Colorado, known for clear skies most days of the year, is inundated by smoke from the California and Oregon forest fires as I draft this. The Air Quality Index, normally well below 50, was over 150 on August 7. The weather app on my watch used a word I’ve never seen it use before: SMOKY. Here are two pictures of the setting sun, the first is in the Denver area. The second, about half an hour later, was made between Sedalia and Palmer Lake on Colorado 105. The small mountains there are only a few miles away and still nearly invisible.

I guess the lesson is that just because the sun is hard to see doesn’t mean it’s not there. Sometimes pollution that’s not even our fault blocks its light.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1.4 – 9, ESV)

So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12.35, 36, ESV)

Yesterday I reminded us that among the ways we should be “performing” – living out the gospel in real life are the 6 Ms from Fruitfulness on the Frontline:

• Model godly character
• Make good work
• Minister grace and love
• Mold culture
• Be a Mouthpiece for truth and justice
• Be a Messenger of the gospel

Here’s a practical, up-to-date example of at least three of the six: Minister grace and love, Mold culture, and Mouthpiece for truth and justice.

The Apostle Paul is clear:

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ… (2 Corinthians 5.18 – 20, ESV)

The well-known black preacher Tony Evans has echoed this point loud and clear:

Conflict in terms of race relations boils down to a pivotal question, Pastor Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship told those gathered at his church on Wednesday, July 21. “Am I a reconciler, or am I a combatant? Am I contributing to what God has done for me, bringing harmony where there was conflict, or am I one who keeps the fire [of division] burning?” he asked. “The more we are engaged … in the ministry of reconciliation, the more God is going to be with us because we were reconciled to Him. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.” – Dr. Tony Evans, July 21, 2021

The report of Tony Evans’ sermon appears in a July 27 report from the Baptist Press and is worth the read in its entirety. Among other things, he points up what could be useful from Critical Race Theory (CRT) and distinguishes between Black Lives Matter as a movement (a good thing) and as an organization (a bad thing). Here are some snippets:

CRT is a post-Civil Rights social construct that seeks to demonstrate how unjust laws have served as the embedded foundation and filter through which racist attitudes, behavior, policies and structures have been rooted throughout the fabric of American life and systems even after those laws have changed.

CRT, in and of itself, can be useful in addressing the long-lasting effects of racist laws and cultural norms that continue to exist.

Black Lives Matter must be addressed both as a movement and an organization. The movement says the lives of Black people matter in the same way all of us evangelicals say the lives of the unborn matter. The organization of the same name is unbiblical and actually advocates for the destruction of the Black family.

Dr. Evans then introduces a concept he calls Kingdom Race Theology (KRT):

KRT the reconciled recognition, affirmation and celebration of the divinely created ethnic differences through which God displays His multifaceted glory as His people justly, righteously and responsibly function personally and corporately in unity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He pointed to Paul’s admonition to the church in Ephesus for reconciliation among two groups who didn’t get along – Gentiles and Jews. A country’s Olympic athletes may be different, but they compete under the same flag. Another way of putting it is that they compete for the same kingdom.

If you are a believer in Christ, then you are required to be a reconciler. We are not to allow the divisions of society to create divisions in the kingdom. You operate under a different flag now.

All good stuff, well-articulated. All of us in the body of Christ need to be part of the solution.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3.26 – 28, ESV)

Yesterday I was making the point that training is one thing, but actually carrying out that training in real life – Performance – is another. There are applications in sports and music, of course, and with respect to the Christian life, I wrote:

No one cares how many Bible verses you’ve memorized if you’re rude to the checkout clerk in the grocery store.

That application to real life involves the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5.22, 23). Or, what Mark Greene in his book Fruitfulness on the Frontline calls “Modeling Godly Character.” I have written about this before: a framework for fruitfulness – or “How can God use me today?” Mark calls them the 6 Ms:

• Model godly character
• Make good work
• Minister grace and love
• Mold culture
• Be a Mouthpiece for truth and justice
• Be a Messenger of the gospel

It’s not a checklist, but it is useful to remember as we “train for godliness” that we train (Practice in this blog series) for godliness – and that godliness can be shown in many ways. Tomorrow I’ll share a perspective on Molding Culture and Being a Mouthpiece for truth and justice.

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, ESV)

I’ve been writing about lessons learned in my progress in golf, such as it is, as a function of:

• Purpose
• Practice
• Perseverance
• Performance

Today, we finish it off with Performance because it doesn’t matter about our purpose to improve, our practice and perseverance to improve if we don’t translate our training to life. In golf, that means playing the game. In music, it means performing in public. In our spiritual lives, it’s transformation and application in the real world.

I often quote the last four words of 1 Timothy 4.7 with an emphasis on “train:”

Train yourself for godliness.

But we can’t forget the second half:

Train yourself for godliness.

Performance. My son David was a business major at Azusa Pacific University and played piano for the world-famous University Choir and Orchestra. Once I asked him how a business major got that job in a school filled with piano majors. He said, “Dad, the piano majors don’t perform with choirs; they are too busy practicing.”

No one cares how well you play in the practice studio if you don’t play for others’ enjoyment. No one cares how well you hit it off the range if you don’t ever play a round of golf with your friends. No one cares how much weight you lift at the gym if you never help someone move their piano. No one cares how many Bible verses you’ve memorized if you’re rude to the checkout clerk in the grocery store. There are other aspects of our “performance” as believers that I’ll address tomorrow.

Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. (Philippians 2.12 – 16, MSG)

I’ve been writing about my progress in golf, such as it is, as a function of:

• Purpose
• Practice
• Perseverance
• Performance

Today, let’s consider Perseverance. After I purposed to improve my golf game and began to practice, mostly on the range, I’d have days when I thought, “It’s coming! Today I hit 50 balls and most of them were good hits!” Then I’d go out the next day and maybe only a third were good hits. At that point I realized:

Purpose and practice aren’t enough. I have to persevere even when there’s little apparent progress.

In fact, I told my friend and fellow golf struggler Tom that I considered my current experiment with golf as “an exercise in goal-setting and perseverance.” And so I stayed with it. I’d take another lesson where I’d usually realize that I wasn’t implementing the basics that my instructor had already tried to teach me. So back to the range. Back to thinking about what I was supposed to think about. Practice. Practice. Practice. And even after the “good” round that allowed me to write this series, I went out a week later and…one step forward, two steps back.

Isn’t life like that? I think my problem with anger is in the past until I’m around “certain people.” I’ve been faithful in my daily time with God and scripture memory, and I still have issues. “It” doesn’t work! That’s when it’s useful to recall our purpose, resume our training, and persevere.

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Hebrews 10.36, NIV)

I’m writing about how my golf game has improved, and how I’ve made progress by means of:

• Purpose
• Practice
• Perseverance
• Performance

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of the decision: purpose. But there’s an old riddle: “Three frogs sat on a lily pad, and two of them decided to jump off. How many frogs are left?” Answer: “Three. The two just decided to jump off; they didn’t actually do it.” So decision or purpose is not enough…

Today, let’s talk about practice.

I have always been well aware that to get better at golf (or anything else) one has to practice. I met a sergeant in the Air Force who told me, “I go out to the driving range and knock out 200 – 300 balls a day.” I knew then that I would never be a good golfer! And I’ve always been able to play “adequate” golf (by my definition) without the range. Not this year.

My friend (and blog reader) Tom wanted us to play more golf, so our first meeting was on the range – remember, I hadn’t played since 2017! So I hit 25 balls on the range, got one lesson, and then Tom and I met for a disastrous nine holes. Afterward, I told him, “We can’t play next week, I have to get some time on the driving range.”

So two months, 30 visits to the range hitting 1300+ balls, and nine practice rounds later, and I could see progress. But there were times when it wasn’t easy. Tomorrow I’ll talk about perseverance.

Train yourself for godliness. (1 Timothy 4.7, ESV)

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9.25, NIV)

I started yesterday writing about how my golf game has improved. I’ve made progress by means of:

• Purpose
• Practice
• Perseverance
• Performance

Today, let’s talk about purpose.

No one ever got better at anything accidentally. The first step in growth is the decision to pursue growth intentionally. I use “purpose” for alliteration!

Daniel purposed in this heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s food… (Daniel 1.8, NKJV)

After the purpose, Daniel had to figure out how to make that happen, described in the rest of chapter 1, but purpose came first.

I purposed to improve my golf game, and I followed through on that purpose by getting some lessons, investing in some new equipment (just shoes and two new clubs!), and committing to practice (more on that tomorrow).

Do you want to grow as a disciple? We’ve said that Bible knowledge in and of itself is not sufficient, but it’s certainly a start. If you don’t feel competent to hear from God through the scriptures, what are you doing to become competent? How about scripture memory? If you’ve never tried it or want to get back to it, the first step is the decision.

Prayer? A mission-focus? We can grow in any or all of these areas by first deciding to.

Whether or not my golf game improves is trivial. But the act of pursuing it has been very instructive. And it began with purpose.

Now Solomon purposed to build a temple for the name of the LORD, and a royal palace for himself. (2 Chronicles 2.1, ESV)

May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose. (Psalm 20.4, NKJV)

I’ve been waiting for two months to write this series of blogs. I had to wait until there was something to write about! The topic? Lessons learned working on my golf game.

I’ve never been a good golfer, but I used to be “adequate,” at least by my standards, which are:

• Hit nearly all balls so that they go up (not dribble along the ground) in the general direction of the hole.
• Don’t lose more golf balls than I find.
• Don’t spend too much time looking for my ball so that I slow down people I’m playing with.

That’s all. Modest goals. We’ve been “swim and fitness” members of our local club, but in 2017 all swim members played golf for free. I went out a few times shooting between 53 and 58 on our challenging, treed course with lots of elevation. (I put that out there just for perspective.) My knee went out in October 2017, and I haven’t played golf since.

Now it’s 2021, two knee replacements later, and I want to get back to it. I started out terribly. Two months after starting I shot a 48 (10 strokes better than most of my previous rounds at my local course). It’s still a work in progress, but there is progress, and that’s what I want to talk about over the next few days:

• Purpose
• Practice
• Perseverance
• Performance

And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. (Philippians 1.25, NKJV)

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, ESV)

I’ve written before about my friend Dr. Vilmer Paul, pastor in Haiti and also administrator of a large school. Vilmer also is one of my “Unsung Heroes,” as I wrote on July 14, 2019. Vilmer has written an article about the recent assassination of the Haitian President. I encourage you to read it in its entirety to see the challenges Haitians face. Here’s a sample:

• 4 million tons of trees are cut each year but only 500,000 tons are replanted. The results are clear: Haiti has only 1.5% forest cover
• 13 households out of 14 have to carry the water they use. However, thanks to the rain, Haiti receives 560 times the water needs of the population
• Haiti produces the least waste per capita of the whole area (0.70 kg per person per day), compared to 1.26 kg in the Dominican Republic and 2.04 kg for the United States. Haiti is however the most unhealthy country in the whole zone because we only collect 11% of our garbage, compared to 60% for the Dominican Republic and 76% for Jamaica.
• Every night, 8 million of our compatriots sleep in the dark, without electricity
• 5 million of us can not read or write and are in the dark, day and night
• 8 out of 10 Haitians live on less than US $ 2 a day (9 out of 10 in rural areas)

Vilmer points out that a very few of their leaders, including the one just assassinated, were trying to do something about this. Trying to help the masses rather than the wealthy few. But then they are martyred. Then he asks: what is the church’s response? How shall we live? Here is his conclusion:

For some church leaders, the church should be jumped right in politics to solve the problem.

For some others the church should be separated completely from politics to not be empoisoned by its venom.

But Jesus doesn’t say any of these in those ways. This is what he says:

“May we, the Church be light in this world, be the salt of this world” (Matt 5:15-16) in other terms, be the influencer of this world.

I am and until I go to the grave attached to Christ’s word. God’s people should be the influencers by being, acting, saying, doing, and managing things differently, in the depraved, decayed, and selfish society. I mean, being in politics if one is not light and salt, the situation becomes worse, be separated from politics has nothing good in itself if one is still not light and salt. It is time that Pastors, deacons, believers stop being involved in so much corruption and impurity of life among my fellow brothers and sisters.  Let’s give another image of Christ to our society, it is time, it is our role.

If Our Haitian church played his role as it should have been, we probably would not have seen so much drama before our face.

The Apostle Peter would agree, and I would add: pray for our brothers in Haiti.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2.9 – 12, ESV)

I woke up this morning to a comment on yesterday’s blog from our friend and faithful blog reader Laura:

Oh, thank you so much! Really needed this today. – Blog reader

I was puzzled. The blog wasn’t that profound. It was more “cute,” I thought. When I publish a blog every day, I don’t expect all of them to be home runs and reflective of deep thought and profound principles. Thankfully, she anticipated my question and sent an explanatory email.

It turns out that they have something going on in their lives right now, and she:

…reacted strongly to your reminder of what God said to Moses! – Blog reader

So it wasn’t anything I said, it was the verse:

GOD answered Moses, “So, do you think I can’t take care of you? You’ll see soon enough whether what I say happens for you or not.” (Numbers 11.23, MSG)

I had no idea what verse I was going to put on that blog. I wasn’t even sure what point I was trying to make. But that verse popped into my head. Clearly, it was for Laura. It’s fun to see God at work. 

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8.28, NASB)