Here’s what I’ve come up with

Posted on April 14, 2018 by Don Merritt

If you’ve been dropping by here over the last few days, then you’ll know that I’ve been in the process of re-thinking this blog site and its future. So many have added comments, encouragement and suggestions, and I’d like to thank each and every one of you who have joined in the conversation. I know that you all have your own blogs, lives and “stuff” to deal with, and so I really appreciate your willingness to help me out with these decisions going forward here.

I’ve come up with some ideas, with your help, about how to go forward with The Life Project (TLP) blog site. I will continue blogging through Bible books in the expository style (line by line), but I will also add more topical studies. In fact, my thought is that I’ll do both more or less continually with expositories Tuesday through Friday mornings at 6 am Eastern, and topical studies Tuesday through Fridays in my second posts (11:30 am Eastern). The first Bible study will be where we left off with 2 Corinthians, starting next week, and the first topical will be on forgiveness, also starting next week.

I will also have some new things, features I suppose you’d call them. On Saturdays at 1300 Eastern, I’ll post a weekly editorial. It will deal with some area of news that is current for the week, just like you’d see in any Op-Ed page of a newspaper. Next, I’ll do a Life article each week on Mondays at 11:30 am Eastern. This may deal with a lot of things that have to do with life in general like food, culture, music, challenges, travel, places, people… who knows?

I’ll post Inspirational on Monday and Saturday mornings at 6 am Eastern. Devotionals, pictures, quotes, poems… anything that might be inspirational. Finally, I will keep the photo of the week and Sunday Sermon notes where they are currently on Wednesdays and Sundays.

As we go forward, I’ll be looking at blog themes and other ways to improve the look of TLP, and I’ll be experimenting with video to try and make TLP more inviting to a larger audience to build the Kingdom of our Lord in whatever way I can. Oh, I almost forgot, the 1400 time slot on M, T, Th and F will also be available for Bonus Posts of various kinds, like I’ve been doing for several years now…

The main point of all this is so that TLP can become both a resource and a refuge for people who are looking to bring their Christian walks forward, to grow spiritually and in faith. To deal with the issues of life, and to be encouraged to persevere in the Faith. I want everyone to feel safe here, to be comfortable, even if they disagree with me from time-to-time, as most will do. In short, I want to bring glory to God, to serve Him, and to share His love with everyone who desires to follow Him.

Well, that’s the plan. I hope it sounds interesting to you, and I’d sure look forward to any comments you may have on this or any other subject. Have a great weekend!

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Peace Be with You

Posted on April 14, 2018 by Don Merritt

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9

Everybody wants peace in their lives. Peace to think, peace to live and to achieve their dreams. Peace to be happy and secure, to raise a family, to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Yet life has a way of barging in on us, of bringing problems, of pushing and pulling us into all kinds of stress and anxiety− how can we have peace in our lives and live in a world that is so full of problems?

I wish I could take all of your problems away, but sadly, I can’t. I have problems too, and they just keep on coming. I get one solved, and something else always seems to pop up.

There is some good news though; it’s right there in these verses…

whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Yes, there are all kinds of problems, but that doesn’t mean that we must dwell on them, stew on them or be overcome by them; you see, we can still have God’s peace, even in the midst of the problems of this life. Focus on the kinds of things Paul mentions here. Set your eyes on the things that are from above, clothe yourselves with Christ, and… the God of peace will be with you.

See? I told you there was good news!

Take the problems of life to God, leave them with Him. Yes, that’s right, leave the problems with God. I’m not saying that everything will just be fine and dandy all the time, but you can have His peace with you through problems, and God’s peace is a lot more helpful in solving problems, that anxiety is. When did stress ever make difficulties or challenges easier to deal with?

Yet the peace of God will enable you to see solutions much quicker when you need them, and if nothing else, will help us to put things into a much better perspective.

So, think about such things…

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Walking in the Light

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Don Merritt

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Romans 13:11-14

It is time to wake up, for the day is coming when the Lord Jesus will return. Notice the urgency in what Paul is talking about here; time’s a wasting! It may seem funny to us all these centuries later to read this urgency, but it is important for us to always bear in mind the fact that Jesus is coming. His literal return could be at any time, or it could be in 10,000 years, and no one knows for sure either way. Yet He came for every single recipient of this letter a long time ago. He came for all of those who have ever read this letter in the centuries that have followed, and He will come for us soon enough, thus Paul’s urgency applies to each of us: Wake up!

Paul’s metaphor of living in the light of day is clear enough; we are to behave in a respectable manner, not as people do in the wee hours when nobody is looking. In verse 13, he mentions several behaviors, and I think they are obvious enough, so I will only comment on two of them; dissention and jealousy.

I try not to miss opportunities to make a plea for Christian unity, and this is certainly such an opportunity. Must we continue fighting among ourselves, arguing over every little doctrinal difference of opinion? Must we be jealous about the name on the sign in front of the building? Is all of that really so essential?

I don’t believe that it is, do you?

Maybe I’m just a fool, but I think that the times we are living in today are much too serious to indulge ourselves in this sort of thing. Our calling is to build the Body of Christ, so let’s get to building instead of tearing it apart. Let’s clothe ourselves in Christ and answer our calling instead of glorifying ourselves in endless arguments.

Now, did you notice that in clothing ourselves with Christ, all of those sins are no longer even the topic of discussion? No, the subject changed so naturally to building up His Body instead. Thus, however we might express it; thinking about things that are above, focusing on Christ or clothing ourselves with Christ, the pettiness of this earthly life seems to fade away in the light of His love.

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Some Thoughts from Yesterday’s Post

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Don Merritt

I received quite a few comments and suggestions from yesterday’s post Listening and thinking… some thoughts about the future and a great deal of encouragement as well. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment!

One comment in particular I thought I’d post about… just for fun.

“Stay away from romance! Seriously, I love what you do. And since your ability to communicate Scripture clearly and quite visually is such a strength, don’t fix what ain’t broke. I’d love a line by line of the Pentateuch. The foundation of the first five books is such a wonderful springboard for all of Scripture, and frankly, so many are around today who have no context for the New Testament. No stories, no big picture. Nada. Keep it up, my friend. The Lord is using what you do.”

Thank you for this daylerogers, I very much appreciate your constant encouragement!

Now as for me writing Romances: That isn’t going to happen. You know what? I’d almost bet that if I did on another blog with a nom de plume, I’d have 100,000 followers in 6 or 8 months, and someone would contact me and offer to publish…

Isn’t that sad? There are so many lonely people out there who need to hear about Jesus Christ.

I have considered writing novels, however. About 15 years ago I had the brilliant idea of writing a novel about a young preacher who was very discouraged, questioning his faith and his calling, set in the18th or 19th century, probably 19th, dealing with the same issues as we deal with today in our churches. These would include things like jealousies, gossip, dissention, division, form over substance, tradition over truth…

He would reach out to older and more experienced ministers of the gospel and discover that they were really Pharisees at heart, and then finally find his relationship with Jesus Christ in the midst of his despair. I think I could do that one pretty well, and it would be one time when being a history nerd would be an advantage.

But I didn’t write it.

About 10 years ago I had another idea; I really like this one. It could even be a movie! Remember The Da Vinci Code? I really mean the genre more than the book or movie…

My idea was a novel with three plot lines: First, there is a Seminary student researching the book of Revelation for a doctoral dissertation. Next there is a fictional character who is one of Hitler’s secretaries beginning in 1939 at the Berghof (Hitler’s mountain residence) on the day that he received the message that a Treaty had been arrived at between Germany and the USSR enabling him to start World War 2. This secretary has a front row seat for all that followed. The third is a group of ultra-secret agents planning an overthrow of the government. As the story progresses, the student comes to realize that Revelation isn’t so much about the end of the world, but the way the world really works. The secretary discovers how the world worked too, but from a different point of view, and the secret agents discover both the student and the secretary, now quite elderly, and try to silence both of them before they tell their stories to the world. It probably wouldn’t strike anyone that a large part of this tale would be somewhat autobiographical…

I actually shopped that idea, and got several pretty good bites, and then I dropped it for very practical reasons… Lots of work too.

So… who knows what the future will bring for blogging?

One dimensional is getting kind of old, and there are many ways to share about Jesus Christ.

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“Reflections on Ruth” Released Today

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Don Merritt

Today I have released  Reflections on Ruth. As is the case with all of the documents in this series, this one contains the entire set of my posts on the book of Ruth edited together into a book format in a single pdf document for anyone who might be interested in it. Since I began doing this four years ago, people have found these useful for personal study or devotions, teaching Sunday school classes and home groups, and for preparing Sermon series.

This is sort of a “Kingdom” project of mine. You are free to use these documents for personal use or for sharing with others. If you like, you may make them your own, and they are entirely free of charge. The only thing I ask is that you do not use them for commercial purposes.

When you click the link below, you can then simply download the text: there are no forms to fill in, and there is nothing on the site for sale.

To download,

Click Here

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Seek first …

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Don Merritt

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:31-34

Yesterday, I ran a post about finding what we look for and DWNartens left a comment about some other passages with a very similar thrust. In the interest of full disclosure, Dennis and I were both together in a meeting Tuesday night when this very subject was discussed and when I read his comment it struck me that his verses would make some good discussion to share here: Thank you Dennis!

Notice that in this chapter we began with three illustrations dealing with spiritual practices (6:2-18), after which Jesus moved into money, possessions and wealth management (6:19-27) and finished on the very practical note of placing our trust in God and putting His Kingdom first. Now comes the hard part: In “real life” what do we actually do?

I can’t answer that question for any of you in particular, but my observation of Christians in general over several decades tells me that what most of us really do is everything Jesus is telling us not to do, especially worrying about things.

We worry about what others think of us, about whether we are the most “righteous” or the most “spiritual”. We worry about money, finances, jobs, paying the bills, retirement, essentials of life… and frills and entertainment These are even the things we pray about most often, along with health concerns. Yet Jesus is telling the people that in His Kingdom, this is not how His Kingdom people should arrange their priorities.

“But Don, it’s just too hard!”

Please remember that I am also living in this world along with you; I get that this can be difficult, but as is true with most aspects of the Christian life, it is usually not as difficult as we make it, for what it really is, is counter-intuitive more than anything else.

I am a work in progress just like everyone else, and I have a long way to go before I am “just like” Jesus was; a very long way indeed. However, I have discovered that for me at least, a recognition that this is all simply counter-intuitive, rather than overly difficult, simplifies the process quite a bit. The result, at least for me, has been that I have come to see Jesus’ teaching in this area as liberating and empowering, rather than hard and severe, and that most of the cares of this world are a waste of time and energy.

Of course, I might just be crazy… Yet I don’t think so.

If we find what we are looking for, isn’t that the same thing as finding what we seek? Yes, it is!

Jesus is telling the people to seek first His Kingdom and its righteousness, and if they do that, then they will find them. So, which is better: Finding things to worry about, or finding the things of God?

The choice is yours to make.

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Listening and thinking… some thoughts about the future

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Don Merritt

Every so often I wonder if maybe this blog has run its course and, as with all good things, that maybe the time has come for its end. Maybe I should end this one and start another one. Maybe I should stop blogging and write books… maybe an online magazine… or maybe I should stop writing and take up golf.

Oh, maybe not golf; you probably need to be able to see to do that.

I want a YouTube Channel!

Of course, I’d need to learn video editing and… you probably need to see for that too.

I go through this every year around this time; is it a case of “spring fever”? Nah, maybe more like cabin fever; we still have snow multiple times each week! Whatever it is, it’s irritating. Yet I fear this blog is a bit one dimensional because I’m always going through books of the Bible.

Why do I do that? There’s a story to tell about that…

Back in 2010 I wanted to learn to write in a less technical way. Before that, I always found myself doing technical writing. I did political writing for years, and that was technical, but not exactly in the sense of writing a technical manual, it was simply a formula. You have lists of words, a style book and an assignment. The Big Guy needs a statement for such and such, so you get the information, grab you “Use” words and your “Banned” words and the outline format, and in 10 or 15 minutes you print out the statement. The Big Guy loves it because you didn’t use any words he can’t pronounce (the Banned words) and it sounds like he wrote it himself (the Use words) and you’re pronounced a genius.

Back to the story… I started a Facebook page that was mainly devotionals in 2010. I wanted to be able to crank out devos like I did political stuff: Here’s a text, write up something to inspire people in 10 minutes. I did that almost every day for over a year, and some of them were pretty good while others… not so much. The problem was that I became so sick of writing devotionals that I could hardly stand it. Besides, I had very few Facebook friends, and beyond an exercise, what was the point?

So, I switched to WordPress and broadened the scope of things I wrote about, and again, some of it was pretty good, and some was pretty bad. Yet my problem was always that the hardest part was thinking of a topic to write about, and that’s how I came to write through books of the Bible like preachers who preach through books of the Bible, or as I taught through them to Seminary students: I always know what to write about and in 10 or 15 minutes, I’m done.

And with 2 Corinthians, I’ll be out of books. I need a new format, but I have enough coms training and experience to recognize that I have a following here based upon a certain format, and if you toss out the format and make everything new, you lose the following and have to start over, so why not just kill off one blog and start another one?

Oh, that’s true, you can slowly transition into a new format, yep that would work, but I should have done that a year ago… and I knew it a year ago… but for various reasons, some of which are actually valid, I didn’t, and here we are.

One thing is for certain: I will write up 2 Corinthians, contextual issues will be dealt with either academically or non-academically; that’s the last editorial decision. After that, we’ll see. I am open to ideas of course, and I may do some experimenting. One idea I’m leaning towards is running multiple strings of posts and subjects like a Bible study three days a week, a topical discussion one or two days, a video feature once a week, a random feature once a week and Sermon Notes once a week and… well I’m not quite sure. I’d try a poetry corner… only I’ve never gotten the hang of poetry… oh I know: I could serialize a romance novel!

Actually, romance is about the easiest writing format I know; (the things you have to learn for a Communication Degree!) there’s only five main outlines for romance, and if you can think up enough conflict for each chapter, filling in the rest is easy.

Yet somehow, I doubt that’s the way I’d go. Besides, you need to be a woman to write romance, and it’s way too late for a nom de plume for me… unless I set them up with a “guest writer”! 😊

At any rate, I’d love to hear your thoughts: Is there anything you would be interested in seeing here? Do you have any brilliant ideas you’d like to have ripped off? Do you have any suggestions?

I’d love to hear them!

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Photo of the Week: April 11, 2018

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Don Merritt

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The Problem with 2 Corinthians

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Don Merritt

I’m not quite sure what I should do about the book of 2 Corinthians; that’s the bottom line. On the one hand, I want to just blog right through it like I do with other books; when I’ve completed that, I will have blogged all of the books of the New Testament.

Yeah… that would be a good thing.

Only we’re talking about 2 Corinthians here: 2 Corinthians is different. How is it different? Well, for one thing, it is really Paul’s fourth letter to Corinth, at least it’s the fourth one we know about. For another thing, it deals with a whole set of circumstances we can only surmise from its pages; we have nothing rock-solid to base our understanding upon. Traditionally we have treated 2 Corinthians like the unattractive step-sister of 1 Corinthians. We want to take 1 Corinthians to the dance, with her beautiful phrases, and her brilliant theological content that spans the ages, but poor little 2 Corinthians goes to the dance all alone, waiting off in the corner for someone to ask her to dance.

In 1 Corinthians, the context was tricky to follow, and as you will no doubt recall, there were many times when I had to pause to re-state the context of a passage so that we could see it clearly and avoid applying it incorrectly. With poor 2 Corinthians, context isn’t tricky, it’s downright dodgy. What we can surmise is this: About the time Paul sent 1 Corinthians to Corinth, or a little after that, there was a big blowup in Corinth. It was (probably) caused by outsiders chiming in against Paul’s integrity… but maybe it was insiders. Paul travelled to Corinth to deal with things, but the trip was a complete disaster− there were harsh things said. Paul then returned to Ephesus and fired off a scourging letter (that does not survive), along with Titus.

The following year (probably) Paul arranged to get a briefing from Titus in Troas, but Titus didn’t show up. After that, in a different location (most likely) they get together and Titus reported that all was well in Corinth because the Corinthians had dealt with the responsible parties and finally came to their senses. Paul returns to Ephesus (we think) and writes 2 Corinthians to sort of explain himself (we theorize) and to prop up the legitimacy of his apostleship and ministry… or so it would appear.

After that, he returned to Corinth for three months (or longer) and wrote Romans, and then returned to Jerusalem with the offerings collected for the church there.

See what I mean? Of course, with a dicey context, 2 Corinthians is a gold mine if you are looking for proof texts to use in arguments to “prove” something Paul wasn’t talking about.

Well, I’ll think about the 2 Corinthians problem some more, and let you know what I decide…

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What you look for you will find

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Don Merritt

If you are thinking about buying a green car, you will suddenly notice that there are many green cars on the road; if you are thinking about buying a new green Toyota, you’ll start to see them everywhere. If you go out on a Saturday night looking for trouble, you’ll be calling a friend to bail you out of jail on Sunday morning.

We always find what we are looking for.

I see a lot of posts that have the word “sin” in their titles, I hear a lot of people talking about sin in others, sometimes I hear people talking about the sin in their lives. Why are so many focused on sin?

We always find what we are looking for.

Do we look for the sin in TV shows or movies or books? It isn’t hard to find. Are we looking for sin in culture; that isn’t hard to find. Are we looking for sin in other people; that’s pretty easy to spot as well, and to be sure, they can see our sin just as easily.

We always find what we are looking for.

The Pharisees were the most righteous of all men, and it would appear from the record of Scripture that they were on the lookout for sin, and they found it everywhere in their midst, and they were very quick to point it out, but when the Son of God was in their midst, they missed Him entirely, preferring instead to find sin; that unending search for the sin in their midst was their downfall.

We always find what we are looking for.

Nice going guys…

Paul didn’t tell us we should be obsessed with sin:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Colossians 3:1

We always find what we are looking for.

Maybe I’m wrong; maybe I’m crazy.

You might say I’ve gone soft on sin; you might say I’m a sinner.

It could be I’m old and feeble; It could be I’m out of touch.

But if we find what we are looking for, wouldn’t it be a bad idea to be looking for sin?

If we find what we are looking for, wouldn’t it be a better idea to be looking for the things that are from above? If we find what we are looking for, wouldn’t it be a great idea to be looking for His presence?

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