Have you ever said as you left the meetinghouse on Sunday morning, “I didn’t get much out of the worship today?”
            Just examine that statement for a moment.  We are there for our group worship, the worship we are commanded to do when we are “gathered together.”  Who is it that we are worshipping?  I don’t think it’s me, and I don’t think it’s you.  When it comes to the worship aspect, I think it matters what God thinks of it, not us. 
            We sit in an auditorium with a raised platform in front of us.  Several different men take turns standing before us to lead us in various aspects of our worship to God.  Sometimes that gives us the mistaken idea that we are the audience.  No, we are the performers.  God is the audience, and if He “doesn’t get much out of our worship,” it’s our fault, not His, nor that of the men who try so hard to lead us, and seldom get anything but complaints for their efforts. 
            What would you think of a performer who gave a lackadaisical performance, who acted like he couldn’t care less that someone was watching him?  If I paid good money for a ticket, I would want my money back.  I wonder if that’s what God thinks as we “worship” by barely mumbling through our songs, daydreaming during prayers, and making faces at the babies in front of us during the sermons.  I wonder if He would like to have back what it cost Him for us to be able to come before Him and worship Him.  You see, He is watching our performance; He is the audience.  It doesn’t really matter if I don’t like the songs chosen, if I think the prayer is too long, if I think the sermon is boring.  What matters is, did I worship God with all my heart in spite of those things?  That’s what this Audience grades us on.  I don’t want Him to ask for a refund.
            So this Sunday as I leave the meetinghouse I should ask myself this, “How well did I worship my God this morning?”  Whether or not this is all there is to my worship is another matter entirely, but this question certainly makes a good start on answering that one too, don’t you think?
 
Oh Jehovah, truly I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of Jehovah.
I will pay my vows unto Jehovah,
Even in the presence of all his people.
In the courts of Jehovah’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem,
Praise Jehovah.
Psalm 116:16-19
 
Dene Ward

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. Gen 19:15-16
 
            Here the Lord offers salvation to Lot who, by what we have previously seen, truly believes in the coming destruction and truly hates the sin in Sodom.  But what does he do?  “He lingers…”  And finally, and only because God is merciful and that probably because of Abraham (Gen 19:29), the angels grabbed them all by the hands and pulled them out of the city. 

            How many times do we linger where we have no business being, even after we know we should be gone?  Sin has a pull of its own, and if God were not pulling in the opposite direction, many of us would be gone without a fight.

            But we have talked much about sin in this short series.  How about things that are not necessarily sins?  How about those resolutions we make, not just at the New Year’s dawn, but when suddenly we realize we are not what we should be?  When a lesson suddenly slaps us in the face and we recognize our failures.  How many times have I heard things like, “I am going to start studying more.  In fact, I am going to come to your classes.”  But when reality hits, when they find out it takes work and commitment and maybe canceling a few other things that are a lot more fun, suddenly it is not a priority.

            Most of the members of my classes are older women.  Don’t tell me, “Well, they have the time.”  When we started this class almost thirty years ago, they were the young women with families, and some had jobs too.  Yet they had their priorities in order.  It is as simple, and as damning, as that.

            So you need to make a change of some kind, be it more study, more prayer, more service, or some other neglected virtue.  Then make it, but recognize from the get-go that you will have to leave some things behind in order to make the time.  Don’t “linger” in Sodom.  It will only make the transition more difficult. Jump in with both feet, whatever the change you want to make, and don’t look back.  Before long you will love the new you.
 
When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Ps 119:59-60
 
Dene Ward

So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. Gen 19:14

“And the second is like unto the first,” as the scripture says in another place.  Lot told his sons-in-law of the coming destruction and they laughed in his face.  I can just hear them saying, “Are you crazy, old man?” 

And that is not the first time that accusation was wielded.  Noah comes to mind.  Maybe this reaction is even older than the one we discussed last time.  Peter warns against it in 2 Peter 3.  “Mockers” will come and make fun of your belief in a final judgment and the end of the world.  Any time you preach something that demands accountability of the sinner, you are a lunatic, an old fuddy-duddy, a spoilsport, a prude, or any of a dozen more rude epithets.  It is yet another universal and timeless attitude, another instance in which we are living in Sodom today.

But we can ask the same question we did last time.  Has anyone called me those names lately?  Have I talked about God, my Lord, my salvation, my church family, and my hope of Heaven enough that it bothers them?  Have I mentioned Hell at all?

God expects people to know who we are.  He does not want us hiding in plain sight.  What is important to us should be in our hearts and on our tongues.  Maybe that is the problem:  those things are not really that important to us.  Our faith is an embarrassment.  Remember what Jesus had to say about that?
​
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Matt 10:32-33.

At least Lot acknowledged God, the reality of His authority over us, and our accountability to Him in the coming destruction to those sinful people.  Do we?
 
Dene Ward

The beginning of a three part series that will continue tomorrow and Wednesday.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Eccl 1:9
 
I was reading through Genesis 19 preparing for a class on Lot’s wife and daughters when suddenly the verse above sprang to mind.  Over and over I saw things I have seen all my life and the thought came unbidden, “We are living in Sodom.” 

No, I was not thinking about modern issues.  None of the things that I noticed in the text that afternoon had anything to do with that, at least not specifically.  In fact, the things I noticed had been happening through my entire life, even as far back as the 1960s when everyone thinks we were still innocent and relatively godly.  Let’s see if you see what I did.
 
Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly…But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!” Gen 19:6-9
 
Whenever any moral issue comes up, if you express any sort of disapproval--even if all you do is refuse to participate—suddenly you are accused of “judging.”  Never mind that is exactly what is done to you by this accusation.  That does not matter.  It happened all those thousands of years ago and it happens now.  People have not changed.  If you behave differently than others, you are “judging.”  No one can tolerate being seen as less than righteous, even when righteousness is the last thing on their minds.

Since it is such a universal, and timeless, reaction, maybe we should ask ourselves this:  Has anyone accused me of being judgmental lately?  If not, why not?  Is it just that I only associate with Christians, with good moral friends and neighbors?  Or is it that I have not expressed any disapproval lately, nor refused to participate, whether it be in gossip, slander, drinking, pornography, foul language, immodest dress, or any other acts a Christian needs to abhor? 

Paul said:  and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; Eph 5:11.  We do a whole lot better with the first half of that command than the last.  I think it is because we do not want even the mild persecution that comes along with it.  We want to be liked—by the world.  We don’t want to be accused of “judging.”

Even “righteous Lot” was accused of judging.  Peter says he “was greatly distressed by the conduct of the wicked” (2 Pet 2:7).  Given the rest of his life, do we really want to be viewed as less righteous than he?
 
Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them. Rom 1:29-32
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

What do we pray for?  Typically, we pray for the sick, the elders, the success of the gospel, our country, some spiritually weak person.  But Paul shows a spiritual depth we should try to develop.  He prays for the Ephesians to “have the eyes of their hearts enlightened that they may know …the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe” How much power is that?  “The strength of his might which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit in the heavenly places.” (Eph 1:15-20, selected). 

God first exercised this power when we were “dead in our trespasses and sins, sons of disobedience and children of wrath and lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind.  But God loved us and made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and made us to sit in the heavenly places.  For we are created in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:1-10, selected)

The thought of being raised with Christ should remind us of our baptism, “Or are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, even so we also might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that has died is justified from sin” (Rom 6:3-7).  Though even more dead than the dust from which God made Adam, He saved us, made us alive.

In neither passage was the Holy Spirit encouraging sinners to be baptized.  He was encouraging Christians to allow God to keep acting through them by his great power to transform.  We take the Lord’s Supper each week to remember both Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and our own with him.  We take the bread and remember his incarnation, the life he lived as a man, tempted, yet without sin.  And, we should consider our life that we are now committed to making like his.  We take the cup and remember his body on the cross, his dying, his blood (life) poured out as an offering for sin.  And, we should remember our death to sin.   We remember his resurrection without which his life and death are meaningless, and focus on the power that God works in us to create the new man in us. 

We cannot stay the same week after week, memorial after memorial, praying for God to accept us the way we were last week and the week before.  There is power beyond our own abilities for us to change, power beyond our imaginations to become like Jesus. 

 Paul again prayed, that they/we, “be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith to the end that we being rooted and grounded in love may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Eph 3:16-19).

Motivating inmates to reach out for spirituality which they have never known is actually easy.  I tell them about the love, the love on the cross, the love to call us while we were dead in sin, the love of Christ named above that is with us and in us, and then I ask, “Don’t you want to be forever where that love is?” Many of them have never been loved, for real, never been loved by anyone, even their parents.  Some of us have the same doubts.   But, there is no doubting the love of Christ.

Finally, Paul prayed, “Now to him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.”  What power is that which works in us?  That same power that raised Christ from the dead and made us new creatures.

 It is past time for us to stop telling ourselves and others that we are doing the best we can and that is all God requires.  Really, we probably know we are deceiving ourselves, but we are unwilling to face the mirror and change.  God requires that we grow and change according to the power he works in us through Christ. 

This is the commitment we make when we take the Lord’s Supper.
 
"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.  " (2Cor 3:18).
 
Keith Ward

I was checking my stats last month.  It is helpful to know which posts receive the most pageviews, the most shares, and the most likes.  It is instructive to see which days of the week are most active and which are least.  It’s just plain interesting to see where my referrals come from—some strange places sometimes, real head-scratchers, but even accidental evangelism is evangelism I suppose.
            So in all that checking I discovered that on November 16, 2015, someone “unliked” a page, which I suppose means they had liked it in the first place and then changed their minds.  I think I must have hit a nerve.  Can I just say this at the beginning?  None of these posts is meant to make people angry.  I appreciate being challenged as a Christian.  I want to improve.  I simply assume that if you are bothering to read these, you do too.
            Why is it that people don’t realize what they are revealing about themselves when, as the old saying goes, “The hit dog howls?”  If the preacher’s sermon is about gossip and I become angry and show it, isn’t it obvious that I bear some guilt over that subject? 
            And here’s a novel idea—if someone steps on your toes, how about moving them?  A long time ago when I was young and extremely naïve, I actually thought that when you showed someone they were doing something wrong, they would quit doing it, especially brethren.  Now I know better. Only a few will take that high road.  Everyone else will find fault with you, tell others how mean you are, sometimes even spread lies about what you supposedly did to them.  Yes, even Christians—I use the term loosely.  Have I become your enemy then by telling you the truth? Paul asked the Galatians (4:16).  Evidently the answer is yes to some, unfortunately to many.
            And this is what they tell people about themselves:  Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning, Prov 9:9.  Becoming angry over correction means a person is neither wise nor righteous, which is what that November post was all about.
            Which brings us full circle, and for all I know, will get me “unliked” again.  I guess we’ll see.
 
Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it…Ps 141:5.
 
Dene Ward
 

I discovered this book several years ago and there is probably not another I pick up so often.  Alfred Edersheim was born in Vienna in 1825 to Jewish parents.  He was well-educated in both secular subjects and the Talmudic traditions of his parents.  As a young man he was converted and became a Presbyterian minister, then a missionary to Romanian Jews, and finally a vicar for the Church of England in Loders, Dorset.   Since he was a scholar in both Jewish and Christian tradition, including all the Biblical languages and life in first century Judea, he was in a unique position to shed light on the scriptures.
 
As usual with a book written by a man, I rely on him mainly for background: history, geography, and social and religious customs.  He does have some peculiar beliefs, such as the absolute conviction that Jesus was born on December 25, but the information he gives on the Jewish lifestyle totally outweighs such problems.  Keep your eyes open and you will be fine using it.  Just being able to put these people in the context of their beliefs and customs has changed completely how I view some of the events of the gospels.  I feel like I really comprehend what was happening—the tension and even danger in the air at times. 
 
One caveat:  this book was written in the 19th century so the language can be daunting.  Sometimes you will read several long, almost tedious, paragraphs to get to a nugget of gold, but it is worth it.  In the back of the book is a scripture index.  Rather than having to wade through interminable text, simply look up the passage you are interested in and you will find the page(s) you need to read. 

This book is considered such a classic that even more than 100 years later, you will find reprints.  (Of course, this also means that some of the material is dated.  You might want to read it alongside a more recent volume, e.g., Tenney’s New Testament Times or even more recent, Ferguson's Backgrounds of Early Christianity, to make sure that later archaeological discoveries have not changed scholars’ understanding of a certain custom.)  The latest reprint, a big blue one-volume affair, unfortunately has several typos in it.  However, I have never had any problem figuring out what it was supposed to say, and occasionally, after a long period of hard study, you will find some comic relief.  Take for example, the mention of Martha in Luke 10, preparing for the visit of the “Great Rabbit.”  Someone relied a little too much on their Spell Check!

I also have three other of Edersheim’s works which I use not as often, but enough to justify their expense:  The Temple: Its Ministry and Service; Sketches of Jewish Social Life; and Old Testament History.  All of these books can be found on Amazon.com for as little as $7 each, depending upon how much you care to spend and the condition of the book.  Christian Book Distributors (if you are a member) has the four-pack for a reduced price.  It is worth the membership dues.  In fact, I pay the membership price and then order for friends, which is perfectly acceptable.

Two other Edersheim books I do not have, but have just recently heard of are Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah, and History of the Jewish Nation After the Destruction of the Temple Under Titus.  Since I have never used them I cannot give a recommendation, but based upon my experiences with the others, they might be worth checking out.
 
Dene Ward

I’m sitting in my camo-mesh lounge chair in front of a campfire, the flame whirling up in a mini-tornado, the smoke wafting down the hillside away from the tent site.  The sun peeks through the leaf canopy dappling the brown, red, orange, and yellow foliage-strewn ground just enough to moderate the cool air into [long] shirtsleeve weather.  Pieces of crystal blue sky show here and there, grayed occasionally by a patch of camp smoke.  The titmice nag at us from the saplings and bushes at the foot of tall pines, hickory, beeches, and red oak, while a woodpecker alternates his door-knock pecking and his manic laugh.
            The campsite could not have been laid out any better.  A long back-in approach left us plenty of room to unpack boxes, coolers, and suitcases, and still have room to stack firewood and set up tents on a perfect length tent site, something not always easy to find for a 16 x 10 tent.  The table fit nicely inside the screen and the fire ring is far enough from both the tents to avoid sparks.
            The park itself is beautiful, lakes, valleys, mountain tops to hike—no hike longer than three to four hours, some appreciably shorter.  The bathhouses are clean with plenty of hot water and strong sprays from large showerheads.  The campsites afford as much or as little privacy as one wants—take your pick.  It is quiet and peaceful, yet only ten minutes from grocery, gas, and pharmacy.
            We’ve been here six days now—perfect park, perfect campsite, perfect weather.  We haven’t even had our customary day of rain, nor even an overcast morning.  So this is not the trip to test our mettle as campers.  It’s all been way too perfect.  But you know what?  We won’t have many stories to tell from this trip.  Oh wait!  Our forty year old electric blanket did give out on us the first—the coldest—night.  And don’t you see?  That’s the story we’ll be telling—and that’s when we found out we were seasoned campers.  We shrugged our shoulders and snuggled a little closer together in the double sleeping bag.
            Peter tells us that God will test our mettle as His servants.  Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet 1:6-7.
            Too often, instead of passing the test, we use it as an excuse.  We say, “I know I didn’t do well, but after all, I was dealing with such difficult circumstances.”  Instead of growing and getting better and stronger, we blow up as usual and then apologize yet again.  If we were really improving, the apologies would become less frequent, and one day, perhaps, unnecessary.  That’s what God expects of us.
            He doesn’t look down and say, “Well, I know they can handle this trial.”  Why should He bother sending it?  Instead, the test comes and after we pass He looks down, as He did on Mt Moriah and says, “Now I know.”
            And it’s those tests that give us the experience to help others and the strength to endure more.  God never promised us perfect lives here on this sin-cursed world.  He did not promise you fame and fortune (no matter what Joel Osteen says).  He did not promise perfect health, perfect families, or even perfect brethren.  What He did promise is a perfect reward after we successfully navigate what amounts to, in the perspective of Eternity, a moment or two of imperfection.
            But only if you have the mettle.
 
When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God, Acts 14:21-22.
 
Dene Ward

How do you explain
How do you describe
A love that goes from East to West
And runs as deep as it is wide?
You know all our hopes
Lord, You know all our fears
And words cannot express the love we feel
But we long for You to hear.

Chorus:
So listen to our hearts
Hear our spirits sing
A song of praise that flows
For those You have redeemed
And we use the words we know
To tell you what an awesome God You are
But when words are not enough
To tell You of our love
Just listen to our hearts.

If words could fall like rain
From these lips of mine
And if I had a thousand years
I would still run out of time.
So if You listen to my heart
Every beat will say
Thank you for the Life
Thank you for the Truth
Thank you for the Way.

(Chorus)
           
            It's a relatively new hymn, as you can tell by all the syncopation, which no ordinary church member sings correctly, and by a three note repetitive "melody" in the verse section, supplemented only by a low sol as an occasional trampoline.  (Can't anyone write an actual melody anymore?)  Still, especially with the added chorus, it's catchy and you find yourself humming it later in the week.  But these are not my main issues with the song.
            "Listen to Our Hearts," the lyrics ask of God, and my mind immediately goes to Romans 8 where we are promised that even when we don't know what to pray for, we have an advocate and intermediary who will take the thoughts behind our meager words and deliver them to the Father.  But wait!  That is not what this song is about.  Look at the chorus again.
            "When words are not enough/ to tell you of our love/ listen to our hearts."  If it means anything, it means that the best way we can express our love to God is to have a good heart.  Really?
            John tells us in his first epistle, Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1John 3:18); and For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (1John 5:3).  He adds in his second epistle, And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it (2John 1:6).  And where did John ever get such a notion?  ​Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him (John 14:21).
            I imagine that most of the people reading this will instantly say, "Well, of course."  But there are quite a few out there for whom this is a revelation.  In the so-called Christian world, a good heart is supposed to be the cure for everything, including outright sin.  When we sing this song in our services and some of those people are sitting there next to you, perhaps friends and neighbors you invited, you just might be encouraging them in this false doctrine.  I suppose that if they are people you personally have brought to services you could take them aside afterward and say, "About that song…" and tell them you didn't really mean it that way.  But their first question might be embarrassing.  "You mean you sing things you don't mean?"
            I doubt that anything I say here will change the popularity of this song.  In fact, if we changed the words to something more scriptural, like, "When words are not enough/ to tell you of our love/ watch how we obey," or "Wa-atch how we walk," that would be its death knell.  Who would want to sing something so emotionally unsatisfying?  But maybe the next time it is led in your group you will remember that Jesus told us exactly how to show our love for both him and the Father:  Walk like he walked.  Of course we should obey from the heart, as Paul says in Rom 6:17, and our life of obedience should be sincere, but that is a far cry from pandering to modern emotionalism. 
 
If you love me, you will keep my commandments  (John 14:15).
 
Dene Ward

It had already been a frustrating day.  Our Google Map directions had brought us straight to the town we were visiting, but once we hit the city limits, those directions because increasingly vague.  The street we were to follow suddenly ended and we didn't know which way to turn to find our hotel.
            So we headed down the busy road in the direction that seemed right.  The street changed its name at least three times.  No hotel.  We stopped at a gas station, found a man sitting in his car who was willing to help.  He didn't know the hotel but knew where the street was—or so he thought.  Ten minutes later we pulled into a different hotel and they gave us good directions to their competitor.  Turns out the hotel was off the main drag behind two restaurants on a street with no road sign.  You wonder how they stay in business.
            So then it was time for dinner.  We have a favorite restaurant in that town, but it had been many years and things looked very different.  The desk clerk gladly looked it up and handed us directions.  And once again the street we were looking for was not there.  We wound up at exactly the same gas station.  This time we went inside and none of the workers there knew either the restaurant (it has been there for 50 years!) or the street. Finally, as we walked dejectedly out the door, a young man with a Smart Phone chased us down and looked it up for us.  We weren't far away and the directions were simple.
            Then it was time to return to the hotel.  Based upon our memory of the man's phone map, the restaurant road ran parallel to the one the gas station was on and should have led us right back to the hotel road, coming out even closer to the hotel.  But that road curved every which way and was full of forks and we came out somewhere entirely different—which we did not realize at first because now it was too dark to read straight signs and had begun to rain.  By the time we figured out our error, we were so far out, no one could direct us.  "What road?  Never heard of it."
            Finally someone had heard of it—the fourth one we asked, and we did make it back.  What should have been a ten minute drive had taken over an hour, and we had gone through the gamut of emotions—from frustration to aggravation to desperation.  Fear and hopelessness were just the corner, kept at bay by my stubborn refusal to become a drama queen, whining and blubbering my way into senseless hysteria.
            But it made both of us stop and think about those who are really lost.  What is it like to be out there looking for direction and getting no help at all?  I'm afraid my view of that town will forever more be that none of the roads are straight, they all change names confusingly, and none of its populace has any idea where they themselves are either.
            We all need to be like that young man with the Smart Phone, not only willing to help when asked, but going to the trouble of chasing down someone in obvious need.   There are lost souls out there, people.  Frustrated people, fearful people, desperate people who need our help.  A lot of Christians are so wrapped up in themselves, in their own earthly destinations and goals, that they don't see those who are wandering around, hopelessly lost.  And quite a few of them don't even know where they are either.
            Pay attention today.  Make sure you know where you are first and then be on the lookout for others.
 
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you… (Rom 1:14-15)
 
Dene Ward