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.

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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.

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Bonus Post: Some Thoughts on Interpretation

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Don Merritt

There are various methods used to interpret the Bible, many of which are also used in the interpretation of other writings. Here is one that works for me, and will for you too…

There are three Scriptural sources for truth: First, the direct command of God, second, an approved Apostolic example, and third, a necessary inference. A direct command from God Himself settles the matter. The same is true for an approved Apostolic example, such as the one above: Paul is writing on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and therefore, his writing is true. Finally, there is a necessary inference. In this case, we infer something from the writing that may not have been said directly or exactly because that is of necessity, the intended meaning. The key here is “necessary” as opposed to an inference that may possibly be taken from something. Possible inferences are matters where opinions may differ.

In our example from Titus 1, we have Paul’s teaching about church leaders. Since this is inspired by the Holy Spirit it is “approved”, therefore it is true. Yet we are still left to figure out just exactly what Paul meant here, how literal did he intend us to take it, and that is where the inferring comes into play in this particular case.

The first thing we must do is to check the context into which it is written. We saw earlier why Paul wrote this:

Instruction on the proper organization and operation of the local church, and the behavioral patterns of both church leaders and members so that they, in community with each other, might advance the cause of Christ.

Since we are looking at our text as instruction concerning the proper organization and operation of the local church, its leaders and members, we can conclude that our task is on the right track: So far, so good.

Our next task is to see if there are any parallel texts. A parallel text is one that covers the same material or subject in a similar context as the one we are trying to figure out; the closer the context, the better, and if it’s by the same author, that’s best of all… and we have one of those in 1 Timothy 3.

Titus 1:5-9 1 Timothy 3:2-7
The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

The first thing for us to consider is that these two passages are parallels that are from the same author at about the same time, in the same context, and covering the exact same subject. In short, this parallel is pure gold. As you read through both texts, the first thing you will see is that Paul uses the words elder and overseer interchangeably; they are the same thing. The next thing you should notice is that the Titus text seems a tad stricter, the Timothy text seems a bit less strict as it contains some explanation that Titus doesn’t have; these are in parentheses in the NIV. Finally, you will notice that the qualities aren’t exact matches, for example Timothy has that an elder or overseer should be able to teach, and Titus does not. As we consider these things, it becomes more and more apparent that since they are so close, yet not exact, and that so many of the items mentioned fall into line more as character traits, and less as specific requirements, most people will conclude that these are guidelines and not specific requirements of the sort that you might see on a government form in order to be eligible for something. When you combine this with the fact that Paul himself would be excluded as a church elder because he was single and childless, we move from a possible to a necessary inference.

Even so, some will disagree, and that is why we should never forget to ask God to lead and guide us into the truth- and why we shouldn’t beat each other up when we disagree on something like this.

If you are wondering about the part from yesterday about whether or not a woman can be an elder in the local church, we still have another step to go before anything can be quite conclusive, and that step is to find out which Greek words Paul has used. We would take this step because there is always the chance that the view or bias of the translators might come into play in their English word choices. In both of our texts, we find that the Greek text does not have either male or female pronouns in them, however the word aner meaning an adult male is rendered “man” and the Greek word gyne meaning adult female is rendered “woman” in both texts.

If someone was determined to find an argument to say that a woman can or should be in such a position, there is a cultural argument to be made in concert with the text containing guidelines rather than specific requirements. Even so, whether or not one would come to a necessary as opposed to a possible inference is, in my view, a judgment call in which well intentioned people would vary.

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Photo of the Week: June 24, 2021

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Don Merritt

Photo by Simon Berger on Pexels.com
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Into the Breach

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Don Merritt

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Titus 1:5-9

Paul opens his letter to Titus in a customary manner for his time, identifying himself as the author and Titus as the recipient, and giving Titus his greeting. After that, he comes right to the point: Get started appointing elders for each of the local churches they have established on Crete.

These verses are referred to as “qualifications of elders” (see also 1 Tim. 3:1-6) in many local churches that practice local autonomy, as opposed to denominational governance. Interesting conversations sometimes develop when church leaders discuss these verses: Are these exact “qualifications” that must be met by every single church elder, or are they guidelines to apply as appropriate?

Many who read this might be asking themselves why they should even care about that question, and I wouldn’t blame you; it’s a silly argument… except for this:

30 years ago or so, I was in a leadership meeting where this little detail came up in a discussion about appointing a very worthy young man to be an elder in a local congregation: Does a candidate have to be a father? Our candidate was a married man (must a candidate be married?) but he and his wife were unable to have children, and you saw it above, a man whose children believe (v. 6). The question is just how literal did Paul intend to be taken?

You still might be thinking this is a silly and pointless question; I’m not sure how many churches would still be asking it, but here’s one that churches still ask, one that has split several congregations that I could name here: Do they really have to be a man or can they be a woman who is above reproach? How about a trans-person? A gay person?

Far from being silly, this is one of the great challenges of our time.

I’ll tell you this much: 30 years ago, after vigorous discussion and consideration, our group unanimously decided that these verses were guidelines, rather than absolute requirements. The key argument was that Paul, himself a single man with neither a wife nor with children, had been selected by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to be an Apostle, and that is much higher than a local church leader. I’m sure you have thoughts on these things; feel free to share them (respectfully, please) with us in the comments. Next time, I’ll write a (simple to understand) Bonus Post on interpretational method so you can have some ideas on how to approach these kinds of things in your own study of God’s Word: See you then!

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A Brief Introduction to Titus

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Don Merritt

We don’t know a great deal about Titus; he’s only mentioned a few times in the New Testament (2 Cor. 2:13; 7:6; Gal. 2:1; 2 Tim. 4:10; Tit. 1:4). We can glean a few things, however, from these mentions: He was a young man acquainted with Timothy and Paul and involved with them in their missionary work for quite some time. We know for certain that Paul left Crete and the new churches established there in Titus’ charge (Titus 1:5) to get the new churches organized and operational. As you might guess, this is the purpose of Paul’s letter, to give instruction to Titus regarding the proper organization and operation of the local church, and the behavioral patterns of both church leaders and members so that they, in community with each other, might advance the cause of Christ.

The only other of Paul’s letters with such a purpose are 1 and 2 Timothy, for both Titus and Timothy were the only recipients of what has come to be called a pastoral epistle. As such, these are of great value to all of us who are followers of Jesus, particularly to those of us who are leaders within the local church, because they are the only three books of the New Testament that specifically speak to the issue of local church operation everywhere, as opposed to guidance for a particular city of region addressing their local and sometimes unique challenges.

So, as we prepare for our study of Titus, our contextual point of beginning looks something like this:

Author: Paul the Apostle

Recipient: Titus

Date of Writing: AD 64-67

Purpose: Instruction on the proper organization and operation of the local church, and the     behavioral patterns of both church leaders and members so that they, in community with each other, might advance the cause of Christ.

Covent: The New Covenant

Armed with our book’s context, we are ready to begin our study… See you next time!

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Some Tips for New Bloggers

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Don Merritt

I’m not the best blogger out there; let’s get that out of the way right now. Yet I have been blogging since 2011, have posted over thousands of times and have lots of hits, so at least I have a little practice. I realize that for many bloggers, that’s nothing, but it’s considerably longer and more than I ever expected, and I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve learned for anyone who may be interested.

Tip 1: Followers are a very good thing.

I know bloggers who say that they don’t care how many views or followers they have, but if we’re honest, most of us are writing because we feel like we have something to share. You can post the best content of all time, but if nobody ever sees it, what good have you done? As a Christian blogger, this is even more significant: We should be trying to minister to others, so building your following is the way to reach people with your message of inspiration and hope. If you don’t know how to get followers, then I would start by looking at the suggestions that Word Press has in the help guide. Their suggestions are easy to find, easy to do, and while not all of them will apply to you, follow as many as you can. Start by doing a couple of them, and as they become second nature, then try a couple more. As I recall, their first one is to use the Reader to find other blogs of similar interest by choosing tags that you would use for your own posts. For a Christian blog, try tags like “Jesus”, “Christian”, “Bible” and “Faith” for starters. Leave comments and likes where appropriate; be generous and kind, and people will want to visit your blog and to “like” and “follow”.

Tip 2: Always tag your posts!

If I forget to tag my posts, I have very few views; the difference between tagged posts and untagged posts for me will be in the hundreds of views. Use relevant tags and search them in Reader because some tags draw viewers more than others, and when you get more views, more people will have the chance to like your posts and follow you.

Tip 3: Keep it short.

My average word count per post is about 500 words. Of course, some are very short, and my Photo of the Week may have no words, yet my typical goal is 450-750 words. Unless you are a very good writer, views will drop quite a bit after 1,000 to 1,200 words.

Tip 4: Keep your writing style light.

When I was in school, most textbooks were really hard to read. It wasn’t because the language was hard or because the subject matter was difficult, it was because the writing style simply didn’t draw my attention to the subject and reading them was like carrying a very heavy load around. History books were the worst, and I would toss the textbook aside and go to the library and read a whole book on whatever the subject was about instead, because it was written in a way that seemed so light. That made history fun, and to this day I’m a history nerd.

I just checked my word count… 547, so one more tip and that’ll be it.

Tip 5: Be kind in your posts.

Nobody likes a jerk, so be careful how you “talk” to your readers. Remember that written language is harsher than spoken language. You might write something with a smile on your face, but your reader can’t see the smile and then take what you said the wrong way.

That goes double for comments, by the way.

Be aware of how your words will affect your reader so you don’t put them off.

Well there’s a few tips, I’d love to know what you think. If you think I’m dead wrong about something, please set me straight. If you have questions ask, and if you want some more, drop me a comment and let me know, and… who knows?… I might just write up a few more soon.

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Weekly Podcast: June 23, 2021

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Don Merritt

The first of our weekly podcasts features a message of hope and joy from Colossians 3:15-17…

Listen Now

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Naked Before God: Praying in Humility- Redux

Posted on June 22, 2021 by Don Merritt

Note: I was very surprised this morning to see that this post, posted in April of 2016, is my most viewed post of 2021 thus far. I was struck that a post several thousand posts ago is being found by people searching for this subject, humble prayer at this particular time… so I decided to re-post it it today. I hope it is a blessing to you.

It has been longer since my last post in this series than I would have liked; as you may recall when I last posted on being naked before God, I was giving the first practical suggestion: Recovering the wonder of being in His presence.

I’m sure that some of you might have thought it a bit strange to combine practicality and childlike wonder together as a “step one”, and if you reacted along those lines, I can hardly blame you, for it is counter-intuitive.

But then, the things of God usually are…

Believe it or not, there is actually a rationale for this “wonder” business, for you see, when we find ourselves in wonder and awe at God’s awesome Creation, or at being in His presence, our walls, barriers and defenses start to crumble; we stop holding back and begin to give it all up to Him.Lords Prayer

We are never “naked” if we are hiding behind a barrier of some sort.

Clearly, step one is to recover that sense of wonder and awe before God!

Step two is to pray with humility.

Humility hides nothing, it holds nothing back, and it gives all to God with total honesty and a lack of shame, guilt or self. Humility is submission to God, His ways, plans and will; it is the recognition that He is God and we are not. Humility has no agenda.

Can you see why that childlike awe and wonder is so important? True humility isn’t something that comes naturally (in earthly terms) to most of us; we have walls and barriers we aren’t even aware of in most cases, for humility is far too intimate, and those defenses become an impediment to our relationships, in this case, our relationship with God, and they need to come down.

So, with all of that said, what does praying in humility look like?

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, and in His response, He gave them a wonderful example which we often call the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4). There are differing teachings about this prayer, some believe it was intended to be recited, others teach that it is more of a template; I join with the latter thinking, while acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with reciting it. As a model for prayer, there are a few very fascinating things contained in it:

In Matthew 6:9-10, that God’s greatness and glory are acknowledged first, followed by His Kingdom, which is always His top priority, followed by the request that His will should be done on earth “as it is in Heaven”, where His will is the only will that is done. Think about it: Jesus taught that first and foremost we should pray that the Kingdom that He was proclaiming should come, and that God’s will would be the only will done on earth, just like it is in heaven.

There’s no room for my will; there’s no place for my latest “wish list”, for this is praying in humble submission to God, not a prayer advancing my own agenda.

In verse 11, we acknowledge that it is God who supplies our physical needs, and in verse 12, we ask to be forgiven our sins to the extent that we forgive the sins of others against us; another act of humble submission. Finally, we pray for God’s deliverance from evil, and if you think about it, since this is preceded by a big dose of humble submission to God, we are really saying in this that we are not relying on ourselves in anything; not on our own cleverness, not on our own strength, but instead are giving everything up to God and placing our complete trust in His provision for everything.

This, dear friends, is being naked before God.

Having mentioned this, I should point out that what I have just said about the Lord’s Prayer is a thumbnail; I have written on it in much greater depth more than once on this blog in the past; right now I simply want us to see what praying in real humility looks like. Many are there, and have been for a long time; others… not so much. My main thought and purpose here is this: No matter how mature we are, or think we are, we can always benefit from a periodic look in the mirror to ensure that we are still on track. Perhaps this might be a good time for some reflection.

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Blog Update: 6/21/21

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Don Merritt

I’ve decided to try something new here at The Life Project, a weekly podcast. If you’ve been here for a long time, you might recall that I experimented with it back in 2014 for a while, and then dropped  it because of the hassles and problems I ran into with technical issues and with no place to put the audio files…

Now, with WordPress working with Anchor, those problems have been solved as far as I can see, so I thought I’d have another go at it. To begin with, I decided to run short devotional/inspirational episodes on Wednesdays, just to get used to producing them, but I’m certainly open to other things if you dear readers are interested. So… if you have any ideas for things that you’d like me to post as podcasts, please feel free to let me know in the comments below. By the way, you can also feel free to let me know if you think this is a stupid idea…

In the meantime, I’ve added a link to my first experimental effort that I did mainly to figure out how the site works. I’ll begin in earnest Wednesday, see you then!

Listen to the test Now!

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