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.

Ezekiel 1:26-2:1

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Our view of God determines our view of life.  A small view of God limits our lives in what we can be and do. Seeing God as little more than wishing for people’s obedience through paltry sacrificial oblations only makes one wonder if God is really able to do much in this world.  But if we have a very large view of God, then there is nothing he cannot do or accomplish in his great big world.  So huge is God that the earth is merely his footstool.
 
            The prophet Ezekiel was given a very grand, majestic, and large vision of God in his majesty and royalty.  The glimpse of God which Ezekiel received was so immense that the prophet struggled to put it into words.  Indeed, God is so huge that he cannot be contained or even described by mere words or language.  Now this is the kind of God which Christians serve:  a God so colossal that, like the prophet, it causes us to fall prostrate in the face of such enormous glory and holiness.  Although we must seem very small in God’s eyes, yet he still notices us.  “Stand on your feet, and I will speak with you,” said God to Ezekiel.
 
            Unless we have a staggering and realistic sense of God’s towering massiveness we will wallow in life’s vicissitudes as if they are giants we cannot overcome.  It was Jesus who said that it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed in such a God to command mountains to move, and they will obey.  It is not the size of our belief that matters, but where that faith is located.  And if it placed rightly, in the gargantuan God of the entire universe, then we can ask anything in his Name and it shall be done. 
 

 

            Holy God, you are grand and worthy of all glory, honor, and praise.  Who am I that you should notice me?  Yet, you have called me and spoken to me.  I only want to be found full of faith and obedience each and every day you give to me through the power of your Holy Spirit, in the Name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Love, Not Hate

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            Jesus will build his church (Matthew 16:18).  The church has been designed from its inception to be the hope of the world.  God the Father sent God the Son to this earth to live a holy life, to teach us how to live, to die on a cruel cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, to rise from death, to ascend to heaven, to send God the Holy Spirit for us as we engage in the mission of proclaiming in words and actions that there is new life in Jesus. 
 
            So, the church is being the church when:  lives are changed; hatreds are overcome; failures are forgiven; grace overwhelms and melts hard hearts; selfishness is diminished; compassion grows into an immense hope that Christ is doing just as he said he would do – build his church.  When the church is working right it is the hope of the world because it is:  experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit to rejoice with those who rejoice and cry with those who cry; lifting holy hands in prayer and praise to the God who loves us; and, reaching-out with heartfelt mercy to those who desperately need this good news that Jesus has graciously forgiven all our sin through his once for all death on a cross.
 
The church is meant to love, not hate (1 John 3:14).
 
            “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers and sisters.  Anyone who does not love remains in death.”  I need to ask this question because the Word of God demands it:  Do you hate anyone?  The Scripture tells us that hate means we are still dead, not alive.  Love is the distinguishing mark of the believer in Jesus Christ.  The person with hate has so many barnacles built up on their underside that they cannot move at all through the water of life with any joy or fulfillment.  What is more, they are dragging down the rest of the fleet that seeks to move in concert together in the love of Jesus.
 
            Jesus Christ did not die on the cross so that we could hate someone, or a group of people.  Christ died so that you could love.  If love does not characterize your life, you are dead.  That means you are separated from God.  That sounds serious, and it is.  Hate has absolutely no place in the church whatsoever.  “Anyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him” (1 John 3:15).
 
            As followers of Jesus, we not only should love, but we should not put up with hate in the fellowship of believers.  You are under no obligation whatsoever to listen to hateful speech and allow hateful actions because the church is meant to be a reflection of God’s loving and healing acceptance of people.  It is not the loving thing to do to let others spew hate in front of you, no matter who they are.  Maybe you could respond to hateful words by saying, “Sounds to me like you need to let God pressure-wash some barnacles off your heart.”
 
            If you keep having the same conversation with someone over and over again; if every time you raise a new idea, the same person lists three reasons why it will never work; if fondness for the past exceeds passion for the future; if small things always become big things; if someone chronically complains to you; and, if there is never any love behind what someone says to you; then, there is hate behind it all and it just might be that such a person needs to hear the gospel of grace and be delivered from their life of sin.
 

 

            Every church on God’s good earth must have a zero-tolerance policy toward hate, and a 100% commitment to love.  God has not called us to hate anyone, but to love.  The church is only the hope of the world when it loves others.  The world will know that there is a God in heaven, and a Christ in the church, when people within local congregations love one another, when particular Christian denominations go out of their way to bless others, and when the love of Jesus compels us to drip grace on the most unlovely of people. Indeed, they will know we are Christians by our love.

Psalm 121

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            This is one of my favorites in the entire psalter.  It is a beautiful majestic psalm which can be used for any and every occasion.  So, I often use it when making hospital visits, counseling a wide array of situations, and for my own personal edification.  It seems to me that one cannot possibly overuse this psalm.  The psalm was originally one used for ascending the hill into Jerusalem.  In other words, it anticipates meeting with God.  Just like a lover who looks forward to meeting his beloved and thinking about how wonderful she is, so the psalmist looks with adoring affection on the God he is about to encounter.
 
            The psalm is rich with a theology of grace, watch care, and loving attention.  This is a God who is powerful and merciful, a God able to help and desiring to do so.  In a world that seems so often distant and unaffected by the divine, this is a psalm to repeat over and over again in every situation of life so that the truth of the Lord is engrafted deep into the soul.  In each unwanted circumstance the psalm can be spontaneously used as an immediate prayer, and with every anticipated event it can provide the words to address the most pressing of needs.  Let the words resonate within you as people created in the image of God, connecting with him on both the cerebral and visceral levels of your life:
 
“I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

 

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.” (ESV)

Internal vs. External Motivation

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
  
            It isn’t unusual for me to ask someone in the church to do a particular job or ministry.  I almost always ask them to not give me an answer right away but to think and pray about it.  Most of the time, I get a pretty straightforward answer, either yes or no.  Every once in a while I get a “yes” only to discover down the road into the project or ministry that nothing is really being done.  It is at such times that I begin to question the motivation behind the initial “yes” to my request to serve.  This gets at what the real motivation is behind what we do or don’t do.
 
            We all have times of not feeling like doing something.  That is completely normal.  But if we have a habit of never saying “no” and always saying “yes” then resenting that we are not getting enough appreciation or acknowledgment for our service, we have a real problem.  This gets at the heart of what really motivates us.  It was Jesus who said, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37).  If we say “yes” knowing in the back of our minds that we don’t really want to do it, then this does not come from a place of spiritual health. 
 
            If we simply comply with what others expect of us, fearing what they will think of us, or too afraid to say “no” we are being externally motivated and it will not last.  What is more, someone might ask with a manipulative tone and try and guilt us into serving and/or doing what they want us to do.  If we acquiesce to this, we are being pressed into an external motivation which will also not stand up both in this life and in the life to come.
 
            Saying “yes” really ought to come from an internal place.  Plenty of people do things because of external controls – the possibility of some reward if they succeed or some punishment if they do not.  Either we do things to please ourselves and God, or we do things to please another person.  It doesn’t take a genius to discern which approach is going to produce the better results.  The Pharisees are the biblical Exhibit A of externally motivated people.  “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them,” exhorted Jesus.  “If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).  Instead, we simply ask and seek, love and serve, and find that God notices and responds (Matthew 7:7-8).
 
            Holy Scripture, common sense, and contemporary research all agree:  external motivation is more likely to create conditions of compliance and/or defiance, whereas internal motivation will keep a person working and serving even if there is no immediate outside reward.  Externally motivated people only serve when the rewards and punishments are in place – once they are taken away, there is no service.  This is the very opposite of a life centered in and motivated by grace, which is why it is so heinous in the view of Jesus.
 
            Gracious and exemplary church servants and leaders have a passion for something other than their own recognition and fame.  They care about making a difference for God.  They deeply desire to give back something for the gracious and costly gift of salvation and new life given to them through Jesus Christ.  They really don’t care who gets the credit as long as God is glorified, the church is edified, and people come to know Jesus. 
 

 

            So, what motivates us is quite important because it demonstrates the true state of our hearts and makes all the difference in how things get done in the church.  This is why the Apostle Peter said, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers – not because you must, be because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-3).  May Peter’s tribe increase!