Rocky Mountain Voice

Devotional

The Resourcefulness Weapon: Little Bo-Peep 
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The Resourcefulness Weapon: Little Bo-Peep 

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep, and doesn’t know where to find them; leave them alone, and they’ll come home, wagging their tails behind them. Poor Little Bo-Peep would have made a terrible investigator. Imagine asking her a few basic questions: “Ma’am, when did you last see your sheep? Did you search the pasture? Check the gate? Follow their tracks? Talk to anyone who might have seen them?” Apparently, the answer to all of the above would have been no. Her investigative strategy was much simpler: Leave them alone, and they’ll come home. Cute nursery rhyme. Terrible source management. During my years in the Air Force, particularly through my experience with the Office of Special Investigations, I learned the imp...
The Discretion Weapon: Hey Diddle Diddle (When the Church Goes Helter-Skelter)
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The Discretion Weapon: Hey Diddle Diddle (When the Church Goes Helter-Skelter)

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughedTo see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon. As children, we probably never stopped to consider just how helter-skelter that little nursery rhyme really is. The cat is playing a fiddle. The cow is flying over the moon. The dog is laughing, and apparently the dish and spoon have decided they have had enough of the kitchen and are running away together. You see… everything is moving, but nothing is functioning as it should. Reflecting on it, Hey Diddle Diddle might mirror our world today—and, sadly, it can also represent the condition of the Christian individual, marriage, family, church, business, and government. I...
The Discernment Weapon: Three Blind Mice
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The Discernment Weapon: Three Blind Mice

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Three blind mice! Three blind mice! See how they run! See how they run! I don't know about three blind mice, but I do know one thing: if three mice ever came running through our house, Sherrie might suddenly experience a miraculous recovery. I've never met anyone more afraid of mice than my wife. And I mean afraid. Sherrie has been confined to bed since last November, and these days it takes quite a bit of help to get her up and moving. But I'm fairly convinced that if a mouse scampered across the foot of her bed, she'd leap out, run downstairs, and leave me behind to deal with the mouse. I'm not recommending this as a therapeutic technique, mind you. But it does make me smile when I think about those three blind mice!  ...
The Sincerity Weapon: Jack Be Nimble
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The Sincerity Weapon: Jack Be Nimble

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over the candlestick. As children, we rarely stop to think about what this little rhyme means. We simply picture a boy leaping over a candlestick with speed, courage, and just enough daring to make us smile. Maybe that's why it has endured for generations. Every child dreams of jumping over something exciting. I know I did. Growing up in Southern California during Evel Knievel's heyday was nothing short of inspiring. Every bicycle became a motorcycle, every curb became a canyon, and every homemade plywood ramp became another opportunity to attempt the impossible. Like millions of other boys, I dreamed of flying through the air, sticking the landing, and hearing the applause. Evel was...
The creativity weapon: Loving the crooked man
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The creativity weapon: Loving the crooked man

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When I was little, one of my favorite people ever was Grandma Ivy, still is. She wasn't famous. She never stood behind a pulpit or wrote a book. But she was a superhero. During many of my toddler and elementary years, she was my guardian, my safe place, and my greatest teacher. Like so many grandmothers, she had a way of turning ordinary moments into lasting memories. One of those memories was a simple nursery rhyme she taught me: "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile. He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse, and they all lived together in a little crooked house." Back then, I thought it was just a funny rhyme. I smiled because everything in...
The Deference Weapon: Ring Around the Rosie and the Second Mile
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The Deference Weapon: Ring Around the Rosie and the Second Mile

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down. Most of us learned Ring Around the Rosie before we learned how to tie our shoes. We held hands, spun in circles, laughed, and then intentionally fell to the ground together. Nobody was trying to win. Nobody was competing for attention. Nobody was demanding their rights. For a few brief moments, everyone moved together…Then we grew up! Today, it seems we've forgotten how. Everywhere we look, people are fighting for position. We fight for attention, recognition, influence, and control. We fight to be heard, to be right, and to make sure no one gets ahead of us. The cultural message is clear: stand your ground, protect your rights, and never let a...
The Self-Control Weapon: Don’t Pull the Plum Yet
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The Self-Control Weapon: Don’t Pull the Plum Yet

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie. He put in his thumb, pulled out a plum, and said, "What a good boy am I." Most of us learned that nursery rhyme as children and never gave it another thought. But through the lens of Jesus, Little Jack Horner tells a familiar story. Jack sees something he wants, reaches for it, takes it, and congratulates himself for getting it. That sounds a lot like us. We live in a world of immediate gratification. We want answers now, comfort now, success now, relief now, and pleasure now. Yet one of the greatest lessons Jesus teaches is that strength is often found in waiting. You see, before Jesus preached a sermon, healed a disease, or called a disciple, the Spirit led hi...
The reliability weapon: Humpty’s wall
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The reliability weapon: Humpty’s wall

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. Most people think the lesson of Humpty Dumpty is about falling. It isn't. It's about trust. You don't sit on a wall unless you trust the wall. You don't climb high unless you trust what holds you up. And you don't build relationships unless you trust the people around you. The real tragedy wasn't that Humpty fell. Everyone falls. The tragedy was that when he broke apart, nobody knew how to put the pieces back together. That's where the nursery rhyme collides with the teachings of Jesus. The world says reliability is showing up, keeping your promises, being on time, and doing what you sa...
The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war
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The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine…” The many weapons in the Kingdom of God seem weak; some include humility, meekness, joy, and now, generosity. None of these sounds like weapons capable of winning a war, yet Jesus teaches that life's battles are won differently than the world imagines. While the world fights with power, pushing, positioning, and preferences, Christ fights with goodwill and character. His weapons transform hearts, heal relationships, and illuminate the goodness within all reality. Generosity is one of the greatest weapons in Jesus’ arsenal, not the generosity the world offers, which is merely giving something away, but Jesus style, where everyone benefits.  Generosity, when properl...
The meekness weapon: The hill where warriors win
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The meekness weapon: The hill where warriors win

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”   ~ Matthew 4:19 ~ We continue with our nursery rhyme, The Itsy Bitsy Spider – Part Two. So, become that child again and remember: The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout… Most are familiar with the rest. Christianity is more than a fleeting encounter with Jesus. It means following Him into a radically different reality that begins on a mountain. Let’s start with our spider. In our last devotion, we discussed climbing and how human nature drives us to reach upward—to grow, to overcome, to become. That small spider keeps climbing because something inside it says, “There’s more up there.” Honestly, that’s also us—we pursue power...