pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Monthly Archives: August 2022


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Kind, Caring, Interested

Reading: Psalm 139:1-6

Verses 1 and 2: “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me… you perceive my thoughts from afar.”

As we begin Psalm 139 today we are reminded that God’s love for us is intimate and personal. God knows us. God searches us and walks with us, individually. God perceives our thoughts, sensing our fears and doubts, celebrating our joys and pleasures. Before we can even speak a word, God knows it completely. God is all around and in us – “behind and before.” God’s hand is upon us, leading and guiding us. What great words of assurance. Like the psalmist expresses in verse 6, it is hard to wrap our head around the intimacy and connection that God desires to have with each of us.

While this is wonderful, there are folks out there who are disconnected. They are disconnected from God and they are disconnected from people. They might know if God but wonder where God is or how God could let them experience what they experience. They don’t know if God’s goodness and love. Some folks go through life largely alone, without human connection. They wonder why others don’t notice their loneliness or their pain or both. They feel God and the world are unkind, uncaring, uninterested.

The question for us as Christians is this: How do we connect these folks to our God, to the God who is kind, caring, and interested? How do we draw these folks into the family of God? We begin where God begins with us – seeing us, getting to know us, feeling what we feel. Like God, we invest in them and in their lives. We then allow the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts too, using our love and kindness to draw them into God’s love and kindness. Today may we make the effort to see those who are disconnected. Then may the Holy Spirit lead and guide our words and actions. May it all be so.

Prayer: Lord God, it is so wonderful to live in relationship with you. Use me today to introduce others to that relationship. Amen.


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Like Clay in the Hand

Reading: Jeremiah 18:5-11

Verse 6: “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand.”

As we rejoin Jeremiah at the potter’s house God speaks to him. God begins with a question: “Can I not do to you as the potter does?” Speaking to or about the nation of Israel, God lays claim to shaping and forming as God pleases. Continuing on in the passage we see that how the nation is shaped and forms depends on the nation’s choices. Do they choose to live for good or for evil? God’s heart is set on giving good things to the children of God. But if the people refuse to repent of their evil ways, then God will “reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.” Jeremiah has been sent by God to try and influence the peoples’ choices. God is using him to help them see their need for repentance and to realize that they need to turn back to God. This is what Jeremiah calls for in verse 11: turn and reform your actions, each of you!

Here we see how the collective is also personal. Every person matters. The same is true today. Each of us – you and me – are part of the faith community. Yes, as a whole we are called to do good and to follow God’s ways. Collectively we see this in the missions and other outreaches of the church. These works of mercy do not happen, though, without individuals with compassion for these areas of need. Just a few people, for example, with a heart for a local school can shape the church’s heart towards that school. Each of us – you and me – must have hearts of love, bent outwards toward the world.

God desires to place hands upon our hearts. God says to you and to me, “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand.” God has a vision and a plan for our lives, a purpose for our faith. Like Israel, we have a choice. May we trust the Lord and allow God to shape and form our hearts and lives as God desires.

Prayer: Lord God, mold me and make me, just as you will. Shape me and form me, to do your will. Lead me and guide me, step by step. May your desires become more and more the desires of my heart. Amen.


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Malleable

Reading: Jeremiah 18:1-4

Verse 4: “The pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”

Photo credit: Robert Linder

In this week’s passage from Jeremiah, God sends him to the potter’s house. Here Jeremiah received new understanding and a sharper vision. He goes and finds the potter working at the wheel. The wheel turns, making it easier to shape and form the clay. Whatever appeared to be taking shape was not as the potter envisioned. So we read, “The pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”

One advantage of clay is that it is malleable. Therefore it can be reshaped and reworked over and over again. Standing there watching, Jeremiah realized that the clay represented humanity – himself on a small scale and Israel on the larger scale. You and I are clay too. Unfortunately, we are not always malleable. We don’t always like to be reshapen and reworked.

Jeremiah understood that God was trying to reshape and rework Israel. Their worship of false gods and their pursuit of wealth and power had marred what God had envisioned for Israel. In the same way, when we turn selfish and allow the voices of the world to lead us away from God, we too become marred. Like the potter who is patient with the clay, working it, reshaping it, so too is God patient with us. Life is the spinning wheel that God uses to try and shape us, define us, rework us. But unlike the clay in the potter’s hands, we have the ability to decide, the power to choose whether or not we’ll allow God to touch us, to shape and form us into what God envisions for our lives. How malleable will you be?

Prayer: God, shape me and mold me. Work and gently form me into who and what you want me to be. Help me to surrender those parts of me that mar your plans for me. Amen.


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Repaid

Reading: Luke 14:12-14

Verses 13-14: “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.”

As we continue in Luke 14, Jesus turns from instructions on how the invited guests should act to who the invited guests should be. If the Pharisees or us modern readers struggled with the idea of practicing humility, then today’s words will be really tough. At the core of the red letter words today is the idea of loving without strings attached.

Jesus looks at the guest list for this dinner at a prominent Pharisee’s house and says – you’ve got it all wrong. Don’t invite those just like you. They’ll invite you to come over sometime too and that’ll be your reward. This scenario reminds me of many moves we’ve made. You invite 6-8 friends to help you move. The help is great. But you know you’ll get 6-8 invites to help them move one day.

Jesus offers this guest list suggestion: “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.” Jesus offers a radical and generous vision of loving neighbor. This list is exactly who the Pharisees avoided. It is exactly who Jesus sought to have dinner with. Where does our guest list fall along this continuum?

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While you or I may not have the crippled, lame, blind, or poor in our circle of friends and acquaintances, they are in our communities. We need to be willing to expand our circles. Inviting and including those that society tends to ignore and exclude is exactly what Jesus is calling us to do. Then we will be “repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” This will not be a part on the back and an “atta-boy” from Jesus. This will be the joy of seeing the lost who were found and we’re saved by Jesus.

Prayer: Lord God, make me brave enough to step outside my normal circles. Empower me to invite those outside into those circles. Widen them out so that all are welcome. Amen.


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Humble

Reading: Luke 14:1 and 7-11

Verse 11: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Photo credit: Kyle Johnson

Jesus is at the home of a prominent Pharisee for dinner. As the guests arrive, Jesus observes how they picked the places of honor at the table. The closer one sat to the host or special guest, the more honor one would receive. After observing for a time, Jesus tells today’s parable. All parables have a main point. The point of today’s is this: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

What did Jesus observe that led him to tell this parable? As he sat and watched others jockey for the best places at the table, how the arrogance and pride and ego must have been on full display. The Pharisees were a religious order. All organizations have hierarchies – some structural or organizational, some organic, some perceived. There are often times when those who are not the “boss” think they know more than the boss. Some in places of authority have to power to walk up to another, to point down the row of seats, forcing someone else down the pecking order. It really mattered to these Pharisees where they say at the table. Pride, arrogance, and ego were on full display.

We live in a world where pecking orders and hierarchies still very much exist – from the board rooms right on down to the school lunch table. The desire to rise up the order, to gain more control and power, to elevate oneself are temptations many of us face. When we allow our arrogance and pride and ego to drive our words and actions, then we are no better than these Pharisees. So the question for us to ponder today is this: when we feel we deserve better, how do we instead choose to practice the humility that Jesus so gracefully displayed?

Prayer: Lord God, when I am tempted to judge others as a means to elevate myself or to gossip or critique others as a means to raise my own self-esteem, remind me that all I am is found in you alone. Lead me to focus on you as my purpose and meaning. Guide me in humble service. Amen.


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Pleasing Sacrifices

Reading: Hebrews 13:15-16

Verse 16: “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

Today’s 2 verses in Hebrews 13 call us to dual actions with our mouth and with our hands and feet. First we are to “continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.” This involves confessing Jesus as Lord to the world. It is sharing the good news of what Jesus has done for us so that others can see what Jesus can do for them. It is always being God’s light and love in a broken world so that others can find to healing and wholeness that we have found in Jesus Christ. This is the good fruit that comes from confessing our faith with our lips.

We also confess or witness to our faith by our actions. In verses 16 we are reminded, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” We need to be reminded because it can be easy to forget about the world out there. Faith can become this inner relationship we have with Jesus. It can be tempting to stay there in our faith. To do good, to share with others, to engage the outside world – that involves risk, it calls for trust, and it often demands a cost to us. But it also brings our faith down to a practical, applicable place. It puts skin and flesh to our faith. And it often asks us to suffer a bit for Christ and for his beloved brothers and sisters. This is a sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

Each day we are called to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. Each day we are called to love others with a sacrificial love. No matter who God may place in our path today, may we be a sacrifice that is pleasing to the Lord our God.

Prayer: Lord God, use me today to help others to know you more. Whether by word or deed, put me to service in the kingdom. Amen.


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Keep on Loving

Reading: Hebrews 13:1-8

Verse 1: “Keep on loving each other as brothers [and sisters].”

Hebrews concludes with a call to love. The writer encourages them to “Keep on loving each other as brothers [and sisters].” The call is both within and without. Strangers are listed first. The concept of hospitality was a key practice in Judaism that certainly carried over into Christianity. Jesus lived out this practice, relying on people in towns and villages to take he and his disciples into their homes.

Hospitality is extended outward with the call to “remember those in prison.” This often meant visiting fellow Christians who had been jailed for refusing to worship the emperor (or other Romans gods) or for some other offense to the empire. To visit one imprisoned for their faith was both an act of courage and of solidarity. The author also extends hospitality to those being mistreated. This extends hospitality to the poor, to the oppressed, to the outcasts, and to all other marginalized people and groups in society. The net is cast wide. For Christians, hospitality extended to all people.

The foundation of hospitality is love. It is the force within that drives the observable actions of hospitality. This force is attractional. To see one risking freedom to visit and care for a brother or sister in Christ who is imprisoned for their faith draws notice. To care for and stand up for the suffering gets noticed. To step outside of one’s comfort zone and social circles to help end oppression, to include the outcast in community, to love others towards Christ – this is what it means to keep on loving each other. With courage and grace may we practice this kind of love.

Prayer: Lord God, empower me to love well today. Grant me the courage and the grace to love all I meet, especially those on the margins. Use me today to help others know my love and your love. Amen.


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Oh the Depths

Reading: Psalm 81:1 and 10-16

Verses 11-12: “My people would not listen to me… I gave them over to their stubborn hearts.”

Psalm 81 is a song of celebration, disappointment, and promise. The first verses, 1-2, prepare the people to worship and sing and play. The next verses, 3-7, celebrate how God rescued Israel and led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness. Then, in verses 8-9, God reminds and warns Israel: no foreign gods! We did not read most of these verses.

Verse 10 again promises provision and rescue by God. God longs to care for Israel. But it is not to be so. In verses 11-12 we read, “My people would not listen to me… I gave them over to their stubborn hearts.” They would not submit to God. They followed their own wants and desires. We can almost hear and feel God’s frustration and disappointment. At times we too must make God feel this way. I’ve often thought that God must be shaking God’s head at some of the things I’ve said and done and thought – like a parent with a foolish child.

In spite of all that rebellion and self-centeredness, God still longs to care for and to provide for the children. In verses 13-16 God reminds Israel and us that God will subdue our enemies and fill us with the finest wheat and honey – if one will follow God’s ways. If one “would but listen to me.” God will subdue our rebellious and selfish ways, will defeat our sin, if we will turn our hearts back towards God. Oh the depths of God’s love for you and for me. “Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!”

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for loving me even though I can be selfish and inwardly focused. Thank you for your no-matter-what love that is always ready to restore and redeem me, to care for and guide me. What great love! You are an amazing and awesome God. I love you too! Amen.


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God Will Not Give Up

Reading: Jeremiah 2:10-13

Verse 11: “My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.”

As God outlines the case against Israel, they are invited to go to other tribes, to see how nomadic people live as they worship their idols. It is an image of what Israel could become. It is also a reminder that God chose Israel, leading them out of the wilderness and into a place of abundance and security. I too have had times of wandering in the wilderness. It is good to remember that God was faithful and led them and me to something far better.

God then poses a rhetorical question: “Has a nation ever changed its gods?” The implication is that even wild nomadic tribes keep their same gods. Continuing on we hear God’s response to the question: “My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.” Israel has turned from the glory of God and of living in right relationship with God. They exchanged that for idols. This is the first step towards living in the wilderness. It was chasing after popularity that began my journey into the wilderness.

Calling on heaven to be the witnesses, God names the people’s 2 primary sins. First, they have forsaken the living God, the spring of living water. Second, they have dug holes in the ground, trusting in cisterns that can’t even hold ordinary water. What a sad choice the people have made. Yet God will not give up. Jeremiah will be sent over and over, seeking to draw the people back to God. The same is true for you and me. God will not give up. God sends the Holy Spirit and other voices to keep calling us back to faithful living. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Lord God, you are so faithful. Even when I wander, you are steadfast. Even if I wander off to spend time in the wilderness, you are still right there, whispering my name, reaching out to me. Thank you for your abundant, endless love. Amen.


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It Begins Small

Reading: Jeremiah 2:4-9

Verse 7: “I brought you to a fertile land… but you came and defiled my land.”

In the second half of Jeremiah 1, the section between last week’s and this week’s readings, God brings Jeremiah a vision. He sees a pot that is tilting from the north. It is boiling. God tells him that it will boil over and pour out over all who live in the land. Surely the Assyrian army is coming.

Our passage today begins with a question from God: “What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me?” They turned to worthless idols and began following a worthless religion. God reminds them, “I brought you to a fertile land… but you came and defiled my land.” The priests and prophets have also been a part of the defilement. They have worshipped and prophesied by Baal, a “worthless idol.” Through Jeremiah the prophet, God declares that there are charged pending. The pot will boil over.

The situation in Jeremiah’s day was not and is not unique to his time. It was and is an oft-repeated cycle: walk with God, sin and stray from God, repent and return to God. Because we are a stubborn and selfish lot, there is usually some significant event that leads us to a place of repentance. Using the language of our Biblical context, our pot boils over. When we can’t go any lower, we look up and see that the Assyrian invasion is under way.

How can this pattern be interrupted? It begins small. We are faithful in the small daily tasks: reading our Bible, meditating on God’s word, giving time in prayer and thanksgiving, denying self and the lures of the world, finding ways to humbly serve others. When we are intentional about cultivating our relationship with God, filling ourselves with God’s ways, walking out God’s will, then we repent right away. Then we do not stray far. We remain close. May it be so for you and for me.

Prayer: Lord God, lead me to draw close again and again, over and over, moment by moment. Build such intimacy between you and me that I always turn back quickly, repenting and knowing your forgiveness and redemption once again. Amen.