Tag: spiritual renewal

Restoring True Religion (Micah 1:1-5)

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

The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Hear, you peoples, all of you,
    listen, earth and all who live in it,
that the Sovereign Lord may bear witness against you,
    the Lord from his holy temple.

Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place;
    he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.
The mountains melt beneath him
    and the valleys split apart,
like wax before the fire,
    like water rushing down a slope.
All this is because of Jacob’s transgression,
    because of the sins of the people of Israel.
What is Jacob’s transgression?
    Is it not Samaria?
What is Judah’s high place?
    Is it not Jerusalem? (New International Version)

What is true religion?

Divine union with God is the whole point of religion.

In saying that, you may have reacted reflexively or viscerally. That’s because it’s likely that your experience of religion has been anything but a mystical and wondrous connection with the Lord. The religious trappings, that you perhaps grew up with, were anything but helpful in knowing God.

That is both unfortunate and sad. In the absence of genuine unity with God, moralism diabolically worms its way into religion to replace spiritual practices of helpful connection, with legalistic rules of unhelpful separation.

Religion gets a bad rap. That’s likely because how we may typically think about it is really no religion, at all. True religion has a singular aim: how to connect us with the divine, that is, how to make one out of two. If we have to keep overcoming man-made obstacles in order to connect with God, this is irreligious, not religious.

How ought we to understand sin?

As a little test to this, as you read today’s Old Testament lesson from the prophet Micah, did you assume that the sins of Israel had to do with disobeying the rules, of breaking the law, of immoral worship? Or did you wonder if the sins of the people had to do with all the ways they created distance and separation between themselves and God?

The word of the Lord to the prophet Micah was not speech directed against the usual supposed devils of secularism or scientism. Instead, God was deeply concerned about the things that widened the gap between God and the people.

A divine/human union, a loving relationship between the Lord and people, an intimate knowing of one another, has always been at the heart of God’s understanding of religion. Anything less is demonic. God desires a mutual knowing and seeing, and not setting up altars which block the connection.

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

Meister Eckhart

Have we become separated?

Israel had lost their connection with God, and so, were no longer participating with the Lord in the divine/human cooperative of love. And God was not letting this happen without a clarion call to come back to the relationship.

The language of coming down from heaven and melting things is a reference to eliminating all the obstacles that stand in the way to true religion. The Lord will cataclysmically level everything in order to smooth the way between God and God’s people.

The capital cities, Samaria of Israel and Jerusalem in Judah, were the offenders in creating the blockage. Their high places of worship will be leveled to pave the road for unhindered fellowship; and a renewed and restored religion, based upon social justice for all, economic equity, and inclusive practices.

The severed connection with God became the fodder for all sorts of unjust thoughts and actions.

Woe to those who plan iniquity,
    to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out
    because it is in their power to do it.
They covet fields and seize them,
    and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes,
    they rob them of their inheritance.

Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales,
    with a bag of false weights?
Your rich people are violent;
    your inhabitants are liars
    and their tongues speak deceitfully. (Micah 2:1-2; 6:11-12, NIV)

Idolatry, in the guise of alternative forms of worship, is sinful in the sense that it’s humanity’s attempt at having their ultimate needs met outside of the religion given to them. Religion must be a conduit for enabling us to spiritually connect with the Lord. Establishing practices which marginalize God put people at risk of becoming feral worshipers who run about doing everything but discovering their true selves and the one true God.

It is time for us to recognize and celebrate that we are connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to God and each other is grounded in love and compassion.

How do I make a spiritual connection?

There are three dimensions to the spirit: the head (thoughts), the heart (emotions), and the gut (actions).  Each dimension is meant to work together in alignment so that we can move forward toward healing, health, wholeness, integrity, peace, and relationship.

  • The Head deals with questions such as, “Who am I? What is the meaning of life? Who is God?”
  • The Heart considers our emotional selves by asking,“What am I feeling? What is my view of God? How do I give and receive love?”
  • The Gut taps into the embedded image of God within us by contemplating, “What is the good life? To whom will I show compassion? Will I listen to myself and others?”

My friends, we have 15 prophetic books in the Bible because this problem of messed up religion has become an awful impediment to genuine spirituality. It was not only a problem all those millennia ago; it’s still an issue today.

So, let’s take a serious reading of the prophet Micah, and his prophetic biblical companions; and let us restore and renew true religion among ourselves, so that humanity can become the just and good people we were always destined to be by our Creator.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them peace, which is the fruit of righteousness, so that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Making Everything New (Isaiah 65:17-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading BlogLeave a comment
Creator: CharlieAJA | Copyright: CharlieAJA

“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth,
    and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.
Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation!
    And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness.
    Her people will be a source of joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
    and delight in my people.
And the sound of weeping and crying
    will be heard in it no more.

“No longer will babies die when only a few days old.
    No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life.
No longer will people be considered old at one hundred!
    Only the cursed will die that young!
In those days people will live in the houses they build
    and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.
Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses
    and confiscate their vineyards.
For my people will live as long as trees,
    and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.
They will not work in vain,
    and their children will not be doomed to misfortune.
For they are people blessed by the Lord,
    and their children, too, will be blessed.
I will answer them before they even call to me.
    While they are still talking about their needs,
    I will go ahead and answer their prayers!
The wolf and the lamb will feed together.
    The lion will eat hay like a cow.
    But the snakes will eat dust.
In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!” (New Living Translation)

I long for better days. Perhaps you do, as well. Day after day I see the physical and emotional suffering of others. I hear of the many needs of people in my community and around the world. And I face my own personal experiences of loss, grief, disease, death, limitations, etc. We all do. We inhabit a planet full of people in want, families in crisis, communities in pain, institutions in decline, and nations in conflict.

Yet, thank God, it won’t be like this forever. There are days coming which many people could never even dream or conceive of – days of unimaginable blessing, peace, and rest. This is anticipatory joy.

The coming newness will be as large and capacious as God is. Although the old heavens have had controversy and rebellion, and the old earth is burned over with violence, the new realm of God shall be free of sin, death, and evil. It will be governed with unending peace, justice, righteousness, and faithfulness.

Stability and order will oversee long life. No more will there be waking up to mass shootings, overnight murders, theft, brutality, coups, wars, and unrest. Life itself shall thrive, and will not be continually at risk. Quality of life will be the rule, not the exception.

Economic security will be ensconced with no fear of losing jobs or being taken advantage of – no phishing emails, no scam artists, no religious manipulators – a person shall reap the full harvest of their labor. The land and its people will experience continual blessing, and no longer live under a curse. The threat of disaster won’t hang over everyone’s head.

Children will be protected and free from harm. Whereas they are vulnerable to a host of the world’s evils, in God’s new heaven and earth, every year is the year of the child. They will neither be exploited nor expected to be adults before their time.

In short, the coming newness will be a true egalitarian society in which everyone possesses what they need and contributes fully to the community and common good of all. It’s more than individual blessing; its public practices and policies of blessing for the entire community.

Civil peace and protection, economic viability and development, and social stability and security need more than human ingenuity and attention – they need God’s providential care and pure holiness to be realized on a real and practical level.

Accessibility to God is a must. Otherwise, we’re just building structures that will fall and programs which shall fizzle and be forgotten. According to the New Testament, such access has been granted.

For he [Christ] is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us, abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:14-18, NRSV)

And so,

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16, NRSV)

Present circumstances may be difficult; current situations might be hard; a sense of being overwhelmed could be our experience, right now – yet our present difficulties and current realities cannot overwhelm God’s new and upcoming heaven and earth. Our daring faith sees beyond the now to what will be.

For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.

2 Corinthians 4:17, NRSV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:1-5, NRSV)

Amen.

Spiritual Renewal (Isaiah 30:19-26)

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

People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted. (New International Version)

Better days are ahead.

In this time of year, there are many people who simply don’t have to think twice about purchasing and giving gifts for Christmas. They have blessings, both material and spiritual. And they can always identify other persons who are in much more need than them. Some of them may even believe that those in need are in that position because of unwise individual choices. 

But we must maintain a focus on our own lives. We need to recognize the maladies of our hearts. The state of our lives is as important, and is just as real and needy, as someone else’s life who is in more humble circumstances. 

There are specific conditions in our lives that leave us in bondage and in need of restoration, renewal, and revitalization, just like all kinds of other people. 

Being a vital part of a local church does not automatically immune one from having serious needs. And having a good steady income doesn’t inoculate one from need or privation.

We must not suppress those realities and needs, but instead, name the conditions which are packed away in a closet of our heart deep inside us – such things as the love of possessions and money; broken relationships; old grudges; hidden addictions; domestic violence; denial of depression; secret affairs; cutting; fear; anger; greed; hatred; and much more. 

Outward smiles and small talk conversations may hide the truth from others, but they do nothing to hide from a God for whom everything is laid bare.

The good news is not just something for someone else who has “obvious” needs; the gospel must touch our lives and bring us freedom.

Only then can we pass on the good news to the legion of social ills that make our world sick. There are people all around us who need spiritual, emotional, and material help. Yet, we will not have eyes to see them, or have hearts to help, if we are stuffing our own burdens so deep within that we are blind to others.

Far too many Christians, especially the church-going kind, have become expert emotional stuffers and deniers of need. 

We may believe “those other people” need ministries of justice and help. But the truth is: Many of us are one paycheck, one prodigal kid, one mental health diagnosis, one serious illness, one drink, one affair, or one bad decision away from being one of “those people” – the people we typically identify as in need – the ones that bad things happen to – the ones we do not want next door to us.

We may not yet be vulnerable enough to admit our situation; and so, we keep practicing the denial of our spiritual poverty. 

What to do? Turn from the things that have caused us to be in poverty and be prisoners (not just secretly!) and hope in the Lord’s restorative grace. God takes all sorts of seemingly impossible situations of destruction and death, creating fresh new growth in the form of a little green sprout. 

God will rebuild our ruined souls; restore the places of our lives that have been devastated; and renew the places that have not seen renewal for generations. 

It begins with you and me allowing the justice of God to work within us, not just others. 

If we want comfort, we need to mourn. If we desire joy, then there needs to be some lamenting of a dire situation. If we hope for an oak of righteousness, there must be a confession of despair. For there to be a resurrection, there has to be a death.

What is your real situation and the true realities of your life that need to be named? 

Where will you go to address those needs and truths? 

Will you keep stuffing them, or will you become able to voice your inner personal needs? 

How might you be vulnerable enough to allow others to minister grace to your needy soul?

Let us have a vision of Jesus coming into our lives and replacing a tattered hat of grief with a crown of beauty. 

Let us picture the Lord placing on us a garment of praise to replace our stinky clothes of grumbling. 

Let us allow our lives to display the grace of God in Christ because we have been profoundly touched by the justice of God. 

Let us herald the coming of the Christ child as the hope of us all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Build It Now! (Haggai 1:1-15a)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Statue of the prophet Haggai, by Giovanni Pisano, c.1290 C.E., Siena, Italy

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest:

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. 

“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 

Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.

Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. (New International Version)

Timing is everything.

There is a time to ponder and plan and there’s a time to move and act. If the time is ripe for action, then the lack of initiative is plain old procrastination. But how do you know when to act?

If the Lord says it’s time, well then, it’s time!

God’s people wouldn’t have described their inaction in rebuilding God’s house as dragging their feet. They perceived their inertia as a sensible delay.

Yet, the Lord saw the people’s approach as inexcusable enough to send a prophet with a specific message and call to action: Build the house now!

Let’s get a feel for why God’s call for immediacy comes when it does. In the ancient world, it had always been the practice of armies to assimilate conquered peoples into the culture of the conquering king. 

In the eighth century B.C.E., the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. The Assyrians took most of the people into captivity, left the poorest of the people alone, and resettled the land with some of their own Assyrian people. The inevitable intermarriages resulted in their progeny being known as the Samaritans in the New Testament Gospels, as the Samaritans.

Two-hundred years after Assyria conquered Israel, Nebuchadnezzar besieged the southern kingdom of Judah and took over Jerusalem. He carried Daniel and all the other educated and professional people to Babylon. In the course of taking the city, Nebuchadnezzar tore down the wall and destroyed the temple that Solomon had made.

During the Babylonian exile, the Persians conquered Babylon and became rulers of a large geographical empire. Because the massive Persian Empire was in control of so many different kinds of people across such a vast territory, they were not able to operate as previous empires did by assimilation and resettlement. 

Instead, the Persians did something new and different: They encouraged and enabled their conquered peoples to keep their religion and their culture. The only caveat was that they had to give tribute and allegiance to the empire and pray for the king. This is why Nehemiah, Ezra, and Haggai were able to return to Jerusalem and given royal authority to rebuild the wall and the temple. 

But, from the git go, there was opposition to the rebuilding from the old Canaanite inhabitants of the land. After many years, the wall was rebuilt but the temple restoration bogged down. The people slowly became discouraged and lost enthusiasm to do the work. 

Understandably, the people got caught up in taking care of their own homes and just plain neglected working on the temple. Over time, they just forgot about the entire project. But God didn’t.

The prophet Haggai made it clear that the people’s mental distraction and physical neglect was taken as disrespect by the Lord. Haggai insisted that the reason the people were not experiencing blessing on their land was because they simply did not have their priorities straight. 

Thus, God sent the prophet Haggai to preach a sermon entitled: Build the house now! 

To the people’s credit, they responded to the call of God and started rebuilding God’s house. The work was completed. However, there seemed to be a problem. 

Rebuilding the Temple, by Gustave Doré, 1866

Moving into the rest of Haggai’s prophecy, the newly restored temple didn’t look anything like Solomon’s grand and glorious temple. Many of the older worshipers could still remember Solomon’s temple; to them, the rebuilt temple seemed like a bologna sandwich compared to the T-bone steak of the past. 

So, God sent Haggai again to encourage the people. The Lord will be with them. The restored temple may not look the same, but what makes the temple great is God’s glory.

An important takeaway from the prophecy of Haggai is that the Lord is a jealous God; God’s people are to worship the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

We also learn that the Lord is sovereign and supreme over all creation. God owns everything and will use it all to accomplish divine purposes on this earth. 

In addition, we see that God calls people to new work and fresh ministry. The Lord was behind the destruction of the old temple; and when the time was right, God called the people to build a new ministry.

And we learn something about ourselves, as well. God’s people need to hear and respond to God’s call. Haggai put a God-sized vision before the people; he helped them imagine what the new temple would be like – full of God’s glory.

God is doing a new thing. The Lord continues calling people to:

  • Seek first the kingdom of God. (Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalm 63:1; Matthew 6:33; Hebrews 11:6)
  • Love God with whole hearts. (Deuteronomy 6:5, 11:1-22, 19:9, 30:16-20; Matthew 22:37)
  • Love neighbor as we love ourselves. (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:38; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14)
  • Make disciples of Christ from all nationalities. (Matthew 28:18-20)
  • Be witnesses to God’s glory in Christ. (Psalm 66:16; Acts 1:8; 2 Timothy 2:2)
  • Obey the Holy Spirit. (Acts 5:31-33; Romans 6:17; Hebrews 5:8-9)

It is good to remember and celebrate past ministries; and it is also good to throw ourselves into the new ministries which God calls us and to build them for God’s glory.

My friends, build it now.

Glory to you, O God, the One who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by your divine power at work within us; glory to you, blessed God, in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations, through the empowering Holy Spirit, forever and always. Amen.