David Bahn - Reflections

The Christian church is growing dramatically in places like Ethiopia. According to one who has been there and seen how God is at work, that's at least partly due to the fact that people have taken God's word seriously and seen themselves as missionaries to their friends, families, neighbors and communities.

God makes the waves. We need to learn to ride them! God grows the church. He uses people to make that happen. Wanna learn to surf? Or maybe even to paddle board?

Check out the PLI International Blog Post interview with Rev. Dr. Scott Rische about the Christian Church in Ethiopia.

https://plileadership.org/whats-different-in-ethiopia/

I am thankful to God for those who read or listen to this blog. You are a part of the fellowship that strengthens me. I do this for myself, but hope you are blessed by it as well. I encourage you to look for God's work in the world around you. I urge you to pray and worship, and I will join you whenever I can. I pray that you have friends with whom you can gather for food and fellowship. I hope you read and meditate on God's word. I rejoice in knowing that you join me in praising God for all his good gifts and blessings. That's the kind of devotion we all need to model. And while it is only a dim reflection of Jesus' devotional life, it is still a beautiful response to his gift of his salvation which is ours through faith.

I am thankful to God for those who read or listen to this blog. You are a part of the fellowship that strengthens me. I do this for myself, but hope you are blessed by it as well. I encourage you to look for God's work in the world around you. I urge you to pray and worship, and I will join you whenever I can. I pray that you have friends with whom you can gather for food and fellowship. I hope you read and meditate on God's word. I rejoice in knowing that you join me in praising God for all his good gifts and blessings. That's the kind of devotion we all need to model. And while it is only a dim reflection of Jesus' devotional life, it is still a beautiful response to his gift of his salvation which is ours through faith.

There is great comfort and an urgent calling attached to being baptized. It's clear that God's gifts of life, love, and salvation are mediated in a miraculous way through baptism. We receive those gifts through faith - a work of the Holy Spirit who is also given us in baptism. Behind all those promises, furthermore, is a calling to live it out. Live as though you are redeemed. Baptism isn't something that happened years or ever days or moments ago. Baptism is the entry point into the reign and rule of Jesus. We most fully express that truth in daily lives of faithfulness, obedience, repentance and faith. What a precious gift that is indeed!

Who might God call to himself that would challenge your spiritual and religious sensibilities? Is it an ethnic group? Is it someone who smells, thinks, acts, and talks differently? Or is it someone you’ve just written off? You’ve determined that John or Jane is just too far gone. Yet God calls them to himself. The abstract becomes real.

Here’s one more: Maybe you’re someone else’s Jane or John. You might be one who is thought to be too far gone, too different, too lost. In that case, rejoice and be glad. God’s grace, love and promises are for you – for all those God will call to himself. Joy or challenge? In either case it is a great blessing to be called to God and promised his gifts. His reach is far and wide. His grace and love deep. His mercy is everlasting.

Thank God for the example of these earliest Christians. They thought God's word neither quaint or forgettable. They were convinced that they needed to do something in response to this new awareness of their need. Thankfully God provides a way to deal with such moments when we become aware of our sin. Repent and believe. That's a call for us daily, and the way of life for all believers. Will we dismiss this as quaintly irrelevant, nothing we really need to deal with, or something that will change our life now and forever?

Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. We who hope for heaven must keep in mind that we live our lives this side of eternity and so do our neighbors who need our love and support. The real-life-today blessings of God are only an echo of the eternal blessings of God in Jesus. But they are a welcome echo to those who yearn for his blessings today.

Evil will ultimately and always collapse under its own weight. It cannot sustain itself. Death could not hold Jesus captive. He rose. He lives. He is reigning even now in the hearts of the faithful. And he who conquered death will grant to his own that same victory. We will be forever safe, joyful, and alive. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. It is not possible for God's good, gracious, and merciful ways to be thwarted.

I was privileged to preach at Angaza Igoma Lutheran Church in Mwanza, Tanzania. I pray this was edifying to them and to you as well. I will be uploading photos from our trip to my Smugmug site. https://fbgpbd.smugmug.com/Tanzania-Teaching-Trip

Sometimes our hearts need to be broken before the sweetness of Jesus' love finds its way there. God used Peter's sermon that Pentecost Sunday to do just that. Luke reports that, "Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, 'Brothers, what should we do?'” Repent and be baptized Peter says. And you will be saved. That calling remains true today, and continues to strike the hearts of many.