TerryLema

As I wrote yesterday, we cannot let the current climate of hate, violence and fear overrule the commands of God to speak the truth of the LORD. As I also wrote, however, we must not respond in like manner.

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” [1 Peter 3:15-16]

I have always found Peter’s words in these verses challenging.  First, we are exhorted to always be ready, prepared to respond to people who ask us why we can be hopeful when so many are not. That is especially challenging because you actually have to have the hope before people will ask you about it!  If you are as hopeless as they are, you won’t have to be ready for anything.

The second thing of note is that our response must be gentle and kind. It must be respectful. We live in a Democratic Republic. Our constitution grants people certain rights to live and worship in ways with which we may not always agree. Our job is to love people and through that love point them to Christ, who also loves them. Our job is not to condemn nor justify – when we do that, we usurp God’s prerogative as Creator and Savior.

The last thing to note? It may be the most difficult of all. We must keep a clear conscience. We must have “good behavior in Christ.” Our behavior needs to be above reproach and when it’s not, there needs to be repentance.

Hate. Violence. Fear. There is one thing those three have in common. They have a way of spreading. The media are all over the violence spawned by hatred. In the last couple months, I’ve seen people assaulted and killed because of their beliefs, whether they are religious or political. Our society believes they have the right to silence anyone they think is as an enemy just because they have a different point of view.

The climate of hatred and violence is spreading and being touted by various leaders as a way of getting what is wanted. When hate and violence spread, fear also spreads. We lose the freedom of being able to express our views on life, politics, or God without the fear of reprisals. When we fear reprisals, we will often simply not speak.

The LORD, however, does not want us cowering in a corner somewhere, voluntarily mute because of our fear.  In fact, the LORD commands us to speak, to tell others about His wonderful works. “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.  Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.” [Ps 105:1-4]

One of the favorite sayings of Jesus was, “I tell you ….”  The Gospels are full of the things Jesus told about His Father, His own work, His Kingdom.

Beloved, we cannot let the current social climate command our response. We must obey the LORD rather than men.  But let’s remember that our response to hatred and violence cannot be in like manner. (More on that tomorrow.)

As you read through your Bible (and you should do that), you will notice that God reminds His people, especially when they begin to stray from Him or allow things in their lives that may cause them to fall or fail. In the Old Testament, He continually sent prophets to remind them that 1) He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt; and 2) He had brought them into the Promised Land. They, apparently, often forgot those things.

In the New Testament, the Apostles used the same approach. They reminded Christians that 1) God had sent His Son, Jesus the Christ, to save them; and 2) that salvation had a purpose, that they might live obediently and serve the Lord faithfully.

“This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.” [1 John 3:23-24]

What is our purpose as Christians? Is it simply to escape judgment? Is it to avoid hell? If that is all it is, we will go through this life unfulfilled. We might gain heaven, but we will not live up to all we are in Christ Jesus.  We will fail to realize how abundant this life can be.

I want to be all I can be now … I want to be faithful and obedient to the One who saved me.

God calls me His child. I pray I can live worthy of that title. I pray that my life will honor Christ Jesus my Lord in every way, not just in eternity, but in the here and now.

One day Jesus and His disciples decided to leave Judea and return to Galilee. Jesus took them through Samaria because He had a supernatural “appointment” to meet a woman by a well.  Tired and weary, Jesus rested there while His disciples headed on down to the city to look for something to eat.

You all know the story from John 4. Jesus began a conversation with a woman, that alone was very unusual. The conversation turned from well-water to living water and Jesus tells her that He is the Messiah that all have been anticipating.

It is at this point that the disciples return and are shocked that Jesus is talking to a woman. When the woman leaves to tell the town what she has heard, the disciples urge Jesus to eat. But Jesus says to them “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.” [vs 32 NLT]

The disciples are thinking that someone else literally brought Jesus something to eat. But He clarifies things for them. “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.” [vs 34 NLT]

Finish. It means to complete, perfect, accomplish, in both English and Greek. Jesus’ greatest desire was to finish the salvation that His Father has sent Him to do. Paul expressed the same desire in Acts, “if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.” [20:24]

What is our greatest desire? Is it to finish well what God has given us to do?

Want to hear something crazy.  Peter wrote it in his second letter to those who had received from God a faith as precious as his.  He proclaimed that “[God’s] divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”  [vs 3 NIV]

That’s not the crazy part.  That comes in verse 5.  “Now make every effort to add to your faith ….”  Huh?

If we have everything we need in the precious faith given to us by God through Christ Jesus, why do we have to add anything? Ever thought about that?

Sitting on my couch is a bag. Inside that bag is an instruction book with a picture of a baby blanket. Also inside that bag is a Size G crochet hook, scissors, and six skeins of yarn in pink. I have everything I need to make a beautiful baby blanket for a baby arriving in December. Everything. And if I let that bag sit on my couch untouched, when December arrives, I will still have everything I need for that beautiful baby blanket, I just won’t have a finished product.

God has given us, via faith, everything we need to become a finished product, looking like His Son Jesus. But if we don’t make every effort to add the virtues Peter will go on to list in his letter, we will have wasted the here and now. We will gain heaven, because that is purely by faith alone, but we will not influence or change our world as Christ did and commanded us to do also.

You have it all … now add.

Recently a group of believers thought that the Second Coming of Christ would happen toward the end of last September. It didn’t. (I wish it had!) But even though it didn’t happen as they predicted, it will happen. And we need to be prepared.

The Bible speaks of Christ’s return as imminent, which means it could happen at any moment although the exact timing is unknown. We are to be eagerly anticipating His Return. We are to remain vigilant and faithful. But are we?

When Peter was talking about Christ’s Second Coming and the New Heaven and New Earth that would be created at that time, he gave an interesting instruction. ^“Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives should you live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.” [2 Peter 3:11]

Since Christ Jesus is coming back, how should we be living? Are we living holy and godly lives? Are we eagerly looking forward to His return. Are we focusing on how to advance the Kingdom of God throughout this earth – even how to advance it within our own sphere of influence.

Or are we giving in to the lure of this world? Focusing on goals and successes that will remain on this side of the grave?

Lots to think about!

I love the story of Gideon … I dub Gideon the “Who Me?” Mighty Warrior.  When the Angel of the LORD came to Gideon and called him “mighty warrior” in Judges 6:11-12, Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress.

What that means is that he was hiding. Threshing floors were open areas where the wheat could be beaten, allowing the heavier kernels to fall to the floor while the wind carried the chaff away. Winepresses were probably in cool hidden places, like caves. Gideon is hiding away from those invading the land. God finds him anyway and calls him a mighty warrior.

The part I really love though is a few verses later.  In verses 17-18, Gideon replies to the LORD’s calling to be God’s instrument to defeat the enemy. “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the LORD said, “I will wait until you return.”

 Gideon goes home and prepares a meal, a young goat and bread. Ever wonder how long that took? There were no freezers with meat ready, nor bakeries down the block. He’s got to catch the goat, kill the goat, skin the goat, cut up the goat, and put the pieces in a basket and grab a pot with broth to cook. He’s got to get the flour and make unleavened cakes and bake it. All the while he has left the LORD waiting in the winepress for him to return.

I don’t know if God waited for an hour or four, but the LORD did wait. And when Gideon returned, the LORD accepted the sacrifice and consumed it with fire in an instant. That was Gideon’s sign.

What a gracious God we serve, He is willing to wait for us. Let’s not keep Him waiting too long while we are off finding our goats and baking our bread!

“The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.’”  [Judges 6:11-12]

“Who me?” Now that’s probably not what Gideon said, but from the debate with the Angel of the LORD that follows, that’s pretty much the gist of the conversation. Every time the Angel of the LORD said something, Gideon began to debate … usually beginning with the word, “but.” [If you haven’t read the story of Gideon, you’ll find it in Judges 6-8.]

God eventually won and Gideon, after some testing that what he was hearing was indeed coming from the LORD, did what the Lord said. He followed God’s instructions, tore down the altar to the vile false god, Baal, and defeated the Midianites with a handful of men using trumpets and torches.

“Who me?” That is often the way I respond to God. Can God really use an aging retired woman (79 in a couple months) in a little-known community in a small state to change anything?

God must think He can. My response is to get on board with God’s thinking and move as the Spirit moves. I want to see our generation, our nation, turned to God in righteousness and truth.

Last Saturday morning, Bob left for breakfast at a local restaurant. The house was quiet, which it usually isn’t. My verse of the day was Psalm 61:1. “I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him.” [NLT]

My initial reaction was – me quiet? I am not a quiet person. Growing up I was often rebuked for my loud voice and boisterous nature. I tamed it a bit as I “matured,” but probably not enough. I am still loud.

I decided to look at that word “quietly.” In the Hebrew the word is “duwmiyah,” and it describes a purposeful quietness, a still expectant hush that looks to God. It is found only in the Psalms.

It is not a passive quiet, but a reverent silence of devotion. In this verse it conveys a restful silence that anchors faith in God’s salvation.

I admit I have been fussing about a lot of stuff lately. I’m still not sleeping well, spending half the night in bed and the other half in a recliner. I’ve had to wrestle over the rising costs and lowered benefits of Medicare and Medicare Supplements. I’m tired of physical therapy. I’m tired of pain filled days. I am tired of fatigue.

And I am certainly not quiet about it to God or anyone close enough to listen. I think God is reminding me to rest in Him and wait “quietly” for my victory.

The moment we trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord we enter a life of faith. Salvation is instantaneous.  One moment we are aliens and strangers to the Kingdom of God, the next moment we are “a people belonging to God.”  [I Peter 2:9]

While salvation is instantaneous, it takes a lifetime to understand and incorporate all that it means in our life. Paul said it this way to his beloved in Philippi: “Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” [Phil 2:12-13 NLT]

We must continue to work out our salvation. The official term is sanctification. God wooed us and brought us to the point of salvation, and He doesn’t stop there. He continues to work in us for His good purpose for our lives. We now must learn to listen and obey – that’s what is meant by working out our salvation.

Even with the indwelling Spirit of God, we will still battle our flesh. We will still have to repent following those times when we allowed our flesh to rule instead of God’s Spirit. We still have daily choices that will lead us toward God or away from Him.

Learning to hear and obey God’s voice doesn’t just happen. It takes a fierce determination and persistence to learn the things of God. While salvation is all of God, sanctification is a cooperative effort.