Category:

Devotions

The Eyes of the LORD

by TerryLema

2 Chronicles 15 tells us about the Revival that happened in the Kingdom of Judah under King Asa. He removed the idols from the land, renovated the altar of the LORD and removed the obscene image of Asherah his grandmother had made.  The chapter ends with the notable declaration that “there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.”

The nation lived in peace for 35 years, then everything changed in year 36. The Northern King of Israel, Baasha, went to war against King Asa. Asa’s response was not to turn to the LORD, but to buy the assistance of King Ben-hadad of Aram. God did not miss that and sent the prophet Hanani to King Asa to declare His displeasure.

God’s message was clear that He had proved Himself strong to King Asa in the past and that “You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.” [2 Chronicles 16:9b HCSB]

God’s message to the king through Hanani is pretty common for kings in the Old Testament. For many of them “being foolish” was a common trait. They looked past God and forgot all He had done for them in the past and sought help from men.

When Hanani declared God’s displeasure to King Asa, he also reminded Asa that “the eyes of [the LORD] roam throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His.” [vs 9a HCSB]

Unfortunately, “being foolish” is also a common trait for many of us. Too often we look past God in times of trouble and forget all He has done for us. Too often, we seek help elsewhere first. In 1 Peter 3:12, Peter echoes a reminder similar to Hanani’s. “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are open to their request. But the face of the Lord is against those who do what is evil.” [HCSB]

God continually “searches” the world for opportunities to show Himself strong in our behalf. Let’s not be foolish but turn to Him first for help in times of trouble.

 

0 comment
FacebookEmail

A Dog on a Roof!

by TerryLema

The Hazleton Fire Department in Hazleton, PA, was called out recently to rescue a dog from the roof of a three-story apartment building. Passersby saw the large dog on the roof and were worried it could not get down. The dog, however, did not seem to be worried at all.

Neighbors informed the fire department that the dog likes to “sunbathe” on the roof and does this all the time. While the fire department was watching, the dog came down from the roof and entered a third story apartment through a balcony door. The fire department left and posted a picture of the dog on their Facebook page.

Have you ever wanted to be like that dog on the roof, high above the commotion of life on the ground, away from everyone and everything?  I know I have.

Recently the Pastor of The Way Middleton touched on one of my favorite passages in Mark. The disciples were just coming back from intense ministry and were probably tired. The crowds of people were surrounding Jesus, and no one could eat or rest, so, Jesus invited them to “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” [NIV]

That never happened, of course, because the crowds of people continued to follow them.  Still, I think that invitation from Jesus to come with Him to a place of quiet and rest extends to us when we get so busy with life.

Maybe we need to be like that dog on the roof. We need to find a place to get away from all the uproar of life. We need to spend a little time in that quiet place, simply enjoying the “son-shine” and finding rest for our souls.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

It Will Not Last Forever

by TerryLema

Ps 118:24:  This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. [HCSB]

“This is the day.”  Commentators say this means that we are living in the day or time of salvation and that this day will continue until the Second Coming of our Redeemer and LORD.  God gives us this period of time to respond to His call to return to Him, but it will not last forever.

The full passage reads, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” [Ps 118:22-24 HCSB]

The stone that was rejected, of course, is Jesus the Messiah.  He is the foundation and the capstone of salvation.  We rejoice and are glad in Him.

Yet, this day in time, this March 27, 2022, is also an actual day that the Lord has made.  It is contained within God’s time of salvation.  It is ours to live out, to enjoy, to celebrate, to worship and to praise Him.

We don’t know what it will hold for us.  Perhaps it will be a day of routine, predictable and unchanging from the day before.  Perhaps it will be a day of discovery or contain sorrows or joys unexpected.  Whatever this day holds, it is ours.  We have it in the moment, but it will pass and come to a close.  We need to find time on this March 27, 2022, to be glad and rejoice.  We may not have another.

And just as this actual day on the calendar will come to a close, so will God’s Day of Salvation.  We must remind people to seize the opportunity to return to God, there may not be another day to do so.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

NOW!

by TerryLema

Wait.  The word wait always conjures up images of long lines in grocery stores, traffic at a standstill and backed up for miles, long months leading up to vacations, another year without a cost-of-living increase or raise, etc.  Waiting and agitation seem to walk hand in hand.

There are other things that Scripture is quite clear about besides God’s desire for obedience and the fact that we are not very good at it (which we looked at yesterday).

One is that is, our Father wants us to learn to wait upon Him. I do not know how you are with waiting on God, but I am usually like the writer of Psalm 119: “How many days must Your servant wait?” [vs 84 HCSB]

We are just not very good “waiters.”  Remember the two-year-old’s we thought about yesterday.  They have another word in their vocabulary, “Now!”  It’s the same word in our vocabulary as adults.  We want it and we want it “Now!”

It doesn’t take very long to learn that God’s timing is not our timing.  And that some of the biggest messes we can create come when we fail to wait for God to move and try to do it in our own strength “Now!”

There is a much-sung chorus based on Isaiah 40:31. It starts with the Scripture quotation: “They that wait upon the LORD, Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” 

It ends with the prayer, “Teach me Lord, teach me Lord, to wait.”

Much good and much strength come when we learn to wait on God.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

A Touch Word

by TerryLema

Obedience.  Tough word.   You can’t get very far into Scripture without realizing a couple things.  One, God desires obedience.  Two, we’re not very good at it.

We have to learn obedience because it does not come naturally to us.

I love two-year-old children.  That stage of development has been labeled the “Terrible Two’s.”  First time parents always seem slightly taken aback by their two-year-old’s.  The perfect, adorable, sweet little infant has for the first time begun to display the sin nature that is inherent in all of us.

Terrible Two’s quickly learn a few words that describe the place where they are in life.  “No!”  “Mine!”  “Me do!”

In adulthood we slightly bigger words to describe the stage we are in. “Rebellion! “Selfishness! “Self-Rule.”  In other words, disobedience.

Just like parents must now begin to teach obedience to their toddlers, so the Lord upon salvation begins to teach us obedience.  Some of the Lord’s commands are easy to obey, others are more difficult.  God will not give up, however, until His love in us is made complete in our obedience.

1 John 3:23-24:   Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us. [HCSB]

 

 

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Partly Cloudy, Mostly Sunny

by TerryLema

What is it about old men and the weather? My husband loves to watch the news when he gets up and always pays special attention to the weather. That weather report, however, seems to disappear from his mind about mid-morning and he asks me “what’s the weather going to be today?”

I have a weather app on my computer and phone, so I will check it (usually several times during the day) and remind him what he can expect, temperature, conditions, rain, wind, etc.

The other morning, checking the weather app, I noticed something I probably never considered before. Sunday was going to be “partly cloudy,” and Monday was expected to be “mostly sunny.”

Huh?  Isn’t that the same thing? What’s the difference between partly cloudy and mostly sunny? Aren’t there clouds on mostly sunny days? And doesn’t the sun shine on the party cloudy days?  I am sure meteorologists have specific guidelines for those definitions, but I doubt the person standing there looking at the skies on Monday and Tuesday can tell the difference between partly cloudy and mostly sunny.

Maybe it all has to do with attitude! When I look at the sky on Monday and Tuesday what will I see, the clouds or the sunshine?

Philippians 4:8-9: “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things. Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” [HCSB]

 

0 comment
FacebookEmail

It Doesn’t Just Happen

by TerryLema

The moment we trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord we enter into a life of faith.  Salvation is instantaneous.  One moment we are aliens and strangers to the Kingdom of God, the next moment we are “a people belonging to God.”  [I Peter 2:9]

While salvation is instantaneous, it takes a lifetime to understand and incorporate all that it means in our life.  Paul said it this way to his beloved in Philippi: “So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.” [Phil 2:12-13 HCSB]

We have to continue to work out our salvation.  The official term is sanctification.  God wooed us and brought us to the point of salvation, and He doesn’t stop there.  He continues to work in us for His good purpose for our lives.  We now must learn to listen and obey (spiritual maturity) – that is what is meant by working out our salvation.

Even with the indwelling Spirit of God, we will still battle our flesh.  We will still have to repent following those times when we allowed our flesh to rule instead of God’s Spirit.  We still have daily choices that will lead us toward God or away from Him.

Learning to hear and obey God’s voice doesn’t just happen.   It takes a fierce determination and persistence to learn the things of God.  While salvation is all of God, sanctification is a cooperative effort.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

We Had to Celebrate!

by TerryLema

Last Sunday, our Idaho family gathered to celebrate Bob’s and my son-in-love Mike’s birthdays. We had just put the food on the table when this sweet face appeared at our glass-front door. It was our grandson from California. He was followed by our son and daughter-in-love. We had not seen them since last May.

It was a surprise last minute trip for them. They were here Sunday and Monday and are traveling home today.  It was a brief trip but a wonderful surprise. I knew I missed them, but until I saw them, I did not realize how deep that longing was to see them and hold them again.

Luke 15:32:  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.  [NIV]

This is the ending of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  The father was speaking to his eldest son, who didn’t want to see or attend a celebration given for his younger brother – the one who had squandered his inheritance and now had returned home destitute and needy.

The father, however, had never lost hope that his son would return.  He had never stopped loving him and longing to hold him again.  Now that the boy had returned to the father’s embrace it didn’t matter what he had done or where he had gone or how much he had lost.  It only mattered that he was home.

We had to celebrate and be glad ….   The return of the lost demands a celebration.  It commands us to be glad.  Even the angels in heaven rejoice over the return of the lost, and God, Himself, rejoices over them with singing.  [Zephaniah 3:17]

How can we not join in the celebration and be glad, especially when we realize we were the lost and now we are the found?  We are saved!  I love the quote below from A. W. Tozer.  I paraphrase it often that if God never answers another prayer or does another thing for me, it doesn’t matter because He has saved me.  I will be glad!

“Sometimes I go to God and say, “God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth, I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already. God’s already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn’t pay Him for what He’s done for me.”   ― A.W. Tozer

0 comment
FacebookEmail

The LORD Reigns!

by TerryLema

I love the word glad.  The Merriam-Webster simple definition is “feeling pleasure, joy, or delight; very willing to do something; causing happiness and joy.”  It also carries the idea of preparedness.

Scripture commands us to be glad. And there are multiple occurrences of that command in our Bibles.

“Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; And let them say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns.’” [1 Chron 16:31 NKJV]

“The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.” [Ps 97:1 NIV]

If there is any reason at all to be glad it is this, “The Lord Reigns.”  Heavens are to rejoice.  The earth is to be glad.  Even the distant shores (in Scripture the USA is probably a ‘distant shore’) are rejoicing.

There is no place where the Lord does not reign.  It may not appear to our natural eyes to be so, but it is so.  “And the redeemed of the Lord are to say so!”  [Psalm 107:2 NKJV]

Kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, dictators and despots will all come and go, but the Lord God Almighty still reigns over all of the heavens and the earth.  Whatever the outcome of elections, the Lord reigns.  Whatever freedoms are granted or taken away, the Lord reigns.  Whether abiding in prosperity under good rulers or slavery under evil ones, the Lord reigns.

Just thinking about that today is more than enough to be glad and rejoice!

0 comment
FacebookEmail

A Tweet

by TerryLema

I was reading a response on Twitter that came to my email. I signed up for Twitter years ago for some project that was supposed to happen where I worked.  It never did happen, so I never did much more than sign up and follow a couple people.  I wish someone would teach me how to once again access Twitter and actually do something more than just see a tweet that comes to my email.

Anyway, this tweet was a one short sentence comment on what someone else tweeted. It said: “When politics steal your soul.”

Is that not a commentary on culture in our nation today (and maybe even in our churches today)? Politics of all kinds have stolen our souls.

We are more concerned with proving our points regarding medical approaches to viruses than we are with whether or not people are hearing the truth of the Gospel. And it isn’t just opinions on medical issues, we argue and debate elections, party platforms, our rights, our borders, our nation’s philosophy, and endless other issues—few of which will matter when we stand in the presence of God one day.

All the while we are focused on worldly issues, people are succumbing to the lies of the enemy of our souls. They are starving for truth, but we have none to give them. Our politics have stolen focus from our souls.

Those who were opposed to Jesus tried once to get Him involved in politics when they attempted to get Him to comment on the issue of Roman taxation.  His response was clear, “give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” [Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25 HCSB]

We need to ask ourselves if “Caesar’s” concerns have replaced God’s concerns in our souls. If they have, we must repent and turn back to things of eternal importance.

0 comment
FacebookEmail