No Help!

Thursday, October 5, 2023

You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world.  So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as,  “Don’t handle!  Don’t taste!  Don’t touch!”?  Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.  These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline.  But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.  

Colossians 2:20-23

Every rule created by humankind has helped and hurt!  This is true in businesses, communities, families, and any other kind of human interaction, particularly in government!  Rules are mostly created to limit bad results.  On the highways, properly signaling you’re about to make a turn is intended to help the other cars refrain from plowing into your car.  If you forget to signal, it creates confusion; worse, if you signal the opposite of what you’re going to do, signaling a right turn, and then you hang a sharp a left…well, the consequences could have mortal impact.  The rule against making noise in the library is meant to make concentrating on reading easier.  However, the rule should be loudly-violated if the library is on fire!  The rule in business of the customer is always right makes for a pleasant shopping experience…except if the customer pulls out a .45 caliber pistol and demands all the money. 

Properly-observed, rules serve a purpose, but only so far.  When they become bludgeons to manipulate others, it’s time to “rule-out” the rules, go back to square-one, and be ruled by a higher purpose.  This is Paul’s meaning about the world’s rules.  When Christ sets a soul free, to be guided by the higher bar of love, legalistic rule-following never measures-up!

Legalism in the Christian often manifests itself as ugly, cold-hearted cruelty.  You can’t touch that…don’t go there…and, for Heaven’s sake do not drink THAT! These probably have their origin in some higher purpose, but eventually must be put aside if they become idols, compelling us to rely on our personal self-denial, discipline, and skills.  When we worship what we do as being acceptable to God, we have lost all sense of what God really asks of us.  And what is that, which he requires?  Check out what Scripture says:

Love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, hold firmly to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”  Joshua 22:5b

This is a Christian’s principle.  Serving God with all your heart and soul is looking beyond rules to the heart of God’s love and mercy.  This was what was wrong with the Pharisees.  In Matthew’s Gospel we find the Pharisees judging Jesus and his disciples for breaking rules; they were walking through a wheat field on a Sabbath day and were hungry.  They broke off some of the stems to nibble, and the Pharisees read them the riot act because they were breaking the Sabbath rules by “harvesting” wheat on the holy day.  Jesus told them:

But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’  Matthew 12:7

Paul educated the church folks at Rome to be this way:

Let love be genuine.  Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.  Romans 12:9

For You Today 

So the principle comes down to this…don’t be a phony, breaking rules that are sensible commands of love that resonate with the heart of God, or by trying to manipulate others with rules that give you an edge.  Instead, let love be your rule…doing the best to others, for God.

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 Pixabay.com                   

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

Love Is...

 

Thursday, September 14, 2023

This is the message you have heard from the beginning:  We should love one another.  We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother.  And why did he kill him?  Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.  So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life.  But a person who has no love is still dead.  Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart.  And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.  We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.  So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.      1 John 3:11-16

I’ve never been able to get comfortable with what Ryan O’Neal said to Ali MacGraw in the 1970 movie Love Story.  The iconic sentence was:  Love means never having to say you’re sorry.  What was wrong with the line is it helps hallmark the concept of love as entirely belonging to romance.  Tear-jerking aside, anyone who has ever fallen in love knows that tear-jerking, heart-wrenching, soul-claiming romance cannot last without a big bunch of “I’m sorries”. 

Five decades later I’ve become somewhat resigned to the notion.  There is an aspect of love that can’t be separated from romance, but it falls far short of God’s kind of love.

Apostle John defined the word “love” for us with the concept of self-sacrificial living.  In short, we cannot begin to say we love unless we are holding the life of another dearer than our own.  It is willingness to give ourselves up that another might live which distinguishes sacrifice from selfishness.  It is the essence of love to give the most extravagant gift we possess.

I first began to get an inkling of that concept when I was a child.  There was something of an uncomfortableness about how my Mom always took the smallest piece of pie, and let her two boys have the larger pieces (three boys, if you include my Dad).  After all, Mom had done the cutting, and there was always one piece remarkably smaller than all the others.  I guess this is where my settling-down on never having to say you’re sorry comes-in; Mom would never have to apologize for giving her boys what they loved…a bigger slice of apple pie.  I’m reasonably certain neither my brother, nor I, fully-understood that when we sat at Mom and Dad’s table all those years ago.  But we ate (and still remember) that bigger slice of pie to this day.

For You Today 

Whether it costs you a piece of pie, or the last breath of your only life, putting the other person first is what God would do; He settled that long ago when he took our sins to a cross on Golgotha, Jerusalem’s garbage dump.  He offered you the whole pie of forgiveness.

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. 

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!

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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

We Walk Because He Walked First

Monday, June 12, 2023

We love each other because he loved us first.  1 John 4:19

For many years in American culture, love has been portrayed as a feeling that overcomes you.  It includes weak knees, unexplainable loss of appetite, head-in-the-clouds, and that goofy look on your face.  That is not really love, but rather it is romance, a kind of lust-driven drunkenness. 

Love is also not doing things for other people because you have the means and they don’t.  That is simply what many nice people do out of compassion, at best.  A lesser motive is that we fear being like the poor folks; our generosity is to appease whatever gods control the distribution of stuff.  Christian love is doing what other people need most, simply because truth and integrity demand it.

Football great Bubba Smith has sworn off booze. Not drinking it, but selling it. Bubba never did drink, but he sold tons of beer by making cute television ads. Not anymore.  Bubba kicked the habit….Here's how it happened (in his own words):

I went back to Michigan State for the homecoming parade last year, I was the grand marshal and I was riding in the backseat of this car.  The people were yelling, but they weren't saying, 'Go, State, go!'  One side of the street was yelling, Tastes great' and the other side was yelling Less filling.  Everyone in the stands is drunk.  It was like I was contributing to alcohol, and I don't drink.  It made me realize I was doing something I didn't want to do.  I was with my brother, Tody, who is my agent.  I told him, Tody, I'll never do another Lite beer commercial.  I loved doing the commercials, but I didn't like the effect it was having on a lot of little people.  

Everything that makes a believer act unselfishly, truthfully, and compassionately is motivated by the Master’s love.  We love because he first loved us: 

He could hear the crowds screaming "crucify, crucify".  He could hear the hatred in their voices.  These were his chosen people.  He loved them, and they were going to crucify him.  He was beaten, bleeding and weakened; his heart was broken, but still He walked.  He could see the crowd as he came from the palace.  He knew each of the faces so well.  He had created them.  He knew every smile, laugh, and shed tear, but now they were contorted with rage and anger...his heart broke; But still He walked.  Was he scared?  You and I would have been, so his humanness would have mandated that he was.  He felt alone.  His disciples had left, denied, and even betrayed him.  He searched the crowd for a loving face and he saw very few.  Then he turned his eyes to the only one that mattered, and he knew that he would never be alone.  He looked back at the crowd, at the people who were spitting at him, throwing rocks at him, and mocking him, and he knew that because of him, they would never be alone.    So for them, He walked.  The sounds of the hammer striking the spikes echoed through the crowd. The sounds of his cries echoed even louder; the cheers of the crowd, as his hands and feet were nailed to the cross intensified with each blow.  Loudest of all was the still small voice inside his heart that whispered I am with you, my son.  And God's heart broke.  He had let his son walk.

Jesus could have asked God to end his suffering, but instead he asked God to forgive.  Not to forgive him, but to forgive the ones who were persecuting him.  As he hung on that cross, dying an unimaginable death, he looked out and saw, not only the faces in the crowd, but also, the face of every person yet to be, and his heart filled with love.  As his body was dying, his heart was alive; alive with the limitless, unconditional love he feels for each of us.  ^{(author unknown)}

For You Today 

When I forget how much My God loves me, I remember his walk.  When I wonder if I can be forgiven, I remember his walk.  When I need to be reminded of how to live like Christ, I think of his walk.  And to show him how much I love him, I wake up each morning, turn my eyes to him, and I walk.

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:   Condemned in the Shadows  and  Table Talk                                          

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

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

Hearing, Learning, & Loving

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.  When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ.  When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law.  Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.  When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ.  But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.  When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ.  Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.  I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.                                      1 Corinthians 9:19-23

The WHY of apostle Paul’s living a somewhat chameleon-like life, blending-in with every sort of different person, nationality, or social status, was his learned ability to love.  It was so important to Paul to treat others with an open, loving heart, he virtually gave himself to others, so that he would have the opportunity to introduce them to Christ. 

Paul changed; he was no longer a fire-breathing zealot on a crusade to destroy everything related to Jesus Christ.[1]  In place of the old Saul, there was now the new, loving Paul who would literally give his life to bring others to Christ.[2]  Why the shift?  Jesus confronted Paul in the middle of his holacaust work of destroying the church, and taught him to love, because he was loved.  In the process, Paul couldn’t get enough of loving others.  Real Christianity is contagious!

Finding common ground with others is how you learn to love the unlovable.  You cannot do that when you’re unwilling to hear others with the receptive ear that helps you learn who they are, underneath, in their being, and understanding what wakes them up in the middle of the night with the cold sweats.  If you’re serious about sharing the love of Christ, that someone else might know Christ, and find eternal life, you cannot engage in screaming matches, or massive campaigns to exclude people from your life.  In short, you just can’t be afraid of others who are different…you must hear them, and understand them, so you can love them.

There’s an old idea that just doesn’t ring true for me, that dogs will chase cats because dogs hate cats.  Well, my daughter’s pets didn’t get that memo.  Boomer, the huge Mastiff, has gotten quite used to Carrie’s feline borders, Smith & Wesson.  In the picture you see just how close a 100-pound Mastiff can relate to a 7-pound kitty he could have for lunch.  It wasn’t always that way.  Whenever Boomer came into a room, Wesson used to run for the nearest place the hound couldn’t reach.  Little by little that changed.  Now they even play together.  Somewhere along the line, they began hearing each other out…listening, and learning…and now loving.   

Boomer is still a dog…a big, drooling mess of a mush, incapable of not being loved.  Wesson is still a mischievous feline, climbing-on anything high, jumping-off anything dangerously placed, and squeezing-in any tight spot (especially if there’s a slight trace of food to be had).  Neither of them have changed species; but now they play together…and they’re both the better for it.

For You Today

Learn Paul, Boomer, and Wesson’s lessons…listen, learn, love – and play nice!

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 Dumpster and When Tolerance Grows Up into Spiritual Maturity

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

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[1] See Acts 9

[2] See Romans 9:3

Why Marriages Turn Into Wars

Monday, August 1, 2022

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.  Colossians 3:18-19

As a precautionary measure, let me say up front:  this might get ugly.  Also allow me to mention that I’ve been in trouble before, because I wrote, preached, and counseled in favor of Biblical marriage.  That being said, let me introduce you to my dear friend, the Apostle Paul, also no stranger to being in trouble.  With one word Paul stirred two millennia of arguments over marriage; that word:  submit!

The problem is a matter of understanding the banquet table of perspective Paul spread out for those contemplating living together as God intended.  It is often said that you cannot build an entire theology of living on one passage of Scripture.  (It’s said mostly by preachers who want to survive being employed while telling the truth).  What that means is too many people assume the worst before they truly understand the perspective.  I say that to (at least) gain a hearing for these five minutes.  After that you can take me to the hangman if you’re so-inclined.

Paul’s troublesome word “submit” is abhorrent in today’s culture, especially in a time when equality police are everywhere.  The problem is many people don’t wait for the context, or perspective.  Submitting is not subservience, or admission of a woman being weaker than a man.  Rather, in context, and in light of all the other stuff Paul wrote about women and men, it is a matter of entrusting common sense to the woman.  It isn’t a lower respect for women’s ability, intellect, or place…it’s recognition that mutual respect must start somewhere.  Paul understands that men are less likely to begin there.  But if you’re having trouble wrapping your mind around anything Paul writes as being less than sexist, or antiquated gender-bashing, let his signature sentence to the Galatian believers roll around your perspective indicator for just a moment:

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female[1].  For you are all one in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:28

So, why (begging the question of today’s topic) do many marriages turn into war?  The answer is both a male and female failure to live together fulfilling their role, rather than trying to protect their turf.  Imagine a man winning the affection of a woman.  Then, after successfully convincing her to marry him (making all his dreams come true), tries to live as independently as the bachelor…while still claiming his “status” as a husband.  Imagine the woman planning and pulling-off the elaborate dream wedding (putting every strain possible on the credit score).  She then starts working on arranging the rest of their lives according to what that romantic moment looked like when she was the center of attention under that veil.  This Mars vs. Venus approach is the perfect storm setting for winding-up in divorce court, where the only benefit is to the 401K of the lawyers.

Rearrange the thinking to a man and a woman who listen to Apostle Paul’s Godly advice.  The man, moving heaven and earth to love his wife (read that:  do that which will support her in being the strongest, most excellent woman possible).  That kind of man will trust, help, comfort, console when down, cheer when accomplishing…and you’ve got that picture.  And, for the submit issue?  There isn’t an issue when a woman’s got a man like that!

For You Today

Love begins not with a kiss, and the short-path to the bedroom, as seen on most of Hollywood’s theological porn.  Love begins when there is mutual submission to God’s ways.

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 in the Rocky Road Devotions library. 

To dig deeper on today’s topic read:  The Strength of a Marriage  and  Two Rings

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

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[1] Emphasis added

Ready...FIRE...Aim!

 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.  “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.  For I was hungry, and you fed me.  I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink.  I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.  I was naked, and you gave me clothing.  I was sick, and you cared for me.  I was in prison, and you visited me.’  “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you?  Or thirsty and give you something to drink?  Or a stranger and show you hospitality?  Or naked and give you clothing?  When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’  Matthew 25:31-40

Sometimes people confuse the order of things.  The old order was ready…AIM…fire.  Firing first, and then aiming (and even arming) a modern weapon demanded a new order.  This would have been unthinkable to the bow and arrow age, but, technology…eh?

Theologically, the guided-missile approach plays well.  Under the old order we would point-out the target first, aim at it, then pull the trigger.  The target was being a Christian (when you get there you’ll do this, and this, and that…and not do those other, nasty things).  That’s what you do to get to the bullseye, be a good person, do good stuff, and you hit the center.  And God smiles.  Right?

Well, if you were listening to Matthew’s account of what Jesus said about the bullseye, the blessed sheep never even knew they were hitting a bullseye with feeding, clothing, visiting, and caring for others.  They found it out on judgment day.  Their common statement was:  So, Lord, when did we…?

 Just as launching a missile is first, and the programming then takes over, with signals sent to “aim” the missile’s guidance control from the satelite to show it the way to the target, pulling the trigger on your faith in Christ will open your heart (your guidance system) to receive direction from above.  It’s called prayer, and it moves us beyond being a loaded gun, ready to explode anywhere it lands, to a need-seeking force of good, doing those things that will really cause God’s smile in that final accounting day.

For You Today

There are more than enough destructive forces in our day; God wants to turn your guidance towards lifting and building His kingdom of peace and joy.

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 on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  Creator Savior Judge and Judgment Day

[1] Images:  Wikimedia Commons  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©