TerryLema

David wrote psalm 57 as he fled from Saul into a cave.  It was a cry for mercy, a cry for God’s purpose to be fulfilled, a cry for the evidence of God’s love and His faithfulness, and a cry for David’s soul to awaken.

Listen to verse 8, “Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn.”

What David is saying here is elementary, “Wake up David!”  I know that is what I often feel like doing–shouting at myself to “Wake up Terry!”

When we battle God, when we turn a deaf ear to His pleas, when we ignore His purpose for our lives, it isn’t long before our soul simply goes to sleep.  The voice of the Lord becomes more and more distant until finally we simply do not hear it anymore.  It isn’t that He’s quit talking; it’s that we’ve become deaf to His voice.

As David was in a literal cave, pursued by his enemies, crying for God’s mercy and purpose in his life in Psalm 57, I sometimes find myself in a spiritual cave.  When I do, it is a cave dug by my own disobedience, my own attitudes, and my own rebellions.

“Awake, my soul!” tells me it is time to repent and leave the cave, time to realign my attitudes with the will of God, time to admit His purpose in me and time to change.

Warfare, enemies, battles, weapons, none of those sets our heart to singing; but everyone is a necessary part of the Christian vocabulary.  As Christians we do not live in a lovely rose garden, we live in the middle of a battleground.  In this world we have tribulation.

The next time you read the NT Epistles of Paul and James and Peter and others, notice the words mixed in with love and compassion and joy that speak of our warfare in this life, words like persevere, fight, resist, weapons, strongholds, captive, deceive, weary.  On and on they go, charting a course through life that is full of the love and joy and comfort found in Christ, amidst the trials, temptations, suffering and battles.

We would be foolish indeed if we did not recognize that we are surrounded by enemies on all sides that want to see us fall, want to see us bring shame on the name of Christ. And how silly we look to non-believers when we get in the middle of a battle and don’t know who we are fighting or what weapons we should be carrying.  More than that, how must we break the heart of our Savior when we fall into the trap of battling our fellow Christians.

One of the saddest things about the Church of Jesus Christ in this world is how we fight among ourselves and how we end up killing our wounded. Paul wrote, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.”  [2 Cor 10:3-4 NIV]

Our brothers and sisters are not our enemies – even when they act like they are.  Our enemies are the devil, the world, and our very own flesh.  Let’s recognize what we are fighting and learn about our weaponry.

I was reading in I Chronicles. There is a lot of exciting stuff in 1 Chronicles and there is a lot of rather “boring” passages as well. As I was reading, however, my interest peaked surprisingly … not in the exciting sections, but in one of the less so.

“These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, as the Lord had said:  men of Judah, carry shield and spear—6800 armed for battle ….”  [I Chronicles 12:23-38]

On and on the list goes, men of Simeon, warriors ready for battle; Zadok a brave young warrior; men of Ephraim, brave warriors; men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do; men of Zebulun experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon; men of Naphtali carrying shields and spears; men of Dan ready for battle; men of Asher, experienced soldier prepared for battle.

As I read, I was also reminded of Psalm 144, a song of David, “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.”

The Bible is very clear that we have three enemies in this life … the world, the flesh and the devil. It is also very clear that the weapons we use for each of these enemies are different.  We do not battle the world the same way we battle the devil or the flesh. Different enemies; different weapons.

The problem sometimes seems to be that often we have no idea who or what we are doing battle with.  So we arm ourselves with weapons designed to defeat the devil, when what we really need are the weapons to defeat the world.  Battling the wrong enemy with the wrong weapons nets us nothing but frustration and grief.

We need to pray for the ability to discern our enemies and the wisdom to choose our weapons rightly.

Read Acts 4 and we’ll see many common traits among those early Christians. Courage to act and courage to speak.  Radiance that comes from being with Jesus. Obedience.  Praise and Prayer and Power.

We often see those same traits exhibited in those with whom we fellowship. Those marks of the Christian are to be highly appreciated and desired.

There is another trait in Acts 4 that is often more elusive. It comes at the end of the chapter.  “All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” [vs32-37]

Unity in Christ.  You would think it would be so easy, after all we are the Body of Christ, we are all attached to the same Head.  But history as well as current experience has given testimony to the fact that Unity is often the one thing missing among us.

Too often we think that uniformity is what God desires, that everyone should be like us, talk like us, think like us, act like us. And if they don’t, they certainly cannot claim fellowship with Christ. That is definitely not so.

When we compare ourselves to each other, we get in real trouble.  Comparisons always need to be aimed in a different direction, straight up, not side to side.  I can always find someone who is worse than me, and ignore those who are better, but when I compare myself with my Master and see how far I still have to go, then I realize I don’t have the time to be condemning others for their walk, I’ve got too much to do about me!

I woke up recently tired and a bit bedraggled.  I knew what I needed, what I had been lacking for a few weeks. So, I curled up on the couch with my Bible and begin to read and to pray. When my prayer and praise life is interrupted by life in general, I feel spiritually weak.  There is no power in my life when there is no praise and prayer.

Acts 4 begins with the arrest of Peter and John for speaking to the people about the resurrection of Jesus. Later they were brought before the members of the council to explain both the healing of a crippled beggar and their bold words. The Council recognized they were ordinary men with no training in the Scripture, but “They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.” [vs 13b NLT]

After being warned not to speak again about Jesus, Peter and John left the presence of the rulers and went back to their own people. They reported what had happened and all that the chief priest and elders had said to them.  After the people of God listened to the account, they immediately raised their voices together and began to praise, and then they began to pray.

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.”  They praised God for who He is and what He had done. Then they prayed, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”  [4:23-30]

As soon as they were done, “the place where they were meeting was shaken.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”  [4:31]

Praise combined with Prayer equals Power.  It was so in Peter’s and John’s time; it is so in ours.

Three daily verses populate my email inbox each morning. Often those verses reflect something I am thinking about, sometimes even confirming a devotion I sent out recently, or plan to send out in the next few days. (I usually have a few days’ ready to post.)

My practice is to read not just those verses each day but the verses in context in my Bible. One recent verse was part of Psalm 94.

“I cried out, ‘I am slipping!’ but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.” [Psalm 94:18-19 NLT]

Psalm 94 is a plea to God for help in a world plagued by wickedness and injustice. The Psalmist calls out to God as the highest judge to intervene. It is also a song that expresses trust in God to ultimately set things right and offers both comfort and peace of heart to those who trust Him.

It is a difficult thing to see wickedness flourish, but we have the promise that wickedness and injustice will not prevail. Our God is the highest authority and one day wrongs will be made right. One day those who reject his authority will receive what they have chosen.

One day righteousness will prevail for all eternity. Even so, come LORD Jesus. Amen

I have always been a “fast” person. I walked fast, ate fast, worked fast, learned fast, and played fast. I used to be able to stop on a dime spin around on my heel and head in a different direction. I could not sit without doing something with my mind or my hands, usually crocheting or knitting or reading.

That all has changed. “Fast” has been eliminated from my vocabulary. I don’t spin anymore, unless I want to land on the floor. My hands won’t allow me to crochet or knit much. And my mind…well, it takes a little while longer to process anything new. I have slowed down. And that often irritates me. I told Pastor Paco recently, “the spirit is willing, but the body says ‘Nope!’”

It is hard to be slow in a society that values speed and is always looking for ways to be faster. And yet being slow allows me to hear God’s voice more clearly. Being slow allows me to see my LORD and Savior all around me. Being slow allows me to be more aware of when people are hurting or confused or lost. Being slow now gives me time to be kinder, more encouraging, more patient, more responsive to the needs of others.

Romans 12:15 tell us to “Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.” [NLT]

When we are fast paced we often speed right past those who are rejoicing or those who are weeping. We fail to bring comfort when we fail to notice it is needed.

Now I am slow. I cannot do what I once did … but oh my, the things I now have time to do! Praise God!

I was reading a story on Facebook the other morning from a woman who found an old man with Alzheimer’s lost in the grocery store looking for his wife. After finding a phone in his pocket, she called his daughter and waited with him until she arrived. The last sentence in this post was “kindness doesn’t cost anything.”

That post made me sad. Not because the story was sad, but because people were “celebrating” it as if it was this rare occurrence rather than what should be an everyday common part of life. Perhaps they were correct to do so. It seems our culture now has lost a lot of its kindness.

The child of God, the disciple of Christ Jesus, is always to be kind. The Holy Spirit, with our cooperation, produces the kindness fruit in us.  “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” [Galatians 5:22-23 NLT]

A few years ago, when I was looking to purchase a car. After a long day of touring lots, I ended up at a dealership in Nampa. While browsing the lot, a young salesman joined me. He started asking a lot of questions and somehow, we got around to the fact that I was a Christian pastor. This young man was gay, and an immediate look of dread passed over his face when he heard I was a pastor. He took a step back as if unsure what I might say or do.

I smiled and we stood in the parking lot for a long time just talking about my life and about his. I told him I could sense how much God loved him. When it was time to leave, I put my arms around him and told him again how much God loved him and how Jesus died for him. He hugged me in return.

It cost me nothing to be kind that day. It still costs nothing to be kind. And I find that kindness prepares a heart to receive what it might not otherwise.