Tag: making excuses

All Work Is Spiritual (Exodus 31:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Bezalel and Oholiab build the ark of the covenant, a woodcut from the Cologne Bible, 1479

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft!

“And I have personally appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to be his assistant. Moreover, I have given special skill to all the gifted craftsmen so they can make all the things I have commanded you to make:

the Tabernacle;
the Ark of the Covenant;
the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement;
all the furnishings of the Tabernacle;
the table and its utensils;
the pure gold lampstand with all its accessories;
the incense altar;
the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils;
the washbasin with its stand;
the beautifully stitched garments—the sacred garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons to wear as they minister as priests;
the anointing oil;
the fragrant incense for the Holy Place.

The craftsmen must make everything as I have commanded you.” (New Living Translation)

Methinks God cares about worship. After all, chapters 25-31 in Exodus are thoroughly dedicated to God communicating the specifics for the sacred spaces and symbols of worship for the Israelites.

Once the equipment for worship was described in detail, the one matter still needed was an artisan who could actually build and construct the objects. So, Yahweh also planned for the workers, as well. Bezalel was identified and designated as the person who would be divinely endowed for the task. He would be assisted by Oholiab, and together they carried out God’s instructions to the letter.

Although Bezalel and Oholiab were not priests and did not do “spiritual” work, nonetheless they were filled with the Spirit and set apart by God for their gifts to be used. In reality, all work is spiritual work, even the work of our hands. Everything we do is to be consecrated, set apart, and dedicated to the Lord for good and holy purposes.

The Spirit of God inspired and helped the two men in their very physical and mundane work. The Lord was present with them when they drew up the plans for making the objects, carved the wood, did the weaving and needlework of clothes, and the smithing of the gold. God cares about all work, not just the ethereal stuff.

A willing heart is one that follows in doing work for the Lord, and not following their own whims of how they think things ought to go. The craftsmen, Bezalel and Oholiab, were to do their work just as the Lord had commanded them to do it, just like the pattern shown to Moses on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 25:39)

God is concerned about everything, great and small alike.

When it came to the Lord’s will, the Israelites did not so much seek God’s guidance, as they waited for it. When in the desert, the pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night, determined when they moved and when they stayed put. The people simply observed, then responded. In other words, they were patient and waited for God to move, speak, command, and do whatever God was going to do.

So, when the Lord lays down some very specific instructions, those directives are meant to be followed down to the minutest detail. For the Christian, Jesus is our example. God’s will was made known to Jesus in the daily privilege and discipline of meeting with his heavenly Father and doing exactly what the Father wanted.

The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom,
    so that I know how to comfort the weary.
Morning by morning he wakens me
    and opens my understanding to his will.
The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me,
    and I have listened.
    I have not rebelled or turned away. (Isaiah 50:4-5, NLT)

All work is God’s work, and is to be done in the way God prescribes. Worship is to be directed to God, and as such, is to be done as God commands – and not any old way we think is good and needed.

No matter who we are, where we are, or what circumstances we find ourselves in, consistency in doing the will of God is imperative. Nobody has any ground for excusing themselves from their God-ordained work and worship. The ancient Israelites were in a desert without a permanent abode, yet they were still expected to follow God’s directives.

In order to embrace the will of God when it comes, and not make excuses, there are some practices we can do to help receive and do what the Lord wants:

  • Don’t fixate on past mistakes. Learn to be present and focus on what is happening in a given moment, and then you will be able to act in doing God’s will. As a result, you can stop making excuses and learn from past mistakes.
  • Take responsibility for your own words and actions. Take charge of what you have control over. If we don’t own this, then the excuses come out for why we failed to do what was needed.
  • Focus on your spiritual gifts and your strengths and skills. By actively doing what God has enables you to do, you can get the most out of each situation, without succumbing to excuses.
  • Don’t compare yourself to others. We are all unique individuals with unique journeys. That’s why it’s unhealthy to compare ourselves to others and make excuses of “not being good enough” or not measuring up to the skills of Bezalel or Oholiab or someone else. The only person you should compare yourself to is you!

By being attentive to your own walk with God, and being responsive to God’s will for your life, you will find your place in this world and discover the meaning and purpose meant for you in blessing others.

Blessed Holy Spirt of God, with God the Father and God the Son, I adore you as the Holy Trinity, the God whom I serve. I give you my heart, and offer my thanks to you for the grace given me in Jesus Christ. Continue to visit me with your grace, and enable me for work and worship in your church and your world. Amen.

Luke 14:15-24 – The Parable of the Great Banquet

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

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’

“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” (New International Version)

If the gospel of forgiveness in Jesus Christ is such good news, and God is so good, then why aren’t people breaking the door down to get into the Church? 

Today’s Gospel lesson gives us one reason why: They just aren’t interested. The parable Jesus told was of people, when invited to come to the great banquet, kept making one excuse after the other why they couldn’t come.

Keep in mind that Jesus wasn’t talking to sinful outsiders, but the religious insiders – they were the ones making the excuses why they could not participate. 

Let’s cut to the chase: If professing believers in Jesus Christ are not excited about the gospel… If Christians are not enthused over what they possess in the gospel… If the Church is content to go through the motions of Christianity without a concern to be with Jesus… If we are simply too busy to come and attend God’s banquet of grace…

Then, why in the world would any Christian or any Church believe that others ought to show up and be a part of their fellowship, that they would even remotely entertain a thought to profess Christ as Savior and break down the door to get into Christianity?

Jesus was offering a penetrating warning: The unresponsive religious insiders will be replaced by the responsive sinful outsiders. 

If the insiders take for granted what they possess and have better things to do, then God is going to call people who will hear, listen, and respond to the gracious invitation.

The deeply probing question for every believer in Christ today is: Are we so familiar with Jesus, and so content with the way things are that when God breaks into our lives in the form of an invitation that we refuse to respond because we are not interested in going to some stupid banquet? 

There is an incredible abundant feast for us – in fact, Jesus said that his food and drink was to do the Father’s will, that Scripture was his bread. (John 4:34) 

It’s much too easy to take the spiritual abundance of grace and mercy – as well as our physical abundance of food and water – for granted. After all,…

  • Being well-fed, it’s easy to assume that everyone else is, too.
  • Enjoying good health, it’s easy to forget that others are hurting and in pain.
  • Having money and the ability to work hard, it’s easy to think that there are not many poor people around.
  • Living around other Christians all the time, it’s natural to assume that everyone knows the gospel of Jesus – but they don’t!

In Christ’s story, the people making excuses see no real importance to take the invitation to the banquet seriously. And so, they go off to take care of their business and their family.

Like them, we can be much too busy with mundane activities to notice that people need the Lord. And then, when we get around to acknowledging that there are people who need Jesus, we keep devising ways to reach them without having to change our own lives to do it.

Jesus has no intention of calling and inviting us to a discipleship that requires no change on our part. The refusal to alter our lives to accommodate God’s invitation will result in the invitation going out to others. 

So, the master’s servant in the parable goes out into the roads and country lanes and invites any common person to come – anyone he can find.

And that is the scandal of Christ’s gospel – that the invitation to God’s abundant mercy is open to outcasts and failures, to problem people and unimpressive low-life’s, to backwater rednecks and uneducated hicks, to the jobless and the needy, to all sorts of people who are not like your circle of friends. 

People who are flawed are especially dear to Jesus, and not just people who have it all together. It’s the people who outwardly have it all together that are being replaced wholesale with those who admit their guilt, shame, and brokenness. 

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy upon us sinners.

Gracious God, forgive me for wasting time in things that just don’t matter in the scope of eternity. I choose to go out and compel outsiders to come in, so that your house will be full for the great feast at the end of the age. Through Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen.

Luke 9:10-17 – Jesus Feeds Five-Thousand

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
The Feeding of the Five Thousand by John Reilly, 1958

When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him, and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed healing.

Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. (New International Version)

Jesus feeding five thousand people is not just an incredible story that happened a long time ago. Today, Jesus is still in the miracle business because he is still in the kingdom business. Christ still takes our meager resources and turns them into something that has a large impact on a lot of people. 

For that to happen, all we need do, is follow the Lord’s simple instructions: “You give them something to eat,” and, “Bring them [five loaves and two fish] here to me.” Jesus, using a simple act of obedience by his disciples, did one of the most famous miracles in history.

Jesus can multiply whatever little we possess to accomplish his kingdom work through us. 

It is true that Jesus most certainly can do miracles without us. And yet, Christ chooses to use us simple folk to participate in his work. God uses our simple prayers for the miracle of a transformed life. The Lord uses our imperfect speech to bring new life to others. Jesus takes our miniscule bank account to bring a river of financial resources to many through a small act of giving. 

Faith is our true work – to believe God can do the extraordinary through our ordinary loaf of bread and piece of fish.

The Compassion of Jesus Motivates Him To Do Miracles

Jesus withdrew to a solitary place. The crowd, however, did not leave him alone. But rather than being annoyed by the situation because this interruption was not on his divine day planner, Jesus looked at the large group of people and had compassion on them. 

Christ’s heart went out to thousands of people, so he set about the work of healing the sick. Please know that God does not begrudgingly deal with you, as if you were an interruption to his day; the Lord has compassion for you.

The Desire of Jesus is For Us to Participate in the Miracles He Does

After a full day of healing, Christ’s disciples came to him as if he was unaware of the people’s need for food.  They had a very rational and realistic answer to the problem of hunger in front of them; dismiss the crowd so they can go out to eat. 

Jesus calmly responded, “They don’t need to go away; you give them something to eat.” 

I detect perhaps a hint of sarcasm and a slight eye roll in the reply of the disciples, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish.” But their math was way off because they did not count Jesus. 

The Five Thousand by Eularia Clarke, 1962

Jesus simply said, “Bring them here to me.” My friends, if we have ears to hear, Jesus is still saying this today to us – bring them here to me. Through simple prayer and active obedience, we must give Jesus what we have, no matter how little or insignificant.

Most of what happens in Western Christianity, much like the ancient disciples, is a reasonable doing of rational ministry. Many ministries have little to nothing to do with the impossibility of faith and seeing God work in ways that are incomprehensible to our modern sensibilities.

The earthly miracles of Christ were not an isolated instance. God has always been taking the impossible and making it possible.

Now there was a woman who had been married to a member of a group of prophets. She appealed to Elisha, saying, “My husband, your servant, is dead. You know how he feared the Lord. But now someone he owed money to has come to take my two children away as slaves.”

Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me what you still have left in the house.”

She said, “Your servant has nothing at all in the house except a small jar of oil.”

He said, “Go out and borrow containers from all your neighbors. Get as many empty containers as possible. Then go in and close the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all those containers. Set each one aside when it’s full.”

She left Elisha and closed the door behind her and her sons. They brought her containers as she kept on pouring. When she had filled the containers, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”

He said to her, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped flowing, and she reported this to the man of God.

He said, “Go! Sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what remains.” (2 Kings 4:1-7, CEB)

What if we were to live as if God was interested in doing the miraculous? Would it change the way we pray, and the way we act? 

What if we understood just enough of Jesus, of what he can and wants to do, that we are bold to say:

  • “This might sound crazy, but what if we found out the names of everyone in our community who needs food and go love on them and feed them?” (instead of only the rational means of a food pantry)
  • “This might sound crazy, but what if we used our property to create a community garden and help people grow their own food?” (instead of only the rational means of government aid) 
  • “This might sound crazy, but what if we prayed for one-hundred people, by name, to be healed?” (instead of only the rational means of relying on the pastor to pray)

Most of our plans are humanly possible and doable. Maybe we ought, instead, to seek the impossible.

We may often do nothing out of a sense that God either cannot or does not want to use me or what I have. However, it just won’t do to stand afar off and expect God to work without us giving what we have, whether that something is time, money, conversation, food, hospitality, or whatever. 

Our excuses won’t do for Jesus – my home is too small, I don’t have enough money, I am not smart enough, my schedule won’t allow it, I don’t have enough resources…. In God’s economy you don’t need much, at all. Just a mustard seed worth of faith will do. Jesus wants us to be a part of the miracles he is doing.

Conclusion

I can visualize the disciples befuddled by Christ’s words. I can imagine hearing their excuses. “You want me to do what?  Feed thousands?  Lead someone to Jesus?  Pray in front of others?….” 

The miracle for many a believer is to be open, real, and transparent enough to believe that Christ can do the impossible through confessing sin, participating in ministry, having a spiritual conversation with an unbeliever, or just naming out loud what one actually thinks and feels.  

The question is never, “Can God use me?” The real question is, “What miracle does God want to do through me, and through us as a community of faith?”

It is no accident that when Jesus distributed the bread, it sounds a lot like communion. The Lord’s Supper may seem to be irrelevant – only something we do to remember Jesus, or a mere ritual. But God’s design is much bigger. The Lord wants to do a miracle. 

God wants our observance of Christian communion to bring a healing which the world cannot give. It appears irrational that Jesus can use a small Table to feed and reach thousands. Yet, we don’t serve a God who is limited to work through rational means. 

O God, our heavenly Father, you have blessed us and given us dominion over all the earth. Increase our faith and our reverence for the mystery of life. Give us new insight into your purposes for the human race, and new wisdom and determination in making provision for its future, no matter whether it makes sense, or not, in accordance with your goodwill, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What Will It Take?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
Don’t blame God when you are tempted!  God cannot be tempted by evil, and he doesn’t use evil to tempt others.  We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us.  Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead.
 
 
 
 
            Many times we face adversity because of situations beyond our control.  But sometimes we face suffering not because of the circumstances which God brings in our lives, but because of our own unwise response to difficulty.  We compound our problems by blaming our troubles on others, and refusing to face-up to what God is trying to teach us.  It started in the Garden.  Adam said to God:  The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. (Genesis 3:12).  He implies that he would have remained innocent if God had not put Eve in the garden with him. The blame-shifting in the Garden continues today. Our bruised hearts send us desperately looking for someone else to point to when we are confronted with our own trouble. There must be someone else—our spouse, sibling, parent, boss, co-worker, pastor, friend, or even God who is to blame. 
 
            We are sometimes so desperate to justify ourselves that we believe illogical and irrational things. You have likely heard these statements, and even said them yourselves (at least in your head): 
  • “I wouldn’t lose my temper if my co-workers were easier to get along with, or if my kids behaved better, or if my spouse were more considerate.” 
  • “I would be a patient person if I didn’t have so many things to do, and if the people around me weren’t so slow and incompetent!” 
  • “I would not worry about the future if my life were just a little more secure—if I had more money, and no health problems.”
  • “My spiritual life would be so much more better and I would struggle with sin less if the music in the worship service was more lively, or if the pastor did a better job.”
  •  “I would submit to my parents if they were not so out of touch.”  Or, “I would follow if we just had some decent leadership.”
  • “It’s not my fault that the people around me don’t know what they’re doing!”
  • “If you knew what I’ve been through, you would know that I could never forgive that person [or God].”
  • “It’s the people around me who start the conversations. There’s no way to avoid hearing what others happen to say. And when others ask me questions, I can’t avoid sharing what I know.” 
  • “I’ll never be happy as long as so-and-so is in my life.”
  • “I would be more generous if God gave me more money.”
The Holy Spirit has been bringing to me one question over and over this week:  What will it take?  We need to fill in the blanks of that question: 
What will it take for our churches to stop making excuses? 
What will it take to quit blame-shifting on others? 
What will it take to trust God and step out in faith and share Christ with our neighbors?
What will it take to stop worrying about what other people think and start doing what God thinks? 
What will it take to look at faith as a dynamic relationship with Jesus instead of just a static thing you possess? 
What will it take to read our Bibles as if our lives depended on it? 
What will it take for church members to serve instead of sit? 
What will it take to reach our communities with love for Christ? 
What will it take to grow in Christ?  What will it take? 
If you are in a circumstance you don’t like, what should you do about it?  What will it take to face down the difficult stuff you don’t like in your life?
 
Don’t blame God.
 
            God cannot be tempted.  God hates sin and disobedience; it does not appeal to him in the least.  It is a moral impossibility for God to even consider attempting to do evil because he is perfectly holy.  Since God cannot be tempted by evil, he therefore cannot tempt people toward evil.
 
            We practice blame-shifting because it is a cheap, easy, and pathetic way of absolving ourselves from responsibility for our own unwise choices, words, and actions.  There are only two ways of living with guilt:  either we humble ourselves through confession and repentance; or, we blame the sin on someone else.
 
            God does test us to improve our character and to bring us toward greater spiritual maturity, but he does not force us to make bad, immoral, or evil choices because of hard circumstances.  God may have very well brought the trial and testing into our lives; but how we respond to it is up to us.
 
The source of temptation is us.
 
            The real culprit behind temptation is one’s own personal desire.  It is our own strong intense have-to-do-it, have-to-say-it, and have-to-have-it desires which are at the root of temptation.  We all have legitimate needs and desires for love, security, companionship, and to make a difference in the world.  But we can often seek illegitimate means to satisfy those needs.  We are “enticed” to meet our needs through temptation toward sin.  Temptation lures us to satisfy our legitimate needs in illegitimate ways. 
 
            Temptation comes in many forms, but it always gives us amnesia about who we really are, and pushes out any thought of consequences.  It just looks like such a good way to deal with my anger, my anxiety, my impatience, my spiritual apathy, my bitterness, and my lack of spiritual growth.  Ah, blame-shifting feels so good; it gets the guilt-monkey off my back – at least for a time.  But like a bad addiction, blame-shifting has to occur in a bigger dose after a shorter duration of time.  Before you know it we are hooked.  The temptation has enticed us and we have taken the bait.  Like a fish-eyed follower of evil we succumb to the lust for ambition, revenge, sex, power, fame, and money.
 
The result of giving-in to temptation is ultimately death.
 
            Temptation, like a smooth operator, comes along and gives us a slick pitch about how our troubles can be taken care of through blaming others, even God.  And, all of sudden, like a hungry fish looking to be satisfied, we take the bait and go to bed with the idea.  We give in to sin.  Now it is within us.  Like a fetus, the small sin grows and grows inside us.  Eventually, this pregnancy must end.  But instead of giving birth to life, there is the agony of death.
 

 

            Every single one of us struggles in some way with some sort of temptation.  We do not all wrestle with the same demons, but we all are tempted in some manner.  The cycle of guilt and separation from God can only be broken through humility and submission to Jesus Christ.  The glory of the gospel is that it breaks the power of sin.