Tag: spiritual renewal

The Penitent Soul Changes the World (Hosea 5:15-6:6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Saint Dominic in Penitence, by Filippo Tarchiani, c.1607

I will return again to my place
    until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.
    In their distress they will beg my favor:

“Come, let us return to the Lord,
    for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
    he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
    his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes away early.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (New Revised Standard Version Update Edition)

We are meant for righteousness, not wickedness. So, whenever we fail to do what is right, we will suffer pain. This is because wicked attitudes, words, and behavior go against how we were designed and created as humans.

There are times when we all transgress what is right by either doing outright wrong, or by failing to do what is good, right, and just when we have the opportunity to do so. Therefore, repentance is vital and necessary. That is, to practice something that seems to be lost in our contemporary language: penitence.

Penitence simply means to have regret over wrongdoing. When we are penitent, we seek to repent (turn from what is wrong and do what is right). God has no interest in those who offer the forms of repentance without any penitence. That’s why God told the ancient Israelites that love and knowledge are what’s important, more than sacrifices and offerings.

What’s more, penitence is necessary for spiritual maturation and growth. The penitent soul finds that one’s faults and wrongs can be transformed into assets – such is the power of God through one’s penitent repentance.

And even more, the individual who experiences penitence and repents of wrongdoing, is forgiven, leading the whole world to be forgiven along with them.

Just one penitent and repentant person will intercede and confess the sins of the world; and that can change everything. So, imagine when a community of forgiven persons are motivated to bring about humanity’s greatness and nobility through penitent prayer.

I want you to think this thought: Any sort of moral misdeed committed by an individual weakens the soul of the entire community, and indeed, all the world.

Every attitude and action has a consequence, whether good or bad. Penitence, repentance, and forgiveness are the mandatory practices to restoring and renewing a life-giving dynamic to everyone.

Thus, penitence brings healing to the world; the individual who repents is forgiven; and the whole world is forgiven with him.

The powers of evil want to keep us ignorant of such things – which is why knowledge of God is so very important. Ignorance inevitably leads to sin and to the construction of a false self, which then encrusts itself upon the soul.

Penitence and repentance remain as lights deep within a person, even if they are buried beneath all sorts of arrogance and bravado of the ego.

Change of our world and transformation of our lives will not come apart from a vigorous and popular education of God and God’s Word. With so much ignorance all around us, it is imperative that individuals and communities become familiar with how spiritual realities work.

Although it appears that sinister darkness is spreading across the world and into the depths of humanity, the hope and promise of light discerns that evil can and will be overcome.

Penitence is the key to the healing presence this world needs.

For those who have experienced the renewal and reformation of a forgiven life, the steadfast love of God’s grace is very much needed for those still stuck in the mud of wickedness.

In truth, the meanness of a person betrays how much anguish of soul they are actually experiencing. Their estrangement of God is such that they are in great spiritual pain.

So, every situation designed by God to evoke penitence and repentance within such a mean person leads not only to a struggle in the soul, but also to outward conflicts with others in the forms of bullying, arrogance, and hardness of heart.

Not only do we suffer because of another’s grotesque sin, so does God. The pain of the wicked person unfortunately works to bring others pain, including God.

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. (Genesis 6:5-6, NLT)

Both humanity and God are in anguish when the dark powers take hold within an individual, and in the community.

We must have the grace to bear with others and hold our ground, giving the Spirit of God time to bring about penitence and repentance. For our part, continual learning of divine things and a commitment to steadfast love becomes the hands and feet of our prayers.

When one suffers, we all suffer, because there is an inextricable connection between all people.

Regret, remorse, and sorrow over wrongdoing are the prerequisites for goodness to become ensconced in the world. Penitence serves both the individual and the community, preventing any poisonous root of bitterness to grow up and corrupt many people.

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:15, NIV)

God and humanity are meant to be united. And the Lord will create whatever conditions are necessary for divisions to be healed, and for people to love one another and love God will all their hearts, souls, minds, and energy.

Almighty God, my heavenly Father: I have sinned against you, through my own fault, in thought, and word, and deed, and in what I have left undone. For the sake of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me all my offenses; and grant that I may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

God (Psalm 147:12-20)

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

Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
He grants peace within your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of wheat.
He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down hail like crumbs—
    who can stand before his cold?
He sends out his word and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his ordinances.
Praise the Lord! (New Revised Standard Version)

The psalmist portrays a God who is clearly in control of all things. This is the Lord God almighty, who is the Creator, and is sovereign over the entire world.

God has no need for bluster, or to leverage knowledge in order to get things done. With only a word, the weather changes completely, and people are invited to participate in the divine will for this earth.

There is no creature, and no human on this earth, who has such power and authority, sovereignty and control, over everything and everyone as God.

Because of God’s great power, the Lord is able to extend gracious and providential care for those who put their hope in God’s steadfast love. Such grace and love of divine blessing is the means for Israel’s praise of Yahweh in the psalm.

The grandest blessing of them all is the gift of the “word.” God’s word of command is what sets in motion all of the natural processes of this earth. It is the divine word that gives and sustains life on this planet.

The same divine word which has been gifted in order for the waters to abundantly flow and the wind to continually blow, is the word given to Israel in the laws and commands for the people.

This gift of word is a wonderful privilege, given to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. It is what makes them a peculiar people, recipients of the divine will. It is a word of guidance for the covenant people of God.

And that divine word is the primary reason for the human word to respond in praise by extoling the awesome might and mercy of God.

Please understand that today’s psalm is profoundly theological. In other words, it is all about God. We humans and the creation are mentioned and talked about within the psalm, yet all of it is in the context of God’s activity in the world, of God’s actions in history.

The things which God does among us and in this world is a theological reflection, in and of itself. Let me say it another way: God does what God is.

God didn’t simply do some wondrous act in the past. The Lord didn’t merely console and heal someone at some time. Rather, God is constantly binding up the brokenhearted; continually casting down the wicked; and consistently demonstrating steadfast love through right, good, and just actions, all the time.

There is a never a time when God is not God, being holy, loving, and good; and therefore, God’s eternal actions are a non-stop working of justice and righteousness in this old fallen world.

Evil, of course, is continually at work, as well. But we are not talking about opposing powers which are equal to each other. Justice and love will eventually swallow up wickedness and evil.

This is the hope that undergirds the psalmist, and it is the reason that the faithful keep persevering and offering their praise, adoration, and thanksgiving to the God who never slumbers nor sleeps, but is always watching over the righteous.

God’s wisdom and power is matchless. It is impossible for any one of us, or even all of us collectively, to count and number all the stars in the universe. But God can. And God even has them all named, because they all belong to God.

Neither you nor I could ever number the raindrops that fall on our roof in just a few minutes. Yet, God can. And the Lord can count the grains of sand on a beach and the hairs on every head (or in some cases, every hair on a guy’s back).

We humans number in the billions on this earth. Yet, God knows us all by name. And God’s perfection is near and intimate, not distant and remote.

I don’t know about you, my friend, but my encounters with God are nothing like a virtual Zoom meeting. My interactions with the God of the universe are close, intimate, and caring, just as a mother with her newborn baby.

Therefore, matters of renewal, restoration, and even resurrection are not problems for the God of the psalmist. Widows are comforted and rejoice. The poor are lifted up, and not ruined by their poverty.

The confused, the disordered and disoriented, the discouraged and discombobulated, are all held in the hands of the God who knows their confusion and will take care of them.

I might not understand; and, in fact, the older I become, I’ve discovered that the less I actually know. But I believe. I trust God. I do this, daily, because the Lord has demonstrated to me over and over again that God is trustworthy and has the ability to bend everything in this world for redemptive purposes.

That is the sort of God I serve – that the psalmist serves. And this faith, hope, and love is what I want for you, as well, my friend.

Life is too short and precious to squander it, and to flounder in disbelief. So, just listen; and take as much time as you need to hear the word, and experience the presence of life that is around you, and right in front of your face.

Dearest and most gracious Lord:

I thank you for the gift of life, the rising sun, and the promise of the seasons.

I give you thanks for my family and friends and the gifts they share; for my home and all its comforts within; for the abundance you give me and my willingness to share it with others.

I offer my gratitude to you for granting me wisdom, and the ability to listen; for acceptance of the challenges that I face every day; for strength and courage to act for justice and peace.

Most of all, I thank you for the knowledge that, without you, I have nothing; and with you, I possess all things, and have everything I need. Amen.

Don’t Get Too Comfortable (Amos 9:7-15)

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

“Are not you Israelites
    the same to me as the Cushites?”
declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
    the Philistines from Caphtor
    and the Arameans from Kir?

“Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord
    are on the sinful kingdom.
I will destroy it
    from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy
    the descendants of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will give the command,
    and I will shake the people of Israel
    among all the nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
    and not a pebble will reach the ground.
All the sinners among my people
    will die by the sword,
all those who say,
    ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’

“In that day

“I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
    I will repair its broken walls
    and restore its ruins—
    and will rebuild it as it used to be,
so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
    and all the nations that bear my name,”
declares the Lord, who will do these things.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
    and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
    and flow from all the hills,
    and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.

“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
    They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
    they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
I will plant Israel in their own land,
    never again to be uprooted
    from the land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God. (New International Version)

No one is immune from judgment, nor from the watchful eye of the God who knows both the actions of humanity and what is truly within their hearts.

Every one of us has the capacity and the potential for evil – even, and perhaps especially, those who claim to believe and follow God. To be arrogant and cocky is to set up oneself for a fall. To think that you could never fall or do evil is to operate in the realm of pride and hubris – which are the very traits of the Evil One.

Don’t get too comfortable with your life. Don’t simply believe you’re okay and anyone who disagrees with you is not okay.

Evil is not always (and usually isn’t) an in-your-face sort of thing. The sinister and unjust amongst us is much more like someone putting the text of the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance inside of a Bible, making it a convenient collection for those who are tired of having to separate their church from their state.

The Lord, however, will do some separating – the wheat from the chaff, and the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 3:12; 25:31-33)

God does not punish simply for the sake of punishment; rather, judgment is a means to restore and renew. Curses will give way to blessings. What has been lost shall be found.

“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them...”

Doom and hope, judgment and grace, suffering and glory. These are the movements and rhythms of the Old Testament prophets. The great sin of Israel which warranted divine wrath was not only that they trampled on the poor and needy. On top of it all, they saw nothing wrong with their way of life. 

This profound lack of awareness, rooted in the spiritual blindness of greed, is what led to judgment. It would take the form of having the Assyrian Empire come, seize the land, and take the people away to a place where they would have no chance to oppress others. Sadly, death would come to many.

The sin of oppressing others and believing there’s nothing wrong with it comes with severe consequences. The people relied too much on their ethnicity and spiritual pedigree. The ancient Israelites wrongly assumed that because they were the people of the covenant, this somehow inoculated them from disaster. Their belief in Jewish exceptionalism was their downfall.

Yet, all would not be endless gloom. The Lord will not destroy completely. God’s anger lasts for a moment. However, God’s grace lasts forever. Restoration, renewal, and fruitful times will come because of God’s mercy. 

Yes, God pronounces judgment when it is warranted. But God also makes and keeps promises to people. In our lesson for today, the Lord promises to restore the fortunes of the people through rebuilding ruined cities and letting them inhabit them once again.

God steps in and graciously acts on behalf of all people because that is what God does. We might get the notion in our heads that God executes judgment to teach people a lesson or to make a point. In my line of work, it is common to hear people express the idea they are under divine punishment because of personal illness or hard circumstances. 

God, however, acts independently out of a vast storehouse of righteousness and mercy. The Lord maintains holy decrees while showing grace to the undeserving. The nation of Israel, in the days of the prophet Amos, deserved only judgment, not grace. 

It seems to me God would have been completely justified to never restore or renew a recalcitrant people. Yet, God’s grace overwhelms and swallows human sin. Try as you might to understand grace, you will end up befuddled. That’s because grace is wildly illogical, nonsensical, and unconditionally free. Grace shows radical acceptance where there ought to be only the punishing fire of hell.

The height of grace and the pinnacle of restoring the fortunes of Israel (from a Christian perspective) came through a baby and a humble birth in the small village of Bethlehem. Jesus came to save the people from their sins. God acted by entering humanity with divine love so that there could be new life and fresh hope. 

So, let grace wash you clean. Allow mercy to renew your life. Receive the gift of gracious forgiveness, merciful love, and divine peace. Look ahead and see there is hope on the horizon.

For the afflicted, there is comfort. But for the comfortable, affliction is coming.

Merciful God, although you are careful to uphold your great holiness, your mercy extends from everlasting to everlasting. May the gospel of grace form all my words and actions so that true righteousness reigns in my life through Jesus, my Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Restoration (Jeremiah 30:1-11a)

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

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you. The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess,’ says the Lord.”

These are the words the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah: 

“This is what the Lord says:

“‘Cries of fear are heard—
    terror, not peace.
Ask and see:
    Can a man bear children?
Then why do I see every strong man
    with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor,
    every face turned deathly pale?
How awful that day will be!
    No other will be like it.
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,
    but he will be saved out of it.

“‘In that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty,
    ‘I will break the yoke off their necks
and will tear off their bonds;
    no longer will foreigners enslave them.
Instead, they will serve the Lord their God
    and David their king,
    whom I will raise up for them.

“‘So do not be afraid, Jacob my servant;
    do not be dismayed, Israel,’
declares the Lord.
‘I will surely save you out of a distant place,
    your descendants from the land of their exile.
Jacob will again have peace and security,
    and no one will make him afraid.
I am with you and will save you,’
    declares the Lord.” (New International Version)

The cry of Jeremiah the prophet, by Slovakian artist, 1937

To be restored is a beautiful thing, namely because it presupposes that someone or a group of people were dilapidated and in need of healing. Restoration implies that something was lost, but now is found.

If you have lost things like finances, a home, a car, precious memorial items, a job; or relationships such as a marriage, a friendship, estrangement from family members; or your health to disease or disaster; or even lost your mind or your soul – you can completely understand the longing for restoration and wholeness.

The Jews lost their homeland, their property, their temple, and their dignity to the invading Babylonians. Babylon took everything from Judea. The people became exiled in a strange land. Only some poor folk were left behind in a land that was ravaged.

This was the place that was once referred to as a land of milk and honey, a good home of abundance and blessing. But in the prophet Jeremiah’s day, it was becoming a thing of the past. Would the people ever recover what they had lost? Is restoration even a possibility? Could they learn to hope again?

Into a time of distress and despair, God spoke, and said that yes, it is possible; yes, restoration can and will happen. The people will not be in captivity forever.

Things can get so bad that you become physically sick, emotionally spent, mentally fearful, and spiritually disheartened – as if your life has been ripped from you without mercy and with malice. Yet, what is true of us today is not necessarily going to be true of us tomorrow.

Oppression is a terrible thing. To be constantly harassed by others or by chronic pain or by adverse situations is draining; it sucks the life out of us. Into these sorts of circumstances, God says to us, “I am with you, and I will save you.”

Perhaps tomorrow comes and nothing changes. The pain is still there. The mean-spirited people haven’t gone anywhere. The lost things are not found. And yet, there is something primal and universal which has always been here and shall never go away, no matter the circumstances: God is with us, and God loves us.

If we have the spiritual eyes to see, we will notice that God is alongside us, weeping with us. God knows a thing or two about the sort of suffering and pain that is unimaginable.

“Why does not God do something sooner, if God is so loving and powerful?” you may ask. If you are a parent, you have likely had a child ask you why you are doing something to them that feels awful. You know that emotion of feeling hurt alongside them. You also know that there is sometimes no way you can adequately explain to them what’s going on.

You commit yourself to being there, being present, and assuring the child that you aren’t going anywhere. So, when it comes to us, why is it so hard to understand that God is not a divine Santa or a cosmic Genie granting our every wish? If we want kids to understand, then perhaps we ought to first understand our own relationship as God’s children.

There will be times of trial and tribulation, even divine judgment. Yet there shall also be deliverance from evil, and salvation from sin, death, and hell. The yoke of oppression won’t last because there is the promise of restoration.

No matter how nasty, misguided, or sinful the political leadership and governmental system, none of those rulers or politicians have the last word – God does, not them. Grace has the final say, utilizing a restorative mercy which cannot be undone.

The days are coming when there will be a new future, based in the resolve of God to accomplish it. Fortunes shall be restored. Rehabilitation and renewal are ahead for the faithful. Healing will happen, whether it be in this life, or the next.

Things may seem impossibly hopeless now, but God can and will overrule the present evil machinations of oppressive rulers. Terror may be on every side, yet the Lord will break the bonds of oppression; God will burst the unjust practices. Indeed, God will save.

Therefore, we need not fear, for God is with us; and divine intervention is nearly here.

O God of heavenly powers, by your holy might, be present to us in your goodness and grace; banish all injustice and unrighteousness and restore your people in the strength of faith. Amen.