Top of Your Game - Game Over

Monday, September 5, 2022

Now then, you kings, act wisely!  Be warned, you rulers of the earth!  Serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities—for his anger flares up in an instant.  But what joy for all who take refuge in him!  Psalm 2:10-12

The despotic president/murderer of many, Saddam Hussein is long gone from the world’s political stage, having been chased from his leadership of Iraq into hiding, and eventually pulled from his hiding hole, tried, convicted, and executed by hanging.  He did not, as the Psalmist cautioned leaders to do, act wisely!  He had no fear of God.  He viewed himself as being in charge…and, for a brief nine years, his murderous regime seemed to be so; the collapse in 2003 once again reminded us all that every created thing is subject to God’s will.  No matter how high the Top of Your Game may be, God has set the Time of Your Game-Over, and there is nothing to top that!

The Psalmist set down for us all the means for a leader to be honorable and end well – to serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Whether you are president of the United States, or the elected dog catcher in the smallest of towns, there is always one to whom you report (besides the electorate or whatever checks and balances are in place), and that is He Who created us, and decides if we live or die.  In an age where personal sovereignty is worshipped, it would be prudent to remember God’s sovereignty is above all.

In a few years those under 20 will hardly recognize the name of Saddam Hussein, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or any of the other newsmakers of the current time.  That is regrettable, as forgetting the mistakes of the past are surety of repeating them in the future. 

For You Today

Rather than gloat, or wail (over political outcomes, depending on whether or not you voted for those who fail or succeed), it is a better practice to reflect on our part in this process.  Just as it is incumbent on leaders to serve with reverent fear of God, it is the same reverent fear we who put others in office must serve.  We are tempted to opt-out of responsibility quickly in one of many ways:

·       I’m just one person; what could I have done

·       I voted for the other guy

·       His problem – I’ve got enough to worry about

Now, those may all be true to some degree, but one thing remains for the Christian believer:  Did I pray?  Did I honestly, fervently, and consistently lift up the leaders who make governing choices in my name?[1]

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: 

Advice for the Mighty and Now Then, You Kings, Act Wisely!

[1] Images:   Title Image from Video:       What if Sadaam Hussein Was Never Captured (YouTube)                                                         Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] From:  Advice for the Mighty, Rocky Road Post from January 5, 2015

Legal Limit

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Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living?  For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive.  But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.  So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man.  But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.  So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point:  You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ.  And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead.  As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.  When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.  But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power.  Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.  Romans 7:1-6(NLT)

Laws are systems (typically) of what you may not do.  The Ten Commandments in Exodus are mostly negative statements (i.e. thou shalt not), and legal, negative statements can only take you so far.  For instance, if the law says thou shalt not kill, does that mean I can beat my annoying little brother half to death and, as long as he’s still breathing, I’m still within the legal limit?  Many people think so; this is why we have so many laws on the books; people find a way to get around the law’s purpose, and you have to make a new one to clarify the old one. 

In ancient times the Pharisees, teachers of the law, took the basic ten commands, and in time had developed them into more than 600 commandments, proving there’s very little simplicity in legalism.  If one word will suffice, the legal mind will find a way to confuse it with a whole dictionary.  (Same thing for preachers!)

But the law of God was never intended to restrict; the law was intended to set a minimum standard to teach us what the wrong direction looks-like, so our human proclivity to go higher than minimums, would propel us in a better direction.  That direction being that I not only wouldn’t harm my brother, but begin to care for the little nuisance.

Paul points us to marriage, and how it is until death us do part.  Once the death occurs, the marriage is still remembered with fondness, but there is release so the still-living spouse can grieve, but move-on with living.  The Apostle uses this in an analogy of our marriage relationship with the laws of God.  Rather than bind us to an endless chain of legal decisions, properly understood, the commands of God were designed to show us where life and death part ways.  Once we find that sweet spot between legalism and license (to do what we want, rather than what we ought), there is a freedom to live which legalism can’t begin to conceive.

So…how does this shake-out where the rubber meets the road?  Consider this example.  As a husband, the law tells me I have certain responsibilities towards my wife.  Until she dies I have a responsibility to treat her fairly, by not beating her, not stealing what’s hers, and supporting the children of our union financially, as well as keeping the laws of not endangering their health.  Sounds like the romance of the ages, eh?  What kind of life is there in that kind of arrangement if I just stick to the minimums, the legal limits?

On the other hand, if I set the minimum legal limits aside as too low a standard, and consider myself dead to that kind of worthless husbandry, I will be free to place my wife at the top of my interest list.  In place of a business transaction, there is joy, laughter, and a bond of soul-friendship that will last a lifetime.  The world’s view of pre-nuptial agreements can’t compare with going beyond the letter of the law all the way to the Spirit of the Law!

For You Today

When you’ve met all the legal requirements to your parents, spouse, and children, are you satisfied?  If not, it’s because you get it, that there’s life in going beyond serving self…all the way to love, which will make you do strange and wonderful things!

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

Explicit Language

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Monday, January 7, 2019

Don’t use foul or abusive language.  Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.  Ephesians 4:29 (NLT)

…in 1915, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that movies were not considered protected speech under the First Amendment and thus were subject to regulation.[2]  After wrestling with what the movie industry could show on screens for a decade and a half, the 1930 Hays Code became the first ratings system to alert the public as to content in a movie.  That code evolved into the modern-era ratings system (1968 MPAA) created by the movie industry itself.  That system now includes explanations of why movies are classed G (general audiences), R (restricted audiences), and so-on.  Violence, Sex, and Language are the main considerations. 

But it is the why that always catches my attention.  When Elizabeth and I are trying to decide which movie to watch, I look at the ratings.  Explicit language always gets a pass for me.  I just don’t want to hear it.  I threw my lot in with the Apostle long ago, that being a foul-mouth just isn’t helpful to living a Godly life, and being taken seriously as a follower of Jesus Christ.  Foul language displays hatred, and anger; it also conveys a sense of distaste for others, including disrespect and denigration. 

I also have to laugh when I see movies that earn a more restrictive rating (like “R” or “NC-17”) because they contain what is termed explicit language – it’s anything but explicit!  That word means “clear” or “obvious” or “plain”.  What Hollywood calls explicit is simply vocal shock filler, replacing the need for elevating ideas with genuinely-intelligent vocabulary by polluting the atmosphere.  Let’s face it, if you haven’t got the brains to say something clearly, profanity can deflect attention from your ignorance…and if it’s yelled louder, you’ve got a real shot at hiding gross stupidity!

There is a story about the 19^th century author Samuel Clemmens (also known by his pen name, Mark Twain[3]), a man committed to the constant use of profanity, and his wife, Olivia, a godly woman who was always trying to get her husband to clean up his foul-mouthed ways.  She had little success.  

One day Olivia decided to pull out all the stops.  She figured if she demonstrated for him just how awful profanity sounds, he would quit.  Walking into the room where Samuel was writing, she stubbed her toe against the door jamb (on purpose), and then let fly a string of locker-room curses that would have turned any air blue.  Without looking up, or missing a beat, the legendary Mark Twain blew out a puff of cigar smoke and said:  My dear, you oughtn’t talk like that.  Smugly, Olivia replied:  You don’t like the sound of those words, Samuel?  Said the author:  Oh, they’re great words, but you just don’t have the music to go along with it.  In an ironic and perverse way Samuel Clemmens nailed the Apostle Paul’s point, that cussing, foul-mouths are a strange fit for God’s family. 

In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus Paul gave us the higher level for speech, letting every word dropping from your lips be helpful and encouraging.  It’s hard to do that with an alphabet that is only 4 letters strong!

For You Today

Hollywood does nothing but push the limits of culture’s envelope when it comes to holding-up profanity, obscenity, and violence as normative or trendy-cool.  And that means exactly what it sounds like, you can expect next year’s Oscars, Emmys, and Music awards to contain worse than this year’s! 

The question begs:  Is this what we really want our children to see, hear…and become?

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

^[2] The Meaning of Movie Ratings

[3]Image:  Pixabay.com