pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: God


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Relationship Through Christ

God desires to be in a relationship with us.  God’s love should draw us to Him.  His free gift of salvation through Jesus is proof of that love.  A relationship with God should be the foundation of our life.

There are other faces that people see as God.  Some only know of God as vengeful and jealous, distant at best.  Some only know of a God ready to strike us down when we sin.  Some know God as one who expects perfection from us.  If one of these is the God we know, then entering into a relationship with Him is difficult.

God’s love is shown in Jesus.  Jesus was not vengeful or jealous but was willing to say what needed said, but always with love.  Jesus never struck anyone down but did cause them to look within and to see what needed cast out.  Jesus was perfection and calls us towards perfection.  Jesus experienced life as a human and can relate to our struggles.  His is the first hand there to lift us up after we have failed.

Relationship with God must come through His Son, Jesus Christ.  As we come to build this relationship, we are drawn to share it with others.  When others see love and nothing else as our motivation, they too are drawn towards faith.  Today may we be the light and love that our world needs.

Scripture reference: Psalm 62: 5-12


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Trust

We often live in this weird balance between knowing God can fill all our needs and trying to fill them with everything but God.  What we know in our minds and what we do with our actions just don’t connect.  Struggle and frustration are often the results.

I most often try to fill my needs with myself.  I fall into the trap that I can do it,  figure it out, make it happen on my own.  After failing I usually realize that only God can do it.  He can use me, but He is the source.  I need to first learn to turn to Him all of the time instead of just some of the time.

Our struggles can be emotional, physical, spiritual, relational, occupational or combinations of these and more.  There is also a vast array of ways to try and fill our needs but really only one place we should start.

In verse 8 David writes, “Trust in Him at all times, O people: pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.”  Our refuge is strong and loving and completely worthy of our trust, for He never fails.

Scripture reference: Psalm 62: 5-12


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Always Working

Does God change or does He always remain the same?  I think the answer is both.  The qualities of God do not change.  God always loves us, always longs for a relationship with us, and always works to bring us into or back to that relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.  God loves good, wants justice for all, and seeks for His people to love Him and to love neighbor.

The city of Nineveh was full of vice, sin, evil.  God wanted to restore them, to see them repent.  So He sent Jonah and he proclaimed God’s message to the people.  The people repented and God had compassion on them.  Their actions changed their outcome.  Some would say it all went according to God’s plan.  But if the Ninevites would’ve kept to their evil ways…

God acts much the same way in our lives.  In His many attempts to love on us and be in relationship with us, He sends us Jonahs to help us make good choices, to help us walk in His ways.  We hear this voice in the Bible, in sermons, in conversations with Christian friends.  God also speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.  When we fail to heed to these voices, God just finds another voice or another way to get our attention.  Some people spend a long time trying to ignore God and His messages.

In this we find another way that God never changes: He so wants all of us to enter into His eternal kingdom.  He spends our whole lifetime if necessary working towards that end.  Again, I say thank you God!

Scripture reference: Jonah 3: 1-5 and 10


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Plugging Away

It has been said that God is the god of second chances.  He is also the god of third, fourth, fifth… chances.  If it is in His plan for our life, He will keep sending messangers, whispers, nudges, and so on.  God is a god of many things, but giving up is not one of them.

The first time God spoke to Jonah, he bolted and ran away.  After several events that proved God was still right there, Jonah is called a second time.  This time he goes to Nineveh to proclaim God’s message.  This second chance is a second chance for both Jonah and Nineveh.  God did not give up – He persisted so that His plan would come to fruition – both for His servant and for the city.

How often are we like Jonah – ignoring or questioning or running from God’s call?  We can be pretty good at all three forms of avoidance.  Sometimes we think we are too busy.  Sometimes we think our time would be better spent over there.  Sometimes we question if that person or cause is worthy of our time and effort.  The root of each is that we think we know better than God.  But, thankfully, He does not give up.

Our god of second chances keeps coming around, keeps working to mold us into who He wants us to be.  Like Jonah, I am glad that God keeps plugging away, because His ways are always better than my ways.  Thank you God!

Scripture reference: Jonah 3: 1-5


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Growing Closer

There are times when we know we have been graced by God’s presence or when we can sense that the Spirit’s presence has been with us.  At other times we feel as if we were part of something that was led by God or was truly done in His name.  In these times, the existence of God is without question.  We have these moments to fall back on for strength – to remember when doubt begins to creep in or when fear rises up.

Our experiences with God also provide us with a filter or lens to look at future encounters with or through.  With each experience we come to know Him more.  With each encounter we come to recognize Him quicker.  All of this adds to the depth of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

The more God is revealed to us, the easier it is to hear His call.  As our experiences grow, we come to discern His will better.  We grow in our ability to separate His voice from all of the other voices that call out to us.  God’s promise to draw near to us as we draw near to Him is lived out as we choose to make time for Him and to walk daily with Him.  On this Sabbath day, may we draw very near to God.

Scripture reference: John 1: 47-51


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God’s Sacred Child

In the middle section of Psalm 139 we catch an amazing picture of God and His relationship to us.  We see the power and omnipotence of God in the words that speak of our own creation and in those that remind us that God’s thoughts are more vast that the grains of sand.  We also see a God who saw each of our unformed bodies and wove us together.  We are also told that all of our days are ordained and are written in the book of life.

Our God is a big god.  Yet how easily we slip into doubt and how easily we think we can do it on our own.  The cares and concerns of this world can become our focus.  In this struggle we often turn inward and seek our own solutions instead of turning upward and seeking God.

Our God is also a god of details.  He knows each of us from our very beginning to our last day.  His hands formed us.  His thoughts surround us.  If we choose to live with these things as our focus, then we easily turn to God in times of stress, pain, anxiety.  We easily walk in His strength and comfort.  We are wonderfully made and loved deeply.  May we live as God’s sacred child this day and every day, trusting in our Creator and walking in His ways.

Scripture reference: Psalm 139: 13-18


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He Knows. And He Still Loves.

God knows each of us intimately.  Simultaneously that thought can be comforting and alarming.  There is nothing we can do to change this – it is just the nature of the God to know His creations that well.

Psalm 139 speaks of God knowing our thoughts from afar, of being familiar with all of our ways, and of even knowing our words before we speak.  God is so in tune with us.  God is that best of friends who can finish our sentences for us.  And He is so much more!  All of these things can bring one great comfort.  To know that God is so connected to us is amazing and wonderful.

He is also that connected when we are lesser than we can be.  God is also there when we sin.  He is there when we think about sinning.  And he still loves us.  That is amazing.  No matter our unkind thoughts, our misdeeds, or our out and out sins – God still loves us.  The psalmist ends verse six with the admission that all of this is too wonderful for him, almost inconceivable.  This is true for us too.  And what is our repsonse?  Thank you God!  Thank you for loving even me!!

Scripture reference: Psalm 139: 1-6


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He Is Good

Have you ever gotten a word from God or one of His messengers that was hard to hear?  Have you ever struggled with the direction that God is trying to lead you?  Ever tried to be the one in control?

All of these are easy questions to answer.  We wrestle all the time with these issues because we like to be in control and we do not like to be wrong.

Samuel and Eli give us great insights into what it means to be honest when it is hard, to be open to God’s word even when it brings bad news, and to accept where He is leading us.  Samuel reveals to Eli that God indeed plans to carry out His plans against Eli’s house.  Eli responds with these words: “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”  No groveling for his sons’ lives.  No anger towards God.

For us life can get so busy that it is hard to slow down enough to hear and process what God would like us to hear.  Yet we must.  Sometimes when we do so we question – you want what?  Go where?  Sometimes the news is hard to share – it may cause conflict or call something into alignment with God’s will.  In all cases we must be faithful and willing to hear God’s call and to walk in the way He is leading us.  We must remember that He is God and that all He wants for us is good.

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 3: 10-20


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Can You Hear Me?

In 1st Samuel 3 the Lord God called out to Samuel three times.  Finally Eli realized that it was God calling out to Samuel and he instructed Samuel to lay down and respond to God the next time He called out.  The young Samuel did not discern that it was God’s voice that he was hearing.

In our day and age, when there is so much noise all around us, it too can be hard to discern the voice of God when He calls out to us.  At times it is so easy to hit the snooze button, to plop down in front of the television, to read a magazine instead.  On other occasions it is easier to cross over to the other side of the street, to simply look away, or to make some excuse.

There is a reason though that God most often speaks in a still, small voice.  It is so that we have to be paying attention to hear and so that we have to make it our choice to respond.  God is a god of love.  In love, there is no forcing the issue.  There is only that still, small voice calling out to us.  Sometimes it is even hidden in the eyes of one in need or in the words of a friend.  Sometimes it is of the Spirit.  In all cases we must be listening and we must reply as Samuel did: “Speak Lord, you servant is listening.”

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 3: 1-9


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Remember and Be Glad

Inherent in our nature as human being is our pull toward sin.  As creatures who can sense pleasure, we are drawn to sin in a variety of ways.  Also inherent in us is the conscious that tells us right from wrong.  Some sin simply occurs – think about the word that slips out when you stub your toe really bad.  But most sin has been mulled over and the consequences weighed.

Present in our world is also God.  God was before the first word was spoken that began the process of creation.  God has been present in every death and in every birth and in every moment in between.  Each and every day of our lives, God has been present in our worlds.

For all of us, God was present in the delivery room in the miracle of our birth.  A short time later most of us were initiated into the family of God as we were baptized.  for most of us, this was a decision made for us, but a decision made nonetheless.  And just like all else with God, He does not force us to continue to choose faith and to walk daily with Him.  He allows us to zig and zag, to wander and to return back.  We are always welcome when we return back home to God.

When we reconnect back to God, we are renewing those vows made for us long ago, but each time as a choice we are making when we return.  We return and accept faith, believing that He will go with us each day forward.  On this “Baptism of the Lord” Sunday, may we too remember our baptism and be glad.

Scripture reference: Mark 1: 4-11