Category: Year B

Jeremiah 20:7-13

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            The prophet Jeremiah had a tough gig.  God didn’t give him much choice about his life’s work.  Jeremiah was commissioned by God with a message of doom and destruction.  If that weren’t enough, God promised him that no one would respond, nobody would repent, and not one person would listen to what he had to say.
            The reality of Jeremiah’s life-work is what makes his response in our Old Testament lesson for today understandable: “Sometimes I tell myself not to think about you, LORD, or even mention your name.  But your message burns in my heart and bones, and I cannot keep silent.”
            Maybe you can relate in some small way.  It isn’t always easy talking about God to others, let alone talking about some subject pertaining to Him which other people really don’t want to hear.  Yet, as the people of God, we discover it is much more painful to keep it all inside than it is letting it out and taking the consequences as they may come.
            Or, it could be that you resonate with Jeremiah’s trying to distance himself from God.  You were hurt, wounded in some way, and no matter how hard you run away from him God is the hound of heaven that tracks you down and won’t leave you alone.
            Don’t keep silent.  Speak.  Let out what is important to you.  Ignoring it, wishing it would go away, or thinking God will eventually give-up isn’t going to happen, my friend.  Let the message burn in your heart.  Do something about it… today!

 

God Almighty, you have your ways in this world and they don’t always make sense to me.  Sticking my fingers in my ears trying to pretend you’re not there isn’t working – my heart burns within me.  So, enable me to speak with all the confidence of the message I have; through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Spirit.  Amen.

Psalm 62:5-12

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            The Old Testament book of Psalms is the church’s prayer book.  Each psalm has been carefully crafted and designed for repeated prayers by the faithful.  Today’s psalm needs no comment.  Read it slowly and deliberately as many times as you need, allowing the words to wash over you and fill you with the grace and peace which can only come from God alone:
Only God gives inward peace,
and I depend on him.
God alone is the mighty rock
that keeps me safe,
and he is the fortress
where I feel secure.
God saves me and honors me.
He is that mighty rock
where I find safety.
Trust God, my friends,
and always tell him
each one of your concerns.
God is our place of safety.
We humans are only a breath;
none of us are truly great.
All of us together weigh less
than a puff of air.
Don’t trust in violence
or depend on dishonesty
or rely on great wealth.
I heard God say two things:
“I am powerful,
     and I am very kind.”
The Lord rewards each of us
according to what we do.
(Contemporary English Version)
 

 

Amen, and amen.

Genesis 16

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            I’m blind as a bat without my glasses.  They’re the first thing I put on when waking in the morning, and the last thing I take off before retiring at night.  Without them I can’t distinguish anything well.  I can’t see others unless they are inches from my face.
            As bad as it would be if I didn’t have my glasses, it would be even worse if you were not seen by anyone.  I believe that one of the great tragedies of modern Western civilization is that we can live among so many other people, yet not be seen by so many of them.  The loneliness of not being seen is a terrible situation.
            The ancient woman, Hagar, certainly felt that way.  She felt an even worse circumstance: Hagar neither believed that anyone saw her and cared, nor that God saw her at all.  It was as if God lost his glasses somewhere.
            In a convoluted series of decisions, mostly outside of her control, Hagar became pregnant with Abraham’s son.  Then, Sarah, Abraham’s “real” wife got pregnant with another son.  It got complicated.  Dysfunction was all around, leaving Hagar and her young son out in the wilderness all by themselves with no one to help.  Hagar simply expected the two of them to die.
            You can feel Hagar’s despair and desperation.  She saw no hope, and nobody saw her… but there was someone watching: God.  He saw everything that happened to her – all the craziness, and all the mistreatment – and he stepped-in and acted on behalf of Hagar and her son.
            As a result, Hagar began to call God, “The God Who Sees Me.” She never again had to wonder or doubt whether she was seen.
            You might feel today that God doesn’t see your pain, is aloof and distant from your hurt, and is blind to your deep wounds.  But he sees.  He sees it all, everything.  God may not be working on the same timetable as you and me, but nevertheless he sees you.  You never have to wonder about it.

 

God of Hagar, just as you saw her in the desert and the desperate position she was in, so I ask that would see me and act according to your great mercy; through Jesus Christ, my Savior, with the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

1 Samuel 15:10-31

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
“Does the LORD really want sacrifices and offerings? No! He doesn’t want your sacrifices.  He wants you to obey him” (verse 22), so said Samuel to King Saul.
God had given Saul explicit instructions on how to handle a group of people called the Amalekites.  Saul obeyed… some of the instructions, but not all of them.  He rationalized his behavior as worship.  But God would have none of it.  The Lord rejected Saul as king; He wanted no monkey business when it comes to obedience.
            I’d like to think I’m not like Saul.  But I sat a bit with this verse, and realized I sometimes do the same thing:
·         Whenever I say I’ll do something and then get busy and not do it, I sometimes rationalize my lack of follow through by explaining what good things I was doing with my time instead.
·         I sometimes justify a purchase of something I don’t really need but want with the excuse to God that I put a lot of money in the offering plate for Him.
·         Occasionally slandering another person, even though it is forbidden by God, with the knucklehead notion that I’m protecting and helping others from that person’s evil ways.
·         I sometimes keep quiet in the face of a bad situation when I should be speaking up, and dismiss the lack of engagement and involvement with the fact that I need to save my energy for people who want it….
I got too convicted to keep thinking about it anymore, but I could have kept going. *Sigh*
            Before we get too uppity about saying we are not like Saul and would never be like him, perhaps we ought to sit with this story and this verse of Holy Scripture for awhile and allow a mindfulness of any unacknowledged disobedience.
            Rationalization is the way of sinners.  Repentance is the path of saints.  Which road will you choose today?

 

Holy God, you expect obedience to clear instructions.  I’m sorry for all those times I’ve found creative ways to circumvent your teaching.  Help me not to avoid your good commands, but to own them with vigor and vitality through Jesus Christ my Lord in the power of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.