Tag: life

Psalm 29 – The Power of Words

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

thunderstorm church

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
worship the Lord in holy splendor.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl,
and strips the forest bare;
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace! (NRSV)

I have always felt comforted during thunderstorms. Having grown up in the Midwest of America, strong thunderstorms are a given every summer. When my daughters were small children and frightened by the loud clap of thunder, I would say to them, “That’s just God letting us know he is powerful and watching over us.” Indeed, he is.

God spoke and stirred up a storm… So, they cried out to the Lord in their distress, and God brought them out safe from their desperate circumstances. God quieted the storm to a whisper; the sea’s waves were hushed. (Psalm 107:25, 29-30, CEB)

Yet, there is even more going on in today’s psalm than a reminder of God’s glory and power over all creation. God’s very voice is the source of all the power. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – with words. The Lord Almighty spoke the entire world into existence. God’s words are generative, that is, the speech of God creates and gives life. When God’s voice goes forth, things happen.

God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. (Genesis 1:9, CEB)

The way God gives is through speech. Yes, the mechanism of God’s provision for us is words. This means language is vitally important. The Lord creates, gives, sustains, and blesses his creatures through language. Out of all creation, humans are the only creatures formed in the image and likeness of God.

God said, “Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. (Genesis 1:26, CEV)

People, then, are capable of speech. What is more, we as people with the ability of language have the capacity to form generative words. We have the God-given means to give life with our speech.

“Life and death lie in the power of language” –Helen Keller

I believe we all intuitively know this is true. As we reminisce the history of our lives, we can observe events where another’s words impacted us so significantly that it was as if they gave us the gift of life. We never forget those words. We also have had times when another’s words cut us emotionally and it felt as if a part of us died. We tend to remember those as well, and they hold us back in our own life-giving speech to ourselves and others.

“The godless destroy their neighbors by their words, but the righteous are saved by their knowledge.” (Proverbs 11:9, CEB)

So, it is quite necessary for us to listen to the voice of the Lord. God’s speech does not disappoint or destroy. God’s Word is eternal life. The better we listen to God, the better we can have the generative power of words to provide life for others. It only takes a cursory look at Holy Scripture to realize that words are powerful and are to be used with great care. We are all to continually develop the craft of “wordsmithing” so that we might ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name as well as bless the world.

“As a tree gives fruit, healing words give life, but dishonest words crush the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:4, NCV)

The language we use—spoken and written words, sign language, facial expressions, bodily gestures, singing—helps us understand ourselves and lets us create relationships with others. Our words give us the power to describe our past, define our present, and dream of our future.

“Words from wise people are like water bubbling up from a deep well—the well of wisdom.” (Proverbs 18:4, ERV)

We adults may balk at the notion that words are anything more than a creative expression. Yet, as I believe is typical with most things, children are closer to the kingdom of God. They effortlessly make connections between words and reality whereas us older folks barely have an idea this even occurs. My grandson once remarked when I was talking to him about being cautious at the playground, “How am I supposed to meet new people if I can’t talk to strangers?”

“When I asked my son (5 years old) how his day was, he said it was awesome. I asked him what made it so awesome – his response was ‘because I wanted it to be.’” – Tanya Niedzwiecki (Huffington Post, November 2015)

The voice of Lord exhibits a mighty God who has the power to create and recreate with but a word. As people in God’s likeness, our words are powerful tools to be used with wisdom and care. Our speech allows us to praise God and encourage one another. Even more, the use of language enables us to speak into existence new realities for ourselves and others. May those words bring forth hope and blessing to a world in need of healing.

Mighty God, King all powerful, I am overwhelmed before such awesome majesty, and my response to your voice is reverent worship through Jesus Christ, your Son, my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

John 14:1-14 – “I Need Jesus!”

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

Welcome, friends! Simply click the video below and we will have a time together centered around the Lord Jesus.

You can also view this video at TimEhrhardtYouTube

Mindful of the many wonderful mothers and women which surround me, here are a few links with females leading us in worship of God:

Down to the River virtual choir of women

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) this version of the Chris Tomlin song produced by BYU Records.

May you experience the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus as present and powerful today and always.

Peace be with you, my friends.

I Need Jesus

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment
Faces of Jesus 2
Cultural depictions of Jesus throughout the world.

Yes, we have many troubles in this old fallen world and in our various families and individual lives. And, yes, there a lot of things we need right now such as wiping the terrible COVID-19 virus off the face of the planet; healing from the ravages of disease and of our damaged emotions; economic stability to make ends meet; and, solutions to the awful human ailments and conditions that beset the world. We need relief, guidance, and wisdom. 

So, I declare with conviction that out of all the great needs which surround us, the greatest need is for Jesus. I do not just need his teaching. I do not just need Christ’s instruction. I do not only need to imitate his model of loving service. I need Jesus himself! 

Jesus was speaking with his disciples in the Upper Room on the night before his crucifixion. He told them he was leaving (dying) and that it must be this way. The disciples were understandably troubled. Thomas was worried about what was going to happen and how he and the others were going to deal with an uncertain future. (John 14:1-14) 

I will tell you how millions of people have dealt with their past difficulties, their present troubles and their worries about the future: Jesus. 

Jesus is the Way 

Jesus is the way to deal with our current concerns and anticipated anxieties. He himself is the way. The way is not through a program of self-improvement. The way is not through a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach. The way is not through an ability to articulate well-crafted words or through being able to answer with certainty every question of faith. The way is not through finding just the right plan or system. 

Jesus is our way – he is the way of rescue, the road to a life of harmonious peace and settled rest even when the world is going to hell around us, as well as the connection with God. To trust Jesus is to give up the personal delusion of control and to walk with him on his terms. 

Jesus is the way for the church everywhere – fellowship, encouragement, acts of loving service, teaching, and strengthening of faith all center around Jesus because he is love incarnate. 

Jesus is the way for the world – serving neighbors and nations, advocating for those who are mistreated and victims of injustice, tackling the dozens of world problems which oppress humanity come through the continuing presence of Jesus here on this earth (the Holy Spirit indwelling God’s people). 

Jesus is the Truth 

Jesus does not only speak truth; he is truth incarnate. Truth is more than abstract ideas and personal perspectives. What is true about God has its ultimate expression and demonstration in the person of Jesus.  

“True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth… God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24, NIV) 

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, NIV) 

To see the face of Jesus is to see the reality of Truth. God’s character and attributes expressed through creating, loving, sustaining, healing, and providing all have their highest expression in Jesus. 

Jesus is our truth. When troubles abound, Jesus is the ballast of truth we can rely upon, the rock of our salvation, and the anchor of our soul. 

Jesus is the truth in the church. All teaching, mentoring, and instruction points to the person and work of Jesus. Guidance and direction, whether in marriage, family, work, school, relationships or interpersonal communication flows from Jesus. To merely dispense homespun advice falls short if there is no Jesus.  

“Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16, NIV) 

Jesus is the truth for the world. Proclaiming Jesus is more than mere words; it is an embodying of truth. At the beginning of his earthly ministry:  

Jesus “went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written [Isaiah 61:1-2] “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach [to embody] good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16-19, NIV) 

Followers of Jesus embody him, the Truth, through looking for ways to be Jesus to the lost, the least, and the lonely in acts of basic human compassion and advocating for their social justice. 

Jesus is the Life 

“Life” and “death” in Scripture are relational terms, not just physical references. When Adam and Eve fell into disobedience, they spiritually died without being physically dead. They originally enjoyed the connection of life with God; then, after the Fall, experienced a separation from God by being cast out of the Garden. 

Jesus is our life. He is the person in whom Christians have their identity. Instead of connecting myself to a narrowly expected outcome, I tether myself to Jesus because he is my connection, my life. 

Jesus is the life of the church. Christians experience life as their prayers and their praise are directed toward Jesus as both the subject and the object of worship. 

Jesus is the life of the world. The good news of Christ’s redemptive events of incarnation, earthly ministry of teaching and healing, death, resurrection, ascension and glorification is good news for everyone. There is forgiveness of sins and deliverance from the hell of separation through Jesus. 

Jesus is the Way
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” –Jesus

Our problems, concerns, and troubles on this earth are not be sufficiently addressed by simply acknowledging Jesus and his teaching. I need Jesus himself. For he has the power to give life. 

“Salvation can be found in no one else. Throughout the whole world, no other name has been given among humans through which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12, CEB) 

“I need Jesus!” is my affirmation and my declaration, my proclamation and my preaching. I need Jesus as the way to live my life instead of trusting in my own power and ability. Jesus is the truth I choose to bank my life upon. Jesus is the life graciously given for which I can say with boldness that I belong to God. 

Jesus is the midpoint of history to which all events point; the center of my life upon which all my devotion is directed; and, the subject and object of Holy Scripture: 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is the King of Kings with authority to back it up. 

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is both the Servant of humanity and all of creation’s Authority. 

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is the Son of Man who relates to us and is attentive to humanity. 

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Word become flesh, the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life, and the Light of the World. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus is the risen and ascended Lord who will come again. 

In Romans, Jesus secures our union with God and justifies us according to his mercy and grace. 

In 1 Corinthians, Jesus is the Wisdom and Power of God, despite the foolishness of the cross. 

In 2 Corinthians, Jesus is the One who has brought forgiveness and reconciliation to the world. 

In the book of Galatians, Jesus is our Substitute for sin. 

In Ephesians, Jesus is the One who has subdued all the dark forces of this world. 

In Philippians, Jesus humbled himself and submitted to death on a cross for our deliverance. 

In Colossians, Jesus is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. 

In the First letter to the Thessalonians, the coming of Jesus is near and will soon be here! 

In the Second letter to the Thessalonians, we are partakers in God’s glory through Jesus. 

In the book of First Timothy, Jesus saves sinners of whom I am chief. 

In Second Timothy, Jesus is the Righteous One who will come to Judge the living and the dead. 

In Titus, Jesus is the Redeemer, snatching us from the realm of wickedness and godlessness. 

In the little book of Philemon, every good thing we have comes from Jesus. 

In Hebrews, Jesus is our faithful High Priest, the Pioneer of our salvation and our Champion. 

In James, Jesus is the Wise Teacher. 

In First Peter, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

In Second Peter, Jesus is the Divine Power that allows me to live a godly life. 

In the Epistles of John, the God of Love is Jesus, who demonstrated love through the cross. 

In Jude, it is Jesus who keeps us from falling and presents us faultless before God. 

Finally, in Revelation, Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 

I need Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man; the Lord and Judge of all, the Redeemer and Savior of humanity, my Healer and my Friend. It’s all about him. 

Matthew 22:23-33 – The God of Life

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year A1 Comment

sunrays

That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. (NIV)

The first century Sadducees learned the hard way.  Trying to discredit Jesus in public is a bad idea. Somehow, probably in a back room and drinking too much wine, they came up with a story that was designed to show once and for all that Jesus was nothing but some hayseed yokel from the bumpkin village of Nazareth who believed in a crazy notion like resurrection.  They wanted a once-for-all public showdown that Jesus was a backward hick, not worth the time of day.  So they concocted a bizarre hypothetical story meant to discredit the supernatural.  They went to the Old Testament to point out the law that if a man dies without having children, the brother must marry the widow and so keep the legacy and land of the dead man in his family.  By conjecturing that if this were to happen seven times over, whose wife would she be among all the brothers at this supposed resurrection? As they were snickering to themselves believing that they had demonstrated the absurdity of resurrection, Jesus turned the tables on the Sadducees.

Jesus bluntly stated that the Sadducees were the ones with an absurd story.  Their whole notion of what the resurrection is and what’s important about it was lost on them.  Jesus said they were biblically illiterate – they don’t know the Scriptures.  And, furthermore, since they don’t really know the Law, they really know nothing of God’s power.  This was a major dig on a group of people who prided themselves on being an educated elite.

Resurrection, Jesus said, isn’t anything like they described.  Resurrection isn’t a restoration of the same life we have here and now; it’s a different life altogether – a new life!  To prove what he said, Jesus had a simple yet profound statement:  I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.  Not “I was” but “I am.”  God is God of living people, of life, not of corpses and cadavers, not even of zombies.

The whole point of resurrection is new life – not a resuscitated life, not a reconstituted life, but a new life altogether.  The terms ‘death’ and ‘life’ in Scripture are relational terms.  Death is separation from others; life is a connection with people.  Life, in the Bible, literally means ‘to step into,’ and death means ‘to step away from.’  So, then, in order to be a fully alive human being we step into God by loving him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and, by loving my neighbor as myself.  Life means meaningful and loving connections with both God and other people.

toddler in white hoodie during daytime
Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

God is not just the God of the past (he saved me) or the future (I’m going to heaven); he is the God of the present, of this moment.  He exists now and is with us.  And what he wants from us is to choose life, that is, to step into relationships, to lean into others, and not choose death by stepping away and withdrawing out of guilt, shame, or fear.

When we distance ourselves from God and others, it is a way of death.  We then become in need of a new life.  Everyone experiences conflict and/or anxiety in relationships at various times.  The person who goes the way of death withdraws emotionally from God and other people and may even eventually just cut themselves off from others completely.  I’m not referring to a literal physical hermit who’s in the woods by himself with only a grizzly bear for a friend.  I’m talking about someone who is out of touch with others by through superficial talk and never dealing with anything unpleasant or uncomfortable.  Entire groups of people can act this way, as well, by dealing with their anxiety by refusing to interact on a meaningful level.  Such persons or groups tend to practice avoiding others through being emotionally distant; their prayer requests seldom go beyond skin deep and rarely, if ever, traffic in feelings.

Another way of separation, of death, is the practice of under-functioning and over-functioning in relationships.  Individuals who under-function refuse to take responsibility for their own emotions and behavior – they keep looking for someone else to blame their problems on and/or for someone to fix their situation.  Under-functioning people believe someone else will give, others will serve, and better people than them will do the world a service.  Into this situation enters the over-functioning person.  They are all too glad to accept responsibility for other people’s emotions and shortcomings.  When there’s a job to be done, everyone loves the over-functioning person.  Over-functioning individuals believe they know the right way to do things and they get results.  They talk more than listen, give advice freely, and take responsibility for the feelings and choices of others.  In a family, the under-functioning person relies on triangle relationships (that is, dealing indirectly with someone through another person) in which the over-functioning person handles all the heavy relational work.  Both under-functioning and over-functioning are ways of death because it is a stepping away from what is really going on inside of us; it is avoiding the shadows of my own heart and focusing on someone else’s heart.

We all need life.  We are hard-wired for community, family, and relationships.  We need a God who raises the dead and gives new life.  Stepping into relationships and choosing life means we courageously talk about what we truly think and feel and clearly communicate our limits and boundaries with each other.  Stepping into relationships and having life means we take responsibility for our own ideas and decisions and don’t coerce or manipulate others into doing the hard work of relationship for us.  It means we make decisions based on what is best for everyone, and not what simply is my personal preference.

Jesus
“I AM the resurrection and the life.”

God is the God of life.  Resurrection is both real and necessary.  Jesus said in John 11:25 – “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  Experiencing the power of God in our lives means to eschew the path of the Sadducees in the way they dealt with Jesus.  Instead, we have the privilege and the opportunity to step into a real, life-giving relationship with Jesus through reading and discovering our bibles and talking about what we find in it.  We pray, not because we are supposed to, but because it is the means of a living relationship and vital connection with God.

In such a time as this, we all need life – relationships that support one another and buoy each other’s values and spirituality.  Life is meant to be lived together in a sense of solidarity and camaraderie – with love as the glue which binds us as humanity.  Collective hardship becomes a sacred opportunity to experience life.  Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

May your experience of God be abundant and satisfying.  Amen.