pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: hope


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Memory and Reassurance

As Israel prepares to cross the Jordan River, they must have felt so much emotion.  This moment is like crossing the Red Sea in  some ways.  God is parting the waters and providing a way across.  In both events they can clearly see God’s power and feel His presence with them.  One chosen by God himself leads them.  Yet these crossings are also different.  At the Red Sea they were fleeing their enemy and were about to enter the wilderness.  At the Jordan they were crossing over to face their enemy at Jericho and they were leaving the wilderness.  Joshua had replaced Moses, but God was clearly with Joshua, just as He had been with Moses.

The connection to and memory of what God has done forms the foundation of their faith and also provides reassurances that He will continue to be present with them.  Our history and experience does the same for us.  To remember that difficult situation that God walked us through or to recall that job that He provided reassures us of His love for us and also gives us a basis of hope for our future.

God is always and always will be.  As we remember what He has done for us, hope and faith are built up in us.  We look forward with confidence, knowing God’s steadfast hand will continue to guide and lead us.  Whether facing a wilderness or preparing to enter a promised land, we can step forward knowing the He will never leave us and that He will never forsake us.  A God that always was, will always be, for He is everlasting.

Scripture reference: Joshua 3: 7-17


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Witness to Our Eternity

God is everlasting.  He always was and always will be.  He was before He created the earth.  God will continue to be long after ‘earth’ is gone and the new heaven is here.  God is the one that binds us together – from Adam and Eve on forward.

While on earth, God is our peace and comfort. our strength and shield, our home.  In Him we live and breathe and have our being.  All of this will continue when our earthly body breathes its last.  God is before, now, and after.

As we live daily, we hold onto this promise.  It makes each day easier to get through and provides our ultimate hope – resurrection from the dead.  Until that day, God is steadfast to us.  His mercies are new every morning and His love never fails.  Surely as that day is coming for all of us, we are to live reflecting the fact that we do not fear death.  We live reflecting the hope and love we find in Christ.  But not all are destined for heaven.  It is our call to be a living witness to our eternity, allowing all the opportunity to come to know Him.  By word, action, and deed, we are to share Christ with all we meet.

Scripture reference: Psalm 90: 1-6 and 13-17


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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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Claim All That He Offers

“Keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” – Romans 12: 11-12

It can be hard to always love others.    It can be hard to always be ‘Christian’ towards others.  It can even be hard to treat our brothers and sisters in Christ with love all the time.  These words of Paul provide us with some insights and guidance for how to love all in a manner worthy of Christ’s love.

‘Keeping our spiritual fervor’ involves staying in love with God – one of Reuben Job’s ‘Three Simple Rules’.  When we are in love with God we naturally want to serve others and to meet the needs we can meet.  We stay in love with God by practicing our spiritual disciplines – worship, prayer, study, fasting, …

When we are ‘joyful in hope’ we are living into the belief that Jesus will be there for us.  We are expectant that He will be present to us and as we live with hope in our hearts, we are filled with joy.  When we are ‘patient in affliction’ we are living into the belief that although we endure for a moment, that Jesus will be there when we reach the other side or the end of our present situation.  In the midst of trial, we know that He is there with us and will be there always.  This allows for patience.  With patience we can gain much from the trials of life.  When we are ‘faithful in prayer’ we are living into the belief that through talking with Jesus we draw nearer to Him and draw strength from Him.

Though these four practices we equip ourselves to better love all we encounter each day.  This blessing from Hebrews 13 is also ours if we claim it: “May the God of peace equip you with every good thing that you may do His will, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.”  He wants to equip us with spiritual fervor, joyful hope, patient enduring, and a faithful prayer life.  May we claim all that He has to offer as we live daily with Christ.

Scripture reference: Romans 12: 9-21


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Are You One?

I believe God has a plan for our world.  When one looks at the amazing organization of planet earth, you can see that God is a planner and organizer.  Every single event and choice is not predestined, but God has an intent for how things will unfold.  Sometimes we see our role in His plan, but, more often than not, we don’t see it or at least its after the fact.

The key to being part of God’s plan is to be open to where He places us and to be willing to step into the situations that come before us.  To do this takes courage, boldness, faith, and trust.  God will provide all we need for all situations He places us into.

Like Moses’ sister by the riverside, we need to step into what God places before us.  Our role may be to simply offer kindness or to meet a basic need.  It may be grander or more significant.  That matters not.  God is looking for faithful servants, willing to build His kingdom. Are you one?

Scripture reference: Exodus 1:8-2:10


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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


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Praying with Faith

Daily we come to God in prayer.  Often times we come with requests or pleas during our prayer time.  We all have items or situations we would love Jesus’ help with – some are personal and some are for other people.

In Matthew 15 the Canaanite woman comes to Jesus seeking healing for her daughter.  But she is an ‘outsider’, a person who most every Jew would not even speak to or would even shun or avoid.  And she knows this.  Jesus reinforces this when He tells her that He came to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’ and when he refers to her as a dog.  Yet she persists.  She persists because she knows that Jesus has something that she desperately desires – the power to heal her daughter.

Don’t we come with the same hope? When we come before Jesus to pray for this or that, don’t we hope for the healing or the solution or the need?

But do we know the same Jesus that the Canaanite woman knows?  Do we have the same absolute faith in Jesus’ power?  Jesus offers us the same thing He offered her – the power to do anything.  May we pray with her persistence as well!

Scripture reference: Matthew 15: 21-28


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Faith and Action

In the US we practice our faith in relative safety and peace.  Sure it may cost us a ‘friend’ here or there or an invite to the ‘big’ party.  But it is pretty unlikely that we’ll see scores of girls kidnapped from the local Christian school or that militiamen will attack our church one Sunday morning.  Yet many around the world face these or similar dangers and still practice their faith because they know the ultimate reward that God has in store.
Could we live such a brave faith?  Willing in any and all circumstances to do what God is calling us to do?  Could we bravely walk into the cafeteria or break room and share our faith with whoever is sitting there?  Could we give a little more than is comfortable to help a person in need?  Yes we can and great is our reward too.  Through our actions and words we can bring hope.  We can be the light and love the world so desperately needs.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”. We can both live out from these words and help others to come to know the truth of these words in their lives.  May we live a brave faith.


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Who Are You Today?

What would it be to be there in Jerusalem that day Jesus rode in on a donkey?  Could you imagine being there and not knowing what was to unfold in the next week?  We read the Palm Sunday story through the eyes of knowing what is to come on the cross.

But imagine if you were just there!  Imagine if you were one of the disciples sent ahead to get the donkey and her colt.  And they were just where he said they’d be and you simply get them and bring them to Jesus.

Imagine if you were just in the huge crowd that day.  You’ve heard a few stories about this Jesus and here he is processing into the city.  People are cheering and laying down their cloaks and also palm branches.  Can you feel the excitement?

Imagine if you were a Pharisee!  Standing atop the wall, watching all of this unfold as you reviewed the plan your crew has been hatching to be rid of this Jesus.  And in he rides to cheering crowds and shouts of “Hosanna!”

There were lots of people.  There was lots of excitement and anticipation.  There was a lot of hope.

Think about the day ahead of you with Jesus.  Which one of the three are you?  The hopeful disciple?  The curious onlooker?  The Pharisee who just wants to be rid of this Jesus?

If you are the first, think about how you can share this hope.  If you are the onlooker, how can you know more?  If you are the last, may you meet lots of the first today!  God bless!!!


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The Questions

This week’s gospel lesson from the lectionary is the story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus at night to ask him a few questions.  Nicodemus acknowledges that Jesus is sent from God – they know this from the miracles Jesus has done and from the teaching he shares.  Yet Nicodemus and friends (who are not here with him) don’t quite get that Jesus IS God.  Jesus and Nicodemus speak of begin born of the spirit and this confuses Nicodemus.  Jesus tells him that belief in Christ leads to salvation and eternal life.  This passage contains the famous John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world…”  It also contains verse 17: “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Many people today have faith like Nicodemus.  They keep their faith pretty secretive, hidden or kept neatly tucked into Sunday morning  They prefer to keep their faith a private affair.  If others knew they went to church they might expect certain behaviors…  It’s just easier to keep their faith private.  Are you living an easy faith?

Others out there also have a curiosity like Nicodemus.  They see, hear, and catch glimpses of what true faith is all about.  They want to know more.  They will be in the lookout for you so that they can quiz you.  There are some questions they want to ask.  The question for us is:  will they recognize you?

Hopefully the answer to these two questions is ‘yes’ and ‘no’ – but which answer goes to which question?  May we choose to live boldly for our faith so that Jesus’ light shines into all of the dark places that we will walk by today.  And may we be attuned to the call of God, so that when someone whispers, “Hey, can I ask you a question?” from out of the shadows, we hear their voice and stop to talk with them.