Tag: gratitude

The Truth about Lying (Acts 5:1-11)

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

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. (New International Version)

We all know what a deceitful liar is because, well, we have all lied and practiced deceit in our lives. How ubiquitous is lying? According to one Harris poll:

  • The average person tells at least 2 lies every day. (That’s the equivalent of 730 lies per year)
  • 60% of people lie at least once in a 10-minute conversation.
  • 40% of people deceive prospective employers by lying on their resumes.
  • 90% of peoplelie on their online dating profiles.
  • 80% of spouses lieto their partner about their spending habits.
  • 50% of teenagers lieto their parents about their whereabouts.

And those are just lies that have been admitted. So, how many more lies and deceptions are there really out there?…

We also all know why we lie. You will likely find yourself in these top five reasons for lying:

  1. Fear of punishment
  2. Protection from harm
  3. Avoidance of shame or embarrassment
  4. To gain advantage and/or power over others
  5. Out of habit and/or compulsion

However, maybe you aren’t in touch with how lying really impacts you, how powerful deceitfulness truly is on your own psyche and personhood. Lying has major consequences for us including:

  • Loss of trust and damage to relationships
  • Loss of physical health and damage to mental health
  • Loss of job and damage to reputation
  • Loss of resources and experience of damages in lawsuits

In the instance of two people, Ananias and Sapphira, it meant loss of life and damage to the fellowship of new believers in the fledgling church.

The couple’s guilt, in front of the Apostle Peter and the entire church, is that they were counterfeit community members. Ananias and Sapphira were not what they seemed to others. They were not truthful because they were not vulnerable.

By lying in order to achieve an honor and a status they had not earned, Ananias and Sapphira not only dishonored and shamed themselves as patrons; they also unwittingly exposed themselves as outsiders who were pretending to be honest believers. In short, the two of them were imposters.

Their deceit demonstrates that they were still functioning within the existing Roman patronage system. Yet, true followers of Christ in the believing community, purposefully practiced a different system. The Christians had an interpersonal relation of giving and receiving love – which worked out itself in sharing all things in common with one another, without the class distinctions of the patronage system.

The cross of Christ abolished walls of separation and established a truly egalitarian society. To feign equality, but actually still live about in the inequitable world, is tantamount to rejecting the work of Christ’s cross.

The deception of Ananias and Sapphira was an attempt to appear just like Barnabas – who was the real deal, and the consummate steward of resources. Barnabas was an encourager, always thinking of others and the needs of the community (Acts 4:36-37).

Ananias and Sapphira wanted to look generous, but their motives were really to give in order to maintain their class status, and not for the sake of love. What’s more, their lie about it and their lack of honesty and vulnerability was clearly seen by Peter and interpreted by him as nothing less than lying to the Holy Spirit of God.

One of the purposes of the Holy Spirit is to form God’s people into a community that uses resources in accordance with a deep concern for others. It’s not surprising, then, that Ananias and Sapphira’s fakery of generosity is presented as falsifying the work of the Spirit. Their deception was an outright threat to Christian spiritual identity and community.

Like Ananias and Sapphira of old, our contemporary lying is typically to misrepresent who we are and how we are really doing and feeling.

The most common lie of people in the United States is saying “I’m fine” when they are really and truly not okay. Anxiety, depression, and the appearance of negativity is a source of guilt and shame for many Americans – so they lie about how they’re really doing.

It’s better to fake it, they believe, because no one actually cares how I’m doing. There is still very much a cultural stigma around people who admit not feeling well or not being okay. And that, my friends, very much needs to change.

It’s always good to begin with being honest with small things and avoiding white lies. Instead of lying, practice gratitude. Being thankful for all the small things in life is a truthful replacement to a lie. I wonder what Anania and Sapphira would have been like with that sort of healthy spiritual practice. But alas, we can only imagine.

In the case of you and I, we need not have to wonder. We can begin today by observing the good, the beautiful, and the truthful, and express gratitude for all the little ways for the good which is seen.

Grant me today, O God, some new vision of your truth. Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness. Make me the cup of strength to suffering souls; in the name of the strong Deliverer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Generosity and Thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 9:6-15)

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

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
    their righteousness endures forever.”

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (New International Version)

Generosity is at the heart of any good family, neighborhood, workplace, organization, church, and individual. To be generous is to reflect the image of God, who is wildly generous, giving freely and liberally on our behalf.

We often associate being generous with giving a handout or money to someone or some organization in need. It is that, but much more. Generosity doesn’t have to do with the size of our check or the amount of our contribution. 

We can be generous with our time, abilities, words, and with what little or much we have of money, as well. Generosity means to go above expectations – to give with magnanimity, to go out of your way to do good when no one is looking – and experience giving as its own reward.

Jesus, for whom the Apostle Paul learned about the true nature of being generous, embraced generosity as a way of life while he was here on this earth. No one expected Christ to go out of his way to call the least, the lowly, the lost, and the last of society. The people on the margins of respectable culture had no expectations that the Messiah would head their way. But he did. 

Christ the Lord even went so far as to hang out with the despised tax collectors, and freely talk with sexual deviants. The high brows of society couldn’t raise their eyebrows high enough for Jesus. It was just too much for them. Not only was Jesus making them look bad with his generosity as a way of life, but he was also, in their minds, generous to the wrong sort of people.

The follower of Jesus does so by surveying the landscape of human need and giving to people in places where no one expects a handout. 

It’s interesting that Christ lived a simple life with little to no money. He largely depended on the generosity of others. Yes, my friend, generosity is a two-way street. Being generous to others is the easy part for many people; receiving the generosity of other people is often much harder.  Yet, Jesus did both – he gave and received.

Jesus was generous in ways which were consistent with the Father’s will. Christ gave of his time, and of his divine ability to heal and forgive. He was perhaps the most magnanimous person of all-time, due to his generosity of compassion, kindness, love, and humble service to others. 

And the height of Christ’s generosity was in giving his life so that you and I could live a life free from the power of guilt and shame. Such deliverance, through the cross, is offered and given, free of charge. That’s over-the-top generous.

Money is merely a barometer of one’s generosity, that is, of our stance and approach toward money. You don’t need to be rich to be generous. A large and expansive heart always finds ways to have a generosity of spirit wherever it goes.

Jesus warned against using generosity in order to be noticed:

“When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to the poor, don’t blow a loud horn. That’s what show-offs do in the meeting places and on the street corners because they are always looking for praise. I can assure you that they already have their reward. When you give to the poor, don’t let anyone know about it. Then your gift will be given in secret. Your Father knows what is done in secret, and he will reward you.” (Matthew 6:1-4, CEV)

A generous heart is a heart of gratitude. Giving thanks is the logical and organic way of expressing generosity.

Consider just a few biblical verses that encourage us toward thanksgiving: 

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise. (Psalm 95:2, GNT) 

Enter his gates with a song of thanksgiving.
Come into his courtyards with a song of praise.
Give thanks to him; praise his name. (Psalm 100:4, GW)

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 118:1, NRSV)

In the Gospel of Luke, a story is told of ten men with leprosy who were miraculously healed by Jesus. A Samaritan, the lowliest of the low, was the lone person who came and fell at Christ’s feet with intense gratitude. While the other nine went about their lives free from disease and glad for it, only one guy took the time to thank Jesus. (Luke 17:11-19) 

Indeed, sometimes we must be reminded to give thanks and to show gratitude for the ways in which God has provided for us. Yet, if our hearts are abundantly full of generosity, no reminder is needed; it just comes pouring forth.

Those who have small hearts will only realize small blessings. But those who plant many seeds of generosity and gratitude will see abundant blessings.

May it be so, to the glory of God.

Real Life (1 Thessalonians 3:6-13)

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

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 

For now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (New International Version)

What does it mean to really live? Everyone has their own conceptions of what the good life is. But to live life to the full, to really live in sync with how life actually is (and is supposed to be) brings us true satisfaction, contentment, and meaning.

In the radical individualism of the West, it may seem foreign or strange to us that the Apostle Paul’s life was very much bound up in the lives of others – in the churches he established and with the believers who had come to faith in Christ. For Paul, to really live was to see spiritual growth and development in the places where he ministered.

The thing that really got Paul excited, what really melted his butter, was leading others to Christ, forming them into churches, and watching them carry out their missional mandate by doing the same things that he did with them. I can relate to Paul’s joy and satisfaction over Christian discipleship.

There’s nothing quite like mentoring others in the faith, helping them mature in that faith, and sending them out to live according to the model of faith that you’ve demonstrated for them. To see the Word of God take root in individuals and communities of people is like no other sort of joy and contentment.

In the midst of discouraging circumstances of persecution and distressing situations of opposition, it was gratifying, encouraging, and motivating for Paul to hear a good spiritual report from his protégé Timothy about the Thessalonian church’s faith.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, or like it or not, every one of us is inextricably connected to the other. And that is especially true in families, and in the family of God. The Thessalonian believers’ steadfast commitment to Christ and the Christian faith was a crucial and important dimension of Paul’s own persevering faith.

The Apostle had been on the front lines of faith – taking the good news of grace and forgiveness in Christ to the nations. To have his churches endure through all their own troubles and challenges is a great boon to Paul. They each derive confidence and inspiration from the other. Everyone’s faith is confirmed and strengthened when everyone is striving to live for Christ.

All the believers in Christ were really living because they stood firm in the Lord and were immovable in their faith commitments. Assurance and reassurance comes not in isolation, but through the interdependence and interaction with others who share the same values.

Parents don’t really live, unless they see their children living a life of abundant joy and satisfaction. And it’s the same with spiritual mothers and fathers; they truly live when their spiritual children are walking in faith and patience with the Lord.

This is why Paul was grateful and could not thank God enough for the Thessalonians’ life of faith. God’s powerful and gracious work in the church brought out all kinds of thanksgiving. With that sort of dynamic happening, Paul could face any tribulation with the confidence and trust needed to keep going.

Prayer is the logical response to a healthy spiritual and relational dynamic of faith. The greater the good relations, the greater the desire to come and keep imparting needed teaching and encouragement for the Christian life. In other words, spiritual growth begets spiritual growth.

The best way the Thessalonian converts and all the churches become rooted in faith is by God helping them to have their love increase and overflow for each other, and for everyone else. What’s more, God intends that the love Christians have for one another be a model and a witness to and for the world.

Christian community is the place we learn to love. As we practice again and again how to love one another in the church, we then take this love into the world in loving even our enemies. For if we are to follow our model and leader, Jesus Christ, then we will infuse each word and every action with the love of God in Christ – which is the light that draws others into a healthy spiritual and relational dynamic.

We must pray, as Paul did, for love to increase amongst us, so that our hearts are strengthened with genuine purity and holiness of life. For unless love grows and flowers, selfish desires will increase and turn our love inward to the point of taking love away from God and the world.

It is imperative that we have a genuinely loving stance toward each other as believers, and toward others in the world. Apart from this love – given graciously to us through the cross and resurrection of Christ – there is little hope for anything bad in this old fallen world to ever be better.

The bottom line is that churches wither and die because they lose sight of love; Christians lose faith and go their own way because they forget about love; and believers throughout the world continue on because loving prayers, loving ways, and loving words come their way, despite difficulty and hardship they face.

So, let us love one another as Christ loved us. For this is the way our faith is strengthened and our hope is kindled to keep enduring until Jesus returns to this earth and makes all things new and right. This is real life.

May almighty God give you grace to persevere with joy, so that the work of love begun in you may be completed, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Grateful to God (1 Thessalonians 2:13-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Apostle Paul, by Ivan Filichev

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way.For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. (New International Version)

Reception and Acceptance of God’s Word

The Apostle Paul, in all of his letters to the churches, was attentive to affirming those things which are good amongst the believers; and not only the aspects of church life that needed change and/or repentance.

For the Thessalonians, Paul was profoundly grateful to God for the people’s receiving of the Word and their accepting it as from God. Perhaps there is no greater affirmation than this for the Christian.

In order to receive and accept God’s Word, people must know it. And people cannot know God’s Word unless they take the time and effort to read it and discover it for themselves.

Scripture reading is a foundational spiritual practice for Christians everywhere, and for all of Christ’s Church throughout the earth. Church worship liturgies, as well as individual Christians’ daily disciplines of faith, ought to be thoroughly saturated with Holy Scripture. Yet, many churches are believers, sadly, are not.

I am specifically calling out the conservative evangelical church on this. Although they claim to be Bible-centered, with an extended time for the sermon, there is a paucity of actual Scripture contained within those gathered times.

Too much of the preaching fails to truly explain Scripture, and there are virtually no Scripture readings or references outside the sermon and in the worship service. This is a travesty, and also a testament to the biblical ignorance of so many evangelicals.

What’s more, the evangelical impulse for a “personal quiet time with the Lord” is, in reality, practiced by precious few believers – and usually consists of little more than a daily crumb of the Bible.

I perhaps sound cranky and crotchety. Yet in a previous life, I was an evangelical Pastor for many years, and know the frustrations and challenges of attempting to bring biblical literacy to such churches and Christians. There’s a better way, but alas, that is a topic for another time and another post.

Imitators and Sufferers with God’s Churches

The true muster of a Christian and any Christian Church is the desire, speech, and action of actually following the words and ways of Jesus. It was the Lord Jesus himself who said:

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20, NIV)

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus (John 16:33, NIV)

Paul was thankful for the Thessalonians because of their solidarity with the other churches; and their willingness to suffer as Jesus did. What’s more, they did not try to reinvent the wheel, but affirmed the sound practices they saw in the original churches of Judea and imitated those good things.

This was not a matter of pragmatism, that is, just doing something that worked somewhere else and adopting it for yourself. Instead, Paul was talking about following the example of the first and earliest of churches. Those churches were made up of Jewish Christians who received a lot of persecution from their fellow Jews.

The Thessalonians, too, received grief and belligerence from the same sort of people, trying to bully them around and tell them what to do. But the believers held fast to the pattern of teaching and living they observed from both Paul and the churches who endured suffering in Judea.

It’s one thing to express belief. It’s quite another thing to suffer for those beliefs and experience persecution for them. God will handle the persecutors on Judgment Day, not us. It’s our job to remain faithful and persevere in the Christian life until that Day comes.

Glory and Joy in God’s Presence

For the Apostle Paul, glory and joy was not found in his great intellect and persuading many people, or his many accomplishments of planting churches and defending the faith. Paul’s highest joy was found in people coming to know Christ and living for Jesus.

His glory was in the hundreds of relationships established with people, and all the believers he mentored. In other words, Paul’s glory and joy was the real names and faces of people he encountered and gathered into the one Church, for whom Christ died and sacrificed himself.

It wasn’t even a thought in the Apostle’s big old head to gain glory for himself, or to pursue joy for it’s own sake. Rather, Paul discovered that real joy and glory comes in fulfilling the mission give to him by Christ:

To make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to receive and accept God’s Word, to become imitators and sufferers with God, and to glory and joy in God’s presence.

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made.

We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.

And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.