pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Faithful

Reading: 2nd Kings 2: 1-7

Verse Four: “Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho”… “I will not leave you”.

Elijah is known as the greatest Old Testament prophet according to most Biblical scholars. His tenure as prophet is full of great stories that demonstrate his obedience and faithfulness to God. Elisha is his prophet-in-training. Elisha will succeed Elijah as the next “prophet of God” in Israel. As we begin 2nd Kings 2, we hear that the time is now: “when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven…”. Elijah will not die a normal death. Instead he will be taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. For his part, Elisha has been a few servant to Elijah and loves him dearly. He wants to be with him right to the end.

What unfolds over the course of our passage is sort of like a game of cat and mouse. Elijah says, “Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho”. Over and over Elisha’s response is, “I will not leave you”. Elijah wants to leave Elisha behind, maybe to spare him actually seeing Elijah go. Elisha keeps repeating his line, showing the deep dedication he has to Elijah. “Just one more moment..” is what Elisha is saying. At each juncture the prophets of that place remind Elisha that God is going to take Elijah today. And each time his response is the same: “Yes, I know. But do not speak of it”. Elisha is saying, I know already! You don’t need to remind me of it!

Elisha is as dedicated and faithful as Elijah. He will not leave the one he loves and serves. We have to admire Elisha’s level of commitment. It is one we would do well to emulate. As we reflect on this today, we first must ask ourselves: how could my life better reflect my love and dedication and commitment to Jesus? Secondly, we must ask: how could I be as faithful and dedicated to Jesus?


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gods

Reading: 2nd Corinthians 4: 3-4

Verse Four: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers”.

Paul writes, “the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing”. ‘You can’t see until you see’ is a saying that is applicable as well for those who just don’t ‘get’ Jesus. There are many reasons that the gospel remains veiled to people today. And it’s not that people don’t worship today. It’s just that most people’s gods are not the one, true God. People pursue and worship many things. For some it is position or title or status. For some it is wealth or possessions. For some it is beauty or popularity. Driving much of this is the cultural lie that self is all that matters. Almost anything is permissable if it makes oneself feel good or gets you closer to your idol.

Paul writes, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers”. It is a timeless line. For the most part, the gods are still the same. By and large, people are blinded from the good news of Jesus Christ by the same old idols. Yes, there are new versions and wider variety now, but the fact remains: many pursue and worship other gods. “They cannot see the light of the gospel”. Well then, how do unbelievers come to see the light?

Today most people see you the light through the lives of Christians. Most people are positively affected by Christians long before they step inside the walls of a church. Most new believers first experience Jesus Christ through the witness of the faithful. Sometimes it is through the love and care we offer to others in need. Sometimes it is through the grace and peace with which we live our lives. Sometimes it is by being there when no one else is. There are many ways in which we can share the light and love of Jesus Christ with others. This is usually the first brush with Jesus for most unbelievers.

As Christians, we must also be wary and self-aware. Other gods call out to us as well. We too can stumble over ego and pride and selfishness. We too can be prone to gluttony and addiction and want. Our list of gods is no shorter than the world’s list. So, Father God, strengthen us as we live as witnesses to Jesus’ light and love. Pick us up when we stumble. Help us to hear and follow the Holy Spirit each day. Use us for your glory, O Lord. Amen.


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Righteous Love

Reading: Psalm 50: 1-6

Verse Three: “Our God comes and will not be silent”.

The Psalm begins with God summoning all people – “from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets”. The purpose of the summons is made evident in verse six: “for God himself is judge”. All peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, will one day be summoned for judgment. While this does sound a little ominous and apocalyptic (one day it will be both), there is also glimpses of beauty and relationship and love in our Psalm.

First, the psalmist reminds us that God shines forth, “perfect in beauty”. The light of God goes out into all the world. It is through the light if God’s love that we can see how to live more holy and righteous lives. The light guides the way and it also exposes the temptations and sins in our lives, allowing us to repent and walk with God. Second, we are told that “Our God comes and will not be silent”. Through the refining fire, God makes us to be more and more of who He created us to be. For Christians, the voice and nudge of the Holy Spirit continues to help us hear God speak.

In verse five the psalmist speaks of covenant made by sacrifice. For the Israelites, the sacrifices were made on their part for God. In our New Testament understanding, we know that Jesus was the final sacrifice, made by God for us. Through this, God established the new covenant based upon love and grace. And lastly, we are reminded that God is righteous. It is not a condemning righteousness, but a righteousness also built upon love. God’s righteousness wants what is right for all of His beloved children: a saving relationship through Jesus Christ. So God’s righteousness gives us one more chance after one more chance, so that one more can be saved. God is patient. He waits to judge.

Whether we meet God at the end of our earthly life or when Jesus returns, one day we will all be judged. Between now and then I rejoice in God’s light, love, presence, and righteousness, all of which allows me, a sinner saved by grace, to live in relationship with a holy and loving God. It is a love and mercy that I do not fully comprehend, yet I am profoundly grateful for. Thanks be to God for His righteous love. Amen.


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Hope

Reading: Isaiah 40: 27-31

Verses 29 and 31: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak… Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength”.

Our section today opens with the people complaining that God is disregarding their cause. The people feel hidden from God. At times, we find ourselves here, don’t we? We too can feel apart from God or as if God does not care about what is happening in our life. We think that if God loved and cared for us, that He would do something – right?

To us and to the Israelites, Isaiah says, “Have you not heard? Have you not seen”? Isaiah is saying, with all of your experience with God and with all you’ve read and heard about God, how can you say this about God? How can you question? This line of thought, this logic, makes sense to us in the good times of life. Yes, God has been there for us over and over. But when we have been in the trial for a while, the illogical rises up. We begin to doubt, we begin to feel abandoned, we begin to question. It is then that we must remember the words of Isaiah: “The Lord is the everlasting God”. Our God is a forever God, a God that never grows tired or weary.

Isaiah then adds some wonderful reminders about how God loves and cares for each of us. Isaiah writes, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak… Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength”. When we are weary, God wants to give us strength. When we are weak, God wants to give us power. But we also have a part. When our hope rests fully on God, we will be renewed. Sometimes it is hard to hold onto and to live into this hope. Sometimes life brings a lot at us. No matter what, though, when we turn to God in hope, He will lift us up. May we ever cling to our hope, to the Lord our God.


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Sides of Jesus

Reading: Mark 1: 29-39

Verse 32: “The people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed”.

Today in this section of Mark 1 we continue to see a Jesus who reveals His power and authority through teaching and healing yet also seeks to remain a bit private. Leaving the teaching time at the synagogue, Jesus and the four disciples retire to Simon and Andrew’s house for the night. Upon arriving Jesus takes the initiative to go and heal Simon’s sick mother-in-law. It is an act of love. Despite their going to a private home, soon enough people begin to arrive in large numbers. Our text indicates that “the whole town” gathers. Verse 32 tells us, “The people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed”. Jesus heals and drives out demons in what must have been a long night. In these actions the power and authority of Jesus are very much on display. Yet at the same time He does not allow the demons to speak because they know who He truly is. It is not yet time to make or take the ‘Son of God’ claim.

In the morning we again see the private side of Jesus as He rises very early in the morning and slips off alone to find a place to pray. In this private and personal time Jesus connects to God. Prayer is a necessary thing that Jesus does regularly with God. His growing fame ends this peaceful and intimate time with God as people are searching for the public Jesus. Jesus willingly return to the public to teach and heal, stating, “That is why I came”.

We connect to both sides of Jesus that we see in today’s passage. At times we seek His healing touch to make us well and whole again. At times we seek out Jesus as our example of how to love others as God loves us. At times we go to the Jesus who can expel demons, seeking relief from that sin or temptation we can’t quite overcome. And at times, we seek to be the prayerful Jesus, resting in God’s peace and presence, soaking in His love and grace. In these ways, Jesus is many wonderful things to us. Thanks be to God for the multitude of gifts that Jesus is to us.


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Whole

Reading: Psalm 147: 1-11 & 20

Verse Eleven: “The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love”.

The theme of a mighty and powerful and compassionate creator is continued from our reading in Isaiah 40 into today’s reading from Psalm 147. The psalmist’s initial response is to sing praises to God. The themes of caring for His people and healing and caring for the broken continue to resound in our passage today. In power and might God again counts and names the stars. The psalmist connects this action to God’s great understanding that has no limits. It is out of this understanding that the power and might of God remains a good thing, sustaining the humble and casting the wicked to the ground.

The idea of caring for the broken and sustaining the humble runs against the cultural norms of the day. In today’s secular world you must be bright and shiny and polished to be seen as successful or as having worth. Broken? In today’s secular culture being humble gets you nowhere. At least that’s what we’re told. Success and power in the world only comes from dominating those around you, doing whatever is necessary to ascend the ladder, and being proud of your success. Humble?

Yet we see in today’s Psalm that power and might can be present as we respond to our call as a child of God. It begins with our own experiences. From those times when God has come alongside or carried us we learn that true power and might is shown in caring for the broken and the weak. This also brings humility as we learn to do for others what God has done for us. It is a compassionate love brought in the name of our mighty and powerful God.

“The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love”. Through the ups and downs of our life we experience God’s faithfulness. Learning that God is the only one in control brings us a reverent fear of God. In humility we bow down and worship our God – so powerful yet attentive to each of His children. It is so because God desires wholeness in each of us. May we trust into God’s power and might to bring us a wholeness that rests upon hope. In response may our lives be living praise to the Lord our God.


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Share His Love

Reading: Isaiah 40: 25-26

Verse 25: “Lift your eyes to the heavens: who created all these?”

When we look to the stars in heaven we begin to get a glimpse of God’s creativity and power. We can see stars so numerous that we cannot even begin to count them. With the aid of telescopes we have discovered that there are hundreds and hundreds of stars for each one we can see with the naked eye. The sheer number is hard to begin to understand. Our passage tells us that God “calls them each by name”. If God knows each by name and knows if one of them is missing, then God cares for His created order in an extraordinary way.

Then we bring our gaze a little lower, down to the earth. Here too we see the magnificent creative power of God as we consider the vast variety of plants and animals and sea creatures and so on. Each is created for a specific purpose and place in God’s world. Just like the stars, God knows them all. The care with which God created and ordered the world reveals not only power and might but it also reveals a deep love for His creation.

If we lift our gaze to the mirror, we see the crown jewel of God’s creation. You, I, and every person that has lived, is alive, and will ever live are created in God’s image. We are each uniquely and wonderfully made. We each have a spark of the divine in us that ever calls us to our creator God. This connection to God is what allows us see beauty and value and worth in creation and in each other. It is what calls us to care for creation and to love on another.

Our care and love are imperfect. Compared to God’s love and care, ours is limited and sometimes self-serving. Sometimes we love self far more than anything else. But God did not create us to be perfect. He created us to pursue perfection. In this pursuit, our model is Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. Jesus showed us what God’s love looked like lived out. This day, may we delve into Jesus’ love and go forth to share that love with our family, friends, and neighbors. It is a love that can change hearts and can change lives. May we share it well today.


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Valued and Loved

Reading: 1st Corinthians 8: 1-13

Verse Nine: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak”.

As human beings, we all have behaviors and inclinations that can be sinful or can lead to sinful actions. For some, it can be an addiction such as alcohol or drugs or gambling or pornography. For some it can be gossiping or judging or being overly critical. For some it can be pride or ego or selfishness. For some it can be the drive to succeed at work or to excel at a sport or activity. There is no shortage of ways that we can can stumble. So when Paul says, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak”, he is asking us to filter almost all we do and say and are through this idea.

Paul wants the Christian community to love each other above all else. Paul sees call to love God and to love neighbor that Jesus elevated to top priority as the core of the faith community. When we truly love God we will refrain from believers that are determined to ourselves or to others we love. When we truly love God we will return from believers that are destructive to ourselves or to others we love. When we truly love others, we will not gossip about, judge, … them because these things only being harm and hurt. When we love God other above all else, we will not make work or personal interests our priorities. By choosing to refrain from these behaviors and inclinations we are choosing to not be a stumbling block to others.

When we do avoid these, we open up the possibility to better see as God sees. When we consider God and others before ourselves then we will pour into their lives and build them up as we come to better see the other as valued and loved by God. In turn we also come to better see our own beloved child status. May we all choose love, building one another up as we grow and move forward as the body of Christ.


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New But Unchanging

Reading: Mark 1: 21-28

Verse 27: “What is this? A new teaching – and with authority!”

The people who have been listening to Jesus talk are amazed by both His insights and by the authority with which He teaches. They asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching – and with authority”! Jesus is revealing the scriptures perhaps in a new way, but He is teaching from an old source. We do not know what scroll Jesus is teaching from, but even if it was the newest it is at least 400 years old!

Have you ever read a passage of scripture that you thought you knew fairly well only to discover something fresh or unnoticed jumping out at you? I often wonder how I missed that the last time I read the passage. Have you ever sat down on Sunday, heard a familiar passage read, thought ‘here we go again’, and then had the pastor apply it in a whole new way? Once in a while it even feels like he or she is preaching just to you. Have you ever done your small group homework, come to class feeling confident in your preparations, and then been amazed by someone else’s different but spot-on insights? Yes, indeed, the Word of God is alive and, therefore, it often feels new to us in amazing ways.

Yet at its core, the message of the Bible does not change. The Bible is God’s ongoing love story with generation after generation of sinful and often disobedient children. It seems that no matter what we do, God’s love for us remains steadfast and true. As Jesus enters the story, we gain a fuller understanding of God’s love. In Jesus, we see what God’s love looks like lived out between us. Jesus gives us the model to follow. At the conclusion of Jesus’ earthly time, we see what the ultimate gift of love looks like as Jesus dies for you and me. It was Jesus’ final act of love and service. Through the grave defeated the power of sin and death and made a way for us all to inherit eternal life.

While the Word can be new to us every time we delve in, these core truths remain the same. Our faith foundation will always rest upon God’s love. Yet we are still blessed to experience that love in new ways every day. Thanks be to God for new but unchanging living Word.


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Authority

Reading: Mark 1: 21-28

Verse 22: “The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority”.

Our passage from Mark 1 centers on Jesus’ authority. Authority is something we learn about early in life. As children, our parents have authority over us. Our parents are authority figures who love and care for us and who want the best for us. The next person we meet with some authority in our lives is usually our teacher. They too have a love for children and are focused on helping us to grow into intelligent and responsible young people. Soon enough we meet others who have authority in our lives: coaches, bosses, instructors. Although it can happen earlier in life, it is here that we begin to experience authority figures who do not have our well-being as the top priority. They begin to focus on things like success and performance and achievement. During the course of our lives, we certainly will encounter people with authority that we disagree with or even dislike. We may encounter authority figures who abuse their power or somehow else negatively impact us, altering our view of authority.

As Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum, those in the audience quickly recognize an authority to His teaching. Verse 22 reads, “The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority”. We have probably all had teachers or bosses who taught with authority because they were experts in their field. Jesus is an expert in His field: God. As Jesus teaches, a man possessed by demons calls out to Jesus and identifies Jesus’ authority: “You are the Holy One of God”. This man knows Jesus’ authority because of who Jesus is. As the Holy One of God, Jesus has ultimate authority. Using this, He casts out the demon. This adds a new level of authority for those in the synagogue that day – even evil spirits over Jesus.

In today’s passage, Jesus’ authority is recognized for what He knows, for who He is, and for what He can do. It is a complete authority. In our lives, do we recognize Jesus’ authority completely? Or do we try and keep a little control for ourselves? May we surrender completely to Jesus’ full authority, giving all of ourselves to Jesus today.