Category: Year B

Acts 2:14-24

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            In the Gospels, the Apostle Peter was a flake.  He sometimes got it, and sometimes didn’t.  Peter could discern Jesus was Messiah, but then turn around and refuse that Christ had to die on a cross.  He would get bold and walk on water, but end up falling short and needing help from drowning.  Peter stood tall for Jesus, and then denied him three times.
 
            In the book of Acts, however, Peter is a completely changed man.  He gets it.  He is brave.  He confesses Christ.  And all the while he does not falter, flinch, or back down.  What is the difference between the Gospels and Acts?  The Holy Spirit comes upon him and he is never the same again.  Everything falls into place for Peter, who preaches in such a way that thousands repent of their sin and believe Jesus is the hope of the world.
 
            “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death,” Peter proclaimed about Jesus, “because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”  Let that one seep into your soul.  If it was impossible for death to keep its grip on Jesus, then there is absolutely nothing that can deter Jesus or hold him back from accomplishing what he wants to accomplish.  Flaky believers are not going to frustrate Jesus or upset his plans; he’ll just send the Holy Spirit. 
 
            We too often imprison ourselves in self-made spiritual jail cells, flaking-out in the Christian life, sometimes getting it right and once-in-a-while hitting upon some right combination we can’t explain, like a golfer who hits an amazing shot but can’t reproduce it no matter how hard he tries.  The truth is:  Jesus has conquered sin, death, and hell.  By faith, we have forgiveness of sins in him and have the way opened to a new life in the Spirit.  It isn’t a secret; it is a new reality.
 
            The season of Lent is a time of remembering those things that hinder us in our walk with Jesus, and repenting of our sins so that we can live anew.  As we quickly approach Holy Week, the golf clubs of vulnerability, confession and prayer will keep us in God’s fairway and allow us to shoot par.
            Gracious God, who raised Jesus from the dead, may the same power reside in me so that I can do your will in every situation through the power and presence of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Psalm 119:9-16

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Pornography is a $12 billion a year industry in the United States.  XXX Church, an internet site dedicated to helping people to kick the habit of porn, reports that 9 out of every 10 boys have viewed some type of pornography by age 17.  In fact, teen-aged boys are the largest consumers of pornographic internet sites.  64% of all American men have visited a porn site in the past month.  1 in 6 women in this country have an addiction to pornography.  In the time it takes for you to read this sentence 84,774 people in this country will visit a porn site.  And this does not even mention the new wave of “sexting” that happens among people who have ready access to cell phones to take and upload pornographic pictures any time of day or night. 
 
            Into this terrible muck, enter the psalmist with his ancient, yet very relevant question for us today:  “How can a young man keep his way pure?”  The answer: by guarding his heart according to God’s Word.  “I have stored up your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.”  The best thing parents can do for themselves and for their kids in this area of purity is for the entire family to do some old school bible memorization.  Yes, I mean getting down to rote memory work.  This is to be neither a legalistic practice nor some fetish that will keep evil away.  Instead, memorizing verses and large sections of the Bible provides a solid foundation from which to construct of base of operations for the work of meditation.  When temptation occurs there will be something to stand upon in the heat of the moment.
 
            These verses from Psalm 119 are a great place to begin.  Expand to memorize the entire psalm, all 176 verses of it.  When faced with the decision of viewing pornography or not, it would be wise to dedicate the time to memorizing Scripture so that there will be a delight in God’s statues rather than a depressed guilt over another fall into impure thoughts and actions.
            Merciful God, thank you for providing your Word to me so that I might read it, use it, memorize it, meditate upon it, and engraft it into my soul.  Fortify my spirit against the demons of pornography by the power of your Holy Spirit, to the glory of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Hebrews 4

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            “I’ll rest when I die” was a phrase one of my congregants used whenever he was encouraged to stop moving for a while and rest.  He is now gone, having died at a relatively young age.  It is common in American culture to define rest as an almost optional act.  Indeed, we do not look on it as an act at all.  Many people feel guilt when they sit still, living with the belief that if they are not constantly busy and doing something that they are lazy.
 
            The kind of rest that the author of Hebrews was talking about was not just a future time of finally sitting in some kind of celestial recliner after a life of constant work.  “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”  It is not just contemporary people who have a problem with Sabbath; the ancient Jews did not always practice it with strict observance.
 
            I think we need to ask ourselves why we have this tendency to interpret “rest” as only occurring after a lot of hard work has happened.  If Sabbath rest has relevance to us now, perhaps our cultural model of work>rest is really to be reversed as rest>work.  God created humans on the sixth day.  God rested on the seventh day.  So did Adam and Eve.  That means the first people rested before they even had a chance to begin working the garden that God created.
 
            Maybe instead of inventing new ways to overfill our schedules and erase any margin from our day to day existence, we ought to create ways of ruthlessly eliminating hurry from our lives.  It just could be that our society’s epidemic of obesity, disease, and disorders come more from our inability to rest than anything else.  God does not only call us to an active Christian life; he calls us to rest, as well.
            God of Sabbath, just as you rested on the seventh day, help me to alter my life in such a way as to engraft new avenues of rest into my busy schedule.  In doing so, may I connect with you more deeply and find greater health and fulfillment in myself and my relationships.  To the glory of Jesus Christ I pray.  Amen.

Psalm 107:1-16

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            The psalmist calls upon others to give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.  He furthermore exhorts those who have been redeemed to say so, to declare God’s praises for delivering them from trouble.  Whatever the circumstances and however difficult the experiences may have been, the believer is not to remain in silence but is to publicly thank the LORD.
 
            Speaking our spiritual stories to others is important both for those who share them, and for those who listen so that the community of the redeemed will be strengthened in their faith and emboldened to also share.  Far too many Christians are reticent to talk about what God has done or is doing in their lives.  Shame or embarrassment or a host of other reasons might prevent us from being vulnerable enough to let others in on God’s work within.  But the psalmist does not let us off the hook, even if we feel we are not articulate or are too afraid to speak.
 
            We all likely have had the privilege of hearing another person share his/her heart and experience of hardship and God’s deliverance.  It was uplifting, encouraging, and helpful.  Let’s not keep our stories to ourselves.  Stories are meant to be told, not hidden.  Bringing to light our faith journeys is healing for all, as well as declaring that Jesus is the light of the world.
            Great God of deliverance, I praise you that I have a story to tell of your grace and faithfulness.  Help me to tell of your mercy in my life so that the name of Jesus will be exalted, and that your people might be built up in the faith.  Amen.