pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: presence


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In Lament

We find great comfort in the past.  Through our own experiences and through what we read in the Bible we gain both an understanding of God and of our relationship with Him.  We live day to day with these memories as both our guide and our support system.  We know God to be loving and caring and protecting and compassionate.

But sometimes in life we suffer and suddenly our God memories don’t seem to work.  We experience discord when we are in conflict or in the midst of a life change or in the woes of a loss and the God we know seems absent.  In this uncertainty we cry out to God.  We bring our laments to God as a means of reminding God that to us, at that moment, He is not the God of love and care and,,, that we know.

In lament we also bring before God the suffering and pain of others.  We lift up their need for God’s presence and intervention and we demand an answer or action on God’s part.  In a sense we proclaim the suffering and hurt in the world to God so that He will act on it and be present to those in need.

In lament we remind both God and ourselves that He is the one who saved us from the powers of sin and death through Jesus and that He is the one we, His children, look to for our deliverance.  Reminding God calls Him to action.  Reminding ourselves brings reassurance and a reminder that although we may not know or see the plans of God, all is in God’s hands.  In this we lay our trust and our hope.  God is love.  God is faithful.  For these things, we say thanks be to God!

Scripture reference: Psalm 22: 9-15


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Forsaken

If God forsook His own Son, it is possible that at times we too are forsaken?  If God turned His back on Jesus in one of His greatest times of need – there on the cross – won’t we too experience times when we feel God is not near?  These ‘dark nights of the soul’ are times all believers experience.

Personally, when we feel times of separation from God, it is an uneasy feeling.  God’s promise to always be there and never to leave us seems to be in question.  But it is His presence we miss.  Or the feeling that God is near.  I believe God is there – we just are struggling to feel His presence.  In these moments I think God is refining, molding, reshaping our faith so that we are more than we were before the experience.   It grows us and our faith to trust in and rely on God when we cannot sense His presence.  It requires blind or total faith.

At times groups of people feel forsaken.  We can certainly find many examples of this in the Old Testament and in the world today.  We certainly know how to pour out prayers of lament when we feel personally forsaken.  We must remember that God created and loves us all.  Each day may we seek to lift up those who feel forsaken by God – from the homeless and hopeless to the one who just lost a loved one to those who are victims of a tragedy near or far.  Cry out to God.  Be a voice for those who feel forsaken.  Draw God near to them so each may again feel His presence.

Scripture reference: Psalm 22: 1-8


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God’s Presence

Job is suffering and he cries out to God.  He searches for God so that he can plead his case and find relief. But God is silent.  When we we are in the midst of a darkness we too cry out to God.  Often we also ask the “why?” question.  If there is no answer, we feel like the darkness deepens.  But even is we do not feel it, God is present.  He is always there.  Through faith we must trust in and rely on this and soon enough His light and love will break through.

The book of Job reminds us that although there is unjust suffering in our world, the world is still good.  It was created by God and He declared it ‘good’.  Much has been corrupted since then but good is still present and will one day come to reign absolute again.  God yearns for us, His people, to cry out for His presence, to seek Him, to experience a loving relationship with Him.

There are many people who suffer without hope because they do not know the Lord.  We must fight to bring His light and love into their lives.  There are many who have given up on the God they once knew and are mired in their suffering.  We must fight to bring an end to their suffering and to reveal God’s love to them again by being His love ourselves.

Too often God is made invisible to people by the darkness in which they live.  As God’s people we must bring justice, grace, mercy, love, and relief to those suffering so that God’s light and love may once again dwell in the hearts of all people.  God wants to be made known.  To whom will we make Him known today?

Scripture reference: Job 23: 1-9 and 16-17


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Job’s Great Example

The story of Job fascinates me.  A devout and faithful man suffers unjust persecution.  He loses all of his family and all of his possessions and is afflicted with illness.  His wife and friends badger him and go so far as to advise him to just curse God and die.  But Job does not turn from God.  He questions why he is suffering but he remains faithful.

Almost daily we see examples of unjust suffering in our world.  It can come from a natural disaster or from one’s fellow man.  It can affect one person or dozens or the masses.  In all people’s lives there are times of unjust suffering.  For many, our response is not like Job’s.  We wonder why God is punishing us or we get angry at God or we walk away from our faith.

The story of Job reveals to us in great detail that unjust suffering does occur in our world.  It also reveals that God does not cause it and that God remains present to us in the midst of our suffering.  It is up to us if we continue to draw upon God in the midst of our suffering or if we get angry or if we walk away or …

Job sets us a great example.  He was blameless yet suffered.  He was put to a severe test and he came through it.  He relied on God, listened to God’s voice, and drew upon His strength.  We too will suffer at times.  May we also realize that we are not alone and may we draw upon God’s strength, love, and presence as we journey through our hardship.

Scripture reference: Job 1:1 and 2:1-3


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For Such a Time

Esther became queen essentially by winning a beauty contest.  The old queen fell into disfavor with the king and was deposed.  The King of Persia was a powerful man – his words could make or break any and all.  While Queen Esther was obviously beautiful, she was also Jewish.  This was her little secret in the royal court.  The Jewish people had been living in captivity in Babylon for years and many lived in the capital city of Susa.

Esther and her uncle Mordecai were just two of thousands living there.  He had raised her and was like a father to her.  Haman was a higher-up in the court.  All were supposed to bow down and to honor Haman but Mordecai refused.  This greatly angered the proud Haman and he convinced the king to issue a decree to be rid of these disobedient Jews.  The decree went out and the date of execution was set.

Mordecai convinced Esther that she alone could save her people.  After praying and fasting for three days, Esther did go to the king.  It was risky – it was punishable by death to approach the king uninvited.  Mordecai’s words must have been echoing in Esther’s head as she approached the king: “And who knows but that you came to royal position for such a time as this?”

Esther stepped up and saved her people from an evil man’s plot.  Because of her faith in God she was willing to take a risk.  She stepped out in faith after praying and fasting, after entering into God’s presence.  Esther was just an ordinary person that God had placed there for “such a time as this.”  In each of our worlds there are things that are not right, things that are unjust and unfair. Maybe the wrong does not affect you or your kin, but you see it.  Perhaps, just perhaps, God has placed each and every one of us right where we are so that we too may step out like Esther to bring God’s justice and righteousness and love to those around us.

Scripture reference: Esther 7: 1-6 and 9-10


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Amazed by God

The heaven’s declare God’s glory.  The sun and moon and stars reflect His perfect creation and remind us of the vastness of God.  God’s creation reflects a wonderful order and gives us a glimpse of His power.  His fingerprints are all over creation.  His glory is shown from the tiny cells that become a living creature to the beauty and intricacy in a spider’s web.  All that is God created and ordered and breathed life into.

Although none of these things can speak, they each shout forth God’s glory in their own way.  We can hear and see God all around us.  He is present in the sunrise just creeping over the horizon, in the delicate beauty of a new blossom, and in the way a human body functions physiologically.  God is present to us in so many ways.  His divine glory is manifested to us through all that He created and continues to create.

Take time today to be amazed by God.  Sit outside for a bit.  Take a stroll at lunch.  Spend a few minutes out on the deck or porch tonight.  Take some time to hear and see God speak to you through the creation all around you.  Sit in that presence and feel His power and glory within you.  Thank God for the wonderful creation that you are!

Scripture reference: Psalm 19: 1-6


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Bring God’s Presence

The psalmist expresses the belief that God has given Israel the land and will assure their possession of it.  He acknowledges that evil will come in from time to time but that God will ultimately restore good to the people.

In America we live in the general belief that our country is secure, almost impenetrable.  We feel like no other country could invade and topple us.  9/11 and events since have brought home the fact that we are vulnerable to attack but I think most see these as isolated events.

In other parts of the world warfare and living in fear are the norm.  In some countries, war or civil war has been almost constant.  Daily children are left as orphans and property is taken or destroyed.  In some countries, parents worry daily about their children being abducted or drafted into the militia.  In some places, religious intolerance and persecution forces Christians to live in secret and to fear exposure.

In our country people live in poverty, many on the streets or in shelters.  Others live with a feeling of insecurity and some segments of our society live with injustice and oppression.  For many here and abroad, the world is a tough place.  For many, they question God or they do not even know His presence.

The psalmist reminds us and the afflicted that God will surround those who trust in Him like mountains.  How reassuring.  But many do not know God.  This day may we pray for all who suffer and for all who do not know God’s love and protection.  And may we be moved to do all we can for those God places before us this day.

Scripture reference: Psalm 125


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God’s Presence and Will

It is common in the church today to hear that these are dark days.  The world is full of greed, the lust for power and control, the idea that the individual is supreme, and tragedies such as war, disease, and oppression.  While much of this is true, dark days are not common only to our time.  For those that lived through world-changing events, such as the Depression or the World Wars, their times were certainly filled with dark days.  This could be said of many events in mankind’s past.  For the Ephesians that Paul was writing to, the days were filled with persecution and they lived within a pagan culture.  These were dark days as well.

As each generation of Christians face the dark and evil days in which they live, the questions are the same: how will we face these days? And, how will we respond?  Today our answers are just as important as they were during the bubonic plague of Europe or during the more recent AIDS epidemic in Africa or at any other time in the church’s history.

Some voices call for the Christian to retreat within the walls of our churches and homes, to live largely in isolation.  Venture forth only when absolutely necessary.  Other voices call for more aggressive measures such as protest, boycott, and other forms of condemnation.  Through these and other political actions these voices call for Christians to play the world’s game of power and control, just with our own Christian agenda.

Paul’s advice to the Ephesians was to understand God’s will.  Christians never were or are called today to run from the world.  Nor are we called to fight with the world.  Instead we are called to follow Jesus.  Jesus’ life was God’s will lived out in the flesh.  We too are called to live as God’s presence in the world sharing His love, goodness, mercy, righteousness, truth, justice, and forgiveness.  We face each day knowing God’s presence in and will for our lives.  We respond by sharing God with others.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 6: 18-20


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Always at Work

God is ever-present and all-knowing.  God creates all and is in all.  He works sometimes in surprising and unmistakable ways and sometimes it is hard to see His presence.  In the psalm God is praised for always being present, for always being gracious, loving, and just.

Today’s psalm represents God’s activity in our lives from the beginning to the end.  The writer uses an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet to represent this idea.  He begins with “alpha” and ends with “tav” – equivalent to A-Z for us.  In the psalm he recounts all of the reasons we have to praise God – His works and righteousness, His grace and compassion, His faithfulness and justice, His laws and wisdom, and the covenant He keeps with His people.  For all of this, praise is lifted up.

God continues to offer all of this and more to us.  God continues to be active in the world.  As time unfolded, Jesus became the new covenant as He offered Himself in sacrifice to defeat sin and death so we could gain eternal life.  As we look back over our lives, from the beginning to where we are now, we can see God’s hand at work.  Sometimes His hand is active and easy to see.  At other times it is hard to see at all.  Yet even then we know He was present with us.  From the promises in the scriptures to our experiences in life, we know God is always at work.

In times of uncertainty or trial, it can be hard to see God at work or to feel His presence.  Sometimes another may see something we do not so it is often helpful to share our experiences with one another believer.  In the end, we know we can always look back and see His handprints.  In this we can always trust. For this, we say thanks be to God!

Scripture reference: Psalm 111


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Finding Rest

“How lovely is Your dwelling place O Lord Almighty!”. Like the psalmist we too long and almost faint to be in God’s presence.  ” Better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.”. Again, like the psalmist, we too are blessed when we rest in God.

Sabbath – the idea of resting for a day, in His presence, to be renewed and refreshed both physically and spiritually.  To almost all Christians, we look at the idea of Sabbath as an ideal place, far, far away.  It is far away because of the schedules we keep and because of the demands we place or allow upon our time and upon ourselves.  I am as guilty as anyone.

A man in our small group shared yesterday that he had been keeping the Sabbath for a while now.  After church he goes home and does no work.  The yard, the chores, the cleaning all get done on days other than Sunday.  He shared that his time of rest and time with God really does renew and refresh him.  Sounded like a day he guards pretty closely.  I am kinda jealous.

In order to give God a day requires trusting Him.  He is in control – do we trust Him like we believe He is in control?  It also requires some planning and effort on our part because the yard, the laundry… all need to get done.  We do have a hand in allowing ourselves the Sabbath.

If we can set aside a day for Sabbath, we will find joy and pleasure resting in God.  We will be renewed by our time in His presence.  We will be more connected to our Creator.  Reports are this one day makes the other six so much better.  This week, may we all find our Sabbath.

Scripture reference: Psalm 84: 1-3 and 6-12