Teach Them Well

Thursday, November 9, 2023

O my people, listen to my instructions.  Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable.  I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.  We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.  For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel.  He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them—even the children not yet born—and they in turn will teach their own children.  So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.  Psalm 78:1-7

If children are not taught well the lessons of how God’s Word is to be obeyed, we have no hope of having a sane, kind, and sustainable world.

In an age when everything must have an immediate solution, there is little hope of a “viral” response to this text.  Still, this text contains the ultimate solution to the madness that envelopes the 21^st century culture…to wit:  If children are not taught well the lessons of how God’s Word is to be obeyed, we have no hope of having a sane, kind, and sustainable world.

The Psalmist said it clearly, that if we forget God’s sovereign power (shown in His miracles and creation) complete generations of humans will cease to know God, and will therefore, set their hope on possessions and selfish ambitions.  I cannot think of a better characterization of what is happening in our world.  In my lifetime I have watched the disappearing act in churches, and the accompanying disregarding of fearing God (in the sense of honoring He who created and sustains us):

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.  Everything was created through him and for him.  He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.  Colossians 1:15-17

Putting this all together:  

     1.    God, through Jesus, the Christ, created everything, including all humanity, and keeps it going every second of every millennium, and is therefore the owner of all of it…and us.

     2.    He has given it all as a gift, sealed by the promise of His Spirit, the result of the blood of His Son, Jesus shed on Calvary’s tree.

3.    That requires a response of respect and reverence for He who owns us, loves us, empowers us, and sets us free to live creative, constructive, kind, and loving lives.

     4.    That shows up in many ways; the first (and foremost) of which is worship!

     5.    We are increasingly doing a pitiful job of that response

     6.    The way to reverse it is for families to return to a priority of worship, Bible study, and prayer, so that the children in those families will learn how to really live.

For You Today 

What I have shared is not new, nor is it flashy.  It’s not likely to make any headlines, and it’s not a single app you can get on Google, where you can hit the button and solve all your problems.  Rather, it’s a mindset, a worldview, a plain distillation of what Scripture covers from Genesis to Revelation – humankind’s responsibility to worship God all the days we live, and do whatever’s necessary to pass-along the faith to that next generation. 

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 library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Facts...Questions...Answer

Friday, September 15, 2023

When the Israelites escaped from Egypt—when the family of Jacob left that foreign land—the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary, and Israel became his kingdom.  

    The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way! 

    The water of the Jordan River turned away.  

    The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs!
        What’s wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way? 

        What happened, Jordan River, that you turned away?
        Why, mountains, did you skip like rams?  Why, hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.  He turned the rock into a pool of water; yes, a spring of water flowed from solid rock.  Psalm 114:1-8

Every kid whose eyes were glued to a black-and-white 11” TV screen in the 1950’s knew if you wanted to solve a murder mystery, Dragnet’s Sergeant Joe Friday was your guy!  The police were called, and Sgt Friday showed up to investigate.  The dialogue always included his no-nonsense, deadpan, direct approach; he didn’t want anything but the truth.  He would cut through speculation and side-issues with his piercing eyes and flatly require:  Just the facts, ma’am!

Had I paid more attention to Joe Friday’s relentless pursuit of truth, I would have figured-out Psalm 114 a lot sooner.  I’ve read it many times, but missed the main flow of God’s truth until it thundered in my ears in this morning’s dark, early hours.  There are facts, followed by questions, and only one answer.

The Psalmist states the facts about when Israel made her exodus from Egyptian bondage:

   …the Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of the way to let them pass.

   …the Jordan River felt the first steps of the marching band and turned aside.

   …the mountains and hills skipped for joy like playful rams and lambs.

Then he asked why all the hurrying, turning, and skipping for joy?  All those facts, and all those questions (and many more throughout history), but only one answer:  The Presence of the Lord, God who does the unexpected, unimaginable, and totally-documented undeniable.

This was Israel’s history on a platter for us all to digest…the God who is unseen to human eyes, but ever-present for anyone with an open and reverent heart to see, know, and love, is He who makes the hills cry-out in praise, like animals skipping for joy, and the water going where He directs.

For You Today 

It’s one thing to do a bunch of stuff for people in ancient history; it’s a totally different matter when what He does is for every person in every era, age, or circumstance.  And it was more wonderful than making the hills and mountains scurry, or splashing the waters around; God dressed himself in mortal flesh and died for our sins.  And then he kicked the tomb-door open and proclaimed that we can do the same.  That, as Joe Friday would say, is an open and shut case!

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 library. 

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

Think Carefully

Monday, November 7, 2022

On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai:  “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says.  Ask the priests this question about the law:  ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’”  The priests replied, “No.”  Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?”  And the priests answered, “Yes.”  Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord.  Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin.  Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple.  When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten.  When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty.  I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce.  Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.  “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid.  Think carefully.  I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn.  You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops.  But from this day onward I will bless you.”  Haggai 2:10-19

When God told the prophet to tell the priests and the people to Think carefully, it was the kind of tone that carried a considerably-eternal kind of weight.  I recall a conversation with my Dad when I was just a teen.  Dad wanted a no-frills, no-embellishment, truthful answer from his son.  When he asked me to speak, his tone told me I’d better take him seriously, otherwise there could be dire consequences.  (I’ll let you fill in the blank about what Pastor Russell, the younger, had done).  At this point in my life, I’ve long forgotten what the substance of the conversation was about, but I still recall the important and serious tone of Dad’s voice.  He meant what he said.

The point God was making through prophet Haggai was that “worship” from a soul that has not carefully-considered his or her heart condition, is not really worship at all.  Anything, offering, song of praise, even attending Sunday School, or preaching a sermon, when tainted by sin, is discarded before it reaches the throne room in Heaven. 

Worship should be joyful, because of God’s requirement that our life match the worship we’re offering, honest, transparent, humble, and committed to be His disciple.  And you might say:  How do all those requirements equal JOY?

Well, I’m glad you asked.  It’s because God is all that back at you, honest, transparent, honoring, and committed to keep every promise He’s made. 

To Israel, God kept back the strength of a great harvest because He’d told them to be obedient, and they weren’t; when they were careful to obey, the harvest was plentiful.  God keeps his promises; what’s not joyful about entering his presence with that sure hope?

For You Today ,

Let me encourage you to not skip the small things.  Small things, even uninteresting details, are the place from which a life of grander obedeience springs.  If you want to serve God (and experience His presence) start small, consider carefully all you do (or don’t do), and watch him grow your walk into a grand blessing!

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

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

       So...Do Not Be Afraid   and   Lenten Walk - Part 25

[1] Images: Title image courtesy of The Denton Orator, Used with permission by Bingham family   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Grounded - Part 2

 

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

I am suffering and in pain.  Rescue me, O God, by your saving power.  Then I will praise God’s name with singing, and I will honor him with thanksgiving.  For this will please the Lord more than sacrificing cattle, more than presenting a bull with its horns and hooves.  The humble will see their God at work and be glad.  Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged.  For the Lord hears the cries of the needy; he does not despise his imprisoned people.  Praise him, O heaven and earth, the seas and all that move in them.  For God will save Jerusalem and rebuild the towns of Judah.  His people will live there and settle in their own land.  The descendants of those who obey him will inherit the land, and those who love him will live there in safety.      Psalm 69:29-36

Yesterday’s prayer of King David (O God, you know how foolish I am…) claims his personal responsibility for the depths to which his relationship with God had fallen.   This was no blaming of God or anyone else; he accepts the full weight of his sin. 

I saw in that a good bit of identification with the beleaguered president of our nation; not confession (that’s not his public kind of response to trouble), but rather the reality that, like David, the president’s muddle is a mixture of the nature of being at the center seat of power – much of it is self-inflicted because of choices made. 

While yesterday’s devotion ended with a call that we pray for Mr. Biden as he takes over on January 20^th it in no way diminishes (for me) the level of prayer I offer for the outgoing president.  The Scriptures we read today are the result of King David’s confession, which resulted in God’s forgiveness and restoration of the land.  This is what I pray for Donald Trump and all the leaders of our nation – that a revival of trusting in God, marked by humility and confession, fuel a blessing of righteousness. 

It is not too late for Mr. Trump to do the most important work of the past four years of his administration, and even of his entire life – that to which we’re all called, to bow before Heaven’s throne as King David did.  The apostle Paul unveiled for the believers at Rome what the result is for all who do that:

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.  Romans 10:9-10

Salvation is of a personal nature, and it is my heartfelt prayer that Donald Trump has, or will, commit his life to Christ.  It is not for me to judge what God alone can.  But a good dose of humility in plain sight would be a welcome medicine for the anger and division existing in this country.

For You Today

Whether you’re a card-carrying Democrat, Republican, or any other party affiliation, or no party affiliation, this isn’t about politics; this is about praying for the troubled nation in which we live, and the souls of our leaders. 

It’s much like the proverb about speaking-up…it only takes a bit of silence for evil to prevail.  In this case, the speaking-up is in the direction of God’s throne room. 

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

For other posts on this text see When Your Choice is the Lesser of Evils and Whom Do You Trust?      

 

Grounded

 

Monday, January 11, 2021

Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck.  Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold.  I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me.  I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched.  My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me….  O God, you know how foolish I am; my sins cannot be hidden from you.  Psalm 69:1-5

The pathos of a king, despised by the masses, headed for ruin, and drained of all emotional and spiritual strength, pleading to the silent heavens for relief, is heart-shredding.  This was David, the king of Israel, loved by God, lauded by the people, and ultimately fallen from the heights of splendor. 

When a ruler falls it is more than just a brief news cycle; when a king falls, historians realize their job security has risen.  In David’s case the fall was a personal misstep, a poor choice which allowed his humanity to replace God’s will as his governor.  David’s prayer (O God, you know how foolish I am…) claims his personal responsibility for the depths to which his relationship with God has fallen.  To his credit David does not blame God or anyone else; he accepts the full weight of his sin.

King David described his situation as being up to his neck in floodwaters, sinking deeper and deeper in the muck of his choosing.  As I was reading this Psalm, I could not keep from seeing Donald Trump’s image on David’s throne.  Edgy does not describe the angst of this situation.  Mr. Trump’s precarious hold on the presidency these past months has been a collective holding of breath for the nation.  I’m a certified news-junkie, but of late it is hard to turn on the news channels. 

I’ve not been a fan of the way President Trump has governed, but I am even less a fan of the turmoil which has been the result.  Misguided loyalists of an unwell ruler storming the halls of Congress is a terrible way to hold a eulogy for an administration.  Yet, perhaps, it is fitting; the people spoke four years prior, and now the people must dine on those words.

Yet, there is something of a glimmer to which we can turn our attention.  It is the hope of course-correction over total disintegration.  President Thomas Jefferson was in favor of revolution as a perpetual cleansing agent for our experiment in self-governance.  To be certain, Jefferson did not advocate bloody revolution, rather he favored a revolution of ideas over legislative paper piles.  Rather than build storehouses of legal ropes with which we bind ourselves to King David’s malaise of unanswered prayers, an entanglement of rules that overburden a society, our third president favored letting freedom ring, starting over with nothing but fresh-faced commitment to liberty.

It is difficult to keep a noble dream alive, let alone a dishonorable desire.  It is not for me to theorize on whatever drove Mr. Trump’s imagination and energy towards the presidency and induced such fanatic allegiance by his “base” of political support.  I’m not qualified to explore that rabbit hole.  But, of the resultant unravelling of the 45^th president’s leadership, I surmise much will be written and debated in the coming years.  Of this I’m certain, it will not be pretty or flattering!

But I do offer one hopeful perspective; this quadrennial experience of the brass-ring to be grasped, a door opened to the Oval Office, and, unquestionably the most powerful seat on earth, is neither for the faint of heart, nor for those with a short supply of character.  Neither is it a place for personal aggrandizement.  It is a place for those who would remember King David’s confession, O God, you know how foolish I am….  It is playing out in a very public, and excruciatingly painful manner, that the American public will not abide those who can’t – or won’t – pray that way.

One last thought; I take no pleasure in having written these words.  Only God and time will reveal whether they are true or not.  If my assessment here is true, it is a sad truth of the grounding of reality.  If untrue, time will blow away these words like an errant king’s dalliance. 

For You Today

Pray for the new president to be inaugurated; #46 has a tough act to follow.

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

For other posts on this text see When Your Choice is the Lesser of Evils and Whom Do You Trust?      

 

View From the Fence

 

Monday, December 14, 2020

Later on, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab.  Tell him that I will soon send rain!”  So Elijah went to appear before Ahab.  Meanwhile, the famine had become very severe in Samaria.  So Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Obadiah was a devoted follower of the Lord.  Once when Jezebel had tried to kill all the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had hidden 100 of them in two caves.  He put fifty prophets in each cave and supplied them with food and water.)  Ahab said to Obadiah, “We must check every spring and valley in the land to see if we can find enough grass to save at least some of my horses and mules.”  So they divided the land between them.  Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.  As Obadiah was walking along, he suddenly saw Elijah coming toward him.  Obadiah recognized him at once and bowed low to the ground before him.  “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?” he asked.  “Yes, it is,” Elijah replied.  “Now go and tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”  “Oh, sir,” Obadiah protested, “what harm have I done to you that you are sending me to my death at the hands of Ahab?  For I swear by the Lord your God that the king has searched every nation and kingdom on earth from end to end to find you.  And each time he was told, ‘Elijah isn’t here,’ King Ahab forced the king of that nation to swear to the truth of his claim.  And now you say, ‘Go and tell your master, “Elijah is here.”’  But as soon as I leave you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away to who knows where.  When Ahab comes and cannot find you, he will kill me.  Yet I have been a true servant of the Lord all my life.  Has no one told you, my lord, about the time when Jezebel was trying to kill the Lord’s prophets?  I hid 100 of them in two caves and supplied them with food and water.  And now you say, ‘Go and tell your master, “Elijah is here.”’  Sir, if I do that, Ahab will certainly kill me.”  But Elijah said, “I swear by the Lord Almighty, in whose presence I stand, that I will present myself to Ahab this very day.”  So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet Elijah.  1 Kings 18:1-16

As we reflect on this passage, we should keep in mind one of the apostle Peter’s cautions:

Fear God, and respect the king.  1 Peter 2:17^b

Obadiah was a person who got half of that right.  He feared (or reverenced) God, but in the face of a challenge to do God’s bidding by going to Ahab as Elijah requested, Obadiah let his fear of an unrighteous king block his unquestioning service; Obadiah feared Ahab’s fury!

To his credit, the man who respected the king, and all he stood for in Israel, and was even a government employee, eventually did what Elijah requested.  But the prophet had to swear on his life and fidelity to the Lord to get him to do it.  Sitting on the fence between faith in God and faith in a worldly ruler is hardly the way to get nominated for faith’s man-of-the-year!

We live in a day when people are drawing the lines rather deeply.  The recent presidential election – still going on a month after the balloting – serves as a prime example of how deeply the lines are dug.  The current tally of over 81 million votes for one candidate, and 74 million for the other, show just how divided the American voting public stands, and how much it means to both sides to have their candidate on the throne.  All the while church pews remain largely forgotten. 

Makes one wonder just how much “fearing God” is going on? 

For You Today

If you’re passionate about elections, that isn’t necessarily wrong; everyone needs to be involved in the political process.  Politics is simply a word that describes how citizens decide about how we will act as a society.  Sitting on the fence is not deciding anything, but whether we’ll have splinters behind us when we’re forced to jump down like Obadiah.

To respect the king (president, ruler, or all government officials) is good; to fear God is to keep the king human.

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

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Title image, Pixabay.com and    W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For another post on this passage see:  When Kings Must Bow

 

Measuring Strength

[1]

Monday, September 24, 2018

Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.  Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised.  You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.  Proverbs 27:20-22(NLT)

When it comes to what humans want, nothing is ever enough!  If a child has a handful of M&M’s they want a truckload.  If they had access to a truckload, they’d wonder how they could get their hands on a fleet of trucks.  And so, it goes…

As adults the equation doesn’t change.  What does change is the size, complexity, and cost of the M&M pile.  It’s like the old rhyme:  There is no difference between men and boys…only in the size and cost of their toys.

Our proverb writer takes a step farther into this deep truth – a fool will remain a fool.  The question becomes:  How can you measure foolishness?  One test for measuring the strength of human integrity (which is the opposite of foolishness) is praise from other humans.  The proverb master suggests that if you want to know if you’re dealing with a fool, praise him.  A fool will respond to any kind of praise and crave more; those with integrity of character may accept a compliment, but it will not change them. 

And a measure of strong character is always why we do what we do.  I am a preacher, called into the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is not MY ministry, it is a gift with which Christ has blessed my life.  The call compels me to use my time, spiritual gifts, and whatever strength I have, to bring praise to the name of Jesus.  If I am to carry-out this calling with integrity it will NOT be by fishing for compliments on how well I do it; that’s not fulfilling my call – it is pandering my call to satisfy my foolish pride.

That sometimes gets dicey.  In social situations we remember mother’s advice to keep quiet if we don’t have something nice to say.  But some of us, particularly people pleasers, go beyond silence and praise others just to pump them up.  It’s a nice lie.

But what does that say about our moral center?  Should we offer (untrue) praise, just because it makes fools happy?

Well, this whole discussion can lead to a downward corkscrew of what constitutes flattery, and what is appropriate praise.  And the whole thing becomes a semantic morass of acceptable vs. unacceptable words.

Rather, applying the principle that foolishness is empty, and integrity with humility is everything, we should aspire to put praise – words from another flawed human – in its’ proper place and appreciate the thought, but never place enough weight on praise to make it our end goal.  The real goal of a human life is to please God, and fools cannot do that. 

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.  Proverbs 1:7(NLT)

For You Today

To walk through this life as a wise person, and not a fool, is simply a matter of surrendering your life to pleasing God.  All else is foolishness, and it fails the test of measuring true strength!

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

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[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com