pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: renew


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Love Our Fellow Man

Reading: Romans 13: 8-10

Verse Eight: He who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.

God has always loved humankind.  Mankind was created in His image and we are intended to be like Him.  The essence of the relationship between God and human beings is love.  God loves us and cares for us in so many ways.  In return, we love God and try to live lives that are pleasing to God.  To help us understand what love is really all about, Jesus came and walked among us, revealing what it looks like to live out God’s love for humanity.  Jesus did not really come to teach us a bunch of new things but to better understand what was already there.  When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He did not make up something new.  Instead He reached deep into the scriptures and named two from the Old Testament.  Both centered on love.  Jesus said, in fact, that if we love God with all we are and if we love neighbor as self, then all the other commandments will follow.

Paul picks up on these themes today.  In an increasingly diverse church, Paul is sensing a growing need for unity and community.  So he returns to the foundation: love.  It is at the center of God, was at the center of Jesus, and must be at the center of all believers.  In verse eight Paul writes, “He who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law”.  For Paul, we must love one another.  This is where unity and community begin.  Once we truly love one another then things like trust and cooperation and hospitality are soon to follow.  Once we begin to understand this aspect of God’s love, we begin to practice it with others.

Being human himself and understanding that the church is made up of other sinful creatures, Paul also knew another aspect of God’s love was also important.  Paul knew the church also needed to know and live out God’s love revealed in His mercy.  At times our relationships require forgiveness and reconciliation.  This side of God’s love is all about renewing and restoring and forgiving.  This too is a part of God’s love for us.  This too is a part that we are called to share with one another.  In all ways this day, may we each love our fellow man.


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Fully and Wholly

Reading: Amos 8: 1-6

God proclaims to Amos that “the time is ripe for my people”.  God is fed up with their preoccupation with money.  Worship is no longer worship.  They want to rush through their one hour of worship so that they can get back to turning a profit.  To make matters worse, during their one hour ‘given’ to God their mind is filled with thoughts of how to get richer.  The fact that they do not hear God’s message and call upon their hearts is revealed in the ways they exploit the poor and needy.

God’s desire is the same for us.  When we sit down to spend time with God, He expects all of our being to be present.  Our call is not to read the devotional or accompanying scripture as quickly as possible so that we can continue on with our day.  God desires for us to linger a while, to allow His Word and message for us that day to soak in and to percolate deep within us.  Our time with God should draw us in and transform and renew us.

The same is true on a Sunday morning or whenever we gather for worship.  We are called to enter His house with thanksgiving in our hearts and praise on our lips.  We are to be fully in His presence and to welcome the Spirit to move in us and around us.  God hopes to touch our souls with the music, the words, the prayers.  If our focus is elsewhere, we are not being authentic in our worship and we are not being honest in our relationship with God.

Each time we enter into His presence, whether in private or with our community of faith, may we be fully focused and wholly in His presence.


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Through Prayer

Jesus went to God in prayer.  Sometime He went in “reverent submission”, seeking to align the will of His human mind and body with the will of God.  In the garden, as He faced torture and death on the cross, Jesus came before God with His human concerns but ultimately said, “Not my will but Yours.”  At other times Jesus prayed to reconnect to His Father.  In times up on the mountain or out in the wilderness, He drew near to God to be renewed and refreshed.  And some of the time Jesus prayed for others.  Even on the cross, Jesus interceded for those who were crucifying Him.

Our great high priest invites us to live a life of prayer that is obedient to the will of the Father, that connects to God, and that lifts up one another – even those who persecute us. For Jesus, prayer was always the first step.  It was never the last result.  At times we have this backwards.

Through prayer Jesus stayed connected to God and remained unblemished.  In this perfectly obedient state, Jesus went to the cross, bore our sins, and became the source of our eternal salvation.  We too connect to our God through prayer.  although we too come in all the ways Jesus came to the Father, we are no perfect.  We are blemished; we are sinners.  But because of Jesus, we also can come before God seeking to be washed clean, to be made new.  In those moments we are made new, unblemished and pure.  Jesus prayed often and set for us the example.  May we too take all to the Lord in prayer.

Scripture reference: Hebrews 5: 7-10


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God as Center

Psalm 123 is a song that the people would sing as they made their way to worship.  They would seek God’s mercy and hand of protection as they prepared their hearts and minds for a time in the presence of God.  The psalm speaks of the people looking toward God as we would look towards someone we trust completely; perhaps your parent or spouse fills this role, perhaps it is God.

For most of us, our world is busy and full of things that compete for our time and energies.  It can be a struggle to carve out space to gaze upon God each day.   But to do so is essential.  In that time and space, as we gaze upon our God, we find renewing of our souls, a calming of the things that swirl around us, and a focus on the things that really matter.  Then as we face the day and all of its things that tug and pull, then God goes with us and is present in the midst of it.

When God is the focus in our personal quiet time each day, then He walks with us all day long.  We begin to see Him in places we wouldn’t normally and in the people and events of our lives.  In those moments of blessing, we are able to connect with God, to be in His presence, and to share Him with others.  As God becomes the center of or lives, His presence will be in all we do and say.  Through this, others will be blessed as well.

Scripture reference: Psalm 123


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Sprit Fall Upon Us

Ever been so thirsty your throat was dry?  In those cases a sip of water is so refreshing.  Water may be clear and tasteless yet it is better than anything when you are parched.

Have you ever watched water pouring along the curb or gutter or even a gully after a quick downpour?  It picks up debris and carries it away.  The water may even cut away at what it is washing over.  Water can be pretty powerful.

Remember the last time you stepped outside just after a good rain – can you smell the freshness?  The water cleanses away the dust and dirt and also refreshes the life of all it falls upon.

The living water that come when we enter into relationship with Jesus does all these things too.  If we allow the Holy Spirit to be the promised well of living water welling up in us, it will refresh and replenish our soul when we are feeling dry.  This living water will also work its way through the cracks and crevices to carry away the baggage and things that can weigh us down.  This living water will also flow from us, into the lives of others.

It is both a gift and a gift to be offered to others.  Join me in praying, “Come Holy Spirit!  Come!”