Rocky Road Devotions: Psalm 51

Thursday, June 29, 2023

Searching for JOY - Part 5

Thursday, June 29, 2023

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart . You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. Philippians 1:6-7

Being assured of some things in life is a necessity. Without a certain amount of confidence you cannot function like God intended. What are you absolutely certain about? Death and taxes? Government corruption? Long Sunday sermons?

What really important things are you certain about? You know, stuff that will still matter a hundred years from now. Paul was convinced about salvation.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

Are you that certain of heaven? If you are, let me remind you that heaven is a place better than any other – and it's yours! Listen, if that doesn't produce genuine joy in your soul, your joy bone is broken!

There's a certain joy about participating together in kingdom work. There is a camaraderie that develops when people work together. Now, there’s no doubt that you can certainly experience cooperative spirit and a family atmosphere in your job, civic work, or helping a neighbor. But, there is nothing better than kingdom work, sharing in God's vineyard. The reason is that we not only participate together, we participate together in the grace of God.

This letter to the Philippians:

· is a call to the community of faith (away from our isolation);

· it is a call to self-denying serving (away from our selfish ways);

· it is a call to standing for Christ-likeness and Godly living (despite today's pluralistic trends)…

· it is a call to respect and cooperation between men and women of God, and all persons – a partnership in the gospel.

· and it is, thankfully, a call away from Mudville – a place of no joy, into the matchless joy of the Kingdom of God.

And there we would find our purpose, our peace, our prayers in partnership, our persuasion, our participation in the gospel, and our joy ...real joy!

For You Today

Let’s end our time today with a prayer:

Father, often we are so flat and joyless. That’s so different than what Jesus told his first disciples…that he had come and shared with them so that his joy would be in them, and their joy would be complete.

Jesus, talk to us like that; place your joy in us – fill us so that it’s bubbling-up from within, and running all over anybody we meet.

We pray in the Name of the Father, Because of the Son, Cooperating with the Spirit…Amen!

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

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

Friday, January 15, 2021

The Awful Grace of God

Friday, January 15, 202 1

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. Psalm 139:16

Aeschylus, an ancient Greek playwright wrote: “The memory of pain falls drop by drop upon our heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”[1]

As a young person, if there was one place I never expected to look for wisdom, it was in the face of pain. But Aeschylus had it right – unbidden, pain comes to us anyway, and it is our most dramatic and (sadly) our most profound teacher.

One important gleaning from pain-induced wisdom, however, is the fact that you will not hear wisdom, or sense it is even in the room when a person is in the middle of pain. Anguished cries and incoherent, incomprehensible utterances of those who are overwhelmed by loss do not display wisdom – they display human agony. Wisdom comes later, upon reflection.

As with Aeschylus, it is the memory of our pain, long-since subsided, that sparks the light of God’s grace on our souls. I would add that it is the well, and honestly-considered memory that allows the dawning of wisdom.

When pain is compartmentalized, stuffed-away in a dark corner of our being, unfaced, and unprocessed, for fear of hurting deeper than our supposed coping resources, it invites the fragmenting of our soul and spirit. We can become spiritual zombies, only a façade of the aliveness of resurrection people.

The result of unprocessed or ignored pain is a large map of destinations. Among the most fearsome is the sociopath, that monster which feels nothing for others, or even himself. The grace of God is the antidote for this road trip. In an awe-filled way, the grace of God invites us to face our pain and overcome the monster waiting to be born in us.

Our country is at that type of crossroads today. In our pain of lost elections, riots, COVID-19 deaths, and the angst of an uncertain future, we would, frankly, rather go on vacation, and not deal with the mess. It’s tempting to apply temporary solutions to such pain. I am a subscriber to the old standby that there are few problems that will not be better when you take a break. Things always seem less problematic after a good nap.

But this is not one of those times.

We are in the midst of national crisis of mega proportion. Many have adopted the simplistic notion that, if this leader or that one is in charge, our problems will go away. The lines in the sand between parties of different methodology and ideology have been drawn deeply and (at times) violently. I think it would be accurate to compare this time in our country’s history, fresh from last week’s insurrectionist attack on the Capitol building and Congress by domestic terrorists, to that of the mid-19^th century, the prologue to Civil War.

This is a time to face our problems, and the pain we all would rather avoid.

Facing those problems is not for the debaters who have all the answers and want to push their agenda. It is not for the faint of heart who will just do a lot of hand-wringing and vent their disdain for what ails us. Facing the problems is a matter for what history teaches us in the likes of men such as King David, who, when confronted with his own shortfall of character, confessed, and was restored.[2] Or men like Nehemiah, who put his life on the line and offered to go help rebuild Jerusalem.[3] Or women like Esther whose people were on the verge of annihilation and she accepted the fact that she was born for such a time.[4]

The Scriptures are filled with those who stood firm in the flames of opposition and threat. For us it can be no different. If God’s people will not pray and be ready for serving as balm for the wounds of mankind’s madness, this country, or the human species doesn’t stand a chance.

For You Today

Standing firm does not mean turning on anyone. Wisdom borne of pain has taught us by the awful grace of God just the opposite. It means standing true to what Christ has taught us about pain; we bear our brother’s burdens like ours was borne at Calvary.

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