pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: God


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The Ways to Connect

In times of trial or stress, how do you connect to God?  In what ways do you draw strength to get through the situation or that season in your life?  I think there are a variety of answers to these inquiries.  For me, and perhaps for you, the answers are not always the same.

Often it is spending more time in prayer.  Through prayer we can become more aware of what God’s will is in our present situation.  Through prayer we can come to understand the other person, the situation, or even ourself better or in a different way.

At other times it is finding encouragement or strength is God’s word.  Maybe it is a favorite psalm or words of Jesus that you have memorized.  Or it could be a passage you open up to or that you search for speaks into your situation.

Or it could be a song or hymn that you sing that brings you the hope, God’s love, or the strength or understanding that you need just then.  Song can lift our spirits.  For others is may simply be time spent sitting in the sanctuary or chapel.  Or it may be a walk in the woods or a bench in the park by the water.

There are so many ways we can connect to God.  That is one of the things I love most about our God.  It is not only through a book or only one other way.  We have a God who always seeks to be connected to us and is open to many ways to do just that.  I am thankful for both God’s desire to be present in my life and for the many ways in which I can draw close and spend time in that presence!

Scripture reference: Psalm 105: 1-6


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To the Best of Our Ability

All that we have is a gift from God.  Our talents and abilities are gifts that we must use with humility, grace, and love.  We are not to use what we have been blessed with to lord it over others or to take advantage of people or situations.

As Joseph was riding along that trade route to Egypt, a new slave to Midianite merchants, I wonder if he saw it as God’s work in his life.  As they saw Joseph disappearing into the horizon, I doubt the brothers we thinking of how God’s plan was just beginning to take shape.  Often in the midst of things we too fail to see God at work in our lives.

When Joseph first exercised his gift to interpret dreams, he angered his family.  Yet later in Egypt this ability would allow Joseph to rise up in importance.  When used as God intended, Joseph’s gift was used to build up and to do good.  And yet even then Joseph probably only saw this as a personal success, not as a part of God’s bigger plan.  But Joseph was faithful and continued to do as God led him to do.  Because of this, he would eventually he would see God’s big plan.

What gifts and talents has God blessed you with?  In what ways are they being used to build God’s kingdom now?  Are you using you gift to the best of your ability?  May we learn to use what God has blessed us with, trusting Him and the plan He has for our life.

Scripture reference: Genesis 37: 1-4 and 12-28


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His Constant Presence

After feeding the 5000, Jesus sends the crowd and the disciples off and takes the time to go up the mountain to pray.  As night falls, He walks out to the disciples, who have been struggling against the wind.  In faith, Peter even takes a few steps on the water.  As they climb into the boat, the winds die down.  What they had been struggling against is taken away by Jesus’ presence.  In response they say, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

I wonder why we at times recognize Jesus as so much more and at other times fail to even notice His presence.  For the disciples, why does Jesus walking on the water and calming the wind draw such a response when feeding 5000 from a couple fish and a few loaves does not?  Yet we are the same.  Why does seeing someone’s cancer suddenly disappear seem so much more than a simple day blessed by God’s presence?  Isn’t God as present in one as in the other?

We are drawn to the big and flashy but God also resides in the day to day as well.  It is from His constant presence that we truly draw our strength.  Today, may we notice God in all of the little things of life.  And at the end of the day, may we sing His praises for this gift.

Scripture reference: Matthew 14: 22-33


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Faithfulness and Love… and Patience

In Romans 9, Paul is in sorrow over the Israelites not seeing Jesus for who He was  – the Son of God, come to redeem the world.  It is a situation where he sees it, has the same background knowledge as them, and does not understand why they do not see it.  Have you ever been one either side of one of these situations in your life?  Maybe you were in the role of Paul and tried and tried to get someone to understand, but just couldn’t.

In this story it is God who is ultimately in this role.  The story also extends out past this current moment in the Bible.  And in this we see something amazing about God.  We can see God covenantal faithfulness and His steadfast love.  Despite all in the Old Testament and all that Jesus said and did, most of the Israelites do not come to understand who Jesus was and is.  Yet God continues to pursue the people of Israel even to this day!

Often I think it is the same with me.  After all of these years of walking with Christ, I still fall short.  At times my sin is that I think I am the one in charge.  Sometimes I take the credit.  Other times it is a thought or word that holds my sin.  But thank God for His faithfulness and love!  Sometimes I can’t imagine why He chooses to stick it out with me.  But He does.  Thank God for His patience too!

Scripture reference: Romans 9: 1-5


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A Work in Progress

How true of a vision of ourselves do we present to others?  In sharing a story, do we fully and honestly tell “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”  or are we more selective?  There are times when we may want to stomp our feet and scream, but we don’t.  Why not?  Because we like to keep the ugly locked away and hidden.

Are we the same way with God?  Do we come before Him with partial truths and incomplete confessions?  Even though we know that He knows all, at times we are not transparent and open.

Do we offer God partials?   All of my heart?  Really?  Can’t I just keep this part here and that part over there?  Isn’t ‘most’ good enough?  Not in the end. Is some better than none?  Certainly!  But God wants to be our “all in all” not just our “some of a bit”.  It is a journey.  The question we need to be asking is do we love Jesus more today than we did yesterday or a week or a year ago?  Is our faith growing?  After all, in reality, we are a work in progress.

Scripture reference: Psalm 17: 1-7 and 15


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Hold On Tight

There will be times when we wrestle with or question our faith.  Perhaps you are in one of those times now or maybe you have been through one recently.  In these times of vulnerability and honesty, we are often refined and emerge with a stronger faith and a new outlook on our journey.  Jesus took opportunities to wrestle with God too.  On several occasions he got up early and went to a solitary place by himself or found a quiet pace late at night to wrestle with God.  Jesus found strength wrestling with God.

Jacob has an evening of wrestling with God.  He was alone on one side of the stream, having sent his family and possessions on across already.  He had left home but wasn’t ‘there’ yet.  He was on the journey.  God came and wrestled with him all night long.  Jacob held onto God throughout the struggle.  Because of this, God blessed him.  Jacob emerged as Israel.

At times we find ourselves feeling alone, left only with our faith.  If we are open to t and seek Him out, God will also take hold of us.  He will push and prod and toss us about to force us to consider our faith.  And if we stay in the fight, if we delve deep within, we too will emerge new.  We too become changed by our wrestling with God.  Hold on tight, for “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)  Notice the tense is present, it is not past.  God will continue to complete us until the day of Christ’s return.  None of us are ‘there’ yet.  Wrestle with God.  Hold on tight to your faith.  Like Jacob, God will work within us to help us emerge with a new, stronger faith.

Scripture reference: Genesis 32: 22-31


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Confidence Forward

Have you ever taken the time to look back over your life to see God’s fingerprints on it?  Do you see how He guided you to this job instead of that other one and how you were blessed there?  Or maybe there was a challenge there – see how it forced you to grow and mature?

Can you see all the other decisions and event sin your life were God is there too?  Maybe it is the college you went to, the  major you ended up with, the person you dated or married, or the places you lived.  Maybe it was the college you did not go to, the person you did not date, and so on.  Maybe it is in the birth or a child or in that heart-wrenching loss.  Maybe it is that divorce or breakup, in that firing, or in that addiction.  As you take time to look back over your life, can’t you see that God was in each and every one of these points of your life?

As we look back and see how God led, directed, and loved into our lives, we gain a confidence to move forward.  In this reflection we build a reserve to know that He will be there in our next difficulty, decision, or event.  We know God will continue to be a part of our lives because He loves us so.  “The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.” (Psalm 145:9)

Scripture reference: Psalm 105: 1-11 and 45b


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Share Abundantly

If you were asked to sum up God in one word, what would it be?  Got it yet?  I’d venture to say that most of us would say ‘love’ but some might also say hings like mercy, forgiveness, or maybe creator.  To me, love is God’s main and dominant characteristic.  Out of His love, many other things flow.

Once we find that love of God in our lives, we realize we have a great gift.  When we come to know just how much He loves us, we are both very grateful and deeply humbled.  It changes our whole world.  We are grateful and humbled because we come to also realize that we are imperfect and sinful, yet God still loves us.  It amazes me that a gift given so freely can be so valuable.  But it is.

Once we come to fully know the gift of the love of God, then we want to always have it.  As we continue on our journey of faith, love become how we see all of life, how we treat our neighbor, how we seek to serve those in need, and how we seek to share the good news so that others may know this gift of love.  The gift is so great that it makes us want to share it.  May we share abundantly today!

Scripture reference: Matthew 13: 44-52


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Love Always There

We are inseparable from God’s love.  His love is so high and wide and deep that we cannot begin to imagine the vastness of His love.  And God’s love will last forever.  Not a few years, a couple millenia, but forever.  His love will never fail.

Paul lists a wide range of extremes that cannot separate us from God’s love – angels or demons, life or death, present or future – to name a few.  He punctuates is by stating that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Pretty amazing love!

There will be times and circumstances in t his life when we do not sense God’s love or do not choose to walk in that love.  Yet it is still there.  There will be times when we are so crushed or hurting so bad that we cannot begin to feel His love.   Yet it is still there, right there, all around us.  When we open our hearts and minds and eyes to God’s love, His love comes flooding in.  It is not forced upon us, but is always just right there, always surrounding us.  Thanks be to God for His great love!!

Scripture reference: Romans 8: 38-39


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He IS for Us!

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”  This question is really more of a statement, isn’t it?  Although Paul does not write it, it is almost implied that nothing else matters if God is on our side.  In eternal terms it is so true.  To God it is absolutely true.  But in our human terms, it is so hard to believe this absolutely and to live it out continually.

As we are all imperfect, we all fall short of the glory of God at times.  OK, often.  At times we all knowingly sin.  OK, often.  In times of hardship, fear, loss, stress, illness, pain… we can lost sight of our foundation and relationship with God or even question Him.  We can even become angry or resentful toward God.  In our human hearts and minds, we can fail to draw upon the only one who truly matters, our Lord and King.

But then He nudges us.  His Spirit stirs in our hearts or His still, small voice whispers in our ear.  We remember the words etched in our hearts – “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us”.  And we remember that these things are just things – small in comparison to God.  He draws near to us as we draw near to Him.  And again we know that He is for us!

Scripture reference: Romans 8: 31-37