May 19, 2016

“When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.” ― Ernest Hemingway

2 KINGS 23-25

Although Josiah's heart is completely committed to God, it does not protect him from death and defeat...

24Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord. 25Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses...

29While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo. 30Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

JOHN 7:1-31

The drama heats up as Jesus becomes a polarizing figure...

1After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want^a to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

6Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8You go to the festival. I am not^b going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

10However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”

12Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.

JOURNAL 

Obedience to God does not guarantee protection from the world and evil. Here Josiah has no peer in his dedication and love for God. Yet he is still defeated and killed by Pharaoh. Here Jesus the son of God is being rejected, questioned and conspired against to be killed. Eventually the Jewish leaders would get their way.

Here is a line that must be drawn in the sand of my own faith and I believe in every person's spiritual journey. The question is..."why follow?" If the answer is anything that hints of self-protection or wealth or immunity from sickness or suffering then I believe the point and message is entirely missed. True love is never given out of what it gets other than simply the joy of giving and loving. Obedience and loving God must be it's own reward.

 36Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37They were put to death by stoning;^e they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. - Hebrews 11:36-40