May 15--The Astonishing Freedom Of Trust, Truth, And Praise

Freedom isn't conferred, it has to be won.  While Jesus won it for us ultimately on the cross, we participate with him in bringing it into our lives.  Today's passages say how:  1 Samuel 17, John 8:31-47, Psalm 111, Proverbs 15:10-11.

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Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

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May 15. The astonishing freedom of trust, truth, and praise. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. My fiance and his best man had the habit of sneaking off to enjoy the mechanical bulls in 1980, mainly because of the popularity of the movie Urban Cowboy. We were planning a wedding at the end of that year, which must have felt like a noose slowly cinching. The actual reason they sneaked eludes me now, but maybe it's because they thought I'd disapprove since these bulls were found in bars, or maybe because they felt guilty about whatever else they did there. No telling with those two. Even when I ask all these years later, I get a different answer. The truth is I did disapprove, but not of the bulls or the whatever else. I didn't like the sneaking. Strangely, once the secret was out, they stopped going. The week before the wedding I kept asking what he and his friends would do for his bachelor party, but he wouldn't say. The night of the rehearsal dinner I asked again, as this was the usual night for a bachelor to live it up with friends. I just wanted to know if my groom would be nursing a hangover when we met up the next day, but he said he still didn't know. Later that evening my maids and I were at the apartment I'd been fixing up. We were girl talking and swapping stories when in walked my cowboy and his loyal posse. They never could decide what to do, so they decided to hang out with us. We were delighted. No mechanical bull, I asked. Nah, he said. Don't want to be slurrin' my eye does. You'd have to ask him to get his take on it, but here's mine. The bulls lost their sparkle when they stopped hiding them, because when you're free, your want to's change. Today's passages point to other breeding grounds where freedom flourishes. By the way, the honky tonk we found on our honeymoon in Park City had a mechanical bull, and my cowboy rode the ruff off. That man will die standing

1 Samuel 17

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up. The Old Testament chapter is first Samuel seventeen. Saul is terrified and so are his soldiers, as the man who is king and head and shoulders taller than everyone else. Saul knows the fight with Goliath is his, but he won't take it. For forty days Goliath comes out with the same routine. Send someone to fight me, or we'll kick your ass spin trees. David comes to the front line with supplies for his brothers, who are in Saul's army. His eldest brother sneers at him for getting in their business, accusing David of coming just to see a showdown. Only there's no showdown to speak of. All there is is this nine foot giant who mocks Israel's troops and dares them to pick someone to fight him, but no one steps up. Their heads are hanging and they're shaking in their sandals. Rather than feel terrified, David is moved to action by Goliath's threats. Though David's not part of the army, he is part of Israel, and he's insulted by the giant's taunting. David asks, quote, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? I love David's outrage. Where does it come from? David knows God intimately, his psalms bear witness to it. He's had the spirit of God in him since Samuel anointed him, and while he spent a lot of time watching sheep, he wasn't alone while he did it. God was with him. While David shepherded, he got to know God as his good shepherd, the one who quote, makes me lie down in green pastures, leads me beside quiet waters, end quote, and makes his cup overflow. David also got to know God as his savior. When a lion or bear took a sheep, David rescued it, and if the lion or bear came after him, he killed it. When he tells Saul about it, David doesn't take the credit. He gives it to God and says God will do it again, quote, God who delivered me from the teeth of the lion and the claws of the bear will deliver me from this Philistine, end quote. David's so sure of God's help that when the time came he didn't wait for Goliath to come to him, he ran quickly to fight Goliath. David's astonishing courage comes from his desire that quote, the whole earth know that there's an extraordinary God in Israel, like he does. He also wants to encourage Israel's troops so they'll believe the battle belongs to God, and they can win it too. So David tells Goliath that while he comes at him with weapons of sword and spear and battle axe, David comes at him, quote, in the name of the God of the angel armies and of Israel's troops whom you curse and mock, end quote. David claims he will kill the giant, cut off his head, and serve up his body and the bodies of his Philistine cronies to the crows and coyotes, and sure enough, he does. Sadly, this moment is lost on King Saul. He's trying to figure out how this teenager without sword or armor just killed a nine foot giant. Saul asks who his father is, as if this is the source of David's greatness, rather than seeing what is obvious. David's source is the God of Israel, whose glory is knocking everybody's socks off. Even in the face of such evidence that God is God in Israel, Saul is as blind as a bat with all the lights turned on because he thinks David is the hero. This has been the problem all along with Saul. The very real and present God of his fathers isn't on his radar. He doesn't honor God with obedience, he takes matters into his own hands and then pretends he hasn't. Sadly, he will eventually see David as his enemy because he refuses to see the enemy in himself. Saul also doesn't see that the real hero of this story is the god who gave David the gumption to do something about Goliath, who gave him the wisdom to refuse weapon and armor, who guided the stone to the sweet spot on the giant's forehead. From start to finish, quote, the battle belongs to God, end quote. Saul just doesn't know it, but David certainly does, and so does the rest of Saul's army. After this they swarm against the Philistines and beat them soundly. Faith and trust aren't anyone's go to. They're cultivated over a lifetime of responding to God's nudges and learning to trust him. David's time with God while shepherding built a Goliath sized faith in his slingshot aiming God. I have Goliath sized issues. I bet you do too. What encourages me about this story is that my fight with my giants is God's fight too. He's not expecting me to fight alone. I can trust the God who watches over me, who hears my prayers, who protects and provides for me, and who fills my cup so full it runs over to also fight for me in my hour of need. It's not the mighty who get God's help, it's the lowly, the despised, the humble, the weak, the nobody, and often the last person you'd expect, like David, like Jesus. So why not you? And why not me? The relief of this news relaxes my shoulders as I type and goes clear to my feet. Trusting God with my trouble sets me free from them. David trusted God and he was free to run into the fight with Goliath, not knowing the result, because whatever the result would be, God had him, and that's all he needed. That's all any of us needs when you think about

John 8:31-47

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it. Trust sets you free to really live. It also topples your giants. The New Testament passage is John eight, thirty one to forty seven. What makes a true Jesus follower? Jesus says it's listening to God's word and doing what he says. He tells those who claim to know God and follow him, quote, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But how exactly does truth set us free? The truth that I'm God's beloved frees me from needing belovedness from others. I can even give them belovedness. The truth that I'm accepted just as I am frees me from feeling desperate to be accepted by others. I can even offer them acceptance. The truth that God forgives me for my big and little mistakes and even for deliberate ones frees me to give this same forgiveness away to others. Why hold a grudge when I can be free of it? Truth sets you free to really live. It also makes you grudgeless.

Psalm 11, Prayer, Proverbs 15:10-11

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From Psalm one hundred eleven. Do you ever get lost in praise? The psalmist does. His psalm reminds me that there aren't enough psalms, songs, poems, or posts that lift God's praiseworthiness high enough. We can never say or sing at all. We can never zoom out far enough to see all that He is. But not to worry. We don't have to. God's goodness and glory come right to us. It can be felt in the little moments of our days, the highest when delight breaks through, the heart shaped leaf you almost stepped on, the bird song in the quiet, the words a friend said that were just what you needed. This happened for me just yesterday. This psalm is a rundown of so many ways God is worthy of praise, but even this psalm can't say it all. By the end, the psalmist throws out this bit of advice, the good life begins in the fear of God. Do that and you'll know the blessing of God end quote. And then he collapses in hallelujahs that go on forever. Read it in the message and you'll see what I mean. Praise frees us to forget our troubles. It shifts our sights off the family or friends or coworkers who are hard for us. It enables us to turn to the God who adores us and enjoy His love, welcome, and joy over us. Praise is a legitimate way to let it all go and without the wobbly side effects of other mood changers, who wouldn't take five or take ten for something this helpful and healing? Here's my bit of advice praise God with all your heart and don't stop till you're melty. Praise sets you free to really live. It also pulls you out of that pit you are starting to slide into. Prayer. God, do your freedom work in me. Teach me to wield your gifts of trust, truth, and praise. Make me soft, make me marvel, make me bulletproof. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 15, 10 to 11. If the hard headed have a hard path in the school of hard knocks, God knows all secrets from those locked up in hell to those locked up in the human heart. The passages in First Samuel, John, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleban, Roebuck.