Posts By Dteb
DTEB, “Continually (Re)Setting Our Mind to Him”
“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. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Col. 3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Col. 3:12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:1-17, English Standard Version)
A mindset can be a habitual way of thinking about God, ourselves, other people, or the universe. However, a mindset needs to be frequently updated and renewed. And, of course, sometimes certain mindsets need to be abandoned. In any case, a mindset does not necessarily mean that our minds are set in concrete.
Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, reminds believers that their minds should be on Jesus Christ. This might suggest that their minds had a tendency to wander off in other directions. Wandering minds: I’m sure glad that my mind never wanders! (If you think that I was speaking ironically, let me remove any doubt. I was indeed!)
Paul uses a present tense Greek verb in verse 2. The present tense in Greek usually suggests some kind of continual, regular, or repeated action. “Continually set your minds on the things in Heaven, on Christ.”
Now, I can’t speak for you, but for me, I am always having to reset my mindset. Why? Because my mind keeps coming unset. Perhaps some people are able to set a course and stay the course, but I suspect that even those people need a lot of midcourse corrections.
How does a body go about changing their mindset for the better? I wish I knew. However, I’ll give you a few of my suspicions.
Suspicion #1: Prayer is one way to renew an appropriate, healthy mindset. Prayer means both speaking and listening to God. This helps me to reset my mindset.
Suspicion #2: God’s Word in the Bible can and does help me to reset my mindset frequently. The stories and teachings often bring me up short. They make me realize that I am often not simply missing the boat. I am on a boat heading the wrong direction.
Suspicion # 3: Other people help me to realize when my mindset is needing renewed or corrected. This includes my church, my 12-step friends and other friends, and my wife.
A final thought. When I do it, it helps me to have a better mindset if I begin the day and end the day by reminding myself what is really important: loving God and loving people. As they say, this is not rocket science. But simple is not the same thing as easy. I heard of a not-so-new convert to Christ who was reported to have said, “The problem with the Christian life is that it is so daily!” She was right.
DTEB, “Get Your Glow On!”
Psa. 34:0 Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.
Psa. 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
Psa. 34:4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Psa. 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Psa. 34:11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
Psa. 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psa. 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.” (Psalm 34, English Standard Version)
The verses for today in the YouVersion app are Psalm 34:4-5. I was especially struck by the words,
“I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant, . . . .”
From fears to a radiant face—oh my!
I suppose we all radiate something. Some people can walk into a room, and it seems as if someone turned off a light. Some of us radiate misery.
And then, there are the others. When my wife smiles or gives me a tender look, she radiates joy and kindness.
One of the many good results of trusting God is that our faces become radiant. The story is told about that Moses that, when he came out of the tent of meeting from being with God, Moses’ face was shining. Well, yeah!
Today, I am spending some time with God. Got to get my glow on!
“Fasting from Politics”
I am resisting the urge (temptation?) to look at online news or listen to NPR in order to find out if “my” candidates won. I’m pretty sure they didn’t. I can get myself all worked up about politics these days, but is that really a good use of my time?
How should I be using my time? Writing, loving my wife, taking care of our little dog, cleaning, yard work, preparing to teach and teaching, taking good care of my body, helping others—these are the things that deserve my time and attention. I spend entirely too much time editing my fellow citizens. Of course, I don’t like it when they try to edit me.
I was at a dinner where one of the guys at my table launched into an impassioned rant (is there any other kind?) about politics. He ended with, “And anybody who voted for ___________ is either sick or on welfare!”
I had had enough, and responded, “Well, I’m neither sick nor on welfare, but I voted for __________.” I fear that the gentleman at my table still suspects that I am either sick or on welfare. Perhaps both.
So, today is a politics fasting day. I am focusing on what I can do, as I am and where I am. I’ll let God and the politicians take care of the big stuff. God can and ultimately will take care of the truly big stuff. Politicians of either party? Not so sure.
“God’s Nevertheless of Love”
At some point, we all have to say either “therefore” or “nevertheless.” “Therefore” is usually the easiest conclusion. Sometimes it is the best one, but not always.
A person treats us badly. We can say, “Therefore, I am treating them badly.” Or we simply write them out of the script of our lives.
On the other hand, we could acknowledge the bad treatment, but choose to say, “Nevertheless, I’m not so sure that they are usually that way. Maybe they’re just having a bad day.”
Now, I believe that there is a time for drawing some logical, protective conclusions for ourselves and those we love. I am not a fan of staying in long-term abusive relationships. Unless there is a good chance of change and a process for change—a process that the other person is working on a daily basis—a firm “therefore” might involve leaving a relationship, getting a restraining order, or any number of other “therefores”. Love does not involve being a stubborn idiot.
However, I am increasingly aware that we jump to the logical therefore way too quickly. People can and do change. In fact, I will hazard the statement that people can’t stay the same. Of course, not everyone changes for the better. We all know people who don’t just get older. They also get more-so. That more-so is not always a good more-so, either.
In the Old Testament of the Bible, we are told and shown two things repeatedly. The first is that God remained lovingly faithful to Israel. The second is that Israel rarely responded to God’s loving faithfulness with love and faith and loving obedience. Sometimes, God did say, “Therefore, I have given you into the hands of your enemies.” At the very least, God gave them over to the consequences of their own thoughts, words, and actions. Israel, at this point, is a metaphor for all peoples of all times and each of us individually.
More often, God says, “Nevertheless . . .” to Israel. He did not give up on them. God doesn’t give up on us either.
Turning to the New Testament, God bares his heart to the human race through Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s decisive Nevertheless.
“Exalted, But Not Aloof”
“Psa. 113:4 The LORD is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens!
5 Who is like the LORD our God,
who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 113, English Standard Version)
We have a way-beyond-the-starry-heavens God, who is also incredibly down to earth. Not just down to earth, but down in the dust and the ashes with us.
I found Derek Kidner’s words even more energizing than the coffee I drank this morning. I quote him at length.
“‘Far down …’
The challenge of verse 5, Who is like the Lord our God?, meets us, expressed or implied, throughout the Bible. It is put eloquently and at length in Isaiah 40:12-41:4, but it has its witnesses everywhere, even in the names of men and angels (Micaiah, ‘who is like Yahweh?’; Michael, ‘who is like God?’). Here this transcendence is memorably [Vol 16: Psa, p. 437] suggested by the perspective of verse 6, where the very heavens are almost out of sight below him. He is, as JB [The Jerusalem Bible] puts it, ‘enthroned so high, he needs to stoop to see the sky and earth!’23
7ff. Yet he is anything but aloof. Verses 7 and 8 anticipate the great downward and upward sweep of the gospel, which was to go even deeper and higher than the dust and the throne of princes: from the grave to the throne of God (Eph. 2:5f.).
Consciously, however, these verses look back to the song of Hannah, which they quote almost exactly (cf. 7, 8a with 1 Sam. 2:8). Hence the sudden reference to the childless woman who becomes a mother (9), for this was Hannah’s theme. With such a background the psalm not only makes its immediate point, that the Most High cares for the most humiliated, but brings to mind the train of events that can follow from such an intervention. Hannah’s joy became all Israel’s; Sarah’s became the world’s. And the song of Hannah was to be outshone one day by the Magnificat. The spectacular events of our verses 7 and 8 are not greater than this domestic one; the most important of them have sprung from just such an origin.
But it would distort the psalm, and its values, to make verse 9 simply a means to an end. The psalm finishes with what seems an anticlimax, and it must not be disguised. It is here that God’s glory most sharply differs from man’s: a glory that is equally at home ‘above the heavens’ (4) and at the side of one forlorn person.
There is plainly much more than rhetoric in the question of verse 5, ‘Who is like the Lord our God?’”
Nina Totenberg, long-time NPR reporter, tells a wonderful story about her father. Roman Totenberg was a world-renowned violinist and teacher, who lived to be 101 years old. He was teaching students—quite literally—on his death bed. Nina Totenberg tells the story of her father being asked by Franklin Roosevelt to perform at the White house.
Her dad “. . . had a few weeks earlier played for the king of Italy, and that affair was so formal that he had to borrow a top hat and cape from the Polish ambassador, and back off the stage so as not to offend the king. In contrast, after the performance at the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt served dinner in the family quarters, serving each of the performers from a sitting position on the floor in front of a table. As Totenberg would later recount, he thought to himself as he compared the two events, ‘This is the country for me!’” (https://www.npr.org/2012/05/08/152275442/roman-totenbergs-remarkable-life-and-death, accessed 11-07-2022)
A God so transcendent, yet so near to those who sit in the ashes—this is the God for me! And for you, too, I believe.
“The Blue Hour”
“Rom. 13:11 ¶ Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
Rom. 13:12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Rom. 13:13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
Rom. 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:11-14, English Standard Version)
I woke up well before the dawn this morning, as I generally do. It is unseasonably warm and nice here in Cincinnati, so I decided to walk and run (well, jog) early. With the time change, I wasn’t sure if I had time for that before a Zoom meeting with some friends and church. So, I did what we all do these days: I searched online.
Sometimes, online searches give you more than you had bargained for, and once in a while, that “more” is really good. So it was in this case. I learned more than what time the sun came up. I learned what the twenty or thirty minutes before sunrise and after sunset are called: “the blue hour.” You probably already knew that, but I did not. Apparently, it is called “the blue hour” because, on a clear day, the sky is dark blue at those times.
One of the things that I do is to see connections where others do not. Probably, some of my “connections” are pretty disjointed or even manufactured. However, I like them, and will continue to see (or make) such connections. My mind went to Romans 13:11-14. Paul is writing to Christ-followers in Rome and says that they need to wake up. What! How can you be following Christ and yet be asleep?
That is the question, isn’t it? But God knows that some of us try. Or perhaps sleep walking is our default position? Paul mentions several ways of being asleep: carousing and drunkenness, sexual immorality, dissension, and jealousy. And just in case, these specific varieties of somnambulism don’t hit the believers with a bucket of cold water, Paul adds “thinking about how to gratify fleshly desires.” Who of us doesn’t want what we want when we want it?
Time to wake up, dear friend. It is the blue hour!
“Keeping Things Fresh”
We talked about keeping recovery fresh today in our Zoom 12-step group. That is an important topic. Routines and rituals can be very healthy. However, they can also become another “r” word: ruts. And, as someone has said, “The only difference between a rut and a grave is depth.”
It’s not just recovery from addiction that needs to be kept fresh. Everything needs refreshing on a regular basis. Marriage, the spiritual life, work, exercise regimens, study, diet—all need to be kept fresh.
But how?
I suppose that step one is to recognize that I am responsible for staying fresh. If something in my life has become stagnant, it is not someone else’s fault. Stagnant is something I do to myself. So is fresh.
Several helpful comments were made during the meeting. One person said that he uses gratitude for things, people, and experiences to keep his recovery fresh. He also said that, when someone mentioned something that they did to improve their recovery, he would often try that out. Some things worked and some did not, but some of the things he had stolen for others had made a huge and healthy difference in his life. As I listened to the discussion and reflected on it afterward, I said to myself, “Keeping recovery fresh is an individual responsibility, but it is a together kind of task.”
And in that same vein, another person said that serving other people was the main way in which he kept his recovery fresh. If I’m feeling stale, serving others is like a fresh (and refreshing) breeze blowing through my life.
So, what am I going to do today, right now, to refresh my recovery, my marriage, my spiritual life? Well, writing this blog post was one thing. Perhaps reading this post and passing it along to someone else might be part of your own refreshment.
“The Importance of Looking Good”
“But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’” (1 Samuel 16:7, English Standard Version)
“3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.” (1 Peter 3:3-6, English Standard Version. These verses are from a passage where the author of 1 Peter gives advice to wives and husbands.)
I’ve never been very concerned about looking good. I’ve just realized that I’ve been mistaken about that, or at least very one-sided.
My wife and I went out and worked in the front flower bed yesterday. If it were up to me, I would let winter have its way with the flower beds. What can I tell you? At times, I can be incredibly lazy.
I think that Sharon’s concern with this particular flower bed is at least partially because it is the front flower bed. She is concerned about other people seeing (even in the winter) a scraggly mess of last season’s beauty.
Now, don’t get me wrong. My wife is not a vain person. As with every living human, there might be a trace of that in her, but only a trace. Vain? No! In fact, this morning it hit me like a mighty wave of revelation that she is just plain right. Other people get to—or have to—see our flower bed. We owe it to them, as well as to ourselves, to give them something to look at that is not ugly and disorderly. Yes, even in the winter.
This same principle applies to houses and personal appearance. Looking good isn’t everything, but it is also not nothing. The Bible leans heavily upon inner beauty, and so should we. However, the same Bible that warns us against an overemphasis on outward beauty also has an entire book of love poetry in which the lovers carry on the whole time about how beautiful and handsome their loved one is. The book is called “The Psalm of Psalms”, which is the Hebrew way of saying “the very best of psalms”.
“Inflection Points and the Curvature of the Soul”
I got an email the other day that used a phrase that I have often heard, but I didn’t really understand what it meant: “inflection point”. I had a very general idea of what it was, but I had never really drilled down into its precise meaning. When I drilled, I hit two very different (though related) veins of meaning.
Here is a little something I picked up from Professor Google:
“in·flec·tion point
noun
- 1.
MATHEMATICS
a point of a curve at which a change in the direction of curvature occurs.
- 2.
US
(in business) a time of significant change in a situation; a turning point.” (https://www.google.com/search?q=inflection+point&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS844US844&oq=in&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j69i57j69i59j69i60l4.3629j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8, accessed 11-03-2022)
Now, I don’t understand mathematics, geometry, and calculus even a little bit, but this is an intriguing thought. The point at which a curve changes its direction—hummmm.
Most of us live fairly curvy lives. We mean to walk the straight and narrow, but life throws us curves. Perhaps we need to consider which way the curves are going, and which way we need to go. We do have choices, and we need to make good ones.
In a sense, every moment of every day we have to decide which way we need to be curving. This is not only true when we are in crisis. It is true all the time. All the time, we are deciding which way to move.
St. Augustine of Hippo says in one of his works that sin is the soul curving back on itself. When every decision asks only “What is in this for me?” the inflection point becomes a point along a terrifying constriction of the soul. And as long as we/I continue to turn the same direction, we get smaller and smaller. To put it less philosophically, as that famous non-philosopher Anonymous has said, “A person wrapped up in him or herself makes a very small package.”
I have a good friend who, whenever I call him in my distress, says, “How can I be of service?” Now that is a question that helps me. I have a hunch that he himself is also helped to curve in a better direction by asking the question and acting on my response.
“Instant Gratification and Speed Chess”
As I think I have confessed in these musings before, I am very prone to immediate gratification. In fact, I’m into keeping on with the not-so-gratifying gratification until it is no longer gratifying at all. Online chess is—like the internet itself—highly addictive. Ten-minute games are my current drug of choice.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with chess. Well, there isn’t anything wrong for many folks. It can be fun and can expand your mind. However, I can turn everything into an addiction.
One of the problems with the desire gratification, via chess or anything else, is that it ignores reality: both material and spiritual realities. You doubt? For the material aspect, try this on for size.
“Prepare your work outside;
get everything ready for yourself in the field,
and after that build your house.” (Proverbs 14:27, English Standard Version)
I grew up on a farm. My dad kept talking about building a new and better house. He never got out of the field long enough to do that, so we lived in a—how can I say this delicately—a house that was more than a little old. (Of course, in many parts of the world, our house would have been a mansion.) My dad wasn’t terribly religious, but he was living in tune with Proverbs 14:27 for sure!
And perhaps, he was wiser than I gave him credit for. We always had what we needed. He had seen farmers who, after a couple of good harvests with decent prices, started building nice, modern houses. Some of them never got to live in their new houses because they had to stop building them, due to a lack of enough money to finish them. In some cases, the bank owned the house and the farm after next year’s crop failure.
But for Christ-followers, the issue is even more pressing. For Christians, we need to take avoiding the lust for immediate gratification very seriously. This includes the very spiritual and practical realms. Jesus said that the most important thing we could do was to love God with all we are, and our neighbor as we love ourselves. The problem with my desire for immediate gratification is that it all about me. I’m not thinking about loving God or loving my neighbor; I’m thinking about me.
So, making a list of things I need to do to “get my fields ready” and things I need to do in order to love God and others is very important. After doing those things, if I have a little time to play games of chess might be just fine. (Well, maybe just one or two.) Otherwise, perhaps it is chess that needs to be crossed off my list—permanently.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
- “A Pastor or a Teacher?” September 8, 2024I went to the Asbury University President’s Brunch yesterday morning with Sharon. It was billed as a non-fundraiser. I have learned to be skeptical of such claims. However, it really wasn’t a fundraiser! It was a wonderful time. The university paid for everything, including valet parking. It was good to meet new people, all of […]
- “Even When We Mess Up” September 8, 2024One of my students in the Luke-Acts course I’m teaching right now online made a very perceptive comment in a post to another student’s work. She and the other student, Mackenzie, agreed on an excellent point: God can even use our mess-ups for his purposes and glory. Here is Victoria’s comment: “Mackenzie, your perspective on […]
- “On Playing Chimes and Being Jesus” September 6, 2024“John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (English Standard Version) One of my students did […]
- “A Confrontation in a Kroger Parking Lot” September 4, 2024My wife was waiting for a lady to pull out from a parking spot in a Kroger parking lot. She had waited for quite a while, but when the lady finally pulled out, another “lady” who had just come around the corner from the other direction whipped into the parking space. My wife is not […]
- “The Crushing Debt I Owe to God” September 3, 2024“A Sinful Woman Forgiven Luke 7:36 ¶ One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Luke 7:37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought […]
- “Only Two Kinds of People?” September 1, 2024“Psa. 5:1 ¶ Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Psa. 5:2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. Psa. 5:3 O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning […]
- “On Being a Good Ad” September 1, 2024I was buying candy corn for a friend at Ollie’s the other day when I eavesdropped on an interesting conversation. The lady behind me said to the cashier, “This is a really good store with good prices, but I didn’t even know it was here. You should advertise more!” The young cashier replied, “If we […]
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