Author

TerryLema

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

by TerryLema

Last Friday night we went to an outdoor wedding in a neighboring town. It rained. Not just a light shower. It poured. In fact, our area was under a flood watch, expecting two inches of rain between 10Am-10Pm.

The wedding was at a vineyard and the venue was breathtaking. Set on the edge of a cliff, it overlooked a deep canyon. But in Idaho, in June, there is always the chance of rain. And this venue did not provide tents, or much shelter for guests. (They did provide umbrellas for which I am very grateful.) And thankfully, there was shelter for the bride and her attendants.

The start time for the wedding was delayed waiting for the storm to pass. When it did the wedding took place. Everyone was a little “damp,” but the bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome, and when all was said and done, it was a joyous time.

The next morning, I thought about how life often happens that way. We make our plans, good plans, but there are no guarantees that “life” won’t change what we planned. I was reminded that standing in that downpour what we were all seeking (and needed) was shelter from the storm.

“You are my shelter and my shield; I put my hope in Your word.” [Psalm 119:114 HCSB]

The Scriptures are full of God’s promises to be a shelter, a refuge, a fortress, a hiding place for all those who seek Him. He provides hope, compassion, reconciliation, salvation, an inheritance, and so much more. He is the Glory and the One who lifts our head when the storms of life threaten to beat us down.

Thank you, LORD.

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The Final Word

by TerryLema

I looked around today and my heart was saddened by what I saw. While there is so much that makes life beautiful, there is also so much which makes life ugly.  (Most of which we can find on the evening news.)

I am tired of politics and the often-hurtful rhetoric that accompanies it. I am sick at the increase of violence. I struggle with what is going on in our education systems, our businesses, our social media, our neighborhoods.

In much of our nation, Christianity is under attack. The very ones that demand tolerance for their lifestyle refuse to grant it to others.

Perhaps even worse, some people who claim to “be” Christians, act like anything but what Christians should act like.

There is much to discourage. Still … If we believe we are heading closer each day to the LORD’s return, we also must acknowledge that the days and times will become more challenging for those who long for it.

But we can be comforted even amid the trouble because God WILL have the last word.

“We may make our plans, but God has the last word.” [Proverbs 16:1 Good News Translation]

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Because

by TerryLema

One of the greatest privileges is to pray for another. One of the greatest pleasures is to see God answer those prayers.

I came across a phrase in the Book of Daniel that touched my heart. It came on the heels of someone telling me that what I had prayed for them God granted.  That phrase is “I have come because of your prayers” and was spoken to Daniel.

“’Don’t be afraid, Daniel,’” he said to me, ‘for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.’” [Daniel 10:12 HCSB]

Daniel had been mourning and praying for three full weeks for his people. He had fasted during that time. At the end of that time Daniel had a glorious vision of a heavenly being. This being told Daniel that he had been sent to Daniel immediately after Daniel prayed but there had been opposition in the heavenlies that delayed the answer’s arrival.

Even though the answer was delayed, the impetus for the answer was because Daniel was prayed.

“I have come because of your prayers.”

God dispatched a heavenly answer just because Daniel prayed.

Imagine what God will do because we pray!

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That Will Be Enough

by TerryLema

I love the beginning chapter of the Book of Philippians. Paul opens with his greeting and immediately flows into a passage of gratitude and prayer for his readers. Then he talks of his imprisonment and how even that works to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul has no idea where his imprisonment in Rome will lead.  It may lead to freedom; it may lead to death. In verses 21 to 26 he wrestles with those two options. He reveals his heart in verse 21.  “For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”  [CSB]

For the Christian, Paul’s options are our options. In this world, Christ Jesus is our life. When we leave this life, we will gain even more for we shall see our LORD and King face to face in all His glory. We shall enter a life that is completely free from sin, free from temptation, free from pain, free from fear, free from dying. We shall abide eternally with the One Who Died For Us.

But until that day comes, we have a purpose to fulfill. We have a certain number of days to achieve that purpose that have already been determined for us. Whether we are weak or strong physically, young or old, man or woman, educated or not, rich or poor, God calls us to live for Christ.

How that command works out in our individual lives is not what is most important. We may not be able to do much more than pray for others, give a kind word to someone, or offer a smile in the name of the LORD. Maybe all we can do is live our life joyfully in Christ during trying circumstances as an example to others, but, that will be enough.

What is truly important is that we do it!

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How Precious! How Vast!

by TerryLema

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  [James 1:17 CSB]

verything God creates is productive, just, and good. Everything God does has value and loveliness.  He does everything in love and concern for our best and eternal interests. He wants us to flow with the desires of His Holy Spirit so that we will agree with His purpose worked out in our lives.

God never seeks to harm us.  He will, however, not force us to love Him and He’s given us free will to reject Him and will allow us to live (and die) with that choice, but, that has never been His purpose for our eternal good.

One of the most beautiful songs ever written is Psalms 139. Take a moment to read it. One thing you notice immediately is that it contains no negative undertones. It is an entirely positive outpouring of how we are in the care of God – we are remarkably and wondrously made, God is always with us, He knows our deepest thoughts and desires and loves us still!

To me, the most beautiful verses are 17 and 18: “God, how precious your thoughts are to me; how vast their sum is! If I counted them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; when I wake up, I am still with you.”

Our Father is thinking about us all the time. Think about that! God, the Omnipotent One, the All-Knowing One, thinks about us. Of the billions of people alive on this planet now … God thinks about me and you—about each one of us individually. What a remarkable truth.

I sing with the Psalmist … “God, how precious your thoughts are to me!”

 

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He Grieves, Do We?

by TerryLema

In Mark 8, Jesus asked the great question … “Who do you say I am?” [v29]

Peter, of course, gave the great response, “You are the Messiah,” and then moments later turned around and said something foolish causing Jesus to rebuke him.

Jesus used that moment to teach his disciples about His purpose in coming and His upcoming death at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes.  Then He invited the crowd to not just listen, but to join Him.

“Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it.  For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life?  What can anyone give in exchange for his life?’” [vs 34-37 CSB]

Jesus asks the crowd, and us, two profound questions. First, what good is it to gain everything in this world and yet lose your eternal life, and second, what does anyone have that could be exchanged for that eternal life?

How valuable a human soul! If lost, not even everything in this world can buy it back.

God values a human soul far more than we do. We look at the lost, at the openly hostile to everything sacred, and we write them off as unredeemable, or not worth the effort to pray for or witness to. Yet, I truly believe that up until that last breath they take, God does not write them off. And when they die apart from Him, He grieves for their choice to reject Him.

Do we?

 

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Teach a Child

by TerryLema

Over the past five decades I have worked in all manners of ministry. I have worked with children, teenagers, and adults. As a Hospice Chaplain I worked with the dying and the grieving. I taught adult Sunday school, mid-week services and women’s groups. I have been an associate and a senior pastor.

I guess I could just say I have seen and done most of church ministry. If someone were to ask me what I enjoyed most, I would have to think about it. If someone were to ask me what I consider the most important work in the church, I would not have any problem sharing my opinion.

I woke up this morning thinking about someone who died many years ago. Someone who left an imprint on the lives of so many. She died far too young, but what she did while she was with us still resonates.

Her name was Pam. She was the head of Children’s Church in our church in California. She loved the LORD. And each Sunday Pam and her husband shared that love with a room full of kids while the adults had Sunday service in the big church. My kids were part of that group.

Many (if not most) of the children who were part of that children’s church are serving the LORD today. I credit Pam and her love for God and for His smallest ones.

The most important work in any church (in my opinion) does not happen in the main sanctuary, it happens in the children’s rooms. It happens in a ministry that is often overlooked. But teaching and loving God’s littlest ones can change the course of a life for all eternity.

Proverbs 22:6: “Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

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Oh, So Loved!

by TerryLema

As I was walking the other day, I thought about how much we are loved by our Father God. The words of Romans 8 began to flow through my mind with each step, with emphasis on the word separate.

“Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Rom 8:35, 38-39 CSB]

As I walked, I thought about God’s love. Paul asked first, “Who (or what) can separate us?” Then he answered his own question … nothing can. There is nothing in this life, nor the next, that is able or will be able to separate us from the love of God that we have seen demonstrated in Christ Jesus our LORD.

Since that walk the other day, there have been several times when the love of God just overwhelmed me—once in the car as I was driving to a prayer meeting, once as I sat leisurely in my lounge chair reading, another time when I was simply walking around the house. Out of the blue, I could simply sense God’s presence with me. I had done nothing in those moments to seek Him, He simply came to me.

And that beloved, is truly the most incredible of all truths. God seeks us. God wants us. It all originates in Him.

I have been struggling physically. What is going on in my body is not going to kill me … probably. It does, however, make everything I do more difficult. I, like so many others, battle fatigue and pain, and the side effects of medications. Too often that claims my focus. Then, as if a veil parts for only a moment, I sense God’s love and presence overshadow me. When that happens, it all becomes all right. He is with me. He loves me.

To know, to sense, God’s love for us will overwhelm every earthly problem we ever may face. His love is all we need.

 

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Renewed Strength

by TerryLema

I am weary as I write this, bone weary. Between the auto-immune diseases trying to gain control of my body, and the medications trying to gain control of the diseases, I am fatigued by the battle for supremacy. I am also weary of mind, trying to grasp what is going on in the world around me and around the world. The fight for control of our thinking, our work, our vote, our health, our freedom has left me wondering what might be around the next corner that is even worse.

Just because I am weary of body and mind does not mean, however, that my spirit is the same. In fact, as the body and mind flails, my spirit is stepping up. I am even more dependent upon God’s Spirit to uphold me. I am even more determined to allow Him to pour out His strength and power upon me. I am even more committed to not allowing the things of this world to be my focus, but instead to search the deep things of God in pursuit of Him.

The daily Bible verse that was delivered to my email recently says it all … “but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.” [Isaiah 40:31]

That is such a familiar verse, we have said it, probably memorized it, and even sung it. if you have sung it, you know that at the end of that little chorus the author added a prayer, “Teach me, LORD, teach me LORD, to wait.” 

I do not know if the author added that prayer as just a nice ending to the song, or if he realized that for us to live Isaiah 40:31, we would have to be taught how to wait no matter what was going on in us and around us. We do not “wait” very well naturally (think long lines to check out, traffic jams). We must learn to wait.

I also chuckled a bit over that last line this morning … the author of the song did not just say “Teach me LORD” once, he repeated it … “Teach me, LORD, teach me LORD, to wait.”

I know in my life that prayer is not a one-and-done prayer, I’ve repeated it often. Teach me, LORD, to wait. I’m repeating it again this morning.  Teach me, LORD, to wait.

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Cushions?

by TerryLema

I have some pain in my right-side, lower back and hip when I sit, which is a real pain since I have fatigue and cannot stand for long periods of time. Bob asked me “why does it hurt?” That made me laugh. I have no idea why I hurt there … or why I hurt anywhere. Pain is just a constant part of this stage of my life.

Suddenly my Facebook ads and my browser ads are full of “cushions.” All kinds of cushions to make sitting easier. What? I understand that if I look up something to buy, like a flyswatter for example, I will find all kinds of flyswatter ads everywhere I browse. But I never looked up “cushions.” Is this a coincidence or is my computer reading my mind.

I know there is a lot of talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) lately in the news. Good or bad, AI is here to stay. Maybe it is not so bad since Real Intelligence (RI?) seems to be in such short supply.

For example, our politicians (which can always serve as a bad example) have a habit of creating a crisis and then patting themselves on the back when they solve the crisis they created. I’m just fantasizing here, but maybe AI can replace politicians?

Anyway, my mind has been wandering around this morning. My back and hip still hurt. I am still puzzled by my cushion ads. I still do not understand AI and wonder where RI went. But, but, God is still on the throne.

And since God is on the throne, everything else must and will submit to Him.

“Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to You. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all.” [I Chronicles 29:22 HCSB]

 

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