Good News - Bad News

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head.  His face shone like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire.  And in his hand was a small scroll that had been opened.  He stood with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.  And he gave a great shout like the roar of a lion.  And when he shouted, the seven thunders answered.  When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write.  But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Keep secret what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down.”  Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven.  He swore an oath in the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it.  He said, “There will be no more delay.  When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled.  It will happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.”  Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”  So I went to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.  “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said.  “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your stomach!”  So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it!   It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.  Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”  Revelation 10:1-11

There is good news, and there is bad news; when you confuse the two, or can’t see what’s coming, that is terrible news.  When that’s your condition you can’t appreciate the good, or avoid the bad.

Jesus told the Apostle to swallow the scroll.  He told him the good news would be the scroll would taste like honey in his mouth; the bad news…sour stomach.  I can identify!  I love Italian food…it is so tasty…but when it hits my stomach, it’s like the Vikings have landed and started a war down there. 

Centuries before, in Ezekiel’s day, God’s prophet had the same experience.  Eat the scroll, tastes like honey, but the message was gloom and doom for the enemies of God.[1] 

This tells us something that is overwhelmingly invaluable to anyone wanting to understand God’s ways.  Sweet-sounding messages aren’t always easy deals if you’re not inclined to obey God’s ways.  And conversely, harsh messages are only harsh if you don’t obey God’s ways.  The key ingredient of understanding God’s ways is always an obedient heart receiving God’s Word as truth!

For You Today 

That obedient heart thing, of course you’re aware it has little to do with paying respect to God with lips, then doing what you want to do with your life.  A disciple not only hears with his or her ears; there is that matter of following-through!

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 Frying Pan; Into the Fire and Moving Shadows

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

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

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[1] Read Ezekiel Chapters 2-3

Made Right

Friday, March 3, 2023

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.  And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.  For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight.  He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.  For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.  People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.  This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time.  God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.  Romans 3:22-26

In many dramas you will hear a character resolutely say:  I’m going to make things right.  He or she lied, or stole something, or in some way offended another person.  The statement is the desire to undo the wrong…to make it right again!  This is the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the making right of all the wrong that’s ever been done, via the cross. 

I am aware that there are still five weeks left until Good Friday, but that is part of Lent…looking ahead to the Good News of forgiveness, being made right with God.  And making things right begins and ends with God’s love.  Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome puts a bow on this concept.  He explains the cross and God’s heart in nine sentences, 158 words…modern preachers could learn that lesson.  Ouch!

It's amazing to entertain that God’s longsuffering put-up with sins in ancient times, looking forward to the forgiveness He would make possible on the cross.  That should alert us to how gracious God is, because that means he was also looking forward to our days in the 21^st century.   He knew we would need forgiveness to be made right with Him.  In fact, you were on God’s mind before Day #1 of creation.

Some years the anticipation of Lent just about overwhelms me.  I want to rush to Good Friday, get the suffering, pain, and blood in the past, and sit, vigil-like by the empty tomb until the Easter dawn, so I can shout with the angels.  But with these thoughts of God’s forgiveness worked-out for time past, present, and future, there is a calmness to my joy, knowing that I have been made right with He who knows me best, and loves me most.

For You Today 

There is, and has been, only one caveat to being made right with God, and that is the leap of faith to believe Jesus died so you could be forgiven; he took the punishment for your sins.  Paul said it clearly in his letter to the Roman believers:

God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.   Romans 3:26

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

            Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Blush  and  Lenten Walk - Part 6      

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

From WHAT to WHY and EVERYTHING In-Between

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones.  Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.  Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh.  The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh!  The Lord!  The God of compassion and mercy!  I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.  I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.  I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.  But I do not excuse the guilty.  I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.  Exodus 34:4-7

There is a statement which, in essence, is deeply-ingrained in American culture, and is unquestionably anti-Christian.  It uncovers just how far we can drop from the tree of faith.  The statement (or its equivalent) is thus:

Nobody can tell me what to do; it’s MY life.

There are two responses to that statement which make it a logical non sequitur:

     1.    Your life would be yours alone if you didn’t belong to someone else.

     2.    Your life’s actions would have no consequences if the One who owns you didn’t connect you to everyone else, including your family tree.

The first response comes from the unquestionable fact that you didn’t create yourself.  Your parents had a hand in things, but it was God who formed you in the womb, and breathed the breath of a soul into your bones.  God said so in his meeting with Moses…Yahweh…the LORD; He is the Creator/Owner of all.

The second response is about consequences of what we do, which Yahweh also covered in the agenda with Moses.  The “document” he chiseled in stone covered the basic details of human behavior.  We call it the Ten Commandments; we venerate them, and, to a person, violate them.  And when we transgress those we set up misery for those who follow, even to the third and fourth generation.

Of course there is a positive side to view in this.  When we are obedient to God’s ways, we set up blessing to the generations that follow.  However, adopting the current culture’s mindset of I’m the only one that matters…I’ll do what I want, is hardly a formula for blessing.  Suppose that “what I want” is to become an alcoholic-addicted bank robber?  Think of the tentacles that reach into the wake of your actions for the many humans of the world’s population.  And imagine your children (and theirs) living with the fallout from that heritage of your behavior. 

When it comes to communicating a message of God’s love and our responsibility to respond with Godly living, people want to know why they should be subjected to living within so many rules.  Well, you have questions, and you want answers; God, the Sovereign Lord of the universe and all it holds has those answers, from the WHAT, to the WHY, and EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN!

For You Today 

Do you remember what your father or mother (or both) said to you when you asked the why question as a little child?  They said:  Because I said so.

You didn’t like that…it wasn’t enough.  Now you understand…they were only repeating what God said.  He said to Moses, and all of us:  That stuff I wrote on those stone tablets…you do it…because I AM said so.

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

            Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Trivial Pursuit  and  Rats      

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

Of Prophecy and Partying

Monday, December 5, 2022

Look!  The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland.  He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people.  Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared.  The earth will be completely emptied and looted.  The Lord has spoken!  The earth mourns and dries up, and the land wastes away and withers.  Even the greatest people on earth waste away.  The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant.  Therefore, a curse consumes the earth.  Its people must pay the price for their sin.  They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive.  The grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine.  All the merrymakers sigh and mourn.  The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled; the happy cries of celebration are heard no more.  The melodious chords of the harp are silent.  Gone are the joys of wine and song; alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth.  The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders.  Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine.  Joy has turned to gloom.  Gladness has been banished from the land.  The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down.  Throughout the earth the story is the same—only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest.  But all who are left shout and sing for joy.  Those in the west praise the Lord’s majesty.  In eastern lands, give glory to the Lord.  In the lands beyond the sea, praise the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.  We hear songs of praise from the ends of the earth, songs that give glory to the Righteous One!  But my heart is heavy with grief.  Weep for me, for I wither away.  Deceit still prevails, and treachery is everywhere.  Isaiah 24:1-16

Isaiah gave himself to God as a prophet, committing to tell God’s truth, whether anyone listened or liked what God was saying.  Every preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ must make the same commitment, if there is to be truth combatting the evils of treachery, deceit, and debauchery.

The prophet spoke a word to two generations.  The first was his own, with the looming peril of Babylon, poised like a cobra, ready to strike Jerusalem down.  Like all true prophecy, the destruction of the city happened (in AD 587), and with that enemy siege came the residual horrors of brokenness, mobs, violence, ruin, famine, disease, and gloom of the total collapse of hope.

The second generation to which the prophet speaks is to those who came after, every generation since the destruction of Israel’s glory, down to this day, and until the very moment Jesus returns.  That’s where prophecy is inescapably pointing; we are headed for the conclusion of God’s plan for humanity.  That plan is destruction of all that is this world’s system of values, deceit, greed, anger, violence, and selfishness.  In the wake of that obliteration, will rise the city of hope, New Jerusalem, and a thousand-year (eternal) reign of Christ.

With his final words, Isaiah gives away his heart’s heaviness.  His ministry was in Jerusalem, a prophet to the movers and shakers of that generation, purveyors of a greedy lot, steeped in deceit and treachery.  It’s enough to make one envision the halls of today’s seats of worldly power.

For You Today  

For now, those who reject God’s Word and God’s Son, refusing to hear the prophecy, choose a party of emptiness.  When Christ comes, those who have received and obeyed the prophecy will see the real party begin…joy, unspeakable, and full of glory.[1]  So…heed the prophecy; don’t miss the party.

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: 

       No More Tambourines   and   Of State Dinners and Spies

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] 1 Peter 1:8

Cradle to Grave - Part 4

Friday, November 18, 2022

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.  Ecclesiastes 11:5

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.  Psalm 127:3

This week we have been tracing some of the moral, ethical, and spiritual perspectives surrounding the issue of abortion.  It’s time to cut-to-the-chase with a summary of logic.

The illogicality of choosing abortion ignores the basic premise that God alone is God, and we are not!  If God is truly the creator, giver, and sustainer of life, choosing the opposite – death – is nothing less than an all-out declaration of war.  We have free will to disagree with logic and the supremacy of God, but the result is never pretty.  The Creator is greater than what He has created.  As created beings we are subject to the governance of He who is above creation.  God is the arbiter of what is holy and sacred, and life is His choice.

Those who choose abortion disregard the responsibility of parenting, which begins with the decision to be sexually active.    Sexuality is a gift from God that is primarily/inextricably tied to reproduction.  (Even the most rabid of those who are pro-abortion use the term reproductive rights.)  While pleasure and intimacy are a wonderful part of a sexual relationship, not just by-products of the reproductive process, they are not primary.   As anyone with half a brain can attest, with rights come responsibility to use those rights in accord with that which respects the possible outcome…the re-creation of a new life.

Deciding to get an abortion is more emotional than logical.  It is the same kind of decision Adam and Eve made out of fear that God would “discover” their sin.  They hid when they heard Him coming.  Their plan didn’t work.  The fruit of the forbidden tree was supposed to make them as wise as God; all it managed was getting them evicted from the perfect home God had given them. 

Emotion, just as sexuality, is many-faceted.  It can have positive benefits when rightly directed, and tragic results when allowed to govern our choices unilaterally!  Logic demands we consider our actions.  Spiritual understanding demands that logic begins with honoring God with all our decisions.  If you need a verse that says that clearly, Solomon, the wise son of King David, is your man:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6

What are the so-called logical considerations that are common to those who seek to terminate a child in the womb?  Lifestyle interruption – a career, education, personal freedom from parental responsibility…these and more, which say that what we want cannot be interrupted with caring for a child.  It is the height of selfishness.

For You Today  

There is much more to be explored here than is possible in the few minutes of a morning devotion, so I leave you with just these few thoughts today:

There is a decision to be made:  Will it be God's authority or yours?  Will your choice honor or defy God?  Will it be an emotional choice alone, or have you done the hard dance with logic and prayer?

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: 

       When It's God's Move   and   The Cry Heard in Ramah

Images: Title image 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^©   

Cradle to Grave - Part 3

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.  Ecclesiastes 11:5

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.  Psalm 127:3

The womb is such a complex mystery, the seedbed of God’s crown of creation, the life of humans.  Many other Scriptures point to the first home we all inhabit.  From the Psalmist to the wisdom of Solomon, and the prophets, the womb is sacred.

·       King David shared how God put him together in the womb:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Psalm 139:13

·       The prophet Isaiah said God was calling him while he was not yet born:

Listen to me, all you in distant lands!  Pay attention, you who are far away! The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.  Isaiah 49:1

·       Jeremiah claims God knew all about him even before the womb:

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.  Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

·       Hosea pointed to the personalities of Jacob and Esau while still unborn:

Even in the womb, Jacob struggled with his brother; when he became a man, he even fought with God.  Hosea 12:3

In yesterday’s devotion, I promised to deal with the “sexism” issue today.  The surprising thing (especially for those who have either never read Scripture, or misunderstand what they have read of God’s Word) is that there is no issue; it is more a modern confusion…which Paul clears up.  It’s a little humorous that Paul is the one to settle this issue, as he generally gets the bad rap of being sexist…but here’s what he said: 

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

Resolution for pointing fingers at women in the abortion issue (and therefore the hornet’s nest reaction of women’s rights being violated), is not so much a matter of stopping the finger-pointing, but pointing in the right direction.  We must remember that there were two participants in creating the child; there is a father as well as a mother.  Throughout recorded history the patristic cultures which viewed women as chattel have assigned blame for abortion on mothers.  It has been the selfishness of the fathers shirking responsibility that skews the issue.  That does not absolve women, but places responsibility on the shoulders of both partners in the death of unwanted children.  The law (Roe v. Wade specifically) did not change the hearts of men and women; how could it?  Law only points out where we have failed.  But the “law” of God’s Word not only accuses, it also corrects, pointing to our responsibility to preserve life and protect the innocent.

For You Today  

With all the Biblical evidence proclaiming the holiness of the womb’s residents, it is natural to conclude that destroying what God has created, and even named beforehand as a holy gift to us, is an abomination; He said so:

There are six things the Lord hates—no, seven things he detests:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.  Proverbs 6:16-19

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: 

       Subway Sermon   and   An Apology to Molech

Images: Title image 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^©   

Cradle to Grave - Part 2

 

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  

2 Timothy 3:16

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.  Everything was created through him and for him.  He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.  Colossians 1:15-17

I’m aware, with the next few sentences, I will offend some people, as well as get a few ”amens”.  However, like Martin Luther, when asked to recant his condemnation of a church gone dark into selfishness and spiritual death:  I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.  So, here goes:  Abortion is a wrong choice.  ---  Click!  ---  Half of those who heard that just tuned-out.  For those with an open mind still reading/listening, I did not make a sexist/mysogynistic statement.  I didn’t even mention sex or gender.  Abortion is a medical procedure assaulting a living being inside a woman’s body with the intent to cause death. 

My reason for writing this is to address the faulty reasoning for making the decision to abort a living being.  The primary case that has been made for abortion as an acceptable choice has always appealed to women’s rights.  Certainly that presupposes only the rights of the woman carrying the unborn child, and not the rights of the child within the womb.  My argument is not against women, or rights, however, rather a contention with unsound logic.

In yesterday’s devotion I held up two principles – Scripture is authoritive in matters of my life, and Jesus is the only arbiter of my actions, because He is the center of Scripture’s content and purpose of Almighty God.  With that as my marching orders, the only honest and objective conclusion about abortion is that it violates every tenet of Scripture’s profile of life.

The point is, if God thought enough to create us in the first place, and clearly stated that every life is valuable – even the sparrows – as much as even the hairs on your head, arbitrarily snuffing-out a life for the sake of convenience is wrong.

The hermeneutical principles of interpreting Scripture demand that no Scripture contradicts another Scripture.  There may be contrasts, such as describing one side of an elephant, then turning to the trunk or tail with a differing description, but the elephant is one cohesive being.  And the elephant of Scripture is God’s cohesive treatise on life.  All else, save protecting life, fails…eternally!  Note the contrast in Jesus’ own words, from the passage where He describes himself as the Good Shepherd, and what God’s purpose was for sending Him:

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.  John 10:10

If life is the supreme good which God was engifting to all humanity, the enemy’s purpose…in this discussion, abortion, is a declaration of war.

For You Today  

I’ve stated the position I hold…or rather I see that God holds, and I cannot do less than affirm.  Tomorrow we will consider the sexist issue.  Stay tuned.

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: 

       Small Package - Big Message   and   Eyes that do Not See; Ears that do Not Hear

Images: Title image 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^©