A Four Star Hotel

3/20/2015 2 Comments

About fifteen years ago, a music teacher friend and I attended a state level vocal competition in a small Florida town.  She was the state treasurer, the one who handed out checks to judges and scholarship winners.  I was the accompanist for two of the entrants.  When we tried to make our reservations, the one hotel in town, an old Southern relic complete with ceiling fans and rockers on a wood-planked front porch, was booked solid and had been for months.  Our only choice was the motel up by the interstate.  We did not expect much, given the name on the sign and the price, so we weren’t surprised when we quickly stopped by to deposit our bags and saw the size of the room in the gloom.  We had no time to inspect the premises or even turn on a light or open the shades.  We just dumped our bags and drove on to the competition.

    When we returned about ten o’clock that night, we almost left our things and fled, but there was no place to run to.  The parking lot had been empty at 5 pm, but now it was full of souped-up, high rise, four wheel drive pickups, their fenders caked with streaks of mud and their windows with dust.  Evidently their owners also found their rooms cramped, because it seemed like all of them were standing outside, laughing uproariously at one another’s jokes and adding to their flannel-clad beer bellies by the six pack, several of which they tossed around.
 
    We actually had to pull in between two of those trucks, and all talking ceased as we left our car.  I have never been so thrilled with my regular accompanist’s attire—a plain, black, mid-calf dress with a high neck and long sleeves.  My friend wore a dressy business suit, and we were both on the wrong side of forty, so they let us pass without a word.  When we got inside, we locked the door, put a chair under the knob, and pinned those still closed draperies overlapped and shut.  

    Then we saw our room in the light for the first time.  You could barely get between the outside edge of each bed and its neighboring wall.  The rod for our hanging clothes was loose on one end, and couldn’t support the weight of even my one dress, much less it and her suit.  The soap was half the size of the usual motel sliver, and the bath towels more like hand towels.  The pipes rattled, the tub sported a rust streak the color and width of a lock of Lucy’s hair, and the carpet had so many stains it looked like a planned pattern.

    After we managed to shower in the tepid, anemic stream of water, we pulled down the sheets and my friend moaned, “Oh no.”  With some trepidation I approached her bed in my nightgown and heels—neither of us wanted to go barefoot and they were all I had—and there lying on her pillow was a long black hair.  Her hair was short and very blond, she being a Minnesotan by birth with a strong streak of Norse in her veins.  “Please tell me the maid lost this hair when she was putting on clean—very clean—sheets.”

    “Okay,” I muttered.  “The maid lost that hair when she was putting on clean—ultra clean and highly bleached—sheets.”

    When we got to bed, it wasn’t to sleep.  Not with the noise going on in the parking lot just outside our door or in the neighboring rooms.  The walls seemed as thin as tent walls.  We rose in the morning bleary-eyed and ready to leave as quickly as possible.  This place offered no “free breakfast” and we would not have eaten it if it had.  We promised one another that if we ever had to come back and couldn’t get a room in town, we would stay anywhere else, even if it meant a fifty mile drive, one way.  
  
      It was a horrible experience, but some of us offer one just like it to the Lord.
  
     For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, Eph 3:14-17.
  
     According to Paul, it takes effort to allow Christ to dwell in our hearts, enough that he prayed for them to have the strength to allow it.  Are you allowing it?  And if you are, what sort of accommodations are you offering him?  

    Making a welcoming environment for him may not happen overnight, especially if we are dealing with deep-seated habits or even addictions of one sort or another.  He understands that, but we must constantly be adjusting our behavior to suit him, not ourselves, putting his desires ahead of our own, becoming, in fact, a completely different person altogether.  Wherefore if any man is in Christ, [he is] a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new, 2 Cor 5:17.

    But this isn’t just a problem for new Christians.  I have seen older Christians act as if Christ is nowhere nearby, much less dwelling in their hearts.  Their language, their fits of pique, their dress, their choice of entertainment, and the complete lack of spiritual nourishment they partake of starved him and ran him off a long time ago, and they don’t even seem to realize it.  What?  Do you really think he will stay in a flophouse instead of the four star hotel you should have offered him?

    What it all boils down to is a failure to live like we have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, Gal 2:20.  Did you see that?  Allowing him to dwell in you (Eph 3:17) and living a new crucified life both happen “by faith.”  Even if you have been claiming to be a Christian for decades, if you are not living up to it, you do not have the faith required.  It doesn’t matter how many times you were dipped into a baptistery if nothing about you changed, or if you have gone back to that old way of life.

    What sort of room are you offering the Lord?  He spent a lot for it, and he will walk out if you don’t live up to the name on your sign—Christian.

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Cor 13:5.

Dene Ward

A Beautifully Made Bed

3/19/2015 0 Comments

I well remember my children’s first attempt at making their beds.  They were so proud of their accomplishment, one I had not even asked them to do, that they came running to get me, and took me to their room by the hand.
    There were two twin beds, indeed all made up.  The bedspreads hung lopsided, the hem at the head end barely reaching the edge of the bed and the hem at the foot end folding down over itself onto the carpet.  Under it, the sheets and blankets sat in piles and rolls, making the bedspread top look like it was laid over Lilliputian foothills. One of the spreads was particularly “off,” and I was momentarily at a loss to figure out the problem.  At the foot, the bottom sheet showed in a line one to four inches wide.  Since the top barely reached the headboard and it was not neatly tucked in under the pillows, that should not have been.  Then I realized what was wrong--the whole bedspread was on sideways.
    “Amazing!” I gushed.  “What a fine job you have done.”  For indeed they had—for a four- and six-year-old who had been given no instruction at all  
    The next few mornings I asked if they would like to learn some hints that would make bed making easier.  Easier?  Of course they would, because it had not taken long for the new to wear off this activity and for it to become simply a chore.  So they learned how to make a bed properly, and in time they did reasonably well.
    Now imagine if they had shown me that first made bed when they were 14 and 16.  Do you think I would have lavished any praise on them?  I would have expected a much better eye for detail, and much more care in technique.  That does not mean I was lying when I told them at the earlier age that they had done a fine job.  They had done a fine job for their age and experience.
    Now how about us?  How old am I as a child of God?  But—and here is the crux of the matter—how old do I act?  How much have I learned and grown, and does it show in the way I behave every day of my life?
    We needn’t expect the same praise God would give a babe in Christ if we have been Christians for 20 years.  If we have been Christians longer than that, we should have made even more progress.
    Make no mistake, God does love his children, but He has expectations as well.  I must do my best for my Father, trying harder and harder to get better and better.  If my “bed making” is still at age 4 level when I have spent 44 years as His child, He will not be pleased.  And if I love Him, working to get better is not too much to ask.

…till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; Eph 4:13-15.

Dene Ward

Dressing for the Occasion

3/18/2015 0 Comments

A few Sundays ago the chill weather made it possible for me to wear my best suit, one a little heavier than anything else I have, one a little more expensive, but a hand-me-down from a friend.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a couple of limited time specials.  That’s one way we stay financially afloat—picking up specials when we are already the thirty miles into town for assembly.
    So we were loading the trunk and as she passed, a stranger said to me, “That’s a lovely suit.  You’ve been to church, haven’t you?  I apologize for being nosy, but would you mind telling me where you attend?”
    Would I mind?!  Of course I spent the next five or ten minutes telling her where I attend, when we meet, who we are, and what we do.  Then I handed her a blog card and pointed out my contact information in case she had more questions.  “Please email me or just call.  I can give you more detailed directions,” I finished with.
    I know a lot of people who no longer “dress up” for church.  They certainly have that right.  But I know a lot of others who go even further—who tell those of us who grew up doing it that we are wrong, that we are trying to be Christians on the outside instead of the inside.  I have yet to figure out why wearing my good suit on Sunday makes me a hypocrite any more than someone who thinks sitting on the pew in jeans on Sunday then dressing up for the boss all week makes him a Christian. 
    In fact, tell me this.  If you were this woman and you were searching, who would you ask on a Sunday about noon at the grocery store—the guy in shorts, tee shirt and flip-flops or the man with a tie on?  The lady with a dress on or the one with cut-offs and an oversized shirt hanging over her waistline?  Maybe there is something to be said after all for making it obvious on a Sunday that you have been to church. 
    But then we have this point—it isn’t what you wear on Sunday that makes the Christian; it’s what you wear every day. 
    Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do you: and above all these things [put on] love, which is the bond of perfectness, Col 3:12-14.
    My neighbors need to see these spiritual clothes every day.  There can be no “dressing down” spiritually after you have “put on Christ” in baptism, Gal 3:27.  The people I work with, the people I go to school with, the people I come into contact with, especially on a regular basis, should know by my speech and my actions that “I went to church on Sunday.”  God won’t accept a “casual Friday” set of spiritual clothes any day of the week.
    I’ve had a great many things make people ask me questions—maybe that’s a good subject for another day, but it all boils down to this—I have to look different.  Whether it’s how I act, how I speak, how I run my family, or any number of ways, it needs to be obvious.  Let’s stop making judgments about one another’s literal clothes, and just go out there and show people who we are with the spiritual wardrobe of a child of God. 

The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to [fulfil] the lusts [thereof] Romans 13:12-14.

Dene Ward

Nursery Tales

3/17/2015 0 Comments

I was a lucky young mother.  When my babies were small, I worshipped with church families that had no nurseries.  I did not realize at the time what a blessing it was.
    When Lucas was a baby, we met with a small congregation that rented a union hall.  The union must not have been very popular.  At the end of a narrow hall was the only room big enough for meeting together, and thirty of us filled it up.  Five of us were nursing mothers, and since that was over half the families in the congregation, the men agreed that we should be able to simply step out of the room to get ourselves situated, then come back in to sit and listen to the sermons or Bible classes while we nursed our babies.  New babies have a tendency to nurse for long periods of time.  We might have missed a full hour if these men had not been so mature-minded, and we ladies gratefully learned early how to stay modest while nursing.  I doubt anyone walking in would have even known what we were doing.
    When Nathan was a toddler we had moved to a place with an actual meetinghouse.  It was an old building way out in the country with absolutely no modern conveniences except electric lights, and certainly no nursery.  You walked in the door and there you stood in the open auditorium.  That meant when you had to deal with unruly children, you dealt with them and then came right back into the assembly.  
    So why do I think I was lucky?  Because I did not have the source of temptation that so many young mothers must deal with today.  When you have no choice, there is no temptation.  Young mothers today must be much stronger than I ever had to be.
    I gleaned advice from several older women during those years.  My mother, for instance, was happy to tell me about how she foiled my attempts to ruin her worship services.  I always acted up and she would take me to the nursery—she lived in the city.  Finally, when I was 18 months old, she realized that she had not trained me, I had trained her—all I had to do was wiggle and squeal a little and I got to go play!  The next Sunday, she took me, not to the nursery, but outside, and applied her hand to my bottom in a less than comforting way.  Then she marched me right back into the auditorium.  She said I looked at her with outrage, as if to say, “This is NOT how it works!  You broke the rules!”  But I was not a stupid child; I learned the new rule quickly:  being taken out of the assembly is not a pleasant experience.
    I went to visit her once at this same meetinghouse.  Suddenly, my baby needed a diaper change and needed it then.  To have stayed sitting there any longer would have broken the commandment to “Love thy neighbor.”
    So I got up and took my twenty-month-old to the nursery.  I was stunned when I walked in.  Several young mothers, and a few who looked like grandmothers, were sitting in there chatting away.  A playpen had been placed in the middle of the room, full of toys.  The side of the playpen was lowered and each baby was sitting around it, reaching in and playing with both the toys and each other.  Could the women see the preacher?  Yes, there was a large picture window in front of them.  Could they hear the preacher?  Well, there was a speaker on the wall, but their talking and laughing drowned it out.
    After the diaper change, I got out of there as quickly as I could.  I recognized the siren call immediately.  I had dealt with two babies at once, while their father preached.  We never lived close to family so I never had a grandparent to help out either.  It was often tiring, frustrating and embarrassing to try to train my children to behave in the assembly.  To have a place to go where I would no longer have to wrestle with them, where they could play and squeal to their heart’s content, would have been wonderful.  But it would not have taught them how important the group worship of God is, how precious the rituals we follow, how much it meant to me and therefore how much it should mean to them.
    Being a parent is not for the weak of heart, mind, or body.  You are on duty 24/7 and you must do what you must do no matter what else is going on in your life.  Children will not wait.  You cannot easily “unteach” what you later wish you had not taught.  I would give anything to undo a lot of the mistakes I made, but it just won’t happen.  In the end you hope you did more right than wrong, and that those right things were more lasting and impressive.  
    Think about what you do, when you do it, and how.  Think about what those little eyes see and those little ears hear.  Think the most about what those little minds infer from what they see and hear you doing.  Your children aren’t stupid either.  Whatever it is you do, when you do it, it stays with them the longest.

And [Hannah] said, "Oh, my lord!  As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord.  For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.  Therefore I have given him to the Lord.   As long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”  And he worshiped the Lord there, 1 Sam 1:26-28.

Dene Ward

March 15, 1937--Blood Banks

3/16/2015 0 Comments

Medicine has come a long way since ancient times and it hasn’t stopped progressing.  As a patient who has a rare disease, I have had my share of experimental surgeries and procedures, and endured experimental medicines and equipment.  Sometimes it’s just plain scary, but when it works, it’s amazing.  I can still see, several years after I was expected to lose my vision.  It may not be great vision, and the after effects of all these procedures and medications may not be pleasant, but let me tell you, any vision is better than no vision, and you will put up with a lot to have it.

    Blood is one area where knowledge is still blossoming.  But just think of this.  Transfusions were not common until the turn of the twentieth century, and even then it had to be a live donor for an immediate transfusion.  It went on that way for nearly four decades.  Finally, Dr Bernard Fantus at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago performed several experiments and determined that human blood, under refrigeration, could last up to ten days.  Still not long, but enough for him to start the first blood bank on March 15, 1937.  Imagine the lives that were suddenly saved.  It must have seemed like a miracle.

    Medicine has progressed even further.  My little bit of research tells me that at 1-6 degrees Centigrade, blood can now be kept up to 42 days, and that some of it can be frozen for up to ten years.  I wonder if Dr Fantus had any idea what he had put into motion.

    But sooner or later that blood does become stale.  It is no longer usable to save lives.  And if there is a sudden loss of power that cannot be maintained with a generator or other power source, all of it will spoil almost immediately.  

    Imagine a blood that never loses its potency, that never becomes stale, that will always save.  

    For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Heb 9:24-26.

    Jesus does not have to offer himself “repeatedly.”  He does not have to keep a fresh supply of blood handy.  The saving power of his blood lasts forever.  And what exactly does it do?
    It makes propitiation, Rom 3:23.
    It justifies, Rom 5:9.
    It brings us “near,” Eph 2:13.
    It purifies our consciences and makes us able to serve God, Heb 9:14.  
    It forgives, Heb 9:23.
    It cleanses us from sin, 1 John 1:7.

    Now understand this—it isn’t the fact that Jesus cut his finger one day and bled a little.  Blood in the Bible has always represented a death.  The blood that saves us is the death he willingly died on our behalf, because only a sacrificial death can atone for sin (Lev 17:11).  And we don’t have to worry about “types” and “factors.”  His blood will cleanse us from “all sin,” 1 John 1:7.

    Nowadays people want nothing to do with another person’s blood.  Everyone wears gloves.  But to gain the benefits of Christ’s blood you have to “touch” it.  How do you contact that blood?  You simply “die” with Christ.  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, Rom 6:3,4.  

    And that blood bank still works for us.  It keeps right on forgiving as needed, as we repent and continue to walk in him for the rest of our lives.      

    Only once--that’s all he had to suffer.  Our trips to the blood bank will likely be more than once, but may they become less and less often as we grow in grace and faith and love.  It will be there when we need it, but let’s not squander a precious gift, nor take it for granted.  

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him, Heb 9:27,28.

Dene Ward    

Ol' Reliable

3/13/2015 0 Comments

Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

Jerry Whitehead has died.  He was only 60, it was sudden and unexpected.  For those of you who don't know him, Mr. Whitehead was the Sheriff of Union County, where I grew up.  Not only was he the sheriff, he had been the sheriff since 1985.  For 28 years he had been the top law enforcement officer of our county.  He was a good man, friendly and kind.  He coached me in Little League baseball.  The people of the county were comfortable knowing that Mr. Whitehead was looking out for things.  I imagine that there are people in their early forties who don't remember a time when Jerry Whitehead wasn't the sheriff.  They relied on him.

And now he is gone.

It just goes to show that we can't rely on anyone in this world.  Some people we trust let us down because they aren't the people we thought they were.  Even the people of the highest integrity, however, can't be relied upon to always be there, because one day they will be gone, just like Jerry Whitehead.  Everyone gets old and too weak to keep up their previous pace.  Everyone we look up to will eventually die and leave us holding the bag with others looking up to us.  And then we, too, will be gone.

In this ephemeral world, however, there is one thing I can rely on:  Luke 21:33 "[Jesus said] Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."  I can rely on the teachings found in the Bible.  I can trust on His word to lead my life.  I can count on the promises recorded therein.  Because of His recorded Word, I can know my God and what He expects of me.  I can know of the great salvation He has wrought for me and what my responsibilities are regarding that salvation.  Despite the changes of public opinion and popularity, His Word never changes.  I can base my life on it and I can be secure.

Mat 7:24-25 "Every one therefore that hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock."

Lucas Ward

Guilt By Association

3/12/2015 2 Comments

My husband deals with convicted felons every day.  It is amazing how many stories he hears that begin, “I didn’t do anything.  I just went with my friends and then all of a sudden…”  It may seem unfair for someone to be punished for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, if indeed that is truly what happened, but what about common sense?  Why go for a stroll in a snake pit?  Wisdom says the consequences will not be worth the adrenalin rush.
    We often dally in sin and think nothing of it.  We are as bad as young daredevils who think they will never die.  “I’m strong; nothing will happen to me.  Besides, God knows my heart, and He knows I am not a bad person.”
    Have you ever looked at the lists of sins scattered throughout the New Testament?  It always amazes me the failings I find listed side by side, things I would never have put in the same category.
    Look at 2 Tim 3:2-4.  For people shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.  Which of us is not sometimes proud, does not sometimes forget to be grateful, or lacks a little self-control in some areas of our lives?  Yet the Holy Spirit includes those among the brutal, the ruthless, and the treacherous.
    Then there is Romans 1:29-31.  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness:  evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  Whoa!  Disobedience to parents and gossip included with murder?  Boasting and insolence included with hating God?  That’s a wake-up call we all need.  
    Another such association literally took my breath away when I discovered it.  Look up the Greek word for the Devil--Diabolus, “Slanderer.”  That means when I talk about another person, I am becoming exactly what Satan is.  Gossip is never inconsequential.  Even if it never hurts the one being slandered, a near impossibility, it is certainly affecting the one doing it.  You cannot do the works of Satan and come out unscathed.
    So be careful when those “little” sins start popping up.  Look at the other sins God associates them with.  Look who practices them.  Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is just that—wrong.

My little children let no man lead you astray.  He who practices righteousness is righteous.  He who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning.  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:  whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, neither he who does not love his brother, 1 John 3:8.10.

Dene Ward

How to Write a Modern Hymn

3/11/2015 3 Comments

I never thought I would be an old fogy, but I am about to place myself squarely in their ranks.  I prefer to think, however, that, as a professional musician and music educator, I have at least a little credibility in this area.

    Speaking of which, you evidently do not need to be a professional musician with theory training, or knowledge of vocal ranges and anatomy to write hymns these days.  From what I have seen, anyone can do it.

    First, use only half a dozen different notes in the melody.  In fact, it is quite acceptable to use only four different notes in the first sixteen measures.  Make sure the soprano never has to sing more than a major sixth range--often a perfect fifth will do. The melody should hang around F4 and G4, where the soprano voice is [wo]manfully trying to switch from chest to head register so that the only way to get any power in the voice is to push that chest voice beyond its natural niche, which will soon damage the vocal cords.  And remember, it is perfectly acceptable to have the soprano sing a minor third below middle C.  Surely everyone should be able to experience nodules on their vocal cords, shouldn’t they?

    Similarly, ignore the fact that most men who sing bass in the church are baritones, and write the bass line so they can grovel at F2 and G2 for measure after measure.

    As for rhythm, syncopate whenever possible.  Make it as complicated as you can imagine so that the average untrained congregation will never truly sing together, but will instead sound like they have one massive case of hiccups.

    Harmony?  The three primary triads will do nicely.  Oh, you might use a ii-V instead of the standard IV-V, throw in a vi chord to delay the cadence, or add a secondary dominant about halfway through in such obvious ways that they all sound like freshman theory assignments.

    As for the words, you needn’t be a deep thinker.  Just choose five or six words and repeat them over and over.  One verse will do.  If you want to improve on that, just change one or two words of the first verse and sing it again!

    Your topic?  Praise, of course, and nothing else.  No teaching and admonishing about daily life.  No songs about hope and faith and grace.  And absolutely nothing at all about humility and unworthiness.  None of the modern lyricists would ever write, “Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”  We would not want to damage anyone’s self-esteem.  However, if you do try to use a Biblical narrative, make sure you get at least one Bible fact wrong.  

    If you are really good, you can combine many of these tactics.  Just the other morning we sang a praise song with less than half a dozen words, using only four different notes in the entire melody, and with the soprano—the soprano, mind you—traveling no higher than the center line of the treble clef.

    Seriously, I have looked through the only inspired hymnal we have, the book of Psalms, and it amazes me that in only 150 songs, we are given, by some counts, as many as eight different types of songs.  When I was a child, we seriously lacked praise hymns.  I can probably count the ones we sang regularly on one hand, so I am glad to have a few more in our repertoire, but even in the book of Psalms, praise songs are not the most numerous.  In fact, according to the examples we have in the Old Testament, and the directions we have in the New Testament, there is much more we should also be singing about.

    Some people think the old hymns are “boring.”  (Reread the second paragraph up from this one and then tell me about “boring.”)  Try this:  find an old hymn you think is boring and read the words like a poem—no singing allowed.  I doubt there is one in fifty that is not profound, edifying and moving.  
    For the record—I do like some of our newer hymns.  My son says—and he is probably right about this—we just need another hundred years to weed out the new ones that are nothing more than trendy kitsch, leaving us with only the best of the bunch.  We have already had that time with the older hymns, and that is probably why they seem so much more profound as a group.

    Regardless of which group of songs any of us like the best, if the beat is all we care about, I wonder how much good our singing really does.  God is not listening to the music our mouths make or the rhythm our toes tap; he is listening to the music our hearts make.  If you must like the beat to sing the song, you have forgotten who it is we should be trying to please.  And yes, that goes for me too.  It doesn’t matter if I like the song; it doesn’t matter if you do.  What matters is whether we sing with all our hearts to the Lord and to one another.  That is what singing hymns is all about.
    
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ, Eph 5:18-21.

Dene Ward

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Good Enough

3/10/2015 0 Comments

We just spent $90 on dirt.  We live in the country.  At that rate the top six inches of our 5 acres is worth about a $125,000.  
    My herb garden had a few problems last year.  When your perennial rosemary cannot seem to top six inches and all of your super-easy-to-grow basil and parsley die despite watering and fertilizing, you begin to suspect it has more to do with the ground than the color of your thumb.
    So Keith spent a weekend recently digging out the whole bed.  Then he bought landscaping timbers, Miracle-Gro garden soil and Black Kow composted manure to fill it with.  This bed will grow in spite of itself, yet I could not help but think, “Ninety dollars for dirt!”  
    “No,” he told me, “ninety dollars for all those better meals we will eat due to the flavoring and nuance of home-grown fresh herbs—plenty for a change, instead of a rationed amount.”
    My old herb garden was good enough.  We ate a lot of good meals out of it, but it was beginning to falter.  It needed a little help to improve.
    Too many times we are satisfied with “good enough” in our lives as Christians. The number of times we meet with our brethren, the amount of time we spend studying and praying, the amount we give in both time and money to spread the Gospel and to help those in need may very well be “good enough.”  I am not one of those to take the passage “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him that is sin,” and use it as a hammer to pound feelings of fear and inadequacy into people who are doing their best.  
    So you stopped your Bible study last night after just an hour so you could play with your children awhile.  You know what?  That is okay.
    So you missed Sunday evening services this week because your widowed mother is gravely ill and it’s your only chance to take a turn sitting with her.  That is fine.  Our choices are not always between good and bad, but between good and better, and it is an individual decision you must make for yourself.  No one has the right to judge.
    In fact, you may indeed be doing as much as you possibly can.  The problem is the attitude that looks for nothing more than “good enough.”  When one has that attitude, he isn’t.
    As Christians we are slaves to God, we are living sacrifices.  Neither of those words gives us the right to decide that “enough is enough.”  We are always looking for ways to improve ourselves, for ways to grow, for ways to become more and more like God.  That might mean that we must do a lot of extra work here and there (like a slave), and spend more in time and resources (like a sacrifice) in order to improve.  But slaves want to please their masters more than themselves, and sacrifices are not sacrifices if they are cheap and easy.  We don’t want to be “good enough;” we want to be the best!
    
Even so you also, when you shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do. Luke 17:10.

Dene Ward

Common Sense

3/9/2015 0 Comments

The only newspaper we ever bother to buy, mainly because of the coupons, the crossword puzzle, and the sports page, is the Sunday issue.  The coupons pay for it so it isn’t even a guilty pleasure, not that the press is ever much of a pleasure anyway.  But the business page one recent week sounded like something you might read in a church bulletin—or at least hear from the pulpit or a Bible class lectern.   Notice:
    “A start [to reduce our stress] is to mitigate the desire to acquire.  Folks with a high net worth are frequently coupon clippers and sale shoppers who resist the urge to splurge…Many times the difference between true wealth and ‘advertised’ wealth is that those with true wealth are smart enough not to succumb to the lure of what it can buy.”  Margaret McDowell, “Lieutenant Dan, George Bailey, and Picasso,” Gainesville Sun, 12-14-14.
    When I turned the page I found this:  “Dress appropriately [for the office party].  Ladies…Lots of skin and lots of leg is inappropriate…Keep it classy.” Eva Del Rio, “Company Holiday Party Do’s and Don’ts for Millennials,” Gainesville Sun, 12/14/14.
    Jesus once told a parable we call “The Unrighteous Steward.”  In it, he took the actions of a devious man and applauded his wisdom.  He ended it with this statement:  For the sons of this world are for their generation, wiser than the sons of the light, Matt 16:8.  Jesus never meant that the man’s actions were approved.  What he meant was he wished his followers had as much sense as people who don’t even care about spiritual things.
    We still fall for Satan’s traps in our finances, believing that just a little more money will solve all of our problems.  We still listen to him when he says that our dress is our business and no one else’s.  It isn’t just short-sided to think that accumulating things will make us happy—even experts in that field will tell you it’s not “smart.”  It isn’t just a daring statement of individuality to wear provocative clothing, it’s cheap and “classless.”
    If we used our brains a little more, there would be less arguing about what is right and what is wrong.  We could figure it out with a little reason and a lot of soul-searching.  
    Why is it that I regularly overspend?  Because I am looking for love and acceptance from the world?  Because I trust a portfolio in hand instead of a God in the burning bush?  Because I have absolutely no self-control?  
    Why do I insist on wearing clothing that is the opposite of good taste and decorum?  Because I do not care about my brothers’ souls?  Because I do care about the wrong people’s opinions?  Because I am loud and brash and think meekness is a sign of weakness instead of strength?  Or maybe it isn’t any of these bad motives—maybe it’s just a lack of wisdom.  Is there any wonder that the book of Proverbs is included for us, and that so many times it labels people with no wisdom “fools?”
    Not just wealth and dress, but practically everything we struggle with could be overcome by being as wise as at least some of the “children of this world.”  Isn’t it sad that they so often outdo us in good old common sense?

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, Eph 5:15-17.

Dene Ward