Tag: new life

God Will Give a New Heart (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

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

I will take you from every nation and country and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. (Good News Translation)

As a hospital chaplain who has spent a great deal of time on cardiac care units, I have had several occasions to follow patients through the process of a heart transplant. I sat with them as they wondered if they would ever get a new one, because their own heart could no longer sustain the rest of their life. Would they die before receiving one? What would happen to their families?

Then, finally the day came for many (unfortunately, not all); there is a heart for them! After the incredible transplant surgery, joy abounds, knowing there is a new lease on life, a fresh experience. Through weeks or months of waiting and flirting with the Grim Reaper of death, hope is realized. Their old useless heart now replaced with a vibrant one, full of life!

However, the process is not yet over. Typically, about two or three days into possessing this new heart, a new realization comes along with it: Someone else had to die so that I could live….

He personally carried our sins
    in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
    and live for what is right.
By his wounds
    you are healed. (1 Peter 2:24, NLT)

God will…

Life comes from death. Resurrection can only happen when there is a crucifixion. Gaining a new spiritual heart has been achieved at the greatest of costs. “I will” is uttered nine times by God in five verses of Ezekiel’s prophecy. In gracious acts of determination to restore fallen people, God makes promises and has the authority and power to back them up.

Our new heart is waiting to be animated by God’s Spirit so that our observance of God’s law is infused with divine might. Our consent to surgery is all that is needed. Consider just a few of the great “I will” statements of Holy Scripture:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” (Psalm 32:8, NIV)

“If someone trusts me, I will save them.
    I will protect my followers who call to me for help.
When my followers call to me, I will answer them.
    I will be with them when they are in trouble.
    I will rescue them and honor them.
I will give my followers a long life
    and show them my power to save.” (Psalm 91:14-16, ERV)

“I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, NRSV)

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3, NIV)

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV)

The emphasis in today’s Old Testament lesson is on God’s role, not ours. The prophet Ezekiel’s hope is not in the faithfulness of the people in following some new set of rules. Instead, God is their hope. God will save them by gathering, cleansing, and giving Israel a new heart, mind, and spirit to obey God’s words.

God will gather

Those in diaspora, scattered far and abroad in exile, will be gathered back from the nations and into their own land. God will reverse the experience of dispersion by reassembling the people.

He will raise a banner for the nations
    and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
    from the four quarters of the earth. (Isaiah 11:12, NIV)

God will cleanse

God will purify the people, cleansing them from their rebellion and defilement. Since the people’s exile was a punishment for their corruption, they were therefore in need of purification.

I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. (Jeremiah 33:8, NIV)

God will give

Specifically, God does the seemingly impossible: gives a new heart. The people’s old sinful stubbornness is replaced wholesale with fresh desires for justice and righteousness. They will think and act differently because of this gracious newness.

Much like the real physical heart that can barely function any longer, the people’s collective heart was nearly dead, and as unresponsive as a stone. They needed a transplant, so that they could come alive again to God’s moral law and benevolent rule in the world.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33, NIV)

Despite all the threats of judgment throughout the long prophecy of Ezekiel, and all the distressing experiences of the people’s exile, God still desired to be their God. The Lord wants a relationship with people, and will do what it takes to restore it when it becomes broken and damaged. Indeed the Lord is a God of restoration.  

May Christ make his home in your heart as you trust in him.

May your spiritual roots grow down deep into God’s love and keep you strong.

May you have the power to grasp, along with all God’s people, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of God.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

May you be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

May your new heart pump with the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the encouragement of the Spirit. Amen.

A Real Change of Life (Matthew 12:43-45)

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

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.” (New Living Translation)

Nature abhors a vacuum. A tilled plot of soil will be overtaken with weeds if nothing is planted and nurtured in the turned-over dirt. 

The pecking order of a brood of chickens cannot handle the death of the top hen without filling the position almost immediately. 

In the spiritual realm, the exorcising of a demon will not simply leave a person empty of evil – their life will be filled with something in its place.

Jesus told a story about a man who was delivered from an unclean (evil) spirit. It’s a powerful and simple narrative on the necessity of true repentance, that is, on what a real change of life is like. 

Genuine freedom is more than getting rid of something bad and destructive; the evil must be replaced with something good and useful. In other words, biblical repentance, a true transformation of a person, is both a turning away from ungodliness and an embrace of righteousness.

We are delivered from evil so that we can start living into right and peaceful relationships, as God intends for us.

For example, the Apostle Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to not only stop stealing but also to get a job and start sharing with others. They were not only to stop lying and using their tongues for gossip and slander and start using their words to speak truth that builds up others. (Ephesians 4:25-32)

The spiritual principle is the same as the nature principle: A empty vacuum will always be filled. The man who did not fill his life with God ended up having a problem with evil seven times greater than when he started. If anything, or anyone, is emptied of its unhealthy elements and practices, it is imperative that the hole be immediately filled with healthy disciplines for life.

Whether dealing with addictions, bad habits, or any kind of evil influence, a two-pronged approach is needed for its eradication. We expel the evil by replacing it with godliness. 

For example, the man struggling with pornography or adultery must not only stop the behavior but take up the mantle of being a champion for women’s issues; or the woman who has no healthy boundaries and allows herself to be used and abused must not only separate from the problem or person but adopt her identity in Christ as a precious child of God and enforce righteous limitations. 

These examples are not meant to be simplistic answers to complex situations. Rather, they illustrate why so many people do not experience freedom and continue to have even greater enslavement to their passions and sufferings. Freedom is realized through replacing old practices with new disciplines that directly attack the old.

We all have needs. How we get those needs met is often a mixed bag of both legitimate and illegitimate ways. In a perfect world, everyone would be aware of their needs and be able to express them to one another without shame, anxiety, or anger. Since we live on a blemished fallen planet, we end up trying to meet our needs indirectly through hustling for love, hoarding resources, and controlling others – all harmful ways which destroys souls and relationships.

In order to focus on meeting our needs in a wise and healthy manner, we must take a step beyond ending a toxic relationship, cutting up a credit card, or saying “no” to another responsibility. We often get into our mess to begin with because we are out of touch with ourselves and our needs. We need affection and encouragement, and there is no shame in needing this. We need security and safety, and there is no problem in acquiring this. There are some things we need to control, and that is okay.

If we fail to address our needs, we might do the necessary work of deliverance, then turn right around and become worse off than before by filling the empty place of our lives with:

  • Being all things to all people, as if we were the Messiah.
  • Being successful so that we stay ahead of being needy.
  • Pulling inside ourselves and trusting nobody.
  • Distancing from our needs and pretending they are not there.
  • Being continually vigilant so that we are never hurt that way again.
  • Keeping a positive spin on everything, as if there is no negative stuff in the world.
  • Challenging other’s opinions and behaviors to keep the focus off our needs.
  • Becoming a wallflower so that we can never be the brunt of someone else’s vitriol or evil.

Instead, we can let Jesus fill the emptiness with love, purpose, peace, joy, attention, and grace. Christ is the Savior who delivers us from evil, and the Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier who carefully applies the work of salvation to our lives. When our hearts and minds are full of God, there is no place for the demons to get in.

True change and transformation equally forsakes evil and embraces righteousness; replaces the unhealthy with the healthy; jettisons the illegitimate and seeks the legitimate; and puts away unnecessary suffering and pursues peace and joy in the Spirit.

O God, I no longer want to live with saying I’m sorry and going right back to the old pig slop of sin. I cannot change on my own. I need Jesus to both take away the sin and give me a new life of living for him. Help me to make choices that put to death the old way of life, and the courage to live into my forgiveness in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thankful for Your Faith (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10)

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

Paul, Silas and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you.

We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. 

Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (New International Version)

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Thessalonica, essentially saying, “I really can’t say enough good about you!” I also echo the same about your faith. Paul had plenty of reasons to express thanks for them in his prayers. He was thoroughly convinced of God’s work in them, and acknowledged the good work of God in their spiritual transformation.

The background of Paul and the Thessalonians

Paul visited Thessalonica on his second missionary journey (Acts 17). Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, located on an inlet, and so, was a port city along an important trade route. Thessalonica was a very religious city, with a host of various deities that were worshiped. It was also a politically prominent city that prided themselves on embodying the ideals of the Roman Empire, including bravery, loyalty, piety, seriousness, respect and authority.

When the Thessalonians heard Paul’s message and accepted its call to worship the God of Israel exclusively, they faced rejection and possibly persecution from their polytheistic families and neighbors. To accept and worship Jesus took some solid faith, hope, and love, because to be a Christian was costly within the culture.

God loved and chose the Thessalonians

Paul could praise their faith because it lifted and upheld the gracious work of God on this earth. Before the Thessalonians chose God, God chose them. God didn’t have to do that. But the Lord was gracious, merciful, and kind, extending salvation and deliverance from an empty way of life to a group of people who didn’t deserve it. In fact, none of us do. God’s grace chooses to grant us faith and salvation. To be included amongst God’s people is an incredible privilege.

The good news of Jesus Christ came to the Thessalonians with power, assurance, and the Holy Spirit. They turned from their idols to God. Jesus redeemed and rescued them from darkness and judgment. The Thessalonian believers turned from their previous religious expressions in order to serve the living and true God. As a result, they began imitating Jesus and his apostles. And because of their Christian way of life, the Thessalonian Christians then became worthy of imitation themselves.

Because of God’s merciful intervention in their lives, Paul was grateful for the work of God for three specific elements and expressions about the Thessalonians’ Christian lives:

  1. Their work produced by faith
  2. Their labor prompted by love
  3. Their endurance inspired by hope

Indeed, for every Christian, the Christian life is lived with the essential tools of faith, hope, and love.

Endurance inspired by hope

It’s a standup quality to be characterized as people of hope. The Thessalonian believers were anticipating and waiting for the Lord’s return; they had no doubt Jesus will come again. The Christians just needed some reassurance about those who have already died without yet seeing Christ – which is why Paul wrote his letter to them. And the believers were good at encouraging each other with the hope of Christ’s return.

Labor prompted by love

Paul didn’t really even need to teach the Thessalonian Christians about loving each other because they were good students of God as their teacher. They had a reputation of hearing the Word of God, then doing it. Specifically, they learned to love, not only one another within their local church, but the whole of the family of God throughout Macedonia. So then, the Thessalonians excelled at expressing their faith through love. (Galatians 5:6)

Work produced by faith

The Thessalonian believers became well-versed and practiced in the Christian elements of hope and love. And their faith became known everywhere. Paul was thankful for their work produced by faith. Yet, as the rest of the letter bears out, along with the second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul will have much to say to them about the nature of faith.

Paul reminded the Christians of his example to them and the gospel which he proclaimed. Several times, Paul talked of the work he put into them on their behalf (1 Thessalonians 2:9; 3:5; 2 Thessalonians 3:8). On the topic of following godly examples, Paul also admonished them to respect those who have authority over them, who labor and work among them (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).

The Apostle encouraged the Thessalonians to continue in their work, so that every need would be met within the church; and so that there would be a good witness to those outside the church (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). Paul let them know that a very practical way they can express their love is by working with their hands so that none among them have any need.

Faith and work are not mutually exclusive. Even though the Thessalonian believers were transformed by their belief in Christ, they still needed to remember that they must carry on in their regular daily lives until Christ returns.

Imitating the faith and patience of solid believers

And we are all still responsible to be faithful, every day, no matter what the situation or circumstances are. We must carry on in our faith, hope, and love through obeying and living into the words and ways of Jesus. We do this through imitating the faith and patience of trusted Christians, like the Apostle Paul.

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13:7, NIV

People can only experience the fullness of their humanity when they are in deep, trusting relationships with one another. Even more, relationships have more depth when experienced and centered in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Imitation then becomes an outgrowth of this strong relationship.

Far too often we seek excuses, or to find loopholes, in order to avoid the vulnerability that a close mentoring relationship demands. We may look for ways to justify not getting close, or simply distance ourselves from other believers.

Maybe we do not want to do the work — desiring to avoid being hurt. It could be that we are tired of doing the relational work necessary for closeness and walking with Christ and one another. Relationships get messy and they take lots of energy. But our spiritual growth is completely tied to relational growth. The Apostle Paul himself was vulnerable:  

Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. (1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, NIV)

This imitative relationship is important for the advancement of the gospel. The faith is passed on from generation to generation, from disciple to disciple, in one long progression stretching all the way back to Jesus and the original twelve disciples. For our own faith, hope, and love to be effective, it requires following the example of Paul, and of committed faithful believers in your own life, through close relationships with them.

God of all faith, hope, and love, we praise and give you thanks for the resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ. We celebrate the joy of life in you, and are grateful for the privilege and opportunity to live into the reality and power of the resurrection.

Inspire us, by your grace, to live the life of intentionally following Jesus. We surrender ourselves to the life of Jesus, who called us to be faithful servants of God. We commit to living for Christ, our Savior and Lord, in whose name we are bold to pray. Amen.

A New Outlook on Life (2 Corinthians 5:17-22)

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

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (New International Version)

Everyone sees things (and people) only in part. We all have our own unique perspective and take on life. And we interpret life from that particular angle.

God has brought us new life, and with it, a new outlook on life, made possible by the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul gained a new orientation on his life because he encountered God’s love through Jesus Christ. And his experience of love caused Paul to live for Christ and not for himself. He gained a new perspective.

Conversion to Christ and following Jesus brings a new outlook on life that enables us to live a good and beautiful existence on this earth for the sake of the church and the world.

God brings a new outlook to us in three major ways. The way we look at ourselves, others, and God:

  • No longer do we need to compulsively demean ourselves, nor think of ourselves as better than we really are. Instead, encountering a new life in Christ, we see that we are truly loved by God and worthy of giving and receiving love. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!… This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:1, 16, NIV)
  • No longer do we view others as tools to take advantage of; and neither do we look merely at one’s outward appearance. Instead, experiencing new life helps us to see other people as spiritual persons, important to God and needing divine love, just like us. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:10-12, NIV)
  • No longer do we view Christ as merely a good teacher or a moral man. Instead, our new life gives us the lenses of seeing Jesus as Savior and Lord. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:13-18, NIV)

With new life comes a new perspective that results in a new way of life. I was once walking with my late mother-in-law through an art museum. We came upon a piece of art that didn’t necessarily speak to me; and I really didn’t understand it. But my mother-in-law happened to know the artist who painted the picture. And she told me about the person, why she painted it, and what she was trying to convey with her art. This information completely changed the way I saw the painting.

As we progressively get to know God, it really ought to transform how we view the Lord and look at Holy Scripture. And when we discover God in Christ, we see a caring Lord who went out of the way to become one of us, become the pioneer of our salvation, and bring about redemption and reconciliation through an ignominious death on a cross.

God has deliberately sought us and brought us back into the divine dance through Christ – which is why we celebrate. And the highest form of celebration is imitation, that is, becoming ambassadors representing who Jesus is by being just like him.

We imitate Christ through our relationships. Whenever we act with humility, mourn over the world’s sin, deal with others according to grace and gentleness, seek right relationships and keep everything above board, are pure, merciful, and peacemaking in all our dealings, and love and pray for our enemies – then we are encountering God, imitating Christ, and living a new life from a new vantagepoint.

Because Christians have been reconciled to God through Jesus, it transforms how we see people and our desires in our relationships with them; and it changes our stance and perspective on the God who initiated and brought salvation and reconciliation to us. I want to:

  • Grow in a relationship with God through worship, prayer, and scripture reading
  • Grow in relationships with other Christians in fellowship, service, and love
  • Grow in relationships with my neighbors and everyone I encounter, to be an ambassador for Jesus, as if God were working through me to accomplish the compassionate loving of the world and demonstrating how to live a blessed and peaceful life.

In finding our true spiritual home, we find life. There’s nothing quite like being able to live a peaceful existence because of God’s reconciling work in Christ on our behalf.

Lord God, bring us together as one, reconciled with you and reconciled with each other. You made us in your likeness, and you gave us your Son, Jesus Christ. Enable us to know you and one another in the spirit of grace and love. Amen.