pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: recognize


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Remember and Recognize

Reading: Psalm 66: 1-12

Like the psalmist, there are times in our lives where God is present, when God acts on our behalf.  To recall these times is an essential practice of our faith.  When the Israelites remember how God turned away their enemies or when God led them through the sea or when God brought them into the promised land, they are reminding themselves of God’s love for them and, in turn, of their love for God.  This leads them to worship and praise God.

God is also active and present in our lives.  We too have experiences that we can identify and note as moments when God was especially near or when God acted in our lives.  These times are moments in our lives that we too must occasionally remember and be in the moment for doing so connects us to God as well.  Whether we record these moments in a journal or mentally store them does not matter.  What is important is that we periodically review when God walked with us in a time of need, when God carried us through a crisis, or when God blessed us with a child or job or healing or …  When we do this we are reminded, just as the Israelites were each time they sang a Psalm, of God’s love for us and of our live for God.  It keeps our connection to God strong when we regularly offer our praise and thanksgiving.

In regularly recognizing God’s presence and activity in our lives, we are also made aware of God’s presence in smaller things.  We sense God in the sunrise or in the beautiful song of the bird.  We see God in the grateful face of one we stop to help or talk to.  Soon we are thanking God and praising God for all of the blessings we have in our lives.  This day may we be attuned to God’s presence in our lives and may we offer many grateful responses.


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Presence

Reading: Psalm 107: 43

Today’s verse is a great reminder to do something we seldom do enough of: consider the great love of the Lord.  In the busyness of our lives we rarely slow down enough to pause and recognize God’s role and presence in our lives.  Thus we rarely slow down enough to offer our praise and thanksgiving for God’s activity and presence in our lives.  The less we do this, the less we seem to be thankful to have God in our lives.

When we are in touch with God’s activity in our lives, we are grateful for the many ways we experience that love and presence.  We are also more aware of the ways we can use God’s love to engage others through the use of the gifts and talents that God has uniquely blessed us each with.  This is our grateful response.  This engagement also keeps us focused on God and our faith.  The more we recognize and offer our thanks for God in our life, the more we become aware of it.  It is a good cycle.

As a church, we too can become so focused on what we are doing to involve new people or whatever we think God is calling us to that we forget God is involved as well.  As the body becomes more and more us-centered we slowly but gradually lose the sense of God leading and guiding the church.  On the other hand, there are churches who seek God’s presence, direction, will… almost constantly.  These churches very much have God at the center of all they do.  Looking in from the outside one can see how alive the Spirit of God is in that place and in those people.  It is a beautiful and wonderful thing.

As children of God, we too must seek God’s presence and be aware of God’s handprints in our lives.  Our grateful response is to offer God our thanksgiving and praise.  In doing so we too will exude the light and love of God and Christ in us.  We will be a living example of Christ to all we encounter.  May our joyful, Christ-centered lives witness to our faith and the hope we have in Him this day.


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Seeing Jesus

Have you ever failed to recognize someone you know?  Maybe you have been to family reunions every two years for many years now, but suddenly you see a cousin you do not recognize right away.  You look and look at this stranger and then suddenly realize who it is, amazed at the change that has occurred in the last two years.

Or maybe you have experienced seeing someone in a new light.  It could be hearing someone sing a beautiful song that you had previously never heard sing.  Or it could be seeing your child demonstrate a ‘new’ skill or newfound maturity in a setting other than at home.  You smile and nod your head and purposefuly file away the memory.

In our story today, Mary and Joseph discover Jesus is missing.   After three days of frantic searching, they finally find him sitting in the temple.  He is holding court with the temple priests.  They are astounded by Jesus’ questions and His insights as they discuss God, faith, the Law, and so on.  But Mary and Joseph see none of these things at this point.  Their boy is found and in a sudden release of panic and fear, they scold Jesus for treating them this way.  Instead of seeing Jesus sitting rightfully among these wise and learned men, they only see a misbehaving twelve-year-old.  But all is not lost as at the end we read that later Mary treasures all of these things in her heart.

This story makes me ponder – do I too sometimes not see Jesus for who He really is?  Do I want to keep Him boxed into something I think I know?  Do I sometimes fail to extend the love that He has planted within me?  Or… do I sometimes not see Jesus in the person standing right in front of me?

Scripture reference: Luke 2: 41-52