When the Fire Falls

 

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Again the Lord spoke to me and said, “I have discovered a conspiracy against me among the people of Judah and Jerusalem.  They have returned to the sins of their ancestors.  They have refused to listen to me and are worshiping other gods.  Israel and Judah have both broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.  Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am going to bring calamity upon them, and they will not escape.  Though they beg for mercy, I will not listen to their cries.  Then the people of Judah and Jerusalem will pray to their idols and burn incense before them.  But the idols will not save them when disaster strikes!  Look now, people of Judah; you have as many gods as you have towns.  You have as many altars of shame—altars for burning incense to your god Baal—as there are streets in Jerusalem.  “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah.  Do not weep or pray for them, for I will not listen to them when they cry out to me in distress.  “What right do my beloved people have to come to my Temple, when they have done so many immoral things?  Can their vows and sacrifices prevent their destruction?  They actually rejoice in doing evil!  I, the Lord, once called them a thriving olive tree, beautiful to see and full of good fruit.  But now I have sent the fury of their enemies to burn them with fire, leaving them charred and broken.  “I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who planted this olive tree, have ordered it destroyed.  For the people of Israel and Judah have done evil, arousing my anger by burning incense to Baal.”  Jeremiah 11:9-17

Fire can be good or bad, depending on how it is used.  In the kitchen it is a wonderful presence, helping to prepare a delicious meal.  In a dry forest it is a death knell for wildlife’s habitat.  The same is true in spiritual matters. 

God’s Holy Spirit is sometimes represented as holy fire, such as at the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit energized the birth of Jesus’ church[1].  Fire is also a reminder of God’s judgment.  Jesus often taught of God’s love, but the theme of judging those who say no to God’s ways was always close at hand.  When teaching his disciples about His love for them, and how vital it was to stay close to him, enabling God’s mission to bring His love to the world, Jesus whispered the consequences of refusing…the fire would fall.  And, unlike the good fire of God’s presence on Pentecost, it would be the consuming fires of God’s judgment:

Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.  Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.  John 15:6

The theme of judgment for sin is laced all the way through Scripture, from Cain’s killing of his brother in Genesis, thru Revelation’s Great White Throne judgment[2].

In Jeremiah’s prophecy it is hard to miss how clearly God said that it was He, Who was responsible for the woes that would fall on His people because they had wantonly broken their covenant vows with God.  God also claimed it was His right to do so, because it was He Who called and blessed them…He had planted the olive tree of Judah’s Jerusalem, and it would be God causing the fire to fall.

For You Today

Among most of the world’s once-Christian churches there is a deadly coldness when it comes to Pentecost’s fire.  They are like ovens without heat, only housing a possibility.  But, as it was with the prophets, it is not too late for the remnant of God’s people to return to faithfullness:

Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.  Amos 5:15

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:                                                            

After the Party and A Pathway Through the Darkness

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

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[1] See Acts 2:1-4

[2] See Revelation 8:7 & 16:9

Speaking in Tongues; Lesson from a Paralyzed Shih Tzu

 

Monday, January 24, 2022

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.  Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.  Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.  And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.  Acts 2:1-4

This is our resident human manager, Wellie.  You can understand Wellie’s language…if you’re listening.  His bark and stare are both loud and piercing.  His eyes stare a laser-hole right through you; it bellows and slashes-out messages: 

·       are you not wearing your hearing aids, Russell, boy…or are you just plain dumb?  I want to eat NOW…not 4 minutes from now. 

·       Hey, human…put me up on that chair…NOW.

·       I KNOW there are treats in your pocket…they belong to ME!

At times Wellie “says” things with those eyes which I don’t quite understand.  He gets a little louder at those times.  This past week I finally began to understand some of what Wellie has been trying to teach me.  When he wants something, he exhibits the most persistence I’ve ever seen.  He can be irritating to an impatient human, who would rather have quiet for his reading and study.  He’s not the “cuddly” sort of hound, unless he’s been fed (enough), and would sleep it off hanging upside-down in a windstorm at the North Pole.  Sometimes, when he’s calm, he’ll even let you pet him, or scratch his itch under the chin…just a little further up, and over to the left, please.  Sometimes an insistent bark is not about food; it’s a warning to get him to the outside business area before it’s too late. 

We’ve had to learn a whole new set of dog language; Wellie’s back legs don’t work much, so his needs push us in different ways than having a pet who can fend for himself.  The language of an old, partially-paralyzed Shih Tzu has Biblical implications for the family of God.

The people that heard the disciples speaking in tongues that first Pentecost Day didn’t get what was being said, they simply figured the disciples were drunk.  Like humans trying to take care of a disabled Shih Tzu, they were missing something about what God had been saying to them for ages.  The message was this:

No matter the differences between you and the next guy, the fact that I love both of you, should tell you I want you to love each other, get along, and stop figuring-out ways to control each other; just do what’s best for the other guy!

Wellie’s been trying to get through to his dense caretaker for nearly 7 years now.  And while I’ve learned a lot about what he’s telling me, I realize, when it comes to speaking in Shih Tzu language, I’ve still got much to learn.  And that realization is 99% of the work of developing patience with the differences between us.

For You Today

In the human family, we have just as many communication-fails as when you try to understand Shih Tzu-ese.  But when you develop a little patience with each other, the joy of the journey comes back.

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

[1] Title and Other Images: Russell Brownworth (own work)   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind Forgive Our Foolish Ways

Friday, May 30, 2014

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’  But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’   Acts 2:1-4, 12-13 (NRSV)

In 1872 John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem entitled “The Brewing of Soma”.  Whittier was disturbed by the early Methodists, and their “noisy and hysterical camp meetings and revivals.  The first 11 (of 17) stanzas …describe in vivid images and compelling metaphors the rites of the priests of Indra [who] had brewed from honey and milk a ‘drink of the gods’ which when drunk by the worshipers produced a frenzy, a sacred madness, and ecstatic storm of drunken joy, the beginning of a ‘new, glad life’.[1]  

Some would describe that as shameful behavior, public group inebriation, something of a fraternity or sorority back to school orgy/party.  Some might describe it as Pentecost.

While Whittier may have been appalled by the early Methodists’ enthusiastic, ecstatic worship, the latter verses of his poem became one of Christendom’s most revered (and currently ignored) hymns. 

It is also good theology for our times…(no wonder it’s ignored):

    Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

    Forgive our foolish ways;

    Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

    In purer lives Thy service find,

    In deeper reverence, praise.

    Breathe through the heats of our desire

    Thy coolness and Thy balm;

    Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

    Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

    O still, small voice of calm. 

    O still, small voice of calm.

“Reclothe us in our rightful mind….Still, small voice of calm” – we could use some cool heads and faithful hearts in government, families and religious organizations/pulpits.

For You, Today…

Try to get some moments today when you’re apart from the buzz and frenzy of life in the fast lane. 

Listen for the still small voice; it (He) has been known to save many a believer from foolish ways.

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[1] Carlton R. Young, Companion To the United Methodist Hymnal, (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1993), p.317