At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ve got to write one more day about the Blue Bloods episode on Unforgiveness. One issue was just that: the unwillingness of a young woman to forgive the man who murdered her family years before. The other issue was the debate about whether or not people can change.

I know it’s fiction, but it’s always disappointing that professing Christians such as these characters are get this wrong. Half of our New Testament was written by a terrorist:

But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. (Acts 8.3, ESV)

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9.1, 2, ESV)

Then God decides he’d rather have Saul of Tarsus, later called Paul, on his side. (See Acts 9.1 – 9) But when God calls Ananias to tend to Saul’s needs, Ananias protests (sounds a bit like “bad people don’t change”):

But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” (Acts 9.13, 14, ESV)

Later, Saul tried to join the disciples in Jerusalem without success:

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. (Acts 9.26, ESV)

But Barnabas came to the rescue then and again in Acts 11:

So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11.25, 26, ESV)

Reflecting on his experience, Paul wrote:

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief…The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1 Timothy 1.12, 13, 15 ESV)

Back to Blue Bloods, it’s just not true that if someone is bad, they stay bad. There is such a thing as transformation! And do you what the oldest church building in New York City is called? St Paul’s Chapel, a memorial to a “bad man who changed” by the grace of God.

One more thing, when St. Paul’s Chapel remained standing after the September 11, 2001, attacks and the collapse of the World Trade Center less than 100 yards behind it, the chapel was subsequently nicknamed “The Little Chapel that Stood.”

We wrote yesterday about a Blue Bloods episode in which a young woman is unable or unwilling to forgive the man who murdered the rest of her family. It’s an understandable response on her part. Understandable, just not Christ-like:

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6.14 – 15, ESV)

Come on, Bob! What do you expect? What I expect has nothing to do with anything. It’s Jesus who expects us to be a forgiving people, and such forgiveness is possible. Witness the response of the Amish in Pennsylvania to the murder of five of their daughters back in 2006. Here’s the part about forgiveness. I offer it without further comment:

On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, “We must not think evil of this man [whose name was Charles Carl Roberts IV].” Another Amish father noted, “He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he’s standing before a just God.” Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained: “I don’t think there’s anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts”.

A Roberts family spokesman said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them. Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts’ widow, parents and parents-in-law. One Amish man held Roberts’ sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him. The Amish also established a charitable fund for the family of the shooter. About 30 members of the Amish community attended Roberts’ funeral, and Marie Roberts, the widow of the killer, was one of the few outsiders invited to the funeral of one of the victims.

Marie Roberts wrote an open letter to her Amish neighbors thanking them for their forgiveness, grace, and mercy. She wrote, “Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Gifts you’ve given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you.” – Wikipedia

The Amish response confirmed the Apostle Paul’s word to the Philippians:

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. (Philippians 2.14, 15, NIV)

Jesus promised:

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6.35 – 37, NIV)

June and I enjoy watching Blue Bloods from time to time, the series about a family of cops in New York City:

The series follows the Reagans, a family who has a history of work in law enforcement. Frank Reagan is the New York Police Department Police Commissioner. Frank’s eldest son, Danny, is an NYPD detective, his youngest son, Jamie, is an NYPD sergeant, and his daughter, Erin, works as an assistant district attorney. – Wikipedia

Always behind, we’re nearly finished with Season 5 of 13 seasons, as of May 2023. Overall the series promotes values we applaud including the weekly family dinners after church on Sundays, Frank Reagan (played by Tom Sellick) is a wise, well-read leader who looks out for the people in the NYPD and the city. Sometimes Detective Danny, a former Marine, gets a bit out of hand, and it’s hard to get through an episode without seeing one or more characters with an alcoholic beverage – they are Irish Catholic after all. But, as I say, watching is generally a positive experience: usually, three problems/crimes are identified, staffed, and solved in 45 minutes.

But no matter what television shows we watch, I hope we’ll filter the behaviors of our favorite characters through the lens of scripture. We just watched Season 5, Episode 18, “Bad Company,” where the writers missed it, in my humble opinion. Commissioner Reagan is still in touch with a young woman, now in her 20s, whose parents and little brother were brutally murdered when she was six. She has just received a letter from prison from the murderer. He wants to meet with her.

She initially refuses, and there’s some discussion among the family and others as the episode progresses about whether or not a bad person can change. Frank and Danny are of the mind “Bad people don’t change.” On the other hand, Frank’s executive officer said to Frank, “I am of the firm conviction that people can change. Where there’s life, there’s hope. If I ever lose that conviction, please fire me on the spot.”

Frank and the young woman do meet with the murderer, an old man now, who has changed. The woman is understandably upset about the murder of her parents and brother and announces, “I will NEVER forgive you.” The murderer confesses his remorse and tells how a prison chaplain helped him while the murderer was recovering from an attempted suicide. “I found God. Rather, he found me…I spend my time helping other convicted criminals make peace with God…The only person I can’t save is you [the young woman he didn’t kill].” Their meeting ends with the woman saying, “Please try to kill yourself again, and this time, do it right!”

We need at least one more day on this, but in the meantime:

Bitterness (and lack of forgiveness) is like drinking poison and waiting for the other guy to die. – Navigator Skip Gray

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. (Hebrews 12.15, ESV)

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6.14 – 15, ESV)

When we first started putting Bibles on our phones, I had several apps with different translations. Finally, I consolidated all my translations in one app: Olive Tree. My go-to translation for study is the ESV Strong version which couples the ESV with Strong’s Concordance – a built-in Hebrew and Greek dictionary. Olive Tree is all I use on my phone and iPad. (FYI, for those who are interested.)

A few weeks ago, I was ecstatic when Olive Tree offered The Living Bible for only $9.99! Do you remember The Living Bible? It started as Living Letters, Ken Taylor’s paraphrase of New Testament epistles, first published in 1962. I remember well when it came out. Then Living Prophecies – “So that’s what Isaiah was trying to say!”

The Living Bible’s rendition of Psalm 1.2 remains my favorite definition of meditation: I use it often when I teach. Here it is in the ESV:

His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Why do I like The Living Bible’s version? See for yourself:

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.

What is meditation? “Thinking about ways to follow him more closely.” That will preach, and you can do that no matter what translation or paraphrase you use.

Speaking of battles to be fought even after a lot of victories, we would be remiss if we didn’t honor Caleb, the other dissenter with Joshua in Numbers 13 and 14:

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”… And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, …said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” (Numbers 13.30, 14.6 – 9, ESV)

So does Caleb still have faith and fire?

Caleb…said to him: “You know the word which the LORD said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses…sent me…to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart…Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me…Now therefore, give me this mountain…” (Joshua 14.6 – 12, NKJV, emphasis mine)

“I am as strong this day…Give me this mountain!” And it’s not all talk:

Caleb drove out three Anakim from Hebron: Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, all descendants of Anak. (Joshua 15.14, MSG)

Caleb drove out the Anakim, sons of Anak. Remember them? They were the giants that the other 10 spies feared. Gone. Just as Caleb predicted 40 years before: “Their protection has been removed from them.”

¹²  The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³  Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴  They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,
¹⁵  To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (Psalm 92.12 – 15, NKJV, emphasis mine)

God is strong, and he wants you strong…This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6.10, 12, MSG)

Back to Joshua, it’s kind of fun because Joshua and Nehemiah are the only two “success” books I know of in the Bible. They had a goal, and they met the goal.

The Israelites fought battles beginning with Jericho in chapter 6 and ending in chapters 10 and 11:

Joshua took the whole country: hills, desert, foothills, and mountain slopes, including all kings. He left no survivors. He carried out the holy curse on everything that breathed, just as GOD, the God of Israel, had commanded. Joshua’s conquest stretched from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the entire region of Goshen to Gibeon. Joshua took all these kings and their lands in a single campaign because GOD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. (Joshua 10.40 – 42, MSG)

Joshua took the whole region. He did everything that GOD had told Moses. Then he parceled it out as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribes. And Israel had rest from war. (Joshua 11.23, MSG)

All the defeated kings are listed in chapter 12, and then they start parceling out the land to the tribes in chapter 13 which starts:

When Joshua had reached a venerable age, GOD said to him, “You’ve had a good, long life, but there is a lot of land still to be taken. (Joshua 13.1, MSG)

Wait! I thought they took it all. But it turns out there are always battles to fight, and I want to write about one tomorrow.

In the meantime, let’s not give in to the idea that there will be a time or a place when we can just “kick back.” Not “one and done” referring to kids who play college ball for one year before turning pro or to teams who go to the NCAA basketball tournament and lose their first game, but “won and done” – we won! Now we can rest.

C.S. Lewis addresses this misconception in the essay “The Sermon and the Lunch.” It’s a short read – strongly recommend. He’s talking about whether or not “home” is a refuge where one can just “be ourselves” – in the language of today’s blog, “Let’s relax because there are no battles to fight.” Nope:

How, then, are people to behave at home? If a man can’t be comfortable and unguarded, can’t take his ease and “be himself” in his own house, where can he? That is, I confess, the trouble. The answer is an alarming one. There is nowhere this side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse’s neck. It will never be lawful simply to “be ourselves” until “ourselves” have become sons of God. – C.S. Lewis, “The Sermon and the Lunch”

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made…By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. (Philippians 3.12 – 15, MSG)

Yesterday I wrote yet again about the importance of our daily time with God. It’s a drum I’ll continue to beat. But let me be clear: we’re not talking about “a good habit” or “read the Bible in the morning so your day will go well.” We’re talking about relationship and transformation.

I was reminded about transformation in an outstanding article by Mutua Mahiani, the International President of The Navigators, the organization and people with whom I serve. He was talking about leadership and the importance of accepting that role if God gives it to you (unlike Moses, whom he mentions and about whom I wrote).

But at the end of the article, Mutua reminds us of the importance of our daily time with God:

Devoting time in the Scriptures and in prayer helps us in everyday obedience and prepares us to say “yes” to God’s call. Spending intentional time reflecting on God’s character and work gives us a right view of ourselves and the lost, fighting off the lies of the Enemy, the flesh, and the world. It helps us cultivate the humility and confidence we need to discern and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. – Mutua Mahiani, International President of The Navigators, January 2024.

Wow. Strong reasons for daily time with God. Let me parse them out:

Devoting time in the Scriptures and in prayer…spending intentional time reflecting on God’s character and work…

• helps us in everyday obedience and
• prepares us to say “yes” to God’s call.
• gives us a right view of ourselves and the lost, fighting off the lies of the Enemy, the flesh, and the world. It
• helps us cultivate the humility and confidence we need to discern and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

If you’re still looking for reasons to start the Daily Time with God habit, you can’t do any better than those. If you’re a pastor, wondering if it’s worth the effort to teach your people to have daily time with God, do you want a congregation of people with those characteristics?

They are not just idle words for you—they are your life… (Deuteronomy 32.47, NIV)

Speaking of getting up early, I hope that one of the reasons we’re getting up early is to practice the discipline of Daily Time with God. The link takes you to a template that I’ve found useful for helping folks get started. Here is a picture of page one of the 4-page template:

Not long ago I was showing this template to a pastor and saying something like, “It’s important to get the folks into the Word during the week, isn’t it?” I’m still processing his response:

It is important, and The Navigators are very good at that. – A Pastor

Was he just trying to affirm me? Or was he saying something more like, “The Navigators are good at teaching people practical discipleship skills. In the meantime, the church is not very good at that (and we don’t plan to be).”

It’s that latter attitude that leads some parishioners to conclude, “The church has failed us.”

I appreciate that churches have a unique role in providing worship experiences and cradle-to-the-grave programs for all in addition to leading people in practical service to their communities. But I don’t see why they have to give up their equipping mission to do that.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians 4.11 – 14, ESV)

We noted earlier that one secret of Joshua’s success would be his meditating on God’s Word.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1.8, NKJV)

But here’s another secret to his success:

Joshua was up early… (Joshua 3.1, MSG)

Joshua was up early the next morning… (Joshua 6.12, MSG)

Joshua was up at the crack of dawn… (Joshua 7.16, MSG)

Joshua was up early in the morning… (Joshua 8.10, MSG)

Joshua was an early riser, especially when he had something important to do.

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. (Proverbs 24.30 – 34, ESV)

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. (Psalm 5.3, NKJV)

As I think about memorials of what God has done, so far in Joshua there are 3:

• A pile of selected stones to memorialize the crossing of the Jordan
• A pile of rocks marking the stoning of Achan
• Another pile of rocks marking the defeat of the king of Ai

In other words, there’s nothing intrinsically valuable about the memorial itself – it’s what it reminds us of.

Specifically, we need to remember God’s actions, not just his ideas. Ours is not a religion we follow with ordinances and “love your neighbor” only. It’s a relationship with the God who acts. That makes PRAYER important! Prayer ties God’s actions into the present. We ought not to just study what he did in the past. Here are some possible personal memorials:

• We ordered an elliptical exercise machine last week, which was to be delivered in a 100-pound box on Wednesday. The challenge was that we were leaving for Denver at 2:30p. Maybe they leave it at the front door, and I have to haul it downstairs. Or they leave it by the service door in plain sight of possible thieves. I prayed and asked the Lord to deliver the elliptical before we left. The guys came just before noon! Now, every time I see the elliptical, I can choose to remember how God answered prayer and delivered it on time. The elliptical is a memorial.
• In 2015 we committed to paying off our house in three years. By God’s grace, including some small windfalls, we did. Our paid-off house is a memorial to God’s provision.
• Our purchase of a 2019 Subaru Ascent in late August 2022, was the culmination of a chain of events starting with June’s discomfort on a long road trip. Then we saw an Ascent in the parking lot of the hotel we were staying at for a Navigator conference. Our local Subaru dealer had just such an Ascent on hand (at a time when used cars were hard to come by). The Ascent is a memorial to God’s looking out for us and meeting our needs abundantly.
• An article in the Wall Street Journal resulted in hand-made deck furniture, some of which is on the deck because of a miracle answer to prayer: a crew at a neighbor’s with a giant hand truck. So the deck furniture is a memorial to God’s care in the little things.

Maybe that’s one secret to a memorial: infusing the ordinary with meaning. Is that just a pile of rocks? No, it’s where Achan died for his sin. Is that just an empty hill? No, it’s where the great city of Ai used to be before God helped us destroy it. What about those 12 large stones? Oh, that’s where God parted the waters of the Jordan River. Is that your new elliptical? Yes, a memorial to a God who acts…as is the house, the car, and the deck furniture.

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. They set up camp at The Gilgal (The Circle) to the east of Jericho. Joshua erected a monument at The Gilgal, using the twelve stones that they had taken from the Jordan. And then he told the People of Israel, “In the days to come, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What are these stones doing here?’ tell your children this: ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ “Yes, GOD, your God, dried up the Jordan’s waters for you until you had crossed, just as GOD, your God, did at the Red Sea, which had dried up before us until we had crossed. This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong GOD’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold GOD in solemn reverence always.” (Joshua 4.19 – 24, MSG)