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TerryLema

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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Sound Asleep?

by TerryLema

Amazing, isn’t it? Peter was sleeping.  He was sleeping soundly. “On the night before Herod was to bring him out for execution, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison.” [Acts 12:6 HCSB]

I know he was sleeping soundly because the next verse says that when the angel appeared, the cell lit up, but Peter slept on.  The angel had to whack him on the side to wake him to rescue him.

What makes this even more amazing is that this was the night before Herod was to put Peter on trial.  Herod had already tried and martyred James, the brother of John.  I doubt Peter would have had any different a fate at Herod’s hands.  Still Peter, chained to two soldiers the night before his possible execution was sound asleep.

What allowed Peter to sleep so soundly that night?  I think it was because he had been on the mountain.  Years later, as he writes his second letter, he tells his readers Jesus has revealed to him that he is soon to be martyred.  Then he tells them this: “we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!  And we heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with Him on the holy mountain.” [1:16-18 HCSB]

Peter, along with the brothers James and John had been on the mountain with Jesus.  They had heard the voice of the Father.  They had seen Jesus transformed before their very eyes. Peter saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears and knew that it was all true … Jesus was the very Son of God.

We see also, but with spiritual eyes and we hear with spiritual ears.  The indwelling Spirit of the Living God reveals to us that it is all true … Jesus is the very Son of God.  And He loves us.

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Selling God Short?

by TerryLema

Eph 3:20-21 NIV: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Ephesians 3:20 HCSB: “Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think …” 

Eph 3:20 NKJV: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think …”

How wondrous those phrases, immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine … exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think …above and beyond all that we ask or think.

 Why don’t we ask more?  Why don’t we think higher?  Why don’t we imagine so much greater than we do?  Too often we sell God short.  We think little—all the while He is urging us to think bigger and greater.

Jesus sent a few men out into the world and told them to change it, and they did.  They turned it upside down in one generation.  When the last of those men laid down his head in death the world was far different than when he first set out.

Jesus said, “Greater works will you do” and they did them.  He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations” and they did of all the nations in the civilized world of their day.  He said, “Pick up your cross” and they carried it until their time was done.

Can we be like they were?  Can we think immeasurably more, exceedingly abundantly above, above and beyond?  I wonder what it will take.  Perhaps the now church needs a new vision of the Resurrected Christ.

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Brokenhearted

by TerryLema

Ps 34:18:  “The Lord is near the brokenhearted; He saves those crushed in spirit.” [HCSB]

Psalm 34 is a song of David, written when David was not in the best of circumstances.  He had fled King Saul who was trying to kill him, and ended up in Gath, a small town on the Philistine border.  When the king in Gath learned who he was, he wanted David gone. Fearing harm, David pretended to be insane until they drove him away, finally ending up living in caves.

Yet despite the circumstances, Psalm 34 is an extremely positive song, beginning, “I will praise the Lord at all times;
His praise will always be on my lips. I will boast in the Lord; the humble will hear and be glad.”

I have been thinking lately about how deep emotional wounds can go.  They are often much harder to heal than physical wounds.  Physical wounds, if the body is healthy, simply heal themselves.  Emotional wounds need a lot of intentional work.  We must forgive, often repeatedly.  We must want to be healed – not always an easy choice.  We must work through the rejection, pain, and all the emotions that attach … and while we are doing this, the enemy of our soul is whispering why we should not!

Yet David understood that when we are brokenhearted, God draws close to us.  He understood that there is salvation for those who are crushed in spirit by life’s unfairness.  We can, through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds, be healed of the sorrows and pains inflicted upon us.  We can be made whole.

Oh Lord, today we pray for those whose hearts have been broken, those who are crushed in Spirit.  Draw close to them and lead them to a healing place in You.  Amen.

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Great Storms

by TerryLema

“The greater the storm, the louder our song. We lift our voice up, we make your praise so glorious.”

That is a line from the song “Louder,” by Mark Redman.  That line, especially the first part, has been running through my mind repeatedly … the greater the storm, the louder our song!

Our world is ablaze with storms, both literal and figurative.  Weather patterns have been wild this year.  There have been earthquakes and volcanos, floods, and droughts. As bad as those disasters are, they have affected relatively few compared to the other kinds of storms.

Wars, conflicts, radicalism, mass murders, shooting sprees, persecutions, fears, anxiety.  It seems like the news opens every day with reports of the tempests that plague our world.

The church has felt herself assaulted in our country in ways we never thought possible.  Maybe that’s the problem, we never thought it possible!  We let our guard down.  We grew comfortable in our plush chairs and expected that would go on until Jesus came.  Whatever the reasons, in many areas of our society, Christian is no longer a welcome title.

So what should we do?  I truly believe God’s Spirit is energizing some of our new song writers and they are putting forth praise, urging us to catch the wind of the Spirit … The greater the storm, the louder our song!  The Spirit is telling the church to rise out of her plush chairs and begin to praise, praise louder and more fervently than ever before.  It’s time to sing praise, shout praise, dance praise, clap praise and live praise.

It’s time to open our doors and let the world see us and hear us praising our God! Probably even time to take our praise outside our doors!

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Worship Walk

by TerryLema

I try to do a worship walk at least four times a week, my goal is five times. Last Monday I went on my first walk of the week and when I got home I plopped in my recliner and began to laugh.

I used to walk listening to songs on my MP3 player. It played into my hearing aids. Then I broke my MP3 player, and I am too cheap to buy another one. So, I listened to my music on my phone. Unfortunately I also lost one of my good hearing devices with the Bluetooth. I am too cheap to buy more expensive devices so settled for ones that do not have Bluetooth capabilities. All that to say, I play my music on my phone for all the world to hear when I walk.

Monday is not the best day to walk in my neighborhood. It is garbage day, so my walk is spent dodging cans. Some people put their cans on the sidewalk, some put them in the gutter. Which means that sometimes I am walking on the sidewalk, and sometimes I am walking in the gutter.

Then there are the dogs that try to freak me out when I walk by. They begin to growl and bark, and I am never sure they aren’t going to come charging through the broken fence boards in many yards. And, of course, there are the smells. From the garbage cans I must walk around. All this while I am playing my worship music and praising my LORD.

As I sat in my chair I laughed. My worship walk was so much like trying to walk the narrow road in the middle of the world’s broad one. Dodging obstacles. Remaining peaceful when the enemy is threatening. Praising my LORD and praying amid the decay and stench of the world’s evil.

I even walked with a cane (some call religion a crutch), but I have found leaning on those everlasting arms to keep me going is one of the most delightful parts of walking with the LORD every day. [Deuteronomy 33:26-28]

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