Sweet Spot of Truth

 

Friday, November 17, 2023

…we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  Ephesians 4:15

In his book Talk the Walk, pastor and author Steve Brown writes:

A number of years ago, John Whitehead – an attorney, author, and The Rutherford Institute’s founder and president – gave me a bumper sticker that read in big bold letters,

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When you’re anywhere near the line dividing left from right, you’re holding some things (at least) in the middle.  I’ve followed pastor Steve Brown’s teachings for about twenty years, and I can say with no hesitation, he finds that place which removes one from being identified…politically.  For a Christian, that is what golfers refer to as the sweet spot – that place on your golf club where the club face ought to strike the ball for the best distance and accuracy.  The further right or left you move takes the Christian witness and message down a notch or two.

News media love to exploit events to attract advertising revenue; that’s their sweet-spot, a settled business fact.  You cannot pay your employees without selling soap!  Last week in Charlotte, videos went viral of a woman being subdued by police with obvious physical force, for allegedly smoking marijuana in public. 

Immediate responses were typical; the politically-left side immediately crying the foul of police brutality, while the politically-right side cited the police use of force as appropriate peace-keeping.  The third response, one I say at the risk of putting words in pastor Steve Brown’s mouth, is:  Let’s wait for the investigation before we burst a right or left blood vessel.

Another preacher, a very good friend and close associate of Jesus, named Apostle Paul, executed by the Roman government took that third (and less-traveled) road of giving truth a chance to come to the winner’s circle.  Paul was no stranger to mob violence.  According to Acts 14:19 he was stoned, dragged out of town, and left for dead.  Still, Paul counsels speaking the truth, as did Jesus, and letting truth set whatever wrong to the right. 

Slinging slogans around is a political club.  Those who shout:  Speak truth to power are presenting only half the case; we should also speak truth to the powerless.  Truth is for all, and that will set anyone free, if they will place the matter in the Master’s hand, and give it time.

For You Today 

If you lean left, or lean right, try to keep in mind that leaning is the next step in falling…falling prey to the enemy’s invitation to his side.  Better to rest in the sweet-spot of truth with Godly longsuffering, than hitting your last ball of free-will out of bounds!

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.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Steve Brown, Talk the Walk, (Greensboro, NC, New Growth Press, 2019), p.13

Joy Comes With the Morning

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Friday, May 3, 2019

I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.  You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.  O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health.  You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.  You kept me from falling into the pit of death.  Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!  Praise his holy name.  For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime!  Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.  Psalm 30:1-5

I’ve come to believe very deeply that ministry is the art of using your pain well. 

I’ve written enough about times of wake-up calls that come through pain;[iii] I’ll spare you my rehearsing those details again.  However, considering how often life has taught me this lesson, that our pain is for a purpose, not just chance, or natural selection, or to satisfy the whims of random capriciousness of some far-off God, it begs a question of how that fits together:  Does God really use pain in one person to bring healing to another?  I believe strongly that the answer is YES.  Further, I would call that process the very definition of ministry.  The pain in one human being is the seed of healing in another.

Years ago I heard Rev. Steve Brown voice his conviction about this issue in a sermon that every time a nonbeliever gets cancer, a Christian gets cancer; it’s so the world can see the difference faith makes.  I kind of believe that, at least on the level that there is, without doubt, a correlation between pain and the birth of faith. 

C.S. Lewis believed that; in his book The Problem of Pain he wrote:

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world.

Because of time constraint in a five-minute devotion, I don’t have space to develop a whole theological treatise about the purpose of pain; others have done that well.  So, let us just run with my presumption that pain is necessary because we have chosen it.  Our sinful nature prefers rebellion, and rebellion leads to the consequence of separation from God…which always brings about pain.  God is not the author of pain, but He uses what we have chosen (bad, or good) to bring about his loving plans for us. 

Here’s an illustration of how pain in one person forms a culture of ministry for the benefit of another.  When a whole hive of yellow jackets decided my face was a landing strip – I got the point…about a hundred points, actually.  I was a teenager, helping Dad trim some dead branches, high up in the oak tree in our yard.  I made a bad choice to cut the hollow branch that was home to those demons with yellow and black stripes.  That choice caused me pain.  I lost consciousness, and my quick-thinking father rushed me to our doctor and a life-saving injection.

Fast-forward about five decades; my bride, Elizabeth and I were doing some spring cleanup in our yard and she discovered the mean-spirited descendants of the bees that had gotten me.  She lost consciousness in 3 minutes.  Normally, even when something bad happens, I’m a wait-and-see kind of guy.  Not this time; 911 and a trip to the hospital later, my bride is still with us.  I knew her need and what she was going through; I knew I had to act quickly, and no time was wasted.  My pain in 1960 became Elizabeth’s help in 2010.

For You Today

The pain you have experienced in your life is really a gift.  It is God saying to you that he trusts you with that pain, because someone else will need it. 

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

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

[iii] See this devotion about the Bees, Knees and VC’s