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.

Psalm 148

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Praise to the Lord is the recognition that God deserves praise from everyone, and the way to do that is to bow, yield, and submit to him.  “Praise the Lord” is the Hebrew word “hallelujah.”  Hallelujah literally means “to raise the hands.”
 
            We are told ten times in fourteen verses of Psalm 148 to praise the Lord, to raise our hands.  It is a symbol of submission and joy.  To have open hands lifted toward heaven is to convey to God that we will obey him and live for him in everything.  Praising the Lord, lifting the hands, is not only to occur in church; praising the Lord is to happen everywhere.  We are to lift our arms in reverent submission at our workplaces when we land a client or have a good day, as well as when we are overwhelmed and cranky people demean us.  It is always open season on praising the Lord, and it is not limited to a certain set of good circumstances.
 
            We are to raise our hands and praise the Lord when our neighbors care about us and look out for us, as well as when they make noise and irritate us with their less than kept up yards and houses.  Yielding to God’s purposes for our lives is not dependent upon whether we have good neighbors or not.  We are to praise the Lord and raise our hands when our marriages are life-giving and thriving, as well as when our relationship with our spouse is dry, dull, and going nowhere.  It is always open season on praising the Lord and reflecting his image through love.  We are to praise the Lord over our kids, not only when they do what is right but we are to raise our hands with hallelujah when they are complete stinkers and drive us nuts.  We are to use our hands to praise and enact obedience, not refuse to praise and use them for violence through finger pointing, fist pumping, and even hitting.  Let both our mouths and hands work in concert together to praise the Lord!
 

 

            Praise the Lord!  Praise Father, Son, and Spirit!  Today I join with all creation to praise the name of Jesus.  His name alone is exalted.  He has raised me to new life.  Thank you, gracious Lord Jesus.  May you be lifted high today in and through my life.  Amen.

Authentic, Not Hypocritical

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            “You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. 2 People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, 3 heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything that is good. 4 They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. 5 Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real. Don’t have anything to do with such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, CEV).
 
The church is meant to be authentic, not hypocritical.
 
            Paul was talking to his young protégé Timothy.  He was not talking about unchurched people, but churched people.  If we miss that point, we miss the whole point of the book of 2 Timothy.  The bad stuff is all church crud.  This is why, when I was a teenager, I was so sour on the church.  My Dad was an elder and served in every capacity within our local congregation.  Even though he wisely did not talk about all the crud at the dinner table, occasionally someone would drop by and talk about the pastor to him, or about another member.  It was always negative.  No church member ever came to our home to encourage my Dad or my family, or to talk about how they might pray for the pastor.  They just belly-ached and made crazy accusations.  And all the while I knew what was going on in their lives (which was more messed-up than anything they were talking about to my Dad).
 
The church is meant to be a place where real people can share real hurts, real joys, real pain, real answers to prayer, real thoughts and feelings, so that they might find grace and healing for their lives. 
 
The church is meant to be authentic.  While Jesus was ministering on this earth, he was constantly chided for spending time with real people sharing real hurts because the religious folks did not want problem messy people around their religious establishment.
 
            If we keep hiding our emptiness and our pain, then pretense is always the result; this is just another way of saying “hypocrisy.”  Yes, when we pretend to be one thing on the outside but on the inside are another thing, then we are wearing a mask and playing the hypocrite.
 
            Let me be real with you:  I actually cry every day for the church.  I carry the weight of the souls of my own congregation on my shoulders.  I admit to you that Christ’s easy yoke doesn’t seem so light on many days for me.  I admit that there are times I grow tired and weary of the pretense, the negativity, and the lack of grace that so many believers today exhibit, especially on social media.  Today there needs to be repentance, revival, a commitment to biblical renewal, and loads of authenticity.  Today is the day to be real.
 
            People are messy, both physically and spiritually.  If there aren’t any cows in the barn, there’s no manure to shovel.  Dealing with messes means there is life happening.  Everything that is always nice and clean has no life happening.  Hospitality is messy.  Church ministry is messy.  When people share real feelings, it often is not pretty.  But the alternative is making a pretense and show of religion to appear we are upstanding Christian citizens.
 

 

            The church is the hope of the world when it is authentic, not hypocritical.  Growing up as a kid in my church I thought religious activity and right belief were the important things.  But I came to the point in my life at age seventeen recognizing that I did not have a real relationship with Jesus Christ.  I only attended church, and was not committed to knowing Jesus.  I was only a fan of Jesus, not a follower.  I wore a mask, and God had to unmask me.  I had to see that the Bible was relevant.  I had to repent and believe the gospel:  I needed to know that I was lost and that Jesus gives me forgiveness and new life.  That is the church’s message:  Forgiveness and new life in Jesus.  It comes through real genuine authenticity.  Hypocrites need not apply.

Revelation 11:15

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


             I have done my share of weddings over the years.  Working with engaged couples anticipating marriage is both exciting and awkward.  It is in some ways a difficult time for the betrothed because they are committed to one another in a manner different from just dating, but are not yet in a marriage relationship.  The same is true for the church.  She is betrothed to the Lord Jesus.  They are both quite committed to each other.  But the marriage hasn’t yet happened.  
             The kingdom of God has been inaugurated, but not yet consummated.  That is a fancy way of saying that God’s rule and reign has come to this earth, but its fulfillment has not yet occurred.  This time between the two advents of Christ, his incarnation and his coming again, is a weird and awkward time of engagement where we are trying to figure out how to live in the world but not of it.  But there is a time coming, at the consummation of the ages, when Christ will return to take his bride.  It is then the church will celebrate in a great wedding feast.  “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.”
             Just as marriage is designed for permanence, so our union with Jesus shall last forever.  His reign will never end.  Christ’s rule will be complete and extend over all the earth.  But until then we are to persevere with patience and fidelity to our Lord Jesus, who loved us and gave himself up for us.  Let this truth shape your life today and always.
             Loving Lord Jesus, I praise you for your initiating a beachhead of grace on this earth through your coming to us.  I look expectantly for your return.  May I found faithful when you come again.  Amen.

The Making of a Leader

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            If you are in a church, no matter whether a pastor, an elder or deacon, a member, and/or a regular attender or friend of the church – other people are making an example of you.  Yes, people are watching; they see what you do, what you say, how you act, and your attitude toward most things.  Church leaders, especially, are to be good examples to the Body of Christ (1 Peter 5:3).  Maybe you don’t think of yourself as an example to others, or think that more ordinary parishioners have that kind of influence.  But leadership isn’t really about having a position or possessing power; it is about the actions and/or inactions you take.
 
            No matter your position in the church, you have to take responsibility for the quality of your Christian life.  If you are in any kind of leadership role, you have to decide how good a leader you want to be.  Before you get too uppity about this and get your clerical robes (or skinny jeans and v-neck t-shirt) in a bunch, know that I am in this with you.  I am not speaking as an expert, but as one who is in continuous education every day through actual practice and constant learning.  If you desire the proficient expert, I’m not your guy.  But if you want a perspective from a common pastor in a non-descript congregation, then keep reading.
 
            I used to get discouraged about the reality that I wasn’t a born leader.  But then I came to my senses and remembered that I was born.  I’m here, so my mother must have given birth to me.  Everyone is born.  Rather, it’s a matter of what we do with what we have before we die that makes all the difference.  There is no evidence that people are predisposed with a leadership gene imprinted on their DNA.  Yes, in the church there are gifts of leadership given by the Holy Spirit.  But that doesn’t get any of us off the hook of leadership any more than not having a gift of teaching means we don’t have to instruct our kids.
 
            What I’m getting at is this:  leadership can be learned.  It is a skill and ability like most anything else in life.  Therefore, it must be developed and honed, even if one seems prone to be a leader.  If I’m right, or at least you think I’m on to something here, then good leadership means being a good learner.  The thing that really exemplifies good leaders is lots and lots of practice.  It’s been estimated that about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over a period of 10 years is what it takes to achieve the highest level of proficiency.  Okay, now maybe I’ve lost you.  But this is the price of leadership.  It doesn’t just happen.  Men and women of God don’t just get zapped by the Spirit like some divine magic trick and become automatically great leaders.  God calls, molds, develops, mentors, and shapes individuals of all kinds for his purposes for leadership.  That’s why there are so many exhortations in Scripture to be examples, follow godly examples, and mimic sound doctrine.  Making disciples isn’t like making microwave popcorn.  It’s much more like the outdoor smoker; go low and slow and let the meat cook just right.
 
            Since leadership is a learned art, then failure is inevitable.  We practice anything to get better at it.  We do it, blow it, learn from our mistakes then try it again – over and over and over again.  Grace comes into the equation because we must allow people the freedom to try and fail without beating them up over their mistakes.  No one wants to even try if they know they’ll get slapped if they fail.  Of all the places on planet earth, the church really ought to be a place where folks can experiment, try, implement ideas, and learn from their failures.  The fact that we don’t typically think of the church this way says a lot.
 

 

            Intelligence is helpful; talking a good line never hurts; confidence is beneficial; but taking the time to practice the skills of leadership with dedicated work and focused motivation is the one thing that anyone can do.  Be encouraged to know that Christian sanctification is a process; church leadership can be developed and learned.  If you desire to be a better example, work at it with all your heart.