Pondering a Hard Truth

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age.  So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.  But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them.  They couldn’t say a kind word to him.  One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.  “Listen to this dream,” he said.  “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain.  Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”  His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you?  Do you actually think you will reign over us?”  And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.  Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it.  “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said.  “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”  This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him.  “What kind of dream is that?” he asked.  “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?”  But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.  

Genesis 37:3-11

Truth is impartial to what we think of it; truth is simply (and most profoundly) its own reality.  One, plus one more, does not care if you think the answer is seven; it will always be as reality demands…two.  The difference between Jacob and his older sons was that Jacob entertained the possibility of truth told him by his youngest son, a truth which Joseph’s elder brothers refused to acknowledge.  This truth was what Joseph was given in a dream, concerning the future, when his older brother’s hatred of their youngest sibling would come full cycle.  Eventually the brothers, and even their father, would be dependent on Joseph’s forgiveness.

The story of Joseph’s jealous brothers selling their young sibling into slavery, and his subsequent rise to power in Egypt, followed by a famine, and his brothers being sent to find food, is a harbinger of God’s advent.  The birth of Christ, and the dream (even of Jesus’ disciples) of a political Messiah, sold for thirty pieces of silver to the cross, is the fulfillment of Joseph’s hard life with its ultimate victory, punctuated at last by his magnanimous forgiveness of the ones who persecuted him.  It is a resurrection truth, hard to entertain, but sweet to the reins when digested fully.

The truth of Joseph’s, and Jesus’ lives is hard to entertain.  Our world is always looking for easier shortcuts…computers that do better math than counting on our fingers…machines to do the heavy lifting…gene-splitting to make better human bodies, prettier, stronger, more able to cope with the harshness of life and our darker realities.  Somehow our notion of “truth” carries the lie that we are bound to create our own reality, sans God.  In some self-aggrandizing common consent, humanity has made God obsolete.  And that is the shroud they put on the face of a dead savior Friday afternoon.  It didn’t ring true Sunday morning.

For You Today  

Jacob wasn’t thrilled about Joseph’s second dream, because it meant a reversal of the order…the father bowing-down to the son.  But he left a little flap of wonder hanging for the wind of revelation to let in some light.

That is what Advent brings…revelation.  Let the wind blow today.

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

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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: 

   Seven Deadly Sins - Part 3 - Envy   and   When Envy Grabs a Heart

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^©   

Truth's Disappearing Act

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!  The faithful have vanished from the earth!  Neighbors lie to each other, speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.  May the Lord cut off their flattering lips and silence their boastful tongues.  They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.  Our lips are our own—who can stop us?”  The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor.  Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do.”  The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over.  Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed, preserving them forever from this lying generation, even though the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land.  Psalm 12:1-8

It's impossible to come to a conclusion that truth is hallowed in 21st century culture.  Rather, we would be forced to admit (if honest) that truth is seen as optional, if lying brings you the resuts you’re after.  More than half of school children admit to cheating on tests; the key word being admit.  It doesn’t help that some teachers are actually promoting test dishonesty.  In Florida a cheating on tests scandal was recently uncovered, where teachers were rigging the tests to make sure more of their students pass.  The motivation is that teachers get bonuses ($25-$50 per student) for passing grades.[1]  While this is certainly not the standard, it shades public perception of the integrity of teachers holding their careers to a higher ethical standard.  But it does give one pause to recall James Russell Lowell’s famous quote:  Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.  Evil, as the Psalmist put it, is praised throughout the land.

There are plenty of examples of the prevaricating nature of our culture’s moral turpitude.  Election campaigns are battlegrounds no longer for presenting the genuine character of the candidates; they are all about pandering to the polls, and tickling ears.  It isn’t about presenting clearly an agenda of how the county will benefit from the course of action an aspiring office-holder will enact.  Rather, it’s a matter of hiding the true agenda, and how it will keep the candidate’s party in power, and line the pockets of those who got the candidate elected.  And if it takes a small white lie (or a big whopper) to get there, well, integrity is a little over-rated, and besides, the end will justify how we got there.

The Psalmist clearly states God’s agenda for that kind of forked-tongue, snakiness: 

The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor.  Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do.”  

For You Today

It isn’t going far out on a limb to say that the only way our nation’s young will get it, that truth is important, is if they see it in the generation that’s raising them, even when it hurts.  No, make that, especially when it hurts!  That’s the time the truth will really set you free.[2]

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: 

Walk with Integrity and Truth, Whole Truth, Nothing BUT the Truth

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

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[1] Teachers Caught in Test Cheating Scandal

[2] John 8:32

Paying Attention

[1]

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

We thank you, O God!  We give thanks because you are near.  People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds.  God says, “At the time I have planned, I will bring justice against the wicked.  When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil, I am the one who keeps its foundations firm. Interlude

“I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’  I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists!  Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance.’”  For no one on earth—from east or west, or even from the wilderness—should raise a defiant fist.  It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall.  For the Lord holds a cup in his hand that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours out the wine in judgment, and all the wicked must drink it, draining it to the dregs.  But as for me, I will always proclaim what God has done; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.  For God says, “I will break the strength of the wicked, but I will increase the power of the godly.”  Psalm 75:1-10(NLT)

Our church gave out compasses to the children several weeks ago.  It was a reminder to always seek true North, an allusion to being a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.  True North leads you in ways of integrity, honesty, and sincerely following God’s ways.  I love that analogy of the life of Christ being our compass for a life that honors the Father.  Now, keeping that thought about True North, I don’t know anything about Jarod Kintz, but his quote about compasses caught my attention.  He said:

If I were a magician, I’d hand out broken compasses. It’s all about misdirection.
[2]

If you’ve ever seen a magic trick you understand a magician’s showmanship is all about getting your eyes to look at what he wants you to see, not what he’s hiding in the other hand.  While he’s got your attention with his right hand pointing to his pretty assistant in the skimpy costume, his left hand is getting ready to pick your pocket while you applaud his skillful pulling the rabbit out of the hat.

Lucifer was the slickest magician to ever hit the scene; he has always used deception to ply his trade.  Just ask Eve!  

And so, to the point about paying attention and the Psalmist’s warning of God’s coming judgment on the wicked.  The chief wickedness in the universe is to ignore our Creator and His purposes.  We were created for fellowship with God; we were not put here to be alone.

Yet, the chief deceiver has us moving in that direction.  It is subtle, this misdirection from a perfect fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden to current culture where anything goes, because, in the befuddled thinking of the 21^st century, there is no such thing as sin, or sinners.  There is no such thing as absolute truth or morality…there is only personal fulfillment and what I want to consider as truth.  Your truth is ok for you, but don’t force it down my throat.

It is a strange choice to ignore truth to try to justify what you want to believe is truth.  Yet that is done every day by people who want to ignore God, or those who want to form God into something that fits their idea of a perfect god for them.  Consider the absurdity of saying that there is NO ABSOLUTE TRUTH; absolutely?  If you want to believe that solving the math problem of adding two plus two, and having 9 as a better answer than 4 because you like 9 better than 4 … well, in our current culture your answer is just as valid as Albert Einstein, even if it won’t work in calculating how to bring the Shuttle back down from space.

In deceiving Eve, the serpent’s misdirection was to pump up Eve’s right to make up her own mind about taking the fruit.  She took the bait along with her husband, flying in the face of God’s absolute, revealed, propositional truth, and we have been doing, and regretting the same for every generation since!

For You Today

It’s smart to pay attention to God’s truth, revealed in His actions, His prophets, His Word, and His Son, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  When the world says believe what you want, and what you think is right, remember the magician…and trust God!

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of DailyComic.com

[2] The Magic of Misdirection, Using distraction for psychological warfare

Truth Whole Truth Nothing BUT the Truth

(Note about The Pastor’s Points – the Bible must be taken on faith…reasoned faith to be sure….but, in the end, faith is a leap of the heart which is attached to an informed mind.  Faith is not scientific fact or mathematical equation.  These devotional writings are faith-based, and therefore rooted in Scripture.  They are meant to encourage your faith, grow your faith, and challenge you to live by that faith. 

But one thing is not intended – to give you faith on a silver platter, as if somehow you could read what is written each morning –take it like a “faith-pill”, and grow a belief system.  That is patently impossible – and that’s way beyond my pay grade as a writer anyway. ^{(For the source of faith read Romans 10:17)}

Faith is personal, and it is also a gift from God.  Every human being possesses – at the very least – sufficient faith to recognize the truth of God as our Creator, who is due our worship.  We have His image stamped on our souls! 

That image has been corrupted by sin, but it nonetheless calls to us from within, that we seek to find the God whom we have distorted and seems out of reach.

With that in mind, let me suggest that you read these devotional thoughts like you take a vitamin supplement – to assist what your body is already doing.  If, in your heart you have chosen to take the “faith-leap” and accept Christ’s Word as truth, that is your main diet and hope.  This devotional is simply another fellow-disciple’s look at how the diet of God’s Word works for him.  Take the supplement or not – but never lay aside the main meal!)

The “Heart” of God’s Word ^{Psalms 119:160}

If “the heart” of a person is centered in something (a boyfriend, drive to become rich, being valedictorian of the class, building the perfect ice cream sundae) it is certain everything else – thoughts, words and actions will follow the heart’s desire. 

So it is with God’s Word; its heart is truth.

Everything about the heart of the Word of God begins in truth…absolute truth.  The Psalmist called the Word of God “eternal”.  That means “no beginning, no ending”.  

So truth is true – whenever, and under whatever conditions exist.  It is never relative to circumstances or the thoughts of man.  One scholar’s exposition of the Psalm text is:  And all these, thy words endure for ever. They are true, and ever will be true.[i]

True is always just true.  (If you accept the premise of “God” in the first place, then His word is absolutely true, or He is not God.)

But “truth” in our culture is always relative – never absolute.  That’s so strange in a country with a foundational document which declares, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.  “All” sounds pretty “absolute” to me.

Now, that presents a problem for the Christian who is trying his best to live in the world, but not be of the world.^{(James 4:4)}

Our culture’s reasoning and truth-seeking have degenerated over the years; now we have what John Calvin called the appeal to custom against truth[ii].  We went from God’s immutable, undisputable truth to…. “Well, that may be true for you, and I’m glad for you, but it’s not my truth”.  Some truth is not so “self-evident” today – the distortion of God’s image grows; eternal truth has been ripped from God’s hands, and now belongs to the created beings!

Ready to Swim Upstream Today?

Take your stand with truth today. 

Truth… Whole truth… Nothing BUT the truth!  So help us, God!

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[i] Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Old Testament, STEP Files Copyright © 1999, Parsons Technology, Inc.

[ii] John Calvin, Institutes of Religion, Preface address to King Francis, Illustrations Unlimited, James Hewitt, 1988