Celebrating the Unexpected

Thursday, June 15, 2023

The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised.  She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age.  This happened at just the time God had said it would.  And Abraham named their son Isaac.  Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.  Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.  And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter.  All who hear about this will laugh with me.  Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby?  Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”  Genesis 21:1-7

Two poignant facts emerge from the image of a 90-year-old woman nursing her newborn son:

1.    What a miracle she has experienced, which has brought overwhelming joy where there only existed emptiness and resignation!

2.    Can she possibly have the energy to last through the terrible twos?

I might (with all respect) add a third thought about the father…he’s gonna be 120-years-old when that kid starts college.  Our last child was born when I was 31, and it made me wonder if I’d have the strength.

We could call this the unexpected event of a millennium, but all Sarah could think of was the joy of that moment…she had to celebrate this unexpected gift from God.  And that is entirely spot-on when you suddenly realize you’re standing on holy ground, holding God’s promise in your arms.  It sounded too-good-to-be-true, but it was thoroughly a God-thing.  Sarah had laughed at the idea when she was eavesdropping outside Abraham’s tent as the Lord told him what to name the son (Isaac) his wife would bear next year.  That was the skeptic’s unbelief; now it was the laughter of the redeemed!

There are many things about a walk with Jesus that fall into this category of  unexpected joy, which dumbfound us, and at the same time, bring overwhelming joy and faith.  Every week during worship, as we approach corporate prayer time, my heart breaks a little as the requests for prayer-support reveal care and concern.   But interspersed with those are also prayers of thanksgiving as people celebrate the unexpected answers that came to impossible situations, some undoubetedly miraculous, most a simple sense of thankful awareness that God has graciously met a need.

I have always found the timing of God impeccable, able to both unnerve me by revealing how tiny my faith is, and at the same time bring a healing balm to that shaky faith.  His ways are immeasurably above my thinking. 

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:9

As Father’s Day approaches I’m reminded of my Dad, and the many kindnesses of what he taught me, both with words, and the way he lived a life of being useful and caring.  I’m also reminded of my journey as a father – never perfect in knowing what to do, but always trying to learn how to do better.  And being so very blessed to see and celebrate God’s unexpected gifts blessing our family.  

For You Today 

Once Sarah’s laughter was almost a mockery of God’s promise; in the end it was the celebration of the unexpected gift of promise-fulfilled.  This should give us all hope that, having a second chance, even in the face of our defeats and wrong choices is (and always has been) God’s plan.

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Lenten Walk - Part 8  and  Flamingled  and  Why There Should be Seatbelts on Dentist's Chairs                                        

 

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

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

When God Lets the Arrow Fly

Monday, May 8, 2023

When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land.  God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”  So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.  Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.  Exodus 13:17-18

When God directed Moses to lead his children out of bondage in Egypt, it would have been so easy to march them directly to Canaanland, and let the party begin!  That would have been the way I would have planned the trip.  

It’s about 775 miles from Egypt to Israel, so they could have walked straight there in two months.  But they didn’t cross the Jordan river for 40 years.  Evidently there was a lot more to Israel becoming God’s people, than just 10 plagues and a visit by the death angel, before they would be ready for the prosperity of the Promised Land.

There is much I do not understand about how the sovereignty of God, intersects with the free-will of human beings.  However, the Israelite forty-year layover in the desert[1] is a great teacher of how we can navigate being free-will beings created by a sovereign God.  It all comes down to using the free-will we’ve been gifted, to cooperate with the sovereignty of God’s plans, rather than just do what pleases us.  After all, it is God’s sandbox, and we are visitors, whom God wants to adopt as family.  It pays to be on one’s best behavior!

When it comes to how that behavior shapes our relationship with God, I have this image of an archer with a bow, pointed at a target…the arrow flies, released by the archer.  God is the archer; we are the arrows.  The target to which God points each of us, is the place closest to God’s heart.  He wants us to hit the bullseye (so to speak), and lodge there.  The purpose is blessing.  God wants us close to the source of the universe’s wealth of wisdom and well-being.  He wants what’s best for us.  The problem for we arrows, having been released from the bow string, is we have freedom to be blown about by gusts of winds, or objects (all kinds of sins against hitting the target). 

While God’s eye is never off the arrows he releases, our free will is a type of sovereignty over the moments we are granted to live.  We are pointed at the right target; we have free will to choose how we respond to the direction we’re given. That direction is clearly stated in the prophecy of Micah 6:8:

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. 

The arrow God releases into this vastness of free will invariably chooses to do what is wrong, love power, and walk arrogantly and selfishly, despising God.  And God allows that.  (Full Stop)

The full weight of sovereignty of humankind over their destination is a gift of God to His loved creation.  But the weight of that gift’s incredible value is the corresponding accountability of consequence for corrupting the gift against the holiness of God.  (Again – Full Stop)  We despise God’s sovereignty with our free will, and the result is spiritual Chernobyl.

For You Today 

You have freedom; choose wisely how to cooperate with God today.

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   An Uncertain Path  and  Cloud by Day - Fire by Night   

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] Read all of the Exodus story, from Moses at the burning bush, to the miraculous rescue of God’s people at the Red Sea, and provision of God through 40 years of wandering in the desert.

Living In-Between

 

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.  So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.  But beware!  For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues.  You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers.  But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.  When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say.  God will give you the right words at the right time.  For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.  Matthew 10:16-20

I said “goodbye” this past Sunday to the congregation I’ve served with for ten years; I have not yet said “hello” to the new congregation I’m supposed to serve this year.  I’m in-between.  If you’re between a rock and a hard place, you’re in-between.  If you’re supposed to be as harmless as a dove, but shrewd as a snake, you’re in-between.  If you’re arrested for being good, and you want to scream FOUL, but the one who taught you to wait, instead of trying to force the issue, says to wait for His words…you’re in-between.  There are times when I hate being in-between.  Check that…I hate being in-between ALL the time!

But here I am, and the chaos of life in the in-between times is upon me.  I am neither where I was, nor where I’m headed.  I prefer to have things a lot more planned, clearly-defined, and scheduled.  The good news is that it is just that, planned, clearly-directed and on-schedule; the bad news, for my obsessive-compulsive-disorderly self, is the One who holds the Day-Planner is in Heaven.

I have to remind myself often, that God’s plans, like His ways and thoughts, are on a much grander level than I can even imagine.  And He’s got stuff well in control.  It’s not that I ever doubt that…my perfectionist, impatient, wanna-control gene compels me to try to control what’s going on, and the God who knows exactly what, where, when, who, and (most importantly) why things are going to play-out the way they will…is my LORD.  And it’s something I need to remember…as in front burner…It is He who instructs, commissions, sends, leads, and in every way protects and uses me….not the other way around.

For You Today

One other thing I have to keep tattooed on the inside of my eylids (so I’ll see it often) is that the Christian life is a journey, and I’m always in that in-between place.  I’m not where I was, but I’m being led to where I need to be. 

May the God of grace and peace give you that joyful expectation of this holy journey of life in His plan, His way, and His glory, instead of letting you try to own the cesspool of control, organized materialism, and owning exactly nothing!

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

For other posts on this topic:  Shrewd & Harmless and When Faith Leads to Trouble

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

A Reason to Rise

 

Monday, July 5, 2021

The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary.  Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will.  Isaiah 50:4

I don’t have to be reminded why I get up early; there are two reasons.  First, is that I find it hard to sleep more than about six hours; arthritis and age settled that a good while ago.  Second, sleeping has never allowed me to shake the desire to share God’s wakening messages.  I’ve never imagined myself a prophet, but I share Isaiah’s experience with this.  God woke the prophet to open his understanding to God’s messages.  Clearly God doing the wake-up call is superior to arthritic insomnia, and so Rocky Road Devotions became my early morning discipline during the last decade.  Unless the Lord sees fit to change that, I cannot imagine doing without these early morning meetings with the One who fills my soul with reason to rise.

While this daily meeting with God (and writing out what is impressed to me each day) has grown out of my need for deepening my relationship with the Lord, I have also found (to my unending surprise) there are others in that tribe who need the comfort of a daily word to start the process of daily discipleship.  The daily refreshing of praising God, and feeling His touch is a human need.

So, it doesn’t matter if the auditors be one or ten-thousand, it is God who awakens and speaks to my heart each day before daylight, and if He chooses to bless the weary wanderer on today’s bumpy road, it is my privilege to be part of the rock-removal crew.  It’s a large union!

For You Today

How do you feel about getting the day started?  I mean, everyone starts at some point, because we all sleep, and we all awake…until, of course, that day He takes us home. 

How do you get the day started?  Is it Good Lord…it’s morning.

Or is it, Good morning, Lord…where we going today?

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^©

In Times Like These (or any time)

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.  Psalm 63:8(KJV)

A few weeks ago I sent an email to all our Rocky Road followers to encourage us as we continue under the duress of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Included in the message were four questions:

1. What hope sustains you in this crisis?

2. What are you doing to stay positive?

3. How is this crisis challenging your faith?

4. How has God spoken to you in all this?

One family sent a thoughtful response which pretty much nails my thoughts on what sustains us during life’s crises, and even when there is no threat:

We may not send a video but would love to share our answer to question #2.  We read from the Holy Bible daily, (we actually started our daily devotions as a couple approximately 18 months ago). We sing a hymn or two together and lift praises and requests through prayer to our heavenly Father.  These very basic actions deliver the answer to the other three questions: they deliver hope, develop our faith and allow God to speak to us.[1] 

This response is dear to my heart because it so reflects what my experience has been in writing these devotional thoughts; God’s Word says it this way:

I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words.  Psalm 119:147

The truth, plain, unvarnished, undiminished, undiluted is that we need a guide for this life as much as I would need a technology expert if I were to open the back of my computer and start messing around with all the little wires and such.  We come into this world with precious little understanding of God, other than that stamp of His being on our souls.  Daily seeking in hot pursuit after knowing God is the calling of every human spirit.  It is that seeking after God that made King David and his son, Solomon wise.

It is amazing, and surprising just how a small thing like choosing to come close to God in each morning changes everything.  In the quiet of a morning (minus the snoring of my little dog who “studies” with me each day), God’s Word speaks to my heart, and I cannot tell the numbers of times there have been little dawnings in my soul, awakenings that have charted my course for that day, whether it requires social distancing or not. 

But, it’s not in the method (early morning, late evening, standing, sitting, which version of the Bible), it’s all about the surrender of the heart.  A surrendered, willing heart is God’s fertile soil for what He wants to accomplish in and through a person.

And it is all personal, which extends to the circles of relationship all around you.  When God speaks to your heart in and through His Word, and that heart hears, and that courage is called-forth, kingdoms of darkness are broken with the entrance of light.  

Sometimes it’s as simple as carrying a meal to a homebound person or taking time with the next-door neighbor’s child who wants to talk.  Or stocking your car with bottles of water, or McDonald’s coupons to hand to that homeless guy you’ve passed too many times without meeting a need for the daily bread that was his prayer in the sign he’s holding up with a stained, leathery hand.  God’s Word is more than a light for your path, and a lamp for your feet; it is also a word of encouragement for the downtrodden through your actions.

For You Today

So, what did His Word speak to your heart today?  And will the rest of you hear it?

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 Psalm 68 see A Little More Light - Part 2 and Rescued

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[1] This email response is reprinted with permission.

Why?

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"Why" is a word that gets plenty of use.  We want to know why this happens or that.  We want to understand why the world is in such a mess, why people do terrible things like shoot and kill children in a school, or shoppers in a mall.  We want to know why some obnoxious jerk got the job, and we got unemployment. 

Why is one of the first words a three year old begins to understand he can use to drive his parent crazy from the backseat of the family van!  It is asked no less than 82 gazillion times an hour!

That “why” word must’ve loomed large in the youthful mind of Jeremiah when God called him to speak as Heaven’s messenger. 

Like Timothy, Paul’s protégé’ in the New Testament, Jeremiah figured he was just a youngster, why would all the people in power listen to a word he spoke.  God told Jeremiah to lose that thinking and just trust him. 

The Lord gave the fledgling prophet assurance because of three facts:

1.        God’s Sovereignty

The Lord gave me this message:  “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.  Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”  Jeremiah 1:4-5

God did what only a sovereign can do; he chose Jeremiah.  Sovereigns don’t answer, especially to those they rule. Had Jeremiah not been the one for God’s plan, he wouldn’t have heard from God in the first place.

In this particular case, even before Jeremiah’s mother gave birth to him, God had appointed him to God’s service.  That may seem arbitrary, but we are talking about the same One who spoke the universe into existence; it is the Creator’s right to have His way with the creatures.  Even if we don’t understand or agree with that, there is a part of each of our insides that says we must respect Him.

Remember Lot’s wife?  She had gotten so used to being a resident of Sodom she didn’t want anything else.  When God decreed the destruction of that wicked city it was time to leave; God brought the Lot family out as a matter of kindness.  Mrs. Lot didn’t agree, and even though God had warned not even to look back, she just had to have one last look.  She didn’t respect God’s command or His Sovereignty, and she was frozen in time as a pillar of salt, forever to stare at the destroyed city.

It is not wrong to ask why, but when God says I’ll tell you later – just do what I said, it isn’t time to quibble or struggle.  He is still sovereign over all, and that is a comfort Jeremiah needed if he was going to serve the God with no name.

A second fact that comforted the newly-ordained prophet that day was:

2.        God’s Intimacy

Notice all the personal pronouns that describe God’s relationship with Jeremiah:

“O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!”  The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you.  And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you.  I, the Lord, have spoken!”  Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, “Look, I have put my words in your mouth!  Jeremiah 1: 6-9

Five times in these 4 verses God refers to His personhood “I” and “my”.  And he marries that with “you” and “your” when referring to Jeremiah.  We serve a God who is sovereign, but not aloof.  The whole reason God created us is for relationship.  We are hard-wired for fellowship with God and each other. 

The next time you begin to ask why remember the God of the universe understands every heartbeat of your pulse, intent and purpose of your thoughts and soul, and loves you more intensely than any parent could even imagine.  And on top of that, He is engineering everything to bless you.

28And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  Romans 8:28-29

The ultimate answer to the question “why” is “love” – that word agape’ means doing the best for someone else…that someone is you!  Sometimes the best may not look like it at first…but with God it is always the best in the universe!

Marianne was a friend of Elizabeth and mine years ago.  She and Richard had a mongrel dog they loved named Sadie.  The mutt gave birth to a litter of pups.  She came back in the house one afternoon covered with fleas.  Marianne, a clean-freak of the Marine drill sergeant variety went into overdrive.  She prayed, Lord, how could this happen?  I’m so careful, and I can’t afford another big vet bill, but I can’t put this mama in with the pups with all those fleas.  They took the mutt to the vet and, in the examination the vet discovered the dog had a problem that would’ve killed her, but could be cured with a simple, inexpensive shot.  Marianne came to Bible Study that night praising her sovereign, loving Lord for fleas; FLEAS!  Those little ugly bugs that are 90% teeth may not look like a blessing, but without them Sadie the mama dog would’ve been only a memory.

And then, the sovereign, intimate Lord, who chose and loved Jeremiah, gave his life purpose and direction with a mission to accomplish because of:

3.        Eternity

Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms.  Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow.  Others you must build up and plant.”  Jeremiah 1: 10

Talk about things we don’t understand; God’s plans are certainly something you and I have a great deal of problem comprehending.  God uses a different lens to look at eternity than we do.  Our only choice is to trust Him.

Let’s do a little survey of Bible people who God has used to teach us the reality of trusting a Sovereign, intimate, and eternal God.  These are all people who tried to do right, obey God, but had stuff happen that gave them reason to ask why:

·      Job was a model citizen who served God with a passion; his life fell apart and the pain of not knowing why was killing him.

·      Joseph loved God and behaved himself; his brothers threw him in a hole, then sold him to slave traffickers…why, indeed?

·      Paul gave up everything he’d ever earned, including the respect and trust of the movers and shakers of the world, just to serve God; he got shipwreck, beatings, humiliation, prison, and eventually beheaded.  Why?

·      Peter knew Jesus, and served Jesus, and loved Jesus ferociously; as thanks he got crucified upside-down.  Why?

·      John, the apostle Jesus favored more than just about anyone else spent his retirement years imprisoned in a God-forsaken island prison camp working on the chain gang, digging coal.

But the biggest why of all belongs to the carpenter’s son, Jesus.  He gave his life helping others, teaching love, healing lepers, cripples, blind beggars, feeding the multitudes, and standing up for the oppressed.  They beat Him, mocked Him, and put Him on a cross.  In the end he cried out why have You forsaken me?  I tend to think Jesus understood the cost of sin being forgiven was to have the Father turn his back on Him.  He said that because the pain was great to bear, and we needed to know that He knows our pain. 

He said it to bear our pain…That’s Why!   
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Amen!

Go to Worship VIDEO 

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