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.

Galatians 6:7-10

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


             “You reap what you sow” is one of those famous (or infamous) phrases of the Bible.  Some people have a visceral reaction to the statement because it was used in the negative sense to keep kids obedient.  But the actual context for the statement, while not excluding the need to avoid disobedience, is aimed much more toward the necessity of doing good works for others.  In the church’s and the Christian’s work of burden-bearing on behalf of those with crushing loads to carry, we are not to become weary as the walk goes on and on.  “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.”
             The main orientation of the verses is patience and perseverance in the doing of good works.  Although it might not seem, at the moment, that our labors are really making a dent at all, God is taking notice.  He sees.  Eventually, if we will keep up the slow, tedious, and often dull work of persisting in doing what is right, it will all pay-off in a harvest of righteousness.
             To be honest, I have struggled with this one in this past week.  I want to see things happen and happen now!  I’m tired of waiting.  I am weary of having the same conversations with people over and over again.  I have grown impatient with impenitent people who only seem to think of themselves.  Alas, welcome to the human race!  The reality is that God cares just as much about the process of attaining a goal as about the goal itself.  We need the encouragement of others in our Christian pilgrimage through this life.  You and I can do it.  Let’s keep going!
             Patient God, you have been waiting for several millennia to complete your work in this world.  It is a small thing for me to keep doing your will with perseverance over the span of my own lifetime.  I look to my model, Jesus Christ, who for the joy set before him endured the cross and reaped eternal life for all who would believe.  Amen.

Masters of Small Worlds

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
Americans have tremendous faith in themselves. In 1950, a Gallup poll asked high school seniors: “Are you a very important person?” 12 percent said yes. Gallup asked the same question in 2005 and 80 percent said, “Yes, I am a very important person.” Time magazine asked Americans:  “Are you in the top one percent of earners?” 19 percent of Americans said they are in the top 1 percent of earners. Americans rank 25th in the world in math, but if you ask most Americans if they are good at math, they often say “yes.”  As columnist David Brooks has said: “We are number-one in the world at thinking we are really good at math.”
 
            We Americans are also certain about our faith, despite the contrary.  When Jay Leno was still hosting the Tonight Show he frequently did “man-on-the street” interviews, and one night he collared some young people to ask them questions about the Bible. “Can you name one of the Ten Commandments?” he asked two college-age women. One replied, “Freedom of speech.” Leno said to the other, “Complete this sentence: Let he who is without sin ____.” Her response was, “have a good time.” Leno then turned to a young man and asked: “Who, according to the Bible, was eaten by a whale?” The confident answer was, “Pinocchio.”
 
            Yeah, I understand that we will quickly say that all the aforementioned people are not you and I, to which proves my point:  we are much too often full of ourselves to see that we are really ignorant about a lot of things, and too proud to admit it.
 
            When it comes to church ministry, we can be so certain about what needs to happen based upon our clear understanding of the Bible, that all other ideas, thoughts, and discussion is ended.  We can be so convinced that our experiences, our understanding of the good life, and our friendships are the way it should be in the world that we superimpose our paradigm on every other culture, church, and individual.  We are right; they are wrong.
 
            It is the height of hubris to believe that my (our) interpretation is theonly way to look at Holy Scripture.  It is the pinnacle of ignorance to think that my church, my friends, my geographical place, and the kind of life I live is the right way to live.  All other ways of viewing Scripture and life are wrong.
 
            When we hear or make statements like “The American people want…” and “Everybody in the church thinks…” then we have become masters of very small worlds, projecting our smallness and insecurity onto others who do not share our predilections.
 
            Here is my conviction:  I don’t know.  The truth is that I don’t know what I should be doing half the time in this life, even as a pastor in a church, which is why I am constantly and continually running to God in prayer with all the humility and openness to the Spirit that I can muster.  It’s also why I keep interacting with people of other cultures very different from my own and seek to read Scripture with them because I don’t have the corner on how everything should be done.
 
            Ignorance is bred by only interacting with my small circle of friends and family and excluding all others.  Sinful pride is the inevitable result when I climb on an ant hill, believing it to be the mountain that oversees all creation.  No one individual, one church, one denomination, one culture, or one geographical place has all the answers to how life should work, how church should operate, and how Christianity should be lived.
 

 

            So, let’s not put our provincial ignorance on display by reading our Bibles in isolation from the wisdom of the early church fathers, the experience of medieval mystics, the perspective of the sixteenth-century Reformers, the passion of nineteenth-century revivalists, and the insight of contemporary cultures different from our own.  Let’s humbly bow before the Master of the universe, King Jesus, and allow God’s Holy Spirit to penetrate our pride long enough to learn the ways of Christ’s love for all people.

Galatians 5:16-25

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            The Christian story of how life works is that God created the world, humanity fell into sin and disobedience against God, but God is redeeming the entire world back to himself through the person and work of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.  That, in a very small nutshell, is the overarching narrative of the Bible.  If we take a low view of any of those elements of the story, then life is not going to work right.
 
            Humanity’s fall was hard, deep, and pervasive.  Sin is such an ingrained habit amongst us people that it is our default response to much of our circumstances and events.  This is why “the Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other.  They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you should.”  In other words, the follower of Jesus must be trained to live a different way than giving in to selfishness. 
 
            We all have an idea in our heads of what the good life is, and we orient our desires and our habits toward that image.  Our hearts and our love are aimed toward attaining that life.  A continual life of sin betrays our image of what we believe the good life really is; and, the heart that is pointed in the direction of having a spiritual life of following Jesus will result in making us “loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.”  The way to kill our selfish feelings and desires is to have the right picture in our minds and hearts of what the truly good life is.
 

 

            Gracious God, you have sent your Spirit to train in the ways of genuine flourishing in this life.  Help me to heed your teaching and avail myself of your power so that the name of Jesus is exalted and your church is edified.  Amen.

Acts 26:19-29

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Paul was quite the guy.  He was a zealous missionary to Gentiles, indefatigable, and an intense type-A kind of dude.  But it wasn’t those characteristics that Paul was looking for others to see in him.  Paul simply wanted others to see Christ in him.  Having been arrested for preaching the gospel, Paul found himself before King Agrippa making a strong apologetic for Christian faith.  The DTR talk is one worth examining and emulating.  Agrippa’s response to Paul was, “In such a short time do you think you can talk me into being a Christian?”  Paul answered, “Whether it takes a short time or a long time, I wish you and everyone else who hears me today would become just like me!”
 
            I wonder how many of us could confidently say the same thing as Paul.  Are we the kind of Christians that we would want others to emulate?  Has our faith journey led us to the place of being a solid model of what a follower of Christ should look like?  Do we expect others to change while avoiding change ourselves?  Do we deeply desire and work toward others coming to know Jesus?  What is on your wish list?
 
·         I wish every non-Christian in my community would come to know Jesus as the gracious Savior and risen Lord of their lives.
·         I wish every single member of my church would spend all their relational and emotional capital in this life leading others to Jesus Christ.
·         I wish every person I encounter would have the merciful privilege of knowing Christ like I have been privileged to know Him.
·         I wish all my parishioners would become just like me, except, of course, for my self-made chains.
·         I wish every person on planet earth would become a Christian.
 

 

Risen and ascended Lord, you are the king of all creation.  May your rule and reign take over my life to such a degree that everything that comes out of my mouth, and every action I take would be worthy of emulation in your way of love.  Amen.