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Devotions

Happy Hour!

by TerryLema

My husband has taken to watching The Price is Right every weekday morning at 9AM. I’m not sure why, but he calls it “The Happy Hour!”  I call it “The Screamers Hour.”

I laugh at how excited people can get winning a dishwasher or a badminton table. Of course, then they get to go up on stage and try to win something bigger.

The other morning a contestant guessed the initial prize price correctly and went on stage to win a “bigger” prize. It was called a backyard ensemble and consisted of a lawnmower, edger, blower, power washer and an outdoor table and chairs.  The contestant won, screamed, and jumped up and down, and I laughed.  The contestant won a bunch of stuff to do yardwork and a place to rest after getting tired!  (I know, I have a warped view of things.)

I always wonder what prompts people to get excited.  I also wonder at times why people do not get excited.

If the world can get excited over ‘winning’ a dishwasher or backyard ensemble or sports game, why isn’t the church more excited about ‘winning’ eternal joy in the presence of the Lord God Almighty?  Why aren’t we jumping up and down and screaming and shouting?  Why do we so often come to church on Sunday and remain mute during worship or bored during a message? Why does the church have to put on a “show” just to get a reaction from us?

“You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.” [Psalm 16:11 HCSB]

We are promised not just abundant joy in the presence of our LORD, we are promised eternal pleasures.  Surely that should enliven us more than a power washer.

Matt Redmond wrote, “Ten Thousand Reasons.” We hear it often sung in church. It begins “bless the LORD oh my soul ….”  If there are more than ten thousand reasons to bless the LORD, and if we will be singing His praise forevermore, shouldn’t we begin now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E
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More Than

by TerryLema

Romans 8:9-11: “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” [HCSB]

Oh, what a promise we have in that verse … because we belong to Christ Jesus our LORD, the Spirit of Christ is in us and that Spirit is life!  Add that to the promise found in Colossians 2:9 and we should live every day in amazing promise! “In Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and we have been given fullness in Christ.”   [HCSB]

All the fullness of God the Father is in Christ Jesus.  All the fullness of the Spirit of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is in us.

Understanding the depths of all this is beyond me.  I praise God that we are indwelt by the Spirit of God.  I thank Him that He inhabits not just the praises of His people, but His people.  I stand every day in the promise of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” [Col 1:27]

Still, I do not understand how this has all happened.  These great truths, that we have been given fullness in Christ, and that we have the Spirit of Christ, are truths that cannot be fully grasped with our finite minds.  (After all, these truths were birthed in the Heart of the Infinite.)

These truths must be experienced in our spirits. I Corinthians 2 makes it clear that God reveals these deep truths to our spirit by His Spirit.  Otherwise, we could not even imagine asking for them.

What a glorious God we serve, He gives us so much more than we can ask or imagine.

Thank you, LORD! Amen.

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Out of Control

by TerryLema

I recently read a series of questions in a writing of Charles Stanley.  “Do we believe God is in control?  If He’s not, then who is?  In other words, if life events are random and without purpose, then to whom do we turn in trials?”

 Col 2:9-10:  “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,  and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”  [HCSB]

I love the book of Colossians, which speaks repeatedly of the supremacy of Christ Jesus.  Christ is the head of every power and authority.  Whenever I get to thinking that the things I am experiencing are out of my control, I need to rejoice in just that … that they are out of my control!  That is a good thing.

I have little power or strength truly in this world in my own self.  I can look to some things and says, yes, I have a pretty quick mind, a bit of common sense, and a ready smile.  But I’m also aging, and the body is slowing down (and getting a bit less responsive to my demands). I can’t juggle as many things as I used to and keep them all straight.

Everything I do, I do slower.  So, if I am going to look for the power and ability to be victorious in life as it happens, I need to look outside of myself.  I need to look at the One who is the Head over every power and authority.

I am so thankful that as children of God, we can turn to Him and know He is indeed in control.  While I may not have the full picture of all He is doing, I know that He’s working all things for eternal good.  I can rest in that.

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Personal Pursuit

by TerryLema

I have been trying to clean my house a little at a time, as well as throwing or giving things away that I have not used over the years.  That also means cleaning out my bookshelves.

Most of the books I want to keep are on my Kindle now. I just pull them up wherever I am and can read them as often as I want. As I was cleaning, however, I found a precious book that I bought in 1982.  The pages are brown and getting more brown by the year.  Some are torn and taped together.  It has highlights and underlines.  It looks almost as bad as some of my Bibles!

The book is A. W. Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God.”  I read it first in Bible College and I’ve read it again and again and again since.  It is a small book, only 127 tiny paperback pages. It was first written in 1948 but it speaks volumes to us today.   If you have never read it, all I can say is, you should.

Next to the Bible, this book changed my life more than anything else I have ever read.  The introduction states that, “Perhaps the continued usefulness of this book can be attributed to the writer’s greatest spiritual discovery that to seek God does not narrow one’s life, but brings it, rather, to the level of highest possible fulfillment.”

Tozer makes a stunning pronouncement in his preface to the book.  He wrote, “For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth.”

 Scripture is very clear.  We are to seek God, and we will be rewarded when we do. If we want our life to be the fullest God has intended for us, it has to be more than words, it has to be personal experience in the pursuit of God.

Matt 6:33:  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.  

Luke 12:31: But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 

Acts 17:27:  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 

Heb 11:6:  He rewards those who earnestly seek him.   

Ps 27:4:  One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. 

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Leave Nothing to Chance

by TerryLema

I have been trying to walk more and get some of my strength and stamina back.  Spring and Autumn are my two favorite seasons for walking, no ice on the sidewalk and not blast-furnace hot!

Springtime always reminds me that God doesn’t leave anything to chance. Spend some time observing God’s creation and you will see that is a true statement.

Take a drive through the mountains, walk along the ocean’s shore, hike in the forest, and see the countless beauty.  Look at the varieties of birds, see the colors and forms of the flora, survey the back of a single leaf, catch a sunrise and you can only imagine what it must have been like before God’s creation was maimed by man’s sin.

I love to watch people.  The skin colors, the shapes of eyes and noses and ears, the beauty of children from various ethnic groups all speak of God’s amazing love.  I love to visit zoos and see God’s whimsy in the animals from around the world.  I love to pet a puppy’s nose or touch a kitten’s ears.  God has left nothing to chance in His Creation, all have been formed by His wisdom and wonder.

He has also left nothing to chance in His children.  He promises that He will fulfill His purpose in us according to His counsel.  Yes, we are saved but even more, we are being conformed to the image of His Son Jesus. [Romans 8:29]

We have the promise that by the same wisdom and counsel that created all these marvelous things of beauty that we enjoy, He will work in us.  We too will obtain an inheritance, one that is untainted by sin, and we shall become and fulfil the purpose He has for us.  We are even more beautiful to Him than the loveliest of sunrises or massive oceans or the stars in the night sky.

No, God doesn’t leave even us to chance!

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”  [Eph 1:11 NKJV]

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Not Like the Rest

by TerryLema

Our Journey Through Loss class finished last Thursday.  The class finished; unfortunately, the mourning did not.  A new class will most likely begin in the fall with the school year.  In the meantime, the pain in the hearts of those who attended will still be there.  Hopefully, this class helped by teaching us a few things about pain, grief, and mourning.

If someone were to ask me what my most precious ministry would be, it would be with the dying and grieving. There is a special place in my heart for those who experience loss.  I loved my hospice ministry with the dying. I love supporting those who are left behind and must make a journey no one wants to make.

I think as a culture we are not very good at understanding grief and mourning.  As a church, we haven’t been much better.  I remember how often I heard people quote 1 Thessalonians 4:13 as a reprimand at someone who showed signs of grief after loss.

“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.” [HCSB]

This verse has often been misquoted as “we do not grieve,” with the “like the rest who have no hope” part left out. Yes, we do not grieve like the rest, but we do grieve.  We grieve like those who have hope!  We have a hope that when we die, we will join those who have already gone into the presence of the LORD.  And if the LORD returns before that happens, well, that’s going to be an amazing in-the-clouds reunion.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.”  [1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 HCSB]

 

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It Looked Just Fine

by TerryLema

The Saturday before Easter I decided the house just had to be cleaned. The kitchen floor was sticky, the carpet needed vacuumed and there was dust on every surface.  Bob usually vacuums and I usually dust and mop, only for some reason we decided to switch that morning. He mopped floors and I vacuumed.

I was halfway through one room when I noticed that the vacuum kept spitting back a small piece of paper over and over.  I decided to check what was wrong – the dust collector was empty, and the brushes had been moving just fine. The motor was running loudly like always. The carpet even looked like it had been hit with a vacuum.  Still that one piece of paper kept reappearing.

Further investigation determined that the vacuum had lost its vacuum. It no longer sucked up the dirt, dust, or debris.  It just ran over the carpet and redeposited all that back into the carpet.  I wondered how long it had been that way. How often did Bob use it without noticing that it wasn’t actually cleaning anything?  After all it made all the right noises, left all the right brush ridges in the carpet.  It looked just fine, except … except it had lost its primary purpose.  It’s a vacuum, it’s supposed to vacuum!

That made me wonder about our primary purpose.  What is it? Have we lost sight of it?  The OT is clear that we are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”  [Deuteronomy 6:5 HSCB]

Jesus added one other component. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  [Mark 12:30 HCSB]

I often remind us of God’s love for us with its unconditional and “unstoppable” attributes (as Pastor Laura from The Way Middleton reminded us on Easter Sunday).  It is important for our spiritual well-being to remember God’s love.  It is also vitally important to remember our primary purpose – to love God with all, ALL, our heart, soul, strength, and mind. That is what we were created to do.

I will admit I sometimes lose sight of that with everything going on around me on a daily basis.  And when I do, I may look just fine on the outside, but inside I’m like that broken vacuum that seems fine but is not doing what it was designed to do.

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Your Kingdom Come

by TerryLema

The other day a “memory” came up on my Facebook page.  It was a memory about the part of The Lord’s Prayer that says, “Your Kingdom Come.”  It was a reminder that our God is on the throne today.  [Matthew 6:10]

The memory came on the same day there was an article on my online news page where a Russian Foreign Minister discussed the specific circumstances where Putin might use nuclear weapons as part of his war against Ukraine. Scary stuff.

We are to be praying for God’s Kingdom to come. Let us not, however, fall into the mistaken belief that God is waiting off somewhere to assume the Throne and Reign over all. That has never been the issue. Our God is on the Throne today, as He has been since eternity past and will be into eternity future. There is no argument, there is no challenge to His reign that will succeed. He rules over what He created. Man may not like the idea. Man may fight against His reign. But that changes naught. Our God is still on the Throne.

One of the greatest tributes to the reign of God is the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Once cannot listen to that chorus without sensing just a smidgen of what it must be like to hear those words sung in the heavenlies. Handel used the words from Revelation 19:6: “And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!’” [NKJV]

If you are worried about a nuclear war today – let me remind you, “The LORD God Omnipotent Reigns!”

If you are worried about inflation today – let me remind you, “The LORD God Omnipotent Reigns!”

If you are worried about your health, your family, your relationships, your finances – let me remind you, “The LORD God Omnipotent Reigns!”

If you are worried about this country’s future today – let me remind you, “The LORD God Omnipotent Reigns!”

If you are just worried today – let me remind you, “The LORD God Omnipotent Reigns!”

Take a moment and revive your soul – listen to possibly the greatest piece of music ever written:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZEtVbJT5c
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No Inflation Here

by TerryLema

I did two things this past week that shocked me.  I filled my small car with gas and then bought groceries.  Inflation is shocking.  I paid more this week for gas and more this week for groceries and got the same amounts of both as I did just a little while ago.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in March 2022 inflation hit 8.5 percent.  Annual inflation is the highest since December 1981. Everyone is talking about it; everyone is trying to figure out what is causing it and what to do about it. Almost every news report devotes time to it.

So, on my walk last week, while still a bit stunned by my recent purchases, God dropped a song – and a thought – into my mind and heart.  I began to sing the first verse from the song, “Thank You for the Cross, LORD.”

“Thank You for The Cross, Lord, Thank You for The Price You Paid. Bearing All My Sin and Shame, In Love You Came
and Gave Amazing Grace.”

As I sang, I thought about what Peter said about the price Christ Jesus paid.   “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” [1 Peter 1:18-19 HCSB]

Gas, groceries, rent, heating fuel, clothes, homes, cars and just about every commodity is subject to inflation – even when we cannot identify the source(s).

But the greatest of all things – salvation – was paid for once and for all by the most glorious sacrifice given, the precious blood of God’s Son, Christ Jesus our LORD.  The price never changes, there is no inflation that can affect it.  It has been paid for all eternity.

“Thank you for the cross, LORD, thank you for the price (Your most precious blood) You paid, bearing all my sin and shame.”

 

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This I know

by TerryLema

I was entering one of my favorite songs in the online program a few days ago, “Jesus Loves Me,” by Chris Tomlin. I came to the line in the song which always (alway!) makes me cry tears of gratitude.  The line is found in the chorus. “Jesus, He loves me, He loves me.  Jesus, how can it be? He loves me, He is for me.”

The very next morning, my email contained a reminder that on the cross, “God With Us,” became “God For Us,” by giving up His life for us.

In high school I got in with a couple girls that were not good influences (looking back maybe I was the bad influence?). We got in a bunch of trouble. We smoked (even in the school bathrooms), drank, cut school, snuck out at night, even took an overnight trip on a bus to LA (not smart), etc.

These girls were with me throughout my senior year, but while they were almost always with me, I cannot say that either was for me. Neither wanted what was best for me, and honestly, I did not really want what was best for them. I just wanted them to keep me company in my sin.

We know that God has always been “for” us, that is why Jesus came to be “with” us. God’s love for His creation was not to be denied, even in the face of mankind’s rebellion and rejection.

Jesus came, not to be with me in my sin, but to become my sin and remove it far from.  Jesus wanted (and did) what was for my best.  For that, I am filled with gratitude.

I can sing with David, “This I know: God is for me.” [Psalm 56:9 HCSB]

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