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.”

Inventory

Mark 7:21-23

[Jesus says,] “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

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Cross atop the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

A young man came to me several years ago, burdened by his past sin. He had helped a young woman get an abortion and now it was weighing heavily on his soul. We talked about the experience and beyond the more obvious sin of taking a human life, there was the matter of involving the young woman who was carrying his child in this terrible decision. How could it be that such an evil path was discovered and taken?

“From within, out of the heart,” Jesus says, “come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft…” The list is long and will certainly touch all people at some point, for our hearts are corrupted. We sin because we are sinners. We are not sinners because we sin. So if we are to make a spiritual inventory we must look to the heart.

David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” (Psalm 51) If we are to shake the evil thoughts, abandon the sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, we must seek God’s help. And it may well be that there is a so-called pet sin in that list: a sin that we will naturally lean toward, one that finds easy expression in our lives.

It seems, however, that Jesus’ point here is not simply to offer a check-list of sins of which to rid ourselves. His point is much more about helping us to acknowledge our need for a Savior. For this conversation is in the context of questions about food. And Jesus is telling his disciples that the need to worry less about food and more about their hearts.

The reality of a sinful heart is a far greater blight than any particular sin that may flow from it. The cure from that illness is the mercy and grace of God, the redemption of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit within the heart of the believer. Thanks be to God for his grace. That is our only hope.

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