In CS Lewis’ classic book The Screwtape Letters a demon, Screwtape, is training his nephew on how to tempt humans. He writes, “whatever their bodies do affects their soul. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: In reality, our best work is done by keeping things out.”

Here is truth.

If Satan can keep the Word of God out of your mind, he will be successful without putting one thought in.

So, how about getting in the Word this summer? I wrote a little devotional called Summer in the Psalms—Book One, which you can download from our church home page. The book of Psalms is divided into five different books, Book One is chapters 1-41.

The purpose is to get everyone us into the Word of God this summer, whether you are camping, watching services from home, or going to a church building. By getting into the Word, I mean into the Bible, not into sermons, not into commentaries, not into YouTube. I love what others have to say about the Bible, but this summer we want to get into the Word. Period.

Warning: This will be more difficult than reading a devotional.

When you read a devotional, someone else has gone through the joy of getting into the Bible, finding cool truth, cutting it up into bite-sized morsels, and feeding it to you. It’s easy eating, but you miss something.

You miss hearing the steak sizzle on the grill. You miss the wonderful smell. You miss cutting in to see the perfect color. You miss biting in.

There is nourishment in pre-chewed steak for sure. But for the joy of discovery, for a renewed relationship with the Author of the Scriptures, nothing beats getting into the word for yourself.

Here is how it works:

Starting MAY 30, we will start going through the Psalms, Book One together. Each week we will go through just one Psalm in detail, then read two or three more over the weekend. Week one we will examine Psalm one. Each day is one small step in evaluating that Psalm so that at the end of the week you can list your discoveries. Each month we will use a different Bible Study Method to go through that one Psalm in detail. The Psalms are printed out in the booklet for you in the NIV, but feel free to use other versions to compare in your study.

Some help for you:

I figured this would be new for many of us, so I put an example of a week’s study below. I chose the first eight verses of Psalms 119, (A Psalm we are not doing this summer) as most of the Psalms we are studying are pretty short.

OK, below is the Psalm just like you will find it printed in the booklet. Then I put the booklet questions in bold type, with an example of possible answers in italics.

Example: Psalm 119:1-8

Ps 119:1 (NIV2011)  Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. ²  Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart— ³  they do no wrong but follow his ways. ⁴  You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. ⁵  Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! ⁶  Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. ⁷  I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. ⁸  I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.

DAY 01: Observation: Read Psalms 119:1-8 three times. Don’t try to make conclusions or applications yet, just observe the story. Then either

• Paraphrase it; that is, rewrite it in your own words, or
• Outline it

So, here is my outline

1. Blessed Are
   1. Those who are blameless
   1. Those who walk according to God’s laws
   1. Those who keep God’s laws
   1. Those who seek God
      1. They do no wrong
      1. They follow God’s ways
   1. Your ways are known and to be obeyed
2. If I would be steadfast in obeying your decrees
   1. Then I won’t be put to shame when I read the Bible
   1. Then I will praise you as I learn the Bible
3. I will obey, don’t give up on me.

OR, if I was going to do a paraphrase instead, this is what it might look like:

I’m blessed when I know God’s word and do it. Therefore, I need to know His word and follow it with all my heart. God took the time to tell me how to live, and I will be blameless if I will just follow it. I must persevere in obeying what I learn so that I don’t embarrass myself when I do these devotions. Thank You, Father, for giving me Your laws. I’m going to do what You asked, I know you won’t give up on me when I mess up.

DAY 02: Observation: Write your observations for each verse. Ask yourself, “What is being said?”

Verse 1: I’m blessed and blameless when I follow God’s word.

Verse 2: I’m blessed when I follow with all my heart–not partly but completely. 

Verse 3: I can’t do anything wrong when I am following God. That’s pretty cool to know.

Verse 4: God’s laws aren’t suggestions.

Verse 5: If I would just follow consistently that would make all the difference in my life.

Verse 6: Gods word should be encouraging not embarrassing.

Verse 7: I will worship as I do these devotions.

Verse 8: I will obey, period. God will be there to help me, even when I mess up.

Day 03: Interpretation: Write the meaning of each verse or section. Ask, “What does this mean? What is being taught?”

This is the hardest step for me. I would write something like…

I noticed that in the NLT the word that the NIV translates “blessed” is translated “joyful.” So, I think what is being taught is that those who study God’s word and put it into practice bring joy and blessing into their lives. The blessing doesn’t seem to be material or success, but a clean conscience, of following the Spirit and knowing you are pleasing God. It even brings joyful worship as we obey and as we study. As a result, it is foolish not to know and follow the Word of God.

Day 04: Correlation: Find cross-references for what you think is being taught in this Psalm. Is it taught anywhere else? You can use the little notes or references in the margins of your Bible to help.

The first I thought of was the rest of Psalms 119. Every verse seems to have some emphasis back on the Word of God and how it helps us. I also thought of Proverbs, those verses about God’s wisdom, and Deuteronomy 6 about training our kids in God’s word. Then I cheated and googled “obeying God’s word verses.” A few I found that seemed to really fit were;

• ^{Dt 28:1 (NIV2011)}  If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
• ^{Jn 14:23 (NIV2011)}  Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
• ^{Jas 1:22 (NIV2011)}  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
• ^{Ro 12:2 (NIV2011)}  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Day 05: Application: Start three sentences with “I will…” You can also try praying the Psalm, it may be easiest to pray your paraphrase.

I prayed my paraphrase. Starting with; Heavenly Father I know I’m blessed when I know Your word and do it. Therefore, I will keep up this study this summer and follow with all my heart…

THAT’S IT!

It may look like a lot but remember this is five days’ worth of study. It really doesn’t take that long. And remember, you only need it to impact you, no one else. This isn’t for a grade; it’s for relationship.

Here is truth.

If you can keep the Word of God increasing in your mind, you will be successful without worrying about what you need to keep out.

Blessings,

Dan

[picture by Alessandro Cerino on Unsplash]

When I was a kid, my dad would listen to a radio show by Paul Harvey called The Rest of the Story. Paul Harvey would tell a story but at a key point stop and say, “In a minute you will hear the rest of the story.” Then they would go to the commercial break.

It was mean, really.

Anyway, after the commercial, he would give the shocking end and say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”

When a radio station says, “we will be right back, don’t move that dial,” you know what I do?

Yup, I move that dial.

Call me a rebel.

But never did I do that with Paul Harvey. I knew the best was coming.

Thankfully, so did Dad. So, we would wait.

Living in the Commercial Break

I don’t remember ever liking the commercials making me wait for the rest of the story. But, had there been no commercials, there would have been no story.

Before Paul Harvey, the New Testament writers used the story of Israel going to the Promised Land and waiting in the wilderness as their metaphor. As Israel was rescued out of slavery in Egypt through the blood of the lamb and was baptized in the Red Sea, so too we have been rescued from sin by the blood of the Lamb of God and been baptized into the body of Christ. (1 Cor 10, Hebrews 3-4) God was with Israel through the pillar of fire at night and cloud by day, and we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. But God’s blessing and presence in the wilderness was not the end of the story for Israel.

They had to pass through the wilderness to get to the Promised Land. Once there, due to disobedience, they had to wait for another 40 years for the rest of the story. In a sense, God being with them was their promised land as they waited to enter the physical Promised Land.

And we too are waiting, but as with Israel there is hope. In a sense, God living in and through us is our promised land as we wait for the rest of the story, the Promised Land when Jesus returns to rule.

The Stockdale Paradox

I got a book at a leadership conference years ago called Good to Great by Jim Collins. In it he tells a story of Jim Stockdale who was an America Vice Admiral during the war in Vietnam. Stockdale was captured, imprisoned, and tortured for over seven years.

How did he make it through?

What seems counterintuitive is that he said the first people to die in captivity were the optimists, who assumed they would get out quickly. They “died of a broken heart.” He later said, “I think there was a lot of damage done by optimists… the problem is, some people believe what professional optimists are passing out and come unglued when their predictions don’t work out.”

Stockdale believed that the key to survival was to combine realism and hope. “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Putting it all together, when asked how he survived when he had no idea if he would ever be rescued, he said: “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

How great it is to know the end of the story. We are not yet living in the Promised Land. But the One who is returning lives within us today. And for today, that’s enough. That’s our today promised land.

The Promised Land by TobyMac does a beautiful job putting music to this truth, combining realism and hope. I hope you like it.

Waiting for The Rest of the Story

• ^{Romans 12:12 (NIV2011)}  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

• ^{Psalms 27:14 (NIV2011)}  Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

• ^{2Peter 38:-18 (NIV2011)}  Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
  • ¹⁰  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
  •  ¹¹  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹²  as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
  • ¹³  But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. …
  • ¹⁸  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

This Sunday at AnchorPoint we plan to be in Matthew 16:21-27, the instructions from Jesus on how and why to follow Him as we wait for His return.

Thanking God we know the rest of the story,

Dan

I still love it.

JoLynn and I enjoy the monthly hot date at Costco. Usually, we pull in on a weekend and the place is packed. Still, I’ll find a nice spot close to the handicapped parking. She says, with jealous disdain, “You’re so lucky.”

I reply, “Yeah, well, I had my devotions.”

Is God like that? Does he reward us for following him and make us park a mile away when we don’t? The believers who are having to leave their homes behind in Ukraine as they run for their lives, is God punishing them for something?

No.

Circumstances are not a sign of godliness, or of sin.

Still, I think we all have a bit of Voodoo in us. We believe God will make us lucky. That’s why the baseball player will cross himself before coming to the plate. Or the crude comedian will kiss the cross around her neck before going on stage. Neither may follow God, but they both want luck. They want a 4-leaf clover God.

Who doesn’t want a bit of luck on their side?

One time I took a small group of sharp High School kids to Monterrey, Mexico to do some outreach and construction projects. We loaded up our old 15 passenger youth van in Lake Charles LA with about a dozen youth and sponsors and headed south. We broke down just this side of the border (this side was good), and after wasting a day trying to fix it ourselves, we left the van in the incapable hands of the mechanics at the local Dodge dealership (incapable was bad). We were able to obtain another van for our final 150 miles of travel in Mexico. 

Once in Monterrey one of our students decided to run away. In Monterrey. In Mexico. It was supper time, and I asked, “Where is Phil? Has anyone seen Phil?” PANIC. After hours of searching, he showed back up. I didn’t know whether to hug him or kill him.

Parents can get weird when you don’t return their kids.

And then, after spending a couple of weeks in Mexico, we drove north, picked up our “repaired” van from the dealer, and made it a total of 50 miles before it broke down again. After another two days of “repairs,” a couple of folks from our church in Lake Charles drove the 8 hours to Brownsville, TX, and towed us back.

Did we have all those problems because we didn’t have our devotions? Was God getting us back for some hidden sins?

It’s possible I suppose that God wanted to get our attention. He gave us a few extra days together. We learned how to experience inconvenience as a team and not kill each other. Phil learned that Monterrey is a terrible place to choose to run away from home.

So, did God work these tough times for our good? Certainly. Did we go through them because of some hidden sin? Certainly not. God allows challenging times to happen, and it is up to us to choose to follow Him through those times.

I don’t know of any Bible passage that promises that living right will bring good luck or bad living bad luck. There are some verses that show that living righteously can bring temporal blessings, but these are usually proverbs, saying how things normally work. They aren’t promises saying that if you do X, God must cause Y to happen. In fact, you can find plenty of illustrations that following God is just as likely–if not more so—to bring difficult circumstances rather than good ones in the short run as we follow Him.

Take our passage for church at AnchorPoint this Sunday, the parable of The Rich Man and the Beggar, from Luke 16:13-31. In it, a poor beggar named Lazarus is living in front of a rich guy’s house. It’s a gated community, so Lazarus lays in front of the gate, with dogs licking his running sores. But the rich guy was the pagan, and the beggar was the one who followed God. What’s up with that? Why was the rich guy “blessed” and Lazarus unlucky?

Then both Lazarus and the rich guy die, and the rest of the story you can read on your own, or on our Facebook site.

Jesus told us to “pick up our cross and follow,” not “hop in your Ferrari and stay on my bumper.” Jesus promised to forgive us, guide us, and love us into eternity. Unfortunately, there is nothing in there about lucky lottery numbers.

Or Dodge vans.

I like the way the writer of Psalm 73 wrestled with this issue. It’s like he was stuck in Brownsville with a dozen High School kids and a broken-down van when he wrote it.

^{Ps 73:13 (NIV2011)} “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. ¹⁵ If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. ¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply…”

Then he comes to his senses and says “²¹ When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, ²²  I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. ²³ Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. ²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.”

The Psalmist gets it. There is no promise of a lucky life if we follow God. Instead, we follow God because He is always with us, forgiving us, holding our hand, guiding us, and finally taking us into glory. Righteous living does, generally, bring good results, if only temporarily—but the real reward is knowing and enjoying God, starting now, and lasting for eternity.

Dan

I got off the “L” in Chicago (short for elevated railway), and said to myself, “self,” I said, “I don’t know where I am, but it looks like the worst slums in America, and I’m pulling a suitcase. This could be a bad day.”

It almost was.

It had been one of those weekends. The year was 1997. We were living in Tucson, but I was taking modular classes at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago. Back then, you couldn’t receive an accredited degree unless there were 40-hours of in-class instruction for each 3-hour semester class. As a result, Moody structured their master’s classes so that you could do pre-class work, fly up and get all your hours in one week, and then go home for your post-class assignments. A very gracious friend and United Pilot supplied me with “friends and family” tickets to complete my degree. There was just one hitch.

The tickets were “standby.”

This meant that I never knew if there would be room on a flight for me (there was no online check-in at that time). I also had to pack everything that I needed for the week, including my books, into my carryon, as I couldn’t check any baggage. It was good Haiti training.

I had a class starting on Monday, so I went to Phoenix after church on Sunday and tried to fly out to Chicago.

Nothing doing. All the flights were full. All day.

At the end of the day, I took a flight to some bigger city in California to try and fly out from there. That worked, but it was a redeye flight to Chicago. I landed around 6am with no sleep, and, trying to save some money, I decided to take the L for the first time in my life instead of calling a Taxi.

Lack of sleep can make for low IQ decision making.

There was no one on the L except for one African American guy the size of a Suburban, and he hadn’t an ounce of fat on him. He just stared at me like, “This is my train boy. Sit if you dare.”

I was tired. I dared.

Now is when my issues started. I knew where I was going, but I had no idea how to get there. The maps on the side of the train showed all kinds of “blue lines,” and “green lines” and places to switch trains to different lines. It was worse than trying to figure out our governor’s Covid color restrictions. By the time I realized I knew nothing about Chicago except that Moody was somewhere close to Lake Michigan, the train had started moving. I was stuck.

I figured the announcements might be of some help.

I figured wrong.

The announcements sounded like someone talking with their mouth full of marshmallows, played back at full distortion, speaking Arabic. By now the train was getting packed with people, but they were city people going to work. They didn’t look like folks you wanted to talk to. Besides, I’m an introvert. So, I did the next most logical thing I could think of.

I stayed on until I could see the lake and things looked kind of familiar and got out the next time the train stopped. It turns out I wasn’t too far away from Moody; I was just several blocks Northwest of the school.

But Northwest of Moody was Cabrini-Green.

If you are unfamiliar with Cabrini-Green, count your blessings. It was a massive high-rise housing project that started in the 1940s. The city put aside the money to build it, but not to maintain it. It became known as “Little Hell.” For decades it was in the media for gangs, drugs, rapes, murders and was called, “one of the most feared places in America.” In 2000, Chicago decided to tear it down, and the last building was demolished in 2011.

But I was there in 1997.

So, I, a skinny white guy, got off the L in the middle of one of the most dangerous projects in America, pulling my suitcase behind me. I was the first one off, and I assumed the only one who got off. That’s when I realized I was lost. I had no idea which way Moody was located. The high-rise apartments all around me made it feel like walking in a canyon. The smell and look of the place made me realize I was in a dangerous place. The streets were silent and empty. All I knew is that I should start walking. Fast. I went down the street and took my first left. And there he was.

The mountain of a man who was on the train when I first got on, was standing about six feet in front of me, like he was waiting for me to turn left and run into him. I never saw him get off the train. He was sitting behind me, so he would have had to have gotten off after me, but he never walked past me.
And yet, here he was.

“You’re lost, aren’t you boy?” he asked.

Gee, how did you know?

“Yes, this is Cabrini-Green?” I asked.

“Yes, we need to get you out of here. Where are you going?”

“Moody Bible,” I answered, “Do you know where it is?”

“Yup, come with me,” he answered. You don’t argue with mountains when they give instructions. He walked me around back to an underground station, didn’t kill me, and instead got me through the ticket thing and told me to get off on the second stop, I think. Anyway, it worked.

This week I’m speaking at Anchorpoint about the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin from Luke 15. Lost people matter to God. And if they matter to God, they should matter to us also.

I’m sure glad this lost, tired suitcase-pulling idiot mattered to someone else. I still wonder how he got past me, or if he was an angel (Heb 13:2). Either way, he was an angel to me.

Sometimes I have difficulty getting into the skin of what verses in the Bible are trying to say. So, I go into my fancy Logos Bible program – or jump to Bible Hub or Blueletter Bible on my phone – and took up the word-for-word translation. After some study, and stealing from other translations, I attempt to write my own paraphrase.

Here is my Simplified Cooley Version of 2 Corinthians 4:4-9.

^{2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (SCV)} The storehouse of God’s power is inside me. I’m fragile but his power is great. That’s why I’m troubled but not crushed, perplexed but not giving up, spiritually terrorized but never abandoned by God, hurled down but unbroken.

Good News.