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.”

  • On the Hunt

    Amos 5:4

    Thus says the Lord, “Seek me and live.”

    Luke 19:2–3 (NIV)

    A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was.

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    As a child I played the game, “Going on a Bear Hunt”. As I recall, the point was to go on the bear hunt when suddenly you would encounter the bear and have to run for your life back to the safety of your home. It’s kind of like hunting for rattle snakes in West Texas or wild boar in Arkansas: what do you do when you actually catch one?

    Sadly, however, many people hunt for things far more dangerous – although not seen to be so. We hunt for excitement and thrills at the expense of safety and due caution. A youthful moment of carelessness ends in the tragedy of an auto accident during an impromptu on-the-street drag race. A slip of the hands sends someone falling to their death on an untethered rock-climbing outing. A momentary flirtation with drugs invites disease into the body of a young woman through a shared needle. An indiscriminate look takes a man into an adulterous affair to relieve his boredom. Drugs, money, sex, fun, adrenaline: each provide a moment of excitement and a cheap counterfeit sense of joy. But these do not bring life.

    Jesus, on the other hand, invites people to look to him and live. God says, “Seek me and live.” Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was. He was rewarded for his tree-climbing efforts. Jesus literally changed his life. We can search for happiness, significance, meaning, hope, or inner peace. All these are good things to have. But they will not save us. Jesus calls us to seek God’s reign and righteousness first, and all the other things of life will be added to us. Whatever effort it may take to seek Jesus’ presence in our daily lives, will be well spent. Jesus is on the hunt for people who will look for him and his salvation.

  • Injustice gone good

    Nehemiah 13:2

    Our God turned the curse into a blessing.

    2 Corinthians 5:19

    In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

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    There is no more unjust treatment of a human being than that which was visited on Jesus of Nazareth. Consider this: He was fully and unwaveringly committed to doing the will of God from a perfectly pure motive. He did not seek his own glory. He did not do good so that good would come to him. He did not flinch from the truth or stray from the path of love. He showed God’s mercy and love to those who needed it. He expressed God’s word of truth and judgment to those who deserved it. He was gracious with sinners, yet calling them to “go and sin no more.” He was outraged at the self-righteousness of the religious leaders who hid behind false pretenses in order not to show love and mercy to those in need.

    Jesus did everything right. Everything. And not just right, but right from the heart: loving, merciful, gracious, and good. All that Jesus did was done for God’s glory and man’s benefit, with a pure heart, without ulterior motive.

    Then God, man, government, and religion all conspired against him for his demise. And as if that weren’t enough, the means by which he was tried, convicted, and executed was unfair, contrived, and falsely based. He was charged with things he did not do, convicted of things he was not responsible for, and executed like a common criminal on a shameful cross – a physically-excruciating experience of human torture, and a naked-to-the-world experience of shame and humiliation.

    Out of all that, however, God brought us salvation. For Jesus embraced all this injustice, sin, and unrighteousness willingly, taking to himself the sin of the world, and dying in faith in the face of the abandonment of God. Because Jesus saw it through, we have been saved. God’s wrath has been appeased. True righteousness has been vindicated. What no one else could do, Jesus did. And by his stripes we have been healed.

    Injustice has gone good in Jesus, and we have the privilege of spreading the message of reconciliation between God and man to everyone. In fact, it is only because justice was so thoroughly miscarried and fully embraced that the result is as powerfully good. Thanks be to God!

  • Telling Jesus Stories

    Psalm 22:22

    I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters.  

    Romans 10:14

    How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 
    Not too long ago a friend in the photo club of which I am a member asked me a question that stumped me. He asked, “What do you do when people don’t pay?” He was referring to the fact that I am a pastor of a large church with a major program and good-sized budget. He was wondering, I think, about how the finances work. I stumbled out an answer about free-will offerings and the support of God’s people. But I missed the opportunity to tell about Jesus…at least for a few weeks.

    It was perhaps two months later, at the same restaurant which we frequent after our club meetings, that I said to my friend, “You asked me a question a while back that I didn’t know how to answer about people who don’t pay. I’ve been thinking about that for some time, and I remembered the story of Jesus watching people put money in the temple treasurery. Rich people put in large sums of money, and a poor widow put in two pennies. Jesus said that she gave more than all the others.” 

    I left it there, letting the story of Jesus do its work, hoping for more questions. But the conversation took a crazy Ivan to rich celebrities giving large amounts of money for show, and other red herrings. I’m not certain how much got across to my friend. But I do know that Jesus had some context in our conversation. 

    Telling God’s story is more difficult if your understanding of that task is all about reciting a story in mid-air, rather than bringing Jesus’ story to a particular context. What story of Jesus might you tell that fits a particular context? I am praying for more opportunities to tell of Jesus, and for the opportunity to see that story take root in my friend’s life. How might Jesus’ story make an eternal difference in the life of someone you know? 

  • Angels Watching Over Us!

    Genesis 24:7

    The Lord will send his angel before you.

     Acts 8:26–28

    An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went.

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    I love to think about angels! But not the cute chubby cheribs that inhabit the book shelves and display cases of many Christians. And not “the Lord needed another angel, so he took Grandma” misguided sentiment. I understand the idea of cute angels and the desire for the comforting thought that Grandma is watching over her loved-ones when she dies. But neither of those ideas find any biblical support.

    Angels, according to the Bible, are mighty warriors. They fly in the vaults of heaven around the throne, with six wings (Isaiah 6), and surround enemy armies with their mighty power at God’s command (1 Kings 18). Their appearance is so majestic when they appear to people, that most often their first words are, “fear not.” Sometimes they are mistaken for God and worshipped.

    But these servants of God are not to be worshiped. They might be fear-inspiring, but they serve God’s good causes for us. Jesus speaks of angels as assigned to the care of little ones (Matthew). Their intent is to fulfill God’s will, and support and protect all who seek God’s reign.

    These two passages remind us that angels support us whenever we pursue God’s mission and kingdom. They go before us, and even direct our ways according to God’s will and plan. I thank God for angels and pray that he will send his angels to my side today in all that I do. How about you?

  • Perfect Keeping through Faith in Christ

    Psalm 121:5–6

    The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

    Matthew 2:13
    An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 

    The ongoing and providential care of God toward his people is not always readily apparent. Christians and non-believers alike are involved in car accidents, become victims of violent crime, and experience grave illnesses and troubles of many different kinds. 

    Yet we have this promise and the example of God’s intervention and protective care for Joseph and Mary, together with Jesus in the face of Herod’s menacing intentions. How do we embrace this idea of God’s protection in the face of the very real troubles we see and experience all around us? That seems to be the legitimate question of those who have experienced grave loss or harm – even while looking to God for deliverance. 

    The answer lies, I believe, in seeing how God was intervening in the lives of all people through his Son, Jesus of Nazareth. In Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, an epic battle takes place against the promise of deliverance by Gandalf “on the third day.” The armies of Middle Earth suffer greatly for the first days of the battle, until at last Gandolf arrives with reinforcements and saves the day. Intervention comes; it doesn’t always come as quickly as we would wish. 

    Our redemption has been won by Jesus Christ. He has conquered sin, death, and the devil. The Lord is our keeper and our shade. We can rest in him, and will for all eternity. Sometimes we get a foretaste of that here and now. But even the most remarkable deliverance will pale in comparison to the final deliverance on the Great Last Day. 

    Jesus survived the plots of Herod when he was a toddler. He did not survive the schemes of the Jewish religious leaders and Pilate’s soldiers’ scourge and cross. Nevertheless, Jesus endured through faith and now is exalted to God’s right hand on high. We look forward to our perfect keeping through faith in him. 

  • Why indeed?

    Psalm 119:67

    Before I was humbled I went astray, but now I keep your word.

    Acts 9:3–4

    As Paul was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

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    Sometimes we may really need our comeuppance; we may need to be thrown to the ground and asked, “Why are you doing this?” But that does not often happen. More often we are able to go our way with impunity, living as we please and holding to our own particular biases and favoritisms.

    Truly, however, we all need to fall to our knees in true repentance and contrition, for we all hold to ugly biases, favoritisms and prejudices. The worst of these spring from convictions of righteousness, and the justice of our cause. We strain against the restraints of judgmentalism, and prejudice only to discover that in our pride for being open to all we have actually embraced a more ugly discrimination: we judge others as more judgmental than ourselves.

    Let me illustrate:

    The Sunday school teacher was teaching the children the story of the Pharisee and the sinner praying in the temple. She told the children how the Pharisee was proud of himself and bragging to God about his way of life, “I thank you, God, that I am not like this sinner…”. The sinner was sorry for his sins and prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

    The Sunday School teacher said, “Let’s thank God now that we are not like that Pharisee.”

    And we’re thankful that we’re not like that teacher. Ugh!

    Jesus taught that the sinner who begged for God’s mercy went home justified. He leaned on God’s grace. He didn’t need to be taken down; he already knew he was down. What about you? Do you need God’s word of grace and forgiveness? Or do you need to be called to repentance? When we discover the depth of our own culpability we will surely repent. Thanks be to God that calls us to himself even before we realize we are in such desperate need.

  • The silence of the ruthless

    Isaiah 25:5 (NIV)

    Lord, you silence the song of the ruthless.

    Luke 1:51–52

    Mary said, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.”

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    Silence is golden – especially if it is the silence of your detractors, enemies, abusers, and, in this season of political campaigns, the politicians! Who would not wish for the silence and failures of the accusers who mock us, the detractors who impugn our motives, the ruthless who taunt and threaten us, the strong who tread on the weak?

    Funny thing, though. God chose a strange means by which he silenced all these and all who would detract from God’s truth, rebel against Christ’s reign, or seek to thwart God’s will in the world. He chose the cross, surrounded by the will of the godless strong, and mocking shouts of those who called for Jesus’ death! Those shouts were subdued by the faithfulness of Christ in the face of their taunts and even the visitation of God’s judgment landing on Jesus.

    Strong men quaked and became like dead men when Jesus rose from the dead. Those who mocked him when he was on the cross had nothing to say when he died and the centurion said, “Surely this was the Son of God.” Satan’s smug victory dance lasted only three days. On the Great Last Day there will be no detractors, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

    Better we should remain faithful in the face of suffering and taunt, looking for the exaltation of God and the justification that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Then the silence of the ruthless and the strong will be replaced with songs of praise to our God – forever and ever!

  • Singularly Distinctively Unique

    Exodus 15:11

    Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?

    1 Corinthians 12:6

    There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.

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    There was only one Yogi Berra. There was only one Martin Luther. There was only one St. Paul. But each of these uniquely great men (if you allow that all three of them were great in their own right) pale in comparison to the greatness, uniqueness, distinctiveness, and otherness of God.

    God is unlike any other. He is majestic with a glory that is not put on, borrowed, or affected. His awesome splendor is not only unmatched, it is essential to his being; he requires no one to acknowledge him in order to be great. He has no need of worship, fanfare, or accolades. God simply is great, and uniquely so.

    This one, great, majestic, awesome, unique, distinct, holy and mighty God has one purpose in revealing his nature, doing wonders, and activating himself in the lives of women and men: to express his love for us; to redeem and save us; to bring us to eternal life in his kingdom. Any good thing of any variety, any blessing of any sort, any kindness, love, and grace comes from God alone.

    Fully shown in Jesus Christ, that goodness and grace manifest itself in Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins, his rest in the tomb for our redemption, his resurrection from the grave for our salvation, his coming again for our glorification. Through all of life, our singularly and distinctively unique God is working toward us for good. Perhaps that is the most unique thing of all.

  • What pleases you?

    Psalm 118:25 (NIV)

    Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success!

    Hebrews 13:20, 21

    May the God of peace work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

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    There is a great scene in the movie Martin Luther Heretic, in which Luther is portrayed as a professor before his students. Luther is explaining that our salvation is a gift from God received by faith. There is nothing that we must do to be saved. One of the students asks, “You mean we can do whatever pleases us?” Luther replies, “Yes. And what pleases you? Get drunk and make faces at the duke? Spend the night in a whore house?”

    The conversation – though fanciful – gets at what happens when we believe in Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit are saved. Our values are of necessity changed; that’s part of repentance. Our faith in Jesus brings with it a love for that which is good and God-pleasing; that which brings glory to him. Those things please us which honor Christ. Success is not self-centered. God does good work.

    When we pray for God’s help, our prayers must be focused not only on our own needs, but reflective of God’s being and character. His glory is not seen when a selfish prayer is answered. His work in us is not advanced by self-centered success. God’s desire is for our ultimate good: our salvation and eternal joy in Christ. Thanks be to God that Christ has saved us, and through his death our sins are forgiven and through his resurrection our eternal glory is secured. To him be glory forever and ever!

  • Childlike Faith; Mature Mindedness

    Psalm 119:133

    Keep my steps steady according to your promise, and never let iniquity have dominion over me.

    1 Corinthians 14:20 (NASB)

    Do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

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    I enjoyed a family celebration recently at which there were a number of children – none of whom we see regularly. Some were quick to engage and offer a fun-loving high-five. Other children were simply in their own world – not really aware of me. One little tike, however, did not want anything to do with me. To be honest, I think I scared him when we initially met; not intentionally mind you, but I did seem to scare him. Try as I might, I could not get him to warm up to me. I had nothing but good intentions toward him, but he remained far away and afraid…this little 11 month old guy.

    Children, in their thinking, can be trapped by false fears, distracted in their own world, oblivious to real dangers, or too easily enticed with simple treasures. Jesus holds up little children as those whom we are to emulate (cf. Matthew 18:3), saying that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as those who are like little children. That doesn’t mean, however, that we are to be gullible, self-absorbed, or oblivious to the dangers of Satan’s schemes. We are to be infants in regard to evil, but mature in our understanding – especially in regard to Satan’s ploys.

    If we are to be infants in regard to evil, but mature in our thinking, we will not need to know good and evil for ourselves. That was the grave mistake of Adam and Eve. We must be aware of the devil’s schemes. We will look behind the outward appearances and enticements the world offers, knowing that every temptation looks good outwardly, but hides a dangerous poison, the sharp barbed hook of enslavement.

    Jesus put it this way: we are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. The analogies are certainly intentional: aware of the wiles and deceit of the serpent Satan, but innocent by the power of the Holy Spirit (embodied as a dove at Jesus’ baptism). We all have fallen short of this calling one way or another. That makes God’s mercy and forgiveness in Christ so much more precious. But it also helps us to embrace to path of mature thinking, seeking to enjoy the steps of God’s promises, goodness, grace, and truth.