June 26--Got-To's For Getting In On The Good Life

Love and joy, prosperity and peace, thriving and meaning.  How the good life plays out in detail for each of us might look different, but the basic ingredients are the same. Today's passages give us a few got-to's for how to get in on it. 

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Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

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June twenty sixth Got twos for getting in on the good life. I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. I grew up suffering grumpy father on vacay syndrome, so getting there was never half the fun. It was always full of wrong turn misery. To combat it, I learned early how to read maps on our road trips. It was the only distraction I had, besides staring out the window or reading little house books, and sometimes I had just the tip that got us where we were going. But mostly, if memory serves me, we got turned around a lot. When a map failed to give instructions for the tiny turns we needed, Daddy would stop at the nearest gas station to ask for directions, but when he got back to the car and we asked what the guy said, he never remembered. He'd mutter something about the attendant not being clear or being preoccupied with another customer or an idiot, or all three, but the truth was, Daddy just didn't listen. It was humiliating for him to be lost in the first place, and even more so to be at the mercy of the guy who balanced tires. So he'd head out, trying to find his own way out of Tybee Island, Georgia or Clectic, Alabama, or Weiki Wachi, Florida. After passing what looked a lot like the same diner we'd passed earlier, he'd eventually stop to ask directions again. But this time one of my brothers would go in. I marveled how they never had the same trouble Daddy did. Inevitably the guy inside would be clear as a bell, undistracted, even brilliant. Amazing the odds of how often this scenario repeated itself in all the places we went. Nobody likes following directions. Even those of us who like to be thorough don't want to ask for them. Who reads the directions for a new gadget unless they first tried freestyling it? I certainly don't. The got to's for the good life are like this. You can freestyle your way all you like, but if you want to actually get to the good life you're aiming for, you've got to follow the directions the good life giver lays out in his guidebook. Today's passages tell what some of these directions

2 Kings 10-11

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are. The Old Testament chapters are Second Kings ten to eleven. As the brand new king of Israel, Jehu was an anomaly. He was zealous for God and did exactly what God said, even when what he said was to kill off all of former King Ahab's family, and he was zealous to do what God said, even when what he said was to take out Baal worship, a trending religion, which included killing all of its priests and worshippers, sparing no one. After all his devotion to do just what God said, you'd think Jehu's life would have turned out well, but the last words about him in chapter ten say that he didn't stay faithful, quote, Jehu wasn't careful to walk in God's ways and honor the God of Israel from an undivided heart. Specifically the thing he didn't do was get rid of the golden calf idols that former King Jeroboam had set up for worship in two Israelite cities. Evidently he understood that Baal worship was forbidden, which is why he destroyed its temple and all its priests and people with it, but for reasons that aren't clear, he let calf worship continue. Maybe he thought it was harmless since it was a throwback to Israel's early days when Moses first led them out of Egypt. Maybe calf worship was regarded as something traditional, even sentimental. Maybe the average Israelite didn't have a problem with something that everybody remembered their grandmother worshiping. Jehu brought God's judgment to Ahab's house. Even Ahab's friends and coworkers were taken out. Then he brought judgment to Baal worship to the extent that not only were the people who participated killed, the entire temple was knocked down, the sacred bale stone was pulverized, and the site became an outhouse, and God congratulated him for a job well done. I don't know more about Jehu than what the Bible says, but I do know about the temptation to become taken with myself for some big thing I've done for God, and what Jehu did was much bigger than anything I've ever done. Maybe this was Jehu's temptation. With all of Israel under him and this nationwide clearance of evil behind him, it would be easy to think all the sin is gone and to get lost in the glory of having done it all himself, which, at least for a time, is so much more satisfying than worshiping the God who's guided him to his glory. But doing for God has never been what makes us right with him, and if Jehu became prideful because of what he did, it's not hard to understand how his heart got divided. In the end he didn't keep choosing to live God's way, he chose his own way. Self worship is so very easy to stumble into and so very hard to climb out of. No matter how small it starts, idolatry is never harmless. It eats you from the inside out and turns you into what you're worshiping, with eyes that can't see, ears that can't hear, a mind that can't think, a heart that can't love. You don't even know it's happening until the day it becomes obvious. I've been there. I had a season with no joy in my children, my friends or my garden, all of which I'd adored before this. I couldn't feel anything tender at all, as if my heart had been carved right out of my chest. We will worship what's most important to us, and regardless of how good a particular substitute for God may seem, whether spouse or family, good friend or good reputation, work or leisure, health or wealth, it'll dull and diminish us and then suck at our minds and eat our hearts out. Good deeds and righteous acts of service can't make your heart right or give you life either. That's where Jehu got off track, thinking that what he done for God meant he was good enough, but nobody's good enough. Nobody can pull up their own bootstraps and live a righteous life, and stay on God's path and away from the idols we try to sub in for him. Eventually everybody will stumble and fall flat unless God intervenes. I did, and it's the best worst thing that ever happened to me. It was the worst thing because I was humiliated to admit that I needed Jesus just like everybody else, and it was the best thing because I was overjoyed to learn that this is exactly why Jesus came, to save sinners like me. It's still a fight to live like God alone is God and to worship Him only, but it's why I hang out with Him and read my Bible. He promises real rewards for keeping His commands, and having no other gods before me is the first of His top ten. Rewards include being blessed in every way that matters, from experiencing unexplainable joy to being rescued from enemies, to having love welling up and making me weepy. Worship God only is the got to that gets you in on the good life.

Acts 17

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The New Testament chapter is Acts seventeen. Paul stirred up people everywhere he went, either to faith or to fury. Jews were jealous that the Gentiles were getting in on God and kept running Paul out of town. Didn't he know that the message of Jesus was offensive? I'm guessing he did, but he wasn't concerned enough to shut it down. When he was run out of one town he moved on to the next and made friends and preached about Jesus there. And the believers he left behind validated his message because their lives changed as the good news of Jesus spread through like wildfire. Paul had recognition and influence. He still does. My faith and yours are fruits of Paul's persistence despite all his hardships. But Paul died in prison at the age of sixty, not knowing how far reaching his influence would be. He couldn't have imagined how God would still be using his words nearly two millennia later. Paul did what God called him to do, but unlike Jehu, he stayed faithful and left the results largely unsung and unknown to him with God to use how he would. God calls each believer to spread the good news of Jesus, not just professionals like pastors and missionaries. That person in your Y class or in line in front of you or taking your order needs to know him just like you do. Take a minute to connect and see where God takes it. God lets us participate in building his kingdom, and it's a privilege to work alongside him. The glory is all his, but he lets us have stabs of joy as we do it when we serve where we are and leave the outcome to him. The work God gave Jesus to do was to endure the cross, and he did it quote for the joy set before him, and now exalted at God's right hand, he reigns over every person in power on the planet. God didn't skimp on the rewards he gave Jesus, and he won't skimp on us either. Try it and see. Work for God's kingdom is a got to that gets you in on the good life.

Psalm 144, Prayer, Proverbs 17:27-28

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From Psalm one hundred forty four. David is effusive with praise explaining why it pays to quote have God for God, end quote. God is his trainer in warfare, the bedrock he stands on, the castle he lives in, his knight in shining armor, the high rock he escapes to, while he also quote, lays my enemies low, end quote. To protect him, God ignites volcanoes, shoots arrows of lightning, reaches from heaven to earth to quote, pull him out of the grip of those barbarians who lie through their teeth, end quote, and stab him in the back. I look back in my Bible to see what David did to deserve all of this good protection and help, and it was this, he relied on God. That's it. There's no mention made of David doing things for God like evangelizing or tithing. David simply relied on God to keep him safe, to make his sons strong and his daughters beautiful, to keep his barns full and his fields alive with flocks. Who doesn't want safety, enemy payback, family health, prosperity? No wonder David is effusive. He gets how blessed he is, and he wants us to get in on it too, because what God does for David, he does for each of us when we rely on him. This is why he writes this new song of praise to our God who saves and saves and saves. God knows what the good life is, and he gives it to those who depend on him to be God for them. These are God's words, and we can trust them. Dependent trust is the got to that gets you in on the good life. Prayer. God, we make a good team. I can't do my life without you, and you say I don't have to. You're always at the ready and want me to trust you. I don't understand what you get out of this deal, but I'm so very grateful that what I get is you. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 17, 27 to 28. Wisdom doesn't need to talk a lot. Even fools who keep their mouths shut are considered smart. The passages from 2 Kings, Acts, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve to Bartleaban, Robuk.