Author Archives: rich

Sharing the Good News: Today is the Official Publication Date of Getting to Know Jesus

I’d like to share some exciting news: today is the official publication date of my new book, Getting to Know Jesus, a 365-day journey through the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that focuses on their accounts of Jesus’ life from birth to His death, resurrection and ascension.

Getting to Know Jesus began as a podcast I did with Pastor Chuck Davis – originally called In the Footsteps of Jesus – but with the work we have been doing since May a wide-ranging ministry is now blossoming and includes a revised and improved daily podcast, daily video webcasts, blog posts, Facebook updates, Twitter tweets, and Instagram photos.

Of course, I’m speaking from the perspective of the pew, not the pulpit — not as one who has spent his entire adult life seeking Jesus — but rather as someone who ran away from the Lord until, like the Prodigal Son, circumstances brought him to his knees.

The initial reception to the book has been gratifying. Dr. Alveda King, commentator for Fox News Channel and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr recently sent me this testimonial:  “We should all enjoy ‘getting to know Jesus’ more every day. Eric Kampmann’s book will help us to do just that.” Other reviews have been equally enthusiastic.

Links on this site will enable you to sample the resources. I’d appreciate it if you would share the good news, subscribe to the podcast, and join the mission. And do let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you.

Sharing the Good News: Today is the Official Publication Date of Getting to Know Jesus

I’d like to share some exciting news: today is the official publication date of my new book, Getting to Know Jesus, a 365-day journey through the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that focuses on their accounts of Jesus’ life from birth to His death, resurrection and ascension.

Getting to Know Jesus began as a podcast I did with Pastor Chuck Davis – originally called In the Footsteps of Jesus – but with the work we have been doing since May a wide-ranging ministry is now blossoming and includes a revised and improved daily podcast, daily video webcasts, blog posts, Facebook updates, Twitter tweets, and Instagram photos.

Of course, I’m speaking from the perspective of the pew, not the pulpit — not as one who has spent his entire adult life seeking Jesus — but rather as someone who ran away from the Lord until, like the Prodigal Son, circumstances brought him to his knees.

The initial reception to the book has been gratifying. Dr. Alveda King, commentator for Fox News Channel and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr recently sent me this testimonial:  “We should all enjoy ‘getting to know Jesus’ more every day. Eric Kampmann’s book will help us to do just that.” Other reviews have been equally enthusiastic.

Links on this site will enable you to sample the resources. I’d appreciate it if you would share the good news, subscribe to the podcast, and join the mission. And do let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you.

When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough: Jesus and The Rich Young Man

A young, rich “ruler” approached Jesus and asked a difficult question: “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

As he often did, Jesus answered the young man with a question of his own: “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

This young man, who had it all, wanted even more but without sacrifice. He had wealth, position and youth. Here he asked to be rewarded with life eternal by doing a good thing, like being a good neighbor. Jesus reminded him of the commandments that relate to how people should treat one another; He does not mention the four commandments that refer to God. To the young man, being a good person simply meant good behavior.

richyoungrulerIf this sounds familiar, it is. Our contemporary culture has seemingly adopted the idea that being a “good guy” is enough. Behind this belief is the reality that wealth, health and position is the true god for our lives.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us that God “has set eternity in the human heart.” The longing of the rich young ruler was for something beyond the temporal, but Jesus then challenged him: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

The young man now had a dilemma. He had to choose between giving up all the good things he had for something better that he had not yet obtained. He may have been able to hide the pain in his afflicted heart, but unlike our contemporary soothsayers, Jesus does not let him (or us) off the hook.

Time and again, I have heard people ask, “but do I really have to give up everything I have in this life to follow Jesus?” Jesus did not force the young man to do anything. He merely said, if you want to have the promise of eternal life, if you prize God more than all the things you might have here and now, put everything aside and “Then come, follow me.”

Nobody would say such a choice is easy; it is not, particularly when our circumstances are filled with so many good things.

Jesus parable of the sower iconThis biblical account of the young man’s encounter with Jesus did not have the happy ending we might expect because the young man would not give up the things he had for the thing he longed for, and so “he went away sad.”  Jesus puts it this way in the Parable of the Sower: “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

(The September 14 Getting to Know Jesus podcast is about the story of Jesus and The Rich Young Man.)

The Force Awakens, first experiences, wonder and time

He broke off and began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers.
“I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.”
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can.”
The Great Gatsby

I am with Nick Carraway in this memorable exchange with Jay Gatsby – you cannot repeat the past. Yet the hype around upcoming sporting events, TV shows, books and especially movies suggests that not only can you repeat the past, you can plunder it again and again for even better experiences.

The new Star Wars entry, The Force Awakens, is a case in point. Ticket sales have broken all records so there is no arguing with its enormous success. Nor is it a bad movie. It is very well made and filled with exciting scenes from beginning to end. The franchise is so lucrative I am sure we will see more where it came from. But does it surpass the experience in 1977 of seeing the original Star Wars (later confusingly subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope)?

I remember very clearly watching a segment on NBC’s Today Show around the time of this first movie’s release. Battles in space screeched across the television screen and I was amazed by what I was seeing. The clarity of the images, the beauty and reality of the scenes were so totally new. I knew I had to see this.

I was not disappointed. The story was simple: good battling evil much like an old-fashioned Western like High Noon. The villain Darth Vader dressed in black and the good guys were beleaguered underdogs fighting a hopeless battle for truth and goodness. Go Rebel Alliance!

When I watched The Force Awakens I did not have that extraordinary feeling of wonder I had watching the first Star Wars. And I wondered why. Yes, that was thirty-nine years ago, but that is the point. All of us are moving through time. As we grow older, the wonder fades because we all have seen “that show” before. Who doesn’t want to recapture that sense of wonder that comes with the freshness of youth and first experiences?  Is the Disney Company making the implied promise that this new film surpasses the one from 1977? Technically, they may have an argument. But I stand unpersuaded. Like Nick Carraway, I believe you cannot repeat the past. 1977 is gone; the memories live on, even though they may have begun to blur. We must live by the truth: time is relentless and even the strongest must fall before its powerful grip, as described more than three thousand years ago:

Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is,
You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
The span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.
—Psalm 39: 4-5

Even Nick Carraway could not have said it better.

The Force Awakens, first experiences, wonder and time

He broke off and began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers.
“I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.”
“Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can.”
The Great Gatsby

I am with Nick Carraway in this memorable exchange with Jay Gatsby – you cannot repeat the past. Yet the hype around upcoming sporting events, TV shows, books and especially movies suggests that not only can you repeat the past, you can plunder it again and again for even better experiences.

The new Star Wars entry, The Force Awakens, is a case in point. Ticket sales have broken all records so there is no arguing with its enormous success. Nor is it a bad movie. It is very well made and filled with exciting scenes from beginning to end. The franchise is so lucrative I am sure we will see more where it came from. But does it surpass the experience in 1977 of seeing the original Star Wars (later confusingly subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope)?

I remember very clearly watching a segment on NBC’s Today Show around the time of this first movie’s release. Battles in space screeched across the television screen and I was amazed by what I was seeing. The clarity of the images, the beauty and reality of the scenes were so totally new. I knew I had to see this.

I was not disappointed. The story was simple: good battling evil much like an old-fashioned Western like High Noon. The villain Darth Vader dressed in black and the good guys were beleaguered underdogs fighting a hopeless battle for truth and goodness. Go Rebel Alliance!

When I watched The Force Awakens I did not have that extraordinary feeling of wonder I had watching the first Star Wars. And I wondered why. Yes, that was thirty-nine years ago, but that is the point. All of us are moving through time. As we grow older, the wonder fades because we all have seen “that show” before. Who doesn’t want to recapture that sense of wonder that comes with the freshness of youth and first experiences?  Is the Disney Company making the implied promise that this new film surpasses the one from 1977? Technically, they may have an argument. But I stand unpersuaded. Like Nick Carraway, I believe you cannot repeat the past. 1977 is gone; the memories live on, even though they may have begun to blur. We must live by the truth: time is relentless and even the strongest must fall before its powerful grip, as described more than three thousand years ago:

Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is,
You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
The span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.
—Psalm 39: 4-5

Even Nick Carraway could not have said it better.

New Year, New You

New Year, New You?

As Prospero says in Act IV of The Tempest, “Our revels now are ended.” Now that the commercial world has wrapped up Christmas, we are encouraged by voices in the media to embrace change.  They say in thousands of clever ways: “Never mind the past. It’s no longer relevant. You can push ahead with new promises, new hopes, and new goals. Become the better person you want to be.” But is this claim true to experience? Can we shed the past like a snake sheds old skin? Or does the past disregard our artificial time posts and insidiously sweep us as we are into the New Year?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, image for New Year, New You post

It is as if the commercial culture has expropriated the central Christian message — “You must change your life” — without all the baggage about sin and godlessness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer labeled this secular faith in personal transformation as “cheap grace.”

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

It is cheap because it does not cost us much and does not deal with the implacable truth of our sinful nature. When the word “sin” is excised from our vocabulary, we are left with evidence of a problem, but no tools that can help except in a most superficial and unsatisfactory way. Within a few weeks, we revert to old, familiar patterns of behavior and the promise of a “New You” becomes a sad, repetitive self-deception.

Paul defines the affliction of intractable darker impulses this way: “So I find this law at work. Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in me waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7: 21-25)

Paul did not underestimate this powerful war within our hearts that can subvert and destroy the good we desire, nor should we underestimate it. When we finally realize that we are in the midst of a life and death struggle, then the door opens to the possibility of God’s grace flooding into our hearts and driving out the impulses that undermine the goodness we deeply desire.

So let the calendar turn another tattered page. Prepared or not, let’s peer together over the precipice toward a new year. The view ahead is more than intimidating. Didn’t we just complete the climb to the top of 2015? But perhaps the summit is not a summit at all, but a mere resting place for the next phase of our uncharted journey together.

Christ Expelling the Money Changers from the Temple by Cecco del Caravaggio (c. 1610) image for New Year, New You

Christ Expelling the Money Changers from the Temple by Cecco del Caravaggio (c. 1610)

Understanding the Lord’s Prayer

In the daily podcasts that inspired and complement the commentary in Getting to Know Jesus, Pastor Chuck Davis and I focused on the Lord’s Prayer over four days (April 19 – 22). Entire books have been written about the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples as part of His Sermon on the Mount near the Sea of Galilee. The prayer is so well known that it is easy to miss the depth and complexity of what is being said. Here is part of the prayer and our response to it.

This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9–10

The Sermon on the Mount illustration for Understanding the Lord's PrayerIn this first sentence alone, Jesus includes four declarations. First, He addresses God as “Our Father,” not as some stern and unfeeling taskmaster, but as “Daddy,” just as a child would address his own loving and protective father. Then He says, “hallowed be your name,” which sets this Father apart as holy and perfect and above the sinful and imperfect condition of men and women on earth. Then Jesus prays that God’s kingdom will be restored here on earth, replacing the kingdoms that are at war with God and His people. Finally, He prays for the unity that can only exist when the original design takes root here on earth, echoing the harmony that existed at the very beginning when God created the world and all the creatures in it, and He saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

Give us today our daily bread. Matthew 6:11

Eric_Enstrom Grace illustration for Understanding the Lord's PrayerIn this plentiful and prosperous corner of the world, it is too easy to forget what would happen if all the food we find in markets and restaurants suddenly vanish. It is difficult to imagine a world where this kind of deprivation could become a reality; for many, getting access to food is the harsh reality of daily life. When times are good, it is easy to assume provision will be available from the endless supplies afforded by science and enterprise. But is this a reasonable position? Jesus prays to God for daily provision because He knows that God is the only true provider. As He says elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). To paraphrase another prayer: “Lord, for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray . . . Please keep me, guide me, love me, Lord, just for today.” Recognizing our daily dependence on God is the only way to live each and every day.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12

Whether we use the word “trespasses,” “debts,” or “sins” when praying the Lord’s Prayer, we are essentially asking God for forgiveness for the countless ways we have fallen away from Him. In an earlier encounter, Jesus makes His mission on earth abundantly clear: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Paul says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), so when we are praying, “Forgive us,” there are no exceptions or exemptions. Everyone needs to ask for God’s forgiveness because our sin causes us to betray Him time and again. When Paul asks, “Who will rescue me from this body of death,” he gives us the answer immediately: “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24–25) This one line of the Lord’s Prayer is liberating because without forgiveness, we will never escape the destructive consequences growing out of our sin-prone nature. But it is not just about us: We need to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Just as God’s forgiveness cost Him dearly, to forgive others as God has forgiven us can be costly. But from an eternal point of view, the cost is worth it.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13

Duccio_-_The_Temptation_on_the_MountWhy would God lead us into temptation? Perhaps it is best to think of this dilemma as fundamental to our relationship with God. Jesus seems to be requesting that God not place Him in a situation where He would be tempted to betray God. When Jesus was tempted by the devil three times in the wilderness, He resisted by remaining centered in the Holy Spirit. This prayer acknowledges the existence of an evil one, who wanders the earth looking for people not able to withstand the devil’s schemes. Here is the promise for those who believe: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Watch Andrea Bocelli sing “The Lord’s Prayer” with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Annunciation to the Shepherds by William Blake (1809) from Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity"

Rediscovering a “lost” verse in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

On Saturday, I attended a magnificent Christmas Concert at Stanwich Church in Greenwich. Toward the end, the congregation sang “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” a carol so familiar I can almost sing the words without looking at the printed verses.

But yesterday, while singing this hymn, I was surprised to discover these words in the fourth stanza:

Come, Desire of Nations, Come!
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.

George Whitefield and Charles WesleyWow, I said to myself. Here is the Gospel in a nutshell. But for many, I’m afraid, these words will draw a blank. What do they mean? When Charles Wesley, brother to Methodism’s founder John Wesley, first wrote these words, in 1739, the hymn’s opening line was “Hark, how the welkin [the arc of the heavens] rings.” We can thank his evangelist colleague George Whitefield for changing the line, over Wesley’s protests, in 1753, to “Hark, the herald angels sing.” However it opened, in those days the words would have been understood for the full gospel message they contain.

Here is how I would paraphrase the poetic words of Wesley and Whitefield:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created mankind in the form of Adam and Eve and He created them in His own image. The deceptions of the Serpent, however, marred Adam’s image. Mankind lost its original relationship with God, but God did not lose His love for us. To bring the children of the first Adam back into relationship with Him would entail great cost. God’s abiding love moved Him to restore what was lost in Paradise. He called upon the second Adam, Jesus, to reverse the work of Satan through the cross and reinstate men and women in His love.

And here is how Paul tells it:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. . . . Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5: 12-17)

As anyone can see, Charles Wesley, author of more than 6,000 hymns, took complex theology and distilled it into a few lines of poetry. Brilliant.

Watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

Fourteen Great Reasons to be Thankful

Here in one post are the fourteen reasons to be thankful I’ve been reflecting on this week:

Be Joyful Always Verse Text for Thankful Reason #1#1. A General Thanksgiving: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians: 5:16-18)

#2. I am thankful to God: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:2-5)

#3. I am grateful for Jesus Christ: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 4:4-6)

#4. I am overwhelmingly thankful for the gift of the Holy Spirit: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)

#5. I am grateful for God hearing my cry for help when I was in great trouble: “. . . And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (Psalm 50:15)

#6. I am blessed by the gift of each day:

Lord, for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray
Keep me, my God, from stain of sin just for today.
Let me both diligently work, and duly pray,
Let me be kind in word and deed, just for today.
Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey;
Help me to sacrifice myself just for today.
And if today my tide of life should ebb away,
Give me thy Sacraments divine, sweet Lord today.
So for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray,
But keep me, guide me, love me, Lord, just for today.

“Just for Today,” Sister Mary Xavier (Sybil F. Partridge)

And I Tell You -- Verse Image for Thankful Reason #7#7. I am thankful for Stanwich Church, its pastors and leaders: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18-19)

#8. I am blessed by the companionship, friendship and love of my wife: “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” (Proverbs 31:10-12)

Stand at the Crossroads -- Verse Image for Thankful Reason #9#9. I am most grateful for the challenges and the blessings of being a father of four children. And my prayer is that they will know and love Jesus as the Father in heaven loves His own Son: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16)

#10. I am blessed by a large extended family: “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:39-41)

When one rules over men -- Verse Image for Thankful Reason #11#11. I am grateful for being given the privilege to lead: “When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.” (2 Samuel 23:3-4)

#12, I am blessed with a great team that is helping me build a new ministry: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

#13. I am thankful for all the friends and experiences that walking the Appalachian Trail has brought me: “. . . because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

#14. I am thankful for many good friendships: “Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord.’” (1 Samuel 20:42)

Fourteen Great Reasons to be Thankful – Part Four

I will praise Gods name verse art for thankful postWishing everyone a Thanksgiving filled with tender mercy and joy as I wind up my series of posts of reasons to be thankful:

#11. I am grateful for being given the privilege to lead: “When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.” (2 Samuel 23:3-4)

#12. I am blessed with a great team that is helping me build a new ministry: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

#13. I am thankful for all the friends and experiences that walking the Appalachian Trail has brought me: “. . . because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

#14. I am thankful for many good friendships: “Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord.’” (1 Samuel 20:42)

When one rules over men verse art for thankful post november 26