Apr 9, 2018
A daily devotional walking through God's word together using The
Bible Reading Plan at http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.html.
Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com
Bible Reading Plan -
www.Bible-Reading.com; The
Story, Chapter 29; You Version Bible app Engaging God's Story
Reading Plan Days 197 through 203
Alvin was the third of eleven children born to William and
Mary in a little town called Pall Mall. William scratched out a
meager living as a blacksmith and farmer to support his family and
died early in the hardscrabble life of the foothills of the Smoky
Mountains. William died early, Alvin quit school to help support
the family and was rough and tumble young man acquainted with
fistfights.
Alvin attended the Church of Christ near his home in Tennessee
and found God during his young adult years making him a changed
man. But like many his age, he found himself drafted into the Army
to serve in World War I. He tried to get out of the draft as a
conscientious objector, but discovered that his denomination had no
specific doctrine concerning pacifism so found himself embroiled in
the fight in Europe.
Alvin C. York. One of our nation’s most decorated soldiers. No
one would have picked him for such a role when he was growing up.
No one thought this backward boy from the hills of East Tennessee
would in one battle kill 25 and capture 130 German soldiers and
take a machine gun position that was destroying so many American
troops. His actions helped open the way for the American victory in
the Argonne offensive. Gary Cooper won an academy award portraying
this great American hero.
Alvin C. York, like many I have met who have been awarded our
nation’s highest medal, was a very quiet, unassuming man who sought
no fame. He like many felt he was just doing his duty. He didn’t
talk about those days much and never bragged about them in any way.
To him, it was something anyone would do to support his fellow
soldiers.
I know one of his direct descendants. He attended my church
for a while. His character is similar. Quiet. Unassuming. In the
business of saving lives. LTC York is a physician by trade and uses
his skills to save thousands each year just as Sergeant York
did.
Sergeant York was an unlikely candidate to do what he did. No
one would have picked him. We’ve seen a lot of those characters as
we’ve moved through The Story, God’s plan for bringing us back into
community with him. Noah, Abraham, David, Hezekiah, Jeremiah,
Matthew, the Samaritan woman, the Centurion, the women in Jesus’
life. So many people recorded in God’s word that from the outside
just don’t have what the world would say are the characteristics
necessary to change their community or the world.
Yet God saw each of these unlikely individuals from his upper
story and knew their heart. He knew how he could use them to move
us toward him in ways we could not understand. He knew he could use
them to shape his plan toward the ends he desired. They only needed
to obey him. These unlikely candidates did incredible, impossible,
God ordained things and changed their world. They each bring us
closer to understanding the relationship God wants for each of
us.
This week we read about another of those unlikely candidates.
A man no one from a human perspective would think God could ever
forgive because of the actions he took against those early
followers of his Son, Jesus. Saul, who God would later call Paul,
held the coats of those who stoned Steven. He received authority
from the temple to chase down these followers of Jesus and have
them not just persecuted but killed. Yet, God chose this murderer
of Christians to be his missionary to Gentile world.
Paul would write half of what would become the New Testament.
Thirteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament are
ascribed to his authorship. An unlikely character in God’s pantheon
of heroes. But God doesn’t look at men and women the same way we
do. He doesn’t choose based on what we see in our lower story. He
doesn’t choose people the way we examine them with all our human
relation tools for job hunting. No. God sees the potential in the
way he created us and sets his plan in front of us.
God’s upper story uses the most unlikely people to advance his
purpose to bring us back into a face to face relationship with him
in the garden he has been preparing for us since Adam and Eve were
cast out of Eden. God also asks us to be obedient to his call. He
called each of these unlikely people to different tasks. Some were
easy. Some were difficult and at great personal risk. But each
required them to obey God’s command to go and do something for
him.
So what is God asking you to do? It might be as simple as
taking a meal to a sick neighbor to visibly share the compassion
that God has for others. It might be to listen to the teenager that
sits at the bus stop with tears in her eyes and just hear her story
and tell her your own story so she knows there is a God in heaven
who loves her. It might be something that is much bigger than you
think you could ever do. It might even sound impossible. But when
God gives you something to do, he will always give you what you
need to make it happen. It might be resources, it might be skills,
it might be relationships with other people who will give you
help.
God uses unlikely people so others know that when God-like
things happen, we are not the ones responsible for their
implementation. God is. We are just his tools in giving ourselves
to him in obedient service. God uses unlikely people to help us
understand that no matter who we are or how little you think you
might could contribute to God’s plan, he has a different view. God
will use you to further his plan. He will use you to help others
know that he is full of grace and truth. He will use the most
unlikely characters so we can know that he wants everyone to come
to him and know his salvation.
There is only one thing to remember about it all. We are all
part of God’s Story, but to find yourself in his garden at the end
of time, you must obey him. His creation. His rules. God is full of
grace. But God is also full of truth. The balance is met at Calvary
where those who believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins
and follow him will not perish but have eternal life. But that most
famous of verses continues in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.
He didn’t come to condemn the world, but when we don’t believe, we
are already condemned. Jesus is the way to eternal life and there
is no other.
As unlikely as you might feel as a hero for God, he can use
you in his plan. All it takes is looking up and letting him lead
you wherever he wants you to go. And do whatever he wants you to
do. That’s it. Then you’ll find yourself on that list of heroes,
too.
You can find me at
richardagee.com. I also invite you to
join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue
in San Antonio to hear more about The Story and our part in it. You
can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for
listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me
an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around
you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into
His story each day.