pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: want


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A Process

Reading: 1st John 5: 1-6

Verse One: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well”.

Some view religion as a list of rules that one must follow. They see obedience as a burden. In today’s passage, John uses father-son language. When we look at the obedience that occurs in a parent-child relationship I think we get a good look at how mature obedience is a process that must be carefully developed.

Through early childhood the child looks up to the parents and behaves as a means to please their parents. This is mirrored in early faith as well as they join in table graces and bedtime prayers. Their faith is the faith of their parents. As a child grows and develops a sense of Independence, boundaries get pushed. There are an important set of years where skilled parents still exert some control yet begin to meter out more and more decision-making to their teenager. While this is rarely a smooth and gradual shift of the locus of control, when done ‘well’ the teen eventually learns good inner self-control and learns to take responsibility for one’s own actions and decisions.

A similar process occurs as the faith of the parents becomes a faith of their own. As a young person’s faith matures, they gain a sense of a personal faith that centers around a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The stories of Sunday school and vacation Bible School begin to take on a personal meaning and application. This too is a time of questioning and redefining boundaries and understandings that usually occurs during the teen years. When one professes faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, the love of God takes on a whole new meaning. As verse one states, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well”. When one comes to understand love and our faith this way, there is a shift in the locus of obedience. One moved from “having” to love God and neighbor to “wanting” to love God and neighbor. This becomes more like sharing a wonderful gift than carrying a heavy burden. This owning and living out of one’s faith is a process and can take many years.

Jesus is also involved in a process. He is in the process of conquering the world through love. He invited us to join him in this process of overcoming hate and sin with love. Each day may we join Jesus in the process. May it be so for me and for you. Amen.


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Trust and Live It

Reading: Exodus 16: 2-15

Verse Eight: You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.

Complaining is something we can slip into pretty easily.  When the grass looks a little greener over there, when we did not quite get our way, when we have to wait for something, when we feel we have been treated unfairly, …  There are many reasons we can find to complain.  And sometimes we too may blame God or question God at a minimum.

The Israelites are out in the desert and they are starving.  The quick food they took with them when they hastily exited Egypt is gone and the desert does not provide much to eat.  The people come and complain to Moses and Aaron – if only we’d “died by the Lord’s hand back in Egypt”.  Die in the Passover plagues rather than be free?  But we are hungry!  Oh to be back in Egypt where “we sat around pots if meat and ate all we wanted”.  Oh for the good old days!  The Israelites ‘long’ for death or at least slavery again.  We too can be pretty immature and a bit whiny in our complaints.

When one resorts to complaining, one usually needs to look within oneself to find a cause.  Sometimes we forget all of the blessings we have in our life and focus on that one thing instead.  Sometimes we simply forget to be grateful and skip right to discontent.  We dwell on envy and jealousy and want.  And sometimes we forget to trust God.  We forget all the times God did and we don’t believe God will ever provide again and the grumbling begins.

In our passage today, the people grumble to Moses and Aaron, but they are just the middle men.  Moses says to the people: “You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord”.  It is true for them just as it is true for each of us at times.  We too can flout a sense of entitlement and can put on a pout when we do not get our way or when we feel like we are being treated unfairly.  But this is not the witness we get elsewhere in the Bible when we look at the faithful.  We see Jesus always looking to give, not to receive.  We see Paul being content in all circumstances, even when in want.  We see God providing for His people over and over and over again.  When we really take the time to reflect on our own lives, we see the same constant provision.  May we trust in His Word and His love and may we live it out in our lives this day!


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Presence

Reading: Psalm 105: 1-6, 23-26, & 45

Verse Four: Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always.

Our Psalm today opens as a song of praise, recalling the works and wonders that God has done for His people.  The psalmist encourages the people to remember in song and to retell of God’s activity among the people through music.  It is through music that we best rejoice and give glory to God.  In verse four we read these words: “Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always”.  In looking to God and in remembering God’s mighty acts in song, we are reminded over and over of God’s strength and we are drawn back again.

Giving thanks and singing praises to God is not limited to the times when life is good.  It is also not limited to singing about just the times of blessing either.  The entire Psalm recalls both times of abundance and power as well as times of want and oppression.  In fact, it is often in and through trying times that we see God’s hand at work.  When God enters into our pain or when He relieves our burdens are experiences where we feel especially close to God and His strength.  They are moments that really remind us to look to God and to seek His face always.

Just as in Israel’s past and at points in our lives when life was hard, in some communities and neighborhoods life is hard.  Poverty and lack of decent employment opportunities couples with violence and substance abuse to create difficult environments to live in.  Poor schools and inadequate housing add to the hardships that exist in many inner cities and on some reservations.  All of these factors lead to higher levels of crime and gang activity and to higher rates of incarceration.  These places can be difficult places to seek His face.  Yet there God is, working in and through people’s lives, being worshipped in vibrant faith communities that joyfully sing of God’s goodness and love.  God’s presence is there in full force, allowing faithful disciples to both trust in God in the midst of hardship and also to go forth to be used by God to bring healing and hope and love.  May we all be encouraged and uplifted by God’s presence so that we can share His love and hope and peace today.


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Lost in Him

If one were to pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV or surf the internet, one would maybe think that Christmas is just around the corner.  It may be that there is more on sale after Christmas than there was before Christmas.  Even for those who had a blessed and wonderful Christmas and thought they were satisfied on December 25, all of the advertising draws one to ponder what else one might need.

I wrote ‘need’ but really should have used ‘want’ instead.  When we are stuck on focusing on what we want too much then contentment becomes elusive.  Yes, it is difficult to be still and quiet amidst all the noise, yet God is still very present and is still seeking our presence.

The psalmist reminds us to sing out to God our thanksgiving, to see Him at work in the rising of the sun and the falling of the rain.  God delights in those whose hope is in Him.  Today may we get so lost in singing our praises to God that we become lost in Him, so that the noise of this world fades away and He is all we have left.

Psalm 147: 7-14


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And so they ate…

In the Garden Adam and Eve had all they really needed – food, each other, God’s daily presence.  Yet there was one thing that they did not have.  It wasn’t that they needed it – they just did not have it.  And so they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  It is not that they needed to know about good and evil.  But their desire to have more got the best of them.  Eating the fruit gave them the one thing they knew they did not have.

Aren’t we often the same?  We so often want to have more than we have. We are so blessed in so many ways yet we see a better position, better pay, more recognition, a newer car, a bigger house, a more beautiful spouse, … and we “want” it.  The want has nothing to do with need or necessity.  It is much like the fruit of the forbidden tree.  We think, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to…’ and off we go!  And God looks down and says ‘All you need is right here.”  Yet we can be so busy in chasing after the next ‘x’ that we don’t even hear Him.

We treat the control over our lives the same way.  God will do a fantastic job of leading our life.  Yet we are constantly wrestling with him over the steering wheel.  If we can only see that life is always best when God is driving the bus.  We want to set the course and call the shots.  We are blessed in so many ways yet how often Satan whispers, “Hey, look over here” and he instantly has our attention.  Satan doesn’t much tempt us with fruit but his offerings are vast and shiny and make us take notice.

As we prepare to enter into this holy season of Lent, may we do so fully acknowledging God as the provider of all good things.  I’ve heard that He is an excellent driver too.  May we come to trust in Him and to be content in the rich blessings that He so graciously gives.  May our thanks to Him flow out of us abundantly so that we may see God for who He truly is: a loving father who wants to give His children all they need.  When we do, He is faithful and will fill us with joy, peace, and contentment.  May we eat fully of His abundance.