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Devotions

He Psalm 119:33-40

by TerryLema

I was reading Psalm 119 this morning. Longest chapter in the Bible, covering 176 verses. This psalm contains the profound truth that the Word of God is all sufficient.  Common words are the Lord’s commands, precepts, statutes, decrees, judgments, and instructions.

Psalm 119 reminds us that God’s Word reflects the very character of God Himself. God’s attributes of righteousness, trustworthiness, truthfulness, faithfulness, unchangeableness, eternality, light, and holiness are also on display.

As I was reading, I halted at the section contained in verses 33-40. Then I began to pray through that section.

Vs33: Teach me, LORD, the meaning of Your statues …

Vs34: Help me understand Your instruction …

Vs35: Help me stay on the path of Your commands …

Vs36: Turn my heart to Your decrees …

Vs37: Turn my eyes from looking at what is worthless …

Vs38: Confirm what You said to Your servant …

Vs39: Turn away the disgrace I dread …

Vs40: Give me life through Your righteousness …

As you read through (pray through) that small section, you will notice that for almost every one of those prayers, there is to be a corresponding reaction in our hearts.

Pray this passage with me today … I think you will be blessed. Amen!

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New Direction for Me

by TerryLema

I have been reading through my Bible at least once (almost every year) since 1985. I have a specific Bible-reading plan that I like. I have read through my Bible once already this year (a plus of “adjusting” to retirement).

I am about a third of the way through the second reading, but I noticed that something is off in this second reading. I am skipping over some things, rushing through others, looking at passages with an eye on devotions rather than on my own heart’s needs and desires.

I talked to a friend who recently came back from a two-week vacation visiting others. One of the persons she visited remarked that his reading had become “routine,” so he changed the way he read. He decided rather than just reading through, he would search out topics or themes and study that way.

That is what I need to do also. As I thought more about that this morning, I realized that God had already dropped the theme in my heart. I need to study the Holy Spirit – not in a superficial way leaning on others’ discoveries in books, but an in-depth study of my own through my Bible.

I think the Holy Spirit is being pushed aside in our churches. It is far easier (and less dangerous) to study what other churches have done or are doing and employ their ideas than it is to turn the Spirit loose and let Him do as He wants.

Maybe, also, we carried the “decently and in order” [1 Cor 4:40) way past where Paul intended, so much so that we are rigid and obstinate to anything the Spirit wants to do.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 contains a series of things we often quote, “Rejoice always! Pray constantly. Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,” but how much attention do we give to the next verse, “Don’t stifle [quench] the Spirit.” [HCSB]

If we want to see God move, if want to see miracles and multitudes of people come to the living God, we must stop stifling (quenching) the Spirit of God in our midst.

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Believing

by TerryLema

A couple Sunday’s ago The Way had a guest speaker. Her message was about “Crazy Faith” and she shared some of the miracles God had done in her life and the lives of others that she witnessed. At the end, she asked anyone who needed a miracle to come forward. I do, so I did. I was the only one who did.

She prayed for a miracle healing from the auto-immune diseases that want to control my body. I am believing for that miracle.

My auto-immune diseases had been under “control” until recently. In the last month, they flared up again. In addition to the diseases, I have had to deal with the side effects of the medications. Yes, I need a miracle.

I will admit that I have learned a lot dealing with chronic disease. That said, however, I think God now wants me to be healed. So, I am putting this in writing … I received a miracle on Sunday.

I am believing with “crazy faith” that God is healing my body of chronic disease. He is opening up a new way for me.

I want “crazy faith” to believe for a miracle – not just for me, but for you also!

“Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the Darkness … my God, that is Who You are!”

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My God

by TerryLema

I love music. My mother played a mean piano, and then eventually a home organ. My dad had a collection of records that ranged from Dixieland Jazz to classic. Music was part of my life growing up. My tastes run a bit like my dad’s. I love almost all kinds of music with a few more “modern” exceptions. Not fond of Hip Hop or RAP or a few others that appeal to these latest generations.

A couple Sunday’s ago we had a guest speaker. That allowed Pastor Laura to do worship. She included the song, “Way Maker” written by Nigerian gospel singer Sinach.

I really love that song.  The chorus lists characteristics of our God. “And You are Way Maker, miracle worker, Promise keeper, light in the darkness, My God, that is who You are.”

 A friend from church gave me a lovely coffee mug inscribed with that chorus on one side and my name on the other. I use it every day for my afternoon iced coffee. And as I use it, I am reminded that …

I am reminded that my God makes a way where there is no way. I am reminded that He is a miracle working God. I am reminded that all the promises in Him are “Yes” and “Amen.” I am reminded that my God has taken me out of the darkness and brought me into His Kingdom of Light.  That is my God – that is Who He is!

What do you need today? Do you need to find which way to go? Do you need a miracle? Do you need to be reminded of one of the promises we have in God and how we can appropriate it today? Is your way dark, do you need to be led to the light?

That is my God. That is your God. That is Who He is. Call on Him!

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Be Filled by the Holy Spirit

by TerryLema

In that lovely passage in Ephesians 5, titled Consistency in the Christian Life in my Bible, Paul reminds us of a number of things imperative in our Christian walk. First, we need to make the most of our time, and second, we are to avoid any action or thought that leads us away from God as His beloved children.

Third, we are to be “filled with the Spirit” of God. In case we might not know what being filled with the Holy Spirit means, Paul goes on to show us just a tiny bit of what the Spirit does in us.

“…speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.”  [vs 18-21 HCSB]

Being “filled with the Spirit” involves action. It is not a passive event but one that promotes activity in our own hearts and in the lives of others. Look at those verbs … speaking to one another, singing, and making music, giving thanks, submitting to one another.

There is so much in the Scriptures regarding the Holy Spirit. There is fruit born through Him. There are gifts that He grants to flow through us. He teaches us how to pray. He is our Helper. He is the guardian of our inheritance. You could spend a year or more just searching the Word of God for all that the Holy Spirit does.

For me, I love those verses in Ephesians 5. He enables us to sing and make music from my heart to the LORD.

LORD, let me always make music in my heart to You! Amen

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Consistency in the Christian Life

by TerryLema

Yesterday as I was reading in Ephesians 5, I was led by the Holy Spirit to think about the last seven months of my life—those months where I have been adjusting to retirement. I wondered if I had been “making the most of the time,” or simply whiling it away. That thought is contained in a passage labeled in my Bible as “Consistency in the Christian Life.”

After Paul reminds his readers (and me) about redeeming the time, he goes on to other things. First, he tells us what we should avoid, and second, what we should be doing instead.

“And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit.” [vs 18 HCSB]

We are not to get drunk with wine because that leads to reckless actions. So often we breeze by that warning because we do not drink and alcohol is not a temptation for us, but I think the warning is far deeper than just a warning about wine.  If we go back to the passages that begin Ephesians 5, we see far more and broader warnings.

The chapter begins by telling us to be “imitators of God, as dearly loved children.” We are to walk “in love.”

Then it reminds us to avoid a number of things … some of which we can even find in the church today, things like, sexual immorality, impurity, greed, coarse and fooling talking, crude joking. We are told to not participate in the fruitless works of darkness, or partner with those who promote “empty arguments.”

I believe we could embrace Paul’s warning as encompassing anything that promotes the reckless actions that lead us away from God or diminishes or thwarts our walk as dearly loved children of God.

Instead, we are to be “filled by the Spirit.” (Tomorrow)

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August Already?

by TerryLema

Where has the time gone? Seems like I just retired at the end of 2021 and now we are more than halfway through 2022. And what have I done or accomplished in these last seven months. Ah, from my perspective my greatest accomplishment has been “adjusting to being “retired.”

Reading Ephesians 5 this morning gave me a bit of a shock. My Bible translation calls this passage, “Consistency in the Christian Life.” Verses 15-17 jumped off the page and into my heart.

“Pay careful attention, then to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is.” [HCSB]

“Making the most of the time” is often translated as “redeeming the time,” meaning to intentionally walk in wisdom and in submission to the LORD. It means seeking His will. It means staying away from the sinful things of this world. It means walking each day in the ways of God that lead to holiness and maturity (as Paul goes on to explain in the following verses).

Time is the one thing we all possess equally. There are exactly 24 hours in each day, 1440 minutes. No one has more and no one has less.

Someone wrote, “Time is a gift of God,” and if that is true, then it means we need to carefully steward it like we must do with all God’s gracious gifts.

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Greed

by TerryLema

We live in a consumer economy. That is defined as an economy that relies heavily on how much people are buying and spending. I am not an economist, but it seems to me that this type of economy is dependent on making us either use up what we have so we need more (like food, gas, etc.) or making us desire or want more. In other words, encouraging us to be covetous or greedy.

Since retiring I’m spending a bit more time in front of the television than I did. I have been subjected to more commercials that are designed to make me want more … advertisements that feed greed.

I am 75 years old and I must admit I have seldom heard messages about greed, and I must also admit that I have seldom brought a message about greed.  All the while, greed has spread throughout our nation and, yes, even the church.

In Mark 7, Jesus had a confrontation with the Pharisees about the traditions of the elders involving the ceremonial washing of hands, vessels, couches, etc. He pointed out that it is not what goes into a person that is important but what comes out of them.

“What comes out of a person—that defiles him.  For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, promiscuity, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.   All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” [7:20-23 HCSB]

The word for greed is pleonexia, and is often translated as covetousness, avarice, aggression, or a desire for advantage. Pleonexia comes from two words meaning 1) numerically more, and 2) the desire for more (things), i.e., lusting for a greater number of temporal things that go beyond what God determines is eternally best.

I am not sure where I am going with these thoughts this morning, but it was that second meaning of the Greek word used for greed that really has me searching and thinking … “lusting for a great number of temporal things that go beyond what God determines is eternally best.”

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I Will Remember

by TerryLema

King David assigned worship leaders in 1 Chronicles 6:31-32. One of those men, a descendant of Levi was named Asaph. You may have noted his name in the superscriptions on some of the psalms, specifically Psalms 50, and 73-83. Like David, Asaph was a skilled singer and poet. He was a gifted individual, and he recognized his gifts as coming from God.

I was reading Psalm 77 this morning. Asaph is struggling in the beginning of the song with his emotions and expresses his troubles. He seems to be seeking God, but unable to find Him.  Then in verse 11, everything changes.

“I will remember the LORD’s works; yes, I will remember Your ancient wonders. I will reflect on all You have done and meditate on Your actions.” [HCSB]

What follows is a retelling of the Exodus when God parted the Red Sea and when Moses and Aaron led the people through.

“I will remember … I will remember … I will reflect … and meditate.”

Asaph retold the story of God’s glory among His people. Asaph remembered, reflected, and meditated.

When we are going through life-altering events, when we are surrounded by enemies of our soul, when we are stunned by the actions of others – it is a good thing to remember the story of God’s glory in our lives. We need to look back and see how God has moved in other life-altering events. We need to see His glory and grace as He has ministered to us along our way.

Have you ever told others your story? Have you shared the deepest, darkest moments of life that God brought you through? Have you recorded, as Asaph did, the glorious miracles God has wrought for you?

Might be a good time to start – leave a legacy of God for others to follow.

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Are We Done Yet?

by TerryLema

Are we done yet with the heat! It has been near 100 degrees for weeks, sometimes a few degrees over and occasionally a few degrees under, but usually right around that 100 mark. I know “it’s a dry heat,” but it is still miserable.

The worse part about this time of year is the compound effect of hot days. Sure, in the spring we get a hot day now and again, but usually that is followed by some relief. The house cools down, the AC is not needed, windows are opened and walking outside once again becomes delightful.

When we hit these summer months of consistent hot temperatures, the house never cools down, the AC blasts 24 hours a day, mornings begin hot and walking outside is unbearable before the day barely begins.

As I sat here this morning, at 5 AM and 75 degrees already, I thought about the compound effect of not just the hot days, but the compound effect of the storms of life as well.

We can handle the occasional storm, but when they follow one on top of another, we get increasingly worn down and discouraged. That is where our nation, our society is right now.  Pandemic. Rising cost of food, gas. People being priced out of their homes and apartments. Mass Shootings. War. There is little around us on a daily basis to delight our hearts and minds.

Well, that is not exactly true. There is little around us on a daily basis to encourage us if we are only listening to the evening newscast. There is much around us to encourage us if we turn our attention to the daily Holy Spirit Good Newscast!

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17: “May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by His Grace. Eternal Encouragement. That is sufficient for each and every day.

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