Semper Fidelis

Monday, November 27, 2023

Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead.  This is the Good News I preach.  And because I preach this Good News, I am suffering and have been chained like a criminal.  But the word of God cannot be chained.  So I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen.  This is a trustworthy saying:  If we die with him, we will also live with him.  If we endure hardship, we will reign with him.  If we deny him, he will deny us.  If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.  

2 Timothy 2:8-13

United States Marines greet each other with the motto, Semper Fi, a shortened version of semper fidelis.[1]  The phrase means always faithful, and is indicative of the character of those who serve a higher guiding principle than self-interest.[2] 

Long before the assembling of U.S. fighting forces, the Apostle Paul wrote to his protégé, Timothy, an aspiring preacher of the Gospel, to encourage and admonish him to serve Christ’s Kingdom with an unswerving loyalty.  Paul described the resurrected Jesus as “faithful.”  Dying with Him, we are raised to newness of life by Him.  Enduring hardship, we will reign with him.  Denying Him, we will be judged by Him.  And, in His supreme compassion, when we are less than semper fi He is still faithful.  This could be summed-up in one short verse:

“I am the Lord, and I do not change.  Malachi 3:6a

By comparison, human beings can be remarkably un-loyal.  Our lives typically begin in one direction and, influenced by any of the seven deadly sins,[3] we change our employment, spouse, promises, gender, and a host of all other possibilities.  Despite the call to be faithful, human allegiance is usually sold to the highest bidder.  

I’m reminded of an elder statesman in the Southern Baptist tribe I met in 1981, Vance Havner, who said:  Faith that Fizzles at the Finish was Fickle from the First.  

It’s true!  Most mottos sound wonderful, even noble; most human attempts to live-up to those mottos have holes like Swiss cheese.

So what is the Rx for our Fickle Faith?

I’m glad you asked…and let me point us back to the Apostle’s opening line to Timothy: 

Always remember that Jesus Christ, a descendant of King David, was raised from the dead.  This is the Good News I preach.  2 Timothy 2:8

If there is anything that can keep us close to Jesus it is the resurrection of God’s perfect lamb, crucified for our sins, raised to conquer death and the grave.  In staying faithful to proclaim that, we also preach Good News to our own souls.

For You Today 

Find a way to proclaim His resurrection every day, in every circumstance, and, as many have said…always preach the Gospel…even use words if necessary.  What that means for each of us is:  nothing will help keep you faithful like engaging in the work of He Who is Semper Fi.

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

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For another post on this text read here:  Gospel Unchained

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^©  

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[1] Wikipedia

[2] See Merriam-Webster Dictionary

[3]  pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger or wrath, and sloth – see The Seven Deadly Sins - LIst

Hope Anew

Monday, November 13, 2023

So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.  Then they will not be like their ancestors—stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.  Psalm 78:7-8

Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, makes a very compelling point of caution for each new generation in humankind to set its hope anew on God so we don’t forget His great power, what He’s done, and how we must not be stubborn about it. 

If there is one consistent, and nearly inviolate reality about the human family, it’s the tendency towards promising fidelity lightly, and then breaking promises in favor of a supposed better way.  Israel’s history is a microcosmic rule-of-thumb for humanity’s proclivity to agree with God today, and discard their allegiance when the road gets a little bumpy. 

From Asaph, fast-forward to Russell’s generation, raised in the 1950’s/60’s.  Yes, we’re talking about the hippy-era, free love, LSD, marijuana, or alcohol, your drug of choice, but everybody joins the march against Vietnam involvement.  Yes, THAT generation!  We were going to be different than our parent’s generation.  Everything was going to be different, and much better than the old folks.  Music changed from swing to rock.  Clothing was unimportant, and we drove VW vans, not Cadillacs.  But the truth is we were just making Asaph’s point…every new generation has its own style, but the root of Adam’s nature, rebellion against authority, puts us on a collision-course with our Creator’s authority.  Our arrogant stubbornness separates us like night and day from God’s love and care.  As the cartoon character Pogo once said:  We have met the enemy, and he is us!

Opposite the viewpoint of the “new” generation is the head-shaking disapproval of the “old” generation.  My parents didn’t like my music, and frankly I’m not too thrilled with the stuff I hear and see in the current generation’s entertainment.  And this makes Asaph’s point as well.  It isn’t the style of any generation that matters.  I can say that unreservedly because you won’t find style-police in Scripture.  What matters is not a generation’s style, but whether they will set their hope anew in God.

This brings a Scriptural focus to the so-called “worship wars” down through the generations.  There is enough criticism to fill the universe with nausea about how people worship.  The list includes music style, traditional style, contemporary style, blended style, liturgical vs. free style, fogey or edgy style, robes or skinny jeans, somber or giddy, silent or bedlam, pretribulation rapturist, or anti-rapturist.  Most everything that creates an argument is a tempest in a teapot about style.  And there is a verse in John’s Gospel that tells us what God thinks about all of it:

For You Today 

A prayer for those with whom you see wide gaps of difference, is to ask God to let the scales of criticism drop from your own eyes, and help you to ignore the style of that next (or former) generation, and pray for them to see the magnificent opportunity and blessing they have to place their hope anew in God’s love and care.  Much better to pray for someone’s blessing than against their style.

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^©   

Finishing Well

Monday, October 2, 2023

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.  For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.  May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.  Philippians 1:9-11

Accomplishing anything worthwhile requires fidelity to what you are called to do.  Soldiers, public officials, and even husbands and wives take a public, solemn oath to discharge their duties faithfully.  There are stages to any undertaking, something like puzzle pieces fitting together.  These include thinking, (learning what the task entails), planning (how the task will be accomplished, the skills, people, supplies needed), and pulling the trigger, or acting on the plans made. 

This was Paul’s prayer for the Philippian believers.  He prayed for their knowledge of Jesus; he wanted them to know-Him, not just know about Him[1].  He wanted them to open their lives fully to Jesus, because Paul had experienced what he was telling them – when you are deeply-immersed in fellowship with Christ it changes your character, your inner being…you become a new creature!^{(see 2 Corinthians 5:17)}  

We become new because our old, sinful nature cannot worship or serve God.

It is this becoming new which drives us past the thinking/learning phase to acting on well-thought-out knowing and planning.  These puzzle parts interlock in such a way to bring meaning to the investment of time and energy.  And it is in the locking of such pieces of our lives that we find God’s creation and power.  Like the creator of a cosmic jigsaw puzzle, meant for others to reassemble, God gives us the box, and describes what the picture will look like once we’ve assembled it.  In faith, we think/pray/imagine how the pieces might fit; in faith we plan, laying pieces next to each other, keeping the finish line of God’s Kingdom in view; in faith we act, placing piece-after-piece together, witness here, worship there, generous giving to those in need, studying, fellowshipping, keeping Christ preeminent in all we do.  This is a holy life, dedicated to God.  This was Paul’s prayer for his beloved co-laborers at Philippi.  He wanted for them what he’d known and lived, and for which he was imprisoned at Rome.

Finishing well is the bottom line for puzzles, as it is for the Christian life.  Paul considered his puzzle a race.  He wanted to finish well, and that meant keeping faithful to Christ.  The last piece of Paul’s puzzle was to pass-along the faith to the saints.  I heard a story the other day about an automobile racing legend…long before NASCAR.  He was known for his team building the fastest cars.  In every start he would have the lead by a country mile.  But in his career, he never won a single race!  His cars were built to run like lightning, but, like lightning, their powerful speed was short-lived.  They were built for a sprint, not a marathon.

For You Today 

Where are you in the race?  Paul was in mid-life when it all got turned upside-down; he had to start over and run hard to catch-up with God’s plan for his life.  Paul is the premier empirical evidence that it isn’t if you started well, but rather if you finish well that counts in Heaven’s ledger.  Here’s Paul’s accounting:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.  2 Timothy 4:7

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(s) courtesy of Pixabay.com                      

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death,  Philippians 3:10

A Well-Tended Will

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.  Psalm 139:23-24

“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.  But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.  

Luke 16:10

A friend and colleague, Dale Bost, shared a thought on Facebook a couple of months ago.  Here’s what he wrote:

God pursues us redemptively and invites us individually, every last one of us, to be faithful to him in the little we truly “have say over.”  There, at every moment, we live in the interface between our lives and God’s kingdom among us.  If we are faithful to him here, we learn his cooperative faithfulness to us in turn.  We discover the effectiveness of his rule with us precisely in the details of day-to-day existence.[1]

Dale’s post started the juices flowing of that occasional self-accountability-check.   I wanted to search-out (like King David) just how faithful my “will” is to God’s will.  I say the need for checking my accountability is occasional because I know me.  And, for that reason, my human nature resists looking too closely at my actions, especially my thought-life.  Deep-within all of us there is a war…continually!  When it comes to human beings’ nature, we’re constantly embroiled in that personal war within; we resist accountability, because we know deep-down that, without help, there’s no way to win that war.  We give-in; we sin.

It is that war over which Apostle Paul so eloquently lamented:

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 7:23-25

In the lament Paul not only held up a searchlight to the problem, but cast a backlight to the solution of sin’s power…Jesus Christ.  His love for us led to shedding his blood on Calvary.  That love covers a multitude of sin.[2]

For You Today 

I had thought about sharing a number of tips to keep your will in line with God’s will.  But they all stemmed from the same root – your will is yours, and it is the one thing God has promised to never possess without you willing it to him.

Recently my bride and I addressed the legal will thing; a trusted attorney friend wrote our wills.  In those wills, we made sure all we possess of this world’s goods pass to our children at our death.  When we signed them, they set in stone (so to speak) our will. 

That was also the will of the Father, as the Son died for us – that we would inherit all His righteousness, and He offers that freely.  The question is, are we willing to offer our will back?  Today’s call is to the surrendered life, your will matching His!

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.  

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Rev. Dale Bost on Facebook, May 15, 2023

[2] Read 1 Peter 4:8

 

Benediction (the Launching, Not the Landing

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Now may the God of peace—who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—may he equip you with all you need for doing his will.  May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him.  All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.  

Hebrews 13:20-21

A benediction is like the familiar words of Jesus when he called himself both Alpha and Omega, not just the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, but the beginning and ending of everything good, holy, and worthwhile. 

This letter of Paul the Apostle[1] to the Hebrew Christians ends with a launch.  It’s like the shuttle lifting off the pads at Cape Canaveral – there have been thousands and thousands of work hours to get to this point, but the journey is now beginning.  

Paul wrote this long explanatory letter, proclaiming to first century Jews exactly how Jesus fulfilled every part of God’s law, and then Paul offers a benediction of grace to fill the launch thrusters that will propel them into a mission to all mankind, of being God’s lighthouse to the lost.

If you’re at all like me, the benediction used to be a pause with a yawn; the worship service is ending, let the nap begin.  Not so in the real world.  A genuine benediction is commissioning…the training and planning done…now the work!

At our church we call it Commissioning and Sending.  Sunday corporate worship lifts our praises, prayers, and open hearts to the Lord’s throne.  The sermon lays out the Word to fill open hearts, and the final act is commissioning.  It’s the act of believers committing to the Kingdom work of spreading the Good News. 

I have this mental rodeo image of benedition (our commissioning and sending); it’s that last nervous moment when the bull-riding cowboy is tightening his grip on that flank rope attached to the 2,000-pound bull under him.  He’s getting ready for the launch on the wildest of rides.  The bull-riding event has been called the most dangerous eight seconds in sports.  When the gates are opened, man and beast are at 180°-odds about staying together.  Eight seconds later the journey is over. 

Unlike the lightning-fast ride and judging of bull-riding, the results of God’s Kingdom work will only be revealed in eternity.  However, the similarities end when you start to talk about value.  In bull-riding a cowboy can get instant fame and fortune, a wisp of a high (assuming he lasts the 8 seconds), and then obscurity or a footnote in rodeo lore.  In Kingdom work a witness of Jesus Christ will receive an eternal crown of glory from the White Throne in Heaven.

For You Today 

Let’s hear again from the Apostle as we begin this day in laboring for the Master:

…may he equip you with all you need for doing his will.  May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him.  All glory to him forever and ever! Amen. 

So…be commissioned…be sent…!

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:   White Flag of Surrender  and  May He Produce in You   

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

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

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[1] The author is not named, but most scholars place it in Paul’s hands.

An Everlasting Love

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.  This is what the Lord says:  “Those who survive the coming destruction will find blessings even in the barren land, for I will give rest to the people of Israel.”  Long ago the Lord said to Israel:  “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.  With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.  I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel.  You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines.  Again you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria and eat from your own gardens there.  The day will come when watchmen will shout from the hill country of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord our God.’”  

Jeremiah 31:1-6

My Mom and Dad were married for more than 60 years.  Dad was always the one who had a funny line (or corny joke).  One of his favorites was telling how, when they first met, Cecilia wanted nothing to do with Elwood.  Then, Dad, with a telling twinkle in his eyes would smile and say:  Yeah…she didn’t like me, but I chased and chased her until she caught me!  Inscribed on the inside of their wedding rings were just two letters, O.F.  Those engravings were the first letters of the words, Only Forever.  Their marriage was not built entirely on sentimental emotion, but the kind of commitment tied to the very last breath God would give them.  It stuck, and I was blessed to have grown up in a family with that kind of commitment and example.  It was a very present assurance, throughout my life, and to the end of theirs, the knowledge, through thick and thin times, without much of this world’s trinkets or position, we always had each other. 

God’s prophet, Jeremiah, reminded Israel with another two words:  coming destruction. There were incredibly difficult times on their horizon.  Blood would be spilled, and freedom would vanish.  They would be at their captor’s whim, serving as slaves to a heartless and evil despot. 

Then Jeremiah delivered the punchline:  their God loved them with a love that was stronger than any captivity or national disaster!  His love was everlasting, never to fade like fickle passions.  No matter what may come, God would be there, and hope was real.

Jeremiah was part of Israel’s hope.  His presence and faithful ways manifested the love and promises of God all the way through the captivities.  Although the prophet himself never saw another day of liberty in his earthly life, God’s promises he’d shared with Israel became the reality of their eventual freedom.  And that everlasting love still stands for God’s beloved nation…and will stand throughout eternity.

For You Today  

The promises of God are eternal, and without wavering.  Here is one of those promises you can count on, because God’s beloved Son, Jesus offered it:

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

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: 

       Giving Thanks   and   The View of Forever Right Now

Images: Title image 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^©