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TerryLema

FOR

by TerryLema

Pastor Jerrad spoke out of Psalm 23:4 a couple Sundays ago. “When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me.”

As he spoke about not being afraid, he used a few verses from Deuteronomy. Two of the passages spoke to me. I wrote of Deuteronomy 7:17-28 yesterday.

Another passage was found in Chapter 20, verse 1: “When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” [NKJV]

Notice that little word “for?” As used in this sentence, it is a conjunction. It connects two clauses.

“When you go out to battle against your enemies … do not be afraid of them” is the first clause.

The second is “the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

“FOR” connects them. Moses reminded the people that they did not need to be afraid FOR the LORD their God was with them – the same LORD God who delivered them from the land of Egypt.

We are not to be afraid either … FOR … the LORD our God has brought us out of darkness and brought us into His glorious light! Those “FORs” in our life in the past provide such assurance for our present and our future.

 

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Remember Well

by TerryLema

A couple Sunday’s ago Pastor Jerrad was preaching on fear out of Psalm 23:4, “When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me.”

I love Psalm 23. I repeat it every night as I go to sleep, visualizing in my imagination those green pastures and quiet streams. Because of that I listened very carefully to what Pastor Jerrad was saying. He used verses from Deuteronomy to expand his thoughts. Two of those passages caught my attention.

One was Deuteronomy 7:17-18: “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’—you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.” [NKJV]

Notice that little phrase, “you shall remember well ….”

The Hebrew word for “you shall remember” is ZAKAR. The word for “well” is ZAKAR.” It is repeated. That’s like an exclamation point!

Moses was calling on the people not just to remember what the LORD their God did for them, they were to remember it WELL!

Remembering well what God has done for us in the past, will enable us to not be afraid when enemies come our way in the future.

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The Struggle

by TerryLema

Some days are a struggle. I never know until I get out of bed how my body is going to react. I can face a day with a plethora of aches and pain (from the PMR), or I can have a good day with very little. I might have the energy to vacuum the whole house, or I might have to struggle through each room, pausing often to rest (long fatigue from either meds or that virus which shall be nameless. (Today is a struggle day.)

I try to keep moving. My watch reminds me of when I have been sitting for too long. I used to do 10K-14K steps a day. Now a very good day is around 7K. Some days I am lucky to get 5K, and that is only because I force myself to move. I could sit in my recliner all day and read until my eyes get blurry – but if I don’t move, one day I won’t be able to move.

Add to that the threat of blindness from the other auto-immune disease (GCA) and life is far different from what I thought it would be at this stage.

Many of us struggle. Life is often not fair and sometimes it is downright cruel. We struggle with financial security. We struggle with relationships. We struggle with loss. Sometimes the struggles are temporary and are resolved; other times they become our constant companions.

And still, I know that my Father God loves me. I know that my LORD and Savior walks with me. I know that the Holy Spirit of God indwells me. I also know that when I enter into their presence in glory, I will leave my struggles (my momentary light affliction) in the grave. None shall follow me to my eternal home. Amen & Amen

 “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.” [2 Corinthians 4:17 HCSB]

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A New Location?

by TerryLema

I went to lunch with a good friend recently. She asked me about how things were going with the transition from The Way to Christian Faith Center (CFC) Middleton. As we talked, I told her how I was a greeter at the CFC Caldwell location (which we are attending until the Middleton campus is refurbished and launched in September).

She asked me how I felt about standing at the door after so many years of standing behind the pulpit as head pastor. I guess it might seem a bit odd, but I love it.

There are two verses that I have always tried to live by.

The first is Colossians 3:17 and defines how I serve. “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” [HCSB]

Whatever I am called or asked to do, from standing behind the pulpit to standing at the door, I will try to do it in a way that honors the name of the LORD Jesus – giving thanks to my Father God for the opportunity and ability to serve.

My second verse is Proverbs 17:22 and defines how I try to face whatever comes my way in this life. “A merry heart does good like a medicine.” [NKJV]

I pray that whatever God asks of me, I will serve Him with a joyful heart.

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The Power

by TerryLema

Jesus gave the Great Commission to His disciples. They were to go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them. It is found in Matthew 28:19-20. That Commission is still the fundamental essential command of Christianity.

But Jesus told them, before you go you need to wait for the Father’s promise. That promise was the power needed to fulfill that Commission. [Acts 1:4-5]

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” [Acts 1:8 HCSB]

If the Great Commission is still valid, then the essential power to fulfill the Great Commission is still needed. The power of the Holy Spirit is necessary and required. We must still wait for the Father’s promise!

And yet, we have in many places driven out or tried to silence the Holy Spirit in our midst. We have returned to that old way of thinking that we can do the LORD’s commands in our own strength. Down through the ages that has proven ineffective.

The Holy Spirit directs us with the wisdom of God. He leads us to opportunities. He gives us the wisdom to speak. He gives us the power to love. He gives us the strength to persevere.

Without Him, our testimony will be without power – for the Holy Spirit also prepares the hearts to receive.

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The Great Commission

by TerryLema

Matthew 28:19-20 contains what we have come to call the Great Commission.  “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [HCSB]

Apparently, in the original Greek, the only direct command is to “make disciples.” The others are indirect commands. “Going,” Baptizing,” and “Teaching” are how we fulfill the command to “make disciples.”

The command to make disciples was given to those original disciples of Christ Jesus … and to all that would come after them. That command is still the essential command of Christianity. So how did we get so caught up in thinking other things are as or even more important?

My heart grows sad and my spirit weary when I see the church fussing over things that have no eternal value – things that have nothing to do with fulfilling the Great Commission.

When Jesus looked around, He saw an abundant harvest of souls. “When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.’” [Matthew 9:36-38 HCSB]

When we look around, what do we see? Things that have no eternal value, or an abundant harvest waiting for us to “make disciples?”

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The Price is Right

by TerryLema

My husband loves The Price is Right. He watches it every weekday morning. He wants me to watch it with him. I do okay except for the contestants that scream, fall down on the stage, and generally act like idiots.

This year, he discovered The Price is Right at night. It is usually on Wednesday nights. The other Wednesday they aired two shows. Two hours of The Price is Right. Two hours of screamers. Two hours in a row of people who were acting like they won the billion-dollar lottery when it was just a new fridge or a hammock.

After the first hour, I put my ear buds in, pulled up my music and listened to some of my new favorite songs while “watching” The Price is Right with Bob. As I listened, the “Goodness of God” came up—at the same time a particularly loud and obnoxious contestant appeared on the show. I could not help but compare- what the world values and what a Child of God values.

“I love Your voice. You have led me through the fire. In the darkest night You are close like no other. I’ve known You as a Father, I’ve known You as a Friend. And I have lived in the goodness of God.”

 As I watched people get excited over a vacation or car, I listened to those lyrics and thought about God’s goodness in my life – how He has been with me even when I fought Him. He has touched my life in so many ways. He has loved me even when I was unlovable. What a blessing to have “lived in the goodness of God.”

“His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” [2Peter 1:3 HCSB]

 

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Not Exactly Happily Ever After (Part Two)

by TerryLema

Remember that beautiful love story of Isaac and Rebekah from Genesis 24 that I wrote about yesterday. It started out so good, but then the “happily ever after part” got a bit skewed. That’s because these were real people, not fairy tale or romance novel characters.

The troubles really began after Isaac prayed for Rebekah. She was unable to conceive initially, but after Isaac’s prayers for his wife, she became pregnant with twins. They jostled in her womb and drove her to consult the LORD about her condition, “if everything is all right God, why am I thus?” [25:22]

God granted Rebekah’s request and told her why.  The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, the older will serve the younger.” [Gen 25:23]

That was so true.  Over the next few chapters in Genesis, those twins, Jacob (who would be renamed Israel) and Esau caused their parents a lot of trouble.  They fought and schemed and tried to outdo each other. They even got mom and dad involved in their squabbles.  (To this day, their descendants are still squabbling.) Eventually Jacob and Esau achieved a measure of peace between them and found that living far away from each other served them well.

When I read the story of Isaac and Rebekah and their offspring, I often wonder if there were times when Isaac regretted asking God for children. Had it been me, I just might have!

And I also remember that the people and great heroes in the Bible were just that, real people. Not made-up fairy tales, superheroes, or characters in a novel. They were people who had struggles in everyday life just as we have. God walked was them through each one. That gives me hope.

 

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A Love Story

by TerryLema

I like love stories. I’m not too big on things like romance novels, but I like a good, honest, love story about real people with all their foibles and quirks.  Having been married for 56 years, I’m not much into “and they lived happily ever after.” I figured out that was a fairy tale about three months into it.  But a good story about real people with problems to overcome is something that will win my heart. One such is the story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis.

Abraham sought a wife for his son by sending his top servant to his relatives in the city of Nahor. There, through divine “coincidence” the servant found Rebekah and brought her back to wed Isaac. You can read the story in Genesis 24. I love the final verse in that chapter: “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” [v67 KJV]

Isn’t that a beautiful story? And had it ended there we might add “and they lived happily ever after.”  But we’d be wrong.

Initially Rebekah was barren until Isaac sought the LORD for his wife and she conceived. Twins. Then the trouble started. “The children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it be so, why am I thus?’ And she went to inquire of the LORD.” [Gen 25:22 KJV]

I can never get past that verse without chuckling. “Why am I thus?” is one of those verses that so often speaks to our lives, even our spiritual lives.  We’ve been adopted into the family of God, made part of the bride of Christ. We’ve been given new life … so why do we still struggle … why isn’t it “happily ever after” instead of “why am I thus?”

I know that our struggles work for us a weight of glory we would not have without them. I know the times in my life when I struggled brought great spiritual growth. And I know that there are still times, even after all these decades when I must run to inquire of the LORD and ask, “Why am I thus? What’s going on God?”

Bless His Holy Name, sometimes He tells me why, sometimes He doesn’t, but either way, He walks with me through it all.

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Learning to Trust

by TerryLema

This verse popped up this morning. Ps 138:8: “The LORD will perfect that which concerns me.” [NKJV]

The HCSB translates it this way, “The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me.”

Then they both remind that the love / mercy of the LORD endures forever.

Occasionally, uncertain situations or circumstances can stretch out for long periods of time. Learning to trust the LORD while we are waiting to see the outcome can be difficult.  I would like to be able to say that my faith, my trust in the LORD is always absolute and perfect.  I really would like to be able to say that … but I can’t. Even at 76, after a half-century of serving the LORD, there are still times when my faith doesn’t measure up to what I think it should be.

It is during those times (one of which happened recently) that I need to remember that the fulfillment of God’s purpose for me is secure in Him.  The LORD will perfect, the LORD will fulfill. I may get a bit wobbly at times, but God remains steadfast in my behalf. He will make it happen.

My imperfect faith, my wobbliness, cannot change God’s purpose or His ability to perfect and fulfill it for me … it will only make me miserable in the waiting.

Once again, God proved Himself steadfast in my behalf. Once again, I made myself miserable while waiting to see Him do it.

You would think after all these years I would have learned that, wouldn’t you?

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