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Devotions

Sacrifice of Praise

by TerryLema

“Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name.” [Hebrews 13:15 HCSB]

Sacrifice of praise.  Praising God is one of the most uplifting and blessed of all experiences.  Coming into the presence of God with praise on our lips, hands raised to honor God, hearts and minds focused on Him fills us full.  So, when Scripture talks about it as a sacrifice it seems rather odd.  We are told to offer to God the sacrifice of praise.  When I consider that verse, I am drawn to those first two chapters in the book of Job.

In Chapter 1 Job loses just about everything he has, including his 12 children.  As wave after wave of bad news assaults him, Job drops to the ground in grief.  And there, shaken by all the bad news, it says that Job worshipped.

“Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of Yahweh.’ Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.” [vs 20-22 HCSB]

In Chapter 2 we are told of a second assault upon Job, this time on his health.  Covered with boils, sitting in the ash heap, scraping his sores with broken pottery, he is as wretched a man as one can be.  When his wife advises him to curse God and die, his response is amazing.

“’You speak as a foolish woman speaks,’ he told her. ‘Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?’ Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.” [vs 10 HCSB]

In the midst of overwhelming adversity, Job did not sin with his lips but instead praised God and worshipped.  That is what is meant by a sacrifice of praise.  It is praising when life hurts. It is blessing God rather than cursing.

It is responding to the grievous difficulties in life by acknowledging grief yet lifting our heads off the ground to praise and not charge God with wrong.

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Dangerous Prayer

by TerryLema

“I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” [Ephesians 3:17b-19 HCSB]

Paul’s prayer for his beloved Ephesians was that they would become rooted in love, and that they would be able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.  

 If there was ever a prayer we should pray, it is this one.  If there was ever a prayer God desires to answer, it is this one.  Help me Father to know this love of Christ that surpasses everything. 

Praying this prayer is dangerous, however.  It will cause us to see ourselves as we are apart from grace, and that is not a pretty sight.  It will cause us to sense the unworthiness of our lives and the shallowness of our love.  It will cause us to ponder our commitment to truly loving God with our entire soul, mind, and being.  It will drive us to a choice – do we really want to grasp how wide and long and high and deep Christ’s love is? If so, it must become our passion.

Passion.  We speak of the Passion of Christ, a phrase you will often hear in this Easter Season.  It means the hunger and thirst present in Jesus that made the Father’s will greater than His own.  Christ’s passion for God’s will drove Him to the cross, to execution, to death, to the grave.  It consumed everything He was, it prejudiced everything He did.

It is that kind of passion that we are choosing when we pray, “Help me Father to know this love of Christ that surpasses everything.”

 

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Good to Be Afflicted?

by TerryLema

Ps 119:71-72:  It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn Your statutes.  Instruction from Your lips is better for me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. [HCSB]

Wow.  It was good for me to be afflicted?  Did the psalmist understand what the meaning of the word afflicted is?  Troubled. Distressed. Stricken. Hurt. Tormented.  What can possibly be good about that?

I have often talked to people who are enduring a time of trial and testing. There have also been those times in my own life. The reaction to these times is often to be focused on “why” they are happening. What is more important is that we instead ask God what He wants us to learn through them.

The psalmist said that his affliction was a good thing in the sense that he learned more about God. Learning in the midst of affliction is not easy; it may be the most difficult thing we do in life.  Yet if we find God in the midst of it in greater measure than we ever have before, it can be the most rewarding of experiences.

What did the psalmist learn about God in his affliction?  He’s quite clear, he learned that God was more precious to him than “thousands of pieces of silver and gold.”

We sing a chorus that expresses that thought …. Lord, You are more precious than silver.  Lord, You are more costly than gold.  Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds.  And nothing I desire compares with You.

Sometimes it is in the midst of the fire’s crucible that we learn that nothing compares with knowing Him.

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Old Dogs

by TerryLema

I was on my way to McDonald’s Monday night. The last Monday of each month Bob goes to a dinner and meeting at the American Legion. I take that opportunity to grab a fast-food meal, usually at a place that Bob is not fond of. Last Monday it was McDonald’s.

As I was driving God popped a memory of a prayer I prayed around three years ago, and even brought back what prompted that prayer!

At the time I noted three people who consistently walked their dogs around our neighborhood.  Each day a man walked two large, powerful dogs. They pulled him along, leashes taunt in front of him, as he strained to keep them from dragging him down the sidewalk.

There was also a woman who was walking a puppy. That puppy stopped all the time, sniffing everything, exploring at the end of the leash as the woman kept pulling him along trying to get him to keep up with her as she walked.

The third person I saw each day was an older man walking an old dog. The dog walked next to the man without a leash. He never ran ahead nor trailed behind. He was just pleased to walk beside his master.

As I watched them, I was moved to pray, “LORD, I want to be like that old dog, simply walking alongside you anywhere you go. I don’t want to run ahead, nor lag behind. I just want to walk with You.”

Remembering that prayer last Monday brought tears. I still want to be like that old dog. If that is where I am in life now, I will be pleased to simply walk alongside my LORD. Amen.

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The Valley of Rephaim

by TerryLema

2 Samuel 5 recounts a number of events in the life of David. It begins with all the tribes of Israel acknowledging him as king. It tells of his taking of the “stronghold of Zion,” and of his getting wives and concubines and having sons and daughters born to him.

The Philistines, however, were not so happy with David’s successes and went in search to eliminate him.  David went down to the stronghold and the Philistine came and spread out against him in the Valley of Rephaim. [vss 17-18]

When David asked if he should go to war against the Philistines, the Lord told him to do so. David defeated them at Baal—perazim but the Philistines returned again to the Valley of Rephaim.  David once again inquired of the LORD if he should attack.

The LORD this time told him, “Do not make a frontal assault. Circle around behind them and attack them opposite the balsam (mulberry) trees. When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, act decisively, for then the LORD will have marched out Ahead of you to attack the camp of the Philistines.” [vss 23-24 HCSB]

David obeyed exactly as the LORD commanded him and defeated the Philistines.

The thing that amazes me about this event is not that the LORD went ahead of David, nor that God gave David the victory. What amazes me the most is David waiting until he heard the LORD move in the treetops. I would be out there shaking those trees trying to get them to sound like someone was marching in them. I am not so good at waiting!

I know, however, that victory comes only in God’s timing, and sometimes, it is preceded by waiting. Oh LORD, teach me to wait until I hear You telling me it is time to move!

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Imitate Me

by TerryLema

There is an idiom that says, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  That means when someone imitates the things you do it is a sign that they like and admire you.

Paul urged his Corinthian readers to imitate him. “Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” [1 Corinthians 4:16 HCSB]

Of course, right before Paul urged the Corinthians to imitate him, he described his ministry. “Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the world’s garbage, like the dirt everyone scrapes off their sandals.” [1 Corinthians 4: 11-13 HCSB]

Ah Paul. Surely you don’t mean we are to imitate you in those kinds of things.  I am sure you must mean we should imitate you in preaching to nations and changing masses of people, not in how we respond to being roughly treated or laboring or blessing when reviled or enduring persecution or responding graciously to slander.

But no, Paul means we are to show the same humility in rough situations that he displayed as an apostle. His success in preaching to the known world and turning the hearts of people to the love of God did not come easily or without conflict. He was honest in what being true to the mission of Christ Jesus to go into all the world means for disciples.

2 Timothy 3:10-13: “But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from them all. In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.” [HCSB]

As for us, we must continue in what we have learned and firmly believe in the midst of persecution and trouble.

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The Fight is Here!

by TerryLema

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a former actor and comedian who rose to prominence playing a character on a popular TV show who accidentally becomes the Ukrainian president. Zelensky turned his success into politics, running for office in 2019 on the back of a political party named after his show, “Servant of the People.”

The last few days as Russia has invaded Ukraine, Zelensky has proven himself to be a hero of his time and a spokesman for democracy and freedom. According to the Associated Press, Ukrainian President Zelensky turned down a U.S. offer to evacuate him from Kyiv, saying: “The fight is here: I need ammunition, not a ride.” 

As Christians, we can echo Zelensky’s comments. “The fight is here.”

All we have to do is re-read Matthew 24 to know that the end times will be extremely difficult. The world will see wars and rumors of wars. Followers of Christ are described as being handed over for persecution. They will be hated by all nations because of the name of Jesus. But Jesus calls us to “endure to the end.” [vs13]

We know that God provides spiritual weapons for the spiritual warfare we will face. Ephesians 6 describes those weapons. We also know that many anticipate a Rapture prior to the return of the KING of Kings and LORD of Lords, Christ Jesus, that will remove Believers from this earth prior to the final time of Tribulation.

I do not know if I believe in a Rapture or not. I look for it. But if it does not come, I ask God for the commitment and strength to “endure to the end.”

As Believers, we need to remember that the fight for the name of the LORD is here and now, in this world where we are. We need to appropriate the “ammunition” found in Ephesians 6 (the weapons of Spiritual Warfare) and we need to remain strong and faithful to the LORD God Almighty.

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Afterlife?

by TerryLema

Every morning my online news page has a poll. It is not always a heavy-duty one but is often lighthearted. Last Sunday’s poll began with the question: “Do you believe in an afterlife?”

My answer choices were “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know.” So, of course, I selected a resounding “YES!”

That question was easy. The next one, however, not so much. “Do you think your afterlife is determined by how you lived?”

My answer choices were again “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know.”

As a Christian, I needed another choice – maybe even a different question. I needed that question to read, “Do you think your afterlife is determined by how your LORD Christ Jesus lived and died?” Then I could answer with a resounding “YES!”

I cannot live righteously on my own. All my feeble efforts at holiness and meeting the standards of God fall far short. My afterlife is not determined by how I lived; it is determined by my one right response to the invitation of God to surrender my life to Him.

I have righteousness because of God’s grace and mercy. I will see my Father God because of the sacrifice of His Son.

In truth, there is only one way to God, one way to worship Him, and Jesus died on a cross to open that way, that life to us.

“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” [John 14:6 HCSB]

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Our God

by TerryLema

Quarterback Tom Brady retired. Well, maybe. He retired from the New England Patriots a few years ago, but then came out of retirement to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now he has retired from the Bucs, but only he knows if he will stay retired.

Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls, six with the Patriots and one with the Bucs. Most label him “The GOAT.” The GOAT means, “The Greatest Of All Times.”

Last year a new business (a donut shop) opened near us. The sign on the strip mall said, “GOATstar Donuts.” I drove by that sign for months before it dawned on me what it meant. “Greatest of All Time Star Donuts.” (I don’t know if they are the greatest, but they are good!)

One of the psalms I read today was Psalm 70, a psalm of David. David, the king aligns himself with all those who are poor and needy. He seeks the help of God for salvation and the defeat of his enemies. Then he reminds all those who have experienced God’s salvation to declare “God is Great!”

“Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love Your salvation continually say, ‘God is great!’” [Psalm 70:4 HCSB]

We are to rejoice. We are to be glad. We are to continually say, our “God is great!”  And maybe, we should amend that just a bit to “Our God is the GREATEST OF ALL TIME!” 

He has no equals. He has no rivals. There is no other God like our God! Let’s shout it for all the world to hear!

1 Samuel 2:2: “There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides You! And there is no rock like our God.”

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It Remains

by TerryLema

Recently I went to a church in Boise for the first time. I have known the pastor for a while, but never been to Sunday service. The service opened with a reading from Psalm 103 that declares God’s love for us.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in faithful love…. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love…. But from eternity to eternity, the LORD’s faithful love is toward those who fear Him. [Psalm 103:8, 11, 17 HCSB]

One of the worship songs was “One Thing Remains.” That one thing, the song reminds us, is God’s love. As the chorus says, “ [God’s] love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me.”

I needed that reminder. Do you?

Too often we impose our attributes on God instead of allowing God to impress His attributes on us. Because we fail and give up on ourselves at times, we think God gives us on us also. Oh, we know with our heads that God will never run out on us, but our hearts experience something far different. Our ears too often bend to the message the enemy of our soul likes to promote – “how can God love you when you …?”

1 John 4:8 declares that “God is love,” and throughout Scripture God and His love are described as “faithful.”  God’s love never fails us, He is compassionate and gracious to us. God’s love never gives us on us, He is slow to anger and rich in faithful love. God’s love never runs out, from eternity to eternity He loves us.

That is the message we need to be reminded of each day and to remember always.

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