Past Devotions

Highway to the Danger Zone

by TerryLema

In May 1986, a movie was released that became a modern-day classic.  The story line was a bit unbelievable. The young actors would never be invited to play Hamlet (but girls sure swooned over the volleyball scene!).  Recently a sequel to this movie was released. This time there was no beach volleyball scene, but a football one instead.

The dialogue in both is a bit ordinary, but the soundtrack in both is captivating. Most people who hear the song, “Highway to the Danger Zone,” immediately think of that movie from 1986 “Top Gun,” and now the sequel “Top Gun, Maverick.”

May I be so bold as to suggest that when we step out in faith with God, we embark on the true “highway to the danger zone.”  It’s risky to be fully submitted to God and moving in the power of the Spirit. Too many of us want a faith that is safe, one we can put in a box of our own making.  We want a comfortable God, but our God is neither safe, nor contained.  And often He’s not very comfortable either. Ask Moses, or Joshua, or David, or Jeremiah, or Peter, James, John, or Paul how safe and comfortable it is to serve God.

At any moment, the Spirit of God can ask you to do something that is very uncomfortable.  He might send you somewhere you never wanted to go.  He might ask you to speak up when you are trying to remain unnoticed. He might ask you to give more than you planned.

Paul gave a description of his experiences in the “danger zone” in 2 Corinthians 11:23-33.  Daniel described his in Daniel 6.  If you get a chance, read those passages today; they are an interesting contrast. Daniel escaped unscratched; Paul was scarred by 195 lashes.  Yet, each stood firm in their faith.  I am sure that each would admit that being fully submitted to God is a wonderful, exciting, “danger zone” adventure.

Father, lead us on this adventure by Your Holy Spirit.  Move us out of our comfort zone and into the “danger zone” of dynamic faith and the power of Your Spirit.  We don’t want to be comfortable … we want to be alive!  Amen.

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Kings & Priests & Prophets

by TerryLema

Jeremiah 22:12-14: “Woe for the one who builds his palace through unrighteousness, his upper rooms through injustice, who makes his fellow man serve without pay and will not give him his wages, who says, ‘I will build myself a massive palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ He will cut windows in it, and it will be paneled with cedar and painted with vermilion.”

“Woe.”

Woe is not a good word. It speaks of misery and calamity. In Jeremiah 22 and 23, God speaks “Woe” over three groups of people, kings, shepherds (priests) and prophets. The “Woe” is spoken because each group abused their power and authority over others.

The King built his wealth and power on the backs of his fellow man.

The shepherds “destroyed and scattered the sheep.” [23:1]

The prophets have “become evil, and their power is not rightly used because both prophet and priest are ungodly, even in My house I have found their evil.” [23:10-11]

God appointed leaders to protect, teach, guide, and care for His people. When they abused the power and authority given to them, God held them accountable. He spoke “woe” over those who misused their power.

God’s “Woe” is not reserved for ancient times. It is just as alive and active today as it was then. When leaders, whether political, or religious, or social abuse their power, they will be held accountable. We may not see it happen in our lifetime, but we need never worry that God turns a blind eye to those who take advantage of His people.

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Cracked Cisterns

by TerryLema

I am reading the prophet Jeremiah. Oh my. God had a lot to say to His people about their turning away from Him and following other gods and doing evil. They were about to reap the consequences of abandoning the True God who had always been faithful to them.

Jeremiah 2:12-13: “For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.”

A cistern is a reservoir for storing water. Unlike a well, it has no supply of water itself, but must be filled by an outside source.

God held two things against His people (a double evil). The first evil is that they had abandoned Him who is the Fountain of Living Water.

The second evil was perhaps worse, they not only walked away from the Fountain of Living Water, but they also engaged in self-determination … or what I like to call “MY WAY!” They dug cisterns and tried to fill them with their own version of nourishment. These cisterns would not even hold what they tried to fill them with as they were broken or “cracked.” Whatever they poured in just ran out.

Take note of what Jesus declared to His followers: “The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” [John 7:38 HCSB]

Instead of filling cisterns with what will not satisfy nor nourish and will sooner or later run out, the followers of the True God will have streams of living water flowing from deep within them.

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Attention: Leapers, Dancers and Whitlers!

by TerryLema

There is a delightful passage at the end of the book of Philippians, two paragraphs.  One begins this way … “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” [Phil 4:4-5]

If you have a chance today, read verses Chapter 4:4-7. That passage begins with rejoicing and ends with the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds.

Rejoicing!  The Greek word in the New Testament is chairo, which means to be glad, calmly happy, and joyful. The Hebrew word in the Old Testament for rejoice is ‘alats and it means to spin or jump for joy.

In 2 Samuel 6, David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant down from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David.  It says he danced before the Lord, and it uses a Hebrew word, karar, which means to whirl.  David was leaping, spinning, and whirling in dance.  He was rejoicing.  The Old Testament way.  I like that.

We are to rejoice always in the Lord.  Paul tells us that twice.  We can be New Testament rejoicers — glad, calmly happy, and full of joy.  That will please God abundantly.  That will result in the peace of God abiding in our hearts and minds.   We can be Old Testament rejoicers – spinning, dancing, and whirling!  That will please God abundantly and bear the same results.

Personally, I want to be like David before the ark.  Unfortunately, my body is no longer conducive to leaping, dancing, and whirling, but while I cannot leap, dance or whirl with my body, I can certainly do it with my heart!

Come on, all you who are leapers, dancers, and whirlers … let us Rejoice in the Lord always!

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Christ, Our Life

by TerryLema

There are so many wonderful passages in the Scriptures of who Christ is to us.  Just traveling through the Gospel of John gives us Jesus’ beautiful “I am …” declarations.  “I am the Bread of Life.”  “I am the Light of the World.”  “I am the Gate.”  “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”  “I am the Way, the Truth and the Light.”

I cling to those declarations, but the one I need to be reminded of most often flows from Paul’s pen in Colossians.  “Christ, who is your life ….”

Christ is our life.  It is so very important in this Christian walk to be surrendered to Christ fully.  It is vital that we hold nothing back, retain nothing for ourselves, and leave no area outside the control of the Savior.

The enemy of our soul also knows how vital our surrender is and so seeks to undermine it every step of the way.  He chips at it here and there, trying to draw our mind-set off Christ and put it back on ourselves. He does it with circumstances, with temptations, with the allure of the world or riches or pride.  Sometimes he just seeks to exhaust us so that we become weak and tired.  He introduces apathy, and even fatalism.

When those things happen, we must turn back and set our minds on things above. We must surrender to Christ, who is our life.  I wish I could say this is a “once and done” but it is not.  It requires heeding the Spirit’s warnings when He sees us drifting from our commitment, repenting, and re-affirming our commitment.

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OFFLINE 6/19 and 6/20

by TerryLema

Happy Father’s Day! I am offline today and tomorrow. Have a great Father’s Day! Take a moment to thank our heavenly Father who displayed His love for us at the cross. Amen & Amen.

 

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Cheerful Perseverance

by TerryLema

On September 6, 1995, Cal Ripkin, Jr., Orioles Hall of Famer, broke Lou Gehrig’s all-time consecutive game streak of 2,130 games.  I remember watching that game, hearing the standing ovation that just would not stop, watching Ripkin shoved out of the dugout to take a lap around the field in the middle of the game just to get the game going again.  Before he was finished, Ripkin would stretch that streak to 2,632 games.  2,632 consecutive games!  He is baseball’s all-time iron man.

If there is a word that describes Ripkin it might be perseverance.  Perseverance in our English dictionary means a steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or disappointments.  I’m sure Ripkin had all those, he may not even have wanted to play baseball some days.  But he persisted.  It was his ethic to be there and do his job.

Heb 12:1 says, “let us run with perseverance [endurance] the race marked out for us.” The Greek word is hupomone (hoop-om-on-ay’).  It adds something to our English definition of perseverance.  It means cheerful (or hopeful) endurance.

Hopeful endurance.  Why hopeful?  Because of the following verse in Hebrews 12:  “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the source [author] and perfecter of our faith.”  [HCSB]

Our perseverance is cheerful and hopeful because what we see in front of us is not the acclaim of men, not a statistic in a record book, or even the garnering of Hall of Fame votes.  It is Jesus, out in front of us, leading us in the race, urging us on to a perfection of faith.  We fix our eyes on the One who died for us, who endured the cross with joy because of us.  Because of Him, we can certainly persevere in our race, full of hope and cheerfulness.

 

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Marvelous, Amazing, Wondrous Grace!

by TerryLema

“And he will bring out the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” 

That is a verse in Zechariah 4.  We are perhaps not as familiar with it as we are with the one that precedes it.  “Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”   [Zechariah 4:6-7 HCSB]

The captivity of the Jews in Babylon had come to an end after 70 years and a remnant was returning to their homeland only to find the temple had been destroyed and much of the land was rubble.  God gave Zechariah a series of visions to reassure this remnant that He was with them.  The temple would be rebuilt.  God would once again dwell with His people.

God put a man named Zerubbabel in charge. The foundation would be laid and the building completed.  It would not be done by human strength or power, but in the power of God’s Spirit.  And when they brought out the capstone to signal the house of God was complete, the song they would cry would be, “Grace, Grace to it!”  It would all be accomplished, from foundation to roof, from room to room, from depths to heights and widths through God’s marvelous grace.

The Scriptures remind us that now by faith we are the temple of the Living God.  He no longer dwells in houses made with brick, but in His children who have come back to Him by faith through the salvation obtained by Christ at Calvary.   This is all accomplished by God’s marvelous grace. The same thing that Paul claimed is our claim also, “But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective.” [1 Cor 15:10 HCSB]

There is coming a time when we shall stand in the presence of our God.  One by one the capstones of our lives will be raised, and the song each one of us will sing is, “Grace, Grace to it!”

It’s all because of God’s amazing grace.

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Stopping Short?

by TerryLema

“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” [Rom 10:9 HCSB]

You are probably reading this devotional this day because at some point in your life you did exactly what Paul wrote in Romans 10.  You confessed that Jesus is Lord, you believed that He died, was buried, and rose from the grave.  And you know that through that confession of faith, you are saved now and will be with Him one day.

Jesus is Lord.  Lord, NT:2962, kurios (koo’-ree-os); from kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority.

Jesus is Lord.  He is the supreme authority over and in our salvation.  (Colossians 1:15-20 also declares His authority over everything, “in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities….”)

Salvation, of course, is our greatest need, but I wonder what would happen if we, His church, started claiming and confessing His Lordship over more than just our salvation.  What if we started seeking His Lordship over our bodies, our minds, our wills?  What if we started claiming His Lordship over our jobs, our families, our finances, our marriages?  What would happen if we started claiming His Supreme authority over our churches, our neighborhoods, our politicians, our scientists, our doctors, and our lawyers?

I wonder if we are stopping short of what God’s great will is.  Jesus said that we are to pray that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  We acknowledge with our minds that God’s will is the supremacy, the Lordship of Christ over all things, but are we praying that way?  Are we expecting God’s Spirit to move in answer to those kinds of prayers? 

Or, are we stopping short?  Something I am surely going to be thinking and praying about today.

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His Child and Forever I Am

by TerryLema

The other night there was nothing on television worth watching, not even a baseball game. It was 7:00 PM and Bob and I were staring at each other. He suggested I find a war movie on that “other channel.” You have to understand that Bob is extremely electronically challenged. That “other channel” he was talking about was the internet which I occasionally bring up on the television.

When I switched us over and we futilely scanned for a war movie, I convinced him it would be great to spend our evening watching some Christian music videos on YouTube. He agreed, thankfully.

One of the videos that popped up was the old hymn “Redeemed.”  As they began to sing, my heart began to soar, especially when they hit the chorus. “Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child, and forever I am.”

I was lifted into praise as I heard them sing that chorus. I was lifted even higher when they got to verse three. “I think of my blessed Redeemer, I worship Him all the day long, I sing, for I cannot be silent! His love is the theme of my song.”

His love is the theme of my song.

There are times when I cannot, and should not, contain the wonder of God’s love for me. No matter how difficult life gets, to know that I am “His child, and forever I am,” is overwhelmingly sufficient for every one of life’s moments.

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