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            The gospel is nothing if not practical.  God was more interested in helping us live our lives every day than equipping us to sit in dusty rooms arguing theology.  So today let’s be eminently practical.

            I am sure you have heard “practice makes perfect” your entire life.  It is wrong.  The only thing practice makes is permanent.

            One of the things I had to train many of my piano students to do was to practice correctly.  They would come in with the same mistakes week after week.  First they played the wrong note (the same wrong note in the same piece at every lesson), and then they would correct it.  What they had taught themselves to do was to play the wrong note first, then stop and play the right one.  Correcting it did not make the competition judge happy.  He wanted a perfect performance the first time. 

            When their poor practice habits became obvious, we had to start all over.  First I had them tell me the name of the correct note, saying the name aloud several times which I then repeated to them.  “Right, it’s an F#, an F#, an F#.”  Then I had them find that note and play it with the correct finger, while saying its name over and over.  Then I had them play the note before it and after it until they played that three note sequence correctly no less than three times in a row.  If they made a mistake, we started counting all over.

            Then we backed up one measure and played past it one measure, once again until they could do it correctly three times in a row.  Then we backed up one phrase and played past it one phrase until they could play the three phrases correctly three times in a row.  You get the picture.  We practiced it correctly over and over, using as many senses as possible, hearing ourselves say the correct name of the note, feeling the correct note under the finger, seeing the correct note both on the page and as we played it, and then playing through without the bad habit of doing it wrong first.  Usually that took care of the problem.

            What do we do as Christians?  Do we teach ourselves to do it wrong first, then pray for forgiveness over and over, constantly making the same mistakes?  Practice makes permanent.  Maybe it is time to do a little analysis. 

            Why do I keep doing the same thing again and again?  “That’s just the way I am,” is not an acceptable reason; it is a lame excuse.  God expects us to change the way we are.  If it took such detailed, tedious work to undo a bad habit in a piano piece, why do we think we don’t have to really work at it to undo a bad habit in our thoughts or behaviors, where Satan is actively pulling against us?  Some of my students may have been little devils, but that is not why they played wrong notes!  So why should sin be easier to fix?

            Often just the fact that I am owning up to my sin and thinking about the problem will do a world of good, but if you really want to make progress—and I assume we all do--it takes more effort than that.. 

            Make a plan and follow it.  Find three times in the day to pray about that particular problem.  Find three passages about that sin and read them over and over.  The next day pray again and find three more passages.  Do that every day, praying, listing and reading.  Keep a journal of all the times that problem rears its ugly head.  Write down every detail of the situation, how it happened, what caused it, and how you handled, or mishandled, it--without blaming anyone else.  When you finally have a victory, celebrate with a prayer of thanksgiving and your favorite hymn.  Call a friend with whom you have shared your problem (James 5:16) and tell them about it so they can rejoice with you. 

            You do not have to do all of these things in all of these particular ways and numbers, but do something to help yourself kick the habit.  Think about how you set about to lose weight, keeping track of what you eat (including the no-noes) and how much you exercise each day. Remember how those nicotine patch commercials show people stepping down one level at a time till they reach their goal?  But you should be stepping UP one level at the time to reach yours.

            Practice makes permanent.  Make sure you are practicing correctly.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him,  and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God, 
1 John 3:9.

Dene Ward

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            I can hardly believe it, but Silas has started school.  When he found out he had to go back the second week, he said, “You mean I have to go again?!”

            “Yes,” his mother told him, “there is a lot to learn.”

            “But I already learned,” he said, sure that now he would get to stay home with her and his little brother.  Of course, he found out otherwise quickly.

            I know that no one would say it out loud, but sometimes I get the feeling some of my brothers and sisters have the same attitude.  “I already learned!” which is supposed to justify their never studying for a Bible class, never attending an extra Bible study, never darkening the meetinghouse doors for anything but the Lord’s Supper, as if it were a magic potion that would save them that week regardless of anything else they did.  What they have “learned” are usually the pet scriptures, the catchphrases, the simplistic theories that try to explain away the profound depth of the Scriptures—all those things that smack so much of a denominational mindset.

            I have amazing women in my Bible classes, and let me tell you, most of them are neither young nor new Christians.  These are women of a certain age, as we often say, who have sat on pews for longer than many others have been alive, yet they see the value in learning still more. 

            And that does not necessarily mean learning something new.  Sometimes the learning has more to do with a deeper comprehension, uncovering another level of wisdom, or an additional way of applying a fact to one’s life, leading to a changed behavior or attitude.  When I see someone in their later years actually change their lives because of a discovery made in Bible class, I am reminded yet again of the power of the Word.  The most amazing thing about this living and active Word, is that if you are not blinded by self-satisfaction, every time you study it you can see something new.  It’s like peeling an onion—you keep finding another layer underneath.

            You may have “already learned” a great many things, but if that is your attitude, you will never grow beyond the boundaries you have placed upon yourself with that notion.  Like a kindergartner who has learned his letters and numbers, you will be stuck in the basics, the “first principles,” and never come to a fuller comprehension of the magnitude of God’s wisdom and His plan for you.  If you are still deciding how long to keep a preacher based upon how much you “enjoy” his preaching and how many times he visited you in the hospital, if you are mouthing things like “I never heard of such a thing” or “I am (or am not) comfortable with that,” with not a scripture reference in sight, you still have a long way to go. 

            God wants meat-eaters at His banquet.  That means you need to chew a little harder and longer.  Yes, it takes time away from recess to sit in class and learn some more.  Yes, you have to process some new information which may not be as comfortable as you are used to.  Your brain may even ache a little, but that is how you learn, by stretching those mental muscles instead of vegetating on the pew.

            You may think you have “already learned,” but I bet you even my kindergartner grandson will have figured out very shortly that there is a whole lot more he needs to know.  He’s pretty smart for five.  How about you?

 Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the message? them that are weaned from the milk…Isa 28:9.

Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection…Heb 6:1.

Dene Ward