An Upside-Down World

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.  Isaiah 5:20 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.  So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth.  It broke his heart.  Genesis 6:5-6

I watched a video my cousin Rick sent to me.  I don’t have time to watch a lot of internet stuff, but this one caught my eye.  It was presented by a young woman host of a Youtube/TikTok video blog called Defender of the Republic.  It’s about the “upside-downness” of cultural norms in our world, particularly in the U.S.A.  From an unquestionable breakdown of morals and common sense, to racism, vaccinations, illegal immigration practices, and cutthroat government gutting what was once (at least) a marginally-trustworthy institution, she names today’s absurd inequity, injustice, and insanity without pulling punches.  Some of it could be seen as political partisianship, or just plain political rhetoric, but most is spot-on common sense.  According to John Q. Public, good is now evil, and, conversely, evil is incredibly the best!  All told, this stark assessment of our current world adds another billion tons of credence to Jesus’ prophecy:

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.  Matthew 24:37

As God’s assessment in Genesis, that Noah was the only human being on planet earth who tried to stay away from evil, nothing could hold back the judgment flood that was brewing. 

And, I believe, there isn’t much doubt that the 21^st century has just as imminent a Judgment Day on the horizon.  The Days of Noah are upon us!  And Jesus gave an indelible reason why that is so, and will be universally-conclusive:

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  John 3:19

For You Today

That judgment inevitably follows action is as predictable, and undeniably just, as when you jump out of an airplane at 10,000-feet without a parachute.  It’s unavoidable, and brings a close to the chapter you’re writing.

So here’s today’s (and tomorrow’s, and every-day’s) question:

Do you know the Editor who can shed light on your story?

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

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: 

Good and Evil; the War and God, with a Broken Heart

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

Catch and Release

[i]

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple.  A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.  As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.  They put her in front of the crowd.  “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  The law of Moses says to stone her.  What do you say?”  They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.  They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.  When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.  Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers?  Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”  “No, Lord,” she said.  And Jesus said, “Neither do I.  Go and sin no more.”   John 8:1-11^(NLT)

The woman was caught in the jaws of the Law; the last thing she expected was to be released without at least being beaten and humiliated.  There was a beating, but it was her accusers who took the blows.  Many people have speculated over what Jesus wrote in the sand.  A popular guess is that he wrote the sins of the woman’s accusers in the dust.  It was just too much for them to bear the weight of being revealed as unworthy to accuse the woman, so they slinked away in shame.

This snapshot of Jesus exercising intense wisdom and authority may have only taken about 5 minutes to play-out in real time.  But it has had its lasting effects on every part of our history and culture.  Even where Christ is hardly an afterthought, people understand the weight of he who is without sin casting the first stone.

Re-reading the passage again this morning brought thoughts of the current debate over immigration.  I know; I know…this is a particularly controversial subject right now, and I also know the woman caught in adultery wasn’t an immigrant.  But she was clearly breaking custom and the law of the land.  Those who brought her to be judged by Jesus had the full weight of the culture and its rules behind their accusation.  Their problem however went much deeper than whether they were within the rules; their hearts were black with self-righteousness and manipulative hatred.  They had no compassion, and, worse, were only using the woman as a pawn to set a trap for Jesus.  Their actions were, at the least, self-absorbed selfishness, and, at worst, bordering on sociopathic cruelty.  They “caught” an adulteress; Jesus “released” her with new hope.

My early morning brain-wandering led me to stand near Jesus and see what he might be writing in the sand about our current stew concerning those who have transgressed American laws by sneaking across the border.  Looking into the dust, with my mind’s eye I saw Jesus write “Plymouth Rock” and I thought of people who were escaping their homeland’s persecution for freedom, and whose descendants would eventually persecute those Native American people who first greeted them at a place with no border.  Can we see the word “hypocrite” written at Jesus’ feet?

I know; I know…its different today, border security, jobs, culture, law and order, and every other rationalization we can imagine.  There is a case to be made for all of that!  It’s just that somewhere along the line we have to do some critical thinking about what we do, and upon which side of the circle we will stand when it comes to being our brother’s keeper, or, like Cain, our brother’s destroyer. 

For You Today

Well, actually, for me, today…and you, if you will.  The question I most want to answer in my own mind today is:  What is more important, our American way of life…or being Christ-like?  I’m pretty certain the two are not one and the same.

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

Title image: By Gustave Doré [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons