When the Fire Falls

 

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Again the Lord spoke to me and said, “I have discovered a conspiracy against me among the people of Judah and Jerusalem.  They have returned to the sins of their ancestors.  They have refused to listen to me and are worshiping other gods.  Israel and Judah have both broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.  Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am going to bring calamity upon them, and they will not escape.  Though they beg for mercy, I will not listen to their cries.  Then the people of Judah and Jerusalem will pray to their idols and burn incense before them.  But the idols will not save them when disaster strikes!  Look now, people of Judah; you have as many gods as you have towns.  You have as many altars of shame—altars for burning incense to your god Baal—as there are streets in Jerusalem.  “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah.  Do not weep or pray for them, for I will not listen to them when they cry out to me in distress.  “What right do my beloved people have to come to my Temple, when they have done so many immoral things?  Can their vows and sacrifices prevent their destruction?  They actually rejoice in doing evil!  I, the Lord, once called them a thriving olive tree, beautiful to see and full of good fruit.  But now I have sent the fury of their enemies to burn them with fire, leaving them charred and broken.  “I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who planted this olive tree, have ordered it destroyed.  For the people of Israel and Judah have done evil, arousing my anger by burning incense to Baal.”  Jeremiah 11:9-17

Fire can be good or bad, depending on how it is used.  In the kitchen it is a wonderful presence, helping to prepare a delicious meal.  In a dry forest it is a death knell for wildlife’s habitat.  The same is true in spiritual matters. 

God’s Holy Spirit is sometimes represented as holy fire, such as at the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit energized the birth of Jesus’ church[1].  Fire is also a reminder of God’s judgment.  Jesus often taught of God’s love, but the theme of judging those who say no to God’s ways was always close at hand.  When teaching his disciples about His love for them, and how vital it was to stay close to him, enabling God’s mission to bring His love to the world, Jesus whispered the consequences of refusing…the fire would fall.  And, unlike the good fire of God’s presence on Pentecost, it would be the consuming fires of God’s judgment:

Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.  Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.  John 15:6

The theme of judgment for sin is laced all the way through Scripture, from Cain’s killing of his brother in Genesis, thru Revelation’s Great White Throne judgment[2].

In Jeremiah’s prophecy it is hard to miss how clearly God said that it was He, Who was responsible for the woes that would fall on His people because they had wantonly broken their covenant vows with God.  God also claimed it was His right to do so, because it was He Who called and blessed them…He had planted the olive tree of Judah’s Jerusalem, and it would be God causing the fire to fall.

For You Today

Among most of the world’s once-Christian churches there is a deadly coldness when it comes to Pentecost’s fire.  They are like ovens without heat, only housing a possibility.  But, as it was with the prophets, it is not too late for the remnant of God’s people to return to faithfullness:

Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.  Amos 5:15

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:                                                            

After the Party and A Pathway Through the Darkness

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

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[1] See Acts 2:1-4

[2] See Revelation 8:7 & 16:9

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 5

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful!  But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  Hebrews 12: 10-11

Note:  What follows are excerpts of the first sermon I preached, June 7, 1978

If you’ve worked with gold, or know something about gold, you know it begins as ore, dug right out of the earth – then it has to be washed.  When gold is in ore form, combined with all that dirt and other elements, it’s not useable.  When the gold is washed, separated from the other impurities, it’s still not fit for use; a gold nugget is no good; it’s only mostly pure, but still needing preparation for useability.  The final process is the fire; gold is melted-down to remove any other elements that might hamper its most productive state. 

That’s the way a lot of Christians are, we make a decision for Christ, and we’re only a raw possibility at that point.  We’re washed by the blood of Christ, much like the ore that’s been washed…quite pure, we are washed by the blood, and forgiven, but still not ready for His best use; not unless we yield to the fire.  The prophet Isaiah said:  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.Isaiah 48:10 ^(KJV) 

Of course Isaiah wasn’t talking about the gold or silver you dig out of the ground.  He was talking about the gold of your life’s possibilities that have been yielded to the fire, refined, and molded into something ready to be used.  

But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.  Job 23:10^(KJV).

Elizabeth and I have been praying for her mother and father.  This morning ⁽¹⁹⁷⁸⁾ my mother-in-law is in a hospital room in Port Richey.  She had two heart attacks this week, not just one.  She had one that put her in the hospital; she wouldn’t give up – she had another; that’s two strikes.  I will tell you something; we have been praying for her for a long time, for her salvation, and her husband’s.

Update to 1983.  Elizabeth’s Mom died this year.  After she was gone, we were going through her belongings and found the answer to our prayers.  It was her Bible, given to her by a visiting pastor.  On the flyleaf was written in her hand, and dated shortly before she died, this inscription:  “Sofie saved”! 

The Holy Spirit tugs at a heart…gently, ever so gently.  The Holy Spirit deals gently with us until we come to a point.  How hard the Holy Spirit tugs at your heart is up to you.  Repentance, turning from sin, is the only thing that interrupts the consequences of our sin from something drastic being done to get our attention.  When you have people praying for you, that you’ll turn to the LORD, but you keep turning away, you’re going to benefit from God’s chastisement.

We know what chastisement is, and we know why…it’s a purging, a cleansing.  Now, how do we benefit from it?  Paul’s letter to the Roman believers tells us:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28^(KJV)

Our life is like the gold, dug out of the ground, raw possibility, but still needing the discipline of shaping for God’s good uses.  It needs to be yielded to the fire of God’s’ purifying character, making us fit for His purposes. 

For You Today

Chastisement, the move of God to discipline, teach, correct, and mature his children, comes in many forms:  experiencing problems, sickness, financial difficulties, and a myriad of other roads we walk.  One thing always common to chastisement is the experience gets our attention.  This is God’s blessed way of training his loved ones into a peaceful harvest of right living.

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:                                                            

                                 Seeing and Following the Light… Part 1 and Part 2  and  Part 3        

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

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 4

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful!  But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.  Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.  Hebrews 12: 10-11

We are continuing with our investigation of the gap between the pinnacle of genuine faith, and the pit of unbelief. 

Chastisement, or when God disciplines, is what God does to make us “fit for use”. That is the whole purpose of training, to become useful for God’s Kingdom.  The sermon[1] upon which this series of devotions is based, includes an illustration of God’s purpose to take our brokenness and use it for His glory, and puts into perspective those difficult times of testing and training we all experience:

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.  John 15:2

A week, or so, ago (in 1978) the muffler fell off my car.  It’s that big Mercury, so you know it’s a long dude, and it’s heavy.  I got under the car trying to put that muffler back on for what seemed like an hour-and-a-half.  I was getting weary; I was on my back with arms in the air lifting that muffler for an hour-and-a-half, but I just could not get it right.  The pipe I tried to use to get the muffler back together was too long for the space.  It just wouldn’t fit. 

After trying so many times I was exhausted.  The point here is that I finally gave-in; I gave-up.  I prayed at that moment, out loud, under the car:  Lord, I give up.  I can’t get it done; you gotta do it.  You know me – I don’t have anything left.  I waited a few minutes for the LORD’s answer, and decided to try again.  I pushed it and the whole thing fell apart.  Now, a few years back the old Russell would’ve gotten angry, looked up and said:  Hey…why…what have YOU got against me?  But not this time.  I just said, OK…looks like you have some other plan here.  I crawled out from underneath the car.  I was picking up stuff to put in the trunk and walk home, but as I got to the back of the car, I noticed the muffler clamp on the back end was still attached.  I saw how impossible it would be to put the muffler back together. 

When I waited on the LORD, I saw the solution to the problem that was there all the time.  I backed off, gave it up, listened, and the LORD showed me the right way.  I had taken the wrong approach…I was doing it my way.  I waited until things came unglued before I prayed and trusted.

That’s the way of instruction.  A lot of times you don’t see the LORD’s instruction until retrospect…that time when you stop doing things your way,  look back, and it dawns on you, oh yeah! 

Imagine your life as a sweater being knitted.  God’s the knitter, and you decide to take the needles.  You make a mistake (don’t we always) but God’s not going to continue where you left off; He’s going to take out the error.  That’s called purging.

For You Today

The sweater or muffler in your life may be different than mine, but the principle holds…we can continue struggling with doing it our way…or we can learn early in the process to give-in, and give-up, to God’s teaching.

Tomorrow we’ll have the unveiling of God’s glory in this whole process.

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:                                                                 

         Why Does Bad Stuff Happen to Good People? and Seeing and Following the Light - Part 1      

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

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[1] From a sermon, Chastisement, June 7, 1978, Russell Brownworth

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 3

Monday, August 22, 2022

For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how.  But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.  No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  Hebrews 12: 10-11

We are continuing with our investigation of the gap between the pinnacle of genuine faith, and the pit of unbelief. 

The “pain” in the presence of discipline is rarely corporal.  For those of us born in the Baby Boom generation, or earlier, corporal punishment was a matter of fact.  School principals were known to keep a paddle in their desks for the more rowdy trespassers among us.  A “paddling” was affectionately known as applying the board of education to the seat of knowledge.  These days spanking your child will result in a visit from child services, or the police.  In some cases it could be grounds for divorce – a child “emancipating” from abusive parents.

The writer of Hebrews states the obvious, that earthly parents disciplined us early in life, doing the best they knew how.  Of course, that “best” is far from perfect.  No human parent is prepared for the complexities of raising another human.  Attempting to correct unacceptable behavior, or faulty thinking that will lead to harm for the child, is a minefield; too much, or too little attention, choice of words, or description of consequences, can have the opposite effect of that which was intended.  It is difficult, at best, to know what to do.

Parenting!  There are as many opinions on the subject as there are people.  And human opinions are useful, because they’re often based upon human experience, most of which will have been formed out of painful moments of failure.  Our culture has deduced that pain is the enemy, and children should be spared pain, including discipline.  But God’s Word declares that to be a false understanding of the nature of growing.  The writer to the Hebrews acknowledges how discipline may be a source of transitory discomfort, but the training for life which it produces is a peaceful harvest of right living.

My mother was an expert at allowing pain to instruct.  A prime example that stands out in my mind was when I was only six-years-old.  Up to that point, all my clothes had buttons – never a zipper.  Then came the light jacket with a zipper.  Mom was getting me out the door to catch the bus, and helped me into the windbreaker.  But when she went for the zipper, I pushed her hand away, announcing that I was a big boy now, and I would be doing the zipper.  With that, Mom backed-off and let me struggle fiercely with getting the two sides of my jacket together.  There were some interesting and frustrating moments of lack of coordination that we shall not bother describing, but the end is a priceless lesson which stands out after nearly 7 decades.  When I finally gave up trying to get the demonic zipper device hooked together, Mom was right there.  With a smile (and probably a stifled laugh) she calmly, slowly showed me how to put the zipper parts together.  She got it started, then stopped and said:  OK, now you finish it.  To this day I can never zip a zipper without thinking of Mom’s kind face.

The Hebrew writer was right – for a six-year-old, stubborn boy, learning your limits, and how to accept discipline, was painful.  But I found more that day than zipper wisdom – I harvested a lesson of peaceful parenting.

For You Today

Training and harvesting go together, sometimes in the smallest moments.

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:  Leaving the Door UNLOCKED for God's Spirit and Wisdom & Discipline      

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

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 2

Friday, August 19, 2022

Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?  If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.  Hebrews 12: 7b-8

We are continuing with our investigation of the gap between the pinnacle of genuine faith, and the pit of unbelief.  The issue is discipline, and it will drive you to one or the other.  Unbelief will receive discipline (from God), as well as faith.  Any “bad response” will drive you to the pit; God’s advice throughout this passage is to respond well to His correctives, and be lifted to the pinnacle of faith, a joyful relationship with your Creator.  So, the question is begged and on the table:

What is a Good Response?

In our text the writer poses the question:  What child isn’t disciplined?  This is a loaded question in contemporary culture’s parenting mode.  The lack of even the simplest forms of accountability when it comes to civil behavior, or manners, runs rampant in our land.  So is the result – a lack of respect for any kind of authority, and a nation’s character crumbling like the Towers on 9/11.

In fairness, you must consider the “WHY” behind parents not saying “no” to their children, backed-up by consequences.  It stems from a faulty evaluation of who we are at our base nature.  Parents imagine their children are “good”, and unacceptable behavior is merely a phase, which will give way to that inherrent goodness, like cream in a milk bottle, rising to the top. 

Scripture informs us[1] that our sin nature does not give way…it resists any inhibition whatsoever:

For I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. Your heads are as hard as bronze.  

Isaiah 48:4

So, a child left uncorrected, unaccountable, doesn’t tire of his unacceptable behavior, changing into a fine human being – he keeps pushing the envelope until it breaks.  He abuses parents, peers, and those who get in his way, until God, or the penal system intervene.  Just like a garden that is left unattended, a lack of discipline will evolve into a rowdy mess of weeds, unproductive, unsightly, and totally unstable.  Humans in that category are tempermental, angry, selfish, sociopathic child-adults, unable to play nice with others.

A side-effect to all this is the child infecting the parents.  Many a parent, unwilling to say “no” to their child, has become frustrated that their hands-off routine didn’t work!  They get to that last straw of frustration and begin to abuse their child(ren), in a knee-jerk rebound from their failure.  What then replaces permissiveness is overbearing punishment, frustrating the child beyond any hope of accepting the parent’s intended good will.  The conclusion is that permissive parenting doesn’t work, because it is founded on a faulty premise:  good children left to their own choices make good choices.  How wrong, and how sad.

For You Today

True discipline always begins with love for the child.  Defined by He who IS LOVE, genuine discipline is always accountability-based, instructive, helping a child to learn to obey God’s authority, so he can grow into God’s loved and loving child:

For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Galatians 5:14

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:  Punishment Island and Earth Day - Part 4      

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

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[1] The word “stubborn” appears 66 times, relative to human obstinacy – (see the list here)

Between Pinnacle & Pit

Thursday, August 18, 2022

And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children?  He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.  For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”  As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children.  Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?  If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.  Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?  For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how.  But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.  No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful!  But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.  Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.  Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.  Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God.  Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.  Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal.  You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected.  It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.  Hebrews 12: 5-17

The first sermon I ever preached was from this text.  After more than 45 years of reflection I still hold it as one of the most important passages in Scripture…for people like me…hardheaded, expecting fairness as I see it, and often blindsided by my pride, as to what is good for me, and what I want…which are often at opposite ends of God’s list of the care and feeding of Russell.

Discipline is as much an art as duty.  The word has many shades of meaning, but mostly points to training which leads to a better purpose.  Solomon wrote:

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6

This one word, discipline stands between the pinnacle and the pit.  To accept God’s chastening when we are wrong is to turn to the light at the pinnacle.  To kick against the goads of His training is to court the abyss of darkness and death.  That’s not a pretty picture, but it is that much risk which accompanies the God-given blessing/responsibility of free will. 

For You Today

We will look at this passage in depth over the next several days.  For now, let’s start with the reason behind God’s discipline – He loves you!

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:  After the Disaster and Strength to Go On      

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