Past Devotions

Equals

by TerryLema

Often when I am reading through a passage of Scripture, I will read it in a number of verses. Doing that expands my understanding.  I was reading in Nahum the other morning … I know … who reads Nahum in the morning!

Nahum the Elkoshite wrote down a vision of God’s vengeance against Nineveh. Inside that vision God speaks of the destruction, attack and downfall of Nineveh and her king.  Tucked in that first chapter, however, is a verse of comfort for those trust in the Lord.

Nahum 1:7: “The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; He cares for those who take refuge in Him.” [HCSB]

Nahum 1:7: “The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.” [NKJV]

As I read that verse in both the Christian Standard and the New King James, I noticed a couple of things.  Both translations are identical when they state the guarantee that in the day of trouble or distress, the LORD is good and a stronghold.

But then I noticed the complementary way the translators described His goodness and strength in times of trouble and distress.

When God knows us, it is equal to God cares for us.

When we trust in Him, it is equal to taking refuge in Him.

Simple thoughts today about great truths tucked away in a book about God’s vengeance on an ungodly nation.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

What a Contrast!

by TerryLema

I have a Bible-reading plan that I use to go through my Bible once a year.  I have been using it for decades. Each day has two OT chapters, one Psalm or Proverb, and one NT chapter. Also, it is designed so that the Psalms, Proverbs and Gospels are read twice.

The year begins with Genesis 1, Psalm 1, and Matthew 1, and continues on from there. It also bounces around a bit when you get to the history books and the prophets. But in June there are six days of very interesting contrasts. In June you read Ecclesiastes and Ephesians side-by-side.

That is what I was doing last week.  (I know it is not June, but I am a bit ahead this year.)

Ecclesiastes begins with “Absolutely futile, everything is futile,” or “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” [HCSB, NKJV]

Ephesians begins “Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” [1:3 HCSB]

After Solomon speaks of the futility of everything, he goes on in 1:12-18 to write of the limitations of wisdom, ending with “For with much wisdom is much sorrow; as knowledge increases, grief increases.”

Paul, however, works his way through God’s rich blessings in 1:3-14, a wondrous prayer for believers in 1:15-19, and ends the chapter with God’s power in Christ Jesus in 1:20-23.

Tucked in Paul words are some of the most glorious thoughts every put to paper. Instead of futility and the limitations of earthly wisdom we have from Solomon, we find glorious grace, redemption, and forgiveness.  We find God has made lavished on us wisdom and understanding and has made know to us the mystery of His will.  We find we have an inheritance and a Savior who is seated at the right hand in the heavens – far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

If you have a chance, read Ecclesiastes 1 and 2 and then Ephesians 1. You will be transported from the lowest to the highest – all because of Christ Jesus our LORD and Savior.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Surrender

by TerryLema

Kay Arthur wrote, “For believers, surrendering to God is not a one-time occurrence; it’s a matter of continually bowing our hearts before the Lord, laying our desire for control at His feet, and rising again to do whatever He asks us to do, through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  [from “Lord, I Give You This Day,” Waterbrook Press, 2006]

As Christians, we speak a great deal about surrender.  I know I’ve preaching on it numerous times over the years.  Yet if you go to your concordance, you will find very few occurrences of the word “surrender.”  In fact, the King James doesn’t even have one such occurrence. I did find six in the NKJV, 14 in the NIV and 16 in the HCSB, but none of those verses speak of surrendering to God.

The Scriptures use other words to imply surrender, words such as commit … “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in  Him, and He will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice as the noonday.” [Ps 37:5-6 HCSB]

Or the word bow … “Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” [Ps 95:6 HCSB]

Or that word worship … “Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth.  Say among the nations: “The Lord reigns.’”  [Ps 96:9-10 HCSB]

Or kneel … “ For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”  [Eph 3:14-15 HCSB]

Kay Arthur was correct … committing our ways, bowing in worship, kneeling before the LORD our Maker, are not a onetime occurrence, they are to mark our everyday, sometimes every hour, surrender to our Lord and Master.

Father God, I must surrender daily, sometimes hourly, especially as this world and my own flesh far too often assert themselves.  By the power of your Spirit, may I always rise ready and willing to do as You command.  Amen.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Company in Our Misery

by TerryLema

It had been a long day of teaching.  The crowd had been so large that Jesus had to teach from a boat that was sitting out on the lake.  When evening came, Jesus told his disciples to go over to the other side of the lake.  Then he promptly fell asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat.  You can read the story in Mark 4:35-41. It is one of my favorites.

A furious squall, meaning a violent storm, came up, so much so that waves broke over the boat.  Jesus slept on.  Afraid for their lives, the disciples woke Him, “’Teacher,’ they said, ‘don’t you care if we drown?’”

After Jesus quieted the storm by simply telling it to do so, and after chiding His disciples for their lack of faith, Mark recounts that “And they were terrified and asked one another, ‘Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!’”  [v41 HCSB]

I love this story for a couple of reasons.  First, that the disciples were afraid of the storm while it was raging but were even more terrified by what they had witnessed after the storm quieted.

Second, I always wonder why they woke him.  They certainly didn’t think he could do anything about the storm, attested to by their amazement when He did.  Did they just want some company in their misery?  Were they a bit put out because He could sleep so peacefully while they were afraid?

The disciples were human, like us.  We run to Jesus when we are frightened by life’s circumstances but are we really expecting Him to do anything or do we just want some company in our misery. 

If we are standing in faith and expectation, then why are we amazed when He does quiet our storms?

 

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Thanks to the Controller

by TerryLema

Recently a Cessna aircraft carrying a pilot and two passengers was in the news. The pilot had a medical emergency and became “incoherent,” leaving the flying of the plane to the passengers.  The only problem, the passengers had never flown a plane.

Time Magazine reported one of the passengers called the tower. “’I’ve got a serious situation here,’” the man said Tuesday afternoon, according to audio on LiveATC.net, a website that broadcasts and archives air traffic controller communications. ‘My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.’”

The passenger remained surprisingly calm.  Air traffic controller Robert Morgan, a 20-year veteran and certified flight instructor with experience piloting a Cessna aircraft took over talking the passenger down to a safe landing.

As I watched the video of that plane landing, I thought how wonderful that there was someone knowledgeable and willing to instruct the passenger how to land safely.  Of course, the passenger had to heed the instructions also or there would have been a much different outcome.

Funny how that is. Psalm 111:6-8 reminds us that we need to also heed the instructions. “He has shown His people the power of His works by giving them the inheritance of the nations. The works of His hands are truth and justice; all His instructions are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, enacted in truth and in what is right.” [HCSB]

God has provided His people with instructions that are “trustworthy” to bring us through safely.  He has shown us over and over that the works of His hands are “truth and justice.” However, it is necessary for us to heed those instructions to land safely in His presence for eternity.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Treasures From the Past

by TerryLema

I have been going through my house and garage trying to divest myself of “stuff” that has accumulated over the years since we moved here in 2007. When Bob and I moved around a lot, we never accumulated much, but in the last 15 years that changed.  I am now trying to throw away or give away anything I am not using.

While going through storage containers in the garage I found a container packed to the brim with journals.  Hidden among the journals were a set of “Joy Books” dated from 1990 to 1995. I tossed the journals; I kept the Joy Books.

My Joy Books contained quips, sayings, cartoons, thoughts on faith and even old cards and thank you notes. I am now going through the Joy Books and have come across some treasures. Those treasures have reminded me that we can and should learn much from those who have gone before us.  Here is a precious treasure I found from Lancelot Andrews (1555-1626).

“To remember Thee, to worship Thee,

To confess to Thee, to praise Thee,

To bless Thee, to hymn Thee,

to give Thanks to Thee,

maker, nourisher, guardian, governor,

preserver, worker, perfector of all.

Lord and Father.

King and God.

Fountain of life and immortality,

Treasure of everlasting goods,

Whom the heavens hymn,

and the heaven of heavens,

the angels and all the heavenly powers

one to another crying continually—

And we the while, weak and unworthy under their feet—

Holy, Holy, Holy

Lord God of Hosts

Full is the whole heaven

And the whole earth

Of the majesty of Thy glory.”   Amen.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

by TerryLema

I was cleaning off my desk and came across a card I received from my son a little while ago. When he signed the card, he added a note and called me resilient. That word “resilient” intrigued me, so I decided to look it up.

Resilient: able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

After looking it up, my mind began to travel back to some of the difficult conditions that decorated my life. I guess there were a few. More than a few if I wrote them down on paper and counted them.

Yet, when I look back at my life, I seldom focus on the difficult conditions. I know they are there, but they are in the background not the forefront.  In the forefront is God’s loving compassion and care that adorned my life in the good times and in the not-so-good times.

Occasionally the enemy brings one of those difficult conditions back to my remembrance. He wants to use it as a weapon against my soul.  He wants me to become bitter over some offense, or angry over some circumstance. He wants me to live in the hurt.  He wants me to blame God.  But he will not succeed.

A recent daily verse reminded me of God’s promise that the enemy of our soul will not succeed. “’No weapon formed against you will succeed, and you will refute any accusation raised against you in court. This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants, and their righteousness is from Me.’ This is the Lord’s declaration.” [Isaiah 54:17HCSB]

If I am resilient, if I am able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions, it is all because I have a heritage as a servant of the LORD. I have His righteousness flooding through every nook and cranny of my life.

I am His, He is mine. My LORD, not the enemy nor the difficult conditions, has the last say.  Amen & Amen.

0 comment
FacebookEmail

No “Buts” in Repentance

by TerryLema

There is something about that three-letter word “but.” “But” is used to introduce a phrase or clause contrasting with what has already been mentioned. In other words, the word “but” negates or cancels everything that goes before it. It is generally accepted as a signal that the really important part of the sentence is coming up.

One of the things I learned from Pastor Laura at The Way Middleton as we studied the reasons why God removed the anointing from Saul, is that King Saul hedged his repentance.  He would say, “I have sinned,” but then would explain, rationalize, or justify his sin.  [1 Samuel 15]

To give Saul grace, we have to admit he was not the first one to hedge his repentance with “but.”  When Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation in the Garden of Eden, they did the same thing when God confronted them.

Genesis 4:12-13: “Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” [HCSB]

Eve disobeyed God, “but” blamed the serpent.  Adam disobeyed God, “but” blamed God – “The woman whom You gave to be with me….”

When we repent, we need to stop with “I have sinned,” and never include a “but.” Sinning is never justified. Sinning can never be explained.  Sinning cannot be rationalized.  Sinning is simply sinning.  And repentance is always to be repentance.

There are no “buts” in repentance. 

0 comment
FacebookEmail

Stand and See!

by TerryLema

As I wrote yesterday, Pastor Laura at The Way Middleton Church is doing a summer series about David and as she spoke about the removal of Saul as King of Israel (preparing the way for David), I heard a couple things I wanted to share.

“The Battle is the Lord’s!”  God had always dwelt with Israel under the banner “The Battle is the Lord’s.” Saul, however, believed the battle was his, that it was his reputation on the line in winning or losing.  That colored all his decisions and choices. (one of Pastor Laura’s points.)

“The Battle is the Lord’s!”  When I heard that I immediately asked myself if that is how I respond to the threats that often come in life. Or do I respond with fear. After all, fear and its close cousin anxiety are the normal emotions in response to a danger or threat.

The physiological and psychological response to threats and fear is called “Fight or Flight.” It is defined as 1) Fight: facing any perceived threat aggressively, 2) Flight: running away from the danger, 3) Freeze: unable to move or act against a threat, and 4) Fawn: immediately acting to try to please to avoid any conflict.

In the Old Testament, however, there was another way to respond to threats and fear.  It was to “Stand and see.”

Exodus 14:13: “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.”

1 Samuel 12:16: “Now therefore, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.”

2 Chronicles 20:17: “Now therefore, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes.”

In the New Testament, Ephesians 6 reminds us to pick up the armor of God and stand in the power of God.  “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Threats in life produce fear. Fear demands a response. Will we choose “Fight or Flight” or will we choose, “The Battle is the Lord’s” and stand strong in Him?

0 comment
FacebookEmail

You Did Not Come

by TerryLema

Pastor Laura at The Way Middleton Church is doing a summer series on David.  I am loving it!  A couple Sunday’s ago, she delved into Saul’s attitude and why it led him to be removed as king over Israel and why the Spirit of the LORD departed from him.  During her message God had me key on three things.  I asked her if I could use some of her thoughts in a few devotions and she agreed.

The first thing that stood out to me was Saul’s accusation, “You did not come” (or Excuses, Excuses). This was out of 1 Samuel 13. Saul and his army were facing a battle against the Philistines who were described as “thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude.”  [vs 5 HCSB]

Saul had been instructed to wait seven days for Samuel to arrive and offer sacrifice for the battle, but he increasingly grew impatient. Eventually, as he watched his own army grow discomfited in the situation, Saul took things in his owns hands (Pastor Laura’s point) and assumed the privileges of the priests and offered sacrifices.  That’s when Samuel showed up.

When questioned by Samuel about what he had done, Saul tried to put the blame on Samuel … “you did not come ….” [vs 11 HCSB]

Those four words, “you did not come” resonated in my soul. I know as I look back that many of my issues and problems were because I thought God was late. He was not going to come in time, so I needed to do something – like Saul did, only to find that God was not late at all. He was operating within His timeline, not the one I set for Him.

I am sure that much heartache could have been avoided had I just waited a little longer and allowed Him to move on my behalf.  How much peace did I forfeit?

Thankfully, God did not give up on me. Through His Holy Spirit, He patiently taught me (and is still teaching me) how much better it is to wait on Him!  His answers are always better than mine.

0 comment
FacebookEmail