Trending NOW

 

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Once again the people picked up stones to kill him.  Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works.  For which one are you going to stone me?”  They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy!  You, a mere man, claim to be God.”  Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’  And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered.  So  if those people who received God’s message were called ‘gods,’ why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God’?  After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world.  Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work.  But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me.  Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”  Once again they tried to arrest him, but he got away and left them.  He went beyond the Jordan River near the place where John was first baptizing and stayed there awhile.  And many followed him.  “John didn’t perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man has come true.”  And many who were there believed in Jesus.  John 10:31-42

Trending is an amazing phenomenon.  Something happens in today’s world and the bandwagon gets overloaded in a hurry.  The trending of people getting ready to stone someone is as old as the fourth chapter of Genesis, when Cain picked up a big rock to teach his brother, Abel a lesson.  That didn’t end well, and it still doesn’t.

Not all stoning, however, is done with a rock.  What’s been trending since I was barely into my teens is the stoning of God’s church, and faith in the church’s Founder, Jesus.  Now, there are many “reasons” (and some would say “excuses”) for this falling away from Christian orthodoxy, which places faith firmly in Holy Scripture, bedrock of which is the Gospel.  But the primary cause for this increase in faith-downward-trending isn’t any different than when people picked up the stones that day in Jerusalem’s Temple to silence the upstart son of a carpenter.  When something is said that rocks the comfort boat, the occupants are going to toss it overboard.

As a reply, Jesus challenged their willingness to send him packing from the church (also not a new occurrence…preachers are very familiar with the exit trending of both members, under their own power of choice, and the preachers themselves by committee vote).  But the bottom line of Jesus’ challenge is common sense.  If what he DID matched what He SAID, and what the Scripture RECORDED as God’s Word and way, why the disbelief?  You’ve heard it before:  If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck….  This passage has a world arriving at the conclusion that, evidence aside, we’d rather have the comfort level of making our independent choices, than the uncertainty of following a God of infinite power, Who disturbs our comfortable nest. 

For You Today

It may be easier (for many people) to follow Jesus in theory, rather than to stand with Jesus once the flinging of the rocks commences.  Then, it’s a whole lot easier to just go with what’s trending.  But there’s coming a trend to end all trends…that moment when you face the one who faced the crowds with rocks in their hands that day in Jerusalem.  He’s going to say one of two things in that moment:

1.    Well done, thou good and faithful servant

2.    Depart from me, I never knew you.

The right choice, or the wrong rock is in your hand!

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

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

Of Riots and Revivals

 

Monday, February 8, 2021

The same thing happened in Iconium.  Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers.  Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas.   But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord.  And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders.  But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them.  Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.  Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone them.  When the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of Lycaonia—to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding area.  And there they preached the Good News.  Acts 14:1-7

Those who propose change usually get the same response from those who oppose change…a riot, or a revival.  It is often said that the apostle Paul always started one of those, but, most often, it was both!  Such is the nature of what Jesus intended for the Good News of God’s Kingdom.

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth!  I came not to bring peace, but a sword.  ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  Matthew 10:34-35

Some will take Jesus’ words out of context to sanctify unholy ambitions, such as what drove the riot at D.C.’s Capitol last month.  That aside, there is always a sense of division that comes with proclaiming Christ.  That division line is a fault that opens whenever the truth is preached.  It opens a clearly-defined chasm between the camps of faith and unbelief.  To those who recognize their sinfulness and need of a savior, faith springs like wildflowers in the desert after a sudden downpour.  To those who are resistant to bowing to any other than themselves, it brings anger, more resistance, and riot.  When the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed those are the only two choices – faith gladly received, or independence and rejection of the Sovereign nature of Almighty God:  it’s either a revival or a riot!

And that happened everywhere Paul and the other believers faithfully delivered the message, some would believe, and some would pick up stones to bludgeon the messengers. 

It’s still that way.

And, what of the lasting result of such a Gospel?  That is also predictable.  The result is unity…in two opposing camps.

What?  How can you speak of unity and opposition?

It’s simple, light is unified with light, and the same is true of darkness.  To those who follow the light of Christ, they do not dwell with darkness.  Evil cannot exist with good; neither can cold be hot.  Just like two children on the playground’s see-saw will be either up or down, but not both!  Those who live and walk-in faith, clinging to Christ alone, will never settle for the darkness of this world’s ways.

It’s either (say it with me) revival…or…riot!

For You Today

Bringing it down to a personal level, if you want revival – the rebirth of life – within your own soul, there must be a riot against the darkness.  It’s called repentance, turning away from the darkness, and turning-to the light of Jesus Christ’s love, His gift of grace offered to us on the cross. 

When you remember that, and embrace that, you look to the light, and away from the darkness.  That’s the kind of division Jesus came to bring.

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

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[1] Title Image: via Wikimedia Commons Art UK, Public Domain,    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For another post on Revival see We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us and Revival, Please

 

Discarded

[i]

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.  But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand.  And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”  Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting.  They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.  His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.  As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!”  And with that, he died.  Acts 7:54-60^(NLT)

In yesterday’s devotion we left Stephen at the mercy of the Sanhedrin; it’s not hard to figure-out there wasn’t much mercy to be found that day.  The religious elders were white-hot with anger against Stephen for telling the truth about how prophets sent from God were never listened to, and always beaten and put to death.  Stephen added the final straw; God sent His Son, Jesus, and they pinned him, naked, and spread-eagle to a cross on the town garbage dump.  That was too much for the proud Pharisees, and Scripture records they pelted him with stones until his body was lifeless.

It’s not much of a Hollywood movie ending is it?  Let’s face it; The Hallmark Channel would not use the seventh chapter of Acts for a sequel to The Easter Bunny Meets Abbot and Costello.  There’s little to work with for a feel-good ending to the story of Stephen’s life!  He stands for truth and gets clobbered with no support from Heaven’s angels – I mean…where are Roma Downey and Della Reese[ii] when you need them?

Now, if you were listening closely, I said there is little to work with for a happy ending.  The part of the account of the stoning of Stephen that gives us hope, and gives meaning to Stephen’s life and ministry, even though he is literally discarded on the garbage pile outside the gates of Jerusalem, is almost a throwaway line Luke included at the end:

His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.  Acts 7:58b^(NLT)

History tells us the young man was nothing much to look at, small of stature, weak-eyed, bowlegged, and troubled with some kind of medical ailment that kept him in chronic pain.  We can also read that he was a brilliant scholar, had the best training in Scripture and Jewish law.  He was a natural leader and, without doubt, a rather single-minded powerful debater who didn’t mind getting in your face to prove a point. 

This young Saul had a name change that followed a heart change on the road to Damascus.  Saul met Jesus, was knocked to his knees, and the man who thought he saw everything clearly, got up from the encounter with God physically-blind as the proverbial bat, but seeing more clearly how wrong he’d been to persecute God’s people, including Stephen.  We call it repentance; and we know this man as Paul the Apostle.

It seems Stephen’s life was not discarded on that day after all – look what his faithfulness to the testimony of the Word of God, even at the cost of being stoned to death, has meant for all of us.

For You Today

The question to contemplate today is rather simple; would it be worth giving your life to turn the world upside-down for Christ?

Short answer from my perspective:  In a heartbeat!

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 Matthew Woitunski, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Roma Downey and Della Reese were co-stars in the TV Series Touched By an Angel^©