pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!


by Leave a comment

Draw Near

There are two primary factors that define who we are: what we surround ourselves with and what we take into ourselves.  Some of the things we surround ourselves with are the people we spend time with, the places and events we go to, and the activities we engage in.  What we take into ourselves includes the things we read and listen to, the things we look at and watch and surf to, and the conversations we choose to be a part of.  These are all things that influence our decisions and things that become our thoughts, ideas, and opinions.

Our two primary options in what we surround ourselves with and what we take in are God’s wisdom and the world’s wisdom.  If we surround ourselves with immoral people, we tend to do immoral things.  On the other hand, if we choose to surround ourselves with Christian people, we tend to engage in godly activities.  If we spend time in the Word, we are built up and grow in our wisdom of God.  If we instead surf for illicit pictures online, we fill ourselves with lust and evil thoughts.

We face these decisions all the time.  Although God is always pursuing us, so is the world.  Even though the Holy Spirit is right there speaking into our heart and mind, the deceiver is right there whispering in our ear.  We make decisions each day that either draw us closer to God or further from God.  Sometimes the choices to fill ourselves with the things of God and to surround ourselves with others making the same choices are difficult.  God promises to draw near to those who draw near to Him.  Draw near to me today, O Lord.  Draw near.

Scripture reference: James 4: 1-8


by Leave a comment

God’s Wisdom

We as Christians have the opportunity each day to take the wisdom that God offers and to share it with the world.  God’s wisdom is pure and holy, gentle and peaceful, accepting, willing to serve, and is sincere.  When we look at and live out our lives in this manner, not only is our life better, so are the lives of all around us.

When we allow God’s wisdom to be our guide, we build bonds of true community.  Here we grow seeds that will become the fruits of love and harmony and unity.  Living in God’s wisdom allows us to begin to build His kingdom here on earth.

In contrast to and opposing this is the world’s wisdom.  Characteristics like envy, greed, lust, mistrust, and selfishness tear down community and destroy relationships.  They give rise to anger, conflict, disputes, and separation.

As individuals and as communities of faith, we have opportunities to be bearers of God’s ways and wisdom.  We can choose to live lives of mercy, grace, love, compassion, and service.  If this is the ‘flavor’ of our lives, then we in turn will flavor those around us.

In the world there is plenty of negative, plenty of the world’s wisdom.  God’s wisdom can counter this and be a light to all we are in relationship with.  When we allow patience and goodness and righteousness to saturate our entire beings, then these things seep out in to those around us.  May God’s wisdom and love be our guide as we seek to build His kingdom here on earth.

Scripture reference: James 3: 13-18


by Leave a comment

Wisdom

The author of proverbs parallels the characteristics of a noble and good wife with wisdom.  Through the way this wife manages her household and through how she conducts herself, she is revealed as one full of wisdom.  Her wisdom is shown and revealed in how she lives out her life.  The writer knows that the goal cannot be to simply obtain wisdom but that it must make a difference in our lives and that it must be lived out.

Wisdom is to be lived out in several ways.  The wise one goes to work, acts with kindness and common sense, spreads justice and mercy, and serves and honors those around them.  Wisdom cannot be passive but must be active and must engage the world around us.

There is much wisdom in the Bible.  Jesus and many others offered lessons on how we are to live our lives and how we are to live out our faith.  By spending time in the Word, we gain wisdom.  Once we learn something though, it is just the beginning.  It only becomes ‘real’ and useful when we apply it to how we live our lives.  Once we do this, we in turn grow wiser in our daily decisions.  This is one way we allow our light to shine in the world.

We must be in the Word daily.  There we find the gems that help us to walk our path of salvation in a way that is a little more aligned with God’s plans for our lives.  As we gain and live out God’s wisdom, we bring honor and glory to God.

Scripture reference: Proverbs 31: 10-31


by Leave a comment

A Commitment to Delight

“Blessed is he …  whose delight is in the law of the Lord.”  We all want to be blessed, to have a ‘good’ life.  God watches over the faithful, helps us to grow in our faith so that we can bear fruit, and allows us to prosper.  All promises in Psalm 1.  When we are faithful, life is indeed good.

How does one ‘delight’ in the law?  And what is the ‘law’?  Neither term is as simple as it might appear at first glance.  In today’s text ‘delight’ means to value, to take pleasure in, to engage, to wrestle with, and to explore God’s laws.  It is a fullness of our interaction with God.  It is not a sit-on-the-sidelines, one-hour-a-week faith.

The law is traditionally seen as the commandments and other rules that encompass how to live as a good Israelite.  In this context and in our lives, the ‘law’ is so much more.  Here is also encompasses God’s teachings and His direction for our lives.  To fully live into this idea is active and participatory.  Walter Brueggemann said it is to experiment without fear and to try on God’s teachings for size.  It is to learn by doing and to fully throw oneself into wrestling with God’s direction for and intent with our lives.

To grow and bear fruit and to share our faith takes a good deal of effort.  It is a commitment.  To spend time in pursuing God’s vision for our life takes courage and trust.  It is wrestling with, engaging in, and being molded by this into the person God wants us to be.  The promises are great but it does take commitment, trust, courage, and effort.  May we delight in all God offers as we come to be more and more like Christ.

Scripture reference: Psalm 1


by Leave a comment

The Only Way

Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ grim news is understandable.  If we had been training under and serving alongside someone like Jesus for three years, the news that he was going to have to die would be hard to take.  Perhaps we too would have never heard the part that came after “rejected, killed, …”

Peter’s reaction is purely human.  It is where we live most  of our days as well.  Peter did not look far enough ahead and was just concerned with ‘now’ and how not having Jesus around would affect ‘tomorrow’.  We preoccupy and worry over how we fit in, how we are though of, what tomorrow will bring, and so on.  It was hard for human Peter to see divine Jesus’ bug picture.  Sometimes we fail to live with an eternal focus too.  Sometimes our eyes are fixated on the here and now.

Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!”  What a reality check; what a wake-up call.  Imagine of you heard those words spoken to someone in your small group or during a meeting at church.  Imagine if they were spoken to you!  Yet in reality these are words we need to use personally with ourselves all the time.  When we begin to veer off the path or when we go astray or when we just begin to feel temptation, we need to shout these words in our hearts and minds: get behind me Satan!

We are much like Peter.  We live human lives quite often.  We stumble and fall.  Often.  And, like Peter, we too have the cross and the promise of life eternal.  In that cross we seek and find grace and love and forgiveness.  Because of this each day we can deny self, take up our own cross, and seek to follow Jesus.  It is the only way.

Scripture reference: Mark 8: 31-38


by Leave a comment

Revealing Jesus?

In the day people thought Jesus was many things: teacher, prophet, healer.  Some even thought He was the Messiah, the Holy One of God.  Two thousand years later the answers are not all that different: a wise teacher, a good person, a revolutionary hero, a symbolic figurehead.  Some still see Him as Messiah.

In the day those who refused to see Jesus as the Messiah had something to hold on to.  The political and religious leaders had their positions and power to hold on to.  Others had the same things we do.  They and us hold onto our illusion that we are in control, of having time before we really have to commit to this Jesus, or of Him not being the absolute Lord of life.  Like many in the day and like many since then, we yield up some control of our life and offer a level of allegiance to Jesus the Christ.  But we hold onto some ourselves; we are not totally committed.

In the day Jesus’ disciple Peter correctly identified Him as the Messiah but Jesus told them not to tell anyone.  Perhaps the claim of divinity would have been too much right then or maybe some would look to Jesus for political and military leadership.  It was enough at that point for the disciples to know.  Soon many would come to know Jesus as the Son of God.

If one were to simply observe our life and listen in on the conversations we have, would we reveal Jesus as the Messiah?  If we are seeking to draw others to Jesus as Lord, then the answer has to be ‘yes’.  Our lives “reveal” who we ‘say’ Jesus is.  May we live in such a way as to reveal that Jesus is Lord of our life and is a Lord others want to get to know.

Scripture reference: Mark 8: 27-30


by Leave a comment

Guard the Tongue!

As human beings we are created with quick and gifted minds.  We can create and solve and figure out all sorts of imaginative inventions and complex designs and perplexing problems.  We can learn to do many different tasks and hone specific skills.  We can even learn to speak multiple languages.  Our minds are amazing creations.

“No one can tame the tongue” states James.  There are many, many instances each day where we can prove him right.  Sometimes it is us that does so, sometimes we observe others doing so.  The list of words uttered that I wish I had not said is quite a long list.  We all have similar lists.  But if one were to look at the list chronologically, hopefully one would see a pattern emerging.  As one grows in the maturity of one’s faith, you would hope to see increasing gaps between the items on the list.  A growing and developing faith should exhibit itself in how we speak to and treat one another.

James indeed does pose the question of how can we praise God with the same tongue we curse our fellow man.  It is a good question.  The simple and correct answer is that we cannot do this.  But the reality is that we do struggle with controlling our tongue.  Sometimes our amazing brains are too quick and out of our mouths comes something that should not.

At the point of hurting or harming another with our tongue, first we must offer a sincere and humble apology to all offended.  Second, we must look within and go to work at taming the tongue better.  Third, we too must be merciful and gracious when we are stung or hurt.  We are all on the same journey to draw closer and closer to God, to become more and more like His Son, Jesus.  Each day may we guard our tongues so that our light can shine brightest into the world all around us.

Scripture reference: James 3: 5b-12


by Leave a comment

In All we Say and Do

Words can be so powerful.  Just with simple words one can describe a scene in such great detail that you almost can see a snapshot of it in your mind.  Words can also be chosen and delivered carefully for very specific purposes.  With just the right words we can encourage, uplift, and comfort.  In the same way we can edify, strengthen, and build up one another.  Words are powerful.

Each of us can recall times when someone said just the right thing at just the right time.  In those words we found healing or renewal or a lift in our spirit.  We can still remember those words.  In a similar way we each have used our own words to come alongside another in need.  The Holy Spirit often nudges and leads us to these opportunities.  Our role is to be open to the guidance and to be a willing voice.

On the flip side of all of this, the tongue can also be powerful in negative or harmful ways.  James is well aware of the human condition and rightly warns us to be careful with our tongues.  Commentary writer Patrick Harden puts it well: “Sins of the tongue are the hardest to avoid.”  Just as we’ve all been stung or hurt by words, we too have all stung or hurt others.  And in almost every case we have felt the Spirit’s nudge or heard the voice whispering to us to choose a better way.  In our journey of faith, may we learn to follow as led and to heed as warned so that we my bring honor and glory to God in all we do and say.

Scripture reference: James 3: 1-5a


by Leave a comment

Our Rock and Redeemer

God is perfect.  Therefore we find perfection in His laws and in all of His ways.  The psalmist extols the laws’ benefits – it revives the soul, makes the simple wise, and makes the heart rejoice.  Benefits come from living under the law.  The psalmist recognizes his own imperfection and acknowledges that God does not expect perfection from us either.

The ways of God are valuable and important to life.  To the psalmist they are as valuable as pure gold and as sweet as honey.  For us as well there are benefits from following God’s statutes.  They give us both guidance and protection.  Life is smoother and within a peaceful contentment more often when we seek to follow His ways.  Yet we cannot always follow all of His laws and the psalmist admits this as well.

The psalmist goes beyond this admission as he asks God to find his hidden faults too.  The obvious sins are just that.  But we sometimes sin in ways that we do not even realize and he is asking for forgiveness for these as well.  Perhaps these are things like the missed opportunity we did not even see or the words that hurt another unbeknownst to us.  We too need what the psalmist asks for – forgiveness from sins and protection against future sins.

The psalmist closes with a popular and well-known prayer: “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”  Today, may this be our prayer.  May the words in our mouths and in our minds be acceptable to God.  May all of our thoughts and ideas honor God.  And may we find rest, peace, comfort, and love in the Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Scripture reference: Psalm 19: 7-14


by Leave a comment

Amazed by God

The heaven’s declare God’s glory.  The sun and moon and stars reflect His perfect creation and remind us of the vastness of God.  God’s creation reflects a wonderful order and gives us a glimpse of His power.  His fingerprints are all over creation.  His glory is shown from the tiny cells that become a living creature to the beauty and intricacy in a spider’s web.  All that is God created and ordered and breathed life into.

Although none of these things can speak, they each shout forth God’s glory in their own way.  We can hear and see God all around us.  He is present in the sunrise just creeping over the horizon, in the delicate beauty of a new blossom, and in the way a human body functions physiologically.  God is present to us in so many ways.  His divine glory is manifested to us through all that He created and continues to create.

Take time today to be amazed by God.  Sit outside for a bit.  Take a stroll at lunch.  Spend a few minutes out on the deck or porch tonight.  Take some time to hear and see God speak to you through the creation all around you.  Sit in that presence and feel His power and glory within you.  Thank God for the wonderful creation that you are!

Scripture reference: Psalm 19: 1-6