Never Ending

Thursday, August 10, 2023

Today’s post is a message of hope written by Anna Murdock.

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?  Seven times?”  “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”  Matthew 18:21-22

I saw an older man

dressed in torn and dirty clothes.

He was in need of a shave

and surely a hot shower

would have felt good to him.

This man, walking along my route,

was mumbling to himself

and counting his fingers –

touching each finger to his thumb;

   first the right hand -

   one, two, three, four …

   then his left hand -

   one, two, three, four …

   then back to his right hand -

   one, two, three, four.

And so it went,

on and on

and on and on.

The counting seemed

to never end …

   from right hand to left,

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger.

What was so important

to this man of the streets?

What words were needing

to come out and be spoken?

Was he just “another one of those”

who mumbled quietly

as they walked along

the roads of our lives?

As I continued my drive to work,

weary from the day before,

angry from two days before,

feeling very alone

from the week so far,

I too began to mumble

and count the ways

   to weariness,

   to anger,

   to aloneness.

How many times

am I to forgive

(both myself and others)?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

How many times and ways

are the words “Be not afraid”

whispered, written,

        shouted to all who fear …

               (and don’t we all fear)?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

And what about God’s Love?

How many times is this Love

   seen, felt, whispered,

    promised, given, and received?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

If this man is “one of those”,

who mumble and count,

then I am one as well …

one of those

who cannot fathom

  such forgiveness,

  such assurance,

  such Love ...

  for it is all

NEVER-ENDING.

                                      ©2011 anna murdock

For You Today 

Our last word today is how my friend Anna introduced this image…of us…

Jesus says, "Seventy-seven times. It is never-ending...this forgiveness."  May we see no end to forgiveness, no end to God's assurance, and no end to the Great Love that binds us together.  May the One who is without limits send us out to share this 'never-ending' good news with others.  This is the community of faith that we are called to be.

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

Go to VIDEO

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

 

Title Image:    ©2011 Anna Murdock original work

Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Widows & Orphans

 

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father.  Talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers.  Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters.  Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her.  But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them.  This is something that pleases God.  Now a true widow, a woman who is truly alone in this world, has placed her hope in God.  She prays night and day, asking God for his help.  But the widow who lives only for pleasure is spiritually dead even while she lives.  Give these instructions to the church so that no one will be open to criticism.  But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith.  Such people are worse than unbelievers.                            1 Timothy 5:1-8

You cannot understate the importance of this passage.  Paul, the elder statesman of the fledgling Christian church, is passing along advice to a young pastor, his protégé, Timothy.  Paul is not simply handing Timothy a twelve-pound book of rules, but gives him life principles of attitudes and actions that apply at any age to the formation of Christian lives: 

·       Speaking to others with respect and care

·       Respect for women

·       Helping the helpless

·       Caring for aging family members

These life principles are so important in everyday living because they develop character and an attitude that strengthen any family towards Godliness, which leads to stronger, more Godly communities, that which is pleasing to God.

In our current culture, homelessness, divorce, domestic violence, and the abuse of children are not isolated numbers on a chart of trends; more they are the sad tell-tale spots of the spiritual illness that has rotted the strength of attitude and resolve to be Godly people.  We have managed to promote personal happiness as a cultural right so vigorously, Godliness has been disappearing in the rearview mirror. 

To illustrate that this is so, one need only point to the disarray of relationship our culture exhibits to God’s chief blessing for strength in the home – His church.  Say what you like about the demise of the importance of church in the 21^st century, I lay blame at the feet of selfish desire to have personal fulfillment, rather than Godly wholeness.  Godly worship has changed from the obvious to the optional. 

Certainly, the abuses of clergy, ebb-and-flow of cultural preferences in worship styles, and other sad distractions do factor-in when it comes to the dismantling of institutions – including the church.  However, the real loser is the family.  The church has become the new widow, a directionless, homeless bride, slipping through the cracks of this culture’s quest for a supposed better life. 

It is time for those who truly worship God to state this message clearly and without apology, both in word and deed:

Without the church, families will become just another option,                                             not God’s primary gift of strength for all human existence.

For You Today

In another post, last year[1] I wrote:  It has been said that evangelism is one beggar telling another where he has found bread.  For the helpless, homeless, and hopeless among us, they must never become them or those people; WE must be one widow, orphan, or stranger showing another where there is kindness.

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 post from January 31, 2020, Widows, Orphans, & Strangers

 

In Times Like These (or any time)

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.  Psalm 63:8(KJV)

A few weeks ago I sent an email to all our Rocky Road followers to encourage us as we continue under the duress of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Included in the message were four questions:

1. What hope sustains you in this crisis?

2. What are you doing to stay positive?

3. How is this crisis challenging your faith?

4. How has God spoken to you in all this?

One family sent a thoughtful response which pretty much nails my thoughts on what sustains us during life’s crises, and even when there is no threat:

We may not send a video but would love to share our answer to question #2.  We read from the Holy Bible daily, (we actually started our daily devotions as a couple approximately 18 months ago). We sing a hymn or two together and lift praises and requests through prayer to our heavenly Father.  These very basic actions deliver the answer to the other three questions: they deliver hope, develop our faith and allow God to speak to us.[1] 

This response is dear to my heart because it so reflects what my experience has been in writing these devotional thoughts; God’s Word says it this way:

I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words.  Psalm 119:147

The truth, plain, unvarnished, undiminished, undiluted is that we need a guide for this life as much as I would need a technology expert if I were to open the back of my computer and start messing around with all the little wires and such.  We come into this world with precious little understanding of God, other than that stamp of His being on our souls.  Daily seeking in hot pursuit after knowing God is the calling of every human spirit.  It is that seeking after God that made King David and his son, Solomon wise.

It is amazing, and surprising just how a small thing like choosing to come close to God in each morning changes everything.  In the quiet of a morning (minus the snoring of my little dog who “studies” with me each day), God’s Word speaks to my heart, and I cannot tell the numbers of times there have been little dawnings in my soul, awakenings that have charted my course for that day, whether it requires social distancing or not. 

But, it’s not in the method (early morning, late evening, standing, sitting, which version of the Bible), it’s all about the surrender of the heart.  A surrendered, willing heart is God’s fertile soil for what He wants to accomplish in and through a person.

And it is all personal, which extends to the circles of relationship all around you.  When God speaks to your heart in and through His Word, and that heart hears, and that courage is called-forth, kingdoms of darkness are broken with the entrance of light.  

Sometimes it’s as simple as carrying a meal to a homebound person or taking time with the next-door neighbor’s child who wants to talk.  Or stocking your car with bottles of water, or McDonald’s coupons to hand to that homeless guy you’ve passed too many times without meeting a need for the daily bread that was his prayer in the sign he’s holding up with a stained, leathery hand.  God’s Word is more than a light for your path, and a lamp for your feet; it is also a word of encouragement for the downtrodden through your actions.

For You Today

So, what did His Word speak to your heart today?  And will the rest of you hear it?

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

Go to VIDEO 

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

For other posts on Psalm 68 see A Little More Light - Part 2 and Rescued

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[1] This email response is reprinted with permission.

Widows, Orphans, and Strangers

[1]

Friday, January 31, 2020

“True justice must be given to foreigners living among you and to orphans, and you must never accept a widow’s garment as security for her debt.  Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from your slavery.  That is why I have given you this command.  “When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it.  Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.  When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice.  Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.  When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked.  Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.  Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt.  That is why I am giving you this command.  Deuteronomy 24:17-22

If I were left in charge of gathering the harvest of grapes, olives, or gain, it’s a certainty that there wouldn’t be much left after the fields had been picked.  There’s something in my soul of a waste-not/want-not mantra that cannot be denied.  If there’s a crust of bread left in last week’s loaf, this week’s new loaf cannot be opened in our home…under penalty of the Russell stare of intimidation.  In our household you just do not waste anything.

There are a lot of moving parts to the issue of the displaced, misplaced, and wandering homeless among us.  I, personally, do not have political programs worked out to solve the dilemma of all who suffer the crushing blows that make life crumble.  That said, there is a principle contained in these very specific commands of Moses; that principle is kindness over greed. 

The principle becomes easier to understand (and apply) when we put faces on the words.  When one is greedy the face that is projected on those who are in need is that of greed; a person saturated with goods and self only sees the other who wants what he has.  A person who is kind understands the face of hunger, homelessness, and fading hope.  Thinking of the harvest, which was the basis of economics in Moses’ day, Deuteronomy instructs us to be generous with those who have no part, no place, and hardly a reason to smile.

The perfect example of this principle of those who have plenty being kind enough to share with those who have little to nothing at all is seen in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  God, who has everything, not only died for us on the cross, but did so after joining us in our humanity. 

·      That humanity had no claim on anything of goodness; we had evil as our legacy. 

·      That humanity had no place to call home; we didn’t belong in heaven, and our earth had been cursed by our sin and selfishness. 

·      That humanity had no plea for how we got in that condition; we chose our sin and separation from God. 

Humanity…you…and I…and all…were without. 

·      We were lost and undone; we were without strength or hope. 

·      We were the widows of our dying selves. 

·      We were the orphans of self-inflicted ignorance. 

·      We were the strangers of even who we are…aliens in our own skins. 

And He joined us.

For You Today

It has been said that evangelism is one beggar telling another where he has found bread.  For the helpless, homeless, and hopeless among us, they must never become them or those people; we must be one widow, orphan, or stranger showing another where there is kindness.

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

Go to VIDEO

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