pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Servant

Reading: Luke 17: 5-10

In the opening verses of Luke 17, Jesus has just instructed the disciples to keep from sinning, to not lead others into sinning, and to always offer forgiveness to those who sin against them.  Then Jesus adds a point of emphasis: forgive up to seven times in one day.  Seven represents eternity for His audience.  Jesus is saying to forgive over and over and over and over and…  The disciples response to this idea is the opening line of today’s passage: “Increase our faith!”. In other words, if you are asking this of us Jesus, you better bump up our faith.

To this request Jesus offers a parable.  The main character is a servant.  Jesus often parallels being a disciple with being a servant.  The servant-master relationship is obe that would have been very familiar and well-understood by His audience.  A servant’s job is to serve the master.  Of course the servant would come in from a long day’s work and still waiting upon the master until all their needs are met before retiring for the day.  It is what servants do.  They put their master’s needs ahead of their own.  The servant doesn’t hang around on the periphery waiting for a nice ‘thank you’ either.  It’s just their job.

Then Jesus extends the understanding and application of the parable to the disciples and to us.  He says this too is how a disciple conducts themselves.  As disciples we are called to be servants not only to our Master but to all people as well.  We are called to serve others, to sacrifice for others, to set aside our own interests and wants for the needs of others.  We are called to place others before self.  In living out the Gospel, we are to simply love and serve all as Jesus loved and served all.  Today and each day, may we pray for and strive to live out of a servant’s heart.


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The Circle

Reading: Hebrews 12: 18-24

Hebrews 12 offers a new perspective on God.  The God embodied in Jesus is the same God whose voice can thunder and who can be terrifying.  God is unchanging.  What changes or evolves is our understanding of God.  Stand at the window and watch and listen to the power in a magnificent thunderstorm.  Witness God’s voice booming!  Sit with a family that has just lost a loved one who they think was not saved, witness the unspoken questions and fear.  Consider the conviction we feel when we sin.  We quickly repent and seek forgiveness so that we are back in God’s love and away from the terrifying feeling of being outside of God’s love.

Through Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit we experience God differently.  God is now more personal, more easily accessed.  Jesus and the Holy Spirit function as more open conduits to heaven and God’s love.  In Jesus the man we saw the living God, first on earth and now in heaven.  Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is “the mediator of a new covenant” where grace and forgiveness comes through His blood sacrificed on the cross.  It is a free gift to us all.  It costs us nothing.  What a change in the previous relationship!  Jesus is also the mediator that stands between us and God and with the Holy Spirit intercedes for each of us.  This is what has changed, not God.

Faith and our response to it has also changed significantly.  Before Christ’s time on earth, faith in God was seen as an exclusive thing.  Either you were part of God’s chosen people, or you were not.  Jews were in, everyone else was out.  Faith led the Jews to care for one another, to live a life of obedience to God’s ways, and to worship God alone.  Jesus changed who was in the circle.  Through Jesus, all people are chosen people.  There are no limits or exclusions to the new covenant.  There is now no Jew or Gentile, no slave or free, …  We are to be Jesus’ hands and feet, loving all people with a servant’s heart.  We are to be Jesus’ voice, offering the good news to all peoples of all nations, ever working to expand the circle, ever seeking to build the kingdom here on earth.

What role shall we play today?  How will we each be a part of widening the circle, of helping another to step inside so they too can know God’s love?


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All in for You

Reading: Amos 8: 7-12

The time of action and judgment has come for the people of Israel.  These people who wanted to focus on money and crops instead of worship will get what they want.  They had endured worship and the Sabbath like it was a chore.  So God has chosen to grant their desire – He will step away from His people.  He will allow His petulant children to live without Him for a while.  A time is drawing near when a foreign king will conquer and destroy.  God will be a silent, non-involved observer.  Public worship will not occur in captivity and there is no Bible yet.  It will be a difficult time for Israel.

It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like to have all of our churches shut down.  It is even harder to imagine that our access to the Word of God could be removed.  We have easy access to physical Bibles and constant access to a myriad of virtual Bibles.  So imagine for a moment if all access to the Word were removed and we could not gather for worship.  It would be very hard to remain connected to God and our faith.

Although this idea of no access to God or His Word seems so foreign to us who have easy access to these things, our attitudes at times are not so far removed from those of the people of Amos’s time.  We have all been reluctant worshippers.  We have all looked at our watches or cell phones as we creep past the time church was supposed to end.  We have all drug our feet or scowled all the way to church and part way through it.  This is not the worship God desires.

Lord, make our hearts like Your heart.  Help us to love you with all we are.  Lead our spirit to seek Your Spirit.  Draw us into You.  Move us to offer all of ourselves in grateful response to Your love and mercy that never fail.  May we be all in for You, O Lord.


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Hope

Reading: 1 Kings 17: 8-24

As Elijah enters into a relationship with the widow, he realizes right away that she is struggling.  The famine has been long and surely this has worn on her.  She has been in survival mode for some time.  She is down to her last bit of food and is mentally resigned to death.  Life has totally beaten her down.

There are people like the widow in almost every community in which we reside.  Life has been uphill for so long that they can remember nothing but struggle.  They have come to feel like it is just them against the world and no one seems to care.  An added burden for some is the child or children in their care.  Where they will sleep that night or if they will find food that day are their greatest and often only real concern.  Their whole focus is consumed with things we do not even ponder.

The widow’s desperation and surrender are equally present in her words: “as surely as your God lives”.  She must have emphasized the word ‘your’.  In her mind no god would allow her to struggle as she has.  In her heart and soul any and all gods have been pushed far away, pushed out by the anger at life.

There are people today who think just like the widow.  You can see the exhaustion and fear in their eyes.  When life is nothing but a struggle to find the basics of food and shelter, there is no room for hope.

Elijah chooses to engage the widow.  He chooses to step into her life.  He asks her for the one thing she San provide: a little hospitality.  All people have something they can offer.  Often it is just a few minutes of help – sweeping the front patio or helping organize some clothes.  Sometimes it is just a few moments of conversation.  In doing and sharing, people can find worth in themselves.  In giving of themselves they can begin to find hope.

We can choose to engage the other or we can choose to not even look their way.  We can choose to enter into a relationship with them or we can maybe  choose to toss a little money their way.  Or we can choose to invest of ourselves, to show one in deep struggle that we care and that God cares.  May we follow Elijah’s example – engaging one whom others have ignored or shunned, loving and bringing God’s love to one so in need of hope.


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Offer Much

As I pay more attention to my diet and as I exercise more, the more my health improves.  As I spend time reading more and more on a particular subject, the more intelligence I gain on that subject.  The more I focus on the care for and feeding of a plant in our home, the more it grows and flourishes.

Moses came down from the mountain after spending time with God.  Each time he came down, his face was radiant.  His fellow Israelites could tell he had been in God’s presence.  The fact that Moses’ face glowed tells us something about being in the Almighty’s presence!  While the most obvious and visible sign was his glowing face, I would guess there were other changes in Moses.  His heart and soul and spirit must have been just overflowing with love and joy.  Maybe he even had a little extra bounce in his step!

I believe the same two observations apply to our faith journey as well.  The more time we spend with God, the closer to Him we become.  The more we follow Jesus, the more we become like Him.  The more we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, the more we hear that voice above all others.  And like Moses, the time we spend in His presence changes us.  It changes us inside and out.  Our disposition and attitude become more positive and it shows in our faces, in our words, and in our actions.  The people around us sense that we are different from all the other people they encounter.

If we want to become more like Jesus and want to know God more, the formula is really pretty simple.  Spend more time working on the relationship.  One last observation – our relationship with the Almighty is just like all of our other relationships – you get out what you put in.  May we offer much to our relationship with the Lord.

Scripture reference: Exodus 34: 29-35


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Lead and Leading

Parents often try to nudge or encourage their children to try or do something they think their child will enjoy or benefit from.  Sometimes a parent sees something in their child and tries to develop that skill or gift.  And a lot of the time the child responds with some resistance!  This is the case in today’s passage.  Mary nudges Jesus to exercise the gifts He has.  He responds with basically “not now”.  Maybe those things she treasured in her heart and perhaps a thing or two she has observed since then are promoting her to ask Jesus to perform a miracle and to begin His public ministry.

Sometimes in our lives we too are encouraged, invited, nudged… by others.  Maybe it is our parents.  Maybe it is our spouse or a coworker or a friend.  People often see gifts or talents we have that sometimes we do not.  At times we too can do the same for others in our lives.  It is a wonderful thing to see and affirm the God-given gifts we see in each other.

Often the nudge or encouragement comes from the Holy Spirit.  We see or find ourselves in a situation and we can almost physically feel the guidance to do or say something.  In other instances we can hear the voice whispering to us.  It may be in the moment or it may be later as we reflection our day or as we spend time in prayer.  These “too late” or after the fact prompts prime us for action the next time out.  It is still God at work in us.

God always continues to be active and involved in our lives and in the world.  He encourages all followers to use the gifts and talents He gave us through the nudges, prompts, … of the Holy Spirit and those around us.  We too at times invite, nudge, … others.  In all cases, may we be willing servants of His kingdom, whether leading or being lead, all for the glory of God.

Scripture reference: John 2: 1-5


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A Love to Share

Our minds are capable of learning many things.  In school and in church we are taught a lot.  While in school we aretaught what is factually correct, in church we learn about what is true: Jesus.

In repsonse to Pilate’s questions about what truth is, Jesus responds, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  In His answer Jesus implies that there is a relationship or connection between people who know the truth and Jesus himself.  In order to know the truth, we must listen to Jesus and come to know Him.

We listen and learn by being in contact with the teacher.  Through the written Word of the Bible, through the Word spoken in church, through time in prayer, and through fasting we seek to learn about and grow in Jesus.  Our learning and connection to Jesus is in direct proportion to the effort we choose to put in and to the amount of time we spend with Him.  For example, if all we are willing to give is one hour on Sunday morning then our connection and understanding is less than it could be.  On the other hand, if we also choose to spend time in the Word and prayer each day, what we know as truth will be greater.

As we come to know Jesus more and more, what the truth is becomes clearer and clearer.  As we grow in our love of God, it start to spill out into love of all of God’s children.  This love we share with Jesus becomes a love we share with all we meet.  As we grow into Jesus, our lives are transformed by His truth.  Jesus seeks to transform us so that we become His love poured out daily to all we meet.  This day may His love radiate from us and through us in all we do and may it flow out to all we meet.

Scripture reference: John 18: 33-38


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Just Like Ruth

Ruth was faithful to both Naomi and to God.  She is a great example of the self-giving love we are all called to offer others.  Ruth puts the needs to Naomi far above her own.  In the end, she finds another who offers her this same kind of sacrificial love.  It is no wonder that Ruth and Boaz are part of the family tree that will one day produce Jesus.

In marrying Ruth, Boaz offers both her and Naomi kindness, protection, security, and a sense of belonging.  For two women living as widows with no kin to care for them, this must have been a great relief to them.  But this was not just some act of God.  Boaz was drawn to Ruth when he saw her in the field, working hard to glean grain for herself and Naomi.  He was drawn to her even more when he heard her story and what she had done for Naomi.  Ruth remained faithful and through this both her and Naomi’s lives were redeemed.

Our faith journey is much like Ruth’s story.  At times we will experience suffering and walk a hard road.  But we will not be alone, God will be there too.  At times we too will offer ourselves to another, giving our sacrificial love to them, following the example of Ruth and of Christ.  At times we too will experience redeeming love as God will enter into our brokenness.  In times when we most need God’s redeeming love, it will be there to redeem and restore us.  And just as Boaz stepped in and negotiated for Ruth, Christ will step in and intercede for us before the throne of God.  And just as Ruth was faithful, so too must we be faithful.

Each day we are called to offer ourselves to God and to others, living as His example of sacrificial love.  May it be this day.

Scripture reference: Ruth 4: 13-17


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Rest

There are times we get run down and tired.  Life can just seem to consume us and suddenly we find ourselves with very little left in the tank.  As the disciples returned to Jesus after being sent out two by two, they were excited by all they had done but Jesus could see they were exhausted too.  His desire was to find them rest.  So they load up the boat and head out.

But a buzz moves on ahead of them and by the time they land ashore, a large crowd has gathered.  And it is not a welcoming committee.  It is a crowd full of people with needs.  The Bible tells us Jesus saw them as “lost sheep” and that He takes compassion on them.  Jesus steps out of the boat and begins to teach and to heal many people.

I can imagine that Jesus saw the crowd flowing to where they were headed to land.  So I can surmise that He made the decision not to change course and to go away from the gathering crowd.  Jesus knew or felt He was up to the task ahead so He chose to engage the crowd and to minster to their needs.

At times we too must make that assessment.  As we see a potential need coming our way we to must assess if we have enough left in the tank to meet that need.  We must remember that at times even Jesus stepped away for solitude and refreshment.  A time of Sabbath is essential to being able to minister effectively.  When we are dry and empty, we have nothing left to pour out into others.  We must care for ourselves so that we can offer our best to the care of those in need.

Mark 6: 30-34 and 52-56


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The New “To Do” List

Jesus offers a new way of faith.  Instead of the long list of do’s and don’ts, Jesus offers relationship.  The Law was and is the way of Israel.  Even today it is too easy for a church or individual to make faith almost a checklist: went to church, gave my offering, prayed each day.  These items are important but our faith must be much more than this type of a “to do” list.

Jesus offers us relational faith.  Instead of being judge and punisher, Jesus offers us a relationship with Him and with each other.  He offers us a constant presence through the Holy Spirit.  The Good Shepherd watches over us, leads and guides us, protects us, and provides for us.  And our response?  To in turn help others to come to know this loving Shepherd.

What if our “to do” list looked a bit different?  What if we began the list with the above items but added a few things?  Offer an extraordinary act of generosity or compassion to a friend or stranger.  Bring someone to church who does not know Jesus.  Give something away to a person in need.  Imagine the impact if each of us accomplished this new “to do” list each week?

We may not be able to heal a man like Peter and John did yet, but we certainly can make a difference the same way: one life at a time.  The sharing of Jesus and our faith is what we are each called to do.  May we each live into our new “to do” list this week, one life at a time.

Scripture reference: Acts 4: 5-12