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future

Back to ….

by TerryLema

The first four verses of Colossians Chapter 3 always bring me back to the single most important thing in my life in the past, back to the way I should be living and thinking now, and back to what is in store for me in the future.

 “So, if [since] you have been raised with the Messiah [Christ Jesus], seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” [HCSB]

What is the single most important thing in my life in the past? It is that I surrendered my life to Christ Jesus. I died to my former life and now am “hidden with the Messiah in God.” I was “raised with” Him in newness of life. Can anything be more important than that?

So how should I be living and thinking now? I am to set my mind on what I have in Christ Jesus in the heavenlies. I am not to be focused on the things of this world. I am to seek the things of God, not pursue worldly pleasures. My reality is not this world. My reality is Christ Jesus who sits at the right hand of the Father. And as Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, by the grace of God we are raised up and seated in the heavens with Him. [vs6]

And as glorious as our now is, even more glorious is our future. Read Colossians 3:4 again, “When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

 There is absolutely nothing in this world that can compare to that! Amen!

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by TerryLema

Recently I read my way through the Book of Joshua.  Three times in four verses in Chapter 1, God says to Joshua “be strong and very courageous.”  [Joshua 1:6, 7, 9]

One of the things about being courageous is that it is not the absence of fear.  It is moving forward to do what needs to be done in spite of the fear that might exist.  In fact, if there was no fear present, why would God even need to tell Joshua to “be strong and very courageous?”

Life can be scary.  We are always facing the unknown.  If we could just see what tomorrow holds, whether it will be easy or difficult, maybe we could prepare.  That’s why astrology, fortune telling, and the like are so prevalent in our culture.  Those things promise to reveal our unknown futures.  Of course, they can’t.  The only one who knows our tomorrows is the Lord.

Paul writes in Romans 8 a list of things that are powerless to separate us from the love of God.  He says that neither the present nor the future has the power to separate.  Isn’t that an amazing statement!  We need not fear what is ahead because God is able to keep us through all the unknowns.  We can be strong and very courageous because nothing, present or future, will be able to separate us from the love of our Lord.

Rom 8:38-39:  For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to  come, hostile powers,  height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!.  [HCSB]

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A Ditz …

by TerryLema

Last Sunday after church I went up on the platform to disassemble all my electronics. I use my phone to do the live Facebook event and I bring my computer to hook up to the church projector for the PowerPoint presentation. I took my phone off the tripod and noticed a message from the hospital about my appointment the next day, so accessed my voice mail and listened to a long list of things while I folded up cords and packed my computer.

Then I had a moment of panic. I could not find my phone! I started looking all around where I thought I might have set it down only to realize that I was still holding it in my hand and listening to the voice mail. Senior Moment? Medication foggy-brained moment? The beginning of something worse? Maybe even an “Aunt Irene” moment?

Everyone knows an “Aunt Irene.” I did. She was often defined as a ditz. She would drive from the suburbs into Pittsburgh to shop, take the bus home, and then call her husband to tell him their car was stolen. She did that with her kids once, left them in the department store. She painted the furnace in their basement the day before her daughter’s wedding reception because it looked “tacky.” The weather turned cold and they had to light the furnace for the reception only to drive the guests out coughing and teary eyed from the fumes. Yep, that was Aunt Irene.

Am I now becoming “Aunt Irene?” Probably not, but I am having to handle moments of forgetfulness, which seems to be a side effect of my medication. Bodies and minds change from all kinds of influences, and we need to learn to adjust to things we never expected.

Yet as I sit here contemplating, I am reminded that even if my mind should fail, that changes nothing with my LORD. My hope and my future are in His Hands, tucked away securely so that when I leave this life with all its challenges, I will have life abundant beyond measure.

When Jeremiah surveyed all the challenges his beloved people were facing with Babylonian captivity, God reminded him that the captivity had a limit, 70 years. Beyond that was promised welfare, not disaster, and a future and a hope. So, yes, body and/or minds may fail us here, but that does not negate our future or our hope!

“’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.’” [Jeremiah 29:11]

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I WANT TO KNOW!

by TerryLema

Don’t you wish you knew the future?

Right now, I am in a battle with my body. It wants to do things a body should not be doing. I want it to stop doing those things, but to get that to happen will require outside intervention unless the LORD brings about a healing. “Inquiring minds want to know” if healing will happen, how it will happen, when it will happen, and will there be other “side effects” to deal with. I want to know the future!

We celebrated Pentecost last Sunday, and I was reminded that the disciples also wanted to know what the future held for them. So, they asked Jesus: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” [Acts 1:6]

They probably figured that if Jesus were ready to restore God’s absolute rule here on earth, they would be a big part of it. Instead of telling them the future, Jesus told them that certain things – like the future – were within God’s authority alone. “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” [v7]

It is not knowing the future that will make everything okay. It is knowing the God Who holds the future. Had we known last year what this year would be like, we more than likely would have messed up trying to fix it. We certainly would have been miserable all last year in anticipation.

What is happening now in our cities, states, country is frightening and tragic. What will we be like in the next months, or the next years as a society or nation? I do not know the answer to that. Only God knows. As I write that again, I think about the implications of those three words: Only-God-knows. I am comforted because I have placed my faith in the God who knows and who holds the future—whatever that future may be.

Bless His Holy Name. Amen

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THE CHURCH’S FUTURE

by TerryLema

It is going to take me a long time to process everything from last week’s Prayer Summit, but I walked away with one thing immediately. If the young people I met there are any indication of the kind of leaders God is raising up, the Church is in good hands. I’m not worried about her future.

The Summit included men and two women, young and old and some in between. I was blessed by the young people. I saw burning hearts for Christ’s bride in each one. They wept and prayed and worshipped and praised. They called out for the harvest of lost souls and for unity. I heard their hearts in each prayer they uttered. It gave me great hope.

When it comes time for me to turn The Way over to the next generation, I know two things. God will bring us a wonderful young man or woman to follow His lead, one who will pick up my own heart’s desire for a church built on the grace of God.

I also know where I will attend church when that happens. God has given me a special love for one young minister, and I would relish sitting under his ministry for the rest of my days.

Maybe I know one other thing. That is that I must be praying more for the future of the church and those young men and women who now fill and will fill the servant-leadership roles.

I am reminded of what Paul said to Timothy: “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men [and women] who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” [2 Tim 2:1-3 NIV]

God is calling us older believers to be praying mightily for these “sons and daughters” that He is raising up.

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