pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: close


by Leave a comment

Our Call

Today is Ash Wednesday.  Today Lent begins.  Lent is a time designated as a time of preparation.  Spiritual disciplines such as self-examination and repentance, self-denial, and fasting couple with practices such as prayer and reading and meditating on God’s Word to help us prepare ourselves for Easter.

Lent is often a time we choose to give something up.  This is a form of self-denial.  When we crave or notice what we chose to give up, we should draw close to God in prayer.  We are reminded that we are dependant on Him.  Fasting is another way we can deny self and draw closer to God.  In the same way, when we feel the hunger we draw close to God in prayer and seek His strength.  In one of the devotionals I read, the author wrote, “Fasting is an offering to God to overcome being and doing what we want so that we may be and do what God wants.”  We become less so that He can become more.

Lent should also be about other things we choose to do for God.  In today’s reading from Isaiah God calls us to feed the hungry, to care for the poor, to loosen the bonds of injustice, to free the oppressed.  God is seeking a just and fair world, a world where all are loved equally and where all have enough to meet their needs.

You and I have a role to play in this world that God wants to see.  Both personally and corporately we must be involved in healing our world.  Us as individuals and our churches as a whole can do much to restore this world.  Whether one person at a time or one issue at a time, God’s people must make a difference in this world.  It is our call.

Scripture reference: Isaiah 58: 1-12


by 1 Comment

Always Right There

At times the veil of unbelief is drawn over our eyes and the light is dimmed.  Our choices and decisions land us in a place away from God and we sense the separation.  Many things can get us to the place where we feel like we have lost our connection with God and all of these things are our own doing.

In these times of doubt or unbelief or spiritual dryness, it is the gods of this world that are ruling our life.  Allowing something or someone other than God to rule is a bad thing.  Yet even out of this bad place, we can grow closer to God and we can strengthen our faith.

Even when we have separated or disconnected from God, He is working to bring us back.  Whether through a person, through something we read or hear, through an experience we have – He is always seeking us.  God never gives up on the children He loves so dearly.

No matter what is separating us, we can always sense that God is still there.  Once we have come to know God and His love, that feeling is in our minds and is always something that we sense is missing when we are away from God.  The instant we reach out to reconnect, He is right there to gladly welcome us home.

In those moments or seasons, help us God to remember this simple prayer offered to Jesus: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

Scripture reference: 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6


by Leave a comment

Through Reading and Prayer and Action

When we read and pray through the Bible, we are making  choice to spend time with God and Jesus.  We see God’s power, might, love, mercy and sense of justice revealed as we read and pray through the Old Testament.  We also draw closer to our creator and become more in tune with God.  Even Jesus spent time reading and praying through the scriptures in the synagogue.

In the New Testament we encounter Jesus, God made flesh.  In reading and praying through the New Testament we come to know the compassion, forgiveness, grace, and love of neighbor – parts of God that Jesus more fully revealed to us.  Through Jesus Christ we gain a more complete understanding of who God is and who we are called to be as a child of God and as a disciple of Christ.

As we read and pray through the scriptures, the Holy Spirit comes alongside us to help us understand, to gain insights, and to live out our faith.  The Holy Spirit also bring sus the words to teach our faith to our children and as we share our faith with the stranger.  The Spirit guides us as we live out our faith through acts of mercy and compassion, helping us to live out the love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and power we find in God and in Christ Jesus.

As we read and pray through the scriptures, we not only come to know and understand God and Jesus better, but also to sense our own personal call to share our faith with the broken world in which we live.  By sharing our faith, we express both an act of worship to God and an act of thanksgiving for the many ways in which He blesses our lives.  In James 4:8 we read: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”.  May we draw near so that we may draw others near as well!

Scripture reference: Psalm 78: 1-4 and 12-16


by Leave a comment

Our Connection

In Youth group, their favorite way  to pray is in a circle, their own arms criss-crossed, holding each other’s hand.  A squeeze passes the prayer around the circle.  After someone closes, we raise arms and spin out away from the circle.  If you asked them why they like to pray this way, they would tell you it is because we spin at the end.  I think they also like being connected to each other through touch.

Sometimes the ‘squeeze’ moves around the circle like lightning.  Sometimes two middle school boys see who can ‘hold’ each other’s hand  the tightest.  And sometimes a Youth or an adult shares a heart-felt prayer.  You can feel the love and the focus and the energy zoom right in on them.  It is pretty cool.

Prayer is such a powerful weapon – for us to find guidance, peace, comfort, strength, … and to ward off Satan.  Prayer is our personal connection to God.  Prayer is how we call on the almighty and how we draw close to Him.  Come close often.