When Innocence Shines

[1]

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong.  For like grass, they soon fade away.  Like spring flowers, they soon wither.  Trust in the Lord and do good.  Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.  Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.  Commit everything you do to the Lord.  Trust him, and he will help you.  He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.  Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.  Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.  Stop being angry!  Turn from your rage!  Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm.  For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.  Soon the wicked will disappear.  Though you look for them, they will be gone.  The lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity.  The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance.  But the Lord just laughs, for he sees their day of judgment coming.  The wicked draw their swords and string their bows to kill the poor and the oppressed, to slaughter those who do right.  But their swords will stab their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.  It is better to be godly and have little than to be evil and rich.  For the strength of the wicked will be shattered, but the Lord takes care of the godly.  Psalm 37:1-17

King David knew both sides of what he wrote.  David had been innocent, and David had been wicked.  Both sides are well known from the Biblical record.  David was a shepherd who, in his complete and innocent trust in God, killed a lion with his bare hands, and a giant with a slingshot.  He’d also played the evil one, taking another man’s wife and having the man killed to cover it up.  David knew what it was to shine in innocence, as well as to slide into the darkness.

Tobias Menzies courtesy Wikimedia

The contrast in this Psalm paints a mural of the human condition.  We are creatures capable of incredible kindness, generosity, and unselfishness.  We are also prone to sociopathic malevolence, turning from the light to the dark side (or the reverse) in a heartbeat.

Screen actor Tobias Menzies stars in the BBC’s popular Outlander series, a tale of time-travel and intrigue in the 18^th and 20^th centuries.  His part is the character of Black Jack Randall, a British officer who is a sociopathic sadist.  Black Jack’s passion and stock-in-trade is to pretend compassion and care for people to gain their trust and, in a stunning turn of events, transform into their worst nightmare.

King David is not Black Jack Randall, but he knows he could be.  And that is the whole point – David takes sin seriously, because the power of sin (and its consequences) is insidious; it sneaks in the back door and empties the soul of anything like life.  There is a good reason we are warned over and again in Scripture to flee evil and temptation.[2] 

By comparison living a life forsaking anger, lust, greed, and all the opposites of true Christian goals is also a possibility, if one is ready to deny the Black Jack Randall within, and place our faith in Christ daily.  That’s what Jesus told his followers:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.  Matthew 16:24

For You Today

The contemporary song Shine, Jesus, Shine[3] is a banner for the innocence prayer:

Shine Jesus shine Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit blaze, set our hearts on fire
Flow, river flow Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your word Lord and let there be light.

If you want innocence to glow in you and let you live a life of confidence and joy, this is the light that is necessary for your soul.  Let there be light is our prayer

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

Go to VIDEO

---

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

[2] 1 Corinthians 6:18, 10:14, 1 Timothy 6:11, 2:22, James 4:7

[3] GRAHAM KENDRICK Publisher: MECHANICAL COPYRIGHT PROTECTION SOCIETY LTD by LyricFind

Devilitis and the Piano

[1]

Monday, February 1, 2016

VIDEO

So humble yourselves before God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  James 4:7^(NLT)

My friend, Fawnie used to talk about “devil-itis” sometimes; once she explained to me what she meant[2]. 

Fawnie lived only a quarter mile from the church she attended all her life.  As a young girl she took piano lessons and was told someday it would be her turn to play for the Lord in worship services.  In those days, this country Methodist church was the center of community life and therefore, playing the piano for the congregation was a big responsibility. 

One Sunday the inevitable happened, the preacher came to Fawnie in Sunday School, which was held in the little room just off the sanctuary, to tell her today’s the day!  The regular piano player was sick, and in a little bit they would gather for worship. 

Well, nerves being what they are in a pre-teen, as soon as Sunday School class was done, Fawnie exited the side door running, and didn’t stop until she’d found the safety of her room at home. 

When asked later what possessed her to duck out like that, she simply replied:  I guess it was just devilitis. 

Fast forward a half-century and you find the postscript – or, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

It was the first year after I became pastor at that little church.  Sometimes (when we had a pianist) our Wednesday evening Bible study and prayer time began with a song.  If we didn’t have a pianist, we would begin with prayer, and the standing joke was that the preacher would call on the last one to arrive.

One Wednesday night our regular pianist (my bride, Elizabeth) was under the weather, so I joked to the gathering group, the next one through the door will play our hymn so we can start. 

Well – God’s humor being what it is…my words had hardly settled down when, on cue, Fawnie walked through the door.  I had no clue she could play the piano, so I said it jokingly, expecting a quick, declining growl):  Ahh…Fawnie’s the last one through the door; she’ll play Shall We Gather at the River.  Let’s turn to #723 and sing.

Without batting an eye, or breaking stride, or melting under the spell of “devilitis”, Fawnie walked past the group to the piano behind me, sat down and began to play a hymn that had been longing to move through her fingers for over fifty years.

One of the truths about the Christian life that is my personal favorite about the grace of God is that it is more important how you finish than how you start! 

Fawnie told me she regretted many times the failure she experienced as a child, intimidated at the thought of performing in front of all those people.  Mostly we would explain it away, or dismiss it as stage-fright, or a simple case of shyness; after all, children will be children.  But, perhaps Fawnie labelled it more correctly – devilitis – the pain brought by our adversary as he tempts, accuses and generally works on disrupting our lives so our service to God is diminished and sometimes disappears altogether.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, advised us to resist the devil and we would find the bully fleeing out the side door of the Sunday School room.  That’s Godly advice; he can’t bring you devilitis when he’s running away.

For You Today

Decide before you leave the house that this day’s temptations and trials will be resisted with all that is in you.  God promises to join you in that fight; all Satan can do is flee – heels and elbows is all you’ll see.

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

---

[1] Title image: By W. Endicott & Co. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (modified)

[2] My good-natured friend has given me permission to share this story.