Deception's Farce

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.  They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition?  For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”  Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?  For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you.  For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’  In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents.  And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.  You hypocrites!  Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,  ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”  Matthew 15:1-9

If your first thought after reading this exchange between Jesus and his detractors was how Jesus never answered their question, you may have the same problem they did.  The Pharisees and Scribes were nitpickers, focusing like a laser-rocket on tiny details, rather than the larger picture.  But that was not their main problem; secretly, they were more committed to their agenda than getting at the truth.  Jesus had been teaching people how to love and honor God.  The critical committee was “concerned” the disciples might have a germ on their hands when eating.  To the uninformed listener, or someone who bought-into the Pharisees’ authority and credentials, it may have sounded like high-holy righteousness.  However, Jesus saw through their deceit; they were trying to find enough fault to pick him and his teachings apart.  Jesus rebuked them by showing their hypocrisy.

There is a particularly ludicrous form of that deceptive hypocrisy in the culture of the 21^st century.  It is the nit-picking (so-called) “spirituality” of those who have never truly knelt at the foot of the cross and experienced the forgiveness of Christ’s love.  Among the leaders of such are those who came close to the faith, but turned and walked-away.  Having a glimpse of salvation’s glory (and cost), they must self-validate their empty decision to reject the Lord of Glory by tearing his followers apart.  I have seen it too many times to miss this…the most vehement of those who would destroy the Kingdom’s grace in others are those who would never kneel to the Lordship of He who came to forgive and save.  Like the Pharisees, they say they serve the cause of good, but their hearts have fingers crossed behind their backs.

For You Today 

If you have recognized yourself in this, from either side of being guilty, or the target of the guilty, there is only one response…forgiveness.  Offer forgiveness freely if you’ve been attacked; pray for forgiveness if you’ve blundered enough to be the attacker.  Living a life of eternal truth is to destroy every last bit of hypocrisy that wants to eat your soul alive.  Anything less is a deceptive farce; it certainly isn’t worship!

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

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

When the Cross Gets Heavy

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his Kingdom:  Preach the word of God.  Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not.  Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.  For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.  They will reject the truth and chase after myths.  But you should keep a clear mind in every situation.  Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord.  Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.  2 Timothy 4:1-5

What the apostle wrote to young pastor Timothy was not an easy read.  Paul knew something about the “Bell Curve” of church life.  People get excited about second chances, grace, love, and God’s blessings.  But there is more than consumer-friendliness to the Gospel; there are also hard truths for anyone who wants to follow Jesus.  And those truths are not optional-equipment – they are not up for discussion.  Jesus said so, very plainly:

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  Luke 9:23

Paul warned Timothy that he would encounter those who prefer an easy life much more than God’s truth.  The earthly life of Jesus displayed that truth clearly.  By the time the Galilean finished his ministry, the crowds had not only dwindled, but turned against Jesus.  In the end it was an apostle and two women who stood at the foot of the cross.  The five thousand Jesus fed were out looking for someone else to fill their bellies

A church I once served as pastor was on that decline-curve; aging-out was on the near horizon.  At homecoming that year I preached a message about open and closed doors, and how it was our responsibility to pay attention; we should not become the lukewarm church[1].  After the service an older woman, who always sat on the seat furthest from the pulpit with a scowl that would blister titanium, said to me on the way out the door:  You should preach what these people came to hear…we want to hear good stuff, happy stuff…not about churches being closed.  I told her I agreed…I also wanted to hear good stuff…about the church being on fire with love for God, and how they were telling their neighbors about Jesus – but what I wanted came in a distant third to what I was called to preach, which was the truth.  Churches are dying for lack of preachers and members who are more concerned with telling the Gospel, than just living in their happy zone.

If that seems harsh, it isn’t any wonder…it is blunt, and a heavy cross to carry.  But so was the cross Jesus carried to Golgotha…the same cross he said anyone who wanted to be His disciple must carry.

For You Today 

So, what do you do when the cross gets heavy?  Get in the yoke with Jesus.  He has promised to take the heavier side of the work.  Your calling as a disciple of Christ is (as Paul told Timothy) to preach the Word no matter whether people think it’s in-season or out-of-season.  If the Gospel is offensive in today’s culture, preach the Word of the Gospel anyway; the response of the people is in their hands, not yours!  And only God is the judge of all of it!

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

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library. 

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

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

 

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[1] Read Revelation 3:14-22

 

A Light to the Nations

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

“Listen to me, my people.  Hear me, Israel, for my law will be proclaimed, and my justice will become a light to the nations.  My mercy and justice are coming soon.  My salvation is on the way.  My strong arm will bring justice to the nations.  All distant lands will look to me and wait in hope for my powerful arm.  Look up to the skies above, and gaze down on the earth below.  For the skies will disappear like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing.  The people of the earth will die like flies, but my salvation lasts forever.  My righteous rule will never end!  Isaiah 51:4-6

In yesterday’s post I shared some of the popular culture’s opinion about how the “organized church” is boring, out-of-touch, antiquated, and without a hope of continuing.  The look of things on the landscape of the 21^st century would appear to validate that, with less attendance or support, a lower sense of commitment, and cultural norms aimed at whatever pleases the individual.  Community has been reduced to social media clicks, and wokeness for the “rights” of individuals, without the slightest nod in the direction of Heaven.  The 21^st century is a heathen paradise, self-absorbed, inflated, and very angry.

That’s not a pretty picture, or flattering in any way; truth can be quite startling, often harsh on the ears.  But truth cannot be made to be a lie.  We have returned to the days of Noah, where it broke God’s heart he had ever created us![1] 

And truth is why the church matters. 

The truth of our moral collapse, and sin’s great offense in Heaven, is the reason the church exists, to worship God, AND to proclaim His great mercy and love (His light) to the nations.  This is so well declared in Ernest Nichol’s great hymn,   We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations:

We've a story to tell to the nations, that shall turn their hearts to the right,
a story of truth and mercy, a story of peace and light, a story of peace and light.

We've a song to be sung to the nations, that shall lift their hearts to the Lord,
a song that shall conquer evil, and shatter the spear and sword, 

     and shatter the spear and sword.

 We've a message to give to the nations, that the Lord who reigneth above
has sent us His Son to save us, and show us that God is love, 

     and show us that God is love.

We've a Savior to show to the nations, who the path of sorrow has trod,
that all of the world's great peoples may come to the truth of God, 

     may come to the truth of God!

For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright,
and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth, the kingdom of love and light.[2]

For You Today  

Those who believe the church is “done” have misread, or misunderstood history and the nature of God.  He loves the church, his creation, and He also loves every human who has ever drawn breath.  And He has given the church the song of His love to be sung to each generation. 

The Kingdom of Christ is coming, and nothing less than the absolute rule of Christ will count for anything when that happens.

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: 

Consider the Rock  and  I Am; You ARE!

Images:  Title 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^©  

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[1] Genesis 6:5-6

[2] We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations, The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville, UMC Publishing House, 1989) 569

Chains That Cannot Bind

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

During the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.  The Lord gave him victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God.  So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure-house of his god.  Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief of staff, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah’s royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives.  “Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men,” he said.  “Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good judgment, and are suited to serve in the royal palace.  Train these young men in the language and literature of Babylon.”  The king assigned them a daily ration of food and wine from his own kitchens.  They were to be trained for three years, and then they would enter the royal service.  Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah.  The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar.  Hananiah was called Shadrach.  Mishael was called Meshach.  Azariah was called Abednego.  But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king.  He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.  Now God had given the chief of staff both respect and affection for Daniel.  But he responded, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has ordered that you eat this food and wine.  If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded.”  Daniel spoke with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief of staff to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.  “Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said.  “At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king’s food.  Then make your decision in light of what you see.”  The attendant agreed to Daniel’s suggestion and tested them for ten days.  At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king.  So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the food and wine provided for the others.  God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for understanding every aspect of literature and wisdom.  And God gave Daniel the special ability to interpret the meanings of visions and dreams.  

Daniel 1:1-17

The most outstanding teaching from the story of the beginning of Daniel’s (and Israel’s) captivity by the king of Babylon (which is today’s Iraq), is that Daniel’s life, and the lives of his fellow Israelites, was hanging by a thread.  With complete power of life and death in his hand, Nebuchadnezzar could have easily put them to the noose, chopping block, or any of a thousand tortures.  In light of that it is amazing and an overwhelming inspiration for those who would look for a pattern to follow-after in life, that Daniel and friends humbled themselves and placed themselves squarely in God’s hands to determine the outcome, based solely on their obedience to God’s ways, rather than their circumstances, or surrounding culture.

For You Today

The culture in which you live is turning more apathetic towards God with every passing day.  It may be in your lifetime or not, but the challenge is turning-up the heat for those who would follow Christ.  Be careful to pray over the choices you make today.  Ask God to help you act like Daniel, honoring God with every step you take, thought you entertain, and activity in which you participate.  The world will try to put you in chains of their bondage, but God still honors the obedience of any who will bow in Heaven’s direction…the world’s chains cannot bind you!

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

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Working on a Harvest

Friday, June 3, 2022

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God.  You will always harvest what you plant.  Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.  But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.   Galatians 6:7-8

The simplicity with which the Scriptures lay out our choices is sometimes too startling for 21st century minds.  We do not really want “simple” – we want multiple-choice, categories, and options…not just live or die.  To say there are only two choices, life and death, is to court the wrath of the “wokeness police”.  Yet, there it is, in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, King James, and whatever other language you need or want, the harvest will be what you plant, no matter whether you intended it to be that way, or, for that matter, if you think you’re entitled to something different.  The choice is only, plant, or don’t plant.  In short, the laws of harvest remain absolute; you reap that which you plant.

The harvest in the last week or so in America uncovers what we have been planting, cultivating, and are now horrified to own – at least 35 murders in 3 mass shootings…21 in Uvalde, 10 Black persons in Buffalo, and, just yesterday 4 more at a Tulsa Oklahoma medical center. 

Once again we have sowed violence to the wind, and are reaping a harvest of death’s whirlwind.[1]

If you want to pigeon-hole me as to which tribe I follow concerning the gun issue, here are the details (or ammunition if you will):

1.    I own a handgun, loaded, ready to defend our home if invaded.  I never wear it, concealed, or openly.  It stays under locked conditions for safety.

2.    I do not judge anyone…God’s Word is enough, and better at that, than my thoughts by an infinitely exponential mile.

3.    I do blame our culture that twists and bends every sense of goodness to turn a profit, including the NRA’s promotion, lobbying, and lack of decency, and Congress facilitating such under the guise of freedom.  I also include the purveyors of violence who pander to the culture with video games teaching children who cannot put a coherent sentence together, but are fluent in how to kill 98 “enemies” to reach the next level.  They learned this way of life, because we, the American public allow profiteers to spoon-feed violence to our children, and the weak-minded among us.

God has always judged, and will continue to judge, any who add to that.  It is the nature of He who Created us, and holds the next breath we may (or may not) take.  The choice is to be under His will of peacemaker, or under His judgment for peacebreaker.  Simple, uncomplicated, and lovingly just.

For You Today

My Dad was of the generation that didn’t mind letting you know there are consequences for our actions.  Have you ever heard this phrase:

You upset because you don’t think I’m being fair? 

I’ll give you something to be upset about!

I kinda think Dad knew something about reaping the whirlwind.

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

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] A loose borrowing of Hosea 8:7a  “They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind….”

Navigating Life's Tricky Journey

 

Thursday, June 2, 2022

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.  And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.  These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.  But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.  When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear:  sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Galatians 5:16-25

The Apostle Paul’s logic is inescapable; those who truly belong to Christ live like it, while those who do not belong to Him travel a different path.  And any way you care to plot this on a graph, survey, study, or equation, both paths are the result, NOT causative.  If living like a Christian is how you become a Christian, then the pop-psychology of fake-it-til-you-make-it works. 

But that’s just not Biblical.  Paul also said that clearly:

God saved you by his grace when you believed.  And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  Ephesians 2:8-9

So the case Paul makes between Galatians and Ephesians is that we become (or start) our Christian life when we believe.  God’s grace accepts our confession of Christ as Savior and Lord; by His grace we are knit-into the fabric of Christ’s body, the church, and it is akin to becoming a soldier; you’ve begun training, but you’re not perfectly skilled in the art of battle.  You’re learning how to live authentically Christian…following Christ.  You’re also stumbling at times, giving place to anger, selfishness, lust, and more.  But, thankfully, there are those other times when you listen to the Spirit dwelling within you, and you live in love, joy, peace, gentleness…the self-control of one who has chosen the path of the Master. 

All this points to the reality that life was always going to be a struggle.  Paul understood this better than anyone:

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  I love God’s law with all my heart.  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind.  This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.  Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So you see how it is:  In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  Romans 7:21-25

For You Today

The journey of a believer can be tricky.  Just when we think we’ve become immune to Satan’s false leading we get blindsided by the old nature, and sin begins chipping away at our progress.  The Apostle knew he wasn’t perfect; he messed up with exceedingly poor choices, and some vile attitudes.  He also was humble enough to write it down for our sakes. 

If you’ve stumbled, don’t give up…give in to Christ’s forgiveness and strength.

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

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

After the Fire

 

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says, “I will take revenge on my enemies and pay back my foes!  I will raise my fist against you.  I will melt you down and skim off your slag.  I will remove all your impurities.  Then I will give you good judges again and wise counselors like you used to have.  Then Jerusalem will again be called the Home of Justice and the Faithful City.”  Zion will be restored by justice; those who repent will be revived by righteousness.  But rebels and sinners will be completely destroyed, and those who desert the Lord will be consumed.  You will be ashamed of your idol worship in groves of sacred oaks.  You will blush because you worshiped in gardens dedicated to idols.  You will be like a great tree with withered leaves, like a garden without water.  The strongest among you will disappear like straw; their evil deeds will be the spark that sets it on fire.  They and their evil works will burn up together, and no one will be able to put out the fire.  Isaiah 1:24-31

When God starts a fire, no human being can end it before Heaven allows.  To the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Isaiah brought the quintessential Bad News/Good News message.  The moral/spiritual climate of the nation was past reforming; only transforming by the judgment of God would purge the slag from their government. 

That God does such things, moving in judgment on whole nations, is evident in nature; the parallels of God’s merciful hand straightening our crookedness are impossible to ignore. 

When God judges a nation for its sin, the true story (when recorded accurately) also shows the rebirth of justice.  A forest burns thousands of acres until the natural cycle is reborn…out of the ashes.  The forest regrows, in God’s time, and in God’s way.

Lately I’ve been thinking about that cycle. 

When I was a teenager in the early 1960’s my parents looked at the mania that followed the singing group from England, The Beattles, and they imagined the rapture and Apocalypse couldn’t be far behind.  In retrospect the only revolution John, Paul, George, and Ringo started was a fire that would bring deeper moral wickedness, which always accompanies the downfall of (supposedly) great societies. 

Founded on principles of freedom, and the opportunities a level playing field offers to all persons, America has always stood precariously close to the judgment fires God brings to burn off the slag of turpitude.  The great awakenings of American History with Jonathan Edwards, Finney, Whitefield, and, of late, Billy Graham, always held up the image of God’s fire, and the response saw American culture draw-back, like spiders threatened in their web.  In many ways our blessed beginnings have stood in memory sufficiently to avoid the cataclysmic shattering of America on the level of Greece, Rome, or the Third Reich.  But we aren’t (ever) that far removed from the imposing hand of God’s righteous judgment.

Should that judgment come during my lifetime, or after, is entirely a matter for God’s own choosing.  But the falling of judgment is as certain on sinfulness as the sun is hot, and floods sweep away whole landscapes.  Should America keep on the path it now slithers, Isaiah’s prophecy will be revisited from 7^th century BC Jerusalem to these days in Washington, D.C.  May God have mercy on us.

For You Today

No single person moves history (other than what happened at Calvary!).  But each of us has our own part in history.  Like Whitefield, Wesley, and the firebrand preachers of our history, there were men and women who helped…a little here, a lot there…and God gave the increase. 

May the increase be our shedding of the slag before God has to melt us down.

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 Awakening and When the Light Dawns