Tag: christian life

Prepare the Way (Mark 1:1-8)

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

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way”—
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message:

“After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (New International Version)

The beginning of Mark’s Gospel lets us know what the entire account is all about: The good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And, from the get-go, Mark embeds this beginning in a much older beginning, from the prophet Isaiah. None of this stuff was made up; it’s been there all along, for those with the spiritual eyes to see it.

It could be that it seems you aren’t seeing anything happen in your life that’s good right now. You know you’re now into this Christian Advent season, but not feeling at all as if it’s a time of good news – because all you have been hearing is bad news stacked on top of bad news. Devastation and despair, destruction and depression, are not only with those experiencing the harrowing circumstances of war or disease, but perhaps with you, as well.

Just because you can always point to someone else, or some other people group around the world, that has it worse than you, doesn’t mean that your own situation is necessarily good. The worst sort of grief is the grief that you yourself are experiencing. It’s likely that you may have your own unique brand of hopelessness, and might feel guilty for not being more happy or grateful in this time of year.

We all need good news – not just the ones with daily terrible and traumatic encounters. Maybe we could all tap into our collective humanity and realize our spiritual connection with everyone else in this topsy-turvy world. If we share bad news together, then it seems to me that we can also share the good news with one another, as well.

And there is always good news, if we have the spiritual ears to hear it: God is here. God knows. God cares. God loves. God is the Victor. Specifically, for Mark and for Christians everywhere, the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Messiah is the dynamic proclamation of deliverance from all the guilt, shame, anxiety, and devastation that happens around us and even to us.

The consistent witness of the New Testament Gospels is nothing less than the Evangelists saying to us, “Look! God is here in the person of Jesus.”

Christ did not come to this earth in order to bring us some nice distractions from the crap we are enduring; but instead turns toward the crud and faces it down with divine power.

John the Baptist, by Anikitos Giannoudes

We possess good news of great joy for all the nations. And there is, I believe, no better messenger to let us know this than John the Baptist – a quirky man whose clothes look like they don’t fit right (or are even fit for a person to wear) and whose daily lunch makes all the girls squeal.

If a guy like John – on the margins of society – can help point us to good news, then we, too, have an important place in this world of making a difference with our own social eccentricities, spiritual foibles, mental disorders, and funny looks.

It appears obvious that John only cared about one thing: making sure everyone knew who the true and ultimate Messenger was, because this Messenger Messiah had the true message of good news that the whole world desperately needs.

The good news of God brings hope to those who find themselves in dire straits, on the peripheries of our world, and of wondering if things will ever get better, or not. God’s good news of grace announces God’s presence in all of our wonderings, in every place, and with each situation we find ourselves in.

God’s love goes wherever we are. Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us. In the person of Christ, we discover that God is for us; and if everyone else is against us, the Lord’s divine presence is enough for us. Thanks be to God!

God Will Give a New Heart (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

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

I will take you from every nation and country and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. (Good News Translation)

As a hospital chaplain who has spent a great deal of time on cardiac care units, I have had several occasions to follow patients through the process of a heart transplant. I sat with them as they wondered if they would ever get a new one, because their own heart could no longer sustain the rest of their life. Would they die before receiving one? What would happen to their families?

Then, finally the day came for many (unfortunately, not all); there is a heart for them! After the incredible transplant surgery, joy abounds, knowing there is a new lease on life, a fresh experience. Through weeks or months of waiting and flirting with the Grim Reaper of death, hope is realized. Their old useless heart now replaced with a vibrant one, full of life!

However, the process is not yet over. Typically, about two or three days into possessing this new heart, a new realization comes along with it: Someone else had to die so that I could live….

He personally carried our sins
    in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
    and live for what is right.
By his wounds
    you are healed. (1 Peter 2:24, NLT)

God will…

Life comes from death. Resurrection can only happen when there is a crucifixion. Gaining a new spiritual heart has been achieved at the greatest of costs. “I will” is uttered nine times by God in five verses of Ezekiel’s prophecy. In gracious acts of determination to restore fallen people, God makes promises and has the authority and power to back them up.

Our new heart is waiting to be animated by God’s Spirit so that our observance of God’s law is infused with divine might. Our consent to surgery is all that is needed. Consider just a few of the great “I will” statements of Holy Scripture:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” (Psalm 32:8, NIV)

“If someone trusts me, I will save them.
    I will protect my followers who call to me for help.
When my followers call to me, I will answer them.
    I will be with them when they are in trouble.
    I will rescue them and honor them.
I will give my followers a long life
    and show them my power to save.” (Psalm 91:14-16, ERV)

“I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, NRSV)

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3, NIV)

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV)

The emphasis in today’s Old Testament lesson is on God’s role, not ours. The prophet Ezekiel’s hope is not in the faithfulness of the people in following some new set of rules. Instead, God is their hope. God will save them by gathering, cleansing, and giving Israel a new heart, mind, and spirit to obey God’s words.

God will gather

Those in diaspora, scattered far and abroad in exile, will be gathered back from the nations and into their own land. God will reverse the experience of dispersion by reassembling the people.

He will raise a banner for the nations
    and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
    from the four quarters of the earth. (Isaiah 11:12, NIV)

God will cleanse

God will purify the people, cleansing them from their rebellion and defilement. Since the people’s exile was a punishment for their corruption, they were therefore in need of purification.

I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. (Jeremiah 33:8, NIV)

God will give

Specifically, God does the seemingly impossible: gives a new heart. The people’s old sinful stubbornness is replaced wholesale with fresh desires for justice and righteousness. They will think and act differently because of this gracious newness.

Much like the real physical heart that can barely function any longer, the people’s collective heart was nearly dead, and as unresponsive as a stone. They needed a transplant, so that they could come alive again to God’s moral law and benevolent rule in the world.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33, NIV)

Despite all the threats of judgment throughout the long prophecy of Ezekiel, and all the distressing experiences of the people’s exile, God still desired to be their God. The Lord wants a relationship with people, and will do what it takes to restore it when it becomes broken and damaged. Indeed the Lord is a God of restoration.  

May Christ make his home in your heart as you trust in him.

May your spiritual roots grow down deep into God’s love and keep you strong.

May you have the power to grasp, along with all God’s people, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of God.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

May you be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

May your new heart pump with the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the encouragement of the Spirit. Amen.

A Great Number of People Believe (Acts 11:19-26)

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

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. (New International Version)

The earliest of believers in Jesus Christ were Jews. Jewish converts to Christianity were not typically received well amongst their families, communities, and culture. So, when Stephen, one of those converts, retold Jewish history emphasizing a stubborn lack of awareness amongst their ancestors – and then connected it with present day attitudes – a full fledged persecution of Christians broke out.

As a result, the Church – located almost exclusively in Jerusalem – was scattered throughout Judea and across the Roman Empire in a Christian diaspora. In Christ’s ascension, he told the disciples that they would be witnesses beginning at Jerusalem, and then to Judea and outside the Middle East. Little did the small band of believers know, at the time, how that plan would come about.

As it turns out, although life was hard being a Christian refugee in a strange location, the believers spread the good news of Jesus wherever they went. Thus, gospel seeds were planted all across the land.

There is no place we can go where God is not already there.

And so, the displaced Christians discovered God was with them in their sojourning. Their faithful proclamation of good news was the impetus to bringing about many more converts to Jesus Christ.

What was happening in Judea and the Empire came back to the church leaders in Jerusalem. They then, smartly, sent one of their own, Barnabas, to Antioch in order to check out the scene and bring the new believers some encouragement. Since Barnabas was the consummate encourager, the church was emboldened, with even more converts entering into faith in Christ.

Barnabas, as an encourager, had the knack for knowing what he could do and not do; he also knew someone who could supply what he couldn’t do. He was so sure that Saul (Paul) was the right person for the job that he went to Tarsus – which was about 400 miles from Antioch – in order to find him and get him to the new believers as soon as possible. The result was an explosion of fresh converts coming to faith and into the church.

It’s no coincidence that the man with the biggest heart in the church is described in today’s text as a good man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the One who makes all the difference with the growth of Christianity and the establishment of the Church.

Barnabas could see the evidence of God’s grace in the city of Antioch because he was filled to the full, with God’s own Spirit. He observed people with changed lives; an incredibly diverse and connected international community of believers; and so, encouraged them all in this good work brought about by the Spirit of God.

More and more people were added to the fellowship because of the robust spiritual dynamic that took place. This was not a matter of people using slick marketing strategies to make the name of Jesus Christ known; instead, the adding was all God. The Lord added to the Lord, and not people adding people to the Church. In other words, God is both the subject and the object, the source and the goal, of all good Christian ministry.

Then, when the Lord connected Barnabas together with Saul (Paul) who was also filled with the Holy Spirit and many spiritual gifts from God, the result was nothing less than large numbers of persons coming to faith in Christ and being added to the Church.

The believers in Antioch were so chatty about their faith that the first reference of being called “Christians” were to these converted Jewish believers in Jesus. Even though the moniker of “Christian” was probably a term of derision and meant to mock the Antiochene Church, it stuck, and was held up proudly by the believers. They were completely okay with being called “little Christ’s.”

After all, since they were truly Christ-centered in all they did, it was a fitting title for the fledging and growing Church. It clearly identified them as the people who serve and follow Christ. We, too, these many centuries later, have the very same Spirit of God that they did – and therefore, the same opportunity to speak of Jesus and see the Holy Spirit do the work of adding to the Church.

We pray, almighty God, that all who confess your Name may
be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal
your glory in the world.

Guide people everywhere, and of all the nations, in the
ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another
and serve the common good.

Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation,
that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others
and to your honor and glory.

Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours, and grant
that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as he
loves us.

Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or
spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles, and
bring them the joy of your salvation.

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

Be Careful (Luke 21:34-38)

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

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple. (New International Version)

Nobody wakes up in the morning, sits up at the end of the bed, and says to themselves, “Well, today, I think I’ll be anxious, go to the bar, drink, and feel awful.” No, of course, we don’t do that. Instead, we are more likely to sit up and, at least, long for a good day and maybe even pledge to change some things; and at most, we make some good solid plans about how to have a fulfilling day.

Yet, for all of us, there are times when we find ourselves in a place in life we neither expected nor wanted. For sure, we cannot control the world and the circumstances and people within it. However, we can take charge of our own hearts and ensure that they do not become weighed down. In such a position, it becomes difficult to pray and have an accurate awareness of what’s happening around us.

This is precisely why even the Lord Jesus himself took the initiative to have regular times of withdrawal in order to connect with the Father in prayer. He could only give from the largess of his heart and soul. If Christ needed to pay attention to the Father, the world, and himself, then how much more must we regularly reorient ourselves so that grace and wisdom rule our lives, instead of anxious dissipation?

We are now in the first season of the Church Year on the Christian Calendar – the time of Advent. Advent literally means “anticipation” because Christians everywhere anticipate Christmas, the coming of Jesus the Messiah. 

While we wait, we pray. Jesus himself tells us to watch ourselves, stay awake at all times, and keep on praying. There is no patience apart from prayer. Show me an impatient person, and I will show you a person who has little discipline for prayer. But show me a patient person, and I will show you a person given to prayer in all circumstances for all kinds of matters.

This season of the year, despite all of its secular busyness and rush, is one of the most ideal times in the Christian Calendar to reconnect with a disciplined prayer life. Many Christians throughout the world desire more of God than a once-a-day “quiet time.” They want their entire lives to be a continual offering of prayer and connection with Jesus the Messiah. 

If one is not in the habit of punctuating each day with short, designated times of prayer, then perhaps begin taking the time in both the morning and evening to intentionally read Scripture, sing, and pray; this may be the best place to start. More outgoing persons may want to recruit others to participate with them. Yet, however its done, allow this Advent season to be an intentional time of reconnecting in prayer.

Let your longings translate into realizations. As we devote ourselves to basic spiritual disciplines, it helps us connect with others in basic human kindness – which is a basic foundational human need that keeps us away from a frivolous life of worrying, and leads us to a fruitful life of love and community.

People become trapped when they spend too much time alone with themselves, or in too much time with others who are only trying to deaden their physical and/or emotional pain. In both cases, they become trapped in their heads, thinking irrational thoughts and believing concocted conspiracy theories (or complicated end times scenarios). This is, at best, a dead end, and at worst, a one way road to destruction.

There is no substitute for prayer, spiritual reading, and wholesome community. Without these, we shall inevitably amble down a path of temptation and get lost in our heads. Christianity, for me, is unintelligible without the hope and the promise of a new and coming order of love, peace, and justice.

A great reversal of moving from anxious worry to ebullient hope is rooted in being able to understand that the words and ways of Jesus will not pass away. And that will only happen if we can locate ourselves as those who are spiritual beggars, in need of continually begging (praying) and searching (reading) for the words of God to become a reality in everyday life.

Our present contemporary life, daily experiences, and world situation is being called toward a future of God’s promises becoming fulfilled. And, at the same time, the future state of justice and peace is being called to our present circumstances, so that we can have a glimpse and glimmer of the hope which awaits us. In other words, the coming of Christ is the future which gives shape to our life today.

Today is the day of encountering the gracious God because tomorrow is the day of judgment, the time of the second Advent… sounds like it’s time to pray!

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all sorts of people everywhere may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.