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            When I was a child, everyone used the King James Version. The preacher quoted numerous verses in his sermons and woe to him if he skipped a word or got one wrong—there would be a line waiting to tell him about his mistake.

            I think it is wonderful that we now have and use more translations than the old KJV. They shed light on the meanings of many passages and because they are easier to read, allow one to connect thoughts more readily throughout a lengthy passage.

            Yet I respect the old-timer’s insistence on getting it exactly right. I fear we have lost that, and this is a grave danger. God communicated to men in words, “These words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart” (Deut 6:6).  Just as no man can know the thoughts of another except through his words, men cannot know God except by the words He speaks.  This is so important that Jesus himself said that, “Not one jot or tittle” would pass away until all God’s word was fulfilled (these are equivalent to the dotting of an “i” or the crossing of a “t”.)

            If the words are changed, if the translators are careless or are concerned about supporting their own beliefs, we lose the WORD that God sent to save us, the words that tell us about Jesus. Our parents were right to insist on accuracy!  God sent Peter to Cornelius to tell him “WORDS whereby [he] would be saved” (Acts 11:14). Peter writes that “Ye should remember the WORDS which were spoken” (2 Pet 3:2). We need to adopt the attitude of concern for exactness with every word of God that our parents and grandparents had, while embracing the benefits of having many translations.

            How careful should we be?? When he rebuked the Sadducees who did not believe in a resurrection, Jesus based his argument on the tense of a verb (Mt22:31--33). He quoted Ex 3:6 where God told Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” These three had been dead and buried hundreds of years at the time of Moses yet God spoke of them in the present tense. Now that is being precise, and is the only proof Jesus ever gave that there is a resurrection.

            “The pen is mightier than the sword” -- words have started wars, led to freedom, to discoveries and great deeds. But all these pale in comparison to the power of God’s word.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, Rom 1:16. 

For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb 4:12.

Keith Ward

 

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            When Lucas first gave me the birdsong book, I knew there was one bird I wanted to look up immediately.  For two years I had been hearing an owl every morning as I walked the trail around the property.  I think I noticed because I was so surprised to discover that they hooted in the daytime too.  But unlike the other large birds of prey I had seen, an eagle, an osprey, and the hawk, which still on occasion sits on a tree limb across the fence to talk with me, I had never seen this owl.  I had him pictured though—a nearly two foot mottled brown bird with two ear tufts and large yellow eyes that see in the dark.

            I found him in the book, a great horned owl, and quickly punched in his number.  Imagine my surprise when his call was not quite right.  So I checked all the other owls, a screech owl, snowy owl, barn owl, and finally one I had never heard of—a barred owl, slightly smaller, a bit more white streaked in his brown feathers with definite bars across his throat, and a large round head sporting no ear tufts at all.  But his sound was unmistakable.  This is what I had been listening to for two years, out in the woods beyond the creek.  I’ve still never seen him, but I know he’s there, and now I can picture him correctly.

            I think as children we develop a mental picture of God from things we have been taught.  Sometimes our pictures are mistaken, or at best, simplistic—God is, after all, not easy to explain to a child.  As we grow up and learn to study on our own, as we deal with the circumstances of life and meditate on the two together, our picture of God should become clearer, developing into a rich depth of comprehension. 

            When we rely only on what we have been told and the shallowness of our youthful perceptions fails to mature, our faith may falter in times of trial.  Suddenly we can no longer see a God who cares, a God who is powerful and whose plan goes far beyond this short, and to us, too important life.  Regardless of the evidence, we fail to see Him there in times of trouble, and what should be visible to us more than others becomes invisible.  If we are not careful we will become blind, totally unable to see Him ever again.  “I can’t believe in a God who would…” is a sign of stunted spiritual growth, not increased intellect.

            Open your eyes.  Examine your life through an overview of faith, not a miniscule sliver of circumstance.  Look at the big picture--the evidence is there.  I cannot see my owl, but I hear him hooting in the woods and believe.  As sure as he is out there, God is too, working in your life through providence, speaking to you in His word, perhaps at a depth you have never been to before.  Take the plunge and open your eyes. 

Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel, and he took counsel with his servants saying in such and such a place shall you camp.  And the man of God sent and told the king of Israel…and the king of Israel was saved not once but twice.  And the heart of the king of Syria was troubled…and one of his servants said, Oh king, Elisha the prophet is telling the king of Israel the words that you speak, even in your bedchamber.  And he said, Go and see where he is...and it was told him that he was in Dothan.  Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great host, and they came by night and surrounded the city...And Elisha’s servant said, Alas my lord, what shall we do?  And he answered, Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.  And Elisha prayed and said, Jehovah, I pray you, open his eyes that he may see.  And Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha, I Kings 6:8-17.

Dene Ward

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            Keith grew up in an old farmhouse on a hill in the Ozarks--no running water, a light bulb dangling in each room, and for heat, a woodstove in the kitchen and a fireplace in the living room.  The kids slept in the unfinished (and un-insulated) attic.  In the winter they shoved the foot of each bed against the brick chimney that rose through the attic to the roof so they could get whatever warmth might seep out, and they always made sure they were comfortable before his mother laid on the quilts.  She piled so many on he couldn’t move from the weight of them afterward.  So he knows a lot more about getting the heat out of a fire than I do. 

            We had a fireplace once in our married life, three years which were also our worst financial span.  We used that fireplace as much for heat as beauty and atmosphere, and to keep the winter fuel bill down. 

            One especially cold evening he stood two large oak logs on end behind the fire, something he remembered from his childhood.  Immediately the heat began pouring into the room instead of shooting up the chimney, and within an hour those logs had coaled up on their fronts, radiating yet more warmth, like the coils of an electric heater.  Because they weren’t actually in the fire, they stood all night long without burning up, and we were much warmer than before.  Backlogs, he called them, reflectors of the heat in front of them, and eventually of the heat they had absorbed.

            We began using them when camping too, once the boys left home and we were no longer consigned to summer camping only.  In October the temperature can drop precipitously in the mountains and even in Florida in January.

            Paul says, Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:6.  He and the other apostles reflected the glory of God to their listeners.  He called it “a treasure in our earthen vessels…of God and not from ourselves,” v 7.  God must have seen in those men a clean and shining surface to reflect His glory or He never would have chosen them.

            Earlier in the chapter Paul speaks about people who are so blinded by “the god of this world” that they cannot see the light.  Do you think God can be reflected in people who are materialistic and unspiritual?  Do you think His love will be emanated by those who are unkind and impatient, unforgiving and lacking in compassion?  Can we mirror His glory when we are tarnished by an impure lifestyle?

            The back logs we used did nothing in an empty fireplace or fire ring.  They only functioned when they stood behind the fire, soaking up its heat, turning the same colors as the coals themselves, and exuding their warmth from all they had absorbed.  We will never truly be “the image of God” if we are not standing next to Him, soaking up His word and the glory it reveals about Him. 

            We must become back logs, reflecting God’s glory just as those apostles did, realizing it is not we who shine, but He who shines forth from us.  Like those logs, we should eventually change, so that the reflection becomes truer and the image clearer in every word and every deed, and in every place.

 
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:18.                                                                                          
Dene Ward

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            A male cardinal showed up one spring morning and tried out the bird feeder.  He had not eaten long before he left and came back with his mate.  He started eating while she sat on the side simply watching, but then he picked up another seed and hopped over to her, gently placing it in her mouth.  She ate and afterward continued to eat, the two of them side by side, enjoying a free and easy meal that she now knew was safe.

            A few weeks later I noticed that her figure was spreading.  Her round breast was more than round.  Too much bird seed, I wondered?  But no, all of a sudden one morning she was thinner again, and she and her mate came separately instead of together.  In fact, she came much less often, and he did a whole lot of back and forth commuting.

            Then they showed up with four other cardinals, young ones nearly full-grown, but thinner and with a scruffy plumage, even more muted than Mom’s.  One female would only sit on the edge of the feeder and quiver her wings so fast they seemed but a blur, leaning forward with her mouth open.  Daddy often fed her, one seed at a time, until she was full and flew away. After a week of that, Mom had had enough.  How was this one ever going to learn to feed herself?  So she often flew at the young one, nearly knocking her off the feeder.  Daddy got the message and stopped the “spoon feeding.”  Sometimes Daddy’s little girl tries it again, but Daddy makes her get her own now.  What will she do when he is gone if she never has taken care of herself before?

            In the evenings the whole family comes to the feeder together.  The young ones fly at one another playfully before settling down to eat.  Mom and Dad used to eat last, but more often now they jump right in with the “little ones,” some of whom are bigger than their parents.  The plumage on the males is starting to redden, and, what is more important, they come to eat even when their parents don’t.  They have learned to shell the seeds, and the flying debris often pings against the windows and out into the azaleas.  They have also learned to fend for themselves against the other birds, and when the big bad squirrel comes, they will either gang up on him, or if one is alone, that bird knows it is much better to simply run. 

            The cardinals have done well.  Did you know that those birds are monogamous for life?  And they have taught their children well.  They know how to take care of themselves.  They know when to fight and when to run.  They know where to come when they need nourishment, because mama and daddy brought them from the time they were able to fly there behind them.  If something ever happens to those parents, I know the young ones will still be visiting me every day.  And soon, they will bring their own. 

            By the way, this lesson is not for the birds. 

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born; who should arise and tell them to their children, Psalm 78:1-6.

Dene Ward

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            My favorite Bible study tool is a concordance.  It contains only scripture, so you do not have to worry about comments with elements of Calvinism, Premillenialism, or other prejudices.  But you do have to learn to use it to get the most out of it.  In the past I used one just to find passages, but now I can build whole lessons with just a concordance and a Bible.

            I prefer Young’s Analytical Concordance.  (Yes, I hear some of you preachers snickering, but this is not for preachers.)  There are things you can do with it that you cannot do with any other concordance on the market, and you can usually get one for about $13-14.  Yes, it is built on the King James Version, but that and the original 1901 American Standard are the two safest versions out there.  I usually start my studies with them, then branch out to other translations to get a little more insight.  By starting with something you can trust, you will be less likely to fall into error caused by a mistranslation or, as some versions seem to be, a commentary in disguise.

            The first step in using a concordance is just to get acquainted with it.  Think of a word in a verse you know, but cannot find.  Let’s say you wanted to find the passage that talks about being able to do anything “through Christ who strengthens me,” but you do not know where it is except somewhere in the New Testament.  Pick the least common word in the phrase because that will give you fewer choices to have to look through.  “Strengthen” fits that description.  Look up “strengthen” in your concordance.  I find that word on page 940. (All my copies of Young’s appear to be the same—the difference in size and price has to do with the thickness and quality of paper and binding.)  Under that word you will see several groups of words.  Each group has either a Hebrew or Greek word, and its anglicized (English-lettered) version, followed by every passage that translates that particular Hebrew or Greek word by the same English word, and a snippet from that verse.  Immediately you can skip over the ones in the Old Testament because you know it is a New Testament verse. Finally in group 18 you see endum, the anglicized Greek word, and the two passages that use that word, translating it “strengtheneth,” including Phil 4:13 and the snippet, “through Christ which strengtheneth me.”  That sounds a lot like what you want, so you check it out and, sure enough, it is the passage you had in mind.  Sometimes it isn’t and you just have to keep looking, but if you have the word right, you will eventually find the passage you are looking for.

            That’s really handy, but not what you would call a deep Bible study, right?  Exactly.  There is much more you can do.  We will start with some simple things that are still interesting and useful. 

First, I am sure you can see the value in knowing what other verses have to say about the same word.  So you can actually choose a word in a verse, then after you find the word in the concordance, look up every other time that word is used and translated by the same English word.  You will learn a lot if you just jot down a point from each verse.  Primarily, you will learn that some of our simplistic definitions are wrong!  “Faithful” does not mean “full of faith.”  In fact, we do not even have to look that one up in the concordance to figure that out.  What do we mean when we talk about someone’s husband not being “faithful?”  We mean he was not true and loyal to her.  Now look up that word in the concordance and every passage using it, and see what I mean.  Try the same thing with “godliness,” often defined as “a short form of ‘god-like-ness’” (as if it were actually written in English to begin with).  You might be surprised at what you learn! 

            Here’s another interesting use for this wonderful tool.  Many times in English we have different words for what is essentially the same thing, but the new word adds a little something to the meaning.  How about “bread?”  What if I say “loaf” instead?  “Baguette?”  “Biscuit?”  “Bagel?”  See what I mean?  It is all bread, but there is something different about each.  The same is true in Hebrew and Greek.  Look up “queen” in your concordance.  You will find several different Hebrew words for that one English word.  Read the verses and make some notes.  You will find that one of those words seems to indicate a woman of royal lineage, another seems to refer to queen mothers, and still another is used when the woman is simply the king’s wife, but not of royal parentage.  Doesn’t that make you wonder about some other things?  What were David’s wives called?  How about any other queens of God’s people?  What was Jezebel called?  Look up every passage using “queen” and you may be amazed.  You may even find some that do not refer to women at all.  Before you know it, you have spent two hours studying and have some little tidbits of information that probably no one else has ever bothered with—not even your preacher.

Yes, we can get into more serious word studies, and I plan to show you how to do a comprehensive one next time.  But for now, try some of these things.  The more you use your concordance, the easier it will get. 

And they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading. Nehemiah 8:8

Dene Ward

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            About ten years ago, we were camping in a Georgia State Park, one of our favorites actually, private sites, modern bathhouses, beautiful scenery, and great hiking trails.  Ah yes, the hiking trails…

            We decided one day to do the big trail—up a mountain and back down, seven miles total.  So we cooked a hearty breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and coffee, and took off after cleaning up and securing everything against the elements and the wild animals, about ten in the morning.  We carried water and some snacks, and the park map.  I am the navigator in the family, and usually the only one with a decent sense of direction.  We expected to be back in time for an early supper, about four in the afternoon.  With time to build a cook fire, we would be eating by five, and ready for it. 

            We made the top of the mountain about one, took a few minutes to enjoy the view, eat an apple and a handful of peanuts, then started down the other side.  The grade was steep, and we were soon following a trail of switchbacks, but sure we were still on the right path because of the red blazes the park had so thoughtfully sprayed on the trees every so often, and because every turn matched the map.  Keith, the one who is always looking for an easier way, looked down the hill to our left and saw yet another switchback.  “So let’s just take the shortcut down,” he said. 

            Having grown up on the side of a mountain in the Ozarks, he is much surer footed than this flatlander, but he assured me that I could hold on to his shoulders and he would lead the way down safely, and possibly save us a couple hundred yards.  So I agreed and willingly followed.  We must have cut down through half a dozen switchbacks before the path finally leveled out. 

            We walked on, and came to a fork in the road that was not on the map.  Hmmm.  This time he trusted me and my sense of direction, and off we went toward what I knew was south, and thus had to be the right way.  A little further on there was another unmapped fork so we took the same direction.  And then another, and another.  Somehow this did not seem right, and about then I realized that I had not seen a red blaze in a long time.  About four-thirty we came to the end of the road—literally.  Beyond it lay a fifty foot drop to a creek running full and loud. 

            Obviously, we had missed something somewhere, but I knew we had not gone the wrong overall direction—we had just wound up on the wrong path.  We tried retracing our trail, but going at it backwards through the many forks we had taken, confused even me.  We were about resigned to spending the night in the woods.  I was exhausted, it was late, and getting colder by the minute.  The sweater I had taken off and tied around my waist due to the heat of exercise would not do me much good when the nighttime temperatures hit the 40s.  I was determined not to panic, though.  I figured the last thing Keith needed was a hysterical woman on his hands.  Tomorrow we would get out--somehow. 

            Finally, he told me to sit and wait while he checked another fork in the road.  I didn’t tell him that it scared me to death—with his lousy sense of direction it might easily be the last time I ever saw him.  But not ten minutes later he came running back.  “I found power lines,” he said.  “They have to lead somewhere.” 

            So we followed them, and about thirty minutes later came out on a gravel road.  We followed the lines further and came to a house.  Keith knocked on the door and explained our situation.  The man was on his way to work the night shift at a local factory and would take us back to camp, “about fifteen miles from here,” he added.  “You’re the second couple in the last month to come out of those woods lost.”

            We got back to camp at nearly seven, exhausted and relieved, and ready to eat, shower, and hit the sleeping bags.  The next morning we drove to the top of the mountain, then checked out the trail going down, careful to stay on it, watch for blazes, and look at the map.  We were sure the park was at fault.  But no, at the end of the third or fourth switchback the trail and blazes led straight ahead and down the other side of the mountain.  When we had left the trail and cut through those switchbacks to what looked like the same trail, we had missed that and had wound up on a mountain bike trail, as yet unfinished, unmapped, and “un-blazed” by the color-coded spray paint.  The map was correct; we just did not follow it.  At that point we were not ready for another seven mile hike, but the next year we went back to that park and followed the trail carefully the whole way.  We got back about four-thirty and never once got lost because we stayed on the trail and followed the map!

            This one is easy, isn’t it?  God has given us a map.  It does not matter what things may look like--stay on the trail; follow the map!  You may see a trail to the side that seems like the same one.  Don’t take a shortcut that leads you from what you know is right.  If it is the same trail, you will get there eventually.  If it is not, you may never find your way back.  Always look for the blazes that the faithful who went ahead of you painted for you to follow.  You may think you have a great sense of direction—but if you get off track, that won’t keep you from getting lost.  Or being lost, which is what we are all trying to avoid. 

            Not only has God given you a map, He is out there Himself looking for you.  Don’t be proud; take advantage of the offer and follow His lead.  You will always make it home, no matter how far off the trail you have gotten.  The Trailblazer knows the way.

I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick… For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost, Ezek. 34:16; Luke 19:10.

Dene Ward

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            Long ago and far away I remember someone saying, immediately after a sermon on the subject, “Attitude shmattitude.  I am sick and tired of hearing about attitude.” 

            I thought to myself, “And you, sir, certainly have a bad one.”

            Hanging by one of the magnets on my refrigerator is a quote by Charles Swindoll that ends, “…We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.”

            My neighbor recently returned from a trip to Alaska, a trip she and her husband have wanted to make for a long time.  They flew to Anchorage, then rented an RV and traveled the state for two and half weeks.  As they were returning the RV, ready to fly back home, she fell in the parking lot, face down.  It was a nasty fall.  The ER doctor put 14 stitches in her face.  Five of her front teeth were knocked out, and she is still, after two months, receiving the dental repair work for that, already totaling $10,000.  She needed a doctor’s note before the airline would allow her on the plane to fly home.  She was in a wheelchair, of course, and the other passengers were staring out of the corners of their eyes—being too polite to stare straight on.  (We’ve all done it.)  Her husband finally told everyone she had had a run-in with a grizzly bear, and she looked so bad someone actually believed it.

            You know what she said after she told me about it?  “It’s okay.  It was the last day not the first, so our trip wasn’t ruined.  I can’t eat very well, so I’ve lost about 20 pounds.  I can’t chew on my nails, and for the first time in my life I have nice looking nails.  And I fell so flat I’m lucky I didn’t break my nose as well.”

            She put me to shame.  She had come up with four blessings in her mishap, when I wonder if I would have been doing anything but moaning. 

            As Christians our attitudes do make the difference.  The way we handle adversity should make people ask us, “How can you do that?  What is your secret?” 

            Those early Christians knew the secret.  They rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor” Acts 5:41; took “pleasure” in all their sufferings “for Christ’s sake” 2 Cor 12:10; “received the word in much affliction with joy” 1 Thes 1:6; and “took joyfully the spoiling of their possessions” Heb 10: 34.  How?  They had their priorities straight, and that kept their attitudes straight.  They truly believed a better place awaits us. 

            That is what faith requires: for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek after him, Heb 11:6.  Sometimes I think we focus so much on the first part of that, that we miss the second part.  If I want this world and its “stuff” so badly, then maybe I don’t really believe there is a reward waiting for me.  If I do not have the attitude of Paul that “to die is gain,” then my faith is an empty shell.  Why in the world do I bother?

            Attitude, shmattitude.  Don’t get sick and tired of hearing about it.  It can help you make it successfully to the end, which is really only a beginning that will never end.

But call to remembrance the former days in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly becoming partakers with them that were so used.  For you both had compassion on them that were in bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one, Heb 10:32-34.

Dene Ward

            I inherited my hair from my Grandma Ayers.  As a teenager I hated it.  The style then was long, sleek and straight.  Some girls even ironed their hair to remove any hint of natural wave.  I never went that far, but twice a week I spent 2 hours washing it, wrapping it around huge rollers, and sitting under a bonnet dryer trying to get the kink out of it. 

            The biggest problem with naturally curly hair is that it does what it wants to do.  I have never been able to take a picture to a stylist and say, “I want my hair to look like that.”  If it doesn’t already do that, it never will.

            The biggest blessing with naturally curly hair is that it does what it wants to do.  I can shower, wash my hair, blow it dry, dress and go in about 35 minutes.  There is no sense wasting time on hair that will only do one thing on any given day, depending upon the humidity.

            Humidity is the bane of naturally curly hair.  I can walk outside on a foggy day and hear it going, “Scrinch!  Scrinch!  Scrinch!” as each wave turns into a fuzzy ringlet.  As a friend once said, I wear a barometer on my head.  If I have to go to town on a high humidity day (most days in Florida), I stay away from mirrors.  If I were to see what had become of my hair since I left the house I would probably still be in hiding and never make it back home.

            During last summer’s nomadic tropical storm, an unwelcome guest we thought would never leave, I stepped outside one morning onto the carport to check on the dogs.  About a half hour later I looked in the bathroom mirror.  My head was covered with corkscrews the size of earthworms dropping onto my forehead, crawling into my ears, and dangling down my neck.  The bad part, though, the thing that no one ever understands no matter how many times I try to explain it, was the frizz.  A halo of gray fuzz stuck out all around the curls a full two inches, like that annoying fuzz around a mohair sweater.  This was by far the most extreme “do” my naturally curly hair had ever given me.  My head looked bigger than a basketball, and nothing I did could change it.

            Most of the time now, I count my hair a blessing, but after all these years of dealing with hair that predetermines how I will look on any given day, I have a special appreciation for the free will God has given us.  What I do is my choice not something forced upon me.  It doesn’t matter who my ancestors were, how I was raised or where, I can still choose to serve God.  God reminded his people in Josh 24:2, Long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods.  Abraham’s ancestors were idolaters, and he grew up in an idolatrous society, but God still expected his service and devotion.  His upbringing and culture were not valid excuses for a lack of faith.

            Free will also places a huge responsibility on me in my every day life.  It doesn’t matter how anyone else treats me, I must treat them in the right manner.  It doesn’t matter if someone aggravates me, I must not be provoked.  It doesn’t matter if everything goes wrong today, I must still keep a good attitude and behave like a follower of Christ—a Christian.  I now have no excuse for the sin in my life because God gave me the ability to choose otherwise.  I cannot blame anything or anyone else.

            The thing to do then is decide what I want.  A loving Father went to a lot of trouble to make salvation available.  A loving Son went through a lot of pain to make it possible to overcome sin.  A comforting Spirit went to a lot of work to reveal it all.  Now it is up to us—it is our choice one way or the other. 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil, 2 Cor 5:10.

Dene Ward

The Lord has made everything for his own purpose, yes, even the wicked for the day of trouble, Prov 16:4.

            Think about that for awhile.  If I do not allow the Lord to use me for good, he will use me for evil instead.  I cannot refuse to be used; it’s one or the other.

            A long time ago I studied as many women in the Bible as I could find and tried to discover how they fit into the scheme of redemption.  I managed to find a use for every one of them.  Then I came to Jezebel and found myself stymied.  The only thing I could think was God used her to test his prophet Elijah, and to eventually send him back to his work in Israel with a renewed spirit. 

            I would hate to think that the only use God could find for me was as a thorn in the flesh of his righteous people, testing their faith.  So how do I avoid that?

            As in the case of Elijah, discouragement can hamper the work of God.  After what seemed like an amazing victory on Mt Carmel, Elijah awoke the next morning to find that Jezebel was still in charge and his life was still in danger.  Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.  Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also if I make not your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.  And when Elijah saw this, he fled, 1 Kings 19:1-3.  What a let-down that must have been.          If that great victory had not changed things, what could?

            So Elijah ran away to the wilderness where he rested, where an angel fed him, and where God proved to him that Jezebel was not the one in charge, and there were still righteous people to stand with him.

            Am I just another Jezebel, discouraging God’s people in their mission?  Do I have a chip on my shoulder that makes me easily offended?  Do I sit like a spectator on the bleachers, watching and waiting for the least little thing, quick to complain, unashamed to make a scene, ready to pass judgment on every word and action, and worse, spread that slander to others?  Do I march up to the elders, the preacher, the class teachers as if they had to answer to me for anything I find disagreeable, which can be anything and everything, depending upon my mood at the moment?

            What purpose do I think that serves other than to try the patience, faith, and endurance of those who must put up with my spitefulness?  Why do I think that kind of behavior will help anyone?  Would I accept it from anyone toward me? 

            Every church I have ever been a part of has one of these thorns hidden among them.  Don’t let it be you.  Remember today that God is using you.  Make sure that everything you do and say will in some way help His plan to save the world.  Your brothers and sisters need your encouragement.  Your neighbors need your example of love and service.  That is what God expects of you—to choose to be a rose instead of a thorn.

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.  There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing, Prov 12:16,18. 

Dene Ward

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The older I get, the more amazed I am at how many errors I was taught, and simply accepted without question.  Was it mere laziness on my part or just no knowledge of how to study?  I know which answer I prefer, but it is probably not the right one.  Now I have gotten to the point that I actually prefer to do my own discovering.  If I hear something from someone else, the first thing I want to do is check it out--especially if it sounds too perfect.

            Why do we need to study?  Here comes the first mistake you will often hear:  Because the Bible says, “Study to show thyself approved.”  Wrong!  That word, “study,” which is in the King James translation, is a King James era word that does not mean “study” as we know it, to open a book and read.  It means “work hard” or, as my American Standard translates it, “give diligence” and can be applied to anything, not just sitting down with a book. 

            I have developed a passion about not misusing scripture.  That’s what the Devil does, especially in Matthew 4 when he tempted the Lord, so I do not want any part of it.  There are better passages, correct passages, we can use, notably, Acts 17:11: Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the scriptures daily, whether these things were so.  Do I want to be “noble” in God’s sight?  Then I’d better start studying my Bible and not accepting what I have always heard, even if good old brother So-and-So said it. 

            One of my biggest areas of study is in the use of words.  Do words really matter?  If Paul can make an argument based upon the number of a noun, Gal 3:16, and Jesus can make an argument based upon the tense of a verb, Matt 22:31,32, you had better believe they matter.  And remember, Jesus was quoting from a translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, not from the original Hebrew scriptures, so yes, we can make arguments that specific about the scriptures, even if using a translation.

            And precisely because of that, I worry about our culture, with the way people look condescendingly on those who are concerned about such things as bad grammar and poor communication skills, as if they were petty and obsessive and other more crude terminology.  The more I read, the more horrified I become.  I have read no less than three novels in the last year using “ahold,” as in, “I could not get ahold of her.”  It was not always in dialogue passages, where dialect would excuse it; it was used as if it were an actual word.  How many of us hear (or say) every day, “Hopefully, the weather will hold out”?  The weather will not do anything “hopefully,” much less hold out!  It cannot hope.  And then we have people who make adverbs out of any noun they find by adding “wise” to it.  Weatherwise, trafficwise, newswise. So now we have, “Hopefully, things will hold out weatherwise,” instead of “I hope the weather holds,” which is not only better English, but fewer words!

            And what does that have to do with anything scriptural? Our use of words can affect those we talk to about their salvation, for one thing.  We have gotten so careless that we often use words incorrectly, leaving false impressions about the truth, and what we really believe, and those words can be dangerous:  We have heard that certain who went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls…Acts 15:24.

            I may surprise you with the application I make here.  We often use words like “Trinity” and “Synoptic Gospels,” sometimes just to look intelligent (at least that was my excuse), without knowing their full theological import.  What denominations believe about those words is NOT what you and I believe about them.  Look them up before you use them in front of your friends and neighbors.  Most people have access to a Zondervan Bible Encyclopedia, either at home or in the church library.  And most people have access to the Internet.  You can find anything on the Internet.  So what does Trinity involve in the theological sense?  Not just the oneness in mind, thought, and action of the Godhead (which I prefer as the scriptural word), but such notions as the Eternal Sonship, implying that Jesus derived somehow from the Father.  It also completely denies the scripture, “This day have I begotten thee” Acts 13:34, by stating that Jesus was always the Son. The reading gets really heavy and you probably will not finish it, but you will see that you do not believe what the average denominational minister does when he says “Trinity.”

            As to “Synoptic Gospels,” all we usually mean is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are similar, and John is different.  However, the whole doctrine states, among other things, that since Matthew, Mark and Luke are so much alike, they must have been taken from one another, with Mark obviously coming first (Markan priority), and they were certainly not written by Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  And that is just the beginning.

            So words are important, both how you use them and where.  Just because you can spout a dictionary definition of a term does not mean you fully understand the ramifications of that doctrine.  Be careful that you know what you are talking about, and be careful of your companions when you use certain words.  In our assemblies we can sing, “Blessed Trinity” and know exactly what we mean.  In our Bible classes we can talk about the Synoptic Gospels and know that we all believe Matthew wrote Matthew, but out in the world you cannot. 

            So here is your first assignment:  look up some of these things; and other phrases you may have wondered about.  Find the five basic tenets of Calvinism (TULIP).  That is what most of your religious friends believe.  Look up “the imputation of Christ’s perfect life.”  Make some notes.  And above all, be careful how you say things.  God decided the best way for Him to communicate with us was through his Word.  Our carelessness and laziness can easily be translated “irreverence.”   

Oh how I love your law.  It is my meditation all the day, Psalm 119:97.

Dene Ward