TerryLema

I was reading Psalm 97 today.  It begins … “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad, let the distant shores rejoice!”

What a great beginning, and I love the way the song ends: “Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.” [Ps 97:10-12 NLT]

God guards the lives of His faithful children. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Promises of protection, assurance, security, and deliverance flow from Him. Then the psalmist really makes my heart sing in thanksgiving … “Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.” 

God gives light. God gives joy. Light. Joy. Out of the darkness and into the Light. Grief for a night, but joy in the morning.

This is only possible because THE LORD REIGNS!  Because our God is the God of All-Power, we have the assurance … the eternal assurance … that the Light of Christ in us will never be snuffed out by something or someone stronger than Him. The joy He gives us will echo through our lives not just for the few decades we abide on this earth but will echo through the Halls of Heaven for all eternity.

Rejoice Christian – Your Lord Reigns!  And that will never change!

God created us to bear the imprint of His image and likeness. Adam lost that image through sin and rebellion. God’s plan sent His Son to restore that image to His creation. By faith in Christ Jesus and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are being transformed into God’s image. The things that the first Adam lost are being restored.

One of the most glorious of promises given to us is that one day that imprint of God will be permanent, never capable of being marred or lost again. 1 Corinthians 15:49: “Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.” [NLT]

There is a Latin theological sequence which describes the state of mankind.

–Poco non pecare – able not to sin. That was the first Adam’s state. He had a choice, he could sin or not sin.  He failed that test miserably and we all came to bear his image.

–Non poco non pecare – not able not to sin. This is the state of mankind now in this life. We are born with a sin nature, and it rules us until we come to faith in Christ Jesus.

–Non poco pecare – not able to sin. This is the state of believers when we see Christ face-to-face in glory.  We shall forever be sealed in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus, the second Adam. There will be not even a temptation or an inkling of sin.

We will forever, permanently, bear the likeness of the man from heaven.  Hallelujah!

Three times in Joshua chapter 1 God says to Joshua “be strong and very courageous.” [vs 6, 7, 9]

One of the things about being courageous is that it is not the absence of fear. It is moving forward to do what needs to be done despite the fear that might exist. In fact, if there was no fear present why would God even need to tell Joshua to be strong and very courageous?

Life can be scary. We are always facing the unknown. If we could just see what tomorrow holds, whether it will be easy or difficult, maybe we could prepare. That’s why astrology, fortune telling and the like are so prevalent in our culture. Those things promise to reveal our unknown futures. Of course, they can’t. The only one who knows our tomorrows is the Lord.

In Romans 8, Paul lists things that are powerless to separate us from the love of God. He says that neither the present nor the FUTURE has the power to separate. Isn’t that an amazing statement! We need not fear what is ahead because God is able to keep us through all the unknowns. We can be strong and very courageous because nothing, present or future, will be able to separate us from the love of our Lord.

Rom 8:38-39:  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  [NIV]

Good News. Jesus loves me. Say that out loud with me with the emphasis on the “me.”  Jesus loves ME! Some of us learned to sing Jesus love me this I know when we were children. Perhaps we sung it to our children when they were small. Chris Tomlin wrote a modern version of it … Jesus, He loves me, He loves me, He is for me. Jesus, how can it be, He loves me, He is for me. 

That, church, is the Good News we must share with the world. I can’t explain how it can be, but I know that Jesus loves me and is for me. That knowledge allows me to face each day with hope. It enables me to be like the prophet Habakkuk … to have strength and the feet of deer to climb the mountains in front of me. And yes, there are still mountains for this old lady to climb. [Hab 3:19]

I was thinking recently of my friend Nella who has gone to be with the Lord. Just a few years younger than my own mother, Nella came into my life when I was in my early 30’s. Nella was a wonderful mom and she modeled that before me for many, many years. My own mother with her mental illness was unable to do that, but God gave me Nella. I learned from her.

Nella was over 6-feet tall, but as she aged her back curved, and she became very bent over. Still her smile never left. She would say (or eventually email when I moved to Idaho), “Sweetie, growing old ain’t for sissies.”

No, it certainly is not. Mountains. We all have mountains to climb. But Jesus loves me and is for me. He will give me strength and the feet of deer to conquer every mountain in front of me.

Good News.  Are you yearning for some good news?  I find the negativity of the press and social media, world and national events, politics and sports pulling me into thought patterns that seek to depress and steal my joy. I was reading posts on Facebook and online news and before I was done, I was agitated and ready to whack the next person that looked at me wrong.

I say that knowing that I’m a pretty positive personality. I trust God, know He is on the throne, know He loves me, and know that I have the promise of my Savior that “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”  [John 16:33 NLT]

 As I find my soul touched by all this, I wonder what it must be like for someone who is not a positive personality, or someone who does not know God is on the throne, or someone who does not trust Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord. What must it be like to think that this life is all there is? What must it be like to think that everything is out of control and nothing they do will matter?

Oh Church! It is so vital that we don’t allow the world to shape our thoughts or influence our souls. It is so vital that we communicate that God is on the throne and in control, and that there is hope and faith and joy and love in His Son! We must share our Good News; after all, we are the only ones that have any!

Someone once told me that I needed to act on something before God would move on my behalf, then accompanied this advice with ‘proof’ … “after all, Moses had to put his foot in the water before God parted the Red Sea.”  Huh?

I’d like to say that was the only time I ever heard that, but it wasn’t. I’ve heard it many times. The only problem with it is that Moses didn’t put his foot in the water. God told Moses to “Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water.”  [Ex 14:16]

When Moses did that a wind blew all night and parted the Red Sea and Israel went through on dry land.

But there were others who did have to put their feet in the water. The priests carrying the Ark had to put their feet in the Jordan River as the Israelites crossed over to the Promised Land. God told Joshua to “Give this command to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: ‘When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.’” [Josh 3:8 NLT]

When they did that the Jordan River divided, and the people went up out of the river into their inheritance.

Sometimes God does move before we ever get to the river. Sometimes we do have to get our feet wet before we see the evidence of the Lord moving on our behalf. Either way, we’re going across into the promises of our God.

Philippians 3:10, …  ^“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.”

The power OF His resurrection. Paul did not say the power IN His resurrection, which would have been specifically the power of the one-time event of that first Resurrection Day.  Instead, he says OF His resurrection – that on-going power of the day-to-day experience of being in Christ.

Power here is “dunamis,” miraculous power, often translated as ability, abundance, meaning, might, miracles, power, strength, mighty (wonderful) work.

Paul desired to know Christ AND the power OF His resurrection. We can know right now the effectiveness of His resurrection and walk in newness of life. It is the Holy Spirit who applies the atonement to our experience. The more we know Christ, the greater our relationship to, with, and in Him, the greater the power.

Am I seeking that power OF … am I seeking daily that deeper relationship to Christ… am I walking each day, or even expecting to walk each day in that power OF … do I recognize it? On this day after Resurrection Sunday 2025 I once again ask: Where is the “dunamis” power of His resurrection in my life?

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Hallelujah!

Sunday’s Here! Risen With Him! Every Day!

Amen & Amen

I often think of the day between the cross and the empty tomb as “Silent Saturday,” a day of great sorrow.

Luke reports in Chapter 23 about the trial, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus. Towards the end of that chapter is a verse that defines the atmosphere following the death of Jesus. “And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow [beating their breasts].” [Luke 23:48 NLT]

Hope was gone, replaced with a stunned bleakness. The anticipation of great victory gave way to misery and defeat. The only sound to be heard was weeping and anguish.

They could not even imagine what was happening on the other side of the veil. They could not hear Satan’s cries as he was vanquished, the keys of death and the grave ripped from his hands. They could not hear the cries of the imprisoned rejoicing in freedom as the gates of hell and the grave were being opened. They could not hear the angels’ song of victory as they saw God’s Son awakening.

They could not know – yet – that “Death is swallowed up in victory.” That it has lost its sting forevermore!

But they would soon. Sunday’s Coming.