Tag: spiritual life

Life Through Death (John 12:20-33)

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. (New Revised Standard Version)

The fifth Sunday in Lent is now here. We are quickly approaching Jerusalem. Holy Week will be here before you know it. 

Why is this all significant? Because Jesus is important. By taking advantage of Lent with its focus on spiritual discipline, prayer, and repentance, we come face-to-face with the shadowy parts of our selves. We discover that within us there is the pull to hold-on to unhealthy rhythms and habits of life, as well as a push to arrange our lives with the fragmentation of disordered love.

Perhaps our reflexive response to things we do not like about ourselves is to either use sheer willpower to change or try to somehow manage our brokenness, as if we could boss our way out of darkness. The problem and the solution are much more radical than we often would like to admit.

We must die. 

Yes, you heard that right. This is the teaching of Jesus – to die to ourselves. Sin cannot be managed or willed away – it must be eradicated and completely cut out, like the cancer it is. Transformation can only occur through death. 

Jesus used the familiar example of a seed to communicate his point. A tiny little seed can grow, break the ground, and develop into something which provides sustenance for others. It does no good to remain a seed in the ground.

Christ was only telling others to do, what he himself was willing to do. Jesus is the ultimate example of the one who died to himself, and literally died for us. Through suffering and death, he secured deliverance for us from guilt and shame. 

By his wounds we are healed. Through his tortuous death a resurrection became possible – and we must always remember that there must be a death if there is to be a resurrection. Death always precedes life. There is suffering before glory.

Through dying to self, and following Jesus, there is the hope of transformative change which the world so desperately needs. If we persist in making puny attempts at trying to straddle the fence in dual/rival kingdoms, we will be spiritually schizophrenic and left with a divided soul. 

Following Jesus – leaving all to walk with him – is true repentance and authentic discipleship. The act of journeying with Christ is the means to a new life. Change is possible by letting Jesus Christ be the center from which all of life springs.

Maybe you think I’m being too forceful, too insistent about this Jesus stuff. 

Yes, you have perceived well. I am being quite single-minded about the need for dying to self and living for Christ. 

Somehow, within many corners of Christianity, this wrongheaded notion that suffering is not God’s will has made it into the life of the church. But I’m here to say, on the authority of God’s Holy Word (not to mention your own internal gut and conscience) that dying to ourselves is necessary. And it hurts. The epistle reading for today bears this out:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.  Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:7-9, NRSV)

Christians are not above their Master. Even Christ’s life on this earth, before his death and resurrection, was marked with suffering. Even Jesus learned obedience through struggle and adversity. Jesus Christ did what he now asks of us. 

The Son gave up himself to do the Father’s will. So, we must give up ourselves in submission to King Jesus.  Jesus offered loud cries and tears, and submitted to what the Father wanted. His followers must do no less. 

We don’t get to choose which parts of Christ’s life and teaching we will adhere to, and which ones we won’t, as if Jesus were some spiritual buffet line. All who live for Jesus, follow him into the path of suffering, of death to self, and of new life through the power of his resurrection.

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

How do we follow Jesus through dying to self? What does that mean for you and me on a practical daily basis?

Surrender

Every moment of every day is an opportunity for giving ourselves to Jesus. We have hundreds, maybe thousands, of small daily decisions with the use of our time, money, energy, and relationships. 

If we have tried to fix what is broken inside of us, we will likely just try to hastily fix the problems and the people in our lives – and then move on with getting things done on our to do list. 

Instead, there is a need to surrender ourselves – to create the sacred space for solitude and silence, prayer and repentance. 

Take the time to sit with a person in pain and listen. Reflect on how to use your money in a way which mirrors kingdom values. Begin to see your life as a holy rhythm of hearing God and responding to what he says. It takes intentional surrender to do that.

Sacrifice

Holding-on to our precious stuff and time is the opposite of sacrifice. 

Are we truly willing to give-up everything to follow Jesus? 

It is more than true that we are not Jesus. Our sacrifice and suffering are not efficacious, that is, it doesn’t deliver other people from sin. Only Christ’s death does that. Yet, we are still called to sacrifice. The Apostle Paul understood this, with a statement that I’ll let you wrestle with and mull over without comment on my part:

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Colossians 1:24, NRSV)

Happiness is important; but it isn’t the summum bonum of life. There is more to life than living for self. Jesus calls us to see our communities, neighborhoods, and families as a mission field of grace to a world who needs him. That takes sacrificial love on our part.

Christianity is not really a religion that’s for people who have put neat theological answers and tidy packaged certainties to all of life’s questions. 

Rather, Christianity is a dynamic religion of learning to follow Jesus, discovering how to die to self, and struggling to put Christ’s teaching and example into practice. 

Those who don’t struggle are in big trouble. But those who go through the pain of dying to themselves for the sake of their Lord, find that the fruit they harvest leads to eternal life.

May you struggle well, my friend.

A Prayer of Confession (Psalm 51:1-12)

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

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love!
    Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion!
Wash me completely clean of my guilt;
    purify me from my sin!
Because I know my wrongdoings,
    my sin is always right in front of me.
I’ve sinned against you—you alone.
    I’ve committed evil in your sight.
That’s why you are justified when you render your verdict,
    completely correct when you issue your judgment.
Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin,
    from the moment my mother conceived me.
And yes, you want truth in the most hidden places;
    you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.

Purify me with hyssop and I will be clean;
    wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and celebration again;
    let the bones you crushed rejoice once more.
Hide your face from my sins;
    wipe away all my guilty deeds!
Create a clean heart for me, God;
    put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!
Please don’t throw me out of your presence;
    please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.
Return the joy of your salvation to me
    and sustain me with a willing spirit. (Common English Bible)

Sin. The word is rarely used anymore in places outside of churches. And when it is used within the church, sometimes it is grossly misrepresented, as if humanity’s identity is sin.

Although everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, our inherent personhood is not sinful. Every human is made in the image and likeness of God. Sin is like a permanent putrid abscess which never seems to go away.

Sin is everywhere – in our hearts, in our world, in our institutions, and in our families. It is on television, the internet, social media, and moves in and out of smartphones. Sin, apparently, is even in our desserts (oh, the decadence of chocolate!). If it takes one to know one, we are all experts on being sinners.

From a biblical vantage point, sin is serious business. Sin involves both the things we do (1 John 3:4), as well as the things we leave undone (James 4:17). Sin is both the breaking of God’s commands, and the lack of conforming to the teachings of Jesus.

Christians throughout the ages have generally understood that the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Christ’s law of love (Luke 10:27) constitute a brief summary of God’s holy and moral instruction for humanity.  This is all based in the character of God as both holy and loving. 

Sin, then, can be defined as anything present within a person which does not express, or is contrary to, the basic character of God.

All sin, whether in actions or inactions, has at its root an attitude and activity of self-centeredness. It is a selfish bent of thinking, feeling, and acting. And, oh my, the consequences!

Sinful attitudes bring about an obsession with lust (1 John 8:34; Galatians 5:16); a broken relationship with God (Romans 3:23; Galatians 5:17); bondage to Satan (1 Timothy 3:6-7; 2 Timothy 2:26); death (Romans 6:23; 8:6); hardening of the heart (Hebrews 3:13); and deception (1 Corinthians 3:18; James 1:22, 26) just to a name a few.

Sin lurks in the shadows of the heart, drips from the tongue of the wicked, and lingers in the actions of the selfish and proud. Sin is not something to trifle with, dabble in, or even manage. No, sin, at its core, is a rebellion against God, a stiff-arm to the Lord that claims we know better than God about how to run our lives. 

Sin will eventually break us. It may initially look good and meet a quick emotional need, but in the end sin is like a poisonous snake bite that will kill us unless it’s treated.

People are guilty of transgressing basic morality, as well as failing to be ethically virtuous people on any on-going consistent basis. 

Well, that sounds like a total Debbie-Downer. Actually, it’s total depravity. Being depraved people does not mean we are never capable of doing good; it just means that sin has profoundly touched everything in our lives, without exception.

When we come to the realization that we are in dire straits, then it is high time we blurt out a prayer of confession along with David. The book of Psalms is the Christian’s prayer book, and there is no better prayer to pray when we come to the end of ourselves than the psalmist’s plea for mercy, based in the steadfast love and faithfulness of God.

The ironic paradox of all this is that experiencing true joy and comfort comes through knowing how great our sin is. 

We can live above sin by being set free from it by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. If a person is to be redeemed from sin, then a provision must be made. Sin has been dealt with once for all through the person and work of Jesus. Christ is our representative, taking our place with the punishment we deserved (Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:9-15; Hebrews 2:17-18; 1 John 2:1).

Jesus Christ is our ultimate substitute (Romans 5:8) which resulted in: our redemption (Galatians 5:13); satisfying all justice (Romans 3:25); and reconciliation to God (Romans 5:10). Therefore, the person who believes in Jesus is forgiven of sin because Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient to deal with all the effects of sin. The Christian is complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10).

A genuine prayer of confession asks for mercy based upon God’s character and ability to heal, rather than trusting in the attempted quality of our petition. 

When it comes to offering a confession in prayer, neither the eloquence of the speech nor the sheer word structure itself is the proper basis for a prayer of confession; utterances of a broken and contrite heart, submitted to God, trusting solely in his grace to transform, are the only words appropriate for approaching God with our sin. 

Such prayers are not to be few and far between; they are to be a regular regimen, engaged on a daily basis. Just as we take pills each day for all that ails us, so we need to take in the mercy of God through prayers of confession that link us to the true healing power which brings spiritual health and life.

Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me! Please don’t throw me out of your presence; please don’t take your holy spirit away from me. Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me with a willing spirit. Amen.

The Pleasing Aroma of Worship (Exodus 30:1-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The Altar of Incense, by Erhard Altdorfer (1480-1561)

“Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high—its horns of one piece with it. Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. Make two gold rings for the altar below the molding—two on each of the opposite sides—to hold the poles used to carry it. Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Put the altar in front of the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law—before the atonement cover that is over the tablets of the covenant law—where I will meet with you.

“Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it. Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord.” (New International Version)

Worship is intended to engage the whole person, including our five senses. That’s why God instructed Moses to oversee construction of an altar for burning incense. Smells and aroma matter. We associate certain smells with particular times, places, or people. Inhaling the incense signifies and reminds people that God is with us.

Included in the instructions about the altar of incense is about when and where to burn it. The incense was to be utilized just outside the great curtain that veiled the Holy of Holies – which was the place where God met with Aaron the high priest.

The people not only smelled the incense, but could also see the smoke rise – and so be reminded of the great pillar of cloud that went before the Israelites in the exodus from Egypt. The cloud was a visible manifestation and reminder of God’s presence with the people.

Experiencing the smell of the incense and the visual smoke were comforting. It was a spiritual encounter that reinforced and strengthened the faith needed to keep on living for the Lord.

At the same time, the incense smoke highlighted the Holy of Holies curtain in front of the worshiper. Although God is close and near to the people, God is also distant and unreachable.

The Lord is both immanent and transcendent – able to meet us where we are and know our intimate needs. Yet, God is also so far above us – the high and holy God – so as to see the big picture of the world. The Lord knows us and our troubles, and has the perspective and power to do something about it.

The altar of incense with its billowing smoke and sweet smelling aroma was not only pleasing to the people, but also to God. Whenever worshipers present their offerings with joy and gladness on the altar of sacrifice, then the Lord is pleased with their faithfulness.

For example, Noah built an altar to the Lord and provided burnt offerings on it. God smelled the pleasing aroma and was stirred to say:

“Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.” (Genesis 8:21-22, NIV)

Incense and pleasing aromas are not so much the point, but what the smell represents. If we miss this, then worship becomes mechanical, and a primitive way of trying to appease an angry deity. But if we see and smell with spiritual eyes and nose, then we discern and know that our senses are a doorway to connection with God.

Our offerings are acceptable and pleasing when they are offered with sincerity of heart, integrity of spirit, and faithfulness to the God who cares not only about what we do, but why we do it.

A heart inclined toward disobedience, a mind with a bad attitude, and feet that would rather be elsewhere than at the altar, are a noxious smell to God; it is odious to the Lord. But the greatest and sweetest incense is the life offered in faith and devotion to God. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul commented on the offerings of God’s people:

I now have plenty and it is more than enough. I am full to overflowing because I received the gifts that you sent from Epaphroditus. Those gifts give off a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice that pleases God. (Philippians 4:18, CEB)

The altar of incense giving off its smell also clued-in the worshiper to the ultimate offering to come. The Apostle Paul pictured the cross of Christ as the greatest and sweetest fragrance of all:

You are God’s dear children, so try to be like him. Live a life of love. Love others just as Christ loved us. He gave himself for us—a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2, ERV)

All of the offerings in the sacrificial system were designed to be temporary, preparatory, and anticipatory – foreshadowing the day when a final sacrifice and the sweetest fragrance of all would come; a sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

Jesus Christ was the aroma so sweet, so compelling, that we can now offer our incense of faith, hope, and love to the Son of God by taking up our cross and following him.

O Lord, listen to me as I pray. Please hurry and help me! Accept my prayer like a gift of burning incense, the words I lift up like an evening sacrifice. Help me control what I say. And don’t let me say anything bad. Take away any desire to do evil. Keep me from joining the wicked in doing wrong. My Lord God, I look to you for help. I look to you for protection. Amen. (Psalm 141:1-4, 8)

Trust vs. Anxiety (Isaiah 30:15-18)

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

The holy Lord God of Israel
    had told all of you,
“I will keep you safe
if you turn back to me
    and calm down.
I will make you strong
    if you quietly trust me.”

Then you stubbornly said,
“No! We will safely escape
    on speedy horses.”

But those who chase you
    will be even faster.
As few as five of them,
or even one, will be enough
    to chase a thousand of you.
Finally, all that will be left
    will be a few survivors
as lonely as a flag pole
    on a barren hill.

The Lord God is waiting
to show how kind he is
    and to have pity on you.
The Lord always does right;
he blesses those who trust him. (Contemporary English Version)

God’s plan for our lives calls for times of retreat and renewal, of quiet patience and perseverance, for restraint and waiting.

Ancient Judah was experiencing one of their many periods of rebellion toward God’s commands. One of the things that happens – whether in ancient times or today – is that whenever we go off the road of God’s ways, our lives become characterized by a grand self-help program.

Those in the Judean royal court could not wait on God. They had to do something about Assyria. The Assyrian Empire was waning, and Judah wanted to take advantage of it, seeing an opportunity for some relative autonomy.

So, many of the activists in the royal court rushed to Egypt for help – not at all considering to turn toward God and wait on the Lord. God blesses those who trust and wait on divine promises and initiative. But, in their anxiety, the people of Judah would not exercise faith and patience.

As a result, the enemy would overtake them. The people’s refusal to take the quiet course would not end well for them.

On many days, as I attend to the hospitals for which I work, I visit many hurting people, including patients, their families, and teammates. In my time there, I deal with a vast array of emotional problems, spiritual struggles, and mental disorders. One of things I have discovered through this work is that people’s internal issues absolutely need to be expressed, out loud, to someone who cares and knows what to do with those expressions.

And this is not only a modern problem; the need to deal with our internal stuff has been there throughout all of human history. Every culture and society who does not attend well to personal and communal spiritual health is literally killing their bodies – because body and soul are inextricably connected in a union as one.

It continually amazes me that people who think nothing of going to a medical doctor, an emergency room, or having a surgery, would never think of getting help when their minds are mixed up, emotions are frayed, and spirits are downcast.

Stubbornly holding onto self-help to handle a spiritual crisis, refusing help from others, and ignoring God, is just as sure to kill you as believing that chest pains, shortness of breath, and inability to walk across the room will simply get better on its own.

Conversely, isolating oneself and calling it “waiting on God” and remaining passive – when the Lord has clearly told us to be active – will accomplish the same ends as the committed self-help person. Faith and action are not mutually exclusive terms. It takes some wisdom to know when to retreat, pray, and be patient; and when to take initiatives of faith, and trust God to work through action.

Rebellion gets us nowhere. It’s what puts us in the awkwardness of making bad decisions and discernments. The Lord had told the people of Judah to stay put and not rely on Egypt to help them. There were clear instructions through the prophets about what to do. But the people were too anxious, too impatient, wondering too much about whether God would show up or not.

The Spirit God gave us does not make us afraid. His Spirit is a source of power and love and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:7, ERV

No matter where we have been or what we have done, the Lord is continually waiting on us – and will consistently respond with grace and mercy to our petitions and overtures to live for God. It’s never too late to flee to God in quiet trust.

Running to God is not escaping our problems. Rather, the Lord enables us to face both our outward situations, as well as our inward thinking and feeling. It’s easy to engage in busywork and keep active when we are anxious; yet it is very difficult to sit still before God and be alone. Silence and solitude put us face to face with ourselves. And doing that is what many people would rather avoid.

“I’ll do it myself!” is the cry of many a person who is mentally, emotionally, and spiritually overwhelmed. That approach, however, is a highway to the grave. And, in fact, it is a stubborn rebellion that puts a stiff arm to God.

I’m not saying that opening-up is easy; I am stating that it is necessary to our spiritual and emotional health. It might be helpful to begin communicating with some vulnerability and authenticity to God. The following are some appropriate ways that might help:

  1. Be congruent between the outer self and inner self. Make sure your outside affect and behavior is congruent with your inside feelings and thoughts. If you are discouraged on the inside, but wear a smile and pretend to be spiritually with it, you’re not fooling God. You cannot receive grace apart from humble authenticity.
  2. Focus on feelings. You won’t get struck by lightning if you express your anger, or other emotions, to God. Be aware of how you are feeling. In fact, ask the Lord to help you understand your feelings. Share them openly as much as you can.
  3. Change questions into statements. Sometimes, when we have an attitude or a feeling, we’re afraid to say it and be open. So instead, we ask a question. Try changing questions such as “Do you love me?” into “I love you.” And, “Do you want me to do this?” to “I want to do your will.”
  4. Speak in the first person. Begin sentences with “I” instead of “you,” For example, ” I am happy that you are with me,” instead of asking, “Are you there?”
  5. Say out loud what you really want and need. It’s okay to do that. This is when it is appropriate to ask questions. The Lord’s ear is ready to listen.

Patient and confident trust in God is always a better option than anxious and nervous striving by yourself.

O God, the source of all health: So fill my heart with faith in your love, that with calm expectancy I may make room for your power to possess me, and gracefully accept your healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.