April 10--This Is the One Who Gets Saved, and It’s Not Who You'd Think

Those who work the hardest at doing the right thing can be the hardest headed when it comes to understanding what it means to be saved. "You mean it's not about my track record?"  Nope.  These passages point to what it IS about:  Joshua 1-2, Luke 13:18-35, Psalm 80, Proverbs 12:26-27.

Click here for the written post of today's episode.

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

Joshua 1-2

Luke 13:18-35

Psalm 80, Prayer, Proverbs 12:26-27

SPEAKER_00 0:00

April ten The one who gets saved is not who you'd think. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. I've spent a lot of years trying hard to be a good wife. I've cared for our kids, cleaned our home, cooked meals, washed laundry, tended the garden, but I kept seeing my husband's frown. The harder I tried, the sadder he got. A person scurrying around and getting work done misses a lot. She's not present. She's not available. She's more concerned about her chore list than someone else. One day I sat down beside him. I laid my head on his shoulder. I stopped doing for him and started being with him in the mornings before he left for work, in the evenings when he got home. We began praying. All these years it wasn't my work he wanted, it's me. This is a picture of what God wants too. It's not our do gooding for him that he most wants, it's our being with him, enjoying him, hanging out and talking, living in the beauty of his doing for us. This is what he cares about. The one who's saved knows God like this, as their most intimate friend, the one they depend on and share everything with, the only one they just can't live without. It makes sense when you think about it. Today's passages tell us what gives us this kind of relationship with the God of the universe. The Old Testament chapters are Joshua one to two. Moses has died and God speaks to Joshua his replacement to encourage him. It's time to move in and take over the promised land, but since every inch of it is already theirs, all they have to do is fight to claim it. Wait, fight to claim it? If I were Joshua, those words would sound terrifying, even if they were coming from the God who keeps rescuing. But God promises he'll be with Joshua just as he was with Moses, quote, I won't give up on you, I won't leave you. Strength, courage, end quote. Josh is the man he's chosen to do it, and he tells him to quote, give it everything you have, heart and soul, end quote. This command comes with a success promise built in. If Joshua keeps all the words God spoke to Moses and does everything they say, if he ponders them and makes sure he does everything that's been written, he'll be quote, prosperous and successful, end quote, because the power for being successful lies in doing what God says. Just yesterday I heard a similar message with different words in the last chapters of Deuteronomy. Today the message sounds even stronger in Joshua. Knowing God's word, taking it to heart and doing it, this is the secret for getting where you're going, for the successful life we all want. Do we believe what God says for how to find it? Thanks to the Gideons, there's a Bible in every hotel room in America. There are free Bible apps for our phones. There are copies on dusty shelves in our homes. The Bible isn't hard to find. It's available everywhere we are. So why don't we read it, ponder it, and dare I say, even love it? Maybe it's because we don't really believe God knows what he's talking about. When he says knowing his words and doing what they say brings success, it sounds too simplistic, it's easy to dismiss. But either God's words are true or they're lies from the pit. You get to choose what you will believe and whether or not you respond to them, but what you choose doesn't change the truth of them. One thing is sure, God is very clear, quote, do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it, then you will be prosperous and successful, end quote. The proof of what you believe is in how you live, how you start your day, how you end it, how you treat your neighbor, your spouse, your kids. Unless you believe that the power to live a good life lies in doing what God says, you won't think to pick up a Bible, at least not very often. Rahab's story comes next and it keeps this message about Bible reading in perspective. Just in case we're tempted to think that reading the Bible will save us, Rahab reminds us that as good as Bible reading is, it's not the get out of jail free card we need. Rahab was an outsider, not one of God's people. Clearly she didn't have access to God's words the way Israel did. She was a prostitute in Jericho and not upstanding, even among her own people. There's nothing about her life that merited respect, let alone saving. But she'd heard about Israel's God and what he'd done for Israel, how he'd opened the ocean for them to walk through, how he'd given them the lands of King Og and King Sihon when Israel beat them. She believed in this God she was ignorant of. So she asked the spies she helps to spare her when they come back to conquer Jericho, and they do. Turns out her faith in God was enough. It was her ticket out of Jericho and into God's family. Rahab and her whole family are saved because of the red rope hanging in her window, a sign that those inside belong to God, a sign we now know meant that Jesus' blood covers them. Not only is her life saved, she becomes part of the nation of Israel. She leaves her past and marries an Israelite named Salmon. Her son is Boaz, the father of Obed, whose grandson is King David, and on down the line Jesus is born into this same family tree with a hooker as his great great grandma, Gotta love God's flair for engrafting a little scandal. Rahab didn't earn her place with God, and we don't either. Bible reading is an important life hack and only a fool would refuse to do it, but grace is a gift to be received with thanksgiving, not with doing. Any dependence on your own merit puts you outside. It's only by the red rope hanging in the window, by the blood of the Savior, by his crown of thorns, by his final breath, by his empty tomb, in short, by faith in the risen Jesus that were grafted in and become part of God's family just like Rahab was. This distinction resonates. I'm tempted to feel self satisfied because I do read the Bible, but Bible reading and pride about it won't take me inside. Good as it is, I've got to check it at the door and admit I'm as needy a scoundrel as Rahab was, and maybe even more. After all, Rahab wasn't tempted to think she was good enough to deserve rescuing. Only sinners get saved, remember, and only by faith in him. Some days I forget that my standing with God is eternally good because of Jesus. I wring my hands over something I didn't do kindly, something I said harshly, something I judged another for. I let shame pound me rather than remember I'm already forgiven because of Jesus. Lingering in regret lands me in a pity party. It forfeits the grace Jesus is already paid for, but lingering in grace allows me to enjoy my forgiveness and to thank and praise for the incredible joy my connection with God gives me. We're good in spite of anything and everything I ever do. Who knew? The one who gets saved trusts only in Jesus and not in themselves and their track record. The New Testament passage is Luke thirteen, eighteen to thirty five. Someone in the crowd listening to Jesus asks if only a few people will be saved, and Jesus answers that he needs to focus on his own saving, not worry about anybody else's because quote, the way to life, to God is vigorous and requires your total attention, end quote. Many will assume they're in who aren't, because they've grown up in the neighborhood of religion. They think they know about salvation and they assume they get it, but Jesus says maybe not. Oh, they'll protest and say they've known God all their lives, but Jesus says their kind of knowing about him isn't enough. It's a different knowing that matters. It's upside down world where outsiders get in and insiders are put out. As with Rahab, it's not who you are or what you know. It's not being raised in a Christian home or going to church or reading the Bible. Being saved is about who you trust. That's what gets you inside the door, and that alone. The one who gets saved trusts only in Jesus, not in what they know about him. From Psalm eighty Here's another feisty, fiery prayer from Asaph, where he calls on God to wake up and do something about the trouble they're in. How long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano while your people call for fire and brimstone? Israel's tears flow by the bucket full, they're mocked by enemies, but if God would simply smile on them, things would turn around, because if they have him, they have everything they need. As he did in Psalm seventy nine, Asaph stands on God's love for them as grounds for taking God to task and asking for his help. He says God no longer protects them, but lets pigs crush them. It's a bold stance he takes. He's also bold to tell God to take a good look at what's happened and to care for them as the favored children they've been. He doesn't mention the sin that got them into this fix. He looks to the man at God's right hand, quote, let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself, end quote. It's because of the Savior who would come that Asaph has courage to ask for God's help. He's the one who, quote, breathes life into our lungs, so we can shout your name, end quote. If they have God's blessing smile in Jesus, quote, that will be our salvation, end quote. When the chips are down, what's your go to? Figuring out where you messed up and trying to fix it? Asaph doesn't bother. He goes straight to God and says to look at the heck of a mess we're in and rescue us because of your right hand man. Jesus gives us God's smile, and that's enough to save us. The one who gets saved trusts only in Jesus for having God's favor, not in trying to deserve it. Prayer. God, I need regular everyday saving from food addiction, relational issues, fear of the future, sadness over aging. Thank you for Jesus who saves me from all these. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 12, 26 to 27. The good life will survive trouble, but the wicked life asks for it. Laziness brings emptiness, but hard work brings rewards. Passages in Joshua, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleaban, Roebuck.