This emphasis on the contrast between the exteriority and cultic nature of First Testament worship and the interiority and spiritual nature of Christian worship reflects a misunderstanding of true Israelite worship. Beginning with Cain and Abel and running through the Torah and Prophets, we see that the heart and life of a person provided the lens through which their worship was evaluated."

Daniel Block "For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship". 

My high school class was just a year or two too young to lose many to the Vietnam War, but we knew upperclassmen who went, and Keith was in the Marine Corps from ‘67 to’71.  My life could easily be different now.

            The way those men were greeted when they came home from that horror is a shame to our country.  They did not start that war; they were just pawns on a larger political chessboard.  The ones who spat on them and called them names were, by and large, a younger group who had never fought in a war, never experienced any sort of economic deprivation, but rather, had their lives handed to them on a silver platter. 

            In 1994 another group of veterans was finally given the honor they deserved in the many 50^th anniversary observances of D-Day.  They were called “the Greatest Generation,” for making it through the Great Depression and then going on to fight for their country.  Many gave the ultimate sacrifice, as we call it.  Of the few, if any, still left, others still suffer from the injuries they incurred.  Many more still bear the pain of emotional scars from that awful conflict.  Truly they deserve our respect and our gratitude. 

            So what has happened?  1994 is gone.  I live in Florida, where a great many retirees, many of whom are veterans, finish their lives.  They are regularly the brunt of jokes and disrespect from a generation that may never know the trials that group went through, solely because those people went through those trials.  Funny how time can wreak such havoc with attitudes isn’t it?

            Unfortunately, I have seen the same thing happen in the Lord’s body.  A younger generation sneers at an older one because it is older, because it doesn’t understand that society is a bit different, and what was once expedient no longer is.  Yet that older generation is the one who saw the problems in the work force during the 40s, a war machine grinding out supplies at a pace unheard of before.  They were the ones who saw the need for a Sunday evening service so that those Christians who were working shifts would not be left out of the group activities, so they too could experience the encouragement that comes from praising and thanking God together. 

            You know what?  When they came up with that idea, it was new, it was different--it broke all the traditions.  Don’t sit there on your high horse and accuse them of not being able to change with the times.

            That is why those things are so hard for them to give up.  Yes, for some there may be an attitude problem, perhaps a willfulness or stubbornness that should be dealt with, but I would suggest that is not the case for most.  Just because someone has a difficult time seeing the need for an expedient change, does not mean he is a Pharisee, which seems to be the accusation du jour.  Too many times we act towards them with a disrespectful scorn and impatience, while at the same time being happy to stand on those same tired, hunched shoulders, shoulders that bore the burden of fighting the battles that have kept the church sound and faithful to the Lord.  Where would we be now without them? 

            My generation and the one just younger need to be careful.  Trying to withhold respect and honor and cloaking it as righteousness is simply another facet to the same Phariseeism we claim to abhor (Mark 7:8-13).  Our Lord would not like it now any more than he did two thousand years ago.

            So please, be a little more careful how you speak to and about the old warriors.  Be understanding of the feelings they must have, seeing their world change perhaps more than any other generation before.  Be grateful to them for what they have been through and the battles they have fought.  One of these days, another generation will come along and look at you and the things you don’t want to change.  What kind of example will you have left them?

 

You shall stand before the gray head and honor the face of the old man, and you shall fear your God.   I AM Jehovah, Lev 19:32. 

 

Dene Ward

 

When I sat down to write this review was the first time I actually saw the sub-title for this book, "A Call to a Spiritual Reformation."  Maybe that explains why it made me feel like a ping-pong ball going back and forth from one chapter to another, and sometimes within a chapter.  At one point, about halfway through a chapter, the author wrote, "And what does this have to do with prayer?" and I uttered a not very quiet "Amen."  So let this be a warning before you pick this one up:  don't expect a guidebook to learning how to pray.  This is about much more than that, and sometimes the author cannot seem to decide if it's a book for scholars or a book for us ordinary folks who just want a better prayer life.

     The author does discuss eight, if I counted right, prayers of Paul.  And no, my prayers are not much like his.  Only occasionally have I reached the sort of profundity that his do.  This read did teach me how better to think about and thus word prayers like Paul's.  I wish Carson had spent much more time helping me be able to do that instead of just asking again and again, "Do your prayers sound like this?"  Perhaps I am just too practical, even too formulaic in my thinking, but certainly there are many others who just want a little more "how" discussion instead of just "what." 

     The most helpful chapters to me were the first where he does indeed give us a list of helpful hints and then the seventh—excuses given for not praying.  Be careful of your toes in that one.  I also found comfort and relief in the twelfth chapter in which he discusses the times that it seems our prayers are not answered, at least not in the way we would like them to be.  

     I found myself in other chapters wading through things I never expected due to the title of this book, and that left me aggravated more than helped.  Sometimes it seems like Carson cannot decide whether to write about theology or practicality.  Part of the problem is that his Calvinism, modern though it may be, creates paradoxes that non-Calvinists do not wrestle with, at least quite so much.  Yes, I believe in the sovereignty of God, but my God—and the God I believe the Bible shows us—is so powerful He can give us freewill in its greatest sense and still make His will come to pass.  So I pray, even trying to change His mind occasionally, because I believe my prayers will make a difference—HE said they would.  Carson stops every so often to wrestle with things like that and it gave me motion sickness, going back and forth from subject to subject.

     This writer has a reputation for scholarship and good writing and he certainly deserves it.  I will probably use quotes from this book on my blog's "Thirty Second Devo" entries.  But if you pick this one up, you have my permission to skip ahead every so often to find what truly helps you.

     Praying with Paul by D. A. Carson is published by Baker Academic.

 

Dene Ward

“Are you looking for a sign?  This is it!”

            We saw that on a highway somewhere when we were traveling, and under it the address of the local church.  I laughed then, but maybe it wasn’t a bad idea.  People are still looking for a sign, just as they were in Jesus’ day.

            I have heard a lot of talk about roadside signs in my lifetime, many of them negative, and I understand the concern.  The church is an undenominational entity and those signs, if they are not carefully worded, can teach things we are trying not to teach. But can I say this one thing about them?  Through the years, many people have shown up at various church doors where I worshipped because of the sign.  They remembered it from childhood.  Or maybe they remembered a neighbor who acted differently than their other neighbors, who helped their family when no one else did.  They remembered other neighbors, people who faced their own tragedy and came through it with a smile and faith intact.  Maybe they remembered the times that neighbor invited them to church and now they are in the middle of a crisis and they see a sign in front of a building that looks awfully familiar, one like the sign where their neighbor faithfully attended year after year no matter what was happening in their lives or in the world.

            That is certainly one benefit of those signs that people, including me, sometimes wish weren’t there any more, or were worded much differently.  But maybe this is what we need to concentrate on: that sign wouldn’t have done a thing in the cases I mentioned if the remembered people hadn’t been the kind of people they were. 

            Our lives are supposed to be the sign.  In a world where “Christian” can mean anything and everything, you should still be able to tell a genuine one by how he acts.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven, Matt 5:16.  If you really want people to be interested in your faith, then show them a faith worth being interested in.

            A lot of people in Jesus’ day wanted the other kind of sign.  What did Jesus have to say about that?  Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, Matt 12:38,39.  Jesus knew that a miraculous sign would do no good.  He said as much in the parable where the rich man desired Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead as a sign to his brothers, but was told, “If they will not hear the Law and the prophets, they won’t hear if someone comes back from the dead.”  The sign on Mt Carmel ultimately did no good either.  The next morning Jezebel was still in power, able to threaten Elijah and send him running.

            No, the signs that really matter are the ones we act out in front of our friends.  Those are the signs that spark their interest and lead them to ask questions, signs that will eventually start them reading the Word of God and finding their way to Him.  Miracles didn’t work for Jesus, and he steadfastly refused to send a sign at their request.  Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, John 12:37.  What worked were his words and the life he lived, and that’s what works today.

            You are the sign people are looking for.  Word it carefully.

 

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, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God, Phil 1:27,28.

 

Dene Ward

It’s one of those recipes you don’t really like to admit that you use, especially if you have a reputation for baking from scratch or cooking multi-course meals for your anniversary dinner, meals like a leek and Swiss chard tart as an appetizer, an entrée of veal shanks with sage over polenta with broccoli rabe, ending with pear croustade in a hazelnut crust.  Somehow this recipe doesn’t fit into that mold.

            But once in awhile life gets hectic, stressed, entirely too busy, and you find yourself needing a dish for a potluck with exactly one hour to cook it and no extra time for much prep.  So then I pull out this three can, two bottle, two bag recipe, dump it all in a pot and go on with my life.  I have learned not to let it bother me when this stuff gets more raves than another recipe I spent six hours on.  I have also learned not to tell anyone what’s in it until they taste it because it is truly a weird concoction, but oh, so good.

            Those Party Meatballs, as the recipe calls them, have been my salvation more than once.  Sometimes we need something easy instead of something elaborate.  If it meets the need and is just as tasty, who cares?  There will be plenty more times for elegant three layer cakes and brined, crusted. herb-infused entrees.

            God understands that, too.  When I was very young I thought you couldn’t pray except at certain times, using certain phrases, making sure it was long and full of heavy, theological words and concepts, usually from the King James Version.  Why I thought that I don’t know.  The Bible is full of examples of people praying in all sorts of situations, all sorts of postures, long prayers, short prayers, prayers of profundity and simple prayers of just a few words.  Maybe that was the problem:  I just hadn’t studied enough myself.  All I had done was listen to what others told me.

            Now I know better.  Now I know that in the middle of a crisis I can send up a quick prayer for control, for calm, for an easy resolution.  I don’t always need an opening salutation, I can just say, “Help me, Lord.”  I don’t have to preface everything with my own unworthiness.  Usually in the middle of a problem, that is already on my mind anyway and God knows it just as well as I do. 

            I don’t have to find a quiet spot alone.  I can talk to God in the middle of a milling crowd if my child has wandered off and I can’t immediately find him.  In fact, I can scream to Him if I want to.  God understands if there isn’t time to hunt up a closet right now.  In fact, He is more than pleased that I think of Him first in trying circumstances.  He is thrilled that my relationship with Him can be so spontaneous.  There will be other times for reverence.

            God makes it easy for you to talk to Him.  People who have set up word and posture requirements, with ideological notions of “propriety,” are the ones who make it difficult to approach God.  He went to a lot of trouble and pain and sacrifice to make Himself available at any time in any circumstance. 

            You may not want Party Meatballs all the time, but when the time is short and the need is urgent, they will do just fine.  We certainly need lengthy times of humility and reverence in our approach to God.  But God also made a simple way for us when we need Him quickly.  Don’t let anyone mess with His recipe.

 

May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, "God is great!" But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay! Psalms 70:4-5.

 

For the recipe accompanying this post click Dene's Recipes.

 

Dene Ward

 

From guest writer Joanne Beckley:

Dear parents and grandparents, and any who love children, Do you have goals concerning your children? Are you making sure you are teaching them? I would like to suggest the following list of five scriptural goals which will give your children the foundation on which they can build their faith.   

Goal I: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Mark 12:30).       

1.    Is your child learning of the love of God through the love, tenderness, and mercy of his parents (training and admonition of the Lord)?       

2.    Is he learning to talk about the Lord, and to include Him in his thoughts and plans?       

3.    Is he learning to turn to Jesus for help whenever he is frightened or anxious or lonely?       

4.    Is he learning to read the Bible?       

5.    Is he learning to pray?       

6.    Is he learning the meaning of faith and trust?       

7.    Is he learning the joy and challenge of the Christian way of life?       

8.    Is he learning the beauty of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection?   

Goal II: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).       

1.    Is he learning to understand and care about the feelings of others?       

2.    Is he learning not to be selfish and demanding?       

3.    Is he learning to share?       

4.    Is he learning not to gossip and criticize others?       

5.    Is he learning to accept himself?   

Goal III: Teach me to do your will; for you are my God” (Psalm 143:10).       

1.    Is he learning to obey his parents as preparation for later obedience to God?       

2.    Is he learning to behave properly wherever he is?       

3.    Is he learning a healthy appreciation for both aspects of God’s nature: love and justice?       

4.    Is he learning that there are many forms of authority to which he must submit?       

5.    Is he learning the meaning of sin and its consequences?   

Goal IV: “Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).       

1.    Is he learning to be truthful and honest?        

2.    Is he learning to faithfully worship God on the Lord’s Day (and any day)?       

3.    Is he learning that life does not center on money?       

4.    Is he learning the meaning of the importance and value of family?       

5.    Is he learning to obey his conscience – which has been wisely trained?   

Goal V: “but the fruit of the Spirit is . . . self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).       

1.    Is he learning to give to God, whether money he has earned, or in helping others?       

2.    Is he learning to control getting what he wants and to control his anger?       

3.    Is he learning to work and carry responsibility?       

4.    Is he learning the big difference between self-worth and pride?       

5.    Is he learning to bow in reverence before his Creator, the God of the universe?               

– Adapted from Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives by James Dobson

 

I have a hard time seeing cobwebs.  Every so often, Keith will grab a broom, wrap an old rag around it and go around sweeping my ceilings, especially in the corners.  He always ends up with a rag covered in lacy, pale gray webs that had hung from the white ceilings, hidden from my less than perfect vision.

            A few weeks ago, after returning from a ten day trip that combined family visits with a speaking engagement, I was exercising on the porch steps and happened to look at the screen door.  Maybe because I was concentrating on my repetitious step routine instead of simply going in and out, I saw a thick layer of cobwebs wrapped around the automatic door closer.  I looked a little higher and more hung from the hinges.  Yet a little higher and both corners were strung with white.

            These were not small cobwebs.  They were several inches in diameter and so thick the black metal door looked as if someone had splashed white paint on it.  This is what I’m saying:  they were easy to see and had been there quite awhile yet I had missed seeing them.

            Here’s a question for you.  If cobwebs were dangerous in some way, poisonous perhaps, which would be the most dangerous, the ones you can’t see, or the ones you can? 

            Let me make that a little easier for you.  Those cobwebs that Keith gets down for me?  Before he retired I might not have seen them, but I knew they were there—cobwebs always hang from the ceiling.  When any special company was on the calendar, I always got the broom and brushed them down myself.  I knew where to brush whether I could see them there or not.  The cobwebs that hang all over the screen door as clear as day?  Those I never see because I never look for them.

            When we raised our boys we taught them several ways to avoid poisonous snakes.  One was to stay away from places they could hide, like wood piles and thick brush.  We also taught them to look for odd shapes and movement in the grass—the only way to see past their natural camouflage.  But on a cold sunny day, those things won’t be in some dark place, they’ll be right out in the open, basking on a sun-warmed rock or lying in the sun-baked field.  Which ones do you think are the hardest to see, simply because you aren’t looking for them in that place?

            Now think about the dangers in your spiritual life.  Which temptations are the most perilous, the ones you know to look for or the ones you don’t bother to look for?  Which of your faults are the most dangerous?  The ones you are trying to work on, or the ones you refuse to see?

            What’s the moral of the story?  Always be looking.  Don’t fool yourself with that psychological trick called denial.  It won’t make the snakes disappear.  It won’t make the poison less venomous.  You have an enemy who isn’t stupid.  He has great camouflage.  Sometimes he looks like a friend, sometimes he looks like a blessing, sometimes he even looks like you. 

            Do a daily character exam.  Look for the cobwebs in your soul.  Look where you see them and where you don’t.  Or get someone with better eyesight to do it for you, and then listen to them.  “That’s just how I am,” may be the biggest lie anyone ever got you to believe.  Blindness is not an excuse for sin.

 

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds, 2 Cor 11:13,14.

 

Dene Ward

College football has been around as an organized sport since 1869, when Rutgers played what is now Princeton University.  It took a while, though, for it to come to its fruition in what we now recognize as the various divisions of the NCAA and all of its conferences.  Even those took some time to become what we know today.  The SEC, in fact, first included Georgia Tech, Tulane, and Sewanee!

     But though organized college football may have begun in 1869, it was November 2, 1898, before the first man climbed a fence, ran onto the field and attempted to rouse the fans with a cheer.  His name was Johnny Campbell of the University of Minnesota.  Before long, others joined him, and yes, in the beginning it seems that they were all young men.  It was World War II when most of the young men were off fighting a war before young women stepped in as what were first called "yell leaders."  We now call them cheerleaders.

     It isn't just sports teams who need a cheerleader.  I suppose the first true cheerleader for the church might have been Barnabas.  Here was a wealthy man, a good man and full of faith, who not only sold a piece of property and gave the money for the aid of needy Christians (translate that to property prices today for an eye opener), but who was so encouraging to others that the apostles nicknamed him, "son of encouragement/exhortation/consolation" whichever your translation chooses.  He was a man of patience who gently prodded others to become what he knew they could be—John Mark, for example.  He was a man of trust and courage as he introduced the former persecutor Paul to the church in Jerusalem and then went with him to work with the church at Antioch where they received and taught Gentiles.  Truly if there was ever a cheerleader in the church it was Barnabas.

     We all need a cheerleader sometimes.  I remember clearly the many times friends have gone with me when I was asked to speak, especially in the early days.  Their friendly faces in the audience spurred me on when the topic became touchy, though necessary.  Students in Bible classes can do the same for teachers.  Elders need people who encourage the members to follow them, speaking of their wise decisions and the good that can come from their plans, instead of goading them into rebellion.  Evangelists need the same.  For some reason, we seem far more prone to DIScouraging than ENcouraging, and that simply ought not to be.   Imagine a cheerleader screaming, "Lose team!  Lose, lose, lose!"

     But we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their work's sake… 1Thess5:12,13.

     But let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teaches in all good things Gal6:6.

   God designed the church as a fellowship that helped each other.  That is why we cannot be a servant of God without being a part of the people of God.  We hold each other up and yes, we cheer each other on, especially when trials abound.    Blessed [is] God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who is comforting us in all our tribulation, for our being able to comfort those in any tribulation through the comfort with which we are comforted ourselves by God; because, as the sufferings of the Christ abound to us, so through the Christ our comfort also abounds; and whether we be in tribulation, [it is] for your comfort and salvation, that is worked in the enduring of the same sufferings that we also suffer; whether we are comforted, [it is] for your comfort and salvation; and our hope [is] steadfast for you, knowing that even as you are partakers of the sufferings—so also of the comfort 2Cor1:3-7.

     You may think you have nothing to offer the "team," but when you do so, you are arguing with the plan of God.  When you feel helpless at the plight of others and don't know what to do, you can always cheer.

 

And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number that believed turned unto the Lord. And the report concerning them came to the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas as far as Antioch: who, when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad; and he exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord: for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord. And he went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church, and taught much people, and that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch Acts11: 21-26.

 

Dene Ward