We come to one of my favorite psalms, especially at my age: Psalm 92. It opens routinely:

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath Day.

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night, On an instrument of ten strings, On the lute, And on the harp, With harmonious sound. (Psalm 92.introduction – 3, NKJV)

“…an instrument of 10 strings…the lute…and the harp.” are listed as means of giving thanks to the LORD. Our concert on August 24 was such a night, I think. (Music starts about 2:20 in.)

The middle part talks about God’s works. (See Psalm 92.4 – 11)

The psalm closes with a promise for those of us in the last quarter:

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (Psalm 92.12 – 15, NKJV)

“They shall still bear fruit in old age…” Amen.

Where do you live? We moved from 19325 Glen Hollow Circle in Monument to 7815 Antigua Point in Colorado Springs, a process that’s ongoing. But where do we really live? Psalm 91 has a suggestion:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalm 91.1, NKJV)

Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place… (Psalm 91.9, NKJV)

What does it mean to live in God? Maybe the answer is right there in Psalm 91:

I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” (Psalm 91.1, 2, NKJV)

It’s an attitude of trust, and if we live in God, Psalm 91 has some promises:

• Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
• And from the perilous pestilence.
• He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge;
• His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
• You shall not be afraid
  • of the terror by night,
  • Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
  • Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
  • Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
• A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked. (Psalm 91.3 – 8, NKJV)

It continues:

• No evil shall befall you,
• Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
• For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
• You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. (Psalm 91.10 – 13, NKJV)

The psalm concludes:

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” (Psalm 91.15, 16, NKJV)

“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him.” Jesus promised the same thing:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15.7, NKJV)

There it is again. “Abide” – where do you live?

“Ask what you desire…” I recently asked God for a man to disciple, and one came out of the clear blue. I’m praying for lasting fruit for my new friend.

Now I’m asking to get this house business closed out.

I wrote Saturday about my friend Robert who experienced Jesus’ life change through a Rescue Mission residential program which included a 6am Bible study I was helping lead.

How about a story about transformation through a church that intentionally promoted it?

A highlight about my times in Estes Park is often a conversation with my friend Aaron Dorman, lead pastor at the Christian Church of Estes Park. Two weeks ago was no exception. The church’s tag line is

Be disciples. Build disciples.

Not an unusual goal for a church, but Aaron and his team are actually doing it. He told me they had just had a going away party for a young couple who had been in the church about five years. They were moving for job reasons to North Carolina. (As an aside, Aaron assumes he’ll have his members for 5 – 7 years. Estes Park tends to be a mobile community.)

When this couple came to the church, the wife was a nominal Christian and the husband was an unbeliever. When they left five years later, both were active disciple-makers! I’ve written before about a little tool I learned from Regi Miller’s workplace ministry book About My Father’s Business. Regi puts people into one of five groups:

• A: Apathetic
• B: Beginning to seek
• C: Confessing Christian
• D: Developing disciple
• E: Excelling reproducer

In contrast to some pastors’ goal of “get ’em saved, get ’em baptized” (A to C), Aaron’s couple went from A to E in five years!

How? I introduced the church to the 2:7 Series a number of years ago, and that tool, along with others, is part of their intentional training process.

But it’s not just courses. Aaron structures the Sunday morning services around action. He told me he’s changed his preaching style. He used to preach for “inspiration.” Now he preaches for “application,” and more than just application – “here’s what to do” – he develops ways to help them do it. Aaron implements something I suggested to a discipleship pastor of a large church a few months ago: “What would it look like if you really intended the folks to put into practice what you wanted them to do?” Aaron encourages the folks to commit to a specific action, and then follows up with them a few days later to see how it’s working, for example.

In short, it’s about being intentional. While many pastors won’t invest in people they think will move on and not benefit their church. Aaron delights in training and sending. Kudos, my brother. May your tribe increase. And may all of us minister with the expectation of transformation.

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. (Colossians 1.28, NIV)

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4.11 – 13, NIV)

It’s become my tradition on this blog to recognize our wedding anniversary, September 7, 1968, 57 years ago!

It’s also becoming tradition to include a picture from Estes Park since we usually vacation there the last two weeks of August. This year’s “vacation” was a bit different. We arrived on Monday, August 18, and spent all week getting ready for a piano concert as I’ve written about before. The concert went as well as it could have, and you can watch it here if you like. Music starts about 2:20 in, and the concert lasts about 85 minutes. You can’t see the speakers since the camera is trained on the piano. Someone captured June and me giving our opening remarks:

We spent the second week of vacation trying to recover from the first week!

I usually include a hiking picture, sometimes of Bible Point, a short, steep hike: 500-foot elevation gain in 0.8 miles. Because it was cloudy, we could shoot toward the YMCA of the Rockies, where we stayed and where the concert was.

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. (Proverbs 31.10, ESV)

I want to write a couple of blogs on transformation. I have friends who ask frequently: “Do we really see lives changed anymore?” Answer, “Yes we do…provided we’re intentional about it.”

My friend Robert was a professional bowler with a bad temper problem. I don’t know the details, but I know he did some time in county jails. That was then. This is now. Robert is 68. He got married just last November, and he and Heidi are happy as clams. As Robert reminded me:

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 18.22, NKJV)

Robert and Heidi

How did Robert get from there to here? Here’s how he tells it in a recent FaceBook post:

When I said Bob and I are long time friends let me explain. We go back 17 years to when I was a member of Springs Rescue Mission’s faith based New Life Program of recovery which ministered to the addicted and broken hearted with the healing power of the Gospel of Christ. Part of our “programming” was a mandatory 6am. Bible study at 1st Presbyterian Church downtown in the Springs. Bob Ewell (retired USAF, and longtime member of The Navigators) was one of the men who led the Men on Target. These men came alongside us when we most needed it, modeling what a man’s Christian life looked like. Many of them became our “mentors” including my Mentor James M. McKelvey. These men helped change the trajectory our lives, from who we were, to lives transformed by becoming new creations in Christ. All those 4:30 am. wake ups were brutal, but I never left a Bible study without feeling great. I’m proud now to be a Springs Rescue Mission New Life Program Alumnus, with a brand new life.

Robert was in the Springs Rescue Mission’s 12-month residence program whose aim was transformation. One of the tools they were using back then was our Tuesday, 6am, Bible study, the goal of which also was transformation. Supervision, accountability, practical teaching, serious Bible study, modeling and mentoring all worked. I’m proud to be Robert’s friend.

I’ll share another story Monday about transformation in a more conventional environment. Stay tuned.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12.2, NIV)

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4.20 – 24, NIV)

Our Reading Plan has us back in the Psalms. Today we begin Book IV.

A Prayer Of Moses the Man of God.

LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. (Psalm 90.intro – 2, NKJV)

God is permanent. We are temporary:

You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers…

We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. (Psalm 90.3 – 10, NKJV)

Sounds very much like Ecclesiastes 12.

So Moses closes with a prayer:

Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil.

Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90.13 – 17, NKJV)

“Establish the work of our hands.” A good prayer. Jesus said:

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15.16, NKJV, emphasis mine)

I have room for only one more Ecclesiastes blog before those of us in the reading program are back into The Psalms, Book IV, which begins with Psalm 90.

Today, highlights from Ecclesiastes 11 and 12

Most people apply this to investing – have a diverse portfolio:

Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. (Ecclesiastes 11.2, ESV)

Here’s a word on the importance of taking action. Take action now! Take action in a variety of situations.

He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap…In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. (Ecclesiastes 11.4, 6, ESV)

Don’t wait until you’re old to serve God. And old age comes, make no mistake. The Preacher paints a vivid picture of old age:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

• before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, [Eyes dim? Need cataract surgery?]
• in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, [Not as strong anymore, are we? Not as straight either.]
• and the grinders cease because they are few, [Lost your teeth?]
• and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut— [Some don’t get out much anymore.]
• …the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, [Gray hair, hard to walk, no libido?]
• because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. [“The body without the spirit is dead.”] (Ecclesiastes 12.1 – 8, ESV)

The importance of teaching and writing…writing well:

Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. (Ecclesiastes 12.9 – 11, ESV)

Don’t complicate things. Hang on to the few, simple things that you know.

My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. (Ecclesiastes 12.12, ESV)

The conclusion?

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12.13, ESV)

Amen.

Ecclesiastes 9: an example of “wisdom under the sun” that’s wrong, uninformed by God’s revelation:

The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t. It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope.

There is nothing ahead but death anyway…The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. Whatever they did in their lifetime—loving, hating, envying—is all long gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth. (Ecclesiastes 9.2, 3, 5, 6, NLT)

After death nothing? Not quite: Jesus said the rich man will be held to account:

Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side. (Luke 16.22, 23, NLT)

Other revelation supports life (and judgment) after death.

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9.27, 28, NLT)

In the middle of this, a piece of not bad advice, not because there won’t be a judgment but because we should make the most of our life:

So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this! Wear fine clothes, with a splash of cologne! Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil. Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. (Ecclesiastes 9.7 – 10, NLT)

There certainly won’t be work or planning here on earth after death.

The Apostle Paul tells us there is certainly a resurrection and he ends with the same application as in Ecclesiastes 9: make the most of your time here:

For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15.53 – 58, NLT)

Yesterday was Labor Day, and I wrote about the importance of all kinds of work and all kinds of workers. Here’s an example: what image comes to mind when you think “computer programmers”? What do they do? What kind of contribution do they make?

Of course, what I’m doing right now wouldn’t be possible unless some set of computer programmers wrote the code for WordPress which runs on the internet, made possible by other programmers. Their work is everywhere. Cars, appliances, watches, phones,…

But I was struck by an unusual application, unknown to me, while reading a story from UCHealth. “Greeley father of three survives sudden cardiac arrest at parent-daughter basketball event thanks to AED and CPR.”

AED and CPR. We all recognize CPR, and most of us have seen AEDs hanging on the walls of public spaces.

The UCHealth Story’s subtitle is:

What started as a fun school basketball game turned into a life-or-death emergency — and a powerful reminder of how critical AEDs can be.

The article opens:

A few months ago, the 38-year-old Greeley dad of three was running down the court at a parent-daughter basketball game at a school gym. The next thing he remembered, he was being transported to the hospital after suffering — and minutes later being saved from — a life-threatening cardiac arrest.

The article continues:

Dave had experienced a ventricular fibrillation arrest, a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm that starts in the lower chambers of the heart. Instead of beating steadily, the ventricles quiver and lose their ability to pump blood through the rest of the body, cutting off its supply to the brain and vital organs.

Without emergency treatment, sudden cardiac arrest can lead to brain and organ damage — or death — very quickly. With each passing minute, a person’s chance of survival decreases by about 10%.

To save his life, Dave needed immediate defibrillation, an electric “shock” from an AED, which stands for automated external defibrillator. When someone experiences ventricular fibrillation, shocking the heart, along with CPR, is the only way to restore the heart’s regular rhythm.

Fortunately, there was an off-duty firefighter, Alonso Gallardo, in the crowd, and someone brought him the AED while he was checking on Dave.

While someone called 911, a school staff member ran to get the portable AED mounted outside the gym door and got it to Gallardo, who had rushed to Dave’s side. While Gallardo’s daughter performed hands-only CPR, the firefighter removed Dave’s shirt and placed one of the pads on his upper right chest and the other on his lower left chest.

The AED provides voice commands with step-by-step instructions, instructing users on the exact steps they need to take as the machine reads and analyzes a patient’s heart vitals within seconds. It also advises bystanders on whether to continue CPR.

“You don’t touch the patient, but let the AED advise you what to do,” Gallardo said.

As the defibrillator analyzed Dave’s heart data, it told Gallardo to defibrillate, or shock him, by pressing a button, and to continue with CPR. The AED instantly monitored Dave’s response to the shock, and after a minute, it announced that he needed another shock.

“After the second shock, he regained consciousness and started to breathe and move around, so we stopped what we were doing and let him breathe on his own,” Gallardo said.

Did you catch it? I had no idea… The AED gives you voice instructions on what to do. It told Gallardo to shock the heart and continue CPR. A minute later, it told him to shock the heart again.

This machine was not built by doctors! It was built by engineers and programmed by the same guys who taught Alexa how to talk, play music, tell you the weather, and other trivial things.

Amazing. All kinds of work. All kinds of workers. God bless computer programmers.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2.10, ESV)

I always enjoy writing for Labor Day because I value work in its myriad forms.

Here’s something I heard the late economist Walter Williams share on the radio. He said:

You go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of bananas. How many people did it take to get those bananas from, say, Brazil to your grocery store?

Think about it…

People called in with various guesses. I remember someone saying, “Twelve.” Nope…

Finally, someone said, “Thousands,” and Walter Williams said, “I’ll give you credit…

It’s MILLIONS.

He explained:

Someone had to plant the trees the bananas came from and tend them. Someone had to pick them. Someone had to make the box they put them in. They no doubt rode in a truck to the shipping dock. Someone had to make the truck…and the tires for the truck. Someone had to drive the truck. Someone had to build the road. The bananas were loaded onto a ship. Someone had to make the ship. The people who built the ship no doubt wore shoes. Someone had to make the shoes…and on it goes.

Millions of people so you could go to the store built by workers and staffed by workers. You drove over there in a car built by workers.

Praise God for the miracle of work. The Bible opens with God…at work.

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 1.31 – 2.3, NKJV, emphasis mine)