Wondering About the Big Stuff

 

Friday, January 1, 2021

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:1-9^(NLT)

When you’re little the big questions always begin with “why”.  Children want to know why they can’t have that whole gallon of chocolate chip ice cream.  They want to know why they must go to bed now.  They want answers!

The questions usually expand with age and curiosity.  If the curiosity continues to grow, and never finds its home in faith, the questions tend to lead down the path to cynicism and despair…and more wrong answers. 

But if faith in the Creator leads anywhere at all, it always comes back to this basic question of WHY; why…me?  Why am I alive: what purpose does this life serve?

The cynics who have come up empty and devoid of faith will say there is no purpose; we are meaningless blobs of protoplasm that have managed to evolve and pollute the earth to the point where it will eventually fold us back into a tangled mess with all the other useless, meaningless beings of all time.  One day this planet will explode or implode; just choose your poison!  

Those who choose to believe this kind of nonsense will also find a way to make a complex answer to every other simple question like two plus two equals seventy-one, unless its Tuesday, in which case I want the answer to be different…I’ll let you know what that answer is if you will just be quiet about God.

But those who have taken the leap of faith will eventually arrive at a more meaningful discovery to the question of “why” – that answer is:  because…God! 

Going back to the beginning of human existence we find the answer to life’s most basic question:

So God created human beings in his own image.  In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them….Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”  Genesis 1:27, 2:18^(NLT)

We are created in God’s image, with a hunger for relationship (the response God hardwired in each of us because He knew it is not good to be alone).  And since that is so, it is also true of the One in Whose image we are created.  This is the portal of understanding for every other question that begins with Why…? 

It takes faith (and a little common sense) to begin with the answer (God) and work back to where your questions live…but that’s the substance of things not seen; the evidence of things hoped for…that’s the magnificent path of discovery you’ll find when you ask God “why” like a Psalmist!

For You Today

If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable with not having the answers, try resting in the purpose for which God created you in the first place…relationship with Him!

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

GO TO VIDEO

[1] Title Image: Courtesy  Pixabay.com

[2] Hebrews 11:1^(NLT)

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

For other posts on this text see Wondering About the Big Stuff - Part 2 and Wondering About the Big Stuff - Part 3  

This devotion first appeared on Rocky Road Devotions Friday, August 28, 2017

 

When Destination Enters the Journey

Monday, March 23, 2020

In the beginning the Word already existed.  The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John 1:1

So the Word became human and made his home among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.  John 1:14

Genesis tells us that when humans sinned in the Garden of Eden it broke the fellowship between man and God.  But it also broke the intended destination of mankind.  We are created for relationship and residence in our ultimate destination, the presence of God.  We are His family.

Jesus had that.  As the Word, Jesus was with God.  Jesus was always at the Father’s side in unbroken fellowship since before time began.  But it was interrupted by the cross of Calvary.  He came to dwell among us and die for us.  Fellowship with God was our intended destination.  When sin shut down man’s journey, Jesus came to enter and walk the journey with us. 

The Bible tells us that Jesus promised that:

“I will never fail you.  I will never abandon you.”.  Hebrews 13.5b

Before September 2001 many Americans felt safe, like our borders were largely impenetrable.  Nowadays the word terrorist is a daily part of our vocabulary; it is an uncertain and anarchy-prone, tumultuous world in which we live. Our children walk their journey somewhat nervous and cynical about the future. 

And, who doesn’t get even a little concerned, (or full-blown manic) about the novel coronavirus, Covid-19?  I went into a store last week and intentionally stuck my left hand in my pocket, so I’d only use my right hand to touch things.  I did everything one-handed, and when I got back to my car, I used the left hand to drench/cleanse my right hand with sanitizer. 

Life is different than it used to be…and isn’t that the nature of a journey into the future?

Jesus came to walk this valley journey with us.  He is the destination for which our souls were created, and that for which we crave.  But Jesus does not make us wait to get there – Jesus, our destination, has entered the journey to run the race with us.  What a joy!

For You Today

The main issue here is one of faithfulness.  Jesus is eternal, and yet he walks this temporary journey with us.  When He says, I’ll never abandon you, He isn’t just talking about this week, or as long as you do everything right.  This is an eternal commitment from Jesus to each of us who follow Him. 

How comforting is that thought!  It’s good to know you have something you can count on during this difficult and uncertain journey we call life. 

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

Go to VIDEO 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on John 1 see Catch  or  And the Word Became Flesh

When Waiting Seems Hopeless

[1]

Monday, December 4, 2017

Then I saw in heaven another marvelous event of great significance.  Seven angels were holding the seven last plagues, which would bring God’s wrath to completion.  I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire.  And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name.  They were all holding harps that God had given them.  And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: 

“Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty.  Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.  Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name?  For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”

Then I looked and saw that the Temple in heaven, God’s Tabernacle, was thrown wide open.  The seven angels who were holding the seven plagues came out of the Temple.  They were clothed in spotless white linen with gold sashes across their chests.  Then one of the four living beings handed each of the seven angels a gold bowl filled with the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.  The Temple was filled with smoke from God’s glory and power.  No one could enter the Temple until the seven angels had completed pouring out the seven plagues.       Revelation 15:1-8^(NLT)

The waiting game in Advent can seem rather pointless, particularly if you’re bent towards cynicism.  Even if you’re well-balanced and reasonably optimistic, life in the culture of the 21^st century can bend you that way.  As children we wait in the back seat of a car, wait for a diaper to be changed, wait to be liberated from the high chair so we can go out and play, and we even wait endlessly for teeth to come in so we can finally chew our big brother’s homework papers to shreds.  Then as we mature there are lines in school cafeterias, PE class, and graduations.  We wait in lines at the Motor Vehicle Department, Social Security, Army Induction Center; we wait for job interviews and for a marriage license.  Last week some of you waited in lines at ungodly hours for Black Friday deals.  Some of us wait in church for the Pastor’s sermon to finally be over.

We wait!

And so the yawn comes as no surprise when waiting becomes the main theme of Advent.  We are asked, by virtue of the last great event (Jesus’ first advent) to think about, anticipate, prepare for, and meditate on the next great event, His next (and final) advent…the Second Coming.  We yawn (and sometimes dread) shopping again for the endless list of Christmas presents.  We yawn (and always dread) putting up the same tree lights and pumping-up Frosty for the front yard.  We yawn over the endless cycle of it all, and wonder if the real thing will ever get here.  Once again we become 5 years old in the back seat of Dad’s Plymouth whining…are we THERE yet?

Guilty as charged…that’s me.  I can be Scrooge and the Grinch all in one delightful package at least somewhere in this season. 

But I’m working on it. 

And I need passages like John the Revelator’s heavenly scenes of God’s final act in human history.  I need to entertain the wonderful glory of his mighty and righteous acts.  My soul craves the setting at right that which has been wrong. 

And so I need the endless waiting of Advent…because it isn’t endless at all.  In at least one very important sense, every time I allow myself to let go of the dread of the waiting game and actually enter into its fullness, I experience Christ’s presence.

And isn’t that the whole point?  The waiting really makes my heart grow fonder towards He who is our true North!

For You Today

Amid the darkness of black Friday, cyber Monday and whatever other marketing scheme dominates the horizon, take a few seconds to block it all out and enter Advent; wait today with purpose!

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Wondering About the Big Stuff

[1]

Friday, August 28, 2017

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:1-9^(NLT)

When you’re really little the big questions always begin with “why”.  Children want to know why they can’t have that whole gallon of chocolate chip ice cream.  They want to know why they have to go to bed now.  They want answers!

The questions usually expand with age and curiosity.  If the curiosity continues to grow, and never finds its home in faith, the questions tend to lead down the path to cynicism and despair…and more wrong answers. 

But if faith in the Creator leads anywhere at all, it always comes back to this basic question of WHY; why…me?  Why am I alive, and what purpose does this life serve?

The cynics who have come up empty and devoid of faith will say there is no purpose; we are meaningless blobs of protoplasm that have managed to evolve and pollute the earth to the point where it will eventually fold us back into a tangled mess with all the other useless, meaningless beings of all time.  One day this planet will explode or implode; just choose your poison!  Those who choose to believe this kind of nonsense will also find a way to make a complex answer to every other simple question like:  two plus two equals seventy-one, unless its Tuesday, in which case I want the answer to be different…I’ll let you know what that answer is if you will just be quiet about God.

But those who have taken the leap of faith will eventually arrive at a more meaningful discovery to the question of “why” – because…God! 

Going back to the beginning of human existence we find the answer to life’s most basic question:

So God created human beings in his own image.  In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them….Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”  Genesis 1:27, 2:18^(NLT)

We are created in God’s image, with a hunger for relationship (not good to be alone).  And since that is so, it is also true of the One in Whose image we are created.  This is the portal of understanding for every other question that begins with Why…? 

It takes faith (and a little common sense) to begin with the answer (God), and work back to where your questions live…but that’s the substance of things not seen, the evidence of things hoped for[2]…that’s the magnificent path of discovery you’ll find when you ask God “why” like a Psalmist!

For You Today

If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable with not having the answers, try resting in the purpose for which God created you in the first place…relationship with Him!

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy  Pixabay.com

[2] Hebrews 11:1^(NLT)