pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: love


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Rejoice!

How today’s scripture passage conflicts with tomorrow’s candle lighting!  In almost all of our churches we will light the pink candle on what was traditionally called Gaudete Sunday.   In Latin, this word means ‘rejoice.’  We do rejoice often in the Christmas season because we have much to celebrate.  So John’s message of judgment and repentance makes us stop and say, “What?!”

Yet John’s message is very relevant and applicable for us  today, just as it was for the ‘brood of vipers’ that John was addressing.  For us to truly see God in the birth of Jesus, we have to not only repent of our sins, but we must also bear fruit that reveals our changed hearts.  To repent does not mean to simply say “I’m sorry” to God.  It requires us to look deep within ourselves and to ask the hard question: what do I need to change to totally orient myself towards God?  This process of reorientation away from self can be one that is hard, takes work, and requires sacrifice.  Sounds a lot like what John’s cousin did for us!

Once we orient ourselves towards God, then we can truly rejoice because His holy light and love begin to dwell in us and to shine out for all to see.  As we continue to walk in His light and love, Christ joy becomes ever more complete in us and we begin to share it with all we meet.  Then the fruit of the Spirit – things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity – are made known in and through our lives.  This day may we look deep within, repent of all that we find that keeps us turned away from God, and draw closer to God so that His light and love may shine ever brighter.

Scripture reference: Luke 3: 7-9


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When We Pray

Paul calls on us as believers to rejoice always, to allow our love or gentleness to show to everyone, and to not worry about anything.  Always, everyone, anything are pretty complete and all-encompassing.  When I look at my life, I realize I fail in all three.  I can and do rejoice in the Lord often, but not always.  I try to let me love and gentleness show to all people, but not to everyone all the time.  I tend not to worry very often, but I do at times.

For some, one or more of these areas are struggles as well.  For example, a lot of people worry.  We worry about health, terrorism, finances, family, decisions, jobs, and so on.  Worry can be a consuming emotion.  Paul’s answer to those who worry or don’t rejoice always or fail to show God’s love all the time?  Prayer.

Paul suggests that we “take it all to the Lord in prayer.”  Again, one of those absolutes: all.  Not just some of the things we struggle with, but all that is on our hearts and minds, both the good and the bad.  Time in prayer shifts the focus from us to God.  Time in prayer builds our trust and reliance on God and His activity instead of on our own efforts.  Prayer also reminds us of God’s absolute love for us and His constant presence in our lives.  Lastly prayer acknowledges that we must trust God with our lives.

When we pray and focus on all we have to rejoice over in our lives, somehow our worries seem less.  When we come to realize how much God loves and cares for us, His love seems to flow to of us and into others.  May we learn to take it all to God in prayer.  May we learn to trust in His steadfast love for us.  Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you.

Scripture reference: Philippians 4: 4-7


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May His Love Abound

In the Philippian church, the love of God was evident.  Paul’s affirmation of this love must have been uplifting and encouraging for them.  But Paul also challenged them to let this love grow so that it yeilds knowledge and insight.  Like a good coach, Paul built them up with a positive and also gave them an area to work on.

Church is the place where we should find love.  Jesus was all about loving all He met.  As His hands and feet He calls us offer His love both to those within the church and to those outside our walls.  His love calls us forth to alleviate suffering, to right injustices, and to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  These efforts are the ‘fruits of righteousness’ that Paul writes of and they bring praise and glory to God.

This knowledge and insight gained through allowing our love to grow and abound also helps churches in their relationships within.  As imperfect human beings there will be times when we are less than God intends us to be.  This may cause hurt and even division within the body of Christ.  Paul reminds the Philippians and us that the same guiding force must be used here as well: love.  When we meet challenges with love, then the outcome and resolution will also bring glory and praise to God.

As we prepare ourselves to receive our King, may this love abound more and more within us.  As we seek to love each other and our world in need, may His love within us be pure and blameless, seeking to bring praise and glory only to God and Jesus Christ.

Scripture reference: Philippians 1: 9-11


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Right There for Us

Paul is so thankful for the relationship he has with the Philippians.  It is a mutually beneficial relationship.  The Philippians pray for and support Paul and are coworkers of his in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  Paul pours his love and knowledge of God nto the Philippains to help them grow in their faith.

Some messengers, like Malachi and John the Baptist, bring a message of change and challenge.  They call for the people to repent of their sins and to be transformed into th epeson God is calling them to be.  Paul’s message, on the other hand, is all about God’s love.

In our world today I think we need both kinds of messengers.  We need to hear the tough love message at times.  We are prone to wander and pron to sin.  Sometimes we need those harsh but true words.  At other times we need to be reminded of God’s absolute and pure love for us.  We need to hear that this love is not dependant on us or on our actions.  God just loves us.

When we are willing to take that hard look in the mirror, God is ready to transform our lives.  And when we cannot bear to look in the mirror because our sin is heavy upon us, God’s love is right there for us, undeserving as we may be.  For both of these things, we say thanks be to God.

Scripture reference: Philippians 1: 3-8


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Times of Gathering

Advent is a time of gathering together.  To grow and develop in our faith we need the love and support of one another.  Without being intentional about being a community of faith, it can be easier to drift away from our faith.  In this season it can be easy to get caught up in the commercial side of Christmas.  Gathering together as a Christian community of faith reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas.

There are many ways to gather.  A group could gather to decorate the church or the homeof an elderly member.  A group could meet to bake holiday cookies and then go deliver them to a homebound member or to a nursing home.  A group could form and go sing Christmas carols at the jail or at a group home.  A group could gather once a week before school or work to study an Advent devotional.  A family could use an Advent calendar and pray together each day.  There are many ways to gather together to celebrate and share our faith.

Each of these practices are ways to connect us to our faith and to share that faith with others.  Each is a tangible way to be a witness to Christ’s love in our world.  In this holy season we live between what we know Christ did for us already and in the hopeof Christ coming again.  While our eternal hope rests secure in Christ’s resurrection power, we still long for His return when He will make all things new.  May we find ways to share the love of Christ with those in our lives so that they too may come to know the true meaning of Christmas.

Scripture reference: 1 Thessalonians 3: 9-13


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Prepare Him Room

One Christmas carol sings, “let every heart prepare him room.”  This is the essence of Advent – to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.  Throughout these four weeks we seek to welcome Christ, our Emmanuel.

Today is Black Friday.  The spirit of today is pretty much the opposite of the spirit of Christmas.  Where Christmas is about giving and loving, today is too often about taking and getting.  People do things today that they would not normally do – get up really early, stand in long lines, rush and battle to get by the next guy, and sometimes become rude and obnoxious to secure that super special bargain.  And in some ways these two events are also similar.  There is excitement and anticipation in the air.  One is often there to get a gift for someone else.

In today’s passage Paul prays for God to increase, bless, and strengthen their love for one another.  It is through this love that they grow to share God’s love with others.  He knew that the more they loved, the more others would come to know God’s love as well.  Paul also knew that this pattern of loving others would deepen the Thessalonian’s faith too.

As we seek to prepare our hearts this Advent season, may we also do so by finding ways to love others more deeply.  Maybe that is by including someone on the fringe in your gathering or outing.  Maybe that it is by bringing some food to the neighbor or friend who is struggling.  Maybe it is by visiting the widow inthe nursing home.  Maybe it is by volunteering to ring a bell.  When we do these things, all of heaven and earth sing.  When we do these things we bring honor and glory to our King.  May Jesus Emmanuel, God with us, lead us to share His love this Advent season!

Scripture reference: 1 Thessalonians 3: 9-13


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Thank You God

Thank you God!  Today is a day when we give thanks to God for His many blessings.  We are grateful to be with friends and family and to gather together in fellowship over the meal.  We are thankful for all of our material and physical blessings as well – for job and home and other possessions.  We are richly blessed and it is good to give thanks to our provider.

We are most deeply blessed, though, by our relationship with the living God.  In God we find our Savior and our hope.  Like Job, all we have can fall away, yet we can still count ourselves blessed because we know God and God knows us.  Although hard times will come, we can trust in God in the midst of and through these difficulties.  God is faithful and true.

I am most thankful for His love and mercy.  In my humanity I stumble and I sin.  In these times my love for God fails.  But His love never fails.  In these times, when I repent and seek God again, His mercies flow down upon me like a powerful rain, washing me clean, making me new, drawing me back into that relationship again.  Thank you God.

Scripture reference: Psalm 25: 1-10


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This King

Jeremiah warned the people of the coming doom brought on by their choices.  Their wandering and lack of trust in God’s power and might brought destruction and exile in Babylon.  Jeremiah also planted hope in them: in time the people would return home and find healing and forgiveness.  God is certainly a God whose love never fails.

In Advent we often abandon our wandering ways and again seek to draw close to God.  As we prayerfully wait to celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior, we wait with hope and expectation.  We prepare ourselves for His arrival through a little extra study and prayer so that our heart and soul will be prepared to receive our King.

Jeremiah gave voice to God’s promise to the people headed into exile.  God promised to raise a new branch out of David’s line.  As impending doom lay on the horizon, how distant the glory days of King David must have seemed!  I imagine some even hoped God would intervene with this kind and turn away the Babylonians.  But this new King would be a King of peace and love, not power and might in earthly terms.

This future King would be called the “Lord Our Righteousness”.  This King would be rule with peace, love, and justice.  This new King would deliver and redeem the people not from worldly empires but from the power of sin and death.  This new King would bring lasting peace within all who call on Him as Lord and Savior.  We know this King.  We await this King.  We welcome this King.  As Advent nears, we draw close, we connect to Him again, and we say, ” Come Lord Jesus, come.”

Scripture reference: Jeremiah 33: 14-16


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Disciple: Love

The crowds wanted Jesus to be an earthly King.  The disciples thought they wanted Jesus to be an earthly King.  Those in authority feared Jesus would become an earthly King.  Sometimes I wish Jesus were an earthly King.  But He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Maybe a better way to look at it is His kingdom is IN the world but not OF this world.  The new command He gave was to love one another.  He went on to explain that people would identify His disciples, those in His ‘army’, by the way they radically loved others.  We are commanded to love one another in this world.  But the love is not earthly love.  It is a love that come from Jesus.  He first loved us and calls us to go out and share His love with others.

Jesus’ kingdom is based on His love with a good dose of forgiveness and reconciliation thrown in.  Jesus knew the normal world operated on violence, coercion, force, power, might.  So in living in this world, He knew His disciples would have to back that love up with forgiveness and reconciliation.  A Christian’s mode of operation and response to the world is based on love.  Love can overcome all things, including violence, coercion, …

God invites us to live from His kingdom’s view.  He commands us to love one another.  And as a ‘reward’ He says the world will know we are Christians by our love.  It is an identifier.  It is a choice that makes some wonder what we’ve got, what makes us so different from the world.  May we make many curious today!

Scripture reference: John 18: 33-37


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As Your Child

So often we want to be who we are not.  At times we long to be more that we are or we long for more than we have.  At other times we seek to be less – to not be in the spotlight, to not be in that situation, or to have a little time and space to just breathe and to rest.  Being content with who we are and where we are can be a struggle.

We can also struggle in our role in our relationship with God.  All too often, if not most of the time, I want to be the one in control.  In the deep corners of my heart and mind I really do know that God is the one who is in control.  Yet I have a hard time yielding up all of my life.  In general I am obedient but am not fully obedient.  In almost all ways I trust God but I don’t quite offer all up to Him.

Through Jesus, God demonstrated what it looks like to live as a human fully obedient to and wholly trusting in God.  But this is such a tough example o live up to.  Jesus loved everyone.  To all who came to Him, to allHe encountered, and even to those who challenged or condemned Him – Jesus loved them.  Jesus met everyone right where they were at and did not judge.  He simply ministered to them right where they needed it.  For me it is so hard to enter into a relationship and to serve another without somehow judging them or their situation.

Lord, bring me humility.  Lord, bring me a purer love for my brothers an sisters.  This day may as live and love as Your child, as Your witness of Christ in the world, bringing You all the honor and glory.

Scripture reference: Revelation 1: 4b-8