing this command. It was not to the pagan nations with their ungodly lifestyle surrounding the nation of Israel. God directed His command for repentance to Israel, His beloved people.

When God gave this command to Solomon on the day the grand Temple was dedicated, He also gave Him the reason this repentance prayer would be necessary.

“If you turn away and abandon My statutes and My commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for My name I will banish from My presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.”

 Everywhere you turn today during this most difficult fear-and-virus pandemic, there is a call going out to “God’s people,” His beloved Church (people called by His name). That call is one of turning back to Him (repentance). We, just like Israel before us, have strayed. We have served other gods. We have worshipped idols of money, prosperity, power, and a half-truth gospel.

The Church in American now has a choice. We can admit how bad our sin is, turn back to God, give Him our heart and our love and follow Him obediently, or we can be “banished” from His presence.

Oh, LORD, may we respond correctly to Your word as You command! Amen.

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If …

by TerryLema

“If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7:13-14 HCSB]

How often have we read or quoted or published that verse? I see it everywhere. And maybe because it has become so familiar, we have become a bit immune to the importance found therein.

God spoke those words as His response to a prayer of a young Solomon at the completion and dedication of the Temple. On the day that the temple was dedicated, the glory of God fell. The chapter opens with that profound event.

“When Solomon finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests were not able to enter the Lord’s temple because the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord.” [v1-2 HCSB]

The people of God had received an awesome privilege and blessing, God’s Very Presence came to dwell in their midst. But with that also came a heavy responsibility to remain true to that blessing.

If they failed to remain true, instead of reaping God’s blessings, they would find His judgment. Drought. Famine. Disease. Sound familiar?

Let us be clear about one thing. The judgment that God would send would not be caused by the actions of the pagan nations who did not know Him. It would be the result of the abandonment by God’s people. When they embraced “wicked ways,” God would bring correction. Something to think about, isn’t it?

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A Call to Repent

by TerryLema

1 Kings 13 is an odd chapter in the Old Testament. At least it seems odd to me. Solomon had died, his son Rehoboam had foolishly acted in a way that split the nation. The tribes Judah and Benjamin remained faithful in Jerusalem (becoming the Kingdom of Judah) while the remaining tribes split from them under the leadership of Jeroboam and set up their capital in Samaria (becoming the Kingdom of Israel). Jeroboam, worried about people returning to Jerusalem to worship at the temple and thus reunite with the House of David, set up a false worship, and installed anyone who wanted to be a priest to lead that false worship.

God sent a prophet to Jeroboam to proclaim judgment on the false altar and worship. Then it gets weird with that prophet being seduced by another and eventually killed.

But it is not the weird part I focused on this morning as I read the chapter. It was what Jeroboam did not do at the end of the chapter. “After all this Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again set up priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places.  This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be wiped out and annihilated from the face of the earth.” [vs33-34 HCSB]

Jeroboam, even after being warned about the evil of setting up false worship and idolatry, did not repent. He continued in his wickedness and was eventually destroyed.

God is calling His people to repent. That is the theme for this September 2020. Everywhere I look I hear the call of repentance. And as we know so well, it must begin with the church. We need to look at our ways and see if we have allowed a false worship or a shallow or perverted Gospel to infiltrate our gatherings. We need to determine if our leaders are following God as they should or if they have “become priests of high places.”

To repent involves sorrow and an acknowledgement of guilt as well as the courage to turn from our wicked ways back to our Savior and King. I pray, beloved, that the church finds that courage. Amen

 

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A Whole Lot of Shaking Going On …

by TerryLema

“I keep the Lord in mind always. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” [Psalm 16:8 HCSB]

“I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” [Psalm 16:8 NIV]

The world is being shaken. The church is being shaken. While we have spent most of the month in our Gentle Shepherd’s green pastures and beside the still water, it has always been with the goal that we will be renewed and restored for our work with Him in this world.

Many during this time of shaking are sensing that there is a change on the horizon, God is calling His people to repentance. The church is being asked to return her vision to Him, away from the trivial and dangerous idols we have allowed to infiltrate us.

We have preached a Gospel that is not a gospel. We have embraced comfort and complacency and allowed courage and commitment to grow cold. We have thought in terms of prosperity and abandoned sacrifice. The church today, in many ways, would not be recognized by those early disciples that gave their lives to see the Gospel carried into their world.

Joel 2:12: “Even now— this is the Lord’s declaration— turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” [HCSB]

God has always called on His people to repent, to turn from their wicked ways back to Him with all their hearts. We are being awaked and called to fast, weep, pray, intercede, and mourn. It is a sacred duty of the church. It is one we better heed well or the church in America will fade from influence, truth, and power.

“If my people ….” Amen & Amen.

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