Never Ending

Thursday, August 10, 2023

Today’s post is a message of hope written by Anna Murdock.

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?  Seven times?”  “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”  Matthew 18:21-22

I saw an older man

dressed in torn and dirty clothes.

He was in need of a shave

and surely a hot shower

would have felt good to him.

This man, walking along my route,

was mumbling to himself

and counting his fingers –

touching each finger to his thumb;

   first the right hand -

   one, two, three, four …

   then his left hand -

   one, two, three, four …

   then back to his right hand -

   one, two, three, four.

And so it went,

on and on

and on and on.

The counting seemed

to never end …

   from right hand to left,

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger.

What was so important

to this man of the streets?

What words were needing

to come out and be spoken?

Was he just “another one of those”

who mumbled quietly

as they walked along

the roads of our lives?

As I continued my drive to work,

weary from the day before,

angry from two days before,

feeling very alone

from the week so far,

I too began to mumble

and count the ways

   to weariness,

   to anger,

   to aloneness.

How many times

am I to forgive

(both myself and others)?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

How many times and ways

are the words “Be not afraid”

whispered, written,

        shouted to all who fear …

               (and don’t we all fear)?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

And what about God’s Love?

How many times is this Love

   seen, felt, whispered,

    promised, given, and received?

From right hand to left,

from left hand to right,

and back to the right hand

again…

   from finger to finger

   to finger to finger …

   the counting seems

   to never end.

If this man is “one of those”,

who mumble and count,

then I am one as well …

one of those

who cannot fathom

  such forgiveness,

  such assurance,

  such Love ...

  for it is all

NEVER-ENDING.

                                      ©2011 anna murdock

For You Today 

Our last word today is how my friend Anna introduced this image…of us…

Jesus says, "Seventy-seven times. It is never-ending...this forgiveness."  May we see no end to forgiveness, no end to God's assurance, and no end to the Great Love that binds us together.  May the One who is without limits send us out to share this 'never-ending' good news with others.  This is the community of faith that we are called to be.

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 Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:    ©2011 Anna Murdock original work

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

Faith Seasoned Wisdom

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Then Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother, Esau, who was living in the region of Seir in the land of Edom.  He told them, “Give this message to my master Esau: ‘Humble greetings from your servant Jacob.  Until now I have been living with Uncle Laban, and now I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, and many servants, both men and women.  I have sent these messengers to inform my lord of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to me.’”  After delivering the message, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We met your brother, Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you—with an army of 400 men!”  Jacob was terrified at the news.  He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups.  He thought, “If Esau meets one group and attacks it, perhaps the other group can escape.”  Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac—O Lord, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’  I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant.  When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps!  O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau.  I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children.  But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’”  Genesis 32:3-12

To learn from your mistakes is the essential quality of wisdom.  To apply faith to wisdom is to serve God above all.  Jacob had a rocky, selfish start to life.  It started in his mother’s womb, when he and his twin brother, Esau, had a daily wrestling match.  As they were born, Esau was first out, but Jacob was hot on his heels, actually grabbing his brother’s foot.  It was sibling rivalry with the first breath.

The story of their lives in their father Isaac’s home was contentious, to say the least.  Jacob’s selfish behavior divided his mother and dad, and made an enemy of his twin brother.  Esau was so angry with his brother’s treacherous ways, Jacob had to leave home and go live with their uncle Laban at a safe distance.  Esau swore he’d kill his twin if ever they met again.

Fast forward twenty years…Jacob is much wiser, and is on his way home to reconcile with his family.  He has no clue as to Esau’s mindset…will his brother make good on his vengeance threat?  Will it end in calamity?  Jacob is wise at this point, dividing his wives and children into two camps, hoping to minimize losses of life and property, if Esau is still bent on Jacob’s death.  But a new dimension has foraged its’ way into Jacob’s life and thinking – faith!  The night before he was to face Esau, he met face-to-face with God’s angel, and the outcome was Jacob’s commitment to serve God, and live by faith, even if it meant giving up everything he'd gained, or even his own life. 

What Jacob had learned was what Jesus told Peter hundreds of years later – swords, be they steel or the treachery of human selfishness, may work for awhile, but they have little place in the heart of God.  It is faith that wins.[1] 

Seasoning the wisdom of learned mistakes and rocky roads, with faith God has given, is the mark of a life changed and usable in God’s Kingdom.  It took Jacob decades of hard lessons to shed his clever ways in favor of God’s clear kindness…the deep faith of the unashamed!

For You Today 

This world will afford you many opportunities to follow both Esau and Jacob’s early mistakes and sins…greed, treachery, revenge, and power.  In the end, those things only produce pain and regret, whether you wind up in jail, or residing in a mansion.  It’s all loss in Heaven’s record books.  The other, wiser choice is to season whatever you have learned with faith to do what the prophet Micah wrote:  do what is right, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

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 Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons 

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

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[1] See John 18:10-11

Blindsided by Love

[1]

Thursday, December 13, 2018

With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!  In that wonderful day you will sing:  “Thank the Lord!  Praise his name!  Tell the nations what he has done.  Let them know how mighty he is!  Isaiah 12:3-4(NLT)

You know what it means to be blindsided; something happens that surprises you in such a way you can’t believe you never saw it coming.  It could have been bad, like the knee on the football field that put me on an operating table in 1963.  It could be good, like a gift you got, and it wasn’t even your birthday or Christmas.  Stuff comes from the blind side…you never suspect it, until it hits.

I get blindsided a lot. 

There was that time when that new girl showed up on the first day of school.  She walked right past me and I felt like one of those cartoon characters whose jaw literally drops to the floor.  That was 53 years ago, and I still remember the blindside storm of feelings – wow! – huh? – who? – uhm… Hey…anybody know who that is?  That was 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grands ago!  She still turns my head!

In the bad-blindside department about 10 years ago I was headed to church on a bright, sunny morning.  Coming around that sharp curve in the road I saw the stopped car a little too late to do anything but drive right into the ditch.  Distracted and blindsided!

Some blindsides are Christmas and birthday all rolled into one moment; some are the kind where you want to whine:  can-we-start-this-day-over?  

Blindsides can be good or bad, but there is something common to both varieties:  you will tell about them!  It’s human nature that we can’t help talking about those life-events big-enough to qualify as blindsides.  When your life has been rearranged, you will rejoice, moan, celebrate, ruminate, cogitate, think about, regret, and probably do what a hundred other descriptive phrases might fit…but one thing is true…you will not keep it to yourself.  Some things are just too good (or bad) to stay silent!

And that brings me to the mailbox yesterday afternoon.  The mail carrier made it to Brownworth house for the first time since the snow started Saturday.  And there was that envelope from Treasury Services, a letter from the Bishop with a check for $268.80, on behalf of Duke Endowment.  So many years ago, James B. Duke had a passionate drive to make sure pensioned preachers were taken care of, that he endowed a Christmas gift to be shared with Methodist clergy each year.  I’ve been officially-retired for 7 years, and each year I get blindsided by this event.  A man I never met, set up a recurring blindside each Advent season to lift my day, and lighten my load.  He shared his fortune (literally) with people he’d never met, nor would ever meet.

That stewardship mindset of James Duke is a constant reminder for me of Isaiah’s fountain of salvation.  Another man none of us has ever met in the flesh set up the mother of all blindsides.  And he did it in the most unlikely way – no legal papers, trusts, corporate divestments or dividend schemes; Jesus simply took our place on a cross.  What he left in our mailboxes was a check far greater than even Mr. Duke could write; it was the PAID-IN-FULL promise of forgiveness.  His blood signature opened the wealth of heaven’s welcome to my soul.  And a simple prayer of repentance cashes that check and cleans our hearts of every obstacle that stands between us and God.

Now, THAT’S a blindside worth telling about!

For You Today

If you’ve been blindsided by the love gift God sent through Jesus Christ, don’t keep that news to yourself. 

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

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[1] Title Image:  Russell Brownworth

No Place Before God - Part 2

[1]

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

VIDEO

One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry.  Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved!  Give me some of that red stew!”  (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)  “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”  “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”  But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.”  So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.  Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew.  Esau ate the meal, then got up and left.  He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.

Genesis 25:29-34^(NLT)

Esau didn't have a care in the world, as long as God didn't call for an accounting.  Four teenage boys decided to skip school.  There was this math test, you see, so they went swimming.  But around noon they got to worrying, so they decided to head for the schoolhouse.  When they arrived they walked in together and told the teacher that they were sorry they were late and missed their test, but they'd had a flat.  She accepted their explanation and told them they could take a make-up.  She placed them separately in the four corners of the room and said:  Your test only has one question; which tire was flat?  Many people, like Esau, imagine that there will never be a final exam...the one with the single question, what did you do with Jesus?    

At this point in his life Jacob was not a great example, but he at least valued the birthright.  Esau's priority was filling his stomach, as opposed to honoring the God who had a prior claim on his life.  He came in from the field "famished" (25:29).

Esau gave in, caved in!  What good is all this religious stuff, when I'm starved?  Is that not a type of today’s culture of pleasure-seeking?  Dulled by the effects of booze, drugs and the unending quest for higher highs and ultimate nights out, so many people today who, like Esau, were born into the right family, and raised with the birthright of worshiping Almighty God, have tuned-out on God, tanked-up on stuff, and totaled-out their spiritual birthright. 

And they don't even care!  Note how Esau ate-up, drank-up, and moved-out.  That about sums up the importance he placed on the spiritual side of life.  I doubt he even stopped to ask a blessing on that pot of stew.  It isn't much wonder that God placed the trust of spiritual heritage for the family in Jacob’s hands.  His motives needed a huge overhaul, but at least HE was interested in God.

Have you ever noticed how earlier choices have eventual (and eternal) consequences?  Esau had demonstrated no aptitude or appetite for spiritual things.  Leadership in the development of the covenant God had established with Abraham meant that the head of God's chosen people could not be someone who didn't care about spiritual things.  Esau, given a choice, always opted for present gratification over precious glory.  He wanted it his way, and he wanted it now! 

Esau later (chapter 27) began to experience the regret and result of loss.  With the birthright gone, the rightful place of the eldest became Jacob's possession.  Christians give up so much when they do not live like they are inheriting what Jesus said would be theirs.  So often you see people entering middle-life, realizing that the foolishness of precious time they wasted earlier has stolen God's best right out of their hand. 

It isn't any wonder we have "mid-life crisis".  Would it not create a panic to suddenly realize that there was a wonderful plan God had for you, and you have despised it like Esau?  Shakespeare's Marc Antony followed his slavish impulses time and again back to Egypt and Cleopatra.  And while his attention was on his base instincts, Octavius stole an empire and its glory.  How many of us lose the blessing because we would foolishly choose the things of this world?

For You Today

If you’ve been an Esau and you’re kind of waking up to how much you’ve messed it up, you’re still breathing, so it isn’t too late to turn around and be a blessing in God’s kingdom.

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

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[1] Title Image:  By Bertram of Minden, via Wikimedia Commons

Regret

Monday, February 10, 2014

The Hebrews writer labeled Esau "immoral and godless".  To be immoral is to go against acceptable standards of ethical behavior in a culture.  Esau did this in his family, despising his father by treating his birthright lightly.  In that culture respect for one's responsibility to be the firstborn leader, to take over the family "business," was the oldest son's chief avenue to honor one's heritage.  But Esau didn't care!

The second word used to define Esau's behavior is "godless", which means you live as if there is no god; there is no one but yourself to acknowledge as having any claim on your life.  Esau treated his responsibility for spiritual leadership as “optional”.  If it was convenient he might choose to cooperate; if difficult, something to be discarded.

When he returned from a hunting trip, tired and hungry his brother Jacob was cooking up a feast.  “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?” ^{(Genesis 25:32 NLT)}  

We make much of Jacob's deception, stealing the birthright from his brother in a weakened condition.  But Esau's despising his God-given birthright for a plate of red beans and rice just showed just how godless he'd become.

It is so true that impulsive decisions are later regretted.  In the case of Esau he eventually "got it" that he'd sold his chance to respect God and take responsibility for being God’s man in his community.  By then he could not undo what he'd done, even with great weeping at his father’s bedside.

Today

You may be languishing in regret over past indiscretions or downright godlessness and immorality.  And there is nothing you CAN do to change one bit of history.  But if you read on in Genesis you'll find that Esau changed.  

And that means there’s hope.

It took twenty years in God’s “woodshed of correction” for the brothers to sort out their pathways and be reunited.  In that time Esau had become a godly man and a respected community leader.  Jacob had learned a thing or two about God’s priorities too.  Don’t forget, for every Esau who takes a couple decades to find his way, there’s a Jacob who has his own lessons to learn.  God’s timing is best.  Always!

If you've blown-it, you can't undo what you've done; you can, however trust God and begin to acknowledge Him as Lord over your life.  You can begin to take responsibility for spiritual leadership by being obedient to God’s ways.  That’s what Esau did.  

Can you trust God with that?  Your “Jacob” may need that to come home.

Title Photo:  http://blog.peoplefinders.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/regret.jpg