pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!


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Cry Out, Trust

Reading: Psalm 31: 9-15

Verses 14… 15… and 16: I trust in you O Lord… my times are in your hands… save me in your unfailing love.

Reading verses nine through thirteen one cannot help but to think of Jesus at the end of His earthly life.  His last days certainly contained distress, sorrow, anguish, affliction, contempt, slander, and plotting against Him.  These last days were certainly a trial and struggle for the human side of Jesus.  They would have been for us as well.  Probably moreso.

Each day in our world, there are people who live through these emotions and experiences on a regular basis.  There are places in our world where Christians are persecuted and where life is very difficult because of their faith.  Those living in such conditions need our daily prayers.

There are some in our country that will face trials today because of their faith.  There is the young person whose faith is challenged by the new pressures and pulls of college life.  There is the new believer whose faith is foreign or counter to their family’s belief system.  There is the middle schooler who experiences taunts each day because she prays over her food in the cafeteria.  There is the Dad who just lost his job.  There is the young couple who just lost a child.  This is only a sampling.

Perhaps we are one of those listed above.  Regardless, we all have struggles and trials that we face.  While most of ours and even those listed above pale in comparison to those Jesus faced, they are still very real and front-and-center for us.  They are significant because they affect our lives and our faith.  Just as the psalmist did, just as Jesus did, just as those in foreign land do, just as all other faithful disciples before us did and do, may we too place our hope in God.  May we too cry out, “I trust in you O Lord… my times are in your hands… save me in your unfailing love”.  All like all of these, may His “face shine on you”.


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Obedient Servant

Reading: Philippians 2: 5-11

Verse 5: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ.

Paul open this passage by admonishing us to have the same attitude as Christ had.  It is an attitude that Paul modeled and he is urging his readers to do the same.  This, of course, is the goal of our faith – to become more and more like Christ each day.

In the following verses Paul spells out what it looks like to have the attitude of Christ.  He does so by reminding us what Jesus himself was like.  Christ entered the world by making himself ‘nothing’, taking on the flesh and living as a humble servant.  At the end of a faithful and obedient life, Christ demonstrated the ultimate in obedience as He surrendered to death on a cross.  Because of Jesus’ obedience and faithfulness here on earth, God exulted Him to the highest place in heaven so that at the mention of His name all knees would bow.

Paul had the authority to write of these things and to call the Philippians to live this way because it was the life Paul himself also modeled.  Paul lived as a humble servant and poured himself out so that others could come to know Jesus.  Paul’s radical obedience to the gospel parallels Jesus’ radical obedience to God.  Paul walks the walk that he is calling us to walk.  Paul walked the walk even though he faced much persecution and abuse.  Paul has been ostracized, beaten, whipped, shipwrecked, and imprisoned.  Instead of abandoning or lessening his faith, the trials have strengthened Paul’s faith.  We too experience this same growth and transformation when we take on the attitude of Christ and live with a radical obedience and sure faith.

Ironically, Paul writes this letter calling us to take on and live out the attitude of Christ as a humble servant and obedient believer while sitting in prison.  He has been sent to a Roman prison on trumped up charges.  He sits in jail continuing to do what he does – calling for us to be humble servants and faithful disciples.  Paul sits in jail calling for obedience perhaps knowing full well that he will soon be martyred.  Paul is not afraid or discouraged.  He calls on all other followers of Jesus Christ to do just what he is doing himself – offer a radical way of life to the world as a witness to the Savior we love and follow.  May it be so for us today.


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Comfort and Assurance

Reading: Isaiah 50: 4-9a

Verse 7: Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced.

Israel has been in exile for almost seventy years.  They have been away from the Promised Land and the place they knew and loved lies in ruins.  There does not appear to be any hopes of returning as their time in exile does not have a foreseeable end.  They live in a foreign land among people who worship other gods.  It is easy to see why they might find comfort and assurance in these words from Isaiah.

In this section of Isaiah 50, we read of the presence of God in the servant’s life.  This servant endures suffering, yes, but remains steadfast to God.  This is a good reminder to the people in their situation.  The passage opens with God giving words of hope to the servant.  The word of God spoken to the people throughout their long history also offers hope and reminds the people of God’s love and care for them.  This is a good and timely reminder.  Just as the servant claims it for himself, so too can the people living in exile.  The servant also declares that he has not been rebellious, yet is beaten.  The generation that suffers in exile could relate well to this concept.  It was their ancestors who rebelled and it is now they who suffer.  To be reminded that they are not alone in their suffering brings them some comfort and peace.

The writing ends with a resolution to “set my face like flint”.  The servant knows God is near and he trusts God to vindicate him.  He knows that if God is on his side, in the end, he will not be put to shame.  There is great confidence in God’s power.  He knows that God is in control.  These words would bring hope to the exiles.  Even though they cannot see light or even the end of the tunnel, they are reminded that God has them too.

The people in exile were in need of this reminder of God’s love and care.  After these long years they must have questioned God a bit.  In the servant they are reminded by his example to remain faithful and obedient in spite of undeserved suffering.  Ultimately, they are also reminded of God’s power too.

As Christians reading this passage, one can see Jesus in the words of Isaiah.  Jesus embodied God’s love in human form.  He spoke words from the Father that brought healing to those who were broken and weary.  He was obedient and faithful, even to the point of death on the cross.  Just as the Jews in exile found comfort and assurance in the suffering servant, so too do we find comfort and assurance in Christ.  For His faithful witness that strengthens and encourages us each day, we say thanks be to God.


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Hope, Deliverance, Praise, Joy…

Reading: Psalm 118: 1-2 & 19-29

Verse 24 – This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Today we are blessed to join thousands upon thousands who have read this text and have been lifted by hope or praise or deliverance or joy.  The great cloud of witness that has read this Psalm begins in the earliest days of the Passover celebration, as they celebrated the day the Lord led them from slavery.  This Psalm is still read each year as part of the Passover liturgy.  Fast forward from that first Passover and you will hear these words being read again and again in times of trial and struggle. The Psalm was read often during the exile in Babylon and then in later years under the oppression and persecution of the Romans.  In these times, Psalm 118 brought comfort and reassurance of God’s love and gave them hope for a better future.

This well-known Psalm was used as a part of the Palm Sunday procession as well.  Verse 26 was one of the Old Testament passages shouted as Jesus entered the city.  Early on in the Christian tradition this Psalm took on new meaning as a key Lenten reading.  And certainly this Psalm was on Jesus’ mind as He entered Jerusalem.  He entered the gates in righteousness (verse 19), knowing full well the new meaning of verse 22 – the stone that would soon be rejected.  The light of God was shining upon the people as He joined the festal procession (verse 27).  As Christians today, we remain profoundly connected to the words of Psalm 118.

Verse 24 reads, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”.  Let us rejoice indeed!  Read through this great Psalm again and claim for yourself whatever you need or desire.  If you need deliverance or want to celebrate newfound freedom, read and connect to the earliest traditions of this Psalm.  If you need hope, read and celebrate the love of God that flows throughout this text.  If you are feeling led to lift your praises to God, read the Psalm as those first Palm Sunday participants did, offering praise for God’s presence and blessing.  “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever”.  Amen and amen!


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See the Glory

Reading: John 11: 1-15 & 38-45

Verse 40: Christ said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

In this story about death, the focus is on what Jesus can do for Lazarus and for us.  Although it is Mary and Martha that call for Jesus and it is they who are given the gift of having their brother back, it is Lazarus for whom the significant change has been made.  He was deaf and now lives again.  As the story unfolds and Jesus delays, it is clear that there is more to the story than simply healing or even raising Lazarus from the dead.

God’s plan encompasses all that are present that day to comfort Mary and Martha, the disciples who have come along, and us, the readers.  To see someone walk out of the grave after being dead for four days was a powerful testament to Jesus’ control over all things.  Reading about it thereafter is also a powerful testimony to what Jesus can do in our lives today.  For the people present it was a great showing of the glory of God.  For readers past and present, it reveals that the power of Jesus is not limited by anything – certainly not death.  In the story today, we also gain the understanding that death is not to be feared.

Jesus continues to offer us victory over death.  We will be transformed after we draw our last earthly breath, yes.  In this story and in Jesus’ words “I am the way, the truth, and the life” and “I am the resurrection and the life” we gain an understanding and confidence that death here is not the end but is simply the beginning of our eternal life.

Jesus’ words to Martha ring out to us as well: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God”?  May we hold fast to the faith we profess, rejoicing in the time when we too will see the glory of God.


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Breath and Hope

Reading: Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Verse 14: I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.

Ezekiel is living amongst and speaking to a people living in exile.  They were carried off long ago and feel as if they have been living in exile forever.  The people of Israel cry out, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off”.  There is great sadness in these verses.  It is very difficult to live without hope.

As Ezekiel prophesies, the scattered bones come together as tendon, flesh, and skin covers them.  They are capable of having life now but there is no breath in them.  They are flesh and bone, but that is all.  At this point they represent Israel in exile.  Living but not truly having life can also represent many we know ourselves.  Yes, they are physically alive – they go to work, spend time with their families and friends, maybe even play on your softball team.  But they only know earthly life; they do not know or live for anything outside of the here and now.

For the Israelites in exile, life has become about simply surviving in the day to day.  They are barely getting by.  They feel ‘cut off completely’ from God and all they knew back home.  It is hard to live without hope and they are fast losing hope.  God instructs Ezekiel to prophesy that the breath of God enter the dry bones and flesh so that they would have life.  Ezekiel does this and a vast army arises.  This is the vision Ezekiel brings back to the people living in exile, to a people fast losing hope.  In this, the people know that God has heard their cry and that He will respond.  It brings much needed hope to the nation of Israel.

In a very similar way, we too can offer hope to those we know who are alive but only in the earthly sense.  We too can share the hope that comes when one lives with Jesus as Lord and Savior.  We too can share the joy that comes when the Spirit of God enters our hearts and brings us each the hope of eternal life.  May we each seek to be spreaders of the Word of God to those living in exile, so that they too may know abundant life in Christ in this place and eternal life with Him in the life to come.


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Hope and Restoration

Reading: Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Verse 3: He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live”?

Ezekiel walks and walks amongst​ the dry bones.  There are literally millions of Bones strewn across the valley – enough to make a vast army.  As he walks among the bones, to him they are at first just dry old bones scattered across the valley.  There are no grave markers to identify who exactly is where.  These bones are symbolic of Israel.  The bones and their dryness indicate the state of Israel in exile.  They are long in exile and have lost touch with the faith and with God.  The bones coming back to life and standing as a vast army is symbolic of how God will bring His people out if exile one day and will restore them as a nation.

In sending Ezekiel among the dry bones, God is acknowledging the state of affairs with His chosen people.  All are cognizant that their choices, their sins, have led to where they currently find themselves.  It is what it is.  But in this vision, God is saying, “I am not done with you yet.  This is not the end of the story.  I will restore you.  I love you”.  God see what will be once again.  God wants to share this hope with Ezekiel, His prophet to the people, so that the people can hold onto and look towards hope and restoration.

Isn’t this still the story today?  Isn’t this still the message that all who are ‘dry’ or are out in the valley need to hear today?  There are lots of people who feel lost or not connected to God.  They desperately need the breath of life to breathe into them.  There are lots who feel defeated.  They need God to pick them up, to strengthen them, so that they can stand once again.  There are others who feel that God has forgotten or abandoned them.  They need to be reconnected to the source of life.  There are many who need to hear the story.  There are many.  Who will you share the story if hope and restoration with today?


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Human Yet All-Powerful

Reading: John 11: 1-45

Verses 25a and 26 – I am the resurrection and the life… whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Today’s passage reveals many aspects of who Jesus is.  In each stage of the story, our understanding of Jesus deepens.

In the beginning of the story, we see a Jesus who is intimately connected to human beings.  He did not just dwell here but was connected in human relationships as well.  He is in ministry doing God’s will far away yet these two sisters send for Jesus to come attend to a personal need – their brother and one of Jesus’ close friends is very sick.  These ladies are good friends of Jesus and think nothing of asking Him to drop whatever He is doing to respond to their plea for help.  This connection is again reinforced in verses 35 and 36, where Jesus weeps and those there note how He loved these friends.  Jesus was intimately connected to His good personal friends.

What happens next may at first appear to contradict this.  Jesus does not go right to Bethany.  He stays where He is.  He even reveals after two days that now they can go because Lazarus has died.  Jesus plainly tells the disciples that Lazarus had to die so that all can see Jesus’ glory and can come to believe.  Jesus is acutely aware of the end game.  It must have been hard for the human side of Jesus to allow the grief and pain to come upon His dear friends.  After all, He could have healed Lazarus from afar, from right where He was.  Yet Jesus knew God’s plan and was obedient to it.  Jesus knew that in the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, God’s glory would be revealed and the faith of many would be strengthened and others would come to believe too.  In case this part of the story, we see how Jesus sometimes allows those He loves to walk through the valleys for the purposes of strengthening one’s faith or to help one find faith.  He loves us that much.

As the story unfolds, we see the Jesus who can do anything.  He raises Lazarus from the grave even though he has been dead for four days.  He tells Martha (and us) why: “I am the resurrection and the life… whoever lives and believes in me will never die”.  He is this for us too.  As our journey of faith unfolds, Jesus comes to live more and more in our hearts as our belief in Him grows.  Our human yet all-powerful friend, Jesus, leads us to eternal life as well.  For this great gift of God that we have in Jesus, we say thanks be to God!


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Love and Redemption

Reading: Psalm 130

Verse 7: Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.

Central to Psalm 130 are God’s unfailing love and His endless mercy.  These two characteristics of God are essential to our faith as well.  As the psalmist does, so too must we cry out to God in order to experience and receive His love and mercy.  It is in prayer that we seek these things.  It is through experiencing them in our lives that our relationship with God deepens.

The psalmist first cries out for forgiveness.  In repenting of our sins we come to realize that God offers forgiveness over and over and over.  The fact that no records are kept indicates the unlimited nature of God’s mercy.  It is new every moment.  In experiencing this is our relationship with God, it becomes a part of who we are and it becomes a practice in our lives.  We pray for this each time we pray, “…And forgive us our trespasses (or debts)…”

The psalmist also writes about the next step God takes.  Not only does God forgive us our transgressions, but also redeems us.  The price or cost of our sins is paid for by God.  We do not have to offer up a dove or a young goat.  We do not have to do anything – God simply redeems us through the power of Jesus’ blood.  Like His mercies being new every morning, we too are made new – pure and holy – through His redemption.  We also take this practice and make it part of our life.  We too love one another in this model, keeping no record of wrongs, wiping the slate clean, forgiving 70 times 7 times.

The key to living in God’s unfailing love and full redemption is our response.  Do we simply enjoy these blessings or do we go forth into the world to share them with others?  As we experience these two great characteristics of God, may we go forth with God’s character as our character, extending love and mercy and forgiveness and redemption to all we meet.  In this way, others will be drawn to the source of these things in us.


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Controlled by God

Reading: Romans 8: 6-11

Verse 6: The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.

Paul establishes an either/or situation in today’s reading.  Either we are controlled by the Spirit or we are controlled by the flesh.  Either we submit to God’s ways or we pursue our sinful nature.  Either we are alive as Christ dwells in us or we are destined for death.  Either we are filled with God’s peace or we are hostile to God.  Paul is drawing some clear distinctions.

For Paul, being a part of God’s family was a universal invitation.  He did not see any limitations on who could live in covenant relationship with God.  It was not by birth that one gains access.  This remains true today – some born into a “Christian home” never find a faith of their own and others raised in a secular home come to a deep faith.  Paul also saw no barriers in regards to race or ethnicity or nationality or status or anything else one could name.  We also see this today.  Jesus’ mandate to “make disciples of all people of all nations” has brought the gospel all around the world.

There are many, many people today who are active participants in fulfilling the great commission of Jesus.  While some are in far away places bringing the Word of God to every tribe and tongue, most of us operate in a much smaller, more local context.  While our prayers may go far and wide for the work of the church universal, our actions and words most often impact those close at hand.  Those affected can be family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, and even strangers.

When our “mind is controlled by the Spirit”, we exhibit a life of peace and love and hope.  When we are filled with the Spirit, our lives are different than those whose live by the flesh.  We do not chase after the things of the world because the Spirit helps us and leads us to trust in and to rest in God.  We live life longing for and trusting in an eternal time when we will forever dwell in the light and love of Christ.  The day to day of this life is small change.  We are not held captive to but are set free from the power of sin and death that so easily entangles the world.  We follow God’s ways and offer love and hope and peace to the world.  This day may our lives be a living testimony to the power and presence of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit within us, drawing others into the kingdom of God.