pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: faith


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Pour

Reading: 2 Timothy 3: 14-17

No one wakes up one day and finds themselves to be a fully developed, totally mature Christian.  Our walk of faith is a long journey, one that only ends when we stand before Jesus in eternity.  Who we are today as a believer is not who we will be in a year or in a decade.  Even though we never get “there”, we are all on a ‘journey towards perfection ‘, as John Wesley liked to say.

No one journeys alone.  In our passage today, Paul speaks of Timothy knowing the Scriptures since infancy.  Earlier in 2nd Timothy Paul speaks of Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice living out and teaching their faith to him.  Then Paul joins this “great cloud of witness” as he too pours into and mentors Timothy.  To this crowd Paul also adds the Scriptures.  In the Word of God there is much instruction and guidance too.

Over the course of our faith lives we find people who poured into us.  These persons could be a pastor, a boss, a spouse, a friend, a colleague.  People of faith in our lives have taught, mentored, encouraged, corrected, guided, and loved on us as they shared their faith with us so that ours would grow.  For each we are grateful and thankful and always indebted.

As we grow in our faith, at some point, we too become teachers, mentors, guides.  We see the spark of God light up in a new believer and the Holy Spirit leads us to walk alongside this person.  Like Paul, we pour into our friend new to the faith.  Like all those who poured into us, we in turn pour into others.  We too become part of that great cloud of witness.  We are blessed to be part of the family of God.  This pattern of discipleship began with Jesus, when He gathered 12 around Him and began to pour into them.  May we go and do likewise.


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To All in Need

Reading: Luke 17: 11-19

Our story begins today with Jesus travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee.  There is long-standing tension between the peoples of these two regions.  We see this tension revealed in several stories in the New Testament.  Some on both sides of this tension would travel many miles out of the way simply to avoid crossing the other’s territory.

Ten lepers called out to Jesus.  Ten call out in faith.  Jesus sees ten children of God calling out in faith to be healed.  Jesus brings healing to all ten.  He saw ten lepers.  Jesus did not see one Samaritan and nine Jews.  He saw ten lepers in need of healing.

Healing comes to all ten.  Jesus sees only the condition that has kept them isolated from society.  Jesus does not see ethnicity or age or gender or any other differentiating characteristic.  He only sees their faith that has led them to call out for healing.  Their faith is what Jesus responds to.

Through this story, Jesus is calling us to love in the same way.  He is calling us to love all people.  All people are God’s children, all need God’s love.  Jesus is calling us to look past ethnicity and age and gender and religion and socio-economic status and … “Love one another as I have first loved you”.  Fully, completely, without filter or limit or hesitation.

One came back to thank Jesus for His healing touch.  The one who came back was a Samaritan.  The one who most in Jesus’ audience would see as an outsider came back to fall at Jesus’ feet and to thank Him.  We too will encounter others who feel like outsiders, who feel unworthy of Jesus’ presence.  We too can reach out and offer hope and love and healing in the name of Jesus.  To all in need, may we offer Jesus Christ, the only one who can heal all.  To all in need, may we offer Jesus and His love.


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Suffering, Loving, Sacrifice

Reading: 2 Timothy 1: 8-14

“Join with me in suffering for the gospel”, Paul says to Timothy.  “Take up your cross and follow me”, says Jesus.  This idea that we too will suffer for our faith is a common refrain in the New Testament.  While most of us will certainly not face the cross like Jesus or be beaten and imprisoned like Paul, each of us will be called upon to willingly suffer for our faith.  To sacrifice is at the root of our faith.

Death and imprisonment do not threaten the typical Christian in the 21st century.  While we must acknowledge that this reality exists for some Christians in our world today, for most of us the suffering we are called to is of a different nature.  Some of the suffering we face will be caused by our faith.  For example, at times the choices to abstain from things or activities may bring a little persecution our way.  At other times choosing to speak up for one dealing with injustice or to stand up for one being bullied or abused may draw some negative attention our way.  Faith and following the way of Christ can lead to public suffering.

Our faith can also lead to more private suffering.  When we choose to give away or provide food or clothing or shelter to one in need it is at a cost to ourselves.  We live with less so another can have some.  When we choose time with God or church or family over work or some other secular pursuit we are sacrificing wealth or popularity or promotion.  This too can bring suffering.  When we choose to befriend or engage the outcast or ostracized or to walk with someone who is struggling in life, we sacrifice time and energy and may also open ourselves up to ridicule or persecution or some other form of suffering.  Faith calls us to live God with all we are and to love neighbor as Christ first loved us.  Faith asks us to place self after God and others.

As we live out our faith may we be willing to suffer and sacrifice so that all may come to know and experience Christ’s love, hope, and mercy through our extravagant love and servant’s sacrifice.


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Together 

Reading: 2 Timothy 1: 1-8

Paul and Timothy have a special bond.  Paul calls him “my dear son” and Timothy sees Paul as a father figure.  Paul has mentored Timothy and watched him grow in his faith.  Timothy has been poured into by Paul, both in terms of the knowledge of the faith and in how to live out that faith.  Again we read of tears.  Paul recalls Timothy’s tears at their last parting and declares that he longs to see Timothy again.  These tears are partly tears of sorrow but they also testify to the deep, deep connection that Paul and Timothy feel through Christ.

Paul encourages Timothy in these opening verses.  He first reminds him of the “sincere faith” that he sees in Timothy, a faith not only taught but passed down to Timothy.  He exhorts Timothy to “fan into flames the gift of God” which is present in and through the Holy Spirit.  In this section Paul finishes by encouraging Timothy to live out a bold faith, empowered by love and self-discipline.  The mentor is building up the pupil while he is physically distant.

But this is not a one-way street.  Paul also receives from Timothy.  Paul us writing Timothy at a time when he is in custody.  It is a time of suffering for Paul.  As he looks around Paul sees that he is all alone, that all have deserted him.  Paul is a prisoner for Christ and he is reaching out to Timothy, his dear friend.  In his suffering, Paul draws strength from the relationship he has with Timothy.  He also knows that Timothy will pray often for him and will be with him in spirit.

In our walk of faith we will have mentors who help us grow in our faith and at times we too will pour into others.  Our faith is a communal faith, one that is to be lived out together.  It is both a joy to walk alongside a brother or sister growing in Christ as well as to walk alongside them in their times of pain and suffering.  May the Lord bless each of us as we laugh and cry and grow together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.


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Contentment

Reading: 1 Timothy 6: 6-11

Paul calls us to what really matters in this life and in the life to come.  He states in verse six, “godliness with contentment is great gain”.  When we live a godly life and are content with God’s blessings, then we do find much joy, peace, and happiness.  But it can be a struggle to live this way all the time.

Even though Paul reminds us in verse seven that we brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out of it, sometimes we sure act differently.  We eye the latest cell phone, tablet, or other gadget.  We see the newest model of our favorite car and think our 2015 version is getting a bit old.  We hear the Jones’s got a new boat and we think it sure would be nice to take the kids out tubing or fishing anytime.  Pretty soon it can be easy to not be so content.

Paul spells it out very clearly when he says, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”.  He does not say money is bad but that the LOVE of money in bad.  This love causes us to pursue much instead of God.  When we love something more than God, soon enough we “wander from the faith” and we find ourselves”pierced with many griefs”.  Money, possessions, status, … do not last.  When we chase after such things all we want is more, more, more.  Enough never comes.

“Flee from all of this!” is Paul’s advice.  Instead, Paul encourages us to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.  When we fill our lives with these things, contentment is not far away.  When we pursue these things we soon realize the depth of God’s care and love for us, each a child of God.  When we realize this, we trust in God that all of our needs will be met and that our lives will be richly blessed no matter how much or how little we have.  When we live pursuing God, we find true contentment.  May God be our all in all.


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Much Rejoicing

Reading: Luke 15: 3-10

Today’s passage paints a fun image of heaven in my mind.  From the Bible we do not gain a crystal clear picture of what heaven will be like.  We do gain  an idea about some aspects of heaven, but much is a mystery.  But we can imagine!

In the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin there is much rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents.  This image for me wondering.  If the heavens rejoice when one lost soul is found, do the heavens also rejoice over each occurrence of love in Christ’s name?

We are called to grow in our fsith, to love others as Jesus Christ first loved us, and to spread the good news to all people.  Do each of these activities draw the interest of heaven as well?  In my mind I picture groups of angels watching over our daily lives.  As an opportunity to be Jesus’ hands and feet approaches us, do the angels slide up to the edge of their seats, quietly saying something like “Come on now”?  Is there a collective groan when we miss the opportunity or choose to let it slide by?  Is there a raucous cheer raised when we stop and love the one in need?

Does the same scene unfold each time we choose to sit down with our Bible instead of turning on the TV or hitting the snooze button?  Does the same scenario unfold each time we make the choice to do the right thing instead of the easy thing?  There must be much rejoicing in heaven each time the light of Christ is shined forth into the world.  Today may we give the angels in heaven many opportunities to raise a holy cheer!


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Beautiful and Useful

Reading: Jeremiah 18: 1-11

When working with clay, the potter molds the clay into what he or she intended it to be.  At times it became marred or flawed or not exactly what the potter had planned.  So the potter reshapes the clay so that it becomes something beautiful and useful.

Imagine if the clay had a mind of its own.  What would happen if the potter was trying to form a serving platter and the clay wanted to be a vase?  As the potter tried to smooth and flatten out the clay, the clay kept rising up.  Soon enough the potter would give up or would allow the clay to become a vase.  But the clay is not becoming what the potter intended.  To the potter the creation will never be as beautiful or useful as it could have been.  Although it may function as a base and hold water, the potter will not see it as beautiful.

Growing up God often shapes us through the hands of parents, teachers, Sunday school leaders, youth group leaders…  We are molded and shaped as young Christians.  Before we move on to becoming mature Christians, we often seek our own way.  Whether in high school or college or young adulthood, we start to see ourselves as the center of all things.  We think we know do much and decide we will be the ones calling the shots.  We are like the clay that wanted to become a vase.  Over the course of a few years or maybe decades, we wander far from God.

Yet the Creator’s love for us never wains.  God continues to bring us back to the purposes that were laid out for our lives before we were born.  God does not give up.  It is a love so great.  In time, the seeds of faith begin to sprout again for most of us.  We come to know God again and we begin to walk in God’s ways again.  We begin to become the beautiful and useful creation we were meant to be.  Life just seems better again because we are in the palm of God’s hands.  For your faithfulness, O God, we say thank you.


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Refuge

Reading: Psalm 71: 1-6

The psalmist is experiencing a rough season.  The writer desires to seek refuge in God and to find a place away from their attackers.  There are pleas for God to rescue and deliver, to save.  The psalmist turns to God for help.

At times in life we may also feel like we are under assault.  We may feel like things are stacked against us or that life is a lot uphill lately.  When this is just a day or maybe a few days in a row, we can usually lean on God to help push us through.  Soon enough we see daylight and are thankful for God’s presence and strength that helped us endure and remain faithful.  But what about those times when a few days turns into a few weeks, maybe longer?  It is in this place that we find the psalmist.

We can relate to the psalmist.  It feels as if attackers and other negative people are all around us.  We think we are remaining faithful and obedient to serving God.  So why the conflict?  Why the opposition?  It seems unfair and unjust.  It becomes a tipping point.

Maybe we have stepped where we shouldn’t.  Maybe we have followed our own plans instead of God’s.  So maybe the opposition is calling us into check, back into alignment with God.  Maybe the trial is to refine or define or purify our faith.  When we are deep in a time of trial the temptation can be to turn away from God and to run to something else.  So maybe the discomfort forces us to really look at our faith, to define or refine our trust in God, or to deepen our faith.  It may be a season that yields growth.

There will be times of conflict and opposition when we serve God.  It is Satan’s best trick – doubt, questioning, fear.  It is his attempt to derail us.  The psalmist wrote, “Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go”.  May the Lord our God always be our rock of refuge.  In God we can trust.


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Fix and Run

Reading: Hebrews 12: 1-2

Paul encourages us to “run the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus”.  It is a call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as we run the course that He marked out for us as He lived His earthly life.  There are challenges and days where it seems harder to run the race Jesus ran, but when we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the race is easier.  When we focus on the one ahead leading the race, it is easier to keep pace and to follow.

To keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we must connect to Him daily.  Prayer and study are our two primary ways.  Through reading and studying the scriptures each day we gain a better understanding of both the runners and the race.  In Jesus we find the perfect runner and we also see how to run the perfect race.  In the people Jesus encountered we see the runners who were struggling with the race and we hear Jesus’ words of wisdom and encouragement on running the race.  In these runners we often see our own struggles and hear the words Jesus spoke as words spoken to us as well.

Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus can be a challenge.  Paul begins the passage for today by encouraging us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles”.  Paul knows that much will try and garner our attention and focus.  He knows that much will try and hold us back from living a life dedicated to Jesus.  The many pressures society places on us can greatly hinder us if we cannot look past them and keep our eyes focused on Jesus.  Temptation is all around us.  Sin can easily entangle us and can keep us off the race track.  It is when we focus on Jesus that the sin and temptation loose their power over us.

May we fix our eyes on Jesus today and run our race with perseverance so that one day we too may know the joy of the cross.


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By Faith

Reading: Hebrews 11: 29-40

“By faith” they walked through a sea, by faith the walks of a mighty city simply fell down.  By faith the giant was slain, by faith three hundred routed the thousands.  By faith touching the hem of a garment brought healing, by faith a man walked on water.  By faith the people of God have done things that would have been impossible otherwise.  Each and every time someone trusted fully in what God was calling them to and the miraculous occurred.

These stories are not stories of someone getting a wild idea and then asking God to make it happen.  Each is the story of how God spoke into the heart of a faithful follower.  Each is the story of a person hearing or sensing the voice or nudge of God and being willing to trust enough in God to lead them to respond by faith.  One can only assume there are thousands upon thousands who heard or felt God leading them as well but instead ignored it or refused the call.  We know this because we each are one.

Each of us that have heard or felt God leading us to do or say or be something are not without faith because we hesitated or were fearful or doubted.  We are human.  Each of us have also had experiences where we did step out by faith, where we did trust in where God was leading us.  In these cases lived were affected and maybe some were changed.  Perhaps our life was one that was changed because we followed God’s lead.

Just as all those who have come before learned and trusted and came to walk with God, we too are learning and building trust and growing by faith in our walk with God.  Just as those such as Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel, Rahab, Stephen, Peter, Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., and many more lived by faith to positively affect our faith and our world, we too can have a mighty impact for the kingdom of God.  May we be willing and trusting servants to answer the call of God and to step by faith to do God’s will.