Divided

Monday, October 16, 2023

But you, my dear friends, must remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ predicted.  They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires.  These people are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them.  But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life.  In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.  Jude 17-21

Jude warns that divisions in the church would be a constant threat to the spiritual health of Christians because war-like conditions are brought about when selfish ambition takes over.  If you have followed Christ, and been part of the church, you understand; despite the smiles on Sunday, there are spiritually shell-shocked believers in every pew.  And, the truth is coming to the surface, no matter how much we learn about interpersonal relationships and personally-toxic behavior, and no matter how many sermons are delivered on unity and kindness, the division in humanity is growing deeper, breaking-up more homes, closing the doors of more churches, and spewing hatred into every seam of life’s fabric.  

According to Jude there are two characteristics that are present in a human being who causes division of any kind:

1.    Selfish ambition – people who honor their personal desires above any person or sense of morality.  They only care about themselves.

2.    Ichabod – the Hebrew word which describes the absence of God’s Spirit.

These two telltale signs are related and always bound in the heart of the ungodly.

Jude says the antidote, or immunization from this condition is to build each other up in [our] most holy faith.  This is the open door to patience in prayer, the willingness to let the lesser things of personal ambition fall by the wayside, in favor of progress in God’s Kingdom.  That, says Jude, is the only way to remain spiritually-safe, living-into God’s love.  So then, what does it mean to live-into God’s love?  Glad you asked.  I grew-up in the 1950’s-60’s.  It was the heyday of Billy Graham’s crusades.  The whole emphasis on church growth was personal salvation…the revivalist mode.  We cannot in good faith deny the need for that; it is the entry door to God’s house and family.  However, being born-again presents the picture of a new infant.  In matters of the Spirit that is good, and it can be disastrous.  It’s necessary and wonderful to be born, but to stay an infant means a lifetime of dependency.  Arrested growth is not desirable; it is a death sentence to God’s blessing of maturing in your relationship with Christ and others.  Infants have a milk diet, but not forever; they graduate to adult food…with good reason:

Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation….You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple.  He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.  And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.  1 Peter 2:2-5

The grown-up baby stones, gathered, and strategically-placed together by the Master Builder, become stronger by the support and strength of communal effort.  A common slogan you’ll hear these days is Together We are Stronger.  That’s true in any sense, but it is critically-vital for the church, and God’s Kingdom.  Without denying-self and personal ambition, in favor of taking-up Calvary’s cross, the church will be as empty as more promises from Washington, D.C.

For You Today 

Discipleship – growing into a mature relationship with Christ and other believers, is what’s on the agenda today, and every moment until God calls us home.

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.

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Faith Seasoned Wisdom

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Then Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother, Esau, who was living in the region of Seir in the land of Edom.  He told them, “Give this message to my master Esau: ‘Humble greetings from your servant Jacob.  Until now I have been living with Uncle Laban, and now I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, and many servants, both men and women.  I have sent these messengers to inform my lord of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to me.’”  After delivering the message, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We met your brother, Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you—with an army of 400 men!”  Jacob was terrified at the news.  He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups.  He thought, “If Esau meets one group and attacks it, perhaps the other group can escape.”  Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac—O Lord, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’  I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant.  When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps!  O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau.  I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children.  But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’”  Genesis 32:3-12

To learn from your mistakes is the essential quality of wisdom.  To apply faith to wisdom is to serve God above all.  Jacob had a rocky, selfish start to life.  It started in his mother’s womb, when he and his twin brother, Esau, had a daily wrestling match.  As they were born, Esau was first out, but Jacob was hot on his heels, actually grabbing his brother’s foot.  It was sibling rivalry with the first breath.

The story of their lives in their father Isaac’s home was contentious, to say the least.  Jacob’s selfish behavior divided his mother and dad, and made an enemy of his twin brother.  Esau was so angry with his brother’s treacherous ways, Jacob had to leave home and go live with their uncle Laban at a safe distance.  Esau swore he’d kill his twin if ever they met again.

Fast forward twenty years…Jacob is much wiser, and is on his way home to reconcile with his family.  He has no clue as to Esau’s mindset…will his brother make good on his vengeance threat?  Will it end in calamity?  Jacob is wise at this point, dividing his wives and children into two camps, hoping to minimize losses of life and property, if Esau is still bent on Jacob’s death.  But a new dimension has foraged its’ way into Jacob’s life and thinking – faith!  The night before he was to face Esau, he met face-to-face with God’s angel, and the outcome was Jacob’s commitment to serve God, and live by faith, even if it meant giving up everything he'd gained, or even his own life. 

What Jacob had learned was what Jesus told Peter hundreds of years later – swords, be they steel or the treachery of human selfishness, may work for awhile, but they have little place in the heart of God.  It is faith that wins.[1] 

Seasoning the wisdom of learned mistakes and rocky roads, with faith God has given, is the mark of a life changed and usable in God’s Kingdom.  It took Jacob decades of hard lessons to shed his clever ways in favor of God’s clear kindness…the deep faith of the unashamed!

For You Today 

This world will afford you many opportunities to follow both Esau and Jacob’s early mistakes and sins…greed, treachery, revenge, and power.  In the end, those things only produce pain and regret, whether you wind up in jail, or residing in a mansion.  It’s all loss in Heaven’s record books.  The other, wiser choice is to season whatever you have learned with faith to do what the prophet Micah wrote:  do what is right, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

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 Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons 

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

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[1] See John 18:10-11

Morning Prayer

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Your laws are wonderful.  No wonder I obey them!  The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.  I pant with expectation, longing for your commands.  Come and show me your mercy, as you do for all who love your name.  Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.  Psalm 119:129-133

Laws are meant to be broken!  So goes the twisted thinking of the outlaw.  Yet, those who perceive themeselves as uniquely qualified to judge the laws of God and man do not realize (or perhaps they do not care) that by ignoring how the Sovereign Lord has designed life to be a blessing, they are storing up misery for themselves, and anyone who will follow their lead.  Jesus, speaking to religious leaders who were largely hypocritical imposters, said they looked like big shots, parading around in their expensive robes, but on the inside they were lawbreakers; their hearts were set on their own will, not God’s:

 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Matthew 23:28

The “law” the Psalmist characterized as “wonderful” was what we commonly call the Ten Commandments[1].  What makes them so wonderful is the power they contain to make life wonderful and a blessing to all who live within their parameters.  Consider the outcome when we live God’s way:

1.    No other gods – Life is better with focus…not a thousand different gods.

2.    Worship God, not what He has created – again focus…worship only God.

3.    Keep God’s name holy – think of life without Hollywood’s profanity!

4.    Sabbath reserved for worship – we often forget important stuff.  A routine that includes worship guards against slipping-away from good living.

5.    Honor father & mother – what you do is what you’ll also receive…honor.

6.    Do not murder – would our lives be better off with less homicide?

7.    Do not commit adultery – wouldn’t trust be better than constant suspicion?

8.    Do not steal – would life be better if we could do without locks on things?

9.    No false witness – if truth reigned, the courts would be empty.

10. No greed for what’s not yours – would life be simpler if we were people of glad contentment – both for what we have, and glad for what our neighbor has worked for?

Now that’s the short list of benefit tracks that could make life much sweeter.  There could be volumes written on all the side benefits associated with living like God designed it.  But the chief benefit of all is being able to approach God at any time of day with confidence that your prayers will be heard with Heaven’s favor.  The value of having an up-to-the-minute relationship with the King of the Universe is eternal joy.  Knowing He loves you is wonderful, but sensing His presence, because your heart is clean before Him is abundance in all that makes life worthwhile. 

For You Today 

My morning prayer, every morning tracks with the Psalmist’s thought:

Guide my steps by your word, so I will not be overcome by evil.

I want that more than life itself. 

If in this moment it was possible for you to have a house valued at $5-million, and a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, $3-billion in the bank, and be elected President of the United States – OR an up-to-the-minute, intimate friendship with God, which would you choose?

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Exodus 20:1-17

From WHAT to WHY and EVERYTHING In-Between

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones.  Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.  Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh.  The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh!  The Lord!  The God of compassion and mercy!  I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.  I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.  I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.  But I do not excuse the guilty.  I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.  Exodus 34:4-7

There is a statement which, in essence, is deeply-ingrained in American culture, and is unquestionably anti-Christian.  It uncovers just how far we can drop from the tree of faith.  The statement (or its equivalent) is thus:

Nobody can tell me what to do; it’s MY life.

There are two responses to that statement which make it a logical non sequitur:

     1.    Your life would be yours alone if you didn’t belong to someone else.

     2.    Your life’s actions would have no consequences if the One who owns you didn’t connect you to everyone else, including your family tree.

The first response comes from the unquestionable fact that you didn’t create yourself.  Your parents had a hand in things, but it was God who formed you in the womb, and breathed the breath of a soul into your bones.  God said so in his meeting with Moses…Yahweh…the LORD; He is the Creator/Owner of all.

The second response is about consequences of what we do, which Yahweh also covered in the agenda with Moses.  The “document” he chiseled in stone covered the basic details of human behavior.  We call it the Ten Commandments; we venerate them, and, to a person, violate them.  And when we transgress those we set up misery for those who follow, even to the third and fourth generation.

Of course there is a positive side to view in this.  When we are obedient to God’s ways, we set up blessing to the generations that follow.  However, adopting the current culture’s mindset of I’m the only one that matters…I’ll do what I want, is hardly a formula for blessing.  Suppose that “what I want” is to become an alcoholic-addicted bank robber?  Think of the tentacles that reach into the wake of your actions for the many humans of the world’s population.  And imagine your children (and theirs) living with the fallout from that heritage of your behavior. 

When it comes to communicating a message of God’s love and our responsibility to respond with Godly living, people want to know why they should be subjected to living within so many rules.  Well, you have questions, and you want answers; God, the Sovereign Lord of the universe and all it holds has those answers, from the WHAT, to the WHY, and EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN!

For You Today 

Do you remember what your father or mother (or both) said to you when you asked the why question as a little child?  They said:  Because I said so.

You didn’t like that…it wasn’t enough.  Now you understand…they were only repeating what God said.  He said to Moses, and all of us:  That stuff I wrote on those stone tablets…you do it…because I AM said so.

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 on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Trivial Pursuit  and  Rats      

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

Cradle to Grave - Part 4

Friday, November 18, 2022

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.  Ecclesiastes 11:5

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.  Psalm 127:3

This week we have been tracing some of the moral, ethical, and spiritual perspectives surrounding the issue of abortion.  It’s time to cut-to-the-chase with a summary of logic.

The illogicality of choosing abortion ignores the basic premise that God alone is God, and we are not!  If God is truly the creator, giver, and sustainer of life, choosing the opposite – death – is nothing less than an all-out declaration of war.  We have free will to disagree with logic and the supremacy of God, but the result is never pretty.  The Creator is greater than what He has created.  As created beings we are subject to the governance of He who is above creation.  God is the arbiter of what is holy and sacred, and life is His choice.

Those who choose abortion disregard the responsibility of parenting, which begins with the decision to be sexually active.    Sexuality is a gift from God that is primarily/inextricably tied to reproduction.  (Even the most rabid of those who are pro-abortion use the term reproductive rights.)  While pleasure and intimacy are a wonderful part of a sexual relationship, not just by-products of the reproductive process, they are not primary.   As anyone with half a brain can attest, with rights come responsibility to use those rights in accord with that which respects the possible outcome…the re-creation of a new life.

Deciding to get an abortion is more emotional than logical.  It is the same kind of decision Adam and Eve made out of fear that God would “discover” their sin.  They hid when they heard Him coming.  Their plan didn’t work.  The fruit of the forbidden tree was supposed to make them as wise as God; all it managed was getting them evicted from the perfect home God had given them. 

Emotion, just as sexuality, is many-faceted.  It can have positive benefits when rightly directed, and tragic results when allowed to govern our choices unilaterally!  Logic demands we consider our actions.  Spiritual understanding demands that logic begins with honoring God with all our decisions.  If you need a verse that says that clearly, Solomon, the wise son of King David, is your man:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6

What are the so-called logical considerations that are common to those who seek to terminate a child in the womb?  Lifestyle interruption – a career, education, personal freedom from parental responsibility…these and more, which say that what we want cannot be interrupted with caring for a child.  It is the height of selfishness.

For You Today  

There is much more to be explored here than is possible in the few minutes of a morning devotion, so I leave you with just these few thoughts today:

There is a decision to be made:  Will it be God's authority or yours?  Will your choice honor or defy God?  Will it be an emotional choice alone, or have you done the hard dance with logic and prayer?

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: 

       When It's God's Move   and   The Cry Heard in Ramah

Images: Title image 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^©   

Crown-Wearing

 

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.   Philippians 2:9-11

Yesterday’s post[1] about Cross-bearing, and today’s topic of Crown-wearing are so connected we can see a syllogism that makes an eternity statement:

You will be crowned by Christ in Heaven

To the same degree you have crowned Him here on Earth.

Don't forget that the spiritual far outweighs the material or natural.  In the spiritual realm, things are always reversed from the way they were in the natural.  That which was high will be made low; the first shall be last. 

Following that sunbeam thought back to the source, we can also say that those who appear to be less than worthy of wearing a crown (here on earth) will be the very ones wearing them in Heaven.  Who are they?  They are all who have truly allowed their lives to be firmly rooted in Christ.  They are the disciples who only bow to the crucified, risen King of Glory, Jesus.  These are they, for whom nothing took higher priority than Christ-likeness.  They were, as Paul expressed, not conformed to the image of this world, but transformed in mind and thought by Christ to serve what pleases God, not self.[2]

If friends, or a family, church, or even a nation would be honored, in heaven, then Christ-likeness must be the goal, our target for life.  Hear the testimony of Scripture on the matter:

James, Jesus’ brother:

God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.  James 1:12

John, the beloved disciple:

…the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever).  And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power.  For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”  Revelation 4:10-11

Jesus, laying out the indisputable measuring stick: 

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  Luke 9:23

Cross-Bearing and Crown-Wearing!

For You Today

Taking up the cross daily has a reward in Heaven.  Anticipating the crown, followers of Jesus will not be disappointed.  And neither will those who (sadly) choose to walk away from the cross to follow their own path.

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

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

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[1] April 27, 2022, Cross-Bearing

[2] Romans 12:2