Tag: relational connection

Remain In Me (John 15:1-8)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Vine and the Branches, by Irene Thomas

I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (New International Version)

In the New International Version of the Bible, the word “remain” is repeated 8 times in 8 verses. The original Greek word translated as “remain” is μένω (pronounced “men-oh”). It means to linger in the present moment; to be mindful to ourselves and our situations; to stay connected.

Remaining with Jesus means we that have continual unbroken connection of unity and fellowship with him.

In order to have a connection, there must be two ends to connect. The Jesus connection is always there. We are the other connection. And, frankly, we can be flaky – pulling away and coming close – which is why Jesus gave a repeated invitation to keep the connection.

Some other translations of John 15:4 may help to fill out an understanding of this invitation to remain in Christ (emphasis mine):

Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. (CEV)

Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It must stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me. (GW)

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. (NKJV)

Stay connected to me, and I will stay connected to you! A branch cannot produce fruit on its own but only if it has a vital connection to the vine. In the same way, there’s no way you can produce fruit at all, unless you have a meaningful connection with me. (my own translation)

The task of every Christian is to remain connected to Jesus. So, the question is: How do we keep the connection without breaking it? How can we be fruitful?

Focus on the Relationship

Christianity, at its core, is a living relationship with Jesus. Yes, doctrine is important; and it’s necessary to know the basic tenets of Christian faith. Yet, any knowledge we gain about Christianity is to be channeled into developing the relationship.

By Helian Cornwell

Bible trivia is only as good as the understanding we apply to build the relationship. Knowledge makes us proud of ourselves, while love makes us helpful to others. Knowledge makes us feel important, yet love strengthens the Church. Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. (1 Corinthians 8:1)

Christ’s redemption – his incarnation, holy life, death, resurrection, and ascension – are meant to restore the severed relationship with humanity. Only knowing doctrinal truth is not the same as using the doctrines to connect with God in a loving relationship.

It takes planning, dedication, time, and effort to grow and maintain our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we fail to use our time and energy on that relationship, then the leaves on the branch begin to wither.

Scripture, silence, solitude, community, prayer, giving, and fasting have always been at the center of Christian practices designed to put us in a position to hear and receive from God.

Relate Well to the Other Branches

The Church is a living growing community. Christ and the Church have a vital union with each other. I used to live in a place where there was a tree that had grown up next to an old fence post. The tree grew tall and engulfed the post to the degree that now you can only see part of the fence post.

To remove the post, you would have to remove the tree; the two have become one. Not only are we connected to the trunk, but we’re also connected to each other. We are all part of the same vine; we aren’t separate vines. So, we all need to do our part in the vine’s system.

Keep Close to the Vine

My grandmother had a grapevine in her backyard when I was a kid. I have firsthand understanding that the sweetest, juiciest, biggest, and best tasting grapes are found in the middle, securely next to the vine’s stem.

The sour grapes are found at the end of the branches. Show me a sourpuss Christian, and I’ll show you a Christian who is not close to Christ. Show me a sweet Christian and I’ll show you a believer who daily works at their close connection with Jesus.

Pruning is Necessary

Healthy vines need pruning, at least once a year; ideally, twice a year, in the Spring before budding, and in Autumn, after the harvest. Without pruning, the vine’s ability to produce good and abundant grapes is compromised. The grapevine’s branches need to be kept short because the nutrients are concentrated in and near the vine stem.

Pruning hurts. From the perspective of us branches, pruning feels like judgment. But it isn’t. Even though pruning is painful, it makes us healthier and tastier.

It’s better to do a few things well, rather than try and do a lot of things for which there is limited time and energy. So, do some spiritual pruning twice a year!

Know Why You are Connected

Yes, Christians have a connection with Jesus so that we are saved from sin, death, and hell. And, yes, we are connected to experience abundant life. Yet, the goal of that connection is to produce succulent fruit.

If there are no grapes on the vine, the vine is useless. Grapevines exist to produce grapes. Christians and Churches exist for the life of the world, to produce the fruit of righteousness consistent with our Christ-connected union: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Church is not an end in itself, but exists for the life of the world. Using other metaphors, Jesus said:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16, NIV)

Pray

If we live in union with Christ – with the words and ways of Jesus powerfully within us—then ask for anything, and it will be done. Prayer is both an event that anyone can do, as well as a spiritual practice that needs growth and development.

The words of Jesus are the nutrients for our spiritual life. When those words find a home within us, there is a divine/human conversation. Christ promises that if we just ask, we’ll receive.

As the relationship with Christ grows, we learn to be thoughtful about our asking. Flippantly or selfishly asking for things disrespects the connection we enjoy with God. Claiming or demanding answers to prayer demeans the relationship. We can also dishonor God by simply not asking, at all.

Prayer is the delivery system for receiving our nutrients; and is also the means of delivering fruitful blessing so that the world might live. Jesus modeled a prayer for us that is grounded in connection and unity with the Father:

I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.

I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world’s people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me.

Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am. Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created. Good Father, the people of this world don’t know you. But I know you, and my followers know that you sent me. I told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them. (John 17:20-26, CEV)

We must live and pray consistent with who we are, and what our mission is. The Church is to be one as God is One. Christians are to pray for unity because the triune God is always united. Believers everywhere need to remain in Christ through a vital connection of loving God and loving their neighbors. Amen.

Tuesday of Holy Week (John 12:20-36)

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

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 

Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 

Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 

Jesus said to them, “The light is in you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”

After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them. (New Revised Standard Version)

We continue to journey with Jesus during this Holy Week, on Tuesday. A mix of both Jews and devout Gentiles made their way to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. It was amongst this group of people that Jesus delivered his final public teaching to the crowd.

There were some Greeks who really wanted to see Jesus, and they saw an opportunity to do so when everyone was gathering at Passover time. They asked some of Christ’s disciples if they could do so, and the word was passed to Jesus. This occasion prompted Jesus to let the disciples know that the time has come for death, and therefore, life.

For those with the eyes to see what was happening, many of the people were being drawn to Jesus, rather than the temple. The Lord Jesus was gathering the nations – foreigners and outcasts – to the holy mountain to meet with him. Salvation would be found in him.

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people,”
and do not let the eunuch say,
    “I am just a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it
    and hold fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar,
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel:
I will gather others to them
    besides those already gathered. (Isaiah 56:3-8, NRSV)

Jesus does the work of connecting the disconnected, of bringing together disparate humanity into a needed and peaceful wholeness and integrity. Christ is the ultimate gatherer, fostering get-togethers that bring the opportunity for divine/human connection, as well as the chance for unity and reconciliation between people.

Christ was about to die on behalf of the nations. He was sacrificing himself in order to bring Jews everywhere scattered in diaspora together. And he was giving himself for the sake of Greeks and all sorts of ethnicities, so that both Jew and Gentile might be gathered together as the one people of God. In other words, Jesus Christ offers himself for the life of the whole world.

There was certainly a gathering of people on Palm Sunday with Christ’s triumphal entry. Yet, this was not the event that truly brings everyone together. It is the death of Christ that does that.

Up to this point, on Holy Tuesday, Jesus had already communicated several times in various ways about his upcoming death. (i.e. John 2:20; 3:14-15) On this day he refers to it again through the cryptic language of stating that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Using an agricultural metaphor that surely connected with his hearers, Jesus let the gathered ones know that he is the seed who will fall, and die, yet produce an incredible harvest. He is the one who willingly gives up his soul on behalf of the world. Jesus does this in obedience to his Father’s will.

In fact, Jesus is so sure about his mission as Savior of the world, that he confidently proclaims he will face death without asking for divine deliverance from it.

The confused and divided crowd of people were given a direct voice from heaven. This was not to assure or reassure Jesus, but was for the sake of the gathered folks in Jerusalem. They were provided some light, so that there was some guidance in the midst of the darkness which was about to happen in a few days.

Wanting to see Jesus needs to become more than a desire to meet a celebrity, or to fawn over him as a fan or a groupie following him around. Our ears need unclogging. Our eyesight requires some correction. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus will unclog us and correct us.

The darkness will always be around the corner, this side of heaven. And death will persist, too, until Christ returns. Therefore, we must trust that God will bring about life through death. In the darkest of times, a light will illumine the path.

Holy and immortal God, from earliest times you have named us and called us into discipleship. Teach us to follow the One whose light scatters the darkness of our world, so that we may walk as children of the light. Amen.

The Irony of Christ’s Followers (Mark 10:32-34, 46-52)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
A 10th century depiction of Christ healing a blind man

The disciples were confused as Jesus led them toward Jerusalem, and his other followers were afraid. Once again, Jesus took the twelve disciples aside and told them what was going to happen to him. He said:

We are now on our way to Jerusalem where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses. They will sentence him to death and hand him over to foreigners, who will make fun of him and spit on him. They will beat him and kill him. But three days later he will rise to life….

Jesus and his disciples went to Jericho. And as they were leaving, they were followed by a large crowd. A blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus son of Timaeus was sitting beside the road. When he heard that it was Jesus from Nazareth, he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” Many people told the man to stop, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, have pity on me!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him over!”

They called out to the blind man and said, “Don’t be afraid! Come on! He is calling for you.” The man threw off his coat as he jumped up and ran to Jesus.

Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man answered, “Master, I want to see!”

Jesus told him, “You may go. Your eyes are healed because of your faith.”

At once the man could see, and he went down the road with Jesus. (Contemporary English Version)

“Irony” and “ironic” are terms describing when an outcome of an event is contrary or different from what would be expected.

Here are a few examples of irony: The firehouse burnt down. The police officer got arrested. When I was a kid, my family physician’s name was Dr. Fail (really!). There is an overarching ironic lesson to our Gospel story today:

The people following Jesus with 20/20 vision were spiritually blind.

Their great need is the same as blind Bartimaeus: To have their eyes opened to Jesus and to what God was doing around them. Bartimaeus was marvelously and miraculously given sight by Jesus – the others, however, remained unchanged and in the dark. 

Irony #1: Many followed Jesus, but only a few were his followers.

All kinds of people physically followed Jesus around for various reasons while he was here on this earth. Some wanted to bask in the latest celebrity buzz that Jesus generated. Others wanted to see the cool stuff Jesus did, like healing people. Some were plain curious. And a few were interested in being like Jesus by showing selfless compassion.

Jesus continually sought to press the crowd following him into spiritual seekers who would learn to follow his teaching.

Many people conform to the group and go with the flow. That’s great if the crowd is good, and not so good if they’re going in a bad direction.

In the Old Testament, a few unruly complainers got the Israelites stirred up. The result was making a golden calf and turning away from God. Sometimes it is right and necessary to go against the crowd.

Irony #2: Out of all Christ’s followers, it is a blind man that sees Jesus for who he is: The Son of David.

Bartimaeus discerned it was Messiah who was walking by him. So, he went against the crowd and shouted to Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus didn’t care how he looked to others; it didn’t matter to him that he stuck out like a sore thumb to all the spiritually blind people.

Jesus often avoided crowds. Most of his earthly life occurred away from the centers of power and influence. Jesus swam upstream of the prevailing notions of righteousness. Christ did not cow-tow to the crowd. Instead, he paid attention to the needy and forgotten.

Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus, by William Blake (1757-1827)

And while in a large group of people, Jesus did not “work the crowd” to get ahead and further his agenda. He did not cozy-up to the rich and powerful. And Christ deliberately avoided celebrity status. Jesus showed extraordinary love to an overlooked person. He used his immense power for one powerless person.

Irony #3: The ones following Jesus were the ones trying to keep a blind man from Jesus.

One irony of the church is that Christ’s own followers can be the biggest obstacle to others following him.

I can just imagine a group of gossipy church folk shushing Bartimaeus: “Don’t bother Jesus, he is such a busy man! He has important work to do!” I can also picture them standing next to blind Bartimaeus saying, “Just stop, man, you’re embarrassing yourself.” 

But Bartimaeus would not stop. He shouted all the louder. That’s because true and genuine faith is a needy person crying out in desperation for Jesus to help.

Jesus asked a beautiful question: “What do you want me to do for you?”

“I want to see,” Bartimaeus responded. So, Jesus had compassion on him, and gave him his sight. Here we have two men, Jesus and Bartimaeus, ignoring all the people around them, and having a divine encounter.

This encounter raises my curiosity as to why it is so hard for us to simply say what we want.

It could be that we don’t want to buck the crowd, or to look different. Maybe we don’t want to admit our need in front of others. So, we simply stick to superficial conversations and insist that everything is okay, when it isn’t.

Jesus said, concerning the crowd, “Although they see, they don’t really see.” (Matthew 13:13)

If we are concerned about how we are seen by others, we will not be seen by God; we will miss Jesus when he walks by, right in front of us.

Conclusion

How might we raise our ability to see Jesus and truly follow him as he desires us to?

Listen to Jesus

Jesus was headed to Jerusalem and had a lot on his mind and heart with anticipating his passion and death. Christ became attentive to Bartimaeus, out of all the people around him, because he was listening.

If we want to see Jesus and follow him, we must be listeners,  and be attentive to compassion, like Jesus, to the needy and lowly among us. 

I recently read a story from a Christian who lived during Nazi Germany. He said:

“I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because what could anyone do to stop it? A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks.

“We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars! Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear those wheels because we knew we would hear the cries of the Jews in route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us.

“So, when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly, and soon we heard them no more.

“Years have passed, and no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me. Forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene.” 

Respond to Jesus

Once Jesus listened, he responded by asking a question. Christ took the time to heal Bartimaeus.

Jesus could have simply healed him without even stopping. He could have started a healing factory where everyone with a need just moved through a line and got healed. But Jesus was doing more than giving sight; he was giving a blessing – the blessing of time and relationship.

The gospel is personal, which is why we ought to resist being non-relational in ministry to others.

Christian ministry is about blessing other people with the gift of relationship. It begins with recognizing self as the one who needs Jesus; and it starts with having our own eyes opened to see our own need, and then the great need of people around us.

God of all compassion, I confess that it is natural for me to do things my way. I recognize that I am limited, but that you know all things. I yield my spiritual eyesight to you so that my spiritual vision will be clear. Jesus Christ came to give sight to the blind and to open our eyes. I commit my ways to you so that I can see your ways and not just my own. Amen.

Real Life (1 Thessalonians 3:6-13)

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

But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 

For now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (New International Version)

What does it mean to really live? Everyone has their own conceptions of what the good life is. But to live life to the full, to really live in sync with how life actually is (and is supposed to be) brings us true satisfaction, contentment, and meaning.

In the radical individualism of the West, it may seem foreign or strange to us that the Apostle Paul’s life was very much bound up in the lives of others – in the churches he established and with the believers who had come to faith in Christ. For Paul, to really live was to see spiritual growth and development in the places where he ministered.

The thing that really got Paul excited, what really melted his butter, was leading others to Christ, forming them into churches, and watching them carry out their missional mandate by doing the same things that he did with them. I can relate to Paul’s joy and satisfaction over Christian discipleship.

There’s nothing quite like mentoring others in the faith, helping them mature in that faith, and sending them out to live according to the model of faith that you’ve demonstrated for them. To see the Word of God take root in individuals and communities of people is like no other sort of joy and contentment.

In the midst of discouraging circumstances of persecution and distressing situations of opposition, it was gratifying, encouraging, and motivating for Paul to hear a good spiritual report from his protégé Timothy about the Thessalonian church’s faith.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, or like it or not, every one of us is inextricably connected to the other. And that is especially true in families, and in the family of God. The Thessalonian believers’ steadfast commitment to Christ and the Christian faith was a crucial and important dimension of Paul’s own persevering faith.

The Apostle had been on the front lines of faith – taking the good news of grace and forgiveness in Christ to the nations. To have his churches endure through all their own troubles and challenges is a great boon to Paul. They each derive confidence and inspiration from the other. Everyone’s faith is confirmed and strengthened when everyone is striving to live for Christ.

All the believers in Christ were really living because they stood firm in the Lord and were immovable in their faith commitments. Assurance and reassurance comes not in isolation, but through the interdependence and interaction with others who share the same values.

Parents don’t really live, unless they see their children living a life of abundant joy and satisfaction. And it’s the same with spiritual mothers and fathers; they truly live when their spiritual children are walking in faith and patience with the Lord.

This is why Paul was grateful and could not thank God enough for the Thessalonians’ life of faith. God’s powerful and gracious work in the church brought out all kinds of thanksgiving. With that sort of dynamic happening, Paul could face any tribulation with the confidence and trust needed to keep going.

Prayer is the logical response to a healthy spiritual and relational dynamic of faith. The greater the good relations, the greater the desire to come and keep imparting needed teaching and encouragement for the Christian life. In other words, spiritual growth begets spiritual growth.

The best way the Thessalonian converts and all the churches become rooted in faith is by God helping them to have their love increase and overflow for each other, and for everyone else. What’s more, God intends that the love Christians have for one another be a model and a witness to and for the world.

Christian community is the place we learn to love. As we practice again and again how to love one another in the church, we then take this love into the world in loving even our enemies. For if we are to follow our model and leader, Jesus Christ, then we will infuse each word and every action with the love of God in Christ – which is the light that draws others into a healthy spiritual and relational dynamic.

We must pray, as Paul did, for love to increase amongst us, so that our hearts are strengthened with genuine purity and holiness of life. For unless love grows and flowers, selfish desires will increase and turn our love inward to the point of taking love away from God and the world.

It is imperative that we have a genuinely loving stance toward each other as believers, and toward others in the world. Apart from this love – given graciously to us through the cross and resurrection of Christ – there is little hope for anything bad in this old fallen world to ever be better.

The bottom line is that churches wither and die because they lose sight of love; Christians lose faith and go their own way because they forget about love; and believers throughout the world continue on because loving prayers, loving ways, and loving words come their way, despite difficulty and hardship they face.

So, let us love one another as Christ loved us. For this is the way our faith is strengthened and our hope is kindled to keep enduring until Jesus returns to this earth and makes all things new and right. This is real life.

May almighty God give you grace to persevere with joy, so that the work of love begun in you may be completed, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.