David Bahn – Reflections

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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.”

God is Greater than Our Hearts

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. – 1 John 3:19-20

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Thistle Trifecta | Mercer Botanical Gardens | June 2018

The imaginations of the human heart can inspire almost anything – from sacrificial love to vicious acts of violence. A Navy Seal takes a bullet for his fellow soldiers. A raging gunman cuts down 5 people in a newspaper office. The heart is at the root of both. That’s why it is so vital that our hearts are centered on Jesus, and sustained by the Holy Spirit.

We might wish to justify ourselves by appealing to the rightness in our hearts. But anything other than pure love motivates us, we will find no justification there – at least before God. Debbie Boone once sang, “It can’t be wrong if it feels so right.” Oh contraire! God is bigger than our hearts. He will judge to see whether we are truly righteous.

On the other hand our hearts may accuse us falsely. Our actions may be acceptable to God and purely motivated (by the presence of God’s Holy Spirit and in faith in Jesus). Not only do our hearts not accuse us when they should, sometimes our hearts accuse us when we have done nothing wrong.

This does not mean that we ever outgrow the need for the cross of Jesus; it simply means that we don’t have to be paralyzed by the specter of sin or carrying a load of guilt for simply taking a breath (after all, we breath so we can live; isn’t that selfish?). Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” She still needed Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness. But she was freed from her life of sin – just as we are freed from sin’s hold on us.

When we feel the tug of a guilty conscience we can be confident that Jesus’ death has atoned for that sin and live in freedom and grateful love to God and our neighbor. That is a gift of the Holy Spirit for which we can thank God.

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One response to “God is Greater than Our Hearts”

  1. Quilting Crosses with Threads of Hope Avatar
    Quilting Crosses with Threads of Hope

    At this post think of two hymns:
    I Know That My Redeemer Lives
    and
    When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
    … like this post, much comfort is present in them.

    Reply

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