TerryLema

Don’t you just love laughing with old friends … or with new ones! I love laughter. I love laughing so hard my ears and stomach muscles ache. There are some old skits from WKRP which make me laugh so hard I shed tears (especially the thanksgiving turkey bombing one).

What got me laughing today was a rather skewed (probably) view of Elizabeth in Luke 1.  When Mary came to visit, Elizabeth called her blessed for three reasons … Mary was blessed among women.  Mary was blessed for the child she would bear.  Mary was blessed for believing that what the Lord spoke to her would be accomplished.  [Luke 1:39-45]

What got me laughing was my take on that meeting and Elizabeth’s last blessing of Mary for “believing what the Lord spoke to her”.  I had just read the Song of Zacharias, Elizabeth’s husband.  Zacharias unfortunately did not believe what the Lord spoke and the consequences of that unbelief was that he was mute for nine months until John was born.  In my imagination I could hear Elizabeth say to Mary … blessed are you for believing what the Lord spoke … all the while thinking … unlike this man of mine who didn’t and now sits over there unable to speak.

 I’m not sure that is what Elizabeth really thought but it is what I would have thought!  I wonder if it is something Elizabeth and Mary discussed in the months they were together … all the while Zacharias was looking on sheepishly quiet.  We need to remember that the people in the Bible were real people, with thoughts and emotions just like us.  They are not superheroes, they are people empowered by the Spirit of God, just like us.

We can learn from Mary’s example of faith and obedience what to do, and learn from Zacharias’ example of unbelief what not to do.

You cannot think of Christmas without thinking of Mary.  Mary is often misunderstood, idolized by some, ignored by others.  Yet Mary has much to teach us.  Mary teaches us of the blessedness that comes from obedience.  When Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce to her that she was blessed among women and would be the mother of God’s Son, her response was simple.  “Be it done to me according to your (God’s) word.”  [Luke 1:38]

Later in Jesus’ ministry when someone shouted to Him from the crowd, “Blessed is the womb that bore You,” His response was simply, “rather, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.”  [Luke 11:28]

Jesus wasn’t downplaying Mary’s role, but rather pointing out that the way of blessedness for her is the way of blessedness for all of us … be it done to me according to God’s Word.  In other words, obedience.

Jesus Himself would cry out similar words as He agonized in Gethsemane before his arrest and crucifixion, “Father, not my will but Yours.”  And let’s understand that being obedient and blessed doesn’t mean we escape all unpleasantness.  Mary would be gossiped about most of her life I imagine as “that woman who became pregnant before marriage.” She would also stand and watch her son publicly humiliated and executed.  Jesus’ obedience led to the cross.

Obedience doesn’t always mean escaping difficulties, but it does mean we are saturated with blessings from God that accompany us through every and all.

The computer I use at work had been slowing down and freezing up. On Friday, it was determined that the hard drive was dying and needed to be replaced.  While the technicians were working to try to save it, I heard them use several words and phrases that gave me pause. Re-boot. Disk scan. Corrupt data. Re-image. My immediate reaction was to apply those terms to my/our spiritual life.

Re-boot: “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” We need to stop on occasion and re-boot (start over) our lives through repentance. [Rev 3:19 NIV]

Disk scan: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me.” It’s a breathtaking act to ask God to reveal to you what is in your own heart. But how wonderful to allow Him to do so that He may remove anything that is displeasing to Him. [Ps 139:23-24 NKJV]

Corrupt data: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  The god of this world is always filling our minds with corrupt data to try to lead us away from Father God.  We need to renew our minds through God’s Word so that we can know His will. [Rom 12:2 NIV]

Re-image. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” God’s will for our life is to be conformed to the image of His Son. God’s will is the same for all of us, to look like Jesus. The path He takes each one down to accomplish that purpose in us will be different for each, but the goal is the same–to re-image us to look like His Dear Son. [Rom 8:29 NKJV]

What joy!

As I prepare for my December messages, I’ve been thinking of that first Christmas night and how silent it was.  There was no royal herald racing through town announcing that a king had been born.  The bells did not ring. Trumpets did not blast.  No one cried out from the rooftops.  People were in their beds. Bethlehem was quiet, sleeping on in the darkness.

 While everyone slept the seismic event that would change this world forever was happening in a place that protected animals from the elements.  A young girl was giving birth to the Light of the World.  God’s Dawn was breaking forth, pushing back the darkness.  The shadow of death that blanketed this world would soon bow to the Dayspring from on high. Even though no one noticed, nothing would ever be the same.

Isaiah had prophesied of the light:  The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. Isa 9:2

Zacharias repeated that prophecy shortly before Jesus’ birth:  The Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78-79

All was silent.  All was quiet.  Except for a few shepherds, no one was aware of what was happening.  The Dayspring, the Dawn, the Son-rise had come.

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming but in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.

We learned Wednesday of the fall of another big television news ‘star’ because of sexual harassment and misbehavior. Even though I have never liked this news personality, I hate to see anyone’s sin publicly displayed. (I would not want mine to be shown to the world.) At the same time, there was a sense “what goes around, comes around” in that this personality has spent his career pointing to the sins of others and pontificating about them. Now his sins are scrolling across the bottom of the same television screens.

There is an Old Testament Scripture that reminds us that while our sins can be hidden from others, they cannot be hidden from the view of the Lord.  In Numbers 32, Moses was approached by the Reubenites and Gadites as they camped alongside the Jordan River before crossing over into the Promised Land. They liked the pasturelands there and wanted to stay on that side of the river. Moses confronted them about abandoning the other tribes in their conquest of the Promised Land. The Reubenites and Gadites assured Moses that they would go with the other tribes and help them claim their portion also.  Moses accepted their promise and responded, “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.” [V 23 NIV]

Ah, what a devastating thought. But thankfully, throughout Scripture God has promised mercy and grace, forgiveness and righteousness for those who love Him and who come to Him through His Son’s cross.  In Micah 7:19, He promised to “hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”  In Isaiah 1:18, He said that “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”  There is a song by Matt Redmond that says it this way, “every accusation, all our condemnation, silenced at the cross.” (Link to the full song below)

Let us pray that those whose sins “have found them out,” now find the free salvation offered in Christ Jesus.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=tightropetb&p=there+is+no+one+like+our+god+%2Cmatt+Redmond#id=52&vid=b5c72f93e4cb6ec202fb86ba12596990&action=click

One of the things I do at work now is run basic public records reports on different individuals.  Mainly, they are things like judgments, liens, foreclosures.  Sometimes there are notes about criminal records without any details. Occasionally something catches my eye. Last week I came across this notation “Criminal: violation of the basic rule.” It was an Oregon violation.

That, of course, peaked my interest.  What does Oregon consider as a “violation of the basic rule.”  It turns out the unabbreviated notation is “violation of the basic speed rule” and pertains to driving faster than the conditions warrant.

After learning what Oregon considers a violation of the basic rule, I figured I should find what God considers a violation of the basic rule.  That was an easy one. God gave the basic rule in Deuteronomy 6:5: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” [NIV]

Then He followed that in Leviticus 19:18 with: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  [NIV]

Jesus also reminded us of these in Matthew 22 and Mark 12. We have all violated God’s basic rule (the only exception is Jesus, God’s Dear Son). We’ve never loved God with all our heart, soul and strength. And we’ve done a pretty poor job of loving our neighbors to the same measure we love ourselves.  Our heavenly records look pretty much like that man’s Oregon record: “Criminal: Violation of God’s Basic Rule.”

Thankfully, our criminal record has been wiped clean, for “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [Rom 5:8 NIV]

Thank you, Father, for the great love you have given us in Christ Jesus. For taking us from being criminals and bringing us into Your family as Your children. Amen.

The first day of the last month of 2017. I love December. (And before you say it means winter is here, I like winter. Yes, I do.) December is the month where we celebrate the birth of our Savior (whether He was actually born in December or not!). Everything is adorned with lights and evergreens, with colors and candles. Tonight a few of us will gather to decorate the church, and tomorrow Bob and I will put up a few decorations at home also.

We don’t do as much as we used to do. Getting up on a ladder to hang lights isn’t as easy for a man who turns 78 in a few months as it was a couple decades ago. We’ll put up a few (low-hanging), and set up the tree. Maybe a few other things inside. We will, however, put up an old outdoor manger scene that I have had for decades. Every year we must fix what was broken the previous year by the wind and weather conditions. Every year Bob thinks we should toss it, but I won’t let him. We’ll fix it and the lights on it until we can’t fix it any more.

To me that old manger scene with Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, signifies what is truly important about this season. What is “Christ”mas after all without “Christ?” There is absolutely no significance at all in this “holiday” unless it is truly a “holy”day which reminds us of the great love of our God which endures forever.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” [John 1:14 NIV]

Let’s keep the season centered in Christ. If we take “Christ” out of “Christ”mas, all that’s left really is just a “silly commercial season.”

Last Saturday I had the privilege of going shopping for maternity clothes with a young mom-to-be from our church. The cashier in one store thought she was my granddaughter and asked me how many other grandchildren I had.  I told her, no, she was not my granddaughter, but she was a very special part of our church and I was having a great time with her that day.

I am reminded of what Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica. He told them, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”  [1 Thess 2:8-9 NIV]

There are young women in our church that are “dear to” me. I have grown to love them so much that it is a delight to not only share the Gospel of God with them, but my life as well. I find it so important that we “older women” impart as much as we can of what we have learned through our life experiences. We need to be a resource to them in daily matters as well as spiritual ones.  What will happen to the church, to families, if we fail to impart our wisdom and knowledge?

We must pass the torch on to the next generation.  I learned a while back that a young woman I had shared my life with in California was now doing the same thing with the younger women in her church.

And I will not excuse the men. They must also impart to the younger men the things of the Lord. They are to share their lives as well. This can’t be done from a distance. It requires getting close and spending time.

Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of sharing my life with others. Amen

Last Friday I did the filing at work.  I filed a very large stack of papers. It was a quiet day, lots of people took the day after the Thanksgiving Holiday off.

The room that the files are kept in is called, “the vault.” It is windowless and a bit stuffy, locked after hours. The difficulty with doing the filing is that there isn’t any room left. The files are crammed together on most of the shelves, even getting a manila folder or one of the larger cardboard files in and out is a challenge. So, I spent the first part of the day trying to make more room to add that large stack of paper.

By the end of the day I had cuts on three fingers, the corner of a file jammed under my thumbnail, a ripped nail on the other hand, a large bruise on my arm and a very sore back. Even though I was trying to be careful, work wounded me!

As I sat in my chair Friday night bemoaning my sore hands and stiff back, I was reminded of other wounds. Listen to what Peter wrote: “[Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” [Read 1 Peter 2:21-25]

My miniscule wounds left me feeling miserable, Jesus’ massive wounds made me whole. How can I ever thank Him enough?

My dear Savior, thank you for being wounded so that I might be healed and whole. Amen

Isaiah 33:6: “[The LORD] will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.”   [NIV]

I still find it amazing after reading something so many times to find something new I never saw before. Yahweh (YHWH), the LORD, “will be the sure foundation” (the stability) “for your times.”  Whenever you see “LORD” in all caps in the Old Testament, the original language is usually YHWH, Yahweh. It is the name of God given in four consonants to Moses. It is called “The Tetragrammaton.”  In Latin, it became JHVH, Jehovah. It is the most sacred name of God.

Isaiah wrote that the great LORD (YHWH), the Powerful God of Moses, would be the sure foundation for Israel in her times. He then added that the LORD would be “a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge” and that “the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.”

May I be so bold to say that the LORD is the sure foundation for our times as well?  Stability is lacking in our nation as it was in Isaiah’s. Nothing is sure, no matter how much they try to make it so. The stock market could plummet (again); terrorism could raise its ugly head in our midst in greater measure; some kook with a nuclear device could devastate our cities. Nothing is sure if we are looking to nationalism to make it so.

Isaiah tells us that we do have a key to stability, it is the fear of the LORD. When we fear (respect, reverence, stand in awe) of the LORD we have the key that will open His rich store of salvation, wisdom and knowledge.

We, as individuals, and corporately as the church, must use that key; we must see a return of respect, reverence, awe of the LORD or we will never experience that sure foundation!