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

 

Harvest Songs a Little Off-Key

 

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision.  In it I saw a basket filled with ripe fruit.  “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.  I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”  Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment!  I will not delay their punishment again.  In that day the singing in the temple will turn to wailing.  Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere.  They will be carried out of the city in silence.  I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”  Listen to this, you who rob the poor and trample down the needy!  You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless.  You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales.  And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor.  Then you enslave poor people for one piece of silver or a pair of sandals.  Now the Lord has sworn this oath by his own name, the Pride of Israel:  “I will never forget the wicked things you have done!  Amos 8:1-7

There is enough about judgment in Scripture to have a true echo to this picture Amos has seen of harvest songs (usually a very happy time) turning into wailing in Jerusalem’s temple.  Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels is enough to make one sit-up and shudder over the Great Judgment Day coming.  The list is too long and discomforting for bedtime reading:

·       The Barren Fig Tree (burying your talents Luke 13)
·       The Good Samaritan (religious elitism Luke 10)
·       The Pharisee and the Publican (judging others Luke 18)
·       The Rich Fool (greed and selfishness Luke 12)
·       The Rich Man and Lazarus (ignoring the destitute Luke 16)
·       The Sheep and Goats (pretend Christianity Matthew 25)
·       The House Built on Rock (trusting in other than Christ Matthew 13)

Now that’s just an uncomfortable list of parables, little stories with multi-level lessons.  Greater stories of judgment that cut right to the chase have mountains crashing down on heads, stars falling, war with rivers of blood flowing deep enough to drown a horse.  Then, there are the results of judgment, everlasting torment, weeping, gnashing of teeth (as an ongoing expression of torment), irrevocable banishment into the darkness, never to experience God’s love, being cut in two, and on, and on.

The natural objection to all of this is to point to the fact that it has been two-thousand years since Jesus died, and the earth rocks-on.  So, where is the judgment?  And the traditional response to that is, so-what…justice delayed is a sign of God’s mercy, giving those who reject him time to repent and be saved. 

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.  2 Peter 3:9

But whether people want to forcefully object to Scripture’s warnings, or simply ignore them and hope they’re not true, there is an undeniable discomfort level with the whole subject.  This, in itself, is a measure of proof that there is, placed deep within each of us mortals, an understanding of our accountability to God, and the culpability of our sins.  For those poor souls who want to object to God’s judging the world and everything/person in it is like a flea having an argument with an elephant.  It just will not change the outcome.

For You Today

There is a harvest song that will never be sung off-key – that of the singer who recognizes what Jesus called the fields white unto harvest.  It is God calling the lost who need to hear the Good News that Christ will save all who come to Him in repentance.  When you work in that field, your song is echoed in Heaven, and you will return to Him someday, rejoicing and carrying with you sheaves of joy.  That is another of God’s promises:

They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.  Psalm 126:6

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

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

Evangelism; Sharing GOOD News

 

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.  Acts 8:4

Dr. Don L. McCutcheon, Sr., ^{(pictured above)} is a longtime friend and fellow-laborer[1] in Christ.  Some years ago Dr. McCutcheon retired from the North Carolina Baptist Convention, where he served as Director of Evangelism.  I could tell you a lot about Don and his loving spirit, laughter, and lifetime commitment to sharing Christ with others.  This time, allow me to have our youngest daughter, Carrie tell it from the pew where she sat as a 16-year-old as Don preached in our church:

“Had a great evening catching up with an old friend and meeting his mother!! He and his sweet wife Kathy have been special to my family for many years now....I won't say exactly how many because that would tell MY age!! But I'll say, as a teenager, I took detailed notes from the pew as Pastor Don McCutcheon preached to the youth about ‘Dudes and Dudettes’”.

You gotta love a preacher who elevates youth as “dudes and dudettes”!  I preached this past Sunday on the importance of evangelism for the church, and that it is each individual member of the church’s responsibility to be involved. 

I asked Dr. McCutcheon to send me a few words about what evangelism has meant to him.  After appropriately  reminding me just how difficult it is for a Baptist preacher to write a few words about anything, he sent me these few paragraphs about sharing the GOOD News:

Having been raised in a non-churched family, I thought and was taught that if I were good I would certainly to go to heaven.  When I heard the gospel I realized the error of my worldview and the truth of the Biblical worldview.  After conversion, I realized how many did not understand the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  God helped me to see through the Scriptures, especially John 3:16, that His great love moved Him to send His only begotten Son to die for our sins and give us eternal life. Our response to that love calls us to turn from and confess our sins to Him and trust and follow Him completely with our lives. Matthew 28:19-20 reveals the command for all Christians to love, witness and disciple all people to Christ and teach them to follow Him as Lord.

Evangelism is the highest form of Christian love and obedience as the goal is for people to come to be born again, know and follow our Lord and Savior.  The greatest gift you could ever give anyone is the opportunity to know Christ and have eternal life.  The most heartbreaking and unending regret Christians will have in heaven are the ones with whom we did not even try to share the gospel.  I took His commands personally and seriously. I believed the agape love of God in John 3:16 clearly proclaims He loves us.

Secondly, the will of God is that none should perish (which happens to all who do not know Him) but that all should come to Him through repentance as communicated in 2 Peter 3:9. I should be doing all I can to love, pray for and verbally witness to those who do not know Him and face an eternity separated from Him.  It is never easy to share the gospel, but it is so important to our families, friends, neighbors, work associates and all people to hear God's way of salvation.  Ask God's Holy Spirit to give you courage and strength to witness and then watch Him work through you.

For You Today

My friend is one of those believers who joyfully shares Jesus wherever he goes.  For any follower of Christ, preacher or not, man, woman, or child, that is what should be the heart of our following, being ready, and being willing to share the GOOD News.

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

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Title image, Facebook image   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For another post on Acts 8 see:  Upside Down  

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[1] 2 Thessalonians 3:2

 

Remnant

[1]

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people.  And I will love those whom I did not love before.”  And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”  And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.  For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”  And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:  “If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.”  Romans 9:25-29^(NLT)

In teaching the Roman believers (who were non-Jewish) about God’s choice to include them in His Kingdom, Paul quoted Hosea, who went so far as to name one of his kids Not My People.  (Wouldn’t that be a hard answer when your name is called at school?)  This was God’s way of showing everybody that man’s opinions only go so far. 

Israel had a conventional set of nationalistic wisdom which included an arrogant view that JHWH’s plans only included Jews.  Gentiles might become Jews by ritual and obedience…but unless you did it their way your soul was only more fuel for the fires of Hell.  To that God said (to put it theologically) fooey!

And, to boot, God then instructed everyone to look at the vastness of the Jewish population; there were as many Jews as the grains of sand on a beach, but only a remnant…just a small percentage would be saved.

So what’s the point?

I’m glad you asked.  The point is for we, who are not of the chosen nation Israel, late-arrivers in God’s plan, Gentiles, grafted-into God’s vineyard, to not get uppity!   For the last two thousand years the church has proclaimed the Kingdom of God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ; we preach His death and resurrection and coming again as God’s truth and way for all to be saved. 

The church began as a Jewish sect (remember Peter, James and John were not born in Indiana), and over time the rift between Synagogue and Sanctuary grew wider, each clinging to the belief that they held the only way to God.

The reminder here against uppity-ness is that exclusivism is dangerous.  Man may propose, but it is God who disposes[2]!  We may think we have it all right, but the final disposition of what is actually right rests in the hands of Almighty God.

The Jews imagined it was God and them against the world.

The church can fall into that same trap, thinking it is the elect, the sanctified ones of God against all those evil people.

In reality God is for the world!  Hear it from the words of Peter the fisherman, one who knew Christ on a closer personal level than most:

He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.  2 Peter 3:9b^(NLT)

While most of the world scurries around figuring out their theology and their place in the kingdom, on the left or right of God’s throne, and how many others besides them might be in the remnant, God is probably shaking his head at why we can’t love each other enough to concentrate on sharing the Father’s desire for everyone to come home.

For You Today

It would be a good thing to spend this day ignoring the differences between us and the people we meet today…and concentrate on the eternal soul of each person you encounter.  See that person as one for whom Christ died!

Speak accordingly, love unselfishly, and hear God call that person, my people!

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com

[2] The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis

Faith or Terror?

[i]

                                                                                                 Tuesday, October 4, 2016

“You have invited terrors from all around, as though you were calling them to a day of feasting.  In the day of the Lord’s anger, no one has escaped or survived.  The enemy has killed all the children whom I carried and raised.”  Lamentations 2:22^(NLT)

For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.  And who can win this battle against the world?  Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  1 John 5:4^(NLT)

Of all the preachers in the world whom Joel Osteen would NOT call to supply for him when he went on vacation, Jeremiah heads the list!  Jeremiah watched the devastation as Israel was plowed-under by her enemies and laments loudly that God has forsaken them in the day of terror; even worse, God was behind it all! 

Not much prosperity theology or feel good in that sermon!

But Jeremiah wasn’t filling-in for a 21^st century entertainer, he was speaking for JHVH.  And the message he was bringing was that God had indeed orchestrated the devastation of Jerusalem by her enemies because of her sinful ways^{(Lamentations 1:5, 8)}. 

They had forsaken their God and this was a nation’s wake-up call!

The two greatest threats to any nation’s soul are riches and terror.  Riches are what lead to ease and self-indulgence; terror is what drives a nation back to pray.  And a nation is really in trouble when the powerfully-rich are leading the prayers.

I’ve been working on a sermon called “Undecided – But Leaning”.  It is an expression of lament for America in its current political cycle.  We are more than divided, America has become so polarized around political personalities that we fail to see our real threat.  The biggest enemy America faces is not a wobbling economy, poor education, or even terrorists from al Qaeda or ISIS; our real enemy, like Israel of old is going to be God.

In Scripture JHVH is described as patient^{(2 Peter 3:9)} but you have to wonder if we are at the end of that string.  In His kindness and forbearing ways, the loving, heavenly Father will allow His children to step just so far away from His purposes before he snaps us back to reality.

When terror struck on September 11, 2001, the following week churches were filled with praying people.  Fifteen years later we still shudder over the terror attacks, but now churches are emptying faster than rats exit a sinking ship.

In our political games-playing we have a candidate who wants to make America great again, and one who wants to save us from the candidate who wants to make America great again.  The insults are flung back and forth across the aisle and the news networks are raking in big bucks covering the entertainment.

My question is:  Are there any left in Zion who will bend the knee?  Or are we bound for the land of Babylon’s captivity?

For You Today

If this devotion sounded dark to you today, perhaps it is because we are a lot closer to midnight on God’s scale, than the breaking dawn you hear from the politicians.

True victory over any kind of terror is a matter of faith.

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

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NOTES

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[i] Title Images: By Боевик (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons & See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

All Creation!

Tuesday – October 1, 2013

Imagine you have been summoned by a judge to appear in her court.  You GO, right?  After all, the authority of the entire community is vested in that court’s bench.  You must comply!  But people do defy the judge’s orders.  I’ve seen it.

The words of the Psalmist evoke not only scenes of majesty and the wonder of all God’s created universe – there is also the awesome reality of nature’s threat.  Trembling and quaking are fearful pictures.  We’ve seen enough of nature’s brutality to know that!

To “acknowledge that the Lord is God is simply to respond to the authority of the Maker of all.  And creation must respond its Creator; that is the nature of the universe.  We are “the sheep of His pasture”.  Like Apple™ and Windows™ computers respond to their particular operating systems – and no other – we respond to the One who is our Shepherd.  And the command is – respond with praise to Him alone; give praise to the Lord God…and no other!

Friends, that is more than just a passing curtsy before the throne.  It’s more than sitting in church (or standing to preach a sermon, teach a class) on a Sunday.  It’s more than “paying your dues” or tipping your hat to “the man upstairs” (don’t get me started on that one!).

Acknowledging that the Lord is God means placing your life, possessions, reputation, time, service and anything else associated with who you are, what you own, your talents and weaknesses, and whatever else you hope to be and accomplish….all at His disposal.  It means dedicating your life to do His will – not your own.

Why?

Glad you asked.

Jesus said so.  Remember that prayer in Gethsemane? – not MY will, but Yours, Father.

Jesus showed us so.  Remember that Cross on Golgotha?  That was God’s will –

The Lord is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.         2 Peter 3:9b (KJV)

When Jesus says it, and shows it, it becomes our mission to live it out with and for each other.  That’s entering his gates with thanksgiving and coming into his courts with praise!