pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: blessing


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Gospel of Love

Reading: Isaiah 58: 9b-12

Isaiah calls upon faithful Israelites to live out their faith by being compassionate and by reaching out to the hungry and others in need.  He calls for God’s people to break the yokes of oppression and to “spend” oneself meeting the needs of the less fortunate.  There are two components that drive this call.  One is outward and one is inward.  The outward component is the love that flows throughout the Bible.  The call to love one another without limitation is modeled by God in the covenant with Israel.  It is the promise to love no matter what.  This model is continued in the love for all of mankind exhibited and lived out by Jesus.  The call to love our neighbors as self that began in Leviticus 19:18 is repeated in the New Testament ad Jesus declared this one of the two great commandments.  This love involves “spending” oneself for others.

The second component is inward.  When we live life as compassionate people spending ourself for others, then God is at work within us.  When we are givers instead of takers, we see and live life in a new way.  We ourselves become so much more aware of and grateful for all the ways that God blesses us.  This inner attitude of gratitude is contagious, leading us to reach out to others, to meet their needs, to work to root out injustices they face, and to end any oppression that they are living under.  When we are faithful in living out the gospel of love, God renews us with His love and watches over us with His care.

On our mission trip last summer, one group was working in a park.  During a morning water break a man in need wandered over.  The group gave him some water and talked with him for a few minutes.  Later, at lunch time, a girl noticed the man on a bench across the park.  She walked over and gave the man her sack lunch.  Another youth brought over a bottle of water.  Compassion for one in need.  Loving others as God loves us.  Thinking of others above self.  It was a great witness to God’s love.  May we too be willing bearers of the light and love of Christ.


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Glory and Strength

Reading: Psalm 29

The voice of God is everywhere.  It is both powerful and majestic.  We can recognize it in the loud thunder, in the forceful winds, and in the shaking of the lightning.  In the storms of life, it can be harder to hear God’s voice.  Yet God is everywhere.  It can be hard to hear God’s voice amidst the raging, but God is there.  God never leaves us.  Verse three reads, “the voice of the Lord is over the waters”.  If we tune into the rhythmic falling rain or the steadily moving waters, we can discern the voice of our God who “gives strength to His people: the Lord who blesses His people with peace”.  In the storm, if we can tune in and seek God’s voice, God is there.

It can be so hard to only see the chaos swirling around us in a storm or trial.  It can be hard to focus on anything other than the chaos.  But God is not in the chaos.  In times of chaos, it can help to go simple.  Taking a couple moments to utter a simple prayer over and over can be very powerful.  It can bring the peace and blessing promised in the Psalm.  One can use the Psalm, praying “O Lord” as you slowly breathe in and praying “give me strength” as you slowly breathe out.  Or one can pray “Lord God” and then “bless me with peace” as one breathes slowly in and out.  The short breathed prayer can also be specific to the need or trial at hand.  In those times of need, taking a few minutes to pray over and over as we breathe in and out certainly invites God in and provides fertile ground for the promised strength and peace to take root.

Simple prayers that invite God into our lives are powerful and effective.  They remind us of the power and majesty of our Lord.  The Psalm opens with the line, “ascribe the Lord glory and strength”.  In our times of trial and need, may we seek the Lord our God, trusting in God’s glory and strength.


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Thanks

Readings: Philippians 4: 4-9 and John 6: 25-35

Thanksgiving is an awesome day where we gather with friends and family to give thanks for all that God has blessed us with.  All that we have comes from the Lord.  This day we give thanks.

Our Israelite forefathers recognized God’s provision from day one.  Adam was grateful for God’s love and care in the garden.  His son, Abel, brought the first lamb of his flock and sacrificed it as a thank offering to God.  The Israelites continued to give thank offerings and have a festival at harvest time where they thank God for all of their blessings.  Other festivals, such as Passover, also give thanks to God for the role God has played in their history.

Our American forefathers began Thanksgiving out of gratitude for surviving in a new and wild land.  They were grateful for those who God had sent to teach them what they needed to do to survive here.  They too recognized God’s hand at work in their lives and gave thanks.

Today, as we gather with family and friends, may we too give thanks for all of the ways God brings blessings into our lives.  May we celebrate today with a grateful heart full of thanks to God our Father, the giver of all good things.


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Equality, Justice, Blessing

Reading: Isaiah 2: 1-5

God has always intended to rule the whole earth.  On the one hand, God is fully in control of all things.  God is capable of ‘making’ anything happen.  God gave mankind free will.  At times we make poor decisions and select bad choices.  Nations could still function today by following God’s ways.  In it how our country began and those ideals of equality, justice, and freedom remain the basis of our governing principles and laws.  In general, peace and order are still the norms of the day.

Yet in places here and in pockets there, many are not ‘living the American dream’.  In places, there is no sense of hope.  There is no clear vision of how life could be any better than ‘this’.  There is not a path out of poverty and oppression.  Systems are established that continue dependence and reliance on the system itself instead of teaching people a new or different way.  An example of this would be the high recidivism rates in our jails and prisons.  People complete their sentence and the system wishes them well but quietly wonders when they’ll be back.  In too many systems we offer a ‘hand out’ but do not offer a ‘hand up’.  It is simply easier this way.

As people of God, we are called to stand against and to work to right wrongs, to fix injustices, and to help end oppression.  We are called to speak truth to those in power to bring voice to those without power.  Some of us are called to be in places of power, to help change come from within.  And sometimes we work with individuals within systems to walk alongside people who are in poverty or homelessness or prison.  Change is possible – both for the individual and for the systems.  May we each, as followers of a Jesus who loved all without question and who saw all as worthy, follow that lead as we work for equality and justice and blessing for all people.


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Faithful Sheep

Reading: Jeremiah 23: 1-6

Jeremiah expresses God’s anger towards those who have allowed the people to wander from God and to be scattered.  There is the implication that the leaders have acted in ways that lessened the peoples’ faith.  “Destroyed” is the term used in one translation.  If we look back just one chapter, we find the story of evil kings who have lived far from God’s ways.  Not only did they not tend to the flock, but they led them astray, through idol worship and godless living.

God proclaims punishment on the poor leadership.  At the same time, the loving God promises to gather up the flock.  God will return the poor sheep to the pasture they were intended to live in – to faith in God alone.  God states that here, back in a right relationship with God, they will prosper and be fruitful and will increase in number.  God will bless them.  In this way God seeks to return humanity to the original intent: created in God’s image, living in Union with God.

This is God’s desire for us as well.  As the new sheep of God, we too are prone to wander, to stray.  God continues to work to bring us back to our faith and to dwelling in the pasture of God.  In Jeremiah we see the promise of a future King, one of the line of David.  Unlike the Kings of Jeremiah’s days, this King will rule wisely and with justice and righteousness.  This King will be named Jesus.

In Jesus, our good shepherd, we have the image and love of God lived out in the flesh.  Through a personal relationship with Jesus, we come to live in union with God and to understand God’s love for us.  In Jesus, we have a king we can look up to.  In Jesus, we have a king whose example we can follow.  And through Jesus, the gift of the Holy Spirit comes to continually shepherd, guide, and protect us, drawing us ever closer to living a life worthy of our King, Jesus Christ.  Each day may we faithfully follow Christ and His example, ever seeking to bear witness to God’s love and mercy.


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Promise = Hope

Reading: Isaiah 65: 21-25

In the new kingdom, all will be blessed.  The works of the peoples’ hands will bring enjoyment.  The homes they build and the crops they plant will be enjoyed.  Nothing will be done in vain.  Even before their prayers are spoken, God will hear and answer them.  Life will be wonderful when the earth is renewed by God.  The renewing will affect all things.  Even the wolf and the lamb will lie down together!  There will be absolute peace and all will be blessed by God Almighty.  We long for the day!

The promise and hope in these words from Isaiah were just what the Israelites needed to hear.  Times were very bleak and it was an easy time to begin to lose faith in God.  Nothing in life seemed to be favoring the chosen people.  While the people knew their situation was the consequence of their sins, at some point we all say, “How long”?

We too have uttered this question to God.  Like the Israelites, we may have wandered from our faith and there is a consequence that we must endure for our choices.  Often we too get to the point of longing to return to ‘normal’ in our lives.  At other times in life, our time of suffering is not caused by us.  We can be adversely affected by another’s sin or choices.  We can also be affected by the circumstances of life – a diagnosis or sudden loss comes our way and we suffer and experience pain.  In all of these scenarios, we long to move past and to come to terms with our hurt or loss, but it can be so hard.

The promise of a new heaven and earth cannot remove the hurt or pain or suffering.  But it can give us a new sense of hope.  In this promise we can find hope and strength and comfort and maybe even a little healing.  One day all will be restored.  May we cling to this hope.  The promise is true!


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Saints

Reading: Luke 6: 17-30

Today is All Saints Day, a day when we remember the saints of old and the saints of today.  We picture the saints of old as grand people, depicted in portraits.  We think of the apostles, the early church leaders, the famous writers, and of people like Luther and Calvin and John Wesley.  In more recent times we think of Mother Teresa.

In our passage today, Jesus speaks to his disciples in a direct and personal way.  He tells them of times when they are blessed and of times when woes befall them.  These two opposites run in parallel tracks in the first part of the passage.  One can almost think in terms of heavenly and earthly.  The blessings come with future gains.  The woes come with trial and suffering.  These verses imply the reward of following Jesus’ example and the cost of not doing so.  The passage then concludes with words of how to love, pray for, and treat our enemies well followed by how to be generous in our giving.

Jesus is spelling out that the life of a saint will be hard and costly.  It is one more way of telling us that to follow Jesus is difficult for the way is narrow.  It is reminding us that to follow is to walk a road that will challenge our human instincts to be powerful and popular and self-centered.  Instead, Jesus calls us to be with those who are poor, who hunger, who weep, and who are hated.  He calls us to suffer alongside them, just as He did.  By being present to those in need or in trial we offer them Jesus.  It is through this presence that they are blessed.

We do not like to think of followers of Jesus as saints.  That seems like lofty ground.  But in this passage, we see that loving those in need, working to relieve suffering, and offering all we can is a worthy calling.  It is our call as followers of Jesus Christ.  Just as we look back on the saints of old as examples for how they lived out their faith, we too are called to do the same.  We too are called to model Christian discipleship for those in our lives.  May we each shine Jesus’ light today.


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Remember and Recognize

Reading: Psalm 66: 1-12

Like the psalmist, there are times in our lives where God is present, when God acts on our behalf.  To recall these times is an essential practice of our faith.  When the Israelites remember how God turned away their enemies or when God led them through the sea or when God brought them into the promised land, they are reminding themselves of God’s love for them and, in turn, of their love for God.  This leads them to worship and praise God.

God is also active and present in our lives.  We too have experiences that we can identify and note as moments when God was especially near or when God acted in our lives.  These times are moments in our lives that we too must occasionally remember and be in the moment for doing so connects us to God as well.  Whether we record these moments in a journal or mentally store them does not matter.  What is important is that we periodically review when God walked with us in a time of need, when God carried us through a crisis, or when God blessed us with a child or job or healing or …  When we do this we are reminded, just as the Israelites were each time they sang a Psalm, of God’s love for us and of our live for God.  It keeps our connection to God strong when we regularly offer our praise and thanksgiving.

In regularly recognizing God’s presence and activity in our lives, we are also made aware of God’s presence in smaller things.  We sense God in the sunrise or in the beautiful song of the bird.  We see God in the grateful face of one we stop to help or talk to.  Soon we are thanking God and praising God for all of the blessings we have in our lives.  This day may we be attuned to God’s presence in our lives and may we offer many grateful responses.


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Expanding Welcome

Reading: Luke 14:1 and 7-14

Too often we help another person because we foresee repayment.  I’ll come help you move because I know we’re moving in a couple months.  I’ll come help you brand cattle because, well, I own cattle and they’ll need to be branded soon.  I’ll buy a car from you because when you are ready to buy that boat, I know you’ll come to me.  I’ll help you with your event at church because I know the event I lead is just around the corner.

In today’s passage Jesus is saying ‘no’ to think kind of thinking.  It was all too common (and still is today) to think ‘What’s in it for me?’ instead of simply being a good neighbor or following where the Holy Spirit is leading.  When we do things with these attitudes and are only willing to spend time with those just like us, God’s kingdom does not grow very much.  When we rub elbows only with people just like us, then we are keeping the circle small and the walls high.

Jesus came to reverse this.  He ate with the sinners, healed the outcast and poor, talked with the tax collectors, and worked on the Sabbath.  Jesus acknowledges that if we invite only our friends, yes, they will repay us.  He also says that then our reward will be done.  Instead, Jesus says to invite the poor, lame, crippled, and blind.  They cannot repay us but God’s reward will be there in heaven for us.  This is wonderful.  But we are also rewarded here on esrth.

When we serve and live life alongsidethe poor, lame, crippled, blind, and other social outcasts if our day, then we experience true giving.  It is giving without strings attached.  It is pure and free and feels so good.  We also experience true gratitude.  We do so within ourselves when we realize how blessed we are.  We experience it in the thankful and grateful hearts of those we come alongside.  Loving those on the margins and the outcasts aligns us with God’s ways and purposes.  It is here that we are closest to God.  It is here we are truly blessed.


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Thanks

Reading: Psalm 50: 1-8 & 22-23

God’s voice booms out in this passage.  It opens with, “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks”.  One can hear the thunder in God’s voice.  Rightly so, God sounds like an angry parent.  God summons the people Israel to hear what needs to be said.  God reminds them of their covenant and that God is their judge.  In the verses not read from the Psalm, God lays out both why they should offer just thank offerings and also a list of the sins they are committing.  As we pick up in verse 22, God reminds ‘you who forget God’ the consequences and benefits of following God faithfully.

We live in a time where blood sacrifices of animals arr no longer made nor are they necessary.  Christ’s sacrifice on the cross covers all of our sins.  Yet God still desires our sacrifices.  In our passage God calls for thank offerings.  These are what God desires of us as well.  A thank offering expresses our gratitude to God for all we have been blessed with.  This can run the gamut from our tithe that we lay on the altar to the time we give to mentor one new to the faith.  It can be the time we give to teach a class and it can be the time we set aside each day to specifically and gratefully thank God for the specific blessings of each day.

This idea goes beyond simply saying ‘Thank You’ to God for the good things in our life.  Our thanksgiving also keeps us humble by recognizing God’s hand in all of our blessings.  It takes the focus off of us and how good we are.  We are also made more aware of God’s vast love, mercy, grace, … and this lessens the load that we feel we have to carry.  It relieves us of some of our fears and anxieties as we come to trust more in God’s provision, power, and presence in our lives.  We come to know God is in control.

Today may we take some time to thank God for the many ways we are blessed by and experience the divine hand at work in our lives.  May we express our gratitude through our selfless offering of our time, gifts, talents, resources, service, and witness.  And may we welcome the presence and peace of God into our lives.