PURE

Friday, July 28, 2023

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 3:17-18

You know some people James describes.  Remember them right now…faces that evoke good memories, calm moments, full of reason and safety.  You know the things they’ve done for you, or someone else who didn’t deserve mercy.  You understand the strength of someone who doesn’t show favoritism, always to be counted upon for sincerity and truth.  You know a peacemaker or two…several if you’re favored with eyes to see.

James issues this descriptive love affair with wisdom, drawing on sweet memories of his older half-brother, Jesus.  James didn’t always recognize it, this wisdom.  Along with his siblings and mother he thought Jesus was a little crazy, what with all this radical preaching about new wine, loving your enemies, and camels squeezing through the eye of a needle.  But there were those other telltale signs of pure wisdom…good deeds, mercy, and gentleness.  Later, after the cross, burial, and resurrection, James began to understand what he’d witnessed.  The way his brother submitted to the powers that be, the nails, the spear in a lifeless side (which James couldn’t understand), these were all revealed to be the seeds of peace.  It was only when the great harvest of Pentecost appeared that James understood what his brother was doing; he finally saw wisdom in its holy purity.

I knew a man who walked like that, filled with wisdom that was gentle and led to peacemaking.  It was at a church I served as pastor many years ago.  He arrived at the church a few years after I got there.  I liked him the moment I saw him.  There was a gentleness about BobbyMac’s way of talking with a genuine unpretentious.  You felt calm next to him.  It wasn’t just me; others saw it too.

I can be deceived…easily.  I tend to trust people until they prove otherwise.  Some people come into your life for a reason.  Why Bobby Mac’s path crossed with mine became evident a few years after we met.  His gift of “peacemaking” in a church with a long history of contentiousness (particularly with firing preachers), was a welcome fresh breath of pure air.  The church was grateful for his presence and he was in leadership roles in no time.  Shortly after that his spiritual gift of sowing peace became necessary.  Some decisions I’d made as pastor stirred some memories of what former pastors had done, and a group within the church decided it was time to stir the pot of “pastor-change”.  It didn’t seem to matter what way I tried to reach out, to meet folks half-way….minds were made up, set in stone.  Enter the peacemaker…Bobby Mac.  Some of the words he used were exact duplicates of some of the things I’d said to try to fix the relationship of pastor and people.  But Bobby Mac said them differently; he sowed mercy with gentleness, and sincerely trusted the truth to plow through any favoritism from either the pastor-change group or my stubbornness.   

I cannot adequately describe just how Bobby did what he did without writing several books, but this one thing I can say:  God was all over that!  I felt like the Roman soldier who was staring at the way Jesus died on the cross:

“This man truly was the Son of God!”  Mark 15:39b

For You Today 

If you want the kind of wisdom that is pure, gentle, unbiased, peace-filled, and generating a harvest of peace-making, it’s available from the same One who is the Author of the peace that passes understanding:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

Pray for peace that way…and you’ll bump into pure wisdom from above as gently and favorably as Bobby Mac.

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

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

 

Undivided Loyalty

 

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.  But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.  Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.  Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.  James 1:5-8

Over the last 11 months, since we all got an introduction to COVID-19, we have all been living in a waiting game of epic proportions.  During such times of testing and personal trials, cooperating with God to grow our faith always proves to be an integral part of maintaining sanity and trusting in God’s care.

When it comes to really trusting God there is a certain abandoning of ourselves – putting-aside our options. 

Did you know that God isn’t into making us guess; He wants us to have His wisdom?  The Lord is pleased to give us wisdom and all the help we need.  James says God won’t rebuke us for asking for wisdom.  Literally translated from the language of the New Testament, that word rebuke means God won’t make fun at you when you ask. 

However, receiving that wisdom does come with a price:

If we are going to have His wisdom, we must trade in ours.

That means setting-aside our prerogatives and agenda, and being obedient to Him, because trusting God is all about Christian (Christlike) living. 

It is the essence of the surrendered life.  When you trust Him, it means you take your stand with Him – publicly, privately, and any other way He demands. 

Solomon, the wisest man on the face of the earth, said it this way:

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^(NLT)

The personal cost of trading your wisdom for God’s is total trust, trusting with all your heart and THAT is no small price!  It’s easy to trust in the Lord with all your heart when everything’s going your way.  But there are times when things come unglued, and you want to fall back into a nice, safe, “hidey-place” all secure, safe, warm, and comfy. 

Now, some of us even get that way before our world comes apart.  The worst, for me, of any trial is that limbo place of not-knowing what’s coming; I just hate not knowing!  Just tell me it’s the worst…or the best…just don’t tell me I have to wait!

Many of you are aware that the throat cancer I went through three years ago qualified me for Veteran’s Benefits.  It seems Agent Orange in Vietnam caught up with my vocal cords, and while I was going through 28 rounds of radiation, we started receiving a temporary benefit until they could evaluate and categorize my status. 

Up until Uncle Sam summoned me in for that evaluation, I was nervous about not knowing what they were going to say; would it be, since the radiation worked, you don’t need a pension?  Were they going to open Uncle Sam’s arms (and wallet), making my retirement plans a lot easier? 

This is the kind of thing about which I normally obsess.  I go to sleep wondering.  I wake up every hour worrying and get up in the morning moody and distracted. 

Now, that is simply perfect for a pastor who is supposed to be an encourager to the flock to have faith.  I tell you to cast all your cares on Him, take it to the cross, and leave it there…but the preacher develops an ulcer worrying! 

Well, that is unacceptable to the surrendered life; what I did was confess my unbelief to God; I gave it to the Lord with a promise that I would take a deep breath and allow Him to take over my worries. 

That appointment with the VA was a year and a half ago, and the doctor told me that since this type of cancer, caught this early, rarely returns, my disability had vanished with the tumor on my voice-box. 

Now, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but you don’t have to have a rocket scientist to figure out this one: 

No disability means no pension…

thank you for your service; you’re on your own!

After the appointment Elizabeth and I went to lunch at Panera Bread and thanked God for His kindness to us and how He has provided for us through the thick and thin of 5 decades of life together. 

Incidentally, this Friday marks year #54 of the best years of my life!

Now that doesn’t sound like the success story that usually goes along with a sermon; except for the fact that success is not to be found in:

·       having a pension or not having pension;

·       success can’t be found in an easy retirement or pinching pennies. 

Success in this answered prayer was about peace within; I didn’t think about the situation the rest of the afternoon and night.  In fact, I didn’t think about the pension or no pension thing until the next afternoon when I was trying to think deeply about what I’d tell you that Sunday about trusting in the Lord. 

That’s when it hit me square in my dull little mind that I had just lived what you needed to hear.  I had trusted God fully, and he overcame the biggest spiritual battle I ever have…my own lack of faith.  He gave me faith to rest in His promises!

Here’s the way the apostle Paul puts it:

 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7^(NLT)

Now, that’s not a one and done bucket-list checkoff, is it? 

I have found myself worrying at other times.  I still get agitated when I’m in limbo, where the outcome is uncertain.  After all, I’m a work in progress; God will correct that in this Russell model when He finally takes me to Heaven.

The point is – THAT point in time, with THAT issue of trial for Russell became a victory, and a peace that has blessed me, and become a source of rest for my soul that is badly-needed in THIS time of pandemic waiting!

So, how do I remind myself to trust…fully, to put worry in the garbage can?  It is, as Paul suggests, praying about everything, so I’ll learn to trust God’s promises through God’s Word for everything God wants for my life.

And here is a verse that I start with each time I pray:

God is not a man, so he does not lie.  He is not human, so he does not change his mind.  Has he ever spoken and failed to act?  Has he ever promised and not carried it through?  Numbers 23:19

Our Prayer

Father, we give our thanks for your Word…your trustworthy Word, backed by the bloodstained cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Lord, the world’s calling is to deny You, lay-down our cross, and party-on.  We have discovered in Your Word that is a formula for a divided mind, that which destroys any sense of loyalty to the One who loves us and died for us.  Father, in the name of Christ, give us victory starting with picking up our cross to deny self.

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father.  Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!  

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

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Keeping the Lights On

 

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

“Watch out!  Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life.  Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap.  For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth.  Keep alert at all times.  And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”  Every day Jesus went to the Temple to teach, and each evening he returned to spend the night on the Mount of Olives.  The crowds gathered at the Temple early each morning to hear him.  Luke 21:34-38

Like it or not we all have a dance with issues of darkness.  As a small child I did not want to turn off the lights; darkness frightened me.  (Things do go “bump” in the night, you know).  As an adult the table turned, and I cannot get to sleep if there’s a light on.  But that presents other problems, such as getting up in the middle of that darkness, thinking you’ll have no problem getting through the darkness.  After all, you’ve done it a thousand times, and you know where to walk; but this time you discover someone moved that chair.  (Rather, your bare foot finds out for you).

On a spiritual plane Jesus taught the principle of keeping the lights on.  This entire chapter of Luke’s Gospel has Jesus’ teaching of the end of days and the coming judgment.  To be caught in the darkness of carousing, drunkenness, and all the worries of this life (and aren’t there many?), is to be unprepared for the Advent, the next coming of our Lord.  The word of Jesus’ message is alert, and the Lord taught us how to do that. 

There are three moving parts to keeping the spiritual lights on.

1.   Pray

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

This is Paul the Apostle’s advice to a church family he loved very much.  The worries of life are no match for prayer.  There is no mistaking the fact that praying is a trust issue.  To pray is (in the language of the Scriptures) to bind oneself to the care of another.  We bind ourselves to God’s will as we bow before Him…praying.

2.   Keep Praying

Never stop praying.  1 Thessalonians 5:17

Paul told another loved group of disciples at Thessalonica that a little “now I lay me down to sleep” praying will not suffice in spiritual warfare.  You’ll just wind up sleeping in the darkness.  To never stop praying means just that; keep yourself in prayer mode day-in and day-out.  Be (as Paul told Timothy about his preaching) always at it, in favorable circumstances or not.  Make prayer an ongoing conversation with your Heavenly Father.

3.   Pray with Other Believers

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.  Hebrews 10:25

Ours is not a solitary faith.  It is true that we are individually responsible for our choices…those which lead to good or evil.  But we are never to imagine we are to depend only on ourselves to muddle through.  My single most annoying flaw (most annoying to me, and to my Heavenly Father) is failing to enlist or involve others in my struggles.  And that is exactly what Paul writes to his fellow Jewish believers in this passage, that we cannot afford to experiment with “aloneness” when we are involved in Kingdom of God; it’s a group project!

I’m not sure God’s people grasp that nearly as much as the world does.  The diversity mania mantra is Stronger Together.  That is coopted from God’s Word to enforce a forced unity in people who resist change.  Taking it back to the holy meaning of praying with other believers, we must keep on gathering, because there is vital encouragement to be found in our worship.  Times of giving, building, testifying, and bowing before God in prayer and praise bring the kind of strength Jesus exemplified for us. 

For You Today

So…will you be a go-it-alone Christian?  Or does God’s Word now challenge you to engage with others, praying, never-ceasing, always engaging?

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

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

For other posts on this topic see:  On Guard and Wisdom from Above  

 

James the Just - Part 3 - When the Just Trust

[1]

Thursday, August 15, 2019

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.  He will not rebuke you for asking.  But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.  Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.  Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.  James 1:5-8

There is a certain abandoning of ourselves – putting-aside our options when it comes to really trusting God.  The Lord is pleased to give us wisdom and all the help we need.  Did you know that God isn’t into making us guess; He wants us to have His wisdom.  The King James Version says God won’t upbraid when you ask for wisdom.  Literally translated from the language of the New Testament, that means God won’t make fun at you when you ask.  However, receiving that wisdom does come with a price.  If we are going to have His wisdom, we must trade in ours.  That means setting-aside our prerogatives and agenda, and being obedient to Him, because trusting God, is all about Christian (Christlike) living.

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

The personal cost of trading your wisdom for God’s is total trust; and THAT is no small price!  It’s easy to “trust in the Lord with all your heart” when everything’s going your way.  But there are times when things come unglued, and you want to fall back into a nice, safe, “hidey-place” all secure, safe, warm, and comfy. 

Now, some of us even get that way before our world comes apart.  For me, it’s the limbo place of not-knowing what’s coming; I just hate not knowing!  Just tell me it’s the worst…or the best; just don’t tell me to wait!

Many of you are aware that the throat cancer I went through two summers ago qualified me for Veteran’s Benefits.  It seems “Agent Orange” in Vietnam caught up with my vocal cords, and while I was going through 28 rounds of radiation we started receiving a temporary benefit until they could categorize my status.  Nearly a year went by and then Uncle Sam called me in for that evaluation.

I was nervous about the limbo of not knowing what they were going to say…maybe it would be that since the radiation worked, I don’t need a pension?  Or, were they going to open Uncle Sam’s arms and pocketbook, making my retirement plans a lot easier?  This is the kind of thing about which I normally obsess.  I go to sleep wondering.  I wake up every hour worrying and get up in the morning moody and distracted.  Oh, and by the way, that’s really good for a pastor who is supposed to be an encourager to the flock to have faith; cast all your cares on Him…take it to the cross and leave it there!

Well, here’s what happened.  I confessed my unbelief to God; I gave it to the Lord with a promise that I would take a deep breath and allow Him to take over my worries.  The appointment with the VA happened, and the doctor told me that since this type of cancer, caught this early, rarely returns, my disability had disappeared.  Now, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but you don’t have to have an interpreter for this one.  No disability means no pension…thank you for your service; you’re on your own!

After the appointment Elizabeth and I went to lunch at Panera Bread and thanked God for His kindness to us and how He has provided for us through the thick and thin of 5 decades of life together.  Now that doesn’t sound like the success story that usually goes along with a sermon; except for the fact that success is not to be found in having a pension or not having pension, easy retirement or pinching pennies.  Success in this answered prayer was that I didn’t think about the situation the rest of the afternoon and night.  In fact, I didn’t think about the pension or no pension thing until the next afternoon when I was trying to think deeply about what I’d tell the congregations I serve about trusting in the Lord.  That’s when it hit me square in my dull little mind that I had just lived what we all need to hear.  I trusted Him, and he overcame the biggest spiritual battle I ever have…my own lack of faith.  He gave me faith to rest in His promises!  So much better than any pension!

For You Today

Let’s let apostle Paul have the final word today:

 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons
                          Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

Now, But Not Yet

[1]

Monday, December 17, 2018

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.

The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.

The cow will graze near the bear.  The cub and the calf will lie down together.

The lion will eat hay like a cow.  The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.
Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.

Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea,
so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.  Isaiah 11:6-9(NLT)

One of the most difficult concepts to wrap my mind around has always been the calling upon the Christian’s life to accept the Now, but Not Yet reality of Kingdom peace.  Peace is a reality now, but will not be accomplished (in the sense that God banishes everything which is not peace), until the not yet part is over; but we are to work towards it, even now. 

That’s like telling me to enjoy my ice cream even though I can’t have it until tomorrow!  While that goes against the typical instant gratification instinct of babies, mature believers have worked through that paradoxical impasse and live in the mystery of now, but not yet.  Though we may not see genuine, lasting, and total peace in this lifetime, we can live-into that quality of peace in Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit gives us Jesus’ promise:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7(NLT)

One thing I have learned about this promise of God’s peace is that it is true, and doesn’t depend upon the circumstances, even if the circumstances scream the total opposite!

My bride is a highly competent administrator.  She has worked with many pastors and denominational leaders assisting ministry in a number of settings.  Once she worked with a most difficult denominational assistant director whose personality bordered on Atilla the Hun.  He was Napoleon and General Patton rolled-up in one nifty, order-spewing package.  He called her from his car one day to read Elizabeth the riot act for the way she had handled some task.  In the middle of his tirade my sweet wife spoke up; she said:  I’m sorry; how can I make it right?  The phone went silent for longer than a few seconds, and when the boss next spoke his whole demeanor had transformed into a calm and rational co-laborer.  He never barked at her again.

Now that kind of makes you believe what Scripture declares:

A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.  Proverbs 15:1(NLT)

For You Today

When believers are willing to overlook the world’s lack of peace, and live-into their Master’s promises, wonderful things can happen in the Now, but Not Yet department!

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

Life Lies

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Do you have to muster up some inner strength to say you find joy in what you do? 

Or are you more like the friend I was having breakfast with the other day?  I asked what he did before he retired, and he began to tell me about his career.  It was not an exotic job like being an alligator wrestler or snake charmer, or playing third base for the Yankees; it was an “everyday” kind of job.  What fascinated me was the twinkle in his eye when he talked about getting up every day, looking forward to the people he’d meet that day.  He finished with:  I really liked doing that!  My friend knows how to view the ordinary as extraordinary.

The Apostle Paul shared a formula for this kind of living:

Don’t fret or worry.  Instead of worrying, pray.  Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.  Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.  It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.  Philippians 4:6-7 (TMSG)

Joy – the kind you experience for real on your inside, and not the fake stuff that you have to work up by going to a party, or getting a drug buzz – is available.  

That’s Christ’s joy; it is the life He said he came to give to us![1]

Today…for you

Are you tired of the “life lie”, the smile you wear to convince others you’re just fine?

Is it time to join the ranks of those who’ve learned the secret of allowing Christ to change your ordinary to extraordinary?

Why not talk to Him about it?

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[1] John 10:10