[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 pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know him through your deepening intimacy with him. (Ephesians 1.17, Passion Translation)

A Trinity verse! 

• The Father of glory
• God of our Lord Jesus Christ
• The Spirit of wisdom and revelation

Compare Isaiah 11.1, 2, which is about the Messiah: “There shall come a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of God.” (Emphasis mine)

Think about it: Paul is praying for ordinary people like us that we would have the same Spirit of wisdom and revelation that Jesus has. And how do the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation come? As we know him through our deepening intimacy with him.

And where does the deepening intimacy come from? As we spend time with him through the spiritual disciplines: daily time with God, scripture memory, prayer.  

They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32.47, 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.]

It’s May 10, and June pointed out this morning that it’s an anniversary for us: two years ago today, May 10, 2017, June’s health crisis started at 2:00 a.m. An ineffective visit to the ER, 5 painful days at home, 6 more days in the hospital, and she came home weak but beginning recovery. We hiked in mid-September, four months later.

Last year, May 10, 2018, was my shoulder repair surgery. Out-patient, which is still hard to believe, but with that and knee replacement surgery four months later, I’m fine. I took a short hike 6 weeks after the knee replacement. It was nice to throw a baseball and a disc with my sons on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019.

I am the Lord who heals you. (Exodus 15.26, NIV)

Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. (Psalm 30.2, 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 can publish these verses with little comment! I’ve told you I’m enjoying The Passion Translation by Bruce Simmons, and today’s reading cast a familiar passage in a whole new light:

So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. This means the Son is the oldest among a vast family of brothers and sisters who will become just like him. Having determined our destiny ahead of time, he called us to himself and transferred his perfect righteousness to everyone he called. And those who possess his perfect righteousness he co-glorified with his Son! (Romans 8.28 – 30, The Passion Translation)

Here’s what jumped out at me. I am…

• “Convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together…” Every detail?! Even the relationships that aren’t working, the health crises, the disasters? Doug Nuenke, U.S. President of The Navigators lost his home in the 2012 fire in Colorado Springs. When someone commented that God directed the fire around The Navigators’ Eagle Lake Camp (which had minimal damage), Doug responded that God also directed the fire that took his house. Doug’s favorite hymn remains “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
• “Destined…to share the likeness of his Son.” Wow. How am I moving in that direction?
• Recipient of “his perfect righteousness.” “He…transferred his perfect righteousness….” is a lot more powerful, I think, than the usual, “He also justified…”

For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him. (2 Corinthians 5.21, The Passion Translation)

[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 listening to the book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle in which he explains the secret of “talent.” Turns out it’s just plain hard work! But that doesn’t surprise me. What the book does is tie the right kind of hard work to what goes on inside the brain. So far I’ve listened only to several chapters on what he calls “deep practice,” the technique of slow, deliberate, correct-as-you-go practice that eventually results in skill, even the art at work that I talked about yesterday. The vet would have learned to administer vaccinations slowly and deliberately. Her first try would have required concentration and paying attention to the steps she was learning. But practiced enough, it looks like art.

Here’s the application: you can memorize scripture! As I’ve written before, scripture memory is a practice I highly recommend. Dallas Willard said that if he could employ only one spiritual discipline, it would be scripture memory. My Navigator heroes Skip Gray and Jerry White both attribute scripture memory as playing a vital role in their being fruitful into their late 80s and 70s, respectively.

And it just takes deep practice which is nothing more than intentional, persistent practice. I am amazed by how the mind adapts when I take on a new verse. It can be several days or more before I can reliably quote the verse from one day to the next, and even then, I have to check it and correct. But then, seemingly “all of a sudden,” it clicks in. The brain has developed the new skill of quoting that verse! If you haven’t experienced that, you just haven’t stayed with the process long enough or practiced deliberately enough. (Of course you still have to review daily for 8 weeks to really lock it in, but that’s just a continuation of the same process.)

“There’s an app for that.” You can just write verses on cards and keep them with you. Or you can let your technology help. For verses you select, I recommend The Scripture Memory app (formerly called ScriptureTyper). If you don’t know which verses to learn, I recommend Fighter Verses, a free app which has a 5-year program of one verse per week classified into useful topics. The Navigators’ Topical Memory System is also available as an app, published by BattleGear.

With respect to scripture memory, nothing has changed since Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, practiced and recommended the discipline decades ago. The Talent Code just gives us a bit of science into how the mechanism works–and it works for everyone! Give it a try!

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1.8, ESV) Remember, it’s hard to meditate “at night” unless you have it memorized!

[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 enjoy art wherever I find it: last week we went to a piano concert Tuesday night and a play Saturday night. Both art, well done. But yesterday I took our dog, Babo, to the vet for his annual shots.

As you can see, he’s a small dog, and when the vet came into the room with three syringes, she filled her pockets with dog biscuits and sat on the floor. (I’ve never seen a vet work anywhere other than standing up with the dog on the examining table.) She petted him, told him what a good dog he was and what a handsome dog he was, and then she put a dog biscuit off to her left side. When Babo went to get it, his rump was in perfect position for the first shot. Then she put down another biscuit, bringing his body around to where she wanted it for the second shot. Third shot, same drill. All three shots in what seemed like about 30 seconds.

That’s art. Babo didn’t appear to notice any of the shots, and while she continued to talk with him, she did the physical exam.

I was sharing this story with my friend Eric, an airline pilot, and he said he often flies with people who make an art out of flying the plane. Wayne Gretzky was an artist on the hockey rink, and Derek Jeter was extraordinarily smooth at shortstop. Artists all. Once, I watched skilled carpenters framing a house: the same smoothness, speed, and dexterity as the vet, just a different medium. I marveled when the guys did my concrete driveway a few years ago. It goes down just a pile of concrete, and a few guys in a few minutes (that’s all the time they have!) smooth it out. It’s all art.

May we all see our work as not only useful but as an opportunity to be artists.

Servants, do what you’re told by your earthly masters. And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being Christian doesn’t cover up bad work. (Colossians 3.22 – 25, MSG)

[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 something significant happens in sports, I sometimes try to discern what the life lessons might be. This year’s Kentucky Derby is such an opportunity. I know nothing about horse racing, but I enjoy the drama and pageantry of the Kentucky Derby and the other two races in the Triple Crown.

This year, for the first time in Derby history, the winner was disqualified for, essentially, going out of his lane on one of the turns. (Who knew they had lanes?) What are some takeaways?

• Competitions have rules. “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” (2 Timothy 2.5, ESV)
• Sometimes infractions are called, and sometimes they’re not. It’s tempting to say something like, “It’s a shame that a good horse was deprived of victory by the officials (‘stewards’). Why can’t they just let them play?” But of course not calling something that should be called is as much of an error as calling something that shouldn’t have been called. Ask The New Orleans Saints about their January 20, 2019, game with the Rams.
• As always, how we handle adversity counts. We’ll see how this horse, his trainers, his owners, and the jockey go on from here.
• Submission, something Americans aren’t always good at, is a necessary character quality. During a World Cup (soccer) game a few years ago, the German team apparently scored a goal, but it was disallowed because of a rule infraction. After the game, an American reported interviewed the German team captain and attempted to bait him into saying something about the officiating. “What do you think of the goal you scored that was taken away?” The German replied, “It’s a goal when the ball goes into the net and the referee allows it. There was no goal.” That’s a submissive attitude!
• There are little-known jobs that sometimes become very important! A normal Kentucky Derby day can come and go with no mention of the stewards. Now, they’re called upon to do their jobs on an international stage. I read recently in The Ignatian Adventure by Kevin O’Brien: “We are simply called to serve others, often in small ways, and do the best we can with the work entrusted to us.” And, I might add, do the job well when the spotlight isn’t on so that you can perform well when it is. “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” (Luke 16.10, ESV)

²⁴ Isn’t it obvious that all runners on the racetrack keep on running to win, but only one receives the victor’s prize? Yet each one of you must run the race to be victorious. ²⁵ A true athlete will be disciplined in every respect, practicing constant self-control in order to win a laurel wreath that quickly withers. But we run our race to win a victor’s crown that will last forever. ²⁶ For that reason, I don’t run just for exercise or box like one throwing aimless punches, ²⁷ but I train like a champion athlete. I subdue my body and get it under my control, so that after preaching the good news to others I myself won’t be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9.24 – 27, The Passion Translation)

[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 wrote about translations a few days ago and mentioned that I’m enjoying The Passion Translation by Bruce Simmons. Often the translation brings out something I’d missed, and the notes often add additional insight. Here’s his take on the tongues of fire in Acts 2 that I wrote about yesterday.

On the day Pentecost was being fulfilled, all the disciples were gathered in one place. Suddenly they heard the sound of a violent blast of wind rushing into the house from out of the heavenly realm. The roar of the wind was so overpowering it was all anyone could bear! Then all at once a pillar of fire appeared before their eyes. It separated into tongues of fire that engulfed each one of them. (Acts 2.1-3, The Passion Translation, emphasis his)

Here’s the accompanying note:

This was the pillar of fire that led Israel from bondage into the promised land. The same pillar of fire manifested here to initiate a new beginning from dead religious structures into the powerful life of the Spirit. Each believer received an overpowering flame of fire, signified by the shaft of light that engulfed them. It was as though each one received his own personal pillar of fire that would empower him and lead him throughout his life. This was the promise Jesus gave to his disciples of “the one like me” (John 14:26), who would be sent by the Father and never leave them. Today every believer is indwelt by the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). 

This must have been another “fun” event for the Trinity! “OK, let’s do this!” A massive attention-getter that resulted in thousands hearing Peter’s first sermon to which 3,000 responded. A jump-start to the church. An additional 3,000 indwelt by the Spirit!

[Peter continued,] “For God’s promise of the Holy Spirit is for you and your families, for those yet to be born and for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”…Those who believed the word that day numbered three thousand. They were all baptized and added to the church. (Acts 2.39, 41, The Passion Translation)

The 3,000 received the Spirit like we do, a bit more quietly than that first 120. But we have the Spirit nevertheless. Maybe we should live like this is true!

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8.14, ESV) or, as it reads in The Message: God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14.26, ESV)

I’m writing to encourage you to fan into a flame and rekindle the fire of the spiritual gift God imparted to you when I laid my hands upon you. ⁷For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control. (2 Timothy 1.6, 7, The Passion Translation)

[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 love reading about the events of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2. I have written that we should note that ALL were filled with the Holy Spirit and ALL spread the word.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2.1 – 4, ESV)

This time around I was thinking about the application of “other tongues,” and the importance of people hearing the word in their own language.

And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?… We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2.8 – 11, ESV)

And here’s the good news: this is going on today! Each of us speaks one or more “native” languages. My wife, the former nurse who teaches piano, speaks “nurse” and “piano.” When she talks with other piano teachers, they use the same language. As I’m drafting this, I’m sitting with the students who competed in the math competition last week. I speak mathematics. This week I spoke “Clemson” with my optometrist who grew up near Clemson and is a Clemson fan. I have a neighbor who is retired Air Force, and with him I can speak “military.” 

You and I are “insiders” in one or more places: our neighborhoods, our work, our expertise, our hobbies, etc. And the lessons from Acts 2 are:

• God desires “decentralized” presentations of the good news. Before Peter preached, all 120 believers were speaking.
• God empowers ordinary people. They were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit.
• God wants people to hear the word in a language they understand, and he does that through his people he has scattered among neighborhoods, workplaces, various interest groups. 

So don’t leave the mission to others! God demonstrated on Pentecost that he wants all of us to participate and empowers us to do so.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2.4, ESV)

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (1 Corinthians 9.20 – 22, ESV, emphasis mine)

Star Clemson wide receiver Hunter Renfrow was picked up in the NFL draft last week even though he’s only 5’10”, 184 pounds. Small. Quick, they say, but not fast. What he can do is get open and catch the ball, two essential qualities for a wide receiver.

The top pick in the NFL draft was a 5’10” quarterback. In past years, “too small.”

What changed is the NFL has realized that teams shouldn’t rule out players based on artificial and absolute standards, the kind that caused a lot of teams to pass over the legendary linebacker Mike Singletary when he was in the draft back in 1981: 3/8 inches too short. Oops. He went on to have a brilliant career with the Chicago Bears.

Jesus chose what to us looks like a ragtag bunch: fishermen, a tax collector, a guy who hated tax collectors. But from the beginning, God has chosen unlikely people. Moses stuttered, Gideon was fearful. David was the youngest of Jesse’s sons and didn’t even get invited to Samuel’s audition (1 Samuel 16.5-11).

I like that when Paul charged Timothy to invest in “men who will be able to teach others also,” the only qualification was that they be faithful or reliable. Not necessarily educated or talented or from a certain place or of a certain race. Just “faithful.”

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)

⁶  When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”
⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16.6, 7, 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 wanted to follow-up on my visit to Lamar, CO, yesterday, and how better than in the words of my host, Pastor Darren Stroh of First Baptist.

I attended the Day of Prayer event today in town.  Pastor Kristina, the organizer, and I were the only in-town pastors that showed up.  And the organizer, frustrated that only 11 showed up looked at us and said, “How about we just have the pastors pray today.”  I was reminded of your analogy of whether we are called to be trade schools or general contractors.  I politely suggested that God hears the prayers of all, whether they are polished or not.  In fact, he oftentimes listens closer to the unpolished, heartfelt prayer than the Pharisees.  Everyone got to pray.

Afterwards, I encouraged him telling him that to focus on who wasn’t there wasn’t helpful for him.  “You cannot reach the world from where you are not.”  He asked me where I got that.  I smiled and said, “The training yesterday that you were invited to but missed.”  

All that to say that your words impacted Lamar the day afterwards and from that point forward.  Thank you for being the messenger of God in our midst.  

The day went well, including safe travel 3 hours each way through wide-open country. The first gas station I saw after leaving my house was at the 150-mile point, 35 miles from Lamar!

I opened by asking them, “If one person came to you wanting to grow in their Christian walk, what would you do?” I challenged them to invest in people intentionally, reaching the world “from Lamar.” I shared “as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone,” from 1 Kings 20.40. Don’t be so busy being busy that you forget what God told you to do in Ephesians 4.11, 12:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.