The Faith of an...OUTSIDER

 

Friday, August 21, 2026

When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.  Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.” Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”  He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!” He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”  “Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment her daughter was healed.  Matthew 15:21-28^(CSB)

I know what it’s like to be an outsider, looking in.  As a young man I dated a beautiful girl in my high school class.  Her family was of Italian descent, and it was large.  Her mother was the oldest of 13 children!  THIRTEEN!  My family was miniscule by comparison.  Even I the 1960’s ethnic lines were important.  I later compounded my crossing of those lines by marrying that beautiful girl…in a Methodist church!  I eventually confirmed every doubt and fear held by her family that an outsider had stolen an Italian princess by moving our little “mixed” family a thousand miles away to the strange land of rural Florida, and joining a Baptist Church…light years removed from the religious tradition of my bride’s heritage, which was connected to the Vatican in Rome.

I can identify closely with the Gentile woman who approached the Jewish rabbi, Jesus; it was more than awkward; in Jewish culture it was an affront to every accepted and deeply held rule of propriety.  Likewise, in 1965, New York Italian girls did not bring non-Italian boys home to meet the family!  If they did, there was that risk of being branded with a Scarlet Letter.  (There was also some not so tongue-in-cheek tales told of non-Italian boys disappearing…something about trunks of big black cars and cement shoes).

Needless to say, I always felt like something of an oddity on display at Elizabeth’s family gatherings; kind of Ripley’s Believe-it-or-Not non-Roman freak show.  Elizabeth’s cousins were like Jesus’ disciples encouraging Him to send the Gentile woman away; she just didn’t belong!

What is an Outsider to do?

Well, like the woman Matthew (the tax-collecting Jew/outsider extreme) wrote about this Gentile woman…keep the faith and press-on!

For You Today

So, are you living the “outsider life”?  Maybe this postscript of my experience with outsider-ship will help.  My move wasn’t just a thousand miles away, it brought me to a calling, into the pulpit.  Twenty years later, as Elizabeth’s mother, Sofie, lay dying, it was the outsider she called to her bedside.  She wanted me to read Scripture to her and pray for her…and share comforting words of faith and hope. 

Sometimes, when faith in Christ is held dearer than the next breath, an outsider will find himself at the table with much more than crumbs!

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

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors  and Heart Image by DesignByDessie

[1] Title Image by Daniel R from PixabayUnless noted, Scripture quoted from Christian Standard Bible^©    

Out of the Darkness

 

When we leave the womb, we begin to face the possibility of isolation, being alone, abandoned.  And, not being created for aloneness, it troubles us.  There have been a number of times in my life, (and it still happens occasionally), that the aloneness of that small and vulnerable newborn child, just out of the mother’s womb, rises up in my soul and proclaims the profoundness of the deep darkness that surrounds and would swallow me up!

How does it happen, that darkness?  It generally comes (at least in my life) when I am isolated, and the memories of other aloneness or rejection haunts my thoughts.  I haven’t been hunted by a deranged king whose army has been given orders to capture or kill me like King Saul after David, the shepherd boy[1].  However, I have had people angry at me, and a few who would have rejoiced if I’d never been born.  But even simple conflict (what we would call “drama” these days), is enough to bring the darkness close and threatening.  It is at times like that I need the comfort of leaving the darkness behind and rejoining the light of God’s goodness.  When it comes to chasing the darkness away, there’s no better choice than the One who is the Author of light – Jesus!

If you recall last Friday’s three important questions in life…Where did I come from, What is my purpose here, and Where am I going…here are all three in a nutshell.  In the days leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion He taught his disciples the profound truth about where He came from, what His mission (purpose) was, and where He was going, and would take those who believe with Him.  He was (and IS) the light, and will lead us out of darkness every time!

Jesus cried out, “The one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.  And the one who sees me sees him who sent me.  I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.  John 12:44-46 ^(CSB)

Did you catch that last phrase about believing in Him and NOT remaining in darkness?  Did it roll around your mind like a healing ointment of calm joy?  That’s what truly worshipping God brings.  Jesus responds to those who worship His Father, the one true, living God, by throwing a floodlight over the gloom of darkness.  And a light soul cannot be engulfed by darkness. 

As the people of God offer genuine, heart-felt worship, darkness is dispelled, chased from our lives.  That is why whenever you don’t feel like coming to church on a given Sunday…and you go anyway…when you leave church that day there is a general sense of lightness; you feel better for having attended – glad you went!  Darkness had to leave when you emptied yourself in the presence of the ONE Who IS light!

For You Today

If there are circumstances on your horizon that threaten dark days, don’t forget where the light is found; He wants to light up your world!

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

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^©   

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[1]Read the entire fascinating story in 1 Samuel – Chapters 18-26

Searching for JOY - Part 3

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.  Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.  And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.  Philippians 1:3-6

There’s a question that must be answered before leaving all the “Mudville” stuff:

Who are the most joyful people?

It stands to reason that believers who practice their faith would be the most joyful.  As participating partners in the faith we share together the mystery and splendor of the gospel ... and that produces some things:

JOY OF PURPOSE

Paul called himself a servant.  The word literally means “slave”.  That doesn’t sound too joyful, but in ancient times a servant could come and go as he pleased, within certain limits.  A slave, however, was a lifetime property of his master.  Paul humbly addressed himself as a slave of Jesus Christ. 

It takes a great deal of humility to enslave yourself to another.  What can make a person do something like that?  Paul sensed that being In Christ was greater than anything else life offered.  Paul was a "mainstream mover and shaker" of the highest order!  Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he discovered all that self stuff was empty – empty – empty!  Paul had been climbing social, political, and personal ladders, but compared to the loveliness of Christ, all that personal fulfillment stuff paled, lost its attractiveness, and faded into oblivion. 

Paul used the phrase In Christ or In the Lord some 150 times in his epistles.  Much like a fish lives in water, Paul could feel the close, comforting, compelling presence of Jesus in every waking moment.  Paul had given himself over to the cause of Christ – it had become his purpose.  There is something unique and joyful about people who are driven from within, in a noble cause that is from above. 

In the novel, The Man Who Lost Himself^[1] a detective is trailing a man in Paris.  He wants to know if the man he was after stopped at a certain hotel.  He went to the clerk at the desk and gave his own name, asking if he was there.  He knew he wasn't registered; he wanted to have the clerk search the register so he could peek!  But, to his surprise, the clerk looked up and said, Yes, he has been looking for you.  He's in room #40; I'll have you shown right up.  What could the detective do?  He followed the clerk to the room, whereupon opening the door, the man came face to face with another man who looked remarkably like himself, just 20 years older.

The story behind that story is that there is a person out there whom you must face someday.  It is the person you're becoming.  How is that happening?  The purpose to which you give yourself will define the person you will become.  Paul gave himself to Christ as Lord and Master – slave for life! 

For You Today 

The spiritual principle is that the slave will do the Master's will, and in the doing, become like the Master.  In Christ, Paul's life was purpose-filled, purposeful; he called it the joy set before him.  A partnership in the gospel gives joy of purpose.  Tomorrow we will look past purpose to peace and prayer.

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 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^©  

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[1]Sitwell, Osbert, THE MAN WHO LOST HIMSELF, (St Clair Shores, Mich, Scholarly Press, 1971)

Searching for JOY - Part 2

Monday, June 26, 2023

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.  Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.  And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.      Philippians 1:3-6

We ended yesterday’s thoughts with the question:  Can you really experience joy?  We can all probably agree on the definition of joy; the main question is:  what produces it, and how can we have joy in our everyday life, continuously? 

I want to show you two realities about joy – first, the characteristics of our contemporary culture’s stab at joy; then, tomorrow – the Apostle Paul’s thinking. 

Culture Characteristic #1 – We are ALONE

Philosopher Thomas Wolfe said, Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.^[1]  In the contemporary scene we are isolated behind our air-conditioned walls, transfixed moth-to-light-like, to our blaring computer games on Smartphones and DVD players; we are protected from interruption by our straight-to-voicemail.  Isolated from, and insulated against human touch, we find out about ourselves from the nightly news.  And the news is lonely!  There's little joy in that Mudville.

Culture Characteristic #2. We are ASSERTIVE

From the first stamping of little, two-year-old feet that don't want to go where mother said, to the constant mashing of the horn buttons on freeways, assertiveness is the America we've come to know and despise.

 Sacrifice and service have become foreign words in America; corporate raids and takeovers make billions, and no longer does it matter what happens to the person on the assembly line, or the family having to stand in line for a handout.

Culture Characteristic #3. We are AMBIVALENT

Ambivalence is a strange development for a land of such passionate beginnings.  America was born in the hearts of people with fire in their bellies.  There was a sense of right and wrong; of good and evil.  Today’s culture is as dependent upon the direction of the prevailing winds, as on any code of morals or values.  A newspaper columnist pointed out how this slide towards ambivalence has made us a nation of orphans where child-guidance is concerned:

We are infinitely more comfortable dealing with each other in the gray vastness of 'how does it feel for you?' than in terms of right and wrong.  One look at the status of our children and we know that what we are doing isn't working.  Children need right and wrong.^[2]

One of the reasons our children take drugs, take little interest in life, and take other students’ lives is that they see no firmness of commitment to an ethic, ideals, or to each other.  Options dominate our thinking. 

·       If I don't like this circumstance I'll change it. 

·       If I can't change it I'll go elsewhere, where it feels better to me. 

I like you alright, but if you do something that displeases me I just might 'option you out' with a .357 magnum – or a divorce -- or an abortion – or some cocaine – or even just a glance.  Hey!  I can take you or leave you, dude! 

For You Today 

Alone…Assertive…and Ambivalent is our culture.  But we were created for better than that; we are hard-wired for community and its’ blessing…more tomorrow.

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 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^©  

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[1] Thinkexist.com

[2]Edwards, Drew, Article, VIEWPOINT, (Jacksonville, Fl, The Florida Times-Union, Oct 3,1992)

 

Echoes of the Abandoned

Dear friends.  In case you've been wondering, last week was a vacation.  Not really...cannot say that about COVID.  It was time away from doing what I love, studying, praying, preaching, and in some/many ways sharing God's love.  Thank you for your patience and prayer.  

We now resume our regularly scheduled Rocky Road interference with the complacent life. 

Monday, December 12, 2022

Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!  Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you—even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar.  I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.  But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.  “O God my rock,” I cry, “Why have you forgotten me?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?”  Their taunts break my bones.  They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”  Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!  Psalm 42:5-11

Six times in seven verses the Psalmist uses that piercing interrogative:  WHY? There aren’t many humans who don’t go there; many live there.  We want to know why we must suffer; the question suggests a tone of intimating God may be at fault for this injustice…Me?  ME? of all people, ME?  It’s like a raging child flinging an I HATE YOU to the parent because he’s been sent to his room.  It’s odd, isn’t it, being banished to a cheerfully-decorated suite with tech-toys, computer, personal phone, and cable-loaded Smart-TV, and imagining you’re a victim of a Siberian death sentence. 

The redeeming turn of the writer’s tone is found in both the first and last verses.  Twice in this Psalm we hear:  I will put my hope in God.  In all Biblical-era literature, and many modern genres, repetition means it’s important; it means pay attention – THIS is BIG STUFF!

To put hope in something, or someone, is to trust.  Hoping in God is the opposite of blaming God.  It is placing your full trust in His wisdom.  It is not a careless abandonment of your free will – rather, it is a considered choice to lay down the defensive victim-claiming, in favor of picking up holy hands to praise the One who created you…never doubting, even when fearing, that you acknowledge He alone is the answer, because He alone, is truly your redemption.

There are two ways (at least) to read this Psalm. 

·       The first is the blame game, with that tone that says: 

“God, what are you thinking with all this YOU are letting happen to me?” 

·       The second way is with the explanatory interrogative: 

“Father God, some people are asking why I suffer, and I want them all to know, I’m placing every egg I’ve got, my whole future, in Your basket, God, no matter what may come.”

For You Today  

It’s easy to go for the woe, despair, and agony on me choice #1 of blaming God.  Being a victim is so easy and acceptable in today’s culture.  Make your pain sound grotesque enough, and you’ll get a settlement in somebody’s court. 

For a believer, that’s nonsense.  We are not victims, no matter what the world may label us, do to us, or what any of the world’s big shots say about us.  We are, as Paul declared more than conquerors, held securely in the love and favor of the Father’s hands.[1]  We are never abandoned!

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: 

       Afraid to Die   and   An Okra Kind of Christmas

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^©  

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[1] See Romans 8:35-39

Forgotten

[1]

Friday, December 29, 2017

Sing for joy, O heavens!  Rejoice, O earth!  Burst into song, O mountains!  For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their suffering.  Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.”  “Never!  Can a mother forget her nursing child?  Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?  But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!” 

Isaiah 49:13-15^(NLT)

When our family gets together there are (by actual count) more than a dozen IPhones on the loose.  And when we’re trying to coordinate four households showing up at a theme park at the same time, in the same sector of a huge parking lot…well, let’s say the texting wars sound like the bell-ringers have arrived!  Someone will do a “fat-finger” goof, so OTW (On-the-way) becomes OTB, and the translation puns start to pile-on:

Ding…OTB – you On-The-Beach?

Ding…OTB – I didn’t know you were into Off-Track-Betting J

Ding…OTB – Where-r- you parked…Omaha-Transportation-Booth?  

It happened again this week, although I’m happy to say there were no death-threats this time.  But when I went to delete the whole thread there were 168 texts; I’m surprised there were no death threats, especially from me!

The whole point of sharing this is, with today’s abundance of communication tools, there’s no place to hide.  And nobody gets left out.  And that’s a good thing for a family, because there are so many ways to feel left out, left behind, or forgotten!

Israel felt that way, collectively-forgotten in a strange land.  The Babylonian captivity was like being forgotten in back of the tool shed for decades.  Every never-ending day drags-on like someone forgot to wind the clock and nobody cares whether you’re alive or dead.  There is no slower time than time-out; just ask a six-year old who has sinned egregiously by kicking his Dad in the shin because he doesn’t like carrots, and he’d rather be outside playing, but has to stay at the table until he at least tastes the hated veggie.

The nation of Israel had sinned a lot worse than that.  They collectively had forgotten their covenant with God and had fallen into idol worship.  When God sent prophets to warn them to either turn back, or prepare to suffer the consequences, the prophets were ignored, or, even worse, the prophets were killed.  The subsequent overwhelming judgment God sent was at the hand of Babylon’s King, Nebuchadnezzar, and lasted for 70 years.  It was easy to feel they had been forgotten by God.

But punishment is never to be confused with being discarded.  God had not forgotten His beloved Israel, the jewel of His covenant.  They were being purified, cleansed, and straightened-out, not discarded. 

It’s called discipline:

Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.  Deuteronomy 8:5^(NLT)

For You Today

If you’ve been through a time when you felt forgotten by God, know that discipline doesn’t last forever; the perfect loving embrace of God awaits those who repent and turn to their father…even if you’ve kicked Him in the shins!

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 Pixabay.com