God is Faithful When We Are Faithless!

Reflection: Once we are saved what’s next? What are we left to do? Should we just sit idly back until Jesus returns? Author N.T. Wright has written a great book “After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters.” In it, he argues we have two things left to do before Jesus returns. As Luke teaches in the Gospel today, His return will come suddenly. Wright argues the two most important things we can do, as Jesus is forming His character in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, are worship and mission.

Psalm 98 is a fabulous psalm outlining what authentic worship looks like. We see in this psalm/song that worship is a response of joy and thanksgiving for what God has done for us. God has worked salvation for us. God has saved us through His powerful hand. He has revealed righteousness to us. Literally God has revealed how to be in a right relationship with Him through Christ. God is faithful and remembers His love for us even when we forget Him. 2 Timothy 2:13 says it best, “If we are faithless He remains faithful for He cannot deny himself.”

Peter could deny Jesus, but Jesus could not deny Peter! Peter would be the Rock on which Jesus built the church. Not because of who Peter was, but because of who Jesus was! As Peter recognized who Jesus was, he could be the rock on which the church was built. When Peter was faithless, Jesus was faithful.

Today we say goodbye to another faithful character in the Story of God’s redemption of all mankind. Joshua says goodbye to the faithful people of God, after an incredible leadership run succeeding God’s faithful servant Moses. The Promised Land has been conquered and notice the focus on God’s powerful hand, which has enabled them to do all this. Joshua has been around long enough to know there is no way he could have carried it off in his own power. His only last wish is that the Israelites would remember what God had done for them, and as a response they would not turn to the left or the right, but obey all that God has told them. Just as God has kept His promise to them as they obeyed Him, God would also in love discipline them when they strayed and went after the gods of the nations they had dispossessed.

Let’s give thanks for Joshua, whose name means “God saves”. Joshua is a powerful example of what God can do through someone who is willing to submit to God’s Word and also in humility direct all the credit back to God.

As Luke heads into the Passion Story, Jesus begins to teach the disciples about the end times when He will return. He reminds them of the stories of Noah and Lot, whose nations God judged. Though God now would relate to His people through the new covenant in His Son, there would be a day when He would return in great and promised glory. Until that day Luke reminds his audience of the error of Lot’s wife, who turned back and tried to keep that which was perishing and perished because of it.

As we head to that final day that only God knows, it is good to remember God’s faithfulness to us, and by His grace strive to live our lives by His strength that works so mightily within us as we surrender our lives to Him.

If Jesus were to return today would you be ready? A hard question, but an important one! We often say I will get to following the Lord, when this or that happens. But today is the day of salvation, to hear His voice and follow, not turning to the left or right. As we worship the Lord, and give ourselves to the mission He has given us as the Church, we are ready for His return any day any hour!

Psalm 98

1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn —
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.

Joshua 23:1-24:13
Joshua’s Farewell to the Leaders

23 After a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man, 2 summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials —and said to them: “I am very old. 3 You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the Lord your God promised you. 6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now. 9 “The Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. 10 One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. 11 So be very careful to love the Lord your God. 12 “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, 13 then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. 14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15 But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16 If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.

Luke 17:26-37 New International Version (NIV)
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” [36] 37 “Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion. Isaiah 58:1

If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13

Sometimes it is difficult to obey you, holy One, and often we just stop trying. Even though we do not always have faith in you, you always have faith in us. Thank you for your constant presence. Amen

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