The Power of a Movement

Friday, April 9, 2021

As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said.  When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God:  “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,

‘Why were the nations so angry?
    Why did they waste their time with futile plans?
The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’

“In fact, this has happened here in this very city!  For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.  But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.  And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.  Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.  Acts 4:23-31

Indulge me for a few moments to argue with myself.  Movements which have largely succeeded throughout human history all have one thing in common – the strength of the group is collectively greater than that of the resistance against the movement.  Well, duh…of course, preacher…they wouldn’t have been successful if they weren’t stronger, now, would they?  Certainly not; but the corresponding truth about what makes “movements” so strong is that even a perfect idea, moral, ethic, or timing for change, is powerless without the group!  A movement without a group is dead in the water.

Peter and John, even though they were the leaders of God’s sweeping movement of salvation, understood that God was empowering His church, not just a few brave apostles.  Earlier, Peter and John had healed a crippled man, and were arrested and brought before the powers-that-be.  God’s Spirit helped them to proclaim truth:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man?  Do you want to know how he was healed?  Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.  For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’  There is salvation in no one else!  God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:8-12

This truth unnerved the council and they set Peter and John free.  So, what did they do with their newfound success?  Did they run for Congress or the next elections of the council?  What they did was head right back to the group, the church, and placed this event in the hands of those who would offer up prayer to God for more boldness to accomplish his will.  And when they all prayed, honoring God and freely placing themselves at God’s disposal, the Spirit of God gave power that shook the building, and eventually shook the world.

Peter and John understood that God’s promises would be fulfilled through God’s church.  They understood that joining hands with God’s heart is a cooperative effort, and, apart from each other we are departing from God’s will.  But, joined together in lifting up God’s Sovereign, holy will, the church is a tidal wave of a movement, unstoppable for goodness and righteousness.

For You Today

If you’re like me, you’re tempted to do things yourself, rather than depend on anyone else, let alone a group.  But that is allowing the enemy to make us little droplets of evaporating puddles.  Rather, God calls the church to be a tsunami of righteousness for the sake of this world and His Kingdom!

So, church, put aside the drought of petty differences and preferences – puddle-up, river-run, ocean-gather, and wash this world for the sake of the cross.

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

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

Resurrection and Rejoicing

 

Monday, April 5, 2021

The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.  This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.  This is the day the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:22-24

“Cornerstone” is used often in Scripture.  A cornerstone is the first building block for a foundation, that from which every other part of a building takes its reference. 

The cornerstone[1] of which Jesus spoke in the Gospel accounts (and later the apostles) is a reference to the Psalmist’s Messianic prophecy, a sign of how wrong humankind can get God’s plans.  Jesus, being born in a manger, living a perfect, sinless life, offering healing and help for all, was rejected by the powerful leaders of Israel, as well as the crowds.  He was nailed to a cross on Good Friday, tossed away like a misfit for the building.  On Sunday morning the entire meaning of life, death, and resurrection, along with every reason to rejoice, took on new significance when the women discovered the stone had been rolled away.  The builders of Israel’s earthly kingdom had failed miserably in recognizing the chief cornerstone, Christ, upon whom all of God’s eternal Kingdom, would depend.

Movements throughout the history of humankind always begin with an idea, often righteous and lofty.  Just as often they come unglued because selfish people snatch the momentum of a movement to turn a profit.  The old saying about the corrupting influence of power culminating in absolute corruption is never truer than in religion.  Steeped in mystery and fear, religious movements hold common sense prisoner.  But, just as the grave could not hold Jesus captive, neither can any human-constructed systems stand in the wake of God’s choosing.  Death had to flee for its existance in Jesus’ tomb; so the corruption of men’s plans.

There are many movements afoot today, along with knee-jerk counter movements.  (Black and Blue Lives Mattering, Gender line-crossing, Racial, ethnic, and women’s issues, just to skim the highlights.).  Among all of these are a germ of resusscitation for those on the margin who have been beaten-down, tossed-out, and forgotten.  There are also (as in every other human-driven movement) those willing to push an agenda that has nothing to do with righteousness.  If you look below the surface, past the silliness of self-aggrandizement, you will find the gold and control such hucksters really seek.  Every time there is a moment to be seized to further a “cause” the sharp-tongued manipulators can be found in front of a microphone.

That being a commentary on our time, or any other time in human history, consider the resurrection of Jesus.  His followers began announcing it to anyone who would listen.  Over the past two thousand years God’s fulfillment of his promise of restoration have caused untold millions to rejoice and turn to Christ for forgiveness and healing.  But the announcement has also been co-opted to fuel humankind lust for power in pseudo-righteous movements, crusades, and political manipulation.  This is the darkest of tragic evil which Jesus spoke concerning what man does with God’s light, tossing the cornerstone out with the bath water.  He also named the source of such evil:

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.  Ephesians 6:12

So…why rejoicing in the face of such evil times?  The short-answer is that it is a stark reminder of how our God is in control.  There is nothing happening, or that can happen, of which Jesus is not aware.  Neither is God worried; when the time is fully-ripened, this field of harvest will be reaped.

For You Today

There are many things going on in movements, disease, weather and climate worries, church numbers dwindling, culture wars, and the continuing madness of evil in our day.  But the resurrection promise still stands, no matter who or what attempts to manipulate its power. 

The one word about resurrection which can never be disingenuous is rejoice!

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

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

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[1] There are 12 uses of this term in the New Living Translation…see them all HERE

The Light of Truth

 

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Declare me innocent, O God!  Defend me against these ungodly people.  Rescue me from these unjust liars.  For you are God, my only safe haven.  Why have you tossed me aside?  Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?  Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me.  Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.  There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy.  I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!  Why am I discouraged?  Why is my heart so sad?  I will put my hope in God!  I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!  Psalm 43

Sometimes when you read Scripture it’s an easy mistake to read in a bubble of isolation.  That is, you see the Biblical characters as if their lives are somehow different from ours.  Technology and science aside, there is not a breathing human living on the planet at this moment who is any different from those who dwelt in caves or wrote on clay tablets (as opposed to iPads and PC’s).

King David’s life was not lived in a Wonderland-like rabbit hole; his ethereal “aura” had real rocks and streams, and the danger of enemies, both human, as well as ferocious bears and lions.  When armies went to war, real men died.  Disease took hold in pandemic waves, and the cancer of lies was just as caustic and devastating as today.  And when David (just as you and I) faced those human conditions he felt helpless and confused at times.

Hence his prayer recorded in the Psalms; it was the heartfelt cry of a needy, troubled soul, looking for the light of God’s truth to guide him into a right course of action to deal with the evil oppressors who lied their way into places of power, and were now unjustly attempting to overwhelm David’s life with their schemes.

Sometimes we imagine evil in others or are simply fooled by accusations, fabricated stories to make an evil person seem better than he is (that should be an easy call in an election year)!  But sometimes evil is so great it’s driven from below the surface, demonic, an evidence of the greater struggle between God and all that is unholy. 

That may seem surreal to the modern mind, but it’s merely evidence of something that existed long before you and me, or David, or even Adam and Eve.  Before the creation of earth and the universe there were seeds of doubt and pride, a canker ready to usurp the very throne of God.  These seeds became the fruit of rebellion, which is recorded in Isaiah’s prophecy as Lucifer, God’s beloved angel, thought to replace God Almighty, but was rejected, defeated, and consigned to eternity in Hell for his unfaithfulness:

“How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!  You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.  Isaiah 14:12

The seed of sin spread to Adam and Eve and multiplied in less than a full generation as one jealous son, Cain, killed his brother, Abel.  And it has been so ever since.

To listen to the news media, politicians, and fear mongers, it’s all about racism.  The problem with that is an attempt to point fingers at a single outcropping of an endemic, epic cause, while side-stepping the long-entrenched human condition, sin.  We look at what’s happening in today’s culture as if it is something new…or at least an outbreak of a problem about to be dealt a crusade-ish death blow.  Racism did not start in the 1620’s.  It is merely an evidence of a deeper human condition that surfaces in many different ways.  You cannot cure racism or any other social evil with an edict from Washington, or by building more churches, bigger churches, and more entertaining, culturally-fashionable churches and worship styles.  No politician has a legislative agenda to stem human evil.  And no movement claiming their space matters, or their 15 minutes of fame will make all the difference, is going to stem the tide of the pandemic of sin.

For that, there is only one cure, the blood of Jesus Christ!  When received, this blood works in the human heart as no other force in the universe:

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.  1 John 1:9

This is the light of God’s truth.  It is only the cleansing of the human heart by the forgiveness of God that leads to what David prayed, that God’s light and truth would set him on a true course, one that leads to joy.

For You Today

Course correction:  kneel at the cross…get up with truth and light as your guide.

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

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Title image:  Pixabay.com   W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Truth and Light see:  Walk With Integrity and Truth, Whole Truth, Nothing BUT the Truth

Don't Raise a Fist

 

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

“I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’  I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists!  Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance.’”  For no one on earth—from east or west, or even from the wilderness—should raise a defiant fist.  It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall.  For the Lord holds a cup in his hand that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices.  He pours out the wine in judgment, and all the wicked must drink it, draining it to the dregs.  But as for me, I will always proclaim what God has done; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.  For God says, “I will break the strength of the wicked, but I will increase the power of the godly.”  Psalm 75:4-10

Like most people I laugh at goofy things I do, or other people do.  Humor is generally spontaneous and understandable.  We laugh when we get tickled.  One of the components of humor is absurdity.  When, for instance, you have told a two year old she cannot grab that snarling dog by the nose, and she whirls around to lock eyes with yours, and her icy glare screams I hate you, and if you don’t let me pet that puppy now I’m gonna wring your neck, you pompous idiot, well, you just gotta laugh!  It’s absurd that a two year old, who is only 30 inches tall, and weighing in at a massive 30 pounds, and not understanding the least bit of the danger of wanting something best left alone, is going to wring the neck of a 6’, 200lb father. And, if you’re not somehow tickled by that absurdity, you’d better check your pulse.

It’s humorous, but reasonably harmless to see the immature actions of a two year old; but with adults, not so much.  Adults, of any age, operating with an immature short fuse, and the power to lift a dangerous fist in anger, is not funny at all.

We have a lot of that in our culture.  Frankly, it’s in our nature.  And who is to say, definitively, exactly why it seems worse these days?  Perhaps it’s the relatively new platform that social media, or news media have given that entices and empowers the attention-grabbers towards outrageous acting-out, capitalizing on a perceived injustice.  Or, maybe, it’s just a grab for attention.  In the end, it’s still a two year old who hasn’t got a clue, but is going to demand his way.  The folly in it all, and the tragedy that follows is, in getting our way, will we be better off?

The current movement which clamours for an end to racism is a fact in point here.  An end to racism is a lovely thought, and one of which God heartily approves.  After all, God’s hand created Adam and Eve with the DNA chain that held the key to every form of diversity we now see in the human race.  To disparage one of God’s own, or any who are disparate from our tribe is to denigrate the Creator; we all hail back to the same set of parents in the garden. 

The problem with the movement du jour is not the rallying point of an end to racism, but rather with the methodolgy.  To use anger, the raised fist, either metaphorically (as in cancel culture), physically or verbally, against others and their motives, will not remove racism; rather it further divides those who are already different.  It puts those who push the anger on the same level as, say, Adolph Hitler, a monster with a heinous quest.  His quest was to push racism to it’s ugliest, purist conclusion – put all the other tribes to death, and then we’ll have a perfect society.  Adolph Hitler was just another two year old with a distorted sense of his own grandeur.

Granted, Black Lives Matter, and it’s push for an end to racism have a rightful support in their end game from any fair-minded individual.  But, unless the fist is laid down to open the hands to take my hand, and others (even the perceived enemy), they stand as just another two year old stamping his feet, pushing any hope of reconciliation down the drain.

And, considering the imagery God uses in today’s Psalm, the dregs of what’s down that drain will be a pretty rough drink to swallow when they get there.

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, forgive us our foolish ways of trying to correct violence done with more violence given. 

For You Today

Sometimes it seems like the more sophisticated and educated we get, the dumber we become.  God hates violence of all kinds…how many ways does He have to say that?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  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 this text:  Chosen Still and The Promise Over the Power

Inside Job

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Monday, December 11, 2017

O Lord our God, others have ruled us, but you alone are the one we worship.  
Isaiah 26:13^(NLT)

I once saw a cartoon in the newspaper that had a little boy sitting in time-out in the corner of the room.  His brow was furrowed in an awful scowl; he was not a happy camper!  His head was turned as if to see where the parent was who had consigned him to such a reprehensible punishment, and there was a thought balloon over his head; it said:  I may be sitting on the outside, but on the inside I’m standing tall! 

The prophet gives us this look at the fiercely independent nature of the human spirit. We may be ruled in the sense that others have the power to tell us what to do in school, job, law enforcement, or, in the extreme, as one conquering army enslaves citizens of the conquest.  But in all these the fact remains constant that you cannot take away freedom of thought.  You may influence a person’s thought process, even to the extent of coercing certain behavior or getting them to say or sign-off on some action which is against their will.  But therein is the rub; against the will is a phrase that defines free will, the fact that you can strong-arm a person’s body, but the will of human spirit is a free agent.  It’s an inside job!

We have seen this indomitable quality of free will illustrated time and again in heroic soldiers taken in battle, imprisoned and tortured, but who refuse to break.  We have seen this will imposed to change whole cultures with leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Wilberforce, and movements of the powerless masses that culminate in an iconic standoff at a place like Tiananmen Square.

Enter the concept of worship! 

Scripture declares that we are created in the image of God, and that means we have a purpose like God’s purposes.  In the mix of that is a natural bent to worship and love God.  But even so, God has chosen to not tamper with the free will of human beings, preferring that we give ourselves willingly to love Him, rather than God coercing us into obedience.  God will and does work in the affairs of human beings to reveal Himself to us, and let us know His desire for relationship, but He has placed as off-limits (even for Himself) that piece of us on the inside that makes choices.

That places a huge gift of choice, and an even greater consequence of the weight of our actions, squarely in our own hands.  What it means is, ultimately we can never claim victim status when it comes to God; he has given us totally absolute sovereign choice over our eternal destination.

But the greatest realization that comes along with this gift of choosing whom we will, or will not, love and worship is the undeniable fact that God is rooting for us to come to Him so he can bless us beyond measure!

For You Today

What will you do with this incredible, holy, and sacred gift of free will?  Whom will you love and worship?

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