My mother made most of my clothes growing up, and also made things as difficult as sport coats and dress slacks for Daddy.  I did my best to follow in her footsteps, but am not nearly the seamstress she is.  I do, however, remember buying patterns and making maternity clothes for myself and baby clothes for the boys.  Lucky for them, they received a lot of gifts so I didn’t have to do that very long!  Then my sewing machine died and everyone got off easy instead of having to wear my crooked seams and gathered sleeves—which weren’t supposed to be gathered. 

            One thing I remember well was that if I didn’t follow the pattern, nothing turned out right.  The seams didn’t match, the zippers didn’t fit in where they were supposed to, and forget about making the stripes and plaids meet—it was simply impossible. 

        A lot of people follow patterns—architects, electricians, plumbers, masons.  If they don’t follow the blueprints (patterns) their customers are very unhappy.  So what is the big deal about needing to follow a pattern in the church?  Why does every generation think it’s not only impossible but unnecessary?  Maybe because we haven’t told them why we follow the pattern, maybe because we don’t know why either.
           
         So we get questions like these:  Is it really necessary to follow the examples set in the New Testament?  How do we know which examples to follow?  A lot of people go haywire and forget common sense, throwing out ridiculous scenarios to try to circumvent the need to do what God has plainly shown us He wants to be done.
 
          So for the next few days we will examine a few things about patterns in the church, things I bet you never knew were there.  But they aren’t really that difficult to see if you have the mind to see them instead of one that wants to see what it wants to do instead.  Set aside your preconceived notions, and your ill-conceived ones too, and join me for the next three days.
 
Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 2Tim 1:13
 
Dene Ward

Sir Walter Scott was born on August 15, 1771.  Besides being the inventor of the historical romantic novel, such as Ivanhoe,  he is also known for the many phrases coined in his writings,  “Caught red-handed,” “cold shoulder,” “go berserk,” “lock, stock, and barrel,” “tongue in cheek,” back of beyond,” and “apple of my eye,” are all common phrases attributed to Scott.

          “Blood is thicker than water,” is another, meaning that family relationships are more important than those between unrelated people.  I think to Christians, though, the sad truth of the matter is, “Blood is thicker than the waters of baptism.”

            How many times have you seen a preacher change his views on an issue when suddenly it involved his family instead of someone else’s?  How many times has an elder of the church shown a difference in how he treated the sins of one member and the sin of another based upon his family relationship with them?  And how many times has a family left the church disgruntled, or taken up for their wayward kin, when the church’s obligation to discipline fell upon that sinner?  Many seem to forget that Jesus plainly told us, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”

            Jesus loved his earthly family.  He made a point to give his mother over to the care of her nephew John, even while he hung in agony on the cross.  Yet when the family came to see him while he preached, he asked those who informed him, “Who is my mother and who are my brethren?  And he stretched forth his hands to his disciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!  For whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and my sister, and my mother,” Matt 12:48-50.

            The Jews counted heavily on physical relationships.  More than once they proudly claimed, “We have Abraham as our father,” to which Jesus replied, “If Abraham were your father you would do the works of Abraham,” John 8:38-40.  John told them from the beginning of his ministry, “Do not begin to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father for I say to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham,” Luke 3:8, so this was not a new thought, and it plainly shows how little physical relationships mean to God.

            We could multiply the verses telling us that physical parentage is not the most important thing, but rather one’s spiritual parentage.  Abraham, as the father of the faithful, is usually the one designated as our spiritual patriarch.  This also makes the point to the Gentile Christians that they did not have to be physically related to that great believer to be his children, and they were not second class citizens because they did not have a physical Jewish heritage.

            “…that [Abraham] might be the father of all who believe, even though they be in uncircumcision,” Rom 4:11.

            “…which is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all,” Rom 4:16.

            “And if you are Christ’s you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise,” Gal 3:29.

            “For verily not to angels does he give help, but to the seed of Abraham,” Heb 2:16.

            And especially to the women, “Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham…whose daughter you are as long as you do well,” 1Pet 3:6.

            It does not matter who your parents are.  It does not matter where you came from.  It does not matter your race or country of origin.  You are the children of whomever you take after.  That is the meaning of so many metaphors in the scriptures.  Are you a “son of disobedience?”  You are if you disobey.  Are you a “child of light?”  You are if you walk in the light.  It is the spiritual aspect of a person that determines his spiritual end.  And that couldn’t be fairer, because while we cannot control who our physical parents are, we can control who our spiritual parents are.  Doesn’t that make it even more wonderful when those physical parents are also part of your spiritual family?

            If you are not living right, don’t blame your parents or society.  Abraham came from idolatrous ancestry, having grown up in an idolatrous culture, Josh 24:2.  Yet he is the very one given as an example of faith and obedience.  If he can overcome his heritage so can we, and if our heritage is a godly one, we of all people have no excuse.

            The waters of baptism have given us new parentage, a Father in Heaven, and new siblings, both here and in Heaven.  When we believe that physical relationships trump the spiritual, when our obligations to God are put aside for the sake of a family member, we are not just disowning the members of the church, but also our Father and Older Brother in Heaven.  We are saying that physical blood means more than spiritual water that put us into the sacrificial blood that frees us from a life of sin (Rom 6: 1-14).  No wonder he said He would deny us if we deny Him.
 
They answered and said to him, Our father is Abraham.
Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham…
[They said] We have one Father, even God.
Jesus said to them, If God were your Father you would love me…Why do you not understand my speech?  Because you cannot hear my word.  You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do…When he speaks a lie he speaks of his own, for he is a liar, and the father thereof.  But because I say the truth you believe me not…For this cause you hear not—because you are not [children] of God, John 8:39-47.
 
Dene Ward

I grew up with knickknacks around the house, with pretty centerpieces on the dining room table when we weren’t actually eating there, with paintings on the walls, and a coffee table adorned with crystal bowls, flower arrangements, and porcelain birds.  The first time I visited my in-laws I was almost shocked that I saw none of that anywhere.  Everything was strictly utilitarian.  Tables were for putting necessary items on and they were placed with the same thing in mind, whether the room looked balanced or not.  It’s not that my mother-in-law did not have a decorator’s eye; it was my father-in-law’s understanding of beauty.  If he asked the question, “What’s it good for?” and all you could say was, “To be pretty,” then it was useless in his eyes and did not deserve a place among his things.  It was simply “in the way.”  Over the years I suppose she just gave up, though to be fair, if a thing wasn’t a necessity, they had little money for it anyway.

            Yet I think that beauty does have a use.  Why else would God have made blossoms of every size and color?  Why make a bird called a painted indigo, a whole patchwork of brightly colored feathers that thrills me every time he perches on my feeder?  Why would he have made vistas that take your breath away, the Grand Canyon, the rolling green and blue or snow-capped mountain ranges, the tropical rainforests where flowers and birds and even creeping things seem to grow both larger and more vibrantly colored than anywhere else in the world?  Why, in fact, would we classify color blindness as a disorder if seeing beautiful colors is useless?

            But God did make us able to see beauty and appreciate it.  Where do people want to go when they are tired and troubled?  A place of order instead of chaos, a place of beauty instead of ugliness.  Beauty can calm the soul or it can stir the heart.  It can inspire.  It can bring joy.  It can also teach.  Just as eating baby food gradually enables us to eat solid food, learning to appreciate outer beauty can eventually lead us to an understanding of true beauty.

            God told Moses, And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. Exod 28:2  It mattered to God that the garments of the men who served Him be beautiful.  It mattered to Him that they understand that outward beauty was representative of something truly beautiful—the sacred and the holy.  One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. Ps 27:4  Putting God’s priests in sackcloth would have been an affront to a beautiful God.

            And as we learn to appreciate the spiritual beauty of our God, so we must also learn to recognize the true beauty of people. 

            How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” Isa 52:7  Feet must be the ugliest part of the human body, yet feet that take the gospel to others are “beautiful.”

            The glory of young men is their strength; And the beauty of old men is the hoary head. Prov 20:29  Gray hair is nothing to be ashamed of.  What it should represent is knowledge and wisdom, and the ability to help others along their path.

            Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. Matt 23:27.  Inward beauty makes our service acceptable to God.

            When the Messiah came, few recognized him.  He did not look like the Savior they expected.  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. Isa 53:2.  They had not learned the lessons of true beauty and missed out on the most beautiful thing of all, a Lord who sacrificed himself for our salvation.

            What are you missing in life?  A good marriage to a godly mate?  A church that teaches the truth of the Gospel?  Brethren who would love you more than family?  Have your learned to look beyond the outside and see the beauty within?  If not, then you have completely missed the lessons God has given us since He created this world and pronounced it “Very good.”  Beauty is useful, but only if you learn the lessons it teaches.
 
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ps 96:4-6
 
Dene Ward
 

In the old days buttermilk was simply the liquid left over after churning butter.  It was thin and watery, and not sour at all, unless you allowed your cream to “ripen” a few days before churning, something high end butter makers still do today.

            Nowadays buttermilk is skim milk to which cultures have been added to develop flavor and to thicken consistency.  Buttermilk has its place in the baker’s refrigerator.  It adds tang and helps the rise, especially when used with baking soda.  You will have the highest and fluffiest biscuits and pancakes you ever made.

            The word “culture” has several meanings.  A culture can be a special nutrient in which things are grown, usually in laboratories.  In agriculture it can refer to tillage to prepare the land for planting.  It can apply to a specific community of people and their shared beliefs and customs, and also the things they produce like art, music, and literature.  Can you see in all these cases a relationship to growth and improvement?  In the kitchen it certainly produces better baked goods.  But culture can be negative as well.  The culture of Sodom and Gomorrah produced a sinful lifestyle that led to its destruction.

            Ruth understood the effects of a culture.  This brave young widow was willing to leave behind her culture and embrace another just so she could worship Jehovah.  In her world, no matter the culture, widows could look forward to only two things—either a new husband to support her, or poverty for the rest of her life.  “Orphans and widows” were the symbol of helplessness throughout the scriptures.  Ruth’s best bet for a happy and prosperous life was to stay in her homeland among her own people and find that new husband. 

            But something was more important to her than her comfort zone, as we so often call it.  She completely changed her culture.  She left home for a place where she had to learn a new language, new customs and traditions, and new laws.  She left her family and her friends for a people not known for accepting strangers with open arms.  Why do you think the law is full of reminders to take care of “strangers and sojourners?”  We know the end of the story, but Ruth didn’t.  She had nothing to look forward to but a life of hard work and poverty, dependent upon whether or not these new people she was willing to claim as her own followed the laws God set up to support widows.  I think it is obvious that even if they had not, her conversion was to Jehovah, not them, and she would have continued on anyway.

            How about us?  Do we have the strength to give up our culture?  Language, fashion, music, literature, entertainment, and what passes as art these days is often completely opposed to the righteousness God expects of his people.  Can you give it up?

            I find it helps to think of it like this:  I am not giving up my culture to stand alone.  I am giving up one culture for another.  Our citizenship is in Heaven, Paul reminds us in Phil 3:20.  Just as Ruth was willing to embrace a new culture, we should too, and in that embracing we find support from those who are just like us.  We are no longer standing alone against the crowd.

            Which culture do you live in this morning?
 
But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." Ruth 1:16,17.

Dene Ward

If you have been following this series on various hymns and their sometimes mysterious meanings, we will take a bit of a detour today with something that has worried me a lot lately.

            With the proliferation of more modern hymns, especially those called “praise songs,” I have started wondering if we have completely lost our understanding of the purpose of singing.  It isn’t “because I like the tune,” or “the beat.”  It isn’t “because it makes me feel good.”  Singing in the services is not, not, not, capital N-O-T, not done to please ourselves.  Singing is part of our worship of God and therefore to please Him, and it is an extremely important part of our teaching.  After all, how did you learn your alphabet?  You sang it until you had it memorized.  I am sure that is true of most of your Bible class memory work too—the twelve apostles, the books of the Bible, the sons of Jacob—you learned by singing.

            Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Col 3:16

            What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 1Cor 14:26

            Yes, I can also find verses that tell us to praise God in song (e.g., Psalm 100:2; James 5:13).  When I was a child we had about a six hymn repertoire of praise songs.  But just like usual, that old pendulum has swung way too far and now that’s just about all some of us sing. 

            As I was going through some old hymnals recently I found a hymn that stopped me in my tracks.  Read these lyrics and then think about a few things with me:

And Yet You’re Sinning Still
By J. G. Dailey
(inside cover – The Life of Victory by Meade MacGuire)

When Moses led his people from Egypt’s sunny plain,
From bondage sore and grievous, from hardship, toil, and plain.
They soon began to murmur against the sovereign will;
Forgetting God’s deliverance, we find them sinning still.

When Moses on the mountain had talked with God alone,
Receiving His commandments on tables made of stone,
The people brought their jewels, the sacrifice did kill,
The golden calf they worshiped, and kept on sinning still.

How often when your dear ones were lying near to death,
You earnestly entreated with every passing breath,
“O Father, spare my darling, and I will do Thy will!”
Your prayer was heard and answered, and yet you’re sinning still.

When sickness overtook you, when sorely racked with pain,
You said if God would spare you, you’d bear the cross again;
He gave you strength of body. He gave you strength of will,
But you forgot your promise, and you are sinning still.

How graciously the Savior has lengthened out your days!
His mercy, never ending, is guiding all your ways.
O brother, heed the warning, your broken vows fulfill,
Lest death should overtake you, and find you sinning still.

Chorus:
Oh, flee the wrath impending, and learn His gracious will,
Lest Jesus, coming quickly, should find you sinning still!

            Trust me as a musician when I say the music to this song is pleasant and easy to sing.  Now ask yourself this question:  how well would this go over if you sang it in your assembly this coming Sunday?  I have a feeling more than one group would want to run the song leader out on a rail.  Who would want to sing such harsh accusations to one another?  Who would want to be forced to really look at their lives?  Who would want to face up to their hypocrisy, a hypocrisy we all practice occasionally when we excuse our behavior with a “That’s different?”  Who among us really wants admonition after all, even if God did say that was an important purpose in singing (Col 3:16)?

            Look at the songs you sing this coming Sunday.  If you strike out all the repetitious phrases, how much “meat” are you really singing to one another?  Or is it just a bunch of feel good fluff?  How many times is it a matter of patting your feet instead of buffeting your body?  How many times do we want to lift our spirits instead of bowing our hearts in repentance?          No, we had rather sing songs we like, songs that pat us on the back and make us feel good.  We all want to be told we are just fine and nothing needs to change at all.

            “Teaching and admonishing one another,” God said.  “Let all things be done unto edifying,” He added.  Sometimes those things are painful.  You cannot anesthetize yourself to that pain and think it will still do you any good.  Godly repentance includes sorrow, Paul tells us.  We need to add that to our repertoire too.
 
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Ps 51:13-14
 
To find the music go to: 
http://remnant-online.com/smf/index.php?topic=15818.0
 
Dene Ward

We were on the way to town, the bucolic scenery passing us out the windows, only the soft purr of the engine penetrating the comfortable quiet in the car.

            Just before the second four-way stop Keith said, “I think you should call.”

            It came out of the clear blue, a topic we hadn’t spoken of for over an hour, but I knew exactly what he meant.  After all these years, our minds tend to run on the same wavelength.  Not always, I will admit.  Sometimes I look at him and say, “What in the world are you talking about?”  Sometimes he says that to me.  Yet most of the time our concerns are the same and our interests the same.  What worries him, worries me.  We’re both trying to solve the same problems.  We are as much “of the same mind” as it is possible to be, but it took awhile to get that way, and it took effort.

            Jesus expects the same from his disciples.  Once he looked at the apostles and said, “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matt 16:6).

            They looked at one another and said, “Uh-oh.  We’re in trouble because we forgot to bring lunch.”

            Jesus was not pleased.  In the first place it had not been that long since he had fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.  How could they ever worry about going hungry from then on?

            More than that, he expected them to be thinking in spiritual terms by now.  “How could you think that physical bread was any concern to me at all?” he asked, and then they got it.  He wanted them to beware of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  He expected them to be thinking in spiritual terms just as he did.

            He expects the same spirituality from us.  “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ,” Paul gives as one example in Phil 2:5.  He told the Romans we are to have “the mind of the spirit” not the flesh (8:5).  He told the Corinthians he couldn’t even talk to them because they always thought in physical terms, not spiritual (1 Cor 3:1-3).

            What is filling your mind this morning?  Perhaps more telling, what does your mind run to whenever you hear a comment, see an action, or experience an event in your life?  Do you let it frustrate you?  Do you feel insulted or get your feelings hurt?  Do you worry about the other person or yourself?  Do you chafe at the inconvenience, or do you try to find the lesson?  Is your mind so much on spiritual things that you think, speak, and behave as Jesus would, or are you still stuck in a physical world where you matter more than He does? 

            We can all predict how certain people will act and what they will say in a given situation.  We say they have a one track mind.  Having a one track mind is not necessarily bad, as long as we are on the same wavelength as the Lord.
 
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart… But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus… be renewed in the spirit of your minds, put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness, Eph 4:17,18,20,21,23,24.
           
Dene Ward

As Keith says, we are so typical it’s embarrassing.  Be that as it may, let me tell you about my grandson.

            He just turned two.  As he sat there in his high chair licking the frosting off his cupcake he quite deliberately read the letters on his Happy Birthday sign, the one that used to hang over our dining room windows when his father and uncle had a birthday, “H-A-P-P-Y,” all the way through to the end, never missing a letter.  Then he told us what colors the letters were, each one different.  Before that he had recited the alphabet, not sung it mind you, but recited it.  Then he had counted to nearly 20 and recognized all the numbers.  All day he had been pointing out shapes, including “oval.”

            Shortly after we had arrived, his granddad had read him a book.  “See the fish?” he said.

            ”Dolphin,” two year old Silas instantly corrected.

            His parents told us about a time a couple months before when a friend from church had come walking through the restaurant where they sat.  “Hi Mark,” they said, and suddenly my 22 month old grandson was reciting, “Luke, John, Acts, Romans,” taking up right where he thought his parents had left off. 

            Isn’t it normal for parents and grandparents to brag on their kids?  Do you think God doesn’t have the same feelings we do?  When I brag on my grandson, when I say he is the cutest, smartest little boy in the whole world, I am simply living up to the image in which I was created.  “Have you considered my servant Job?” God asked Satan.  “There is none like him in all the earth.”

            At least twice God spoke from Heaven about his Son, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.”  Don’t you know God loved saying that?

            When God made Israel his chosen people, his children, he had every right to expect them to behave like His children should.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, Ex 19:5,6. 

            When they didn’t He was just as devastated as we would be if our children did not behave themselves well. For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the LORD, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen, Jer 13:11.

            In a Messianic passage, Isaiah speaks of the coming kingdom, the church.  You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her…for the LORD delights in you, Isa 62:3,4.  Just as Old Testament Israel had the chance to make God proud of them, we have that chance today. 

            What would people think about your Father if they saw your behavior and heard you speak?  What would they think if they saw how you treated the poor, the sick and the weak?  What would they think if they saw how you drive, how you dress, how you work for your employer?  All some people will ever know about God is what they see in you.

            Make your Heavenly Father proud enough to brag about you today.  “Have you seen my child?  There is none like him in all the earth.”

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire, 2 Pet 1:3,4.
 
Dene Ward

Canning tomatoes is one of the more difficult garden season chores.  You wash each and every tomato.  You scald each and every tomato.  You pound ice blocks till your arms ache in order to shock and cool each and every scalded tomato.  You peel each and every tomato and finally you cut up each and every tomato.  How many?  In the old days about 5 five gallon buckets full, enough to make 40+ quarts.  Then you sterilize jars, pack jars, and process jars.  Only 7 fit in the canner at a time, so you go through that at least 6 times.

            And you will have more failures to seal with canned tomatoes than any other thing you can.  As you pack them in, pushing down to make room, you must be very careful not to let the juice spill over into the threads of the jar.  And just in case you did that heinous crime, you take a damp cloth and wipe each thread of each jar.  Tomato pulp will keep a perfectly good jar, lid, and ring from sealing.

            In order to have that many tomatoes you must be willing to cut up a few that are half-rotten, disposing of the soft, pulpy, stinky parts—and boy howdy, can they stink!—in order to save sometimes just a bite or two of tomato.  Now that there are only two of us, I usually limit myself to 20 + quarts.  I still put one in every pot of spaghetti sauce, one in every pot of chili, and one in every pot of minestrone, as well as a few other recipes, it’s just that I don’t make as many of those things as I did with two boys in the house.  Now I can afford to be a little profligate.  If I pick up a tomato with a large bad spot, I am just as likely to toss the whole thing rather than try to save the bite or two that is good, especially if it is a small tomato to begin with.  Why go to all that work—washing, scalding, shocking, peeling, cutting up, packing—for a mere teaspoon of tomato?

            But isn’t that what God and Jesus did for us?  For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Matt 7:14.

            The Son of God, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2:6-8.  And he did that for a half—no!--for a more than half rotten tomato of a world.  He did that to save a remnant, a mere teaspoon of souls who would care enough to listen and obey the call. 

           Sometimes, by the end of the day, when my arms are aching, my fingers are nicked and the cuts burning from acidic tomato juice, my back and feet are killing me from standing for hours, and I am drenched with sweat from the steamy kitchen, I am ready to toss even the mostly good tomatoes, the ones with only a tiny bad spot, because it means extra work beyond a quick slice or two.  Aren’t you glad God did not feel that way about us?  It wasn’t just a half rotten world he came to save, it was a bunch of half rotten individuals in that world, of which you and I are just a few.
 
But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. Rom 11:4-5

Dene Ward

Magdi is gone.  Regardless of it being ten years, six months and a day, we thought it was way too early for it to happen, but even she knew.  She had been slow and creaky for several months.  Finally she stopped eating, and quietly sat, waiting for the inevitable.  Since she did not seem to be in pain, we wanted her to die here, the home she had known for all but one month of her life, but it wasn’t to be.  She was just too fit, athlete that she had been, and every morning when we checked on her, expecting that she had gone in the night, she lifted her head for yet another pat and sighed.  No, not yet, Boss. 

            When she reached the point that she could no longer even stand, we decided to make that final trip to the vet.  This one was hard, harder than any of the dogs or cats before.  You might be surprised to know that several have said how they will miss hearing about her—“the Magdi stories,” they always call them, people who have never even seen her.

            She taught us a lot over the years.  First, and foremost, she taught us to fulfill our purposes.  She was born and bred to herd and she tried to do it from puppyhood, crossing our paths as we walked to turn us this way and that.  She herded basketballs, soccer balls, body balls, and even a bowling ball.  She often tried to herd squirrels, which never quite worked as she thought it should. 

            She taught us to work diligently, even when she was tired, even when it was too hot to do much more than sit in the shade.  She taught us loyalty and bravery—she was always between me and whatever scary tractor or mower roared on our property and came running when a snake appeared, even the deadly ones.  From the moment my illness reached this peak, she has somehow known and protected me throughout.

            She taught us that there is always a younger generation watching, one that needs to learn how to do the tough stuff—like eating raw green beans.

            She taught us to find the thing we are best at and do it with all our might, even if it’s just catching tennis balls.  She taught us to enjoy the simple things in life.  She was often an exasperation due to her smarts, but far more often she brought us joy.

            God has been using his animal creation to teach us for thousands of years.  He tells us that even the eagles know to care for their young, Deut 32:11.  He tells us that even the smallest of animals knows to behave wisely, Prov 30:24-28.  He points us to one of his tiniest creatures to teach us about diligence and hard work, Prov 6:6-8, Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise.  He tells us that even the birds of the heavens recognize the seasons, so there is no excuse for his people not knowing his law, Jer 8:7.

            So I think it is not wrong for us to remember a special dog who taught us many things over the past few years.  If we could learn our purpose—serving God and one another—if we could be half as brave, hard working, smart, faithful, and content as she was, we might turn out okay after all.
 
Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach you; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell you: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto you. Who knows not in all these, that the hand of LORD has wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind, Job 12:7-10.
 
Dene Ward

I have gotten lazy.  When I need a quick dessert, I pull a quart of blueberries out of the freezer, cut together a cup of flour, a cup of sugar, and a stick of butter, spread those crumbs on top of the blueberries in a baking dish and bake it for about 45 minutes.  Suddenly I have a warm, bubbly, fruity filling with a sweet crunchy topping for a minimum of work and mess in the kitchen.  While a pastry chef would not be impressed, for most people it’s just fine.

            But a blueberry pie?  Now that takes a commitment.  First you make the crust, a careful process of measuring, handling, rolling and fitting into the pie plate.  Then you make the filling, far more ingredients than a crisp and more careful measuring.  Then you have to deal with the top crust, rolling it, sealing it, crimping it, and preparing it for baking with a vent, a brush of milk and a sprinkling of sparkling sugar.  And the baking?  First ten minutes at 425, then another 35-45 at 350, carefully watching the top for over-browning and the vent for bubbling blueberries.  If they don’t bubble, it isn’t done yet no matter how brown the crust is.  So then you must lay some foil over the top so it won’t burn before it finishes baking.  It’s a real process.

            Then you look around the kitchen at the two mixing bowls, the many measuring cups and spoons, the wooden spoons, pastry cutter, and spatulas, the flour covered countertop, and often the floor as well.  It takes more than a minute to clean it up.  But which has the best combination of flavors and textures? Which one is more likely to get the oohs and aahs of company?  When I really want to do something nice for someone, and assuming time is not an issue, they get the pie.

            Too many of us make God settle for the crisp.  If it’s easy and convenient, God gets the service.  If I can still have my life the way I want it, with my own priorities in order, then fine—I am happy to be a Christian.  If it appeals to my sense of sweetness and light, and pats on the back rather than rebukes and chastening, if I receive tons of blessings and few if any trials, I am happy to do it.  Becoming a child of God means repentance, and repentance means I am sorry, right?  So I say I am and now I can go back to doing whatever I want to do.  Don’t expect any tears or humility.

            God will not accept me on those terms.  Nearly every gospel sermon you can find in the New Testament mentions repentance, but simply being sorry is not the repentance those preachers are talking about.  2 Kgs 22:19 says Josiah’s heart was tender and he humbled himself.  David says he acknowledged his sin and did not hide from God, Psa 32:5, and that God only accepts “a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart,” Psa 51:17.  John told the crowds to “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance,” Matt 3:8, and Jeremiah reminded Old Testament Israel to “thoroughly amend” their ways, Jer 7:5. 

            Repentance is not cosmetic.  It is a complete change of heart and life, and a wholesale attitude adjustment when considering your lifestyle, its goals and purposes.  Paul commends the Corinthians for a repentance that “wrought care, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, avenging,” 2 Cor 7:11.  Commitment to God cannot come without that kind of repentance. 

            Repentance is the very key to conversion.  Once you repent in the way those Corinthians did, in the way the early Christians did, no one will be able to keep you from doing the rest because now everything has changed.  You will not argue about whether baptism is essential.  You will not argue about how many times you need to assemble with the saints.  You will not argue about whether something is “right” or “wrong” if there is any question at all, because you will have the zeal, the care, and the longing to do everything you possibly can to serve God. 

            What did you make for God when you became a Christian?  If you only gave him a blueberry crisp, it’s time to get out the mixing bowls and try again. 
 
If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land, 2 Chron 7:14.  
 
Dene Ward