Be Still...and Know

Friday, September 29, 2023

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.  So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.  Let the oceans roar and foam.  Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!  

….“Be still, and know that I am God!  I will be honored by every nation.                          I will be honored throughout the world.”  Psalm 46:1-3, 10

When the storms of life head your way, it becomes an absolute necessity to know and trust the strength of the position you occupy.  It won’t do to start fixing the roof when the raindrops begin.  This is why Scripture constantly tells us, shows us, and reminds us to meditate on God, to study His Word, and trust His strength, rather than our own.  He is our roof, walls, and foundation; He wants us to survive the storms.  So…this morning, let’s meditate on God in the stillness:

Be Still and See His Creation

The Psalmist tells us God created all that we can see, as well as that which we still haven’t discovered.  Take a deep breath and contemplate how God has put you together, intricate, beautiful, capable of great kindness and compassion, having free will to serve goodness or evil; you are fearfully and wonderfully-made.

Be Still and See His Gentleness

With all His power to create the universe, God made sure we would have the tenderness to be gentle with that which is vulnerable.  What trust our God has in us to ennoble us with such gifts that display His image in us.  We are blessed with a family resemblance.

Be Still and See His Kindness  

God did not have to create us, or be gentle with His creation, but rather chose to do so because of His nature to be kind.  Even the covenant word used for God’s promises to all who look to him as Father…the word is lovingkindness.  That is the stuff of His creation and promises.

Be Still and See His Majesty

Mountains, plains, seas, sky, and all that is in them, declare the handiwork of God.  And with all of that to display his glory, God also has not chosen to live in a house made with bricks, mortar, wood, or stone; God lives within the crown of His creation…humankind.  He decorates his abode with love, compassion, and eternal life.

Be Still and See His Mercy

In the storms of our lives, God is there; He cares what we’re going through, and what we’ve learned, how much we’ve suffered, or laughed.  He knows us so fully…every molecule of our body, every thought of our being, every tear we’ve ever shed is collected in His bottle, and He knows every pure or vile thing we’ve thought or done.  And in His mercy, we are loved.

For You Today 

What could we possibly add to Creator, Gentle, Kind, Majestic, and Merciful? 

Tons more…we have just barely touched the slightest glimmer of the grandeur of God’s glory.  And the greater news is, for those who love Him and call Him Father, we will have an eternity to explore all He is, and the greatest measure of His love, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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.

Title Image(s) courtesy of The Chosen via Wikimedia                      

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

The Gift of Morning Dew

Friday, August 18, 2023

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!  For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron’s head, that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe.  Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion.  And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing, even life everlasting. Psalm 133:1-3

Harmony produces synergy.  That’s when everything works together to have a result which is greater than the sum of its’ individual parts.  The Psalmist tells us it’s a wonderfully-pleasant reality.  Most people misunderstand its source, it’s a gift from God.  The Psalmist compares Mt. Hermon’s misty-morning dew, flowing-down as a gift over the blistering summer heat that parches the entire region.[1]  Without that refreshing dew falling on the lower region of Zion’s hills, the scorched earth would produce famine and death.  And, since humankind is not in charge of the earth’s atmosphere or weather, it is the hand of the Creator (Jehovah-Jireh) which provides that misty life-saver. 

It is so with harmony.  One individual human being’s decision to work-together is simply that – one unselfish decision.  To have even the slightest chance of germinating into harmony requires the cooperating touch of another.  But even a crowd of cooperators, working like carpenter ants, cannot produce genuine harmony without the dew of God’s gift. 

Much like Colonel Sanders’ fried-chicken venture, the chicken, flour, spices, frying pan, and cornflakes were already there; but it wouldn’t have synergized into that wonderful original and crispy, unless the white-bearded man put them together.

In a greater way, God designed human life to be saturated with this gift of harmony, soaked with kindness, forbearance, generosity, patience, joy, peace, gentleness, and love.  The opposite is selfishness, impatience, greed, petulance, anger, violence, crudeness, and isolation; these are known by their common name, sin. 

For You Today 

Living together in harmony is something of a delicate art, as tenuous as thinking two cats with their tails tied-together will be able to keep their cool more than 3 seconds. 

But God made it possible for us to dwell together in peace as families, neighborhoods, countries, races, and any other diverse complication in the universe, with another kind of “dew” that drips down from Golgotha, the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  This is the gift of ultimate synergy for the soul, and it is the only solution that will bring peace in this lifetime or eternity!

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 library. 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] The Biblical Illustrator, Electronic Database© 2011 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. BibleSoft.com

Body Parts

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.  

Genesis 2:7

An adult human body consists of slightly more than 200 bones and 78 organs.  Five of the organs are considered vital to life, heart, lungs, liver, kidney, and brain.  Now, those are the rudiments of biology, the basics of structure and function.  However, life is not all biology, just the physical mechanism of the species; there are also the metaphysical (abstract) body parts, without which we could not exist.  There is spirit and soul to go with those body parts, and let us not back-shelf what gave life in the first place, God breathing His own breath into Adam’s assembled body parts.  Then, and only then, did he become a living soul.

God made humankind.  God also revealed to Apostle Paul the analogy that, as a human body functions in concert with all the bones, organs, and resident breath of God, so the human race, with all its different and unique parts, is to function inter-dependently, working together for the good of the body. 

Applying that principle to the “body” of Christ (the church), God’s intention is that the differences that form us into groups, male/female, nationalities, social strata, religious sects, etc, fade into the background.  As in Adam, Spirit supercedes flesh.  As a species, we have light years more in common than that which divides us.

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.  So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.  

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

In the Gospel accounts we find Jesus under attack by (supposedly) spiritually-wise religious teachers.  They accused him of being satanically-inspired, because Jesus had healed a demon-possessed man.  Jesus, ever the master of logic, as well as truth, told them their diagnosis was ridiculous…Satan casting-out Satan?

A kingdom divided by civil war will collapse.  Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart.  Mark 3:24-25

For You Today 

Our human bodies were created to have bones which support and protect the inner body parts, and those inner parts strengthen the bones.  All of that structure was formed to cooperate with the breath of God inside our spirit and soul.  We were created for better than feuding and dividing into camps. 

The smallest bone in the human body has a great responsibility to the rest of the body’s health…the stapes bone, which is commonly called the stirrup.  Located in the inner ear, the stapes bone is the link which connects sound waves to the auditory nerve.  In short, without this bone’s function our brain is cut-off from sound.  Without that little bone’s service, our communication with others is drowned in a sea of silence.

So, here is a word to hear; gird-up your stapes bone and let it sink-in:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”  John 13:34-35

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

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Out of the Dust  and  Trans-Creation

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

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

The Strangers Among Us

Friday, January 27, 2023

My servants and maids consider me a stranger.  I am like a foreigner to them.     I was a father to the poor and assisted strangers who needed help.                 

I have never turned away a stranger but have opened my doors to everyone.  Job 19:15, 29:16, Job 31:32

As the ancient Job found out, you can go from Hero to Zero in an afternoon.  It’s somewhat like that in ministry, moving from church to church; always a new town.  There’s an old joke minister’s families know too well.  There was a knock on the parsonage door, and a child answered.  The caller asked the child:  Are your parents home?  The child replied:  Pa’s in his study prayin’ an’ Mom’s upstairs packin’.  When the Bishop’s cabinet is busy making appointments for the coming year, ministerial families take out the checklist on what definitely needs to be packed, and that which is to be discarded to make moving lighter and easier.  Old Job learned what Methodist clergy live.

Part of that life is being a stranger.  Moving often to a new place brings out the “stranger syndrome”.  You’ve just spent several years in one place, and you are uprooted.  All the daily activities and routines must be re-thought; school, dentist, doctors, grocery stores, traffic patterns, re-registering to vote, forwarding addresses filed, new telephone numbers, and on, and on…!  And, for good measure, there is a whole plateful of new names to go with new faces.  And it all hinges on where the Bishop decides to send you next.

Job’s take on strangers had to have changed dramatically that day his wealth, health, family, and community reputation were drained to the dust.  Suddenly, his awareness of what it means to lose everything, and gain a personal and incisive understanding of how strangers are sometimes (oftentimes) despised.  All Job’s neighbors, fellow city officials, and even friends were wondering just what really bad-awful thing he had done to tick God-off that much.  And yet, Job hadn’t done anything wrong; his head was spinning…he’d been appointed to his next, and most dreaded chapter in life, suffering stranger!

If your life has ever been in Job’s kind of shambles, you probably thank God for the Kathryn Micklers in the places you wander.  Well, you probably don’t know Kathryn, but she’s one of God’s blessings to the strangers.  In 1990 our little tribe packed and moved to Jacksonville, Florida to begin serving with a new church.  Kathryn was one of our members.  

About four weeks into this new relationship, Kathryn made an appointment with the church secretary to come to my office.  When she came through the door that morning, she was carrying a box just a little larger than a loaf of bread.  She placed it on my desk with a smile, and said:  Just a little something to welcome you to our community; hope you like it.  When I opened the box, there was Emmett Kelly, Jr…the praying clown.  Kathryn said, I have a little jewelry store, and I carry these for sale.  I heard you say in your sermon last week that your parents took you to the circus back in the 1950’s and you saw Emmett Kelly in person.  I thought you ought to have him here.

That kindness, Kathryn’s welcoming the stranger, has stayed close to my heart these past 30+ years; the praying clown is still on my desk…and I am reminded every day what it’s like to be a stranger, and welcomed like family.

For You Today  

Strangers tend to keep a low profile…sometimes you’ve got to look hard, listen well, and be ready to be the blessing someone else needs.

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: 

5-Part Series:  While You’re Waiting for God to Answer:  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5

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^©   

Without a Single Fault

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.  Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment.  Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.  Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.   Jude 22-24

It takes a mountain of skill, experience, and work for a carpenter to take a log and make it into a flawless work of art.  One careless, ill-placed strike of the hammer or chisel can make kindling for a fire, rather than a priceless piece of furniture, to be handed down from one generation to the next.  Wood, by its nature, carries with it the internal characteristics of all it has faced since the day the tender shoot broke the surface of the earth…storms, dry times, wind, cold, and every other force of every day.  There are flaws cradled in the core of every tree’s story.

Apostle Jude cautions each believer to take part in caring for each other, rescuing our brothers and sisters from the self-destructive nature we all possess.  At the same time we are to be careful we don’t cross the line of judging, doing more damage to our own walk of faith.  It’s a fine line between helping and harming.

I recall a time more than thirty years ago when the pressure of a challenging time as pastor of a dying church had stripped-away my outer bark to bare, cracked wood.  Internal power struggles were destroying what was left of that church.  I began to realize I was losing hope.  I spent more hours weeping in my study than preparing for Sunday worship.  My heart had more cracks than wood left in the desert sun for forty years.

A couple of men who were prayer warriors, and far above my pay-grade in spiritual warfare, recognized my empty fuel tank, and just happened to show up at the church one day around lunch time.  They would not take “no” for an answer, loaded the weary preacher in the back seat of the car, and carted me off for a two-hour lunch and time of prayer.  It didn’t solve the problems of that church (which took another two decades to finally close the front doors), but it lifted this man from the abyss! 

Those two could have been on the golf course, or tending to some need of their own; they chose to push the delirium of my personal faith crisis to a front row seat.  They helped me face the reality of a quagmire I’d allowed to overshadow and swallow my faith.  On that sunny Florida afternoon I received no epiphany of knowledge – and, truth be told, I didn’t need any more facts, or opinions about strategy, or just head knowledge – I got much better than any lesson.  What still stuns me from that afternoon has nothing to do with what I ate for lunch.  Or what was prayed.  Or who drove, or which car it was.  The memory I carry deep within is how much I was being loved. 

For You Today  

The fact of the quagmire with which you struggle, that deep, boggy, wet-mud that wants to drag your faith into oblivion, is part of the structure of your being’s core.  You were born with a sin nature that has endured many storms and parched moments.  You don’t know how it could be, that Jude could believe you will be presented to Christ without flaw.  But it’s even better than you hoped. 

That whole group of believers you gather with at church on Sunday – God has prepared them for you, and you for them…to be carpenter’s glue to all your woody cracks and flaws.  He’s building a masterpiece of an heirloom out of your life.  You are loved by Him, through them.  You go cooperate with Him in that!

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: 

       Living in a War Zone   and   Chained Like Angels

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^©   

The GENTLE Way

 

Friday, October 14, 2022

Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights.  A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people.  Gently instruct those who oppose the truth.  Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth.  Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap.  For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.  2 Timothy 2:23-26

The old apostle Paul, is sharing advice with his protégé, Timothy, a young pastor.  He is reminding him of what he’s already mentioned several times:  When you’re a pastor, you can’t get too fiery or debate-minded…you start more fires when you use fire, and one fire is enough!  Paul understood well-enough that arguing is a sure way to create division, not understanding and progress.

It's somewhat strange to contemplate Paul’s history (when he was still Saul), of persecuting the church, even handing Christians over to the executioners…against the advice he now gives Timothy, to gently instruct those who oppose the truth of God’s Word.  But time has passed, and Paul has gained insight and wisdom from the hurt he not only caused, but also experienced first-hand, when the methodology of changing the world meant might makes right.  He saw the devastation of fanaticism.  It is, as he told Timothy, the devil’s trap.

I'm not sure I have ever met a more gentle person than the one who gave birth to me.  Mom maintained a quiet, gentleness that showed support, restraint, kindness, and a safe-haven place to be…for anyone. 

Criticism was in short supply when Cecilia was speaking…and she believed in the adage that God gave you two ears and one mouth, and they ought to be used in those proportions – listen, hear, and understand, twice as much as speaking…if not more.  You always knew you would have a listening ear, without judgment.  But, in a surprising turn, whenever she had your ear, she was not hesitant to talk about God’s goodness.  I believe Mom had paid attention to Paul’s wisdom imparted to Timothy, to gently instruct.  That is usually the only way opposers come to a change of heart…when all the rancor and harsh words are left in the dust.  It’s then God can speak to a heart, and bring a wanderer to his senses.

For You Today

There’s an old saying:  When birds are arguing, no one in the nest gets fed.

The case for the gentle way is:  when restraint, kindness, support, and a safe-haven for other ideas, is married to thinking the best of others, everyone will be fed, and God’s Spirit is freed to do what the Spirit does – empower the work of the Kingdom to flourish like a field of wildflowers in bloom.

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: 

Fruit of the Spirit - Part 7 Gentleness   and   A Different Time

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