Devotions by Rev. Jim Paulson

“Do Not Be Afraid”

chairmakerjim — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:43:30 +0000

This is an audio recording of a sermon that I gave during worship on February 7, 2010, at United Lutheran Presbyterian Parish. It was based on Luke 5:1-11.

What is your bedrock?

chairmakerjim — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:42:37 +0000

Scriptures for today include Psalm 90, Isaiah 1:24-31, and Luke 11:29-32. I coined the title “What is your bedrock?” after I wrestled with a handful of themes. For example, I could have easily chosen “What is your anchor?” or “what keeps you going?” But I hope after you read this you will agree that the real issue is what we hold onto, especially when other things in our life become difficult or unpleasant. In other words, each of us need to ask ourselves the question: what really matters to us in this life? Some might say their family, their lifework, their passion, or even their cars, bank account, tools or possessions. So how would you answer the question?

If you profess to believe in God, you know the answer. You know in your heart that something deeper gives us hope for enduring our trials today and trusting that there will be a tomorrow. That something giving us hope is our faith in God.

Isaiah tells us that when sin is prominent in our lives we look more like an enemy to God’s purposes in the world. But just when we deserve wrath and punishment for preferring our own wants over faithful service, God sees us as the clean metal we could be. Since we just celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday and took note of some things we have to be thankful for, let us be thankful that God’s faithfulness remains as solid as bedrock. Bedrock for geologists is the solid rock below the sandy ground and what you anchor your buildings to so they won’t fall or collapse.

We become God’s enemies whenever we put other things ahead of caring for others. We become rusty and tarnished metal whenever we succumb to concerns for wealth, possessions and security in today’s world. Those temporary things can never be bedrock. Let us be Advent people who wait and trust that our bedrock remains faith in Jesus Christ and nothing else. Jesus promised to be the way, the truth, and the life and let us hear that promise as his being the forever bedrock of our lives. May you trust that Jesus is coming again to make us all bright new metal and righteous in God’s sight. Let God’s love occupy your thinking and remind yourself daily that God loves you and hopes for you to turn your life around. Faith is the bedrock that won’t leave you when the other things fail to support you and can’t comfort you. My friends Jesus revealed his being the true bedrock forever and ever when he died and rose again for each of us.

Shalom,
Pastor Jim Paulson

Be Alert

chairmakerjim — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:47:27 +0000

Scriptures for today include: Psalm 13, Zechariah 12:1-31:1, and Mark 13:9-23. The Gospel of Mark bears witness to the predictions of suffering that Jesus made for his followers. Parallel passages in Matthew 24:9-14 and Luke 21:12-19 make this witness of Jesus’ predictions for the future all the more important. In other words, this prediction of Jesus was remembered by not just one, but by all three of the Synoptic Gospel writers.

Jesus is very clear that his followers will experience hardship and mistreatment by those who reject him as being God’s Son. The interesting thing was that even though the followers of Jesus would be rejected as he was, the message of salvation had to be proclaimed anyway. The good news of Jesus couldn’t be stopped just because others felt threatened by it. Suffering was part of discipleship in a hostile world, but the ability to endure such hostility by his followers was about God’s continued hope for all humanity. God waits out the world’s rejection of him and his Son Jesus, by blessing his people with the endurance they need to proclaim the faith. If they need words at a trial, God provides them through the Holy Spirit. Just when it seems the world has the upper hand, God strengthens the faith of his followers so that the fire of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not quenched. This is our faith. While we aren’t part of the struggle of the early church when it faced widespread rejection and persecution, we are still called now to proclaim the salvation that Christ offers by faith. But the one who endures the end will be saved (verse 13). We are called to pay attention to the times when we can truly sense God’s presence and the hope it offers us and those around us.

The dangers of living in a world that is hostile to Jesus Christ remain, but the message of hope revealed through Christ must be proclaimed. God’s people are called to be alert of the dangers of losing faith or being misguided into following false gods. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be alert; I have already told you everything. May we all trust in the power of God’s love and God’s hope for our transformation. Amen.

God’s peace,
Pastor Jim Paulson

Longing for Better Times

chairmakerjim — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:24:53 +0000

Scriptures for today include: Psalm 13, Daniel 8:15-27, and Hebrews 10:32-39. These words of Scripture remind us that trials and suffering are part of human events preceding the time when Christ will come again in his glory. The prophet Daniel sees a disturbing vision in Chapter 8, and the angel Gabriel helps him to understand it. “A king of bold countenance shall arise” and that king “without warning …shall destroy many and shall even rise up against the Prince of princes.” It sounds hopeless until we hear “But he shall be broken, and not by human hands.” So just when the forces of evil seem to be overwhelming the ones close to God, God intervenes and delivers his people from those misguided powers.

The writer of Hebrews, chapter 10, speaks of enduring suffering, persecution, and mistreatment, while extending compassion to those who also suffer or are imprisoned. What makes the listener take notice here is that the one enduring struggles and losses has already been blessed to know Jesus Christ as their Lord. The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that being blessed to know Jesus Christ comes with a confidence about the future. Such confidence gives one the ability to weather human hardship whatever it might be, because God’s promise of a future with him can’t be broken. When you read verse 39, you can see what faith does, it provides the spiritual strength to see the world through God’s continued hope for transformation and renewal. We are told that those without such confidence in Christ will shrink back and be lost in the midst of earthly trials, while those who keep the faith will be saved.

As human beings we, by nature, long for better times. We remember the blessings we have been given, over the years, through family, friends, coworkers, and through our brothers and sisters of the faith. The writer of Psalm 13, speaks of times of apparent separation from God’s presence or God’s favor, “How long, O Lord? will you forget me forever? Four times the psalmist pleads for God to rethink his seemingly distant relationship with him or her by saying “how long.” Doubtless many of us have felt at one time or another an apparent absence of God. But was it God or something about us or the way we were feeling or thinking that made our relationship feel strained or distant? We may never know, but here in Psalm 13, we understand that such moments, when we do experience them, can lead us to grow as Christians. As Christians we know faith as a mystery, being given to us by the gift of the Holy Spirit and something honed and sharpened by life experiences, but more importantly, lived with the confidence of Jesus Christ as our Lord. With the faith of Jesus in our heart we can understand how after a time of longing for God, we too can know God’s presence again in its fullness. Whether it is poor health, the loss of a loved one due to death or the tragedy of divorce, or unforeseen events, we have the confidence of knowing that God is faithful and never far away from our pleas for help. In the confidence of our knowing Jesus Christ as Lord, we can say like the psalmist: “But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

May you know the confidence of God’s love in Jesus Christ today. This powerful love can turn us toward God and help us endure whatever might come to us as trials in this lfe. This powerful love speaks hope and the promise of resurrection to anyone who believes. Amen.

God’s peace to you,
Pastor Jim Paulson

God’s vineyard

chairmakerjim — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Scriptures for November 14th include Psalm 16, Daniel 4:28-37, and Mark 12:1-12. Listen to verse 12 of Mark: Then he [Jesus] began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.

I have been trying to grow grapes for at least three years now and I have learned much more about vines. Vines require good soil, the right amount of water, nutrients, and extensive pruning. Grapes won’t grow just anywhere and here is an established vineyard ready to be worked. So imagine if you created a vineyard and then employed some folks to run it for you and the outcome was that they tried to seize the vineyard from you. That is what I focused on when I read the parable. I focused on tenants who were so ungrateful that they acted as if the vineyard was theirs. They seized the owners servants when they came to collect his share of the harvest. Then they beat and killed the owners servants and even killed the owners son. When Jesus asked his audience: what the owner will do in this situation? It must have come as no surprise that the owner would exercise severe punishment to such ungrateful tenants.

So are we hopelessly condemned because we are ungrateful tenants of our bodies and the gifts and talents God gave us? No. There is good news here for those who believe in Jesus Christ. The good news is that just when God would have every right to punish us for being ungrateful stewards, we were redeemed by the blood of Jesus. We were redeemed because of the awesome power of God’s love being revealed through our Savior Jesus. Let us trust that God’s desire is for us to share eternity with him and not that we be condemned. God offers us forgiveness of our sins for those who truly repent and this is grace.

Whatever history you have in taking care of God’s vineyard, don’t despair. Trust in the power of God to forgive you through Jesus Christ.

Shalom,
Pastor Jim Paulson

Rooted in Christ

chairmakerjim — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:51:07 +0000

Scriptures for today include Psalm 16, Daniel 4:19-27, and Colossians 2:6-15. I’ll quote verses 6-7 from Colossians this morning. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in faith, just as you were taught, abounding in Thanksgiving.

These two verses give us a charge as Christians. It sounds simple enough. We are to continue in the faith as we were taught. However, the important point is that being a follower of Jesus is not just remembering what Jesus did and what we are to believe. No, the charge is to live rooted in the mindset of Jesus as Lord. To be rooted in the concerns of establishing peace, reflecting God’s unconditional love to ourselves and others, and seeking justice and fairness. We can be rooted in Christ’s concerns for humanity when we constantly surrender to the Lord in our prayers and then continually listen for God’s hopes and desires for us. What is impossible for us on our own, because of our sin, is made possible by the power of Christ working in our lives.

May our practice of faith through prayer, study of Scripture, the Sacraments, and worship, lead us to grow deep and strong roots that keep us connected to our Lord. Amen.

New Covenant

chairmakerjim — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:22:09 +0000

Scripture readings for today include, Psalm 146, Deuteronomy 15:1-11, and Hebrews 9:15-24. I offer these words from Hebrews 9:24 for reflection. “For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”

The senseless violence at Fort Hood yesterday reminds us of how fragile human life can be when a misguided person fires a gun into people nearby. While our lives can come to an end through such violence, God gives us these words of Scripture as comfort. When we believe in Jesus we are made holy to stand in God’s presence whenever the moment comes for us to leave this earth. Jesus was glorified by the cross and the resurrection. Jesus took upon himself the burdens of all our sins. To those of ancient times who knew what it meant to offer blood sacrifices of animals to God as worship in the temple, Jesus changed the rules. No longer was it necessary for God’s people to be purified of their sin through sacrifices of animals, because Jesus took the place of all those things. Priest’s had offered sacrifices in the temple, but it still couldn’t remove all the sin from the people’s lives. God had something better to offer and we understand that as our redemption from sins and death through Jesus. Jesus was the sacrifice that made us whole people with God and he became the new temple and the NEW COVENANT in our midst. He put his life on the line and took away our sin. We’ll never understand this obedient surrender of Jesus on the cross completely, but what matters is that we trust and believe God loves us. The good news is that God made us right with him through Jesus.

We can call on Jesus in whatever situation of life we find ourselves in, good or bad, because we have nothing to fear as we were made right with God. We just have to believe that by the blood of Christ we were made worthy of eternal life. No bullet from a gun can ever remove God’s hope from us. God has given us a NEW COVENANT in Jesus and it doesn’t depend on our performance. This NEW COVENANT happened because of God’s love and grace for us. God simply asks us to believe and to forgive others, no matter what the sin, as he does in his divine mercy. God and only God knows what is in the human heart and here we trust that God mercy is great. Therefore, God judges and God forgives and those things are all about God. Let us pray for those who are hurting now in Texas from the loss of loved ones. May they recieve God’s comfort and peace. Amen.

God’s peace,
Pastor Jim Paulson

Hearts for God

chairmakerjim — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:15:40 +0000

Scriptures for today include: Psalm 146, Numbers 36:1-13, and Romans 5:6-11. Reflecting on these passages, I was drawn to verse 10 of Romans 5. “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”

Recently, I asked our elders to consider which passages in the Bible gave them the most comfort or meant the most to their faith. I would have to count this verse as one of those passages that truly reflects the power of God’s love. As human beings we can see others as friends, strangers or as foes through the daily experiences of life. But as followers of Jesus Christ and people who still sin, God continues to see us as his children to be loved and not as enemies. Romans 5:8 tells us more about God’s love. “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” God’s love seeks to redeem us from sin and death, and offer us the gift of eternal life.

So if God proved his love by sending Jesus to save all his children, then how can we not, as his followers, love others in the same way? Well some might say, but pastor that is God and even as God’s followers we can’t do the same thing. But my response is to listen to Romans 5:5 where it says, “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” It says to me that when we encounter others we can draw from the well of God’s hope and love, because that love has already been poured into our hearts. Because divine love has been poured into our hearts, as believers in Jesus Christ, we now have hearts for God. Because we have hearts for God it means we have the ability to look past another person’s sin, just as we trust that God looks past our sin, and therefore we can see what God as the Holy Trinity does–that we are all creatures loved by God.

Let us pray that we draw from the well of love God has put in us through faith in Jesus Christ. May our hearts reflect the love of Christ as we live and breathe on this earth. May our hearts for God bear witness through acts of compassion and love when we interact with others. Amen.

God’s peace,
Pastor Jim Paulson

Remembering

chairmakerjim — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:47:11 +0000

Our Scripture readings are from Psalm 51, Micah 6:1-8, and John 13:31-35.

Here are the words from John 13:34: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Jesus told the disciples to love others, but he added that they were to love them as he did. Loving others is not an automatic thing anyway, but to love them as Christ did and does remains an act of faith. We are incapable of truly loving others on our own, because of human sin. God’s grace is an awesome thing and it led the apostle Paul to say, in Ephesians 2:4-5, that because of God’s mercy, God loved us even when we were dead in sin and made us alive together with Christ. God sees what we can become and looks past the sin in our lives. We have a loving God that hopes for us to remember his faithfulness. The prophet Micah became God’s mouthpiece in verses 3-4 of chapter 6 when he said: “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I weared you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you form the house of slavery. . .” If anyone should feel weary it is God when God looks at our wavering from his way. But God asks us to remember his grace and to live and love as Christ showed us to do. Let us today confess our failings and trust that God’s love and grace is sufficient for us. By God’s grace we can be Christ for others and it begins with our remembering God’s grace and mercy which desires our redemption through Christ. May that hope inspire us to love in Christ’s name. Amen.

Shalom,
Pastor Jim Paulson

“Seeking God”

chairmakerjim — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:48:32 +0000

If someone said to you that they were seeking God, it would probably lead you to ask questions. You would want to know more, like were they facing a crisis or were they hungry for a relationship with God. You might even suspect that maybe the individual was at the crossroads of facing their own mortality or even aware that they have made too many mistakes for too long and now they needed divine help. All those things could bring any of us closer to God.

Our reading from Hebrews 9:1-12 offers a picture of an ancient Jewish sanctuary. The author describes the details of the place where the priest would go and seek God. It was in the Holy of the Holies, that innermost tent of the sanctuary, where a chosen priest would enter at a special time–the Day of Atonement. On that day the priest made a sin offering to God so the people’s sins were forgiven.

But something better than the previous blood sacrifices in the Holy of Holies had already come according the writer of Hebrews. A new high priest, in the person of Jesus Christ, became the pathway to seek God. In verse 12, we hear “He entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.”

In contrast with earlier times when temple ritual was all important in seeking God through a chosen priest, Jesus as God’s son came as the new temple and the new Holy of Holies. Insead of an annual blood sacrifice given by a priest, the writer of Hebrews wants us to know that because Christ died once for all everything changed about seeking God. The temple or sanctuary wasn’t needed as we now had access to God through the glorified son, Jesus.

The Good News is that because Jesus died once for all, any believer could seek God whenever they prayed in Jesus’ name. What it means for us as Christians is that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we received not only forgiveness, but the gift of eternal life. Thanks be to God that we can pray and confess to God our failings as well as our joys wherever we are, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. May God’s love fill you today and strengthen you for Christian service. Amen.

Shalom,
Pastor Jim Paulson