Hiding From TRUTH

 

Friday, March 17, 2023

But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord:  your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?  Listen!  Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.  Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.  So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”  Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned.  I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.  But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord.”  But Samuel replied, “I will not go back with you!  Since you have rejected the Lord’s command, he has rejected you as king of Israel.”  As Samuel turned to go, Saul tried to hold him back and tore the hem of his robe.  And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to someone else—one who is better than you.  And he who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!”  Then Saul pleaded again, “I know I have sinned.  But please, at least honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel by coming back with me so that I may worship the Lord your God.”  So Samuel finally agreed and went back with him, and Saul worshiped the Lord.  

1 Samuel 15:22-31

A mask hides what’s underneath.  Symptoms can mask a deeper problem.  Criminals wear masks, and use masks to hide their activities when caught.  Even when apprehended in the very act of their crime, an excuse mask is an attempt to wiggle-free from the consequences.  Masks are common, weak, and ever-present; just ask King Saul.

Saul knew what God wanted him to do, completely destroy the Amalekite nation.  He began well, but never completed his mission.  When it came to finishing the task, he tweaked the orders to savor some of the victory for himself.  He didn’t put the Amalekite King Agag (a ruthless killer) to the sword.  He also managed to pocket some of the wealth of the nation (livestock).  The reasons were obvious; parading the captured king Agag like a puppet on a string would build Saul’s prestige among the people he ruled.  And keeping the livestock to provide a feast for the people…well, feed them and who can get angry?  Keeping the critics off your back is sometimes a full-time job when you’re a king (or any other leader).

When questioned by the prophet Samuel about his rebelliousness, Saul put on his best excuse mask, deflecting Samuel’s questioning accusation.  The livestock were for a sacrifice to honor Jehovah.  From Samuel’s answer we can easily see that he saw right through it, and it disgusted the prophet.  He told Saul God was done with him, because he didn’t know the difference between building his own name, and honoring God’s name.  This incident is how Saul found out that, where God is concerned, there is no such thing as playing both sides of truth.  No mask is capable of hiding you from He who IS truth.  Saul tried to claim some of the glory and spoils that God had said were not to be spared.  That is not a plan that ever turns out pretty!

For You Today 

One of the reasons God gave us REGULAR worship is we are surrounded by reminders of what it is like to live in truth, and we are then more likely to value living in truth, than grabbing whatever we can obtain by untruth.  Saul learned that lesson the hard way, and it cost him whatever honor and place in the Kingdom he thought he possessed.  He was afraid of the people’s opinion of him; he should have been concerned with God’s opinion.

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

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:  A Rebellious Servant - Part 1  and A Rebellious Servant - Part 2  

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

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

Jonah...Under His Shade Tree in a Snit

Friday, February 24, 2023

This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.  So he complained to the Lord about it:  “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord?  That is why I ran away to Tarshish!  I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.  You are eager to turn back from destroying people.  Just kill me now, Lord!  I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”  The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”  Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city.  And the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head, shading him from the sun.  This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.  But God also arranged for a worm!  The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away.  And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah.  The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die.  “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.  Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”  “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”  Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there.  It came quickly and died quickly.  But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals.  Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”  Jonah 4:1-11 

Jonah was attempting to float an argument that never floats, that his anger was justified.  He was angry at God for sending him to Nineveh, an arch-enemy of his Jewish heritage.  Jonah knew it was possible that city might respond to God’s sovereignty, repent, and be saved.  And that was the last thing Jonah wanted.  He was angry at the Ninevites for their atrocities on his people.  He didn’t want God to forgive them; he wanted them toasted…extra-crispy.

This look into Jonah’s character is also a peek behind our curtain.  We are not at all different from Jonah, making excuses for our bad behavior, sulking when God doesn’t incinerate our enemies, and blaming God for the awful mess that we have created for the next generation.  We respond with ground troops or drone strikes. 

On a personal level we turn to Jonah’s shade bush for comfort:  drugs, alcohol, or building a bigger and better (and much more lucrative) mousetrap.  And if that doesn’t work to soothe our pouting curmudgeon ways, we settle for making everyone else around us miserable with the same excuses Adam and Eve gave about their rebellion; they blamed God.  Asked by God to account for his behavior, Adam replied: 

“It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”  Genesis 3:12

Jonah’s life was many generations removed from the Garden of Eden, but nothing had changed about rebellion against God’s ways.  And it still hasn’t to this very moment.  The prophet predicted that.  Preaching about why a Messiah would have to die for our Jonah attitude and ways, Isaiah said:

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.  We have left God’s paths to follow our own.  Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.  Isaiah 53:6

For You Today 

This Lenten season, stay away from Jonah’s bush of complaints; instead, hang out with the Psalmist:

Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 

Psalm 37:4

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: 

Fall - Redemption - Obedience  and  It's Not Easy Being Green      

Images:  Title Via WikimediaCommons   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

What Have You Done?

 

Friday, February 25, 2022

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made.  One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”  “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.  “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat.  God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”  “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.  “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”  The woman was convinced.  She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.  Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.  At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.  So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.  When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.  So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.  I was afraid because I was naked.”  “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked.  “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”  The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”  Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”  “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”  Genesis 3:1-13

The typical default of humankind is to deny responsibility.  It started with Adam, and ended…nowhere.  Bill Watterston’s Calvin and Hobbes took me back to Eden, and the epic struggle of the human family to escape responsibility for what we do, and, therefore, what we are…sinners.

Calvin is six, and has a thought-world that Stephen King would die-for.  He comes to his Dad and announces:  “Ive concluded that nothing bad I do is my fault”.  In the conversation Calvin blames his youth, bad influences (just like Adam blamed his wife), and today’s cultural false values. 

 In the end Calvin takes no responsibility at all for his behavior…it’s society’s fault! 

Calvin’s Dad (representing the typical answer from God for such nonsense) turns the table and replies:  Then you need to build more character.  Go shovel the walk.  Calvin, shovel in hand, trudging through the snow, summarizes with a sigh:  These discussions never go where they’re suppposed to.

In the end, Calvin, my friend, these attempts to shed responsibility reveal that which IS our character; the discussion ALWAYS goes where God wants to take us…back to truth

For You Today

The Psalmist gives us right perspective on our Adam and Eve tendency.  Today’s final word is the antidote to any temptation to be Calvin:

Exalt the Lord our God!  Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!  Psalm 99:5

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

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

 

Loved and Belonging

 

Thursday, January 14, 2021

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!  Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

It’s easy to feel insignificant in this universe.  It occurred to me that may be one reason those who feign atheism do so…overwhelmed with the immensity of the cosmos, one cannot imagine God thinking of a single creature as consequential.  It’s like whistling in the dark to ignore-away the bad things that can happen.  A professing atheist feels alone and therefore without purpose or reason for existing. 

We whistle (or scream) against the night of our fear. 

And yet, for those like the Psalmist, who choose to acknowledge God as Sovereign Creator and sustainer of life, the terror of being alone is dissipated, evaporating like a morning mist…and in its stead there is a wonderful dawning of, not just significance or purpose to this existence, but an unfolding and undeniable sense of being loved; of belonging. 

In my youth the prospect of staking it all on trust that a god I could not see would deign to love one like me, small and insignificant…well, it was more than I could bear to face.  So, I hid in the security blanket of agnosticism, a denial that anyone can know the truth about where we come from, and therefore, without definitive understanding about meaning or purpose, I could not be blamed for bumbling around about God.  In time, I realized that would not do; it was much like a stay of execution for a man on death row, or a baby sucking on a pacifier – it passed the time but did nothing for the sense that time would eventually run out on ignoring God.

And then God once again spoke through the Psalmist to my childish excuses:

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 8:3-9

God spoke significance into my heart.  He told me I was with consequence in His eternal existence, crowned with a Godly glory and honor; I bore His image, and I have purpose in His will and plans for everything created.  I, the dust speck, born to a simple, unremarkable family…was on His mind.  Frankly, the thought still leaves me breathless.  But I have discovered, in the passing of time, that, along with John Wesley’s famous last words, that the best of all God is with us, He is still with me. 

For You Today

Faith, the journey upon which we all explore our relationship to everything, is only possible when one takes the leap of moving forward…not whistling – worshipping.

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

Calvin and Hobbes (cartoon) by Bill Watterson

For other posts on this text see Still There and The Doily      

 

The Riddle of Chicken and Egg

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.  But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.  They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.  Psalm 1:1-3[1]

I’m inclined to believe what Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote[2] about how things evolve in the human motivation towards good and evil:

At first, art imitates life. Then life will imitate art.  Then life will find its very existence from the arts.  

Of course, there’s a lot of debate about the arts and how such may influence culture.  Does a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone shooting everything in sight cause young minds to turn towards shooting up their schools?  Does Johnson & Johnson’s 82 billion dollar[3] a year opioid sourcing (or any of the other, perhaps less successful or less known drug cartels) cause young people to get hooked on the death of brain cells?  Is it life imitating art, or the other way around? 

My short answer is that life comes first.  But, for this fallen world, the seed of the egg is inherent of the chicken.  We inherited our sin nature, and just like apple seeds produce apple trees, so whatever is done produces like kind.

In Genesis we learn of God’s creative ways.  In the beginning there was nothing, and God began to speak things into existence.  He created vegetation, animals, fish, reptiles, and birds, as well as the human race.  In each of these is the capacity (seed) for reproduction. 

Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit.  These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.”  And that is what happened.  Genesis 1:11

“From which they came.”  Seed comes from the plant; chicken first, egg follows!  Frankly, art only happens because there is cognitive intelligence to create.  That demands there be intelligent chicken to produce an egg.  To be otherwise, an egg first, there would have to be an eternal god of plants, or eggs, birds, fish, reptiles, and humans (not to forget the eternal universe itself), each creating the first egg of each.  Elsewise the whole notion of an eternal and sovereign God is nonsense. 

So, why the confusion?  Creation first; egg follows, each producing its own kind. 

One other thought here about the confusion:  the confusion, or even invention of an egg-first theory is our excuse for bad behavior. 

Huh?  What?  Explanation, please.  OK, I’ll try.

Since we are created beings with free will, when our behavior is less than what Sovereign God approves, we always look for someone or some thing to blame.  Adam blamed Eve; Eve pointed to the serpent, and Cain just didn’t want to talk about it. 

In the case of violent films, drug pushers, and a whole host of other influences in modern (and ancient) cultures (including my mother dropped me on my head when I was a baby), these become handy excuses for our unacceptable choices. 

Sometimes the simplest explanation is just too painful…but so is admitting our sins.

For You Today

It’s Lent…a time for confessing our sins, not excusing how we got them.

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

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

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[1] For more posts on Psalm 1 see The Struggle Between Good and Evil

[2] "Fyodor Dostoevsky." AZQuotes.com. Wind and Fly LTD, 2019. 29 December 2019

[3] Biospace report

When It Was Dark

[i]

Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem:  “Build homes, and plan to stay.  Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.  Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren.  Multiply!  Do not dwindle away!  And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”  Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

During last week’s prayer time in worship one of our members[1] asked that we pray for the strength to build the church back up.  I have not been able to get that thought out of my head since.  Then Jeremiah’s message showed up in today’s lectionary, and I took that as more than a coincidence; I feel certain it was a prompting from God’s Holy Spirit to lift up His plan for what we are to do to build the church back up. 

Today Jeremiah tells us exactly how to do what we must.  I believe strongly that the Old Testament gives us understanding of what Jesus came to do in us and through us.  That is, to build the Kingdom.  And, frankly, the building process doesn’t end when you’ve got a building in Bennett or Seagrove.  That building process will be complete when Jesus comes back for His bride.  Until that time, in good times of plenty, or in lean times when it is dark, our mission is unchanged; we must be working on building the Kingdom of God until He comes.

It’s no secret that we live in a dark time.  It is culturally-dark, with ungodliness proliferating, violence and anger ruling in every dark corner.  Sexual perversion is at a height most of never dreamed possible.  Dishonesty, lying, and a complete absence of integrity in government, business, and even churches.  And, on a close-to-home note, our United Methodist tribe is in a time of divisive, vitriolic upheaval that is almost certain to end in another General Conference that will make the shootout at the OK Corral look like a minor disagreement between kindergarten children.

Now, I am not about to give you a six-step surefire plan that will fix the United Methodist church, or grow this one.  I’m not going to announce a 30 day fast, or 40 days of planning and preparation for new programs.  I just want to point to what Jeremiah said to people who were going through darker times than we are. 

He told them to live! 

Jeremiah told God’s nation, Israel, demolished and demoralized by King Nebuchadnezzar’s storm troopers, to live.

He told them to live, despite the fact that their city, Jerusalem lay in ruins; the walls of the city had been torn down, temple desecrated, looted, and burned!

But Jeremiah did more than just say live;

He told them to live…and have hope!

Notice in the text the prophet told them to build, plant, marry, have plenty of children and grandchildren, and work for peace and prosperity where they were, exiles in Babylon, nearly a thousand miles from their Jerusalem homes! 

Jeremiah demonstrated his preaching by buying a piece of property in a dead city.  He bought a plot of land in Jerusalem while he was in jail (and “jail” would’ve been a fancy name…it was actually a hole in the ground with bars overhead).  Land was worthless in the conquered city, as was the currency of Israel.  But God had said Israel still had a future.  And when you believe God, you act that way.

For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’”  Jeremiah 32:15

Jeremiah’s preaching became Jeremiah’s practicing!  And that’s what we should begin to do…live with hope!  That means we must live like we say we believe…trusting God with our time, talent, and tithe. 

We live, not moping…but hoping…giving our best, serving like servants, even when it’s dark; we work like there really is a Kingdom in the building process!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Amen!

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[1] Linda Sorrell at Mt Zion UMC

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[i] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com.    All Scripture quoted is from The New Living Translation (unless otherwise stated)