I’m aware that the Olympics were not as popular this year, but we watched a good bit in the evenings, and there are always lessons to be learned. Let’s explore a few of them over the next few days.

One thing that jumped out at me was the Olympic motto:

Faster, higher, stronger

I didn’t know this motto had religious roots:

The traditional Olympic motto is…”faster, higher, stronger”. It was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee. Coubertin borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who was an athletics enthusiast. Coubertin said “These three words represent a programme of moral beauty. The aesthetics of sport are intangible.” The motto was introduced in 1924 at the Olympic Games in Paris. – Wikipedia

I also missed the fact that they added “together” for this year’s games: faster, higher, stronger – together. But that’s not what I want to talk about today. What amazes me is the degree to which “faster, higher, stronger” is being achieved. For example,

• Two men broke the existing world record for the 400-meter hurdles, running 1.7 seconds faster than Eric Liddell’s 1924 Olympics world record of 47.6 seconds for the 400 meters WITHOUT hurdles. 
• I remember vividly the pole vault champion when I was growing up – Bob Richards, who went on to become a minister and motivational speaker. Bob did the pole vault around 15 feet 6 inches. This year, the American gold medal female did 16 feet, and the winning man did 19 feet, 9 inches, 4 feet higher than Bob Richards.
• The leading high jumper of my day was John Thomas, using the “straddle” technique. His personal best was 7 feet, 3.75 inches. Dick Fosbury introduced the “Fosbury Flop” and won the 1968 Olympics with a jump of 7 feet, 4 inches. Today, everyone uses the Fosbury Flop, and this year’s winners jumped more than 7 feet 9 inches. By the way, if you didn’t see the end of the high jump competition, it’s worth the five minutes. An extraordinary display of both athletic ability and sportsmanship.

Faster, higher, stronger. We can never rest on past accomplishments whether we are trying to be faster, higher, or stronger than everyone else, or just faster, higher, stronger than we were yesterday.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (John 14.12, ESV)

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)

Yesterday I wrote about attending two memorial services in one day – some similarities, many differences. Today, I want to go more in-depth on Willie Hill’s service: attended by all kinds of people – black and white, young and old, believers and not (most likely).

As I said, it was my second memorial service of the day, and in this one, I had no responsibilities (I thought!), so I drove the hour and fifteen minutes, arriving exactly at the 4p start time, intending to slip in and sit in the back. The service hadn’t started, and as I walked in Willie’s widow, Mary, rushed to the back of the auditorium, wrapped me in a big hug, thanked me for coming, and dragged me to the front: “You will sit here with me, and at the end of the service, we will be asking people to come forward to be prayed for. You will be up front with the other pastors to pray for people.” OK…

I always wear a coat and tie to a memorial service, but this one was Saturday afternoon in the summer with barbecue to follow so I asked Mary in advance what the dress was. “Summer casual.” And sure enough, it was. Here is one of the pastors giving a eulogy and after, he and I praying for each other.

The service was tightly organized (Mary is a detail person) but carried out with spontaneity. Lots of laughter and tears, live presentations and videos. In the main eulogy, read by Roger Smith on a video, Mary had included material from my end-of-year ministry update, December 2020. She said Willie found these sentences especially meaningful:

Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world. – Mutua Mahiani, International President of The Navigators, quoting Howard Snyder’s Liberating the Church.

Willie was a Kingdom person in every sense of the word. And his celebration of life with the diversity of people and styles was a picture of that Kingdom. I think that’s what energized me about being there and participating.

One more thing: I write about racial reconciliation and racial justice from time to time, most recently about a week ago. But it’s one thing to write about it and another to be in the middle of a mixed-race event. I came away with a new insight: we need each other.

Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5.8 – 10, NKJV)

Yesterday I talked about playing service for a memorial last Saturday, August 7. What I didn’t say is that I attended two memorial services that day. Both were memorials of good men, believers. Both services honored God and the men. But the men and the services had commonalities and differences, and there are lessons to be learned. God is a God of variety.

Here are the two couples, now two widows: Mike (deceased) and Cindy Jackson and Willie (deceased) and Mary Hill:

Here are some observations:

• Mike was a retired colonel in the US Air Force; Willie was a retired postal worker.
• Mike served God mainly through his work, by defending his country as a missile maintenance officer and taking care of his people. Willie’s work was never mentioned: he and Mary served in direct ministry. Recalling the 6 Ms, Mike “made good work.” Willie was a “mouthpiece for truth and justice” and a “messenger of the gospel” to children and adults. Both “ministered grace and love” and “molded cultures” around them. Both “modeled godly character.”
• Mike and Cindy had been married for 41 years and had three children. Willie and Mary were married 24 years and each had been married before. There were more children and step-children than I could count, but, nearly as I could tell, it was one big happy family.
• Mike had dementia the last two or three years of his life so his passing in December 2020 was a blessing. Willie had a severe bout of lung disease back in 2017, but he pulled out of it. He and Mary were thankful for an additional four years before he passed in April 2021. They would say, “Willie received his complete healing, just not in this life.”
• Except for family, Mike’s service was attended by older white people. Besides the officiating minister there were three family speakers, one Air Force colleague, and one video. I will write more on Willie’s service tomorrow, but besides the officiating minister there were several other ministers, black and white, lay speakers, and multiple videos, and the attendees were black and white, young and old.
• Both services closed with a clear gospel presentation with both ministers using John 3.16 and focusing on God’s love.

When I first started writing this blog, I thought the two men and the two services were completely different. That turned out not to be true: there were some commonalities. But as powerful as Mike’s service was, Willie’s had a more profound effect on me. I’ll say more about that tomorrow.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116.15, ESV)

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15.55 – 57, ESV)

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)

I wrote last week about some small amount of progress in my golf game, but, of course, the real subject is progress in the Christian life.

I’m pleased to report experiencing God’s grace in a situation that years ago I wouldn’t have taken so well. I think I am finally growing in flexibility. Maybe it’s also holy indifference.

This past Saturday I was to play piano – prelude and postlude – for a friend’s memorial service scheduled to start at 10a. When I arrived as directed for a 9:15a soundcheck, there was no sound man and no piano! I was told the sound man was “on his way,” and that we would be using a keyboard. At 9:50a, the sound man arrived and said there was no way they could put a piano out there. I said, “I understand we can’t move a piano, but surely we can set up a keyboard.”

Apparently having a piano (or keyboard) was not a value for the pastor or the sound man. Long story short, I helped set up the keyboard, and we were ready to go right at 10:00 (for a 10:00 service!). We did the “soundcheck” as I was playing a quick prelude.

Anyway, we got through it, and I am pleased to have grown in flexibility over the past decades. June said, “Musicians must be flexible.” It’s growth in the fruit of the Spirit, specifically, peace, patience, and gentleness. I didn’t flap internally or externally. The widow wrote to say, “You were so patient and grace-giving about the piano not being there.” For all that I’m grateful.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1.5 – 8, NIV)

There’s an interesting exchange in the early part of Ezra. 42,000 Jews have returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple and some of the locals want to help:

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” (Ezra 4.1 – 3, ESV)

At first glance, the inclusive bias that we have today would say, “Why not let them rebuild with you?”

But let’s see what actually happened when they say, “We have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of the king of Assyria who brought us here.”

And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD. Therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD. But every nation still made gods of its own … They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods… (portions of 2 Kings 17.24 – 33, ESV)

They feared the LORD but also served their own gods…

This was about the people who resettled Samaria but no doubt the situation was the same for those living around Jerusalem.

What’s the great commandment? Love God with ALL your heart… Not “include God among the gods you worship.” That’s something we can all repent of!

What’s the minimum? What does the god of the land require? A sacrifice from time to time? And I can do what I want in between? Keep Sabbath but do what I want the other six days? Go to church on Sunday and tithe 10%? But the rest of my time and money is mine? That’s the way a lot of us live.

We want it quantified, to give God a portion. He wants it all.

What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.8, ESV)

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58.6, 7, ESV)

And one of the scribes asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12.28 – 30, ESV)

What is important about current events? What should our reaction be? Here are a couple of lessons from one of the more difficult vignettes in the gospels:

Some of those present informed Jesus that Pilate had slaughtered some Galilean Jews while they were offering sacrifices at the temple, mixing their blood with the sacrifices they were offering. Jesus turned and asked the crowd, “Do you believe that the slaughtered Galileans were the worst sinners of all the Galileans? No, they weren’t! So listen to me. Unless you all repent, you will perish as they did.” (Luke 13.1 – 3, TPT)

There is so much tied up in this short section, which is recorded only in Luke:

• The Romans had the power to do whatever they wanted. You can see hints of this in The Chosen. The Roman oppressors were cruel, malicious, and capricious.
• Jesus refuses to get into it with the Romans or even talk about the Romans. Why did the people tell Jesus about what Pilate did? I believe their intent was to stir him up. After all, won’t the Messiah deliver us from this sort of thing? Jesus doesn’t take the bait nor does he focus on things he can do nothing about.
• What he does focus on is the underlying belief that misfortune happens to those who are sinners. Jesus does address that. All need to repent.

Unless YOU repent. Not, “I wish Pilate would repent.” We seem to spend a lot of time critiquing the government or the culture. We want our rights. We want others to behave. Jesus challenges his listeners to critique themselves.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. (Revelation 3.19, ESV)

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)