It’s Juneteenth, now a federal holiday…

Juneteenth has a rich history in the foundation of the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, announcing the end of slavery. This came 2.5 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, finally freeing 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. 

The first Juneteenth celebrations began in 1866, led by Black communities with parades and church gatherings. Juneteenth marks America’s “second Independence Day,” symbolizing true freedom for all. It honors Black resilience and the ongoing fight for equality. In 2021, activism by figures like Opal Lee helped make it a federal holiday. – Shrey Banerjee, June 11, 2025

I support the sentiment of Juneteenth, equality for all, and I wish “all” meant “all.” Just a couple of weeks ago, someone who lived near me in the Pikes Peak region (El Paso County) went up to Boulder and set fire to people just because they were Jews. Here’s the initial FBI report. We have a long way to go.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place… (Acts 17.24 – 26, ESV)

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7.9, 10, ESV)

Proverbs 7 opens:

My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, That they may keep you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words. (Proverbs 7.1 – 5, NKJV)

Then it goes into detail about how the immoral woman works.

For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, A young man devoid of understanding, Passing along the street near her corner; And he took the path to her house In the twilight, in the evening, In the black and dark night, and there a woman met him… (Proverbs 7.6 – 10, NKJV)

You see where this is going…

So she caught him and kissed him; With an impudent face she said to him: “I have peace offerings with me; Today I have paid my vows. So I came out to meet you, Diligently to seek your face, And I have found you. I have spread my bed with tapestry, Colored coverings of Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning… (Proverbs 7.13 – 18, NKJV)

And how it ends…

…Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter…He did not know it would cost his life. (Proverbs 7.22, 23, NKJV, emphasis mine)

Chilling.

The solution is clear, as outlined here in chapter 7 as well as Proverbs, chapter 5:

1. Keep my commands and live. (Proverbs 5.2, NKJV – see the entire introduction above)
2. Drink water from your own cistern, And running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, Streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, And not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. (Proverbs 5.15 – 19, NKJV)

God didn’t say, “NO. You can’t have sex. Naughty.” What God said was, “You can have all the sex you want…with your own spouse.” What a blessing!

I don’t write this stuff…I just report it.

…let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband…Do not deprive one another… (1 Corinthians 7.2, 3, 5, NKJV)

Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13.4, NKJV)

I’m trying to put Seth Godin into practice: “Lock up the candy” that I wrote about last Thursday. I started the day reading Proverbs first. Email off. Internet off. I landed on Proverbs 6.6 – 8, and because it was first in my day, meditated on it all day.

Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. (Proverbs 6.6 – 8, NKJV)

It’s a text I’ve read many times, but this time I focused on “…having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer…”

No leader, just self discipline to do the right thing when it needs to be done. Actually, for the ant it’s “instinct,” but for us it has to be self-discipline. We have the capacity to take responsibility, work hard and wisely. But we must choose to do so. Hence the command:

Consider the ant and be wise.

Train yourself for godliness. (1 Timothy 4.7, ESV)

My friend Ray, disciple-maker and pastor-coach, and I were discussing a book he was reading in which the guy made two errors. He wrote a chapter insisting that “disciple” is a noun rather than a verb. My first reaction is so what? “Verbing weirds language,” as Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes said. But Ray found four passages of scripture in which “disciple” is used as a verb, not the least of which is Matthew 28.18 – 20.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

Look it up: the “make” is not in the Greek. It’s the verb “disciple.” Go disciple all nations. How does a guy get to write a book with blatant falsehoods in it?

Then the guy went on to say, “We don’t make disciples, God does.” Really? That’s not what the Apostle Paul believed:

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3.5 – 9, ESV)

“We are God’s fellow workers.”

I don’t get the point of telling people that they have NO part. They’re already not doing anything, and you’ve just given them permission to continue!

We might as well say, “Piano teachers don’t make pianists.” It’s true. Pianists are made when students practice the skills necessary to build the muscle memory and other physiological things which happen via mysterious processes within the body. But they don’t know what to practice unless they have a TEACHER. So it’s all three: the teacher, the discipline of the student, and the processes within the body.

So we do what we can and must do and trust God to make something out of it.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15.10, ESV)

I’ll have more on our responsibility to choose wisely in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

I’m excited to have all three of my sons here today (and I just spent two weeks with my daughter). Life is good.

And Father’s Day fits right into our reading plan:

Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. (Proverbs 4.1 – 7, NKJV)

My own father passed over 40 years ago, and I am thankful that after a rough start, he met the Lord when I was only 3. He established my foundation in the Word. Thanks, Dad. And thank you, Father, for my dad.

No, today isn’t Pentecost Sunday, but last Sunday was! With all the travel, it slipped up on me, but it won’t hurt to publish something today!

First, I made it back in time to put on my red Pentecost shirt and do a prelude with my friend Mike Guyote, another retired Air Force officer, who is very good on the organ.

The observant among you will notice I have my sling off and I’m using my left hand – an improvement from when Mike and I practiced three weeks ago! Then it was “Two keyboards, three hands.” I still use the right hand to cross over and hit the lowest notes.

But back to Pentecost Sunday.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1.4, 5, ESV)

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2.1 – 4, ESV)

I love the ALL. “ALL together in one place…rested on EACH one of them…they were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit.” A similar event occurs a little while later:

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4.31, ESV)

Again “ALL filled with the Holy Spirit.” The result was speaking the word with boldness…not necessarily in tongues! And this second one was not an attention step for unbelievers like the first one. It was just for them but resulted in their speaking the word with boldness and power.

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4.33, ESV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15.13, ESV)

We’re starting into Proverbs, and I pointed out Wednesday that it’s all about living wisely.

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, To receive the instruction of wisdom… (Proverbs 1.1 – 3, NKJV)

But Proverbs 2 makes it clear that acquisition of wisdom is neither automatic nor easy:

My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2.1 – 5, NKJV)

IF you…

• receive my words
• treasure my commands
• incline your ear to wisdom
• apply your heart to understanding
• cry out for discernment
• lift up your voice for understanding
• seek her as silver
• search for her as for hidden treasures

THEN you will understand the fear of the LORD…

Sounds like intentional effort to me. Compare Seth Godin’s counsel from yesterday: Lock up your candy. Make the good choice easy and the bad choice hard. Do the work.

The rewards are worth it.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path. (Proverbs 2.9, NKJV)

God’s wisdom will protect you from evil men…

Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things, From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice in doing evil… (Proverbs 2.11 – 14, NKJV)

…and evil women:

To deliver you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words, Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead; None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life… (Proverbs 2.16 – 19, NKJV)

Enough said.

PS It’s Friday 13th. Hope you had a good day!

It’s been six years(!) since I wrote Make the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice, advice to my grandson from one of his college teachers. It’s worth the read.

Daily blogger Seth Godin echoes that message – reminders are good! – in Grab and Go, published June 10. He takes it one step farther: make the good choices easy and the bad choices hard. Here’s Seth’s blog in its entirety:

Every retailer knows that the items that sell the best are at eye level or at the cash register.

Some people are hungry, rushed, distracted and lazy. If you want to reach them (us), you need to make it convenient.

The lesson is simple: We can market to ourselves the same way others market to us.

Put the good habits in a place where they’re easy to find and engage with. And put the other stuff on a top shelf in the back of the room.

What would happen if you had your most noxious social media apps on a device you needed to go far out of your way to interact with?

It’s not as difficult as it sounds.

Lock up your candy. – Seth Godin, June 10, 2025

I need to work on this. My time with God journal and Bible are on my computer…as is everything else! All equally accessible. The system is not conducive for undistracted time with God. I’ll let you know how I solve this problem – I’m not there yet!

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life…Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. (Proverbs 4.23, 25 – 27, ESV)

The reading plan has us moving into Proverbs, an immensely practical book, mainly on what wisdom might look like. The introduction is clear:

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1.1 – 7, NKJV)

Wisdom…righteousness… Reminds one of:

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1.30, NKJV)

Wisdom…

Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. (Proverbs 1.20 – 23, NKJV)

It’s a choice, one that many in our country and “the west” seem to be going the wrong way on.

Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. (Proverbs 1.24 – 31, NKJV)

Carl Trueman reports on a shocking stained glass window in the City Hall of Belfast Ireland. Read for yourself. “…they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices.” I don’t know what that looks like, but I don’t think it’s good.

Another proverb speaks to it:

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

In the meantime, Proverbs 1 closes with:

…whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster. (Proverbs 1.33, NKJV)

Today, the reading plan called for Psalm 72, the last psalm in Book II. We start Proverbs tomorrow. There aren’t many of these: “A Psalm of Solomon.” The New King James Version I’m using gives it the title:

Glory and Universality of the Messiah’s Reign

But like a lot of the Old Testament, we really don’t know if it’s talking about Solomon’s present (past, now) reign or Jesus’ future reign. This part sounds like Solomon:

Give the king Your judgments, O God, And Your righteousness to the king’s Son…The kings of Tarshish and of the isles Will bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba Will offer gifts. (Psalm 72.1, 10, NKJV)

These verses sound more like Jesus:

Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him; All nations shall serve Him…His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; All nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. (Psalm 72.11, 17 – 19, NKJV)

Reminds one of Psalm 67, that we looked at recently.

But the real lesson is, What does good government look like? If we’re looking at the righteous rule of Jesus or looking for righteous rule now, what are we looking for?

He will judge Your people with righteousness, And Your poor with justice. The mountains will bring peace to the people, And the little hills, by righteousness. He will bring justice to the poor of the people; He will save the children of the needy, And will break in pieces the oppressor…For He will deliver the needy when he cries, The poor also, and him who has no helper. He will spare the poor and needy, And will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence… (Psalm 72.2 – 4, 12 – 14, NKJV)

Seems clear. A provocative Christianity Today piece, Who Are the “Court Evangelicals,” ends with this challenge:

While the court evangelicals enjoyed Easter dinner, worshiped in the White House, and expressed their grievances about anti-Christian bias, other evangelicals in the United States and around the world were saving lives with vaccines, defending Christians in Ukraine, finding solidarity with the suffering, and bringing attention to the globally displaced. – John Fea, June 4, 2025

What would Jesus do? He told us:

And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” (See Isaiah 61.1, 2a)

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4.17 – 21, NKJV)

PS In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s account of his meltdown, what did Daniel advise Nebuchadnezzar to do?

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity. (Daniel 4.27, ESV, emphasis mine)