pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: action


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Caught Up in Conflict

Reading: Exodus 17: 5-7

Verses 5 and 6: Walk on ahead of the people… I will stand there before you.

At times we have all experienced flaps and disagreements in our churches.  Generally speaking these conflicts are not over large theological issues.  These issues, for the most part, have been hashed out and settled as the different denominations have formed and defined themselves.  Today the conflicts tend to center around personal preferences and choices.  But some of the conflicts center around important and path-altering issues or decisions.  Such is the conflict Moses faces today, at least on the surface.

The central issue is the lack of water for the people and the livestock.  Water is an essential of life so it is a need, not a want or a personal preference.  But the issue is brought forth with much grumbling and a bit of complaining.  It is not an open and honest conversation.  Couched within the need is a questioning of both Moses’ leadership and God’s care for the people.  Conflict often has multiple layers to it.

Moses has some options on how he could handle the situation.  At first one can read some frustration into his words with God.  Moses could go to the grumblers and react back out of his emotional hurt.  But this does no good so he instead seeks out the one who can give him a little guidance and some empathy.  Moses turns to God and God gives him guidance, directions, and reassurance.  God instructs Moses to “walk on ahead of the people”.  He is instructed to take some elders along – wise and trusted leaders, not the grumblers.  ‘Gather some support around you’ is what God is saying here.  God then says, “I will stand there before you”.  God will be there with Moses.  Then strike the rock and water will pour out.  God will meet the need and He will be present for Moses, bringing him reassurance as God reinforces Moses’ leadership role.

Moses’ example gives us good steps to follow when we feel caught up in conflict.  Don’t take it personal, seek God as trusted friend and guide, proceed forward in God’s presence.  Doing so, we know that God is in our thoughts and decisions and that God is in control.


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Tell

Reading: Psalm 105: 1-6

Verse Two: Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts.

The opening verses to Psalm 105 encourage us to sing our praises to God for all that He has done for us in our lives.  It encourages us to make known to all the nations what God has done.  The psalmist reminds us that the great works of the Lord bring rejoicing and to look to the Lord always to find strength.  It is a wonderfully encouraging opening few lines to a great Psalm of praise.

Remembering and singing of God’s actions in our lives serves two main purposes.  The first is to strengthen and increase our own faith.  When we joyously praise God for all He does for us, then we are reminded of His great love for each of us.  This, in turn, deepens our love for Him.  If we make a regular habit of joyfully thanking God for those times when He was very present to us, they also more readily come to mind in our trials, bringing us a strength and a peace.

The second purpose is evangelism.  These stories of God in our lives that have strengthened and encouraged us and that have helped us mature in our faith are a huge part of our own personal God story.  In answering the Great Commission, Jesus’ call to each believer to share the good news, our God story is the center piece.  Yes, we need to tell of Jesus’ life and teachings and witness, of the gifts of grace and mercy and forgiveness and eternal life, and of the power Jesus had over sin and death.  But we must also tell the story of how God makes a real difference in our lives.  Each of our unique stories of God’s hand at work in our lives will help others to see how God can also bring them the hope, strength, peace, love, mercy, forgiveness, … that they so desperately need.

This day and every day, whether in voice or in deed, may we each, “Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts”, bringing God all the glory and honor.  Amen!


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Soil, Seed, or Sower?

Reading: Matthew 13: 18-23

Verse 23: Good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it.

In our passage, Jesus explains the parable of the sower.  He is providing ‘ears’ so we can ‘hear the word and understand it’.  It is not really just an agricultural lesson!  Application comes in seeing how or where we fit in the story.  So… soil, seed, or sower?

We most easily see ourselves as the soil and hopefully as the good soil.  As followers of Jesus Christ we all want to be receptive to and to understand His Word.  Most of the time we are good soil.  But not always.  Don’t tell me your mind hasn’t wandered during the message or during your quiet time!  The concerns of life and the distractions of the world make us all thorny soil sometimes.  At other times we can be rocky soil – where we receive the Word but allow something else to quickly crowd it out.  Sometimes we are hard as the path – allowing our anger or heartache to be a wall between us and God.

Next we see ourselves, at times, as the sower.  I think we all want to be seen as Christians in our day to day lives.  We want to be the light and love of Jesus out there in the world.  We want to be “the only Bible some people will ever read”.  At times our actions also require words.  We stop and share a prayer and some words of encouragement with a co-worker or friend we know is struggling or hurting.  We offer words of hope and trust with the meal w bring to our neighbor in a time of crisis.  We are prepared to tell of the good news of Jesus Christ when someone asks about the peace and joy that we have in our life.

We are seeds in this sense too – our witness is what plants the seeds of faith in others.  Living as a Christian, we should constantly be dropping off seeds in people’s lives, seeds that the Holy Spirit can bring to life.  By action, word, and deed our faith is seeds being planted in other people’s hearts and minds.

Soil, seed, or sower?  All three!  May we ever be willing servants of our Lord and Savior – hearing, sharing, and planting each day.


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Love, Obey Too

Reading: John 14: 18-21

Verse 21:  Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

Jesus follows up His promise of the Holy Spirit with more words of reassurance in today’s passage.  The opening line reveals the intimacy and the depth of love that Jesus has for the disciples.  He tells them, “I will not leave you as orphans”.  They are family.  They are very closely connected together.  Jesus knows how incredibly difficult the next few days and weeks will be for the disciples.  These men left everything to follow Jesus.  And soon He will be physically gone.

“I will come to you”, He tells them.  Jesus reveals that the world will not see Him anymore, but that His followers will see Him again.  The risen and resurrected Christ will indeed visit the disciples and will be present with them.  They will know beyond any doubt that death could not hold Jesus.  He will talk and even eat with them.  “On that day” Jesus says, the disciples will realize fully that Jesus is in the Father and that they are in Jesus and Jesus is in them.  They will know the connection between God and Jesus and themselves.  They will know they belong to and live with Jesus in their hearts.  He will not leave them as orphans.

Lastly, Jesus returns to the concept of love and obedience.  He says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me”.  For Jesus there is a definite connection between belief and action.  He says don’t just know my commands but obey them.  Don’t just say you love me but really show we love Jesus.  For Jesus, this means love by obeying.  Then we will be loved by the Father and by Jesus.  It is all about connection and relationship.

Jesus again returns to the promise to show Himself to those who love Him.  Jesus is often revealed to us in those whom we choose to love.  We can see Jesus in the eyes of a child at VBS.  We can see Jesus in the smile of the person on the street who we take time to feed and talk with.  Jesus lives in all of us.  He invites us to obey His commands and thus to reveal Jesus to the world through our love and action.  Jesus also invites us to encounter Himself in others – sometimes even in those we least expect to find Him in.  May it be so today.


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The Message

Reading: Galatians 1: 6-12

Paul opens his letter to the Galatians with some strong language and some hard words.  His words carry some emotion and urgency.  The church he founded there has begun to drift away from its origins and he does not like the change.  Paul taught them the gospel he received directly in a revelation from Jesus and it is important to him that the Galatians continue to hold dearly to the original message.  Paul knows that the message does not have to change much to really affect their faith.

All that Jesus taught and did in the Gospels can be boiled down to a few essentials.  First, love God completely.  Recognize Him as supreme, as Lord, as king of kings.  Second, love neighbor as Jesus first loved us.  His sacrifice on the cross let us know how much He loves us.  Now Jesus tells us to go and do the same: put others and their needs first no matter the cost to us.  Third, grace wins.  God’s love and His mercies never fail, making all who call on Him as Lord and Savior new creations every morning.  Our grateful response to this amazing love and mercy is to offer our lives daily in service to God.

Paul knew how essential the pure message of the gospel was.  He knew that our faith would lead to action.  He knew if the gospel message was changed or distorted, we would begin to follow our own way more than Jesus’ way.  Our belief really does lead to action.  When our belief is correctly rooted in the message of Jesus Christ, then our lives bear fruit according to this message.  May we cling tightly to the truth found in Jesus Christ, living daily as authentic witnesses to His light and love.


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Praise

Reading: Psalm 150

Psalm 150 is the last Psalm.  It concludes the fifth ‘book’ within the larger book of Psalms.  But unlike the other four books, it does not end with a conclusion.  All of the other books in Psalms, and most other books in the Bible, have a definite conclusion to them.  Most often it is the word “Amen” and it usually functions much like ‘The End’ does in a novel or movie.

Psalm 150 ends with two sentences that invite a continuation of the action instead.  Verse 6 reads, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord”.  The invitation to praise is not limited either.  It does not say Israel or even human beings but ‘everything’.  As the bird lifts up its song one can certainly find praise in that.  As the cat purrs in response to affection one can feel love and bring God praise.  If one is open to a broad definition of breath, one can connect to God in the gentle breeze on a hot summer day or in the stream gently bubbling along.  From the beauty and awe of nature we often bring praise to God.

So why does God, through the psalmist, close with an open-ended invitation to continue to praise the Lord?  On the large, upper level it is just one more example of the Bible as the living Word of God, always active and moving.  On the more personal level, it is God asking each of us to live a life of praise.  God desires for our verbal praise to be not only daily but frequent within our days.  It is our grateful response to His many blessings.  But it is also more than words.  God desires for our actions to bring Him praise as well.  How we love and care for and treat others, both our friends and family as well as the enemy or stranger, should bring praise to God.  May He so shine in our lives that all we do and say brings praise to the Lord!


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Shaped to Share

Reading: John 12: 1-8

Mary and Martha’s brief season of pain ended when Jesus resurrected their brother.  In today’s story, they are hosting a meal to honor Jesus.  They had been followers since ling before the miracle that brought Lazarus back to life, but experiencing such a thing in person will forever change you.  Now they gather to offer back what they can.

Each sister has been blessed with certain gifts.  Martha’s gift is to cook and serve.  She seems to have become comfortable with this.  Mary’s gift is a little harder to define but perhaps we could define her gift as insight or discernment.  Like in the earlier story in the Bible, Mary chooses to simply be in Jesus’ presence.  But this time the Spirit moves inside of her and leads her to anoint Jesus’ feet with some very expensive perfume.  In a way it is acknowledgement that death will come to Jesus as she begins to prepare Him for burial.

Like Mary and Martha we are each gifted in unique ways to serve Jesus as well.  And like them, we too have impactful and life-changing experiences that shape us.  These events can often eventually become a start to our own personal areas of ministry as we are now intensely more aware of and sensitive to this experience.  Through this we are able to coach or mentor or walk alongside someone else experiencing something similar to what we experienced.  For example, a couple who unexpectedly lost a child may later be able to reach out to another couple now going through that same trial.

Mary was preparing others close to Jesus to begin to consider what His death would mean.  This came from her experience with losing Lazarus.  We too are shaped by our experiences so that we can share them with others.  In those trials we found that God remained close, carried us when needed, and guided us through the trial.  At times, we too will be lead or nudged by the Spirit to take action.  May we first be aware of the opportunities we have to walk alongside others, to offer them our love and support, and to draw them closer to God in their time of trial.


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Other-Centered

True love for others is revealed in who the love is focused on.  Some people will say they truly love others but their actions and motives behind them is focused only on themselves.  Others will reveal how much they love others because their actions and motives focus on others.  As human beings we fluctuate between these two, with God always calling us to love others and the world calling us to love ourselves.

At times our circumstances will cause us to focus on ourselves.  For example, Naomi had lost a husband and two sons, so she was in ‘survival mode’.  The grief and pain were so great she could not look outward.  But as time passes and she heals, her focus again looks outward.  She desires to bring security and love to Ruth.  Even though it will draw Ruth away from her, Naomi considers Ruth’s needs and life before her own.  Her love is shown in this sacrifice that she is willing to make.

Today each of us will face choices where we can offer some of yourself for another.  Will we choose to be self-centered or other-centered?  Will we be giving or holding onto what we have?  God calls us to follow Christ’s example of serving others.  In telling us ‘the first shall be last’ isn’t Jesus saying that in God’s economy, we must think of ourselves last here on earth?  Lord, help me to give of myself in all ways that I can today.

Scripture reference: Ruth 3: 1-5


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In Lament

We find great comfort in the past.  Through our own experiences and through what we read in the Bible we gain both an understanding of God and of our relationship with Him.  We live day to day with these memories as both our guide and our support system.  We know God to be loving and caring and protecting and compassionate.

But sometimes in life we suffer and suddenly our God memories don’t seem to work.  We experience discord when we are in conflict or in the midst of a life change or in the woes of a loss and the God we know seems absent.  In this uncertainty we cry out to God.  We bring our laments to God as a means of reminding God that to us, at that moment, He is not the God of love and care and,,, that we know.

In lament we also bring before God the suffering and pain of others.  We lift up their need for God’s presence and intervention and we demand an answer or action on God’s part.  In a sense we proclaim the suffering and hurt in the world to God so that He will act on it and be present to those in need.

In lament we remind both God and ourselves that He is the one who saved us from the powers of sin and death through Jesus and that He is the one we, His children, look to for our deliverance.  Reminding God calls Him to action.  Reminding ourselves brings reassurance and a reminder that although we may not know or see the plans of God, all is in God’s hands.  In this we lay our trust and our hope.  God is love.  God is faithful.  For these things, we say thanks be to God!

Scripture reference: Psalm 22: 9-15


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Sharing Faith Through Action

Sometimes it is hard to love our neighbor when we really don’t know them.  Sometimes people who are not like us can intimidate or scare us.  Sometimes the negative stereotypes we hear prevent us from really seeing the person standing before us.

Mission trips and one-day outreach events are great ways to help us overcome these barriers.  It is amazing what happens when we allow ourselves to experience others in new ways.   Youth and adults who sign up and participate in trips and events experience direct contact with ‘neighbors’ they did not know before.  And as with almost all people, once they got to know them they come to realize that they are pretty easy to love and serve.  These experiences open us up to the possibilities that are in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and communities.

Our faith grows as we experience God’s love in action.  This leads us on to action in the everyday places of our lives.  There is a cyclical affect to faith and action.  When we have faith we sense the call to share the love of Christ with others.  When we share the love and see how it changes lives, then our faith grows.  It is a wonderful thing to be doers of the word.

The goal of our Christian walk is to grow in our faith.  If we are living out our faith in service to others, then our faith will grow.  In James we are reminded that faith without action is dead.  We cannot simply wish someone would have food and clothing; we must provide these things as we are able.  When Christ’s love is alive and breathing in us, we must go forth to share that love with others.  It is an amazing gift that we must share with others so they they too can come to know and share the love of Christ.

Scripture reference: James 2: 14-17