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TerryLema

Traveling Light

by TerryLema

We traveled to California recently to be there when our youngest grandson graduated from eighth grade. We were blessed to ride with our daughter and son-in-love.

Traveling is not as easy as it used to be. When I was young, I’d toss some clothes and a few toiletries into a bag, grab a thermos of coffee and water bottle and off we’d go. I might take my 4-cup coffee pot and my own coffee because after all, as everyone knows, I am a coffee snob and I like my good French Roast.

Now that I’m past retirement age and settling into old age (gracefully I hope), things are different. I travel with two auto-immune diseases (three if you count Diabetes Type 2). Not only do I toss in some clothes and a few toiletries and my coffee pot, I also have to grab my medication case. I need my morning meds, evening meds and bedtime meds. I usually snatch up a bottle of 8-hr Tylenol for bedtime, and a jar of Tums as well.

Can’t forget my diabetes case with my Glucometer, test strips and lancets, along with my Insulin, syringes, and alcohol prep pads.

Modern technology has added another component. I need the charging cords for our two phones, my Kindle (containing my Bible and books) and its charging station and cord. I now have “upgraded” hearing devices which recharge, so there’s another charging station and cord. I should take a power strip so I can have all those devices charging in one place in the hotel room. Oh, and I can’t forget the charging cord for my Fitbit watch.

Yep, traveling is a lot more complicated than it was a few decades ago.

But there is coming a time when I will travel free from all hindrances and necessities! “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” [HCSB]

Whether I travel through the grave or am alive when the LORD returns, I’m traveling light—with nothing but my salvation!

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A Gentle Nudge

by TerryLema

At a Christian Faith Center (CFC) Caldwell Sunday Service a few weeks ago, Pastor Paul spoke of having to change or adjust. He gave an illustration of moving our prayer fellowship with God maybe from morning to evening (or vice versa) as the circumstances of life change.

It took me a while, but as I thought about that I realized that it applied to me. (It was a nugget of truth that I initially missed but God brought back to mind.)

I have always gotten up early and spent time in my bonus room praying, studying, writing, etc. That was especially true when I was pastoring. In the year and a half since I retired from active ministry, that has changed. I get up, sit in the living room with Bob and send out my devotions while he watches the news. Then we eat breakfast together and get ready for the day ahead. My time with the LORD has suffered.

And because my time with the LORD has suffered, so have I!

After thinking about what Pastor Paul said, I decided to move my time with the LORD to an hour before my bedtime. I go to my bonus room, turn on my worship music, sit quietly, pray, read my Bible, etc. By doing that I have discovered a few things.

One, my songs in the night reflect the worship music I have been listening to before bed. JOY!

Two, I sleep better! PEACE!

Three, my spirit feels refreshed. I am resolving some of the issues that have crept into my soul from not spending enough time in the LORD’s presence. HEALING!

Thank you, LORD, for the gentle nudge that I have missed you!

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God Will Not Forget

by TerryLema

I came across a meme on FB the other day. It was in the form of a question. “What would you be doing if you were doing what you wanted to do at age 16?”

Now I do not answer those things or re-post things on FB because I am pretty sure that is one way we get cloned by scammers; however, I do think about them.

What would I be – I would be a nun. I was all set to enter the Medical Missionaries of Mary who would train me as a nurse and then send me overseas.

But God. God had other plans. I ended up married and a mother of three children. Eventually I went to Bible College, was credentialed and ordained, and started working in church and hospice. Even when I was not officially on a church staff, I still was involved in ministry of some kind.

Reflecting, I sometimes look at the choices I made, the successes and failures, the missed opportunities, or the changes I saw in the lives of others. I do not do that often, but (right or wrong) I have done it lately. Then this morning as I opened my Verse-of-the-Day, I found this.

Hebrews 6:10: “For God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you showed for His name when you served the saints—and you continue to serve them.” [HCSB]

God refuses to remember our sins when we surrender our lives to Christ Jesus, but He will NOT forget our work and love for others. In the end, what we do for Him (even the smallest kindness given for His glory) far outweighs everything else. Thank you LORD Jesus!

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Lack Wisdom?

by TerryLema

Every day I receive a few emails containing a “Verse-of-the-Day.”  Often those verses confirm something I have been thinking about, or something in my devotion that I had planned to send out that day. Sometimes those verses reflect a celebration, such as Mother’s Day or Easter or Christmas.

The other day two of the verses spoke about wisdom. The first spoke of the wisdom found in God. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways!” [Romans 11:33 HCSB]

The second verse spoke of the wisdom we need and where we can find it.  “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and without criticizing and it will be given to him.” [James 1:5 HCSB]

I admit I started to laugh when I opened that second verse … it was the first condition set forth in that verse that got e, “Now if any of you lack wisdom….”

Did James really think there are some out there that do NOT lack wisdom?

Every day life tosses something at us that we probably did not expect. Every day the enemy of our soul tries to deceive us. Every day the world tries to influence us to think like it does. Every day our own sin nature tries to convince us it still has power over us.

Every day we need to combat those things, not with our own wisdom or in our own strength but in God’s wisdom and the power of His Spirit within us.

God says all we have to do is ask. So, do we?

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Hugs Ahead!

by TerryLema

I am so looking ahead to next week.  We are going to be able to hug our California family, son, daughter-in-love and two grandsons.

Tomorrow I am making what my youngest grandson has labeled “Idaho Cookies.” They are really a Belgian cookie called a gullette or galette. They are made two at a time in a special iron I ordered from a store in my native Pennsylvania from a recipe handed down from my father’s family. It is what I do when I know we are going to be together.

To be together again with family is such a blessing. I will celebrate and cherish each minute we get to spend together. The hardest part will be separating again. As I get older, it seems in this life there are just too many separations.

But God. As I was reading Peter’s first letter, I was reminded this morning that believers have a living hope – that living hope promises a time when separation will no longer be a word in our vocabulary. Instead, we will embrace a salvation and an inheritance now waiting in heaven for us.

“Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” [1 Peter 1:3-5 HCSB]

I am looking forward to that time when we are once again able to hug our loved ones who have gone before us in Christ Jesus!

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Mother’s Day Revisited

by TerryLema

Mother’s Day is always a tough day for me. I see all the posts about the wonderful moms and growing up with moms that were encouraging and nurturing and I remember my mother was anything but. She was a difficult person with mental and emotional problems that affected our home life.

One of my most vivid memories of childhood happened when I was five, my brother was about eight months. I was awakened in the middle of the night by my dad and carried away by my Uncle Louie. Louie was not really an uncle; he was the husband of my mother’s cousin (several times removed). My brother was carried off by my mother’s sister.

My mother disappeared for about four months. Eventually I would learn that my father had her committed to a facility after coming home early from work and finding her issues had escalated.

Looking back, it is easy to find definitions for her personality. It was not easy to have lived amid those definitions. Those things left their imprint on my brother and me, which we have both struggled to remove throughout our lives. Being told you are not worth much, being constantly reminded of the things you do wrong and have done wrong does not lend well to a healthy personality or character development.

But God. At the age of 26, God interrupted my life, and everything changed. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.” [2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB]

God removed the old imprint of dysfunction and worthlessness and gave me a new imprint. Healing did not happen overnight, in fact, I am still an ongoing work. But I hold on to the promise that one day I will be a completed work.

I still struggle on Mother’s Day. I still retain a bit of envy for those who had delightful mothers. But I am oh so thankful that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

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Disappointment

by TerryLema

After 76 years of life, there is one thing I have discovered … part of living is learning to handle disappointments. Life is not fair, essentially in that it does not treat us all the same.

Our bodies age differently. Disease strikes us (or doesn’t) differently. We have differing talents and opportunities. While we strive for equality and equity in all forms of government, justice, economics, education, it does not always happen.

We each have different hopes and dreams. When those hopes and dreams are not realized, disappointment often floods our soul, sometimes accompanied by a bit of envy or jealousy. We wish we could have or do what others possess or experience.

You would think after 76 years disappointments would not hurt as much. But they still do. Maybe they even hurt a bit more because they are often compounded with disappointments in the past, or merged with the realization that there is not much I can do about them anymore.

What we experience in this life on this earth is often not fair. Scripture often reminds us of the difficulties we will face and the attitudes we will need when those afflictions come our way.

Romans 5:1-5: “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” [HCSB]

Life may disappoint, but I never need worry that the hope I have placed in God will disappoint. I needed that this morning.

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Grace Found

by TerryLema

Exodus 33 is perhaps my most favorite chapter in the Old Testament. I love the interaction between Moses and Jehovah God. The people had sinned. God has said they could still have the Promised Land, but He would not go with them. He’d send an angel and they’d get the victory, but His Presence would be absent.  That’s not going to cut it for Moses.  He pretty much tells God that if God doesn’t go, he’s not going either.

God had acknowledged His favor of Moses, and Moses begins his exchange with God based on that favor. “You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.” [Ex 33:12-13 NKJV]

Think about that.  Moses found grace in God’s sight. Because of that, Moses requests one thing—that he might know this God in whom He had found favor. Moses asks to know God’s way so that he might continue to find grace with God.

We, too, have found grace with God. The New Testament is full of references to the grace (favor) in which we now stand. Paul made it clear in Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”

So, based on God’s favor, what are our requests? Are we, like Moses, asking to know God’s way in order that we might continue to find favor with Him?  Or are we hoping to take advantage of God’s favor to satisfy our own agendas?

For the record, God’s response to Moses’ request … “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” [v14]

Is that not what we all want?

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What’s the Plan?

by TerryLema

I remember all those yearly evaluations required when I worked in the secular world. It seems they did not just center on how the past year had gone, but they always pointed us to the year ahead with two questions, “What is your goal?” and “What is your plan to achieve your goal?”

 

You must have a goal to aim at. You must have a plan for hitting that goal. Both are necessary for success.

 

Paul reminds us that as Christians we too must have a goal.  “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal.” [Philippians 2:1-2 HCSB]

 

The NKJV uses the wording, “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

 

Being of one mind, focusing on one goal. I wonder what we would say if someone walked up to us and asked us as a Christian, what is our goal?  Would we offer something like, “To be like Christ.” Or maybe, “To lead others to Christ.” Both would be great goals. But then, what would we say if they continued (like my old supervisors used to do), “Okay, what is your plan for achieving that goal?”

 

Ah, then we might flounder a bit. As a Christian, I am not always particularly good at setting up a goal or a plan to reach that goal. Too often, I just journey along, trying to respond to the Holy Spirit’s course corrections in my life rather than consulting Him on what He wants me to achieve and His plan for me to get there.

 

Maybe I need to consider this a bit more!

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by TerryLema

One of my daily verses that hit my inbox last week was the first verse I ever memorized after I surrendered my life to Christ Jesus. It was Philippians 1:6: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

I come from a religious background. I was taught the Catechism and I knew that I was created to know God and to love Him and serve Him. I just did not know how to do that. I did not even know if He wanted me since I was so sin-filled and full of guilt and shame.

Then someone led me to Christ – I did not go easily, but I eventually did go. Everything changed, but not right away. I still felt sin-filled and full of guilt and shame. I did not trust myself to be able to live for Him. Then, after about six years I met someone, a mentor, who showed me God’s love in all its wondrous glory.

It was then that Philippians 1:6 became not just memorized words, but real. I could be confident that the good work that had begun in me would be completed.

When that verse landed in my inbox the other day, I thought once again about that “confidence.” What does that mean? Is it a cocky arrogance that arises from my soul? Or is it something else?

When I looked it up, I found (amazingly after nearly 50 years of serving Christ Jesus) a meaning that reached deep into my soul and touched my heart. That word for confident, (peitho), means both to persuade and to be persuaded of what is trustworthy. It means the LORD persuades the yielded believer to be confident in Him. My obedience is the result of God’s persuasion.

It is God who began the good work in me. It is God who continues the good work in me. It is God who has persuaded me to place my confidence in Him that He will complete that good work in me. AND, yes, in you too!

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