pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: love


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From Doubt to Love

Have you ever been a second late to a really funny happening at work or at home?  Have you ever looked away from the game at just the moment the ‘big play’ happens?  The laughter or cheers draws you to the fact that you just missed it.  Then you want ‘instant replay’, right?

Oh doubting Thomas!!  Thomas is the first one to be called to believe in the risen Lord on faith alone – without seeing Jesus.  I don’t think Thomas thought all the others were lying to him, he too wanted to see Jesus for himself.  Can you blame him?

Jesus again appears to the disciples and this time Thomas is there.  And Jesus, ever the same, meets Thomas where he is at and offers him just what he needs.  As always, no judging or condemnation.  Oh loving Jesus!!

We relate to Thomas, often wrestling with doubt, often questioning.  That is natural.  It is good for our faith.  We relate to Jesus too, but if you are like me, could do so more often.  Jesus simply offered what was needed to the one before Him.  He calls us to do the same.


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The Master Gardener

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Mary Magdelene mistook Jesus for a gardener.  In many ways Jesus was and is a gardener.

Jesus taught and continues to teach through stories, parables, examples, and healings.  Within each are little seeds that are planted in our hearts and minds.  Each time we read the Bible we glean insights from his words, often times a new insight from a passage we have read before.  One day these seeds will sprout.  In the meantime the gardener works the soil, tending to it so that one day it can nurture good growth.  The gardener continues to turn over our soil with His words, making us into the soil that will produce a crop.

As we grow, He prunes us as well, to shape us into the best disciple we can be.  Sometimes the gardener prunes off parts of us that hinder our growth as disciples, cutting off a little pride here, a little jealousy there, a bit of anger right there…  At other times He prunes to encourage growth in our faith lives.

All the while He is also teaching us how to garden.  Through His example and work in our lives, we come to understand how we can help others on their walk of faith.  We can share the stories from the Bible and from our own walks of faith.  We can tend the soil and encourage growth in those we know.  We can also prune when needed.  But the greatest lesson we learn from Jesus is to garden with love.  It is to produce growth and to encourage that the seeds produce a crop in our garden and in the gardens of those we meet along the way.  Happy gardening!!!


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The Master’s Sandals

John 13:34 – “A new command I give you: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Ephesians 4: 32 – “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

 

I loved the show “Undercover Boss” – anyone else?  It was a great show.  If you’ve never seen it, the basics of the show was that the owner of a company would take an entry level position that usually involved some pretty basic ‘grunt’ work – and it was often dirty and disgusting and physically requiring.  Sometimes the boss could not even do the job and was fired!  But without fail the boss ended up seeing how important and hard-working these ‘lower’ level employees were and how underpaid or disrespected they were.  It was usually a very humbling experience for the company owner.

As Jesus knelt and washed the disciples feet, many of them must have felt very uncomfortable.  It was always the disciples who would wash the rabbi’s feet – never the other way around.  It just wasn’t how you do things.  But Jesus had a point.  The point is for us as well.  Serving others has no limitations or requirements or hierarchy.  None!  Just like the lower level employees in the TV show, all people are important.  All people matter.

True service is much more than helping out a good friend.  It is much more than taking the time on a lazy Saturday afternoon to help out at the thrift store.  A true servant’s heart does anything at anytime for anybody.  When we truly love one another, then we are walking in the Master’s sandals.


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The Call of Jesus

Judas betrays Jesus first in his heart, then later in action.  Was he forcing Jesus’ hand to prod Jesus into becoming the powerful, earthly king that Judas longed for him to be?  Maybe this was Judas’ goal and he cared little for 30 pieces of silver.  Or was Judas filled with greed and saw this as an opportunity to make a little money?  Maybe part of Judas thought Jesus would get out of this jam too. Either way, Judas was guided by Satan, the great deceiver.

But how could one so close to Jesus come to betray Him?  How could one of the twelve think that Jesus had come to sit on an earthly throne?  How could… But each of the twelve does deny or betray Jesus in the end.  Even Peter, the Rock, flat out denies Jesus three times in the courtyard.  All of the disciples scatter and go into hiding after the crucifixion.  Most don’t even go to the hill of Calvary to see Jesus draw the last breath and to die for the sin of the world.

Maybe this was just the lot cast to Judas, cast by powers far beyond him.  We know that Judas doe snot live long afterwards.  Was it guilt or remorse that drove him to take his own life?  Or was it him wanting to be reunited with the risen Lord?

When I think of my life, I realize how often I deny or betray Jesus.  I do every time I say that I want to be the one in control.  I do ever time I won’t fully hand over the reigns to Jesus.  I do every time I turn away from one I could help.  I do every time I choose not to see Jesus in the eyes of those in need.  Yes, sadly the list could go on. What does your list of denials and betrayals look like?

But thanks be to God!!  His mercy and love and forgiveness never fail.  God is right there to pick us back up, to dust us off, to give us a little hug and pat on the back, and to send us right back out there to be His light and love in our world.  May our eyes and ears and hearts be better attuned to hearing and answering the call.  Thanks be to God!!


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Jesus is Waiting

In John 12, Jesus is at Mary, Martha, and Lazarus’ house.  It is a place Jesus visited often.  But in this case, He has just raised Lazarus from the dead (after 4 days in the tomb).  The place must have been abuzz – with the actual event plus all the visitors who were coming to see both Jesus and Lazarus.  The religious authorities are plotting to end this Jesus before things really get out of hand.

It is in this setting that Mary does something extravagant for Jesus.  She anoints Jesus’ feet with some expensive perfume and dries them off with her hair.  The perfume was worth a year’s wages.  I can’t even begin to think about giving something that valuable to or for another, never mind actually doing it.  Could you?

Yet Mary felt led to do this for Jesus.  True, He has just raised Lazarus from the dead – for this she was surely grateful.  Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had long had a special relationship with Jesus.  He often visited their house and taught there.  She probably considered Jesus a friend and a teacher.

But is makes me think – could I do something so extravagant?  I too have a special relationship with Jesus.  I too am grateful to him – not for raising my brother but for my redemption that He bought with His blood on the cross.  Jesus will one day also raise me to eternal life.  I too spend time with Jesus and like to learn from him.  How about you?  Do these things apply to you as well?  Then it is probably: we all have a relationship, we all spend time, we were all bought.

Maybe Mary sensed that Jesus’ death was drawing near and that this was all she could really offer.  A simple but very loving gesture.It is written that Jesus will return like a thief in the night, that the time and hour in unknown to all but God.

Do we live out extravagant love for Jesus and others?  Do we offer our best every day like each day is it?  Do you want to be standing there with a jar of perfume in your hand when He returns?  During this Holy Week, may we take the opportunities that ARE there to offer our best for Jesus!


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Standing on the Rock

Throughout the Bible we find God using the unlikely or the outcast or the rejected.  From shepherds to elderly women, from the child sold into slavery to the child left to float down the river, from the prostitute to the wandering prophet, God used them all.  From the lawyer to the waitress, from the rancher to the teacher, from the oil field worker to the stay-at-home mom, God wants to use them all.

When we look at Jesus and the men he chose to be his disciples, we see the same concept – a widely ranging group of men.  Some simple fishermen, one a despised tax collector.  When we look at who Jesus ministered to, we see that concept expanded.  Jesus ministered to all who came to him.  Jesus met each person with no pretense and no hint of judgment.  He met people where they were, loved them and accepted them.  Then Jesus most often found a way to move them along in their faith.

The church in general, and many of us as Christians, would do well to better follow Jesus’ example of who to love and minister to.  All were His neighbor and all are our neighbor as well.  To think or even say that some people do not ‘fit’ in because of race, ethnicity, class, education, and so on is in error.  To think or say that someone is too big a ‘sinner’ to be welcome is so far away from right that you can’t event see ‘right’ from there.  The church was and is built for the lost and the broken.  It is who Jesus loved and who we need to love.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118).  Many years ago the Pharisees missed Jesus standing right there in front of them.  Today the church and sometimes we as Christian miss Jesus standing right in the midst of our lives.  May we learn to see Jesus and to be like Jesus.  May the stench of judgment and the sting or rejection fall away like rain.  May the love of Christ and the heart seeking to serve rise up like the morning sun, bringing light, love, and hope to all that it casts its rays upon.  May we come to stand on our cornerstone, our rock – Jesus Christ.


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Jesus is My Hero

Human heroes come in different shapes and sizes.  Heroes are admired for various reasons.  A big fan of science may admire Louis Pasteur or a big fan of rock and roll might really admire the Beatles.  But in my opinion, although great ou in their fields, they fall short of ‘hero’ status.  To some a Mother Teresa or an Anne Frank may be a hero, but may just be admired by most people.  A soldier who gives his life to save his fellow soldiers is a hero to many, and certainly to his fellow soldiers, but may not be a hero to all.

What qualities are required of our heroes?  Is it loyalty, courage, dedication, perseverance?  Maybe it is these qualities in some cases, other intangibles in different situations.

Would you put Jesus in the ‘hero’ category for you personally?  Most Christians would look at the life and teachings of Jesus, culminating in his death on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins followed by his resurrection, and look at Jesus as a hero.  The depth of his love and the sacrifice he made is courageous, extraordinary, and amazing. Jesus is my hero.

Heroes are often people others emulate.  If Jesus is your hero too, how will we emulate him today?  He calls us to love the world as he first loved the world.  Sounds like a great place to start!  Happy loving today!!!


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The Index Cards of Sin

In Psalm 130, the psalmist is so right – who could stand if God kept a record of our sins?  Imagine if each of our sins was written on an index card!  How high the stack would be.  But what if we pulled out all the sins that were just against God?  Would the stack be appreciably smaller?  I don’t think so.

As I think on my sins, most involve another person.  That’s why I think my stack would still be pretty high.  I’d guess most of us seek forgiveness from God for our sin on a regular basis – daily if not more often!  But what about the sin that involve and affect other people?  Certainly for the blatant and most egregious we seek forgiveness from the injured parties.  But what of the ‘lesser’ sins – the unkind thoughts and the unholy looks?  They are another matter!  For me, these sins would represent most of my stack of index cards.  And you?

Yet in the end these sins are also between us and God.  They are the ones I am ashamed of.  I can come to God with my big sins because they are so obvious and so in need of redeeming.  But these little ones are harder to name and to lay bare before God.  Is this because they are the sins I so struggle to fully set aside?  But each day we can lay these sins before Him and they are cast aside and forever forgotten.  As we feel the freedom of redemption, we also must seek to repent and to be at work against these sins in our lives, to sin less often.  This day and each day, may we grow more into Christ so that our stack grows more slowly!!


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To Know Him

Some people get used to living in a dry and barren place.  Life has beaten them down.  Over the years they come to expect little.  And because of this they feel they have little to give.  Maybe they don’t even notice the little flower poking up next to their front door.

For some an illness or a loss can lead them into a valley of dry bones.  Sickness settles in and becomes the way of life.  A loss of a loved one casts a pall that seems to always be there.  For some they are forever walking with their head down and their heart heavy.  They don’t see the flower either.

God’s desire is for all people to know Him, to find love and joy in Him, to be happy and content in this life.  God wants to use us to draw people to Him.  He wants us to love others so that through that love they can come to know God.  Our Lord wants our shining light to be that thing that draws their eyes up and lightens the burden others carry on their heart.  May we be the love and light of Christ to all we meet so that they see that beautiful little flower, smile to themselves, and begin to walk with God.


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Light of the World

“Light of the world, you stepped down into darkness.  Opened my eyes, let me see.  Beauty that made this heart adore you, hope of a life spent with you.”  These are the opening lines to the song, ‘Here I Am to Worship’.  We were once called from the darkness into the light.  As we come to know Christ, we come to live in His light.

Once we have accepted Christ we are ‘walking in th light.’  We come to realize that we cannot keep anything hidden from God.  We were once under the illusion that we could.  But once we believe in Christ, we realize that God always knew what we were doing in our sin.  We just come to know that He knows.  Once we are walking in the light, we make decisions from the WWJD perspective (what would Jesus do?)  As we walk in the light, we cast light along other’s paths as well.  This can expose darkness in their lives – and what a great opportunity this can be to minister to them!  At times this too can remind us of darkness we yet have in our lives and it allows us opportunity to grow in our walk with Christ.

Yet alas!!  We are human and at times we step out of the light and into darkness.  Satan is ever knocking at our door, ever bringing temptations before us.  Like Christ, he also never gives up.  At times we may stumble, but the great love and light of Christ always is there to call us back.  Praise be to God for His unending love of you and me!!

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