pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Author Archives: pastorjohnb


by Leave a comment

Holy One of God

In communion we remember Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection to the Father.  In the sharing of the meal we use the bread and the juice (or wine) to remind us of the physical sacrifice that gave us spiritual life.  In communion we celebrate the fact that Jesus is still present with us and still offers Himself daily.

The day after the miracle of feeding the 5,000 the crowd gathers again.  Jesus senses that they came not to believe in Him but simply to get another free meal.  So He calls them on it.  After this “hard teaching” many turn away and leave Jesus.  The masses do not understand what is really being offered.

Sometimes in the celebration of communion we miss the significance too.  It can be all ritual and no connection.  The outpouring of the confessions of our heart should be deep and passionate.  It should mirror what Jesus did for us.  It should not simply be bread and juice.  In communion, Jesus awaits us in Spirit; in the act of communion we should expect to meet Jesus there.

After many leave and fall away, Jesus asks the disciples if they are leaving too.  Sometimes I sense Jesus asking us the same question.  Peter answers for the group: “Lord, to whom would we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”  His confession is still true today.  There is no one else to turn to.  Jesus alone offers eternal life.  When we waver, when it appears that we are beginning to turn away, may we recall Pater’s confession and return to the giver of life, Jesus Christ.

Scripture reference: John 6: 56-69


by Leave a comment

Finding Rest

“How lovely is Your dwelling place O Lord Almighty!”. Like the psalmist we too long and almost faint to be in God’s presence.  ” Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.”. Again, like the psalmist, we too are blessed when we rest in God.

Sabbath – the idea of resting for a day, in His presence, to be renewed and refreshed both physically and spiritually.  To almost all Christians, we look at the idea of Sabbath as an ideal place, far, far away.  It is far away because of the schedules we keep and because of the demands we place or allow upon our time and upon ourselves.  I am as guilty as anyone.

A man in our small group shared yesterday that he had been keeping the Sabbath for a while now.  After church he goes home and does no work.  The yard, the chores, the cleaning all get done on days other than Sunday.  He shared that his time of rest and time with God really does renew and refresh him.  Sounded like a day he guards pretty closely.  I am kinda jealous.

In order to give God a day requires trusting Him.  He is in control – do we trust Him like we believe He is in control?  It also requires some planning and effort on our part because the yard, the laundry… all need to get done.  We do have a hand in allowing ourselves the Sabbath.

If we can set aside a day for Sabbath, we will find joy and pleasure resting in God.  We will be renewed by our time in His presence.  We will be more connected to our Creator.  Reports are this one day makes the other six so much better.  This week, may we all find our Sabbath.

Scripture reference: Psalm 84: 1-3 and 6-12


by Leave a comment

Pray Always

Prayer is an integral part of our faith.  Paul encourages us to “pray on all occasions” and to always be lifting one another up in prayer.  Prayer strengthens both our faith and our connections to God and to one another.

Each Sunday we lift up in prayer the joys and concerns that people share on prayer cards.  Those in worship are encouraged to pray for these folks during the week ahead.  These requests and others that are received by e-mail are sent out each week to the prayer chain – a group of people who pray for these individuals during the week.

Because people share their prayer requests, there is a greater sense of care and concern within the body of Christ.  People ask one another how things are going, ask if there is some way they can help, and so on.  These interactions and the accompanying stories of how God has worked through prayer serve to illustrate how God is active in our lives bringing healing, lifting our burdens, and extending grace.  To share and talk about God’s presence and activity in our world builds us up in our faith.

Paul’s words to “pray on all occasions” can be put to good use with perfect strangers as well.  One can offer prayer for the police officer each time you pass by one driving in your car.  One can offer up a pray for the person who passes by in the ambulance or even as you hear the siren.  One can offer a quick prayer for the mom or dad struggling with their child in the store.  You can also easily be direct with your prayers.  If you encounter a harried grocery clerk or bank teller or gas station attendance, you can offer to pray for them.  Here too we can see God at work in powerful ways.

God so wants to be connected to us.  Prayer is our best opportunity to connect with Him.  So do pray often and on all occasions.   His ear is always open!

Scripture reference: Ephesians 6:18


by Leave a comment

Trust and Praise

In the beginning, when all of humanity consisted of Adam and Eve, God gave them everything they needed.  They walked in His presence.  All God wanted was their trust and their praise.  All was good until they were misled and came to question what God had said.  They disobeyed one of God’s commands and sinned, breaking trust and creating separation.

Since then mankind has been living along the continuum between trusting God and doubting God, between praising Him and being separated from Him.  When we are living in covenant relationship with God, we trust in Him and praise Him for all of the ways in which He blesses, guides, and provides for us.  When we sin, we reveal a lack of trust in God and we turn away instead of praising Him and connecting with Him.  Life is so much better when we are living in connection with God, but we are sinful creatures and sometimes we fall to temptation.

The psalmist reminds us that we are blessed when we dwell in His house and that we find strength in Him.  When we are here we are ‘ever praising’ and our ‘heart is on a pilgrimage’ to draw closer to God.  In turn, the psalmist declares that God is then our sun and shield and that God bestows favor and honor on those who trust in Him.

God is indeed trustworthy and deserves our praise.  We can trust Him because He loved us enough to make us in His image.  We can trust Him because He does provide for our needs.  We can trust Him because He sent His only Son to pay the price for our sins.  We can trust Him because He loves us enough to prepare a place for us in eternity.  Praise be to our God!

Scripture reference: Psalm 84: 4-5 and 11-12


by Leave a comment

Why Church?

Those that sat in a sanctuary or some other place of worship yesterday made a choice to be there.  They got up, got ready, and came to church.  For many it was just like most other mornings, except they went to church instead or to work or school.  For some, they fought through something that was heavy upon their hearts like depression or grief or some issue at home or work or school and came to church.  For others, they had to fight the kids or their spouse or significant other, but they came too.

Some that came weighed their options – golf or fishing or hiking, or sleeping in , or yard work, or … – but decided in favor of church.  Some also pondered these things and decided not to come to church.  To be honest, there were some in  the other groups who came to church who would not have if the choice was fully theirs.

This all leads to the basic question: why do we go to church?  The answer is not tradition or because we are supposed to or because there is nothing else to do.  It is not to check off a box or to avoid questions later at the family gathering or to gain some social standing for being a church goer.

When Solomon built the temple and had the ark of the covenant brought up to Jerusalem to be in the temple, something amazing happened.  The Most Holy Place filled with a cloud.  The temple became filled with the presence of the most high God.  He was there in that place.

While it is true that God is everywhere, we find that in church we most often encounter the presence of the living God.  It is in the settings of community and in corporate worship that He is present.  When we gather to sing and praise His name, to spend time in prayer and in the Word, to confess and be made right with our God, it is then that He is present.  To be in the presence of the almighty God, this is why we go to church.

Scripture reference: ! Kings 8: 1, 6, and 10-11


by Leave a comment

Drawn to Jesus

Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me.”  When we come to accept Christ as Lord and Savior, it is not any person or their words that accomplishes the conversion within; it is the sole work of God.  Through our words and actions we can share Jesus, but it is God alone who can enter the heart and soul of a person to change that person forever.

Jesus goes on to say, “He who believes has everlasting life.”  Once God changes our heart and we are “born again” then the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and we then live with an eternal framework.  Our eyes are ever bent on heaven and the promise of eternal life with Christ.  Gradually our focus shifts away from the things of the world and our focus becomes more on the things of God.

We will still have moments when our vision becomes a little cloudy and we lose sight of God’s promises.  Sometimes these are even seasons.  Yet because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we will always be drawn back to our relationship with Jesus through God.  The love we find in Christ will always be what draws us back to Him.

When we allow the Father to draw us back to Jesus we experience redemption and we are made new again in Christ.  The grace and mercy and compassion that flows down upon us through His love and forgiveness is amazing.  Our grateful response to this is a burning desire to share the good news with others.  Such a wonderful gift is intended for all the world.  Through our story, through our lives, through our witness, the life and message of Jesus Christ must go out to all the world.  It is the plan.

Scripture reference: John 6: 41-51


by Leave a comment

Giving and Receiving

Faith is meant to be lived out in community.  It is in the wider community of the world that we come to interact with people to share our faith.  Within our churches we also have a community.  It is in the fellowship of believers that we grow and develop in our faith.  It is from this smaller community that we go forth into the world.

Life is about giving and receiving.  In life we will all have situations where we can offer of ourselves to others.  We will also have times when we are in need and others will give to us.  This give and take is what it means to live in community as brothers and sisters in Christ.  It is about being filled and being emptied.

It is often through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we are filled.  He is the bread of life and the living water.  All who come to Him will never be hungry and will never thirst.  At times we need to be filled by Christ.  His table is always open for us to come, to connect with His Spirit, to be filled with His love.  Others in our community of faith can also fill us up and build us up.  This is just one reason community and relationships are so important to our faith.

It is from our community of faith and through our relationship with Jesus that we go forth into the world to answer our call to make disciples of all nations.  This is most often done in small, personal ways.  It is both giving generously of ourselves to meet the needs of another and also graciously welcoming another when they give to us.  Christ must be lived out in all of our relationships so that the light shines into the darkness and overcomes it.  It is in the light that we walk.  It is the light that draws others to Christ.

Scripture reference: John 6: 35


by Leave a comment

Trust It to the Spirit

We are called to give ourselves as a “fragrant offering” as we live out a life of love.  The scriptures call us to love and give of ourselves as Jesus did.  As I think of what this means, my mind comes to the Christ who accepted all.  He took all comers no matter their station in life of the condition of their soul.  Whomever Jesus crossed paths with, He loved and gave of himself.

But, to be honest, sometimes I struggle with who God puts before me.  In some cases I judge too quickly and that makes it hard for me to fully hear their story and to then offer all I can.  In other cases I feel inadequate to offer anything because the situation seems so overwhelming and daunting.  It can be hard to engage when my limited faith leads me to feel I am an insignificant, small part of a solution.

I must remember that our hope and life is tied to God.  Nothing is dependant on me.  God is a god that can do anything.  Our God is love unending and life eternal.  When we offer ourselves, fully believing these truths, then we too can be a fragrant offering to all we meet.  We must faithfully offer all that we can when we can and trust the rest to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Even Jesus did not have instant success all the time.  The rich young man walked away.  Maybe the Holy Spirit continued to roll Jesus’ words around in his heart and maybe he changed.  He healed ten lepers and only one returned to offer thanks.  It took Nicodemus a late night visit and some time but eventually he came to believe in Jesus.  Many of his fellow Pharisees did not.  We will encounter people just like all of these.  Their conversion is not in our hands.  In all cases we must love and offer of ourselves.  Our God is big.  No one is beyond His reach.  We must do as we can and trust the rest to the work of the Holy Spirit and to God.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 5: 1-2


by 1 Comment

Expressions of His Love

The journey of faith is a journey to grow more and more like Christ.  It is a journey that seeks to emulate the One who was without sin.  Our pursuit of being made into the image of Christ is an endless pursuit.

Paul reminds us today that we are to act toward one another as Christ acted toward us.  We are to treat one another in love.  We are to offer of ourselves.  We are to forgive freely.

Paul offer us a list of ‘don’ts’ followed by a ‘why’.  Don’t speak lies – speak truth to strengthen the body of Christ.  Don’t sin in anger – keep Satan at bay.  Don’t steal – work so that you have something to offer those in need.  Don’t talk coarsely – speak good things to build one another up.  Each ‘why’ is how we can become more like Christ.

Ultimately though, we will say unkind things, we will allow sin into out lives, we will take from others.  Out of His great love for us through, Jesus has paid the price for our sins.  Through His death and resurrection Jesus offers us forgiveness.  This wonderful grace of God makes us new every moment.  This deep love that God has for us is what draws us to faith.

As we continue to grow in Christ, our faith becomes more and more evident in how we talk, in our actions, and in how we live our lives.  All of these things are expressions of Christ’s love alive in us.  Today, may we grow to be more and more like Christ through how we love those we meet.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 5: 25-32


by Leave a comment

All the Time!

Being grateful for all of God’s blessings makes such a difference in our lives.  Every day, as part of my morning ‘routine’, I write in my ‘thanks journal.’  I write down at least five things I am thankful for from the day before and lift up a little prayer of thanksgiving to God.  It is important to me to recognize all God does for me.

In hospitals and hospice care they asses a person’s spiritual vitality by measuring the patients’ gratitude towards God.  Psychologists have identified gratitude as a powerful force in the lives of people who are healthy and resilient.  When one is truly thankful for the things one has in life, it shows in their attitude.

In life all is not roses.  Trials and sufferings will come.  These things are inevitable.  They are a part of life.  As with the Psalmist, we too know God is with us in both the good and the bad.  In the bad, God offers us relief from all sorts of suffering and oppression.  When we experience God’s liberation, or response is grateful praise.  The psalmist wrote, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  When we have an attitude of gratitude it is natural to want to share how good God is with others.

When our normal mode of operation is to recognize God as the giver of all good things, then we know Him as good and through this can better weather life’s storms.  In these times of trial we can go to God for peace, comfort, strength, … in prayer, in reading His Word, in worship.  When we know the Lord is good through our daily practice of gratitude, the darkness is not as deep and we know there is His light at the end of the trial.  God is good.  When we live and acknowledge this often, we are blessed by His presence all of the time, in both the good and the bad.

Scripture reference: Psalm 34: 1-8