Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Look here, you rich people:  Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you.  Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags.  Your gold and silver are corroded.  The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire.  This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment.  For listen!  Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay.  The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  James 5:1-4

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.  There was a man there named Zacchaeus.  He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich.  He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd.  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.  When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down!  I must be a guest in your home today.”  Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy.  But the people were displeased.  “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.  Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”  Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.  For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”  Luke 19:1-10

It is easy to get the wrong idea if you focus too closely on any issue.  Both James and Luke were Apostles who knew Jesus firsthand.  If you focus on James’ text you could easily arrive at the conclusion any rich person is evil.  But your opinion will be tempered if you understand Luke’s account of what Jesus said about Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, an extremely rich man.  The chief difference between James’ harsh view, and Jesus’ tempered view, was how the riches were used.  In James the rich hoarded the wealth and glutted on it.  In Luke’s account, the rich man, Zacchaeus, repented of his previous selfishness and seriously set on a course of giving, rather than receiving.  

Fast forward two millennia:

The Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the poorest of nations in the world today, has a per capita median income of $1.09 per day.  By comparison, the number in the United States is $72.11.  If we temper all the reasons we know about how we will always have the poor with us,[1] by what we know about God’s view of selfishness, for a beliver and follower of Jesus, the commitment to be a giver will grow stronger, and hoarding will (eventually) disappear.

For You Today

This is a lesson, not just for the most wealthy, but everyone.  We will be judged on what we do with what has been placed in our hands.  When it comes to wealth of any kind, God measures our faithfulness to Him, and our worth in His Kingdom, not on how much we give, but on how much we have in our hands after we give.

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: 

What's in Your Wallet? and Buying God  and Basic Trust; Basic Fear

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

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[1] Mark 4:7

Picking Up the Trowel

[i]

Friday, July 22, 2016

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?  So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough.  Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.   James 2:14-17^(NLT)

Zimbabwe Journal, Wednesday afternoon, October 10, 2007

Our mission team met many interesting and gracious people in Zimbabwe.  We taught aspiring Bible students, conducted Vacation Bible School that saw nearly 150 children make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, laid a foundation and built part of the wall for new classrooms for Ezekiel Pentecostal Bible College in Harare.

In the space of a week I saw Africa’s beauty, barrenness and beckoning:

Beauty

I was privileged to see Victoria Falls, such incredible pristine beauty of God’s creation.  I got to lean against a 700 year old Baobab tree, and look into the beautiful faces of children and adult Bible students eager to hear about Jesus.

Barren

I met a man on our last afternoon at the school, and never did find out his name.  He was painstakingly using an old cylinder-head from a truck engine as a “hammer” against a piece of angle-iron to break the hulls off grains of maze – not corn, but an African grain that hardly has any nutritional value.  The steady clink, clink, clink of metal on metal was what drew me to his hut.  He had been at it several hours to produce a small handful of maze.  He would form it into a cake half the size of my hand; that would be his meal – his only meal of the day.

Beckoning

We built a foundation for a building, and began the walls before time ran out.  And on the final day we did what has become custom for short-term mission teams; we left what money we had left and everything else besides the clothes on our backs.

“Red” was a member of our team, a brick mason by trade.  He was about the only one who knew anything about construction.  He had brought his own trowel, and somehow the airport security had let it through, metal point and all.  (Amazing considering they’d confiscated my peanut butter!)

Red left his trowel with Abion, our interpreter, who promised to put it to good use in the days ahead. 

And this is how we left the beginnings of some future pastor’s education:

For You Today

There are a lot of bricks left to be put in place.  There are life-changing moments awaiting anyone who might be willing to pick up Red’s trowel.

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

Go to VIDEO

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NOTES

[i] Images: Russell Brownworth (own work)

Hearing Others Speak

[1]

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.  Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.  Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.  And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.  At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.  They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages!     Acts 2:1-8^(NLT)

Having been raised in the Northeast I spoke a different language than the new neighbors I encountered when we moved to rural Florida in 1977.  My ears were accustomed to youse guys, what-evah, and eating lunch for the noonday meal.  It took me forever to get accustomed to y’all, and being called darlin’ by someone other than my mother or my wife. 

When a dear church member gave us some vegetables from her garden she apologized for the small amount; the garden wasn’t makin’ good yet, but there was enough to make a mess.  My bride waited until we were on the way home and wondered aloud…why would Jean want us to make a mess with this squash?  Jean had been speaking Southern; we were hearing in Northern.

It was the exact opposite on the Day of Pentecost.  Peter spoke in his own language and a whole crowd of people (representing many language groups) heard perfectly – in their own language.  It was a miracle!

I recently watched a video describing how Waverly Labs has developed an earbud that allows for real time language translation.  You wear the earbud when someone is speaking another language, and you hear it translated.  It was invented by a guy who speaks English, but met and fell in love with a French-speaking girl.  

Love drives a lot, eh?

And that was the point of Pentecost.  The Gospel – the birth of Jesus, his sinless life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection and glorious promise that He will return to usher-in His utter reign among God’s people, was a love story that needed to be told to everyone.  God was not about to let language get in the way.

My first thought about that language translation earbud was WOW!  On deeper reflection I began to imagine the implications for sharing the Gospel with others.  Missionaries going to new places where multiple dialects are spoken, international port city ministries where different language groups pass in and out daily; the list is endless.

Another thought I had was wistfully reminiscent; I wish they’d had this forty years ago when we moved to the South…I could’ve used a translator then!

For You Today

As a matter of course, guarding your heart is a good thing.  Part of that is checking up on your attitude.  That means asking yourself a question or two at the right time (NOW). 

Here’s a good one:  Do you ever let little differences between you and someone you don’t understand get in the way of the Gospel?

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: By Spicer, William Ambrose, 1866- , via Wikimedia Commons

Red Nose Day

 ^[1]   

Friday, May 22, 2015

A cheerful heart is good medicine… Proverbs 17:22 ^(NLT)

Celebrities, red noses and money – for thirty years there has been no more successful fundraising in Britain. 

Now it’s here in the U.S.

Well, the British invasion of the Beatles in the 1960’s was pretty successful; now we have Red Nose Day™.  Last night was the schedule for Hollywood’s “A-List” to gather and make fun of each other while thousands (perhaps millions) of American viewers send-in money for charity. 

According to the website the funds will be used (as in Britain) to address the woes of primarily children in poverty.  The funds are to be used 50% in America and 50% worldwide, for

        ·        Keeping them safe by reducing levels of violence, exploitation & abuse

        ·        Educate them by improving access to good quality basic education and helping them 

               with job training when they grow up

        ·        Make sure they’re healthy by giving them access to primary healthcare, clean water 

               and sanitation.

Now, you might ask, Russell – you are a pastor; what in the world are you doing promoting what Hollywood is doing?  Aren’t they the godless ones?

Well, let me be really clear – I don’t approve of a lot of what I see in the entertainment trade – I abhor both the proliferation of violence and sexual perversion, and the overt political agenda-mongering of most of that industry, which contributes to a degenerative moral effect on culture in general, and the young children who get caught-up in viewing the trash (and later emulating it).

But, on the other hand, in this case, if the money raised is going to help children, I’d stick a red nosed ball on my own face and let them throw pies at me all day long to help!

Which leads me to list one caution about giving to such events…and other so-called charitable fundraisers; sometimes as much as 90% of the money you send-in, following a solicitation call, is used to pay for the salaries of people making the calls, as well as other ”necessary expenses” – while only 10% winds-up actually helping those in need.  (I found no information about this on the Red Nose web page.) 

Well, can’t the church do a better job than that?

Yes – Yes – Yes we can; and we do – and we should do more!  A good case in point is The United Methodist Church’s Nothing But Nets campaign against malaria (malaria is responsible for one-fifth of all child mortality in Africa[2]).

A mosquito net costs $10, and your $10 donation buys a whole net, possibly saving the life of a child.  100% of your donated dollar goes into buying mosquito nets.  

Now, with all that done, why am I a “red-noser” supporting the likes of movie stars, rockers, comedians, rappers, Kermit the Frog and a host of other celebrities I would never want to meet?  I’m taking the approach that the children are worth it!

For those of you who need a proof text from Scripture….one day the disciples of John the Baptist got upset because crowds were beginning to follow Jesus instead of their guy.  They pitched a fit and went to John for him to call down some fire on the followers of Jesus.  Here’s what the Baptist said:

“No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven…I am filled with joy at his success.  He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.  

John 3:27, 29-30 ^(NLT)

For You Today

If God has touched your heart to stick a red clown ball on your nose to help children – wonderful.  If He has touched your heart to donate to buy mosquito nets – better!

Either way…ANY way…EVERY day…respond to God’s touch and call. 

For a follower of Jesus Christ, it’s ALWAYS Red Nose Day!

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[1] Title image: By Red Nose Day (TM) (Eigene Vektorisierung) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[2] http://www.nothingbutnets.net/partners/umc.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/