Faith Seasoned Wisdom

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Then Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother, Esau, who was living in the region of Seir in the land of Edom.  He told them, “Give this message to my master Esau: ‘Humble greetings from your servant Jacob.  Until now I have been living with Uncle Laban, and now I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, and many servants, both men and women.  I have sent these messengers to inform my lord of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to me.’”  After delivering the message, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, “We met your brother, Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you—with an army of 400 men!”  Jacob was terrified at the news.  He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups.  He thought, “If Esau meets one group and attacks it, perhaps the other group can escape.”  Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac—O Lord, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’  I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant.  When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps!  O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau.  I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children.  But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’”  Genesis 32:3-12

To learn from your mistakes is the essential quality of wisdom.  To apply faith to wisdom is to serve God above all.  Jacob had a rocky, selfish start to life.  It started in his mother’s womb, when he and his twin brother, Esau, had a daily wrestling match.  As they were born, Esau was first out, but Jacob was hot on his heels, actually grabbing his brother’s foot.  It was sibling rivalry with the first breath.

The story of their lives in their father Isaac’s home was contentious, to say the least.  Jacob’s selfish behavior divided his mother and dad, and made an enemy of his twin brother.  Esau was so angry with his brother’s treacherous ways, Jacob had to leave home and go live with their uncle Laban at a safe distance.  Esau swore he’d kill his twin if ever they met again.

Fast forward twenty years…Jacob is much wiser, and is on his way home to reconcile with his family.  He has no clue as to Esau’s mindset…will his brother make good on his vengeance threat?  Will it end in calamity?  Jacob is wise at this point, dividing his wives and children into two camps, hoping to minimize losses of life and property, if Esau is still bent on Jacob’s death.  But a new dimension has foraged its’ way into Jacob’s life and thinking – faith!  The night before he was to face Esau, he met face-to-face with God’s angel, and the outcome was Jacob’s commitment to serve God, and live by faith, even if it meant giving up everything he'd gained, or even his own life. 

What Jacob had learned was what Jesus told Peter hundreds of years later – swords, be they steel or the treachery of human selfishness, may work for awhile, but they have little place in the heart of God.  It is faith that wins.[1] 

Seasoning the wisdom of learned mistakes and rocky roads, with faith God has given, is the mark of a life changed and usable in God’s Kingdom.  It took Jacob decades of hard lessons to shed his clever ways in favor of God’s clear kindness…the deep faith of the unashamed!

For You Today 

This world will afford you many opportunities to follow both Esau and Jacob’s early mistakes and sins…greed, treachery, revenge, and power.  In the end, those things only produce pain and regret, whether you wind up in jail, or residing in a mansion.  It’s all loss in Heaven’s record books.  The other, wiser choice is to season whatever you have learned with faith to do what the prophet Micah wrote:  do what is right, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

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 Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons 

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

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[1] See John 18:10-11

Enough

 

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

And they left Egypt and returned to their father, Jacob, in the land of Canaan.  “Joseph is still alive!” they told him.  “And he is governor of all the land of Egypt!”  Jacob was stunned at the news—he couldn’t believe it.  But when they repeated to Jacob everything Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, their father’s spirits revived.  Then Jacob exclaimed, “It must be true!  My son Joseph is alive!  I must go and see him before I die.”  So Jacob set out for Egypt with all his possessions.  And when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.  During the night God spoke to him in a vision. “Jacob! Jacob!” he called.  “Here I am,” Jacob replied.  “I am God, the God of your father,” the voice said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make your family into a great nation.  I will go with you down to Egypt, and I will bring you back again. You will die in Egypt, but Joseph will be with you to close your eyes.”     Genesis 45:25 – 46:4

If you do a pulse-check on most any of the days of Jacob’s life, you’ll find a calculating, selfish, wheeler-dealer.  Stuff like that always comes back to haunt you.  Jacob did not escape that.  After his ambitious conniving to steal his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing, Jacob had to leave town in the middle of the night to avoid everyone’s anger.  It cost him twenty years estrangement in the school of hard knocks.  He lived with his uncle Laban, a much sharper knife in the drawer when it came to manipulation.  The PhD degree Jacob earned in his time spent with Laban was the futility of a lack of integrity.

Another inescapable casualty of Jacob’s manipulative lifestyle was how his children learned at their daddy’s knee how to live that way too.  The older sons were jealous of their father’s attention to the youngest, Joseph, and eventually hatched a plan to throw him in a pit and watch him die.  They eventually settled for selling him into slavery to a band of nomadic traders.  With Joseph out of sight, they led Jacob to believe he’d been eaten by wild animals.  For the next twenty years the old man lived in paralyzing grief, mourning for Joseph, the son of his old age.

Finally, a famine gripped the land and Jacob sent his brother-killing sons to seek food down in Egypt.  The sons wound up right in front of Joseph, their supposedly long-dead little brother, who had managed to survive and thrive; he was the second most powerful man in the world under Egypt’s pharaoh. 

Now, the whole point of this epic story of family-fail came next, as Joseph is reunited with his murderous brothers, forgives them, and sends them home to Jacob.  Once Jacob gets over the shock of Joseph still being alive, he knows he must see this long-lost son face-to-face before he dies.

As he’s travelling to Egypt God spoke to Jacob in a vision assuring him that all will be well, and the promises of God would be carried out, and his son would be there to tenderly close the old man’s eyes in his final moments of life on this planet.  And, for Jacob, a man once steeped in trickery, thievery, deceit, and conspiracy, which had all (predictably) turned into a massive pile of internal strife and sorrow, now humbled by the effect of God’s mercy extended to such a one as Jacob the manipulator, imposter, despicable excuse for a human being, one word from God was…ENOUGH!

For You Today

No matter how much you may have made a mess of your opportunities in this life, or destroyed trust with family, friends, or even your own integrity, the promise of God is mercy to those who repent, humbling themselves before God, to seek His face[1].  Jacob did all that in a wrestling match with God one night near the Jabbok River.  He meant to get right with God, and, in mercy, God forgave Jacob and gave him a new name, Israel, the special, chosen, friend of God.

His story isn’t about airing the family’s dirty laundry; his story is all about letting you know this God you’ve been hunting forgives…and He’s only waiting for you to come calling.  And, when you do, you’ll see…like Jacob, it will be…ENOUGH!

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

For other posts on Jacob’s family problems see Dysfunction in the Desert and No Place Before God - Part 2      

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[1] 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

Two Doors

 

A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.  Proverbs 15:1

--- The Word of God for us, the People of God ---

Jacob and Esau (for me) are two names that, once said, immediately raise the thought, Oh, I know that story[1].  There’s the deception of their father, Isaac, who is nearly blind and cannot recognize the younger son who is impersonating the eldest, the one entitled to the birthright and double blessing.  Jacob steals both and must leave town because his brother is madder than a hornet’s nest.  So Jacob the trickster sneaks out of town in the middle of the night and runs to his Uncle Laban’s place, spends the next 20 years there manipulating his way into getting rich. 

In time, Jacob meets his cousin, Rachel, and wants to marry her, but she has an older unmarried sister, Leah, who isn’t exactly the prom queen.  Laban agrees to the match, but on the wedding day, he switches the brides; Jacob gets a veiled Leah to marry.  After the wedding Jacob discovers this, and now his Uncle, who is now also his father-in-law, turns the table on the trickster and makes him agree to work for him another 7 years to have the right to marry Rachel. 

Jacob learned a lesson from Laban that he desperately needed:

Those who live by deception eventually get deceived.

So, Jacob has worked twenty years, gotten married twice, and then God instructs him to leave town again, go back home.  Once again Jacob leaves town in the middle of the night because this time his cousins are angry over the way Jacob was getting rich right under their noses, while he’s supposed to be working for Laban. 

Having made just about everyone in the family mad at him at some point, Jacob is a man without a family to call home.  He’s headed back to where he used to call home, but has no idea if Esau is still ticked at him.  The night before crossing the last river (Jabbok), Jacob realizes he’s at the point of no return.  Messengers tell him his brother, Esau, has heard of Jacob’s return, and now, accompanied by 400 men, Esau is coming Jacob’s way to meet his deceiving little brother.  With nowhere else to turn, Jacob lays down his head to try to sleep, and is confronted by an angel of God. 

A wrestling match ensues, lasting until just about daybreak.  The angel tells Jacob to let go, or he would die with the breaking of dawn.  Jacob, now fully past the point of depending on his own wiles and wits, decides to let God be the boss.  He refused to let the angel go until he received the blessing.  That blessing came in the form of two doors. 

This story of two brothers has to do with the two doors we all face.  The back story telling us how, and why, the brothers parted is door #1, anger. 

Then they both spent the next 20 years without seeing each other.  Jacob was busy getting rich, and Esau had time to cool off.  That is like the space between the anger door, and the second door marked reconciliation. 

Both brothers had walked through door #1 steeped in anger in the early part of life, then languished in the unknown space leading up to the reunion.  When confronted with each other after being apart for 20 years, and being faced with door #2, they had to make a decision what was going to govern the end chapters of their life; would they stay controlled by anger, or swallow deeply and reconcile. 

It turned out that both Esau and Jacob wanted reconciliation.  They just weren’t sure about the other until the moment they faced each other.  This fact, that they wanted to be brothers again, never occurred to me in all the times I’d read their story. 

I always knew Jacob didn’t want to die, and so he was somewhat forced to face Esau and the anger he’d escaped 20 years prior.  Being confronted by a Mixed Martial Arts black belt angel, and the throbbing pain of a dislocated hip joint, Jacob got his head handed to him, so he hedged his bets and sent a gift ahead to buy Esau’s favor.  And I figured when Esau heard Jacob was headed his way, he probably wasn’t sure what was on his mind, so he gathered up 400 of his closest friends to accompany him, just in case Jacob didn’t come to shake hands.

Seeing the brother who had sworn to kill him, but now embraced him and kissed him, was as welcome to Jacob as a breath of air to a drowning man, compared to what that wrestling angel could have done to him.  It became clear to Jacob his family meant more to him than all the riches he’d earned the previous twenty years.

For Esau, we’re left wondering exactly what changed his mind about killing Jacob.  But we do see the smile on his face in meeting his long, lost, slinky brother, Jacob.    It was a genuine, heartfelt welcome Esau gave to Jacob; the younger brother said, seeing your friendly smile is like seeing the face of God.

We have a story of two brothers who hadn’t seen each other for twenty years, who had parted company angry and fearful, and now were confronted with what to do with each other…would it be a fight to the death? 

Which door pray tell!

A couple of observations about what had to give way for there to be reconciliation between Esau and Jacob:

          1.   Esau had the easier path

Esau was the eldest of the brothers, and it was Jacob’s deception (on more than one occasion) that had wronged his brother.  Everything about fairness and balance tells us Esau’s anger was somewhat justified.  Except for wanting to murder his brother…that is never acceptable.

But, 20 years is a long time, and Esau somehow had managed to let go of the animus toward his brother.  He may have forgiven Jacob in absentia, or because he never saw him, even for family holidays, his anger just cooled off.  However, it was certain something caused a change in Esau, because he was ready to accept his brother back, even though Jacob had stolen his birthright and blessing.

          2.   Jacob had the harder task

Coming to the place of confession that you were wrong is one of the most difficult changes in human experience.  That was exactly the place Jacob was headed for the night before he was going to cross the River Jabbok. 

I believe God engineered the whole scenario to push Jacob into that corner of decision-making; he needed that wrestling match with the angel to come face to face with his character, and, more importantly, face his disobedience to God.  As stubborn, manipulative, deceptive, and self-centered as Jacob was, it was going to take a lot of travail in rolling around in the dust on the riverbank, and a dislocated hip to convince Jacob to admit he owed Esau an apology.

That’s common in many areas of human interactions.  So many relationships go sour because of stubbornness and pride that just will not admit to being wrong.  Many people refuse to accept Christ and become part of a church, because that means confessing sins, and admitting they’ve been out of place where God’s holiness is concerned.  Nobody does that without some strong convincing by the Holy Spirit to put aside pride and stubbornness.  Some (perhaps many) manage to fight off God’s offer of forgiveness and eternal life, but I’d hardly call that a victory. 

Did Jacob REALLY change?

I think so – in at least 3 ways:

          ·       He went from TAKER to GIVER

Jacob sent a fortune ahead of him as a gift to his brother.

          ·       He went from SNEAK to SERVANT

When Jacob met Esau he didn’t say a word at first, he bowed in the dust to him 7 times, a custom in the Middle East at that time, but the self-centered, win-at-any-cost, in-any-way Jacob was long gone.  He called himself the servant of his brother, and called his Esau my lord, and my brother.

          ·       He went from EVIL to GODLY

By bowing, and respectfully placing himself below Esau, Jacob elevated the need to make things right for his deception of the past.  He put aside any concern for his own safety or needs.  He had learned the lesson of wrestling with God’s angel – you don’t let go until the blessing comes.  In this case, Jacob didn’t let go of the humility he’d learned until Esau ran to embrace him and accept him…they reconciled…brothers once more.

So, what does this mean for the 21^st Century?

We have something of an Esau and Jacob boiling anger pot today.  Just a few examples:

·       The Traditionalist brothers and sisters in the Methodist tribe could certainly be Esau, upset with the actions of the young, upstart Progressive Jacob siblings.  There has been an informal separation for many years, and the pot is once again at boiling temperature. 

·       Esau and Jacob have their counterparts in the racism, threats, riots, violence, and protests that fill our land.  And the hotter it gets in July, the greater the temperature in the boiling pot. 

·       There is even division over whether COVID-19 deserves our discomfort of wearing masks.  We have Jacob freewheelers concerned only for themselves, and Esau cautionaries, not wanting anyone to breathe.

Some people today, perhaps like the 400 who went with Esau to meet Jacob’s return, may have anger in their hearts, just looking for a little payback.  Had Esau showed even a little of that, the story may have been written in Jacob’s blood. 

In just the same way there are those today who are not serious about reconciliation, or doing heart-justice; for them, it’s all about payback for ancient wrongs, and seizing any rope to lynch even a bystander to prove a point. 

There’s no reconciliation in some people’s hearts.  And they are as far from being in tune with God as a twenty-year-old snowball in Hell.

And that’s the whole point.  Whether you’re Esau or Jacob in the story – the one who was wronged, or the abuser, both men came with reconciliation in the heart.  That is a rarity in today’s I want MY RIGHTS culture!

In the unrest and violence we see today across generations, sexuality, gender issues, all the rules, legalities, ordinances, and power stands will never change a thing.  The battle began in the heart, just like it did when Cain got overcome with anger towards his brother Abel. 

The battle for getting people to live in harmony was never about the laws of the land, it’s always been about hate in the heart.

When life gets rough you can get angry or you can get reconciled…but it is much like the choice between walking through two doors…you just can’t do both.

Our Lord, Jesus, Christ said:

“No one can serve two masters.  For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.  Matthew 6:24

Jesus said that about love of money, but it’s just as true about loving the hatred we hold in our hearts.

Our Prayer

Father God, you’ve made it clear to us in so many ways that anger and violence will have offspring…and none of it is ever pretty.  Lord, where we prone to be ‘young Esau’, ready to kill our brother when the opportunity comes, help us to remember your cross, and that we’re already guilty of murdering Heaven’s Prince.  And where we would be ‘young Jacob’, deceitful, taking what we can get, showing no respect for others, help us to remember we’re already guilty of standing silent while the crowd yells ‘crucify’.

In all things, and at all times, help us to keep our lives rooted, grounded, and operating in Your love, sensitive to Your Spirit, and ready to run from the anger door, straight to the door of reconciliation.

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation  Matthew 10:24-39©

Image of Jacob and God's Angel wrestling via Wikimedia Commons

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[1] You can read the story of Jacob and Esau’s Reunion in Genesis 33:1-17

From Jacob to Israel

[1] 

Monday, January 13, 2020

Eventually, Jacob and his household arrived at Luz (also called Bethel) in Canaan.  Jacob built an altar there and named the place El-bethel (which means “God of Bethel”), because God had appeared to him there when he was fleeing from his brother, Esau.  Soon after this, Rebekah’s old nurse, Deborah, died.  She was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel.  Ever since, the tree has been called Allon-bacuth (which means “oak of weeping”).  Now that Jacob had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again at Bethel.  God blessed him, saying, “Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer.  From now on your name will be Israel.”  So God renamed him Israel.  Genesis 35:6-10

What’s in a name; That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet is a line from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in which Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare's lyrical tale of "star-cross'd" lovers.  They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families.  …Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family.  Romeo, out of his passion for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows, as Juliet asks, to "deny (his) father" and instead be "new baptized" as Juliet's lover.  This one short line encapsulates the central struggle and tragedy of the play, and is one of Shakespeare's most famous quotes.[2]

In the case of Jacob, to Shakespeare’s tragedy we could add mutiny, as that describes the casting aside of one’s given name and family.  However, the two sagas end so differently.  Romeo and Juliet commit suicide and are lost.  Jacob, on the other hand, is accosted by God and responds well.  In the end he is elevated to Israel.  The name change is more than a sweet-smelling temporary rose; it is a proof and continuation of God’s promises and love.

The name Jacob means heel-grabber or deceiver.  It goes back to the point of Jacob’s birth, when, as a second-born twin, he is seen exiting the womb grabbing his brother’s heel, a prophecy of his greedy, deceiving ways which plays-out bigger than Shakespeare dreamed.  It divides the family and seemingly destroys the future God had promised.  But in the middle chapters of Genesis we see God working in Jacob’s life to bring him back into the fold.  From manipulator to integrity-bound and driven, the heel-grabber becomes the one who bows in the direction of God’s will, and humble confession to the father and brother he deceived.  He who once tried to supplant now worships!  Jacob the deceiver has become Israel, the right hand of God’s strength.

For You Today

In a culture where deception and untruth are the norm from media to the halls of Congress and in everyday life, God could use a few more Jacobs He could rename Israel.  Truth be told, it’s a simple process; trust in God and tell the truth, no matter who is listening.

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

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

[2] From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2), eNotes.com

Burning the Bridge of Integrity

[1]

Monday, August 14, 2017

Some time later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern.  When he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief.  Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone!  What will I do now?”  Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood.  They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message:  “Look at what we found.  Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”  Their father recognized it immediately.  “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe.  A wild animal must have eaten him.  Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces!”  Then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap.  He mourned deeply for his son for a long time.  His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.  “I will go to my grave mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.  Genesis 37:29-35^(NLT)

The father in this story is Jacob, a man whose ambition got the best of him on more than one occasion.  He deceived his twin brother Esau, and his father Isaac, to take what didn’t belong to him.  His life’s practice was to appear righteous, but deep down, whenever his character was put to the test Jacob’s default was to manipulate the truth to fit his plans and what he wanted most.

And in his twelve sons, with the exception of Joseph, that character trait of deception, and shifty untrustworthiness ran strong!  Joseph’s brothers sold their little brother to a band of slave traders, and then staged it to look like a wild animal had eaten him.  Their evil deception brought deep grief to their father Jacob’s elder years.

If you take apart the whole issue of deceptiveness in relationships you find a slithering snake’s nest of words which describe a dark character:  lies, malice, envy, bitterness, ambition…the list is a veritable stockpile of human character and integrity unravelling! 

Integrity is tied to the old saying about character:  say what you mean, and mean what you say!  To be a person of integrity means much more than doing the right thing no matter who’s looking; being a person of integrity means not resting unless the truth is held sacred, no matter the personal consequences.

Joseph’s brothers burned the bridge of integrity when they withheld their guilt from Jacob.  If they hired a skilled attorney the brothers could have gotten a hung jury on out-and-out lying, because they never actually said a false word.  But they withheld the truth from the old man, and truth obscured by silence supports the growth of evil! 

For You Today

You will say thousands of words today; a champion of human integrity will make sure each one of those words supports truth!

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

Seeing and Following the Light - part 3

[i]

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!

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NOTES

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