TerryLema

(I decided to end my offline time early)

Colossians 1:13-14: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

God rescued us.  It can’t get any plainer than that.  God rescued us; we didn’t rescue ourselves.  It was His idea, His plan, and His Son that carried it out on Calvary.  If we ever get the feeling that God is lucky to have us, those three little words … God rescued us … should put all back in perspective.  We were dead; God gave us life through His Son. God rescued us from . . .

. . .the dominion of darkness.  I love that!  The Greek word for darkness is used throughout the New Testament as the equivalent of physical darkness, intellectual darkness, blindness, the place of punishment, moral and spiritual darkness, evil works, evil powers that dominate the world.  That’s the ugly stuff that held us in its powers.  But God rescued us, from the power of darkness and He . . .

. . . brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.  He didn’t rescue us from the power of darkness and drop us just anywhere.  He brought us into the kingdom, into the kingdom of the Son He loves, the Son who gave His life for our rescue.  And it is in God’s very own Son that we find we have . . .

. . . redemption.  “Redeemed!  How I love to proclaim it.  Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.  Redeemed through His infinite mercy.  His child and forever I am!”   We have been delivered and ransomed.  We are no longer captives, slaves to darkness’ power.  We have been redeemed and set free by the very blood of God’s own Son.  And even more, we have . . .

. . . the forgiveness of sins.  Forgiveness.  “’Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD.  ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’”  [Isaiah 1:18]

Forgiven.  God has forgiven my sins.  They will never be thrown up in my face, they will never be put on display, they will never be whispered about in heaven, they are forever covered by the Precious Blood of God’s Lamb.

Two short verses, a couple of lines in my Bible, a few words.  And held within those few words are our lives, past and present as well as the hope for a glorious eternal future.  Glory to God.

In the New Testament, Ephesians 4:20-23 mentions our attitude: “You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds.”  [NIV]

The word for attitude in Ephesians 4:23 is the Greek word, “pneuma” and it means “breath.”  We get our word pneumonia from it.  It is sometimes translated as “spirit.”  Our attitude is the breath of our mind.  As vital as breath is to the body, attitude is to the mind of the believer.  It shapes every part of our lives as Christians.  In fact, attitude shapes our daily life more than anything else including our circumstances. It is the single most important determination in how we live our lives.

Viktor Frankl was a renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust Survivor.  He survived several years in concentration camps, including Auschwitz.  His parents and his wife did not.  He wrote a best seller titled, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” which sold more than nine million copies.  Frankl believed that we could only truly be happy when we have found meaning in life.

One of Frankl’s most powerful ideas is that we can choose our attitude, even in the most difficult of situations.  He wrote:  “We, who lived in concentration camps, can remember the men who walked through the huts of others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

“ . . . everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:  the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances . . ..”

The breath of our minds is as basic as the breath of our bodies.  If we are to have life and that more abundantly, we must have a new attitude, an attitude that mirrors God’s own attitude, an attitude that is full of compassion, resounds with joy, and has a single focus on things above.  It is as basic to eternal life and that more abundantly as the breath of our bodies is to natural life.

Consider your circumstances, then consider your attitude.  You alone determine your attitude in any given set of circumstance.  You alone control the way you think, how you react to your emotions, and how you will handle even the most adverse circumstance.  May God bless you and help you to be “made new in the attitude (spirit, breath) of your minds.”

I was watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. I wasn’t overly impressed with the show. But I wasn’t watching the Opening Ceremonies for the show, I was watching to see all the athletes from all the different nations boating down the Seine. Seeing each of those represented nations took me back 45 years.

In 1979, Bob and I were living in California in a large home that we built. Our children were 9, 6 and 3. Bob’s mother and step-father-in-law lived in a connected apartment sharing a common laundry room.

We were new members of a large Assembly of God Church that was hosting the graduates of a School of Ministry from Southern California who were in town for a week-long revival. We had agreed to host three young men. Bob headed down to the pickup site with our van to bring them home.

I soon got a phone call from him telling me we need to make room for “a few more.” When some of the host homes discovered that some of these men were from African nations, they bowed out of hosting. I asked him how many more. He said, “Four.” He came home with seven men for which we were to provide room and board.

They came from Indonesia, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, along with a man from Canada and one from Montana. The local newspaper was so impressed, they interviewed us and took our picture for the paper.

As I watched the boats in the Olympic Opening Ceremony, I thought about those young Christian leaders and wondered where they were and what they were doing now 45 years later. I pray their love for Christ stayed strong down through the years.

I also wonder if they still remember their time with us.

When it comes to the will of God, I find three things perfectly clear.  The first: Romans 8:29: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”  God will use everything in our lives to move us closer to His goal to make us like Jesus.

The second thing I know is something my former Pastor used to say all the time:  it is easier to turn a moving ship than one docked in the harbor.  God will not spurn a willing heart, and even failures will not prevent you from His good and pleasing will if there is sincere repentance and a desire to be used of Him.

The third thing I know is:  The enemy of your soul hates it when you’re moving with God.  The enemy of the Gospel will use every trick in the book to stop you, to discourage you, to get you to sit down and quit trying.  He’ll even use people who love you to remind you of your failures.

Paul never forgot that he persecuted the church.  Listen to his words: “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.  However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.”  [1 Tim 1:12-16]

He never forgot his failures . . . but he never let his failures stop him.  Yes, he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, and considered himself not just a sinner but also the “chief” of all sinners.  Yet God called him, showered mercy upon him, and used him in ministry.

Is there sin in your past?  Repent and receive mercy.  Have you ventured out for God before and failed?  Don’t forget that, but don’t let that failure stop you now.  Let Paul’s pattern be yours.  Remember what you formerly were, but let God enable you to be conformed to the image of His dear son, a willing heart moving with Him in the furtherance of His kingdom.  Then you will be able to cry out with Paul: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”   [1 Tim 1:17]

When it comes to the will of God, I find three things perfectly clear.  The first is found in Romans 8:29: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”  God will use everything in our lives to move us closer to His goal to make us like Jesus.

The second thing I know is something my former Pastor used to say all the time:  it is easier to turn a moving ship than one docked in the harbor. 

Acts 16:6-10: “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.  When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

Paul was a moving ship.  He was headed toward Asia, and God turned him around and sent the Gospel back toward Europe.  He was heading to Bithynia, but Jesus stopped him and sent him instead to Macedonia, and the Gospel came to Greece.

Paul was moving.  It’s easy to turn someone who’s moving.  It is harder to turn someone who’s standing still, because first you must get them moving!  I firmly believe that God will not spurn a willing heart.  God will use anyone whose heart is set on being used of Him.

What if we’ve made a mistake, or got entangled in a sin and had to repent, or failed at something God gave us to do before?   Does that disqualify us from God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will?”

If so, then it disqualified Moses and David and Paul and Peter and multitudes of saints down through the ages. Moses murdered a man, David committed adultery and murdered to cover his sin, Paul persecuted the church and Peter denied Christ, yet God used each one and many others in a mighty way after they repented and returned to the Savior of their souls.

God will not spurn a willing heart.  Get moving!  If you’re heading the wrong direction toward Asia, God will keep you from entering and turn you back to Europe.  It’s easy as long as you’re moving!

I am often asked about the will of God.  What is God’s will for my life?  Is this God’s will for me?  If I do this, will I be in God’s will? If I make a mistake, am I out of the will of God?

There are a lot of books on the bookshelves about finding the will of God for your life as an individual.  I’ve read teachings on the perfect will and the permissive will of God.  I heard an idea that if you get entangled in sin, you forfeit the right for God’s best, and must settle for God’s second best will.

The Bible at least to me, seems silent in some ways about the will of God.  It is evident that we are to know God’s laws, His precepts, and His word, and that He expects us to obey those. But when I try to survey Scripture to find answers about the “will of God” as we often define it, whether we should go here, or do this, or buy that, I am often at a loss.

I find three things quite clear, however.  The first is found in Romans 8:29: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”  

It is the will of God that we are conformed to the image of Christ Jesus.  Whatever God needs to do, whatever He needs to use, everything He does has one singular purpose … to make us like Christ.  He’ll use successes and failures.  He’ll speak, He’ll woo, He’ll challenge, He’ll convict us to move us closer and closer to the likeness of His Son.  The ultimate thing I know from Scripture is that God’s will is to make us like our Savior.

Romans 8:29-30: reminds us “those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”  The work that God began in us will be completed.  God set this work in motion, and He will use everything to accomplish His will to make us like His Son.

Our part is to offer our bodies as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,” to no longer conform “to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing” of our minds.  With that offering of our bodies, and that transformation of our minds, Paul writes, we will be able then to “test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  [Romans 12:1-2]

It is not about what we are doing, where we are going, what we are buying, or other such things . . . it is about who we are becoming. 

It was a strange morning last Monday. Hot and humid but still got in a ½ mile walk early. I had three goals. One, to work on the homework for my Wednesday night Bible Study at Pastor Laura’s home. It’s a study on “Elijah, Faith and Fire,” by Priscilla Shirer.

Two, I needed to work a bit on my devotion for the Senior Potluck in August. And three, I wanted to write a couple daily devotions. All the while my mind was filled with the wonderful healing service at CFC Middleton on Sunday.

I did my Bible Study homework first. One part of the lesson on Simple Prayer caught my attention. It talked about God never changing but we do. We grow and mature and in the process become stronger in our ministries (if we allow God to work in us).

After completing my Bible Study homework, I began to work a bit on my Senior Potluck devotion – about the season of my life now, diminishing strength, slowing down, etc.

Then it struck me, after a lifetime of growing and maturing and becoming stronger in ministry, I’m old and no longer able to do what I’ve spent a lifetime learning to do!

I began to pray, and I heard the LORD speak, “Psalm 96,” so I grabbed my Bible. I never even finished the first verse! “Sing a new song to the LORD.” [vs1a NLT]

I am not what I once was. I am not able to do what I once did. But now, at this stage in my life, I am being called to “sing a NEW song to the LORD.”

I can’t wait to hear what that NEW melody will be!

Physical knees and prayer, prayer and spiritual knees are closely intertwined. Prayer becomes more focused when we bend our physical knees and spiritual knees become stronger when we pray.

In Acts 9, when Tabitha died, the disciples sent for Peter.  When Peter arrived, he sent all the mourners out of the room, “then he got down on his knees and prayed.”  When Peter dropped to his knees and prayed a miracle happened, Tabitha was raised from the dead and presented alive back to the disciples.

Would God have heard Peter’s prayer had he been standing instead of kneeling?  Yes.   Did kneeling make the prayer more valuable?  Probably not.  Did kneeling cause the miracle?  No.

Kneeling doesn’t score brownie points with God, doesn’t make our prayers more valuable or cause miracles.  Kneeling is not for God’s benefit; it’s for ours.  All through Scripture, we are exhorted about physical postures in conjunction with spiritual acts.

Praise and worship are heart actions, but we are told that there are also outward manifestations, outward physical acts that accompany our praise and worship of our God.  We are told to shout, sing, raise our hands, dance, stand, and kneel.  These outward postures reflect, enhance, and focus the inward desires and delights of our hearts.

When we kneel to pray, our body bows alongside our hearts before our Savior and Lord.  Our posture reflects our surrender to God’s will in our lives, His Lordship over us.  Kneeling strengthens our prayer attitude, and prayer strengthens our spiritual knees.  This reciprocal action makes us better able to face this walk of faith with courage and peace.

As our Blessed Savior neared the end of his life, the cross looming large in front of Him, He went to the Mount of Olives, taking His disciples with Him.  “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, taken this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.’  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.”   [Luke 22:39-43]

Jesus faced the greatest challenge of His life, the cross, with prayer, falling to His knees in the garden.  When we face our greatest challenges, the crosses that come our way in this walk of faith, we would do well to follow His example, on our knees, and with a “not my will but yours be done” on our lips.

Knees.  Knees are funny looking, some are knobby, some stick out, and some even have dimples.  Knees are made up of bones, tendons, ligaments and cartilage.  Knees facilitate motion, make it easier to walk, and possible to hop, skip and run.  Knees allow us to bend down and to squat.   If your knee is ever rendered immobile by a cast or brace, you realize how much more difficult any type of movement is.

As a little child I associated knees with something else.  I grew up in a church with “kneelers.”  These were little cushioned benches that pulled down from the pew in front of you and made it easier for you to kneel through parts of the service.  I learned to associate knees with kneeling in prayer.

As an adult I associated knees with an altar call.  The minister would, at some point in the service, invite people to come down front for prayer.  People would rise from their seats and walk down front, and there they would drop to their knees at an altar, sometimes praying alone, and sometimes praying with others.  Knees and prayer are associated.

As I was reading in Acts this past week, I read about the martyrdom of Stephen.  At the very moment Stephen’s life was taken from him, he dropped to his knees.  “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’  When he had said this, he fell asleep.”   [Acts 7]

Stephen prayed forgiveness on those who were killing him.  Standing there watching and agreeing to Stephen’s death was a man named Saul, Saul of Tarsus, the man who would later become Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Stephen’s prayer for forgiveness went in two directions.  It went to the throne of God, and it went to the ears and possibly the hearts of his listeners.

We aren’t told what effect it had on Paul’s heart, but I am convinced that later when Paul looked back on his life and saw his persecution of the church, including his assent to Stephen’s martyrdom, he also heard Stephen’s words of forgiveness.  I know God heard.