Flight Paths

Just a Bunch of Stems

4/24/2015 0 Comments

My little boys used to bring me bouquets all the time.  Sometimes it was Queen Anne’s lace.  Sometimes it was a bright blue spiderwort.  Sometimes it was a rain lily or a stem of pink clover.  Sometimes it was just a dandelion bloom.  All of these are wildflowers, what any suburban lawn grower would call “weeds.”  Yet I put them all in vases of various sizes because they were all precious to me.  My little fellows had no idea the difference between domesticated flowers and wildflowers.  All they knew was “flowers.”

  But even they would never have gathered a bunch of them, ripped off the blooms and handed me a fistful of stems.  The problem with religion today, including some of my own brothers and sisters, is they value the stems and not the flowers. 

    A few months ago someone told me how listening to a certain teacher had made his day so much better.  I anxiously awaited the lesson he had heard, but he never once said a word about the content.  All I heard was the teacher’s name, at least three times, and how that person had made his day better.  What he had done was throw away the flower and put the empty stem in a vase of water to admire.

    I understand having favorite speakers and teachers.  Nothing makes me happier than to hear someone compliment my husband and my sons.  But none of them teach for the glory.  They teach to help people. If all people remember is their names, then they haven’t been much help, have they? 

    If I can’t tell you what a person taught me, did I learn anything, or was I just entertained for a few brief moments?  One of my favorite teachers isn’t much of an entertainer, but I always go away with a new way of looking at things, even things I have been looking at for decades now.  He makes me think, and he makes me see the possibilities.  He makes me want to go look at it again myself, and I often do.  He makes me examine my life in ways I never have and want to change for the better.  Can your favorite speaker do those things, or does he just make you laugh and feel good?

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with going to someone for help with your Bible study.  God did ordain the role of teachers in spiritual things (Eph 4:11).  He meant for us to have brothers and sisters we could go to with questions and problems.  Paul told Timothy to pass on what he knew to “faithful men.”  He told the older to train the younger.  But God also holds us individually accountable for what we do with what we hear.  “Work out your own salvation,” Paul told the Philippians, well after Jesus had already said, “If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch.”  It is up to each of us to be careful to whom we listen and to examine what they say against the Word (Acts 17:11).

    A good teacher doesn’t care if s/he receives praise or not—that is not his/her purpose.  All s/he does is hold up the Word of God and present it to you.  “What is the straw to the wheat?” God asks in Jer 23:28.  That word “straw” has several meanings according to Strong’s, and one of them is the wheat stalk, or stem.  Which is more important, God is saying, the stem or the wheat it holds up?

    I knew a man once who nearly tore a church up because he insisted on “his turn” to teach when not only was he a lousy teacher, he didn’t even know the Word of God accurately enough to teach it.  Clearly, it was all about the glory of teaching to him, and clearly he needed the admonition in Rom 12:3:  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.

    I know the temptation.  So did Paul.  I refrain from [boasting], so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited, 2 Cor 12:6,7.  It shouldn’t matter to me what people say about my speaking or writing.  What should matter is how many I reach, how many are helped and encouraged and how many souls are saved.  And that is what should matter to those who listen and read too. 

    And do you know why this is so important?  If you value the who above the what, the straw above the wheat, the stem above the flowers, someday sooner or later you will be deceived into believing a lie.  Even good teachers make mistakes, and you might be deceived by an honest error too.  That is why James tells us in 3:1 that teachers will receive the “greater condemnation.”  Teaching is a responsibility, and anyone who craves the glory is manifestly unable to handle that burden.

    Most of the preachers and teachers I know will tell you the same things I am now.  If you want to make me happy, then use what I give you, remember it and grow.  Share it with others who might need it.  Even if you forget where you got it, just pass the good news along.  That is what really matters.  Give them a bouquet of flowers, not a handful of stems.

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

Dene Ward

Mind over Matter

4/23/2015 0 Comments

I have often read Heb 10:34 with amazement:  you took joyfully the plundering of your own property since you knew that you have a better possession, and an abiding one.  Those people had truly progressed to the point that they had “the mind of the spirit,” as Paul calls it in Romans 8, rather than “the mind of the flesh.”  The mind of the flesh cares about losing earthly possessions.  The mind of the spirit knows that something better awaits, even if it cannot be seen yet.

    What is your mind set on this morning?  Are you concerned about a bill that needs paying, a doctor’s appointment that might reveal a serious problem, a job interview that could raise your standard of living, or simply how to fit that to-do list all in one 24 hour period?  

    Being responsible does mean taking things seriously, meeting one’s obligations regardless the cost, and fulfilling promises made to others.  The question is, have those things consumed us to the point that they control our mindset?  Are we anxious, irritable, and miserable, and do we allow that to effect our relationships with others?

    Paul contrasts true spirituality with carnality in 1 Corinthians 3.  He says that one is maturity and the other is “walking after the manner of men”—allowing the physical things of this life to direct our steps rather than the spirituality that should be our goal.  Certainly if those first century brethren did not despair when their belongings were confiscated, shouldn’t we be able to live a life of joy in the relative ease we have today, even when by the world’s standards the things we must deal with at the moment are not that easy?

    What is your mind on this morning?

For those who set their minds on the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but those who set their minds on the spirit, mind the things of the spirit.  To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace, Rom 8:5,6.

Dene Ward

The Fallen Limb

4/22/2015 0 Comments

We live on wooded property—spreading live oaks, pencil straight slash pines, red and silver maples, fast-growing sycamores, sweet gums with their spiky balls, wild cherry and water oaks, both of which will split and fall at the least breeze.  When I walk Chloe around the perimeter I dodge fallen limbs, both deadfall and green, every ten feet or so.  Sometimes I find larger limbs that have fallen overnight, and once one fell right in my path just seconds after I had passed.  

    Often in the night, especially a windy one in the spring or fall as fronts pass through, I hear limbs hit the roof.  They are surprisingly loud and I awake expecting to find something large and heavy only to waste Keith’s time as he climbs the ladder to discover a two foot long twig no bigger around than his thumb.  It certainly sounded bigger than that!

    A couple of months ago, after a particularly windy winter storm, Chloe and I came upon a fallen pine limb, three feet long maybe and about two inches in diameter.  This one, though, was not lying on the ground.  The wind had cast this one with enough force that it had stuck straight into the ground through the sod.  I pulled it out and a full six inches of it was below the surface.  Imagine if that one had come hurtling through the sky at me as I walked by.

    Words are a bit like fallen limbs.  You never know who they will hit and how.  We are often just as careless as the wind in hurtling them about.  We may think the only one who hears is the one we are addressing.  We may think that everyone knows us and understands how it is meant.  We may think that what was said was perfectly innocent and completely impossible to mistake for something bad.  We may be very wrong.

    Yes, people need to listen with as much charity as we need to speak.  The Bible, particularly the wisdom literature, is full of cautions not only about how we speak but how we listen.  Even Jesus said, “Take heed how you hear.”  Hearing involves maybe as much responsibility as speaking. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others, Eccl 7:21,22.

    But just maybe we could stand to be a bit more careful in our speaking.  Words can hurt, and unlike physical wounds, may never heal.  What sounds like a twig to us may sound like a massive branch falling on the roof to the hearer.  And a multitude of the same kinds of words has an effect that is hard to erase.  What kinds of words do I use the most?  Praise or criticism?  Thanksgiving or complaining?  Encouragement or rebuke?  Tough love is necessary and is necessarily painful, but do I ever practice any other kind?  Are all my words, or even just the majority, “tough?”  And am I proud of having that sort of reputation?  Do people cringe when they see me coming?

    Those things I can control, but what about the things I say that are not meant to harm, but still manage to do so?  What about things I toss off without thought, directed at no one in particular, but that, like a fallen limb, accidentally come close to someone else’s heart?  Yes, for those who are mature, we can go back to the responsibility laid on hearers in that Ecclesiastes passage and in Jesus’ and the apostles’ words about being quick to judge, but what about the perfectly innocent babes?  What about young impressionable Christians?  

    If I shoot a gun into the air, the bullet will land somewhere, and my having shot it will make me accountable to the law of the land.  Will God’s law hold us any less accountable for the spiritually injured?  

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned, Matt 12:36,37.

Dene Ward

Recycling

4/21/2015 0 Comments

Seems like it happens every twenty years or so—someone thinks they have discovered an amazing new concept that would fix all the problems of the world if everyone would just listen to them.  In my college days it was wrapped up in this catchphrase:  teach the Man, not the plan--as if separating Christ from his mission were as easy as slipping skins off scalded tomatoes.

   It always boils down to the same old thing: let’s talk like Jesus, act like Jesus, and love like Jesus—but never confront like Jesus, rebuke like Jesus, and condemn like Jesus.  Let’s never be angry with anyone or expect anyone to change his lifestyle because “Jesus loved everyone no matter how bad they were.”  

    Talk like Jesus?  How about this?  Get behind me Satan!  You are a stumblingblock to me (Matt 16:23, addressed to one of his apostles).  You are following me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill, (John 6:26 to the crowds who followed him).  You are of your father the Devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires, (John 8:44, to the believers in Jerusalem).  You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape the sentence of hell? (Matt 23:33, to the religious leaders of the day.)  Sounds like plain talk to me.

    Act like Jesus?  And he looked round about on them with anger, Mark 3:5.  And he made a scourge of cords, and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables, John 2:15; and Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of he money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves; Matt 21:12, the last two, separate instances, years apart.  In our culture he would have been arrested.

    Love like Jesus?  Neither do I condemn you; go your way and from here on sin no more, John 8:11.  And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, and said, One thing you lack, Mark 10:21.  Jesus never accepted unchanged lives.

    Then there are the ones who try to separate Jesus from his body, Christ…the head of the church, the savior of the body, Eph 5:23; and those who try to separate him from his teaching, whoever goes onward and abides not in the teaching of Christ, has not God, 2 John 9.  And let’s not forget that he is the one who will come in flaming fire, rendering vengeance on those who know not God and obey  not the gospel, 2 Thes 1:7,8.

    It is the same old thing every time—some folks will only accept Christ on their terms.  It is not a matter of “making him the Lord of their lives.”  Instead, it is a matter of making themselves Lord, and telling Him which parts of him they will and won’t accept.  The people in John 6 had that problem.  When Jesus finally laid it on the line, he did not mollycoddle them or dilute his gospel.  Instead, he said, Does this offend you? John 6:61.  And after this many of disciples turned back and no longer walked with him, 6:66.     Did he chase them down?  No, he simply turned to the twelve and said, Will you go also? 6:67.   He was not about to accept anyone who did not accept all of Him.

    Sooner or later all this nonsense will die down again, but I expect it to reappear in another fifteen or twenty years, with someone else thinking he has discovered something new.  Our focus then and now should be the focus those twelve had as they stood watching the crowds diminish and realizing, perhaps for the first time, that this calling was not a popular one.  That even those they thought were on their side would leave at the first obstacle.
    Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, John 6:68.

Dene Ward

Amaryllises

4/20/2015 0 Comments

Mine are blooming now, everything from deep pure red, pale pink and bright apricot, to stripes of white on all three; pink throats on a pristine white, or white throats on deep orange or red.  They are gorgeous, but sometimes they don’t bloom, and that leaves me disappointed, usually with half the bulbs every year.  So I decided to find out what keeps amaryllises from blooming to see if I could remedy the problem.  Here is what I discovered and what I extrapolated.
 
   Amaryllises will not bloom in full shade.  They may not need full sun, especially in this sub-tropical environment, but they need enough light to draw that big thick stem up out of the bulb and through the soil and mulch.

    The New Testament tells us we need the Light too.  John says that as long as we walk in the light, we won’t stumble (1 John 2:9-11).  It variously calls us sons of light and children of light; it says we are “of the day not the night.”  And because we have that Light and live in it, we then become “the light of the world.”  Certainly a Christian who does not live in the light will never bloom.

    Amaryllises need sufficient nutrients.  Just as a larger animal needs more food, this large flower needs good soil, and ample food and water.  Many of my amaryllis bulbs were as big as softballs when they came out of the package, and many of the blooms are broader across than some of Keith’s garden cantaloupes.  Especially in this poor sandy soil, we must be sure to supply the proper nutrition if we want anything to come out of it.

    We need nutrition too.  Peter tells us to “long for the pure spiritual milk that by it we may grow up into salvation” 1 Pet 2:2.  How can we do that if we neglect all the feeding opportunities our shepherds have offered us?  How can we do it when we shun the healthy spiritual food and feast on the junk in this life?  I have seen many brothers and sisters go hog wild with the organic, all-natural, non-preservative craze when taking care of their physical bodies, yet starve their spirits with skimpy servings and junk food.  No wonder their blooms are so scarce and puny.

    This might be surprising, but not allowing them to rest will also keep amaryllises from blooming.  You can force blooms at certain times of the year, but then you must prune both the stem and leaves and water them prodigiously until they go dormant.  Then leave them alone!  

    God did not rest on the seventh day because He was tired.  He rested because He was finished, but in that rest he also ordained a day of rest for His people.  Do you understand what that means?  In that ancient time, the common people lived hand to mouth and they worked sunup till sundown seven days a week just to survive.  But not God’s people.  As long as they observed their commanded Sabbath, He made sure they had plenty.  God knows what you need and sometimes you need to rest.  It may no longer be a religious observance, but it is certainly a matter of health.  And rest doesn’t mean going on a vacation that leaves you more worn out than rested.  It means a day with no schedule, no stressful situations, nothing hanging over your head that “just has to be done.”  Spend some time with your family—just one full day a week, any day—rest your body and your mind, and talk of the blessings God has given you all, especially the time you have to be together because He has taken such good care of you.

    And this last one really surprised me.  If you take your amaryllis bulbs out of the ground and store them in the refrigerator, you should not store them with apples.  Apples will make an amaryllis bulb sterile, or so I have been told.  Apples?  Apples are good things, right?  But even things that look good can make a plant sterile and unproductive it turns out.  

    Haven’t you seen the same thing happen to Christians?  They become so involved in things of this world, good things, that there is no time left for producing the fruit God wants from us.  Or they hang around with people who are not their spiritual brothers and sisters to the point that what matters most to those people becomes what matters most to them.  Other people, people who do not understand that we are to encourage one another and build one another up spiritually, who care nothing for the spiritual warfare we are involved in, who would, in fact, think you are nuts to even talk about such a thing, can hinder your productivity for the Lord.

    So take a look at your amaryllises today if you have them.  Think about the things that affect those gorgeous blooms.  See if any of them are affecting you too.

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful, Titus 3:14.

Dene Ward

A Bucket of Cold Water

4/17/2015 2 Comments

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  Psalm 95:1,2.

    Psalm 95 is generally thought to have been one sung during the Feast of Tabernacles.  Meribah and Massah are used in its body, a time in the wilderness when God taught His people a hard lesson.  But this psalm starts just as you would expect a festival psalm to.  Come let us sing, let us make a joyful noise. 
    Just as an interesting point, the Hebrew word translated “sing” in this passage is not a musical word.  Ranan means to emit a stridulous sound (not exactly how I would want my singing described) or to shout, and is indeed translated shout, cry out, rejoice, joy, or triumph half the time in the KJV.  And that makes that opening couplet much more parallel to the second one, “make a joyful noise to him.” 
    About that “joyful noise:” that particular Hebrew word means to mar, especially by breaking, to shout, or to split the ears.  In our words we might say, “He burst my eardrums he was so loud.”  Think about standing at a football stadium in the middle of the game, or beneath a jet engine as it revs for take-off.  That’s the noise we are talking about.  In fact, this word is translated “blow an alarm [with a trumpet]” a couple of times.  As the second verse continues, we are to do this in psalms of praise so singing is involved, but the point of these two words is not the melody but the volume, caused by unabashed joy and celebration.
    You find this often in the psalms.  Noise and clamor seemed to be a part of the Jewish worship.  Perhaps the psalmist, and God as his inspiration, had noticed.  Right in the middle of the psalm, he throws what amounts to a cold bucket of water on all the festivities. 
    Their celebration of the feast had made them forget what the wandering was all about—and it wasn’t fun and games.  An entire generation died because of their faithlessness.  Toward the end of verse 7 he interrupts their self-congratulation that God loves them and cares for them with, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof.  
    Yes, God made a covenant that He would be with them and protect them, but only if they performed their half of the contract.  Their ancestors did not.  God goes on to say that He loathed that generation.  That English word, I am told, is far too mild for the Hebrew idea.  It means they disgusted Him, they nauseated Him, as in “I will spew you out of my mouth” nausea.  Because of that, they did not receive the promised rest, a rest like God’s, a Sabbath rest not because you are tired, but because have finished the task (Heb 4:1-11).
    Those people seemed to think, as the prophets testified, that all it took was loud worship to please God.  The tendency is to judge our own worship as lacking because of this, too.  We ask, “Why don’t we ever do that?” as if anything solemn and quiet is not sincere worship and certainly not acceptable to God.  It is easy to think, as they did, that volume is all that matters. 
    “If you hear his voice” the psalmist says and then makes it clear that hearing involves reverence and obedience.  In order to underscore this emphasis, the psalmist does not go back and say, “Okay, get on with the celebration now.  I just wanted to interject a warning.”  No, this is where he ends it.  He wants this to be the last thing on their minds as they finish singing this psalm:  “Therefore I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.”
    What started out as a jubilant service ends up with the wrath of God.  I am sure their songs were not quite so ecstatic, their noise not quite so loud, for who can be carefree when he contemplates the wrath of the Almighty, the one the psalmist has already reminded us created everything and holds it in His hand? 
   
Take away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols. But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream, Amos 5:23,24.

Dene Ward.

Returning the Favor

4/16/2015 0 Comments

In the past few years people have done things for me that I could not even have imagined.  They have cleaned my house, they have put up my garden produce, they have brought meals, they have taken me to the doctor over and over and over, putting about 120 miles on their cars each time.  They have shopped for me and then conveniently forgotten how much I owe them.  They have walked up to me and in the midst of a hug slipped a hundred dollar bill in my pocket to help pay for surgeries, medicines and medically necessary trips that were not covered at any percentage by insurance because they were too “experimental.”  Many, many more have told me that they get down on their knees and pray for me every day, and many of those knees are frail and aching.
 
   What do you say to people like that?  What can you do for people like that?  “Thank you,” seems so lame.  
 
   And what can we do for God and Christ?  Most of us understand that nothing will repay the debt we owe them.  That is what grace means—you receive mercy you don’t deserve and cannot repay.  Then why do we still act like our “service” is indeed plentiful payment for our salvation?  Why do we question our trials as if God is letting us down “after all we’ve done?”
 
   Just think for a moment about the absurdity of this:  God had the power to create the complexities of this vast universe; Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist, Col 1:15-17; and so, dear Father and Jesus, because of all that, I will try not to sin today.  That is my idea of service?
 
   God deserves all of me, not just a few little commandments I try to keep.  He deserves my service everyday, not just on Sundays.  He deserves my heart, not just my outward posture.  When I give myself to God there should be nothing leftover for me or anyone else.
 
   And He deserves this even when things in my life are not particularly good.  God is the Creator, He is the Almighty, He is the Ruler of the Universe.  That is why He deserves my service, not because He has been good to me.  We truly do not stand in awe of God if we think otherwise.    

    Today, think about the power of God and what it should mean in your service to Him.

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders… over many waters.  The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.  The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness. The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth  and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry,  "Glory!" The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. Selected verses from Psalm 29.

Dene Ward

The Taxman Cometh

4/15/2015 0 Comments

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” Matt 22:21.

    I suppose nothing rankles so much as giving your hard-earned money to a government whose policies you disagree with, who often use that money for things you disapprove of as a Christian.  Guess what?  We are not the first to feel that way, and our government doesn’t come close to the one that governed the people Jesus and the apostles plainly said to pay.  Our government does not yet imprison us for our faith, nor does it throw us to the lions, crucify us, or burn us alive in an arena paid for by tax dollars.

    Paul makes it crystal clear when he says, For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed…Rom 13:6,7.  Some of those very people wound up paying for their own executions, so I doubt we have much excuse in not paying our taxes.

    This is what we miss when we start all the complaining.  In the very same passage Paul says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God…Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience, vv 1,5.  

    You would think that God’s wrath would have been reserved for that government that persecuted His people, but no, in this case, His wrath is on any who disobey this instruction because He ordained that government.  Not to obey that earthly authority is to disobey His heavenly authority.  Paul even adds at the end of verse 7, [Pay] respect to whom respect is owed and honor to whom honor is owed.  That does not mean only those who deserve that respect and honor as men, it means those who are a position of authority.  That position deserves the respect and honor no matter who fills it, because God put him there.  

    Peter says much the same thing:  Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good, 1 Pet 2:13,14.  We obey “for the Lord’s sake.”  So what would that make any civil disobedience on our part?  A slap in the face of God, that’s what.

    This is a lot more important than we like to think.  Subjection is the mark of a Christian.  Every one of us is subject to everyone else (Eph 5:21), and we all are in subjection in other areas of life.  Peter says that is why our subjection to the government is so important. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor, vv15-17.  When we act in any other way, when we disobey the laws of the land, when we cheat on our taxes, we are causing the world to laugh at the very notion of subjection as servants to God, invalidating our faith as surely as if we had stood up and denied the Lord in front of them.

    Yes, it’s that time of year.  Maybe instead of complaining, we should thank God that we have a government that, though it certainly isn’t honoring God, isn’t murdering His children.  At least not yet.

…You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people, Acts 23:5.

Dene Ward

From Bad to Worse

4/14/2015 0 Comments

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. Eph 4:17-19
    
`    In our study of the first century church on Tuesday mornings, the ladies and I have noticed how important purity was to those people.  I am not sure we place the same importance on it, and worse, we excuse impurity of all sorts.  One of my dear sisters said she had even heard another Christian say it was expecting too much to demand purity from people today, not in a society saturated with hedonism and materialism.  Let me tell you, if a Christian could stay pure in a pagan world where fornication was even part of the religious ritual, anyone can stay pure concerning any sin there is.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me, Phil 4:13.
    We were reading together the list in the above passage, a list I had studied several times, when it suddenly struck me that this was not a list at all, it was a progression.  
    The people Paul refers to had vanity of mind.  Most of us who have been in the church for years understand the concept of “vanity.”—emptiness.  These people had no purpose in life.  They moseyed through the day letting life simply “happen.”  That will not last long.  If you have no purpose, you will eventually find one of your own making.  It’s the only way you can rationalize your existence.
    They became darkened in their understanding.  They did not even realize their need.  Because they had come up with their own “meaning of life,” they were satisfied.
    At that point they became alienated from the life of God.  Just across the page from this passage, in 2:5, we are told that God made us alive when we were dead in our sins.  Our life now is a life of service to Him and others.  Our righteous lives look strange to people of the world.  Doing things for others?  Putting the needs of others ahead of your own?  Haven’t you heard someone say, “What about yourself?”  or, “How can you have any fun?”  They can no longer comprehend real fulfillment.
    And so because of the hardening of their heart they refuse to see when others try to tell them what is wrong.  They wear a shield so their consciences will not be pricked into realizing what they are doing to themselves.
    Eventually they become past feeling—they no longer even need the shield over their consciences.  They just plain don’t care.  When you start to talk, they shrug their shoulders.  “You have your way, I have mine—now leave me alone.”
    And so they come to the end—they give themselves up.  At this point, as Peter says, they cannot cease from sin (2 Pet 2:14),  It will take something akin to a miracle to reach them, if they can be reached at all—probably something terrible.
    Truly this is a motivation for keeping oneself pure.  How far can I go before I reach the point of no return?  Will the next sin be the one that makes it nearly impossible to repent?  Do I really want to go through the necessary horror that may be my only chance to wake up?
    Don’t kid yourself—you are as vulnerable as anyone else.  Check this little progression and see where you fall in line.  Then get out of line as fast as you can.  Nothing says you have to be there at all.

But you did not so learn Christ; if so be that you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:  that you put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxes corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth, Eph 4:20-24.

Dene Ward

The Gospel According to the Oak Ridge Boys

4/13/2015 0 Comments

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

There's a black cloud following me around
And I just can't get away
Instead of sinking a little lower
I start making tracks on over
To the place where the sun shines day and night
And I know I'll hear you say

Come on in
Baby take your coat off
Come on in
Baby take a load off
Come on in
Baby shake the blues off
Gonna love that frown away
Come on in
Baby put a smile on
Come on in
Baby tell me what's wrong
Come on in
The blues'll be long gone
Gonna love that hurt away

I've always assumed the Oak Ridge Boys were singing about a bar, but doesn't the description fit exactly the New Testament description of the Church? The church (meaning, of course, the people who meet together under God's auspices) is where we rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep (Rom 12:15). It's where we go for encouragement (Heb 10:24 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works;) and edification (Rom_14:19 So then let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another.) It should also be where we go when we need a kick in the pants (2Ti_4:2 preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.)

The church is referred to as a family almost 200 times in the New Testament. Where else should we turn when we get "tired and a little lonely" or when "a black cloud is following me around and I just can't get away"? Shouldn't our church family be "where the sun shines day and night"? When we need help and encouragement we should be able to call upon our family and always hear "Come on in". And when members of our family call upon us our only thought should be "gonna love that hurt away."  If yours doesn't work that way, maybe you are in the wrong place.

Lucas Ward