pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: love


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Hand in Hand

Joshua asks the people twice if they will indeed serve God alone.  He wants to be sure they understand the importance of their decision and that they are sure about it.  After two positive affirmations, Joshua tells them to “throw away foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to God and obey him” (verse 24).  He knows that if they hang onto those idols, eventually they will turn back to them.  Joshua knows the importance of relying on God alone in the pursuit of a life of love, mercy, justice, and compassion.

We too face the same choice.  While we sometimes have physical idols like that new car or the latest fashion, most of our idols are things like pride, judging, envy, gossip, and control. We too must work at ‘throwing’ them out.  But we cannot do it alone.  Only with God’s help do we begin to stand a chance against these idols.

As we choose God alone to serve, we are choosing to enter into a covenant relationship with God.  In this relationship we choose to serve God alone and to love God above all else.  For His part, God strengthens, encourages, and enables us to grow closer to Him through prayer, study, worship, fellowship, and other encounters with Him.  God also leads us to serve, give to, care for, and love others as an extension of that loving, covenant relationship that we have with Him.  Loving God and loving neighbor just go hand in hand.  Loving God and loving neighbor are two greatest calls upon our lives.

Scripture reference: Joshua 24: 19-25


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One Father and One Teacher

On occasions we can be a lot like the Pharisees and teachers of the law.  On occasion we may say one thing and do another or we may ask someone to do something we would never do ourselves.  At times we may like to be in the spotlight a little too much yet at other times we are all too content to let someone else finally do what we could have done in the first place.  Sometimes we do not seem to know who is leading or who is setting the example to follow.

We are called to love one Father and to follow only one Teacher.  God the Father loves us like no earthly father ever could.  Through his Spirit, He deftly guides and leads us through life.  Jesus is the teacher and our one Lord.  His teachings and example show us the way to truly live and how to really love others as self.  His sacrifice bought us freedom from sin.

In Matthew 23:12 we are reminded to be humble.  The souls we remember today are not remembered for their positions or their pocketbooks, but for how they lived their lives in humble service to God and King.  May we too serve God with a humble heart and love others like Jesus loves them – with all of our being and with all we have to offer.

Scripture reference: Matthew 23: 1-12


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Good, Love, Mercies – Praise!

God is good.  His love endures forever.  Praise be to God for His unfailing compassion and mercy.

We sin.  Our faithfulness is prone to wander, to ebb and flow.  We weve in and out of our relationship with God.  We are human; we are imperfect.

But there is nothing we can do to cause God to stop loving us, nothing we can do that  He will not welcome us home.  In the midst of those times when we find ourselves in our own little wilderness, God is always calling, always seeking to redeem us.  Just as Jesus welcomed sinners into His life so that He could minister to them, we too enter God’s presence and find cleansing and healing.

At times we may feel too unworthy or that we are too far away to be found.  Yet there is no depth too deep for God’s love.There is no east or west too far for God’s redemptive power.  He always hears our cries and our prayers.  God is good.  His love endures forever,  His mercies are new every morning.  His compassions never fail.  Praise be to God.

Scripture reference: Psalm 107: 1-7 and 33-37


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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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God’s Mighty, Loving Hands

Sometimes a situation or a conflict can become so consuming that we lose sight of God and our faith.  We allow ourselves to be lost in the trial and forget our God who can and wants to save us.  Like Moses, when he came down the mountain and found the people worshipping the idol, we too can lash out and allow our frustrations to rule us.

But God calls us to be faithful to Him and wants us to go to Himself first all of the time.  God so loves us and seeks to have the most intimate relationship we can muster up.  God longs for us to think of and go to Him in both the good times and in the times of trial.  He wants to just pour strength and guidance into us to lead us through those times when we are angry or frustrated or perplexed.

Despite all of this, we still fail now and then.  We still seek to solve it or to work it out on our own.  But soon enough we are on our knees.  Having borne all we can bear, we  turn to Him.  Without condemnation and without judgment, God comes to our side.  And when the crisis has passed, we wonder why we did not turn to God at the beginning.  (I bet God wonders this too.)  Yet as we grow in our faith, we learn to turn sooner.  We come to learn that it is ALL in God’s mighty. loving hands all of the time.  May we all learn to make God our first stop.

Scripture reference: Exodus 34: 1-12


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God Is…

God is like… a king!  No – no king has ever loved their people as much as God loves us.  God is like… a president!  No, God is absolute and forever – leaders come and go on a pretty regular basis.  God is like… a dictator!  No, God overflows with mercy and compassion and kindness.  God is like… God!

In many ways we fail to understand God and His ways.  But this is mostly when we try to “figure God out”.  Too grapple with why this happens or why that doesn’t happen is next to impossible.  Yet in very tangible and real ways we can feel God’s presence, sense His love, feel truly forgiven and cleansed of our sins, and so on.  God is certainly a God we can experience.  Our worship and praise is our outpouring of love back to the God who reigns over all.

In Christ we come to know God in the flesh and we see how we are to live out God’s love, mercy, forgiveness.. with our fellow man.  With our holy Lord, we stand for justice, we meet the needs of our brothers and sisters, and we share our faith with each other and with the lost.  God is a God we can share.

Scripture reference: Psalm 99


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Home Again

It is a little amusing how God and Moses play the game we play as parents.  Sometimes, when a child does something especially good (or wrong), we often recognize them as MY son or daughter (or as YOUR son or daughter when it is something wrong).  In Exodus 32, the Israelites are Moses’ children because they have sinned and created an idol.  God is intent on destroying them.  It is easier when they are someone else’s children!

But Moses draws God back, reminds Him that they are His children.  He connects them to God through Abraham, Isaac, and Israel and the promises and covenant made with them.  And God remembers, softens, and relents.

Do you think God and Jesus do this with us?  When we sin or create distance between God and ourselves, does God look toward Jesus and say, “Look what you brother/sister is doing”?  When we repent and draw near to God again, does Jesus look to God and point out what good children God has?  In reality they are like good parents – sad when we do wrong and proud when we do right.  Like good parents, they love us unfailingly through it all, always pleased when we return home again.

Scripture reference: Exodus 32: 7-14


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Open and Willing

Ah, Monday morning.  Welcome to the new week!  Some people face Monday full of expectation, hope, and wonder at what God has in store for them in the week ahead.  The rest of the people… well, they should wish for the same thing.

For most of us, our week ahead will be much like last week in the sense that our ‘job’ is probably the same.  The structure of our week and the tasks ahead remain mostly the same, but the details and the interactions will be a little different.  For most of us, it is in the small things that we encounter God and the possibilities He lays before us in the coming week.

In Psalm 106 we read, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever.”  We worship and know a mighty God.  He has big plans for us this week.  Who in your day today or in the week ahead can you share this wonderful truth with?  May our eyes be open and our hearts willing to meet God when and where He provides those opportunities in the day and days ahead.

Scripture reference: Psalm 106: 1-6

 


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Bearing Fruit

God’s love is unfailing and unending.  His pursuit of us is constant.  God’s mercy and grace is a constant stream flowing to our souls.  His patience is vast.

In Matthew 21 we find the parable of the vineyard owner.  He plants a vineyard and rents it to some tenants.  This scenario parallels God’s creation of His kingdom and we are the tenants who inhabit it.  We are not owners and this earth is not our final destination.  We exist here for a short time.  Eternity will be spent elsewhere.

As we live out our lives, God expects us to bear fruit.  As His children, we are called to care for those in need, to give out of the abundance that He blesses us with.  Like the servants who came to the vineyard for the owner’s share of the fruit, God sends people into our lives that we can yield some fruit to.  Maybe it is something physical like food or shelter or clothing, maybe it is our time that we give to others.

May we hear the warning in this parable and not be like the wretched tenants who want to keep it all for themselves.  May we see that all we have is from God, the owner.  May we seek to build His kingdom by allowing our blessings to flow out to others, bearing them up in love, grace, and mercy.

Scripture reference: Matthew 21: 33-46


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Where Did You See Him?

Stop for a moment and think about where you saw God present yesterday.  Gather a few snapshots in your mind of those scenes.  As I smile over the ones in my mind, is occur sot me that this is a spiritual discipline that we should practice more often.

I saw God yesterday in William’s eyes and heard it in his voice as he shared his story with me, as we took a few minutes to connect.  I saw God yesterday in the children who simply beamed and giggled as the tumbled and slid down the slide in the inflatable.  The joy in their eyes was uplifting.  God was present in our Youth as they lovingly shepherded and helped the kids in line, in the hay, or in the inflatables.  God was present in the volunteer who quickly gave another caramel apple to the child before a tear could form over the apple the child just dropped on the ground.

Where did you see God yesterday?

God is present in the joy, in the laughter, in the smiles and giggles, in the simple kind gestures.  He is present in so many ways and I am so thankful for His presence.  Glory to God!

Scripture reference: Philippians 2: 1-11