pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Your Love

Reading: Mark 12: 28-34

Verses 30 and 31: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… soul… mind… and strength… Love your neighbor as yourself”.

If I had to choose one word to describe God and Jesus, it would be love. Love defines so many of their thoughts, words, and actions. It is no surprise that Jesus identifies loving God and loving each other as the most important commands in the Bible. Love is why Jesus died for us. Love is how others will know we are His disciples. Faith, hope, and love abide – but the greatest of these is love.

Jesus loved God with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength. This love is reflected in many ways. Jesus loved God’s Word. The Bible reveals who and what God is and to spend time getting to know God is a way to love God more. Jesus knew the scriptures. Jesus was obedient to God. In always following God’s will, Jesus demonstrated love through obedience. He aligned Himself with God, being God’s extension of love here on earth. Jesus modeled God’s love in the ways that He loved those that He encountered. Jesus revealed God’s love for humanity in the interactions and relationships that He lived out while here on earth.

Our love for God should reveal itself in the same ways that it did in Jesus’ life. We should spend time daily in the Word, getting to know God better so that we can love God more fully. Our obedience to God’s will and way should show our complete love for God. And, like Jesus, the love of God should flow out of our hearts and into the lives of all we meet. The love we have for God should go out to all of God’s children. No matter who our neighbor is at any particular moment, in them we should see a fellow child of God and we should love them as God loves us and as God loves them.

Like God and Jesus, may all know us as love. May our words, actions, and thoughts reveal the love of God in us to a world that needs to know that love.

Heavenly Father, in you is love. May I dwell and rest in you today. May your love in me become more and more complete. May it be so. Amen.


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Love First

Reading: Psalm 138

Verse Eight: “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever”.

Each day and each encounter provides us with an opportunity to draw close to God, to worship God. Psalm 138 is a Psalm of praise from King David. It praises God for His love and faithfulness. It encourages us to “sing of the ways of the Lord”. It speaks of God preserving our lives when we walk in the midst of trouble. The Psalm is a powerful reminder of God’s love for us, His dear children.

These few days at Annual Conference have been filled with worship. Sometimes the songs and worship have been slow and reflective. Sometimes the songs have been upbeat and energetic. Sometimes the music has been loud and passionate. Our worship has also included much besides music. We have shared scripture and been blessed by the proclamation of the Word by several gifted pastors. Through each of the messages and the conference itself, the idea of “love first” has been the focus. To me, this is what our worship should do. In all of our styles and in all if the components of worship, our worship should first express our love of God.

Verse eight today reads, “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever”. When we offer our lives as a living sacrifice to God’s love, then we experience a love that lasts forever. When we surrender our lives to God, we begin to live into and to live out an everlasting love. In doing so, we discover the first half of our verse: our purpose. We are all created to love as Jesus first loved us: fully and completely. There is no greater love than the love we see modeled by Jesus. May our lives today be living acts of worship, overflowing with the grace and mercy of God, as we seek to love first. May it be so for me and for you. Amen.


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Worship

Reading: Psalm 29

Verse Eleven: “The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace”.

Psalm 29 evokes images we read about in Isaiah 6 – the power and splendor and Majesty of God. God’s voice is central to this Psalm. By telling of the ways God uses His voice seven times the psalmist is evoking thoughts of wholeness and perfection. The use of seven also implies that God is in total and complete control of the earth and all that is in and on it.

It is within this all-encompassing power of God that we live our day to day lives in this earth. For me this brings emotions of attraction and awe to our God. In a way it reminds me of the power one can feel in a good thunder storm. I like to sit outside as the big storms draw near – seeing the bright lightning flashing and hearing and feeling the powerful rolls of thunder. It connects me to God.

The Psalm closes with a picture of God enthroned. God sits on the throne as king forever. This evokes ideas of worship in me. Imagining this scene, I am led to visualize bowing low before the throne, bringing my praise and adoration to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I too want to shout, “Glory”!

The psalmist closes with this line: “The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace”. It is a great reminder. As all-powerful and almighty as our God is, He still desires to be in an intimate and personal relationship with each of us. It is through this relationship that God blesses us. The God of all is also my God and your God. Amazing. Praise be to God!


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Filled with Joy

Reading: John 15: 9-11

Verse Eleven: “…so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete”.

Jesus loves you. Jesus loves me! He invites us to remain in His love. It is a wonderful place to be – in Jesus’ love. Jesus tells us that to remain in His love we must obey His commands. Jesus obeyed God’s commands and remained in God’s love. He invites us to do the same. Why is Jesus telling us this? “…so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete”. Love brings joy. Jesus loves you and me.

Love brings joy primarily two ways. One way is by feeling loved. As children, when we felt especially loved by our parents, we felt joy in our hearts. The first time you kissed your first love, you felt joy in your heart. When we experience the love of God in the ways He interacts with and intercedes in our lives, we feel joy in our hearts. For example, today when we partake in communion and once again remember the love that Jesus poured out with His life, we will feel joy in our hearts.

The second way we can have our joy made complete is by being Jesus’ hands and feet, by bringing His light and love to others. When we take time to stop our busy lives to love and serve another in need, the Lord fills our hearts with joy. This happens frequently for me on mission trips. It can be through the changes I can see happening as God goes to work in that young person’s life. It can be in the absolute gratitude expressed by someone we have blessed with a handicap ramp or new roof. And sometimes this joy sneaks up on you. It happens when someone you have not seen in a while comes up to you and says, “Do you remember the time when…?” and goes on to tell you how much what you did or said meant to them. They say it made the difference. Your heart is suddenly filled with joy.

Jesus’ command was to love as I have loved you. His love was limitless and knew no bounds; it was given to all. Jesus loves you and me. May we go forth and love as He loves you and me. Amen and amen!


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Worship Fully

Reading: Psalm 111

Verse Seven: “The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy”.

The psalmist feels all-in to me. He does not just love God a little. He loves God with all that he is. The psalmist declares that he will “extol the Lord with all my heart”. The love is complete and fills him up. He then praises the works and deeds of the Lord: great, glorious, majestic. These are all-in words too. The psalmist then remembers how God is gracious and compassionate, always providing for the people’s needs. Psalm 111 paints a picture of God being totally worthy of our praise and adoration. Verse seven is a nice summarizing verse: “The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy”. God is indeed worthy of all of our praise and adoration!

Today many of us will have the opportunity to praise and worship the Lord our God. May we enter our sanctuaries and meeting spaces with hearts turned fully to a God who desires to pour into us today, filling us with His love and compassion. May we focus on connecting on a deep and intimate level. Let us not come halfway but fully ready for God to meet us and change us today. Do not allow your worship to just be part of the routine, to just be something you did today. Jump all in and seek God with all your heart. Allow God to fully claim you today as you feel His loving presence wash over you today. Amen.


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Authority

Reading: Mark 1: 21-28

Verse 22: “The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority”.

Our passage from Mark 1 centers on Jesus’ authority. Authority is something we learn about early in life. As children, our parents have authority over us. Our parents are authority figures who love and care for us and who want the best for us. The next person we meet with some authority in our lives is usually our teacher. They too have a love for children and are focused on helping us to grow into intelligent and responsible young people. Soon enough we meet others who have authority in our lives: coaches, bosses, instructors. Although it can happen earlier in life, it is here that we begin to experience authority figures who do not have our well-being as the top priority. They begin to focus on things like success and performance and achievement. During the course of our lives, we certainly will encounter people with authority that we disagree with or even dislike. We may encounter authority figures who abuse their power or somehow else negatively impact us, altering our view of authority.

As Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum, those in the audience quickly recognize an authority to His teaching. Verse 22 reads, “The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority”. We have probably all had teachers or bosses who taught with authority because they were experts in their field. Jesus is an expert in His field: God. As Jesus teaches, a man possessed by demons calls out to Jesus and identifies Jesus’ authority: “You are the Holy One of God”. This man knows Jesus’ authority because of who Jesus is. As the Holy One of God, Jesus has ultimate authority. Using this, He casts out the demon. This adds a new level of authority for those in the synagogue that day – even evil spirits over Jesus.

In today’s passage, Jesus’ authority is recognized for what He knows, for who He is, and for what He can do. It is a complete authority. In our lives, do we recognize Jesus’ authority completely? Or do we try and keep a little control for ourselves? May we surrender completely to Jesus’ full authority, giving all of ourselves to Jesus today.