Flight Paths

Jesus told a story that even the most Biblically ignorant people in the world have heard.  We call it “The Good Samaritan.”  Most of us have never actually been in the shoes of either of these men.  Oh, we may have been on the side of the road with a flat tire or a broken fan belt or an overheated radiator, and maybe someone even stopped and helped us, but I guarantee you we have never filled every variable of this example.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Luke 10:30-35.

Understand this:  Jew and Samaritan was even worse than black and white, and maybe even Jew and Gentile.  “On all public occasions, Samaritans took the part hostile to the Jews, while they seized every opportunity of injuring and insulting them…they sold many Jews into slavery…they waylaid and killed pilgrims on their road to Jerusalem.  The Jews retaliated by treating the Samaritans with every mark of contempt; by accusing them of falsehood, folly, and irreligion; and…by disowning them as [being] of the same race or religion, and this in the most offensive terms of assumed superiority and self-righteous fanaticism” (Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah). 

These two men not only disagreed politically, they disagreed religiously as well.  Their people hated one another, mistreated one another; they were violent and malicious in every way possible.  Yet here is one who finds himself in need and his “enemy” takes care of him.  And not just minimally.  The Samaritan left “two denarii” to care for the Jew.  A denarius was a day’s wage for a skilled laborer—think carpenter, plumber, or mason in our day, and now think of what those men make an hour and multiply it out for two days’ worth of wages.  That is the equivalent of what the Samaritan left for a complete stranger, and an enemy at that.

Now think today of someone who fits that description—a stranger who is a member of an enemy nation, one that is violent, who hates us, and who is also of a different religion.  Do I have to spell it out?

So you drive by and see someone on the side of the road who is obviously one of those people by his looks and dress—or maybe at the last rest area you saw him on his prayer rug looking to the east so you know exactly what he is.  What are you going to do?  If Jesus’ story does not apply here, it applies nowhere.
The posts I have seen by some of my brethren on facebook appall me.  I do not see a kind people who would care even for those we disagree with, as Jesus did when he healed Malchus’s ear, but an angry people who would wish them harm.  What are we thinking?  “Stop this!” Jesus told Peter when he drew his sword.  “Any who take the sword will perish by the sword. Matt 26:52.
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Jesus also described the citizens of his spiritual kingdom this way:  You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ​so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ​For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ​You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matt 5:43-48  

I never thought that passage would actually mean something to me someday.  I don’t have enemies, at least none who might wish me harm, but that possibility is becoming more and more real, and that means that passage is becoming one we may have to use one of these days.  Do not become like the unbelievers who ignore the entire Bible by ignoring this one verse in your own life.  The same God wrote it all.

In the Roman Empire Christians often gave themselves away because they were kind not only to their own, but also to their pagan neighbors, even those who had been unkind to them.  Everyone knew, “Only Christians do that.” 
Is that what they would say about you?
 
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them… Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Rom 12:14-21
 
Dene Ward

A couple of years back one of my “world’s first” surgeries left me seeing spinning black and silver pinwheels, especially in bright light.  My Cincinnati doctor was convinced I had a congenital brain blood vessel malformation which would require brain surgery to correct.  The only way to know was an MRI, something I had never had before.  I left the house with little concern.  As much as I had already been through, what could be worse?

            So I was not prepared for the nurse to put a helmet on me that completely covered my face, stuffing it with dark gray foam to keep my head still.  In about 5 seconds I was clawing at it, grunting, “off, off, off, off, off,” increasing in volume and speed as I went.  She took it off immediately.  “Are you claustrophobic?” she asked. 

            Yes I am.  One of the worst parts about many of the procedures I have had to go through with these sick eyeballs is the sheet over my face.  The only way I manage is to prepare beforehand, then steel myself all the way through the procedure for as long as three hours at a time.  But in this case no one had warned me so I was not ready.
           
             I remembered that episode recently when I was studying 2 Cor 5:11.  Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men… Lately it has been anathema to talk about fear and God in the same sentence.  “Fear” has become “reverential awe,” or the even more mealy-mouthed “respect.”  “God doesn’t want us to be afraid of Him,” pops up in every conversation on the subject.  So I decided to check this word out.

            As I often do, I checked several translations.  The King James gave me a big clue in the above passage.  Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord…  Somehow “terror” does not easily lend itself to the idea of simple respect.  After that I looked up the word in a concordance.  “Fear” in the Greek is “phobos.”  Do you see it?  We get our English word “phobia” from that one.  The definition in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words is “that which scares you enough to make you run away.  In the gospels it is always associated with dread and terror.”  Do you have a real phobia?  Would you call that horrible feeling that turns you into a whimpering coward, “respect?”

            Next step in study--how else is it used in the Bible? 
Matt 10:28--And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.
Matt 27:54-- Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. If you suddenly figured out that you had just killed the Son of God, would you be feeling respect or terror?

            And in the Septuagint?

Psalm 55:5--Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.

Isa 19:16-- In that day shall the Egyptians be like unto women; and they shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Jehovah of hosts...

            I found many, many more passages that clearly show the meaning of phobos.  So when Peter tells us to “fear God” in 1 Peter 2:17, the fact that the word is the same one, helps me to understand that real fear, the kind that makes you run away and hide, is an appropriate reaction to God, even from His own people.

            Yes, God does want a relationship borne of love as motivation, but there is nothing second rate about the fear motivation.  Just in case the love is not enough, for the times when temptation is strong and we are weak, remember the fear.  Paul did in the passage we started with.  He knew the terror that awaited those who do not know God and it motivated him to preach.  Are we any better than that great disciple? 

            If you do not “get it,” if you do not understand who and what God really is-- our Creator, the most powerful Being, the one who, with one thought, could cause you to cease to exist--you will never really have the proper respect either.  It most certainly is not the same respect you have for your earthly father.  Even your “reverential awe” will be incomplete, and you will certainly never understand how amazing it is that such a Being could ever love us like He does.
 
A man that has set aside the law of Moses dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, do you think, shall he be judged worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, Vengeance belongs unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb 10:28-31.
 
Dene Ward

Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. 2Cor 10:7.

            We’ve been examining all the repeated lessons in the New Testament, the ones the writers felt needed a rerun because they were that important.  Usually we look at the passage in context.  This one we will take squarely out of context.  The message still works and it is rerun again and again, in every context imaginable.  We obviously need, as the passage says, reminding.

            Some of the Corinthians were still having difficulty accepting Paul as an apostle.  In this short verse he reminds them of what should have been obvious:  We both belong to Christ.  That should have had an impact on them when they considered what he was telling them and how they received him.  Don’t you judge the motives of a brother differently than anyone else?  You ought to because you know he has sworn allegiance to the same Lord as you, the one who demands a lifestyle that abhors sin.  He isn’t a pagan.  And that kinship creates an instant bond no matter where you may run into one another.

            This lesson has been taught in the scripture since the beginning.  The fact that Cain killed his own brother made that murder even worse.  When Lot and Abraham began having difficulties, Abraham came to him to work things out.  It shouldn’t be like this, he told Lot, because, “We are brethren,” Gen 13:8.  When Moses saw the two Hebrews fighting he said to them, “You are brothers.  Why do you wrong each other?” Acts 7:26. 

            Yes, if we are brethren, if we both belong to Christ, it should make a difference in how we treat one another.  Peter goes so far as to say that obeying the truth should have the effect of producing in us not just cold, formal love for each other, but an intense and passionate love, one that never pretends.   Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 1Pet 1:22.  If I do not feel that way about my brothers and sisters, he seems to be saying, then maybe I haven’t really “obeyed the truth.”

            John agrees.  He says if we do not love our brethren, we are in darkness and in death; that we are liars and murderers, 1 John 2:9-11; 3:14-19; 4:20,21.  Christ died for us all.  If he loved me that much, he loved you that much, too, which means I should love you that much and you me.  We are instantly bound together in the same emotional context of gratitude and wonder and unity. 

            I know, I know.  You’ve heard these “love” lessons all your life.  When you hear another starting, you almost sigh and roll your eyes.  “Again?  What else is there to say?”

            Nothing.  It’s a rerun, but it’s a rerun found in nearly every book of the Bible.  That means it’s worth our hearing again.  And again.  And again. 

            Unless you think you’ve already got this one whipped?
 
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Eph 4:2-3.
 
Dene Ward

Squirrels have distracted me a lot lately.  I am in the middle of folding laundry and suddenly one appears on the bird feeder at the window.  Instantly I am up to scare him off.  The little stinkers are persistent.  Not five minutes later he is back and I am up again.  Over and over all morning we go at it, and a chore that should take 10 minutes has suddenly taken more than a half hour.

            Other times I am walking through the kitchen toward yet another chore—paying bills, making beds, studying for Bible class—and there he sits again, looking right into the window while he munches on the birdseed, almost as if he is taunting me.  So I am off again on this merry-go-round ride and many times I even forget where I was headed in the first place.  More than once I have ended the day with things undone because of those aggravating, bushy-tailed rodents stealing the food right out of my birds’ mouths.

            We do the same thing in our efforts for God.  Some petty, relatively unimportant event can distract us and God’s mission goes undone. 

            What kinds of things?  Usually things that appeal to our pride.  I get my feelings hurt, I become aggravated with an annoyance of life, someone provokes me and that becomes the only thing I can think about.  It takes up my thoughts, my time, and my energy.  Suddenly I am no longer the messenger of God, but the messenger of my own sufferings.  I have to stop and tell everyone else how unfairly I’ve been treated, and what happens with whatever God wanted me to do?  Absolutely nothing.  I am too busy worrying about myself.

            Every righteous person under the Old Covenant was engrossed with God’s plan to send a Messiah.  Every decision they made had to do with fulfilling their part of God’s plan.  Even some of the bad decisions they made came from that good intention.

            Abraham left behind a home in the city and lived in tents for the rest of his life, wandering in a land he never owned.  He and Sarah tried to help God with the servants Eliezer and Hagar when, to their eyes, things were not going well with The Plan.  Abraham and Isaac procured special wives for their sons to help them with their parts in The Plan.  Rebekah deceived her husband because she was afraid he would pass the blessing of God’s purpose on to the wrong son.  Jacob’s blessings on his sons ensured a righteous tribe for the Messiah’s lineage.  The songs of David and Hannah show their own recognition of the redemption of man as God’s ultimate objective. 

            Remember that the people in the Gospels also lived under that old law.  Anna spoke of the infant Jesus “to all who were looking for redemption,” Luke 2:38, evidently more than one or two.  Simeon, a man “looking for the consolation of Israel” had been promised he would see the Christ, and then proclaimed, “Now let me die in peace,” Luke 2:25-29.  He could die happy not because he had gained great wealth, not because he had lived a life of luxury, not because he had succeeded in a prestigious career, but because he had seen that God’s plan had come to pass.

            Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man of the Sanhedrin, was willing to lose it all because he “was looking for the kingdom of God,” Lk 23:51.  Cleopas and another who walked on the road to Emmaus told the stranger they encountered, “But we hoped that it was he (Jesus) who should have redeemed Israel.” 

            Those people lived and breathed the plan of God in their lives.  They were willing to give up everything to see it come about.  Do we think the plan is finished, that now we can just worry about ourselves and our own petty concerns?  Paul actually had to tell the Corinthians that they should be willing to be defrauded to keep from harming the reputation of the church, God’s kingdom here on earth.  We aren’t even willing to give up parking places and favorites pews to visitors whose souls might be saved! 

            It’s time to stop putting ourselves forward and, like our righteous brethren of old, remember the reason for it all—salvation.  If Almighty God can put us first in his thoughts and plans, why are we so presumptuous and arrogant to believe that we don’t have to put His purpose first in our lives?  We are no better than the idolaters who rejected Him when we allow anything to divert us from the object at hand.

            I must stop being distracted by the “squirrels” in my life, and work on the job I have been given today and every day, for as long as I possibly can.
 
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Cor 11:3
 
Dene Ward

On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day, "as a public expression of love and reverence for the mothers of our country."  I wonder what he would make of the way some folks view that day today.
          
            Last week I read two articles, each in a different magazine, about how to celebrate Mother’s Day all month long.

            The first was “Thirty-One Ways to Indulge Yourself,” a day by day guide through the month of May, “because no one ever takes care of you.”  I read through the calendar, at first smiling and sighing a little, but gradually growing more and more perturbed.  The list included things like, “Hire a handyman for a day to do all those chores your husband never gets to.”  “Go for a massage, at least a full half-hour appointment.”  “Get a pedicure and buy at least two new colors of nail polish.”  “Buy yourself a new piece of jewelry.”  I added up the entire list—readers were encouraged to do it all—and even estimating low (like costume jewelry instead of the real thing), I came up with a total of nearly $1000.00.

            A thousand dollars in one month would have made a mortgage payment, bought the groceries, AND paid the gasoline and electric bills when my children were still at home. 

            I am a mother--I understand that, as a general rule, mothers are overworked.  I tell every young couple that they should realize from the get-go that every young mother is always tired from the double whammy of pregnancy and delivery, followed by the constant care of a little person who does not understand schedules yet, and every young father always feels stressed from the realization that he is now responsible not only for another body, but as spiritual leader of the home, another soul as well.  In addition he is constantly bewildered by his young wife’s raging hormones, hormones she herself is disconcerted by and trying to control.  This is the nature of the job you have taken upon yourselves.  The whole process can be overwhelming.  But no one has the right to bankrupt her family because she is feeling weary. 

            The other magazine article was deceptively similar.  However, the words “almost free” and “for real moms” were also in the title.  Rather than 31 items laid out on a calendar, one for every day of the month, it was a list of 23 to choose from.  Evidently this writer understood that “real moms” have neither the time nor money to play every day.  What did they include?  “Free up the driveway and create some elaborate chalk art with your children.”  “Catch fireflies, minnows, or other tinies in a clean jar; take a good long look and maybe a photo or two, then let them go.”  “Declare a spa day with your kids, sipping smoothies by the (wading) pool, and giving each other manis and pedis.”  “Draw a comic book together, then make copies so the kids can share them with their friends.”  Are you noticing a difference here?

            Now let me add this bit of information to the mix.  One article was in Parenting.  The other was in a quarterly publication put out for customers of the grocery chain Lucas worked for at the time.  This is obvious, right?  The “experts” understand that young parents first, live on a budget, and second, need encouragement and suggestions for how to spend more “quality” time (I hate that phrase!) with their children, teaching them such things as core values and priorities, and the other magazine was interested in boosting retail sales during a sagging economy.  Wrong.  Parenting is the magazine suggesting that all young mothers go out and spend a good chunk of the family’s income pampering themselves for a solid month.  I am actually proud of Lucas’s company.  If I still had children at home, we would have probably done quite a few of the things they suggested.  The total cost for the whole list was about $10, and it also included some volunteer work.

            Now is it any wonder that elders and preachers regularly warn the church about non-Christian counselors, therapists, and mentors?  Is it any wonder that the average family is falling apart at the seams and couples are deep in debt?  Can you understand why this is also affecting the church?

            Parenting is a commitment just as much as Christianity is.  God has entrusted precious souls to you, and He expects them returned in good shape, better in fact than when He gave them to you.  A mother, or father for that matter, who folds when it requires sacrifice—major sacrifice—is not worthy of the name.

            When you become a parent, it is surprising how fast the feelings overwhelm you.  Love for your child is not just strong, it is fierce.  At least it should be.  It is exactly that fierceness that keeps you going when you lose sleep, when your body aches, and when your heart breaks because of the trials of parenting.  Nothing in this world is worth losing your child or his soul.  That is what the so-called experts need to be teaching us these days.  We already have enough selfish people out there who want the title without doing the job.
 
Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?…As a father pities his children, so Jehovah pities those who fear him…If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father who is in Heaven, give good things to those that ask him, Isa 49:15; Psalm 103:13; Matt 7:11.
 
Dene Ward

You know the story so I won’t go into much detail here.  Pharaoh had ordered the Hebrew baby boys killed and one mother had enough faith to put her infant in a lovingly woven and waterproofed basket in the Nile River.  Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river to bathe and found him, and his alert and very smart big sister offered to get him a Hebrew nurse—one who just happened to be his mother.
 
           And so Moses was raised by two mothers.  Jochebed kept him close to her those first years, probably as many as five to eight, before she weaned him.  But nursing was not all she did.  She taught him who he was, who his people were, and who his God was.  She did an amazing job.  In those few years she made him strong enough to stand against the temptations of wealth the like of which we have probably never seen.  And that wealth was not just contrasted with poverty, but with some of the most oppressive slavery imaginable. 

            After that Moses lived in the palace with his “foster” mother for thirty years or more.  She undoubtedly lavished him with luxury and provided him with one of the best secular educations of the time.  Just look at the pyramids if you think those people were ignorant.  He became so much an Egyptian that he even looked like one (Ex 2:19).

            So here is our point today:  Which mother am I?  Do I check on their schoolwork, but never make sure their Bible lessons are done?  Do I even know if they have their lesson book and Bible with them when we leave the house Sunday morning?  Do I teach them how to make a budget and live within their means, but never teach them how to make time for prayer and Bible study?  Do I make sure they get to school but actually give them a choice about whether they go to church or not?  Do I teach them the social etiquette of what to wear at which occasion but never teach them about modesty?  Do I teach them the Bill of Rights but never talk about giving up those rights for the sake of the gospel and peoples’ souls?  Do I teach them to save for their financial security but never teach how to keep their souls secure?

            Your child knows what you think is most important.  He will take his cue from you.  Are you a Pharaoh’s daughter or a Jochebed?
 
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. Heb 11:24-26
 
Dene Ward

This morning I kept swatting at a pesky gnat that would not go away until I realized it was just another floater.  Usually light reflects back from your retina through the transparent vitreous humor.  With age, the vitreous humor (aka eyeball jelly) can begin to solidify into tiny little chunks that cast a shadow forward, making it seem that spots are floating out in front of, not inside, your eyeball.

            However, trauma can cause floaters too—surgeries followed by complications followed by treatment for the complications, in my case hundreds of lasers zaps.  Pieces of the retina come loose and float in the humor casting the same shadows as the less ominous floaters.  Now that one eye has a “shallow detached retina” which not even some of the best doctors in the world want to try to fix until it completely detaches, too much exertion can cause that small detachment to tug yet more pieces of retina loose.

            Yet at one point there was one good thing about floaters.  I could easily gauge my eye pressure with them.  Normally there is no way to know that your pressure is increasing until it is almost too late.  By the time your vision has clouded over, your head is aching, and your innards are heaving themselves inside out, it is a real emergency.

            It’s not supposed to work that way, but for me, at least in the early stages of this eye crisis, it proved an early warning system:  If a floater stayed for days, I needed to make an appointment immediately.  Floaters can make me dizzy and a little nauseated, besides being just plain annoying, but the warning was worth it.  Imagine if I had not gone in the third day I had the same floater in exactly the same place.  Normal pressure is roughly 10-18, without medication.  When I got to the eye clinic the pressure in that eye was 65, even with heavy medication.  I had no idea except for that persistent floater. 

            I think spiritual floaters are the same way.  I hear people berating themselves because they wrestle with a certain problem.  You know what?  At least they know the problem is there. Too many times we ignore the “floaters” and go right along thinking we are just fine.  That little spot isn’t important; it certainly won’t cost me my soul.  Won’t it?  If I see it there and don’t even try to fix it, doesn’t that make me a willful sinner?  And if I don’t even recognize it when it is there, isn’t that even more dangerous?

            Yes, floaters are aggravating.  But in the past they gave me a way to know what I needed to do and when I needed to do it.  I knew better than to ignore them.  I still have floaters, but they don’t work like that any longer, and I really wish they did.

            Do you see any floaters in your spiritual life? Keep an eye on them.  Get help when you need it.  If “struggling” is where you are, be glad your conscience is still sensitive and be grateful for God’s grace working in your life.  It’s the ones who aren’t struggling who need to worry.
 
And everyone who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things.  Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.  I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I as not beating the air; but I buffet my body daily and bring it into bondage lest by any means after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected, 1 Cor 9:25-27.
 
Dene Ward

It’s spring and that means the tarps that have been protecting things for several months need to be laid out to dry, folded, and put up.  It’s spring and the plastic sheeting needs to be set up over the small, early, garden plot because we will have another frost or two.  It’s spring and that means the breezes are blowing and nothing will stay where you put it for any length of time at all.

            In late February Keith was out in the field laying out the tarps and plastic to dry in the sun, and trying to weigh down the corners with buckets and tools and anything else that came to hand.  He had managed three or four all by himself before dinner, and then I walked out with him afterward to see the freshly tilled garden and the early plot he had set out.  He bent to secure one corner of plastic just as the breeze increased and blew it right out of his hand.  I leaned down to help on my end only to have it, too, blown from my grasp.  He got hold of his corner as I chased mine around in a circle.  Finally we each had a corner and bent to secure them with handfuls of moisture-heavy garden dirt, only to have a particularly strong gust blow it free yet again.

            Three or four tries later we had the early plot covered and secured, the plastic stretched over a line three feet off the ground that ran down the middle to make a small greenhouse of sorts.  We were clothes-pinning the center where the “door” of our teepee met on either end.  Even that took a few tries followed by pinched faces and hunched shoulders waiting for the breeze to once again undo it all.  It held!

            “Whew!” he exclaimed.  “This kind takes prayer and fasting.” I looked at him with a rueful smile, and wondered how many prayers he must have prayed before I got there to help.

            You know, of course, that he was referring to Matt 17:21.  The disciples could not cast a demon out of a boy, but Jesus could.  For their lack of faith they received a stern rebuke, yet Jesus added that it was a particularly difficult demon to cast out.  Sometimes you will have to work harder than others, he seemed to mean by his comment about prayer and fasting.

            And occasionally overcoming a temptation is more difficult than at other times.  Sometimes it’s the circumstances.  If you are tired, or in pain, or grieving, or in any number of other situations, you may have a more difficult time passing the test.  Sometimes it’s the test itself.  Some things bother us more than others, pushing the buttons that most easily cause a reaction.  Sometimes it’s the “help.”  How many times has someone offered the advice to “calm down,” only to have that very advice cause the opposite reaction in spades?

            But notice this about that narrative in the gospels:  Jesus still expected those disciples to have mastered the demon and tossed it out.  Yes, it’s a hard one, he said, but you could have done it if you had enough faith.

            And so can we, if we are in the correct frame of mind.  There is always a way of escape.  It is never more than we can handle.  It doesn’t matter what the test is, what the circumstances are, or how many other well- or even ill-meaning people get in the way. So here are a few suggestions that might help all of us.

            Know your hot buttons and avoid them.  How many times do the Proverbs call people fools who go blundering about their lives without even a thought where they might be headed?  How many other times are the “fools” the ones who go to difficult places with the arrogant notion they won’t be trapped like everyone else?

          If you cannot avoid these difficult situations, then prepare yourself before you get there.  If that means looking at yourself in the mirror and giving yourself a good talking to before you leave the house, then do it.  If it means praying before you leave—always a good idea—do it. 

          Then, don’t forget what you did the minute the door shuts behind you.  Nothing changes because your surroundings did.  If it means quoting scripture all the way through the situation itself, or singing hymns, do it.  Do whatever it takes.

          Don’t blame your failure on anyone else.  “I was doing fine until you came along and…” won’t change the bottom line.  You blew it.

          Do not give yourself an out of any kind.  “He deserved it [my tirade],” would cause you a lot of pain if it were said of you and God followed through on it—we all “deserve it” whatever “it” we might be talking about.  Don’t feel sorry for yourself because it was “hard.”  Do not ever excuse yourself if you failed.  You will never improve if you do.

          Know yourself.  Know what might take “prayer and fasting” to overcome.  God expects it of you, just as He did those apostles.  He expects you to succeed.  And you can.
 
Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Prov 6:5
 
Dene Ward

As a toddler Silas had a bedtime ritual.  First you read “Pajama Time” to him.  Then you gave him a cup of milk and then his blanket.  Then it was time to walk all over the house looking for “Puppy,” his stuffed dog and bedtime buddy.  Daddy had “hidden” it somewhere and he had to find it. 

            So the two of them searched, Silas trailing his blanket as he walked.  “Is that Puppy?”  Daddy asked when they saw a stuffed elephant.  Silas shook his head no.  “Is that Puppy?” and another shake of the head at the sock monkey.  And another at the teddy bear, and another, and another.  Finally, they found Puppy right where Daddy had placed him.  “Is that Puppy?” he asked one more time, and Silas would nod yes and hold out his hands for the proffered pet.  Then the thumb went into the mouth and the baby went into the bed, perfectly content.

            One Christmas Eve, things did not work out so well.  Silas had already had three naps due to the journey to grandma’s house and the various family stops along the way.  He was wired by the excitement of lights and presents and people.  Still, his eyes began to droop so the routine started, but when Puppy was “found” and Daddy asked, “Is that Puppy?” Silas looked at it and shook his head no.  He had decided he did not want to go to bed, and as long as he couldn’t find Puppy he thought he wouldn’t have to. 

After several more attempts, Daddy threw Puppy across the room to him.  Silas looked down when the stuffed animal landed with a soft plop.  Then he picked it up, shook his head no, and threw it back to Daddy.  No Puppy, no bedtime.  Of course, he found out differently, and not in the usual easy way.

We can all look at that childish attempt to deny the truth of the situation and smile.  Isn’t that cute?  And pretty smart for a sixteen month old.  But only for a sixteen month old.

Have you ever known someone who was ill and refused to go to the doctor?  As long as it isn’t diagnosed, that pain or that lump or that persistent cough isn’t anything bad.  I am not sick.  I am certainly not dying.  We look on such people with pity.  But we do it to ourselves all the time.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, James 1:22.

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself, Gal 6:3.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap, Gal 6:7.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, 1 John 1:8.

            For some reason we think we can pretend our way into Heaven.  As the Pharisees who “for a pretense make long prayers” Matt 12:40, we think we can sit in the pew on Sunday, call ourselves Christians to our neighbors, and that’s all it takes to make it so.  You might be surprised how many have already figured us out because that is also part of deceiving ourselves.

            “But we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation,” Heb 6:9.  I doubt anyone reading this really needs this lesson.  Let it just be a little reminder not to fall into that trap.

            The world, though, is still deceiving itself.  It thinks that if it denies the existence of God that will make it so.  Denying God means no accountability.  It means I can live as I want without worrying about the consequences, such a comforting thought that it is easy to see why so many fall for it, regardless the increasing evidence of a Divine Creator. 

            Yet the world can shake its head all it wants.  It can pick up the Puppy and throw it back, but nighttime will still come, and they will learn to believe the hard way, when it is much too late.
 
Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaves himself proudly against the Almighty; Because he has covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins; He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away. Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense. For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepares deceit, Job 15:25,27,30,31,34,35.
 
Dene Ward
 

Keith mentioned a few weeks ago that Sonny James had died. 

            “Who?” I asked.
           
            “You know—‘Running Bear,’ and ‘Young Love’—the country singer.”

            Ah!  “Running Bear” I remembered.  It was on the radio nearly every day for a while when I was a young teen.  Sonny James was born on May 1, 1928,  Keith found an article and there it was all set out for us:  26 #1 hit singles and 16 #1 hits in a row.  He still holds the record for consecutive #1 hits by any solo recording artist throughout all musical genres.  And I couldn’t remember who he was!

            So, I got to thinking and, it being just passed, I looked up the Oscar winners.  Tell me, do you know who Warren Baxter was?  He won the 1930 Best Actor Oscar for his role in “In Old Arizona.”  I never even heard of the movie.  How about Paul Lukas?  He won in 1944.  Don’t tell me, “But that’s so long ago.”  It hasn’t even been a hundred years.  It certainly isn’t ancient history.

            How about nominees?  Let’s just sit awhile in the Best Actress category.  Ruth Chatterton?  Betty Compson? Jeanne Eagels?  They were nominated in 1928.  May Robson and Diana Wynyard?  They came along in 1932.  Martha Scott?  That was 1941, and Celia Johnson was nominated in 1945.  Okay, let’s make it easier.  How about 1966?  That was Ida Kaminska.  I still never heard of her.  Marie-Christine Barrault was nominated in 1976.  Surely you know her?  Here’s an easy one—1989.  Most of you were probably born by then.  Ever hear of Pauline Collins?  Me neither.

            I bet I could do the same thing with Emmys, Tonys, Grammys, and how about Heisman awards?  Do you see the point?  A huge percentage of these people will never be remembered by anyone just a few years from now.  Acting is not that important in the grand scheme of things.  Touchdown passes, slam dunks, and home runs don’t really matter.  Why, oh why, do we lavish our praise and adoration on these people?  Why do we wear their colors and their numbers, dress like they do, talk like they do, and want their signatures on hats and shirts and napkins?

            Think for a minute: who do we remember?  How about a widow who sewed for the poor in the town of Joppa?  How about a Christian couple who were chased out of Rome for being of Jewish extraction, but who kept traveling preachers in their home and even helped teach them and anyone else who came along, even at the risk of death?  How about a wealthy woman in Jerusalem who allowed the church to meet in her home in the midst of a dangerous persecution so they could pray for those in prison?  How about a disciple in Damascus who took his life into his hands to preach to one of the church’s worst persecutors?  How about yet another one who was known for his encouraging ways, who traveled and preached and took young preachers under his wing till they could grow to be mature servants of God?

            I bet you know every one of their names and can find their stories in your Bible.  These are the things that last.  These are the things that no one will forget.  These are the things that will make a difference to lives, and more than that, to eternal souls. 

            And most of these are things we can do, too.  Do you want to be remembered?  Put down the football.  Throw down the novel.  Turn off the DVD.  Pull out the earbuds.  Now go out there and do good to whomever you find, everywhere you can.  You will be remembered—by many, and especially by the One who counts.
 
​…Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. ​For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  Luke 12:33-34; 16:15.
 
Dene Ward

P S--Happy birthday son!