pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: presence


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Reaching Up

Reading: Psalm 30: 1-5

David rejoices that God has heard his cry and has pulled him out of the pit.  In the Psalm, David reminds us that God’s favor lasts a lifetime.  David admits that there will be times of mourning, but because of God’s favor, we will rejoice in the end as the God who loves us will rescue us.

Even though these are the promises of God, sometimes we choose to stay in the pit.  We choose not to reach up.  We choose not to cry out for help.  Some of the time we think that our mourning will only be for a short while, so we can endure.  Some of the time we think our actions or choices have gotten us to where we are and therefore we ‘deserve’ a little suffering.  Both of these are prideful and have no place in our faith.  Our loving and forgiving God wants us to be joy filled each day.  So He asks us to give Him our burdens in exchange for His joy.  We just have to reach up.

But at times we also refuse the help God offers.  We almost enjoy the misery.  We enjoy the ‘woe is me’ sympathy or attention it brings.  Sometimes bad attention is better than no attention.  At these points we need to be reminded of God’s favor and of our status as child of God, dearly loved.  We must look within and find all that God loves and strive to bring these things out.  In time we find joy in the morning.

We too can be the hand that reaches out to another who is in a pit.  Just like us with God, they too have to be willing to reach up and must have a desire for healing and rejoicing.  If not, we can still be the loving presence of God, quiet until they are ready to hear how much God loves them.  Then we can take hold of that hand reaching up and can help them to take His hand.  May we each be ever accepting of God’s love and ever sharing it as well.


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Salvation

Reading: Psalm 118: 14

Salvation, as it was often used in the Old Testament, has a slightly different connotation than how it is primarily used in the New Testament.  Whereas in general Christians see salvation as a personal and eternal matter, to the average Jew of the time salvation was more communal and concerned life in the present time and place.

In the Psalm there is a sense of tragedy and despair that God has rescued them from.  During this time the psalmist felt trapped, limited.  It was as if the world has closed in tight and it was hard to breathe.  It is a feeling we all can surely relate to.  For the psalmist, God’s act of salvation rescued them from despair and restored their hope in this life.  Part of this rescue is the liberation from that which constricted or oppressed them so that they can again have the abundant life that God intends for us all to live.  For the Hebrew community, salvation was something that could happen over and over and over again.

As Christians, we also see God’s presence and interaction with us as a regular, daily event.  We also view God as active and engaged in our daily lives.  We see God as present with us as individuals as well as with our faith communities and world.  God listens to our praise, our cries, our thanksgivings, and our pleas.  He responds to our needs and rescues us from trials so that we can live a life that is abundant and joyful, filled with His many blessings.

In both the Old Testament and in the New Testament, salvation has a saving character to it.  In the Old Testament it mostly had to do with God’s hand at work in their world, saving people from their struggles.  For us as New Testament people, we still see God at work doing this, but we also see salvation as the work that saves us from sin, death, and their consequences.  For both of these aspects of God’s salvation, I am thankful.  Praise be to God!


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Daily with Christ

Reading: Philippians 3: 4b-12

In our darkest moments Christ is still with us.  In times of deep despair or intense suffering, we can still call out and sense the presence of Jesus with us.  These things we know in our hearts and we trust with our brains.  But sometimes the trial drags on and we begin to question or doubt.  We struggle with how a loving and caring God can allow the struggle to go on for so long.  Thankfully these are just moments.  The trial begins to wane or we again connect to Jesus and realize He has been there all along.  We begin again to trust in our hearts and to know in our brains that He is always present.  As our trust and faith in Him is again secure, we are reassured that nothing compares to or is better than our life in Christ.

In the trial and certainly in everyday life, living with Jesus as the center of our lives is how God calls us to truly live.  Life is simply better then.  Any life without Christ is simply less.  Even when challenges come along and when temptation rises up, we move forward more confidently knowing Jesus is with us and on our side.

Paul speaks of all the credentials he had accumulated in life.  But that was BC.  All the accolades were achievements in the human realm.  Once he came to know Christ, he called them all rubbish.  Paul came to know his identity and the true source of strength in his life came from Christ alone.  The value of knowing the resurrected Christ far outweighed all earthly gains.

The same is true for us.  God calls us heavenward towards the same goal Paul was striving for – to be resurrected with Christ.  In our day to day life, in the good days and in the bad, we always must keep our eyes fixed on the goal: our call to our eternal home, found as we journey with Christ.  We are truly blessed in this life and in the next as we journey daily with Christ, trusting in Him alone.


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Whenever Necessary

Reading: Psalm 32

Like the psalmist, sometimes we hold onto our sin.  We make a conscious choice not to come before God.  Sometimes this is because even though we know our sin, we hold onto it because we are not ready to repent or because we know that the temptation or the sin is still greater than our will or faith.  Sometimes we do not recognize our sin.  As our faith matures, the concept of what we see as sin also develops.  We come to realize more and more how far short we fall as we come to know and understand God more and more.

When we hold onto our sin, there are ramifications.  Not confessing our sin can weigh upon us emotionally and spiritually and can run us down physically.  Unconfessed sin is a barrier between God and us and inhibits a true relationship with God.  Our heart must be right with God before we can come to Him in prayer and worship.  If we try to do so with sin upon us, it is false prayer or worship.  Just as God could not look upon Jesus on the cross as He bore our sins, God cannot be in our presence if we are not righteous.  To be righteous we must be made clean.

The reality is that God already knows our sins.  The Lord of heaven is also the Lord of the earth.  There is nothing that escapes Him.  We may try to convince ourselves that God doe snot know our sins, but we are only fooling ourselves.  When we humble ourselves, come before God, and pour out our sins, we are blessed by His grace, mercy, and love.  Not only that.  God also removes the guilt and shame of our sins.

When we are in a right relationship with God, He blesses and instructs and loves us.  When we are in a right relationship with God, we wonder why we would ever lived any other way.  When sin is upon us, may we go to God often – whenever necessary – so that we may live all of our days in His presence and in the light of His love.


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In Desert Seasons

Reading: Psalm 63:1-8

King David finds himself in a desert season.  During our lives, we will find ourselves in just such a place as well.  These times of trial and struggle will come and go; perhaps now is just such a season.  David’s beautiful words give us encouragement and advice for when we find ourselves in a desert season.

David begins by expressing the thirst he feels in the desert.  In the times we find ourselves in a trial, we too must admit our need for God and then we must seek His guidance and presence in our lives.  To reinforce this, David recalls how he saw God’s power and glory in the sanctuary.  To remember how God has always been there in our times of need reassures us that He will be there again.

Next, David does something that may seem odd when one is in a desert place – he praises God.  In verse three he writes, “Because your love is better than life”.  It is such a powerful and moving statement.  We come to God in praise because of His gift and promise of eternal life.  We know that no matter what this life brings, our ticket to eternal life in glory has already been bought.  There is no better reason to praise!

Lastly, David ends with “my soul clings to You”.  Although it can sometimes be hard to sense God’s presence in the midst of a trial, we must nonetheless cling to God.  We are promised that His love never fails and that He has only good plans for us.  In the midst of it all, may we cling to Him knowing that it is Hi slight at the end of the tunnel and that it is really His arms alone that will carry us through.


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Step into the Desert

Reading: Psalm 63: 1-8

The desert or wilderness is a common location in the Bible.  A sinful Adam and Eve were sent out into the wilderness.  The Israelites wander in the desert for forty years, constantly testing God and then repenting.  It was in the wilderness that John baptized and that Jesus was tempted.  At times in our lives we too find ourselves in the desert.

In the psalmist today, David experiences the desert as a dry and weary land.  It is tough to survive in the desert; we are tested in that struggle to survive.  In those dry seasons in the desert or out in the harsh wilderness, we feel tested and we often long for relief.  For David, the physical thirst in the desert reminded him of his spiritual thirst for God.  Our times in the desert reminded us too of our need for God.  In verses 2-8 we read over and over of David’s singing to and glorifying God for His power, love, provision, and strength.  In our dry seasons we too can experience these blessings of God.  He longs to pour them out upon us as well.

Lent is a time when we remember Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness.  Lent invites us to join Jesus there as well. In the desert we can more clearly see the temptations we are facing.  In the desert we can come to rely more on God in those battles.

The desert can be a beautiful place as well.  In the stillness of the desert we can more easily hear His voice.  In the vast, wide open expanse we can more easily experience His majesty.  In the dark night sky we can see the splendor and might of His creation.

Maybe we find ourselves in the desert for an unpleasant reason.  If so, allow that deep need for God to be honestly felt and then joyously welcome Him in.  If our time in the desert is by choice, revel in God’s power, might, and presence.  Step into the desert, embrace it.  In a space with just you and God, draw close to Him.  Be blessed.


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Seek the Lord

The psalmist speaks of times when our enemies rise up against us and when we feel besieged on every side.  In this life, there are certainly times when these things are true.  But our greater truth is God’s constant presence amidst all of life.  It is in His presence that we find love, peace, comfort, and mercy.

Sometimes we feel besieged by things from the outside.  It may be a situation at work that is not going so well.  It may be a conflict with a spouse or a child or a friend that is bringing discomfort in your life.  It may be a health or financial stress that has suddenly risen up.  As this “thing” consumes more and more of our time, we can seem to drift away from God.  But what we really need most is to spend more time in His presence.

At other times our struggle comes from within.  A temptation or sin can get ahold of us and that is all we can seem to see.  It could be pride or being judgemental.  It could be greed or jealousy.  It could be lust or coveting.  It could be any number of sins.  But one of these can become our focus so easily and we find ourselves far from God.  Sometimes this is because we are struggling to break free and other times it is because we have broken free but feel to guilty or dirty to come into His presence.  In these cases too, in that loving, caring, merciful, forgiving presence is precisely where we need to be.

When we are in one of these trials of life – whether from the outside or inside – we must seek God.  For some, maybe that is to physically go into the sanctuary or chapel to be in His presence.  For some it is to go to their prayer space at home.  For some it is driving in the car or walking along a path in the woods. God is everywhere do we can find Him anywhere.  He simply waits for us to reach out, to seek Him, to reconnect to Him.  In our trials, may we eagerly run into His presence and receive respite and relief.  In His presence we begin to live into His love, peace, comfort, and mercy.

Scripture reference: Psalm 27: 5-14


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All the Days

Reading: Psalm 27: 1-4

David begins by declaring that the Lord is his light and salvation, his stronghold.  He twice asks, ‘whom shall I fear?’  In David’s opening lines, there is an offering from God that we too can claim.  The God of David who offered him light, salvation, and strength is our God as well.  When we choose to claim these offerings as well, we too may ask: whom shall I fear?

Life will bring us challenges and issues that we all have to face or work through.  As followers of Christ, though, we go about this not from an earthly perspective but from an eternal one.  When we know that God is our salvation and that our lifetime here is just preparation for eternity, then our trials here bear much less weight.

We also do not walk alone.  In life’s lows, people we count as friends often rally around us.  If they are fellow believers, they also lift us up in prayer and seek God’s help or healing or intervention.  The Holy Spirit and Jesus also intercede on our behalf before the throne of God.  The Spirit and Jesus are always on our side, keeping us ever before God.  Even when our struggle is just within us and no one else knows our struggle, they are coming before God constantly on our behalf.

Today’s reading ends with a beautiful request.  David writes, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”  David knew how important it is to have God as our focus, as our center, as our everything.  May we also live as David lived, always seeking God, always asking each day to dwell in the presence of God, our Lord and King.


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To Hear God

Reading: Genesis 15: 1-12 and 17-18

When was the last time you experienced God’s presence?  Was it during a time of worship?  Was it during a time of deep prayer?  Was it out in nature – perhaps in a beautiful sunrise or during a powerful thunderstorm?  Maybe it was during a quiet time alone with your Bible.  God desires to be in relationship with us and seeks those moments when He can connect to us so that we can feel His presence.

Abraham was blessed to be able to talk and walk with God – many times.  Their connections were through a dialogue that had both give and take to it.  There was certainly more to it than simply hearing God’s voice.  The relationship between God and Abraham was deep and open and honest.

For most of us, we feel blessed when we have felt God’s presence surrounding us.  This experience is almost a physical one although we cannot see or touch God; we do feel a tangible presence in these moments.  We come away from these experiences with a definite sense of being blessed and with a sense knowing the sacred in our lives.

While experiencing God’s presence is always an awesome experience, I long to have a connection with God like Abraham’s.  The greatest obstacle to this is me.  I so value the times of being in His presence, but I want to hear His voice, to converse with God.  At times, when I am planning a lesson or working on the message, the Spirit’s guidance is definitely evident, but more is possible.

My greatest challenge is to provide the space for a conversation to happen.  For me, this means slowing down enough and quieting myself down enough to allow the opportunity to occur.  It also requires being open enough to hear God.  I can say I want to have what Abraham had, but I must be fully willing to hear and obey what God has to say.  This involves the complete surrender of my will to His and my total trust in His plan.  For me this is a journey just begun.  God, make me willing.  God, draw me in.  God, help me create space for You to enter in.  God, grant me the courage to trust.


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Looking Within

The first part of Psalm 51 is a confession of our sinful state.  By our nature we are prone to sin.  By our nature, we are weak and struggle to stay out of sin.  By His nature, God loves us unconditionally.  By His nature, God seeks to always bring us back to wholeness and to a right relationship with God.  Our sins stand between us and God alone.  In His great compassion God will blot out our sins, our transgressions, our iniquities.  For our part, we come to Him and repent.

In the middle part of the psalm comes our plea: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and restore a steadfast spirit within me”.  These words will be spoken over and over and over tomorrow.  They are familiar words on Ash Wednesday.  And just as the Lord’s Prayer is not just for Sundays, these words are not just for Ash Wednesday.  These familiar words should be our plea to God every day.  They admit our dependence on God.  We cannot win this battle on our own.  We need God to create a pure heart within us and to help us be steadfast to His ways.

The psalmist follows this plea up with a request to not be cast from God’s presence or for God to not take the Holy Spirit from us.  The psalm continues with these words: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me”.  God is the one in action, the one who can do these things.  In our acts of repentance we need both God’s presence and the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  After we repent of our sins, then God alone can restore us.  God alone can grant us a willing spirit, one seeking to follow His ways.

At Lent begins tomorrow, today I must look within and seek to identify my ungodly choices, my poor habits of faith, my sins.  May God grant me the will and the strength to come before Him in repentance, seeking His mercy.  Lord, melt my stubborn and prideful heart.  Mold me into who You desire me to be.  O God, fill me with Your presence and with the Holy Spirit.  And then use me, use me to love You and to love those You love.  Use me as You will, O God.

Scripture reference: Psalm 51: 1-17