Have you ever daydreamed about a perfect life?  I suppose most of us have.  Enough that mountains of money have been saved so that at retirement couples could live the life they have always dreamed of.  Are they really happy?  I have this theory:  if you cannot be happy living a normal everyday life no matter what your circumstances, you will never be happy living your idea of a perfect life either. 
            Take a minute now and jot down your idea of a perfect life.  Be as specific as possible.  Since you are just wishing anyway, you might as well make it good.
            Now think about this.  As our Creator, God knows what would make us happy.  Too often we treat living by His standards as living a miserable existence with no fun allowed at all.  But when you think about it, He should know best, shouldn’t He?  In fact, when He made man, He created a perfect place, a perfect life, a perfect home.  Take a look at the Garden of Eden.  What did He give His newly created children?
            He gave them a beautiful garden that furnished their food and delighted their eyes.  I doubt they had truffles, either vegetable or chocolate.  I know they did not have pate de fois gras or chateaubriand.  But they had plenty, and it was certainly organic!  Gen 1:29
            He gave them each other.  Not one man with a different woman every night, or one woman with several men.  He did not make two men or two women, but one man for one woman for one lifetime, 2:24. 
            He gave them work to do.  What?!  A perfect place meant having to work?  Exactly.  Not an all consuming career, but productive work tending the garden that fed them.  Not difficult work, as was promised after the fall, but something that fulfilled man’s need to pass the time and stay physically fit, 2:15.
            I assume He gave them some sort of house, but do you realize it is never mentioned in Genesis?  Evidently God’s notion of paradise for man did not include having a dream house that cost more in taxes and upkeep in a year than most third world families make in a lifetime.
            And best of all, He gave them His fellowship.  It seems to have been His habit to walk and talk with His children in the cool of the day, 3:8.
            Now look at your list.  Does it match God’s list at all?  Maybe we need to adjust our thinking—seems to me I have to do a lot of that.  I have another theory:  if my list is not a whole lot like God’s, maybe I won’t enjoy Heaven either.  Maybe I won’t even be allowed to find out.
 
For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile; and let him turn away from evil and do good.  Let him seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto their supplication.  But the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil.  1 Pet 3:10-12
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. Rev 2:7
 
Dene Ward

January 16 is, I recently discovered, International Hot and Spicy Foods Day.  And most of the hot and spicy foods people eat are the result of using hot chili peppers.  I imagine everyone knows about the Scoville Heat Scale, which measures the heat of various kinds of chili peppers.  Just so you have something to go by, a standard sweet bell pepper runs 1-100 on the scale and I can't feel any heat at all in it.  Poblanos, which I often use for chiles rellenos comes in between 1000 and 1500.  Jalapenos on the other hand hit the scale at 2500-5000 and serranos at 5000-15,000.  Habaneros, which most people consider to be super-hot (so do I) run 100,000-350,000.  I used to think that was the hottest pepper around.  Then I heard about ghost peppers—855,000-1,463,000.  But I just now saw the newest hot pepper winner, the Carolina Reaper, topping the Scoville scale at 2,000,000-2,200,000.  I know I may be called a heretic by heat lovers, but to me, when you can't even taste the food for the heat of the pepper, someone has gotten the point of eating totally turned upside down.  It's about enjoyment, not endurance.
            Chili peppers are used in all sorts of cuisines, not just Mexican as most might suppose.  Today we had a Caribbean dinner—jerk grilled chicken breasts with tropical salsa, and sautéed sweet potato cakes.  We are not much for hot food so making my own jerk seasoning is a bonus—I can cut the red pepper in half.  As for the salsa, one tiny red jalapeno, seeded, ribbed, and finely diced, was plenty with the mango, pineapple, avocado, and onion.
            Ah, but those jalapenos do leave their mark.  Ordinarily I wash my hands half a dozen times during the course of cooking dinner, but I had finished with the raw chicken, the creamy avocado, and the sweet, slick mango so I hadn't washed them again after dicing that pepper and never even thought about it.
            After dinner we made our usual after-dinner-before-dishes walk to survey our little realm.  Keith absently reached down and held my hand.  Then he just as absently reached up with that same hand and scratched his eyelid.  At least it was his lid.  About the same time Chloe came up behind me and licked my dangling hand.  The next thing I knew Keith had a clean cloth up to dab his running eye and Chloe was at the water bucket lapping as quickly as she could.  I came inside and washed my hands immediately.
            We are often just as clueless as I was today about the influence we have on others.  One word, one thoughtless act, even one look can have repercussions that last for days, or weeks, or even years.  Paul reminded the Corinthians that "a little leaven leavens the whole lump" and told Timothy that the words of two specific men "eat like gangrene" (1 Cor 5:6; 2 Tim 2:17).
            The prevalent attitude I hear, even among brothers and sisters, is "That's their problem."  No.  God makes it plain that it is my problem when my influence causes others to fall.
              Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. (1Cor 8:13)
            And whosoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it were better for him if a great millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. (Mark 9:42)
            It's time we grew up and realized our responsibility to others.  We will be judged for every "idle word," Jesus says.  That's a word we said without thought, without concern for others, without owning up to our responsibility for every little thing that escapes our tongues.  James says "Be…slow to speak…" not because I am slow-witted but because I am actually taking the time to consider what I am about to say before it's too late.  Sounds like an excellent reason to shut up once in a while, especially if I am prone to talk just to hear myself talk.
         ​When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. (Prov 10:19)
             Don't forget to wash the jalapenos off your hands.
 
And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! (Luke 17:1)
 
Dene Ward

Bear attacks in Florida are rare.  The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had only reported 14 such attacks before January 13, 2022 (and since 1976 when they started keeping records), when a black bear jumped a woman in Debary, north of Orlando that day.  She was walking her dog when attacked, the bear coming at her again and again as she ran, and finally throwing her to the ground.  She kept fighting and was able to escape with scratches on her face and back, and a concussion.  When sheriff's deputies arrived, they spotted a mother bear in a tree with three yearlings, and there you have the probable reason for the attack—a Mama protecting her babies.
            God puts something in mothers that is fearsome.  There is a reason people say that the most dangerous creature is a mother who thinks her young are threatened.  All of us in the ladies’ Bible class call it “the mama bear” in us.
            Once we lived in a big old frame house on a rural highway, a dirt road running down the edge of the side yard to its north.  Lucas at four was already a tree climber and the small chinaberry in that section of the lawn was a favorite.  He could reach the lowest limb standing flat-footed on the ground, then swing his legs up to it to hang upside down, pull himself up to sit or even stand on that long sturdy branch.
            One afternoon he was playing in the tree when a group of boys came walking down the dirt road.  There were four of them, ninth or tenth grade teenagers, every one of them bigger and heavier than I.  They must not have seen me among the sheets and towels as I hung out the last load of laundry.  Surely they would have known better than to start teasing a small child with his mother present.  Very quickly the name-calling and threatening turned into all four of them coming at my little guy with arms raised.  What were they thinking?
            I emerged from the folds of flapping laundry breathing fire and probably screaming like a banshee—my memory of the event is just a little foggy.  I do remember that four young toughs wilted before my eyes, turned tail and ran.  I grabbed my baby, ran up the back porch steps into the kitchen and sank into a chair, rocking him as the slam of the screen door echoed through the old house.
            I was thoroughly shaken, not by the boys, but by my own actions.  Where in the world had that come from?  It came from God, the strength to overcome a timid nature and forget your own safety in order to protect your small, innocent child who is unable to protect himself.  We all have that Mama Bear somewhere inside us.  I doubt we could keep it hidden if we wanted to when the need for it arose.
            God put that feeling in us, so surely it must be in Him.  Yet somehow He managed to ignore it.  His Son’s life was not only threatened, but taken in a horrible, painful way, and He managed somehow to stifle that strong, boiling emotion that rises out of you in an almost uncontrollable manner.
            And do you know why?  Because when Satan came after us, his adopted children, He didn’t stifle it, but instead gave free rein to the Mama Bear in Himself.  He loved us so much He found a way to save us, even at an almost unbearable cost.
            Think about that the next time you want to rail at God for the pain you think He has caused you.  We caused Him much more pain and He loves us anyway.
 
Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, 1 John 4:9,10.
 
Dene Ward
 

Tuesday, afternoon,
I'm just beginning to see,
Now I'm on my way,
It doesn't matter to me,
Chasing the clouds away.

Something, calls to me,
The trees are drawing me near,
I've got to find out why
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh.

I'm looking at myself, reflections of my mind,
It's just the kind of day to leave myself behind,
So gently swaying thru the fairy-land of love,
If you'll just come with me and see the beauty of

Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday, afternoon,
I'm just beginning to see,
Now I'm on my way,
It doesn't matter to me,
Chasing the clouds away.

Something, calls to me,
The trees are drawing me near,
I've got to find out why
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh.
"The Afternoon:  Forever Afternoon" (also known as "Tuesday Afternoon")
 
            Many years ago, the Moody Blues was one of our favorite bands.  When the televised version of the Red Rock concert came on, we watched every minute of it and then bought the cassette.  (That's how we listened to recordings in those "olden" days.)  Keith had begun losing his hearing when he was in the service and was already in hearing aids at 27, so "listening" to music was difficult.  He asked me to please get him the lyrics and I did—every lyric for every song on the recording.
            As pleased as punch, he sat down and read through them.  He grew quieter and quieter as he read.  Finally he said, "I wish I did not have these lyrics.  They mean absolutely nothing, and now I don't like the music nearly as much."
            One set of those lyrics, and one of the best as I recall, opens this post.  If you haven't yet, scroll up and read them.  If you can tell me what it means, you are better than I.  Basically it's a bunch of pretentious nonsense, cotton candy fluff masquerading as "deep" thought. 
            That made me think and I began to experiment with our hymns.  Read them—don't sing them—as poetry and see what they actually say.  If necessary to keep the tune from cropping up in your mind, read them aloud.  Suddenly the hymn will become either one of your favorites or one you can easily do without.  The tune and the rhythm won't matter.
            New or old really has nothing to do with it.  Granted, the older hymns have already had a couple hundred years of culling out and as a result they may have the advantage here.  But you will still find one or two that make you feel like all you have been singing all these years is "Doo-wah-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-doo" as far as their spiritual value goes. 
          Another caveat:  save the chorus for last, don't read it over and over.  That waters down the punch of the verses.  That does not mean you should never sing the refrain more than once.  Several of the Psalms have refrains in them, Psalm 80 for instance, which repeats its refrain three times.  Obviously the Holy Spirit meant them to be read more than once—they repeat the theme.  But for this test, you need to avoid the repetition and see what's left.  Sometimes you discover that you are doing a whole lot of singing for practically nothing of worth. 
          So why do this test?  Because suddenly you will understand that it isn't the spirituality of the hymn you like, it's the rhythm or the melody or the harmony, something that did not come along until a couple of millennia after the Psalms, by the way, and early on in only rudimentary form.  And then, I hope, you will remember what our singing is supposed to be about.  "Teaching and admonishing," (Col 3:16); edifying (1 Cor 14:15-26); "a sacrifice of praise" (Heb 13:15).  If the song does not do one or more of those things, does it really need to be sung?
 
Psalm 34  A Psalm of David:  Come O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord, Psa 34:11.
 
Dene Ward
 

A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her.  So if we love the Lord Jesus we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him.  The husband is not so stupid as to prefer his wife's letters to her voice, or her photographs to herself.  He simply loves them because of her.  So, too, we love the Bible because of Christ.  It is his portrait.  It is his love-letter.

John Stott, Authentic Christianity

Over the years I have learned a foreign word or two in the Bible just from having them come up over and over in my classes.  One of those words is "Beth."  "Beth" means house.  So Bethlehem means "house of bread," Bethesda means "house of mercy," and Bethel means house of God.  I suppose those actually meant something when they were first used, but eventually their significance became unimportant to the people—they were just names.  But one of those names became important to a prophet of God as Israel's apostasy worsened, the name Bethel.
            Bethel was the place where Jacob dreamed his dream of angels on the ladder.  He built an altar there, more than once, and called the place "Bethel" because that is where he had his encounter with God.
            Later on, Bethel was one of the first places that the Ark of the Covenant was set up.  Since there was as yet no Temple, the people met there for their worship.  It most certainly was "the house of God" then.
            After the nation divided, when Jeroboam was trying to glue the northern kingdom to one another and himself, he set up the golden calves—to worship Jehovah, mind you, "the God who brought you up out of Egypt," as Aaron had called a similar image--one in Dan at the northern end of his kingdom, and the other in Bethel, in the south.  Now worship was convenient and no one had to make that long trip south to the Temple.
            Of course, this led straight to full-blown idolatry along with all its accoutrements.  When Hosea came along, calling them all to repentance, he flatly refused to call "Bethel" by its name.  It was no longer "the house of God."  (Hos 4:15; 5:8; 10:5)  Instead, Hosea called it "Beth-aven."  And what does that mean?  "House of iniquity," or evil, vanity, affliction, or wickedness.  A much more suitable name, don't you think, for a people who had broken their covenant with God by worshipping other gods, making alliances with other nations, and even sinking to the "abomination"—a word reserved for the things God considers the most heinous of sins—of sacrificing their children.  "You no longer deserve this name," Hosea was telling them.
            So how are we doing at living up to the names, or in some cases descriptions, we use of ourselves?  What does the sign say outside your meeting place?  If you do not follow the teachings of Christ, if you are not behaving as a child of God, how can your assembly (church) possibly think it is "of Christ" or "of God?"  And as to our individual name, if I am not acting like a disciple of Christ, how can I possibly claim the name Christian?
            The privilege of using those names and descriptions carries with it a responsibility to live and worship a certain way.  "God wouldn't mind…" is more about living like you want to live than like He wants you to live.
            If you were being honest, what would you call yourself this morning?
 
But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” (2Tim 2:19)
 
Dene Ward
 

This one makes me feel a little like Aesop. 
            For the past few weeks, a brown cottontail rabbit has come hopping through our property in the early evening hours.  We have only two kinds of rabbits in Florida, the other being the marsh rabbit, with shorter ears, legs, and tail than the cottontail, but who is also a strong swimmer and lives near water.  So we on our dry property knew exactly what this one was, the good old Eastern Cottontail that thrives practically everywhere east of the Rockies.  A little over a foot tall, with ears not quite as large as some, but obvious when you see the silhouette through some bushes, and that powder puff white tail that cannot be missed when he runs.
            After a few days, he discovered our yard, just under the bird feeders.  Due to all the falling birdseed, the grass grows especially green and lush there.  One evening after Keith had mown, the rabbit crept through the fence, crawled through the jasmine vines, and plopped right down in that spot, flat on his belly, and enjoyed the grass buffet laid out for him.  He did not have to move an inch, just turn his head in a circle and eat around him.  It took a good half hour.
            The next evening really surprised us.  He crept through the fence but stopped under the jasmine vines, settled in, and proceeded to bite off foot long lengths of vine, and eat them, the stems growing shorter and shorter as they neared his chomping little jaws.  I have plenty of jasmine, but he must have eaten three or four feet of the stuff.  Poor guy is really hungry, I thought, so I laid a couple of large outer lettuce leaves right under the jasmine the next day.  Now he sits on the lettuce as if it were a royal pillow and eats the vines, not exactly what I had in mind, but okay.  I checked to be sure, and jasmine is not toxic to rabbits.
            But we also have a red fox visiting us in the evenings.  Foxes are extremely toxic to bunny rabbits.  This fox however, visits our grape arbor.  We have had a bad year, after an extremely good one last year, but we wondered what was happening to the few grapes we did have.  We looked out the office window one night and found out.  That fox wandered along the grape vines, pulling off the ripe ones and eating them.  Then he stood on his hind legs and got the next higher ones.  If we ate more than three dozen grapes during the harvest month of August I would be very surprised.
            This bunny has no problem eating.  He has no problem traipsing out of his burrow to find what he knows he needs.  Neither does the fox for that matter.  He ventures where he can easily smell that we have been, sitting on the swing under the arbor, and probably watches us walk there from his cover in the woods.  He comes anyway, because he is hungry.  And they both seem to know what is good for them and what is not.  Why don't my brothers and sisters?  When the elders have to beg us to attend classes, what does that say about our desire for the bread of life?  When extra classes are offered and go barely noticed, what does it say about our priorities?  Lately, Keith and I have been approached for private studies with both individuals and whole families.  We are thrilled.  But it should be so many more than these few. 
           A fox and a bunny rabbit are not only smarter than some of my brethren, maybe they are braver too.  One of these days, they may wish they had listened to their spiritual hunger pains.  One of these days, it may not be so easy to find.  One of these days it may just be too late.
 
​I am the bread of life. ​Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ​This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:48-51).
 
Dene Ward

And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow at the command of the LORD, “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him. Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down.” And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion met him and struck him down. Then he found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” And the man struck him—struck him and wounded him. So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes. And as the king passed, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” Then he hurried to take the bandage away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. And he said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.’”  (1Kgs 20:35-42).
            Have you ever come across that particular narrative before?  We tend to stick to the larger events, the nice ones where God defeats a huge army or Jesus does an amazing miracle.  This one stumps some of us with its Oriental methods of teaching.  We Americans tend to favor a straightforward approach—and then complain because someone dared to correct us.  But that is not my point today.
            Notice the first part of the story.  And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow at the command of the LORD, “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him. Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down.” And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion met him and struck him down.  I can sympathize with that first young man, can't you?  Who wants to strike a prophet of God, especially a fellow, and especially hard enough to wound him?  But that is exactly what God meant for him to do, whether he wanted to do it or not, whether he thought it a good thing to do or not, whether he was "comfortable" with it or not.  None of that matters when God tells you to do something.
            And so we may find times in our lives when God expects us to do the hard things.  Is it just too hard for you to discipline your adorable little children?  Is it too difficult to forgive someone who committed a grievous sin, perhaps even a crime under our legal system, against you?  Is it asking too much to remain unmarried when you have messed your life up so much that's it's too complicated to figure out who is the "innocent" party?  Jesus said, "Some make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom's sake" (Matt 19:12), so evidently he thought that's what one ought to do if necessary, and he would have applied that "ought" to anything else we might define as "too difficult."
              I have known several who have given up a whale of a lot more than I ever have.  They are truly servants of the Master while some of us just play at it and complain about even the least little sacrifices.  Our culture in general has lost that tough spirit of doing what has to be done, no matter how difficult it may be. "It's too hard," has become an excuse we actually think will matter when we come face to face with God.
            The second man did exactly as the prophet told him to and saved his own life.  Had he heard about the lion?  I don't know; it doesn't say.  But whether he had or not, YOU have.  And when you think something is too difficult a thing for God to ask of you ever, be on the lookout.  That lion may have already snatched your soul.
 
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (1John 5:3).
 
Dene Ward
 

Then Elijah became afraid and immediately ran for his life. When he came to Beer-sheba that belonged to Judah, he left his servant there, but he went on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. He said, “I have had enough! LORD, take my life, for I’m no better than my fathers.” Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree…” (1Kgs 19:3-5)
            If you don't recognize the citation above, it's probably because you have made the same mistake everyone else does.  You have read the account of the contest on Mt Carmel and simply stopped at the end of the 18th chapter of 1 Kings.  You have exulted in the victory Elijah won and left it at that.  Which means you missed this:  it wasn't a victory after all.  Yes, Elijah thought it was too, but as soon as he got home from his God-assisted sprint to Jezreel, he found out otherwise.  All that had happened was the temporary pumping up of a people who lived only in the passion of the moment.  The passion faded almost immediately.  Jezebel was still in control and Elijah was threatened and running for his life.  Nothing had changed!
            What a letdown.  If his flashy victory couldn't save the people, what could?  And so he fell into a deep depression.  "Just let me die, God," he requests, and lies down to sleep.
            The point this morning is not the answer to why the big show didn't work.  (See "Pep Rally Religion" for that.)  The point this morning is something much more practical.  Times of depression are normal.  They do not mean you are weak.  If ever there was a spiritually strong man of God, it was Elijah.  Yet he, too, fell prey to low morale.
            "Look at all I've done.  I've tried and tried and I am a failure.  I am all alone.  No one cares.  Why should I bother?" (19:4)
            Tell me you haven't had those moments.  Well, you are in good company.  So what was the problem?
            First, he was counting on the wrong thing.  He made a big splashy show, thinking it would turn the people around.  Yes, they may have chanted "Jehovah he is God" 17 times or more, but it didn't last past the rainstorm.  Passion always diminishes.  It cannot be maintained at a fever pitch.  It will simply wear you out.  If passion is the basis of your faith, you are in for a big fall, probably sooner rather than later.
            Second, he focused only on himself.  For those brief moments, a man who had spent his life serving God and reaching out to others, turned his attention inward and forgot the point of it all. "I'm a failure.  I'm no better than my fathers." Paul reminded the Corinthians that he planted, and Apollos watered, but it was God who gave the increase.  We aren't to worry about results. That's God's business.  We just keep working.
            And third, just as it always does, depression became pessimism and pessimism became cynicism, and those things steal your hope.  "I'm the only one left."  Nonsense.  What about Obadiah and the 100 prophets that faithful man had hidden from Jezebel?  It had only been a few days since he and Obadiah had spoken about it.  Surely he knew of others.  He had to for God to be able to speak of a symbolic 7000 who "have not bowed their knee to Baal" and not be overstating the matter.
            So God asks Elijah the question in our title:  "What are you doing here?"  He's a hundred miles or so from Samaria, the capital of the people he is supposed to be preaching to, and in an unpopulated wilderness where he cannot serve anyone at all.  So God sends him back.  Get busy doing my work, He tells Elijah.  And there was plenty left to do.  You are most certainly NOT the only one left, God reminds him.  Stop feeling sorry for yourself and trust me, just like you always did before.
            Obviously we are not talking about mental illness or clinical depression.  But sometimes that ordinary old down in the dumps feeling can seem just as bad.  It's normal in the ups and downs of life to feel like that—once in a while.  Even strong people have those days.  But the cure is the same every day, whether you are in the doldrums or out of them.  Concentrate on serving God and serving others.  Stop feeling sorry for yourself.  God doesn't.  He let Elijah get some rest, then fed him, and finally, taught him the lesson of the power in the "still, small voice" of His Word rather than big splashy shows.  "It isn't your power—it's mine that accomplishes things.  Trust me."  Then He said, "Get to work!" (19:5-18).
            If you're feeling a little blue today, read 1 Kings 17-19.  When you see it in someone else, it's easier to see how ridiculous it all is.  Get some rest, nourish your body, and then do like Elijah and get back to work.  God may even have a chariot waiting for you someday.
 
Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life! But what was God’s reply to him? I have left 7,000 men for Myself who have not bowed down to Baal. In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace. (Rom 11:3-5)
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Warren Berkley. 

Talk to God. Can you think of any occasion, issue, or problem that you shouldn’t pray about? I can’t. Any matter that is important enough to think about is important enough to pray about. If you are bothered, believing you have been mistreated or offended by your brother, talk to God about it. Lay the problem out before Him, asking for wisdom, patience, love, and objectivity. If you believe your brother has sinned against you, pray to God sincerely for him. If you think your brother is guilty of sin or error, pray for him and pray for yourself, so that you might use a mature and godly approach to the problem. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him,” (James 1:5).

Talk to yourself. Before you go to your brother, consider the possibility that you might be the problem; or at least part of the problem. Examine yourself; your attitude and perspective. Use the Word of God as a mirror to look at yourself and talk to yourself (Jas. 1:21-25). Jesus said, in the context of this very matter, “take heed to yourselves,” (see Luke 17:1-4).

Talk to him. The typical reaction, when you believe your brother has mistreated you, is to broadcast your irritation to everybody but the brother. To tell others “your side of the story” before the brother even knows there is a story. Jesus said, “go and tell him his fault between you and him alone,” (Matt. 18:15). That is the law of Christ!

Talk to him promptly. Of all the words spoken by Jesus, I don’t know of many as ignored by my brethren as these three words: “Agree with your adversary quickly,” (Matt. 5:25). I’ve never heard of a Christian denying that Christ said this, but few seem to take it seriously. At the first sign of trouble, we need to respond by talking to our brother. We need to take this action “quickly” not “eventually.” This is the law of Christ!

Talk to him lovingly. “Let brotherly love continue” even in times of conflict (Heb. 13:1). If your brother has sinned against you, he needs your love – not your selfish, immature reactions. When you talk to him, do so in a manner that displays your love for God and your love for his soul. The object in your conversation with him is not to vent your wrath, but to express your love and communicate God’s will in such a way, the conflict is resolved; the sin is forsaken; the misunderstanding is settled. (See Prov. 27:5,6). Stand for what is right, but do it “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” (2 Cor. 10:1). “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing,” (Prov. 12:18). And, “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God,” (Jas. 1:20).

Talk to him patiently. If your first visit does not yield good results, go back again. If the problem has the potential of harming you, hindering others and hurting the cause of Christ – don’t give up quickly. Keep trying to work the problem out to a godly result. One thing is certain, if two people love the Lord, there is no problem they cannot solve through the good attitudes and actions the Lord has taught us.

Truth Connection: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.” (Gal. 6:1-5).
 
Warren Berkley
 
Warren Berkley is a faithful preacher of God's Word. He is the assistant editor for Pressing On, an e-magazine from which this article was taken.  He and his wife Paula work with the church in McAllen,Texas which is just across the border from Mexico.
If you are interested in receiving Pressing On, contact me by clicking on the contact page on the left sidebar, and I will see to it that you get the information you need.  --dw