pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: grace


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Jesus Our Hope

In a physical sense we are much like all other living creatures.  We share much of the same DNA.  In addition, some animals have a language, some use tools, and some even have social orders and live in families.  All of the living creatures on earth experience illness and death.  The feelings of loss and pain associated with death are exhibited by many others species as well.

Two of the things though that separates humanity from other creatures is our superior intellect and our reasoning ability.  As time has evolved we have come to understand the intricacies of the human body and have sought means to extend life.  To be alive is awesome and amazing so we fight to preserve life.  Over time in our society the act of death has developed a fear and has become something to be avoided at almost all cost.  For many there is a meaninglessness and an unknown to dying.  For those without faith, there is a finality that has no hope and peace in death.

Jesus became incarnate so that ultimately He could experience suffering and death.  This sounds so countercultural because it is.  Yes, Jesus also come to put a human face and example on God’s great love for us.  But in the end Jesus came to suffer and die in sacrificial love for us.  He willingly bore the cross and the weight of our sins.  Through His blood He paid the cost for us to have eternal life.

In Hebrews we are reminded that all of creation is subject to Jesus.  Yet out of love for us He allowed Himself to the subject to death.  For all who call on Jesus as Lord and Savior, we find grace and forgiveness.  In Jesus we know that death does not have the final word.  In Him rests our eternal hope and a peace that passes understanding in the midst of death.  Jesus is our hope.  Thank you Jesus.

Scripture reference: Hebrews 2: 5-12


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The Hospital We Call Church

John Wesley once noted that sometimes a Christian’s behavior is the greatest obstacle to a non-believer being saved.  Today some churches are refered to as a social club for the holy and righteous.  In some houses of worship we say guests are great but we do not treat them that way – especially if they are not just like us.

In today’s passage from Mark, Jesus addresses our behavior as a follower.  In figurative but somewhat harsh language, we are advised to cut off a hand if it causes us to sin or to gouge out an eye if it causes us to sin.  Jesus tells us it would be better to live maimed or partially blind than to keep sinning and to eventually enter hell.  His point is that our behavior is critical, not only for our faith journey but also for the non-believer who sees us living out our faith.

Jesus concludes this teaching with the call to be salt to the people we encounter.  Through our gracious and loving words and actions we are to ‘season’ the world with God’s grace and love.  As we live out our call to build up His kingdom here on earth, our positive witness will draw the non-believer to seek this same grace and love.

Our behaviors must attract people to God, not make them question having a relationship with Him.  We must offer love and grace when others need it and offer honest and repentant words when our behavior necessitates this.  We must live in the knowledge that we are all sinners saved by grace alone.  May we offer Christ to the world this day, inviting others to join us in our hospital for sinners that we call church.  For it is there we are healed too.

Scripture reference: Mark 9: 42-50


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How Deep and Wide

As Christians, we have this idea in our minds that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.  God blesses those who love Him.  He brings consequences to those who fail to walk in His ways.  We like to feel that we are on the righteous end of this continuum, but the reality is that we do at times sin and can tend towards the wrong end of the scale.

When our faith is strong and we are walking close to God in our daily lives, we sense His presence, we feel we are being fruitful in the world, and we feel His protection.  We feel centered and confident that we can handle what life brings our way.  God feels like a good friend.  Then we drift.  Or maybe we fall hard into sin in what feels like an instant.  We look up and feel like God is nowhere to be found.  The source of life feels like a distant memory.  Then we are like chaff, blown easily this way and then that way.  Yet there is hope.  There is always hope.

Jesus Christ is the living water, the way, the truth, and the life.  When we are lost, He gives direction.  When we are empty, He fills us up.  When we are confused, He pours wisdom into us.  When we sin, He offers grace and forgiveness.  As inconsistent and changing as we are, Christ is as rock-solid and unchanging.  As often as we stumble and fall, Jesus is there over and over and over again, extending us that grace and love that never ends.  How deep and wide is His love!  He calls us to walk in His ways, to be His disciples, and to love as He loves.  May we reflect His love today.

Scripture reference: Psalm 1


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The Only Way

Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ grim news is understandable.  If we had been training under and serving alongside someone like Jesus for three years, the news that he was going to have to die would be hard to take.  Perhaps we too would have never heard the part that came after “rejected, killed, …”

Peter’s reaction is purely human.  It is where we live most  of our days as well.  Peter did not look far enough ahead and was just concerned with ‘now’ and how not having Jesus around would affect ‘tomorrow’.  We preoccupy and worry over how we fit in, how we are though of, what tomorrow will bring, and so on.  It was hard for human Peter to see divine Jesus’ bug picture.  Sometimes we fail to live with an eternal focus too.  Sometimes our eyes are fixated on the here and now.

Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!”  What a reality check; what a wake-up call.  Imagine of you heard those words spoken to someone in your small group or during a meeting at church.  Imagine if they were spoken to you!  Yet in reality these are words we need to use personally with ourselves all the time.  When we begin to veer off the path or when we go astray or when we just begin to feel temptation, we need to shout these words in our hearts and minds: get behind me Satan!

We are much like Peter.  We live human lives quite often.  We stumble and fall.  Often.  And, like Peter, we too have the cross and the promise of life eternal.  In that cross we seek and find grace and love and forgiveness.  Because of this each day we can deny self, take up our own cross, and seek to follow Jesus.  It is the only way.

Scripture reference: Mark 8: 31-38


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Guard the Tongue!

As human beings we are created with quick and gifted minds.  We can create and solve and figure out all sorts of imaginative inventions and complex designs and perplexing problems.  We can learn to do many different tasks and hone specific skills.  We can even learn to speak multiple languages.  Our minds are amazing creations.

“No one can tame the tongue” states James.  There are many, many instances each day where we can prove him right.  Sometimes it is us that does so, sometimes we observe others doing so.  The list of words uttered that I wish I had not said is quite a long list.  We all have similar lists.  But if one were to look at the list chronologically, hopefully one would see a pattern emerging.  As one grows in the maturity of one’s faith, you would hope to see increasing gaps between the items on the list.  A growing and developing faith should exhibit itself in how we speak to and treat one another.

James indeed does pose the question of how can we praise God with the same tongue we curse our fellow man.  It is a good question.  The simple and correct answer is that we cannot do this.  But the reality is that we do struggle with controlling our tongue.  Sometimes our amazing brains are too quick and out of our mouths comes something that should not.

At the point of hurting or harming another with our tongue, first we must offer a sincere and humble apology to all offended.  Second, we must look within and go to work at taming the tongue better.  Third, we too must be merciful and gracious when we are stung or hurt.  We are all on the same journey to draw closer and closer to God, to become more and more like His Son, Jesus.  Each day may we guard our tongues so that our light can shine brightest into the world all around us.

Scripture reference: James 3: 5b-12


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Love Always Wins

Today we have a picture of Jesus that is not all warm and fuzzy.  In today’s passage He is giving it to the Pharisees.  I think in our minds we usually cheer Jesus on in this type of scenario.  It is almost like the new kid on the block stood u to the bully and all around cheer him on.  This direct and confrontational Jesus is alright until we realize that He is talking to us as well.

Hypocrite?  Me?  Hold on a minute Jesus!  Theft?  Murder?  Adultery?  Surely not.  Greed?  Envy?  Arrogance?  Well, I can explain.  Can’t I?  No, I really cannot.  Jesus is right.  At times what is within me is not so good.  Those unkind thoughts and words that sometimes come out of me are not so beautiful and loving.  Jesus is right.

One cannot explain sin away.  All one can do is to come before Jesus, to kneel down, and to offer up our confession and repentance.  The good news is that Jesus does not expect perfection.  He knows we will stumble and even fall at times.  It is not His desire for us but He did walk this earth.  Although Jesus was without sin, He certainly felt pain and sorrow and other human emotions.  Jesus saw firsthand the battle that rages in every human heart.

We are guilty as charged.  Sinners one and all.  But, thanks be to God, our story does not end here.  Confession and repentance leads to forgiveness and restoration.  Through grace we are made new again, pure and clean and worthy to call Jesus Christ our friend.  We are humbled by our failures.  But love alway wins.  The love of God made known through Jesus is an unending gift that is always given to al who draw near to Christ.  This love came to save one and all.  Praise God.

Scripture reference: Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, and 21-23


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Words

Words easily flow from our lips.  The words we speak can build others up or they can bring people down.  Careful thought needs to be given to the words we speak.  Our words can carry great power.

In the psalm the king has ‘lips of grace.’  The kind and wise words he speaks flow from his heart and reflect the deep compassion and care he has for his people.  In his words he triumphs justice and equality and prosperity for those he leads.  He is a king I would like to be around.

There are people I know who build me up with their words.  They are people I want to be around.  In my life I too try to choose words that build others up.  One cannot simply dispense kind words but the words must be genuine and honest.  Words are powerful and through intentional practices we can build another up or offer some light when another is struggling or is in need.

Jesus was a man who also spoke words of justice, equality, and prosperity.  He advocated loving and serving all we meet.  He was a man that I picture as being slow to speak as He weighed His words carefully.  Jesus’ words convey the deep love and compassion He has for each of us.  He too is a king I like to be around.

Scripture reference: Psalm 45: 1-2 and 6-9


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Sing His Song!

Sometimes I get a tune or song stuck in my head.  It plays over and over and over.  If someone mentions or, worse yet, hums a bit of some songs, they get stuck.  There is much joy and happiness in music, so ‘stuck’ may be a bad choice of words.

In today’s reading from the Song of Songs the author speaks of their lover coming to visit.  The winter is over and spring is bounding out all around.  New life can be found all over the place and he beckons her to join him in enjoying it.  Visions of new shoots of green poking up through the earth as birds sing songs carried off on a warm breeze fill my mind.  It is a time that makes the heart smile.

The relationships between lovers also parallels our relationship with God.  Each morning God calls out to us, sings to us, at the start of each new day.  Like an expectant child lying in bed awaiting Christmas morning or a fiance about to pop the question, God cannot wait to welcome us to a brand new day.  The actual time or season of the year does not really matter – God is anxious for us to begin a new day with Him.  It is God’s desire that each new day is full of His presence.

2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new is come!”  Each day is a new day as we walk with our Lord.  His mercies are made new every morning as God offers us His love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness each new day.

God calls us to be in song with Him each day as well.  He invites us to sing the songs of love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness each day.  May this song of God become so stuck in our hearts and souls that it springs forth from us each day, all day!

Scripture reference: Songs of Songs 2: 8-13


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Always at Work

God is ever-present and all-knowing.  God creates all and is in all.  He works sometimes in surprising and unmistakable ways and sometimes it is hard to see His presence.  In the psalm God is praised for always being present, for always being gracious, loving, and just.

Today’s psalm represents God’s activity in our lives from the beginning to the end.  The writer uses an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet to represent this idea.  He begins with “alpha” and ends with “tav” – equivalent to A-Z for us.  In the psalm he recounts all of the reasons we have to praise God – His works and righteousness, His grace and compassion, His faithfulness and justice, His laws and wisdom, and the covenant He keeps with His people.  For all of this, praise is lifted up.

God continues to offer all of this and more to us.  God continues to be active in the world.  As time unfolded, Jesus became the new covenant as He offered Himself in sacrifice to defeat sin and death so we could gain eternal life.  As we look back over our lives, from the beginning to where we are now, we can see God’s hand at work.  Sometimes His hand is active and easy to see.  At other times it is hard to see at all.  Yet even then we know He was present with us.  From the promises in the scriptures to our experiences in life, we know God is always at work.

In times of uncertainty or trial, it can be hard to see God at work or to feel His presence.  Sometimes another may see something we do not so it is often helpful to share our experiences with one another believer.  In the end, we know we can always look back and see His handprints.  In this we can always trust. For this, we say thanks be to God!

Scripture reference: Psalm 111


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Immeasurably More

As we gather together in worship we get a glimpse of the community of faith in unity.  We come together in Word, in prayer, in song, in spirit, and in praise.  We come together on a regular basis to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and to find forgiveness as a people of faith.  In worship we are rooted together.

We are all equal before God and nowhere is that more evident than in worship.  In those seats in the sacred space young and old, rich and poor come together.  We unite as one regardless of social, economic, or ethnic background.  All come together to offer our praise and thanksgiving to God.  In world we are blended together.

It is in worship that we experience God’s power, authority, grace, love, forgiveness, and presence.  Out time in worship is a time when we are made new and refreshed to return to our lives in the world.  It is also a tie when we are equipped and empowered to go forth into the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.

During worship we come to see through Word, prayer, sacrament, and song that our God is indeed great.  We come to see that He can and will do immeasurably more than we can ask for or imagine.  We come to feel His power within us and we are filled with His desire to share His glory with people through all the generations.  His is a presence experienced in community – community with each other and with God.  May all find Him in community with others this day.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 3: 20-21