pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: respond


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God’s Promises

Reading: Exodus 32: 11-14

Verse 13: Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self.

The Lord’s anger with His people is mighty big.  Once again they have turned away and questioned and doubted.  Once again the people think Moses has abandoned then or has died, leaving them leaderless. Once again they turn to something other than the Lord.  Yet Moses asks, “Why should your anger burn against your people”?  Moses is a great advocate and prayer warrior for the Israelites, the people he leads under God’s direction and guidance.

Moses continues to convince God not to wipe these stiff-necked people off the face of the earth.  He begins his request with a reminder of God’s promises.  Moses says, “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self”.  Moses is reminding God of the covenant promise that God himself made to each of these great men.  In essence, Moses is calling God out using God’s promises.  By bringing God’s focus to the love, the care, the relationships that led to the promises to make their descendants into a great nation, Moses defuses God’s wrath.

The pattern Moses uses is a pattern we too can use in our prayer life.  Many are the promises of God.  God promises to be our guide, our healer, our protector, our light, our love, our salvation…  We are promised that He will never leave or forsake us.  We are promised that His mercies never end and that we can be made new every morning.  These are but a sampling of what God offers to all who believe.  So when we find ourselves in the midst of trial or suffering, we too can call on the promises of God.  Our prayers for our lives and for others can be like Moses’ request.  We may not always see the answer right away, but we know that God is faithful and that He will respond.  We may not get the answer we want some of the time, but we are promised that God has good plans for each of us (Jeremiah 29:11).  At times, we trust into this as well.

“In everything, with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. – Philippians 4:6


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Endless Pursuit

Reading: Exodus 20: 18-20

Verse 18: When the people saw the thunder and lightning… they trembled in fear.

Moses has come full circle.  It was on this mountain that God gave Moses his call to go to Pharaoh to free the Israelites.  The Lord God had “heard their cries” and responded.  The plagues in Egypt were powerful displays of God’s might, but they were directed at someone else.  Since they have been freed, the Israelites have grumbled and complained, questioning both Moses and God all along the way.  And now Moses calls them to this mountain.  We hear the people’s reaction: “When the people saw the thunder and lightning… they trembled in fear”.  This God who passed over their first born, who parted the sea, who brought quail and manna and water – now He looks a bit angry stop that mountain.  They have grumbled and questioned all along.  It is not surprising that they are afraid and want to keep their distance.

Moses calls the people to the mountain to hear a word from God.  The people fear that they will die if God speaks directly to them, so they ask Moses to be the messenger.  Really, they are asking Moses to once again stand between them and God.  Through their fearful eyes all they can see is the smoke and thunder and lightning.  To them, the desert and even this mountain are a vast wasteland.  There is nothing there, yet they have survived.  Over and over and over again God has provided and led and protected them.  They have missed the lessons along the way: trust in God, keep the faith, live into being the chosen people, and, most importantly, God loves you.  Lost in their fear and negative attitude, they cannot see God for who and what God is.

At times we walk this road too.  We become so stuck in our situation or in the past that we cannot hear God’s word for us.  The word may be grace or love or forgiveness or peace or strength or hope.  Just as with the Israelites, though, God never gives up.  God keeps on pursuing us no matter what.  Thanks be to God for the endless pursuit of each of us, deeply rooted in His love.  Thanks be to God.


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Big Plan

Reading: Exodus 2: 1-10

Verse Three: But when she could hide him no longer…

Today’s passage has lots of characters who are all just part of God’s big plan.  Each is playing a role unsuspectingly.  If each were to be told the plan ahead of time and then we’re asked to go out and perform their part, the odds of success would have dropped.  We are much the same when it comes to living out our faith and the plans God has for us.  This is partially because our vision is so limited compared to God’s plans and partially because we too easily allow fear and doubt to whisper in our ear.  And God’s plans require trust too.

The edict to kill all make Hebrew babies had been given.  Our first character today ignores this and keeps her baby.  “But when she could hide him no longer..” she fashions a boat out of a basket and places him in the river.  The older sister decides to stand off at a distance to watch the basket.  Pharaoh’s daughter comes to the river to bathe and notices the basket.  A slave girl is sent to fetch it.  Pharaoh’s daughter knows it is a Hebrew baby and decides to keep it anyway.  The sister reconnects baby and mother for a time and then Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s home.  It is a plan none could have dreamed up and one that none would willingly have participated in.

Yet character after character plays their role in God’s big plan.  One day this baby will lead the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness.  At the time, none knew this.  But something told the mother to keep the baby and then to place it in the river.  Something told the sister to watch and then to approach Pharaoh’s daughter.  Something told her to fetch the basket and then to keep the baby that should have been killed.  Something will whisper into our heart today.  When God whispers, will we hear and respond, playing our role in God’s big plan?


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When He Calls

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance…” (verse 34).  On the day you stand before the Lord, do you hope to hear those words of acceptance and inclusion?  I sure do.  But today’s parable is about how some who think they are “in” are sent away from heaven and into eternal punishment.

Evidently the filter for our eternal destination is not totally about whether or not we believe in God or Jesus.  It is not about the career we had or how much wealth, possessions, or status we accummulated.  It is not even really about if we were regular chuch attenders or consistent givers to the church.  Instead of caring about who we were or what we had, Jesus appears to be more concerned about how we live our lives – about the condition of our hearts.

In today’s parable Jesus chooses serving the poor and powerless as the filter.  The inheritance we all want went to those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited the prisoner.  And moreso than if we did any of these things, Jesus is concerned with how we did them.  When one works with another in need, is it out of love and compassion, so you see them as Jesus did?  Or is one there because they have to be or because it is the ‘right thing to do’?

“Whatever you did not do to the least of these, you did not do for me” (verse 45) was Jesus’ response to those who thought they were “in” but were not.  It is not that we all have to be in full time ministy to the poor, but it is really about how we respond when God calls.  Are we willing to lovingly serve those God places before us or to give our time or gifts when they are needed?  Do we hear God’s voice speaking through the Holy Spirit?  Do we answer His call?  And most importantly, when we do answer, do we see Jesus in all we meet and in all the situations that God calls us to?

Scripture reference: Matthew 25: 31-46


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Answering the Question

Most of us do not have a vision experience like Isaiah – winged creatures, smoke filling the room, trembles that shake the foundations.  For most of us, our encounters with God tend to be on the quieter side.  We do not hear an audible voice asking the question: “Whom shall I send?”  But we do often hear the question.

For many of us though, we are adept at acting like we do not hear the question.  Like a phone ringing that we choose not to answer or a text message that we choose to ignore, it can be easy to avoid responding to the question.  We certainly could not avoid the question if our call experience was like Isaiah’s.  And for some, God’s call approaches this scale.  But for most it does not.

God continues to actively call each of us.  It could be through something we see on TV or read in the paper or observe out in the world.  It could be through the words of another who encourage us or ask us to join them.  It could be through an encounter with someone that somehow strikes a passion within us.  God speaks to us in many ways.  He calls for us to minister to His people over and  over and over.

The voice never goes away.  He never ceases to ask the question.  The call never ends.  But the more we hear it, the more we have the opportunity to tune in and to hear God.  Funny thing though, saying ‘yes’ does not make the call go away.  It makes the next call clearer.  It helps us say ‘yes’ quicker next time.  When God asks “Whom shall I send?”, the answer is clear.  In each case, God already knows the answer to the question.  May we respond with the answer He longs for: “Here I am.  Send me.”  For where He leads we are to go.  And where we go, He will be there too.

Scripture reference: Isaiah 6: 1-8


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Can You Hear Me?

In 1st Samuel 3 the Lord God called out to Samuel three times.  Finally Eli realized that it was God calling out to Samuel and he instructed Samuel to lay down and respond to God the next time He called out.  The young Samuel did not discern that it was God’s voice that he was hearing.

In our day and age, when there is so much noise all around us, it too can be hard to discern the voice of God when He calls out to us.  At times it is so easy to hit the snooze button, to plop down in front of the television, to read a magazine instead.  On other occasions it is easier to cross over to the other side of the street, to simply look away, or to make some excuse.

There is a reason though that God most often speaks in a still, small voice.  It is so that we have to be paying attention to hear and so that we have to make it our choice to respond.  God is a god of love.  In love, there is no forcing the issue.  There is only that still, small voice calling out to us.  Sometimes it is even hidden in the eyes of one in need or in the words of a friend.  Sometimes it is of the Spirit.  In all cases we must be listening and we must reply as Samuel did: “Speak Lord, you servant is listening.”

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 3: 1-9


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All the Difference

When Jesus asks the disciples who people say He is, do you think He really wants to know?  Or is He just leading up to the second question?  I think He really wants to know who the disciples think He is.  I think this because it is the disciples who will change the world.  It is the ones who know him best that will have the greatest impact.

This begs the question of us: do we know Jesus?  Do we know him well enough that we could finish a sentence He started?  Does He know us well enough that He could do the same?  Jesus wants to go beyond prophet, priest, and king to be or best friend. He wants us to be absolutely in love with Him.

2000 years later, the same question is ours: “who do you say that I am”?  And 2000 years later, our role is the same as the original disciples was: to go out and change the world, to go out and build the kingdom here on earth.  How we respond to the question and how we act upon that answer will make all the difference in the world.

Scripture reference: Matthew 16: 13-20