In the School of Prayer

Friday, November 11, 2022

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. 

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.  This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.  2 Thessalonians 1:3, 11-12

Every November 11^th I remember Juanita “Granny” Parker.  We weren’t related by blood, but she was my sister in Christ.  This is her birthday.  She was born in 1911, which, numerically-expressed, is 11-11-11.  Today she would have been 111 years young.  It’s been 111 years since 11-11-11. 

I’ve written before about Granny[1] and how she was like Paul to me.  Granny was the “praying-est” person I ever knew.  She was intellectually-challenged, and raised on the same farm she lived her whole life.  She was undereducated in many ways, but a PHD when it came to prayer.  In that church it was customary for the pastor to call on a lay person to lead the final prayer.  I would sometimes call on Granny to end our worship service.  There was never a prayer she offered that didn’t convince me I was short-changed in the praying genes department.  She could pray Heaven down like no other man, woman, child, or preacher.  In many ways Juanita Parker was a mentor to me, of connecting with God on the simplest, and best level…honesty, compassion, and unselfishness.  

I miss her to this day.

In an honest look-back, I have to confess that my pastoral visits to Granny (who lived next door to the church, because she’d given the property to build it), were more likely beneficial to the pastor than the parishoner.  No matter what else was going on in Granny’s life, children, grand-children, great-grands that were living with her, and she was helping to raise…everything stopped when the preacher arrived, and we’d “set-a-spell” on the front porch.  We’d never sit on the back porch, because (I suspect) it was the scene of too many gruesome encounters with that mean rooster.  (But that’s another story for another day).

As a young-ish minister, with less than 3 years under my belt as pastor, I was still too green to recognize the tower of strength sitting nearby.  As a depression-era saint, who’d faced more physical, mental, financial, and relational challenges than I’ve had to navigate, now in my fifth-decade of ministry, Granny was tougher than Muhammed Ali in the boxing ring, Ghengis Kahn on the battlefield, or a crazed rooster in her backyard.  But with God, she was a child, tender, dependent, soft, and faith-filled.  It seemed she melted like heated plastic in a mold…to the shape of the most faithful saint.  No matter how I tried to steer a conversation with Granny, or move us to prayer, she was always ahead of me, and she was the one who took the initiative to end our times in prayer – for me!  I always left her little house shining brighter, and a lot stronger, than when I’d arrived.

For You Today  

Everyone needs a Granny Parker in their corner (especially would-be preachers, discouraged preachers, and sometimes a know-it-all preacher).  If you’ve got a praying saint in your life like Granny, you know it – and you probably treasure that relationship.  And if you have one like my praying, 111 year-young on 11-11 Granny Parker, maybe it’s time you become one.  Because there’s always someone who needs one.

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: 

       Paraclete   and   Hitching a Ride

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^©  

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[1] See Flash Mob on a Judean Hillside and The Peace Formula

James the Just - Part 2 - Count It All Joy

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  James 1:2-4

There is a difference between troubles that tempt us and those which test us.  The “troubles” of our text refers to a test; like when you get behind the wheel in a car you’re thinking about buying; it’s a test drive.  God never tempts us ^{(see James 1.13).}  Years ago, my seminary professor, Dr. Graham, shared that difference with his class.  He said that an easy way to remember the difference between a tempting and a testing is:

a temptation is from Satan, and it is designed to make you fall;

a test is from God and is designed to make you stand tall!

So, when you have a difficult time before you, pay close attention which direction you’re being driven.  If you’re being driven to fall-away from God and His kingdom, then it is designed to make you fall – a temptation…and it comes from the pit! 

On the other hand, if the difficult time creates a desire to find God’s direction – to compel you to prayer, and fellowship with believers for comfort, and Bible study for answers, that’s a test from God designed to make you stand tall.  

God is doing something; THAT’S why you can rejoice!

Mike Huckabee, Southern Baptist Pastor-turned-Governor, Presidential candidate, news commentator, tells about …a pastor in Florida who used to have count-it-all-joy parties every now and then.  He so believed this verse, that when he would face a difficult situation, he would call friends over to his house.  He'd say:

I want you to come over to my house for a party.  

They'd say, Oh, is it a birthday? Did you get a promotion?  What's the situation?  

Well, he'd say, I'm going through this incredibly difficult crisis right now, and I'm having a count-it-all-joy party.  We're going to celebrate the difficulty, because I know that this difficulty is going to bring something of special value to my life.   I don't know what it is yet, but I want you to come and count it all joy with me.

Have any of you ever thrown a count-it-all-joy party?  I haven't either.  To tell you the truth, it's tough to consider troubles joy, because it hurts. Yet, it's important to realize that unless there are tests, we’ll never know what our faith is made of.^[2]

It is hard to accept the difficult times but becoming mature in the faith demands those times.  The Message New Testament translates verse 4 this way:

So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.  James 1:4 (TMNT)

For You Today

We may kick and groan about difficulties in our lives, but often that is what God is using in His perfect way to change us into His useable servant. 

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons
                          Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Mike Huckabee, Practice of Patience, Preaching Today, Tape No. 78.

Squirrel Theology

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Monday, June 25, 2018

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  Then we will no longer be immature like children.  We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.  We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Ephesians 4:11-14^(NLT)

There was a pastor who had earned his doctorate in seminary, and was well-known for his doctrinal sermons, taking the exposition of Scripture through the great life-giving themes of salvation, baptism, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ incarnation, and so-on.  He had just been extended the invitation to serve as pastor by the elders of a very evangelistic congregation. 

Not everyone on the elder board was in total agreement, however.  One cantankerous old-timer was overheard in the parking lot expressing his dismay over the decision to call this seminary-trained preacher:  I just ain’t sure this-un’s the preacher fer us; I don’t want none o’ that doctor-in-all preachin’.  Jus’ gimmie some Bible is all!  If’n I get sick I’ll a-go see me a doctor. 

It’s not easy to get past hard-headedness.  Perhaps the seminary word would be obtuse! 

Another stumbling block to understanding and communication is squirrel-headedness.  A few weeks ago, I was travelling to church on a Sunday morning and, in the space of a mile or so, I had to swerve twice to miss squirrels. 

One thing is certain – you can never be certain about which way a squirrel will turn…left, right, forward, back, or zig-zag like a gnat in a fire storm; the only thing you can count on is that it won’t be boring!

I once counselled someone who had the squirrel thing down pat.  She would ask me a question; I would answer with a suggestion as to how the Scriptural approach would take some time, but be better in the long run, and she would leave all smiles, determined that her life was going to change.  The next week she would be in shambles because she had tried to do the Biblical thing (for six minutes) and become disillusioned at how it didn’t work.  Zig, zag, left, right, forward one step, backwards two!

Grrrr.

Pastors do not know everything, whether they’ve been to seminary, or if they fell off the turnip truck one morning, bumped their head, and took it as a sign to go into the ministry that day. 

But one thing is true – when God gives a gift is isn’t lacking; pastors, may I say, are no exception.  And when it comes to the Scriptural principles we find in the church’s doctrines, a pastor worth any Biblical salt at all will show you the parallel between what Scripture says, and what’s going on in your life.  And it would pay to give it more than six minutes of try-out time.  Barring that, you could be in danger of squirrel theology, bouncing in the wind from this acorn of teaching to that twig of promise, without a shred of doctrinal reality.

For You Today

If God gave you a pastor who teaches sound doctrine, thank God, and keep measuring his or her teaching by Scripture. 

If you have a pastor that makes you wonder if the Bible has anything certain, true, and life-building to say about the way to live your life, maybe the nut has fallen a little too far from the tree!

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

When Tolerance Grows Up into Spiritual Maturity

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Friday, December 15, 2017

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.  But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.  No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:  Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.  Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things.  If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.  But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.  Philippians 3:12-16^(NLT)

Paul takes the humble position of allowing for his own human fragility.  In one of his other letters (to the Corinthian church) Paul stated it clearly that when he let go of having to control everything – letting God do what God does – his weakness became the effective mighty power of God.[2]

Rather than trying to be “strong” in his own abilities, Paul desired to put the past behind and focus on what God was doing.  Henry Blackaby’s Bible study Experiencing God calls that mindset locating where God is working and cooperating with Him.  

The important point is that Paul understood, even in a wonderfully vibrant fellowship like the church at Philippi, there were going to be disagreements; that is inevitable with human beings!  What Paul wanted to stress was that even in the most controversial of differing opinions genuine spiritual maturity will not lose sight of the goal.

Tolerance has been an overly-accepted word in our vernacular the past several decades.  It hangs like a Behavior Storm Trooper over the entire culture.  We are expected to tolerate others’ viewpoints; in fact, we are expected to surpass tolerance to the degree that all people’s ideas and values are considered equally valid.  That may be high-sounding, but it is dangerous.  For instance, the person that holds an idea that thirty-five cents in his pocket is enough to buy a new car is going to have a huge problem when it comes to the Mercedes dealer allowing him to drive a $63,000 E-Class SUV off the lot for that price; not all ideas are equal!  There will be conflict…if not arrests!

Tolerance can also tip the scale toward arrogance.  Check into a discussion between a Christian conservative and a Christian progressive and you will not have to wait long before the accusations and tempers begin to fly.  The same holds true for liberal and conservative political discussions. 

What Paul suggests is spiritual maturity.  Hear it again from the apostle:

If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.  But we must hold on to the progress we have already made. 

Holding on to the progress already made is a matter of not losing your Christian cool!  It means being willing to be weak personally so that God’s Spirit can be strong in the middle of strengthening relationships.  It means in spite of a disagreement you’re willing to wait for God to make things clear.  A dear friend of mine made that point with me after he’d witnessed my prolonging a heated discussion with another believer.  He said:  You know, Russell, you don’t have to have an answer for everything!

This is the essence of spiritual maturity – when you refuse to take personal offense over a disagreement.  When someone wants to get in your face and turn up the volume, you can turn the other cheek and offer graciousness; if not, you disown the opportunity to build-up the person who disagrees with you. 

And if you’re simply (and arrogantly) tolerating someone’s ideas (because in your humble opinion he or she is an idiot) your attitude towards them can only bring deeper separation and fuel the angry fires of misunderstanding.

So, as Paul also said:

…but we are to hold to the truth with love in our hearts.  We are to grow up and be more like Christ.  He is the leader of the church.  Ephesians 4:15^(NLV)

For You Today

Growing-up into the likeness of Christ – keep that in focus!

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] 1 Corinthians 12:10

God Speaking Clearly

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Monday, April 24, 2017

Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, prove it to me in this way.  I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight.  If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.”  And that is just what happened.  When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water.  Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request.  Let me use the fleece for one more test.  This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.”  So that night God did as Gideon asked.  The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.  Judges 6:36-40^(NLT)

But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead?  For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.  And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.  And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave.  But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead.  And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.  In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!  And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.  But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.  He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.  
1 Corinthians 15:12-19^(NLT)

Have you ever wanted to play Gideon; just ask God to do something miraculous; you know, ground dry-fleece wet, ground wet- fleece dry? 

Don’t feel too sheepish, I don’t like to admit it either.  Whenever I have either asked, or even thought about asking, the result has always been a resounding silence from heaven.  Later I would realize that the need to ask for a sign is usually my own insecurity about stepping-out in faith.  Yeah – I’m a lot like Gideon; cautious to a fault!  I want to make sure before I trust God, so, in the middle of this thing called walking by faith, I want Him to make it plain so I can see it, touch it, and wring out a bowl of water from my little fleece.

Let me offer a possible reason why God rarely does that kind of thing: 

When God has already spoken clearly, He doesn’t need to repeat it; we just need to take Him at His word and live into it! 

And the most important news God has ever shared with human beings is already spoken in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

In the Gospel accounts Jesus often had to deal with the religious leaders who were either demanding a miracle to prove he was the Messiah, or those Sadducees who rolled their eyes at the mention of life after death.  On that first Easter morning Jesus answered both of those questions with one empty tomb.

That is how God spoke so clearly as to put a period at the end of all sentences.  That conversation is now closed forever; Jesus was, and is, the Messiah, and the life He shares with us will never end!

Clear enough?

For You Today

It’s really ok to ask God some questions as long as you’re continuing to walk, and as long as you’re also willing to trust that, if you don’t hear an answer, it was one of those questions He’s already got covered.

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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 ^I Title image: By GFreihalter, via Wikimedia Commons

Endurance

[i]

Monday, February 13, 2017

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.   James 1:2-4^(NLT)

James, the half-brother of Jesus was revered in the early church for being a great man of prayer.  According to some sources they even called him camel knees because of the extremely baggy callouses on his knees from spending so much time kneeling on the floor.  And yet when I read about troubles being a big-time opportunity for great joy, there is an uncontrollable eye-roll that wells-up within.

And then we read the rest of his statement and it begins to make sense.  The testing of our faith is something of which God approves.  This is not to be confused with tempting.  James later says ^{(verse 13)} that God never uses temptation on us; that comes from a different direction – namely the world, the flesh or the devil.  But testing – ah, that’s from God, proof that you are a loved child the Father is developing.  And what development that is!

The Development of a Saint

Saints are literally those whom God has made spiritually-strong through testing and setting-apart from the sinfulness failure syndrome.  It’s a process of growing spiritually mature.  James tells us that when our endurance, matured through testing is fully-developed, that spiritual growth will have brought completeness to what God desired in your life, nothing less!  And that’s enough!

In a recent conversation with my bride we were talking about difficult times in the past and how we wish we could go back and make it better.  The thought came that, of all the mistakes and missteps, there is nothing in my life that has ever happened from which God has not somehow brought positive results.

That doesn’t mean testing is easy; never said that!  In fact there seems to be a definite correlation between the duration, depth and location of the testing and the meaningfulness of spiritual growth produced.

A Case in Point

The last thing in the world I wanted was another dog. 

But when Wellie showed up, he needed a home, and I guess God figured we needed another test (eye-roll suppressed again)!  A few months after Wellie came to live with us his back legs stopped working and he became wheelchair-bound.  I guess we were more depressed than he was; he still doesn’t know he’s disabled, except he has to wait to be lifted up a step or two.  Otherwise he’s still playful, mischievous and generally unwilling to let even a 150lb German shepherd pass without a challenge!

                                           Now, he’s still a lot of work, but that has become part of the family routine, and we deal with it.  The positive spiritual maturity that has evolved in all of this, particularly for me, has been the willingness to be compassionate, instead of just feeling compassion.  There is quite a difference between feeling an ache in your viscera over someone’s troubles, and getting hands-on to do something about it.

And that is definitely a kingdom of God reality.  He could have stayed very comfortably on his throne in heaven; instead he chose the cross.

For You Today

Have some troubles been working on you?  That’s the Father crafting another saint!

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

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NOTES

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[i]  Title image: By Anant Nath Sharma (www.thelensor.tumblr.com), via Wikimedia Commons

Seeing and Following the Light - part 3

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Friday, February 10, 2017

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.  Proverbs 29:18^(KJV)

In the last two days we’ve seen that vision or God’s revelation is what keeps us from wandering through life, and that kind of spiritual famine destroys God’s purposes and plan for our lives. 

Now let’s take a look at the antidote for a lack of light for a follower of Jesus Christ!

CHAOS CAN BE WHIPPED BY OBEDIENCE. 

In most cases a negative statement implies the positive opposite.  If there is no vision or revelation, seeing restraints, there is chaos.  The inverse then is that discipline towards God will end the chaos and bring peace. 

Many of the Bible's heroes were men who were visionary, ready to see the discipline of God in their lives.  Jacob learned the hard way.  His life was chaos, as he tried to trick his way to wealth and position.  But the vision of a ladder climbing up to God's heaven changed him, and put him on a path of learning and loving God.  Jonah got enough chaos for a lifetime inside God's submarine.  He repented and ran to the discipline of preaching in Nineveh.  Peter messed things up on an incredibly regular basis; yet he went to the mountain with Jesus, and the vision of Moses and Elijah made him fall on his face in belief.  Paul's life was angry and chaotic.  He persecuted the church relentlessly.  And then he met Jesus.  His statement was what whipped the chaos in his life, Lord, what do you want me to do?

Applications of this text are many for each of us today.  But there are some that are universal, and we can start there: 

1.     YOU NEED VISION IN YOUR HEART 

Without obedience to God, the discipline of love towards the Father in Jesus, life is nothing but chaos.  The only way to take a step towards God is via the cross.  Accept Christ now if you have never done so.

2.     YOU NEED VISION IN YOUR HOME

Every one of us has a home.  Is it marked by God's control, discipline?  Is Christ really the unseen guest at every meal? 

3.     YOU NEED VISION IN YOUR DAYS 

Going to work, school, play, running errands or just relaxing....do you go to the Father for instruction?

4.     YOU NEED VISION IN YOUR CHURCH 

All our goals, programs, and all we do at church should have the discipline and worship of Christ as its target. 

There is a story of a bloodhound that started a hunt chasing a huge buck.  When a fox crossed the dog's pathway, the hound picked-up a new scent and chased after the fox.  Then a rabbit crossed the trail, so the hound chased it a while.  Later, the hound caught the scent of a mouse, and was diverted to chase even it to its lair.  The hound began the hunt on the trail of a magnificent buck, and ended up watching a mouse hole. 

God put each of us on this planet for the purpose of serving and loving Him.  As our Creator, it is His sovereign right because He wrote the owner's manual.  And there are many things that will dim the light of our vision and cause chaos.  Our job is not chasing mouse holes, but growing in the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For You Today

Have you ever caught yourself watching mouse holes instead of waiting upon the Lord?  We all do that at least occasionally; the point begs an answer, what should you do about it?

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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[i]  Title image: By Anant Nath Sharma (www.thelensor.tumblr.com), via Wikimedia Commons