When the Tie That Binds Becomes the Knot That Blinds

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Thursday, January 31, 2019

Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.  The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too.  For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God.  Then Peter asked, “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?”  So, he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.                    Acts 10:44-48(NLT)

I have wonderful memories of church services that so vividly proclaimed the mystery that is God’s church, when, as one in the bond of love, we joined hands and sang Blest Be the Tie That Binds.  I also have a few nightmares that mark the times when it was more like Cursed Be the Knot That Blinds.    

It’s been a couple of thousand years since Jesus built His church, starting with just two beams of wood.  Over that long a time it’s a little too easy to forget the struggle with which the birth took place.  We forget such things as the passion of Christ during that holy week of Hosannas with palm branches, as well as the Horror of crucifixion.  It’s no wonder Jesus gave that Last Meal image to us and told us never to forget it was His body, and His blood that purchased our freedom.  We also tend to have the memory of power struggles fade out, becoming an indeterminate mist, a shaded spot that we just don’t talk about. 

One of those shaded, easily-discarded misty memories is the reality that the Church of Jesus Christ was originally a sect of Judaism.  Lest we forget, Jesus was a Jew, and those 12 who followed him around were also Jews.  And when that early church of Apostles, persecution, wonder and miracles was faced with accepting the Goyim (Gentiles), into the club, the tie that binds got a little tangled.  The tie of God’s salvation which binds us to Heaven quickly became the knot that blinds human eyes to the dangers of Hell.

In the months and years after Jesus was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to Heaven, the church had to face whether Jesus’ words come unto me…ALL, really meant those not born into a Jewish family too.

Back then it was what family heritage you had; later it was what part of the world; much later it became whether you had enough money to buy the dead church’s indulgence for sin.  In the last few centuries the color of skin, or just how far you’ve wandered into sin has been a sticking point.  Today the church and gender/sexuality issues are the forks in the road.

Standing against all that human division is that one misty, but ultimately rock-solid truth of Jesus’ high priestly prayer that we be united, not un-tied:

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.                           John 17:21(NLT)

As those words hang in the air, they both convict us of the division of our times, and they call us to come out of spiritual blindness; to be united by being untied from our selfishness – and be better.

For You Today

Just like the choice Adam and Eve had to receive and trust God’s way, over what looked like it was a good deal, we also have the choice to be obedient disciples or renegade.  It’s like having an alphabet at your disposal with the letters u-n-i-t-e-d. 

Those letters can spell

UNITED

or

UNTIED;

It all depends on where you put the “I”.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

Forgetting to Remember - Part 2

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Friday, January 12, 2018

Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers.  Yet Israel did not listen to the judges but prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods.  How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commands.  Whenever the Lord raised up a judge over Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime.  For the Lord took pity on his people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering.  But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them.  They went after other gods, serving and worshiping them.  And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.  So the Lord burned with anger against Israel.  He said, “Because these people have violated my covenant, which I made with their ancestors, and have ignored my commands, I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.  I did this to test Israel—to see whether or not they would follow the ways of the Lord as their ancestors did.”  That is why the Lord left those nations in place.  He did not quickly drive them out or allow Joshua to conquer them all.  

Judges 2:16-23^(NLT)

A ten year old boy checked out the Baptist churches and was really impressed when he saw, for the first time, a baptism by immersion.  He was greatly interested in it, and the next morning proceeded to baptize the family’s three cats in the bathtub.   The kitten bore it very well, and so did the young cat, but the old family cat was a rebel; it struggled with the boy, clawed and scratched at him, and finally got away.  With considerable effort he caught it again and proceeded with the ceremony. 

But she acted worse than ever, tore at him, spit, and scratched his hands and face.  This was not going as well as the worship service down at the Baptist Church.  Finally, after barely getting her fur splattered with water, the budding evangelist let go of the ornery old cat.  As she ran away he hollered in disgust:  "Fine…BE a Methodist." 

Every time I read God’s account of the human family (us) in Scripture (and it is US even though we try to distance ourselves and say it was THEM)…I have that baptizing a cat image…stubborn, stubborn, and stubborn! 

But the verse that really grabs me in this particular passage is:

But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them.  They went after other gods, serving and worshiping them.  And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.  Judges 2:19^(NLT)

Every time God put a leader in front of the people, a leader that had the sense to point God’s people to the one true God, they followed.  But when that leader passed off the scene they went back to being stubborn and evil. 

The writer of Proverbs had a commentary on this kind of behavior:

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.  Proverbs 26:11^(NLT)

It’s hard to miss the message in this; when we refuse to let go of our stubborn ways, we refuse to actually BE God’s children, no matter how much we may SAY we belong to Him.

For You Today

It would be a good practice to look back regularly…like every day…over all the ways God has rescued and blessed you.  And then go live like a blessed child of God.

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

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Forgetting to Remember

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Thursday, January 11, 2018

After Joshua sent the people away, each of the tribes left to take possession of the land allotted to them.  And the Israelites served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the leaders who outlived him—those who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.  Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110.  They buried him in the land he had been allocated, at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.  After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.  The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal.  They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt.  They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them.  And they angered the Lord.  They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth.  This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions.  He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them.  Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned.  And the people were in great distress.  Judges 2:6-15^(NLT)

Joshua was picked by God to be the successor to Moses.  In many ways Joshua’s faith shined much brighter, more definite than his mentor.  After a long campaign to win the Promised Land Joshua died.  The leadership of judges followed in the life of Israel, but the next generation lost sight of all they’d learned about the importance of serving God.

If you’re into reading biographies of great leaders you always notice that even the greatest leaders only have a transitory effect; the next generation will make its mistakes because they forget to remember the mistakes of the previous generation.  And forgetting to remember was costly in the life of the young nation in the Promised Land.  It is so with every culture.

In the current day world of political reality-TV drama, every day brings a new revelation of accusation, expose’, and embarrassment; in the next news cycle heads begin to roll.  A campaign manager, advisor, special assistant, or acquaintance is fired, trashed or otherwise humiliated.  Careers end and jail sentences begin for the losers.  Top dogs fight hard to stay on top.

Perhaps it is the mellowing time brings, or just the yellowing of history’s pages against the harsh images of a very different-paced world, but current day politics seems to have suffered the loss of the Joshua effect.  Today’s leaders are not like those of another era. 

For instance I read (and re-read) Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals last year.  It’s the account of Abraham Lincoln’s rise to the presidency.  What created the title was the overwhelming genius of Lincoln choosing his main political rivals to be his cabinet.  This was a leader who knew it was senseless to waste the great gifts that were possessed by leaders just for the sake of his ego; he put aside the me and elevated the we.

The current generation could take a lesson from that.

For You Today

It’s a good decision to recognize that other people aren’t our enemies; we do a pretty good job of being our own worst enemy when we fear others rather than follow God.  Today resolve to be a Joshua!

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

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Fear Factor - Part 3

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Devotion Video Here

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.  2 Timothy 1:7^(NLT)

So far this week we have looked at “fear” as a debilitating enemy we need to expect, because it is the main tool of our number 1 enemy, Satan, who wishes to destroy the eternal life we receive in Christ.  We begin to deal with fear by exposing it, bringing it out in the light.  And then we…

Engage It

If you’re a Star Trek fan you’ll recognize the strength of the word “engage”.  Jean Luc Picard[2] is the fictional commander of the Starship Enterprise, charged with the task of going boldly into space where no man had gone before! 

Every time they were about to venture forth in a ship the size of a city there would mountains of preparation, charting the course, checking the logs, calculating the whereabouts of an enemy and checking the engines for warp-speed capability.  But nothing would move forward until Captain Picard would turn to the helmsman and with his finger pointed in the direction they must go, he would command:  engage!

How did Nehemiah encourage the people to “engage” their fears? 

Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the leaders and the people and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy!  Remember the LORD, who is great and glorious, and fight for your friends, your families, and your homes!”   Nehemiah 4.14  (NLT)

One preacher[3] said of this verse, “Remember the Lord was to be their motto, their rallying cry.  As you may remember in the Spanish-American war, our nation’s battle cry was ‘Remember the Maine.’  In World War I it was ‘Remember the Lusitania.’  In World War II it was ‘Remember Pearl Harbor.’  Even as we receive the Lord’s Supper we are reminded, Do this in remembrance of me. 

The problem with most of our fears is that we allow them to become invincible dragons in our minds, rather than engaging them in warfare. 

An old German proverb says:  Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.[4]   Nehemiah put swords in the hands of the builders and brick carriers; he gave them instructions on what to do when the trumpet sounded, and he reminded them they were fighting for their families and their way of life.  That’s how to engage your fears.

     

     When the bills are bigger than your income, engage your fear – meet it with faith that says He is able to supply every need.

        

     When the doctor says there isn’t a cure, remember to engage that monster with faith – because the Great Physician is on the case.

        When rumors fly about your job, your reputation, the economy, or an election outcome, engage fear by being a person of faith. 

You may not have any sense of what the outcome will be or what God is up to – but faith is just that which walks without sight; otherwise it wouldn’t be faith.

As a believer, engaging our fears means putting our faith to work.  Paul reminded Timothy:

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13^(NLT)

For You Today

Readiness was the theme for dealing with Nehemiah’s enemies. 

Staying at ready eviscerates fear too.  Nehemiah encouraged the people to face their fears, and that is the key in spiritual matters or family, business or any part of life. 

Are you ready…expecting your enemy to use fear?  Have you exposed it for what it really is…naming the fears you face as an enemy attack? 

Well, then…..ENGAGE!

Think about that out on the Rocky Road today…and have a great day!

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[1] Title image:  By Spc. Megan Leuck, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] By Enterprise-D_crew_quarters.jpg: Derek Springer from Los Angeles, CA, , via Wikimedia Commons

[3] J. Vernon McGee, Through the Bible With J. Vernon McGee, Vol 3, (Pasadena, California), p520.

[4] German Proverb, The Bible Illustrator, Parson’s Technology, Hiawatha Ia