When the Fire Falls

 

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Again the Lord spoke to me and said, “I have discovered a conspiracy against me among the people of Judah and Jerusalem.  They have returned to the sins of their ancestors.  They have refused to listen to me and are worshiping other gods.  Israel and Judah have both broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.  Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am going to bring calamity upon them, and they will not escape.  Though they beg for mercy, I will not listen to their cries.  Then the people of Judah and Jerusalem will pray to their idols and burn incense before them.  But the idols will not save them when disaster strikes!  Look now, people of Judah; you have as many gods as you have towns.  You have as many altars of shame—altars for burning incense to your god Baal—as there are streets in Jerusalem.  “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah.  Do not weep or pray for them, for I will not listen to them when they cry out to me in distress.  “What right do my beloved people have to come to my Temple, when they have done so many immoral things?  Can their vows and sacrifices prevent their destruction?  They actually rejoice in doing evil!  I, the Lord, once called them a thriving olive tree, beautiful to see and full of good fruit.  But now I have sent the fury of their enemies to burn them with fire, leaving them charred and broken.  “I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who planted this olive tree, have ordered it destroyed.  For the people of Israel and Judah have done evil, arousing my anger by burning incense to Baal.”  Jeremiah 11:9-17

Fire can be good or bad, depending on how it is used.  In the kitchen it is a wonderful presence, helping to prepare a delicious meal.  In a dry forest it is a death knell for wildlife’s habitat.  The same is true in spiritual matters. 

God’s Holy Spirit is sometimes represented as holy fire, such as at the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit energized the birth of Jesus’ church[1].  Fire is also a reminder of God’s judgment.  Jesus often taught of God’s love, but the theme of judging those who say no to God’s ways was always close at hand.  When teaching his disciples about His love for them, and how vital it was to stay close to him, enabling God’s mission to bring His love to the world, Jesus whispered the consequences of refusing…the fire would fall.  And, unlike the good fire of God’s presence on Pentecost, it would be the consuming fires of God’s judgment:

Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.  Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.  John 15:6

The theme of judgment for sin is laced all the way through Scripture, from Cain’s killing of his brother in Genesis, thru Revelation’s Great White Throne judgment[2].

In Jeremiah’s prophecy it is hard to miss how clearly God said that it was He, Who was responsible for the woes that would fall on His people because they had wantonly broken their covenant vows with God.  God also claimed it was His right to do so, because it was He Who called and blessed them…He had planted the olive tree of Judah’s Jerusalem, and it would be God causing the fire to fall.

For You Today

Among most of the world’s once-Christian churches there is a deadly coldness when it comes to Pentecost’s fire.  They are like ovens without heat, only housing a possibility.  But, as it was with the prophets, it is not too late for the remnant of God’s people to return to faithfullness:

Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.  Amos 5:15

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:                                                            

After the Party and A Pathway Through the Darkness

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] See Acts 2:1-4

[2] See Revelation 8:7 & 16:9

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 3

Monday, August 22, 2022

For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how.  But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.  No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  Hebrews 12: 10-11

We are continuing with our investigation of the gap between the pinnacle of genuine faith, and the pit of unbelief. 

The “pain” in the presence of discipline is rarely corporal.  For those of us born in the Baby Boom generation, or earlier, corporal punishment was a matter of fact.  School principals were known to keep a paddle in their desks for the more rowdy trespassers among us.  A “paddling” was affectionately known as applying the board of education to the seat of knowledge.  These days spanking your child will result in a visit from child services, or the police.  In some cases it could be grounds for divorce – a child “emancipating” from abusive parents.

The writer of Hebrews states the obvious, that earthly parents disciplined us early in life, doing the best they knew how.  Of course, that “best” is far from perfect.  No human parent is prepared for the complexities of raising another human.  Attempting to correct unacceptable behavior, or faulty thinking that will lead to harm for the child, is a minefield; too much, or too little attention, choice of words, or description of consequences, can have the opposite effect of that which was intended.  It is difficult, at best, to know what to do.

Parenting!  There are as many opinions on the subject as there are people.  And human opinions are useful, because they’re often based upon human experience, most of which will have been formed out of painful moments of failure.  Our culture has deduced that pain is the enemy, and children should be spared pain, including discipline.  But God’s Word declares that to be a false understanding of the nature of growing.  The writer to the Hebrews acknowledges how discipline may be a source of transitory discomfort, but the training for life which it produces is a peaceful harvest of right living.

My mother was an expert at allowing pain to instruct.  A prime example that stands out in my mind was when I was only six-years-old.  Up to that point, all my clothes had buttons – never a zipper.  Then came the light jacket with a zipper.  Mom was getting me out the door to catch the bus, and helped me into the windbreaker.  But when she went for the zipper, I pushed her hand away, announcing that I was a big boy now, and I would be doing the zipper.  With that, Mom backed-off and let me struggle fiercely with getting the two sides of my jacket together.  There were some interesting and frustrating moments of lack of coordination that we shall not bother describing, but the end is a priceless lesson which stands out after nearly 7 decades.  When I finally gave up trying to get the demonic zipper device hooked together, Mom was right there.  With a smile (and probably a stifled laugh) she calmly, slowly showed me how to put the zipper parts together.  She got it started, then stopped and said:  OK, now you finish it.  To this day I can never zip a zipper without thinking of Mom’s kind face.

The Hebrew writer was right – for a six-year-old, stubborn boy, learning your limits, and how to accept discipline, was painful.  But I found more that day than zipper wisdom – I harvested a lesson of peaceful parenting.

For You Today

Training and harvesting go together, sometimes in the smallest moments.

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:  Leaving the Door UNLOCKED for God's Spirit and Wisdom & Discipline      

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Leaving the Door UNLOCKED for God's Spirit

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Thursday, October 19, 2017

“But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going.  Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you.  But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come.  If I do go away, then I will send him to you.  And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 

John 16:5-8^(NLT)

When our youngest child, Carrie (now a mother of two boys) was only 7, her best friend, Amber lived just around the corner from our house.  Sometimes this duo would play at Amber’s house, and sometimes at ours.  Whenever the after-school play was away from home, Carrie knew she had to be home before dark.  Most times she made it.  One time it was well after the street lights came on that we spotted her coming down our street towards the house.  I decided to make an important point about the missed curfew.  I stood (silently, but rather menacing) in the carport, arms folded with appropriate “Dad-scowl” on.  Carrie, our little princess was skipping home, singing a carefree child’s song, and never saw me standing in the dark shadow of the doorway…until she was right in front of me.  She stopped dead in her tracks like a head-on collision, looked-up at my dead-pan face, with the blood drained from her own face, white as a sheet, remembering the curfew, and proclaimed in a small, stage whisper:  I’m dead meat!

I have to admit it was really…I mean REALLY hard to keep my smile hidden, much less keep the belly-laugh that wanted to burst-out of me down where it belonged.  It was even harder to impose the sentence of a weeks’ worth of no-play after school.  After all, she’d gotten it; it was a momentary, childish lapse of thought…and she was only 7 with a ton of remorse.  We let her off with a warning.

The remarkable thing to me was that I never had to say a word.  Conscience, presence, and the working of God’s Spirit to bring righteousness to the surface was what that situation needed – not another sermon.  Sure, my child felt guilty – some guilt is warranted when you’ve stepped over the line.  The fact that she felt guilty is a mark that God’s Spirit was working in her.  That is what Jesus told the disciples would happen when the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, would come to bring conviction to the hearts of people everywhere.  Some guilt is necessary and good, particularly when it points you in the direction of Heaven.

There is a decided “no-vote” in our culture today – against morality and judgment.  Everything and anything that remotely suggests a flaw in sexuality, relationships, conversation or lifestyle behavior is seen as judgmental; say it twice and you’re guilty of a hate crime.  Mention God while you’re saying it and you are a Bible-thumping bigot.

Today’s generation wants everyone to be accepted and feel accepted.  However, lifestyle choices that are 180° opposite of what Scripture declares as righteous, is what makes people uncomfortable around people who are attempting to live a life surrendered to God’s will.  You mostly don’t have to say a word; the Spirit of God will be in the midst of your relationships with others.  Those who live rebellious lives, apart from God and refusing to submit to His will, inevitably blame the Christians in front of them; if you’re the target…if you’re the dead meat for their anger, so be it; it is the Holy Spirit of God they’re fighting against – not you.

For You Today

Some guilt is holy.  Sometimes people need to see their sin, and feel the reproving of the Spirit. 

Most times it is a wise thing to lock your lips, and leave the door open and unlocked for God’s Spirit to do what He wills…not what you think.

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

Spirit of God

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Wednesday, September 6, 2017

“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.  “So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.  Matthew 12:30-32^(NLT)

And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.  The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.  John 16:8-9^(NLT)     

These two passages say a number of important things, not only to the church, but to all people.  If there is such a thing at all as sin, being forgiven is of such importance anyone in his right mind would move heaven and earth to discover how to be forgiven! 

Blasphemy is sin against the Holy Spirit of God (rejection of what the Spirit says is sin and what the Spirit says is holy).  Among the list of what that includes is, chiefly, when people reject what Jesus did, dying our death penalty, so that our sins can be forgiven.  Matthew, the tax collector-turned evangelist, says that Jesus said a person who rejects Jesus the Son is rejected by the Father in this world and the next.  Sobering thought!

Another important message about the Holy Spirit’s ministry in John’s Gospel is that the chief purpose of the Spirit moving and working among humans is to reprove, or convict us of all which separates us from God...namely, our sins; and chiefly…our unbelief!

If you mention the Holy Spirit in a church crowd you can get mixed reaction.  There are those who don’t want you to mention the Spirit…ever!  Among those leaning to the charismatic (gift-centered) side, when you talk about the Spirit there will be a knowing smile of all that knowledge about how the spiritual gifts work; they just can’t get enough about all the gifts being operational in their own life and in the life of their church.  And then, In true 21^st century-style human combativeness there are plenty of people on the other side of that fence who will gladly defend against all that loving-the-gift-better-than-the-giver stuff!  There is, after all, nothing we love better than fighting over who God loves most!

What’s ironic is that arrogant, combative, brother-separating-from-brother attitude is exactly the issue to which the Spirt came to speak conviction into our hearts.  After all, was it not a brother who first picked up a stone and separated himself from his brother permanently?  When Jesus ascended back to the Father in Heaven, and the Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, it was so that we could have our blinded eyes opened to how much God truly does love us; it was so we would understand that God’s invitation to come close to Him is in spite of our weakness, not because of any goodness or strength we possess.  God’s love is for anyone who will lay down that nonsense of human independence and recognize our need in Christ, and our need to love and trust each other.

For You Today

You will have an opportunity today to go in one of two directions.  One direction will be to resist the Holy Spirit, and that will include such things as anger, pride, jealousy, envy, lust, or one of a thousand other ways to separate you from God’s love. 

The other direction is to listen to the ways His Spirit leads you into righteousness, how He teaches you to give control of all you do, say, and even think, to the Spirit who wants to stay closer to you than that arthritis you live with.

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

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[1] Title Image: By Ziko-C (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Life Off-Track (part 3) How To Hear You've Missed the Track

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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.   2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)

We are looking this week at four operations of the Scripture that help us with our relationship with God and each other.

The first of these is TEACHING – which is Scripture helping us to understand, or being able to know the track or pathway God would have us walk; both in the way we have our relationship with Him, and with all His created order…our neighbors!

The second operation is REPROOF – how the Bible shows us we’ve slid off the track.  The word means to tell a fault.  The Bible tells us very clearly about the kinds of attitudes and behaviors that will derail our lives. 

There are a lot of those attitudes and behaviors! 

I’ve been preaching since 1978, and have preached/taught a congregation or small group about 8,500 times (if you don’t count these devotions).  My commitment is always to preach God’s Word and the truth contained (which includes those things that derail our lives). 

And yet, with all that time, study and energy invested, I sense I’ve only scratched the thinnest part of the surface.  Like John Newton wrote, through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come[2]; there are lots of land mines on the Christian Pilgrim’s pathway!

So, I’ve spent the first half of this devotion telling you something you already knew: 

Life is messy and complex, and there are whole hosts of ways to get derailed!

So, what’s the point of this point – “reproof…being told I’ve messed up”?

The point is not to mess-up further by failing to hear all about your mess-up. 

I’ve seen it enough as a preacher, that when you start meddling in people’s attitudes and behavior (you know the song…not my brother, nor my sister, but it’s me, o Lord)…a switch in the mind can be turned off quite rapidly!  You begin to wonder what’s for lunch IF this preacher ever quits talking; you count the ceiling tiles, or rehearse in your mind what you are going to say to the mother of that toddler about noise in church.  In short, you do whatever is necessary to drown-out the hard truth about what’s driven you off that track you and God agreed was best for your life.

Tomorrow’s point of the operation of Scripture will deal with correcting what has derailed us, but before you can begin to correct anything, you’ve got to know exactly what did the derailing.

And God is good at that!

And what we should be good at is listening to Him speak. 

Often in church as the leader begins the reading of God’s Word (or at the end) s/he will say:  Hear the word of the Lord.

For You Today

Hear the word of the Lord!

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[1] Title image:  By Louise Docker from Sydney, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Amazing Grace