pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: mercy


by 1 Comment

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.


by 1 Comment

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.


by Leave a comment

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.


by Leave a comment

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.


by 1 Comment

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.


by Leave a comment

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!


by 2 Comments

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. 


by Leave a comment

Suffering, Loving, Sacrifice

Reading: 2 Timothy 1: 8-14

“Join with me in suffering for the gospel”, Paul says to Timothy.  “Take up your cross and follow me”, says Jesus.  This idea that we too will suffer for our faith is a common refrain in the New Testament.  While most of us will certainly not face the cross like Jesus or be beaten and imprisoned like Paul, each of us will be called upon to willingly suffer for our faith.  To sacrifice is at the root of our faith.

Death and imprisonment do not threaten the typical Christian in the 21st century.  While we must acknowledge that this reality exists for some Christians in our world today, for most of us the suffering we are called to is of a different nature.  Some of the suffering we face will be caused by our faith.  For example, at times the choices to abstain from things or activities may bring a little persecution our way.  At other times choosing to speak up for one dealing with injustice or to stand up for one being bullied or abused may draw some negative attention our way.  Faith and following the way of Christ can lead to public suffering.

Our faith can also lead to more private suffering.  When we choose to give away or provide food or clothing or shelter to one in need it is at a cost to ourselves.  We live with less so another can have some.  When we choose time with God or church or family over work or some other secular pursuit we are sacrificing wealth or popularity or promotion.  This too can bring suffering.  When we choose to befriend or engage the outcast or ostracized or to walk with someone who is struggling in life, we sacrifice time and energy and may also open ourselves up to ridicule or persecution or some other form of suffering.  Faith calls us to live God with all we are and to love neighbor as Christ first loved us.  Faith asks us to place self after God and others.

As we live out our faith may we be willing to suffer and sacrifice so that all may come to know and experience Christ’s love, hope, and mercy through our extravagant love and servant’s sacrifice.


by 1 Comment

Dwell

Reading: Psalm 91: 1-6

The psalmist finds great refuge in God and wants us to do the same as well.  The pestilence, disease, evils that creep in the night, the snares – so much that the psalmist faced!  Our reality is that we too face much.  Children too often grow up on their own, young adults enter the ‘reap world’ often with a huge debt load or without the education necessary to earn a living wage, and our elderly are too often housed in a facility, largely forgotten by family.  It is no wonder people are longing for love, hope, mercy, justice, and a sense of security and belonging.  Life can be hard.  But into this challenging scene the Lord our God tries to make a way.  God desires to bring us thelove, hope, mercy, justice, and a sense of security and belonging that we all seek.

The psalmist reminds us that God seeks to be our refuge and our shelter.  But God will not force us into choosing to receive these things.  “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High” is how the Psalm begins.  He who dwells.  We have a role to play in experiencing rest, cover, a shield about us, and an absence of fear.  We must choose to dwell each day in God’s presence.  To dwell in another’s presence implies a long-term relationship, one with some commitment.  To dwell in God’s presence does not involve flitting in and out as it suits our needs.

When we dwell in God’s presence we are constantly in contact with God.  We turn to God in prayer throughout the day.  We spend time each day reading and meditating upon the Word.  Through these disciplines we come to know and trust in God.  It is then that we begin to find thelove, hope, mercy, justice, and a sense of security and belonging that we so desire.  May we each dwell in God’s presence this day and every day.


by 1 Comment

Respect and Reliance

Reading: Psalm 4

In our Psalm for today we see what trust in God looks like.  David places God first and relies on God for relief from distress, for mercy for sins, for an ear in times of need, for joy in God’s presence, and for peace in his heart.  Looking at this list, who would not want these things?  All of us want joy, peace, and contentment in life.  When we allow God to be our guide, our defender, our redeemer, and our Savior then our life will be blessed.

Sometimes we get the relationship backwards though.  We set out on our own adengas and we try to be the one in control.  Our focus is on ourselves, we hunker down and move ahead with the plans we have laid.  We have a goal or a desired outcome and we try to work through or around any obstacles that come our way.  Culture reinforces our tendency towards individualism and self-centeredness.  If things get a little hard we may ask God to bless our plans or to make things work out for us.  We set ourselves up in the role of God and then ask the one true God to step in only when we need it.

But this is the reverse of how our relationship with God should be.  It is funny that at times we think we are smarter, more capable, more able … than the God who created the whole universe.  In David’s words we see the proper respect and reliance that God alone deserves.  David reminds us to pray because God hears us.  He reminds us to trust in God alone and to allow God’s light to shine upon our faces.  In verse seven, we begin to see the fruit of doing these things: “You have filled my heart with joy”.  At the end of each day, David lies down in peace.  When God is in control, David experiences blessing.  When we begin each day by submitting our will to God and by asking God to lead, we too will know joy, peace, and contentment.  May we choose each day to place all of our life in God’s hands.