Flight Paths

Entitlements are the biggest government programs in the US.  In 2016, the Social Security program cost $916 billion, Medicare $595 billion, Medicaid an estimated $651 billion and all other welfare programs an estimated $433 billion.  What began as an almost negligible part of the national debt in 1900 is now an estimated 17% of all national spending.

When did this happen?  The largest jump in entitlement spending occurred during the Great Society programs of 1964-65, but most people trace the root back to the Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal programs. 

Entitlement programs are not necessarily bad. When a man has had his wages taxed his whole life, I see little wrong with his picking up a Social Security check.  He is, theoretically, just getting his money back, money he loaned to the government for their use and which they are returning.  But entitlement in general has become a bad word.  To most of us it means "the belief that one is inherently deserving of special treatment," and not because it is earned.

I wish I had a nickel for every conservative politician, even every Christian, I’ve heard complaining about people who have entitlement issues.  The ones who act like the world owes them a living; like they should never have to reap the consequences of their sown wild oats; who think that having money or, interestingly enough, NOT having money, makes them exempt from the laws of the land.  While I find myself agreeing with most of those opinions, I also see this:  every one of them, politician and Christian alike, has an entitlement issue of his own.

First there is the husband who wants everything done in a certain way, even if it is a lot more work for his wife; one who demands certain foods cooked a certain way and served with certain other foods or he refuses to eat it; who requires every item of clothing pressed, even if they are permanent press and no one else will know the difference; who wants his big boy toys because he’s “worked hard and earned it,” even if it means others in the family will do without needs.  After all, he is the head of the house.

Then there is the wife who wants everything the neighbors have, even if the neighbor makes a lot more money; who thinks she must have plenty of time and money allotted for preening; who considers sacrificing for her family a kind of torture; who believes that life is for recreation and begrudges every minute she must spend caring for the children or keeping the house or cooking meals; who recites her list of woes to anyone who will listen every time she has the opportunity so she can be properly pitied and praised for dealing with them.  After all no one should have to go without a new pair of shoes for every outfit.

And don’t forget the children these two raise:  selfish, materialistic whiners who are never satisfied; who think that their parents owe them every new electronic gizmo the world creates; and who never once utter the word, “Thank you,” much less actually treat their parents with enough respect and courtesy to even look up from their phones and carry on a civil conversation.  After all, they didn’t ask to be born so they deserve everything they want to make up for it.

Do you think these attitudes haven’t invaded the church?  Where do you think we get those members who refuse to do as they are asked for the sake of visitors from the community?  Why, no one can have my perfect parking place (under the shade tree) or my perfect seat (in the rear).  Why do you think we have people who treat their precious opinions like the first principles of Christianity—basic and undeniable, and shame on anyone who isn’t as enlightened as I am?  Where do they come from, the people who will raise an argument about the trivial just to show their smarts and regardless of who may need the larger point being made?  Or the ones who, when they suffer, raise their fists at God and complain, “I’ve served you all my life.  Why me?” as if they could have ever earned any blessing at all?

And why do you think we have such a hard time overcoming a single besetting sin?  “That’s just the way I am,” we think, as if the Lord should count Himself blessed to have us and overlook it.

Yes, we are all guilty.  And what does Jesus have to say about that when he hears us pontificating about “those people” with entitlement issues?

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye, Matt 7:3-5.

Be careful the next time you rant about entitlement.

Dene Ward

 Here in our little neighborhood in Tampa, we no longer have 5 acres to roam around in, much less mow a path for walking or jogging.  In fact, our backyard is only about half the size of the "postage stamp" I used to call Nathan's backyard at the house where his children were born.  So my elliptical machine gets a true workout itself, every morning, rather than only when it rains.  And while I "walk," the neighborhood wildlife keep me company.

 I have already told you about the resident wren—which might actually be more than one, I suppose.  It comes every morning—it, that is, just the one, so it makes sense that it is the same one, especially since Keith whistles back and it returns the call as if they were old friends.  Then there is the lizard who regularly stops on the top of the fence, just opposite my elliptical machine inside the screened porch, blowing out his red throat at me as if he were a ferocious T-Rex and I should be very scared! 

 All of a sudden the squirrels seem to be making themselves shown more than ever since we got here.  Usually two show up, running across limbs in the laurel oaks, up and down the trunk and jumping to the smaller limbs whose leaves shake like a cheerleader's pom-poms.  Lately they have been running back and forth across the top of the fences and roofs, one always chasing the other lickety-split.  One didn't quite make the leap between roof and tree the other morning and fell ker-plop in the grass, only to scamper to the side of the neighbor's house and climb the stucco!  Notice:  these squirrels never just follow one another—they chase one another.  Sometimes I suppose it is a male-female type of chase, especially given the season and the fact that in Florida that is more than once a year.  Sometimes it might be a territorial fight with one trying to tell the other to get out of Dodge.  But sometimes it's just play—and those times seem obvious as they scurry back and forth across any surface upon which they can get a purchase.  Sometimes I think I hear them laughing.

 In our walk as Christians we need to think about squirrels.  In several places we are told to "follow after" certain things.  The word is not a casual, complacent stroll down the street, wandering here and there and always ready to stop for a cup of coffee on the way.  The word means "flee," as in something is chasing you and you had better get on down the road as quickly as possible.  Yet we are the ones who are supposed to be doing the chasing.

  So then let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another Rom14:19.  In this context the arrogant are the ones who need to be chasing after those "peaceful" things, the ones who think that since they know more than a new Christian, they must be better than he, even to the point of causing division where none needs to be.  No, Paul tells them.  Peace should be your goal instead, something you chase as hard as possible.

 See that none render unto any one evil for evil; but always follow after that which is good, one toward another, and toward all 1Thess5:15.  Vengeance and tit for tat thinking are the opposite of the good we should be chasing.  "Grudge" should not be in a Christian's vocabulary.

 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness 1Tim6:11.  If ever there was an inclusive verse it is this one.  We should be single-mindedly chasing everything that a Christian truly is.  How can we claim to be one otherwise?

 But flee youthful lusts, and follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart 2Tim2:22.  No, this is not talking to young people.  If you have ever seen a sixty year old man in a Corvette convertible with a twenty something blonde, you know that anyone can have "youthful lusts," and their opposites are things that a man with a pure heart "chases."

  Think about these things today.  Are you truly chasing them, pursuing them for all you are worth, or are career, monetary "success," a home in the right neighborhood, and the friendship of movers and shakers the things you truly spend your life on?  If you don't think it matters, consider this:  Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord Heb12:14.

Dene Ward

Summer thunderstorms are nothing unusual in Florida.  Even when we don’t have a hurricane, we can count on dark skies, roiling clouds, strong winds, and heavy downpours almost every afternoon from June through September.  One recent summer seems to have been worse than usual.

In a four day span we had two storms that knocked the power out for a total of seven hours, with two plus inches falling in an hour’s time.  In fact, the last time we had an inch and a half in thirty minutes flat.  The water ran down from the top of the hill in a river around the house and down to the creek just past the boundary fence.  The wind blew the rain in vertical sheets, leaving standing water an inch deep on the covered carport, and the screened porch floor wet to the wall of the house.  The wind blew in gusts that twisted fifteen foot long pine limbs off the trees—green limbs, not rotten ones.  Smaller limbs flew by as we watched, almost as thick as the rainwater.  The lightning was loud and close and almost constant.  When I stepped inside and saw the power was out I was not really surprised.  This was one angry storm.

And suddenly I thought, “This must have been the kind of rain Noah lived through.”  God was angry.  He would not have sent a gentle patter of raindrops on that gopher wood roof.  His wrath would have been obvious in the gusty winds tearing roofs off houses and branches off trees.  He would have vented his anger in the boom of thunder rolling over the hills, hills that slowly and inevitably disappeared under the waves.  That last storm we had scared me just a little; I bet the one Noah endured for forty days was terrifying.

And we need to be terrified too.  An angry God is not the God we want to face on judgment day.  Do not let the world, and sometimes even the brethren, blur your view of an irate God who cannot countenance sin.  You need that picture to keep you straight sometimes, and so do I.  It’s too easy to think, “This is no big deal; God won’t mind this once; God is a God of mercy,” and forget the God of wrath and vengeance.  Don’t let anyone turn “fear” into nothing more than respect.  You can love someone and fear them too.  Anyone who had a godly father knows that.  Don’t let them lie to you and steal your soul by telling you otherwise.

By the end of that summer I was ready for a calm fall.  I wanted sunny days and gentle breezes.  I am sure that’s what we want from God too, but just as those storms do good for this land—replenishing the water table and keeping the tropical plants green—remembering the stormy wrath of God can do your soul good too.  Don’t forget it.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end, Ezek 13:13.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, Eph 5:3-6.

Dene Ward

We finally got there in our Psalms class—the infamous imprecatory psalms.  And yes, if you just start reading one of them without any sort of preparation they shock you with their intensity.  Is this really the Bible?  Should a Christian have anything to do with these vicious prayers?  And so we show our ignorance—just as I did for years and years and years.

You will find all sorts of explanations for these psalms, including the assertion that they are not inspired.  Considering the fact that they are quoted by approved men in the New Testament (the apostles and even Jesus himself), I think we should take a careful step back and completely ignore that one before the lightning strikes.  Look at a few of those psalms yourself without preconceived notions and read carefully.  Psalms 35, 55, 59, 69, 79, 109, and 137 will explain themselves if you let them.

The psalmist in each case has his relationship with God in good order.  He is under attack, but not for anything evil he has done.  His cause is the Lord’s cause.  He asks God to act “for thy name’s sake.”  His own personal faith has not been affected, but he is concerned that what the weak see will turn them away from God and destroy their faith.  In short, this is not about personal vengeance.  It is about justice.  It is about God keeping His covenant.  Remember when the people stood on Mt Gerizim and recited the blessings of the covenant?  The other half of them stood on Mt Ebal and recited the curses—that’s what an imprecation is—a prayer to curse.  Curses are every bit as much a part of the covenant as blessings are.  These psalmists are asking God to keep the covenant for His sake, not theirs.  (I must make a quick thank you to Tom Hamilton for showing me this.)

And there is this obvious point:  inasmuch as I cannot become indignant at evil and injustice in the world, I cannot rejoice at the good in the world.  They are two sides of the same coin, a coin that points inevitably to my own moral compass.

Do not for a minute think imprecations are only an Old Testament concept.  Besides quoting the psalms themselves, the New Testament has a few imprecations of its own. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.  Gal 1:8.  That is as obvious an imprecation (curse) as you can find anywhere, and then for good measure, Paul repeats it in the next verse.  Flip over to chapter 5 and read verse 12. I wish that those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.  Whoa!  Sounds “pretty severe” as one of my students quietly understated.  Want some more?  Try 2 Tim 4:14,15.  In fact, hang around that book for a good while.  Have a look at Rev 6:9,10.  There is a place for judgment in the New Testament just as much as in the Old.  We would do well to remember that.

And please notice this:  in many cases the plea comes because of injustice, but in the New Testament nearly all of them are directed at people who are hindering the gospel.  What they are doing keeps new people from listening or undermines the faith of the babes.  This is not about personal vengeance any more than the psalms—it’s about spreading the gospel, about sharing the message of salvation to a lost world, and those who try to keep that from happening.

So let’s turn this around.  Would it be possible for someone to pray these prayers (curses) about me?  What do I do or say that will impede the spread of the gospel?  Do I complain about my brethren to my neighbors, effectively turning them away from the church?  Do I stand in the parking lot and provoke strife between brothers and sisters with my gossip?  Do I incite rebellious attitudes toward the leadership?  Do my words and actions, and the world’s knowledge of where I hang my spiritual hat, cause people to look down on and turn away from the church and their opportunities to hear the gospel?  Anything that hurts the reputation of the Lord’s body in the community or causes dissension and conflict within makes me a worthy target for an imprecatory prayer. 

The psalmist always left his request in the hands of God to do His own will, and God very often said yes to those imprecatory prayers.  Read some of those psalms listed above today.  Do you want God to even consider saying yes to those things about you?

Dene Ward

If you watch much television, you know about reruns.  When I was a child, a show lasted at least 9 months and you didn’t have any reruns at all until summer.  Nowadays you are likely to have one by Thanksgiving, and then off and on all year long. 

One thing about growing older—reruns are a lot more interesting.  You don’t always remember what happened the first time, or whodunit or why.  In fact, since I usually watch only older shows, I really don’t remember.  It’s like watching a brand new show, and since it’s an older one, it’s a lot more palatable too.  Have you noticed that even when they care to “bleep” these days, they leave so much of the word you might as well have heard it in the first place?  Talk about UNpalatable.

A year or so ago someone said about the blog, “I finally read a new article that had something in it you already said!”  What in the world is he thinking, I wondered.  I've written well over a thousand posts.  How in the world could I NOT repeat myself?  And I have scriptural authority to do so:

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things, 2Pet 1:12-15.

All things being equal, my departure should not be quite as imminent as Peter’s, but I will follow his example as long as I can by reminding you of things you have already heard at least once, if not a hundred times.

And all that got me to thinking about the admitted reruns in the Bible—things the writers said were repeats of former lessons.  I did some research and have found a list of things these inspired men thought they should remind people of.  And that means I have a scripturally sound, ready-made list of things to remind you of.  And that’s what we will do every so often.  I hope you don't find these "reruns" too boring to read.  If God thought these things were worth repeating, we should probably pay close attention.

Dene Ward

 On June 22, 1953, a newsboy in Brooklyn named Jimmy Bozart, dropped a nickel from the money he had made selling newspapers.  It broke in two which exposed the fact that the nickel was hollow.  Inside sat a tiny piece of microfilm.  I am assuming he contacted an authority of some sort because it eventually wound up in the hands of the FBI.  On the microfilm they found a coded numeric message containing 207 sets of five digit numbers. ”Mental Floss” tells me the case foundered after that.  Evidently there was no way to know who had paid for his paper with the hollow nickel, though everyone assumed it was a mistake. 

 Finally in May 1957, a Soviet KGB agent named Reino Hayhanen defected and provided the cipher key.  He also identified his “handler” (case manager/recruiter), Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, known by the alias “Mark”. He was arrested on June 21, 1957, and served four years of a 45 year sentence before being traded back to the Soviets in exchange for Francis Gary Powers, an American U2 pilot in1962.

 There was a time when spies were all the rage.  John LeCarre made a mint writing books about espionage.  Sean Connery and his subsequent brethren made the English spy James Bond come to life in film.  Even television went the route of shows about spies.  In the sixties and seventies we had Mission: Impossible, The Avengers, I Spy, The Man from UNCLE, and Secret Agent, the latter introduced with a song by the same name sung by Johnny Rivers.  We even had a comedic spoof of the genre in Get Smart and a Western version in the Wild, Wild West.

 Even the Bible has a few spies in it, though they had a decidedly different mission.  God’s spies were all about going to look and find out.  In Numbers 13 Moses sent 12 spies, one from each tribe, “to spy out the land.”  For forty days they traveled up and down the Promised Land and brought back the report of a beautiful and fruitful land.  But, they also brought back the report of a people who were large and strong and cities well fortified, and they lacked the faith to encourage the people to take it.

 Then, forty years later, we have the two spies who went into the city of Jericho.  Joshua charged them to “go view the land, especially Jericho” (Josh 2:1).  In both of these cases, God wanted the people to see the wealth and beauty of the land He had promised them, to become excited about taking that land and living there.  That was the result in only the second case.

 We have a Promised Land” in our future too, a city “whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:10).  God won’t be sending us there to “spy out the land” but He has certainly given us glimpses of that place in a life full of blessings sent because of His grace and mercy.

 We experience a little piece of Heaven when our marriages match His plan—when the two halves of His image become one.

 We see a piece of Heaven in a family that lives according to His plan, a home full of laughter and love.

  We have a view of Heaven in a garden that occasionally produces far more than the hundredfold one might expect, and feeds us with healthy and nourishing food.  We see it in a riot of color as the flowers bloom so much that they bend and nearly break the boughs they cover.  In those things we see the Garden we left and the one to which we hope to return.

  We get a little peek into Heaven in a church full of brothers and sisters who get along with one another, “each counting the other as better than himself.” 

 We hear a bit of Heaven when our brothers and sisters sing praises to God, not with a man-made instrument, but with the one God made, the one He most wants to hear, our voices blending in a harmony that matches the sincerity of our hearts and the harmony of our thoughts and goals.

 All these things and more give us just a small taste of what Heaven will be like, but only if they match God’s perfect design for them all.  Keep your eyes open to “spy out the land” God has in store for us, and encourage yourself to get there, not by your own might, but with the help and grace of the God who keeps it in store for us.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever Psalm 23:6

Dene Ward

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name…

Most of the people I know begin their prayers addressing God as Father.  If you think about what you pray, that word “Father” should color your whole life.  To a Jew the father was the authority figure in the home.  His word was law, and the family obeyed.

For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him…Gen 18:19.

He said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law, Deut 32:46.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the  discipline and instruction of the Lord, Eph 6:4.

One who manages his own household competently, having his children under control with all dignity, 1Tim 3:4.

Yes, a father is more than an authority figure, but these passages show us that is an important part of his role.  This is what bothers me:  our culture is doing its best to remove that part of the job from the father.  How many strong fathers do you see depicted on television?  Most of them, if any, are on the classic channels or old movies.  Today’s TV father is hardly more than an incompetent buffoon.

Understanding authority is basic to understanding submission, a hallmark of discipleship.  Even more important, understanding authority means you will be less likely to err in your relationship with God.  God meant that the father in the family be one way the children were to learn about that Ultimate Authority.  Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you, Deut 8:5.  Fathers, when you do not live up to the role God has put you in, acting as the authority figure who must be obeyed, who controls and disciplines, who raises up his children, you are responsible for any misunderstanding your child may have about what he can get away with in his relationship to God.

When you tell him to do something and then do not punish him for disobeying you, you are telling him he can get away with disobeying God.

When you allow her to wrap you around her finger and get whatever she wants, you are teaching her that God will let her do it her way too, even if it isn’t His way.

When you allow them to sass you, to talk back or otherwise disrespect you, you are telling them it’s just fine to treat God that way.

When your children get older, they will disregard plain commands in the Bible.  They will say things like, “But God wouldn’t mind if I…”  They will believe they can finagle their way out of Hell on Judgment Day because they finagled their way out of any orders you gave them, or because you were too weak to make a stand, or because you were afraid they wouldn’t love you, or any number of other excuses you might make. 

They can blame it all on you and what you taught them about a Father’s role, and they will be right, but it won’t help either of you in the end.

Maybe it even says a little bit about how YOU perceive your Father in Heaven.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, Heb 12:7-11.

Dene Ward

Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD. The LORD bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children's children! Peace be upon Israel! Ps 128.

Nearly every commentator believes the Psalms of Ascents (120-134) were psalms sung by families as they made their way up the hill (ascending) to Jerusalem to worship on the feast days, especially the agricultural feast days of Passover, Tabernacles, and Weeks.  As such you see in your mind’s eye the extended family of parents, children, grandparents, and perhaps maiden aunts or other singles stepping out to the tune of these psalms, year after year, a tradition kept by every generation.  This particular psalm is a picture of the life that family leads the rest of the year, another routine that some might even consider dull but which God calls blessed.

The father works, but the implication is not one of a career-minded workaholic.  This man labors for his family, to provide those meals they meet around the table to eat together and the sacrifices they are able to make on their annual pilgrimages. 

The mother is “a fruitful vine within the house.”  That does not mean she never steps outside the door—it means she, too, is family-oriented.  Like the ideal woman of Proverbs 31, caring for her family may force her to leave the home occasionally, but she is the direct opposite of that other woman in Proverbs:  She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait, Prov 7:11-12.

This blessed family meets at the table every evening and has their meal together.  And several times a year they make that journey to Jerusalem, to God’s Temple, to the assembled worship prescribed by the Law.  When I think about this family, I think of my childhood.  Every Sunday we had a routine.  We rose, ate breakfast together, and then dressed to go meet with the saints.  No one ever asked where we would be or what we would do on Sunday.  We all knew exactly where we would be and what we would be doing.

When I raised my family, the same thing happened.  Maybe the routine was a little different, but it was a routine.  My boys never had to ask what or where.  They knew.

And now I watch my son and his family doing the same thing.  It may be a different routine, but it leads them to the same place—a meeting with the people of God.

A lot of people think that routine is useless, that since it is so much routine it no longer has any meaning.  But consider this for one minute.  What if we had to do this in secret?  What if the church had been bankrupted because of its beliefs, its leaders fined or even jailed, and our only recourse was to go “underground?”  This country is fast moving in that direction.  These things may not happen in our lifetimes, but our children or grandchildren will almost certainly face them.  I know God has a plan, but His plans have not always meant that none of His people suffered or even died.

What you look at with disdain today may sometime in the future be a distant memory of how well we had it.  Of families that could meet every Sunday in a place they had pooled their resources to buy, with a sign on the side of the road that proclaimed who we are and what we were doing:  Christians meet here.

Suddenly, the routine you consider boring and unmeaningful will be the thing you wish you had appreciated far more when you had it.  Think about that and appreciate it like you ought to today.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!” Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem— built as a city that is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD. There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!” For my brothers and companions' sake I will say, “Peace be within you!” For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good, Psalm 122

Dene Ward

 At the beginning of my piano teaching career, I taught mainly beginners.  After a few years those beginners had either advanced or decided to spend their time elsewhere, and I had replaced them with more beginners.  By the time I had been teaching for twenty years I had students who covered the spectrum—very young beginners, middle schoolers who were competent and growing more so by the month, and then some advanced students who had begun studying concerti and the solo masterworks of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, and others.

 The practice assignments for each group was different and the difference had little to do with the amount of time they practiced.  For very young beginners simply getting them to play a piece again and again taught them hand-eye coordination and the basics of music reading.  If I could get them to play each of their three or four 8 bar pieces four or five times a day, I knew it would be perfect when they came back the next week and they would be ready to add a new note or two on the staff and new keys on the piano.  In addition, the practice offered its own reward as they gained proficiency and what had taken them 20 minutes the first day took only 10 by the end of the week.  For middle schoolers the trick was to get them to just sit there and play for a certain amount of time.  I gave them a section or page of a piece and calculated how long it would take for them to play it through once and then multiplied the minutes into a time frame I was certain would give them enough repetitions to gain the proficiency to move on.

 Now we get to the advanced students.  At this level they were expected to not only perform more difficult pieces but to interpret them.  How do you assign practice with that?  I gave them a chart made of squares, one square for each piece, each day.  I told them that time was not the issue, and playing it a certain number of times didn't matter either if they just kept playing it the same way again and again.  The point now was to become an artist, to decide what you wanted the audience to feel when you played the piece and how you would go about doing that.  They were to put an objective in the square by the piece they were working on and write in it what they intended to accomplish, then work until they had accomplished that goal.  At first it might be "Play the Rondo section without error."  After all, if you kept making the same mistakes you would never reach the point of interpretation.  Once you accomplished the "easy" objectives, you were to move on to something deeper.  "Figure out which hand is the melody and make the accompanying hand sound like it is in another room so it won't drown out the melody."  "Find the focus of each phrase and make the music move to and away from that focus."  "Decide on and create a mood that you wish to project with this piece."  Now we are becoming pianists, artists instead of simply piano players.  That kind of practice keeps you working on the same piece for several months—without getting bored.

 I thought of all that when I heard Keith give a young man some prayer advice he has given others for years.  If you really want to learn to pray like the men in the Bible—like Jesus and Paul and the apostles, like Daniel and the other prophets who prayed long and hard—get yourself a cheap kitchen timer.  Set it for 15 minutes.  Then start praying.  Do you know what will happen?  At first you will pray the way you normally do, about the same things you normally pray about.  You will repeat phrases you have heard at church, some of them all your life because you are desperate to fill up the time.  When you completely run out of things to say, you will look at the timer and find out it has been a walloping 5 minutes—if you're lucky.  It might just be two or three.  But don't stop.  Now you will find out what it really means to pray as you open your heart and really start talking to God, telling Him things you only tell your best friend, if that.  You will examine yourself far more closely and see where you need to change. You will ask for God's help and really mean it.  You might even cry, and your determination to be better will sweep over you like a tidal wave.  And when that timer goes off, you might just ignore it and keep going.  The purpose of the timer was to help you reach that point.  You might not need it again, but if you do, use it.

 Do you know how I know all this?  Because that is the way it worked for me.  Try it yourself.  Your prayer life will suddenly become a means of survival, something you cannot live without, instead of a pesky chore you save till the end of the day and often forget.  Guess which one God is happier with?

O Jehovah, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you. Let my prayer enter into your presence; Incline your ear unto my cry Ps88:1,2

Dene Ward

Seems like every August one of the morning network shows will have a spot on what to do with all those tomatoes.  Unfortunately, those shows usually air from New York City where they seem to think that everyone thinks like they do and lives like they do, and that even the weather follows suit.  New York City must be the center of the universe. 

Down here in Florida our tomatoes are 1 to 2 months gone by the time those shows air, depending upon the year.  We eat and give away those perfectly formed, unblemished firstfruits from the last week of May till halfway through June.  Then I spend a week canning tomatoes with the plum varieties, and a few days on specialty items like salsa and tomato jam.  Another week using up the end of the year uglies on sauce, and that’s that.  It’s a rare year that I have tomatoes after the Fourth of July.

And guess what?  In the south part of this long state, things are different still.  Tomato season Is different for every location and climate.

It’s like that for Christians too.  Not only do different spiritual ages have differing levels of understanding, but even different locations fight different battles.  A long time ago, we moved north.  Talk about culture shock.  Not only did I see my first snow, we had to fight heresies that had been fought down south ten years earlier.  You can see those things happen in the New Testament too, as trouble travels from city to city. 

We can also discover exactly how patient—or impatient—we are with our brothers and sisters.  I forget how long it took me to reach this point but expect it of them in a few short weeks.  I become annoyed with their failures and with their lack of understanding.  Somehow I expect them to leapfrog a few decades and catch up.

That is not how it works, and we must make allowances.  It may mean we are more careful in our decision making, and it may mean we give up our liberties.  It’s one thing to be held hostage by the views of the stubborn who claim they are “offended;” it’s quite another to trample on the fragile souls of those new in the faith, who are still grappling with the baggage they have not quite left behind. 

And let us not deter, or even discourage completely, their salvation with some manmade list of things they should know before we accept them into our congregations.  Smacks a little of catechism class, doesn’t it?  Just how much do you think that Philippian jailor knew when Paul baptized him “in the same hour of the night?”  Enough to understand his need for a Savior and how to contact that redeeming blood.  He had a lifetime to learn the rest.

Tomato season for me is not tomato season for you, and my Christian age is not the same as yours.  If you expect a green tomato to taste like one that has been vine-ripened in a home garden, you are not as wise as you think you are.

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me,  Rom 15:1-3.

Dene Ward