A few mornings ago Chloe and I walked out to Magdi’s grave for a few minutes and saw that the mums we planted there are coming back from the winter’s frost, and the grass around it is greening up as well.  As we headed back to the house, I stopped and listened.  I heard crows, wrens, titmice, cardinals, hawks, woodpeckers, chickadees, blue jays, and sparrows, as well as a few I haven’t yet learned to recognize.  The world seemed completely full of tweets, chirps, whistles, warbles, and trills.  I am hearing God, I thought, just as surely as if He had spoken out loud.  Who else could have created such diverse and beautiful sounds?  Everything else was manmade and ugly—a semi roaring out on the highway, the neighbor’s leaf blower whining, another’s raucous lawn mower spitting and sputtering, and still another’s old pickup truck revving loudly. 

              It made me stop to think of all the other times I have heard God in my life—the incessant pounding of the waves on the beach; the scream of a hawk diving for its prey; the sound of a little boy’s voice who, less than eight years ago, did not exist; my daddy’s final breath as he left for a better place.  Anyone who has not heard God in those things, probably does not hear Him in the place where He speaks plainest—His word, for God does not leave His children wondering just exactly what that metaphysical moment they experienced meant for them to do.  He tells them plainly.

              Remember the Day of Pentecost?  Everyone heard “a sound as of a rushing mighty wind” that “filled all the house,” a sound they all recognized as having come “from heaven,” Acts 2:2.  Yet when did they finally know what God wanted them to do?  Only after the apostles spoke.  “Then when they heard this,” they were told exactly what to do, 2:37. 

              When an angel spoke to Cornelius in a vision—an angel, mind you—he certainly heard God, but he was told to send for Peter who would speak “words whereby you shall be saved” 11:14.

              Paul told the Romans “faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” 10:17, the same word, the same gospel he proclaimed “the power of God unto salvation” 1:16.

              Yes, it is possible to hear God in the world around you.  If you don’t, you have a remarkably unspiritual mind.  If the roar of the wind and crack of thunder in a storm doesn’t fill you with wonder at the power of an Almighty Creator, you need a few pointed reminders as to the brevity and fragility of life and the temporal nature of the world around you.  But if you really want to know what God wants of you, get out His Word and read it.  Only those who are ready to listen can really hear.
 
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. John 8:47.
 
Dene Ward

On our last camping trip to Blackwater River State Park we had reserved an especially good site, along with its neighbor for Lucas, three months in advance.  We arrived and after three hours were nearly set up when the ranger arrived to tell us that the next day a controlled burn was scheduled right on our edge of the campground and we would have to move.  It was not a happy event.  Not only would we have to tear down and start again less than an hour before sunset, but none of the other sites were as private. 

              Privacy is not that important when you sleep in a trailer or RV, but in tents with paper-thin walls it makes a difference.  Our new sites were smack dab in the middle of the campground and so small and close together that I could hear Lucas snoring in his tent next site over.  In fact one night, he and Keith were snoring in rhythm, and the night after Lucas started a snore on the inhale and Keith finished it on the exhale, perfectly synchronized.  Yet when the controlled burn passed the campground we were glad we had moved.  Even with the wind blowing in the opposite direction, the ash would have fallen on our equipment and melted holes in it.

              This is one of the things you must be ready to deal with in a State Park.  The point of a state park is conservation.  There will be more rules than a commercial campground, rules that when broken actually make you a lawbreaker.  But state parks have the nicest facilities for the money that you will find, along with well-maintained hiking trails, nature walks, and all sorts of other free amenities.  We do our best to follow those rules because those parks are part of God's Creation, and we want them to last. 

              Florida has one of the best, and most awarded, state park systems in the country.  The idea was proposed during the Twenty-Sixth Regular Session of the State of Florida House of Representatives on May 2, 1935, and we are thrilled that it was later passed.  In our thirty years of camping, we have certainly made good use of the resulting parks.

              And on that particular trip we learned a lot about controlled burns.  There are two reasons for controlled burns.  When the underbrush is allowed to spread unchecked, all that extra fuel makes wildfires more destructive.  Also, in a pine forest, the controlled burns keep the hardwoods from taking over.  The day after the burn every small hardwood was smoking and burned to a crisp while the pines stood tall and strong, if a little charred on the bottom.

              As Christians we must experience times exactly like these controlled burns.  Perhaps the most difficult “burns” to understand are the problems among God’s people.  If the church is the body of Christ, why do people behave badly?  Why do divisions happen and heresies lead people astray?  The Proverb writer tells us that God will use the wicked, whether they want to be used or not, Prov 16:4.  Paul says in 1 Cor 11:19, For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 

              The question is not will there be problems in the church?  The question is, when there are problems will we be able to “recognize” those who are not genuine believers?  I fear that too many of us look to the wrong things. 

              Do I believe one side because they are my friends, never even questioning their words, while automatically dismissing the other if among them is a brother I don’t like too much?  Does “family” make the decision for me?  Am I relying on how I “feel” about it, instead of what the Word actually says?  Does it matter more to me who can quote the Big-Name Preachers instead of the scriptures?  Is one side more popular than the other?  Will it give me more power if that side wins the fight?  When I rely on those types of things, I am the one who is showing myself to be a less than genuine believer.

              While these things are necessary, it doesn’t mean God likes them, any more than he liked the Assyrians who fulfilled their purpose in punishing his wayward people. 

              Ho Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he means not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few... Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the Lord has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks, Isa 10:5-6,12. 

              Jesus presents a similar viewpoint when he says in Matt 18:7, Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion comes!  These things have their place and their purpose, but God will punish the ones responsible. 

              Now the hard part:  The apostles did not tell the early church that it was understandable to become discouraged and leave because their idea of the blissful, perfect institution was often marred by sin.  They said to use that experience to double check where we stand, to make sure we are among the true believers, the tall pines that withstand the blaze instead of the scrub brush and interloping hardwoods who try to destroy Christ’s body.

              Those controlled burns in the pine forests happen every three years.  Who knows how often the church needs cleansing but God himself? For me to give up on the Lord and his body because someone causes trouble, because peace among God’s people sometimes seems hard to come by, means I am giving up on God, failing to trust that he knows best. You may get a little singed, but it is cleansing burn, far better than the eternal burn that awaits the factious.
 
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit…Therefore by their fruits you shall know them, Matt 7:15-17, 20.
 
Dene Ward
             
 

When we first moved here, nearly 32 years ago, I knew I wanted azaleas around the house.  And I wanted as many different colors as possible--none of this all white or all purple or all pink business.  We planted about two dozen and once they started blooming, I discovered why some people stick with one type and color—they all bloom at once that way.  You don’t have spots of color here and there, with blank, green places in the middle of the row.  So I have learned to live with those spaces, and to accept that some will bloom before others—first the white and the coral pink, followed by the lilac and pale pink, then the red and purple, and finally the bubble gum pinks, the two that frame the front door.  I was a little disappointed at first, but it no longer bothers me.  This is just the way it is when you have different varieties of azalea.

            That’s the way it is when you have different people in the body of Christ as well.  None of us are at exactly the same stages in our growth.  Sometimes it is because we are just starting and have little or no background in the scriptures.  Sometimes it is because we have brought a lot of mistaken beliefs to the table that we have to overcome.  And some of us are just a little slower than others to grasp new ideas, either from lack of comprehension or cautious skepticism.

            God never expected us all to be in the same place at the same time.  He spent quite a few chapters in the New Testament epistles telling us to respect one another regardless.  Jesus told a whole parable about accepting the late-comers without resentment.  After all, who is accepted is God’s business not ours. 

            Some of us seem to have a problem with this.  I have heard far too many comments about “them” lately, referring to the ones we see as holding us back.  It usually comes in a tone of disdain, while making of ourselves some elite spiritually mature group that ought to be looked up to and heeded automatically.  After all, look how much more knowledgeable we are.  The epistles talk a lot about that attitude too.  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant, (1 Cor 13:4), comes quickly to mind.  We all know the word “longsuffering,” but we seem to ignore the “long” and home in on the “suffering,” which we don’t think we have to do for “them”--and which, of course, no one ever has to do for us.  After all, “they” are the ones holding back the progress of the gospel, while "we" are God's gift to the church.

            Truth to be told, when stubborn self-will enters the picture, that may be the case.  In that instance, the wisdom of the elders decides when it is time to move on, even if some get left behind—or in fact, leave.  That is why we have those men—to be strong enough to make those unpopular decisions and wise enough to know when to. 

            Far more often, God expects us to “wait for one another” in all its various applications.  He expects us not to “set at nought” the one who just can’t quite get it yet.  Check your other translations of Rom 14:3.  That phrase means to despise, to disrespect, and to count as nothing.  It means we think his opinion is worthless.  The words may not have been used, but the contempt in them says exactly the same thing.

            God would certainly expect better of those who are supposedly so much more advanced.  Of all people, they should be tolerant with the many varieties of azalea among us.  We all bloom in our own time.  We are all beautiful to God, if not to each other.  As long as everyone is striving to grow and serve the Lord to the best of their abilities, we are all equal in God’s eyes, and certainly should be to one another.
 
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand...Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us will give an account of himself to God, Rom 14:4,10-12.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

I once was a reasonably capable song-leader. I also was preaching part time at this medium size church back when Dene and I were engaged and in our honeymoon year. We were there early on a Sunday night and I was practicing a song when H.R. came in, bustling down the aisle the way he did when he was younger, “Do you like that song?” I replied that I did. “Well, then, why are you singing it that way?” He then proceeded to show me what I was doing incorrectly and how to do it right. Now, many would fault him for being too brusque—he should have been nicer with his manner, etc. But, I was grateful because I did like the song and did not want to sing it wrong.

How are you doing with your song which you are composing for Jesus? Each day you sing a new score, sometimes a solo, sometimes a concert or a duet, but each life makes music unto the Lord.

How would you feel if I came bursting in and said, “Do you like that song?” … “Then, why are you singing it that way?” Do you want to go around feeling good all the time, puffed up with positive comments and people’s suggestions so nicely thought out that you don’t know that your life is discordant to the music Jesus wrote? Do you want your song to Jesus to be off key and feel good, or risk a hurt feeling to be able to sing the right notes? A choral director looks right at the offender and says that he is flat, or sharp, or held that note too long, or whatever. We have become so afraid of offending people that we let them keep on singing the wrong notes and creating disharmony in our song to Jesus too!

Our sermons are positive, make people feel good and would never offend a sinner if he had done what is being preached about last night and planned to do it again tonight. In like manner are our personal attempts to tell someone that he needs to change.

A lot of people who could sing a beautiful melody to Jesus are rushing straight to eternal damnation for the lack of an H.R. to say, “Here is the way that song is supposed to be sung.”
 
Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?  Gal 4:16
 
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Prov 27:6                  
 
Keith Ward    

I started thinking about it when the man from the phone company called, trying to get us to add to our basic service.  “We have a package for ___ dollars that will give you everything you want,” he said. 

            “But I don’t want those things,” I told him.  “I’m perfectly happy with the basic package,” which is nothing actually, but a phone on the wall that works.

            “But you can talk long distance as long as you want.”

            “I don’t make that many long distance phone calls.”

            “But you can have call waiting and never miss a call.”

            “I don’t receive many calls.”

            “But you can have digital internet service and not tie up your phone with dial-up.”

            “I’m never on the computer longer than ten minutes and if it’s important, they’ll call back.”

            He was stumped.  He had never run into someone who was not held captive by their telephone.

            We do it all the time about everything.

            “Lather, rinse, repeat,” the bottle says.  Do you realize you don’t have to repeat?  If you wash your hair regularly, once is all you need.  Can’t get enough lather, you say?  Add a handful of water to the lather you already have and that usually does the trick.  Saves you money, too, because your bottle goes twice as far.  Yet most follow those directions without even thinking about it—held prisoner by a bottle of shampoo.

            How about the calendar?  I learned this lesson long ago from my mother.  We lived a thousand miles away and couldn’t get down for the holidays.  She left her decorations up until we got there the end of January, not worrying about the strange looks she got from the neighbors.  I have done the same with my children.  A holiday or birthday is when you can be together, not when the calendar says it is.

            Twice I have had eye surgery on our anniversary.  We celebrated several weeks later.  It isn’t about the date as much as it is about the sentiment.  If it isn’t about the sentiment, you are simply a slave of your calendar.

            Women are held captive by fashion.  I went to the mall—another place that holds us prisoner with the obsession to shop, shop, shop—and came away with nothing.  Everything I saw was just plain ugly.  Most of the clothes in my closet are well over ten years old.  Why buy a new dress when the old one still fits, is in good condition, and especially if you don’t like the new style?

            It’s amazing to me that we Americans, a people who pride ourselves on our independence, can let things take us prisoner so easily.  It’s horrifying to me when the same feeling makes us prisoners of sin. 

            I read an article several years ago in which European women were asked what they thought of American women’s clothes.  “Americans dress like prostitutes,” was a common opinion.  (Check out Prov 7:6-12!)  In fact, considering my last visit to that mall, I would have to agree.  It looked like I had been dropped into the middle of a streetwalkers’ convention.  I remember the first time the miniskirt came into fashion.  A few years later the hemlines dropped again.  It’s a shame that some Christian women only dropped theirs because their masters, the fashion designers, said to.  Dressing like a pure and godly woman had nothing to do with it.

            But that is not the only way sin can take us captive.  Do you want to be liked?  Do you want to be accepted by your peers?  Do you want to be popular or cool?  Guess how that affects your behavior given the general sinfulness of society, which you are making your lord and master with those motivations?

            God has set us free from sin and expects us to act like it, completely independent of the culture we find ourselves in.  Think today about the things you let take you captive.  Maybe it’s time you broke out of prison.
 
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham [We are Americans!] and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:31-36
 
Dene Ward

A long time ago, when Keith preached for a small country church, he and I used to do our visiting on bicycles.  With two toddlers aged 3 and 1, we each had a child seat over the back wheel of our bikes and off the four of us would go for an afternoon or early evening of making the rounds to our elderly or ill brothers and sisters, or to make new contacts in the rural community whenever someone moved in. 

We rode sometimes as far as five or six miles one way.  We learned the roads far better than we would have by car.  The traffic on the highways was scarce so we could easily avoid the potholes.  We learned to use the center of the dirt roads.  You simply couldn't plow your way through the thick white sand on the corners and edges.  We also learned why lime rock roads are often called washboards.  Talk about vibrations—your teeth were still chattering a half mile after you turned off.

We found another good reason to avoid the edges of the roads—snakes!  More than once one of them jerked back from the road and slithered further into the grass it had been just about to leave.  Whenever we passed a flattened rattlesnake or moccasin in the road, we gave a little cheer.

And we also learned about wind.  I was reminded of it the other day when Lucas called and told me his experience with his bike and the wind.  It goes like this.  You are having the greatest ride of your life.  You feel great.  Your legs seem to fly on the pedals.  You can up the gears with impunity and virtually zip down the road.  Then you turn around to head back home.

Suddenly you understand why the ride out was so easy.  You are headed into a wind that had formerly been at your back.  You pedal harder in lower gears.  Your calves and thighs ache.  You begin to huff and puff.  Sometimes you wonder if you are making any progress at all.  And it takes you half again longer to get back home than the ride out.

When I see someone trying to navigate the trials of life without God that's what I think of—pedaling against the wind.  I cannot imagine facing problems without God.  What's the use of it all?  You can't count on help from anyone because, like you, they are all in it for themselves.  You don't believe that anything good will come from it.  You are pedaling into a headwind so strong you will be lucky to even stay in the same place instead of being blown backwards.  Who will listen to your cries?  Who will hold you up when things get even worse?  And why did it happen to you anyway?  Nothing makes sense.  And sooner or later, even if you get through this one, another problem will rear its ugly head and there you go again.

But with God on your side things are as different--the wind is at your back.  It may still be a rough ride.  Life can deal you some bad moments.  The French have a phrase:  c'est la vie.  Such is life.  You can't get through it unscathed.  But with God behind you, you know you have help.  You have someone to lean on, to talk to, and to count on.  Because you have His Word in your heart you can make better decisions.  Because you pray you can feel calmer and more content.  Knowing that He will send help through your brothers and sisters, through Providence, through his Holy Spirit, and because you believe He will answer your prayers, you can face the impossible and come through it far better than you might have otherwise.  You know there is a reason—be it learning or growing stronger or refining your soul, you know you will be better on the other side of this affliction.

Are you riding with the wind, or against it?  If you don't have that relationship with God, if you don't know Him through his revelation to us, and if you never bother to talk with him unless you want something, maybe you are headed in the wrong direction.  Just because you sit on a pew, you aren't necessarily on the right road.  It's easy to get bogged down in the sand corners.  Just because you were once baptized into the Lord's body, you aren't necessarily a part of it now.  There is a snake out there just waiting to strike at your ankles.  You need to turn that bike around.  He wants to help you, but He can't as long as you keep riding against the Wind.
 
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isa 40:28-31)
 
Dene Ward

Keith sprayed weed killer in the plot of ground I have designated for a new flower bed.  It worked just fine, weeds and grass wilting and disappearing over the next week or so until it was completely bare.  We had a warm spell just before Christmas and I just noticed that a spot or two of green has erupted, even more obvious in the black ground surrounding it.  What are they?  Florida betony, a ground cover that spreads through a web-like array of white roots. 

            I think there are two lessons here—when you take out all the bad in your life, you had better fill it up with good fast or you will just have more room for evil to flourish.  Jesus told his own parable about that—the house that was swept clean and the demons who moved into it, Matt 12:43-45.

            But did you know this?  “Weed killer” is really a misnomer.  It is “plant killer.”  Most of those sprays cannot differentiate between one green thing and another.  They don’t look for dollar weed and avoid the petunias.  You have to be careful with the weed killer.

            Too often we are not as careful as we should be when spraying the spiritual weed killer.  In our zeal to rid the world of false teaching and sin, we can do a fine job of killing the new plants too.  Just as a policeman is taught to be careful of who is standing behind the fleeing criminal before he shoots, we must be careful of innocent bystanders who may be caught in the crossfire. 

            Knowledge carries with it great responsibility in how we use it.  Too often it comes with a lack of experience and wisdom and that ice cold new term, collateral damage, becomes a frightening reality to young souls.  How are we any different from the wolves when our zeal leaves bloodied and broken lambs lying around us in a heap?  Many times what is passed off as zeal is simply a selfish desire to look knowledgeable and strong in the faith.  Even Satan used the scriptures for his own purposes.  Jesus also told a parable about leaving the weeds in the field because they had become so entangled it would have killed the wheat to pull them out, Matt 13:24-30.  He had to restrain his workers who were anxious to go out and rid the world of the enemy regardless who else was hurt.

            None of which is to say that even the wise will never make a mistake.  Knowing when to do what can be a difficult call to make.  Usually the ones who criticize, though, are the ones who sit back and do nothing when the wolves
enter the flock, never placing themselves and their decisions at risk

            Just think about this today: be careful with the weed killer.  At times, when Keith needed to use it in spite of new plants already growing nearby, he has used shields over the tender shoots and reached in closer than usual to the weeds so that he could better control his aim. 
           
             Always be careful with the word of God.  It’s powerful stuff.
 
And he said unto his disciples, It is impossible but that occasions of stumbling should come; but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were well for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. Luke 17:1,2.
 
Dene Ward

Everyone has heard the admonition, “Look for the context when you study.”  Certainly understanding the topic at hand goes a long way in understanding what is being said about it.  But there is another type of context that we often overlook.  In fact, it may be the reason for the vast majority of incorrect ideas about Biblical narratives.  All those pictures we put out for the children to color to fill up the last five minutes of class time are usually so Biblically incorrect it makes me cringe. 

              The context we need to work on most is the historic, geographic, and cultural context.  For example, read a bit in one of those Customs and Manners books (Wight and Edersheim come to mind, but there are other newer ones), or find those sections in any good commentary—just about the best use for a commentary—and you will discover this:  young Jewish women at least up to and including the first century, were married off at puberty.  Even if, as some say, puberty was a bit later back then, you still have fourteen year olds getting married.  In fact, MacArthur tells us in Twelve Extraordinary Women that at least in Mary’s time, they entered into a one-year betrothal, the kiddushin, at 13 and married at 14. 

              Now go back and restudy all those old stories.  Think about Rebekah leaving home to go marry Isaac, who was at that time 40.  Think about those two sisters, Leah and Rachel, and their marriages to Jacob.  Do you realize that if you start at his death in Egypt and work your way back, that Jacob was about 70 when he married them?  Both those patriarchs married very young teenagers.

            Every time I point this out, I have one or two in my classes who sit there, stunned.  “But we put people in jail for this,” one woman said.  Yes, and it is a lesson to us not to judge that culture by ours.

            It’s also a lesson not to judge our young people’s capabilities by theirs.  We do not raise our children to be able to begin adult life at 13.  We don’t expect that level of commitment from them and we don’t teach them how to make a lifetime commitment that early.  Even the young men in later times than those patriarchs married as teenagers.  They learned a trade and were able to support a family by 14 or 15.

          And now that you understand the ages, imagine a 14 year old Mary riding that donkey in full labor.  Then having her baby on a bed of straw.  (Jesus was “laid in a manger” not born in one!) 

           Think of Hagar, Sarai’s handmaiden.  If they had not given her to another servant in marriage already, it was probably because she was too young before then.  For Sarai to come up with this idea, Hagar had probably just reached that magic age of puberty.  It wasn’t exactly a secret in those days when that happened.  When she had Ishmael she may also have been as young as 14.

           You can do that with so many other things.  Just one tiny fact can change how you have always pictured something in your mind.  What about weaning?  Usually between 3 and 5, but sometimes as late as 8.  If I were Hannah, I would have kept Samuel with me as long as possible. 

            But then think about Ishmael at the feast of Isaac’s weaning—he would have been 17-19 because he was 14 when Isaac was born.  When you see that passage about Hagar “casting him” under a bush, don’t picture a little boy.  He was practically grown, probably larger than she was!

           I could go on, but that should be sufficient to illustrate the point.  Context is a whole lot more than a chapter or two, and it will enlighten your studies for years to come.
 
Dene Ward

We had been unhappy with our griddle for a good while, so Keith went online shopping and found an appliance called a Griddler, put out by Cuisinart.  This little contraption with two heating elements that can either lie flat next to each other or fold over on each other, and with four interchangeable plates, two of which are double-sided, can be a panini press, a grill pan, a waffle iron, or it can be opened flat and used as a griddle.

              It does have a few disadvantages.  Because of the two separate plates with an inch space between them, you can only fit four pancakes on it at once instead of six, but there are only two of us so that's no problem.  It seems to take longer for the pancakes to cook, too.  However, the panini we get are amazingly crisp and with the grill plates, you can grill both sides at once, making that process much faster. 

              The plates—flat, grill-marked, and waffled—are nonstick.  Boy, are they nonstick.  You want to know how I found out?

              When I pour pancake batter on this thing, I have no trouble at all.  Maybe it is because they immediately begin to cook and the batter is thick enough not to run.  But eggs are another thing entirely.  Evidently the side that is the "top" if you fold it, does not sit exactly flat when opened up.  It looks close enough that I did not realize that.

              One day we decided to have breakfast for dinner.  I preheated the pan and, just because my husband likes it that way, I put a teaspoon of bacon grease on the already slick surface.  Then I poured on the raw eggs. 

              Immediately the eggs slid over to the side of the pan.  Before I could move, one had slid onto the counter and down onto the floor—splat!--between my feet.  I managed by then to get my flipper flat end standing on the surface of the pan at the rim, but that didn't stop it fast enough.  All the eggs kept sliding, building up around my flipper edge until they started oozing around the sides of it and headed for the fall once again.  I grabbed another flipper and stood it up on the rim of the pan next to the first one to catch a larger portion of the running egg whites.

              Meanwhile, I started hollering, probably nothing intelligible.  At this point I was straddling one egg and holding two flippers erect trying to keep the rest of the eggs on the pan.  Keith came running and saw what was happening.  He grabbed some paper towels and knelt down between my feet to clean up the floor.  That meant I had to squat a bit to fit his shoulders in there.  I wish I had a picture—but then, maybe not.  Finally I could actually move my feet without stepping into eggs and sliding across the floor.  He grabbed one of the flippers while I raked a little of the now cooked egg white back from the lip of the pan with the other and made a nice little dam.  Another minute and I could flip the eggs over and they actually stayed put.

              We stepped back, a little winded, shaking our heads at what had just happened.  The two of us working together meant we had only lost one egg and, believe it or not, the others were cooked perfectly.

              Now imagine if he had looked over, seen what was happening and said, "That was a stupid thing to do."

              Or, "If you hadn't poured them out so quickly that wouldn't have happened."

              Or, "That's your job not mine."

              Or, "Someone else will take care of it."

              Or, "That's not my talent," and hadn't lifted a finger to help.

           We wouldn't have had dinner, and we would have probably lost far more than one egg.

           Too bad that's what happens in the church too often.  And it's deplorable that too often in our judgmental, self-serving apathy we lose far more than one soul-less little egg.
 
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph 4:15-16)
 
Dene Ward

I am sure you have experienced the feeling.  A favorite book is made into a movie, and then you find out who will play the starring role.  “No!” you think.  “Not him!”  He is too old, too young, too scrawny, too short, too “pretty.”  Whatever it is, you had already pictured the character in your mind and since this actor doesn’t fit your preconceived notions, you are not happy.

              It doesn’t really matter when it comes to movies.  It might very well matter when it comes to the Lord.

              I am sure we all picture Jesus in our minds.  Most of the time we need to scrap the picture entirely.  He was Jewish.  He was probably medium height for the day, which is considerably shorter than nowadays.  Isaiah plainly says he would not be handsome, and even that is predicated upon that culture’s view of things.  He certainly wasn’t pale and blue-eyed with a medium shade of brown hair as he is so often shown in pictures.

              He also didn’t act the way we think he did.  Too often we let modern society’s view of a milksop color our views of how he spoke and taught, how he interacted with others, and the emotions he might have shown.  Yes, he could be incredibly gentle, even with the sinners and especially with women and children.  But he could crack a stinging verbal whip as well.

              One of the ways I study, especially a passage that is already familiar to me, is to choose a word in it and look for every other use of that word I can find, trying to discover something new, or a deeper way of looking at a verse or event.

              Take the word “cry,” which is nearly as often translated “cry out.”  Strong’s says the word means “scream” or even “shriek.”  In Mark 9:27 two blind men cry out to Jesus, “Have mercy on us.”  In Mark 9:24, a desperate father cries out to Jesus because of his fatally ill child.  In Matt 27: 23 the mob cried out, Let him be crucified.  In Acts 19:28 and 32, in the midst of a riot and confusion, people cried out.

              Now let me make it even more obvious for you.  That Greek word is krazo, from which we get the English word “crazy.”  Are you getting the picture of what a person who did this would look like?  His voice would not be quiet.  His face would not be calm.  His actions would definitely be agitated.  It would probably not be a pleasant experience to be anywhere near him.  I learned all this years ago when I was studying John 7.

              Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught…John 7:28.  Yes, it is the same word.  Jesus was not a mealy-mouthed preacher.  He could rant with the best of them.  Even his apostles occasionally followed his example (Acts 23:6).  No, this was not his only method as we have indicated above, but it would be a good idea to examine the people who caused this reaction in him.  I wouldn’t want him to speak to me that way.

              Don’t let a mistaken view of the Lord make you take less than seriously the things he says.
 
…when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, 2 Thes 1:7,8.
 
Dene Ward