TerryLema

Love. How we love to love. We love this brand of coffee. We love that movie. We love this holiday. We love pie, or ice cream, or cookies. We just love to love. Yet, we really do not understand love. We attach that word “love” to things we like, or our personal preferences. Is that really “love?”

Love, as we are told often, is not just emotions, although it does touch our emotions. Love is action. Like the action our Father God took when His creation rebelled against Him. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave (sacrificed) his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16 NLT]

Love always seeks what is best. That “best” might involve restraint or even discipline. God’s love does not let us run wild. His love keeps us from sin. “For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” [Hebrews 12:6 NLT]

The LORD does discipline … but never to destroy us. He disciplines us to restore us to right standing with Him. (Isaiah 38:16: Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live! [NLT])

When we consider God’s love for us, it is so much more than just a feeling. He is the God of all comfort and compassion, and He loved His own with a sacrificial love. He will do what is best … even if what is best is to discipline so that we might be restored to right relationship with Him. Glory!

My favorite subject is The Love of God! I could talk about how much God loves us with anyone, anytime. It was my subject last Sunday when I was privileged to bring the team devotion for the volunteers at church.

That devotion began in Mark 10 (with parents bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed) and ended with a Scripture from 1John 4:16: “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.” [NLT]

I ended yesterday’s devotion with the question: I wonder, do we really know how much God loves us?

God, in His great love for us, was willing to sacrifice His Precious Son Jesus to bring us back to Him. He so graciously wants to shower us with His love, but too often the voices in this life (the world, flesh, devil) have made us feel unworthy to accept His love.

As we mature as Christians, however, we must learn to let God love us, for it is out of His love that we find the capacity to love others, to love ourselves, and to love Him.

We think we do the things we do “for Him,” because of our love “for Him.” But I think we do the things we do “for Him,” because of His love “for us.” We can love others because He loves us. We can love ourselves because He loves us. We can love Him because He first loved us.

Oh, I could go on and on and on about God’s love, and about Jesus’ sacrifice that makes us worthy. But instead, I think, I will put aside the keyboard and just sit here for a while and let Him love me.

Want to join me?

I was privileged to bring last Sunday’s devotion for the volunteers at church. Whenever I get ready to bring a message or a devotion, I also remind myself that “you have to live it to give it.” This message was an easy one to “live,” as it was about my favorite topic – God’s love for us.

It started in Mark 10:14-16 where children were brought by their parents to Jesus for a blessing. They were originally turned away by the disciples until Jesus put an abrupt end to that!

“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” [NLT]

One of the great traits of children is that they have the capacity to joyfully accept love. Watch a little one spot someone they love. They will race toward them and throw themselves into welcoming arms. Watch a little one sleeping in the arms of someone they know loves them. They sure can soak up the love.

As we mature, we lose that capacity to accept love. We listen to the voices of this life (the world, the flesh, the devil) who unceasingly strive to convince us that we are not worthy of the love of our Father God. That capacity to accept love like a little child is often replaced with a need to be accepted.

It is true, we are not worthy of the love of our Father God. But our Father loves us so much that He was willing to sacrifice the life of His Precious Son Jesus for us … and it is in that sacrifice that we now find our worth. We are worth what He was willing to pay for us! What a marvelous honor now to accept God’s love.

My devotion Sunday morning ended with 1John 4:16: “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.” [NLT]

I wonder. Do we really know how much God love us?

I love the beginning of autumn, especially these last weeks of September. They are my favorite. The summer heat is largely behind us. The ugliness (my personal evaluation) of Halloween is still in the future, and the silly, hectic holiday season is a bit further down the horizon.

College football is back (Yes!) and baseball teams are jockeying for play-off berths. AND, the apples are ready for picking at the Emmett orchards. Yep, these last two weeks of September have got to be the best of my year! The blessings are so evident to my soul.

Yet I know that blessings from the Father’s heart are not limited to these two weeks. They are around me and for me every day. Even when I am numb from difficulties or stressed by circumstances, the blessings are there. I just need to stop, re-focus, and reach for them. God so willingly wants me to have them.

The Scriptures are full of God’s promised blessings for us. He promises wisdom for the asking, strength, peace, courage, mercy, grace, hope. He says we can put on His armor to face our battles. He says we are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus. He promises that nothing can separate us.

And if we can’t find anything “specific” we might need, there is this promise: “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” [Ephesians 1:3 NLT]

Every Spiritual Blessings is ours. Our God is the Best!

After reading all the news Saturday morning on my online home webpage, I was weary of the complaining. It did not matter what the article was about (politics, sports, medicine, corporations, finances, etc.) the overall attitude was complaining.

God took me to Jude’s Epistle. Jude wanted to write about our common faith in Christ Jesus but began by giving a description and warning about the false teachers who were trying to infiltrate the church. His description sure fit what I had been reading. “These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want.” [1:16 NLT]

Jude tells his readers that rather than being grumblers and complainers, we need to be people who defend and contend for our faith. He gives some positive characteristics of defenders and contenders.

We are to build each other up in our faith. We are to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are to show mercy to those with wavering faith. We are to cautiously rescue others from judgment (mercifully loving the sinner but hating the sin). We are also to glorify God with great joy! [1:20-23 NLT]

Then after all that, Jude closes his letter with this marvelous doxology!

“All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.” [1:25 NLT]

Yes, All Glory! Amen & Amen!

I was browsing through the news Saturday morning on my online home webpage. One article after another about politics, sports, medicine, corporations, etc., could probably be summarized with one word – complaining. Almost every article was complaining about something or someone else.

Somehow, I went from that page to Jude’s letter. Jude wanted to talk about faith “But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.” [1:3 NLT]

As he goes on to describe these false teachers who were trying to infiltrate the church, he uses OT examples, and at one point, calls these infiltrators “grumblers and complainers.”  I thought his description sure fit what I was reading that morning on my online home webpage.

“These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want.” [1:16 NLT]

That description is a commentary on our unique times and social conditions. We are facing exceptional challenges living in these end times. We need to guard against false doctrines, wrong attitudes, and worldly behaviors. We need to have lives that reflect our Savior amid the grumblers and complainers that are so prevalent in our era.

Jude urges us to “defend the faith that God has entrusted” to us for all time. We are to be defenders and contenders, not grumblers and complainers.

Jude does not leave us wondering how to defend and contend for the faith. Before he closes out his letter, he outlines a few attitudes and actions that need to happen. Tomorrow!

I just saw an ad for “Frozen hot chocolate.” To me hot chocolate is something wonderful on cold winter nights, sipped slowly in front of a roaring fireplace, wrapped in a cozy quilt, soft candlelight bathing the room in a warm glow.  Okay, I’m a hopeless romantic, but hot chocolate should be hot … shouldn’t it?  Doesn’t freezing hot chocolate defeat the entire purpose?

The silliness of freezing something designed to be hot made me chuckle.  It reminded me of an old Burns and Allen routine when George caught Gracie freezing boiling water so she’d always have boiling water in the freezer when she needed it.  Made a great comedy routine.

There are some situations though where defeating a purpose doesn’t make such a great comedy routine, such as defeating the purpose of prayer by worry or anxiety.  The very nature of prayer is to make our requests known to God and to converse with Him about our cares and concerns.  Paul tells us to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  [Philippians 4:6]

Once our prayers and requests are offered to God, we should at that point be relieved of the burden.  To continue to worry and be anxious over the very things we have offered to Him is to defeat the very reason we prayed.  It is like “freezing” hot chocolate.

Does God immediately answer every prayer in the way and in the timing we think He should?  Not always.  But God does answer every prayer in His way and in His timing.  That is His prerogative.

Our job is to not defeat the purpose, but to be thankful and trust that He has our eternal interests at heart, He sees beyond the temporal into the eternal, and He knows the end before there is even a beginning.

Years ago my husband said things to the children that have since come back to haunt him, things like, “your mother shouldn’t have to carry in the groceries,” or “your mother shouldn’t have to take out the trash.” Well, the mother of his children often reminds him that I still should not have to carry in the groceries or take out the trash. With the children raised and gone, however, that only leaves him to take his own advice.

Another thing that has come back to haunt him is that he insisted that the job was “not done until you put a new garbage bag in the can.” Sometimes, when he remembers to do that now, he’ll give me a big grin and remind me that he put a new bag in the can “for me.”

Unfortunately, I don’t quite see it that way. That is not doing something special “for me,” that is simply doing what is expected. Take out the old bag, put in the new; it’s part of the job, simply, nothing more.

One of my favorite teachings of Jesus is found Luke 17:7-10, “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ ⁹ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’” [NLT]

Simply doing what is expected. Some things are just part of the job we are to be doing, they don’t demand that we be singled out as great heroes, or that we receive special awards or commendations. We are just doing our duty as servants of our Most High God.

I thought about my husband and his expectation for praise because he had put in a clean trash bag, part of that job’s requirements. And then I thought of myself, too often standing before God expecting praise, rewards, or notice for doing what was simply mine to do!

Romans 8:1-2: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” [NLT]

That is the most amazing promise – that there is no condemnation. It’s a done deal.

Colossians 2:13-14 confirms it is a done deal: “You were dead because of your sins …. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [NLT all past tense verses!]

In Romans times, the charges against convicted prisoners were recorded and posted on a sign outside their prison cells. Everyone knew why they had been judged and condemned.

That’s why the Jewish leaders wanted Pilate to post a different sign of judgment and condemnation on the cross of Christ than what he had posted. Pilate posted, “The King of the Jews,” and the Jewish leaders wanted, “He claimed to be the King of the Jews.”

I had a sign too: Mine said, “Terry Lema, Enemy of God, Rebellious Sinner.”

When I surrendered my life to Christ Jesus, those charges recorded against me were taken away and nailed to Jesus’ Cross … and now there is no condemnation anymore for me. There is no condemnation anymore for anyone who has surrendered their life to Christ Jesus!

We need to silence the three enemies we have in this life (the world, our flesh, the devil) who are always trying to make us take back that judgment and condemnation death record. They want us to think that it is no longer nailed to the Cross of Christ. They want us to feel condemned so that we won’t experience God’s love to the fullest measure the Father desires for us.

Oh Father, thank you that we can boldly say … There is now no condemnation!

I often hear people cry out in pain, “Oh God, I don’t deserve this!”  There are things in this world that can cause the most excruciating hurts.  At those times we look around and we see people who live far worse lives than we do, lives that ignore or openly defy God.  These people appear to have no problems and no pain, and we wonder “why?”  We serve God and this has happened to us.  They ignore God and live seemingly carefree lives.  We struggle; they abide in ease.  And we shout to the heavens, “God, I don’t deserve this!”

But that begs the question, what do we deserve? Ezekiel tells us just what we deserve, death.  “For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me.  The soul who sins is the one who will die.”  [18:4]

That’s not an easy concept to absorb, and when we do, we will find ourselves crying out like Isaiah, “I am undone!” But just as God did not leave Isaiah undone, neither does he leave us undone. For “God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  [Romans 5:8 NIV]

God did not give me the justice I so richly deserved, instead, while I was a sinner, He poured out his mercy upon me.

When I look with my heart at Jesus, I find myself crying out “Oh God, I don’t deserve this!  I was Your enemy, a lawbreaker deserving justice.  That You would send the most precious gift of Your Only Son to a Roman cross to die for me is almost too unbelievable to contemplate.  Instead of punishment as Your enemy, Your Son paid for my sins.”

Instead of an outcast lawbreaker, I am adopted into the family of God.  I am a child of God.  No longer estranged from my Father and deserving death, now I reside in God’s heart and one day I will reside in His house.  “Oh God, I truly don’t deserve this!”