pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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This King

Jeremiah warned the people of the coming doom brought on by their choices.  Their wandering and lack of trust in God’s power and might brought destruction and exile in Babylon.  Jeremiah also planted hope in them: in time the people would return home and find healing and forgiveness.  God is certainly a God whose love never fails.

In Advent we often abandon our wandering ways and again seek to draw close to God.  As we prayerfully wait to celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior, we wait with hope and expectation.  We prepare ourselves for His arrival through a little extra study and prayer so that our heart and soul will be prepared to receive our King.

Jeremiah gave voice to God’s promise to the people headed into exile.  God promised to raise a new branch out of David’s line.  As impending doom lay on the horizon, how distant the glory days of King David must have seemed!  I imagine some even hoped God would intervene with this kind and turn away the Babylonians.  But this new King would be a King of peace and love, not power and might in earthly terms.

This future King would be called the “Lord Our Righteousness”.  This King would be rule with peace, love, and justice.  This new King would deliver and redeem the people not from worldly empires but from the power of sin and death.  This new King would bring lasting peace within all who call on Him as Lord and Savior.  We know this King.  We await this King.  We welcome this King.  As Advent nears, we draw close, we connect to Him again, and we say, ” Come Lord Jesus, come.”

Scripture reference: Jeremiah 33: 14-16


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Time to Prepare

Today’s passage speaks of one of the basic yet most important beliefs of our faith: one day Jesus will return.  In the days right after His resurrection, the disciples all thought His return was imminent.  But as time went by and the disciples’ earthly lives came to a close, the idea of ‘one day’ Jesus will return took on more of a ‘some day’ feel.  Although we are warned that Jesus’ return will be quick and sudden – like a theif in the night – we really do not live a day-to-day faith that reflects this.

With Thanksgiving just a few days away many are gearing up for it.  There are menus to be planned, guest lists to be finalized, things to be prepared, and rooms to be cleaned!  There is a very specific date, very close, so there is some urgency to it all.  And then Friday will be here and that will signal the start of the season to get ready for Christmas.  All we did for Thanksgivign will be repeated plus we will shop for gifts for our friends and loved ones.

Oh ya!  And Advent starts this Sunday.  This too is its own season.  This too is a season in which we prepare for something – the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  In a way it is much easier than Thanksgiving or Christmas to prepare for.  It the personal season in which we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth.  All it takes is a little time and a book or devotional or online resource to focus in on Advent and what the coming of Christ means to our Christian faith.

The time for Jesus’ return is unknown.  Advent is coming Sunday.  It is not quite here, so there is a little time to get ready yet.  May we each choose to carve out a little extra time to prepare our hearts and souls for the coming of the King of Kings.

Scripture reference: Luke 21: 25-36


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A Love to Share

Our minds are capable of learning many things.  In school and in church we are taught a lot.  While in school we aretaught what is factually correct, in church we learn about what is true: Jesus.

In repsonse to Pilate’s questions about what truth is, Jesus responds, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  In His answer Jesus implies that there is a relationship or connection between people who know the truth and Jesus himself.  In order to know the truth, we must listen to Jesus and come to know Him.

We listen and learn by being in contact with the teacher.  Through the written Word of the Bible, through the Word spoken in church, through time in prayer, and through fasting we seek to learn about and grow in Jesus.  Our learning and connection to Jesus is in direct proportion to the effort we choose to put in and to the amount of time we spend with Him.  For example, if all we are willing to give is one hour on Sunday morning then our connection and understanding is less than it could be.  On the other hand, if we also choose to spend time in the Word and prayer each day, what we know as truth will be greater.

As we come to know Jesus more and more, what the truth is becomes clearer and clearer.  As we grow in our love of God, it start to spill out into love of all of God’s children.  This love we share with Jesus becomes a love we share with all we meet.  As we grow into Jesus, our lives are transformed by His truth.  Jesus seeks to transform us so that we become His love poured out daily to all we meet.  This day may His love radiate from us and through us in all we do and may it flow out to all we meet.

Scripture reference: John 18: 33-38


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Disciple: Love

The crowds wanted Jesus to be an earthly King.  The disciples thought they wanted Jesus to be an earthly King.  Those in authority feared Jesus would become an earthly King.  Sometimes I wish Jesus were an earthly King.  But He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Maybe a better way to look at it is His kingdom is IN the world but not OF this world.  The new command He gave was to love one another.  He went on to explain that people would identify His disciples, those in His ‘army’, by the way they radically loved others.  We are commanded to love one another in this world.  But the love is not earthly love.  It is a love that come from Jesus.  He first loved us and calls us to go out and share His love with others.

Jesus’ kingdom is based on His love with a good dose of forgiveness and reconciliation thrown in.  Jesus knew the normal world operated on violence, coercion, force, power, might.  So in living in this world, He knew His disciples would have to back that love up with forgiveness and reconciliation.  A Christian’s mode of operation and response to the world is based on love.  Love can overcome all things, including violence, coercion, …

God invites us to live from His kingdom’s view.  He commands us to love one another.  And as a ‘reward’ He says the world will know we are Christians by our love.  It is an identifier.  It is a choice that makes some wonder what we’ve got, what makes us so different from the world.  May we make many curious today!

Scripture reference: John 18: 33-37


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As Your Child

So often we want to be who we are not.  At times we long to be more that we are or we long for more than we have.  At other times we seek to be less – to not be in the spotlight, to not be in that situation, or to have a little time and space to just breathe and to rest.  Being content with who we are and where we are can be a struggle.

We can also struggle in our role in our relationship with God.  All too often, if not most of the time, I want to be the one in control.  In the deep corners of my heart and mind I really do know that God is the one who is in control.  Yet I have a hard time yielding up all of my life.  In general I am obedient but am not fully obedient.  In almost all ways I trust God but I don’t quite offer all up to Him.

Through Jesus, God demonstrated what it looks like to live as a human fully obedient to and wholly trusting in God.  But this is such a tough example o live up to.  Jesus loved everyone.  To all who came to Him, to allHe encountered, and even to those who challenged or condemned Him – Jesus loved them.  Jesus met everyone right where they were at and did not judge.  He simply ministered to them right where they needed it.  For me it is so hard to enter into a relationship and to serve another without somehow judging them or their situation.

Lord, bring me humility.  Lord, bring me a purer love for my brothers an sisters.  This day may as live and love as Your child, as Your witness of Christ in the world, bringing You all the honor and glory.

Scripture reference: Revelation 1: 4b-8


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Christ’s Witnesses

On our bulletin we have a box listing the staff of the church and on the first line it reads: “Ministers…. The Congregation.”  It is important to define the body of Christ as those whose ‘job’ it is to go forth in ministry to the world.  All Christians everywhere have the charge to go forth into their world to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

The idea that all Christians are part of this work of the church first originated during the Reformation and was referred to as the ‘priesthood of all believers’.  It is not the role of just the pastor or priest, but the role of all believers to be priests in their world by being the witness and presence of God to those in their midst, to their neighbors.

Clergy do have a role to fill.  Those calls to formal ministry must offer the sacraments and must lead, teach, guide, and equip the people of God to be minnisters to their neighbors.  These clergy and the whole body of Christ prays for one another, encourages one another, hold one another accountable, supports one another, and works alongside one another.  All of us together help build the kingdom of God here on earth.

Jesus Christ was and is and is to come.  We, as the priesthood of all believers, must carry His message of love and grace and forgiveness out into a world living in darkness.  As believers we must all be Christ’s witnesses and presence in the world through our words, actions, and deeds.  Today may we represent well.

Scripture reference: Revelation 1: 4b-8


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Promises

In today’s psalm is the root of the promise that our faith rests upon.  God promises David that a descendant of his will always be on the throne of Zion, God’s chosen resting place.  Jesus was the last in David’s human line.  The resurrected Jesus completes the ‘forever’ part of God’s promise as He leads us from beside God’s throne.

In Jesus we see God’s love poured out as He kept this promise.  This should be no surprise as God always keeps His promises.  Just as God chose Zion, through Jesus Christ He chooses you and me as well.  We are each God’s beloved children.  But sometimes we forget that.  Sometimes we turn our relationship with God into a relationship like our other human relationships.  Sometimes our relationship with God digresses to bartering, dealing, if-then statements.  If I go to church, then God will…  If I help my neighbor, then God will…

But God does not promise us an if-then relationship.  He does not love us more or less based on our actions, words, and deeds.  He simply loves us.  He simply loves us.  The gift of salvation offered through Jesus Christ is God’s unmerited, no-strings-attached, free gift to us, His children.

Jesus was and is the embodiment of God’s love.  This is why Jesus brought and offered this gift for you and me.  When we are tempted to slip back into the wheeling and dealing relationship, we must remember Jesus’ example of perfect obedience to the Father’s will.  When we want to pick and choose when to be a Christian, we must remember how Jesus loved all who came to Him, no matter the time of day or season.  And when we question, when we falter, we must remember Jesus’ promise as well: I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

Scripture reference: Psalm 132: 10-18


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Where Is My Place?

God is omnipotent and omnipresent.  He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and is present everywhere, all of the time.  Psalm 139 reminds us that there is nowhere we can go to hide from God – not depths, heights, darkness, or the far side of the sea.  Yet at times we feel separated from God, at times we feel we can hide from God.  At times we feel distant and ask: “Where is God in my life?”  But the real question is: where is my place in God’s plans for my life?

God has promised to always be with us.  In the decision to become flesh, to dwell amongst us as Jesus Christ, God fulfilled His promise completely.  At birth the divine spark is planted in each of us.  This inner light is our connection to God.  For some who never respond and do not enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, the spark is still there, its light shown in the inherant goodness found in all humanity.  For those who do enter into a relationship with Jesus, that light leads us to become the continuing incarnation of God in the world.  We become a part of God’s redeeming work in the world as we extend His presence in the world, just as the Holy Spirit is God’s active presence in us.

Each day we must ask the question: where is my place in God’s plan for my life today?  Through prayer and through time in the Word we connect to God and seek to actively discern where and to whom God is calling us this day.  It is in His presence that we find where He is active in our life and where God is calling us to be active in our world.  This day may we find the time and space to bow down, to worship God, and to to praise our God and may we bring that out into the world with us.

Scripture reference: Psalm 132: 1-10


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Lead Well

“One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is the light of the morning.”  How true this is!  Over the years, rulers such as these have risen up.  People like Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr., come to my mind.  Even though they led through some dark and stormy times, they led well because at their core they were men of God.  In their hearts, a healthy fear of God guided their words, actions, and decisions.  As children of God, His light shone out into that darkness again and again casting rays of love, hope, healing, reconciliation, and forgiveness.  They led through their faith.

We too are each called to be leaders.  We may be leaders of businesses, churches, or schools. We may be leaders of social groups, peers, clubs, or teams.  We may be leaders of our families or friends.  Like these great men, we too are called to lead through our faith.  However large or small our sphere of influence, we are called to fill it with God’s light.  Our dark times or tough decisions might not be on the scale of the great men, but they are of equal importance to the people we lead.

In order to lead well, we must look at what all godly leaders do to lead well.  Whether in good or bad, each day we must begin with prayer and time in God’s Word.  The Word is the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path.  Prayer is where we connect to God and seek His will and way for our decisions.  We must also be attuned to the presence of the Holy Spirit.  We are promised that the Spirit will give us all we need.  Lead well today.  Lead well from a place walking hand in hand with God.  Lead well.

Scripture reference: 2 Samuel 23: 1-7


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For the King

Our world has seen many great leaders.  From men like King David to men like JFK and MLK, Jr., we have seen many great men.  They lived for a period and lead well, but they passed on and history rolled on.  Only one leader has established himself as an eternal leader: Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ example lives on not only in the words of a Bible.  The words of David live on there too.  But through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Jesus remains  alive and present to each of us.  This indwelling of the Holy Spirit allowed His followers to risk all as they moved out into the world to boldly proclaim this risen Son as the way, the truth, and the life.  Only death could silence them and many made this choice.

For His followers today, we still experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  The same Spirit leads and guides and nudges and whispers to us.  It pushes us to live out our faith in the world as a living witness to what Jesus does in our own lives.

We too live with the warning – there may be a little suffering.  Maybe it is a little harassment, maybe a little rejection.  In all cases, God remains present.  The Holy Spirit continues to intercede in heaven and to work within us.  All to share our King with the world.  All to prepare ourselves for seeing Him face to face.  All this for a King!

Scripture reference: Mark 13: 5-8