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The Found (Luke 15)

by TerryLema December 15, 2021

Ah, Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke. What a wonderful chapter. Jesus tells three parables in this chapter. My bible titles them “The Parable of the Lost Sheep,” “The Parable of the Lost Coin,” and “The Parable of the Lost Son.” (Although that one should be “The Parable of the Lost Sons” since both were lost.)

I, however, like to think of these parables as the parables of the “Found.” The sheep, the coin and the son may have been lost initially but they end up “found” and what can be more glorious than that?

The poor sheep that wandered off and found himself all alone is wonderfully found by the shepherd and brought into the flock.  Then not only is the sheep happy, but the shepherd calls everyone together and rejoices “because I have found my lost sheep!” [vs 6]

The woman who lost her coin (because coins can’t wander off on their own) also rejoices with her friends and neighbors “because I have found the silver coin I lost!” [vs 9]

What joy there was for the son who rebelliously chose to leave the Father’s House but then returns to find the Father not only watching for him, but ready to forgive him for his rebellion and throw a feast to celebrate his return.

 “But the father told his slaves, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.” [vs 22-24]

Jesus also reminds His listeners that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need repentance.” [vs 7, 10]

I am one of the “found.” What joy abounds in my heart to know that there was joy in heaven in August of 1973 when I became one of those sinners who repented!

December 15, 2021 0 comment
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A Cost

by TerryLema December 14, 2021

“Now great crowds were traveling with Him. So He turned and said to them: ‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.’” [vs 25-27 HCSB]

After Jesus told the crowds who were following Him this hard statement, He told them that people who build towers and kings who go to war count the cost ahead of time to determine if they will have enough to be victorious.

There is a cost to following Jesus. Those who were following Him needed to determine if they were willing to pay that cost.  “In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not say good-bye to (renounce or leave) all his possessions cannot be My disciple.” [vs 33 HCSB]

Those are tough words – to be willing to “hate” and willing to “renounce or leave.”  Now Jesus does not mean we are to actively “hate” our families … He means we are to love Him and be devoted to following Him so much that it looks like we “hate” everything else by comparison.

Still, we must consider the cost of loving Him that much and being willing to say good-bye to all our possessions if that is what it costs to be His disciples.

In light of what it cost our LORD Christ Jesus to come to save us – leaving the riches, incomprehensible glory, wealth, love, and joy of the Trinity from all eternity – our cost is nothing in comparison.

Thank you, LORD, for loving us so much! Amen

December 14, 2021 0 comment
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His Adversaries Were Humiliated

by TerryLema December 13, 2021

In the middle of Chapter 13 of the Gospel of Luke, he relates an event that took place in a synagogue on the Sabbath. There Jesus encountered a woman who had been disabled for 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. Our Lord got her attention, laid His hands on her and instantly she was restored.

[vss 10-13]

Her reaction was to begin to praise and glorify God.

The reaction of the synagogue leader different. He was outraged because Jesus had healed this woman on the Sabbath. He was more concerned about rules than he was people.

Jesus’ response was to call him a “hypocrite” and remind him that he freed his animals in order to feed and water them on the Sabbath. Should not this woman who had been bound for 18 years also be freed? [vss 15-16]

This confrontation with the religious leaders did two things. First, “When He had said these things, all His adversaries were humiliated” and second, “the whole crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things He was doing”.

Humiliated adversaries fight back and, of course, that is what they did. The Gospel writers are clear that they banded together – even with their enemies – to find any way to make Jesus disappear.

The crowds, however, for a time, rejoiced over all the thing that Jesus was doing. That would change after Jesus’ arrest, but for now, He enjoyed a season of acceptance among the common people.

December 13, 2021 0 comment
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Little Birds (Luke 12)

by TerryLema December 12, 2021

Wow, Luke 12 is one tough chapter. It deals with religious hypocrisy, fear and anxiety, greed, rewards and punishment, division, and remaining ready!

At the beginning of the chapter Jesus warns against religious hypocrisy and then immediately reminds his listeners that worldly rulers can only kill the body so if they are going to fear anyone, fear God because he has authority to “throw people into hell after death.” [vss 1-5]

Then Jesus finishes off that admonition with the most precious promise to those who do fear God. “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. Indeed, the hairs of your head are all counted. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows!” [vss 6-7 HCSB]

I am reminded of that last sentence every day. “Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows!”

 We have a bird feeder in our backyard. It is a wide platform on the top of the fence that Bob keeps filled with seed. In the summer just a few little birds and doves come by for a snack. We live amid agricultural land so in summer there is a lot of feed around. But in winter, when the ground freezes, the fields have been plowed and made ready for spring, and when snow arrives, that bird feeder is full of little birds.

Those little birds camp out in our cedar trees next to the feeder and they fly from tree to food and back again multiple times. Sometimes a small hawk will visit because it too is looking for food.

When I see those little birds, I remember how insignificant they are in the grand scheme of things, yet God remembers each one of them.  When I think about my life, I remember how insignificant I am in the grand scheme of this world, yet God … knows me and He even loves me!

“I am worth more than many sparrows!”

 Thank you, Precious LORD!

December 12, 2021 0 comment
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Keep at It! (Luke 11)

by TerryLema December 11, 2021

One day the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. He gave them what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” He also gave them a teaching on persistent prayer.  Part of that is a verse most of us have memorized. I like the way the Holman Christian Standard translates it.

“So I say to you, keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” [Luke 11:9-10 HCSB]

Whenever I read that exhortation to be persistent in our prayers, it takes me back to Moses in Exodus 33. The previous chapter in Exodus relates how the people had engaged in idolatry using a golden calf. That angered God who then invited Moses to intercede for them. Which, he did, of course. However, God told Moses to take the people to the Promised Land, and while He would provide an angel to lead them, He would not go with them.

Chapter 33 is Moses’ persistent prayer. He asks, he seeks, and he knocks. And each time Moses does, God responds.

Moses Asks: “Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.” God Responds: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

 Moses Seeks: “If Your presence does not go don’t make us go up from here. How will it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight unless You go with us?” God Responds: “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

Moses Knocks: “Please, let me see Your glory.” God Responds: “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

Persistent Prayer. Amen

December 11, 2021 0 comment
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The Good Samaritan (Luke 10)

by TerryLema December 10, 2021

A few chapters before this one, Jesus told us to “Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” [6:27]

Now as Jesus is approached by a Pharisee with a question, Jesus provides an example of what He meant by loving our enemies.

The Pharisee wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life.  That is the same question the Rich Young Ruler asked Jesus. Both men thought they had it all together, they were doing what the rabbis always taught as the way to eternal life “Obey the statutes of God and avoid all sin.”

While both asked the same question, Jesus’ response was tailored to each man’s situation. The Rich Young Ruler was told to give away all his wealth. Jesus first responds to this Pharisee’s question with a question. “What is written in the law?” [vs 26]

The man answers that the law commands to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” [10:27 HCSB]

Jesus agrees and tells the man “Do this and you will live.”  [vs 28]

But … and here is the thing that we often do likewise … the Pharisee wanted the details. “Who is my neighbor?” [vs 29]

Jesus tells him, through the parable of The Good Samaritan, that his enemy is his neighbor. A Samaritan was hated by the Jews. He was considered a member of a mongrel race. There is no way a Pharisee would have stopped to help a Samaritan, but in Jesus’ parable, it is the Samaritan who stops to show mercy. The Samaritan loved his enemy.

The Pharisee has to admit that is what happened, and Jesus tells him to “Go and do the same.” [vs 37]

Wrapped up in the great command to love God with everything we have, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, is the deep truth that our enemies are included.

December 10, 2021 0 comment
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Messiah and a Cross (Luke 9)

by TerryLema December 9, 2021

Suddenly, in Luke 9, the specter of the cross looms. Jesus asks His disciples who the crowds say he is. They have various responses. Then Jesus makes it personal by asking them a question, the same question He asks each one of us: “But you, who do you say that I am?” [v20]

Peter’s response is that He is the long-awaited King, the Messiah, the Anointed One to come.  Immediately, Jesus turns their thinking in a totally new direction. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.” [vs 22]

No one ever associated the long-awaited Messiah with suffering, rejection, and death.  It stunned the disciples. It was incomprehensible. Before they can even catch their breath, however, He stuns them again.

“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it.’” [vs 23 HCSB]

To follow this King did not mean a cushy castle or a slew of servants. To follow this King of kings meant embracing a cross daily and going where He leads. It meant losing life in order to save it for all eternity.

The disciples must have wondered what they had gotten themselves into by following Jesus. When it became real at the betrayal, during the trials and at the cross, all but one abandoned Him, and one went so far as to deny Him three times.

They were lost, grieving, and confused as Jesus was in the tomb those three days, but then, Resurrection changed everything. I think it was at that point that they truly understood what Jesus said to them that day about picking up their cross daily and following Him. Because each one did, and because they did, the world was changed.

December 9, 2021 0 comment
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Sources of Support (Luke 8)

by TerryLema December 8, 2021

In another 23 days I will be spending my final day serving as the pastor of The Way Middleton. It seems my life is turning a corner and I am not sure what is around that corner. (Except to know that my LORD is there so it will be all right.)

Being a woman in ministry since 1985 has had its delights and its challenges. There are many in Christianity that do not think a woman should pastor a church, and they often raise their concerns to me through emails and on social media. Those concerns are frequently voiced in language that can be hurtful. I learned a long time ago to not argue but to remain silent and pray instead.

Luke 8 opens with the news that Jesus was traveling from one town to another with the twelve disciples. He was preaching and telling the good news of the kingdom of God. As Jesus traveled with the twelve, there were others with Him.

“The Twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary, called Magdalene (seven demons had come out of her); Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Susanna; and many others who were supporting them from their possessions.” [8:1-3 HCSB]

We seldom think of those women who were touched by Jesus and subsequently supported Him in His ministry. They supported His ministry in the only way they could in that culture … with their possessions. They provided the means behind the ministry.

All four Gospel writers record that except for the Apostle John, it was women who stood around the cross as Jesus was crucified. It was women who gathered the supplies to anoint His body after the Passover ended, and it was women to whom the glorious message of Resurrection was first announced.

Jesus set women free to be all they could be in Him. He alone, through the power of the Holy Spirit, anoints people, both men and women, to serve Him as He directs. I am so humbled that He would choose to use me, but how can we refuse to serve Him with all our might after having been set free by Him.

Thank you, LORD, for the many years of ministry. I will never be able to repay You for the freedom You have given me.

December 8, 2021 0 comment
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People! (Luke 7)

by TerryLema December 7, 2021

I love Luke Chapter 7! It is a chapter filled with people and Jesus’ interaction with them. I could spend weeks in Luke Chapter 7. There is the Roman Centurion, the widow of Nain, John the Baptist, and finally the Pharisee and the sinful woman with the alabaster jar who anoints the feet of Jesus.

Each interaction holds deep meaning for us. Each one reveals something beautiful in the heart of Jesus. Which one to choose this morning?

While I am always touched by the bravery of the sinful woman in the Pharisee’s house, I must say I am partial to the Roman Centurion. He was more than a sinner; he was a Gentile … Gentiles were often called dogs by the Jewish leaders, and “dog” in this society was a derogatory term. Even more, he was part of the hated Roman occupation.

There was something about this Gentile Roman Centurion, however, that endeared him to the Jewish elders who came to Jesus.  They informed Jesus that this man was worthy of His attention “because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.” [7:5 HCSB]

Jesus does go with the elders but before the entourage reaches the Centurion’s residence, another group of people, friends of the Centurion, stop Him with the news that this Roman Centurion does not feel worthy to have Jesus come to Him. Then they relate a statement of faith that is familiar to all of us.

“Lord, don’t trouble Yourself, since I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. That is why I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be cured. For I too am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” [7:6-8 HCSB]

Jesus’ response is to note this Centurion’s faith is greater than any He has even seen in Israel. For me, there are a few words in the Centurion’s statement that we often ignore or fail to appreciate their importance. “For I too am a man placed under authority ….”

 You do not become a person of authority until you learn how to be a person under authority.

Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many. [HCSB]

December 7, 2021 0 comment
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The Sabbath, the Disciples, the Beatitudes (Luke 6)

by TerryLema December 6, 2021

Wow, what a chapter! It begins with Jesus proclaiming that He is Lord of the Sabbath. (The Sabbath means far more than just taking one day off from work to rest. It means a deep rest, a profound peace. When Jesus says He is LORD of the Sabbath, He means He is our deep rest and our eternal peace.)

Then Jesus calls His disciples together and chooses 12 to be His closest. He calls them apostles. For the remainder of the chapter, Luke recounts an abbreviated version of the Sermon on the Mount.  A large portion of that is dedicated to loving our enemies.

“But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…. For He is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”  [Luke 6:27, 35b-36 HCSB]

Sometimes Christians can be cavalier about “loving our enemies.” We all know what Jesus said. We even think we are doing it. But are we really? Or are we choosing which of “our enemies” to love?

It is easy to love your enemies if you get to choose which ones – because we will usually choose as enemies those who are just a little irritating or annoying. We seldom choose to love those who can do immeasurable harm to us, or those with whom we have major disagreements. (Think political figures we disagree with, or those on the other side of the virus and vaccine debates, or those who hate Christianity and seek to stamp it out.)

But Jesus was specific. We are to do good to those who hate us. We are to bless those who curse us (and those who curse our God). We are to pray for those who abuse us.

We are to be merciful simply because our Father is merciful (and has extended that mercy to His greatest enemies – us!)

December 6, 2021 0 comment
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Pastor Terry Lema

Pastor Terry Lema has been married for 53 years, and has 3 children and 3 grandsons. Terry graduated from Trinity Bible College, and and recently retired as Lead Pastor at The Way Church in Middleton, Idaho.

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