That Grass On the Other Side

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

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 37:14-17

The old adage about greener grass on the other side of the fence could not be more reliable.  For years I’ve driven past a goat farm near our home.  I cannot begin to estimate how often I’ve seen both old and young of the flock with necks straining through the fence to get that luscious green grass on the other side.

It works that way for human goats too!  Those who are poor dream about the green grasses in the land of the rich.  (It’s the reason lottery tickets sell).  Flip that coin and you find the rich wondering what it would be like to live more simply, without the stress of having to protect their wealth from potential thieves.  Both sides of that fence imagine a carefree life of ease on the fence’s other side.  But more often you find the rich unable to resist the temptation to get richer…on the sore backs of those in poverty.  And so it has gone since the Garden of Eden.

Jesus warned about the trap of letting money, or the desire for that greener grass lifestyle, take the place of godliness…which is a life-building others up, instead of storing-up for sefishness sake[1].  Paul picked up on that theme, and instructed his young protégé, Timothy, to teach contentment[2]

It does not surprise me that God came to us in a lowly manger and was content, whether in the company of the rich movers and shakers, or those who were impoverished, destitute of the world’s goods, and no prospect for getting more.  He knew the riches of glory in Heaven with Yahweh; He knew, and had the power of the universe by his word in creation…but he laid it all aside, to be poor for us.

Jesus gave John a warning message for those who thought they had it made, as well as for those who think having what the rich had, would put them in that elite group of carefree livers of the good life:

You say, ‘I am rich.  I have everything I want.  I don’t need a thing!’  And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.  So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire.  Then you will be rich.  Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see.  I correct and discipline everyone I love.  So be diligent and turn from your indifference.  Revelation 3:17-19

For You Today  

Whether you are rich as the upper class comes, or living nervously on Food Stamps and thrift store cast-offs, that grass on the other side of the fence only looks greener.  What God gave you…a soul with His image stamped on it…is your true wealth and worth.  And it is without price…unless you sell it to this world’s highest bidder.

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  The Sword of Justice 

This is an updated version of “So Much Anger” published on Rocky Road Devotions January 16, 2014

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 it:  Matthew 6:19-34

[2] Read it:  1 Timothy 6

God Sovereign - Part 4

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Thursday, May 25, 2017

Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged.  For look—the Judge is standing at the door!  For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  We give great honor to those who endure under suffering.  For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance.  You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.  But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else.  Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.  James 5:9-12^(NLT)

We are looking at practical applications of living in an intentional way as people who serve a sovereign God, and therefore what our attitudes and actions must reflect.  Today we see three more instructions from James, the most practical apostle.

Witness – We Must Proclaim the Kingdom like a Prophet

Living your life in a manner worthy of eternity means you will stand for that which will stand in eternity.  That means sharing your faith in God with people.

It’s never been part of my comfort zone to go out on a limb with my faith.  Nobody likes being thought a fool or being mistaken for an offensive religious bigot.  Sharing your faith is hard work; it’s not an activity for the faint of heart.  But then, farmers and prophets are not lazy people!

Perseverance – We Must Have an Attitude like Job

Job had it all; then he had it all taken away.  He went from hero to zero in an afternoon.  His wife got so discouraged she told her husband, why don’t you just curse God and die?  But Job hung in there.  He wasn’t patient like some say – he was actually ticked, and wanted an answer. 

But he did hang in there, and that’s what perseverance is all about.  You know that God is in charge, so you play by His rules, and leave the results to Him.

Language – We Must Keep Our Speech Clean

James said a word about our words.  Folks, what proceeds out of the mouths of even Christians these days would have made our grandparents turn purple if they’re alive, or turn over if in their graves. 

All of your words are worship.  What James is saying is, don’t offer slop to our Lord!  He is the sovereign God of the universe – not the man upstairs.  He hears our words and attributes each of those words to us as our contribution to either praise or putrification of His name. 

Be careful with your words!

For You Today

Proclaiming the Kingdom of God with clean mouths and persevering hearts and minds – this is anything but self-serving or bigoted; this is work for children of the King!

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

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NOTES

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 ^I Title image: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

God Sovereign - Part 3

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Wednesday, May 24, 2017

So far we have looked at two major truths about understanding the nature of God’s sovereignty:  First, God is not random in what He does, and second, that tends to mess with your plans.  And yesterday we began our follow-up of how to cooperate with God Sovereign…that you make your life’s plans with eternity in focus.

This morning we want to begin unpacking what it means to do that, keeping your focus on who you are, and Whose you are.

Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival.  You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work.  Be patient like that.  Stay steady and strong.  The Master could arrive at any time.  James 5:7-8^(NLT)

James uses the illustration of the farmer.  Prepare, plant, protect, nurture, and…….wait – then harvest!  It’s a long process, but God made it so.  When you come to the table of life, bring patience.  How, preacher?  I don’t know…you have to work that out for yourself.  But, mainly, you ask God for it, because it is not natural.  We are all impatient.  Trust me on this one; you must want patience desperately in order to cultivate it.

And while you’re working on developing patience, make certain you’re working on the right kind of crop, remembering that eternity is long, and whatever you sow is what you will definitely reap. 

Eddie was member of a church I once served.  Eddie practiced a different kind of sowing method.  I saw it firsthand one Friday when four of us played golf. 

Eddie and another church member, Jeff, were in one cart; Al and I shared a second cart.  The four of us plodded along, with no TV cameras broadcasting the shame we were bringing to the art of playing golf.  Then on one hole with a wide fairway, my partner, Al, drove his ball way off to the left and the rest of us hit ours off to the right side.  After we located my partner’s lone ball on the left, we drove to where Eddie and Jeff were waiting with the other three balls.  As we were crossing the fairway, we saw Eddie kicking a ball into the sand trap…then he stepped on it – hard!  He was definitely sowing that golf ball – he mashed it into the ground!

When we caught up with them, Eddie had that look on his face – something like a fox with a key to the henhouse in hand.  He said, as he pointed to the golf ball seedling mashed into the sand trap:  Preacher, YOUR ball is in an awful fix.  I got up close to the ball – it wasn’t mine!  Jeff looked – it wasn’t his; the only ball it could be belonged to our resident golf ball farmer, Eddie! 

And, trust me here at this point also; there are some things you can’t make up!  I am certain Eddie was just having fun teasing me, but it turned on him and we all had a great laugh over a practical joker getting a taste of his own medicine.   Folks, believe it when the Bible says YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT.   

For You Today

Having patience means playing fair and trusting God!  In the end His sovereign will is going to be served.  So, with eternity in focus, remember Eddie:  whatever you sow is the same ball you’ll have to hit out of the sand trap. 

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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 ^I Title image: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

God Sovereign - Part 2

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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Yesterday we looked at two major truths about understanding the nature of God’s sovereignty:  First, God is not random in what He does, and second, that tends to mess with your plans. 

jSo, now begins our follow-up of how to cooperate with God Sovereign.

#1 Make Your Life’s Plans With Eternity in Focus

And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year.  We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.”  You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow.  You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing.  Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”  As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves.  All such vaunting self-importance is evil.  In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil. 

James 4:13-17^(TMNT)

The greatest arrogance in the universe is presuming upon God.  Stuff disappears quickly, just like our plans.  James teaches us that making our plans requires a reality check about the sovereignty of God. 

Some years ago the Florida lottery ran television ads attempting to promote ticket sales.  Of course the chances of winning a lottery are one in several million gazillion, which is a rather conservative, if not altogether mathematically-accurate estimate.   However, each commercial would end with an average-looking person holding up the winning ticket, saying with a smile:  You never know…!

We need to heed that saying about tomorrow for our lives – you need to include God in your plans…because you never know if you have tomorrow…or if today God will require your presence before the bar!  Friends, life is incredibly short; eternity is incredibly long. 

It may not be necessary, but I’ll say it anyway, it is wiser to prepare for eternity, than anything in the here and now. 

It is certainly not begging the issue to repeat – failing to prepare for eternity is more than dangerous – it is foolish!      

James is so thorough.  He has told us to not leave God out of our plans. 

Tomorrow we will (if God permits) turn to the other vital issue which naturally follows…how to include God on a practical level.

For You Today

Those of us who were born in the United States have no idea what living under a sovereign ruler is like.  We hold a sacrosanct idea of freedom; we make ourselves sovereign over our own lives.  We do what we want.

But for a follower of Jesus Christ, acknowledging and embracing God’s sovereign rule is the disciple’s baby step #1.  Absent of knowing and living by that rule in our hearts, we cannot even think ourselves Christian.

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

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NOTES

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 ^I Title image: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

What's in YOUR Wallet?

[1]

Monday, January 25, 2016

VIDEO

So Jeremiah sent for Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated all the prophecies that the Lord had given him, Baruch wrote them on a scroll.  Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, “I am a prisoner here and unable to go to the Temple.

So you go to the Temple on the next day of fasting, and read the messages from the Lord that I have had you write on this scroll.  Read them so the people who are there from all over Judah will hear them.  Perhaps even yet they will turn from their evil ways and ask the Lord’s forgiveness before it is too late.  For the Lord has threatened them with his terrible anger.”   Jeremiah 36:4-7^(NLT)

According to a New York Times article JPMorgan, Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon got a nice 35% raise this year – from 27 million to 35 million! [2]   

Wonder how he made ends meet before getting that raise?

Meanwhile, my bank, along with the rest of the banks in America pays its customers about ¼ of 1% interest on their savings accounts.[3]  For a modest savings of, let’s say, $5,000, you get $13 per year interest.  Pitiful, but I guess I was spoiled early on.  When I first opened a savings account as a pre-teen, the interest rate was about 20 times higher, 5¼%.  And the mortgage rate my parents paid on their little house was 3%.  Credit cards were not used by the average person back then, but we all seem to live on them today.  The average consumer credit card interest rate today for unpaid balances is 17.55%[4]

So…if I get this right:  if you manage to save up $5,000 and put it in a savings account, the banks can reinvest it and pay you back $13 interest a year!  But if you use that credit card and run up your balance to $5,000 – you have to pay them $877.⁵⁰ per year. 

Somehow that doesn’t sound like it would be a good idea (except for the banks)!

Now, I know it is a “free country” (except if you borrow money), and I am free to stuff whatever money I want under the mattress; frankly I don’t think my bank would miss me.  And this isn’t a tirade against the banking industry.  But, I just can’t help wondering why, less than 10 years ago the poor banks were being bailed out via the pocket books of middle-class Americans, while the interest those banks returned on life savings for plain people disappeared altogether; and now, in a time when the economy is supposed to be dancing-happily along in recovery, the poor are getting worse off, and the so-called middle class is disappearing altogether.  And the head banker gets an $8,000,000,000 raise!

Is there something intrinsically-wrong with the system?  I wonder.

In Jeremiah’s day (not much different than every other day in human history), the poor were exploited by the rich and God’s prophet delivered the not-so-good-news that God wasn’t pleased.

That we repeat often this oppression of the poor by the rich is a given.  Consider the lottery:  two hundred fifty years ago the cost of a lottery ticket was so high that only the affluent upper-class could afford to play.  Poor people spent what little they had providing for their families.  Today, because of advertising appeals to the get-rich-quick mentality that longs for a way out of poverty, being tied to the temptation of low prices, many under-educated people living in poverty put their children to bed hungry.

That this is a scheme which targets the poor is indefensible.  In city after city the largest numbers of lottery ticket outlets are in the poorest neighborhoods. 

What’s worrisome here is that while we in America are repeating these oppressive, cold-hearted attitudes towards the poor and marginalized, God is aware of every bit of it, and He has been known to repeat judgment on an unrepentant people.

I don’t mind getting just a postage stamp return on the little life-savings I have, but an eight million dollar raise for a CEO, while my poor neighbor’s children starve to death, tells me something is exceedingly wrong in this country.

For You Today

What’s in YOUR wallet?  Hopefully enough to carry a warm meal to a hungry child.

You chew on that out on that Rocky Road today…and have a joy-filled and blessed day!

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[1] Title image:  By Lotus Head from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Jamie Dimon’s Compensation at JPMorgan Chase Rises 35%, to $27 Million By LIZ MOYERJAN. 21, 2016

[3] My Bank Tracker - 0.26% Average rate in U.S.

[4] Index Credit Cards monitor

You BET and Lose!

Monday, June 23, 2014

Beware!  Don’t be greedy for what you don’t have.  Real life is not measured by how much we own.   Luke 12:15

Today is part three of reasons why I will not participate in the lottery, or any other form of gambling....

Reason #3 Gambling is SPIRITUALLY DESTRUCTIVE

The whole spirit enveloping the gambling mentality is expressed in the Biblical word "covetousness".  The word "covet" comes from two words that mean a hot or passionate desire.  It is a fixation on something that the heart, mind and soul craves. 

Morals do not enter into this.  It is simply the animal craving to have at all costs.  I recall watching the original "King Kong" movie.  When that big gorilla was just about to pick up the lovely Fay Wray, the hero stepped up and waved his arms, taking the overgrown monkey's attention.  And when Kong turned to look at the hero he was not happy.  There was a fire in his eyes.  He coveted having the hero in the palm of his mitt. 

Covetousness is condemned in the scripture.  Of that there can be no doubt.  Our problem is matching the Bible's ideals with what conflicts in our everyday lives. 

In this case I want to submit to you that gambling is destructive to your spirit, and to the call of the Spirit of God in you.  I base that on the fact that the underlying truth about participating in gambling lies in the carnal nature which covets. 

For the Christian who is serious about following Jesus, the coveting nature should not be catered-to, it should be combated.  If not, it is sin. 

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.  James 4:17 (NLT)

The only forms of gain that are approved by Scripture do not include gambling.  "Something for nothing" is an anti-Christian attitude. 

If you are a thief, stop stealing.  Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need.  Ephesians 4:28 (NLT)

Like a bird that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means. Sooner or later they will lose their riches and, at the end of their lives, will become poor old fools. Jeremiah 17:11 (NLT)

We are to work for a living, and that should be honest work. 

A question that keeps coming to mind is:  How can we teach our children that they must work honestly to provide a living, and be responsible stewards, if we demonstrate a personal attitude that says, "C'mon dice, let the good times roll"?

For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.  1 Timothy 6:10 (NLT)

We can also see that our ability to worship is stunted when we are bound up in covetousness.

So they come pretending to be sincere and sit before you listening.  But they have no intention of doing what I tell them.  They express love with their mouths, but their hearts seek only after money.    Ezekiel 33:31 (NLT)

The common "Christian excuse"?  "It's only a dollar."   Well, it's amazing how small a dollar can look when you're in the grocery store, or buying a car, or adding to your IRA.  But, my how humongous, how gigantic when we are in the vicinity of the offering plate! 

Let me tell you as kindly as I am able....If the few dollars you dispose of are so small, and you wouldn't miss it, I have just the place for you to put it to work where it will mean a lot.   If you "give" only $5 a week to Mr. Lotto, try to get this thought out of your head tonight before you go to sleep.....$5 a week for the last year?  ………

You could've built a whole church building for a Latin American congregation.

The little dollar may not be missed from your pocket, but think what God could do with it.  You may remember He does things like feed 5000 people with only a boy's sack lunch!     

I cannot change everything. 

   I cannot feed all the starving people in the world or clothe all the naked or visit all the lonely...I cannot repeal all the bad legislation on the books. 

But I can be responsible for what I do daily as I follow Jesus. 

For You, Today…

Two things:

1.      Lay your promise on God’s altar that you will never participate in the dragging down of yourself or your brother by participating in gambling.

2.      Contact your elected officials – exercise good stewardship over this privilege we have to be citizens who support righteous actions in our government.  Don’t sit back, or the immoral gambling bosses will have their way in our fair state.  Our children don’t need that!

A lottery was held a long time ago.  The military men gambled and cursed.  The prize was a seamless white robe.

That lottery was held at the foot of the cross. 

I was there – vicariously, because of my sinfulness, participating... 

But I don't have to do it again!