No...Yes...Maybe...WELL?

Friday, August 4, 2023

The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.  The Lord is good to everyone.  He showers compassion on all his creation….The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads.  The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it.  When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.  The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness.  The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.  He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them.  The Lord protects all those who love him, but he destroys the wicked.  I will praise the Lord, and may everyone on earth bless his holy name forever and ever.  Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21

In 2011 Rob Bell, added to an ongoing enigma as old as the Garden of Eden when he published his book, Love Wins.  The debate centers-on the question:

Is God all-love, or does He judge some and save others?

Bell is the trendy preacher who began Mars Hill church in 1999.  It grew at a meteoric rate in just a few years to over 10,000 Sunday attenders.  Love Wins is, by any traditionally-accepted evangelical standards, heresy at worst, fluff masquerading as theology at least.  Mainline and Evangelical leaders alike consider Bell’s views as “universalist”, essentially meaning all humans are acceptable to God, no matter their actions, and, in the end, will be redeemed to spend eternity with God.  In short, universalist theology teaches there is no such thing as Hell; Rob Bell says it is merely a reference to suffering here on earth.  Bell also denies Scripture, saying the bodily resurrection of Jesus is a wrong interpretation of Scripture.  This places Bell in the category of heretic, according to John 20. Jesus wasn’t a ghost, as Thomas found out when he put his hands into the holes in Jesus’ hands and side!

By 2012 Rob Bell’s “church” crumbled.  He left Michigan and moved to California.  

He joined Oprah Winfry’s Supersoul Sunday podcasts, while continuing to travel the world giving seminars on spirituality and surfing.  By most accounts, he considers “church” as irrelevant. 

So, the question looms…is there punishment for sin…or not….or maybe?  Or do we just go with avoiding the question?  These questions are superfluous if you’ve taken the time and effort to read the Scriptures.  God is certainly love, and does not want anyone to suffer in Hell eternally.[1]  And if Scripture declares that punishment to be a reality, certainly it validates the existence of the place.  Hell is real, as is Heaven. 

There are (as Rob Bell holds) many things we do not know about God, or what He has in store for us.  However denying what God has plainly and categorically stated in Scripture is no way to humbly search for truth.  Faith is a matter of depending on His Word, and proclaiming it…not twisting it until it is unrecognizable.  That is what got humankind misled as far back as the Garden of Eden.  It’s Satan’s tool!

For You Today 

The Lord is compassionate, kind, and protective over those who stay close to Him and call on His name.  He is also the Creator, Sovereign God of the Universe, and destroys the wicked.  That is both sides of the entire scope of Scripture, humanity, evil, and good.  All of us, including Rob Bell, you, and I need to live with it!

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

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com 

Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

[1] 2 Peter 3:9

 

Devouring the Sheep

Thursday, June 8, 2023

These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind.  They are doomed to blackest darkness.  They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.  With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception.  They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption.  For you are a slave to whatever controls you.  And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before.  It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.  They prove the truth of this proverb:  “A dog returns to its vomit.”  And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.” 

2 Peter 2:17-22

The backstory on this part of Peter’s letter is the Apostle’s warning about leading people away from God, and into a twisted lifestyle of sin.  It is proclaiming sin as holy, and is the upside-down version of what God desires for each of us.  Peter calls this kind of leader useless – slaves to their own sin; they lead others astray.  The metaphors, dog and pig, are always surrounded by filth.  Dogs cannot ignore what has come up from inside them, and pigs are hopelessly drawn to the mire.

A troublesome reality of the church’s marching orders is Jesus’ command to love.  I don’t disagree with the Lord, just saying:  we mess up what He’s saying.  Loving is not simply embracing everything and everybody.  If a person is a serial killer, we can love them; embracing their lifestyle is altogether a different matter.

Preacher, where did you come up with that notion?  Well, the seeming dichotomy of loving people, but rejecting their lifestyle is the example of God, Himself.  In many passages of Scripture we learn that God is the very essence of love.  Jesus proved that God so-loved everyone, he gave his life on Calvary’s cross.  On the flip-side of that are the many passages pointing to how this loving God will bring judgment for lifestyles that reject Him.  Listen to how another apostle, Paul describes God’s judgment for those who say they love God, but choose to prove just the opposite with their actions, their lifestyle of perversion:

Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God?  Don’t fool yourselves.  Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.  1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Leadership (bishops, and a predominance of clergy) of the tribe in which I have served the past 18 years (United Methodist) have moved closer and closer to accepting homosexuality as a valid lifestyle.  It is proclaimed as loving.  In practice, however, it is elevating perverted sexual desire over self-discipline, and honoring God’s command.  Those who do so are “loving” neither the churches they are leading into disaster, nor the ones who practice their sinful ways.  They are merely heaping up judgment on their own heads.

For You Today 

Question for those second-guessing a church, now in full-blown division/schism:

Is it a right decision to stay “united” and, without words, affirm a sinful lifestyle in rebellion to God’s way…or is it better to stand with God’s Word and separate?

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

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Living in Sodom  and  Legacy of Lies and Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire and                                     He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

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

Arise!

 

Monday, July 6, 2020

Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Ah, I hear my lover coming!  He is leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.  My lover is like a swift gazelle or a young stag.  Look, there he is behind the wall, looking through the window, peering into the room.  My lover said to me, “Rise up, my darling!  Come away with me, my fair one!  Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone.  The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.  The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming.  Rise up, my darling!  Come away with me, my fair one!”

Solomon writes this love sonnet about the heart of his lover beating ever faster as she contemplates the arrival of the one she has been waiting to see.  The hope is that they will be together, never again parted.  It is Spring, and visions of resurrection abound; winter is fading, giving way to young blossoms, singing birds, and the promise of fruit on the vines.  Hibernation is over, it is time to arise!

Even an old dog’s ears stand up when the scent of the hunt is near.  It’s proof that the eager call of youth never really leaves.  I have to confess this “young man” inside of me loves all the seasons.  I love the Spring and Fall particularly, but all the changes of life are interesting and blessing.  I love the awakening of things. 

What is true in the natural realm is often a mirror to understand spiritual matters.  Looking forward to the call of arise, my darling is at the very center of Christian thought.  It is the resurrection to which we aspire, our lives of death transformed to an eternity of abundant life with the One who loved us enough to die for us.  Who could deny this is the love story of all love stories?

And in love stories there is one certainty; it runs deep!  Lovers feel both pain and joy on no small scale.  What’s true in human love runs even deeper in the spiritual realm.  Consider the pathos of Jesus’ statement to Judas when the traitor led the palace guard to arrest him in Gethsemane:  with a KISS, Judas…really?  There’s no denying the pain of a love story that ends with heartbreak.

But the other side of that is the happily ever after variety of love.  Even that phrase evokes for an old dog proof that the hunt is worth it…not just for physical love, or the satisfaction of being with people you love, but the eternal thirst we all have for being loved, being wanted. 

And that is the truth of what is at the heart of God’s creation purpose.  He created us to love us.  Because…God is love.[1]  

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, we are aware that You designed our hearts to love You by loving each other.  We are also aware we are sometimes not very good at that.  Grant us power to change that this day.  Let us be what you are, love in word and deed.

For You Today

You may have read the words rise up, my darling as what a human lover says to his or her loved one…read them today as the words your God speaks to you! 

You are loved; you are wanted, and that, unconditionally…no strings!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Romans 7 see Hidden Brides and Little Foxes

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[1] 1 John 4:8

Fruit of the Spirit - Part 9 LOVE

[1]

Friday, May 31, 2019

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Galatians 5:22-23

Today we come to the last part of our investigation into the nine-fold manifestation of the Fruit of the Spirit.  These nine characteristic traits are alive and functioning in the believer who offers him/herself fully to God’s care and leading.  So, why did we leave love until the end when it is the first on the list?  That’s a good question and has a great answer.  In the ancient world the most important thought came first and is summed-up in what follows.  For Paul, any description of what God is, does, thinks, or….well, loves are a representation of who God IS.  This concept is hard to get down in a few words, but the Apostle John did it better than anyone else:

…anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  1 John 4:8

Love, God’s character, is summed-up in that list of the fruit.  Granted, this is not the totality of God…we haven’t even scratched the surface about his omnipotent power, righteous judgment, omnipresence, or omniscience, let-alone his eternal being.  The vastness of this unseen God makes my head hurt when I try to entertain just the beginnings of understanding all of He who sits on Heaven’s throne.  He is the ancient One, unfathomable; no human can even continue to live if we were thrust into His presence.  But if we go to love, it gives us (at least) the starting point of understanding how God applies all His being to His creation.  It shows us what God wants to be in us, and what we can be like as dwellers together in His Kingdom.

To turn John’s phrase, anyone who loves knows God, and from that love spring all the wonders of joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, self-control, faithfulness, and patience.  And, in a life lived in love, which produces all the rest of that spiritual fruit, there is a resultant absence of selfishness, anger, greed, lust, laziness, envy, and pride, those seven deadly sins.  It is an absolute mathematical equation…as love produces fruit of the Spirit, sin, in all its association with death, darkness and evil, must scatter and die.

So, with no apology to Erich Segal’s Love Story and the heartbreak of Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal, love is not where you never have to say you’re sorry…love is all about knowing your transgressions bring on anger, violence, and a host of every kind of evil, destroying and rotting the fruit of God’s Spirit in you and others.  It is all about re-plowing the field of God’s vineyard in your life…saying you’re sorry, and receiving the reviving of forgiveness, the restoration of fruit-filled love!

For You Today

It’s time to put Hollywood back in their little camera boxes.  They’ve created a whole generational culture where love is a feeling, surrounded by photoshopped, background music and moments to remember.  They wouldn’t know God-love if it dropped from the camera-boom on their silly heads!

All that list of the fruit of God’s Spirit is yours when you choose to love.

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

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Got Answers?

[1]

All Saints Day, Wednesday, November 1, 2017

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.  They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.  And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”  And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings.  And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God.  They sang, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.”  Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white?  Where did they come from?”  And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.”  Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.  “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple.  And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter.  They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun.  For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd.  He will lead them to springs of life-giving water.  And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”  Revelation 7:9-17^(NLT)

Morgan Freeman may be one of the most recognizable humans on the planet.  His roles in modern drama, comedy, and even as Azeem, the scimitar-wielding Moorish warrior who befriends Kevin Costner in Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves, make Freeman a beloved institution in American theater.

I watched an episode last week of his new series The Story of Us[2], in which Freeman travels the globe looking for answers to life’s most perturbing questions.  This week’s question was:  Can love save the world?  Of course, being a Hollywood icon, Mr. Freeman had to begin with John Lennon and the Beatles’ All You Need is Love.  From there the episode explored various aspects of loving acts that, added together, could have the result of changing our culture to make earth a better place to live.

I wish they had allowed me to do the voice-over at the end of the show.  While the credits rolled on the screen, I would have simply said…uh…guys…by the way, your question was answered some time ago.  Love DID save the world.

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  1 John 4:8^(NLT)

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3:16-17^(NLT)

For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.  And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.  2 Corinthians 5:19^(NLT)

This is the message of the entire canon of Scripture – God is love, and it is God’s love that saves.

For You Today

On this All Saints day, when we celebrate the entire tribe of humanity and angels surrounding the throne in Heaven, we’ve already got the answer:

Yes, love can – and HAS – saved the world.

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

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[1] Title Image: By Reamronaldreagan, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] ^©The National Geographic Channel

Radiation Retrospect - Part 3

[1]

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God.  Mark 11:22^(NLT)

Yesterday we considered the issue of collateral damage.  In the case of my radiation treatment, there is the fact that some healthy tissue was sacrificed as collateral damage.  This was necessary so as to make sure the doctor got the entire cancer tumor in my throat.  It’s a small price to pay in order to continue living.

We see Jesus’ version of this idea in Mark’s Gospel as he employs the collateral damage concept of sacrificing the physical body part (representing our natural desire to sin) in favor of the real target for humanity:  restored relationship with God for eternity:

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.  Mark 9:43-44^(NLT)

This makes perfect sense in many ways.

·       Diet – say “no” to the éclair; avoid all those despicable me thoughts later

·       Driving – there’s a bunny on the left and a human on the right; you choose to run over the bunny rather than the person

·       Your buddy wants you to play golf, but you’d miss your son’s birthday party…

We call it doing the right thing, this collateral damage stuff.  And it’s pretty easy to recognize, but there is always a cost.

My question this morning is:  Are WE in the crosshairs of God’s collateral damage? 

Is it ever a reality that God gets pushed into some cosmic corner with all that goes on, so that, in order to accomplish His divine will God must do harm to an innocent person, in order to bring about the most good for the largest number of people?  Does God ever employ the end justifies the means in His conduct of the universe?   

In order to answer that question you’ve got to make a decision about the character and ability of God as opposed to the character and worth of humans. 

If God is utilitarian – just the God who gets things done like a business person working the art of the deal – then collateral damage is just an acceptable cost of doing business.  A deeper question would then be:  how can a God who claims to know/love us infinitely, and care for us immeasurably, be so cold?  Is He a business man doing a deal, and some of us are just collateral damage?  Or is He the God who is love?

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  1 John 4:8^(NLT)

Sometimes, when it seems like you are the collateral damage in God’s plan to save someone else, the question of God’s love may come into view.  You begin to pit all the good stuff you’ve ever done against this unjust suffering you must go through.  And you begin to ask/whine the why me question…almost as a demand that God step up with a justification for not keeping up His end of the bargain.

Where was God when your marriage ended, or your child died?  Where was God when bankruptcy was the only option left?  Where was God when your world crashed-down around you?  Where was the loving God then?  That’s the question of the sufferer. 

And then that cross thing shows up again to answer our question:  Where was God? 

·       He was in the same place He was that Friday afternoon when His child died. 

·       He was in the same place when His bride left home. 

·       He was in the same place when His prodigals woke up in the far country’s pigpen, having spent their inheritance. 

His heart was busy being broken as the collateral damage for all our sinful choices. 

For You Today

If God really is love, and His Word really is true, then we are the target of that love…and you can never be collateral when you’re right in the center of the target!

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

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[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth (own work)