Tag: spiritual support

The Power of a Blessing (Genesis 27:30-46)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Isaac Blesses Jacob, by Yoram Raanan

After Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and just as Jacob left his father Isaac, his brother Esau came back from his hunt. He too made some delicious food, brought it to his father, and said, “Let my father sit up and eat from his son’s game so that you may bless me.”

His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

And he said, “I’m your son, your oldest son, Esau.”

Isaac was so shocked that he trembled violently. He said, “Who was the hunter just here with game? He brought me food, and I ate all of it before you came. I blessed him, and he will stay blessed!”

When Esau heard what his father said, he let out a loud agonizing cry and wept bitterly. He said to his father, “Bless me! Me too, my father!”

Isaac said, “Your brother has already come deceitfully and has taken your blessing.”

Esau said, “Isn’t this why he’s called Jacob? He’s taken me twice now: he took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing.” He continued, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

Isaac replied to Esau, “I’ve already made him more powerful than you, and I’ve made all of his brothers his servants. I’ve made him strong with grain and wine. What can I do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Do you really have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept loudly.

His father Isaac responded and said to him,

“Now, you will make a home
    far away from the olive groves of the earth,
        far away from the showers of the sky above.
You will live by your sword;
        you will serve your brother.
But when you grow restless,
        you will tear away his harness
        from your neck.”

Esau was furious at Jacob because his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, When the period of mourning for the death of my father is over, I will kill my brother.

Rebekah was told what her older son Esau was planning, so she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Esau your brother is planning revenge. He plans to kill you. So now, my son, listen to me: Get up and escape to my brother Laban in Haran. Live with him for a short while until your brother’s rage subsides, until your brother’s anger at you goes away and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I suffer the loss of both of you on one day?”

Rebekah then said to Isaac, “I really loathe these Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women, like the women of this land, why should I go on living?” (Common English Bible)

Jacob and Esau

The twins Esau and Jacob are the very definition of sibling rivalry. Even at their birth, they jostled and positioned for their entry into the world. Although brothers, they were different from one another in every way. As their aged father, Isaac, was near the end of his days, he was looking to pass on a family blessing to Esau, the firstborn. And that’s where things got dicey.

Jacob, always the trickster, was still playing out the rivalry. When his brother Esau was out hunting and preparing to receive his father’s blessing, Jacob posed as his brother and deceitfully gained the blessing of Isaac.

Both Isaac and Esau were shocked to discover what happened. Esau’s response was one of grief, disappointment, bitterness, with tears and weeping. Despite Esau not being known for his sensitivity to God or family before this event, we can certainly feel his cry: “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!”

The Blessing

As a Pastor and a Chaplain who works with a variety of people, I have heard many times over the lament of individuals without a blessing from their father. As people created in the image and likeness of God, we were meant to be blessed – to have a loving and enduring stamp of approval from both our heavenly Father and our earthly fathers.

And when an earthly father, or father figure, either cannot or will not extend a vital blessing to children, it is a terrible wound – like an invisible open putrid abscess which continually leaves the person emotionally and spiritually sick.

Blessing is needed. Without blessing we flounder in the world, struggling to see hope, wondering if we are loved, and lacking confidence in our faith. To be blessed is to receive a beautiful gift.

The term “blessing” in Scripture is a powerful communication of God’s presence and approval.

So, when humans bless one another, we offer commitments of love and connection. We provide powerful words of encouragement and picture a special future for those we are close to.

None of this is optional. To bless others is the way of building up one another and fortifying each other for the rigors of this world. When blessing is withheld, and even worse, when it is replaced with cursing, then individuals are left untethered, bereft of support to face stressful situations. Like a ship adrift without any power or wind, so the person trying to live in this world without blessing is dead in the water.

Jesus Blesses

Where there is no blessing, like Esau, revenge fills our hearts. But Jesus clearly understood the need and the power of blessing, and he was not deterred in deliberately offering it:

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16, NIV)

I wonder how this simple encounter affected the lives of those children on that day in which Jesus blessed them. I am curious in what ways they grew-up and how Christ’s blessing shaped their lives. Because that is what blessing does: it forms us into the kind of people we were meant to be.

So, receive today this blessing from Holy Scripture:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen. (Numbers 6:24-26)

Spiritual Support (Ezekiel 29:3-7)

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

Speak and say, The Lord God proclaims:

I’m against you, Pharaoh, Egypt’s king,
    great crocodile lurking
    in the Nile’s canals,
        who says, “The Nile is all mine;
        I made it for myself!”
I will set hooks in your jaws;
    I will make the fish from the Nile’s canals cling to your scales.
I will drag you out of the Nile’s canals,
    and also all the fish from the Nile’s canals
    clinging to your scales.
        I will fling you out into the desert,
        and also all the fish from the Nile’s canals.
You will fall on the open ground,
    and won’t be gathered or retrieved.

I’ve given you to the beasts of the earth
        and the birds in the sky for food.
Everyone living in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.

Because they were a flimsy crutch for the house of Israel—when they took you in hand, you would splinter and make their shoulders sore; when they leaned on you, you would break, bringing them to their knees. (Common English Bible)

“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing yet had been done.”

C.S. Lewis

From where, and to whom, do we look to for support?

The Pharaoh of Egypt could open his mouth as wide as a crocodile, but he had no real strength – only talk and no bite – and talk is cheap, especially in the face of a sovereign God.

The Lord had little tolerance for Pharaoh’s bombast, so God decided to don the divine crocodile hunter hat and pull the old creature out of the Nile River.

The reeds that grow along the Nile in Egypt look something like bamboo. They appear as if they might make a decent staff or crutch, but the reeds are not good for that, and if used so, would shatter and put some significant splinters into your hand.

God was warning the Israelites against sizing up Egypt as a significant means of support, and then putting weight on them for help. The leadership of Jerusalem was trusting in Pharaoh and his Egyptian troops to rescue them from the Babylonian army.

But, as we know from history, the Babylonians soundly defeated the Egyptian soldiers. Pharaoh was no support, at all, and became a shattered crutch to Judah, just as God had warned.

We need to be careful about choosing our sources of support. There are a lot of unreliable means of help out there, that people turn to in life.

When going through tough times, we may believe that popularity and power, or alcohol and drugs, or wealth and position will help support us and get us through the hard situation. Yet, they all prove too weak and inadequate in the end.

God is able to carry a person through a crisis, so that we do not just survive it, but grow and thrive through it. We must continually be vigilant and wise to resist the temptation toward the shiny things in life which may draw us to depend upon unreliable things and people. We need God working through God’s people to help support us in a time of need.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:8, NRSV)

One of the great Christian theologians of the twentieth century, the Protestant Swiss professor Karl Barth, believed that we are not fully human and fully supporting one another apart from:

  • mutual seeing and being seen
  • reciprocal speaking and listening
  • granting one another mutual assistance
  • doing everything with gratitude and gratefulness

Barth used the German term Mitmenschlichkeit (co-humanity) to communicate that we are human and supported with a trusted other person alongside us. In other words, human flourishing requires mutual giving and receiving. Only in relation to each other, including those in need, do we thrive as people.

Christianity is a dependence upon God and an inter-dependence on one another; it’s not an isolated independent venture. Adversity, hardship, and difficulty can become a symbiotic relationship between the care-seeker and the caregiver, within the foundation of Trinitarian love, expressed with grace and hope given by Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, when we talk about spiritual support of another, it includes the following alliterated points:

  • Struggle. Enter another’s spiritual and emotional wrestling along with them, without succumbing to the impetus to change or fix, but to empathize, affirm, and validate emotions and experiences.
  • Share. Seek to be emotionally available and aware – to be present in another’s pain and wonderment, understanding that a person cannot go any deeper with me than I have gone with myself.
  • Story. Listen to the story that a person weaves about their own situation, background, family, support, religious milieu, as well as their personal spiritual and emotional world.
  • Salvation. Allow and give permission to the person to name and resolve their own struggle; because I am neither the Savior nor in the saving business, as if deliverance and freedom depended upon me.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

Jesus to his disciples (John 14:1, NRSV)

Trust of another must be given carefully and wisely, not flippantly or thoughtlessly. And becoming a trusting person involves not only a willingness to do so, but also the presence to listen, the place to care, and the passion and commitment to do what is helpful, not hurtful.

Blessed God of support and strength, you have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand has supported me. Your divine help has gotten me through, and given me a wide place for my steps under me, so that my fee do not slip.

Gracious God, you have given me an example through the Lord Jesus that we must support the weak, remembering his words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” May it be so, in the strength given by the Holy Spirit, to your glory and honor. Amen.

Encourage One Another (1 Thessalonians 3:1-5)

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

So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain. (New International Version)

If life were always a bowl of cherries, we would not continually need to be encouraged. But, as you well know, we all need encouragement in order to keep going, be patient, and persevere through the hard slogs of this life.

The Apostle Paul, although sometimes coming across as a driven Type A sort of personality in Scripture, was nonetheless sensitive and attentive to the spiritual and emotional needs of the churches in his care. And because of that concern, he sent his young protégé, Timothy, to encourage the believers in Thessalonica and support them in their efforts to live a faithful life.

Encouragement is a vital practice for all people; it isn’t optional. To need encouragement is not a sign of weakness, any more than needing food is. Ideally, encouragement happens daily, just as much as we need three square meals a day. (Hebrews 3:12-14)

The church is to be a community of mutual support for one another. The world can be a tough, unfriendly, and lonely place. It’s easy to get hurt.

The word “encourage” is a beautiful word (Greek: παρακαλέω and English transliteration: parakaleo). It is actually two words smashed together (compound word) to communicate a wonderful truth. “Para” means to come alongside. It’s a word found in many of our English words (i.e., parachute, paramedic, etc.). The other half of the word, kaleo, means “to call out,” that is, to exhort someone to do something. 

When we put those two words together, parakaleo means to exhort someone to do something by coming alongside them and helping them to do it. Therefore, we do the dual work of saying helpful words and backing it up with helpful actions.

We are to do the patient work of building up and strengthening the faith of each other. Not everything goes according to plan in life; there are unforeseen delays and issues and problems which causes us to find creative work arounds. At other times, we just have to submit to the wait and not become upset or discouraged about it.

When it comes to faith, we are not to give up when things don’t go as we think they should, or as planned. In stressful situations, we must avoid tearing down one another. And we are not to look at other people as objects to be “fixed” when they don’t perform, or do, or say, what we want them to. 

Everyone needs a continual stream of encouragement to keep going so that we do not lose heart or lose hope. If we are in the habit of only pointing out things to others we don’t like, or consistently feel the need to correct people, then we really must say at least five encouraging things for every single complaint. 

“Do you see how everywhere Paul puts the health of the community into the hands of each individual?  Encourage one another and build each other up. Do not then cast all of the burden on your teachers, and do not cast everything on those who have authority over you. You are able to edify one another…. If you are willing, you will have more success with one another than we (pastors) can have. You have been with one another a longer time and know more about one another’s affairs. You are not ignorant of one another’s failings and have more freedom of speech, love, and intimacy. You have more ability than we do to reprove and exhort. I am only one person. You are many. You will be able to be teachers to one another.”

Saint John Chrysostom, 4th century Bishop of Constantinople

We encourage and edify one another with Christ – who is both our example and our substitute. Jesus is our example of leaving the comfort of heaven and coming alongside us in our human condition; he lived the holy life we could not live, and so, is our substitute. 

Jesus came alongside us and taught us how to live by showing the way of love and taking care of the sin issue once for all. After rising from the dead and ascending to heaven, we now have the hope that Christ will return.  Then we will no longer have to deal with the world, the flesh, and the devil dogging us at every turn, seeking to discourage us. 

The three indispensable elements of the Christian life are faith, hope, and love. We need all three in order to be encouraged and strengthened in faith.

For faith to be strong, it needs exercise through continual repetitions of handling hard and challenging circumstances.   

For hope to flourish, we need the confident expectation that God will make good on all divine promises.

For love to abound, it needs to become the very air we breathe. Love is to be so common and routine for us that we put it on every day just as we put on our clothes. We love one another by encouraging each other through meeting needs. We love each other enough to say what needs to be said, and back it up with help so that they will not become discouraged but will persevere and keep going.

The Holy Spirit of God is referred to by Jesus as the Paraclete – the noun form of the word for encouragement.  The Spirit is the one who comes alongside us and teaches us all things by helping us. The Spirit’s work is to sanctify us and make us holy. 

God does not shout commands from heaven; the Lord comes alongside us by means of the Spirit to help us live the Christian life. And that is how believers are to function – pointing one another to Christ, exhorting and helping and edifying each other until the Lord Jesus comes again. 

Almighty God, by your Word you laid the foundations of the earth, set the boundaries of the sea, and still the wind and waves. Surround us with your grace and peace, and preserve us through all the vicissitudes of this life. By your Spirit, lift up those who have fallen, strengthen those who work to rescue or rebuild, and fill us with the hope of your new creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Faith, Hope, and Love (Acts 27:13-38)

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

When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 

As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. 

We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. 

Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. Altogether there were 276 of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. (New International Version)

An engraving of the Roman prison ship, by Henry Adlard (1799-1893)

Keeping your courage in the face of an intense stressor is more than challenging. Yet, the Apostle Paul did it. Not only that, but he also had the wherewithal to help keep up the spirits of the people around him – even though he was on a prison ship in the middle of storm.

How did Paul do it? How did he remain encouraged himself, while also encouraging others? What’s the answer? Three words which are essential to the Christian life: faith, hope, and love.

Every believer knows from experience how difficult it is to practice these in daily life, especially the crucible of multiple stressors. One reason it’s so doggone hard, even when we want to please the Lord, is due to the confusion between our inner feelings and our outer actions. Yet once we understand the incongruence, and how to evaluate our inner experience, then it’s a whole lot easier to make daily decisions of faith, hope, and love.

In the beginning God created humans in the divine image. Humanity’s relationship to God was central to daily life (Genesis 1:26; 2:16-25). And God created people with the capacity to interact with the divine through our ability to think and reason. (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10)

Before there were broken relationships between Creator and creature, our original ancestors had complete self-control, along with unity and harmony between one another and God. (Genesis 1:31; 2:7, 16-25). 

It’s vital for us to recognize the distinction between human being and human doing; there’s a difference in who we are and what we do. (Romans 1:21-32; 6:16-22; 1 Corinthians 9:27; Ephesians 4:21-32)

And if we fail to grasp this distinction, we’re going to have some big stress in living as Christians.

In Adam and Eve’s disobedience toward God, humanity took on its own authority, and started making decisions independent of God. In other words, the source of authority switched, and we began relying upon ourselves.

The problem with this is that our brokenness has left us in disparate parts, badly in need of integration. The fall of humanity compromised our integrity, and so, we have a messed up sense of what to do, how to feel, and how and what to think.

This is why rational people do irrational things, and why fear, stress, and anxiety rule so much of our lives. Many a church pastor, not understanding this dynamic, is forever frustrated and flabbergasted that parishioners do not simply take what has been taught them, and go do it. (If it were that simple there would be no place for the Holy Spirit!)

There’s more. In our fallen state, we lost control of our capacity to function well – and are now vulnerable to manipulation from others, and from Satan. (Ephesians 2:2-3; Galatians 5:16-21)

As a result, our inner conscience has become confused. We are not always certain of right and wrong, or what needs to happen whenever we’re distressed. We end up misunderstanding what life is really supposed to be about. We’re disconnected from our original source of faith, hope, and love.

However, the good news of Christianity is that through the redeeming work of Jesus, and a new birth, the bondage of shame and disconnection is reinstated. God once again becomes central to daily life. The Lord’s gracious authority is restored.

In this renewed relationship, we can again receive truth through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures. Our daily practical experience of this relationship brings freedom, joy, assurance, peace, and self-control. Yet, even though one is redeemed by Jesus Christ and believes in him, it is still possible to regress into conflict, doubt, fear, anxiety, frustration, disappointment, and confusion. (Romans 7:14-25; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4)

We must, therefore, make daily decisions of faith, hope, and love based in our identity as God’s image-bearers:

  • Recognize you have the ability to function in faith, hope, and love as God’s beloved child.(2 Corinthians 7:1; Romans 8:14-17)
  • Understand the difference between your being and doing. Evil thoughts and emotions do not make you evil. What you do with your feelings and thoughts is what’s vital. (See how Jesus handled this in Matthew 4:1-11).
  • Know that you can take charge of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. (Galatians 5:22-23)
  • Know also that you can reject whatever is harmful and out of sync with your basic identity. (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:5-9; Titus 2:11-12)
  • Respond to God and God’s Word by daily obedience. Learn to think and act on the basis of truth. (Acts 27:25)
  • Discern that practicing the truth will result in freedom, and a re-patterning of thinking and functioning. (John 8:32; Titus 2:11-14; Philippians 2:12-16)

Supportive communities help one another live into shared values and commitments. Faith, hope, and love exists and grows in the context of community.

Paul had faith by believing what he heard; hope by looking ahead to the end of God’s promise; and love by reaching out to his fellow prisoners and the ship’s crew. Whereas stress moved to distress for most on the ship, Paul found strength, within that same stress, by practicing faith, hope, and love.

Almighty God, give us true faith, and make that faith grow in us day by day. Also give us hope and love, so that we may serve our neighbors according to your will; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.