pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: predictable


by Leave a comment

Good, Creative, Ordered

Reading: Genesis 1:1-25

Genesis 1:2 – “The earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters.”

Photo credit: Marek Piwnicki

In Genesis 1 and the first verses of chapter 2 we find the first creation story. This is our introduction to God and to the world that God created. What was it like before God began to act? In verse two we read that the “earth” was shapeless, just a dark, roiling “sea.” There was chaos. There was no order, no purpose. First, God’s wind (Spirit) swept out over the deep waters, becoming present. Then God began to act, to order and create.

Light came first, then the sky. Next God creates the land and the seas, then plantlife on the land. As God continues to create, the sun, moon, and stars are made, the seas are filled with life, and the land is filled with animals. After each “day” or step, God looked at all that had been done and “saw how good it was.”

What do we learn about God from this opening story in the Bible? First, God is bent towards good. There is goodness in all that God does. Second, God is creative and ordered. There is purpose and planning in the creation. One step proceeds the next because it has too. Yet God is not totally predictable nor completely understandable. There is surprise and mystery about God.

In many ways, our world today is not unlike what it must have felt like on day one. There is darkness. Things often feel chaotic. There is discord and evil, violence and injustice seemingly all around. And God continues to be present, to move, to create. There is much good in our world because God is still in our world. God is at work, shining light into darkness, bringing good to bear against the evils of this world. There is hope. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for creating order out of chaos, for bringing good into our world. Thank you for continuing to work in our world, redeeming and restoring it back towards what you made it to be. Amen.


by Leave a comment

God Reality

Reading: Genesis 18:9-15 & 21:1-7

Verses 18:14 and 21:7 – Is anything too hard for the Lord?…. Yet I have born him a son in his old age.

Most of us live a very patterned life.  Sunday morning we go to church.  Wednesday night is youth group or a Bible study.  Monday through Friday morning we go to work.  Third Friday of the month is date night.  Football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring.  Even within all of our routines are routines.  Worship is in the same order every Sunday.  First thing each morning is prayer time with a cup of coffee on the couch in the living room.

Within all of this we are called to live by faith.  But here too we like patterned or at least predictable.  Sure, we love for God to show up big on Sunday mornings in worship and we hope for His presence in our small group this Wednesday night.  We may even pray “your will be done” but hope it fits within our boxes.  We’d rather not have God show up unexpectedly as a coworker unburdens themselves at lunch.  We’d rather not have the Holy Spirit lead us to engage and love on that person we really don’t like so much.  All in all, even in our faith we prefer to stay well within our comfort zones.

Now we enter Abraham and Sarah’s story.  They are very old.  Her barrenness has caused much hurt and pain.  Years and years ago God promised Abraham descendant as numerous as the stars in the sky.  But it never came to be.  Now, as they near 100 years old, God again appears and says now is the time!  Sarah laughs.  You can’t blame her.  Her laugh is partly an expression of her deep sadness and her unrealized dream of a child.  It is also part honesty – really, a baby at 100?  Funny God, very funny.

God responds with a question: “Is anything too hard for the Lord”?  We all know the answer.  Nothing is impossible with God.  We know this to be true.  Yet most of the time we still prefer God in our boxes.  As Sarah becomes pregnant and begins to live into the reality of God, her mindset shifts.  She is experiencing the almost impossible through God’s power.  She is well outside her box.  You can picture her musing out loud as she asks the “who woulda thought” question.  Our passage closes with the reality, God’s reality: “Yet I have born him a son in his old age”.  Sarah fully understands now that nothing is impossible with God.  She knows this God reality.  May we live it each day as well.