Have you fallen prey to it yet?  You post something on Facebook and then sit back and wait.  You check it every five minutes at first, then maybe stretch it out a bit, and before you know it, you have sat there for an hour or two and what have you been doing?  Waiting to see if someone “likes” you.  Yes, the quest for popularity affects the masses, and many make use of that pathetic craving of ours. 
Political pundits say that the first really obvious affect of popularity was the Kennedy-Nixon debates.  On September 26, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Richard M. Nixon participated in the first televised presidential debates in American history.  Suddenly election strategy changed.  A carefully manufactured public image and media exposure became essentials for every candidate. 
            Kennedy had only a single and unexceptional term as a Senator on his resume.  Nixon had eight years as vice-president, following a career in the Senate in which his domestic and foreign experience trumped anything Kennedy had.  He was a great opponent of Communism in a time when that really mattered, and even helped uncover the alleged traitor Alger Hiss.  By the summer of 1960, Nixon had gained a lead in the polls.  Then he landed in the hospital with an infection in August and came out pale and 20 pounds underweight.  And so on debate day, a young, bronzed Kennedy confronted a gray Nixon, who was still running a low fever from the tag end of the flu as well.  He had just come off an exhausting campaign trail while Kennedy holed up in the hotel the whole weekend resting.
            After the first of four debates, the pundits scored their politics even, or Nixon slightly ahead.  On Election Day, though, Kennedy won and exit polls showed that politics is not what won the election.  Kennedy was more telegenic.  Over half the voters said the two disparate images during the debate had influenced their vote.  Historians say this was the first time popularity struck a blow in politics.   They are wrong about that.
            After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,” Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.” And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel, 2 Sam 15:1-6.
            Absalom made everyone feel “liked” and that “stole their hearts.”  But Absalom wasn’t even the first.  In Judges 9:3 the people of Israel had “hearts inclined to follow Abimelech.”  Both of these men were wrong for God’s people and were eventually killed, but that didn’t stop the people from falling prey to what was “popular.”
            Do you think that hasn’t happened to you?  Why do you wear what you wear?  Why do you watch the television shows you watch?  Why do you go to the restaurants you do?  Whatever is popular at the time steals our hearts because we think that by doing the popular thing we will become popular.  The problem comes when that affects us spiritually.  If I am wearing clothing I shouldn’t because everyone else is, I need a stronger character.  If I am watching inappropriate entertainment, I need to remember who I claim to follow. 
            The people of Israel were taken in by what was popular over and over again.  Ezekiel tells us “their hearts went after their idols” and “covetousness,” 20:16; 33:31.  Jeremiah talks about them “going after the imagination of their hearts,” 9:14; 13:10.  And why did they do those things?  Not only because they were the popular things to do, but because falling in with the crowd made them popular too.  Simply put, you can’t be different and popular in the world at the same time.
            What is your heart going after?  If it’s popularity and wanting to be “liked,” then you are prey to popular evils just like 99% of the rest of the world.  God calls us to be different.  A Christian doesn’t need to be “liked” on Facebook or anywhere else as long as God “likes” him.
 
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ, Gal 1:10.
 
Dene Ward

And he came to Lystra and Derbe and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewess that believed, but his father was a Greek, Acts 16:1.
            Having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded, in you also, 2 Tim 1:5.
            Did you see it?  Don’t feel bad.  I missed it too, for years.
            Wasn’t it great that Eunice taught her son so well?  But how many of us are thinking in the back of our minds, “Tsk, tsk, it would have been easier if she had married a child of God to begin to with.”  I have been guilty of such snap judgments myself over the years, placing these people in my own culture and social customs.  Lydia aside, it was not common for a woman to make her own living in those days, in those places.  Because of that, to be left alone a widow was to be sentenced to a life of poverty and dependence upon the kindness of others.  Look how many passages in the Law made provisions for the widow and orphan.  They did not live in a day of insurance policies, pensions, Social Security, and Aid for Dependent Children.  If God’s people did not follow the Law as he designed it, the widow and orphan would starve. 
            Parents often arranged marriages, and expecting their daughter to live alone and support herself simply because they could not find a God-fearing husband for her was not an expedient choice for Eunice’s parents.  Out in the Gentile world with few practicing Jews in the area, the best they could do was find a Greek whom they thought would take good care of their daughter.
            And here is what we miss:  how do we know there were no Jews to choose from?  It was Paul’s custom to go to the synagogue first when he came to a town, (Acts 13:5, 14; 14:1: 17:1, etc).  From the account in Acts, it seems evident that there were no synagogues in Lystra or Derbe.  That also means there were fewer than 10 Jewish male heads of household in the town, the number necessary to form a synagogue, and not even enough Jewish women to meet down by the river as in Philippi, (16:13).  Which means there was no Jewish school to send her son to, one of the primary functions of a local synagogue.  Besides these obstacles, how many little boys want to “be like Daddy?”
             So now you have a woman married to a Greek, who was taught the scripture (Old Testament) so well that she “also believed,” meaning she accepted Jesus as the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, something even the “well-educated” scribes and “pious” Pharisees could not seem to do.  And she raised a son to do the same, without a righteous man to influence him, without a formal religious education, and without a community of believers from which to draw help and encouragement.
            I daresay that none of us has the problems Eunice faced as a mother.  In this day when so many want to blame everyone else for their failures, when so many blame the church for the way their children turned out, she is a shining example of what can be done, of one who took the responsibility and, despite awesome odds, succeeded.
            The world bestows the term “Supermom” for all the wrong reasons.  Here is the real thing, one we should be emulating every day of our lives.
 
And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.  And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes.  And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates,  Deut 6:6-9.
 
Dene Ward

When the boys were growing up, we raised chickens for a while.  I never would have guessed you could buy chicks mail order, but that is exactly what we did, and about two weeks later the postmaster called with the message, "I have a crate of little biddies up here for you."
            We kept them in a box on the porch for the first few weeks and learned to live with the constant background of high pitched peeping.  Finally they were big enough to place in the pen Keith constructed for them, complete with a straw-lined, raised henhouse, nesting boxes, and an old tub full of water.  They were not likely to run dry with that thing sitting out there.
            At the appropriate time, about four months later, the hens began to lay eggs.  Soon we were gathering about a dozen jumbo-plus sized brown eggs a day.  Huge bowls of eggs filled my refrigerator.  You can only make so many pound cakes, quiches, custards, and deviled eggs before the masses begin to revolt.  And only a couple of us really liked eggs for breakfast every day.  When the church folks found out we were drowning in eggs,  half a dozen families offered to buy a dozen every other week or so.  We asked fifty cents a dozen back then, and both sides were thrilled with the deal.
            The boys fed the chickens and gathered the eggs every day (and fought off the rooster, but that's another story and another lesson for another day).  And we all learned a lot about chickens. For one thing, I never expected to need to wash such filthy eggs.  Not all of them, but enough.  When Keith saw them he said, "Grandma always said that chickens are the only birds that will foul their own nests."  
            Even though we were rookies, we had done everything right.  The hens all laid their eggs in the nesting boxes, taking turns because there were more hens than boxes, which is normal.  But evidently, one of them was lazy, and instead of leaving the nesting box to roost in the evening, it would remain in the nesting box overnight.  And let's just say, chickens are not exactly potty-trained.  From what I have read, no other bird does such a thing.  Between that and the prevalence of salmonella on raw chicken meat, one wonders why chicken is considered such a healthy meat, and how it ever made the "clean" list for the Jews.
            Chickens may be the only birds that do such a thing, and since they are domesticated rather than wild, it seems especially surprising.  Some Christians do surprising things as well, especially considering their claim to be better than the average sinner. 
            Why in the world should we have to tell a Christian not to drink?  Why should we ever need to suggest to a Christian woman that she needs to cover up a little more of her body?  Why is it that my neighbor might say to me, "Since you are a Christian I know you would never watch such and such a movie," while I know that several of my brothers and sisters did watch it and even bragged about it on Facebook?  I could go on, but you get the point.  Some things should go without saying, yet the shame is that they can't.
            And so we foul our own nests (homes and churches) with impurities just as filthy as a chicken's.  God wants purity in our lives.  That is the only way we will ever be fit to live with a holy God forever.
 
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.  (1John 3:2-3).
 
Dene Ward

You can find some strange things in the footnotes.  Sometimes they illuminate the text you are reading, but sometimes they cause even more confusion.  Sometimes they answer the questions in your mind, and other times they cause even more.  Sometimes they sound like utter gibberish—sometimes they are in another language and might as well be gibberish.  And sometimes they are downright funny, as was the case this past Sunday morning.
 
You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Fool! ’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You moron! ’ will be subject to hellfire.  (Matt 5:21-22)
 
            Perhaps it is because I was reading this out of my newest Bible, a Holman Christian Standard I purchased because it has the largest "large print" I have ever seen, that I paid more attention than usual to those verses.  I mean, that last line really gets your attention.  Then I noticed the footnote on the word "fool" and laughed out loud.
 
             "Literally Raca, an Arab term of abuse similar to 'airhead.' "
 
            Airhead?  Do you mean the ancients talked like that too?  Of course they did.  People have not changed for centuries.  But reading that footnote also hit home.  When I was driving, one of the more common terms I tended to use about other drivers was, "Idiot."  What other term better fits people who swerve in and out of traffic at high speed, tailgate at those same speeds, text while driving, suddenly slow down ten miles an hour whenever they answer their phones as if that will instantly make them safe drivers despite the distraction, sit at a stop sign while you approach on the main road at the posted speed of 55 and then pull out when you are a car length away?  Idiots, all of them.
            And then, reading that new version and knowing what that footnote said, made me wonder why the Lord connected calling people "airhead," or something similar, with murder.  I have pondered this for a few days now and maybe I have it.  When you consider someone to be that kind of person, whether you use the word airhead, moron, idiot, or "things like these" (cf Gal 5:21), you really mean they are not worth caring about, not worth your consideration, not worth "the air they breathe or the space they take up," as some would say.  And that is exactly the mentality you must have to commit murder.  De-humanizing in any manner someone made in the image of God, someone whom Christ also died for, would make it a whole lot easier to simply eradicate them.  I may not realize that is what I am doing when I call people these names, but it is, and that is exactly why I should never have done it in the first place.
            Even if they don't drive, or talk, or act, or live--or vote--like I want them to.
 
A fool’s displeasure is known at once, but whoever ignores an insult is sensible.  (Prov 12:16).
 
Dene Ward

I am constantly shocked by the way people, including Christians, treat the Bible.  We act like God wrote it in some way other than normal communication.  I have actually heard these things come out of the mouths of believers:  “Jesus never used figurative language.”  “You won’t find irony in the Bible.”  “Sarcasm is neither present nor allowed in the scriptures.”  And because of that you will hear some of the weirdest interpretations of scripture imaginable.
            We knew a man once who said that since Jesus said you should not “let your right hand know what your left hand doeth,” that you should reach into your pocket before the plate is passed and take out whatever you find without looking at it.  I wonder how he got whatever was in his pocket in there that morning without knowing what it was, or did he make sure nothing over $10 was lying on top of his dresser?           
            But you will also find those who deny there is any literary aspect to the scriptures at all.  Try studying the psalms in detail and see if you think that’s so.  The psalms are poetry.  Like all poets, those inspired poets used poetic elements to make them catch our fancy, speak to us more keenly than prose would, and make us think deeper thoughts than we might have otherwise.  You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure.  Doesn’t that say more to you than, “These people are really upset”?
            One place this is obvious are the fifteen Psalms of Ascents.  Psalms 120-134 are presumed to have been sung while the Jews traveled up the hill to Jerusalem to worship on the various feast days.  The word for “ascents” is the same Hebrew word translated “steps” in Ezek 40:26 and 31, as in the steps of a staircase.  One psalm in particular uses words to show these steps.
            Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.  Psalm 130.
            Imagine each of the following words, taken in order from the psalm above, sitting on the steps of a staircase from bottom to top:  depths, pleas, iniquities, wait, hope, steadfast love, plentiful redemption.  Now add this to the mix:  the word for “depths” is used several times in the scripture for the deepest places on earth, including the very bottom of the ocean.  And that implies a man’s complete inability to get himself “out of the depths.”  All through this psalm we see the literary devices of the poet, gradually pulling us out of the mire we are stuck in and up the staircase to the place of full—and even more than necessary, “plentiful”—redemption.  God didn’t barely save us, He pulled us up on top of the mountains.  Read through that psalm again now.  Can you see it?  Can feel it? 
            God is the one who made us able to appreciate art of all kinds, including literary art.  He gave us the emotions that a good artist of any type can evoke.  It’s one of the things that makes you different from your dog!  God wrote the Bible.  He made you and made you able to communicate.  He speaks to us the way He knows is best for our understanding.  Who am I to say otherwise?
 
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person discerns all things…1Cor 2:14-15.
 
Dene Ward

It was a hot, sultry August morning in the year that was so unlike any other, at least in my lifetime.  The world had gone crazy and despite having to deal with all that, we still had the usual, and not so usual, mishaps and illnesses, pain and sorrows.  I walked Chloe around the property, both of us wilting despite our sun protection as the summer heat of Florida rolled down on us.  My shirt dripped sweat at the hem and my feet faltered here and there as the weight of this world added to the weight of the heat and humidity.
            When I reached the gate a hawk flew over the western field and landed in one of those ubiquitous North Florida pines.  He sat there even as I continued toward him down the hill, his call far more insistent than the normal predatory cry of a hawk.  When I reached his tree I stopped beneath where he still sat, calling stridently, and began talking to him.  He quieted and sat there as if listening intently.  I wondered, could it be?  Could this be one of the hawks we had "raised" here on the property?  Could it be the one who, after his older sister flew, sat lonely in his nest in the tree next to the garden where I could talk to him every spring morning as I worked, the one who followed me around for weeks after he had learned to fly himself?  Could it be the one whose nest tree was struck by lightning, whom we rescued from the ground before a fox, coyote, or bobcat could find him, and placed in a homemade moss-stuffed milk crate "nest" until his mother could find him and care for him?  Could it be one of the many others we simply talked to in their nests day after day before they matured enough to fly away?  Can red-shouldered hawks live that long, I wondered, and found out later that yes, they can.
            He stayed on his piney perch as I talked to him a bit longer that morning, but Chloe was becoming antsy to continue the walk (and find the shade), so I left and headed further downhill.  Immediately the hawk began crying out, so I turned once more and told him to be patient, I would be back for another lap very soon.  But wild creatures operate on instinct rather than patience, and he was gone when I returned.  Still I wondered about him being there and this odd behavior, and, as I cannot seem but do, found a lesson in him.  Maybe God was reminding me providentially through this creature of His that He still remembers me, even in this strangest of years, that His eye so high is still keen enough to see where I am and what I need, and that He can find me among the billions of souls on this fragile planet we inhabit.
            As I walked across the field, unreasonably hurt by the bird's perfectly normal absence when I returned, a large shadow flew over me with an impossibly wide wingspan.  And once again I was called to remember:  God is always there when life treats us badly, whether I see Him or not, and I can always hide in the shadow of His wings.
 
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till these calamities pass by. (Ps 57:1).

(If you would like to see other hawk stories, click on the category "Birds and Animals" on the right sidebar.)

Dene Ward

I’m seeing a lot my brothers and sisters running around beating their breasts and wailing like the Little Red Hen, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” The world is about to end, they are sure.  All is lost for the people of God.  Nonsense.
            And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here: for God did send me before you to preserve life, (Gen 45:4-5.
            Would you have thought twenty years before that statement that God was doing anything?  Here is the one He has sent to preserve the chosen people of God, the forbears of the Messiah, and he is sold as a slave and then falsely accused and thrown into prison and forgotten by the man he helped.  And now those chosen people are in danger of death from a famine.  But yes, God was accomplishing exactly what He set out to do, using the imperfect and illogical actions of men.
            Years later the people of God are under constant attack from marauding Midianites who regularly swoop in and take the produce of their farming and herding, leaving them barely able to survive and afraid to perform even menial day to day tasks.
            Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor,” Judges 6:11-12.
            O mighty man of valor?  A man so scared he is trying to thresh wheat deep in a hole?  A man whose first task he would only try in the middle of the night?  A man who needed sign after sign to reassure him?  And then he has only an army of 300 against a host of 135,000 (Judges 8:10)?  Yes, that was the man and the method God chose and that man ultimately came through, delivering the people and acting as judge for forty years after.
            They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant-- Ps 83:3-5.  Imagine how it looked to the few faithful throughout Israel’s history—the 7000 who did not bow their knee to Baal, the righteous remnant that watched as the city of God fell to invaders who performed sacrilege after sacrilege to prove that their god was more powerful than Jehovah.  And that is exactly how it looked.
            And then think of those disciples as Jesus was carried away, tortured, and killed.  Here was the Messiah, they believed, and how could this be happening?  They had placed all their hopes in him and now that hope was lost.
            But that too turned into the most unlikely victory—11 men standing on a mountain wondering how in the world they could fulfill the mission they had just been given.  Once again God managed, not to just eke out a victory, but to overwhelmingly conquer as Christianity swept the world. 
            Did they give up when persecution hit them almost immediately?  Did they give up thirty years later when Nero tried it again? Or the next time, or the next?
            Just who do we think God is?  He is not a loser.  He is in control.  His ways are not ours—surely you’ve quoted that verse yourself.  It may look like things are going south, but what has happened throughout history, over and over and over?  GOD WINS.  The victory is not always easy for His people.  Sometimes they are hurt.  Sometimes they die.  Sometimes they die horrible deaths.  When you committed your life to Him, what did you think you signed up for?  Comfort and ease?  Riches and popularity? 
            Stop wailing and whining because things are bad.  The first century church came into a world every bit as bad—or worse!  It was a hard victory, but it was a victory.  Some of them celebrated it in another plane, and that may yet be our future too.  But do not ever doubt who is in control and who will win. 
 
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations…Psalm 145:13.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer, Lucas Ward, and is a second part to last month's installment on Proverbs and the tongue.
 
As Jesus originally instituted His church, it is to be many people coming together to make one body working together to accomplish God's will. 
1 Cor. 12:12-13  "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit."
1 Cor. 12:24-25  "which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another."
Eph. 1:22-23  "And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,  which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."
 
We are to be one unified body under Christ, serving Him.  A careless mouth can undo this relationship. 
Prov. 13:10  "By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom."
 
To be insolent is to be rude, disrespectful, and contemptuous.  It is easy to see why Solomon warns that such speech causes strife.  Wisdom leads us in another direction.
Prov. 16:21  "The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness." 
Prov. 16:23  "The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips."
 
If we want to be considered wise, our speech should be judicious, or thoughtful.  If we want people to listen to us without a fight, our speech should be persuasive.  Such is helped by sweetness of speech, not insolence.  We need to take care how we speak of our brethren.
Prov. 11:12  "Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent." 
To speak ill of another just doesn't make any sense.  All it does is cause fights and destroy relationships.  The wise man knows when to keep his mouth closed.  That leads us to the topic of gossip.
 
Prov. 16:28  "A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends."
A whisperer separates even close friends.  This reminds me of Iago from the Shakespeare play Othello.  At the beginning of the play, Othello is a strong, confident man, a leader widely respected and trusted by the highest authorities.  Then Iago becomes offended and begins a whispering campaign.  He spreads lies, rumors, and innuendoes until Othello is a broken man, having lost his wife, his job and his confidence.  All because Iago whispered.  This kind of thing cannot happen in the church. 
 
Prov. 17:9  "Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends."
This happens all too often, even by those who, in all innocence, mean nothing by it.  Random, happy babbling can cause as many problems as the determined whisperer.  Again, the wise man knows when to keep his mouth shut.  I am naturally curious about all things.  That has led me at times to be nosy.  One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn is that I don't need to know everything about everyone around me.  And, if I do know something, I don't have to tell my friends all about it.  I'm still working on that one.  Even innocent babbling can cause strife, and not all are innocent.
 
Prov. 24:28-29  "Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.  Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.” 
Revenge is not a good reason to gossip.  We cannot allow ourselves to speak ill of someone just because we are angry with them. 
 
Prov. 12:6  "The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them." 
Prov. 11:9  "With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered."
Notice how these people are described, who want to destroy others with their words:  wicked and godless.  If we want any hope of Heaven, we cannot allow those descriptions to ever fit us.  That means we need to watch our verbal attacks on others.
 
Sometimes gossip isn't fueled by anger and revenge, but that doesn't make it any better.
Prov. 18:8  "The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body."
Prov. 26:22  "The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body."
Another case where Solomon repeats himself.  It must be important.  Gossip is fun.  Most of us do it, not out of maliciousness, but because we like the juice.  It's satisfying to know what is going on.  It is titillating to hear secrets about others.  But, who are we getting this juice from?  The whisperer.  The one who separates close friends.  I may not be malicious about it, but in listening and passing on gossip, I am participating in something that could destroy the fabric of God's family.  And that is evil. 
 
Prov. 20:19  "Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler."
It is amazing how much the fighting and bickering dies down when gossip ceases.  When no one is whispering, few are fighting.
Prov. 26:20  "For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases." 
When the kindling runs out, so does the fire.  The whispering feeds the fights.  The church with few whisperers is also the church that is closer and tighter knit.  We cannot allow ourselves to be the person who continues fighting and dividing the church.
Prov. 26:21  "As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife." 
 
Another similar issue of misusing our mouths that can cause problems for the church is false flattery.
Prov. 29:5  "A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet."
The ancient Israelites spread nets to catch birds.  So, the flatterer is laying traps for the people he flatters.  He is trying to bring them in and secure them before they know who he really is.  Instead of flattery, the wise man prefers correction.
Prov. 28:23   "Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue."
Prov. 25:12  "Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear."
The rebuke and the reproof are to keep us on the straight and narrow.  In the long run, they are far more valuable than the short term warmth of flattery.  We should watch out for the gushers, listen closely to the constructive critics, and determine that we won't allow ourselves to be the kind of person who influences through false flattery.
 
There are two ways we can use our mouths.  Each has a consequence.
Prov. 29:8  "Scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away wrath."
Prov. 11:11  "By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown."
How am I going to use my mouth today?
 
Lucas Ward

I live where the animals meditate quite often.  When we first moved here, the bobcats screamed in the woods every night.  Even after all these years of people moving closer and closer in on us, the mourning doves still cry and moan every day, morning and evening.  I hear one out there now even as I type.
            “Meditate?” you ask. 
            Exactly.
            For thus the LORD said to me, As a lion or a young lion roars over his prey… Isa 31:4.
            Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I mourn like a dove…Isa 38:14.
            “Roars” and “mourn” are the same Hebrew word translated “meditate” in the KJV, including this one:  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  Ps 1:2.
            I grew up in a time when “transcendental meditation” was popular.  Most of those who participated sat in the lotus position and hummed the syllable in the above title.  I have no idea what was in their minds at the time, but it seems a far cry from the passages above.  Yet, from what I have seen, we don’t really understand what meditation is any better than they did.
            A Bible class teacher once told us he had decided to meditate more.  He did this by memorizing a passage every week and then reciting it at various times during the day.  As he continued talking, it seemed he expected that repetition to magically change his attitudes and his heart.  As an educator, I understand that repetition is the key to learning, but simple repetition itself is as useless to your heart as repeating Hail Marys.  The New Testament calls such things “vain repetition.”  Maybe it’s time to see what the Bible says about meditating instead of what the world does.
            I looked up every occurrence of the Hebrew word found in the three passages above.  I found 24.  In the King James Version, the word is translated “meditate” 6 times, which is the most frequent translation.  But here is a really interesting case.  While in Psalm 1:2, the word speaks of the action of a righteous man, in Psalm 2:1, the action is of the wicked and is translated “plot” in the ESV (“imagine” in the KJV).  The word clearly involves some mental activity.  In Psalm 38:12 the wicked are imagining “treachery all day long.”  In fact, in the ESV that is translated “meditating” treachery.
            Seven times the word is translated “speak” or “talk” or “utter” so it does involve sound, but not that mindless hum or rote repetition so many think.  If you check out the passages, the wicked “speak” (meditate) deceit or perverseness or falsehood.  The righteous “speak” (meditate) wisdom and truth, and “talk of” (meditate) God’s praise and righteousness.  Try doing any of those things without some serious thought.
            So where does the “sound” involved in this word come from?  Sheer effort and emotion.  The young lion roaring over his prey in the Isaiah 31 passage has reached a moment of intense effort in his hunt for food.  Although the dove is not really mourning, the passage is a metaphor for God mourning over his lost people, trying to save them.  Imagine reaching out to grab someone who is about to take a serious fall, or step in front of an oncoming vehicle.  Would you do it quietly?
            No, meditating on God’s word is not a time of quiet, mindless repetition.  It is a time of intense mental effort.  “Ponder how to answer” the ESV translates it in Prov 15:28.  Run it over and over in your mind for the various possibilities, for the possible results of actions or the ideas to which those thought processes might lead.  Meditate today on meditation, for clues in the texts themselves or, as we have done, in how the word is used in other places.  Memorizing is wonderful.  Reading the word of God is a necessity for one of his children, but if all you do is speak the words either aloud or in your mind, you have done no better than a pagan on his yoga mat.
 
Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest unto all.  1Tim 4:15
 
Dene Ward
 

We recently connected our back porch to the carport, not just over the door as it had been before, but the entire sixteen foot length of porch.  That means that both the carport and the porch roofs now drain into a gutter that formerly only drained the carport and only a third of that gutter is not now covered by the roof-over.
            Most of the time the gutter works fine, but after a torrential rain one night recently, we woke to a carport an inch deep in water.  Now how did that happen?
            Keith got out the blower and blew most of the water off to run on downhill in about ten minutes.  A couple mornings later, after another stormy night, he had to do it again, and we were still mystified.  Then one afternoon we solved the mystery.
            The rain began before dark this time.  Thunder rumbled in the northwest and the wind picked up to gusts instead of breezes, especially high in the treetops.  The temperature dropped ten degrees.  Before long, the azaleas began to bounce as scattered drops began to fall.  Within five minutes the bottom fell out and you could hardly see the bird feeder fifteen feet from the door.
            We stepped out onto the porch under a roar of rain on the metal roof so loud we had to yell at one another.  And there we saw the problem.  A small cluster of twigs, moss, and leaves barely peeked over the edge of the gutter, bobbing slightly as the water tried to run through it.  Most, however, overflowed the gutter at that point, tracing a route along the rounded bottom of the gutter to pour directly on the car and the carport floor around it.
            Keith grabbed my little household three-step ladder and headed out the door.  It only took a moment to realize that the only way to fix this was to get wet.  So he stepped out into the rain, set up the ladder and climbed it, making odd squealing noises during the whole process.  Did I mention that this was in the early spring?  That rain was cold.  But as soon as he removed the blockage, the water rushed down the length of the gutter and spewed like a fire hydrant from the bottom of the downspout.  Not another drop hit the carport floor.
            Now don't start tut-tutting.  He had cleaned out those gutters—several times—the last time only a week before.  But in North Florida, most leaves fall in the late winter and early spring, not in the fall.  Second, we had had a stormier, windier spring than usual with far more leaves, pollen and moss falling than usual.  Third, that obstruction he moved was hardly a handful, yet it still had a tremendous effect.
            So here is the question this morning:  What obstruction in your life is blocking the free flow of your witness?  What is blocking your influence?  What is hindering your service to others?  Laziness, selfishness, worldliness, or a host of other things can easily get in the way, and it doesn't take much to make a real mess of your mission as a servant of God.
            Blow out your gutters.  What is damming up the flow of goodness within you may also be damning your soul.
 
…we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.  (1Cor 9:12)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness; (Rom 1:18).
 
Dene Ward