Category: Year A

Matthew 12:33-37

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
            This is what Jesus said:  “Your words show what is in your hearts.  Good people bring good things out of their hearts, but evil people bring evil things out of their hearts.”  Our speech is the outward demonstration of what is really within the heart.  There really isn’t any room to believe that a constant stream of gossip, backbiting, slander, and negative comments is anything but coming from a heart of evil.  A person who speaks such words is not a loving, gracious, merciful person.  But the person who continually encourages, uplifts, and seeks to be positive reflects a deep heart of love for others.
 
            Therefore, simply altering our speech around certain persons is not the point and does no good.  That kind of behavior only breeds hypocrisy and is two-faced, a la the Pharisees.  Instead, the place to aim is the heart from where the speech arises.  And the only way to truly renovate a heart is to sub-contract the project to Jesus.
 
            The people we typically hang-out with the most are the people that most influence our attitudes and our speech.  So, if we spend copious amounts of time with Jesus it is inevitable that our hearts will become more like his and, thus, our words will be in alignment with the words and ways of Christ.  For, it is God who replaces a hard heart of stone with a soft heart of flesh.  Be rooted in Christ and the fruit of the tree will demonstrate it.
 

 

            Sovereign God, you hear every careless word spoken and see each harmful conversation as it takes place.  Our guilt is very great!  Forgive my egregious sin against you through the things I have said, and the things I have left unsaid.  Please let the benevolent and generous Christ rule my heart through the power of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Romans 15:14-21

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
            Paul was an apostle, that is, a person commissioned by God and sent to the Gentiles – people other than the Jews.  Through Peter, and then Paul, the good news of Jesus spread to persons that were beforehand considered unreachable.  Paul saw himself as having no limits as to who could hear and respond to the gospel of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  He understood himself as standing between heaven and hell, interceding and pleading on behalf of people who need their lives changed through Christ.
 
            It is quite possible that there are persons in our sphere of influence in which we think that they would never respond to the message of Christ’s redemption.  In this holiday season of the year, in which we remember God’s loving gift in the humility of God becoming man, it is far too easy to lose sight that at that Christmas party, family gathering, and interaction with that person in the long shopping line, there are those who need Jesus – and we will never know if God is wooing them to himself unless we share life with them.
 
            Perhaps we need to see ourselves as Paul did – standing in the gap and always trying to find ways to proclaim the gospel to people who require deliverance from empty ways of life.  That cousin or uncle, that co-worker or friend, and that neighbor or new acquaintance, can be forgotten by us as to their ultimate and most real need to discover faith.  We, my friends, are the conduit that God has ordained to bring his life-giving message to people all around us – people for whom we might have already written off as unreachable.
 

 

            We praise you, O God, for the ministry and success of your servant, the Apostle Paul, through whom we who are Gentiles owe our own faith and calling.  Grant us a vision like his, the conviction and commitment to pursue it, and the grace which confirms and prospers it.  Amen.

Psalm 121

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
            This is likely my favorite psalm.  I have read it so many times and mulled it over that it is almost second nature for me to draw from its rich theological statement of God when times are difficult.  This is a psalm meant for worship.  In other words, it is designed to be used by God’s people – to be sung, quoted together, and prayed.  A church without Psalm 121 always near to it is a church in danger.  But with it, there is a continual sense of security, confidence, and hope.  Well, enough of my comment.  Let this Contemporary English Version of Psalm 121 wash over you and grace you with God’s abundant mercy:
 
I look to the hills!
Where will I find help?
2 It will come from the Lord,
who created the heavens
and the earth.
3 The Lord is your protector,
and he won’t go to sleep
or let you stumble.
4 The protector of Israel
doesn’t doze
or ever get drowsy.
5 The Lord is your protector,
there at your right side
to shade you from the sun.
6 You won’t be harmed
by the sun during the day
or by the moon at night.

 

7 The Lord will protect you
and keep you safe
from all dangers.
8 The Lord will protect you
now and always
wherever you go.
 
Amen!

Matthew 24:23-35

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
            I live in the upper Midwest of the United States.  The summers can be brutally hot and humid.  The winters can be incredibly frigid and full of snow.  Having worked with college students for many years, every Fall there was always one of those international students, or a student from the South, that had never experienced a Midwest winter and snow.  I could tell them over and over again that they needed a sturdy winter coat before the snow flies.  But, having never known sub-freezing, let alone sub-zero, temperatures it was difficult to imagine such cold when the weather was currently so warm.  Well, you know where this is going.  I, or someone else, usually had to hook them up with a suitable coat.  Even then, they just shook all winter and never took their scarves off.
 
            It might be difficult to imagine that someday Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead.  That’s why Jesus told his disciples to learn a lesson from the fig tree.  When you see the tree beginning to change, know that something is about to happen.  The tree will become altogether different than how you see it now.  Sometimes, even for myself who has lived through so many hard winters, it is incredible to know that the landscape as it is right now will be completely different come January.
 
            The sky and the earth won’t last forever.  But Christ’s words will endure for all time.  It’s hard to believe that seeing everything as it is right now is not how it is going to be forever.  Yet, a time is coming when it will change.  And if we are attentive and alert we will be ready.  We won’t be left out in the cold with no warm winter coat.  We are to be ready for Christ’s return.  That means taking off the old clothes of fear, insecurity, hopelessness, and hate, and putting on the new clothes of righteousness, peace, and love in the Holy Spirit.  Winter is nearly here.  Are you ready?
 

 

            Holy God, your promises are sure and altogether just.  Help me to always do your will and follow the ways of Jesus so that I am suitably prepared for eternity.  Amen.