A Difficult Thing

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal.  And Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Bethel.”  But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you!”  So they went down together to Bethel.  The group of prophets from Bethel came to Elisha and asked him, “Did you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”  “Of course I know,” Elisha answered. “But be quiet about it.”  Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to Jericho.”  But Elisha replied again, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you.”  So they went on together to Jericho.  Then the group of prophets from Jericho came to Elisha and asked him, “Did you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”  “Of course I know,” Elisha answered.  “But be quiet about it.”  Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has told me to go to the Jordan River.”  But again Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you.”  So they went on together.  Fifty men from the group of prophets also went and watched from a distance as Elijah and Elisha stopped beside the Jordan River.  Then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it. The river divided, and the two of them went across on dry ground!  When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.”  And Elisha replied, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.”  “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah replied.  “If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request.  But if not, then you won’t.”  As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire.  It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven.  Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!”  And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress.  Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up.  Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River.  He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried out, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?”  Then the river divided, and Elisha went across.  When the group of prophets from Jericho saw from a distance what happened, they exclaimed, “Elijah’s spirit rests upon Elisha!”  And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.  2 Kings 2:1-15

Elisha would not be separated from his mentor, Elijah.  That is so like Ruth clinging to Naomi, a fierce determination to faithfully serve what God has given you.  Three times Elijah told his protégé to wait behind; three times Elisha answers with his lifelong commitment to serve God by staying close to the shadow of Elijah.  In the end it was only a chariot on fire with Heaven’s glory that could separate them.

What do we make of this event, and its place in God’s Word to us?  If you’re dissecting the event to make sense of the miracles, or wondering what part the prophets of Bethel and Jericho play, or what kind of material it would take to produce Elijah’s miracle-generating robe…we’re likely placing more weight on the miracles than on the Giver of miracles.  The main sense I see in this whole account of Elijah’s last days is the shift of God’s work that falls on the shoulders of Elisha.  He asked for a double-share of the spirit of his teacher.  Elijah called it a difficult thing.  There are two ways to take that; either it was a tricky thing for Elijah to produce it for Elisha, or a double prophet’s portion would bring a very difficult life to Elisha.  Elijah left it all in God’s hands; if that was God’s will, Elisha would see it.

For You Today 

If you’ve sat at the feet of some Godly teacher(s), you have sensed something of what God wants to do with your life.  Dare you ask for a difficult thing?

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(s) courtesy of via Wikimedia.org

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

Leadership 101

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

“Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen.  He is my Beloved, who pleases me.  I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public.  He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.  Finally he will cause justice to be victorious.  And his name will be the hope of all the world.”  

Matthew 12:18-21  

The religious rulers (Pharisees) were concocting a plot to kill Jesus because he did such horrible things, like heal a crippled man on the Sabbath.  Well, that was the premise – the real reason was Jesus’ popularity with the masses, and the resultant diminishing power of the Pharisees.  Becoming a Pharisee gave one power over others, and there are few who give-up that kind of power once they have it!  (The insurrection of January 6, 2021 ought to be viewed in that light!)

By contrast, Matthew, the former tax collector, holding riches and a fair amount of power over his countrymen, was now a disciple of Jesus.  He looked at the unfolding drama of Pharisees vs. the upstart preacher, and immediately recalled Isaiah’s prophecy.  The ancient prophet said God’s chosen Messiah would not be a power-monger, shouting orders and brawling; he would be the victorious hope of the entire world, in the gentlest of ways[1].  This is one of the most startling, counter-cultural statements one finds in Scripture about true leadership.

By nature, counter-cultural movements are defined by confrontation.  Truth confronts lies.  Darkness confronts light.  Hope confronts despair.  So, wherever counter-culture and presiding-culture intersect, you will also find confrontation.  In the realm of good and evil, it is a spiritual war, fought in the recesses of the mind, and evidenced in behavior we accept, or would even die-for.  In the penultimate war between Heaven and hell, eternity’s finest leader set the pattern for all leaders…meekly hanging on a cross, for the souls of all humankind.

What Jesus enacted on the cross was the shedding of blood for the remission of sins[2], for the whole of humanity, for all eternity.  A side benefit of seeing how he did this, humbly, the quiet sacrifical lamb, offering himself for our lives, is to see the quintessence of true leadership.  It is the embodiment of what God told the prophet Zechariah about the way Zerubbabel would cut a path to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple:

It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies…. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin,  Zechariah 4:6b, 10

The work of Christ on the cross for us was (in the eyes of Rome’s Caesar, and even the apostles, and much of the world today) a small beginning.  And it’s a reasonable thought – one man’s death is hardly noticed by the world.  But the death of one, inhabited and led by the Spirit of God, to do the works of the Father, is that which brings rejoicing in Heaven.

For You Today 

You may consider yourself inconsequential in the grand scheme of world history.  You may imagine your footprint will be washed-away with the next tide when you draw your last breath.  But, if the Psalmist is right, that thought cannot be right.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.  Psalm 116:15

Lest we forget that the Lord rejoices over the smallest of beginnings in His service;  whatever you have done, led by His Spirit, done in righteousness for His name, will live on as the holy Temple built without human hands.

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

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[1] Isaiah 42:1-4

[2] Hebrews 9:22

 

Of Pillars and Fence Posts

Thursday, February 2, 2023

But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”  Romans 10:21

This is one of those OUCH verses for those who think of themselves as a pillar of the church.  Israel was God’s special, chosen, dearly-loved bunch.  Along the way, disobedience and rebelliousness became their norm.  God’s arms were wide-open to them and all the world, but stubbornness (read that:  human nature) kept God at a distance, while Israel did what Israel wanted to do.

I have been that (and don’t you look so spiritual on me…you have too!).

This was brought home to me in a word picture decades ago when we lived in Florida.  I passed a small farm on the way to the church each day.  The owner had built a three-rail fence around a pasture.  I suppose he didn’t have an end post on one side, so he attached the three rails to a tree.  Over time the tree had grown, separating the three rails. 

The results of this project were unmistakable.  The living tree flourished, while the three dead rails cracked and splintered.  The fence became useless to the purpose for which it was constructed, keeping cows in the pasture.

It’s not difficult to get a handle on the point here:

You never attach something living to something dead!

For You Today  

Pillars of the church can become dead fence posts, toxic to the church.

When serving ends, and ownership takes its place, the living organism (the body of Christ) can become an organization (the business of human preferences).  Our God is a living, very active, sovereign God.  And the church is His.  The moment we begin to hold-on to anything (as if it belonged to our better ideas), pillars-turned-fence-post are headed for an unpleasant experience. 

When you get rebellious towards God’s ways, it isn’t God who loses that struggle!

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: 

When Darkness Takes Over  and  No. Other. God. 

This is an updated version of “So Much Anger” published on Rocky Road Devotions January 16, 2014

Images:  Title via Wikimedia.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

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

A Toast to the End of Half-Heartedness

 

Friday, August 26, 2022

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.  Do you have the gift of helping others?  Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.  Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.  All glory and power to him forever and ever!  Amen.  1 Peter 4:10-11

My Dad was fond of the idiom:  Jack-of-all-trades; master-of-none.  The first half of the saying was originally a compliment to indicate multi-tasking, being able to do a basketful of different trades (skills).  Later, some cynical troll added the second part, turning a bright compliment into a dig.  The troll was, according to some, Robert Greene, a late 16^th-century writer, who tweaked the compliment into a snide rebuke of another writer, who had turned from actor to writer of plays; fellow’s name was William Shakespeare.[1]

Apostle Peter, of the historical first-century, had cast his vote over 1,600 years before, encouraging excellence in whatever you do.  And, heading-off the elitist criticism from the beginning, Peter didn’t care what skill or skills you may employ, he says:  whatever you do, don’t do it half-heartedly, give it all you’ve got.

The sole reason for this is that each Christian disciple of Jesus Christ is given spiritual gifts to use in building the Kingdom of God, by building fellow believers.  To use any gift of God in a half-hearted manner is the character of an ingrate, unable, or unwilling to appreciate the holiness of God’s gifts, a slap in God’s face.

John Wesley, Founder of Methodism, wrote that Christian efforts at doing good were to be an unceasing quest for believers, doing all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways and places we can, at all the times we can, and to all the people we can, for as long as ever we can.  This is a plea for the extermination of half-heartedness – a call to arms against mediocrity, and in support of excellent, unselfish service.

The kingdom of God was never advanced by people with a cavalier attitude, acting as if serving others was bothersome, or even optional, or required little personal sacrifice.  Serving God in any way, from the highest to lowest of positions is a holy endeavor, and must receive our best efforts.  As Oswald Chambers wrote, it must be my utmost for His highest!

For You Today

If you’re a preacher, singer, teacher, Sunday School worker, custodian, or keeper of the records…your best efforts belong to God.  He gave you those gifts because He has confidence you’ll use them well. 

A word from the deep well of Apostle Paul’s wisdom to do nothing half-heartedly:

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Colossians 3:23

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:  Glory and Wise Choices

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

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[1] The Phrase Finder

Of Penicillin and Fruit

 

Thursday, January 27, 2022

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking?  Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.  Do you have the gift of helping others?  Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.  Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.  All glory and power to him forever and ever!  Amen.  1 Peter 4:10-11

Everything God created is a gift in some distinct way.  “Special” is a word that is usually reserved for something that is a cut-above the expected.  And anything God gives falls in that cut-above category.  That includes you, me, and everyone else in creation.  It is my belief that each of us is born with spiritual possibilities which God has given, and we are to develop, in accord with whatever God places in our pathway. 

The first of these gifts is love.  As we begin cooperating with God’s plans and promises, we first accept His offer of salvation, or, as John Wesley often reminded the troops, rescue from the wrath to come.  Past that, we are to put our spiritual gifts to work serving the One who loved and saved us.  As we do this there is a progression of working in God’s vineyard with differing gifts of prophesying (preaching), faith, healing, discernment, and the fruit which the Holy Spirit brings to the body of Christ:  love, joy, peace, gentleness, patience, and more.[1]

But what happens if we fail to cooperate with the gifts, and the spiritual fruit God expects?  Just like with the analogy Peter and Paul use of spiritual gifts producing spiritual fruit, unengaged gifts make for spiritual fruit mold.  Mold is like spiritual gifts unused…the fruit possibilities dry-up on the vine and become mold.

I met a man early in ministry when I served as pastor in North Central Florida.  He was serving on the grounds committee of the church.  The first time I met Henry[2] was at the back door of the parsonage in which our family would live the following years.  In the conversation I found he’d been a pastor…for a few months.  He was now earning a living with his carpenter skills.  I inquired why he was not pastoring any more.  His reply was just three words:  Couldn’t live it!  To his credit, I will say that Henry didn’t just walk away from the church, he found ways to serve God, even though the gifts and calling of pastoral ministry were there.  I never learned the details of “couldn’t live it” but over the years I knew him, it was sadly-clear something had happened to interrupt the development of fruit-production, as his spiritual gifts were left like unused tools on a workbench.

Apostle Peter’s admonishment to us in today’s Scripture lesson is to use them well to serve one another.  We are to use our spiritual gifts to produce fruit in the life of the body of Christ…and be a blessing to the entire world. 

For You Today

You are breathing!  And that is all the sign you need that God gave you spiritual gifts to be used in cultivating spiritual fruit, that which God uses to bless His creation.  If your fruit is a little moldy because you’ve been neglecting time in the vineyard, it isn’t too late to get busy.  You do know that God can take mold and make healing penicillin.  So, what will you do with the time you have left? 

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

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

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[1] Study these passages for a deeper understanding:  Romans 12, Galatians 5:16-25, 1 Corinthians 12

[2] OK…so he wasn’t really named Henry…but he’s a real person, and so was the conversation.

Getting On the Right Side of History

 

Friday, January 21, 2022

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:1-2

In writing to the Roman believers, Paul echoed the heartbeat of Moses, the lawgiver whom God used to set Israel free.  Moses was a man who learned the hard way (and maybe that’s why I admire the “M” man so much), how to serve and love God. 

Moses wanted, above all, to be on the right side of history.  He had a sense of justice that got him in trouble with people all the time, but had the stamp of God’s favor on what he did.  Born a nobody to Israelite parents in captivity to Egypt, Moses was in danger of being snuffed-out before his first birthday.  So, his mother set him adrift in a floating basket near the place where the Pharaoh’s daughter bathed.  The plan worked, and Moses Nobody was adopted and raised to be in the Seat of Power Somebody. 

Later, true-to-form, Moses got in trouble trying to break-up a fight and bring justice, but he was banished from his “somebody” position to life on the back-side of the dessert.  He spent the next 40 years being a “nobody”. 

But God was preparing Moses to serve; history would see the man born to be a nobody in obscurity, raised to kingly aspirations of the great somebody kind, exiled to less-than-obscurity, tending sheep, like an insignificant nobody, who finally became the kind of somebody who was willing to be a nobody, and could truly be called the friend of God.  It all came about because of what Paul would later describe as a surrender to God’s will.  Moses turned his back on the world’s ways, and accepted whatever God would require of him, life, limb, or reputation…and use every ounce of whatever strength God placed in his hands to serve the will of his Master.

Coming back to Egypt was what Moses saw as the test, but the real test was months before, in private, when the nobody from the Midian Dessert, who was a former somebody of Pharaoh’s household, took off his shoes in front of a bush that burned without burning-up, and surrendered to the will of the God who was so big He wasn’t named by anyone.  He just told Moses, I AM.

Getting on the right side of history has never meant winding up with the most toys, biggest bank account, or having people think your short existence on this planet was great.  It has everything to do with Who will be ruling long after this world’s leaders, cultures, current affairs, and movements are long-forgotten. 

For You Today

Moses was driven to find God’s will for his life, and the man born a nobody, became history’s somebody, because he was willing to give every bit of who he was in his human body to open his life to God’s plan. 

If that sounds like a plan to get on the right side of history to you, but it doesn’t describe where you are, or have been yet, remember, the bush never burned-up.  He still speaks, and He still loves, and you are still wanted.

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

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

And Then it was Monday

 

                                            Tuesday, November 30, 2021                          

Lord, through all the generations

    you have been our home!

Before the mountains were born,

    before you gave birth to the earth and the world,

    from beginning to end, you are God.  Psalm 90:1-2

Yesterday was an anniversary of sorts.  November 29^th marked forty years since I knelt in First Baptist Church of Crystal River, Florida, and received the blessing of ordination to the ministry of God’s Gospel.  For those who’ve not experienced that, or thought much of it, it’s a high point for anyone called to serve.  On that Sunday night I felt vastly unworthy to the calling, and yet, somehow, unable to object.  The “calling” is an irresistible bubbling-up from within the soul, and who among us can say “no” to God…at least with a straight face?

My pastor and mentor, Rev. L. B. Thomasson, preached the ordination sermon, and I recall the threefold challenge as if it were just a moment ago.  He looked directly at, or more accurately he looked through me and said:

• Russell, I challenge you to stay close to God;
• Russell, I challenge you to stay close to people;
• Russell, I challenge you to bring the two together.

That was Sunday night, a reception, a newly-inscribed commemorative Bible, lots of hugging, well-wishing, and promises of prayer support.

And then, it was Monday.

And with Monday’s dawn, what was laid on my shoulders with hands that believed to bless, came the fright of reality – the ceremony was over; the living of this promise was before us, and only faith in God could sustain so weak a man.

And now, forty years later, those thoughts of inadequacy, unworthiness, and disquiet over my ability to follow God’s leading, have proved 100% founded.  Russell has never been equal to the task.  Whatever has been accomplished is entirely God’s doing; I have merely had a front row seat to watch His miracle unfold. 

I have been patted on the back (at times it was a size 12 shoe rather lower-placed than a back-patting)!  I’ve been congratulated (what a great sermon, pastor), and, like Paul, sometimes I’ve been shown the door and told get out, stay out! 

One unmistakable thread in this forty-years of sermons, hospital calls, funeral homes, and the highs and lows of human relationships, has been the God of all Mondays…the dwelling place – the One who was there before the mountains, and exists as I AM.  In every attempt to serve God faithfully and sometimes (truth be told), attempts to run away from Him and all the responsibilities of being an under shepherd, I AM has been there. 

From beginning to ending, He is faithful.

For You Today

What do you do when you promised God something on Sunday in prayer, and then Monday shows up?  Do you pass it off as, well, that emotional moment?  

Do you start bargaining with God to get off the hook?

Or do you trust God on Monday to fulfill His promises?

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

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

For another post on this text see A Prayer From the Hourglass and Without Beginning-Without Ending