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Devotions

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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A Complaining Spirit

by TerryLema

One last thought about our spiritual heart health this month—that is the danger of possessing a complaining, grumbling, murmuring spirit. Philippians 2:14: “Do everything without grumbling and arguing.” [HCSB]

As a society we have become professional complainers. We complain about everything. Prices, politics, neighbors, roads, traffic, restaurants, products. Name something, anything, and you have probably heard someone complain about it.

As believers, we cannot allow a complaining habit to develop in our lives. The Greek word translated “complainer” means “one who is discontented with his lot.” It is a cousin to the word grumbler.

Complaining, grumbling, murmuring destroys the peace, patience, and joy that the Spirit of God wants to produce in our lives. It shifts our focus from the plans and purposes of God for us. It also causes us to forget the love and blessings God worked in our lives in the past.

The opposite of a complaining, grumbling, murmuring spirit is a spirit of gratitude, thankfulness, and trust. That is what should permeate the life of a believer. I would add that we can be honest with God when things are difficult and trials abound, but honesty is different from whining about our lot, or complaining about God to others!

Give us LORD, instead a spirit of gratitude for all you have done for us. Amen

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Anger

by TerryLema

I have been thinking a lot about the things that are risk factors for our spiritual hearts. Hardening of our hearts, that I wrote about yesterday, is certainly one. Another is anger. Anger acts like a poison on both our physical hearts and our spiritual hearts.

In my concordance there were 259 references to anger. Ephesians 4:31-32 commands us to “get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” Then goes on and tells us we need to “be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave [us].” [HCSB]

James tells us that we must be “quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger,” and explains why, “for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.” [1:19-20 HCSB]

We are an increasingly angry culture. Anger makes us want to lash out and hurt others. Every day there are newscasts informing us of someone (or some group) becoming angry and striking out at the focus of their anger with words or even weapons.

Anger is a danger and has no place in the life of a Christian. (Yes, I understand there is a righteous anger, but we must admit, most of us do not “suffer” from that.)

Unrighteous anger will damage our spiritual hearts. It certainly will not accomplish God’s purpose. It will, in fact, undermine God’s purposes in our lives and in the lives of others.

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Hardened Hearts

by TerryLema

I am a recipient of the promise of God found in Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” [HCSB]

Fifty years ago this August, I surrendered my life to the personal care of Christ Jesus my LORD and Savior. It was the best and greatest decision I have ever made. In that moment, God took my stony heart, set in rebellion against Him, and changed it to a heart of flesh capable of loving Him and desiring to serve Him.

While I was given that heart of flesh, I still must guard against things that pose risks to my spiritual heart. One such risk is found in the Book of Hebrews.  “As the Holy Spirit says: Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” [3:8, 3:15, 4:7 HCSB]

We can harden our hearts when we are shown God’s truth and refuse to accept it. We can harden our hearts when we hear God tell us to do something, and we do not do it. We can harden our hearts when the Holy Spirit checks an attitude in us and we fail to heed His warning.

Every time we reject or ignore or disobey, we run the risk of hardening a part of our heart. Do that often enough and we can grow deaf to the voice of God.

The only way to soften that hardened part of our heart is to repent and allow the forgiveness of God to flood our heart, bringing back the tenderness to God that once was there.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if we allowed that beautiful heart of flesh given us by God to be hardened once again because we failed to heed Him?

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How Much?

by TerryLema

I receive a daily verse and comment from “The Berean.” The other day the verse was 2 Peter 1:2-8. Part of the comment by Richard T. Ritenbaugh answered the question about what real conversion is: “It is the transformation of our characters, our intellects, our emotions, our actions, our words, and our very thoughts, from the evil way inspired by Satan and man’s carnal nature into the divine nature—the very nature of God Himself!”

Then he asked a few questions. I halted on the first one. “So, how much like God are we?” I looked at that question for a long time, knowing I needed to change two words. “So, how much like God am I?” Ouch!

Recently I spent some time in 2 Timothy 2:22. It reads in part, “… pursue righteousness, faith[fulness], love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” [HCSB]

I realized that the things I am to pursue (righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace) are all attributes of God. They are the things that once acquired, will make my character come in alignment with His.

I also realized that we sometimes get a wrong impression of the word pursue. Do you remember greyhound racing – where a mechanized rabbit ran down the track always out of reach of the pursuing greyhounds. Sometimes we think that pursuing God is like that – God always out of reach.

But pursuing God is not like that. It is like the finish line of a marathon. It never moves or changes, it remains where it is while we run the race, getting closer and closer all the time. We pursue that line; we pursue our God who never changes. As we pursue, we get closer and closer to Him. We become more and more like Him.

Let us pursue with great diligence and perseverance. Amen

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