King David is one of the giants of our faith. Not only was he brave and strong and wise, he was above all faithful and honest with God. The deep personal relationship he enjoyed with God is really what allowed him to be brave and strong and wise. David knew God intimately and fully trusted God with his life. He knew each day he lived was lived under God’s care.
Psalm 4 is a great example of the level of trust David had in God. It opens with David’s expectation to hear back from God and it ends with complete confidence in God’s protection. There is a respect built upon experience and intimacy with God. All is on the table; nothing is held back. God is David’s priority. His day begins and ends with God. And God is present everywhere in between.
God offers us this same intimate relationship. God desires to know and be known by each of us just as David knew God and was know by God. We do not need to slay giants or lead nations to have a deep personal relationship with God. We just need to spend time with God. We just need to go to God with our big things and our smallest of things. Whether life is great for the struggle mighty, we need to daily be in conversation with God. This day may we deepen our relationship with God through open, honest, and frequent prayer.
The Psalm opens with a wonderful truth: “O Lord, you have searched me and know me”. The God who wove us together in the womb continues to know us inside and out. There is nothing we can hide from God although we often act as if we can. Like a trusted friend, the psalmist recognizes that God knows our next words even before they are formed on our tongues. It is an intimate and deep knowledge of each of us that God possesses.
There can be such comfort and ease in this type of relationship. As the depth of knowledge between two people grows, the level of trust and confidence rises to new heights. Think of that best friend that you can tell anything to without fear of judgment or embarrassment or condemnation. This is the type of relationship that God desires to have with us.
While God may know us inside out, our knowledge of God is often limited. We often feel there are things and words we cannot bring to God. We do not treat God like a best friend. This is mainly due to a shortage of time with God. Although God is always present, if we do not engage God, then God is like a wallflower, silent in the corner.
To develop and to continue a deep personal relationship with God requires us to get to know God well. We do so in worship, in prayer, in reading and meditating on God’s Word. We do so by being open and taking everything to God. The more we put into our relationship with God, the deeper it becomes. The deeper our relationship with God becomes, the more we learn about ourselves as well. God teaches us as we grow and this process reveals and shapes us. It is a wonderful process. May we seek to always grow in our relationship with God, being ever blessed.
In Hebrews 13:2 we are reminded, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some people have entertained angels without knowing it”. Do you think you have ever experienced this? Could have someone God placed in your path been an angel instead of simply a stranger? Maybe so. These thoughts made me wonder why. Why would God allow us to practice loving a stranger with an angel instead of with a real stranger? Maybe we were not ready for a real stranger yet.
Or… maybe God is reminding us of the sacred value of all life. Imagine if we treated all people we met as if they were an angel. We would certainly be more humble and more willing to go the extra mile. We would look on others as worthy and even as deserving of our time and attention. It would be an experience in radical love.
Or maybe God is reminding us because so often God chooses the unlikely, the one we see as powerless, the stranger to teach us. Sometimes people we tend to ignore or marginalize can teach us much. If we are willing. A lifelong hard core criminal who experienced salvation while incarcerated can teach us much about God’s amazing grace. A person who struggled for years with addiction that found freedom through a relationship with Jesus Christ can teach us much about God’s redeeming love. A person who endured years of unfair treatment and injustice yet persevered because of their faith can teach us much about trust and obedience. These are but a few examples. Those who have had powerful, lifechanging encounters with God have much to offer and teach.
Today, today may we see all people as if they were angels. May we find the value in each person we meet. May we see in all the gift of God that they each are. And may we be willing and open to all that each has to offer to us.
Laws are important. Imagine for a moment living in a society that had no laws. It is a frightening image. In reality, all groups, societies, and cultures have laws or norms that they live by. Even a band of thieves has some norms that govern life within that group. Civil societies have many laws that govern behavior and establish order. The purpose of laws is to protect us, to keep us safe, and help the community function. And although the law is the law, there are times we see the law as optional or as flexible. For example, we may walk across a street somewhere other than the crosswalk or we may drive a bit over the speed limit. Other laws seem to be more absolute. Election laws are followed precisely and none would ever condone breaking the laws against child abuse.
For the synagogue ruler in today’s reading and for other religious authorities in Jesus’ day, all of the law was absolute. Keeping every letter of the law is what separated them from and elevated them about the rest of society. Consequently, they held the view that if you break one letter of the law, you break the whole law. Jesus grew up a practicing Jew. He understood and knew the law. He also understood that at times, as was the case today, that God’s law will at times trump man’s laws.
Jesus chooses to heal a woman on the Sabbath. Jesus knew the laws against working on the Sabbath. He also knew that almost everyone there had tended to the animals or the children or … Jesus knew that the religious authorities had so defined the Sabbath through a myriad of laws that keeping all of the laws had superceded actually honoring God on the Sabbath. They had lost sight of the day being about resting in God. The leaders were so caught up in the laws that there was little time left to honor and worship God. The laws had become the focus. Lost was the renewing of the mind, body, and spirit that comes from a whole day dedicated to God.
On the Sabbath Jesus sees a women who needs mind, body, and spirit renewed. She has been captive to her infirmity for many long years. So Jesus frees her. He heals her so that she can fully worship God, which she does immediately. Instead of keeping the whole of the Sabbath law, Jesus instead chooses to honor the Sabbath by following one of God’s ultimate laws – love your neighbor. Healing this woman was not work. It brought honor to God. It restored a child of God to wholeness. May all we do this Sabbath day bring honor and glory to God.
Many people live with pain. For some, it is related to life. Some live in pain from a sport or activity that they participated in. Some live in pain from an accident they were involved in. For others, they live with pain that cannot be traced back to an event or activity, but simply started one day and has persisted. For many, either the pain is not serious enough to warrant surgery or medical relief is delayed for a number of reasons. In any event, many people live with pain over a prolonged period of time.
People become accustomed to living with pain. It is part of life. But it can affect our personality and outlook on life. There are times when the pain is worse than normal and it makes all of life darker and gloomier. Some have found the grace and strength to rise above the pain, but for many it is a daily struggle.
We all know people who live with chronic pain or perhaps we do ourselves. So we can relate to the woman in today’s passage. She has lived with pain for 18 years. To put it in perspective, she has been vent over, unable to straighten up, for 6,570 days. If she is like us, she has been to every doctor she could find. She has been to the priest. She has offered sacrifices. She has tried to make deals with God. And then one day at the temple a man calls her over. He simply says, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity”. He touches her and she is immediately healed. Life changing.
For each of us, when healing comes, it is often a mystery. Whether a physical, emotional, or spiritual healing, often it is a mystery why we are suddenly better. The pain or blue feeling or lostness is suddenly gone. We may not understand but we rejoice and give thanks to God. God has come to us and touched us too. God continues to desire to come to us, to bring healing, to be with us in our time of need. When in any form of pain or hurt, we must take it to God. At a minimum God will give us the grace and strength we need to love and live the life we have. At best, we are set free. Turn to the healer. Trust in the healer. Allow God to change your life.
The psalmist is experiencing a rough season. The writer desires to seek refuge in God and to find a place away from their attackers. There are pleas for God to rescue and deliver, to save. The psalmist turns to God for help.
At times in life we may also feel like we are under assault. We may feel like things are stacked against us or that life is a lot uphill lately. When this is just a day or maybe a few days in a row, we can usually lean on God to help push us through. Soon enough we see daylight and are thankful for God’s presence and strength that helped us endure and remain faithful. But what about those times when a few days turns into a few weeks, maybe longer? It is in this place that we find the psalmist.
We can relate to the psalmist. It feels as if attackers and other negative people are all around us. We think we are remaining faithful and obedient to serving God. So why the conflict? Why the opposition? It seems unfair and unjust. It becomes a tipping point.
Maybe we have stepped where we shouldn’t. Maybe we have followed our own plans instead of God’s. So maybe the opposition is calling us into check, back into alignment with God. Maybe the trial is to refine or define or purify our faith. When we are deep in a time of trial the temptation can be to turn away from God and to run to something else. So maybe the discomfort forces us to really look at our faith, to define or refine our trust in God, or to deepen our faith. It may be a season that yields growth.
There will be times of conflict and opposition when we serve God. It is Satan’s best trick – doubt, questioning, fear. It is his attempt to derail us. The psalmist wrote, “Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go”. May the Lord our God always be our rock of refuge. In God we can trust.
“By faith” they walked through a sea, by faith the walks of a mighty city simply fell down. By faith the giant was slain, by faith three hundred routed the thousands. By faith touching the hem of a garment brought healing, by faith a man walked on water. By faith the people of God have done things that would have been impossible otherwise. Each and every time someone trusted fully in what God was calling them to and the miraculous occurred.
These stories are not stories of someone getting a wild idea and then asking God to make it happen. Each is the story of how God spoke into the heart of a faithful follower. Each is the story of a person hearing or sensing the voice or nudge of God and being willing to trust enough in God to lead them to respond by faith. One can only assume there are thousands upon thousands who heard or felt God leading them as well but instead ignored it or refused the call. We know this because we each are one.
Each of us that have heard or felt God leading us to do or say or be something are not without faith because we hesitated or were fearful or doubted. We are human. Each of us have also had experiences where we did step out by faith, where we did trust in where God was leading us. In these cases lived were affected and maybe some were changed. Perhaps our life was one that was changed because we followed God’s lead.
Just as all those who have come before learned and trusted and came to walk with God, we too are learning and building trust and growing by faith in our walk with God. Just as those such as Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel, Rahab, Stephen, Peter, Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., and many more lived by faith to positively affect our faith and our world, we too can have a mighty impact for the kingdom of God. May we be willing and trusting servants to answer the call of God and to step by faith to do God’s will.
Too often we are deaf to God’s voice. Like with Abraham, God is seeking to bless us and to do great things in our lives. Throughout our day God seeks to connect to us, to draw us into relationship, to allow us to experience the presence of the Spirit in our life. Too often we miss these chances.
Most of us have had significant encounters with God. Maybe they were during a retreat or when we were at camp. Maybe they were in a deep valley where our sense of God’s presence became very real at the low point of a trial or struggle. Maybe it was during a special worship service or when we were on a mission project. At certain times we are particularly open to hearing God’s voice or experiencing God in our midst. But God desires this to be our frequent experience throughout our day.
The ‘God moments’ we have experienced are powerful and meaningful. So this leads us to seek out why we do not have these times more often in our day to day living. In Abraham’s story we find some clues. First, he was open to hearing God. At times God’s voice will boom into our lives. But Abraham had his ear ever tuned to God and had his spirit focused on God. We too can do this by being intentional in inviting God into our daily lives and by being cognizant of the opportunities God places in our lives. These may come in the wise words of a friend, in the face of the one in need we encounter on the sidewalk, or in the still small voice of the Holy Spirit whispering into our heart. Second, when Abraham felt God’s presence or heard the voice, he listened and was honest. If he did not understand or felt doubt or fear, he was honest with God about these things. God did not walk away, but responded. Through faith Abraham heard and obeyed God and was credited as righteous.
Life can consume us. Life can swirl around us. The noise and busyness can obscure God’s voice and the encounters sent our way. When we allow these things to occur, our relationship with God suffers. Our soul is poorer for having missed out. Our faith is not as strong as it could have been had we experienced God’s presence. We, like Abraham, can hear God’s voice often. We, like Abraham, can become attuned to that voice, lifting it above the daily hum. The more we hear the voice, the better we listen. And we, like Abraham, can and will experience God’s presence and blessings when we slow down and focus on our faith. May we learn to be like Abraham so that we can receive the promises, blessings, and power of God in our lives, daily and often.
In a way Naaman and the 72 are opposites. Naaman loads up the treasure to pay for his healing and heads off to find the man of God. The 72 go out with nothing, taking the word of God, empowered by Jesus, to give away healing and hope. In Naaman is healed, he may be drawn near to God. The 72 are going out to bring the kingdom of God near to all people. Even to those who reject the Prince of Peace, the disciples proclaim that He is near. Too many of today’s Christians and too many of our churches today are more like Naaman, seeking to get something from God instead of striving to offer God to others.
Earlier in Luke 10 Jesus stated the reason for sending out the 72: “the harvest is plentiful”. It is certainly plentiful today as well! The disciples trusted in Jesus’ power and stepped out boldly to heal the sick and to proclaim that the kingdom of God was drawing near. At first they must have been way outside their comfort zones. Naaman too must have wondered a time or two what in the world he was doing as well. But God rewarded their faithfulness. Both the 72 and Naaman experienced firsthand the simple power of God to bring healing and to know personally how impactful the kingdom is in their lives.
Jesus calls on us today in the same ways. Trust in Him and in His power to guide us. Rely on Jesus alone. Go forth and trust in the Lord of the Harvest. May we too boldly step outside of our comfort zones, trusting that God will lead. Through our simple faith, may we this day bring the kingdom of God near.
For most of us, when we wake up in the morning, we know what our day is going to look like. We tend to be creatures of habit, creatures of routine, creatures of schedules and lists. We tolerate interruptions to our day fairly well if we perceive them as something good. Not to say we plan every second, but we do not like the unknown too much and we feel more in control when we plan, organize, and prepare. For as long as mankind has walked the earth, this has been true. Societies like order, law, and norms; this is a reflection of who we are as individuals.
Step into the shoes of one of Jesus’ disciples. He seems to be a wanderer of sorts. He seems to get up every morning and goes where He is led. You wake up in Jericho but may not go to sleep there. The day begins heading toward Bethlehem but you end up in Bethany. At first it was a little uncomfortable and disconcerting just going wherever. But over time you’ve come to see that no matter where you are or who us around, Jesus seems fully in control. You seem to usually get fed and there is almost always a roof over your sleeping spot. Over these months you’ve really come to trust in Him and to rely on Him for, well, for everything.
Then one morning you get up and gather around for the usual morning devotional. You smile because today you see Jesus is leading the devotional time. But today, instead of teaching Jesus gives instructions. He says we are to go out two by two, by ourselves. We are to try and bring His peace into the towns and villages that He will soon come to. We are to preach that the kingdom of God is drawing near. We are to heal the sick. What? Heal the sick? He goes on – take nothing with you. Nothing. Jesus says we are to rely on those we go to for food, shelter… Then He says, “Go!”
Jesus was calling on the disciples to trust Him. He told them that He will still be with them even though He is not physically present with them. Jesus tells them that they can go out and do what He has been doing because He is empowering them to go forth in His name to proclaim the good news and to bring healing to people’s brokenness. Jesus is calling them to trust fully in Him.
What lies ahead for us today? What all is on our to-do list?
Maybe not today because it’s already planned, but one day soon, may we each do what those first disciples did. May we wake up and go out into our communities and neighborhoods, taking nothing but Jesus with us, but fully trusting in Him to lead and provide. May we fully trust in Jesus Christ on that day. It is a start.
pastorjohnb 