Tag: jesus

Matthew 8:28-9:1

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            At some point all people, including you and me, must deal with Jesus.  Why? Because he is a force to be reckoned with.
            Eventually, we know that a storm will come.  It may be sunny today, and the forecast might predict more sun or partly sunny for a while.  But we know the weather will change.  Here in Wisconsin we’ve had an unusually dry winter so far.  Not very much snow.  It’s coming, though.  There will be a snow storm.  It won’t be here today or tomorrow.  But it will come.
            Jesus will come.  A person might not have to contend with him today, maybe not tomorrow.  But, eventually, there will be a whopper of a storm and you will have to deal with it.  In today’s Gospel lesson, two men described as being severely influenced by demons approached Jesus.  Inside of them was such a terrible inner storm that they shouted at Jesus.
            Jesus, however, has authority over storms.  He commands them as he wills.  As fierce as the men were (the demons were so many that they were exorcised into a herd of pigs), Jesus had the authority to deal with the situation.  The storm within the men subsided.
            Yet, the storm picked up with the townsfolk.  It seems they had been living their merry lives with no thought to Jesus.  But he showed up.  They had to contend with the authority right there in front of them.  They chose poorly.  We are meant to see a connection in the story between the demons who begged Jesus, and the people of the town who begged Jesus.  They didn’t humbly beg to follow him; they begged him to get away from him, to leave them alone.
            Jesus is an authoritative force to be reckoned with… and he’s coming to your town.  Maybe not today, perhaps not tomorrow.  But things will not always be the way they are right now.  People will have to face Jesus.

 

Jesus Christ, Son of God, you are Lord over the wind, the waves, and the weather.  You also command the unseen, and they obey.  You are God with us.  Oh, that all people would beg to follow you and not beg you to leave!  I am grateful for your power and authority over all things.  Amen.

Jesus and Failure

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Alexander Pope quote

Failure is whole lot more common than success.  In his book, Break Open the Sky, Steven Bauman writes: “Despite our near-phobic fear of failure, the facts suggest that it’s a common, almost universal, experience:

  • 75 percent of venture-capital-backed start-ups fail, and 95 percent do not meet the initial expectations.
  • 40 percent of CEOs don’t last eighteen months.
  • 70 to 90 percent of mergers and acquisitions fail to add shareholder value.
  • 81 percent of new hires don’t work out.
  • 99 percent of new patents never earn a penny.
  • 95 percent of new products introduced in any given year fail.
  • 68 percent of information technology projects fail to meet their goals.
  • 88 percent of New Year’s resolutions end in failure.
  • 100 percent of all human bodies fail.

You and I put up our best faces, especially on social media.  Like a seasoned political spin doctor, we take bits and pieces of our lives and paste them into the world for all to see our good points – how witty, or beautiful, or privileged, or wealthy, or whatever is important to us – or, how right we are about everything from creating mouth-watering smoked ribs, to communicating how the economy should really work, to punching-out opinions on others like a boxing glove to the face.

Oh, my, little do we realize this is soul draining activity that only feeds the ego and places us at arms-length to the grace of God which longs for us to be real, vulnerable, and admit our deep need for the love of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus chose to identify himself with lowly failures, the poor, and maladjusted sinners, it was the successful, wealthy, and upstanding people who thought this was a waste of time.  This was not the way to build your portfolio.  The Messiah paparazzi were aghast at what they were seeing.  Jesus was spending time with failures, and he was going to become one, at least in the eyes of those who always kept a clean social media profile.

But Jesus said to them: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do.  I didn’t come to invite good people to turn to God.  I came to invite sinners.” (Luke 5:31-32)

Posturing and preening aren’t practices that get you into the kingdom of God.  In the end, they get you nowhere.

I have failed at a whole lot more things than I’ve been successful at in life.  Truth be told, all of us have a few wild successes at things that we like to highlight, and a house full of failure that we try to cram into that one closet nobody is allowed to open.

We all share the common human condition of failure.  You can’t put the pure living water of Jesus in the cup of your life if its already full of the toilet water that looks clean but is full of nasty bacteria.

What to do?  Empty yourselves.  Pour out the potty water of peacocking your way through life, and simply let Jesus dwell in you through faith.  Sit at his feet.  Drink him in.  Let your plans go.  Let new goals seep into your soul.  Be filled with the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  And you will find yourself full of life, love, and devotion to serve the common good of all people.  Even if you fail doing it, you’re in good company.

Jesus Is Making Everything New

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Jesus makes everything new

It feels great to have a day off, a bit of relaxation, a fresh year with new possibilities, a chance to do spend time with others for a bit.  It feels so darned good because maybe something in your life is getting awfully old, and you’re ready for a change:

A look in the mirror today has you longing for a new body… A glance at the financial budget reveals that it doesn’t budge a bit, and you long for a new job…  A walk into the kitchen looks like somebody puked dirty dishes all over, and you wish for a new house…  But this is nothing compared to not sleeping well; still grieving over a death in the family; constantly dealing with chronic pain, cancer, and sickness; and, facing, yet again, Mom’s barrage of Alzheimer inspired questions…. Maybe I could just have a new life….

These, and a thousand more circumstances, wait for us tomorrow morning when we wake up.  It is the same old, same old.  Day after day, month after month, year after year.  Maybe it will be different this year….?

The world as we now know it will someday pass away.  Christians have a future hope – it will literally be heaven on earth.  There will be a renewed earth and God will descend to dwell with us.  God will bring us to the original design He had in the garden with Adam and Eve – an unhindered relationship between Himself and humanity in which we are no longer dogged by our sinful nature, a sinful world system, and all the temptations that the devil uses to exploit for his own purposes.  Tears, death, sorrow and pain will a thing of the past.

Eventually, our struggle with the brokenness of this world and our lives will be completely over (Revelation 21:1-6).  To know your problems are temporary and that Jesus will change everything is a great comfort and help to us in our present troubles.

One of the problems we experience in this present age is that we are impatient people; we want good things to happen, and to happen now!  All of God’s people throughout history have been looking ahead for the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises.  God said to the prophet Isaiah:

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.  I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more” (Isaiah 65:17-19).

In the first coming of Jesus to this earth, God’s people thought for sure all these promises would be fully realized.  But, like a young couple in their engagement period, the promises of God had been initiated and promised, but not yet realized or consummated.  There have been people throughout the centuries that have said, as the Apostle Peter identified:

“Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”  Peter responded, in part, by reminding Christians:  But do not forget this one thing, dear friends:  With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:4-9).

Jesus is making everything new.  God is even now in the process of moving history to its final stage.  Can we be patient in letting him do his work until that final day comes, or will we be impatient?

We live in an amazing time where we have instant communications and can travel anywhere in the world in a relatively short amount of time.  The earth is a big place, but we can traverse it by plane in less than two days.  It used to be that a ship going across the Atlantic Ocean took about three months from Europe to America.  Now, we fly across the ocean in a matter of hours.  Yet, we freak out that we’ve got to get to the airport two hours before a flight and grump and complain about standing in a twenty-minute line to board a plane.

It used to be that communication moved at the same pace as a ship.  Knowing about a significant event that happened in Europe would take three months to reach America.  Now we can know about what kind of bread some French dude ate for breakfast almost instantly after he eats it because he posted it on social media.  We act like a whiny pre-teen if we need to wait a few extra seconds for something to load on our computers and smartphones, as if the world were about to end.  Well, in all truthfulness it is about to end.

Yet, in the meantime, we are not to simply wait for the end to come and spend our remaining time trying to figure out exactly the day and hour of Christ’s Second Coming.  Instead, when Jesus said, “I am making everything new” he means that he is now at work transforming all things which will culminate in his Second Coming and the final passing away of the old order of things.

We properly anticipate Jesus coming again when we let God change our hearts and lives, our neighborhoods and workplaces, our families and churches, to be just like Christ.

God is now, today, in the business of preparing for Christ’s return by doing away with the old order to make room for the new.  The Apostle Paul put it this way to the Corinthian church:  If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17).  With every changed life, there is the reminder that God is not slow in keeping his promises, but is active in transforming lives for his own glory.

The book of Revelation helps us to break our fixation with our weird past.  It enables us to sever the ways we have always done things.  It reminds us of God’s capacity and action for renewal.  We can walk now in newness of life.  Christians are people, according to Paul that “were buried with Jesus through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

To be patient, to hold fast in endurance, it is necessary for us to know the whole story of God and what he has done, is doing, and will do.  In the fall of 1991, a car driven by a drunk driver jumped its lane and smashed headfirst into a minivan driven by a man named Jerry Sittser. Sittser and three of his children survived, but Sittser’s wife, four-year-old child, and mother died in the crash. In his book, A Grace Revealed, Sittser shares the following interaction some months after the accident with his son, David, who was one of the children who survived:

“Do you think Mom sees us right now?” he suddenly asked.

I paused to ponder. “I don’t know, David. I think maybe she does see us. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t see how she could, Dad. I thought Heaven was full of happiness. How could she bear to see us so sad?”

Could Lynda, my wife, witness our pain in Heaven? How could that be possible? How could she bear it?

“I think she does see us,” I finally said. “But she sees the whole story, including how it all turns out, which is beautiful to her. It’s going to be a good story, David.”

God knows the whole story.  He knows how you are going to turn out.  When everything passes away, when all is stripped from your life, when the world as we know it is done away with, what are you left with? 

Christians are left with participating with God in the renewal of all things.  Followers of Jesus are left with alleviating and doing away with the evils and troubles of this world.  Whenever believers seek to do away with things like global poverty; when we work to end the world of sex-trafficking or abortion; when we help others come to grips with the evil of this world through changing old satanic ways of operating; when we come alongside others in their trouble; then, God is using us to make everything new.

The end is coming, but it is not yet here.  God is presently working to make everything new by bringing his salvation to all kinds of people.  Allow God to be God, and do that work both on others, and in you.

Jesus Lives Here!

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Jesus Lives Here

Frankly, and to the point, Jesus abides with your every dream about life and happiness, hope and fulfillment, purpose and direction, emotional healing and wholeness, as well as thriving and flourishing in your daily life.  What is more:

To live the Christian life, to totally and completely center your entire life around the person and work of Jesus Christ, is an act of rebellion against all that is unjust and broken in this world.

Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest intellects in American history, was a pastor, theologian, and scholar.  He insisted that the hope of humanity lies with turning to and dwelling with Jesus:

“Conversion to Jesus Christ is a great and glorious work of God’s power, at once changing the heart, and infusing life into the dead soul…. Jesus Christ is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper focus; and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.”

St. Augustine may have lived centuries ago, but he knew life without Jesus.  Life with Jesus was so compelling for Augustine that his thoughts, vigorous intellect, and spiritual devotion left an enormous footprint that can be found even today, not only in the church, but in the academy.  Reflecting on his life, and all he had experienced and accomplished, Augustine uttered this simple prayer to God:

“You have made us for yourself, Lord Jesus, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Arguably, Christianity’s greatest convert was the Apostle Paul.  Once a vehement opponent to Jesus and faith in him, Paul had a dramatic encounter that left him completely undone.  He gave his life to Christ and became Christianity’s most influential missionary.  Here is just a smattering of his thoughts on Jesus:

“Christ was truly God… but he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us.  Christ was humble.  He obeyed God and even died on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

“His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy… For God has rescued us from the dark power of Satan and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, who forgives our sins and sets us free” (Colossians 1:11, 13).

“Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:8-9).

“Christ has introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness… Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful” (Romans 5:2, 6).

Cyril of Jerusalem

Jesus is the One who fills our hearts with love, delivers our wayward souls from emptiness, and sets our feet on the solid rock of faith and hope in God.  All the love of God is found in Jesus.  And the amazing thing is that Jesus so closely identifies with us, that we enjoy God’s peace and healing in our lives.  Not just personal transformation, but systemic change in institutions and corporations, families and neighborhoods, is possible in Christ.

To live for Jesus is an act of subversion against all that is evil, dark, and unjust. Imagine a world where love rules, not hate; where creativity and faith abound, and are not squelched; and, hope, not hurt, fuels progress into a bright future.  It is a world where Jesus lives.

There are 1,440 minutes in a day.  The average post in this blog can be read in just 3 minutes or less.  With just a click of a computer mouse, or the touch of a smartphone, you can push against the darkness and find some encouragement and help, not so much from me, as from thinking about Jesus.  Also, if you want to join a conversation on something important and relevant to you, it’s easy.

Thanks for being a faithful reader, but, more importantly, I’m grateful for how you desire to know Jesus better, live the Christian life with all your heart, and seek to be wise in all your daily activities at home, work, and your neighborhood.  To that end, I look forward to this New Year and all that God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit will do in us to his glory.  Amen.