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Steps in the Journey of Life

Paul Delashaw

One of the more popular motifs in literature is that of the journey. “It’s the journey, not the destination!” I say calmly to my family as we head out of town. Eyes begin to roll. My wife Kristy shakes her head. I immediately imagine my daughter, who fortunately happens not to be in the car on this trip, saying something like, “Dad, I think you come up with a different theme, right?” Then my 13 year old, who will not be silenced, demands an immediate answer, “how long will this drive be, Dad?”

On to Castaway

I can hardly blame any of them. Now that they have stepped into a midwest sunbaked Subaru with a dark interior, I know they have a reason or two for grumbling. The beads of sweat begin to flow on our foreheads and the requests for a drink is almost immediate. Nevertheless, I also know the car will eventually cool and the eight hour excursion will begin to feel something like, well . . . seven hours. We are headed to Young Life Camp in northern Minnesota. I’t s a place called Castaway. 

It’s no accident that the title of this first blog is Steps in the Journey of Life. It’s a title closely associated with my new book, The Search for Home. In addition, who hasn’t felt the sting, the feeling of loneliness, upon beginning something new? As my family and I head to Castaway I am very aware that my family is with me, but the obligations I have agreed to at that camp are my own obligations. I have agreed to work with college students, to encourage them, to teach them, and to work alongside them. So I wonder, “Will they receive me? Will my performance be satisfactory? Will I make any difference?” Even with my age and ministry experience, it’s going to take a measure of faith and courage to begin something new.

Moving Forward

So, let me ask . . .

What are you beginning? Perhaps I should ask, what have you begun in the last year that has made you feel a little awkward or alone? Whenever we take a step toward something new, especially if that new thing makes us feel uncomfortable, we ourselves begin to change.

A new job? You’re beginning something new. You’re beginning to change.

A new relationship? You’re beginning something new. You’re beginning to change.

A move? You’re beginning something new. You’re beginning to change.

Whenever we take steps in the desert of life, we want to run back to where it’s comfortable. I’ve known a small number of people who have lived in the same house all their lives, but that’s an exception in our culture today. Most people have to face changes, but honestly, few do it well. So, what is it going to take to step out into the desert of life with faith and courage? What is it going to take to face change well?

In part, that’s what my new book is about: The Search for Home: Steps of Grace in John 1-4. Nevertheless, I’ll be talking in this series of blog posts much more on this subject. So I’ll see you here, and in the pages of my book.

The Fam

To order The Search for Home go to: https://www.liferichpublishing.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/822441-the-search-for-home

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For the Love of Baseball: Learning to See Life Clearly

Photo by Eduardo Balderas on Unsplash

After a full day of working in Young Life, I finally pull into my driveway. It’s an early evening. The sky looks calm, a few passing clouds, and my house seems quiet, at least for now. “Whew. . . I can breathe,” I think to myself. “It’s nice to be home.” I open my truck door and though it seems peaceful, the air begins to swallow me. It’s late summer, so the Midwest stickiness envelops my world.

Greeted by The Babe

Two things are on my mind at this moment. The first is the weather. Warm and muggy evenings slow me down. The second is my thirteen-year old Justin. I know he’s going to see me, and when he does, a little stickiness is a small price to pay for connecting with his dad. Before I even get off the driveway, the front door swings open. A sensitive, five-foot seven, lanky kid rushes out. He’s looking straight at me. “What?” he says, but he needn’t say anything. I know exactly what he’s doing. He has a glove in his left hand, a baseball cap on his head, and a bat over his shoulder. He’s ready to play ball.

Rather than play into Justin’s hopes directly, I ask him a simple question, “Hey buddy, who are you today?” He pauses and gives me a funny, yet predictable look. “Dad, you know!” he responds. “Perhaps I do, but why don’t you help me out anyway? Are you Elvis? Michael Jackson? Babe Ruth? Who are you today?” Justin shakes his head. “Dad, you know I’m Babe Ruth. Let’s go!” It’s time for some catch and an opportunity for extended imagination on the front yard grass.

Looking for Justin’s Development

Lest the reader be a bit puzzled, this back and forth I have with my son happens almost every day. It’s been happening for years. “Justin, who are you?” I ask. He tells me he’s a superhero, or someone famous, even if that person has left this world long ago. I’m a bit conflicted, not because I also want to be a famous person. I’m conflicted because although I’m enjoying Justin’s childhood, I’m also looking forward to witnessing the development of Justin’s view of himself and the world. “Patience, Paul. Patience,” I think to myself. For now, Justin is simply revealing part of his personal perceptual framework, and today he happens to be The Babe.

Perceptual Framework and Children

What is a perceptual framework? It’s a very important and even profound question. According to M. Robert Mulholland Jr., a perceptual framework is the way we see ourselves, the way we see others, and most of all, the way we see God.

Every child has a perceptual framework. A WebMD article tells us that at first a child cannot see very far. He or she doesn’t even see in color until about four months. In the early days, children are focused upon faces. I suspect God designed them that way, so they can bond with their mothers. When they are ready, they will learn to see more of their world. At first, they may be consciously unaware of God, but from the very beginning they are learning about Him. Is God good? They will learn that from their mother. Is God holy other? They will learn that from their dad.

In an ideal world, all children come from a perfect family. Healthy bonding and good modeling occurs, and we all live in the love and will of God. Yet we know that is not the case. Children from even the best families grow up with a variety of problems, and they do not see the world as God intends. That’s one of the reasons preachers remind their congregants of God’s great love nearly every Sunday morning.

Our Own Perceptual Framework

Now it’s time to get a little bit personal. Like Justin, we have our own perceptual framework. We may know we’re not The Babe, but how do we view ourselves, others, and God?

Reflecting on You

How do you see yourself? Do you like what you see? Are you a little too aware of your faults? Perhaps you’re not aware enough of those faults. You certainly have one or two, if you’re a human being. Do you see the truth about yourself, that God’s purpose in you is to become like Jesus Christ and even bless the world? Do you know that you are valued by Him, and loved by Him?

Reflecting on Others

How do you see other people? Do you like them? Do you see most of them as being for you, or against you? Can you trust them? Should you trust them? Jesus, when He was physically on this earth, certainly loved people, but He was wise enough not to always trust them. We read in John’s Gospel,

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. (John 2:23-25)

Those verses are certainly worth thinking about, but we also have to remember that He loved all people and desires all people to be saved (see 1 Timothy 2:4). People are complex, and we certainly need to see them through God’s eyes.

Reflecting on God

Finally, how do you see and understand God? That’s the biggest question of all, isn’t it? The way we see God directly determines everything else. So consider how 1 Peter begins:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope . . . . (1 Peter 1:3)

Do you see that God is for you? Some people think that God is against them, especially because of their difficult circumstances, but God is not against them. He is for them, and He is for you! So it follows that if God is for you in the midst of your sin, then God must be incredibly good. He is good enough, and you are valued enough, for God to love you. I mean, to really love you!

These Perspectives Cannot be Separated

Each of the objects of love is worth a lifetime of reflection, yet neither of them is independent of each other. If we love ourselves, we understand that we are made in God’s image and that God values us. By definition, if God values us, we have incredible worth. If we truly love others, we begin to see them as God sees them. We will look out for their best interests. Finally, if we love God, He gives us eyes to see the world in the way He sees the world. These things simply cannot be separated.

Two More Bible Passages

For further reflection, here are two more passages that directly connect with our topic:

1 John 4:20

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 

Matthew 22:36-40

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Bringing it Home with Some Encouragement

Coming back to children and baseball, we see that in the midst of our imperfections, in our inability to love at all times the way God loves, our Father in heaven offers us grace. (Aren’t you glad our God is an expert at raising children?)

A child improves his or her baseball skills as he or she plays. “Get in the game and play!” we might say to our son or daughter. In life as adults, we also need to play the game. We’re not going to get it right every time, but God’s intention is for us to grow. He will nurture and care and love us as we develop. Let’s be clear: to see ourselves, others and God correctly is not an impossibility. Don’t buy into the lie that we can never be like Jesus. He said to His disciples,

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

Fully loving God, ourselves, and others can come into our hearts, even if we experience those things briefly before we trip up again. It’s okay. We serve a gracious God. If we ask Him to help us, He will pick us up and help us run around the bases. God wants our lives to be filled with His joy. Although it’s a process, He wants our lives to be filled with His love.

We’ll talk more about the process of seeing in the coming posts.

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The Offer of Freedom, and the Theological Virtues

Photo by Pika Žvan on Unsplash

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

I can still hear my father’s voice: “Paul, cast your line right out there – 30 feet in front of you and ten feet to the left. You should get a nice drift and a steady bounce off the bottom.” When I was young, not even a teenager, my father used to take me fishing. At first, when I was only three, he would take me to the Gulf Coast in Galveston, Texas where he would walk out into the water and cast his line. Later he would tell me, “To fish the Gulf is to fish among sharks.” I think about his words now and then, but I guess that’s the nature of fishing the Gulf shore. I would simply watch and wait for him on the beach as he would catch a plethora of fish. My dad was my hero.

The next year, and when I was four years old, my family moved to Longview, Washington. My dad still loved to fish, so he would take me often to the Kalama River to fish for steelhead (a sea-going trout). Years later, I reflected on those years, and I began to doubt I had any business being left on the Gulf shore at only three years of age. I also doubted that at the age of four I had much business being left on the shore of the Kalama River. Good steelhead fishing, if you’re not floating a boat, requires walking up and down river, so I would sit on rocks, throw a few stones, and watch my dad pursue his passion. I guess my dad never worried about my falling in, and come to think of it, neither did I. What matters is that at some point, after watching my dad and receiving his instruction, I learned to fish the drift myself.

Drift fishing . . . throwing your line out into a steady flowing river and feeling it bounce. Then reel it in again and repeat. I never was very good at it, but I enjoyed being with my father.

Self-Drift

I begin with drift fishing because it seems that many of us, at least many of us in American Churches, are experts at drifting. Jesus called us to be “fishers of men” (see Luke 5:10), but I’m pretty confident that for many Christians the only drifting we do in life has nothing to do with those little creatures that swim in our rivers. Rather, we experience self-drifting. In the New Testament we read,

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

So many of us come to Jesus and attend church, but soon get sidetracked and spend our lives pursuing our own agendas. “Jesus? I know He’s around,” we say to ourselves. “He goes with me wherever I go.” Yet deep inside we know we’re drifting. We’re not staying focused on God’s agenda. Our own agenda becomes number one.

Dangerous Freedom

What’s remarkable is that Jesus gives us the freedom to drift. We don’t absolutely have to do what He wants us to do. He doesn’t impose His will. He certainly calls us, but doesn’t force us. Even though we may be Christians, He gives us the freedom to live for ourselves. Sure, we suffer for it, and the consequences can be incredibly severe, but we have freedom to choose nonetheless.

Sadly, as we make the wrong decisions, we easily get pulled in by the world’s current and our relationship with Jesus begins to drift, and it happens so slowly that no one can tell us the precise point where we drift out to sea. It simply a risk we take if we’re not willing to surrender to God’s will moment by moment.

So why the freedom? Since He loves us, why does God, in a sense, take any risk on us at all? The answer has something to do with what I said in the previous post: “Freedom . . . provides the necessary environment for how these qualities can develop in our hearts.” What qualities? The qualities, or marks, of the theological virtues.

The Theological Virtues

What are the theological virtues? They are, quite simply, faith, hope and love. They are the very qualities that all Christians receive when they are born again. If you don’t have at least a measure of faith, hope, and love, then it’s difficult to see how you can be a Christian. That may sound a bit dogmatic, and someone might say, “Hey Paul, we’re saved by faith, and faith alone!” Okay, I certainly agree with that truth, but the faith we’re talking about is a transforming faith (it changes our hearts). So at the moment of conversion, in addition to faith (and the existence of faith is a complex subject that will have to be addressed in another post), God administers at least a little hope and love into the Christian heart. Sometimes He administers a whole lot more!

The Role of Freedom

So why does God give us the freedom to serve Him? It’s because decision making is the means whereby the heart and mind grow into Christlikeness. (Stop and think about the implications here. Stop and pray: “Am I making the right decisions daily?”)

Without freedom (at least a measure of freedom), we cannot believe, because saving faith is about trusting God. Consider the marriage relationship as an example. In a marriage trust grows as we keep choosing to bless our spouse. We earn his or her trust over time. The same is true with God. We choose to bless Him. We choose to praise Him.

Without freedom we also cannot hope, for Christian hope requires that we set our hearts upon the aim of that hope. In the Christian faith, our hope is in the second coming of Jesus Christ.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:10-11)

Finally, without freedom we cannot love, for what is love if it is not something we want and desire to do? Can you imagine telling your spouse, “I love you because I have to love you?” That’s a description of a broken relationship, not a description of a healthy one.

More can be said, but the message here is quite simple: don’t drift. Tenaciously hold on to the gifts God has given you, and choose every day to love our God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Amen.

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Developing Virtue? Now we see the Necessity of Freedom

In our previous post we talked about character, and in reference to character we used two words: holiness and love. “Holy to the Lord” was engraved on a plate which was fastened to the turban of the high priest and of which that high priest wore upon his head (Exodus 28:36-38). I also mentioned love at the very end of that post. I said, “Without freedom we cannot change, for without freedom we cannot love.”

My use of these two words, holiness and love, was very intentional. A person cannot be holy unless he or she loves. A person likewise cannot be loving (not in any ultimate sense) unless he or she is holy. Holiness and love go together.

Our Culture’s View

Our culture is not very fond of combining these two words. People want to live in one category or the other. They may talk about holiness, but without love they use it to control others. They become legalistic, and force their laws on other people. These others, seeing such attempts at external control, think of holiness in a derogatory way. “Those people are ‘holy than thou,'” it is said, and they are not being complimentary.

People may also talk about love, but somehow we know that love in our culture is not what it is supposed to be. It is usually a cheap type of love, or a self-serving type of love. It’s a love that only appears to be like love, but it’s a love which is filled with an agenda for the benefit of the giver. Perhaps you’ve been the recipient of such “love,” and as a result you’ve been hurt.

Virtue considered

All this discussion about character, holiness, and love, leads me to speak of one more word: virtue. “What’s the difference between character and virtue?” we might ask. It’s a great question, because the two words are related. Here’s my response: character can be either good or bad. We usually say that a person who regularly commits a crime has “bad character,” and a person who regular treats others with kindness has “good character.” Virtue on the other hand, is more precise, or we might say it is more limited in scope. That’s because virtue carries with it the idea of vital piety. One who is pious is faithful to his or her own parents or family, and is faithful to his or her own faith. Within the Christian Tradition, we say that one who is pious is faithful to Jesus Christ and the will of God. Therefore virtue is something which is good in a person. Have you ever heard of “bad virtue?” Let me know if you have, because I’m unfamiliar with it.

Freedom Introduced

Now let’s look at how the dictionary defines virtue. Webster says virtue is “conformity to a standard of right: morality.” Okay . . . fine. Thank you Mr. Webster, because you have introduced the issue of freedom into our discussion. Perhaps this will not surprise you, but I would argue that Webster’s use of the word conformity misrepresents the Christian understanding of living with morals.

Please consider and pause at this statement: The Christian view is that morals (that is, repeated commitments to the will of God) set a person free! That’s a radical statement for our culture, and yet we know that the Bible clearly teaches sin enslaves. You may recall what the Apostle Paul says deep in the heart of Romans:

Romans 6:12   Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 

We see in this verse that sin has no interest in your well-being. It wants to control you, dominate you, and deny you any freedom. Sadly, our culture is deeply controlled by sin. Simply said, it is not free. Yes, it wants to pretend it is free, but without God’s grace, true freedom is an impossibility.

Freedom and the Will of God

So at this point you might be thinking, “Paul this post is a bit much for me. All this talk about holiness, love, and virtue is wearing me out!” I understand, but let me assure you that these words matter because they help us understand God’s will for us as human beings. They give us a destination, or an aim, if you will. Simply put, God wants these things within us.

Freedom, on the other hand, provides the necessary environment for how these qualities can develop in our hearts. Consider the following: when our first parents were created they were created in the image of God. We have to ask, “Were they actually free, or were their wills controlled by God’s will?” The answer is that they had a measure of freedom, for if they were not free, they could not sin. (Sin requires a measure of freedom or the “sinner” cannot be responsible.) In addition, consider their creation in God’s image:

Then God said, “Let us make man  in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

Under the dominion of God, they were created to rule like Him. Perhaps you’re not familiar with this idea, but rule implicitly carries with it the notion of freedom. That’s because there is no opportunity to exercise authority in any meaningful way if a person is merely robotic. (We exercise dominion with a degree of creativity.) God was and is free to create, so human beings were created free to rule with a sense of love and care for the rest of creation. So freedom is at the heart of the rule of God because God is absolutely free. He is free in His love because He has no sin.

As you might imagine, so much more needs to be said regarding the intersection of human freedom and the will of God. Holiness, love, and virtue matter, so in our next post we will introduce the theological virtues.

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Mark of the Priest or Mark of the Beast

Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash

The Necessity of Character

One of the tragedies of much current Biblical proclamation is the loss of the call to character. “Just believe,” we often hear, “and you’ll be justified.” That proclamation is true . . . at least essentially . . . and I hope it is preached on Sundays. Justification by faith places a person in right standing with God, but here’s a caveat: the faith that justifies is the faith that also transforms a person. By means of a person’s faith God gives a measure of character (in this context, I mean Christlike, or godly character).

Consider the necessity of character in our daily lives. Where would any of us be if our character were lost? Our parents, if we have or had good parents, raised us with love, and love is the preeminent characteristic (from the word character) of all that is good. Marriage cannot last without love. Friendships cannot last without love. Indeed, love is a type of glue that holds human beings and our relationship with God together. The Christian call is a call to the good. It is a call to Christlike character.

Two Options

The above being said, there is so much more to discover and reflect upon. The word “character” originally carried the idea of being marked by a stamping tool. (Look up the word’s etymology if you like.) In other words, our character is our mark. (People are watching you!)

There are two options for human beings here:

First we could be like Aaron the high priest that we read about in the book of Exodus. Exodus is the story of God’s people Israel being delivered from slavery in Egypt, but it’s also about God making His people holy so they could be in God’s presence. So we read about Aaron the high priest and how he was required to wear a turban on his forehead:

Exodus 28:36   “You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the LORD.’ 37 And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban. 38 It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.

Since Christians are priests to God (see 1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 1:6), we also, just like Aaron, come into God’s presence marked by these words: “Holy to the Lord.” Holiness is our character – our mark. (Perhaps this is a good time to stop and reflect about the life of Jesus deep within you. How has His work on the cross and His presence made you holy? Are you different?)

The second option is revealed to us in the book of Revelation as the mark of the beast:

Rev. 14,9   And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand . . . .” (In this context, the image of hand is a way of referencing Satan’s will.)

“But Paul, I always understood that passage in Revelation literally!” a person might be saying. “I thought the mark of the beast was in future somewhere – like receiving some sort of microchip or something.” If you’ll let me respond, sometimes we read passages literally, in a sincere effort to be faithful to the text, and miss the writer’s intention. Revelation 14:9 is a great example of such an error. “Forehead” points to a person’s disposition to or away from God, and “hand” points to someone putting his or her will into action. So the mark of the beast is the mark of unbelief in Jesus Christ. I cannot overemphasize how important this point is in an attempt to understand John’s intention in Revelation. People who do not believe in Jesus have a mark that God reads. They are disposed away from God and they put unbelief into action. These two things characterize their lives.

God gives freedom

Given the above, the options couldn’t be more clear, and as we will discover more clearly in the next post, we are given a freedom to choose. “Freedom?!” a person might say. “Paul, you’re telling us that God gives us freedom?” A biblical view of freedom is absolutely essential if we are going to understand how God works in the world. Freedom makes us accountable. It also provides a framework by which godly, Christlike character can be developed. Without freedom we cannot change, for without freedom we cannot love.

More in the next post . . .

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Reading the Psalms for Deep Reflection

Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider on Unsplash

Whenever we consider a Psalm we have the opportunity to read it in multiple ways. There is the reading of unbelief. We read the Psalm merely for academic purposes, but it doesn’t touch or change our lives. There is also the way of the casual read: we read it rather quickly, thank the Lord, and move on with our day. Then there is the way of deep reflection. We go to the Lord first in prayer, then read it slowly, and finally begin to identify all kinds of things in the context of examining our lives. As we reflect, we might get so enthusiastic about the Psalm itself that we identify its structure, look up its key words (the Psalms are in Hebrew), memorize it, and maybe even look up its history of interpretation. The possibilities for study seem endless.

I do not point out the study possibilities to overwhelm you. I point them out to inspire you to read, learn, and grow. Consider Psalm 1 again. As has already been said, the Psalm is about the basics. In other words, every individual who has ever been born has to decide whether he or she wants to live God’s way or his/her own way. Psalm 1 says, “Hey! Over here! Live God’s way. Know His instruction (Torah), and God will make your life fruitful.” Yet in contrast, the enticement to live a person’s own way is always close by.

Some Wisdom from Augustine

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in reading the Psalm from the LXX (called the Septuagint – the Greek version of the Old Testament), commented on the end of verse 1 first by quoting the last line this way:

And has not sat in the seat of pestilence. (The ESV uses the Hebrew and says, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.)

Augustine goes on to say in reference to Jesus, “he did not want an earthly kingdom and the pride that goes with it.” In other words, Jesus did not fight for His own way. He went to the cross for us.

The Bishop then says, “Such pride is rightly understood as the seat of pestilence because there is hardly anyone who is free of the love of wielding power or does not long for human glory. For a pestilence is a disease which has spread widely and overwhelms all.”

Pestilence

What is the pestilence then? It is the human disease of living one’s own way. It is that which leads us into cynicism, effects our behavior, and causes us to listen to the way of the world.

Let’s stop there for a moment. Let’s reflect on it. Do you want power? Our Lord came in humility. He gave up His divine prerogatives in order to take on human flesh (see Philippians 2:5-11). Do you want human glory? Our Lord did not come to attract people through their own eyes (see Isaiah 53:2). Our Lord came so that people would see Him with their hearts.

I hope you are beginning to see how important it is for us to slow down in reading the Psalms. There is so much to learn, and the insights seem endless. May God grant you the grace of deep reflection, and may you know that the Lord is good at every midday meal.

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The Steady Flow of the River of Life

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It’s not all that complicated. Take some soil, add some fertilizer, throw in some seed, provide a little sunlight, and before you know it little green buds begin to show. Now of course, that may be a little insulting to farmers and gardeners. “There is so much more to it!” we can hear them exclaim . . . and they are right. There is far more to it. I’m not a farmer, but I do know that in order to have a good crop, a person must be aware of soil and seed quality, insects, weeds, diseases, and many, many other things. Nevertheless, in principle, without the countless potential obstacles, growing a garden or farming a crop is about cause and effect: place the seeds in the ground, water them, and God gives the growth.

The Basics

Psalm 1 is not interested in the endless number of challenges to growth. Psalm 1 is about the basics. Take a tree, plant it by an ever-flowing stream, even a river of life, and growth happens naturally. We know about the things that keep us from that stream: wickedness, sin, and scoffing (see verse 1). These are things that keep us in the desert. These are the things that bring death, and they are certainly listed in verse 1. Nevertheless, the heart of Psalm 1 centers on the basics. Life comes by means of Torah – the instructions for living, and keeping our minds in Torah is like setting ourselves beside a slow, steady stream.

We made comments regarding Torah in the previous post. Now in verse 3 we see the Torah’s effect. More than that, as Christians we begin to understand that something more is going on than the law of Moses or even a list of books (39 in the Old Testament and 26 in the New Testament). We see that True Torah finds itself in a Person . . . a Living Person. After all, pen and ink could never give life, but the steady flow of Jesus Christ brings life to all who drink. It is no accident that Jesus uses a similar image when He says,

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Planted beside the Streams of water

So it’s not that complicated. Jesus is the vine in John 15, but He is also the streams of water in Psalm 1:3. Plant yourself beside Him. Even better, plant yourself in Him. Drink from Him. He promises life and He offers it in abundance.

So now the question becomes, where do you want to be planted? We’ll talk about that issue in our next post.

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Beginnings: A Look at Psalm 1

Photo by Hansjörg Keller on Unsplash

Beginnings matter. They matter . . . period. As I approached my Introduction for The Search for Home, I had to make a decision where to begin. Should I begin writing about my birthplace? Should I begin as a teenager? Perhaps I should begin with my college years? Either way, all these beginnings were and are biographical. I chose to begin with my own Garden of Eden – Vandercook Park, during my childhood years. So just for fun, let me ask, if you were to write an autobiography, where would you begin?

The way God looks at us

As we approach the Psalms, after we pause and pray (see my previous post), it’s no accident that the first word is Blessed. That word tells us a whole lot about God’s disposition toward human beings.

Consider 1 Peter 1:3,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again . . . .  

Despite all the negative talk today about God, He is indeed for us. Yet at the same time, going back to Psalm 1, we want to be careful, because the emphasis in is upon God’s perspective on people’s activity. God is for us, but God is super excited about people who do the right thing.

In Hebrew the word for Blessed is what we call a particle interjection. That’s a fancy way of saying that the Psalm begins with something like “Hey, listen up! God is really excited about you! He’s excited about people who don’t do the following, but do something else:

  • They know enough not to look for advice from wicked people.
  • Their behavior is not characterized by people who don’t believe God is watching – known as sinners.
  • They’re not filled with pride and sit around judging others – we call them scoffers.

What Do These People Do?

What specifically do these people do that God is really excited about? They are people who take pleasure in the law of God.

Psalm 1:2 but his delight is in the law (Torah) of the LORD, and on his law (Torah) he meditates day and night .

Now for the Psalmist the law of God is called the Torah, and that word can confuse us. The Torah can be the law of Moses. It could be the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). It could even point to the entire Old Testament. All this being said, the best way to understand Torah in this context is the instruction of God – specifically, instruction on how to live. So we could say that the super blessed person is the one who lives and meditates on God’s way of living, and as Christians we know that such life is demonstrated by Jesus Christ.

Notice the contrast in the Psalm: we can live like the world (wickedness, sinning, scoffing), or we can live like God. Let me see . . . I think Jesus said something about that in Matthew 22:37-40:

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

So God loves you, but He gets super excited when you meditate on His way and live like Jesus. Are you ready? Are you ready to grow?

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What’s Inside is What Really Matters

What do we open first?

Time to Open

“Look at that . . . paperback, hardcover, and imitation leather. Mmm . . . I can smell ’em,” I think to myself. “They have a distinctive fragrance.” Of course, I’m talking about a stack of Bibles on my desk and even though they come in different shapes, sizes and covers, I know that it’s what’s inside is what really matters. “Stop staring Paul. It’s study time, so it time to open them.” It’s study time indeed, but what first needs to be studied?

Whenever we open our Bible we can easily get overwhelmed. (In part, that’s why I wrote The Search for Home and its related website, thesearchforhome.com.) The questions abound. How do we approach sixty-six books in a single volume? What tools should we use? Where do we begin? Genesis? The Psalms? Matthew? John? Here’s a couple more questions: Should we examine those Old Testament books with funny sounding names? Obadiah? Habakkuk? Should we study them? They seem so closed! How will we ever manage?

Now this is going to sound a little bit strange for those who know me . . . because I love to learn. Nevertheless, let me suggest that we begin by not opening our Bibles. Rather, let’s begin by opening ourselves. After all, what’s inside is what really matters. Let’s pause for a moment and think about that statement – what’s inside is what really matters.

If you agree, let me say that I’m not talking about simply being open to any thought or any idea that floats into our minds. Every day we are bombarded by images and words that are not in our best interest. So we certainly shouldn’t be open to them. Rather, I’m talking about opening the deepest part of ourselves to the voice of Jesus Christ.

Exactly How?

“But Paul, how do I accomplish that?” you might ask. “If I”m going to open myself up, shouldn’t I first focus on opening my mind?” If you like to read the Bible, I don’t think you have to worry about mental faculties. (We’ll get to some of those mental disciplines in later posts.) In all likelihood your mind is well prepared and very active already in its desire to grab and control the Biblical text. You might even have a personal theological agenda that might be helpful in some respect, but it might also prevent you from hearing.

Humble Prayer

So what do we do? Well, if we want to open our hearts, if we want to experience “what’s inside is what really matters,” we must begin with a prayer – a humble, thoughtful, pause-filled prayer. Something like this one:

“Lord, I don’t know how to read the Bible, but I do know that all my reading is for nothing if you don’t help me open my heart. I confess Jesus, I cannot open my heart by myself. I need you to help me do it. So would you open my eyes of faith so that I can begin to see? Would you work in the places I cannot feel? Will you soften the most hidden parts of my self so that your Word can penetrate? This requests frightens me Jesus, because I’m asking you to take control. Nevertheless, I want my true self to hear you. That way when I read, I can be embraced by the love of the Father, I can hear the words of Jesus, and I can feel the touch of the Spirit. Thank you. Thank you for helping me.”

So much more can be said, but for a great resource on preparing ourselves to read the Bible, see Dr. Robert Muholland’s wonderful book called Shaped by the Word.. It can be found on Amazon:

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The Right Kind of Middle

“Hey Wade, am I hearing something? Perhaps a gurgle in my belly?” Wade looked at me with a small curved smile. “Am I hearing that midday call for a glazed donut?” Wade looked again. “I don’t know,” Wade responded. “It’s more likely a midday call for a jelly-filled.”  In the 1970’s when I was growing up, one of the unwise things my friend Wade and I liked to do was make a run to our local donut shop. We had plenty of those runs, for once we had our driver’s licenses, it wasn’t uncommon to find ourselves every week at a place called Winchell’s. What’s more, why stop at one donut? “Let’s have a second!” I would share with my friend. Now of course eating multiple donuts was not the best practice for our health, but we decided that while we were young, we could get away with all kinds of things. Many years later, I have discovered intermittent fasting, but that’s another story. 

Middle of our day . . .

What do we do with middles? I’m not talking about those infamous donut holes. Rather, I’m asking, what do we do with the middle of our day? Yes, many of us work a predefined schedule that doesn’t give us a choice, but others of us have at least a measure of freedom to carve out some meaningful time – time to be used in a better way than eating donuts. Not to the reader’s surprise, I’m talking about taking, if possible, a measure of midday time with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Near the end of my Introduction in The Search for Home I write the following:

The number 100 is no accident. The Lord led me in my writing to precisely that number (yes, it’s true) as I came to the end of John 4. Furthermore, the reading of 100 devotional/commentaries gives the reader a nice sense of progress as he or she learns to take steps in the life of Jesus. As I have already said, I want to encourage the reading of the Psalms. Reading the first 50 Psalms, in the course of reading the hundred devotional/commentaries, is meant to provide for a very rich opportunity of growth. Simply take a Psalm and repeat the reading the next day. You cannot read the Psalms too many times. Pray through them and enjoy your time with Jesus. 

Then in that Introduction I divide up the day: 

Early morning – read the devotional/commentary. Consider the questions at the end of each reading, and enter into prayer. 

Midday – read the Psalm as listed in the Suggested Reading. Enter into prayer. 

Evening – read the scripture as listed with the Psalm, and if you sense you’re supposed to go further, then read sequentially and consistently from the Old Testament or New Testament. If time allows, read from one of the Classics in the genre of Spiritual Formation. End your day in prayer. 

Middle of the Day is most neglected . . .

Early morning and Evening times we might be successful with, but it’s this Midday time I’m focusing on here. If we can identify the time most neglected in our Christian lives, I suspect it would be the middle of the day. We are under incredible pressures. Our phone notifications are left on. Text messages have backed up. Phone calls need to be made. Perhaps we get some time (even a little) for lunch, so we eat, and we’re back to our jobs. The list is endless of possible things that keep us from a personal time with Jesus in the middle of the day, and this is part of the reason we neglect our Lord. “Jesus?” we say, “I’ll get to Him tonight to tomorrow,” etc. Now don’t misunderstand me. I know that due to our jobs and obligations many of us cannot get what I call “a reasonable time of devotion” in the middle of the day. That’s fine. Jesus gives grace. However, if we cannot get the time, then it is even more necessary to memorize scripture so that we can pray through and in the Word at various moments. (In the next blog post I will write about scripture memorization, meditation and prayer.) 

Knowing the Psalms

What if we do have time in the middle of the day?  Once again, I advise the reader to know the Psalms, for the Psalms are every Christian’s prayer book. The Search for Home suggests a new reading of the Psalms every other day. So Psalm 1 is to be examined the first and the second day of reading the The Search for Home. Psalm 2 is to be read on the third and fourth day, etc. This means that by the time the reader is on Step 99 and 100, he or she will be on Psalm 50. 

Slowing Down

The above being said, another principle that I suggest in The Search for Home is to slow down. So it may be, considering God engages all of us differently, that taking one Psalm every two days is too fast. Rather, it may be that one Psalm a week is more appropriate. For example, the reader may want to memorize Psalm 1, meditate on the Psalm, and observe it’s parts. This method will lead to daily prayer . . . even in the middle of the day!  The bottom line is that I suggest we make the Psalms our midday prayer manual. That way we will have fewer midday donut runs, and more midday Jesus runs. 

Always more to be said, so look for my next blog.