There...In the Darkness

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.  But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact:  God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.  But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”  John 3:18-21

I should have known better.  It was this past Saturday evening that I stood in front of my wife’s new dresser, my hand full of the pills I take each day.  I’ve never had the best aim, but, good grief, how can you miss a preacher’s mouth from one inch away?  One of those little white pills bounced off my chin, hit my shoe, and devilishly-rolled under the dresser.  I got down on my knees in the dimly-lit room, and regretted it immediately, knowing I’d have to get up, get the flashlight, and ease those aging bones down on all fours a second time.  I laid my aching body level to the ground, right in front of the dresser, praying the bones would let me get up again without calling 911.  The flashlight found the pill…just out of reach! 

It was no surprise about the painful relocation of bones, joints, and marrow, or that I’d have to stretch those arm-bones to lengths they’d never known to retrieve that wayward pill.  What shocked me was the floor under that recently arrived dresser; it was covered in more dust bunnies than you’d see chocolate bunnies at Easter.  Now you need to know one thing – my wife’s middle name is White Tornado.  Our kids dubbed her that, because she does pre-emptive strikes on dirt 32-days in the average week.  She moves furniture every time she dusts to clean the unseen (this despite my theory that bugs unseen are not problematic!).

Call it her blind side, but Elizabeth cannot move that dresser…and the malicious dust-bunnies know it; they go there to hide, reproduce, and plot.  I am convinced the dust bunnies have finally unionized and targeted our home because of my bride’s unflinching commitment to dusticide…defined as the systematic, relentless effort to eliminate all that dusty-particle-scourge from the face of the earth. 

Apostle John holds that we humans know about light and darkness, but we more often choose darkness over the light.  A quick glance at our world’s moral/ethical state, and you have little problem agreeing with John.  We are in a darkness stronghold, more than the dust-bunny situation under the dresser.  (Yeah…get that picture of Elizabeth’s dresser out of your mind; yours ain’t any better!)  But here we’re talking about our moral dresser.  For us, it’s a whole lot easier to live with that puppy in the darkness.  Why is that, preacher?  (For the second day in a row…I’m glad you asked).  We like the darkness, because we really don’t want to find anything…and we know there are those things down there. 

·       Attitudes we should have stifled

·       People we wanted to stifle instead of love

·       Good advice we stifled all too often in favor of the bad stuff we craved

·       Things we shouldn’t have done, including the bad stuff we wanted to do, but never had the time…and the list goes on.

We like darkness…full-stop!  And it’s because that spot under cover of the dresser-bottom’s darkness hides a multitude of stuff you can’t see if you don’t look closely.  That is precisely why Apostle Paul, giving advice about how to come to God in worship says we should examine our lives…use a flashlight if necessary to find that bitter pill among the dust bunnies, and bring it out in the light of confession….and then watch God’s light of grace shrivel it up and blow it away!

For You Today 

The old time Gospel-preaching evangelist, Vance Havner used to put it this way:  

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.

Title Image Russell Brownworth (own “dusty” work) Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Next Steps

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Tuesday, December 11, 2018

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.  These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.  In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.  Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.  2 Peter 1:3-7(NLT)

Just like babies climb even a small series of steps, babes in Christ must also ascend.  It isn’t easy to step-up, but growing up in Christ by responding to God’s promises is vital; it’s what makes us useful tools in God’s hands.  And, in the long view, growing-up is what fits our character.  It is natural for babies to stretch and discover how to roll-over.  They stand and wobble as toddlers, falling many times before learning to walk.  They crash and burn learning to ride a two-wheeler.  They venture into social circles at school and learn puppy love can hurt.  We grow, love, hate, learn, and repeat.  We are human.

As spiritual beings this cycle also is familiar.  Peter, the big fisherman, understood spiritual things better than most.  In today’s reading we see him painting the broad stroke first, that God has given us everything we need to grow up and live godly lives.  And then he re-covers the canvass with the detail strokes of how to approach the pattern of next-steps. 

This is where many believers stumble.  We get the erroneous idea that steps are always upward.  In the life of one who is learning, pointed at becoming a useful disciple/servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is never about stepping-upward; discipleship is all about dust.  In fact, the Greek word for servant is very connected to dust; it’s about one who bows low enough to be close to the ground – low enough to wash feet…just like the Master!

Many people get the idea that “faith” is the be-all, and end-all of the Christian life.  It is true that we walk by faith, but that is an entry-point, not a destination.  We begin with a faith-leap that says I will do things God’s way.  

That leads to a step-downward, (backward, if you will) to the moral excellence of eliminating those things which dishonor God, such as sexual sins, dishonesty, lack of respect, and so-on.  

We step down again, studying the Word of God to gain knowledge, so that the next step-down, of self-control, is informed and intelligent, actually doable and intentional. 

As we continue stepping-into the dust we are confronted with the world’s disapproval of our new life, and are forced to add patient endurance to our repertoire. 

And, suddenly, before we know it Godliness is beginning to emerge in our character, and we find ourselves steeped in affection for our brothers and sisters in Christ, which, at dirt/dust level begins to turn our attention to the rest of the human community; we find ourselves hurting for the rest of God’s created beings.  It’s the kind of hurt that only God’s kind of love understands.

For You Today

Next steps in the Christian life isn’t about standing tall; it’s all about getting down and dusty.  And if the world decides to lift you up, to put you on a cross – you’ll be in good company, disciple of your Master!

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Trans-Creation

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Thursday, May 17, 2018

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.  He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. 

Genesis 2:7^(NLT)

The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”  But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit.  What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.  Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.  Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man.  Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man. 

1 Corinthians 15:45-49^(NLT)

There are images from your childhood which never leave.  One of those is a Dennis the Menace cartoon.  Dennis learns in Sunday School that Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, and that we all return to the dust.  Later that afternoon we find Dennis peeking under his bed and calling out to his parents:  Hey…there’s someone either coming or going under here!

“Created from the dust” is a phrase that is remembered, and has been debated for millennia.  Just how God did that has been, is, and always will be part of the debate.  We want to know not only from whence we came, but how we got here.  We are curious.

The fact remains it is by faith…not necessarily by sight…that we simply must accept God at His word.  But what is vitally important about how Adam got here is that part of creation which you cannot dismiss – the trans part…when the dust began to breathe.  For Adam and Eve, and you, and me, breathing began when the breath was placed in us by God, the Creator; this is when we became something other than re-arranged dust.  Again, this is something accepted (or rejected) by faith, because it is not scientifically-provable (or dis-provable).  This is the basis for the argument between creationists, theologians, scientists, and the agnostic/atheistic among us; you either accept God as causative, or not!  I choose to believe the all-knowing One put me together; it was not a chance conglomeration of accidental lottery results in an environmental morass of genetic possibilities; I believe in intelligent order, design, and purpose.  I believe in God.

Once that faith-issue is settled, God’s Word can open our understanding about God’s intelligent design for movement in the human program – trans-creation.  Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church opens the trans shift from flesh (not within flesh as in trans-gender). Rather Paul shows us God’s plan and purpose in moving from within flesh to life in the spirit; we are purposed for heavenly existence.  And we are being fitted for that experience by these baby-steps of human, earthly (dusty) three-score and ten years, more or less, walking in and on the dust of our planet.

So what is that purpose?  What is the meaning of life in the here and now?  And…why?

Well, I’ve got less than 150 words to finish today’s thought, so let’s get to it:  God!

That’s it?  Yup!

The dust from which we were taken may be eternal, and we are simply a newer model of arrangement, to be returned to the compost bin after the warranty runs out; however, the spirit (breath) has no such expiration.  The whole idea of trans-creation means that we are more like God than the trees, bugs, birds, fish, and animals which surround us.  And one day this dusty body is going to wear out completely.  But not so the spirit that resides within.  It will trans-the-creation all the way to the Creator!

For You Today

Another thing the Creator put inside us dusty creatures is knowledge of the eternal, that we are going to live forever.  And included in that is the reality that we are accountable to Him for the way we treat the dust…both that dust in which we walk…and those dusty others around us with whom we walk.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com