I wrote last week on the power of persistent observation. Then I came across this verse on the necessity for diligence:

Then he said to them, “Be diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear, for as you do, more understanding will be given to you. And according to the depth of your longing to understand, much more will be added to you. For those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation. But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have!” (Mark 4.24, 25, TPT)

This is exactly like mathematics. If you are not “diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear,” you won’t understand the next thing, and you’ll lose it all. If you do work to understand, your knowledge can build.

This reminds me of something I shared back in August 2019:

Way back in the 1920s, Bishop Roland Allen of the Anglican Church wrote a provocative book Missionary Methods, St Paul’s or Ours? One of the methods he decried was his tradition’s around-the-calendar schedule for teaching major concepts over a 3-year period. The problem, as he saw it, was that a concept would be introduced, and a couple of weeks later, the church would be on to something else with no regard as to whether the people understood anything. Bishop Allen said something like, “You wouldn’t experience that too many times before you conclude that if church leadership had wanted us to understand that concept, they would have spent more time on it. Since they don’t, people conclude that they’re not supposed to understand.” – From The Ewellogy, August 25, 2019

In light of Jesus’ words in Mark 4, we need to be careful not to rush through what God is teaching us or what God is teaching the people we’re discipling. (Maybe that says something about rushing through through-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plans!)

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
²  making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
³  yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
⁴  if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
⁵  then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. – Proverbs 2.1 – 5, ESV)

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2.15, NASB)

Two years ago, I wrote about Frank and Sally Dennis, active in their 90s – he’s a “retired” medical missionary. As he said often, there are no pictures of Sally not smiling!

Sally passed April 26, 2020. On the first anniversary of her passing, Frank wrote:

It will be one year on April 26 that my dear Sally left and I confess I have been dreading the day and wishing that Spring would finally come and quite burying the flowers under new snow storms,  Just today I saw the first hummingbird and I am glad I had two feeders ready for him, because the daffodils are all facedown in  the dirt.  

But yesterday I got a beautiful smile from Sally!.  The Sally Smile Fund has gifted a sweet little girl in Ethiopia with a life-changing smile that I want you to see.  As we see sadness in so many places today I want you to rejoice with me as we see Christian doctors and nurses and dental teams bringing smiles and the Good News of Jesus.  This is an ongoing thing but the smile that came yesterday was just what I needed to remind me that her smiles are still going on and blessing others as they did so many years wherever she went!

Here’s the little girl he’s talking about.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. (Matthew 25.35, 36, ESV)

He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. (Luke 9.2, ESV – this is the mission verse of Cure, the organization that did the little girl’s surgery.)

Yesterday I shared the lovely rendition of 1 Corinthians 13.13 from The Passion Translation:

Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run. (1 Corinthians 13.13, TPT, emphasis mine)

Here’s an example of someone who seems to let love be “the beautiful prize for which he runs” – Yo-Yo Ma, the world-renowned cellist. When he learned that after anyone takes a COVID shot, they have to wait at least 15 minutes to be sure there’s no reaction, he took his cello. And while he was waiting, he played for the other folks in the gymnasium.

NPR reported the story on March 15, 2021. You can read the transcript here or listen to it in its entirety (just over a minute) here or by clicking “1-minute listen” on the NPR site.

A nurse reported:

One of the other volunteers told me she just started to well up in tears. And it was so comforting and so healing. – Hillary Behara, a nurse in Pittsfield, MA

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5.15, 16, NIV)

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4.10, NIV)

Sometimes translations make a difference! Regular blog readers will notice that I quote often from The Passion Translation (TPT) especially this year that I’m reading the New Testament and the poetic books in it. Here’s something from the end of 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. In the standard translations we have:

(13) So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1) Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 13.13 – 14.1, ESV)

TPT chooses to break the chapter after the “pursue love” of 14.1 rather than before. Here is the beautiful result, no further comment needed:

Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run. (1 Corinthians 13.13, TPT)

Yesterday we looked at the beginning of Judges – a depressing book about God’s people perpetually falling into sin. The cycle is sometimes described as:

• Sin
• Servitude
• Supplication
• Salvation (through a Judge – the savior)
• Serenity (e.g., “The land had peace for 40 years.”)

Here’s how it sets up in the story of Gideon (You can read it all in Judges 6 – 8):

• The people did evil. Judges 6.1 (SIN)
• The Lord gave them into the hand of the Midianites. Judges 6.1 – 6 (SERVITUDE)
• The people cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites. Judges 6.7 (SUPPLICATION)
• Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon. 6.11 – 16 (SALVATION)
  • Gideon tested the angel, and the angel set the food on fire from a rock. Judges 6.20, 21
  • Gideon tested God with the fleece twice. Judges 6.36 – 40
  • There was one more test. Gideon has assembled his “army” of 300 men (Judges 7.1 – 8), and the Midianite army has assembled in opposition. Then this conversation:

That same night the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. (Judges 7.9 – 11, ESV, emphasis mine)

Note, “If you are afraid…” to take the army down there, you go down with just Purah. “Then he went down with Purah his servant…” He was afraid! This after a conversation with the angel and three supernatural signs. So he gets one more sign: a dream from a Midianite soldier:

When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has given the host of Midian into your hand.” (Judges 7.13 – 15, ESV)

The lesson for us is simple:

God uses ordinary people who overcome their fears to become his instruments.

Many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (Acts 18.8 – 11, ESV)

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. (Paul to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2.3, ESV)

I’m reading through Judges, one of the more depressing books in the Bible, beginning with this sad and incredible verse:

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. (Judges 2.10, ESV)

The only way that could have happened is for the Israelites to ignore this basic instruction from Moses:

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6.6 – 9, ESV)

Don’t teach the children, and a generation will come “who do not know the LORD.” Judges continues with a template for much of the book:

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD…They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger…So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them…Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. (Judges 2.11 – 16, ESV)

A standard outline of the cycle, repeated at least six times in detail in Judges goes something like this:

• Sin
• Servitude
• Supplication
• Salvation (through a Judge – the savior)
• Serenity (e.g., “The land had peace for 40 years.”)

Rinse and repeat.

Tomorrow we’ll look at how this played out with Gideon.

This text is about the Israelites’ time in the wilderness, but it could just as easily apply to the accounts in Judges. Watch and learn:

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10.6 – 11, ESV)

Here’s just a quick follow-on to yesterday’s blog, It Takes All Kinds of People. It also takes all kinds of organizations:

But God has carefully designed each member and placed it in the body to function as he desires. A diversity is required, for if the body consisted of one single part, there wouldn’t be a body at all! So now we see that there are many differing parts and functions, but one body. (1 Corinthians 12.18 – 20, TPT)

A simple lesson is that this must go beyond the localized way we usually think of it. No single individual, no single church, no single denomination, no single para-church organization, etc. can do all of God’s work. To reiterate the aircraft carrier metaphor, God has A LOT of ships out there!

• Each ship has a variety of people on it to make it work.
• All the ships together make the Navy work.
• Even the Navy is only one part of the armed forces.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2.19 – 21, NIV)

There was another lesson from the time with the men that I wrote about yesterday. But first, a little background. I shared last week about the aircraft carrier metaphor. It takes all of us to get the job done! I’ve seen this recently in my reading of 1 Corinthians:

Remember, it is the same Holy Spirit who distributes, activates, and operates these different gifts as he chooses for each believer. Just as the human body is one, though it has many parts that together form one body, so too is Christ. For by one Spirit we all were immersed and mingled into one single body. And no matter our status—whether we are Jews or non-Jews, oppressed or free—we are all privileged to drink deeply of the same Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12.11 – 13, TPT

If it takes all of us, why do we sometimes think we have to be able to do everything or reach everyone? I was with a Navigator colleague recently who expressed a desire to be more effective in reaching the poor. His challenge is that he, like many of us, is a college-educated engineer. While I admire and share his desire to be used by God to reach all kinds of people, I also need to recognize my limitations and understand that God uses all kinds of people!

Back to my meeting with the men last week, all of whom attended Rocky Mountain Calvary Church in Colorado Springs. I’m a huge fan of that church and Calvary Chapels in general because they seem to do a really good job of attracting all kinds of people. One of my favorite staffers there is Donny the facilities manager:

I was talking with a black guy at the Bible study, and he told me that the first guy he saw when his wife finally dragged him to visit Rocky Mountain Calvary was Donny. “I thought he was homeless.” His wife said, “No, that’s Donny and that’s the way he dresses.” My new friend heard a message loud and clear: “Everyone is welcome here.”

This is how Donny describes his ministry:

I have been the facilities and grounds manager of RMC since December 1998. I am responsible for overseeing building maintenance and special events setup. I also supervise community service workers assigned to Rocky Mountain Calvary.  I am truly thankful to the Lord for allowing me to minister to people’s hearts as well as providing them work to do with their hands.

“I also supervise community service workers…” These are people the criminal justice system sentences to “community service.” Donny takes them, up to eight at a time, and tries to turn them around.

It takes us all. Another friend told a story about someone he knew who owned a Porsche. The Porsche owner led a rich guy to Christ while they were riding in that Porsche! My friend said, “I couldn’t have reached that guy in my old Toyota Corolla! Donny ministers to people who wouldn’t connect with me very well, but they connect with him. There are people I connect with who would have trouble with Donny. And on it goes.

But God has carefully designed each member and placed it in the body to function as he desires. A diversity is required, for if the body consisted of one single part, there wouldn’t be a body at all! So now we see that there are many differing parts and functions, but one body. (1 Corinthians 12.18 – 20, TPT)

I recently had the privilege of visiting a group of men to help them kick off their study of Every Man a Warrior. It’s a discipleship program I strongly recommend. I had prepared some remarks including a letter from Len who went through the program with me a couple of years ago. Here’s some of what he said:

EMAW takes a good amount of work and discipline, but in the end it trained me to focus on my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to study the Word of God as it relates to the life of an average guy like me.  I have found that I am now a much more gentle person, as well as more at peace not only with myself but with other people…I also think that this series helped me to have more credibility as a Christian man as I go about my daily life.  I have been told that I am a better husband, father, and coworker and I feel that I am able to handle adversity better than I used to…I would encourage you guys to take a leap of faith and invest time and effort into doing this series, and I know you will be very happy that you did!

I also shared the difference between Bible study to get smarter and Bible study for life-change. The Message translation of Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders captures that distinction well:

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach… (Matthew 7.24 – 26, MSG, emphasis mine)

I closed with something I hadn’t planned to say because I hadn’t thought of it during my preparation. It seemed to resonate with the men.

Men, as I look over the 12 of you in the room, I’m reminded of something very important: “You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can’t count the number of apples in a seed.” I don’t see just the 12 of you. I see the thousands that you will influence. I’m not interested in “apples” only – I’m all about “apple trees.” In fact, I’m praying that you all become a whole orchard of apple trees! – Bob to a men’s group

I’ve never before used the word “orchard” when sharing that metaphor. I like it!

The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world… (Colossians 1.6, NIV)

To set context, The Navigators has a long-standing illustration called The Hand – five ways to make scripture part of your life:

The idea is that the more “fingers” you apply of hearing, reading, studying, memorizing with meditation, the stronger your “grip” on the Word. Let’s talk for a minute about “study.”

When I teach Bible study, the discipline of spending a lot of time on a relatively small section, I keep it simple and suggest:

• Observe: see what’s in the text
• Organize: put a simple outline on it
• Obey: find a way to apply it to your life

My friend and Navigator colleague Henry Clay just sent me his personal manual on studying the psalms, Then Sings My Soul. In the introduction, he included an essay I heard nearly 50 years ago but not since. It puts “observe” on steroids.

The essay is “The Student, The Fish, and Agassiz” by “The Student” – later revealed to be Entomologist Samuel H. Scudder (1837-1911). He wrote an account of his first learning encounter with the renowned ichthyologist Dr. Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), founder of Harvard University’s Lawrence School of Science. The story took place around 1859 and was first published (anonymously) in 1873. The essay is worth the read in its entirety, but here are a few highlights:

“Take this fish,” he said, “and look at it; we call it a Haemulon; by and by I will ask what you have seen.”…In ten minutes I had seen all that could be seen in that fish…My two hands, my two eyes, and the fish; it seemed a most limited field. I pushed my fingers down its throat to see how sharp its teeth were… At last a happy thought struck me—I would draw the fish; and now with surprise I began to discover new features in the creature…[But it wasn’t enough. The professor said,] “You have not looked very carefully; why,” he continued, more earnestly, “you haven’t seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is as plainly before your eyes as the fish itself. Look again; look again!” And he left me to my misery…[After thinking about it all night, ] “Do you perhaps mean,” I asked, “that the fish has symmetrical sides with paired organs?” His thoroughly pleased, “Of course, of course!” repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night. After he had discoursed most happily and enthusiastically—as he always did—upon the importance of this point, I ventured to ask what I should do next. “Oh, look at your fish!” he said, and left me again to my own devices. In a little more than an hour he returned and heard my new catalogue. “That is good, that is good!” he repeated, “but that is not all; go on.” And so for three long days, he placed that fish before my eyes, forbidding me to look at anything else, or to use any artificial aid. “Look, look, look,” was his repeated injunction.” – From The Student, The Fish, and Agassiz, emphases mine.

You can observe a lot by just watching. – Yogi Berra

¹  My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
²  making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
³  yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
⁴  if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
⁵  then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. – Proverbs 2.1 – 5, ESV)