“By Christ Redeemed” is a Lord’s Supper hymn, specifically designed for that purpose by the author of the words, George Rawson.  Rawson was born in Leeds, England on June 5, 1807, and practiced law there for many years.  He wrote several hymns and helped compile at least one collection.  His hymns are known for refinement of thought and propriety of language.  In today’s atmosphere of informality in every place and circumstance, that may be why we seldom sing them any longer.  And it is our loss.
            We did sing this particular hymn not long ago, the first time in years, and I noticed a somewhat puzzling phrase in what was our third, and last verse (he originally wrote six verses).
And thus that dark betrayal night
with the last advent we unite,
by one bright chain of loving rite,
until he come.
With what “advent” do we “unite” and how?
            An advent is an arrival or a coming.  The disciples were told as Jesus ascended, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.  Paul adds in 1 Cor 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” It is the coming of the Lord that we are speaking of and we are to take the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis until that happens.
            Paul says this in a context of unity that begins earlier than chapter 11—we are all one body and therefore we partake of the one bread.  If you follow carefully through several chapters, you will see that the “body” we are supposed to be “discerning” is the Lord’s body, the church.  We are communing not just with the Lord, but with each other.  Why else would it matter that we are to do it “When we are come together?”  When we tuck our noses into our navels and ignore one another as the plates are passed, we are missing the point.  Taking the Supper should unite us as we consider that we were all sinners and we were all saved by the same sacrifice. 
          And far more profound is this:  we are also connecting with our spiritual ancestors.  Each of us, as we take the Lord’s Supper, unite with a long chain of believers, hundreds of thousands—perhaps even millions by this time--in showing our faith that he will indeed come again.
 
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1Thess 4:16-18
 
Dene Ward
 

"It is easier to be enthusiastic about Humanity with a capital ‘H’ than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everyone in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular."


(G.P. Lewis, qtd. in Stott, "The Epistles of John," 143

Because of health circumstances, my teaching has been limited lately, but I remembered the other day a certain fifth grade Bible class—students who are now in college or out working in the world.  (My, how time flies!)  We studied a workbook that used that old standby phrase “the Christian graces,” describing the passage in 2 Peter 1:5,6. 
            Although this phrase is nowhere found in the Bible, when one grows up hearing things over and over, one tends to accept them without question.  Before teaching that lesson I decided to check a dictionary.  Imagine my surprise to discover that use of the word “grace” meant “an embellishment, adornment, enhancement, or garnish.”  In other words, graces are something not essential to the entity in question, but which make it more attractive.  Like that parsley next to your steak dinner at a restaurant—it just makes the plate pretty.  The steak is still a steak without it.  Are we still Christians without these characteristics?  Is that what we want these children to believe about Christianity?
            Even my fifth-graders were able to pick out these phrases in the context of the list:  they make you to be not idle or unfruitful, v 8; he who lacks these things is blind, v 9; if you do these…you shall never stumble, v 10; thus you shall be richly supplied…the entrance into the eternal kingdom, v 11.
            And the traits which do this?  Virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love.  Can one be a Christian without loving others?  Without controlling himself?  Without persevering to the end?
            Maybe some of us treat these things like parsley on our plates of Christianity, but my fifth-graders decided that we should call them “the requirements of being a Christian.”  I think they are right.  Truly, out of the mouths of babes…
 
Yes and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue, and in your virtue knowledge, and in your knowledge self-control, and in your self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness love.  For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle or unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For he that lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.  Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never stumble, for these shall be richly supplied unto the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 1:5-11.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Warren Berkley.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
– 2 Pet. 3:18

When we are under pressure – unusual circumstances, health crisis, family issues, economic stress – there may be some temptation to postpone spiritual growth, until things get better.

Our thinking may run rapidly through thoughts like this: Life is so hard right now; my concentration is broken; I’m exhausted. I’ll get back into spiritual growth when things calm down.

Here are some elements of this ill-conceived notion.

1. Understand, to not grow equals decline. There is no neutral position. This may sound strong but there is scriptural justification to say, the moment I stop growing I start dying. To go back to “milk” is “back,” backward (see Heb. 5:12-14). The whole notion is self-deceptive. It is neglected discipleship.

2. It is vigorous spiritual growth that brings God’s strength into our lives. To put a pause on spiritual growth not only reduces your capacity to cope with difficulty. It amounts to turning away from the ultimate source of strength that gets us through whatever is or is perceived to be our present difficulty.

3. Read 2 Peter 1:3-15, then ask yourself: What part of this can I suspend or pause? Is there anything in this passage that you can safely neglect, offering your stress as the excuse? Can you postpone self-control for a while, thinking you will resume that discipline when things calm down?

4. To pause spiritual growth is just irresponsible, since the command is to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Peter wrote that in our text. He was under pressure and he was writing to Christians who were undergoing a tough time of it: “tested by fire,” (1 Pet. 1:7).  Growth is not only honoring the Lord and essential to our survival, it is duty assigned to God’s people. Not something reserved for “normal days.”

Do these things and the God of peace will be with you. Phil. 4:9
 
Warren Berkley via berksblog.net

Today's review is by guest writer Keith Ward.

While home during Christmas break in 1971, my first year at FC, I discovered a commentary on Revelation in a barbershop bookstore.  I ventured the $1.00 cost as I was to begin that class the next term. When I asked Homer Hailey whether it was worth reading, he responded, “Where did you get this? It has been out of print for years!” Then he added with a self-deprecating grin, “Until I write mine, it is the best commentary on Revelation out there.”  I have used both Pieters’ and Hailey’s for years and declare that Pieters is superior and especially for a beginning student of the Apocalypse.

From his preface:  “Verse by verse exposition is not attempted.” For that, I highly recommend HH as a supplement. “I have had constantly in view two kinds of readers. First and chiefly, intelligent Christian people without theological training.” This book is understandable to the average reader.  “To read the Revelation is such blind work that they rarely open it. I cannot expect to make all its mysteries plain to them—they are far from being all plain to me—but I think I may succeed in giving them some idea what kind of book it is, and how it is to be approached so that they will get some apprehension of its beauty and its teachings.”

Pieters’ greatest contribution is to cause one to see John’s method of writing and the pictures he communicated. He makes clear the broad meanings of the pictures John painted with words, John says,"I saw" 47 times. As noted, he makes no attempt to explain each word or verse. As a result, he is free to make clear the teaching and value to us of a picture painted by many verses. Most of us need that much more than an understanding of every phrase.

The only criticism to offer is that his illustrations come from pre-WWII America which may not be familiar to the modern reader. However, the point of his use of the illustrations is so clear that one should be able to substitute modern ones easily.

Most will find this book to be a fairly easy read. 

This book is now published by DeWard Publishing Company.
 
Keith Ward
 

While my students did win solo awards in piano solo, art song, and musical theater, our specialty seemed to be piano ensembles.  The point of an ensemble is not just to play the right notes at the right time, but to make a piano duet sound like one person with four hands and a trio like one person with six.  Not an easy thing to do when one partner plays with a heavy hand and the other with light finger work, one with the ebb and flow of rubato and the other the steadiness of a machine.
            My teacher friends laughed at me when they saw all my students make a point to approach the piano together, sit at the same time, put their hands on and off the keys at the same time, then stand together and leave together.  I guess they never thought about whose students were bringing back trophies and whose weren’t.  The point of all that togetherness was to infuse oneness into them.  Your performance starts from the moment your names are called; that single four- or six-handed creature acted as one from then till they hit their seats in the audience afterward.
            The performance aspects were trickier.  Who has the melody?  Does the partner have a counter-melody or an oom-pah-pah chordal accompaniment?  Does the partner enter with the same melody a few bars later?  How can the one with the steady underlying rhythm make it stable enough to help the syncopated partner, without overpowering him?  Are the dynamics terraced or interlaced?  How each partner plays his part depends upon the answer to all those questions.  What a lot to remember and listen for. 
            I had one duo that excelled at all of this.  They played together for ten years and by the time the older graduated from high school, I was positive they were even breathing in sync while they performed.  They played pieces where one partner got up, walked around the piano and sat down to play again; then later in the piece got up and went back to his original position, all without stopping, without errors, and without one of them falling off the bench!  They played pieces where the one higher on the keyboard picked up his hand and put it between the other’s two hands and then continued playing, without a hitch.  If you were not watching, you would not know anything had happened.  Once they played a piece where one’s left hand was on the black keys above the other’s right hand on the white keys, and they never once got in each other’s way.  Now that’s teamwork.  (Did I mention that Nathan was one of the partners?)
            Perfecting the piece was not enough for them.  They even created entrances, with both walking down opposite aisles exactly together and approaching the judges’ bench with a flourish precisely at the same time in the middle of the front row.  At the end of the piece they each crossed the outside hand to bounce off the last note with the inside hand, and held their hands up for exactly the same three count—nonverbally.  They simply knew each other that well.
             And I remember my baby duet.  A little stepbrother and -sister act in the Primary 1 category performing “O Susanna.”  When one had the melody the other played softer; when the other came in with the melody, the first one pulled her tone way down almost instinctively, and then back up again when it was her turn.  These were 8 year olds, mind you, and it was flawless, seamless, and so amazing the judges looked at each other as soon as it happened.  I knew then we had it, and sure enough, we did.
            That is what teamwork is all about.  You know that old coach’s saying, “There is no I in team?”  Unfortunately, many people still manage to spell “me,” and the team is never as unified as it could be.  Teamwork means doing what is best for the group.  It means constantly putting someone else ahead of me.  It means making an objective judgment of what is most important at a given time and not forcing my issues to the forefront if they are less critical than another’s.  It means not complaining if I don’t have the lead and trying to horn my way in anyway.  It means not whining when I don’t get the praise I think I deserve.  If one of my students had said, “I don’t care if I don’t have the melody.  I am just as important as her, so I’m playing my chords just as loudly,” they would have never won anything.  In fact, they would never have gotten a superior at the district level and not made it to the state competition.  What’s best for me will very often ruin it for everyone else.  And we all need to have that feeling.   If we do, no one feels left out or unappreciated. 
            Why is it that we cannot see these things when we are the ones involved?  Are we really so dense?  Is it pride?  Is it arrogance?  Is it our rights-oriented society?  Whatever it is, we need to get over it, so the church can once again make known the manifold wisdom of God, Eph 3:10, and we, through our unity, can cause the world to believe, John 17:21.
 
Doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself, not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.  Phil 2:3,4          
 
Dene Ward
 

I ran a piano and voice studio off and on—between babies and moves—for 37 years, the last 23 in a row in one place with no “offs.”  I entered my students into several evaluations and competitions a year.  About 20 years ago, I discovered a state competition for students who made “superior” ratings at the district level.  I asked around and two well-meaning teachers told me that I needn’t bother taking my students because no one from Union County could possibly win.  Winners usually came from the Miami area, students of retired concert artists, students with a concert career in mind, willing to practice for several hours a day.
            Always looking for motivation, at my next student meeting I told them about the competition and passed along the opinions, “Your students can’t possibly win.”  Their reaction began with head-shaking confusion followed by red-faced indignation, and finally, steely-eyed determination.  From that point on they had a mission.
            Unfortunately, our first trip proved my friends correct.  We won absolutely nothing.  Besides the disadvantages I mentioned before, the groups we competed in were sometimes as large as 80 with only one winner and three or four honorable mentions chosen from “superior” rated students all across the state.  But they did not give up—they learned to do better.   
              And sure enough, the next year we had a winner.  Every year after that we brought home at least one winner, and one year we outdid every other group in the state:  nine students with performance wins (one of whom was my son Nathan), three state officers elected, including state vice-president and president (Nathan), and a $200 summer music camp scholarship winner (did I mention that Nathan won that?). 
             How did they manage this?  Things that had never made any difference to them at all suddenly became important.  We taped their performances at lessons and they would sit and pick themselves apart—I seldom said a word.  All of a sudden they could hear that their tempo was not steady, that their melody got lost in the underlying harmonies, that their dynamic shading was practically nonexistent; that their vocal placement was wrong, that their diphthongs were too wide, that their tone was unsupported. 
             Most importantly I think, this group became a team.  Several times during the year the students listened to one another and gave critiques.  The ones performing did not let their pride get in the way because someone was telling them they were not perfect—they were anxious to hear how to do better, and after the taping exercise, realized that we do not all see (or hear) ourselves correctly.  And it worked.  They began to win.  And success breeds success.
            They even came up with their own uniforms—black pants or skirt, white shirt, and Looney Tunes tie.  This little outfit started with just one duet team and gradually spread.  It finally got to the point where new students were asking me when they got their “uniforms.”  And whenever a child was without something—especially the tie, which some had trouble finding--there would be the “passing of the ties” between rooms and events as they raced to perform, so that no one would be without.  It was amazing to me to see this happen among children, with no prompting whatsoever. The last few years as I sat in the audience, I heard other parents and teachers around me saying, “Uh-oh.  They’re from the group with the ties,” as one of my ensembles approached the piano.  Even the ones who never won anything viewed the “outfit” as a badge of honor.  It meant they belonged to a group who did win, and that meant they won, too.
            Do I really need to make an application here?  What if the church acted like this group of children?    What if we all had the attitude, “Please tell me how to do better?”  “Please tell me exactly what I’m doing wrong.”  What if we all “rejoiced with those who rejoiced” instead of becoming envious?  What if we all viewed being a part of the Lord’s body as an honor?  What if we all looked Satan right in the face and said, “I can too do it!”  And then did.
 
There should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another.  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.  Now YOU are the body of Christ and each is a member of it.  1 Cor 12:25-27
 
Dene Ward

A long, long time ago Keith and I traveled with another couple to visit a gospel meeting in a town thirty miles away, about a forty-five minute trip.  The men sat in the front seat and we women in the rear.  I am notoriously bad about motion sickness.  I hadn't yet learned that sitting in the backseat was far worse than sitting in the front for that particular problem, so I hopped right in, hoping to have a good conversation with and get to know better this sister whom we had just met a few weeks before.
            We talked easily at first, but my Mama had taught me to look at the person I am speaking to.  Anything else was rude.  So I kept swinging my head over to look this lady in the eyes as we spoke.  Meanwhile, behind her the scenery was whizzing by.  We were in hilly country as well.  Between the up and down, the extra swing of the backseat on the curves, and looking over to the side to engage my fellow passenger while the trees and buildings and flashing neon signs sailed past behind her head, I was coming close to a crisis that no one in the car would have wanted.  Finally I leaned back and looked forward, concentrating on keeping my head perfectly still while attempting to control my ready-to-heave stomach.  And said, "I'm sorry, Barbara.  I can't look at you any more—it's making me sick."
            I was so lost in my misery that I had no idea how that had come out until I heard a gasp and a low, "Well!"  Of course I was mortified.  I explained and she understood and all was okay—I think.  We all understand when things like that happen with no ill-intent and no malice in the words uttered.  We also make allowances for people who are in various states of discomfort, either physically or emotionally.  As the piano player for scores of weddings, I have had my head bitten off more often than I can count.  The mother-of-the-bride is usually stressed out and walking an emotional tightrope.  It's part of the job for me to put up with things like that in a kind and equitable manner.  On the other hand…
            As a preacher's wife and a Bible class teacher I have had many occasions to hear things that, to put it bluntly, should never have been said.  Not to me necessarily, although sometimes they were.  They simply should never have come out of the mouth of someone claiming to be a disciple of Christ, a servant of the Master, a child of God.  Period.  This is what God's Word has to say about the matter:

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person (Matt 15:18).
​The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).
The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him (Eccl 10:12). 
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ​The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned (Matt 12:34-37).

            I think that's enough to get the point.  No matter how we protest, our words show what it is in our hearts.  God said it.  The Lord Himself said it.  The Holy Spirit had it penned far more than just once.  "I didn't mean that!" is usually a false claim, no matter what we think because the words we spoke could never have been spoken if they had not first lived in the heart.
            I have a list of things I have heard said by Christians over the years that literally stopped me in my tracks.  I didn't really start "collecting" them until I had heard a dozen or so and it suddenly made sense to try to do some teaching with them.  Surely people will become more careful in what they say if these things are pointed out, right?  And more important, repentance will result in changed hearts, which will fix the problem almost immediately for that is the source of these words, as we have seen.  At least that is my aim here.  I heard some of these nearly fifty years ago, so please don't immediately think I am talking about you.  I am talking to all of us, including myself.  Our words give us away oh, so many times!  (So do our children!)  And really, many of these have been said by more than one person in more than one place, so it's a larger problem than we might think.
            I will be starting this series with the above title in the near future.  They will not be appearing on a regular schedule, just when I have an opening for them.  Meanwhile, join with me in praying the following prayer today:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer (Ps 19:14).
 
Dene Ward
 

I started jogging in 1983.  Keith had been doing it since he was in the Marine Corps.  A couple of neighbors did it, and every time I went into town I saw people all over the sidewalks doing it.  I was in dreadful shape and 30 pounds overweight.  I decided that if everyone else could, so could I.  And I did.  For a while there, I was jogging 30 miles a week, and those thirty pounds melted off, especially over the long, hot Florida summer.
            But jogging was not always "what everyone did."  The whole idea of jogging for your health's sake began in the 1960s and back then anyone who did it was considered a "weirdo" or "an exercise freak."  In fact, in 1968, a man named Dick Cordier from Hartford, Connecticut, was out jogging one day and was stopped by the police for "illegal use of the highway."
            It seems that this new fitness routine, jogging, began in New Zealand.  William Bowerman, an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, visited a friend there in 1962 and saw people of all ages participating in this new hobby.  He published a four page pamphlet co-sponsored by the Oregon Heart Association and suddenly people started listening.  Still, it took time for the word to spread, as evidenced by poor Mr. Cordier's citation.  But later that year, on October 15, 1968, The Chicago Tribune published an entire page on jogging and people began to look at the weirdos a different way.  By the time 1983 came along, I was perfectly happy to jog down the highway and unworried about what people might think.  But I wonder how well I might have done back in 1968?
            It's hard to be different.  Usually we save these lessons for our teenagers, but folks, we need the lesson, too.  How many times have we thought we needed something because everyone else had it, or thought we should wear something because it was the latest style, or avoided stating an opinion we knew might make others dislike us?  They had that problem in the first century, too.
            For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you (1Pet 4:3-4).  Don't think you would never fall for "those kinds" of sins.  When everyone else is doing it, it suddenly seems less wrong.  That is exactly why our culture has fallen to a new low in morality.
            It would be good to remind ourselves of four teenage boys who not only managed to be different, but seemed to revel in it.  Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself… (Dan 1:6-8).  The rest of the story makes the point.  Daniel and his friends did not try to hide their difference.  They pointed it out in a hostile environment and allowed their faith to be tested, and it wasn't just a popularity contest.  If they had failed to please the Babylonian king, someone might well have died.  The steward himself said, "You will endanger my head" (1:10), and should their refusal to eat the king's food be known to the king, that king, especially, might have taken it badly.  God rewarded their faith, as he did continually in their stay in Babylon, even rescuing them from the fiery furnace and the lion's den.
            But God does not always save us from the consequences of being different.  What are we failing to do because it is not popular, or because "times have changed?"  And what are we doing because "everyone else is?"  Have we ever dared to do or say something that was unpopular on purpose?  Forget talking to the young people until we can answer those questions ourselves.  Peer pressure works on us all!
            God has plenty to say about his desire that His children be different:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:2).

My son, do not walk in the way with [sinners]; hold back your foot from their paths (Prov 1:15).
​
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night (Ps 1:1-2).

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matt 7:13-14).
​I
f you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:19).
           
           Maybe we neglect teaching our children to revel in their difference because we have not learned to ourselves.  We need to be out there showing them the way, making "illegal use of the highway" in a time where no one except weirdos jogs.  Make no mistake:  whoever we want to be most like, whoever we act, dress, and speak like, that is our god.  Do we want to be like the rest of the world, or like Jesus?
 
That you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Phil 2:15).
 
Dene Ward

My floor is finished.  I am thrilled to have my house back to myself after three weeks of sharing it with the installer.  He was a nice guy.  My dogs loved him.  He brought them stale doughnuts every morning.
            The morning after he finished I stepped outside to an empty carport and the sound of silence where there should have been the click of claws and pad of paws on concrete, rushing to greet me.  I started up the drive and there they were—sitting next to the gate, gazing down the road, pining for the man and his doughnuts. 
            I called them back.  Chloe came more or less eagerly, but Magdi stopped every ten feet or so and looked over her shoulder toward the gate.  I had to call and clap my hands every so often to keep her coming my way. 
            This has happened for several mornings now.  I may pet her, and do it often, but I don’t give her doughnuts.  She has sold her soul to a new master just for a doughnut!
            What do we sell ours for?  We may even think we have not.  Magdi still lives on our property.  She still comes when we call.  She still allows us to medicate and feed her the healthy stuff, but all the time she is looking over her shoulder toward the gate, yearning for a doughnut.
            Are we still showing up at the right places, saying the right things, even acting the right way most of the time, but secretly looking over our shoulders, longing for something else?  We needn’t even bother trying.  No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God; remember Lot’s wife, Luke 9:62; 17:32.
            I cannot explain to the dogs that if they lived on a steady diet of doughnuts they would actually die of malnutrition, not to mention the woes that come with obesity.  They just know that a nice man gave them something that tasted good.
            We should be smarter than a couple of dogs.  We should have the sense to know that the things we sell our souls for are not worth the end result—not wealth, not power, not social acceptance, not a physical high that only lasts a moment, not the satisfaction that comes with vengeance or simply putting someone in his place. 
            Whatever it is we are selling ourselves for, however smart it may appear to the world, however good it may feel, it might as well be doughnuts. 
 
Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.  For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Matt 16:24-26.
 
Dene Ward