TerryLema

“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.”

“Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.”

“Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to you to hide me.” [Psalm 143:8-9 NLT]

Enemies we have. Trouble often finds us. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. Our very hearts betray us and turn against us. David had enemies, that is evident when we read Psalm 143. Yet David understood that the only place to find safety is to run and hide ourselves in God. Then we are safe.

In God we have a hiding place so secure that no matter who is trying to search us out, we cannot be found. We are safe in God, in the shadow of His wings, in the shelter of his tabernacle. “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.”  [Psalm 91:1-2 NLT]

No one can pull me from the shelter of the Most High, but so often I am tempted to try to remove myself from His safety. Things bombard my soul and assail my spirit. Temptations abound and I often find myself moving away from Him. Curiosity killed the cat and sometimes curiosity gets me in trouble too. I expose myself to harmful and hurtful things.

Mornings are my time to once again place my soul in the shelter of His wings. Mornings are my time to retreat once again to His tabernacle. I remind myself as I sit reading His word about the safety I have in Him.

As I mentioned yesterday, I love mornings. In the mornings I turn my gaze from the things of this world to seek the Lord. Psalm 143, a Psalm of David, has a delightful passage in verses 8 to 9. Yesterday’s devotion looked at the first thought found there: “Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.”  [NLT]

David’s part is to trust in God; God’s part is to bring him word of His unfailing love. David goes on: “Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.” That’s my morning. It’s the time when I lift my soul away from the problems of the world and re-focus my gaze on the Lord.  As I do this, God once again shows “me where to walk.”

When we lift our souls to God, we are for a time raised above self and the world. We are with God in heavenly places. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” [NLT]

That place will be ours in totality once we have crossed from this life to the next one. Now, however, we can only know it in part. Most of the time the world and life in general pushes us down. The world, the flesh, and the devil work very hard to crush us. They seek to keep us pinned as it were to this earthly dwelling.

God, however, in His mercy, calls us to lift our souls to Him and realize that in Christ, we are seated with him in the heavenly realms. As that happens, He will show us the way to go. Come mornings, as I sit alone with Him, I am drawn away from this world to the heavenlies and my gaze is once again where it should be, on my Lord and my God.

I am a morning person. I have most of my energy in the mornings. It also means I really dislike Daylight Saving Time. I would much rather wake up to light than go to bed when there is still light outside.

In the mornings I spring out of bed (well since I have aged, my spring is not quite as springy). I make a good cup of coffee, snuggle in my quilt, read my Bible, and pray or write as the sun comes up. There is something so precious about mornings spent with the LORD.

This morning, I was reading Psalm 143, a song of David believed to have been written during the rebellion of his son, Absalom. The opening verses are a cry for mercy and relief, relief not only from outside enemies, but also from inner sins and despair.

However, I was particularly drawn to verses 8-9: “Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to you to hide me.” [NLT]

David often looked to God in the morning. You will find references to his morning conversations in Psalm 5, and Psalm 30. There is something about the sunrise, as the dawn breaks over the horizon that refreshes and renews. Jeremiah reminded us in Lamentations that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning.

Read verses 8 and 9 of Psalm 143 again and notice that while David looks to the Lord for answers, he also recognizes that there are some things he must do. He must put his trust in the Lord. For David to receive, he must first trust.

There is nothing magical about a new day. There is something wonderful about a new day when our trust is in God. As we trust Him, each new day brings a fresh word of His unfailing love.

Monday morning following the NFL playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills there was a headline in my morning newsfeed about a man I will call John Doe (although the newsfeed didn’t).  “[John Doe] drops potential game-tying two-point conversion catch vs Bills.”

Now I am not a Baltimore Ravens fan. In fact, being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan means I cannot be a Ravens fan. I watched the game, and I saw the player drop the ball just seconds before time ran out, meaning there would not be another chance. And I saw the cameras immediately show the player on the bench. His face proclaimed to the world how devastated he was. I felt sorry for him – even though I was not rooting for his team.

To wake up Monday morning and see his name and that announcement that he dropped the ball, made me appreciate our God so much more! I have throughout my life “dropped the ball.” I have made mistakes, sinned, failed, flopped, and fallen. And yet my God has promised that He will never remember my sins or lawless deeds.

“This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.’ Then he says, ‘I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.’” [Hebrews 10:16-17 NLT]

Does God have a bad memory? No, when it says He will “never again remember” it means He will never hold my sins against me since I am hidden in Christ Jesus my LORD. I will not wake up the morning after I arrive in glory to find “Terry Lema dropped the ball” broadcast across heaven.

Amen & Amen

One of the hardest things about parenting is teaching a child to listen. First time parents are usually learning that fact when their perfect little baby hits two. Suddenly, a parent is confronted with “No!” and “MeDo!” and “Mine!” and other such defiance.

(This phase usually reappears when our children become teenagers. The defiance is much like that of a two-year-old, but their vocabulary has improved.)

I remember getting ready to go somewhere and sitting my children down. I’d begin by making them look at me, and I would tell them how I expected them to behave where we were going, and what would happen if they chose not to act appropriately. Then I would have them repeat their understanding of what I just said. Sometimes it worked; other times it didn’t.

I knew I needed to instill in them the ability to listen – as well as an understanding of accountability. Actions (good or bad) have consequences.

I think if we could sit down with our Father God, He would confirm that one of the hardest things for His children to learn is listening. How often we have that two-year-old attitude before our God. We must learn to hear His Voice. We must learn to “Tune” our ears to His commands. God’s ways and will must be our treasure.

“My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.” [Proverbs 2:1-4 NLT]

I had to go in for a blood draw the other day. It was an unpleasant experience – oh not for me, but for a little boy on the other side of the curtain.

I had heard him crying when I first walked in, then there was quiet while I got settled in for my test. Soon, the crying began again, then it got louder and more intense. Finally, the poor little guy was screaming. All the while voices around him were trying to shout over his screams.

I told the technician drawing my blood that it reminded me of a time when one of my children had to endure a test, which was unpleasant even for an adult, let alone a child. They would not let me go in with my child, even though I was a calm(ing) mom. I could hear screaming from the waiting room while the test went on and it broke my heart.

The technician casually said sometimes it is the parent who creates the situation. I could hear his frustration. Apparently, this situation started well before I got there. He said when the parent can “distract” the child away from the “needle,” it usually goes much better.

I thought about that all day as that little one’s screams echoed in my mind. It reminded me how important it is to keep our attention fixed on our LORD during those times of difficulty and pain. When we focus on the circumstances, that “needle” headed toward us, panic and fear often become our response and our companions through the journey. When we focus on the LORD, He promises we will not be shaken.

Psalm 16:8: “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” [NIV]

One of my favorite authors is R. C. Sproul. His book, “The Holiness of God,” and “The Pursuit of God” by A. W. Tozer changed my life. One of my recent daily email updates contained a quote from Sproul, “When there’s something in the Word of God that I don’t like, the problem is not with the Word of God. It’s with me.”

That quote confirmed a Scripture that God brought to my attention on January 1. “O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” [Micah 6:8 NLT]

I have been meditating on the Scripture from Micah since the beginning of the year, especially that opening thought … “The LORD has told you ….”

How often have I prayed about something and not gotten the answer I wanted, so I prayed more, and enlisted other people to pray, and then more people, hoping that God would do an about face and give me what I wanted.

Often those were times when I did not want to do what God asked, nor did I want to love mercy or embrace humility before my God.

As I look back on those times now, I am so grateful that God did NOT give me what I prayed for. How messed up my life would be had He done so. Thank you, LORD!

What a Chapter! First there was the servant who was so faithful and diligent, so trustworthy that he inspired his master to seek a healing for him. There was the centurion, a Roman soldier who had first learned to follow so that he could lead, so caring of a servant that he was willing to seek help from an itinerant Jewish teacher.

Then there was a dead man made alive and given back to his widowed mother. And John the Baptist, in prison for his outspokenness, and his disciples, turning their attention from the one who led the way, to the Chosen One sent by God to lead all.

Last there was a meal with the self-righteous religious and the town sinner. And in the middle of it all walked one man, Jesus the Christ. His reactions to those He encounters in Luke 7 touch my soul.

First, he was amazed at the centurion’s faith, “I tell you I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”  And He healed the centurion’s servant.

Next, He was touched by the grief in a widowed mother at the loss of her only son, “his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’”  And He raised the dead.

Then He greets the disciples of His cousin John, and declares to the crowd, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”  And He sent encouragement and peace to the troubled.

Last, He’s confronted by a self-righteous Pharisee and courageously loved by a sinful woman. And He taught a lesson to the self-righteous Pharisee and forgave the sins of the woman.

Jesus loved people. Every person who came to Him received exactly what they needed from His Hand, healing, confirmation of faith, comfort, restoration, reassurance, encouragement, admonition, or forgiveness

We are no different from these people in Luke 7, when we come to the Lord, He treats us as individuals with individual needs and desires.  He meets us where we are.  Thank you, Lord.

I love sitting around a table talking with friends and family. I find it absolutely amazing how a dinner table can bring people together. Luke Chapter 7 ends with a dinner hosted in the house of Simon the Pharisee. How I would have loved to have been there. Attendees were the host Simon, Jesus, probably some of His disciples, and what Luke calls “other guests.” 

Everyone is reclining and relaxing at the table when a strange thing happens. A woman who had lived a sinful life shows up with an alabaster jar of perfume. She begins to weep, and her tears begin to fall on the feet of Jesus. She wipes them off with her hair, kisses them and pours perfume on them.

This action serves to irritate the host. “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.’”  [Luke 7:39]

Jesus knows what is in the heart of this man and he begins a lesson on love and debt and forgiveness. Inside that lesson is one phrase that always sends chills through me. “Therefore I tell you her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much.  But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 

At this meal, Simon is irritated by the woman and the other guests are offended by Jesus’ words of forgiveness, but I always wonder what happened when the woman saw Jesus turn to her and heard Him say, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” 

I am always awestruck by this woman’s actions. What courage would it take to come into the home of a Pharisee when she was known around town as a sinner and probably shunned by all, at least by all of the religious self-righteous? What courage would it take to come up to Jesus and begin to anoint His feet? Had she heard of His kindness to other sinners? Was it despair or hope that drove her to do this, or maybe even both? I want to talk to her; I want to hear from her lips what drove her to the Chosen One and what it was like walking home from that meal.

Those who have been forgiven much, love much.