pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: relationship


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Growing in Faith

Will the year ahead be significantly different than the year that just ended?  Or will it be much of the same?  Depending on where you are at in life, the answers to these questions can be very different.  But for almost everyone, we begin the new year with the hope that 2016 will be better than 2015.

For some, there will be changes that are big – some will graduate from high school or college; some will get married or have a child; some will lose a parent or a spouse; some will start or change careers; and some will move to a new home or community.  For others, the changes will be less significant but could still be impactful.

For all people of faith, our 2016 hope should be to see growth in our relationship with God.  As we enter the new year, no one hopes to see their relationship with God be stagnant or to diminish.  Growth and development should be the goal of all of our relationships.  To see growth, however, requires some work on our part.  Some of this ‘work’ can be thrust upon us by one of the life changes listed above, but our growth often comes as a result of choices we make.

One area that can see growth is our personal ministries.  For example, I can come alongside a couple of the Youth who are struggling with their faith or with life in general to mentor and encourage them just a little bit extra.  Or at the place I volunteer I could develop a deeper connection with a few of the clients.  In each of these areas it is putting just a little more effort in to positively impact another’s life.  Yet in the offering of self in the name of Christ, our own relationship with God will grow as well.  In the coming year, may we all bear a little more fruit as we grow in our faith and in our relationship with God.

Scripture reference: Revelation 21: 1-6a


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The Living Water

Much of our world is dependent on water to sustain their crops.  Much of the world is still agriculturally based and many people outside of the US are subsistence farmers just getting by day to day.  For many of these people, water is hard to come by.  Either the water source is polluted or it is not clean or it is far away.  In many places a well would provide good water but the people do not have the resources to have a well.  Even in our country, water access can be difficult for some as well.  But one thing is true no matter where you live – water is essential to grow food and to sustain life.

In faith God is essential to sustain our spiritual life.  But to some, God is like their water – scarce.  He is hard to find or He is difficult to relate to or to get to know.  He exists but does not seem to want to be in a relationship with them.  To some, getting to God requires a good effort – like walking hours to fill a jug with water.  God seems to exist, but just is not very close tho their corner of the world, to their daily lives.

For others, God is simply there all the time.  God’s grace and blessings are like the gentle rains that fall in the Spring.  To a believer, God’s love is as vast as the ocean and as powerful as a mighty river.  It sustains and gives life.  The living water that Jesus brings is not like the water that many have to work so hard to get – His water is free and only requires that one asks Jesus to come and dwell in their heart.  Once we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then His living water becomes a spring welling up inside of us.

Who do you know that needs to drink of Jesus’ living water?  How will you help them drink today?

Scripture reference: Isaiah 12: 3-6


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God with Us

Through Zephaniah the people are reminded: do not fear.  This is a common command throughout the Bible.  Fear is a natural instinct.  It warns and protects us when we may be in danger or when we are in a situation that is unknown.  But for some fear is more constant and can be debilitating.  It can cause panic and can make one freeze up, unable to respond.

When we allow fear to become unhealthy or to give it too much attention, then we run the risk of not being present because we are focused on the future and what may happen to us.  Then we run the risk of missing out on the small joys of life and on experiencing God’s presence with us in the day to day of life.

In today’s passage and throughout the scriptures we are reminded over and over not to be afraid because God is with us.  When our fear goes beyond a natural reaction to a present threat, we are allowing fear to replace our trust and faith in God.  In the Word we are reminded that if we allow Him to, God will act on our behalf and will be our protector, provider, and guide.  If we seek Him and trust in Him, God will be in our midst.  God desires to be in relationship with us.

We can rejoice because God is with us.  We can set aside our fears because God is with us.  We can focus then on living the life that God intends for us – fully living in and with His love.  Then God will rejoice as well!

Scripture reference: Zephaniah 3: 14-20


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Right There for Us

Paul is so thankful for the relationship he has with the Philippians.  It is a mutually beneficial relationship.  The Philippians pray for and support Paul and are coworkers of his in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  Paul pours his love and knowledge of God nto the Philippains to help them grow in their faith.

Some messengers, like Malachi and John the Baptist, bring a message of change and challenge.  They call for the people to repent of their sins and to be transformed into th epeson God is calling them to be.  Paul’s message, on the other hand, is all about God’s love.

In our world today I think we need both kinds of messengers.  We need to hear the tough love message at times.  We are prone to wander and pron to sin.  Sometimes we need those harsh but true words.  At other times we need to be reminded of God’s absolute and pure love for us.  We need to hear that this love is not dependant on us or on our actions.  God just loves us.

When we are willing to take that hard look in the mirror, God is ready to transform our lives.  And when we cannot bear to look in the mirror because our sin is heavy upon us, God’s love is right there for us, undeserving as we may be.  For both of these things, we say thanks be to God.

Scripture reference: Philippians 1: 3-8


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Thank You God

Thank you God!  Today is a day when we give thanks to God for His many blessings.  We are grateful to be with friends and family and to gather together in fellowship over the meal.  We are thankful for all of our material and physical blessings as well – for job and home and other possessions.  We are richly blessed and it is good to give thanks to our provider.

We are most deeply blessed, though, by our relationship with the living God.  In God we find our Savior and our hope.  Like Job, all we have can fall away, yet we can still count ourselves blessed because we know God and God knows us.  Although hard times will come, we can trust in God in the midst of and through these difficulties.  God is faithful and true.

I am most thankful for His love and mercy.  In my humanity I stumble and I sin.  In these times my love for God fails.  But His love never fails.  In these times, when I repent and seek God again, His mercies flow down upon me like a powerful rain, washing me clean, making me new, drawing me back into that relationship again.  Thank you God.

Scripture reference: Psalm 25: 1-10


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As Your Child

So often we want to be who we are not.  At times we long to be more that we are or we long for more than we have.  At other times we seek to be less – to not be in the spotlight, to not be in that situation, or to have a little time and space to just breathe and to rest.  Being content with who we are and where we are can be a struggle.

We can also struggle in our role in our relationship with God.  All too often, if not most of the time, I want to be the one in control.  In the deep corners of my heart and mind I really do know that God is the one who is in control.  Yet I have a hard time yielding up all of my life.  In general I am obedient but am not fully obedient.  In almost all ways I trust God but I don’t quite offer all up to Him.

Through Jesus, God demonstrated what it looks like to live as a human fully obedient to and wholly trusting in God.  But this is such a tough example o live up to.  Jesus loved everyone.  To all who came to Him, to allHe encountered, and even to those who challenged or condemned Him – Jesus loved them.  Jesus met everyone right where they were at and did not judge.  He simply ministered to them right where they needed it.  For me it is so hard to enter into a relationship and to serve another without somehow judging them or their situation.

Lord, bring me humility.  Lord, bring me a purer love for my brothers an sisters.  This day may as live and love as Your child, as Your witness of Christ in the world, bringing You all the honor and glory.

Scripture reference: Revelation 1: 4b-8


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Promises

In today’s psalm is the root of the promise that our faith rests upon.  God promises David that a descendant of his will always be on the throne of Zion, God’s chosen resting place.  Jesus was the last in David’s human line.  The resurrected Jesus completes the ‘forever’ part of God’s promise as He leads us from beside God’s throne.

In Jesus we see God’s love poured out as He kept this promise.  This should be no surprise as God always keeps His promises.  Just as God chose Zion, through Jesus Christ He chooses you and me as well.  We are each God’s beloved children.  But sometimes we forget that.  Sometimes we turn our relationship with God into a relationship like our other human relationships.  Sometimes our relationship with God digresses to bartering, dealing, if-then statements.  If I go to church, then God will…  If I help my neighbor, then God will…

But God does not promise us an if-then relationship.  He does not love us more or less based on our actions, words, and deeds.  He simply loves us.  He simply loves us.  The gift of salvation offered through Jesus Christ is God’s unmerited, no-strings-attached, free gift to us, His children.

Jesus was and is the embodiment of God’s love.  This is why Jesus brought and offered this gift for you and me.  When we are tempted to slip back into the wheeling and dealing relationship, we must remember Jesus’ example of perfect obedience to the Father’s will.  When we want to pick and choose when to be a Christian, we must remember how Jesus loved all who came to Him, no matter the time of day or season.  And when we question, when we falter, we must remember Jesus’ promise as well: I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

Scripture reference: Psalm 132: 10-18


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Drawing Near to Rest

Many people today still do not think they can approach God.  For some, they feel they need a “middle man”, a priest to intercede on their behalf.  For some, they feel too unworthy to approach God.  For some, they feel God is too mighty and is therefore simply unapproachable.  All of these come out of the Old Testament and the rules and ways in which the Israelites interacted with God.

As time moved along, though, God saw the need for a new way, for a new covenant.  In order to draw us close to Himself, there needed to be a new way based upon a personal, direct relationship.  The old way could not be changed.  God had to make a totally new way.  This new covenant was established through Jesus, who opened a ” new and living way” for us to connect directly with God.

As the one perfect sacrifice, Jesus opened the curtain that had separated Jews from the Most Holy Place – the space in the temple where the presence of God dwelt.  Through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross, the curtain was torn and, once and for all, He made a way for us to draw near to God.  Through Jesus all can be in relationship with and can draw near to God.

In Hebrews we are promised that through Jesus we can draw very near to God.  At times we can feel His presence surrounding us.  In this presence, Jesus calls us to rest.  Just as Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father to rest, we too can draw near to God and rest.  For this, thanks be to God.

Scripture reference: Hebrews 10: 11-22


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Walk Where He Leads

In her deep distress and anguish, Hannah prays.  She cries out to God with groans and sighs and the silent moving of her lips.  I can picture her maybe shifting from foot to foot; perhaps her head is bobbing in a steady rhythm as she prays.  Hannah is so lost in her prayer that Eli, the priest, assumes she is drunk.

One can also get lost in God because you are so in love with Him.  King David, filled with the Spirit, danced and sang before the Lord.  Almost as if to some of the horrified onlookers, David said he would become even more undignified than this.  In a huff of embarrassment or disgust, some stormed away.

Although the content of their prayers are on the opposite end of the spectrum, Hannah and David have much in common.  First and foremost is their absolute passion for God and their relationship with Him.  Second, they pour out their hearts in reckless abandon – they do not care one bit what others think – it is just them and God.

On occasion one enters into this space.  Maybe it is during a hymn or song and suddenly tears arr streaming down the cheeks and the heart is filled with the presence of God.  Maybe it is when one steps out for God and offers an act of compassion or mercy for another.  Afterwards, one looks back and thinks, ‘I can’t believe I did that.’

This day may we each encounter God in a special, life-changing way.  Allow God to lead.  Walk where He leads.

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 1: 9-20


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To the Throne

Sometimes in life we make poor choices and we sin.  Sometimes there are consequences we must face and deal with and live with here in this life.  When we sin there are always consequences to our relationship with God.  But we do not have to live with these.  Some do choose to but none of us have to.

Just prior in Hebrews we are reminded that we will have to give account of ourselves to God.  While this is true, in today’s reading we find our true hope.  We are encouraged to hold fast to our faith in times of suffering and pain because we have access to the great high priest, Jesus Christ.  We are invited to approach His throne boldly and without fear.

Do not think that what you have done is too much for Him to bear.  Do not think it is too depraved to reveal before Christ.  His love is greater than any sin we can commit.  In Hebrews we are reminded that Jesus, our great high priest, was tempted in every way.  He has been right up to that line where we cross into sin.  He has felt every temptation we feel.  Even though Jesus was without sin, He can relate to us in our sin and temptation.

We can boldly approach the throne with confidence because the one who sits on the throne walked where we walk and faced what we face.  At that throne we can lay our burdens down and confess our sins and sufferings and find nothing but mercy and receive nothing but grace.  At His throne we are washed clean and made new.  Go often and always for His love never ends and His mercies are made new every morning.

Scripture reference: Hebrews 4: 14-16