David Bahn – Reflections

Light from the Word and through the lens

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In 1968 Jerry Snell opened a door in the hallway outside our first hour chemistry class. He invited me into what I discovered was a darkroom. Soon I was on the school newspaper and annual staff as a photographer. Later I learned that Jerry was a Lutheran who was planning to become a pastor. A few years later I was not only a Lutheran, but I was heading off to seminary to become a Lutheran pastor, too. Jerry followed a year later and served as a pastor in Missouri until his untimely heart attack and death. I thank God for Jerry and enjoy photography still today – not to mention rejoicing in having served as a Lutheran pastor in congregations in Utah, Colorado, Arkansas and Texas. I’ve retired now and serve part time as a Congregational Support Specialist for the Texas District of the LCMS. I also provide coaching and leadership training through various PLI cohorts and with individual congregations and organizations. David Bahn is a follower of Jesus Christ, husband to Diane, father and grandfather. He is an avid amateur photographer. His photo website is “Flowers by God Photos by David” He also publishes a devotional blog DavidBahn-Reflections.com. He and Diane live in Cypress Texas and enjoy visiting their grandchildren who live in the United States and Germany. He graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in 1979, and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1991. Diane, his wife, is now retired from PLI (PLIleadership.org). They have offered presentations on Marriage and Ministry Partnership, Leadership, Changing Your Congregation’s Culture, and Missional Living. They look are working with PLI International training pastors and wives of the ELVD Diocese of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania. David’s personal mission statement is “Leading people to realize Jesus’ calling and plans for their lives.”

Fruit of Righteousness or Root of Bitterness?

Hebrews 12:11-17

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

What a blessing we experience daily in these United States of America. I do not believe the USA is the new Israel. I do not believe that the USA is God’s favorite nation. But I do believe we are singularly blessed and exceptional in the world! In the midst of a political campaign that is as vicious and negative as many have ever seen, there are no tanks in the streets around the White House or troops encircling Capitol Hill. The moral, civil, and social righteousness principals on which our nation was founded have yielded a peace and stability that Syria, Iran, Korea, China, Iraq, Egypt, and a host of countries in Central America can only envy.

On a personal level, we will have an even greater peace as we embrace the ways and discipline of God. If God visits our lives with times of discipline and we draw closer to him, seeking his ways, and holding to his promises the outcome will be peace. This is why we must embrace the call to lift our drooping hands, strengthen the weak knees, walk the straight path, strive for peace with everyone, and pursue holiness. For in these pursuits is true peace – not a drug-induced numbness or glazed-eyed denial of reality. And certainly not a bitterness that springs from a soul that has never embraced the grace of God.

The greatest blessing in which we now live, however, is the opportunity to repent: the availability of God’s grace to us when we discover we have taken the wrong path. God has provided that to us through Christ so that we need not forever regret. He has opened the door for us to receive the eternal blessing of redemption. Rather than a root of bitterness, we have the gift of Christ’s righteousness – pure and perfect, unwavering and totally reliable – and his righteousness brings a peace to us that the world can never give.

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