pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: whisper


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In All we Say and Do

Words can be so powerful.  Just with simple words one can describe a scene in such great detail that you almost can see a snapshot of it in your mind.  Words can also be chosen and delivered carefully for very specific purposes.  With just the right words we can encourage, uplift, and comfort.  In the same way we can edify, strengthen, and build up one another.  Words are powerful.

Each of us can recall times when someone said just the right thing at just the right time.  In those words we found healing or renewal or a lift in our spirit.  We can still remember those words.  In a similar way we each have used our own words to come alongside another in need.  The Holy Spirit often nudges and leads us to these opportunities.  Our role is to be open to the guidance and to be a willing voice.

On the flip side of all of this, the tongue can also be powerful in negative or harmful ways.  James is well aware of the human condition and rightly warns us to be careful with our tongues.  Commentary writer Patrick Harden puts it well: “Sins of the tongue are the hardest to avoid.”  Just as we’ve all been stung or hurt by words, we too have all stung or hurt others.  And in almost every case we have felt the Spirit’s nudge or heard the voice whispering to us to choose a better way.  In our journey of faith, may we learn to follow as led and to heed as warned so that we my bring honor and glory to God in all we do and say.

Scripture reference: James 3: 1-5a


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Boundaries

Social boundaries can be hard to cross.  Maybe your first experience with boundaries came on the playground in elementary school.  Maybe it was in the middle school cafeteria or audition room or athletic court.  Maybe it occurred in a different area or at another stage in life.  Being on one side or the other of a social boundary is something most of us have experienced.

As we grow into adulthood, the social boundaries do not get any easier to cross.  The imaginary lines we draw in our minds can be as tough to cross as the Berlin Wall.  Sometimes we treat the boundaries with the same level of fear as spiders or death.  Yet God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, continues to nudge and whisper into our ears and hearts.  And we can ignore, but that voice just does not go away if you are really working to live out your faith.

Maybe the nudge is to invite the new family who does not speak much English over for dinner.  Maybe it is to stop and offer some food to the man with the sign.  Maybe it is to be the first to welcome the couple who is different from everybody else in your congregation.

James encourages us to walk across that boundary, to quit judging others, and to get out of our comfort zones.  If one is really working to grow in one’s faith, they feel the nudges and hear the whispers of the Spirit.  If we can get outside our box and engage those across the boundary, then we begin to fulfill God’s command to truly love our neighbors as ourselves.  That first step can be hard, but go ahead, take it.

Scripture reference: James 2: 1-13


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God’s Voice

God is mighty and powerful.  The Psalm tells us His voice is like lightning, that the earth shakes at the sound of His voice.  In the power of the lightning we do catch a glimpse of the awesome power of God.  It is from this strength that we too can draw strength in time of need.

Sometimes when I think about the vastness of creation it awes me.  There are seven billion people on the earth plus countless animals and other creations of God.  And He loves each one of us dearly and knows us each by name.  Our God is indeed a majestic and amazing God!

To me it is one of the mysteries of faith that God can be so big to create this wonderful, ordered world yet small enough to know me.  Sometimes it is hard to begin to comprehend.  But in the end one must accept that He knows me because at times He calls my name, He whispers in my ear, He nudges my heart into action.

In these times God certainly makes His presence known.  He is right here and tangible.  As we respond to the calls, to the whispers, to the nudges, God is offered to another through us.  In the helping hand, in the listening ear, in the comforting words, God can flow from us to another.  The same voice that shakes the earth is the voice that whispers.  May we learn to hear the whispers just as well as the lightning.

Scripture reference: Psalm 29