Of Colliding and Cooperating

Friday, January 20, 2023

Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.  I went there because God revealed to me that I should go.  While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles.  I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing.  And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.  Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there—false ones, really—who were secretly brought in.  They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.  They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations.  But we refused to give in to them for a single moment.  We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.  

Galatians 2:1-5

It is said that opposites attract.  My bride and I would tend to validate that thought.  Invariably we have different tastes, opinions, and ways of completing tasks.  That was certainly true of Peter and Paul.  Peter was driven by his heart, and working with his hands, rough-cut, decisive, and bold.  Paul was (excuse the irreverance) an egghead, the Harvard scholar-type, more prone to be the president of the chess club, more a quarterback than lineman.  Both apostles were more suited to what God had called and gifted them to be and do.  One trait they held in common was their hardliner devotion to Christ’s Kingdom.  Neither of them would back-off an inch on the issue of Jesus being Lord.  Of that, there could be zero-capitulation…end of story.

Among the few similarities of these Christ-servants was their willingness to accept God’s way of doing new things.  Peter, the Jewish believer understood God’s way would include the Gentiles, but it took an extraordinary vision to convince the fisherman.  Paul was also Jewish, and had to be knocked to his knees and blinded – then healed, to be convinced of God’s seriousness about God’s mercy being extended to every human being on earth.[1]  Both Peter and Paul tended towards inflexibility, but once that wall crumbled, they were not likely to rebuild it.  The egghead and the warrior had both been released from their sins and prejudicial ways, and they would not rest until that message was the theme of their lives.

John Wesley was a hybrid Peter and Paul.  He was more than educated, and a superb thinking-leader, committed to the faith, and leading the interested to become faithful.  But Wesley could also see the middle-way, not compromise, but meeting of minds.  He knew there could not be any progress, on any front, when a collision-course is chosen.  But, when hearts are willing to be open there can be cooperation.  Peter, Paul, and John…they all knew Jesus was Lord…they all became excellent models of what it means to serve Christ, and they all had their flaws.  And God used them in magnificent ways they never dreamed to bring about God’s purposes in their days, and God’s ways.

For You Today  

You and I are not Peter, Paul, nor John.  But this is our time, our days, and the Lord God is the same God of the Jews, Gentiles, and whomever else, to the uttermost ends of the universe.  Despite all our differences, God is looking for the high, low, and middle-ways kinds of people, with whom He will bless and proclaim his Good News.  Some ways will be the old ways; some new.  To be God’s servant means learning to cooperate with what He’s doing, not colliding with each other.

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

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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: 

The God of ALL Favorites  and  Hand-Wringing Methodists

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Read Acts 9-11 for both accounts

A Toast to the End of Half-Heartedness

 

Friday, August 26, 2022

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.  Do you have the gift of helping others?  Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.  Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.  All glory and power to him forever and ever!  Amen.  1 Peter 4:10-11

My Dad was fond of the idiom:  Jack-of-all-trades; master-of-none.  The first half of the saying was originally a compliment to indicate multi-tasking, being able to do a basketful of different trades (skills).  Later, some cynical troll added the second part, turning a bright compliment into a dig.  The troll was, according to some, Robert Greene, a late 16^th-century writer, who tweaked the compliment into a snide rebuke of another writer, who had turned from actor to writer of plays; fellow’s name was William Shakespeare.[1]

Apostle Peter, of the historical first-century, had cast his vote over 1,600 years before, encouraging excellence in whatever you do.  And, heading-off the elitist criticism from the beginning, Peter didn’t care what skill or skills you may employ, he says:  whatever you do, don’t do it half-heartedly, give it all you’ve got.

The sole reason for this is that each Christian disciple of Jesus Christ is given spiritual gifts to use in building the Kingdom of God, by building fellow believers.  To use any gift of God in a half-hearted manner is the character of an ingrate, unable, or unwilling to appreciate the holiness of God’s gifts, a slap in God’s face.

John Wesley, Founder of Methodism, wrote that Christian efforts at doing good were to be an unceasing quest for believers, doing all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways and places we can, at all the times we can, and to all the people we can, for as long as ever we can.  This is a plea for the extermination of half-heartedness – a call to arms against mediocrity, and in support of excellent, unselfish service.

The kingdom of God was never advanced by people with a cavalier attitude, acting as if serving others was bothersome, or even optional, or required little personal sacrifice.  Serving God in any way, from the highest to lowest of positions is a holy endeavor, and must receive our best efforts.  As Oswald Chambers wrote, it must be my utmost for His highest!

For You Today

If you’re a preacher, singer, teacher, Sunday School worker, custodian, or keeper of the records…your best efforts belong to God.  He gave you those gifts because He has confidence you’ll use them well. 

A word from the deep well of Apostle Paul’s wisdom to do nothing half-heartedly:

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Colossians 3:23

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:  Glory and Wise Choices

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

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[1] The Phrase Finder

Loved and Belonging

 

Thursday, January 14, 2021

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!  Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

It’s easy to feel insignificant in this universe.  It occurred to me that may be one reason those who feign atheism do so…overwhelmed with the immensity of the cosmos, one cannot imagine God thinking of a single creature as consequential.  It’s like whistling in the dark to ignore-away the bad things that can happen.  A professing atheist feels alone and therefore without purpose or reason for existing. 

We whistle (or scream) against the night of our fear. 

And yet, for those like the Psalmist, who choose to acknowledge God as Sovereign Creator and sustainer of life, the terror of being alone is dissipated, evaporating like a morning mist…and in its stead there is a wonderful dawning of, not just significance or purpose to this existence, but an unfolding and undeniable sense of being loved; of belonging. 

In my youth the prospect of staking it all on trust that a god I could not see would deign to love one like me, small and insignificant…well, it was more than I could bear to face.  So, I hid in the security blanket of agnosticism, a denial that anyone can know the truth about where we come from, and therefore, without definitive understanding about meaning or purpose, I could not be blamed for bumbling around about God.  In time, I realized that would not do; it was much like a stay of execution for a man on death row, or a baby sucking on a pacifier – it passed the time but did nothing for the sense that time would eventually run out on ignoring God.

And then God once again spoke through the Psalmist to my childish excuses:

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:3-9

God spoke significance into my heart.  He told me I was with consequence in His eternal existence, crowned with a Godly glory and honor; I bore His image, and I have purpose in His will and plans for everything created.  I, the dust speck, born to a simple, unremarkable family…was on His mind.  Frankly, the thought still leaves me breathless.  But I have discovered, in the passing of time, that, along with John Wesley’s famous last words, that the best of all God is with us, He is still with me. 

For You Today

Faith, the journey upon which we all explore our relationship to everything, is only possible when one takes the leap of moving forward…not whistling – worshipping.

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

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

Calvin and Hobbes (cartoon) by Bill Watterson

For other posts on this text see Still There and The Doily      

 

The Message of the Cross

Tuesday of Holy Week, April 7, 2020

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!  But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?  God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.  Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven.  And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.  So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.  But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.  1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Dr. Luther Dorr, my preaching professor in seminary often said that preaching is foolish enough; it’s the preacher’s goal to not make it any more foolish than God intended.  Perhaps Dr. Dorr hoped to save us from making the mistake of taking the “power of salvation” out of the preaching event.  Either way – there is something powerful about the message of the Gospel, whether presented with words or deed.

The late comedian, George Burns, is quoted as saying, “The secret of a good sermon is having a good beginning and a good ending.  And having them as close together as possible.”^[1]  

There may be some wisdom in the irreverent Mr. Burns’ words, but a quick check of John Wesley’s sermons from the late 18^th century reveals that he wrote approximately 5500 words in a sermon.  Typically, those sermons took a good bit more than an hour to preach.  Today’s attention-deprived minds prefer shorter; MUCH shorter.  My average sermon is about 4 typed pages, or 1500 words (less than 1/3 of Wesley’s), taking 20-30 minutes to preach.  Even this is longish by some modern standards. 

And that depends on whom you ask.  Ask a wise, know-it-all, who sits cross-armed, scowling through a sermon because he knows he’s going to miss the kickoff if the sermon goes 10 minutes over the hour…or a humanist-bent, revival-hating scholar, and they will gladly tell you most sermons are hot-air.  On the other hand, if you ask a hot-for-God Christian if the sermon was long today, he or she will tell you, how can a sermon be too long if it is holding-up the message of God’s saving, soul-refreshing grace to a thirsty, parched soul?

Now, considering it’s just the tip of the iceberg of importance the cross-message brings to humanity, if the foolish/powerful/very long messages of the 18^th century propelled the Wesleyan movement in America, spreading scriptural holiness across the land like a grassfire, what is the Scriptural A.D.D. 10-minute sermonette doing to our culture?

For You Today

If you are a believer it’s not a matter of the length of a sermon, but rather the depth it will reach to honor God’s gift.  That depth reaches down into the darkest realm of the human heart.  That’s not a long sermon; it’s the antidote for a long eternity without Christ.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; 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 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 see Against the Tide and This Holy Week – Part 2

Today’s post is an updated print of an original post dated July 11, 2013 entitled Scriptural A.D.D.  

And Justice for All

Monday, April 6, 2020

“Look at my servant, whom I strengthen.  He is my chosen one, who pleases me.  I have put my Spirit upon him.  He will bring justice to the nations.  He will not shout or raise his voice in public.  He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.  He will bring justice to all who have been wronged.  He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth.  Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.”  God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out.  He created the earth and everything in it.  He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth.  And it is he who says,  “I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness.  I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them.  And you will be a light to guide the nations.  You will open the eyes of the blind.  You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.  “I am the Lord; that is my name!  I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols. Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens.”  Isaiah 42:1-9

If you consider carefully this passage you see everything for which the human spirit longs; chief among those longings is justice for all.  Novels, movies, news reports, freedom marches, wars, civil strife, and even  the backyard brawl between two preschool boys, all center around justice.  The story or cause may be about the violence done by some to others, but the backstory is our longing to have things set right.  And that never happens in isolation!

Christ-followers of every generation since the first century have had a deep sense of this need for church, the koinonia fellowship of caring.  Tied to this is Christ’s call to go everywhere in His name, doing the same as He did…driving out the demonic influences that are a violence to holiness, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely and poor, freeing the slaves.  Without this sense of mission there can be no holiness.  Founder of Methodism, John Wesley spoke eloquently to the fallacy of solitary religion, the singular, hermit-like brand of Christianity, desiring salvation and justice received, but isolated, unwilling to give oneself to Christ’s body:

Solitary religion is not to be found there.  “Holy solitaries” is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers.  The gospel of Christ knows no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness.”[1]

We are currently bound in isolation due to the Coronavirus.  On this 5^th week of not meeting together in our church buildings I am decidedly experiencing withdrawal.  It’s not withdrawal from sermons, readings, hymns, and the demand of completing all the liturgy in the bulletin within the hour time frame.  Rather, it is the people; it is the fleshly embodiment of the Spirit’s presence, where I am more than Russell could possibly be.  This forced abandonment is a scarcity of communing with, to, and from Christ’s body.  It is an absence of the joy of the common desire of our mission to bring Christ’s Kingdom of justice for all, to all!

When I was a little boy refusing to eat broccoli, my Mom would say, there are children starving in Africa who would love to have what’s on your plate.  As an immature child I wanted to hand the plate to Mom and say, mail it to ‘em.  (But I was never that brave or foolish).  Having gotten a lot older, and a little wiser, I now have trouble finishing my plate without thinking of those bellies that are rumbling with emptiness. 

For You Today

Perhaps isolation, caused by a modern-day plague, is just what the doctor ordered for people...so we can appreciate the joy of following Jesus together.

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

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Title Image:  Newark Public Schools  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Isaiah 42 see Holy Week on Monday

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[1] John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley Volume XIV p321 preface to poetical works; Hendrickson Publishers

When God is Close

[1]

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.  He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them.  Psalm 145:18-19(NLT)

That God is powerful has never been in question during my adult years.  My questioning about God has always been whether I would ever really know Him personally.  Whether I was good enough for God to call me his friend.

When I was very young, I believed in God as a child believes…wide-eyed, full of expectation, and eager to please.  As a teen I was a Prodigal, wandering in the far country, angry, and without faith.  When I returned home to God’s fold as a young adult there were a lot of questions that hung-on and haunted me.  Trying to have faith in Yahweh was a quagmire of wondering, full of unanswered questions;

·      why is this not clear, and

·      why is that silence from Heaven what I hear most? 

·      Why…if I’m one of His…does bad stuff happen to me? 

My questions were selfish, but that’s what happens in the inner-place of the will.  You can hear a zillion testimonies of other people’s faith experiences with God, and how their prayers were answered, but deep down what we long-for is a personal connection with God.  We want to know He’s there; we want to feel His touch.

For some years the strongest desire of my heart and soul was to praise God…and really mean it.  It’s hard to do that when life’s big questions challenge your faith as being less than genuine.  You stand or sit in a church service and join in the smiles, tears and offering of praise through hymns, giving, and prayer…but, for some reason you feel like a hypocrite. 

John Wesley had that experience.  Wesley struggled in the same way Russell struggled with faith.  From his journal we read that he questioned Peter Bohler how he can preach faith in God if he had no faith in God.  Bohler’s response was:  Preach faith until you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.[2]  The view from this side of history, centuries later, Wesley’s struggle is a little faded.  But it’s there in his journal, a record the preacher kept, unearthing all those questions and yearnings, the evidence of a soul, wracked with the overwhelming desire to know the living God personally, not second-hand, but up-close and personal!

The famous meeting of John Wesley’s soul with that living God, Jehovah, at Aldersgate church one cold night, was also recorded in Wesley’s Journal as the tipping-point in that personal faith Mr. Wesley experienced, and that which started a movement that swept through the entire world of personal holiness:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.[3]

I cannot say I have never had questions since the day God began placing faith in my heart; just the opposite, I have many questions, the answers which may have to wait until I ask Jesus face to face.  But this one thing is true; the faith that is bedrock within me is because I took Christ on faith; I learned, as the Psalmist declared is true about God:  He is close to those who call on Him…in truth.  

“In truth” – nothing held back.

For You Today

If you struggle in this area, even occasionally…or if it is all day, every day…take heart, and take a lesson from David the Psalmist, John the Methodist, and Russell, a simple preacher…take all your questions to him; He’s got big shoulders, and just loves to hear from His children.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

[2] As recorded in Christian Classics Ethereal Library

[3] Ibid.