pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: death


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Promises

Reading: Revelation 21: 1-6

Our world and sometimes our lives can be filled with pain and death and oppression and injustice.  Sometimes these are things we must endure and get through.  Sometimes they are things from afar that we may be able to alleviate through our engagement with the causes or by providing relief in some form.  And sometimes they are things we see from afar and are powerless to affect the pain, suffering…

In Revelation we read that in the new heaven and earth, all will be made new.  Coupled with the promise that there will be no more pain, tears, death, or mourning, the vision is for a place where all is good, where happiness and joy abound.  It will be a place where all are content and where God’s love fills everyone and everything.

Sometimes, when one is locked in a deep struggle where there seems to be no hope and where there seems to be no way out, this promise of all things being made new is all one has to hold onto.  We are reminded that God’s word is trustworthy and true.  One day all will be made new and right.  God also reminds us that He is the beginning and the end.  This also means that He created each one of us and that He longs for us to return to Him, to dwell with Him.

When these are our promises, we can always look to the future and find at least this sliver of hope.  In our lives we will draw on these promises from time to time.  We will also have opportunities to share these promises with others.  May we ever look to our everlasting God and ever seek to share His promises with the lost and hurting.


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Never Lets Go

Reading: Psalm 23

Verse four reads, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.”  In my mind this triggers a song that uses this line.  The song refers to God’s perfect love casting out fear.  The pre-chorus begins with “And I will fear no evil” and goes on with, ‘because my God is with me’ then poses the question” ‘whom then shall I fear?’

In life we certainly have times when we do walk in the shadow of death.  The ‘death’ may be a physical loss of a dear friend or loved one, but it can also include the loss of a friendship or the end of a job, the end of a marriage or moving to a new town.  Some of these losses are new beginnings in life so there is joy as well, but we must also acknowledge the sadness of what is no more.

In Psalm 23 we get a palpable sense of loss for David.  We also get a real sense of his confidence that God will always be there.  David has experienced his share of dark times and has learned that God continues to remain present through these times as well.

This is something we tend to learn the hard way.  We tend to be individualistic and to try and do things on our own.  Too often we turn to God only when all of our own efforts have failed.  But as we do this over and over, we come to realize our need for God sooner and sooner and we turn to Him quicker and quicker.  We come to learn what David learned: God is always there.

The chorus to the song rings out, ‘Oh no, you never let go; in every high and every low; oh no, you never let go; Lord, you never let go of me.’  In every high and especially in every low, may we always remember that God never lets go of us.  May we cling to Him, for He is always present, always seeking to hold us close.


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Each Day

Reading: Revelation 1: 4-8

Part of our experience of Holy Week was the grief of knowing that Jesus had to die for our sins.  There is a personal connection for each of us to Jesus’ act on the cross.  He not only died for the people’s sins who were living in His time, but for all sin of all people in all time.  We are included, we have a share in the cross.  Through the cross, we also have hope.

In the book of Revelation, John again reminds us that Jesus will come again.  He writes, “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”.  There is not a doubt that one day Jesus will return.  The day is known only to God.  So in the interim God brings us peace.  He removes the guilt of our sin so that we may ever be kneeling at the foot of the cross with our eyes turned to Jesus, the light and love of the world.

John also reminds us that Jesus too offers us grace and peace each day.  Because if His love for us, He frees us from our captivity to sin.  Jesus calls us out of this life to a life lived in His grace and peace.  He calls us into living an abundant life now, serving as priests working to build His kingdom here on earth.

To do so we must cast aside the disobedience that is within and strive to live the true life of faith that brings purpose to our days.  Jesus said, ” I am the alpha and the omega, who was, and is, and is to come “.  He is the beginning and the end and He is everlasting.  For each of us to find God’s renewing grace each day and for us to have true life now, we must live with Jesus as Lord and Savior at the beginning of each day, at the end of each day, and at all times in between.  May it be so.


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Bold as Nicodemus

Reading: John 19: 38-42

Jesus has died and His body hung on the cross.  The other two who had been crucified with Jesus have also died.  The excitement of the crucifixions is over so the jeering crowds, the curious onlookers, and the followers who loved Jesus have all drifted away.  The three bodies hang on the crosses.  It is a desolate image.  It is a hard reality to envision this image.  It seems a time without hope.

It is at this point that Nicodemus steps once again into the story.  He goes to Pilate and asks for Jesus’ body.  This seems an odd choice for a Pharisee and a member of the ruling council.  But it is evidence of Nicodemus’ growing faith and belief in Jesus.  We recall first meeting Nicodemus in John 3 when he went under cover of night to talk with Jesus.  Here he hears the message that he must be born again.  A few chapters later Nicodemus utters a brief and almost half-hearted defense of Jesus as the chief priests and Pharisees debate what to do with this Jesus.  Perhaps Nicodemus was one of those cheering on the parade route a few days earlier and then was among the crowd a few days later that shouted, “Crucify Him”! Through all of this we see Nicodemus’ faith growing, his love deepening, to the point he is willing to go to Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body.

But perhaps Nicodemus’ story is not so unfamiliar to us.  We can all think back to the first times we really wondered who this Jesus was.  Was He more than the Bible stories?  Could I really have a personal relationship with Jesus?  So we began to question and to seek answers.  As we learned more and came to love Him more, we too came to a point of timidly defending Jesus and our faith in Him.  It may have seemed unimportant at the time, but upon reflection we are it as another turning point on our journey of faith.  And then we get to the point in our faith where we find Nicodemus at in today’s story: willing to stand and be counted as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  This day may we be as bold as Nicodemus, declaring our faith in Jesus Christ to any and all.


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In the Light

Reading: John 12: 20-36

As Jesus is speaking of His own impending death He is also calling us to be willing to offer our earthly life as well.  This does imply a faith we are willing to die for.  But it also speaks of us dying to self and all of the earthly desires that compete with the divine nature within us.  As a means of encouragement, Jesus reminds us that when a seed dies it produces a crop.  When we are willing to surrender our all to Jesus, then our old self falls to the ground and dies as our new self rises up to produce a harvest of faith.

Jesus encourages us to walk in the light.  When we have chosen to give up our old self we are choosing to step out of the darkness.  The darkness can hide our imperfections and defects.  When we step away from the darkness and into the light of Jesus Christ, we begin to see that the ways we were living were not pleasing to God.  We realize that we were living to please and glorify self.  And just as the dawn rises and light slowly creeps across the landscape, so too does His light.  As we grow in our faith, the light continues to shine into dark corner after dark corner as He continues to refine us.

This choice of laying aside self and walking in His light is a hard choice.  Jesus acknowledges the hard choice that He too faced and yet recognizes that this is why He came – to offer His all for you and me.  He leaves us no wiggle room as well.  He wants us to feel our discomfort over having to choose light or dark.  He urges us on, asking us to put our trust in the light so that we might become sons of light, heirs of an eternal inheritance, receivers of the gift of true life.


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Oh What Love

Readings: Psalm 31: 14-15, Psalm 118:1, Isaiah 50:7, and Philippians 2:9

Today we celebrate both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday.  With palms we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  It is an event filled with joy yet tinged with sadness as well.  This happy parade marks the beginning of Holy Week.  The events of this week will contain a good deal of despair but in the end hope is triumphant.  The passion of Jesus for humanity reveals the depth of His love for us.

Today’s Psalm readings remind us of the truth and steadfastness of God.  In Psalm 31 we are reminded to trust God because He WILL deliver us.  Yes, there will be trials, but He will see us through them.  Psalm 118 reminds us of the why: because God is good and because His love endures forever.  When we choose to fully trust our lives to God, we discover that He will deliver us each and every time because of the depth of His love for us.

That depth of love allowed His own Son to be tried, tortured, and crucified because God knew that death would not have the last word.  God knew that the grave could not contain His Son.  God knew that love is stronger than death.  So sin was  heaped upon Jesus on that cross.  He bore them all as the perfect sacrifice.  Oh what depth of love the Father has for you and me!  Oh what love.


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The Power to Save

Today is All Saints’ Day, a day we remember the faithful who have died in the past year.  For our church, twenty pictures will be shown and twenty names read.  With the reading of each name we will remember the grace, faith, and love that each person shared with their life.  We will recall how we ministered and witnessed alongside each as well.  And we will again celebrate the victory won by each through their saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Today’s reading is the story of Lazarus.  Jesus arrives late at the scene – four days after he has died.  Mary, Martha, and many family and friends are grieving.  Mary voices what many are thinking, “If only you’d arrived sooner.”  They believe Jesus could have healed him.  Jesus is touched deeply.  He cries for his friends and is moved to do something extraordinary.  Jesus raises Lazarus to life.  Was it to alleviate the intense sadness felt by all?  Was it to give a glimpse of the victory to be won over death in Jesus’ resurrection?  Was it both?

On this day and in this story we are reminded that Jesus is there with us in our lives.  He cried and hurt for his friend Lazarus and for those who grieved for him.  In our grief He hurts right along with us as well.  We are also reminded that death does not have the last word.  For all the saints we recognize today and one day for us as well, Jesus has the power to save.  May we too all one day hear, “Well done good and faithful servant” as we each experience Jesus’ victory over death.

Scripture reference:  John 11: 32-44


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His Promise

Job wrestles with the question many people wrestle with: why did this happen to me?  In general, we view the world as good and God as loving and caring.  Most people believe these things to be true.  Yet for most, believers included, we almost always ask the ‘why  question when unexplained or unjust suffering and trials come our way.  It is a natural question to ask.  We wrestle with this question, because at least a little, in our minds, we think that if we are faithful that no bad should come our way.  We track right along with Job’s thinking.  This too is a natural thought process.

In Job’s day the common understanding was that if evil or bad befell someone, it was because of sin.  For example, if one were blind it was because of sin in their life or in their parent’s life.  This idea is backed up by the experience of the nation of Israel.  Sin causes separation from God, then they experience trial, exile, or some other calamity.  The view that God blessed Israel with peace, victory… when they were faithful was also a dominant belief.  We mostly hold these beliefs today as well.  Good brings good and evil brings evil is still a common thought process.  It also holds generally true in life: if you are nice to someone, usually they are nice in return.  The reverse is also true.

Job was seen as righteous and good in his pre-trial life.  Once the bad befell him, his wife and friends assumed he had sinned.  They thought, Why else would God do this?  But Job knew he was still faithful, upright, blameless.  So he asked God the ‘why?’ question.  God’s response was big questions that did not really answers Job’s question.  God asked Job is he could bring floods or lightning or even rain.  He asked if he could provide prey for the lion or food for the raven.  He asked if Job was there at the creation of the earth.  The questions do not provide an answer but turn Job back inward.

God created a world that is good and has order and logic.  There is both good and evil.  Both must exist if we are to have free will.  God does not force us to obey Him or to be faithful to Him.  We do so out of love.  We love because He first loved us.  Love is our grateful response to the love God poured out in Jesus Christ.  In life there is free will and logical consequences.  The world was created as good, not as perfect.  Perfect will be the new heaven when Christ returns.  So some rains waters the crops and some rains flood the fields.  Illness and death are part of life.  So is birth and good health.  Like Job, in the midst of our pain and suffering we ask ‘why?’  But the answer is elusive.  It does not come in many cases.  But the promise we receive in Christ is not elusive: Jesus saves all who call on His name and through His saving grace we will all one day enter that perfect world.  Hold onto the promise.  Live the promise.  Share the promise.

Scripture reference: Job 38: 34-41


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Jesus Our Hope

In a physical sense we are much like all other living creatures.  We share much of the same DNA.  In addition, some animals have a language, some use tools, and some even have social orders and live in families.  All of the living creatures on earth experience illness and death.  The feelings of loss and pain associated with death are exhibited by many others species as well.

Two of the things though that separates humanity from other creatures is our superior intellect and our reasoning ability.  As time has evolved we have come to understand the intricacies of the human body and have sought means to extend life.  To be alive is awesome and amazing so we fight to preserve life.  Over time in our society the act of death has developed a fear and has become something to be avoided at almost all cost.  For many there is a meaninglessness and an unknown to dying.  For those without faith, there is a finality that has no hope and peace in death.

Jesus became incarnate so that ultimately He could experience suffering and death.  This sounds so countercultural because it is.  Yes, Jesus also come to put a human face and example on God’s great love for us.  But in the end Jesus came to suffer and die in sacrificial love for us.  He willingly bore the cross and the weight of our sins.  Through His blood He paid the cost for us to have eternal life.

In Hebrews we are reminded that all of creation is subject to Jesus.  Yet out of love for us He allowed Himself to the subject to death.  For all who call on Jesus as Lord and Savior, we find grace and forgiveness.  In Jesus we know that death does not have the final word.  In Him rests our eternal hope and a peace that passes understanding in the midst of death.  Jesus is our hope.  Thank you Jesus.

Scripture reference: Hebrews 2: 5-12


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Willing, Trusting, Obedient

When danger or death is on the horizon it brings up feelings of fear and doubt and sorrow in many.  It can be almost paralyzing.  In a few it stirs up courage and determination and focus.  No matter what your first reaction to the realization that life hangs in the balance, the second must be to connect to God in prayer.

When Haman secured the decree to blot out the Jews, Mordecai put on sackcloth and went to the city gate to fast and pray.  He invited other Jews to join him.  Esther got word of this and sent him clothes.  He rejected them because he know this was a time of great need.  He also realized that God had called upon him to stir up Esther so that she may see her role as well.  He knew that the time of her divine appointment was upon her.

When Esther came to terms with the fact that this was indeed the moment for which God placed her in the palace, she accepted her role.  She set her mind on fasting and praying for three days and invited all the Jews in the city to join her.  Esther did not want prayers for someone else to step up or for God himself to intervene.  She wanted prayers that her role in this would be blessed by God.  In Esther there was no fear because her hope lay in God alone.

From time to time we are each faced with something that puts us to the test.  It may be concerning health or employment or family relationships.  There will also be times when we are not directly affected but do have a hand in the situation and its solution.  In today’s text we see an example of willing servants who trusted their very lives into God’s hands.  Because of their relationship with God they did not fear any outcome.  Each walked into their divine appointment fully trusting God.  Lord, instill in me such a willing heart, such a trusting soul, and such an obedient mind.

Scripture reference: Esther 9: 20-22