In This Time of Our Deep Need

 

Friday, December 11, 2020

I have heard all about you, Lord.  I am filled with awe by your amazing works.  In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by.  And in your anger, remember your mercy.  I see God moving across the deserts from Edom, the Holy One coming from Mount Paran.  His brilliant splendor fills the heavens, and the earth is filled with his praise.  His coming is as brilliant as the sunrise.  Rays of light flash from his hands, where his awesome power is hidden.  Pestilence marches before him; plague follows close behind.  When he stops, the earth shakes.  When he looks, the nations tremble.  He shatters the everlasting mountains and levels the eternal hills.  He is the Eternal One!  Habakkuk 3:2-6

A friend came to me years ago to ask for help.  I responded immediately, because the need was there, and this was my friend.  Simple as that; end of story.  Reflecting on the prophet’s words, I thought of my friend and what my response might have been if he weren’t in the friend category; what if he were my enemy…what would I have done?

Prayer is a little more complicated, but like that.  We are now in as deep a need for the hand of God as can be.  But the question is still the same, for God’s consideration, as mine about my friend…what if we’re not the friends of God?  Will it do any good, not being His friend, to ask for relief from the many dangers that encircle the camp? 

Habakkuk’s words are like any of the other prophets.  He speaks of the majesty of the Eternal One, His splendor displayed in creation, along with judgment measured by pestilence and plagues.  When God arrives, the earth rocks and nations tremble.  Just a word and a mountain crumbles; this is the God of judgment and grace.  The question becomes, for those who are accustomed to turning to God for help in times of distress, which God are we asking to show up?  Is it the one who holds forgiving grace and mercy, or the one whose fingers flash in destruction and judgment?

The answer to that question is dependent on who’s asking.  When a friend asks, he is evoking the meaning of friendship as a fulfillment of friendship vows.  When an enemy asks, he is implicitly throwing himself at the feet of the judge, asking for mercy.  Friends have a right to ask; enemies can expect nothing.

So the question begs another:  are we, in American culture (or any other nation on earth) friends or foe to the Eternal One?  And this is not a question about what we say – that would be cheap grace.  How have we acted?  What is the measure of our reasons for asking for our “friend’s” help in this time of our deep need?  Or should we be recognizing the enemy status we’ve courted, and just throw ourselves down in front of the bench for the mercy of the judge?

Well, as if a lover picking the petals off a daisy chants, let me count the ways…

·       War after war

·       Empty church after empty church

·       Homeless and starving amid a “Christian nation”

·       Aborted lives in favor of choice

·       Anger and politics the answer to just about everything

As a nation the popular vote seems to be to count on God’s friendship like the Emperor loved his new suit of invisible clothes; we’re rather naked in the end.

For You Today

Please know there are tears ready to flow from my eyes in the next sentence. 

If you’re prone to pray for your nation this day (or any other) pray for God to have mercy on us; we’re hardly in the friend category.

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

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Title image, Pixabay.com and    W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Prayer see:  Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? and Bi-Polar Prayers  

 

Kicking the Hornet's Nest

 

Monday, June 8, 2020

Psalm 29:1-11

Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings; honor the Lord for his glory and strength.  Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.  Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.  The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.  The God of glory thunders.  The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.  The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.  He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf; he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox.  The voice of the Lord strikes with bolts of lightning.  The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.  The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare.  In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”  The Lord rules over the floodwaters.  The Lord reigns as king forever.  The Lord gives his people strength.  The Lord blesses them with peace.

The last thing in the world I would ever do is intentionally kick a hornet’s nest.  The key word is intentionally.  I did that once with yellow jackets nesting in a dead, hollow branch of an oak tree.  I was a teenager, helping my Dad in the yard.  The dead limb was huge and hanging over where my brother parked his car.  The little black and yellow dive demons objected to my sawing off the limb that contained their living quarters.  They were VERY unhappy; I spent 2 days in the hospital.

The whole point here is that you do not poke what can poke back much harder than you can take.  If you read David’s psalm objectively, the characterizations of God’s power are bigger than any poke you can handle.  Consider:

·       God’s glory thunders over the sea (which is pretty thunderous itself)

·       God’s answers split the gigantic cedars like twigs

·       God’s power makes the mountains shudder and jump like young oxen

In short, who would want to mess with a God like that?

Yet, it is common in our day to see the cavalier arrogance many people have about God.  That kind of thinking survives only so long as God’s patience.  If you have ever watched a petulant child get angry at his parent, you get this idea.  The child isn’t getting what he wants, so he threatens to run away, or tries to hit the parent.  The parent responds with a smile, or a shrug, or a calm rebuke.  The child ramps up his onslaught, louder, angrier, promising the parent will be sorry.  He’s pushing the envelope, and doesn’t understand that with which he’s trifling.  His parent’s patience is about to result in something akin to what I experienced in that oak tree…more than you ever bargained-for. 

This is a picture of God, our Creator, and the petulance of humans who refuse to even acknowledge the Sovereign of the universe.  God’s patience is incredible (more so than mine).  But God’s patience is not limitless.  He allows us much freedom to find our way, but, we are ultimately responsible to come to Him on bended knee:

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:9-11

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, your Word is clear; our responsibility is to choose to love you with all our hearts, minds, soul, and strength.  And when we do that, our hearts find peace.  Help us today to choose well.

For You Today

You can probably recall much of the same experience I had as a child; I knew if Mom or Dad used all 3 of my names, calling out Russell Jay Brownworth…the patience zone had appeared in the rearview mirror!  The hammer was about to fall!  God also has a place like that.  Best not to kick that hornet’s nest!

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

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

For other posts on Psalm 29 see The Voice of the Lord and Joy and Judgment

Radiation Retrospect - Part 2

[1]

Monday, September 18, 2017

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God.  Mark 11:22^(NLT)

We are wading through the idea of submitting to God’s power, voluntarily giving the Lord control over who we are, what we do and say, even inviting Him to change what and how we think.

In Part 1 we introduced Wilson, the mask-warden that kept me in place while the power of radiation attacked the cancer in my throat.  Like the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Eden, that powerful radiation is neither good nor evil until it is pointed at something.  It is in the mind of the one who points the force that either healing or destroying is born.  This brings us to the next issue of collateral damage.

Now, nearly a week after the radiation is done, my throat (inside and outside) is raw and peeling off bits of burned flesh.  My oncologist explained that the target for his machine included not only the cancerous tumor, but most of the voice box area.  While that powerful machine was healing me it was also destroying some of the surrounding tissue to make sure they got everything.  The innocent, healthy tissue was collateral damage.  This immediately reminds me of Jesus’ warning about the collateral thinking of surgery:

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.  Mark 9:43-44^(NLT)

I get it about the priority of going to heaven over hell.  I also draw the parallel between cutting out a tumor that, if unchecked, could send me to one of those places a lot sooner than necessary.  But I also know that surgically removing a hand will cause my entire body to ache, just as my body is now sympathizing with my throat’s trauma.

So here’s the point:  that radiation beam will destroy whatever’s in its path.  And if we’re comparing that raw power of the divided atom to the power of God…and we’re suggesting we open ourselves willingly to God applying that power to destroy or heal, there’s almost a 100% certainty that sometimes there will be the pain of collateral damage; THAT takes a lot of trust!

Consider the statement of Jesus when he was describing for his disciples the effect his presence and power in our lives would have:

‘Father will be divided against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’”  Luke 12:53^(NLT)

For the past two months I’ve willingly driven to the cancer center in High Point, climbed onto a cold slab, much like the morgue’s exam table (it’s even in the hospital basement), allowed a team of techs to pin me to that table, and aim harnessed lightning at my throat.  The effect has caused an incredible uproar of complaining in my whole body because of the decision my brain and throat made.  My joints ache; my voice is kaput; I can hardly swallow, and the fatigue makes me drag myself around like a snail crossing the Grand Canyon.  This is the collateral damage of radiation.

And yet, I chose to do it!

Why I made that choice is profoundly simple.  The tumor that grew in my body over a period of years was a threat to the whole body; it was a threat to life.  My body is a conglomeration which includes soul and spirit.  An attack on the vocal cords is an attack on all of Russell.  So my whole body had to participate in the effects of healing.  The joints said “yes” and the throat said “go for it” and all the muscles that can barely drag this carcass from the bedroom to the couch whined:  “If it’s gotta be, get on with it!”

For You Today

When it comes to sin in our lives, and what to do about life and eternity, the effect of what God will do when you submit your body, soul, and spirit to His power will seem like an awful lot of collateral damage sometimes. 

It’s a small price for an eternity in glory!

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

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[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth (own work)

Radiation Retrospect - Part 1

[1]

Friday, September 15, 2017

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God.  Mark 11:22^(NLT)

Wilson is what I named him, that device the firing squad used to pin me down to the radiation table every weekday for the past seven weeks.  

It was made to fit this preacher precisely, so the target (my vocal cords) would be in the same place every time they turned on what I affectionately call the BBQ beams.

The radiation treatments finished on Tuesday, so now Wilson sits in the corner of my study, indifferent to the pain he inflicted upon me…or the usefulness he brought in this whole drama of fighting the tumor in my throat.  Rest, Wilson…I mean it…stay put!

When this dance with radiation began I knew I would have to revisit the meaning of Wilson’s relationship with my physical health once the course of treatment was accomplished.  And, because this Rocky Road Devotional is what comes out of my unscripted devotional life, I knew you’d have to read about it.  Sorry!  But maybe not!

I’ve had many thoughts about the meaning of oncological treatment these past weeks, while pinned under Wilson’s embrace.  Lying helplessly on a cold slab, mashed by a mesh mask, perfectly still, unable to speak (or scream), under a two ton machine with atomic power focused on the most vulnerable underside of your neck will make you think of your mortality and the big why question. 

Wilson and the split atom have helped me think of radiation as a metaphor for submitting to the power of God.  So over the next several days I’d like for us to think about some of the basics of our faith in God’s power. 

Radiation is powerful stuff.  Each time the tech team put Wilson over my face, snapped the clasps to the table, and gave me a reassuring pat on the arm…they then ran out of the room before the switch was flipped.  I don’t blame them…when that machine started whirring I wanted to run also! 

I mused quite often on the word radiation; visions of the victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki played in my mind’s theater; there were burning flesh and crippled lives.  I had to keep reminding myself that the singular beam of radiation had a singular aim of killing the cancerous tumor, not all of Russell’s body.  This was a good thing…the tumor was an evil force within, and the machine possessed a powerful force directed with skill towards that evil.  That beam was my big brother come to rescue me from a peril. 

In such moments of awareness I mused that all of God’s creation works like that.  Consider the tree of knowledge of good and evil placed in Eden.  God told the couple to stay clear of that one.  It held such power as to run the universe, but it also held the key to understanding evil.  Like a radiation beam, knowledge can focus on doing good, like destroying cancer or bringing a smile to a child’s face.  In the hands of evil or ignorance it can indiscriminately destroy everything in its path, like an army’s plans for attack which has been carelessly or purposefully leaked to the enemy.

Knowledge by itself is neither good nor evil; it’s like the facts written in a book.  Rather, it is how knowledge is used that makes all the difference. 

Adam and Eve were not ready for the knowledge of good and evil.  They should have had faith in God and kept their cotton-pickin’ hands off that tree!

For You Today

It’s a good thing to have as part of your daily/hourly prayer:  Lord, keep me mindful of the power of knowledge to destroy or build up; give me wisdom to choose wisely.

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

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[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth (own work)

Stand Still and See

[i]

Monday, April 17, 2017

For millennia Israel has celebrated Passover and the overcoming power of God that elevates all who obey, and is the worst nightmare for those who oppose God.  This morning I would like for us to listen once more to pure, unadulterated victory:

As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them.  They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?  Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt?  What have you done to us?  Why did you make us leave Egypt?  Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt?  We said, ‘Leave us alone!  Let us be slaves to the Egyptians.  It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”  But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid.  Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.  The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.  The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me?  Tell the people to get moving!  Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea.  Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.  And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites.  My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers.  When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!”  Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp.   The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them.  The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps.  As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night.  But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night.  Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind.  The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land.  So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!  Then the Egyptians—all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and charioteers—chased them into the middle of the sea.  But just before dawn the Lord looked down on the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw their forces into total confusion.  He twisted their chariot wheels, making their chariots difficult to drive.  “Let’s get out of here—away from these Israelites!” the Egyptians shouted.  “The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”  When all the Israelites had reached the other side, the Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand over the sea again.  Then the waters will rush back and cover the Egyptians and their chariots and charioteers.”  So as the sun began to rise, Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the water rushed back into its usual place.  The Egyptians tried to escape, but the Lord swept them into the sea.  Then the waters returned and covered all the chariots and charioteers—the entire army of Pharaoh.  Of all the Egyptians who had chased the Israelites into the sea, not a single one survived.  But the people of Israel had walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, as the water stood up like a wall on both sides.  That is how the Lord rescued Israel from the hand of the Egyptians that day.  And the Israelites saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the seashore.  When the people of Israel saw the mighty power that the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians, they were filled with awe before him.  They put their faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.  Exodus 14:10-31^(NLT)

Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine and led all the women as they played their tambourines and danced.  And Miriam sang this song:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has hurled both horse and rider into the sea.”  Exodus 15:20-21^(NLT)

For You Today

Every time I read this story, or see it depicted in art or theatre, there is a sense of hushed holiness that comes over my soul.  Our God is an awesome God!

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

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NOTES

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 ^I Title image: Beivushtang at the English language Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons

My Cliff to Climb

Monday, December 15, 2014

You’re my cave to hide in, my cliff to climb.  

Be my safe leader, be my true mountain guide.  

Free me from hidden traps; I want to hide in you.  

I’ve put my life in your hands.  

You won’t drop me, you’ll never let me down.      

Psalms 31:3-5 (MSG)

This picture was taken on a family visit to Pilot Mountain last month.  We’ve been there so many times, but when scattered family gathers for Thanksgiving, you’ve got to do something together. 

It’s a good thing my bride, Elizabeth (their grandmother) never saw the picture being taken.  The sight of four of her grandkids scaling mountain walls might have stopped her pacemaker.  (OK, she doesn’t have a pacemaker, but you get the unsettling reference).

Looking at the picture recently made me think of King David’s “mountain experiences”.  He hid in caves, hills, behind cliffs and anywhere he could to avoid being detected by the king’s army chasing him.  David was a hunted man; this was no time for a walk in Pilot Mountain’s park.  King Saul wanted David’s head; he could not stop to enjoy the scenery.

When David later wrote this psalm, the idea of mountains and safe crags in the rock were indelible pictures his mind recalled as he hid and was guided by God’s hand.

There is a life-parallel here:  David climbed physical cliffs and hid in dark, damp and smelly caves; there are a lot of spiritual places like that. 

The days we would color a “depressive blue” are like cave-dwelling.  This time of year, with its bare trees, bleak gray skies and impending winter sometimes brings a cold rock kind of melancholy.  (Especially when older bones start to groan and creak!). 

So why did David recall his cave-dwelling, mountain-hiding days so fondly?

He didn’t! 

But he did remember that, despite the fear and furious pursuit the king unleashed towards David, the hiding place of God – dark, smelly and dangerous as it looks to a grandmother worried about her grandkids – in reality was a haven of protection.

At the risk of offending those who hold to the theory that God won’t put anything more on you than you can handle – sometimes there is more than you can handle…and God is the one who made sure you had to face it!  It’s a mountain, or a king chasing you, or a spouse that leaves, or a bill that will break your bank.  It may be the doctor’s report or something that goes “bump in the night”.  But God is right there, seeing to it that you can’t get to the left or right of it; you can’t go over or under…you’ve got to look it right in the eyes and deal with it!  And it’s more than you can bear!

And that’s the whole point.

There are some things, like “death” for instance, that you cannot bear or handle, or even understand. 

And because of that you don’t need a poor theology that says you can DO it; you need God’s hand guiding, protecting, leading and healing, because you CAN’T do it.

It’s called faith.  It’s like a cliff, dangerous and scary; but it’s how God’s children walk. 

For you, today

Got your day planned?  Got your resources in place?  All going well today?

Well…good; just don’t let all that lead – let faith in God light your path.

The Trouble with Resurrection

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Lazarus was a real problem for the religious leaders.  After all, when the evidence of resurrection power is still walking around it’s a little hard to deny something has happened.  Dealing with so-called prophets and false Messiahs was an everyday task for Pharisees and Sadducees, but having Lazarus back from three days in the grave was a bit of a mess to cover up.

And this is the sticky trouble with resurrection; it won’t stay covered up!

And that is where faith and unbelief part company – at opened graves.

In Hanover, Germany, there is a cemetery that has a particularly interesting grave.  It belonged to a woman who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.  She directed in her will that the grave be made so secure that, if she is wrong and there is a resurrection, the grave will keep everything else out.  The casket is surrounded by huge, thick slabs of marble and granite, cemented together and fastened further by steel clasps.  It is air tight and cannot be penetrated.  On the marker are these words: 

This burial place must never be opened.

A tiny oak tree seed, buried beneath the grave began to grow.  Over the decades the trunk enlarged and slowly shifted the cement casings.  At one point the stress caused by the pressure of the tree wrenched the steel clasps from their sockets; the grave was opened.

When it comes to controlling what happens beyond the grave there is a 100% certainty that all our words and worldly power have their limitation.  Try as we might to arrange otherwise, we are in God’s hands. 

We are all exactly as the Psalmist declares:

Common people are as worthless as a puff of wind,
    and the powerful are not what they appear to be.
If you weigh them on the scales,
    together they are lighter than a breath of air.[1]

There will be another grave opening some day; yours! 

God's resurrection power is greater than any seed He created.  Nothing will prevent Him from fulfilling His ultimate plan of uniting all believers with Himself in heaven. 

One day, as Jesus did with Lazarus, all the saints will hear, you who were dead, come forth. 

For You, Today…

Are you ready to live with Him? 

You can be; place your trust in the One who loved you enough to die in your place, and forgive all your sins.  His was the resurrection that put an end to the reign of sin and death and sorrow.

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[1] Psalms 62:9 (NLT)