[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

As I wrote yesterday, a highlight of the Key Men’s Invitational (KMI) men’s conference that I just attended was listening to Max Barnett, 82 years old, talking about quiet time and scripture memory. He said, “I wish I could convince all Christians to practice these two disciplines.” Yesterday I captured a bit of what he said about quiet time. Today I’d like to say a word about scripture memory.

Whenever I’m around the old Navigators, like Max, they all say the same thing when asked something like, “Why are you still following Jesus and making disciples in your old age?” They always say, “Quiet time and scripture memory.” In my book Live the Adventure, I tell about Navigators Skip and Buzzie Gray, now in their late 80s, and Jerry White, now in his late 70s saying that very thing. Well-known author Dallas Willard wrote that if he were limited to one discipline, it would be scripture memory.

I encourage you to add scripture memory to your spiritual disciplines, and Max has a plan that makes it doable! He recommends memorizing one verse per week. You could choose it from your week’s quiet times, or from a sermon you want to remember, or any of a number of inspirations. You repeat it often the first day (Max says 35 times) so that you can say it perfectly, then you review it every day for 60 days. Then you’ll have it!

And here’s the good news. If you memorize a verse a week and review it daily for 60 days, the number of verses you’ll be reviewing daily is only eight! Again, that’s doable.

Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You! (Psalm 119.11, NKJV)

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

A highlight of the Key Men’s Invitational (KMI) men’s conference that I just attended was listening to Max Barnett, 82 years old, talking about quiet time and scripture memory. He said, “I wish I could convince all Christians to practice these two disciplines.” Here are some highlights about the daily quiet time:

• When you believed, Jesus came in. That’s a fact. You are qualified to make disciples because Jesus is in you. You should feel inadequate. But Jesus is adequate (John 15.5). If you took a branch off a peach tree because you wanted peaches every year, the next year all you would have is a stick! 
• God lives in me. The disciplines are tools. Even if there are periods that I can’t do the disciplines (e.g., Marine boot camp!), I still have Jesus. I don’t trust my quiet time. I don’t earn favor with God by the quiet time. I already have favor with God.
• God is the power. Every one of us can be fruitful if we will learn to trust him (2 Corinthians 12.9).
• I want time with God every day. I need God. 
• The principle is to have fellowship with God. Quiet time is a method.
• God desires our fellowship before service: (Mark 3.14, Acts 4.13 (“with Jesus”))
• Sometimes we don’t have much hunger for God. Some are always on their phone! Feed what little hunger you have with the Word.
• Don’t expect an outstanding experience every day. But “keep your head in the trough.” Find the time every day. First thing in the morning is best, but if not, find another time.

These are good words, and Max encouraged me to renew my commitment to spend quality, intentional time with God. You can download my quiet time template here–it’s similar to what Max taught when he came to sharing his method. Max also recommended following a daily reading plan similar to these: The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan gets you through the whole Bible in a year and 5x5x5, just the New Testament.

Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15.16, NKJV)

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

I’m writing this from the Key Men’s Invitational KMI) men’s conference, put on by the Oklahoma City Navigators. It’s an unusual conference in that everyone there is either discipling someone or being discipled by someone–hence, key men’s invitational.

One of the highlights is the singing. It’s one of the few times I’m in a crowd where nearly all are singing AND you can hear them! (Click here for a sample.)

I’m a strong proponent of John Piper’s view that the predominant musical sound in a congregation should be the people singing, and that matters more than whether we have a praise band or pipe organ.

It’s one thing to decide we want to hear the congregation singing and make the necessary sound board adjustments. In today’s culture, it’s another thing for the congregation to actually sing. I believe KMI illustrates a fundamental principle: people that are close to God in their everyday life are more apt to sing when they come together.

⁵  For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.
⁶  And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD. (Psalm 27.5, 6, ESV)

¹  Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
²  Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! (Psalm 100.1, 2)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3.16, ESV)

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM

We sometimes spend a lot of time talking about glorifying God, but do we know, practically, how to do that? A common belief appears to be that we glorify God when we gather in corporate worship. But Jesus had a different view:

By this is my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15.8, ESV)

What is this “fruit” that the Father desires? Christian character is certainly part of it: 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5.22, 23, ESV)

But if Christian character is all he meant by fruit-bearing, we wouldn’t have to go anywhere to do it…

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15.16, ESV, emphasis mine)

If our chief end is truly to glorify God, ought we not to spend more time bearing fruit? More time abiding in Christ, the topic of John 15, and more time investing in people. Both of which may require pruning, removing clutter, as I wrote yesterday.

By this is my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15.8, ESV)

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. (John 15.1, 2, ESV, emphasis mine)

I recently heard a sermon on abiding in Christ from John 15, and the quick, common explanation for “pruning” was that God frequently uses hardship or suffering to prune us. While he was talking, God seemed to remind me of other means for pruning that I’ve written about before: decluttering and digital minimalism.

The more stuff we have, the more time it takes to maintain it, and the less time there is for abiding in Christ. The more time we spend with our technology, the less time there is for abiding in Christ. God wants us to bear fruit, and he prunes for more fruit. We can cooperate with God’s pruning by being more intentional about what we buy and how we spend our time.

Skip Gray of The Navigators used to paraphrase Philippians 3.13 this way:

Paul said, “This one thing I do.” Not, “These 14 things I dabble in.”

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

I was just chatting with a ministry colleague in a rural area with not many evangelical churches. He was observing that whenever someone left a church, they did so in a way that left everyone angry! The pastor is angry because he lost a person who might have been helping him in ministry and who was unhappy with the pastor’s way of doing things. The person who left is angry. The people left behind are angry. My friend observed that the net quality of relationships among believers seems to go down every time this happened. What’s the solution?

It might be helpful to revisit some of our “lessons from locusts”!

• They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths.Does each of us know our job and do it? Can each of us operate within our own calling?
• They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path. Are we content to let others pursue their calling?

An application of “they do not jostle one another,” content to let others pursue their calling, is to understand that God often moves his people around. A pastor explaining to his congregation of five years why he was accepting a call to a church in another area explained, “A pastor is not married to the church. It’s not a lifetime arrangement; it’s a ministry assignment.”

When I first heard that, I immediately thought, why is that fact limited to pastors? Why aren’t others free to accept different ministry assignments? Then maybe we can stay friends and advance the Kingdom together even from different churches!

When James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (Galatians 2.9, NIV)

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, …and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade… After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. (Acts 18.1 – 3, 18)  (A new ministry assignment for Priscilla and Aquila!)

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

I was dismayed when a pastor, writing in an article on an unrelated subject, reported, in an effort to increase his credibility, “Our church is the third fastest growing large [denomination] church in the country.”

My first thoughts were, “How does he know?” and “Why does he care?”

I just wrote on the importance of being effective (February 18, February 19), so why did I react negatively to this claim? We hear boasts like this all the time: “Our church has the largest Sunday School in our denomination!” is a claim I used to hear often from a particular church. There’s certainly nothing wrong with being large or growing:

Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. (Acts 9.31, NIV)

There is a problem, however, with measuring our effectiveness by comparison. The Apostle Paul was clear:

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10.12, NIV)

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

I really enjoyed writing yesterday’s blog on Jim and his Father’s car business. When I drafted it several days in advance of publication, I sent it to Jim to make sure I had the details right. He responded: “Bob, I’m absolutely amazed! I can’t believe you remembered my exact words.” He’s being kind…it probably wasn’t his exact words (remember, I’m a mathematician!), but it was close. And the reason for that is, I was paying attention.

I used to tell a story illustrating how to learn good interpersonal skills by watching other people, especially if some of those behaviors don’t come naturally. Here’s the story: when I was a young captain, I watched a colonel on the phone with a secretary not slam the phone down as soon as the conversation was over. Rather, he held it out, listened for her to hang up, and then he hung up. I wouldn’t have thought of that in two lifetimes! When I shared the story with a group of missionaries in a training development course I was teaching, one asked, “How did you notice that?” My paying attention made more of an impression on her than the actual story.

Paying attention shouldn’t be that unusual, but I suppose it is. Go through the Gospels and see how many times you see the phrase, “As Jesus passed by he saw…” (Example, John 9.1.) When I wrote about the locusts, I encouraged us to be alert for lessons in all kinds of places. Also, if we’re paying attention, we might have an opportunity to help someone (e.g, Joseph in prison).

When David was hiding from Saul in a cave he wrote:

Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. (Psalm 142.4)

Let’s be among the people who pay attention!

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

My friend Jim buys and sells cars as a sideline business. If you were to watch him on a day-to-day basis, you would see him browsing car ads, calling sellers, negotiating to purchase cars, getting them ready for resale, putting them out for sale, negotiating with potential buyers, and closing deals.

Jim, however, describes his business this way:

I’ve worked for two companies in which the son of the owner also worked for the company, and I’ve often thought, “That would be cool. To work for your father in his company.” Then I realized, “Wait a minute, I do work for my Father in the car business! My Father brings me the inventory I need, leading me to the right cars to purchase. Then, my Father brings me the customers I need so I can sell the cars at a profit. All I do is a little grunt work in between!”

Practically, this “arrangement” allows Jim not to stress over whether or not he has inventory. (“I just tell my Father that it would be nice to have some inventory.”) Nor does he stress over lost deals. (“Maybe I should have offered that seller a little more money yesterday. Now he’s holding out for more than I’m willing to pay. Oh well.”)

Work is a good thing, and whether we’re in business for ourselves or working for someone else, we’re all working for our Father:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3.23, 24, NIV)

[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

When talking about effectiveness, one arena has a literal built-in measure: sports! As a Clemson grad, I’m proud that our football team has done really well the past few years! But basketball? Not so much. So our family tends to follow Duke–a highly successful program which does, to borrow a phrase from yesterday’s Ewellogy, expect to be effective.

But even Duke sometimes has an off night as they did on February 12, 2019, when they found themselves down by 23 points to Louisville with under 10 minutes to play. (My son David keeps me up on such things!) The score was 59 – 36, Louisville’s probability of winning at that point was computed at 99.8%, and Duke won the game.

Part of why they won, in addition to the fact that Duke really is the superior team, is a mindset that they expect to be effective. Coach K called a time out with 9:54 left and told them that he really didn’t like coaching losers. “But you’re not losers; you’re winners–that’s why you’re on this team.” The team went out and outscored Louisville 35 – 10 in the remaining 9:54, winning the game 71 – 69. This despite the fact that the probability chart was against them until the very end!

Surely, “it’s just a game.” I get that. But one application is clear. We are on the winning team:

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4.4, NKJV)

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12.11, NKJV)

Another lesson is, as Churchill said, “Never give up!”

With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort. (1 Corinthians 15.58, MSG)