An Angry World

 

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Why are the nations so angry?  Psalm 2:1

My mother was not a person prone to anger.  I can only recall seeing her lose it one time, when my dog ate the ingredients for a cake she was going to make for an upcoming birthday.  He only ate the sugar, frosting, and butter; he spread the flour all around the kitchen…every nook and cranny; it was the Pillsbury cloud! Come to think of it, that was also the time I heard the only cuss word ever to drop from her lips!  She chased my dog around the house with that big wooden spoon.  She never caught him…probably a good thing; if she had caught-up with the beast it might have completed the deadly sins triple-crown: anger, cussing, and murder!

The decades which followed World War II were, for me, was what it was like to live in Andy Griffith’s world, with Aunt Bea, Barney Fife, Gomer Pile, and Opie.  My summer days were spent exploring Miller’s woods, playing with frogs, and swimming at Stump Pond with the snapping turtles.  We rode bikes, and played “cowboys and Indians”.

That childhood is a fond memory, but it was not perfect.  We also had the threat of nuclear bombs dropping on us, drills in school; when that burst of bells rang, we all scrambled to see who could be first to get under our desks.  (To this day I still wonder who thought that up…a child’s wooden desk as protection from a nuclear blast?)

Interpersonal relationships were light years different than currently.  If a boy got a little flustered and dropped a “bad word” (anything stronger than darn), especially in front of a girl child or two, culture demanded an immediate apology.  Sex was only mentioned in school while dissecting frogs in Science class.  The internet of today may have developed its’ lightning-fast information-sharing from the way inappropriate behavior at school reached a child’s mother and dad before you got off the bus that afternoon.

As gentle and non-violent as my Mom was 99.99% of the days of her life, she would have stood out like a sore thumb in today’s culture.  Today’s foulness of language and angry in-your-face, stay-out-of-my-space, while I act out my sexual preferences for all the world to see on Instagram and Face Book, is the perfect medium for developing the attitude that, no suppressed wish to grab a gun and obliterate those who have angered you, will go unchecked.  The tantrum of an undeveloped sense of self-control is punctuated by the sound of semi-automatic gunfire.  And the weeping of Godly-grieving over this angry world is faintly heard from above.

For You Today  

Grieving the loss of what once was…even if that grief is somewhat biased by the rose-colored glasses of an old man’s memory of a so-called better day…is not to suggest we have nothing to which we can look forward.  Rather it just gives the appropriate frame for what God has promised.  To do that, let’s let apostle Paul have today’s last word, about the good that is coming, which will dispel the darkness of harsh times of anger in this world in which we live.  Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers:

…we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.  First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

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: 

Advice for the Mighty  and  Now Then, You Kings, Act Wisely  and  Short Fuse  and So Much Anger 

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^©   

Years Ago - This Year

 

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Isaiah 44:1-5

“But now, listen to me, Jacob my servant, Israel my chosen one.  The Lord who made you and helps you says:  Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, O dear Israel, my chosen one.  For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields.  And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.  They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.  Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to the Lord.’  Others will say, ‘I am a descendant of Jacob.’  Some will write the Lord’s name on their hands and will take the name of Israel as their own.”

Seven years ago my bride and I were blessed to purchase the first brand new car we’d had in 30 years.  I’d forgotten what that new car smell was like!  Our daughter gave us a set of white fuzzy dice as a funny reminder of the 1950’s fashion statement.  Back then, anybody who was cool had fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror.  Back then, we watched Andy, Barney, Aunt Bea, and Opie on TV; today, we hang our facemasks on the car mirror

The words of Father God through the prophet Isaiah are like soothing balm on sunburn-scorched skin.  It proves one thing, even God’s people are in need of reassurance.  It’s not that we have lost faith today (as opposed to yesterday’s strong connection), but, rather, today the circumstances have changed, and an assault on our faith questions that connection.  It’s normal to run to your parent in times of crisis, or when you’ve been in a struggle.  We see that over and over in the Psalms, David wants to reach out and feel the embrace of his Heavenly Father.  Job, a man of intense faith and Godliness, constantly asks for clarification on the why of his troubles.  Jonah, the “disobedient prophet” tries to hide from his detestable calling from God of bringing the message of blessing to the despised Ninevites. 

When we look around, perhaps especially today, and see anger, protests, division, and hatred, it is more than mildly discomforting; it’s scary!  And we need God’s comforting voice telling us He is with us, and it will be alright.

As a pastor, just one of many thousands of pastors, I am always concerned about how the church is doing, and if we’re doing enough to pass along the faith to the next generation, who will take the reins and help steer the wagon for the generation that comes after theirs.  I don’t think you can be a pastor without that concern.

I first felt that concern as young man, seeing firsthand the results of the God is Dead movement, where the prevailing thought was that God, if ever such a being really existed, must now be dead, and we are on our own in this universe.  Among ministers and the faithful was a deep concern that the church could not survive such an onslaught of unbelief.  The wave of people leaving the church, particularly young people, the so-called future of the church, was astounding.  However, throughout the last half-century, the church has not only endured, it has matured, and changed, and adapted, and ministered, and grown.  In short, the church is still the church, God’s church, His witness, His special creation, and loved family.

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, we’re no different than Israel in Isaiah’s day.  We need Your comfort and blessing.  Abba, in Your mercy…

For You Today

The church, throughout the centuries has seen culture change, rearrange, come unglued, reassembled, knocked to its knees, and get up again.  The church has been there every step of the way because God said so. 

The church you knew in your youth isn’t gone, but today it doesn’t look like you remember it, or like you think it should look.  Rather, it looks like what God is moving it to be.  Our best hope of being faithful to God’s purpose and design is to continually fast, pray, and cooperate with God by serving others.  That is the one constant and calling of those who claim the faith, once delivered to the saints[1]. 

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 another post on this text:  God's Election

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[1] Jude 1:3