pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Bringing Christ 

Reading: Colossians 1: 24-28

One of the reasons Christ became flesh was to be like one of us.  Jesus Christ walked the earth in a human body and set for us an example of how we are to live.  Once we come to the point of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, then His Spirit comes to dwell in our fleshy bodies.  With the indwelling of Christ in us we know the hope of our eternity.  We know that once Christ dwells in us and lives in us, that one day we too will experience resurrection and will rejoice in the hope of eternal life in the heavens.  This is wonderful news for all believers.

Paul also writes of suffering.  He rejoices in what he has suffered in order to continue advancing the gospel.  Paul is always ready to suffer for others.  He is so willing to do so because Jesus Christ first suffered for him.  Through the ultimate suffering on the cross, Jesus provided the path to our hope of glory, to eternal life.

Once we come to have Christ in us and to live our lives in Christ, we begin to take on and then seek to emulate all aspects of Christ.  Suffering is one aspect of Christ that we, like Paul, are called to take on.  As His followers we too must be committed to suffering as Christ suffered.  It is a willingness to both suffer for and to suffer with those who suffer.  It is a willingness to have less so that another may have some.  It is a willingness to enter into relationships with those who suffer and to walk alongside them to alleviate some of the suffering.  It is a willingness to give one of the things we hold most dear: time.

In willingly offering ourselves in suffering for another, we bring Christ himself to those most in need.  As Paul wrote, we share Christ so that “we may present everyone perfect in Christ”.  It is living out our great commission to bring all people in all nations to kneel at the foot of the cross.  This day and each day may we embrace each opportunity God brings to suffer as Christ suffered, all for the building of the kingdom and all for the glory of God.


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Good, Heaven, Life

Reading: Colossians 1: 15-23

“Christ is the firstborn over all creation… He was before all things… All things were created by Him and for Him… And He is the head of the body, so that in everything He might have supremacy…”  These are powerful words that remind us of who Christ is and God’s intent for Him.

To bow to Christ, to give one’s life to follow Him, to declare Him the Lord and Savior of one’s life, all require a choice on our part.  That choice is part of the free will that God gave mankind.  From the time that sin and evil entered the Garden, making has had the free will to choose good or evil, to choose heaven or earth, to choose life or death.

One does not have to surf a media source for too long to find evil rearing its head in the world.  Warfare here, persecution of someone there, violence in the streets here, the shooting of police officers there.  These acts of violence and hatred, plus the evil that we deal with ourselves, are not God’s intent for His children.  He did not create us to be sinful but evil and sin and temptation are a part of this world, so we encounter these things.  For each of these acts of violence and evil, and for the temptation we face personally, there is a remedy.  But to find the remedy we must be willing to look at the root causes that lead to these acts and to sin and then to address these causes and triggers.

“God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things”.  All things.  God desires to reconcile all to Himself.  God desires to draw all people to Him.  “…and making peace by His blood, shed on the cross”.  The key to helping the lost choose good, heaven, and life is to share the love of the cross with them.  It is what allows us to daily choose Christ.  May we be love in our homes, at our jobs, in our whole life, so that all around us may come to know the love of the cross.


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Rooted

Reading: Psalm 52

David is in the midst of a trial in Psalm 52.  King Saul has become crazed with jealousy and paranoia and is pursuing David to kill him.  David is on the run for his life.  He knows in his heart that he is in the ‘right’ and that God is with him, yet he faces this trial.  Despite being physically on the move, David states that he is like “an olive tree flourishing in the house of God”.  In the midst of this crazy pursuit by Saul, David remains rooted in his faith in the God he loves.

In the song “Always”, artist Kristian Stanfill sings, “My foes are many, they rise against me, I will hold my ground”.  In our life we can often relate to David’s trial and to the thoughts expressed in this song.  At times we can feel beset on all sides.  In these moments it can be easy or tempting to pull up the roots we have in God and to turn to other means to deal with the fear or pain or doubt or whatever else we are facing.

David wrote, “I will trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever”.  The songs says, “I will not fear, His promise is true, my God will come through always, always”.  In both we find the blessed assurance that God will always live us and will always be there for us.  For our part, we must stay rooted in God.

It can be hard to do this.  The song goes on to day, “Trouble surrounds me, chaos abounding, I will test in You”.  It is a faith deeply rooted in God that can rest in Him in the midst of a trial.  To be deeply rooted requires daily watering and fertilizing.  This day may we water our faith in the Word of God and allow it to permeate our faith, to fertilize it as its message sinks deep down into our soul and strengthens our faith.  May we do this day by day do that when the winds and rain of life come, our faith will be deeply rooted on the true foundation, Jesus Christ.


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All in for You

Reading: Amos 8: 7-12

The time of action and judgment has come for the people of Israel.  These people who wanted to focus on money and crops instead of worship will get what they want.  They had endured worship and the Sabbath like it was a chore.  So God has chosen to grant their desire – He will step away from His people.  He will allow His petulant children to live without Him for a while.  A time is drawing near when a foreign king will conquer and destroy.  God will be a silent, non-involved observer.  Public worship will not occur in captivity and there is no Bible yet.  It will be a difficult time for Israel.

It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like to have all of our churches shut down.  It is even harder to imagine that our access to the Word of God could be removed.  We have easy access to physical Bibles and constant access to a myriad of virtual Bibles.  So imagine for a moment if all access to the Word were removed and we could not gather for worship.  It would be very hard to remain connected to God and our faith.

Although this idea of no access to God or His Word seems so foreign to us who have easy access to these things, our attitudes at times are not so far removed from those of the people of Amos’s time.  We have all been reluctant worshippers.  We have all looked at our watches or cell phones as we creep past the time church was supposed to end.  We have all drug our feet or scowled all the way to church and part way through it.  This is not the worship God desires.

Lord, make our hearts like Your heart.  Help us to love you with all we are.  Lead our spirit to seek Your Spirit.  Draw us into You.  Move us to offer all of ourselves in grateful response to Your love and mercy that never fail.  May we be all in for You, O Lord.


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Fully and Wholly

Reading: Amos 8: 1-6

God proclaims to Amos that “the time is ripe for my people”.  God is fed up with their preoccupation with money.  Worship is no longer worship.  They want to rush through their one hour of worship so that they can get back to turning a profit.  To make matters worse, during their one hour ‘given’ to God their mind is filled with thoughts of how to get richer.  The fact that they do not hear God’s message and call upon their hearts is revealed in the ways they exploit the poor and needy.

God’s desire is the same for us.  When we sit down to spend time with God, He expects all of our being to be present.  Our call is not to read the devotional or accompanying scripture as quickly as possible so that we can continue on with our day.  God desires for us to linger a while, to allow His Word and message for us that day to soak in and to percolate deep within us.  Our time with God should draw us in and transform and renew us.

The same is true on a Sunday morning or whenever we gather for worship.  We are called to enter His house with thanksgiving in our hearts and praise on our lips.  We are to be fully in His presence and to welcome the Spirit to move in us and around us.  God hopes to touch our souls with the music, the words, the prayers.  If our focus is elsewhere, we are not being authentic in our worship and we are not being honest in our relationship with God.

Each time we enter into His presence, whether in private or with our community of faith, may we be fully focused and wholly in His presence.


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Mary Time

Reading: Luke 10: 38-42

“Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her”.  What is better is to sit at Jesus’ feet, to listen to His words, to meditate on their meaning, and to apply them to our lives.  Just as Mary did this, we too are called to daily do the same.  We are called to what is better, to spend time with Jesus.

Life is busy and there is always much to do.  We can easily fill our days up with a long to-do list.  There are so many people and things we are committed to.  We can all relate to Martha in this story.  She is feeling the pressure to always be on the move so that all gets done.  She is a doer and a worrier.  One cannot read this story without feeling at least a little like Martha and without feeling at least a little conviction.

I think a little conviction is good now and then.  It allows us to examine our lives, our practices, our priorities.  There is no need for guilt.  The story simply allows us to evaluate if we are spending enough ‘Mary time’s or not.  Deep inside we all feel the pull to spend time daily with God and we all know that life is better when we do so.  Once the habit is established, our daily personal time with God is closely guarded and kept sacred.

It does not matter if our Mary time is early in the morning, during our noonday break, or in the evening sometime before bed.  It does not matter if our time with God is relatively short or if it is really long.  Each of us are unique and need to find our own best way to come and sit at Jesus’ feet, to connect our heart and soul to His.  If you do not have Mary time each day, try it for a few weeks.  Pick a spot in the New Testament and read and reflect and pray for a little while each day.  If you do have some Mary time each day, blessings on your time each day in His presence!


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Go and Do Likewise 

Reading: Luke 10: 29-37

God, who is my neighbor?  This question has a different connotation today than it had in Jesus’ day.  In Jesus’ day, the community was close knit.  One knew a lot about one’s neighbors.  But today many people do no even know the person across the street.  We may have hundreds of friends on social media flung far across the world, but we are too often isolated in our own homes.

In today’s parable Jesus sees neighbor as not just the people living around us, but also as anyone we might come into contact with.  This definition really changes the ball game.  We might be willing to take a meal to the family next door if we know they are struggling, but the family across town that we do not even know?  In Jesus’ world, yes we would.  Neighbor is everyone.

We can take a meal to the family next door even if we are really not friends.  We can do it even if we do not really get along.  It is a quick, limited interaction type of engagement.  It is a safe foray with little commitment.  In our story today, the Samaritan goes beyond this – way beyond.  He stopped, got his hands dirty, actually cared for the wounded man, took him to a place to recover, and paid for it.  He even told the innkeeper he would pay for any additional expenses when he returned.  And I bet he stopped in and checked on the wounded man.  They probably became friends!

Jesus saw all people as His neighbor.  In the parable we clearly see our call ad Christians to love all people that we encounter.  It is the example set by the Samaritan and by Jesus.  As Jesus said to the lawyer, may we too go and do likewise.


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Enough?

Reading: Luke 10: 25-28

In our culture there is a large emphasis placed upon ‘success’.  This emphasis leads us to judge others and to compare ourselves and our status or position to others.  We begin doing this the first time someone compares us to someone else.  It may be a bike race, the height chart on the wall, or any other form of evaluation.  Not to say competition or success are bad things, but early on we are taught to compare ourselves to others.  And naturally, we want to be the best.

Of course there can only be a small handful of ‘best’ people.  There is only one at the top of each list.  And for almost all of us, none are at the top of any of these lists.  In turn our success becomes relative.  We work hard for the next promotion, the bigger house, the nicest yard, the next gadget.  Life too easily can become all about our stuff and how it compares to those in our little worlds.  But all of this is temporary and in the end bring no satisfaction because there is always a ‘next’ thing to buy or to accomplish to keep ahead.

By contrast our faith leads us to consider other before self and to find our contentment in our relationship with our Creator.  Once we understand and know God’s great love for us, we are led to share this love with others.  It is a great gift that compels us to share it with all we meet.  We treasure this gift of live above all else and we want others to experience it as well 

But sometimes the drive for success and the call to love God and neighbor collide.  We ask the question the lawyer asked: am I doing enough?  The harsh reality is that when we ask that question, the answer is almost always ‘no’.  When loving God and neighbor permeate our life, we seldom look within to find ‘success’.  We are simply led to offer all we can to all we can whenever we can.  When we miss an opportunity to do so, we note it and commit to not missing the opportunity the next time.  It is not a competition but a life of service to God and neighbor.  May we live our faith in such a way that we never have to ask that question.  May love always be our guide.


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Patience and Endurance 

Reading: Colossians 1: 9-14

The Colossian church is doing well.  Paul recognizes the growth of their faith and how this is leading to a growth in numbers.  He is proud of this little church that he planted that is continuing to share the gospel.  Paul also hopes and prays for more.  His prayer for them is that they continue to grow in knowledge, that they find strength in God, and that they would have great endurance and patience.

The things Paul hopes and prays for the church in Colosse are the same things we should all pray for for all of our churches.  All churches should be sharing the gospel with the lost in their community to help more and more people to come to know Jesus Christ.  All churches should be filled with members living lives worthy of the Lord, loving and serving all their neighbors.  All churches should be leading their members in spiritual growth.

But in reality, to constantly be focusing on evangelism and growth is difficult.  Sometimes it seems like we are not making any progress.  Sometimes it seems like there is no end to the road.  This is precisely why Paul prays for great endurance and patience.  Paul has been out on the road for a long time, constantly going from one place to the next.  He knows the need for patience and endurance for the long haul.  So he names this need and lifts it in prayer.  It is our need as well.

For the person we have been reaching out to who has not quite said ‘yes’ to Jesus, for the person who seems to desire a relationship with Jesus yet keeps sliding back to old habits, and for the many others who do not have a relationship with Jesus for one reason or another, may we continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them.  May the Lord our God fill us with great endurance and with great patience, so that all may come to know the redeeming love found in Christ. 


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Fruitful Witness 

Reading: Colossians 1: 1-8

The Bible is full of stories of the Word bearing fruit.  The parable of the sower is perhaps the best know story of fruitfulness as it tells of the witness of the believer producing a crop 30, 60, or 100 fold.  In the great commission Jesus compels all disciples to go forth to make disciples of all nations, to grow fruit everywhere we go to spread the kingdom of God.  The Word also speaks of the fruit of our faith in our own lives: peace, joy, patience, kindness,…

Paul opens his letter to the Colossians by commending them for the ways they are being fruitful.  He comments them for their strong faith in Jesus Christ and for the love for one another that grows out of their faith.  Then Paul notes that this love and faith is bearing fruit and growing as others in their community experience these things.  In turn, they are coming to know Christ through the faithful witness of this congregation.  How the Holy Spirit takes the witness to the love and truth of Jesus Christ and causes it to become faith in an unbeliever is one of the great works of God.  There is much rejoicing in heaven each time another accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior!

God’s call to churches everywhere is still the same as we see here in Colossians.  He calls upon us to continue to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.  This includes the corners as well: the neighbor next door, the coworker one cubicle over, the classmate across the lab table…  As we bear witness to our faith in our every day lives we are living out the Gospel and we are planting seeds.  As we practice justice, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, and love we are bearing witness to Jesus.  As we allow the Gospel to bear fruit in our lives we are planting seeds of faith in other’s lives.  May we be fruitful today in our witness and may the Holy Spirit move powerfully in people’s hearts.  May our witness come to bear much fruit for the kingdom of God.