pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: response


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Let Me Tell You

Reading: Psalm 66: 8-20

Verse 16: Come and listen, all who fear the Lord; let me tell you what He has done for me.

The opening verses of today’s passage speak of praising God for many things.  The praise is lifted for God preserving the people, for God refining the people, and for God bringing them to a place of abundance.  The response of the psalmist is to bring offerings to God: rams and bulls and goats.  This is a natural pattern.  When we feel that God has been especially present in our lives, gratitude and thanksgiving and worship are our natural responses as well.  This is even more true when we feel like God reached down and rescued or saved us from something.

The last set of verses, starting on verse sixteen, are a bit more personal in nature.  I love verse sixteen: “Come and listen, all who fear the Lord; let me tell you what He has done for me”.  These words are the essence of a song by David Crowder.  It is a beautiful song that echoes this idea over and over.  This is also the call of our lives as Christians.  Jesus commissioned us to go and make disciples of all nations, sharing the good news with all we meet.  As much as praising and worshipping God should be our response to God’s presence in our lives, so too should be our going forth to invite others to come and listen, to hear the good news of what Jesus has done for us.  The gift we have in Jesus Christ is the good news worth sharing.  All people love to hear good news.  Today, may we go out and share our good news with all that we meet.


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God Story

Reading: Psalm 116: 1-4 and 12-19

Verse 12: How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?

The psalmist begins by declaring his love for God because God heard his voice.  Because of God turning His ear to him, the psalmist commits to call on the Lord as long as he lives.  If only we were so steadfast in our relationship with God.  Sometimes we are more likely to coast in our relationship with God and then to ramp it up when trial or suffering set in on us.

I began my working career as a teacher.  I soon added ‘coach’ to my titles.  Shortly thereafter I added middle school Sunday school teacher.  That was the beginning of a long transition in my life.  Eventually I taught high school Sunday school and that led to working with the youth program.  God continued to work on my heart.  Almost seven years ago I left coaching and went to work serving part time as the youth director at my church.  Almost five years ago I left teaching and became a pastor.  God blessed my path in life and opened many doors for me.  This is one story.  While it is all true, it is not the whole story.

Eleven years and nine years ago I applied for the youth director’s job.  Twice I was not selected as the church hired someone else.  Rejection is always hard.  But perseverance is part of who I am.  And God’s call helped me to continue to be a part of the youths’ lives, He kept me engaged.  Those four years were a part of shaping me, a part of preparing me to do the job when God decided I was ready.  God’s timing is excellent.  It is perfect.

The first part of my story tells how God was at work in my life, slowly drawing me in.  The second part involves some trial and a little suffering, but it too is an essential part of my story.  Like the psalmist, I too must ask, “How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me”?  The first response is to tell my story of what God has done in my life.  The second is to do what the psalmist did: praise the Lord!  What is your God story?  How can you tell it?  And what is your responsive praise to God?


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Marvelous Deeds

Reading: Psalm 72: 18-19

Our short passage for today so well sums up the spirit of this time of year.  “Praise be to the Lord our God, who alone does marvelous deeds”.  In the bringing forth of the baby Jesus, God indeed did a wonderful thing.  But the list is much longer than this.  Take a moment or two and make a little mental list of the marvelous deeds that God has blessed you with in your life.  Praise be to the Lord our God indeed!

The passage ends with, “May the whole earth be filled with his glory”.  When we praise God for all of the marvelous deeds and wonderful blessings in our lives, we bring God alone the glory.  It is through us that glory is brought to God.  We can bring God glory in many ways.  It can be in our private prayer time.  It can be by singing a song or hymn that offers thanks to God or brings glory to God for the marvelous deeds that he has done.  It can be in the ways we speak to others and in the way we treat them that we bring glory to God.

This day, may we be cognizant of and thankful for all of the marvelous deeds of God.  And may our joyous and grateful response bring God the glory!  Amen and amen.


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Jesus’ Response

Reading: Luke 23: 39-43

Almost everyone abandons faith in Jesus and hope that He is the Messiah as He hangs on the cross.  How could this be the Messiah?  Almost all of the disciples, those who have spent three years with Jesus and who have heard over and over that this day is coming, almost all abandon Him and flee in fear.  Those who did not think Jesus was the Messiah feel affirmation in the cross.  For them it is an “I told you so” moment.  How could this be the Messiah?

In our passage today, one who we would think highly unlikely to acknowledge Jesus as Lord does just that.  The thief on the cross next to Jesus has done enough illegal to himself be crucified.  In his defense of Jesus he admits his own guilt: “we are getting what we deserve”.  Yet somehow he sees Jesus for what He truly is.  The thief says, “This man has done nothing wrong”.  Somehow he understands what Jesus is doing for humanity on the cross.  In light of this understanding, he asks Jesus to remember him “when you come into your kingdom”.  The thief recognizes Jesus as the Messiah.

Jesus’ response to the thief is the same as it is to so many who have come to Him.  He is welcoming and accepting and loving.  Instead of “your faith has made you well”, Jesus instead tells him that his faith has saved him: “Today you will be with me in paradise”.  Jesus sees straight through to the heart and welcomes another believer home.

There are two lessons in this for us.  The first is to see all as worthy of Jesus’ kingdom.  We need to look at all who are lost as Jesus did – as just another beloved child of God searching for a Savior.  The second is to realize that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ.  Not what we have done, not who we are in life, and not even the lateness in life when we come to accept Jesus as Lord.  Jesus welcomes and accepts and loves all who come seeking Him.  This day, may we help others to see and to approach Jesus just as they are.  May we help all to see that they too are a dearly loved child of God.


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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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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