Child Of the King

 

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:1-9

My bride, Elizabeth and I were having a conversation the other day, reviewing the blessings of our life.  I happened to let a personalized version of Psalm 8 leak out of my brain, which tumbled out of my mouth.  I said:  I often think it just doesn’t make sense…what’s so special about me that God has showered so many blessings on my life? 

As soon as I heard what I was saying, the floodgate of thoughts burst through the control panels at the dam; it really isn’t that I’m that special, but there is a God Who IS special, indescribable, loving, and willing to lavish life and strength on those He claims as His own.  It’s nothing I have done (or refrained from doing), it just goes along with the territory of being his kid. 

The song I heard many years ago by Bill Gaither’s group remains married (in my brain) to this thought of Psalm 8:

Once I was clothed in the rags of my sin

Wretched and poor, lost and lonely within

But with wondrous compassion, the King of all kings

In pity and love, took me under His wings

Oh, yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the King

His royal blood now flows in my veins

And I who was wretched and poor now can sing

Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the King[1]

So the answer to that age-old question of the Psalmist about why God would even think about humankind, let-alone bathe us in showers of blessing, is simple, as well as amazing and humbling:  What king wouldn’t love and bless His child?

For You Today 

If you cannot sing along with Gaither that His royal blood now flows in my veins, because you’ve never invited His Son, Jesus, to be your brother, you can do that this very moment.  It is the best, and only thing God has ever been waiting for you to do…He loves you that much!

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 explore some of these:  Wondering About the Big Stuff - Part 1  and Wondering About the Big Stuff - Part 2 

Title Image: Pietro da Cortona, via Wikimedia Commons    Images without citation are in public domain.

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

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[1] Child of the King, Songwriter Cindy Walker, performed by Gaither Vocal Band – Listen HERE

The Evidence of Things NOT Seen

 

Friday, February 26, 2021

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”  But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son?  Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth.  You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”  Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.”  Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”  And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.  Genesis 15:1-6

There is so much more to this story than whether a good man like Abram gets a blessing from God.  In fact, Abram said it plainly, that all the wealth, position, and power that was lavished on him was useless without fulfillment of God’s plans. 

The unspoken part of that is whether Abram was going to be patient enough to see God’s plan through.  At this point in the conversation what was unmentioned was faith, the evidence of things NOT (as yet) seen.  Of course, Abram had no choice but to wait; neither do we.  None of us can push time ahead; we only think we do so when we rush around like chickens who’ve lost their heads, assuming our hyperactivity will somehow pay off in the end with a better life.  And such activity only proves the opposite of faith – it shows our nervousness about what will happen.

Abram had some of that nervous angst about the future.  He looked around at the sea of God’s blessing on his life, but, as most lonely people do eventually recognize, all the stuff and perks in the world is meaningless.  One of Abram’s descendants, King Solomon, found that out.  From his diary (Ecclesiastes), we find out that the King tried it all, had it all, and all of it was empty as a puff of smoke:

God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy.  Ecclesiastes 6:2

So, what sense are we to make of such a truth?  Is life meaningless?  Not according to God’s “end” of that story in the last verse of today’s Scripture:

And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.  Genesis 15:6

Reading all of Abram’s story we find that Abram’s belief was faith, that substance of things hoped-for, the evidence of things not seen.[1]  God promised Abram a heritage of so many descendants he could never remember all the names; he might as well have tried to count and name the stars.  And Abram, possessor of so much stuff people chase after on this planet, decided trusting the God with no face to see, and no name other than I AM, made more sense than trusting his portfolio.  This is what caused God to count on Abram as one who was righteous, a person in right-standing with his Creator, a person of true faith.

For You Today

If you’re looking for meaning in this life, skip the lifetime experimentation with all the glitter, gold, and getting; that will be wiser than Solomon’s approach.  Instead, start with the evidence of the unseen; start with God’s love for you.  That’s where you’ll find the greatest response of your heart, because that’s how He designed and created you.

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

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Hebrews 11:1

 

Temporary Residents

[i]

Friday, February 15, 2019

And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do.  So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” 1 Peter 1:17(NLT)

I imagine most people prefer things that last, rather than something that falls apart quickly.  Last year we increased the size of our tiny deck.  I watched as the crew dug holes for a corner support beam.  That piece of treated lumber is massively-heavy and should still be there many years after I’m not.  The deck has a firm, solid feel to it, and that is a comforting reassurance whenever the weather is nice, and we chill on the deck for a little bit.

Our human nature craves the stability of permanence.  Little children crave the comfort of seeing Mom or Dad close by.  We kick the tires on a car we’re checking out to buy to find out if they’re sound.  We give diamond rings to signify the life-long commitment we’re making in marriage.  We want the lasting thing.

Because human nature craves lasting and permanent, there is a part of us that has a very difficult time wrapping our minds around the temporary nature of life in this skin.  The young among us live with a certain invincibility spirit, as if they’re indestructible.  They take risks that make Mom and Dad gray; they hardly entertain a clue as to the fragile relationship we humans have with breathing.

So, when the Apostle Peter uses the word temporary in relation to the time we have here, there is an immediate and almost involuntary response that screams:  Hey…I didn’t vote for just passing through; why doesn’t it last?  And therein we find the crux of our problem:  we don’t get to vote!  Life is in God’s hands; He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Final Authority over it all.  We don’t get to vote!

Now, having said that, I immediately must retract it, at least on the most important level – we actually DO get to vote.  With the incredible gift of free will (and its’ awesome responsibility) we do get to choose the location of our eternity.  Peter states in this same passage (a few verses later) that those who come to Christ for new life are being born again to a life that will last forever.  This life is from Christ, Who is the Word of God, living, and the source of life.

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.  1 Peter 1:23(NLT)

I’ve had more than 70 years of life in this skin.  There have been some tough times, but on the whole life is good.  I grew up in a wonderful family where I was loved and shown the love of God.  My bride of 52 years is a continuing source of joy, as is the relationship with my children, their spouses and our grands, and great-grandchildren.  I’ve had the privilege of serving as a pastor, and the blessing of good health all the way through. 

But, all that said, I would not look forward to living forever in this body!  When I trusted Christ it was the beginning of so much good stuff I’ve been privileged to experience in this body.  However, Scripture tells me this is all temporary, and I should look forward to what’s coming.  Why would I want to hang around this lower world forever, when Christ has been busy creating a forever blessing I can’t even imagine?

For now, we all must live in this temporary world and the skin with which we were born.  Peter didn’t leave-out how to do that…he said we should live as temporary residents with reverent fear, which is an awe-filled spirit of worship, living in gratitude for the blessing of life itself, not clinging-to this world which is passing away, but looking for the coming life with Him…joy unspeakable, and full of glory! 

For You Today

Be a temporary resident today; let go of something that’s passing anyway.  Grab on to a bit of Heaven by giving the gift of help, joy and peace to someone you meet.  That’s the kind of trail to leave as you temporarily pass through this world.

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

Go to VIDEO

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[i] Title Image:  via Pixabay.com

The Land Your God Gives You

[1]

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

“If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil.  He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.  “But be careful.  Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods.  If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you.  He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests.  Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.  Deuteronomy 11:13-17^(NLT)

“Believing your own press reports” is what the preacher called it.  My mother called it:  “being full of yourself”!  Joshua was delivering God’s message to Israel, a warning against imagining all is well, just because you feel content.  The heart that has lost it’s desire to serve God may feel content for a while, but it won’t be long before that heart crosses over from feelings of contentment to the cold storage of arrogance.  It is then that the hammer will fall.  God is truly long-suffering, meaning He will forgive our poor choices and failures.  What God will not tolerate is wanton hearts that blatantly turn away from Him; there are consequences for disobedience!

Sometimes we can make the mistake of reading our circumstances of God’s blessing as if it is simply the state of our having arrived at a level of human accomplishment.  The fact is that all so-called achievement is a matter of God-given strength, ability and His favor.  You don’t have to carve an idol to serve other gods; sometimes idolatry is as close as admiring that fellow in the mirror.

For You Today

If it has been a while since you did this…or if you’ve never done this…take some time to look over the blessings God has given into your life.  (We can call it our Promised Land).  Add it up…all the years, times of deliverance, joys, learning, financial strength, children, promotions in your career…then put it in its’ proper place…build a mental altar and lay all those blessings on top of that altar as a sacrifice.  It is our way of saying, Lord, I have no other God but You!

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 Pixabay.com

Legacy of Love

[1]

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Go to VIDEO

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.  You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.  I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.  But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.  Exodus 20:4-6^(NLT)

Most people consider placing judgment for sins done by parents on the children, grandchildren, and, even great-grandchildren as being somewhat unfair on God’s part.  However, when you stack that against the thousand generations of “unfailing love” (covenant blessings) for the obedient, you rarely get a lifted eyebrow.

In the reality of interpretation department – the verse actually means that the effects of the sins affect generations.  A drunk in the family can cause bankruptcy which may take the family generations to dig out from under.  Same with being the child of a murderer, and trying to have a decent reputation.

But using this verse to blame God for stuff we bring on ourselves is very convenient! 

It’s pretty typical of human nature that, when things are going well, and we are getting what we want – well, it’s just fine and dandy!  But if we get taken to the woodshed (and God really only does that when we’ve been especially bratty), we consider the system to be rigged and we are the poor victim; we sing our lament:  God, how could you do that to me; how can you be so unfair? 

Well, ain’t life hard!

Now consider the way God really does business with his human children:

The ratio here between God handing out disciplinary judgment and God showering undeserved blessings on us is a whopping 4/1000, or eighty years (3-4 generations) of judgment compared to 20,000 years (1,000 generations) of blessing.

Actually…it’s an even wider gap than that, because the 3-4 generations is specific, while the number 1,000 is sometimes interpreted as without ceasing.  So God could be talking about eighty years versus eternity!

Listen to what one of God’s choicest children said about all that:

Put your hope in the Lord.  Travel steadily along his path.  He will honor you by giving you the land.  You will see the wicked destroyed.  I have seen wicked and people flourishing like a tree in its native soil.  But when I looked again, they were gone!  Though I searched for them, I could not find them!  Look at those who are honest and good, for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace.  But the rebellious will be destroyed; they have no future.     Psalm 37:34-38 ^(NLT)

For You Today

The bedrock reality of the comparison of God’s judgment and blessing is that God is much more willing to bless his children than curse them.  Truth be told, the Father is rooting for our best; I’ve seen his refrigerator door, and your pictures are all over it!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:   Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

For Such a Time as This

Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Book of Esther reads like one of those real-time serial dramas so popular on TV.  Week after week you’re kept on the edge of your seat, wondering if the world will end and who will die next.

In the drama of 6^th Century (BC), the Jews were a captive people, subject to the Persian king.  As the story unfolds, the king’s umpteenth wife-queen displeases him, and she’s suddenly history.  A search is made for a suitably-beautiful new queen.  Esther is drop-dead gorgeous, and she is brought to the king.  At this point nobody suspects that she is also a Jew.  We have a feminist Horatio Alger-type story, rags to riches in a heartbeat.

Enter the antagonist

The plot always has a bad guy.  Haman, the king’s henchman, engineers a scheme to keep himself on the good side of his boss; he manipulates the king into making an irrevocable decree that all the Jews are to be put to death.  (And you thought Hitler was the first?).

Mordecai, Esther’s Jewish uncle, pleads with Esther to intercede with her husband the king.  At first she is hesitant, but Uncle Mort sends her a postcard from reality and she understands her duty, puts it all on the line and somehow all the tables are turned.  The Jews are saved, and bad-guy Haman winds up on the gallows.

Although the name of God never appears in this story, still, the miraculous power of Jehovah to watch over his people is nonetheless implied.  John Wesley[i] wrote that “…the finger of God directs events.”

Of course the punch line to the story comes from Uncle Mordecai’s lips as he prods Esther to action – “Perhaps you were born for this moment”.  Esther’s beauty and her chance ascension to the throne of Persia was for a reason; God’s reason.  

How about you?

The same holds true for us, as it did for Esther; all we have and are is given to us.  And God makes no mistakes about putting a special talent, gift, possession, personality trait, “handicap” or heartache in our hands.  Often our biggest blessing (or disaster) is at the very center of God’s calling on your life.  There is a purpose for it!

Have you found yourself in a tough situation that won’t let go?  Do you have an opportunity to do something, but the risks seem overwhelming?

Who is YOUR “Uncle Mordecai”?  And what has God placed in your hand?

Perhaps your whole life has been pointing at just such a moment.  

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[i] in his “NOTES” ¶1