Living As People of Light

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.  He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.  Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you.  Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God.  For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.  Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.  Don’t participate in the things these people do.  For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord.  So live as people of light!  For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.  Ephesians 5:1-9

Apostle Paul begins this part of his letter to the believers at Ephesus with:

·       what to do (imitating God),

·       with the middle part telling us how to do it (thankfulness to God instead of self-centered obscenity),

·       and he ends it by pointing to:  what that will make of us (people of light, shining as good, right, and true.

Considering the culture in which we find ourselves in the 21^st Century, this passage would be a great one to memorize.  We live in a “coarse” society.  The word means rough, uneven, or raw.  That means we live in a hard place to navigate.  Waters like that produce sunken ships, and tragedy. 

The news (whether biased, or straight-up) screams loudly that Paul was talking about days like we now experience.  Prolonged times like this produce children who have little respect for authority.  And that is largely because they see very little worthy of admiration.  Sometimes it becomes obvious that children who are obnoxious and selfish are (at least) just acting out their natural inclination to rebel against what is not worthy of following. 

One of my friends was very fond of this saying about parenting techniques:  Your children’s learning will be more caught than taught.  You may be familiar with that if you have raised, or are raising kids; you can talk to them till you’re blue-in-the-face, but what they really learn is what they see in your actions. 

So the Apostle was getting at what we all need to learn…telling your children what to do isn’t the same as showing them how you do it.  It hardly needs saying, but do as I say…not as I do is the kind of hypocrisy children can sniff-out in a New York minute…and the smell of it ain’t pretty!  The year I turned 30 I was smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day.  Public service announcements were just starting to ramp-up then, about how dangerous tobacco was for your health.  I quit that year because I noticed my five-year-old son walking around with a pencil in his hand, imitating Daddy’s habit.

Imitating God (as Paul states it) isn’t about playing God.  Rather, it’s about becoming like Jesus, unselfish, willing to sacrifice for the good of others.  This is the textbook definition of Agape’, God’s covenant love…doing the best for others unconditionally.  Without that we cannot live in the light, shining as goodness and truth; we remain in darkness.

For You Today 

So, whether this means you need to work on cleaning-up some habits, changing some attitudes, or whatever, remember that there are little eyes watching you, learning from you; lead them well.

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 library. 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Morning Prayer

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Your laws are wonderful.  No wonder I obey them!  The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.  I pant with expectation, longing for your commands.  Come and show me your mercy, as you do for all who love your name.  Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.  Psalm 119:129-133

Laws are meant to be broken!  So goes the twisted thinking of the outlaw.  Yet, those who perceive themeselves as uniquely qualified to judge the laws of God and man do not realize (or perhaps they do not care) that by ignoring how the Sovereign Lord has designed life to be a blessing, they are storing up misery for themselves, and anyone who will follow their lead.  Jesus, speaking to religious leaders who were largely hypocritical imposters, said they looked like big shots, parading around in their expensive robes, but on the inside they were lawbreakers; their hearts were set on their own will, not God’s:

 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Matthew 23:28

The “law” the Psalmist characterized as “wonderful” was what we commonly call the Ten Commandments[1].  What makes them so wonderful is the power they contain to make life wonderful and a blessing to all who live within their parameters.  Consider the outcome when we live God’s way:

1.    No other gods – Life is better with focus…not a thousand different gods.

2.    Worship God, not what He has created – again focus…worship only God.

3.    Keep God’s name holy – think of life without Hollywood’s profanity!

4.    Sabbath reserved for worship – we often forget important stuff.  A routine that includes worship guards against slipping-away from good living.

5.    Honor father & mother – what you do is what you’ll also receive…honor.

6.    Do not murder – would our lives be better off with less homicide?

7.    Do not commit adultery – wouldn’t trust be better than constant suspicion?

8.    Do not steal – would life be better if we could do without locks on things?

9.    No false witness – if truth reigned, the courts would be empty.

10. No greed for what’s not yours – would life be simpler if we were people of glad contentment – both for what we have, and glad for what our neighbor has worked for?

Now that’s the short list of benefit tracks that could make life much sweeter.  There could be volumes written on all the side benefits associated with living like God designed it.  But the chief benefit of all is being able to approach God at any time of day with confidence that your prayers will be heard with Heaven’s favor.  The value of having an up-to-the-minute relationship with the King of the Universe is eternal joy.  Knowing He loves you is wonderful, but sensing His presence, because your heart is clean before Him is abundance in all that makes life worthwhile. 

For You Today 

My morning prayer, every morning tracks with the Psalmist’s thought:

Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.

I want that more than life itself. 

If in this moment it was possible for you to have a house valued at $5-million, and a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, $3-billion in the bank, and be elected President of the United States – OR an up-to-the-minute, intimate friendship with God, which would you choose?

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^©  

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[1] Exodus 20:1-17

From WHAT to WHY and EVERYTHING In-Between

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones.  Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.  Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh.  The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh!  The Lord!  The God of compassion and mercy!  I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.  I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.  I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.  But I do not excuse the guilty.  I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.  Exodus 34:4-7

There is a statement which, in essence, is deeply-ingrained in American culture, and is unquestionably anti-Christian.  It uncovers just how far we can drop from the tree of faith.  The statement (or its equivalent) is thus:

Nobody can tell me what to do; it’s MY life.

There are two responses to that statement which make it a logical non sequitur:

     1.    Your life would be yours alone if you didn’t belong to someone else.

     2.    Your life’s actions would have no consequences if the One who owns you didn’t connect you to everyone else, including your family tree.

The first response comes from the unquestionable fact that you didn’t create yourself.  Your parents had a hand in things, but it was God who formed you in the womb, and breathed the breath of a soul into your bones.  God said so in his meeting with Moses…Yahweh…the LORD; He is the Creator/Owner of all.

The second response is about consequences of what we do, which Yahweh also covered in the agenda with Moses.  The “document” he chiseled in stone covered the basic details of human behavior.  We call it the Ten Commandments; we venerate them, and, to a person, violate them.  And when we transgress those we set up misery for those who follow, even to the third and fourth generation.

Of course there is a positive side to view in this.  When we are obedient to God’s ways, we set up blessing to the generations that follow.  However, adopting the current culture’s mindset of I’m the only one that matters…I’ll do what I want, is hardly a formula for blessing.  Suppose that “what I want” is to become an alcoholic-addicted bank robber?  Think of the tentacles that reach into the wake of your actions for the many humans of the world’s population.  And imagine your children (and theirs) living with the fallout from that heritage of your behavior. 

When it comes to communicating a message of God’s love and our responsibility to respond with Godly living, people want to know why they should be subjected to living within so many rules.  Well, you have questions, and you want answers; God, the Sovereign Lord of the universe and all it holds has those answers, from the WHAT, to the WHY, and EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN!

For You Today 

Do you remember what your father or mother (or both) said to you when you asked the why question as a little child?  They said:  Because I said so.

You didn’t like that…it wasn’t enough.  Now you understand…they were only repeating what God said.  He said to Moses, and all of us:  That stuff I wrote on those stone tablets…you do it…because I AM said so.

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.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Trivial Pursuit  and  Rats      

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Hands Off!

 

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things.  And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.  But he said, “No, don’t worship me.  I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book. Worship only God!”  Then he instructed me, “Do not seal up the prophetic words in this book, for the time is near.  Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm; let the one who is vile continue to be vile; let the one who is righteous continue to live righteously; let the one who is holy continue to be holy.”  “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”  Revelation 22:8-13

Much of what the angel said to John was prohibitive; it was hands-off!  We can easily understand the admonition to not-worship an angel.  God has told us He is the only One worthy of worship in the universe.  The other word of prohibition to John is about the words of prophecy in God’s book.  John is not to seal them up, because the time is ripe to allow it free access to all people.  But there is an unspoken (but implied) third prohibition, stated inversely.  The angel tells John to let the Word have it’s way with evil…and for John (and by extension all believers) to not compel others to do right, rather to let free will run its’ course.

This third injunction makes it clear that believers are missing the mark of compliance with God’s will when trying to coerce behavior.  In my lifetime the growth of government regulation has gone off the chart.  The latest wave is the wokeness generation’s compelling so-called righteous behavior.  If you don’t toe the line, you’re ghosted…exiled to the land of foolishness…a non-entity.

Marching against “wokeness” are some rather well-meaning, but ill-advised people, who want control of the government so they can correct all the nonsense.  You can see it in the push to assimilate political power in the name of righteousness.  You can see it in the infamous January 6^th invasion of the Capitol.  You can see it in the indignation of believers who want to punish wrongdoers severely, but can’t keep their own house in order.  Well-known and popular Christian leaders who couldn’t see past the glitter of power-grabbing, spearheaded the presidential campaigns in 2016 to gain control of the White House and Senate. 

There is a well-known saying, little heeded or even acknowledged these days, which offers the same kind of advice about all that, which the angel offered John:

When the church gets in bed with the government,

it isn’t the government that loses power.

The church’s real power is in prayer and the example of Christ, lovely, sacrificial, respect for all, with joy, unspeakable, and full of glory.[1] 

As the angel told John, God will do the judging and correcting soon.  The Alpha and Omega is better at it than any of us.  For now, hands-off the judge’s gavel.

For You Today  

It is a good thing to want to do something, instead of just standing by.  Today would be a good day to look around:  you’ll have no problem finding someone who is hurting for lack of food, clothing, a place to live, or a friend.  Then, do what’s natural for a child of the King…be a blessing.

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: 

       Morning Star   and   Overwhelmed

Images: Title image 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] 1 Peter 1:8

Hearing, Learning, & Loving

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.  When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ.  When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law.  Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.  When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ.  But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.  When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ.  Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.  I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.                                      1 Corinthians 9:19-23

The WHY of apostle Paul’s living a somewhat chameleon-like life, blending-in with every sort of different person, nationality, or social status, was his learned ability to love.  It was so important to Paul to treat others with an open, loving heart, he virtually gave himself to others, so that he would have the opportunity to introduce them to Christ. 

Paul changed; he was no longer a fire-breathing zealot on a crusade to destroy everything related to Jesus Christ.[1]  In place of the old Saul, there was now the new, loving Paul who would literally give his life to bring others to Christ.[2]  Why the shift?  Jesus confronted Paul in the middle of his holacaust work of destroying the church, and taught him to love, because he was loved.  In the process, Paul couldn’t get enough of loving others.  Real Christianity is contagious!

Finding common ground with others is how you learn to love the unlovable.  You cannot do that when you’re unwilling to hear others with the receptive ear that helps you learn who they are, underneath, in their being, and understanding what wakes them up in the middle of the night with the cold sweats.  If you’re serious about sharing the love of Christ, that someone else might know Christ, and find eternal life, you cannot engage in screaming matches, or massive campaigns to exclude people from your life.  In short, you just can’t be afraid of others who are different…you must hear them, and understand them, so you can love them.

There’s an old idea that just doesn’t ring true for me, that dogs will chase cats because dogs hate cats.  Well, my daughter’s pets didn’t get that memo.  Boomer, the huge Mastiff, has gotten quite used to Carrie’s feline borders, Smith & Wesson.  In the picture you see just how close a 100-pound Mastiff can relate to a 7-pound kitty he could have for lunch.  It wasn’t always that way.  Whenever Boomer came into a room, Wesson used to run for the nearest place the hound couldn’t reach.  Little by little that changed.  Now they even play together.  Somewhere along the line, they began hearing each other out…listening, and learning…and now loving.   

Boomer is still a dog…a big, drooling mess of a mush, incapable of not being loved.  Wesson is still a mischievous feline, climbing-on anything high, jumping-off anything dangerously placed, and squeezing-in any tight spot (especially if there’s a slight trace of food to be had).  Neither of them have changed species; but now they play together…and they’re both the better for it.

For You Today

Learn Paul, Boomer, and Wesson’s lessons…listen, learn, love – and play nice!

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: 

Living in a Dumpster and When Tolerance Grows Up into Spiritual Maturity

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

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[1] See Acts 9

[2] See Romans 9:3

Navigating Life's Tricky Journey

 

Thursday, June 2, 2022

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.  And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.  These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.  But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.  When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear:  sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Galatians 5:16-25

The Apostle Paul’s logic is inescapable; those who truly belong to Christ live like it, while those who do not belong to Him travel a different path.  And any way you care to plot this on a graph, survey, study, or equation, both paths are the result, NOT causative.  If living like a Christian is how you become a Christian, then the pop-psychology of fake-it-til-you-make-it works. 

But that’s just not Biblical.  Paul also said that clearly:

God saved you by his grace when you believed.  And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  Ephesians 2:8-9

So the case Paul makes between Galatians and Ephesians is that we become (or start) our Christian life when we believe.  God’s grace accepts our confession of Christ as Savior and Lord; by His grace we are knit-into the fabric of Christ’s body, the church, and it is akin to becoming a soldier; you’ve begun training, but you’re not perfectly skilled in the art of battle.  You’re learning how to live authentically Christian…following Christ.  You’re also stumbling at times, giving place to anger, selfishness, lust, and more.  But, thankfully, there are those other times when you listen to the Spirit dwelling within you, and you live in love, joy, peace, gentleness…the self-control of one who has chosen the path of the Master. 

All this points to the reality that life was always going to be a struggle.  Paul understood this better than anyone:

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  I love God’s law with all my heart.  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind.  This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.  Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So you see how it is:  In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  Romans 7:21-25

For You Today

The journey of a believer can be tricky.  Just when we think we’ve become immune to Satan’s false leading we get blindsided by the old nature, and sin begins chipping away at our progress.  The Apostle knew he wasn’t perfect; he messed up with exceedingly poor choices, and some vile attitudes.  He also was humble enough to write it down for our sakes. 

If you’ve stumbled, don’t give up…give in to Christ’s forgiveness and strength.

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

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