Being Green

2/6/2015 0 Comments

Several years back we camped at Cloudland Canyon one autumn week, enjoying the new varieties of bird, the mountains carpeted with fall colors, and the spectacle every morning of clouds wafting through the campground from the cliffs just beyond it, cliffs high enough to look down on hawks as they soared by.  
    The neighbors twenty yards away were a small family, a man, his wife, and two little boys, the older about 7 or 8, and the younger just barely past the toddler years.  This was obviously a planned family outing, one that probably didn’t happen very often but that the parents were determined to make a good experience.  They did everything in a planned and almost regimented fashion.  “It’s time to light the fire.”  “Now it’s time to tell ghost stories.”  “Now it’s time to roast marshmallows.”  In between all this, the mother was on her cell phone every hour or so, sometimes for as long as a half hour, seeing to her business.  
    And both parents became impatient at the drop of a hat.  If the boys didn’t react to every activity as they thought they should, they became frustrated and almost angry.  (Who should be surprised if a ghost story terrified a four year old?)  They had mistaken the stereotype of a camping trip for the spontaneous fun of the real thing.  They had probably fallen for that “quality time” myth.
    And because we can’t seem to stop helping out, we offered them a few things, like some lighter wood to help get those campfires going more easily, and we occasionally stopped by on the way back and forth from the bathhouse, to talk and reminisce with them about the times when our two boys were that age.  They seemed appreciative, especially the father, who, we discovered when we got closer, was about 20 years older than the usual father of boys that age.
    As we talked we noticed that the older boy always wore Baylor tee shirts and sweat shirts and had a Baylor hat, so Keith talked to him some about football and asked how Baylor was doing—this was long before RGIII.  The father sighed and said, “He doesn’t know anything about Baylor football.  He just likes the color green.”
    They left after just a weekend, and it sounded like they were leaving one night early, perhaps disappointed that this hadn’t turned out quite like they expected.  
    You can learn a lot yourselves, just considering this family.  It’s always easier to judge from a distance.  But that little boy can teach us all something today.  Why is it that you assemble where you do?  Why did you choose that place?
    We would all understand the fallacy of going to the handiest place, regardless what they taught.  But how about this:  Do you go where you are needed, or to the place considered the most popular in the area, the most sociable, the one where you wouldn’t mind having people see you standing outside hobnobbing?  Do you go where the work is hard or where the singing is good?  Do you go where the preaching is entertaining or where the teaching is scriptural and plain?  Do you go expecting the church to do for you, or because you want to do for them?
    Too many Christians look upon a church in a proprietary way, as if they had the right to judge everything about it and everyone in it, especially the superficial things—the singing, the preaching, the way the people dress and their occupations and connections in the world.  The way some people choose congregations, they might as well go because they like the color green.  
    The church belongs to Christ, that’s what “church of Christ” means.  It belongs to God, that’s what “church of God” means.  Christ’s church is there to give me an outlet for my service and a source of encouragement toward doing that service.  It is not there to serve me and my preferences.  
    Someday that little boy will grow up and learn to examine the football programs he roots for, choosing them for their character and integrity instead of their colors.  Maybe it’s time we grew up with him.

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Pet 4:9-13    

Dene Ward

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City Slickers

2/5/2015 0 Comments

It never ceases to amaze me.  Folks from the city move out here and, even though they believe they are so much more sophisticated and knowledgeable than we country people, they will soon learn at least one lesson the hard way, possibly more, and we country people will just shake our heads.  It’s okay not to know; but it certainly is arrogant to act like you know when you have absolutely no experience to back it up.
    A few years back a couple moved out with their dog, letting it remain outside with no pen or fence installed, “so he can run free like animals are supposed to.”  When farmers near them started losing livestock it couldn’t be that “my sweet Scruffy” had anything to do with it.  They did not understand that dogs are pack animals and when they are left alone at night, “free to run,” they will join up with the strays and wreak havoc.  They didn’t understand until a farmer called the sheriff and there lay three or four dogs shot dead, next to an equally dead calf, nearly torn to bits. Among the dead dogs was Scruffy, the calf’s blood smeared all over his mouth, throat, and chest.  The farmer, of course, was not at fault—he was protecting his livestock from a pack of wild dogs.  At least he only lost one calf that time.
    On a less somber note, we have a neighbor now who would not listen when Keith told him he needed to ditch the edges of his dirt driveway.  It may be the dry season now, but when the summer rains start, he will soon be looking for a friendly farmer with a tractor to pull him out of the muddy drive that has nowhere to drain.
    We once had a neighbor who moved to the country “because there are so many more stars out here.”  He wondered why he couldn’t see them after he moved in.  Probably because of the street light he had installed outside his door.  The reason the country seems so much starrier is the lack of light pollution.  The more city people move out here, the fewer stars we can see because they are so scared of the dark.  Far better to install a motion detector floodlight than a constant mercury lamp, one high enough to avoid the rambling coons and possums.
    And then there is the garden.  Thirty-five years ago I was a city slicker too.  I thought having a garden from which you could pick what you wanted for supper every night was a wonderful idea.  Unfortunately, that is not the way it works.  You don’t tell the garden what you want when you want it.  It tells you what there is and when it is ready, and if you do not want it to go to waste, you take care of it then regardless of your schedule.  If you wait, the produce will ruin.  If you do not plan to tend it when it needs tending, pick when it needs picking, and put up when the crop comes in, don’t plant one.  Do not spend a hundred dollars on supplies, then let a thousand dollars worth of groceries spoil.
    I could go on and on, but this is not a treatise on country vs. city.  Let’s take this lesson today.  I recently heard someone say that Christians were people who had one foot in this world and one foot in the next, like that made them weird.  Isn’t that the way we are supposed to act?  In fact, maybe we should have a little more of the second foot in the next world too. 
    No, we do not act like ordinary people—at least we shouldn’t. As new Christians we have to learn a new way of living. Our citizenship is in Heaven.  Our minds are set on spiritual things.  The cares of this world do not upset us the same way they upset others, because they do not mean as much to us.  We have far better things to think about.
    City slickers may think country people are a little strange, but guess who knows how to get along out here the best?  If the world thinks you are strange, don’t worry.  You will manage far better than they.  One day, they will call frantically and ask for your help.  Hope and pray it is not because the trumpet just sounded, but because they have finally figured out that you knew more than they thought, and there is still time to do something about it.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.  They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he who is not of God hears us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:4-6.

Dene Ward

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A Bad Mood

2/4/2015 0 Comments

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!  Psalm 107:1

    Have you ever had a friend who made you wonder how you would be greeted and treated on any particular day?  Have you ever had a boss who one minute nominated you for employee of the year and the next left you in fear of losing your job?  Have you yourself ever woke up one morning and bitten everyone’s head off just for being alive and daring to smile?
    Moody people are difficult to deal with.  You never know how to act.  You never know what to say and not to say.  In fact, you do your best to avoid people like that if at all possible.  And when you recognize that you have done it to others, you loathe yourself for it.  It isn’t right; it isn’t fair; it certainly isn’t kind.
    This brings me to the verse at the top, a promise we all too often read without thinking, as if it were a meaningless refrain.  “His steadfast love endures forever.”  It isn’t just that God will love us forever, though that is reason enough to praise Him.  That word “endure” also carries with it the idea that His love is consistent and will never waver.  You will never find God in a bad mood.  
    You don’t have to worry that one day He has a headache and might be a little short-tempered.  He won’t ever get up on the wrong side of bed and snap at you because you dared to talk to Him before He had His morning cup of coffee.  He won’t decide on a whim one morning to hand you a pink slip.  God’s love is consistent—nothing can cause it to vacillate as long as you serve Him with all your heart.
    If we truly want to be more like Him, we should love Him the same way—whether the day brings good or ill, whether we feel well or not, and even when we suffer.  It’s not like He didn’t suffer for us, and not only did His love not waver then, it is precisely because of His unwavering love for us that He suffered.
    And if we want to serve Him, maybe we should do our best to get past those bad moods we foist on others.  There is no excuse for pettiness, for mean-spiritedness, for spite and malice, no matter what we are going through at the time, certainly not because we just happen to be in a bad mood that day.  As servants, we don’t have the right to be in a bad mood--we must be in the mood to love and serve Him every day, which means, according to Matthew 25, loving and serving others that way.  
    Unwavering, eternal love—that’s what He gives, and that is what we should return.  

Love is patient and kind…it is not arrogant or rude. It is not irritable or resentful… 1 Cor 13:4-6.

Dene Ward

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Johnny Can't Read

2/3/2015 0 Comments

It’s been over fifty years since Rudolf Flesch wrote Why Johnny Can’t Read.  Someone had finally been brave enough to say out loud, “Modern education methods are not working.”
    There was a sudden push in the universities for all teachers in every subject to be able to teach reading as well.  Even in music education, I was required to come up with methods to teach word reading while at the same time teaching music reading—a bit like trying to teach English and Math simultaneously.  I haven’t noticed that is has helped.  We have a newspaper columnist who keeps track of the English, spelling, and word choice errors in his own paper.  His list never seems to shorten.  
    The other day, I heard a sportscaster, who was speculating about a certain team’s future in the season ahead, say, “Of course, I realize we are living in the speculum here.”  As I recall, the last time I heard that word a doctor used it.  That same day another sportscaster said he was “efforting” to give us an unbiased view of things.  Then there are the want-ads:  we recently noticed a “12 gage shotgun” for sale, along with a “chester drawers.”
    So in many cases, Johnny still can’t read, but I think in the case of many Christians it is more a matter of “Johnny won’t read.”  
    In nearly every overseas mission I have heard of, the biggest need is for Bibles in that particular language.  Those people, to whom Bibles are rare and precious, crave them the most and read them the most.  Most of us have several Bibles in our homes, gathering dust, spending more time in the car seat traveling back and forth to the meetinghouse than being read.
    How do I know?  The same way I know that sportscaster made a low score on the vocabulary portion of his SAT.  When I hear that Jacob had to wait fourteen years before he could marry Rachel, that David saw Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop, and that the wise men showed up at the stable the night Jesus was born, I know someone is not reading.  When I hear people say, “Money is the root of all evil,” and “Pride goes before a fall,” thinking they are quoting scripture, I know they are not reading those scriptures they claim to live by.
    And here is an excellent point—many do know their scriptures backwards and forwards, inside and out, yet they don’t allow them to penetrate their hearts.  But how can they ever reach our hearts, if we never read them in the first place?
    I look at a cookbook four or five times a week to feed my family well.  What and how often am I reading so I can feed their souls even better?

And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Jehovah had commanded to Israel…And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, (for he was above all the people); and when he opened it, all the people stood up…and they read in the book, the Law of God, distinctly, and they gave the sense so that they understood the reading. Neh 8:1,5,8.
Till I come, give heed to reading, 1 Tim 4:13.

Dene Ward

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It's All About Me

2/2/2015 0 Comments

I have studied Abigail for a few decades now but, just like always, I noticed something new this time through.  
    Most everyone knows the story:  a bad man married to a good woman, a woman who dares to stand against him and do right.  But let’s speculate a little—and it really isn’t much speculation at all.
    1 Sam 25:4 calls Nabal “a churlish and evil” man, or, in the ESV, “harsh and badly behaved.”  That is not the half of it.  Look at the way those two words were translated in other places.  “Churlish” is also “obstinate, hard, heavy, rough, stubborn, and cruel.”  “Evil” is “grievous, hurtful, and wicked.”  This man wasn’t just a grouch, he was mean and cruel, and it came from a wicked heart.
    Now imagine a “beautiful and discerning woman” married to such a man.  It almost had to be an arranged marriage—she certainly didn’t fall in love with him.  Since he is extremely rich and she is still in prime childbearing age (we find out later), he is probably older than she.  This is also a time when no one would have said anything about physical abuse.  As you keep reading in chapter 25, the man’s servants are clearly terrified of him.  I do not doubt for a moment that they had all suffered physical punishments from him, probably many unjust.  I wouldn’t even be surprised if Abigail hadn’t suffered the same.  God’s Law protected women from men in every way possible, but for a man like this the Law meant nothing.  
    So along comes David’s army, men who had protected Nabal’s servants from passing raiders by the way, which means his livestock--his wealth--were also protected, and David is now in need of provisions for several hundred men.  Surely this “very rich” man who was already in the middle of a celebration time when the food would be plenteous, v 4, 8, could spare some for them.  
    David carefully instructed his men exactly how to approach Nabal.  If you have one of the newer translations you will miss this.  ESV says they “greeted” him, v 5.  But that word is one that means far more than saying hello.  It can also be translated salute, praise, thank, congratulate, even kneel.  All those words involve respect and honor.  Yet Nabal drives them off with exactly the opposite attitudes—disrespect, dishonor, and ingratitude for their service to him.  “Who is this David?” he asks, accusing him of rebellion (v 10, 11), though Abigail knew exactly who he was (v 28, 30), the anointed of God.
    Abigail knows nothing about this event, but Nabal’s servants know plenty about her.  They come running, afraid for their lives for the way their master has treated a warrior and his army.  And Abigail saves the day, gathering up as much as she can and sending it on to David, riding up herself to reason with him and beg for their lives.  When she asks David to remember her, she isn’t asking him to save her from her lot in life.  She goes back to the man and the responsibilities she sees as hers.
    Now think about this.  What would happen today if something similar occurred to a beautiful young woman, stuck in a loveless marriage to a horrible man, a cruel man who probably beat his servants and maybe her as well?  Do you think she would have had any concern for anyone else?  
    Abigail was not so wound up in her own misery that she couldn’t see the misery of others.  She probably cared for the servants her husband abused.  She didn’t whine about not deserving this kind of life.  She didn’t expect everyone to wait on her hand and foot or bend over backwards for her because she was mistreated, nor did she fall into a useless heap of flesh because life was “unfair.”  She just “dealt with it.”  Instead of being a drama queen focused only on her own problems, she looked for ways to help others as the opportunity arose.  She did not allow her misery to blind her to the needs of others.  
    We could talk about her “going behind her husband’s back,” but let’s quickly notice this—she saved his life too, at least until God came into the picture and took it Himself.  “Looking to the good of others,” we call that nowadays and label it the highest form of love.  Abigail did this for everyone, including the undeserving, and regardless of who did and did not do it for her.
    Abigail understood this, and so should we:  it’s not about me, it’s about Him.

[Doing] nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others, Phil 2:3,4.
    
Dene Ward

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Just Say No

1/30/2015 2 Comments

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

“Buried with Christ …. Dead to the old life …of sin.”
 
Don’t we just wish?  We sing the song.  We mean it sincerely.  We try to believe it really happened when we were baptized.  But, the reality that rots away our hope and that Satan twists to tempt us and bring us back down is that not much seems to have changed.  We proclaim that we have Christ and we come to church and we put on the front, but we are still tempted by the same old passions that we were last year, and the year before our conversion and that we did AGAIN last week and we wonder if our only hope is that our last prayer comes after the last time we yielded.  Boy, doesn’t the devil just love this attitude, “Just go ahead and give up,” he says.  We need to talk to each other and help each other.

Listen to the man who wrote the words behind the song above, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no more I that lives, but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.”  High and noble and don’t I just wish I was on that peak?

Some time later, Paul wrote. “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected” (1Cor 9:27).  Though he had already penned Gal 2:20, Paul still struggled; so great a struggle that he called it beating himself into submission.

If Satan can get us depressed over our failures, we will repeat them.  We can triumph, but it is not easy.  It is not supposed to be.  We are in training to be a spiritual elite, not SEALS, Christians; not SWAT, children of God.  Tough training makes tough soldiers of faith.

Don’t give up.  Try harder.  Pray more.  Get a fellow soldier to help and help him.  Even Paul had to work at it.

“Just say NO!”  Nancy Reagan was mocked for her motto. It is God’s motto. I’ve seen the billboards, “What part of “Thou Shalt Not” did you not understand?”  If one believes in God, he must also believe that he is a created being, not a being that is the result of chance.  God says that the beings He created have a choice.  They can say, “NO!” to Satan.  God gave them this power.

Stop it with the excuses.

The mystery …now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great …are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. [Col 1:26-27]

Keith Ward

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Shall We?

1/29/2015 0 Comments

The difference between the words “shall” and “will” is primarily a legal distinction in America today.  We seldom use “shall” in our everyday speech.  However, I have heard that in Middle English it was used to distinguish between intent and promise.  If one simply said, “I will” do something, it only meant he intended to do so and would do his best.  If he said, “I shall,” it meant that he would do it one way or the other.  “Shall” meant, “I definitely will,” “I certainly will,” “I most assuredly will,” with the “will” underlined, all caps, and bolded.  Think about that as you read the following passages from the King James Version, that Middle English so many decry, and think what that means about these things.
   
    I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies, Psalm 18:3
    Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart all ye that hope in the Lord, Psalm 31:24.
    But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, he shall receive me, Psalm 49:15.
    For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace, Rom 6:14.
    Above all taking up the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, Eph 6:16.
    But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus, Phil 4:19.
    For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, 1 Thes 4:16.
    And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away, Rev 21:4.
    And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle neither light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever; and he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true…Rev 22:5,6.
   
    So the question again is, “Shall we?”
    Yes, we most definitely, certainly, assuredly shall!

Dene Ward

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Confining God

1/28/2015 0 Comments

The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods, Psalm 24:1,2.

    Many scholars believe that the twenty-fourth psalm was written by David to celebrate the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant to his new capital, Jerusalem.  When you read 1 Chronicles 13 and 15 and see the great amount of singing and worshipping going on, and then read the words to this psalm, that supposition makes good sense, and the ancient writings of the rabbis attest to it as well.
    However, even here at the beginning of the psalm David sees a danger in settling this manifestation of God’s presence in one location—the people would be tempted to think that God was stuck there, that He did not reign over the rest of the earth, much less any other people.  So he begins this psalm with the passage above to remind them that God could not be put in a literal box, and certainly not in a figurative box of one’s own expectations and understanding.  God made the whole world, and therefore rules the whole world and every person on it.
    David was right to be so concerned.  Ezekiel spent several of his opening chapters trying to get the same point across to the captives in Babylon by the river Chebar, who believed that God was no longer with them, but still back in Jerusalem.  He is right here with you, Ezekiel told them.  That is the point of that amazing vision in chapter one—God can be anywhere at any time.
    Do you think we don’t have the same problem?  We keep trying to put God in a box called a church building or a meetinghouse or whatever your own bias leans toward calling it.  That’s why we have people who compartmentalize their religion.  They think “church” is all about what happens at the building, and the change in their behavior when they leave that building is the proof of it. 
    A man who can recite the “plan of salvation” in Bible class will cheat his customers to his own gain during the week.
    A woman who can quote proof texts verbatim on Sunday morning will turn around and gossip over the phone every other day of the week.
    A couple who appears every time the door is opened will carry on a running feud with a neighbor and treat each other as if none of the passages in the New Testament apply to anyone with the same last name. 
    What? God asked His people.  Will you act like the heathen around you six days a week “and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?”  Jer 7:10.  David used the middle of this psalm to remind the people who was fit to come before the presence of the LORD—only men of holiness, honesty, and integrity, not just on the Sabbath, but always. 
    Because they put God in a box called after the covenant He made with them, they thought that their behavior only counted in His presence, forgetting the lessons that both David and Solomon had tried to teach them—God cannot be confined to anything manmade, not even the most magnificent Temple ever built by men, much less a comparatively miniscule box.  As David proclaimed in finishing Psalm 24, Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!...The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! — Selah. 
    Selah--pause, and feel the impact.

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation, Psa 24:3-5.

Dene Ward

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January 27, 1880--Light Bulbs

1/27/2015 0 Comments

The first light bulb patent was issued on January 27, 1880. Since then we have become almost completely dependent upon them.  They have also become symbols for “shedding light” or “seeing the light” in various ways.  The light bulb in comic strips stands for an idea occurring to one of the characters.
In Bible class the other morning we were talking about moments we have when we study, times when all of a sudden everything makes sense, or something new strikes us that we never thought about before.  Sometimes I call them epiphanies, but more often I say I had a “light bulb moment.”  You would think that the older you get, the fewer of those moments you have because you know more, right?  Light bulb moments have nothing to do with how much you know.  While it is true that you won’t have them if you do not learn, it is also true that you won’t have them if all you do is cram facts into your head.  Light bulb moments come because you have thought about what you know.  You have, as my grandmother used to say “studied on it”—by that she meant, turned it over and over, and come at it from all directions.
    If I have been a Christian for ten, twenty, thirty years and have experienced none of these moments, then maybe I need to examine my acquaintance with the scriptures.    If all I can do is recite pet phrases and scriptures, then God’s word is not living in my life as it should.  In fact, it has nothing to do with my everyday life at all—maybe I just use it to prove some doctrine wrong.  I don’t think that is what God had in mind.
    These light bulb moments should go off in my mind because I use the scriptures often, think about them often, and live by them every day.  Paul and John both call the scriptures “the Word of Life,” Phil 2:16; 1 John 1:1, but they won’t give me life if I don’t use them regularly.  If I don’t have any light bulb moments, I am living in the dark, no matter how many scriptures I can recite or how often I “go to church.” 
    Luke 24:16 tells us of two men whose “eyes were holden that they should not know him.”  Jesus had a reason for that, but when the time was right “their eyes were opened,” v 31.  Later on as he spoke to the disciples, “opened he their minds that they might understand the scriptures,” v 45.  After approximately three years of teaching, he expected them to start having “light bulb moments,” and they did.  As accustomed as he was to using everyday things in his teaching, if they had had light bulbs in their homes, I bet he would have used that very phrase.  Now it’s our turn to have them.

[I] cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the hope of this calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe... Eph 1:16-19

Dene Ward

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Please Like Me!

1/26/2015 0 Comments

    Have you fallen prey to it yet?  You post something on Facebook and then sit back and wait.  You check it every five minutes at first, then maybe stretch it out a bit, and before you know it, you have sat there for an hour or two and what have you been doing?  Waiting to see if someone “likes” you.               

    Yes, the quest for popularity affects the masses, and sometimes it isn’t for their good.  Many political pundits say that the first really obvious affect of popularity was the Kennedy-Nixon debates.  Kennedy was more telegenic and they believe that accounted for his winning the election, not his politics.  But they are wrong about that being the first time popularity struck a blow in politics.  

    After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,” Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.” And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel, 2 Sam 15:1-6.

    Absalom made everyone feel “liked” and that “stole their hearts.”  But Absalom wasn’t even the first.  In Judges 9:3 the people of Israel had “hearts inclined to follow Abimelech.”  Both of these men were wrong for God’s people and were eventually killed, but that didn’t stop the people from falling prey to what was “popular.”

    Do you think that hasn’t happened to you?  Why do you wear what you wear?  Why do you watch the television shows you watch?  Why do you go to the restaurants you do?  Whatever is popular at the time steals our hearts because we think that by doing the popular we will become popular.  The problem comes when that affects us spiritually.  If I am wearing clothing I shouldn’t because everyone else is, I need a stronger character.  If I am watching inappropriate entertainment, I need to remember who I claim to follow.  

    The people of Israel were taken in by what was popular over and over again.  Ezekiel tells us “their hearts went after their idols” and “covetousness,” 20:16; 33:31.  Jeremiah talks about them “going after the imagination of their hearts,” 9:14; 13:10.  And why did they do those things?  Not only because they were the popular things to do, but because falling in with the crowd made them popular too.  Simply put, you can’t be different and popular in the world at the same time.

    What is your heart going after?  If it’s popularity and wanting to be “liked,” then you are prey to popular evils just like 99% of the rest of the world.  God calls us to be different.  A Christian doesn’t need to be “liked” on Facebook or anywhere else as long as God “likes” him.

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ, Gal 1:10.

Dene Ward