Tag: deliverance

Good News Is for Everyone (Isaiah 56:1, 6-8)

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

This is what the Lord says:

“Maintain justice
    and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
    and my righteousness will soon be revealed….

And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
    to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
    and who hold fast to my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations.”
The Sovereign Lord declares—
    he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
    besides those already gathered.” (New International Version)

Issues of identity

Ever since the Jewish people existed – for the past 4,000 years – there have been other people and other nations who have conquered them, displaced them, and have even tried to annihilate them altogether, several times throughout history.

A seminal experience for ancient Israel was when God’s temple was destroyed and the people taken into exile in Babylon. Generations later, many faithful Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild and reform under Nehemiah and Ezra.

Undergoing defeat, occupation, and oppression can and will do a great deal of psychological, emotional, and spiritual harm. And when it happens repeatedly, it’s easy to understand how any group of people might wonder: “Are we still God’s people? Have so many years of being in other places made us different? Who are we right now?”

These are questions of identity. For many Jews, since God allowed them to be conquered, because they did not obey the covenant, then now is the time to double-down on following the rules and proving they are truly God’s chosen people. So much so, that some (not all) insisted that their identity can only be maintained by radically separating themselves from everyone and everything foreign that is not Jewish. 

We can understand how a vulnerable people who have been attacked and conquered would be suspicious about welcoming outsiders. In fact, any sort of hospitality could be seen as a betrayal of their own struggle, and a deviation from their sense of community, identity, and integrity. 

Diversity and inclusion isn’t warm and fuzzy

So, when God comes along and shares a plan of bringing foreigners to the holy mountain, it’s scandalous. The people don’t see this as a wonderful moment of everybody getting to together, singing kumbaya, and letting bygones be bygones. Nobody in Israel is saying, “Lord, please let us gather together with a bunch of foreigners, strangers, aliens, and gentiles!”

Quite the opposite. Instead, they start circling the wagons to survive and maintain and preserve their Jewish identity. Isaiah’s message challenged the people to their core. It was not a popular idea – even coming from God – of including the other. Such change was a threat.

Welcoming strangers can be upsetting

Whenever I walk through neighborhoods in major cities and see banners in yards that say, “All Are Welcome!” and churches that emblazon that message on their signage, I wonder if they really understand what they’re saying. There are many folks who expect welcoming the stranger to feel good, to be rewarding and connect us to one another. There may be romantic notions of connecting with others with idyllic visions of new people folding seamlessly into who we already are.

The reality is typically much different than that. We are surprised and disheartened when others don’t think or act like we do, and having them around feels awkward. They’re upsetting the status quo and making the group into something I don’t like. It might be something like your crazy uncle who shows up on holidays and makes everything weird. 

The thing we must face and contend with is this: Strangers, foreigners, immigrants, and anyone different from ourselves, often bring God’s own message to us, coming in amongst us to disrupt and transform. Strangers bring strange practices; foreigners bring foreign worldviews; and different people bring different practices and ideas we aren’t familiar with. But why in the world would we ever be surprised that strangers are strange!? 

What in God’s name is going on?

On God’s holy mountain, people are gathered around values, ethics, and obedience. Community and being together with the Lord is defined by faith, and not by simply signing off on a list of approved beliefs and doctrinal statements. God makes it clear that faithfulness, even of foreigners, will determine who is brought into the house of prayer for all people. Deliverance is offered to those who walk the walk and don’t just talk the talk.

What’s more, deliverance does not involve revenge, nor assurances that bad things will never happen again. Instead, salvation means freedom to pray and be connected to God. This is what God wants. And so, the Lord will bring and gather faithful people from all over – both Jew and Gentile. They will all dwell together in God’s house with much joy.

An invitation for belonging

We find words in today’s text having to do with a sense of belonging: house, accepting, prayer, gather. Isaiah puts forth a compelling vision of life with God, where we belong and have community. At the heart of God is a hospitality which invites all kinds of people to come and enjoy the divine presence and being with one another.

At the time of Christ’s incarnation, the angels showed up and announced good news of great joy to all people. And yet, far too many persons, perhaps out of sense to guard against outsiders hurting them, turn this gracious message on it’s head by announcing bad news of great judgment to all people that aren’t like me and don’t think like me.

Christ’s Church has struggled through its history to invite and include the other, and to uphold this basic message of gracious good news for everyone.

From the Council of Jerusalem that met to decide whether one ought to become a Jew first in order to be a Christian (Acts 15), to withholding membership to African Americans in certain churches in the 20th century, to the just plain ignoring of the poor and marginalized in many places, we must be intentional and deliberate about reaching and ministering to all people.

The joy of salvation is that I do not need to jump through certain spiritual hoops to enter into Christianity, nor be a certain kind of person. The church is not an exclusive club of one particular sort of people based in race, gender, ethnicity, class, spiritual pedigree, or even certain preferences on issues. Through repentance and faith in Jesus, all may come to God.

All people have intrinsic worth as individuals created in the image of God, and therefore need the attention of Christians in bringing the gospel to them. It is much too easy to ignore people we do not understand and who are different from us, or to look down on those who do not agree with me on disputable matters.

When it comes to the good news of Jesus, having people out of sight does not mean we keep them out of mind. Too many people are often off the radar of many churches for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is because the poor and needy have to compete with the wealthy and powerful for attention. To intentionally reach and minister to a different class or generation or race requires much love and many resources.

How big is your inner space?

Jesus had a big enough inner space to accommodate prostitutes, drunks, tax collectors, and a whole variety of sinners. Do you and I have a big enough space to allow people in our lives who are not like us, without feeling threatened or insecure? The Pharisees feared being contaminated if having table fellowship with such people; the Sadducees were afraid of losing their religious power if the status quo was changed to focus on others; and the Zealots feared continued Roman domination if Jesus kept up spending his time in graciousness to all kinds of sinners. So, all the religious people killed him.

The gospel of Jesus is good news of great joy for everyone. We are to work together to propagate this message by having the shared purpose of evangelism to everyone without discrimination. When we engage in this critical endeavor together, there is tremendous joy. We are meant to gather on God’s holy mountain and share with all sorts of people.

Blessed Lord God, through your Son you commanded us to go into all the world and proclaim good news to every creature. Increase our faith and zeal, that we may more earnestly desire the salvation of all people.

We confess that our hearts are often indifferent and dull to your cry of mission. Forgive our callousness and judgmentalism toward others, and by your Holy Spirit fill us with a burning zeal to bring light into darkness. Give us loving hearts, sincerity of speech, and holiness of life.

Knowing that this world, as it is now, will not last forever, drawing to a close, may we by your Spirit’s prompting, support the mission of this church with our personal witness, our earnest prayers, and our sacrificial gifts. Grant that through us many may be included on your holy mountain, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reign as one God, now and forever. Amen.

Some Needed Encouragement (Revelation 15:1-4)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Seven Last Plagues and the Harps of God, by Nicolas Bataille, c.1380 C.E.

I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
    Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
    King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord,
    and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (New International Version)

Let’s keep in mind that the book of Revelation (also known as The Apocalypse of John) is a vision of the Apostle John about how things shake out in the end. The purpose of the vision is not for us to get lost in esoteric speculations about the future and try to figure out specific dates and times of God’s judgment.

Rather, John’s Revelation was primarily meant to give believers a future hope that their hardships and suffering will not last forever; there is a time coming, soon, when Judge Jesus will make all things right and all things new. In other words, the vision of John was designed to provide needed encouragement to followers of Jesus.

The believers needed a connection to their spiritual heritage – a way to see that they weren’t an isolated faith island in the middle of the world’s crud. The heavenly beings were singing a song of Moses and of the Lamb (Jesus). The two are connected, thus bringing together the saints of ages past with the struggling Christians of the present.

The song of Moses is a song of triumph, sung after the Israelites passed through the Red Sea unharmed and the Egyptian army was eradicated:

“I will sing to the Lord,
    for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
    he has hurled into the sea.

“The Lord is my strength and my defense;
    he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
    he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
    are drowned in the Red Sea.
The deep waters have covered them;
    they sank to the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, Lord,
    was majestic in power.
Your right hand, Lord,
    shattered the enemy.

Flee From Egypt, by Rev. Albert Lee Wagner, 1975

“In the greatness of your majesty
    you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
    it consumed them like stubble.
By the blast of your nostrils
    the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood up like a wall;
    the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy boasted,
    ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
    I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
    and my hand will destroy them.’
But you blew with your breath,
    and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
    in the mighty waters.
Who among the gods
    is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—
    majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
    working wonders?

“You stretch out your right hand,
    and the earth swallows your enemies.
In your unfailing love you will lead
    the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
    to your holy dwelling.
The nations will hear and tremble;
    anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
    the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people of Canaan will melt away;
    terror and dread will fall on them.
By the power of your arm
    they will be as still as a stone—
until your people pass by, Lord,
    until the people you bought pass by.
You will bring them in and plant them
    on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling,
    the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established.

“The Lord reigns
    for ever and ever.” (Exodus 15:1-18, NIV)

Throughout the millennia, this deliverance from harsh slavery to freedom is annually recalled and remembered in the Passover. The original Passover in Egypt involved a lamb being slain and it’s blood applied to the doorposts of each Jewish home. The avenging angel “passed over” those homes and instead dealt with the Egyptian houses which had no lamb’s blood over the door.

The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb (Jesus) are really the same song. Both the deliverance out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, as well as the deliverance from guilt and shame through the cross and resurrection, was real salvation from all that oppressed and hindered the people from living into their true selves.

This connection to salvation history was a great boon to the early believers undergoing their own brand of injustice, oppression, and persecution – just for being followers of Jesus.

So, we all need to apply the death of the Lamb to our present situations, so that we can endure through hardship and not give up and experience a failure of faith. We continually need a strengthening of faith, to recall and remember who we are and to whom we belong, so that we will sing our own song of hope and deliverance.

“Awake and Sing the Song,” by English hymnist William Hammond (1719-1783)

Awake, and sing the song
Of Moses and the Lamb;
Tune every heart and every tongue
To praise the Savior’s name.

Sing of His dying love;
Sing of His rising power;
Sing how He intercedes above
For those whose sins He bore.

Tell, in seraphic strains,
What He has done for you;
How He has taken off your chains
And formed your hearts anew.

His faithfulness proclaim
While life to you is given:
Join hands and hearts to praise His name
Till we all meet in heaven.

Amen.

The Struggle Within (Romans 7:15-25)

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

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (New International Version)

We can relate to the Apostle Paul. We, along with him, have said to ourselves many times, “I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do what I know is right. I do the things I hate.” 

Paul’s experience of uneasiness, his existential angst because of the struggle within, is a timeless description of our common human condition. There are times we seem completely unable to follow our conscience and do what’s right. It can be maddening, even to the point of experiencing a continual low-level discouragement or depression which underlies almost everything we do.

The prescription for dealing with this mental, emotional, and spiritual malady does not include the law. That’s right. Putting our willpower and effort into obeying commands gets us nowhere. Even if we obey laws and rules and commands for a time, our efforts eventually break down. We fail to do what we want, and end up doing just the opposite.

In all fairness, the law is good, not bad; it just doesn’t have the capacity to transform us. The law’s purpose is to show us how bad off we really are in this world, to give us an awareness of our true condition, so that we will seek help. 

We humans are a bundle of contradictions, doing good, then bad, and flip-flopping back and forth – all with great frustration. In such a miserable condition, what then shall we do? Who will help us? Is there anyone to save us from our plight?

Sheer willpower and obedience will not help us; it won’t work. It will only give us a false hope. Any success in using willpower only deludes one into believing they have the answer… until they yet fall again into the pit of their own inner darkness. But the good news is that there is a Savior, a Redeemer, a Rescuer who has the will and the power to deliver us from our predicament.

The grace of God in Christ is the operative power that changes lives, not the law. Freedom from the tyranny of our “should’s” and our misplaced desires comes from Christ’s forgiveness through the cross. 

Like a lover enamored with his beloved, our desires become oriented toward Jesus for his indescribable gift to us. That is the strength of grace. Transformation is relational; it is found in a person, not a program. And the only person and relationship which has the ability to change us is, I believe with all my heart and mind, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because I myself have been transformed and changed by such a relationship with Christ. I, along with the hymn writer John Newton, can say, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

“Self-help” for all the good it really can do, is in many ways an oxymoron. We need a Savior to help us, and we need a community of people who encourage us. And even if we can do it ourselves today, that may not (and eventually will not) be true of us tomorrow. None of you got this far in life on your own – and you will continue to need God and others going forward.

Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good.Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another. Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers. (Romans 12:9-13, GNT)

We have an incredible capacity for good and vast internal resources within us. And yet, we too often lack awareness of this reality, for which we can tap into. When it comes to an outright metamorphosis, we need a new heart – and we can no more simply decide to change our lives any more than we can perform heart transplant surgery on ourselves.

People need the Lord.

Whenever the foundation of a house is about to crumble, it won’t do to rearrange the living room furniture and do a bit of spruce up painting. We deceive ourselves if we believe that all our efforts at landscaping the property and having a great curb appeal will do the trick. If the foundation crumbles, and the house implodes, all efforts at curb appeal won’t matter.

Jesus is our cornerstone. Without him, we are at risk, about to fall and without hope. With him, true restoration and renewal happens. And then, when the house is repaired and in order, we set about the task of being good stewards and maintaining and caring for the wonderful changes which were made.

Freedom from a dilapidated soul and misplaced energies to consistent times of peace and contentment, calmness and confidence, satisfaction and settled peace, comes by growing ever closer to the Savior who exudes all those qualities, and more. For the Lord not only saves and delivers; he also sanctifies and encourages.

In Christ, the uneasiness and unsettling experience – the existential angst – becomes a thing of the past because of the grace of merciful deliverance and continual help.

Saving God, I thank you for delivering me from sin, death, and hell through your Son, the Lord Jesus. May your Holy Spirit apply the work of grace to my life every day so that I can realize practical freedom from all that is damaging and destructive in my soul. Amen.

People Are a Bundle of Contradictions (Romans 7:7-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
“Contradictions” by Michael Lang, 2015

But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.” That’s certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.

I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.

I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.

But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. (The Message)

“Contradictions in human character are one of its most consistent notes.”

Muriel Sparks, “Loitering with Intent”

The Apostle Paul’s vulnerable expression of his dilemma resonates deeply with many people. There are times when we say things to ourselves such as:

“I told myself I wasn’t going to be like my mother, and here I am responding just like she would.”

“I know better than to drive by the liquor store on my way home and pick up a pint of vodka, yet, I still did it.”

“I don’t want to die, but my thoughts keep racing about a plan for suicide.”

There are many situations in which we are both frustrated and befuddled by doing the things we do not want to do, and not doing the things we want to do.

Yes, indeed, Paul’s existential angst is a timeless description of our common human condition. We all can relate to the seeming inability to do what is right in so many situations. It can drive us nuts, even to a constant and never-ending low-level discouragement that underlies almost everything we do.

Paul’s prescription for dealing with this does not rely on law. He understood that putting our willpower and effort into obeying commands gets us nowhere, because we will eventually fail. Neither our brains nor our spirits work that way. Our willpower was never designed to be the driver of what we do and do not do. If anything, willpower, and the lack thereof, demonstrates just how much we are climbing the ladder on the wrong wall.

People are a bundle of contradictions, doing good, then bad, and flip-flopping back and forth with great frustration.

God’s law was not crafted to transform us from the inside-out. The law has three solid purposes, none of which are meant to bring deep personal transformation:

  1. Attention to the law works to restrain sin in the world
  2. Use of the law provides us with a helpful guide for grateful living in response to divine grace
  3. Reflection on the laws show us how bad off we really are in this world, and how much we are in need of forgiveness

We need a change of habits, and this is different than adopting a list of laws.

Habits are developed from our desires, our affections. In other words, we do what we love – more specifically, our ultimate love(s) drive us to do what we want. To put it in a more straightforward way:

We sin because we like it. And the path to overcoming any besetting sin is to have an ultimate love surpass the lesser sin which we like.

For example, I have developed daily habits or rituals of faith which enable me to commune with God. I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and this ultimate love enables me to push out all competing gods who want my devotion. I also love my wife with all my heart. We work on developing habits of a marital relationship which reinforce our love for each other. Love is what drives me to do right and good by her.

So, what do we do when we mess up? For the Christian, no matter what the question is, the answer is always grace.

God’s grace in the finished work of Jesus Christ applied to us by the Holy Spirit is the operative power that changes lives. The law has no power to do that kind of work. Freedom from the tyranny of our misplaced desires and disordered loves comes from Christ’s forgiveness through the cross. Like a lover enamored with his beloved, our desires become oriented toward Jesus for his indescribable gift to us. That is the strength of grace.

Saving God, I thank you for delivering me from sin, death, and hell through your Son, the Lord Jesus. May your Holy Spirit apply the work of grace to my life every day so that I can realize spiritual healing and practical freedom from all that is damaging and destructive in my soul. Amen.