Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Look here, you rich people:  Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you.  Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags.  Your gold and silver are corroded.  The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire.  This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment.  For listen!  Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay.  The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  James 5:1-4

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.  There was a man there named Zacchaeus.  He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich.  He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.  When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down!  I must be a guest in your home today.”  Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy.  But the people were displeased.  “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.  Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”  Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”  Luke 19:1-10

It is easy to get the wrong idea if you focus too closely on any issue.  Both James and Luke were Apostles who knew Jesus firsthand.  If you focus on James’ text you could easily arrive at the conclusion any rich person is evil.  But your opinion will be tempered if you understand Luke’s account of what Jesus said about Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, an extremely rich man.  The chief difference between James’ harsh view, and Jesus’ tempered view, was how the riches were used.  In James the rich hoarded the wealth and glutted on it.  In Luke’s account, the rich man, Zacchaeus, repented of his previous selfishness and seriously set on a course of giving, rather than receiving.  

Fast forward two millennia:

The Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the poorest of nations in the world today, has a per capita median income of $1.09 per day.  By comparison, the number in the United States is $72.11.  If we temper all the reasons we know about how we will always have the poor with us,[1] by what we know about God’s view of selfishness, for a beliver and follower of Jesus, the commitment to be a giver will grow stronger, and hoarding will (eventually) disappear.

For You Today

This is a lesson, not just for the most wealthy, but everyone.  We will be judged on what we do with what has been placed in our hands.  When it comes to wealth of any kind, God measures our faithfulness to Him, and our worth in His Kingdom, not on how much we give, but on how much we have in our hands after we give.

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: 

What's in Your Wallet? and Buying God  and Basic Trust; Basic Fear

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

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[1] Mark 4:7

How Much is Enough?

 

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him.  “Only God is truly good.  But to answer your question, you know the commandments:  ‘You must not commit adultery.  You must not murder.  You must not steal.  You must not testify falsely.  Honor your father and mother.’”  The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”  When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done.  Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich.  When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!  In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”  Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?”  He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”  Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”  “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”                 Luke 18:18-30

The painting of Christ with the rich young ruler reveals the angst-filled pathos of not having a clue when it comes to the destiny of our souls.  The young man asked the elephant-in-the-room question everyone else was thinking…uhhh, Jesus, what’s gonna happen to me in the long run…and what should I do about it?

The men surrounding Jesus are listening intently.  You can see skepticism, fascination, and true holding-your-breath-for-the-answer-honesty in their faces.  After all, you don’t throw-off the question of eternity like you’d discard a candy wrapper.  This was important…even a rich man, with the world at his disposal, couldn’t resist asking for insight on eternal life.

Jesus pointed the young man to what’s written in Scripture about obeying God’s commands, honesty, kindness, generosity, and so on.  But the young man pressed deeper, and Jesus obliged him, and went right for the underbelly of the issue; his answer was, quite pointedly:  What’s the most important thing you wouldn’t want to give up?  The answer welling-up in the young man’s soul made him sad, very sad!  How can you let go of what possesses you?

Peter, (to the left of Jesus in the painting) is standing there with hands unfolded in a questioning motion.  The artist, I believe, is giving Peter’s voice that hopeful edge, as he’s reminding Jesus how he and the other disciples left all they had to follow…was that enough?  Jesus’ answer isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card, a Christian believer’s ID you can present at the pearly gates.  It’s more of a reminder that the final judgment on each of us is in God’s hands.  It is the Father who looks into each person’s heart and judges, repaying reward or punishment with absolute righteousness.

For You Today

The question the rich young man asked is not a bad one if you ask it with empty hands and open heart.  But a better question might be:  Lord, I have decided nothing I have belongs to me…what should I do with it; how can I follow you today?

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Unconvinced and More Than Enough

[1] Images:   WikimediaCommons - ©2010 Andrey Mironov   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

The Offering of Love

 

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to bring me their sacred offerings.  Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them.  Here is a list of sacred offerings you may accept from them:  gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread; fine linen and goat hair for cloth; tanned ram skins and fine goatskin leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; onyx stones, and other gemstones to be set in the ephod and the priest’s chestpiece.  “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.  You must build this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you.  Exodus 25:1-9

It strikes me as odd that some people never seem to get it just how important it is to make our offerings to God sacred.  I know there are those who have been disabused by huckster-type (so-called) preachers.  When someone spends the lion’s share of time building the bank account we ought to be suspicious at least.  But God’s own holy word tells us that God wants offerings from the heart. 

The one picture in my mind is the ring I gave to Elizabeth when we got engaged.  By any stretch that ring was not from Tiffany’s; he didn’t go to Jarod’s.  But, for an eighteen year old, whose only job prospect was the draft notice he’d recently gotten, it was way more than he could afford.  And yet, I was so excited to put this ring on her finger I could barely keep the secret long enough to get down on one knee.  It was an offering of the deepest love I knew how to express.  And that is sacred.

A brief look at the list of suitable gifts for God’s temple in today’s Scripture is all you need to understand just how seriously God takes this.

I learned a term for a non-sacred offering from a friend many years ago; missionary tea bags.  It seems there were some skinflints in the church of her youth.  Some of the ladies made a practice of saving their used tea bags to send to those poor missionaries.  Somehow it never occurred to them that, perhaps, the sacrifice of using their own tea bags two or three times, so they could afford to buy new packages of tea to send to the missionaries, would move tea bags into the sacred range.  The point is not missed here; anytime you give God second best (or worse), you’re acting like that’s what He deserves.

For You Today

Offering less than your best is no way to propose marriage, do a day’s work, or raise a child.  It certainly doesn’t come into acceptable range in Heaven, when you give less than your best to a God who gave you the very best of what He had, Jesus!  That was God’s sacred offering of love to us; should we do less?

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

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

The Double-Edged Sword of Adoption

 

Friday, May 29, 2020

Romans 8:14-17

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.  Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.  Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”  For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.  And since we are his children, we are his heirs.  In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.  But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

I learned many years ago that, when it comes to parenting, there is nothing stronger than adoption.  A natural birth carries with it parental rights and responsibilities, for both the parent and (eventually) the child.  This is also true in adoption.  However, as we have seen the move to allow children the right to emancipate from parents, and the rights of parents to disown children, there is a marked and different finality to adoption that makes it nearly impossible for adoptive parents to disassociate themselves from the child they received. 

This concept is immeasurably magnified in the spiritual realm.  When God adopts you as His own, it is enternal and unbreakable.  And it is on a much deeper level than legality.  God’s own Spirit takes up residence within his adopted family to knit together the divine and human.  God’s word declares this to be true, and reminds us it takes a sharp sword to slice that thinly, the distance between what separates us from God as simply His created beings, loaded with free will…dangerously so…and the life that has been surrendered to the adoptive process, as accepted in the beloved family of Jesus Christ.  Yet, that is exactly what God’s Word promises:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 ^(KJV)

And, as we are on the matter of God’s adoptive ways, and the issue of God as parent of us all creative-wise, and God as parent adoption-wise, shall we not also consider the twoedged sword of privilege and responsibility sharpness-wise?

The privileges are well-known, God’s promises for today, and eternal life to boot.  But the responsibilities are just as well known, and just on the other side of the sharp blade.  To be a child, accepted, never disowned, and beloved, is a rare gift, and to be greatly treasured.  To honor that gift is the other side of the sharp sword, namely, responsibility.  For those who take lightly that for which God has shed His own blood, is to tread in dangerous paths.  Yet, today we see so much of that. 

      ·       Commitment has become as vile a word as change

      ·       Discipleship sinks into channel surfing on a Sunday to satisfy itchy ears

      ·       Tithe is a word relegated to all other antiquated, outdated ideas

      ·       …and the list continues, ad nauseum.

And so, a word to those who have truly been adopted.  Accept the Father like He accepted you.  And the best way to demonstrate that is with a life that is lived in honor of the name you claim.

Let’s Pray Together

Lord, we can think of nothing more offensive to the gift you have given of your holy child, Jesus’ death and resurrection, than for those of us who claim to be His followers to live like the world teaches.  Help us keep pushing on to perfecting our living in love, and so honor You in all we do.

For You Today

Here’s a new tattoo for those hands – Will what I do with these honor God?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

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

For another post on Romans 8:14 see A Little More Light and for “Adoption” as a theme see Nearly Abandoned

Unlocking True Generosity

[1]

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, “Beware of these teachers of religious law!  For they like to parade around in flowing robes and love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces.  And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets.  Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public.  Because of this, they will be severely punished.”  While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box.  Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins.  “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them.  For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”  Luke 20:45 – 21:3

Every time we get near Jesus in teaching mode He utters something that turns our thinking upside down.  When he pointed at the widow’s gift and said she gave more than everybody that day, even though she had given the smallest amount, He was showing us the key to opening true generosity in our lives; it’s never how much you put in the offering plate, or the size of the check you put in the envelope to a charity, it’s how much you keep that determines the size of your gift.

It’s amazing how children get this, while adults seem to struggle with it.  Our youngest child is having a birthday today (one with a zero attached…prayer please…happy birthday, sweetheart 😊 ).  When Carrie was little, perhaps only about 4, she overheard her mother and me talking about the income and outgo problem; there was a little too much month left over at the end of the money.  She went to her room, then came back to join us at the table.  We looked at that sweet, innocent face as she held up her pudgy little hand and opened it to reveal four pennies.  It is impossible to forget those words, here, Daddy, you can use my money.  Like the widow who kept nothing back, our little one had emptied her savings to help.

The condemnation of the preachers at the beginning of the story is for pride and the misuse of money.  Well, it seems there’s nothing new after all!  These proud, greedy leaders would have scoffed at the widow’s donation, or perhaps used it to guilt others into giving more to fatten the treasury, but one thing they were never going to do is follow the widow’s example.

For You Today

The Gaither Vocal Band has a song that keeps running through my head, Give It Away.  Think of the widow that day:

If you want more happy than your heart can hold;
If you wanna stand taller, if the truth were told,
Take whatever you have and give it away!
If you want less lonely and a lot more fun
And deep satisfaction when the day is done,
Throw your heart wide open and give it away![2]

Gloria Gaither tells about writing that song.  Let’s give her the last word today:

Bill’s grandfather used to say, “There are basically two kinds of people in this world – givers and takers – so decide which one you want to be.”[3] 

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Watch the video of Gaither Vocal Band singing Give It Away

[3] From Gaither.com

More Than Enough

[1]

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord.  But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”  “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked.  “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”  “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.  And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.  Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you.  Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”  So she did as she was told.  Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another.  Soon every container was full to the brim!  “Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.  “There aren’t any more!” he told her.  And then the olive oil stopped flowing.  When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”                              2 Kings 4:1-7

Scripture goes into great detail to make the point that faith requires little in the way of wealth, health, or strength as the world sees such.  The widow of one of Elisha’s prophet band had nothing to her name but a flask of olive oil, and the wolves were at the door.  When Elisha delivered the Word of the Lord to her she did what she was told.  Faith in God is always a matter of obedience, even in the face of great odds, or little understanding. 

The widow’s mite, an offering of less than a penny’s value by a woman who had less than poverty to live-on, is often held up as the example of true Christian stewardship.  Heaven’s standard for judging your offering is never a matter of how much you give, but what you have left to keep.  

And while that’s so, faith is not the sole possession of those on the margins.  We must also see that the size of your portfolio never determines if your faith is great, puny, or non-existent; sometimes those who are rich, strong, and well-placed in society are also people of great faith.  Job was rich, but was also a man of intense, durable faith.  In fact, he was among the richest, healthiest, and most respected men of his time.  John Wesley had fortunes pass into and out of his hands in his lifetime.  But, as a true “man of God” those fortunes found ways to bless those less fortunate. 

Jesus warned about the trap riches can be to your spiritual health:

·      the rich young ruler preferred his money rather than eternal life

·      the successful farmer built bigger barns to store his biggest crop ever, rather than sharing with his neighbors

·      The rich man (Dives) ignored Lazarus the beggar right on his doorstep.

But sometimes I believe we must be put in difficult circumstances for us to see how relying on God (faith) is our biggest need.   And that was the entire point of Jesus’ teaching in each of the three stories:

The rich young ruler, successful farmer, and cold-hearted Dives all trusted their wealth to carry them into a comfortable life.  They were wrong; the allure of riches comes with a hook – a hook that sets in your soul and yanks it far from the Heavenly courts above!

For You Today

It’s not wrong to have the blessing of money…God can do great things through people who are generous and also listening for the Spirit’s direction how to use what little or great blessings He’s put in your hand. 

But those people for whom money has become their God, the question they really need to hear is, have you EVER seen a U-Haul trailer hitched to a hearse?

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©