pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: mercy


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Never Shaken

Reading: Psalm 15

The Psalm opens with a question and proceeds to answer the question.  The psalmist asks, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary”?  The writer then goes on to list a dozen things – some are what one should do and others are what one should not do – in answer to the question.  As one reads through the list of do’s and don’ts, there are none anyone should find objectionable.  In fact, someone seeking to live a “good life” would strive to live by these ideals.

Certainly someone who follows these dozen ideals would be living with God, right?  But what if one occasionally wrongs their neighbor or allows slander (or gossip) to slip from their lips?  Does that mean that now that person cannot dwell in the sanctuary of God?  Absolutely not!  This list, while a bit long, is by no means exhaustive and is certainly not comprehensive.  If one were to try and list all the possible do’s and don’ts, one would quickly surpass the 623 the Pharisees tried to live by.

Whether it is this list or the Ten Commandments or all the red letters in the New Testament, the way God calls us to live is our goal.  It is the mark.  But like the greatest archer that ever lived, we sometimes miss the mark.  We sometimes sin.  But the Psalm does not end with the list.  It ends with a promise: “He who does these things will never be shaken”.  When we make the commitment to walk with God in our daily lives, we are assured of God’s presence.  In this presence, we will never be shaken.  The promise to never leave us, to never forsake us remains no matter what we do or do not do.  God’s presence remains because of who God is.  God is faithful.

God’s presence is what keeps us grounded and is what allows us to try and walk blameless, to do what is right, to keep our word….  Alone we are never good enough, never strong enough, never determined enough… to live a flawless life.  Thankfully, God’s plan is not one of perfection but of redemption.  Despite our failures, God remains present, continues to love us, still offers us mercy and grace and forgiveness, and always seeks to restore us back into a right relationship.  This is why we are never shaken.  We are flawed, but we journey the path to eternal life with God at our side.  Thanks be to God for His unending love and constant presence.


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What Does the Lord Require?

Reading: Micah 6: 6-8

The first five verses of Micah 6 bring God’s charges against Israel.  God has laid out His case.  In verses six and seven, Micah gets in the act.  He muses about what would appease God, about what would be enough to ‘even the score’.  Micah wonders if a thousand rams would be enough.  Or maybe 10,000 rivers of oil would do the trick.  He next wonders if maybe the firstborn child being sacrificed would do the trick.  Just as Micah knew, we too know.  It is not about our sacrifices or our giving or about anything else we can do; it is all about our personal relationship with God.  So Micah gets direct and is right on point.  Micah asks what does God require of us?  Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God.  For Christians today, in Jesus’ life and witness we see meaning and an example of how to fulfill these three requirements.

We are to act justly.  Most simply put, this is to love neighbor as self.  This means to do what is right in all cases.  This means we speak up when others are being wronged.  This means we hold each other accountable.  Of course to do all of these things, our heart must be right with God.  We confess and repent when we sin, we accept rebuke when needed, we work to always align our will with God’s will.

We are to love mercy.  This means we extend ‘loving neighbor as self’ to really be loving others as Jesus first loved us.  On the cross we find what loving mercy really means.  To love mercy means to accept others as they are.  This is how Jesus dealt with all He met.  So we must forgive others when they wrong us, whether they deserve it or not.  We walk alongside and love those in need.  We choose to adopt and follow policies and stances that seek to promote the well-being of the entire community.

We are to walk humbly with our God.  This begins by surrendering our lives to God, by living each day with Christ as our Lord.  This means seeking and allowing God to guide our actions, thoughts, words, and deeds.  This is giving God the control and being obedient to humbly walk where God leads.

“What does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”.  May it be so today and every day.


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Light

Reading: Isaiah 9: 1-4

Today Isaiah brings a joyful pronouncement.  Although there was much darkness and oppression when Isaiah spoke this prophecy, it brought hope.  Yet the darkness and oppression remained.  When Jesus was born, the prophecy was fulfilled.  Out of Bethlehem, from out of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, came Jesus, the Savior and light of the world.  Jesus was and is the great light of the world.  Yet still the darkness and oppression remained.  These forces of evil remain to this day.  So too does the light of the world.  The Lord Jesus Christ still reigns, still seeks to win people’s hearts, still works to shine light into the darkness.

In His day, Jesus walked the earth and taught and healed and brought hope.  Jesus Christ worked to bring the kingdom of God to the earth.  In doing so, Jesus offered hope and mercy and forgiveness and relationship to all He met.  His offer is the same today.  But for people to meet Jesus today, they must meet Him in the Word of God and in us.  One can begin with the Word, but I believe people learn best by seeing and experiencing.  The most effective way we have of sharing Jesus is not by giving someone a Bible, but by sharing what it looks like to live out the Bible by how we live our lives.

Jesus began a great work by defeating the power of sin and death.  Through the cross and the tomb, Jesus freed us from these chains.  He did this so that we who are imperfect could follow the example of He who was perfect.  It is our task, as loved and redeemed people, to help others to come to live as loved and redeemed people.  We do so by continuing the work of Jesus.  We go forth and shine light into the dark places; we work to end oppression and to bring justice; and, we live on people just as Jesus loves on us.

A light has dawned… we have seen a great light.  May we go forth, eager to share the light of Christ as we seek to bring the good news to the ends of the earth.


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Love Lived Out

Reading: Matthew 24: 36-44

No one knows the day or the hour when Jesus will return.  There will be no mistaking it when He returns.  Our passage today speaks about one being taken and one being left behind.  The rapture will be the first unmistakable sign.  With all this in mind, Jesus urges us to always be ready.  If we are ever seeking to live a life worthy of Jesus’ example, we will always be ready for the moment He returns.

Salvation is something we do not lose once we declare that Jesus is Lord and Savior of our life.  Once we receive Jesus into our heart, we are saved.  This status does not change.  But for many people, they have not chosen to accept Jesus as Lord.  For some, it is an intentional choice.  They are still choosing self even though they fully understand what Jesus offers.  They are not willing to surrender.  For others, they do not know who Jesus is or how Jesus can work in their lives or maybe how to begin a relationship with Jesus.  In all of these scenarios, all are lost and need to enter a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

One of our primary roles as followers of Jesus is to share the good news with the world.  We do this in our daily lives.  It is both our words and our actions.  In our words are love, compassion, mercy, grace, understanding, forgiveness…  In our actions we are a servant to all, humbly doing for others.  Another role we play is prayer warrior.  Just as Jesus and the Holy Spirit are interceding for each of us, we too are called to pray for one another.  Sometimes our prayers are general – asking God to help our church reach out or helping us see opportunities that God places before us.  Some prayers are more specific – for a certain person or situation, for God to work in a loved one’s heart, for someone we know is sensing God’s hand at work in their life.

Each and every day may we be God’s love lived out – in our actions, in our words, in our prayers.  May we be love to the world.


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The Journey On

Reading: Colossians 1: 15-20

Jesus, Paul declares, is the “firstborn of all creation”.  Since the beginning of time, Jesus has been the creator and the purpose for all that has been created.  He is therefore supreme over all.  Yet counter to all of this, Jesus is also the one who humbled Himself to death on a cross, becoming the “firstborn from among the dead”.  In doing so, Jesus became the way to true and eternal life.  Only through His blood can we be made righteous.

Jesus rule and example were so countercultural.  Jesus loved instead of conquered.  Jesus healed instead of killed.  Jesus forgave instead of holding grudges.  Jesus sacrificed instead of taking advantage.  Jesus offered compassion instead of judgment.  In all these ways, Jesus gave us an example we can each follow.  Love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, understanding, servant.  Jesus’ power comes from His heart, not from His brain or His brawn.  We are each born with the spark of the divine in our hearts.  We can thus all live a life that follows the ways of Jesus.  We were created in His image, intended to follow after Jesus as His disciples.

Next Sunday begins a new year in the church calendar as Advent begins.  Like the end of the calendar year, may it be a time when we pause and take stock of our journey of faith.  John Wesley called this life of faith a “journey towards perfection”.  It is a place we never reach, yet one we should always be arriving towards.  Jesus was the perfect example of God’s love lived out.  This week may we look at our journeys of faith – at both our times moving forward and at our times of failure.  May we each commit to a year of growth in our faith, seeking to ever become more and more like Jesus Christ, the one true King, the one and only Way.  May it be so.


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Worthy

Reading: Colossians 1: 10-14

Jesus desires for all people to enter His kingdom.  Jesus showed this by engaging everyone He met so that He could share the good news of love with them all.  The kingdom of Jesus offers freedom from the chains of sin.  Once we confess Jesus as Lord, we are not free of sin.  We are freed from sin as we find forgiveness and redemption in Jesus.  As humans we will always be prone to sin.  But because of Jesus that us not the end of our story.  We can be made new and find peace each time we confess and repent of our sin.

The forgiveness of sin us a free gift.  There is nothing we can do or say to remove the guilt and shame of our sins on our own.  All the power to do this rests in Jesus alone.  Once we claim Jesus as Lord, the free gift is ours.  It is a gift without limit.  That is how great Jesus’ love is – forgiveness and redemption are ours in limitless supply.  What a great love.  What a gift.

The response to the gift and the love is what Paul is writing about in Colossians 1: “that you may live a life worthy of the Lord”.  Our response to what Jesus has offered and done for us is to try and live like Jesus.  This is the never-ending journey of faith, to grow to be more and more like Jesus.  Living like Jesus involves bearing fruit for the kingdom.  Our primary way we bear fruit is by loving others as Jesus first loved us.  It is living lives if love, compassion, grace, mercy, forgiveness.  It is being a servant to all.

We are equipped to live a life worthy of Jesus through the practices of our faith.  We read the Bible and meditate on the Word to grow in our understanding of and connection to God.  We pray often to be known by and to know God more.  We worship to bring our praise and thanksgiving to God.  When we fill ourselves with the things of God, then we are also able to pour His love out into the lives of others.  This is a life worthy of Christ.


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Let It Rain

Reading: Psalm 65: 9-13

In our Psalm, we are reminded of the many ways that God blesses the earth with the rains.  The rains nourish the plants, crops, and animals.  The waters flow over the earth and level out the ridges and furrows.  The rain produces a bounty.  The joy of fields full of cattle and valleys brimming with grain bring praise.  Water is the source of life.  When the rains pour down, it is God’s gift of life.

God also blesses us similarly.  God’s presence rains down upon us too.  God’s Word and Spirit are life-giving.  If we delve into the Bible, we find words of life, hope, love.  If we are receptive to the Holy Spirit’s whispers, we find the way to live a life worthy of God’s calling.  God’s presence is what fills us up so that we can go forth to share these blessings with others.

God’s rains flow down and the waters work to shape and mold us into who God wants us to be.  As God’s life-giving waters wash over us, they smooth out our rough spots as well.  The love and mercy of God’s waters softens our ridges, our prickly and rough areas, softened by God’s grace.  The waters are also present in our valleys.  God’s rain of love washes away our doubts, our fears, our sins.  God makes us clean and new every morning as mercy washes over us.  The rains can also lift us up.  As the waters rise in our lives, God remains present, bringing us peace, comfort, and strength.  Many times God simply carries us along like a mighty river, carrying us when we are unable to walk on our own.

Today, may God’s rain wash over us.  May God’s rain bring us all we need this day so that we too may shout for joy and sing of God’s love and power.  O Lord, let it rain.


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Tax Collector Witness

Reading: Luke 18: 9-14

The tax collector is honest and direct with God: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.  As this man who stands at a distance and won’t even look up towards heaven utters these words, it is easy to imagine tears running down his cheeks and a little crackle in his voice.  He comes to the temple with his sins heavy upon him.  He comes to simply do what he needs to do: to lay his sins before God.  This tax collector knows that God’s mercy alone can remove these sins from his life.  He is humble and honest before God.  He recognizes God’s sovereignty and God’s love.

The tax collector is a great witness to the faith for us.  First, he realizes who he is, honesty admits it before God, and acknowledges that God alone can restore him.  Too often we instead live with ‘secret’ sins in our lives.  Access is easy to many addictions.  We rationalize our greed and jealousy as simply wanting the best in life.  The line of excess and gluttony is easily crossed.  The pull of gossip and being judgemental is great.  Like the tax collector, our guilt often weighs down upon us.

Second, the tax collector knows his great need for God.  In our independent, free choice, I’ll do what’s best for me culture, it’s easy to think that we are the center, that we are in control.  Yet, like the tax collector demonstrates, only in God do we find true power and love.  It is only when we enter humbly into God’s presence that we find true healing for our brokenness.  It is only when we admit that we have no power to remove the guilt and shame of our sin that God can restore us, can make us new again.

O merciful God, allow us to see the sins in our lives.  Make us humble as we enter into your presence, pour out your power and grace upon our lives.  Like the tax collector, restore us to a right relationship with you.


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On Our Hearts

Reading: Jeremiah 31: 27-34

In my limited mind, understanding the depth of God’s love can be hard to fathom.  Because of my own struggles to forgive at times, it can be hard to comprehend God’s willingness to forgive my sins over and over and over… In my life, in my own experiences with how easy it can be to withhold love, it is hard to fully wrap my head around the fact that God always loves me, no matter what I’ve done or said.

The passage from Jeremiah marks a shift in God’s relationship with the people.  In the past, the Law has been God’s primary tool for faithfulness and obedience.  With the Law there were consequences and rewards.  With the Law there were times when separation and punishment were used to realign the people’s minds with God’s ways.  Over time the Law grew and grew to try and cover every possibility of sin.  But it also became so cumbersome that it was impossible to keep all of the Law.  Failure was all but guaranteed.  So God offered a new way.

God opted for a new covenant based upon a personal heart relationship with each of us.  Instead of a mountain of Laws, God instead offered mountains of love and grace and mercy.  Instead if the unending stream of sacrifices, God instead offered up, once and for all, the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.  It is through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that we can enter into a personal heart relationship with God.  It is in this personal relationship that God’s ways are written upon our heart.  It is through this relationship that our lives begin to reflect God’s love and grace and mercy.  Verse 33 states, “I will be their God and they will be my people”.  Thanks be to God that we are claimed as God’s children, loved and forgiven, so that we too may offer God’s gift to our broken world.  Thanks be to God!


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Tell the Story

Reading: Luke 17: 11-19

Ten lepers cry out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us”!  Ten lepers are healed as they head off to show themselves to the priests.  Ten lepers believed that Jesus could heal them.  Ten lepers went to the priests to be deemed “clean” so that they could re-enter the society they had been banned from.  What a joy they must have felt to hug family members, to see friends again, to be able to go to the temple!

We too have cried out, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us”!  We cry out to Jesus for mercy, forgiveness, healing, relief from situations and circumstances.  We too cry out in hopes that Jesus will indeed grant us mercy, pour out forgiveness, bring us healing, …  We want to experience Jesus’ power in our lives.  Many times we do experience Jesus’ touch or restoration or intervention.

When we do experience Jesus responding to our cries, how do we respond?  Do we respond?  Are we so grateful that we are rid of that affliction or situation or circumstance that we leap back into living life?  Or are we so naive that we think it was something we did to change our plight?  Or are we simply ungrateful?

It is essential that we not only recognize that Jesus Christ has answered our cries, but that we also tell the story.  We must testify to God’s hand at work in our lives so that others can find hope in their lives.  We must add our story of healing or forgiveness or… to the bigger story of God at work in our world.  Others need to hear of how we experienced Jesus’ power in our lives.  Our testimony may be but a small part of God’s huge story, but someone needs to hear how God is at work in our life.  It may be many someones.  May we tell the story.