“A wall of fire about me, I’ve nothing now to fear.”

    If I were surrounded by fire, I would probably be scared to death.  Obviously this figure is meant in an entirely different way.
  
 And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst, Zech 2:5.

    Zechariah was a minor prophet who prophesied shortly after Haggai.  In fact, you can think of him as writing the sequel to that prophet’s book, Homer Hailey once said.  The Jews have returned from Babylon and are in the midst of rebuilding the Temple.  Zechariah’s job was not only to encourage them to finish the task, but to look ahead to the glorious coming of the promised kingdom.  But here they were, a small remnant (42,360, Neh 7:66, out of an estimated million in Babylon), with no armies, no weapons, and not even a wall around their old city.      

    In the vision Zechariah sees a young man trying to measure the city, as if it were a finite place.  In verse 4 God says Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it.

    “My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus told Pilate.  It would not be a physical, measurable location at all.  The Jerusalem God had in mind was one too big for walls.  It is open to multitudes of peoples.  And the only wall it needs is the protection of God Himself.

    The Hebrew writer calls the church “the heavenly Jerusalem.”  We are in that city and we do not need stone walls or mighty weapons of war.  We have “a wall of fire about” us in the person of the Almighty God.  That fire represents not just the protection, but also the glory of our Savior.  Even as we approach what could be a new era of persecution in our country, if we have faith in those promises, what have we to fear?

    Of all the old hymns we sing, I can’t think of another with as many scriptural references, over forty if you count them all.  Wouldn’t it be a shame to assign this one to the trash pile just because it doesn’t have modern rhythms or harmonies?  And isn’t it shameful to us if we can’t understand what these lyrics mean?  Jesus should be to us and to our descendants in ages to come “the fairest of ten thousand” to our souls, and God “a wall of fire about” us.

What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also, 1 Cor 14:15.

Dene Ward

He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morningstar,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.

    Three phrases, three passages, two in the same book.  This will take some explanation.
    
The old view says that the Song of Solomon was an allegory of Christ and the church.  Fewer people accept that any longer, and though it may have sparked the original lyrics, I am not certain they were meant in precisely that way.  For one thing, the analogy doesn’t hold up.

    I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys, Song of Solomon 2:1.

    My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand, Song of
Solomon 5:10.

    In the first passage, the shepherdess is talking about herself.  In the second, the shepherdess is speaking about her beloved, the shepherd (or Solomon if you prefer that interpretation of the book).  Those passages are about two different people in the narrative, so how could the poet be following the old interpretation of Christ and the church in the hymn if the analogy does not hold up?      

    Here is the point we are so bad about seeing sometimes:  they are figures of speech.  The lyricist has borrowed various phrases out of the Bible to depict how wonderful Christ is to the believer.  Did you catch the Rose of Sharon reference too?  These are poetic metaphors.  Making literal arguments from figures of speech is something we ridicule our religious neighbors for doing.  Why do we?  Jesus is like a beautiful flower.  He is so fair (as in “Fairest Lord Jesus” too, by the way) we could say he is the fairest among ten thousand.  

    Does that mean number 10,001 is fairer than he is?  Of course not, not any more than the other phrase means he has a stem and petals.  None of these is meant to be taken literally whether you believe in the allegorical version of the Song of Solomon or not.  As it happens, I don’t.  I believe it is in there to show us how to order our romantic marital love.  If that isn’t what it’s about, then God left something awfully important out of the Bible and I don’t believe that for a minute.  He tells us too many times that it contains everything we could possibly need in any circumstance.  And if Paul can talk about the church being the “bride of Christ” why can’t I use these terms for my spiritual “husband?”

    Then we have the “Bright and Morningstar.”  What is that all about?  Balaam prophesied, “There shall come forth a star out of Jacob,” Num 24:17.  Peter tells us, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,” 2 Pet 1:19.  The Morningstar, or daystar, was a bright star that appeared just before dawn at certain times of the year, Venus I read in one place, which at other times of the year is the Evening Star.  Jesus is our Morningstar. He appeared before the coming of his kingdom, the “day” Joel speaks of in Joel 2.  He will appear again on the “day” he takes us to our promised rest.  When we accept him in our hearts, he “appears” to us individually (and figuratively) on that “day” as we enter his spiritual body.  Take your pick of interpretations and “days.”  Any of them satisfy the metaphor.

    That leaves us with just one more wonderful phrase to cover next time, a promise that should encourage us all.  But for now, dwell on these a little while.  Is Christ that important to you?  Is he that beautiful to you?  Would these figures of speech rise from your lips?  Or are we a little too ignorant of the Word and a lot too embarrassed to say such syrupy words about a Savior who gave up everything for us?

Dene Ward

I have found a friend in Jesus, He’s everything to me,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;
The Lily of the Valley, in Him alone I see
All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole.
In sorrow He’s my comfort, in trouble He’s my stay;
He tells me every care on Him to roll.
o    
Refrain:

He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.
He all my grief has taken, and all my sorrows borne;
In temptation He’s my strong and mighty tow’r;
I have all for Him forsaken, and all my idols torn
From my heart and now He keeps me by His pow’r.
Though all the world forsake me, and Satan tempt me sore,
Through Jesus I shall safely reach the goal.

(Refrain)

He’ll never, never leave me, nor yet forsake me here,
While I live by faith and do His blessed will;
A wall of fire about me, I’ve nothing now to fear,
With His manna He my hungry soul shall fill.
Then sweeping up to glory to see His blessed face,
Where rivers of delight shall ever roll.

(Refrain)

    I bet you have sung that song all your life.  It’s one of those old ones that so many sneer at nowadays.  Yet this song does something very few of the new ones can. It contains a different scriptural reference in nearly every line.  Take a minute and look at the song.  Can you find them?  Here is the shame on us—in the days when this song was written, everyone who claimed to be a Christian, even some we would not classify as “New Testament Christians,” could find them all—they knew their scriptures that well--while we sit here at best thinking, “That sounds vaguely familiar.”

    Obviously I don’t have space to go over them all.  Let me do the obvious ones quickly, and then we will spend two more sessions on the rest.

    “I have found a friend in Jesus,” Matt 11:19.

    “All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole,” 1 John 1:7; Acts 9:34.

    “In sorrow he’s my comfort, in trouble he’s my stay;” you will find this sentiment all over the psalms and the prophets, too many to list.

    “He tells me every care on him to roll,” 1 Pet 5:7.

    “He all my griefs has taken and all my sorrows borne,” Isa 53:4.

    “He’s my strong and mighty tower,” Psa 61:3.

    “I have all for him forsaken and all my idols torn from my heart,” Ezek 36:25; Hos 14:3,4.

    “He keeps me by his power,” 1 Pet 1:5.

    “Through Jesus I shall safely reach the goal,” Phil 3:14.

    “He will never never leave me, nor yet forsake me here,” Heb 13:5.

    “While I live by faith” Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38.

    “Do his blessed will” Matt 7:21.

    “With his manna he my hungry soul shall fill,” nearly two dozen verses from Exodus 16 to John 6 along with Matt 5:6.

    “To see his blessed face,” Rev 22:4.

    Did you catch all those?  I defy you to find more than a few songs written after 1960 that have that many scriptural references in them, unless they repeat one Biblical phrase over and over, or are lifted whole cloth out of the scriptures.  It’s time we learned what those old songs were about before we go throwing them out just because we think them “old” and “archaic” and “boring.”  Maybe they wouldn’t be so difficult to understand if we knew God’s Word like we ought to.  

    And these phrases were just the easy ones, the ones you can probably figure out for yourself with no help.  In the next two days, the two remaining posts on this hymn will begin to get a little more difficult.  While you wait for those, though, spend a little time with the scriptures listed above and ask yourself, “Could I even begin to do the job this poet did?”  

Dene Ward

We watched a couple of wrens build a nest on our carport.  We keep a push broom there, hanging upside down near the ceiling, and they decided those stiff bristles would make a nice base for a home.  Back and forth those small pudgy brown birds flew all evening, sometimes carrying twigs twice their own length and clumps of moss over half their girth.

    The next morning we went out to see the finished product.  We two judgmental humans stood their bemused.  It was the ugliest, rattiest, messiest nest we had ever seen.  It was way too big for wrens.  Because it lay on top of a narrow broom, it had to lean up against the side wall to keep from falling off, and that put the hole on the side instead of the top of the nest.  Didn’t those silly birds know the eggs would roll out?  And besides that, it’s July, far too late for birds to be building nests and laying eggs.  We said all these things, looking at one another and shaking our heads.

    “But,” said, Keith, “they are the birds and I assume they know what they are doing.”

    Of course they do.  Birds have been building nests and laying eggs from Genesis 1 until now and they do just fine.  In fact, it is a rare morning I don’t step outside and hear half a dozen wrens singing back and forth to one another.  They are not in danger of extinction.

    I wonder why we don’t trust God that way.  If anyone knows what he is doing, He does.  He has been doing it far longer than wrens have been building nests, and the earth still turns, the sun still shines, and the seasons continue to revolve one into the other.  I could not do any of these things, and if any one of them suddenly stopped, so would we.

    Yet I second guess and complain because things don’t go the way I think they should.  Like a child who thinks he should have everything his own way, I forget that there is a larger purpose at work here, one far more important than my own selfish wants and desires.  And, like a child, I don’t always realize what is in my own best interests.  It takes a mature outlook to see beyond the moment, to understand the complexities of circumstance that transcend my own time and place.

    God knows what He is doing.  If I can trust a couple of little brown birds, surely I can trust Him.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell me if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements—surely you know!...Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?  Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads its wings toward the south?  Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?  Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?  He who argues with God, let him answer it, Job 38:1,2,4,5,41; 39:26,27; 40:2.

Dene Ward

One spring morning a couple of years ago I sat on the carport snapping beans.  The humidity was still low, the bugs were few, and a cool breeze ruffled my curls and made the morning comfortable.  The minute I set myself up in a lawn chair, a blue plastic five gallon bucket at the ready for tips and tails, and a pink hospital tub full of early pole beans in my lap, the dogs came running, looking for a handout.

    “These are green beans,” I told them, “not treats.”  Yet they sat watching me expectantly, one dog parked next to either knee, ears at attention, tails swishing sparkly grains of sand across the rough concrete.  Occasionally Magdi’s big brown eyes strayed from my face to my hands and she licked her chops.

    “Okay,” I told her, “but you’ll be sorry,” and I handed her a long, flat, raw bean.  I could hardly believe it as she crunched away, swallowed and begged for another.  So I rifled through the tub and found one too big and tough for human consumption.  Down the hatch it went.

    Chloe, who was then just over a year old, bumped my knee with her nose.  “Me too,” her equally big brown eyes said, so I gave her a bean.  Instantly she spat it out.  “Yuk!” was written all over her furry face.

    “Told ya,” I smugly commented.

    Yet Magdi continued to down the culls as I found them, relishing every bite.  Chloe watched Magdi, then looked at the bean she had rejected.  She sniffed it and her ears drooped a bit.  She looked at Magdi again, who was happily chomping a bug-bitten throwaway.  Chloe looked at her bean and licked it.  She looked at Magdi again, then gingerly picked up her own bean and began to chew.  She managed to choke the thing down, then sat up and looked at me with that familiar expectant gaze.

    “You’re kidding,” I said to her, but handed her another bean.  This one went down more easily.  Luckily I had a large supply of fresh-picked beans and Keith had not been too careful in his picking so I had plenty of bad ones to share.  By the time I finished Magdi had long since had her fill, but Chloe was scouring the carport like a fuzzy, red-headed vacuum cleaner, scarfing up even the tips and tails that had missed the trash bucket.

    Chloe was no longer a puppy, but she was still learning from her older mentor.  The simple “peer pressure” of seeing someone she respected eating something she didn’t even like influenced her to do the same thing.

    It’s time to look around and see whom you might be influencing.  Just because there are no toddlers in the house doesn’t mean you don’t need to be careful.  Whatever your age, there is someone younger watching how you handle the universal experiences of life so they will know what to do when their turn comes.

    And to the other side of the equation—why do you do the things you do?  Are you as strong as you think you are when the world presses you to act in certain ways?  Are you doing things you don’t even enjoy just to fit in?  Stop watching how others react.  Stop making decisions based on something besides right and wrong.  If you don’t, you may find yourself licking a rough concrete slab, eating a pile of tough, bug-bitten green beans just because everyone else is doing it.

Be careful to observe all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.  When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow after them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I may also do the same.’ You shall not worship your God in that way…Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.  You shall not add to it nor take from it, Deut 12:28-32.

Dene Ward

“What do you think about the role of women in the church?”

    The subject is a minefield.  No one seems to be able to keep their own prejudices and sore spots out of it.  Women are quick to point out the failings of men as if that undoes the dictates of God.  Men are quick to pontificate about the worst of women, even straying into women in the work force and the evils of abortion as if that had anything to do with the issue.  Not a few pat themselves on the back about how well they treat women and why would any woman want anything more than their wonderful selves?  (Am I not better to thee than seven sons? Elkanah asked Hannah.)  Everyone wants to add the “what ifs” and invent artificial boundaries that the scriptures never speak of.  And we think the Pharisees were ridiculous with their traditions.  

    But I am asked—often.  So here is, not what I think, but what it seems obvious that the Bible says.

    Do women have a leadership role as Christians?  Yes.  “Children obey your
parents” Eph 6:1, obviously includes mothers who, last I checked, were all women .  

The older women are to “train the younger,” Titus 2:4.  When I teach my Bible classes, I have control of the students.  I am the one who directs the discussion and sets its boundaries in time and content.  I am the one responsible for correction if error is spoken.   Sounds like leadership to me.

Women are to “rule the household” 1 Tim 5:14.  A lot of men completely miss that one.  It means she has a domain and he has no business micromanaging her in it unless she is doing a poor job of stewarding his provision for the family.

     On the other hand, whenever the church is talked about as an assembled group, things are much different.  Women are specifically told to “learn quietly with all submissiveness” 1 Tim 2:11.  As to the command in 1 Cor 14 that women are to “be silent,” we need to recognize the context and pull out every other time that two word phrase is used in that same context before we make blanket statements about women not opening their mouths until the “amen” has been said.  But that does not undo 1 Timothy 2 in any way.

    I could go on about Paul’s statement that a woman is not “to teach nor have dominion over a man.”  I could talk about parsing the sentence.  I could just bypass that and go to the obvious point that the preposition “over” has to go with both “teach” and “have dominion” or else the Bible contradicts itself.  Priscilla obviously helped teach Apollos and if all teaching is forbidden to women then that includes teaching children and women (which we have already seen is commanded) and singing (“teaching and admonishing yourselves in songs…”—the Greek word is the same in both passages) and you know what?  Everyone would have to completely ignore all godly women because their example teaches even if they never open their mouths.  But don’t you see?  There is something much more basic going on when we take issue with the scriptures.

    Whenever I hear women trying to sidestep 1 Tim 2:11, when I hear them rationalizing about their talents and how God wouldn’t want them wasted, when I hear them talking about Paul as if he were not an inspired apostle, when I hear them listing the failings of the men in their group (as if they had none) and dreaming up everything they can possibly think of that might make an exception, I think of Psalm 119:97:  Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.  When I try to weasel my way out of God’s commands, when I try to avoid them in any way possible, what does that say about how I feel about them?  Doesn’t much sound like love to me.

    God is my Lord, not the other way around.  He has told us exactly how He wants things to be done.  I have no business telling Him that my way is better or that He ought to accept my way because I did it with a good heart.  I have no business railing against Him about why He gave me a certain talent if He won’t let me use it the way I want to use it.  I remember a few men in the Old Testament who learned that lesson the hard way.   Ladies, God will treat you equally.  Isn’t that what you want?  Or is it?

    If I love the law of God, if He is my Lord, I will not try to worm my way out of His commands, no matter how many men or Pharisaical Christians abuse them.  THAT is how I feel about the issue.

I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies! It is time for the LORD to act, for your law has been broken. Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.  Ps 119:125-128

Dene Ward

I saw a bumper sticker in a parking lot:  DON’T TELL ME WHAT KIND OF DAY TO HAVE.  I must be slow because it took me several minutes to figure it out.  Here was someone so mad at the world that he couldn’t even handle a common courtesy.  He obviously did not want to have a nice day, thank you very much, and I suspect that he didn’t, not that day nor any other.
 
   I have heard similar things about other polite phrases.  “You don’t care how I am, why ask?”  Everyone with any sense knows that “How are you?” is not a question; it’s a greeting.  Do these people need a course in semantics or what?

    No, what they need is an attitude adjustment, the kind you get from becoming a disciple of Christ.  Christians are not afraid to take risks, to put themselves out there for people like that to step all over, because Christians understand that treating others well, regardless of how they are treated, is the signature of a follower of Christ.  More than anything else, it shows who we are.  We choose to believe the best about people; we choose to offer help whether it is accepted or not, whether we are taken advantage of or not; we choose to show a spirit of forgiveness whether the other person deserves it or not.

    Those others, the grumpy, the bitter, the cynical, the ones who view the world with a jaundiced eye, the ones who deride us for our stupidity, as they categorize it, who think themselves so much smarter and better than us with their snide sarcastic sayings—“Don’t tell me what kind of day to have”--are in actuality cowards.  They are afraid of being hurt, afraid of being used, afraid of losing the only thing they have—confidence in themselves and how they choose to live.  They will not take risks, while we thrive on it.  We know that anything we lose here was not worth that much anyway—it will all perish in the end.  The things they count on could be gone in a flash, but they are not smart enough to figure that out.

    So there you have it—they are cowards and not very smart ones at that. Don’t worry when they laugh at you for your willingness to take risks.  When you think about it, we aren’t taking any risks at all—they are the ones with everything to lose.

    And by the way, have a nice day!

You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man would go to law with you, and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also.  And whosoever shall compel you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you turn not away. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy: but I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the same? You therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matt 5:38-48.

Dene Ward

We just finished helping my mother move up here near us, probably the last move she will ever make.  She has accumulated a lot in 87 years.  Even though she gave away at least half of her kitchen equipment and several pieces of furniture, as the movers traipsed in and out and the little house begin to fill, we no longer said, “In the living room,” or “In the back bedroom.”  By the end we were telling them, “Just find an empty corner and put it there.”  True, the house is 100 square feet less than the one she left, but that’s only a 10 x 10 room, perhaps one very small bedroom, and there seems to be many more times that much furniture we have yet to find a place for.  It appears that she will need to give away even more.

    I found myself thinking what I might give up when we need to leave this place we have lived for 33 years now.  Relatively small as family homes go, just 1350 square feet, we still managed to raise two boys to manhood and have accumulated far more than will fit in a house the size of my mother’s new one.  So what can I do without?

    The answer is really simple.  You can do without practically every possession you have.  Just look at what we take camping.  It’s a lot to take for a vacation, but for living, it’s practically nothing and we manage just fine for well over a week.  

    But maybe the answer is even easier than that.  What will you take in the moving van when you die?  Absolutely nothing.  It will be empty from front to rear, top to bottom.  Absolute essentials for this physical life may be the smallest and plainest amounts of food, clothing, and shelter, but for your spiritual life, all those things that you spend so much time picking out, caring for, and working to pay for are completely nonessential  

    So why do we spend so much time and energy on them?  Why do we care so much where we live and how it is decorated, what we wear and who designed it, what we eat and how good it tastes?  Could it be because we have forgotten this fundamental truth:  things of this life—possessions, status, wealth, connections—none of it matters to the wise child of God.  

Do they matter to you?  If you could not give them up, they matter more than you probably want to admit.  And if losing them would turn you into an emotional wreck, your priorities need a serious overhaul.

Today, think about that moving van on the day of your death.  It doesn’t really matter what you might like to put in it.  Your soul is going somewhere, but it won’t move an inch.

Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him, Ps 49:16-17.

Dene Ward

My daylilies have been on a roller coaster ride lately.  They bloomed so prodigiously, and multiplied so quickly that ten years ago I had to dig them up from their bed by the grape arbor and replant them thinner, planting another bed behind the shed with some of the extras, and still giving away three five-gallon bucketfuls of bulbs.  They bloomed like crazy again, multiplying year by year, until once again they needed thinning.  

A few years ago, Keith had to do it for me--after a summer of eye surgeries I was relegated to supervising from a lawn chair.  But since then, few have come up and fewer have bloomed.  Perhaps we mulched them too well, Keith thought, so he raked off half the mulch this past year to see what would happen.  More blooms is what happened, and things seem better.  Next year should be another banner year of bright yellow and orange blooms.

I have noticed another thing about these lilies.  Even with mulch, the weeds still manage to creep in.  The first year I pulled grass till my hands were sore and swollen.  Blackberry thorns left them torn and bleeding, even through gloves.  The next year I did it again.  The third year things were better—most of the weeds were along the edge.  By the fourth year two weedings, one at the beginning of the year, and another near the end, took care of it.

Some day, I would like to think that the weeding won’t be necessary at all, but I live in a land of rain and sunshine, warmth even in winter, and humidity that keeps the plants green and moist.  Still, it is encouraging to see some progress.  I may never have a weed-free flower bed, but at least there are more flowers than weeds these days.

How about me?  Am I still pulling out the weeds in my heart?  Unfortunately, yes, I am.  I do not believe the job will ever be finished.  I do believe that there are fewer now than many years ago, and I think I am meant to notice that, that it is not a sign of arrogance to see the improvement in my life.  Isn’t encouragement a necessary element to growth?

That old saying, “Humility is the thing that as soon as you think you have it, you’ve lost it,” is ridiculous.  How else am I to have the impetus to keep going, especially when the job is unending and obviously so?  Why is it wrong to recognize my progress?  I might as well listen to Satan as to listen to someone say that.  

Several times Paul told the people he wrote that they were doing well, that they had grown, that he was proud of them.  James talks about looking in the mirror of God’s word to see myself.  Am I only supposed to see the faults and none of the good things?  That is exactly what leads people to become so despondent that they quit trying.  

“Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a goat,” applies to people who never receive any positive feedback, who are always criticized and told they have done wrong.  They think if they are going to receive that kind of response when doing their best, they might as well stop trying so hard.  Satan counts on that feeling, and too often we give him the opportunity to make use of it in ourselves and others.

So look at yourself carefully today.  Notice the things you still need to work on and do exactly that.  But also notice where you have improved and gain some encouragement from it.  Maybe the job today won’t be quite so tough.  If you have had a difficult time lately, that little bit of encouragement may be the thing that gets you through another day.

For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.  And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 1 Thes 2:11-13.

Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward

A few questions:

Why did Jesus so often say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee” instead of, “Your disease be healed?”   Why did he not heal everyone?  Not only did he leave many for the apostles to heal, there is no indication they cleaned up all the rest, even in Judea.

Of course, one of the reasons he said “sins…forgiven” was to emphasize to the scribes and Pharisees that if he could heal, he could forgive.  Certainly, since he healed one leper, he had the power with a word to heal all lepers, or to heal all the blind.  The power was there.  The compassion that moved him to heal had to also tug at his heart in relation to all the un-healed lame and sick.

The questions bring our focus to the simple truth that sickness/infirmity was not the problem; sin was.  The compassion was moved within him to bypass these small things and focus on healing the root, the cause of all the misery that comes on man.  Healing the few he did was a pledge toward the healing of sin.

Sickness is really a part of death.  Healing is life triumphant, but Lazarus, the blind man, the 10 lepers, all still died.  Because Jesus is the great physician, death is destroyed (1 Cor 15:50ff) and we are all healed of death, not merely of a symptom like disease, and we will all be raised.

So, the last question:  What occupies the bulk of your prayer time?  A list of sick church members and friends?  Or, a list of sins and sin-sick souls?  I think my answer leaves me on the wrong side here.

Yes, I know the prayer of faith will heal the sick and I am by no means suggesting that any of us diminish that part of our prayer life.  I am thinking that I am going to greatly increase the part of mine that focuses on sin and the healing of sin and death.

Notice how great a portion of Jesus’ last prayer for the disciples was in relation to their spiritual safety and triumph:

I am praying for them.  I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.  All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.  And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.  While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. (Jn 17:9-15).

Keithh Ward