Getting the BIG Picture

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer.  Listen, O God of Jacob.   (Interlude)  O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield!  Show favor to the one you have anointed.  A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!  I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.  For the Lord God is our sun and our shield.  He gives us grace and glory.  The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.  O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.  Psalm 84:8-12

The enigmatic nature of God’s “plans” for my life, and your life, and the lives of each person on earth, and all of God’s created universe, have always intrigued me.  The Psalmist declares God withholds nothing “good” from those who do “right”.  That brings to mind two questions….always:

#1.  What does He mean by good?  

#2.  What does He mean by right?

The second question is (for any theologically-minded sort) a no-brainer;  doing right is simply a matter of obedience to God’s leading; we must obey, and not act like a jerk.  Right?  Well…it’s at least somewhat like that.

In the narrow focus of my life, and what I think, good comes down to stuff (a new Mustang, enough cash flow to have someone else do my yard work, and, of course, peanut butter chocolate-chip cookies, surrounded by Rocky Road ice cream); these are good things…I’ll take a second portion, please.

The rub in “goodness” and “rightness” always comes when I begin to define the boundaries in which God can move to supply what I think is good, and how much of the “right” living qualifies me to rake it all in. 

Then, just as certainly as the sun will rise in the morning, as soon as I begin to imagine all the good stuff I’m due, something terrible happens…a bill I hadn’t expected…a sickness that blows my plans out of the water…dreaming about playing third base for the Yankees (and then waking up to the reality that nobody in the eighth-decade of life has ever played in the major-leagues).

All of this is quite understandable, because we’ve all experienced some of it, to some degree.  So, how do we understand what’s good, and what’s right?  Again, as surely as I begin to answer that question, God is likely to highlight my flaws.  However, here’s (at least) a working hypothesis:

Measuring right living is a matter of how much of you that you’re willing to let go, in order to embrace Him.  It’s a matter of control; who controls your life? Measuring good things is a matter of the wider picture, determined by the answer to the first question about right living.  The synergy, or interaction of living right by surrendering to the will of God, and receiving good things, is in viewing all things that come your way as God’s good gifts by faith.  That means treasuring your life, and all the so-called good, bad, or ugly, even if it doesn’t seem so, with the understanding that God will sort it out in the long run according to His good plans for your life.  In short, measuring how right you have to live to receive good things at the hand of God, is a matter of NOT-measuring anything…it’s a matter of letting go, and trusting God.

For You Today

So, the next time that TV preacher tells you you’re gonna get a blessing if you send him $100 and pray a certain prayer with your hand resting on the TV screen, remember what the Psalmist said about bending your will towards God…then trust Him, and walk confidently through whatever the day brings!

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

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

       Lenten Walk - Part 13   and   Cross Perspectives

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

The Sandal of Integrity - Part 2

 

Friday, November 5, 2021

Then the elders and all the people standing in the gate replied, “We are witnesses!  May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended!  May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.  And may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.”  So Boaz took Ruth into his home, and she became his wife.  When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son.  Then the women of the town said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord, who has now provided a redeemer for your family!  May this child be famous in Israel.  May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age.  For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons!”  Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast.  And she cared for him as if he were her own.  The neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!”  And they named him Obed.  He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David.  Ruth 4:11-17

It is entirely possible that Boaz and Ruth lived to see their great-grandson, David, become Israel’s second king.  Legacy is not dependent on whether or not you live to see it.  King David’s earthly life did not extend a thousand years to see his family name reach the pinnacle of pinnacles in lowly Bethlehem’s manger.  But that day in Bethlehem, when all the elders and townsfolk stood in the gate of the city and notarized Boaz’ sandal of integrity, their prayer became a prophecy.  The kindness of Boaz and Ruth’s faithful unselfishness birthed Obed, continuing a heritage that one day hung on a cross for our salvation. 

Integrity is never extinguished!  Madmen and evil dictators have done their worst to spread the darkness.  King Saul didn’t want to relinquish the throne he had squandered to the shepherd-boy, David.  He threw spears at his protégé in manic rage, and pursued him with armies and soothsayers throughout Palestine to kill Obed’s grandson…but all it accomplished was God’s will, not Saul’s.  Herod heard the prophecy about Obed’s lineage producing a Redeemer (just like Boaz and Ruth’s neighbors prophesied), and it led to the slaughter of the innocents to attempt saving his crown. 

But Jesus, the Son of God, and Promised Messiah/Redeemer lived on to die for us.

Integrity is much more than telling the truth, or knowing right from wrong; integrity is something woven deep in the soul that becomes obedience to God…at any cost!

For You Today

Many people have a trust issue that first asks in prayer for a sign.  That prayer is seldom answered, because it is based in seeing before believing, which is the polar opposite of faith.  Faith trusts by acting…and is sometimes rewarded with sight.  But whether-or-not God blesses your obedience with physical evidence to validate your integrity to serve Him, serve Him anyway!  You’ll be in the company of Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, Solomon, and a host – a veritable cloud of greatness among the witnesses![1]

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

[1] Title and Other Images:  Wikimedia Commons (public domain)  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

[1] See Hebrews 12:1-3

 

First Cut

 

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.  The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.”  “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”  But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing.  Each could hold twenty to thirty  gallons.   Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.”  When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.”   So the servants followed his instructions.  When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over.  “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said.  “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine.  But you have kept the best until now!”  This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.  John 2:1-11

Jesus clearly told Mary his time hadn’t yet come.  But Mary pushed on with the expedient, asking Jesus to save the wedding party from embarrassment over not having sufficient wine for the festivities.  Imagine balancing the weight of a little glitch in the wine supply for a wedding reception against God’s plans for eternal redemption; there’s hardly a comparison.  But, cutting Mary a little slack, she’d seen her son do some pretty miraculous stuff; it was not odd she’d count on her son to save the day…again.

This was Jesus’ first public miracle, and, like the first cut a stone mason or sculptor makes on his selected rock, it set in motion what would come.  To say that first cuts are important is to understate it by many miles.  A mistake of one degree of lattitude or longitude in a trip across the USA can mean you wind up in Alaska instead of Seattle.  If that one degree is on a trip to the sun, the margin of error increases to light years.  The bigger the undertaking, the more precision in choosing the path is required. 

The timing of Jesus’ public display of his divinity is history for us; it happened at a wedding.  Whose wedding, and why this wedding, is beside the point; Jesus chose to enter the first cut of stone in this building of our redemption at Cana with water turned to wine.  And, in the matter of the water of human souls, Jesus is still doing just that…taking the common, everyday, impure, undrinkable water of our lives and making that first (and every) cut that turns them into a celebration.

We tend to wonder if we’re on the right course – if we’re somehow missing the best navigation of life – if we’re going to wind up in unchartered territory, far from what we…or even God intended.  But the master mason is never uncertain about the first cut. 

For You Today

Have you got any unusual-looking marks in this stone of your life?  Have you wondered what your artist is working on in that job, family crisis, or doctor’s report?  Maybe it’s time to remember Cana.  Be like the servants that day following Mary’s directions…do whatever HE tells you. 

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^©    

 

Measuring What's in the Basket

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Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Now there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech.  One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.”  Naomi replied, “All right, my daughter, go ahead.”  So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters.  And as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech.  While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters.  “The Lord be with you!” he said.  “The Lord bless you!” the harvesters replied.  Then Boaz asked his foreman, “Who is that young woman over there?  Who does she belong to?”  And the foreman replied, “She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi.  She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters.  She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes’ rest in the shelter.”  Boaz went over and said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter.  Stay right here with us when you gather grain; don’t go to any other fields.  Stay right behind the young women working in my field.  See which part of the field they are harvesting, and then follow them.  I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly.  And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well.”  Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly.  “What have I done to deserve such kindness?” she asked.  “I am only a foreigner.”  “Yes, I know,” Boaz replied.  “But I also know about everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband.  I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers.  May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”  “I hope I continue to please you, sir,” she replied.  “You have comforted me by speaking so kindly to me, even though I am not one of your workers.”  At mealtime Boaz called to her, “Come over here, and help yourself to some food. You can dip your bread in the sour wine.”  So she sat with his harvesters, and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat.  She ate all she wanted and still had some left over.  When Ruth went back to work again, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her gather grain right among the sheaves without stopping her.  And pull out some heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for her.  Let her pick them up, and don’t give her a hard time!”  Ruth 2:1-16

When it comes to wealthy and influential people, harvest time is for measuring how well they’ve done business.  But it is not only a matter of raking in the profits of a harvest, it’s also about the lives of all who are in any way connected to the process.  In the case of Boaz measuring what was in his baskets would take more than a reputable accounting firm; how do you measure kindness?

It’s indisputable that Boaz was a kind-hearted man.  Arriving in the middle of a workday in the harvest he greeted his workers with a blessing.  The fact that they greeted him with an equally warm blessing spoke volumes about the relationship the boss had with his laborers.  On top of this was the fact that Boaz considered the welfare of Ruth, a foreigner who was gleaning.  In that culture the poor were permitted to come behind the work crews to pick up whatever harvest scraps the workers missed.  A greedy heart in Boaz’ basket might have treated Ruth like a freeloading nuisance.  Boaz treated her like part of the family, even calling her “daughter”.  He made room for this daughter of Moab, not part of his clan, perhaps as a kindness to his relative Elimelech, Naomi’s deceased husband. 

Of course, having read the rest of Ruth’s story, and the story of generations that followed, we can also see in Boaz’ harvest baskets the preservation of God’s promises to not only Israel, but all humanity.  God had promised a Messiah, a deliverer, one who would save us from our sins.  Ruth was part of that plan.  In the lineage of Boaz and Ruth Jesus would one day bless eternity with blood that cleanses all who will trust.

For You Today

In the end the kindness on both sides means Boaz got the girl, and her virtue is sung through the ages.  But this isn’t a Hallmark movie; it’s a reminder that each of us has a “harvest basket” that has the same kind of potential as that of Ruth and Boaz.  The question is ever there – what will YOUR basket hold.

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 Practicing Christian Series #10 Getting the Big Picture

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Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year.  We will do business there and make a profit.”  How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?  Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.  What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”  Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.  Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

James 4:13-17

The Sovereignty of God is more than a doctrine.  If I have learned anything about how much control God exerts on everything in life it is these two:

#1.  There are no accidents. 

When a cowboy applied for health insurance, the agent routinely asked if he had any accidents during the previous year.  The cowboy replied:  No; but I was bitten by a rattlesnake, and a horse kicked me in the ribs.  That laid me up for a while.               

The agent said:  Weren’t those accidents?  

No-sir, replied the cowboy, they did it on purpose.  

Beloved, we never catch God by surprise either.

#2.  His plans tend to mess with my plans. 

Did you ever feel like the small boy who got tired asking Santa and being disappointed, so he was writing a letter to God about the Christmas presents he really wanted?  I’ve been good for six months now, he wrote.  After a moment of reflection he crossed out the six months and wrote in three.  After that he crossed it out and wrote two weeks. 

Then, he tore up the paper, went to the Christmas tree and picked Mary out of the nativity scene.  He went back to his desk and started his letter again:                                       

Dear God….If you ever want to see your mother again…

God’s (sovereign) plans have always gotten in our way.

There was the year I lost my legs.  At thirteen, life was really getting good.  Sports defined my life.  I cried foul when the doctor examined my knees and put me in a chair for five months. 

God had messed with my baseball!

There was the year our first child, Jennifer, was born.  I went from being #1 in Elizabeth’s life to:  Oh, and don’t forget to pick up more Huggies when you get the groceries; and get some more of that diaper rash cream. 

I needed a honey-do rash cream!  God had messed with me being #1 in the house!

Fact:  God’s sovereign plans mess with a lot of people. 

Superman isn’t supposed to be vulnerable.  And our dear friend in Thomasville, Brenda, wasn’t planning on fainting in the bank parking lot while she was helping out at a youth car wash….and then having to grow her hair back after the surgeon did his work to remove the tumor that had been growing in her head.  And learning to walk and talk again.  God’s plans mess with our plans; boy, does He ever!

And so, if we listen to James and take the advice he offers, we will find two very important principles for running life’s race:

#1.  Stuff disappears quickly…just like our plans. 

James teaches us that making our plans requires a reality check about the sovereignty of God…

And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.”  You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”  James 4:13-15 ^(TMNT)

The greatest arrogance in the universe is presuming upon God’s patience. 

Some years ago, the Florida lottery ran television ads attempting to promote ticket sales.  The chances of winning a lottery are one in several million gazillion.   In a variety of ways, the commercials showed winners of vast sums of money.  Each one would end by holding up the winning ticket, saying:  You never know…

We need to remember that WE never know about tomorrow – all of us had better include God in our plans…because you never know if you have tomorrow…or if today God is going to require your presence before the bar! 

That leads to the second important life principle James has for us today:

#2. Don’t waste too much time majoring on minors

Friends, life is incredibly short; eternity is incredibly long.  It may not be necessary, but I’ll say it anyway, it is wiser to prepare for eternity, than anything in the here and now. 

It is certainly not begging the issue to repeat – failing to prepare for eternity is more than dangerous, it’s foolish!           

James is so thorough.  He has told us not to leave God out of our plans.  And he gave us the key as to how to do that…he said to not be self-centered – we should be humble and keep our eyes on the Lord; we do that by immersing ourselves in His work:

As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.  James 4:16-17^(TMNT)

And that begs the issue how to apply James’ advice when the Sovereign God of the Universe has the audacity to mess with our plans.  What is the right thing to do…that we so often forget to do?

Solomon tells us:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.

                                                      Proverbs 3:5-6^(NLT)

That’s the big picture.  And everything else is rather a tiny picture. 

There was a saying that was popular when I was a teen:

Don’t sweat the small stuff!

I have added to that saying since I became a Christian and have sinned big enough to understand that there is more to pay attention to in this universe than what I want; and have lived long enough to see my senior years so I can understand just how frail and temporary these bodies we occupy are:

Don’t sweat the small stuff…and remember, it’s all small stuff, except serving God.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

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[1] Title Image courtesy of Pixabay.com