pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: shine


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Make It Yours

Where are you God?!  That is the cry of Israel in Psalm 80.  Catastrophe has struck and, therefore, they question where God is.  Surely He is not present, or this would have never happened.  Been there before?

In the midst of tragedy the Israelites beg God to turn His face to them and to shine on them.  Once God looks on His people, He will see their hardship and He will restore them.  He will stop the suffering at the hands of their foe.  Ever sought this?

Verse 17 asks God to let His hand ‘rest upon the son of man’, the one He raised up.  If so, the promise is they will not turn away but will call on His name – after God revives them.  A familiar if-then bargain!  Sound familiar?

The relationship we are called to is 24-7-365.  It is the same in the good and in the bad and everything in between.  God is always present to us.  His love and mercy are always available.  Make it yours each day.

Scripture reference: Psalm 80: 1-7 and 17-19


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God’s Flashlight

Prior to the story of healing the blind man that we find in John 9, Jesus had been in the temple.  There He claimed the connection to God and stated his purpose on earth was to bring glory to the Father.  This claim angered those in the temple.  But Jesus stuck to his guns and stated gain that he was here to bring glory to God and to do His work.  Just as they were picking up stones to stone Jesus, he slipped away from them.

In today’s story Jesus returns sight to a blind man.  But the man did not ask to be healed.  Jesus and the disciples were walking along the road and they saw the blind man.  Being raised Jewish, the disciples asked a question based on their upbringing.  They wanted to know if the man was blind because of his own sins or because of the sins of his parents.  This was the common view of why someone would be born blind.  But Jesus never answers their question.

Instead Jesus returns to what he was talking about earlier.  The healing of the blind man will occur not to bring Jesus glory but to bring glory to the work of the Father.  Healing will come to display the work of God in this man’s life.  While on earth Jesus was the light of the world.  He was here to shine light on God.  His purpose was always to glorify God.  We are called to continue to be that light.  We are called to be the word, hands, feet, eyes, … of Jesus  not to bring glory to ourselves but to shine it upon God.

In Hebrews 13: 5-6 we hear these words: “God has said, ‘Never will I leve you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.”  This day and each forward, may we remember these words and go forth to boldly shine the light of God on all we meet.


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Living Like the Light

The prophets have long spoken of God in terms of light.  The Old Testament refers to the coming messiah as one who will bring light into the world.  In the transfiguration story we see Jesus becoming the ultimate light of the world.  The light grows from within Him until his whole form is dazzling and simply full of brightness.  To me it would be like looking into the sun – except that He is right there instead of 93,000,000 miles away.

As we come to know Christ and to grow into our relationship with Him, our daily walk is generally blessed and we are often happy and content.  But there are moments in each day and sometimes days when we seem to struggle with darkness and wrestle with the evils of temptation and sin.  But overall, life is good because ultimately our hope rests in Jesus and His saving grace.  Yet our reality is that evil and darkness do exist in our world.  Life can be difficult.  At times it draws close to us and at other times evil and darkness seem far away.  When we are tempted, evil has drawn near.  We also can find it in people we know and meet.  There are all kinds of dark things that people are struggling with.  For some, all seems dark for they have lost hope.  Yet none are beyond hope.  Nothing is outside of the love of Christ.  No situation is unable to be redeemed.

It is when we find ourselves in darkness or when facing down the evils of sin, that we can call upon the light of the world to chase away the darkness.  Just a quiet ‘help’ and He comes running.  Just a glance toward heaven and the light begins to grow.  The Lamp begins to glow, as a candle spreads light in the dark, and we can again see our way and we can find our hope and peace.  In turn we can also be the light that shines into other people’s lives to dispel that darkness and give light to their path.  We can each be a candle that illuminates.  As we grow in Christ, our light radiates out to bring light and love to a broken and hurting world.


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Son Shine

In Jesus’ call to love both our neighbors AND our enemies, we are challenged. As the Bible points out, God sends the sun and the rain on the just and on the unjust. All are loved by God, none are excluded. We are called to look at the world in the same way. God calls us forward daily on our Christian journey towards perfection. It is a road we are all called to walk. Although the goal of perfection may not be attained here and although we may not even come to see the end of the road, it is the call to always grow in our faith and to strive to be more like Jesus each day.

The call to love our neighbors can be hard when we realize that by neighbors Jesus meant everybody. Not only our family and friends, but the person next door or in the next cubicle/office and even the person who is our ‘enemy’. In this call Jesus wants us to extend ourselves.

On the personal level this challenges us to moe beyond our human hurts and emotions to see all as worthy of God’s love and therefore worthy of our love. This command asks us to look at it from the heart – to love where it is hard to love. To pray for someone who it is hard to pray for.

On the corporate level it calls us as Christians to step beyond the walls of our churches. As the love and holiness of God grows in us, it begins to shine outside of us as we come to love the least, the lost, the lonely, and the unloved. Our faith becomes our actions as we help the Son to shine on all people.