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TerryLema

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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Happy Mother’s Day

by TerryLema

Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely women reading this.  The nurturing hearts of women are one of God’s greatest gifts to this world.  May your day be filled with the grace and the joy of the LORD.

One of the best gifts God gave me were two aunts who loved me. Neither had children of their own, but they poured out their hearts to me. One was on my father’s side, an aunt who died when I was nine. The other was on my mother’s side, an aunt who not only loved me, but also lived to love my first child.  My aunts were so important to me since my own mother had mental and emotional challenges and could not always provide the encouragement I needed.

I love what Peter wrote in his first letter. “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”  [3:3-4 NIV]

“The unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit ….”  How I long to have that kind of spirit! I’ve been described many ways, but the terms gentle and quiet have seldom been used in that description. I have always been loud, and often forceful in my determination to get what I want.

God has gently revealed my faults over the years … and I’m sure He has more to reveal in my remaining time. As He does that, I endeavor to follow His leading and obey His promptings to be more like Jesus. “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” [1 Peter 2:21 NIV]

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Only One!

by TerryLema

I hate politics, and lately, everything before us is political. The definition of “politics” is the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.

Probably the two words contained in that definition that make politics so unpalatable to me are those words conflict and power.  That is what I see everywhere—in the media, on social media, in the reports about this next presidential election that are slanted to make us accept whatever the author wants to achieve. It is all about conflict. It is all about achieving power.

On further reflection, I think the main reason I find politics so distasteful is because it encourages us, nay, demands that we take our attention off the Only One who can fix our world, our nation, our own lives, and puts that attention on a person, or a political view, or a political party.

I care not what side of the aisle we associate with, neither side (nor the middle) will solve the problems that we face as a nation. You cannot rule, nor legislate, nor enforce righteousness because unrighteous is resident within the heart and no political view can change the heart. There is Only One who can.

“Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith….” [Hebrews 12:1b-2a CSB]

As citizens of this nation, we have certain responsibilities, one of which is to vote, but let us never think that a political candidate (even a presidential one) is going to be the answer to our problems. Church, beloved, we must turn our attention back to Jesus. He is the Only One who can save us.

 

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Convenient

by TerryLema

I love reading different Bible translations. Gets me out of the ruts I often create in my Bible reading. I like looking how a verse takes on new meaning with a slightly different translation of certain words. 2 Timothy 4 begins with a command to preach the word.  “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.” [vs 2 NKJV]

How often have we heard about the necessity to be ready “in season and out of season?” I decided to see how that verse is translated in the Holman Christian Standard Bible, which is now my favorite translation. “Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not.”

Persist in it, whether convenient or not.  When has the Gospel ever been convenient?  I have never known it to be such. The Gospel demands that we know its truth and that we live its truth. It demands that our conduct matches our words. It demands that we sacrifice, that we surrender. It commands us to praise during trials and to worship our God in spirit and truth. It tells us that His joy is the source of power and strength. It reminds us to pray always.

The immediately following verses in Timothy also give us pause. “…rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.” [2 Timothy 4:3-4 HCSB]

Not only is proclaiming the Gospel not convenient, but it is also not easy. People really do not want to hear the old sound doctrine of the Scriptures. They want something “new.” New and improved is the motto of our day and age, but there is nothing new in the Scriptures. It is that old, old story that still changes lives and brings hope to a dying world.

So convenient or not – easy or not – we are to always be ready to bring that old, sweet message to others.

 

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Profitable

by TerryLema

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” [2 Timothy 3:16-17]

Profitable to Whom? That is the great question with this verse, especially in our times. When we think about the reasons why all Scripture is profitable listed in that verse – teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness – we often apply those things to the people we see in the world. They certainly need to be trained, taught, rebuked, and corrected, don’t they?

That is not to whom this verse is directed. It is directed to the child of God. Its intention is to make the child of God complete and equipped for every good work.

The person we should see in the Scripture’s mirror is none other than us. Everyone who claims to be a child of God through the power of Christ Jesus’ work on the cross needs to be taught the will and the ways of God. Otherwise, we are like that seed that has no root. The first wind that we encounter moves us away from the One Who Died For Us.

When we deviate from God’s will and ways, we need to be rebuked and our path corrected. The Scriptures are great at producing a godly sorrow in us that leads to repentance – if we let them.

We all need to be trained in righteousness. That word “trained” reminds me of children when they hit the “Terrible Two’s.” That is when our once sweet, innocent Infants help us understand that we are all born with a “sin nature,” a nature that loves the word “NO!” and to do things OUR OWN WAY. The Scriptures are designed to reinforce God’s righteousness and holiness in our lives and remind us that training takes consistency and time.

Thank you, LORD, for not leaving us as You found us.

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