TerryLema

Paul closes his letter to the Romans with greetings to a list of people.  On Paul’s list is a man named Apelles.  “Greet Apelles, whose fidelity to Christ has stood the test.”  [Romans 16:10 NIV]

Not much is known about Apelles, but what we can glean from this short greeting is amazing.  His name, Apelles, means “called.”  At some time, Apelles heard the call of Christ in salvation and responded.  We also can glean that he was known to Paul.  Their paths of ministry crossed at some point and Paul now sends his greetings.

There are two other notable things we know about Apelles. We know he was tested.  We can only imagine what that testing was.  The very fact that Paul, who was grievously tested throughout his ministry made note of it, implies that Apelles may have faced something quite severe.

The second thing we know is that Apelles stood faithful to his Lord in the testing … his “fidelity to Christ has stood the test.”

That is high commendation coming from such a one as Paul the Apostle.  That is praise any of us would love to have … called, tested, and found faithful.

I can’t wait to meet Apelles around the throne and hear “the rest of the story!”

Father God, may you find us faithful in whatever test we face for the name and glory of Christ Jesus. Amen

Ps 139:14: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”

Most of us are familiar with Psalm 139, David’s praise of God’s knowledge of him and care for him.  How often I have heard that phrase found in verse 14 above, “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Perhaps more than any other time we have scientific proof of that in the study of our DNA—our genetic structure.

Lately, I’ve been thinking the genes I received from my parents aren’t all that wonderful. In my 70 years, I’ve had 14 surgeries (starting at age 4), some minor, others major, some successful, others not.  I have some lasting effects from some of them.  I’ve also had tinnitus (ringing in my ears) since I was 19.

My mother’s family had very thin hair which almost disappeared by the time they hit their 60’s; my father’s side had thick hair that turned gray when they were very young.  Yep, you guessed it, my thin hair began turning gray when I was in my 20’s, and then started falling out in my 60’s.

Like I said, my genes from my parents gave me a body that seems more fragile than some.  But, with all the weaknesses, I still praise God as David did, for there is another part of that song that is even more precious to me.  “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” [v16 NIV]

God knows my days, every one of them.  Whether many or few, God designed each one.  I need never fear that my genetic structure with all its weaknesses and frailties will rule the day. On one day in 1973 God gave me salvation. On one day in my future God will also give me an eternally new genetic structure.

Father, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made and you have ordained my days, my pathway to come home to You is set in Your wisdom and love.  Amen.

I had connectivity issues with my computer last Saturday.  Some websites loaded, but very slowly and not the ones I wanted.  I rebooted the computer.  Same problems came up.  Then I thought it might be that I’ve installed too many applications on my computer, so I decided to uninstall them.

It took a long time. Things that only took 30 seconds to install, took about 5 minutes to uninstall. As I watched my computer struggling to get rid of these worthless applications, it constantly flashed messages to me to “have patience—this may take a while.”

I began to chuckle. While watching my computer struggling to uninstall, I saw my heart. The Scripture that immediately came to mind was Hebrews 12:1: “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles….”  [NIV]

Sin so easily installs in our hearts.  It only takes a moment, a few seconds of a bad decision or choice and we’ve downloaded something worthless into our souls.  The struggle to uninstall that worthless sin takes so much longer, but if left unchecked, it will slow us down and affect our connecting with our Lord.  We must recognize its presence, confess and ask for forgiveness, and learn to receive cleansing from God.  How much better it would have been to not have installed it in the first place!

1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  

(Oh, and as for my computer.  I went on a worship walk around the neighborhood and when I came back, it worked just fine.)

Father, thank you.  Amen.

I served as Hospice Chaplain in California just prior to moving to Idaho. One day when I was on call for the hospital chaplain, I received a call asking me to report to the Emergency Department. When I arrived, I was told that a young woman had been brought in by her boyfriend. She was dead on arrival. They had called the girl’s mother who was on her way and asked me to be with her when they broke the news.

Upon hearing the news, the mother began to sob, and kept repeating one word, “Why?”.  I learned a long time ago that “Why?” is not so much a question as it is a cry of pain, and that we make matters much worse when we try to answer as if it were a question. I simply held her for a while. Eventually her pastor arrived and seeing him she again began to sob out “Why, why, why?”

His response was to tell her that Christians are not to ask why, that it is a lack of faith. He sounded so harsh. As they turned to go, I slipped my card in her hand. A few days after the funeral she called, explaining that she could not stop asking “Why?”, but felt she could not talk to her pastor. I told her to pray every day and ask God either to give her the answer to her “Why?”, or take away her need to ask.

It was more than a year before I heard from her again. She called to tell me that she had been praying every day and that over the past weeks she realized that God had taken away her need to know “Why?”.  She had found, she said, a measure of peace.

God doesn’t always give explanations, but he always gives a promise. When Paul asked God to remove his thorn in the flesh, God did not. He did, however, give Paul a promise that His grace would be sufficient. He took away Paul’s need to ask. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9:  “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you….'” 

We do not live on explanations or answers to our questions, we live on God’s promises and His grace.

Ps 40:6:  Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced…. [NIV]

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire …” David speaks prophetic words about the Messiah in verses 6-10 of Psalm 40.  By Divine inspiration, he understood that the Levitical sacrificial system was not the ultimate pathway to God.  Lambs and goats would never be sufficient to atone for the sin of mankind.  Instead God would send His Son, and the Son would submit Himself as a servant to do the work and will of the Father.

“But my ears you have pierced …” refers to the Old Testament law regarding indentured servants found in Exodus 21.  If a Hebrew sold himself to another to pay a debt, he was to serve for six years and then be set free without paying anything.  However, the servant could – out of love for his master and by choice – remain a servant for life.  To seal that choice, the servant would be taken before the judges and his master would than take an awl and pierce his earlobe.  [v2-6 NIV]

Jesus came as a servant … as He said to seek and save the lost.  He did it willingly, as God revealed prophetically through David.  We, too, are servants.  And like our Master, we must offer our ears to be pierced.

Serving Christ Jesus is not an occasional duty.  It is not something we fit into our lives when we have time. Servanthood is also not something reserved only for sacred settings. Our servanthood is played out in everyday life.  It’s getting into the ditches to find the wounded and castaways.  It is searching the highways and byways for the lost.

Father, I offer my ears to be pierced.  I love You.  I want to serve you in this life so that I might glory in You in the next.  Amen.

When I was a little girl my mother taught me a children’s song, “Oh playmate, Come out and play with me / And bring your dollies three / Climb up my apple tree / Slide down my rain barrel / Into my cellar door / And we’ll be jolly friends /Forever more.”

I am 70 years old and I still remember that song, along with many other such silly songs. I also remember sitting in the grass picking yellow dandelions, pulling off one petal at a time and calling out, “He loves me; he loves me not,” with each.  Funny the things we remember from our childhood.

“He loves me, He loves me not.”  Is that the way we think of our relationship with Christ Jesus?  When things are going well, we have health, good finances, and answered prayers, “He loves me.”  When the times are tough, circumstances are trying, or God seems silent to our needs, “He loves me not.”

It is during those “He-loves-me-not” times that we need to remember another song from our childhood, “Jesus Loves Me This I know.”

Take a moment and listen as Marshall Hall sings that wonderful children’s song. I hope you like his rendition, but if not, you cannot help but love the reaction of the audience.  You can see it on the faces of all ages–they have come to the last petal and they know, “He loves me.”  Yes, He really, really loves us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQVOld9XFkM

Ever since Father’s Day I’ve been thinking about my dad.  He went home to the Lord in 1988 at age 75. He grew up during the depression.  The oldest of six children, he left school at 16 to help his family financially.  He saw all his brothers and sisters finish high school before he left home at 27 to get married. In 1964, a few days before I graduated from high school, my dad did also.  I remember how proud he was to walk off that stage with his high school diploma at age 51.

I also remember how angry my father was for so many years.  His marriage was difficult; often having to cope with my mother’s mental illness.  And he always seemed so tired. My mother could not keep a job so sometimes he worked two to make ends meet.

Then in the mid-70’s my father changed.  He met Jesus in a personal experience, and before very long, his anger simply disappeared.  Nothing changed in his circumstances, in fact, they got more difficult as my mother aged. Their finances got worse, they lost their house, and at the end he developed pancreatic cancer.  All the things that should have increased his anger could not because the Lord of Peace was living in my father’s heart.

In those last years, my dad became known as the one who gave comfort, smiles and hugs to everyone in our church. He helped at Vacation Bible School every summer and the children fell in love with him. At his funeral when the pastor asked if anyone would like to say something about “Papa George,” one little girl said, “when I fell and skinned my knee, he put a Band-Aid on it and hugged me.”

Comfort, smiles, Band-Aids and hugs–and the peace of God.  Not a bad legacy for a man.  I am sure if Papa George was here, his prayer for us would be that of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:16: “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.”     [NIV]

Every morning I receive our local e-mail newspaper and throughout the day I also get e-mail alerts from it along with those from a major news affiliate.  I even get Amber Alerts and National Weather Service warnings on my phone.  Each wants me to know about the things going on in our world right now. They inform me of trial outcomes, violence, arrests, terrorism, alarming weather occurrences, child abductions, and the like.  Bad, bad, bad, bad news.

Wouldn’t it be nice if occasionally we got alerts about good news? Ah, but then the Lord reminded me, I’m not supposed to get alerts about good news from others … I’m supposed to alert everyone of the Good News!  “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation,” Jesus said.   [Mark 16:15]

As believers in Christ, we have the best news of all … God has proven His love for us in sending His very own Son to die in our place.  He has forgiveness waiting for us.  He has newness of life to give.  He has liberty from sin and bondage.  He has joy and peace and provision.  He has grace and mercy just waiting for the taking.  That’s good, good, good, good news.

The world needs to hear from us about the Good News.  Too many people know Christianity only by what it is against. How about we start shout from the rooftops our Good, Good, Good, Good News.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgwXUn7mwcs

Ps 145:13:  The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.  [NIV]

Read Psalm 145 today — it is a song of David that tells of God’s greatness and His faithfulness.

God remains faithful day in and day out in the largest and smallest of circumstances.  His faithfulness is always there, even when we are unaware of it.

It is when I look back that God’s faithfulness becomes clearer.  I can delight in all the answered prayers (even those answered with a “No” or a “Not now.”)  I see the supernatural touch of God in my life through healings and miracles.  I recount the day-to-day strength He poured out on me and the peace amid chaos that came straight from His Spirit.  I give thanks for the “daily bread” He provided.  I remember, also, the times of special anointing and awareness of His presence.

God’s abiding faithfulness through it all speaks volumes now in my present.  I know that even the trials I face today, or will face tomorrow, will not take God by surprise and that He has already made provision for what I need for every one of my remaining days.  Great is His faithfulness every moment.

Can you see God’s continuing faithfulness when you look back?  Today is a good day to spend in thanksgiving for all His love and faithfulness.

Father, I am grateful for all You have done in me, for me and through me.  I am grateful for the provision You have for today and tomorrow no matter what I will face.  I am amazed by Your care and the love You pour out on one such as I.  Amen.

Psalm 69:5-6: “God, you know my foolishness, and my guilty acts are not hidden from you. Do not let those who put their hope in you be disgraced because of me, Lord God of Armies; do not let those who seek you be humiliated because of me, God of Israel.” [Christian Standard Bible {CSB}]

I am 70 years old. I have been saved since I was 26. I have been in ministry since 1985, and have been pastoring full time these last years. I still do foolish things. I thought as I “aged,” I would also “mature.” And I have, but, I still do foolish things. I recently had to amend a personal Facebook post after someone I trust pointed out to me that it contained the very rhetoric that I was speaking against.