Flight Paths

Keith was having a religious discussion with someone once, a brother as I remember, but one he disagreed with.  I had come upon a pertinent scripture in my own study a few days earlier and gave him the passage.  “Here’s some more ammunition,” I said.

            That word came naturally to me.  Keith was a certified firearms instructor for the state.  He taught probation officers, and prison guards how to shoot.  As a probation officer he carried his own weapon, having to qualify every year.  He taught me how to shoot well enough to dispose of a dozen poisonous snakes over the years and he taught the boys too.  So the word “ammunition” came naturally.

            However, it nagged at me enough that over the next few days I began wondering if we don’t have that mindset much too often,  Yes, we are in a battle.  Yes, the scriptures talk about our “weapons,” weapons God Himself supplied for our warfare.  And yes, our fight is not just with Satan, but with his ministers as well.  But look at this passage:

            As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face, Jer 17:16

            Jeremiah was NOT happy about Judah’s coming destruction—he did not “desire” the evil day.

            There’s an old story about a man who was converted after thirty years of different preachers telling him he was lost.

            “Why now?” someone asked him.  “Why listen to this preacher?”

            “Because,” the old man said, “he really sounded like he was sad about it.”

            Is that our problem?  Do we get too much pleasure out of the fight?  Are we just a bunch of gung-ho cowboys in our zeal?  Are we more interested in winning arguments than in winning souls?

            God gave Jeremiah plenty of ammunition, and he used it well enough that he was thrown into prison for it.  But he never enjoyed the job.  In fact, a good many of the prophets disliked their mission.  “I went in the bitterness of soul,” Ezekiel said.  In his confrontation with the priest of Bethel, Amos as much as said, “This wasn’t my idea.” 

            That’s a far different attitude than I have seen in some brethren, who delight in slinging bandoliers over their shoulders and spraying automatic fire in a drive-by.

            We’re supposed to be saving souls, not murdering them.  Let’s take stock of our attitudes when we go out to battle today.
 
​Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock has been taken captive, Jer 13:16-17.
 
Dene Ward

Now that we have this wood floor, it seems I am sweeping all the time.  I simply can’t stand the sound or feel of sand under my feet when I walk in the house, and living in the country where there is no outside concrete for it to fall on beforehand, we track it in several times a day, despite door mats and runners.  Those treads on sneakers must surely have glue in them that wears off the moment you step indoors. 
 
           At least once a week I do “the clean sweep.”  I pull everything out, pick everything up, and sweep every square inch I can possibly get to, followed by the dry sweeping cloths that pick up things the broom missed, as well as all the dust bunnies under the beds and sofa.  The rest of the week I make do by “sweeping the middles”—every place I can reach without moving anything.  It isn’t perfect, as evidenced by what I sweep up on the day of “the clean sweep,” but it will do.  I really have more important things to do than clean the floors.

            I looked up “sweep” and “broom” in the concordance and found that God does not believe in “sweeping the middles.”  Three evil kings were told that God would “utterly sweep away their houses,” I Kgs 14:10; 16:3; 21:21.  Notice that word “utterly.”  In addition God said of Babylon, “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," Isa 14:23.  Do you want a good picture of how God sweeps?  Read the first chapter of Zephaniah.  God moves the furniture and gets under the beds when He decides to destroy sinners.

            So how do we avoid that?  By not just sweeping the middles when it comes to our lives.  We need to clean up every nook and cranny, every hidden corner of our minds, every space beneath the larger items in our lives that we think can hide the sin from God.  And grace means that after we do our best to clean the place up, God will come in to clean up what we could not, in the places we cannot reach. 

            When it comes to life, don’t ever be satisfied with just “sweeping the middles.”  Do “the clean sweep” every day of your life so you don’t get caught up in “the broom of destruction.”
 
I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire, Matt 3:11,12.
 
Dene Ward

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs, Amos 7:14.
 
           Amaziah, the [false] priest at Bethel had just told Amos to go back to Judah.  They were tired of his scare tactics, what they viewed as rebellion against their king, Jeroboam II.  That is how we learn of Amos’s occupation.  While some view him as the owner of the sheep rather than the shepherd who actually slept outdoors watching his flock, you cannot get away from the humble position of fig picker.

            Sycamore figs (also spelled sycomore figs) were not the figs of the upper classes, but a smaller fruit, slightly sweet, watery, and a little woody.  This is what the poor people ate.  The only way a sycamore fig would ripen was for someone to pinch it, causing it to bruise.  About four days later it was fit to pick and eat.  Can you imagine anything much more tedious than pinching every single fruit on every single tree in an orchard?  Then going to the next orchard and doing it all again?  And again?

            As I was pondering this in our Tuesday morning class, I suddenly thought, “And isn’t that what happens to us?”  The only way for us to ripen as a disciple of our Lord is to be bruised.  In my ever increasing number of years, I have seen only those who reach their lowest point realize their need for God.  If I am proud, smug, self-reliant, self-righteous, all too sure of my own knowledge, I will never be able to prostrate myself before an Almighty Creator and commit my life, my belongings, MYSELF to Him.  I will never be able to take up the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice and serve my Savior and my neighbor. 

            Some people have a stronger spiritual sense and can recognize their need for salvation quickly.  Their bruising is a bruising of the spirit that occurs when they recognize their sin and remorse hits them like that proverbial ton of bricks.  Others need a physical bruising.  You see it often when tragedy strikes—a serious illness, a devastating accident, the loss of a loved one.  A bruising in this physical life may be necessary for them to see the need in their spiritual lives.  I have often heard it said by preachers that the best time to reach your neighbor is in a time of tragedy, and the scriptures bear that out as well.

            Isaiah preached imminent destruction.  In the latter chapters of his book he tells those impenitent people that God will be waiting to take them back—not before the calamity, but afterward—after they have been bruised by a physical destruction the like of which they had never seen before.  That, after all, would be the time when they would finally listen.

            For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. ​For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, ​creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal him. Isa 57:15-19.

            Ezekiel says much the same:  I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice,  Ezek 34:15-16.

            And who does Jesus offer His invitation to:  Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matt 11:28-29.

            And so each of us must face our bruising.  The more quickly we yield, the easier that bruising will be, not because trials will cease, but because our humble hearts will accept both them and the help we will have to face them.  We won’t be alone any longer, a state of affairs that only comes to the stubborn, who refuse to surrender to Divine love and protection.  Sometimes it takes a “fig-pincher” to help with the process, someone who, like the prophet Nathan, can stand before us and proclaim, “Thou art the man.”  And like the sycamore fig, we will ripen into the fruitful child of God each of us has the potential to become.
 
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint, Isa 40:29-31.
 
Dene Ward

My boys were typical boys.  They played outside more than in.  They had their own variations of football, baseball, and basketball for two players, or three when their dad was home.  They swam like fish, climbed trees, and traipsed through the woods exploring.  Since they have grown up, my hair has turned grayer and curled tighter listening to some of the things they did that I never knew about. 
 
           Their Dad encouraged them in their daring feats.  He wanted them to grow up to be strong men who would not flinch when a job needed doing, even if it was dirty, difficult, or a little scary. 

            I remember many times when he would hold out his arms and they would jump into them.  As they learned to swim, he stood out in the deeper water and they leapt as far as they could, with him reaching to pull them out before they went under for good.  Gradually he moved back farther and farther, and they were swimming to him before they realized it. 

            Once Lucas climbed a tree with a rotten limb.  He found out when the limb beneath his feet broke under him, leaving him hanging by the limb above, the bottoms of his feet a good twelve feet off the ground.  We were sitting nearby when we heard the crack and the “whump!” of the falling branch. 

            Keith walked over to see what he could do.  Nothing, as it turned out, except stand beneath his son to break the fall.  When he was certain he was in the right place, he told Lucas to let go, and he did, nothing doubting—and nothing broken on either of them when the whole thing was over.

            My sons never doubted their father.  If he told them to jump, they did.  If he told them to let go, they did.  They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would catch them and keep them from harm.  Why can’t we have that same faith in God?  Keith could have made an error in judgment; he could have miscalculated what needed to be done to save his sons, or just missed when they jumped.  God can’t, and He won’t.

            How would you feel if your child told you he did not believe you would help him?  How would you feel if he showed absolutely no trust at all in your promises?  How do you think God feels when we do that to Him?

            It’s called a “leap of faith” because that is what it takes—faith.  When we won’t do it, we don’t have it.  It is as simple as that.  It has nothing to do with wisdom or good stewardship or common sense.  It simply means we don’t trust God enough to take care of us.  Sometimes what He asks of us seems foolish and impractical.  Those words mean nothing to Him, except to describe the people who think their own wits are better than His promises.  How foolish and impractical can you get?
 
For you are my lamp, O Jehovah; And Jehovah will lighten my darkness. For by you I run upon a troop; By my God do I leap over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: The word of Jehovah is tried; He is a shield unto all them that take refuge in him. For who is God, save Jehovah? And who is a rock, save our God? 2 Sam 22:29-32.
 
Dene Ward

Leprosy was the most feared disease in the Bible.  It wasn’t just the impending death.  Other diseases were terminal.  But leprosy was the disease that killed your life before you ever died.
 
           The first mention of leprosy in historical documents was about 1500 BC.  The Bible mentions it as early as the book of Leviticus where its description and treatment are listed in chapters 13 and 14.  As the centuries progressed, most doctors considered leprosy a genetic disease.  Finally on February 28, 1873, Dr. Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen of Sweden discovered the bacillus that caused leprosy, proving once and for all that it was indeed an infectious disease, and eventually giving his name to it: Hansen’s disease.  The Bible seemed to realize from the beginning that it was infectious.

            A leper was considered ceremonially “unclean,” Lev 13:46.  That means he was no longer fit to even stand before God, much less serve Him.  If he were a priest, he could not partake of the sacrifices, Lev 22:4.  But no matter who he was, he was banned from the Temple, 2 Chron 26:21, and expelled from the people because his mere presence defiled the entire group, Num 5:2,3.

            He lived in isolation with others who shared his doom, and was required to warn anyone who might come near him with the shout of, “Unclean!  Unclean!” He had to make his disease obvious by his appearance, wearing torn clothes and leaving his hair loose and disheveled, with his upper lip covered, Lev 13:45.

            Leprosy became a metaphor for sin in the Bible, as should be obvious from the verses cited above and their spiritual significance-not fit to serve God, not fit to enter into His presence, not fit to be with His people, in fact, one who would defile the whole people.  God sent leprosy as a punishment several times—on Miriam, on Gehazi, on King Azariah/Uzziah.  The progress of the physical disease begins with an invisible infection, leading to disfigurement, deterioration, and death.  Surely you can see the progress of sin in a person’s life in parallel.

            And that leaves us with two profound lessons.  First, for Jesus to actually touch a leper and heal Him showed not only his power but also his mercy.  And Jesus is the only one who can cure us of that disease called sin.  He was the one who loved us enough to come down among all of us spiritual lepers, regardless of the danger of infection, and make us clean.  How many of us are like the nine lepers instead of the Samaritan, who was so profoundly grateful for being cleansed that he would fall on his face in gratitude to the one who cleansed him, even if it delayed his symbolic entrance back into the fold?

            And second, we should view sin as we view that awful disease.  Too many times I see Christians who flock to other diseased (sinful) people, heedless of the risk of infection, in fact, hoping for it, rather than treating it like the life-endangering disease it is.  Yes, we need to serve the sinners--by leading them home to the Great Physician, not by trying on their clothes, eating from their bowls, and rolling around in their beds. Sin, like leprosy, will make us outcasts from God, the only source of a cure.  Don’t we realize that, or is it that we long to be lepers like the rest of the world?
 
And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed, Matt 8:2-3.
 
Dene Ward

Today’s post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
After I won the gunfight and a medal, it became painfully obvious that unlike a police force, the probation department would not allow me to return to the street work I loved.  So I ended up with a similar job within the prison doing intake classification on newly sentenced inmates.  I did not feel as useful, there were fewer opportunities to help, but it was a job, paid the bills.  I was surprised how many prisoners came back again and again.  So too do many Christians…
 
The second verse of “I’ll Fly Away” identifies the problem with the attitudes of many. “Like a bird from prison bars has flown, I’ll fly away.”

Why don’t we think of life as “prison bars?”  Surely that is the implication of the song.  Certainly, “When the shadows of this life have grown” implies the infirmities of age.  But more seriously, we need to consider that life is a prison that keeps us from home whatever our health.

Have we become so comfortable on the compound that we no longer see the razor wire surrounding us?  Everywhere we go there is corruption and wickedness.  Instead of forming an escape committee to dig a tunnel, we long to join in.  Many seek to blend in.  Where is our holiness?  Why do we not feel we are on “bread and water” rations as our beliefs are openly assaulted daily?

We line up to watch the latest movies, catch the latest TV series and these are full of foul language, but much worse, every portrayal of love is contrary to God’s view.  Do we not feel brainwashed?  Do you wonder whether the angels marvel that we willingly show up for such? Are we not like the recidivist inmates, going back to the hog trough again and again?

Even when one is young and full of health, life is a prison.  We can never be with God until we escape.  We can never be free from temptation and filth until we fly away.  No wonder many churches are being overcome with carnality.  We are not teaching people to want to get out of prison nor are we teaching them the way free people live.  In fact, we have the key in our hands and with finality lock ourselves in every day.
 
 
For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven… For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan… that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. … and knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord … we are of good courage and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him.  2 Cor 5
 
Keith Ward
 

For a couple of years now I have seen some college football teams wearing odd uniforms splotched with camouflage here and there, and with “names” like Honor, Courage, Integrity, Commitment, Service, and Duty sewn on the back where ordinarily the player’s name would have been.  I have discovered that this is a joint effort with the Wounded Warriors Project, a nonprofit organization supplying programs and services to injured servicemen and their families.  After the game, the uniforms are auctioned off and 100% of the proceeds go to the project.

            What a worthy endeavor, yet wearing those uniforms has caused some amusement among sportscasters.  At least twice I have seen “Integrity” commit a personal foul, and don’t believe for a minute that the announcers ignored all the possible jokes they could make about it.

            That made me wonder what would happen if Christians wore uniforms.  As much as I hate the way we take those lists we find in the New Testament (fruit of the Spirit, Christian “graces,” etc.) ignoring them as a comprehensive unit, and using them instead like individual casseroles on a buffet line from which we can pick and choose, what if one of those traits were printed on the backs of our jerseys?  Would people find our actions so amusing?  If “self-control” became angry and threw something across the room, if “mercy” gave as good (or as bad?) as he got, if “kindness” snarled at someone in his way, how would that effect the way others view the faith we so casually claim?

            Wait a minute!  This might actually be good for us.  If each one of us had the trait we have the most difficulty with posted on our backs, maybe we would be aware every minute of the day and actually behave a little better.  For you see, that is the problem with most of us.  We go through our lives without thinking; we just react, and that is when the “automatic” happens instead of the new characteristic we are supposed to be developing.  If we wore that jersey every day for a month, don’t you suppose “automatic” would become the right thing instead of the wrong thing?

            So today, think what needs to be written on your back—not the thing you find easiest, but the thing you find the hardest to do, and pretend it is there every minute of the day.  You see, your friends and neighbors are not ignorant of the personality a Christian is supposed to exhibit, and they know where you fall short.  They see that very word on your back every moment and it is what they use as an excuse when you try to recruit them.  Why would they want to be on a team where Integrity cheats on his taxes, where Commitment ogles the women in the office, and where Service never did a thing for anyone if it didn’t offer him a good return?

            Put on your uniform every day.  Remember what is written on your back, and do your best to live up to it.
 
Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, Phil 2:14,15.
 
Dene Ward

Maybe this is one of those urban legends that everyone has heard from someone.  I am really not certain, but Keith’s mother once told us about a young woman who began attending services with them with her three young children, the oldest about 6.  She arrived just on time and left quickly.  But unlike many of those types, she was always there, her children knew the basic Bible stories, and she herself was attentive to both class and sermon.  In fact her keeping to herself seemed to be more a product of embarrassment than anything else.
 
           My mother-in-law, astute observer that she was, had noticed something.  The children were always neat, clean, and combed except for one thing—their clothes were always wrinkled.  This was back before the day of permanent press and polyester.  There is nothing quite as wrinkled as old-fashioned cotton—except maybe wrinkled linen—which was way beyond this woman’s means.

            I forget now how she managed to ask.  Maybe it was the offer of an iron, which I know she was generous enough to do.  Knowing my mother-in-law though, she probably just came out and asked.  However she did it, she got an answer.

            The woman’s husband was not a Christian.  He not only refused to attend services with her, he refused to get up and help her get the children ready.  So every week after their Saturday evening bath, she dressed them for church and then put them to bed.  The next morning it was easier to get the three tykes up and fed and herself dressed for church.

            After all these years, I’ve heard nearly every excuse in the world for missing Bible classes or the morning services altogether.  This young woman could have easily pulled two or three off the list and used them.  So why didn’t she?  I can think of three good reasons.

            First, she loved the Lord.  Nothing and no one was going to come between her and her Savior.  She knew the perils of allowing excuses to keep her away from the spiritual nutrition her soul needed, and she was not so arrogant as to think she could feed herself with no help at all.  “I can have a relationship with God without the church,” I have heard more times than I can count.  She knew better.

            And because she had her first priority correct, the others fell right in line.  She loved her children, but more than that she loved her children’s souls.  She had to combat not only the usual onslaught of the world, but the huge impact of a father’s bad example.  She was still in her early 20s so she had probably married quite young, too young to really understand the challenges of this “mixed” marriage, maybe even so naïve that she thought “love would conquer all” and he would change easily.  Now she knew better, but she was more than ever determined to save her children.

            And despite it all, she loved her husband and his soul too.  She knew that any little chink her armor would allow him the rationale he needed to remain apathetic to her faith.  She understood Peter’s command in 1 Pet 3:1,2,  Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.  The more he resisted, the stronger she needed to be, and if taking her children to church in wrinkled clothes did the trick, then that’s what she would do.

            This young woman shows us all that excuses can be overcome by pure will.  Certainly we are not talking about the truly old, ill, and otherwise unable to go out either regularly or on occasion when there is truly a “bad day.”  We are talking about people who allow a little, or even a lot of trouble to become too much trouble to serve God.  I know many who work around the hurdles and snags that Satan throws in our paths.  It costs them time, money, and a whole lot of extra energy, but they have their priorities straight.  They know who comes first, and they understand that our modern “sacrifices” are an insult to the word. 

If finding excuses comes easily for me, maybe I need to consider wearing some wrinkled clothes.
 
And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many: and he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse…And the servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed and blind and lame.  And the servant said, Lord, what thou didst command is done, and yet there is room.  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.  Luke 14:15-24.
 
Dene Ward
 

I have several recipes that call for making a reduction sauce as the last step.  The pan in which the meat was cooked is filled with broth or some other thin liquid, the drippings in the pan deglazed, then the sauce boiled down to half or less the original volume, and herbs or perhaps a pat of butter whisked in at the end.  Not only is the sauce thickened, but most important of all, the flavors are concentrated.  I have heard trained chefs say that the reduction sauce can make or break the final product.

           I love those passages in the Bible where the writer seems to boil down a complex situation into two or three simple things.  Suddenly everything becomes clear.  I know what is important because the complex flavors are concentrated enough for me to distinguish them.

            Micah writes what has to be the best of these concentrated passages in 6:6-8.  With what shall I come before Jehovah and bow myself before the high God?  Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He has shown you, o man, what is good, and what does Jehovah require of you but to do justly, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

`           Far from releasing us from the minute details of God’s law, it says this, “Be righteous, be kind to others, and be humble before God.”  What kind of man will argue with God about what He requires, or even consider that any part of His law does not need obeying?  Certainly not a humble one.

            James boils it down 1:27.  Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and keep oneself unspotted from the world. As is the case in many of this type of passage, the widows and orphans are symbolic of anyone who needs help.  In that day and time they were the helpless ones, the ones their society often ignored and oppressed, so it was natural to use them as a synecdoche.  Be kind to others, James said, and later on in more detail (chapter 2), help those who need your help, no matter what kind of help that might be, no matter how rich or poor, how important or unimportant by the world’s standards.  But don’t forget to keep yourself pure, he adds, which can cover the gamut—anything from sexual immorality to sins of the heart to disobedience of any command of God.  In seventeen words, he covers it all.  Amazing.

            Those verbal reductions are powerful.  A list of commands or sins can often become ho-hum when we read them.  Something in us instantly tries to categorize them and rank them.  It becomes a matter of “what I can get away with” instead of what I need to do to be pleasing to God.  But boil it down to a few words and suddenly it is all important.  I need to focus on it all because it all hangs together or falls apart, something many of the Pharisees, and many of us, never seem to understand.

            Those sauces poured over the dish right before serving have ceased to be individual ingredients.  Instead they have become something else entirely, an amalgamation of ingredients blended so well they never separate.  The goal for us is to become something new too, a person who no longer has to think about whether he will do right or wrong, but who automatically does it—a new creature who concentrates on goodness to man and humility before God, no longer questioning but instantly obeying from the heart.

            Do you need a little more boiling?   
 
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?  [And so Jesus himself boiled it down to this] You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets, Matt 22:35-40.
 
Dene Ward

“Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’ ​The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. ​And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,” declares the LORD, Amos 4:1-3.

            “Cows of Bashan”—that has to be one of my favorite lines in the Bible.  I can just see the faces of these haughty women when that rough old country boy Amos spun that one out.  There they lay on their silk cushions commanding even their own husbands to wait on them.  These spoiled women have many sisters in spirit today.  Just check out these other passages in Amos:

Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— Amos 2:6.  Translation:  I will punish you for not looking after those in need just so you could buy yet another pair of new shoes.
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            I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares the LORD, Amos 3:15.  Translation:  I will destroy not just your upscale houses but also the cabin in the mountains, the condo on the beach, and the time share you visit every summer.

“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, ​who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, ​who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! ​Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.” Amos 6:4-7.  Translation:  Disaster will come on those with the best and most expensively decorated homes, who eat lamb and veal—the most expensive meats in the market—who like to be entertained lavishly, who use the most expensive perfumes and makeups and judge their haircuts by who paid the most, yet are not concerned one iota over the spiritual state of this nation.

            If you cannot see our culture in these verses, it may just be that you are one of these people, more concerned about what you can have here and now, about your status among the rest of the snobs, about your comfort and convenience than about your relationship with God.  Those people broke their covenant with God, thinking that sacrifices and tithes (4:4) could make up for trampling on the needy in order to make even more money (5:11), or just ignoring them and blaming them for their own problems as we tend to do. 

            And they judged greatest among them those who spent the most on clothing and jewelry and perfume and homes and probably even manicures, while God’s Word shows us that great women are known for purity, for love, for strength of character, for teaching, for serving the poor, the ill, the weak, or even those who don’t deserve it at all.

            We have now seen all four of the oracles God sent specifically to women—the manipulators, the high maintenance, the weak who cannot face facts, and the snobs who judge by society’s standards instead of God’s.  I have known all four of them.  The goal for me--and you--is to make sure we are never counted among them.
 
She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens… She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong… She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy… ​Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness… “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”  Prov 31:15,17,20,25-27,29.
 
Dene Ward