Tag: change

Living Into a New Story (Deuteronomy 5:22-33)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Moses, by Rae Chichilnitsky

“These are the commandments the Lord gave to all of you when you were gathered at the mountain. When he spoke with a mighty voice from the fire and from the thick clouds, he gave these commandments and no others. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

“When the whole mountain was on fire and you heard the voice from the darkness, your leaders and the chiefs of your tribes came to me and said, ‘The Lord our God showed us his greatness and his glory when we heard him speak from the fire! Today we have seen that it is possible for people to continue to live, even though God has spoken to them. But why should we risk death again? That terrible fire will destroy us. We are sure to die if we hear the Lord our God speak again. Has any human being ever lived after hearing the living God speak from a fire? Go back, Moses, and listen to everything that the Lord our God says. Then return and tell us what he said to you. We will listen and obey.’

“When the Lord heard this, he said to me, ‘I have heard what these people said, and they are right. If only they would always feel this way! If only they would always honor me and obey all my commands, so that everything would go well with them and their descendants forever. Go and tell them to return to their tents. But you, Moses, stay here with me, and I will give you all my laws and commands. Teach them to the people, so that they will obey them in the land that I am giving them.’

“People of Israel, be sure that you do everything that the Lord your God has commanded you. Do not disobey any of his laws. Obey them all, so that everything will go well with you and so that you will continue to live in the land that you are going to occupy. (Good News Translation)

The people were at the cusp of entering the Promised Land. They had experienced four hundred years of slavery; deliverance from Egyptian bondage; and forty years of wandering around the desert with no permanent home. Now, Moses gathers everyone together and restates God’s Law for a new generation about to realize God’s promise.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, Moses recalls his experience of receiving the two stone tablets, known to many as the Ten Commandments. Moses does this because he does not want this new generation of Israelites to be like their parents and grandparents – who experienced a failure of faith, resulting in their sojourn in the wilderness.

Obedience to God and all of God’s commands is central to a life of faith.

For that obedience to happen, all obstacles must be removed so that we can have an unhindered path in living the way we want to live. The Israelites were in slavery four hundred years. They needed a new story, which meant changing the old one. The people could participate with God by doing the following:

  1. Accept their wounded past of slavery. We cannot let something go and die without acknowledging it and having full acceptance that it happened.
  2. Don’t accept the limitations others put on us. The Israelites were slaves for so long that the Egyptians would have liked them to believe that’s all they could ever be. But the reality is that they are the people of God, meant for infinitely more than bondage.
  3. Trust the process of moving out of one story and into another. And it will take time. Forty years of wandering the desert helped the people wrap their minds and hearts around new possibilities.
  4. Take charge of your life by being a full participant in what the Lord is doing. Acting apart from God is pride. Failing to act is a lack of faith. But a divine/human participation knows what God does and what human responsibility is.
  5. Embrace all the emotions that go with what’s happening. Old ways often die hard. It didn’t take long after leaving Egypt for the people to long for the garlic and leeks of their former life. Holding and sitting with our feelings is an important piece of embracing a new story.
  6. Pay attention to constructing a soul which can serve you for a lifetime by taking initiative and action, reflecting on experiences, and living the insights gained.
  7. Discover new sources of growth and development for your new story and the next chapter of life. The same sources and resources which got you to this point may not be the same ones that will carry you on.

Moving through this liminal space enables us to obey God in new and fresh ways for the future. Obedience itself is not the hard thing; its ensuring a solid theological ground to stand on that is free of spiritual impediments that can hinder our faith.

Spiritual growth implies movement and change. This is necessary in order for the strengthening of faith. In allowing God’s commands and God’s sovereignty to have their way within us, we purposely engraft what’s needed for a lifetime of faith, hope, and love.

Glorious and sovereign God, give us your Spirit, so that we will be wise in how we live our lives. Help us to know you better through all of the experiences and learning we acquire in this life.

May our minds be opened to see your light, so that you will know the hope to which you have called us; and how rich are the wonderful blessings you promise us.

Grant us your strength so that we might remove every obstacle to faith. That spiritual power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which you used when raising Christ from death and exalting him above all things. Amen.

Leave and Go (Genesis 8:13-19)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

In the six-hundred-first year of Noah’s life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the Earth was completely dry.

God spoke to Noah: “Leave the ship, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives. And take all the animals with you, the whole menagerie of birds and mammals and crawling creatures, all that swarming extravagance of life, so they can reproduce and flourish on the Earth.”

Noah disembarked with his sons and wife and his sons’ wives. Then all the animals, crawling creatures, birds—every creature on the face of the Earth—left the ship family by family. (The Message)

The ancient story of Noah recounts a devastating universal flood—a story that began with problems akin to those in our present contemporary world. (Genesis 6:5-7:24)

Violence, in the days of Noah, had become so common and widespread, that the very heart of God was pained.

The Lord saw how evil humans had become on the earth. All day long their deepest thoughts were nothing but evil. The Lord was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and he was heartbroken. (Genesis 6:5-6, GW)

So, God decided to bring judgment, and laid plans to rid the earth of humanity. To start over, God instructed Noah to build an ark to preserve his family and a few of every animal species.

And then, it rained, day and night, for weeks on end. The flood destroyed everything. Yet, God remembered Noah and all the animals, and the waters eventually receded. Noah sent out a raven, and then a dove, to see if they could find land.

Finally, the day came when they could step out of the ark, and the Lord told Noah to step off the big ark of a ship, set the animals free, and start repopulating the Earth.

There are, indeed, a lot of ethical questions that bubble up for us as readers about the entire flood narrative. Why kill everyone, including children too young to know better, and animals who apparently weren’t the problem to begin with? And, if things are so bad, why spare anyone or anything? After all, people started the violence, and they don’t seem very changed after the flood. What’s up with that?

Yet, honestly, just asking those questions puts us on some supposed high ground of morality – something we cannot claim – as if we know better than God.

Perhaps we humans still do not yet have a collective sense of our depravity, that is, of our awful potential for acts of violence (both physical and psychological) as well as our penchant for saying and doing nothing in the face of such evil. We keep offloading the issue onto God, as if the Lord is the problem.

Keep in mind, that by God’s grace, the Lord promised to never again destroy the Earth, as in the days of Noah, and still preserved a remnant of humanity. Yet sadly, that hasn’t stopped us humans from keeping up our violent and destructive ways. Throughout the whole of human history, we seem to have to keep learning the same lesson over and over again: that our actions (and in-actions) have far-reaching consequences for both us and all the rest of creation.

The violence humans do to one another and the violence we do to the natural world come from the same place in the human heart. A good and wise God created us good. And although we are capable of great evil, as the flood story says, and as we know every day, God means for us to be transformed.

God promised not to destroy the world. Now it’s our turn to promise the same.

How can we keep such a promise? I believe we can do it by being obedient to leave the ship and step off the ark. In other words, it’s important that we leave where we presently are, and go where God calls us.

Realizing a better world, a changed life, and a blessed Earth involves our movement to leave something behind, and go to a place we’ve not been before.

The Lord said to Abraham:

“Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1, CEV)

God said to Moses:

“I have heard the cry of the people of Israel. I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. Now, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you can bring my people Israel out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:9-10, GW)

And, as a result of Moses obeying God, Pharaoh (eventually) said to the Israelites:

“Get out, you and your Israelites! Leave my country; go and worship the Lord, as you asked.” (Exodus 12:31, GNT)

Later, God clarified the instructions for heading to the Promised Land:

“Leave this place, you and the people you brought out of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to their descendants.” (Exodus 33:1, GNT)

Jesus instructed:

“So, what if you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that someone has something against you? Leave your gift there and go make peace with that person. Then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24, ERV)

Jesus said to his disciples:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, NIV)

Why does God repeatedly tell us to leave and go? Because we tend to hunker down in our entrenched ways of bigotry and idolatry, which are the fodder for human violence, and refuse to see other people created in the image and likeness of God.

Leaving and going opens us to the possibility of connection, and thus, love. And love is the heat source which melts the polar ice cap of hate and violence.

Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give me grace to leave malice and wickedness behind, so that I may go and serve you in truth and holiness, through Jesus Christ, your Son, my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Change and Stress (Acts 27:1-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest. (New International Version)

Change is an emotionally charged word. For some, change is longed for. Those with adverse circumstances and difficult situations may look for change, and even for a miracle to turn their life around. Others want nothing to do with change; they’ve had a bad experience with it. Their fortunes were good, until something changed. And now they’re stressed out.

The majority of us have some sort of love/hate relationship with change – which is why there are people who look askance on Christianity and raise their eyebrow in skepticism toward Christians or religious folk in general. At the heart of Christianity is change, and change can be quite threatening toward a lot of people.

The Apostle Paul perhaps knew about change better than any Christian in history. He went from resisting change with violence, to embracing change so wholeheartedly that he became a victim of other’s violence. We meet him in today’s New Testament lesson as a prisoner being shipped from Palestine to Rome.

Paul’s message, at its core, is the good news of transformation because of Christ’ crucifixion and resurrection. It’s a message of radical and joyous change, of new life. And it’s also a scandalous message which impacts the surrounding culture.

Wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ went, people responded, and it influenced society to a significant degree. Throughout the Acts of the Apostles, political authorities, religious leaders, and cultural elites felt powerful shifts in their societies. Yes, a few became Christians themselves, but most resisted the change, and in some cases, in their irritated stress response, retaliated against believers.

The message of Christianity doesn’t yield to political forces that attempt to domesticate God; and that reality put many believers in the crosshairs of those forces.

Paul’s ability to keep up his witness to Christ, even while held prisoner under powerful Roman authority, comes from a theology that God is above all earthly rule and can make a way where there seems to be no way. In other words, no matter whether human institutions, empires, and structures either acquiesce or oppose the gospel makes no difference; God is able to bend any system and authority for divine purposes.

And this is precisely why the Apostle Paul appears calm, non-anxious, and able to encourage others in the center of a storm in which everyone might lose their lives. Put simply: Paul trusted God.

Yes, we have unwanted circumstances. Yet, if we are able to entrust ourselves to a good God (which may sound trite and easy, yet is anything but that) then we find that we’re also able to have a radical acceptance of the situation we’re presently in.

Faith and trust help us to accept difficult changes and respond to stress with resilience because faith is attentive to the following:

  • Knowing change is coming. Throughout the New Testament we are told that adversity and suffering are an integral part of the Christian life. Paul wasn’t caught by surprise with a storm. In his life, he expected the difficulties to come.

You have seen me experience physical abuse and ordeals in places such as Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I put up with all sorts of abuse, and the Lord rescued me from it all! In fact, anyone who wants to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will be harassed. (2 Timothy 3:11-12, CEB)

  • Paying attention to the feelings of self and others. Emotions are not a necessary evil. They play a very important role in helping us come to grips with what’s happening. Paul acknowledged the emotions of everyone on the ship, as well as his own. And this became the pathway to both acceptance and encouragement.

There’s a season for everything
    and a time for every matter under the heavens…

a time for crying and a time for laughing,
    a time for mourning and a time for dancing. (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4, CEB)

  • Becoming resilient. The ability to adapt, to find ways of surviving and thriving, is buoyed by a robust faith which can see with spiritual eyes and make decisions of faith, hope, and love.

“When I was born into this world,
    I was naked and had nothing.
When I die and leave this world,
    I will be naked and have nothing.
The Lord gives,
    and the Lord takes away.
Praise the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21, ERV)

Stress and change can be hard and overwhelming. Yet, at the same time, it can be an opportunity to put faith into practice and be a blessing to the world.

Assist us, Lord, in living hopefully into the future. In the face of change, help us to set unnecessary fears aside and to recognize our potential for creative response. Help us to develop a reasonable optimism and to guard against our own defensiveness. Be with us as we remember and celebrate former times, and keep us from unreasonable yearning for them, which takes us from the work you have set before us in our time. All this we ask in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Power of Deliverance (Exodus 14:10-31, 15:20-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Parting of the Sea, by Yoram Ranaan

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw that the Egyptians were coming after them. Terrified, the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Did you bring us out into the desert to die because there were no graves in Egypt? Look what you’ve done by bringing us out of Egypt! Didn’t we tell you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone! Let us go on serving the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Moses answered the people, “Don’t be afraid! Stand still, and see what the Lord will do to save you today. You will never see these Egyptians again. The Lord is fighting for you! So be still!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to start moving. Raise your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide the water. Then the Israelites will go through the sea on dry ground. I am making the Egyptians so stubborn that they will follow the Israelites. I will receive honor because of what I will do to Pharaoh, his entire army, his chariots, and cavalry. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored for what I did to Pharaoh, his chariots, and his cavalry.”

The Messenger of God, who had been in front of the Israelites, moved behind them. So the column of smoke moved from in front of the Israelites and stood behind them between the Egyptian camp and the Israelite camp. The column of smoke was there when darkness came, and it lit up the night. Neither side came near the other all night long.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. All that night the Lord pushed back the sea with a strong east wind and turned the sea into dry ground. The water divided, and the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground. The water stood like a wall on their right and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and cavalry followed them into the sea. Just before dawn, the Lord looked down from the column of fire and smoke and threw the Egyptian camp into a panic. He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they could hardly move. Then the Egyptians shouted, “Let’s get out of here! The Lord is fighting for Israel! He’s against us!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the water will flow back over the Egyptians, their chariots, and their cavalry.”

Moses stretched his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the water returned to its usual place. The Egyptians tried to escape, but the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered Pharaoh’s entire army, as well as the chariots and the cavalry that had followed Israel into the sea. Not one of them survived.

Meanwhile, the Israelites had gone through the sea on dry ground while the water stood like a wall on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel from the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore. When the Israelites saw the great power the Lord had used against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses….

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand. All the women, dancing with tambourines, followed her. Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord.
He has won a glorious victory.
He has thrown horses and their riders into the sea.” (God’s Word Translation)

Things can change quickly.

One day, you’re living in slavery, and the next, you’re free. One minute, you’re celebrating freedom, then the next minute, you’re backed into a corner, and it looks like the end – only to be dramatically delivered from calamity.

One day (Holy Saturday) the disciples were lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon wheel rut; the next day (Easter Sunday) they’re wondrously slack-jawed with hopes higher than the sky.

Today’s Old Testament reading impresses on us the necessity of trusting God one day at a time, one minute at a time. Circumstances will change; God’s basic character will not change. Therefore, we have the continual opportunity of exercising our faith, and practicing trust in the Lord, by living into a new reality.

In this Christian season of Eastertide (spanning the next 50 days until the Day of Pentecost) we discover resurrection power in putting to death old unhealthy practices and adopting new healthy life-giving habits. Eastertide’s intentional focus is to recognize and celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so, to exult in our own new life in him.

Revisiting both Christ’s resurrection, and the Red Sea deliverance, helps to remind us God’s invisible power to save is stronger and greater than any visible powers on this earth. Both of these deliverance stories keep us focused on the hope of individual renewal, corporate revitalization, and worldwide revival.

Eastertide is the season to engage in some renewal practices. The following are a few ideas for living into our deliverance from God:

  • Pray for revival of spirituality. Christ brings salvation and life, so praying to God for revival is a deliberate way of connecting with God.
  • Pay attention to words. Gossip, back-biting, slander, and other sins of the tongue kill people. Instead, consider how to use your speech for encouragement, love, mercy, forgiveness, and building up one another. This promotes growth, health, and life.
  • Proclaim resurrection. I believe the church is meant to be the hope of the world because Christ is the risen Lord. Graciously proclaim the resurrected Christ and how the spiritual life makes a difference in life.
  • Put yourself out there. Start the new ministry you always believed would make a difference. Take a risk. You’ve been given eternal life, so can you really fail?
  • Promote daily habits of spiritual health and life. Develop a realistic and workable plan for yourself when it comes to basic spiritual practices of Scripture reading, prayer, worship, etc. And stick to it by involving others.

There will always be people in our lives who try and pull us from what’s most important, even persons who want to keep the status quo to the point of seeking to destroy us. Be ready. Keep Eastertide in front of you; God has raised us to new life.

Allow Christ’s resurrection take root in your heart to such an extent that life itself informs all your thinking, speaking, feeling, and acting. The victory is won. So, sing to the Lord!