When God Plants a Vineyard

Friday, October 27, 2023

I will lead blind Israel down a new path, guiding them along an unfamiliar way.  I will brighten the darkness before them and smooth out the road ahead of them.  Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not forsake them.  Isaiah 42:16

In 1981 Elizabeth and I stood in a chapel service at seminary, along with 1,200 other students and faculty.  The preacher had extended a call to follow Christ in mission without reserve – no matter where it was God wanted us to go, and despite whatever conditions we would encounter.  Even the song we sang was Wherever He Leads, I’ll Go.  We responded to that call, promising to do just that!

Now, it’s great to have a mountaintop experience when you’re headed for the valley; it helps you remember and hold-onto what (and Who) your focus should be.  At that time, our vision of serving Christ as a pastoral family was kind of a Norman Rockwell painting – a snapshot, frozen in time, with pastor, wife and three kids.  Thirty years later we were supposed to still be in the same location, having developed loving relationships with the same people in the same town.  Those plans were  MY plans!  In our naivety, however, we never imagined that the plans and pathway of ministry could change so dramatically and so often!

Fast forward forty-two years, eleven churches, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren….Elizabeth and I are just a few months into full retirement, having completed another first (and only) year with a new church family.  For the last four decades we’ve lived finding out how life turns on a dime!  There have been moments when we felt like the tree in the picture…uprooted, laid-down to rot.  But in those times, as we waited for God to make sense for us out of challenging and changing circumstances, new growth was always the result!

The Lord has led us into different (and unexpected) places, but His Word has never varied, His promises always faithfully-true, and we have been blessed more than if our plans had been followed to the letter.  Truth be told, I’m glad God used His plans instead of mine.

I planned to continue writing this devotional in retirement until God offered a new path on which to grow and serve.  I believe that time is here, and it is time for that new path.  So, to be obedient to our original promise to follow wherever He leads, for us future ministry will be focused in two ways:

1.    Helping in the local church where Elizabeth and I worship

2.    Taking the lessons I’ve learned (and sometimes just survived as they unfolded)…and forming them into some pages that will (hopefully) be an encouragement for pastors who are just starting-out, or looking to refocus for the next season. 

In Isaiah’s words, I feel like blind Israel with God taking me by the hand to show me a new pathway.  But that is the exciting nature of being a follower of Jesus Christ in a changing universe.  Like the tree in the picture, it looks like it is over, done…totally-finished.  But God specializes in bringing new life where death thought it was going to be in charge.  When God plants a vineyard there’s going to be fruit!

For You Today 

If you’re new to Rocky Road, or if you’ve been there since May 7, 2013, when it started, thank you for your interest, prayers, and encouragement to me along the way.  May God bless you to be a fruitful blessing to others is our prayer.

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 library.

Today’s title Image from a friend’s Facebook page (original source unknown)

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Unplanted Faith

 

Thursday, July 7, 2022

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?  Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?  So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough.  Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.  Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds?  I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”  James 2:14-18

Tertullian, a second-century church leader, is credited with the saying that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.  In that analogy it is simple to squeeze out a corollary, consistent with apostle James’ caution:  unplanted seeds of faith will produce almost nothing.  I say “almost” because there is one result, a false sense of security for those looking for an easier, quieter, less-troublesome brand of faith that requires little.  That unplanted faith seed becomes an empty pot of toxic wishes, instead of a harvest of blessing for untold millions of faith-starved people today.

The apostle was concerned with warning his flock that wishes, dreams, hopes, and plans, are only wisps of smoke if there are no good deeds that come forth in the form of blessing others.  Is it good to pray for the homeless without doing something about a mother and kids sleeping in a storm drain? 

Does it make sense to hope for the gun violence to go away, but never support positive measures for gun safety?  Can any good come from a proud, patriotic feeling you get without willingness to stand against the enemies of freedom? 

A popular song when I was in high school about one girl’s advice to all others about “wishing and hoping” they could get that special guy, echos, somewhat, that which James wrote to his flock about planting genuine faith seeds:

Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin'
Plannin' and dreamin' each night of his charms
That won't get you into his arms
Just wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin'
Plannin' and dreamin' his kisses will start
That won't get you into his heart
So if you're lookin' to find love you can share
All you gotta do is
Hold him and kiss him and love him
And show him that you care^©

Care is the fuel James said to pour on the sparks of revival and transformation.  Every generation since the Garden of Eden has craved being cared-for, knowing that they matter, that someone really notices, and is willing to listen.

For You Today

Have you encountered someone that’s a little rough around the edges?  If you’ve prayed for that person – good.  If you’ve asked God to use you to strengthen that person’s relationship with the Lord – great!  You have prepared the ground, and are holding the seed of care in your hand.  You stand on the threshold of actually planting that seed.  Let your faith be alive and growing.

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 this topic or Scripture text:  Faith and Works and Picking Up the Trowel

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

Working on a Harvest

Friday, June 3, 2022

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God.  You will always harvest what you plant.  Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.  But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.   Galatians 6:7-8

The simplicity with which the Scriptures lay out our choices is sometimes too startling for 21st century minds.  We do not really want “simple” – we want multiple-choice, categories, and options…not just live or die.  To say there are only two choices, life and death, is to court the wrath of the “wokeness police”.  Yet, there it is, in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, King James, and whatever other language you need or want, the harvest will be what you plant, no matter whether you intended it to be that way, or, for that matter, if you think you’re entitled to something different.  The choice is only, plant, or don’t plant.  In short, the laws of harvest remain absolute; you reap that which you plant.

The harvest in the last week or so in America uncovers what we have been planting, cultivating, and are now horrified to own – at least 35 murders in 3 mass shootings…21 in Uvalde, 10 Black persons in Buffalo, and, just yesterday 4 more at a Tulsa Oklahoma medical center. 

Once again we have sowed violence to the wind, and are reaping a harvest of death’s whirlwind.[1]

If you want to pigeon-hole me as to which tribe I follow concerning the gun issue, here are the details (or ammunition if you will):

1.    I own a handgun, loaded, ready to defend our home if invaded.  I never wear it, concealed, or openly.  It stays under locked conditions for safety.

2.    I do not judge anyone…God’s Word is enough, and better at that, than my thoughts by an infinitely exponential mile.

3.    I do blame our culture that twists and bends every sense of goodness to turn a profit, including the NRA’s promotion, lobbying, and lack of decency, and Congress facilitating such under the guise of freedom.  I also include the purveyors of violence who pander to the culture with video games teaching children who cannot put a coherent sentence together, but are fluent in how to kill 98 “enemies” to reach the next level.  They learned this way of life, because we, the American public allow profiteers to spoon-feed violence to our children, and the weak-minded among us.

God has always judged, and will continue to judge, any who add to that.  It is the nature of He who Created us, and holds the next breath we may (or may not) take.  The choice is to be under His will of peacemaker, or under His judgment for peacebreaker.  Simple, uncomplicated, and lovingly just.

For You Today

My Dad was of the generation that didn’t mind letting you know there are consequences for our actions.  Have you ever heard this phrase:

You upset because you don’t think I’m being fair? 

I’ll give you something to be upset about!

I kinda think Dad knew something about reaping the whirlwind.

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

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

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[1] A loose borrowing of Hosea 8:7a  “They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind….”