Flight Paths

Whew!  It’s over for another year.  Some of it is in the freezer—blueberries, strawberries, tomato sauce, corn, pole beans, white acre peas, blackeyes, and limas—but quite a bit sits on the shelves of the back pantry in those clear sturdy Mason jars: two kinds of cucumber pickles, squash pickles, okra pickles, pickled banana peppers, pickled jalapenos, tomatoes, salsa, ketchup, tomato jam, strawberry jam, pepper jelly, pear preserves, muscadine juice, and muscadine jelly.
            The first time I ever canned I was scared to death.  First, the pressure canner scared me.  I had heard too many stories of blown up pots and collard greens hanging from the ceiling like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but once I had used it a few times without incident, and really understood how it worked, that fear left me. 
            Home canners are actually not just decades old, but centuries.  French physicist Denis Papin invented a "steam digester"—the first pressure cooker.  Born on August 22, 1647, he also suggested the piston and cylinder steam engine, which was invented later by someone else, but his designs were the impetus.  Papin's Digester, as his pressure cooker was called, raised the cooking temperature inside to 266 degrees, which cooked foods quicker without losing their nutrients.
              I may be an old hand at the pressure canner these days, but I still follow the rules.  If I don't, it will blow up.  No amount of sincerity on my part will keep that from happening if I let the pressure get too high. 
            I also follow the sterilization rules and the rules about how much pressure for how long and how much acidity is required for steam canning.  Botulism, a food poisoning caused by foods that have been improperly canned, is a particularly dangerous disease.  Symptoms include severe abdominal pain, vomiting, blurred vision, muscle weakness and eventual paralysis.  You’d better believe I carefully follow all the rules for home canning.  I give away a lot of my pickles and jams.  Not only do I not want botulism, I certainly don’t want to give it to anyone else either.
            Some folks chafe at rules.  Maybe that’s why they don’t follow God’s rules.  They want to take the Bible and pick and choose what suits them.  “Authority?” they scoff.  “Overrated and totally unnecessary.”  Authority does matter and a lot of people in the Bible found out the hard way.  Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of {by the authority of} the Lord Jesus…Col 3:17.  You might pay special attention to the context of that verse too.
            God’s people were warned over and over to follow His rules, to, in fact, be careful to follow His rules, Deut 5:1.  I counted 31 times in the Pentateuch alone.  Not following those rules resulted in death for many and captivity for others.  When Ezra and Nehemiah brought the remnant back to Jerusalem, once again they were warned, at least five times in those two short books.  Maybe suffering the consequences of doing otherwise made the need for so much repetition a little less.
            David had a way of looking at God’s rules that we need to consider.  For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God.  For all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside, 2 Sam 22:22,23. Many of David’s psalms talk about God’s rules, but the 119th mentions them 17 times.  David calls those rules good, helpful, comforting, righteous, praiseworthy, enduring, hope-inducing, true, and life-giving.  How can anyone chafe at something so wonderful?
            People simply don’t want rules, especially with God.  God is supposed to be loving and kind and accept me as I am.  No.  God knows that the way we are will only bring death.  We must follow the rules in order to live.  We must love the rules every bit as much as David did.  I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules…My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times…When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord…Great is your mercy O Lord, give me life according to your rules, 119:7, 20, 52, 156.
            I get out my canning guide and faithfully follow the rules every summer.  I never just guess at it; I never say, “That’s close enough.”  I know if I don’t follow those rules someone could die, maybe me or one of my good friends or one of my precious children or grandchildren.  I bet there is something in your life with rules just as important that you follow faithfully.  Why then, are we so careless with the most important rules we have ever been given?
 
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 1 John 5:3.
 
Dene Ward

Joseph Lodge opened his first foundry in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, in 1896, naming it after a friend:  The Blacklock Foundry.  In May 1910 it burned to the ground, but he opened again a few blocks south with an initial filing date as a For Profit Corporation on August 19, 1910, naming it the Lodge Manufacturing Company.  It has been going strong for over 100 years, and my own skillet came from that company.
          I grew up watching my mother use her cast iron skillet.  She fried chicken, hamburgers, eggs, country fried steak, pork chops, and hash in it.  I suppose I began with grilled cheese sandwiches, something I still love but have to limit now.  Some days, though, a crisp on the outside, gooey on the inside, hot all over, buttered pair of bread slices (usually multi-grain in a nod to health) is the only thing that will satisfy.
            When I received my own cast iron skillet as a wedding present I was confused.  My mother’s was deep black, smooth and shiny.  This thing was the same shape, the same heft, but gray, dull, and rough.  “You have to season it,” she told me, and even though I followed the directions exactly, greasing and heating it over and over and over, it was probably ten years before my skillet finally began to look like hers.  Seasoning cannot be done quickly, no matter what they say, and in the early stages can be undone with a moment’s carelessness—like scrubbing it in a sink full of hot soapy water.  A good skillet is never scrubbed, never even wet, but simply wiped out, a thin patina of oil left on the surface.            
            Faith is a little like a cast iron skillet—it has to be seasoned.  Let me explain.
            In the middle of some study a few weeks ago I made a discovery that made me laugh out loud.  “…the churches were strengthened in the faith,” we are told in Acts 16:5.  I am not a Greek scholar, but sometimes just looking at a word gives you a clue.  The word translated “strengthened” is stereoo.  “Stereo?” I thought, automatically anglicizing it, and a moment later got the point.  Faith may begin as “mono”—undoubtedly the Philippian jailor who believed and was baptized “in the same hour of the night” had a one dimensional faith.  He hadn’t had time to develop beyond the point of “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” but I imagine after awhile he had seasoned his faith with layer after layer of growth.  It had become a “stereo” faith.
            Think about it.  The Abraham who left Ur at the word of God, giving up far more than we usually realize in worldly goods and prominence, was not the same Abraham who offered his son over forty years later.  That first Abraham was still so timid he would willingly deceive people about the woman traveling with him.  Yet God did not give up on him, and he did not give up on God.  He grew, adding layer after layer to a faith that eventually made him the father of the faithful.
            The Peter who tried to walk on water may have shortly thereafter confessed Christ, but he wasn’t the same Peter who sat in Herod’s prison in Acts 12, and he certainly wasn’t the same Peter who ultimately lost his life for his Lord.  He used all the earlier experiences to season a faith that endured to the end.
            It isn’t that God is not satisfied with the faith we have at any given moment, but He does expect us to grow, to season that faith with years of endurance and service.  Seasoning takes heat, and the heat of affliction may be the thing that seasons us.  We never know what may be required, but God expects us to keep adding those layers, to get beyond the “mono” faith to a “stereo” faith, a multi-faceted, deeply layered condition, not just a little saying we repeat when we want to prove we are Christians.
            How does your skillet look today?  Is it still gray and rough, or have you taken the time to season it with prayer and study, enduring the heat of toil and affliction, and turned it into an indispensable tool, one you use everyday to feed and strengthen your soul?
 
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! Job 19:25-27
 
Dene Ward

Every time I go outside Chloe comes running, tail wagging, waiting for me to scratch her head.  If my hands are full, she butts the back of my leg with her nose until I manage to free my arms, bend over and scratch her head.  If I am taking a load somewhere, she follows along, and I feel that little round nudge constantly all the way until FINALLY  (I am sure she is thinking) she gets that longed for scratch on the head. 
            This morning I suddenly wondered if I do that with God.  Am I so anxious for His attention that every morning I can hardly wait to talk with Him?  Or do I just leave Him in the back of my mind until I can find a spare minute, and if He is lucky, I might actually have a whole minute?
            Yes, Chloe is making a little pest of herself to get my attention, but do you know what?  It doesn’t bother me a bit.  In fact, I find myself hurrying to put down my armload so I can pat her even sooner.  It’s endearing to have a little creature want you so much.  Some days I go outside just to see her run up to me with that swishing tail, and actually sit down and spend a few minutes with her for no other reason than to be with her.  I guess that’s what happens when your children grow up and the dogs are all you have around to dote on.
            What was it Jesus said?  If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? Matt 7:11.  I don’t for a minute pretend to understand how God feels about things, but Jesus gives us a hint here.  If I, an imperfect person who sometimes still allows sin into my life, can love my children enough to give them good gifts, if I can still care enough about a small animal to want to satisfy its desire for attention, what will God not do for me?  If that small child’s pestering endears him to me because it makes me know he wants to be with me, certainly if it can happen with an animal’s little nose bumping my leg, won’t my pestering do the same for God? 
            And to the other side of the question, if I act like God’s attention means little to me, why should He give me any of it when I decide I could use it?  My mother always says, “If I say to God, ‘I’m too busy for you right now,’ what’s to keep Him from saying that to me?”  I think she has a point there.
 
And he spoke a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, who feared not God, and regarded not man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came often to him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for awhile: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming.  And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says.  And shall not God avenge his elect that cry to him day and night and yet he is longsuffering over them? I say unto you, that he will avenge them speedily. Luke 18:1-8.
 
Dene Ward

Lucas lives five minutes from the beach.  On our first visit we drove across Santa Rosa Sound and strolled the white sand beach, watching the sandpipers’ maniacal little legs dodging the last remnant of a wave as it crept across the shiny wet sand, and looked across the emerald green water for the first sign of a dolphin breaking the surface while the seagulls screamed overhead hoping for an errant crust or dropped crumb.  We plodded along, our feet sinking into the mud, leaning into westerly winds that would blow the curls right out of your hair, our words caught just as they slipped out of our mouths and blown away like dust bunnies in a fan.
            We weren’t alone.  Pale-skinned tourists in floppy sunhats scoured the beach for shells.  Children played tag with the waves.  Older tweens and teens, their hands and legs breaded with sand, carried pails of mud for sandcastles and sculptures, and gathered shells and driftwood for ornamentation.  Lovers of all ages strolled hand in hand, eyes only for one another.
            The beach itself is lined with condos, ten or more stories of glittering glass, reflecting the sun, balconies furnished with umbrella-ed tables and cushioned chairs and potted plants of the sort than can tolerate the sun, the heat, and the salt spray that constantly drifts over the narrow spit of land between the surf and the sound.
            “Wonder what one of those costs?” we often ask, telling ourselves we would never tire of the view and the calming rhythm of waves pounding the shore again and again and again.
            But guess what?  Before long we’d had enough and we piled back into the car for the five minute drive back to the apartment.  The first time we visited, we walked on the beach three times in three days, but soon it was down to one almost obligatory visit, and this past visit?  We didn’t go a single time.
            It’s easy to get used to things.  When we moved to Illinois for two years, I saw snow for the first time in my 21 years of life.  Guess who was out playing in it, digging tunnels through eave-high drifts, throwing snowballs with mittened hands, and building snowmen?  All of our neighbors stayed inside where it was warm, peering through their blinds at the crazy people from Florida.
            A few weeks ago a YouTube video went viral.  It pictured something not often seen these days—a young man helping a poor, elderly woman check out in a grocery line one item at a time because she was not sure she had enough money, and doing it with patience, respect, and kindness.  Isn’t it sad that something like that has become so rare that, just like a landlubber at the beach or a Floridian in the snow, everyone stops in their tracks to look?
            And isn’t it sad that some Christians need the example that young man set?  Giving courtesy and respect where it is deserved and even where it isn’t, yielding our rights, speaking with kindness, affording others the right to make the same mistakes we do without incurring our wrath, and realizing that not everyone operates on OUR timetables—THAT should be so common among us that no one gives it a second thought and certainly wouldn’t take a video of our actions as something rare—even behind a steering wheel.  Instead, we pat ourselves on the back for doing these things once every now and then.
            We should be like the waves incessantly breaking on this world with mercy, grace, and kindness, whether the shore is rough and rocky or flat and smooth.  No one ever questions whether the next wave will come.  It rolls in again and again, over and over and over without a break in the rhythm, so regularly that no one stops to say, “Look!  Here comes another wave.”  If it didn’t come, it wouldn’t be a wave.
            Are you a wave, or just an occasional splash?
 
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1Pet 2:12
 
Dene Ward

Read these lyrics and tell me what this hymn is about:

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I’m upward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan's darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till Heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

            I bet nearly every one of my readers said, "It's about Heaven."  That's what I thought, for years.  But check out the line in the second verse that says, "Though some may dwell where these abound, my prayer, my aim is higher ground."  Then look at the third verse, "I want to live above the world."  This song is NOT about going to Heaven.   It's about living in this world but with a spiritual mindset on a spiritual plane.  This song is about those somewhat mysterious things Paul calls in Ephesians "the heavenlies" (1:3; 1:20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12).  Some of you may see "heavenly places."  The word "places" is supposed to be understood, but few of us have any idea what this is at all.
            Whatever "the heavenlies" are, or wherever they are, that is where our spiritual blessings originate (1:3).  It is where Christ sits (1:20).  Right there you are saying, "See?  It has to be Heaven."  But keep going.  It is also where we now sit with Christ after having been raised up, not from physical death, but from the death of sin (2:1, cf Rom 6:3,4).  It is also the place from which the spiritual beings look down on us now in the church (3:10) to see the wisdom of God, and it is the place where we daily fight our battles against Satan and his demons (6:12).  It is a place that only the spiritually mature are aware of, and it is the place we long to live ("above the world") so we can keep our minds on God and Christ and the mission we have as their servants, and with their help, win those battles!
            Romans 8 says it like this:  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:5-6).
            Philippians says it like this:  Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5), and …whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Phil 4:8).
            If you look hard enough, you can find the idea all over the New Testament.  Now go back and read those lyrics again.  We must be spiritual enough not to let this world distract us—trials, sorrows, persecutions, politics, economics, nor any other purely material and temporary thing.  Then we can truly see what this life should be all about.
 
So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God (Col 3:1-3).
 
Dene Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

The title is the theme of the book of Leviticus. "And the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying . . . You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses.” (Lev. 10:8, 10-11)  The most basic job of the priests was to learn the difference between the clean and unclean and the holy and common and teach that to the people of Israel. 
            Everything in Leviticus relates in one way or another to this central premise.  The first seven chapters detail the different types of sacrifices: how each is to be performed, which animals may be used, how they are presented to the Lord and exactly where they are to be slaughtered (some animals were presented/killed at the door of the tabernacle, others on the North side of the altar), which parts are to be burnt on the altar and which are to be eaten by the priests and/or the offeror.  The same animal might be offered in different ways depending on the type of sacrifice being made.  Every word of instruction for the sacrifices is about cleanliness and holiness.  Sacrifices to the Lord were not to be treated casually as if all that mattered was the heart of the worshipper. They were not common, but holy. the animals used must be clean animals, but also holy: not spotted or blemished, not halt or lame, not sick.   
            Chapters eight through ten instruct how to consecrate the priests.  The overriding emphasis here is on the holiness of their office and the absolute need to maintain their ceremonial cleanliness.  So holy was the High Priest that he was not allowed to even participate in the funeral of his own father because to handle a dead body would make him unclean. 
            Chapters eleven through 15 enumerate the laws of cleanliness (far more involved than just which animals belonged in which category) and chapters 18-27 contain the laws of holiness.  The holiness laws were different from the regular civil laws contained within the Law of Moses because the explanation of these laws was simply "I Am YHWH!"  Many don't even have punishments for breaking the law just the statement that the law is basic to the character of God.  Chapter eleven contains the famous command "For I am Jehovah your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves" (vs 44) while in chapter 20 God says, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am Jehovah your God." (vs 7) 
           Finally, chapters sixteen and seventeen describe the Day of Atonement.  This day was dedicated to the re-sanctification of Israel each year.  Atonement was made for the nation's sins.  The tabernacle was sanctified again.  This day and its events were emblematic of the effort to remain clean and holy before the Lord.  In like manner, the entire book of Leviticus teaches the people how to remain clean and holy and shows just what an effort that will take. 
            So why did I just waste your time going through all of that?  The priests were to learn all these arcane rules and teach them to the people, so what?  1 Peter 2:9  "But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light".  Just as the priests were to learn to distinguish between the clean and unclean, the holy and common and teach the people, so we, as part of Christ's new kingdom of priests, are to maintain our own holiness and proper standing before the Lord and teach the world about the expectations of God.  When people ask if it really matters to act only in the manner authorized in the New Testament we can say, "Yes!" because the authorized manner is the teaching of the Lord.  Just as in Leviticus, what the Lord teaches is the holy way He wants things to be done and any other way would be unholy, common.  Is maintaining my sexual purity really that important?  Yes, because we are to be holy, not commonly had by all in the world.  Our speech is to be clean, not vulgar, because we are the priests of God and the first responsibility of priests, even before teaching the people, was to maintain their own holiness.  Then, while maintaining our cleanliness before the Lord, we spread across the world His word, showing forth His excellencies. 
 
Psalms 24:3-5  "Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? And who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, And hath not sworn deceitfully.  He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, And righteousness from the God of his salvation."
 
Lucas Ward 

I spend very little time on Facebook, just enough to check on my children and some close friends and run the Facebook page for this blog, maybe a half hour a day total, some days much less.  Occasionally a link someone has posted will catch my eye and I will take a quick look.  After all, I am always hoping someone will link my blog posts, even the ones I don't link myself, so I am willing to spend a little time looking at others.
            The other day I caught one that caused an almost visceral reaction.  I wasn't expecting that from the title—something about raising kids.  I don't even remember who wrote it or who posted it, but I do remember the phrase that sent my heart racing and the blood pounding in my ears:  "the drudgery of raising children."  Surely the writer didn't mean that, I thought.  Then I remembered half a dozen posts by several young mothers who bemoaned their lot in life—"Stuck in the house with these kids, is this all there is?"
            Let me quickly add some reality to the mix.  I know what it is like to be a mom.  I have had to find ways to do housework, laundry, and cooking around the sleeping (or not) schedule of an infant.  I realize what it is like to have more than one in diapers at the same time.  I know what it is like to hang those diapers up in the steam bath of a Florida summer, sweat running out of your hair and dripping off your nose, hoping those flapping white squares will dry out before you use the last clean one.  I comprehend having to practically pack for a trip whenever you go anywhere for even thirty minutes, lugging diaper bags, extra clothes, books and toys, and baby himself, while hanging onto a purse and the hand of yet another all-but-baby.  I know the terror of holding a seizing child while your husband races down the highway at 90, wondering if that little one will ever open those big blue eyes again.  I appreciate what it's like to wonder if you and your husband will ever again have an evening out or a night alone—for us it was eight years before that happened after the first one was born.  I know what it is like to sit next to a small hospital bed, trying to sleep in a straight chair, jumping up every time your child whimpers, doing your best not to let him see you cry.  I understand the months and months without a good night's sleep and the utter exhaustion that causes you to simply pass out on the arm of the sofa in the middle of folding clothes while your toddler runs toy trucks and cars up and down your arms.  Being a mother is hard.  I get it.
            But all it takes is a look into those sparkling eyes, a hug that nearly strangles you, and a precious little voice calling out, "Mommy!" to make it all worthwhile.  When you see in your child the image of the God who made him, you know that the work you do is anything but drudgery.  It is, as is said so often it has become hokey, the most important work in the world.  You have been given a soul to save.  You have been entrusted with a mission that will determine the eternal destiny of a human being.  Do you see that word?  God trusts you to get the job done.
            When we allow it to become drudgery we have spent too much time making ourselves the center of the universe.  It is not about "Me."  It never should have been for a disciple of a Lord who gave up everything for others and expects his followers to do the same.  His work was always his focus.  If he had been as selfish as I am sometimes, he would have never left Heaven, never "emptied himself" of Deity, in the first place.  I am forever grateful that he did.
            And so I am forever trying to do what I can, not to repay him, for when we have done all we can "we are still unprofitable servants," but to pass along that gift to others, especially the ones he created inside this body of mine and gave me the privilege of molding into a person "fit for the Master's use."
 He never told me life would be easy, but he did tell me that Heaven would be.  I want to be there with my children—forever.  I am sure you do too, and don't you ever forget it.
 
​Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” (Prov 31:25-29)
 
Dene Ward

If there was ever a new church that struggled with its spirituality, it was the church at Corinth.  Paul scolded them:  And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. [Read that:  “you are acting like a bunch of big babies,” and you will get the picture.]   I fed you with milk, not with meat, for you were not yet able to bear it, no, not even now are you able, for you are still carnal, 1 Cor 3:1-3.  We have a tendency to think of things sexual when we see that word “carnal,” but Paul tells us in the next phrase or two what it really means:  “walking after the manner of men,” in other words, being physically minded instead of spiritually minded.  He then spent most of that first letter telling them how to become more spiritually minded. 
            Their struggle over spiritual gifts surely has to be the most obvious example.  They actually rated them as to importance, using, of course, carnal measurements--the flashier and showier the better.  So Paul spends most of chapter 12 telling them that no one is more important than anyone else.  Everyone is useful in the body of Christ, and if any one of them was not there, something would be obviously missing.  In chapter 14, when their sense of importance is leading to a confused and disorderly assembly because none will yield his “gift” time to another, he actually gives them specific instructions about how to order things, all of which are pure common sense if you have the correct object in mind, the edification of the church rather than the glorification of the individual.  He even spells it out several times:  if there is no edification, let them keep silence. 
            And of course, there is the pitiful business with suing one another, letting things of this physical life effect how they dealt with spiritual brothers and sisters.
            Those poor Corinthians at whom we so often shake our heads are not the only ones with these problems.  We are beset by the same weaknesses, and the same feelings.  In fact, as I was reading and thinking about these things it suddenly struck me that almost any time I take an idle remark as a personal attack, it falls right into the same category. 
            I believe there is such a thing as being sinfully sensitive.  Think about it.  How many times could Jesus have “gotten his feelings hurt” or “felt insulted?”  You could make a list as long as an entire book in the Bible, but he did not allow his feelings to keep him from completing a mission that was more important than anything else in the world. 
            When I commit myself to being his disciple, don’t I promise to follow his example?  The problem with being too sensitive is that it causes me to stop what I am doing and spend time on nothing but myself, usually moping or pouting, or even beginning a campaign against the other person.  Nothing anyone says to me or about me, or that I might even possibly construe to be about me, is an excuse for setting myself up as more important than my mission as Jesus’ disciple.  As a mature Christian, those things should roll right off me, because my concern is God’s glorification, not my own.  That is what spirituality is all about.  And if we cannot even begin to get a handle on it here, why should we be allowed to live in that exalted state for an Eternity? 
            Something to think about as we interact with one another today.
 
Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, Phil 2:3.
The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult, Prov 12:16.
 
Dene Ward

One of the clearest evidences of a Spirit-filled Christian is his hunger for Scripture and his humble submissiveness to the authority of Scripture as God's written Word.  But show me a person who claims to be a Christian yet is not devoting himself to the apostles' teaching, who rather neglects or even disregards it, and you give me cause to question whether he has received the Holy Spirit at all.  For the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (as Jesus called him).  He is given us to be our teacher, and those who are filled with him have a keen appetite for his instruction.

John Stott, Authentic Christianity

A couple of weeks ago Keith had an appointment with the audiologist at the VA hospital.  This meant he was late arriving to work, heading up highway 231 about 9:30 that Friday morning.  It takes awhile to park, go through the search checkpoints and all the gates.  He arrived at his office in time to hear the news that had just filtered back.
            A man in the town had stabbed his girlfriend and fled down that very highway at speeds far exceeding the speed limit and, with apparent intent, hit a van head on.  Both drivers were killed instantly.  It had happened at 9:40.  A ten minute delay anywhere along the road and one of those dead drivers might have been Keith.
            Many times we go through life thinking God has not answered our prayers.  Because we are self-oriented and earthly minded, we see only what happens to us or to others right in front of us.  But occasionally we are reminded that God is out there answering prayers we did not even know to pray. 
            So many have asked me how I can stay positive in the circumstances in which I find myself.  They do not know what I have been told. 
            Five years ago was not the beginning of all this.  It is the ending.  Many times, many different medical personnel, including three or four doctors famous in their fields, have told me that as severe as my problem is, they do not know how my eyes have lasted this long, how I did not have a crisis long before.  God has been answering those unsaid prayers since I was born.  He has not let me down; he has given me far more than anyone else in my position had any right to expect.
            So today, while you are wondering why God has not answered a prayer you have prayed, when you think He has forsaken you in a time when you need Him most, take a moment to consider all the prayers He has answered that you are unaware of.  He knows far better than we what we most need.  He is, in fact, answering your other prayers too, but He is not required to keep to your timetable or your methods.  Just trust Him.  He is there, working while you sleep, while you work, while you play, and while you plan all those big plans that so often exclude Him. 
            You may never realize what He has truly done for you today, but then just think how horrible it might have been if He hadn’t.
 
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen. Eph 3:20,21
 
Dene Ward