“Those winter squash vines have grown a foot since that rain two days ago,” Keith mentioned as we drove into town one Tuesday morning.  “You can tell because the new growth is a different shade of green.”
            Indeed it is, I thought.  When spring comes, the new growth on the live oaks is a brighter shade I like to call “spring green.”  Even new growth on the roses is a different shade—a deep red.  New growth in plants is obvious.
            The New Testament is far too full of agricultural comparisons for me to pass this one by.  We are told ten times in the epistles to “grow” (auxano).  I may not be a Greek scholar, but I can run a program or look in a good, old-fashioned concordance for the same Greek word and where and how it’s used.  My question today is this:  is it just as obvious when we have new growth?  It ought to be.  So what will people see when I “grow” in this manner?
            2 Cor 9:10 tells me that the “fruits of my righteousness” will grow.  That certainly ought to be an obvious indicator.  If I am still struggling mightily, not just once in a while but constantly, to overcome the sins that held me captive before my conversion, then I am not growing as I ought to.  The time factor may be different for each one of us, but things should be improving.  I should become strong instead of fragile, someone who someday can help those who came from my identical circumstances.  If I cannot reach that point, something is amiss.
            Paul told the Colossians that their “knowledge” should be growing, 1:10.  When the same old chestnuts are tossed out in class, things that have been proven wrong by simple Bible study for years, I wonder if anyone is growing in knowledge.  Sitting on a pew will not do it.  It takes work, and it takes time.  It cannot be done in “14 minutes a day.”  I despair sometimes of the church ever reaching the point that it is once again known for its Bible knowledge as I see my Bible classes dwindling in number, and only frequented by older women.  When the new growth is only seen on the older vines, what does that say about our future?
            2 Cor 10:15 says my faith should be growing.  Do I show that with an ability to face trials in a more steady fashion than I used to?  Or do my words and actions, decrying God and questioning His love, show that I am no farther along than I was ten years ago?  Have I learned to accept His will and His ways, even when I do not understand them, or do I demand an explanation as if He were my child instead of the other way around?
            2 Pet 3:18 says we are to be growing in grace.  This one may be the most difficult one to assess, but think of this:  what does God’s grace excuse and pardon in you?  How patient was He when you were rebelling outright instead of just making ignorant and foolish mistakes? Now, how much grace do you grant to others who absent-mindedly get in your way, who have their own problems on their minds and are hardly aware of your presence?  Your neighbors, your colleagues, fellow shoppers, the driver in the car ahead of you—if you are not showing the grace of God to these in an obvious way you have not grown in grace as you should have.  If you are looking for a reason to sigh loudly, to complain, to blow that horn, instead of searching diligently for a way to offer grace as it was offered to you, you need to think again about your progress in the gospel.  I do too.
            All of us, no matter how long we have been Christians, should be showing growth.  In every area of our lives all of us should be sporting a different shade of green.
 
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Eph 4:15-16
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is another in the continuing series by guest writer, Lucas Ward.

By far, the most common self-description of God is "I AM Jehovah who brought you out of the land of Egypt." It is repeated so often it almost becomes part of His name.  Quite often it is just mentioned as an identifier and perhaps as a justification for giving commands. Lev. 19:36  "Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt."  See also Deut. 20:1 and Ps. 81:10.
            Other times God gives some of the reasons He brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt:  to be their God and to give them the promised land.  Lev. 25:38, Numb. 15:41, Judges 2:12.
            The most common reason given for God bringing Israel out of Egypt is to free them from slavery.  Ex. 6:7, Lev. 26:13, Deut. 5:6, 8:14, & 13:5, etc. They were in Egypt as slaves and He brought them out to be free.  In fact, this was meant to be a permanent situation.  God didn't want His people enslaved.  This was made part of the Law.  For example, one way to get out of a bad financial situation in that time and culture was to sell yourself into slavery.  God, in the Law, states that if one of His people is in that situation, you weren't to treat him as a bond slave but as a hired hand and he was to be released at the Year of Jubilee.  (Lev. 25:39-46)  The reason God gives is simple:   "For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen" (vs 42).  God had freed them from slavery and they were not to be enslaved again.
            God is the God who frees His people from slavery.
            This characteristic of God is clearly seen in the New Testament too.  John 8:34, among many other passages, tells us that "everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin".  God again found His people enslaved and led them to freedom. Rom. 6:17-18  "But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness."  How did God accomplish this?  Through his Son, God worked out a way to lead us from the slavery of sin.  Rom. 3:23-25  "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God."  We can have remission of sins through repentance and baptism into His Son. (Acts 2:38)  Our sins are blotted out (Acts 3:19).  We are now free from sin, free to serve righteousness.
            God also frees us from many worldly problems related to sin.  For instance, did you know that the #1 class of prescription drugs is antidepressants?  Because of sin many in this world feel dirty, worthless and unfit.  Paul tells us that, in freeing us from sin, God has washed, sanctified and justified us (1 Cor. 13:9).  We are no longer dirty, because God frees His people. 
            Lack of hope is another major problem for most people in the world.  Have you ever seen the bumper sticker "Life's a b****h and then you die"?  In fact, no hope in the world was the basis of several Greek philosophies.  Both the Stoics and Epicureans came to their conclusions from the premise of no hope.  The New Testament teaches differently.  75 times the word hope is used to describe the Christian life.  God is the God who frees us from hopelessness.
            God has made us free.  The only way we can ever again become enslaved is if we sell ourselves back to sin.  Let us instead rejoice in our freedom and our new chance to serve Him.
 
John_8:36  "If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
 
Lucas Ward
 
 

We went for our annual visit to see Lucas in the panhandle and one morning he drove me across Pensacola Bay to a world famous fresh seafood market—Joe Patti's.  He had taken me one year before, after I had already bought the food we needed for our stay, but I was entranced with pile after pile of fish that had come from both the Bay and the Gulf in a boat only steps from the front door of that shop that very morning.  So I told him that the next time I would buy and cook something special for him.
            My plan was for crab stuffed red snapper, a recipe I had cobbled together after doing some research online and in the various cookbooks lining my shelves.  That snapper was beautiful, and I picked out a pound and a half fillet for the three of us, which was treated like gold as the young lady carefully wrapped it, then placed it on ice next to a cashier.  But I still needed the crabmeat.  I am used to 8 ounce containers of fresh crab where I live, but all of these were a full pound, and that made me a little chintzy.  Instead of jumbo lump, I picked up claw meat, and then promptly forgot the problem with that—I neglected to pick through it and pull out any extraneous shell.  That is, until my first bite gave me a solid crunch where there should not have been any.  I am happy to say that it was actually fairly clean for claw meat and I got most of the shell, so Lucas still had the enjoyment of an excellent seafood dinner with some of the best fish he ever ate.
            But I wonder if most of us aren't claw meat.  We have been entirely too careless in cleaning up our lives and have let a few things slip that we shouldn't have.  Especially if we have "grown up in the church" as we are prone to say, and have never committed any of the heinous sins we look down on the rest of the world for, it's easy to think we are nice jumbo lump crabmeat and the Lord ought to be happy he has us.  Do you think I am exaggerating?  I have seen too many people look down on people "straight off the street," just as Simon the Pharisee looked down on the brave woman who made her way into his party and anointed Jesus.  "She loves me more than you do, Simon," Jesus as much as said, and made it plain whom he preferred as his disciple.
            The thing about crabmeat is that even jumbo lump crabmeat needs to be picked through and it's a whole lot easier to find the shell!  Sin always finds its way in the door no matter who we are, how long we have been sitting on a pew, nor how well we think we are doing.  Let's be careful about judging others when we need a good pick-through ourselves.
 
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand (Rom 14:4).
 
Dene Ward

I can remember my mother bringing the laundry in from the clothesline and filling up a long-necked green bottle with a top that looked a little like the pour spout of the sprinkling can she used on her flowers.  She carefully sprinkled water over the clothes she had already spent several hours washing and drying, turning them over to get both sides, and then stuffed them in a large zippered plastic bag.  Not a Ziploc, but something the size of a kitchen garbage sack with a real clothing zipper on it.  Then she put the bag in the refrigerator.  A few days later, she opened her ironing board, preheated her electric iron and spent several more hours ironing those clothes.  Every week.  Me?  I spend a couple hours every 2 months and that only because my boys and my husband love cotton shirts.  Lucky for me they only had a few of them, and now I am down to just a husband.
            I looked up the invention of permanent press fabric and must have found half a dozen dates.  Chemical companies, fabric companies, and clothing manufacturers all seem to claim a share of the glory all the way back to the 1930s.  Then in 1956 there was a patent that simply claims to be the invention of permanent press.  The problem was the way it was produced.  The resin on the cloth made the cloth stiff, uncomfortable to wear, and easily split when it was sewn.  Koret of California finally received a patent on March 14, 1961, for an improved method of manufacturing press-free crease-retained garments made with smooth, comfortable fabric that held up.  I barely remember the first time my mother bought my father a permanent press dress shirt so that date is just about right.  And all that brought something to mind.
            Maybe this is one of those urban legends that everyone has heard from someone.  I am really not certain, but Keith’s mother once told us about a young woman who began attending services with them back in the 1950s with her three young children, the oldest about 6.  She arrived just on time and left quickly.  But unlike many of those types, she was always there, her children knew the basic Bible stories, and she herself was attentive to both class and sermon.  In fact her keeping to herself seemed to be more a product of embarrassment than anything else.
            My mother-in-law, astute observer that she was, had noticed something.  The children were always neat, clean, and combed except for one thing—their clothes were always wrinkled.  This was back before the day of permanent press and polyester.  There is nothing quite as wrinkled as old-fashioned cotton—except maybe wrinkled linen—which was way beyond this woman’s means.
            I forget now how she managed to ask.  Maybe it was the offer of an iron, which I know she was generous enough to do.  Knowing my mother-in-law though, she probably just came out and asked.  However she did it, she got an answer.
            The woman’s husband was not a Christian.  He not only refused to attend services with her, he refused to get up and help her get the children ready.  So every week after their Saturday evening bath, she dressed them for church and then put them to bed.  The next morning it was easier to get the three tykes up and fed and herself dressed for church.
            After all these years, I’ve heard nearly every excuse in the world for missing Bible classes or the morning services altogether.  This young woman could have easily pulled two or three off the list and used them.  So why didn’t she?  I can think of three good reasons.
            First, she loved the Lord.  Nothing and no one was going to come between her and her Savior.  She knew the perils of allowing excuses to keep her away from the spiritual nutrition her soul needed, and she was not so arrogant as to think she could feed herself with no help at all.  “I can have a relationship with God without the church,” I have heard more times than I can count.  She knew better.
            And because she had her first priority correct, the others fell right in line.  She loved her children, but more than that she loved her children’s souls.  She had to combat not only the usual onslaught of the world, but the huge impact of a father’s bad example.  She was still in her early 20s so she had probably married quite young, too young to really understand the challenges of this “mixed” marriage, maybe even so naïve that she thought “love would conquer all” and he would change easily.  Now she knew better, but she was more than ever determined to save her children.
            And despite it all, she loved her husband and his soul too.  She knew that any little chink in her armor would allow him the rationale he needed to remain apathetic to her faith.  She understood Peter’s command in 1 Pet 3:1,2,  Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.  The more he resisted, the stronger she needed to be, and if taking her children to church in wrinkled clothes did the trick, then that’s what she would do.
            This young woman shows us all that excuses can be overcome by pure will.  Certainly we are not talking about the truly old, ill, and otherwise unable to go out either regularly or on occasion when there is truly a “bad day.”  We are talking about people who allow a little, or even a lot of trouble to become too much trouble to serve God.  I know many who work around the hurdles and snags that Satan throws in our paths.  It costs them time, money, and a whole lot of extra energy, but they have their priorities straight.  They know who comes first, and they understand that our modern “sacrifices” are an insult to the word. 
         If finding excuses comes easily for me, maybe I need to consider throwing out my permanent press and wearing some wrinkled clothes.
 
And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many: and he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse…And the servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed and blind and lame.  And the servant said, Lord, what thou didst command is done, and yet there is room.  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.  Luke 14:15-24.
 
Dene Ward

I am reading a new magazine these days, at least new to me.  It's all about baking, as opposed to cooking in general, and when I received the first issue I devoured it immediately, figuratively speaking of course.  Since then, we have been devouring several of the recipes in it.  But I have had to "learn" this new periodical in the sense of what I can and cannot trust.  I have another magazine I have learned to trust implicitly.  90% of the recipes that I have tried not only worked, but became a part of my regular rotation.  This one maybe not.
            One article was all about Red Velvet.  The writer had taken several ordinary recipes and turned them into a "red velvet" recipe:  Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls, Red Velvet Cheesecake Swirl Brownies, Red Velvet Eggnog Cake, and Cream Cheese Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies.  That cake is a sight to behold with top and bottom layers of beautiful red velvet cake and a middle layer of eggnog cheesecake, plus an Eggnog Buttercream Frosting.  Just writing that down makes my stomach swoon—way too rich and far too much trouble.  However, I have tried a couple of the other recipes.  Both of them gave me trouble, either because of scanty directions or simply wrong ones.
            The Cream Cheese Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies (which are also drizzled with melted white chocolate) were probably our favorites, but the recipe was definitely the most inaccurate.  First I made the dough which had to then be refrigerated for a half hour.  Then I made the filling which had to be frozen for 15 minutes.  Then I carefully portioned the dough into 60 balls, flattened them into disks, put a heaping teaspoon of filling on every other disk, then put an empty disk of dough over the one with the filling, pinched the edges together and flattened them on the cookie sheet, thirty times.  Then into the oven, 8-10 minutes the recipe said.  The first batch made me wonder, "Is this done?" as I put the second one in.  Usually a soft cookie will firm up as it cools on the cookie sheet.  These did not, so when the ten minutes was up on the second batch, I added two more, then two more, then another.  For the third batch I just put them in for 15 minutes—they were perfect.  I crossed my fingers and put that first batch back in the oven for another 8 minutes, reasoning that it would take at least three minutes for them to heat up, then they needed another 5 minutes of cooking.  Finally, they all turned out right.
            So I am not sure about this new magazine and whether I can trust it or not.  Especially when you consider that I made thirty cookies, measuring the dough exactly as told, when the recipe said it would only make 24, they should have taken less time to cook, not more.  I guess we will see.  I still have a couple more recipes I want to try out of this issue so it's a good thing it only comes every other month. 
            And that's just trusting your recipe sources.  We need to be able to trust our sources on things that are far more important than that.  Usually I can salvage a bad recipe and make it edible, but what about other things?  What about your salvation, for instance?
            I know some folks who completely trust their minister, or rabbi, or priest, or whoever.  They never open their Bibles and check out what it says for themselves.  Really?  You are going to trust someone else for your soul's destiny?  God has made it very easy for us to take care of those things ourselves.  You have a Book that has stood the test of Time for thousands of years.  The people who think they can find fault with it are again and again proven wrong.  There is no other book of such antiquity that has been shown to be so reliable, not even the works of Homer, Aristotle, Pliny, Herodotus, or any of several others.  You can know that what you read in your Bible is true and accurate.
            So what does your preacher tell you that you need to do?  "Pray the sinner's prayer," I often hear.  Guess what?  There is no such thing anywhere in the pages of the Bible.  I have read it through several times and it is just not there.  If that is what you are hearing, how can you believe any of the rest you have been told?  You will also not hear about baptism most of the time, but get out your Bible and read the book of Acts and guess what every conversion included?  Baptism!  So who is telling you it isn't important and why would they do such a thing?  Maybe you need to find yourself a new source—like the Book itself.  God will not lead you astray.  He does not "wish that any should perish" (2 Pet 3:9). 
            And after baptism, you still need to check things out.  Everyone can make a mistake including the most sincere and knowledgeable preacher out there.  Double-check what he tells you.  You know what Jesus said about blind leaders and followers.
            It's no big deal for me to give this baking magazine a few more chances, but your eternal destiny is a big deal.  Don't trust anyone else with it.
 
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim 2:3-4).
 
Dene Ward

We have experienced much in our forty some odd years of married life.  Joy, sorrow, excitement, abject terror, tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods, violent crime, automobile accidents, trips to the emergency room, frightening health issues, life-changing disabilities, serious economic woes, persecution on several levels—all of these and more have shaped us into who we are today.  I do my best to share with you what we have learned, and though we may have seen a lot, it still isn’t everything.  We can tell you some hair-raising stories, but we still consider ourselves blessed beyond measure.
            That’s one reason God gave us so many narratives in the Bible, so many faithful followers who have lived through practically every experience it is possible to live through. He has also given us people much closer to us, who set examples we can see every day.  Today I want to share with you a couple who went through one of the worst experiences in life—losing a child--and came out gold in God’s eyes. 
            My in-laws lost their little girl to cancer.  She went to the first day of school barely a month after her ninth birthday and had a seizure.  After a year of treatments and surgeries, even thinking for a while that the doctors “got it,” she died at 10.  I am not privy to everything that went on during that time.  But I did notice some things in them that seem to run counter to many of the things I have heard and read about experiences like this.
            First, Keith’s parents did not divorce.  Undoubtedly there were hard times.  I have seen that just in our marriage and the things we have dealt with.  Everyone grieves over losses in a different way and when I decide that my way is the only right way, there will be problems.  When I decide that my grief is worse than his, there will be problems.  When, “You just don’t understand,” becomes a wall instead of a bridge, you just might have reached the end.  However they managed it, the thought of divorce for these two never entered the picture.  This was a couple who understood lifelong commitment as they had vowed before God, “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part,” and they were determined to make it through no matter how difficult it became.   
            I wish I could give you specifics, the things they did that helped and the things they did that did not, but that was long before I knew them.  This I know:  They had a strong marriage, and however they managed it, they did it “together.”  The communication seems never to have stopped, even though I am sure it was occasionally painful.  They had each other and they made sure that the hurt drew them together instead of driving them apart.  They were married just a few months months short of 60 years when my father-in-law passed away first. 
            Second, this couple did not lose their faith.  Their commitment to God came even before their commitment to each other.  They did not expect a life of ease and they never had one.  They endured poverty, estrangement from family because of their faith, and many illnesses, some near death, besides this horrible illness and loss of their child.  But they believed in the resurrection.  They knew they would see their child again, and that was a primary source of faith and encouragement.  Keith remembers hearing, “This is what we believe” more than once during that period.  And now they are enjoying the results of that faith, together with that lost daughter, and they will never lose her again.
            And then there was this:  they did not let this tragedy define them as a couple or a family.  Of course they remembered their little girl and spoke of her often.  I heard many “Remember whens” and other references.  They were more than willing to help those who had similar situations and better able than most to offer the needed sympathy, but it never became an entitlement issue.  They did not think they ranked above any other family because of the things they had suffered.  In their minds, we all suffer, just differently.  And they felt their own brand of suffering made them responsible to be examples and sympathizers with others, not worthy of praise and admiration—not “special.”  Pain and death come from Satan and they would never have given him any credit in any way imaginable.  In fact, if anyone had tried to compliment them for how well they had come through the grist mill of life, it just might have made them angry. 
          Of course this experience changes you.  Life changes you, but something like this makes that change happen rapidly.  Keith told me they were different than before, but “different” isn’t always bad.  I could still see all these good things I have shared with you when I came on the scene over ten years later.  Isn’t it funny how it all turns out?  I was the same age as Keith’s baby sister, born the same year, and my birthday was the date of her death.  Nowadays people would have expected traumatic results, and analyzed it to pieces.  But they never even mentioned the coincidences.  If Keith hadn’t told me, I would never have known what they had been through, and the rest of their life story came out slowly over the years, most often from listening to Keith reminisce, not them. 
            Even through all their trials they stayed faithful to God and each other.  In fact, Keith’s father was converted several years into their marriage, when they had already faced some challenges.  None of this “health and wealth” sissy gospel for him.  But then, this was a man who jumped out of an LST and waded through the water to the beaches of Normandy, walking all the way to Berlin.
           I hope that you never experience the horrible tragedy of losing a child, but you will suffer something.  That is the nature of life.  When you do, here is a godly couple whose example might help you through it.  Did they do everything right?  No, and they would never have claimed to.  But they did do this:  They never gave up on their relationship, and they never gave up on God.  That is how they made it through.
 
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falls, and hath not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone? Eccl 4:9-11

Dene Ward
 

Interpretation that aims at, or thrives on, uniqueness can usually be attributed to pride (an attempt to “outclever” the rest of the world), a false understanding of spirituality (wherein the Bible is full of deeply buried truths waiting to be mined by the spiritually sensitive person with special insight), or vested interests (the need to support a theological bias, especially in dealing with texts that seem to go against that bias). Unique interpretations are usually wrong. This is not to say that the correct understanding of a passage may not often seem unique to someone who hears it for the first time. But it is to say that uniqueness is not the aim of our task.

Fee, Gordon D.; Stuart, Douglas. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (p. 22). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

Courtesy berksblog,net
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This year’s garden made me even more aware that I am growing older.  The heat made me woozier than ever before.  The bending over gave me a backache that lasted all day and usually into the night.  My hands no longer have the strength to win the tug of war with most weeds.  And I just plain wear out faster.  We looked at one another and asked, “How much longer can we do this?”  It’s not the only time we ask that question.
           Will this be our last dog?  Will this one be our last car?  How much longer can we take care of this acreage with a shovel, a tiller, and a chainsaw?  We did, in fact, decide that our last camping trip was probably the “last.”  The drive is harder on us.  The set-up takes longer and longer and more and more energy.  We often wind up just sitting around the fire a whole day afterward to recover.  Then there is the pull down and the drive home, and the seemingly endless unpacking and putting up.  When we found ourselves dreading the next trip, we knew it was time to quit.
            And so I look at our work in the kingdom and think, “How much longer do we have?”  How many more classes will we be able to teach?  How many more “weekends” will I be able to travel and teach large groups of ladies?  And the more I wonder these things, the more I feel like screaming out, “You need to call while you can!  You need to come while I am still able to see my notes and talk!  You need to arrange your schedule and get here if you want anything I have left to give.”  Because I really do want to share it with you, and I never know what tomorrow will bring. 
            I know several other older women who feel exactly the same way.  None of us are getting any younger and it is precisely that problem that gives us so much to share with you—experience only comes with age, but age makes life precarious.
            Every day we are closer to the last, and before that, we are closer to an age when our service will become limited, when all we may be able to do is offer to someone younger an opportunity to serve an older brother or sister.  We will eventually become like Barzillai, the wealthy old man who supported David when Absalom rebelled.  As David headed back to the palace, he asked Barzillai to come with him so he could be honored for his loyalty and service in an appropriate way.  But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years have I still to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 2Sam 19:34-35.  But even at 80 he had served as he could, even if all it amounted to was using his wealth and his servants to do for his king, rather than doing the serving himself. 
           It is said of David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation he fell asleep, Acts 13:36.  As long as we are still alive, there is still a purpose of God to be served—we just have to use a little more creativity in finding it!
           And for those who are young and reading this, your time is running out too.  None of us really knows how long we have left.  “All things being equal” we say about the young outliving us, but in this life nothing is ever “equal.”  I have seen too many young people lose their lives to disease and accident to feel at all comfortable for you.  You need to make the most of your time too.  The purpose God has in mind for you may be a very short one.
           And so it is up to all of us to make the most of the time, to “redeem it” as Paul told the Ephesians.  Do not put off the spiritual things—Bible study, prayer, meditating, serving.  Do not think that “someday” you will be in an easier time of life, a time when you can become a better Christian, a better father or mother, a better husband or wife.  That time will never come unless you make it happen.
          The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Ps 90:10 
          It flies faster than you can ever imagine, and if you have not prepared yourself properly, eternity will last longer than you ever thought possible.
 
O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Ps 71:17-18
 
Dene Ward

Aspirin may be the most widely used over- the- counter drug in the world.  In fact, it has been a commonly used drug for thousands of years.  Acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) comes from salicin, which is derived from various natural sources including willow bark and the spirea plant.  Ancient Sumerians and Egyptians knew about this substance as far back as 3000 BC and used it for pain and inflammation.  Hippocrates used it for fever and pain, including childbirth pain.  I have news for him.  Aspirin won't even come close for that!  Native Americans were known to chew on willow bark to relieve their aches and pains.  But most all these people also knew that too much of it would harm the stomach.  They had to know how to use it so that wouldn't happen.  They also knew which ailments it would not help.
            On March 6, 1899, Bayer was able to patent aspirin.  It isn't a package of powdered willow bark or spirea, but actual tablets, which did not appear until after the turn of the twentieth century.  And over the years, chemists have learned various ways to "buffer" its effects on the stomach.  They have also learned new uses for it.  A "heart attack aspirin" is only steps away in my home and maybe in yours as well.  But I do not use it for my various eye maladies and I doubt it has ever been used for serious illnesses such as leukemia or ALS.  It may have been labeled a "wonder drug" but it doesn't fix everything.
The other morning I noticed Chloe’s left ear sagging to the side.  No matter what was going on or how excited she was, that ear would not stand up as it normally did, over half as tall as her head in the manner of all Australian cattle dogs’ ears.  She reminded me of the antenna that sat on top of our television when I was a child, one leg of it straight up in the air, and the other at nearly ninety degrees.
            Then she started scratching at it and shaking her head and I knew—ear mites.  So we searched through the cabinet until we found the white squeeze bottle of ear mite treatment.  We had never used it on her so she came willingly, even when she saw us with the bottle.  In fact, we had not used it in so long that it took a while to get any out of the bottle, and then when it came, it came with a rush, completely filling her ear canal.  We held her long and massaged it in, but it was still too much.  As soon as we let go she shook her head and slung a big glop of it right into my eye.
            Canine ear mite medicine is not made for human eyeballs.  I rushed inside half blinded and flushed my eye for several minutes, then used up several vials of saline completely clearing the stuff out of my burning eye.  I think the contact lens helped shield it, or it might have been much worse.
            Some things don’t need medicating, especially with the wrong medicine, and some things we think need our ministrations just need to be left alone.
            John said unto him, Teacher, we saw one casting out demons in your name; and we forbade him, because he followed not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man who shall do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us, Mark 9:38-40.
            Many times we disagree with a brother about a subject that makes no difference at all in our ability to worship together.  Many times we disagree with each other about things that seem fairly important, but we can still sit on the same pew and worship our God in complete harmony.  The disharmony is caused only when we make something out of it.  As long as your beliefs do not hinder me from mine, where is the problem?  As long as I do not force mine on you as a condition of fellowship when it shouldn’t be, why can’t we get along?  You say you see something you believe might lead to a problem?  As long as it isn’t one, don’t force the issue.  Don’t deliberately do something that will bring discord into the family of God and call it “fighting for the truth,” when it is only wrangling about words or, at its heart, bickering about power.
            Sometimes we need to remember the Lord’s reply to his overzealous disciples:  “He that is not against us is for us.”  And we especially need to remember his absolute loathing of anything and anyone who disrupts the unity of his body.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that Christ came to create unity, and that we are “one new man,” “one body,” “fellow citizens,” and “a family.” Why did he do that?  So that we might “grow into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God.”  The God of peace cannot dwell in a temple that is not at peace.  We destroy the mission of Christ when we make it so.
            Be careful about diagnosing others’ beliefs.  Be careful about making things matters of spiritual life and death, when they are simply non-life-threatening “bugs.”  Maybe by our sitting together every Sunday, studying together with respect for one another instead of accusations, we can come even closer to agreement on those very bugs, and they will run their course and disappear.
 
One man esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.  Let each man be fully assured in his own mind…Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us will give an account of himself to God, Rom 14:5, 10-12.
 
Dene Ward
 

A few weeks ago I took a few minutes to show my class how to figure out Jacob's age when he left home for Haran.  It took putting together a lot of different verses and you had to start with his age when he went to Egypt and back up, but it only required simple math, in this case subtraction.  I had already shown them how to show that neither Shem nor Abram were the eldest brothers, more simple math, both adding and subtracting.  We have also discussed the cultural norms for weaning and for young girls' "marriageable age," along with how much wood a young man can carry at what age.  When we came up with Jacob's age when he made that original deal for Rachel, they were shocked at the number.  So what was it?  Well, about that…
            Some folks wonder, what's the big deal?  Why figure this out in the first place?  I'll tell you one quick reason—it completely undoes a lot of false pictures we have in our minds when we try to visualize these Bible narratives.  For another, it can explain what we originally considered inexplicable behavior when we realize how old someone was—or wasn't.  You might just want to throw away a lot of those coloring sheets you have used for your Bible classes and maybe create a few of your own.
            But the larger lesson for today is this.  Just who figured all this out in the first place?  Who took the time to find passage after passage, research history, geography, and other assorted minutiae, and then carefully put it all together?  Some of it came from scholars whose work was to do just that.  But some has come from ordinary people like you and me who simply spend time in the Word, many of whom did so a couple of centuries ago.
            They took care of their day to day existence, which meant tilling, planting, and growing everything they ate, preserving the things they would eat during the winter, weaving the cloth to make every item they wore, and carrying water for everything from drinking and cooking, to cleaning and bathing, to watering their considerable livestock, which they also fed and cared for as required, by the way.  And they did everything without power equipment or time saving devices.  Then they came in worn out at night and by candle or lamplight opened God's Word.  They spent so much time in the Word that they could write hymns not based upon one passage, but with each line quoting or alluding to a different passage.  Any time something happened in their lives they could quote a scripture that applied.  They spent all their "spare" time in that, rather than watching TV, scrolling through Facebook or otherwise surfing the internet, or texting, talking, or simply staring rapt at their phones.  That's how those people "had more time than we do."  Nonsense.
            Some still might think those pieces of information I mentioned above are trivial or even pointless.  Seems to me that if God made it possible to figure them out, then just maybe that is exactly what we ought to be doing.  As for Jacob's age when he bargained for Rachel, why don't you try that one yourself?  Things like that and knowing Jacob's age at the birth of Joseph (that one's easy) might not be essential to my salvation, but spending so much time in the Word of God that I can figure that out too, might just be.
 
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation (Ps 119:97-99).
 
Dene Ward