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.”

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  • Be Warned!

    Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall…

  • Today’s Psalms

    Psalm 28:1-2 To you, O Lord, I call;     my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me,     I become like those who go down to the pit. 2 Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,     when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands     toward your most holy sanctuary. Psalm…

  • What’s the Big Deal about Marriage?

    Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. – Hebrews 13:4 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were…

  • The Act of Marriage

    Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. – Genesis 2:24-25 It was a required book during my seminary studies, The Act of Marriage, by Tim and Beverly La Haye.…

  • This is most, most, most certainly true

    Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. – Genesis 2:24 If I begin the sentence, “This is most certainly…” most people who have been through Lutheran confirmation classes will be able immediately to fill in the missing word: “true.” Martin Luther…

  • “Ish? Ish?? Ish…Ishah!!!

    And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones    and flesh of my flesh;she shall be called Woman,    because she was taken out of Man.” – Genesis 2:22-23 “Ish? Ish?? Ish…Ishah!!! That’s how…

  • We’re no good solo

    Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  – Genesis 2:18 (The full Genesis 2 text is available below) I’ve confessed previously that I enjoy batching it whenever Diane travels for work or to see family…for a few days. My friend told me…

  • Today’s Psalms

    Selected verses from Psalm 21; 51; 81; 111; 141 for your meditation and edification on this Lord’s Day Psalm 21:13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength!     We will sing and praise your power.  Psalm 51 Have mercy on me, O God,     according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy     blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me…

  • When it’s not yet good

    The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely…

  • There is a place

    A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of…