We are a self-centered and selfish culture.  If you think that has not found its way into the church, you are wrong.  If you think it hasn’t found its way into your own heart, you are probably wrong again.  Have these words ever left your mouth?  “No one came to see me when I was sick/injured/in the hospital?”  There is your evidence right there.

         God meant for us to minister to others every day and in every circumstance of life, not judge our brother's service to us..  Too often, if we see our lives as a ministry at all, we see it as periods of service broken up by periods when we cannot serve—for example, when we are ill.  In other words, when things don’t come easily, when things are not perfect, we are “on break” or “out to lunch.” 

            If anyone had an excuse for taking a break, it was Paul while he was in prison.  Yet he tells the Philippians that he was fulfilling his mission to preach the gospel, “this grace,” even while imprisoned, Phil 1:5-7.  God recently taught us this lesson of perpetual ministry in a way we will not soon forget.

            Keith had major surgery that kept him in the hospital five days.  In fact, it kept me in with him since I can more easily communicate with this deaf spouse of 50 years than anyone else can, and I took care of many basic nursing chores too.  

            We have always made it a point to treat service people as people, not personal slaves or furniture.  Many waitresses have told us they remember us from earlier visits precisely because of that.  We tried to do the same with the hospital medical staff.  We didn’t complain; we didn’t make demands; we took care of our own needs as often as possible, and said please and thank you when we had to ask for something.  We never really thought about that—it’s just something we do because the Lord would have us treat everyone kindly and with respect.

            One night one of the nurses took me aside and asked about our “religion.”  “There’s something different about you,” she said, and gave me an opening to talk with her about the Lord and our church family. 

            Another night one of the nurses stayed in our room talking to us far longer than she needed in order to accomplish her task.  Finally she said with a sigh, “I need to go check on the others, but I’ll be back to talk more when I can.”

            Yet another day, one of the nurses who had been with us for three days was leaving for four days off, and knew that she wouldn’t see us again.  She made a point to come say good-bye. 

            While we were there we handed out tracts and blog cards.  We wrote down church addresses and website addresses.  We gave out email addresses.  Although we had taken those things with us “just in case,” I was shocked at how many we were able to give out, at how many people wanted to talk.  We thought we needed their care, but God showed us how to give it right back.

            What is happening in your life right now?  Don’t assume that you cannot serve when you are physically indisposed.  Don’t hang an “out to lunch” sign on your life because you have too much going on right now to pay attention to anyone else.  What did Jesus do while he was hanging on the cross?  How many did he minister to?  His mother, a thief, the very men who drove the nails, and all of us as he died for our sins.

            Jesus expects us to live as he did, thinking of others’ needs first.  If you have done it long enough, it comes without thought, even in turbulent times, painful times, sorrowful times.  The trick is to do it while things are good.  Do it in the grocery store.  Do it on the freeway.  Do it at school and work and when you speak to your neighbor.  It must become natural in order to come automatically in trying circumstances.  Any difficulty you have, especially when things are easy, is a telling factor—it shows how little you have been working on it.

            Service, first, last, always--and regardless of circumstances—that is the motto of a true disciple of Christ.

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, Philippians 1:12-13.

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak, Ephesians 6:18-20.

Dene Ward

     I was born legally blind.  In those days, they did not check children like they do today, and I learned to feed and dress myself, and played happily in my bedroom with no one the wiser.  Finally, when I was four, my parents noticed that I kept getting closer and closer to the television.  Don't judge them harshly.  They loved me and cared for me as any parent would.  They just did not recognize the problem because of how well I coped.  And I coped that well because I assumed everyone was like me and so never raised a fuss. 
     I got my first pair of "coke bottle" glasses when I was 4—and it was still nearly 50 years later before the doctors came up with a name for what was wrong with me. But those glasses were pretty amazing.  My mother said the first thing I did when we left the doctor's office with them was to lean over and look at the ground.  Finally, she came to see what I had found and nearly cried when she realized it was the first time I had ever seen ants. 
     I spent a lot of time looking at things after that, and seeing them for the first time.  My daddy, who was a car guy, was especially tickled that I learned all the identifying characteristics of the different models of cars.  Back then, there were not as many as today, so a four year old noticing a "Winken" and "Toodebaker," which for some reason I also called a "backwards forwards car," was not all that amazing.  I also remember when Edsels came out.  That big horse collar of a grille was easy to see for a four year old who paid attention to things like that.
      But Ford had goofed in their research.  They were aiming at people who would buy mid-priced sedans.  Time magazine says they spent $250 million dollars on research and advertising, but by the time the car came out, the country was in a recession and people were looking at compact cars to save money.  The Edsel came out on September 4, 1957, and was discontinued on November 19, 1959.  The car's name has come to mean "a dud," in our slang, and people will always remember it that way.
     The last thing any of us should want is to be remembered for our worst mistake.  In the scriptures, Jeroboam probably has that distinction.  In order to solidify his reign and hold on the people, he introduced things to the worship of God that were considered from then on as some of the worst abominations in the land, particularly the golden calves in Dan and Bethel.  I counted at least 25 times that these sins were listed in the historical books as they described the kings who reigned after him--he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.  God had promised him a dynasty if he only obeyed, but he did not trust God to keep his word, and so he lost that promise.
     We can make life-changing mistakes ourselves.  Whom you marry is probably one of the most important decisions you will make—it can determine your eternal destiny, AND your children's.  "But I can change him," has about as much chance of happening as snow in Tampa—which has happened only once in my lifetime.  How you choose to raise your children is another one.  What you do and don't do, and who you listen to can determine their whole lives.  The career you choose can also be important.  Even the congregation you choose to be a part of can make a difference if all you want is entertainment or "easy listening."  Whenever you find yourself saying, "But I will do better than all those others, it won't affect me that way," you have put an Edsel on the assembly line and are likely to have the same results.
     Please be careful.  Young people, please listen to those who are older and have come through the same stages of life you are in now.  They care about your souls and they want to help you.  You don't want to be remembered as the biggest dud in history, and you don't want the eternal results that might lead to, especially for those you love.
 
An ear that is hearing the reproof of life lodges among the wise.  Whoever is refusing instruction is despising his soul, and whoever is hearing reproof is getting understanding  Prov15:30-32
 
Dene Ward

We made a mistake this summer.  We planted climbing roses at either end of a fifteen foot long trellis, and then planted morning glories along it as well.  To fill up the blank spot in the middle, we told ourselves.  But as the summer progressed those morning glory vines wound their way not only up the trellis but across to the new rose canes and completely covered them.  They shaded the leaves from the already filtered sun in that area of the yard and even hid the few blooms the roses managed to put out.
            Enough, we decided, and Keith clipped the smothering vines one morning.  They were wound so tightly, I had to wait for them to begin to wilt before I could remove them without damaging the rose vines.  Do you know what happened?  For five days those clipped and wilted vines put on new blooms and not just a few.
            Finally on the fifth day, I grabbed some heavy duty scissors and began cutting and carefully unwinding them.  After a half hour of cautious work and quite a few bloody thorn-pricks, nearly all the morning glories were lying in a pile along the bottom of the trellis and I discovered more rose vines than I ever imagined trailing along nearly the entire fifteen feet of trellis.  I gathered the morning glories in an armful and tossed them out in the brushy field.
            The next morning we came out to look at the roses.  New red leaves grew on nearly every end, with half a dozen new buds.  Finally we can breathe, they seemed to be screaming at us.  Then we walked over to the field and out there in the thick grass lay those dead morning glory vines—with brand new purple, blue, pink, and magenta blooms on them!  The next morning we saw more new morning glory blooms.  It had been a week since they were cut and they had lain in the sub-tropical summer sun without even any rain. Yet there they were, putting on new blooms still, even though their vines were wilted and brown. 
            By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts: and through it he being dead yet speaks, Heb 11:4.
            How many hundreds of names do we know from the pages of Scripture?  Though they are long dead, their examples still speak to us and help us along our path. 
            Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Heb 12:1.
            That great cloud of witnesses continues to speak as we read about their lives, as we study them in Bible classes and hear them spoken of in sermons.  We give our children great Bible heroes to pattern their lives after, and well we should.  But what is true of them is true of us as well.
            After we are gone, our deeds will continue to speak, maybe not to as many as those in the pages of Scripture, but to everyone who knew us.  What will they see in the field after we are gone?  Will we leave nothing but a wilted vine, or will colorful blooms still dot the ground?  Will the deeds we do continue to inspire others, or will our useless lives stand as an example not to follow?  Will people talk about us with words of blessing or will others need to come along and undo the damage we left behind?
            Think about my morning glories today.  Someday your stem will be snipped, too.  What will be left behind for others to see?
 
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us, Titus 2:7,8.
 
Dene Ward

Have you noticed this about the internet?  Everyone is in a hurry to spread bad news, almost as if a prize were given to the one who knows it first and has the most lurid detail.  Why is that, especially among Christians?  Shouldn’t a group created by Good News be far more likely to share that?  Yet the many who are quick to excuse their inability to talk to their neighbors about their salvation, have no such qualms about telling even their enemies about a tragedy.
            Psalm 22 should give us pause.  We tend to think of it as “the crucifixion psalm” and relegate it to Messianic prophecy alone.  However, most scholars believe that these psalms had an application in the day in which they were written also.  Therefore, Psalm 22, which is clearly Messianic in many ways, also applied to some time in David’s life. 
            It must be obvious that we do not know every detail of his life.  John said about the life of Jesus, Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John 21:25.  Surely the same could be said for David, who lived far longer than the Lord on this earth.  He could easily have had a serious illness we are not told about, or a life-threatening injury.  As many enemies as this man of war had, this psalm could refer to some of them.  Whatever it was, this psalm tells us about some dire straits David found himself in. 
            Note the structure of the psalm.  If you have a modern version, you will see the sections separated clearly.  The “I/me” sections, those about David and his lament, are alternated with the “thou/you” sections, those addressed to God.  The “I/me” sections gradually increase in length, first two verses, then three, then seven.  The “thou” sections gradually increase their urgency until the final one when David seems to scream, “Save me from the mouth of the lion!”
            The danger pictured in the psalm gradually increases.  “Many bulls encompass me.” “They open wide their mouths.” “Dogs encompass me…they pierced my hands and feet.” “Come quickly.  Save me from the mouth of the lion and the horns of the wild oxen.”  By this point, David feels the end is near one way or the other.
            Suddenly, in verse 22, the mood changes.  The poet uses less figurative language and calmer speech.  “Praise” becomes the repetitive word instead of “Deliver me, save me, rescue me.”  David begins to recount this desperate time only so he can tell others the good news—God delivered him.  “Praise him, glorify him, stand in awe of him,” he tells the assembled congregation, probably those whom he had invited to his thank offering feast.  The Law of Moses made provision for a man to offer a sacrifice when something wonderful had happened to him.  He was to invite his friends and neighbors and share not only the feast, but the good news of the blessings God had given him.  (Lev 7:15; Deut 12:15-18; Psa 40:9,10)  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have such a tradition today?  Especially in a day where all we want to share with others are the disasters, the complaints, and the bad news, to actually share good news and praise God for His blessings would be a welcome change.
            What are you sharing with your Facebook friends today?  With your family and neighbors, your classmates, fellow workers, and even the cashiers and waitresses you see during the day?  Is bad news the only thing that exhilarates you, or do you excitedly tell others the good news—that a Savior loves them just as he loves you and has done so many wonderful things for you. 
            God had a people once who only reveled in the bad news, including ten men who came back from seeing a glorious Promised Land and with their evil report (bad news) “made the people complain” Num 14:36.  It did not take long for God to give them up to a wilderness in which they learned what bad news really was. 
            Think today, not only before you speak, but before you share. Let’s start a new tradition.  Let’s make a thank offering feast for our friends instead of a gripe-fest.  Share the good things in your life, so that someday you can more easily share the most important thing—your Lord.
 
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones…Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country, Prov 15:30; 25:25.
 
Dene Ward
 

     A couple of centuries ago, Passenger Pigeons were the most widespread bird in North America, estimated to be 25-40% of the entire avian population, roughly three to five billion.  When they passed overhead, the skies darkened for up to an hour, the time it took for one flock to pass by.  Someone said they sounded like a thousand threshing machines, a thousand steamboats, and a thousand trains all at once. They ranged from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River and from the Great Lakes to the southern United States. 
     The birds flew far in their migration and when they returned in the spring, the settlers in the early days of this country jumped for joy—free protein after the near starvation of winter.  The birds flew so low and so thick that you could swing a pole and kill enough for dinner.  With the advent of the telegraph and railroad, the hunting of passenger pigeons by both amateur and professional sportsmen flourished with numbers nearly as many as the birds themselves, until by the mid-1890s, only three captive breeding flocks were left.  On September 1, 1914, the last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.  She was about 29 years old and had never laid a fertile egg.  Efforts to save them had come too late.  (All information courtesy of Audubon, the e-magazine.)
     What are you doing to keep Christianity from going extinct?  Or do you just expect others to do that? 
     Think first about your family.  Are you teaching your children at home, not just expecting them to pick it up in church Bible classes, but spending regular time every day talking to them about God in any and every way possible, praying with them, reading the scriptures to them, helping them to begin to make small decisions that a Christian must eventually make in his life in a much larger way? 
     How about your neighborhood?  Does the man across the fence know you are a Christian?  Does the woman down the street whom you pass as she weeds her flowerbeds, the couple who take a walk every evening on the sidewalk that runs past your house?  Does the friendly cashier know that you are on your way to Bible class and just stopped to pick up a couple of things you forgot?  Does the UPS man know that you are pressure cleaning the sidewalk because you expect some folks to come that night for a study?  Or are you hiding your allegiance to the Lord, and if so, why?
     What happens at work?  Does the boss know that staying late on Wednesday night is not a good option for you?  Does she know that you will miss the company picnic because you will be worshipping God on Sunday?  And maybe more important, do they know they can count on you to work hard and do things right precisely because you are a Christian.  That you won't be making flimsy excuses for missing work, possibly even lying about being sick? 
     Will any of that keep Christianity from going extinct?  Why do you think people ask you about your religion?  Because, as a nurse told us once after several days in the hospital, "There's something different about you."  You'd better believe it will help.
      But for today, just think about your home.  The first step to extinction is when the next generation is lost.  What's happening to yours?
 
And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, that knew not Jehovah, nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel. And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim; and they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them: and they provoked Jehovah to anger.  And they forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth Judg2:10-13.
 
Dene Ward