The Harvest of Wisdom

Friday, February 3, 2023

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.  But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.  For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom.  Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.  For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.  It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds.  It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.  And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.  James 3:13-18

The words of Apostle James flow as if a peaceful, cold stream of welcome water, refreshing a thirsty man trudging through the desert.  He presents a word picture of Godly wisdom (from above) that is healing and strength for anyone who would influence his generation for peace.  A true poet, James holds up the fruit of good deeds as an agricultural image of the holy grail of wisdom, resulting in a harvest of righteousness.  It’s a verbal feast of wholesome nourishment for any soul that longs for Godliness.

Quiet, gentle, and humble are words mostly evaporated in 21st century culture.  Sometimes it seems our Gross National Product is only measured in Loud, Irritating, and Bragging. 

Apostle James is lost on a culture preferring an elephant stampede over a quiet contemplation next to a peaceful stream in the valley.  For all the shrewd intellect creating mind-bending technological toys, released each year with much fanfare by Apple and its imitators, we have unhinged the consequence of our progress from the process.  We dabble with artificial intelligence, not intentionally planting seeds of righteousness in human children, to point the machines in peaceful directions.  We have six-year-olds, enamored by heroes of violence on their screens, bringing a gun to school to shoot their teachers.  They don’t have a clue that momentary act of selfish impulse will extinguish any peace their future could possibly hold.  In foolishness, like Esau, we forfeit the legacy of birthright to satisfy the craving for a pottage of the next half-second’s thrill of power. 

So, what’s to be done?  Is there a possibility of ever reclaiming something of a harvest of righteousness in the present caustic soil of selfishness and anger?  Are we doomed to starve for the lack of goodness?  Is there no peace whatsoever in our future?  I believe the answer to each of those questions is an unqualified YES, unless we are willing to return to planting wise seeds of purity, gentleness, kindness, mercy, hope, and worship of God in Christ Jesus.  If there will ever be a crop of righteousness, preparing the soil comes first.

For You Today  

The best grapes come from cultivated vines.  Those vines were planted long ago, and cared-for.  As the lineage of God’s people, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph recalled the mistakes of their forbears, and culled the weeds from their lives, all the while making new mistakes for the following generations to unravel, we must choose each day to plant new vines for a righteous harvest.  What seed do you hold in your hand right now?

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: 

The Marriage of Belief and Behavior  and  Humility 

This is an updated version of “So Much Anger” published on Rocky Road Devotions January 16, 2014

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^©   

Where the Nut Lands

 

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.  So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

When we were studying for ministry at New Orleans Seminary we lived on campus.  The road circling the campus was just about a mile loop, and, being exceedingly typical students, Elizabeth and I were also exceedingly poor.  Walking the loop was our entertainment mostly.  During the months of October through December, nuts fell from the pecan trees that encircled that loop, and we learned to bring bags along on our nightly walks.  It was there I developed my addiction for pecans.

In a previous pastorate there was a husband and wife who had pecan trees.  Being fond of my addiction to pecans, each year at the church’s annual benefit auction I would make sure we got some of Joyce and Jack Fagg’s crop!  For a month or so after the auction I munched day in and day out.  I stashed them everywhere.  I am truly a nut – nut! 

                       (O.K., I got that out of the way…now to the main point.)

The old saying about a nut not falling too far from the tree is true, except if there is a sower, or gardener, who wants to do something with the nut, and, in that sense, where the nut lands is a matter of what hands hold the nut.  Joyce and Jack always dedicated part of their crop to raising funds for the church’s mission.     Once I got my hands on them, they were likely to end up on top of vanilla ice cream, inside pancakes, or the top right drawer of the desk where I wrote sermons.  Ultimately all of them found their way into the ministry…that is, the minister!

Paul’s point about the body of Christ can’t be ignored; we may look different from each other, talk differently, and have vastly different gifts, calling, and background, but we are ONE body with differences, and that is the Sower’s choice.

Paul wrote a companion sentence to this concept of one body that the church (and this violent, turbulent, self-destructive world) needs to hear:

No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.  Ephesians 5:29

Nut trees, like every living, growing thing, can get infected.  If the church is like a body with many members, all deserving care, so our human family tree needs care from the infection blight of hatred and violence.  It is a self-inflicting illness that destroys from within. 

But the church cannot do anything at all when it comes to addressing hatred if the church is busy proclaiming hatred.  Sweet and bitter water do not come from the same fountain, in the same way that truth and lies do not come from the same heart and mouth.  If the church is going to truly be the church of Jesus Christ, it must not, in any way, represent the anger and violence we see in the culture today. 

I was once told by a well-meaning friend that I shouldn’t let certain people, who were part of the church I was serving, do what they were doing.  He said, Russell, this is your church; don’t let them do that to you.  I had to tell my friend he was wrong; it wasn’t my church; the church belongs to Jesus.  My job, as a nut from the Jesus tree, was to teach and work with the other nuts God put in my pathway.  It was not my prerogative to shell and crush them.

As for this world, and the so-called movements we see against hatred and racism, whatever is done in the name of Christ isn’t always what the Sower-in-Chief designed.  If you fight fire with fire, you’re going to (at the least) wind up smelling like smoke.  And, very often, that will be the least of it.  Resorting to beastly behavior to combat monsters, makes a monster of he who would combat monsters.  Movements against hatred and racism ought not adopt such as their tactics.

 Let’s Pray Together:

Father, you sent Jesus to be our Peace, and to teach us peace.  He did so by sacrificing his divine rights for us.  He did so without retaliation and vengeance.  Our prayer is for wisdom to know how to be peace-makers, not just people who talk about peace, and for courage to act like the Prince of Peace.

For You Today

If you’re truly a member of the body of Christ, you’ll not fall too far from the tree that gave you new birth.  Stay in the Sower’s hands until he plants you where you’re needed.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!    

Go to VIDEO    

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

For other posts on 1 Corinthians 12 see So, Which Gift? and Holy Mixtures – Part 5 and We Are the Body of Christ

Blessed Syria?

[1]

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Devotion VIDEO here

In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.  For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people.  Blessed be Assyria, the land I have made.  Blessed be Israel, my special possession!”   Isaiah 19:24-25^(NLT)

With all the heated debate going on in America concerning Syrian refugees, ISIS, and the rampage of mass shootings, I think it may be next to impossible to entertain what Isaiah suggests – that Assyria, (blessed Assyria according to Isaiah), along with Egypt and Israel are three parts of a blessing for the whole planet.  But I’m also wondering how many of us are thinking straight these days; you know – thinking with the mind of Christ[2]

Isaiah is obviously remembering, looking back to a time when there was more harmony between Israel, Egypt and Syria (in his day that was largely due to the influence of an expanded Assyrian empire during the 9^th – 7^th centuries B.C.).  But Isaiah also points to the future; after all his predictions of judgment, there is always a window left open towards restoration and reconciliation.

Look at the map showing where Syria and Egypt are located; notice particularly that Israel stands right between the two – the position of the intercessor!  If ever there was an image of the ministry of Christ, it is this.  Egypt had held Israel in bondage before there was an “official” Israel.  Later Syria held Israel AND Egypt under its empirical thumb.  In Isaiah’s future the pathway to Syria and Egypt flow through Jerusalem!

And, who knows, perhaps ours is a time that is ripe for change.  The question haunts me; is America and the west positioned and ready for just such a time as this?

Whatever God’s plan is at this time for the middle-east (and the rest of the universe), it is certain for all times that we must be about the business of the Kingdom of God; we must be much more about open minds and hearts than borders and weapons.  Gun control issues aside – let the talking heads have ears – killing is birthed in the heart.

Christian people must remember that Christ gave up all of His rights to accomplish His ministry.  And that ministry has precious little to do with the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  (Before the vitriolic cards and letters begin, please note:  I do own a handgun to protect our home, and I served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam).  I am not against the rights we enjoy, including the right to bear arms.  What I AM saying is, for Christians we make too much of those rights, and too little of the ministry of the Prince of Peace.  His coming divided households; his resurrection was to draw all people together. 

Having served in the military, and in the Lord’s army, I think I’ve earned an opinion on this issue.  I understand that peace-loving and peace-keeping can be almost antithetical concepts at times:  the former requiring conditions of settled souls enjoying calm freedom; the latter demanding raised weapons.  But I have more of a cautionary response toward my friends who want to raise the weapons first, foremost, and ever.  Gandhi wasn’t even a Christian and he understood that with war you create more war, which means death and devastation.  It is only with peace-making in our hearts, and on our minds that we may appropriately take up war with sadness and resolve.  Anger to retaliate never passes the bar of righteous anger, no matter whose flag you wave.

For You Today

Jesus’ friend, Peter has the right words for Christians worried about Syria (or anything):

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.  These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.  In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.  Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.  The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.   2 Peter 1:3-9^(NLT)

Think about that out on the Rocky Road today…and have a great day!

---

[1] Title image:  By Empire_neo_assyrien.svg: *Middle_East_topographic, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] 1 Corinthians 2:16