Tag: sin

Renovation of the Heart

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            This past week, my wife and I enjoyed several days at our denomination’s annual meeting.  It was a wonderful time of worship, fellowship, making new friends, and discovering resources for church ministry.  Embedded into the time was, of course, the matter of business that goes into any kind of church or denominational apparatus.  At its best, church polity concerns itself with deep discernment, focused prayer, and intentional listening to God’s Spirit.  At its worst, church political structures clunk along with loud opinion-making, the dysfunction of personal agendas, and an inability to understand what others are truly saying.
 
            I appreciated the decorum of my denomination’s delegates and the leadership that went into ensuring that policy and procedure were carried out with decency and order.  Yet, as critically vital as church polity is in carrying out the business of the church, policies and procedures alone cannot bring a total transformation of life – only the Holy Spirit of God can do that.  As I sit and write today, a church shooting in South Carolina last night took the lives of nine black parishioners.  It seems clear that the tragedy was racially motivated.  Here is the point I am making:  even though an Emancipation Proclamation was passed in this country 150 years ago; even though Jim Crow laws have been upended; even though African Americans have equal access and opportunity according to the laws of this country; none of those laws, political triumphs, and policy making we have experienced in the United States has the ability to do a thorough renovating of any person’s heart from one of malicious bigot to benevolent citizen.
 
            We all desperately need faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to even begin addressing the profound brokenness of the human experience.  Apart from the Spirit, there will be individuals who continue in soul crushing stances of justifying their racism, excluding the LGBTQ community from their list of acquaintances, and insisting that their ideas are the only decent ones worth hearing. 
 
            Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount in order to upend such proud thinking. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).  Only those who are spiritual beggars recognizing they have nothing to stand on in and of themselves are worthy of Christ’s righteousness.  In a world where pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps is hailed and validated, the biblical virtues of humility and meekness seem almost like concepts from some bygone era.  Yet, like a church building devastated by a tornado, until we can come to the end ourselves and admit how much our hearts are in chaos and need Jesus in the presence of the Holy Spirit, there will continue to be an endless stream of posturing and positioning to get what we want so that the other who seems so different from us will not get what they want or even need.  Indeed, there will be no mercy, purity, and peacemaking apart from identifying the deep depravity of our own hearts and inviting God to do an extreme makeover of our interior lives.
 

 

            While I applaud and laud every policy and law that turns the tide away from injustice and puts a death nail into systemic evil, I am realistic enough to discern that only the gospel of grace can bring human hearts in line with the kind of society that will truly be characterized by peace.  I hope that you will join me in praying for the shalom of God to takeover this broken world so that our hearts of stone are replaced by hearts of flesh by the Spirit who alone transforms both culture and church, society and self, law and life.  Soli Deo Gloria.

Confession of Sin

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            “If we confess our sins he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  This is a tremendous promise – forgiveness and cleansing from all sin.  Yet, it cannot be activated apart from confession and admitting one’s true condition.  Secret sins tucked away deep in the soul will only fester and boil, while on the outside the snakes of temptation slither around our feet seeking to immobilize us with fear.  The result of un-confessed sin is spiritual blindness, darkness, and death.  When Scripture speaks about confession, it does not just mean a private personal confession; it also means a corporate and public confession.  “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you might be healed” is the unambiguous command of the Bible (James 5:16).
 
            There cannot be new life and renewal, revival, or revitalization of church life and ministry apart from real honest tell-it-like-it-is biblical confession.  If this scares the hell out of you, it really should.  Dealing with sin radically is what Jesus talked about in his Sermon on the Mount when he said we should pluck our eyes out if they offend and cut our hands off if they cause us to sin because it is better to be in God’s kingdom with no eyes and hands than to burn in hell with our parts intact (Matthew 5:29-30).  Confession is more than simply mouthing some words about not being perfect and a sinner like everybody else; it is to lead to a complete turn-around and change of how we live our lives.
 
            If we have besetting sins that dog us on a regular basis and we do all the same things this year that we did last year to deal with it and it did not work, then we will be right back to the same place next year in the season of Eastertide carrying the very same burden of guilt, shame, and regret.  Walking away from the church will not deal with it.  Walking away from God will not deal with it.  Trying some new teaching or new practice will not make it go away because that is only re-arranging the inner furniture of the soul.  No, only agonizing spirit-rending yet freeing confession will allow God’s clean surgical knife to take out the offending sin and bring spiritual and even physical healing.
 
            Patricia Raybon in her book I Told the Mountain to Move shares the regret and grief she carried after aborting two children.  She writes, “I had told myself than an abortion would end my problems, not complicate them by bringing an innocent life into my own upheaval.”  She shares a courageous and heart-wrenching confessional letter she wrote to her two aborted children:
Dear Babies:
This is Mama.  You will know my voice, I think, even though we were together for such a short time.  I did a bad thing.  I did not trust God.  I did not understand that God would have made everything okay.  I was like Peter… who looked down at the waves, not at Jesus.  And when he looked at the waves, he started to sin – down, down, down.
That’s how I felt, like I was sinking down.  When the doctors said you were growing inside of me, that’s how I felt, like I was sinking down…. So, I didn’t know how to love you.  I was afraid.  So I let fear convince me that more babies would just make things worse.
Instead, look what I did.  I robbed us.  First, I robbed you – taking your own lives… I didn’t think I was strong enough.  So I robbed myself of all the joy you would have brought me too.  Brought all of us, your sisters, your family, and for each of you, your daddy.  I thought we would have more problems. That we did not have enough money. That we did not have enough time.  That we did not have enough love.  But I just did not know then that God is bigger.  And God would make everything all right.  I didn’t know….”
 

 

Genuine authentic change will not occur without first dealing squarely with our past thinking, choices, and behavior.  This is why some form of a prayer of confession really needs to happen at every church worship service.  Ignoring such a vital liturgical prayer and practice will, at best, leave people with no guidance for confronting sin; and, at worst, will teach people that confession is not necessary to Christianity and leave them a spiritual mess.  Instead, the carefully constructed prayer of confession can lead believers to unburden the things they have done, and the things they have left undone.  Only then will we experience the advocacy of Jesus Christ who speaks on our behalf because of his once-for-all atoning sacrifice for sins.  This stuff is really too important to blow-off.  Church pastors and leaders need to put some real time and prayer into understanding the dynamics of confession, repentance, and new life because they are all vitally linked.  It is the first step to a spiritual breakthrough.

The Effects of Humanity’s Fall

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            The entire world is profoundly broken.  Everywhere people are ‘messed-up’.  Anywhere one goes, whether it is school, work, home and even church, there is institutional brokenness expressed in systems or organizing structures that contain elements of bondage instead of freedom.  It does not take a Christian to observe and know that things just do not seem right.
 
            The Bible’s description of this reality goes back to the fall of humanity.  Satan, the devil, led the original persons, Adam and Eve, into disobedience of God.  Satan tempted Eve to doubt whether God really had her best interests at mind; to question the truthfulness of God’s Word; and, to wonder about the wisdom of listening to God (Genesis 3:1-5).  Adam just flat out chose to disobey God, and, so, the entire world changed (Genesis 3:16-17). 
 
            Immediately, everything was different in the world and with people.  The choice to disobey God brought feelings of fear and shame; a loss of fellowship with God; hiding from God; a bent to pervert the truth; the propensity for the genders to try and dominate each other; expulsion from the garden; and, physical death (Genesis 3:7-24).  That is quite a list of downright icky stuff.  No wonder the world is messed up.
 
            The fall of humanity still affects us all.  It has brought not only physical death, but spiritual death.  That means we are alienated from God, in rebellion against him, and enslaved to our own passions and desires (Isaiah 1:2-6; Romans 2:14-15; Ephesians 2:1-3).  We are alienated from one another as persons by having continual bents toward discord, suspicion, and jealousy instead of love and trust (Romans 1:29-31; James 3:14-16).  We are even alienated and totally out of touch with ourselves by either loving ourselves as gods or hating ourselves with inordinate emotional masochism (Philippians 2:21; 2 Timothy 3:2-4).  In short, we are selfish people who experience separation from God, others, and self.
 
            If this is the true reality of humanity, then it is depressing, discouraging, and damaging.  Who, then, will rescue us from this death?  Thanks to God who has given us victory through the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 7:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:57).  The good news is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus the curse has been reversed.  He has brought us restoration to our original place of fellowship with God.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  Only through him is there hope for humanity (John 14:6).  Freedom, therefore, involves knowledge, honesty, and sincere decisions of faith and love whereby truth is applied to life.
 
            Jesus offered himself for us so that we might live and no longer be separated from God, others, and self.  He has brought us reconciliation.  In him we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (2 Corinthians 5:16-19; Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter 1:3).  Jesus is the rightful ruler of the universe, and is able to make all things work together for good in the life of his people (Philippians 2:9-11; Romans 8:28-29).
 
            The essence, spirit, and purpose of church ministry, therefore, is to come alongside people trapped in their cycles of  brokenness and tell them of the good news of Jesus to deliver from all the crud.  Anything short of this is not really Christian ministry; it is just doing stuff.  The church is, then, to call out sin where it resides in sinful structures and not only within individuals.  But we are to do this with all the graciousness that behooves children of God, and always with the remedy of the cross of Christ.
 

 

            Yes, the world is terribly askew.  But God demonstrated his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).  We need a Savior.  God provided One.  Jesus is the answer.  Are you in touch with the ways you are separated from God, others, and self?  Are you aware of the ways in which your church has an unhealthy separation from the world?  In what ways can you and your church apply the love of God to broken people and systems in your community?  What will it take to reach the un-churched and de-churched in your families and neighborhoods?  
 
            Having the church ask the right questions is the first step toward bringing true Christian ministry to bear upon the great need of the world.  Don’t express your fallen nature by wasting your time debating personal preferences in the church; spend your energies and prayers in reaching people for Jesus.  The fall does not have to define us; we can get back up again because of Jesus Christ.

Envy

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            It is simply the fallen human nature of people to look at the success of others, and our own lack of it, and conclude with the question, “Why not, me?”  This is a fairly typical garden-variety kind of envy.  Yet, if this envy is dwelled upon and nursed, it can easily turn into something more sinister.  Believing that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, we might buy into the notion that our gifts and abilities will be better used somewhere else where they are more appreciated.  As a result, people right in front of us, with real needs and a bevy of concerns, are not ministered to and do not have the faithful presence of a caring pastor in their lives.
 
            The wise man keenly observed that “a heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30).  When we begin to think that people, even God, owes us something then our souls become tainted and the rot of envy sets in.  Like a slithering snake we think more about what a congregation can do for us rather than what we can do for them, and for God. 
 
            Joe Pew Sitter also may struggle mightily with envy.  Believing that he has a right to be spoon fed by the pastor and leadership, he quickly moves onto another church when his perceived needs are not met.  “I’m not getting fed,” “I don’t like the worship style,” and “I didn’t like the decision the church made,” are all too common statements from envious parishioners who desire attention they are not getting. Perhaps there are others who harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition because they were not asked or were passed over for some important ministry or project.  Rather than facing the rot in their own hearts, they move on to another church hoping, like the Pharisees of old, to get their fix of recognition from others.
 
            The place to begin in addressing envy is to see it for what it is:  not just a common predilection that everyone has, but a sin of believing that I deserve something that God is not giving me.  That puts God in the position of holding out on us, much like Adam and Eve’s original sin of grabbing a forbidden fruit in the belief that God was not providing everything they needed.  Turning from evil pride and becoming satisfied in what the Lord has already provided are the remedies to an envious heart.
 
            Thankfulness and gratitude are spiritual practices that, when engrafted into a daily walk with Christ, provide a strong antidote to keeping envy at bay.  So, instead of wondering why God is not blessing my life and ministry in the ways I think he should, maybe we ought to be rather intentional about identifying and counting the blessings we already possess and enjoy.  Some of the greatest joys around us are the simple pleasures of everyday life – holding and sipping a hot cup of coffee; a quick kiss good-bye to my spouse on the way out the door; the opportunity to curl up with a good book on a rainy day; these and many more are blessings given to us by a heavenly Father who cares for us deeply.
 
            It might be a good thing to spend some time in your next leadership meeting, or your next time of prayer, and speak out many of the blessings that currently exist in your life.  For example, in the last week my wife had two surgeries performed on her spine.  Rather than wishing that she would have not have to endure this and envying the healthy, I rejoice that she is with me and that we enjoy one another’s love and companionship every day whether it is in times of health or in seasons of illness.
 

 

            As the season turns colder and the holiday of Thanksgiving comes closer, let us celebrate with grateful hearts that pushes the rot of envy far from our souls.