Posts in Category: down to earth believer
“Want to Please God? Ask for Wisdom!”
According to 1 Kings 3:10 (in context), Solomon asked God for wisdom to rule the people of Israel well. This Bible verse indicates that God was pleased with Solomon’s request.
Yes, it is true that, late in his life, Solomon made some very foolish choices that most definitely did not please God. You can read about those choices and their consequences in 1 Kings 11. The Bible does not sugarcoat the truth about the human tendency to mess up. This is true even of “the good guys.” In fact, the brutal portrayal of even the good guys makes you wonder if there are any truly good guys. This honesty is one of the reasons I hold the Bible in high regard.
But back to pleasing God by asking for wisdom!
In the New Testament, James also speaks of asking for wisdom. Whether or not he had King Solomon’s request in mind is doubtful. However, James has some wise words about wisdom.
“James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-7, English Standard Version)
Verse 5 is a promise for any and all of us. When it comes right down to it, we all need wisdom, don’t we? Sure, some of us are smart and some of us are clever. Probably not as smart or clever as we think, of course. However, that is another story and shall be told at another time.
But then there’s wisdom, and that strikes me as a different matter altogether. Some of the wisest people I’ve ever known weren’t all that smart. Some smart (or even brilliant) people I’ve ever known have been really unwise—a.k.a. foolish.
So, according to James, wisdom is ours for the asking. But you have to ask the right Person, at the right time, and with the right attitude.
1. The right Person: God. Would it surprise you to find out that the creator, sustainer, and lover of the universe is a wonderful source of wisdom? Perhaps we should be more surprised if it were not so. And yet, frankly, I often search for wisdom everywhere else. Now don’t get me wrong. God frequently pours his wisdom into and through nature and people. It is very foolish to ignore the wise counsel of others or of the universe. However, it is usually best to go directly to the ultimate source of wisdom. And that is God.
2. The right time: Continually. This doesn’t necessarily come out in the English translations, but the asking for wisdom and the fact that we have a wisdom-giving God is expressed in the present tense in the original Greek text. The present tense in Greek usually has the nuance of continual or repetitive action. We need to be continually asking God for the wisdom that God is continually giving. So, we’re talking here not about a one-time-fits-all gift. Rather, we are talking about wisdom for the living of this day, this moment. So, today, why not ask God for wisdom at least ten times? Excuse me for a moment while I practice what I write.
. . .
There, that’s two times for me!
3. The right attitude: With Faith. Do I really believe that God wants me to ask for, to have, and to make use of wisdom? And why wouldn’t I believe that. If there is a God at all, God probably does what he pleases. And if it gives God pleasure to give any and all wisdom (not just Solomon), who am I to deny the God of the universe a little pleasure?
“My Jesus-Life as a Therapist and Friend”
To start my day, I often read snippets from addiction recovery books published by Hazelden. Today’s excerpt from Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women by Karen Casey (© 1982, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation), began with a provocative epigraph by Karen Horney:
“Fortunately [psycho]analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.”
I was thinking of life as a therapist, but my mind quickly jumped to life as a friend. The reason I made this leap was because of something I read many years ago. I can’t remember the source, but here is the quote as I remember it: “A therapist is a paid friend.”
Now, don’t misunderstand. This statement is deeply problematic. Paying someone to be your friend doesn’t sound terribly noble or helpful. In fact, it sounds more than a little demeaning to both therapists and clients. I have benefited greatly from years of therapy, though I am not currently seeing a therapist. However, while I have two good friends who are therapists, I do not conflate the roles of therapist and friend.
However, thinking of life as combining the roles of therapist and friend—and life performing those dual roles free of charge—that might work. So, I ask myself (and you) the following: What would happen if I/we stopped thinking of life as a puzzle or a struggle, and I/we began to think of life as a therapist and friend.
Hummm . . .
There’s an old rock and roll song that advises us to “hang on to our (your) life.” Perhaps it would be better to let go of our lives and listen to them. Maybe, as with other good friends, we could relax with life and be ourselves. We might begin cherishing our life more—just as it is. After all, we do this with our other fellow-human friends. We cherish them when they’re up and when they’re down. We love them with all their faults, and they love us with all our faults.
I suspect that what I’ve written so far is true, no matter what your religious beliefs (or unbeliefs) are. However, for the Christ-follower this has another dimension. Jesus claimed to be life, as well as being the truth and the road we need to travel (John 14:6). The one who follows Christ follows Life itself. And this Life is indeed a very helpful therapist.
Oh, and one thing more! Jesus not only claimed to be the Life. He also promised to be with his followers all their lives. Furthermore, he promised that they would be with him forever in his Father’s kingdom. If this is true—and rest assured, it does take some faith to believe that it is true—the one who seamlessly combines the roles of friend and therapist will never desert us. Not in this life, nor in the next. Jesus has your back as you go through your life-therapy and make friends with life.
“The Danger of Following my Heart”
Psa. 81:0 To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
Psa. 81:1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
Psa. 81:4 For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
6 “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
Psa. 81:11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81, English Standard Version)
In my Bible readings this morning, I had a fresh encounter with Psalm 81. It was not altogether a pleasant meeting.
The part that especially got to me was the following:
“‘But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.’”
Did you catch that? Because God’s people—God’s own people—refused to listen to God, God gave them over to their own stubborn hearts, to do whatever they had decided to do.
Does that sound like freedom to you? Doing whatever my heart wants frequently does sound like freedom to me. And I have often done whatever my heart told me to do. “Follow your heart!” is a very modern mindset. It is also very ancient.
But what if there is something terribly wrong with our hearts? I believe that there is. This is not because the Bible tells me so, even though the Bible does tell me so. The reason I know that my heart is evil is repeated experience with following my own heart. I’ve done a lot of damage to myself and others by following my own heart. I doubt very seriously that I am alone in this.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Following my own heart does feel like freedom initially. However, sooner or later (and usually sooner), there comes a reckoning. Perhaps I should spell reckoning “wreckoning”, since I have often wrecked my own life and caused great pain to those I was supposed to be loving.
Yes, there is forgiveness. Yes, there is transformation. Yes, God still loves me. And a few very brave people have loved and forgiven me too. They are participants in my transformation. However, my stubborn heart is still a stubborn heart. Daily, I need to listen to God and not my stubborn heart.
And really listening means living differently. Only so am I free in any sense that truly merits being called “freedom”.
“Being a Good Companion to Myself”
“If you can’t stand being by yourself, don’t inflict your presence on others.” (Source unknown, but it’s not me!)
My affirmation for yesterday was as follows:
“Today, by God’s grace, I am thinking a little more clearly, running a little faster, working a little harder, speaking a little more kindly, and enjoying my life a little more.”
However, I did not do well with living out the affirmation. I was cranky and unappreciative and hard to be with, especially late in the day.
The excuses for why I was so out-of-sorts don’t matter. Even if there were reasons, that doesn’t matter much. The hard fact of the out-of-sort-ness itself is the main thing. I am responsible for my moods. I am also responsible for not spreading my crankiness to everyone or anyone else.
I am reminded of what a great twentieth-century writer of spiritual devotionals said. “Moods don’t go by praying; they go by kicking.”
So, today, I am kicking my bad mood to the curb. That’s where the trash is picked up. I will not inflict my internal garbage on others today. Here is my affirmation for today:
“Today, by God’s grace, I am acting out being a person with whom I want to spend time. Since my self is with me everywhere and all the time I go, this is a good plan. This will also make me nicer to be around for others.”
The Apostle Paul writes to believers about how they are to live. The verbs for how Christ-followers are to act are all in the present tense in Greek, which emphasizes continual, ongoing action. Here is what Paul says:
“Eph. 4:25 ¶ Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Eph. 4:26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
Eph. 4:27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
Eph. 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Eph. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Eph. 4:31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Eph. 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Eph. 5:1 ¶ Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Eph. 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice.”
The truly Christian life is not an experience or a spasm. It is a daily and lifelong commitment to a Christ-like way of living.
I hope that you are in a kind mood—as opposed to kind of a mood—today, dear Reader. However, if you’re not in a kind mood, straighten up and fly right! There is no place for cranky-butts in the Kingdom of God. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17, English Standard Version)
“Believers as Naturalists”
“There are believers in the supernatural and then there are those who believe in science and natural law.” That is the attitude of lots of people these days.
What if I told you that there are believers who are also naturalists? That is what I’m going to tell you in this post.
I was listening to Genesis 18 yesterday. For the sake of context, here is part of the chapter relevant to the matter at hand:
“Gen. 18:1 And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
Gen. 18:9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.” (English Standard Version)
This is a story of two old, childless folks who lived about four thousand years ago. They knew the facts of life. And the fact was that they were never going to have a baby. Sarah laughed the laugh of a naturalist who had just been confronted with a supernatural prediction.
Let’s not be too hard on Sarah. Abraham had laughed too when confronted with this baby announcement (Genesis 17:17).
As C.S. Lewis pointed out, the ancients knew where babies came from. They were much more aware of the world (and of what we call “natural law”) than we frequently give them credit for being.
And let’s face it: Miracles are not God’s usual way of operating. If they were, they wouldn’t be so miraculous. If miracles were super common, we wouldn’t be impressed. Indeed, we would take them for granted.
I take great comfort from the fact that Abraham and Sarah were naturalists who came to believe in their own personal miracle. They were told to name the child “Isaac”. Why? Because the name Isaac means “laughter”. Every time the spoke their son’s name, they were reminded of their naturalistic and natural amusement at God’s miraculous prediction.
But God had the last laugh. God always does.
“On Seeing a Fight over a Parking Space and Missing a Sunset”
“Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.
~ Proverbs 29:11
A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.
~ Proverbs 19:11
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
~ Proverbs 15:1
A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.
~ Proverbs 15:18” (From the site https://naturallivingfamily.com/bible-verses-about-anger/?ad_id=526051405341&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9O2v24WW9QIVzebjBx3dXgQSEAAYASAAEgI2FvD_BwE, accessed 01-03-2022)
My sweetheart and I went to Siesta Key Beach to watch the sunset yesterday. She saw the sunset. I watched a verbal battle that I hope didn’t turn into physical violence.
We left in plenty of time to see the sunset. Unfortunately, we did not leave in plenty of time to find a parking space. It was Sunday, the end of New Years weekend. Siesta Key Beach is beautiful, and lots of people love to watch the sunset there. Factor in also my tendency to crazy way overestimate what I can do in a little time, and you have a perfect storm of a missed sunset.
We did get to the beach about half-an-hour before sunset. (Well, okay, so maybe it was only twenty minutes before sunset.) After cruising around looking for a place, I told my sweetheart to get out and go watch the sunset. “And take some pictures!” I suggested. I wasn’t aggravated. For me, this was a major step in the right direction. Perhaps every step in the right direction is major.
As I cruised around waiting for someone to leave, an unfortunate and unnecessary drama unfolded. Two different vehicles were trying to pull into the same space at the same time. Fermions cannot occupy the same space at the same time. That’s a law of physics. There is no getting around it.
Guys are especially likely to turn everything into a competition. Competitive parking spaces is a particularly ugly sport. I moved on when the competition was still at the trash-talking stage. I hope that sanity eventually prevailed.
Here is the sobering thought for me: Until quite recently I was chronically irritating myself with non-issues like parking spots. Notice how I worded this. I was “. . . chronically irritating myself with non-issues . . . .” I was irritating myself. It was an inside job. Of course, I also irritated a lot of other people along the way as well.
So, the sun set without me there to see it. And it was lovely. And me? I enjoyed cruising around the parking lot at Siesta Key Beach.
However, next time, I’m going to leave at 10 in the morning. I should be able to find a parking space that way.
“Agathism”
“A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
The English language has hundreds of thousands of words. These words have work to do. They take their places in the dictionary, ready to serve, wherever and whenever you need them. Some are deployed often. Others only stand and wait.
This week we’ve summoned some of the words who have been patiently waiting for their turn in the dusty pages of the dictionary. Say hello to them. Put them to work. They are handy. They are happy to serve. They will do whatever you ask them to do, but please use them only for the good.
agathism
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: The doctrine that, in the end, all things tend toward good.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek agathos (good), which also gave us agathokakological and the name Agatha. Earliest documented use: 1830.
NOTES:
An optimist would say that everything is for the best. An agathist, on the other hand, would say that what’s happening right now may be unfortunate or evil, but, ultimately, it will all end well. For optimists (and pessimists) from fiction who became words, see here and here.
USAGE:
“His stubbornness and agathism have been an inspiration to me. I don’t naturally have his persistence. So I often ask my mother to put him on the phone when I am struggling with something. It doesn’t matter what the issue is or that he can’t possibly know the future. I just want to hear his standard line, the only setting he has: Everything will be OK in the end.”
Mieke Eerkens; All Ships Follow Me; Picador; 2019.” (From the website, https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2/#inbox/FMfcgzGmtDxFfZMbTTpplrbbLqfDBfDr, accessed 12-27-2021.)
I love Anu Garg! Never met the man, but I still love him! Why? Because, like me, he is a lover and cherisher of words.
Take the word for today, for example: “agathism”. What a wonderful word! Believing that things will turn out for the good in the end.
In a time of a deadly pandemic, widespread political vitriol and oppression, racism, greed, climate change and various other deadly goings-on, it may or may not be true that all things will ultimately work out for the good. But even if it’s just a myth, it might be a good one to believe. If we simply give in and marinate in the sludge of our current real and serious problems, we will simply become part of the problems.
I’ve been struggling here of late with depression that borders on despair. No more! I will practice agathism.
Agathism is biblical, too. The Bible does not sugarcoat the human situation. One of the things I really hate about the Bible is its in-your-face realism about human nature.
Yet the Bible also has this crazy—and seemingly contradictory—idea that everything is going to turn out well after all.
No, not for everyone. That’s true. But there is some good news even with regard to that. In the second letter of Peter, he writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, English Standard Version)
What?! God wants everybody to be saved?!
Yep. If we choose not to be saved, that is our decision. And God will respect our decision. He won’t like it, but he will respect it.
The last of the book of the Christian Bible is called Revelation. In it, there is a lot of evil and violence, most of it caused by human beings. Yes, some of the violence is attributed to God, but God’s violence is a response to human violence.
But the book ends with a vision of a heavenly city that is full of peace, beauty, and joy. This is because the city is full of God’s presence. And it is full of many people, too.
The story goes that Billy Graham was once asked by a gaggle of reporters if he was an optimist or a pessimist. “I am an optimist,” Graham replied. There were lots of bad things going on the world right then. Imagine that! So, one of the reporters asked a follow-up question: “How can you be an optimist, considering all the horrible things that are going on right now.”
Graham’s answer is a classic. “I’ve read the last page of the Bible, and I know how it all turns out.”
How about closing out this horrible year and beginning the next with an agathistic attitude? I think I’ll make a stab at it. Who knows? Perhaps my attempts will turn out well in the end?
“But You Ain’t Even Got a Bucket!”
“The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” (John 4:11, English Standard Version)
I grew up on a farm. We didn’t have running water. We had two wells: one near the house and the other next to the barn. In the winter, when the cows and pigs were couped up in the barn, we had to draw water out of the well by the barn. Dad wasn’t into expensive, modern pumps. All we had was some boards over the well and a bucket on a chain. On a few occasions the chain slipped through my cold fingers and the bucket went to the bottom of the well. It’s hard to water the livestock when you ain’t even got a bucket.
The verse that leads off this missive is from the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Samaritans and Jews got along together about as well as two pit bulldogs—or as well as Democrats and Republicans these days. At best, Jews and Samaritans had no contact. When they did have contact, it often got ugly in a hurry.
So, Jesus engages this Samaritan woman in a conversation. He begins by asking a favor. “Can I have a drink of water?” But this gambit is designed to draw her into even deeper waters than Jacob’s well contained.
Here is the story in its entirety:
“3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
John 4:7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
John 4:16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
John 4:27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
John 4:31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
John 4:39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (English Standard Version)
Listening to this story this morning on my smartphone YouVersion, I was struck by the woman’s comment that Jesus didn’t even have a bucket. The Bible in general, and John in particular, has a tendency to make these seemingly throwaway comments that may mean a great deal more than they seem to be saying. While it was literally true that Jesus didn’t have a bucket, John may have been hinting at something much more profound. Jesus did not have a bucket to draw the living water of life. In fact, Jesus was the water, according to John’s Gospel.
Jesus didn’t and doesn’t need a bucket because he was and is the water of life.
I don’t understand this at all, but I am intrigued. And maybe intrigue is the first step toward understanding. Perhaps being intrigued is as muchunderstanding as I can pull off most of the time. Maybe Jesus is drawing me and you into his conversation with this outcast, “otherly” woman.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “Strange and Wonderful Creatures” March 28, 2025I did not sleep enough last night. Five hours of sleep may be enough for some, but not for me. However, when I tried for a while to go back to sleep after waking up at 1:00 a.m., I realized that it was not going to happen. I might as well get up and work […]
- “Even Computers Need a Rest Sometimes!” February 11, 2025Jumpy cursor! I was trying to grade student assignments, and my cursor was jumping around like a Mexican jumping bean. I would start typing something, and then I would be on a different line. Here is the sort of non-sentences I was ending up with: be Please see my respolownse video. Of course, what I […]
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- DTEB, “The Wanna-Wanna Method” January 29, 2025“. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12b-13, English Standard Version) In a text exchange with a friend, he confessed that he really, really wants to make some bad […]
- “Fun, Cat Videos, and Transformation” December 9, 2024“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, English Standard Version) One of my twelve-step sponsors suggested that I need more fun in my life. He knows me well, but on this one, I was determined to prove him wrong. […]
- “The Enemy is Perfectionism” December 6, 2024“The good is the enemy of the best.” (A common saying.) “The best is the enemy of doing anything at all that is good.” (My take on the saying and my reality.) Some of you have been wondering why I haven’t been posting any of my musings in the past way-too-long. I am tempted to […]
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
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