An Angry World

 

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Why are the nations so angry?  Psalm 2:1

My mother was not a person prone to anger.  I can only recall seeing her lose it one time, when my dog ate the ingredients for a cake she was going to make for an upcoming birthday.  He only ate the sugar, frosting, and butter; he spread the flour all around the kitchen…every nook and cranny; it was the Pillsbury cloud! Come to think of it, that was also the time I heard the only cuss word ever to drop from her lips!  She chased my dog around the house with that big wooden spoon.  She never caught him…probably a good thing; if she had caught-up with the beast it might have completed the deadly sins triple-crown: anger, cussing, and murder!

The decades which followed World War II were, for me, was what it was like to live in Andy Griffith’s world, with Aunt Bea, Barney Fife, Gomer Pile, and Opie.  My summer days were spent exploring Miller’s woods, playing with frogs, and swimming at Stump Pond with the snapping turtles.  We rode bikes, and played “cowboys and Indians”.

That childhood is a fond memory, but it was not perfect.  We also had the threat of nuclear bombs dropping on us, drills in school; when that burst of bells rang, we all scrambled to see who could be first to get under our desks.  (To this day I still wonder who thought that up…a child’s wooden desk as protection from a nuclear blast?)

Interpersonal relationships were light years different than currently.  If a boy got a little flustered and dropped a “bad word” (anything stronger than darn), especially in front of a girl child or two, culture demanded an immediate apology.  Sex was only mentioned in school while dissecting frogs in Science class.  The internet of today may have developed its’ lightning-fast information-sharing from the way inappropriate behavior at school reached a child’s mother and dad before you got off the bus that afternoon.

As gentle and non-violent as my Mom was 99.99% of the days of her life, she would have stood out like a sore thumb in today’s culture.  Today’s foulness of language and angry in-your-face, stay-out-of-my-space, while I act out my sexual preferences for all the world to see on Instagram and Face Book, is the perfect medium for developing the attitude that, no suppressed wish to grab a gun and obliterate those who have angered you, will go unchecked.  The tantrum of an undeveloped sense of self-control is punctuated by the sound of semi-automatic gunfire.  And the weeping of Godly-grieving over this angry world is faintly heard from above.

For You Today  

Grieving the loss of what once was…even if that grief is somewhat biased by the rose-colored glasses of an old man’s memory of a so-called better day…is not to suggest we have nothing to which we can look forward.  Rather it just gives the appropriate frame for what God has promised.  To do that, let’s let apostle Paul have today’s last word, about the good that is coming, which will dispel the darkness of harsh times of anger in this world in which we live.  Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers:

…we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.  First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

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: 

Advice for the Mighty  and  Now Then, You Kings, Act Wisely  and  Short Fuse  and So Much Anger 

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

Cleansed!

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.                       1 Corinthians 6:11

Paul makes the point that trusting Christ has forgiven us, brings with it the sense that we’ve been cleansed from our sins, made right with God.  It is also hardly necessary to say, we should, as his serious disciples, continue to live cleansed.

In the full-disclosure department, I’m as prone to do goofy stuff as much as any other human…sometimes more!  Last week I had one of those moments.  I was running a little bit behind schedule, and was picking up the pace to get on track.  We had finished a late breakfast.  We use paper plates to go easy on the dishwasher, so one of the last moments of a meal is letting Wellie (our resident dishwasher) lick the plate clean.  For a small dog, that tongue does a big job, removing every last reminder there was ever food on the plate.

Carrying the silverware, coffee cups, and Wellie-cleaned paper plates into the kitchen, I put the cups and forks in the sink.  Staring at the paper plates in my hand, time stood still for just an instant.  I had a moment of indecision-muddle, whether to put the paper plates in the sink, garbage, or with the clean dishware in the cabinet.  It was a disturbance of my peace, to say the least.

I know, and have always known, eating off the same plate a dog has cleaned (even my sweet mutt), is a disgusting prospect.  But, there it is…an unguarded moment, thinking about getting out the door for our appointment, not the task at hand; I nearly chose the cabinet.  After all, we had paid six-cents apiece for those little plates; a second use would cut the price in half!

It was then reality kicked-in.  In that moment, confronted with saving three-cents, (Six-cents if you factor-in reusing my wife’s plate too….don’t you dare tell her), in that two or three nanoseconds of indecision, common sense arrived.  There was no justification for saving three (or six) cents, stacked-up against the zillions of dollars I’d spend at the doctor’s office battling whatever exotic germs my dog had brought-in on his tongue from rummaging around on the ground in the back yard.  The plates immediately entered the kingdom of trash.

My “goofy moment” is an analogy of what’s going on in our minds, spiritually, with the whole issue of temptation.  There are things a six-year-old understands to be wrong, yet we entertain them; we give sin a foothold.  Given time, prayer, and a heart willing to align with God’s will, our decision-making becomes much stronger, rejecting the impulses we have, which our enemy, Satan is more than willing to use in ruining our witness and peace in Christ.

John Wesley’s advice on getting the best use of our time and call to minister God’s Word and blessings to others, speaks volumes to my tendency to be preoccupied, and vulnerable to the enemy’s tactics:  Be always moving, and never in a hurry.

For You Today  

Let’s let apostle Peter have the last word about this day’s caution:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  1 Peter 5:8

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: 

The Problem with Dirty Laundry  and  When Innocence Shines

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

Paul's Conundrum

 

Thursday, June 30, 2022

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  I love God’s law with all my heart.  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind.  This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.  Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So you see how it is:  In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  Romans 7:21-25

One of the dictionary definitions for the word conundrum is a riddle, or a question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer.  A second definition is:  a confusing and difficult problem or question.  Paul’s conundrum has none of the first definition; there’s little humor in struggling with sin, doing the one thing you hate most, and not doing what you really want to do, because it is the nature of darkness drawing you to it, with all the power of Hell behind it.  Paul’s conundrum is the second type, a confusing and difficult problem, and the question behind it…why can’t I do better than this?  In short, it’s a living Hell.

Paul’s conundrum is ours.  Somewhere between the cradle and adulthood, most everyone with a reasonable grip on reality begins to understand this most awkward of life’s realities:  you know you were created for better than what you do…and you also know you can’t help yourself.  It’s like that with the chocolate-covered Payday bar that has been sitting on my desk since my birthday three days ago, that I do not want to eat, yet I want to eat it more than take my next breath. 

If I had any sense (about my weight and health) I might be able to take one bite and put the balance in the fridge for next week’s bite.  It would last a month or six weeks, and I’d need that long to burn off the extra sugar thinking about doing some exercise…which is another thing tied to Paul’s conundrum.  (But I digress)

Paul’s condition (that which led him to label himself the worst of all sinners[1]) is, an unanswerable riddle, a plague in the life of everyone in Adam’s lineage.  Paul agonized over his desire to do good, and the eventual result of messing up…again, and again!  And, if you can say with a straight face that you’ve never encountered that in your personal experience, you haven’t lived long enough, sinned big enough, or honestly come face to face with reality of the human condition.  Hang around a little longer, think a little deeper, and keep your eyes open.  You will see the DNA of your personal goodness come untangled at some point.

The good news of Paul’s (and our) condition is, when you ask the same question, Who will deliver me from this hell…there is, and always has been (in the heart and lovingkindness of God’s plan) an answer for any who are willing to bend a knee.  The answer is Jesus Christ; he will BE the power that overcomes sin for you, because He knows you cannot do it by yourself.

For You Today

If you haven’t bumped into this question/conundrum, you either haven’t been honest, or you’ve not been listening.  It’s there, and it is related to whatever troubling behavior, and nagging guilt exists in the back of your mind.  And God has provided the only remedy for what ails you:

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.               1 John 1:9

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

For other posts on this topic:  Impossible and Free Will

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

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[1] This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.  1 Timothy 1:15

A Life with Focus

 

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.  These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.  In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.  Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.  The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.  So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.  Do these things, and you will never fall away.  Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

2 Peter 1:3-11

I watched a TV show recently where one of the main characters, a lawyer, gets a middle-age wakeup call.  As an opportunity of a lifetime to advance her career presents herself, she hires a campaign strategist to test the waters for a run at public office.  Eventually the idea is scrapped because the strategist discovers the “likability factor” just isn’t there.  To be “electable” these days, the public wants more than just competence; a candidate must have personality.  The strategist probes deeper, and forces the lawyer to face what her life is really like.  She has almost no friends, does not travel, go to events, or “have a life” outside of her immediate family.  As for “public appeal” she is just part of the landscape.

With Peter, the likability factor wasn’t even an afterthought.  For the outspoken Apostle, the more important focus in life is godliness.  He informs his flock that God has placed in their toolboxes everything needed to turn their lives in a godly direction, to find the pathway to a life of moral excellence.  This aspiration to focus on building a life that is focused on pleasing God (rather than the acclaim of personal glory), is fueled by God’s own promises. 

Peter lays-out a road map that will take you to the Promised Land of godliness, the growing of our faith which produces mature, fruitful disciples of Christ.  Notice the progression from moral excellence to the application of love:

Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

Like the other apostles Peter was once concerned with seeing Jesus have an earthly kingdom.  Somewhere in the travels and trials, Peter finally got what Jesus said about a kingdom that is far greater than any earthly public office or acclaim.  He got a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

For You Today

So, what is the focus of your life?  And what kingdom and King holds your heart? 

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

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

For other posts on this text see the SERIES  “Conversations with Peter”  Episode # ONE  TWO  THREE  FOUR   FIVE  SIX  SEVEN   EIGHT   

Fruit of the Spirit - Part 8 SELF-CONTROL

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Thursday, May 30, 2019

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Galatians 5:22-23

I have learned to pay attention to Grandma.  Now, that certainly applies to the Grandma I live with, but it also reveres the tons of wisdom that flow from Grandma’s hearts everywhere.  My Mother’s Mom, Grandma Carrie, had a favorite expression that Solomon would’ve loved:  Enough is too much!

Over the years I have learned to decode this piece of wisdom that corresponds so well to the Godly advice of Scripture.  Now, it seems a contradiction that having enough isn’t right, but Grandma said it was too much.  The arguable point here is that our natural appetites for anything we like will always take us over the top if we get what we want. 

Consider Solomon’s advice on the matter:

Do you like honey?  Don’t eat too much, or it will make you sick!  

Don’t visit your neighbors too often, or you will wear out your welcome.

Proverbs 25:16-17

Does that sound like Grandma to you?  Who can argue against those warnings?  My Dad would shout a loud “amen” here, especially to that honey thing.  During the Great Depression my Dad was a teenager.  His parent’s home was an apartment in New York, on the second floor, right over a neighborhood delicatessen.  The owner took a liking to my Dad, and every day handed him several samples of cheeses when he was coming or going. 

It was great, free cheese!  But after six months of the fabulous cheese giveaways enough became too much!  To the day he died my dad couldn’t be comfortable in the same room with cheese!

This brings us to the spiritual warning of too much cheese or anything else for which we would sacrifice moderation:

A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.

Proverbs 25:28

The obvious reference here is a city or nation that lets its guard down becoming easy prey for the enemy.  If you’re going to remain free, the cost is to remain vigilant.  That means more than being tough to keep the bad guys out of your business, it also means taking care to guard your appetite for too much of any good thing, because it will make you easy prey for the chief enemy:

Stay alert!  Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  1 Peter 5:8

This advice from Grandma Carrie (by way of Solomon) about enough being too much is proved out in Scripture, even in Satan’s life.  Ultimately, his over-the-top appetite for “devouring” the spiritual life of God’s children will be his enough undoing.  That war against God that he loves so much will be his too much!

For You Today

Like a city without walls is hard to defend, so is your spirit without self-control.  So, pay careful attention to developing moderation and self-denial; you either rule your spirit or lose it!

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

Next Steps

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Tuesday, December 11, 2018

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.  These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.  In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.  Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.  2 Peter 1:3-7(NLT)

Just like babies climb even a small series of steps, babes in Christ must also ascend.  It isn’t easy to step-up, but growing up in Christ by responding to God’s promises is vital; it’s what makes us useful tools in God’s hands.  And, in the long view, growing-up is what fits our character.  It is natural for babies to stretch and discover how to roll-over.  They stand and wobble as toddlers, falling many times before learning to walk.  They crash and burn learning to ride a two-wheeler.  They venture into social circles at school and learn puppy love can hurt.  We grow, love, hate, learn, and repeat.  We are human.

As spiritual beings this cycle also is familiar.  Peter, the big fisherman, understood spiritual things better than most.  In today’s reading we see him painting the broad stroke first, that God has given us everything we need to grow up and live godly lives.  And then he re-covers the canvass with the detail strokes of how to approach the pattern of next-steps. 

This is where many believers stumble.  We get the erroneous idea that steps are always upward.  In the life of one who is learning, pointed at becoming a useful disciple/servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is never about stepping-upward; discipleship is all about dust.  In fact, the Greek word for servant is very connected to dust; it’s about one who bows low enough to be close to the ground – low enough to wash feet…just like the Master!

Many people get the idea that “faith” is the be-all, and end-all of the Christian life.  It is true that we walk by faith, but that is an entry-point, not a destination.  We begin with a faith-leap that says I will do things God’s way.  

That leads to a step-downward, (backward, if you will) to the moral excellence of eliminating those things which dishonor God, such as sexual sins, dishonesty, lack of respect, and so-on.  

We step down again, studying the Word of God to gain knowledge, so that the next step-down, of self-control, is informed and intelligent, actually doable and intentional. 

As we continue stepping-into the dust we are confronted with the world’s disapproval of our new life, and are forced to add patient endurance to our repertoire. 

And, suddenly, before we know it Godliness is beginning to emerge in our character, and we find ourselves steeped in affection for our brothers and sisters in Christ, which, at dirt/dust level begins to turn our attention to the rest of the human community; we find ourselves hurting for the rest of God’s created beings.  It’s the kind of hurt that only God’s kind of love understands.

For You Today

Next steps in the Christian life isn’t about standing tall; it’s all about getting down and dusty.  And if the world decides to lift you up, to put you on a cross – you’ll be in good company, disciple of your Master!

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