Author

TerryLema

What is Required?

by TerryLema

There is a familiar verse in the book of the prophet Micah.  “Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness [mercy], and to walk humbly with your God.” [6:8 HCSB]

This is not a formula for salvation. Salvation has always come through sacrifice. In the OT, forgiveness came through the sacrifices of animals, the atonement for sin rolling ahead once more until the entire sin of the world was taken to the cross of Christ Jesus. There the final solution for sin was wrought through the sacrifice of God’s Chosen One.

Micah, when he uttered those words was addressing a people in covenant with God. When we take those words to heart, it is because we too are in covenant relationship with God. Jesus called it the New Covenant in His Blood. No one can act justly, love mercy, or walk humbly with God unless they are in relationship with Him!

To “act justly” is to show true religion. God gave Ten Commandments that set His Holy Standards for our relationship to Him and to others. We cannot achieve salvation through them, but they still set the criteria for our hearts in how we are to connect to Him and our neighbors now that we have salvation through Christ Jesus our LORD.

To “love mercy” is to freely and with great grace and love be willing to show kindness to everyone.

To “walk humbly with [our] God” means to live in that everyday awareness of His presence in our lives, to exercise a spirit of humility before Him. As John the Baptizer said it, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

Lord, grand us by the power of Your Holy Spirit, to live and walk like this every day! Amen.

 

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Then One Day …

by TerryLema

Every day someone carried him to the temple and placed him by the gate Beautiful so that he could beg from those entering the temple complex. Every day, day after day. He had been lame from birth and this was his life. [Acts 3:1-10]

One day as he saw two men approach, he did what he always did. He asked for help. Only this day would be different. “Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, ‘Look at us.’” [HCSB]

So, he did, expecting to get from them what everyone else had given him every other day of this life. “But Peter said, ‘I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!’”

And just like that, this moment changed him forever. He could feel the strength arising in his feet and ankles. He jumped up, stood, and started to walk. Then he went into the temple with Peter and John, walking, and leaping, and praising God beside them.

Beloved, there are many people like this lame man around us. They may be whole in body but are broken in their souls. They go about their lives each day thinking nothing will ever change, nothing can ever change. They have looked to the world and found nothing but a mere pittance of help.

We need to be Peter and John and give them what we have. We have Christ Jesus. We have hope. We have life in Him. We can be that “one day” in their lives when everything changes forever—when they are no longer begging but walking, and leaping, and praising God.

“What I have, I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk” with God!

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Sweet Red Rocker

by TerryLema

I realized a few months ago that not one of the chairs in our home was comfortable. One was too big and I needed all kinds of pillows to be comfortable. One hurt my neck. One’s seat cushion was too thin, so it grew more uncomfortable the longer I sat. And the loveseat was Bob’s domain since it was the only seating high enough for him to get out of.

So Bob and I took a little trip to a neighboring town and bought a new red rocker recliner for me. It was more money than I wanted to spend, but oh, is it comfortable! The only downside is that my sweet red rocker recliner confuses my Fitbit watch.

If I rock a certain way, my Fitbit discerns that as steps. If I crochet in it, it also adds steps. And if I rock AND crochet at the same time, I can make my way to 10K steps every day and never actually take one step. But while rocking and crocheting may confuse my Fitbit, my body is not confused. It knows I haven’t moved, and it reminds me with stiffness, weakness, and achiness. There are no shortcuts to getting my steps in each day. I must actually move.

There are also no shortcuts to keeping my spiritual muscles healthy, I must move with the LORD. Otherwise, it will not be long until I experience weakness of soul and spirit.

In Deuteronomy 10:12, God told the new nation of Israel what He required of them. “What does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.” [HCSB]

To respect the LORD our God by walking in ALL His ways, loving him and worshipping Him with ALL our hearts and souls is not achieved by rocking in our sweet red recliners. It requires diligence, commitment, perseverance, and determination.

Grant, LORD, that we may walk with You all our lives. Amen.

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Live Through Him

by TerryLema

We are children of God. We are children of God because God loves us. That love was revelated to us when God sent His One and Only Son into this world to die on a cross, taking our sin, guilt, and shame.

The Apostle John, after telling us that God calls us His children in 1 John 3:1 (yesterday’s devotion), goes on and adds to that truth in the next chapter.

“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” [1 John 4:9 HCSB]

God’s love was “revealed.” The word is phaneroó. It means to make visible ,make clear, make plain or apparent. It comes from a root word meaning “light.” [Strongs]

Christ Jesus, the Light of the World, came so that we might be made alive through Him. God chose to reveal His love for us in a tiny baby born in a manger. In a man who lived in this dusty world like we do. In a Chosen Son who died on a cross.

He experienced rejection, loss, grief, persecution, and death. He was tempted by the enemy of our souls but emerged triumphant and sin free.

He went to a cross, to a grave, to the dark realms of the enemy and emerged with the keys to death and the grave.

In Him, we now live. He gives us life! Glory to God!

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And We Are!

by TerryLema

I wrote before that when I go to bed at night I recite and visualize Psalm 23. I see in my imagination’s eye the green pastures and still waters. I see the Shepherd with His rod and staff. One night as I was getting settled, my imagination brought me the sight of the Good Shepherd walking through a dark valley, His Hand holding on to that of a little girl in a pretty dress with black patent leather shoes. I immediately began to cry.

When I was little I always got a new pair of black patent leather shoes for Easter. Living back east, wearing white before Memorial Day was unacceptable. I knew that little girl holding the hand of the Good Shepherd was me. Every time my mind takes me back to that picture, I cry.

One of the great truths of Scripture is found in 1 John 3:1, “Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are!” [HCSB]

I love that verse. I love how it begins. “Look!” Some translations say “Behold!” The word is horaó and means to see, perceive, attend to. It often has a metaphorical meaning, “to see with the mind (spiritually see), to perceive (with inward spiritual perception).” [Strongs]

Look! Behold! See(!) how great a love the Father has given us, evidenced by the fact that He calls us His children. His children! The greatest privilege ever granted to mankind that God would love us so much that He would send His Son to die so that He could call us His children. And I love the way the Apostle John puts the exclamation on that thought. “And we are!” 

Yes, we are. I am a child of God. You are a child of God. He loves us with an infinite love that will extend far beyond our life in this world. It will extend into eternity. We can never outdistance the love God has for us!

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A New …

by TerryLema

It is a new month. Meteorologists recognize March 1 as the first day of meteorological spring, which is based on annual temperature cycles and the Gregorian calendar. Astronomical spring (the official one) occurs around the 20th of March. I’ll take this as the first day of spring, a transition between the cold winter months and the hot summer ones. Most people look forward to the trees budding and the flowers blooming again.

I do not know if you have been following what is happening on many of our college campuses. It can be summed up in one word, “Revival.” There has been a spiritual awakening flowing through some of the colleges in our nation. And now it appears to be exiting those confines and lighting up other places. (Could it be that the long spiritual winter is behind us, and the spring of spiritual newness is just ahead?)

Revival has frequently occurred among the young. That is as it should be! They have the energy and the vitality needed to spread a spiritual awakening in our world. But that does not leave out those of us who perhaps do not have that energy and vitality anymore.  We also have a duty. We are to surround this spiritual awakening with much prayer.

I have been praying for revival for our church, our city, our state, our nation, our world for many years. I so yearn to see the Holy Spirit move in power among us. I will continue to pray!

As Romans 5 reminded me this morning, “where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more.” [vs 4 HCSB]

For too long, sin has multiplied in our midst, it is time now that grace (and the glory of God) multiplies even more!

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Grief & Mourning

by TerryLema

I have been a hospice chaplain and a pastor. As such, I have seen a lot of death and dying, as well as people who have experienced profound losses from other reasons.

While I understand that the emphasis of the church is to “make disciples,” I also know that part of pastoring is shepherding. It is walking with people through the difficulties of life and helping them make peace with those things that are often not understandable.

Mourning is part of being human. Mourning is actively dealing with the grief we experience over profound loss, such as the death of a loved one, or an accident or disease that changes our life. It is an experience we go through when something we value has been taken from us. We can also experience mourning (godly sorrow) when we are called to repent over our own sins.

Mourning is a familiar theme in the Scriptures. We see great men of God mourn over the loss of spouses, children, and friends. In the OT, their mourning was often accompanied by weeping, throwing dirt upon their heads, or tearing their clothing. Jesus, Himself, stood outside the tomb of His friend Lazarus and wept.

My heart is always touched by those who must go through a time of grief and mourning. And nothing gets my dander up faster than to hear someone rebuke a mourner by misquoting the Scriptures.

1Thessalonians 4:13-18 reminds us that as believers we too will experience grief and mourn. We, however, mourn differently from the world. We mourn with hope. “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.” [vs 13 HCSB]

While we mourn with hope, we still mourn. We still experience those emotions tied to grief that the world experiences. We still must actively mourn loss. And we still must allow others to express their grief in our presence without criticism or reproach.

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Unpredictable

by TerryLema

Yesterday I wrote that our God is not exactly predictable. In many ways that is not true, but in certain ways that is true.

Our God is absolutely predictable in His love, His holiness, His attributes. He is predictable in the fact that He never changes. He is Holy, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. He will never be less, nor more, than His absolute perfection.

But God is unpredictable in that we cannot put Him in a box. He does not think as we do, and many times when we expect Him to move one way, He moves a different way. His ways are higher than ours.

“For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:5 HCSB]

What God does will always be in line with His Holy Character. But the “way” that He does it is often different than He has done before.

“Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” [Isaiah 43:19 HCSB]

Our Father knows the end from the beginning. He knows if the things we ask from Him will benefit us or harm us, and He will always act for our good even if we cannot see that truth (or appreciate it) at the time. Amen.

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Not What I Expected!

by TerryLema

I had been thinking recently about how this stage of my life has gotten rather routine – even talking to God about it! That can be a bit dangerous in that God often answers my prayers with a sense of humor.

I remember once telling someone in church when they came to me with a problem with another person exactly how they should solve it. That solution involved a confrontation and truth. As it turned out, I was the one that was put in the position of confrontation and truth-telling. I could almost hear God chuckle as He reminded me that I needed to be able to follow my own advice.

God often does not do what I expect Him to do.

People have asked me if God answers all prayers. That is a difficult question since I do not know all prayers. I do know that in 1 Samuel 14, Saul asked for a response from God, but did not get one. (“God did not answer him that day.” Vs 14 HCSB)

I have, from personal experience, had prayers answered immediately and prayers answered eventually. I have had prayers answered with a yes, prayers answered with a no, and more than one prayer answered with something totally different than what I expected! The answer to my prayers has often been unpredictable (but then, our God is not exactly predictable, is He?).

Looking back on those times, I realized that His way was much better than my original expectations. He is Omniscient and I am not. Even when His answer was not what I wanted, it was definitely what I needed!

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Boasting

by TerryLema

When I look at the Apostle Paul’s life and accomplishments I am amazed.  When God sent him off to be the Messenger to the Gentiles, to those outside the nation of Israel, no one would have thought that he could have accomplished what he did.  Yes, he did have helpers, Luke, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus to name but a few.  He, however, was the tip of the spear that carried the message of Christ’s cross throughout the known world and saw that world change in the span of one generation.

His prayers, his desires, his thoughts are plainly evident in his writings, and are summed up truly in that one verse at the end of Galatians.  “But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   [Gal 6:14 HCSB]

For Paul, it was all about Jesus.  He lived what John the Baptizer prayed, He must increase, I must decrease. Paul set such a high mark, such an illustrious example for us to follow.

What does it matter if we preach to thousands or a few?  What does it matter if we are called to a national platform, or minister in a rural setting?  What does it matter if we touch people in churches, or hospitals, or homes, or in the marketplace?  What does it matter if we take the message of the cross to small babes in Sunday School or the elderly in assisted living facilities?

What matters is that we truly find our boasting not in what we do or where we go, but in the message we bring … the message of the cross.  The importance is found in what our Savior did, in how God came down from His throne and got His feet dusty on this earth.  The amazing thing is that cross where the blood of Christ was spilled.

May we never boast in anything other than the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

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