Solomon’s Temple.

The temple Solomon built was amazing.  Hewn stones outside, cedar paneling inside, and an interior overlaid with 45,000 pounds of gold.  Carvings, statues, and golden cherubim inside with their wings spread across the span of the hall.  Halls, courtyards, windows, and steps leading up to huge doors.  Imagine Washington D.C.  with all its grand, glorious, marble buildings ringed in colonnades (columns). If you roll the grandeur of D.C. into a big ball, you have a sense of the glory of Solomon’s temple.

But it was not a big place.  Once you passed the outer walls and the courtyards, the temple itself was only 90’ x 30’ or 2,700 square feet.  That is smaller than many middle class houses in the United States today.  Can you believe that? 

(I think I’m going to memorize this line and say it to my friends—“Your house is 2800 square feet?!  Wow!  That’s bigger than Solomon’s Temple!”) 

We call the temple “God’s House” but the temple is not God’s House.  He does not dwell there.  He’s too big.  In fact, God is so big, the SIZE of the temple is irrelevant.  No matter how big it might have been, it would remain infinitely small compared with Him.  Solmon said so himself:

“Who is able to build a temple for Him, since even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Him? Who am I then that I should build a temple for Him except as a place to burn incense before Him?” 2 Chronicles 2:6.

The temple was a place to honor God and for God’s people to stand in awe of a God who was everywhere.  Temples help worshippers focus their emotions and their worship—and the New Testament says your body is a temple.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you … and that you are not your own.  Therefore GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY” 1 Corinthians 6:19.

How can you glorify God with your body today?

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Sports and Education.

I thought of athletes when I read this:

“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand in the presence of kings. He will not stand in the presence of unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29.

Great artists, actors, athletes, inventors, writers, musicians, statesmen—it doesn’t matter: successful people in any field end up surrounded by the rich and powerful. But it was athletes that came to my mind.

HOWEVER.

Athletic ability is not most important. It may open doors, but that’s all. Athletes are analogous to warriors—and look what the Bible says about warriors on the next page:

“A wise warrior is better than a strong one; and a man of knowledge than one of strength. For you should wage war with sound guidance—victory comes with many counselors.” Proverbs 24:5-6.

If you were a general building an army, you would choose smart soldiers over strong soldiers. Football, basketball, and baseball prove it—playing SMART is better than playing HARD. So much of sports, of battles, of LIFE comes down to strategy. You have to make good decisions, often fast decisions. And fast decisions are instinctive—honest people decide to be honest. Dishonest people decide to lie. And great athletes without wisdom will foul up their own lives and the lives of their teammates. Don’t believe me? Three words: “LAST CHANCE U.”

And Marshall, today’s tip is for you: your college CLASSES are more important than your college sports. Few college athletes understand that, but it is ABSOLUTELY TRUE. Proverbs 24:5-6 proves it. Re-read the verse above, then look at how I paraphrased it:

A WISE athlete is better than a STRONG one. An athlete who STUDIES to gain KNOWLEDGE is better than one who works out to build strength. You must take the mound and lead your team WITH SOUND GUIDANCE. Victory comes with WISE COUNSEL. And wisdom and knowledge come from two places: (1) the Bible, and (2) your education. You must STUDY BOTH.

STUDY the WORD—and use this gem from God’s word to stay grounded:

Proverbs 24:5-6 = Academics > Athletics.

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Wrong Thinking Comes First. Wrong Actions Follow. Fix Your Thoughts!

Many of you remain somewhat innocent. You have made good choices. You have not done things that destroy lives.

BUT—the destruction of your life begins in your mind. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7.

Your thoughts will become your destiny. Your identity is not determined by your feelings, which come and go. We are all tempted and enticed by things that are bad for us. But what attracts you does not define you. That is not WHO YOU ARE. Who you are is defined by who you are in Christ. God created you, so God gets to decide who you are.

However, your thoughts will shape your identity because they will shape your choices. If you think of yourself as a sinner who has been forgiven and transformed by Jesus, with spiritual gifts and an amazing, God-centered, grace-filled destiny, then that is who you will be.

But if your view of yourself is mediocre and half-hearted, if you see yourself as just another struggling loser in a world full of misfits, then you will live that out and that is what you will become.

God has a plan for your life. But as Beth Moore says, “the devil also has a plan for your life,” and he seeks only to steal, kill, and destroy. And he starts by whispering lies into your mind. They sound like your OWN THOUGHTS, but that’s how the enemy works. The only way to battle that is to fill your mind with God’s Word.

Paul says to “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:5.

Check your thoughts. Question your beliefs, especially the negative beliefs, or the ones that don’t line up with the Word, or beliefs that you know other respected Christians do not share. If you are in the minority among God’s people, maybe you are in the wrong. Question it. Be vigilant—because the devil lies to you every day.

Please take every thought captive. Grab your thoughts, wrestle them to the ground, and put them in handcuffs.

Then go to the Word and make sure those thoughts are from God. If they are not, give the wrong thoughts the death penalty. That’s the only way you will ever achieve God’s great plan for your life.

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Group Dynamics.

Group relationships are not the same as one-on-one relationships.  If you lead a group—a class, a team, a division of a business—you know certain people require leaders of groups to take measures leaders would NOT take if the relationships were one-on-one. 

That bad kid whose mocking behavior influences everyone else? For the sake of the group, sometimes the “bad seed” may become a sacrificial lamb: get rid of him for the benefit it will have on the group as a whole.

“Drive out a mocker, and conflict goes too.  Quarreling and dishonor will cease” Proverbs 22:10.

Remember the complaining children of Israel? No sooner had they left slavery in Egypt than they began whining about food and water and everything else. Their attitudes were so bad, the earth opened up and swallowed the rebels on one occasion, God sent snakes to kill them on another, and the remainder died while circling the wilderness for forty years.

Not one mocker saw Israel move into the Promised Land.  Not one.  Do not feel sorry for them.  Instead, remember God’s sovereignty.

Do you feel sorry for the bad kid who is expelled from private school?  Or the mocker who loses his baseball scholarship because the coach wants players who are grateful to be here? Don’t.

Teaching high school, I repeatedly saw the way one bad kid could stop 25 others from learning.  The ONLY way to ensure that the innocent received the education they deserved was to get rid of the mocking scoffer.  I do not regret sending a single one out of my room.  You CAN’T save them all.  Instead, learn to focus on the ones you CAN help—and often you help them most by removing their most offensive, mocking peers. 

God, we want to be people of mercy. But when we lead groups, give us the wisdom and courage to be tough with the ones who leave us no choice.

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Sowing and Reaping Across Generations.

Jonathan Edwards was one of early America’s greatest preachers. His devotion to prayer and Bible study remains unparalleled, his biographer recording that he usually spent 13 hours a day studying the word, an hour talking with his wife and 11 kids, and prayed a prayer of blessing over each child, every day. When Edwards had been dead 150 years, a researcher compared 1200 descendants of Edwards to 1200 descendants of a criminal named Max Jukes. How do you think that turned out?

Jukes’ legacy: 7 murderers, 60 thieves, 190 prostitutes, 150 other convicts, 310 paupers, 440 alcoholics, and 300 who died before old age.

Edwards’ legacy: 1 US Vice President, 3 US senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 30 judges, 1 law school dean, 1 med school dean, 13 college presidents, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 military officers, 100 lawyers, 100 preachers, 80 public office holders, 285 college graduates.

There is a FIVE GENERATION RULE: the way you parent your children will influence the next FIVE generations!

That is why I am intrigued by the family tree. It is amazing to see the patterns of blessings across generations. I don’t know who will come after you, but those who have come before create a family tree almost as rich as that of Jonathan Edwards.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6.

“In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” Genesis 22:18.

“Because you have done what is right in My sight…, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” 2 Kings 10:30.

God, help us remember that our thoughts today become actions tomorrow, then habits, then destiny, until finally they shape our legacy for generations to come. May our lives be built on your word and your truth. Help us love your word and study it more. Forgive us: we are lazy. Motivate us to do the work of Bible study and prayer.

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“Lord, I’m Willing to be Made Willing.”

The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes. Proverbs 21:1.

What a powerful promise! God can literally change ANY heart! He can turn the lost back to himself. He can help us find the right paths. He can make us desire in our hearts the same things He desires for us. He can give us His passions, His values, His hunger for holiness. Ask Him to CHANGE your heart, to turn it, like a channel of water, so it flows in His will. Ask Him to change other people’s hearts. While you’re at it, beg Him to change MY heart, to make me more like Him, more compassionate, more kind, more loving, more holy.

Give God “permission” to do His work in your heart. Ask Him to do heart surgery on you. If you’re not sure about something, pray, “Lord, I’m not sure that I am willing, but I am willing to be made willing.”

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Public-Order Crimes.

All societies prosecute violent crimes: murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, and assault.  We even prosecute “white collar crimes,” wrongs committed by people sitting at computers in shirts and ties: embezzlement, securities fraud, insider trading.

But Public Order crimes are controversial. 

Should gambling be a crime? Drugs? Prostitution? 

People call these “victimless crimes,” arguing that if both parties are consenting adults, there is nothing wrong with what they are doing. They argue drugs should be legal because they are either harmless already or could be rendered harmless by government regulation rather than operating in the current lawlessness of a black market.  

The Libertarian Party platform says: “We favor the repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without victims, such as gambling, the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes, and consensual transactions involving sexual services.”     

But are these really “crimes without victims”? 

A consenting adult may gamble away his family’s grocery money, rent money, and more—causing great harm to children.  Even a cursory knowledge of the way crack cocaine destroyed inner cities proves the devastating consequences of drug addiction.  The victims of victimless crimes are children, wives, families, and society as a whole.  We are all victimized by so-called victimless crimes. 

Nevertheless, politics and legislation can be a difficult business. Reasonable minds will disagree. But the Bible often provides practical guidance:

“A prostitute is a deep pit, and a strange woman is a narrow well.  Indeed, she sets an ambush like a robber and INCREASES THE UNFAITHFUL AMONG MEN” Proverbs 23:27-28. 

A prostitute increases the unfaithful among men.

Is that a goal we want to pursue in our society, more faithless men? Do we want a government that hands out licenses so people can incorporate as small business owners—operating brothels?

PUBLIC ORDER crimes will always be controversial.  But the Bible provides guidance.  Actions have consequences. 

Prostitution is an action that “increases the unfaithful among men.”

God, thank you that Your word has practical answers for everyday life.

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How to Make A’s.

Steven Wales got a bad education. His school years were marked by failing grades, paddlings, and phone calls to mom and dad. Then one day everything changed. He has spent the thirty years since working as a high school teacher, lawyer, and professor of business law and petroleum land management. An adjunct professor, Wales teaches six courses and has taught over 120 undergraduate hours at the University of Houston Downtown.

Steven Wales won writing awards in college and law school, has been published in academic journals and textbooks, and has been cited in published opinions of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, and D.C. Circuits, and in numerous briefs and law review articles. This is his first book.

(Thank you for allowing me to add this off-topic post to a blog about Bible reading.)

Your Mouth is Number One!

The reason we should eat healthy is because food is the number one way you interact with the environment. Forget air pollution or germs or sunburns or floods or poison.

The biggest impact you will have on your health is what you SWALLOW.

In the same way, we must control our words, because our words are the number one way we interact with the world. How do you share God’s love, and the hope and joy people need so badly right now? Through WORDS of HOPE. Nearly everything you will ever do to make a difference for Christ, you will do with WORDS. And people are listening!

The biggest impact you will have on the people around you is what you SPEAK.

But can you control what you say? YES! Paul writes, “Do not let unwholesome words come out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for encouragement, that it may give GRACE to those who hear” Ephesians 4:29. James is even stronger: “If anyone thinks he is a Christian and does not bridle his tongue, he is deceiving himself and his faith is worthless” James 1:26.

What about Jesus? Did He ever speak on the tongue? Yes. Jesus said, “The good man out of the good treasure in his heart produces good, and the evil man, out of the evil treasure produces evil, for OUT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THE HEART, THE MOUTH SPEAKS” Luke 6:45. Whatever is in your heart is going to come out. May our hearts be filled with God’s hope and love and grace and peace and joy.

Jesus also said that we will have to explain our bad words: “On the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak” Matt. 12:36. And that makes sense—because words are IMPORTANT. Your words are number one. They are the most powerful thing you have, after your prayers. Consider Proverbs:

“DEATH and LIFE are in the power of the tongue,” 18:24.

And “a gentle tongue is a TREE OF LIFE, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit” 15:4.

Your tongue has the power of life and death. Use it wisely.

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Homosociality.

Homo what? There’s an odd term. Homosociality means “same-sex relationships that are not of a romantic or sexual nature, such as friendship, mentorship, or others.” Think about your best friends, teachers, and coaches—some of these are powerful, intense relationships with members of the same sex. But they are not sexual, merely “social.” Thus, “homosocial.”

The Bible includes several intense “homosocial” relationships: Jesus and His disciples, for example. These 13 men traveled the road together for three years, in the sun, wind, and storms, plodding along in the sand, sailing on the sea, eating over camp fires, sleeping under the stars, and talking about everything under the sun. Jesus poured His life into these men. He shared secrets with them. He loved them.

Another intense homosocial relationship exists between David and Jonathan. These two men loved each other and were not afraid to say so.

“The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself…. Jonathan made a covenant with David, and stripped himself of his robe and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword and his bow and belt.” 1 Samuel 18:1-5.

Later, the two men realized they had to part because Jonathan’s father Saul was trying to kill David. “David and Jonathan kissed each other and wept, though David wept more” I Sam. 20:41. They never saw each other again. When Jonathan was killed, David lamented:

“How the mighty have fallen! I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother. You were such a friend to me. Your love for me was greater than the love of women.” 2 Sam. 1:26. (These are strong words, but it is clear that even with—or because of—his 700 wives, David does not seem to have had any good relationships with women.)

The Bible supports the truth—you can have strong, intense relationships with friends of the same sex. Pray—ask God for wisdom about those relationships.

“A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there are some friends who stick closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24.

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