Pallets on the Floor

4/3/2015 5 Comments

When I was a child we often visited friends and family, all the kids sleeping in the living room floor on piles of quilts.  It was fun because it was different and exciting, and not one of us complained.  Dinner was never fancy because none of us were wealthy, but all my aunts could cook as well as my mother and we knew it would be good whatever it was.  We practiced the hospitality shown in the Bible to our families, to our neighbors, and to our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  What has happened to us?
    Even if we aren’t particularly wealthy, we have fallen for the nonsense that because we cannot offer what the wealthy offer, we should offer nothing at all.  How do we excuse it?  I don’t have a spare room.  I don’t have a bathroom for every bedroom.  The spare room I do have is too small.  The bathroom is too tiny.  My grocery budget is too small and my time too little for cooking.  I work.  I have an infant in the house who still wakes up at night.  And the perennial favorite, “You know, times are different now.”  
    Not so much, folks.  Lydia worked, yet she made Paul and Silas an offer they couldn’t refuse—she told them they would be insulting her faith if they did not stay with her.  Unless I am reading something into it that isn’t there, Priscilla worked right alongside her husband, “for they were tentmakers.”  Yet Paul didn’t stay with them for just a night or two—he lived with them for a good while.  Abraham was a very busy man—he had more employees than some towns in that day had citizens, yet he not only offered hospitality, he actively looked for people who might need it.
    “But they had servants!” some whine.  If you don’t think your modern conveniences fill the place of servants, you have never thought about what it took back then to cook—they started with the animals on the hoof, people!  Their cooking involved building a fire from scratch, sometimes in the heat of the day.  And here we sit with the meat already butchered in our electric refrigerators, ready to put in our gas or electric ovens.  We clean with our vacuum cleaners, pick up ready-made floral arrangements at the grocery store, make sure the automatic shower cleaner and the stuck-on toilet cleaner are still in service, and stop at the bakery for the bread. Then, when it’s all done, we put the dirty dishes in our dishwashers, and we do it all in our air conditioned homes.
    Part of the problem may also be the expectations of guests these days.  It isn’t just that people are no longer hospitable—it’s that people are spoiled and self-indulgent.  They don’t want to sleep on a sofa.  They don’t want to share a bathroom with a couple of kids.  They will not eat what is offered.  We aren’t talking about health situations like diabetes and deadly allergies.  We are talking about people who care more about their figures than their fellowship; people who were never taught to graciously accept what was placed in front of them, even knowing it was the best their hosts could afford, because, “I won’t touch_______________,” (fill in the blank).  
    We once ate with a hard-working farm family who had invited us and two preachers over for dinner.  Dinner was inexpensive fare--they had five children and had invited us six to share their meal.  Later that evening, when we had left their home, we heard those two preachers making fun of what of they had been served and laughing about it.  I hope those poor people never got wind of it.  
    When we raise our children to act in similarly ungracious ways, when we consider them too precious to sleep on a pallet on the floor, as if their royal hides could feel a miniscule pea beneath all those quilts, what can we expect?  Do you think it doesn’t happen?  We once had a guest who told me she had rather not sleep where I put her.  It was the only place I had left to put her.  I already had four other guests when she had shown up at my door unannounced.  She was more than welcome—I have taken in unexpected guests many times--but where were this one’s manners?
    Do you know how many times we have been told, “Do you know how far it is out there?” when we invited someone thirty miles out in the country to our home for a meal.  Excuse me?  Of course we know how far it is—we drive it back and forth at least three times a week just to the church building, not counting other appointments.
    This matter of hospitality worries me.  It tells me we have become self-indulgent and materialistic when it comes both to offering it and accepting it.  God commands us to Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, 1 Pet 4:9.  What has happened to the enjoyment of one another’s company, the encouragement garnered by sharing conversation and bumping elbows congenially in close quarters, and the love nurtured by putting our feet under the same table, by opening not only our homes but our hearts?  
    What has happened to the joy of a pallet on the floor?

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us, Acts 16:14,15.

Dene Ward

Making Choices

4/2/2015 3 Comments

We live in Florida.  So does Mickey Mouse.  When my boys were in school, it seemed like every other year the school decided a “field trip” to that Orlando park was in order.  (Whatever happened to “field trips” to the firehouse or the water plant or the art museum?)  You sent $40 to the school--this was 25 years ago, remember--and your children got on a bus at 6 am, which drove up to the park and unloaded about 9 am.  At 3 pm, the kids climbed back aboard and came home.  Meanwhile, you had also sent at least $15 more so they would not go hungry.
    We were on a tight budget and, as adults, we could easily see that the scant amount of time there was not worth the money.  So we spelled it out carefully and gave them the choice—no more of these so-called field trips.  Instead, if they wanted to, we would save money for a year and “do it right.”  Four nights in the Disney campground (the hotels were out of the question), complete with all the transportation around the park and free Disney movies every night at an outdoor theater with park benches to sit on.  Four 4-day park passes and supper one night in the castle, plus all the special shows they never had time to see before, like the Main Street electrical parade and the laser show at Epcot, and a souvenir of their choice at any park shop. 
    What made the choice difficult?  For the next three years, when their classmates piled into the buses, they stayed behind.  Usually I showed up at the school to take them out for “early dismissal,” but the next day they endured questioning about why they did not go to Disney with the rest of the group, and listened to the stories about all the fun they had. None of their classmates ever did understand, even when the boys told them the whole story.  Why not do both? they wanted to know.  It is always hard to tell your friends that you are not as well off as they are, especially when you are young and don’t really understand it yourself.  Yet the boys thought about it, and made the choice.  “Doing it right” was by far better, they decided. 
    So we saved for a year, all of us.  The boys picked up aluminum cans and coke bottles, and even set aside birthday money, which we had encouraged grandparents to send instead of gifts—they knew the plan.  $700 later, we had the vacation of a lifetime, and the boys felt even better because they had helped pay for it.  Don’t tell me that having Cinderella lean over you during dinner is unimportant to a twelve-year-old boy.  You have never seen such bashful blushing in your life.
    Growing up is all about learning to make choices.  If you miss that valuable lesson, you may face a life of misery that could have been avoided.  Learning to weigh options, both their pros and cons, is the key.
    Just think about sin for a moment.  Sin is pleasurable or it would not be a temptation.  But weigh the choices.
    A life of purity will give you a renewed mind, Eph 4:22-24.  A fresh, optimistic outlook on life can get you through a world of trouble. 
    The decision to remain pure will lead to better relationships with those you deal with and the self-respect that comes with self-control, 1 Thes 4:1-8. Self-control is not a prison—it is freedom from things that rule your life; it is you making the choices not your appetites.  That is empowering.
    Pure living will give you not only the hope of a life to come, but hope for the life now too, 1 Tim 4:7,8.  It promises you that God will never forsake you, Heb 13:4-6, and will cause others to glorify God, 1 Pet 2:11,12.  And talk about comforting—living a pure life leaves you unafraid to stand before God and give an account of it, 1 Pet 4:1-5.
    And the other option?  Let’s see, a life of impurity could give you STDs along with ensuing pain and infertility and possible death, cirrhosis of the liver, ulcers and other stress-induced conditions, a suspended driver’s license, a criminal record, a broken home and family who won’t talk to you any longer, fair-weather friends who leave when you need them the most, a ruined reputation, financial ruin caused by alimony and child support payments, and gambling debts you can never repay, not to mention those eternal consequences which include facing the wrath of God, Col 3:5-11, and the second death, Rev 21:8.
    Hmm.  Doesn’t really sound like such a difficult choice to me.

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

Do You Know What You Are Singing? The Great Physician

4/1/2015 0 Comments

Sweetest note in seraph song,
Sweetest name on mortal tongue.

              Do you know what a seraph is?  I bet you have heard the word “seraphim” before and know it is a kind of angel.  But even that is not quite right.

            In English we form plurals in several different ways:  “s,” “es”, “ies”, plus those plurals that are Latin derivatives where “is” becomes “es” (analysis/analyses), “um” becomes “a” (memorandum/memoranda), and “us” becomes “i” (cactus/cacti). 

            One way to form a plural in Hebrew is to add “im.”  So there is one seraph and more than one seraphim, one cherub and more than one cherubim.  A “seraph” song is a song a seraph, or several seraphim, might sing.

            We don’t really know a whole lot about angelic beings.  I can tell you one thing, though:  they don’t look like chubby little naked flying babies with wings, shooting bows and arrows!

            The only word picture I could find of seraphim is of those around the throne of God in Isaiah’s vision of chapter 6.  They are anything but “cute.”  Those seraphim had six wings.  When they spoke the threshold of the Temple shook and smoke filled the rooms.  Those creatures could hold live coals in their hands.  John said the angels around God’s throne were “mighty,” Rev 5:2.  I do not know if those were seraphim or not, but they stood in the same place as Isaiah’s seraphim. 

            As to angels singing about Jesus, is that scriptural?

            And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:13,14.

            Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Rev 5:11,12.  Earlier, in verse 9, John calls what they were doing “singing.”

            So from his birth to his ascension and afterward the angels sang about Jesus.  Seraphim, cherubim, archangels, whatever--I doubt any refused, do you?

            But here is the point of the song:  what our Savior did for us is so glorious, so marvelous, so gracious and good that everyone should be singing his praises, whether “seraph” or “mortal.”

            It is sad that our books do not contain the following verse to this song:

              And when to that bright world above
            We rise to be with Jesus,
            We’ll sing around the throne of love,
            His Name—the Name of Jesus.

Isn’t it an appropriate idea that where the seraphim stand guard over the throne of God, singing, we will also stand, singing praise to the Great Physician?

After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and [about] the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, [be] unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Rev 7:9-12.

Dene Ward

Greetings

3/31/2015 0 Comments

Salute one another with a holy kiss…Rom 16:16.  
    Over the years I have heard a lot of people make a big deal out of this, asking, if we are going to be so picky about things, why we don’t go around kissing one another all the time.  They usually stand there smiling, completely satisfied with themselves for having “caught” us.  It is perfectly easy to answer.  We can find many different greetings in the scriptures, all of which appear to be acceptable to God--kissing, embracing, bowing, or simply speaking to one another with standard greetings of the day.  Greetings vary from culture to culture and by not specifying one, God has given us tacit authority to practice them all.  
    As usual, these folks have focused on the wrong part of the phrase.  It isn’t the “kiss” that we should emphasize; it is the type of kiss—a holy one.  In fact, the choice of greeting in this illustration seems the perfect one to use since it was a dissembling kiss that betrayed our Lord.  Today we Americans would simply say, “Greet one another with a holy handshake.”
    So what makes a greeting “holy?”  Sincerity obviously, and especially so if we are contrasting it with a kiss of betrayal.  Do we shake hands with good feelings in our hearts, or is there a metaphorical knife hidden in the other hand, ready to stab the person we seem to be accepting as soon as they turn around?  Will we say pleasant things to their faces, then slander them when they leave?  Or perhaps less obvious but more prevalent, will we call one another “brethren” when we really don’t want to be around one another any longer than we must?
    A lot of people hang on to agape with glee, spouting that handy definition, “seeking the other’s good whether you like him or not.”  It’s almost like they are shouting, “Oh goody!  I don’t have to like that brother after all!”  
    Pardon me?  “It’s not phileo,” they say, “so it doesn’t mean we really have to like one another.”  What then do they do with all the passages that talk about brotherly love and kind-heartedness?  Do they just cut them out of their Bibles?
    For one thing, we have made too big a distinction in those two words.  In the early first century, agape was not looked on with the approval we do now.  How exactly would you feel if someone said to you, “I care what happens to you, but I don’t much like you?”  I think I might be insulted, and that is one reason Peter had such a hard time in John 21 accepting Jesus’ question, “Do you agape me?”  To him, it was far more important to phileo the Lord.  It took the rest of the century and into the next for that word to become the deeper love we often talk about.
    Do a little research and you will find that the two words are often used interchangeably in the New Testament, much of which was written closer to the middle of the first century, when the meaning of agape was still evolving.  In 1 Cor 8:3 and 16:22 we are told to love God.  One uses agape, the other phileo.  In Eph 5:25 and Titus 2:4 we are told to love our spouses.  One uses agape, the other phileo.  In John 13:23 and 20:2 we hear about “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”  Guess what?  That’s right, one uses agape and the other phileo.  That little tidbit only took me about 5 minutes to look up.
    You can tell a lot about people by what they emphasize in the scriptures—their pet peeves, their personal interests, even who they have a hard time loving.  Make sure that your greetings, whether a handshake, a kiss, a hug, or a simple wave of the hand, are holy.

Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren [phileo + adelphoi], love [agapao] one another from the heart fervently, I Pet 1:22.

Dene Ward

Filling in God's Blanks

3/30/2015 0 Comments

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

Like most government agencies, Florida Department of Corrections has a number of forms to be filled out.  One that inmates must sign for me is totally useless; the purpose for it ended over 10 years ago but we cannot get it removed.  So I hand it and another senseless form (unnecessary but not known to be totally without purpose) to the inmates, with the parts that they need to fill in marked with exes –signature, date, DC# (Department of Corrections number).

The totally useless form has a heading explaining what its [defunct] purpose is, “I _____________......”  This has no X beside it, my attempt to avoid wasting any more time on it than I must.  Inevitably, the inmate will put his name in the blank, or ask whether I want him to do so.  I reply, “Just where the exes are.”  Sometimes, I look at one who has filled it in and say, “I told you, ‘where the exes are.’ ” They always start apologizing.  They know they were not following the instructions when they filled in that blank.

It seems we have the same problem with the Bible, we cannot stand blanks.  Fantastic (as in “fantasy”) books have been written telling what the other apostles did, what Jesus did as a child, what he did between 12 and 30, etc.  Even ancient people got into the act and books were written to fill in the gaps of famous O.T. characters, some purportedly by those inspired men/characters.

As for us, we bind rules where God left a blank.  Or we decide that since God left a blank, we can do whatever suits us.  Numerous passages can be cited to support the radical notion that when God said nothing, that is exactly what he wanted, “Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son,”  “Of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priests,” and “In all places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"'  And that last one right after God told David, “Thou shalt not build me a house.”  (1 Chron 17).  Several more such could be listed.

Most religious division comes in places where men filled in God’s blanks.  At least the inmates know they did wrong to fill in the blank, but these theologians still argue that they have the right to do so and certainly never apologize.

“That you may learn not to go beyond what is written.” 1 Cor 4:6

Keith Ward

That Difficult Conversation

3/27/2015 0 Comments

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not evil, all the days of her life, Prov 31:10-12.

    Bathsheba gets short shrift most of the time.  Due to a lot of misunderstanding of cultural practices, she is accused of things she did not do, and blamed for things that were not her fault, but that is not what we are going to talk about today.  Today we are checking in on David and Bathsheba about thirty years later.  David is near death at the age of 70, and Bathsheba is around 50, or even less.*

    David has promised Solomon that he will be king, that, in fact, God Himself has chosen him to be the next king.  Adonijah, as the oldest living son, has other plans.  He sets about having himself crowned even as David lies on his deathbed.  He isn’t being particularly secretive, but he is very careful whom he invites to the coronation.  David’s mighty men are left out, as well as Zadok, who as a result of this becomes the patriarch of the new high priest line promised in 1 Samuel 2, and Nathan the prophet also.

    Nathan comes to Bathsheba.  ‘Haven’t you heard?” he asks her.  Then he gives her careful instruction about telling David the news, and goes along with her to verify her story.  Bathsheba seems more than willing.  Perhaps it is a mother looking after the welfare of her son, but for her to have this close contact with David after all these years, when none of his other wives do, tells me their relationship became the prominent one.  She was the favorite, and as any wife would at this time, she made sure he was happy and had what he needed.

    The rest of the story doesn’t really matter to me today.  Maybe it is because I am older now, maybe it is because I have seen so many women doing it up close and personal, but the verse above from Proverbs 31 sprang to my mind when I thought of Bathsheba’s actions.  A good wife will see to her husband’s wishes, “doing him good and not evil,” even when he is no longer able to function.

    And the only way we can do that, ladies, is to ask what he wants.  If you haven’t, you need to sit down together and ask him those tough questions.  If you have a will, and you should, that will help, but perhaps he has other things, not valuable things, but things he cherishes, that he would like to go to someone in particular.  Find out and write it down.  Perhaps he wants a certain man to preach his funeral.  Find out who.  Perhaps he wants certain songs to be sung.  Find out which ones.  

    Then there are the really difficult decisions.  Does he want to be an organ donor?  Does he have a living will?  If he is very ill already, does he have a DNR?  If he were to reach the point that he no longer knows anyone, how does he want to be cared for?

    Life has a way of stealing a man’s identity and our society’s ridicule of the elderly doesn’t help a bit.  The doctor may tell him he can no longer drive.  Be careful what you say to others in his hearing.  You may not think it a big deal, but for some men driving represents more than just going somewhere.  God has programmed into our men the need to provide and protect, and in a society where we no longer face angry natives on the warpath and food is always just around the corner at Publix, he has few ways of doing that.  Driving may be one of them.  Don’t steal his manhood with your comments about this or anything else he can no longer do.  

    We could go on and on with this, but I imagine you have gotten my point.  Because of the emotions involved these things are difficult to talk about, even when we have absolute faith in the reward God promises.  Some men will refuse, but do what you can.  Listen to him when he talks to others and make a note in your mind of what he says if you can’t get him to say it to you, but do your best to know what he wants and then do those things for him when he is lying there completely unable, just as David was.

    An aside here—there are some things a man has no business telling his wife to do.  He should not tell you to never remarry.  Especially if you are young, which is a whole lot older than it used to be to me, Paul himself says you should remarry (1 Tim 5:14).  Death breaks the marriage bond (Rom 7), and he no longer has that hold on you.  And of course, anything sinful you can rightly ignore.  

    Back to our point—please do this today.  Do not use your youthful age as an excuse.  One inch either way and a bullet would have made me a widow at 42.  Then there was the stroke Keith had when I was 49.  I can tell you sad tales of people who have succumbed to disease even earlier than that.  These days women usually outlive their men, especially if they are several years younger, as I am.  It is only sensible to be ready.  How can you possibly “do him good and not evil” when you don’t know what good he wants?

    And then do this for him too.  Sometimes we women do go first.  Tell him what you want.  If you start the ball rolling, maybe it will come more easily for him.  Once you both have it down, you can rest easy, and on the day when one or the other of you finally do go to that promised rest, the one you leave behind can rest too.

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away…So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom, Psalm 90:10,12

*To read my take on Bathsheba, go over to the right sidebar and click on Bible People.  Scroll down several articles and a couple of pages to find “A Case of Mistaken Identity.”

Dene Ward

Root Canals

3/26/2015 0 Comments

These things never happen at a good time, but it seems to me that my two root canals outdid themselves for inconvenience.  
    I had an abscess.  My own dentist did not answer, and his message box was full.  So I spent the morning searching for a dentist who took our dental insurance.  By afternoon I did not care if they did or not—I just needed some relief.  So a new dentist saw me and scheduled me for a root canal the next morning.  That evening Keith had a stroke and I was at the hospital till 1:30 a.m.  
    The next morning, when I considered canceling the procedure, his doctor said, “Go.  Take care of yourself so you can take care of him.”
    That one was not too bad.  It was not the reason tears streamed down my face during the whole procedure,   I know the dentist must have thought I had lost my mind, though, because at the same time I was struggling not to laugh as that old song ran through my head, “I’ve got tears in my ears while I lie on my back in my bed when I cry over you.”  It had been a rough twenty-four hours and hysteria was close at hand.    
    The second time, the abscess started the day before I was to leave with my students for state competition.  When the dentist heard, he scheduled the procedure for the next week, and sent me on my way with pain killers and antibiotics, as well as his personal phone number.  He knew dentists in the city I was headed for and would get me an emergency root canal if I couldn’t hack it.  
    Somehow I managed to accompany 8 art songs, 8 musical theater numbers and 4 piano concerti—about eighty pages of music--even though my students had to take turns holding me up in between.  Or maybe they were holding me down.  The pain killers were doing a number on me and I felt like I was floating.
    That root canal, a week later, did not go so well.  When the dentist said, “Oho!” I was almost afraid to ask.  
    “I thought I was nearly finished,” he began, “but this tooth has five roots instead of four, so here we go again.”  
    Then came the next surprise.  That fifth root was covered by calcification.  We did not know that meant that the anesthesia had not reached it until the drill burst through covering and hit that live root.
    I try to make it a rule not to scream in doctor’s offices, but that time I broke the rule.
    The only two ways to fix an abscess permanently are to pull the tooth or do a root canal, emptying the tooth of all live material, then crowning it, so it looks and functions like a normal tooth.  If you don’t get all the way to the bottom, you will still hurt, and another infection will soon follow.  They say in the old days that people actually died from those things.
    Doing that little job is not pleasant, but if you have been hurting as I had been for days and days, it is definitely worth it.
    And pulling it out by the roots is the only way to rid yourself of sin too.  David said in the 36th Psalm, Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.  You can’t just put a crown over the tooth and expect it to get well; and so you cannot just put on a cloak of righteousness while your heart still leads you in the same evil direction every day.  You cannot take a pain pill and think that will make your tooth well; and so you cannot just sit in a pew on Sunday, not even every Sunday, and think that is enough of a change in your life to satisfy God.
    You pull the sin out by the roots.  You change your habits; you change your associations; you change your schedule; you change your life in whatever way necessary if you have really changed your heart.  Then you put down new roots, planted deep in your heart as well, but this time roots of righteousness.  When they finally become established it will be as difficult to pull them out as it was to pull out the bad roots, but this time, you won’t have to.

The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Psalm 92:6,7,12-15.

Dene Ward

Pruning

3/25/2015 0 Comments

Our late winter/early spring gardening chores include pruning.  Pruning is serious business.  If you do it at the wrong time and in the wrong way, you can kill a plant.  But correct pruning encourages healthy growth, more flowering, heavier fruit yields, and in general, better looking plants.  Correct pruning can also scare you to death.

    If Keith had not had an experienced friend show him how to prune the grapes, he would never have done it correctly.  Light pruning does not promote fruiting on grape vines.  It takes a heavy-handed pruner, one who knows exactly how far down which vines to cut—and it is much farther than you would ever expect—to make vines that in the late summer provide both greater quantity and quality of grapes.  

    Roses also benefit from good pruning.  Every January or February (remember that we are talking here in Florida before you follow this to the letter) you should cut off 1/3 to ½ of the mature canes, plus all dead or dying branches, as well as those that cross or stray out of the general shape of the bush.  That is how you get more flowers and larger blooms, and healthier, prettier bushes altogether.

    God believes in pruning too.  John 15 is full of the imagery of pruning grape vines, cutting off those that no longer produce and throwing them in the fire, which just happens to be where we throw all our prunings as well.  God has done a lot of pruning throughout history.

    The wilderness wandering was nothing but one big pruning exercise.  All the faithless, those men of war responsible for the decision not to take the land, had to die, and a new generation be prepared.  Do you realize that if you only count those men, on average throughout those forty years, 40 men died every day?  That does not count the people who died of accident, disease and childbirth, and the women and priests who simply died of old age.  Every morning the first thing on one’s mind must have been, “Who died yesterday?”  Those people must have done nothing but bury the dead every single day for forty years.  No wonder they moved so often.

    Then there was the Babylonian captivity.  Ezekiel worked for seventy years preparing the next generation to return to the land as a righteous remnant while the older one died off.  Pruning made them better, stronger, and more able to endure those months of rebuilding, and the years that followed.

    And what else was it but pruning that made God cut off some branches (Jews) and graft in others (Gentiles)?  They were broken off because of their unbelief, Paul says in Rom 11:20, and then goes on to say that if God will prune the natural branches, he will certainly prune those that had been grafted in if their faith fails.

    God still prunes.  We tend to call it by other metaphors these days—refining our faith as gold, Peter says in one of those passages.  “Discipline” the Hebrew writer calls it, adding that the Lord only chastens those he loves.  But all these figures mean the same thing.  Pruning can be painful.  The best pruning shears are the sharp ones, for the wound will heal more quickly the cleaner the cut.  

    We carry a lot of deadwood on us that God has to whittle away through the trials and experiences of life, and with our own growth in the knowledge of the Word as we learn what is and is not acceptable to God.  It is up to us to use that pruning, shedding the dead wood and cultivating new growth, bearing more fruit, higher quality fruit, and more beautiful blooms.  If I am not growing I can expect nothing more than my whole vine to be cut off and cast into the fire.  

    We want to be that productive grape vine with fruit so heavy and juicy we almost break from the sheer weight of it.  We want to be the rose that brings the oohs and aahs, whose perfume wafts on the breeze to all those around us.  We must submit to the pruning of the Master Gardener, glorying in His work in us, no matter how painful, so that we can “prove to be his disciples,” John 15:8, faithful to the end.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit, John 15:2.

Dene Ward

Product Shrinkage

3/24/2015 0 Comments

I reached for a can of tuna the other day and absently read the label:  Net Wt, 5 ounces.   I can remember, and actually have recipes calling for a 7½ ounce can of tuna.  I also remember 1 pound bags of coffee and 7 ounce bars of soap.
    What happened?  The manufacturers attempted to camouflage rising prices by putting less product in similar size containers for the same price.  That morning I must have strained a full ounce of water from that 5 ounce can of tuna.  I needed nearly two cans to make the same amount as 30 years ago.  Eventually of course, the prices did rise.  I can remember tuna for 29 cents a can.  Either way, we get less for more.

    That makes it even more amazing that the most expensive commodity on earth, the one that cost the death of the Son of God, is free.  To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, Eph 1:6.

    I can recall hearing only one sermon on grace when I was a child.  I guess that is why I remember it.  I can even remember the building I was sitting in.  We have too long ignored the fact that we are saved by grace because we are so afraid someone will think we believe in something unscriptural.  Grace is one of the most scriptural topics there is!

    But now that I hear more about the grace of God, I am noticing a different problem—we limit the grace of God to forgiveness.

    Grace is there to help us live our lives as well.  Paul says that when he prayed to Christ to rid him of his “thorn in the flesh,” Christ’s answer was, My grace is sufficient, 2 Cor 12:9.  In other words, I will help you bear this burden.

    Christ went on to say, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  As long as I try to handle things alone I will never make it.  But when I make myself weak, allowing Christ to take care of me, I can handle anything.  Therefore, Paul adds, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

    And there lies our problem:  we so often will not let Him help us. We refuse, in the popular parlance, “to turn it over to God.”  We keep trying to help ourselves to the point that we do not even see the help He has offered.  If it does not match our wants, if it does not look like the help we have envisioned, if it still involves bearing any burden at all, it can’t be grace, and so we miss out, and have only ourselves to blame.  

    God says He will help.  What else is it but grace that promises, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it, 1 Cor 10:13?   If I do not endure, if I do not overcome, it is because I do not have faith in the grace of God.  And that will have a huge impact because if I cannot trust it to help me through this life, how can I trust it to forgive me?  

    If we are willing to accept it, God will not hold back this gift.  He will not decrease the amount of grace He gives.   He will, in fact, increase it as we have need.  My grace is sufficient.

     Or maybe it’s just that God’s grace in any amount is far more powerful than any need we can ever imagine.  

If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, "My foot slips," your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul, Psa 94:17-19.

Dene Ward

The Danger of Prosperity

3/23/2015 0 Comments

As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” Psalm 30:6.

    Several scholars believe Psalm 30 concerns the time David numbered the people of Israel and God punished them with a pestilence.  Before we get any further, let me caution you to read this in the 1 Chronicles 21 account and not just 2 Samuel 24.  You will get a much better portrait of David in Chronicles, one much more fitting a “man after God’s own heart.”
    But no matter when in David’s life this psalm was written, he tells us in verse 6 exactly what caused his problem.  In his prosperity he relied too much on himself.  Oh, he recognizes that his wealth and security came from God, v 7a, but he was so smug about it that God “hid His face.”  It was “my mountain,” not God’s, and if this is the time of the numbering, he was so full of himself that he sent Joab around not to take a full census, but to count “those who can wield a sword.”  He wanted to know how strong he was now that his foes were destroyed and his land was at peace, even though God told the people not to worry about such things, but to trust Him.  Even a man such as Joab knew that this numbering was not a good idea.  
    Here is what we as Americans steadfastly refuse to see, even Christians:  there is no temptation so great as prosperity.  Not just wealth, but security and peace along with it.  The scriptures are full of the warnings, but we heed them not.  What do we all want?  To get ahead.  What do we spend our lives doing?  Making money.  What do we dream about?  Being rich.  
    But hear this:  the New Testament does not speak of wealth in any way but as dangerous to our spiritual health.  
      Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matt 6:19,21.
    As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful, Matt 13:22.
    Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, Matt 19:24.
    And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, Luke 12:15.
    But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs, 1 Tim 6:9,10.
    Why do we insist on standing in the rattlesnake’s nest?  I understand wanting your children to have more and better than you did, but I do not want their souls at risk, and from everything I see and read in the Book that really matters, that is what wealth will do to them.  If David can fall because of it, so can you and so can I and so can they.  Any time you feel secure in your wealth, in your preparations for the future or for “unforeseen circumstances,” be careful.  God may very well send you a reminder that you cannot count on anyone but Him, just as He did to David.  It may be the most painful reminder you ever get.

Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven, Prov 23:4,5.

Dene Ward