Good News?

Friday, September 8, 2023

And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?  That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”  But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?”  So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.  But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message?  Yes, they have:  “The message has gone throughout the earth, and the words to all the world.”  But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand?  Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God said, “I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation.           I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles.”  And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, “I was found by people who were not looking for me.       I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.”  But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”  Romans 10:15-21

At times obeying God’s commandments and calling can bring puzzling results, especially if you’re talking about preaching.  A wise philosopher named Forrest Gump said his momma told him life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.  It’s like that with some sermons.  One time I prayed over, and prepared diligently, a sermon that I thought would be a turning point for the congregation I was serving.  I imagined Billy Graham hearing it and stealing it for his next crusade.  I was wrong…it only made several members of my congregation angry…the rest probably never thought more about it than the fried chicken dinner they had after worship was over.  Fast-forward to another congregation, there was that Sunday evening service where I preached a sermon I hadn’t prepared well.  It was all over the place, from Genesis to Revelation, prophets, Moses, apostles, and even a digression into the Song of Solomon; when the invitation was given, the altar was full of weeping Christians.  So, who knew?

In today’s Scripture Apostle Paul makes the point that God had given Israel such Good News about God’s love and promised salvation, and given them the job of spreading that Good News to the world – including the nations of Gentiles – but Israel just dropped the ball.  Not the reaction you’d expect from people rescued from being slaves in Egypt, protected by a God who would let them escape Pharaoh’s army by walking on dry land through the Red Sea, fed by manna, wearing clothes that didn’t wear-out for forty years, and supernaturally blessed to possess the Promised Land.  If that isn’t strange enough, how about the best response to the Good News of God’s love coming from the “lost heathens”…the Gentile nations!  In the end, Forrest Gump’s momma was right…you never know.

For You Today 

The Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not tame news.  That’s because our God is no tamed pet; He is the LORD, creator of all we can see and know, and much more.  God’s plans are not predictable, but they are certain.  Our “job” as those who follow Him is to proclaim that Good News, and leave the results to God’s keeping.

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. 

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

When the Scales Dropped

Monday, March 20, 2023

Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.  When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.  But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.  Psalm 146:3-6

So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight.  Then he got up and was baptized.  Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.  Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.  And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”  Acts 9:17-20

Saul (who was later renamed Paul) was a somebody, who, like Moses, raised in the household of Pharaoh as a prince, learned to be a nobody.  And once Saul found out the truth, that placing your trust and pinning your hopes on powerful people is useless, like Moses, Paul went on to become one of God’s most useful servants to proclaim the Good News that Christ is Lord.

Saul’s conversion backstory is that he was extremely well-educated, and quite powerfully-connected to the powers that be.  He was close enough to the movers and shakers in Jerusalem to be entrusted with leading the charge against the new sect of heretics…the Christians.  He was persecuting the church with a vengeance. 

Then came that blinding light on the Road to Damascus.  That light was Jesus.

Saul had been (as Scripture indicates) …uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers.[1]  Suddenly the entire focus of Saul’s life and purpose turned around…180°!  Now his mouth ceased threatening to kill Jesus’ followers, and began inviting those who had been lost to have their eyes opened.  The “scales” covering Saul’s eyes, had fallen away to reveal Paul…the great apostle, whose hand God used to give us one-third of the New Testament Scriptures.  Paul had thought he was a somebody when he was persecuting the nobodies.  When Ananias, one of those nobodies, prayed for Saul, the scales fell off his eyes, and Paul not only saw his errant ways…he began to do something about it. 

I was converted at a young age, and did next-to-nothing about telling the Good News.  In fact, I ran from it, becoming self-centered and anything but a good witness.  It took a Damascus Road event in my life to turn me around.  If there is a regret to my life, it is that I did not share Christ with nearly as many people as God gave me opportunity.  One of my constant prayers is now: 

O God, open my mouth like Paul!

For You Today 

According to the last two sentences in today’s Scripture text, Paul only waited two days to begin preaching.  A Damascus Road face-to-face meeting with Jesus will do that…make an urgency in you to proclaim the Good News. 

Three suggestions about that:

1.    You can have one of those face-to-face moments with Jesus…just ask Him.

2.    Don’t resist the urgency to share the Good News…ever! 

3.    Let the scales drop, my friend…let ‘em drop!

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

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:  The Patience of God with Spiritual Blindness  and I Think I'm Having Stress 

Title Image: Pietro da Cortona, via Wikimedia Commons    Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] See Acts 9:1

Peter's Sermon (and a very strange reaction)

Friday, July 22, 2022

“People of Israel, listen!  God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know.  But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him.  But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.  King David said this about him:  ‘I see that the Lord is always with me.  I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.  No wonder my heart is glad, and my tongue shouts his praises!  My body rests in hope.  For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.  You have shown me the way of life, and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.’  “Dear brothers, think about this!  You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us.  But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne.  David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection.  He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.  “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.  Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.  For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”’  “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”  Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”  Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”  Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”  Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.  Acts 2:22-41

This second chapter of Acts always seems to grab the attention of the spectacular; it is the issue of the tongues of fire, speaking in unknown languages.  It centers on the apostles gathered in the upper room.  But that was just the locker room where the team was getting ready for the big game, which takes place in the real arena…the lives and futures of all persons, both in first-century Jerusalem, and all who have ever been born everywhere.  Peter would stand and preach a simple sermon…the Gospel message of Christ’s Lordship, crucifixion, death, and resurrection.  And Dr. Luke records in this text a very strange reaction:  humility!

They didn’t get mad at the sermon.  They didn’t yawn and fall asleep.  They didn’t scowl, fold their arms, and shake their heads in disbelief at Peter’s impertinence.  What they did was repent of their sins, submit to the waters of baptism, and let the fire of God’s Holy Spirit warm their insides, and outwardly spread the joy to everyone they would meet for the rest of their lives.  They became disciples.

I call it a very strange reaction because we’re seeing little of that humble response these days.  The prevailing culture disdains humility, repentance, and faith, as being antiquated and counter-productive.  God is simply not in vogue.

For You Today

Read Peter’s sermon again…then consider what your reaction might be.

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 in the Rocky Road Devotions library. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  Three Conversions at Pentecost and Repent and Be Baptized

[1] Images:  Sharing Your Faith Radio  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

When Lightning Strikes Again

 

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.  James 3:1

Last month Elizabeth and I attended Annual Conference at Lake Junaluska.  It’s a wonderful place, nestled in the beauty of North Carolina’s mountains.  We’ve stayed at The Terrace hotel on the campground for the last decade.  That also happens to be the same place where those who are on the conference program are housed.  The conference center auditorium is over a hundred years old, and because it is a mountain community, buildings are not exactly conveniently accessible; parking is even less so.  And that is why I could hardly believe my eyes when we pulled into the Terrace Parking lot.  One of the first parking spaces was open…and that was precisely the moment lightning struck me….again!

As I began to turn into the primo parking spot, the sign smacked me right in the face…it was one of those signs reserving the spot (thou shalt stay out of this spot or pay with thy life), declaring it off limits to anyone but the Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colon-Emeric.  I stepped on the brake much harder than I should have, and Elizabeth wanted to know what train hit us.  I mumbled something about lightning striking the same place twice, and scooted off to find a parking space without 800,000 volts attached.

The first time that lightning struck was about 10 years ago when I took a required class at Duke.  It was the last class before graduation.  It was Dr. Colon-Emeric’s class.  Perhaps, after 6 long years of juggling school, family, and serving a church, my longing to be done with school may have short-circuited my interest in the class, and I didn’t do particularly well…with either the curriculum or building a bond with Dr. C-E.  Don’t get me wrong…he’s a wonderful Christian brother, a dedicated educator and champion for justice…I was just so ready to be done!

It so happened that the last day of classes was my turn in the barrel.  I was to speak at chapel before the student body, staff, and professors.  In my sermon introduction I announced…Hey, fellow student grunts…aren’t you glad it’s over?  The response was a thunderous applause.  Then I charged the plates for lightning to appear.  I said, Hey…I feel your pain.  I’m so glad that class with Dr. Colon is over…his tests are murder…but I’m done…I’m done!  From the back of the auditorium came a deep, authoritarian voice with more than a trace of Spanish flavor:  I have not yet finished grading your papers!

Cue the lightning!

There are some moments that never leave you.  I can still recall going blank for a moment, but managing to live through the rest of that sermon.  The message time was a strict 9 minutes (I’m certain student sermons are limited for a reason).  It seemed like I was up there for 9 hours.

The good news is that Dr. C-E was a good sport, who enjoyed seeing me squirm, even tho’ he’d given me a generous grade on the course. 

For You Today

I still cannot recall the name or subject matter of the class with Dr. Colon-Emeric, but I remember that moment, and how it helped shape me for the “unexpected” in preaching.  Same goes for life…you never know when lightning will strike again.

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:  Blown Away by Every New Wind of Teaching and Lessons

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

Joshua's Caution

 

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

The years passed, and the Lord had given the people of Israel rest from all their enemies.  Joshua, who was now very old, called together all the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel.  He said to them, “I am now a very old man.  You have seen everything the Lord your God has done for you during my lifetime.  The Lord your God has fought for you against your enemies.            

“Soon I will die, going the way of everything on earth.  Deep in your hearts you know that every promise of the Lord your God has come true.  Not a single one has failed!  But as surely as the Lord your God has given you the good things he promised, he will also bring disaster on you if you disobey him.  He will completely destroy you from this good land he has given you.  If you break the covenant of the Lord your God by worshiping and serving other gods, his anger will burn against you, and you will quickly vanish from the good land he has given you.”  Joshua 23:1-3, 14-16

When Moses was about to die he passed the leadership of the young Israeli nation into Joshua’s hands.  Joshua had faithfully followed and served God, assisting Moses during the wilderness wanderings.  But it was time to cross Jordan without Moses, and obey God’s command to conquer and occupy the Promised Land.  Now, years later, Joshua is getting ready to pass along the leadership to another.  As he leaves the people he loved and led, he gives one last vital caution:  Keep serving God, who loves you – resist anything else.

The meaning of that message needs little explanation…except when a nation, obviously blessed by the hand of God, fails to remember what a blessing they’ve received, and begins to act like they can get along without guidance from, and obedience to, the hand from which that blessing came.

Walking with God’s approval means obeying God’s will. 

It doesn’t get simpler than that.

I mused on that late at night on July 4^th as I tried to go to sleep.  The fireworks flashing and sounding off made sleeping somewhat difficult, and the musing led to an inner sense of longing for America to return to serving God.  We have a long way to go on that journey. 

For You Today

Every journey begins with a first step, and God’s people know the right direction to step out.  Standing still will not suffice.

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:  What Kind of Nation Are We? and Why?

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

 

Monday, June 20, 2022

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?  God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.  Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven.  And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.  So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.  But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.  1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Dr. Luther Dorr, my preaching professor in seminary, used to like saying that preaching is foolish enough; it’s the preacher’s goal to not make it any more foolish than God intended. 

Perhaps Dr. Dorr hoped to save us from making the mistake of taking the “power of salvation” out of the preaching event.  Whatever Dr. Dorr’s thinking, the statement underlines this fact:  the powerful message of the Gospel, whether presented with words or deed, is central to God’s plan for our lives, and the best thing a preacher can do is present it, while trying not to get in the way.

The late comedian, George Burns, is quoted as saying, “The secret of a good sermon is having a good beginning and a good ending.  And having them as close together as possible.”

A quick check of John Wesley’s sermons from the late 18^th century reveals that he wrote sermons that were, typically, 5500 words in length.  Those sermons took a good bit more than an hour to preach.  Today’s attention-deprived minds prefer shorter; MUCH shorter.  My average sermon is about 4 typed pages, or 1500 words (less than 1/3 of Wesley’s), taking 20-30 minutes to preach.  Even this is long-ish by some standards.

It gives one pause…

If the foolish/powerful/very long messages of the 18^th century propelled the Wesleyan movement in America, spreading scriptural holiness across the land like a grassfire, what is the Scriptural A.D.D. 10 minute sermon-ette doing to our culture?

Many churches today are being led to embrace the thinking of 21st century culture, rather than pointing the world’s culture to Christ.  Considering Scripture obsolete and the so-called wisdom of the modern mind superior to what God gave as holy, it is no surprise to see the dumbing-down of faith to believe whatever is shiney and new, rather than, as Jude wrote:  the faith once-delivered to the saints.

For You Today

The choice between foolish wisdom and popular culture’s empty choices is always on the table.  If you’ve tried the latter and found it to be a dry well, perhaps it’s time to find living water in the foolishness of the Gospel.

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^©  

Much of this devotion is updated from a post previously published (July 11, 2013)  See HERE

 

Monday, June 6, 2022

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.  

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Up to the time Paul came to Corinth he’d had more than his share of difficulties trying to spread the Gospel of Jesus.  It may be that people weren’t interested in hearing more deep thinking about religion and systematic theology of the hypostatic union of Christ.  Paul decided to leave behind all his theology degrees from seminary days with eminent Jewish scholar Gamaliel, and just let the Gospel truth be heard.  And when he trusted God more than Paul, the power of God was unleashed, and the church exploded in growth and impact.

This is a lesson all preachers need to keep on the front burner.  I’m not trashing theological education; I believe it is vital to the discipline of one’s mind and life to study hard, and be accountable to those who have gone before.  That said, the evolution of a preacher demands more and more of heart than head.

The picture of a little girl trying to fix the earth’s crack with bandaids looks ridiculous to any sane adult.  But to those of us who are less sophisticated, we might see only a big heart holding the bandaids…doing what she can to help.  Frankly, that is sometimes the only requirement God is waiting for to start a revolution.  One heart, simply trusting God, and purposfully beginning, is the deep secret of God’s way, hiding in plain sight.

For You Today

If you’ve got a lot of training about God, or anything else, or you’re clever, or got an IQ around 200, how much of that would you be willing to lay aside to speak the plain truth about who Jesus is, and what He did for us all?  That might just be enough to fix the cracks in today’s church.  Jus’ sayin’.

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^©   

Wakeup Call

 

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

After seven days the Lord gave me a message.  He said, “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel.  Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately.  If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins.  And I will hold you responsible for their deaths.  If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins.  But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.  “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die.  And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins.  None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths.  But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”                Ezekiel 3:16-21

I’m not sure there is anything quite so annoying as the sound of an alarm clock at 5am.  It interrupts dreams, starts the dog barking, and pumps that early morning awareness that the workday beckons, and I’m still tired.  It’s a disturbance of the peace, and I’m not comfortable with that.

Ezekiel was Israel’s early morning alarm clock, the watchman for God’s signal that there was work to do, righteousness that was failing, responsibilities ignored, and the devil to pay for defying God’s holiness.  Ezekiel’s voice may have been the most annoying, irksome, and interfering sound they could hear.  But alarms are not supposed to be comfortable…you don’t want to sleep through it! 

It's impossible to read any of the prophets and not get a little uncomfortable, that is, if you’ve got an ounce of sense in your body.  The message is always disconcerting, particularly for those who have been either fighting God, or trying to ignore Him.  The duty of a prophet/watchman is to be a harbinger of judgment.  Most people don’t want to hear that; they’d rather concentrate on taking that vacation to Disney.  But judgment is at the end of things, just as surely as that sign-then-drive contract at the car dealership means you’ll be paying big time at the end of the month. 

Scripture warns of such, both death, and God’s judgment following death:

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, Hebrews 9:27

For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.  2 Corinthians 5:10

But the sound of voices like Ezekiel, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the others, can also be reassuring.  The reminder of judgment also signals the lovingkindness of God, His forgiveness just waiting for us to return to Him.  As a promise, this rates better than five-stars on a hotel at Disney or the Riviera – it’s a pathway right to the throne room in Heaven.

For You Today

The next time your pastor preaches on either judgment or Heaven, remember that BOTH are always present.  If you want one, and not the other, the choice is always available.

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^©