Flight Paths

Wards have always been persnickety about people messing with their favorite food and drink.  Keith, especially, does not want his coffee messed with, and usually not his sweet tea.  But there is hope.  A friend recently gave us a brand of peach tea he has fallen in love with, so I cannot call him his father yet—but it's a close contest.
            And have you noticed that finding the original formula, flavor, or variety is nearly impossible?  You certainly cannot just run into the store, grab it, and run out in two minutes.  You will spend 10 minutes just reading the boxes.  Did you know that there are 21 flavors of Cheezits!?
            I first encountered this when my boys were young and thought the best macaroni and cheese was—no, not their Mama's, but Kraft's.  They have outgrown that and I am certainly glad.  Have you looked at the varieties lately?  Besides Original Macaroni and Cheese, we have Whole Grain Mac and Cheese, Cauliflower Pasta Mac and Cheese, Thick and Creamy, Creamy Alfredo, Southern Homestyle (which isn't), Sharp Cheddar, White Cheddar and Shells, White Cheddar and Garlic, White Cheddar and Cracked Black Peppercorn (I kid you not), 3 Cheese Mini-Shells, 4 Cheese, Gluten-Free, Microwavable, Spirals, Paw Patrol Shapes, and Unicorn Shapes.  And what do they place on the eye-level shelves?  All the weird ones.  I can remember crawling around on my hands and knees in the supermarket floor trying to find a box of Original Mac and Cheese which was always on the bottom shelf.
            We have simply become too wealthy.  We have forgotten what eating is all about.  Not entertainment ("snap, crackle, pop!"), not excitement, not textural variety, or any other culinary term.  No longer do we eat to avoid starvation and gain proper nutrition.  And because we have that luxury, we think that we can simply not eat what we don't like.  Poor people don't think that way.  They are grateful for anything they find on their plates.
            Perhaps that explains the plethora of denominations on the streets you travel every Sunday.  People always want something new and different, something that appeals to our likes and dislikes.  Something easy, convenient, and entertaining.  We certainly don't want "the same old thing."  Does that sound anything at all like this? Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand… (Ps 95:6-7).  We have forgotten that in spiritual terms we are not only poor, but completely destitute.  We cannot save ourselves.  We should be grateful to even be able to approach God at all, so maybe we should be eager to search out how HE wants us to do that. 
            When that first church started, the same things were taught in each one.  That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church (1Cor 4:17).  See also 1 Cor 7:17; 11:16; 14:33; 16:1.    Paul also said, The things which you both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil 4:9).  There most definitely was a pattern that every church followed, one that the inspired apostles gave them from the beginning.  Do you suppose that might mean that the original is the one we should be looking for?
            And if it takes getting down on your knees with the Word of God to find it, then do it, because nothing tastes quite like the original.
 
Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus
(2Tim 1:13                                                                                               
 
Dene Ward

Over the holidays I finally used up several votive candles.  That's "several" as in half a dozen.  Now I have six empty little jars, none of which have lids.  The budget-conscious woman in me wondered what to do with them.  With no lids they are fairly useless, and I have no more shelf space to accommodate them.
 
So I went looking for Keith.  "Can you use these for nails or screws or something?"  He looked skeptical but took them with him to the shed anyway. 
Very shortly he was back inside with those same jars.  "I already have a shelf full of them."

Still it was difficult to make myself throw them away.  We are so used to saving and "re-purposing" because we have had to for so long, that it felt like I was being sinfully wasteful to even considerate it.  But I took a deep breath and did so.

I wonder if we don't have the same problem with our spirituality.  Habits, hobbies, even family traditions can get in the way of the time we need for spiritual things.  Those things are not usually wrong.  A smattering of them can even be healthy, not just to our bodies, but also to our weary minds.  But what goes undone because I just can't let go of a trivial pursuit of mine in order to pursue something not trivial at all?  At what point does is become "clutter" in my life?

Perhaps it is time for some careful consideration.  How might I rearrange things so that I can spend more time on spiritual endeavors?  Sometimes it is as simple as changing the order of things or just getting up 10 minutes early.  Can I do those simple things for God, for my relationship with Him, for my spiritual health?

Here's a thought.  Family night is important.  I would never even consider asking someone to give it up.  But maybe once or twice a month you could use that time of togetherness to cook and take a meal to someone who needs it.  Or take your children with you to visit at the hospital, then stop for ice cream on the way home.  (How do you think they will learn visiting otherwise?)  Or spend the first half hour of family night on a devotion and accompanying discussion.  It isn't that difficult to figure these things out when you really want to.

Stop saving useless "votive jars" when you already have a shelf full of them.  At some point it is no longer good stewardship.  At some point, even good things can become sinful.
 
​And that which fell among the thorns, these are they that have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. 
(Luke 8:14)                                                                            

Dene Ward

…God is more interested in our holiness than in our comfort. He more greatly delights in the integrity and purity of his church than in the material well-being of its members. He shows himself more clearly to men and women who enjoy him and obey him than to men and women whose horizons revolve around good jobs, nice houses, and reasonable health. He is far more committed to building a corporate “temple” in which his Spirit dwells than he is in preserving our reputations. He is more vitally disposed to display his grace than to flatter our intelligence. He is more concerned for justice than for our ease. He is more deeply committed to stretching our faith than our popularity. He prefers that his people live in disciplined gratitude and holy joy rather than in pushy self-reliance and glitzy happiness. He wants us to pursue daily death, not self-fulfillment, for the latter leads to death, while the former leads to life.

D. A. Carson, Praying with Paul

When you work at a small, spiritually oriented college, you sacrifice.  Anywhere else, with the same degree and experience, you could make twice, or more, the salary, but because you care about the spiritual development of young people and because you want to help offer them a godly environment in which to learn and grow, you put up with a steep salary cut and loss of other recognition you might have received at another school in order to do your part to keep tuition as low as possible.  I have a son at a school like this who, by virtue of his doctorate and his published works, could make much more if making money were his only goal.  We tried to raise him with other goals in mind, and it seems to have taken well.
            Some people do not realize this sacrifice and therefore do not appreciate the gift these people have given to their children.  But at least one man does.  He is a strawberry farmer.  As far as I know he is not famous or wealthy.  He is a Christian who recognizes the sacrifices of others and takes upon himself the responsibility to reward them and encourage them in whatever way he can.
            Every spring he drives his truck to this school and gives each employee an entire flat of fresh strawberries.  Every March I see the pictures of my son and daughter-in-law washing, capping, and slicing bowl after bowl of bright red berries, their little boys with red lips and bulging cheeks as their parents work, always saving a few bags for us as well.  One flat of fresh strawberries may not be worth much in today's economy, but add up one for every employee and suddenly this is a generous gift of his means, one that will be remembered all through the year, every time someone pulls a bag of strawberries out of the freezer or a jar of jam off the pantry shelf.  He could have sold this part of his crop and made more, but he chose instead to give it away, to use it to say thank you.
            And I imagine that man will be remembered for his generosity for decades.  Long after he is gone, employees and their children will miss "the Strawberry Man," especially if no one else steps in to fill the shoes of this open-hearted man who recognizes the sacrifices of others and gives what he can to say thank you.
            Will anyone miss you in a similar fashion after you are gone?  Is there anything you are known for among your group?  How sad if not only no one misses you and your deeds but they are actually sighing with relief when you are gone!  Are you known for complaining?  For whining?  For finding fault?  For gossip?  For causing uproars?  For raising "foolish and ignorant questionings" in Bible study?
            Or are you, like the Strawberry Man, watched for anxiously, greeted with smiles, and remembered constantly because of your kindness and your awareness and consideration of someone besides yourself?   In the spirit of the widow's mite, God expects us to match the man who gives what he has, as much as he has to give, to encourage and enrich the lives of others, one strawberry shortcake at a time.
 
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. (Ps 112:5-6)
 
Dene Ward

One especially cold day this past winter, I looked out the window and saw a brand new bird on the feeder.  A bit late for migrating, which often brings us new birds passing through, I pondered what this newcomer might be.  As if he knew I needed help, he flew toward the window and I got a closer look and a big surprise.  It was a plain old Carolina wren, of which we have many, thanks to their multiple nesting habit in the summer.  But this one was so puffed up, his head was nearly hidden by his chest, and he was twice his usual girth.
            Well, I thought to myself, you are, too, when you put on a big puffy coat to go outside in the cold.  And that is indeed what had happened.  The wren had puffed up his feathers to hold the heat closer to his small body.  Before long, I noticed equally puffy cardinals, titmice, and sparrows.  God gave them all waterproof feathers to shed the rain and insulate their bodies, and the ability to create air pockets around them to hold in their body heat by puffing out those feathers.  But still, if you are not aware of that, at first glance they look like completely different birds.
            And that happens to us as well.  When we become puffed up with pride, we act like completely different people.  Tell me you haven't seen a man you would have described as a good man, do something which seems completely out of character to protect his image, his status, his control over a situation.  We walked out of a congregational meeting one time and someone said to us, "I did not know that brother today.  He was not himself at all!"  Or maybe he was, and we just found out that day.
            I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another (1Cor 4:6).  Paul defines it for us:  when we think ourselves better than others in any sort of way, we are puffed up like all those little birds I saw that morning.
            Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will; and I will know, not the word of them that are puffed up, but the power (1Cor 4:18-19).  He says that pride can make us think we never need to be corrected.  The Corinthians with this problem were about to find out otherwise.  I would certainly hate to find out before it was too late.
            Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind (Col 2:18).  How ironic when Paul says that humility can cause pride—false humility, that is.  It may not be wrong to recognize that we have improved in our efforts to gain humility, but bragging about it certainly is.
            If any man teaches a different doctrine, and consents not to sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but doting about questionings and disputes of words, whereof come envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings (1Tim 6:3-4).  And here we have a false teacher who cannot be reasoned with because he thinks he knows more than you do.  The sad thing is, he knows nothing.
            We could go on with yet more passages, but perhaps these are enough to get the point across.  Pride can change you into someone you really should not want to be.  It can puff up you like a bird on a cold winter day, but no one will think it's cute.
 
Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up (1Cor 13:4).
 
Dene Ward
 
 

Today's post if by guest writer Lucas Ward.

            In Deuteronomy 29, Moses reinstitutes the Covenant between God and the Israelites.  He begins by reminding the people of the extraordinary care God gave them while they were in the wilderness (vs 2-9).  For 40 years their clothes nor their shoes ever wore out.  Food and drink were also difficult to come by in the wilderness, and Moses says they, in fact, didn't eat bread.  They literally ate manna from Heaven and drank water provided by God. 
            After extolling the care of the Lord, Moses tells the people that he had called them together that day so that he could renew the covenant between them and God:  "So that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is making with you today, that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." (Deut. 29:12-13, emphasis mine).  Like a married couple who might want to renew their vows after going through a tough stretch, God is wanting to renew His covenant with the people and re-establish the relationship they were to have.  They were to be His, and He was to be theirs. 
            This close relationship offered blessings beyond belief, enumerated in chapter 27, and was to be a source of national pride.  Moses offers a quick warning, however.  "Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike." (vs 18b-19)  The covenant has been renewed.  The Israelites are God's chosen people.  That national relationship will not, however, save an individual who sins.  They could not rely on being born into the right nation to save them if they chose to live a sinful life.  In fact, Moses goes on to say, "The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man. . ." (vs 20).  The corporate relationship between God and Israel would not save the individual who chose to sin.
            I hope I barely need to make the application.  The Church, as the Kingdom of God on earth, has a close relationship with God as His chosen people (e.g. 1 Pet. 2:9).  That does not give me (or you) carte blanche to sin however I want.  Just because I show up on the right day to the right building and sing the right songs, eat the right ritual meal, and listen to true Gospel preaching doesn't mean I get into heaven if I chose "in the stubbornness of my heart" to live a sinful lifestyle.  Eph. 5:27  "so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." Therefore, if I am a spot or blemish on the Church, what is going to happen?  I'll be removed.  Nobody in going to sneak into heaven on the coat tails of others. 
            The blessings of being part of the chosen people of God are immense.  Just don't let it make you start feeling "too big for your britches". 
 
1Pe 4:17  For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God;
 
Lucas Ward

We have a neighbor who loves to fish.  In fact, he fishes so much that he cannot possibly use all the fish he brings home.  Lucky for us!  I now have an unending supply, usually of sea trout and shrimp, some of the best stuff out there.  When he brings it home, he even cleans it before he calls.  Amazing!  But someone has to do some messy work in order for anyone to enjoy the fruits of fishing.  Unless you go to a fish market, or the seafood section of your local grocer, or, even easier, the freezer case.
            Maybe that’s our problem—we’ve been to too many fish markets.
            Seems like when we go fishing for men, we don’t want anything messy.  The only ones we look for are the WASPs with nuclear families, unfettered by problems of any sort.  That’s where we build our meetinghouses, pass out our meeting announcements, and do our mass mailings.  We don’t want people with built-in problems, people overcoming addictions, people with messy family lives, people with “big bad sins” in their history.  No one wants a “high maintenance” convert who needs our support, our encouragement, our patience, and certainly not our time!  In fact, once a long time ago, Keith was chastised for “bringing the wrong class of people to church.”
            To whom did Jesus go?  Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near to him to hear him, Luke 15:1, and I seem to remember a woman who had been married five times and was living with another man, John 4:18.  Would we have even given them the time of day?
            Jesus only appeals to those who need him, and unfortunately, people who have no “big” problems, no obvious needs, seldom think they need anyone.  It usually takes a crisis to wake them up.  So why are we so insistent upon turning our efforts to teach the gospel to the very ones who are least likely to listen?
            Maybe we no longer want to be fishers of men.  The “cleaning” is too messy, too difficult, too heart-wrenching, and too time-consuming. Instead of being fishers of men, as the old saying goes, we just want to be keepers of the aquarium, with a built-in filter (preacher) and someone else to feed the fish (elders and class teachers) so we can swim around in a pretty glass box with plastic mermaids and divers, and live our lives unbothered by things like helping one another grow to spirituality, and scraping the algae off our souls. 
            Maybe we have forgotten, or never even knew, the mindset of the first century church—a dynamic group of people, spreading God’s word to everyone they met, trying to take as many “fish” as they could to Heaven with them, regardless of how messy their lives were. 
            Maybe someone needs to come fishing for us again.
 
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and the publicans, said unto his disciples, “How is it that he eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?”  And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,” Mark 2:16,17.
 
Dene Ward

A few weeks ago I started going through some old cooking magazines making a note of some recipes I had never gotten around to the first time I read them, intending to try several of them this time through.  One of the first things I tried was a Linzertorte. Although these pastries are usually reserved for the holidays—and I did find this one in a November/December issue—when I read through the ingredients I wasn't sure why.  Basically, it's a souped-up fruit pie, so wouldn't spring and summer be better?
            I pulled out the ingredients, most of which I had on hand, and went to work.  The crust was short and sweet.  I am sure trained pastry chefs have a name for it, but I just called it fancy shortbread: lots of butter, plus flour, spices, and ground up almonds and hazelnuts.  You roll half of it into the bottom of a 10 inch tart pan, then add about an inch more up the sides of the pan.  Then you spread most of a jar of red currant or red raspberry or apricot preserves on the bottom.  So far it had been simple, but as I rolled out the rest of the dough, cut it into strips, and attempted a lattice top, the only real problem I had arose.  Unlike regular pie dough, these strips were so tender I had a horrible time getting them off the counter in one piece.  They kept breaking on me.  Nearly every strip became two or more pieces of a strip pinched together.  But after brushing with egg wash, sprinkling with sparkling sugar, and baking, most of the piecing together was well camouflaged and it looked almost pretty.
            So, was it any good?  Well, yes, it tasted fine.  But this was neither Keith's nor my idea of a fruit pie and I suppose that is what we thought we were getting.  The "fruit" wasn't juicy enough and despite its shortness, the pastry wasn't flaky enough to suit us.  I doubt I will go to the trouble again.  Maybe it just comes down to tastes and expectations.  These recipes wouldn't keep showing up if someone somewhere didn't like them.
            And I find that similar to the denominations.  People want certain things and they go where they can get it.  The thing that keeps bothering me is why no one seems to think that God has the right to a choice—in fact, He's the only one who has the right since He is the one being worshipped.  Or is He?  Maybe that's the issue when all is said and done.  I want what I want and I don't much care whether He likes it or not, and besides, God wants me to be happy, spiritually fulfilled, and feeling good when I leave so of course He will like what I offer.  Really?  Try that the next time you give your husband tickets to the opera for his birthday.
            Here is the bottom line:  if God asked for a Linzertorte I would make him one, despite the fact that I don't much care for them and think my own blueberry pie with a homemade flaky pie crust is much better.  Because what He wants should be the only thing that really matters.
 
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him (Deut 13:4).                                   
 
Dene Ward

I had an up close and personal encounter with a wildflower a couple of years ago.  When we plant a new bed out in the field, we baby it the first year.  The point is for them to grow up scattered in the grasses and among other wildflowers in a natural way, but if you don’t get them off to a good start, they won’t stand a chance with all the competition out there for ground space and rainwater.
            So I was weeding the latest patch, which we had let go far beyond the normal time span.  I had difficulty even finding some of the small plants amid all the waist high grass and weeds.  I had nearly finished, was soaking wet and black up to my elbows, when I noticed one more low-growing weed and bent over to pull it.  I did not see the bare stalk of the wildflower right between my feet, leafless and flowerless, standing three feet high.  I did not know it was there until, as I bent over, it slid right into my eye like a hot wire.  Which eye?  The one which most lately has been operated on, the one with the shunt, the capsular tension ring, and the silicone lens, the one that already hurts the most. 
            The doctor and I spent nearly two weeks fixing me up after this little mishap, checking to see if there was any permanent damage, checking to see if the shunt had been knocked out of place, checking for infection, and worse, for plant fungus.  As it turns out, all I had was a hematoma and a laceration, but it was an exciting couple of weeks.
            That was too close and personal an encounter with a flower, but we can never be too close and personal with God.  I have had to learn that.  The prevailing sentiment many years ago seemed to be that we did not want to do or say anything that might make someone apply a religious pejorative to us indicating belief in something other than correct Bible teaching about God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  Instead of saying, “I’m blessed,” instead of saying, “God took care of me,” indeed, instead of attributing anything to the providence of God, we said, “I’m lucky.”  We wouldn’t want someone to get the wrong idea, would we?
            Where did we come up with that?  Read some of David’s psalms.  He gave God the credit for everything.  Read Hannah’s song, or Moses and Miriam’s after crossing the Red Sea.  Since when don’t the people of God tell everyone what God has done for them?
            Read some of Paul’s sermons.  He does not seem a bit concerned that someone might use what he says to give credence to false teaching.  “You know that idol you have out there?” he asks the Athenians, “the one to the Unknown God?  Let me tell you about him.”  He tells Felix, But this I confess to you that after the Way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, Acts 24:14.  It didn’t matter a bit what people called it, as long as he could talk about it.  In fact, he used their misconceptions as opportunities to preach the Gospel.
            Maybe that is my problem—I don’t want to talk about it.  It makes me uncomfortable.  It has nothing to do with whether someone gets the wrong idea about the Truth, but everything to do with me feeling ill at ease, or downright embarrassed.  I don’t want to be called a religious fanatic and certainly not a “Holy Roller!”  Yes, I want a close, personal relationship with God, as long as no one else knows about it.
            But here is the deal:  If I am too embarrassed by my relationship with God to even acknowledge it, then He won’t acknowledge me either, and I am the one with everything to lose. 
            Go out there today and say or do something that will make someone else curious enough to ask you a question.  Then open your mouth and unashamedly tell them how wonderful an up close and personal relationship with your Creator and Savior really is.
 
Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in Heaven.  But whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in Heaven, Matt 10:32,33.
 
Dene Ward

Maybe it will say a lot if I tell you that the cover of this book looks like something you would pick up on the bookstand at the grocery store.  Both the title and the picture, a decidedly naughty looking woman peering at you over her veil upon which the title is printed, would grab the attention of anyone who thinks they are spiritual but wants an easy read to prove it.
            Let's give Ms. Higgs her due.  As she tells us in her introduction, she researched all these women—you can name them yourself and not miss a one—in over fifty commentaries and used 10 translations of the Bible.  She did work at it.  But it seems to me that she is more an entertainer than a teacher.  Each chapter begins with a fictional account that is supposed to be a modern day equivalent of that particular woman in the Bible.  Immediately following, is her commentary on the Biblical narrative, often interspersed with humor or sarcasm.  She does keep your interest even when, as I did not one fourth of the way through it, you wish you didn't have to finish it.
            Here is my problem with her fictional introductions:  absolutely none of them is applicable to me or anyone I know.  These made-up situations are hardly commonplace.  A couple are downright ridiculous.  And they are too long.  The first one takes up 12 pages when the Biblical narrative itself only takes 17.  A few more run 8 and 12, or thereabouts.  At least one is actually longer than the Biblical portion.  I would far prefer her to use those pages giving me several different modern, everyday applications in the same amount of pages, situations that people are a whole lot more likely to face.  That way she would have come much closer to touching everyone's life.   She does offer discussion questions at the end of each chapter, some good, some so-so.
            Another plus for her:  she got a few of the trivial things correct that many do not.  On the other hand, all those commentaries have led her to make some speculations that she then treats as fact.  I make speculations all the time when I teach, carefully labelling them as such and always saying, "We just don't know for sure."  I do this to make the characters real people with real reactions and real emotions, not some spiritual super-hero(ines) about whom I can then excuse myself by saying, "I could never do that."  When you speculate, you must be very, very careful, and I do not feel she was careful enough.
            My bottom line is:  if you are interested in real Bible study, do not buy this book.
            Bad Girls of the Bible is published by Waterbrook Press.
 
Dene Ward