Returning the Favor

4/16/2015 0 Comments

In the past few years people have done things for me that I could not even have imagined.  They have cleaned my house, they have put up my garden produce, they have brought meals, they have taken me to the doctor over and over and over, putting about 120 miles on their cars each time.  They have shopped for me and then conveniently forgotten how much I owe them.  They have walked up to me and in the midst of a hug slipped a hundred dollar bill in my pocket to help pay for surgeries, medicines and medically necessary trips that were not covered at any percentage by insurance because they were too “experimental.”  Many, many more have told me that they get down on their knees and pray for me every day, and many of those knees are frail and aching.
 
   What do you say to people like that?  What can you do for people like that?  “Thank you,” seems so lame.  
 
   And what can we do for God and Christ?  Most of us understand that nothing will repay the debt we owe them.  That is what grace means—you receive mercy you don’t deserve and cannot repay.  Then why do we still act like our “service” is indeed plentiful payment for our salvation?  Why do we question our trials as if God is letting us down “after all we’ve done?”
 
   Just think for a moment about the absurdity of this:  God had the power to create the complexities of this vast universe; Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist, Col 1:15-17; and so, dear Father and Jesus, because of all that, I will try not to sin today.  That is my idea of service?
 
   God deserves all of me, not just a few little commandments I try to keep.  He deserves my service everyday, not just on Sundays.  He deserves my heart, not just my outward posture.  When I give myself to God there should be nothing leftover for me or anyone else.
 
   And He deserves this even when things in my life are not particularly good.  God is the Creator, He is the Almighty, He is the Ruler of the Universe.  That is why He deserves my service, not because He has been good to me.  We truly do not stand in awe of God if we think otherwise.    

    Today, think about the power of God and what it should mean in your service to Him.

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders… over many waters.  The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.  The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness. The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth  and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry,  "Glory!" The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. Selected verses from Psalm 29.

Dene Ward

The Taxman Cometh

4/15/2015 0 Comments

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” Matt 22:21.

    I suppose nothing rankles so much as giving your hard-earned money to a government whose policies you disagree with, who often use that money for things you disapprove of as a Christian.  Guess what?  We are not the first to feel that way, and our government doesn’t come close to the one that governed the people Jesus and the apostles plainly said to pay.  Our government does not yet imprison us for our faith, nor does it throw us to the lions, crucify us, or burn us alive in an arena paid for by tax dollars.

    Paul makes it crystal clear when he says, For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed…Rom 13:6,7.  Some of those very people wound up paying for their own executions, so I doubt we have much excuse in not paying our taxes.

    This is what we miss when we start all the complaining.  In the very same passage Paul says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God…Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience, vv 1,5.  

    You would think that God’s wrath would have been reserved for that government that persecuted His people, but no, in this case, His wrath is on any who disobey this instruction because He ordained that government.  Not to obey that earthly authority is to disobey His heavenly authority.  Paul even adds at the end of verse 7, [Pay] respect to whom respect is owed and honor to whom honor is owed.  That does not mean only those who deserve that respect and honor as men, it means those who are a position of authority.  That position deserves the respect and honor no matter who fills it, because God put him there.  

    Peter says much the same thing:  Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good, 1 Pet 2:13,14.  We obey “for the Lord’s sake.”  So what would that make any civil disobedience on our part?  A slap in the face of God, that’s what.

    This is a lot more important than we like to think.  Subjection is the mark of a Christian.  Every one of us is subject to everyone else (Eph 5:21), and we all are in subjection in other areas of life.  Peter says that is why our subjection to the government is so important. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor, vv15-17.  When we act in any other way, when we disobey the laws of the land, when we cheat on our taxes, we are causing the world to laugh at the very notion of subjection as servants to God, invalidating our faith as surely as if we had stood up and denied the Lord in front of them.

    Yes, it’s that time of year.  Maybe instead of complaining, we should thank God that we have a government that, though it certainly isn’t honoring God, isn’t murdering His children.  At least not yet.

…You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people, Acts 23:5.

Dene Ward

From Bad to Worse

4/14/2015 0 Comments

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, 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. Eph 4:17-19
    
`    In our study of the first century church on Tuesday mornings, the ladies and I have noticed how important purity was to those people.  I am not sure we place the same importance on it, and worse, we excuse impurity of all sorts.  One of my dear sisters said she had even heard another Christian say it was expecting too much to demand purity from people today, not in a society saturated with hedonism and materialism.  Let me tell you, if a Christian could stay pure in a pagan world where fornication was even part of the religious ritual, anyone can stay pure concerning any sin there is.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me, Phil 4:13.
    We were reading together the list in the above passage, a list I had studied several times, when it suddenly struck me that this was not a list at all, it was a progression.  
    The people Paul refers to had vanity of mind.  Most of us who have been in the church for years understand the concept of “vanity.”—emptiness.  These people had no purpose in life.  They moseyed through the day letting life simply “happen.”  That will not last long.  If you have no purpose, you will eventually find one of your own making.  It’s the only way you can rationalize your existence.
    They became darkened in their understanding.  They did not even realize their need.  Because they had come up with their own “meaning of life,” they were satisfied.
    At that point they became alienated from the life of God.  Just across the page from this passage, in 2:5, we are told that God made us alive when we were dead in our sins.  Our life now is a life of service to Him and others.  Our righteous lives look strange to people of the world.  Doing things for others?  Putting the needs of others ahead of your own?  Haven’t you heard someone say, “What about yourself?”  or, “How can you have any fun?”  They can no longer comprehend real fulfillment.
    And so because of the hardening of their heart they refuse to see when others try to tell them what is wrong.  They wear a shield so their consciences will not be pricked into realizing what they are doing to themselves.
    Eventually they become past feeling—they no longer even need the shield over their consciences.  They just plain don’t care.  When you start to talk, they shrug their shoulders.  “You have your way, I have mine—now leave me alone.”
    And so they come to the end—they give themselves up.  At this point, as Peter says, they cannot cease from sin (2 Pet 2:14),  It will take something akin to a miracle to reach them, if they can be reached at all—probably something terrible.
    Truly this is a motivation for keeping oneself pure.  How far can I go before I reach the point of no return?  Will the next sin be the one that makes it nearly impossible to repent?  Do I really want to go through the necessary horror that may be my only chance to wake up?
    Don’t kid yourself—you are as vulnerable as anyone else.  Check this little progression and see where you fall in line.  Then get out of line as fast as you can.  Nothing says you have to be there at all.

But you did not so learn Christ; if so be that you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:  that you put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxes corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth, Eph 4:20-24.

Dene Ward

The Gospel According to the Oak Ridge Boys

4/13/2015 0 Comments

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

There's a black cloud following me around
And I just can't get away
Instead of sinking a little lower
I start making tracks on over
To the place where the sun shines day and night
And I know I'll hear you say

Come on in
Baby take your coat off
Come on in
Baby take a load off
Come on in
Baby shake the blues off
Gonna love that frown away
Come on in
Baby put a smile on
Come on in
Baby tell me what's wrong
Come on in
The blues'll be long gone
Gonna love that hurt away

I've always assumed the Oak Ridge Boys were singing about a bar, but doesn't the description fit exactly the New Testament description of the Church? The church (meaning, of course, the people who meet together under God's auspices) is where we rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep (Rom 12:15). It's where we go for encouragement (Heb 10:24 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works;) and edification (Rom_14:19 So then let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another.) It should also be where we go when we need a kick in the pants (2Ti_4:2 preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.)

The church is referred to as a family almost 200 times in the New Testament. Where else should we turn when we get "tired and a little lonely" or when "a black cloud is following me around and I just can't get away"? Shouldn't our church family be "where the sun shines day and night"? When we need help and encouragement we should be able to call upon our family and always hear "Come on in". And when members of our family call upon us our only thought should be "gonna love that hurt away."  If yours doesn't work that way, maybe you are in the wrong place.

Lucas Ward

Ugly Ducklings

4/10/2015 0 Comments

I was ten years old the first time anyone called me “ugly.”  It was Sunday night, just after services had let out, sometime during the school year.  We all stood in pools of manmade light around the little rock church building, the adults talking and laughing together, the children scampering about in the front yard of the lot, usually girls together and boys together, except for the teenagers who stood together in a group off to one side, aloof from it all.  I didn’t do much running because of my vision, so it was easy for a boy to sneak up behind me, pull my hair and say that awful word.
    
No, he did not have a crush on me.  That’s what they always told girls like me, that and the ugly duckling story.  I was overweight with a head full of frizzy hair, and big coke bottle glasses that made me look bug-eyed and a little stupid.  When he said it, he meant it.
    
Despite my precarious vision, I fled around the side of the building into the blackness of the back yard—no lights to see here, either ugly me or my ugly tears.  I would never have gone back there for any other reason—it was far too scary and I tripped over things right in front of me even in broad daylight, but that dark, shadowy place was where I thought I belonged, because I had seen myself in the mirror and I believed him.  I had also heard several adults talk about my “ugly glasses,” and what a shame it was I had to wear them.  What they didn’t realize was since I could not see at all without them, they were as much a part of me as my nose or any other part of my face.  They were my eyes, and if they were ugly, so was I.
    
Child psychology has come a long way.  We know that children believe what others say about them.  If you tell a child he is bad, he will live up to it.  And if you tell a little girl she is ugly, it will take her decades to get over it.
    
So why do we do this thing to ourselves?  Why do we go on and on about being “only human,” as if being made in the image of God were a bad thing?  Why do we constantly tell one another we are “not perfect?”  Why do we introduce ourselves as “sinners?”  Okay, maybe it is a humility thing, but I see too many times when it is something else entirely—it’s an excuse for not doing better.  And the more often we give ourselves those excuses, the more often we will need them.
    
Listen instead to the Word of God:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Rom 8:16.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…Eph 2:10.

And, having been set free from sin, [you] have become servants of righteousness, Rom 6:18.

…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor 6:11.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, 1 Pet 2:9.
    
That’s what you are—God’s work, God’s children, chosen, royal, holy, righteous, sanctified.  Tell yourself that every morning. Look in the mirror and say the words aloud.  We are “called saints” right along with those Corinthian brethren, 1 Cor 1:2.  Stop calling yourself a sinner all the time.  If that is what you believe, that is what you will do, and then find yourself running back into the darkness trying to hide from it all.
    
Turn on the light and call yourself by the names God does.  This is an “Ugly Duckling” story that has really come true.  You are His child, and that makes you beautiful.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure, 1 John 3:1,2.

Dene Ward

A Bag of Earrings

4/9/2015 0 Comments

A few months ago I went on a trip and, as I was packing, I pulled out my favorite earrings and put them in a plastic bag to take with me.  What I did with them after that I have still yet to recall.  When I arrived at my destination, they were nowhere in my suitcase or my purse.  After returning home, I checked my drawers, my closets, my suitcases—even bags I did not take with me—plus my jewelry box, and the trash can.  I thought to myself, I must have had my mind somewhere else and put them in a strange place—like the times I put the milk in the pantry and the peanut butter in the refrigerator—but they will turn up sooner or later.  Those earrings have yet to reappear.      Funny how we have such a hard time remembering things we really want to remember but cannot forget those things we ought to forget.  Forgiveness is a tricky thing.  While I suppose a hurt is impossible to actually forget, forgiveness means we don’t continue to dwell on the past, keeping account of wrongs done us by various ones like a bookkeeper with OCD.  Yet that is exactly what the Lord expects of us.
    When he told Peter his disciples should forgive unto “seventy-times seven” it was a hyperbole, an exaggeration for emphasis.  No matter how many times a brother hurts me, I am to forgive.  That large a number also emphasizes that I am to do my best to forget.  How else could you forgive someone 490 times unless you have forgotten the previous 489?  The Lord knew what He was asking of us—continual forgiveness for a brother, even for the same sin, as many times as it takes.  He certainly understands the difficulty in that little proposition because He does it for us far more times than that.  If we choose a number to stop at, He will too.  He has already passed it with us.      Wouldn’t it be great if we could forget as easily as we can forget where we put the car keys, or our glasses, or the reason we went into the bedroom to begin with?  We forget those things because we so often have our minds on something else and get sidetracked.  Do you suppose that might work for forgiving others too?    

Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye: and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense, Col 3:12-14; Prov 19:11.

Dene Ward

Turkey Necks

4/8/2015 0 Comments

We have two wild turkeys coming to the feeder these days, a brand new development.  We knew they were out there in the woods—you can here the toms gobbling and the hens clucking early in the morning and in the hours of dusk.  Then last fall we saw four traipsing across our garden in the middle of the day.  A young visitor that day heard Keith and her father talking about “turkey season,” and I heard her whispering, “Run turkeys!  Run!”  And they did.
    Then in the middle of winter one morning I looked out and there stood a turkey hen under the south feeder pecking at the fallen birdseed.  She visited every day for awhile and eventually found her way around the house to the other two feeders.  Gradually she became used to us, and now we can go out on one side of the house without her leaving the opposite side at a “turkey trot.”  She will even let us move by the window inside, where she can see us clearly, without running away.
    Then one afternoon there she was again, only she looked a little different, didn’t she?  Maybe her neck was thicker we said, and then one of us moved in our chairs and she ran down the trellis bed and actually flew over the fence.  Turkeys do not like to fly, so she must have been terrified.  That’s when we put two and two together and realized we now had two turkeys, one with a thinner neck who has learned that we won’t bother her, and one with a thicker neck who still thinks we are some sort of predator out to get her.  Isn’t it odd that it’s the skinnier turkey that is the least frightened?
    That is an apt metaphor for the people of Israel.  They were the country with the skinniest neck, yet throughout their history they routed huge armies or saw them turned back by “circumstances.”  They watched God’s power work when no other country their size, nor even some larger, could withstand the enemy.  But despite that ongoing evidence, only a few learned to depend upon God, only a few saw the chariots of the Lord on the hilltops around them (2 Kings 6:12-18).  Only a few of them had faith and courage like this:
    And Asa cried to the LORD his God, “O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, 2 Chron 14:11.
    Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright, Psa 20:7,8.
    Eventually there weren’t enough faithful to save them from destruction.  Eventually God had to remove the ones He thought had some potential and send the prophets to ready them for a return, but even then only a small remnant came back.  Many of them were still frightened turkeys, and they were well aware of how skinny their necks were.
    Learn the lesson those people didn’t.  God has given you evidence every day of your life that He is with you.  If you think otherwise, you just haven’t noticed.  Trials in your life are not an indication that He is not with you.  Paul told the Romans that “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword,” none of those could separate us from the love of Christ—not that they would never happen!  
    Be ready to stand against whatever army Satan throws at you, knowing that the chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; [and] the Lord is among them, Psa 68:17.                         

Dene Ward

Understanding God?

4/7/2015 0 Comments

I heard something the other day that made me stop and think.  Some fellow of some offbeat religion had decided that Jesus was going to come on some given date.  One of my brethren immediately said, “Well, I guess we know one day Jesus won’t come.”      

Now wait just a minute.  I understand that concept comes from the passage that says no one knows the day of the Lord’s return except God, but God can choose any day he wants to choose, even one I choose, if I were of a mind to.  Before long, someone is going to come up with the ridiculous notion that if everyone takes turns choosing a day, then we can keep the world from ever ending.  No wonder the world makes fun of us when our thinking is as shallow as that.      

Sometimes in an effort to explain the unexplainable we overstate our case.  We talk about what God would and wouldn’t do, how He would and wouldn’t feel, what He just could not do if He were really a loving God, and I want to cringe just waiting for the lightning to strike.  Behold God is great and we know him not, Job 36:26.  God is so far beyond our comprehension we truly cannot understand Him.  We need to be careful not to be so presumptuous as to declare what He will and will not do, how He does and does not feel.  Yes, I can gauge His reactions to my life based upon how He reacted to others, but making unqualified statements about God’s will is pretty arrogant for the created to say about the Creator.
    
Sometimes we say things like, “I know we’ll understand some day.”  Frankly, I don’t know any such thing.  God never promised that I will understand everything, or even that I would be able to.  Have you not known, have you not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary; there is no searching [no measure] of his understanding, Isa 40:28.  It may be that once I live on a plain of spiritual existence, inhabiting eternity along with Him, that many things will become clear on their own, but God does not owe me an explanation for anything.  We seem to have forgotten who holds the IOU.
    
This is what I know.  God loves me.  He sent his Son to save me.  He has given me every spiritual blessing.  I can talk to Him any time I choose, not just when I need help.  But when I do need help, He will be there. Those things alone should amaze me and give me plenty of motivation to be faithful to Him.  
He is the all-powerful Creator.  He owes me nothing; I owe Him everything, including my obedience and loyalty in a life that is sometimes sad, sometimes grueling, sometimes problematic—and He is not required to explain why I must put up with those things—but a life that is also joyous because of the peace I have now and the promises He has given me for the future, even though I don’t deserve them.  That is all I need to know.

For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:  I dwell in the high and holy place with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite, Isa 57:15.

Dene Ward

The Walking Dead

4/6/2015 0 Comments

I don’t get it.  Something is very wrong when we make heroes out of monsters.  First it was vampires, and now zombies.  But did you know this?  We have spiritual vampires and zombies out there too, and some of us make heroes out of them.
  
 Televangelists and faith healers come to mind.  Has there ever been a more despicable sort of bloodsucker?  They use the desperate, the ill, the old, the ones afraid of dying without God, and steal their money and their minds, basking in the adoration of distressed souls who want just one last vestige of health and a moment of relieved peace before their deaths.  Yes, a lot of it is their own fault.  If they knew and loved the Word of God as they should they would not have been deluded so as to “believe a lie” (2 Thes 2:9-11).  Yet Satan’s ministers are good-looking, amiable, charismatic people, and even the good-hearted can be deceived if they aren’t careful (2 Cor 11:13-15).

    But the worst are surely the walking dead. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will, John 5:21.  Notice, Jesus said this well before he ever raised anyone from the dead.  Most commentators believe he was talking here about raising the spiritually dead, and the full context proves them correct.  

    How are we dead?  Most of us can easily quote passages saying we were once “dead in sin,” but Jesus was talking to the Jews of the day, God’s people.  
    Verse 16 tells us these people were seeking to kill Jesus because he healed on the Sabbath.  They understood when it suited them that healing on the Sabbath was not a sin; they did the same for their animals.  But their traditions outweighed the clear dictum of the Law to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  In another healing, Jesus quite purposefully called the woman who was bowed together a “daughter of Abraham” in order to shame the ruler who did not want her healed (Luke 13:15,16).  Follow the man born blind in John 9 and see the ridiculous lengths they went to in order to condemn a man who could heal as no one ever had before.  Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes, John 9:30.  Even Jesus was amazed at their determination not to see his obvious origins, and therefore his authority to heal whenever he pleased.  
  
 That determination is shown earlier in John 5.  They clearly understood that Jesus claimed a relationship with God that was above and beyond their own, yet despite the works he did, and thus the witness shown by God through those works, they denied that witness, one that shone clearly to any who dared to actually see.  
 
   Those people who thought they were the one true people of God, following the one true Law, couldn’t even tell when God was among them.  What did Jesus have to say about that?  Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him, John 5:24.  Don’t count on your pedigree in the faith.  Don’t count on following the rules.  These people had the first (Abraham is our father, John 8:39), and did the second, but Jesus says to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life, John 5:24.  He was calling them dead, yet they were still on this earth walking around, still in charge of God’s people, a people they disdained, John 7:48,49.
    
  How are we doing as a people of God?  Do we truly listen, or have we become nothing more than a self-righteous, unloving group that prides itself on having been baptized and following a set of rules, including a bunch we devised ourselves and then judge others for not keeping.  As sad as it is, we have the walking dead still among us, and some people think they are heroes.  

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.  Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you, Rev 3:1-4.  

Dene Ward

Pallets on the Floor

4/3/2015 5 Comments

When I was a child we often visited friends and family, all the kids sleeping in the living room floor on piles of quilts.  It was fun because it was different and exciting, and not one of us complained.  Dinner was never fancy because none of us were wealthy, but all my aunts could cook as well as my mother and we knew it would be good whatever it was.  We practiced the hospitality shown in the Bible to our families, to our neighbors, and to our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  What has happened to us?
    Even if we aren’t particularly wealthy, we have fallen for the nonsense that because we cannot offer what the wealthy offer, we should offer nothing at all.  How do we excuse it?  I don’t have a spare room.  I don’t have a bathroom for every bedroom.  The spare room I do have is too small.  The bathroom is too tiny.  My grocery budget is too small and my time too little for cooking.  I work.  I have an infant in the house who still wakes up at night.  And the perennial favorite, “You know, times are different now.”  
    Not so much, folks.  Lydia worked, yet she made Paul and Silas an offer they couldn’t refuse—she told them they would be insulting her faith if they did not stay with her.  Unless I am reading something into it that isn’t there, Priscilla worked right alongside her husband, “for they were tentmakers.”  Yet Paul didn’t stay with them for just a night or two—he lived with them for a good while.  Abraham was a very busy man—he had more employees than some towns in that day had citizens, yet he not only offered hospitality, he actively looked for people who might need it.
    “But they had servants!” some whine.  If you don’t think your modern conveniences fill the place of servants, you have never thought about what it took back then to cook—they started with the animals on the hoof, people!  Their cooking involved building a fire from scratch, sometimes in the heat of the day.  And here we sit with the meat already butchered in our electric refrigerators, ready to put in our gas or electric ovens.  We clean with our vacuum cleaners, pick up ready-made floral arrangements at the grocery store, make sure the automatic shower cleaner and the stuck-on toilet cleaner are still in service, and stop at the bakery for the bread. Then, when it’s all done, we put the dirty dishes in our dishwashers, and we do it all in our air conditioned homes.
    Part of the problem may also be the expectations of guests these days.  It isn’t just that people are no longer hospitable—it’s that people are spoiled and self-indulgent.  They don’t want to sleep on a sofa.  They don’t want to share a bathroom with a couple of kids.  They will not eat what is offered.  We aren’t talking about health situations like diabetes and deadly allergies.  We are talking about people who care more about their figures than their fellowship; people who were never taught to graciously accept what was placed in front of them, even knowing it was the best their hosts could afford, because, “I won’t touch_______________,” (fill in the blank).  
    We once ate with a hard-working farm family who had invited us and two preachers over for dinner.  Dinner was inexpensive fare--they had five children and had invited us six to share their meal.  Later that evening, when we had left their home, we heard those two preachers making fun of what of they had been served and laughing about it.  I hope those poor people never got wind of it.  
    When we raise our children to act in similarly ungracious ways, when we consider them too precious to sleep on a pallet on the floor, as if their royal hides could feel a miniscule pea beneath all those quilts, what can we expect?  Do you think it doesn’t happen?  We once had a guest who told me she had rather not sleep where I put her.  It was the only place I had left to put her.  I already had four other guests when she had shown up at my door unannounced.  She was more than welcome—I have taken in unexpected guests many times--but where were this one’s manners?
    Do you know how many times we have been told, “Do you know how far it is out there?” when we invited someone thirty miles out in the country to our home for a meal.  Excuse me?  Of course we know how far it is—we drive it back and forth at least three times a week just to the church building, not counting other appointments.
    This matter of hospitality worries me.  It tells me we have become self-indulgent and materialistic when it comes both to offering it and accepting it.  God commands us to Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, 1 Pet 4:9.  What has happened to the enjoyment of one another’s company, the encouragement garnered by sharing conversation and bumping elbows congenially in close quarters, and the love nurtured by putting our feet under the same table, by opening not only our homes but our hearts?  
    What has happened to the joy of a pallet on the floor?

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us, Acts 16:14,15.

Dene Ward