Today, the Catholics remember the anniversary of the death of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. This brief summary captures his importance:

Throughout his life, Ignatius exhibited deep humility and a strong devotion to God. He emphasized the importance of finding God in all aspects of life, encouraging his followers to seek “the greater glory of God” in everything they did. His spiritual insights and teachings continue to inspire individuals from around the world. – from the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

Ignatius had aspired to be a war hero, but a cannonball changed that:

Five hundred years ago, a cannonball wound to one man changed millions of lives. When asked, “Would Ignatius’s conversion have happened at all without the trauma of his wound in Pamplona?” Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, responded:

Who knows what might have happened if he had not been wounded? Whatever the case, in the life of any individual there are many instances that offer us the chance to open up to the transcendent, as happened in the conversion of Ignatius…There are times in life that shake you up and kick-start this process.

In any case, conversion never really happens in one fell swoop but is really a life-long process. Ignatius, for instance, never saw himself as having converted but as being a pilgrim. He never believed that he’d reached his goal. Christian life is a pilgrimage in which you put aside your plans to set out on a journey, allowing yourself to be guided, accompanied, open to surprises. —Excerpted from Walking with Ignatius

The movie Ignatius of Loyola: Soldier, Sinner, Saint does a good job of summarizing his life.

Part of my wife’s ministry is leading people through the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Here’s a description of an excellent resource, suitable for non-Catholics:

In Journey with Jesus, spiritual director Larry Warner guides us through the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, similar to the way he’s been leading people through them in person. Here’s what he’s observed: “The Spiritual Exercises helped people reconnect with Jesus and with themselves in life-giving ways. It was powerful.” Ignatius wanted to help everyone, no matter what age or stage of life, experience Jesus. Through prayers and Scripture readings that largely focus on the life of Christ, the Spiritual Exercises that have been so powerful and growth-inducing for so many, including Warner, can be a tool for transformation in you as well.

I was moved to publish this blog when I saw this quote this morning:

A rough and unshapen log has no idea that it can be made into a statue that will be considered a masterpiece, but the carver sees what can be done with it. So many do not understand God can mold them into Saints, until they put themselves into the hands of the almighty Artisan. – St. Ignatius Loyola

The Apostle Paul said it first:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2.10, NIV)

Continuing in John chapter 1…

On the next day, He desired to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1.43 – 46, LSB)

The best evangelistic technique of all time: “Come and see.” How?

• By reading the Gospels with an open mind? That’s one way to “come and see,” but there are others…
• By coming to a spirit-filled gathering? When my daughter was in a now more closed country teaching in an international school, I preached in their large “fellowship” (not a “church,” mind you!). Of the 400 people there, at least half were new believers and seekers from that country, many of whom were attracted to the love and enthusiasm they sensed there.
• By observing a community of believers living life together? The blog Blessed to Be a Blessing talks about how a chemistry tutoring party in Kuala Lampur became a “come and see” experience.  

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5.16, NIV)

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. (Acts 13.47 – 49, ESV)

A Denver Broncos player was suspended for betting on NFL games:

Broncos second-year defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike was suspended indefinitely by the NFL on Tuesday for violating the league’s gambling policy, the league said in a statement.

The NFL said Uwazurike, a fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft, bet on NFL games during his rookie season.

“We were informed by the NFL today that Eyioma Uwazurike has been suspended by the league indefinitely for violating its gambling policy,” the Broncos said in a statement. “Our organization fully cooperated with this investigation and takes matters pertaining to the integrity of the game very seriously. The Denver Broncos will continue to provide all members of our organization with the necessary education, resources and support to ensure compliance with the NFL’s Gambling Policy.” – Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, July 24, 2023

What bothers me about how this is being handled is the emphasis on “policy:” The article continues:

First-year Broncos coach Sean Payton said they used time during the offseason program to educate players on the league’s gambling policies. By that time, of course, violations from the 2022 season would have already been months in the past.

“We’re professional teachers. The packet we received, we looked at, studied it closely and then we presented it in our own PowerPoint,” he said. “I probably had 20 minutes on it to really make sure everyone has it. If you’re a teacher and half your class gets a ‘D,’ you better look at yourself. It’s not the policy, but it’s the implementation, the understanding, and the educating of the policy.”

The “policy” emphasis takes me back to my days as an instructor in an Air Force leadership school. We were told every class something like: “Be sure to tell the guys about the penalties for driving while intoxicated (DWI). Tell them they could be fined $1,000. Remind them of Air Force policy that a DWI will hurt their career, etc., etc.” I smiled and nodded, but when I was with each new class I said something like:

I’m supposed to tell you not to drink and drive because you could be fined $1,000 and mess up your Air Force career. I’m not going to tell you any such thing. I don’t care about your $1,000 fine, and I don’t care about your career. What I care about is that if you’re out there driving drunk, you could kill someone, and it could be me or one of my kids.

I’m wondering why the NFL can’t teach these young players who have more money than good sense something like:

Guys, you’re making a lot of money playing an inherently dangerous sport. Your career could be over tomorrow. You need to live simply and not waste your money, especially on gambling. Then maybe you won’t join the long list of professional athletes who made a lot of money and died broke.

It’s not “policy,” which feels arbitrary. It’s real life.

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. (Deuteronomy 30.15 – 18, ESV)

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)

It’s fun to get back to reading the gospels after slogging through Leviticus. That said, a reason to read Leviticus is right there in John 1.

On the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1.29, LSB)

We have to cut through a lot of detail in Leviticus, some of which doesn’t appear relevant, but one thing is relevant: a sacrificed lamb or other animal was required to take away sin.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17.11, LSB)

If you knew nothing about the Old Testament, John the Baptist’s sentence wouldn’t have made any sense.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9.11 – 14, LSB)

I’m happy to report good news on several fronts. A couple of weeks ago, Dallas Jenkins, creator, writer, and director of The Chosen, sent out an email informing us that the strike by Hollywood writers and actors had shut them down. Dallas asked us to pray for this “Red Sea moment” as they appealed to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists for an exemption because The Chosen is made by an independent studio.

The main good news is that the exemption was approved, and The Chosen resumed filming on July 24. Praise the Lord.

The second piece of good news is how The Chosen requested the exemption. In a day of outrage and demands, people of all kinds pushing for their “rights,” including Christians, Dallas wrote to the labor union:

We’re the good guys; we’ve treated your actors well. Please take the few minutes to approve our application so your actors can get back to work getting paid for the last two weeks of a season they want to finish.

I’m encouraged by several aspects of this request:

• The Chosen has already been taking care of the actors. They haven’t been asking them to work for less because it’s a Christian series.
• The request is written from the viewpoint of the labor union: “We’ve treated your actors well.” Please approve the application “so your actors can get back to work getting paid…”
• The request is built around what the actors want: “…getting paid for the last two weeks of a season they want to finish.”

The request does NOT mention any trauma to the organization. No mention of “We’re losing money here!” That’s not something the labor union cares anything about.

So I’m glad the exemption was approved, and they can finish filming Season 4, and I’m very pleased they handled themselves well.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders…Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4.5, 6, ESV)

I’ve written before about solving the Friday crossword puzzles in the Wall Street Journal. The one for July 14 asked for:

The answer to this week’s contest crossword is the entry that’s a hidden sixth theme answer.

It wasn’t too hard: each starred theme entry contained the name of a state spelled backwards. For example, STEAK SALAD contains ALASKA reading right to left. Therefore the clear (I thought) instructions challenged me to find a sixth entry that contained a state spelled backwards. It turned out to be CHAT UP which contains UTAH. So I sent in CHAT UP as the solution.

It turns out a number of readers didn’t find it to be that simple. One person wrote on Monday after the solution was revealed:

My minor gripe was the not totally clear (at least to me) wording of the contest question. Are you looking for UTAH, the sixth theme answer, OR, are you looking for the full answer that contains UTAH (CHATUP)? After reading the Contest Question several times, I went with UTAH.

If this were a math class, and a student asked me that, I can hear myself saying, “What does the question say?”

Jesus experienced the same frustration I would have had trying to explain what seems obvious:

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8.14 – 21, ESV)

These guys sometimes appear not to be very bright. Jesus communicates in metaphor, and they can’t make sense of it. AND they think Jesus is upset that they don’t have any bread. Jesus rebukes them for lack of faith – they don’t trust his power to provide for them should he need to. And he rebukes their inability to grasp the metaphor. Matthew’s gospel adds:

Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16.12, ESV)

Ding, ding, ding! Jesus didn’t give up on the twelve, and he won’t give up on us, but he does expect us to grow in our ability to understand and apply increasingly difficult concepts and attributes.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1.5 – 8, ESV)

P.S. The Wall Street Journal contest editor said they would have accepted either CHAT UP or UTAH. (They draw from the hundreds or thousands of entries to select one winner of a coffee cup.)

Our Pentateuch Bible Reading Schedule begins John. (There aren’t enough chapters in Genesis – Deuteronomy to fill 52 5-day weeks!) In contrast to reading a chapter/day in the Pentateuch as reading less material than usual, reading a whole chapter of John per day is a lot! So I’m not committing to blogging on all of John, just a few highlights.

And I saw something from chapter 1 I hadn’t seen before:

There was a man having been sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the Light, so that all might believe through him. (John 1.6, 7, LSB)

A witness “so that all might believe through him.” If that was John’s mission, he failed! Jesus certainly didn’t experience universal belief because of John’s ministry of preparation.

But the text says that a few sentences later:

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. (John 1.9 – 11, LSB)

“His own did not receive him.” But some did…

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1.12, 13, LSB)

It was the case in Jesus’ ministry and in the rest of the New Testament: some believe, some don’t. There are no sure-fire methods.

When [the Jews in Rome] had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets. And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. (Acts 28.23, 24, ESV)

Our job is to stay with it:

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking [in Corinth] 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 18.9 – 11, ESV)

We ended yesterday’s blog with the pastor’s observation that

Stewardship decisions are not made in church; they’re made in the real estate office and on the showroom floor.

Stewardship decisions are also made in the everyday decisions to buy or not buy whatever category of goods that tends to suck you in. For Jason Gay, the brilliant, humorous sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), it’s sports gear. In the kind of article you don’t usually see in the WSJ, Jason explains How I Stopped Buying Silly Sports Stuff I Didn’t Need. He opens:

There was a period of my life, not long ago, when I could waste an easy hour and a half looking at cycling shoes on the Internet. Maybe more than an hour and a half. I would consider cheap cycling shoes and expensive shoes, white ones and black ones, blue ones and hi-visibility pinkalicious ones, custom shoes and shoes I could specifically contour to my foot by baking them briefly in the oven.

At the time I believed that every one of these pairs of shoes would make me better at riding my bike, or at least make me look cooler while riding my bike. Every once in a while, I would pull the trigger and buy a pair of new shoes…which, of course, did the exact same thing as the pair of perfectly fine cycling shoes I already had at home.

This is a condition known as sports gearaholism, and I will come right out and admit I am a slowly recovering sports gearaholic. I have been an addict for cycling paraphernalia, for golf stuff, tennis nonsense, fishing tackle, fitness equipment…

Sports gearaholics buy new sports gear because they think it’s going to make them better. I bought a new driver and three other specialty clubs a couple of years ago to improve my golf game. Guess what? They didn’t. And Jason explains why:

We’re deft online, clicking page after page of golf clubs, golf balls, golf gloves, each whispering a promise to raise performance and golf happiness. All of this is a lie. The only thing standing between us and golf happiness is golf itself, a cruel game created for the purpose of making contented people miserable.

It took me years to realize that I was the technology that mattered, and my tech is flawed. I’m an aging, deskbound non-athlete who, if I really want to elevate my performance, should lay off the peanut butter pretzels. (Emphasis mine. In the comments section after the article, readers pointed out that no one owns just one guitar. They buy new ones to sound like their guitarist hero, but, again, the limiting factor is the player, not the instrument.)

It’s the same advertising lie that Mike Metzger wrote about. Such lies may suck in the rest of the culture, but they shouldn’t suck us in. To apply Jesus’ words to this situation:

Don’t let people do that to you! (Matthew 23.8, MSG)

Paul was clear:

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. (Ephesians 5.3, ESV, emphasis mine)

Let’s encourage each other in this battle:

You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. (Hebrews 3.13, NLT)

I was talking with a friend the other day whose mother had passed, and he spent a month cleaning out her house. So I asked the inevitable question: “Does that motivate you to clean out your house?” Answer, “Yes, but I haven’t started yet!” Same with me, we have all this stuff, and we owe it to our kids to get rid of as much as possible before they have to.

Unfortunately, we don’t always live as if we believe Jesus when he says, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12.15)

Mike Metzger wrote about this phenomenon a few weeks ago in “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” It’s a short article worth the read in its entirety. The main idea is that we live in an age of discontent. He quotes C.S. Lewis as saying,

[We live as if] the attainment of goods we have never yet had, rather than the conservation of those we have already, is the cardinal business of life.

We miss Paul’s clear teaching to the church at Philippi and to Timothy:

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. (Philippians 4.11, ESV)

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (1 Timothy 6.6 – 8, ESV)

And there’s a cost to the discontent that compels us to buy what we don’t need. Mike explains:

Contentment means to be satisfied or pleased with what we have already. That’s rare today. Advertisers define “a living” as making as much as we can so that we spend as much as we can on new stuff that we feel will make us content. It fosters cravings for what we don’t have, driving us to buy what we feel will be satisfying, but leaving little leftover for giving.

Doubt it? In 2022, Americans gave just 1.7 percent of their disposable income to charity, the lowest share since 1995, according to a new Giving USA report. The reasons vary: economic uncertainty, inflation, and so on. But the underlying driver could well be the discontent that causes people to spend too much. As one pastor used to say, “Stewardship decisions are not made in church; they’re made in the real estate office and on the showroom floor.”

I would add, there are even more places to spend money. Stay tuned.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6.19 – 21, NKJV)

Here’s an event from the life of Jesus that’s hard to understand unless one remembers that there is almost always a “second audience.” What do you think?

Now Jesus stood up and went away from there to the region of Tyre.

And when He had entered a house, He was wanting no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician descent. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

And again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. (Mark 7.24 – 31, LSB)

Second audience? “Now Jesus stood up and went away…” Stood up from what? A conversation with the disciples (Mark 7.17 – 24). When Jesus goes to “the region of Tyre” to have this conversation with a Gentile woman, the disciples are with him. Point #1.

Point #2: It’s a good 25 miles one way from where he was to Tyre. They walk the 25 miles (8 hours?), have a conversation with the woman and heal her daughter, maybe spend the night – it doesn’t say – and walk 25 miles back. What do you think they talked about on the way back?

It was a hard lesson for good Jewish boys. Peter was still having trouble with it after the resurrection:

And [Peter] said to them [a room full of Gentiles], “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” (Acts 10.28, ESV)