pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: God


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What We Needed

Reading: Exodus 16:13-15

Exodus 16:15 – “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

Photo credit: Kate Remmer

The things that God and Moses and Aaron have been talking about for our first two days of reading in Exodus 16 finally happen. In the evening, quail covers the camp. They can gather as much meat as they desire. God provides in abundance. But in the morning there is a layer of dew all around the camp. I imagine this looking like a very, very low-hanging layer of thick fog. It is enough to hide the “thin flakes” lying on the desert floor. The quail they recognized. There were quail in Egypt. But this flaky stuff? They ask one another, “What is it?”

The Israelites felt a need for food. They turned to their intermediary with their complaint. God also heard their grumbling too. Most of the time, we do not feel like we need a “Moses” to bring our prayers to God. We bring our prayers and our complaints, cries, and pleas directly to God. Sometimes we pray in community, trusting others to also lift our prayers to God. And sometimes we do want someone to pray for us on our behalf. But overall, we are good at bringing our prayers and petitions to the Lord our God.

But like the Israelites, we are not always good at seeing God’s answers to our prayers. Yes, they’d even been told that God would give bread in the morning. Moses still had to tell them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.” While most of the promises to us in scripture are not this specific, we are told that God hears and responds to our prayers. But when the “bread” doesn’t look like what we’re used to or when it is not what we expected, we can misunderstand the answer or we can be disappointed in it. Sometimes we miss the answer altogether. And yet, God is faithful. When we too choose to remain faithful, we can consistently look back and we can see that God’s response was exactly what we needed in that moment. For these truths, we say, thanks be to God!

Prayer: Lord God, we are so willing to lay our wants and needs before you. Help us to be just as willing to see how you provide and to trust in your wisdom and plan. Guide us to seek your will and way just as eagerly as we await your answers to our prayers. Amen.


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Day by Day, Step by Step

Reading: Exodus 16:6-12

Exodus 16:12d – “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.”

Grain by grain

In our reading from day two in Exodus 16, Moses and Aaron relay God’s decision to the people. God’s response is prefaced by why God is responding to the people’s complaints: so they will know that it was God who brought them out of Egypt. I’d always questioned why they would need a reminder. They’d just survived the death of the firstborn, walked through a sea, witnessed the total destruction of Pharaoh’s army, and experienced God turning bitter water sweet. But yesterday in a small group study at church, I heard a new thought. It was pointed out that Israel was still so new to the faith. Israel was just getting reacquainted with God.

Having heard the people’s complaints, a loving God responds with meat in the evening and bread in the morning. Through Aaron and Moses, God then invites the people to draw near to God. The glorious presence of the Lord is revealed in the cloud that has been leading Israel on their desert journey. After this experience and the receiving of the meat and bread, God declares, “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” God’s day by day presence through provision will remind the Israelites that God is always with them.

In our wilderness experiences, we often cry out to God. And like it was with the Israelites, God always hears our cries. Sometimes God will meet an immediate and pressing need. But more often than not, God’s response is tailored to our deeper needs. And that, like with Israel, is to strengthen our faith and to deepen our trust in God. When we surrender to God’s plan and purposes, we find grace for the journey ahead. And step by step, we come to know that God is always with us.

Prayer: Lord God, when we find ourselves in a desert place or in a wilderness experience, remind us of your presence. We are grateful for the times when you provide food or strength or something else to meet our need. Open our eyes to see the ways not so obvious – the ways you respond that deepen our faith or that work to refine or renew us. Thank you for your constant presence. Amen.


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Faithful Provider

Reading: Exodus 16:2-5

Exodus 16:2 – “The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron.”

As we begin a few days in Exodus 16 we join the Israelites in the desert or wilderness, depending on your translation. They haven’t been gone very long – just long enough to run out of the food they took with them as they hurried out of Egypt. Because of this, “The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron.” Finding themselves in an uncomfortable position, a mix of fear and anger and longing rises up. They look back at their time in slavery and wish that they were still there. At least there was meat and bread aplenty. They wonder if Moses brought them into the wilderness to “starve to death.”

We too will find ourselves in desert places or in the wilderness of life at times. This is never an easy place to be and it is seldom a place of our own choosing. Unwanted change or loss or death or illness creates these experiences. We feel out of control. We feel unease, discomfort, disorientation. We often cry out, complain , grumble, and/or question God.

In our text, God hears Israel’s complaint. God will rain down what they longed for and remembered from their time in slavery: meat and bread. Each day, God will provide what they need for that day. Day by day, Israel’s trust in God will grow. In the same way, God hears our cries, our grumbles, our questioning. And because God is faithful, God provides what we need. God usually does not yank us out of our desert places, but becomes present to us in these places. It might be through meat and bread brought by a friend or neighbor. It might be through the comforting presence of our faith community. It might just be the strength to get through one more day. When we turn to God, yes, God is faithful. God will provide.

Prayer: Lord God, you are always with us. We always need you – especially in our desert or wilderness moments. Thank you for your faithful provision in our times of need. Continue to work through these experiences, building us up, growing our faith. Amen.


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Living for Jesus

Reading: Romans 14:7-12

Romans 14:12 – “Each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”

Pressing on in Romans 14, Paul declares that we do not live or die for ourselves. While this becomes truer and truer the longer we walk with Christ, there was a time in my life and probably in your life when this was not the reality. Even though I grew up in the church, during my late teen and college years I lived for self. My time, energies, and priorities were focused on pleasure, desires, and other things of this world. Over time, though, God drew me back into relationship and reoriented my focus. Yes, there are still days when that old self rises up and I become less than God created me to be. But now I am quicker to hear the Spirit that has always been there, drawing me back to God.

Living (or dying) for Christ is the focus of a life lived in faith. All that we think, say, and do becomes focused on pleasing God and bringing God the glory. As Paul continues to work to combat the judging going on in the church in Rome, he reminds them and us that “Each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” While this is very true, as we walk with Christ, we find that our “motivation” is not fear of condemnation, but is the joy and peace, the hope and contentment found in living for and serving our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. With these as the outcomes of living for Jesus, the temptations of this world fade. So when judgment or desire or another sin rises up, the Spirit that lives within us has greater voice and more power. Thanks be to God for the power and presence within us!

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for your grace that brings us back into your presence when we fall short. Thank you for your love that pursues us when we are lost in our sin. And thank you, Lord, for your steadfastness. You are always there for us. Amen.


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Tremble, Praise, Rejoice!

Reading: Psalm 114:5-8

Psalm 114:7 – “Earth: Tremble before the Lord!”

Photo credit: Uta Scholl

As we continue in Psalm 114 today, the psalmist celebrates what was and leans into the present. Yesterday the author wrote of what God had done and of how Israel was now God’s people once again. The slavery of the past was no more and they were freed to be “God’s sanctuary.”

Verses 5 and 6 begin with a questioning of creation. These questions ask physical parts of creation – waters and hills and mountains – why they did things otherwise impossible. The answer, of course, is God. It was God who parted the waters. It was God who moved mountains. The psalmist mixes the literal and the figurative here. Over the course of our journey of faith, we too experience both.

Sometimes God acts in our lives in ways that are like the parting of the sea. A “door” opens or an invitation comes from nowhere that helps us move forward when we felt stuck. A seemingly immovable or unresolvable circumstance is “moved,” freeing us to continue our journey of faith. God works in ways that bring us to awe, praise, and wonder. For the earth and the people who inhabit the earth, we too could proclaim, “Earth: Tremble before the Lord!”

After the desert journey, which also included other miracles, Israel understood that they were God’s people. As it was with Israel, these miracle moments in our lives transform our faith, empowering us to move forward with a deeper faith and a stronger connection to the Lord our God. We too rejoice that we are God’s people!

Prayer: Lord God, each time you part the waters or move a mountain, our faith grows, deepens, widens. We face the next obstacle or challenge with more trust, more assurance, more resolve. Continue to walk with us daily – leading, guiding, making a way. Amen.


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God at Work

Reading: Psalm 114:1-4

Psalm 114:4 – “The mountains leaped away like rams; the hills leaped away like lambs!”

Psalm 114 celebrates the exodus from Egypt and the entry into Canaan – the Promised Land. The Israelites were immigrants in a foreign land, enslaved by a cruel Pharaoh. But even then, the people belonged to God. They were “God’s sanctuary… territory.” Through the plagues, God led the people out of Egypt and into the wilderness. And when the Egyptians pursued them, God went to work. Rescuing Israel from fear, meeting their need for protection, God made a way, instilling faith and hope. At times our story holds these elements too: fear and need. When we turn to God, we find hope. The story of God at work in our lives is very different from the self-sufficient image we like to portray to the world.

There are times when life is hard, when we feel insecure, when there are many obstacles. At a point in each of these difficulties, we come to the end of ourselves. We cannot part the sea. We cannot climb the mountain. We cannot navigate the twists and turns of the path. So we turn to the one who has been present all along, patiently waiting. And as we surrender to God, God goes to work. God makes a way. The sea parts. “The mountains leaped away like rams.” God walks the hard path with us. God leads us through, even carrying us some of the time. These memories become the fuel that empowers us to live fully as a child of God, living into who and what we were created by God to be. In the moments of these first steps of faith, we are covered in grace. What a sweet place to be!

Prayer: Lord God, how good life would be if you were always our first thought, our first place to turn. When you are and when we do, peace and joy and contentment are ours. But too often we turn to ourselves, to our desires, wants… Soon we’re underwater, overwhelmed, defeated. Thank you for always being there. Thank you for always making a way. You are an amazing God. Amen.


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God IS There

Reading: Exodus 14:22-31

Exodus 14:31 – “The people were in awe of the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

Photo credit: Diego Gennaro

The exodus story continues! The Israelites walk through where the sea had been. The dry ground under their feet and the walls of water to the left and right must’ve been amazing. Many must have walked through eyes wide open and jaws hanging down. Meanwhile, the Egyptian army was in hot pursuit. They probably didn’t even notice the amazing things that God was doing. If so, maybe they’d have stayed on their side of the sea.

God drew the army in and then threw them into a panic. The slow movement allowed Israel to finish crossing the sea. At this point, the Egyptians realize that God was fighting for Israel. It was too late. Moses stretched out his hand and the sea returned to its normal place. The whole army drowned. God rescued Israel. It happened right there before their eyes. The outcome? “The people were in awe of the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

In the possible God moments, are you more like the Israelites or more like the Egyptians? Do you notice when God shows up to rescue? Or to redeem or to reconcile or to renew? When we are open to or even seeking God, we see that God is there. I’ve noticed encounters with God in a church balcony, in an ER room, in a prayer room at an event, and in a hospital room more than once. But I’m sure I’ve missed others. Yet in the moments when we need God to be present, God is there. Always. Be open to it. Seek the Lord. God is there.

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for making a way for Israel. And thank you for showing up in amazing ways during our times of need. Help us to notice, to see, and even to seek you. Open our eyes to see the times that you part the sea, and the times when your touch is gentle and small. In all things, may we encounter you, O God. Amen.


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God Will Rescue

Reading: Exodus 14:19-21

Exodus 14:20 – “The cloud remained there, and when darkness fell it lit up the night. They didn’t come near each other all night.”

Photo credit: Paul Garaizar

Following the Passover and the death of the firstborn, Pharaoh practically kicks Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites out of Egypt. They left in haste – 600,000 men plus women and children. But soon Pharaoh changed his mind and began to pursue God’s people with his army. The Egyptians caught up with Israel as they were camped alongside the sea. Terror spreads among God’s people. Moses offers words of assurance – God’s rescue is coming. After giving Moses escape instructions, God’s messenger and presence – the column of cloud and fire – moved from leading Israel to standing between Israel and the Egyptians. In the last part of verse 20 we read, “The cloud remained there, and when darkness fell it lit up the night. They didn’t come near each other all night.”

At times in our lives we feel fear and maybe even terror. While it is not caused by a literal army seeking to return us to slavery in Egypt, we’ve had situations rise up that make us feel trapped. Fear, worry, stress… begin to rise up. We have experienced threats against our health, well-being, safety, security… We’ve watched a powerful force approaching from afar, fear and dread growing as our depression or addiction or loneliness or… grows in power. In those moments, we are not alone. God stands between us and that which threatens us or causes us fear. Light grows in the darkness, keeping the enemy at bay.

Moses raises his hands and God parts the waters. Dry land appears as the waters are split in two. Rescue is on the way. When we raise our hands in surrender, humbly acknowledging our need for God and our inability to defeat the “army” on our own, then our God will make a way. Without fear, we can walk right through. Without worry, we can trust where God is leading. God will rescue. God is with us.

Prayer: Lord God, in those hard moments, guide us to a place of surrender. When life feels too big for us, may we give it to you, O Lord. With humility and trust, help us to turn to you, trusting in your power and might. Lead us through, part the sea, make a way. Thank you, God. Amen.


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Present Always

Reading: Matthew 18:18-20

Matthew 18:20 – “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.”

Continuing in Matthew 18 today, Jesus emphasizes the power of his presence. We experience Christ’s presence when we gather in his name, working together to reconcile a broken relationship. We are extending Christ’s presence when we seek to rebuild connection and when we continue to pursue wholeness even when the other person is resistant. In today’s reading we learn that because Jesus is with us in the reconciliation process, our decisions and actions are guided by the Holy Spirit’s presence. There is divine support for our decisions made and for our actions taken under the guidance and direction of Christ’s Spirit.

Jesus assures us that these things decided upon and prayed over in his name will be done by God. God will do God’s will reflective of our thinking, speaking, acting, and praying according to God’s will. When our efforts at conflict resolution include holy conferencing, the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and a desire to restore and redeem what was broken, then God will work in and through us to bring healing and wholeness to our relationships and to our communities of faith. Unity is God’s plan.

Jesus reminds us of this unity in verse 20, saying, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.” As we undertake the holy work of reconciliation, Jesus is present in Spirit. And Jesus is present when we gather for worship, when we come together in fellowship, when we enter into a time of study or prayer as a small group, when we serve a meal to a school staff or to folks struggling with poverty… Yes, Jesus is always present to us when we gather in his name. Thanks be to God!

Prayer: Lord God, we are grateful for your Spirit that leads and guides us in all of life. We are especially grateful for the Spirit’s presence in our times of conflict and hurt. In these uncomfortable and often tense situations, lead and guide us to be people of love and grace, mercy and forgiveness, kindness and compassion. Thank you, Lord. Amen.


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Conflict Resolution

Reading: Matthew 18:15-17

Matthew 15:17a – “If your brother or sister sins against you…”

In Matthew’s gospel, as it is throughout the entirety of scripture, there is an emphasis on loving God and neighbor. These actions are the focus of the shema – a three times daily Hebrew prayer. These actions are identified by Jesus (and others) as the two most important commands of God. And even with all of this emphasis, Jesus must still address the fact that in the church – in the place of love – we sin against and we hurt one another.

Before we dive into verses 15-17 today, let us consider what immediately proceeds Jesus’ teaching on conflict resolution. In verses 10-14 we find the very well-known parable of the lost sheep. We recall that a sheep gets lost. The shepherd goes to great lengths – to any length necessary – to find the one lost sheep. Returning the sheep to the flock, there is great rejoicing both on earth and in heaven. We next consider verses 15-17 with this spirit in mind.

Jesus addresses the consequences of sin within the church in three steps. The first step is one-on-one. It is personal and private. There is no airing of our dirty laundry. It is a loving, honest sharing of the hurt. Without an audience, it allows forgiveness to heal a broken relationship. If this effort fails, we are to engage a third party. They can impartially hear both sides of the conflict and offer unbiased input. There may be something that we need to hear too.

And if this fails, we are to bring the conflict to the church’s attention. This engages more listeners and potential mediators. It becomes a group effort to reconcile a damaged relationship. Sadly, even this step fails sometimes. Jesus’ next step? Treat them as you would a Gentile or tax collector. Keep reaching out, meet needs when possible, maybe even have dinner with them. Treat them as you would a lost sheep, going to any length necessary to return them to the flock. In love, may it be so.

Prayer: Lord God, conflict! We do not like it. We want to avoid it. But left unresolved, it poisons our intentions, it harms the body of believers, it taints our words and actions. Lord, empower us to be people of reconciliation. In these efforts, make us brave and transparent. Make us good listeners. Make us people that will go above and beyond to heal brokenness. Amen.