Drinking From the ROCK

 

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago.  All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground.  In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses.  All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water.  For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.  

1 Corinthians 10:1-3

In Exodus[1] we read the story of God’s children out in the dessert, thirsty and with no water in sight.  Their complaints were against Moses, but reached God in Heaven, and the Lord instructed Moses to strike a rock.  In answer to Moses’ stick hitting the rock, God provided a gushing fountain in the middle of a wasteland.

That moment was a harbinger of things to come…a symbol of God’s providence, miracle after miracle, until His promises all unfolded two thousand years later, at a cross on the town garbage dump, and a borrowed, but barely-used tomb. 

I have a memory (and a photo buried somewhere in thousands of old pictures) of a visit my family made to The Dessert of Maine in the 1950’s.  One would not expect to find a slice of the Sahara in New England; the Tuttle family didn’t either.  They bought that small farm in 1821, and the family abandoned it in 1890[2] because, lacking understanding of sustainable farming depleted the soil, and the underlying sand basically rose-up to cover whatever was left of their orchard.  The treetops are covered by the sand to this day.  The photo was of me, ten-years-old, lying on that sand, tongue hanging-out, watching my handful of sand fall through my fingers.  It was (and remains) my mind’s image of what it’s like to die of thirst.

There are many things necessary to human life, but food, water, and breathing are the most critical.  Wastelands are places where life has lost its way.  And the metaphor of a dessert as choosing a sinful, rebellious lifestyle is a precise descriptive of what Israel chose in the wilderness…dying of thirst for spiritual life.  They were angry at Moses, angry at God, and unable to see how parched their souls had become. 

It was going to be a long 40 years in that dessert!

For You Today 

Providing an unending water source, more than the former slaves could drink, bathe-in, or irrigate a thousand generations of corn fields, was just the beginning of seeing the gracious hand of God give all humanity the greatest of gifts, the salvation of souls.  Those Israelites drank from the rock, and He’s still giving living water today.

So, are you thirsty?

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:  Following the Truth  or  The Rock of Our Salvation       

Title Image: via Pixabay.com    Images without citation are in public domain.

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

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[1] Exodus 17:1-5

[2] Read about the Dessert of Maine

Of Pillars and Fence Posts

Thursday, February 2, 2023

But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”  Romans 10:21

This is one of those OUCH verses for those who think of themselves as a pillar of the church.  Israel was God’s special, chosen, dearly-loved bunch.  Along the way, disobedience and rebelliousness became their norm.  God’s arms were wide-open to them and all the world, but stubbornness (read that:  human nature) kept God at a distance, while Israel did what Israel wanted to do.

I have been that (and don’t you look so spiritual on me…you have too!).

This was brought home to me in a word picture decades ago when we lived in Florida.  I passed a small farm on the way to the church each day.  The owner had built a three-rail fence around a pasture.  I suppose he didn’t have an end post on one side, so he attached the three rails to a tree.  Over time the tree had grown, separating the three rails. 

The results of this project were unmistakable.  The living tree flourished, while the three dead rails cracked and splintered.  The fence became useless to the purpose for which it was constructed, keeping cows in the pasture.

It’s not difficult to get a handle on the point here:

You never attach something living to something dead!

For You Today  

Pillars of the church can become dead fence posts, toxic to the church.

When serving ends, and ownership takes its place, the living organism (the body of Christ) can become an organization (the business of human preferences).  Our God is a living, very active, sovereign God.  And the church is His.  The moment we begin to hold-on to anything (as if it belonged to our better ideas), pillars-turned-fence-post are headed for an unpleasant experience. 

When you get rebellious towards God’s ways, it isn’t God who loses that struggle!

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

When Darkness Takes Over  and  No. Other. God. 

This is an updated version of “So Much Anger” published on Rocky Road Devotions January 16, 2014

Images:  Title via Wikimedia.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

When Stubborn and Rebellious Meets Immovable and Faithful

[i][ii]

Monday, March 18, 2019

The Lord said to Moses, “Get going, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt.  Go up to the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  I told them, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’  And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.  Go up to this land that flows with milk and honey.  But I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn and rebellious people.  If I did, I would surely destroy you along the way.”  When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes.  For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are a stubborn and rebellious people.  If I were to travel with you for even a moment, I would destroy you.  Remove your jewelry and fine clothes while I decide what to do with you.”  So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewelry or fine clothes.  Exodus 33:1-6

It was a simple thing; the zipper on my jacket wouldn’t cooperate, and I was late for the school bus that would take me to my first-grade class.  Mom started to help me zip-up, and I yanked the zipper out of her hand – NO! said the brat with all his superior 6-year-old wisdom, I’ll do it!  It’s almost like there’s a merit badge for always being self-sufficient and claiming to have accomplished life by yourself.  It’s like that with politics, family, relationships and matters of faith…we seem to learn the hard way, proving there are much fewer geniuses than we imagined.

Israel was helpless, enslaved for 400 years in Egypt.  God sent Moses to announce the captivity was at an end.  Pharaoh eventually capitulated and let the people go.  Slaves became free, and they imagined that meant they were in charge of the universe.  But that was a cardinal error; the brat-nation had much to learn. Stubborn and Rebellious Israel had met Immovable and Faithful God.

There’s that old saying, what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object.  The problem with applying that to a relationship with God is there’s nothing that is irresistible when compared with immovable God.  It’s much more that we, the created beings of God’s hands, are fragile, housed in temporary bodies with imperfect and limited knowledge.  When it comes to a contest with humans vs. Yahweh, we are more like the local nursing home residents’ football team going up against the New England Patriots in a Not-So-Super-Bowl…it won’t be pretty!

God, in His infinite wisdom, kept a safe distance (for Israel) from Israel.  They needed that space to find out just how dependent they were on their God.  Rebelliousness and stubborn ways need to experience stubbing toes and falling-down.  It’s how we learn to walk.

People who have suffered a stroke, or been in a coma, learn this lesson in a heartbeat.  When they wake-up they realize there are things that must be learned all over again.  Simple things, like how to pick up a ball, or say a simple word they’d used a million times. 

It is this way with the stubborn rebelliousness with which we convince ourselves we can make it just fine without our Creator.  Baby steps, all over again!

For You Today

If you want a tested, reliable, immovable and faithful path to spiritual liberty and life, let Scripture have the last word today and every day:

For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.  Remember what it says:  “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”            Hebrews 3:14-15

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

Go to VIDEO

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Of Fence Posts and Pillars

But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.” Romans 10:21 (NLT)____________________________________________________

This is one of those "OUCH" verses for those who think of themselves as a "pillar of the church".  Israel was God's special, chosen, dearly-loved bunch.  Along the way disobedience and rebelliousness became their norm.  God's arms were wide open to them and all the world, but stubbornness (read that:  human nature) kept God at a distance while Israel did what Israel wanted to do.

I've been that (and don't look so spiritual on me...you have too)!

This was brought home to me in a word picture a couple of decades ago when we lived in Florida.  I passed a small farm on the way to the church each day.  The owner had built a three-rail fence around a pasture.  Lacking an end post on one side, the farmer had attached the three rails to a palm tree.  Over time the palm tree had grown, separating the three rails.  The living tree flourished while the dead three rails cracked and splintered.  The fence became useless!  Point - You never attach something living to something dead!

Pillars (of the church) can become dead fence posts (obstructions) in the church, when serving ends and ownership takes its place.  God is living and very active; when we begin to hold-on to anything with a kind of death grip "pillars-turned-fence post" are known for, well, let's say, it is always God who wins.  It's much better to "let Go...and let God".