It Was By Faith

 

Friday, February 17, 2023

It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.  It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.  It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger.  He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.  It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.  

Hebrews 11:23-28

It's a whole lot easier to entertain faith from an easy chair, or from a pew in the sanctuary.  It is in those safe places faith seems workable.  It is in protected comfort we plan how living by faith will work, and we plot our course to build a life of fellowship with God…to be a good person.  We can see it all laid out in our minds; we even jot it down in a journal.  We can see a future that makes sense.

And that’s just the problem…we see it!  Seeing is not Faith!  Acting on a promise, without having the end, and how it will all work, is trusting…and trusting, without seeing, is the heart and soul of faith.  If you require knowing the beginning point, the end, and all the steps you will take in-between, perfectly laid-out, charted, with PowerPoint displays and checklists, you’re no closer to faith than an iceberg surviving in the fiery furnace! 

But what if you’re bent that way?  What if you’re an introverted thinker, one who makes to-do lists, and wants to plan-the-work and work-the-plan?  Are you irrevocably-doomed to the abyss?  (I am that sort of person; welcome to my world!)  According to Jesus, looking ahead to count the cost isn’t wrong; in fact, it’s an integral part of the process if you want to be His disciple![1]

So where does counting the cost end, and faith begin?  When do you stop contemplating God and His call on your life, and begin cooperating with Jesus in whatever He puts in front of you.  Or do you just totally put-aside thinking and just begin doing?  Those are some good questions, but looking for a timetable for thinking and doing, evades the trust issue of faith…and trust is the key.

Remember Moses.  He had plenty of time for thinking about God, and searching for God’s will.  Growing up in a palace, power at his fingertips, this Jewish boy, hiding in Egyptian clothing, had a heart that was on fire for God.  Every choice he made was pointed towards worshipping Almighty God.  He never rejected meditating on God, or making plans (just look at plans for the wilderness Tabernacle).  But he was always ready, without a moment’s notice, to step-out into the uncharted waters of change.  He did count the cost, and he found out early that he would make mistakes (he killed an Egyptian soldier, and had to spend the next forty years on the backside of nowhere).  But he also knew an unconditional heart’s commitment to God’s ways.  To the casual observer, every decision Moses made was towards the downward spiral.  Exile, hardship, poverty, and the anger of Pharaoh, instead of power, luxury, and fame was his counting the cost…and walking by faith in the God who called him was always the choice.

For You Today 

When you serve the King of Kings, walking by faith needs no other vision.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

God's Mountain - Moses' Faith  and  An Unusual Child  and  By Faith 

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

---

[1] See Luke 14:27-29

An Angry World

 

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Why are the nations so angry?  Psalm 2:1

My mother was not a person prone to anger.  I can only recall seeing her lose it one time, when my dog ate the ingredients for a cake she was going to make for an upcoming birthday.  He only ate the sugar, frosting, and butter; he spread the flour all around the kitchen…every nook and cranny; it was the Pillsbury cloud! Come to think of it, that was also the time I heard the only cuss word ever to drop from her lips!  She chased my dog around the house with that big wooden spoon.  She never caught him…probably a good thing; if she had caught-up with the beast it might have completed the deadly sins triple-crown: anger, cussing, and murder!

The decades which followed World War II were, for me, was what it was like to live in Andy Griffith’s world, with Aunt Bea, Barney Fife, Gomer Pile, and Opie.  My summer days were spent exploring Miller’s woods, playing with frogs, and swimming at Stump Pond with the snapping turtles.  We rode bikes, and played “cowboys and Indians”.

That childhood is a fond memory, but it was not perfect.  We also had the threat of nuclear bombs dropping on us, drills in school; when that burst of bells rang, we all scrambled to see who could be first to get under our desks.  (To this day I still wonder who thought that up…a child’s wooden desk as protection from a nuclear blast?)

Interpersonal relationships were light years different than currently.  If a boy got a little flustered and dropped a “bad word” (anything stronger than darn), especially in front of a girl child or two, culture demanded an immediate apology.  Sex was only mentioned in school while dissecting frogs in Science class.  The internet of today may have developed its’ lightning-fast information-sharing from the way inappropriate behavior at school reached a child’s mother and dad before you got off the bus that afternoon.

As gentle and non-violent as my Mom was 99.99% of the days of her life, she would have stood out like a sore thumb in today’s culture.  Today’s foulness of language and angry in-your-face, stay-out-of-my-space, while I act out my sexual preferences for all the world to see on Instagram and Face Book, is the perfect medium for developing the attitude that, no suppressed wish to grab a gun and obliterate those who have angered you, will go unchecked.  The tantrum of an undeveloped sense of self-control is punctuated by the sound of semi-automatic gunfire.  And the weeping of Godly-grieving over this angry world is faintly heard from above.

For You Today  

Grieving the loss of what once was…even if that grief is somewhat biased by the rose-colored glasses of an old man’s memory of a so-called better day…is not to suggest we have nothing to which we can look forward.  Rather it just gives the appropriate frame for what God has promised.  To do that, let’s let apostle Paul have today’s last word, about the good that is coming, which will dispel the darkness of harsh times of anger in this world in which we live.  Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers:

…we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.  First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Advice for the Mighty  and  Now Then, You Kings, Act Wisely  and  Short Fuse  and So Much Anger 

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

The RIGHT Way to Go

 

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.  Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.  Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.  Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.  Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.  For the Lord grants wisdom!  From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.  He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.  He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.  Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.  For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.  Wise choices will watch over you.  Understanding will keep you safe.  Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted.  These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths.  They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.  Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong.  Proverbs 2:1-15

These words, usually accepted as written by Solomon, come from a lifetime of a wise man seeking the right way to live a meaningful life.  Solomon’s methodology was not much different from yours or mine; we learn through trial and error’s school of hard-knocks.  In Ecclesiastes Solomon wrote:

So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.  Ecclesiastes 1:17

Here was a wise man who wanted to investigate every part of how people live on this planet.  What he found was most of it is empty, like a dog chasing his own tail…an overly-glorified exercise in passing the time.

Yet, in this morning’s text, Solomon’s Proverb, instructs his own son to spend his life absorbing wisdom, to chase understanding like the brass ring on the merry-go-round.  And, of course, he’s pointing to God’s commands, the words of life, which will teach his heart, soul, and mind all it needs to know so he will know how to fear (reverence) the Lord. 

At the last of his instructions, Solomon reveals the purpose of it all, keeping on the right path in this world’s quagmire of cultural madness.  The wisest of men points to the craziest of human mayhem, and gives his son the key to living a life that will not leave him ashamed at the end; he points his child to serving God’s light in the midst of a great darkness.  No matter what crooked, twisted ways of evil present themselves, one who trusts in God can walk confidently in the Lord’s care and love.

Perhaps Solomon was well beyond his time, knowing what the madness of 21^st century earth would be like, pandemics, violence, earthquakes, scams, political havoc, crumbling families, and news cycles that never make genuine sense.

For You Today  

The choices are endless.  Among them, you can follow the news on CNN, Twitter, FOX, or whatever other cultural high makes you too buzzed to see clearly…or tune-in to God’s wisdom and light.  It all depends on whether you want to have your eyes open to eternity’s understanding.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Finding Wisdom  and  A Treasure of Common Sense 

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

An HONEST Prayer

 

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

How can a young person stay pure?  By obeying your word.  I have tried hard to find you—don’t let me wander from your commands.  I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.  I praise you, O Lord; teach me your decrees.  I have recited aloud all the regulations you have given us.                  I have rejoiced in your laws as much as in riches.  I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways.  I will delight in your decrees and not forget your word. Psalm 119:9-16

There are some images that stay with you for life.  Some are because they were dramatic, or explosive, like a tragic accident, or first experience with death, or birth.  There are other lifetime moments that insidiously sneak up on you. 

One of those sneaky images I have is something I heard in a pastor’s sermon many years ago about why some people don’t believe in God.  A child prays for a pony…his family lives in a city apartment, so we know how that turns out.  Later he prays that big kid in his third grade class who’s been bullying him all year will catch the fever and die.  We know God rarely grants that one.  By the time he’s a freshman in college he’s about had it with God, but he’s got a big math test coming up, so he decides to give the man upstairs (ugh…how I hate that)…just One. Last. Chance.  He stands in the field next to his college dorm and lifts the challenge:  God, if you’re really there, I need a ‘B’ on this test…no, make it an ‘A’.  With that base covered he runs to the bar where he and his fraternity buddies drink the night away.  The next day, he flunks the math test because he didn’t study at all.  His sulking thought:  I knew it; I now have proof:  there is no God!

In comparison to our young friend with the tried that praying to God thing, and it doesn’t work, attitude chip on his shoulder, the Psalmist paints a different picture, of a young person trusting God, not challenging God. 

Notice what he does:

·       He recognizes his weakness, and the need to stay close to God, so he studies God’s ways and commands. 

·       He memorizes those parts that speak warning to his heart so those will be second-nature when the temptations come.

·       He is teachable, even rejoicing while asking God to fix His Word deep in his soul.

The bottom line for this young man is open and honest with his prayers before God.

For You Today  

How’s your prayer life lately?  Is there openness with being honest, teachable, and willing to change as God directs you through His word?

If not, today’s a good day to begin.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

When Words & Deeds Collide  and  Finding Wisdom 

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

 

When You Are Not Sure

Monday, February 13, 2023

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.  He will not rebuke you for asking.  But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.  Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.  Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.  James 1:5-8

When it comes to difficult choices which harbor a nagging conflict, a strong pull on two (or more) sides, how can you be sure?  King Solomon had that on a scale none of us would ever want.  Two women were hauled before the king for a decision.  The infant child of one of them had died, and she was claiming it wasn’t hers, but the other woman’s, who was claiming it as her own.  What to do?  It’s a very familiar passage in 1 Kings 3.  Solomon calls for a sword and declares the child must be cut in two.  The real mother of the child is horror-stricken, and pleads for the child’s life…don’t kill the child…she can have him.  Only the real mother would give her child to another, if it meant life for the baby. 

End of story.  

But what of the backstory that explains how Solomon knew what to do?  The story before the story of the women with a dilemma, helps us understand how the king, with a child’s life in his hands, and an unknowable fact to be decided, uncovered truth.  It’s found in the prayer of a young, new king who felt overwhelmed:

“Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around.  And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted!  Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong.  For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”  The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom.  So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies—I will give you what you asked for!  I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have!  1 Kings 3:7-12

Recognizing his calling was too great, too demanding, and too important for relying only on his own strength, Solomon called on God to bless him with an understanding heart.  God responded to the open-mind and heart, with blessings of wisdom and great resources. 

He does that a lot!

For You Today  

Consider the warning of James, when you contemplate praying like Solomon for wisdom and understanding…you need not be certain about a lot of decisions you’ll need to make in life, but you must certainly be sure about the ONE whom you will trust to lead you through all of them.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Divided Mind  and  Difficult Choices 

Images:  Title via Wikimedia Commons   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Living in Light

Friday, February 10, 2023

If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.  Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.  But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness.  Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.   

1 John 2:9-11

John, the beloved apostle wrote about loving others…a lot!

But John wasn’t always so compassionate; at one point in time, he and his brother James were nicknamed the sons of thunder[1] by Jesus.  This was because the brothers were prone to anger and knee-jerk reactions. 

On the road to Jerusalem some of the crowds rejected Jesus.  James and John asked for permission to call down fire from heaven to burn up the unbelievers.  Jesus rebuked them and they had to recheck their theology of crowd control.[2]

Question?

How does a man go from wanting to incinerate a whole crowd for simply disagreeing with your position…to one who says that kind of hate means you don’t know the first thing about God?

Pretty simple, actually; John was not so set in his dark ways that he couldn’t entertain the possibility that he was wrong.  That’s called “being teachable.” 

And when that’s possible, then light coming into your life is also possible.  And the kind of light Jesus brings will dispel a multitude of darkness!

Paul said to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.[3]  This is what had happened to John, a thunderous, judgmental, hard-headed reactionary; He entertained the truth of Jesus’ kind of love and it changed everything.

John went from that kind of mindset where you’re absolutely certain you could straighten out anybody, because you’ve got a corner on the truth market, and everyone should do things your way…..to living in the light of God’s truth, that loving others is the only way to keep from stumbling around in life.

John learned the humility of love; he learned how to live in the light.

For You Today  

How’s the light in your world today?

If it needs turning up a little, do a love-check on your relationships; entertain the possibility that loving others is better than convincing others you’re right.

Better to be beloved, than a son of thunder!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Where Love and Truth Meet  and  Against the Tide 

This is an updated version of “Living in LIght published on Rocky Road Devotions August 13, 2013

Images:  Title via Wikimedia Commons   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

---

[1] Mark 3:17

[2] Luke 9:53-55

[3] Romans 12:2