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Gifts & Boldness

by TerryLema

As I look back on Christmas 2020, I see sadness and joys. One sadness came when our California children were locked down so far away. Our plans to be with them faded long before the Thanksgiving holiday, so it was not unexpected. When Christmas arrived, while we knew we would not have them with us, that sadness enveloped us anew.

While sad over our California kids, God blessed us with newfound joys. Our youngest son met a lovely young woman with three children. They became part of our 2020 Christmas celebration, and we laughed and loved and enjoyed watching once again small children amid Christmas Day “chaos!”

I find that the greatest gifts are not usually the material ones. The greatest gifts are those which minister to my heart.

One of my favorite “let us” commands in Hebrews is one that revolves around receiving gifts. “Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.” [Hebrews 4:16 HCSB]

We are told to approach God’s Throne of Grace with boldness. Boldness is not arrogance. The Greek word used by the author is “parresia” and it carries the idea of free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, and assurance.  It has none of the superiority attitude or overbearing manner contained in arrogance.

No, this boldness is based on our relationship with Christ Jesus our High Priest, and upon His invitation to come into His presence. When we accept His invitation to approach the Throne of Grace, we are to “fear not.”

And, it is at His Throne of Grace that we will find the gifts that minister to our hearts … mercy and grace. 2020 needed a lot of mercy and grace, I am betting 2021 will also!  So “let us” approach God’s Throne of Grace with free and fearless confidence and cheerful courage!

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Power Over the Spiritual World

by TerryLema

Reading Luke 8 on Tuesday morning gave me much to consider. Beginning in Verse 22, Luke tells us three amazing stories about the power and authority of our Savior and LORD, Christ Jesus.

He begins in verses 22-25 with the calming of the storm on the lake. After that when the boat reaches the other side, they arrive in the region of the Gerasenes, opposite Galilee. There they are confronted by a man possessed by demons.  Jesus commands the demons to leave the man.

The demons recognize the authority of Jesus that they must leave the man, but they beg Him not to “banish them to the abyss.” [vs 31 HCSB]

Jesus gives them permission to enter a herd of pigs. Unable to contain the “Legion” of demons, the pigs rush down a steep bank and drown. That upsets the men tending the pigs who rush off to report the incident to the town.

When the townsfolk come out to see what happened, they find Jesus and the formerly-demon-possessed man sitting and talking.  Verses 36 and 37 report the outcome and as it turns out, it is the same reaction the disciples had when Jesus calmed the storm – fear.

“Meanwhile, the eyewitnesses reported to them how the demon-possessed man was delivered. Then all the people of the Gerasene region asked Him to leave them, because they were gripped by great fear.” [HCSB]

Fear was the response of the disciples when Jesus took authority over the storm, and fear was the response of the people in the region of the Gerasenes when Jesus took authority over demonic powers. In these two incidents we see the power and authority of our Savior, Christ Jesus, over the natural world and over the spiritual world.

No wonder we stand in wonder in the Presence of Jesus!  All authority, all power are His!

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Power Over the Natural World

by TerryLema

One of the new customs for the Christmas season is to read one chapter a day from the Gospel of Luke beginning on December 1. I was amazed by Luke 8, the chapter for Tuesday the 8th. It begins by telling us that women who had been healed and delivered were supporting Jesus and His Disciples. Then Jesus gives the Parable of the Seed and the Sower, along with a reminder that we are to be light for all to see. At one point, Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see Him but were unable to get through the crowd.

The part of the chapter that truly touches me begins in verse 22.  After a long day of preaching and ministry, Jesus got in a boat with His disciples and told them to go to the other side of the lake. He was so exhausted He fell asleep and did not even awake when a fierce windstorm arose and threatened to swamp the boat. [Luke 8:22-25]

Finally, the disciples woke Jesus and told Him, “Master, Master, we’re going to die!” [vs 24 HCSB]

Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and the raging waves and they immediately obeyed Him, and the storm ceased. In its place was a great calm. Of course, that frightened the disciples even more than the storm did.

As I thought on that passage all of a sudden I saw the storm in our country that is going on right now, and I started to chuckle. Let me explain why I laughed. Every politician, from local mayors, to state governors, to congressional leaders, president, and president-elect think they can calm the storm with their proclamations, directives, and strategies. But they cannot. They think – in a way – that they have the power over the storm when they are really in the same boat as the disciples! “Master, Master, we’re going to die!”

Only Jesus has the power and the authority to stop the storm. Even when He was at a low point, exhausted from ministry, He only had to say a word and the cosmos obeyed.

After quieting the storm Jesus had one question for His own, “Where is your faith?” [vs 25 HCSB]

We might ask ourselves that same question!

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Thanking or Complaining?

by TerryLema

Before we leave Psalm 95, we need to take note of not just its glorious beginning, but how it ends. The beginning is where we often focus. We are joyfully shouting because our God is Creator and Sustainer of all His Creation and because He is our Maker and our Shepherd.

We cannot, however, ignore the warning that comes at the end.

“Today, if you hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness where your fathers tested Me; they tried Me, though they had seen what I did. For 40 years I was disgusted with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know My ways.’ So I swore in My anger, ‘They will not enter My rest.’” [vs 8-11 HCSB]

There is a warning that we are not to allow our hearts to become hardened. The psalmist uses an incident out of Exodus 17 where the people complained once again before the LORD. Even though they had seen mighty miracles, even though God proved Himself strong on their behalf repeatedly, still they complained.

Complaining is an easy trap to fall into, one that the enemy of our soul is always pushing us towards. Complaining is the opposite of thanksgiving. It narrows our vision and focus to only what is wrong. It pushes the awareness of God’s presence and the appreciation of His blessings out of sight.

When we complain we see only what we think we want or need that we do not have. We fail to see our Shepherd’s abundant mercy, grace, love, and care. Complaining drives us out of the Presence of our God and into a wilderness where we wander around hopeless and lost.

So, let us not harden our hearts. Instead let us lift our hearts with our hands in joyful and triumphant praise to our Great King.

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Who loves you

by TerryLema

November 10

Who loves you ….

When I awaken in the mornings, the first thing I do is pour a cup of coffee and head to the “bonus” room in our house. It is my room in which to study, pray, write, and just separate myself from thoughts of what needs to be done that day, or the sound of the news and westerns my husband loves to watch in the living room.

 

It is a quiet room. It keeps me sane most days, as sane as anyone can be in these troubling times. It is my peaceful place. Lots of thoughts and prayers have originated in this room. I love spending time here with the LORD, often thinking about how wonderful and gracious my LORD and Savior is to me.

 

I was sitting in my room the other day and read a meme on Facebook posted by a lovely young woman that I love very much. It began … “Do you ever sit back and realize ur not anybody’s favorite person ….”

 

Those words broke my heart and I wept. I wept because the world and life can be so cruel far too often. It seeks to isolate us from the love that others have, as well as to be blind to the love of God that flows to us in so many ways.

 

I am old and gray now. I have seen difficulties and triumphs. I have witnessed horrors and delights. I have seen too much and yet have not seen enough. I have held newborn babies and dying saints. In it all I cling to the words found in Psalm 27:10. “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord cares for me.” [HCSB]

 

No matter what life holds, no matter the difficulties, the rejections, the loneliness, disappointments, or trials, even if those who should love me the most abandon me, “the Lord cares for me.”

 

No one … no one … ever cared for me like Jesus.

 

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=no+one+ever+cared+for+me+like+jesus&docid=607992087596304815&mid=8047B279A9EF5833D8ED8047B279A9EF5833D8ED&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

 

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In the Day of Trouble …

by TerryLema

I love mornings. I am an early riser, usually between 4:30 and 6:00 AM. I wake up, grab a cup of coffee and head to my bonus room in the quiet. I watch as the world gets lighter around me, darkness flees with each passing minute.

In those early morning hours, I write, I pray, I study, I converse with my LORD and Savior. Those hours are the most precious to me – I hate anything that interrupts them.

I think David must have been an early riser. Maybe all shepherds have to be so. Many of his songs speak of mornings and his attention to the LORD upon rising.

“But I will sing of Your strength and will joyfully proclaim Your faithful love in the morning. For You have been a stronghold for me, a refuge in my day of trouble.” [Psalm 59:16 HCSB]

God is a stronghold and refuge in the day of trouble. I think 2020 could be described so far as a “year of trouble.” It certainly has abounded with fear, misinformation, loss, hopelessness, and opposition. The horizon of change still seems to be far off. So much talk of things not getting back to normal until … until the infection count goes down … until a vaccine is available … until … until. There seems to be no set plan or date for returning to normal, and I wonder if the old normal will ever return.

Amid all this the church is being called upon to repent and turn back to God. So many heavy-duty issues to deal with daily. Still, amid all this God is reminding us that He alone is our stronghold, He alone is our refuge. It is His strength and His faithful love that comes to us every morning.

Thank you, LORD, for being there each day, providing a stronghold and refuge for your people. Amen.

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A Call to Repent

by TerryLema

1 Kings 13 is an odd chapter in the Old Testament. At least it seems odd to me. Solomon had died, his son Rehoboam had foolishly acted in a way that split the nation. The tribes Judah and Benjamin remained faithful in Jerusalem (becoming the Kingdom of Judah) while the remaining tribes split from them under the leadership of Jeroboam and set up their capital in Samaria (becoming the Kingdom of Israel). Jeroboam, worried about people returning to Jerusalem to worship at the temple and thus reunite with the House of David, set up a false worship, and installed anyone who wanted to be a priest to lead that false worship.

God sent a prophet to Jeroboam to proclaim judgment on the false altar and worship. Then it gets weird with that prophet being seduced by another and eventually killed.

But it is not the weird part I focused on this morning as I read the chapter. It was what Jeroboam did not do at the end of the chapter. “After all this Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again set up priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places.  This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be wiped out and annihilated from the face of the earth.” [vs33-34 HCSB]

Jeroboam, even after being warned about the evil of setting up false worship and idolatry, did not repent. He continued in his wickedness and was eventually destroyed.

God is calling His people to repent. That is the theme for this September 2020. Everywhere I look I hear the call of repentance. And as we know so well, it must begin with the church. We need to look at our ways and see if we have allowed a false worship or a shallow or perverted Gospel to infiltrate our gatherings. We need to determine if our leaders are following God as they should or if they have “become priests of high places.”

To repent involves sorrow and an acknowledgement of guilt as well as the courage to turn from our wicked ways back to our Savior and King. I pray, beloved, that the church finds that courage. Amen

 

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Dying is gain …

by TerryLema

I must admit that I am already tired of the politics and election drama. I have read the draft platform from one party (all 80 pages) and waiting to read the draft platform for the other one. I also must admit my soul is vexed by the rhetoric, it is sorrowed by the hatred spewed back and forth, and almost overwhelmed by the issues. The other day I stood in the kitchen and thought I understood, maybe for the first time, what Paul wrote in the beginning of his letter to the Philippians.

“For me, living is Christ and dying is gain. Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. I am pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ—which is far better— but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.” [Philippians 1:21-24 HCSB]

I know my life is Christ here now, and when I die I shall go to be with Him. That sounds so much better than staying where everything is such a mess in our world at present. Yet I also know, that as a pastor, I must complete my course; I must serve Christ now in the toughest times I have seen since I began.

I am not the only pastor who feels this way, many others are feeling the same. There are just times when pastoring is difficult and uncertain. We are not immune from discouragement, nor do we have all the wisdom and knowledge to confront every problem facing our country.

We do have “The Answer,” and that is Christ Jesus is Savior and LORD. How we communicate that answer to a dying world, how we encourage people to persevere, how we deal with overwhelming societal problems, that is the hard part.

So, a part of me yearns for that “dying is gain” that Paul wrote about – at the same time, I understand that at least for now, God is not yet ready for me. I must have some more fruitful work to complete. Ah, but deep within my soul is that desire to be with Him that yearns to be fulfilled.

Amen, LORD Jesus, come quickly. Amen.

 

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Waiting on the LORD’s promises …

by TerryLema

One of the important things about the two auto-immune diseases currently trying to make their home in my body is that there is the possibility that they will go into remission or even simply go away in 1-5 years. That is something I have been working towards, because as bad as they are, the side effects of the medication needed to keep the symptoms at bay are almost as bad. So, I take the medications and do the infusions praying for remission and healing.

I had a setback recently. After reducing the medication dosage following my infusion, my right temporal artery became inflamed again with throbbing eye and head pain, with the risk of losing the sight in that eye or suffering an aneurism. So, the medication dosage was raised again to a level that might be described as uncomfortable. It was disappointing.

Of course, that happened right between two Sunday messages on “waiting on the LORD’s promises,” as illustrated by the life of Abraham. What do I always say? “You have to live it before you can give it!” Okay, LORD, I am back to waiting again.

Psalm 27 is a song by David about the LORD our Stronghold. It begins, “The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom should I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom should I be afraid?” [HCSB]

 After David describes the wonders of the LORD as his stronghold and refuge and prays for God’s intervention in his life. He ends the psalm on both a certain assurance and a command to his own spirit. “I am certain that I will see the LORD’s goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait for the Lord.” [vs 13-14 HCSB]

So, I am back to waiting on my remission or healing. Like Abraham, and David, and so many before them, I am certain that I will see (and I do see) the goodness of my Savior and LORD, Christ Jesus now, and have the promise that there is so much more of that coming. And waiting in a green pasture by still waters is not all that bad!

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