April 27--3 Surprising Ways that God Saves

The only qualification needed for being saved is that you need it--not that you deserve it.  Listen to more surprises about the ways we're saved from these passages:  Judges 7-8, Luke 23:26-56, Psalm 95, Proverbs 14:7-8.

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

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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

Transcript

Judges 7-8

Luke 23:26-56

Psalm 95, Prayer, Proverbs 14:7-8

SPEAKER_00 0:00

April twenty seven Three Surprising Ways That God Saves. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. The day had gone gray without our noticing. The wind had picked up. We'd been bobbing in ocean waves when one got rowdy and dunked her. Caught off guard, she came up sputtering, when another smacked her face squarely. As quick as two blinks we'd gone from terrific to terrified. Stop, she cried, her eyes wide. Don't come closer, get hip. She barely choked it out when another wave dunked my mother. She was a lifeguard and an excellent swimmer, but she was in trouble, and we both knew it. The best thing I could do was go for help, but it was the hardest thing I'd ever done to swim away from my mother. Daddy and boyfriend Buck were on the beach, while Mama and I had lingered in the water to enjoy the day and catch up. Without our noticing, we drifted out while the tide had pulled and the waves got stronger. My parents had come to visit us in Beaufort that summer. As I look back now, I think it was mainly to make sure my boyfriend and I weren't living together. We weren't, but they had to see for themselves to believe it, I think. It was a plan he and I had cooked up spring semester with friends over hot fudge cake at Shoney's. We would live at the beach and find jobs and live with our roommates, not with each other. I swam for shore, hollering and waving wildly, hoping to get their attention. Out of nowhere a jar head on a surfboard appeared and paddled fiercely towards her. In less than two minutes he had one end of his board beside her as he offered a leg out. She grabbed his foot and then the board, holding on as they headed in. It took mamma nearly drowning to sound the alarm for help, but that was when help came. Saving comes when we need it because it's weakness, not strength that brings us in touch with the Savior who's at the ready and watching out. Today's passages tell the surprising ways that God saves. The Old Testament chapters are Judges seven to eight. God whittles down Gideon's troops to three hundred from the thousands he'd mustered. With thousands they would think winning was their doing, so he says he'll take the ones who lap water like dogs from their hands. It's an example of the principle I keep bumping into when I read the Bible. God uses the unlikely hero to pull off a victory, so there's no question that God alone has done it. God wakes Gideon the night before the battle and tells him to go down to the Midian camp and listen to the gossip. Eavesdropping Gideon hears their fear of Israel and it bolsters him so much that he stops on the spot and worships. I love how God not only promises him the victory, he pumps him up for it. Sure enough, Gideon and his troops whip Midian. Afterwards the Israelites want him to rule over them, but Gideon has the good sense to refuse. He says, quote, God will reign over you, end quote. But then he makes an idol with the gold he gets from the plunder, and it becomes a snare for his family, and then all Israel joins in and worships it too. I'm so disappointed. I really wanted Gideon to be the godly hero I can look up to. But then I remember what every Bible story so far this year has taught me. Being hero is God's job. This is why only three hundred men were allowed to fight for Israel against thousands. For all the good Gideon did for Israel, he wasn't perfect. He didn't end as well as he started, and how he started was sketchy. He was doubtful of God's calling and kept asking for more proof. While he worshipped God at the outset, by the end of his story he was into idolatry. He had lots of wives too, which wasn't wise, as one son from a concubine becomes Israel's next nemesis. But despite all this, Israel had peace for forty years after its fight against Midian, and this peace was God given. God doesn't stop allowing good things for his people, even when they don't deserve them. He works with whoever he has on hand, which unsurprisingly are sinful human beings, not perfect ones. Arrogant, rebellious, faithless, murderous, God isn't put off by the sins and weaknesses of regular old people. He works in and through them to display his power as the God who saves in spite of them. Just as he carved out three hundred men from the thousands who showed up for Gideon, God carves into our strengths and exposes our weakness so we see our need of him. He whittles down our gift packages, those abilities we've got that keep us from depending on him so that we learn how to trust him. And it's often not until the very last minute that he rushes in, because it's often not until the very last minute that we admit we can't do life by ourselves and so desperately need him. Yesterday as I gardened, I listened to some of the posts I've recorded to double check them. I was discouraged afterwards because they weren't perfect. My tone of voice was off. The edits weren't seamless, some word choices were lame, some thoughts were too complicated. As I cut back dead hydrangea stems, pulled up rooting acorns and scattered fertilizer, I worried that I was wasting my time writing, something I've worried about a lot, come to think of it, and I asked God once again what he thought of it. By contrast, I never worry if the work I do in my garden is wasted time, though day to day there's not much to show for it. Progress in a garden is subtle and slow. The blooms that come take a long time to grow. When I headed inside at dusk, you couldn't tell I'd done very much. There's quite a lot of mulching and weeding and pruning and tweaking that goes on behind the scenes, but the payoff is big when the blooms finally open. I can nurture those blooms, but I certainly can't create them. My writing is the same sort of thing. I'm working behind the scenes and waiting for God to do his thing with it. After writing this far today I realize all over again that God is the Savior and not me. I don't have the power to write well enough to open anyone's eyes, ears, or heart. I'm sharing what I learn as I read through the Bible with the hope that it helps somebody, but the burden to save them is on God and not me. And that feels like such a big piece of relief, a big piece of saving for the worrying writer that I tend to be. God saves us when we're weak and needy. The New Testament passage is Luke twenty three, twenty six to fifty six. The women who follow Jesus are mentioned three times in this passage. First Jesus tells them not to cry for him, and then Luke pans the scene so we see they're still at the crucifixion when the rest of his disciples run off. And there's a third time when they follow to find out where Jesus' body is put. And then Luke includes this little detail. After they see where Jesus is laid, they go home to prepare spices and perfumes for his body as was customary, but instead of bringing them to his tomb right away, quote, they rested quietly on the Sabbath as commanded, end quote. By the way, the Jewish Sabbath was Friday sundown until Saturday sundown. The getter done bunny and me would have had a hard time with the Sabbath observance at such an important time as the death of Jesus. I'd have wanted to say let's go. Jesus died for goodness sake. Surely caring for his body trumps resting from work just this once. But the women do what's commanded, even on this day of epic proportions, this day when everyone who knows of Jesus is either grieving or rejoicing, these women rest. And the reason they can rest is because God is working. This is what Sabbath observance is all about, taking a break because God's got the whole world in his hands and he's tending and growing and sustaining it. His work is what's essential, not ours, even work as important as honoring Jesus' dead body. And what God is Jesus was doing on this particular Sabbath was undoing all the sad things and making them untrue, preaching in hell, making all things new, breaking the power of sin and killing death in order to rise alive and pave the way for those who believe in him. The women rested because God said to. They hadn't a clue about all that he was doing, which was saving every man and woman who asked for it, past, present, and future. They only knew God commanded that they rest, and because they trusted him, they did what he'd said on Mount Sinai more than a thousand years earlier. I hate to rest. I like to think what I do is so very important, but of course it's not vital. Resting reminds me that my life is not all about me and it's not all on me because I'm not my own Savior. Jesus is my savior, and he doesn't need my help. This tiny piece of truth is so extraordinarily relieving. God saves us while we rest from Psalm ninety five. When you're at your wit's end and down to your last dollar and God steps in, the only response that makes any sense is praising and loving Him from your deepest, most grateful heart. This is what the Psalmist does who wants to stomp and shout and sing, quote, to raise the roof, lifting the rafters with our hymns, because God is the rock who saved us, end quote. There's nothing like experiencing God's saving to pull out our heartfelt praises, praises from mouths that can't stop talking, from hearts that can't hold them in, from eyes that can't blink back the tears. In the wilderness God said his people would never get where they're headed, never get to rest if they won't quote, walk down my road, end quote. God doesn't save us so we will knock ourselves out and striving, but so that we can rest from our labors and enjoy worshiping him, quote. So come, let us worship, bow before him on your knees. Oh yes, he's our God, and we're the people he pastures, the flock he feeds, end quote. God saves us so we can knock ourselves out in worship. Prayer. God, thank you for being the Savior who saves me so completely I could admit I need you and rest while you do it. That you were working while your people were resting on the day your son was dying has never sunk in like it has today. Happy tears, glad praise. There is no God like you. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 14, 7 to 8. Get as far away from foolish friends as you can. Run if you have to. The wisdom of the wise keeps life on track while fools wind up in the ditch. Passages in Judges, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleban, Roebuck.