If you’re a regular reader of the Ewellogy, you know that a frequent theme is daily time with God: a time of reading the scripture and prayer to hear from God. Does such a discipline really matter? The answer is YES, according to research done by the Center for Bible Engagement. They surveyed over 400,000 people worldwide:

400,000 people, and here is the main finding:

A key discovery from the CBE research is that the life of someone who engages scripture 4 or more times a week looks radically different from the life of someone who does not. In fact, the lives of Christians who do not engage the Bible most days of the week are statistically the same as the lives of non-believers. (Emphasis mine)

Those who engaged with scripture 4 or more times per week were:

• Less likely to feel lonely
• Less likely to have anger issues
• Less likely to experience bitterness in relationships
• Less likely to struggle with alcoholism
• Less likely to feel spiritually stagnant
• Less likely to view pornography

The researchers attach various percentages to these findings as do the commentators on this 2-minute summary video. Even though I’m a math guy, I don’t put much stock in numbers associated with social science research – it’s hard to measure humans! But there seems to be no question that regular engagement with God through the scripture is important and beneficial.

Moreover, I’m encouraged by the magic number 4 days/week. Actually, it’s “4 or more.” That is, most days. But 4 out of 7 is doable! I was working with a man once who asked me, “How many days a week are you expecting me to have daily time with God? I want to hit my marks.” I said, “How many days are in a week? Why would you set a goal for fewer than 7?” That said, we all miss a day now and then. And it’s OK! The Bible reading plan I recommend calls for 5 days/week. We’re not after perfection, but consistency over time.

If you’re not doing it, please start! And aiming for 4+ days/week is a worthy and achievable goal.

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 8.34, 35, ESV)

PS I’m indebted to my friend and fellow Navigator Dane Allphin for reminding me of this research as I exchanged emails with him on this article.

Our daughter Melody, who teaches music in an American School on Grand Cayman Island with her husband, who is also a music teacher, is a prolific FaceBook poster. The other day she showed a picture of her weekend laundry project – a fairly good-sized pile of clothes that accumulate when you have two working parents and two active daughters. The post prompted this exchange between me and one of her friends:

Melody’s friend: Our current issue is that Jack has more dirty clothes than Geoff and I combined! I keep threatening to make him do his own laundry…

Me:  I’m Melody’s father… Ask Melody when she started doing her own laundry. If Jack is tall enough to reach the controls, having him do his own laundry is not a threat; it’s training.

Melody’s friend: Many years ago my mom accurately accused me of doing too much for my kids. As a raging perfectionist, it always seemed better/easier just to do it myself. Ugh. Jack has to learn at some point…I have three years to prepare him to live on his own! Bob — I love that perspective 

Me: Thanks, Susie. When we dropped Melody off at college for the first time, there were mothers trying to teach their daughters how to use the washing machine. 

Ask any of our four grown-up offspring what one of our mottos was:

This is a house, not a hotel for children.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6.4, NIV)

How should we live so that people through us might encounter THE Jesus, as Carolyn Moore wrote and we shared yesterday? Paul, writing to Titus, is clear. In chapter 2, after specific instructions to various groups (please see Titus 2.1 – 10), he summarizes:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to 

• renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to 
• live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,  
  • waiting for our blessed hope, 
    • the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
    • who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and 
    • to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2.11 – 14, bulleted for clarity)

Paul goes on in chapter 3…

Remind them to… 

• Be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be 
• Be obedient, to be 
• Be ready for every good work, to 
• Speak evil of no one, to 
• Avoid quarreling, to 
• Be gentle, and to 
• Show perfect courtesy toward all people…
• Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. (Titus 3.1, 2, 9, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

That’s how people will know THE Jesus, when we live like that!

Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, NASB)

Sometimes I run across something that’s too good not to pass on. Carolyn Moore writing for the Wesleyan Covenant Association (now becoming the new Global Methodist Church) wrote about knowing THE Jesus. She opened this way:

Years ago, my life got radically changed by a very brief exchange with a man in a low-income apartment complex in downtown Augusta, Georgia. We were there to host a worship service and meal among residents. We hadn’t expected much of a crowd but that night more than 100 people showed up. After sharing food, conversation, and worship together, there was a sense that God was ready to do a new thing in that room. The atmosphere was thick with expectation, so I gave an invitation for anyone who was ready, to come to Jesus. Many renewed their faith, and six or eight people stood up for Jesus that night.

Afterwards, an older man came to me and said, “I stood up tonight because I thought I knew Jesus, but I was wrong. I realized that I know A Jesus, but I don’t know THE Jesus. And now I have to rethink everything.” – Carolyn Moore, October Prayer Points

She went on to say:

As we contend for the historic Christian faith, this is our ultimate hope. It is that anyone walking into a Global Methodist Church might encounter not just any version of Jesus that feels comfortable and accessible, but the radical, Spirit-giving, heart-dwelling, life-changing Jesus who leads us into the heart of God.

Her prayer points included:

• Pray that every pastor who serves the Global Methodist Church would have a life-altering encounter with THE Jesus. (Romans 1:9)
• Pray for God’s mercy and intervention over pastors who are preaching a form of Christianity but not the power of it. (2 Timothy 3:5)

I recommend the article in its entirety.

Tomorrow, we’ll see what Paul says to Titus about people living in such a way that others would come to know THE Jesus. In the meantime, we have this warning:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1.6 – 9, ESV)

We move into Paul’s letter to Titus, which echoes the same themes as 1 and 2 Timothy, and it’s all pretty clear. I like the bang-bang opening:

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness… (Titus 1.1, NIV)

It’s always “truth that leads to godliness.” There is no commendation in scripture for merely studying or teaching “truth.” Jesus was clear on that in his parable on the wise and foolish builders.

The same is true for the people who deliver the teaching. Almost ALL the emphasis is on character and lifestyle, not, as we sometimes value today, a potential pastor’s education. (Jesus himself wouldn’t qualify for some advertised pastoral positions.)

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is 

• above reproach, 
• the husband of one wife, 
• and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. 
• He must not be 
  • arrogant or 
  • quick-tempered or a 
  • drunkard or 
  • violent or 
  • greedy for gain, but 
• hospitable, 
• a lover of good, 
• self-controlled, 
• upright, 
• holy, and 
• disciplined.  
• He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (Titus 1.5 – 9, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

There’s more, but I think I’ll save it for another day…

This falls under the heading of “You can’t make this stuff up!” and is a follow-on to the blog I wrote about the redundant signs on the fly-fishing building – “people don’t read ’em anyway.” There’s a covered bridge in Illinois, clearly marked “No trucks or buses” and clearance 8′ 6″…but 42 trucks or buses have run into it over the past two years. The trucks lose:

The signs are clear, but people attempt to drive trucks through it anyway…

You can see a news report or read the Wall Street Journal article about it.

Why do people ignore warnings? It’s been suggested that drivers are too busy looking at their GPS instructions on their phones to actually watch the road. But it’s bigger than that, isn’t it? Doesn’t it go all the way back to Genesis?

Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” …So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 2.15 – 17…3.6, NKJV)

As a famous comedian once summarized:

God said, “Don’t eat the forbidden fruit.” And they said, “Where is it?!”

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14.12, ESV)

We closed yesterday’s blog on Scary Times with the question: what shall we do? Actually, Paul tells Timothy exactly what to do. Maybe we should listen in:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

• preach the word;
• be ready in season and out of season;
• reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching…
• always be sober-minded,
• endure suffering,
• do the work of an evangelist,
• fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4.1, 2, 5, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

I strongly believe that the last command applies to us all, even if some of the earlier commands more directly apply to Timothy as a pastor. Please click the link. All we can do, even when the culture appears to be going to hell in a handbasket, is the work God has given us to do right where we are.

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’m indebted to June who drew my attention to this paragraph. It sounds like a modern-day description of the United States, not something written in the Bible nearly 2,000 years ago:

Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people. (2 Timothy 3.1 – 5, MSG)

Shall I bullet it out so we don’t miss it?

Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be

• self-absorbed,
• money-hungry,
• self-promoting,
• stuck-up,
• profane,
• contemptuous of parents,
• crude,
• coarse,
• dog-eat-dog,
• unbending,
• slanderers,
• impulsively wild,
• savage, cynical,
• treacherous,
• ruthless,
• bloated windbags,
• addicted to lust, and
• allergic to God.

“As the end approaches…” The end of what? The age? Or just the U.S.?

What to do? Hard to say, but as a minimum, let’s all:

• Pray the big picture: (1 Timothy 2.1, 2)
• Live on mission in our corner: (2 Timothy 2.1, 2 – Be strong…pass it along)

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. (Philippians 2.14 – 16, NIV)

Continuing with our 5x5x5 New Testament Reading Program, we enter 2 Timothy and before long, we come upon one of my life verses, learned from The Navigators:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 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 2.1, 2, NIV)

For the first time, I noticed the opening two words, “You then…” Then what? What came before?

What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. (2 Timothy 1.13, 14, NIV)

What you heard from me:

• Keep it
• Guard it

How?

• Be strong (“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus…”)
• Pass it along (“Entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”)

I think I’ve found a new mantra:

Be strong…pass it along

Paul echoes another theme from earlier in the letter: live intentionally:

But as for you, O man of God, 

• Flee these things. 
• Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.  
• Fight the good fight of the faith. 
• Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to 
• Keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Timothy 6.11 – 14, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

Flee, pursue, fight, take hold, keep… Pay attention to how you live. Twice recently I left the Denver Airport for Colorado Springs via Pena Blvd and I-225. Everything is well-marked but there is A LOT of room for error at the transition. One could end up on I-70…or Peoria Street. I make it a point to fully focus, just like I did coming out of the Atlanta Airport headed for Montgomery, Alabama. There were about five turns, everyone counter-intuitive. Pay attention! Or, as Jesus said more than once, WATCH.

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12.15, NIV)

Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray… (Luke 21.34 – 36, NIV)