All of a sudden I have a lot of magnifying glasses in my house:  a large “Sherlock Holmes” type, another that has a light and fastens to the side of the table, a whole magnifying page that can be laid over a book, and a small one I keep in my purse for fine print in places where I do not want to wrestle with my reading glasses.  Sometimes we are tempted to use spiritual magnifying glasses too, and not always in good ways.

Often verses of the Bible are misinterpreted because of the use of the Middle English in the King James Version.  Even when newer, just as reputable versions come along and put the correct spin on a passage, the old interpretation sticks in the minds of those who learned it as children.  1 Thes 5:22 is one of those verses.  Abstain from all appearance of evil has come to mean that I must not do or say anything that might possibly be construed as wrong to an observer or listener.  “They might think you are __________.”  Fill in the blank with practically anything as long as it is a sin.

Even if I did not have better translations to look at, here is my problem with that interpretation:  it directly contradicts the admonition of love in 1 Cor 13:7—love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things.  When I love someone I must look at what they have said or done and put the best possible construction on it, not the worst, or my love is a hypocritical love in word only, not in deed.  If there is a good way to take what they said, I should take it that way.  If there is a plausible excuse for a slight, I should automatically supply it.  I am not to take out my magnifying glass and search and search until aha!  I have found something I can misconstrue.

Some of the things Jesus did looked awfully wrong to some of the people who saw them!  Remember all those times he healed on the Sabbath?  Even if he could prove the Old Law said nothing about that, the Pharisees could have correctly said, “But what does it look like?”  In fact, one of the rulers told the people, “You can come to be healed six other days in the week.  Why come on the Sabbath?” Luke 13:14.  He had a point, didn’t he?  Why not choose a time when no one would be able to question Jesus’ honoring of the Sabbath?  I can hear some of my brethren making that point exactly, totally ignoring the plight of this “daughter of Abraham,” 13:16.  Don’t you think Jesus described her that way on purpose?  To that ruler she was less important than his traditions, but Jesus made sure he saw her importance in the eyes of God.

In Luke 11 Jesus was invited to a Pharisee’s home for dinner and ignored the ritual hand washing before the meal.  Since it was a ritual offered by every [Pharisee] host, there was no way he could have done it quietly—he openly refused to do it.  In Matt 12 he allowed his disciples to pluck grain on the Sabbath.  In Luke 7 he allowed a sinful woman to touch him.  In Luke 15 the Pharisees and scribes murmured, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”  And think about this:  God even allowed him to be born only 6 months after his parents married.  Imagine what that looked like.  Imagine what people could have said—in fact what they did say—“We were not born of fornication (John 8:41).”

What 1 Thes 5:22 really means, according to the American Standard Version, is abstain from every form of evil [every shape it takes].  Wherever, whenever, and however evil raises its ugly head, I am to stay away from it.

I need to be very careful.  If I am using my magnifying glass just to find faults in you because of the way I think something might look, I need to throw it away.

Speak not one against another, brethren.  He that speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.  One is the lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and destroy, but who are you who judges your brother? James 4:11

Dene Ward

I was a college girl, just a year older than Patricia Hearst, the heiress to the Hearst publishing empire, when a group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped her from her off-campus apartment in San Francisco.  Two months later, on April 15, 1974, she appeared on grainy black and white security camera footage helping those same captors rob a bank.

She was eventually captured and sent to prison for awhile because the jury could not accept the psychiatrist’s diagnosis of Stockholm Syndrome, a malady officially named after a bank robber kept hostages in a Stockholm bank vault for 131 hours.  Like Patty Hearst, they emerged from the ordeal exhibiting sympathy for their captors.  The mind does strange things when under stress. 

Doctors say this happens when the abductors constantly tell the victim there is no hope, that no one knows where he is and no one will rescue him.  They spin lies about their own “mistreatment,” while abusing the victim at the same time.  They tell the victim he is going to die, not just once, but over and over.  Then for some unaccountable reason they do something nice for that same victim.  The victim grows not only to depend upon his captor, but to identify with him as well.  That is Stockholm syndrome, and anyone who has struggled with sin should recognize the symptoms.

But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members, Romans 7:23.

In meekness correcting them that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will, 2 Timothy 2:25-26.

Sin abducts a man and tells him lies like the one Satan told Eve—“God is just selfish, you won’t die--you’ll be just like him.”  It tells him he’s stupid to listen to anyone else.  It tells him that no one else cares, that no one can save him, and that he will die anyway, so why not die having fun?  Satan, the father of all sin, tells the captive that he is the only one who really cares and the only one who can do anything for him.  Satan is the one who started Stockholm syndrome, not that bank robber in Sweden.

We tell people over and over that sin is deceptive, that once you are in you may never get out.  Sooner or later you reach a point where you won’t listen to anyone.  …being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, Ephesians 4:18-19.

What scares me is this doesn’t have to be heinous sin to work.  People who spend their days gossiping will become impervious to any sermons on the subject.  Satan has told them, “You’re only trying to help,” and they believe him.  People who begin every sentence about a person with, “I’ll never forget when he did [this] to me,” will never heed the lesson about the unforgiving servant who was handed over to the torturers for his lack of mercy.  “That’s different,” Satan tells them, and they believe that too.  Any sin can deceive you.  Any sin can take you captive, even the smallest.

What can we do?  Never excuse sin in yourself.  Look to Jehovah, the Psalmist says in 25:15, and he will pluck you out of the net—he’ll rescue you from those abductors.  Exhort one another, the Hebrew writer says in 3:13, so that you won’t be so easily deceived.  Prove the spirits, John tells us in 1 John 4:1, and look for the way of escape Paul adds in 1 Cor 10:13. 

Don’t open the door when Satan knocks.  Don’t let yourself be taken captive.

But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord...There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 7:23-8:2

Dene Ward

I was studying the early church once and suddenly had an idea.  Barnabas and several others were selling property and giving it to the apostles to distribute to the Christians in need.  I decided to put that in terms I could understand, with the help of a professional realtor in my area. 

Some of those early Christians had houses and sold them.  Let’s be logical about this:  they did not sell the houses they were living in because that would have just exacerbated the problem—more homeless folks to worry about.  But let’s say they had another house in Jerusalem that they used as a rental property.  Today, where I live, any house that is livable will not go for much less than $100,000, and if it is any size at all, $150,000 or more.

Others, particularly Barnabas, sold property.  Let’s say I have a piece of property that I bought as an investment several years ago.  Five acres will cost you about $75,000 in a rural county, but closer to $175,000 in an urban county.  In town, zoned commercial, it will get you well over a million and a half.  Even a rural property will bring in $350,000 if it also has a livable house and is improved—well, septic, etc.  We are not talking about these first century Christians making paltry donations; we are not even talking about what we would consider a generous donation.  Their giving went far beyond anything I had ever considered before.

Lest some good soul feels convicted and goes out to sell his extra property by Sunday morning, let us hasten to say that this was a time of crisis.  Several thousand Christians were homeless and unemployed.  They had come for the Jewish feast days, fully expecting to go back home to their trades and dwellings.  But in becoming part of the first church, God’s promised kingdom, they had much to learn.  It would have been inappropriate for someone to say, “Why should I sacrifice my future for them?  Let them go back home to their own jobs and houses.”  God did not want them leaving until they had achieved a solid foundation, something that happened several years later in Acts 8 when they were scattered abroad…preaching the word.

But I wonder about us, about me, if some crisis should happen to my brethren.  What if a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, or whatever tragedy is prone to your area, suddenly takes the homes of half the Christians in your city?  How much of a sacrifice would you be willing to make?  How much would I?

Another crisis fell on the Judean Christians several years later—a famine.  Do we really understand this?  They had no Publix or Kroger sitting on the street corner that continued to bring in food despite the failure of their own little gardens.  People were starving.  The Macedonian churches had just been through some affliction that left them poverty-stricken themselves, 2 Cor 8:1-3.  Yet they did not say, as some might, “Why should we give?  Someone needs to take up a collection for us!”  They gave anyway.  In fact, they begged Paul to allow them to give, because those faraway people, whom they had probably never met in their lives, were family to them, brothers and sisters in the Lord.  Their secret?  They gave themselves to God first.  After that, nothing was too much to ask.

What would those early Christians think of us and our giving?  Or our excuses for not giving?  Yes, we are to be good stewards of our money, but that certainly gets us out of a lot of situations, doesn’t it?  I praise God that I do know a few twenty-first century Christians who are financially blessed, but who live modestly just so they can find situations they can help with monetarily.  It encourages me to do more as well.

Consider these things as you go about your lives today, and especially in the next few weeks.  What are you spending your money on?  When poverty-stricken Christians can give out of their own need, what can I do out of the gracious plenty I have?

Moreover brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, how that in much proof of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.  For according to their power… yea and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty in regard of this grace and the fellowship in the ministering to the saints…but first they gave their own selves to the Lord…2 Cor 8:1-5.

Dene Ward

I hate packing for a trip.  I hate unpacking when I get home worse.  That is one thing so exciting about the trip to Heaven.  I won’t have to do either one!

And you know what?  When we decide to make that move into the kingdom, we don’t have to pack for that either.  In fact, Jesus wants us to leave all our baggage behind.  Not just our lives of sin, but all those biases that keep us from seeing clearly. 

Sometimes I let the difficult times I have been through color my view of everything else.  It can affect how I view my brethren, always expecting the worst and even looking for it.  It can affect my faith so that I cannot totally surrender my life to God; I feel a need to “help Him out” just a little.  It can affect my view of the kingdom itself, so that I want to protect it by building walls closer inside to help keep it pure, and even make me less than welcoming to others who need a haven.  It can make me too sober, too serious, too unwilling to crack a smile and rejoice! 

I may have fought some serious battles for the Lord, but that does not make me the only good judge of what is and is not good for the health of the kingdom.

I may have come from a religious group that does many things contrary to the law of Christ, but that does not mean that “what those people did” is the authority for deciding what God’s people cannot do.  95% of rat poison is good rat food; otherwise the rats would never eat it!  So what we do may in some cases match what they do—the scriptural parts anyway. 

I may have learned that a doctrine is unscriptural but that does not mean that a full 180 degree turn in the other direction is necessary.  We often overreact just to make sure we do not do something wrong, and wind up being wrong in the opposite direction.  The Pharisees were good at that.

I need to remember that I should come to Christ with empty hands, bringing nothing from the old life.  Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold they have become new.  All the old things have changed to new things.  No old baggage to deal with any longer.

If I truly have faith in my Lord, I don’t need anything from that old life.  It’s a little scary, but that is the nature of trust, isn’t it?

Peter began to say to him, Lo we have left all and have followed thee.  Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no man who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the gospel’s sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life.  Mark 10:28-30

Dene Ward

I hate to hear of a policeman gone bad.  He gives all the good ones a bad name.  As the wife of a law enforcement officer, I shouldn’t have to defend my husband’s career choice just because someone who isn’t what he should have been has shamed the badge, but the reality is, I do.

Policemen aren’t the only ones who have this problem. 

God spent an entire chapter on the priests of Israel who shirked their duties (Ezek 34).  Many good priests still quietly went about fulfilling their obligations, like Zaccharias, honored to serve in the house of the Lord, but by the time of Christ, too many were political animals, caring only for their own power and wealth, like Annas and Caiaphas.

The Jews in the Old Testament while still acting “as the people” Ezek 33:30-32, behaved in a manner unsuitable to God’s children.  They forgot who their Father was and shamed Him with their immorality, lack of compassion, and idolatry.  Yes, a remnant remained, but they too suffered because the majority represented the whole, and the world laughed Jehovah to scorn when He allowed them to be punished.  Yet He did allow it, because the representation of Jehovah’s children was shameful.

In the New Testament, their descendants gave the people another bad name—“Pharisees,” which though merely a sect concerned with carefully keeping the Law, eventually came to mean “self-righteous hypocrite.”  It is easy to believe in a quick read that no righteous Pharisees existed, yet among them were Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and Saul of Tarsus.  In spite of them, the general impression the majority left had Jesus regularly condemning them. 

Things have not changed.  Just as a corrupt cop can give all policemen a bad name, bad churches can give all other churches a bad name.  How many times have I had to defend the group I worship with because some other group far away lacked compassion, failed in its duty to teach the whole gospel instead of just its own pet slogans, or refused to welcome the troubled, the disabled, and the sinner?  More than I want to count.

But more to the point this morning, have I given God’s people a bad name?  What do my friends, neighbors and co-workers think about my brethren, not by what they have seen of them in person, but by what they have seen of me?  Do I, in fact, complain about them all the time?  Do I gossip?  Am I constantly angry and unhappy instead of cheerful and pleasant to be around?  Do I assist whenever I can, whoever I can, or do I have biases that anyone who knows me can list without a second’s thought?  Am I reliable, trustworthy, and honest to a fault?  How is my language and my dress?  We are foolish to think no one notices these things, and we bring shame on our Creator when they do.

The church is one big House of Representatives.  When the world looks at us, it sees the Lord.  Would He be happy with the picture you are painting of Him today?

For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame, Hebrews 6:4-6.              

Dene Ward

                                                           

If you were to ask the boys what their dog’s name was, they would name Bart, the big yellow lab.  Bart was born in our dog pen when they were 10 and 12, and all three of them grew up together.  Eleven years later, when we finally had to put him down, it was a sad day for all of us, but Lucas put it most succinctly when I asked how he was. “Today my dog died.”  It did not matter that we already had another one.  It did not matter that we had one when he was three, who lived five years, nor did it matter that we had Bart’s mother nearly as long as we had him.  Bart was the one they played with, the one they rolled around on the ground with, the one they hiked through the woods with, the one they lay their heads on in the field when they were gazing up into the sky at the clouds, talking, dreaming, and planning their lives.

Bart was a good dog, sweet and lovable, and I knew my boys were safe with him.  But he was hands down the dumbest dog we ever had.  Even his mother (his dog-mother, not me!) got a kick out of tricking him. 

Once we laid out a pan of rib bones for them both.  If Bart saw anything come out of the house in our hands, he immediately thought it was good food, and usually wolfed it down before he could possibly have tasted it.  His mother was well aware of that.  As soon as we laid down that pan, she stood up with her ears pricked, and started running down the drive barking.  Bart, of course, fell in step beside her and, being bigger with longer legs, soon outran her, heading for the gate, a couple hundred yards away.  His mother stopped and watched to make sure he was still going all out to get the nonexistent boogey man, then calmly walked back to the pan of ribs.  By the time Bart figured it out and came back, Mom had had her fill and she left the remainder for her “little boy” to finish up, which he did in about thirty seconds.  He never really seemed to understand what she had done to him, even though we all stood there laughing until our sides nearly split open.

That was Bart for you.  Once I threw out some sweet potato skins just to see what would happen.  He gulped down three of the four before he realized he didn’t like them and quit.  Lucas, who could go through a quart jar of my dill pickles in two sittings, once poured the leftover brine into a bowl and took it outside.  I am sure this was not just his idea.  His little brother seems to be the prankster in the family, and I do recall that Nathan was out there watching too, laughing the most as Bart slurped up about a cupful of the salty, vinegary concoction.  He finally stopped and looked at what he was drinking.  The worst part was that he also looked at the boys like he was thinking, “You gave this to me, so it must be good.  Why don’t I like it?”  Instant guilt trip!  

And then there was the time I threw some trash into the burn barrel and lit it.  Bart was so sure it must be good food that he licked the side of that red hot barrel, as I was frantically screaming, “No!”  He ran around in circles trying to make his tongue stop burning.  I gave him some cold water to drink, but I doubt he really quit hurting for a day or two.

And that is exactly how we do with sin.  Our friends are involved in it; society accepts it; it must be okay, and we wolf it down without a second thought.  So why is my life falling apart?  Why do I feel so bad about what I am doing?  It cannot possibly be that this stuff does not taste as good as everyone says it does.  Are we being as gullible as that big dumb yellow lab of ours?  The answer is probably yes.  Unfortunately, we sometimes don’t even have the sense he did to finally realize sin does not taste that good and quit.  And also unfortunately, one can develop a taste for things that really don’t taste very good at all.  And sooner or later our tongues will be burned on the garbage we have tried to ingest into our souls. 

God does have your good at heart.  He will not play any tricks on you.  Listen to what He says about how to live your life, and you will find that everything will taste a whole lot better.

Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.  Oh fear Jehovah, you his saints, for there is no want in those who fear him.  The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek Jehovah shall not want for any good thing, Psa 34:  8-10.

Dene Ward

I just spent twenty minutes trying to get 84 acid reducing pills out of six blister packs so I wouldn’t have to do it every morning for the next 7 weeks.  What is it with these manufacturers?  You would think they would want you to try their medication, not give up in frustration, throw the whole thing away, and use another.  Or maybe it’s meant to be self-perpetuating:  the more aggravated you get, the more acid your stomach produces, and the more you need their pills.

I have an issue with childproof caps too—about the only ones they keep out of the bottle are those of us with arthritic hands.  And CD and DVD packages?  How many times have I cut myself on them and, with this aspirin-a-day regimen, bled all over everything before I even knew I had done it?

Manufacturers who don’t want you to use their products—sounds strange doesn’t it?  What about that branch of theology that says that God doesn’t want to save everyone, that Jesus died for only the ones He does want to save, and that no matter what you do or how you feel about it, there is nothing you can do to change that?  Let me show you why I have a problem with that.

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? Ezekiel 33:11

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:3-4.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, Titus 2:11

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance, 2 Peter 3:9.

God does want us to be saved, as many as are willing to live by his Word.  Jesus died for all, not just those lucky few.  You can make a difference in your own salvation, “turn back from your evil ways,” “come to a knowledge of the truth,” and “reach repentance.”

Praise God that He loves us and wants us with Him for Eternity.  Praise God that salvation does not come in a blister pack.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

Dene Ward

I picked up the phone and within ten seconds wished I hadn’t.  I was a new bride and it was my first experience with a telemarketer. I couldn’t fathom someone who had an answer for every reason to say “No.” 

I’d been taught to always be polite so as long as he talked I listened.  Finally I said, “I couldn’t spend this much money without talking to my husband first anyway.”

Yes, he even had an answer for that one.  “Don’t you think it’s about time you learned how to make decisions on your own?”

He had finally gone too far.  “How we run our marriage is our business, not yours,” I replied and hung up.  He found out in short order that my acceptance of my husband’s authority didn’t mean I was spineless.

Too many women today seem to think it does, and worse, care far too much about what other people think about them.  I feel the same way about that as I do about men who won’t help with child care and housework because, “That’s woman’s work.”  Shakespeare put it best:  “Methinks thou doth protest too much.”  It takes strength to submit; weakness cannot overcome the natural tendency to want attention and power.

Sarah comes to mind.  In a misguided attempt to help God fulfill his promises to Abraham, she and Abraham arranged a surrogate mother.  Hagar was “her handmaid,” Gen 16:1,3, a personal servant of Sarah’s, not a simple slave girl who would have been under Abraham’s authority (Growth of the Seed, Nathan Ward).  When Hagar’s attitude toward Sarah eroded into hateful disrespect—“her mistress became despised in her eyes” v 4—Sarah was ready to throw her out.  At that time, in that culture, Hagar as her handmaid was her business, not Abraham’s.  Yet Sarah, in her submission as a wife, still went to Abraham first.  Even he said, “Behold, your maid is in your hands.  Do what you think is best,” v 6.

Please note, the surrogacy arrangement did not change Hagar’s status.  She is still called “handmaid” by the writer and by God (21:12), and the angel of Jehovah told her she was wrong to have fled, that the right thing was to return to her mistress (16:7-9), just as it was for Onesimus to return to Philemon.  Sarah did not have to ask Abraham for permission, but she went the extra mile in her submission to him.

So how am I doing at this submission business?  Do my friends know that my husband is the head of the house, or would they throw their heads back in gales of laughter at the very thought?  Am I embarrassed to say, “I need to talk with my husband,” before making a major decision?

Even the New Testament recognizes that a woman has a realm of authority in the home.  Widows are to remarry and “rule the household,” 1 Tim 5:14.  That word “rule” is not the same Greek word as the one in 3:4, elders should “rule well their own household.”  The word in 5:14 is one that means “manage [the home specifically] under a master.”  Just as the store manager does not expect to be micromanaged by the owner of the business, he still understands that he must ultimately answer to that owner.  Would anyone expect otherwise?

It is time to stop being cowed by our increasingly godless culture, afraid to admit that we actually believe what the Bible says about unpopular things.  The next time someone insults you for your voluntary subjection to your husband, show them just how much spine you do have.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening, 1 Peter 3:5-6

Dene Ward

Today I am participating in a round robin blogswap between several Christian women.  The following post is by Helene Smith.  My post for the day will appear on Katharine Palmer's blog at www.homemadetatertot.blogspot.com

Do you listen to God?  I don’t mean has a small still voice ever whispered in your ear.  I’m not even asking if you pay attention when your preacher’s up front talking away.  I mean- listen.  Like, “Listen to your Mama!” or “Girl, you are not listening!”  When we tell our kids to listen we really mean hear my meaning and obey me.  So let me ask again, do you listen to God?

I’m a terrible listener.  Terrible. 

In recent days my husband and I faced a tough decision.  Really there was nothing to “decide” because we knew what we ought to do.  We should be responsible, have integrity, do what we promised.  It was crystal clear. We knew what was right. What was not so obvious was how we were going to manage it.  Because we sure didn’t want to.

God needed to get my attention and I did not want to listen.

That’s a very dangerous moment and I well knew it.  I pouted.  I groused.  I even cried.  I finally resolved to do what I knew I should, but like a child sent to its room, I determined to do it with as much self-righteous, self-sacrificing snottiness as I could muster.  And I can muster up a lot, just ask my husband.

The same week I was reading a book, “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan.  I’ll write more about it later, but for now let me say that it was the most convicting book outside of the gospels that I have read in many a year.  In one of the most painful moments of the book he insists that most of us have no idea what our lives would look like if we truly loved God with all our hearts.  We give God half an hour of quiet time a day and think we need a sticker that says, “Super-Christian.” 

He was referring to Luke 10 where Jesus affirms that the path to eternal life runs right through Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” It was a particularly painful reference because at just that moment my daughters and I were reciting those verses every morning.

Since my girls don’t have access to Sunday School (we live abroad) we work hard to keep up with their Bible learning. Of course these were the verses we were right in the middle of when I read the book.  So while I was turning my face away from God, feeling that He was so harsh for making me suffer like Jeremiah or Ezekiel before me (do you sense a pity party?), I had to sit there and repeat, “And with all our heart, and with all our soul and with all our strength, and with all our mind.” 

Did you ever write lines when you were in school?  “I will not throw spit wads at the teacher.” I sat at the kitchen table and instead of writing it over and over, I said it over and over.  “You shall love the Lord your God.”

The first crisis that week was the decision. Obey the clear and obvious will of God, or ignore Him and do what we wanted instead. The second crisis was understanding that “obeying” wasn’t nearly enough.  I had to submit myself to the will of God wholeheartedly.  Not least because if I didn’t, I might be reciting that verse in shame for the rest of my natural life. 

I’m glad that’s not the end of the story.

Thirty-six hours after we arrived back in country, we were supposed to host a small conference complete with guest speaker, Mr. John King.  If you’ve ever had jet lag, or been in a serious pout, you can imagine that this was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.  But God wasn’t done shaking me out.  Of course Mr. King opened his Bible straight to Deuteronomy 6.  I could have burst into a temper tantrum right there except no one could have possible understood what I was stomping around about!

Sigh.

Digging into the obnoxiously familiar scripture I saw something beautiful.  All of these words demanding obedience, requiring everything I had with nothing held back for myself, were tied to the blessing of God.  I don’t know how I forgot even for a moment that everything I have, including my time, is on loan from God.  I owe it all back to him.  And when I give Him everything, all of my heart, my soul, my strength, my mind, when I hold nothing back, He free-handedly gives back to me a 1,000 times more than I gave. 

I hope you are a better listener than me.  The past few weeks I’ve been so childish, petty, selfish and full of self-pity as to make myself sick.  I can only praise God that in His grace, through His word, He calls and calls and calls until I listen.

Helene Smith

Helene and two friends regularly write a blog at www.maidservantsofChrist.com  .

Our society has become almost totally superficial.  In 1902, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which was called “the Mother of Fraternities” because of the number of Greek societies on campus, first enrolled women.  It was no surprise that those young women wanted their counterpart Greek society, and Delta Zeta was formed by six of them.  Their creed promised they would “crusade for justice” and “give understanding and appreciation” to friends.  I wonder what those first six members would think now.

Asociated Press reported on March 11, 2007, that the Delta Zeta sorority at DePauw University in Indiana kicked out 23 young women the group did not feel fit the “physical” image the sorority was going for—they didn’t look right.  So much for a crusade for justice, understanding, and appreciation.  But they aren’t the only ones. 

I read some statistics recently that I found appalling.  Cosmetic surgery in this country has increased dramatically.  In the July 17, 2006 issue of The Des Moines Business Record in an article entitled “Looking Like A Million,” Sarah Bzdega states that there were more than 10 million such surgeries in 2005.  This does not count reconstructive surgeries for such things as injuries or breast cancer, which actually decreased 3% from the previous year.  These figures only include things like liposuction, face lifts, nose and ear jobs, breast augmentation and buttock implants.  Minimally invasive procedures also increased 13%, and many of the patients are now men as well as women.

Have you noticed the plethora of weight loss commercials?  And why are these people losing weight?  Not for their health, but so a man can have a “trophy wife” and another can have a “better sex life,” and a forty year old mom can have a “smoking hot body.”  More and more young women are falling into eating disorders because they want to look acceptable.  Americans are so consumed with the concept of celebrity that we care more about looking like our favorite star than being a decent human being.  I have even heard “Christians” say things like, “It’s a pity she isn’t better looking,” when meeting a new bride.  Truly Samuel was right when he said, in 1 Sam 16:7:  for man looks on the outward appearance…   But shouldn’t we, of all people, be better than that?

What good will it do me to look 40 when I am 80 and my time is up?  It will not keep me from dying.  It will just make a pretty corpse.  What are we teaching our children about what to look for in a spouse, someone beautiful on the outside or beautiful on the inside?  It is really true that the inner person can eventually effect how the outer person looks, especially to those who know them best.  That is what they need to hear, and more, need to see exemplified in the Christians around them.

I bet when the judgment scene in Matthew 25 unfolds, the right side will be overrun with pleasantly plump, gray-haired sheep, still sporting all their laugh lines, while the left has an inordinate number of thin, gorgeous goats.  And I bet every one of those goats would take all their crows’ feet, gray hairs, and thigh fat back in an instant for a chance to switch sides.

But Jehovah said to Samuel; Look not on his countenance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.  For Jehovah says, for man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the heart. 1 Sam 16:7

Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Prov 31:30

Dene Ward