pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Living Stones

Reading: 1 Peter 2: 2-10

Verse Five: You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a royal priesthood.

God desires to always be at work in our lives.  God is always looking to build us up, to ever draw us closer to the image of His Son.  But we don’t always cooperate.  Sometimes we halt the building progress.  Sometimes we even tear down what God has built.  Sometimes we wander far and become a total reclamation project.

Peter is the author of today’s text and is a disciple we relate well to.  At times he jumps all in for his faith and does amazing things.  He was the one who climbed out of the boat and walked on water.  And at other times Peter stumbles and falls.  Peter was the one who swore total allegiance to Jesus and later denied knowing His three times that very same night.  In Peter we can see how God kept working on him, kept growing his faith.  In Peter we also see the “rock that made them fall”.

As we look back over our faith journeys, we too can see how we, “the living stones”, are constantly being shaped and formed and reshaped and reformed by God as a “spiritual house to be a royal priesthood”.  As we reflect on our lives of faith, we also can surely see times when we too “rejected the stone” or when we were “out in darkness”.  Just as Peter did, we too experience being called back into the “marvelous light” of Jesus.  As we journey and grow in our faith, we continue to become more and more like Christ.  It is a wonderful journey.

It is a journey that God starts us on and it is a journey that God keeps us on, constantly seeking to be at work in our lives.  No matter what, God continues to lovingly work on us and to call us ever closer to the image of His Son.  When we stumble, God lovingly picks us up and continues us on our journey.  As children of God, “now you have received mercy”.  For God’s love and grace, we say thanks be to God.


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Beneath the Surface

Reading: 1 Samuel 16: 6-7

Verse 7: Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Today’s passage fits our world to a tee.  Modern society gloms onto trends and rising numbers and shiny images like never before.  Relationships across real life and social media platforms are a hundred thousand friends wide and as shallow as the teardrop that never falls.  As a whole, we prefer to stay up on the surface level because it is less commitment and there is less risk of being hurt or having to get involved.

Samuel illustrates this today.  He sees the oldest son, Eliab, and is impressed.  Must have been tall and handsome and well-built.  Must have looked pretty kingly.  Samuel thinks Eliab is the one.  But then God delivers the famous line: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”.  Son after son passed by.  There is the definite implication made that we too should look past appearances, past the surface level, and get down into what really is important, to the core of the person: to their heart.

Of course, this is difficult.  I think this is so because it costs us our most precious commodity: time.  It is so much easier to just take a glance, to make a quick judgment or decision, and to move on to the next choice, the next option, the next person, the next sound bite.

But if we look at our story today and if we look at all of Jesus’ interactions in the Gospels, nothing is quick and easy. God did not settle for Eliab or even any of the other six sons who were present.  Jesus did not settle for a quick yes or no answer so that He could move on to the next need or so that He could give the next parable.  God invested time and waited for David to arrive – the one who had a heart for God.  Jesus took the time to see each person for who they were, to really understand the need they brought, and to patiently offer them all that He could offer.

In our busy lives it is a challenge to slow down, to look beneath the surface, to invest in each other.  In our faith, we are called to live in community, to love one another deeply (warts and all), and to walk alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ through the good and the bad. To do so, we must live beneath the surface.  May we delve deep this day.


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Trust and Praise

In the beginning, when all of humanity consisted of Adam and Eve, God gave them everything they needed.  They walked in His presence.  All God wanted was their trust and their praise.  All was good until they were misled and came to question what God had said.  They disobeyed one of God’s commands and sinned, breaking trust and creating separation.

Since then mankind has been living along the continuum between trusting God and doubting God, between praising Him and being separated from Him.  When we are living in covenant relationship with God, we trust in Him and praise Him for all of the ways in which He blesses, guides, and provides for us.  When we sin, we reveal a lack of trust in God and we turn away instead of praising Him and connecting with Him.  Life is so much better when we are living in connection with God, but we are sinful creatures and sometimes we fall to temptation.

The psalmist reminds us that we are blessed when we dwell in His house and that we find strength in Him.  When we are here we are ‘ever praising’ and our ‘heart is on a pilgrimage’ to draw closer to God.  In turn, the psalmist declares that God is then our sun and shield and that God bestows favor and honor on those who trust in Him.

God is indeed trustworthy and deserves our praise.  We can trust Him because He loved us enough to make us in His image.  We can trust Him because He does provide for our needs.  We can trust Him because He sent His only Son to pay the price for our sins.  We can trust Him because He loves us enough to prepare a place for us in eternity.  Praise be to our God!

Scripture reference: Psalm 84: 4-5 and 11-12