TerryLema

This year is going fast.  The last great summer holiday, Labor Day, is only weeks away. Fall and winter are just around the bend. After the exceptionally long hot summer, I am hoping for an early fall and more comfortable temperatures (also an end to this horrific fire season).

I was reading in 2 Peter this morning.  Chapter 3 is about the coming of the Day of the Lord.  Peter writes “Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, ‘What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.’”   [Verses 3-4 NLT]

God gave a promise that the Lord would return.  The prophets of old spoke that promise.  Jesus foretold the promise of His return.  The angels on the mount when Jesus ascended into heaven reiterated that promise.  The Lord will come again.

If the people of Peter’s day were wondering why it was taking so long to realize the promise, how much more are we wondering the same 2000 years later?  Our world is filled today with scoffers who follow their own evils desires, who say nothing ever changes.

Peter goes on though and reminds us that the scoffers who mock the coming of the Lord are deliberately forgetting things.  They “deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.  Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.” [vs 5-6 NLT]

These scoffers said that everything goes on as it has from the beginning of creation; nothing ever changes.  But they are forgetting that things do change and change dramatically in an instant by the word of God.  The world as it was from creation to Noah was suddenly changed when God caused a great flood to cover the face of the earth in judgment.  And God has promised by His same word, that this present heaven and earth are being kept for a Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Change is coming.

“…of a mild type or character that does not threaten health or life.” [Mirriam-Webster Dictionary]

That is a definition of the word “benign,” a word spoken to me at a recent medical appointment. It evoked an immediate response of relief and peace. Afterwards, as I thought about that response, I realized that with just the mention of certain words, there is an immediate reaction that often arrives before we even have a chance to think about it.

That also applies to the negative. Words such as “cancer,” or “divorce,” or “fired” will often evoke an immediate response of worry and fear.

There is also another word (a name actually), that arouses immediate reactions. Talk about “God” in a generic sense and most people are okay. But mention the name of Jesus and watch what happens.

For those who love Christ Jesus the LORD, there is a welcoming, joyful reaction that warms the soul. For others, there is a flinch or withdrawal from the conversation.

Jesus … the Name Above All Names, the Name before which everyone at some point will bow the knee, requires a decision—either For or Against.

I decided “For” 51 years ago. A decision I have NEVER regretted.

Now when I hear the name Jesus, my heart cries out … I love You LORD!

I am reading Peter’s first letter.  At the very beginning Peter talks about being God’s elect, about being chosen, about this new birth that we have obtained into a living hope through Christ Jesus.  Then I stumbled into the word, “therefore.”

1 Peter 1:13: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action . . ..”  [NIV]

Therefore means that as a result of what Peter just wrote, the following is an action that should happen. And the first thing that should happen is that we should “prepare [our] minds for action.”   I like the way the New King James translates that phrase, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind . . ..”  [NKJV]

In Peter’s day men wore long flowing robes.  Any woman who has ever tried to run in a long skirt knows that it isn’t easy.  So, in Peter’s day, men wore a girdle.  The girdle was a belt through which they could hitch up their robe to be able to move or run freely.  Workmen, runners, warriors, travelers, all girded themselves up to prevent the garment from impeding motion.

As Christians we have a work, a race, a war, a journey to accomplish and that means that we must prepare our minds for such.  We can’t let our affections, our attitudes, our thoughts loosely hang around and hinder.   We are supposed to pull them in, gird them as it were so that we can obediently accomplish all that God has purposed for us.

Every thought that would hinder us is to be reined in and restrained, just like those flowing robes were reined in and restrained to allow the workmen and warriors to go about their necessary business.

Oh Christian, gird up the loins of your mind!  Prepare your mind for action!

I’m standing in the garage gazing at all the stuff that has accumulated since we moved here in 2007. Stuff has always been a pet peeve of mine (even my stuff).  You know stuff, the stuff in the stores, the stuff in our houses, the stuff we must rent storage sheds for since there is no more room in our garages to hold it all.

This is a consumer economy, so the one message aimed at us continually in this country is that we need more stuff, and bigger stuff, and better stuff.  Our stores have to be larger to hold all the new stuff as well as the old stuff.  Or they start selling more stuff online so they don’t have to build bigger stores to hold it all; they can just ship from warehouses or manufacturers. Shipping companies are thriving because we are sending so much stuff from one place to another.

Stuff … walk through a mall and just look at the stuff.  As I do so I usually have two thoughts … first, can I live without this; second, what would someone from a very poor village or refugee camp think about this stuff.

We have too much money in this country.  We have too much greed.  We fill our homes with useless pieces of things that have no meaning, purpose, or use, except to fill a desire or satisfy a whim.

Maybe I’m being too hard on us as a nation.  Maybe it’s okay to be surrounded with meaningless pieces of treasure.  Maybe God doesn’t mind us wasting our money, or buying bigger, newer, things constantly.  Maybe.

I don’t want to be a consumer.  I want to be a giver.  I want to share … not just my dollars and cents, but my life, my good news, my freedom.

Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 

Watching the summer Olympics, it is clear that only a few will receive medals. Many more go home empty handed. I wonder if they ever feel sorry for themselves not standing on the winner’s podium. I know that every now and again when I don’t realize my goals, the enemy of my soul tries to make me feel sorry for myself. When that happens, the Holy Spirit often redirects me to the Letter to the Philippians.

Paul wrote the Letter to the Philippians from prison and probably had every reason to feel sorry for himself.  Yet it isn’t self-pity which permeates the pages of Philippians, it is joy.  Sixteen times in four short chapters Paul mentions joy or rejoicing.

The reason Paul is so joyful is that he’s so full of Christ.  In addition to the many mentions of joy in those four short chapters, there are more than 40 mentions of our Savior.  Forty-plus times in 104 verses Paul refers to our Savior either by His name, Jesus, or His title, Christ, or a combination of the two.

There is more “Jesus per square inch” in Philippians than there is in any other book of the Bible.  It is only because Paul is revolving around Jesus that the JOY springs forth.  Paul doesn’t see Jesus in the heavenlies, as he did in Ephesians, sitting at the place of all authority and power.  Paul sees the all-sufficiency of Christ in day-by-day living.

Each of the chapters in Philippians presents a picture of what Jesus is to us in our everyday life.  Chapter 1 speaks of Christ our life.  Chapter 2 outlines Christ our mind.  In Chapter 3 we see Christ as our goal.  And last, in Chapter 4, Christ is our strength.

Our life, our mind, our goal, and our strength; Jesus is all sufficient for every part of our lives. Amen!

“Grab your coat and get your hat.  Leave your worries on the doorstep.  Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street.”  That’s a line from an old, old song, “The Sunny Side of the Street” by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh.  It’s a song I love to sing, one line in particular: “I used to walk in the shade, with those blues on parade.  But I’m not afraid, this rover crossed over!”  

Colossians 2:16-23 is Paul’s version of “The Sunny Side of the Street.”  “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality [SONshine], however, is found in Christ.”

At the time Paul wrote this, there was a group of false teachers constantly dogging his footsteps and trying to undermine the freedom he preached in Christ.  They wanted to draw Christians back into the shadows (they still do).

Paul reminds his readers that to have a shadow, (altars, offerings, festivals, priesthood, etc.), you must have something of substance, and that substance [SONshine] is Christ.  Why return to the shadows when you can have the true substance.

In this passage Paul describes Christ Jesus (the true substance) as the “Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” 

We are the body.  Christ is the head.  We can live without various parts of our body.  I’ve had a few surgeries in my lifetime and I’m living proof you can live with some pieces gone.  But get detached from the Head, and you’re dead.  Paul just called these false teachers with their “appearance of wisdom” dead, and warned his readers if they got caught up in these “human commands and teachings” they’d be dead also.

There’s one other line in that old song.  “Can you hear that pitter-pat? And that happy tune is your step.  Life can be complete, on the sunny side of the street!” 

SONshine (Jesus) or shadows, that’s the choice.