A Rock in the Path
Thank You, Father, for a beautiful summer day! Radiant sunshine filled our day and lifted our spirits! All praise to our Creator God!
Romans 9:30-10:4 (<<click here to read the passage)
We probably mow over 2 acres of our lot. Though we’ve done so for well over 30 years, it is not a smooth lot to mow. The many trees all have root systems and there are lots of roots. And though we’ve removed several trees near the house, where they used to be present problems in that over time the root systems have decayed leaving indentations everywhere – some large where the trunk used to be and others not so big, yet jarring, where roots ran under the ground for a ways.
And then there are rocks. Many have been moved but there are a couple that lie just above the surface and if you’re not careful and hit them just right…BAM! You hear the blades careen right into them!
Rocks can be problematic, to say the least…especially if you ignore their presence. The people of Israel, too, stumbled over the great rock in their path. v32b And they had been aware of it for generations!
God had warned them of this stone’s coming, through the Prophet Isaiah – 700 years before Jesus’ arrival!
The Apostle Paul shares God’s words to Isaiah,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
….a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
….will never be disgraced.” v33
God gave a warning but in the same breath, He gave hope!
They (and we for that matter!) may stumble but the answer is a simple matter of trust! It is clearly stated here in verses 3-4 of chapter 10
For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. NLT
To the Israelites and many today as well, just accepting God’s gift of “rightness” doesn’t make sense. We feel that we have to work for it. We have the stupid thought running through our minds that if it’s free it must not be legitimate. There must be blood, sweat, and tears to be worthwhile. And that is true, there was a great amount of blood, sweat, and tears, they’re just not ours… they are Christ’s…
The heavy price has been paid…and all we have to do is accept it, giving our lives to Him. Amen.
July 13th, 2023, Thurs, 9:31 pm
Keep Reading!
It was an all-over errand kind of day. Thank You, Father, for a beautiful companion on the trek. I am more than blessed!
Romans 9:27-29 (<<click here to read the passage)
I wish I read more. I’ve always enjoyed reading –my preference is fiction. I can still remember the names of books I enjoyed in middle school! In my 20s I worked at a Christian bookstore. We were encouraged to read anything we liked because that made us a good resource for customers looking for a wide variety of books.
One thing you’d never do would be to stop reading a book partway in because things weren’t going well for the characters – death was seemingly imminent, circumstances were insurmountable, or relationships between key characters were at a total impasse! You had to keep reading! Things didn’t always turn out the way you wanted them to or the way you thought they were, but good storylines, for the most part, have a good way of wrapping themselves up.
William M. Greathouse was a great pastor, educator, and leader in the Church of the Nazarene. He authored volume 6 of the Beacon Bible Expositions which was on the book of Romans. In it he stated, Romans 9 has been called “The Hardest Chapter of the Bible.” Being that I have slogged through most of it at this point, I could be easily persuaded that that is the case.
I paused and wrote Like a Squirrel on a Feeder on Monday because I was stymied. I was tempted to not go any further because I was reading through some tough stuff…and today’s passage is no different. It is foreboding. It sounds ominous. These verses seem to say that the children of Israel don’t have much hope. All in all, they have rejected God’s Messiah. Very few of them accepted Jesus for who He was. Chapter 9 is a hard place…but it is most definitely not the end of the Book! …not of Romans nor the end of God’s Word!
The conclusion of Greathouse’s writings on chapter 9 read,
But the New Testament makes one thing crystal-clear: “The Lord is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,” He reminds us, “so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9). Thank God, the final judgment of each individual is in His hands. When that judgment has been dispensed, it will be seen by all that the Judge of the earth has done right. Meanwhile we can afford to leave our unanswered questions with Him, remembering always that “now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13: 12). And in the time of our honest questioning the scripture teaches us always to say, with Whittier,
To one fixed hope my spirit clings:
I know that God is good!
God’s ways are majestic, but they are merciful. God’s power is over all, but it is controlled by love. The sovereign God is sovereign Mercy, whose purposes embrace all mankind to the end of time.
(p154, ©1975 Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City)
July 12th, 2023, Wed, 8:06 pm
Things of Great Importance
From Karen’s personal collection – “LOVE IS FROM ABOVE”
It was a beautiful day to accomplish many things. Thank You, Father, for the bountiful gift!
Romans 9:25-26 (<<click here to read the passage)
Something I was involved with today reminded me of an extremely important event that occurred in my life during my college years. I started dating my wife Karen in the spring of ’83 and not too long after that I planned a very significant date.
She was down where my dad was pastoring at the time (Ravenswood, WV) and I arranged a nice evening out which included a meal at a place called Sebastian’s (it closed many years ago…) I was not a wealthy student by any means, but I scraped enough money to buy a ¼ carat engagement ring and proposed to her that night! Her response when I popped the question? “Are you serious?” Of course, I was, and that day was the beginning of 37 years of marital bliss as of this past June 14th!
Things of great importance, take time and consideration to put together if we want them to turn out the best way possible!
My first journal entry was on April 19th, 2015, and referenced Ephesians 1:4 (and I have referenced it many times since!) We are of great importance to our Creator God, so much so, that,
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. NLT
Even knowing what we would do with the sacred relationship we had with Him, He set into motion – he arranged everything before anything was – so that our relationship with Him could be restored!
Today’s text reminds us that God has everything thought out to the minutest detail. Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, Paul once more proclaims God’s words through the prophet Hosea,
“Those who were not my people,
….I will now call my people.
And I will love those
….whom I did not love before.”
And,
“Then, at the place where they were told,
….‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
….‘children of the living God.’”
Before Jesus had been born, had lived and died, and had risen from the dead, solidifying our salvation – God announced it!
I love my wife more than words will do justice, but even that love pales in comparison to God’s love for us! Through all the ups and downs of life, cling to that irrefutable truth – God loves us!
Surely I can get an “amen”!
July 11th, 2023, Tues, 7:47 pm
We Don’t Have to Pick a Hill to Die On
It may seem redundant to some but, Father, I am grateful each day that You motivate and enable me to accomplish things needing done. All praise to You!
Romans 9:17-24 (<<click here to read the passage)
Something that needs to be stressed is that sometimes we have to admit we don’t know everything or in some cases that we don’t understand everything. This is one of those times for me.
A debate that has gone on for centuries is whether we as God’s children have true free will or if there is no free will. Having no free will is referred to as predestination, which means God determines our destinies, we do not.
I’m not going to argue either side, though my leaning may come through unintentionally. I know of two exceptional theologians who debated this theological point, John Calvin and John Wesley. They were contemporaries and though they agree on many, many things theologically, they could not come to an agreement on that.
The point that I am trying to make is that, one, we don’t have to know or understand everything, and secondly, we, as followers of Christ, don’t always have to pick a hill to die on – though many over the centuries have done just that. There have been far too many deaths – lives taken – in the name of Christ.
Are these things important? Yes…but personally I will let God sort it all out. He is Sovereign and all will be right in the end regardless of our take on some things. He is a just, fair, loving, and compassionate God. We have no need to worry about that. What we need to be concerned about is loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And once we’re well on our way to that end of things, to love our neighbors as ourselves – no argument there!
A good verse here is from Galatians 5:22-23,
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! NLT
Lord Jesus, regardless of our stand on so, so many things, may our love for You and Your love in us and through us stand above them all! Amen and amen!
July 10th, 2023, Mon, 7:30 pm
Like a Squirrel on a Feeder
Thank You for a pleasant day all the way around, Father. Good times of worship and some sweet fellowship tonight. I would ask, as we come together, that You would guide my mind and heart. Amen.
********
One of my greatest irks in recent days is at least one squirrel who has figured out how to jump up onto my office window ledge and then in a quick, consecutive leap land on a bird feeder suspended from the gutter a foot and a half or so beyond my window. The perpetrator is a glutton.
He grabs hold of the one edge of the roof of the feeder and drapes himself over the roof so that his head – specifically his mouth – is within arms reach of the other side of the feeder where the black oil sunflower seeds are ripe for the taking…and boy does he take!
Early on, I had time to crack the window a bit at the bottom and then as he judged his next move I could poke him with a letter opener – not enough to hurt but enough to “encourage” him to cut it out! There’s no possible way to pull off any poking now at all. His eyes are on the prize and there is nothing that I am going to do to distract him from getting what he wants.
Isn’t that the way we are with the things of this world? Often, we set our hearts on things that in and of themselves are not innately evil but there are times when God just says, “No.” “Those things are not what’s best for you.”
Initially, we may be deterred but we know that we want those things, and we are determined to get a taste. Now, I can’t monitor my bird feeder every hour of every day so at some point the squirrel gets what he wants, and then he’s hooked – easy access to what he wants most.
Though God’s eyes are always on us, He allows us to do what we want though it is detrimental to our relationship with Him – it’s called free will.
If I catch the squirrel on the feeder open the window and scare him off, but nothing will stop him if I’m not watching.
God wants us to avoid those things that bring division between ourselves and Him. He encourages us not to do those things, but ultimately it is our choice.
Over time we will often tire of our indulgence and will see it for what it is. We will seek forgiveness and turn back to God. But the stupid thing is even after all of that, we will far too often go after it again. It truly is a vicious circle.
Only God can help us turn our backs on that which displeases Him, but we must be diligent in our interaction with Him. When we take our eyes off Him, it’s easy to catch glimpses of the sin that so easily entangles us and desire it once more.
…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1b-2a NIV
Lord Jesus, help us to keep our focus on You. Our relationship with You is the greatest reward we could ever receive. May our hearts be drawn to You.
The last lines of the third stanza of the hymn, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, come to mind.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for Thy courts above. – Robert Robinson, 1758
Amen and amen.
July 9th, 2023, Sun, 7:23 pm