The Argument

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Wednesday, June 24, 2015

A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing.  So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people.  And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.  John 3:25-27^(NLT)

Reading arguments is a Facebook™ staple!  The warnings from years ago have proven true; the anonymity of social media – at least the lack of face-to-face (and isn’t THAT ironic on Facebook) – has provided a medium which dehumanizes humans, and allows much more boldness (read that:  crude, cruel and no-consequences interaction). Opinions – both considered, as well as flagrantly hip-fired – volley back and forth in the posts and comments.  

And great is the carnage of friendships and character!

And there is no such thing as a “winner” or even an end to these debates arguments; the comments roll-on into the internet stratosphere, multiplying until Jesus returns.

Irony persists – certainly on this page; a blog, this Rocky Road Devotional is little more than an extended comment for the social media pot.  (Thought I’d go ahead and admit that before anyone has a chance to comment).

The debate between John’s disciples and others was Facebook for the first century; ego and vitriol are not new.

The Baptist’s ministry was winding-down and Jesus was the new face to follow in the crowd.  His Facebook account had more hits than Madonna, and Twitter was blowing up with Jesus sightings.  Pinterest couldn’t get enough of the new preacher.

John’s disciples couldn’t handle it.

But John could; he simply let his followers know that the salvation they were proclaiming was walking in front of them now.  The Kingdom of God was here.  The advertising season was over, the debate closed, and their campaign victorious!  Now it was time to step aside and let Jesus be seen.

And that is our set of marching orders…let Jesus be seen.

The biggest set of irony here is the debate over which is greatest, the sign pointing to the Kingdom, or the Kingdom itself.  From our perspective twenty centuries later, it seems ludicrous that the Baptist’s disciples would confuse that point.  But we’re not much different, arguing over contemporary music or traditional, King James or Revised Standard, or (my favorite) Wesley over Calvin.

We are good at straining-out gnats and swallowing camels!

For You Today

What useless arguments have you allowed yourself to be drawn into lately?  Did anyone see Jesus in any of it?

If the answer is “yes” then God be praised.

If the answer is (as most often it is) “no” – what did you learn about your response the next time the bait of an argumentative post looks just too delicious to pass up?

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[1] Title Image:  By Klaus with K (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Getting Dressed - Part 4

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Thursday, May 7, 2015

And always be thankful.  Colossians 3:15b (NLT)

Paul said, be thankful. 

Yesterday we shared thoughts of Elizabeth’s collision with the drunk driver’s vehicle several years ago.  When her poor Buick had to be towed away to the junkyard, we were thankful; we were so very grateful that she wasn’t towed along with her car!

With the peace of God ruling in our hearts, it is simple to be grateful when life has been preserved and you are face to face with a crumpled-up Buick in the harsh December night…and you are struck with the cold reality that your wife of 40 years could have been just as crumpled up as her car.

Thankfulness, or gratitude, is the natural bubbling-up of praise when things are in proper perspective. 

We managed to buy a used pickup truck for our son about 25 years ago.  It wasn’t a big prize, but it was the first one he would own that didn’t need an act of Congress to start. 

To say he was grateful is an understatement.  I can still see the tears welling-up in his eyes and feel his bear hug.  It just comes out of you when you have been blessed! 

When you look at all the circumstances of life, and realize that Jesus has gone through the worst of it, and has made the offer to go with you through any stuff you’ve got on your plate…well, there are just some times you need to lift up a grateful voice and sing!

For You Today

Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?

If so, that means at some point you realized that Christ took on a whole lot more for you when He went to the cross than our Buick received that night on the dark country road; Jesus took on every one of your sins for all eternity, and washed you white as snow.

Can you be thankful today?

Think about that out on your rocky road today, and have a great day.

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[1] Title image:  By Paramount Pictures. Photographer not credited (ebay), via Wikimedia Commons

Getting Dressed - Part 3

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Wednesday, May 6, 2015

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.  For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.    Colossians 3:15 (NLT)

This week we are exploring the kinds of spiritual garments a well-dressed follower of Jesus Christ will wear each day.

This one is my personal favorite.

Paul said to let peace rule our hearts.  If there is a missing element in our culture, peace is my first nominee.  We live in a “noisy-in-your-face-grab-mine-while-I-steal-yours-if-I-can” kind of world.  Our TV screens are filled with violence and chaos.  The online community is what a friend of mine termed “dark and monstrous” in a blog post the other day.

So it is!

There was a haunting song on the Southern-Gospel charts a few years back.  The song’s title was “Peace”.  It tells the story of folks who are doing what we all do, trying to get through the day – and they’ve about given up.  The repeated lyric is:

Don’t need your love, or your sympathy,

But I cannot go on living without peace…

Our existence is filled with what the great old hymn states as fightings and fears within, [and] without[2].  There is precious little peace to be offered by the circumstances of life.

But Paul never said “let the circumstances of life rule in your hearts”; he said to let peace rule there.  

I took a picture several years ago at an accident scene; it’s a bit of a strange scene. 

My bride, Elizabeth, had been driving home from a Christmas concert in which she was part of the church orchestra.  As she rounded a long curving turn she noticed the oncoming car was still several hundred yards ahead, but weaving erratically.  In the split-second that seems to take forever, that oncoming car veered off the road, and then swerved back across the road and right in front of Elizabeth’s Buick.  The head-on impact destroyed her car and brought months of therapy for Elizabeth; the other driver, somewhat fortified with a different kind of Christmas “spirits” didn’t get a scratch. 

The reason I took the picture was that it was a group of the church family that had quickly learned about the accident and come to comfort Elizabeth.  They were standing around waiting for the police to finish reporting, and for the tow truck to finish preparing our beloved Buick for the junkyard.  They, including Elizabeth, seemed so very different from a typical collision scene; they were loose and laughing, and thankful. That’s not “normal” when your automobile has just been folded-up like a wad of loose-leaf paper after a head-on collision with a drunk driver. 

Reality check:  “Normal” for a believer is that God’s peace can sort out the priority of people over things.  A Buick can be replaced and we all knew it; we were thankful my bride was alive and the young man driving the other car would have a chance to live past his early twenties. 

That’s peace ruling in a heart! 

For You Today

Have you got anything that’s making threats against your peace today? 

Remember that God said we are to let His peace rule; that sounds an awful lot like the choice is up to you.

Think about that out on your rocky road today, and have a great day!

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[1] Title image:  By Paramount Pictures. Photographer not credited (ebay), via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Just as I Am, Without One Plea, Elliott, Bradbury, The United Methodist Hymnal, p.357

Getting Dressed - Part 2

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Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.   Colossians 3:14 (NLT)

Paul gave us a whole list of great qualities:  compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience.  Then he told us that these are the symptoms of one who possesses love.  It isn’t the kind of romantic mush or lust you see on Desperate Housewives; it’s agape’ love, unselfish. 

It’s a God-kind of love which does whatever is best for others. 

This kind of love is only available in Christ.  Only God changing you on the inside can give you this.  Many human qualities can be faked; you can pretend to be humble or compassionate sometimes…but genuine Godliness, doing anything truly motivated by love requires God on the inside.

Paul said it was like the garment they called a girdle, a binding that held everything together.  When you have love, genuine love, it holds all sorts of blessings in their places.

I am a “fashion-challenged person”.  I used to put together some pretty interesting outfits.  My ties never matched my shirts or socks; sometimes I got dressed in the dark and I’d wear a brown sock with a black one. 

Friends and family used to ask if I bought stuff at the Ugly Store.

Then love changed everything.  Elizabeth picks out my clothes.  I look better; I offend less. 

Love will make you do strange and wonderful things!

And it’s that way with God’s kind of love on the inside…strange and wonderfully-blessed things will happen, and you will hardly have time to figure out where it’s coming from; you only know it wasn’t you doing it – God showed up and brought harmony.

For You Today

How do you feel about your relationships with other people?  Is there a sense of harmony?  Is it a blessing to know those around you, or is it a weight you carry?

The foundational garment of love is truly “one-size-fits-all”.  And it will make all the difference when it comes to how you get along with other people.

Here’s a picture for you to carry in your mind today:  God is your heavenly Father; you are the child; let him dress you up with love.

Think about that out on your rocky road today, and have a great day!

[1] Title image:  By Paramount Pictures. Photographer not credited (ebay), via Wikimedia Commons

Getting Dressed - Part 1

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Monday, May 4, 2015

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.  Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.  For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.  And always be thankful.  Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.  Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.  Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.  And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.  Colossians 3:12-17 (NLT)

This week we are going to take a close look at what a well-dressed follower of Jesus Christ wears to church, work, school, on errands, and most importantly…at home, the place where you can’t fake it because your family already knows you.

When our girls were little they had “Dressy Bessy” dolls.  Besides the fact that your children considered it a legal right under the Constitution to have a Dressy Bessy, they were good teaching tools.  Little ones learned how to put an arm in a sleeve, or button a shirt.  You dressed Bessy and in the doing you learned how to dress yourself.

Paul was writing to some Christians who had a reputation of being strong believers, well-clothed you might say, but they had a little problem understanding why they were to act differently than the world.  Don’t we all have that little problem? 

In his letter Paul suggests that the Christian’s attitude wardrobe should reflect being chosen, which means being different from the world.  These attitudes and actions are what make us clothed as followers of Jesus.  In short that means two things:

They were changed. 

The early Christians were baptized as a sign of their willingness to change, be different.  Men and women were baptized in different rooms, because the ceremony included stripping-off all clothing, and entering the pool naked.  It was a signal that the old life had been stripped-away like a ragged garment.  They were changed.

A story is told of a denomination that believed in baptismal sanctification (the moment you are baptized, you are sanctified, and therefore perfect -- you won't ever sin again).  An older man got convicted, and decided to join the group.  It was winter time and he wanted to be baptized right away; but the creek was frozen over.  However, he had a great desire to be pure, so he convinced the deacons to baptize him.  They cut a hole in the ice, took the old fellow out and dunked him in the hole, all the way – twice for good measure.  As he came out the old man exclaimed, Oh, it's so wonderful.  I'm sanctified.  It's so wonderful; I don't even feel the cold.  The head deacon said, Let's dunk him again,boys; he's still lyin'![2]  The new believers were really changed, and…

They were clothed. 

Once baptized the new convert was given a new robe to put on; it was a white robe, symbolizing the new relationship of purity in Christ, and it was a new robe, which made a stark comparison with the old which had been discarded.

There is a connection here that is hard to miss unless you’re living on another planet.  Every day each and every one of us puts on our clothing.  And we all have something in common about the way we do it.  Without fail we put on our undergarments first, then our outer clothing…

(except Madonna, of  course, who is goofy enough to wear her “unmentionables” where they get mentioned). 

They call ‘em “foundational” garments, because they are the first things to go on the bare ground.

For You Today

As we study the foundational garments of Christian living this week we need to keep in mind that Paul used the putting-on-your-clothes object lesson to teach some very important principles about living the Christian life.  And we must remember that important principles never come cheaply!

Think about that out on your rocky road today, and have a great day!

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[1] Title image:  By Paramount Pictures. Photographer not credited (ebay), via Wikimedia Commons

[2] From a sermon by Russell Brownworth, The One Anothers of the Bible; Part 5 Teach One Another