pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: Christ


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The Faith OF Christ

Reading: Galatians 2: 15-21

In the original Greek of today’s text, there was no word between ‘faith’ and ‘Jesus Christ’.  The structure of the original sentence would have implied a certain connection.  Through the study of this and with an understanding of the whole message of the Bible, the word inserted is almost always ‘of’.  As is: the faith of Christ.  In using ‘of’ it places the redemptive work of saving grace fully on Jesus, not on us.

While it is true that we often live as if faith ‘in’ Jesus is what matters, wrongly thinking that somehow our own actions will save us.  In using ‘faith in Christ’ we are trying to take a role in something that is solely the work of God.  It was Jesus’ faith alone that led Him to the cross and it is God alone who offers us grace – that unmerited, undeserved free gift of love.  Our role is simply to live into the faith of Jesus Christ in God that allowed Him to go to the cross.

Once we can accept this and begin to understand the faith of Christ in His saving act, then this initiates a response on our part.  Once we wrap our heads around this great gift, then we begin to live our life as a grateful response to this gift and to His love.  As one of my devotionals put it this morning, we begin to “embrace a cross-shaped faithfulness of our own”.  In embracing this we understand and begin to live out God’s desire and plan to make all things new and to restore all of creation, bringing healing to all brokenness.

We understand that we ourselves are made new as children of God.  We respond by inviting and bringing others into this right relationship with God.  We respond by seeking to bring healing and restoration to the brokenness of our world.  The faith OF Jesus Christ dwells in us and shines out into the world through our lives.  This is the gift a faithful follower of Jesus Christ offers back to a world in need.


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Excellent and Consistent

Reading: Galatians 2: 15-21

Whenever we as Christians allow ourselves to be identified with something or someone other than Christ, we have gone astray.  When we are not living fully for Christ, then we are less than God intends us to be.  When we compartmentalize our faith to Sunday mornings and maybe even to a quiet time each day, then we are denying our faith in Christ most of the time.  Our faith must permeate all of our life all of the time.

Think of a famous and successful company.  They are not excellent some of the time.  Not just some of the products or services they offer are high quality.  They do not meet the needs of their customers just some of the time.  Those companies that are successful are always striving to do their very best, to build brand loyalty, and to always improve.  At times they may indeed fail, but then they work doubly hard to correct whatever went wrong to insure that it is not repeated.

As Christians we too must seek to be excellent and consistent.  When we declare that we are a follower of Jesus Christ, then we have set the bar really high.  We are not aligning ourselves with a mediocre product, but with someone who was excellent and consistent with everything he did.  We cannot say we love all people and then turn our backs on some because they are different or simply because they are hard to love.  We cannot say ‘use me God’ and then decide we would just rather watch TV or go to the lake today.  We cannot declare Jesus Lord and Master and then go off and do our own thing, living as if Christ did not exist.

We must love so unconditionally that others are amazed and stop to wonder.  We must say and do things for God that are uncommon and cause others to halt in their tracks and ponder why we are so giving.  We must begin each day in prayer, seeking to discern His guidance and direction for our day and then respond by going where He leads.  May it be so.


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All

Reading: Galatians 1: 11-24

Paul, as the most zealous persecutor of the early church, was probably the most unlikely to become one of the great apostles of the early church.  He was about as far as one could be from Jesus Christ.  His mission in life was to wipe this new faith off the face of the earth.  Yet God, in His amazing grace, claimed Paul to be one of His own.  God took the one who persecuted, imprisoned, and even murdered Christians and made him into an excellent witness for Jesus and the church.  Paul realizes this miraculous change in his life and it becomes his call to ministry.  If God could reclaim him, God could reclaim anyone.  Paul also sees in Jesus another example of one who would reclaim any and all.  In his own life and in the example of Jesus, Paul came to know a God who loved everyone and desperately wanted all to be a child of God.  This became Paul’s mission as an evangelist supreme.

It was primarily through Paul that the church came to really understand Jesus’ command to ‘make disciples of all nations and peoples’.  Jesus really meant all.  The grace that Paul experienced was a grace that all people everywhere were intended to experience as well.  Paul was so gripped by God and Christ’s presence in him that he sought to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, to all of the known world.

Paul’s life is an excellent example for us in two ways.  First, God will use anyone to spread the gospel.  If God chose and used Paul, all of us are fair game.  There is no one that God cannot use, no one that He does not want to use.  Second, Paul taught us that we need to share Christ with all people.  Through his own transformation, Paul knew the need for transformation in all people’s lives.  He sought to help all to come to know Christ so that they too could experience His transforming grace in their lives.  This day and every day may we, like Paul, live into God’s call on our lives to be both examples and witnesses to the transformation that God has made in us, so that all we know may come to experience the same in their lives.


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Lived Out through Us

Reading: Psalm 146

God is steadfast and true.  God loves the righteous.  God seeks to lift up those who are bowed down.  His desire is to bring relief to their suffering and to put an end to the oppression and injustices they face.  How does our God of compassion and love lift up the bowed down?  He sends the righteous, those who have received His favor and blessing, to minister in His name.  He sends you and me.

It is God alone who can restore a person’s soul and who can make a new creation from within.  It is God who sends the righteous faithful to engage the bowed down, oppressed, and suffering.  It is God who has given us each gifts and talents and blessings to share with others to lift them up, to help them in their struggles.  We can be there to offer much, but it is God alone who can transform their lives and hearts.

God desires to use us in many ways.  We are each uniquely gifted and blessed as the body of Christ so that we can corporately minister to a wide variety of situations and needs.  Some are the feet of Christ who enter into brokenness to lift shame and guilt so that hope can begin to enter in.  Some of us are the hands of Christ, entering in and offering a hand up so that one can begin to be above water again.  Some of us are His eyes, restoring value and worth to someone who thought they had none.  Some of us are God’s voice, speaking out against injustice and oppression, seeking to make things right.  Some of us are His ears, listening to the stories that need heard and retold so that others may find or experience positive change in their lives.

God loves all of His children equally.  Some do not even know that they are a child of God.  This day may we collectively be His feet, hands, eyes, voice, and ears so that all may begin to experience His love, lived out through our witness, example, and presence.


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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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Love, Unity, Love

Reading: John 17: 20-26

In the prayer we read for today, Jesus is praying for His disciples and for all disciples who will follow in His footsteps.  He is praying for those who call on Him now and He will be praying for each generation of disciples who follow Him until He returns.  Jesus prays for unity, love, and a connection to God.

Jesus prays that we may be one.  He is praying for a big ‘we’ here.  He prays not only for a disciples connection to Him, but also for a connection to God.  It is through knowing Jesus that one comes to know God.  Jesus then takes this a step further in praying for the unity of all believers with one another.  In the immediate time it was for His disciples as they were about to face losing Jesus and for the new church that would emerge and grow in the midst of persecution and trial.  And Jesus is praying for each disciple who will follow and become a part of building His church now and in the future.  Unity in the body of Christ remains essential to the growth of the kingdom.

Jesus also prays that His disciples be known for love.  It is love alone which brings unity.  It was love alone that guided all that Jesus said and did.  It is love alone that connects disciples past, present, and future into a personal relationship with Jesus and therefore with God.  It is love alone that should guide how the world comes through Jesus as we witness to our faith.  When the church is love, the church shares Jesus in a most powerful way.  When non-believers question why someone is loving them in an unexpected, radical way, Jesus is beginning to work in their hearts.

This day may we find ways to be love.  Maybe it will be as the body in worship and fellowship.  Maybe it will be with a stranger who crosses our path, either in church or later in the day.  May the love of Christ that is within us pour out into all we meet this day.


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His Witness

Reading: Ephesians 1: 15-23

Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus is that the Holy Spirit would bring wisdom and revelation to the church so that they would know Jesus better.  Paul lists three reasons why he is praying this prayer: to know the HOPE of salvation; to know the riches of the larger church; and, to gain a sense of His power.

It is one thing to know who Jesus is.  A good teacher.  A man with the power to perform miracles.  A moral example.  Yes, Jesus is all of these things.  But to know Jesus more, to the depth of calling on Him as Lord and Savior, requires faith and belief that He is the Son of God.  Once our ‘knowledge’ of Jesus has reached this place, then we begin to live for Him and not for self, knowing that our salvation, the eternal rescue of our spirit, rests firmly in His hands.

As we become a part of a community of faith we become richer.  The fellowship, worship, mentoring, accountability, and love of the faithful makes our lives so much better.  In turn we too can discover and offer the gifts that God has bestowed upon us to enrich the lives of the church and the world in which we live.  These experiences of sacrificially giving of self to others and receiving from others unconditionally opens the way for us to begin to sense His power at work.  It is through these acts of love and sacrifice that we begin to truly live as Jesus lived.  As we connect others to Him, we ourselves deepen our relationship with Jesus as well.

May we be His witness and example today, growing in our knowledge of Jesus Christ by following Him in all we do today.


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New Jerusalem

Reading: Revelation 21: 10 & 22-27

In our community, and perhaps in yours, there is a large diversity of places of worship.  There are not only a variety of Christian denominations but other faiths as well.  In a smaller community the diversity is probably less and in a larger city the diversity is probably greater.  Diversity implies a positive.  Diversity adds variety.  Diversity can also bring out our differences and can create divides.  Yet we must remember that our call is to go out and make new disciples of all nations.  When we do this, we must do this in love.

Today’s passage speaks of a time when all will worship God alone.  When the new Jerusalem comes down, it will be heaven here on earth.  There will be no places of worship because all everywhere will worship God alone.  His glory will light up the city all the time; there will be no night.  In God there is no darkness.  The city’s gates will never be closed.  The text says that nothing impure will enter the city.  All in the new Jerusalem will be holy as He is holy.

One of my favorite parts of confirmation every year is our trip to a large city.  We visit a mosque, a synagogue, and an Orthodox Church.  At each house of worship we meet with the leader who shares about their faith and answers any questions we have.  Each visit builds our understanding of others who are not like us in our beliefs.  It also offers us an opportunity to talk to about why we believe what we believe.  It is a great experience that enriches my life and my faith every year.  After each stop I pray for God’s word in Christ to one day be revealed to them. Knowing God’s plan for eternity, may we pray for all not on a journey towards the new Jerusalem to join us on our walk as God calls all of us heavenward.


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Faithful to Minister

Reading: Acts 16: 13-15

When Paul and company arrive in Philippi, they go down to the river because they think it may be a place to pray.  The city has no synagogue or church.  They find some women there praying and they strike up a conversation with them.  God is continuing to guide and lead Paul as he continues to work to spread the gospel.

It turns out these women are praying to God, so they are open to hearing Paul’s witness about Jesus.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul’s words hit home in one of the women’s hearts.  Lydia and her household believe and are baptized into Christ.  This encounter leads her to open her home to these traveling evangelists.  Lydia provides the base of operations from which Paul and companions can continue to share the gospel.

Each day of our lives God and the Holy Spirit lead us to opportunities to share our faith in Jesus Christ with others.  Every day.  It may be that our faithful witness comes simply through how we live our lives.  Those around us experience Jesus simply by being in our company.  At other times we are called to verbally witness to our faith.  One of those who have been observing may finally ask by we are so loving, caring, compassionate…  Or maybe one is finally open to the conversation we have tried to start a few times and God leads us in the witnessing to our faith.

There are many people searching for meaning in and a center for their lives.  God is the only one who can truly fill these needs in us and only He can bring true contentment, peace, understanding, …  Paul’s vision was of a man calling him to Macedonia.  When he arrived, God placed Lydia before him.  Paul was faithful to minister to who God placed before him.  May we too be willing to minister to whomever God places before us and to witness to our faith to any and all that God brings our way.


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Open, Loving, Welcoming

Reading: Revelation 1: 4-8

At times our churches and faith can be private or exclusive is one is not already a member.  Sometimes we do this by using insider language or by expecting guests or seekers to know how we do things or to look and behave just like we do.  Although most churches genuinely work at and desire to be welcoming and inviting, sometimes we are not.  In the same way, most Christians know Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations; we just do not live with this as our primary focus.  We inadvertently put up barriers or fences that in essence keep non-believers and the unchurched outside of our institutions.  On a personal level, we can judge or choose to keep separate from those we see as sinners and unsaved.

If we are truly living as a witness to the love of Christ, we will seek to be more inclusive and inviting and will work to be less judgmental and isolated.  Jesus’ radar was always on.  He was so sensitive to the needs He sensed in people.  Jesus did not allow social or cultural or any other norms to tell Him how to deal with someone.  He simply recognized what they needed and what He could offer and acted accordingly.  Jesus seemed to be friend to all as relationship was the basis of His ministry.  The forming of a relationship so often allowed Him to share Himself to meet their need.

Just as Jesus sought first and foremost to be welcoming and to quickly enter into relationships, so must we as His disciples and as His church.  People need Jesus, not our religion or our churches.  He is who or what we offer.  It is through faith and in the church that people come to know Jesus.  We all need to know His love and the saving grace offered by His blood.  To begin to know Jesus, one must experience Jesus in the love and witness of His followers.  This is what we have to offer.

As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we are privileged to live in His love as we enjoy a personal relationship with the savior of the world.  This relationship is something we are called to share with others.  Our opportunity may come within the walls of the church; it may come out there in the world.  May we be as open, loving, and welcoming as Jesus was as we seek to live as His witness in and through our lives.