Storms, troubles in life: these are things that we all encounter, whether we like it or not, and whether we ‘ask for it’ (deserve it) or not. They are part of life. The wonderful thing is that Jesus is with us in them and fully understands what they’re about from having experienced them Himself. And seeing as He fully understands, ‘from the inside out’, He is more able to help us than anyone else. So, like the frightened disciples in that soon-to-be-swamped boat, it is best to cry out to Him in prayer--and sooner, the better.

Anyone who hasn’t been ‘hiding under a rock’ is probably well aware of the epic, nail-biter hockey game last night between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers, and, just as aware of the exuberance and hysteria of the local fans. And yet, that response should be as a ‘mere nothing’ in us in light of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus--for not only has He ‘come from behind’ in terms of sin, suffering and death, He has defeated them once and for all! God has done this, and much, much more. Thanks be to God.

Sometimes the Scriptures ‘give us problems’ because we don’t want to follow them and obey what they say. Other times, there are problems because we aren’t quite sure how we are to follow them. Today’s passage is, for the most part, in this latter category.

It speaks of ‘those who sin against us’. Well, depending on our personal sense of ‘injury’, this could cover quite a few people and situations, as there are some people who nurse a continual sense of ‘being wronged’ or being a victim in one way or another.

But then, the passage is not ‘about us’. It is about other people, God’s ‘little ones’, vulnerable people that God loves and cares for. And so, even if they should ‘sin against us’ in some way, shape or form, the underlying idea is that they are precious to God and should be loved back in His love and His kingdom if at all possible. And, if forgiving them is the order of the day, our standard should be that of the Lord Jesus, who loved us even when we were rebellious, and to all intents and purposes, His enemies. In other words, as He has loved and forgiven us, so should we love and forgive others.

And so, even all the business of binding and loosing puzzles us, we can know one thing for certain: we are to love and forgive, even as Jesus did with us.

Our world and our society both love to sort people into categories, whether it be on account of age, ancestry, colour, gender, appearance, achievement, or a host of other things. It delights in a kind of ‘pecking order’. The wonderful thing about God’s kingdom is that there is no such thing. We are all equal, all prized and valued, and worthy of respect and honour. And that goes, not just for other people, but for we ourselves as well. We too are precious in God’s eyes. Let us never forget it.

Pontius Pilate once asked Jesus, “what is truth?” and that question has rebounded through the world ever since then.

We, as Christians, believe that the truth has been revealed once and for all in the person and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and willing to stake our lives, and our eternal destinies, upon it. Even so, there must be raised something of a question, namely whether we always adhere to each and every part of that truth. I suspect that most of us are not entirely consistent in this and pick and choose at times. May God help us to do better with this.

We may well look around ourselves at our world, both locally and elsewhere, and think that it’s ‘going to hell in a hand-basket’, but this isn’t the first time in history that people have felt that way. (Certainly, today’s psalmist thought that way). But people of faith have gone to God in prayer, and yes, God has intervened and turned things around. (Nothing is impossible with God!). So, let us all, with renewed faith and hope, renew our prayers and ask God to move yet again. And thanks be to God, He certainly can do it. I believe that He will.

Today’s passage from Galatians is quite clear on one point, that of our duty to help each other, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. But then certain verses left me puzzled, namely verses 3-5 and 7-8. But then I realized that they have to do generally with our motive in helping each other, and more specifically with our innermost agenda or rationale for helping. If we see ourselves as better than others, or are sitting in judgment over them, our helping will inevitably be flawed, misdirected, and potentially even harmful. And so Paul directs us, rather correctly, to look to ourselves and be ever vigilant and careful in what and why we do things.

Here’s an interesting and potentially very helpful and inspiring exercise: to think back over one’s life and try to remember all the times when you have been seized with a sense of wonder or gratitude--perhaps due to a wonderful event in your life or the life of your family, or because of a moment of insight, or a close call in a time of danger, or something glorious or spectacular in nature, or perhaps even something in church (surprise!) And then ponder whether God was in that or part of that, whether God was acting in your life. And then to thank Him for His presence, a presence that will continue on for the rest of your life. Something to think about.

The apostle Paul tells us, quite emphatically, that we should not allow ourselves to be conformed to this world or its ways of thinking, but instead, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2). The latter injunction is a bit of challenge, for we are not always aware that we are becoming conformed to our world’s ways of thinking, so subtle and insidious this influence can be at times. The Bible describes this influence as leaven or yeast, as something that quietly and unnoticeably ‘worms its way’ into how we think and behave. And so we need to be careful and vigilant, hence our meditation for today.

Something that we all forget all too often is that God is in charge, and none other--and that includes ourselves. And yet we often go about life, thinking and acting as if we are the bosses. I mean, how often do we draw up our ‘things to do today’ lists without consulting God or asking God what He would want us to do today? I have to say that I am frequently guilty of this, and I suspect that I am not alone in this failing. So, then, I have to wonder, what would it be like if we actually took the time to ask God for His plans for us for the day, and then carried them out. Something to think about.

If there is anything that Jesus repeated in His numerous discourses, other than, of course, the need to trust Him, is His call to persistence in prayer, which, actually amounts to the same thing as trusting Him. Sadly, however, we grow tired or disillusioned by God’s seeming silence or seeming refusal, and so we give up on praying. Here, our Syro-Phoenician, Canaanite woman can be a great inspiration. She didn’t give up, in spite of initially not seeming to get a hearing. Let us be like her and not give up either.

I don’t know about you, but often I find the news, even that of a more local nature, to be awfully tiring, disappointing and worrisome. And then, when it comes to aches and pains, which seem to come all the more frequently these days--not to mention the reoccurring ‘visits’ to various medical professionals, a future place of relief and glory seems most attractive. In today’s passage, the apostle Paul speaks not only of a place, but of a new existence, in fact, a new body, where all these woes and ills will be put behind. All in all, it sounds quite attractive--something to look forward to, and something to whet our hope and our trust in Christ Jesus.

Jesus knows us far better than we do, and He knows that to get to ‘the heart of the problem’, He needs to do just that--in other words, get to our innermost beings, our hearts, the centre and root of everything that we think, say, or do. The problem is that often we don’t even realize what lurks there, nor just how wayward or unsavoury it is. It is so easy to be fooled by what lies therein. When an ancient prophet said that ‘the heart is deceitful about all things’, he was spot on. And so we need help from God, and from His holy word, to reveal it to us, and likewise His help in knowing how to deal with it and actually doing so.

Peter’s experience on the Sea of Galilee, when he ‘momentarily’ was able to join Jesus in walking on the water, serves as a great reminder to all of us, a reminder to keep our eyes, our focus, on Jesus, and not be distracted or made fearful by the host of issues and problems that surround us. God’s care for us, and His ever-watchful attention, are always greater than ever the most fearful of problems. Thanks be to God.

Our society, by and large, is constantly telling us that we don’t ‘have enough’, or that what we have is outmoded or insufficient or inadequate. It fosters a climate of dissatisfaction and of self-doubt, as if even we ourselves are not ‘up to the task’, not ‘good enough’ or adequate enough. These ideas can easily spill over to the church, where we begin to doubt that our gifts or abilities or experiences won’t fill the bill. What Jesus teaches us, in the feeding of the 5,000, is that what we have and what we are is plenty enough, enough to fill the bill, if only we give it over to God and let Him bless it and make use of it.

Today’s passage from Ecclesiastes raises a number of rather interesting--and serious--questions, namely of the interplay between God’s sovereignty and human free will. How do we put the two together? Here, I like the story of the famous impromptu duet of a famed pianist and a ‘stray’ pre-teen child. Just before the pianist was to begin his performance of some well known and difficult piano solo, a child strayed onto the stage and going over to the grand piano, started tapping out a fumbling rendition of ‘chopsticks’. The audience was understandably aghast, but the maestro simply came over to the piano, seated himself on the piano bench beside the young boy, and filled in the ‘missing notes’. The result was incredible, and exhilarating. To me, this aptly describes what God does with us and our inept, fumbling efforts.

In every avenue of life we have expectations, expectations which we serve us well--or, not so well. So, what about our expectations about God, or Jesus, or the church? Can they ever do us a disservice? I would suggest that they can. We don’t know why Judas turned against Jesus, but it is fair to say that Jesus probably didn’t live up to Judas’ expectations. We will probably never know this in this life, but we do have some indications why the once noted evangelist, Charles Templeton, quit being a follower of Jesus Christ. It was, according to his own testimony, because of the rampant poverty and suffering he saw when on a trip to India. “How can a loving God allow all that?”, he said in retrospect.

And so our expectations do matter. What I would therefore say is, ‘Stick with God, be loyal to Him, trust Him, anyway. God’s knowledge and plans are necessarily much wider and wiser than ours, otherwise He would not be God. Being God, He knows better. And, so, just leave it in His hands.”