Jack Pelham

Some you will think
Have left too early
And some too late.

But at length
You too will leave
And go to where you
Can talk it all over
With the Dispatcher.

He does not entirely
Lose an argument
Who learns from it.

If you wanted to straighten out
A boatload of Bible interpretation problems,
You could start by seeing to it that never again
Would anyone mistake themselves for being
In the immediate audience to whom
A passage was written, when they are not.

Many a good this has been resented
Because it is not that—
Many a good then
Because it is not now—
Many a good who it is
Because of who it isn’t.

And we have not yet learned
To bear disappointment
Honestly and justly.

If you’re interested in studying the Bible, you may find that your friends at church are not. And if you learn a lot while studying the Bible, you may find that it’s causing conflict with your friends who are not learning a lot.

This is quite to be suspected, and it’s because one of you is showing more interest in God than are the others. Let me assure you, what you are doing is quite OK with God. Though your friends may raise an eyebrow at this, God does not. In fact, if the scriptures are to be believed, it seems God would like your friends to be studying, too.

Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.

Psalm 111:2 ESV

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Psalm 119:15-16 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 22:37 ESV

It was their first date
And she could see how he cared
About who she was
By the fact that he
Had a thousand questions
And strove to understand her life.

What a fool finds to do with himself
Is rarely foolisher then when
He decides that the world needs
New definitions for established words.

People’s minds are messy.
In many things involving both our understanding
And the way we explain that understanding
We are fuzzy and imprecise and technically incorrect
In some regards, even if not in every regard.

When a man lacks desire
For the very nutrition
That would cure him,
He has two diseases.

These world starves
Even as the feast
Is served up
Piping hot and
In abundance—
Spread out for all.

They will not come
For they have found
Other fare they
Like better.