Tag: love

Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing (Galatians 2:1-10)

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

Fourteen years after that first visit, Barnabas and I went up to Jerusalem and took Titus with us. I went to clarify with them what had been revealed to me. At that time I placed before them exactly what I was preaching to the non-Jews. I did this in private with the leaders, those held in esteem by the church, so that our concern would not become a controversial public issue, marred by ethnic tensions, exposing my years of work to denigration and endangering my present ministry.

Significantly, Titus, non-Jewish though he was, was not required to be circumcised. While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude. We didn’t give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the Message for you.

As for those who were considered important in the church, their reputation doesn’t concern me. God isn’t impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I. And of course these leaders were able to add nothing to the message I had been preaching. It was soon evident that God had entrusted me with the same message to the non-Jews as Peter had been preaching to the Jews.

Recognizing that my calling had been given by God, James, Peter, and John—the pillars of the church—shook hands with me and Barnabas, assigning us to a ministry to the non-Jews, while they continued to be responsible for reaching out to the Jews. The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that. (The Message)

The former devout Jew, Saul, had become the Christian apostle and missionary, Paul. His ministry was as radical and dramatic as his conversion to Christianity was.

The Struggle

Keep in mind that the earliest church was predominantly made up of Jewish Christians. They had to struggle with the relationship between their historic Judaism and their newfound Christianity. For many of them, Paul was doing the unthinkable; he not only purposely sought to reach Gentiles (non-Jewish people) with the message of Jesus Christ, but he also did not require them to be circumcised. For Paul, one did not have to first become Jewish before becoming Christian.

Paul doggedly sought to preserve the core essence and spirit of Christ’s message, that is, to proclaim the good news of forgiveness and new life through the person and work of Jesus – and not by means of retaining Jewish customs or laws, including circumcision.

The Main Thing

Christianity is more than set of beliefs and practices; it’s a way of life which can be summed up in three important words: faith, hope, and love. 

Both new believers in Jesus and veterans in the faith know from experience how difficult it can be to live the Christian life. One reason for this difficulty, even when we want to please the Lord, is due to the confusion that occurs between our inner feelings and our outer actions.

The Confusion

The confusion starts with the creation and fall of humanity. In the beginning, God created humans as persons with a divine/human relationship as central to daily life. (Genesis 1:26; 2:16-25) 

What’s more, God created people with the capacity to receive divine revelation through our ability to think and reason. (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10) 

Before disobedience entered the world, in the original state before humanity’s fall, all human functions were under complete control with an inner experience of unity and harmony with one another and God. (Genesis 1:31; 2:7, 16-25) 

It is imperative for us to recognize the distinction between our personal being and our personal functions. (Romans 1:21-32; 6:16-22; 1 Corinthians 9:27; Ephesians 4:21-32)

If we don’t grasp how cataclysmic the fall of humanity was, we are going to have big struggles with living the Christian life – illustrated in the way that Paul needed to fend off a bunch of professing Christians who still seemed spiritually stuck. 

The Disobedience

In Adam and Eve’s original disobedience to God, the authority for life was transferred from God to us so that our sinful bent is to call our own shots without God. The source of authority also got whacky, transferred from a holistic and synergistic approach of body, mind, emotions, and spirit to a one-dimensional approach of simply how we feel at any given moment.

If we fail to understand this dynamic, we will be continually frustrated with people because they do irrational things. For example, many church pastors are flabbergasted that parishioners do not simply take what they teach them and go and do it. Yet, if it were that simple, there would be no place for the Holy Spirit!

Unfortunately, there’s more. In humanity’s fall, we lost control of our capacity to function well. We are all now vulnerable to manipulation, too easily swayed by the surrounding culture, and, of course, Satan. (Ephesians 2:2-3; Galatians 5:16-21) 

As a result, our inner conscience has become confused. We are not always certain of right and wrong. We misunderstand what life is really supposed to be all about. 

We lose sight of the main thing. And, in that state, there’s no way we can keep the main thing the main thing.

Instead, we become obsessed with feeling comfortable and secure; so, we pursue false gods – leaving usdisappointed and with a lack of fulfillment in life.

The Good News

However, the good news is that through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, new life emerges; the bondage of sin is broken in our lives, and we are legally reinstated in a relationship with God in which the Lord is central in our daily life and the final authority. 

In this new relationship we can again receive truth through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures. We regain control of our functions. 

Yet, unless we learn the Scriptures and growin a daily walk with Jesus, the practical experience of this relationship with all its freedom, joy, assurance,  power, and fruitfulness may be greatly limited. (Romans 7:14-25; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4)

Even though we have redemption and faith, it is still possible to regress and give in to our old ways of functioning. This is a big reason why Christians can experience conflict, doubt, fear, anxiety, frustration, disappointment, and confusion.

To live keeping the main thing the main thing means to grow in the experience and application Christ’s centrality and authority in our lives. 

The Awareness

We must, therefore, make daily decisions of faith, hope, and love based in who we are in Christ and recognize his authority in our lives. The following seven recognitions and awareness may be helpful for you in experiencing Christian freedom and unity:

  1. You are a person with the ability to function in faith, hope, and love as God’s beloved child in Christ (2 Corinthians 7:1; Romans 8:14-17)
  2. There is a difference between who you are and what you do (or don’t do).  Evil thoughts and emotions do not make you evil, anymore than fantasizing about being a unicorn makes you a unicorn.
  3. You can take charge of your actions and your life (Galatians 5:22-23)
  4. The key is the use of your will through living in harmony with revealed biblical truth. In other words, you really can make choices of faith, hope, and love, no matter the situation. (Romans 4:17-21; Psalm 56:3; Psalm 43:5-11)  
  5. Reject whatever is contrary to Scripture, reason, and conscience. Listen to your whole self. Unhealthy patterns of acting and speaking must be broken in Jesus’ name. (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:5-9; Titus 2:11-12)
  6. Choose to obey the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures. Learn to think and act on the basis of truth. (Acts 27:25)
  7. Practicing the truth results in freedom, a re-patterning of thinking and functions, as well as the fruit of the Spirit. (John 8:32; Titus 2:11-14; Philippians 2:12-16)

The church is intended to be a supportive community of fellow redeemed people who worship and love Jesus together. 

Without sharing our collective learning of the Scriptures and daily struggles of faith, hope, and love, believers will inevitably be spiritually immature over the long haul. Instead, talk about your shared experiences of worship, Scripture reading, and Christian living. 

In doing so, God is glorified, the church is strengthened, and the cranky circumcisers are seen as the legalistic lunkheads they really are.

Perfect Peace (Isaiah 26:1-9)

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

In that day, everyone in the land of Judah will sing this song:

Our city is strong!
    We are surrounded by the walls of God’s salvation.
Open the gates to all who are righteous;
    allow the faithful to enter.
You will keep in perfect peace
    all who trust in you,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Trust in the Lord always,
    for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
He humbles the proud
    and brings down the arrogant city.
    He brings it down to the dust.
The poor and oppressed trample it underfoot,
    and the needy walk all over it.

But for those who are righteous,
    the way is not steep and rough.
You are a God who does what is right,
    and you smooth out the path ahead of them.
Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;
    our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.
In the night I search for you;
    in the morning I earnestly seek you.
For only when you come to judge the earth
    will people learn what is right. (New Living Translation)

Peace comes through trust; faith is the smooth path to settled rest and wholeness of being.

We all, of course, want peace. Personal peace. Family peace. National peace. World peace. And yet, so many of us lack peace to the degree that we have to medicate ourselves to get any sleep.

Avoiding family seems normal, just to keep the peace. National peace almost sounds oxymoronic. World peace is merely wishful thinking for far too many people. Perhaps we are in such a befuddled conundrum because of this reason:

We already possess what we so desperately want. The search for peace is really the search within.

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

Jesus (John 14:27, NLT)

The Christian needs to understand that Jesus has left us his peace. He gave it to us. We have it. Perhaps we have misplaced it? Maybe its lost in that huge stack on the desk?  Most likely, we plain old forgot about it.

God’s peace is here with us. Right now. This very minute. We have exactly what we want.

This peace is about far more than the absence of war, conflict, and/or infighting. Perfect peace is the settled and restful calm and confidence of being with God, of an intimate union with the divine.

Peace neither occurs by happenstance nor magically appears. Peace was achieved for us; it’s a gift which needs to be unpacked, used, and enjoyed. Practices of peace and peacemaking must be acknowledged and engrafted into our lives if we are going to experience it on the daily practical level (Romans 14:13-15:7).  

Like the delivery guy who leaves a package in an odd place, we could be searching for the ongoing gift of peace somewhere on our property. It’s there – it just seems so darned elusive. Yet, peace, the perfect peace that is harmony and unity, can neither be found in perfect circumstances nor in idyllic families and faith communities. Divine peace is the security of relationship with God, smack in the middle of life’s crud.

As the divine life takes root and grows within us, our hearts are healed with that presence, and we experience peace. It’s the kind of peace which drives fear and anxiety away; the kind of peace which only comes through trusting God.

Therefore, there’s no need to try and miraculously conjure up peace with positive thoughts.

It is the glorious, gracious, and mystical union between the divine and the human which creates peace. All obstacles have been surmounted and tossed into the trash for the garbage guy to haul away. And, no, you did not accidentally throw your peace in the dumpster. There really is no need for any dumpster diving. God’s already done that work for you and me.

In such topsy-turvy times as these, I come back again and again to deep spiritual convictions which inform what I do each day. One of those underlying creeds is this:

The Lord is trustworthy, no matter whether my faith or the faith of others is small or great. It isn’t faith itself that heals, saves, or grants peace – it is God.

It isn’t about the level of faith, but about where the faith is placed.

For the Christian, faith itself doesn’t mean much if it isn’t in Jesus. If I place a large and sincere faith in an inanimate object such as money; in a position of power; or, even in my own independence, my faith isn’t worth much. 

If I have a huge faith in a doctor or a psychiatrist to heal my body or my mind, I will quickly discover there are limits to their abilities. 

If I have a confident faith that my family will meet all my needs, my faith will eventually run into failure when they let me down. 

If all my faith eggs are in the church basket, my faith will eventually face a crisis because it is a misplaced faith.  Furthermore, the answer I provide for others is not simply getting them to attend church or to adopt my moral code.

God’s love remains continually steadfast, even if my trust is fickle and inconsistent.

We know with certainty that circumstances change; everyday seems to bring new levels and permutations of unprecedented alterations to our lives – and through it all, the Lord remains as the ever-present Sovereign, responding to even the slightest mustard seed of faith.

A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”

His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her: 

“Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

(Mark 5:24-34, NLT)

May your trust in the Lord open the way of perfect peace for you, now and always. Amen.

Believe, Love, and Obey (1 John 5:1-12)

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

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three agree. We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 

Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (New International Version)

Faith, love, and obedience are words so tightly woven together, that to pull one of them out, is to unravel the whole bunch. 

To believe, love, and obey are the true marks of a Christian; and they are vital to living the Christian life and overcoming the dark forces of the world.

Let’s talk some grammar – because it will help us better understand the Apostle John’s message….

The main verb is the main thing

One of the dominant main verbs throughout these verses: “is.” And the verb tense is key, grammatically describing a past action of God which people need to receive. In other words, the grammar dictates that God has given us new birth. 

We do not give ourselves spiritual birth any more than we can tell our mothers that it was us who gave birth to ourselves.

The participles describe the main thing

God saves us from sin and grants us forgiveness. The action is from God to us; we are recipients of God’s good grace toward us.

There are three participles connected to the main verb, “is:”

  1. Believe
  2. Love
  3. Obey

A participle is a word which is connected to the verb’s action. 

Our actions are a result of God’s action toward us.

Simply put, a person born from God will believe, love, and obey.

Just as a newborn baby first breathes, then learns to eat, sleeps, grows-up, learns to walk, and over time develops into an adult just like their mother and father, so the Christian who is born again from God exhibits faith, learns to love, and grows up developing the skills of obeying Jesus and following him, learning to walk in his ways, becoming just like him.

Overcoming the world

In the same way a child must grow and mature to have the necessary skills for facing the world in all its trials and temptations, so the Christian must develop the requisite abilities of faith, love, and obedience, to overcome the world.

To “overcome” is to experience the victory the Lord Jesus has achieved on the cross. 

Through being spiritually born again by God, it sets us on a course requiring faith, love, and obedience in overcoming the world. As we learn to apply these three spiritual characteristics to our lives, we experience practical victory over the world.

The term “world” is used by the Apostle John as the patterns, systems, and operations of the world, which are in direct contrast to how God operates. For example:

  • The world engages in revenge and payback when wronged, whereas the Christian learns to believe God will be the Judge, loves the person who has offended them through prayer for their enemy, and obeys God through good works that seeks the welfare of the other. 
  • The world uses other people as either objects of their pleasure or to get ahead in life, whereas the Christian believes God will take care of their needs, will seek to love the other person instead of use them, and would rather obey God by cutting off their right hand off than being selfish. 
  • The world thinks nothing of lying, cheating, and stealing, if they can get away with it, whereas the Christian believes Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, loves being a person of integrity, and obeys God even when it hurts.

This in no way suggests we avoid or belittle the world. In overcoming the world, we must have principled civility. Using faith, love, and obedience, we respect another’s viewpoint through allowing our spirits to grow in faith, expanding our hearts in love, and learning obedience through interaction with others for whom we disagree.

Faith, love, and obedience

We need faith in God:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6, NRSV)

We need love for God and others:

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. (1 John 2:15-17, MSG)

We need obedience to the call of God:

The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!” (1 John 4:21, CEV)

When faith, love, and obedience are working together, as intended, we overcome the world and all its crud; and keep ourselves from being polluted and stained by it.

Overcoming the world is a high calling from God. 

Faith means putting aside fear and taking the kind of risk God wants you to take.

Love means putting aside hate and serving others, even when it hurts.

Obedience means putting aside selfishness and choosing to do what is best for another person’s welfare.

Being characterized by these three Christian virtues will have the effect of overcoming the world. It is not a burdensome or heavy way to live. It’s the way of Jesus.

Blessed God – Father, Son, and Spirit – the Lord whom we serve: Sometimes our hearts and minds are flooded with fears. Sometimes we are paralyzed and overwhelmed and feel unable to go on. Yet, we hold onto the victory you have accomplished through the cross of Jesus Christ. You have told us not to fear, for you have overcome the world. In moments of crippling fear, we choose to hold your hand and believe; to love as we have been loved; and, to obey even in the most fearful places because we know that you have risen again.

Holy Spirit, we invite you and all your ministry within us. Holy God of all, we offer you our heart, mind, body, soul, spirit, hopes, plans and dreams. We surrender to you our past, present and future problems, habits, character defects, attitudes, livelihood, resources, finances, medical coverage, occupation and all relationships. We give you our health, physical appearance, disabilities, disorders, family, marriage, children, grandchildren, and friendships.

Loving Lord Jesus, we surrender to you all our hurt, pain, worry, doubt, fear and anxiety, and ask you to wash us clean. We release everything into your compassionate care. Open our ears to hear your voice. Open our hearts to commune with you more deeply. Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be closed. Set our feet upon the straight and narrow road that leads to everlasting life. Amen.

Future Hope (Isaiah 29:17-24)

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

Soon the forest of Lebanon
will become a field with crops,
    thick as a forest.
The deaf will be able to hear
    whatever is read to them;
the blind will be freed
    from a life of darkness.
The poor and the needy
    will celebrate and shout
because of the Lord,
    the holy God of Israel.

All who are cruel and arrogant
    will be gone forever.
Those who live by crime
    will disappear,
together with everyone
    who tells lies in court
and keeps innocent people
    from getting a fair trial.

The Lord who rescued Abraham
has this to say
    about Jacob’s descendants:
“They will no longer
    be ashamed and disgraced.
When they see how great
    I have made their nation,
they will praise and honor me,
    the holy God of Israel.
Everyone who is confused
    will understand,
and all who have complained
    will obey my teaching.” (Contemporary English Version)

We, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Romans 8:23-25, NIV

There are better days ahead. And it is this hope which is to help sustain us in present – because the current reality for many people is hard and unforgiving. Malevolent and heartless people exist, and they wreak physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual havoc on those around them.

When in the throes of difficulty, it is good to be reminded that basic human kindness will once again be exalted and valued. Yet, meanwhile, we must endure the evil of dehumanizing behavior. Until then, we must do our best to connect heaven and earth by rehumanizing every space and place within our sphere on influence. We are to be agents of hope for ourselves and for others.

Every person (and I do mean every person) on planet earth is created in the image and likeness of God. Each individual human being is worthy of basic human kindness and deserving of respect. 

Unfortunately, people do and say terrible things every day. Yet this never means that God’s image has left or has taken a vacation, or that someone deserves a pejorative label which stigmatizes and ostracizes them from the human family. 

For the Christian, the supreme ethic of life is love. We hold to the Great Commandment: Love God and neighbor; all other commands of Holy Scripture hang on these two bedrock commands, upheld by Jesus himself.

Therefore we must all ask ourselves if we are living our lives and loving others in this world as intended by our Creator and Redeemer. Hate speech, unsafe working conditions, political gerrymandering, apathy toward another’s injustice, a lack of empathy, and vilifying particular people groups are just a few examples of dehumanizing behavior.

If ever we move down the path of claiming to know whom God judges or ought to judge, then we have gone the way of extreme hubris and are germinating the seeds of a future holocaust of killing, not a future hope of peace and goodness. 

There is no biblical precedent or place to dehumanize another person or group of people, period. Instead, we must actively build relationships with a broad spectrum of groups and individuals – especially with the ones we least know and understand.

The injustice of dehumanization will not always be with us. Confusion and complaints will give way to clarity, understanding, humility, and obedience. Darkness and deafness, poverty and petulance shall melt away. In its place, love and grace will forever be ensconced upon a new earth, free from crime and shame. Hope will be realized.

Our future hope is a living hope.

We typically use the term “hope” in the wishful thinking sort of way. That’s because we aren’t quite sure if things will shake-out like we want. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking but a confident expectation that knows what is coming. 

Hope is like anticipating the seasons. In the dead of winter when it’s bitter cold with little sunshine, we hopefor Spring. It’s not wishful thinking. We know it’s coming. It might come in early March, maybe in late April. But it’s coming, and you can bet the farm on it. The trees will bud, the grass will turn green, and the temps will warm.

Hope in the Bible is a sure thing. Because of the person and work of Jesus Christ, there is hope, the confident expectation that deliverance from sin, death, and hell will be fully realized.

Hope, inheritance, and salvation are all words that describe nearly the same thing. They all point to Jesus. We are saved from the slavery of sin through the cross and resurrection of Christ. We are delivered into an inheritance which can never perish, spoil, or fade. But an inheritance isn’t activated until death. Someday, when this present life of earthly brokenness is over, we have the hope, the confident expectation, of a permanent inheritance with Jesus forever. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Outwardly, we suffer in all kinds of earthly grief from others who don’t understand us. Inwardly, we have the silent pain and terrible wrestling of wanting to forgive but desiring revenge; of seeking to be gracious but seething with anger; of looking to express kind words but having hate speech blurt out instead.

But it won’t always be this way. We have a future living hope. In this season of Advent, we are reminded that God shall break into this fallen world with all of its dehumanizing behaviors and hate speech. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in a humble feeding trough, in a little baby.

Hope is as real as anything you’ll ever know this side of heaven. You might not always find what you’re looking for in this life; but in the next life, you can find the life that is truly life. For Jesus Christ is our hope.

God of hope, we seek you. During this holy season of Advent, help us to see you in all whom we encounter. We seek you in the crude manger, a child born to save the world. May your hope be a comfort to all who long for justice; and may that hope overflow in our hearts and grace our lips so that we might reflect your hope for all the world. Amen.