Tag: resurrection

Have Spiritual Eyes to See (1 Peter 1:8-12)

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

You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express, because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in him.

It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you. They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ’s Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow. 

God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand. (Good News Translation)

No less real than our actual physical eyes are our spiritual eyes – which enable us to see things invisible to our physical eyesight. Faith is the glasses that bring those things into focus.

To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1, GNT)

Our life is a matter of faith, not of sight.

(2 Corinthians 5:7, GNT)

Faith creates the conditions for love. Cold dispassionate ideas and thoughts are just that; but faith gives us sight to see the true nature and meaning of love. Faith enables us to see Jesus Christ, who is Love incarnate.

This spiritual sight, made possible by faith, and bringing Christ into focus, is the basis for joy and the foundation of hope. It is more than joy; it’s joy unspeakable, beyond words, greater than the vocal chords can produce. It’s the sort of joy that takes your breath away.

Joy elevates us and brings us face to face with the glory of heaven. And once we have experienced this, our contentment is solely in Christ, and we have no need for anything the world offers. This is what it means to be saved.

Salvation always involves two equal and important facets: deliverance from something, so that we may attach to something else.

For the believer, with spiritual eyes to see in faith, we are saved from all the snake oil promises and allurements of the world; we are delivered from the weight of guilt and shame we carry; and we are snatched from the flames of hell and the machinations of the devil to ensnare us in evil.

The deliverance comes so that we can then connect with goodness, truth, justice, integrity, wholeness – with the love of God in Jesus Christ. Experiencing this wondrous spiritual fruit leads to a pure confession of faith:

But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ’s sake. Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with him. (Philippians 3:7-9, GNT)

I am neither a Christian because I was raised in cultural Christianity, nor because it was all I knew at the time. Rather, I am a Christian – a follower of Jesus Christ – because I was given a great gift of faith and saw divine love given for me, even though I deserved none of it.

So, my heart fully and forever belongs to Christ. It is a life worth living, a life of faith, hope, and love. No matter the hardship, adversity, or crud which happens to me on this earth, I am thoroughly surrounded by God’s grace, peace, and love.

And if I have to explain it to you, you probably don’t have it. That’s because it takes a different sort of eyesight, a countercultural set of ears, and a new meaning of touch, smell, and taste.

This sort of deliverance from sin, death, and hell, and into a great inheritance of faith, is so incredible that the ancient prophets, and the even older angels, longed to know what this salvation truly is.

And what they foretold, and believers now know, is that the cross is the way to victory; death is the passage to life; suffering is the road to glory.

Therefore, our present afflictions need not discourage nor debilitate us, as though we were miserable without any hope. Even more, it is through these very troubles that we are blessed.

No matter the evil thrown our way, there is always glory attached to it. If we must suffer, let us do so in the same spirit as Christ suffered:

My dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful test you are suffering, as though something unusual were happening to you. Rather be glad that you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may be full of joy when his glory is revealed. 

Happy are you if you are insulted because you are Christ’s followers; this means that the glorious Spirit, the Spirit of God, is resting on you. If you suffer, it must not be because you are a murderer or a thief or a criminal or a meddler in other people’s affairs. However, if you suffer because you are a Christian, don’t be ashamed of it, but thank God that you bear Christ’s name. (1 Peter 4:12-16, GNT)

Allow your spiritual eyes to confirm the truth, and to behold the living Christ.

“Why are you alarmed? Why are these doubts coming up in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet, and see that it is I myself.” Jesus (Luke 24:38-39, GNT)

May you know Christ, and him crucified, risen, and coming again. And may you know the hope of glory, indescribable joy, and everlasting love. May you know salvation.

Victory Celebration (Exodus 15:1-18)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Songs of Moses and Miriam, by Laura James

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
    horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my might,
    and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him;
    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.

Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea;
    his elite officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
The floods covered them;
    they went down into the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power—
    your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.
In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries;
    you sent out your fury; it consumed them like stubble.
At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;
    the floods stood up in a heap;
    the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said, ‘I will pursue; I will overtake;
    I will divide the spoil; my desire shall have its fill of them.
    I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’
You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
    they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
    awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand;
    the earth swallowed them.

In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
    you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
The peoples heard; they trembled;
    pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed;
    trembling seized the leaders of Moab;
    all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.
Terror and dread fell upon them;
    by the might of your arm, they became still as a stone
until your people, O Lord, passed by,
    until the people whom you acquired passed by.
You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession,
    the place, O Lord, that you made your abode,
    the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.
The Lord will reign forever and ever.” (New Revised Standard Version)

The ancient Israelites were freed from four hundred years of Egyptian bondage through the miraculous work of God. Then, as they were leaving Egypt, Pharaoh had a change of heart and decided to take his army and pursue the Israelites.

Literally sandwiched between the army and the sea, yet another miracle happened: God parted the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to pass through on dry ground; and then God closed the sea up on the pursuing army. Today’s Old Testament lesson is the people’s victory chant of deliverance.

Portrayed here is Yahweh’s incomparable power over the mighty Egyptians, and protective presence with the Israelites. God was fulfilling the divine promise to bring the people out from bondage and into the Promised Land. Nothing can stand in the way of the Lord’s purpose.

By Stushie Art

God Rescues

Throughout the Bible, deliverance and celebration go hand in hand. For the Christian, this time of year is full of celebrating the resurrection of Christ from death. Because our redemption is secured, we rejoice in the once for all sacrifice of Jesus.

God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much; the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. (Colossians 1:13-14, MSG)

God Protects

The Lord showed up and wondrously delivered the Israelites from certain annihilation. And God has also entered into humanity’s world and brought emancipation from sin, death, and hell through Christ’s redemptive events of cross and resurrection. We are shielded by God’s glorious grace and goodness.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5, NIV)

God Establishes

Deliverance is provided, and then the divine presence is with us throughout life. God doesn’t expect us to be on our own after we are saved from a calamitous situation. Grace is given for all things, not just some things. So, the Lord helps to establish us in faith and perseverance for a lifetime.

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature…. Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. (2 Peter 1:3-4, 12, NRSV)

Our victory chant comes from God’s redemptive events. For the Christian, we are rescued from our precarious spiritual plight, protected and established by divine power, through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

“Victory in Jesus” by E.M. Bartlett, 1939

I heard an old, old story
How a Savior came from glory
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me
I heard about His groaning
Of His precious blood’s atoning
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory

Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me ‘ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

I heard about His healing
Of His cleansing power revealing
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit”
And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory

Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me, and He bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me ‘ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

The Power of Deliverance (Exodus 14:10-31, 15:20-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Parting of the Sea, by Yoram Ranaan

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw that the Egyptians were coming after them. Terrified, the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Did you bring us out into the desert to die because there were no graves in Egypt? Look what you’ve done by bringing us out of Egypt! Didn’t we tell you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone! Let us go on serving the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Moses answered the people, “Don’t be afraid! Stand still, and see what the Lord will do to save you today. You will never see these Egyptians again. The Lord is fighting for you! So be still!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to start moving. Raise your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide the water. Then the Israelites will go through the sea on dry ground. I am making the Egyptians so stubborn that they will follow the Israelites. I will receive honor because of what I will do to Pharaoh, his entire army, his chariots, and cavalry. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored for what I did to Pharaoh, his chariots, and his cavalry.”

The Messenger of God, who had been in front of the Israelites, moved behind them. So the column of smoke moved from in front of the Israelites and stood behind them between the Egyptian camp and the Israelite camp. The column of smoke was there when darkness came, and it lit up the night. Neither side came near the other all night long.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. All that night the Lord pushed back the sea with a strong east wind and turned the sea into dry ground. The water divided, and the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground. The water stood like a wall on their right and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and cavalry followed them into the sea. Just before dawn, the Lord looked down from the column of fire and smoke and threw the Egyptian camp into a panic. He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they could hardly move. Then the Egyptians shouted, “Let’s get out of here! The Lord is fighting for Israel! He’s against us!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the water will flow back over the Egyptians, their chariots, and their cavalry.”

Moses stretched his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the water returned to its usual place. The Egyptians tried to escape, but the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered Pharaoh’s entire army, as well as the chariots and the cavalry that had followed Israel into the sea. Not one of them survived.

Meanwhile, the Israelites had gone through the sea on dry ground while the water stood like a wall on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel from the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore. When the Israelites saw the great power the Lord had used against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses….

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand. All the women, dancing with tambourines, followed her. Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord.
He has won a glorious victory.
He has thrown horses and their riders into the sea.” (God’s Word Translation)

Things can change quickly.

One day, you’re living in slavery, and the next, you’re free. One minute, you’re celebrating freedom, then the next minute, you’re backed into a corner, and it looks like the end – only to be dramatically delivered from calamity.

One day (Holy Saturday) the disciples were lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon wheel rut; the next day (Easter Sunday) they’re wondrously slack-jawed with hopes higher than the sky.

Today’s Old Testament reading impresses on us the necessity of trusting God one day at a time, one minute at a time. Circumstances will change; God’s basic character will not change. Therefore, we have the continual opportunity of exercising our faith, and practicing trust in the Lord, by living into a new reality.

In this Christian season of Eastertide (spanning the next 50 days until the Day of Pentecost) we discover resurrection power in putting to death old unhealthy practices and adopting new healthy life-giving habits. Eastertide’s intentional focus is to recognize and celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so, to exult in our own new life in him.

Revisiting both Christ’s resurrection, and the Red Sea deliverance, helps to remind us God’s invisible power to save is stronger and greater than any visible powers on this earth. Both of these deliverance stories keep us focused on the hope of individual renewal, corporate revitalization, and worldwide revival.

Eastertide is the season to engage in some renewal practices. The following are a few ideas for living into our deliverance from God:

  • Pray for revival of spirituality. Christ brings salvation and life, so praying to God for revival is a deliberate way of connecting with God.
  • Pay attention to words. Gossip, back-biting, slander, and other sins of the tongue kill people. Instead, consider how to use your speech for encouragement, love, mercy, forgiveness, and building up one another. This promotes growth, health, and life.
  • Proclaim resurrection. I believe the church is meant to be the hope of the world because Christ is the risen Lord. Graciously proclaim the resurrected Christ and how the spiritual life makes a difference in life.
  • Put yourself out there. Start the new ministry you always believed would make a difference. Take a risk. You’ve been given eternal life, so can you really fail?
  • Promote daily habits of spiritual health and life. Develop a realistic and workable plan for yourself when it comes to basic spiritual practices of Scripture reading, prayer, worship, etc. And stick to it by involving others.

There will always be people in our lives who try and pull us from what’s most important, even persons who want to keep the status quo to the point of seeking to destroy us. Be ready. Keep Eastertide in front of you; God has raised us to new life.

Allow Christ’s resurrection take root in your heart to such an extent that life itself informs all your thinking, speaking, feeling, and acting. The victory is won. So, sing to the Lord!

Jesus Is the Cornerstone (Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24)

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

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

Let Israel say:
    “His love endures forever….”

The Lord is my strength and my defense;
    he has become my salvation.

Shouts of joy and victory
    resound in the tents of the righteous:
“The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!
    The Lord’s right hand is lifted high;
    the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”
I will not die but live,
    and will proclaim what the Lord has done.
The Lord has chastened me severely,
    but he has not given me over to death.
Open for me the gates of the righteous;
    I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord
    through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
    you have become my salvation.

The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The Lord has done it this very day;
    let us rejoice today and be glad. (New International Version)

Jesus The Cornerstone, by Gloria Ssali, 2016

Indeed, today we rejoice with gladness and celebrate that Christ is risen! Christians have a firm foundation of faith that gives us strength and stability.

Everyone’s life is constructed on some sort of foundational support. If we consider a building, it’s foundation has four cornerstones. For us as people, those stones consist of the body, the mind, the emotions, and the spirit. Each of these stones is holding up the one building of our life, and so therefore, they each need our attention in order to be well maintained.

Physical

Jesus is the

Mental Spiritual

Cornerstone

Emotional

We can neither treat them as if they are different sizes (which then would never hold up the building of our life) nor as of different importance.

For example, if we get a crack in the physical stone of our life, it is insufficient to examine the mental stone and try to repair the crack through positive thinking or mindfulness. Or, if our emotional stone is damaged, it won’t get fixed by focusing on the spirit stone by only praying.

These days, a lot of people have had bad, even traumatic, religious experiences, and so they’ve jettisoned the spirit cornerstone altogether. And as their building begins to collapse, they wonder why this is all happening.

The spirit cornerstone is Jesus. We need him. We need his whole entire life – not just parts of it. Christ is not a tool that we can use and then store in the garage for next time; he’s the whole garage, and the entire hardware store. We can no more set him aside than we can set aside our lungs or our heart.

So, why do so many resist facing the cracked and damaged stones? Why resist, or even reject, Jesus? Why do so many Christians want the victory of this Resurrection Day without the hard suffering of Good Friday?

Because we are still coming to grips with what it takes to live into the victory of the Cross – yes, the Cross. There’s no new life without a death. If we want a miracle, we need to die – die to our expectations, dreams, desires, and anything we believe we need, other than Jesus.

The builders rejected the stone because it was too hard. But the reality is that you cannot build on a foundation of marshmallows. Love isn’t actually soft, but hard; it’s permanent, like solid marble; it’s not going anywhere. We need that firm base of love to construct a soul that’s worth living.

Christ’s earthly life had incredible times of miraculous healings, provisions of food and necessities, and relational connections. But that’s only part of it. There was also hardship, adversity, rejection, mockery, torture, abuse, and death. When the Apostle Paul considered it all, he said:

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11, NIV)

Both suffering and resurrection go together for a spiritually sound life, free of cracks and damage. A new life is fresh, hopeful, and full of promise – and it’s downright hard; there is nothing easy about it. We don’t get to pick and choose which parts of Jesus we want – we must take him wholesale just as he is, the entire thing.

It’s from the person and work of Jesus Christ as our cornerstone – both his cross and resurrection – that a new building is being built into a spiritual house which is the place of hospitality for the entire world.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4-10, NIV)

Jesus is our cornerstone, the center of life and worship. Our priority as believers, is allowing God to build us into a community of faith that worships Jesus with lives dedicated to knowing him and making him known.

Christian worship is the expression of a relationship in which God the Father reveals himself and his love in Christ, and by his Holy Spirit gives grace, to which we respond in faith, gratitude, obedience, and love to one another and the world. 

People, at their core, exist for worship. Firmly built on Christ the cornerstone, worship becomes less about gaining truth, and more about letting truth gain us and capture us. The more we pay attention to the presence of Jesus Christ through song, prayer, Scripture, and sacrament, the more we will experience the centrality and power of God. Jesus becomes very precious to us when we align ourselves to him as the cornerstone of our faith and worship.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1, NIV)

Jesus, as the cornerstone upon which all is supported, means that acceptable worship can happen anywhere. Everywhere can become a sanctuary and a sacred space – home, neighborhood, and marketplace – as well as church. In all these locations, Christian discipleship will prove itself.

Several years ago, a man named Matt had an aunt who had struggled for years to make ends meet. When her health started to decline, she was forced to sell her fifty acres of property to pay for health care. As an act of kindness, Matt traveled to Massachusetts and bought the land from his aunt for the appraised value of $50,000. While exploring the land to see about building a house, he discovered outcroppings of stone ledges.

Matt contracted a geologist, who surveyed the land and informed him the stone was actually Goshen stone, a type of mica used for sidewalks, patios, and landscapes. At the time, it sold for $100 a ton – and Matt had about 24 million tons on the land. The appraised value on the surface was $50,000, but experts estimated that the land was worth up to $2 billion.

Jesus is the precious cornerstone. He is much too valuable to be left in on a piece of property undiscovered. And he’s also much too needed to merely remain in a church building. He’s the cornerstone who has the resurrection power to be the foundation for all the world. So, let’s let him.

Almighty God, who through your only Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.