A Reason to Rise

 

Monday, July 5, 2021

The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary.  Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will.  Isaiah 50:4

I don’t have to be reminded why I get up early; there are two reasons.  First, is that I find it hard to sleep more than about six hours; arthritis and age settled that a good while ago.  Second, sleeping has never allowed me to shake the desire to share God’s wakening messages.  I’ve never imagined myself a prophet, but I share Isaiah’s experience with this.  God woke the prophet to open his understanding to God’s messages.  Clearly God doing the wake-up call is superior to arthritic insomnia, and so Rocky Road Devotions became my early morning discipline during the last decade.  Unless the Lord sees fit to change that, I cannot imagine doing without these early morning meetings with the One who fills my soul with reason to rise.

While this daily meeting with God (and writing out what is impressed to me each day) has grown out of my need for deepening my relationship with the Lord, I have also found (to my unending surprise) there are others in that tribe who need the comfort of a daily word to start the process of daily discipleship.  The daily refreshing of praising God, and feeling His touch is a human need.

So, it doesn’t matter if the auditors be one or ten-thousand, it is God who awakens and speaks to my heart each day before daylight, and if He chooses to bless the weary wanderer on today’s bumpy road, it is my privilege to be part of the rock-removal crew.  It’s a large union!

For You Today

How do you feel about getting the day started?  I mean, everyone starts at some point, because we all sleep, and we all awake…until, of course, that day He takes us home. 

How do you get the day started?  Is it Good Lord…it’s morning.

Or is it, Good morning, Lord…where we going today?

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^©

In Times Like These (or any time)

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.  Psalm 63:8(KJV)

A few weeks ago I sent an email to all our Rocky Road followers to encourage us as we continue under the duress of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Included in the message were four questions:

1. What hope sustains you in this crisis?

2. What are you doing to stay positive?

3. How is this crisis challenging your faith?

4. How has God spoken to you in all this?

One family sent a thoughtful response which pretty much nails my thoughts on what sustains us during life’s crises, and even when there is no threat:

We may not send a video but would love to share our answer to question #2.  We read from the Holy Bible daily, (we actually started our daily devotions as a couple approximately 18 months ago). We sing a hymn or two together and lift praises and requests through prayer to our heavenly Father.  These very basic actions deliver the answer to the other three questions: they deliver hope, develop our faith and allow God to speak to us.[1] 

This response is dear to my heart because it so reflects what my experience has been in writing these devotional thoughts; God’s Word says it this way:

I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words.  Psalm 119:147

The truth, plain, unvarnished, undiminished, undiluted is that we need a guide for this life as much as I would need a technology expert if I were to open the back of my computer and start messing around with all the little wires and such.  We come into this world with precious little understanding of God, other than that stamp of His being on our souls.  Daily seeking in hot pursuit after knowing God is the calling of every human spirit.  It is that seeking after God that made King David and his son, Solomon wise.

It is amazing, and surprising just how a small thing like choosing to come close to God in each morning changes everything.  In the quiet of a morning (minus the snoring of my little dog who “studies” with me each day), God’s Word speaks to my heart, and I cannot tell the numbers of times there have been little dawnings in my soul, awakenings that have charted my course for that day, whether it requires social distancing or not. 

But, it’s not in the method (early morning, late evening, standing, sitting, which version of the Bible), it’s all about the surrender of the heart.  A surrendered, willing heart is God’s fertile soil for what He wants to accomplish in and through a person.

And it is all personal, which extends to the circles of relationship all around you.  When God speaks to your heart in and through His Word, and that heart hears, and that courage is called-forth, kingdoms of darkness are broken with the entrance of light.  

Sometimes it’s as simple as carrying a meal to a homebound person or taking time with the next-door neighbor’s child who wants to talk.  Or stocking your car with bottles of water, or McDonald’s coupons to hand to that homeless guy you’ve passed too many times without meeting a need for the daily bread that was his prayer in the sign he’s holding up with a stained, leathery hand.  God’s Word is more than a light for your path, and a lamp for your feet; it is also a word of encouragement for the downtrodden through your actions.

For You Today

So, what did His Word speak to your heart today?  And will the rest of you hear it?

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

Go to VIDEO 

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

For other posts on Psalm 68 see A Little More Light - Part 2 and Rescued

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[1] This email response is reprinted with permission.

Cleaning Up Our Act

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Monday, January 27, 2020

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.  He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.  Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you.  Such sins have no place among God’s people.  Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you.  Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.  You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God.  For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.  Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.  Don’t participate in the things these people do.  For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord.  So live as people of light!  For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.  Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.  Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.  It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.  But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible.  This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”                           Ephesians 5:1-14

With the struggle of our culture over human sexuality currently coming to a head, particularly in the United Methodist Church, today’s poignant reading from Paul is a vibrant reminder that the sins of one group ought not to be categorized worse than the sins of another.  Telling coarse jokes, or spewing expletives, and even foolish talk seems to be of little consequence, matched up against sexual immorality and rampant greed.  However, Paul lumps them all together and calls it all worthless deeds of evil and darkness.  He flatly says, expose that nonsense; don’t take part in it, or make excuses for that kind of behavior.  Wouldn’t you just love it if Paul didn’t beat around the bush so much?

Paul’s blunt rebuke for ungodly behavior is no stranger to me.  Years ago, in a new pastorate, I met a church member for the first time in the nursing home.  She was struggling with the fading strength of age, complicated by dementia.  Her family told me before I went that Grandma didn’t have long to live.  So, when I arrived at the home I introduced myself and asked her to share her faith story with me.  She immediately began to tell about the revival that was held when she was a young girl, and how she’d served Jesus at that church in this way and that way.  When there was a brief pause in the recounting of the last 70 years, I asked if she was secure in her heart that when she left this world she would meet Jesus in heaven.  She said, Oh, yes, young man.  I know I’m going to heaven, and if you want to get there too, YOU’D BETTER CHANGE YOUR WAYS!  Granny had nailed me like Paul the Apostle, right where I live.

Funny, I don’t remember much else we may have talked about on that visit.  What I do remember is being caught up short about how in world she knew I was such a sinner.  This was the first time we’d laid eyes on each other, and she didn’t know me from Adam’s housecat. 

On one level I knew it was the dementia speaking, but on another level, spiritually speaking, she was spot-on; I was (and am) a sinner.  And it makes little difference if it’s greed, coarse speech, foolishness, gossip, anger, lust, or homosexuality; how much, or what kind of sin does it take to make one a sinner?  When you think about it, it’s kind of like robbing banks, or killing, or lying; one will do!

And so, this morning I’m thinking particularly about how United Methodists will treat each other in the coming days at the meetings where they’ll try to work on how to part and go separate ways, as opposed to staying together like two fighting cats with their tails tied together.  Or how the people I know who populate the churches I serve (along with their pastor) will treat our community.  We are, as Paul the Apostle (and Granny the nursing home sage) said, supposed to be about the business of changing our ways to be more like imitators of God’s godliness, and less of the other!

For You Today

You and I won’t be able to solve every bit of what’s wrong with the world, or even within our own hearts by lunchtime today, but we can start to bend our ways to His ways with a season of prayer that shines a little light on our darkness.

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

Go to VIDEO

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

The Mystery of the Gospel

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Tuesday, May 29, 2018

When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan.  For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.  I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling.  And my message and my preaching were very plain.  Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.  I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.  Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten.  No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.  But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.  That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”  But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit.  For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.   

1 Corinthians 2:1-10^NLT)

There are plenty of mysteries to go around:  Stonehenge, the Lost Day in Time, Creation, and the entire nature of eternity, time, space, and what makes humans tick.  One mystery that befuddles me more than anything is the deep mystery of connection with God, wrapped-up in the simplest tragic story of all, the crucifixion of God. 

This surprising/mystifying part of the Gospel is not just the fact that God desires to have us close, and wants to enjoy that fellowship, and give us His kind of joy.  It’s not just the fact that His perfect, sinless life was ended on a cross (although it is astounding that the creation would rise up so shamelessly against the Creator).  The crux of this mystery (for me) is that those two facts are in perfect harmony, totally-dependent upon each other; without the cross there is no fellowship – and without the heart’s-desire of God to be in fellowship with us, the cross makes no sense.

And then there is the mystery of how the sinless life, substitutionary death, and unmatched resurrection of Jesus…this Gospel…changes lives.  I (like you, perhaps) have sat in a stadium, listening to Billy Graham giving a simple Gospel message, uncomplicated, not new or startling, and seen thousands of people glued to every word.  Hundreds respond to the invitation to receive the Gospel and are changed.

Some have tried to explain it away as a sociological phenomenon of group hypnotism; the people expect to be confronted with change (for the good), so they respond.  Others are so desperate for a change they will respond to any promise.

But it was the same with the Apostle Paul; criticism came his way often and it was seldom to his face.  Mostly it was the mystery; when people don’t understand, they try to explain it away, or discredit the one who speaks it.

I never met Billy Graham personally, but I have seen that gift of evangelism working in the lives of several of my friends who have been faithful servants of God.  I have walked with them in neighborhoods talking to complete strangers about this mysterious Gospel and the Lord of that Gospel.  And I have witnessed a number of people respond to the simple message of faith, praying to receive Christ .  And while it is always a holy moment to see someone respond to the Lord, it is never less than a constant reminder that every moment you are with another human being is an opportunity to share that seed of faith, or water the seed someone else has planted, or be the harvester, leading someone to come to Christ.  For me, it is always a stark reminder that our time to share the Gospel is limited; this should be a front-burner issue for every follower of Jesus.

For You Today

In this 24 hour cycle of the sun rising, setting, and the night passing, you will have 1440 minutes of life; is it possible to spend just 5 of those minutes sharing Christ with someone?  Their eternity might be hanging in the balance.

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

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[1] Title Image:  By Florida Memory [No restrictions or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Day is Coming

Monday, June 9, 2014

“The day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will greatly increase the human population and the number of animals here in Israel and Judah.  In the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation.  I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it.  But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up.  I, the LORD, have spoken!  “The people will no longer quote this proverb:  ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste.’  All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.  

“The day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.  This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt.  They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the LORD.  “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the LORD.  “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’  For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the LORD.  “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” Jeremiah 31:27 - 34 (NLT)

Jeremiah uses a bit of absurdity to get a point across.  Imagine watching a father or mother bite into a mouthful of not-quite-ripe grapes, and the small child standing next to them is the one whose lips pucker at the taste.

Yet that was a well-known phrase in the exiles of Israel; parental sins had put them in the “fix” of captivity.  It was the ancient equivalent of the blame game we see in 21^st century culture:  It’s not my fault, I’m a victim.

Reality check:  There is no “pass” for personal guilt, no mitigating circumstances for our individual sins.  A person who bites into the unripe grapes of forbidden fruit will always experience the consequences of “puckering-up”.  As actor Robert Blake in the 70’s cop drama Baretta would say, Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

Jeremiah quotes God as saying “the day is coming” when there will be none of that – there will be no victim status to separate between humans and God.  And Jesus backed up what Jeremiah prophesied:

After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.  Luke 22:20 (NLT)

God promised that the day was coming, and a New Covenant, sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ, when our forgiven sins would not be remembered by God.  That’s what a sacrifice does! 

For You, Today…

Think for a moment about the last time you shared the Lord’s Supper in worship.  In your mind’s eye, picture yourself bringing the cup to your lips, and now look into the deep purple wine.  It’s the color of blood, isn’t it?  It’s supposed to make us remember what God has promised to forget – our sins!

Now – in your mind – drink the cup; that’s what Jesus did – he drank it to the very dregs, the bottom – every last drop.  It all disappeared, vanished, just like the memory in heaven of your sins.

It takes a sacrifice to restore relationship; the day is no longer coming.  The day of our forgiveness and cleansing is here!

Walk around all day today with THAT on your plate!