pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Monthly Archives: February 2017


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Perfectly Extraordinary

Reading: Matthew 5: 38-48

Once we begin our journey of faith, we are committing to walk in a way of the Lord, to work to become more and more like the perfector of our faith, Jesus Christ.  While we may never reach the perfection that Jesus exhibited, we are nonetheless called to press on towards that goal.  This is God’s desire for each of us.  It is why we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us – to be a constant presence and reminder of our call to live as children of God.

God calls us not to the ordinary, to the run of the mill, but to lives that are extraordinary, to lives that are outstanding.  In the opening verses of today’s passage, Jesus gives some examples that demonstrate going above and beyond.  If one strikes your right cheek (to show insult or offense), then offer your left cheek next (to extend love and friendship).  If someone demands your tunic, then give them your cloak as well.  If a Roman soldier ‘asks’ you to carry their pack one mile (as required by law), offer to carry it a second mile as well.  It is living with a willing and generous heart, even to those who harm, sue, and oppression you.  It is demonstrating extravagant love even to those who are hard to love.

It is a call to be “more” that Jesus issues.  He reminds us that we all love those who love us.  That is ordinary, normal.  Jesus says even tax collectors and pagans do this.  Jesus calls us to more.  In verse 48 He says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”.  Jesus himself is our example of what God’s perfect love looks like lived out.  Jesus offered life, hope, healing, forgiveness, and love to all He met – regardless of whether or not they loved Him.

God expects the same of us.  Yes, this is perfection we are called to.  Yes, on our own this is impossible.  We are not alone.  The Holy Spirit leads and guides and corrects and redirects us to love as Jesus first loved us.  Each day God seeks to renew us, to make us each new creations, ‘born of the Spirit, washed in His blood’.  This day may we each offer extravagant love and extraordinary witness to all we meet, bringing glory to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, our risen King.


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God in Us

Reading: 1 Corinthians 3: 16-23

Through Jesus we have a personal, tangible connection to God.  Just as at Jesus’ baptism the Holy Spirit descended and dwelled in Him, so too does the Spirit come and dwell in us once we ask Jesus into our hearts.  Once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then we live with God’s presence within us.  This personal, tangible connection is so much more powerful than God just dwelling in the temple or only being found in our churches today.

Because Christ dwells in us once we accept His Lordship, the living presence of God makes each of us holy.  Once the Spirit dwells in us, we are carriers of Christ’s holiness, we are bearers of His light and love.  There can be no presence of darkness in our hearts once Jesus dwells there.  Yes, Satan can whisper lies and dangle bright, shiny objects before us, but he cannot abide in our hearts.  Once we invite Christ in then Satan must work on the perifery of our lives.  Once we begin to live as a Christ-follower, we are filled with Christ’s goodness and are able to tap into that to make Satan flee.

There also communal aspects to Christ dwelling in us.  The living Spirit within causes us to look outward instead of inward.  Christ living in us gives us eyes that see with compassion and empathy and understanding and hope and love.  Through His eyes we see needs and places to share our faith.  Through Christ’s presence in us we are moved to action, being His hands and feet in our world.  This same outward focus helps us build community with our fellow believers.  In the same way that we focus outward with those in need, we also look to be of service to one another and to our communities of faith.  We share and use the gifts and talents that God has given each of us to build up one another for service outside the church walls.

The indwelling of God in us is a wonderful thing.  It forever changed us and our role in the church and in the larger community.  Each day may we live into all God calls us to be, allowing God to work in, through, and out of us.


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Foundation

Reading: 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11

In the Old Testament, God was the foundation of the Israelites’ faith.  God drew near to them in the pillars of fire and cloud, in the fall of Jericho, in the fire that fell from heaven to consume Elijah’s sacrifice, and in other silimar events.  God also drew near through the voice of the prophets – sharing the Law and other instructions, plus blessings and warnings.  God spoke through Moses and Abraham and Samuel and Nathan and many other people.

As we move into the New Testament, the foundation becomes Jesus, God incarnate.  In Jesus, God draws nearer than ever before.  In Jesus, humanity could see and touch and talk to God.  In taking on the flesh, God chooses to accept human limitations and ultimately suffering and death – all to draw near to us so that we could draw nearer to Him.  In this, God demonstrates the depth of His love for us.  In this, we see a God who loves us so much that there is nothing He wouldn’t do to bring healing and hope to the world.

Paul came to know Jesus as the only way to salvation and, eventually, to eternal life.  While here in the flesh, God said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”.  After Paul encountered the risen Christ, his life was radically altered.  For the rest of his life, Paul worked tirelessly to proclaim faith in Christ alone.  In today’s passage, Paul writes of the one foundation being Jesus Christ.  For Paul, and for us, there can be no other foundation.

When we claim Jesus as our foundation, we choose to stand upon the Rock.  Jesus becomes for us the source of all of our strength and peace and the filter for all of our decisions.  In Him alone we find contentment, hope, peace, comfort, mercy, forgiveness, healing, and love.  Out of this great love for us, God dwells in our hearts so that we can be bearers of all this, bringing Christ to a world in need.  Like Paul, we too may lay a foundation of Jesus Christ in other people’s lives through our words, actions, and deeds.  May we also strive to be expert builders, sharing our Lord and Savior with all we meet.


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Law, Love

Reading: Psalm 119: 33-40

The psalmist writes of the joy of the law, of life lived in the pursuit of understanding God’s laws.  For the Israelites, living under God and pursuing the ways of God was the purpose of existence.  In the correct sense, the law reveals who God is and what God is like.  The first laws given, the ten commandments, were all about relationship.  The first part deals with our relationship with God and the second part deals with our relationship with each other.  All of the law added by God since these first ten still focused on these two relationships.  So to pursue God is to follow the law.  To love your fellow man is to follow the law.

Jesus came not to abolish the law or to change the relationships, but to fulfill the law.  He came to show us how to properly live out the law.  Much as the psalmist speaks of delighting in the law and finding healing and peace in the law, as Jesus lived out the law, He too brought peace and healing.  Life according to the law was life-giving for the Israelites.  This was always God’s intent.  To bring mankind back to this intent, God sent Jesus to perfect the law.  Jesus did so by returning to the original intent – living in a holy relationship with God and in a loving relationship with each other.

Just as the psalmist longed to understand the law and to obey it in his heart, we too seek to know Christ and to have Him live in our heart.  In this way we live in a right relationship with God and with one another.  As we study, read about, meditate on, and experience Jesus, may we too come to understand what it means to love as Christ loved God and as Christ first loved us.


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Blessings

Reading: Leviticus 19: 9-18

Today’s passage falls under the heading, “Various Laws”, in my Bible.  It is part of a longer list of “Do not…” laws that appear to jump from one subject to another, as the subtitle maybe suggests.  Sprinkled throughout this chapter is the phrase, “I am the Lord”.  It occurs five times in the ten verses we read today, 19 times in the chapter.  In the repetition of this phrase we are reminded of who God is – the creator and giver of all things – and of our role within God’s kingdom.  Our role should be one of gratitude for all that God has blessed us with.  Out of this gratitude should flow a love for all of humanity.

This role is represented well in verse nine.  God instructs, “Do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather gleanings from your field”.  God repeats this same idea in the next line concerning the grape harvest.  Yes, God wants to bless us with the bounty of a good harvest, but we are not to work and work and work for every last seed of grain or the very last grape.  This simple idea has several applications.  First, we are not to be greedy.  We are to be satisfied with what God provides.  Second, we are to share God’s blessings with those in need.  Third, keep the proper perspective – God created for all of humanity, not just for us.  In following these lessons, we maintain our connection to God and to one another.  In these lessons, we remain in our proper role with respect to honoring God and loving our neighbor.

Verse nine applies to the harvest – it was very relevant in the agrarian society of early Israel.  It translates well today as well.  It applies to our time, our talents, our money, our love, our possessions – to all that God has blessed us with so richly.  True, God calls us to work.  But not to the edge, to the point where work is our sole focus and the consumer of all we are.  Yes, God gives us each talents and gifts that bring blessings to our lives.  But He gives these so that we can bless others as well.  What gift of God do you guard to closely?  How can you loosen your grip so others may share in the blessing?


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Holy

Reading: Leviticus 19: 1-2

Today’s verses contain quite a challenge.  God calls us to be holy.  What does it mean to be ‘holy’?  Does it require us to be loving all the time, to never sin, to always be a servant to others?  Is this a 24-7 thing?  When taken from the ‘why’ part of these verses – “because I, the Lord your God, am holy” – it would appear impossible for us.  Yes, God is holy.  Yes, God is without sin.  Yes, God is love.  It is just who and what God is.  And so God tells us to be holy too.

The call to be holy is akin to a parent saying a child, ‘now be good’, as they head out the door to school or to some event.  Yes, the parent wants their child to be good, but this is not always the case, even though most children head off intending to be good as they leave the house.  This too is our struggle.  Even though one awakens every morning and seeks God’s guidance and direction in the day ahead, at times we falter and sin.  This is a limitation of our humanity.  But the grace of God is greater than our weakness!

John Wesley called our walk of faith the “journey towards perfection”.  That is what we are on.  No, I am not perfect.  No, I am not always holy.  But is that my goal?  Yes!  We are ever called to push on “towards the goal” of attaining life in Christ in heaven.  To do so, to accomplish this task, we are being transformed day by day.  It is a slow but steady process.  The transforming work is done by God alone, but others play a role.

For our part, we must seek God daily and invest in growing closer to God, to being holy.  We read and meditate on the Word, we pray and we worship.  W choose to engage with other Christians for support, encouragement, and accountability.  The gift of the Holy Spirit also plays an important role.  God created each of us and knows each of us intimately.  Therefore, God knows our reality.  Into our limitations, God breathes the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit constantly prays for us, continually works to keep us aligned with God, convicts us when necessary, always working to draw us closer to God, closer to holiness.  Yes, we are imperfect, but thank God for His unending love and patience, for the presence of the Holy Spirit, and for ever drawing us closer and closer to being holy.


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Whole Heart

Reading: Psalm 119: 1-8

The ‘heart’ is mentioned a couple of times in the opening stanza to Psalm 119.  For the psalmist and for the people of Israel, the heart was what guided life.  For them, the heart contained all emotions, all thought, all intellect, all desires…  All of who one was and ever would be was thought to be in their heart.  When one reads this passage, with its emphasis on the heart, it expands our understanding of what it means to “seek Him with all of our heart”.  For the Israelites and for us, it means pursuing God with all you’ve got.

This passage emphasizes blessings when we learn to live according to God’s laws.  There is this idea of first learning God’s ways, precepts, and decrees.  Then the writer uses the word ‘obey’ several times.  This is because it is one thing to know the law and a whole other thing to obey it.  But this is not a rote process like memorizing state capitals for a test.  It is not boring or forced learning.  The psalmist writes, “I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws”.  There is joy and happiness in praise.

When we seek God with our whole hearts, obeying His ways as we live, then we find peace, contentment, assurance, and joy.  It is when we seek God and find these qualities defining our lives, it is then that we are truly blessed.  Living according to God’s ways and allowing God to be at the center of who we are – in our heart – transforms us into who God created us to be.  Living in God’s image and following Christ’s example brings a peace and joy in our lives that not only blesses us but also blesses those in our lives.

May we seek God with all of our heart, living lives overflowing with the blessings of our loving Father.  In this way, we live as light and love in the world.  Thanks be to God for this gift.


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God’s Ways

Reading: Psalm 119: 1-8

When we were little we learned our ABCs.  It was the first step in learning how to read.  Without knowing our letters, we could not decode words that were new to us as we learned to read.  Throughout life, much of what we learn, we read.  The ability to read and understand and learn is essential to doing well in life.  This skill is also important in our faith.  In our journey of faith, much of our growth comes in quiet moments reading and meditating on the Bible or a devotional or some other book relating to our faith.

Psalm 119 is written using the ABCs.  It is an acrostic.  Each line of the first stanza begins with aleph,the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Each line of the second stanza begins with beth, the second letter.  This pattern continues throughout the longest chapter in the Bible.  Unfortunately, we lose this unique feature in the translation.  Yet the idea and thought behind it remain a great tool to learn God’s Word.  The author was writing in an acrostic format to help the original readers remember better.  In this Psalm, the focus was on God’s ways or on the Law.  The pattern employed would help the readers to recall the Law, a very important part of life for all Jews.

At youth events where we have groups together for the first time, we often play the name game.  It is played in a circle and we go around and around saying “John jackalope” and “Lisa lizard” and so on until we all know each other’s names.  This is the concept in the Psalm.  Learning is so often a pattern or something that captures your attention so you can retain it better.

Verse two reads, “Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their hearts”.  I fully believe this is true.  But to keep God’s statutes and to seek Him fully, we must first know God.  To know God, we turn to the words we find in the Bible.  We begin by knowing the words of scripture.  There are many ways to come to know the words.  For some, it is writing out a verse to come back to over and over; for others it is reading the same few verses for a few days in a row, taking time to really consider their meaning.  One way does not fit everyone.  We each need to find our ‘best’ way to learn God’s ways and then use that ‘tool’ daily to grow in our understanding of God and to deepen our faith.  May we each take time daily to be in the Word and to learn His ways, so that we may be blessed as we follow God’s ways.


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Focus

Reading: 1 Corinthians 3: 1-9

Paul spent a year and a half with the church in Corinth.  He established the church and spent the rest of this time teaching them how to live as Christians in a pagan culture.  After laying what he thought was a solid foundation and moving on to other missionary work, Paul now realized the church in Corinth is struggling.  He hears how they have lost their focus on God and are squabbling over which human leader to follow.  Paul identifies their spiritual immaturity and accurately asks, “are you not worldly?” as they fight amongst themselves.

Paul tries to reframe their focus and to get them moving forward and growing in Christ again.  He knows he had a role in developing the church, but Paul also firmly believes that only God has the power.  He also knows that Apollos has a role to play as well.  Paul sees Apollos as a fellow worker, not as competition, as the church in Corinth does.  Paul reminds them of all of this with the great line we find in verse six: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow”.  Paul seeks to return their focus to God and to the things of God.

In reading this passage, we too are reminded of our need to stay focused on what really matters, on the only thing with the power to transform lives: God.  In our churches and ministries, we need our energy focused on God and doing God’s work in our world – not on the color of the new carpet or on the style of worship or on any other earthly matter.  As the body, when we focus on heavenly things, we grow in faith and God will bless our efforts.

There is also a personal level to Paul’s call to focus on God.  Do we as individuals remain connected to God and stay focused on His will in our lives or do we allow other things in, drawing us away?  We must be aware of the pull and lure of outside voices and must remain dedicated to our own faith practices.  It is when we falter within that we are more prone to see division rather than unity in the larger body.  May we tend well to our own souls so that we may be part of the larger body’s aim for the same goal: a living, breathing, active, growing faith in Jesus Christ.


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A World of Yes

Reading: Matthew 5: 27-37

As Jesus continues in Matthew 5, He shifts from murder and anger to the topics of adultery, divorce, and making oaths.  In much the same way as He did with murder, Jesus looks at these three as individual acts, but now adds their impact on society.  In doing so, Jesus seeks to contrast the envisioned culture of God against the current culture of man.  Jesus is laying out a vision for a new world order, one based on an economy of equality and honesty and compassion.

In each of these short teachings on adultery, divorce, and oaths, Jesus is recasting how we should look at these.  Just as with ‘do not murder’ resting upon our anger as it’s root, in these cases Jesus also delves deeper and looks at the impact of these three on the larger culture and society.  In cases of adultery, divorce, and breaking oaths, at the core is our commitment to one another.  In the culture of the day, in Jewish Law, the cases dealing with adultery and divorce  really only expressed concern for the man.  Jesus says, OK then, let the man be responsible.  Jesus says if you look lustfully at a woman, you have committed adultery.  This follows with admonition to then poke your eye out so that you do not continue to sin.  Jesus goes on to say that divorce cannot come on the whim of the man, but can come only in cases of marital unfaithfulness.  In both cases, Jesus is protecting and elevating the status of women and establishing a much higher standard of accountability for all people.

Jesus continues this theme as He turns to making oaths.  He is straightforward – do not swear by anything.  Simply let you ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.  Simple as that.  No more, no less.  This concept can, of course, be applied back to the first two topics: adultery and divorce.  When we say ‘yes’ to Jesus, we are saying ‘no’ to the world.  Our ‘yes’ to Jesus means saying ‘no’ to the desires of the flesh and to our own selfish desires.  It means honoring and respecting all people as equals, as children of God worthy of our love.  This of course extends to marriage – in the “I do” we are saying ‘yes’ to being faithful and obedient and loving to our spouses.

Jesus is calling for a world based on relationships that honor and uphold one another, that place love and concern and care for one another above our own well-being.  He is calling us to live as He lived, bringing honor and glory to God in all we do, say, and to think.  May it be so.