photo of the Week: July 1, 2021

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Don Merritt
The Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC
Posted in Photo of the Week | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Peace and Harmony

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Don Merritt

These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.

Titus 2:15-3:2

Paul ends the section that he began in v. 1:5 with these words. It seems clear at this point that his purpose was that Titus lead the people in a way that resulted in peace with everyone, in love and in congeniality. Yes, that means that there may need to be rebukes from time-to-time, but these were to be made so that everyone might participate in the fullness of Christ and never to be unkind or harsh. Of course, people being the way we are, Titus would need to ensure that nobody took advantage of other people or behaved in a hurtful manner.

If you think about it, this isn’t a bad thing, rather it is encouraging to know that the whole point of the Christian community is that it be a safe place for everyone to be, one in which no one need look over their shoulder because of bullies or people who behave badly.

It might appear to some, certainly it does to me, that Paul and Titus lived in a more civil society than we do today. Think about it: Titus, one man, was to ensure that there was order and civility in the chu8rch- one man. Apparently, there was still respect for church authority in those days, and leaders didn’t fear the mob. This is even more surprising when you consider that at the time of this writing, these people were being persecuted from the outside.

Fascinating… and instructive, don’t you think?

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Final Few Tips for New Bloggers

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Don Merritt

As I finished up my second post of tips for new bloggers, I realized that I had led people into an area that could use some further explaining. I was talking about posting regularly and made mention of the need to test and experiment with times to schedule posts that get the best results for your blog, which leads to how to figure all of that out- let’s get started.

WordPress Stats

As a new blogger, get acquainted with the stats screens which you can access from your blog’s home screen, on the left side menu near the top. Go through the stats, click on things, explore and really get a feel for the information at hand there. This is the first step in making strategic decisions to reach your blogging goals.

Know Your Audience

Visit the blogs of your followers, and do the same for people who like and/or comment. Is there a pattern to this? For example, do a great percentage of your readers have a gardening site, or a cooking site or a political one or …? In my case, most have a Christian blog of one sort or another. While you are looking at their sites, read some posts; maybe you might want to follow them and like their content. Also, take notice of the tags they use, since they probably have a site similar to yours. Are you using those tags? Check the Reader for the tags you use and notice how many new posts appear there. If you are one of the only ones using that tag, it isn’t helping you because not many are looking at it; maybe you should use a tag that has lots of traffic so that lots of people will come across your site. Needless to say, this is an important step.

Finding the Best Times to Post Your Content

While you’re at it, notice which times of day the blog posts listed under each tag are happening. If you see that the gardening blogs are very active posting between 8 and 9 am, try scheduling your gardening post in that time slot and see if traffic increases. Try this in various time slots and keep track of the results and you will soon discover time slots that work best for you. Use your stats screen to see what happens to your viewership; if your views increase then you’ve got a winner. If they don’t, then keep experimenting.

Testing Subject Matter

Let’s say you normally post about new cars, but you might want to start posting more about car repair, but you aren’t sure whether or not your readers will stay with you; how can you test this? The first step is to make a chart of views, likes and comments for a 2-week period; if you normally have a mix of positive and negative comments, chart the percentages of each for every day. Next, spend a couple of weeks posting your new subject and continue charting the number of views, like and comments, along with the percentage of positive and negative comments. It is quite possible that if there is a drastic change you will see it very quickly. I did a test like this back in 2016 with a particular topic and had the best 2-week period in the entire history of my blog because I was testing a topical area that nobody in my field was talking about. Needless to say, in that experiment, I not only found a nice blog topic, but a whole new area of ministry both online and off.

One last tip: try to find something you can do for a regular Feature post. I’ve tried several, and the one that’s worked best for me is a photo of the week which I’ve been running for seven years now as a nice (and popular) change of pace; I have a fair number of people who follow my site just for that.

And with that, I’ll wish you the very best in blogging and a great rest of the day!

Posted in Bible, Christian living | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Weekly Podcast: June 30, 2021

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Don Merritt

Good Morning to you!

This week’s podcast comes from 1 John 3:16-18 and is all about putting love into action; you won’t want to miss it!

Listen Now

Posted in Bible, Christian living | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

God’s Grace Changed Everything

Posted on June 29, 2021 by Don Merritt

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Titus 2:11-14

Paul sums up his instructions to Titus in these verses by reminding him, and all of us, that since God’s grace has come upon the scene, everything has changed. Before this happened, the ways of this world were the only choices for people; there wasn’t really a viable alternative. Now however, we can choose different lives and ways of living through Christ. You might wonder at this point about those who sought to differ from those around them in the days before Christ- weren’t there good people in those? Didn’t people seek God and His ways in those days?

The answer is that yes, there were many such people. Yet they only had the ways of this world to choose from in pursuing goodness, for redemption from sin and death were not available; they did the best they could. For the people of old Israel, they had the Law of Moses to guide them, but they did not have the Holy Spirit within them to lead. They took God’s Law and devised a religious system of rules and regulations that were not part of the Law to regulate their behavior, all very well intentioned of course. Yet what they ended up with was what we today would call a religious institution, which was an institution made by men and entirely influenced by the ways of the world in which they lived which would have be just fine, except for the fact that the world they lived in, like the world we live in, operated in opposition to God.

Even in Paul’s day, believers in Christ began to make the same mistakes, and Church History is full of the stories of Christian religious institutions becoming corrupted by the ways of the world. Paul’s whole point in his instruction for Titus is that it really doesn’t need to be this way any more, because we can choose to follow the Spirit, rather than falling back into the old ways.

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Paul Continues His Instructions to Titus

Posted on June 29, 2021 by Don Merritt

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Titus 2:1-8

Having given Titus instruction on what not to allow in the church, he continues in this chapter with what kinds of things Titus should teach. Titus’ teaching should be sound and appropriate; everyone should learn to behave in a manner that is respectable, respectful of others and they should always be seen as people who love one another as Christ would love. For me, as I read these verses, two things really stand out: First is that when we see all of these things together, Paul is describing a community in which civility is paramount. Thinking about this priority in light of our culture’s current trend towards discord and incivility, I cannot help thinking that we could use just exactly this sort of teaching. Second, I can’t help but notice that Paul’s main concern is that non-Christians should have every reason to view life within the church community  favorably, so that the Gospel might gain a hearing.

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. (2:9-10)

This idea of gaining favor to have a chance to share the Gospel is reenforced in these two verses. Yet, for the modern reader, the inclusion of this reference to slaves is a tough one to swallow. It is important for us to understand that the Roman Empire was a slave economy in which a quarter to half of the total population, depending on where you were, consisted of slaves. Even so, the same Greek words* could also be translated “servants”, and of course, the modern-day meaning would more likely be of employees and employers, rather than slaves and masters.

Yet, Paul and Titus lived in the ancient Roman world, not today, and Paul’s intent here is abundantly clear: Behave in a manner that is considered respectable so that the message of salvation in Christ may gain a hearing with the people in the hope that many more will come to salvation.

* The actual Greek words that are used here is hypotassō Which refers to someone who is subordinated; a subordinate, while despotēs, meaning lord or master is rendered “master in our text.

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Day Of Praise

Posted on June 28, 2021 by Don Merritt

I will exalt you, my God the King;
    I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Every day I will praise you
    and extol your name for ever and ever.

Psalm 145:1-2

Have you ever just sat back and considered everything God has done in your life? For most of us, we don’t take the time to do this often enough; I know I don’t.  It may be hard to get started, as thoughts about the here and now rush though our minds, as the distractions and demands of everyday life make so much noise that it’s hard to think. Yet as we continue to ponder, as we begin to relax, God’s doings begin to enter our thoughts, and before too long, they push the distractions away.

We might even move on to ponder and reflect upon what God has done in His Creation; the wonder of all of it, its grandeur so magnificent.

When we invest a little time and attention in this way, it isn’t easy to remain silent, is it?

Our God is so amazing, so awesome, so powerful, so loving; how can we think on such things and not enthusiastically give Him praise?

Funny thing about exaltation; once you get started, it’s hard to stop. Imagine what it would be like if we did this every day; don’t you suppose that every day would be as amazing as the things God does in our lives? Oh yes, I bet they would be; can you guess why?

If we began each day reflecting upon all that God is and does in our lives, we would be seeing all that He does each day as we go along, and each day we would be giving Him enthusiastic praise, and when you do that, it’s hard to stop… and each day would then become a day of praise.

Posted in Christian living | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Sunday Sermon Notes: June 27, 2021

Posted on June 27, 2021 by Don Merritt

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

This is the beginning of what so many people call “the love chapter”. It is comprised of some of the most beautiful prose ever written, it is quoted in most weddings, so many people say it is their very favorite of all Bible passages, but it is really about spiritual gifts, more than it is about love. Remember that we are in the middle of a three-chapter section in this letter in which Paul is dealing with misunderstandings about spiritual gifts, and love is not a spiritual gift.

No sir, love is a commandment:

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:29-31

In our three verses, Paul mentions love 3 times, but in those same verses, he mentions 5 spiritual gifts, and his very obvious point in writing is that it is more important to have love than any manifestation of the Spirit. The real question we should be asking ourselves is why did he feel it necessary to make this point?

If we have been reading through this letter, we already know the answer: There was division in the Corinthian church along socio-economic lines. The people were proud and liked to show off their lofty positions. They also enjoyed showing off their intellectual sophistication. Of course, they would prize spiritual gifts that tended to place them in “the front of the room” as they taught in strange tongues, showed off their great knowledge, wisdom and discernment, or while they spoke prophetically.

Yet while they may have been quite gifted, they appear to have lacked one of the very fundamentals of the faith, for they lacked love. That lack has been on display for us in each of the sections we have covered thus far.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Looking at these verses, we see a whole list of attributes that the people in Corinth had in abundance, but that are not a part of the way of love. Sad to say, the attributes that Paul mentions here are all too common in human society, but to follow Jesus Christ is not to follow the ways of men, it is to follow the way of love.

Posted in Sunday Class Notes | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Few More Tips for New Bloggers

Posted on June 26, 2021 by Don Merritt

Earlier this week I posted a few tips for new bloggers and received some requests for a more tips so, here they are…

Tip 1 Use the scheduling tool

I simply cannot over-emphasize the importance of this tool! If you are like most bloggers, your best writing time may not be your best posting time, so if you are like me and find that your best time to write is between 4 and 5 am, for example, this may not be the best time to post since there may not be as many people online at that hour as there will be later on in the day. Think strategically: I’m in the Eastern US, so at this time, say 4:30, the east coast isn’t up yet, and it’s the middle of the night in the rest of the USA. In Europe (GMT) it’s the middle of the morning and a great many people are busy with their work days, so that’s not the best time for me to post. I schedule my first post for 6 am to catch the east coast waking up and checking their blogs before work, and my post is right there for the UK at lunch break. I schedule another post at 11:30 ET to catch the west coast early, the east coast for lunch and the UK at quitting time, all because of the scheduling tool. In addition, I seldom write posts for the day they are written. They are usually written a day or two, sometimes more, ahead of time in case something comes up in “real” life that interferes with my schedule.

Since this is for newbies, the scheduling tool can be found in the Publish screen. It’s the third item down and says “Publish immediately”. Click that arrow and the scheduling tool opens…

This reason you may want to approach posting this way comes from the way the Word Press Reader works. When you post, it goes to the top of the Reader for followers and for tags you’ve used. The next person who posts will replace you on top and you will move down. If I post at 4:30 am my post might be 10 or 20 posts down by the time you are looking at the Reader and you might never notice that I’ve posted anything.

This point is also important if you write several posts at the same sitting as I often do. If you drop them all at once you will overwhelm your faithful readers who probably won’t have time to read them all, whereas if you scheduled them apart, you’ll get the traffic you deserve and were hoping for.

Tip 2 Shake Things Up Occasionally

According to the research I’ve seen… and the experiments I’ve done… nothing creates traffic like a little controversy. Before I go any further, I must say that this is a technique I use very sparingly. If you do this too much, your blog will just be loud. Here’s a great example: Back in early 2014, the Reader for Christian blogs had a great many posts about the superiority of the King James Version of the Bible (KJV). Post after post was written about how the KJV is the only true version… (Posting about a hot topic builds traffic) So on March 31st of that year I posted “Why I DON’T Use King James”. The real traffic builder, and controversy of the post was putting “don’t” in all caps, the post itself was quite tame.

Sadly, I had to delete quite a few comments from KJV fans who could resist calling me an f-ing this or f-ing that, but there were still considerably more comments than I normally have. I replied to each and every one of them, and then got return comments as well as comments from others who were reading the original comments, and guess what? Each of those requires a “view”.

I even received 14 personal emails telling me I was going to hell for not supporting the KJV which I said in the post is a very fine translation, just hard for most people in the 21st century to understand. Even now Why I DON’T Use King James is my 4th most viewed post, and reflecting back on it, that was when my blog really took off. Maybe you can find a way to generate a little controversy without being obnoxious or offensive.

Tip 3 Post Regularly

If you want a thriving blog and you aren’t a famous person, you need to post regularly. I’ve usually done 2 a day during the week, and I’ve never found the right frequency on weekends. The really mega-blogs post considerably more and some of them have even said in posts that they will post poor content just to stay near the top on Reader. I will leave that to your own views, but for me, I try not to post rubbish, although I must admit that there have been times when I’ve gone back and read something I posted and wondered what I was thinking (if anything at all) when I wrote it. I think the frequency of posting will depend on your goals, and my frequency lines up well for me; I would suggest that you test various times, frequencies and tones to see what works best for you to reach your goals.

At this point, I’ve gone a bit longer than I intended (920 wc) but as I wrote the last couple of sentences, I realize I need one more of these posts so I’ll see you next week.

Posted in Christian living | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Paul Gets Tough

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Don Merritt

For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.

Titus 1:10-14

It’s been many years now, 15 at least, since I found myself working in a congregation that had a great many problems. The Senior Pastor was a great guy who had been in the ministry quite successfully for 40 years or so, but in this particular group, he was really struggling. There were certain individuals there who were causing all sorts of problems, mainly in being resistant to any kind of change. I was asked to speak to the “problem children” from time-to-time, and my preacher friend always said afterward that I lack grace in my teaching.

In spite of this, I always thought that I was being terribly diplomatic in these sessions. He would say that Jesus was full of grace and truth, and that I had the truth in abundance, but the grace was in short supply. The funny thing was, I thought that his way was loaded with grace, but that he always ran out of time before getting to the truth.

The truth is there must be a balance, but that balance is found in a larger picture and not in the handling of one incident, at least not entirely, for certain perils require immediate action to avoid disaster, and immediate action can seem to be a bit harsh when seen in a vacuum. I think this passage is one of those.

Paul clearly isn’t pulling any punches here; something must be done, and if it seems a bit harsh, those involved have it coming. The key is that the individuals Paul is speaking of are “of the circumcision group”. We know from Paul’s other letters that he has no patience with those who swoop into a new congregation claiming to be Christ-followers and telling the Gentile men that they can only be Christians if they are circumcised Jews first. The reason is simple: Not only is it false teaching, but no grown man is going to hand a knife to another man and ask him to start cutting him up, particularly in that region- men are funny like that.

Of course, the result of this teaching is that the new church blows apart. Yes, something must be done.

Notice in verse 14 that Paul’s hope is that these individuals will come to know the truth and in so doing, be saved by God’s grace in spite of their grievous error: that is the grace in the equation.

To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

Titus 1:15-16

Summing up here, Paul offers his view of the current condition of the false teachers, and once again to our ears this seems a tad harsh; this is the truth. Yet even though this is the starting point, things can change if swift, decisive action is taken; that is the grace.

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments