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!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

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^©  

---

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

...and they Punish the Innocent

Monday, August 15, 2022

What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart!  They even mock God and say, “Hurry up and do something!  We want to see what you can do.  Let the Holy One of Israel carry out his plan, for we want to know what it is.”  

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.  What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever.  

What sorrow for those who are heroes at drinking wine and boast about all the alcohol they can hold.  They take bribes to let the wicked go free, and they punish the innocent.  Isaiah 5:18-23

Isaiah was no stranger to the culture of movers and shakers at the center of Jerusalem’s elite.  He was prophet in the land of Judah at a time when God’s people were led by self-absorbed, hedonists, who cared little for God or the people they were called to serve.  Their primary interest was only focused on the next party in town, and the next deal they could swing to fatten their power and bank accounts.  The suffering of families in poverty and starvation were not on their agenda; they had business, self-elevating business, to which they must attend; everything else had to wait – even if it punished the innocent.

We have a problem with that these days, and have had that as a problem since the Garden of Eden.  Where there are rulers over people, there is corruption and suffering of those ruled.  And those who suffer most are those who are the least able to defend themselves.  In America, they are located in the womb.

Seven weeks ago (June 28, 2022) the Supreme Court issued its decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that allowed for abortion.[1]  In the last half-century millions of babies have died because Americans supported the rights of the woman (and man) outside the womb, as having precedence over the rights of the minor child growing within the womb.  The innocent were punished.

I applaud SCOTUS for having the courage to say emphatically the court messed it up 50 years ago, in political-pandering to those who wanted no fetus to interfere with their lifestyle. 

And, making no mistake about who’s to blame, the court that made that decision in 1973 was 9 men and 0 women.  The current court which overturned the death decision of 1973, has 6 men and 3 women.  Seems a move towards equality has common sense!

For You Today

The struggle isn’t over.  It won’t be as long as hearts are selfish, and God is ignored.  Until then the innocent will be punished.

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

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:  Small Package - Big Message and Eyes that Do Not See; Ears that Do Not Hear      

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

---

[1] Full Text of Supreme Court Ruling Overturning Roe v. Wade

Truth Waiting for the Hangman

 

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

What can I say about you?  Who has ever seen such sorrow?  O daughter of Jerusalem, to what can I compare your anguish?  O virgin daughter of Zion, how can I comfort you?  For your wound is as deep as the sea.  Who can heal you?  Your prophets have said so many foolish things, false to the core.  They did not save you from exile by pointing out your sins.  Instead, they painted false pictures, filling you with false hope.  All who pass by jeer at you.  They scoff and insult beautiful Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city called ‘Most Beautiful in All the World’ and ‘Joy of All the Earth’?”  All your enemies mock you.  They scoff and snarl and say, “We have destroyed her at last!  We have long waited for this day, and it is finally here!”  But it is the Lord who did just as he planned.  He has fulfilled the promises of disaster he made long ago.  He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy.  He has caused her enemies to gloat over her and has given them power over her.  Lamentations 2:13-17

The prophet Jeremiah is generally accepted to be the author of Lamentations.  His is not a message positivity thinkers would appreciate.  Truth be told, Jeremiah had little positive affirmation in his life.  Every time he opened his mouth to speak the Word of God to God’s people, he either developed a new enemy (or a few thousand) or got thrown in prison.  Church tradition suggests he was stoned to death for heresy by Jewish leaders in Egypt.  He spent a lot of time waiting for the hangman.

In that waiting Jeremiah saw clearly what national catastrophe looks like.  In the case of Jerusalem, the prophet predicted, and lived to see the day when that beautiful city of God set on a hill was defeated and destroyed, its citizens reduced to either slavery or starvation, or both.  And what the prophet said about it all must have been like salt rubbed in the wounds.  It wasn’t unfair; it wasn’t God abandoning His covenant, or somehow falling-down on the job.  It was God fulfilling His covenantal promises that, if Israel served God faithfully, His promises were of life, strength, and a never-ending sense of peace and joy.  On the other side of that coin of promise was a warning, that if they served other gods, they would experience the wrath of judgment.  It wasn’t hard for Jeremiah to connect the dots; Israel had wandered into the far country of idolatry and sin.

James Russell Lowell penned the famous words concerning truth and wrong, particularly in public life, and poignant for any nation:

Perhaps Lowell had Jeremiah’s day in mind when he wrote this, but it certainly looms larger over the next four years (or any moment in time) than any appraisal of the economy, international relations, poverty or justice, compared to what God is doing in plain sight to a nation so divided and angry. 

In America we are busy electing our governmental leaders for the next cycle.  As of this writing it’s unclear who will be president or control the Congress.  But one thing is clear – whoever sits in a Senator’s chair, or at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, that person will not be without sin.  The real question is whether the people who are ruled by the elected leaders will take truth off the scaffold and send the hangman to remove wrong from the throne.

Now, I am not suggesting a bloody revolution – indeed, just the opposite.  I am suggesting what another prophet (probably Ezra) wrote about the government of Israel and how they were falling into worshipping other gods, and the only true path the people can take to extricate themselves from impending judgment:

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

For You Today

May I suggest that we spend a lot less time talking about how right (or wrong) the election’s outcome may be?  May we begin the process of placing truth back on the throne by humbling ourselves, praying, seeking God, and weeding out the sins in our own lives?  God responds to what His people do…whether evil or good.

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

GO TO VIDEO

Title image:  via Wikimedia Rembrandt (in public domain)   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on 1 Peter 2:13-17 see:  An Honorable Life and Honorable Behavior - Part 2