July 2, 1843, was a hot sultry day in Charleston, South Carolina, "one of the most oppressive days inflicted on mortal man," according to the Charleston Mercury, the local paper.  As often happens on those kinds of days, a violent thunderstorm blew up.  As a born and bred Floridian who is familiar with that sort of weather, I can not only sympathize, but also tell you that those kinds of storms can be precursors to all sorts of bad things.  This one, it seems, did far more than the usual strong winds that topple trees and ferocious lightning that can start fires.  In the middle of this storm, an alligator fell out of the sky right on the corner of Wentworth and Anson Streets.  Not a very heathy specimen, it measured only two feet, but it still shocked the town.  It was supposed that the unfortunate creature had been picked up in a waterspout, carried through the air for miles, and dumped unceremoniously.  The clipping goes on to tell us that no one actually saw this happen, but "the beast had a look of wonder and bewilderment about him" and "he couldn't have got there any other way."  The story was picked up by the Times-Picayune of New Orleans and has stayed in the history books ever since.  I found several sources.

Now you are probably sitting there laughing at the naiveté and ignorance of those people.  Such a thing could have never happened!  And in your heart, when you read of almost impossible things happening to others, you always think, "It could never happen to me."  In my many years, I have known of people or had in my family things happen that no one ever expected, and I have learned to never say, "Never happen, especially to me."  That is often said by people who are not in a good relationship with God, who want to sow their wild oats for a while before getting their lives straightened out.   "I have plenty of time," they think.

A young couple were on their way to church one morning when they were carjacked and the husband shot and killed.  Another young Christian couple and their child were killed when their home was destroyed by a tornado.  A cousin of mine was killed in an ATV accident when he was out with friends one afternoon for a little fun.  Another got in the truck with her brother to go home from school and was killed when a semi hit them.  Another cousin of mine lost her 35 year old husband to a brain aneurysm one morning.  A friend of ours from Keith's early preaching days went out one morning to buy his wife some aspirin for her headache and when he got home, she was dead.  She was about the same age as my cousin's husband.  Another couple went out for dinner one evening.  He never made it home because he had a heart attack while they ate.  "I went out to eat with my husband and came home a widow," she said.

And by now, you are getting my point.  Things happen when you least expect it.  Can I add this one, which is about as likely as an alligator raining from the sky?  My husband went out to do his rounds as a community control officer one evening and was ambushed by one of his caseload.  One of the bullets hit the Pilot clicker pen in his pocket which was just enough to turn the bullet sideways so that it plowed through his chest across the ribcage rather than going straight into his heart.  Unlikely, even impossible things do happen!

And now you are tsk-tsking me about using scare tactics to get you to straighten out your life, aren't you?  Jesus used some of the scariest language in the Bible to describe Hell, and far more of it than anyone else.  He had no problem putting a goad to people to get them to change their lives, so why should I?  If that is what it takes to wake people up, then use it.  You are in good company with the Lord.
 
​Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them.  And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find [them] so, blessed are those [servants].  But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through. Be you also ready: for in an hour that you think not the Son of man comes Luke12:37-40.
 
Dene Ward

One of the benefits of becoming a birdwatcher is learning their songs.  It’s been a few years now, and every year I learn another call or sometimes unlearn one I thought I knew.  For the longest time I thought I was hearing a cardinal, when it was really a wren, but now I know them instantly. 
            I have also learned that the same bird produces more than one call.  A cardinal will peep, one high light note at a time, or he will purty, purty, purty, or what, what, what, what, or even cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer.  It all depends upon whether he is courting a female, defending his territory from other males, warning other birds of interlopers, or just contentedly enjoying his meal.  But whichever call he uses, now I know it.
            Some bird songs are deceptive.  A mourning dove sounds like some kind of soft-spoken owl.  A blue jay’s whistle might sound a bit like a cuckoo to someone who is used to listening to cuckoo clocks.  And did you know that the movies often use a hawk’s call when an eagle is pictured because it sounds much more regal for our national bird than the squawk an eagle usually produces?  And so you have to be educated to these sounds to know them, to distinguish one from the other. 
            The same is true of the Bible.  The things I see people falling for astonish me.  How could they possibly believe such craziness?  How?  Because they have never educated themselves in the scriptures.  If you know the general teaching of the Bible, the general layout of the plot (yes, there is one), more than that, if you know the God and the Christ presented in those Scriptures, you won’t fall for the false teachings out there.  You may not know exactly what is wrong, but your mind will instantly say, “Wait a minute.  Something doesn’t sound right.”
            You can only do that by paying attention to everything Jesus says, not just the parts you like.  Too many of us don’t want a Savior who demands that we follow him only, that we give up ourselves, our likes and dislikes, our loyalties and loves, and who makes statements like, “Sin no more,” and “You are of your father the devil.”  We want the loving Jesus who forgives sins and holds the little children in his lap.  To truly accept Jesus is to accept all of his words and ways, not just the parts we prefer.  “The sheep follow the shepherd,” Jesus says, “because they know his voice” John 10:4.  Even the stern, disciplinary voice.
            Jesus is our Good Shepherd.  We must learn all of his words in order to truly know him and not be deceived.  All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen, John 10:8.  I’m afraid too many of us would listen, and become lost sheep in the process.
            Do you know his voice?  If you don’t know the whole of Jesus and God’s word, you don’t.  If I can learn a couple dozen bird calls in such a short amount of time, surely you can learn the call of a Savior who wants you to know him in even less. 
 
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

Dene Ward