Perfecting the ART of Chaos

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel!  The Lord has brought charges against you, saying:  “There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land.  You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery.  There is violence everywhere—one murder after another.  That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away.  Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing.  “Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame!  My complaint, you priests, is with you.  So you will stumble in broad daylight, and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.  And I will destroy Israel, your mother.  My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.  Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests.  Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.  The more priests there are, the more they sin against me.  They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols.  

Hosea 4:1-7

There can be little denying the words of Hosea, written nearly 2,800 years ago, which describe our generation in agonizingly accurate detail.  There is a lack of truth and integrity, a prevalence of violence, one murder after another.  Climate change is decimating entire species of animals, and, as the prophet lamented over the people, everyone is wasting away.  And then, Hosea, never a prophet of easy times or soft strokes, lays the blame right at the feet of those who won’t tell the truth…false preachers in the business of business as usual.  The uncompromising truth-teller bellows:  Don’t try to pass the blame!

There are Biblical texts that are hard to take, and this is one of them.  I wince each time Hosea opens his mouth, because the ones he says God is going to hold accountable are the false preachers.  I have a commitment to truth – Biblical truth, and personally sticking to telling the truth.  However committed I am to truth, I’m not always right, and sometimes convicted by not being brave enough to speak-up.  It would be untruthful to not accept that mantle of falling short of God’s Glory[1]

Hosea’s most explosive bombardment is the accusation of empty preaching, where priests (clergy) have refused to know God, and therefore have nothing about God to tell the people who are disintegrating without any connection to God.  When you have access to food, and refuse to share it with people who are starving, you’re guilty…there’s no one else to blame.

End of story.

For You Today

If you’re a person who identifies as a Jesus-follower, disciple, or simply a believer in God, you are also a preacher.  We are like beggars who have found bread, and bear a responsibility to tell other beggars where the stash is located.  In the absence of truth-telling, chaos is bound to reign.

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

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  Stumbling in Broad Daylight 

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

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[1]  See Romans 3:23 and Isaiah 45:21

Good Advice from a Prophet a Long Way From Home

[1]

                                                                Friday, June 17, 2016

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.  James 4:10^(NLT)

I have watched many documentary programs that deal with the issue of racial integration in this country.  One of the strong impressions I usually come away with is the picture of isolation experienced by a single African-American kid in a white school.  Trying to understand the difficulty of it all, I would attempt to put myself in that kid’s situation.  Of course that’s difficult – imagining what someone else is going through. 

But a few years ago I stumbled across some thoughts that made me realize I have more in common with that struggle than I previously imagined.  There are two aspects of my minority status which stick out like a sore thumb:

1.   I’m a Yankee who has served his entire ministry in the deep South!

Having been born and bred in the Northeast, and spent the last 39½ years in Dixie, there have been more than a few times when someone has pointed out how very fortunate I am to have been allowed to live below the Mason-Dixon Line.

A good friend who was born, and lived all his life, near Tallahassee, Florida once took me fishing in the Gulf of Mexico along the panhandle.  As he was driving us to the launch area we travelled through a deserted forest area and I asked him what this place was called.  In true Southern Speech (with a hint of New York Gambino family mixed-in) Joe Ball said:  Don’t rightly know the name, but we call it that place whar’ Yankees ain’t never heard from ag’in.  Needless to say, it was a long afternoon until I got back home.

It’s tough enough to be a preacher these days with the likes of snake oil salesmen, “so-called preachers” who wind up in jail for fraud or sexual scandals…or the rock stars whose TV ministries would probably make Jesus turn over some more tables in God’s house.  But add to that the problem of being a long way from home and being an alien just trying to love the locals; it’s like Amos, a good ol’ po’boy shepherd from Southern Judah being sent by God up to northern Israel to preach to them Yankee fat cat rich folks.

It’s not easy; sometimes being humble means swallowing your tongue when you encounter regional prejudice.

2.   I’m a Methodist minister who speaks with a Baptist accident

You heard right…a Baptist accident.  While I was thinking about this minority dilemma, I was speaking my thoughts into a digital recorder.  I meant to say “Baptist accent” but it came out “Baptist accident”.  I became a Methodist by accident…and that’s another, very long story.

But it works in this case; as a people-pleaser I have a natural tendency to try to fit-in with people.  A New York twang spoken from a southern-drawl pulpit gets old when you’re the week-in/week-out pastor.  The accident of losing my accent (mostly) didn’t take long. 

But it still shows up occasionally – particularly for those protectors of the border who are looking for any trace of impurity in their parsons.

I’m not sure if Amos had a different regional speech pattern than the folks who populated Israel’s capitol city, but his sheepherder’s rough-cut ways had to set him apart from the genteel manners at court.  He was a long way from home!

For You Today

The fact is all who love Jesus Christ, and wish to serve Him are a very long way from home!  Northern, Southern, Western, Eastern…all are under God’s sun. 

In reality, we are only one race – human.  And that’s a good reason to be humble.

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

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[1] Title Image: Gustave Doré [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Profit of Prevarication

 ^[1]   

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve.  Ezekiel 34:3 ^(NLT)

God had Ezekiel write a blistering indictment of the religious leaders in Israel who were supposed to be shepherding the flock, but instead were using their position to get rich and powerful; all the while the people were wasting away in poverty and squalor.

It takes a robust sociopath to lie one’s way to the top of the heap – one who can promise much and deliver only to himself.

Adolph Hitler was a fine example of a prevaricator, a lying tongue that promised a silver lining for the poor, common folk.  His impassioned speeches were filled with false sympathy for the impoverished German citizens.  He had hidden plans.

In 1934 Germany only the well-off or powerful could afford an automobile.  Hitler gave a speech at an automobile show in light of what he was telling the German people he wanted to do for them: 

 “It can only be said with profound sadness that, in the present age of civilization, the ordinary hard-working citizen is still unable to afford a car, a means of up-to-date transport and a source of enjoyment in the leisure hours.”[2]

To be sure, Hitler looked like he was fulfilling his promises.  As proof of his benevolent leadership he approved design of the Volkswagen (literally:  the people’s car), and building of a superhighway system, the autobahn, so the average family could afford this modern mobility.  But not a single private German citizen got a vehicle, because once Hitler got complete control of the government, he turned production of the people’s cars into military vehicles of the war machine.

It’s hard to see a person’s motive.  It’s particularly tricky in church to even mention that, because we serve the one who said we ought not to judge others[3].

In the end, however, one way or another, leadership will be judged. 

Hitler had his comeuppance – eventually – and did what cowards do…he took the easy way out with a revolver.

For those of us charged (as I am) with caring for the souls of a part of God’s flock, we also will be judged for our conduct and faithfulness in ministry.  I take that seriously and fearfully; serving God is not to be approached casually or with personal gain in mind.

I can honestly say that most ministers I have ever met fall into that earnest, faithful and genuinely motivated category; faithful under-shepherds of the King.

Some have not.  (May God have mercy on their souls.)

For You Today

Here are a couple of questions with which you (as a follower of Jesus) should wrestle:

Do you trust your spiritual leader, your pastor? 

Do you trust God enough to leave the judging of your leader’s ministry…to God?

If you answered “yes” to both questions, you’re on solid Biblical ground.  Judgment and appropriate rewards or punishment are God’s prerogative.

If you answered “no” it may be time to answer a third question:

Who is running your church, God, or you?

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[1] Title image:  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H04560 / CC-BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Hitler’s speech on March 3, 1934, at the Berlin International Automobile and Motor Cycle Show  Source: USDOT

[3] Matthew 7:1

Stumbling in Broad Daylight

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel!  The Lord has brought charges against you, saying:  “There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land.  You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery.  There is violence everywhere—one murder after another. 
That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away.  Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing.   “Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame!  My complaint, you priests, is with you.
So you will stumble in broad daylight, and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.  And I will destroy Israel, your mother.  My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.   Hosea 4:1-6a (NLT)

It’s hard to think about something that hits close to home; it’s harder to write about it.  And it’s the pits to preach about it! 

And this is one of those texts.

Hosea announces God’s case against Israel for worshiping falsely – being a spiritual harlot; they don’t live faithfully or kindly.  Among the charges are lying, stealing, adultery, and a general unfaithfulness to being God’s people.

That’s bad enough; but then Hosea blames it on the preachers who should be pointing the way to God – showing every human being who God is and how to serve him. 

Instead, the preachers are heaping the guilt of sin on people so the offerings keep coming in.  The people don’t know God, and the priests (preachers) are keeping them in darkness because it’s good for business.

Reads like today’s headlines, doesn’t it?

Hosea completes God’s indictment against his people by characterizing the whole nation as “drunk”.  They stumble in broad daylight, and the false prophets will sink with them into the dark-hole-morass of character-disintegration, and it’s all first-degree sin – no one else to blame for the punishment!  And God himself would pull the trigger.

Wow!  Just, WOW!

So…what do you do when you stand before a judge and the charges are piled-up like a stack of LEGOS, teetering back and forth; everything is at stake and the building of your life’s history is about to crumble like the Twin Towers? 

And Almighty God is the judge?

Well, if you’re smart you throw yourself open to a guilty plea, appeal to the mercy of the court and await the judge’s call.  But history teaches us God’s people weren’t like that too often. More than not they stoned the messengers – God’s prophets – and then suffered the judgment; not so smart!

These Days

We have the same track record unfolding in 21^st century America.  And we’re prone to responding just as dimly as Israel did so often in her history. 

I believe we have a short-sighted perspective on the dangerous path our country is following.  America has only been a nation for 238 years.  Israel’s history has been unfolding for more than 3,000 years.  We should learn the lesson of Scriptural holiness.

I also believe that nothing short of a sweeping flood of revival in American culture will keep us from suffering the same kind of stumbling in broad daylight Hosea predicted.

It was not pretty in Israel, and it will not be pretty in America.

For You, Today…

Pray for America, our leaders and its government to turn to righteousness.

Pray for the spiritual leaders of our churches; like the priests in Hosea’s day, today there’s a generation at stake who are blind, stumbling in the darkness of broad daylight.  And too many preachers are simply humming lullabies in pulpits, when we should be sounding the alarm.  

God forgive us.

We need God’s revival in the land…and it begins in our hearts…each of us.