Doctrine Matters for Our Relationship with God

On September 2, 2025September 1, 2025 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

What is required to have a growing relationship with God, to know God more and more? I must learn about Him. Doctrine teaches us about Him – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – so that I might know Him better.

Imagine a young man and a young woman meet, and they want to get to know each other. What do they do? They spend time together. They talk to each other and listen. They learn about each other.

If you want to get to know God better, you need to learn about Him – who He is, what He has done, what He is doing now, and what He will do in the future. That’s doctrine. It’s not dry! It is relational. It is exciting!

And as we learn more about God – His love, His faithfulness, His mercy, and what He has done to save us by becoming one of us to die on a cross – we not only get to know Him better, but we love Him more. Our love for Him grows. We learn of His love for us, and we grow in our love towards Him. Our relationship is not dry, but a loving relationship between God and us.

And as we learn about Him through doctrine, this love then leads to worship. Theology should always lead to doxology. Doctrine should always lead to praise. In Ephesians 1-3, Paul lays out the doctrines of salvation and then closes in 3:20-21 with worship to God. The same thing happens in Romans. Paul lays out wondrous doctrinal truth in chapters 1-11, and then closes in 11:33-36 with praise to God. As Paul reflects on doctrinal truths, he can’t help but break into joyful worship.

Doctrine teaches us about God, that we might grow in our relationship with Him, loving Him more, and falling down before Him in worship.

Show Me Your Love

On June 23, 2025 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O Savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
– Psalm 17:7 (ESV)

Wondrously show me your steadfast love.
In our suffering, isn’t that in many ways what we most need?
To know God’s love?
To know that He still cares?
Like a young child running to his mom after hurting himself.
All he needs is a hug, to know he is loved and safe.
And we run to God in our suffering.
All we need is refuge in His steadfast love.
O God, wondrously show me your love!

Trust God’s Goodness

On January 27, 2025January 25, 2025 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” – Luke 4:3-4 (ESV)

Behold God’s Goodness. This is what devil wants Jesus to doubt in this temptation:

The Father said He loves you, that He is pleased with you. But He doesn’t care about you. He led you out here into wilderness where there is no food. Jesus you are starving. Why don’t you turn that stone into bread? If God doesn’t care about you, then you will have to look out for yourself.

We have all been here – going through a trial, and the devil whispers in our ear:

God doesn’t care about you. If He did you wouldn’t be here, you are going to have to look out for yourself with whatever means necessary.

This was devil’s tactic in garden too. We read in Genesis 3:4-5 – But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” In other words:

God doesn’t care about you, He’s keeping something from you. You have to look out for yourself. Go ahead and eat that fruit.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek the kingdom, and God will take care of your basic needs. But devil whispers:

God isn’t good. He doesn’t care. He isn’t going to add those things. He won’t take care of you. You don’t have time to seek kingdom, time to spend with God, time for church, time to help another. You can’t give money for sake of kingdom, money to help another. You have to look out for yourself.

The devil wants you and Jesus to doubt God’s goodness, but Jesus refuses to follow along. Jesus trusts God’s goodness. He points the devil back to Israel in wilderness, quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3 which reads – And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

In other words, God provided food for Israel in the wilderness, and God will provide food for Jesus at proper time. God is good.

Jesus trusted in His Father’s care and provision. And we must trust in our Father’s care and provision – His goodness towards us – so that we might overcome devil’s whisperings, like Jesus did.

His Sandal Strap

On January 20, 2025January 18, 2025 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
– Luke 3:16 (ESV)

John says he is unworthy to untie the strap of Jesus’ sandal.

That would have been an unpleasant job, to say the least. People walked around on dusty dirt roads. And unlike where I live today in the middle of winter, it was hot where Jesus lived. People would often be sweating. So the strap of a sandal would be grimy and smelly with dirt and sweat.

And the great prophet John says he is unworthy to untie it.

Is that your view of Jesus?

You would be unworthy to even untie the smelly and grimy strap of his sandal?

That even such a yucky task would be a privilege you are unworthy of because of His so much greater worth?

Serving Jesus in any way is a privilege. Following Jesus is a privilege. Any blessing He gives is a privilege.

Consider His great worth that makes any connection to Him at all a privilege.

And then live like it.

Behold Our Providing God!

On November 25, 2024 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

When we think of God’s provision, we often think of food and clothing – basic necessities, but God’s provision is far greater. So join me, as we consider 12 ways that God provides for us, which then become 12 reasons to give thanks to God.

God Provides His Creation (Genesis 1) – God created everything around us – the snow that decorated trees in my neighborhood last week, the colorful leaves we enjoyed this Fall, the flowers that popped up last Spring, the beautiful scenery experienced on vacation. Lakes, beaches, streams, birds, deer, squirrels, pets – so much variety all provided by God for us to enjoy. What are some things from God’s creation that you especially enjoy for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides Life Itself (Genesis 1-2) – God created us. He gave us life. Our very existence is provided by God. Without Him, we wouldn’t be. And He provided us with another year of life in 2024, another year to live and love and work and rest and think and trust and obey and walk with Him. What are some things about your life this past year for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides Companionship (Genesis 1-2) – God created us in His image, which means in part that He created us to be relational beings. We see there in garden that Adam and Eve enjoyed a relationship with God, companionship with their Creator, and so can we. We can talk to Him, and listen to Him, spend time with Him, love Him and enjoy His love for us. And God created marriage, providing the companionship of husband and wife. And within marriage, He gave us the ability to create more people, so that we might enjoy the companionship of more family. And we can enjoy the companionship of friends. We have the gift of companionship with people that we can talk to and listen to and spend time with, love and enjoy their love. What kinds of companionship has God provided for you this year for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides His Promises (Genesis 12) – God called Abraham and promised that his descendants would become a great nation within the Promised Land. They would be a blessing, and one specific descendant named Jesus would bless whole world. And those promises extend to us in ways greater than Abraham could have imagined. In Jesus we have become a greater nation, part of kingdom of God, and one day will dwell in a greater land, the New Earth, with no sin or curse or death. And we have received blessing upon blessing in Jesus, with the promise of many greater blessings yet to come. What promises of God have you received, or do you look forward to receiving, for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides His Present Help (Genesis 37-41) – As Joseph was sold into slavery, we read that God was with Joseph to help him in his trial. As Joseph is falsely accused and thrown into prison, we again read that God was with Joseph to help him in his trial. What trials have you faced this year? How has God been a present help for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides His Wise Purpose (Genesis 37-50, Job) – Why did Joseph have to be sold into slavery and thrown into prison? Later Jospeh understood God’s wise purpose, that God was bringing Joseph to a place where he could save his family and many other from a famine. God had a wise purpose for Joseph. Or consider the story of Job. Job never knows the purpose for his suffering, nor do we know the purpose in his suffering. But God reminds Job and us of His greater wisdom that governs the entire universe with all of it complexity. And if He has wisdom to do that, certainly He has the wisdom to govern our lives for our good and the good of others. Maybe in your trials this year, you can look back and see God’s wise purpose like Joseph could. If so, you can give thanks to God. But maybe, like Job, you don’t understand at all. Still God has a wise purpose in your trials; your suffering is not meaningless. And God’s wise purpose not yet understood is something for which you can give thanks to God.

God Provides His Salvation (Exodus 1-15) – God delivered the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt with10 plagues and a miraculous parting of Red Sea. And on that Passover Night, God delivered His people from God’s coming judgment through a slain lamb. Even so, Jesus came as a lamb to be slain, that we might escape God’s coming judgment for our sin and rebellion and be delivered from our slavery to sin. And that great deliverance, which is ours through Jesus, is something for which we can give thanks to God.

God Provides His Word (Exodus 19-20, I Kings 19) – Following God’s deliverance for Israel, He gave them His Ten Commandments to govern their lives for their own good, that they might live out their new freedom. And God has given us His Word to show us how to live as those who have been freed from slavery to sin, to show us how to live as God created us to live for our own good, and good of those around us. What commands has God impressed upon you this year for which you can give thanks to God? Or consider Elijah in his depression, as God quietly speaks to him with words of purpose/encouragement. And how often as we read His Word, do we find that quiet instruction that we need in our own suffering? How often do we find words of purpose and encouragement to spur us on to press on through the trials and struggles of life? What verse or verses has God used this year to encourage you, verses for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides Answered Prayers (I Kings 18, II Chronicles 20) – Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest. Each would pray, and the God who answered was the true God. Baal’s prophets prayed and prayed, but Baal didn’t hear. Baal didn’t answer. Then Elijah prayed to one true God, and fire fell from heaven. God heard, and God answered. Or consider again Jehoshaphat as a gigantic army is approaching. Jehoshaphat prayed to God, and God heard his prayer and answered his prayer and defeated the army. So then, what answered prayers has God provided in your life this year? Maybe you prayed for healing, and it came. Or you prayed for safety, and it was provided. Or you prayed for help, and it was given. Now not every prayer is answered how we want or when we want, and often we must wait upon the Lord. But what are some answered prayers that God has provided for you for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides His Glorious Goodness (Exodus 33-34) – Moses asks to see God’s glory, and God provides a glimpse of His glorious goodness – His grace and mercy and patience and love and faithfulness and forgiveness. How has God shown His grace to you this year, giving you things you don’t deserve? How has God shown His mercy to you this year, not giving you what you do deserve? In what ways has God been slow to anger toward you? How has He shown His love to you? How has He been faithful? What sins have you confessed, and He has forgiven and washed away in Christ? What aspects of His goodness have you experienced this year for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides for Our Basic Needs (Exodus 16-17, I Kings 17) – The people of Israel are in wilderness, and they are hungry with no food. And God provided manna for them to eat. What was it? Good question. Whatever it was, God used it to daily feed them as they wandered in wilderness. It was a daily reminder of God’s provision. Another time, the people are thirsty, and God tells Moses to strike a rock. Is that how you get water? No! But water flowed out of the rock and people drank. God provided them with water they needed. Or consider Elijah who declares a drought – no rain for three years. God sends Elijah to a brook with water, and God sends ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat each morning and each evening. When brook dries up, God sends Elijah to a widow with only handful of flour and a little oil. Not a likely long-term solution, but God daily multiplies it, so that Elijah and widow and her son can eat for many days. Behold the creative ways God provided for Israel and Elijah! And how has God provided for your basic needs this year? Maybe He provided in very ordinary ways as you worked or received your Social Security checks. But maybe He provided in some amazing creative ways, ways that you may have never expected as you came into this year. Perhaps God provided an unexpected gift, or a raise, or a new job, or a new business, or new opportunities. However God did it, He provided for your basic needs. How has God provided for your basic needs this year, ways for which you can give thanks to God?

God Provides the Hope of Resurrection (I Kings 17) – The son of the widow Elijah is staying with dies. Elijah cries out to God, and her son comes back to life. This story points to another story in John 11, when Lazarus died, and Jesus came and raised Lazarus from dead. And Jesus declared that He was the resurrection and the life. God provides us with many things in this life – His creation, life, companionship, His promises, His present help, His wise purpose, His salvation, His Word, answered prayers, His glorious goodness, and our basic needs. But one day it will be our time to die, and when we do, God’s provision doesn’t end. We will dwell in glorious companionship with Him in heaven until Christ returns, and then we will rise again to dwell forever on a new earth with Lord. This is our glorious and certain hope for which we can give thanks to God.

Behold Our Providing God!

And give thanks to Him!

Our Declaration

On September 9, 2024 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

In the LORD I take refuge.
– Psalm 11:1a

David knows where to turn in his trial. He turns to the LORD.

This isn’t a prayer; it is a declaration.

David declares what we should declare:
In the LORD I take refuge.

What about us?

When faced with trials, suffering, struggles, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you have struggles with your health, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When there are struggles in your family, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When there are problems at work, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you read or watch the news and see mess our world is in, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you are afraid, anxious, or worried about something, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

When you are weary, exhausted, feeling overwhelmed, do you declare?
In the LORD I take refuge.

Whatever the trial, whatever the trouble that springs up in our lives, let us boldly declare with David:
In the LORD I take refuge.

His Grace Is Enough

On August 20, 2024August 20, 2024 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

My Dad made all kinds of wood art with a scroll saw. One of the first shelf sitters I remember is shown here:

He made a lot of these. The truth is found in II Cor 12 as Paul struggles with some thorn in flesh, some trial in his life. Paul begged God to take it away, but Jesus responded:

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

My Dad faced some thorns, some trials in his last years, as I suppose most people do in their final years. And yet my Dad’s testimony through this simple shelf sitter is that the grace of Jesus was sufficient. His grace was enough.

A pretty big thorn pierced our hearts with the passing of my Dad. But as we cry out to God – looking to Him, trusting in Him – we too can find that His grace will be sufficient for us, that His grace is enough.

And what thorns are you facing in your life today? Jesus bids you to look to Him, to rest in His sufficient grace, to find that His grace is enough for you.

Get Me Through

On August 12, 2024 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

My Dad passed away last month. It is hard to write that. One evening I was texting him about our big family summer get-together, the next evening he was gone.

My wife and I headed back to my parents’ home to be with my mom, and grieve, and prepare for a funeral, and all those things.

On Sunday we headed to church as we do every week, only this time not our home church, but my brother’s church. We sang “The Solid Rock” – a great old hymn about our hope in Jesus. I say we sang, but I had trouble singing, coming in and out, as the emotions raged between grief and the very real hope that is ours. During the pastoral prayer, the pastor prayed for our family in our loss, and there real tears. Then we sang “There Is One Gospel” – a new hymn that I knew, but had never sung in church before. It too spoke of our hope in my grief. Then came “O Lord My Rock and My Redeemer” – a new song too, but one I had never heard before. No matter – it too spoke of our hope.

The message was from Mark 4 about the Sower and the four soils. I confess I don’t remember much about it, except that it was grounded in the Word. After the message, we sang “I Will Glory in My Redeemer” – one of my favorite newer songs that again talked about my hope. We celebrated the Lord’s Supper, my wife and I with my brother and his wife and a church full of people I didn’t know. But we were all brothers and sisters in Christ celebrating the reality of Christ’s death on our behalf that gives us hope for the future. We closed with “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” – another great old hymn reminding us that in all of this, God was still faithful.

And sometime during that service, it hit me – this was what will get me through. This weekly rhythm of singing songs about our great hope in Jesus that transcends death. Prayer, the Word, the Lord’s Supper – all reminding us that we have a great God who has redeemed us and promised us a glorious future with Him. This weekly rhythm rehearsing the glorious truths of our Savior.

And it didn’t matter if it was an old hymn or a new one, a song I knew or didn’t. All that mattered were the words speaking the gospel hope into my life.

Some people say that church is boring, but it is anything but boring when you are wrestling with the realities of life and death, grasping for hope in the midst of tragedy. And maybe that is our problem. Not church, but us. Too often we are pre-occupied with more trivial matters, distracted by things that have no eternal value. The gospel speaks words of life, but we are too busy chasing the next thrill, the next meme, the next new something that means nothing compared to the old, old story of Jesus.

I don’t remember anything about the message that Sunday. I don’t remember what I had for lunch that day either. But in both cases I was fed. And just like I need that daily rhythm of eating, I need that weekly rhythm of worship together. To be fed, to refocus on what is important, to be reminded again and again of our hope in the Lord. This weekly rhythm is what will get me through.

And yet, the weekly rhythm would mean nothing without the truths behind it. The rhythm would be worthless if I didn’t know that our Redeemer lives, and because He does, so shall my Dad.

The rhythm would just be wishful thinking without my Savior risen and reigning. The rhythm points to Jesus. And that is why the rhythm is powerful. Because it is a means that He will use to get me through.

Let Us Ask

On June 25, 2024 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. – I John 5:14-15 (ESV)

We can have confidence toward God, boldness to actively approach God. We are God’s beloved children and so we approach Him as children approach a loving parent.

When my toddling grandson is hurt, he runs to mommy. When he is hungry, he runs to mommy. When he needs help, he runs to mommy. When he is happy, he runs to mommy.

In the same way, when we are hurting or hungry or need help or are happy, we should run to God as His children, as instinctively and automatically as my grandson runs to his mommy.

The cosmic conflict is bigger than us. All the conflicts we see around us are bigger than us. The conflict you face today is very likely too big for you. But none of these conflicts are too big for God. God is bigger. God is stronger. We can run to Him.

We run to God with confidence – and we ask, and He hears, and we receive. This is the equation for prayer that John gives us: We ask + He hears = We receive. Do you believe that? Do you have that confidence? Do you grasp that God delights to answer your prayers, delights to give you what is good?

Now we must ask according to His will. He won’t just give us anything we ask for. Why not? Because He is a good Father. If my grandson wants to play in road or play with a stick of dynamite, his daddy is going to say “no” because it is not good for him. In the same way, we all too often don’t know what is best for us. But our Father knows what is best for us, and so He screens our requests according to His will. His will is not against us, but for us. Do you believe that? Will you trust Him?

Come to Him and make your request. He will hear and gives us what is best.

Enabled to Love

On June 17, 2024 By BrianIn PASSION Reflections

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
– I John 4:7-8 (ESV)

How are we able to love one another? Do we strive to muster up the willpower on our own. No, that will never work – at least not for long. Rather, we must be enabled to love.

Love is from God. He enables us to love. How?

First, because He is love. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a perfect loving relationship for all of eternity. Love is what characterizes our Triune God. It is who He is. And because God is love, He is the source of love. Love comes from Him. But how does this love come to us and enable us?

That brings us to the second point – we have been born of God; that is, born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, connecting us to God. The Spirit of love connects us to the God of love so that we might love.

A power outlet has power available to run an appliance, but we must plug the appliance into the outlet for the power to run the appliance. God has all the love needed to enable us to love, but we must be plugged into God in order to love. And we are! And so we are without excuse.

You and I are enabled to love by the Holy Spirit living within us, connecting us to the God of love. May we make use of His enabling. Let us love one another.