Top of Your Game - Game Over

Monday, September 5, 2022

Now then, you kings, act wisely!  Be warned, you rulers of the earth!  Serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities—for his anger flares up in an instant.  But what joy for all who take refuge in him!  Psalm 2:10-12

The despotic president/murderer of many, Saddam Hussein is long gone from the world’s political stage, having been chased from his leadership of Iraq into hiding, and eventually pulled from his hiding hole, tried, convicted, and executed by hanging.  He did not, as the Psalmist cautioned leaders to do, act wisely!  He had no fear of God.  He viewed himself as being in charge…and, for a brief nine years, his murderous regime seemed to be so; the collapse in 2003 once again reminded us all that every created thing is subject to God’s will.  No matter how high the Top of Your Game may be, God has set the Time of Your Game-Over, and there is nothing to top that!

The Psalmist set down for us all the means for a leader to be honorable and end well – to serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Whether you are president of the United States, or the elected dog catcher in the smallest of towns, there is always one to whom you report (besides the electorate or whatever checks and balances are in place), and that is He Who created us, and decides if we live or die.  In an age where personal sovereignty is worshipped, it would be prudent to remember God’s sovereignty is above all.

In a few years those under 20 will hardly recognize the name of Saddam Hussein, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or any of the other newsmakers of the current time.  That is regrettable, as forgetting the mistakes of the past are surety of repeating them in the future. 

For You Today

Rather than gloat, or wail (over political outcomes, depending on whether or not you voted for those who fail or succeed), it is a better practice to reflect on our part in this process.  Just as it is incumbent on leaders to serve with reverent fear of God, it is the same reverent fear we who put others in office must serve.  We are tempted to opt-out of responsibility quickly in one of many ways:

·       I’m just one person; what could I have done

·       I voted for the other guy

·       His problem – I’ve got enough to worry about

Now, those may all be true to some degree, but one thing remains for the Christian believer:  Did I pray?  Did I honestly, fervently, and consistently lift up the leaders who make governing choices in my name?[1]

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 library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Advice for the Mighty and Now Then, You Kings, Act Wisely!

[1] Images:   Title Image from Video:       What if Sadaam Hussein Was Never Captured (YouTube)                                                         Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] From:  Advice for the Mighty, Rocky Road Post from January 5, 2015

When Time Stops and Judgment Doesn't

 

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

When the thousand years come to an end, Satan will be let out of his prison.  He will go out to deceive the nations—called Gog and Magog—in every corner of the earth.  He will gather them together for battle—a mighty army, as numberless as sand along the seashore.  And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God’s people and the beloved city.  But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them.  Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet.  There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.  And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it.  The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide.  I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne.  And the books were opened, including the Book of Life.  And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead.  And all were judged according to their deeds.  Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire.  This lake of fire is the second death.  And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.  Revelation 20:7-15

The apocalyptic prophecy of God, written in this final book of God’s Word, declares the eventual disposition of evil…forever punishment in the lake of fire, a buring torment, an image that ought to  produce jaw-dropping awe.  

For a human context I immediately recall Sadaam Hussein, a despotic madman visiting unchecked decades of evil on his own people, murder, arrogant imposition of poverty, the work of a man gone insane with absolute power.  Pursued by an army, Sadaam was ferreted out of a hole in the ground, and hanged.

Where this analogy breaks-down is the aftermath.  Sadaam is gone, his body buried in 2006 in a grave not far from where he was born in Tikrit.  In a hundred years most every work of his hand on this earth will be forgotten.  But what of his soul?  What of that part of his being, created in the image of God, which still exists.  And what is that like now?  And what will it be in 100, 1000, or 10-billion years?

The answer is fraught with some grey area, certainly, but God does not leave us without understanding that evil is punished, not simply for a brief season; it is eternal.  And the moment the word “eternal” is uttered, the game clock shatters, stopped by Divine fiat. 

In much the same way as those who live in the grace of God also mirror the image of their Creator, those who choose to reject God live in the image of the chief rejector, Lucifer.  And the fate that awaits their judgment is a shout from Heaven, pronouncing their eternal residence in the lake of fire.  Scripture calls this fate of those who separate themselves from worshipping God The Second Death. 

No human can look into the eyes of another human and declare lostness; that judgment is reserved for God alone.  But, the fact that we cannot judge each other does not negate the reality of that judgment.  Hear the word of God on this:

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,  Hebrews 9:27

For You Today

Eternal judgment for sin means time stops, but we don’t.  The eternal day of those who live in the light is mirrored by the eternal night of those under judgment.  May we spend our lives pointing others to the light, the joy of Christ, Who is the only escape from the wrath to come.

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

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

After the Rebellion

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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The earth staggers like a drunk.  It trembles like a tent in a storm.  It falls and will not rise again, for the guilt of its rebellion is very heavy.  In that day the Lord will punish the gods in the heavens and the proud rulers of the nations on earth.  They will be rounded up and put in prison.  They will be shut up in prison and will finally be punished.  Then the glory of the moon will wane, and the brightness of the sun will fade, for the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will rule on Mount Zion.  He will rule in great glory in Jerusalem, in the sight of all the leaders of his people.  Isaiah 24:20-23^(NLT)

All you news junkies out there raise your hands.  I have to confess, my hand is up too.  It’s something of an addiction; sometimes I can hardly wait for that moment when I turn on the TV for breaking news. 

In 2003 the manhunt for Sadaam Hussein, the deposed president of Iraq, finally came to a conclusion as he was pulled from his “spider hole” near Tikrit.    Then we watched the proceedings of his trial and eventual punishment.  In all that spectacle I pictured Isaiah’s warning (and that of other Biblical passages) that the earth, namely its unjust leaders and those who serve them, would stagger like a drunk at 3am, that the earthly, man-made evil governmental system would tremble and come unglued from the full force of God’s justice rolling-down like waters over their heads.

Somehow that kind of clean-cut justice, all fitted-together and tied-up with a neat gift bow, tucked away in the record books, is something you only get in a happy ending kind of movie.  The problems in Iraq are hardly “over-and-done-with” – they have many miles to go to straighten out the mess of democracy we supposedly handed to them all pre-packaged and ready to wear.  Somehow the emperor’s new democracy-clothes have holes, tears and unraveling to deal with, just like we have here.

While we’ve been busy bringing peace to the rest of the world, here in “peaceful America” the demonstrations, anger, and almost constant mass killings are so flooding the breaking news cycles, those of us who are self-described news junkies are beginning to exhibit the signs of addictive overload.

I’m afraid those of us who might be looking to the current crop of political candidates for a leader to find us some relief – a new equation for peace, a new legislation that will soothe our national wounds, something/anything that will remotely pass for tranquility or a moment of quiet – are only looking down a spider hole at a new rebellion.  News junkies don’t have to look half way around the world to the Middle East for vindictive and threatening rhetoric – a simple tune-in to the presidential candidates will give your stomach plenty over which to churn all day long!

For You Today

Sounds pretty dark, doesn’t it.  Well it is…and if you believe the first four words of Scripture, In the beginning, God…well, you can believe these words from the good Dr. Luke which talk about this darkness of our existence today:

So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!”  Luke 21:28^(NLT)

The God who created you and all you can see, and that which you can’t see, is going to reign in glory after our rebellion is done.  And there’s no darkness in that!

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

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NOTES

[i] Title Image: By SSGT D. MYLES CULLEN, USAF [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons