Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me

[i]

Monday, July 17, 2017

I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy.  I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.  When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn.  Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.  I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought!  No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.  Then I pray to you, O Lord.  I say, “You are my place of refuge.  You are all I really want in life.  Hear my cry, for I am very low.  Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.  Bring me out of prison so I can thank you.  The godly will crowd around me, for you are good to me.”  Psalm 142:1-7^(NLT)

Of the seven U.S. presidents who hail from New York, the last two have a reputation of being flamboyant and able to rub the cat in the wrong direction.  There is a story about the one who occupied the Oval Office from 1933-45, which may, or may not, be true:

Roosevelt decided that the guests were never really listening to what he was saying. One day at a reception he decided to try a little experiment.  As each guest arrived and shook the president’s hand he smiled politely and said pleasantly, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.”

As Roosevelt had anticipated, the guests responded with such comments as, “Marvelous!”  “Keep up the good work!”  “We are proud of you!”  “God bless you, sir!”

It was not until the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia, that his guest actually listened to what Roosevelt was saying.  The ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming.”[ii]

Now, that’s a funny story, and, whether true or not, highlights part of the problem the Psalmist wailed about – that there wasn’t a single person who really cared what happened to him; nobody even gave his circumstances a passing thought.  Sometimes most of us at least have thoughts like that.  Some of us live there.

You may have been there – are there; I have been as well.

Our prayers at times like that turn to the kind of lament that drowns out the reasonableness of life.  We cry out to God for any kind of relief.  We are like Buck Owens character in the song, Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me[iii]:

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Self-pity aside, the reasons why people get in this mode of frantically crying from the pit of despair is that we really are in deep despair.  Depression is no small thing.  And, if the sale of anti-depressant drugs is any indication, our culture is really good at creating it.

For You Today

Be aware today that of the first 10 people you will meet today, somewhere around eight or nine of them will have experienced, or ARE experiencing depression!  Help them know someone cares; help them pray with the other Psalm:

Restore to me the joy of your salvation…Psalm 51:12a^(NLT)

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: Pixabay.com

[ii] The President Did What?

[iii] Song Lyrics from Around the World

The Message and Mission of Evangelism

[i]

Friday, July 14, 2017

“Listen, O heavens, and I will speak!  Hear, O earth, the words that I say!  Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew.  Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants.  I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God!  He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect.  Everything he does is just and fair.  He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!  Deuteronomy 32:1-4^(NLT)

Holy Scripture is all about God – who He is, and what He’s about.  In Scripture we also learn who we are, and what God wants us to do.  It’s that plain and simple.  As a way of life God wants His people to share with others this good message of God.

Recently, Laura Auten, who is the District Superintendent of that part of the United Methodist Church in which I serve, shared some thoughts about evangelizing which deserve the attention of every believer/follower of Jesus Christ.  Laura wrote about the method and mission of sharing this Good News effectively:

“Dear friends, one of my summer practices is to have morning coffee on the back patio at the parsonage before the day gets too hot.  The birds, flowers and trees in my backyard bring a peaceful beginning to my day. The birds fly from tree to shrub, back and forth, calling and singing.  Gil Rendle uses the image of birds searching for food to explain the church's necessary focus on Jesus' unchanging mission for the world.  Rendle says that the intent of birds do not change.  They are looking for food!  However, birds will adapt how and where they look for food.  This food can be found in many locations, even different locales depending on the weather.  And, bird food comes in different forms:  fancy bird feeder food, bugs, grass or worms! The basic mission never changes, but the strategy for achieving the mission is constantly changing and is flexible and adaptable.

“Congregations of disciples would do well to remember the birds!  As followers of Jesus, we have a mission that never changes, to make disciples of Christ who transform the world.  More precisely, it is God who makes disciples and we point the way for others to know and love Christ.  We show others where we have found food and nourishment!  How wonderful that the strategies and the ways to witness to and serve Christ are bountiful and infinite![ii]

Did you note that Laura didn’t hold up a program or a three-step, sure-fire process for evangelizing?  Listen again: 

The basic mission never changes,

but the strategy for achieving the mission

is constantly changing and is flexible and adaptable…

We show others where we have found food and nourishment!

This is so very like what Bishop D.T. Niles liked to quote:

Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.[iii]

For Methodists who have a particular affinity for the covered dish supper, (and what true Methodist doesn’t?), this ought to be a slam-dunk, understandable concept.  After all, we know food!

For You Today

When you’ve found good food (or Good News), let the other beggars you know in on your secret!

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: Pixabay.com

[ii] Laura Auten, District Superintendent, Uwharrie District of the United Methodist Church, Vital Web email, July 2017

[iii] D.T. NILES, New York Times, May 11, 1986

Culture or Cross?

[i]

Thursday, July 13, 2017

When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God’s written law.  And the Jews, who do have God’s law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it.  For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God.  It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.  Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.  They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.  And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.  Romans 2:12-16^(NLT)

Decades ago Debbie Boone had a big hit with Joe Brooks’ love song entitled You Light Up My Life[ii].  The lyrics include:

It can’t be wrong when it feels so right

It’s just a little problematic to believe that.  A drug addict will tell you that “high” he feels when the heroin rushes into his blood stream feels so right!  A teenager who has just pinned the speedometer on his Mustang at 140mph will feel so right until the siren and lights start blaring in his rear view mirror.  And a person caught in believing that the wave of cultural acceptability for such things as pre-marital, extra-marital, or same-sex practices will also tell you that those feelings of love and community the culture provides are proof that it’s OK with God too!

They are wrong!  Deadly wrong!

Despite the increasing flood of normative-creating culture in favor of same-sex, trans-gender, and whatever sexual flavor of the month cause our world can generate, God’s Word still declares that the bonds of marriage are for one man and one woman for one lifetime.

As ever, we have choices to make about what we will believe.  Those choices are between believing the culture in which we live, so we can feel so right, or following the demand of living the life of Christ’s cross, honoring our Creator and Redeemer.

For You Today

A believer/follower of Jesus Christ, who is living the cross-life of surrender, conforms his heart to the will of Christ, which is found in the Word of God.  If my will, and what feels so right, conflict with what God has proclaimed, it isn’t God who is wrong!

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: Pixabay.com and Pixabay.com

[ii] Joe Brooks ^©Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

So...Then...

[i]

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father.  He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.  It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.  Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.  So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.  Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.  John 13:1-5^(NLT)

If you’re hard-wired like me you almost can’t stop reading this account until you get to Peter refusing to have his feet washed.  After all, that’s the main point, isn’t it?  Isn’t it always all about us, and how we react to God?  Well, in a way…but not so much that our actions become the focus.  That is why I stopped crossing this street in the middle.

Much of the Gospel story is cast in cause and effect; the washing of the disciples’ feet is no exception.  Notice that John records the effects in this “So” and “Then” mode of the storyteller:

So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.  Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.  John 13:4-5^(NLT)

Those are effects…what’s the cause?  Back up to verse 2:

…the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.       

John 13:2b^(NLT)

The Gospel writer explained what happened at the table as one who was an insider.  Jesus knew the enemy’s ways and recognized what was happening in Judas.  He reacted by an act of service that helped the disciples know how to respond to the evil that was coming.

And isn’t that what it means to follow Jesus?  Isn’t it our task to respond to the culture in which we find ourselves in the same manner and spirit of the One who is our Master?

For You Today

This is our lesson for today… (and forever):

For those who would genuinely follow Jesus, the response to evil is to serve others…even in the face of betrayal

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: Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Arise

[i]

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Ah, I hear my lover coming!  He is leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.  My lover is like a swift gazelle or a young stag.  Look, there he is behind the wall, looking through the window, peering into the room.  My lover said to me, “Rise up, my darling!  Come away with me, my fair one!  Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone.  The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.  The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming.  Rise up, my darling!  Come away with me, my fair one!”  Song of Solomon 2:8-13^(NLT)

The Song of Songs is a storyteller’s ripe field.  You can just see the flowers blooming and sense that love is in the air!  Can’t you just hear Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music that fills the hills with joy and daffodils?  Young lovers everywhere!

Solomon is very specific to name this season as late March/early April, and since the mating season of gazelles is closer to November, there is much more here than poetic allusion to the primal mating characteristics of deer.  This is spring, and it is the paschal season of Passover and resurrection!

The lover is calling to his bride, “Arise, my love”.  The word has a lot of uses in Hebrew.  Some authors[ii] suggest it is the awakening call of one who has been sleeping, or in a stupor.  Solomon may have written this beautiful love call as an ode to his bride, but, for those of us who celebrate the resurrection of Christ 3,000 years after Solomon lived, there is an unmistakable connection with the one who calls us to stand-up out of our death stupor and be joined to the One who calls and enlivens us.

This is resurrection call! 

When the lover calls His bride, it is to come away with him.  This is the unmistakable call of God drawing time, space and eternity together, as He draws his beloved church into the blessed paradise Jesus promised the thief who was crucified next to him. 

Paul carried this promise in his heart and shared it with the Thessalonian church:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.  First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  Then we will be with the Lord forever.  So encourage each other with these words.  1 Thessalonians 4:16-18^(NLT)

Did you hear that as in a stupor?  Or did you hear it afresh and anew?  Voice of the archangel; trumpet call of God; caught up; these are the words of an invitation as the bridegroom calls out his bride. 

This is our future, our destiny.  This is not mating season; this is marriage calling!

For You Today

Whether a Christian lies awaiting the call in the grave, or is still in the body when it happens, there is going to be a time when the bridegroom calls:

Arise, my love…the grave no longer has a hold on you[iii]

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

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

[ii] Barnes, Keil & Dellitsch, among others.

[iii] ^©Newsong

Unintended Results

[i]

Monday, July 10, 2017

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.  They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.  Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature.  So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.  And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like.  As a result, their minds became dark and confused.  Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.  And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.  So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.  As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.  They traded the truth about God for a lie.  So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 

Romans 1:18-25^(NLT)

As a young teen I had an old motorcycle that could never have passed anyone’s inspection, especially the Motor Vehicle Department.  I have an idea my Dad let me buy the contraption from a neighbor for two reasons:

#1. It would never pass inspection, and therefore never hit the streets of Smithtown.

#2. It was so under-powered my Dad’s youngest son would probably not crash and burn on the streets of Smithtown while learning a lesson that he had no business at all on any kind of vehicle without an airbag.

My Dad never attended a college class, but he was wise when it came to the foolishness of his sons.  More than once, after I whined, complained, begged, and promised, Dad had said (with an appropriate eye-roll), go ahead…do what you want…just don’t complain about it later!

I can see Paul’s eyes rolling as he gives us a peek behind the closed door to what God’s game plan looks like for his foolish children, when, in mock surrender the Father lets his sinful creatures have their way.  It looks like:

[ii]

All of our declarations of loving God and being His children mock the truth when we exchange His ways for ours.  This is applied evenly and undeniably to all forms of sin, lying, stealing, pride, anger, and the whole menu of sexual dementia – lust, infidelity, homosexuality, and a growing list of ways to defile our relationship with God.

To complain we were born that way, whether it pretends to an excuse for a quick triggered temper, or a sexual preference that isn’t in line with God’s created order, is inexcusable, simply because God has placed in our hearts the knowledge that sin is first-degree thumbing our noses at God’s way.

And the only remedy for it all is repentance, turning back in God’s direction.

For You Today

You might be like the teenage Russell who, against Dad’s pretty clear instructions, ran that motorcycle off the hill in the woods at the end of our road.  I learned from that mild crash and walked-away from the crumpled mess…back home to tell Dad he was right!

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

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

[ii] Images at Pixabay.com and Here and Here and Here

The Sedative Effect

[i]

Friday, July 7, 2017

But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep?  When will you wake up?  A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.  Proverbs 6:9-11^(NLT)

It’s been a lot of years since I had surgery with general anesthetic.  Aside from the effect of having someone carve holes in you with a scalpel, there are other consequences. 

Monday morning when the anesthesiologist put the mask on me and said, now just take a few deep breaths…I’m not sure I heard another word.  I awoke a few hours later…almost!  They told my bride, Elizabeth I was tough to wake up.  (She could only smile; she knows I sleep like a weary dead man anyway.)

I honestly don’t remember ever waking up.  I don’t recall them helping me to get out of the semi-private gown and into my jeans.  I seem to recall walking through the surgery center doors outside, but missed the trip back to Thomasville entirely, including a stop at the pharmacy for those wonderful little pills that took the post-op pain away. 

The next two days are a hazy blur!  I will have to take it on faith that some unethical telemarketer didn’t get me to sign-away my firstborn into slavery while I was under the influence!

There are some other residual effects of sedation strong enough to bring down a herd of bull elephants; I’ll spare you the graphic intimate details!

You’re welcome.

One application about drug-induced sleep; it’s a little like the sin of complacency.  When you’re in deep, you hardly know you’re in deep.  And even when they – friends, family, or the preacher – try to awaken you, you can’t cooperate without some strong assistance. 

God spoke to the nation of Israel, with that kind of rather harsh assistance, to get them to awaken from the sedative effect:

“I am the Lord, and I do not change.  That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.  Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them.  Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  “But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’  “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!  “But you ask, ‘What do you mean?  When did we ever cheat you?’  “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me.  You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me.  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple.  If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you.  I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in!  Try it!  Put me to the test!  Malachi 3:6-10^(NLT)

The sedative effect of cumulative sin had dulled the spiritual sensitivity of God’s people, and they were quite comfortable in going through the motions of religious activities, while their hearts (and tithes) were far away from the God for which they proclaimed undying love.

Israel needed strong assistance out of their anesthesia…it was time to wake up! 

Yet, despite their obvious, sleeping, sinful ways, God was still willing to bless them if they turned back to him.  Which proves once again that it wasn’t Israel’s people who had undying love for God…it was the other way around.

For You Today

Could it be America, its churches, and we, the people, need to return to our Heavenly Father as much as ancient Israel?

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

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Stretching the Scripture

[i]

Monday, July 3, 2017

Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.  Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.  1 Thessalonians 4:11-12^(NLT)

One of the troubles with being very unfamiliar with the Word of God, (especially during a crisis), is that we can stretch God’s book to fit what we want, rather than understand what God is really saying.

I heard the story about a man who had never even opened a Bible, but had heard God will lead you if you read the Scriptures.  He didn’t know where to start, so he just looked Heavenward and asked:  God, if you’re up there, show me the way to do what I should.  With that he flipped the pages open and looked at the first verse his eyes landed on:

Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.  Matthew 27:5^(NLT)

Well…that seemed rather harsh, so he tried one more time, fanning the pages like an open deck of cards; this time his eyes fell on the last part of Luke 10:37:

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”^(NLT)

The man decided the Bible was not for him!

Now, while that’s silly, I’ve known some people to take that kind of approach, although it’s much more sophisticated…and full of unbelief.  It’s where you ask God for something in prayer that’s filled with “thees”, “thous”, and “wherefores” – and, when it doesn’t happen to your satisfaction, you conclude God doesn’t answer your prayers.

Besides being silly and unbelieving, it’s also not very honest to go into prayer knowing that if you don’t get what you want you’ll bail on the idea that God ever listens…or worse, that He even exists at all.  But if you honestly believe in God at all, the asking part of prayer presupposes that God can give an answer as He deems is best for you.  Isn’t that why Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane about his impending ordeal:

My Father!  If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.  Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.  Matthew 26:39^(NLT)

Praying in accordance with God’s will should be the goal of every believer and follower of Jesus Christ.  But you cannot know that will unless you’re willing to spend time getting to know Him.  That means studying His Word…not just flipping it open and hoping for the best every time a crisis appears on the horizon. 

If that method of “discipleship” had any merit, I would have been quite disturbed when this morning’s text showed up:

Make it your goal to live a quiet life… 1 Thessalonians 4:11a ^(NLT)

After all, I just called the doctor’s office about what time to show up Monday for surgery on my vocal cords!

For You Today

The Bible is not a magic book; rather it is a love letter, expressing God’s will and way for our lives so we can learn how to come close to Him.

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

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com and Pixabay.com