Flight Paths

Ol' Reliable

3/13/2015 0 Comments

Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

Jerry Whitehead has died.  He was only 60, it was sudden and unexpected.  For those of you who don't know him, Mr. Whitehead was the Sheriff of Union County, where I grew up.  Not only was he the sheriff, he had been the sheriff since 1985.  For 28 years he had been the top law enforcement officer of our county.  He was a good man, friendly and kind.  He coached me in Little League baseball.  The people of the county were comfortable knowing that Mr. Whitehead was looking out for things.  I imagine that there are people in their early forties who don't remember a time when Jerry Whitehead wasn't the sheriff.  They relied on him.

And now he is gone.

It just goes to show that we can't rely on anyone in this world.  Some people we trust let us down because they aren't the people we thought they were.  Even the people of the highest integrity, however, can't be relied upon to always be there, because one day they will be gone, just like Jerry Whitehead.  Everyone gets old and too weak to keep up their previous pace.  Everyone we look up to will eventually die and leave us holding the bag with others looking up to us.  And then we, too, will be gone.

In this ephemeral world, however, there is one thing I can rely on:  Luke 21:33 "[Jesus said] Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."  I can rely on the teachings found in the Bible.  I can trust on His word to lead my life.  I can count on the promises recorded therein.  Because of His recorded Word, I can know my God and what He expects of me.  I can know of the great salvation He has wrought for me and what my responsibilities are regarding that salvation.  Despite the changes of public opinion and popularity, His Word never changes.  I can base my life on it and I can be secure.

Mat 7:24-25 "Every one therefore that hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock."

Lucas Ward

Guilt By Association

3/12/2015 2 Comments

My husband deals with convicted felons every day.  It is amazing how many stories he hears that begin, “I didn’t do anything.  I just went with my friends and then all of a sudden…”  It may seem unfair for someone to be punished for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, if indeed that is truly what happened, but what about common sense?  Why go for a stroll in a snake pit?  Wisdom says the consequences will not be worth the adrenalin rush.
    We often dally in sin and think nothing of it.  We are as bad as young daredevils who think they will never die.  “I’m strong; nothing will happen to me.  Besides, God knows my heart, and He knows I am not a bad person.”
    Have you ever looked at the lists of sins scattered throughout the New Testament?  It always amazes me the failings I find listed side by side, things I would never have put in the same category.
    Look at 2 Tim 3:2-4.  For people shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  Which of us is not sometimes proud, does not sometimes forget to be grateful, or lacks a little self-control in some areas of our lives?  Yet the Holy Spirit includes those among the brutal, the ruthless, and the treacherous.
    Then there is Romans 1:29-31.  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness:  evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  Whoa!  Disobedience to parents and gossip included with murder?  Boasting and insolence included with hating God?  That’s a wake-up call we all need.  
    Another such association literally took my breath away when I discovered it.  Look up the Greek word for the Devil--Diabolus, “Slanderer.”  That means when I talk about another person, I am becoming exactly what Satan is.  Gossip is never inconsequential.  Even if it never hurts the one being slandered, a near impossibility, it is certainly affecting the one doing it.  You cannot do the works of Satan and come out unscathed.
    So be careful when those “little” sins start popping up.  Look at the other sins God associates them with.  Look who practices them.  Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is just that—wrong.

My little children let no man lead you astray.  He who practices righteousness is righteous.  He who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning.  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:  whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, neither he who does not love his brother, 1 John 3:8.10.

Dene Ward

How to Write a Modern Hymn

3/11/2015 3 Comments

I never thought I would be an old fogy, but I am about to place myself squarely in their ranks.  I prefer to think, however, that, as a professional musician and music educator, I have at least a little credibility in this area.

    Speaking of which, you evidently do not need to be a professional musician with theory training, or knowledge of vocal ranges and anatomy to write hymns these days.  From what I have seen, anyone can do it.

    First, use only half a dozen different notes in the melody.  In fact, it is quite acceptable to use only four different notes in the first sixteen measures.  Make sure the soprano never has to sing more than a major sixth range--often a perfect fifth will do. The melody should hang around F4 and G4, where the soprano voice is [wo]manfully trying to switch from chest to head register so that the only way to get any power in the voice is to push that chest voice beyond its natural niche, which will soon damage the vocal cords.  And remember, it is perfectly acceptable to have the soprano sing a minor third below middle C.  Surely everyone should be able to experience nodules on their vocal cords, shouldn’t they?

    Similarly, ignore the fact that most men who sing bass in the church are baritones, and write the bass line so they can grovel at F2 and G2 for measure after measure.

    As for rhythm, syncopate whenever possible.  Make it as complicated as you can imagine so that the average untrained congregation will never truly sing together, but will instead sound like they have one massive case of hiccups.

    Harmony?  The three primary triads will do nicely.  Oh, you might use a ii-V instead of the standard IV-V, throw in a vi chord to delay the cadence, or add a secondary dominant about halfway through in such obvious ways that they all sound like freshman theory assignments.

    As for the words, you needn’t be a deep thinker.  Just choose five or six words and repeat them over and over.  One verse will do.  If you want to improve on that, just change one or two words of the first verse and sing it again!

    Your topic?  Praise, of course, and nothing else.  No teaching and admonishing about daily life.  No songs about hope and faith and grace.  And absolutely nothing at all about humility and unworthiness.  None of the modern lyricists would ever write, “Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”  We would not want to damage anyone’s self-esteem.  However, if you do try to use a Biblical narrative, make sure you get at least one Bible fact wrong.  

    If you are really good, you can combine many of these tactics.  Just the other morning we sang a praise song with less than half a dozen words, using only four different notes in the entire melody, and with the soprano—the soprano, mind you—traveling no higher than the center line of the treble clef.

    Seriously, I have looked through the only inspired hymnal we have, the book of Psalms, and it amazes me that in only 150 songs, we are given, by some counts, as many as eight different types of songs.  When I was a child, we seriously lacked praise hymns.  I can probably count the ones we sang regularly on one hand, so I am glad to have a few more in our repertoire, but even in the book of Psalms, praise songs are not the most numerous.  In fact, according to the examples we have in the Old Testament, and the directions we have in the New Testament, there is much more we should also be singing about.

    Some people think the old hymns are “boring.”  (Reread the second paragraph up from this one and then tell me about “boring.”)  Try this:  find an old hymn you think is boring and read the words like a poem—no singing allowed.  I doubt there is one in fifty that is not profound, edifying and moving.  
    For the record—I do like some of our newer hymns.  My son says—and he is probably right about this—we just need another hundred years to weed out the new ones that are nothing more than trendy kitsch, leaving us with only the best of the bunch.  We have already had that time with the older hymns, and that is probably why they seem so much more profound as a group.

    Regardless of which group of songs any of us like the best, if the beat is all we care about, I wonder how much good our singing really does.  God is not listening to the music our mouths make or the rhythm our toes tap; he is listening to the music our hearts make.  If you must like the beat to sing the song, you have forgotten who it is we should be trying to please.  And yes, that goes for me too.  It doesn’t matter if I like the song; it doesn’t matter if you do.  What matters is whether we sing with all our hearts to the Lord and to one another.  That is what singing hymns is all about.
    
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ, Eph 5:18-21.

Dene Ward

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Good Enough

3/10/2015 0 Comments

We just spent $90 on dirt.  We live in the country.  At that rate the top six inches of our 5 acres is worth about a $125,000.  
    My herb garden had a few problems last year.  When your perennial rosemary cannot seem to top six inches and all of your super-easy-to-grow basil and parsley die despite watering and fertilizing, you begin to suspect it has more to do with the ground than the color of your thumb.
    So Keith spent a weekend recently digging out the whole bed.  Then he bought landscaping timbers, Miracle-Gro garden soil and Black Kow composted manure to fill it with.  This bed will grow in spite of itself, yet I could not help but think, “Ninety dollars for dirt!”  
    “No,” he told me, “ninety dollars for all those better meals we will eat due to the flavoring and nuance of home-grown fresh herbs—plenty for a change, instead of a rationed amount.”
    My old herb garden was good enough.  We ate a lot of good meals out of it, but it was beginning to falter.  It needed a little help to improve.
    Too many times we are satisfied with “good enough” in our lives as Christians. The number of times we meet with our brethren, the amount of time we spend studying and praying, the amount we give in both time and money to spread the Gospel and to help those in need may very well be “good enough.”  I am not one of those to take the passage “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him that is sin,” and use it as a hammer to pound feelings of fear and inadequacy into people who are doing their best.  
    So you stopped your Bible study last night after just an hour so you could play with your children awhile.  You know what?  That is okay.
    So you missed Sunday evening services this week because your widowed mother is gravely ill and it’s your only chance to take a turn sitting with her.  That is fine.  Our choices are not always between good and bad, but between good and better, and it is an individual decision you must make for yourself.  No one has the right to judge.
    In fact, you may indeed be doing as much as you possibly can.  The problem is the attitude that looks for nothing more than “good enough.”  When one has that attitude, he isn’t.
    As Christians we are slaves to God, we are living sacrifices.  Neither of those words gives us the right to decide that “enough is enough.”  We are always looking for ways to improve ourselves, for ways to grow, for ways to become more and more like God.  That might mean that we must do a lot of extra work here and there (like a slave), and spend more in time and resources (like a sacrifice) in order to improve.  But slaves want to please their masters more than themselves, and sacrifices are not sacrifices if they are cheap and easy.  We don’t want to be “good enough;” we want to be the best!
    
Even so you also, when you shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do. Luke 17:10.

Dene Ward

Common Sense

3/9/2015 0 Comments

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

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, Eph 5:15-17.

Dene Ward

Drive-In Movies

3/6/2015 0 Comments

I remember it well.  Across the river from our small town, an only slightly larger town boasted a drive-in movie theater that offered a double feature for $1 a carload.   What a deal!

    Our family usually arrived about fifteen minutes early to procure the best spot.  If you were too close all we kids in the backseat could see were headless actors.  But you certainly didn’t want to end up on the back row or next to the concession stand amid all sorts of distractions.

    Once you found a decent spot, you checked the speaker before anything else.  If it didn’t work, and some did not, you went on the hunt again.  Once the speaker situation was in order you spent a few minutes edging up and down the hump to raise the front half of the car to just the right angle so the line of sight worked for everyone.  Then you had to deal with obstructions.  Our rearview mirror could be turned completely vertical, but other cars had one you could fold flat against the ceiling.  Headrests on the front seat would have been a catastrophe, but no one had them back then so we avoided that problem altogether.

    Now that set-up was complete, we rolled down the windows so we could get any breeze possible in that warm humid night air.  Along with the chirping crickets, the croaking frogs, and the traffic passing on the street behind the screen, we also had to put up with buzzing mosquitoes.  My mother usually laid a pyrethrum mosquito coil on the dashboard and lit it, the smoke rising and circulating through the car all during the movies, the coil only half burned when the second “THE END” rolled down the screen.

    At that price we never saw first run movies.  Usually they were westerns with John Wayne or Glenn Ford or Jimmy Stewart, or romantic comedies with Rock Hudson and Doris Day.  Occasionally we got an old Biblical epic like David and Bathsheba or Sodom and Gomorrah, both about as scripturally accurate as those westerns were historically accurate, which is to say, not very.  The only Disney we got was Tron, but that was back when it was a bomb not a cult classic.  Still, we enjoyed our family outing every other month or so.

    And we got one thing that I am positive no one born after 1970 ever got.  When the screen finally lit up about ten minutes before the movie started, after the Coming Attractions and ads for the snacks at the concession stand—and oh, could we smell that popcorn and butter all night long—was the following ad, complete with voice over in case you missed the point. 
        “CH__ CH.  What’s missing?  U R.  Join the church of your choice and attend this Sunday.” 
And that was not an ad from any of the local denominations—it was a public service announcement!

    But this is what we all did—instead of being grateful that anything like that would even be put out for the general public, we fussed about its inaccuracy.  We were bad, as my Daddy would say, about living in the objective case.  When that’s all you see, you miss some prime teaching opportunities.

    So let’s get this out of the way first.  It isn’t our choice, it’s God’s.  It is, more to the point since he built it and died for it, the Lord’s church.  We should be looking not for a church that teaches what we like to hear, but what he taught, obeying his commands, not our preferences.  And you don’t “join” it.  The Lord is the one who adds to the church, the church in the kingdom sense, which is the only word used in the New Testament for what we in our “greater” wisdom call the “universal” sense.  But that’s where we miss the teaching opportunity because for some reason we ignore this verse:

    And when [Saul] was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: and they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple, Acts 9:26.

    Did you see that?  Immediately after his conversion, Saul tried to join a local group, what we insist on calling “placing membership” in spite of that phrase never appearing anywhere in the text.  (For people who claim to “use Bible words for Bible things” we are certainly inconsistent.)  The New Testament example over and over is to be a part of a local group of believers—not to think you can be a Christian independent of any local congregation or simply float from group to group.  

    Why do people do that?  Because joining oneself to a group involves accountability to that group, and especially to the leadership of that group.  It involves serving other Christians.  It involves growing in knowledge.  It means I must arrange my schedule around their meetings rather than my worldly priorities.  The New Testament is clear that some things cannot be done outside the assembly.  I Cor 5:4,5; 1 Cor 11 and 16, along with Acts 20 are the obvious ones.  That doesn’t count the times they all came together to receive reports, e.g. Acts 14:27, and plain statements like “the elders among you” which logically infers a group that met together.  Then there are all those “one another” passages that I cannot do if there is no “one another” for me to do them with.

    We are called the flock of God in several passages.  You may find a lone wolf out in the wild once in awhile, but you will never find a lone sheep that isn’t alone because he is anything but lost.  It is my responsibility to be part of a group of believers.  We encourage one another, we help one another, we serve another.  Our pooling our assets means we can evangelize the city we live in, the country we live in, even the world.  It means we can help those among us who are needy.  It means we can purchase and make use of tools that we could not otherwise afford.  It means we can pool talents and actually have enough members available for teaching classes without experiencing burn-out.  It means we are far more likely to find men qualified to tend “the flock of God among them.”

    So while God may add me to the kingdom when I submit to His will in baptism, it is my duty to find a group of like-minded brothers and sisters and serve along side them.  Serve—not be served.  Saul had a hard time “joining himself” to the church in Jerusalem because of his past, but Barnabas knew it was the right thing for him to do and paved the way.    

    CH__CH.  What’s missing?  Is it you?
    
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all, 1 Thes 5:11-14

Dene Ward

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Let's Pretend

3/5/2015 0 Comments

Let’s play a game.  Consider the elders in your church--if you have none, then the men who do the majority of the work.  Pretend the government has carted them off to prison, and just this morning you find out one has been executed.  Not only is the populace not upset about it, they are clamoring for the execution of the other man too.  It quickly becomes clear that none of you is safe.  You keep your doors locked and the curtains drawn.  Even a knock causes your stomach to lurch and your heart to pound as you carefully peek through the drawn blinds.
    Your home is large, in the middle of town, just a short walk from the jail.  It is not exactly difficult to find.  Would you allow the brethren to meet there to pray?  Would you have the courage to draw attention to yourself with the long line of cars parked on the street, and the constant coming and going during a time when finding an excuse to arrest and murder people of your persuasion is the latest fad?
    Or how about this scenario--you are an outsider where you live, an out-of-towner who owns her own business and depends upon the good will of the citizens there to keep you afloat financially.  Since it is a small, family-run business it would not take much to ruin you.  Yet you have come across a faith that makes wonderful sense and you believe it whole-heartedly.  Still, the men who have taught you, a couple of well-known preachers of this belief, have been arrested.  The whole city thinks of them as troublemakers.  Only yours and one other family has actually “signed on.”  
    Are you willing to take them into your home?  To insist that they take advantage of your hospitality, and even make a place for them when they escape from prison?  What about your family if you are thrown into prison for “aiding and abetting?”  What about your business when people find out you are backing these scalawags?
    Mary of Jerusalem, the mother of John Mark (Acts 12), and Lydia, a native of Thyatira living in Philippi (Acts 16), did these things—women, mind you, who were not afraid to act and support regardless of what it might have cost them.  They did not sit back waiting for men to do the scary stuff—they put their necks on the line, along with the necks of their families, and the good of their livelihoods and homes.  They could have lost everything.  Yet this is all reported so matter-of-factly that you wonder if they took more than a second to make the decisions they did.
    What about us?  The time may come when who we are and who we associate with could cost us reputations, jobs, homes, even our lives.  Take a minute to “pretend” with real people’s names, with real thought about what it might cost.  Could we do as well as they did?  Will we do as well as they did?  
    I worry that too many of us find excuses that have to do with “propriety.”  “How will we ever reach anyone if people think we approve of actions like that?” we rationalize. At what point will it ever look appropriate to support someone the world labels a troublemaker simply because he teaches the truth?  
    We use the word “stewardship” as our alibi.  “Why, if we go out of business, we will have less contact with the community and be unable to influence them,” we say to justify ourselves. .At what point will it ever be good stewardship of our wealth to put our financial future on the line in support of the truth and those who preach it?      
    So take a moment today and play the game, “Let’s pretend…”  Remember the example these faithful women have set, and others like them through the centuries.  Make sure that when the time comes, we don’t look for excuses.  Instead, we make our pretensions real, regardless the cost.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,  so that whether I come and see you or am absent,  I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit,  with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.  This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God, Phil 1:27,28.

Dene Ward

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Body Language

3/4/2015 0 Comments

When Keith was still an “apprentice preacher” under the tutelage of some local elders, one Sunday he ventured into an interpretation of a passage that he knew was not the standard.  As he talked he noticed one of the elders grimacing constantly, and he knew he was in trouble.      
    As he tentatively approached that man after services and asked what the problem was, he was startled to hear him ask, “What do you mean?’  When Keith explained the reaction he saw, the brother laughed and said, “Oh that.  I was just having some indigestion.” He added that he thought the interpretation was sound.  Whew!
    Despite that little misunderstanding, the Bible talks a lot about body language and what it means.  
    And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people, Ex 32:9.  That phrase must be the most commonly used one I found in regard to body language.  You know exactly what it means.  Talk to someone you have an issue with and you will see his shoulders draw up and his chin point down, his chest poke out, and his jaws clench—all signs of tension in the neck area.  It means here is a man who has already decided not to change his mind regardless what you say.  Nehemiah says it this way:  …and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey, Neh 9:29.
     Centuries after God’s words to Moses, we find this:  Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD…2 Chron 30:8.  You can only “yield” when you are pliable, and these people were rigid, determined not to listen and yield.  And the trait was passed down to the sons, not because of genetics, but because children take their cues from their parents.  Still later we find, You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you, Acts 7:51.  Body language does not change like spoken language.  It remains the same for thousands of years.
    Have you ever had a discussion with someone only to have that person start shaking his head no before you have even presented your reasoning?  The Bible describes people who were just like that.  But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear, Zech 7:11.  You automatically know that you will make no headway with that person.  In fact, you also know that you will not receive whatever benefits you might have from his study because the conversation is over before it even starts.  Isaiah says it this way: They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand, Isa 44:18.  You are only hurting yourself when you won’t at least listen with an open mind.
    Body language works with the righteous too.  He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure, Isa 33:15,16.
    Yes, you have to be careful when judging body language.  Sometimes a frown is simply a matter of indigestion.  But a teacher knows when the same person wears the same look of indifference, boredom, or agitation every week.  He knows when his words have struck a nerve.  Most of us are so obvious it’s embarrassing.  But he also knows when someone is eating up the study of God’s word, perhaps thinking of its application to his own life, perhaps eagerly wondering where a deeper study on the same subject might lead him when he returns home.  A speaker sees the nods of encouragement from the older members and even the light bulbs going off in people’s minds.  
    Just as so many years ago, we speak a silent language, one that is obvious to anyone looking at us, even those who do not speak English.  It’s a language that God can speak fluently.  Be careful what you “say.”
    
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, Heb 4:12.

Dene Ward

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Being Also Joint Heirs of the Grace of Life

3/3/2015 2 Comments

If husbands and wives are supposed to be partners on this journey to Heaven, we sometimes have a funny way of showing it.

    One of the most amazing examples Sarah set is not one we often talk about, and when we do, we miss what to me is the most important part.  Peter tells us in 1 Pet 3:6 that she called her husband “lord.”  Today that might translate better “sir,” but notice the only example Peter had of this:  Gen 18:12, where she is in a tent, away from the three “men” and talking “within herself.”  When she realizes these men heard her when they normally should not have been able to, she realizes who they are and becomes afraid.  Do you get it?  When she called him “lord,” she was not speaking to Abraham, but about him to herself, behind his back, so to speak, where he could not have heard her if he had wanted to.

    Now here is the point ladies, how do we speak about our husbands when they are not around?  Can my neighbors list his faults by now as well as I can?  Can my children?  Can my co-workers relate every mistake he’s ever made because I make sure I talk about them?  Does anyone who has anything to do with me wonder why I married such a jerk in the first place because that is the impression I have given them about this man I claim to love?  I have seen women, as the Proverb writer warns, tear down their houses with their own hands, or in this case, their own mouths.

    Do we even stop to consider the pictures others must have of our marriages by the things they see and hear?  No one should ever have to endure the embarrassment of standing in my kitchen while I berate my husband in front of them.  Do I ridicule and complain about his efforts to support me as well as the gifts he gives me?  Do I constantly correct every little detail—even those that do not make a whit’s worth of difference—when he tries to tell a story?  Do my friends know that I secretly do things he disapproves of?  We are not the daughters of Sarah when we act this way.

    But Peter does not let the husbands off the hook either.  In the same chapter, he tells them to dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman… v 7.  There is nothing honorable about the label, “my old lady.”  And here is a clue for you:  women do not generally appreciate male humor.  It is one thing to be able to laugh at yourself, but another thing entirely to have someone constantly make a laughingstock of you.  If she asks you not to tell a certain story yet again, or call her by a certain nickname in front of people, then don’t—not if you honor her.

    I have seen too many a man use up the prime of a woman’s life, then somehow think he has “outgrown” her.  More likely, his head has outgrown him.  But one of the most common complaints I hear is, “She let herself go.”  That always translates to gaining some weight.  Do you know how she gained that weight?  Fixing you the meat and potatoes meals you insist on and carrying your children.  Excuse me if the brag that you can still wear the same size jeans as you did in high school does not impress me—the only reason you can do that is you are fastening them six inches lower!  No wonder Malachi called such treatment “treachery” Mal 2:15.

      What in the world do we think we are telling people about our marriages and about ourselves when we engage in such insults?  After all, we do not live in a culture of arranged marriages—we chose our partners.  In actuality, we are insulting ourselves.

    Peter tells husbands that their treatment of their wives will affect whether their prayers are heard.  I have no difficulty believing the same is true for a wife’s treatment of her husband.  I don’t know about you, but I need God to hear my prayers.  I ask for forgiveness regularly and it’s the only way I know I can get it.  How about you?

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  This mystery is great…nevertheless do each one of you love his own wife even as himself, and let the wife see that she reverence her husband.  Eph 5:31-33   

Dene Ward

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The Quiet Ones

3/2/2015 2 Comments

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

But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious, 1 Pet 3:4.

Dene Ward