Florida has some strange weather.  As a teenager in Tampa I remember looking out the front door to sunshine and warm breezes, then out the backdoor to rain.  Honestly--raining in the backyard and sunshine in the front.  At our place now we can look up to the gate and see rain while the garden is still wilting in the sun. 

              I thought about that recently when Lucas told us how his little strip of land two blocks from the beach seemed to be a dividing point in weather systems as they passed through the panhandle from the west.  He could walk outside and look south to sunny blue skies, puffy cotton ball clouds and palm trees waving in the sea breeze.  Yet if he looked north, he saw billowing black clouds lit up by lightning that occasionally streaked its way to the ground.  Take your choice of weather:  look north or look south; go out the front door or go out the back.

              Which reminds me about the essential truth of happiness:  it’s a choice you make regardless of the conditions you find yourself in.  “I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content,” Paul says in Phil 4:11.  The disciples rejoiced that they were “counted worthy to suffer,” Acts 5:41.  If that doesn’t prove that happiness is a choice, what can?

              That doesn’t mean I can face every day with a smile—I haven’t gotten there yet.  But it does mean that when I am not in a good mood, I understand it’s up to me to change myself not my circumstances.  “I can do all things through him who strengthens me;” that old timeworn citation immediately follows Paul’s assertion that contentment is a learned behavior.  He understands that although happiness may be a choice, it isn’t always an easy one—it takes some help to manage when the outward man must face pain or illness or persecution or other suffering, whether physical or mental.  If it takes the help of Christ, it must be a difficult task.

              But it can be done, and while the doing may be difficult, the how isn’t.  All you have to do is face in the right direction, “looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith,” the Hebrew writer tells us in 12:2, and then goes on to tell us how our example did it:  looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, Hebrews 12:2.  He looked ahead to the joy, not around him to the shame and pain, the hostility and the weariness. 

              What do they teach us in our Lamaze classes, ladies?  You focus on something besides the pain.  How many of you took a picture with you that they tacked on the wall?  Then you chose to look at it.  Even then you needed a little help—that’s what those men of yours were there for.  They helped you keep your focus and count your breaths.  You chose to listen to them and follow their instructions (when you weren’t grabbing them by the collar and telling them through gritted teeth not to ever touch you again!), but yes, it worked and you got through it, and you even wanted it again before much longer because you remembered the joy when that precious little bundle was placed in your arms, John 16:21.

              Do you want a happy marriage?  Do you want a good relationship with your family and your brothers and sisters in Christ?  Do you want to greet life every day with a smile instead of a sneer, laughter instead of tears?  The weather you can’t change, but you can change which door you leave by and which direction you look.
 
We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal,. 2 Corinthians 4:18.
 
Dene Ward

On June 6, 1933, Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive-in theater.  Camden, New Jersey, was its home and the price was twenty-five cents per car per person.  That night the movie was "Wives Beware."

               I remember those theaters well.  Across the river from our small town, an only slightly larger town boasted one that offered a double feature for $1 a carload.   It was thirty years later so naturally the price had risen, but still, what a deal!

              Our family usually arrived about fifteen minutes early to procure the best spot.  If you were too close all we kids in the backseat could see were headless actors.  But you certainly didn’t want to end up on the back row or next to the concession stand amid all sorts of distractions.

              Once you found a decent spot, you checked the speaker before anything else.  If it didn’t work, and some did not, you went on the hunt again.  Once the speaker situation was in order you spent a few minutes edging up and down the hump to raise the front half of the car to just the right angle so the line of sight worked for everyone.  (That first New Jersey drive-in did not have the hump.  I am not sure how anyone actually saw the movie.)  Then you had to deal with obstructions.  Our rearview mirror could be turned completely vertical, but other cars had one you could fold flat against the ceiling.  Headrests on the front seat would have been a catastrophe, but no one had them back then so we avoided that problem altogether.

              Now that set-up was complete, we rolled down the windows so we could get any breeze possible in that warm humid night air.  Along with the chirping crickets, the croaking frogs, and the traffic passing on the street behind the screen, we also had to put up with buzzing mosquitoes.  My mother usually laid a pyrethrum mosquito coil on the dashboard and lit it, the smoke rising and circulating through the car all during the movies, the coil only half burned when the second “THE END” rolled down the screen.

              At that price we never saw first run movies.  Usually they were westerns with John Wayne or Glenn Ford or Jimmy Stewart, or romantic comedies with Rock Hudson and Doris Day.  Occasionally we got an old Biblical epic like David and Bathsheba or Sodom and Gomorrah, both about as scripturally accurate as those westerns were historically accurate, which is to say, not very.  The only Disney we got was Tron, but that was back when it was a bomb not a cult classic.  Still, we enjoyed our family outing every other month or so.

              And we got one thing that I am positive no one born after 1970 ever got.  When the screen finally lit up about ten minutes before the movie started, after the Coming Attractions and ads for the snacks at the concession stand—and oh, could we smell that popcorn and butter all night long—was the following ad, complete with voiceover in case you missed the point.  “CH__ CH.  What’s missing?  U R.  Join the church of your choice and attend this Sunday.”  And that was not an ad from any of the local denominations—it was a public service announcement!

              But this is what we all did—instead of being grateful that anything like that would even be put out for the general public, we fussed about its inaccuracy.  We were bad, as my Daddy would say, about living in the objective case.  When that’s all you see, you miss some prime teaching opportunities.

              So let’s get this out of the way first.  It isn’t our choice, it’s God’s.  It is, more to the point since he built it and died for it, the Lord’s church.  We should be looking not for a church that teaches what we like to hear, but what he taught, obeying his commands, not our preferences.  And you don’t “join” it.  The Lord is the one who adds to the church, the church in the kingdom sense, which is the only word used in the New Testament for what we in our “greater” wisdom call the “universal” sense.  But that’s where we miss the teaching opportunity because for some reason we ignore this verse:

              And when [Saul] was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: and they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple, Acts 9:26.

              Did you see that?  Immediately after his conversion, Saul tried to join a local group, what we insist on calling “placing membership” in spite of that phrase never appearing anywhere in the text.  (For people who claim to “use Bible words for Bible things” we are certainly inconsistent.)  The New Testament example over and over is to be a part of a local group of believers—not to think you can be a Christian independent of any local congregation or simply float from group to group. 

              Why do people do that?  Because joining oneself to a group involves accountability to that group, and especially to the leadership of that group.  It involves serving other Christians.  It involves growing in knowledge.  It means I must arrange my schedule around their meetings rather than my worldly priorities.  The New Testament is clear that some things cannot be done outside the assembly.  I Cor 5:4,5; 1 Cor 11 and 16, along with Acts 20 are the obvious ones.  That doesn’t count the times they all came together to receive reports, e.g. Acts 14:27, and plain statements like “the elders among you” which logically infers a group that met together.  Then there are all those “one another” passages that I cannot do if there is no “one another” for me to do them with.

              We are called the flock of God in several passages.  You may find a lone wolf out in the wild once in awhile, but you will never find a lone sheep that isn’t alone because he is anything but lost.  It is my responsibility to be part of a group of believers.  We encourage one another, we help one another, we serve another.  Our pooling our assets means we can evangelize the city we live in, the country we live in, even the world.  It means we can help those among us who are needy.  It means we can purchase and make use of tools that we could not otherwise afford.  It means we can pool talents and actually have enough members available for teaching classes without experiencing burn-out.  It means we are far more likely to find men qualified to tend “the flock of God among them.”

              So while God may add me to the kingdom when I submit to His will in baptism, it is my duty to find a group of like-minded brothers and sisters and serve along side them.  Serve—not be served.  Saul had a hard time “joining himself” to the church in Jerusalem because of his past, but Barnabas knew it was the right thing for him to do and paved the way.           

              CH__CH.  What’s missing?  Is it you?
             
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all, 1 Thes 5:11-14
 
Dene Ward

A few years ago Keith dug up a plant he found out in the field far from the house, surrounded by stinging nettles and poison ivy.  He had thought it looked like something besides another weed.  When I rubbed the leaves between my fingers and sniffed, I discovered it was spearmint.  So I potted it and put it next to my herb bed, where it comes in handy every so often, and grows so bountifully I have to give it a haircut once in awhile.

              Imagine finding a useful herb in the middle of a patch of useless, annoying, and even dangerous weeds.  I thought of that mint plant a few days ago when we studied Rahab in one of my classes.  I have written about her before, and you can read that article in the Bible people category to your right, “The Scarlet Woman and Her Scarlet Cord,” but something new struck my mind in this latest discussion. 

              God told Abraham his descendants would not receive their land inheritance for another 400 years because “the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full,” Gen 15:13-16.  The people of Canaan, the Promised Land, were not yet so wicked that God was ready to destroy them, but the time was coming. 

              If there is a Bible definition for “total depravity” perhaps that is it:  “when their iniquity is full.”  That had happened before in the book of Genesis—to Sodom in Genesis 19, and to the whole world in Genesis 6 when God saw that “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (v 5), another fine definition for total depravity.

              Both times God brought about a complete destruction—except for a tiny remnant that we can count on our fingers in each instance. That means that when God finally brought the Israelites into their land, the Canaanites’ iniquity was “full” and those people must have been every bit as wicked as the people of Sodom and the world in general in Noah’s day. 

              Yet right in the middle of Jericho, the first city to be conquered, a harlot believed in Jehovah God.  A harlot.  Would you have bothered speaking to her if she were your neighbor, much less invited her to a Bible study?  But she outshone even the people of God in a way that made God take notice of her.

              Thirty-eight years before, when those first 12 spies came back from their scouting expedition in Numbers 13, ten of them, the vast majority, gave a fearful report.  Look at the words they used:  “we are not able;” “they are stronger than us.”  Look at the words Rahab used when she spoke to the two later spies:  “I know the Lord has given you the land;” “our hearts melted and there was no spirit left in any man…because the Lord your God he is God.”  The earlier Israelites raised “a loud cry,” “wept all night,” and “grumbled against Moses and Aaron” (Num 14:1-4).  Rahab sent the spies safely on their way and hung a scarlet cord in her window, patiently waiting for the deliverance promised by two men she had never seen before in her life, but whose God she had grown to believe in with all her heart.  The difference is startling.  If you didn’t know anything but their words and actions, which would you think were children of God?

              And a woman like this lived in a place determined for destruction because its iniquity was “full,” plying a trade we despise, living a life of moral degradation as a matter of course.

              Who lives in your neighborhood?  What kind of lives do they lead?  Rahab had heard about the God of Israel for forty years (Josh 2:10), assuming she was that old—if not, then all her life.  Have your neighbors heard about your God?  Have they seen Him in your actions, in your interactions, and in your absolute assurance that He is and that He cares for you, even when life deals you a blow?

              Do your words sound like the faithless Israelites’ or like the faithful prostitute’s?  Would God transplant you out of the weeds into the herb garden, or dig you up and throw you out among the thorns and nettles where a useless plant belongs?

              Don’t count on the fact that you aren’t a harlot.
 
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14.
 
Dene Ward

My sisters and I have been studying the prophets of the Old Testament, and I mean all of them.  Not every prophet was a literary prophet—meaning he had a book named after him.  Many people the Bible calls a prophet we seem to have totally missed.  One of our first tasks was to list them all and I am sure the first one will surprise you:

              Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.  Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” Gen20: 6,7.  When God himself calls Abraham a prophet you cannot argue with it.

              You have probably noticed several posts from the prophets in the past three years, all of which came from the class.  I imagine there will be many more.  When you reach my age and you have been "going to church" your whole life, you doubt there is all that much more to learn.  Then you study the prophets and the amount you didn't know is staggering—and humbling.  The thing is, I have studied a few of these men before, but I still learned more in the past three years than I have in the past twenty. 

              It helps to have a knowledgeable husband, but even if you do not, grab those Bibles and get with it now.  It will take me years more to finish what I have only scratched the surface of.  In fact, we might start the whole thing over from the top, but really, as we approach the last chapter of Malachi, we need a break.  The prophets can be a little depressing, especially when you see that we have the same tendencies as the faithless people they preached to.

             Zechariah, however, gave us a few moments of comfort.  While it, too, has its share of gloomy predictions, the night visions were particularly encouraging.  Those visions came to the returning exiles who found life harder than they had expected.  The Persian king may have been "on their side," but that did not clear away the rubble; it did not make the crops grow; it did not make the people they had to run out of Jerusalem like them any better.  Nearly a hundred years later, they still suffered, building the city walls with half the men working and the other half standing guard.  Later on, Nehemiah thwarted several attempts on his life.  But in Haggai and Zechariah's time, when the Temple was finally rebuilt twenty years after the first group returned, it was a pale shadow of that first gold-covered masterpiece of architecture. So God sent Zechariah 8 visions, evidently all on the same night, visions of comfort and encouragement.

                We, too, live in a pagan world that stands against everything we believe.  Some of us are mocked at work, at school, in our neighborhoods because we do not follow the crowd in our lifestyle, dress, and speech.  When we look at some of our tiny, struggling congregations, we wonder how this can really be the promised, glorious kingdom.  We try to reach the lost and though some come to see, it seems most turn around and leave because it does not match their vision either.  And so we, too, wonder sometimes if God is even aware of us, if He understands our disappointments and frustrations.

              We need the same encouragement those people did so long ago—every generation needs it--so here goes a brand new series, "Zechariah's Night Visions."  Due to my continuing history series, I cannot promise you will see them all on the same day, such as every Monday, so you will have to be a little more diligent about checking every week.  But I do promise that while these may sometimes be challenging, the encouragement they give will more than make up for that.  And you will more than likely learn a few new things.  Not too many churches pick up the book of Zechariah and study it.
 
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4)
 
Dene Ward

The first time I ever voted we used something called the Meyers Automatic Booth.  I walked in, pulled a lever which simultaneously closed the curtain and enabled the machine, pulled more levers to vote, then pulled a last one to both open the curtain and disable the machine, rotating the voting and recording mechanisms to be ready for the next voter and to keep the previous votes from being tampered with.  I was surprised to discover that the system was first used in Lockport, New York eighty years before.  Then I found out that Thomas Edison’s first patent, registered on June 1, 1869, was for an electric voting machine.  So why wasn’t that being used?  Because no one wanted to.  Perhaps it was mistrust, surely neither the first nor the last time that word has been used with the word “politics.”
              As of 1996, 1.6% of the registered voters in the United States were still using something called the Australian ballot, an official uniform printed ballot first used in Australia in 1856.  In our tiny rural county, we have used an Australian ballot for the past thirty years, voting in a three-sided cubical set on four long wobbly aluminum legs, marking the long piece of paper with a black pen.  Yet I think the mistrust is still there for people no matter how simple or how complex the voting method.
              Politics, probably because of the mistrust it engenders, has become an excuse for bad behavior, even in Christians.  Because we disagree with a politician’s morals, because we can cite scripture to prove that they are sinful, we think we have the right to revile, vilify, disrespect, and show contempt for the public figure who practices them.  God says those very actions are sin themselves.
              Camp awhile in Romans 13:1-7.  We often use that passage to justify capital punishment.  The ruler “bears not the sword in vain” v 4, but the same passage will condemn us if we are not careful.
              Romans 13 tells us to “be subject to the governing authorities” v 1.  It tells us to pay our taxes, vv 6,7.  And yes, it tells us that the civil government is “the avenger of God” on the criminal element of society, v 4.  It also tells us that we are to respect and honor that government, v 7.  In fact, it says that to do otherwise is to resist God and to invite his wrath, vv 2,5.  Remember, Paul was writing this to people under the rule of the Caesars, grossly immoral men who actively persecuted them.  If it applied then, it certainly applies in a democracy.
              We are blessed to live in a society that allows us to vote our convictions.  But the freedom of speech guaranteed by our constitution does not undo the principles God gave for how to speak about that government, any more than the laws it might pass undo the inherent immorality of abortion.  God still expects us to honor and respect our rulers, even if they won’t put us in jail for doing otherwise.
              Why?  Because God is the one who put them in power.  “Whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed, and whoever resists will incur judgment” v2.  God had a reason for putting that particular man in charge at that particular time.  We may not understand that reason, but it is God’s reason, and He expects our submission. 
              Jesus said to Pilate, the man who turned him over to a murderous mob, “You would not have power over me except it were given you from above,” John 19:11.  God had a plan for Pilate, and in hindsight we can see that he fulfilled his purpose.  God has plans for every ruler of every physical nation on earth.  Christians accept God’s plan whether it makes sense to them or not.
              Habakkuk had a similar problem.  God told him the Babylonians would come to destroy Israel for their wickedness.  “How can you do that?” Habakkuk asked.  “Yes, your people have sinned, but how can you allow a nation even more wicked to destroy them?”  God’s answer seems almost like a non sequitur.  “The righteous shall live by his faith” 2:4.  Trust me, God was saying, I know what I am doing.
              Even today, as our country looks like it is falling farther and farther away from God, we have the same answer from God.  “Trust me.  Live a righteous life and let your faith in me and my decisions get you through this.”  The way we treat the rulers God has placed over us shows exactly how much faith we have in God.  It is that simple.
              If we lived under the Law of Moses, many churches would find their rolls decimated--many of their members would have been stoned for “reviling” their rulers, Ex 22:28; 1 Kgs 21:13.  I hear it all the time.  We cannot say it was different then because the rulers were righteous.  You can count on your ten fingers the righteous men who ruled God’s people and have digits leftover.  That law applies because of the chain of command.  They only rule at God’s purpose and pleasure.  To revile them is to revile God, just as Paul reminded those Christians who would someday be persecuted to death by the same rulers.
              We are blessed to live in a country where we have the right to vote.  Be sure you do that very thing, voting your morality and your righteous beliefs.  Then trust God and don’t speak against Him when the results are announced.  He knows what He is doing.
 
 
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’ (Dan 4:17)
…till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. (Dan 4:25)
…until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” (Dan 4:32)
…until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. (Dan 5:21)
For God is the King of all the earth: Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations: God sits upon his holy throne. Psa 47:7-8
 
Dene Ward

Men seem to have a problem with prepositions.  Keith, for example, mixes up “in” with “over,” “on,” “at,” and “beside.”  When he takes anything out of a drawer, his idea of putting it back is to put it on the counter over the drawer, rather than in the drawer.  In the morning, he leaves the cough drop wrappers on the floor beside the bed, rather than putting them in the trash can.  When he undresses, he throws his clothes at or on the hamper, rather than putting them in it. 

              I could accept that this is just a “man thing” except for this:  this same man makes Biblical arguments about prepositions every day.  The best explanation to me is that we all see what we want to see instead of what is really there, and hear what we want to hear instead of what was really said.

              Many of my friends have the same problem.  They want to live as “good” people and think that Christ and the church have absolutely nothing to do with their salvation.  The Bible, on the other hand, says that “in Christ” we have redemption (Rom 3:24), the love of God (Rom 8:39), sanctification (1 Cor 1:2), grace (2 Tim 2:1), and salvation (2 Tim 2:10).  Not out of Christ, but in.  Which of those things are you willing to do without?

              Baptism is for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), not after or because of, and we are baptized into one body (1 Cor 12:13) not on a convenient Sunday nor because we were voted in.

              Some of my brethren have a similar problem.  They think that sitting on a pew is what makes us in Christ.  Yet the scriptures they quote every Sunday tell them that “in Christ” we are new creatures (2 Cor 5:17), created for good works (Eph 2:10).  Not only that but we must prove we are in the faith and we do that by showing Christ in us (2 Cor 13:5), following in his footsteps in those good works (1 Pet 2:21).  We prove we are sound in the faith by the way we live our lives every day (Titus 1:10-2:13).

              Prepositions are not that difficult and they do matter.  Do you want to eat dinner at the table or under it?  Do you want to take a shower in the bathroom or out of it?  Do you want to sleep on the bed or beside it?  Do you want your wife to feed you breakfast in bed or on the bed (where she threw it at you because you obviously do not understand prepositions!)?  See?  All it takes is a little honesty with ourselves, enough to see beyond our biases, beyond “what I’ve always heard,” beyond “what mama said,” and you can make the same changes that those people of the first century did—pagans who before lived lives of sin without giving it a second thought, who had no concept of monotheism, who had to change every aspect of their lives, even to the point of bringing persecution upon themselves and their families, and many times death. 

              Maybe that’s the problem.  We are simply not that honest, brave, or sincere in our devotion to God and a Savior who gave up everything for us.  We want to throw the clothes at the hamper and say to God, “See how much I love you?”

              Let me tell you something—He ain’t buyin’ it.
 
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25-27
 
Thanks to Keith for being such a good sport about this one!
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
Most of us have probably seen, “That which does not kill me must make me stronger” and reflected that we know more than a few people for whom that was not true in any measurable sense.  They either became weaker and whinier in character or they were demolished physically, or both.  This even happens to many in the church.

A variation, “That which does not kill me just postpones the inevitable,” is absolute, though cynical, and fails to address the character issues related to triumph or despair.

While these dueled on the office whiteboard, I formulated my own, “For many, death is just the punctuation to an existence that was without life.”  I am sure some famous person said this before I did.

Aside from the usual depressing thoughts about meaningless existence and so forth, I thought of these things:

We tend to think of eternal life as something in the future.  John clearly states that it is something we have now or choose not to have now.  “These things I write that ye may know that you HAVE eternal life (1 Jn 5:11-13, Jn 17:3, 20:31, 6:47 and many like passages).  If you have the Son, you have the life.  Are you in the Son, having been baptized into Christ and having continued in the triumph of the baptized life?  (Raised to walk in newness of LIFE, Rom 6:1-11).  Peter joins in with, “Divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life,” (2Pet 1:3). With divine power available to help us, how can we even think we are not able to live the life?   Paul adds, “Godliness is profitable for the life that now is.” (1Tim 4:8).  Though trials and temptations come, we have eternal life.  Hold on to what you have!

Eternal life is not a thing we give up all the pleasures of this life to obtain after we die.  Eternal Life is a present possession enjoyed in all the fullness that mortal bodies can attain; in which joy we long for the fuller life in heaven.  Eternal life consists of all the spiritual pleasures of this life; the worldly pleasures, both the sinful and those not immoral (e.g. time-wasters) are false pleasure, full of lies and “death” now and to come.

The knowledge of Jesus has granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; THAT THROUGH THESE YE MAY BECOME PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, having escaped from the corruption that is in that world by lust (2 Pet 1:4).  We can, we are, we will be.

Life is more than not being dead.  Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly.  Seize the true life.  Enjoy eternal life now.
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses (1Tim 6:12).

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)


Keith Ward

When Silas came to stay all by himself for the first time, we were not sure how he would handle being away from Mommy and Daddy.  Especially since we were over two hours away, it would have been impossible to get him back home quickly if he were too homesick to last.  He was still three, barely, and, though he had stayed alone with us the night Judah was born, and the night after as well, that was at his own home and he slept in his own bed.

              We managed to keep him talking about happy things all the way home, deeper and deeper into the “dark, spooky woods” as he later called it.  It was after nine o’clock at night and, if you have never experienced it, there is nothing quite as dark as “country dark”—away from the streetlights, traffic lights, parking lot lights, and neon signs of the city.  Only once or twice did he stray into the dangerous territory of “Where will I sleep tonight?” in a pensive tone of voice.

              “We’re here!” we shouted as we pulled up to the gate, wondering aloud in excited voices if Chloe would come to meet us.  That kept him happy as we pulled into the carport and unfastened his booster seat straps.  Then, just as we walked toward the back porch, an owl screamed not fifty feet away, sounding every bit like a hysterical woman, followed by a “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha” before finally settling into its usual “Who-hoo.” Silas was up those steps in a flash, plastered next to his grandfather’s leg and looking over his shoulders with eyes as big as Frisbees.  How could I tell in the dark?  Even in the dim starlight I could see white all the way around those big blue irises.

              “Uh-oh,” I thought.  “He will be terrified for the rest of the night.”  Luckily Grandma had made some ooey-gooey chocolate cookies and that took care of the problem.  That first impression, which could have ruined the entire stay, was fairly easily overcome, but I think it often is for children.  It’s the adults among us who hang on to them.

              And that brings me to today’s point.  We all know that old saying, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.”  I wish we could remember that all the time, not just when we are meeting someone we hope to impress for our own selfish interests.  Everyone who comes into contact with us, anywhere and any time, is a soul we might be able to save.  What if that first impression you make is the only impression you will ever make?

              I try to remind myself of that when I have a bad experience at a store or in a restaurant.  If I fly off the handle and act like a jerk, if I indulge in harsh words that suit my sense of an injustice having been done me, demanding “my rights” as a customer or patron, how will I ever persuade them to study the Bible with me?  Could I turn right around and hand them an invitation to church services, a gospel meeting, or a ladies Bible class?  Just exactly what kind of reaction do you think I would get?  Did you have a bad morning?  Our bad moods can be very expensive—they can cost someone else his soul.

              So remind yourself the next time you are caught in a tricky situation.  Paul told the Corinthians they should be willing to suffer wrong so the church wouldn’t be ridiculed by the litigious behavior among them (1 Cor 6:7).  What are we willing to suffer so the first impression we leave with someone, won’t guarantee that it will be the last?
 
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us, Titus 2:7-8.
 
Dene Ward      

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Matt 11:11)
 
              Did you ever stop and think about that statement?  This is John, the blood cousin of Jesus, we are talking about.  John, the great preacher who gave up any semblance of a "normal" life--family, a comfortable home, a business, even the standard fare of the day that most of his Jewish friends and family enjoyed—all for the sake of his mission as the Forerunner of the Messiah.  John, the brave martyr who dared speak against an evil and sinful woman and her weak and ignominious husband.  Yet the least in the kingdom is greater than he?

              I am not going to define either "the least" or "the kingdom" in any sort of theological way.  I am sure great scholars could write pages about it, but I am not sure it would do me the same amount of good as simply considering these phrases at face value.  Are you in the kingdom of his Son?  I am, or so I claim.  I certainly do not claim to be the greatest.  I am much closer to the least, but greater than John?  I would never in a million years claim it, yet both Matthew and Luke record Jesus saying it.  It must be true in some way.

              I don't know about you, but that statement does not make me puff out my chest in pride.  Instead, it makes me hang my head in shame.  I have never lived up to John's example and I probably never will.  But when I think of what Jesus says here, it certainly makes me want to try harder.

              How about you?

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1Pet 1:17-19)

Dene Ward

If you were like me as a child, you learned quickly that you do not talk back to your parents.  You don't argue, you don't make sarcastic comments, you don't mock, you certainly don't say, "NO," when you are told to do something.  I tried it once and never did it again.

            I think that's one application of the passage in Habakkuk:  But Jehovah is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. (Hab 2:20).  God had just pronounced a judgment that Habakkuk did not think was fair.  He asked God how he could allow a nation even more wicked than Judah to destroy them.  While God was willing to answer Habakkuk, the prophet knew there was no sense arguing.  The Creator of all the universe had made his decision.  "Let all the earth keep silence before Him."  No talking back.

            Sometimes God makes decisions about the things we pray for that we do not understand.  No matter how hard we try, it simply makes no sense to us.  Perhaps we are thinking too highly of ourselves and our ability to know what is best, even though we are stuck here in time on a physical earth, unable to see the larger ramifications.  It is up to us to do as Habakkuk did and accept an Almighty God's decision with the reverent attitude, "Thy will be done," and mean it.

            But there is another aspect to this silence.  Habakkuk contrasts our approach to God with the approach idolaters take--must take—in order to gain their god's attention—and even then it doesn't work.  Woe unto him who says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. (Hab 2:19)
            Remember the contest on Mt Carmel?  The prophets of Baal called from morning until noon…but there was no voice, and no one answered. (1Kgs 18:26)  Elijah called out ONE TIME.  That was all it took, and the fire came down immediately. This is not to negate the persistence in prayer taught in other passages, but sometimes we treat God as if he, too, were an idol who needed to be roused from sleep, when closer inspection shows that WE need to learn to accept God's decisions.

            How do we know when to do what?  I am not sure, but that closer inspection must surely involve a lot of self-examination.  Why do I keep asking for this particular thing?  Too many times the reasons are selfish, immature, or covetous.  Too many times we refuse to see our own failings in the problems we have.  It's much easier to blame it on someone else than to change ourselves.  It's easier to blame the church than to accept individual responsibility.  How many times have I heard parents say the church is the reason their children are lost?  How many times has Keith heard convicted felons blame their lives on society?

            The answer again is to keep quiet and listen.  Keep quiet and think.  Keep quiet and accept God's judgment.  Repentance doesn't involve excuses—verbalizing a list.  It means we face our sins and change.

            God won't accept backtalk any more than your parents did.
 
Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling. (Zech 2:13)