Past Devotions

Wonders

by TerryLema

Because I am still dealing with the fatigue from the virus, I have been watching a little more daytime television than normal. May I say upfront, daytime television is awful? It is talk shows, reruns, true crime, and some of the worst ads for the worst movies and television shows imaginable.

I think it is particularly bad this time of year because of the upcoming holiday, Halloween. May I also say upfront that I abhor what Halloween has become. We dress our children in evil and we promote everything that is ugly. Just driving around the neighborhood and looking at all the symbols of death and wickedness turns my stomach.

The world seems to be doing a better job of conveying its way of life than we are.

One of the missions at The Way Middleton is that we are to “tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD.”

That comes from Psalm 78:4: “We must not hide them from their children but must tell a future generation the praises of the Lord, His might, and the wonderful works He has performed.” [HCSB]

I often think about that command. Have we been good at conveying to the future generations the wonderful things our God has done (and continues to do)?  Or have we been better at showing them our judgmental attitudes?

The world is not at all shy about conveying their philosophies. We need to be even bolder at conveying the praises of the LORD, His might and the wonderful works that are found in Him.

LORD, loose our tongues, infuse our hearts with boldness, give us opportunities to convey your praiseworthy deeds to future generations. Amen.

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Choose

by TerryLema

A word grabbed me the other day as I was scrolling through my email.  Just one word – Choose!  I am not sure what the email wanted me to choose, but the word itself got my attention.

I opened my Bible concordance to my “new” favorite translation (HCSB) and checked out “choose(s).” I found 67 occurrences. I thought it interesting that the first 25 references talked about God doing the “choosing.”  It was not until the 26th that men and women were commanded to make a choice. And what a choice it is!

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the Lord your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him. For He is your life.”  [Deuteronomy 30:19-20a HCSB]

God calls on the Israelites to “choose life.” When they do that, God becomes their life. That choice gives them the ability to love the LORD, obey Him and remain faithful to Him. Even more, that choosing life seems to “influence” the choices their descendants make.

God gives us a choice. He presents life and death before us. While He desires all to come to repentance and salvation and is delaying His judgment to give people further opportunities to repent (1 Peter 3:9), He knows not all will make the good choice. It is undeniable that many will perish (Matthew 7:13-14).

God gave Adam and Eve a choice … and they chose wrong, and sin entered the world. God gave His Son a choice … to be betrayed, brutally tortured, and murdered … and He chose to do His Father’s will, and salvation entered came to us.

God gives us a choice … life or death. It is up to us to choose wisely.  

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Hold My Hand

by TerryLema

Isa 41:13: “For I, Yahweh your God, hold your right hand and say to you: Do not fear, I will help you.” [HCSB]

God takes hold of our right hand. God speaks His assurance into our lives – “do not fear, I will help you.” Not, I might help you, nor I can help you, nor I could help you. His word to us is “I will help you.”

 One of the things I miss most now that my children are all grown is little hands reaching up for me to hold. I miss that little hand in mine walking through stores or along pathways. I miss those little hands so trusting. Even my grandsons have grown beyond that hand-holding stage.

There is something exceedingly precious about holding the trusting hand of a child. I wonder if God feels the same way when we lift our hands to Him, when we ask Him to take hold because we are in need of help, or are fearful, or need comforting. I wonder if His heart soars when we place our hand in His and seek His guidance along unknown pathways or ask for His strength when we grow weak and weary.

Jesus said in Mark 10:15 that we must accept the kingdom of God as a little child. I’ve heard many a sermon on what that means, and not all the preachers arrived at the same conclusion. Perhaps it is this, the simplicity of placing our hand in the Mighty Hand of God—just as our children placed their little hands in ours.

Father, may I never think I can grow beyond my hand in Your hand. Amen.

 Marshall Hall, Angela Primm, Jason Crabb - Take My Hand, Precious Lord (Live) - Bing video
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“X” Marks the Spot

by TerryLema

I was watching an easy-going murder mystery on the Hallmark Mystery Movie channel the other day. In the story, a young man found a treasure map in something he bought. He decided to search for the treasure.  He used Google Earth to find the lake, figured out the clues and rode his bicycle to the spot of the “X.” After getting permission from the property owner, he started to dig, certain he was going to find pirate’s gold.

Of course, there was no pirate’s gold, but he did find something precious to the old man who owned the property, a long-lost memento of his deceased wife and son. “X” did mark the spot for the old man.

For us, our “X” is in the shape of a cross, for it is in Christ that we find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Col 2:3: “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” [NIV]

In one sense those treasures are hidden, and we need to search and dig for them by diligently studying our Bibles.  In another sense, however, they are readily open and available to us.

God is not seeking to keep His treasures from us. In fact, He has sent His Spirit to encourage and enable us to obtain the wisdom and knowledge of Christ. His Spirit empowers us, but there still must be cooperation and effort on our part.

Father, thank you that in Christ I may find all the wisdom and knowledge I need for life. Give me a great desire to discover the wisdom and knowledge of Christ. Amen.

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No Beauty

by TerryLema

Isa 53:2: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” [NIV]

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.” [NIV]

Isaiah 53 paints a word picture of God’s Messiah, the Suffering Servant Savior. It is not a pretty picture. It speaks of bruising and crushing, punishment and wounds, judgment and slaughter and the grave. It breaks the heart to read it.

Many movies have been made about the life of Jesus and the portrayals of Him on the cross are more than I can bear to watch–even knowing that the portrayals are done with special effects and make-up. I cannot even imagine what those who loved Him witnessed that day so long ago. There was no beauty to behold then.

Yet, it is precisely because He endured the bruising and crushing, the punishment and wounds, the judgment and slaughter and the grave that we desire to gaze upon Him now.

Now this One who had no beauty or majesty to attract us, is the center of everything beautiful in our lives.

Now our one desire, all the days of our life, is to gaze upon Him and seek Him.

Lord, the most beautiful sunrise is nothing in comparison to you. The most elegant flower of creation pales when placed in Your nail-pierced hands. How I long to stand in Your presence and see with heavenly eyes the beauty which has so captured my heart. Amen.

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God of the Valley

by TerryLema

I got to church early Sunday morning and set up my computer and the projector, got my mic on. Then I rested (still dealing with fatigue). Bob had moved one of the rockers out of the nursery to the back of the church so I could sit before the service. I opened up YouTube and played some of my favorite music videos and prayed as I waited for people to arrive. One of the selections that came up was Lynda Randle singing “God on the Mountain.”  (Link below)

I cannot say for certain, but I suspect the idea for “God on the Mountain” came from 1 Kings 20. That chapter tells of an assault on King Ahab and the Kingdom of Israel by Ben-hadad King of Aram (with 32 other kings).  Ben-hadad first invited Ahab to surrender and allow Israel to be plundered. When Ahab refused, Ben-hadad and his armies took up positions against the capital city of Samaria.

A prophet came to Ahab and promised that God would hand over Ben-hadad’s great army in defeat, which is exactly what happened.

After the defeat, Ben-hadad decided to come back next spring and try again. His reasoning was that the “gods (of Israel) are gods of the hill country … we should fight with them on the plain.” [vs 23 HCSB]

In the spring, once again faced with Ben-hadad’s great army, a prophet of God promised Ahab, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans have said: Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys, I will hand over all this great army to you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” [vs 28 HCSB]

Of course, God’s promise held true. The God on the Mountain was also God in the valley. And as the lyrics of the song say, He’s God in the good times and God in the bad times. The God of the day is still God of the night.

It is not about where we are right this moment – on a mountain or in a valley. It is not about whether we are enduring a long night or delighting in the sunlight. It is not about good times or bad. No, it is NOT about where we are … it is all about WHO He is!

Lynda Randle - God On the Mountain (Live) - Bing video
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I hope I never recover from this …

by TerryLema

Well, there was a one-day delay but William Shatner at 90 years old made it into space on Wednesday October 13.

The man who played Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise on movie sets for three seasons pretending to be deep in space finally touched the very edge of space for real. Seeing him exit his space craft last Wednesday, overcome with emotion, was touching.

As I watched him two things struck my soul. First, he remarked that he did not want to do somersaults in the zero-gravity environment, he simply wanted to look out the window. Pictures show the other astronauts flipping around the capsule while Shatner’s nose is pressed against the window.

The second thing that lingered with me was his comment, “I hope I never recover from this ….”  In other words, I hope I never allow the overpowering glory of this experience to fade or lose its intensity!

As I thought about those words, I remembered Peter’s words in his first letter. “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.  He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the times for you ….” [1 Peter 1:18-21 HCSB]

“You were redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ.”

 I remember the moment that happened. At the time I may not have understood what it cost my LORD to do that for me, but I was aware of the emotion and my surrender. Over time, the cost of my redemption has become more precious as I grow closer to my Savior and LORD.

The more I think about my redemption and that precious blood of Christ (the Lamb of God chosen before the foundation of the world for me!), the more I echo Shatner’s words. “I hope I never recover from this ….” 

 

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Confirmations!

by TerryLema

I am often amazed by the LORD. I will sense His presence with me and stop in amazement that He loves me and wants to be with me. He will do something unexpected and delightful (like that parking place!) and I am amazed that He cares for even the smallest things in my life.

Then there are the confirmations – perhaps they surprise and amaze me the most.

I had spent the last few days reviewing the resumes and listening to sermons of candidates applying for my position. I had picked my top three and sent them on to the committee chairman. Maybe I was thinking a bit about what the new year might hold for me.

Then in the middle of the night while I was in one of those times when I was not sure if I was dreaming or awake, I heard the wonderful verse from Jeremiah 29:11: “’For I know the plans I have for you’—this is the Lord’s declaration—’plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” [NKJV]

When I opened my computer the next morning, I checked one of my daily verses and just gazed at it. It was Jeremiah 29:11. God confirmed to my heart what He spoke to me in the middle of the night.

God loves us. He speaks to us often. He wants us to hear Him! He will confirm His word to us to assure us we are hearing correctly! Bless His Great Name!

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Seeing the Invisible!

by TerryLema

As I was reading in 2 Corinthians 4 yesterday about having the Light of the World treasure in our earthen vessels, I came to the end of that chapter and to verses that seem to take on more of an importance in my life as each year passes.

 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” [verses 16-18, NKJV]

Paul, a few verses earlier described his “light affliction” using words like “hard pressed,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” and “delivered to death.”

Those words do not sound anything like “light affliction!”

The thing about those words that is extremely significant, however, is that they are “temporary.” They are what we see now, but they are not what we will see in eternity.

The eternal words found in those verses are “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!”

Whatever temporary light affliction we experience here remains here. Whether it is “hard pressed,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” “delivered to death,” or cancer, ALS, old age, or anything else, they remain in the grave while we walk straight through into that “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!”

It is those yet unseen things that we live for now! Amen & Amen!

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Broken Vessels

by TerryLema

I have one more thought about light this morning. It is a story I have told often, so you are probably already familiar with it.  But it is a story that illustrates the light in us that I want to think about again today.

My grandson Carter and I used to love to go to the Boise Art Museum (BAM) on our frequent excursions around town when he was younger. We usually timed our visits to the arrival of a new exhibit. One of those exhibits was vases. Now looking at vases is probably not high on my list of things I want to spend an afternoon doing, yet these vases made more of an impression on my life than any other art exhibit I viewed.

The vases were all different sizes and shapes and were uniquely “decorated” with woodland and ocean scenes. I originally thought they were simply painted, but when we watched a video of their creation, I was awestruck.

First the artist made the glass vase. Then he proceeded to cover it with applications of color, one on top of another, layer upon layer – browns, greens, yellows, blues, reds … firing each one after application.

Then he scored the vase, digging down into each color by cutting into the layers of color to “create” a scene. Finally, a light was inserted into the vase so that the beauty was revealed. Light shown through each “scar” created. As I stood there the Scripture from 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 flooded my soul.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” [NKJV]

The Light of the World indwells us. In our earthen vessels, which are often beaten, scarred, and broken by life, He abides.

Often the more broken and scarred we are, the more of His light is revealed.

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