[Surgery update inserted early August 3. Sorry I didn’t get one in before. I tried once but must have missed a step. Surgery went well. I was awake and alert through it all (lots of sawing and hammering!). Doc said the old knee was a mess. We came home Thursday as normally happens with my doc. I’m getting around OK with walker or cane.. I took my last narcotic early Friday. Just Tylenol now. I’m gradually (but slowly) getting stronger. Not much stamina.] 

The past few months I’ve had a lot of fun going through Colossians with a few men, at least one of whom has not done formal bible study before. I keep it simple: Observe (what does the text say?), Organize (what are the main ideas?), Obey (how can I put something into practice?).

We recently looked at Colossians 3.18 – 4.1, the relationship section: wives/husbands, children/parents, bondservants/masters. The main thing I noticed beyond the fact that instructions were given to both sides of each relationship was that we are called to behave the way we do because of our relationship to Christ:

• Wives submit…as is fitting in the Lord.
• Children obey…for this pleases the Lord.
• Bondservants obey…fearing the Lord…work heartily as for the Lord…you are serving the Lord Christ.
• Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

The parallel passage in Ephesians has strong instructions to husbands and fathers based on the example of Christ and our relationship to him.

• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5.25, ESV)
• Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6.4, ESV)

Jesus was clear about this! We love others because Jesus loves us. We treat others as Jesus treats us. It’s a higher standard, and I’ll say more about that tomorrow.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (John 13.34, ESV)

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13.3 – 5, ESV)

I met recently by phone with John Degner, national coordinator of Every Man a Warrior, and one of his questions was, “Why do the men in some groups experience life-changing transformation while men in other groups do not?”

One of my friends lists several possible reasons:

• Men don’t mind a little change around the margins, but deep-down they don’t want transformation. That’s what Matthew Kelly wrote, and I reported, about a year ago.
• Most of us are held back by one or more of fear, pride, and laziness. (That will preach!)
• They may not even know what transformation looks like.

Those are good reasons. In addition, I think it goes to the groups’ leadership. After all, as I say whenever I’m touting particular discipleship materials:

Materials don’t make disciples; people make disciples!

If I walk into a men’s group of any kind, I can usually tell within a few minutes, if not a few seconds, whether the group has an eye for transformation or it’s merely information exchange (or information argument). And that’s a function of the leader. Even the best materials, if used in a group led by an information guy rather than a transformation guy, will rarely result in any transformation. It’s an old problem: the Apostle Paul wrote about it in the early days of the church:

Remind everyone about these things, and command them in God’s presence to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless, and they can ruin those who hear them. Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior. (2 Timothy 2.14 – 16, NLT)

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (James 1.22, NLT)

Our culture is increasingly characterized by a profound lack of civility, especially in our online exchanges. On NextDoor recently, for example, someone asked for help in how to get rid of the snakes under their deck, and they were met with a tirade of vitriol on how helpful snakes are and why did they choose to live in the woods anyway? 

I won’t even start on how people talk to each other about masks. 

The Bible has the guidelines for good communication, and maybe if we Jesus-followers set the example, good things would happen. I offer just two verses without further comment:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3.12, NIV)

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. (James 3.17, ESV)

How about a change of pace? This doe with two fawns was in our backyard last week:

The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” (Psalm 29.9, ESV)

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. (Isaiah 35.5, 6)

GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. (Habakkuk 3.19, ESV)

Blog reader and long-time friend Henry Brown, now living in Hilton Head, South Carolina, closed a note to me with this benediction. It’s worth passing on to you:

Best wishes for you tonight my friend. My prayer – Listen patiently, contemplate prayerfully, speak clearly and love dearly. – Henry Brown

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak… (James 1.19, NIV)

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. (1 John 3.11, NIV)

I wrote two blogs near the beginning of the COVID lockdowns about the importance of not obsessing over news, beginning with this on March 21, Turn off the TV! I followed the next day with something from Seth Godin: Curate Your Incoming.

Maybe it’s time for a reminder, and Seth Godin has written another winner: Doom Scrolling. Here it is in its entirety:

Being informed is a virtue. It helps us make better decisions and encourages us to take action.

Getting hooked on an endless scroll of media inputs is not the same as being informed. There’s long been a business model of urgent news (“man bites dog!”), but now it’s been leveraged, amplified and optimized to suck people in for hours at a time. And division is much easier to sell than progress.

If it’s not helping you take action to make things better, what’s it for? –Seth Godin, July 20, 2020.

I still can’t do better than the verses from my two earlier posts:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14.27, NIV)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4.8, NIV)

Our pastor has been challenging us to consider “what we signed up for” when we became Jesus followers. Recently he made a very practical application from the often misunderstood verse about “hate” in Luke 14. Consider it in The Passion Translation with its footnote:

When you follow me as my disciple, you must put aside your father, your mother, your wife, your sisters, your brothers—yes, you will even seem as though you hate your own life. This is the price you’ll pay to be considered one of my followers.

Or “hate.” This is an Aramaic and Hebraic metaphor for putting Jesus above every other relationship. The Aramaic word sna has several meanings and can mean “hate” or “put aside.” In this case, Jesus, the King of love is not saying to hate but to put aside every other relationship into second place… (Luke 14.26, Passion Translation with footnote)

What was our pastor’s explanation/application? Politics. He cited Dr. Tim Keller, who in turn referred to author Larry Hutardo. I can’t improve on this section of the article How to Reach the West Again, March 12, 2020:

In Destroyer of the gods, Larry Hurtado seeks to explain why an increasing number of people converted to Christianity in the Roman world, even though it was the most persecuted of all religions and carried significant social cost. Hurtado speaks of the unique Christian social project—a unique kind of human community that defied categories then and will still do so today. It has at least five elements that could be broken down and expounded at greater length, but which also need to be seen together, as they constitute a whole. The early church’s social project was:

• Multi-racial and multi-ethnic
• Highly committed to caring for the poor and marginalized
• Non-retaliatory, marked by a commitment to forgiveness
• Strongly and practically against abortion and infanticide
• Revolutionary regarding the ethics of sex

The early Christian community was both offensive and also attractive. Believers did not construct their social project in some strategic way to reach Roman culture. Each of the five elements was there because Christians sought to submit to biblical authority. They are all commanded. They are just as category-defying—both offensive and attractive—today. The first two views (ethnic diversity and caring for the poor) sound “liberal,” and the last two (abortion and sexual ethics) sound “conservative.” But the third element, of course, sounds like no particular party. Churches today are under enormous pressure to jettison the first two or the last two but to not keep them all. Yet to give up any of them would make Christianity the handmaid of a particular political program and undermine a missionary encounter. (Tim Keller, emphasis mine and our pastor’s)

As the article says, all sides seem to have a problem with non-retaliation, while each of us seems to favor the “liberal” or “conservative” approach as defined above. Jesus might ask us, “To whom are you loyal? Your political leaning or me?”

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. (Luke 9.23, 24, NLT)

So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4.14, NLT)

I will appreciate your prayer especially over the next few days: I go in early Tuesday morning, July 28, for left knee replacement surgery. Please pray that Dr. Ron Hollis and his team have a good day!

The right knee was replaced September 2018, and except for a rough few days right after, recovery from that went really well. I put the left one off as long as I could, but I had a little scare back in January – 48 hours when walking was very difficult. So I got a cortisone shot and scheduled replacement for May. When the pandemic started, we postponed until now.

Thankfully, I have been able to get around satisfactorily. I don’t have any pain, but I don’t push it either. I’m looking forward to being able to build back up rather than just hang on.

As is my custom, I have scheduled a few blogs ahead to keep the daily blog habit going. I’ll be back live with an update as soon as I can. I expect to come home from the hospital Thursday afternoon.

I am the Lord who heals you. (Exodus 15.26, NIV)

Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony. (Psalm 6.2, NIV – they’re not in agony now, but they might be for a few days after!)

I was talking with my friend, fellow disciple-maker and pastor-coach Ray Bandi, who told me he had been listening to my videos. About the last one, I said, “Be prepared to hear stuff you’ve heard before!” To which he said something very profound:

Just because I’ve heard it before doesn’t mean I’m thinking about it today. That’s why we need reminders. – Ray Bandi, New Hampshire, July 2020

Scriptures are filled with admonitions to remember:

Take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6.12, ESV – also, Deuteronomy 4.23 and 8.11)

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. (Deuteronomy 5.15, ESV)

You shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7.18, ESV)

Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. (Psalm 106.6, 7, ESV)

No one has asked me, but I want to share how I usually come up with a scripture to punctuate a blog entry. I don’t often begin with a scripture in mind or, even if the blog was inspired by one verse, I want to close with another one. When I have finish drafting the blog, I wait in silence for God to bring a verse to mind. That’s one advantage of a lifetime of bible study and scripture memory!

When I was closing the blog centered around Marvin Olasky’s article, I thought of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant to mind, and I used Jesus’ closing words:

Then his master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Matthew 18.32 – 35, ESV)

I’ve never thought of myself or my white friends as unforgiving servants, but as I thought about the kind of responses Marvin Olasky received and many of the posts I’ve seen with respect to the racial unrest, it’s beginning to feel like some of us are forgetting how much we’ve been forgiven of. It feels like we’ve developed a spirit of unforgiveness toward blacks. “Yes, you were shadowed while shopping, but that’s because of a high black crime rate.” In other words, “You deserve it.”

Yes, God has forgiven all of us a great debt, and we have the privilege of passing that forgiveness on. Much of the time, I’m afraid, some of us live as if no forgiveness for us was necessary. Or, like the unforgiving servant, we forget. Just a thought. I’m still processing this.

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Revelation 3.17, ESV)

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3.12 – 16, ESV)