We first encountered a coreopsis when we planted several packets of wildflowers and a few sprang up along the edge of our mown field.   These two foot high plants held bright yellow ray flowers on bare stalks above lance shaped leaves.  “Tickseed” I found as its colloquial name because its hard flat black fruit resembles a tick.
            Although they still spring up here and there nearly fifteen years after that original planting, they are sparse and tend to congregate on the southern edge of the field, shining like the occasional light bulb in a sea of green grass and weeds.  They had just started blooming in early May when I spent my entire morning walk with Chloe talking to God about a particularly thorny issue.  I had just asked for what seemed impossible. 
            It has taken me years to reach this point.  The church of my day spent nearly its entire existence fighting false doctrines, certainly a noble cause.  False teaching can steal souls as easily as the temptations of an increasingly carnal culture.  But we often forgot to balance those teachings with the truth, jumping far beyond it to a place of certain safety, where we were so far from the ravenous wolf in sheep’s clothing that we fell into the pit of despair instead.  Yes, miracles have ceased, but that doesn’t mean that God no longer works in the world or that my prayers will not be answered.  Yes, the Holy Spirit operates through the Word He inspired, but that doesn’t meant that I will not receive help from an avenue He has set in motion.  Providence, we call all of those things—normal natural occurrences that seem to come at the most opportune times.
            And so I was walking along the path, pulling my way with those now ubiquitous trekking poles of mine, along the back fence, probably fifty feet from the nearest--and loneliest--coreopsis, turning on its southwest side by a stretch where we had sown none of them, and none had ever before appeared.  When things do spread, they always go north-northwest, certainly never south, especially in the summer.  Yet suddenly, right there before me stood a bright yellow beacon where it should not have been.  It was so unexpected I came to a complete halt and called Chloe over, as if she too should have cared.  Coming as it did so surprisingly, just after that impossible request, I was instantly reminded that God can do the impossible, and my spirits soared.
            No, I am not a mystic, or a believer in such things.  But I am reminded of a sermon Jesus preached once, where it seems he glanced up and surely must have seen a flock of birds on the wing, so he said, “Behold the birds of the heavens,” and a few minutes later when he surely must have seen a nearby patch of flowers and said, “Consider the lilies of the field.”  Jesus had no problem at all using the natural world to teach His lessons.  Why can’t I use the natural world to remind me of lessons I need at a particular time?
            I have a friend who loves butterflies.  As she endures cancer treatment she often says, “God sent me a butterfly today.”  She had looked outside and seen one flitting around in her flowerbeds.  That butterfly reminded her that God cares for her, just as Jesus reminds us, Look at the birds of the heavens, that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are not you of much more value than they? Matt 6:26. 
            God has created an amazing natural world to teach us if we will but pay attention.  Solomon used that natural world in the wisdom God gave him.  And he spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fishes. 1 Kings 4:32-33.  If we deny this creation of God its ability to edify and encourage, how are we any different from the pagan who denies that it proves God’s very existence in the first place?
            Pay attention to what lies outside your door today, the birds and lilies, the butterflies and the out of place, bright yellow coreopsis.  As it turns out, God did answer my impossible prayer that day, in almost exactly the way I had asked.  Who am I to try to explain that away?
 
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God," Mark 10:27
 
Dene Ward
 

May I just make a small observation from years of experience on both sides of the equation?  When you are suffering, when you are broken-hearted, when you are in pain and anguish or full of fear, someone who loves you will inevitably make an insensitive comment, a tactless comment, a mind-numbingly stupid comment.  Do you think they do it because they don’t love you any more?  No, just the opposite—they do it because they hate to see you in such pain, because they want more than anything to comfort you, and in that love and zeal they don’t know what to say, so the wrong thing pops out.
            I can make you a list of things NOT to say in various circumstances.  Why?  Because I have had them said to me in an assortment of painful circumstances in the past several decades.  You are not the only one who has been left with a hanging jaw and a shaking head.  And second, I can make that list because I have said a few myself.  I have friends who have miscarried, who have lost spouses early, who have lost children to accident or disease, whose marriage has fallen apart, who have been the one to discover a mate’s suicide, who have suffered the pain of a horrible disease and its ultimate end, and probably every time I have said something I wished I hadn’t.  I try to remember those times when someone says something similar to me—they love me as much as I loved my friends or they would never have tried.  They would have simply walked away.
            And so I will never make one of those lists that regularly make the rounds—“What Not to Say When…”  In fact, I am getting a little fed up with them.  Those lists seem to imply that the person hearing those words has never said anything dumb themselves, that they would automatically do better.  Pardon my skepticism.  I have known some wise people in my many years, but none of them has ever managed to be perfect in their choice of words every time.  I doubt that anyone in their twenties or thirties or even forties has either.  Should we be willing to learn better?  Yes.  But most of what I have heard has come in a scathing, sarcastic tone meant more to lash out than help someone else learn.
            God expects me to act like a Christian no matter what I am going through.  Did Jesus bark at His disciples the night before His death, a death He knew would be so horrible that He “sweat drops as blood”?  Did He browbeat the women weeping before the cross while He hung there in agony?  If anyone could have been excused for snapping back, it would have been Him, but the example He left was one of grace under pressure. 
            As His disciple I must still be longsuffering, no matter what I am going through.  I must “forbear in love.”  I must “bear all things, believe all things, and hope all things.”  Certainly I must be willing to say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” especially if the thing they do comes out of a heart full of love.  It is difficult when, as the Psalmist said, My days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop, (102:3-7).  I have been there.  On those days, it is difficult to put up with other people’s blunders.  It is, in fact, difficult to deal with people at all.  I am ashamed of my failures and so grateful to my caring friends and family who still showed me their love, even when I didn’t show mine and probably made them wonder why they kept bothering to try.  But I am not going to excuse myself because of my despair by attacking them with a scornful list of their failures.
            God does not put in an exception clause for when we are hurting.  Like His Son, we must still exercise self-control and love, graciously accepting the comfort that those who care sometimes ham-handedly give.  Even afflictions that have nothing to do with suffering for His name can test us as much as persecution can, just in how we handle them.  Isn’t that, in fact, the real test?  Pain is never an excuse for sin.
 
For hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously: 1 Peter 2:21-23.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

When examining how Jesus spoke to people, there seems to be two reactions, neither of which promote growth.  The first follows this pattern:  "I know that Jesus spoke bluntly, but you aren't Jesus so you can't speak to people that way!"  This seems wrong on the face of it because of passages like 1 Cor. 11:1  "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" and 1 Thess. 1:6  "And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit".  No, none of us are Jesus, but we are told in multiple passages to imitate Him, so I should speak as He did, even if that means being curt.  However, some *ahem* plain spoken men like to declare that Jesus was often brusque to justify blasting away with no regard for the situation, the hearer, or anything else.  This also seems wrong because of passges like Col. 4:6  "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person" and 2 Tim. 4:2  "preach the word . . . reprove, rebuke, and exhort"  Colossians teaches us to "know how you ought to answer" which surely implies that there are right and wrong ways.  Salt is used as a flavor enhancer in food, so words seasoned with salt means what I say is tailored to "taste" as good as possible to the hearer.  Paul is telling Timothy that there are times for reproval and rebuke, but also times for exhortation.  We must know the situation.  So, how do we follow Jesus' example?  Perhaps we should start by examining it more closely.

Jesus and the Religious Leaders.
          While we might expect Jesus to try to impress these men, or win them over to His side, Jesus does the opposite.  In John 3, when Nicodemus came for a private discussion, Jesus doesn't try to gain a political friend.  Rather, He challenges Nicodemus:  “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?  Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (vs. 10-12)  In John 6, when the religious leaders peppered Jesus with questions, a categorization of His answers shows His claims were intended to blow up the religious paradigm they clung to.  Famously, in Matthew 23, Jesus declares them all to be hypocrites.  Pretty rough stuff.

Jesus and His Followers.
          Was Jesus desperate to hold onto the disciples He had and to grow their numbers as quickly as possible?  Not if how He spoke to them is any indication.  In John 6, as many of the crowds are shocked and leaving because of the "hard saying", He turns to the Twelve and asks "“Do you want to go away as well?” (vs 67)  Surely, an unequivocal challenge.  Jesus uses the phrase, "O ye of little faith" four times.  Twice to the twelve and twice to the crowds that came to listen.  On at least two other occasions, He referred to the twelve as having "little faith".  Very stern.  (I betcha someone's feelings got hurt. *Gasp!!*)

Jesus and the Sinful Masses.
          Surely, these were the people who needed the stern rebukes.  And yet in Mark 2, Jesus eats with them and tells the Pharisees that it is the sick that need attention and He wasn't here to call the righteous.  In Luke 7, He shows great compassion to the sinful woman whom the Pharisee didn't even want nearby.  In John 4, in dealing with the Samaritan woman with five ex-husbands Jesus was frank, but kind.  He certainly didn't blast away. 
 
          So, what can we learn from this brief examination?  Jesus was often blunt, but His caustic comments were reserved for those who should have known better, and who had raised themselves up as leaders of God's people while ignoring the principles of God's law. He was stern with His followers who weren't keeping up due to lack of effort.  He was kind, compassionate, and merciful to outsiders who were beginning to seek a way out of their sinful lives.  As imitators of Christ, if we were to follow this example it would go along way to us being frank and kind as the situation merits. 
 
Matt. 9:15  "And Jesus said unto them . . ."
 
Lucas Ward

     "Can you tolerate these meds?" 
     I sat there a minute, stunned.  What did she mean, can I tolerate them?  Did I have a choice if I wanted to keep my vision?  No, I did not.  So, of course I could tolerate them.
      "Well, some people can't, you know," she probably added because I looked so confused.  I had always thought that if there were an easier way, then that's what they would have given me rather than these battery acid drops that made me climb Keith like a tree as I put them in.  "So they stop taking them," she finished.  And what? I thought.  Go blind in short order?  Evidently.
     Before one of these painful, complicated surgeries a few years back, the doctor looked at me and said, "You're going to have to be tough for this to work." We were just over two weeks into recovery when I found out what he meant.  But this is the bottom line.  Do you want to see as long as possible?  Yes, I do.  Then you will have to endure some difficult, extremely painful things, and for a good while.  And I have.  That’s how much it means to me to keep seeing, to be able to keep studying, writing, and teaching.  And that's how much it means to me to see my babies, to watch my grandsons grow up just as I watched my sons, to watch birds flit from tree to tree, to see the new blooms on the triple hibiscus, the rose, and the gardenia, even to watch that little anole blow up his red balloon of a throat.  I really do not understand anyone who cannot steel themselves enough to do what has to be done so that all those things can happen.
     Anyone who has endured an injury or stroke and the following physical therapy knows exactly what we are talking about here.  But do you want to walk again? Do you want to talk again?  Do you still want to be as independent as possible?  Then you have to hurt.  You have to push yourself and you have to be tough.  Whining won't make everything go away.
     I think we need to have that same mindset spiritually.  Too many times we jolly people into conversion, which turns out to be anything but because they give up at the first impediment—the first time any pain is involved.  We don't want it to be too hard, and then when it is we wonder why they left.  We don't want to run them off before they even get started, which it turns out, is just delaying the inevitable because they came in thinking everything in life would be perfect now.  But Jesus demands a commitment from the beginning that is on a par spiritually with any sort of painful physical medication and therapy we could imagine. 
     And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it (Mark 8:34-35).
     Notice, he wasn't just talking to the Twelve, people who had been with him for a while and understood.  He was talking to the crowd, the people who were just following him around, listening.  He did not limit this to people he felt would be better able to handle it.  He said, "Anyone."  He thought they should know from the beginning the commitment he expected.  Deny yourself, crucify yourself, lose your life.
     In another place, As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:57-62).  What!?  Didn't Jesus know you have to gradually, carefully bring someone into the fold, not hit them in the face with reality?
     We need to toughen up, people.  When I won't listen because "I find that offensive," I am no better than a patient whining to his doctor because physical therapy hurts or the medicine stings.  "But you hurt my feelings when you tell me I have to give up these things and change."  These are the wounds of a friend, but we have no tolerance for anything but candy-coated platitudes (Prov 27:6) because that is what we were taught to expect by people who meant well, but were wrong.  Just like with this horrible eye medicine, you have to hurt (repent/change) before you can get well.  Do you want to get well, or not? 
     And we need to be honest with the ones we are trying to gain for the Lord.  Jesus demands a commitment, one that may mean sacrificing things that are precious to us.  But by not agreeing to those sacrifices, we are showing him that he is not that important to us.  Family is more important, friends are more important, status is more important, money and lifestyle are more important, and we just can't bear to lose all of that.  It just "hurts" too much.
     And just like those with a physical problem who will never heal, neither will those who are spiritually sick.  Yes, we all know that He says, Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  (Matt 11:29-30).  But we completely ignore that there is still a "yoke" and a "burden."  It is lighter than Satan's load if we truly commit to it, but he never promised a life without pain.  
     Like my doctors have told me, the Great Physician also says, Do you want to be a disciple of Christ?  Then you will have to be tough.
 
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,  (John 6:66-68).

Dene Ward

We had a pleasant surprise this year.  Besides the usual wrens’ nest in every odd place you can imagine, we had two hawks’ nests.  Two!  Hawks are very territorial, but they had set up their nests on opposite sides of the property, one just inside the east fence, and one just inside the west fence, as far from each other as they could possibly be and still be on our property.
            We have learned a lot about these birds and knew when to start listening for baby hawk noises.  Finally one morning we realized the mother was no longer in the east nest.  We peered long with the binoculars and called up to the nest.  Nothing.  A few days later we finally saw the dirty white downy baby head and the big black eyes.   
            After another week the baby sat up tall and we had a clear view for the first time.  It isn’t a hawk—it’s an owl!  A barred owl.  Although they usually have one or two siblings, this one appears to be an only child.  Its mother usually sits nearby on a low branch in a live oak arching over the run, a two foot high chunky brown and gray bird with a round head and no ear tufts, horizontal bars across its shoulders and vertical streaks running down its chest.  In the evenings she flies to the garden and sits on a tomato post, just as the hawks have done for years now, occasionally swooping down to the ground to find dinner for the nestling. 
            The hawks have hatched now as well, two downy white babies that sit in the nest and peer over at me when I make the trek to the west side of the property to talk with them.  Both of their parents sit nearby when they aren’t out hunting up food, circling above and screaming their distinctive cry.
            Having two nests is great, but I have a problem—I can't watch both at once because they are so far apart.  I have to walk the entire long side of the property to see one, and then back to see the other.  I have often seen the hawks as they first learn to fly.  I may miss that this time if I am watching the owl learn to fly on the same day. 
            Have you ever heard someone say, “I know God has more important things to deal with than my little problems?”  Is this supposed to be an excuse for a poor prayer life?  Is it supposed to be a proclamation of humility?  What it winds up being, if you think about it, is a lack of faith in the ability of God.  I can’t watch two nests, but God can.  Of the sparrows Jesus says, “Not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight,” (Luke 12:10).  Then he adds, “Fear not.  You are of more value than many sparrows.”  Not only does God consider my small problems important, He wants me to tell Him about them.
            The pagans of the world create gods they can understand based upon their own feelings.  The ancient Greek gods were the height of pettiness, malice, and cruelty.  Why?  Because the humans who created them imputed those far too human characteristics to their personalities.   We do exactly the same thing to God when we put Him in the box of our own human understanding.  “I know God has/does/thinks/feels…” is the height of presumptuousness.  It is not for us to be describing God in any manner in which He does not describe Himself.  “I just know God would never…” may be the most obvious way we limit God, but it is not even the most common.  Even in our zealous attempts to be reverent by inventing words like “omniscient,” we are guilty of limiting Him to our own ability to understand.  God is Eternal—you cannot quantify an Eternal Being because you cannot even comprehend Infinity.  He is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” Eph 3:20.
            Simply let His Word describe Him and our (in)ability to comprehend Him.
            Behold God is great and we know him not, Job 36:26.
            "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven--what can you do? Deeper than Sheol--what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea, Job 11:7-9.
            Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable [immeasurable], Isaiah 40:28.
            For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts, Isaiah 55:8-9.
            God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things we cannot comprehend, Job 37:5.
            Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" Romans 11:33-34.
            It is not my place to figure out what God is doing or why, or even the possibilities of His power—He says it’s impossible to do so.  It’s not my business to decide whether my problems are big enough to bother Him with—He says to bother Him.  It’s not my business to decide what He might say or not say, do or not do, think or not think.  To do that is to limit Him to my understanding and to be a disrespectful child who thinks he deserves an explanation from a Sovereign Creator.  He has told me everything I need to know.  Reverence means I just accept that.
 
When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out, Ecclesiastes 8:16-17.

Dene Ward

For twenty-two years on the rural five acres we owned in North Florida, we didn’t have a carport.  For over two decades our vehicles were at the mercy of sub-tropical sun, thunder and lightning, hail, hurricanes, and even once an inch of snow.  Not a single time were the cars or trucks we owned damaged during that time.
            Finally we had a slab poured and a carport erected.  “Whew!” we sighed with relief.  “Now we’re safe.”
            The next summer we were expecting guests and since the forecast called for a few showers, we moved the car out so the children would have a dry place to play.  Everyone left and we went inside to clean up.  When we came back outside to move the car back under the carport, a tree limb had fallen and put a dent in the trunk—a big one, and knocked off a half dollar size chunk of paint too.  All those years we were concerned and careful, nothing happened.  As soon as we thought we were safe, we weren’t.
            One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless, Proverbs 14:16.  How careful are you out there in the world?  Do you heed the warnings about evil companions corrupting good morals, and the Devil as a roaring lion hunting his prey (1 Cor 15:53; 1 Pet 5:9)?  Or are you so confident in your own righteousness that you are careless, moving away from the safety of the “carport?”
            How many times has a parent sent his child out with all the usual cautions only to have that child sigh and roll his eyes and say something like, “Yes, yes, I know,” shaking his head as he goes out the door?  I don’t care how well your life has gone until now, how safe and smart you think you are, one bad decision can ruin everything for a lifetime.  Keep it under the carport!
            How many times has a happily married man, supremely confident of his self-control, seen someone attractive, flirted a little “just for fun,” and wound up doing exactly what he never thought he ever would?  No matter how strong you think you are, don’t dally with the Devil—keep it under the carport!
            How many times has a Christian stepped over the line “just this once,” “to see what I’m missing,” or “so I know what I’m up against,” meaning to return immediately to the fold, but never making that return trip because that little fling cost him his life?  Life isn’t certain—keep it under the carport!
            You think I’m crazy don’t you, just because a limb fell on my car.  The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice, Prov 12:15.
            And if coming from me isn’t good enough—and really, why should it be?—then how about God?  By the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil, Prov 16:6.  My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments, Psa 119:120.  Job said if he had done anything wrong, then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket. For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty. 31:22-23. If no one else can do it, then let God put the fear in you—keep it under the carport!
            We wear seat belts every time because we never know when we will have an accident.  We get our inoculations because we never know when we might be exposed to a disease.  We have smoke alarms in our homes because we never know when a fire might break out.  We do all these things because it’s common sense.  So are the things God’s Word tells us about how to stay out of the clutches of sin and the Devil. 
            You’d better believe that from now on, my car will stay under the carport!  How about your soul?
 
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3
 
Dene Ward

When I was very young, radio evangelists were fond of ending their broadcasts with the directive to “put your hand on the radio and just believe.”  That was supposed to instantly transform the person who did nothing but sit in his recliner with a cup of coffee (or a can of beer?) into a Christian, a true believer, a person of “faith.” 
            Most mainstream denominational theologians believe in this doctrine of “mental assent.”  Faith is nothing more than believing, no action required.  Surely that must be one of those things spawned by the itching ears of listeners who wanted nothing required of them.  Just look at a few scriptures with me.
            For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Galatians 5:6.  What was that?  “Faith working…?”  Faith isn’t supposed to “work,” or so everyone says.  Did you know that Greek word is energeo?  Can you see it?  That’s the word we get “energy” and “energetic” from.  I don’t remember seeing too many energetic people sitting in their recliners.
            Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, Philippians 1:27.  Striving for the faith?  Even in English “striving” implies effort.  In fact, the Greek word is sunathleo.  Ask any “athlete” if mental assent will help him win a gold medal or a Super Bowl ring and you’ll hear him laughing a mile away.
            Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all, Philippians 2:17, ESV.  Now that can’t be right.  Everyone knows faith has nothing to do with outward observances of the law like sacrifices.  Well, how about this translation?  The ASV says “service of faith.”  Anyway you look at it, whether sacrifice or service, it requires some sort of action on our parts.
            Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses,1 Timothy 6:12.  Faith is a “fight.”  That Greek word is agon from which we get our word “agony.”  If you are a crossword puzzler, you know that an agon was a public fight in the Roman arena.  Anyone who did nothing but sit there, with or without a recliner, didn’t last long.
            To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12.  And there you have it in black and white:  “work of faith.” 
            Nope, some say, the trouble is you keep quoting these men.  Jesus never said any such thing.  Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent, John 6:29.  If faith itself is a work, how can we divorce the works it does from it? 
            We do have examples of mental assent in the scriptures, three that I could find easily. 
            You believe that God is one; you do well: the demons also believe, and shudder. James 2:19
            But certain also of the strolling Jews, exorcists, took upon them to name over them that had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, who did this. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Acts 19:13-15
            Those first two examples are powerful.  The devil and his minions believe in the existence of God and the deity of Jesus.  In fact, they know those things for a fact.  They even, please notice, recognize Paul as one of the Lord’s ministers.  So much for not paying attention to his or any other apostle’s writings.  Then there is this one:
            Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; John 12:42.  Those men believed too.  They would have been thrilled to know they could put their hands on something in the privacy of their homes and “just believe.”  They could have had their cake and eaten it too—become followers without actually following.
            And therein lies the crux of the matter.  It’s easy to sit in your recliner and listen.  It’s too hard to work, to strive, to sacrifice and serve, and way too hard to fight until you experience the agony of rejection, tribulation, and persecution.
            Guess what?  Some of us believe this too.  We just substitute the pew for the recliner.  It doesn’t work that way either.  God wants us up and on our feet, working, serving, sacrificing and fighting till the end, whenever and however that may happen.
 
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5
 
Dene Ward

            When I was in college while almost all of my friends were discovering and devouring C. S. Lewis, I was a music ed. major.  That meant I didn't just take a music theory class that twisted my synapses and burnt out a few hundred brain cells a day—don't let anyone tell you that a real music class is an "easy A"—but I also accompanied voice lessons, participated in no less than 2 ensembles a term, and also practiced 12-15 hours a week along with all the academic courses and assignments.  I had semesters when I took over 20 hours to get it all in.  Then on Saturdays I taught 8 piano lessons and on Sundays taught a teen girl Bible class.  So I was a late bloomer when it came to Lewis because he was never required reading in my classes and I simply had no time for anything that wasn't.
            Maybe that is why, when I first began this book oh, so many years later than my friends, I was somewhat disappointed.  "What's all the fuss about?" I wondered.  "Where are all the great insights, the moments of head-slapping realization?"  Well, perhaps it's that I am no longer a college student.  I'm a good deal older than my friends were when they were introduced to this author, no longer naïve and a lot less likely to almost adore a man just because he has a way of putting things that seems so revolutionary to the young and inexperienced.  And most of his arguments were old hat to me—I had been hearing them all my life.
            But having said that, I found myself becoming more and more impressed as I read.  I will admit that at the beginning some of his logic was a little convoluted for this old lady, and a few illustrations left me cold, but as he progressed, that happened less and less.  The last half of the book finally began to take hold of me, and I am left with two things that stood out more than anything else.  First, his summation of religion—to make us all into little Christs—made many passages in the New Testament suddenly become clear.  And second, his definition of the cost of discipleship—everything—was spot on with everything Jesus and writers like Paul said again and again. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me, just to name one.
            And for those two things especially, and the elaboration on them, I am more than glad I read this book.  I am sure you will find other reasons as well.
 
Dene Ward

Note:  I read a large print version put out by Walker and Company of NY,NY.  It has many typos in it that will lay a speed bump or two in your reading, but you can always figure them out. dw

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
Let's see how many questions we can answer with this one text.  Read it slowly and carefully:
"And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD. “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. “Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered. “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. “For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! " (Ezek 14:12-21).
 
I am currently reading a book wherein a noted scholar apologizes for God allowing bad things to happen in the world. The atheists accuse God of genocide and he sets about to prove it is not so. But, suffering does not happen because God allows it, it happens because God sends it. HE says so! (Besides, when one allows someone to steal, lie, et.al unopposed, he is responsible too.) But, again, note: "When I send."  A lot of babies and children died in the flood. When we defend God for what He clearly says He did or make excuses for Him as if He needed our approval, we are sitting in judgment and declaring Him guilty.
 
And, many seem to think that because they attend the right church doing right things, they are OK. A little history lesson reveals that these people in the passage above did the "right" worship (Jer 7:8-12), something we also claim with great pride. Yet God says that though Noah, Daniel and Job were in the church, it would not save you. Only righteous living every day saves.
 
Along with that one, some think that we are the salt that will preserve the USA. Nice one, but a friend looked up every occurrence of salt in the Bible and it is always used of flavor or the use is vague; salt is not used as preservative clearly anywhere (despite the commentaries concerning "Ye are the salt of the earth"). Besides, God said that even Noah, Daniel and Job would only save themselves, not even their own children.
 
"Everybody does it," or "I'm doing the best I can," and, "God's grace through my right worship will cover me," seem to be our belief that God will forgive our daily failures to learn and live righteously like those three men did in the wicked worlds they lived in. The passage is clear that this is not so. Thinking very hard about Jesus' sacrifice on Sunday will not make up for indifferent living all week either.
 
Maybe a serious study in the "things written aforetime" would stop a lot of our foolish reasoning and motivate some to live self-controlled, righteous, and godly lives. (Titus 2:12 -- ESV & NASB).
 
"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. " (1John 2:3-6).

Keith Ward

As soon as the garden is planted it starts—our evening stroll to see how it fares, what has come up, what is bearing, what is ripe and ready to pick the next morning, which plants show signs of disease or insects, and then, what should we do about it.  It’s a habit, a ritual almost, one we look forward to every year.
            Sometimes I think that God must love gardens too.  The first place he built for man, the perfect place, was a garden--and Jehovah planted a garden, eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed, Gen 2:8.  And it was in that garden that He walked with man every evening.  I wonder what they talked about.  Probably a lot of the things we talk about—but then maybe not.
            What will be ripe tomorrow?  Yes, they might have discussed that, because Eden probably produced a bumper crop.  Do we need to spray for bugs?  No, not that, for bugs were not a problem.  What will be ready for supper tomorrow night?  Yes, the choice was probably endless.  Do we need to pull the plants that are infected with blight so they won’t infect others?  No, definitely not that question--at least not at the beginning.  Eventually, though, Adam was discussing with Eve exactly what we discuss about our far from perfect garden.  Yes, we need to spray.  Yes, we need to water.  Yes, we need to pull those weeds out before they choke out the plants, and I sure hope there’s enough produce to put up for next year too!
            We each have a garden.  The Song of Solomon uses the term to refer to the physical body and chastity.  I have no trouble using it to refer to my soul as well.  Shouldn’t I be out there every evening with God, surveying that garden, examining it for pests and disease, looking for wilt and fungus, making decisions about how to save that garden and make it bear the most fruit for the Lord?
            Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5
            Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind. Psalms 26:2
            Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!  Psalms 139:23-24
            We even sing that last one.  Do we mean it?  Do we really want to look closely enough to see how to properly tend our gardens, gardens that belong to God?  Are we really willing to look through His word long enough and deeply enough to find our faults and fix them?
            Every evening God expects you to meet Him in that garden of a soul, to plant His word in it and tend it as necessary, even if it becomes painful.  He knows it is the only way for that garden to produce, so that you can someday be in the new Garden of Eden with Him.
 
The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Psalms 92:12-15
 
Dene Ward