Greetings!
The year is nearing the end. This means many annual awards and recognitions are announced. I touch on two of these announcements at the start of this week’s DHD.
Thanks for reading!
- Verse of the year
YouVersion Bible app announced Phil. 4:6 as “the most popular verse of 2019.”
“Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Hearing this news encouraged me for several reasons. First, it’s not among the most quoted verses, compared to John 3:16 or Phil. 4:13 or other common memory verses, which means more Scripture is becoming known.
Second, it’s a great challenge that Paul gave, first to the Philippians and then to others who followed through the many generations.
Third, it emphasizes faith and assurance in a loving God Who cares about our concerns.
Check out other news that YouVersion reported in “Top Bible Verse of 2019,” including the increase of Scripture reading across the world. Algeria saw the largest growth with a 261 percent increase in downloading the Bible reading app.
- Color of the year
Pantone Color Institute announced “Classic Blue” as the “Color of the Year for 2020.”
Blue would be considered a fave of mine. I appreciate Pantone’s explanation of why Classic Blue was selected as Color of the Year.
“We are living in a time that requires trust and faith,” said Leatrice Eisman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “It is the kind of consistency and confidence that is expressed by… Classic Blue, a solid and dependable blue hue we can always rely on.”
Of course, as Christians, we put our trust and faith in God, but the fact that trust and faith are mentioned as something to be valued, and then add the verse of the year (Phil. 4:6), with the conclusion that people are seeking confidence in something or someone, this is a sign for Christians everywhere that the “fields are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35).
Have you encouraged someone who is seeking faith, wanting to overcome fear or worry?
- My Mohler moment
Here’s where I eek out on Albert Mohler, pulling out a snippet from one of his editions this week of The Briefing.
In the Thursday edition, Mohler analyzes why the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to take the appeal case on Kentucky’s law requiring doctors to provide ultrasounds to women having abortions. His commentary is excellent, but one element that fascinated me most is Mohler’s conclusion of why the four Supreme Court justices who are identified to support abortion practices agreed to not hear the case to overturn a state law that favors the Sanctity of Human Life over the practice of abortion.
“Does it mean that they (the four justices) are not as pro-abortion as they were before?” Mohler asked. “No, it doesn’t mean that… It tells us that the four pro-abortion justices on the U.S. Supreme Court evidently did not agree to take this case, and that is an indication that they do not want to take any case on abortion that might provide a pretext or an opportunity for the curtailment of the precedent known as Roe v. Wade.”
Fascinating take! Apparently, the pro-abortion agenda is becoming trickier to implement legally, and those who support abortion see the “writing on the wall,” which is an encouraging mark for those who value the Sanctity of Life.
- Thoughts on impeachment
House Democrats are pressing forward with impeaching President Trump. Talk about a major historical occurrence (only the third time a U.S. President facing impeachment) that is becoming rather anticlimactic—this is major irony, and looking more and more foolish.
Andrew McCarthy’s article is one of the best I’ve read on the articles of impeachment for Trump.
Also, I share what my friend Christi shared on Facebook, summarizing the impeachment process:
“The Democrats are claiming the Impeachment process must be expedited to protect the integrity of our elections and the prevention of foreign influence on the outcomes.
“These same Democrats refuse to pass Voter ID laws that verify voter identities and they promote non-citizen ability to vote in elections. They don’t care about the integrity of our elections. They care about the fact they don’t have the candidates that will beat Trump. So they are using any means possible to intervene in the election themselves. Only they are doing it openly for all of us to see.”
I must confess, as more presidential candidates continue to drop out of the race, it does appear Democrats are concerned about finding someone who could challenge Trump in the 2020 election. Maybe Christi’s conclusion on the impeachment intervening on the election is valid.
- Great take on Simeon and Anna in Luke 2
I love reading commentary on obscure Bible characters. This means I enjoyed reading Christopher Ash’s article “Meet the Best Supporting Actor and Actress in the Bible Story.”
Being in the Christmas season, of course it’s fitting to highlight Simeon and Anna in Luke 2 as two faithful prayer warriors, whom God blessed with the opportunity to meet the Christ child.
I also appreciate Ash’s challenge: “Simeon and Anna show us how to wait… How wonderful if our church prayer meetings and the times we meet with our fellow-believers for prayer share some of the character of those meetings in the temple precincts of which Simeon and Anna were a part!”
- Great film session with Chris Paul
Finally, I share a 10-minute video of current Thunder point guard Chris Paul, spending time breaking down game film. There’s a lot about this video that excites me, but most significantly is the video of the very first tip-off of an NBA regular season game in Oklahoma City. C.P. was there, as a member of the New Orleans/OKC Hornets—and so was yours truly, sitting at the scorers’ table. I have a poster hanging here in my den of that historic moment:
