Pastor Terry Lema's Daily Devotions
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Choose

by TerryLema October 17, 2022

Walking has been a part of my life since 1998 when I was first diagnosed with Diabetes2. I was overweight and did not move around a lot. My first A1C came back above 14. For reference, the normal range is 4-6.

My doctor wanted to put me on medication immediately, I asked her for a little time to see if I could do something apart from being medicated. I researched Diabetes, I went on a strict diet, and I started to walk. My next A1C was 8.6. She allowed me to continue that plan and before too long I was in a normal range.

When I first began walking, I could do about a block or two. But I worked on it almost every day until I could do three miles without any problems. I lost about 110 pounds and kept my diabetes under control until I was diagnosed with two auto-immune diseases. Then I was back to barely being able to walk more than a couple blocks. It was disheartening.

Now with the auto-immune diseases somewhat under control, but with lingering fatigue, I work to walk between ¾ and 1 mile. And it is work. It does not come easily. I have to choose to do it, even on the days I do not want to leave my recliner.

Choose. Yesterday I wrote that one of the 3 C’s of walking worthy of our calling it to choose. Pastor Laura highlighted that in her Sunday message. “I, therefore, the prisoner of the LORD, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” [NKJV]

We get to choose the quality of our spiritual walk. That is a glorious choice. We get to choose to be fully pleasing to the One who died to save us. We get to choose to be fruitful.

God will provide everything we need for a worthy walk, just as He provided everything for our salvation. But we alone can choose to get up from our spiritual recliner and head out with Him on a gloriously worthy walk.

Tomorrow: I am so thankful, LORD, that I can still walk in the natural each day, and that you give me all I need to walk my spiritual walk with you.

October 17, 2022 0 comment
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Choose

by TerryLema October 25, 2021

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.  

October 25, 2021 0 comment
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Today I choose …

by TerryLema October 28, 2020

Last week I walked into a bakery shop. An unbelievably good bakery shop. The selection was amazing. Every kind of cookie, pie, donut, cake, bar, and cupcake. On the other side of the bakery was a case that had savory items. I found quiche, meat pies, and lasagnas. This was my first time in the store.  I was overwhelmed. There was simply too much from which to choose.

It took me 15 minutes, but I ended up walking out with a veggie and ham quiche. I do love quiche.

David tells us that our LORD has presented us with a choice also. In Psalm 25, David reminds us that God offers us much. He lists some of things God offers, i.e., truth, salvation, compassion, faithful love, goodness, grace, rescue, forgiveness, refuge, deliverance. Then he tells us we have a choice.

“The Lord is good and upright; therefore, He shows sinners the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. All the Lord’s ways show faithful love and truth…. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will show him the way he should choose. He will live a good life.” [Psalm 25:8-10, 12-13 HCSB]

God will show us the way we should choose, but He will not force us to choose His way.

He will allow us to reject all the good things he offers us. He will allow us to remain in our sin and dead state if that is what we want. It is called free will. Of course, that free will means we also will live with the consequences our choice carries.

However, if we choose wisely, David assures us that “[We] will live a good life.”

That “good life” will be ours both here and in eternity. Amen & Amen.

October 28, 2020 0 comment
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Life or Death

by TerryLema May 9, 2020

The Children of Israel had reached the Promised Land after forty years in the wilderness. The generation of people that had witnessed the Hand of God in their deliverance from Egypt were all gone. A new generation was standing at the border waiting to cross the Jordan. Moses takes this opportunity to teach this new generation the uniqueness and worthiness of the God of Israel.

One of the things Moses puts before them that always resounds in my heart is found in Deuteronomy, chapter 30. “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.” [vs 19-20 NIV]

Choose. What an amazing word. Our Creator, who has every right to force complete obedience and loyalty from His creation instead give us the right to “choose” Him or reject Him. We can choose life, or we can choose to ignore His invitation to life and have death instead. We can choose to embrace His blessings that come with surrender and obedience, or we can relinquish those and allow the curse of sin and death to reign in us.

Life often does not allow us to choose, it chooses for us. We can do everything possible to stay healthy, and yet find that a disease or disability has “chosen” us. We can be careful with our finances, and still suffer loss when an economic depression “chooses” to manifest in our world. We can find our lives turned upside down when someone we love “chooses” to leave. We can obey every law and then suffer when another “chooses” to run a stop light.

Those very facts make it all the more amazing that the God of this Universe, the Creator of All Things gives us the opportunity … the right … to make the most important of all decisions. He allows us to “choose” life and blessings by choosing Him, or death and curses by rejecting Him.

Right now, today, where I live, I cannot even “choose” to go to a salon and get a haircut – that choice has been removed. Yet the Living LORD of Life allows you to “choose” to follow Him. Think about that.

May 9, 2020 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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