pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Presence

Reading: Psalm 77: 1-2 & 11-20

Psalm 77 begins with, “I cried out to God for help; I cried out for God to hear me”.  In this opening line we can feel connection.  Whether recent, long ago, or present, we have all had occasions to cry out to God and to lay out great need at His feet.  When we find ourselves at the end of our hope, we desperately reach out to God and beg Him to hear our prayer.

Then the psalmist goes on remind himself of all that God has done.  In this way we too can recall times we have been in God’s presence in our past and can again rejoice in the blessings we have and are currently experiencing.  Then he goes on to recount God’s goodness and the many miracles God has worked in the past.  In the midst of a difficult time it is important to think on God’s love, goodness, and power.

As the Psalm concludes, the writer recalls God’s leading of the people.  God still desires to lead us each day of our lives as well.  God seeks to be an active and engaged participant in our lives.  In times of stress or trial it can be easy to forget God’s role in our lives.  Even in those times that He seems to be absent, He is always ad near as our next prayer.

God’s desire is to heal and save the world.  The master plan is to make all things new again.  There is hope in our faith.  We do go through dark moments in our lives, but we also dance in God’s light and love.  May today be a day of dancing.  And even if the dance is slow and mournful, may it also be bathed in God’s presence.


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Take Refuge, Be Blessed

The psalmist cries out to God and God hears his prayers.  God always hears our prayers.  The response of the psalmist is to extol, praise, and glorify the Lord.  We certainly do this when we receive the answer we want.  A little child whose parent buys them that piece of candy in the check-out aisle does this as well.

The psalmist reminds us that God hears, delivers, and saves.  God always hears our prayers.  Our prayers never fall on deaf ears.  God also always delivers.  This is not to say God fixes all things.  Maybe He does ‘fix’ it.  Or maybe He delivers whatever it is we need in that moment or situation: patience, strength, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, love…  He does not leave us alone.  Sometimes God saves us from hurt and pain; sometimes He is saves is in the midst of it just when we need Him most.  The angels camp around those who fear the Lord.

The psalmist reminds us to taste and see that the Lord is good.  We easily taste and see this when He rescues us from the pain or suffering or fear.  It is a sweet and pleasing experience.  We also do this when we look back on something we endured and we see how the Lord was there in the midst of it with us.  We thank Him as we realize we would not have made it through on our own.

The psalmist reminds us that we are blessed when we take refuge in the Lord.  Whether it is to find help or whether it is to find rest, the result is the same: we are blessed.  Be blessed today!

Scripture reference: Psalm 34: 1-8


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Called to Light

In the Gospel of John he speaks frequently of the light and eternal life.  He speaks of Jesus being the light that shines in the darkness and how the lights shows things as they are.  We are intended to live in the light that is shed by Jesus, God’s Son.

John draws some contrasts for us: living and perishing, saved and condemned, doing right and doing evil.  Depending on the day and the moment, we all live somewhere along these continuums.  We all want to permanently be on the living/saved/doing right end of the line, but the reality is that we are imperfect and fail now and then.

The messages of the world and our own human tendencies pull us towards the perishing/condemned/doing evil end of the spectrum. It is a constant battle.  The Holy Spirit, through the power of Jesus, is always shining the light into our darkness.  The light dispels the dark and exposes us for what we are.

Broken yet redeemed.  Sinful yet forgiven.  Lost yet found.  Human yet loved by God Almighty.  We are each loved enough that God sent His only Son to die for each of us.  Jesus came, died, and was resurrected not to condemn but to save.  He came to bring eternal life.  He came to shine light into darkness.  We are called to live into these truths.  What is our response?

John 3: 14-21


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Calling All

God desires to unite all people in faith.  His desire is not just for those already with faith but for all people to come to know Him.  In Jeremiah 31, he writes of God reuniting a people long in exile.  Jeremiah includes all of the exiles – the lame, the pregnant, the elderly, the marginalized.  He tells us that God will make the path straight so that all can come home.

As we fast-forward to Jesus’ time on earth, we hear the same basic message.  He came to save the lost, to eat with sinners, to bring healing and wholeness to all.  For Jesus, those in exile were not just the Jews, but were all who were separated from the love of God.  Jesus sought to gather all of the lost sheep to the Good Shepherd.

Fast forward another 2,000 years.  The call coming from God and God in Jesus is still the same: all who are weary and burdened, come and find rest.  All who suffer, come and find healing.  All who are broken, come and be renewed.  All who have sinned, come and be cleansed.  He calls all of us.  His call will continue on and on and on because His love never ends.  Thanks be to God.

Scripture reference: Jeremiah 31: 7-14