When the Scales Dropped

Monday, March 20, 2023

Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.  When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.  But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.  Psalm 146:3-6

So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight.  Then he got up and was baptized.  Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.  Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.  And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”  Acts 9:17-20

Saul (who was later renamed Paul) was a somebody, who, like Moses, raised in the household of Pharaoh as a prince, learned to be a nobody.  And once Saul found out the truth, that placing your trust and pinning your hopes on powerful people is useless, like Moses, Paul went on to become one of God’s most useful servants to proclaim the Good News that Christ is Lord.

Saul’s conversion backstory is that he was extremely well-educated, and quite powerfully-connected to the powers that be.  He was close enough to the movers and shakers in Jerusalem to be entrusted with leading the charge against the new sect of heretics…the Christians.  He was persecuting the church with a vengeance. 

Then came that blinding light on the Road to Damascus.  That light was Jesus.

Saul had been (as Scripture indicates) …uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers.[1]  Suddenly the entire focus of Saul’s life and purpose turned around…180°!  Now his mouth ceased threatening to kill Jesus’ followers, and began inviting those who had been lost to have their eyes opened.  The “scales” covering Saul’s eyes, had fallen away to reveal Paul…the great apostle, whose hand God used to give us one-third of the New Testament Scriptures.  Paul had thought he was a somebody when he was persecuting the nobodies.  When Ananias, one of those nobodies, prayed for Saul, the scales fell off his eyes, and Paul not only saw his errant ways…he began to do something about it. 

I was converted at a young age, and did next-to-nothing about telling the Good News.  In fact, I ran from it, becoming self-centered and anything but a good witness.  It took a Damascus Road event in my life to turn me around.  If there is a regret to my life, it is that I did not share Christ with nearly as many people as God gave me opportunity.  One of my constant prayers is now: 

O God, open my mouth like Paul!

For You Today 

According to the last two sentences in today’s Scripture text, Paul only waited two days to begin preaching.  A Damascus Road face-to-face meeting with Jesus will do that…make an urgency in you to proclaim the Good News. 

Three suggestions about that:

1.    You can have one of those face-to-face moments with Jesus…just ask Him.

2.    Don’t resist the urgency to share the Good News…ever! 

3.    Let the scales drop, my friend…let ‘em drop!

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

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:  The Patience of God with Spiritual Blindness  and I Think I'm Having Stress 

Title Image: Pietro da Cortona, via Wikimedia Commons    Images without citation are in public domain.

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

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[1] See Acts 9:1

The Day Saul Saw the Light

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

“One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests.  About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions.  We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?  It is useless for you to fight against my will.’  “‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked.  “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.  Now get to your feet!  For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness.  Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.  And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles.  Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.  Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’  Acts 26:12-18

Paul the Apostle was called Saul before Jesus renamed him.  At the time of his conversion his purpose in life was to persecute the church.  It seems odd that one who preferred violence for the followers of Christ would become one, and later defend that faith in Christ, with his life at stake.

It’s tempting, and perhaps easier, to just dwell on the mystic trappings of Paul’s conversion story.  A blinding light from Heaven, and the voice of a resurrected Lord Jesus, redirecting Saul’s life.  Or you could draw some interesting parallels, like a man blinded by Jesus, and having his sight restored by a miralce prayer.  These are a rather safe, academic exercise, which carry no burden of personal action or change.  They’re simply good story, with a happy ending; the misguided guy fiercely persecuting the good guy…confronted, humbled, and turning into a good guy, who eventually gets persecuted by the guys who used to support his persecuting the orignial good guy.  Sounds a little soap-opera-ish, or Hallmark movie-ish. 

So, what’s the  takeaway from the day Saul was not only blinded by the light, but eventually saw the light?  I believe it’s in the trial.  Paul is on trial for heresy (which carried a death sentence in those days…not a contract with Netflix to tell your story, and a blog and Twitter-follower-crowd in the millions).

The trial allowed Saul, now Paul, a defense.  And with an adroitness any sharp lawyer would’ve envied, Paul didn’t mince words.  He relied on only two simple principles in laying-out his entire case:  truth, and witness. 

In the TRUTH department, Paul told the judges who he was…a persecuter of the church, who met the Jesus of the church, and was converted. 

And in the WTNESS, department, Paul stuck to what had happened to him, how God had to blind him, in order for him to see that to which he’d chosen to be blind…the love of God that offered Paul, and all of us, salvation and eternal life.

And then he rested his case, trusting God for the outcome.

For You Today

Paul gave us the ultimate strategy and modus operandi, God’s formula for being a witness of truth…THE TRUTH, what a disciple of Jesus should live for, sharing the truth with others about what God wants for each of us. 

It’s Tell your story, Rest your case, and Trust God for the outcome. 

It’s as simple as that!

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

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

Rushing to the Plunder

 

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command.”  Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the Lord all night.  Early the next morning Samuel went to find Saul.  Someone told him, “Saul went to the town of Carmel to set up a monument to himself; then he went on to Gilgal.”  When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully.  “May the Lord bless you,” he said.  “I have carried out the Lord’s command!”  “Then what is all the bleating of sheep and goats and the lowing of cattle I hear?” Samuel demanded.  “It’s true that the army spared the best of the sheep, goats, and cattle,” Saul admitted.  “But they are going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God.  We have destroyed everything else.”  Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop!  Listen to what the Lord told me last night!”  “What did he tell you?” Saul asked.  And Samuel told him, “Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel?  The Lord has anointed you king of Israel.  And the Lord sent you on a mission and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.’  Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord?  Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?”  “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me.  I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else.  Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”  But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord:  your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?  Listen!  Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.  Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.  So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”  Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned.  I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.  But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord.”  But Samuel replied, “I will not go back with you! Since you have rejected the Lord’s command, he has rejected you as king of Israel.”  As Samuel turned to go, Saul tried to hold him back and tore the hem of his robe.  And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to someone else—one who is better than you.  And he who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!”  1 Samuel 15:10-29

King Saul failed to go all-in with the mission to serve God.  His specific instructions were to destroy everything.  And this is a trait of the imperfection of human nature.  We imagine there is a little glory in it for us if we just tweak the plans.  Saul had been instructed to destroy the entire target, but he wanted to please his troops, so he held-back the best of the plunder to throw a party.  Samuel had guided Saul, being a connection between God and the king.  Now Samuel had to deliver the crushing message that God would replace Saul for his disobedience.

This passage is generally taught as a caution for leaders…and it is.  However, there is more in it than just a leadership seminar.  This event in Israel’s history is illustrative of what can happen to any of us when we get lax or sloppy in doing what God called each of us to do, whether it is as a parent, student, plumber, doctor, or telemarketer.  And the hinge of that principle falls on where we imagine our security stands.  Saul was afraid of the people’s support and what it would mean to his position, so he gave them what they wanted, instead of what God had commanded.  And, when called on it by the prophet, he then blamed the people. 

Saul was a sad excuse for a leader because he tried to claim a victory while ducking responsibility; you cannot have both!

For You Today

If you are as “important” as a king, or business leader, or part of a church body, or simply responsible for nobody but yourself, you are serving God, and in that relationship, you have His Word to guide you.  And it is without question that we must be found faithful[1] stewards of the time, talents, and tithes God has placed in our hands.  To do less is to dabble in discipleship; God calls us to go all-in, not just sample the waters of public opinion.

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 A Rebellious Servant - Part 1 and A Rebellious Servant - Part 2      

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[1] 1 Corinthians 4:2

 

When the Tank is Empty

 

Monday, July 13, 2020

Psalm 142:1-7

I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy.  I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.  When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn.  Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.  I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought!  No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.  Then I pray to you, O Lord.  I say, “You are my place of refuge.  You are all I really want in life.  Hear my cry, for I am very low.  Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.  Bring me out of prison so I can thank you.  The godly will crowd around me, for you are good to me.”

King David was looking back on the time before he was king, and the reigning king, Saul (who was bordering on psychotic at the time) was chasing him all over Israel to stamp out the decree that God had made through the prophet Samuel, that David would be the one to replace Saul on the throne.  It was a king and his army, the most powerful army on earth, against one young man, who had taken to hiding in caves and pretending to be a lunatic to avoid being captured and executed.  In the words of the Verizon guy, David is praying and cries out to God:  I’m LOW…can you hear me now?  Considering the circumsances, to say that David was low, or severly depressed, and that he was out of options with an empty tank, just seems a little understated.  The situation was as critical as it gets. 

J.D. Walt writes a devotional I’ve been reading for awhile now, and in a recent post he shares about stumbling points in faith; in his concluding prayer he states it clearly that, when it comes to his faith, there are gaps…

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. I confess it with joy—Jesus is Lord! I want to mean it with all my heart, mind, soul and strength. There are gaps. Come Holy Spirit and fill in the gaps in my own character and maturity. Thank you for grace in the meantime. Train me to be so gracious with others. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.[1] 

I don’t know many people who won’t admit to the dry times, when gaps in our faith bring us low.  Let’s face it, the tank, if not attended to, gets empty, and we get sidelined, unable to move forward; we feel depletetd, deleted, and halted in our spiritual and emotional life.  Sometimes it may be because the world really is at odds with us and we’re up against it; at other times (perhaps most times) it’s just that we haven’t taken sufficient self-care to keep the tank refueled.  Either way, being down and out is not fun.  Waiting by the side of the road, empty gas can in hand, on the chance some kind Samaritan will give you a ride to the gas station, is not my idea of a fine way to spend a Saturday afternoon. 

When your tank is empty the tendency is to hide how foolish you were in running out of gas.  When a Christian’s spiritual tank runs low, because of self-inflicted sins, or just a lack of attention to keeping the worship tank full, sometimes the game plan gets tossed.  Worship, prayer, ministry, fellowship with other believers, and being in the place where (as David put it) …the godly will crowd around me, is put aside in favor of staying in our four walls to sulk, lick wounds, and generally wallow in our misery.

Do you recall that feeling you had one time (or a thousand) when it was Sunday, and you just weren’t feeling it…just didn’t want to go to church…but the “habit” took over, and you went anyway?  Do you recall how you felt so much better that afternoon?  That’s what happens when you make a decision that the momentary gap in your faith is not going to rule the day.  And God’s Spirit gathers the godly around you, and focus returns; and your heart is glad.

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, our gaps are too real, and too strong sometimes.  Come, fill those gaps with the balm of Gilead; heal our stripes, and make us whole, so we can serve and honor your name.

For You Today

Nobody schedules a gap time; that stuff is manufactured as a surprise attack in the pit of Hell and shows up when you least expect it.  The preventative is to keep the tank full of worship, praise, service, sacrifice, and discipleship.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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

For another post on Psalm 142 see Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me

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[1] J.D. Walt’s The Seedbed Daily Text

Deepening

Monday, March 30, 2020

Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my plea!  Answer me because you are faithful and righteous.  Don’t put your servant on trial, for no one is innocent before you.  My enemy has chased me.  He has knocked me to the ground and forces me to live in darkness like those in the grave.  I am losing all hope; I am paralyzed with fear.  I remember the days of old.  I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done.  I lift my hands to you in prayer.  I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain.       Interlude   Come quickly, Lord, and answer me, for my depression deepens.  Don’t turn away from me, or I will die.  Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.  Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.  Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to you to hide me.  Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.  May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.  For the glory of your name, O Lord, preserve my life.  Because of your faithfulness, bring me out of this distress.  In your unfailing love, silence all my enemies and destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.  Psalm 143:1-12

Young David had been the rising star of Israel, having defeated Goliath, called to the palace to be advisor, spiritual mentor, and chief music therapist to King Saul.  When David later wrote this Psalm, he was remembering the aftermath of Saul’s paranoiac rage that drove David not only from the palace, but from any kind of life at all.  David was hounded by Saul’s armies, forced to live with the spiders and scorpions in caves, or just anywhere out of Saul’s reach.  In light of his reputation, position, calling, service and his very life hanging by a thread, we can understand the future king’s deepening into the downward spiral of depression!

If you’re one of those A-type, always up, optimistic persons who has never had a down moment, blessed with an always-full-and-running-over glass – on behalf of 99.75% of the world…you’re really annoying to the rest of us who live in reality!

Now, admittedly, that is not very pastoral sounding!  (Ya think, Russell?).  The only problem with a pastor not saying that would be an ethical disconnect from truth.  The fact remains that depression, either occasionally, or as a lifelong battle, is part of the typical experience of fallen humanity.  If you doubt that, you’re behind on your Bible reading, and/or need a reality check.  We live in an anti-depressant saturated society.  And it’s deepening!

I love old sayings (not just because I’m old – I’ve loved hearing them all my life).  One of those sayings is MISERY LOVES COMPANY – but, frankly, who wants another depressed person around when you’re already hanging on for dear life?  Answer:  just about everybody.  And with good reason; when you’re depressed who wants a Jack Russell Springer jumping up and down with a dog-toothy smile, wanting to play?  No, we want a Bassett Hound, willing to just lay next to us with body heat and a slow pulse we can feel in rhythm with our own.  We want someone who has, or is, walking where we’re drowning.  We don’t want to be told cheer up…it’s a beautiful day; we want to be understood, because whatever beauty God’s created to see out there, on our inside it’s darker than midnight!

For You Today

King David walked there, and he thought deeply about it, and gives us the kind of lifeline that brings a little refreshing rain on the parched ground of souls that have been ground down like powder and swept away with the wind of chance.  And David knows the only genuinely sane way out is the way of the upward; it’s to take the deepening sense of depression and own it before God.  Only there is the beginning of restoration.  Let’s face it, you can’t climb out of the pit; you must be led-out, by the Hand of One who has conquered it!  So, if you’re ready, He is!

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

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

For another post on battling depression Psalm 143:  see Zombie No Longer

Standing in the Line of Judgment

[1]

Friday, November 15, 2019

We have two passages today…both hard to hear, both with questions that leave us wanting answers.  The first lesson is a story from King David’s time of long past sins of Saul that have serious consequences for his children and grandchildren; the other passage is Paul’s New Testament take on the suffering Christians were enduring.

There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the Lord about it.  And the Lord said, “The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.”  So the king summoned the Gibeonites.  They were not part of Israel but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites.  The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to wipe them out.  David asked them, “What can I do for you?  How can I make amends so that you will bless the Lord’s people again?”  “Well, money can’t settle this matter between us and the family of Saul,” the Gibeonites replied.  “Neither can we demand the life of anyone in Israel.”  “What can I do then?” David asked.  “Just tell me and I will do it for you.”  Then they replied, “It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel.  So let seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.”  “All right,” the king said, “I will do it.”  The king spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, who was Saul’s grandson, because of the oath David and Jonathan had sworn before the Lord.  But he gave them Saul’s two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. He also gave them the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, the wife of Adriel son of Barzillai from Meholah.  The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the Lord.  So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.  Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men, spread burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season.  She prevented the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night.  When David learned what Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan.  (When the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, the people of Jabesh-gilead stole their bodies from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them.)  So David obtained the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed.  Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin.  After that, God ended the famine in the land.                        2 Samuel 21:1-14

And then Paul’s making sense of persecution in the light of someone else’s sin:

Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing.  We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering.  And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering.  In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you.  And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven.…So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call.  May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.  Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him.            2 Thessalonians 1:3-7a, 11-12a

Because we’ve all experienced being sinful we can understand our need of grace, but we do wonder sometimes at the harshness of God’s judgment, especially why God precipitated what would lead to the execution of two of Saul’s sons, and five grandsons.  Saul was the one who sinned.  At back of our wonder over such things is a question…is that consistent with a loving God?  And faith must answer…of course. 

For You Today

One day when Christ comes to judge we will have all the answers we ever wondered about.  For this day don’t worry over what you don’t understand; if you wonder, ask again.  He’ll either give you an answer, or peace about letting it rest.  Don’t be distracted from serving Him by what you don’t know; put to use that which you do know; tell others how he saved your soul!

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

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[1] Title Image:  Wikimedia Commons      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©