Sweet Spot of Truth

 

Friday, November 17, 2023

…we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  Ephesians 4:15

In his book Talk the Walk, pastor and author Steve Brown writes:

A number of years ago, John Whitehead – an attorney, author, and The Rutherford Institute’s founder and president – gave me a bumper sticker that read in big bold letters,

[1]

When you’re anywhere near the line dividing left from right, you’re holding some things (at least) in the middle.  I’ve followed pastor Steve Brown’s teachings for about twenty years, and I can say with no hesitation, he finds that place which removes one from being identified…politically.  For a Christian, that is what golfers refer to as the sweet spot – that place on your golf club where the club face ought to strike the ball for the best distance and accuracy.  The further right or left you move takes the Christian witness and message down a notch or two.

News media love to exploit events to attract advertising revenue; that’s their sweet-spot, a settled business fact.  You cannot pay your employees without selling soap!  Last week in Charlotte, videos went viral of a woman being subdued by police with obvious physical force, for allegedly smoking marijuana in public. 

Immediate responses were typical; the politically-left side immediately crying the foul of police brutality, while the politically-right side cited the police use of force as appropriate peace-keeping.  The third response, one I say at the risk of putting words in pastor Steve Brown’s mouth, is:  Let’s wait for the investigation before we burst a right or left blood vessel.

Another preacher, a very good friend and close associate of Jesus, named Apostle Paul, executed by the Roman government took that third (and less-traveled) road of giving truth a chance to come to the winner’s circle.  Paul was no stranger to mob violence.  According to Acts 14:19 he was stoned, dragged out of town, and left for dead.  Still, Paul counsels speaking the truth, as did Jesus, and letting truth set whatever wrong to the right. 

Slinging slogans around is a political club.  Those who shout:  Speak truth to power are presenting only half the case; we should also speak truth to the powerless.  Truth is for all, and that will set anyone free, if they will place the matter in the Master’s hand, and give it time.

For You Today 

If you lean left, or lean right, try to keep in mind that leaning is the next step in falling…falling prey to the enemy’s invitation to his side.  Better to rest in the sweet-spot of truth with Godly longsuffering, than hitting your last ball of free-will out of bounds!

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

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Steve Brown, Talk the Walk, (Greensboro, NC, New Growth Press, 2019), p.13

Uncertain Times

 

The Annunciation – Friday, March 25, 2022

When Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, set out to attack Jerusalem.  However, they were unable to carry out their plan.  The news had come to the royal court of Judah: “Syria is allied with Israel against us!” So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm.  Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-jashub and go out to meet King Ahaz.  You will find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.  Tell him to stop worrying.  Tell him he doesn’t need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah.  Yes, the kings of Syria and Israel are plotting against him, saying,  ‘We will attack Judah and capture it for ourselves. Then we will install the son of Tabeel as Judah’s king.’  But this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “This invasion will never happen; it will never take place; for Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus, and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin.  As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be crushed and completely destroyed.  Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria, and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah.  Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.”  Later, the Lord sent this message to King Ahaz:  “Ask the Lord your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz.  Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.”  But the king refused.  “No,” he said, “I will not test the Lord like that.”  Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David!  Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience?  Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well?  All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign.  Look!  The virgin will conceive a child!  She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).  Isaiah 7:1-14

The Annunciation to Mary, to the shepherds, and even in foreshadow of the Old Testament context, generally connects with our softer side, the announcement of a gift to come, God’s forgiveness for our mess-up.  We don’t usually associate the annunciation with confusion and uncertainty.  But that’s because we know the rest of the story…we’re 2,000 years on the other side of Mary’s pregnancy and all the confusion from which it was sprung.

We have a hard time in confusing times, times of darkness, where babies are killed in the womb, huge nations invade smaller, vulnerable neighbors, values are trampled in the dust, wrong is paraded as right, and Godliness is mocked…and then connecting the dots to God’s will and perfect plan being birthed.  These days certainly qualify as confusing.

But ask Isaiah.  King Ahaz was offered a sign, and was either too frightened, or just too politically-invested to participate.  The prophet said:  OK…you’re too fragile for this faith stuff…God will speak it clearly…a virgin’s womb will bring the answer to every problem you think you have.

For You Today

Sometimes, especially when the entire world and all you call holy has gone upside down, it’s hard to imagine God is bringing forth something wonderful from the mess.

In confusing times, when we can’t understand what God is up to, just keep your attention on Scripture, prayer, worship, fellowship, and serving Him.  If He can bring His salvation to a virgin in a manger, what’s going on today doesn’t give the LORD any perspiration on His brow…and it shouldn’t destroy peace in God’s family either.  We who trust in God should believe what the LORD said to Ahaz:  God won’t MAKE you stand firm against these uncertain and ungodly times, but when you stand firm in your faith, He will keep you standing firm.

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^©    

Getting On the Right Side of History

 

Friday, January 21, 2022

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:1-2

In writing to the Roman believers, Paul echoed the heartbeat of Moses, the lawgiver whom God used to set Israel free.  Moses was a man who learned the hard way (and maybe that’s why I admire the “M” man so much), how to serve and love God. 

Moses wanted, above all, to be on the right side of history.  He had a sense of justice that got him in trouble with people all the time, but had the stamp of God’s favor on what he did.  Born a nobody to Israelite parents in captivity to Egypt, Moses was in danger of being snuffed-out before his first birthday.  So, his mother set him adrift in a floating basket near the place where the Pharaoh’s daughter bathed.  The plan worked, and Moses Nobody was adopted and raised to be in the Seat of Power Somebody. 

Later, true-to-form, Moses got in trouble trying to break-up a fight and bring justice, but he was banished from his “somebody” position to life on the back-side of the dessert.  He spent the next 40 years being a “nobody”. 

But God was preparing Moses to serve; history would see the man born to be a nobody in obscurity, raised to kingly aspirations of the great somebody kind, exiled to less-than-obscurity, tending sheep, like an insignificant nobody, who finally became the kind of somebody who was willing to be a nobody, and could truly be called the friend of God.  It all came about because of what Paul would later describe as a surrender to God’s will.  Moses turned his back on the world’s ways, and accepted whatever God would require of him, life, limb, or reputation…and use every ounce of whatever strength God placed in his hands to serve the will of his Master.

Coming back to Egypt was what Moses saw as the test, but the real test was months before, in private, when the nobody from the Midian Dessert, who was a former somebody of Pharaoh’s household, took off his shoes in front of a bush that burned without burning-up, and surrendered to the will of the God who was so big He wasn’t named by anyone.  He just told Moses, I AM.

Getting on the right side of history has never meant winding up with the most toys, biggest bank account, or having people think your short existence on this planet was great.  It has everything to do with Who will be ruling long after this world’s leaders, cultures, current affairs, and movements are long-forgotten. 

For You Today

Moses was driven to find God’s will for his life, and the man born a nobody, became history’s somebody, because he was willing to give every bit of who he was in his human body to open his life to God’s plan. 

If that sounds like a plan to get on the right side of history to you, but it doesn’t describe where you are, or have been yet, remember, the bush never burned-up.  He still speaks, and He still loves, and you are still wanted.

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^©    

A Life with Focus

 

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.  These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.  In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.  Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.  The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.  So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.  Do these things, and you will never fall away.  Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

2 Peter 1:3-11

I watched a TV show recently where one of the main characters, a lawyer, gets a middle-age wakeup call.  As an opportunity of a lifetime to advance her career presents herself, she hires a campaign strategist to test the waters for a run at public office.  Eventually the idea is scrapped because the strategist discovers the “likability factor” just isn’t there.  To be “electable” these days, the public wants more than just competence; a candidate must have personality.  The strategist probes deeper, and forces the lawyer to face what her life is really like.  She has almost no friends, does not travel, go to events, or “have a life” outside of her immediate family.  As for “public appeal” she is just part of the landscape.

With Peter, the likability factor wasn’t even an afterthought.  For the outspoken Apostle, the more important focus in life is godliness.  He informs his flock that God has placed in their toolboxes everything needed to turn their lives in a godly direction, to find the pathway to a life of moral excellence.  This aspiration to focus on building a life that is focused on pleasing God (rather than the acclaim of personal glory), is fueled by God’s own promises. 

Peter lays-out a road map that will take you to the Promised Land of godliness, the growing of our faith which produces mature, fruitful disciples of Christ.  Notice the progression from moral excellence to the application of love:

Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

Like the other apostles Peter was once concerned with seeing Jesus have an earthly kingdom.  Somewhere in the travels and trials, Peter finally got what Jesus said about a kingdom that is far greater than any earthly public office or acclaim.  He got a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

For You Today

So, what is the focus of your life?  And what kingdom and King holds your heart? 

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 other posts on this text see the SERIES  “Conversations with Peter”  Episode # ONE  TWO  THREE  FOUR   FIVE  SIX  SEVEN   EIGHT   

Foolishness

 

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge.  Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness.  1 Timothy 6:20-21

It’s an amazement that tops most of the surprises I’ve had in my life – those times when I’ve been unable to resist responding to the bait.  It happens this way: 

·       Somebody poses an absurd thought in a group, or social media forum

·       Russell responds

And that’s all it takes for the foolishness to begin. 

The sense in avoiding nonsense is just about self-evident.  Paul told Timothy to avoid it; run like the wind from such nonsense.  Paul probably got a first-hand picture of the height of foolish debaters in a Sanhedrin meeting as one Pharisee tried to convince a Sadducee that there is life after death.  Or when Paul’s teacher, Gamaliel (a wise man by reputation) tried to break-up the argument of two students fighting over how many angels could actually fit on the head of a pin…proof of the proverb:

Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions.  Proverbs 18:2

The crux of the issue, however, isn’t THAT we should run, but HOW to keep the motor ready TO RUN at the first sign of someone just wanting to drag you into the bottomless pit of argument.  I have my share of blind-side issues.  I tend to focus deeply on what I’m doing.  When preaching, I focus so much on the moment and delivering God’s Word that I often miss what’s going on around me.  I’ve been told a toddler could bite me on the ankles when I’m in sermon-mode, and I’d never even notice the blood or pain.

So what do you do when your nonsense-detector isn’t exactly up to speed?  How do you avoid being dragged into the foolishness of empty chatter?  There is only one way I’ve found, and that is what I’m doing right now…meditating on what God’s Word says about it, bathing my spirit in the things of God, so that anything other than Godliness sets up an odor like a landfill.

For You Today

Making progress in your journey through this life as a child of God will never be served by trying to teach those who enjoy foolishness.  You’d have more success trying to teach a rock how to dance.

After enough foolish arguments, avoiding that trap becomes a lifestyle!

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^©    

Forfeiting an Inheritance

 

Monday, May 3, 2021

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.       
Galatians 5:19-26

There is an extreme contrast between the kind of life lived which justifies or disqualifies one from an inheritance.  Extenuating circumstances aside, the choice to whom the estate will pass lies with the wishes of the one making a will.  Without a will, the heirs enter a contest to divide the proceeds. 

In the case of a kingdom an heir is validated by blood.  In the case of God’s Kingdom inheritance, the will was put in place at Calvary 2,000 years ago, but it was in the heart of Father God even before creation.  So, concerning the Kingdom of God, the cross was the seal of promise affixed to the will of God, laying down the terms of inheritance for the children of God.

In writing to explain (or remind) the believers in Galatia, Paul has two shopping lists.  The first is living life as a hedonist, simply doing what you want without honoring God.  The second list is what God will produce in your life when you commit that life to His will, an honorable DNA of character and goodness.

The dividing line between the two choices for living is the qualification point (or disqualification), as an heir, rightfully participating in God’s blessing.

The analogy of earthly and heavenly kingdoms breaks-down (as do all analogies) when held too literally.  There are marked differences between God’s Kingdom and, say, the British Empire’s monarchy.  A similarity for inheriting in either depends on blood, and being born.  For the Royals of the House of Windsor, you’re in (or out) only so far as your ancestral blood line.  That is dependent solely on the random passing along of DNA.  For the inheritors of God’s Kingdom, it is also dependent on blood, that blood which pooled at the foot of a cross on a hill in Jerusalem’s garbage dump, with the execution of the Son of God.  This blood is not passed along genetically through a placenta, it is a choice to receive by applying to the King in a prayer of surrender.  That prayer is a surrender to the will of God, which ratifies the forgiveness of God, making that one who prays a child of God, and therefore, an inheritor of the Kingdom of God.

A common misconception at this point is that you live a good life, like Paul’s second list (love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, etc…), in order to become eligible for inheritance status.  But that’s false thinking, because that is earning the status.  If that were the case we would have to completely ignore the concept of grace…which would invalidate the cross.  Grace is never earned.  Even the definition of grace dismisses that thinking, as grace is unmerited favor from God’s hand, while earning is merited due, a salary for your work. 

The order is out of order there…rather, we repent of our part in the first list (immorality, sexual sins, jealousy, selfishness, etc…), and receive a grace-filled pardon…then the life of the second list begins to take hold in our choices.  God gives this also as grace, a gift to overcome life on the sinful first-list level. 

We do not live a good life to escape the bad; we nail the bad life to the cross, and God gives us a grace-filled life to add to the goodness of His Kingdom.  We participate not only by inheriting the Kingdom, but building it as well[1].

For You Today

It’s easy to forfeit an inheritance in God’s Kingdom, just do what you feel like doing, and forget about God.  You’ll get there in a heartbeat.  It’s even easier to receive the inheritance – surrender to God’s love; He will build your life on His grace and goodness, and make you fit for the Kingdom’s crown!

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^©

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[1] 2 Peter 1:4

The Coming Judgment

 

Friday, March 5, 2021

"The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.  O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?  Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble?  Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.  So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.  The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.... Habakkuk 1:1-4
I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.  Then the Lord answered me and said:  Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.  For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie.  If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.  Look at the proud!  Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith."  Habakkuk 2:1-4

Habakkuk’s 6^th Century (BC) world was about to come crashing down around him.  It was a prosperous time, and yet disaster was brewing on the horizon.  God was about to empower the people whose ancestors were “God-haters” – Nimrod, Baal-worshiping pagans, idolaters.  These were the worst sinners on record, and God was going to give Jerusalem into their hands, lock, stock, and barrel. 

God was about to use the worst of humanity to punish his own beloved and peculiar nation, Israel, the descendants of Abraham. 

That seems a strange way to treat people you say you love!

And…America is on the same course if we continue to put aside our faith and dependency on God.  That seems a stranger way to treat our own future.

Our world is a lot like Habakkuk’s Israel.  There is violence, wrong-doing, strife, and a sense that justice and judgment are perverted. 

Places like Darfur, Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan conjure up immediate dark images of suffering against the backdrop of a world consuming itself in selfishness.  Who wouldn’t want to question God about the fairness of conditions like these?

·       For one, people who are selfishly responsible for the conditions

·       For another, people who have given-up on trusting God

·       For a third, people who’ve decided that cancel culture is the way to end everything that is a perceived injustice.  It’s imagining evil will fade into the darkness if we just get people to stop saying bad stuff.

Habakkuk hadn’t given-up on God.  Like Job, Habakkuk was concerned and anxious that God would act to change things, not just for Habakkuk, personally, but for his nation, Israel.  Habakkuk also didn’t consider, for one minute, turning anywhere else but to God for his answers.  That’s the meaning of “the righteous live by their faith”.  True faith in God understands we are totally dependent on him – and we put him first!

And what was God’s answer?  “Read my lips” – no – READ MY LIPS!   God said, you can write this down, Habakkuk…and use big block letters so even a messenger on the fly passing by can pick it up clearly…set it in stone, Habakkuk…let everyone know these three things:

·       The Kingdom will come

·       The arrogant proud won’t be happy when it happens

·       Those who are on my side will live dependent on me; they won’t look for help in anything or anybody else.

For You Today

What’s stranger about us today is that we don’t seem concerned enough about what’s coming to turn back to God. 

May He forgive us, and help us!

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

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

Of Yokes, and Staying in Your Lane

 

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Jeremiah 28:10-17

Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it in pieces.  And Hananiah said again to the crowd that had gathered, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Just as this yoke has been broken, within two years I will break the yoke of oppression from all the nations now subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.’”  With that, Jeremiah left the Temple area.  Soon after this confrontation with Hananiah, the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah:  “Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says:  You have broken a wooden yoke, but you have replaced it with a yoke of iron.  The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, forcing them into slavery under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  I have put everything, even the wild animals, under his control.’”  Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah!  The Lord has not sent you, but the people believe your lies.  Therefore, this is what the Lord says:  ‘You must die.  Your life will end this very year because you have rebelled against the Lord.’”  Two months later the prophet Hananiah died.

I was sharing a conversation with a friend of mine, who is an internist, about another friend, who is experiencing the multiple-doctor-mixed-diagnoses-syndrome.  One “specialist” doc prescribed a certain medication; the other doc, not in that specialty, said, no, you don’t have to take that.  I asked my internist friend, what’s a patient to do?  He said, I believe that other doc oughta stay in his lane.

Jeremiah had worn a common oxen yoke to show how Israel had gotten themselves into a serious rock and hard place situation with disobeying God.  Hananiah, a man who had a reputation as prophet, took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it to pieces.  That was a metaphorical slap at Jeremiah’s prophecy, telling all who would hear about it, that everything was going to be just fine in Jerusalem.  Israel was going to be great again, and the Babylonian invasion was just a minor blip on the screen of their national pride…not to worry. 

But, it didn’t turn out that way.  King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, burned the city, destroyed the Temple and carried

off all the treasures, and drove the captives into his land as slaves for the next 60 years.  Jerusalem wasn’t great again, and Hananiah found out the hard way, when it comes to prophecy, you’d better stay in your own lane!

America hasn’t had to deal with that (so far) in its storied 244 years since our Independence.  We have been the richest, most powerful nation on earth for a long time.  I am certainly not Jeremiah, nor am I going to be a meddling Hananiah, but the parallels between Israel’s disobedience, and what we see destroying even a thin resemblance of godliness in this country, should give warning enough that we are headed for the same hand of judgment Israel experienced…and, perhaps worse.

Now, that’s as far as I go in prophesying, following Jesus’ admonition to see the signs of the times, the fields being white unto harvest.  But it still causes me to shudder for the sake of my children, and theirs; what in the world are we thinking in this day to do just what Israel did 2,600 years ago? 

·       They were arrogant about being God’s chosen (as we claim with our motto, One Nation Under God); they were, but that just meant, if they were disobedient children, their Father was going to meet them at the woodshed, and it wouldn’t be pretty.

·       They assumed (as we do) their wealth, powerful history, and determination would protect them from any other nation.

·       They sacrificed their children (as we do).

At the risk of being pronounced unpatriotic, I am saying you don’t have to be a prophet to make this connection – America is not great; we are sinful.  Only God is great, and we have no hope of being great unless we bow in His presence by changing our ways. 

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, help us to not lay the blame for our sins on anyone else.  Help us to acknowledge that, like sheep, we have ALL gone astray[1], and must not only plead for forgiveness, but receive that forgiveness by repenting of sinfulness.  Help us to put aside the notion of being great and turn towards becoming Godly.

For You Today

Which is more important to you, patriotism, or godliness?

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 God’s Judgment see When God Measures and No More Tambourines

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[1] Isaiah 53:6