pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: hear


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Willing Vessels

Reading: Jeremiah 18: 1-11

Jeremiah 18 opens at the potter’s house.  The potter forms the clay into a desired form.  But if the form is flawed, the clay is reformed and reshaped.  The clay can be remade into what it was intended to be.  And so it is with us.  God has a plan and a purpose for each of us.  We can become flawed but through God’s love and mercy we can be reformed and reshaped.  We can be reshaped over and over and over again into the creation that God intends us to be.

Oh how we can fight this process.  We can turn away from God and we can even run away at times.  We can and often do act as if we were the one in control.  Yet God continues to work on us, to mold us into who we were created to be.  When we take a fork in the road that God did not want us to take, another fork is being prepared to guide us back to God’s path.  God never gives up.

Jeremiah 18:1 says, “the Word came” to Jeremiah.  This is still true for us.  God is always right there, always ready to re-engage us, ready to reshape and reform us, always ready to restore us.  The Word that comes draws us back to God.  The Word that comes will be specific to us and to God’s purposes.  The Word may be one of promise and hope.  It may be one of comfort and peace.  It may be one of direction and discipline.  It may be one of forgiveness and mercy.  It will be what we need.

Unlike the clay that is placed on the wheel and taken into the potter’s hands, we have a role to play.  If we desire to hear the Word that God has for us, we need to seek God out and to be receptive to the Word that God comes with.  This day, may we seek God and may we be willing vessels in God’s hands.  May we be who God created us to be.


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The Better Choice 

Reading: Luke 10: 38-42

In today’s reading, Mary has chosen Jesus, the “better part”.  Martha has chosen busyness.  She is working hard to serve Jesus and His traveling companions.  While being a servant is usually a good thing, what Mary has chosen is definitely better.  When Martha complains to Jesus that Mary is not helping her, Jesus names Martha’s lesser choice and defends Mary’s better choice.  The question is: did Martha stop and sit at Jesus’feet as well or did she let out a frustrated sigh and stomp off to continue her preparations?

Often we find ourselves in the same dilemma.  Do we stop or lay aside what we are doing to make the better choice that God has placed before us?  Do we take the time to share Jesus either verbally or through our actions when God places us in that situation where we can be His light and love?  Or do we go on with excuses and rationalizations rolling off of our tongues?

Later, in the Gospel of John, we see that Martha has learned what the better choice is.  After Lazarus has died, she is the first one to run to Jesus as He approaches to declare her faith in Him and to proclaim that He is the Messiah.  Whether it happened right after Jesus declared the better choice in Luke or whether it happened sometime before this story in John, we are thankful that Martha eventually made the better choice.

This day and every day, may we all be like Martha, joining Mary and sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing His words and growing in our faith.


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To Hear God

Reading: Genesis 15: 1-12 and 17-18

When was the last time you experienced God’s presence?  Was it during a time of worship?  Was it during a time of deep prayer?  Was it out in nature – perhaps in a beautiful sunrise or during a powerful thunderstorm?  Maybe it was during a quiet time alone with your Bible.  God desires to be in relationship with us and seeks those moments when He can connect to us so that we can feel His presence.

Abraham was blessed to be able to talk and walk with God – many times.  Their connections were through a dialogue that had both give and take to it.  There was certainly more to it than simply hearing God’s voice.  The relationship between God and Abraham was deep and open and honest.

For most of us, we feel blessed when we have felt God’s presence surrounding us.  This experience is almost a physical one although we cannot see or touch God; we do feel a tangible presence in these moments.  We come away from these experiences with a definite sense of being blessed and with a sense knowing the sacred in our lives.

While experiencing God’s presence is always an awesome experience, I long to have a connection with God like Abraham’s.  The greatest obstacle to this is me.  I so value the times of being in His presence, but I want to hear His voice, to converse with God.  At times, when I am planning a lesson or working on the message, the Spirit’s guidance is definitely evident, but more is possible.

My greatest challenge is to provide the space for a conversation to happen.  For me, this means slowing down enough and quieting myself down enough to allow the opportunity to occur.  It also requires being open enough to hear God.  I can say I want to have what Abraham had, but I must be fully willing to hear and obey what God has to say.  This involves the complete surrender of my will to His and my total trust in His plan.  For me this is a journey just begun.  God, make me willing.  God, draw me in.  God, help me create space for You to enter in.  God, grant me the courage to trust.


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Listen

Listen up!  Listen here.  Would you just listen!  How many times have we heard these words coming from parents, coaches, teachers, spouses, and bosses over the course of our lifetimes?  I would guess this number far outweighs the number of times someone has thanked us for taking the time to listen.  In the midst of casual conversation we often find our mind drifting to a different focus.  Worse yet, in an argument we are often considering what we want to say next instead of listening to the other person.  When caught not listening, often we get the dreaded question: what did I just say?

I think Jesus often felt this way with the disciples.  So often it seems they just do not get what seems so simple to understand.  Must not be listening!  It is no wonder that God’s instructions to Peter, James, and John is to listen to Jesus.  His instructions to us are the same.  Just listen.  How often do we hear or read the Word but don’t really listen to them?  When we listen to them they take root in our lives and cause growth to occur.

God is always trying to speak into our lives.  Whether through the Bible, the message given on a Sunday morning, the wise words of a friend or mentor, or through the whisper of the Holy Spirit, He is always speaking into our lives.  And just as in all other conversations, the key is to really focus in and understand what God is saying to each of us.

Where is God calling you?  How is He speaking into your life?  What direction is He guiding you?  What does He want you to do for Him?  May our ears be open, our minds tuned in, and our heart be welcoming to all that God had for us this day.

Scripture reference: Luke 9: 34-43


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Take Refuge, Be Blessed

The psalmist cries out to God and God hears his prayers.  God always hears our prayers.  The response of the psalmist is to extol, praise, and glorify the Lord.  We certainly do this when we receive the answer we want.  A little child whose parent buys them that piece of candy in the check-out aisle does this as well.

The psalmist reminds us that God hears, delivers, and saves.  God always hears our prayers.  Our prayers never fall on deaf ears.  God also always delivers.  This is not to say God fixes all things.  Maybe He does ‘fix’ it.  Or maybe He delivers whatever it is we need in that moment or situation: patience, strength, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, love…  He does not leave us alone.  Sometimes God saves us from hurt and pain; sometimes He is saves is in the midst of it just when we need Him most.  The angels camp around those who fear the Lord.

The psalmist reminds us to taste and see that the Lord is good.  We easily taste and see this when He rescues us from the pain or suffering or fear.  It is a sweet and pleasing experience.  We also do this when we look back on something we endured and we see how the Lord was there in the midst of it with us.  We thank Him as we realize we would not have made it through on our own.

The psalmist reminds us that we are blessed when we take refuge in the Lord.  Whether it is to find help or whether it is to find rest, the result is the same: we are blessed.  Be blessed today!

Scripture reference: Psalm 34: 1-8


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Better and Better

In our daily walk of faith I think God is seeking effort not perfection.  There will be days when we struggle to focus in our daily prayer time.  Every now and then our lives are so harried we cannot even remember the scripture we just read, nevermind meditating and reflecting on it.  God does not expect perfect children.

God does expect effort though.  If it is our desire to know God, we must invest in the relationship.  In life we get to know someone by spending time with them, by observing them, by listening to their stories.  If it our desire to know God and to hear His voice, this will require time and effort on our part.

The Good Shepherd cares for each of us.  Jesus laid down His life for each and every one of us.  He wants to guide and protect us, to teach and give discernment, and to offer rest and peace.  Jesus knows each of us by name and He knows all of our needs.  His desire is that we would know Him intimately as well.  Jesus wants us to be so close to Him that hearing His voice becomes second nature to us.

It is through prayer, study of the Bible, meditation, worship, and reflection that we come to know Jesus.  In these, prayer is of particular importance.  It is within these moments of personal silence before our Savior that He can best speak to us.   We must provide time, space, and attention to hear His voice.  We can also hear His voice in the practice of these other disciplines as well.  For some this is especially true in worship.  As we consistently spend time with our Good Shepherd, we draw closer and closer.  This day and each day, may our hearing become better and better.

Scripture reference: John 10: 11-15ap


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Do You Hear?

What name best identifies you?  Is it father, mother, sister, grandma, brother, grandfather?  Is it accountant, teacher, lawyer, mechanic?  Is it artist, athlete, musician, dancer?  Is it giver, helper, volunteer, caregiver?  In our life we fill many roles and sometimes the roles vary by who we are around and what we are doing at the time.  Often the names others give us and know us by reflect who we are and how we are known.  Sometimes we even live into the names we are given.

In the quiet alone times with God, do you hear Him calling your name?  He does call out to each.  God calls out to each of us by name – Susan, Paul, David, Alice, Greg.  Jesus called the twelve to follow Him and become His disciples.  In doing so they were called to a new way of life.  Through their time with and in relationship to Jesus, they came to see themselves as worthy, loved, redeemed.  As we hear Him calling our name and begin to live into that call, we too come to see ourselves as worthy, loved, redeemed.

As God calls out and stakes an increasing claim on our lives as we grow in the faith, one of or true names becomes more and more evident: child of God.  As we grow into this name our other names become secondary.  Instead of father we become known as a Christian father.  Instead of a lawyer we become known as a Christian lawyer.  What we ‘do’ becomes secondary to who we are as God increasingly is our first consideration in all of our choices, decisions, priorities.

Being a child of God is a journey.  Once we realize we are a child of God, we begin living into a new identity.  We will still stumble, fall, make mistakes.  But as a child of God, when we stumble, we will fall into His arms of grace.  As a beloved child of God, we never walk alone.  Do you hear Him calling your name?

Scripture reference: 1 John 3: 1-7


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A Voice Calling

Job description: challenge the status quo, push people to grow and stretch themselves, be directly accountable to God

Any applicants?

Many jobs can be thankless.  Among them the job ‘prophet’ could be pretty high on a lot of people’s lists.  For most that were called in the Bible,”Yes!” was not their first reaction.

Prophets of old and prophets today have pretty much the same role.  A prophet has two primary job functions.  The first is to keep people oriented towards God.  A prophet calls us to live our lives with God at the center, following His ways and commands.  This runs counter to what the world so often tries to tell us and is therefore difficult.  A prophet tells us that ‘me’ does not come first.

The second role is to call for justice and equality for those whose voices are not heard by the those in power and in positions that can affect change.  A prophet calls for the care of the weak, for fair treatment of all, and for the stranger to be welcomed into our midst.  These calls too run counter to society’s norms.  A prophet tells us to give of ourselves and to become less so that others can become more.

Today most of us like to be comfortable, to maintain the status quo.  Change can be hard.  No wonder being a prophet is difficult.  But a faith that is not active and growing, bringing light into darkness, is dead.  That is not a good place to be.

May we learn to hear and welcome the prophet’s voice, both for what it calls us to spiritually and for the words spoken on behalf of the poor and powerless, words that bring hope, healing, justice, and love.

Scripture reference: Deuteronomy 18: 15-20


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Attuned to the Voice

Who would we identify as prophets of God in our world today?  Is it the big TV evangelists or the mega church lead pastors?  Is it the pastor of your local church or the leader of your small group?  Is it your spouse or best friend?  Yes, yes, yes, and yes!  A prophet can be all of these at certain times and points in our life an it can be others not mentioned above.  God can still speak in many ways through a wide variety of people.

Surely prophets are people like Moses, Elijah, and Jesus.  While this is a pretty impressive list, the Bible is full of prophets – many of whom came from out of nowhere.  Many spoke the word God gave them and faded back into regular life.  In this sense, we live today among many prophets.  Some are here for a while and others only for a short period of time.

One of the main jobs of a prophet is to align the people of faith with the will of God.  In this sense they help guide like a shepherd.  A prophet can also offer correction as we stray from God’s plan.  In our personal lives this comes mostly when we pursue worldly idols and when we fall to temptation.

In these terms, the voice of God can be heard from the many prophets in our lives.  We too may be a prophet to others.  We all need to be attuned to the voice that God has given a message to.  God is still very much alive and well and active in our world.  May His voice continue to lead and guide us all.

Scripture reference: Deuteronomy 8: 15-20


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He Is Good

Have you ever gotten a word from God or one of His messengers that was hard to hear?  Have you ever struggled with the direction that God is trying to lead you?  Ever tried to be the one in control?

All of these are easy questions to answer.  We wrestle all the time with these issues because we like to be in control and we do not like to be wrong.

Samuel and Eli give us great insights into what it means to be honest when it is hard, to be open to God’s word even when it brings bad news, and to accept where He is leading us.  Samuel reveals to Eli that God indeed plans to carry out His plans against Eli’s house.  Eli responds with these words: “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”  No groveling for his sons’ lives.  No anger towards God.

For us life can get so busy that it is hard to slow down enough to hear and process what God would like us to hear.  Yet we must.  Sometimes when we do so we question – you want what?  Go where?  Sometimes the news is hard to share – it may cause conflict or call something into alignment with God’s will.  In all cases we must be faithful and willing to hear God’s call and to walk in the way He is leading us.  We must remember that He is God and that all He wants for us is good.

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 3: 10-20