pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: God


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It’s All God’s Plan

Mary and Martha had to wait for God’s answer to their request to heal their sick brother Lazarus.  In their waiting, he died.  Sadness arrived.  But as Jesus appears and the story unfolds, God’s true answer is revealed.  Lazarus is raised up from the dead – God’s glory is revealed in and through Jesus.

I wonder how often we think the answer we get from God is our answer, when it is really not.  The answer to our prayer or the reason we went through a particular experience is only later realized or revealed.  Sometimes we maybe even wait for an answer and eventually give up instead of trusting fully and being patient in our waiting.

And then BAM!  God’s plan is revealed and it all becomes plain to see.  (Sometimes it is not a bam but it is a quiet ah-ha moment.)  We come to see that God had it handled all along.  It is then that we realize that God is the one in control, not us.  We are simply part of His creation and part of His plan.  We are a deeply loved and important part, but it is still God’s plan.


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Walking a Spirit-led Life

In Romans 8 Paul calls us to live a life in the Spirit instead of a life in sin.  In one we choose the things of God and in the other we choose death.  In one we ask the Spirit to come and dwell in us, to become a part of our very essence.  We humbly admit to God, “I need You.  I cannot walk this path on my own”.   In the other we say, “I can do this on my own.  I can handle this.”  Yet we fail.  Even when we choose to live the spirit-led life, we stumble and fall.  But He is right there to pick us up, to dust off the sin, and to set us back on our walk with Him.

Paul promises that when we choose to live a spirit-filled life, we will find peace.  He is not promising a life of no problems.  But Paul is promising that within the trials we will have peace because of the spirit dwelling in us.  Living with His guiding hand upon us is of great comfort and peace.

Choosing a spirit-led life will exceed any expectations we have for these earthly bodies that we inhabit.  When we choose to let Him lead, we begin to live into an external promise.  We begin to live with an eye on His kingdom that will come again and with an eye on bringing that to reality.  As we dwell in and live into that promise, life is exciting!  The journey is much better when we know where our end will take us.

Guide us this day, O Lord, to choose to walk your path today.  Lead us to live into the Spirit so that we may walk as your child today and to honor You in all we do.  Amen!


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To Know Him

Some people get used to living in a dry and barren place.  Life has beaten them down.  Over the years they come to expect little.  And because of this they feel they have little to give.  Maybe they don’t even notice the little flower poking up next to their front door.

For some an illness or a loss can lead them into a valley of dry bones.  Sickness settles in and becomes the way of life.  A loss of a loved one casts a pall that seems to always be there.  For some they are forever walking with their head down and their heart heavy.  They don’t see the flower either.

God’s desire is for all people to know Him, to find love and joy in Him, to be happy and content in this life.  God wants to use us to draw people to Him.  He wants us to love others so that through that love they can come to know God.  Our Lord wants our shining light to be that thing that draws their eyes up and lightens the burden others carry on their heart.  May we be the love and light of Christ to all we meet so that they see that beautiful little flower, smile to themselves, and begin to walk with God.


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Dry Faith

Scattered far and wide by the Babylonians, the Israelites had lost their connection to each other and , more importantly, their connection to God.  Their faith and hope had dried up.  Each person or little cluster of Jews must have felt like they were on their own deserted island.  They were scattered amongst a foreign people in a foreign land.  How lost they must have felt.

Ever been there?  Ever felt like you were all alone and struggled even to find God?  I have been there.  For a day here or there or even for a season here and there, I have lost sight of God and my faith.  It is indeed a dry and barren place.  Again I ask, ever been there?  Perhaps you are there right now as you read this.

But standing amidst a valley of dry bones, Ezekiel sees an amazing thing.  First the bones rejoin and become covered in tendons, flesh, and skin.  Then breath is brought forth and gives life.  God did not forget His people – even though their faith was lost.  He will never forget you and me either.  Whenever we enter a dry spell, we must remember this story of Ezekiel and the dry bones.  In this story we find our God too.  He is always looking to bring us life.  God is always calling us to be a part of Him.

Perhaps you are not in a dry place now but know someone who is.  Share the story of Ezekiel and the dry bones with them and encourage them to draw close to God.  Encourage them to rebuild their faith through study and prayer and time with the King.  Encourage them to allow the breath of God to breathe new life into their dry bones!


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To Pray or Not to Pray?

Is there ever a good or a bad time to go to God in prayer?  Are there times when we turn to Him more often and other times when we hardly pray?

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we are guided to “pray without ceasing.”  Here Paul is guiding us to be a person who always has prayer on our minds and on our lips.  According to Paul (and many others), we should pray about everything.

Yet if we believe in an all-powerful and an all-knowing God, what is the point of praying?  He already knows our thoughts, our situation, our needs, our… We don’t pray for God’s benefit.  It is for our benefit that we pray.  Prayer is one way to stay in tune with God and it is a means to hear God’s voice.  Prayer is also a way to remind us of and to make us more sensitive to the needs of others.

So, is there a good time or a bad time to pray?  The good time is always and the bad time is never.  He always wants to hear our voice.  God is faithful and His love is unfailing.  Through prayer we come to know God more, so pray often.  May our day be filled with words spoken to our Lord and Savior!


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May We See

In John 9 Jesus heals a man blind from birth.  It is really a pretty simple event.  No begging for Jesus to heal him, no pre-healing conversation, no post-healing event.  Jesus notices the man, puts mud on his eyes, and tells him to go wash in a pool.  The man does and now can see.

The Pharisees become stuck over the fact that Jesus healed on the Sabbath instead of seeing the working of a miracle.  They are blind to the truth before them.  The Pharisees are spiritually blind.  They bring in and question the man and then his parents and then the man again.  The man simply tells what happened but the parents are afraid of the leaders.  They play it close to the vest.  But the man boldly retells tha story and angers the Pharisees.  He doesn’t care because now he can see.  After this witness, some amongst them must have begun to see the miracle, but they kept their eyes squeezed shut.  They too were afraid to be cast out.

The man that was healed had been physically and spiritually blind.  The Jewish society believed that his pre-birth sin (or his parent’s sin) had caused him to be blind. Because of this, the man lived on the outside of Jewish society.  And then he encountered Jesus.  First Jesus heals his physical blindness and then later his spiritual blindness.  In between this man offers a simple testimony to the Pharisees, almost a childlike faith.

But the Pharisees are still stuck, blind to the miracle.  How many people do we know who are stuck at this rule or that requirement or that misconception about our churches or our religion?  How many need to simply see or experience Christ-like love and service to begin to see our faith?  How can we be that experience for one who is blind?  May our own eyes be open and our hearts be willing so that we can see and seize that opportunity before us!!


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God’s Flashlight

Prior to the story of healing the blind man that we find in John 9, Jesus had been in the temple.  There He claimed the connection to God and stated his purpose on earth was to bring glory to the Father.  This claim angered those in the temple.  But Jesus stuck to his guns and stated gain that he was here to bring glory to God and to do His work.  Just as they were picking up stones to stone Jesus, he slipped away from them.

In today’s story Jesus returns sight to a blind man.  But the man did not ask to be healed.  Jesus and the disciples were walking along the road and they saw the blind man.  Being raised Jewish, the disciples asked a question based on their upbringing.  They wanted to know if the man was blind because of his own sins or because of the sins of his parents.  This was the common view of why someone would be born blind.  But Jesus never answers their question.

Instead Jesus returns to what he was talking about earlier.  The healing of the blind man will occur not to bring Jesus glory but to bring glory to the work of the Father.  Healing will come to display the work of God in this man’s life.  While on earth Jesus was the light of the world.  He was here to shine light on God.  His purpose was always to glorify God.  We are called to continue to be that light.  We are called to be the word, hands, feet, eyes, … of Jesus  not to bring glory to ourselves but to shine it upon God.

In Hebrews 13: 5-6 we hear these words: “God has said, ‘Never will I leve you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.”  This day and each forward, may we remember these words and go forth to boldly shine the light of God on all we meet.


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Light of the World

“Light of the world, you stepped down into darkness.  Opened my eyes, let me see.  Beauty that made this heart adore you, hope of a life spent with you.”  These are the opening lines to the song, ‘Here I Am to Worship’.  We were once called from the darkness into the light.  As we come to know Christ, we come to live in His light.

Once we have accepted Christ we are ‘walking in th light.’  We come to realize that we cannot keep anything hidden from God.  We were once under the illusion that we could.  But once we believe in Christ, we realize that God always knew what we were doing in our sin.  We just come to know that He knows.  Once we are walking in the light, we make decisions from the WWJD perspective (what would Jesus do?)  As we walk in the light, we cast light along other’s paths as well.  This can expose darkness in their lives – and what a great opportunity this can be to minister to them!  At times this too can remind us of darkness we yet have in our lives and it allows us opportunity to grow in our walk with Christ.

Yet alas!!  We are human and at times we step out of the light and into darkness.  Satan is ever knocking at our door, ever bringing temptations before us.  Like Christ, he also never gives up.  At times we may stumble, but the great love and light of Christ always is there to call us back.  Praise be to God for His unending love of you and me!!

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Content in Christ

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want….  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23, verses 1 and 6)

We trust and lean into God in good times and in bad.  The opening line to Psalm 23 is such great reassurance.  Paul also knew well the key to being content in any and all situations because he knew that God’s presence in his life was all that really mattered.  Paul always lived life with one eye on  the eternal prize.  In Philippians 4 we read these words: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”  The strength we find in God is the key to our contentment in this life.

And the last line of the Psalm!!!  “Surely goodness and love will follow me… and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  These words resonate so deeply within our souls.  These words are our reassurance that even though we pass through the shadows in this lifetime, God’s love and goodness are always there.  They are a foretaste of dwelling in His house forever.  When we go through the day-to-day with this in mind, we can find the contentment and peace that comes from walking with Christ.  May our walk today be in lockstep with Jesus!!


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In Charge by One

When Samuel went to Bethlehem to anoint Israel’s next king, he was looking for what we often look for in a leader –  strong, powerful, mighty, charismatic…  Some of these are surface characteristics but others are ‘hidden’ or are things we can sense about someone.  But this is some of the typical list that we look for in our leaders.  They are also characteristics that many of us would like applied to ourselves as well!

But God told Samuel ‘No, no no!’  God told him that it is what is in the heart that matters.  In essence, God told him, ‘To rule my people Israel, faithfulness to me is what matters.’  A heart for God is what counts.  To rule or leas from the perspective of God is what is needed.

It is still what matters today.  It does not matter if you own your own business or if you are in charge or a large number of people.  To live with a heart turned to God matters just as much as if you are only leading yourself.  Most of us fall somewhere in between owning our own business and leading just ourselves.  It does not matter.  Leading a God-filled, spirit-led life is ALL that matters.  And we each are fully in charge of whether or not we live that way.  Seek God.  Love God.  Share God.