I was flying back from a retreat in Pennsylvania where I had spoken twice to a great bunch of sisters from all over the Northeast.  My traveling companion, a good friend and also a sister in the Lord, sat next to me and we were laughing yet again about something that had happened at that fun and edifying event.  We had left snow on the ground in the heavily wooded hills of the Poconos that April morning, but now it was full afternoon and we sat on the west side of the plane, already feeling the Southern heat as we crossed the Mason-Dixon line. We both reached up to adjust the small round overhead vents to blow away the warming, stale air around us.  Out the small window the cloud shadows painted the rolling landscape and then the waters of the Chesapeake Bay as we flew on over the Washington Navy Ship Yard. 
            About forty-five minutes north of Atlanta, our stop to change planes, the pilot came over the intercom.  "Ladies and gentlemen, we have just declared an emergency.  Please follow the directions of your flight attendants as we will need your cooperation."
            Suddenly, all talking ceased.  We looked at one another as did many of the other passengers in the seats ahead of us.  As I recall, the flight attendants walked up and down the aisle once to reassure everyone that we had great pilots and were in good hands, never losing the smile on their faces, then sat down and strapped themselves in.  We heard a cough or two which seemed like a signal because once again people began to talk, in a much quieter and calm way than I would have expected after such an announcement.  I even heard a chuckle or two from somewhere behind us.
            A lot of things ran through my head in the next forty-five minutes, but as my friend said, "There really isn't anything we can do about this. If we go down, we go down."  Airliner crashes seldom leave survivors.  So we sat and continued our talk as we had before, and so did everyone else.  No tears, no screams, no panic of any kind at all.  And on we flew.
            Just before we reached Atlanta, the pilot spoke again.  All other planes had been told to circle and wait until we were safely on the ground.  We were to all keep our seat belts fastened and remain in our seats as the plane landed and came to a stop.  (If we made it down safely, he did not say but most of us were thinking) we would not be taxiing to the gate.  Instead, an emergency crew would circle the plane.  When we were deemed "safe" to be in close contact with other planes and passengers, we would approach the gate and disembark.  And that is exactly what happened.  We landed in a normal manner and came to a complete stop in the middle of the runway.  We all watched out the windows as three or four trucks, including a fire engine, circled us at a snail's pace.  Then they moved off to the side and we taxied to the gate and unloaded.  Somewhere along the way we heard that it had all been because of a faulty indicator light that showed that the plane was on fire.  Evidently, it was not.
            But what if it had been?  Let me tell you something, folks.  When you have a near miss, you get real serious about your life.  Even though you think you have been doing just fine, suddenly every mistake you ever made comes to mind.  And you find yourself thinking this, "Have I done enough?"
            And the unequivocal answer is, "No.  I haven't."  Not because I don't try.  Not because I don't do the best I can every day.  But because the best I can do is still not good enough.  At some point, we have to learn to trust God's grace.  Too often, young people "raised in the church," listening to prayers about how "we sin all the time," have been made to feel that there is no hope.  That they must try and try and try and no matter what they will still fall short and they just might not make it to Heaven.  Well, you know what?  You will fall short, but that does not mean you won't make it to Heaven.  God did not leave us in a hopeless situation, and He certainly didn't dangle an unreachable carrot in front of us for His own amusement.  In fact, His word speaks of hope constantly--one of the biggest differences between Christianity and other religions.  We consign grace to Jesus on the cross and fail to see it in his example of overcoming, of praying, of knowing the Word so well it springs to our lips constantly.  We fail to see it in the help of the Spirit as we live and the offer of mercy when we fall. 
            You will not be perfect, but you can overcome, you can grow and get better, and even when you slip, you can be forgiven.  If the plane starts falling out of the sky, you don't have to scramble around trying to ask forgiveness for every single thing you think you have done wrong lately before it hits the ground.  Let the "God of hope" fill you with peace.  Trust Him and say, "I tried, Lord.  I did my best.  Please take me home."
 
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Rom 15:13).
 
Dene Ward

I hope and pray that someday soon this one will matter once again in our lives.

When I was a child we often visited friends and family, all the kids sleeping in the living room floor on piles of quilts.  It was fun because it was different and exciting, and not one of us complained.  Dinner was never fancy because none of us were wealthy, but all my aunts could cook as well as my mother and we knew it would be good whatever it was.  We practiced the hospitality shown in the Bible to our families, to our neighbors, and to our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  What has happened to us?
            Even if we aren’t particularly wealthy, we have fallen for the nonsense that because we cannot offer what the wealthy offer, we should offer nothing at all.  How do we excuse it?  I don’t have a spare room.  I don’t have a bathroom for every bedroom.  The spare room I do have is too small.  The bathroom is too tiny.  My grocery budget is too small and my time too little for cooking.  I work.  I have an infant in the house who still wakes up at night.  And the perennial favorite, “You know, times are different now.” 
            Not so much, folks.  Lydia worked, yet she made Paul and Silas an offer they couldn’t refuse—she told them they would be insulting her faith if they did not stay with her.  Unless I am reading something into it that isn’t there, Priscilla worked right alongside her husband, “for they were tentmakers.”  Yet Paul didn’t stay with them for just a night or two—he lived with them for a good while.  Abraham was a very busy man—he had more employees than some towns in that day had citizens, yet he not only offered hospitality, he actively looked for people who might need it.
            “But they had servants!” some whine.  If you don’t think your modern conveniences fill the place of servants, you have never thought about what it took back then to cook—they started with the animals on the hoof, people!  Their cooking involved building a fire from scratch, sometimes in the heat of the day.  And here we sit with the meat already butchered in our electric refrigerators, ready to put in our gas or electric ovens.  We clean with our vacuum cleaners, pick up ready-made floral arrangements at the grocery store, make sure the automatic shower cleaner and the stuck-on toilet cleaner are still in service, and stop at the bakery for the bread. Then, when it’s all done, we put the dirty dishes in our dishwashers, and we do it all in our air conditioned homes.
            Part of the problem may also be the expectations of guests these days.  It isn’t just that people are no longer hospitable—it’s that people are spoiled and self-indulgent.  They don’t want to sleep on a sofa.  They don’t want to share a bathroom with a couple of kids.  They will not eat what is offered.  We aren’t talking about health situations like diabetes and deadly allergies.  We are talking about people who care more about their figures than their fellowship; people who were never taught to graciously accept what was placed in front of them, even knowing it was the best their hosts could afford, because, “I won’t touch_______________,” (fill in the blank). 
            We once ate with a hard-working farm family who had invited us and two preachers over for dinner.  Dinner was inexpensive fare--they had five children and had invited us six to share their meal.  Later that evening, when we had left their home, we heard those two preachers making fun of what of they had been served and laughing about it.  I hope those poor people never got wind of it. 
            When we raise our children to act in similarly ungracious ways, when we consider them too precious to sleep on a pallet on the floor, as if their royal hides could feel a minuscule pea beneath all those quilts, what can we expect?  Do you think it doesn’t happen?  We once had a guest who told me she had rather not sleep where I put her.  It was the only place I had left to put her.  I already had four other guests when she had shown up at my door unannounced.  She was more than welcome—I have taken in unexpected guests many times--but where were this one’s manners?
            Do you know how many times we have been told, “Do you know how far it is out there?” when we invited someone thirty miles out in the country to our home for a meal.  Excuse me?  Of course we know how far it is—we drive it back and forth at least three times a week just to the church building, not counting other appointments.
            This matter of hospitality worries me.  It tells me we have become self-indulgent and materialistic when it comes both to offering it and accepting it.  God commands us to Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, 1 Pet 4:9.  What has happened to the enjoyment of one another’s company, the encouragement garnered by sharing conversation and bumping elbows congenially in close quarters, and the love nurtured by putting our feet under the same table, by opening not only our homes but our hearts? 
            What has happened to the joy of a pallet on the floor?
 
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us, Acts 16:14,15.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
Let's begin by stating the obvious: Solomon was very wise. Yet for today, we need to go through the exercise of showing just how wise he was so that we can draw some necessary conclusions from this later on.

In 1 Kings 3:5-14 God appears to Solomon and asks what he would like from God. Solomon declared that he was just a young boy who didn’t know how to be king to this large nation he had inherited and asks for wisdom, discerning, and understanding so he could be a good king. God was very pleased at this and promised to make Solomon wiser and more discerning than anyone before or after him. The last half of this chapter is an example of Solomon’s discernment. A familiar story to most of us. Two prostitutes who lived together had sons within days of each other. One rolled atop her child during the night and accidentally suffocated him. She then switched out the babies and claimed the living one as hers. Unsurprisingly, the mother of the living child knew which was hers and knew the dead child wasn’t hers. Also unsurprisingly, no one else could tell the children apart. Newborns tend to all look alike, and in a tribal society in which all are related if you go back far enough, and all had Semitic features, it wasn’t easy to tell one dark haired, dark eyed child from the others. This was a classic she said/she said scenario. None of the lower judges of the country could figure out how to handle this issue, so the matter came before Solomon. After Solomon heard the case, he almost mocks the ladies in vs 23. ‘One says this, the other says that!’ One can almost hear his exasperation. He then calls for a sword and orders the baby cut in half. I’ve recently heard a lot of nonsense about this, people accusing Solomon of being cruel and bloodthirsty. Solomon had no intention of killing the baby. He wanted to watch the two women as he gave the order. Sure enough, the true mother – who like all mothers would do anything to keep her child alive – began begging for the child to be turned over to the other woman as long as it was alive. The mother of the dead child had no such strong reaction and so Solomon solved the unsolvable case, figuring out which woman was the real mother. This display of discernment was so great that the last verse of this chapter tells us that all Israel feared the king because it was so obvious that the wisdom of God was upon him.

This is far from the only indications we get of Solomon’s wisdom and learning. 1 Kings 4:29-34 gives us some of the stats of his career. Solomon spoke over 3,000 proverbs, meaning we only have some of them recorded in the Bible. He wrote 1,005 songs, again meaning we only have a small portion of his work preserved. In addition to this, he gave discourses on what we would call botany and zoology. And just to beat a dead horse a little deader, the first ten verses of 1 Kings 10 record the visit of the Queen of Sheba. She had heard of Solomon’s wisdom and his works and decided that she wanted to see for herself. She came to visit and to test Solomon’s wisdom with hard questions, the kind of things that one mulls over in the dead of the night. Hard questions of the heart. In verse three we see that all her questions were answered. “. . .there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her.” She exclaimed in verse 7 that the unbelievable stories she had heard about him hadn’t even told the half of what he truly was. Think about that. How often does anything live up to the hype? Solomon far surpassed the hype.

I think it is fair to say that Solomon was incredibly wise and full of understanding.

So how do we explain 1 Kings 11:1-8? This tells us that Solomon loved many foreign women. Egyptian, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women are listed in verse one. We are told he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines (vs. 3). These women turned Solomon’s heart away from God. He began to follow the Ashtoreth and Milcolm, gods of Sidon and Ammon. He built temples and high places for other gods so his wives could worship their various idols (vs 4-8). Vs. 6 sums it up well: “So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.”

Do you think Solomon knew he shouldn’t have married those women? Aside from the fact that the Law specifically forbade intermarrying with foreigners (Deut. 7:1-4), do you think Solomon was wise enough to recognize the dangers? Of course he was. Do you think he knew that building temples for other gods, even if he didn’t worship them, would anger God? Of course he did. Do you think he knew it was foolish to worship those idols he did follow? Of course he did! He was Solomon, the wisest man to ever live! He knew these things, but he sinned anyway. Sometimes knowledge of God’s word isn’t enough. Sometimes wisdom to know the right course to follow isn’t enough. Regardless of knowing the right thing to do, at some point I have to decide to do that right thing. I have to utilize the self-control to follow the wisest course. Knowledge and wisdom won’t help at all unless I decide to make use of my knowledge and wisdom.

Let me pause for a second to say that I am in no way denigrating knowledge and wisdom. These are needful things. After all, in 1 Kings 3:10 it says that God was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom and discernment. Hosea 4:6 tells us that knowledge of God is essential to salvation. Throughout the New Testament we are told to pursue knowledge and wisdom. For instance James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”  Also Paul tells Timothy that in order to be approved, he had to be able to handle the word of truth. That takes both knowledge and wisdom, right? 2 Tim. 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” In 2 Peter 1 we find knowledge right in the middle of the list of “Christian virtues”. It is clear that knowledge of the truth and the wisdom to utilize it are pursuits that all Christians should participate in, yet the clear example of Solomon is that knowledge and wisdom alone aren’t enough. We all know of very capable Bible students who have left the Lord. Without racking my memory, I could tell you of an Elder who left his wife and the Lord. Also, one of the best adult Bible Class teachers I know left his wife and the Lord, though praise God he later repented and returned to each. I’m sure everyone reading this could add to these stories. So following God takes more than just knowledge.

First we need to know where true knowledge and wisdom originate: Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” and Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” If our knowledge and wisdom isn’t based in a fear of God, it isn’t going to help us much. For instance, there are professors of Biblical Studies throughout the Ivy Leagues who have dedicated their lives to studying the Bible and probably know more about it than 99% of Gospel preachers and yet they don’t believe in God. (This is totally mystifying to me.) Do you think their immense Biblical knowledge is going to help them much? Probably not as Heb. 11:6 says that in order to please God one must believe that He is. Unbelieving knowledge often leads to sinful pride. If we aren’t careful, this can even befall believers, as they come to rely on their knowledge rather than on God. This happened to Solomon, as seen in 1 Kings 11:9-13, 40. When he was rebuked by God and told another would rip most of the kingdom from him, Solomon had the temerity to try to kill Jeroboam and thus undo God’s plan. In his pride, he thought he could thwart God. So, as our knowledge of God increases, so must our humility before Him. James 4:7a, 10 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

At base all knowledge, however pious, won’t help if we don’t have self-control. We sometimes pray for forgiveness for any sins we might be unaware of, and that’s fine, but let’s be honest for a moment. Most of the time we sin we know we are being tempted, we know that to give in would be a sin, and we decide to do it anyway. Our knowledge didn’t help us then, did it? Except to make us feel that much more guilty later. We need knowledge and wisdom, but we also need to decide to follow that wisdom and knowledge. We need the self-control to follow through on what we know. Unsurprisingly, this is discussed in the scriptures:

Isa. 1:16-17 “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.”

God here tells His people to stop sinning. He doesn’t tell them to study more. He doesn’t give them strategies for better success at overcoming temptation. He just tells them to stop. “Cease to do evil.” It is a matter of deciding. To steal from Nike, “Just do it.” Paul also calls for determination:

1 Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

We are to be “steadfast, immovable.” Nothing should shake us from following God. Being immovable doesn’t take gigabytes of knowledge or even the wisdom of the sages. Being immovable just takes a decision and then some stubbornness. (So what’s my excuse?) We need to know God, decide to follow Him, and then be too stubborn to quit. If we follow that formula, we will win. Notice what Peter and James say about the Devil:

1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Yes, he is dangerous. Yes, he is trying to devour us. Yes, we can resist him. If we do, he will flee. Others are going through it too. Others are winning. So can we. We just have to decide.

I’m proud to be a part of a congregation that makes an effort to have in-depth Bible studies. That is important. However, paying attention in these classes twice a week and listening to two good sermons each week isn’t enough to keep me in the Way. At some point, I have to decide to follow God and to stand fast, immovable.

Lucas Ward

And He said to them, let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also, for to this end came I forth, Mark 1:38.
           
            Jesus was a worker.  He got up early (Mark 1:35), and sometimes even missed a meal because He was so busy working, (John 4:31-34.)  He was always ready to move on to the next place, the next group of people.  His philosophy seemed to be, “There’s not much time so let’s keep working.”  Why?  Because He understood His mission:  this is why I came.
            That is not today’s philosophy.  Instead I hear, “There’s plenty of time to work, so let’s go play,” or “Life is short, so have fun.”  Maybe we don’t work like we ought to because we don’t know our mission like He did. 
            In our culture everything is about me--whether I am happy, whether I get to do the things I want to do, whether I feel fulfilled--and the things that we find fulfilling are usually money, fame, and pleasure. 
            We are simply too rich.  Ask a Christian in a third world country what his mission in life is and you are far more likely to get the right answer.  He scarcely has a roof over his head, much less one over a couple of thousand square feet of luxury home, and his leaks!  His existence is day to day, hand to mouth, and he works longer hours for a minuscule fraction of your pay—if indeed he has a job—than you think is humane.  Yet all his spare time is used studying his Bible, attending Bible classes, and speaking to his neighbors.  We can hardly find the time to simply sit in the pews, even though we probably work more than a dozen hours less a week than that man.
            We seem to be teaching our children the same mindless egocentrism.  They “deserve” to have fun.  They are so busy with earthly pursuits every minute of the day that they don’t even spend thirty minutes a week filling out a Bible lesson—and their parents are too busy to check to see if they did, or sigh with regret and say, “But they needed a little down time.”  Can’t their down time involve something spiritual?  Can’t we teach them how satisfying it is to take meals to the poor, to visit the elderly and the sick, to do their yard work and run errands for them?  If they are not learning it now, when will they?  If they are not learning it from you, then who will teach them?
            Four times the Hebrew writer says Jesus “sat down,” 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2.  Jesus did not sit down because He was tired and needed to rest, or because he needed some time to Himself.  He sat down because He had accomplished His task.  He told His disciples, We must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day; the night comes when no man can work, John 9:4.
            My mission is not about me.  My mission is about Jesus and His family—serving Him by serving them; serving Him by serving my friends and neighbors.  When you know what your mission is, you are more likely to keep working at it, and less likely to worry about whether you are having enough fun.  Those things become your “fun;” they become your fulfilling moments; they become your treasure stored in Heaven.          
            Accomplishing those things will finally give you the opportunity to sit down and rest.
 
He who overcomes, I will give to Him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in His throne, Rev 3:21.
 
Dene Ward

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live (Exod 1:15-17).
            Those verses seem straightforward enough, don't they?  So I thought until I started digging a little deeper.  Imagine my surprise to find out that several conservative Bible scholars, meaning they believe that the Bible is actually God's Word, say that the Hebrew here is in the genitive case and can be translated "midwives of the Hebrew women," meaning [Egyptian] midwives who served Hebrew women. Logic also comes to play in that how could Pharaoh have expected Hebrew women to kill the infants of their own people, and that the Hebrew women themselves, were probably toiling as slaves for Pharaoh rather than working in service roles to others.  However, Keil and Delitzch, two of the most notable conservative scholars of their time, come right out and say, "The midwives were Hebrews." 
            So why does any of that matter?  Just this:  if these women were Hebrews, they as a nation understood the sanctity of life as far back as 3000+ years ago.  If they were Egyptians, we can be even more amazed that pagans believed in the sanctity of life.  Some things were just understood—you don't slaughter babies. 
           Fast forward a couple thousand years and you will find Cicero, the Roman statesman, lawyer, and scholar, stating in his On the Laws 3.8, "Deformed infants shall be killed."  That "deformity" included an unwanted child, a sickly child, a deformed child, or simply a child of the "wrong" gender.  Seneca, the Roman philosopher said, "…mad dogs we knock on the head…unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children at birth who are weakly and abnormal."
            After reading that, it is surprising to find that a few centuries before, killing infants was not looked on favorably.  The Etruscans were notable in that they raised all the children borne to them.  These people influenced the Roman Empire until about 400 BC, and things seemed to take a downhill turn from there.  By the time of Caesar Augustus, the one who taxed the Roman world in the first century, the institution of the family had become so endangered that he enacted laws against adultery and "unchastity."  Epictetus, a stoic philosopher of the same era, stated that even a sheep or a wolf does not abandon its own offspring.  Thus the "progress" of the Roman Empire was actually seen as their downfall by some of their own.  Not every Roman believed babies could be killed just to suit their parents' lifestyles.
            And what has happened to us?  Have we "progressed" like the Roman Empire?  Are you aware that some infants are born alive after abortions and then left to die?  If this is progress, I want no part of it.  And neither did a lot of pagans. 
             
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them  (Rom 2:14-15).
 
Dene Ward
 

Psalms 74 and 79, along with the books of Lamentations and Habakkuk, are national psalms of lament for the people of God.  In light of the year 2020, it seems like a good idea to explore them and make some application to our own country.
         Those two psalms will make you cringe in their horrific detail of destruction.  Women and young girls raped, leaders' bodies hung up for all to see, the Temple in ruins, mutilated corpses lying everywhere, far too many for the few left alive to bury.  Psalm 74 lists sacrilege after sacrilege:  God’s enemies standing in the meeting place; the intricate and artistic carvings of the Temple chopped to pieces by heathen axes, the sanctuary on fire, the dwelling place of God razed to the ground.  Psalm 79 uses opposites to the same effect:  the holy defiled; Jerusalem, the city of God, in rubble; God’s servants as carrion; and blood flowing like water in the streets.  Imagine seeing all this one horrible morning and then speaking to God these words:  Help us, O God of our salvation, 79:9.
         God of our salvation?  How could the psalmist possibly use that description?  Where in all this nightmare does he see salvation?
            The poet understood this basic truth:  even in this dreadful event, God is still seeking the salvation of His people.  He could still see a Father’s love behind the most severe discipline.
            Again in Psalm 74, the psalmist says, Yet God is my King of Old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.  Not just in the midst of the earth, but in the middle of all this horror, he can still see the true nature of God.
            Habakkuk in his lament ends with the same thoughts:  For though the fig-tree shall not flourish, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labor of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no food; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Hab 3:17-18.
            What do we see when evil befalls us?  If all we feel is the pain, if all we see is the sorrow, Satan already has a foothold.  We must learn to use what happens in our lives as a steppingstone to Heaven, a lift to a higher plane of spirituality. 
            A single trial isn’t always punishment from God as it was for those people, but if not, it becomes even more important to see events in the correct way.  We are in a world that is temporary, that is tainted with sin.  Of course we will have problems.  Are we so naïve as to think that something Satan has poisoned will ever be good?  Jeremiah tells us in his lament, that if it weren’t for God there wouldn’t be anything good left in this world at all, Lam 3:22, and we have no right to expect it to be any different because "all have sinned." 
            If I cannot see the salvation of God even in the midst of trials as Jeremiah did, I am blind to who He is.  He is there, helping us prepare for a world where those things will be no more.  If I rail against Him when the trials come, I do not know Him.  Illness and death are the tools of Satan to lure us away, but with faith and the proper perspective--seeing the God of our salvation instead of the God of our pain--we can use Satan’s own tools against him as a road to triumph. 
            It is better to depart and be with the Lord, Paul said, Phil 1:23.  To die is gain for a Christian, v 21.  “O death where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting?  The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the Law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Cor 15:55-57)  If I see death as the victor, I am giving myself away—showing that my perspective is indeed unspiritual, immature, and faithless. 
            Is it easy to have this perspective, especially in the middle of a traumatic life event?  If this past year has cost you a job, a home, a lifestyle you have grown so accustomed to you almost consider it deserved, or the lives of loved ones, no, reading through a psalm will not make the bad things go away and your mattress suddenly be filled with roses.  We are still in this flesh and suffer that way.  But while in this flesh the Lord Himself conquered all these feelings and temptations, and expects us to follow His example, as difficult as it may be.  And He gives us the means to do it. 
            In the midst of trials such as the year we have just had, and which will not go away just because the calendar page turns to 2021, may we have the same insight that gave those ancient brothers and sisters of ours hope in the middle of a horror we can scarcely imagine:  He is, and always will be, the God of our salvation.
 
But as for me, I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me, Mic 7:7.
 
Dene Ward
 

The other day I was talking with a friend who loves to cook as much as I do.  We both spoke of how much more fun it is to cook for people who were not picky eaters.  When all that effort sits in the bowls and platters on the table with scarcely a dent made in them because this one prefers this and that one prefers that, it is hard not to be offended.  The very fact that I know so many more picky eaters these days than I did as a child emphasizes how wealthy this society has become.  Hungry people are not picky eaters.
            Real hunger is not a concept we understand.  We eat by the clock instead of by our stomachs, which may be the biggest reason so many of us are overweight.  If we only ate when we were truly hungry, would we eat too much on a regular basis?  A celebratory feast, which used to happen only once or twice or year, has become a weekly, if not daily, occurrence for many.
            And because we do not understand true physical hunger, we cannot understand Jesus’ blessing upon those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.  We think being willing to sit through one sermon a week makes us worthy, when that is probably the shallowest application of that beatitude.  We don’t want a spiritual feast.  We want something light, with fewer calories, requiring little effort to eat.  In fact, sometimes we want to be fed too.  Spiritual eating has become too much trouble.
            How many of us skip Bible classes?  How many daydream during the sermons, plan the afternoon ahead, even text message each other?  If more than one adult class is offered on Sunday mornings, how many choose the one that requires more study or deeper thinking?  When extra classes are offered during the week, what percentage of the church actually chooses to attend?  How many of us are actively pursuing our own studies at home, studies beyond that needed for the Sunday morning class?  If we won’t even eat the meals especially prepared for us by others, how in the world will be seek righteousness on our own and how will we ever progress past simple Bible study in satisfying our spiritual hunger?
            Picky eaters suddenly become omnivores when they really need to eat.  For some reason we think we can fast from spiritual food and still survive.  Amazing how we can deceive ourselves so easily. 
            So, what’s on your menu today, or have you even planned one?
 
Oh how love I your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers; for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might observe your word. I have not turned aside from your ordinances; for You have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste! sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Psalm 119:97-104.
 
Dene Ward

It is a danger, even for people who love Christ, that we not become so concerned with doing things for Him that we begin to neglect hearing Him and remembering what He has done for us.  We must never allow our service for Christ to crowd out our worship of Him.  The moment our works become more important to us than our worship, we have turned the true spiritual priorities on their heads.
            In fact, that tendency is the very thing that is so poisonous about all forms of pietism and theological liberalism.  Whenever you elevate good deeds over sound doctrine and true worship, you ruin the works too.  Doing good works for the works' sake has a tendency to exalt self and depreciate the work of Christ.  Good deeds, human charity, and acts of kindness are crucial expressions of real faith, but they must flow from a true reliance on God's redemption and His righteousness.  After all, our own good works can never be a means of earning God's favor; that's why in Scripture the focus of faith is always on what God has done for us and never on what we do for Him (Rom 10:2-4).  Observe any form of religion where good works are ranked as more important than authentic faith or sound doctrine, and you'll discover a system that denigrates Christ while unduly magnifying self.  

from Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur.

Does he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded?  ​Even so you also, when you shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do.   (Luke 17:9-10).

Dene Ward

I have to admit it—I seldom look at Bible dictionaries.  They scare me a little.  I cannot read a word of Hebrew or Greek so how can I check out what these guys are saying?  At some point I just have to trust them.  That’s why I love it when the Bible itself tells us what a word means.  Sometimes you have to read carefully or you will miss it, usually because you have read past it all your life and can’t seem to stop that bad habit.  At least that’s my problem.  You have to pay attention when you read God’s Word, like every time you read it is the first time.
            And by doing just that I found a new, obvious definition.  Read Ezekiel with me.
            If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul, Ezek 3:18-21.
            Did you catch it?  God tells Ezekiel exactly what a righteous man is—someone who warns (and delivers his soul) or someone who listens to the warning and repents.  But what about the “righteous man” who commits injustice, you ask?  He has “turned from his righteousness” and “none of his righteous deeds are remembered,” which means he is no longer righteous.  The only two righteous people in that whole paragraph are the one who warns and the one who repents.
            Notice, God says nothing about the way he is warned.  If you have not read the book of Ezekiel you need to.  Ezekiel preached hard sermons.  He preached plain sermons.  Yet God still demanded that those people repent.  Getting their feelings hurt did not make them “righteous.”  Getting angry about the way they were spoken to did not make them “righteous.”  The only thing that made them “righteous” was heeding the warning and repenting. 
            Think about that Syrophenician mother who came asking Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter.  At first Jesus ignored her.   Then he insulted her.  If she had left with her feelings hurt, her daughter would never have been healed.  She understood that something was more important than her feelings.  And Jesus called that attitude “faith.”  Ah!  Another Bible definition.
            When I hear the warning, if I want to be counted righteous, I must stop blaming others and recognize my responsibility to listen and act.  The failures of others will not save me.
 
Take heed how you hear…Luke 18:8.
 
Dene Ward

In the fall we took a vacation, our first in three years.  We rented a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina and proceeded to have one adventure after another—none of which we had planned on, and none of which anyone would have planned on.
            We got lost four times, despite following written down directions as carefully as possible.  We locked ourselves out of the cabin—a very remote cabin, nowhere near the rental office.  We had to have our ailing twenty-two year old truck towed twenty miles to a mechanic in the middle of Tourist Town, then take a taxi drive that same twenty miles to pick it up two days later.  Then a tropical storm blew over us the morning before we were to leave.  Floridians, mind you, hit by the remnants of a hurricane in North Carolina!  We never did do any of the things we had actually planned on doing.  But, oh, it could have been so much worse.
            I guess I was an adult before I realized that prayers did not have to wait for some formal occasion.  Just like an earthly father, our Heavenly Father is willing to listen whenever we call.  Believe me, we called that week again and again.  Another thing I have learned is that God will bless people who are not necessarily His children simply because of their connection to His children, Potiphar, for example (Gen 39:5).  And so that week I found myself again and again thanking God for the good people He sent our way and asking Him to send them blessings.
            Good folks like these:
            The two or three people who took the time to send complete strangers on their way in the right direction.
            The kind woman on the phone at the rental office who helped us find the hidden lock box with the extra key to the cabin in it, gave us the code to that box, and would not hang up until she was sure we had gotten back in.
            The fellow tourist at the neighboring cabin who offered to look at our truck and when he couldn't fix it, looked up a mechanic with the highest ratings and called him for us, giving him details he needed because Keith,, being deaf, cannot function on a cell phone.
            A tow truck driver, a mechanic, and a taxi driver who were not only friendly, but refused to price-gouge a couple of desperate tourists, who were honest and fair in their business dealings instead.
            Again and again we asked our Father to shower these people with blessings as He had done for us by sending them our way.  The greatest blessing for us was seeing, in the middle of a tumultuous year, when it's so easy to believe our nation is going down the tubes in a headlong plunge, that there are still good people out there, people who will help strangers, who will do the right thing when the wrong thing would have been so easy and much more profitable.
            Look around as you go about your daily life.  Find the good people.  Thank God and ask Him to bless them as well.  Don't be selfish with the grace He gives, but as a child mimicking his father, spread it around as He does every day, giving the sun and the rain to all.  And who knows?  Maybe you will have somehow, some day, made it possible to share with them the greatest gift of Grace there is.
 
I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men…That your way may be known upon earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.  (1Tim 2:1; Ps 67:1-3).
 
Dene Ward