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.”
O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Flowers & Fountain Pastel | Dearborn, MI | August 2022
Maybe you do it monthly. Some do it weekly. Some not at all. But it is good to take an accounting of your assets on a regular basis. That includes your financial assets (least important), intellectual assets (the intelligence and mental wherewithal that God has given you), physical assets (your health, and ability to use your body for God’s purposes – which includes the time at your disposal), relational assets (people in your realm of influence on whom you can count for help or leverage for good), and spiritual assets (the wisdom, faith, power, and authority God gives his children over every kind of evil). These Five Capitals are assets we have to invest for the sake of God’s kingdom and which we may use for his glory.
David mentions some of these here in this psalm.
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. -Psalm 8:5-8.
God has given us these as a trust. We have these things not just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the whole world itself. God has entrusted these to us for his glory and our good. We are to use them in ways that honor him, and reflect his love to others. And while we often think of things entrusted to us in terms of financial wealth, that is only part of the story.
As we do take an account of all these blessings, it should lead us further to praise God, to acknowledge him as the giver of every good and perfect gift, and to praise him in humble wonder for the trust he has placed in us.
We often think about the wisdom of trusting in God above all things. Here we might stop and ponder how God has trusted us with all these things. Would our use of our assets cause people to praise God, the LORD, whose name is majestic in all the earth? Surely it should.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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