Do you believe in Love?

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

1 John 4:16

Personally, I find this to be an incredibly powerful scripture passage.  In the moments when it is hard to believe in God, this verse allows us to believe in Love.  When we see compassion, kindness, and generosity in the world, we are looking at God.  I love how God becomes so much more tangible in this verse.  However, simply stating, “God is Love” will not solve all of our problems.  In fact, I think it takes a lot of faith to believe in love…

I’ve visited a number of people who have felt so overwhelmed that they were ready to give up on life.  Whether it was because of sickness, depression, or isolation, they felt like their lives were broken and worthless.  I also have seen plenty of people who are haunted by mistakes they have made.  Love can become a pretty hard concept for anyone to believe in. 

I see the story of Jesus as the real hope that we all have.  Jesus embraced the sick.  He shared meals the sinner, and he restored hope to the broken.  Today I hope we can share a tangible sign of love to the world.  I hope we can give people a faith in the love that binds all things together.

Blessings!

PB

Happy Mother's Day!!

I have been blessed with a wonderful mother, and I am so thankful for everything she has done for me over the years.  However, when I was a kid I remember thinking my mom worried too much… I knew she had good intentions, but I always believed I had things under control.  She had nothing to fear. At least I felt that way until I had my own child… 

In two years my little boy has been to the ER twice. He has undergone surgery, chipped his teeth, and who knows what else! (I’m sure there are plenty of other terrifying moments that I’ve just repressed from my memory…)  In many ways, these past two years have been the most stressful of my life, but they have also been the most blessed.  I have seen love show up in more ways than I would have thought possible, and I am so thankful to have had these last crazy two years.  I wouldn’t trade them for the world!

In this week’s scripture reading, we are reminded that we are God’s beloved children.  There is nothing we can do that will make God turn away from us.  We are loved without condition.  We are loved for who we are, and we loved for who we will become.  Even though we may make a crazy mess out of our lives, our God would never leave us.  I hope there is a time this week when you can thank someone who has shown you a mother’s love.  I also hope that you can believe in God’s unconditional love for you.

Blessings!

PB

An Enthusiastic Faith!

1 John 1:1-4

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life- this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

At Community Lutheran Church, we are in a sermon series that is diving into the Biblical book of 1^st John.  The first verses of this book are listed above, and I think they are incredibly powerful.  They speak to the hope and grace we can all find in Christ.  In the original Greek language, these verses also make up one very big and awkward run-on sentence.  Translations have tried to clean this up a little bit, but if you read the passage again you can see this was originally one massive sentence!  I’m pretty sure my high school English teachers would not have approved of this, but the author of the text seems to have the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy story.  He is sharing everything he can about the Love of Jesus without taking a breath…

Have you ever found yourself so deeply in love with what God is doing that you can’t help but to share it?  Whether you are with family, friends, or even a group of strangers, I hope you can see God’s light shining!  Today, I hope you can be inspired.  I hope you can see what God is doing for you, and I hope you can find the enthusiasm to share this with the world!

Blessings!

PB

Do you believe in Love?

The Bible says that love bears all things, believes all things, and endures all things.  Personally, I believe love carries an incredible amount of power… but there are times I can ignore its strength. This month we are beginning a new sermon series based on 1 John.  This book emphasizes that there is no greater representation of God than in the love we show our neighbors!  Think about that!  This past week I saw people from Community Lutheran church visiting the sick, praying for the needy, caring for the lonely, and welcoming the stranger.  This love inspires me, and it reminds me of the ways that God is with us. 

This week I hope we can all be intentional about sharing the love of Christ.  However, love is not just something we have to offer.  It is also a gift we have to learn to receive.  I have come to believe that accepting love is just as important as sharing it.  I know over the past few weeks, when I was so busy with work and a sick baby, it became easy to ignore or even deny the love that was being shown to me.  The Bible tells us that love is all around us… in the strangers and friends we meet every day.  However, if we don’t take time to intentionally appreciate or acknowledge this love, we can find ourselves in a pretty dark spot. 

Today I hope we can remember Love is with us.  May we share it with joy and accept it with grace!

Peace,

Brian

Resurrection Hope!

Easter has come and gone...  Do you feel any different?  We have received the greatest news in the world, but sometimes it’s easy to slip back into old habits, anxieties, and frustrations.  

The past few weeks have been kind of a blur for me, but I am so thankful my family made time to celebrate the good news.  Looking back, I was pretty exhausted, but I will always remember the joy of my two year old child running around talking about Easter eggs or shouting, “Look mommy, JESUS!” in the middle of the 9:30 Easter service.  (Maybe he doesn’t have all the theology down… but he has found joy and grace in the people around him!) 

Life can be exhausting…  However, I’ve grown so much while looking at the world through the eyes of a two year old.  I hope and pray you can all see the joy of the resurrection wherever you go!

Blessings!

PB

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms...

I pray you would see the joy of the
Resurrection today...

As I look back on my blog over the past couple of years, I realize I write about my son a lot, and that pretty much reflects my life.  Many of my joys, fears, celebrations, and anxieties revolve around this two year old child.  The past couple of weeks have been no exception.  First, our son was sick, so we took him to the doctor and they prescribed some antibiotics.  Just when it seemed like he was getting better, he had a reaction to his medication.  He broke out in hives, swelled up, and he appeared to be in constant pain.  This led to a late night visit to the ER and a very miserable night.  Today, our child seems to be recovering.  He is happy, healthy, and filled with life… However, I don’t know how much more of this I can handle as a first time parent…! :)

In our scripture lesson for the week, Jesus shares the good news that He is the resurrection and the life of the world.  It is my prayer that instead of relying on ourselves, we would put our faith in Christ.  He is ready to carry our burdens remind us of true joy…

Blessings,

PB    

Waiting...

If you had to guess, how much time do you think you spend waiting each week?  How about in a year?  Apparently, some researchers have looked into this, and the average American spends about 38 hours each year waiting in traffic.  We spend thirteen hours annually waiting on hold for customer service, and seven years of our lives are spent lying awake in the bed at night, waiting to fall asleep.  Those are all averages, but they were pretty disturbing to me.  I hate waiting… I frequently find myself wishing I could move things along faster.  I want to be somewhere else.

Last week, I spent a considerable amount of time waiting in the doctor’s office with a sick child.  This was not where I wanted to be, and it was easy to become frustrated thinking about all the other things I needed to do.  However, when another family came in, I started talking with them.  We didn’t have much to say, but we laughed a little and shared a few stories.  It wasn’t much, but I felt like it was infinitely better than just stewing over all the time I was wasting.  I also realize it was a blessing to simply spend a little time with my child who really did need me in that moment.  Today, I hope we can enjoy whatever moment we are in.  We are going to spend a lot of time waiting.  That’s life.  However, we get to choose the attitude we take with us. 

In this week’s scripture passage, Jesus tells a woman her life is not a waste.  Life is an opportunity to be cherished and loved.  I hope and pray we can all cherish the days we have, because each day is a gift… Even the days full of waiting!

Peace!

Brian