Morning Prayer

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Your laws are wonderful.  No wonder I obey them!  The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.  I pant with expectation, longing for your commands.  Come and show me your mercy, as you do for all who love your name.  Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.  Psalm 119:129-133

Laws are meant to be broken!  So goes the twisted thinking of the outlaw.  Yet, those who perceive themeselves as uniquely qualified to judge the laws of God and man do not realize (or perhaps they do not care) that by ignoring how the Sovereign Lord has designed life to be a blessing, they are storing up misery for themselves, and anyone who will follow their lead.  Jesus, speaking to religious leaders who were largely hypocritical imposters, said they looked like big shots, parading around in their expensive robes, but on the inside they were lawbreakers; their hearts were set on their own will, not God’s:

 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Matthew 23:28

The “law” the Psalmist characterized as “wonderful” was what we commonly call the Ten Commandments[1].  What makes them so wonderful is the power they contain to make life wonderful and a blessing to all who live within their parameters.  Consider the outcome when we live God’s way:

1.    No other gods – Life is better with focus…not a thousand different gods.

2.    Worship God, not what He has created – again focus…worship only God.

3.    Keep God’s name holy – think of life without Hollywood’s profanity!

4.    Sabbath reserved for worship – we often forget important stuff.  A routine that includes worship guards against slipping-away from good living.

5.    Honor father & mother – what you do is what you’ll also receive…honor.

6.    Do not murder – would our lives be better off with less homicide?

7.    Do not commit adultery – wouldn’t trust be better than constant suspicion?

8.    Do not steal – would life be better if we could do without locks on things?

9.    No false witness – if truth reigned, the courts would be empty.

10. No greed for what’s not yours – would life be simpler if we were people of glad contentment – both for what we have, and glad for what our neighbor has worked for?

Now that’s the short list of benefit tracks that could make life much sweeter.  There could be volumes written on all the side benefits associated with living like God designed it.  But the chief benefit of all is being able to approach God at any time of day with confidence that your prayers will be heard with Heaven’s favor.  The value of having an up-to-the-minute relationship with the King of the Universe is eternal joy.  Knowing He loves you is wonderful, but sensing His presence, because your heart is clean before Him is abundance in all that makes life worthwhile. 

For You Today 

My morning prayer, every morning tracks with the Psalmist’s thought:

Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.

I want that more than life itself. 

If in this moment it was possible for you to have a house valued at $5-million, and a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, $3-billion in the bank, and be elected President of the United States – OR an up-to-the-minute, intimate friendship with God, which would you choose?

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,600 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^©  

---

[1] Exodus 20:1-17

The Sins of the Father

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will greatly increase the human population and the number of animals here in Israel and Judah.  In the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation.  I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it.  But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up.  I, the Lord, have spoken!  “The people will no longer quote this proverb:  ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste.’  All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.  “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.  Jeremiah 31:27-31

This text was the focus of study in this past Sunday’s lesson at church.  That phrase about children experiencing puckered mouths because their parents ate some sour grapes became a well-known idiom of that time, largely due to sin’s judgment affecting an entire family.  It was Old Testament law:

I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.  Exodus 20:5[1]

But Jeremiah said that was all coming to an end.  God’s special people would be responsible individually for their sins.  No longer would judgment extend to the son for the sins of the father.  The inverse would also be true…no longer could there be an automatic benefit of righteousness because you were born into a household of the righteous.  Each individual would bear the judgment of his or her own actions.  That was welcome news to Israelites born during the Babylonian captivity.  They had been born slaves, due to the sins of their ancestors; now they were to be a restored nation.

In his day Jeremiah delivered mostly unwelcome news, judgment – a message of gloom and doom approaching because of sin.  Often called The Weeping Prophet, Jeremiah’s prophecies were the main reason he spent a good deal of time in jail.  What king likes to hear everything he does is more cause for God to bring the hammer down?

But the ultimate message was one of great news and blessing…there was a new covenant of grace on the rise:

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord.  “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’  For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord.  “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”  Jeremiah 31:33-34

That’s the way it is with prophecy; sovereign God does what a sovereign God does, rule over His people.  A loving, grace-filled, mercy-loving God does that which is righteous and best.  He fulfilled that promise on Calvary’s cross.

For You Today 

We live in a sometimes-brutal world, where people experience repressive forms of brutal government.  Those who live in democratically-governed countries know an individual freedom that scoffs at the notion we might suffer judgment for a parent’s sins (or anyone else’s).  Truth-told, we may experience the effect of a parent’s substance abuse, or the weight of a sibling, spouse, or child’s irresponsible or cruel behavior…but God’s hand will never be that.  His Spirit may convict us of our own sins, but never those of our neighbor.

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,600 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^©  

---

[1] These words were repeated in Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18, and Deuteronomy 5:9

 

From WHAT to WHY and EVERYTHING In-Between

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones.  Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.  Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh.  The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh!  The Lord!  The God of compassion and mercy!  I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.  I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.  I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.  But I do not excuse the guilty.  I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.  Exodus 34:4-7

There is a statement which, in essence, is deeply-ingrained in American culture, and is unquestionably anti-Christian.  It uncovers just how far we can drop from the tree of faith.  The statement (or its equivalent) is thus:

Nobody can tell me what to do; it’s MY life.

There are two responses to that statement which make it a logical non sequitur:

     1.    Your life would be yours alone if you didn’t belong to someone else.

     2.    Your life’s actions would have no consequences if the One who owns you didn’t connect you to everyone else, including your family tree.

The first response comes from the unquestionable fact that you didn’t create yourself.  Your parents had a hand in things, but it was God who formed you in the womb, and breathed the breath of a soul into your bones.  God said so in his meeting with Moses…Yahweh…the LORD; He is the Creator/Owner of all.

The second response is about consequences of what we do, which Yahweh also covered in the agenda with Moses.  The “document” he chiseled in stone covered the basic details of human behavior.  We call it the Ten Commandments; we venerate them, and, to a person, violate them.  And when we transgress those we set up misery for those who follow, even to the third and fourth generation.

Of course there is a positive side to view in this.  When we are obedient to God’s ways, we set up blessing to the generations that follow.  However, adopting the current culture’s mindset of I’m the only one that matters…I’ll do what I want, is hardly a formula for blessing.  Suppose that “what I want” is to become an alcoholic-addicted bank robber?  Think of the tentacles that reach into the wake of your actions for the many humans of the world’s population.  And imagine your children (and theirs) living with the fallout from that heritage of your behavior. 

When it comes to communicating a message of God’s love and our responsibility to respond with Godly living, people want to know why they should be subjected to living within so many rules.  Well, you have questions, and you want answers; God, the Sovereign Lord of the universe and all it holds has those answers, from the WHAT, to the WHY, and EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN!

For You Today 

Do you remember what your father or mother (or both) said to you when you asked the why question as a little child?  They said:  Because I said so.

You didn’t like that…it wasn’t enough.  Now you understand…they were only repeating what God said.  He said to Moses, and all of us:  That stuff I wrote on those stone tablets…you do it…because I AM said so.

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 on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Trivial Pursuit  and  Rats      

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

Faith vs. Unbelief

 

Monday, November 22, 2021

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven:  “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”  The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him.  And they said, “We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.  The nations were filled with wrath, but now the time of your wrath has come.  It is time to judge the dead and reward your servants the prophets, as well as your holy people, and all who fear your name, from the least to the greatest.  It is time to destroy all who have caused destruction on the earth.”  Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and roared, and there was an earthquake and a terrible hailstorm.  Revelation 11:15-19

I am reminded of a lesson on faith one of our seminary professors taught, illustrating it with this thought: 

There are those who say I won’t believe it until I see it.

He then put a cap on unbelief with this thought:

The fact is nobody sees it until they believe it.

Of course my professor was giving the sense of what it tells us in Scripture about having a genuine relationship with God…one that truly results in eternal life:

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.  Hebrews 11:6

The future, contained in today’s portion of Scripture in Revelation, where God finally takes back any of the enemy’s power, and begins His eternal rule, is a hard thing to wrap your mind around – given the thousands of years Satan has used planet earth for his evil playground. 

Many scoff at the idea of the end of times and God’s judgment coming.  But, to trust Scripture at all is to trust entirely.  If any of Scripture is wrong, it’s own claim to trustworthiness is false.   This is where faith’s rubber meets the tough rocks on life’s road.  Faith means trusting completely…or it’s not faith.

For You Today

Will there be a rapture, a time of Great Tribulation, and that Day of the LORD, where God separates the sheep from the goats?  Are we, indeed, accountable to our Creator, and will be held so, according to our deeds.  Will we be judged?

Faith’s answer is yes, Lord, I believe; help me (receive grace) for my unbelief.[1]

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

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

For another post on this text see O Worship the King or Sovereign Means Sovereign

---

[1] See Mark 9:24

...and EVERYTHING in it!

 

Thursday, July 8, 2021

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.  The world and all its people belong to him.  For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.  Who may climb the mountain of the Lord?  Who may stand in his holy place?  Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.  They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior.  Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob.  Psalm 24:1-6

According to King David’s Psalm, there are only two possibilities when it comes to a right relationship with God;  You’re either blessed and IN a right relationship with God, or you’re not.  According to David, the dividing line is bowing to the first two sentences; hear them again:  The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.  The world and all its people belong to him.  

In an increasingly pluralistic world it may sound strange to hear such dogmatic utterance…and that may explain the reason why church attendance is waning like the last embers of a fire before it goes out.  Church doctrine and preachers who leave little wiggle-room on letting people choose other than the check-boxes of saved or lost, are written off as antiquated, obtuse, or just not ‘woke’.  Popular opinion demands choices, but God isn’t into popular opinion.  Poet/Rock Star Bob Dylan sang the famous lines in his ‘70’s hit Gotta Serve Somebody:

The bottom line is God is Creator, and that means the keys to everything He created are hanging on His key chain – the earth, and everything in it!

The soul, or core of David’s Psalm is an invitation to enter-into that right relationship with God.  That tells us the most important thing we can dwell on today:   Having a right relationship with God is more than saving the planet He created, or being woke, or rituals, or your bank account.  It’s knowing that a right relationship is possible with God, and God wants it with you as passionately as you want your next breath of life.  Even more!

And while many are willing to bow in the direction of God as some benevolent force who created stuff; more of humankind than not prefer to leave it at that.  It is something of an ok…you gave us a start…we’ll take over now approach.  They want the benefit of 70 or 80, maybe 95 years of life, grabbing for the brass ring, and a little fame, along with their pleasures, but the idea of a relationship which includes all that other stuff of which King David wrote, notably clean hands and heart, telling truth and living truth…well, that’s not for me, so I’ll see you later.  Bob Dylan was never a favorite of mine, but he definitely got that one thought right…everyone who draws breath belongs to the Lord…He is Creator AND Judge.

So, what does it take to be IN a right relationship with He who created us?  If you pick apart the finer points of David’s Psalm (and, by the way, all the rest of Holy Scripture), you’ll find only two things, wanting that relationship, and willing to let go of everything you’ve decided you want more than having that relationship. 

To boil the pot down a little more, it’s a matter of wanting God more than your next breath.  It is bowing-down in humility to the fact that God is indeed Creator, and owns everything, even you.  No wiggle-room; no exceptions!

For You Today

The soul, or core of David’s Psalm is an invitation to enter-into that right relationship with God.  That tells us the most important thing we can dwell on today:   Having a right relationship with God is more than saving the planet He created, or being woke, or rituals, or your bank account.  It’s knowing that a right relationship is possible with God, and God wants it with you as passionately as you want your next breath of life.  Even more!

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^©    Other images by Pixabay.com

 

Resurrection and Rejoicing

 

Monday, April 5, 2021

The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.  This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.  This is the day the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:22-24

“Cornerstone” is used often in Scripture.  A cornerstone is the first building block for a foundation, that from which every other part of a building takes its reference. 

The cornerstone[1] of which Jesus spoke in the Gospel accounts (and later the apostles) is a reference to the Psalmist’s Messianic prophecy, a sign of how wrong humankind can get God’s plans.  Jesus, being born in a manger, living a perfect, sinless life, offering healing and help for all, was rejected by the powerful leaders of Israel, as well as the crowds.  He was nailed to a cross on Good Friday, tossed away like a misfit for the building.  On Sunday morning the entire meaning of life, death, and resurrection, along with every reason to rejoice, took on new significance when the women discovered the stone had been rolled away.  The builders of Israel’s earthly kingdom had failed miserably in recognizing the chief cornerstone, Christ, upon whom all of God’s eternal Kingdom, would depend.

Movements throughout the history of humankind always begin with an idea, often righteous and lofty.  Just as often they come unglued because selfish people snatch the momentum of a movement to turn a profit.  The old saying about the corrupting influence of power culminating in absolute corruption is never truer than in religion.  Steeped in mystery and fear, religious movements hold common sense prisoner.  But, just as the grave could not hold Jesus captive, neither can any human-constructed systems stand in the wake of God’s choosing.  Death had to flee for its existance in Jesus’ tomb; so the corruption of men’s plans.

There are many movements afoot today, along with knee-jerk counter movements.  (Black and Blue Lives Mattering, Gender line-crossing, Racial, ethnic, and women’s issues, just to skim the highlights.).  Among all of these are a germ of resusscitation for those on the margin who have been beaten-down, tossed-out, and forgotten.  There are also (as in every other human-driven movement) those willing to push an agenda that has nothing to do with righteousness.  If you look below the surface, past the silliness of self-aggrandizement, you will find the gold and control such hucksters really seek.  Every time there is a moment to be seized to further a “cause” the sharp-tongued manipulators can be found in front of a microphone.

That being a commentary on our time, or any other time in human history, consider the resurrection of Jesus.  His followers began announcing it to anyone who would listen.  Over the past two thousand years God’s fulfillment of his promise of restoration have caused untold millions to rejoice and turn to Christ for forgiveness and healing.  But the announcement has also been co-opted to fuel humankind lust for power in pseudo-righteous movements, crusades, and political manipulation.  This is the darkest of tragic evil which Jesus spoke concerning what man does with God’s light, tossing the cornerstone out with the bath water.  He also named the source of such evil:

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.  Ephesians 6:12

So…why rejoicing in the face of such evil times?  The short-answer is that it is a stark reminder of how our God is in control.  There is nothing happening, or that can happen, of which Jesus is not aware.  Neither is God worried; when the time is fully-ripened, this field of harvest will be reaped.

For You Today

There are many things going on in movements, disease, weather and climate worries, church numbers dwindling, culture wars, and the continuing madness of evil in our day.  But the resurrection promise still stands, no matter who or what attempts to manipulate its power. 

The one word about resurrection which can never be disingenuous is rejoice!

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^©

---

[1] There are 12 uses of this term in the New Living Translation…see them all HERE