pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: Christ


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A Confessing Faith

Reading: Romans 10:5-9

Romans 10:9 – “Because if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and in your heart have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

As we step into Romans 10 today and tomorrow, Paul begins with Moses and the Law. For Moses and for the Jews, righteousness comes through keeping the Law. Do all these things and you will live. Except no one can keep all of the Law. It is not possible. Therefore, if we cannot keep the Law, then it cannot bring life. The greatest effort to keep the Law still leaves one dead in their sin.

In verses 6 and 7 Paul removes the responsibility for finding or earning eternal life from our hands. In a very roundabout way, Paul reminds us that we don’t need to go to heaven or hell – either figuratively or literally – to find Jesus. No, he writes, “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” Jesus in Spirit is right here with us. We don’t need to go on a search for Jesus. God has already done the work. It’s not about us doing anything. The Spirit of Christ is here, available to us.

Verse 9 confesses faith in the work that has already been done on our behalf. Here we read, “Because if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and in your heart have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Faith in Jesus is the way to salvation. If we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we receive grace, the gift that defeats the power of sin and death. Freed from the power of sin and death, we are able to live as light and love in the world, inviting others to know the source of light and love and grace: Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.

Prayer: Lord God, we first thank you for the gift of salvation received through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We thank you for doing the hard work that defeated the power of sin and death. We thank you for the grace that flows from Christ’s sacrifice, the grace that removes our sin and makes us new again. We ask that you would use us to reveal these things to the world, so that others can come to a confessing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Amen.


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How Far Will You Go?

Reading: Romans 9:1-5

Romans 9:2 – “I have great sadness and constant pain in my heart.”

The subtitle for this week’s Romans passage is this: “The Tragedy of Israel’s Unbelief.” This subject clearly brings Paul great anguish. In verse 2 we read, “I have great sadness and constant pain in my heart.” I believe that most Christians feel this way about someone. If we thought for a moment, we could each come up with a few names to substitute into that subtitle in the place of the word “Israel.” We can all name family members, good friends, even whole groups of people who are living without Jesus in their heart. For many of those that we name, this causes us great sadness and pain in our hearts.

Paul thinks about all that Israel has going for them: God’s children, the covenants and the Law, the promises, the ancestors. But even with all of this, the Israelites refuse to accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as their Savior and Lord. Paul sees the scriptures and the prophets pointing to the arrival and ministry of Jesus. It almost kills Paul that the Jews cannot or will not connect these dots. So much so, in fact, Paul is willing to “be cursed, cut off from Christ.” That is a deep, deep love for seeing others come to Christ.

Returning to that name or names or group of people that came to our heart and mind earlier, I ask: What would you give to see them walking in a relationship with Jesus Christ? What would you be willing to do? Would you, like Paul, be willing to give up your salvation, to live without Christ, to daily live in sin and darkness – to save someone else? If you wouldn’t be willing to go quite this far, how far will you go to see someone else find Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior?

Prayer: Lord God, our call and charge is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Empower and equip us, Lord, to carry out this task with our whole heart and soul, with our entire mind and all of our strength. Lead and guide us to be all in for the building of your kingdom here on earth. Amen.


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Kingdom Builders

Reading: Matthew 13:44-52

Matthew 13:46 – “When he found one very precious pearl, he went and sold all he owned and bought it.”

Photo credit: Markus Spiske

Today we turn to three more parables about the kingdom of heaven. In the first two, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a treasure and to “one very precious pearl.” In both parables, once discovered, it was all that was desired. In the second parable we read, “When he found one very precious pearl, he went and sold all he owned and bought it.” The first of the great commands invites us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is about being all in for the kingdom of God.

The third parable is the culmination of this mini-series on the kingdom of heaven. When we allow our faith to grow and permeate all of our life, like the mustard seed and yeast, then our faith becomes the most important thing in our life. All that we do, say, and think is done for and out of our love of God. We are led and guided by Jesus’ Spirit. When the net is cast and the angels sort the good and the bad, we who love God will go “into the container.” The bad “fish” will be tossed into the burning furnace. Heaven or hell – the final judgment.

As followers of Jesus Christ who seek to love God with all that we are, we focus now on the building of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Through our lives, our witness, and our example, others experience the kingdom of God. As we seek to be kingdom builders, may we offer all of ourselves to others so that they too may come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Prayer: Lord God, help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. Focus our heart, mind, soul, and strength on loving you and on loving neighbor. Encourage us to be generous with our blessings. In all things, use us to glorify you as we seek to build the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Amen.


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Trusting, Clinging

Reading: Romans 8:31-39

Romans 8:35a – “Who will separate us from Christ’s love?”

Photo credit: Nick Fewings

In the second half of our Romans 8 passage, Paul asks some great rhetorical questions. He begins with this familiar and frequently asked question: “If God is for us, who is against us?” In our faith heart, we say “no one!” With God on our side, we are confident, assured, ready to take on the world. Why, God didn’t even spare his own son! God gave his son’s life for our lives. Boy is that some kind of love. And then the trouble comes, the distress sets in, the harassment ramps up… Our sure and confident faith can begin to crack in these hard moments.

When we allow our negative human emotions to win the day or when we allow temptation to lead to sin, we open ourselves up to having a charge leveled or a conviction delivered. In that moment, as God looks down on us, caught in distrust or sin, Paul reminds us that Jesus “is at God’s right hand.” He sits in the seat of judgment, not to judge, but to “plead our case.” Jesus walked in our shoes, so to speak. He understands our struggles, fear, doubts. He pleads our case.

In verse 35 Paul asks this question: “Who will separate us from Christ’s love?” He then lists a bunch of “what’s.” These are things. In and of themselves, they cannot do anything. So maybe the “who” that Paul has in mind is us – you and me. When trouble, distress, harassment… or death, injustice, abuse, loneliness, disease… falls upon us, do we stand on, trust in, lean into, and rely upon Christ’s love? Do we hold sure to our faith, believing that in and through Jesus Christ we will have a “sweeping victory?” Yes, Paul is correct: “Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus.” May we live each day trusting in this truth, clinging to it when necessary.

Prayer: Lord God, you are faithful and true. Your love and presence are constant and sure. By the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, turn us again and again to these truths. Over and over, help us to stand upon them. Thank you, Lord. Amen.


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The First of Many

Reading: Romans 8:26-30

Romans 8:29b – “That way his Son would be the first of many brothers and sisters.”

Photo credit: Hans Heiner Buhr

As we begin the Romans 8 reading for this week, Paul offers this: “the Spirit comes to help our weakness.” This help comes in many forms, but today Paul is talking about intercession. The Spirit prays for us when our words don’t come or when they fall short or when they are misguided. At times our situation is so overwhelming or so distressing, we cannot form the words to pray. And some of the time we pray greedy or selfish or spiteful prayers. In all cases the Spirit steps in and prays for us “consistent with God’s will.” Through groans and pleadings, the Spirit intercedes for us, always seeking to conform us to the Son.

These Holy Spirit prayers help us to live as God calls us to live. When we do so, loving God and neighbor, then God “works all things together for good.” This is always God’s intended outcome simply because God is good. Yes, we can foil God’s plans and we can even work against them at times. Yet God is faithful. The Spirit keeps praying for us. And we’re drawn again and again to become who and what God created us to be: a child of God.

To be confirmed to the Son, to be a child of God, this is God’s good plan for us all. This plan was decided before we breathed our first breath. Created in God’s image with the spark of the divine within us, we are invited to step into God’s will for our lives. Doing so, we fulfill God’s purpose: “That way his Son would be the first of many brothers and sisters.” As a brother or sister in Christ, we strive to be righteous in our daily living. In the end, we will be glorified as Christ was glorified. But in the here and now, we also bring glory to God when we reveal Christ to the world. My friends, may it be so!

Prayer: Lord God, we rejoice that you are on our side in so many ways. Attune us to the Spirit’s presence, guiding us to pray as we should pray, to do as we should do, to be as we should be. In all ways, draw us closer and closer to conformity with Christ. And in all things, may we be Christ to the world. Amen.


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Benefits

Reading: Romans 8:12-17

Romans 8:14 – “All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters.”

In Romans 8:11, Paul reminded us that all who are led by the Spirit will one day be raised as Jesus Christ was raised – to eternal life. Turning to this week’s passage from Romans 8, Paul begins verse 12 with “So then…” Since the Spirit lives in us and promises us resurrection, Paul declares that we have an obligation. So then, that obligation is to live a certain way. It is not the way of selfishness and sin. This way of life leads to death, not to life. The way that leads to life is the way of the Spirit.

In verse 14 Paul states, “All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters.” To be a son or daughter is to have a place in the family of God. To have a place brings benefits, if you will. The primary one is God’s unconditional love. This no-matter-what love is what pours out grace when we fall short and it is the mercy that carries our sin far away, making us pure and holy in God’s sight. This love keeps God close to us at all times. God’s ear is attentive to our desires and God’s heart is attuned to our needs. And, oh yes, there is eternal life one day. For the God who loves us beyond our understanding, we offer our praise and worship today!

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for taking us into your family. Thank you for a love that we cannot understand, but dwell fully in. And thank you for your Spirit’s guidance, presence, and direction. Amen.


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Life in the Spirit

Readings: Psalm 119:112 and Romans 8:6-11

Romans 8:11 – “The one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.”

Paul offers us a choice as we continue in Romans 8. We can choose to be selfish. This is our natural inclination. If this is the choice we make, we cannot please God. In fact, when selfish we become hostile to God, refusing to submit to the Law, to God’s will and way. Being selfish, we are consumed with ourselves and with what benefits us. Choosing this life leads to death. It is the choice many people make. It is the choice we make at times, even if we profess Jesus as Lord.

At the other end of the spectrum, we can choose life in the Spirit. This is a life of peace lived with a sense of belonging. We live as children of God who experience God’s righteousness through the Holy Spirit that lives in us. This leads us to seek to live within God’s will and way. This was the choice the psalmist made. The psalmist declares, “I have decided to keep your statutes forever, every last one.” In its simplest form this boils down to loving God with all that we are and loving neighbor as Christ loves us.

When we seek to live this way – led and guided by the Spirit living in us – then we experience life lived in right relationship with God and with all of creation. We come to know the truth of Paul’s words: “The one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you.” All of life is blessed, even the hard days, because Christ in Spirit is with us. Always. Thanks be to God!

Prayer: Lord God, in the quiet early morning, it’s just you and me as I sit here at my desk. It feels easy to choose to you. Yet, this is not the normal reality. We live mostly in the world, where the choice to be selfish is elevated as the right choice. But you call us to be in the world, not of the world. Set us apart in spirit and in our daily living. May your love guide us and may your grace save us when we fall short. Amen.


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Always Seeking to Deliver

Reading: Romans 7:15-25

Romans 7:21 – “So I find that, as a rule, when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me.”

At the end of chapter 7, Paul describes his own struggle to do and be good in the world. He often does the things he hates to do. In his mind, he knows God’s Law is just and good and right. If it were up to his mind, he’d do all the good stuff: worship God, love neighbor, meet the needs of the poor… But he just can’t quite…

In verse 21 Paul writes, “So I find that, as a rule, when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me.” Have you found this to be true in your life? That fleshy part of you – that part that just wants pleasure, that part that easily turns to pride and judging, that part always seeking to elevate self to the throne – that fleshy part is always pulling you away from holy, God-pleasing living. Paul chooses the word “war.” And in those moments when he feels like he is totally losing the “war” – it is then that Paul feels like a “miserable human being.” Ever felt this way? Ever allowed sin to win and you instantly see how it hurt someone you love?

Paul correctly realizes two things in verses 24 and 25. First, on his own, his fate is “dead corpse.” Ouch. Second, and most importantly, he realizes that Jesus Christ is his deliverer. Jesus is always with us too, always fighting for us in Spirit, always seeking to deliver us from temptation and sin. Through Jesus Christ, we will have the victory over sin and death. Thanks be to God!

Prayer: Lord God, the power of evil is strong and pervasive. It runs rampant in our world. All sorts of messaging, people, and situations draw us to sin. We need you Lord. Desperately. Be the constant voice too, calling us to good and holy living. Empower and equip us, O God, to live by your will and ways. Amen.


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Passing the Legacy

Reading: Psalm 45:16-17

Psalm 45:17 – “I will perpetuate your name from one generation to the next so the people will praise you forever.”

Coming back to Psalm 45 today, the focus of the royal wedding shifts to the sons. In that time and culture, sons were about all that mattered. Yes, families loved their daughters, but sons were prized. Although I was young, I can remember Grandpa Titus being concerned that none of Titus males had yet produced a son. He was worried about the family name being carried on. This idea is part of what the psalmist writes of in today’s passage.

For people in the ancient world, a name was fixed to land and that land was passed from one generation to the next and on to the next and… This began for Israel when Joshua led them into the Promised Land and distributed land by tribes… This legacy was so important that God set up means to return ancestral lands to the original families once every 50 years. Today we still pass on land, especially in farming and ranching communities. But we also regularly sell it or even subdivide it to increase profits.

Leaning back into John Wesley’s reading of this Psalm as messianic, let us re-read verse 17 from this perspective. Hear God speaking to Jesus about his bride, the church: “I will perpetuate your name from one generation to the next so the people will praise you forever.” Read this way, it is both sons and daughters who perpetuate Christ’s name from one generation to the next. It is both mothers and fathers that teach their children to love Jesus so that generation after generation praises the name of Jesus and brings glory to God. The question to ask ourselves and to ponder today and every day is this: How are you passing on a legacy of faith this day?

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for the moms and dads, for the grandmas and grandpas, for the church folks who passed faith down to each of us. Bless them all for this “work.” In turn, Lord, use each of us to pass our love of Jesus on to our family, to our church families, to those we meet at work, school, and out in the world. May we lead in love, O Lord. Amen.


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Celebration and Joy

Reading: Psalm 45:10-15

Psalm 45:11 – “Let the king desire your beauty. Because he is your master, bow down to him now.”

Psalm 45 was written as a song celebrating a royal marriage. While we’ve all likely been to some weddings, most of us have only seen this kind of a wedding on TV or in the movies. A princess dressed in pearls, a robe embroidered in gold, robes of many colors on the bridesmaids. There is another level of opulence and a ceremony to these kinds of weddings. We can parallel this scene to the unfolding wedding in our Genesis 24 text this week. Abraham’s servant had left with all of Abraham’s “best provisions” – all to present a great dowry, enough to impress any potential bride and father-in-law.

The Psalm speaks of becoming part of a new family, of now entering new relationships. This remains part of marriage today. Yes, two become one but both families also grow and become interconnected. Insight into the new relationship is found in verse 11. Here we read, “Let the king desire your beauty. Because he is your master, bow down to him now.” Part of marriage is sharing your best self and falling deeper in love. For the original audience and for some cultures today, there is a bowing down to the man in male-centric cultures. A mutual bowing down is more common in our culture.

Just as various cultures understand and practice marriage differently, so too can scripture have different levels, meanings, and understandings. For John Wesley, he saw this Psalm another way. In these words he saw a reference to Jesus Christ and his bride, the church. As one enters into a saving, covenant relationship with Jesus, one leaves their “father’s house” to become a part of the family of God. One bows down to Jesus as the Lord of one’s life. One presents the best one can offer to Jesus, all for the glory of God. This new relationship is entered with “celebration and joy.” As we reflect on and consider our “marriage” to Jesus Christ, may we indeed be filled with celebration and joy!

Prayer: Lord God, oh to be in love and to enter a lifelong relationship! Oh to say “I love you” to one whose love is truly unconditional and without end. Oh to be loved by the one who designed, created, and shaped us, all done with great plans in mind. Thank you, Lord, for taking us as your own. Amen.