TerryLema

I was talking to someone who mentioned that they didn’t think very much of the concept of “Revival.” They had their reasons. I think many of us have different definitions of what “Revival” means and how it will happen.

For me, “Revival” is synonymous with the Presence of the Lord Jesus in our midst.  When Jesus comes, He brings life and immortality to us.  When Jesus comes into our midst death cannot abide in His presence.  He is the destroyer of death. That is what Paul wrote to Timothy.

 “…Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”  [2 Tim 1:10 NIV]

There are many forms of death other than the physical.  The progression to death goes like this:  evil desires give birth to sin, sin when full grown gives birth to death. Death takes many forms, relational, financial, emotional, mental – death can and does come into many areas of our life. Sin always kills something. [James 1:13-15]

But when Jesus comes, life comes. That is revival. Give it any name you want, revival, spiritual awakening, Spirit outpouring … Resurrection life more abundantly! Jesus is here, and we are alive in His presence.

Lord, we hunger for your presence. We hunger for life!  Amen.

When Jonathan brought word to David that his father, King Saul, did indeed want to kill David, David escaped and went into enemy territory to Gath. You can read about it in 1 Samuel 21. When the servants of Achish, the King of Gath, reminded the king of the victories David had against his enemies, David feigned madness and escaped. It is thought that Psalm 34 was written on that occasion. In that song, David extends an invitation to all of us, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good….” [vs 8 NKJV]

Taste and discover the goodness, the graciousness of the Lord. In the New Testament, Peter takes David’s invitation to taste and see and he tells us that there are two results when we discover the goodness, the graciousness of our Lord.  There is a negative action; there is a positive action.

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” [1 Peter 2:1-3 NKJV]

When we discover how gracious our God is to us, we will lay aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking. That is the negative. We will through repentance, forgiveness and by cooperating with the Holy Spirit, remove these far from us.

Then we will desire to grow through the nourishment of the Word of God. That is the positive. We will add to our lives the power and strength of God’s Word to lead us into righteous living. It is not enough to simply do the negative, we must add the power of the positive to live well.

All this, of course, hinges on David’s original invitation – “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

In 2 Peter, chapter 3, Peter wrote about the Day of the Lord, and about the scoffers who would come during the last days. He wrote about how the Day of the Lord will bring about the new heavens and new earth, and that it could happen just like that! He also reminded his readers that God’s purpose in being patient is that He doesn’t want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance.

Then he said, “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.”  [Vs 14-15 NIV]

As I read those verses I checked my heart with three questions.

Am I looking forward to the Day of the Lord and the New Heavens and New Earth? Oh, I am! I can hardly wait to hear that great trumpet sound and see the dead in Christ rise and be with Him forever.

Am I making every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with God? That is a bit more difficult to answer. Am I? Every effort? I have peace with God through Christ Jesus my Lord, but I’m not sure how energetic I am in pursuing holiness (spotless, blameless). I need to obey better than I do now.

Am I bearing in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation (and am I doing all I can to bring salvation to those who don’t know Him)? I would have to answer this honestly with probably not. Too often I grow impatient with others instead of modeling God’s patience and desire for them to know Him. This one needs a lot of work

Father, help me to wait patiently, to pursue holiness, to have Your heart for the unsaved. Amen.

If you have been following along on Facebook, you probably already know the “Saga of the Sink!” The Sunday before we left for California on May 1, we discovered our kitchen faucet had begun to leak under the sink. We had water damage. We shut everything off, called the insurance company and a mitigation company came to survey the damage. Then we left for our trip.

Upon our return, we contacted the insurance company and on the 10^th the mitigation company removed all the water damage and set up loud fans and de-humidifiers, which were finally removed after three days. Then on the 15^th we got a bid for reconstruction, and the company installed a laundry tub so I wouldn’t have to use our hall bathroom as a kitchen. The newly installed sink leaked. Back they came and fixed the leak.  At last! I could now cut up salad in my kitchen.  Little did a know.

The following day I cut up lettuce, put it in a colander to be washed and set it under the cold-water tap. Coming back to it after a minute, I noticed it was wilted. I discovered that I didn’t have a cold-water tap in my kitchen, I had two hot-water taps. They had accidentally connected the dishwasher line to my cold-water tap. They fixed that the next day.

Yesterday we finally heard back from the insurance company approving reconstruction. My kitchen has been almost useless since April 29. As I see the broken counter top, the cut-up floor, the laundry tub, I can’t help but laugh. I have always tried to make Proverbs 17:22 my attitude during trying times. It sure has come in handy over the last 22 days and will probably be needed all through reconstruction!  A merry heart does good like a medicine. [NKJV]

I really am laughing at “The Saga of the Sink!”

Something changed in me recently.  I received a healing that I neither expected nor requested. I wrote recently about the volatile and difficult relationship I had with my mentally-ill mother. For years I tried to reason with a woman who did not have the capacity to reason. Our relationship left me impatient, angry, frustrated.  It left me wounded in many ways.

I have forgiven my mother. I have worked free of her fears that for years took residency in my own emotions. I really thought I had reached the end of that healing. Forgiveness and freedom, what more could there be? This past Mother’s Day I learned there was one thing more … love.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. [1 John 3:2 NIV]

When my mother left this world and entered the presence of our Lord Jesus, she was healed. The wounds which dominated her life on earth were healed. I know that when I enter His presence, I too shall be completely and finally healed. I also know that I will be able to look my mother in the eyes and say, “I love you,” and for the first time truly mean it.

Forgiveness. Freedom. Love. It is found in knowing Christ Jesus.

Father, tell my mother I love her, and that I look forward to the day when I can hold her and tell her myself. Amen.

I was playing around on Facebook recently and hit one of those links. It was reported to give me my “Warning Sign.” I seldom do things like that, figuring it’s just a way for others to gain information about you.  This time, however, I hit that link.  This is what I got in return.  “Warning!  Terry Lema:  Be warned that this woman has no time for drama.”

Okay!  This time it hit the nail on the head!  I don’t have time for drama. Let’s cut to the chase, get to the bottom line, peel away the layers!  Maybe that is why I love Proverbs 12:1 so much. “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” [NKJV]

When our grandson was little, his parents didn’t want him to use the word “stupid.” Calling something “stupid” meant timeout.  One day PapaBob uttered the word “stupid” in front of our grandson, who immediately jumped on the opportunity to send PapaBob to the timeout chair.  He went, although not particularly happy about it.

Solomon had no qualms, however, about using a word we translate as brutish or stupid. “He who hates correction is stupid.”  God corrects us, instructs us, so that we might not stray from the right way. He corrects us because He loves us. We may not like to be corrected (no one likes to be told that they are wrong), but we need to embrace correction.  That correction will keep us safe, away from the harm intended by the enemy of our soul.

Father, by the power of Your Spirit in me, make me willing to embrace Your correction.  I don’t want to be “stupid!”

1 John 4:16: We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

 As I was reading in 1 John two words in verse 16 drew my interest—they are: know and believe.  John is emphatic when he says that we know and believe the love that God has for us. I asked myself, do we? Do we really know and believe that love?

*Know:  ginosko (ghin-oce’-ko); to “know” (absolutely).

*Believe: pisteuo (pist-yoo’-o); to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ)

Wow. John uses a word that means to know absolutely. Absolutely says we know God’s love without even a hint of doubt. And because we know absolutely, we can entrust our spiritual well-being to Christ Jesus.

I watch news shows such as Dateline and 20/20 on occasion. What I see so often is the trouble that happens when people become so eager to be loved that they entrust their well-being to the wrong ones. This yearning to be loved often overpowers good sense. It places people in desperate situations and at times even leads to death.

But to know absolutely the love that God has for us, to entrust our spiritual well-being to Christ Jesus, always leads to life, eternal life. God loves me! God loves you!  Do you know absolutely and believe that love?

*(Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

On Palm Sunday I told the congregation the story of the little boy who was too sick to go to church on a Palm Sunday and had to stay home with his mother. When his father returned from church he was carrying a Palm branch and the little boy asked him what that was. The father explained that when Jesus came to town, the people waved Palm branches to honor Him.  The little boy responded, “The one Sunday I’m not there is the Sunday Jesus decided to visit!”

Someone asked me why we didn’t stay in California longer than three days, staying the weekend and coming home on Monday instead of rushing home Saturday morning. I replied that we didn’t have a lot of money, the trip was spontaneous, etc.  Those were valid reasons. But deep in my heart, I was a little like that small boy. What if the Sunday I was in California was the Sunday Jesus decided to visit Idaho?

To some that may sound silly, but that is my heart’s cry. I go to church every Sunday now anticipating the Spirit is going to rain down upon us. I am expecting the River of God to begin to flow down the aisles of our log cabin church. I am expecting the manifest Presence of God to walk among us, bringing healing, deliverance, repentance, salvations, restoration, Revival. I want to be there when it begins to happen!

I am waiting and desperately praying for God’s Revival to visit us. I don’t want the same-old same old. I want the fresh anointing. I want what God has for our generation. I want what God intends for The Way in Middleton, Idaho. So, I wait, knowing that one of these Sundays Jesus is going to visit us like never before and everything – everything – will be different, including me.

Father, we’re desperately praying and waiting. Amen.

Last Sunday in church we prayed for healings. Not specifically for physical healing, but healings of all types.  Most of us came forward and stood at the front of the church. We began to praise, to acknowledge our need and to believe. God said, “Today is the day.”

 Today is the day. Today is dawning and God is breaking through all the barriers we have erected in the past to keep Him out of our midst.  He’s breaking through our need to control what happens in our services. He’s breaking through our self-centered prayers and motivations. He’s breaking through and bringing a new spiritual awakening, “Revival!”

And the enemy of our soul senses what is coming over the horizon. The enemy is putting up a great fight against those who are waiting and seeking for the great spiritual awakening in our midst today. But the enemy is fighting a losing battle.  The enemy cannot stop God’s move, but we can.  Be aware, beloved, that God has warned us that we can lose today if we harden our hearts to Him as Israel did in the wilderness.

“Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.’” [Heb 3:6-9 NIV]

Today is coming on the wings of the Spirit and the ones who have been waiting and desperately praying are going to receive it.