pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Trust

Reading: Genesis 22: 1-7

Verse Two: Then God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac… sacrifice him there”.

Abraham had a tremendous amount of respect for God.  They had a very good relationship.  Abraham has seen promises of God come true over and over.  The capstone of these has been the birth of his son, the heir he finally had, at age 100.  Abraham raised the young boy amidst God’s care and protection.  Life is truly blessed for Abraham.

Then God says to him, “Take your son, your only son Isaac… sacrifice him there”.  The words must have hit him like a ton of bricks.  There is no questioning, no reply, no ‘but…’.  The text simply tells us that early the next morning Abraham gathered wood and fire and a knife and headed out with Isaac and two servants.  Abraham and Isaac leave the servants and donkey behind and continue the journey themselves.  As they walk along, Isaac asks, “Where is the lamb?”. Young Isaac senses something is missing: wood, fire, knife.  Lamb?  It is another hard conversation.

Isaac asks the obvious question.  That question must have rolled around over and over in Abraham’s mind.  His response is simple: God will provide.  Isaac must have had tremendous respect for God too.  They turn and continue up the mountain.  I cannot imagine the things on Abraham’s mind.  Or was nothing on his mind?  Did he fully expect God to provide a lamb?  Or did he accept the fact that God was asking for the first fruits, the son that God had miraculously provided?

At times God has hard conversations with us too.  At times, God asks us to do something that seems extraordinary.  At times, He says, “Trust me” and expects us to walk forward in faith.  May we, like Abraham, trust and obey God.


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All for Jesus

Reading: Matthew 10: 24-39

Verse 30: Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Couched within this difficult passage are words of love and care.  Jesus has commissioned the twelve to go out in the beginning of Matthew 10 and now He is preparing them.  Jesus is letting them know that it will challenge them but also encouraging them to “proclaim for the roofs” what is whispered in their ears.  We too will be led by the Holy Spirit when we are willing to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.  The power and presence of the Holy Spirit will whisper in our ear and give us the words we need to share.

In the middle section of our passage, Jesus emphasizes “do not fear” three times.  He is building them up for service.  He is assuring them that God deeply values them.  Jesus tells them, “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered”.  He is saying God knows them intimately.  God knows us in the same way.  He knows us so well that the small detail of the number of hairs on our head is precisely known by God.  Jesus notes that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing.  So how much more are we in God’s eyes.  He says, do not worry, God has us.

The passage ends with the call to take up the cross.  For those disciples,who have literally seen people take up a cross on the way to their death, this call would have real meaning.  Jesus is asking them to be prepared to give their all.  Knowing what Jesus did on the cross, we too know what He asks of us.  Jesus is asking for our all.  The cost of discipleship can be high today as well.  To walk as Jesus walked, to be like the teacher, is hard.  But with God’s love and care and with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the difficult is made possible.  We are loved by a God who knows us intimately.  With our God all is possible.  As we go forth, being light and love, we go with God and the Spirit, empowered to transform the world.


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Constant, Universal

Reading: Genesis 21: 8-21

Verse 17: What is the matter, Hagar?  Do not be afraid.

Today we find the culmination of the story of Abraham and Hagar and Ishmael.  It is the story of ignoring God’s promise and taking matters into ones own hands.  It is the story of jealousy, anger, abuse, betrayal, abandonment, and rescue.  Sarah has asserted herself and Abraham sends Hagar and ‘the boy’ off into the desert.  Isaac is Sarah’s son and the answer to God’s promise.  He will be the rightful heir.  It will be how the story unfolds as we read on in Genesis.

Yet a part of Abraham is conflicted, troubled.  Ishmael is his son, his flesh and blood.  Sending him off into the desert probably will not end well.  God speaks to Abraham and gives him assurances that ‘the son of your maidservant’ will also one day be the head of a nation.  ‘The boy’ will not die in the desert.  He has a future.  This reassurance allows Abraham to send them off into the desert, out and away from them forever.

This, however, is not quite the end of the story for Hagar.  Recall that she had been rescued by God once before.  Hagar would name God “the God who sees me”.  That God sees her again.  Just as she resigns herself to dying of thirst just yards from her son as he dies of thirst, God once again intervenes.  God calls out to her, “What is the matter, Hagar?  Do not be afraid”.  She too hears God’s promise for Ishmael and then God opens her eyes to see the water well that He has provided.  The passage ends with God’s continued care and provision through childhood and even into marriage.

Our God of love cares for those who are not ‘chosen’.  Hagar and Ishmael were part of Abraham and Sarah’s impatience and lack of trust in God.  On our human level, we would maybe want to see them off too.  They would remind us of our sin.  I am grateful that God loves all people, not just those who love or worship Him.  God’s love is constant; it is universal.  It is a love that Jesus would call us to follow and live out.  So when the Holy Spirit leads us to love the other, may this story remind us that God loves all of humanity so that we can go and do likewise.


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Ends of the Earth

Reading: Acts 1: 6-14

Verse Eight: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses to… the ends of the earth.

In His last words to the disciples, Jesus promises them the gift of the Holy Spirit and reminds them that they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.  This last part is a restatement of the great commission.  Although Jesus does not tell them how to accomplish this task, He does let them know that the Holy Spirit will bring them power for the task.  In addition, Jesus has spent the last three years training the disciples.  He has shown them by His own example and He has sent them out on their own – like on-the-job training.  Although the disciples probably do not realize it, Jesus has been preparing them to take the good news to “the ends of the earth”.

Verse eight reads, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses to… the ends of the earth”.  His is what the disciples would soon go on to live out.  It is what God intends us to experience too as followers of Jesus Christ.  As we grow in our relationship with Jesus we too come to a point where we make the decision to follow Jesus.  We profess Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives.  At this point we receive the Holy Spirit and our lives begin to be led by the power of the Spirit.  But in our humanity, we wrestle with the Spirit for control.  We question and sometimes even ignore the voice and nudges of the Holy Spirit.  But as we spend time in the Word, as we develop a deeper prayer life, and as we grow in our love of God, we become better followers.  We become more disciplined and our following improves.  The Holy Spirit gains more voice and power in our lives.  Soon enough we become like those first disciples, bearers of the good news, heading out to the “ends of the earth” with the gospel message.

Wherever we are on our journey to share the good news of Jesus Christ, may today provide us with opportunities to grow in our discipleship and in our love of Jesus Christ.


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Love, Obey Too

Reading: John 14: 18-21

Verse 21:  Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

Jesus follows up His promise of the Holy Spirit with more words of reassurance in today’s passage.  The opening line reveals the intimacy and the depth of love that Jesus has for the disciples.  He tells them, “I will not leave you as orphans”.  They are family.  They are very closely connected together.  Jesus knows how incredibly difficult the next few days and weeks will be for the disciples.  These men left everything to follow Jesus.  And soon He will be physically gone.

“I will come to you”, He tells them.  Jesus reveals that the world will not see Him anymore, but that His followers will see Him again.  The risen and resurrected Christ will indeed visit the disciples and will be present with them.  They will know beyond any doubt that death could not hold Jesus.  He will talk and even eat with them.  “On that day” Jesus says, the disciples will realize fully that Jesus is in the Father and that they are in Jesus and Jesus is in them.  They will know the connection between God and Jesus and themselves.  They will know they belong to and live with Jesus in their hearts.  He will not leave them as orphans.

Lastly, Jesus returns to the concept of love and obedience.  He says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me”.  For Jesus there is a definite connection between belief and action.  He says don’t just know my commands but obey them.  Don’t just say you love me but really show we love Jesus.  For Jesus, this means love by obeying.  Then we will be loved by the Father and by Jesus.  It is all about connection and relationship.

Jesus again returns to the promise to show Himself to those who love Him.  Jesus is often revealed to us in those whom we choose to love.  We can see Jesus in the eyes of a child at VBS.  We can see Jesus in the smile of the person on the street who we take time to feed and talk with.  Jesus lives in all of us.  He invites us to obey His commands and thus to reveal Jesus to the world through our love and action.  Jesus also invites us to encounter Himself in others – sometimes even in those we least expect to find Him in.  May it be so today.


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Love, Obey, Truth

Reading: John 14: 15-17

Verses 15 and 16: If you love me… over my commands… ask the Father… give you another Counselor.

Today’s three little verses pack a whallop.  Jesus is very direct and to the point.  We begin with, “If you love me” and there is almost an assumption that the disciples do love Jesus.  Perhaps we too like to make this same assumption about ourselves and others in our church or small group.  Jesus then goes on with the ‘then’ of His if-then statement: “… then you will obey what I command”.  There is an implication here.  It is implied that we will follow all of His commands.  It is not a smorgasbord that we can pick and choose from.  This is what makes loving and obeying so hard.  Jesus does not say over six out of ten or most.  He says that if we love Him we will obey His commands.  It is hard to do ‘all’.  One would say it is even impossible for us to do this on our own.

God knows this.  God had a few years experience with mankind before sending Jesus.  The people had always listened for a while.  No matter if it was Moses or David or Elijah or Zephaniah or Amos or John the Baptist – on our own we can only one for so long.  Sad to say, but even when we love God and Jesus, we are still tempted and we sometimes even sin.  So God’s plan came to include help. Jesus told the disciples that He would “ask the Father” and that God would “give you another Counselor”.  We know this Counselor by many names, but the most common is Holy Spirit.  Jesus refers to it as the “Spirit of truth” in our passage today.

The Holy Spirit brings truth in many ways.  First, the Holy Spirit reminds us of the truth we find in the Bible.  Second, the Holy Spirit leads and guides us in the truth, helping us to over the commands that Jesus gave.  The Holy Spirit nudges and whispers to help us be obedient.  Third, the Holy Spirit corrects and convicts us when we go astray.  It reminds us of the true path and helps us to seek forgiveness and to repent so we can return to walking in the truth.

Today, may our love of Jesus lead us to obedience to His commands.  May the Holy Spirit ever be present to us and may we ever be attentive to this presence in our lives.  All to bring honor and glory to God.


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Know and Follow

Reading: John 10: 1-7

Verses 3 and 4: …the sheep listen to his voice… his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

In a devotional I read, there is a story about sheep following their shepherd.  As the writer sat and observed, a real shepherd walked along a very narrow and dangerous path along a steep ridge.  One after another, several dozen sheep dutifully followed along the path.  One after another they walked along a path that none would have taken on their own.

This little snippet reveals much about the typical shepherd-sheep relationship.  First, the shepherd was willing to lead his flock through dangerous placed because he knew greener pastures lay ahead.  Second, the sheep knew and trusted the shepherd.  The sheep know their shepherd’s voice and will follow him where he leads.  In fact, sheep will run from a voice they do not know.  Third, the shepherd cares for his sheep.  He is bringing them to a place with good food.  He will protect the sheep, both along the journey and once they arrive. He will keep them together and will defend them for wolves, robbers, …  He genuinely cares for the sheep.

In our passage, Jesus is using the shepherd-sheep analogy to illustrate our preferred relationship with Him.  Jesus wants to be our shepherd.  He wants to lead us to “green pastures” – to life in the full.  He wants to protect us from the dangers and temptations of the world.  He was even willing to lay down His life to do so.  For our part, we are the sheep.  We need to know His voice.  We study His voice in the Bible and we learn to recognize it when the Spirit nudges and whispers to us.  We come to be able to differentiate Jesus’ voice from the many voices of the world.  These other voices are voices we should run from.  Once we come to know Jesus’ voice, He wants us to follow.  He will lead us well.  For our part this means doing what Jesus did and loving as Jesus loved.

May we know the Good Shepherd’s voice and may we follow where He leads.


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By This…

Reading: John 13: 1-17 and 31-35

Verse 34: A new command I give you: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Jesus has gathered the disciples together – one last time.  Judas has already agreed to betray Jesus.  In fact, Jesus will be arrested later that same night.  This is Jesus’ last time with the disciples.  He knows it.  It is interesting what and how Jesus reaches in these last hours together.

This night, Jesus chooses to wash the disciples’ feet.  In this time, bathing was occasional.  It was the feet that were often the dirtiest.  The roads were dirt, animals used the same roads, the sewer was the gutter, the common footwear was sandals.  You get the picture.  Jesus could have blessed some water and had a “remember your baptism” moment.  But He chose to wash their feet.  Jesus knelt on the ground and washed off all the dust and dung and whatever else they had walked through that day.

After He is done and returns to the table as an equal, Jesus asks them this question: “Do you understand what I have done for you”?  Without waiting for an answer, Jesus goes on to explain.  He plainly states, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you”.  The Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Messiah, has stopped down and washed your disgusting feet willingly and tenderly and lovingly.  Jesus then tells them that they will be blessed if they do these things too.

Our passage concludes with an exclamation point of why Jesus chose to wash their feet.  The disciples already know the two great commandments: ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength’, and ‘love your neighbor as yourself’.  This night Jesus extends the second one, saying, “A new command I give you: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another”.  He loved all.  Those with stinky feet, those who persecuted Him, those who were in sin, those who only wanted and never gave, those who no one loved.  Yup, all.  Jesus says to us what He said to the disciples: go and do as I have done.  Be a servant, be a witness, set the example, love one another.  “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”.


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Follow Well

Reading: John 9: 24-42

Verse 27b – Do you want to be His disciples, too?

Jesus has done something extraordinary for this man who was born blind.  This man who would have been shunned in the temple or synagogue because of assumed sin in his life or past is touched and healed by Jesus.  He experiences a radical change in his life because of Jesus’ radical love.  He is so moved that he is willing to challenge the religious authorities with an audacious question to their ears: “Do you want to be His disciples, too”?  In response, they hurl insults at him and throw him out.  Even after this negative experience with religion and the synagogue, the man in undeterred in his newfound faith.  In a second encounter with Jesus, he declares his belief and worships Jesus.  It is a second act of radical love by Jesus to seek out and offer welcome to this man who was rejected by the religious leaders.

This story makes me think of the church today, of churches I have been a part of, and of the church I am at today.  I often wrestle with the idea of just how big our circle of welcome really is – just who all would we genuinely welcome.  It makes me think back to Jesus – the One we follow – and how Jesus loved all He met.  He never said, “Come back when you are free from sin”, or “Come back when you are just like us”, or “Come back when you…”.  Jesus met them where they were at, ministered to their needs at that moment, and loved them with all of His being.  This is the One we follow.

People today are touched by Jesus all the time.  They encounter the love of Christ in a radical way and wander into our churches seeking fellowship and belonging and a chance to explore this newfound faith with followers of Jesus Christ.  When they walk through our doors do they all experience genuine welcome and more of the love of Christ?  But what if they are a little rough around the edges or if we know their past or if they are new to this church thing or if…  There should be no “if” to enter, to be truly welcome, to belong in our churches.  There were “ifs” in the synagogue for the blind man and there still are in the church today.  We must be very cognizant of our tendency to limit access, to judge, to stereotype, … and be true followers of Jesus Christ – ones who meet all right where they are at, who minister to them right then and there, and who love on them like they have always been a part of our churches.  Then the love of Christ will grow.  May we follow well the One who loves all.


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God’s Plan

Reading: 1 Samuel 16: 1-5

1 Samuel 16:4 – Samuel did what the Lord said.

As a prophet of God, at times Samuel has brought words that were tough for the person or people to hear.  The results of Samuel’s words are not often positive.  The Holy Spirit works much the same way in our lives.  When we sin the Spirit quickly convicts us and forces a change in us.  When the elders of Bethlehem see Samuel approaching, they are cautious and guarded.  They are straight forward in the conversation: “Do you come in peace?” is their opening line with Samuel.  ‘Yes and no’ would be the honest answer.

King Saul is not happy with Samuel.  Samuel has very recently told Saul that God has rejected him as king.  Initially, when God tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem, Samuel is fearful.  So too are the elders.  What might Samuel be doing in their town?  Will Saul punish them for having Samuel there?  Or worse?  At times we too are put to the test.  At times our faith leads us to follow God’s will into places and situations that bring up fear or doubt or that may have a cost to us.  Doing what is right or speaking the truth sometimes creates conflict or ruffles feathers.

God has a plan.  He answers Samuel’s fears and Samuel heads off to do God’s work.  Samuel voiced his concern to God and God responded.  This is what we are called to do as well.  God desires an open and honest relationship with us too.  So when we feel doubt or fear or lack of trust, we need to bring this to God.  When we are unsure of where to go or of how to proceed, we need to go to God in prayer, to seek God’s plan.  Like Samuel, God will lead us past our fear, our doubt, our concerns.  Like Samuel, we must call on God alone and we must fully rely on God’s plan, knowing that God is in control of all things and that God has good plans for us.

“Samuel did what the Lord said”.  May we follow Samuel’s example.