April 14--3 Ways You Can Experience God

Ever wished you could experience God in a way that felt fresh and intimately personal?  These passages say how:  Joshua 9-10, Luke 16:19-31, Psalm 84, Proverbs 13:4.

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Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

Click here for the FREE Yearly Bible Reading Plan she uses.  

Transcript

Joshua 9-10

Luke 16:19-31

Psalm 84, Prayer, Proverbs 13:4

SPEAKER_00 0:00

April fourteenth Three Ways You Can Experience God I won't be reading the scripture references for those. Please check the written post. Do you know how much I love you, E babe? I didn't have to hear him say it, though he did say it often. I already knew my father loved me because of the little things he did. He taught me how to tell time, write a check, and save money, and he came to ballet and piano recitals, and he acted like he liked them. I knew he loved me because he let me leave him to go off to camp all summer and then to college early, though he didn't like it. He paid for these things, bought my first car, built shelves for our first home, paid for groceries when he visited. I knew he loved me because he came to see us and he kept in touch, and he didn't wait for me to invite him. He asked good questions and he listened, and he didn't need me to tell him if he was doing a good job or not as my father. He just fathered. I knew he loved me because when I went to see him he was giddy and he showed it. His arms would go up like a live wallace saying cheese, only he said Eve as he grinned and looked to Grammy, his grommet. All my life Daddy kept showing up and giving. Of course, as a child I saw him differently. There were some things I didn't like, and they distracted me from what was good about him. But when I look back now those things melt away, and I see the father that he was for me, committed, in touch and joyfully present. He was a vital role model for what God is like. What more could a daughter ask for? As important as Daddy was, today's passages say how God our Father is committed in touch and joyfully present in ways mine could never be. The Old Testament chapters are Joshua nine to ten. It's not what my counselor says a healthy parent would do, but it's what God does for Israel. Even when they ignore his instructions, he still supports them. The Gibbeanites show up claiming to be people from a faraway land, but in reality they're nearby neighbors lying to protect themselves. They've heard of Israel who's demolished Jericho and A by this time, and they decide to trick them into a peace treaty so Israel won't kill them. Israel's leaders look them over and accept their story based on the evidence, worn out clothing and sandals, moldy bread and weathered wineskins, and they make a peace treaty with them and swear to it in God's presence, but they don't ask God first about it. God is right there, of course, but he doesn't do a thing to stop what's happening. He lets Gibeon's trick go unchecked, and he lets his people fall for it because quote, they didn't ask God about it, end quote. But sparing Gibeon wasn't in God's plans for Israel. He told them to wipe out the inhabitants of Canaan as well as their idol worship, which meant destroying everybody who lived near them. Israel learns about Gibeon's ruse and there are consequences for everyone. Gibbeon must relocate to Israel, where they'll fetch water and cut firewood at the tabernacle for life, and Israel is on the hook to defend Gibbeon when their enemies attack, which is what happens next. In an astonishing show of solidarity, God joins up with Israel when they fight the Amorites to protect Gibbeon. He gives Joshua the heads up that they'll win, and then he hurls hailstones from heaven, killing way more Amorites than Israel does. As if that's not enough, Joshua prays that God would let the day go on all night so they can finish what they've started, and God does. He gives them another twenty four hours to complete the total slaughter. Quote, there's never been a day before or since. God took orders from a human voice. Truly, God fought for Israel, end quote. God fought with Israel to support the pagan neighbors who lied to them. God fought with Israel even though they weren't careful to ask him what to do about them. God fought with Israel even though his counsel wasn't sought after, and even though they don't say my bad for ignoring him. Yep. What's more he doesn't remind them how they don't deserve his help. He just steps up and gives it. And to top it all off, he gives them a sunset stopping miracle so they can finish fighting a battle that wasn't theirs to start with. God is there for them at the ready and hurling hailstones, holding up the sun. God picks up the slack for everybody. This is what his love and action looks like, and it's awe inspiring. I wonder why Israel's leaders don't call off their peace agreement when they learn they've been tricked, and look back in the text and see that it's because they've made their vow, quote, by the Lord, the God of Israel, end quote. Their oath wasn't just made between themselves and Gibeon, it was made on behalf of God Himself, and as such they dared not break it. I also wonder why God goes all out to protect and provide for these dishonest pagans, so I check a commentary. It's because they go all out to join up with him and his people. Like Rahab, they'd heard of God and his power and believed he was no one to trifle with. They surrendered their lives and accepted the lowly station Israel gave them. They gladly relocated to Israel, thankful their lives were spared, and eventually some of them were recognized as vital members of Israel. Turns out Gibeon's punishment as water carriers and woodcutters ended up being the beginning of their faith journey with the god they'd only heard about and feared. Obviously, God supported Israel's choice to keep their vow to Gibeon. He'd fought for them with Israel and stopped the sun, so the Amorites were defeated. Later King Saul broke this peace agreement and God brought a famine on Israel as a result until it was reinstated. God takes vows very seriously, even ones with liars and deceivers. And this is good news for all the rest of us liars and deceivers, cheaters, thieves, and promise breaking sinners, because his promise to be our God and save us in Jesus will never be broken, no matter what we've done either. Quote, I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have spoken, end quote. You can experience God through his promise keeping commitment to be God for you, no matter what you've done too. The New Testament passage is Luke 16, 19 to 31. There are a lot of takeaways in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, but what jumps out at me is how Jesus validates the Bible's words which were called Moses and the prophets in that day. Jesus tells the story of the rich man in hell who asked Abraham to send Lazarus, the poor man he oppressed all his life on earth, to tell his brothers what he's learned in death, which is this, how you live on earth impacts how you'll live afterwards. But Abraham says they can listen to Moses and the prophets, and if they don't, it won't do any good to send anybody else. Not even, quote, someone who rises from the dead, end quote, will be enough to convince them, which of course alludes to what Jesus would do. God's written word in the Bible is powerful enough all by itself to turn a person's life around. In it you learn what matters most, who God is, who you are, how to live. Its testimony is true. It's a lamp and a light, a hidden treasure, a shoulder and a comfort. It shows you who you are like a light up magic mirror. Don't let its disguise throw you. The Bible isn't just a book, it's a hotline from the throne room. If you love the person on the other end, you'll listen, won't you? This is how reading the Bible feels when you pursue it wholeheartedly, like it's alive, and it speaks to you. But it takes time to experience it like this. Nothing worth having comes overnight. I've been at it a while and I still find myself not wanting to read it like just this morning to be honest, but I do it anyway. I keep pressing in and persisting, and I'm always rewarded. You will be too. Eventually you'll find yourself reading it because you want to, not because you ought to. This is God's doing, because if you're like me, this is not how you felt when you started. God's ways are often subtle and this shift can be gradual. Stick with it and you'll find, quote, stacks of blessings piled up, end quote, that you had no idea of. You can experience God through the Bible, his communication device that keeps in touch with us. From Psalm eighty four. The psalmist describes the joy of being in God's house, and he's not talking about one day when he gets to heaven. He writes about being there while he's still on earth worshiping. Quote, what a beautiful home, end quote, he writes, as if he sees it because he does. He's already there. Birds build their nests and raise their young in its rafters just to be close to God and worship too. Then the scene shifts, and the writer tells about God being on the journey with the people he inhabits, quote, whose lives become the road you travel, end quote. God takes them through lonesome valleys, gives them brooks and springs and pools to splash in, and then takes them up his mountain where at the end they see him, quote, in full view, end quote. God doesn't travel on the cheap. He's quote, all sunshine and sovereign, generous in gifts and glory, it's smooth sailing all the way, end quote. When you live life God's way, this is how he treats you. And this is why the psalmist says that just one day with God at his house beats thousands anywhere else. He'd rather scrub floors there than be a guest in the finest resort. God's place, like his face, is shadowy now, but one day we'll see everything clearly and face to face. Until then you get to enjoy the road trip of your lifetime with him. You also get to pop in whenever you want to and experience his joy in you through worship. God is both your traveling companion and your destination, and his presence blesses you beyond your imagining. You can experience God through his joyful presence in worship and in daily living. Prayer. God, thank you for being the Father who's got my back, for keeping in touch and letting me hang out, for being glad to see me whenever I show up, even if it's been a while since the last time. From Proverbs 13:4. Lazy Bones wants it all but has nothing, while early to rise gets what he's after. Passages in Joshua, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve to Bartleban Roebuck.