Flight Paths

The only newspaper we ever bother to buy, mainly because of the coupons, the crossword puzzle, and the sports page, is the Sunday issue.  The coupons pay for it so it isn’t even a guilty pleasure, not that the press is ever much of a pleasure anyway.  But the business page one recent week sounded like something you might read in a church bulletin—or at least hear from the pulpit or a Bible class lectern.   Notice:
              “A start [to reduce our stress] is to mitigate the desire to acquire.  Folks with a high net worth are frequently coupon clippers and sale shoppers who resist the urge to splurge…Many times the difference between true wealth and ‘advertised’ wealth is that those with true wealth are smart enough not to succumb to the lure of what it can buy.”  Margaret McDowell, “Lieutenant Dan, George Bailey, and Picasso,” Gainesville Sun, 12-14-14.
              When I turned the page I found this:  “Dress appropriately [for the office party].  Ladies…Lots of skin and lots of leg is inappropriate…Keep it classy.” Eva Del Rio, “Company Holiday Party Do’s and Don’ts for Millennials,” Gainesville Sun, 12/14/14.
              Jesus once told a parable we call “The Unrighteous Steward.”  In it, he took the actions of a devious man and applauded his wisdom.  He ended it with this statement:  For the sons of this world are for their generation, wiser than the sons of the light, Matt 16:8.  Jesus never meant that the man’s actions were approved.  What he meant was he wished his followers had as much sense as people who don’t even care about spiritual things.
              We still fall for Satan’s traps in our finances, believing that just a little more money will solve all of our problems.  We still listen to him when he says that our dress is our business and no one else’s.  It isn’t just short-sighted to think that accumulating things will make us happy—even experts in that field will tell you it’s not “smart.”  It isn’t just a daring statement of individuality to wear provocative clothing, it’s cheap and “classless.”
              If we used our brains a little more, there would be less arguing about what is right and what is wrong.  We could figure it out with a little reason and a lot of soul-searching. 
              Why is it that I regularly overspend?  Because I am looking for love and acceptance from the world?  Because I trust a portfolio in hand instead of a God in the burning bush?  Because I have absolutely no self-control? 
              Why do I insist on wearing clothing that is the opposite of good taste and decorum?  Because I do not care about my brothers’ souls?  Because I do care about the wrong people’s opinions?  Because I am loud and brash and think meekness is a sign of weakness instead of strength?  Or maybe it isn’t any of these bad motives—maybe it’s just a lack of wisdom.  Is there any wonder that the book of Proverbs is included for us, and that so many times it labels people with no wisdom “fools?”
              Not just wealth and dress, but practically everything we struggle with could be overcome by being as wise as at least some of the “children of this world.”  Isn’t it sad that they so often outdo us in good old common sense?
 
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, Eph 5:15-17.
 
Dene Ward

Church shootings have become too real for me.  The one in Fort Worth in December was only 4 miles from the place where my sister and her family were also worshiping that day.
              I am not a professional, but I am married to one.  I have picked up a lot of things from sitting next to him while I try to watch a crime drama on TV as he systematically picks it apart.  Maybe some of what I have learned will help you too.  (And he will add things to this to make it more legitimate.)

              1.  First, to get this little matter taken care of, we are not talking about people coming to persecute you for your faith.  We are talking about law-breakers.  I am not going to argue that point.  My point is saving lives not arguing theology.

              2.  Leave it to the professionals, if your church has any.  We are blessed to have a couple of troopers, a deputy, and some retired law enforcement officers, including my husband who has actually been in and won a firefight himself.  I know many of you are licensed to carry, and I have no problem with that.  I have heard too many validated stories of people saving their own lives because they carry, not to mention that where we live there are always poisonous snakes, packs of dogs attacking the livestock, and rabid foxes, possums, and coons.  The right to carry is perfectly fine with me, and I wouldn't be surprised if a good 20% of our congregation do so.

              3.  If you do not have any professionals among you, then do your best with the training you have, BUT—be aware that the training given for the average guy (or gal) to carry is minimal at best, and absolutely nothing like the intense training a professional gets.  At the shooting in Texas several who were not pros made errors that could have led to tragedy—like waving their guns around when there were still innocent people between them and the bad guy.  They must not understand that handguns are not all that accurate at any distance over a few feet.  Even allowing your wrist to veer just a fraction off-center when you pull the trigger can have you hitting something (or someone) a couple feet to the side.  And bullets go through bodies, people.  If there is someone behind the bad guy, you may get a two-for-one without meaning to.  Amateurs also have bad habits like keeping their finger in the trigger guard (as Lenny Briscoe of Law and Order was wont to do) before they have even acquired a target. 
              And think of this: what if you do accidentally hit a little old lady who just couldn't duck fast enough or a terrified child who dashed across the aisle at just the wrong moment?  Modern forensic science will find out which gun fired the fatal bullet and you will know without a doubt that you are the one who killed an innocent.  Can you live with that?

              4.  If the intruders are satisfied with the money—GIVE THEM THE MONEY!!!  In our age I have little doubt that each member could give the same amount again just by giving up a month of Starbucks or a couple Sunday dinners out.  Far better the criminals leave with the money than someone dies because of ineptitude.

              5.  Your security patrols need to be paying attention, not talking to one another.  They should also be young enough to move quickly, not some eighty year old sitting in an easy chair.  They need an eye on the parking lot and one on whichever door is within sight and there should be someone who can see each door in the place.  How do they worship, you ask?  Our sound system goes all over the building.  They can sing and look at the same time.  In fact, they are more likely to be worshiping then than when they are sitting there chatting with one another.  And alternate the patrol duty every so often so they won't become blasé about it.
              But notice—this guy got in the assembly with hidden gun because he was recognized by many as a man who had come begging several times before.  Just like Satan, bad guys don't always look the part, so always be on guard.

              6.  You need to have drills so that each teacher knows what to do if the bad guy comes into the building during class time.  We have a signal and a lockdown.  Figure out what is best for you, but practice it several times and have the procedure printed out in each classroom.
              "But won't that unnecessarily scare the children?"  I hear someone asking.  Maybe, but anyone who calls himself a parent ought to have figured out by now how to give important information to his child without terrifying him.  We had fire drills in our home.  We talked about stranger danger and even had passwords we gave out when we sent someone to pick up our children somewhere when plans suddenly changed.  I don't recall any of this terrifying my boys.  Instead it told them what to do if, which is far more comforting than leaving them imagining the worst and wondering what to do.  And who says it won't someday be necessary after all?  We can hope and pray, but don't let your children suffer because you didn't do what needed to be done.

              7.  Keep your eyes open, even while sitting in the pew.  The man in Texas knew when those people would be the most vulnerable, when he could kill more of them quickly—during the Communion.  Too many of us hang our hats on the vertical Communion we have with the Lord and ignore the horizontal Communion commanded in 1 Cor 10.  This is supposed to be a unifying act by the church when it "comes together."  We are supposed to be noticing each other.  Maybe this is one good side effect of this horrible situation—now we will get it right!  Even if you can't make yourself look around at your brothers and sisters, at least keep your head up instead of tucking you nose into your navel and thinking that makes you more spiritual than everyone else.  If all those young mothers out there can hold a squirming child, correct another on the seat next to her, and still keep her mind on the services, surely the men out there can keep their heads up and still worship during the Communion.

              Please don't even think about being a hero if it isn't necessary.  This is not a movie scripted so that all the good guys survive and "live happily ever after" with only a token "flesh wound" to show for it.  My husband will tell you, flesh wounds hurt, even 24 years later.  There isn't a day goes by that he does not have pain from one or the other of the five he suffered.
              Keith has written the policy letter for our congregation regarding carrying in services and the guidelines we expect all to follow.  We will be happy to email you a copy if you either leave your email address below or, for privacy's sake, contact Dene on the left sidebar and send her your address via her blog email.
               And let's pray together that all this is for nothing.
 
Dene and Keith Ward

We were once again babysitting, this time in Tampa instead of here at home.  Though I grew up there, that Tampa was long ago and far, far away.  In fact, that night, a Wednesday, we headed for a place that forty years ago had been nothing but woods.  Now it is a Chick-Fil-A, "where we go every Wednesday before church," we were told by our grandsons, and since Mom and Dad had been away for a week and a half already with three more days to go—and not just away, but on another continent—we wanted things to be like "normal," so off to that popular place we went.
              Probably because I grew up in that area, even if it did look very different back then, my sense of direction was just fine when we came out after our meal.  For one thing, I knew that turning left onto Fowler without a light, especially during the remaining minutes of rush hour, was a no-go.
              "I wonder if there is a back way," I mused aloud.
              Eight year old Silas immediately piped up from the backseat.  "Turn right out of the back of the parking lot, go to the next street and turn right again."  Of course he gets his superb directional skills from his grandma!
              So I repeated his directions to Keith who could not possibly hear him from the front seat.  He looked a little askance, but did as he was told.  But then we came to 56th Street and by then, good old Granddad was totally turned around.  He had no idea where he really was.  I recognized immediately that though we needed to turn left, there was no break in the median there to do so.  We would have to turn right, go to the Fowler light, and do a U-turn in order to be headed in the correct direction.  And that light was not even a block down the street in the middle of the thick traffic.
              "Make sure you have enough room to get all the way across," I told him.  "You will have to make a U-turn at the light to get to church."
              "What are you talking about?  A U-turn?"
              "Yes, at the light."
              "I don't want to turn there.  It's the wrong place.
              "No, it isn't.  The church turn-off is behind us."
              "Are you sure?  It's just down a block or two on the left."
              "No!  You have to turn around.  You have to make a U-turn at the light."
              "But why do I want to do that?"  he asked, thoroughly flummoxed.
              Once again the 8 year old voice piped up from the backseat.  "Because that's how to get there," he said with simple logic.
              At that point I laughed out loud.  "Yes.  That's how to get there."
              "No it's not.  I shouldn't have to make a turn at all."
              "Yes, you do," and by then the car was in a bit of an uproar because he was starting to pull out and the traffic was way too heavy for him to get all the way across into the left turn lane before he hit the light.  "All the way, all the way, all the way!" the boys and I were shouting, and that is exactly what Keith did, having given up on his idea of where we were, though I think I still hear the echo of a horn and a screech of tires behind us as he did it.
              As we sat there in our hard-won left lane, waiting to make a U-turn, Keith said very quietly, "What street is this?" and when I told him he added, "Ohhhhh," with dawning realization.  "Well, it's a good thing someone knew where we were."
              And once again that little voice piped up from the backseat, "Always listen to the guy in the backseat."  Then glancing over at his little brother he added, "On the right."
              We have laughed at that story for a year and a half now.  "Always listen to the guy in the backseat," one of us says, and then in unison, "On the right!"  And the little guy had a point.  When you are lost, when you don't know what to do, when you don't know where to go or who to turn to, ask "the guy in the backseat."  In this case, that metaphor stands for someone who has been there, perhaps several times, as Silas had, someone who knows the ropes, someone who can lead you through the maze of possible routes safely to the other side.
              Too many times we go to the wrong people.  We go to the ignorant, the naïve, the ones who are in just as much trouble as we are.  We steadfastly refuse to approach anyone who can really help us.  And why?  Could it be because we know we won't like the answer we will get?  Could it be because it simply goes against the grain to let that particular person know we are having trouble?  Could it be because, "No one really understands what it's like."  Are we really that arrogant?
              God created the church in his "manifold wisdom" (Eph 3:10), first, to hold forth the light of the gospel and save the world.  But also so we can help one another, so we never have to fight the battles alone.  Look around you some Sunday morning.  You will see a group of people who, between them, have met almost every trial of life.  You have a wealth of information and help at your beck and call, not to mention a raft of prayers going up daily if you only ask for them.
              Sometimes your life is a crazy intersection at rush hour, with cars whizzing past and a left lane far across four lanes of that dangerous traffic, the very lane you need to be in to make a U-turn that might save your soul.  Listen to the guy in the backseat and quit trying to figure it out alone.
 
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (Gal 6:2).
Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. (Rom 15:1).
 
Dene Ward

We live in a rural county.  We have no garbage pickup.  Instead we have dumpsites at several places with recycling bins and a dumpster for household garbage.  We have to haul our own trash.  Ask yourself how much trash and garbage your family generates in a day.  How many garbage cans do you have outside and how many times can you empty the trash indoors before your outside can is full?  Now, how often would you like to drive several miles to dump your trash, and how many of those big trash cans will fit in your car?  You now know one reason most of the folks out here have a pickup truck!
              But this also explains the burn barrel.  We keep two receptacles in the house—one for wet garbage and one for burnable trash.  The more we can burn, the less often we have to cart garbage cans down the highway.  We put everything we possibly can in that box of trash—junk mail, out-of-date documents, bills, and receipts, cardboard boxes, empty plastic containers and lids, plastic bottles and bags, old rags, irreparable clothes—everything that will burn, or melt and then burn.  Don’t talk to me about recycling.  We recycle in several other ways, and this practice saves gas.
              But let me ask you this. Would you ever put anything important in a burn barrel?  Of course not.  Do you know what God thinks of this world?  He has his own burn barrel, and this world is what He plans to throw in it.
              We need to remember that.  Too often we become enamored of the very things God will ultimately destroy.  Some of our favorite things in life are sitting in God’s burn barrel.  Even when we think we have our priorities straight, we often do not.
              I remember telling my little boys that one day we would take a month long camping trip out west.  We would show them all those beautiful national parks they had only heard about.  They could look across the Grand Canyon, watch Old Faithful erupt, and stand in a place where the mountains rose peak after peak after peak with no signs of modern man—no power lines, no sounds of traffic, not even a tangled skein of contrail in the perfect blue sky--a place where a thousand years before some native had stood and enjoyed the same view.  It never happened.  We never had the money or the time.  They are grown now and can understand the pressures of life, making a living, paying the bills, meeting one’s responsibilities to others, but I have always felt bad about missing that trip.  We managed one or two other things while they were still at home, but never that one.
              But remember this, no matter how good a plan it was, how good the values we were trying to instill with an appreciation of God as the Creator of all that majestic beauty, God Himself doesn’t think that much of it.  It’s temporary.  He plans to destroy it all.  The things God meant for me to teach those boys were things I could teach any time, any place, no matter how much money we did or didn’t have. 
               The Bible is full of people who did not have the right priorities—Esau for one, who sold a birthright for one meal.  The Hebrew writer calls him “profane” (Heb 12:16).  Paul talks about having a “mind of the spirit” rather than a “mind of the flesh” (Rom 8:4).  And why?  Because Jesus’ kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36).  It is “not meat and drink” (Rom 14:17).  So many things we allow ourselves to become upset about simply do not matter.  Traffic jams?  Noisy neighbors?  Pet peeves?  Even the trials of life—precisely because it is this life we are becoming distracted with.
              For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is perdition, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Phil 3:18-20.  Yes, Paul says that when I let things of this life upset me to the point of distraction that my “god is my belly.”  I am not supposed to be minding those earthly things.
              So today, think about God’s burn barrel.  He has a place for the things He plans to destroy, just like I do, one that gets too full too fast.  God’s burn barrel holds things like wealth, possessions, awards, careers, opinions, irritations, Jimmy Choo shoes, stock portfolios, time shares on the beach, cabins in the mountains, camping trips out west—even this earthly tabernacle that so many try to keep looking young.  They all go in the barrel at the end of the Day.  And God will light the fire Himself.
 
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed…Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace, 2Pet 3:10-14.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Warren Berkley.
 
I was the visiting speaker at a large local church in a metropolitan area here in Texas last month. As the announcements scrolled across the screen, then prayers offered, there were those words I see over and over: Cancer, Heart Attack, Asthma, Parkinson’s, Surgery, Diabetes, Leukemia, Alzheimer’s, Brittle Bone, on and on.
             When we see or hear these words, we often feel disappointed, defeated and we grieve with the “sick and afflicted” and their families. Sometimes the word “terminal” is part of the reality.
                Here is another perspective. All these conditions are temporary! It is so hard to replace the word “terminal” with the word “temporary.” But when the full scope of existence is brought into view, that there is an existence after this life, “terminal” is overpowered by “temporary,” especially for those who build their lives on the foundation of active faith in Christ.
I            I was preaching from 1 Peter 1 at this church. I read their list of conditions/diseases and told them, “these are all temporary,” then I read 1 Pet. 1:6.
 
Truth Connection: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.”
 
Warren Berkley
Berksblog.net

Years ago I sang in the evening chorus at the university.  Chorus was required for my degree, and this was the only chorus that fit my schedule, a schedule that included teaching private piano lessons, running a home, and interning as a music teacher in a local elementary school.  Add to that, I was a preacher’s wife—just learning, as he was, but still dealing with extra obligations.
              We had a program scheduled and the director called an extra rehearsal.  That rehearsal did not fit my schedule.  I would have had to cancel a few lessons and more important, miss a Wednesday evening Bible study.  He made it clear that no misses would be excused short of death beds.  So I took a deep breath when I broached the lion in his den the next afternoon.
              My heart sank when I saw three others waiting outside his office.  Instead of calling us in one by one, he came out and stood in the hall and listened as the first one asked to be excused.  “Absolutely not!” he said sternly.  “You already miss too many rehearsals.  If you don’t show up, you will be dismissed from the chorus.”  The next one received a similar reply and the next.  They all left, crestfallen.
              Then he saw me at the back of the line.  “If you have to dismiss me, I understand,” I began, “but my husband is a preacher and we have a Bible study that night.  I just cannot miss it.” 
              I was shocked when a small smile twitched at his lips.  “You I don’t worry about,” he said quietly.  “You are always there.  You listen when I give directions.  You know your part.  You haven’t missed a single performance.  Go to your Bible study.  You still have a place in my chorus.” Talk about relief.  I drove home praising God in my heart.
              Have you read Psalm 123?  That psalm is classified as a psalm of trust, written on behalf of the entire nation of Israel.  Many psalms are full of hallelujahs, with shouts of Hosanna, with dancing and leaping and loud expressions of joy.  Not this one.  Psalm 123 is a quiet psalm.  It is presented as servants watching quietly from the corner of the room for the smallest sign from the master that he wants something. 
              Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us, v 2.
              Leupold says, “There is nothing powerful, moving or sublime that finds expression here.  A quiet, submissive tone prevails throughout.  It is subdued in character.”  This is simply a servant doing his master’s will in an unobtrusive manner, calmly asking for relief but going about his duty even in the midst of trial, trusting that his prayer will be answered without his further interference.
              I like this psalm.  I have never been one who needs to demonstrate my love for God loudly, yet everyone knows it is there simply from the way I live my life.  If my chorus director could know I was a “faithful student” despite the fact that I was quiet instead of boisterous, certainly God can know the same about my spiritual life.
              God, the Father of spirits, made all kinds of personalities.  And because He made them, he accepts them—just look at the apostles and all their differences.  If He will accept that varied crew, He will accept my worship, even if it is quiet and restrained, as long as my emotion and intent are sincere and obedient.
              Nowadays it seems people are quick to judge others as less thankful, less sincere, and less loving if they sit quietly and say little aloud about their feelings.  This psalm says it isn’t so.  If I sit quietly in the corner waiting for my master’s smallest cue, I may, in fact, be a whole lot more likely to see it than someone who can’t sit still long enough to notice, or be quiet long enough to hear someone besides himself.  
              We are all different, yet God accepts all worship that is “in spirit and in truth,” the brash, the boisterous, even the analytical and the subdued.  Perhaps our judgments of one another should be more subdued as well.
 
But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious, 1 Pet 3:4.
 
Dene Ward

In the midst of grief there is always business that still needs to be taken care of.  Planning funerals, going through belongings, paying final bills, and other such matters.  But this is the first time I have had to deal with death certificates.  My mother took care of my father's since they lived over two hours south of us and I could not be there for everything.  If you have seen them, you know that there are two kinds, the long form and the short form—just like taxes.  The long form lists the manner and cause of death.
              The manner could be natural, homicide, accidental, etc.  The cause will be the primary cause, such as heart failure.  Then there are "other conditions contributing to death but not resulting in the underlying cause" which might include things like hypertension or diabetes.
              I began thinking about people I know who have experienced spiritual death—those who used to sit on the same pews I do, but for some reason left, those who decided that living as a Christian was not worth the taunts or the sacrifice or the minuscule persecution we have to deal with in this country, or simply not worth giving up the pleasures of this world.  Those causes of death are pretty obvious. But how about those who just weren't careful to live a "healthy" spiritual life, watching their diets and exercising their senses to discern good and evil (Heb 5:14)?  I wondered what their death certificates might look like.
            
              Manner of death:  suicide
              Cause of death:  sin
              Other contributing conditions:  failure to assemble with the saints, no companionship with their spiritual family except at the meetinghouse, prayer and Bible study deficiency, failure to consider and counteract the materialism of our "too rich" culture,  thoughtless acceptance of society's standards instead of determining whether those standards will help or hinder their spirituality and are truly part of a holy life.

              I will keep a copy of my mother's death certificate in the file next to my father's.  But this I know—it is only the certificate of their physical deaths.  They never had, and now they never will have, a spiritual death certificate.  I don't believe I could bear it if they had.
              Do you have one?
 
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.  (Rev 20:6).
 
Dene Ward

Since I have written several and published some Bible Class literature, I am in the position to hear a lot of complaining about it.  That is why I have written so much of it—I wasn't happy either.  While I only have a couple of published books out there, I have another half dozen in my computer file that I have taught and could print out for publication with very little more work.  So, yes, I feel for you teachers who are looking for material.
              Most of that was women's literature.  As for children's?  My biggest gripe about the genre was first, the errors.  I actually grew up being taught in the Journeys Through the Bible and the like workbooks that Jacob married Leah after seven years of work, and then worked another seven years before he married Rachel.  I heard more times than I can count that Bathsheba was bathing on the rooftop.  I was given pictures to color that had the wise men showing up at the stable.  And we won't even start with the cultural errors that showed not only in the pictures, but also the wording and assumptions.
              Second, the workbooks were all too easy.  You could have given the fifth grade books to second graders and the high school books to sixth graders.  Do you want to know why so many of our children are bored with church?  Because we are the ones boring them to death!
              But that is not the point I want to make this morning.  We will never find perfect Bible class literature for our children.  With so many different styles of learners out there, and so many different needs in different cultures/neighborhoods, it is impossible.  When people start complaining, I worry that what we have is uncreative teachers with little insight into what their students actually need.  So how do we go about choosing good literature?  Here are a few guidelines.

              1.  Carefully assess the needs of your group.  And folks, that means look at the parents.  The attitudes your students have come directly from their raising.  If the parents are good Bible students, usually their own children will arrive with a completed workbook and answers to all your questions.  If not, then you must steel yourself to go over the story in class, again and again, to get it across.  If the parents are all about the facts but not about the heart, you will need to stress godly attitudes.  If the parents are all about emotionalism and "God knows my heart" is supposed to excuse any misapplication of scripture, then you need to stress God's attitude to the disobedient.  It may take a couple of quarters to figure all this out, but if you do not, you won't ever accomplish much that truly needs accomplishing.

              2.  Now that you know the needs, begin to look over the various curricula carefully in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses.  It should be obvious that you need to be knowledgeable in the scriptures in order to do this.  If you see that ubiquitous little boat picture of the ark with half a dozen windows and doors, and the giraffe's head sticking out of it because it's shorter than a giraffe and do not immediately see red flags, please go study Genesis again.  As I said, you will not find one that's perfect, but egregious errors should be obvious to you.  Then choose the one that fills the needs (#1) with the least amount of error.

              3.  Do not approach the curriculum you have chosen as the be-all and end-all.   Instead, use it as a guide.  Adapt and re-adapt as you see the need arise.  One of my published classbooks has a statement pointing out that I have given the teacher too many scriptures to use on a particular point.  I expect the teacher to go over those passages and choose what is relevant to her group.  To my mind, that is the way to use Bible class literature.  Adapt, adapt, adapt.

              4.  Feel free to add your own methods to the book.  I do not teach like you and you do not teach like I.  I have certain ways I teach memory verses and people, places, and things facts.  And students do not relate to each method in the same way.  My methods tend to cater to active children, helping them harness that energy in productive ways.  Yours may reach a different type of child.  Anyone who thinks there is only one correct way to teach a Bible narrative probably ought not be a teacher in the first place.

              5.  No matter what curriculum you have chosen, no matter how many times you have taught that lesson over the years, pretend you have never seen it before, and read it out of the Bible half a dozen times before you ever read it out of the workbook.  The first classbook I ever wrote came as a result of me doing exactly that.  I could not believe the number of errors I was taught nor the wrong ideas that had been placed in my mind by teachers who simply went over the classbook and never opened a Bible because they thought they "knew the story." 
              In the middle school class I taught for years, the kids had two favorite activities.  One was, "How many mistakes can you find in the book?"  They were to read the Bible first and then the classbook and look for them.  It was the first order of business in every class.  Besides becoming completely familiar with the lesson, it also taught them a pretty good principle about manmade material.  The second was, "I'm going to teach you something most grownups don't know."  Talk about hearing a pin drop.  I had their attention in a flash, and most parents learned those things, too, when their children went home that day.

              However, you choose your material, stop looking for perfection.  You won't find it.  Instead, look for guides.  Try to find ways to help embed these truths into our children so that nowhere along the line someone will write of them:  "And there arose a generation who knew not God."
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward, a sequel to his post at the end of November.

That men often suffer as a result of another's sins has been shown over and over in the Bible: "Cursed be Canaan" for his father Ham's sin (Gen 9:25), 36 men died for Achan's covetousness (Josh 7), Eli's descendants lost the high priesthood to another Aaronic family because he failed to restrain his sons (1Sam3:13). Sin is an asteroid strike in the ocean with death and disease rippling outward and drowning innocent and guilty alike. So, babies and other innocents die or suffer horrid diseases because we keep sin and death active in the world, "and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" (Rom 5:12).
 
No other event illustrates the one to one consequences of a sin causing the death of an innocent baby more clearly than the death of David's baby son. After Nathan confronted David, "Thou art the man," one of the judgments he pronounced was, “However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” (2Sam 12:14). David sinned; the baby died (vs 19).
 
About a thousand years later, another son of David was born innocent and lived and innocent life (2 Sam 7:14ff). He died a horrible death despite his innocence. It was totally unfair for this innocent lamb to suffer at all, just as it was unfair for the baby to die for David's sin. Jesus died for us, the innocent for the guilty. How easily the old phrase rolls of our tongues and through our minds   His death transcends all the unfair deaths of all the innocents before and since for this son of David was the Son of God.
 
If I never understand why babies die, I know God loves me because he killed his Son that I might live (Acts 2:23, 3:18, 4:28, Jn10:18). More than I want answers to the injustices in a sin-sick world, I want to go to the place where that love is.
 
 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1John 4:7-10).
 
Keith Ward

The Music Teachers' National Association, of which I was a member, was founded on December 26, 1876, by Theodore Presser, who was both a musician and a music publisher.  The stated aim of this organization was the support, growth, and development of music teaching professionals.  Its various programs include the certification of teachers, competitions for the students of member-teachers, and commissioning of composers, among many others.  Because I was a member of MTNA, I was able to participate in workshops and other continuing learning experiences in both my local and state branches, and my students in various activities, earning prestigious recognition and even scholarships.  The application for membership was five or six pages long and I remember feeling both relieved and ecstatic when I was accepted.  It officially made me one of the pros, and it put me in some rarefied air as well.
              One year the state music teachers’ convention was held in my district.  Somehow I found myself in charge of the name tags and the registration desk.  Since I did not know most of the people, my standard greeting was, “Welcome to Gainesville.  What’s your name please?”  Then I riffled through a couple of shoeboxes containing the laminated name tags that we hung around our necks.
              The second afternoon a man in his thirties came bustling up to the desk.  His expensive suit was sharp, and probably custom tailored since it fit his rounded figure without a pull or pucker anywhere.  He was well-groomed and carried a leather portfolio that also bespoke of money.  Not your typical music teacher, I thought.  Most of us are clean and tidy, but few of us dress like lawyers.
              He stood before me, but couldn’t be bothered to actually look at me.  Instead, he looked around at the passersby and intoned, “And do you have a name tag for me?” in a deep, full-of-himself voice.
              “I don’t know,” I answered.  “Who are you?”
              Then he looked at me—with an incredulous, wide-eyed stare.  At last lowly little music-teacher-me had gotten his attention.  When he told me his name, I managed to keep a straight face.  He was one of the university professors who also performs on the concert stage.  He had won some international competitions.  In fact, I recognized his name, I had just never seen him in person. 
              That afternoon when the rush had calmed at the table, I told a couple of my friends about my faux pas.  They both laughed.  “Good,” they said.  “He needed that.”
              Do we need something similar?  The Proverb writer says it like this:  Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him, 26:12. 
              Why is it we think so well of ourselves?   Paul reminded the Corinthians, For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? 1 Cor 4:7.  So you have a gift for speaking, for singing, for teaching, for welcoming visitors—any special ability.  You wouldn’t have that gift if God hadn’t given it to you, so what are you bragging about?
              Why is it we feel so compelled to remind people of our successes?  Why must we pat ourselves on the back whenever the opportunity arises, recounting all our various experiences as examples of wisdom for all to learn from?  We couldn’t have done any of it by ourselves.
              Sometimes those things are used as excuses.  Maybe I didn’t do well this time, but in the past you should have seen all I did for the Lord.  Or, I know I shouldn’t be bragging, but no one else seems to notice what I’ve done. 
              God notices.  Who else should we care about?  Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends, 2 Cor 10:17,18.
              I think this happens most with age.  As older men and women teaching the younger, we must be careful how we come across.  It isn’t an episode of “This Is Your Life,” where we can boast about all the wonderful things we have done in the past, careful to leave out the bad examples, of course.  It’s about edifying and encouraging others.  That attitude must always be with us.
              Don’t worry if people don’t know who you are and what you have done.  God holds the name tags, and he won’t have to ask who you are.
 
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Rom 12:3
 
Dene Ward