An Everlasting Love

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.  This is what the Lord says:  “Those who survive the coming destruction will find blessings even in the barren land, for I will give rest to the people of Israel.”  Long ago the Lord said to Israel:  “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.  With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.  I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel.  You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines.  Again you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria and eat from your own gardens there.  The day will come when watchmen will shout from the hill country of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord our God.’”  

Jeremiah 31:1-6

My Mom and Dad were married for more than 60 years.  Dad was always the one who had a funny line (or corny joke).  One of his favorites was telling how, when they first met, Cecilia wanted nothing to do with Elwood.  Then, Dad, with a telling twinkle in his eyes would smile and say:  Yeah…she didn’t like me, but I chased and chased her until she caught me!  Inscribed on the inside of their wedding rings were just two letters, O.F.  Those engravings were the first letters of the words, Only Forever.  Their marriage was not built entirely on sentimental emotion, but the kind of commitment tied to the very last breath God would give them.  It stuck, and I was blessed to have grown up in a family with that kind of commitment and example.  It was a very present assurance, throughout my life, and to the end of theirs, the knowledge, through thick and thin times, without much of this world’s trinkets or position, we always had each other. 

God’s prophet, Jeremiah, reminded Israel with another two words:  coming destruction. There were incredibly difficult times on their horizon.  Blood would be spilled, and freedom would vanish.  They would be at their captor’s whim, serving as slaves to a heartless and evil despot. 

Then Jeremiah delivered the punchline:  their God loved them with a love that was stronger than any captivity or national disaster!  His love was everlasting, never to fade like fickle passions.  No matter what may come, God would be there, and hope was real.

Jeremiah was part of Israel’s hope.  His presence and faithful ways manifested the love and promises of God all the way through the captivities.  Although the prophet himself never saw another day of liberty in his earthly life, God’s promises he’d shared with Israel became the reality of their eventual freedom.  And that everlasting love still stands for God’s beloved nation…and will stand throughout eternity.

For You Today  

The promises of God are eternal, and without wavering.  Here is one of those promises you can count on, because God’s beloved Son, Jesus offered it:

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

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: 

       Giving Thanks   and   The View of Forever Right Now

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^©   

When Stubborn and Rebellious Meets Immovable and Faithful

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Monday, March 18, 2019

The Lord said to Moses, “Get going, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt.  Go up to the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  I told them, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’  And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.  Go up to this land that flows with milk and honey.  But I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn and rebellious people.  If I did, I would surely destroy you along the way.”  When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes.  For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are a stubborn and rebellious people.  If I were to travel with you for even a moment, I would destroy you.  Remove your jewelry and fine clothes while I decide what to do with you.”  So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewelry or fine clothes.  Exodus 33:1-6

It was a simple thing; the zipper on my jacket wouldn’t cooperate, and I was late for the school bus that would take me to my first-grade class.  Mom started to help me zip-up, and I yanked the zipper out of her hand – NO! said the brat with all his superior 6-year-old wisdom, I’ll do it!  It’s almost like there’s a merit badge for always being self-sufficient and claiming to have accomplished life by yourself.  It’s like that with politics, family, relationships and matters of faith…we seem to learn the hard way, proving there are much fewer geniuses than we imagined.

Israel was helpless, enslaved for 400 years in Egypt.  God sent Moses to announce the captivity was at an end.  Pharaoh eventually capitulated and let the people go.  Slaves became free, and they imagined that meant they were in charge of the universe.  But that was a cardinal error; the brat-nation had much to learn. Stubborn and Rebellious Israel had met Immovable and Faithful God.

There’s that old saying, what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object.  The problem with applying that to a relationship with God is there’s nothing that is irresistible when compared with immovable God.  It’s much more that we, the created beings of God’s hands, are fragile, housed in temporary bodies with imperfect and limited knowledge.  When it comes to a contest with humans vs. Yahweh, we are more like the local nursing home residents’ football team going up against the New England Patriots in a Not-So-Super-Bowl…it won’t be pretty!

God, in His infinite wisdom, kept a safe distance (for Israel) from Israel.  They needed that space to find out just how dependent they were on their God.  Rebelliousness and stubborn ways need to experience stubbing toes and falling-down.  It’s how we learn to walk.

People who have suffered a stroke, or been in a coma, learn this lesson in a heartbeat.  When they wake-up they realize there are things that must be learned all over again.  Simple things, like how to pick up a ball, or say a simple word they’d used a million times. 

It is this way with the stubborn rebelliousness with which we convince ourselves we can make it just fine without our Creator.  Baby steps, all over again!

For You Today

If you want a tested, reliable, immovable and faithful path to spiritual liberty and life, let Scripture have the last word today and every day:

For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.  Remember what it says:  “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”            Hebrews 3:14-15

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

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Boiling Point

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Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Then the Lord spoke to me again and asked, “What do you see now?”  And I replied, “I see a pot of boiling water, spilling from the north.”  “Yes,” the Lord said, “for terror from the north will boil out on the people of this land.  Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem.  I, the Lord, have spoken!  “They will set their thrones at the gates of the city.  They will attack its walls and all the other towns of Judah.  I will pronounce judgment on my people for all their evil—for deserting me and burning incense to other gods.  Yes, they worship idols made with their own hands!  “Get up and prepare for action.  Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say.  Do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish in front of them.  For see, today I have made you strong like a fortified city that cannot be captured, like an iron pillar or a bronze wall.  You will stand against the whole land—the kings, officials, priests, and people of Judah.  They will fight you, but they will fail.  For I am with you, and I will take care of you.  I, the Lord, have spoken!”  

Jeremiah 1:13-19(NLT)

Samaria and Judah, the two kingdoms of Israel in the 8^th century (B.C.) were an “America kind of place”.  I characterize Israel that way because theirs was an affluent and powerful dynasty, rich in gold and possessions, with a reputation of being God’s people, respected and feared by their enemies.  It was an era where the Hebrew children of Yahweh knew they had the world by the tail!

Enter Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and all the other iah’s, and in 724BC the northern kingdom was conquered and taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  Roughly one hundred years later Jeremiah pointed back to the North and said:  Do you remember your northern neighbors?  Do you not realize the same thing will come down on your heads…for the same reason…you’ve ignored God, and He will judge you for that?  Get ready; the pot is about to boil!

It didn’t happen that same day Jeremiah preached his sermon…but 40 years later the next generation (in 587BC) experienced Babylonian fury, and the fall of the southern kingdom.  The pot boiled over…just like Jeremiah warned it would!

Many people shake their heads thinking how unfortunate, bad luck for Israel.  Friends, look closely at the words which GOD had spoken about how this was going to happen:

Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem. I, the Lord, have spoken!  Jeremiah 1:15(NLT)

This was not bad luck or misfortune…this was God making good on His promise.  And when the Babylonians and Assyrians swept over the lands God had given to His people, the devastation was overwhelming; just ask the Psalmist:

Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem.       We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.  

Psalm 137:1-2(NLT)

There were no goose bumps for the national anthem singing in Israel, no parades for the victorious warriors returning home.  The good life in the fast lane was history, along with fortunes, power, and world-class prestige.  Israel, born out of slavery to a land of milk and honey, was back where they started, slaves to the Arab world once again.  The state of the union address in those days was written with a black pen, on black paper, under a black cloud, picturing a bleak future.  God had spoken; then God acted, and those who refused to serve God, those who had rejected God, were rejected by God.

And I’m not certain our nation, born out of the struggle for freedom from religious persecution and the heavy hand of oppressors of a ruthless British Empire, has learned that lesson any more than those who received that lesson from Moses, the one who heard it directly from a burning bush.

For You Today

If there is any truth to the Scripture, and the fact that history repeats, and that God should be obeyed, not ignored, and if we love our children, and our children’s children, it is time for all people, especially America, to return to obeying and honoring God with our lives, not just our lips.

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

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[i] Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons

Why God Got Some Ink

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Wednesday, December 28, 2016

See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.  Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.  Soon your descendants will come back, and all who are trying to destroy you will go away.  Look around you and see, for all your children will come back to you.  As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “they will be like jewels or bridal ornaments for you to display.  “Even the most desolate parts of your abandoned land will soon be crowded with your people.  Your enemies who enslaved you
will be far away.  The generations born in exile will return and say, ‘We need more room!  It’s crowded here!’  Then you will think to yourself, ‘Who has given me all these descendants?  For most of my children were killed, and the rest were carried away into exile.  I was left here all alone.  Where did all these people come from?  Who bore these children?  Who raised them for me?’”  This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  “See, I will give a signal to the godless nations.  They will carry your little sons back to you in their arms; they will bring your daughters on their shoulders.  Kings and queens will serve you and care for all your needs.  They will bow to the earth before you and lick the dust from your feet.  Then you will know that I am the Lord.  Those who trust in me will never be put to shame.”   Isaiah 49:16-23^(NLT)

The prophet Isaiah’s voice was mostly intended for a troubled nation caught in a downward spiral.  Their national sin was immense; the nation formed in the heart of a loving and holy God had become a stench in His nostrils.  Judgment was already on the way; their destruction was imminent and their children would soon be carried away by their enemies.  Disaster was their future!

Then God decided in favor of tattoos!  Really! 

Well, I’m not sure that it’s a blanket endorsement to cover your body with ink; it’s more an artistic way to say that God’s thoughts are open and on display for anyone willing to see.

Isaiah records that God wrote the name of His beloved Israel on the palms of His hands as a visually constant promise that not only would the children return, brought by their penitent and now-submissive enemies, the day would come when Israel would flourish again when God once more would place Himself undeniably back in Israel’s focus.

An insurance company has the slogan:  The future belongs to those who prepare for it.[ii]  God’s slogan, tattooed by God Himself on His palms (long before that insurance company): 

The future belongs to those who trust in Me

For You Today

Whatever you’ve got going on in your life that’s making the future so uncertain you can hardly concentrate on the present…well, that may be God getting your attention.

A bit of advice…give Him your attention.

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

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NOTES

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[i] Title image: By Meena Kadri from Global Roaming (Vibrantly Rabari), via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] ^©The Prudential, Newark N.J.

Lament

Monday, February 24, 2014

Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.    Psalms 80:3 (NLT)

The Psalmist saw Israel in shades of gloomy gray!  Psalm 80 is part of a corporate lament expressing the grief and sorrow connected with defeat and exile.  Israel is pictured as God’s vineyard, broken-down and left in ruins.  (Seems perfect for a Monday, eh?)

The choices for Israel were all scary (aren’t they always that way when you’re not in control?):

          1.      They could accept their captive status and live the life of slaves…forever defeated and entirely unlike beings created in the image of God.

          2.      They could deny anything has happened and live in memory of greater days…forever a caricature of the conquering children of God.  (This is the Emperor’s New Clothes option – confident in their minds that the good days are on the way back, but, in reality, impotent and naked before the world.)

          3.      A final scary option:  totally abandon themselves to God’s choices for their future by confessing their sin and humbly waiting for God’s strength to revive and/or restore them to what He wanted.

God’s people of the exiles were corrupted spiritually long before their political captivity began.  It’s no small leap to figure out that, to reverse the process, first a spiritual healing would have to take place; then (if God approved) a political revival could begin.

In conversation yesterday (Sunday) with a church member we discussed the lament of today’s church.  With something like 4 of every 5 churches in America rated as either declining in membership, or simply “just holding-on” there is plenty of wailing to be done. 

In the United Methodist Church the term “revitalization” is the current watchword.  Bishops and other leaders proscribe “indicators” of what a revitalized church (local and global) will look like.  Like captive Israel of old, revitalizing – claiming our spiritual heritage and strength is something of an “Emperor’s New Clothes” issue, because re-vitalized presupposes anyone really knows what vital looks like.  For a denomination that’s been in decline for half a century, that’s a sobering thought.

Is there any GOOD news?

There’s always good news.  And whenever it takes hold, this Good News (Gospel) is a fresh wind of revival.  But it’s always on God’s terms

“Turn us again to yourself, O God.” 

Throughout the last two millennia, whenever the people of God have decided to lay aside their “Emperor’s rags” and stand naked in the hands of Almighty God, the Spirit of God has moved among us, changed us, and set the world on its ear. 

I wonder if we’re capable of doing that in our Mainline denominational machinery?  I wonder if we’re capable of doing that in our focus groups and caucuses?  If not – and I truly wonder if God really wants that anyway – then it would be good news indeed for a fresh wind of revival to come bubbling-up from outside the walls of the church buildings.

Today…for YOU

Is there any “fresh-wind” of God’s Spirit blowing through your life?  Psalm 80 is a good place to lay down the rags of slavery.  

Let the revival begin.

Title Photo:  https://blog.spu.edu/lectio/out-of-the-depths-onto-the-heights/