pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: response


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Attuned to God

Reading: 2 Kings 5: 9-14

We are often like Naaman.  He comes before Elisha and expects some amazing action on Elisha’s or God’s part.  When we bring a significant prayer or need fervently before God, we too hope for something big in response.  We, like Naaman, expect God to act in a mighty way.  We would like our all-powerful God to be just that and deliver a show-stopping answer to our need.

When the response we desire does not immediately come, we too can react like Naaman.  When our desired outcome is not immediately there, we stomp off in a huff.  We are disappointed, angry, and more.  We question and doubt our faith and God.  We may even play the ‘I have been so faithful and this is what I get’ card.  And in our overreacting response we often miss God’s response.

Recently an acquaintance was really getting under my skin.  It got to the point that I brought them before God.  I needed God to fix this person.  My prayers concerning this situation focused all on this person and the traits that so bothered me.  After a short time my prayers were answered!  But it was me who had been ‘fixed’ by God.  I appreciated what had before irritated.  I welcomed the very things that were annoyances as characteristics that our team needed to complete the task.

We too can be like Naaman and miss the simple yet very sufficient answer from God.  May we attune our hearts and souls to all of God’s ways.  This day may we see all of God’s activity in our lives so that we may experience all of His blessings.


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Peter’s Response

Reading: John 21: 15-19

We don’t do awkward well. Yet from time to time it certainly finds us. Sometimes it is something we blindly and innocently stumble into. We can look back later and have a good laugh. But sometimes it is of our own doing, often tied to a misstep or poorly chosen words, and our awkward moment is not so fun.

Peter has the second kind of awkward moment. Jesus forces him to relive the night that Peter denied Christ three times. I imagine Peter was nervously waiting for this conversation. We’ve all been there – said or done something that we know we will have to face again at some point. Peter knew Jesus well. He knew Jesus to be a person who said what needed said.

So finally the eggshells are broken and Jesus asks the question: “Simon son of John do you love me?” Jesus chooses to use his old name instead if Peter. When Jesus renamed Peter it was because Peter meant ‘rock’ and Jesus said He would build His church upon that rock. But now, Peter is still Simon the denier. Can’t you see the relief on Peter’s face as he can finally tell Jesus that he lives Him again? Peter can finally begin to put the guilt and shame of that night behind him.

Then Jesus asks the same question again. Same response from Peter and instructions from Jesus. But Peter probably feels a little more awkward, a little more reminiscent of when he denied Jesus. Then Jesus asks him a third time. Did Peter hear the rooster crowing in his mind? Peter is obviously hurt. But Peter is steadfast – yes Jesus I love you. And again the same response from Jesus: feed my sheep, care for my lambs. Build my kingdom.

We too hear this call each time God places another before us: feed my sheep. We feel it each time the Spirit nudges us to engage one in need: care for my lambs. May we too have Peter’s response: yes Jesus I love you.


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Praise

Reading: Psalm 150

Psalm 150 is the last Psalm.  It concludes the fifth ‘book’ within the larger book of Psalms.  But unlike the other four books, it does not end with a conclusion.  All of the other books in Psalms, and most other books in the Bible, have a definite conclusion to them.  Most often it is the word “Amen” and it usually functions much like ‘The End’ does in a novel or movie.

Psalm 150 ends with two sentences that invite a continuation of the action instead.  Verse 6 reads, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord”.  The invitation to praise is not limited either.  It does not say Israel or even human beings but ‘everything’.  As the bird lifts up its song one can certainly find praise in that.  As the cat purrs in response to affection one can feel love and bring God praise.  If one is open to a broad definition of breath, one can connect to God in the gentle breeze on a hot summer day or in the stream gently bubbling along.  From the beauty and awe of nature we often bring praise to God.

So why does God, through the psalmist, close with an open-ended invitation to continue to praise the Lord?  On the large, upper level it is just one more example of the Bible as the living Word of God, always active and moving.  On the more personal level, it is God asking each of us to live a life of praise.  God desires for our verbal praise to be not only daily but frequent within our days.  It is our grateful response to His many blessings.  But it is also more than words.  God desires for our actions to bring Him praise as well.  How we love and care for and treat others, both our friends and family as well as the enemy or stranger, should bring praise to God.  May He so shine in our lives that all we do and say brings praise to the Lord!


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All the Time!

Being grateful for all of God’s blessings makes such a difference in our lives.  Every day, as part of my morning ‘routine’, I write in my ‘thanks journal.’  I write down at least five things I am thankful for from the day before and lift up a little prayer of thanksgiving to God.  It is important to me to recognize all God does for me.

In hospitals and hospice care they asses a person’s spiritual vitality by measuring the patients’ gratitude towards God.  Psychologists have identified gratitude as a powerful force in the lives of people who are healthy and resilient.  When one is truly thankful for the things one has in life, it shows in their attitude.

In life all is not roses.  Trials and sufferings will come.  These things are inevitable.  They are a part of life.  As with the Psalmist, we too know God is with us in both the good and the bad.  In the bad, God offers us relief from all sorts of suffering and oppression.  When we experience God’s liberation, or response is grateful praise.  The psalmist wrote, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  When we have an attitude of gratitude it is natural to want to share how good God is with others.

When our normal mode of operation is to recognize God as the giver of all good things, then we know Him as good and through this can better weather life’s storms.  In these times of trial we can go to God for peace, comfort, strength, … in prayer, in reading His Word, in worship.  When we know the Lord is good through our daily practice of gratitude, the darkness is not as deep and we know there is His light at the end of the trial.  God is good.  When we live and acknowledge this often, we are blessed by His presence all of the time, in both the good and the bad.

Scripture reference: Psalm 34: 1-8


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Bread of Life

Jesus, the bread of life, the bread of heaven, wants to feed us.  His food is for our spirits.   Jesus desires to pour into our hearts both to fill us with His joy and to sustain us in the hard days we all face.

The crowd in the story today is almost the same crowd who ate of the fishes and loaves the day before.  They have been physically fed by a miraculous work of Jesus and they are back wanting more.  Like us sometimes, they ask, “What must we do?”  But Jesus has no requirements.  There is no ticket to punch.  He simply wants to give us the bread of life.  Out of His great love for us, the gift of life is offered to all.

Jesus simply invites us into His presence to be fed.  We can ‘fill up’ in many ways – in worship, in prayer, in praise, in study.  At the table of the Lord we are fed.  His spirit and presence fill us up.  Oddly enough, over time we come to the place of desiring to offer our thanks. The ‘must’ becomes ‘can’ as we ask, “What can we do?”  As we are filled we come to want to share the bread of life with others through word, acts of mercy, and acts of kindness.This is our grateful response to Christ’s great love being poured into us.

As we ourselves continue to come to the bread of life, we grow to become more and more like Christ.  Out of His great love for us we are led to love others more.  In our churches, in our places of work or school, in our social settings, in or homes we will have opportunities to lead others to the table of our Lord.  This invitation is one of the greatest offers we can offer another.  This day may we find one who is lost and bring them to the table.

Scripture reference: John 6: 24-35


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God > world

Sometimes God picks people we least expect.  God sees in a way that we usually do not.  His vision for all that could be far exceeds our limited vision for the future and for the possibilities that could be.  His practice is also to develop those He selects.  He did not choose David and make him king immediately.  Over time God slowly developed this young shepherd.

Although God does not call you or me to be a great king, He calls us as surely as He called David, Moses, Abraham, Noah, Saul, Peter…  And He will continue to call us.  He will call as many times as it takes.  God has a purpose for our lives.  It may just to affect and witness to one person or it my be to many.  Maybe it is just to our family and a few friends.  We will never know until we faithfully respond to the call and step out in a faith that shows we know God is in control.  In a willing servant, the Holy Spirit can and will do a mighty work.

God also calls groups of people.  This could be a family, a small group, or a church.  The promise is that where two or more are gathered in His name, He will be present.  God has visions and plans for each of the groups we are in and especially for our churches.  While God desires our praise and worship, that is certainly not all that He calls the church to.  If it ends there our churches are just a shell of what they could be.  A faithful response is all the God seeks.  It is all He needs.  Like with David and many others, God will lay the groundwork, raise up and develop the right leaders, and will take us to great new ministries.  Holy Spirit come.  Lead us and our churches.  Come!

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 16: 8-13