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Fresh Cut Firewood!

1/21/2015 0 Comments

We saw that sign on the side of the road, complete with exclamation point at the end. “Fresh Cut Firewood!” followed by a phone number. I wondered how many people fell for it.
   Here’s another one: “Olives fresh off the tree!” I actually saw someone fall for that one, and he never will again.
   You see what sounds good may not always be good. Fresh cut firewood is green—it won’t burn. Firewood needs to sit and dry out for awhile, at least a year down here in this humid climate. In fact, when Keith cuts wood in the winter, it is for the next year, not the present year.
   When it comes to religion a lot of people fall for what sounds good. For example, just like firewood is a good thing to have when you own a woodstove, unity is a good thing to have among Christians. God demands it among His people. We are not supposed to be arguing all the time. We should not be dividing into cliques and basing that upon carnal things like status and wealth. But God also set some qualifications on the matter.
   The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable…James 3:17. Unity is a wonderful thing, but you never sacrifice purity for the sake of unity. The New Testament is full of admonitions to be pure in heart, pure in doctrine, pure in fellowship. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” Paul warns the Corinthians when he tells them to withdraw from the adulterous brother (1 Cor 5:6). If you want to worship a holy Father, then you have to be holy, Peter tells his readers (1 Pet 1:15,16).
   As children of God we hope to be like Him some day, John says, but that will only happen if we purify ourselves and stay that way (1 John 5:2,3). Earlier in his letter he talks about fellowship with God. Fellowship implies unity, but while unity with one another is important, unity with God is even more important and it cannot happen if we do not keep ourselves pure, or place unity with the impure ahead of unity with God.
   As to that second sign I mentioned above, olives fresh off the tree may sound good, but the informed know that they are too bitter to eat. They must be processed first or they will turn your mouth inside out in a permanent pucker. I am sure you could go on and on with the things you are familiar with that others might not be. Here is the point: don’t be taken in by how things sound. Read the Word. Study it and see the entirety of truth on a subject, not just one angle. God expects you to see His angle, not the one you think sounds best.

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, 2 Thes 2:9-12.

Dene Ward

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Fat Free Living

1/20/2015 0 Comments

I accidentally made some healthy cookies a few weeks ago. I had not taken the time to pick up my glasses and the magnifying glass. I had just concentrated hard and was sure the recipe said, “1 ½ sticks of butter.” After the cookies came out of the oven, I was disappointed in their dry, cakey texture, when I had expected something chewy and rich. So I picked up my glasses and looked again—“1 ½ cups of butter.” That is three whole sticks. What I had done was cut the butter in half. Low fat cookies were not what I had in mind, but it did help to say to myself, “For low fat, they’re not that bad.”
   As Christians we often focus so often on what we cannot do—all those “thou shalt nots”—that it is amazing we can endure. Our faith becomes negative instead of positive. It is all about what we do not do, not what we do. That may explain why so many of us are bitter and why we never manage to spread the good news—to us it isn’t such good news.
   It also explains why we lose so many of our children. Your home should be a place of safety, a place of contentment, a place of love and laughter. It should be a haven for your children and their friends. Do you want to know where they are, what they are doing, and with whom? Make your home a pleasant place to be, not a prison they hope to break out of someday, and you will know where they are, because home is where they are, and where they want to be.
   Christians should be known for what they do, not for what they don’t do, for who they are, not who they aren’t. If your friends were asked to describe Christians based on their knowledge of you, what would they say? “Christians are people who don’t drink, who don’t gamble, who don’t go to clubs, who don’t curse, who don’t engage in non-marital sex, who don’t smoke or take drugs, who don’t watch certain movies and TV shows,” and on and on. Or would they say, “Christians are happy, generous people who help others whenever a need arises, who are always having people in their homes—you can hear the laughter going on all evening. They are honest and forgiving. You know you can trust them because you never hear them gossip. They are pleasant to be around and seem to be able to handle anything life throws at them, and handle it well. They are the best people on earth. I wish I was more like them.”
   God has always promised his people “fat” lives. He told the Israelites they would have a land flowing with milk and honey, Ex 3:8. When Nehemiah brought them back from captivity, he reminded them that they had taken fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in [God’s] great goodness, 9:25. But they focused only on the restraints of righteous living instead of the blessings, finally fell away to the heathens whose lives they envied, and God sent them away to punishment.
   Yet still, He had Ezekiel tell them of another good land, a Messianic kingdom that would bring joy and peace.   And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture; and upon the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel, 34:13,14. That is exactly where we find ourselves today, in that “fat” Messianic kingdom, so why do we so often insist that the life of a Christian is a miserable one?
   God has never required “fat-free living;” in fact, He has promised just the opposite. Concentrate today on the peace that living as a child of God brings to your life. Focus on the joy of salvation and the fellowship of a spiritual family. Contemplate the good in your life. The rest of the world deals with addictions, legal problems, disrupted families, purposeless lives, and finally, illness and death without hope and comfort. Talk about a negative life.
   Go out and enjoy the fat in your life today.

The thief comes not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly, John 10:10.

Dene Ward

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Catching A Dream

1/19/2015 0 Comments

When we kept our grandsons last spring, twenty-month-old Judah usually climbed into my lap every evening as we sat at the table for a final cup of coffee. It took me a minute the first time his little hand reached out in the air, but finally I realized he was trying to catch the steam wafting over my mug, and was completely mystified when it disappeared between his little fingers.
    A lot of people spend their lives trying to catch the steam, vapors that seem solid but disintegrate in their grasping hands. They do it in all sorts of ways, and all of them are useless.
    Do they really think they can stop time? Over 11,000,000 surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures were performed in this country in 2013, and we aren’t talking medically necessary procedures. The top five were liposuctions, breast augmentations, eyelid surgeries, tummy tucks, and nose surgeries.*
    Then there are the folks chasing wealth and security. Didn’t the recent Great Recession, as it is now called, teach them anything? Others are striving to make a name for themselves. These are usually the same folks who tell Christians how pathetic we are to believe that some Higher Power would ever notice we even exist on this puny blue dot in the universe. Yet there they all go looking for fame, fortune, notoriety, beauty, or even their version of eternal life. All of it is nothing more than a dream. It will disappear, if not in a natural disaster or an economic meltdown, then the day they die—and they will die no matter how hard they try not to. They are the ones grasping at dreams which are only a vapor that disappears in a flash.
    Our dream isn’t a dream at all. It is a hope, which in the Biblical sense means it is all but realized. Sin and death have been conquered by a force we can only try to comprehend, by a love we can never repay, and by a will we can but do our best to imitate. Yet there it is, not a wisp of white floating over a warm porcelain mug, but a solid foundation upon which we base our faith. Heb 6:19 calls it “an anchor.” Have you ever seen a real anchor? If there is anything the opposite of a wisp of steam, that’s it—solid and strong, able to hold us steady in the worst winds of life. Tell me how a pert nose and a full bank account can do that!
    The world thinks it knows what is real while we sit like a toddler grasping at steam. When eternity comes, they will finally see that they are wrong. Spiritual things are the only things that last, the only real things at all.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal, 2 Cor 4:6-8.

*Information from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Dene Ward

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

1/16/2015 0 Comments

I have never been a shoe person. The last pair of dress shoes I had were classic black pumps—they were the only pair of dress shoes I needed because they went with everything. I wore them until the heels were wrapped in black electrical tape to hide the nicks and scrapes, and the soles had worn through, showing the white plastic bottoms, about ten years I’d guess. Then I went shoe shopping.
   I have never seen so many ugly excuses for shoes in my life. It seems today’s women want to walk on either ten penny nails or bricks. The first are uncomfortable and the second are hideous. Give me a toe that is at least a little rounded, a lower heel, and no pain. I finally found a pair on a clearance rack for $19.99 that was perfect. I was beginning to think I was going to have to find a blacksmith.
   And about those ten penny nails—after learning why men like women in stiletto heels, I am surprised that today’s modern, “liberated”, woman would wear anything that makes a man objectify her in the worst way. Fashion designers obviously have no respect for the women they dress.
   Funny that shoes in the Bible can be matters of respect, too. Take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground, God told both Moses (Ex 3:5) and Joshua (Josh 5:15). Even today I am told that Muslims and several other Eastern religions take off their shoes as a sign that they are laying aside the pollution of the world to enter into a holy place.
   Are they really? What about the olive oil stain on their sleeves from lunch? What about the cigarette smoke soaked into the folds of their robes from an earlier encounter? What about the everyday miasma we carry around with us from our environment, both in the home and out in the streets? Of course they are still stained with their everyday lives. Taking off the shoes is just a symbol of respect. Does that make it wrong?
   In the West, we have a different symbol. Men take off their hats. They do it when they enter a room, when they greet someone, when the flag passes by, and during an outdoor prayer (it’s supposed to already be off indoors). According to the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by E. Cobham Brewer, the custom began when men took off their helmets to show they did not consider the person they were meeting a danger. Thus it became a symbol of trust, and one can understand how not removing the hat could be considered an insult. It still is.
   A certain generation likes to say that symbols do not count, that the only thing that really counts is the heart. While it is true that the heart is the crux of the matter, I think I can show you that God still expects a few symbols from us too.
   But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless, Matt 22:11,12. I won’t go into the parable, just notice this: Jesus did not say the custom was wrong. Instead, he knew everyone would understand the parable because in that society it was a sign of disrespect to show up at a wedding in something other than “a wedding garment.” The garment was a symbol of respect for the occasion in that culture.
   God has always expected His people to know the difference between, in the wording of Scripture, the holy and the profane. “Profane” does not mean crude and vulgar—it means having to do with common, ordinary life.
   The Levites were warned, you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die, Num 18:32. Now that sounds serious.
   Ezekiel said of the priests in the restored Temple, They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, 44:23. He also warned, This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut, 44:2. As a symbol of respect for God, the door He entered was to remain shut and no one else could use it.
   And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood, Neh 8:5. They showed respect for the Word of God by standing when it was read.
   Clearly, God expects some sort of symbolic respect for sacred things. What does that mean for us today? I am not sure. Maybe it hasn’t been specified because God knew that this new covenant would be open not just to one group, but to all peoples. What is respectful in one culture, may not be in another. (Try belching out loud at a dinner party here in America.)
   In our congregation, we stand for the scripture reading. Does that mean that everyone there has that much respect for the Word of God? No. For some it is just an outward sign. They aren’t paying a bit of attention, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a sign of respect for the rest of us.
   Take a few minutes today and think of the sacred things in your life. Maybe that is a first step—our culture has become so “casual” that some people couldn’t even come up with a list of things that deserve that kind of respect. We should be better than that. These things do not have to be tangible like your Bible, though that might be a good one to add to the list—your Bible and how you treat it. Do you just toss it around like a library book?
   As to the intangible, your marriage might be a good thing to show respect for in a visible way. When our boys were little, they knew better than to ever sit between us at church. That was just our little thing—it showed them that we were always one and they could never come between us. I am sure you could think of another way to show respect to that God-ordained institution, one that means something to you too.
   Try to think of at least a few others. Then think of ways to show that those things are sacred to you, not just some sort of mundane piece of life. You might be surprised at how that one little sign of respect affects your whole attitude.

Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean…so that I am profaned among them, Ezek 22:26.

Dene Ward

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Clearing Out the Trees

1/15/2015 0 Comments

Two of our near neighbors just broke our hearts. They had a timber company come in and cut down all of their pine trees. I do understand that pine trees are not as good as oaks. They fall over much more easily, they don’t really give that much shade, and they can carry those pesky pine bark beetles. But instantly, our screening vanished
    In just a few years the oaks that are left will grow up and out and fill in the holes, but it will be a long few years. We lost a lot of the sound barrier when the machines that come in to clip the trees at ground level clear out the brush in their passage. The neighbor noise and traffic noise has increased exponentially. In fact, one of their dogs can see movement through the openings now and barks at us constantly.
    But there is something to be said for cleaning things out. When I clean out a closet I find things I thought I had lost. I also find room I didn’t know I had. Sometimes we need to clean out our lives the same way. It isn’t so much all the “wrong” things we are doing, as it is the sheer number of things we are doing. Our lives are so cluttered we no longer have time for the good things that need doing, for helping one another, and for helping ourselves to grow. We are too busy working. We are too busy having fun. We are too busy living an earthly life to spend much time on the spiritual. No wonder so many of us are often as carnal as the Corinthians.
    I think of Paul’s request to those Corinthians in 2 Cor 6:11-13, especially as I read it recently in the CEV: Friends in Corinth, we are telling the truth when we say that there is room in our hearts for you. We are not holding back on our love for you, but you are holding back on your love for us. I speak to you as I would speak to my own children. Please make room in your hearts for us. I can imagine God thinking exactly the same thing about us. “Make room for Me, people!”
    And then there is the room we need to make in our minds. In the past I have had days when my mind was racing with things I needed to do, trying my best to create a logical order so I could get it all done. Other times, I am ashamed to say, my mind has been so filled with things I would like to say to someone who has hurt me that there was simply no room for anything else. Prayer? I couldn’t even get past the first sentence before I started telling God exactly what I wanted to say to that person.
    We need to make room in our lives for the things that truly matter. We need to make room in our minds for the Word of God. We need to make room in our hearts for others. Clear out the brush that obscures your vision; clear out the useless trees that can cause more harm than good. Make room for the good things, for the things that last forever.

I cling unto your testimonies: O Jehovah, put me not to shame. I will run the way of your commandments, When you enlarge [make room in] my heart. Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of your statutes; And I shall keep it unto the end. Psalm 119:31-33.

Dene Ward

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Figuring It Out

1/14/2015 0 Comments

Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

When Peter gets to Cornelius's house, he states that he wouldn't normally have attended a Gentile's invitation, "but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean." (10:28) Wait! God never told him that! There is no place in the whole Bible where God tells Peter that he shouldn't call people common or unclean. It's just not there. However, Peter doesn't say God told him, he said God showed him. But again, God never showed him anything about people. Earlier in chapter ten God showed Peter a vision of animals and encourages Peter to "kill and eat". Peter refuses, saying that he's never eaten anything unclean. This is where the heavenly voice says, "What God has made clean, do not call common." (vs 15) So, God showed Peter about animals and Peter figured out that He was talking about more than just animals. The Holy Spirit's instruction to go with these Gentiles and Cornelius's obvious humility and desire to learn things pointed to this conclusion. In fact, it was almost necessary that he infer this conclusion . . . .WAIT A MINUTE!

This is an almost perfect example of what preachers/teachers/theologians mean when they say "necessary inference". While Peter was never out-and-out told that no person was common or unclean, he was given so many hints along those lines that any other conclusion was impossible. If he was thinking about God's revelations at all, then this was the conclusion he had to come to. This conclusion is later backed up by the Holy Spirit falling upon the Gentiles, proving that no man was common or unclean due to his race. Also notice that this wasn't the product of wishful thinking on Peter's part, nor was it the result of taking one bit of revelation and twisting it beyond its original intent. After Peter considered all that God had revealed to him on this subject, this was the only conclusion possible.

Another thing to look at is the first 18 verses of chapter 11. When the Jewish Christians accosted Peter in Jerusalem, he was not able to answer them in the way of the OT prophets; he could not say "Thus sayeth Jehovah" because God had never told him directly to do what was done with Cornelius. So, how did he answer? He told them of the vision. He told them that he was ordered to go with these men "nothing doubting" (the only direct verbal statement of God during this whole incident). He recounts what Cornelius had told him regarding the angel's visit. He tells of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and that the incident brought to mind a saying of Jesus. He summed it all up by saying, "Who was I, that I could withstand God?" (11:17). Upon hearing this, the Jewish Christians praised God that the Gospel was extended to the Gentiles, too. But what was Peter's justification built on? One generalized statement of the Lord and one statement by the Holy Spirit to go, one rather cryptic vision, a Gentile's claim to having seen an angel, and the rather emphatic proof of God's approval of what was going on. (By the time the Holy Spirit had fallen upon them, Peter had already preached the Gospel to them; he had already come to his conclusion by that point -- the Holy Spirit's outpouring was for the benefit of others.) To understand what God wanted and approved of, Peter and the rest of the Jewish Christians examined all the evidence available, the whole of God's revelation on the subject to that point, and came to a conclusion. In other words, they had to exercise their gray matter upon the subject and think.

Yes, God expects us to think about His revelation and our religion. Isa 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." God wants us to think, just as He implored the ancient Israelites. The "wise of this world" scoff at religion and label it the domain of unthinking brutes -- and many do unthinkingly follow religious leaders to horrible ends -- but the religion God set up is a religion for thinkers. Not that you have to be super smart. Not that it is extremely difficult to understand. But God has given us His word and expects us to understand it. To do so, we must read and think about it. Understand it as a whole, rather than wresting individual bits of it. See what God is clearly implying about how we should live our lives.

Peter figured it out and he was an uneducated fishermen. Surely we can follow his example.

"It is important for doubters to understand that many of us believers came to the point of faith by first studying the evidence and using -- not abandoning -- our reasoning powers to analyze it. I discovered that to believe in Jesus Christ does not require us to discard our intellect." ----David Limbaugh "Jesus on Trial"

Lucas Ward

Sensitivity Training

1/13/2015 0 Comments

If there was ever a new church that struggled with its spirituality, it was the church at Corinth. Paul scolded them: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. [Read that: “you are acting like a bunch of big babies,” and you will get the picture.]   I fed you with milk, not with meat, for you were not yet able to bear it, no, not even now are you able, for you are still carnal, 1 Cor 3:1-3. We have a tendency to think of things sexual when we see that word “carnal,” but Paul tells us in the next phrase or two what it really means: “walking after the manner of men,” in other words, being physically minded instead of spiritually minded. He then spent most of that first letter telling them how to become more spiritually minded.
   Their struggle over spiritual gifts surely has to be the most obvious example. They actually rated them as to importance, using, of course, carnal measurements--the flashier and showier the better. So Paul spends most of chapter 12 telling them that no one is more important than anyone else. Everyone is useful in the body of Christ, and if any one of them was not there, something would be obviously missing. In chapter 14, when their sense of importance is leading to a confused and disorderly assembly because none will yield his “gift” time to another, he actually gives them specific instructions about how to order things, all of which are pure common sense if you have the correct object in mind, the edification of the church rather than the glorification of the individual. He even spells it out several times: if there is no edification, let them keep silence.
   And of course, there is the pitiful business with suing one another, letting things of this physical life effect how they dealt with spiritual brothers and sisters.
   Those poor Corinthians at whom we so often shake our heads are not the only ones with these problems. We are beset by the same weaknesses, and the same feelings. In fact, as I was reading and thinking about these things it suddenly struck me that almost any time I take an idle remark as a personal attack, it falls right into the same category.
   I believe there is such a thing as being sinfully sensitive. Think about it. How many times could Jesus have “gotten his feelings hurt” or “felt insulted?” You could make a list as long as an entire book in the Bible, but he did not allow his feelings to keep him from completing a mission that was more important than anything else in the world.
   When I commit myself to being his disciple, don’t I promise to follow his example? The problem with being too sensitive is that it causes me to stop what I am doing and spend time on nothing but myself, usually moping or pouting, or even beginning a campaign against the other person. Nothing anyone says to me or about me, or that I might even possibly construe to be about me, is an excuse for setting myself up as more important than my mission as Jesus’ disciple. As a mature Christian, those things should roll right off me, because my concern is God’s glorification, not my own. That is what spirituality is all about. And if we cannot even begin to get a handle on it here, why should we be allowed to live in that exalted state for an Eternity?
   Something to think about as we interact with one another today.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, Phil 2:3.The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult, Prov 12:16.

Dene Ward

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The Best of Both Worlds

1/12/2015 0 Comments

When my mother raised us, she always said, “I’m not running a restaurant. You get what I serve,” and what she served was always fine with me. I don’t recall a single bad meal. Even recently I heard a television cook reminisce about coming to dinner as a child and eating what was put in front of her, so my family wasn’t weird, and neither was I when I followed suit as an adult. It was as much about finances as anything else, but it certainly helped teach a few things, like, you don’t always get what you want in life and be grateful for whatever there is.

But once in awhile I tried to please everyone as much as possible. If the main dish was one boy’s favorite, then dessert was the other boy’s favorite. It was the best of both worlds for them—a favorite entrée and a favorite dessert.

Recently I have come up with a dessert that has to be the best of both worlds. I haven’t decided whether to call it a cheesecake brownie or a brownie cheesecake. It has two layers: a brownie bottom, and a cheesecake top.

So, if you like chocolate and cheesecake, you can have both in one piece. If you want chewy and smooth and creamy this is the dessert for you. If you like chocolate and vanilla, this is even better than Neapolitan ice cream. It’s even part convenience food and part “from scratch.” The brownie layer is a mix and the cheesecake layer is all homemade. A friend told me it’s perfect for her and her husband. He has celiac disease, so he eats the gluten-free cheesecake layer and she eats the brownie layer. Like I said, the best of both worlds.

Now try to convince your neighbors that as a Christian you have the best of both worlds. All they can see is what you can’t do and how much you sacrifice in time, energy, and types of entertainment. Especially if all you do is complain about what you can’t do, ruing the messed up weekends, the missed ball games and picnics, what else do you expect? You are supposed to make your life look like something they will want, not something they will hate.

So perhaps we should start by convincing ourselves. We don’t have to go to church; we get to assemble with our spiritual family. We don’t have to dress differently; we get to look like decent, classy people instead of prostitutes. We don’t have to give up drinking and smoking and drugs; we get to keep our dignity, breathe clearly, and preserve as many brain cells as possible. We don’t have to give up revenge and gossip; we get to get along with people and stay out of trouble. We don’t have to watch our language; we get to look like intelligent people with a real vocabulary. We don’t have to give up status and money and things; we find our joy wherever we are in any situation—we have learned in whatever circumstances we are “to be content,” Phil 4:12, and contentment equals happiness.

God does not expect us to be miserable in order to earn Heaven. Being a Christian is not a horrible life. It is a life of joy, a life of fulfillment, a life of health, a life of spiritual wealth. I have more family than any of my neighbors. One of them was amazed at the food brought during my surgeries, at the women who cleaned my house and the teenagers who raked the yard after Keith had a stroke. If I ever need help, I don’t have just one person to call, I have a whole list.

My marriage is intact and happy. My children are happy, productive citizens, and servants of the Lord to boot. We don’t have money problems because we don’t love things and don’t need luxury to be satisfied. We don’t have legal problems because we are honest and law abiding. We don’t lose our faith over our illnesses and disabilities because we have something far better in store for us.

Which leads us to the next world. If this life has been good—not perfect, for how could it be in a cursed world—the next one will be nothing short of amazing, an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you,1 Pet 1:4.

God promises us a “best of both worlds” life, far better than a “best of both worlds” dessert. But He doesn’t make you eat it. He gives you a choice. You can have this world and the next if you do it His way. Otherwise, this one is all you get.

For bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come, 1 Tim 4:8.

For the recipe accompanying this post, click here.

Dene Ward

Do You Know What You Are Singing?

1/9/2015 0 Comments

“Wonderful Love of Jesus”

“Wonderful Love of Jesus” is an early 20th century hymn I remember singing often as a child. But I must admit, I never knew what in the world was “lying around” when we sang “in vain in high and holy lays.” Even as a musician who knows that a “lay” is a song, it took me decades to actually associate that with this hymn and understand what it meant.

A “high and holy lay” is a sacred song, what we would call a hymn. Even with that tidbit of knowledge it takes a little thinking to make sense of that first verse.

In vain in high and holy lays
My soul her grateful voice would raise,
For who can sing the worthy praise of the
Wonderful love of Jesus?

It is impossible for human voices, even singing the holiest songs they can compose, to praise the love of Christ as much as it deserves. All our efforts are “in vain.” That’s what it means.

How can it have taken so long for me to figure it out when the scriptures are full of the same thought?

Praise Jehovah. Oh give thanks unto Jehovah; for he is good; For his lovingkindness [endures] for ever. Who can utter the mighty acts of Jehovah, Or show forth all his praise? Psalm 106:1,2.

You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. Psalm 40:5.

My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. Psalm 71:15

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” Rom 11:33-35.

As you can see, it isn’t just the love of God we cannot speak adequately of, but also His wisdom, His righteousness, and His mighty works. If ever there was a hymn of humility it is this one. We feeble mortals cannot even begin to fully comprehend any of the Godhead, yet they have an amazing love for us, a love that cannot be praised as it deserves. We do so “in vain,” yet our gratitude continues to compel us to try, and so we do with songs like this one. It may be “high and holy” but it is not equal to the task.

Yet now that I know what I am singing, I can hardly wait to sing it again.

[That you] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Eph 3:18, 19.

Dene Ward

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The Lifeline

1/8/2015 0 Comments

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Even as early as the writing of Romans 6, Paul was concerned about those who would abuse the incredible gift of the grace of God. Since more sin required more grace to cover it, he feared they would use that as an excuse to sin yet more so they could have more grace (5:20,21).

We still abuse that grace today in much the same way. We misunderstand the purpose of grace, using it to make our lives easier than we have any right to expect. If grace is there to cover our imperfections, we really don’t have to try so hard, do we?

Grace is not a safety net; it is, instead, a lifeline. Picture your life as climbing a mountain, a not un-Biblical metaphor, I think. When things get tough, when I tire and want to quit, too many times I just let go, expecting God—requiring Him—to catch me when I fall. That is not the way it works.

The Lord came down to make the climb with us. He climbs at the head of the line as the leader, the one who has successfully made the climb before us; hooked to each of us with a lifeline. When my hand slips, when my foothold crumbles beneath me, that line of grace will help me once again gain control as I swing against the face of the mountain, sometimes bouncing hard before I get a new handhold or toehold and can begin the climb again, bruised and sore from my experience. If I become so tired I don’t think I can make another step, he will hold out a hand and give me a tug, or even have his Comforting Cohort give me a much-needed kick in the rear. What he will not do is tell me to just give up, unhook myself, and fall.

You see, the safety net we often see below is not God’s grace; it is not a respite Christ has offered to help us out. Satan is the one holding that inviting net. He is the one who tells us that we can’t do it, that we are only human and will never make it to the top. When you give up and say in your misery, “This is just the way I am, I can’t help it,” he is the one who says, “Of course you can’t help it. Quit trying so hard. Unhook yourself and fall into this comfortable net. I won’t let you be hurt, banging against the rocks of life like He does.”

Don’t be fooled. That net is, in fact, a net. It will trap you with its comfort, its assurance that you are not to blame, and if you are not careful, you will never even start the climb again, much less make it to the top.

God never promised us lives of ease. What He promised was help, enough help to make it through the rough spots. He will hold out His hand and pull, but if you unhook yourself from the lifeline of grace, you have lost the only hope you have.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?... Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts thereof: neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under law, but under grace. Rom 6:1,2,12-14

Dene Ward

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