June 7--Why Saving The World Is Not Your Job

I can feel overwhelmed by all the good causes that need help, from my grandkids to our nation to this planet we live on.  It helped me today to read whose job it is to save--and whose it isn't--in 1 Kings 2, Acts 5, Psalm 125, and Proverbs 16:25-26.  

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

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June seven Why Saving the World Is Not Your Job. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. There was some tension between the older three grandboys that I hoped they'd work out, but eventually they brought it to me. The long and the short of it was that the two who are brothers have old wounds between them. These wounds got tweaked when one brother sided with his cousin rather than with his brother in an argument. The dynamic is such that the brother who appeared disloyal has a heart for the underdog. He can't stand by and watch his favorite cousin be challenged, so he felt compelled to defend him. But his rescue didn't work. For one thing it made his older brother feel as if the two younger boys were ganging up on him, and it kept this cousin weak rather than empowered him. Plus it left the brother who appeared disloyal feeling torn up over it. I'm not sure I helped except to care that everyone was miserable and to ask God to help us, and maybe this is all I can ever do when I think about it, not save people from their troubles, but care that life is hard and point them to the one who can. After we prayed the mood shifted. I could tell they felt better. One play punched another, and before I knew it all three were wrestling. Today's passages say more about this God, whose job it is to save The

1 Kings 2

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Old Testament chapters first Kings two What legacy will you leave behind? It's a question I think about often. It's one reason I write this blog. By reading it one day, I'm hoping my loved ones will catch a desire to do what the Bible says. If there was one thing King David wanted to pass on to his son Solomon, it was this very same thing for Solomon to do what God said. At the end of his life, this was the secret David shared with him for how to have a successful reign as king and reap the benefits. According to David, living for God wasn't just a way to be successful, it was the only way, because if there was one thing David learned in his checkered life of extraordinary success despite miserable circumstances and personal failure, it was to put God first, to worship him only, to obey what he said, to love him best. These are all different parts of the same thing really, and if Solomon wanted to have all that God offered, which included blessings beyond belief, and his deepest desires met, this was what it took. This was why having no other gods besides God was first of the Ten Commandments, because it was the key for everything else in life that mattered. And while it was true in David's time, it's still true today. But it's harder than it looks. There are pitfalls along the way, trials and tests, big fat failures and smaller oopsie daisies. No one gets it all right, but the one who keeps getting up, dusting themselves off, and going to God wins the lottery, which is having God's unfailing, enthusiastic embrace. This is what David did. He kept messing up, but he kept on repenting, he kept seeking God's forgiveness, and he kept on finding it. So at the end of his life David advised Solomon to follow God faithfully so that God's promise to David would be fulfilled, which was this, if his descendants were careful to follow God, quote, with all their heart and soul, David's line would be on the throne of Israel forever. God's condition sounded simple enough, do what I tell you, but we know from history that King Saul didn't stay faithful, though he began well, eventually he worshipped his work, his whims, and his women, caring more to please them than he cared to please God, and Solomon's sons strayed even farther. When God made this promise he knew that David's sons wouldn't do their part. Even David himself was hardly a model of doing what God said, though he kept coming back to God and repenting when he failed. Even in his old age he was still at it. But David was no hero. There was the time he lived as an outlaw and trusted the Philistines to protect him rather than God, the time he pretended to be insane to save his neck, the many times he failed to discipline his sons, the time he failed to forgive Absalom and reconcile with him, and of course the really bad awful time with Bathsheba and Uriah. Even for all this, the Bible's final commentary on David's life is this David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord's commands all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite, end quote. Are you wondering like I am if God has dementia? He commanded holiness, yet he was full of forgiving mercy when it came to not remembering David's sin. If he did this for David, won't he do it for the rest of us? Does anybody else's heart leap to read and believe this? Thankfully, God's not surprised by sin. He's not undone by our failures to trust him. He knows we're a mixed bag of faith and falling flat, and he even chooses not to remember the falling flat part. I'm always disappointed when I get to the end of a Bible story and realize once again that the main characters are broken men and women, not superstars of faith and obedience, and certainly not inspirations for living. When I look around me, I'm also disappointed to see that there are as many failing Christians as ones who finish well. I include myself in the often failing description. So if it depends on believers to be the role models who inspire unbelievers to faith, well, we're not doing very well. But thankfully, saving the world doesn't depend on us being the hero. It depends on God. God is on a campaign to save the world, and he uses both believers and non believers to do it, weaving successes and failures into a tapestry of praise for the God who can't be thwarted, stopped, or even delayed. The fact that he uses broken, bumbling, and even badly behaving human beings to do it is beyond me. It's a wonder the church is still moving forward, that faith is still thriving, that God hasn't given up. And I love this about him, how he has the power not only to bless the good things we do and multiply them, but also to redeem the bad things, turning them into tools in his hands for saving us and other people. Only God can do a work as important as this with such unreliable tools as men, women, and sin, but this is what he's got to work with, and he's God almighty. He has always been the faithful, forgiving, and forgetful hero who bends low to meet us and mend us right where we are, who sets us back on our feet, slaps us on our backsides, and breathes his life into us as many times as we need till he comes back for us. The greatest story ever told is not the story that some of us become superstars who make good for God. It's the story of God, the only superstar who makes us good, and we who are liars and cheats, molesters and criminals, fornicators and haters are transformed by his love. The greatest story ever told gets carried forward because God Himself is carrying it, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. God doesn't depend on you to

Acts 5

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save the world because this is his job, and he's got it. The New Testament chapter is Acts five. It was a wild ride, but the brand new church of Jesus didn't let go for a minute. The Holy Spirit unleashed at Pentecost three chapters ago continued to sweep through the city of Jerusalem as people joined up by the thousands. Some came from near and far to be healed simply by touching Peter's shadow. And then there was the tragic business with Ananias and Sapphira, who lied about the money they gained from selling property. They pretended to donate all of it to the fellowship, and they fell down and died for their hypocrisy. Next the apostles were arrested and jailed by those who killed Jesus and were released by God's angel who told them to keep right on preaching. The temple leaders called them back in again and commanded them to shut up, but Peter said they must obey God and not men. They got whipped for their insolence and rejoiced to bear the wounds of Jesus, and they went right back to the temple to preach the good news again. These were just ordinary fishermen, and yet empowered by Jesus' spirit. They were rocking the ancient world while the establishment scrambled to suppress it. They thought killing Jesus would give them the upper hand again, but here were twelve more who'd put on his sandals and were crushing it. What's more by this chapter at least eight thousand people have joined up. It must have felt like all heaven was breaking loose on earth because well it was. Meanwhile, back at the temple, Gamaliel advised his fellow Pharisees to stop trying to control what was happening. If this movement wasn't of God it would die. If it was of God, who were they to fight him? More than two thousand years later, God's Holy Spirit still powers on, breaking folks out of their prisons with the good news of Jesus and confounding others who refuse to trust him. God doesn't depend on you to save

Psalm 125, Prayer, Proverbs 16:25-26

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the world. This is the job of Jesus and his Holy Spirit, and they've got it. From Psalm one hundred twenty five These verses are my go to when I need reminding that God's got me. I return to them often in my mind. They say that God's mountains of protection surround me and can't be moved, fall down, or crossed over, and that means nothing can get to me without God's okay, which also means that what comes is special delivery and allowed for my good, even the hard things, because if they're not for my good, then this psalm is a lie, and God is a jerk. Now that I have your attention, the choice I want to present to you is this I can either believe that everything God lets into my life is good for me, or I can believe that God lets bad things into my life because he's too weak or distracted to keep them out. So which is it? I choose to believe that everything that comes is for my good because having a weak and impotent God is more troubling than believing that hard times will work for my benefit. If he's surrounding me but not paying attention to what's getting in, what kind of God is he? But with my strong protecting God mountain, nothing and no one gets by him without his permission. He even turns me into a force that cannot be shaken because hard times drive me to him where I'm kept safe. Feel the relieving strength of the safe house that God is. God doesn't depend on you to save yourself. This is his job, and he's got you. Prayer. God, remembering it's your job to be the Savior, strengthens me when I'm weak. Help me to depend on you and not me. In Jesus' name. So be it. From Proverbs 16, 25 to 26. Be wary of what looks appealing. Some innocent looking paths can take you straight to hell. Your physical needs will drive your work ethic. Don't seek a bailout. The passages in 1 Kings, Acts, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve Debartelaban, roebuck.