pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: children


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Lavished

Reading: 1 John 3: 1-3

Verse One: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God”.

Identity is an important thing. At times we are very sure of who we are. We feel confident and we know our purpose in life. So often, for many people, this is wrapped up in earthly things like our job or our position on the team or in the money we have or in the possessions we own. When this is how we define ourselves, then the trials of life rock our world.

Today’s passage opens with a reminder of who we truly are. John writes, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God”. This sums up the core of our true identity. It is because of God’s great love. This is where it starts. It is a rich and lavish love that God wants to pour down on every single person. Not all accept His love. But for those that do, we are called “children of God”. There is a huge difference between knowing that all people are God’s children and actually living as one. When we live as a child of God, we know our true identity.

When we identify as a child of God, life takes on an eternal perspective. Yes, this life will still have its trials and hurts and sufferings, but they are temporary. In addition, as a child we do not walk alone through these valleys either. Our Father walks with us and will even carry us at times. Our Father gives us strength to face any challenge because we do not face it alone and we can draw on His limitless strength. How great is the love indeed!

No matter what life has brought us or will bring us, we can trust in the love that God has for each of us, His dearly loved children. Thanks be to God for His great love!


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Hope, Promise, Opportunity

Reading: Genesis 9: 8-17

Verse Nine: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature”.

The flood was a catastrophic event that has no match. The totality of the loss of life is unparalleled in the history of mankind. It is hard to imagine what living in the aftermath would have been like. A small group of eight people enter the ark with a multitude of animals, the rain falls, the flood waters rose, and soon they were all alone. Noah and family emerge from the ark to a desolate and unpopulated world. It must have been difficult to know they were it.

Our passage today begins with God promising to never do such a thing again. God says to the eight, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature”. God is maybe seeking to rebuild trust. Maybe it is a pain that God never wants to experience again either. Noah and family do trust into God’s promise and they trust into the future that lies ahead in this new world. From this perspective, all must have seemed new and beautiful. There was no war or violence or anger or hatred. They must have felt a great sense of hope and promise and opportunity.

At times in life we also experience a flood. It may have been when we packed up everything we owned and moved to a place where we did not know anyone or anything. It may have been in the loss of the dearest person in our world, when in the days after we felt as if nothing was the same. Floods can come in many ways. Through these disorienting experiences we must continue to trust into God and His promises. Key for us is to remember that God loves us dearly and desires the best for us. Even in the hard times that life can bring, God is always at work to bring beauty from our ashes, joy with the morning. God’s covenant promise to love us always and no matter what is sometimes all we can lean into.

One day we emerge, like Noah and his family, seeing the world in a whole new way. Once again there is hope and promise and even opportunity. No, things are not the same. But once again we have seen that God is faithful, that God always remains present to us, that God continues to honor His covenant. Each trial of life draws us closer and closer to God, deepening our trust in His love and care, reinforcing the depth of His covenant commitment. Thank you God of the promise, for your love and care for us, your beloved children.


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Opened Wide

Reading: Galatians 4: 4-7

Verse Seven: “You are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir”.

Today’s text is a great reminder of the depth of God’s love for us.  Prior to the coming of Jesus, there was one relatively small group of people who were blessed to be in the family of God.  A small band of twelve tribes were the “chosen people”.  But then, “when the time had fully come, God sent His Son”.  It was then that the door began to open for you and me.

In God’s wisdom the time had come to establish a new covenant.  It was not quite the extensive makeover that came with Noah and the flood, but what God had in store was a pretty radical shift.  But even the sin that had come into the world through Adam survived that flood.  Humanity remained under the law of sin and death.  So God sent His Son to “redeem those under the law”.  That is you and me and all of humanity.  God sent Jesus to a pretty big crowd of people.

As Jesus ministered to those He met, a couple of things became clear.  First, Jesus cared for and loved all people.  It did not matter who or what you are or were, Jesus loved you just as you came.  There were no hoops to jump through, no boxes to check off, no barriers to keep people out.  Second, Jesus was a humble servant who was obedient to God alone.  From washing feet, to welcoming sinners, to touching the unclean, to healing the hurt and broken and damaged, to going to the cross – Jesus offered all He could.  Why did Jesus do all of this?  To make a way for you and me, so that we “might receive the full rights of sons”.

Full rights means we are in.  We are part of God’s family and part of His plan of salvation.  As a child of God, we are loved and cared for, protected and provided for.  As a child of God, we are privy to the Holy Spirit and to the gift of eternal life.  Before Jesus, we would just be another Gentile on the outside looking in.  But with Jesus, we are now a part of the family.  Jesus was such an amazing gift to the world.  Jesus is such an amazing gift to you and me.

Paul concludes our passage today with these words: “You are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir”.  Through His blood we have been set free from our slavery to sin and death.  Through His love we have been made children of God.  The door has been opened Wide so that all may enter in.  Praise be to God!  Thank you Jesus!


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Hope and Promise

Reading: Luke 1: 26-38 and 46-55

Verse 28: “Greetings you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you!”

Do you remember the birth of your child or children?  It was an awesome experience!  Yes, there was great pain and perhaps it lasted too long, but at one point there was suddenly life when before there was none.  The baby emerges into the world and draws its first breath – life is born!  There is a sacredness to the moment that life is first brought into the world.  It is a holy moment when God is present.  It is something we will never forget.

When one steps away from the birth of our own children and we look at birth in general, it is still an amazing thing.  In each birth is the beginning of something new, therefore it is filled with excitement.  It is also filled with hope and dreaming.  Parents all over the world look at that newborn child and wonder about their son’s or daughter’s future and hope that it is blessed.

For Mary, the angel tells her she too is blessed.  The angel Gabriel says, “Greetings you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you!”  She will carry the One who will save the world from our sins and show us the way to enter into life eternal.  Likewise, her cousin Elizabeth carries a special baby.  She will give birth to John the Baptist, he who will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.  For these two mothers, they know through the angel’s visit that children are something special.  This must ramp up their own sense of excitement and dreaming about the future.

Yet we know what Jesus and John will eventually experience.  Both of these precious babies will give their lives in obedience to God.  Both will suffer.  Both will die willingly for their God.  Both willingly die for the people they love – John for Jesus and Jesus for you and me.  We celebrate Jesus’ birth tomorrow night.  It is a birth orchestrated by God.  It is a holy birth.  It is a birth that brings hope and promise to all the world.  It is a birth that brings hope and promise to you and me.  It is a hope and promise not just for tomorrow night, but for forever.  Thanks be to God.  Amen!


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Favor

Reading: Luke 1: 26-30

Verse 30: “Do not be afraid… you have found favor with the Lord”.

Out of the blue, an angel visits Mary.  Her first reaction is what I think mine would be: fear.  The angel greets her and then tells her that the Lord is with her.  Maybe her fears subsided a bit knowing that God was with her.  In that moment, though, Mary must have really been wondering what would be coming next.  I would be!

Our passage tells us that Mary was “troubled” – again, a reaction I think most of us would have if an an angel appeared to us.  At a minimum, if I am being honest, knowing that I was on the brink of something big, I would be really troubled.  While it is probably quite exciting when an angel comes for a visit (I assume it is), there is also the scary recognition that things are about to change pretty seriously.

The angel then says to Mary, “Do not be afraid… you have found favor with the Lord”.  The first part is good to hear, but the second part is great to hear.  Mary has found favor with God!  Hallelujah!  Praise be!  Amen!  Yes, it is indeed wonderful to know that she has found favor with God.  While in this setting it is particularly good news for Mary, our reality is that this is good news for us as well.  As followers of Jesus Christ, we have all found favor with God.

In the book The Shack, the lead character Mac and God have frequent conversations.    Most of the time when the conversation is about people in Mac’s life, they are people that he could do without.  Each and every time God says, “Oh yes, I am especially fond of that one”.  Every time.  Although it is just a fictional book, I believe this part to really be true.  God is especially fond of every human being because we are all children of God.  He loves us all.  And some – those who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior – have found favor with God.  Talk about good news!  Hallelujah and amen!


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Hearers and Tellers

Reading: Psalm 78: 1-4

Verse 1: “O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth”.

Today the psalmist urges us to listen and to remember.  It begins with listening.  We cannot just hear words but must really listen to the words and their meaning.  This allows us to internalize and understand the words and how they apply to our lives and to our faith.  Once done listening, we also must remember.  The words cannot come in one ear and go out the other.  To remember means to hold onto the words and the affect they have on our life and on our faith.

The psalmist is urging the people Israel to hold onto the teaching and to hold onto the “trustworthy deeds of the Lord”.  In remembering “what our fathers have told us” we begin to build up a collective memory of what God has done for His people.  In doing so, we build up a reservoir of strength to draw upon when we find ourselves in a time of trial or suffering.  All those memories of God at work in the past give us a reassurance that we can trust God to be present in our current need.

But is is not all about taking in and holding on.  We must also be a part of the telling.  The psalmist reminds us that “we will not hide them from our children”.  We must tell our children and the generations after them of the mighty works of God as well.  We must pour into our children and into the future generations so that they too will “hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth”.

We each are a part of the coming and the going out of the faith.  At times we must listen and absorb the stories of the faith – both those in the Bible and those experienced in life.  At other times it must be our voices who pass along the Word and the stories that help others to find and grow in their faith.  Each day may we be hearers as well as tellers, bringing the glory to God in all we do and say as we live out our lives of faith.


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A Willingness

Reading: 1st Thessalonians 2: 1-8

Verse Two: With the help of God we dared to tell you His gospel in spite of strong opposition.

Having faith can be difficult.  What is happening to the Thessalonians happens to believers today.  Their faith is wavering, the voices of the world are clamoring, Jesus has not returned yet.  In the midst of all that life can bring, it can be easy to have our faith waver.  Those voices of the world and the temptations of Satan can put us hard to the test.  As we look around at the world and perhaps even at our own lives, we can long for Jesus to return to redeem all things.

The culture of Paul’s world and the culture of Thessalonica is much like ours today.  The Christians are a minority within a culture and society that worships many false idols and chases after many earthly pleasures.  It can be a dangerous place to preach the gospel.  It was in Paul’s day too.  Fresh off a testing and trying experience in Philippi, Paul declares, “With the help of God we dared to tell you His gospel in spite of strong opposition”.  Not one to be deterred, Paul fondly recalls sharing the gospel in Thessalonica.  At times we too must dare to share  the gospel.  For Paul, it was well-received and a strong church emerged.  This letter comes some time after the initial visit and Paul is writing to encourage and to teach this new group of believers.

Paul states a couple of different ways that God is the center of it all.  He speaks as a man approved by God and tested by God.  He speaks with God as his witness, never seeking praise or approval from men.  As we seek to engage the least and the lost of our communities, we too must begin here.  God must be at the core and we must lead out as God guides and directs, keeping our focus on God alone.  Paul says that he was “like a mother caring for her little children”.  This is the second imperative we get from today’s Word.  We must genuinely love those we share the gospel with.  This means a willingness to fully commit, to humbly serve, to offer all we can to help another grow closer to Jesus Christ.  May our focus be on God and on loving others as He first loved us; God will take care of the rest.


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Love, Forgiveness

Reading: Psal 99

Verse Eight: O Lord our God, you answered them; you are a forgiving God.

God is, above all else, a God of love.  More than anything else, God is about loving His children.  The Psalm opens with God being exulted because He reigns.  The people offer their praise.  Then it shifts to God bringing justice and equality.  The people offer their praise.  In verse six three greats go to God and He answers the prayers of the faithful.  The people offer praise.  This is a God of love.  Truly God is worthy of our praise and worship.

All this is true of God today.  The Lord our God answers our prayers.  God continues to seek justice and equality for all peoples.  God continues to be in control of all things and to reign over all the earth.  He is worthy of our praise and worship.

But perhaps the greatest example of God’s love is His forgiveness.  We experience a glimpse of this kind of love from our parents and then again with our own children.  But ours is a slightly flawed, human love.  God’s love is a perfect, holy love.  Verse eight reads, “O Lord our God, you answered them; you are a forgiving God”.  Because of His love for us, He forgives us.  Over and over, without memory or score.  Over and over it is as if we had never sinned before.  This truly is a God of love.  He is worthy of our praise and worship.

The love and forgiveness we receive from God is wonderful.  But it cannot end with us simply receiving it.  We in turn must go out and love and forgive others.  Because we are loved, we love others.  Because we are forgiven, we forgive others.  It is through our practicing love and forgiveness that we are part of bringing God’s love and forgiveness into other people’s lives.  It is a part of our witness to our faith.  This day may we be people of love and forgiveness, helping to build up relationships with others that further the kingdom of God here on earth.


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The Father’s Love

Reading: Exodus 32: 7-10

Verse Nine: “I have seen these people”, said the Lord to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people”.

The people have allowed fear and doubt to win the day and they cast a golden calf to be their god.  Being fully made by human hands, the calf has no power.  But it is visible and present and the people want to believe it can save them.  So they offer sacrifices and worship it.

God looks down on His chosen people and suddenly the Israelites are “your” people whom “you” led out of Egypt.  God uses the third person to talk about His children – “they” are corrupt, stiff-necked.  He is like a parent, angry over what a child has done.  On occasion I have said, “Honey, your son has…” or “That daughter of yours…”

Reading this passage makes me wonder how close I have come to drawing God to the place of wanting to disown me.  One can easily look back over one’s life to identify points where or words or actions or choices maybe upset God, maybe made God feel like giving up on us.  I wonder if God ever thinks, “Not again…” because I too at times am “corrupt” and “stiff-necked”.

Even though we may get upset with our earthly children and “feel like” disowning them, we never do.  They will always be our son or daughter and we will always love them.  Our love for our children pales in comparison to God’s love for us.  God’s love for His children is so much more than we can even understand.  In the 103rd Psalm we are reminded that God removes our sin as far as the east is from the west – they are no more.  In Titus 3 we are told that our sins are washed away, giving us new birth, a fresh beginning.  This is how great the Father’s love is for us, His children.  It is a love that never fails, a love that never ends.  Thanks be to God for this love.


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Seven Years

Reading: Genesis 29: 15-28

Verse 20: Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

Jacob came to work for Laban after fleeing from home.  Jacob was his sister’s son, so Laban took him in.  After a month, Laban was coming to appreciate Jacob’s work, so he asks Jacob what he would like in exchange for his efforts.  Jacob has fallen in love with the beautiful Rachel so he names her as his desire and offers to work for seven years for her hand in marriage.  As I think about his offer, it seems like a long time.  Rarely does a dating relationship last longer than a few years unless marriage is the plan.  In such cases, people date for a while, consider and talk of marriage, and then set the date.  For most with marriage on the mind, they will cut it off and move on pretty quickly if the other is not “the one”.

Extending the idea of working for seven years, what would one be willing to work for for seven years?  If I had my mind on a new car, for example, would I be willing to work for seven years, saving a little each month, until I had enough money to buy that car?  In a job, would I be willing to work for seven years to make that next step up the chain of command or to earn that first raise?  Yet in the context of today’s story, these things are small targets or goals.  When our thoughts move outside the concrete, there are many things we work much longer than seven years for.  When we do so, these are the things that really matter in life.

I look at my marriage and see something that I am still willing to work hard for.  I look at my college-age and post-college children and see many years of raising them and am still very dedicated to working at raising them.  And then I turn to my faith.  At 51, this is a journey longer than any other in my life, yet I still continue to seek to draw closer to God.  Looking back, I can see how my relationship has grown and deepened.  Seven years seems like a small blip on the timeline.  In this sense, I can relate to Jacob.  Seven years “seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her”.  May our love for God ever be the same.