Hope Anew

Monday, November 13, 2023

So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.  Then they will not be like their ancestors—stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.  Psalm 78:7-8

Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, makes a very compelling point of caution for each new generation in humankind to set its hope anew on God so we don’t forget His great power, what He’s done, and how we must not be stubborn about it. 

If there is one consistent, and nearly inviolate reality about the human family, it’s the tendency towards promising fidelity lightly, and then breaking promises in favor of a supposed better way.  Israel’s history is a microcosmic rule-of-thumb for humanity’s proclivity to agree with God today, and discard their allegiance when the road gets a little bumpy. 

From Asaph, fast-forward to Russell’s generation, raised in the 1950’s/60’s.  Yes, we’re talking about the hippy-era, free love, LSD, marijuana, or alcohol, your drug of choice, but everybody joins the march against Vietnam involvement.  Yes, THAT generation!  We were going to be different than our parent’s generation.  Everything was going to be different, and much better than the old folks.  Music changed from swing to rock.  Clothing was unimportant, and we drove VW vans, not Cadillacs.  But the truth is we were just making Asaph’s point…every new generation has its own style, but the root of Adam’s nature, rebellion against authority, puts us on a collision-course with our Creator’s authority.  Our arrogant stubbornness separates us like night and day from God’s love and care.  As the cartoon character Pogo once said:  We have met the enemy, and he is us!

Opposite the viewpoint of the “new” generation is the head-shaking disapproval of the “old” generation.  My parents didn’t like my music, and frankly I’m not too thrilled with the stuff I hear and see in the current generation’s entertainment.  And this makes Asaph’s point as well.  It isn’t the style of any generation that matters.  I can say that unreservedly because you won’t find style-police in Scripture.  What matters is not a generation’s style, but whether they will set their hope anew in God.

This brings a Scriptural focus to the so-called “worship wars” down through the generations.  There is enough criticism to fill the universe with nausea about how people worship.  The list includes music style, traditional style, contemporary style, blended style, liturgical vs. free style, fogey or edgy style, robes or skinny jeans, somber or giddy, silent or bedlam, pretribulation rapturist, or anti-rapturist.  Most everything that creates an argument is a tempest in a teapot about style.  And there is a verse in John’s Gospel that tells us what God thinks about all of it:

For You Today 

A prayer for those with whom you see wide gaps of difference, is to ask God to let the scales of criticism drop from your own eyes, and help you to ignore the style of that next (or former) generation, and pray for them to see the magnificent opportunity and blessing they have to place their hope anew in God’s love and care.  Much better to pray for someone’s blessing than against their style.

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  

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Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Life Can Be Tough

 

Wednesday, February 10, 2021
“If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, they would outweigh all the sands of the sea.  That is why I spoke impulsively.  For the Almighty has struck me down with his arrows.  Their poison infects my spirit.  God’s terrors are lined up against me.  Don’t I have a right to complain?  Don’t wild donkeys bray when they find no grass, and oxen bellow when they have no food?  Don’t people complain about unsalted food?  Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg?  My appetite disappears when I look at it; I gag at the thought of eating it!  “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my desire.  I wish he would crush me.  I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me.  At least I can take comfort in this:  Despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One.  But I don’t have the strength to endure.  I have nothing to live for.  Do I have the strength of a stone?  Is my body made of bronze?  No, I am utterly helpless, without any chance of success.  Job 6:2-13

As Job analyzes the situation and all that has happened, he knows that the circumstances are bleak.  It's been a tough week.  He's lost everything he worked so hard to accumulate, including his health, the respect of his friends and even his wife.  And yet, later in his ramblings, Job makes a dramatic (and oddly-strange) statement that hardly seems to fit the moment to all who hear it; he proclaims,     I know that my Redeemer lives....I will see God. ^{Job 19:25}

The circumstances say that Job is going down for the third time.  His life is in the dumpster.  His family is dead, and his wife is looking to collect his insurance money.  Job's friends are heaping on the insult that the God Job has been serving is at fault.  The ulcers of ancient leprosy are oozing his very life's blood...and Job has church, singing about how his heart "yearns within."  What gives?

The secret of Job's faith is that he knew that pain and suffering are not altogether inconsistent with the love of God.  How did he know that?  God had placed the reality within Job years before when Job gave his life to the Lord. 

A story is told of a sculptor who was working on a bust of Lincoln.  Day by day he would only make a few carefully planned strokes with the chisel.  Each night the cleaning lady would sweep up the debris and complain to herself about the "...mess this ol' rock makes."

Finally, one night, as the bust was nearing completion, the cleaning lady saw it for the first time, that it was the much-respected Abraham Lincoln.  She got so excited she came back during the day to watch the sculptor work on it.  She couldn't wait to see the final product.  She asked the artist, "How did you know Ol' Mister Lincoln was in there?"  The artist smiled and said, "Oh, I didn't really, I just started chiseling-away what just didn't seem to belong."

In a lot of ways, that is what happens when people give their lives to Jesus.  Before, like a block of uncut rock with a masterpiece inside, he or she is just waiting to be worked-on. 

But Mrs. Job didn't see that.  She felt the pain of the Master's chisel....she never trusted the Redeemer's stroke to bring out her beauty.

For You Today

Have you been "on hold"?  Are your prayers unanswered? 

What shall you do while you're waiting?  Here are a few suggestions:

·       Don't speak for, or before God.  See what His word will say, search it, milk it, digest it. 

·       Don't hide from God....struggle with him as He chisels-away the rubble. 

·       And don't forget that He loves you...So much that He died for you. 

That kind of love will eventually give you answers.  Answers like,

I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.  John 11:25 ^(KJV)

What is your choice…Mrs. Job's curse God and die?  Or Mr. Job...I know MY Redeemer lives..."

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^©