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Jesus and the Speech Police

8/6/2021 1 Comments

I saw it on Facebook when I was quickly flipping through, and I immediately felt outraged. How dare someone use my husband's and my disabilities to chime in on the nonsense that our culture seems to have fallen into. What I saw was a list of things we shouldn't say any more. We should not say, "I was blind to…;" we should say, "I was unaware of that." We shouldn't say, "That was tone-deaf;" we should say, "That was inappropriate, or insulting." In the first place, whoever made up this list must have no idea what "tone-deaf" really means—someone who cannot hear the difference in musical tones. I never in my life heard it used any other way, and I am not exactly young. In the second, there is a real difference in someone who is simply unaware of a fact and someone who refuses to see it.
           And if you insist on the nearly useless phrases, "vision- or hearing-impaired," you have to be much more specific. Blind is usually 100% blind, unless it is qualified with a word like, "legally." Vision-impaired can be just about any percentage. So are you going to stop the person and ask before you label them or take a chance on getting the percentage completely wrong, which you probably will? My husband is deaf. But how deaf? "Profoundly deaf," which is 90%, but might as well be 100% because he can stand beneath a blaring commercial fire alarm and not hear it. "Hearing impaired" doesn't begin to explain all that. I am beginning to think that we disabled folks are a whole lot tougher than the able-bodied people out there who come up with these things.
            Jesus, in fact, would be castigated by these people. Look at John 9. John, the apostle who wrote this gospel, tells us the man in verse 1 was "blind." The apostles called him "blind" (verse 2). The Pharisees called him "blind" (verse 19). His own parents said he was "blind" (verse 20). The man himself said he had been "blind" (verse 20). And then, lo and behold, Jesus does the unthinkable and talks about being spiritually "blind" (verses 39.40). Didn’t he know that was offensive to the blind people out there?
            And this is not the only time he did things like this.
            This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand (Matt 13:13).
            Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? (Mark 8:18).
            He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them (John 12:40).
            And just as the above quote Jesus took from Isaiah, that prophet and others used the same type of language Jesus did.
            Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed (Isa 6:10).
            His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber (Isa 56:10).
            This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous. They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments (Lam 4:13-14).
            I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung (Zeph 1:17).
            Even Paul uses the same metaphor.
            And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them (2Cor 4:3-4).
            I think that's enough to make my point. We are getting entirely too arrogant in our policing the speech of others when that same policing condemns the apostles, the prophets, and Jesus himself. No, if you want to show compassion on the disabled, please don't think words are either the problem or the cure. My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth (1John 3:18). Show your compassion with deeds as well.
            In the past year my profoundly deaf husband, who must read lips, has been treated like a pariah. He has been shooed out of the Alachua County Library because he dared tell them he couldn't understand what they were saying with their masks on. A nurse in a doctor's office refused to either take down her mask or write down her instructions, and this right before a medical procedure when he needed to know what she was saying. Another nurse in another office spoke to him harshly when he told her he needed to read her lips, yet refused to allow me in to interpret for him. And all this in a decidedly left leaning county that claims to have far more compassion on the disabled than their political opposites.
            But for those of us who claim Jesus as our Lord, how can we love the disabled in deed rather than merely word? Stop making power point the be-all-and-end-all for hymns and class and sermon notes. How many times have I heard a teacher or preacher say, "I won't take the time to go over all these passages, but you can take them down and study them at home?" No, I can't. If they are important perhaps you could print out a copy for those of us who can't see the screen--large print, please.
               There may be some like me who can manage a hymnal with glasses or a magnifier if you will kindly have the books handy and please announce the name of the song rather than just starting to sing "because it's up on the screen." Those few seconds might mean someone can find the song and only miss part of a verse instead of half or more of the song trying to figure out the title and look it up.
              Please stop having prayers mumbled from the back pew. It isn't just the deaf who do better reading lips. And when you do stand in front of the mike, keep your head up and speak out even if it sounds "too loud" to you.
            I have asked for these kinds of things over and over and over, as politely as possible, and it seems to do little good. In fact, if you will excuse me, it falls on "deaf" ears—and no, my husband does not mind me putting it that way. We have actually had people refuse to do them, even after we explained.
            And stop the speech police. Lists like the one I mentioned at the beginning of this article offend me in at least two ways. First, they assume that I am such a weak, whiny wimp that I will be insulted by such petty things. I have been living with far worse my entire life, and I think I am strong enough to handle it. And second, they make other people uncomfortable even trying to talk to us as a couple. Believe me, I had far rather have someone actually pay attention to us and possibly say something a little insensitive, than have everyone too afraid to even try.
            Let's see if we can't love one another as the scriptures say rather than making problems where there aren't any.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1Cor 13:4-7).

Dene Ward

Now Where Did I Put That Hatchet?

8/5/2021 0 Comments

If there is one thing I have never understood about grudge-holders, it is how they can think they have a monopoly on being hurt or injured. These are the folks that, though they profess forgiveness, and years later are acting kindly toward their victims—at least in public--can at a moment’s notice give a laundry list of every bad deed that person has done to them. And they will, any time you want to hear it. In fact, they will happily do so before you even ask.
         But somehow they think they are perfect. They have never done anything hurtful to anyone, and would be horrified if you started making your own laundry list against them! They must think that, or surely they would be more merciful, wouldn’t they?
            You see, grudge-holding is the worst kind of self-centeredness. It says, “My hurts count more than yours.” It infers, “I have never done anything as bad as this to you.” And then it rationalizes, “What you did to me is so bad, it does not have to be forgiven.”
            If you said that to a grudge-holder, he would be horrified, especially if he claimed to be a Christian. Unfortunately, that is another aspect of this sin—it keeps you from seeing yourself as you really are. We become so blinded by our “injured innocence” that we cannot see the truth--no one is innocent; we all mess up once in awhile. It is bad when this sort of selfishness causes animosity between neighbors, sad when it causes rifts in families, and tragic when it causes a lack of unity in the family of God.
            Jesus said I cannot be forgiven if I don’t forgive. Forgiveness means I don’t spread it around, I don’t let fester in my mind, I don’t bring it up again at any opportunity, ever. Forgiveness means I understand that I have done my fair share of hurts to others, whether intentional or not, and since I hope they will not hold them against me, I certainly won’t hold things against them. That is exactly what Peter meant when he said, Love covers a multitude of sins, 1 Peter 4:8. I think Peter uses that word “sin” in an ironic way. We cannot cover real sins against God, and are not supposed to, but in our self-centeredness, we place what amounts to minimal slights in the same category as real sin. And Peter also makes it plain that no matter what I say about the matter, if I do not forgive and I show that lack of mercy by my constant grudge-holding, I do not love.
Forgiveness means having enough humility to recognize that no one has done to me anything remotely similar to what I have done to the Lord. Holding grudges means the opposite—I have made my feelings just as important as Christ’s, therefore I am just as important as He is—just as important as God.
            Didn’t they used to stone people for that?

(The money figures in the following passage come from Lenski’s commentary on Matthew. Any math errors are mine.)
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven like a certain king who made a reckoning of his servants…One was brought to him that owed him [about 60,000,000 days’ pay]....The servant therefore fell down and said, Lord have patience with me and I will pay all. And the lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt. But the servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him [about 100 days’ pay]...and said, Pay what you owe…Then the Lord called unto him and said, You wicked servant, I forgave you all your debt…Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And the lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors…So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you if you forgive not your brother from the heart. Matt 18:21-35

Dene Ward

Respect

8/4/2021 0 Comments

And he went up from thence unto Beth-el; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth young lads out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead. And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of Jehovah. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two lads of them, 2Kgs 2:23-24.
            My grandsons learned this little story when they were playing the Prophets game I had made. At first, they thought it was funny, probably because they were not thinking of Elisha but their dear old Granddad, who is bald, on top anyway. I really did not want them to get the picture of Elisha as a grouchy old man who just became angry when he was ridiculed. That's what I thought for years. But it goes much deeper than that.
            In the first place, God has always commanded His people to respect their elderly. You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD (Lev 19:32). Elihu, as one of Job's so-called friends, may have been wrong about a lot, but his attitude toward his elders was commendable. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you" (Job 32:6). We do want our young people to feel free to talk to us and ask questions, but too many come, if they do at all, as know-it-alls who can't be told anything; they must always learn things the hard way.
            Second, while God tells us to beware of false teachers and to "Prove the spirits whether they be from God," (1 John 4:1), he still expected his faithful prophets and preachers to be treated well by the people they taught. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees? Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation (Matt 23:31-36). I have seen preachers treated like garbage, to put it mildly. We may no longer crucify them literally, but some have been crucified with words and stoned with false accusations, then tossed out like rubbish along with their families, leaving them wondering where their next home or even meal will come from.
            That's the lesson those 42 young men learned that day. You respect the elderly and you respect the men of God who dedicate their lives to trying to help people exactly like them. Knowing the wicked king they had in that day, God's law was not being taught as it should have been. Are we teaching our youth these lessons? Or is our example completely undoing what they hear?
            What would happen to the high school class at your congregation if two she-bears showed up one Sunday morning?

Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed (Rom 13:7).

Dene Ward

A Weary Soul

8/3/2021 0 Comments

George Orwell once said, “The quickest way to end a war is to lose it,” (Polemic, May 1946, “Second Thoughts on James Burnham”).
            Do you ever feel that way about life? With all the things happening to him, even Job said, “My soul is weary of my life,” (10:1). We all experience those feelings. Illness, financial misfortune, family problems—all these things can sometimes seem insurmountable. Then, when you are completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally, the temptation is to end the war by simply surrendering.
            Don’t do it. This war has already been won. All we have to do is finish it--do the mop up work, so to speak.
            The problem too often is that we try to go it alone, refusing to turn our problems over to the Lord. If we insist on that, we have already lost. We are not alone in this fight. We have a Savior who understands everything we are going through and who will share our loads. Look how far you have already come with His help. Yes, you may be tired, and you may well have good reason to be, but be encouraged by your accomplishments through the abundant help you have been given. My grace is sufficient for you, 2 Cor 12:9.
            Let Jesus carry those burdens for you. He has already borne the biggest one, the sin that would have damned you for eternity. Surely He can handle the others, things which may seem huge to you now, but which eternal perspective will prove small. Some days you may feel like you are just plugging along, but that is all right too, so long as you don’t give up.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, Matt 11:28-30.

Dene Ward

Heartworms

8/2/2021 0 Comments

We did not know the facts all those years ago. We did not know that if you live in Florida your dog will almost certainly get heartworms if you do not use a preventive medication. And so one morning, our five-year-old mixed breed was running across the field, suddenly stopped and collapsed. He was panting heavily and it was obvious he was near the end. We sat there and petted him and told him what a good dog he had been, and he quietly passed on.

Heartworms are parasitic worms spread through the bite of a mosquito. They lodge in the heart, lungs, and blood vessels of the dog. Some of them (females) can grow to one foot long. When the "worm burden" is high enough, they can actually block blood flow to and from the heart. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, coughing, signs of heart failure, and other organ failure. It can take 5 to 7 years for an infected dog to die, which means that our Ezekiel must have been infected very young.

If you have a dog, you need to know these things. If you take your dog on vacations with you, the percentage of heartworm cases in your own home town no longer matters because you might very well be in a high percentage area for your entire vacation, and it only takes one bite. If you have an "indoor" dog, your dog still is not safe. Mosquitoes can fly in and out every time you open your door, and what about those walks you take him on? If you don't have "those kind" of mosquitoes in your area, just wait for the next big blow coming off the Gulf, one of the highest concentration areas there is, and you might. It has been known to happen. Heartworm cases have been reported in every state in the Union.

Needless to say, all of our pets since Zeke have been given a preventive as early as it is allowed. They are also tested every year to make sure. If you are going to have a dog, in Florida especially, you simply have to do this, or face losing a beloved pet every five years or so. The percentages are too high otherwise.

Sin is like that, but even worse. You may have a tiny chance that your pet will not be infected with heartworms in Florida, but you won't have any chance at all with sin. We are all infected, and it will kill our souls as surely as a badly infected dog will die of heartworms. The problem in our culture today is not taking sin seriously. It is fodder for comics (Flip Wilson's "the Devil made me do it"), something to ridicule in Christians, and an outdated philosophy. "Let go of the guilt," we are told. "There is nothing to feel guilty about." But there most certainly is—the infection rate is 100%, and it doesn't matter where you live. For all have sinned and fall short…" Rom 3:23, and I have yet to find anyone who claims to be perfect, not even an unbeliever.

Many heartworm treatments after infection are dangerous to the dog. They can kill the animal. The treatment for sin is not only 100% effective, but easy to use and has no harmful side effects, unless you count righteousness, hope, and joy as "harmful." All you need to do is pick up your Bible and start reading. Luke's gospel is a good place to start if you want to truly know the Savior, followed by the sequel by the same author, the book of Acts. In that book you will find conversion after conversion. Make a few lists as you read: where they began (Jews who knew the prophets, pagans who knew only their myths and philosophers), things they were told and what they ultimately did to gain salvation. You might be surprised what you don't find listed as well as what you do find listed in every single instance.

Heartworms are deadly serious to dogs. Sin is deadly, and eternally, serious to humans. Get yourself treated as soon as possible.

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated (Ps 36:1-2).
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:22).

Dene Ward

A Green Thumb

7/30/2021 0 Comments

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
People often tell me that I must have a green thumb, usually when I hand them a bag of excess produce from our garden. Well, I do admit to having grown up on an Ozark farm, having two sets of grandparents who were farmers, and parents, too, who gardened heavily. But, if a green thumb is a genetic trait, it seems to have skipped me.
            Our first garden was in the deep rich soil of central Illinois, a no-fail situation. But that and three years in the Piedmont of South Carolina did not prepare me for Florida. “You must not like tomatoes much,” the old Florida farmer said when he saw a dozen plants—all we’d ever needed to eat and to can in other places. Things just do not work the same in this Florida heat. We learned that we had to plant nearly 100 tomatoes to get what we needed. That “green thumb” came from lots of weeding (or “grassing”) as hoes simply are useless here. Chop off the weed and it will grow back and the chopped part will root with all the rain and humidity. We weeded by hand and carried them out of the garden in buckets. I read books (nothing written north of the Georgia line is of much use), I talked to farmers and other gardeners, I observed commercial operations.
            I tried new ideas provoked by all of these. But, above all, I over-planted. I figured that in a bad year, we might still have enough for us; in an average year, or even in a good year, I never had a problem giving the excess away. Two different years after we thought we’d learned, we lost most all our tomatoes, once to a soil bacteria and once to too much rain. We planted corn in 3 or 4 different patches in hopes that one or more would produce well, and to spread out the harvest. Too much rain burst tomatoes and watermelons and washed the flavor from cantaloupes. The soil here has no nutrients, fertilize and then fertilize again and again, or harvest puny crops. We moved the garden spot about 100 yards and had to learn over for we went from a too wet soil to a garden that is wilting two days after an inch of rain. I seriously considered getting a mule to help me drag hose, I was watering so much.
            That “green thumb” people attribute so casually sure came with a lot of mistakes and sweat. Probably anyone who will put in the labor and the persistence to learn can have a green thumb.
           “I wish I had your Bible knowledge,” people sometimes say. Most of them could. It came exactly the same way the “green thumb” came. Study and skull sweat. Outlining sermons and Bible classes in my head while weeding that garden or splitting firewood. Teaching and having someone take me aside and explain the Word more perfectly. Researching and writing articles carefully so they would not bite me 20 years later (Pay heed those of you who are quick to post on fb).
            I try to give it away but they say, “Your classes are too deep,” those who have been on the pew for decades. I go to the prison and inmates who never heard Jesus except as a curse hear the same teaching gladly.
          The green thumb came because it was grow it or be hungry. Maybe if people understood, really understood, not just the “right answer” kind of understanding they give in church, that Bible knowledge is more critical than eating, they could learn too.

Work not for the food that perishes…..
I am the bread of life…..

As newborn babes long, you long….
Keith Ward

A Half-Rotten Tomato

7/29/2021 0 Comments

Canning tomatoes is one of the more difficult garden season chores. You wash each and every tomato. You scald each and every tomato. You pound ice blocks till your arms ache in order to shock and cool each and every scalded tomato. You peel each and every tomato and finally you cut up each and every tomato. How many? In the old days about 5 five gallon buckets full, enough to make 40+ quarts. Then you sterilize jars, pack jars, and process jars. Only 7 jars fit in the canner at a time, so you go through that at least 6 times.
            And you will have more failures to seal with canned tomatoes than any other thing you can. As you pack them in, pushing down to make room, you must be very careful not to let the juice spill over into the threads of the jar. And just in case you did that heinous crime, you take a damp cloth and wipe each thread of each jar. Tomato pulp will keep a perfectly good jar, lid, and ring from sealing.
            In order to have that many tomatoes you must be willing to cut up a few that are half-rotten, disposing of the soft, pulpy, stinky parts—and boy, howdy, can they stink!—in order to save sometimes just a bite or two of tomato. Now that there are only two of us, I usually limit myself to 20 + quarts. I still put one in every pot of spaghetti sauce, one in every pot of chili, and one in every pot of minestrone, as well as a few other recipes, it’s just that I don’t make as many of those things as I did with two big boys in the house. Now I can afford to be a little profligate. If I pick up a tomato with a large bad spot, I am just as likely to toss the whole thing rather than try to save the bite or two that is good, especially if it is a small tomato to begin with. Why go to all that work—washing, scalding, shocking, peeling, cutting up, packing—for a mere teaspoon of tomato?
            But isn’t that what God and Jesus did for us? For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Matt 7:14.
            The Son of God, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2:6-8. And he did that for a half—no!--for a more than half rotten tomato of a world. He did that to save a remnant, a mere teaspoon of souls who would care enough to listen and obey the call.
Sometimes, by the end of the day, when my arms are aching, my fingers are nicked and the cuts burning from acidic tomato juice, my back and feet are killing me from standing for hours, and I am drenched with sweat from the steamy kitchen, I am ready to toss even the mostly good tomatoes, the ones with only a tiny bad spot, because it means extra work beyond a quick slice or two. Aren’t you glad God did not feel that way about us? It wasn’t just a half rotten world he came to save, it was a bunch of half rotten individuals in that world, of which you and I are just a few.
But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. Rom 11:4-5

Dene Ward

July 28, 2003--Garbled Words

7/28/2021 0 Comments

Yet another technological advance is supposed to be making our lives easier—Keith now has a closed-captioned phone. Now he can make his own phone calls. Before, I spent hours on the phone because I had to do all of it. When you add waiting on hold or for call backs, there were days I felt like a prisoner in my own home.
            Closed captioning has a long history. Similar things actually began in the late 1800s with the intertitles (subtitles placed between scenes) of the silent movies. Here is another little piece of information. Subtitles are dialog-only while captions include things like atmospheric noises. Open captions are permanent. Closed captions can be turned off by the user.
            Once talkies started in the 1920s, the need for intertitles and subtitles ran out. This made movies impossible for the deaf. A deaf actor named Emerson Romero, brother of actor Cesar, found himself out of a job because he could not speak well enough when in the silent movies that did not matter. He found a new passion instead. He pushed for keeping the subtitles for the deaf community but did not get very far with it. Still, it did influence things in later decades.
            The first captioning agency, The Caption Center, was founded in 1972 at WGBH, the public television channel in Boston. Due to their work, the first captioned television program aired on March 16, 1980--The French Chef with Julia Child.
            All this eventually led to captioning for telephones. I found half a dozen dates, but it seems that the patent for a captioned phone was first applied for on July 28, 2003. That patent was approved and issued to Robert Engelke, Christopher Engelke, and Kevin Colwell on April 26, 2005.
            However, this voice recognition technology is not the perfect cure. For one thing, it takes a minute sometimes for the captions to register and print up on the screen. Recorded menus will not wait a minute for the computer to recognize the words and print them, and then for the caller to read them. By the time the whole process has occurred, the pleasant little voice will be saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that,” and unlike a real person, you can’t interrupt and explain. I still have to deal with the menus for Keith.
            Then there is the machine’s inability to recognize every word. If a speaker is not loud enough, all you get is “Voice unclear.” If a word or name is odd, it will come up with the closest “normal” name it can find in its vocabulary. I have been everything from “Jane” to “Jeanie.” And if the word is something not in a dictionary, like a brand name or company name, the machine goes completely haywire. Not long ago, Keith had to call a man about our septic tank. In the course of the call, the man recommended we use Rid-X. What did the machine print on the screen?
            “You’ll have to put some rednecks down their once a month.”
            Yet another time when I was talking to Lucas, the machine told me something about a “pork picture.” Lucas had said nothing even remotely close to cameras or ham. But the computer decided he had, simply because his speech was a little garbled at that point in the conversation. He was a little excited, talking quickly.
            It doesn’t have to be a closed caption system to show us our words are a little garbled occasionally, especially when we stop and think about what we just said. Think about prayer for a moment.
            I’ve heard people say, “I don’t want to bother God with my little problems.” Did you really say that? You don’t want to “bother” God? As if you think that God considers hearing from His children a “bother?” Is that actually how you feel about your children? Haven’t you read the parable of the unjust judge?
            And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Luke 18:1-8
            If an unjust judge will pay attention to someone who “bothers” him, certainly a loving God will pay attention to someone He does not consider a bother at all. In fact, he will give justice “speedily.” Don’t think you are saving God trouble and merely being considerate. Jesus said that when we won’t lay all our troubles on a Father who loves us, that the problem is a lack of faith, not an abundance of courtesy.
            And sometimes I hear, “God has too much to worry about without me unloading all my problems too.” Once again, a lack of faith cloaked in consideration. If you believe God is who He says He is, you cannot give Him too much to do. In fact, the very wonder of it is that He pays attention to us at all! What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:4. But pay attention He does, and He has the power to take my problems and your problems and everyone else’s problems and fix them in the blink of an eye.
            And I could go on with some of the thoughtless things I have heard—and said. Sometimes our words are garbled. They simply don’t make sense. It would behoove us to listen to ourselves once in a while and straighten them out, because they certainly don’t give a pretty picture of our hearts.

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

Dene Ward

Carrying A Lamp

7/27/2021 0 Comments

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps, Matt 25:1-4.
             Every time we hear this parable the same point is made—it was foolish to have no oil for their lamps. But one thing has always struck me from the outset of this little story. Why were they carrying lamps in the first place if they didn’t also pick up some oil? It’s like carrying a gun in a dangerous place but no ammunition. It’s like carrying a hair dryer to a primitive campsite. It’s like peeling a five pound bag of potatoes with no pot to cook them in. Why bother?
Does that mean the story isn’t valid? Nope. I see those same foolish people every Sunday. They get up early to come to church and sit on a pew and a listen to the preacher—but they have made no commitment to God, to their Lord, or to their brothers and sisters. They do absolutely nothing all week long—no Bible reading, no praying, no serving. They live exactly the way they want to live, and usually don’t get caught. Or maybe they are relatively moral, having been taught by their parents to be good people—not because God requires righteousness of His servants. In fact, God is the last person on their minds in every decision they make.
            What’s going to happen when the trumpet sounds? They will suddenly realize they did not bring any oil. They carried a lamp every Sunday and somehow thought it would light itself or give off light simply because it was a lamp, or who knows what irrational reason.
            You know that word translated foolish? It means “stupid.” It’s the word moros. Look familiar? I think it’s the word we get “moron” from. Don’t be a moron. If you plan to carry a lamp, put some oil in it. And, according to the parable, carry some extra. Sitting on the pew never has saved anyone, and it won’t save you.

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause, Isa 1:11-17.

Dene Ward

Book Review: Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace

7/26/2021 0 Comments

I have heard the evidences for the New Testament and the resurrection of Christ many times in many sermons and read them in many books, but the sub-title to this book tells us what makes it unique: "A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels." Det. Wallace is indeed a homicide detective, a cold-case detective in fact, and approaches the evidence from that perspective. Two thousand years may be the coldest case he has ever investigated!
            In this book he teaches us how to evaluate both evidence and witnesses. He takes you step by step through the process, the same process he uses as a detective, the same process jurors are instructed to use when evaluating the evidence for a verdict. Along the way, he also gives us real-life examples from the homicides he has worked. Those examples help you see as you may never have before, the power of the evidence we have for our faith. As he says several times, both in the book and on its cover, "You can believe because of the evidence, not in spite of it."
            You may have a problem or two with his doctrinal beliefs, but that is really not the strength of this book anyway. Read it for what it's meant to do and you will be fine.
            Cold-Case Christianity is published by David Cook.

Dene Ward