pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: judgement


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Shine!

Reading: Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43

Verse 43: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

This week’s parable speaks of something we know all too well: evil is all around us. It is there in the world in general and it is right there close to us. When close by the evil can sap our spirits and when closer still it can adversely affect our walk of faith.

In the parable, those who follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are the wheat. Followers of Christ live as goodness and love in the world, seeking to ‘shine’ Christ within our hearts out to the world, producing a harvest of righteousness. On the more personal level, it can be challenging to live faithfully amongst the weeds. Our lives can be impacted by the actions of evil people and we can become discouraged and can even question God’s love in really hard times. We can also allow those weeds to take root in our hearts. Temptation can grow into sin and we can become the cause of hardship or discouragement and questioning for others. Thankfully evil and sin do not have to be permanent choices. We can again find hope in our faith as we delve into the word of God. We can repent and turn from sinful choices.

Jesus provides us with a great reminder of our hope at the end of our passage. There will be a day of judgement. All evil will be rooted out, gathered up, and burned in the fire. Those who are faithful will be a part of the new heaven and earth. Rejoice! “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

Prayer: Lord God, by the power of your Holy Spirit guard my life and faith from the weeds within and without. In such quick ways I can slip into evil thoughts and at times these lead to hurtful or harmful words or actions. When these evils begin to take root, purge them with the Holy Spirit’s righteous fire. Empower my faith for the battles ahead. Lead me and use me to shine like the sun each day. Amen.


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All in for You

Reading: Amos 8: 7-12

The time of action and judgment has come for the people of Israel.  These people who wanted to focus on money and crops instead of worship will get what they want.  They had endured worship and the Sabbath like it was a chore.  So God has chosen to grant their desire – He will step away from His people.  He will allow His petulant children to live without Him for a while.  A time is drawing near when a foreign king will conquer and destroy.  God will be a silent, non-involved observer.  Public worship will not occur in captivity and there is no Bible yet.  It will be a difficult time for Israel.

It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like to have all of our churches shut down.  It is even harder to imagine that our access to the Word of God could be removed.  We have easy access to physical Bibles and constant access to a myriad of virtual Bibles.  So imagine for a moment if all access to the Word were removed and we could not gather for worship.  It would be very hard to remain connected to God and our faith.

Although this idea of no access to God or His Word seems so foreign to us who have easy access to these things, our attitudes at times are not so far removed from those of the people of Amos’s time.  We have all been reluctant worshippers.  We have all looked at our watches or cell phones as we creep past the time church was supposed to end.  We have all drug our feet or scowled all the way to church and part way through it.  This is not the worship God desires.

Lord, make our hearts like Your heart.  Help us to love you with all we are.  Lead our spirit to seek Your Spirit.  Draw us into You.  Move us to offer all of ourselves in grateful response to Your love and mercy that never fail.  May we be all in for You, O Lord.


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Living Witness

Reading: Revelation 7: 9-17

It’s pretty easy to look at someone else in the store or in line at the traffic light and to judge if we think they are a Christian or if they are lost.  It becomes even easier to judge one’s eternal destination if we work or go to school with them.  Of course we are all ‘in’ and will one day stand around the throne with other stalwart Christians praising God day and night.  Or will we?

Often in our churches or places of worship we do like to think we have the inside track.  We like to gather with others like us (at least spiritually) to worship and have coffee and cookies with on Sunday mornings.  We get a little uncomfortable when someone who is definitely not one of us comes into our space.  Sure, someone welcomes them – they are good working with those kind of people.  We don’t need to take the time to talk with that ‘guest’ because we will never see them again.  Or will we?

Our passage today gives us a snapshot of heaven.  Gathered around the throne are thousands upon thousands from every tribe, nation, and language.  The great commission calls us to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.  That’s far and wide.  While some are out there in far away places, for most of us our mission field is right where we are today.  It is that person in line with us at the store or the one at the next desk over or the seeker who wanders in on a Sunday morning.

We must remember that we are all called to share the good news.  God wants us all to know Him.  We must live and see as Jesus did: without judgement, with no reservations, with no preconceived ideas.  We must meet people where they are at and love them as God loves them.  We are called to be a living witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  May it be so this day.