On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day, "as a public expression of love and reverence for the mothers of our country."  I wonder what he would make of the way some folks view that day today.
          
            Last week I read two articles, each in a different magazine, about how to celebrate Mother’s Day all month long.

            The first was “Thirty-One Ways to Indulge Yourself,” a day by day guide through the month of May, “because no one ever takes care of you.”  I read through the calendar, at first smiling and sighing a little, but gradually growing more and more perturbed.  The list included things like, “Hire a handyman for a day to do all those chores your husband never gets to.”  “Go for a massage, at least a full half-hour appointment.”  “Get a pedicure and buy at least two new colors of nail polish.”  “Buy yourself a new piece of jewelry.”  I added up the entire list—readers were encouraged to do it all—and even estimating low (like costume jewelry instead of the real thing), I came up with a total of nearly $1000.00.

            A thousand dollars in one month would have made a mortgage payment, bought the groceries, AND paid the gasoline and electric bills when my children were still at home. 

            I am a mother--I understand that, as a general rule, mothers are overworked.  I tell every young couple that they should realize from the get-go that every young mother is always tired from the double whammy of pregnancy and delivery, followed by the constant care of a little person who does not understand schedules yet, and every young father always feels stressed from the realization that he is now responsible not only for another body, but as spiritual leader of the home, another soul as well.  In addition he is constantly bewildered by his young wife’s raging hormones, hormones she herself is disconcerted by and trying to control.  This is the nature of the job you have taken upon yourselves.  The whole process can be overwhelming.  But no one has the right to bankrupt her family because she is feeling weary. 

            The other magazine article was deceptively similar.  However, the words “almost free” and “for real moms” were also in the title.  Rather than 31 items laid out on a calendar, one for every day of the month, it was a list of 23 to choose from.  Evidently this writer understood that “real moms” have neither the time nor money to play every day.  What did they include?  “Free up the driveway and create some elaborate chalk art with your children.”  “Catch fireflies, minnows, or other tinies in a clean jar; take a good long look and maybe a photo or two, then let them go.”  “Declare a spa day with your kids, sipping smoothies by the (wading) pool, and giving each other manis and pedis.”  “Draw a comic book together, then make copies so the kids can share them with their friends.”  Are you noticing a difference here?

            Now let me add this bit of information to the mix.  One article was in Parenting.  The other was in a quarterly publication put out for customers of the grocery chain Lucas worked for at the time.  This is obvious, right?  The “experts” understand that young parents first, live on a budget, and second, need encouragement and suggestions for how to spend more “quality” time (I hate that phrase!) with their children, teaching them such things as core values and priorities, and the other magazine was interested in boosting retail sales during a sagging economy.  Wrong.  Parenting is the magazine suggesting that all young mothers go out and spend a good chunk of the family’s income pampering themselves for a solid month.  I am actually proud of Lucas’s company.  If I still had children at home, we would have probably done quite a few of the things they suggested.  The total cost for the whole list was about $10, and it also included some volunteer work.

            Now is it any wonder that elders and preachers regularly warn the church about non-Christian counselors, therapists, and mentors?  Is it any wonder that the average family is falling apart at the seams and couples are deep in debt?  Can you understand why this is also affecting the church?

            Parenting is a commitment just as much as Christianity is.  God has entrusted precious souls to you, and He expects them returned in good shape, better in fact than when He gave them to you.  A mother, or father for that matter, who folds when it requires sacrifice—major sacrifice—is not worthy of the name.

            When you become a parent, it is surprising how fast the feelings overwhelm you.  Love for your child is not just strong, it is fierce.  At least it should be.  It is exactly that fierceness that keeps you going when you lose sleep, when your body aches, and when your heart breaks because of the trials of parenting.  Nothing in this world is worth losing your child or his soul.  That is what the so-called experts need to be teaching us these days.  We already have enough selfish people out there who want the title without doing the job.
 
Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?…As a father pities his children, so Jehovah pities those who fear him…If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father who is in Heaven, give good things to those that ask him, Isa 49:15; Psalm 103:13; Matt 7:11.
 
Dene Ward

You know the story so I won’t go into much detail here.  Pharaoh had ordered the Hebrew baby boys killed and one mother had enough faith to put her infant in a lovingly woven and waterproofed basket in the Nile River.  Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river to bathe and found him, and his alert and very smart big sister offered to get him a Hebrew nurse—one who just happened to be his mother.
 
           And so Moses was raised by two mothers.  Jochebed kept him close to her those first years, probably as many as five to eight, before she weaned him.  But nursing was not all she did.  She taught him who he was, who his people were, and who his God was.  She did an amazing job.  In those few years she made him strong enough to stand against the temptations of wealth the like of which we have probably never seen.  And that wealth was not just contrasted with poverty, but with some of the most oppressive slavery imaginable. 

            After that Moses lived in the palace with his “foster” mother for thirty years or more.  She undoubtedly lavished him with luxury and provided him with one of the best secular educations of the time.  Just look at the pyramids if you think those people were ignorant.  He became so much an Egyptian that he even looked like one (Ex 2:19).

            So here is our point today:  Which mother am I?  Do I check on their schoolwork, but never make sure their Bible lessons are done?  Do I even know if they have their lesson book and Bible with them when we leave the house Sunday morning?  Do I teach them how to make a budget and live within their means, but never teach them how to make time for prayer and Bible study?  Do I make sure they get to school but actually give them a choice about whether they go to church or not?  Do I teach them the social etiquette of what to wear at which occasion but never teach them about modesty?  Do I teach them the Bill of Rights but never talk about giving up those rights for the sake of the gospel and peoples’ souls?  Do I teach them to save for their financial security but never teach how to keep their souls secure?

            Your child knows what you think is most important.  He will take his cue from you.  Are you a Pharaoh’s daughter or a Jochebed?
 
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. Heb 11:24-26
 
Dene Ward

This morning I kept swatting at a pesky gnat that would not go away until I realized it was just another floater.  Usually light reflects back from your retina through the transparent vitreous humor.  With age, the vitreous humor (aka eyeball jelly) can begin to solidify into tiny little chunks that cast a shadow forward, making it seem that spots are floating out in front of, not inside, your eyeball.

            However, trauma can cause floaters too—surgeries followed by complications followed by treatment for the complications, in my case hundreds of lasers zaps.  Pieces of the retina come loose and float in the humor casting the same shadows as the less ominous floaters.  Now that one eye has a “shallow detached retina” which not even some of the best doctors in the world want to try to fix until it completely detaches, too much exertion can cause that small detachment to tug yet more pieces of retina loose.

            Yet at one point there was one good thing about floaters.  I could easily gauge my eye pressure with them.  Normally there is no way to know that your pressure is increasing until it is almost too late.  By the time your vision has clouded over, your head is aching, and your innards are heaving themselves inside out, it is a real emergency.

            It’s not supposed to work that way, but for me, at least in the early stages of this eye crisis, it proved an early warning system:  If a floater stayed for days, I needed to make an appointment immediately.  Floaters can make me dizzy and a little nauseated, besides being just plain annoying, but the warning was worth it.  Imagine if I had not gone in the third day I had the same floater in exactly the same place.  Normal pressure is roughly 10-18, without medication.  When I got to the eye clinic the pressure in that eye was 65, even with heavy medication.  I had no idea except for that persistent floater. 

            I think spiritual floaters are the same way.  I hear people berating themselves because they wrestle with a certain problem.  You know what?  At least they know the problem is there. Too many times we ignore the “floaters” and go right along thinking we are just fine.  That little spot isn’t important; it certainly won’t cost me my soul.  Won’t it?  If I see it there and don’t even try to fix it, doesn’t that make me a willful sinner?  And if I don’t even recognize it when it is there, isn’t that even more dangerous?

            Yes, floaters are aggravating.  But in the past they gave me a way to know what I needed to do and when I needed to do it.  I knew better than to ignore them.  I still have floaters, but they don’t work like that any longer, and I really wish they did.

            Do you see any floaters in your spiritual life? Keep an eye on them.  Get help when you need it.  If “struggling” is where you are, be glad your conscience is still sensitive and be grateful for God’s grace working in your life.  It’s the ones who aren’t struggling who need to worry.
 
And everyone who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things.  Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.  I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I as not beating the air; but I buffet my body daily and bring it into bondage lest by any means after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected, 1 Cor 9:25-27.
 
Dene Ward

It’s spring and that means the tarps that have been protecting things for several months need to be laid out to dry, folded, and put up.  It’s spring and the plastic sheeting needs to be set up over the small, early, garden plot because we will have another frost or two.  It’s spring and that means the breezes are blowing and nothing will stay where you put it for any length of time at all.

            In late February Keith was out in the field laying out the tarps and plastic to dry in the sun, and trying to weigh down the corners with buckets and tools and anything else that came to hand.  He had managed three or four all by himself before dinner, and then I walked out with him afterward to see the freshly tilled garden and the early plot he had set out.  He bent to secure one corner of plastic just as the breeze increased and blew it right out of his hand.  I leaned down to help on my end only to have it, too, blown from my grasp.  He got hold of his corner as I chased mine around in a circle.  Finally we each had a corner and bent to secure them with handfuls of moisture-heavy garden dirt, only to have a particularly strong gust blow it free yet again.

            Three or four tries later we had the early plot covered and secured, the plastic stretched over a line three feet off the ground that ran down the middle to make a small greenhouse of sorts.  We were clothes-pinning the center where the “door” of our teepee met on either end.  Even that took a few tries followed by pinched faces and hunched shoulders waiting for the breeze to once again undo it all.  It held!

            “Whew!” he exclaimed.  “This kind takes prayer and fasting.” I looked at him with a rueful smile, and wondered how many prayers he must have prayed before I got there to help.

            You know, of course, that he was referring to Matt 17:21.  The disciples could not cast a demon out of a boy, but Jesus could.  For their lack of faith they received a stern rebuke, yet Jesus added that it was a particularly difficult demon to cast out.  Sometimes you will have to work harder than others, he seemed to mean by his comment about prayer and fasting.

            And occasionally overcoming a temptation is more difficult than at other times.  Sometimes it’s the circumstances.  If you are tired, or in pain, or grieving, or in any number of other situations, you may have a more difficult time passing the test.  Sometimes it’s the test itself.  Some things bother us more than others, pushing the buttons that most easily cause a reaction.  Sometimes it’s the “help.”  How many times has someone offered the advice to “calm down,” only to have that very advice cause the opposite reaction in spades?

            But notice this about that narrative in the gospels:  Jesus still expected those disciples to have mastered the demon and tossed it out.  Yes, it’s a hard one, he said, but you could have done it if you had enough faith.

            And so can we, if we are in the correct frame of mind.  There is always a way of escape.  It is never more than we can handle.  It doesn’t matter what the test is, what the circumstances are, or how many other well- or even ill-meaning people get in the way. So here are a few suggestions that might help all of us.

            Know your hot buttons and avoid them.  How many times do the Proverbs call people fools who go blundering about their lives without even a thought where they might be headed?  How many other times are the “fools” the ones who go to difficult places with the arrogant notion they won’t be trapped like everyone else?

          If you cannot avoid these difficult situations, then prepare yourself before you get there.  If that means looking at yourself in the mirror and giving yourself a good talking to before you leave the house, then do it.  If it means praying before you leave—always a good idea—do it. 

          Then, don’t forget what you did the minute the door shuts behind you.  Nothing changes because your surroundings did.  If it means quoting scripture all the way through the situation itself, or singing hymns, do it.  Do whatever it takes.

          Don’t blame your failure on anyone else.  “I was doing fine until you came along and…” won’t change the bottom line.  You blew it.

          Do not give yourself an out of any kind.  “He deserved it [my tirade],” would cause you a lot of pain if it were said of you and God followed through on it—we all “deserve it” whatever “it” we might be talking about.  Don’t feel sorry for yourself because it was “hard.”  Do not ever excuse yourself if you failed.  You will never improve if you do.

          Know yourself.  Know what might take “prayer and fasting” to overcome.  God expects it of you, just as He did those apostles.  He expects you to succeed.  And you can.
 
Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Prov 6:5
 
Dene Ward

As a toddler Silas had a bedtime ritual.  First you read “Pajama Time” to him.  Then you gave him a cup of milk and then his blanket.  Then it was time to walk all over the house looking for “Puppy,” his stuffed dog and bedtime buddy.  Daddy had “hidden” it somewhere and he had to find it. 

            So the two of them searched, Silas trailing his blanket as he walked.  “Is that Puppy?”  Daddy asked when they saw a stuffed elephant.  Silas shook his head no.  “Is that Puppy?” and another shake of the head at the sock monkey.  And another at the teddy bear, and another, and another.  Finally, they found Puppy right where Daddy had placed him.  “Is that Puppy?” he asked one more time, and Silas would nod yes and hold out his hands for the proffered pet.  Then the thumb went into the mouth and the baby went into the bed, perfectly content.

            One Christmas Eve, things did not work out so well.  Silas had already had three naps due to the journey to grandma’s house and the various family stops along the way.  He was wired by the excitement of lights and presents and people.  Still, his eyes began to droop so the routine started, but when Puppy was “found” and Daddy asked, “Is that Puppy?” Silas looked at it and shook his head no.  He had decided he did not want to go to bed, and as long as he couldn’t find Puppy he thought he wouldn’t have to. 

After several more attempts, Daddy threw Puppy across the room to him.  Silas looked down when the stuffed animal landed with a soft plop.  Then he picked it up, shook his head no, and threw it back to Daddy.  No Puppy, no bedtime.  Of course, he found out differently, and not in the usual easy way.

We can all look at that childish attempt to deny the truth of the situation and smile.  Isn’t that cute?  And pretty smart for a sixteen month old.  But only for a sixteen month old.

Have you ever known someone who was ill and refused to go to the doctor?  As long as it isn’t diagnosed, that pain or that lump or that persistent cough isn’t anything bad.  I am not sick.  I am certainly not dying.  We look on such people with pity.  But we do it to ourselves all the time.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, James 1:22.

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself, Gal 6:3.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap, Gal 6:7.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, 1 John 1:8.

            For some reason we think we can pretend our way into Heaven.  As the Pharisees who “for a pretense make long prayers” Matt 12:40, we think we can sit in the pew on Sunday, call ourselves Christians to our neighbors, and that’s all it takes to make it so.  You might be surprised how many have already figured us out because that is also part of deceiving ourselves.

            “But we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation,” Heb 6:9.  I doubt anyone reading this really needs this lesson.  Let it just be a little reminder not to fall into that trap.

            The world, though, is still deceiving itself.  It thinks that if it denies the existence of God that will make it so.  Denying God means no accountability.  It means I can live as I want without worrying about the consequences, such a comforting thought that it is easy to see why so many fall for it, regardless the increasing evidence of a Divine Creator. 

            Yet the world can shake its head all it wants.  It can pick up the Puppy and throw it back, but nighttime will still come, and they will learn to believe the hard way, when it is much too late.
 
Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaves himself proudly against the Almighty; Because he has covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins; He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away. Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense. For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepares deceit, Job 15:25,27,30,31,34,35.
 
Dene Ward
 

Keith mentioned a few weeks ago that Sonny James had died. 

            “Who?” I asked.
           
            “You know—‘Running Bear,’ and ‘Young Love’—the country singer.”

            Ah!  “Running Bear” I remembered.  It was on the radio nearly every day for a while when I was a young teen.  Sonny James was born on May 1, 1928,  Keith found an article and there it was all set out for us:  26 #1 hit singles and 16 #1 hits in a row.  He still holds the record for consecutive #1 hits by any solo recording artist throughout all musical genres.  And I couldn’t remember who he was!

            So, I got to thinking and, it being just passed, I looked up the Oscar winners.  Tell me, do you know who Warren Baxter was?  He won the 1930 Best Actor Oscar for his role in “In Old Arizona.”  I never even heard of the movie.  How about Paul Lukas?  He won in 1944.  Don’t tell me, “But that’s so long ago.”  It hasn’t even been a hundred years.  It certainly isn’t ancient history.

            How about nominees?  Let’s just sit awhile in the Best Actress category.  Ruth Chatterton?  Betty Compson? Jeanne Eagels?  They were nominated in 1928.  May Robson and Diana Wynyard?  They came along in 1932.  Martha Scott?  That was 1941, and Celia Johnson was nominated in 1945.  Okay, let’s make it easier.  How about 1966?  That was Ida Kaminska.  I still never heard of her.  Marie-Christine Barrault was nominated in 1976.  Surely you know her?  Here’s an easy one—1989.  Most of you were probably born by then.  Ever hear of Pauline Collins?  Me neither.

            I bet I could do the same thing with Emmys, Tonys, Grammys, and how about Heisman awards?  Do you see the point?  A huge percentage of these people will never be remembered by anyone just a few years from now.  Acting is not that important in the grand scheme of things.  Touchdown passes, slam dunks, and home runs don’t really matter.  Why, oh why, do we lavish our praise and adoration on these people?  Why do we wear their colors and their numbers, dress like they do, talk like they do, and want their signatures on hats and shirts and napkins?

            Think for a minute: who do we remember?  How about a widow who sewed for the poor in the town of Joppa?  How about a Christian couple who were chased out of Rome for being of Jewish extraction, but who kept traveling preachers in their home and even helped teach them and anyone else who came along, even at the risk of death?  How about a wealthy woman in Jerusalem who allowed the church to meet in her home in the midst of a dangerous persecution so they could pray for those in prison?  How about a disciple in Damascus who took his life into his hands to preach to one of the church’s worst persecutors?  How about yet another one who was known for his encouraging ways, who traveled and preached and took young preachers under his wing till they could grow to be mature servants of God?

            I bet you know every one of their names and can find their stories in your Bible.  These are the things that last.  These are the things that no one will forget.  These are the things that will make a difference to lives, and more than that, to eternal souls. 

            And most of these are things we can do, too.  Do you want to be remembered?  Put down the football.  Throw down the novel.  Turn off the DVD.  Pull out the earbuds.  Now go out there and do good to whomever you find, everywhere you can.  You will be remembered—by many, and especially by the One who counts.
 
​…Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. ​For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  Luke 12:33-34; 16:15.
 
Dene Ward

P S--Happy birthday son!

He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first, Gen 28:19.

            Jacob had just wakened from his dream of a ladder.  God had earlier confirmed the blessing on him that his father Isaac had given him by mistake, proving that while Isaac might have been blind, God certainly was not—the right son received the blessing.  And so Jacob called that place “Beth-el,” the house of God.

            Fast forward several centuries and Hosea goes to Bethel, where Jeroboam I had set up one of his golden calves by which the people could worship Jehovah, “the god who brought you out of Egypt.”  At this point most of them weren’t even pretending to worship Jehovah any longer.  This was full-fledged idolatry.  Hosea refused any longer to call it “Bethel.”

            …Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the LORD lives.” Hos 4:15.

            Three times Hosea addresses the place that way.  It was no longer “the house of God.”  It was instead “the house of vanity,” or deception, or iniquity, or evil, or several other translated words, all of which made Hosea’s point quite plain.  Bethel was supposed to be a description of who was worshipped, adored, respected, and revered in that place, and it no longer qualified.  Instead of “Beth-el,” it had become “Beth-aven.”

            So let’s think about this today.  We use a similar description for ourselves:  “church of Christ.”  That means we belong to Christ, we obey him, we worship him, his is the opinion that counts, not ours.  Can you still say that about the group you are a member of?  Or has it become a social group with its own rules and its own “politics?”  Has it become a place where men get together and vote on things that have nothing to do with the mission Jesus left his disciples to complete?  Can you find authority--His authority—for everything you do?  Jesus himself said in Matthew 20 that authority can only come from two places—God or man, and his acceptance of that proves that he expected you to have it.

            Too many times we ask the wrong question:  what is a church of Christ?  The question we ought to be asking is this:  when is a church of Christ?  Is it time to change the sign on your door?
 
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Eph 1:22-23
 
Dene Ward

Was there ever a church with as many problems as Corinth?  We can easily make excuses for them.  Corinth was one of the most sinful cities in the world at the time.  In fact, “Corinthian” was an adjective describing a licentious lifestyle.  Certainly it was difficult to be a Christian in such an environment.  I have said before that if a person could remain pure in that city at that time, anyone can live a pure life today.
            Yet the apostle Paul obviously expected more out of them, and he told them their faults plainly. 
            They were factious (1:10-14); they were carnal and immature (3:1-3); they were arrogant (3:18,19; 8:10); they were selfish (6:7; 14:26-33).  They had little regard for one another and put their own interests ahead of the mission God gave them as His people (6:5-8; 8:9-13).  They glorified sin in their presence instead of removing its leavening influence so their worship could be pure before God (chapter 5).  They even corrupted the memorial meal that should have unified them, reminding them that they all came from the same humbling circumstance of sin, dependent solely on the grace of God for their salvation, (11:17-34).
            Yet despite all this, how does Paul end that first letter of rebuke?  With hope.  Yes, they had been “fornicators…idolaters…adulterers…effeminate…abusers of themselves with men…thieves…covetous…drunkards…revilers…extortioners,” but they had also been “washed…sanctified…justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (6:9-11).  Paul scolds them over and over, but he ends with the hope that they could change their lives, overcome their problems, and be “raised incorruptible” on that final day (15:52).
            Paul told even these bad boys and girls of the New Testament that they could live righteously and inherit eternal life.  Doesn’t it make you stop and think a minute before you consign someone to Hell by refusing them the opportunity to even hear the gospel because of their sinful, problem-filled lives?  Doesn’t it make you cringe a little at how carelessly we label congregations of God’s people “sound” and “unsound?”  And most important of all, doesn’t it give you hope when you fall yet again and have to pick yourself up and repent?
            Most of us would have simply bypassed Corinth if we had been making Paul’s itinerary for him.  To paraphrase Nathanael, “Can any good thing come out of Corinth?”  Yet Paul knew that where there is the greatest need, there will be the greatest response.  It may be tough going.  It may be that these folks will be “high maintenance Christians,” people who need a little more help, a little more support, and a whole lot more of our time, but who is to say that one soul is worth more than another?  We all stand before God as helpless sinners.
            And God holds out for us the same hope he gave those early Christians who had to fight their upbringing in a libertine culture even worse than ours. 
            O death where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Wherefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not vain in the Lord, 1 Cor 15:55-58.
 
Dene Ward

Today’s thought-provoking post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
Jn 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life.

”Comforting words,” “The Central and golden text of the Bible,” I have heard that verse described.   But, for years, I have missed a most important and significant point that it teaches:

If God loved the world so much that he would crucify and slay his Son by the hands of lawless men in order to save it, what would he do to me (or you), his “sons,” in His loving pursuit of the salvation of the world? There is absolutely no limit other than His mercy that “There is no temptation taken you but such as man can bear”. With Job as witness, that is a lot!

These thoughts may help explain why good people suffer. God is using Satan’s works to bring about His purposes, just as he did with Job and at the cross. Who knows how deafness, blindness, lost jobs, dying spouses or children, or any other number of trials bring about good toward someone else’s salvation? We see most of these as purposeless. But God who works, KNOWS.  Our part of the equation is to believe that and trust.
 
Keith Ward

I have learned to be careful when I feed the birds.  The feeder is right up against the house next to my “sitting window,” behind the azaleas.  The azaleas run five to ten feet tall so that three foot tall feeder is well hidden, and so am I when I load it up.  As I make my way on the leaf-mulched bed, I watch where I put my feet and also look over to the side down through the twisted limbs where those popular members of the rhododendron family disappear into the ground.  Too many times I have scared away a snake, always the harmless variety—if you don’t count the heart attack they might give you upon spying one that close by—but you never know.  In fact, I have the dogs trained to go into the narrow opening against the house ahead of me to clear the way, good little protectors that they are.

            So I was feeling perfectly safe the other day, when something made me look up to the side.  At eye level, only a foot from my face, a tree snake was lying on an azalea limb, perfectly still and exactly the same color as the limb.  No, I didn’t scream.  I did duck though and get past him a little faster than I ordinarily would have, loaded the feeder and scrambled out of there.  Keith saw it that evening, even closer to the feeder, trying its best to snatch an easy meal off its surface.  He donned a pair of gloves, grabbed him and threw him over the fence.

            Three days later he had not been back, so I was feeling safe again.  I had learned not only to watch the ground, but the limbs between me and the feeder too.  I made it all the way to the feeder, and started loading, edging my way to the end which sits smack up against the old antenna tower, the only reason we have to go the long way around through all those azaleas anyway.  As I made my way back, I looked over my shoulder and there was a garter snake, this time lying on the limb of an azalea at the east end of the bed, well past the point where I had been watching.  When I had my back to it, I was probably not more than three feet from it.

            That evening as we made our after-supper stroll around our place, we spotted him again.  This time he lay right out in the open, a good six feet from the lush, leafy shelter of the azaleas.

            You can think you are safe.  You can think you are watching where you need to be watching.  Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of the evil, the Proverbs writer says.  Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on, Prov 4:14,15.  If I stay out of the bars and away from the bad side of town; if I watch the company I keep, surely I will be safe from sin. 

            And don’t you know that Satan knows that’s how we think?  Who had Judas been with for over three years when he decided to betray the Lord?  What company had Peter been keeping the morning before the evening he denied him?  If anyone could have been safe from sin, strong enough to endure temptation because of their surroundings, surely it would have been those two, who traveled with the Lord himself.  But no, they fell even more catastrophically than the others, who simply ran and stood afar off.

            So are any of us safe?  Am I saying we are all doomed?  No.  I am saying that we need to be careful all the time, no matter where we are, no matter whom we are with.  Jesus once looked at Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, Matt 16:23.  He understood that temptation can come when you least expect it, even from those you consider your support group.  That doesn’t mean they are out to get you too; it just means they sometimes fail just like you do. 

            Sometimes I am the Satan that gives bad advice, or makes a careless comment.  Sometimes you are.  We must watch all the time.  We must look for that snake on every limb, under every bush, and sometimes right out in the open where you least expect him to be.  As soon as he thinks you aren’t watching, he will sneak up over your shoulder and nab you.

            Do you think I am not two, three, four times more careful when I go out to feed the birds now?  That’s exactly how we need to be every day of our lives.  If you only wore your seat belt on the day you knew you would have an accident, would you go anywhere at all that day?  You need to be on the lookout for temptation every day.  Don’t just avoid the obvious places.  Look in the places where you least expect it. 
 
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one…to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, Eph 6:16,18.
 
Dene Ward