TerryLema

David wasn’t the only one to designate people to sing and give praise and thanksgiving before the Lord. Years later, when the Jews returned from their captivity in Babylon, Nehemiah did the same thing.

When the Babylonians seized Jerusalem and carried off the Jews into captivity, the city was left in ruins. Solomon’s temple was destroyed. The wall which guarded the city was broken down. God put it on Nehemiah’s heart to return from exile and rebuild the wall. Others had already worked re-building a smaller version of the temple.

At the dedication of the wall, Nehemiah brought the Levites from where they were living to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps, and lyres. Singers were also brought in. Two choirs were formed as they went up on top of the wall … Nehemiah directed one to the left and the other to the right. The two choirs gave thanks and took their places in the house of God. Even the women and children rejoiced.  You can read about it in Nehemiah 12:27-43.

Nehemiah reported that “on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.” [V 43 NIV]

“The sound of rejoicing … could be heard far away.” What a testimony! Oh church, is that what the world hears coming from us?  Is that what flows out of our hearts and lives? God gave them great joy. God has given us greater joy in His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Let the world hear today the sound of our rejoicing!

Today begins Thanksgiving week.  If we haven’t been thinking about thanksgiving this month, we should probably start before too long.  Soon, we will be into the crazy Christmas season where it seems everyone is so rushed.

When David brought the Ark of the Covenant and set it inside the tent that he had pitched for it, they offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. David blessed the people in the name of the Lord and gave each a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and one of raisins.

He did something else also. He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD. The Levites were given three tasks, to make petition, to give thanks and to praise the LORD. He even gave them a song to sing … it began, “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.”   

Some, like Heman and Jeduthun were chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the LORD. They used trumpets and cymbals and instruments. You can read about it in 2 Chronicles 16.

What a wonderful job to have—to go every day to the presence of the Lord and sing and give thanks. Wait! We have that job also and we don’t have to go to a temple or tent for the presence. God’s presence now dwells within us.

Oh Father, what glory to know that we too can be in Your presence and sing praises and offer our thanksgiving for all your wonderful works. Help us to be aware always of all You have done for us. Amen.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” [Phil 4:6-7 NIV]

Anxiety surrounds us in this life. Yesterday, we looked at some of the words that cause anxiety in our times.  Never forget that the enemy of our soul wants to keep us anxious.  He wants anxiety to take root and burrow deep down in our minds and hearts so that we can never feel safe, never feel peaceful.  He’ll use whatever it takes to generate fear.  That fear will keep us from enjoying life.

That fear will do something even more profound.  It will cause us to doubt God.  How many times after a disaster or diagnosis or death have we been confronted with, “Why did God allow this to happen?”

Unfortunately, “why?” questions are unanswerable. None of us knows the mind of God. And there must always be that acknowledgement of “free will.”

Paul promises that if we take everything and present it to God through prayer cloaked in thanksgiving, God will guard our hearts and mind with a peace that cannot be understood in the natural. We may not know “why.” We may not see things change for the better. We will, however, have this kryptonite-like peace covering our hearts and minds so that anxiety cannot take root there.

We will be able to face life with all its dangers. We will be able to face God without any doubt that He is for us.

Father, thank you for Your peace. I may not understand how I can be peaceful amid such trying times. I just know that I can be if I bring it all to You in prayer and thanksgiving. Amen

 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  [Phil 4:6-7 NIV]

How often I have heard this verse used as a text for thanksgiving. I’ve even used it myself. Perhaps I have even used it without giving much thought to its depth?

It begins with a decisive statement. “Do not be anxious about anything.”  Read the paper or online news lately?  Watched any broadcasts? How can we be living in these times and not be anxious?  Everything around us seems to be working to promote anxiety, not lessen it.  Let me list just a few words of anxiety that have been in the news recently.

Floods. Fires. Terrorism. Death tolls. North Korea. Taxes. Those are national words.  What about personal words?  Cancer. Heart Attacks. Strokes. Accidents. Job Loss. Taxes (we’ll throw that one in twice.)

Yet, Paul clearly commands us in the middle of such things to not be anxious.  About anything!  Instead we are to take all those words and present them to God in prayer, wrapped in thanksgiving.  That isn’t easy, yet it is so needful.  Because if we will follow this command, God has made a promise to us.

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” [Phil 4:7 NIV]

More on God’s promise tomorrow.

This year the Thanksgiving Holiday is going to be different for Bob and me. We have almost always had our children and grandchildren together on this one day. That won’t happen this year. Both sons will be spending the holiday in other places, one in Nevada, the other in California.

We will, however, have our daughter and her family with us.  Rather than cooking, we are talking about going out for dinner. I can honestly say I can’t remember ever spending thanksgiving in a restaurant!  I may have, I just can’t recollect it.

Change is a fact of life. We want things to remain the same, to always hold to the same family traditions, but that isn’t always possible. Many times, we must make new family traditions.

David makes a promise in Psalm 9 that the LORD reigns forever, that He has established His throne, that the LORD is our refuge and stronghold, and that He has never (nor never will) forsake those who seek Him. [vs 7-10]

The Thanksgiving Holiday may be different for me this year, but the things for which I am thankful have not changed. Father, thank you that …

“Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”  [vs 10]

Today is my friend’s birthday.  We were not sure in August that she would celebrate this one; she was so sick. God, however, has allowed her to remain with us. She still is in the recovery process, but she is here!  I can reach her with a phone call; I can visit when given the opportunity. God must have known how much we needed to be able to reach out to her, to hear her voice, her laugh, to know her love and her prayers for so many.  I am so thankful!

I am so thankful for friends.  Merriam-Webster defines friend as “one who is attached to another by affection or esteem.”  In the Greek it is the word, philos, (fee’-los), and it means the same thing.  The word “fond” is part of that definition.

God called Abraham friend [Isa 41:8], and Moses also [Ex 33:11].  Jesus said that we were His friends when we do what He commands [John 15:14].

I know God loves me … I know God loves me!  He loves me even though I am not worth that love. I don’t always do what pleases Him, still I know He continues to love me and through His Spirit continues His work in my life.

But, to think that God is also fond of me contains a certain sweetness.  It’s not that I can do anything in my own strength to deserve that affection or fondness. To me, it is the simple assurance that I am, at least for this moment, obedient and doing what He commands. It means I can feel His pleasure.

Thank you, Father, for Your love for me that never wavers, never falters or fails. Thank you, Father, that there are those times that I can feel Your pleasure, when I experience deep in my soul your affection for Your child. Amen.

I remember my former pastor Jim Gardiner always saying that it is easier to get people to love God than to get people to allow God to love them.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “Indeed, our chief defect as Christians is that we fail to realize Christ’s love to us.”*

I often write about the love of God shown in Christ’s sacrifice for us. I think I often write about it because I am often thinking about it!  It always shakes me to my core to think about God loving me, a sinner. That verse in Romans 5 says it all to me. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [vs 8 NIV]

This past Saturday we celebrated Veterans Day. It has been proven far too often that members of the Armed Forces will lay down their lives for their comrades in battle. But I wonder how many would lay down their life for their enemy? That is not what you do for your enemy.  Yet, that is what God did for His.

In sin I lived until the call of the Gospel reached me. I was God’s enemy. I neither acknowledged Him as Lord of my life not had any desire whatsoever to serve Him and then His love flooded my heart, His grace took hold of me and faith arose. For the first time in life perhaps, I understood what “love” was. God loved me. He proved it to me in His offer of Christ’s sacrifice for my sin.

Oh, beloved of God, let us never as Lloyd-Jones wrote, “fail to realize Christ’s love to us.” Let us not doubt how much He was willing to give so that His enemies might become His children. Let us never fail to proclaim His love in this life so that others might come to know Him.

*Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The Unsearchable Riches of Christ [Baker], p. 219)

I was listening to a song on my MP3 player as I drove to work.  It was “Even If” by Kutless. One of the opening lines in the song says, “So when the heartache hits like a hurricane/That could never change who You are.”

The chorus goes on to proclaim, “Even if the healing doesn’t come and life falls apart and dreams are still undone, You are God, You are good, Forever Faithful One, even if the healing, even if the healing doesn’t come.”

That could never change who You are.  How true! Too often we allow life to change our perspective of who God is, instead of allowing God to change our perspective of life. God made a profound declaration in Malachi 3:6 that should ground us forever in Him.  He said simply,  “I the LORD do not change.”

Nothing is strong enough to change who God is, nothing, not circumstances, nor heartaches that hit like hurricanes. Nothing is strong enough to change God’s plan for our life. Not the sin of man, the hurt inflicted by another, free will, natural disasters, nothing is stronger than our God. What He has promised, He will do.

He is Good, Good Father. He is Forever Faithful.  Thank you, Father. Nothing in my life is bigger or stronger than You. Amen.

James 1:17:  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  [NKJV]

Every morning when I get up I start the coffee, plug in my phone to charge, and let Miss Molly Magee the rescue cat out of the laundry room where she sleeps in her beloved basket on the dryer. She follows me to the kitchen demanding attention, first a belly rub, then a small handful of treats in her bowl.

When the coffee is done I pour a cup and head to the bonus room. My computer and books are there. My favorite quilt is there also, and Miss Molly’s favorite blanket next to mine. I send out and post these devotions on line and on Facebook. If I’m going to work I have about one hour to spend there, on Saturdays I’m there much, much longer.

Whether I’m there for only an hour or longer, Miss Molly joins me. She curls up on her blanket, fusses a few minutes to get comfortable and then falls asleep while I write or read. One thing she always does though is put a paw or two on me.  She must be touching me someway or she can’t settle down and rest.  If I shift, she stirs and waits and then re-connects.

As I’m watching her sleep now, facing me with her paw on my arm, I marvel at how peaceful she is. She’s connected to the one she loves by a touch. She could spend the whole day next to me. And I think, “Lord, I could spend the whole day here with You. Touching You in Your Word, praying to You, listening for Your Voice.”  

I know that in a few moments, I need to shift my focus to the things of life that must be done today. Still, I know that throughout the day I need to be like Miss Molly, I need to re-connect and once again touch the One I love.

“It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night….” [NIV]

Veterans Day 2017. It’s a day when we celebrate and remember all those who have served in the Armed Forces. My husband did. He’s a proud former Marine.  He attends the Veterans Day Parade every year in downtown Boise and loves to get with others who shared like experiences.

My father never served in the military, although he was a young man during WWII.  He tried to join but was told he was too valuable at home as a shipfitter. He worked at the Mare Island Naval Yard on the wounded ships returning from battles in the Pacific. After the war he went to the Philadelphia Naval Yard to help restore the Navy’s fleet.  I think one of his greatest disappointments in life was that he couldn’t serve. I don’t think he ever realized how valuable his work was.

1 Samuel 30 tells the story of the time the Amalekites raided Ziklag where David was staying while he waited for the kingdom to become his. While David and his fighting men were away, the Amalekites carried off all who remained in the city. Upon his return, David and the men set off to reclaim what was theirs. Some of the men became exhausted in the pursuit and stayed behind with the supplies while others continued.  Those overtook the Amalekites and rescued their own. When they returned to where they had left the supplies some didn’t want to share the spoils with those who had remained there.  David, however, set an ordinance in place.  “The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” [vs 24 NIV]

Oh, beloved of God, we too will share. Not only will we share in the inheritance in Christ Jesus – as if that isn’t enough – we will also share in the kingdom rewards. We can’t all be missionaries or have powerful ministries, but when we’ve given even a little of time or money or prayers, we will have a share in what is done to bring God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Whether you have guarded the supplies or “went down to the battle,” all will have a share.