TerryLema

I have today, tomorrow and Monday off work. A three-day weekend. A holiday weekend!  The holiday? Columbus Day.  Columbus Day? What are we celebrating on Columbus Day?

Actually, I don’t really care. I am sure the holiday has rich meaning for some, but it has no particular import for me at all.  All I care about is that I don’t have to go to work on Monday.

This month has another event that has no particular significance to me, but apparently has great significance at the office where I work.  Halloween. They have a big party on Halloween. Everyone dresses up in costumes and they do a pot luck.  I think for them it is a stress reliever as their most stressful season of work begins the next day, November 1 and goes through the end of the year.

I haven’t dressed up in a costume since I was a child – well, except for that clown costume I wore to the convalescent home when we ministered there once on Halloween. This year the group I work with have chosen to be minions. That costume consists of jeans, a yellow shirt, and suspenders.

Though not a fan of Halloween, I am a fan of laughter, cheerfulness and joy. If dressing as a minion brings laughter and cheerfulness and joy to these lovely people I work with, then minion it is!

Proverbs 15:30:  “A cheerful look brings joy to the heart ….”  [NIV]

I just looked at the bottom of the Word document where I write my devotions and what caught my attention was that fact that since I began this second half of the year’s devotions on July 1, I have written 28,489 words. Make that 28,496 words now …. That’s a lot of words! And that is only since July 1! There were 59,274 from January 1 through June 30. Wow.

In church, we sing a song written by Matt Redmond, “Let My Words Be Few.” It begins this way, “You are God in heaven / And here am I on earth / So I’ll let my words be few / Jesus I am so in love with You.”

That beginning verse comes from Ecclesiastes 5:2: “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” [NIV]

I think I will take that good advice and today let my words be few. And I can’t think of any better words to utter today than…

Jesus, I am so in love with You.

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.”  [Phil 1:9-10 NIV]

Don’t you just love it when you are reading in Scripture and suddenly a phrase or thought captivates your attention.  Happens to me all the time.  I’ll try to read further, but I just keep coming back to that one phrase that seems to resonate with my spirit at that moment.  Today it was the phrase in Philippians, “able to discern what is best.”

I like the way the NKJV says it, “that you may approve the things that are excellent.”

Every day we make choices.  Some of them are simple choices, eggs or cereal for breakfast, which brand of something to buy, what color shirt to wear. Some of them are more serious or complicated, put the money in savings or take that vacation, continue to date this person, opt for treatment or let the disease run its course.

Paul’s prayer for his beloved Philippians is that they might have the ability to look at all the choices and pick the most excellent one. And I would think to Paul the most excellent choice is the choice that has eternal factors, the choice that leads toward God and not away from Him. How will this affect my relationship with my beloved Savior? What are the eternal consequences? Knowing that it would take more and more knowledge and spiritual insight, Paul prayed for them.  That is my prayer for you and for me today.

Father, may our love grow in knowledge of You. May we have deep insight through Your Spirit so that we might always choose what is best eternally. Amen.

Reading on a little further in Luke’s Gospel we come to a parable about serving two masters. At the end of that parable, Jesus says, “‘No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’  The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.’” [Luke 16:13-15 NIV]

As I read that verse I was confronted immediately with the question, “So what is highly valued among men?” Jesus made it clear that what this world highly values is detestable in God’s sight. Since that is true, we need to answer that question. What does this world value?  I can start off with a host of things, wealth, success, power, talent, intellect, social status. You can probably name a host of other things.

I am not sure I read anywhere in Scripture that these are bad things in themselves. After all, many of God’s people had wealth (Abraham), success (Deborah/Barak), power (Solomon), talent (David), intellect (Paul), social status (Esther).  I think, however, that when we start serving those things rather than allowing those things to serve us, we enter into idolatry. And you cannot serve both God and an idol no matter what that idol is.

Whatever we highly value more than God Himself is going to get us in trouble. Idolatry is detestable to God in any form.

Father, may I always place You above everything else in my life. May I never bow my knee to an idol, no matter what form that idol may take. Search my heart, find any wicked thing in me, and remove it far from me. Amen.

October 3

Following on the heels of Jesus’ discourse on the cost of discipleship we find Jesus now taking on the establishment, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.  Luke 15:1-2: Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” [NIV]

Jesus, “friend of sinners.” I have often heard that title applied to our Lord. I have often rejoiced in that declaration of Jesus’ love for me—a sinner.  Other times I have had someone paraphrase that verse in wrong ways. To them it meant that Jesus accommodates their sin and that Christians should also.

Yes, Jesus is a friend to sinners. Yes, Jesus loves sinners, but, that doesn’t mean that Jesus loves sin, nor that He will accommodate it in anyone. In fact, He suffered and died on a Roman cross because of our sin.

We need to understand what it means when we say that Jesus “welcomes sinners and fellowships with them.” He gave three parables as He explained His love for sinners to these Pharisees and the teachers of the law.  Luke 15, beginning in verse 3 speaks of a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son.  (Read Luke 15 today).

As you read you will notice a commonality through each parable. Something is lost. There is also the common theme of finding what is lost. And there is rejoicing over sinners who repent of their sins . “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” [Luke 15:10 NIV]

It’s not about abiding in our sin and being friends with Jesus.  It’s about abandoning our sin and becoming His disciple.

In Luke 14 large crowds were traveling with Jesus when He turned to them and began to talk to them about the cost of discipleship. Perhaps Jesus sensed that the large crowds were there to “see the show” rather than to follow Him as a disciple. Following Jesus at that time in his ministry must have been exciting. There were miracles as well as confrontations with the establishment and occasionally a great free supper for all.

Jesus needed His followers to understand that being His disciple, His follower, meant far more than a little entertainment.  He used the illustrations of a builder who wants to build a tower and a king facing opposition. Both must consider the cost.

The builder must have enough money to finish what he started. Not finishing would be a matter of ridicule.  The king must decide if he has enough resources to win the battle he’s facing.

Jesus went on and applied those principles to discipleship.  “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” [Luke 14:33]

We, too, must weigh the cost of discipleship. To finish (the building and be victorious in the battle) will cost us everything. Are we willing to give it all?

I once heard a man refer to his wife as “his cross to bear.” I’ve heard people refer to other things as their “cross to bear.” Most of those references were about petty things, those small annoyances of life that everyone has. I don’t think that is what Jesus meant when he said to the crowd in Luke 14: “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” [v27]

Earlier in Luke Jesus also spoke of picking up our cross. “If anyone comes after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” [9:23 NIV]

It must be important for Jesus to mention it twice. Look at the words Jesus used in those two instances and you’ll find a depth of meaning.  First to consider is simply “the cross.”  The cross was an instrument of death. It had no mercy. Everyone who went to the cross died. Second, Jesus said that we are to carry our cross “daily” as we follow him, meaning this is an everyday experience, not a sporadic one.  The last thing we must consider is that little phrase “deny himself.”

Putting those thoughts together, we get a glimpse what Jesus intends for His disciples. Each day we put our own will and desires, our self, to death.  Hanging on our crosses are all our “self” words. Self-pity. Self-centeredness. Self-glory. Self-determination. Instead of “self” we live for Him. His desires are our desires. His will, our will.

Father, that is our desire today. To put to the cross self and to live for You. Amen.

At Bible Study Wednesday night we discussed what it means to be a discipline, what it means to count the cost, and what it means to pick up your cross. Those are hard things to define, let alone practice. We struggled to even put those concepts into words.

Luke tells us in chapter 14 that large crowds were following Jesus and at one point he turned to them and gave them three illustrations that define discipleship, counting the cost, and picking up your cross.  [read verses 25-33 today)

The first illustration is a doozy!  Luke 14:26:  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus often used hyperbole to get his point across.  Hyperbole is extravagant exaggeration, such as someone advertising “mile high ice cream cones.” We know that while the cone may be bigger than most, it certainly isn’t literally a mile high.

Jesus was not advocating that we hate our parents, spouses, children or siblings–even our own lives—literally.  He used this illustration and the word “hate” to remind us that to be His disciple, He must always hold first place in our affections.  The Greek word for hate here can also be translated to mean “to love less.”

The crowds often followed Jesus to get something from Him. He reminded them that to be true disciples, we must love Him more than anything in this life, even those things that are most precious and dear to us.

Media is ablaze with our president’s battle with the National Football League. It has touched people who are not even football fans. It began when one football player last year sat during the playing of the national anthem before a game. Last Sunday every team, every owner, every player had to decide if they would stand, kneel, sit, or even be present for the anthem in their respective stadiums.

After those choices were made, social media lit up with people who supported them, and others who were abandoning football or specific teams altogether. Some took it as an affront to our country, our flag, and to those who have placed their lives on the line for our freedom.

Occasionally, someone would mention that free speech is one of the rights of citizenship in the United States. That seemed to illicit even more controversy, name calling, and harsh words.

Amid all this I came across this verse in Ephesians 4:29:  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. NIV

I wondered as I read it if it was as difficult in Paul’s day to restrain unwholesome talk and instead build others up as it seems to be in our day?  I am sure it was, after all people are people in any age and time. I just don’t think in Paul’s day it bombarded them 24-hours-a-day as it does us across radio, television, Facebook, Twitter … ad nauseum.  Which means it may be even more important for us to heed this command than it was for those who originally received it!

Father, help us to watch our talk. Help us to build others up rather than tear them down. Let our speech benefit those who hear us. Amen.

Romans 8:18: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

This verse was the beginning of the text for last Sunday’s message. Yesterday I wrote that we must consider the sufferings of this life with a biblical perspective or we will be devastated by them.  Paul considered and pondered suffering and gave us a beginning viewpoint. (Read Romans 8:18-25)

Personally, as I studied this passage I focused on one thing — that these are preset sufferings. Our future is a completely opposite view. Paul reminds us of the glory that will be revealed in us—not just the glory that will be revealed to us. Yes, we will see God in all His glory. Yes, heaven will be much more than what we can think or imagine with our finite, limited minds.

But, wonder of wonders, that glory that is seen, is also seen in us.  2 Thessalonians 2:14: He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When I look at you throughout eternity, I will see the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in you. When you look at me, you will see His glory also. In that moment, I know that we will be able, perhaps for the first time, to know beyond all doubt that our present sufferings were not worth comparing with the glory that is revealed in us.

Father, to think that we will share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is beyond our ability to imagine. How can I, whose sins put your Son on the cross, share in His glory? And yet, that is what you have promised. Amazing God, what amazing love you have given us! Amen.