Tag: new life

The Compelling Love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:6-17)

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

So we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive due recompense for actions done in the body, whether good or evil.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people, but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!(New Revised Standard Version)

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the supreme authority over all things; and that we are ruled by Christ. Yet, the sort of rule Christians submit to is without any belligerence from us. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

We are ruled by Christ’s love for us. Believers are convinced that since Christ died for all, then all of us have died. Jesus died so we would no longer live for ourselves, but for the one who died and was raised to life for us. Since love is our guide and rule in life, we are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The guilt and shame of our past is forgotten; everything is made new.

Love is the distinguishing mark of the believer in Jesus Christ. A person filled and ruled by Christ’s love sees all of life in a new and different way: 

  • Positive confidence and optimism replaces negative skepticism and pessimism
  • Grace overwhelms and overrules the old judgmental spirit
  • Being attentive and mindful of others erases holding onto old hurts and animosities

The person who does not change, refuses transformation of heart, and forsakes renovation of the mind, is not being ruled by Christ’s love. 

Conversely, the person who allows the love of God in Christ through the cross to thaw their cold heart to a new white hot passionate life in the Spirit, is experiencing the resurrected existence to which we have been called.

Here is a little exercise to try today: Monitor your words and actions. And at the end of the day, ask yourself a series of questions:

  1. Were my words and actions done in love?
  2. What percentage of those words and actions were loving and unloving?
  3. Was I compelled by Christ’s love, or by some other love? 
  4. How can I bring the value of love to be more operative in my behavior and speech? 
  5. Who will I share my plan with?

The reality is this: Everything comes down to God, to the Father, Son, and Spirit. 

The distinctive manner we live is to be an expression of the triune God who exists in perfect unity, harmony, love, and mission. Whether in our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, or churches, God wants to exercise and express divine love in us and through us. God’s love compels us.

Holy Scripture says that the triune God is love (1 John 4:16). God’s nature and purpose is love itself. The reason we love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is that God is love. 

As people created in the image and likeness of God, there is within us a deep desire to know and love God. Yet, it’s possible to lose touch with this primal instinct to love God. We may become so familiar with hearing about God that we go about our days not really know God, and the love of God in Christ.

Without knowing the God who is Love (with a capital L) people might go through the motions of living, even worshiping, without any love behind it. Like spiritual zombies, we may walk about the earth, but are really dead to what is going on in God’s wonderfully big world.

For the Christian, our first love is Jesus. We may live moral lives, operate with sound ethical principles at our jobs, and diligently serve family and church, yet miss the heart and soul of loving God. 

Jesus himself said to the church at Ephesus, who had performed good deeds, that they had forsaken their first love (Revelation 2:4). The Apostle Paul put it this way to the church at Corinth: “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3)

A new robust life of love is possible because the Father first loved us, sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and gave us the Spirit in order to display God’s love toward one another. (1 John 4:10-13) 

Jesus reminded us that all of Scripture hangs on the dual command to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). This has been understood throughout church history as The Great Commandment. 

Christ also told us that the supreme task of the Church is to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). This has been rightly discerned through Christian history as The Great Commission. 

In order to live into The Great Commandment and The Great Commission, we are to wholeheartedly embody the community of love which exists within the triune God. This is a single-minded loyalty to do what is right, just, and good for our neighbor; we might describe this as The Great Commitment.

Finally, here is yet another few questions for both committed believers and church leaders to ask themselves:

  1. In what ways might we, in this contemporary world, faithfully and obediently live into the calling we have been given by our Lord? 
  2. How do we effectively engage this primal quest of loving God, loving one another, and loving our neighbor?

Loving God, you demonstrated your love for us through the cross of Jesus. May my life be so filled with grace that what comes out of my mouth and what is done in my behavior is consistently characterized by the sort of divine love which is always true of you. Amen.

Born from Above (John 3:1-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Visit of Nicodemus to Christ, by John LaFarge, 1880

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” 

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 

Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. (New Revised Standard Version)

Christians serve a triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit. This Holy Trinity of three persons, yet one God, conspires to plan and orchestrate the deliverance of people from sin, death, and hell. The Lord makes it possible for people to be born again.

Maybe you’re ready to tune out with the phrase “born again” or “born from above” because either this is old hat to you; or you want to distance yourself from the obnoxious evangelist who is the pester pup toward others’ salvation.

However, today’s Gospel lesson is for me and you. So instead of tuning out, consider the person of Nicodemus in the story:

  • Served God
  • Good guy
  • Upstanding Jewish citizen
  • Devout and pious man
  • Faithful temple worship attendance
  • Member of a prestigious religious group 

And yet, it was to Nicodemus that Jesus said, “You must be born again.” But why? Because although Nicodemus was a really good egg, he was an adoring fan of Jesus, but not a committed follower of Jesus.

Nicodemus Visiting Christ, by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1899

Admiration and kudos isn’t the same as taking up your cross and following Christ. Nicodemus didn’t need to adjust his life and make some tweaks here and there; it was time for a new life in walking the path of discipleship with Jesus.

The further away we are from birth, the easier it is to take God for granted; and to have a spiritually settled way of life in which the mystery, wonder, and awe of life is slowly drained from us. That’s why I think two year olds probably know more about God than anyone around – since they can articulate the wonder of life being only a few short years from their birth. 

One night I came home and walked into the kitchen to find my then four-year old grandson unashamedly crawling on all fours with his face barely off the floor. I said, “What in the world are you doing?” He looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye and a serious tone in his voice and said, “I’m sniffing for clues.” 

I honestly do not expect you to sniff for clues on your kitchen floor. But would any of us be found sniffing for clues of God? Would we seek hard and doggedly pursue the Lord? 

Because Nicodemus was such a good guy, he did not see himself in need of new life. Meeting Jesus at night is deeply symbolic of the fact that Nicodemus was literally in the dark about his spiritual condition. He was actually clueless to many of God’s ways, and how the world works in God’s kingdom. Nicodemus maintained a respectable distance as a fan of Jesus.

How do we move from being a fan to a follower of Jesus? 

Believe. To believe in Jesus means to move from only an intellectual faith of acknowledging doctrinal beliefs about Christ and God. There is to be movement from observing the works of God to a life of complete trust as a dedicated follower of Jesus.

Christian discipleship is more than asking Christ to help out in a jam or bad situation. And it is certainly more than praying a particular prayer. Rather, it’s letting Jesus decide what to do with us and remove any shortcomings, character defects, guilt, shame, and general crud from us.

We are to be made pure, to be cleansed – as if we were a new person or born again, from above. There is the willingness to depend on something other than myself, my resources, and my connections.

In Christianity, Jesus is much more than a wise teacher and a miracle worker; Christ is Savior for whom the follower gives complete allegiance to. In other words, we let Jesus use us for divine purposes, instead of us using Jesus for our own puny human purposes.

Let us intentionally and deliberately relinquish control of our lives, and of everything, to Jesus and become his faithful followers. Information is not transformation; and, seeing transformation in another person’s life is not a substitute for transformation in my own life.

Interview Between Jesus and Nicodemus, by James Tissot (1839-1902)

Nicodemus had to grab ahold of the reality that Jesus did not only come to save others, but to save him, as well.  We must be born from above, to have a new life, to be “born of water and spirit.” Nicodemus would have immediately been reminded of John the Baptist’s ministry of a baptizing for the repentance and forgiveness of sins. 

Jesus was letting Nicodemus know that he, too, needed repentance from trusting in those good deeds, and of simply acknowledging Christ. The practices of fasting, praying, and giving; and the dedication to thrift and morality is quite admirable. Yet, these are not the things which move a person from darkness to light. And they don’t give us a leg up to heaven.

Jesus is the One who has worked hard for us. God conceives us as Christians, and then nurtures us in the womb of faith. At some point, we come to full term, and God births us spiritually into new life. 

Maybe it’s time to move from darkness to light; from staying warm and cozy inside the womb to the bright outside world; from being a fan of Jesus to a follower of Jesus; from being in the dark audience to the bright lights of the stage for all to see. 

The issue is not in saving yourself, but to let God be God; and let God do the work in you that God wants to do. 

If there is no gestation from Jesus as Teacher to Jesus as Savior, there is no birth. If there is no gestation from Jesus as Miracle-Worker to Jesus as Savior, there is no birth. 

The Apostle John was making the point here in describing the conversation that if Nicodemus, who is the upstanding religious citizen, needed to be born again by Jesus, then how much more do we need to have a new life, to move from the comfortable confines of being a fan to the playing field of being a follower of Jesus?

Jesus does not need a bunch of groupies admiring him at night. But conversely, we need Jesus.

Fans sometimes confuse their admiration for devotion; people mistake their knowledge of Jesus for an actual relationship with Jesus. Fans assume that their good works and good intentions are sufficient. Yet, new life requires giving up an old life. And that, my friends, is what’s at stake in Christian discipleship.

May God the Holy Trinity make us strong in faith and love, and birth us into new life through Christ our Lord. Guide us in truth and peace; and may the blessing of God Almighty – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – be among us, and remain with us always. Amen.

Speak To the Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Valley of the Dried Bones, by Abraham Rattner (1895–1978)

The power of the Lord came over me. The Lord brought me out by his Spirit and put me down in the middle of a valley. The valley was filled with bones. He led me all around them. I saw that there were very many bones at the bottom of the valley, and they were very dry.

Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I answered, “Only you know, Almighty Lord.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones. Tell them, ‘Dry bones, listen to the Lord’s word. This is what the Almighty Lord says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. I will put ligaments on you, place muscles on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. While I was prophesying, suddenly there was a rattling noise, and the bones came together, one bone ⌞attaching itself⌟ to another. As I looked, I saw that ligaments were on them, muscles were on them, and skin covered them. Yet, there was no breath in them.

Then the Lord said to me, “Prophesy to the breath! Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: Come from the four winds, Breath, and breathe on these people who were killed so that they will live.’ ”

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath entered them. Then they came to life and stood on their feet. There were enough of them to form a very large army.

The Lord also said to me, “Son of man, all the people of Israel are like these bones. The people say, ‘Our bones are dry, and our hope has vanished. We are completely destroyed.’ So prophesy. Tell them, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: My people, I will open your graves and take you out of them. I will bring you to Israel. Then, my people, you will know that I am the Lord, because I will open your graves and bring you out of your graves. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live. I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ” (God’s Word Translation)

Bible Art

Dry. It might be good for humor or a martini. Dry, however, doesn’t feel good when it’s a time of spiritual dryness.

Perhaps you are dry. It seems the entire world is dry. Wars, conflict, death, violence, uncertainty, unrest, and upset people everywhere is evidence that there is dryness across the earth. Many institutions, organizations, companies, and faith communities have become so withered and dry, that they have folded and died.

The hard circumstances of our world, stress in our families, and challenging personal lives may easily create anxiety, and, so, parch our souls and leave our spirits bone dry. There is, however, a God who can breathe new life into us and move us from old-worn ruts in our thinking, feeling, and behaving, to renewed ways of being in the world. 

The prophet Ezekiel’s vision is a promise and a hope of resurrection, revival, and new life. Regardless of who we are and the situations in front of us, we are all displaced people – cast out of Eden and in need of restoration. 

We, along with the ancient Israelites, are in exile and long to return to our true home with God. Along with St. Augustine we declare that our “hearts are forever restless until they find their rest in God.”

There are dry bones lying around – parched places in need of being reinvigorated.

Maybe you are presently experiencing the dry bones of hopelessness and despondency. Perhaps you are in a dark night of the soul where all of life seems like one huge rut. It could be you are wondering if God is really listening, or is even there at all, because of the dry bones surrounding you.

In my work as a hospital chaplain I often encounter patients who are, ironically, bone dry from too much drinking. Their alcoholism is like a massive desert littered with thousands of dry bones. Attempting to reanimate themselves while dulling the pain of incredibly hard dry circumstances, they drink liter after liter of “spirits” to replace the dead spirit inside them. Some become so dry and dead inside their immaterial selves, that they seek to end their material lives through suicide.

But it need not be this way. We might believe we will be able to live life and pursue God better without danger or hardship – that somehow difficulty is not to be part of life. The dry bones exist, however, as an opportunity for God to give life. That’s why Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s reaction to his exile in a Soviet labor camp in Siberia was to bless it, because it was there he said:

“I discovered that the meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

God not only gives life; God restores life. And this is an important truth to know and remember in the inevitable dry times of our lives. God is not only a helper; the Lord reanimates us from spiritual rigor mortis to lively resurrection through breathing on us. And this is done for a reason. Jesus came to his disciples after his resurrection and said:

“Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus (John 20:20-21) 

God resuscitates us for a purpose, so that we might be a blessing to the world. Faith is not only a possession to keep, but a gift to give. We glorify God in loving one another and loving the world as Jesus did.  God could have resurrected the bones without Ezekiel. Instead, the Lord used Ezekiel and had him participate in the revival by speaking to the bones. 

Such a challenge to speak to the dry bones can seem overwhelming to us. What do you do when your life is upended, even shattered – when such a profound change comes to you that it is impossible for your life to be as it was? 

The questions and commands of God seemed totally absurd to Ezekiel, speaking to dead dry bones. Yet methinks we ought to operate more in the realm of the absurd than in the realm of the safe routine.

Perhaps we ought to expect our faith to be exercised and look for God to breathe new life into the dead and decaying. To believe that something, someone, or even myself can change is to have internalized this amazing story of dry bones living again. 

Our self-imposed graves cannot hold us because God is among us.

We need a genuine heaven-sent, Spirit-breathed, glorious reanimation in which God sends reviving grace and raises the dead. 

Lord of Resurrection, please be attentive to our prayers; and make what is impossible possible:

For those without hope – feeling dried up and cut off from you – open their graves and bring them back to the land of the living.

For those spiritually oppressed – held captive by sin – release them from their chains and let them go! For those who weep – lost and lifeless in a tomb of fear and shame – give them the peace of your presence, and show them what your love can do.

For those complacent – withering on the vine, and living a dull dry existence without any spiritual vigor – awaken them, O Lord! Breathe into them new life!

Pour out your Spirit, gracious God, and awaken all kinds of people to a revival of obedience, love, and courage.

May your people be so full of your Spirit that life comes rolling off our tongues and the strength of life empowers our hands for service. Amen.

Magic vs. Miracle (Acts 8:9-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Peter’s Conflict with Simon the Sorcerer, by Avanzino Nucci, 1620. Simon is on the right, wearing black.

Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 

But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. (New International Version)

Simon the Sorcerer was quite a character. For that matter, so was Simon Peter. The contrast between them, however, shows that there were really no similarities between the two – even though the Sorcerer tried to make it so.

The Sorcerer reminds me of the church elder who is a continual suck-up to the pastor. Those sorts of parishioners always drive me nuts in the ministry. I have known plenty of them over the years, who put on a façade of politeness and speak with flattery; but their real agenda is to have power, by any means possible.

People like Simon the Sorcerer have always existed, ever since the fall of humanity into sin. They aren’t committed to anything but themselves. Their actions are motivated by the accumulation of information so that they can use that knowledge to leverage for more power and control.

What is so sad about the Simon the Sorcerer sort of people is that they actually believe that everyone else is motivated by the very same things they are; and that the world operates on acquiring more and more control and power over it.

They need money because they believe everyone has a price. They compulsively follow influential individuals because they believe anyone can be manipulated. They continually boast (and even lie) about their importance and all the great things they have done in the past.

Perhaps most of all, the Simon the Sorcerer type person obsessively seeks attention because they believe their sense of security and self-worth are determined by how many other people like them.

The Apostles of Christ, Philip and John and Peter, saw right through the false discipleship of the Sorcerer. They didn’t need to know all the events of Simon’s past to clearly see that he was a bitter man who was a prisoner to the guilt and shame he carried around in his heart.

simony: The buying or selling of advantages for positions in the Church, or for religious pardons

The difference between Simon the Sorcerer and Simon Peter the Apostle is the difference between manipulative magic and divine miracles. Like the Egyptian magicians of Pharaoh, and the divinely inspired Moses, the ability to perform a great wonder of power, or spiritual sign of power, seem rather similar – that is, at first.

But the similarities of the supernatural powers are merely superficial. There are always limits to what the Sorcerer can do versus the unlimited abilities of the true believer possessing spiritual power – or even between supposed Christian faith healers and the godly believer who is gifted with being a healer.

The bottom line of it all is that the deeds of Simon the Sorcerer pointed to himself in selfish acts of self-glorification. The signs and wonders of Simon Peter – and all the other Christian Apostles – consistently pointed to the kingdom of God and validated the message of repentance and new life, faith and forgiveness, in Jesus Christ.

In other words, the Apostles did not really do any of the miracles of bringing a changed life to people; Christ himself did that, through the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit. It was a message about release and freedom from the dark forces of Satan, and the ability to live a good, just, and right life without having to pay for it in any way.

Today, although few people practice an overt form of magic as the ancients once did, we still must be wary of those who promise magical results for whatever we need or what ails us.

One could argue that much of contemporary marketing and consumerism are a modern form of buying into the magical thinking that my life can be mystically and unexplainedly improved through using a particular product (or a certain church consultant!).

The easy way is most typically the approach of the Sorcerer and charlatan; it doesn’t really change anything, or require anything of us, especially when it comes to the human heart. It never truly brings about a better world.

The way of the cross, however, is a hard road – the narrow way – and few end up finding it. The old life must go in order to make way for the new life. There must be a crucifixion before there can ever be a resurrection.

God, you sent your Son into the world that we might live through him. May we abide in his risen life so that we may bear the fruit of love for one another and know the fullness of joy. Amen.