David Bahn - Reflections

"Time in erodes awareness of" is another way of saying that the longer you are in a particular situation - your home, your church, your car, your job - you grow less and less aware of the peculiarities of that situation. The scratch on the door. The funny noise of the brake pedal. The slightly torn window shade. The peculiar smell of the breakroom at work. You grow used to these things. They go unnoticed.

That's the danger of being a lifelong Christian. You might overlook something that is really more important than you think because you've heard it so often. It's like saying the Creed or the Lord's Prayer. It can be pretty easy to slip into autopilot as we speak words of profound spiritual depth and value. 

David shows that he is a man after God's heart because he repents. He will not hide behind an unbelieving heart with outward shows of piety. He won't harumph himself up before others in self-righteousness. He calls out to God,

O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise. - Psalm 51:15

And,

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin! - Psalm 51:1-2

A man or woman after God's heart will delight in God's glorious grace. Reflecting God's love. Shown in Jesus. Granting us salvation. Capturing our hearts.

Encouraging words are words from the Holy Spirit. They will point us to Jesus and bring eternal encouragement.

Jesus' ministry is more than a bubble on the timeline of history. He is part of the grand sweep of the divine drama of God's redemption and salvation. More accurately, Jesus is the centerpiece of God's story of our eternal salvation. 

The saddest thing of all is when people walk away from the faith and fail to pass down to their children. A dismissive yeah, yeah, yeah attitude is a dangerous step that leads in that direction. These Old Testament events are important of themselves and help us more fully appreciate and thank God for Jesus' redemptive grace and sacrificial love. Jesus' work is not a yeah, yeah, yeah matter. ... His salvation is properly a glorious, Yes! Yes! Yes!

God has always been at work. Whether through Abraham or Elijah, Gideon or Moses, God was working. But it wasn't merely to build a kingdom on earth. His is an eternal kingdom with people clothed in justice, mercy, witness, grace, and love. Through faith in Jesus all these are ours. That's what actually does work.

I don't think of myself as all that important. Most of us don't harbor delusions of grandeur. But we all can point to Jesus as the author and source of every good gift. We can all confess him as Lord. We can all claim his salvation through faith. We can all make a way for him in our hearts so that he can use us to gain access to others' hearts.

All kinds and sorts of people make up the church. We who are part of the church will have occasion to interact with all kinds of folks. We must be ready always to offer grace, mercy, hope, and love to those whom we encounter. We may never know how our lives may be woven into others' spiritual journey. But we must do all we can to honor Christ whenever we are part of such encounters. 

There are currently more than 600 congregations in our church body that are calling pastors. That’s about 10% of the churches. We need pastors. Please join me in praying that the Lord would send more laborers into the harvest of souls. And while you’re at it, remember this: Immediately after Jesus commands his disciples to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest, Matthew records that Jesus named his 12 disciples and sent them out. They turned out to be part of God’s answer to their own prayers. There may be a roll for each of us in this need for which we are praying.

Paul calls Elymas a son of the devil, and enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy. He asked him, "will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?" Sometimes we must call people to account for their rebellious, reckless and wayward ways. 

Those who lead us toward Jesus are the Sons of God, whose feet on the mountains are beautiful.

The Holy Spirit calls us to faith, enlightens us with his gifts, keeps us in the faith, gathers his people, and sanctifies us. And as Martin Luther says, the Holy Spirit “daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.” 

This is the Good News (Gospel) of the Holy Spirit. Glory be to You, O Holy Spirit!