Past Devotions

See Me Through

by TerryLema

I wrote yesterday about how I enjoy reading and contemplating Romans 5:1-5.  I hope you took the time to also read it and that it spoke to you.  Sometimes it is good to not just read through a paragraph in Scripture, but to look at the individual words and think about each word, or combination of words.

In that paragraph, you will find faith, hope, and love.  You will come across rejoicing and suffering.  Did you notice the Trinity?  God the father. Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit.

My focus kept coming back to verse 5: “This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  [HCSB]

My thoughts centered on the hope that does not disappoint.  I’ve lived 75 years and I must acknowledge that there have been many disappointments in my life.  Many times my expectations have not come to pass.  Too many times people have disappointed me.  I’ve been disappointed in employers, church, friends, products, vacations, locations, you name it.  Disappointments abound in this world.

But Paul’s emphasis here is on “the hope” that does not disappoint.  That hope is born out of suffering; it is produced when suffering is approached correctly.  That hope does not disappoint, Paul says, “because God” … because God in the midst of our suffering poured out his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

I can look back on these 75 years and admit there have been many disappointments.  I can look back and see the times when suffering seemed to be the norm rather than the exception.  But I can also look back and see the times that God simply picked me up and set me on His lap and held me close.  I can hear His whispers that He was with me, that this too shall pass.  

 Those were special times, and they produced a hope that whatever suffering might arise, God’s love will see me through.

 

0 comment
FacebookEmail

What a Punch!

by TerryLema

I always enjoy reading the first paragraph of Romans 5, verses 1-5.  Listen to some of the truths found in those verses reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

We have been 1) declared righteous by faith…have peace with God…obtained access into this grace in which we now stand, 2) rejoice in the hope of the glory of God…rejoice in our afflictions (sufferings), 3) affliction (suffering) produces…hope will not disappoint, and 4) God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Wow, could Paul pack more punch in one paragraph than he did here?  I love the contrasts.  We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God; we rejoice in our sufferings.  

 I also am captivated by the two outcomes that follow each other.  Suffering produces; hope does not disappoint.

 Suffering produces – what it produces depends upon how we approach it. I remember friends of my parents.  Their first child was born right after Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, she died shortly after birth.  Then they had another girl, raised to adulthood.  Their third child, a boy died of a brain tumor at age eight.  Shortly after he died, they had another boy, raised to adulthood.  Their fifth child, a boy had Down’s Syndrome.  This was at a time when that condition was viewed quite differently than it is today.

Many people looked on this couple and expected to find bitter people, instead they found people who were joyful and loved the Lord.  They were patient, kind, wonderful people. Suffering produced much good in them.

Suffering produces – what it produces depends on if we approach it with God or against God.

 Take a moment today and read Romans 5:1-5.  What do you find there?

0 comment
FacebookEmail

It’s Not Fair!

by TerryLema

Life is not fair.  I remember a book written years ago by Robert Schuller with the title, “Life is Not Fair, But God is Good.”  I never read the book, but I always liked the title.

That life is not fair was brought home recently when I met with a young woman whose husband died in his 40’s. Working hospice and pastoring always reminds that some people live to old age, some die young.  Some people are healthy most of their lives, while others battle physical or mental problems.

No matter how much we try to make life fair, it never will be.  We can try to level out salaries/incomes. We can try to level the playing field for different groups or peoples.  Still, something in life will remain unfair. There is probably not a single person who could say that throughout their life on earth everything has been fair.

When I think of fair and unfair, I am driven to think of the cross of Christ Jesus my LORD. It is the greatest act of unfairness in history.  Paul explains it this way, “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” [1 Corinthians 5:21 HCSB]

He had no sin. I had no righteousness. At the cross. He became my sin. I became His righteousness before God.

But I also find the greatest “fairness” of all at the foot of His cross because no one has any advantage when we come to Him, no one has anything to offer but surrender.  We bring nothing to the cross. There is no class there, no wealth, no education. There is only absolute helplessness.

We all enter God’s family the same way, through the sacrifice of our Savior and Lord. Yes, life is not fair, but our amazing God is so, so good.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Be Careful

by TerryLema

I walk with a cane.  The auto-immune diseases (and the medications I take because of them) have affected my muscle strength and stamina.  My balance is not what it once was.  So, when I walk, I need the extra security of a cane.  I had a pretty lavender cane until I lost it yesterday (another is on the way).

I am not at all embarrassed to use a cane when I go out. After all, I wear glasses because my vision is not perfect and I want to see, and hearing aids because my hearing is not perfect and I want to hear. Why would I be ashamed to use a cane because my balance is not perfect either. I want to walk.

I am very careful even using the cane.  I try to remember to turn slowly and not just spin around like I used to do. I watch the sidewalk for cracks or holes. I am careful.  Very careful.

Reading in Colossians 2:6-7 yesterday, I noticed how the next verse began – “be careful.”

“Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.” [Colossians 2:8 HCSB]

We are instructed to be careful in our worldview. We are to be careful that we are not taken captive by the world, its philosophy and deceit. We are to be careful we are not taken captive by human traditions.  We are to be careful that our worldview is not based on anything but Christ Jesus.

That made me wonder just how careful I am when I view the things of this world. Am I as careful with my thoughts and heart as I am with my body as I walk with my cane?  Am I comparing everything with the eternal view of Christ? I pray I am.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Overflowing

by TerryLema

I am so blessed. I am sitting in my living room in a big comfortable lounge chair.  I am looking around my home and out the windows at my backyard. The back door is open and the birds that nestle in our treetops next to the feeder that Bob maintains are singing their hearts out. The sound is so sweet.

I am so blessed. My home is not the biggest and best in the region, but it is warm in the winter, dry in the rainstorm and water flows freely through the pipes.  I have food sufficient for the day.

I am so blessed. I have a church that I love, people that I love, and opportunity to write my thoughts about the LORD.  There are still freedoms that allow me to worship and speak.

I am so blessed. I have received Christ Jesus as the LORD of my life. I have a security in the midst of the storms of life. I have the promises of God that are always “yes” and “amen” for me.  I have a future, not only for this life, but for eternity. I will dwell in the presence of the Lord God Almighty, forever.

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with gratitude.” [Colossians 2:6-7 HCSB]

I am so blessed—so blessed I am called to be overflowing with gratitude.  Gratitude keeps envy at bay.  Gratitude overcomes disappointment and discouragement.  Gratitude lights the darkness.  Gratitude brings peace to the soul.

I am so blessed, yes, so blessed.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Happy Hour!

by TerryLema

My husband has taken to watching The Price is Right every weekday morning at 9AM. I’m not sure why, but he calls it “The Happy Hour!”  I call it “The Screamers Hour.”

I laugh at how excited people can get winning a dishwasher or a badminton table. Of course, then they get to go up on stage and try to win something bigger.

The other morning a contestant guessed the initial prize price correctly and went on stage to win a “bigger” prize. It was called a backyard ensemble and consisted of a lawnmower, edger, blower, power washer and an outdoor table and chairs.  The contestant won, screamed, and jumped up and down, and I laughed.  The contestant won a bunch of stuff to do yardwork and a place to rest after getting tired!  (I know, I have a warped view of things.)

I always wonder what prompts people to get excited.  I also wonder at times why people do not get excited.

If the world can get excited over ‘winning’ a dishwasher or backyard ensemble or sports game, why isn’t the church more excited about ‘winning’ eternal joy in the presence of the Lord God Almighty?  Why aren’t we jumping up and down and screaming and shouting?  Why do we so often come to church on Sunday and remain mute during worship or bored during a message? Why does the church have to put on a “show” just to get a reaction from us?

“You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.” [Psalm 16:11 HCSB]

We are promised not just abundant joy in the presence of our LORD, we are promised eternal pleasures.  Surely that should enliven us more than a power washer.

Matt Redmond wrote, “Ten Thousand Reasons.” We hear it often sung in church. It begins “bless the LORD oh my soul ….”  If there are more than ten thousand reasons to bless the LORD, and if we will be singing His praise forevermore, shouldn’t we begin now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E
0 comment
FacebookEmail

More Than

by TerryLema

Romans 8:9-11: “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” [HCSB]

Oh, what a promise we have in that verse … because we belong to Christ Jesus our LORD, the Spirit of Christ is in us and that Spirit is life!  Add that to the promise found in Colossians 2:9 and we should live every day in amazing promise! “In Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and we have been given fullness in Christ.”   [HCSB]

All the fullness of God the Father is in Christ Jesus.  All the fullness of the Spirit of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is in us.

Understanding the depths of all this is beyond me.  I praise God that we are indwelt by the Spirit of God.  I thank Him that He inhabits not just the praises of His people, but His people.  I stand every day in the promise of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” [Col 1:27]

Still, I do not understand how this has all happened.  These great truths, that we have been given fullness in Christ, and that we have the Spirit of Christ, are truths that cannot be fully grasped with our finite minds.  (After all, these truths were birthed in the Heart of the Infinite.)

These truths must be experienced in our spirits. I Corinthians 2 makes it clear that God reveals these deep truths to our spirit by His Spirit.  Otherwise, we could not even imagine asking for them.

What a glorious God we serve, He gives us so much more than we can ask or imagine.

Thank you, LORD! Amen.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Out of Control

by TerryLema

I recently read a series of questions in a writing of Charles Stanley.  “Do we believe God is in control?  If He’s not, then who is?  In other words, if life events are random and without purpose, then to whom do we turn in trials?”

 Col 2:9-10:  “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,  and you have been filled by Him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”  [HCSB]

I love the book of Colossians, which speaks repeatedly of the supremacy of Christ Jesus.  Christ is the head of every power and authority.  Whenever I get to thinking that the things I am experiencing are out of my control, I need to rejoice in just that … that they are out of my control!  That is a good thing.

I have little power or strength truly in this world in my own self.  I can look to some things and says, yes, I have a pretty quick mind, a bit of common sense, and a ready smile.  But I’m also aging, and the body is slowing down (and getting a bit less responsive to my demands). I can’t juggle as many things as I used to and keep them all straight.

Everything I do, I do slower.  So, if I am going to look for the power and ability to be victorious in life as it happens, I need to look outside of myself.  I need to look at the One who is the Head over every power and authority.

I am so thankful that as children of God, we can turn to Him and know He is indeed in control.  While I may not have the full picture of all He is doing, I know that He’s working all things for eternal good.  I can rest in that.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Personal Pursuit

by TerryLema

I have been trying to clean my house a little at a time, as well as throwing or giving things away that I have not used over the years.  That also means cleaning out my bookshelves.

Most of the books I want to keep are on my Kindle now. I just pull them up wherever I am and can read them as often as I want. As I was cleaning, however, I found a precious book that I bought in 1982.  The pages are brown and getting more brown by the year.  Some are torn and taped together.  It has highlights and underlines.  It looks almost as bad as some of my Bibles!

The book is A. W. Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God.”  I read it first in Bible College and I’ve read it again and again and again since.  It is a small book, only 127 tiny paperback pages. It was first written in 1948 but it speaks volumes to us today.   If you have never read it, all I can say is, you should.

Next to the Bible, this book changed my life more than anything else I have ever read.  The introduction states that, “Perhaps the continued usefulness of this book can be attributed to the writer’s greatest spiritual discovery that to seek God does not narrow one’s life, but brings it, rather, to the level of highest possible fulfillment.”

Tozer makes a stunning pronouncement in his preface to the book.  He wrote, “For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth.”

 Scripture is very clear.  We are to seek God, and we will be rewarded when we do. If we want our life to be the fullest God has intended for us, it has to be more than words, it has to be personal experience in the pursuit of God.

Matt 6:33:  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.  

Luke 12:31: But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 

Acts 17:27:  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 

Heb 11:6:  He rewards those who earnestly seek him.   

Ps 27:4:  One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. 

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Leave Nothing to Chance

by TerryLema

I have been trying to walk more and get some of my strength and stamina back.  Spring and Autumn are my two favorite seasons for walking, no ice on the sidewalk and not blast-furnace hot!

Springtime always reminds me that God doesn’t leave anything to chance. Spend some time observing God’s creation and you will see that is a true statement.

Take a drive through the mountains, walk along the ocean’s shore, hike in the forest, and see the countless beauty.  Look at the varieties of birds, see the colors and forms of the flora, survey the back of a single leaf, catch a sunrise and you can only imagine what it must have been like before God’s creation was maimed by man’s sin.

I love to watch people.  The skin colors, the shapes of eyes and noses and ears, the beauty of children from various ethnic groups all speak of God’s amazing love.  I love to visit zoos and see God’s whimsy in the animals from around the world.  I love to pet a puppy’s nose or touch a kitten’s ears.  God has left nothing to chance in His Creation, all have been formed by His wisdom and wonder.

He has also left nothing to chance in His children.  He promises that He will fulfill His purpose in us according to His counsel.  Yes, we are saved but even more, we are being conformed to the image of His Son Jesus. [Romans 8:29]

We have the promise that by the same wisdom and counsel that created all these marvelous things of beauty that we enjoy, He will work in us.  We too will obtain an inheritance, one that is untainted by sin, and we shall become and fulfil the purpose He has for us.  We are even more beautiful to Him than the loveliest of sunrises or massive oceans or the stars in the night sky.

No, God doesn’t leave even us to chance!

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”  [Eph 1:11 NKJV]

0 comment
FacebookEmail