Flight Paths

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            The past few mornings I have heard a dove off in the trees just north of the house.  His call is a distinctive one, and obviously the reason for his name.  He sounds so sad, like he is in mourning for someone he lost.  I don’t believe I have ever heard any other type of call from this particular bird or any other birdcall so sad.

            Then this morning he landed on my feeder.  I have seen doves from a distance.  They like to stay close to the ground, and when they fly they have a distinctive sound in their “take-off.”  I know they are doves even though I cannot see them well. 

            When this one came to eat at our free breakfast bar, I was amused.  He has the fattest breast of any bird I have seen yet, which I suppose explains why there is a dove season, and not a cardinal or blue jay or, certainly not, a titmouse season.  But his head is tiny and round.  He waddled down the feeder, taking his time to eat, then look around, then eat some more.  Rather than mournful, this bird looks pretty happy, I thought, almost like a little feathered clown.

            Isn’t that the dichotomy of a Christian?  We mourn for the state of the world, for the state of the people we care about in this world who have not found their way yet, or worse perhaps, those who had found it but lost it again.  We mourn that our Savior had to suffer because of that, and we mourn yet more because of the part we played in that suffering.  Yet for the same reason, we rejoice.  Because of that suffering, we are free, we are saved, we have hope for what would otherwise be unattainable.

            And because of that, when the griefs of life come our way, we still have joy, even while the tears run down our faces.  Tomorrow our smiles will return.  They are permanently etched there while the tears are only temporary; not just joy amid sorrows, but joy overcoming sorrows.  Enough so that when others look our way, they will be surprised at how unaffected we are by the sadness around us, just like I was surprised by the jaunty little mourning dove. 

Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom also we have had our access by faith unto this grace wherein we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation works steadfastness, and steadfastness approvedness, and approvedness hope; and hope puts not to shame because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us, Rom 5:1-5.

Dene Ward

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            One afternoon many years ago we stopped at an Olive Garden restaurant for a late lunch.  It was about 2:30, and it would be our only meal of the day. The place was nearly empty, so we were seated at a nice table and an eager young waitress, her order pad and pen held at the ready, came to serve us.

            “We’ll start with bruschetta,” I said. 
            “Huh?  Oh!  You mean brush-etta.”
            No, I thought.  I meant what I said, “Brrroo-skeht-ta.”

            Now, you must understand that I had been teaching Italian aria and art song for a couple dozen years at that time.  My students regularly stood before judges who marked them down on mispronounced Italian, so I had studied everything I could, constantly referencing an Italian pronunciation guide, and checking with other teachers who had sung opera.  I knew exactly how to pronounce “bruschetta.”

            I had learned some lessons the hard way.  I remember one especially embarrassing and painful occasion at state contest.  I don’t recall the exact word, but somewhere in it was the letter sequence “g-i-a.”  I had the student pronounce that as two syllables:  “jee-ah.” 

            “That’s not quite right,” the judge said, as nicely as she could.  The i turns the g into a j.  After that, it has done its work, and is not pronounced.  The syllable is simply “jah,” not “jee-ah.”

            Since we’re into Italian food at this point, Let me illustrate it this way:  parmagiana reggiano cheese is pronounced “par-ma-jah-nah reh-jah-no,” NOT “par-ma-jee-ah-nah reh-jee-ah-no,” and that chef named “Giada” is “Jah-da,”  NOT “Jee-ah-dah.”  Pay attention sometime when she says her name herself. 

            Now here is my point:  who should I listen to about how to pronounce Italian—a college student moonlighting at a chain restaurant or the voice judge, a woman who has sung on the operatic stage many years longer than that waitress has been alive, singing Italian for hours at a time, and who can even translate it?

            How do you choose whom to listen to?  Who gets your vote for the one to take advice from?  Is it someone your own age who has as little experience as you do?  Is it perhaps someone older, but whose only qualification in your mind is that s/he is “fun” and “cool,” and a whole lot more so than the other old fuddy-duddies?  Is it someone who gives you the answers you want, who makes everything easy, even things that are not and should not be easy? Is it someone who makes you laugh?  Is it someone who speaks in “bumper sticker?”  Or is it someone who has experienced the ups and downs of life and come through it sane and faithful, someone who may not be able to keep an audience’s attention but can tell you from a heart of concern exactly what you need to hear—whether or not it’s what you want to hear?  Most important of all—is it someone who knows the Word of God inside out and has stuck with it even when it made his own life difficult, who tells you what God says, not what he thinks or feels?

            Mispronouncing Italian is no big deal in most of our lives, but mispronouncing the Word of God can cost you your soul.

Listen to advice and accept instruction that you may be wise in your latter end, Prov 19:20.

Dene Ward

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            It must be a sign of age.  I find myself reminiscing a lot more lately.  When we walked the property with Lucas last Thanksgiving we talked more about the past than the present.  Certainly more than the future—which for us is suddenly so much smaller than the past.

            “Remember the wild myrtles by the fire pit?”
            “Yes, we sometimes hung a tarp on the branches so we could scoot under it and have a hot dog roast even in a drizzle.”

            “Remember the pine tree in the field?”
            “Yep.  That was first base.”

            “Remember how small these oak trees used to be?”
            “Yes.  I used to climb up limbs that are too rotten to trust any longer, what there are left of them.”

            I remember wondering what it would be like after the boys were grown, when we were living here alone in a quiet house and an empty yard.  No more wondering, only remembering.

            I have said to more than one who came seeking advice that looking back on our past can be helpful.  If you despair at ever becoming the Christian you ought to be, look where you were ten years ago.  Can you see any improvement?  Can you say to yourself, “I don’t act that way now,” about anything at all?  God meant for us to be encouraged, and I find nothing in the scriptures telling me I can’t take a moment every now and then to check my progress and use it as a gauge, both to spur myself on if I see none, and to invigorate my growth with any positive impetus it gives me.

            Many times we quote Paul’s comment to the Philippians, “Forgetting the things that are behind…” (3:13). In fact, I have heard preachers say we shouldn’t think about the past at all.  But Paul didn’t believe that.  He remembered all his life where he started, “the chief of sinners,” 1 Tim 1:16.  He used that memory to keep himself humble before others and grateful to God for the salvation granted him. It bolstered his faith enough to endure countless hardships and persecutions.  As a “chief sinner” he could hardly rail against God for the tortures he suffered when he knew he deserved so much more.

            God has always wanted his people to remember the past.  I lost count of the passages in Deuteronomy exhorting Israel to remember that they were slaves in a foreign country, and that God loved them enough to deliver them with His mighty hand.  Here is a case, though, where the reminding didn’t work as it did for Paul.  Still, God tried.  What is the Passover, but a reminder of their deliverance from Egypt?  What is the Feast of Tabernacles but a reminder of His care for them in the wilderness?  What was the pot of manna in the Ark of the Covenant, the stones on the breastplate of the ephod, and the pile of rocks by the Jordan but the same?  “Remember, remember, remember!” God enjoined.  It’s how we use that memory that makes it right or wrong.

            Paul says we are to remember what we used to be.  “And such were some of you,” he reminds the Corinthians in chapter 6, after listing what we consider the worst sins imaginable.  You “were servants of sin” he reminds the Romans in 6:17.  You once walked “according to the course of this world,” “in vanity of mind,” “in the desire of the Gentiles,” and in a host of other sins too numerous to list (Eph 2:2; 4:17; 1 Pet 4:3; Col 3; Titus 3.)  Those memories should spur us on in the same way they prodded Paul.  Nothing is too hard to bear, too much to ask, or too difficult to overcome if we remember where we started.  Be encouraged by your growth and take heart.

            And then this: let your gratitude be always abounding, overflowing, and effusive to a God who loves us in whatever state we find ourselves, as long as that growth continues.

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands-- remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, Ephesians 2:11-13.

Dene Ward

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[This was written a few years ago after a serious surgery with even more serious complications.  Just so you have the proper context…]

            When I was little and listened to the sick list at church, no matter where we went, there was always someone who was “chronically ill.”   All that meant to me was they were never at church.  I couldn’t fathom an illness that never got any better, that gave you good days and bad days, that made you careful not to “overdo” because of the adverse effects that might have on you.  Now I understand, and wish I didn’t.

            I no longer have any social life--my doctor is my social life.  I see more of him than any of my brothers and sisters in the Lord.  I talk on the phone more to his office help than to church folks.  I spend more hours sitting in his examining chair than I do in a pew.  In fact, they ought to rent me a room there. 

            And I know this will take a toll on my spirituality.  It becomes more and more difficult to keep a good attitude.   While I certainly have more time to study, not having a current class to prepare to teach makes it less a priority and easy to put off, especially when reading is so difficult.  Helping others is nearly impossible, especially when you don’t even know what’s going on with the brethren any more.  So yes, my spirituality is suffering.  I struggle to keep it every day.  But the circumstances cannot be helped.

            What I do not understand is people who do this to themselves on purpose:  those who darken the meetinghouse door only enough to keep the elders and deacons off their backs, and leave while the last amen is still echoing down the hall; who never take advantage of the extra Bible studies held in homes, a safe place to ask questions without embarrassment and learn from those who have wisdom and experience in life; who avoid all the social gatherings of the church scheduled between the services, while regularly finding time to be with friends in the world, not to teach, but simply to socialize; who never have a Bible lesson prepared—that’s only for the children—who never attend a wedding or funeral so they can “weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice,” those who are healthy enough to jog, to play tennis, to hunt or fish, to go to ball games and sit in the hot sun for hours cheering, but simply do not want more than they consider the bare minimum to get by as a Christian. 

            Here is the problem with that:  there is no such thing as the bare minimum.  If Satan can get you to believe that lie, he has sabotaged any chance you have to make it to Heaven.  God expects us to give our all, no matter how much that may be; more for some, less for others, depending upon the circumstances of life.  It is difficult enough when the minimum IS your maximum, but doing that to yourself on purpose will only make you miserable in both lives, this one and the one to come.

            The early Christians understood that they were spiritual lifelines for each other; they would not let go for anyone or anything.  They spent time together, strengthening one another from the beginning, and because of that they were able to withstand horrors we can only imagine.  If you wait till the horror is upon you to reach out for that lifeline, it is probably too late.

And all that believed were together and had all things common…And day by day continuing steadfastly with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved, Acts 2:44,46,47.

Dene Ward

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Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
           I often hear people pray, “Forgive us our sins because we know we sin everyday.” This bothers me a lot, not because I believe they sin everyday, but because I believe that they believe they sin everyday. That kind of perpetual guilt and depression leads to dismay and causes one to wonder why he should even bother to try. I should know, because I used to believe that I sinned everyday, multiple times daily. It wasn’t that I was evil; it was a misunderstanding of what sin and temptation are, and the boundary between them.
            We all know that being tempted isn’t the same as sinning. Temptation isn’t sin. This is evident because Heb. 4:16 states that Our Lord was tempted just like we are, but he didn’t sin. So there must be a difference between the two. James 1:14-15 is a step by step breakdown of temptation and sin and how the first becomes the latter, and so is the best place to start any discussion of what it means to sin.
            Each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.
            So temptation is a product of our own lusts. In the original Greek, there is no difference made between the English concepts of good “desires” and evil “lusts.” The translators tried to fit the English concepts by using the contextual meaning of the original inspired writers. Technically, it would be correct to translate Our Lord’s speech as he instituted the Lord’s Supper as, “I earnestly lusted to eat this with you” or Paul’s admonition as “Flee youthful desires.” Desires/lusts are not wrong in and of themselves. All the desires/lusts we have are creations of God and all have good, God-given means of expression. It is only when we allow sin to debase our desires/lusts and pervert their expressions that they become sinful.
            So, notice that in verse 14 there is no mention of sin. All that is spoken of is temptation, which James has defined as the desire/lust to do something one knows is wrong. Therefore that desire/lust, in and of itself, is not sin. Let’s make this as clear as possible. James, as the inspired writer of God’s Word, gives us this definition of temptation: the desire to do something one knows to be wrong. Then turn to Heb. 4:16 where the inspired writer of God’s Word says that our perfect Lord and Savior was tempted just like we are, but without sin. This means that on occasion Our Lord must have desired/lusted to do things that he knew to be wrong, but he exercised self control and overcame. He remained perfect. Being tempted to do something isn’t wrong. Wanting to do it, having desires/lusts, isn’t wrong.
            So where does sin come in? Vs 15. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Sin enters the picture when lust conceives. Conceive is a verb; it implies action of some kind. So sin happens when one decides to take that desire and do something with it. The desire isn’t wrong, only the action.
            Wait! How do we square this with Matt. 5: 28 where Our Lord says, “I say unto you that every one that looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” It sure seem like he is saying that the sin is in the lust/desire, not the action. This is where understanding the original audience can help a great deal in understanding the point being made. Our Lord was speaking to a people who made a great show of righteousness while not caring at all about their inner man. They would speak of purity and fantasize about every woman who walked by. They would condemn murderers while holding grudges and slandering enemies. Our Lord was trying to get them to understand that great importance should be placed on who they were inside: that the heart matters. That is why he says in vs 22 that being angry with a brother is sin, though we read elsewhere that it is possible to be angry without sin. In verse 28 the lesson is that the intention is as good as the deed. Look at the verse again. Why did this hypothetical man look at the woman? “Everyone who looks on a woman TO lust after her in his heart. . .” The reason he looked was to lust, to fantasize perversely about her. The sin here is not being attracted to members of the opposite sex; it is the decision to actively fantasize or to pursue a tryst with that person. If being attracted to members of the opposite sex were a sin, then all you married people sinned the whole time you were courting your spouses! (Either that or you were courting someone you found physically repulsive.) Sin does not occur until we allow that healthy desire to conceive something perverse, whether it be the actual deed or just the fantasy. Being attracted is not the sin. Wanting to get to “know” the person is not the sin. Carrying that beyond the basic impulse into involved fantasy is a sin, as would be the attempt to actually carry out the fantasy, whether or not the other person said yes. Being angry with a brother is not a sin. Fantasizing about how you would love to knock him down a peg is a sin, as would be the attempt. So would be slander or malicious gossip. Wanting something you can’t afford is not a sin. The decision to steal it is, even if you back off when you notice the store management watching.
            Once I came to understand how James 1 and Matt 5 interacted, and understood that desires/lusts are not sinful in and of themselves, my faith was greatly strengthened. I actually came to have a Hope instead of a Dread. I began to understand that His yoke really is light, not the horrible burden I had thought it to be. My days became much more joyful. With the proper understanding of the difference between temptation and sin, that being tempted is not sin, I am happy to say that I DON’T sin everyday, and that the periods between sins are continuing to grow as my strength in God increases. I hope this discussion helps someone else as much as the years of meditation eventually helped me.

Lucas Ward

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            I was looking through Galatians 6 the other day and came across that verse that perplexes so many scholars; See with what large letters I write unto you with my own hand, v 11.  If scholars do not know what it means, I certainly don’t, but this is the way my mind wandered that day.

            Is Paul talking about writing something with large letters?  Did he have a hand injury?  I had surgery on my right hand when I was in college.  For two months I took notes in classes with my left hand.  As a right-hander, I had to write larger than usual in order to maintain any control and be able to read the product.  Still, it looked like a kindergartner’s printing, but at least I could study for my finals.

            But what if, as is more in keeping with my predicament these days, he had to use large letters so he could see what he had written?  Maybe that was the case and maybe not, but it made me think of the day I discovered how to change the font size on my PC.  What a wonderful day!  By upping the font to 18 or 24 point I could actually write emails and articles I could proofread myself.  Hurray!

            And then I thought, what if poor vision was his problem?  In spite of that, without a PC, without a mouse to click on a larger font, without even a typewriter for all that, he managed to write (or dictate) epistles that still leave us studying more and more deeply.  That might not have anything to do with Gal 6:11, but you can see how my mind kept traveling, because that led me to wonder about all those first century brothers and sisters of ours.  Without copy machines, they managed to copy those epistles and send them on to the next church.  Without airplanes or automobiles, they managed to travel miles and miles on foot, or risk life and limb in a boat no one could possibly mistake for a cruise ship, and carry those messages and minister to those evangelists.  Without television, telephone, or radio, without film strips or DVDs, tracts or lesson books, they managed to teach their neighbors and families. 

            And what happened?  Within 30 years they spread the gospel to the entire world according to Col 1:5,6, and 23.  Those people, who had every excuse we don’t have, turned the world upside down, Acts 17:6.

            And here we sit whining because of what we’d like to do if only we could.  How many churches, after thirty years, have the same number or less members because they have not managed to spread the gospel to just the town they are a part of, much less the whole world?  Those people toiled for hours a day just to survive, and still managed to spend time on the WORD.  When we finish “just getting by,” we spend our time on the WORLD.  Only one letter difference in those two words, but it certainly is a “large letter,” isn’t it? 

            What will you spend your spare time on today?

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an ensample to all those who believe in Macedonia and Achaia.  For from you has sounded forth the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we need not to speak anything,  1 Thes 1:6-8.

Dene Ward

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            In the winter sparrows invade my yard, swarming the feeders like ants.  It is nothing unusual for 15 or so to cover the trough by the window, while half a dozen more sit in the azaleas waiting for an opening.  Meanwhile, thirty to forty hop along the ground, flitting back and forth to the smaller hanging feeders, which sway from the impetus of their continual take-offs.  After several frosts the brown and black grass successfully camouflages their drab brown and gray feathers.  I can only tell they are there because frosted off grass doesn’t ordinarily move, but that grass literally writhes.

            Brown and gray—drab colors compared to the brilliant red cardinals, the bright yellow goldfinches, the contrasting red and yellow bars on the blackbird’s wing.  Even the brown of the Carolina wren is comparatively bright, and the stark contrasts of the zebra-striped black and white warbler perched pecking at the suet cage draws your eye far sooner than the mousy little sparrow.

            But someday you should sit at my window when one of them lands on the trough not six inches from your nose.  Up close the intricate patterns on their wings suddenly turn those drab colors into a source of wonder and delight.  Like delicate lace, the brown and gray sections, outlined by white and spotted with black, will keep your attention for a half hour or more as you struggle to discern the pattern God has placed in their tiny feathers.  No artist could have created anything so exquisite, especially using those colors.

            And what about you?  God can take your drab colors and create a creature far beyond your imagination.  He can take a miserable life and give it purpose, a sorrowful spirit and make it joyous, a selfish heart and tenderize it with compassion.  He can take a soul overwhelmed by the darkness of sin and make it bright with the reflection of its Savior.

            There is nothing drab about the life of a Christian.  God can make even the most ordinary person extraordinary.  We have no need for garish colors, for manmade ornament, or the laurels of worldly praise.  We know who we are—new creatures, “created in Christ Jesus for good works,” each of us beautiful in His glory.  If all you see are drab colors, you just haven’t gotten close enough.

…Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and…be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness, Eph 4:22-24.

Dene Ward

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            I don’t know how many times in my life I have heard unbelievers make fun of the scriptures, but they obviously do not realize what they show themselves to be when they do.  Most of them would call themselves intellectuals, but the statements that come out of their mouths prove they are simply ignorant—at least of the thing they have chosen to ridicule. 

            Have you ever heard them talk about “the God of the Old Testament” and “the God of the New Testament?”  They do this to “prove” that our beliefs are based upon our society, subject to change just as society does, which means that it is all an invention of man.  Everyone knows, they affirm, that the God of the Old Testament was a cruel, angry God who punished indiscriminately for even the most minor infraction, while the God of the New Testament is a mild, friendly, grandfatherly sort who forgives anything whether we repent of it or not.  Study the two paragraphs below for a few minutes this morning.

            And Jehovah passed before him and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.  / Jehovah is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression. / Know therefore that Jehovah your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness to those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. / The earth is full of the lovingkindness of Jehovah, / Your lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies. / Great are your tender mercies, O Jehovah. / Jehovah is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.

            And these shall go away into eternal punishment. / where their worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. / with angels in flaming fire rendering vengeance on those who know not God and obey not the gospel. / It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. / Our God is a consuming fire. / But the fearful and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

            If you know your scriptures, you probably recognize that the first paragraph is taken entirely from the Old Testament and the second from the New.  In fact, I found that the Old Testament uses descriptions of God like “merciful, gracious, and lovingkindness” 312 times, while the New Testament only uses them 200 times!  Considering that a good portion of the Old Testament is history rather than teaching about God, that seems significant.  So much for the intellectuals and all their theories about God. 

            Do you want to see a God full of compassion and mercy?  Read the book of Hosea (an Old Testament prophet) and hear the ache in God’s voice as He describes His people, first as a wife He loved who betrayed Him (2:19) and then as a son He cared for and taught, who turned against His father (11:1-4).

            Remember Jonah, that Old Testament prophet who tried to run from his mission to preach to the wicked city of Nineveh?  What did he say about why he ran?  I hasted to flee to Tarshish because I knew you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and would repent of the threatened judgment, Jonah 4:2.  Jonah knew God would forgive, and he didn’t want those people saved!

            God has not “changed with the times” because He was not invented.  Look at the Greek gods through their mythology and see what types of gods men create.  The true God could never have come from the mind of any man, no matter how intellectual he thinks he is.  A God who gave His creatures the freewill to reject Him?  A God who gave up His Son for creatures who did not deserve it?  A God who lowered Himself to become human, and allowed those same creatures to torture Him? 

            Don’t let the ignorant fools of the world steal your faith.  They have no answers at all for what they believe.  Our God loves us—look at what He did for us.  But our God will only save those who trust Him, obey Him, and live faithfully.  His prophets have been speaking this message for thousands of years--the same message, an unchanging message, a message so far above the intellect of man that no man anywhere could have made it up.

Where is the wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the disputer of this world?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the thing preached to save those who believe.  Seeing that Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men, 1 Cor 1:20-25.

Dene Ward

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            A few weeks ago I got out the dust rags and the polish and went to work.  It had been over two months since I had dusted anything at all and it was showing, not just on the furniture, but in my nose and lungs—I have a dust mite allergy. 

            I knew it would take awhile and it did, dusting every flat surface and every item on them, including a large dinner bell collection, vases from Bethlehem and Nicaragua, and those shaped like bootees that flowers had come in when the boys were born, figurines inherited from grandmothers and great-aunts, a wooden airplane Keith’s grandfather whittled inside an empty whiskey bottle, candles, telephones, a small piano collection, a metronome, fan blades, jewelry boxes, and beaucoup picture frames.  I dirtied up four rags in an hour and a half, sneezed a couple dozen times, and required a decongestant in order to breathe the rest of the day.

            When I finished I looked around.  The pictures all reflected brightly in the wood they sat on, the porcelain shone, the candles looked a shade brighter, and the brass gleamed.  What a difference it made to dust things off.

            So what do you need to dust off in your life?   Sometimes we become satisfied with our place in the kingdom, happy with where we are in our spiritual growth, comfortable in our relationships with others and our ability to overcome.  Sometimes we sit so long in our comfortable spot, be it a literal pew or a figurative one, that we soon sport our own layer of dust.  Maybe we aren’t doing anything wrong exactly, we have just stopped stretching ourselves to be better and do more. 

            “Dusting off” seems a good metaphor for “renewal.”  Paul tells the Colossians we have “put off our old selves” (past tense) but that the new self is “being renewed” (present tense), Col 3:9,10.  Being renewed has not stopped and never should.  Every day is a new beginning for the child of God.  When we forget that, the dust starts to settle, and our light is dimmed with a layer of uselessness that builds every minute.  Soon, as the light weakens, no one will notice us, or is that the point?

            When did you last dust yourself off and get to work, “transforming yourself by the renewing of your mind?” Rom 12:2.  The longer it’s been the more rags you will dirty, but it will only get worse if you don’t start now.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, Psalms 51:10.

Dene Ward

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            I happened to think the other day, what if someone followed me around with a tape recorder all day, on any given day, and then made me listen to it in the evening?  It popped into my mind after I had said something I should not have said to someone, and they wisely stood there and said nothing back.  You know what happens when someone does that?  All of a sudden you actually hear yourself.  And boy, are you embarrassed.

            So just imagine for a moment that you answer a knock on the door late one evening, just after you brush your teeth and put on your pajamas, and there on the welcome mat lies a tape of everything you have said all day long.  Exactly how welcome would it be?  What would you find yourself listening to?  Griping?  Gossip?  Slander?  Nagging?  Petty arguments?  Insults?  Snide comments?  Bitter resentment?  Boasting?  Cruel comments?  Foul language? Deceit?  Insincere flattery?  Excuses for all the above?  Just who are we trying to fool?  …for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, Luke 6:45.

            How loud would it be?  How cold would it sound?  What would come after each thing I said?   Someone laughing, or someone crying?    

            I have a feeling that no one is really aware of exactly how he sounds.  We do not realize that the things we say are as often and as whiny as they are, that most of our complaints are petty and selfish, that the majority of our comments about others are negative instead of positive, that the impression we give others about our marriages, our families, our church brothers and sisters would make those around us want to avoid those relationships altogether. 

            Maybe this idea is not so horrible after all.  Maybe we all need to pretend today that the tape recorder is running, and do our best to make it “good listening.”  Someone is listening after all.  For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Jehovah, you know it altogether, Psalm 139:4.

Dene Ward