pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: guidance


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Presence

Reading: Psalm 68: 1-10 & 32-35

Verse 35: The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.

Psalm 68 speaks of God’s love and care for His people.  It begins with protection as God scatters the enemies.  In response, the righteous are glad and rejoice.  God has provided protection.  In the next verses, God helps the widow, the lonely, the prisoners – those on the fringes of society.  Not only does God lead and protect the nation, He also protects the least and the lost.  Surely you and I fit somewhere along this spectrum.  Let us also praise our God who protects and watches over us.

The psalmist then recalls the people’s wilderness experience.  They were freed from slavery in Egypt but wandered for forty years.  God gives them “abundant showers” as they eat their fill of manna and quail.  God led them on and they settled into the Promised Land – the land of bounty.  God again leads and guides and protects the people.  And again the psalmist notes that God also gave from that same bounty to provide for the poor.  In how many ways does God continue to provide for and bless us?  Let us praise the Lord our God!

The Psalm closes by offering singing and praise to God’s power and majesty.  God’s power is revealed to the psalmist in the skies – thunder representing God’s voice.  In the thunder is power and majesty.  The Psalm ends by acknowledging that God also gives power and strength to His people.  Verse 35 reads, “The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people”.  They experienced this in the pillars of cloud and fire in the wilderness.  They experienced this in the partings of the waters and in the crumbling of the walls.  The Israelites had some very tangible experiences with God’s power and majesty.

As we fast-forward a few thousand years, we too have a very real and tangible presence of God in our lives.  Through the gift of the Holy Spirit know that God continues to be near His people.  Through the Spirit we continue to receive God’s protection, guidance, direction, power, and strength.  The indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides God’s constant presence in our lives.  It is a wonderful gift.  Through this presence we experience what the psalmist writes about.  For this deep and powerful connection to the Lord our God, may we lift our thanksgiving and praise!


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Willing and Obedient

Reading: Romans 4: 1-5 & 13-17

Today’s passage centers around the faith of Abraham.  He obediently followed God’s call and lead in his life multiple times.  For me, the ultimate test of Abraham’s faith came up on the mountain as God instructed him to sacrifice his son.  It was the only son born to a very aged Abraham and Sarah and God was leading him to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice.  Abraham’s actions demonstrated great faith and trust in God, not only in this case, but over and over again.  Because of this belief in and trust in God, “it was credited to him as righteousness”.

Paul is wrestling in today’s text with the concept of faith based upon belief and grace versus faith based upon the Law and works.  Paul argues that it is our faith that makes us righteous and he holds Abraham up as the example.  Paul argues that the Law, or following all the rules for us today, cannot make us right before God.  His logic is that we cannot possibly keep all of the Law all of the time, therefore, the Law can only ultimately bring condemnation.  Paul puts forth the idea that only when we live by faith are we made righteous because only then does grace come into play.  Only when our salvation rests solely upon God’s free gift of grace are we able to claim the promise of eternal life.

As we consider this example, we must ask ourselves: do we live a life of faith or do we try to live a life of following the rules?  In our day to day lives, do we seek God’s will and guidance or do we live a faith that entails checking off the boxes as we do this or that?  Abraham demonstrated a faith that I find hard to fathom.  Could I lead my son up the mountain knowing that God was calling me to offer him up as a sacrifice when we got to the top?  It is a faith often outside of my understanding.  Yet it is precisely the type of faith that we are called to.  It is a faith that allows God to work through us instead of us working for God.  There is a huge difference between God leading my life and me leading my life.

Lord, help me to be more open to your leading, to your guidance, to your ways.  Make me a willing and obedient servant,  work through me, great Jehovah!


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God’s Will

Reading: Amos 7: 7-9

Visions are not something we are too accustomed to today.  But in the Old Testament and some in the New Testament, visions were one of God’s methods of communication with His people.  Visions often came through prophets in the Old Testament and through the apostles in the New Testament.  In today’s reading the prophet Amos is receiving a vision from God.  As was the case with many of the visions, here God is giving Amos the vision to try and get Israel back in alignment with God.  Visions, this one included, also often lay out the consequences of continuing to live outside of a right relationship with God.

In these verses God tells Amos that He will “set a plumb line among my people Israel”.  Plumb lines are used to keep a wall true or straight while you are building it.  It is a way to make sure all is right and correct.  Here God is using the metaphor as a means of judgment as He goes on to say, “I will spare them no longer” and then describes their downfall.

Today we might not receive many visions, but for a follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit works much the same way.  The Holy Spirit speaks into our lives, prompting us to reach out here, to offer of ourselves there, not to do that or go there.  The still, small voice keeps us in alignment with God’s ways and purposes for our lives.  And much like a vision, the Spirit also warns us of the dangers of temptation and sin while also reminding us of the consequences of choosing to live outside of a right relationship with God.

Thousands of years later God’s desires for His people has not changed.  God desires for each of us “to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).  Each day, as we seek God’s will and purposes for our lives, may we seek these things as we live out our faith wherever God sends us.


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Excellent and Consistent

Reading: Galatians 2: 15-21

Whenever we as Christians allow ourselves to be identified with something or someone other than Christ, we have gone astray.  When we are not living fully for Christ, then we are less than God intends us to be.  When we compartmentalize our faith to Sunday mornings and maybe even to a quiet time each day, then we are denying our faith in Christ most of the time.  Our faith must permeate all of our life all of the time.

Think of a famous and successful company.  They are not excellent some of the time.  Not just some of the products or services they offer are high quality.  They do not meet the needs of their customers just some of the time.  Those companies that are successful are always striving to do their very best, to build brand loyalty, and to always improve.  At times they may indeed fail, but then they work doubly hard to correct whatever went wrong to insure that it is not repeated.

As Christians we too must seek to be excellent and consistent.  When we declare that we are a follower of Jesus Christ, then we have set the bar really high.  We are not aligning ourselves with a mediocre product, but with someone who was excellent and consistent with everything he did.  We cannot say we love all people and then turn our backs on some because they are different or simply because they are hard to love.  We cannot say ‘use me God’ and then decide we would just rather watch TV or go to the lake today.  We cannot declare Jesus Lord and Master and then go off and do our own thing, living as if Christ did not exist.

We must love so unconditionally that others are amazed and stop to wonder.  We must say and do things for God that are uncommon and cause others to halt in their tracks and ponder why we are so giving.  We must begin each day in prayer, seeking to discern His guidance and direction for our day and then respond by going where He leads.  May it be so.


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Holy Spirit Power

Reading: John 16: 14-15

I think the same fears that gripped the disciples also grips us.  Without Jesus in their midst, how would the work continue?  Without Jesus leading the way, how do we have the power to do it?  Without Jesus, how do we know what to say or where to go?  They were full of doubt and questions.

Jesus closes out His earthly time by reassuring the disciples that He is not leaving them alone.  He promises them the gift of the Holy Spirit to answer all of their questions and to ease all their fears.  In essence, Jesus is giving them His continued presence in the form of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus assures them that in the Spirit they will find both Him and God.  The coming of the Holy Spirit into their lives will bring them the courage to do the work, the direction on where to go, the guidance on the words to say, and – most importantly – it will be the power of Jesus and God in them.

A frequently asked question on journeys is, “Are we there yet”?  On our journey to complete the great commission the answer to this question is obvious.  If Jesus has not returned yet, we are not there yet.  Until He comes again in glory, our work must continue.  Each follower of Jesus Christ must continue to be at work to bring the good news to all people.

The same fears that gripped the first disciples still grip us.  We ask how, what, where, when, and why questions all the time.  Our answer is the same as theirs was.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, with God and in Jesus.  We too are called to trust in the presence, guidance, and power of the Holy Spirit.  We too can cast aside our fears and can go out to bring Jesus to the world.  May we go filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and with His light shining out from within!!


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Work and Grow

Reading: Psalm 23

In general Psalm 23 is optimistic.  There is a trust in God that flows through David’s writing.  It comes from experiencing God’s saving presence and from having an intimate relationship with God.  David’s opening line reveals his trust: I shall not want.  The next few verses tell of how God cares for him.

Does such a trust and faith come easily?  Is a positive outlook always easy to maintain?  Unfortunately the answer to these questions is ‘no’ for most of us.  To have a faith and trust like David’s takes time and effort.  To be in any good relationship, we must invest of ourselves.  To walk closely with God, we first must spend time with Him.  We do so by being daily in His Word, by worship attendance on a regular basis, by carving out time in our day for prayer.  It is hard to do all these things consistently because it is so easy to sleep in, to make something else the priority, to wake up one day and to realize it’s been a while since we spent any time with God.  To really build a solid relationship with God takes daily discipline.

We build trust much the same way.  When we allow God to be in control or when we turn our burdens over to Him, we experience His presence, guidance, direction, comfort.  Through these experiences we come to trust Him a bit more.  Then we are more willing to trust and do so more easily.  And trust grows.  We come to believe that His plans for us are good.  And trust grows.

David’s faith and trust grows to the point where he can confidently say that he fears no evil.  He knows God has him.  May we work and grow in our faith to experience the trust and faith that David lived out daily.


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The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Baptism marks us as a child of God and brings us into His family.  In the early church and in non-infant baptisms today, it is also an affirmation of one’s own faith in Jesus Christ.  In all cases of Christian baptism today, one is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  In our text from Acts, this was not the case.  The new believers had been baptized but had not yet received the Holy Spirit.

John and Peter go to the newly baptized believers in Samaria to offer them the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Through prayer and the laying on of hands, these new members of the family of God receive the Holy Spirit.  To invite the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in them was essential.  For them and for us, the Holy Spirit is the living presence of Jesus Christ in our lives.  This presence guides and leads us to live life as a follower or imitator of Jesus.  The life of one indwelled by the Holy Spirit is a life that bears fruit in the world and shares the light and love of Christ with others.

The Holy Spirit also acts as a connector or unifier.  It leads and guides us all in the same way, bringing us together as the body of Christ.  Much as baptism brings each new believer into the one family of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit imparts into each of us a common DNA, making us one in Christ.

This day may we invite the Holy Spirit to be active and present in our lives.  This day may we attune our ears and hearts to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  This day may our hands and feet be receptive to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Come Holy Spirit, come!

Scripture reference: Acts 8: 14-17


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In Prayer

When we go to God in prayer, we do so with no guarantees.  We bring to God the desires of our hearts and our hopes for friends, family, and the world.  Often we pray for a certain situation or for some conflict to be resolved.  But sometimes, when we are in a season of personal discontent, we do not know what to pray for.  We sense some imbalance or uneasiness in our lives, but we cannot quite put our finger on it.  So we pray for things like guidance, direction, wisdom, discernment.

Usually when we pray, we pray with a certain hoped for answer in mind.  We pray for someone who is sick and we hope for healing.  We pray for someone who needs work and we hope for a job.  We pray for someone who is in a struggling relationship and we hope for reconciliation.  Even when we are in a season of discontent, most of the time when we pray we do so with an idea of what we would like the answer to be.

Funny thing about prayer though – it is God who answers our prayer, not us.  His  vision for our life and our world is so much bigger than our limited view.  His vision and plan for us and our world is focused on an eternal ending.  We often struggle to see with this lens.  But sometimes we do see an answer to a prayer or we begin to understand how God is at work in the midst of it all.  This is a holy privilege.

At times our prayers are also affirming and uplifting.  Like God’s response to Jesus’ prayer after His baptism in today’s passage, at times we too sense God’s presence, love, and affirmation.  We can almost hear Him saying ‘well done’.  We sense a guiding hand or we are blessed with affirmations that encourage us to continue to walk the path that God has placed us on.  In prayer we connect to God and He connects to us.  May we pray often.

Scripture reference: Luke 3: 21-22


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Making Change

Change can be hard.  Sometimes we are forced to make a change due to circumstances and often those circumstances are beyond our control.  Usually, though, change must be made in order to continue on.  And almost always, change is for the better, even when it is hard to go through or when it is painful.  Once in a while we don’t see the change is good until some time has passed.

As we sense change is needed a common reaction is to long for the ‘good old days.’  We pine for a time when all was well in our institution or relationship.  But that time has passed.  Yet some may still staunchly want to hold onto something that once was but is no longer.  In these cases, the dying process that has begun simply continues along.

In many churches we find ourselves here.  The place isn’t quite what it used to be.  There is much great ministry that still goes on, but it is not quite what it once was.  People remember when things seemed much ‘better’ but are resistant to seeking God’s new direction and guidance.  It is Biblically clear that God directs us to share the good news and to help people grow in their faith.  These things occur in and through the church.  Our churches need to be alive and energetic places of welcome and love.  Yes, they may look different than they did yesterday, but as long as Christ is the center, the unquestioned reason for a church’s existence, then all will be well if we trust God and His leading.  Change is scary.  Change is hard.  But sometimes it is also necessary.

Scripture reference: Numbers 21: 4-9


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Plugging Away

It has been said that God is the god of second chances.  He is also the god of third, fourth, fifth… chances.  If it is in His plan for our life, He will keep sending messangers, whispers, nudges, and so on.  God is a god of many things, but giving up is not one of them.

The first time God spoke to Jonah, he bolted and ran away.  After several events that proved God was still right there, Jonah is called a second time.  This time he goes to Nineveh to proclaim God’s message.  This second chance is a second chance for both Jonah and Nineveh.  God did not give up – He persisted so that His plan would come to fruition – both for His servant and for the city.

How often are we like Jonah – ignoring or questioning or running from God’s call?  We can be pretty good at all three forms of avoidance.  Sometimes we think we are too busy.  Sometimes we think our time would be better spent over there.  Sometimes we question if that person or cause is worthy of our time and effort.  The root of each is that we think we know better than God.  But, thankfully, He does not give up.

Our god of second chances keeps coming around, keeps working to mold us into who He wants us to be.  Like Jonah, I am glad that God keeps plugging away, because His ways are always better than my ways.  Thank you God!

Scripture reference: Jonah 3: 1-5