Hope Anew

Monday, November 13, 2023

So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.  Then they will not be like their ancestors—stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.  Psalm 78:7-8

Asaph, the writer of this Psalm, makes a very compelling point of caution for each new generation in humankind to set its hope anew on God so we don’t forget His great power, what He’s done, and how we must not be stubborn about it. 

If there is one consistent, and nearly inviolate reality about the human family, it’s the tendency towards promising fidelity lightly, and then breaking promises in favor of a supposed better way.  Israel’s history is a microcosmic rule-of-thumb for humanity’s proclivity to agree with God today, and discard their allegiance when the road gets a little bumpy. 

From Asaph, fast-forward to Russell’s generation, raised in the 1950’s/60’s.  Yes, we’re talking about the hippy-era, free love, LSD, marijuana, or alcohol, your drug of choice, but everybody joins the march against Vietnam involvement.  Yes, THAT generation!  We were going to be different than our parent’s generation.  Everything was going to be different, and much better than the old folks.  Music changed from swing to rock.  Clothing was unimportant, and we drove VW vans, not Cadillacs.  But the truth is we were just making Asaph’s point…every new generation has its own style, but the root of Adam’s nature, rebellion against authority, puts us on a collision-course with our Creator’s authority.  Our arrogant stubbornness separates us like night and day from God’s love and care.  As the cartoon character Pogo once said:  We have met the enemy, and he is us!

Opposite the viewpoint of the “new” generation is the head-shaking disapproval of the “old” generation.  My parents didn’t like my music, and frankly I’m not too thrilled with the stuff I hear and see in the current generation’s entertainment.  And this makes Asaph’s point as well.  It isn’t the style of any generation that matters.  I can say that unreservedly because you won’t find style-police in Scripture.  What matters is not a generation’s style, but whether they will set their hope anew in God.

This brings a Scriptural focus to the so-called “worship wars” down through the generations.  There is enough criticism to fill the universe with nausea about how people worship.  The list includes music style, traditional style, contemporary style, blended style, liturgical vs. free style, fogey or edgy style, robes or skinny jeans, somber or giddy, silent or bedlam, pretribulation rapturist, or anti-rapturist.  Most everything that creates an argument is a tempest in a teapot about style.  And there is a verse in John’s Gospel that tells us what God thinks about all of it:

For You Today 

A prayer for those with whom you see wide gaps of difference, is to ask God to let the scales of criticism drop from your own eyes, and help you to ignore the style of that next (or former) generation, and pray for them to see the magnificent opportunity and blessing they have to place their hope anew in God’s love and care.  Much better to pray for someone’s blessing than against their style.

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^©   

The Tenth Plague

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

And that night at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon.  Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed.  Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt.  There was not a single house where someone had not died.  Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night.  “Get out!” he ordered.  “Leave my people—and take the rest of the Israelites with you!  Go and worship the Lord as you have requested.  Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone. Go, but bless me as you leave.”  All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought, “We will all die!”  Exodus 12:29-33

Over the course of time from Moses’ first meeting with Pharaoh to deliver God’s message to let my people go, the Egyptian monarch moved from dismissive stubbornness to defeated sadness.  He was Pharaoh over the most powerful dynasty in the world, and he conceded defeat to the slaves he owned.  Considering the events of the 10 plagues, who could remain fixed in his own glory?  Pharaoh was pushed into the most uncomfortable tenuous corner.  There was no command he could issue with his own firstborn on the mortician’s table.

Most of the plagues are not uncommon, even in our day.  Pestilences and plagues are something every human faces in every era; we’ve just come through Covid-19, and what other age hasn’t dealt with similar challenges.  Famine caused by pests and weather are common also.  But the first and last of the plagues are the most pointed; the first should have been enough, and the last, too much.

Of the ten plagues (Blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Pestilence, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Killing of the firstborn), the first plague of blood in the Nile, struck at Egypt’s religious beliefs.  The Nile river was Egypt’s source of food.  Turning it into blood was a horrifying demonstration of how vulnerable they were to having life crumble before them.  Pharaoh thought he was a god, but God was demonstrating how little divinity flowed through Pharaoh’s human veins. 

The next eight plagues were nuisances to Pharaoh, because they only affected Egypt’s people and resources.  But with each step closer to the tenth plague, Pharaoh’s stubbornness brought his people closer to the kind of unspeakable judgment which no Egyptian citizen could even imagine.  And then it happened!

The tenth plague, the death of firstborns in each Egyptian household, was connected to the first plague in the sense that there was blood.  Life is in the blood[1] according to Scripture, and blood in the Nile was a threat to the lives of Egyptian food sources, and the emptiness of their religious superstitions.  But it was a foretaste of the tenth plague, the lifeblood of their heritage.  As attested by the pyramids, the afterlife, and continued heritage of Pharaohic divine rule was as important to those people as their next breath.  In the instant Pharaoh refused God’s 10^th invitation to let His people go, the Egyptian king became the murderer of Egypt’s firstborn population – including his own household!

For You Today 

God’s recorded Word is there to help us understand how to live in His Kingdom, and how to understand His ways:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  2 Timothy 3:16

So, do what Pharaoh refused; when God speaks…listen…and obey!

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. 

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

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[1] The life of every creature is in its blood.  Leviticus 17:14

The Cost of Rejected Forgiveness

Monday, August 28, 2023

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you?  Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?  But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself.  For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.  He will judge everyone according to what they have done.  He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers.  But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.  But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.  For God does not show favoritism.  Romans 2:4-11

Paul’s message to the believers at Rome is that of a story as old as Adam and Eve’s first two sons; it’s a story of jealousy and choices ^{(see Genesis 4)}.  Cain was the firstborn, and he despised his younger brother, Abel.  God had instructed them what to bring as an offering, but Cain stubbornly brought what he wanted, while Abel obeyed God.  When God rejected Cain’s “innovated worship” and accepted Abel’s obedience, anger raised-up in Cain like a volcano of jealousy; he killed his brother.  That was a momentary wrong decision fueled by bad judgment and independence.  Unfortunately for Cain (as his parents before him), when he sinned, he persisted in defending his petulance.  When God judged him for it, he whined, claiming God was being too hard on him.  This was resoundingly-odd, considering it was Abel rotting in a shallow grave.  Cain spent the rest of his days wandering like a lost soul.  Indeed, he was lost, and judged. 

We’re still playing “Cain and Abel” these days.  There has been war someplace on this planet without fail since the first killing.  As Paul wrote, God’s kindness and patience with humanity is an offering of forgiveness.  Sadly, human stubbornness is in abundant supply.  In the spirit of independence, alive and thriving today, we don’t need some Jew from the antiquities to die on a cross for us.  We are good enough, thank you…we’ll meet any challenge head-on.  Thanks, God, for the offer, but no thanks…we’re good.

Only we’re not!

Even in the short space of my lifetime I have witnessed the diminishing sense of kindness and compassion that human beings have for each other.  (You have only to observe Interstate road-rage for a half-mile to validate that statement).  The value of human life plummets in the murder statistics.  Porch-pirates, sales of home security systems, with weapons to back them up are at an all-time high.  As was the case with Cain and Abel, killing (with weapons or words) is how we deal with the anger of a lost soul.  And we seem to get better (darker) at it every year.

Many people reject God’s kindness, simply ignoring what a magnificent, precious gift of forgiveness they refuse….choosing instead an eternity of separation from their Creator.  That is the sad reality of evil…thinking we stay strong by holding God at arms-length, we condemn ourselves to eternal punishment.

Placing all that in perspective requires us to turn and look at Calvary’s Lamb, Jesus, nailed to a rough-hewn cross, beaten within an inch of life’s endurance,  spat-upon, alone, abandoned, yet crying-out:  Father, forgive them! 

This is the kindness of God; it is the offer of healing and hope. 

For You Today 

The choice is always there…reject His forgiveness, or receive His goodness,

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. 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

Looking Backward - Looking Forward

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.  And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone.  What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?”  Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.  A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.  Yes, I realize that you are descendants of Abraham.  And yet some of you are trying to kill me because there’s no room in your hearts for my message.  I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father.  But you are following the advice of your father.”  

John 8:31-38

The obvious is sometimes missed in the prejudice.  The difference between what Jesus meant, and what the short-sighted people wanted to know, is that simple! 

·       They looked backward to Abraham, tracing their beginnings to a man; Jesus was pointing for them to look above earthly lineage, forward to the One who had created both Abraham, and everyone else. 

·       They saw things from a point in time, honoring another point in time; Jesus had held both time and eternity in His hands when He created it all. 

·       They were held captive by their backwards-look; He wanted them to be set free to a Kingdom-forward-look of Who was standing in front of them. 

·       They were looking-back, stuck in pride over their Abrahamic heritage; He wanted to free them to see an eternally blessed forever family.

There are two outcomes in this encounter with the people that were following Jesus.  There are those who could not see, because they had never had their eyes opened by living truth.  And there were those who would not see, because they held their eyes shut, despite having the living truth standing in front of them.  And that prejudice makes all the difference between traveling the road lesser taken, and remaining broken in the past.

How do you tell the difference?  Jesus said that some of them (the ones he was speaking to in that moment) were trying to kill him.  That meant the others were truly seeking the truth, not looking for a reason to stifle the truth.  Closing your eyes against the light does not extinguish what truly exists.  And that is the difference of humility, ready to confess ignorance, and receive forgiveness.  It’s how light enters the heart and you see the forever family Jesus came to create.

For You Today 

Whatever point you have reached in life, regarding a relationship with your Creator, the genuineness of salvation (God’s forgiveness of our sins) was/is dependent on confession of our inability to be forgiven, without the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  You do not begin that relationship with prejudice on the side of human strength; it is only available to those willing to surrender their will to God’s divine, unlimited strength!

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 explore some of these:   Words Chiseled in Stone  and  How Was Your Weekend?   

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

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

Will They Never Learn?

Friday, September 8, 2022

The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God.  But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt.  No one does good, not a single one!  Will those who do evil never learn?  Psalm 14:2-4a

The Psalmist could have inserted my picture as the headline to this Psalm.  He was being kind and discreet, but this has me written all over it.  The evidence is overwhelming, but one incident, in particular, gives the overall sense of stubbornness lodged deep in my soul. 

It happened on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon drive.  There wasn’t much money in our household budget, so a family drive was a major tool to combat hot summer boredom.  This was long before the price of gas reached a zillion dollars a gallon, back when air-conditioning in cars was for the rich.  To keep cool we had “450 air-conditioning” – you opened the car’s 4 windows and drove 50-miles-per-hour!  But, I digress.

On one of those drives down the country lanes and backroads my Dad favored, he half-turned to us boys in the back seat and told us to close our eyes.  Russell did the 10-year-old thing every parent has heard:  Why?  Dad replied:  Just close ‘em; you’ll see.  Russell:  But how can I ‘SEE’ with my eyes closed?  Dad:  Russell Jay Brownworth…just close your eyes.  Russell, (rolling eyes and sighing rather dramatically) But, what if I don’t want to?  Dad:  It’s too late now – just forget it.

Later that day my older brother, Thom informed me the moment I trashed with my attitude was Dad’s attempt to add just a little more excitement to the ride.  He was coming to the “dip” in the road, and was speeding up to get us airborne.  It’s one of those weightless instants when you’re suspended between going up, and then down.  It’s the apex of a hill’s up-and-down that makes your stomach do a loop-de-loop.  We couldn’t afford to go to the carnival rides, so Dad was trying to bring the roller coaster to us.  I wonder how often Dad whispered to himself:  Will he never learn?   

That incident always turns my mind to how my Heavenly Father may have the same thought…not just about Russell – about God’s entire family.  Sometimes our foolish ways are beyond understanding.  We steal moments of selfish pleasure, thinking to enhance our lives and self-esteem, only to find ourselves crumbling on the inside in shame and emptiness.  We kill each other with amazing regularity, playing out Cane’s hatred.  We mock God with our little sand castles of empires and imperialism, and find them washed away with the next tide.  Nothing we build lasts, and little is our self-agrandizement recognized for the childish illusion of life we claim.  In short, like a 10-year-old stuffed with pride, we won’t listen to a single bit of helpful joy.  And God says:  Will they never learn?

For You Today

Willfulness and pride aren’t hard to hold-onto, but they’re the devil to let-go-of.  And their results are harder to swallow than just one spoiled moment on the roller coaster; failing to let go of self, to find oneself wrapped in the everlasting arms of love from Father, is the most costly of all our obtuse ways.  This begs the question unendingly:  Will we never learn?

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: 

When Mercy Outweighs Justice and In the Beginning

[1] Images:  Bing Images (Royalty Free)   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Nobody Wins

 

Friday, July 15, 2022

So Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev, along with his wife and Lot and all that they owned.  (Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.)  From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before.  This was the same place where Abram had built the altar, and there he worshiped the Lord again.  Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents.  But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together.  So disputes broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot.  (At that time Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land.)  Finally Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen.  After all, we are close relatives!  The whole countryside is open to you.  Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate.  If you want the land to the left, then I’ll take the land on the right.  If you prefer the land on the right, then I’ll go to the left.”  Genesis 13:1-9

I’m certain this text has found its way into many a sermon in the United Methodist Church over the years; more-so of late.  Sometimes it seems leaving the UMC is the only thing some folks care about.  With all the stubbornness of two mountain goats that meet on a narrow path, and refuse to yield an inch, head-butting is the political death knell to brotherhood.  This is not to say that conflict can’t have a positive effect; sometimes it is the necessary forerunner to resolution.

It was that way for Abram and Lot.  Their success was not a problem.  Rather, it was an evidence of God’s blessing.  In terms of the current stalemate of progressives vs. traditionalists in today’s UMC, Abram and Lot’s success is a valuable reminder of the God-given progress of the Wesleyan movement of old.   Failure to make adequate preparations for the expanded need both families would experience was the problem.  Even so, when the dispute began to get heated, it was critical that both sides have the Abram-mind of giving the other side a workable solution that honored brotherhood over things and power. 

That said, we must apply the principle to 2022 UMC doings….it is a very strange and sad thing when people, who say they serve God, can’t manage to offer God’s grace and kindness in the necessary parting of ways. 

It would be safe to say that I am firmly on the traditionalist side of the theological issues fueling this fire of discontent in the UMC.  But I have no desire to see judgment reign down on those in the other camp.  Nobody wins that kind of war.

Getting back to the mountain goats, I read an account told by one who knows goats well.  It seems a common occurrence in places like Switzrerland’s Alps that, when two goats, going in opposite directions meet on very narrow cliff paths, one will kneel, allowing the other to step over him.  In that way both can pursue their journey. 

For You Today

Call it kindness, or call it wisdom to refrain from destroying what is left of the United Methodist tribe.  If we cannot act at least as kindly as goats do with their brothers, what hope do we have of being any help to the rest of the world?

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 on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  So What WOULD Jesus Do?  and Playing With Fire

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

The Trouble with Theological Heels

 

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Your royal laws cannot be changed.  Your reign, O Lord, is holy forever and ever.  Psalm 93:5

The story begins:  John Calvin and John Wesley walk into a tavern and discover Martin Luther sitting at the bar.  Anyone who’s been to Sunday School more than twice can take that scenario into an infinite number of directions, none of which would likely reach a conclusion.  (Unless, of course, it were pre-destined.)

All three of historical note, Luther, the priest who broke with the Roman Catholic Church, Calvin, whose history, current events, and eschatology are set in immovable type in Heaven’s print shop, and Wesley, somewhere in the vague middle, shuffling Scripture, experience, tradition, and reason, to hold together the wildfire of theological movement; these are a sort of earthly tiumverate of heels, firmly-dug in theological sand, a monument to stubbornness, passion, and total surrender to movements, still evoking deep thinking and shallow arguments. 

Not wishing to add to the arguments of which of these theological heavyweights was right, with apprehension I wish to submit that they were all wrong.  And, of course, I’m not referring to their institutes, general rules, or theses.  I am pointing at the manner in which these were held.  If historical portraits of the battles royale held by those who followed these pipers are correct to any degree, you can imagine the bloodshed over which group “won” anything worthy of laying at the feet of Jesus.  Therein lurks the devil of the details of theological heels dug in the sand…the sand gets torn-up, and the furrows continue, a plowed field of misery.

I recall one seminary class, taught by Dr. Jerry Breazeale, at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  We were discussing the topic of predestination…that God has designed and is orchestrating all of history’s events.  You could easily sense the argumentative anxiety of students raised in this denomination or that.  It was nearly palpable…is it once-saved-always-so, or can you drop-off heaven’s roster in a single, sinful act?  Is there any wiggle-room…or does God have everything planned, down to who I’ll marry, and what I’ll have for breakfast?

To his unending credit, and with my undying thanks, Dr. Breazeale wouldn’t be drawn into the abyss of arguing either side.  Instead, he told one of his Louisiana Bayou Cajun Thibodeau jokes…exceedingly hilarious, and nowhere near the point of predestination or free will.  After the laughter died-down, one of the more surly students (whom I’m certain didn’t even get the joke) raised the question to press the professor into declaring which side he was on.  Dr. Breazeale, in his best bayou Thibodeau affect, drawled, well, y’see, I’m t’inkin ‘bout dis ting…I prozlabhy gots jus’ enuf Calvin in me t’ know deep down, dat dere ain’t nuttin God can’t do.  An’ He be havin some kinda plan…enough to keep dat ol’ debel down whar he belong.  An’ if God be wantin me to joins Him in dat fight…God will make me some room right next t’ His-side.  Dat’s whut I’m t’inkin.

Class dismissed!

For You Today

Predestination and Free Will aren’t supposed to hurt your head by getting it all down in forty pounds of textbooks.  These are gifts of God to bless your life, if you’ll understand that the love which gave it to you doesn’t need a theological defender…only an open heart of surrender.

If you haven’t got a Cajun friend to explain these things to you, I suggest you get one. 

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

[1] Images:  WikimediaCommons Calvin Wesley Luther Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©