pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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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.


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Unending Love, Amazing Grace 

Reading: Amos 7: 10-17

Can you remember getting in trouble when you were little?  When we were first learning to follow the rules often there were times when we simply felt that the rule did not apply to us or that the rule was wrong.  The ‘rules’ and following them were outside of our own little world.  Sad thing is that this is still occasionally the case for us in adulthood.  The pull of what we want outweighs what we see as the immediate consequences and we stray outside the lines.

King Jeroboam had strayed outside the lines.  The king and the nation of Israel have engaged in sinful living.  They have oppressed the poor, worshiped false gods, and no longer follow God’s laws.  Earlier in the book of Amos, God had issued a call to repentance through the prophet.  The king and people ignored it.  Even after God has threatened to destroy the kingdom and to send the people into exile, Israel continues to live in sin.  Because of their great self-centeredness, they angrily refuse to be accountable to God and they tell Amos to go away.

Can you recall a time when you were enjoying life just a bit too much?  Can you remember a time when you justified a poor choice or behavior because you were enjoying the results or the outcome?  At times and in seasons of our faith it can be all too easy to get off track and to find ourselves where we should not be.  Despite nudges to repent from the Holy Spirit and calls from friends and family, we struggle to break free and step back inside of God’s love and guidance.

But God continues to work on our hearts and our family and friends pray and keep trying to hold us accountable.  We come to see our sin and repent.  God, in His unlimited love and grace, pours out forgiveness and we are restored to a right relationship with Him.  Our sin is wiped away in the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ.  We are humbled by God’s amazing grace and unending love.  We find ourselves transformed and have grown in our faith.  As a new creation in Christ we are ready to again live as a child of God.  We look back and wonder how we ever got ‘there’.  We promise to never go there again, but Satan does not give up.  Sin and temptation never go away.  Yet we also know that God is greater than he who is living in this world.  His amazing grace and unending love will always triumph.  For this we shout, thanks be to God!!


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God’s Will

Reading: Amos 7: 7-9

Visions are not something we are too accustomed to today.  But in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament, visions were one of God’s methods of communication with His people.  Visions often came through prophets in the Old Testament and through the apostles in the New Testament.  In today’s reading the prophet Amos is receiving a vision from God.  As was the case with many of the visions, here God is giving Amos the vision to try and get Israel back in alignment with God.  Visions, this one included, also often lay out the consequences of continuing to live outside of a right relationship with God.

In these verses God tells Amos that He will “set a plumb line among my people Israel”.  Plumb lines are used to keep a wall true or straight while you are building it.  It is a way to make sure all is right and correct.  Here God is using the metaphor as a means of judgment as He goes on to say, “I will spare them no longer” and then describes their downfall.

Today we might not receive many visions, but for a follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit works much the same way.  The Holy Spirit speaks into our lives, prompting us to reach out here, to offer of ourselves there, not to do that or go there.  The still, small voice keeps us in alignment with God’s ways and purposes for our lives.  And much like a vision, the Spirit also warns us of the dangers of temptation and sin while also reminding us of the consequences of choosing to live outside of a right relationship with God.

Thousands of years later God’s desires for His people has not changed.  God desires for each of us “to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).  Each day, as we seek God’s will and purposes for our lives, may we seek these things as we live out our faith wherever God sends us.


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Loving the Other

Reading: Psalm 82

Our walk of faith is a constant balance between God and self.  God calls us to the life of a servant.  Our human nature beckons us to meet our every want and need before looking outside of ourselves.  In our reading from Psalm 82 we are reminded of God’s call on our lives: defend the weak and the fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and the oppressed; rescue the weak and the needy; and, deliver these from the hand of the wicked.  God’s desire is for all Christians to engage those on the margins and to include them in His love and blessings so that the kingdom of God can draw ever nearer to being a reality here on earth.

Although God calls us to walk alongside those in need we often find it hard to do.  Some of the time we do see a need but do not even know how to begin.  We feel a compassion and a tug on our heart to engage, but we do not know the first step to take.  If we turn to scripture we see an example.  Jesus engaged each person He encountered by first meeting them right where they were at.  In doing so He could discern and then address any needs that He could.

In other cases we choose not to engage even though we feel the Holy Spirit tugging at our heart.  Most often we rationalize it away – I am too busy, I can’t really help, it won’t make a lasting difference.  Unfortunately, when we choose to ignore or push away the call we feel to help another in need, then we are becoming a part of the problem, just one more person ignoring God’s call for justice, compassion, equality, deliverance, and salvation.  Fortunately, God does not ever stop calling us.  God will continue to place person after person, opportunity after opportunity before us.  For this I say thanks be to God!  May we, as agents of God’s love, make the choice this day to begin to care for and attend to the least, the lost, and the last.  Each day may we bring God’s love to the other.


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Step Forth Boldly

Reading: Luke 10: 16-20

In a way Naaman and the 72 are opposites.  Naaman loads up the treasure to pay for his healing and heads off to find the man of God.  The 72 go out with nothing, taking the word of God, empowered by Jesus, to give away healing and hope.  In Naaman is healed, he may be drawn near to God.  The 72 are going out to bring the kingdom of God near to all people.  Even to those who reject the Prince of Peace, the disciples proclaim that He is near.  Too many of today’s Christians and too many of our churches today are more like Naaman, seeking to get something from God instead of striving to offer God to others.

Earlier in Luke 10 Jesus stated the reason for sending out the 72: “the harvest is plentiful”.  It is certainly plentiful today as well!  The disciples trusted in Jesus’ power and stepped out boldly to heal the sick and to proclaim that the kingdom of God was drawing near.  At first they must have been way outside their comfort zones.  Naaman too must have wondered a time or two what in the world he was doing as well.  But God rewarded their faithfulness.  Both the 72 and Naaman experienced firsthand the simple power of God to bring healing and to know personally how impactful the kingdom is in their lives.

Jesus calls on us today in the same ways.  Trust in Him and in His power to guide us.  Rely on Jesus alone.  Go forth and trust in the Lord of the Harvest.  May we too boldly step outside of our comfort zones, trusting that God will lead.  Through our simple faith, may we this day bring the kingdom of God near.


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Fully Trust

Reading: Luke 10: 1-11

For most of us, when we wake up in the morning, we know what our day is going to look like.  We tend to be creatures of habit, creatures of routine, creatures of schedules and lists.  We tolerate interruptions to our day fairly well if we perceive them as something good.  Not to say we plan every second, but we do not like the unknown too much and we feel more in control when we plan, organize, and prepare.  For as long as mankind has walked the earth, this has been true.  Societies like order, law, and norms; this is a reflection of who we are as individuals.

Step into the shoes of one of Jesus’ disciples.  He seems to be a wanderer of sorts.  He seems to get up every morning and goes where He is led.  You wake up in Jericho but may not go to sleep there.  The day begins heading toward Bethlehem but you end up in Bethany.  At first it was a little uncomfortable and disconcerting just going wherever.  But over time you’ve come to see that no matter where you are or who us around, Jesus seems fully in control.  You seem to usually get fed and there is almost always a roof over your sleeping spot.  Over these months you’ve really come to trust in Him and to rely on Him for, well, for everything.

Then one morning you get up and gather around for the usual morning devotional.  You smile because today you see Jesus is leading the devotional time.  But today, instead of teaching Jesus gives instructions.  He says we are to go out two by two, by ourselves.  We are to try and bring His peace into the towns and villages that He will soon come to.  We are to preach that the kingdom of God is drawing near.  We are to heal the sick.  What?  Heal the sick?  He goes on – take nothing with you.  Nothing.  Jesus says we are to rely on those we go to for food, shelter…  Then He says, “Go!”

Jesus was calling on the disciples to trust Him.  He told them that He will still be with them even though He is not physically present with them.  Jesus tells them that they can go out and do what He has been doing because He is empowering them to go forth in His name to proclaim the good news and to bring healing to people’s brokenness.  Jesus is calling them to trust fully in Him.

What lies ahead for us today?  What all is on our to-do list?

Maybe not today because it’s already planned, but one day soon, may we each do what those first disciples did.  May we wake up and go out into our communities and neighborhoods, taking nothing but Jesus with us, but fully trusting in Him to lead and provide.  May we fully trust in Jesus Christ on that day.  It is a start.


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Reaping Good, Always

Reading: Galatians 6: 7-16

Paul opens this section if his letter to the Galatians with two key points.  The first is that we reap what we sow.  The second is that we must not grow weary of doing what is right.  While these two ideas are directly related, each point of emphasis has its own challenges.

We have all experienced the ‘reap what you sow’ concept both with the good we do and with the evil we allow into our lives.  When we sow good into the world, we so often receive good in return.  For example, when we serve a meal at the local mission, it is good but we are usually the ones mist blessed by it.  On a more basic level, when we are kind and loving towards our fellow man they tend to be loving in return.  On the other end of the spectrum, when we sow evil by allowing greed, anger, gossip, gluttony, … into our lives, then we hurt both others and ourselves.  It is a hard road to only sow good with Satan and his emissaries always working to tempt us.

Paul’s second point is to not weary of doing what is right.  As Christians our natural bent in life is to do what is right in the world.  It is the example set by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Our natural disposition as disciples is to be a servant to those in our lives.  Jesus calls for us to die to self so that we can better see the needs of others and to act accordingly.  For me this us easiest when the task is simple.  I could help an elderly woman to her car with her groceries all day long.  The challenge comes when there is risk to ourselves in serving another or in correcting a wrong that is occurring.  It can be hard to do what us right over and over.  Like Peter we ask, ‘how many times?’ – how many times must I forgive them?  How many times must I help the same person?  Jesus’answer was a simple ‘forever’ – just as long as God will forgive and love us.  Just as long.

May we find strength, grace, love, forgiveness, and encouragement in our saving relationship with Jesus Christ so that we may reap good to build His kingdom here and so that we may not grow weary in our own pursuit of His kingdom in our lives.


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Salvation and Love

Reading: Galatians 6: 1-6

In Galatians Paul is writing to a church that is beginning to fracture from within.  From the outside the people are seeing the church as contradictory and unattractive.  Over the many years since this has been a frequent occurrence.  As time rolls along we just find different things to fight about while the secular world usually watches with held breath.

The Galatian church was basically arguing over membership requirements.  Those with Jewish roots were arguing that all makes must be circumcised and that the Torah Law must be followed.    To these folks one must become a good Jew before one could become a Christian.  This ‘follow all our rules so you can be just like us’ attitude is nothing new.  There was a time when women had no voice and later no leadership roles in the church.  There was a time when all of the churches were very homogeneous and races and ethnicities did not mix.

On the other end of the spectrum Paul found those who did and allowed almost anything.  Under the beliefs that God alone should judge and that God is all about love, they were living lives without any constraints.  As long as they did not harm others with their actions they thought God would forgive anything.  This approach, if taken just one step further, can have disastrous results.

Paul counseled a middle ground.  He first established that salvation comes only through the saving work of Jesus on the cross.  There is no rule we can follow and no action we can take to save ourselves.  Following all the rules and laws in the world will not save us.  Doing good act after good act all the days of our lives will not save us.  We are saved through faith in Christ alone.  Paul also balanced this with Christ’s guidelines for our life. We are to daily take up our own cross to follow Him.  We are to do the things Jesus did: love God above all else, love neighbor as self, serve all of our brothers and sisters as living sacrifices.  Paul believed that out of the saving relationship we find through Christ that we would be led to live as Christ lived.  This day may we each take up our cross and follow in Jesus’footsteps, being love lived out to our God and to all we meet.