Facts...Questions...Answer

Friday, September 15, 2023

When the Israelites escaped from Egypt—when the family of Jacob left that foreign land—the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel became his kingdom.  

    The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way! 

    The water of the Jordan River turned away.  

    The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs!
        What’s wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way? 

        What happened, Jordan River, that you turned away?
        Why, mountains, did you skip like rams?  Why, hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.  He turned the rock into a pool of water; yes, a spring of water flowed from solid rock.  Psalm 114:1-8

Every kid whose eyes were glued to a black-and-white 11” TV screen in the 1950’s knew if you wanted to solve a murder mystery, Dragnet’s Sergeant Joe Friday was your guy!  The police were called, and Sgt Friday showed up to investigate.  The dialogue always included his no-nonsense, deadpan, direct approach; he didn’t want anything but the truth.  He would cut through speculation and side-issues with his piercing eyes and flatly require:  Just the facts, ma’am!

Had I paid more attention to Joe Friday’s relentless pursuit of truth, I would have figured-out Psalm 114 a lot sooner.  I’ve read it many times, but missed the main flow of God’s truth until it thundered in my ears in this morning’s dark, early hours.  There are facts, followed by questions, and only one answer.

The Psalmist states the facts about when Israel made her exodus from Egyptian bondage:

   …the Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of the way to let them pass.

   …the Jordan River felt the first steps of the marching band and turned aside.

   …the mountains and hills skipped for joy like playful rams and lambs.

Then he asked why all the hurrying, turning, and skipping for joy?  All those facts, and all those questions (and many more throughout history), but only one answer:  The Presence of the Lord, God who does the unexpected, unimaginable, and totally-documented undeniable.

This was Israel’s history on a platter for us all to digest…the God who is unseen to human eyes, but ever-present for anyone with an open and reverent heart to see, know, and love, is He who makes the hills cry-out in praise, like animals skipping for joy, and the water going where He directs.

For You Today 

It’s one thing to do a bunch of stuff for people in ancient history; it’s a totally different matter when what He does is for every person in every era, age, or circumstance.  And it was more wonderful than making the hills and mountains scurry, or splashing the waters around; God dressed himself in mortal flesh and died for our sins.  And then he kicked the tomb-door open and proclaimed that we can do the same.  That, as Joe Friday would say, is an open and shut case!

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. 

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

Still There

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Thursday, May 31, 2018

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!   Psalm 139:13-18^(NLT)

There are those times I go through some pretty wide sweeps of thought ranging from the pit to pinnacle.  If you’re an introvert you do a lot of reflecting in the quiet times like now; the sun isn’t quite up, and Wellie and Gracie (the dogs who own us) haven’t yet demanded to be fed.  It’s quiet; I can think.

In these early-hour moments I keep the sense of awe that King David expresses in this Psalm.  It’s that the hand which knit me together in my mother’s womb, and the divine eyes that scrutinized the assembling of every molecule as I came together, before I had a single awakening thought or sensation of the sun on my face – THAT God, knows every complexity that makes me a soul.  I am, from the DNA in my bloodstream, to the flesh, bone, sinew and impulses of my brain, soul and spirit, a constant evidence of God’s loving care. 

He thinks about me!  And would that be a strange idea, considering I have as many moving parts as it takes to do anything at all?  There are billions of cells which form Russell, all working together under the supervision of God’s creative hand.

There is a theory I first heard in seminary years ago about the beginnings of the universe, and God’s involvement, if (according to this theory) there is a God at all.  God, if he ever existed, created the universe like a master clockmaker puts together a timepiece.  He wound it up, and left it to run; God never tinkers with it…it’s up to us to make sense of the time of day, and what to do about all we encounter.  We are in charge; there’s nothing else.

Now, a theory like that is espoused by those who fear that there really might be a God Who is involved in the affairs of humankind, but is more afraid to finally deny God altogether…just in case!  So he comes up with a theory that allows God a “hand” in getting things started, but doesn’t really care about us.  It’s a way of gaining a degree of separation from a holy-Creator God by obscurring the line between moral behavior with its’ accountability, as opposed to doing what we want without guilt.  No matter how you explain it, we have to call it what it is – rebellion; we are made in God’s image, but we are definitely children of Adam.

All of that to say this:  as King David said, when I wake up, You are still with me!

The sun’s about up now, and with the light of dawn, my billions of cells, random thoughts, desires, plans, relationships, joys and sorrows all stand amazed in the reality that God still thinks about me, hopes for me, cares for and loves me…enough, certainly to have assembled me in the latter days of 1946 in my mother’s womb; and even more certainly, with his hands-on providence and presence today.

He’s still There!

For You Today

Take a walk through all you are today; check out the mud of your existence, along with the wind in your face as you’ve soared at times.  Even while you’re feeding the dog, He’s still there.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Lenten Walk - Part 13

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Monday, March 5, 2018

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.  With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.  Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!  What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises.                      Interlude

What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs.  The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.  They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.  O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer.  Listen, O God of Jacob.                                                Interlude

O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield!  Show favor to the one you have anointed.  A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!  I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.  For the Lord God is our sun and our shield.  He gives us grace and glory.  The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.  O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.  Psalm 84:1-12^(NLT)

The city of Jerusalem is certainly Scripture’s central focus of history.  And God’s house, the Temple, is the ultimate center; it is the place where God was rejected.  The Apostle John recorded that very fact:

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.  He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.  John 1:10-11^(NLT)

This seven weeks of Lent certainly focuses in on that rejection of the Man of Sorrows, the one who would die for our sins just outside the Holy City of Jerusalem on Golgotha’s hill.  But according to many of the Bible’s prophecies Jerusalem is also the place where Jesus will someday return and once again call the place home. 

For the serious student of Scripture, this is the over-arching atmosphere of all the law, prophets, poetry, history, and Gospel we read in God’s Holy Book.  In this book we experience a dense cloud of imminence, an expectancy that it will happen, must happen, and could happen at any moment.  A trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will rise, and those who are alive will be caught up in a moment to a reunion to beat all homecomings![2]

With this as a backdrop – that all of history and humankind’s experience has a purpose – that one day we will be together in eternal joy and fellowship with our God – it is no wonder the Psalmist gushes forth his love for the place of God:

A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!  Psalm 84:10^(NLT)

I sometimes mull over how that is hardly the case in most churches.  We call it God’s house, and we worship, and we proclaim a lot of stuff…and then we go out to eat, and go on home to prepare for the real life of going back to work or school on Monday. 

And yet, there are times…times when the presence of God makes the church house HIS house!  And the place becomes a thin place between heaven and earth, and the worship becomes all about Jesus, and it really is better for those few moments in that place, no matter how big or small, crowded or sparse, denominational or independent, it is better than thousands of years anywhere else.

For You Today

Largely, the difference between the ho-hum ritual-rut that is the usual experience of many churches on any given Sunday, and the on-fire breakthrough of God’s holy presence is whether there is an eagerness for God’s house in the heart of the people.  How did it go in your church yesterday?  And how was your heart when you walked through the door?

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] See 1 Corinthians 15

Face to Face

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Monday, March 20, 2017

I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to do it with paper and ink.  For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face.  Then our joy will be complete.  2 John 12^(NLT)

John, the beloved apostle, writes to people he knows, but hasn’t seen lately.  He wants them to know how much he cares, but caring can only go so far in-absentia.  He wants to see them face-to-face.  John wants to look in their eyes, take-in their body language, and hear the inflection in their speech. 

He writes of joy being “complete”.  He certainly doesn’t mean that joy will come to an end.  Rather John uses a word that suggests fullness, as in a hollow space filled with something[ii].  It’s the picture of a fishing net, stuffed full like you’ve never seen it before.  John is talking about joy overflowing.  He knows pen and ink are not up to that task; for that kind of joy you need embraces, eyeball-to-eyeball sincerity and the kiss of friendship up close and personal!

Now, I don’t miss the irony of what I have just written; this page can only be read, and my voice you hear over the internet is disembodied.  We are not face-to-face – at least physically!

You feel that void in many instances.  If you have a child away at school you can’t wait for spring break until he’s home.  A loved family member or close neighbor who has moved across the country keeps “Ma Bell” in business with long distance charges. 

There is one place, however, where the lack of John’s face-to-face is alleviated, and that is the connection in Christ.  I was talking with a friend yesterday about the connectional nature of the United Methodist Church compared to some other models of denominational life.  I see the value of extra steps Bishops and District Superintendents take in this system to ensure the face-to-face support clergy receive, and can offer.  It is also offered to laity.  I won’t go so far as to say we do it better than anyone, but it is better than what I have experienced in other settings.

All of that to say John knew what he was talking about when he expressed the desire to put down his pen and go see his people face-to-face; there’s no substitute for the presence of Christ drawing followers of Christ into the joy of Christ!  And, some day, we will be in his presence entirely…face-to-face!

For You Today

Can’t talk more now…got to go see some folks…face-to-face!

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

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NOTES

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Title image: By Mikhail Gorbunov, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, Third ed., © 2003