pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: grace


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We Must Share

Sometimes we find ourself in a season where we feel distant from God.  Even though this is uncomfortable, we struggle to reconnect.  Even when we try, we feel empty.  Worship just doesn’t rouse anything in us and when we pray we feel alone.  It is a hard place to be.

We must remember that even in these times, God is near to us.  We too must remember that the Holy Spirit and a great cloud of witness – both our present faith community and those who have gone before – are praying for us.  We are always covered in prayer, so we are never truly alone.  God is always near.  Through faith we must also continue to pray, to seek Him, to worship.  And soon we will feel God’s presence all around us again.

Yet there are people who have never known God’s presence.  Life is lived without true meaning and without a higher purpose.  Think back to a time when you were in a ‘desert place’ and remember what that felt like.  Now imagine life being lived like that all the time.  This is why Christ commissioned us all to make disciples of all nations, to connect people to our God.

Many try to walk through grief, loss, loneliness, and such all alone.  As a child of God and as a follower of Jesus Christ, we know how great it is to walk in His love, mercy, and grace, to find strength in Him, to rest in His presence.  It is something we simply must share.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 2: 1-7


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Head to Heart

Faith rests upon the bedrock of Christ crucified and risen.  It is only through His sacrifice that we are made right with God and only through His resurrection that we have the promise of eternal life.  We ourselves can do nothing to earn forgiveness or to earn our way into heaven.  It is only by His grace and with the power of the Holy Spirit that we walk daily as a child of God.

For many today, this seems foolishness and is very hard to accept.  Like the Jews and Greeks in today’s reading, people today still want amazing signs or miracles or they want to be able to reason out faith.  Many in Jesus’ day saw miracles but failed to believe.  Many today believe that Jesus exists but fails to follow Him.  They observe the rules and diligently check off the boxes.  They know the stories in the Bible.  They practice religion but do not have a living faith.

But until Jesus makes that journey from head to heart, religion is all one has.  Once Jesus starts to live in our hearts, our lives change radically.  Instead of thinking how nice it was that Jesus did all those wonderful things for people, we want to go and do in His name.  Once Jesus lives in our hearts, our faith grows hands and feet.  The Spirit comes to dwell within us and life is never the same.  It is then that we can see with Jesus’ eyes, love with His heart, and serve others in the saving name of Jesus Christ!

Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25


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Cleansed

One of the unique and powerful ideas found in the Christian faith is the idea of cleansing.  Early in the Bible God used water to cleanse the earth – only Noah and his family survived to flood.  The ides of water as cleansing agent is also picked up in the New Testament.  John the Baptist uses the waters of the Jordan River to baptize people.  People confessed their sins, were called to repentance, and were baptized.  The water washed them clean.

Our baptisms cleanse us too, but more so they mark us as members of God’s family.  For most Christian denominations baptism represents the formal declaration of belonging to Christ.  For many denominations it is also the point at which God’s grace starts to work in and shape our lives.

God’s grace becomes what washes us clean.  Through His death on the cross, Jesus conquered sin and death.  In His resurrection He showed all that sin and death hold no power over His followers.

Through our baptism and the inflowing of grace that follows, we are called to walk as children of the light.  Our call in the midst of a world that pursues so much else is to share our story of faith and the story of what He can do for all of mankind.  As we learn to surrender more and more to His good will, we grow to live more and more into the life we were first called to in our baptism.

Scripture reference: 2 Peter 3: 18-22


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In the Times and Places

The Gospel of John opens so beautifully.  The words evoke past through future.  “In the beginning” takes us all the way back to Genesis and reminds us that Christ was there too.  John also provides the feel of the eternal in his vision of Christ’s glory “at His father’s side”.

Yet this morning the present tense is what resounds within me.  John writes that He came in the flesh and dwelt among us.  As much as we are still present in this world, so too is Jesus.  Christ, the light, came and lived amongst the darkness.  He stepped into the pain, injustice, suffering and brought light, hope, healing, love.  Jesus continues to be present in this world, still full of grace and mercy.  He comes each time a Christian acts on His behalf.

Today’s Upper Room had a touching story about a woman who brushed away a man out collecting for a mission on a rainy day.  She was too busy with her knitting.  But her nine-year-old daughter innocently asked the question that needed asked: “Why? Why did we give nothing?”  The mother had no good answer, only a lifelong reminder from the faith of a child.  Jesus came and loved.  This day may we offer all the love we can in the times and places that He calls us to today.

Scripture reference: John 1: 1-18


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The Word Became Flesh

“In the beginning” is how John begins his gospel. He draws us back to the beginning because Christ was there too.  In this connection back to Genesis we also get the start of Christ’s story.  Until God spoke, our ‘world’ was only chaos and darkness.  Until God spoke.  He spoke the world into being.

Last night we celebrated another creation that God spoke into being.  He said to Mary, “you shall bear a son” and it was.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Through His life Jesus brought us life and light, grace and mercy.  For a second time God spoke and the darkness fled.

When we see Christ as both ancient and also as new, we catch a peak into the holy mystery.  It is that beautiful place where heaven and earth meet.  In this place the light again conquered the darkness.  The darkness shall never overcome the Light.  Here Christ’s glory is revealed.  As the Word becomes flesh and dwells within us, heaven and earth again meet.  From within this imperfect vessel that is each of us, may Christ’s light shine forth this day and every day.  Merry Christmas!!

Scripture reference: John 1: 1-14


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He Calls

God promised to establish King David’s household forever.  That is a very long time.  Being as we are human, that promise can be misread and abused.  If seen from the “free pass” perspective, it can be disastrous.  Some of the kings that followed David were great examples of this.

God also wants to bless our households.  God invites us to live by the grace of His covenant.  This offer is nothing we can earn, but was bought for us by Jesus Christ.  His blood and body bought all freedom from sin and death.

Although we know this to be true, we often live otherwise.  We can allow guilt and shame to stand between God and ourselves.  We can get caught up in the battle of striving to make ourselves ‘acceptable’ to God.  We can choose to live as some of those kings that followed David chose to live.

But it is not about what ‘we’ can do but about what God offers.  God simply says, “Come.”  He calls us to lay aside all that binds and holds us back.  He calls us to walk in His love, to be in His presence, and to be made right by His grace.  Allow God to work in you, to pour out Hs grace and mercy in abundance on your house.

Scripture reference: 2 Samuel 7:8-11 and 16


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Share the Gifts

Grace and peace to you!  Paul’s standard salutation speaks of two of the most important attributes of being in the family of God.

From the Christian perspective, grace means “unmerited favor.”  It is the forgiveness of sins that we cannot earn.  It is the free gift of Jesus Christ to all who call on His name.  It is the power to save us and to bring us back before God, cleansed and made new.

Grace also meant an “arresting vision of beauty” to the Greeks.  And isn’t Christ on the cross just that?  In some ways arresting to visualize His broken and bloodied body hanging there yet also amazingly beautiful to realize what He did for you  and me.

Peace is also a gift from God.  That sense of wholeness in life and that all is right in His kingdom enriches our lives here.  This gift also removes competition from our equations and allows us to respond to others with love.  We spread peace with love.

Peace and grace to you!  These gifts are always offered to bless our lives and the lives of those we encounter.  God is faithful.  Our reality is that He brings us an unending supply of grace and peace.  And our reality is that the more we share these gifts with others, the more comes back to us as well.  Grace and peace to you!

Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9


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Bearing Fruit

God’s love is unfailing and unending.  His pursuit of us is constant.  God’s mercy and grace is a constant stream flowing to our souls.  His patience is vast.

In Matthew 21 we find the parable of the vineyard owner.  He plants a vineyard and rents it to some tenants.  This scenario parallels God’s creation of His kingdom and we are the tenants who inhabit it.  We are not owners and this earth is not our final destination.  We exist here for a short time.  Eternity will be spent elsewhere.

As we live out our lives, God expects us to bear fruit.  As His children, we are called to care for those in need, to give out of the abundance that He blesses us with.  Like the servants who came to the vineyard for the owner’s share of the fruit, God sends people into our lives that we can yield some fruit to.  Maybe it is something physical like food or shelter or clothing, maybe it is our time that we give to others.

May we hear the warning in this parable and not be like the wretched tenants who want to keep it all for themselves.  May we see that all we have is from God, the owner.  May we seek to build His kingdom by allowing our blessings to flow out to others, bearing them up in love, grace, and mercy.

Scripture reference: Matthew 21: 33-46


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Our Call Too

God is a god of hope, love, grace, and generosity.  We each receive these things in abundance.  We are called, in turn, to share these gifts with others – to those we know and to the person we meet for the first time.

In the parable at the start of Matthew 20, Jesus is teaching us to offer these things to all.  The landowner pays all of the workers the same amount.  He begins by paying those who started late what he promised those who started early.  They grumble when they only receive what was promised.

We can relate to their complaint!  They think they deserved more.  We see this two ways.  We too often think that if we have been a follower of Christ for a long time we “deserve” more than one new to their faith.  Wrong.  God loves us all equally.  We all equally deserve God’s blessings.  The other way we see this is in judging who is worthy of our love, our time, our help…  This is equally wrong.  We are called to be like Christ.  He set the standard – He loved all, especially those who we think are hard to love.  This is our call – to love all as Christ loved and loves all.


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Trust in Hope

All on this earth will have trials and tribulations.  All will experience doubt and fear.  All will endure pain, loss, and suffering. These things are part of life. What separates Christians is their hope and faith in God.

God never promises us an easy life or constant smooth sailing.  He does promise to always be with us, to never leave us or forsake us.  The maker of heaven and earth promises to be with us at all times – in the good and in the bad.  God is on our side.  He is our hope and our ransom.

When the waters of life boil up around us and threaten to engulf us or when our foot strays too near the snare, we ned not fear.  Jesus has paid the price, we have been redeemed.  By His grace we are welcomed into eternal life.  Once we call on His name and call Him Lord and savior, we have life.  Our eternal life begins then, not the moment we die.  This grace allows us to see the waters and snares of light in a new way, in a way that knows they do not control us any more.

In Psalm 124 we read that the waters cannot trap us.  They cannot hold us.  They cannot define us.  It is God who holds and defines us.  Life will be hard at times as we pass through trials and difficulties.  But God will always have a hand on us, will always love us through.  Trust this hope.  Trust God.

Scripture reference: Psalm 124