Today, January 5, 2025, marks the end of six years of daily blogging which began on January 6, 2019. By God’s grace, as of today, I’ve published 2,197 blogs on 2,192 consecutive days. How? One day at a time!

There’s a lesson there: no matter what we have in front of us, we can get through it…one day at a time. If you had asked me back in 2019, “Bob, do you have ideas for even one year of blogs? 365 ideas?” The answer would have been, no. But the ideas come a day at a time, a blog at a time.

June’s injury from December 7 will require three months to heal completely. There are times when June thinks, “I can’t live like this for (as of this writing) 8 more weeks!” But she can, and she will…one day at a time.

When I first starting daily blogging, a friend said, “Wow. There will be a book in there before long!” And there is: That’s Not Church! And Other Essays about Disciplemaking in the Local Church, available on Amazon.

The book contains 65 essays, some of which combine two or more blogs. The book is designed to be read by busy pastors who may not have time to read a 300-page book on making disciples in the local church, but they might read an essay or two, and each essay will give them “a nugget.”

The essays are grouped into five sections:

• Mission: what is the mission of the local church?

• Messenger: what is the role of the pastor?

• Message: what message should the church be communicating to its members?

• Methods: how can the church communicate its message and carry out its mission?

• Measurement: what should we be counting?

Back to the Ewellogy and the daily blogs… Thank you for reading. And I don’t even know who some of you are! If you don’t want to comment on the blog site, you can write me a note anytime at bob@ewell.com.

Write what you see in a book… Write therefore the things that you have seen… (Revelation 1.11, 19, ESV)

I memorized Ephesians 4.26 years ago…

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. (Ephesians 4.26, ESV)

…but as many times as I’ve read the Psalms, I’d never seen it there:

Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah (Psalm 4.4, ESV)

“Selah” just means, “Think about it.”

I’ve written before that we have way too much outrage in this country, and here’s the solution. How can I be angry and not sin? By pondering the issue in my heart and being silent. Silent?! Now there’s a strategy:

Don’t let it out, let it go!

I think that’s what the text is saying, especially when coupled with the very next verse:

Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD. (Psalm 4.5, ESV)

Think about it…

…the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1.20, ESV)

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4.7, 8, ESV)

As we read the Psalms, note that some of them have an introduction, an unnumbered “verse 0” in our Bibles. FYI, in the Hebrew Bibles, these introductions are “verse 1.” Here’s how Psalm 3 starts:

A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.
¹  O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
²  many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah
³  But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. (ESV)

We looked at the story of Absalom’s Defeat back in May.

The obvious (and, for me, often forgotten) lesson is…PRAY:

⁴  I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill… ⁷  Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! (ESV)

And after praying, REST if you need it – David did – and TRUST:

⁵  I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
⁶  I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. (ESV)

And let’s go into the New Year with confidence:

⁸  Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! (ESV)

Today is June’s birthday. Her January 2 birthday and my December 13 birthday often get buried in holiday hoopla, and this year was no exception, especially since mine was less than a week after June’s fall. We were able to celebrate both birthdays yesterday with three of our four adult children. (David had been here from Atlanta with his wife, Cheryl, and three boisterous boys, but they left on December 26.) Our daughter, Melody, arrived from the Cayman Islands (where she teaches in an international school) on December 28.

(at the table) Mark’s daughter, Kesley, Matt, Melody, June, Bob, Mark

Here’s how she told it as she was departing:

Today I’m traveling to Colorado to visit my parents, and two of my three brothers. (Unfortunately, I just missed my brother David and family.) My mom had a bad fall a couple weeks ago and broke some bones in her pelvis. She was in a lot of pain, and I felt so helpless being so far away. At Cayman National Choir rehearsal the day after mom’s fall, I mentioned her to my choir. There’s this piece that always reminds me of mom, and I felt quite emotional while they were singing it.

Long story short, one of my dear choir members felt compelled to give me a very special Christmas present! He bought my ticket to go and visit my parents!

I’m still shocked that this dear person would give so generous a gift!

This trip was not in our budget, but God wanted me to be able to go, and He provided a way! Angels do walk among us, dear friends! – Melody Gifford, Facebook, December 28, 2024

Well told, Melody. Another Christmas miracle.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1.17, ESV)

Our 2024 didn’t end quite the way we wanted, but we’re looking forward. Regardless of what kind of year you had, we hope you’re looking forward to God’s activity through you in 2025.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43.18, 19, ESV)

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21.5, ESV)

PS If you’re into numbers, my son Mark reminded me of some 2025 facts:

• 2025 is a perfect square. We haven’t had a perfect square year since 1936.
• 2025 = 9-squared x 5-squared = 15-squared x 3-squared
• 2025 = 40-squared + 20-squared + 5-squared
• 2025 = the sum of cubes from 1 to 9.

I was searching for something profound to say as 2024 draws to a close, and maybe I can’t do better than our reading plan! We saw yesterday that Psalm 1 teaches us how to meditate on scripture.

Does Psalm 2 have anything to say about a world where it seems that most leaders of countries, including the US, don’t care about what the God of the Universe might want? It begins:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” (Psalm 2.1 – 3, ESV)

God’s reaction is instructive:

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2.4, ESV)

God laughs because we have a King, which we remember during this season:

“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2.6 – 9, ESV)

A song we sing only at Christmas, but which ought to be sung year around, I think, captures what we should remember in the new year:

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders of His love. – from Joy to the World, Isaac Watts, 1719

And Psalm 2 ends with a promise:

…Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2.12, ESV)

I’m starting my 2025 reading plan today since the plan is based on one chapter per day, five days per week.

We’re going through the Psalms (and other poetry books), and there’s no better rendition of Psalm 1 than in the Living Bible by Ken Taylor, which came out in the 1970s. Psalm 1 begins with the best definition of mediation you’ll find anywhere:

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil men’s advice, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of God. But they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely. (Psalm 1.1, 2, TLB)

“Meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely.” That’s our goal as we read the Bible – not more knowledge but better obedience.

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. (Matthew 7.24 – 27, MSG)

It’s not quite New Year’s Day, but tomorrow is Monday… and a good time to start our reading plan in the Poetry section of the Old Testament: Job – Song of Solomon. Inspired by The Navigators’ 5x5x5 New Testament Reading Plan, June and I designed a plan to get through the entire Bible at that pace over 5 years: one chapter/day, five days/week.

If you want to read the entire Bible in one year, I recommend the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan.

Join us! I don’t promise to write a blog on every chapter, but I will catch some of them, beginning tomorrow with something on Psalm 1. (The plan revolves around the five books into which the Psalms are divided, interspersed with Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.)

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15.16, ESV)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119.105, ESV)

I’ve encouraged to read Esther for yourself, all the way through in one sitting. Today, I’ll just hit the highlights as we wrap up Esther and our 2024 readings. We saw yesterday that Haman attempted, as happens often, to fight against God by eliminating the people of God. Spoiler alert! Haman loses. How? He’s the most powerful government official in the kingdom and has the ear and trust of the king.

It’s a combination of God working behind the scenes and the faithfulness and creativity of Mordecai and Esther.

First, Haman throws dice to determine the best time for his slaughter of the Jews. What day did the dice choose? A day as far into the future as one can get:

In the first month, the month of Nisan, of the twelfth year of Xerxes, the pur—that is, the lot—was cast under Haman’s charge to determine the propitious day and month. The lot turned up the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. (Esther 3.7, MSG, emphasis mine)

Then Mordecai swings into action challenging Esther to approach the king:

If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this. (Esther 4.14, MSG)

“For such a time as this.” A well-known quote. Esther responds with another well-known quote:

Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4.16, ESV)

“If I perish, I perish.”

But God works behind the scenes again, and the king welcomes Esther. “What do you want?” And instead of telling him, she invites him and Haman to a banquet that she will prepare. And at that banquet, she invites them to a second banquet for the following day:

“Get Haman at once,” said the king, “so we can go to dinner with Esther.” So the king and Haman joined Esther at the dinner she had arranged. As they were drinking the wine, the king said, “Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn’t too much to ask! Just ask.” Esther answered, “Here’s what I want. If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I’ll give a straight answer to the king’s question.” (Esther 5.6 – 8, MSG)

Haman is ecstatic except Mordecai’s presence still bothers him. So his wife counsels him to build a gallows 75 feet high and hang Mordecai on it. Great idea! In the meantime…

That night the king couldn’t sleep. He ordered the record book, the day-by-day journal of events, to be brought and read to him. They came across the story there about the time that Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh—the two royal eunuchs who guarded the entrance and who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. (Esther 6.1, 2, MSG)

God working behind the scenes again, and just as the king finds out that nothing has been done to honor Mordecai for saving the king’s life, Haman appears to ask permission to hang Mordecai – what a great story!

The king said, “Is there anybody out in the court?” Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had built for him. The king’s servants said, “Haman is out there, waiting in the court.” “Bring him in,” said the king. When Haman entered, the king said, “What would be appropriate for the man the king especially wants to honor?”

Haman thought to himself, “He must be talking about honoring me—who else?” So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, do this: Bring a royal robe that the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crown on its head. Then give the robe and the horse to one of the king’s most noble princes. Have him robe the man whom the king especially wants to honor; have the prince lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!’ ”

“Go and do it,” the king said to Haman. “Don’t waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the King’s Gate. Don’t leave out a single detail of your plan.” (Esther 6.4 – 10, MSG)

Oops. It’s downhill for Haman after that. Before the day is over, the king hangs him on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. (See Esther 6.11 – 7.10)

God wins. God always wins. The Jews defend themselves on the day they were supposed to be destroyed, and the book ends:

Mordecai the Jew ranked second in command to King Xerxes. He was popular among the Jews and greatly respected by them. He worked hard for the good of his people; he cared for the peace and prosperity of his race. (Esther 10.3, MSG)

God wins. God always wins. Sometimes through God’s work behind the scenes. Sometimes (often!) through people he has placed “for such a time as this,” people whose attitude is, “If I perish, I perish.”

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12.11, ESV)

As we think of Christmas as an act of war – God invading the planet in the person of Jesus – we remind ourselves, it’s been war since Genesis 3.15:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (ESV)

And so it’s no surprise that there’s war against God’s people in the book of Esther. The instigator is Haman the Agagite:

Some time later, King Xerxes promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, making him the highest-ranking official in the government. All the king’s servants at the King’s Gate used to honor him by bowing down and kneeling before Haman—that’s what the king had commanded. Except Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t bow down and kneel. (Esther 3.1 – 2, MSG)

Why wouldn’t Mordecai bow to Haman? There weren’t supposed to be any Agagites! King Saul was sent to thoroughly destroy the Amalekites, recorded in 1 Samuel 15. But he didn’t do it:

Saul defended himself. “What are you talking about? I did obey GOD. I did the job GOD set for me. I brought in King Agag and destroyed the Amalekites under the terms of the holy ban. So the soldiers saved back a few choice sheep and cattle from the holy ban for sacrifice to GOD at Gilgal—what’s wrong with that?” (1 Samuel 15.20, 21, MSG, emphasis mine)

Back to Esther. Mordecai won’t bow, and Haman wants revenge:

When Haman saw for himself that Mordecai didn’t bow down and kneel before him, he was outraged. Meanwhile, having learned that Mordecai was a Jew, Haman hated to waste his fury on just one Jew; he looked for a way to eliminate not just Mordecai but all Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes. (Esther 3.5, 6, MSG)

And the battle is on. We’ll see God at work through Esther and behind the scenes. Stay tuned.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6.12, ESV)