One of the most interesting narratives in the Old Testament concerns the prophet Elijah and his interactions with two Sidonian women.  The first of course, was Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon, who married Ahab, king of Israel.  The second was the widow who lived in Zarephath, eight miles south of Sidon on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  Take a few minutes with me this morning as we compare these two women.

            Jezebel began life as a princess and ended it as a queen, living a life of luxury in a palace.  She moved into Israel, living among the people of God, but proceeded to convert the whole land to Baal worship, chasing down and killing the prophets of Jehovah.  That is how Elijah eventually met the woman of Zarephath.

            This widow to whom God sent his prophet was a poor woman.  She was even at the time she first saw Elijah, gathering wood to make one last meal for her and her son.  Yet she shared with the prophet first and God provided for them all until the famine ended.

            Both of these women knew of Jehovah.  Jezebel was canny enough to use the very law of God when she connived to snatch Naboth’s vineyard away from him.  She paid two false witnesses (“at the mouth of two or three witnesses”) to have him accused of a capital crime.  The widow mentioned to Elijah “Jehovah your god,” at their first meeting.  Elijah, who traveled throughout the northern  kingdom, was not unknown, and surely who and what he was had reached as far as Zarephath, but at that point Jehovah was probably just another god in the pantheon she knew about.  Still, with the witness of the never failing pot of oil and jar of meal, she served Elijah, probably the greatest prophet in the Old Testament as evidenced by his inclusion on the Mount of Transfiguration, for as long as he needed her.

            And that woman, as poor and uneducated as she likely was, understood that she was a sinner.  When her son died, she brought that very fact up to Elijah.  “Having you here has made my sin obvious, and now I am paying for it,” she accused.  When Elijah raised her son from the dead, she seemed to finally reach the correct conclusion about Jehovah.  “Now I know,” she said, “that you are a man of God and that the word of Jehovah in your mouth is truth.”  If this is not a confession of belief in Jehovah as the one true God, then I don’t know what the word means.

            But Jezebel?  Even after all the miracles, even after all the preaching, even after all the prophecies concerning her family that came true, she refused to serve Jehovah.  When God sent Jehu to kill her, she saw death coming and simply put on her makeup.  She accused him of being a “Zimri,” a servant who rose up against his king and killed him in 1 Kings 16, the man her own father-in-law succeeded as king.  As defiant as ever, she went to her death, thinking she was dying with dignity, while the God she defied made certain she did not.

            And so here are the two women—one who had all the advantages of wealth, position, power, family, influence, and life among God’s chosen, and the other, a poor heathen widow whose name even today we do not know.  But which one did Jesus himself use as an example?

            In Luke 4:24-29, he tells some unwelcoming Jews that God had to send Elijah to a Gentile, and a woman, because none of his own people would have cared for him, and the same was happening to him.  Jesus was unacceptable to those first century Jews.  He hung around with the wrong people.  He didn’t understand the value in wealth and worldly/political power.  He insulted the wrong people, the religious pillars.  He was too ordinary and plainspoken, too simple, not a good-looking orator/soldier who would lead them to a glorious and glitzy victory.

            And the lesson to us today?  If Jesus were to come in the same way, would the church welcome him with open arms, or would God have to send him to unbelievers to be cared for?  Would only the sinners we look down on listen to him?  One way to know is how we accept his messengers.  What do we expect of our preachers?  Are they too blunt, too negative, and too impractical?  Do they just need “to move on for the good of the cause?” 

            I have seen and heard of far too many churches that would have chased Elijah to Sidon.  I have seen far too many churches whose values do not match the Lord’s.  And so for us comes this question:  Which Sidonian woman is our role model?
 
For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, for they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth, 3 John 2-5,7-8.
 
Dene Ward

The last in a continuing Monday morning series.  Please read it all in order before you make any judgments or even try to understand what is being said. 

              In order to make this a complete study, we have to look at a little history.  You will be surprised at what you learn, I promise.

              The Greek philosophers actually got a few things right about God, even while not really identifying Him as the one true God.  They taught that He is pure, one, immaterial (i.e., a Spirit), self-sufficient, imperturbable, and that He works merely by thought, among other things, but they did not truly understand God.  How could they without His Divine Revelation? 

              Xenophanes (d. 475 BC) broke away from the system of Greek gods.  “They are as wicked as men,” he said in explanation.  “God,” he noted, “is the greatest among the gods.”  Sounds a bit like Nebuchadnezzar’s understanding of God.

              Socrates (d. 399 BC) was forced to drink hemlock because he “did not accept the gods of the city.”  Plato (d. 348 BC) said, “God is the first cause…the prime mover.”  Aristotle (d. 322 BC) said that God is “the unmoved mover” who “knows all before it exists.”

              Yet the God they described was abstract, impersonal, unreachable, perfect, and unmoved.  If He is perfect, they reasoned, why would He change anything, especially His mind?  If He is perfect and has arranged things perfectly, any change would be for the worse.

              The philosophical thinking of the time involved three things:
1.  Fate—you are assigned a life that cannot be changed, in theological words, predestination.  What happens happens because it has to happen.
2.  Immutability of God—the perfect doesn’t change.  God is perfect, therefore God does not change.
3.  Timelessness of God—if God has no beginning or end, He will know both the past and the future as well as the present.  When taken with number one, this means He has your life planned and you have no choices.

              Alexander’s [Greek] empire included most of the known world, so this philosophy spread.  Greeks prevailed until Rome took over.  Roman technology and military thinking prevailed, but they lost the culture wars—Greek culture prevailed there and so all these ideas spread.

              The Stoics, whom the apostle Paul dealt with in Athens, lived by the principle of Fate, and had great influence in society.  “You cannot change anything.  Just accept it and don’t let it disturb you.”

              First century Christians did not buy into this.  They believed that the choices you make can make a difference in your life and even in the world.  It was yet another way they stood out from their neighbors, at least until Augustine came along.

              Augustine was Bishop of Hippo, in North Africa.  Even though his mother was a Christian he was not at first. He was a philosopher who still believed in the Greek “package.”  He could not accept a changeable God.  He called the God of the Scriptures “absurd” and “offensive.”  But eventually he was converted—sort of.

              He followed Ambrose in “allegorical interpretation” of the Scriptures, which means you can make scripture mean anything, just call it an allegory.  He looked for ways to incorporate his old philosophies into the Biblical teaching.  He decided that Fate = God.  The problem was he became the dominant voice in the early Roman Catholic Church.

              This infection of Greek philosophy into New Testament theology continued unabated.  Thomas Aquinas, who was called “the Doctor of the Church” actually wrote commentaries on Aristotle.  Aristotle was taught in the early universities—where only priests and church dignitaries studied.  Eventually Luther and Calvin came out of those schools.  They called Fate by the Biblical word “predestination,” but they are not the same thing at all, as any thorough study will show.  Still, those beliefs permeated all theology for centuries.  You know all those “heretics” who were executed in the Middle Ages?  They were the ones who rebelled against this unscriptural view of God and how He works.

              Don’t think it doesn’t seep into our thinking.  “It just wasn’t meant to be,” we sometimes say when we are struggling with a tragedy of life.

              “I’m only human,” and, “Once saved, always saved,” all come from those old Greek philosophies, which in turn affected our theology. 

              I wish you all could have sat in the class I sat in last summer.  Since you did not, here is the bottom line:  Remember your stop sign.  Stop trying to explain the unexplainable.  Stop trying to bring God down to a human level.  Just accept what His revelation says about Him, without trying to undo it or make it match your preconceived notions.  That is the only reverent way to approach Him.
 
​Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. Ps 147:5
 
Dene Ward

On January 15, 1535, King Henry VIII of England, declared himself King of the Church and the Anglican Church suddenly came into existence.  We could talk all day about “the church” he left and “the church” he formed, whether either of them were scripturally correct or even had the right to exist.  Today I just want you to think about this:  do you make yourself “king of the church?”  Do I?

            Although it was not as simple as this when you read all the various histories, the final straw for Henry was the pope’s refusal to allow him to divorce one of his many wives and marry another.  Henry wanted an heir and every woman he chose seemed unable to produce the desired son.  At first the pope was leaning Henry’s way, then politics reared its ugly head and in the course of all the complications, he denied Henry’s request.  So Henry simply left that church and made his own.

            I wonder how many of the various other denominations came about for the same sort of reason.  I wonder how many people try to camouflage their reason for dividing the Lord’s body by claiming that things are not done scripturally, when the real reason is, “They don’t do things the way I want them done.”  If you look at the makeup of the New Testament church, if you study carefully the things being said in the epistles, there was a vast plurality among those people.  Some came from Judaism and still practiced circumcision and Passover celebrations.  Paul did not tell them they had to change; he just told them not to bind their rituals on others.  The Gentile Christians came from a background of idolatry that kept them following dietary restrictions because they could not separate their old pagan beliefs from normal everyday activities, like eating meat.  Paul did not tell them to go ahead and eat that meat—he just told them not to look down their noses at people who did.  Even among the apostles we find a Zealot and a publican. 

            So believing things a little differently is acceptable as long as no one is actively sinning, or trying to force their own slants down other people’s throats.  Henry’s problem was that he didn’t like the rules so he made a completely new standard.  Now, he could do as he pleased.

            Jeroboam tried the same thing in the Old Testament.  He was not satisfied with the kingdom God gave him.  Instead of trusting God to fulfill his promise to build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and [to] give Israel unto thee, 1 Kgs 11:38, he was afraid he might lose it all when the people worshipped God as the Law commanded, especially when they went south to offer their sacrifices on feast days.  So he changed the feast days, he changed the place of worship, and he changed the priesthood.  They were still worshipping Jehovah, just not the way Jehovah had dictated they should.  At least that was how he rationalized it—we are still worshipping the One True God.  And God let him know exactly how he felt about that through Ahijah the prophet: he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he hath sinned, and wherewith he hath made Israel to sin, 1 Kgs 14:16.  Worshipping your own way instead of God’s way is sin.

            Worship, in the true meaning of the word, has nothing to do with how we want to do it and everything to do with how the Worshipped One wants it to be done.  That is why it matters what we do when we assemble, and that is why it also matters what we do the other six days of the week--our very lives are sacrifices (worship) to God, Rom 12:1-3. 

            I do not have a kingdom, and neither do you. We do not get to decide what the church does, or what will be acceptable if another does it. Who are you to judge the servant of another? Rom 14:4.  We do not even get to decide what we do.  Jesus Christ is King of the Church.  Let’s all be careful to do as he says, and not as we want.
 
And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Eph 1:19-23.
 
Dene Ward

We discovered last month that Keith’s hearing has gotten much worse.  Before, when he was not wearing his two high-tech hearing aids, if I put my mouth right at his ear and spoke like I was talking to someone in the next room, he could hear enough to tell what I was saying.  He still couldn’t hear the phone ring in the same room, but at least we had a way to communicate if necessary.  Now we don’t.  No matter how loudly I speak, even with my mouth inside the curl of his ear, he can no longer hear me.  Without hearing aids, he is utterly deaf.

            So, I thought, maybe we should start learning to sign right now, just in case we need it sometime.   Then I thought, how long will I be able to see him signing?  When my sight goes, will he be totally lost to me?  My stomach did a little flip and I sat down quickly.  Panic set in for a moment before I calmed down enough to realize that would not be the case.  I would still have the sense of touch.  I have held those hands every day for nearly 37 years now and laid on that chest every night.  And though his speech patterns may deteriorate without his hearing, no one could ever mistake that voice.  I can sign to him and he can talk to me.  Whew!  What a relief.

            Col 1:15, 1 Tim 1:17 and Heb 11:27 tell us that God is invisible.  Jesus says in John 5:37 that no one has seen his form or heard his voice.  And because of that, people choose to believe he is not there.  Job mentions in 23:8,9 that when God is working, you cannot “perceive him.”  Don’t you sometimes get frustrated and wonder, “Why is it that Almighty God chooses to work in ways that do not make his existence obvious?”  Or doesn’t he?  Maybe it’s similar to Jesus choosing to speak in parables.  He said the ones who wanted to hear him could, and the ones who didn’t, wouldn’t, Matt 13:10-17.  He wants us to show a little desire and put in a little effort.

            People who want to see the hand of God, need only to stand on the seashore and look out at the endless waves, or look up in the night sky and try to count the stars. People with the right heart need only see the rebirth of plants and flowers in the spring, watch the flights of migrating birds, or experience the birth of their own children.  They need only to see the sun rise and set day after day, or understand the symbiotic relationships between species to comprehend the power of an Eternal Creator who still makes it all work, whether we can see him or not.

              Paul says in that famous passage in Romans that God did not leave the heathen nations without some sort of witness to his existence.  All they had to do was look around them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse, Rom 1:20. 

            Just like I will always know if Keith is there whether I can see him or not, we can always know that God is there.  Just as with Job, even when we cannot see him working, we can know that he is. And that assurance gives us hope that the things that happen here, no matter how bad they are, are being used as part of his plan.  We may not know the plan or how it will ultimately turn out in its specifics, but we can know he is working.  And that’s all we need to know.
 
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold, Job 23:8-10.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

In 1 Chronicles 13:1-3 we find David addressing all the leaders of his people and proposing that they bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem and to a central position of worship in the nation rather than leaving it in one man’s house. He says they need to do this since “we sought not unto it in the days of Saul.” For the backstory to this, read 1 Samuel 4:1-7:2. A quick recap: The Israelites badly lost a battle to the Philistines and essentially tried to force God into action by carrying the Ark of the Covenant into battle. They soon discovered that it is impossible to force God to do anything and the priests carrying the ark (Eli’s sons) were killed and the ark was captured. Eli died upon receiving the news. God did strike the Philistines with plagues for keeping His ark, though, and they sent it back to Israel on a driverless cart. It wound up in Kiriath-jearim in the house of Abinadab. There it stayed for nearly forty years, the first twenty of which Israel apparently didn’t even worry about where it was. Such was the sad state of the nation’s morality. David, however, was as much a moral and spiritual leader as he was a military and political one, and the time had come to bring the ark back to the people.

1 Chronicles 13:4-8 tells us of the festivities planned for this momentous occasion. David gathered all the people together from the southernmost border unto the northernmost. The ark was placed in a new cart. There was singing and the playing of various musical instruments.  Note especially their fervor: vs. 8 “And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.” They were worshiping with all their might. But, of course, something went wrong.

1 Chronicles 13:9-14 tells of the death of Uzzah and David’s reaction. Probably Uzzah meant to show respect to the ark. The oxen stumbled and the cart was bouncing, and he didn’t want the ark to fall out and break into little pieces. So he steadied it with his hand. God killed him. David is described as displeased/angry and afraid. Think about how confused he must have been. He was trying to bring God’s ark back to the people so the worship of God could be restored. He was celebrating this momentous occasion with the whole nation, all of them worshiping with all they had, praising God, and in the middle of all this, God kills Uzza. His reaction in vs. 12 is understandable “And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?” He was afraid and unsure how (or if) to proceed. He drops the ark into the nearest available house like a hot potato. It stayed there in Obed-edom’s house for three months while David figured out how to bring the ark, during which time, Obed-edom was blessed.

In that three month interlude, David twice had to battle the Philistines (chapter 14) but he also discovered how to move the ark safely. 1 Chron. 15:2 “Then David said, ‘None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath Jehovah chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him forever.’” So, the Levites were to carry the ark. How did David learn this? Did a prophet tell him? Did God give him a dream? No, it is plainly written in Numbers. 4:15. All David had to do was read the Law already given by God.

1 Chronicles 15:3-13 tells of David bringing together the nation once more and then addressing the Levites. What he says to them in verse 13 is profound “For because ye bare it not at the first, Jehovah our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not according to the ordinance.” So, they were seeking God, but God “made a breach upon” them because they did not seek according to the ordinance or the rule. Well, was their heart right? Yes, remember when they were singing and playing before the Lord, they were doing it “with all their might”, and David, their leader, was the “man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14 cf Acts 13:22). Their hearts were in the right place. Well, did they give their best to God? Yes, David did not just take a few of his buddies to pick up the ark, he gathered the nation. As king, he brought everyone, all he had as followers, to celebrate this event. And the cart wasn’t some old jalopy of a cart that had previously been used to haul manure from the stables to the back forty. It was a new cart, never used before, the best to be had for the purpose. Well, was this a grand festival designed to praise the Lord? Yes, that’s exactly what it was. But the Lord was angry and made a breach upon them because, despite all their sincerity and heartfelt intent, they did not seek Him according to the ordinance.

There are other examples of this. Nadab and Abihu were trying to light the altar’s fire so that sacrifices could be made to God but they did not do it as He commanded and were burnt up for their failure. (Leviticus 10:1-2) Jereboam changed the worship practices in fear that his new kingdom would abandon him if they continued to go to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:25ff). He was NOT changing Who was worshiped. “thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” “Gods” is merely Elohim, the typical word for God, and in every single place in the OT where the God who brought them from Egypt is mentioned, it is always referring to YHWH God. From Exodus to Ezekiel. So, Jereboam wasn’t trying to change who they worshiped, just where they worshiped him, and the priesthood that served Him, and the festivals by which they worshiped Him. 1 Kings 16:19 is one of many passages that records the result. “Israel sinned”. Many were no doubt worshiping their God sincerely, but they weren’t worshiping “according to the ordinance” and so they sinned.

Jesus Himself discusses this. Matt. 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Holding your hands high, with your eyes closed, and calling Him “Lord” in all sincerity isn’t good enough if we aren’t also doing His Father’s will. Also, in John 4:23 “. . . true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” We have to worship in spirit AND truth. We can’t leave either out.

This is important, because there are so many people today who sincerely worship God. Who regularly “play before Him with all their might” and who call out “Lord, Lord”, but they worship in ways not taught by the New Testament. The churches they attend go beyond what the New Testament teaches and/or do things directly against New Testament teaching. They aren’t worshiping “according to the ordinance.” In trying to discuss this with friends and neighbors, how many times have you heard someone say something like “Well, God knows my heart. He will look and see that this worship comes from the heart and He will accept me”. Really? He made a breach against David because he hadn’t followed the ordinance! Are they better than David, the man after God’s own heart? If God didn’t look into David’s sincere heart and accept his erroneous worship, I sincerely doubt He’ll do that for anyone else. IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW SINCERE WE ARE IF WE AREN’T WORSHIPING ACCORDING TO THE ORDINANCE. After all, He is God, not us. He gets to choose how we approach Him, not us. REPEAT: He is God, not us. He gets to choose how we approach Him, not us.

While we absolutely cannot reduce our worship to some checklist we can mark off, and our hearts must be in our worship (Isaiah 1:11-15, Hos. 6:6, Micah 6:6-8), we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without doing the will of the Father. Calling out “Lord, Lord” won’t be enough. And that’s why I’m writing all of this. Not to be mean-spirited or hateful, but because I want as many people as possible to make it into the kingdom and that can only happen by doing the will of the Father, “according to the ordinance
 
Lucas Ward

Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them; else you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven, Matt 6:1.

            We all know that doing the right thing for the wrong reason will get you nowhere with God.  Every action, especially right ones, must be motivated by an unselfish desire to serve either God or His children. 

            We in the church are bad about equating “faithfulness” to assembling with the saints.  When was the last time you heard discipline being practiced for anything other than “forsaking the assembling?”  Unfortunately, a good many who do assemble are doing so for the wrong reasons.  In fact, their reasons for assembling might very well be more a sign of unfaithfulness than staying at home would have been.

            Complaints about the service are a good indicator.  The songs are too slow or too old or too boring.  The prayers are too long or too cliché-ridden.  The sermons are interminable or step on too many toes or they are given “in the wrong tone of voice.”  This brother didn’t speak to me, that sister hurt my feelings, and the elders ignored me.  The building is too cold or too hot, and then there is the always popular, “I didn’t get anything out of the services today.”

            Let’s take a look at that passage about assembling.  Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day drawing nigh, Heb 10:24,25.  Why is it that we assemble?  “To provoke one another to love and good works.”  And how do we do that?  By “considering one another.” 

            That same Greek word is used in Luke 6:41, And why do you behold the mote that is in your brother’s eye, and also in Luke 20:23, But he perceived their craftiness… “Considering” one another obviously takes some effort and more than a little thought.

            So what are we supposed to be doing while we sit on those pews?  We should not be rating performances like a judge at a talent show.  We should not be waiting to be entertained.  Instead we should be “considering” one another, “beholding,” or looking to one another, “perceiving” the individual needs of each one.  Does this sister need special encouragement this week?  Does that brother need a reminder?  Is the family next to me in the midst of a crisis?  What can I do this week to help them?  The family that usually sits across the aisle is missing.  I need to find out why.

            Assembling for the wrong reason is just as bad as praying for the wrong reason, giving for the wrong reason, or even being baptized for the wrong reason.  Assembling is a gift, yet another opportunity to build one another up, not just for two or three hours, but all week long.  If I don’t do my part, seeking to find ways to help others instead of concentrating on my own likes and dislikes, I will have no reward with my Father who is in Heaven.  In fact, I might as well stay home.
 
But speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in due measure of each several part, makes the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love, Eph 4:15,16.
 
Dene Ward

You probably discovered last week how bad we are about trying to explain God.  Just think how many times we had to use that STOP sign.  And if you didn’t use it, shame on you.  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God... Deut 29:29

            The Godhead itself is an incomprehensible relationship.  As much as we try to liken it to other things, it is not.  It is unique and, in the scriptures, unexplained.  That alone makes it unexplainable.

            If we could truly understand God, then we wouldn’t worship Him.  By “explaining” Him, we bring Him down to our level, and our level certainly is not worth worshipping.  It is “reverence” masked by irreverence. 

            And we also have something not only unexplainable, but unthinkable:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil 2:5-8   God became human.
           
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; Heb 2:14  He partook of flesh and blood.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:1, 14.  God became flesh.
           
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Heb 4:15.  He was in all points tempted.

            For God to become human should not just be amazing, it should be a staggering thought.  If it has never taken your breath away and knocked you off your feet, figuratively anyway, you just don’t get it.  In spite of yourself, you have absorbed too much denominational theology.  You’ve spent too much time with Augustine of Hippo and his Reformation disciples.    And that’s where we will finish next week.
 
Dene Ward

If I asked any one of you if Bible study was essential to a godly life, I would be surprised to hear anyone say no.  We all understand that God expects us to learn His Word.  We devote a lot of time, energy, and funds to our class systems to make sure our children are well-taught, even expecting the church to do our duty as parents, but that is another post for another day.  Still, we do understand that Bible study is essential.  We put “edification” in those ubiquitous “acts of worship” lists and if questioned about it will happily list Bible classes along with sermons as the means for that particular “act.”

            But is knowing God’s Word the purpose of Bible study?  I would hope we all know better than that.  There may well be theological knowledge we must all have to appreciate our salvation and keep our faith strong, but the practical purpose for Bible study is to learn how God wants us to live our lives. If your Bible study does not affect your life, why do you bother?

            So how are you doing in the practical application of your study?  Here is a test for you.  When you hear a sermon, does something about you change?  When you learn something in a Bible class, do you think about it and perhaps alter your schedule, toss a few things out of your wardrobe, raise your contribution, pray more often, or put a few TV shows on your family’s verboten list?  Do you forgive a wrong, pray for an enemy, or stand up for the truth in a room full of atheists?  Does what you learn affect you in any way at all?  And does it go past a onetime thing to a life-changing habit?

            All right, so maybe you have been a Christian for a few decades instead of just a few weeks, and you have already made many changes.  Good for you.  But do you think there is nothing you can make better, that you already have all your ducks in a row, perfectly aligned so they waddle in step and quack in unison?  I’m not there yet.  Surely even you can make a few adjustments, tweaking your life just a bit.

            Sometimes the changes you make can be a little more philosophical and effect the genuineness of worship.  I passed my Psalms lesson book on to a Bible class teacher in another church many miles from here.  He told me that it has made a definite difference in his prayer life—the Psalms may be poems set to music for both individual and group worship, but they are also prayers.  And, since he also leads singing, he told me it has changed how he does that as well.

            The class had just finished Psalm 89, a long psalm that praises God by discussing His attributes—love, faithfulness, righteousness, justice, power, holiness.  So the next Sunday he chose his songs according to that pattern, God’s attributes.  They sang “Wonderful Grace,” “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and “Because He Loved Me So.”  He told the good people there what he was doing and why.  They paid more attention to the words they were singing and their song service was, in spite of singing “boring old songs” as some these days might call them, more moving and admonishing, and sung with much more “understanding” than usual.

            Just a little Bible study caused a whole church to worship more sincerely than they had in a long, long time.  What has your Bible study done for you lately?  It’s up to you how much you get out of it and what you do with what you learn.
 
​Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. ​Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. ​Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! ​Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. ​Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared. Ps 119:34-38
 
Dene Ward

Medicine is a wonderful thing, but sometimes the cure is as bad as the disease.

            I have been on several heavy-duty medications for several years now.  Normal people who have the surgeries I have had do not need the medications after the surgery.  The new lens, or the shunt, or the tube fixes the problem.  By now you know that nothing is normal with me.  For me the surgery just makes the medicine work again after it has stopped—for awhile anyway.  Not even the new devices can keep up with the problem on their own.

            Eyeballs are fragile organs.  The sclera, or skin of the eyeball, protects the inner workings, but when the sclera is compromised due to chemicals, even those especially designed for a human eyeball, things become difficult.  My sclera is drying up.  I use saline drops copiously to fight this, but it is not enough.  At night especially, when I am asleep and cannot pour in those drops on a regular schedule, the dry factor is multiplied.  Eventually the eyelid sticks to my eyeball.  

            The first time this happened and I tried to move my eye in my sleep (all that REM sleep, you know) the pain woke me.  Then I could not get my eye open.  Not realizing the problem, I just yanked it open.  If you can imagine what it would feel like to have Velcro eyelids, that’s what it was like.  It just “ripped” open.  I thought I even heard the rip, but it might have been me screaming, “Yeow!” 

          What happened?  The doctor said I ripped off the surface cells of the eyeball.  I have learned to wake up completely, put saline in the corner and turn my head so the drops seep under the eyelid and loosen it before trying to open my eyes in the middle of the night.   This happens every couple of hours.  As you can imagine, a good night’s sleep is no longer possible.

            And they say that this little method of mine is not enough.  That just the eyelid rubbing on the surface of this chemically dried out eyeball is causing ocular erosion—or erosion of the eyeball, you might say.  What to do?  Nothing.  I need the medication and I my eyeball needs its eyelid.  If either were missing, worse things would happen.

            God designed his church that way.  We are supposed to need one another.  We are supposed to have such a close relationship that if we were ripped apart the pain would be unbearable.  You know why discipline doesn’t work?  Because we wait till the sinner has moved so far from us he doesn’t even notice the separation we make, much less hurt enough to yell, “Ow!” 

            Paul told the Corinthians that the next time they were together they were supposed to withdraw from the adulterous sinner.  He didn’t say, “Wait till everyone has had a chance to go see him.”  You won’t find that command anywhere in the New Testament.  The reason we think it’s there is because we misapply that discipline.  It is supposed to be medicine for the sick.  We wait so long it becomes burial for the dead, and then of course we want everyone to go see the person—we wouldn’t want to bury him alive by mistake.  If you were sick and about to die, would you want everyone to have a chance to come see you and tell you to take the medicine before anyone actually brought it to you?! 

          Then there is the problem of “privacy.”  No one wants to be as close to his brethren as those first century Christians were because, “It’s none of your business.  It’s my life, not yours.”  We need to get over that.  If we were as close as we should be, as close as an eyelid to an eyeball, we would know when people need help before it’s too late.  We would be taking care of one another’s needs.  With extended family living arrangements a thing of the past in our mobile society, it is especially important.  More marriages would be saved if we all knew when the problems started, not when they reached the point they could no longer be hidden.  Every sin works that way.

          Even physical needs are to be met by our brethren when there is no family around to do it.  I don’t know what we would have done without our church family carting me back and forth to doctor appointments, as many as five a week, picking up medications, bringing us meals and cleaning our house after all these procedures.  Keith couldn’t take that much time off work, and we had no one else nearby.  I learned to stifle my pride and accept help, to be willing to tell people what I needed when they asked, and I learned that God’s plan works when we let it. 

          We are supposed to be close to one another.  We are supposed to help one another.  We are supposed to know each other’s needs, even those private ones we don’t want others to know about.  It is supposed to hurt when we are ripped apart, not only from God, but from each other.  That’s why we stay close, why we don’t leave, why we ask for help when we need it and take help, and advice, when it is offered.
           
          Let God’s wisdom work for you today.
 
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers…And all that believed were together and had all things common, and they sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all, according as any man had need.  And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, Acts 2:42,44-46.
 
Dene Ward

             I’ve done it and I bet you have too.  You turn to Acts 2:38 and read, “Repent and be baptized for the remission of sin.”  It’s a simple math equation.  Repent + be baptized = remission of sin.  I’ve shown it to my classmates in high school, to my neighbors, and even to my bosses.  It amazes me that they can say, “I don’t see it that way,” just as it amazes you.  I shake my head and say, “I’m not seeing it any way.  I’m just reading scripture,” and still they ignore it and go on their way.
           
              Guess what?  We do the same thing.

            Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Jas 1:27

            Here’s the math in that one:  visit the fatherless and widows + keep yourself unstained from the world = pure religion.  Let’s simplify it even more:

            Take care of the needy + live a moral life = pure religion.

            Do you know what we do?  We go to church on Sunday.  If we are especially spiritual, we don’t do the big bad sins—we don’t lie, cheat, steal, or commit adultery.  But when was the last time you just spent an evening visiting, for example, a lonely widow?  Yes, “visit” in that passage stands for more than just dropping by.  It means seeing to their needs too, but let me tell you something.  They need a visit a whole lot more than we seem to think they do.  Not a call, not a card—a visit.  They need companionship, something you take for granted and even try to get away from occasionally. 

            Older people love to have someone to talk with.  They love to have someone actually sit and listen to them as if they were more than something taking up space.  They love for young people to ask them questions, to ask for advice, to ask about the “olden days.”  Young people make them feel young again too.  They will talk about that visit for weeks, that’s how much it means to them.

            They used to be young.  They lived every bit as exciting and busy a life as you do.  They’ve been through things you never experienced and have come through with their souls and sense intact.  You would do well to take what they say with more than a grain of salt, and use it.

            So remember your math.  No matter how many sins you successfully overcome, no matter how “unstained” you are, if that’s all you have, you still do not have pure religion.  No more than your unbaptized friends and neighbors have remissions of sins!
 
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1John 3:17-18
 
Dene Ward