I live in Florida but up here in North Florida we still have a little bit of winter.  Usually on cold nights, we fill up the woodstove, which burns out by morning and we don’t need any more till the next night, or maybe not for a few nights, depending upon the vagaries of cold fronts.  Sometimes, though, I have had to keep that fire burning all day, adding a log or two every couple of hours.  You see, if you let it burn down too far, it goes out.  Even adding wood will do you no good if the coals are no longer glowing.

            Sometimes we let our souls go out.  Instead of stoking the fire, adding fuel as needed, we seem to think we can start it up at will and as needed, with just a single match I suppose.  Try holding a match to a log—a real log, not a manufactured pressed log with some sort of lighter fluid soaked into it.  You will find that you cannot even get it to smoke before the match dies.  Starting a fire anew takes a whole lot more effort than just keeping the old one going.

            God has a plan that keeps the fire going.  He has made us a spiritual family.  He commands us to assemble on a weekly basis.  He has given us a regular memorial feast to partake of.  He has given us his Word to read any time we want to.  He will listen to us any time of the day.  And perhaps, knowing how he has made us, that is why those songs he has given us keep going round in our heads all week—words at the ready to help us overcome and to remind us who we are.  All of these things will keep the fire from dying.  Just as those people who actually saw and heard Jesus on a daily basis said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" Luke 23:32, his voice can come to us through the Word, through the teaching in our assemblies, and through the brothers and sisters he has given us.

            Once a month attendance won’t keep the fire burning.  Seeing our spiritual family only at the meetinghouse will not stoke the fires of brotherly love.  Picking up our Bibles only when we dust the coffee table won’t blow on the embers enough to keep them glowing.  Sooner or later my heart will grow cold, and no one will be able to light a big enough match to get it warm again. 

            Our God is a consuming fire, and he expects that to be exactly what happens to us—for us to become consumed with him and his word and his purpose.  Nothing else should matter as much. 

            Take a moment today to open up that woodstove of a heart and see how the fire looks.  Throw in another log before the fire goes out. 
 
My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: "O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah.  Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather! And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. Psalm 39:3-7.
 
Dene Ward

I finally did it a year or so ago:  I went to amazon and began a wish list.  There isn’t much on it because I have very few wishes—at least ones that a human can do anything about.  And for most of our married life we have lived so closely that wishes for earthly things just made me discontent and unhappy so I avoided making them.  But every time I ordered something we needed from amazon, there was that wish list icon in the top corner, so I gave in and made one.  I had to browse to come up with more than 2 things to put on it. I haven’t touched it since—and neither has anyone else

            Lately, we have had so many church potlucks that I have been thinking about going to that wish list and ordering one of the things on it myself—one of the top-rated insulated casserole carriers.  I have needed it at least three times in just the past two months!

            I hear that some people have spiritual wish lists too.  Usually I find out when they come up to me and say, “I wish I had as much Bible knowledge as you do.”

            Let me set the record straight first.  I don’t have a passel of Bible knowledge in my hip pocket.  I have to look things up just like you do.  And, the knowledge I do have is courtesy of a husband whose knowledge is nearly encyclopedic and whose willingness to help is overflowing.  He is, in fact, the one who taught me how to study, so you could say that he is responsible for all of my so-called knowledge, both the answers he has given me and the things I have learned on my own.

            But about that knowledge you wish you had—why don’t you just do what I did and fulfill your own wish?  No one can do it for you anyway.  All it takes is time.  By that I mean hours at a time over a succession of years.  Do you really think I learned what I know in 2 weeks?  I have been working on this so long I have even had to unlearn a few things, because that’s the next step—growing in your knowledge as you hone your understanding of what you have learned.  It isn’t just a list of facts; it’s a compilation of concepts that weaves itself into a complex tapestry, and the more you learn the more clearly you will comprehend it.

            Don’t talk to me about “not having enough time.”  Nearly every one of us has changed our schedules to add something that was important to us.  You added children to your life.  That really changed your schedule.  You went back to school.  You started exercising.  You took on a new job.  When it mattered to you, you found the time.        
  
            I have learned this about wish lists—don’t put anything on them that you really need.  You may never get it when you are depending upon someone else.  Instead, buy yourself the present. 

            Buy this one—knowledge--with the same time and energy you spend on things that are not nearly as important. 
 
​Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. Prov 23:23
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…Hos 4:6.
 
Dene Ward

We first discovered pluots three or four years ago when we set about to try one new fruit or vegetable a week.  We have discovered many yummy treats, most too expensive to enjoy regularly or in any volume, but pluots, a cross between plums and apricots, are reasonably priced in season, and delicious.

            Hybrids can be a good thing, increasing size and yield, and creating resistance to certain plant diseases.  Hybrids can also be a bad thing, dulling flavor distinctions and, of course, making it impossible to save the seeds for next year, thus increasing the cost of gardening.  Heirloom varieties are becoming popular for a reason.

            Sometimes when we sow the seed, instead of creating “heirloom Christians,” we wind up with hybrids.  The best way to avoid that is to make sure we are good old fashioned New Testament Christians ourselves, with no trace of sectarianism in us. 

            Do any of the mainstream “isms” show up in your language and thinking? 

              “Lord, we know we sin all the time.”  Sounds like total depravity to me. 

            “I know I’m not living right, but at least I’ve been baptized.”  Am I hearing once saved always saved?

            “The preacher didn’t visit me in the hospital.”  You did say “preacher” didn’t you? Or do you mean denominational “pastor?”

            Allowing denominational practices to warp our understanding of the simple gospel can lead to all sorts of problems, not the least of which is a congregation that becomes far more like its denominational neighbors than like its first century sisters.  When we expect a preacher to spend more time holding hands than holding Bible studies, when our traditions and our language show signs of various manmade doctrines instead of the simple elements found in the epistles, we need to check our bloodlines.

           I pointed out how a certain activity was performed in the New Testament once, only to have someone say in a startled tone, “That would never fly here.”  If it’s simply a matter of expedience, fine.  After all, it is 2000 years removed.  But if it’s because we’ve allowed faulty understanding from a past of bad theology to taint our thinking, it’s not.

            God doesn’t want hybrid Christians, not even pluots.  He wants a people who approach His word and His divine institution with pure hearts and minds, unadulterated from years of false teaching.  In God’s eyes, there are no good hybrids, just defiled pedigrees.
 
Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem, 2 Chron 36:14
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, Eph 5:27.
 
Dene Ward

Part 6 of a continuing Monday morning series.

Before we start this segment, you need to do something.  Find yourself a piece of deep red poster board.  Cut it into an octagon shape at least 10 inches across and high.  Attach a one inch wide stick of some sort (like a Popsicle stick) as a handle.  Now write on both sides “STOP.”  Yes, you have made yourself a stop sign, and no, I didn’t literally mean for you to do this little exercise.  However, as we go through this part of the study you will be tempted to say, “Yes, but…” and a little further on, “But God does (or doesn’t) _______.”  Every time we read a passage and you have that feeling, hold up your [imaginary] stop sign and quit trying to 1) explain away a scripture, or 2) make God comprehensible to the human mind.  You are only denigrating Him when you do so.  He is above us in every way, and that includes our ability to completely understand Him.

            Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. 1Chr 29:10-13

            This is a picture of God drawn by David.  It presents God as one who creates and then relates to the creation.

            Then we have another couple of passages to try to fit in.  See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse, Deut 11:26; choose this day whom you will serve…Josh 24:15. 

            We, God’s creation, have free will.  And we are held accountable for our choices, a proof of that free will.  God is sovereign, which means He has the power to impose His will, but how does that affect our free will?  The question is not does He have the power, but how He chooses to use it.  And that very sovereignty gives Him the freedom in how He uses that power.

            Common theology views God as a novelist—He has absolute control over the characters in His novel.  Here are some of their pet passages:
I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD.” Ezek 24:14

            ​God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? Num 23:19

            And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” 1Sam 15:29

            Almost always those passages are taken completely out of context instead of making them fit with other passages.  For example:

            I regret that I have made Saul king…1 Sam 15:11, and The Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel, 1 Sam 15:35.

            Wait a minute!  What happened to the sovereignty of God in this circumstance?  Didn’t God know how Saul would act?  It seems apparent that God did not anticipate these events.  STOP!  You are already trying to do it, aren’t you?  Why can’t we accept the plain meaning of words?  Why can’t we accept God the way HE reveals himself rather than the way we choose to understand Him? 

          There are dozens of passages along this same line and we will eventually get to more of them, but here is the explanation:  God chooses to interact with us, not control us.  How does that go with all those “omni” words?  It doesn’t really, because we define them according to our minuscule, human understanding. 

            And how can we ever understand this?  God has made a covenant with us.  He started from the beginning with Noah, Gen 9:9, moving on to later covenants with Abraham and David.  Covenants are two-party agreements.  God, who made all the earth obligates Himself to an unworthy people.  The covenant with Israel was formalized in Exodus 24, and God keeps His half of the bargain through the ages.

            Why?  Because God wants something He does not have.  Can you imagine that?  ​Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD. Jer 31:20.  “Yearning” implies a lack of something.  Does that word fit into your “omni” understanding?
And how about these? 

            Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. ​I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. Hos 11:3-4

            How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.  Hos 11:8

          God is willing to experience pain, heartache and intense desire for reconciliation.  A pure and holy God actually wants us that badly.  And why is that?

            When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it… for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah 3:10; 4:2

            God wants that interaction with us not because of His sovereignty, but because of His love.

            Keep that stop sign handy.  We aren't finished yet.
 
Dene Ward

George C Parker was one of the most successful con men in American history.  He made his living by “selling” national landmarks in New York City to naïve tourists.  His favorite piece of “merchandise” was the Brooklyn Bridge, which he sold twice a week for years.  He took whatever he could get for it, depending upon the bankroll in the tourist’s pocket and the balance in his bank account, from as little as $75 to as much as $50,000.  More than once police had to tear down the toll booths built by the new “owners.”

            Parker was arrested several times, but finally on December 17, 1928, he was incarcerated at Sing Sing for the final time.  He spent his last eight years there, one of the most popular inmates among both convicts and prison officials.  His legacy in popular culture is the phrase, “And if you believe that, I have a bridge I want to sell you.”  Other people’s gullibility made his living for him for a long time.

            Jesus warned his followers about being gullible.  Generosity may be a virtue.  Expressing confidence in the good intentions of others rather than assuming the worst may be a sign of the love described in 1 Corinthians 13.  Sometimes we will be “taken” when we offer compassion and that is as it should be.  “Turn the other cheek” may very well mean you get another slap.  But in other cases, Jesus reminds us to “be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”  He tells us that he wishes his followers were as wise as the children of the world.  Does he give us any guidelines here?

            I am not the one to ask.  Many times I have been taken in, maybe too many times, so my record is not a good one.  But I can show you a couple of scriptures that might help.

            ​“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not cast your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Matt 7:6.  Jesus meant for us to be discriminating in offering the gospel.  That does NOT mean you decide for yourself who will and will not listen.  What it means is to judge the reception and act accordingly.  Why waste time on those who scoff and scorn when there may well be others out there who are pining away at the chance to hear the good news? 

            He said the same to his apostles when he sent them out on what we call the Limited Commission.  And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town, Matt 10:14. Notice:  first they were given the opportunity, and when they refused the message they were left “in the dust.”

            Jesus did the same in his own work.  Look at John 6.  Early in that chapter Jesus feeds the 5000 with five loaves and two fish.  The next day they come seeking him again.  At least a few of them see Jesus as a meal ticket and he confronts them.  “You seek me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves,” (6:26).  Still later, as his discourse becomes plainer and he requires more commitment from them than they are willing to give, many leave.  Did Jesus chase after them?  No.  He looked at his disciples and asked them, “Are you going to leave too?” (6:66,67).

            Is this easy?  Knowing when the time has come to cut things off is never easy.  It may be that it takes some people years of teaching before they get it, and you find yourself saying, “What if I hadn’t kept on trying?”  But then what if you waste your time on someone who has made it plain he is not interested and you never get to the one who is? 

            Maybe Jesus is saying, “Just pay attention.  Don’t ignore the one who is ripe for the picking while you waste time on the other who has already dried on the vine.”

            Sometimes you have to make difficult choices.  Jesus is telling you it’s okay.  He is telling you that he expects you to be wise and do your best.  Sow the seed, give out of your pocket, but do not be taken in like a babe in the woods when the signs are obvious.  When people show up asking for money, telling you they are Christians from another city, ask them who they worship with.  See if they know the names they ought to.  It isn’t a lack of compassion to check out their story. 

            And then if you need to say no, say it.  If you need to shake the dust off your feet, do it.  Just don’t buy the Brooklyn Bridge if you can help it.
 
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone. Col 4:5-6
 
Dene Ward

A few days ago, I used up several items at once that normally sit on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator door—the cranberry juice, the ketchup and the mustard.  Suddenly a third of that shelf was bare and I was horrified.  How in the world did it ever get that dirty?

            I pulled out the mayonnaise, the tahini, the Worcestershire and soy sauces, the maple syrup, the sesame seed oil, and the hoisin and was even more appalled.  Black rings, sticky smears, and brown drops covered the narrow plastic ledge.  I always wipe things off before I put them up, don’t I?  Well, maybe not always.  Sometimes we’re in a hurry, sometimes my hands are full, sometimes I leave the putting up for someone else.  Needless to say, I cleaned that shelf immediately, and the next day the whole refrigerator.
 
           That sort of thing happens far more often than we like to think and in far more important places than refrigerators.  Relationships come to mind.
 
           I think wedding anniversaries are important, and not because I am a woman with unrealistic expectations.  We have never been able to afford expensive gifts or excursions.  Most often we stay at home and have a quiet dinner together.  Sometimes it isn’t even on the same day as our anniversary.  A long time ago we stopped making the calendar our taskmaster.  We celebrate birthdays on weekends, and holidays around work schedules.  We have even celebrated our mid-June anniversary in July.
 
           No, the thing about anniversaries is the re-connecting.  You talk, you remember, you plan.  You remind yourselves why you wound up together in the first place, and the place you want to eventually wind up together for eternity.  In doing so every year, or even more often, you get that shelf cleaned up before the stains have a chance to set, before the caked on residue of life builds to the point that only a hard, painful scrub can remove it.

            The same thing can happen among brethren.  Why do you think God expects us to go to one another instead of letting things fester?  Most problems between good-hearted people are simple misunderstandings that can be cleaned up with a quick wipe.  You only need harsh abrasives when you let them sit awhile.

            When was the last time you checked your relationship with your God?  The last time you talked to him?  The last time you let him speak to you by opening his Word?  When was the last time that communication actually effected a change in you?  When did you alter plans for the day or the attitude you presented to your family, or friends, or even perfect strangers because of your relationship with God?  Maybe the grunge on your shelf has gotten too thick to penetrate.

            Pay attention to the things you seldom think to look at, the things you take for granted.  Wipe off your shelves once in a while, whether you think they need it or not.
 
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation, Psalm 24:3-5
 
Dene Ward

Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

My cousin Kathryn in discussing the struggle for personal growth recently said this: “But I would rather strive for a better me today than settle for mediocrity forever.” This instantly struck me as profound. “But I would rather strive for a better me today than settle for mediocrity forever.” See, one thing I’ve discovered about Christianity is that it is about constant growth toward an ideal, rather than the instant attainment of that ideal. I’m not going to wake up tomorrow morning to find that I am the perfect Christian man. Sure, if I’ve been a thief, I can stop stealing instantly, get a job, and support myself and immediately get past that sin. The same can be said for a lot of sins: idolatry, adultery, drunkenness, etc. But learning to “suffer long” with my fellow man? That takes work to make it second nature. As do most of the aspects of godly love. I can instantly stop sleeping around, but the struggle to control my thoughts regarding the women I see may take a while to perfect. Etc., etc.

We see this played out throughout the Bible. Abraham, the Father of the Faithful and the Friend of God, grew his faith over the course of almost 50 years. At the end of Genesis 11 he had the faith to leave everything he knew and go to a strange land just because God told him to and made him promises. But in the very next chapter, when famine came and he had to go to Egypt for food, he showed that his faith wasn’t yet complete. Fearing for his life, he lied about his relationship with Sarai, his wife. If his faith in God’s promises was complete, he would have avoided this. (God promised him descendants. As he had no children, God could not allow him to die yet.) Almost 20 years later, in Genesis 20, he repeats this sin. And while we scorn Sarah for quietly laughing at God’s promise when she didn’t know it was God speaking, in Genesis 17 Abraham fell down laughing at God’s promise when he did know it was God speaking.

While Abraham’s faith was great from the beginning, it hadn’t yet reached its fullness. That we see in Genesis 22. This was another 15-20 years in the future, and Abraham had seen God working in his life and had seen the fulfillment of some of the promises and his faith had grown. He knew that the promise of God was to be fulfilled through Isaac, but he didn’t hesitate when God told him to sacrifice Isaac. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham just thought that God would raise Isaac from the dead. His faith in God’s promise, to be fulfilled in Isaac, was so strong that he just assumed resurrection! But it took him 40-50 years to get to that point.

We see this played out again and again when studying God’s servants. Gideon, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Esther, etc. Some started out with strong faith and understanding and just kept getting stronger, some started out with faltering faith and little understanding and became strong. But all grew as servants of the Lord over the course of their lifetimes.

This concept of continued growth is seen in the New Testament as well. Not only are the Apostles themselves excellent examples of this, but they wrote about it, too:

“Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(2 Peter 1:5-8)

This passage clearly implies continued effort to grow in these areas. While we don’t have to take them one at a time and can (and should) try to improve in all of these areas together, none of us are going to wake up tomorrow and be perfect in knowledge. Or patience. Or brotherly kindness. But we should be continually, day by day, getting better at each of these things. It just takes work. Notice that the first thing mentioned, before faith or virtue, is diligence. The ESV says “make every effort”. It takes work, effort, to grow.

Even the great Apostle Paul, who had the confidence to say on multiple occasion “be imitators of me as I am of Christ”, knew the struggle of continued growth:

“Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
(Philp. 3:12-14)

Also, in 1 Corinthians 9, he says that he daily buffeted his body to keep it in subjection. It was an effort, a struggle, to keep growing and to keep from losing what he had already gained. But he did keep growing. He kept getting stronger in the faith. And we can too. It just takes effort.

Next year I’ll be closer to the ideal than I am this year. The following year, I’ll be even a little better than that. In a few decades, I’ll start getting somewhere.

“But I would rather strive for a better me today than settle for mediocrity forever.”
 
Lucas Ward
 

Before you decide to excommunicate me, please listen to what I have to say.  “Scribes, Pharisees—hypocrites!” is just about all most people know about that group of Jews, but if ever a group of people desired to follow the Law of God, it was the Pharisees.  Do you think that means we shouldn’t try to follow God’s law?  I hope not.  Maybe it’s time we gave them a fair hearing

            The group was formed after the captivity.  God’s people had learned their lesson--finally!  Never again did they have a problem with idolatry, and the Pharisees were one reason for that.  Their original intentions were as pure as they possibly could have been.  Everything they did was with the sole purpose to prevent another apostasy.

            Yes, but they became all about the rules, people say. Certainly it is wrong to be ALL about the rules.  The rules are only half of it.  That strict obedience has to come from the heart, as the prophets said over and over and over. The problem with people who say the Pharisees were ALL about the rules, is that they usually mean, they were all about the RULES, therefore following the rules is unimportant. 

            So let’s see what Jesus had to say about that.
            "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you…Matt 23:2,3.  He told them to follow the instructions of the Pharisees.  Why?  Because if anyone knew the Law, they did.  How would you like for the Lord to say that about you?  “Whatever he says, do it, because he knows what he is talking about.”  I would be thrilled for such a testimonial, especially from him.

            Jesus also said they were right to be picky about the details of the law.  They “tithe mint, anise, and cumin,” and “these things [they] ought to have done…” Matt 23:23.  They may have done other things wrong, but closely following God’s law was not one of them, at least not in Jesus’ opinion.

            If being a Pharisee were wrong, why did Paul count it an asset?  More than once he mentions being a Pharisee, and his careful following of the Law as a member of that sect, Acts 23:6; 26:4,5; Phil 3:5.  There were many “good” Pharisees, among them Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, and yes, even Paul, for the things he did were “in all good conscience,” as someone zealous for the Law of God.  He would have been a hero in Old Testament Israel along the line of Phinehas in Num 25, and many New Testament Jews counted him as such before his conversion to Christianity.  Other Pharisees were also converted, truly converted, not in pretense.

            The Lord condemned many things about the Pharisees, among them hypocrisy, lack of mercy, wrong motivation, greed, spiritual blindness, and arrogance.  He condemned them for placing their traditions, which were far stricter than the law, above the law, but he never once condemned them en masse for believing that the law should be carefully followed.  Sometimes their focus was wrong.  Sometimes they missed the whole point of a law.  But they kept the law and Jesus plainly told the people to obey them.  Keeping the law as closely as humanly possible cannot be wrong.  In fact, logic says that since Jesus praised that specifically, then failing to do so would have been wrong.

            So what would Jesus say about you?  Would you be lumped in with the pious, humble, righteous Pharisees who carefully kept the Law of God in obedient faith out of a sincere heart, or would you be one who “left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy and faith,” who performed to be seen of men, and whose heart failed to match the mask he wore on the outside?  Or would you just ignore the law altogether, using the unrighteous Pharisees as your excuse?

            Be careful when you start condemning people as “nothing but a bunch of Pharisees.”  Make sure Jesus would have agreed with you.
           
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you… Matt 28:19,20.
 
Dene Ward

Part 5 of a continuing Monday morning series.
 
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” ​​​​​​​God created man in his own image, ​​​​​​in the image of God he created them, ​​​​​​male and female he created them. Gen 1:26-27

            This passage contains one of the most discussed phrases in the Bible.  What does it mean to be made in the image of God?  The passage itself is full of repetition.  In the Hebrew language (I am told) repetition is used as emphasis because it contains no intensifiers like “very” or “most.”

            ​From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” Isa 24:16.      The repetition in that last line is obvious.  According to the Hebrew language, these traitors must be the most traitorous of the bunch.

            Now look at Ex 26:33.  You are to hang this curtain under the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony in there behind the curtain. The curtain will make a division for you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.  “Most” is not in the Hebrew.  Instead it reads:  “the holy holy place.”  The repetition is the intensifier.

            All of that means that the Genesis passage where we began is emphasizing that we are indeed created in the very image of God—“image” or “likeness” occurs four times.  Scroll up and read it again and see if you catch that.  Now let’s see where that takes us.

            This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. Gen 5:1-3

            The concept in this passage is of a father being presented with his newborn child.  He “creates” him, then blesses him, and finally names him.  That is what God did with man, vv 1, 2.  Adam did exactly the same thing with Seth.  He fathered (created) a son in his own image, presumably blessed him as was the custom in ancient times, and named him, v 3.  You only name what belongs to you.  The parallel shows that just as Seth was related to Adam and belonged to him, somehow we are related to God and belong to Him.

            Being in the image of God is so intrinsic to us that it did not change when man sinned.

            “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Gen 9:6.  This applies to any man, not just godly men.  We are not to kill that which is made in God’s image.  It was still so after the flood.

            With [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the image of God. Jas 3:9  It is still true in this age.  James uses that fact to show us the severity of cursing another man.  So how are we made in the image of God?

            Refer back to part 2 of this series.  God is spirit, God is light, and God is love.  Obviously we are not invisible spirit, nor are we a light so holy that man cannot survive it. 

            So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 1John 4:16-17.  Love is what God is so when He gives love, He is giving of Himself.  We are thus “as He is” when we love others, and when we return love to Him.   God intended to create man with the ability to return or reject His love.  Love can only be genuine when it is given by choice.

            Sin is the rejection of God’s love.  When God gave us freewill, He gave us permission to hurt Him.  His wrath, then, is the wrath of a jealous lover, one who has every right to expect that His love be returned.  This righteous jealousy is for the relationship, not against the lover (Zech 8:1-8).

            When we refuse to love others we are rejecting our relationship with God.  We are denying our “image,” one of someone who loves unconditionally and of his own freewill.  Reviling and mistreating anyone, whether they deserve it or not, is a far more serious matter than we realize.
 
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Eph 5:1-2
 
Dene Ward

When we first moved over a thousand miles from my hometown, I eagerly awaited the mailman every day.  As the time approached, I learned to listen from any part of the house for that “Ca-chunk” when he lifted the metal lid on the black box hanging by the door and dropped it in.  Oh, what a lovely sound!

           My sister often wrote long letters and I returned the favor, letters we added onto for days like a diary before we sent them off.  My parents wrote, Keith’s parents wrote, both my grandmothers wrote, and a couple of friends as well.  It was a rare week I did not receive two or three letters.  This generation with their emails, cell phones, and instant messaging has no idea what they are missing, the joy a simple “clunk” can bring when you hear it.

            I was far from home, in a place so different I couldn’t always find what I needed at the grocery store.  Not only were the brands different—and to a cook from the Deep South, brands are important—but the food itself was odd.  It was forty years ago and the Food Network did not yet exist.  Food was far more regional. 

          The first time I asked for “turnips,” I was shown a bin of purple topped white roots.  In the South, “turnips” were the greens.  I asked for black-eye pea and cantaloupe seeds for my garden, and no one knew what they were.  I asked for summer squash and was handed a zucchini.  When I asked for dried black turtle beans—a staple in Tampa—they looked at me like I was surely making that one up.

          So a letter was special, a taste of home in what was almost “a foreign land,” especially to a young, unsophisticated Southern girl who had never seen snow, didn’t know the difference between a spring coat and a winter coat, and had never stepped out on an icy back step and slid all the way across it, clutching at a bag of garbage like it was a life line and praying the icy patch ended before the edge of the stoop.

          Maybe that’s how the exiles first felt when they got Jeremiah’s letter, but the feeling did not last.  They did not want to hear his message.  They were sure the tide would turn, that any day now God would rescue Jerusalem and send Nebuchadnezzar packing.  But that’s not what Jeremiah said.

          The letter…said: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare… For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. Jer 29:3-8, 10.

          You are going to be here seventy years, they were told.  Settle down and live your lives.  It took a lot to get these people turned around.  Ezekiel worked at it for years.  They may have been the best of what was left, but they were still unfaithful idolaters who needed to repent in order to become the righteous remnant.

          Which makes it even more remarkable that they had to be told to go about their lives, and especially to “seek the welfare of the city,” the capital of a pagan empire.  To them that was giving up on the city of God, the Promised Land, the house of God, the covenant, and even God Himself.  And it took years for Ezekiel to undo that mindset and make them fit to return in God’s time, not theirs.

          And us?  We have to be reminded that we don’t belong here.  We are exiles in a world of sin.  Yes, you have to live here, Paul says, but don’t live like the world does.  This is not your home.  Peter adds, Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims… 1Pet 2:11.  Too many times we act like this is the place we are headed for instead of merely passing through.

          How many times have I heard Bible classes pat themselves on the back:  “We would never be like those faithless people.”  But occasionally even they outdo us.
 
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Heb 11:13
 
Dene Ward