The Many Faces of DIVERSITY

 

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.  Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors.  Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.  1 Peter 2:11-12

Diversity is one of those words which, when properly used, can lend itself to a holy perspective.  When used to settle an argument from a narrow, agenda-driven perspective, it leads to a divisive, and often violent end.  A preacher, for instance, could get fired just for bringing-up the subject.

There is, without question, a pervasive sense of diversity in every nook and cranny of God’s creation.  All plants share some relationship, yet even in tribes of elm trees, no two are the same.  In human beings there is a connection that sentient life shares, including the diversity of personality, shade of skin color, textures, abilities, and reactions to what they experience.  Consider the fingerprint, are they all not unique?  Yet, in their alikeness they match only one of the beings God created among billions.  We are each unique, and each alike, according to God’s creative choices.

Now, if that is the foundational truth about God’s creation, which, by-the-way, He decided was good…very good…then what is all the “rub” about?  It’s not much of a well-kept secret, the tempest in our human teapot is a matter of human judging of other’s worth.  It is no small thing that we do judge others, considering God has reserved that to Himself.  ^{Read Matthew 7}

There is a difference between judging another person’s character or intent, and simply observing differences.  When making a judgment as to WHY someone has behaved as they do, we take upon ourselves the mantle of God; that job is already filled!  On the other hand it is, without exception, patently-inaccurate to declare that all diversity is in accord with God’s intention.  The mutation of human body tissue by cancer is hardly a welcome diversity.  The desire to participate in serial murder or sexual attacks cannot compare to enjoying a spring day on a walk through the park with birds calling-out the morning songs of life. 

Of course there are shades of gray, where good and evil tend to blend.  The current deification of diversity for the purpose of advancing one culture’s power over another culture which has controlled the power, is hardly what God had in mind for human unity.  This is the battle Apostle Peter calls the war of worldly desires against [our] very souls.  Calling-out sin for what it is merely speaks truth; cancelling the worth of other people’s lives in the process is reckless murder.  Has it ever been that two wrongs add up to being right?  It is a very thin line a would-be prophet crosses when pointing the finger at another.

For You Today 

While there is hardly room in all the books of all the libraries to outline a reconciliation of the obtuse natures of prejudice and cancel culture, for a believer/follower of Jesus Christ, we must try, must think about it, must address both in our own lives and walk with Christ.  To do less is to kiss goodbye any chance we have to (as Peter wrote) live properly with honorable behavior among today’s unbelieving culture.

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:   Honorable Behavior - Part 1  and  Honorable Behavior - Part 2   

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

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

Key to Nowhere

 

Friday, December 10, 2021

What sorrow awaits you who lounge in luxury in Jerusalem, and you who feel secure in Samaria!  You are famous and popular in Israel, and people go to you for help.  But go over to Calneh and see what happened there.  Then go to the great city of Hamath and down to the Philistine city of Gath.  You are no better than they were, and look at how they were destroyed.  You push away every thought of coming disaster, but your actions only bring the day of judgment closer.  How terrible for you who sprawl on ivory beds and lounge on your couches, eating the meat of tender lambs from the flock and of choice calves fattened in the stall.  You sing trivial songs to the sound of the harp and fancy yourselves to be great musicians like David.  You drink wine by the bowlful and perfume yourselves with fragrant lotions.  You care nothing about the ruin of your nation.  Therefore, you will be the first to be led away as captives.  Suddenly, all your parties will end.  The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his own name, and this is what he, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:   “I despise the arrogance of Israel, and I hate their fortresses.  I will give this city and everything in it to their enemies.”  Amos 6:1-8

When the prophet spoke nobody listened, especially the religious and political leaders.  That was the way it was (and sadly, still is) with prophets.    Listen to the words of Jesus to the Pharisees:

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites!  For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed.  Then you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.’  “But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.  Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started.   Snakes!  Sons of vipers!  How will you escape the judgment of hell?    Matthew 23:29-33

Amos tried to tell the religious/political leaders in Jerusalem they were merely a caricature of leadership.  Instead they dwelt in pomp and circumstance, leading the nation to desolation and judgment.  They wouldn’t listen, and captivity was waiting in the wings.  The keys of leadership they held were rusted and useless. 

Scripture demands that the church must be about making disciples of Christ.  While there are many different methods to employ in a “not-one-size-fits-all” world, when you find Scripture’s demands pushed-aside in favor of consistent bowing to the latest cultural trends, you will also find the ship eventually breaking-apart. 

My tribe, The United Methodist Church, has been embroiled in a half-century battle to keep the ship together.  Leadership, vested in bishop’s council, annual conferences, judicial methodology, and tons of paperwork, have managed to push aside adherence to the demands of Scripture to be holy as the Father in Heaven is holy.  Instead, there is bowing at the altar of relevance.  Instead of thus saith the Lord as the preamble to our marching orders, it is the latest cancel culture thinking that guides the Great Ship of Zion.  Like those Israelites in times of the judges who clamored for a king, the 21^st century church worships at the altar of inclusivity, while the keys of the kingdom rust in the shed.

For You Today

There is a counter-culture movement today, just as there was an answer to the Pharisees’ reign of power in Jesus’ day.  It was led by Paul, Peter, and a motley crew of nobodies that God used to change the world. 

Let’s let Paul’s heartfelt plea to the Roman Christians be the clarion call to believers, and particularly for leaders, Methodists included, especially those who would not see the great force for good and holy allegiance to the will of God, circle the drain:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:2

Keys to nowhere, or Keys to the Kingdom; that’s the choice…every day!

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 New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this topic see the Orchard of Driftwood

The Hatred Prison

 

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.  He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.  He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.  He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered.  He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.  1 Peter 2:21-23

This may be one of the easiest passages to understand in all of Scripture.  It is, arguably, also one of the most difficult to incorporate into our thoughts.  It is even harder to practice.  When you’ve been wronged, the human response is to, at least, defend…and, more likely, hit back!   Our recently retired president was hailed as the Counter-Puncher-in-Chief; he proudly lived-up to the reputation.  If he sensed a criticism from you, the response would be lethal.

The problem with revenge is the jail time to which it is connected.  Certainly, the kind of revenge that involves committing felonies might require time behind iron bars.  However, the jail time that is most damaging to the human spirit, and the possibilities of genuine community Christ offers, and promises, won’t be incarceration time spent in Attica, Sing Sing, or San Quentin.  The prison of revenge remediation is found within; it is hatred which binds us more strongly, and with greater destruction to the soul, than any cellblock. 

In a previous post (The All-Inclusive Temple of God) I mentioned “cancel culture” which, considering some of the responses to that post, begs a deeper look.  This phenomenon of a power-shift in 21^st century cultural norms is a belief system that holds previous norms are wrong and should be silenced, dismantled, and banned.  It is closely connected to the unique brand of reverse prejudice which creates a revenge cycle, which, in turn, leads to hatred prison just as dramatically as the souls of slave owners in Colonial America wound up confined there. 

Cancel culturalists will probably eat me alive for this thought train, but here goes.  The comparison I make is thus: 

·       In the annals of slavery and since the end of such bondage, the black person was viewed as “less”.  White supremacists, pushers of Arian dominance, claimed a superior position and held down their captives with a strong hand.  Hangover prejudices persist to this day

·       In the new norm of cancel culture, anyone (even remotely) connected to the wrong of the previous norm are immediately suspect (at mildest), or (at worst) held as culpable, first-degree racists.

So, just laying this argument on the low shelf, whites persecuted blacks, and now it is the black person’s time at bat.  Evidentiary of that is the hyper-radical anger that classifies any white person as racist, purely based on race.

I know…the irony screams so loud it’s impossible to laugh or cry…it’s just stunning, that it matters not what a black person said in 1830, he was black, and white America considered him part of nature’s mistake.  In 2021 the tsunami of “equality” overwhelms whatever remorse or compassion the white-skinned descendants of racists may have, and relegates them to racist by color. 

In proper perspective, most white people have never come close to the kind of personal, or group pain experienced by those who are black.  And there is nothing whites can do to atone for the sins of racism and oppression of the past, nor those who would hold on to it in the present, and promote it for the future.  Racism is indefensible and heinous.

But neither is there a commonsense argument for revenge’s retaliation.  Not only do two wrongs never make a right, the only genuine, workable commonsense argument is on the side of mental health.  The only healthy choice regarding racism is not fists in the air, anger, and getting even…it is forgiveness.  For those who care, it’s the only way to avoid spending time in The Hatred Prison.

For You Today

It’s time to join the Cancel Culture movement…let’s cancel racism from any perspective, and put the Hatred Prison behind bars.

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^©

The All-Inclusive Temple of God

 

Monday, March 8, 2021

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?  God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.  Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.  As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.”  And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”  So don’t boast about following a particular human leader.  For everything belongs to you—whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future.  Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.  1 Corinthians 3:16-23

There’s a truckload of talk about “inclusiveness” these days.  I perceive the overall sense of that word means that every person, with all their thoughts, ideas, quirks, nuances, proclivities, and baggage, is to be treated with respect.   

That’s not a bad thing, really.  It’s something like my mother taught me about manners.  Mom was pretty smart.  She was the Sunday School Superintendent at the church of my youth, and she always used a flannel-graph board with Bible pictures for the opening assembly to teach us kids about following Jesus.  One lesson was about the Golden Rule – treat others the way you want to be treated.  On the surface that seems quite doable.  You just live, and let-live, you know, don’t mess with what’s not yours, and don’t pull Peggy Broadway’s pigtails.   

The problem with that kind of thinking is that it’s largely passive, not doing anything to harm someone else…just leave them alone.  However, consider the Golden Rule from Jesus’ perspective:  treat others – that’s anything but passive; “treat” is a verb, displaying action, or, in the case of people, interaction. 

The apostle James taught the sense of being an active vs. passive Christian:

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?     James 2:15-16

The trouble with being an active follower of Jesus is that it requires more.  Just leaving someone else alone requires nothing but a little restraint.  Okay, sometimes a lot of restraint if they have more than their share of “crazy”.  Being an active believer means being vulnerable; you must accept responsibility for meeting needs, defending the weaker ones of the human tribe, and stepping up to the plate in what your brother can’t do for himself.

This is like the difference between Cancel Culture and coming-up with helpful, real-world solutions.  Cancel culture enacted requires nothing…you don’t say this, or do that…it’s all passive.  Coming up with genuine solutions means you must speak, you must act.  To do less is to allow evil the whole stage!

Paul told the Corinthian believers to stop living in delusion.  His real-world solution for evil was to remember that everything created was given to us by God for use, enjoyment, and for helping to take care of every need.  And this means feeding our hungry sister, clothing our naked brother, and visiting our wayward cousin in jail. 

And it’s because all the stuff belongs to us, and each of us belongs to all the others of us, and all of it belongs to God.  No matter what level you prefer in that assessment, wherever you scratch at it, you will find human need, and the hand of God.  If we’re going to be an inclusive bunch on this planet, we’ve got to keep that in mind…and act that way.

For You Today

This whole concept of belonging to, or being part-of the all-inclusive temple of God is a huge concept to digest.  Living-into that is even bigger.  The good news is that you don’t have to eat that whole elephant in one bite.  Just be a little more alert this day to the people and circumstances God puts in front of you on this day.  And leave them both better than you found them.

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^©

The Coming Judgment

 

Friday, March 5, 2021

"The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.  O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?  Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble?  Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.  So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.  The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.... Habakkuk 1:1-4
I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.  Then the Lord answered me and said:  Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.  For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie.  If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.  Look at the proud!  Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith."  Habakkuk 2:1-4

Habakkuk’s 6^th Century (BC) world was about to come crashing down around him.  It was a prosperous time, and yet disaster was brewing on the horizon.  God was about to empower the people whose ancestors were “God-haters” – Nimrod, Baal-worshiping pagans, idolaters.  These were the worst sinners on record, and God was going to give Jerusalem into their hands, lock, stock, and barrel. 

God was about to use the worst of humanity to punish his own beloved and peculiar nation, Israel, the descendants of Abraham. 

That seems a strange way to treat people you say you love!

And…America is on the same course if we continue to put aside our faith and dependency on God.  That seems a stranger way to treat our own future.

Our world is a lot like Habakkuk’s Israel.  There is violence, wrong-doing, strife, and a sense that justice and judgment are perverted. 

Places like Darfur, Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan conjure up immediate dark images of suffering against the backdrop of a world consuming itself in selfishness.  Who wouldn’t want to question God about the fairness of conditions like these?

·       For one, people who are selfishly responsible for the conditions

·       For another, people who have given-up on trusting God

·       For a third, people who’ve decided that cancel culture is the way to end everything that is a perceived injustice.  It’s imagining evil will fade into the darkness if we just get people to stop saying bad stuff.

Habakkuk hadn’t given-up on God.  Like Job, Habakkuk was concerned and anxious that God would act to change things, not just for Habakkuk, personally, but for his nation, Israel.  Habakkuk also didn’t consider, for one minute, turning anywhere else but to God for his answers.  That’s the meaning of “the righteous live by their faith”.  True faith in God understands we are totally dependent on him – and we put him first!

And what was God’s answer?  “Read my lips” – no – READ MY LIPS!   God said, you can write this down, Habakkuk…and use big block letters so even a messenger on the fly passing by can pick it up clearly…set it in stone, Habakkuk…let everyone know these three things:

·       The Kingdom will come

·       The arrogant proud won’t be happy when it happens

·       Those who are on my side will live dependent on me; they won’t look for help in anything or anybody else.

For You Today

What’s stranger about us today is that we don’t seem concerned enough about what’s coming to turn back to God. 

May He forgive us, and help us!

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^©