Author: Tim Ehrhardt

I'm just a common ordinary pastor, chaplain, father, grandfather, and dog owner who loves the smell of a genuine leather Bible and the aroma of its message. I'm on a quest to track down the best Bibles, how to best read and use them, and to discover the encouragement inside.

Hebrews 11:17-28

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Christian faith looks ahead and sees as clearly as is right now in front of your face.  Because of taking such a long view of life, the mature believer in Jesus is able to set aside temporary pleasure in order to attain a future hope.  Today’s New Testament lesson says that “after Moses grew up, his faith made him refuse to be called the king’s son.  He chose to be mistreated with God’s people instead of having the good time that sin could bring for a little while.  Moses knew that the treasures of Egypt were not as wonderful as what he would receive from suffering for the Messiah, and he looked forward to his reward.”
 
            It is an understatement to say that our contemporary society assumes practicing instant gratification.  We want to feel good, and we want it now.  Impulse control may just be one of the best life skills that kids (and adults!) need to learn today.  A recent Psychology Today article effectively demonstrates through some classic and current research that “one of the most effective ways to distract ourselves from a tempting pleasure we don’t want to indulge is by focusing on another pleasure.”
 
            For the Christian who desires to follow Jesus in all things, looking ahead to a future heavenly reward which will be shared along with all God’s people needs to be kept at the forefront of our thinking.  If we only think about today, there is very little resource for responding to the temptations and fluctuations of life.  But if we will put some energy into clarifying and embracing our most cherished values, we will then let those values inform everything we do, or not do.  In the light of eternity, suffering a bit now is nothing compared to what Christ has in store for his people.
 

 

            Eternal God, I believe you will be there at the end of the age distributing reward to those who have faithfully served you.  Help me, by means of your Holy Spirit, to resist temptation, live for Jesus, and forsake the cultural values all around me so that I live strong for you.  Amen.

Relationships are Worth the Effort

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            When my family and I lived in West Michigan, we spent a lot of time every August at Lake Michigan enjoying the wonderful sandy beaches.  One summer was unusually hot, and, as a result, thousands of fish died in the lake.  On a Saturday we went to the beach.  It was very windy and hot.  Most Saturdays would find hundreds of people on the beach.  But on this day, not so many people were around.  There were dozens of dead fish getting washed up on the beach, and it smelled the part.  On top of it, there was a wind warning where no one was to get in the lake.
 
            As we settled on the beach and the girls went about playing, I sat and was reading a book.  There were two boys playing together.  They were having all kinds of fun running around with sticks poking out the eyes of the dead fish.  They also were working on a big sand castle.  They were nearly finished with it when a large wave from the lake came in and destroyed hours of work.  I was thinking to myself that these boys were going to really be disappointed and upset.  Instead, they both had big belly laughs over it.  Then, they just started building it again as if nothing had happened.
 
            As I thought about the scene of watching the two boys, I realized a life lesson which the book of Ecclesiastes teaches us:  Sooner or later something comes along and knocks down what we work so hard to build in life.  Initially, it all seems meaningless.  But if we have built it together, we will be able to laugh and rebuild it together. 
 
            Healthy relationships are always at the heart of a well-lived life.  The Bible is a story about relationships, and is filled with instruction about them.  The Great Commandment of Jesus – to love God and love neighbor – is about relationships.  The Ten Commandments are given to us in order to govern how to rightly relate to God and others.  The fruit of the Spirit in the New Testament is relational fruit.  Paul’s letters to the churches all deal in how to handle relational problems amongst others.  The narratives of Scripture communicate to us the consequences, both good and bad, of relationships.
 
            The author of Ecclesiastes spent his entire life seeking happiness, purpose, and meaning in life.  He affirms that enjoying relationships with others is a major key in possessing contentment in life.  The author tells us that working our tails off with no meaningful relationships, and/or sacrificing our relationships at the altar of work is meaningless.  There is no end to work and there is always another job to do.  Constant work with no significant relationships is vain, meaningless, and misguided.  
 
            If anybody could have been an independent lone ranger it was Jesus.  But Jesus made relationships a priority.  He nurtured individual relationships with a number of people, including his dear friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.  Jesus also nurtured group relationships.  He appointed twelve disciples to be with him.  They did everything together – worked, prayed, laughed, cried, and fought together.  Even Jesus looked to his close friends in his greatest hour of need in facing the crucifixion.  Jesus was not self-sufficient, so our trying to live this way is completely against the grain of how God created us. 
 
            Maintaining good relationships with fellow church members can be hard work.  Prioritizing relationships takes lots of energy.  When we get to the end of our lives, it is not going to matter how much stuff we have or how far up the ladder we climbed in our vocations.  What will matter is how well we loved all the people in our lives.
 

            We are coming up on the 15th anniversary of 9/11.  Stories abound of people, trapped in the twin towers, knowing they were about to die, calling friends and family.  There is no story about an employee calling his/her boss to say the work would not get done today, or financial adviser to check on how such a tragedy would impact their portfolio.  They called their spouses, sons and daughters, and best friends just to say three little words:  “I love you.”  Relationships, it turns out in the end, are worth the effort.

Hebrews 11:1-7

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment



            The Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the Western hemisphere.  It is 26,372 feet long.  At its highest, the roadway is 200 feet above the strait that separates the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.  All suspension bridges are designed to move to accommodate wind, change in temperature, and weight. It is possible that the deck at center span could move as much as 35 feet either east or west due under severe wind conditions. It is one thing to learn all the facts about the bridge, and it is quite another thing to actually drive on it and cross the strait.  Some people don’t try it.  I have driven on it several times, and it is a hoot!  In order to cross the bridge, we need to know it will hold us up above the water.  Then, we actually need to use it and drive on it.

 
True biblical faith is neither an existential leap into darkness, nor a simple recognition of certain facts.  Rather, faith is a reliance and commitment to Jesus that results in taking a risk.  Faith is knowledge that God exists.  Faith is stepping out and acting.  It requires both.  One can read all the facts about the Mackinac Bridge, but it isn’t the same thing as crossing it.  Conversely, one can cross the bridge, even daily, and have no real appreciation as to its true magnificence and structural wonder.
 
The author of Hebrews wanted a fickle church to know Jesus, both intellectually and experientially.  He knew that both elements were needed in order to sustain a faith that would endure.  A lack of high level commitment on the part of professing Christians points to the reality that many believers are missing a crucial part of real faith.  There are people who rush into situations half-cocked without a solid base of understanding.  There are others who talk an issue to death and never act.  We are to eschew both by embracing a full-orbed faith that seeks knowledge in order to respond in action.
 

 

            Almighty God, without faith it is impossible to please you.  Help me to be neither cocky, nor timid, but to live wisely in light of Scripture so that I might actively express faith in both words and deeds, through Jesus Christ my Lord.  Amen.

Principles of Forgiveness

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
Since the heart of God’s gospel of grace is the forgiveness of sins we possess through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the church really cannot talk too much about the need for forgiveness.  Christians are not meant to pray a sinner’s prayer, and then move on with their lives without thinking about forgiveness anymore.  Forgiveness is to be a constant dynamic of relationships because we live in a fallen world.  People sin against us.  We sin against others.  Relational pain is a reality this side of heaven.  But revenge and/or passive-aggressive behavior are not biblical ways of handling our hurt.  Let’s keep in mind some principles of what forgiveness is and is not:
 
Forgiveness is hard work. 
 
God did not promise forgiveness would be cheap or easy.  He knows exactly the kind of cost it brings.  Through the blood of Jesus there can be and is forgiveness.  “The blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:13-14).
 
Forgiveness is a process.
 
            It is a process of putting off and putting on.  It takes time, and cannot be quickly done.  Forgiveness must be deliberate with no shortcuts to it, otherwise it will not stick.  “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32).
 
Forgiveness does not mean we condone bad behavior.
 
            Forgiveness is not blanket amnesty.  It does not simply give another person a “pass” on their sinful words or actions.  Forgiveness just means we do not hold the offense over the other person’s head.  Dr. Fred Luskin from Stanford University does research in the area of forgiveness, and says this about it:  “Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a better past.”  We cannot undo the past.  But we have control of the present, and can choose to forgive.  True forgiveness calls a spade a spade and names the specific offense in all its ugliness, and lets it go.
 
Forgiveness does not always result in reconciliation.
 
            It takes two to reconcile.  It only takes one to forgive.  I have often been told by individuals that it would do no good to forgive another because it would not change the other person.  That is not the point.  We forgive because it is our responsibility to work through our forgiveness issues and to do it.  We are not in control of whether another person will feel sorry for what they did, or not.  We are in control of our own decision to forgive, no matter what the other person does or does not do, or whether they feel the gravity of their sin, or not.
 
Forgiveness is primarily for our benefit.
 
            If you hold on to bitterness toward another for their offense, you are not hurting anybody but yourself.  Drinking the poison of bitterness will kill you, not the other person.  So, deal with forgiving that other person, and do not have the magical thinking that they are going to come to you all slobbery sorry for what they said or did.  That often does not happen.  When it does, it is a beautiful thing.  But we forgive everyone who sins against us just as God has forgiven us.
 

 

            Relational currency in the kingdom of God is forgiveness.  Without it, we can neither operate well together, nor can we enjoy a satisfying life.  But with forgiveness is a demonstration of the practical effects of Christ’s crucifixion in our lives, not to mention a witness to a watching world.