When I was younger and looked at house plans, I used to see small rooms called "mud rooms" on the blueprints.  I never really understood them until I lived two years in Illinois.  In Florida the ground never freezes.  It is wet with the dew most mornings and dries before noon.  Up north the ground must thaw out every spring, and just like that frozen container of homemade tomato sauce on my kitchen counter, it stays wet until it does.  Day after day I wiped up mud and scraped off boots.  Now I really understood mud rooms and wished for one.  At least all the guests were aware of the problem as well and left their shoes at the door without having to be asked.

            That reminds me of the symbolism involved in Ex 3:5:  Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.  While I cherish the confidence to approach God as a loving Father, while I am thrilled to see our young people revel in that closeness, I worry that we have forgotten what awe and reverence really mean, that we do not understand the requirements of holiness.  Our lives have gotten so casual we cannot even comprehend the difference between the sacred and the profane-it has nothing to do with four letter words.  It means we give our service to God-every day, not just on Sundays--special care, special preparation, and special effort, not just some haphazard, slapdash, last minute, half-hearted stab at it.  It means there is a part of me that is afraid not to take off my muddy shoes before I enter into God's presence.  And that fear is not a watered down variety called simply "respect."  Even in a vision, the prophet Isaiah was so awestruck by God's presence that he exclaimed, Woe is me for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips who dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips and I have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts Isa 6:5.

The same book that proclaims that we can come in boldness (Heb 4:16), states that we should approach with reverence and awe because Our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:28,29).  Paul also says in 1 Cor 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord...  It is this sort of fear that will motivate me to holy living when my will power weakens, and love and gratitude are not quite enough to do the job.   

Don't ever forget to take off those muddy shoes before coming before the Creator of the Universe.

For great is Jehovah and greatly to be praised:

He is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols,

But Jehovah made the heavens.

Honor and majesty are before him:

Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe unto Jehovah, you kindred of the peoples,

Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength.

Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due to his name:

Bring an offering and come into his courts.

Oh worship Jehovah in holy array:

Tremble before him all the earth.

Psalm 96:4-9

Dene Ward

            What do you do in your spare time?  Yes, I hear you laughing, but I have come to the conclusion that as Christians we need to make sure we have some of that precious commodity.  Not because "I just have to have some time for me," but because I just have to have some time with God. 

            So what would we do if we had a few spare minutes alone?  Prayer comes to mind, of course, but another important activity is meditating, or musing on God's word.  In Gen 24:63 Isaac went out in the evening to the fields where he could be alone to meditate.  David made time too, even in the midst of tending sheep, leading an army, and running a kingdom.  When he was in the wilderness he meditated in the night watches, Psa 63:6.  He anxiously looked forward to those times, Psa 119:148. 

            Perhaps it is most difficult for mothers to find time to meditate.  Our entire day, from the moment we arise to the moment our heads hit the pillow again at night, is filled with "Mom, can you.,"  "Honey, will you.," and, "Ma'am you need to." until our minds are run ragged.  But even when we are alone we sabotage ourselves.  When the family leaves for work and school and the baby is napping, we turn on the TV "for company."  When we drive, we turn on the radio.  When we exercise, we slip on the headphones.  I have decided that one of the nicest things God did for me was to not furnish me with a dishwasher.  Do you know how much meditation can be accomplished over a sink full of soapy water?

Mary, as young and inexperienced as she was, gives us the perfect example--even as a new mother making the time to meditate, pondering things in her heart, Luke 2:19,51.  The word "ponder" means to put one thing with another.  But look at these other places where the same word is used (but translated by another English word), all in the book of Acts:  4:15-they conferred among themselves; 17:18-certain philosophers encountered him; 18:27-he helped them; 20:14-when he met us.  In all these cases words or people were put together (pondered) with a purpose-to learn, to assist, to come to an understanding.  So pondering God's word is an attempt "to put it all together" in our minds.  Anyone who thinks they can read it through once and get the whole picture will be sadly disappointed!

             Meditation is not for the shallow-minded, but you do not need to be an intellectual either.  The greatest benefit of meditation is the sheer depth of understanding one can eventually come to about God, the nature of his kingdom, and the beauty of his plan, Psa 143:5.  One can find himself in a place he never dreamed existed years before when he so confidently knew all the Bible stories, the "plan of salvation," and "the five acts of worship," Psa 49:3; 119:99.  And he can still see below him an awe-inspiring depth that makes Bible study once again vital and exciting, Psa 119:15.  Meditation can spawn a prayer, Psa 5:1-3, making that part of our lives richer and deeper as well.  And in the end it can bring us acceptance by our God, Psa 19:14.

            So make some spare time today.  Get up earlier, stay up later, take off those earphones or turn off the radio.  Spend some time meditating.  You don't have to twist yourself into a pretzel to gain a deeper understanding of the True God and his Word.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers.  But his delight is in the law of Jehovah, and in his law does he meditate day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.  Psalm 1:1-3

Dene Ward

All my life I have heard David and Peter used as the supreme examples of how great men of God can still fall and repent, and truly they are fine examples.  In fact, I often look at Peter as an example of how the church should receive the penitent as well.  I bet there is not a church in America today that would choose him as an elder.  Someone would always be remembering his past against him.  God didn’t (1 Pet 5:1), and we need to remember God’s disdain for those who will not forgive as He does.

But here is a person I bet you never thought of—Judah.  We become so focused on Joseph in the latter chapters of Genesis that we miss a great lesson in this man—how far one can fall, but how much good he can still accomplish if he will only return to God.

If ever there was a man who could blame his parents and his upbringing for his mistakes, here is the one.  Judah was an unfavored son of an unfavored wife.  His father never even tried to hide his partiality; he virtually rubbed his older ten sons’ noses in it.  (And I suppose it never crossed their father’s mind that if he had given the same love and attention to the others, maybe they would have turned out as well as the two he favored.)  Finally, the brothers got rid of their nemesis, the favored brother Joseph, and Judah was right in the mix, Gen 37:25-28. 

Then he left the family.  Maybe he was sick and tired of the whole lot.  Maybe he was trying to outrun his guilt.  Maybe it was a little of both.  He made some sort of alliance with “a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah,” and married a Canaanite woman, 38:1-8.  I doubt there was anything else he could have done that would have defied his father more, for in this family, whom you married had been important for generations.

You can read the next few verses in Genesis 38 for yourself if you are not familiar enough with them, how Judah had wicked sons whom God destroyed, and how he eventually cheated his daughter-in-law out of the husband and child the local law said she should have had, a law God killed Judah’s son Onan for breaking and eventually incorporated into the law of Moses (Deut 25).  So Tamar, the daughter-in-law, disguised herself as a harlot and seduced her father-in-law so she could have the child the law (and the future Law) demanded. 

When Judah went to Tamar, she was disguised not as an ordinary harlot, but as a temple harlot, another sign of how far Judah had fallen.  As a surety for payment he used a signet, a seal worn on a cord around the neck which acted as a personal signature, and his staff, the rod that figured in business transactions and symbolized family or tribal headship.  When Tamar disappeared, Judah did not try to find the “harlot” to pay her, but let her keep these two items, voluntarily giving up the symbols of his family, in effect cutting off his relationship with them for good.  Not only was he no longer in their presence, but he no longer even claimed a connection with the family God had chosen.

When Tamar’s pregnancy was discovered, so was Judah’s sin because she carried his ID in her hands.  “She is more righteous than I.” he admitted.  The enormity of how far he had fallen finally hit him, as well as the realization that he was the one responsible for his actions, not his biased father; and that if his older brothers were unsuitable to lead the family due to their own sins (Gen 34 and 35:22), then he must.

Judah not only returned to his family, he became pre-eminent among them.  He is the one who offered himself as a surety to Jacob when they took Benjamin to Egypt (Gen 43:2-10).  He is the one who pled their case before the Egyptian ruler they did not recognize as Joseph (44:14-17).  He is the one who offered to stay in prison if Joseph would just let Benjamin go home, showing great concern for his father’s welfare (44:18-34), a father, you remember, who had treated him badly. 

He became “a lion’s whelp” in the inspired words of Jacob, 49:9, and this lion-hearted man became the tribal father of the Messiah, his tribe the royal tribe from whom the only good kings God’s people ever had came, and his tribe the only one left physically and politically intact when the Messiah finally arrived--Judea. 

And so here is another example for us of how forgiving and loving a God we have.  It should give us hope that God is patient while we slip and fall, and that he can still make use of even those we consider the greatest of sinners, including ourselves.

The blessing of Jacob: 
Judah, you shall your brothers praise, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down before you.  Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up; he stoops down, he couches as a lion and as a lioness.  Who shall rouse him up?  The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet till Shiloh come; and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be, Gen 49:8-10.

…Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, for he was the firstborn, but inasmuch as he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel.  And the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright, for Judah prevailed above his brothers, and of him came the prince. 
1 Chron 5:1, 2.

Jesus…being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli….the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse…the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham…the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God,  Luke 3:23, 31-34, 38.

       Welcome to the world,  Judah Samuel Ward!

Dene Ward

Why doesn’t God do something about all the suffering in the world?  Why do evil people prosper while good people struggle in pain and poverty?  These and similar questions attack the faith of all sensitive believers. Children die in agony and we cry, “Where is God?” and faith is weakened. The universe expands onward as we revolve around an insignificant star in one small galaxy among thousands and wonder, “Does the God who made all this even know I exist? How can he care about me, one of billions of people?”

The Bible never explains the problem of suffering, but it answers all these doubts in one name, Jesus. How much does God care? He sent his own Son. And the nature of that care was demonstrated repeatedly by “God in the flesh” as 11 times his biographers record that he had compassion on multitudes (Matt 15:32), on the father of a demon-possessed boy (Mark 9:22), on the widow whose son had died (Luke 7:13), on an untouchable leper whom  he healed with a touch (Mark 1:41).

Further, the care shown by the one who said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9), was individual and personal, caring. Though he preached to crowds, Jesus is best remembered for his one on one ministry. He spoke to the woman who came to the well alone because she was ostracized (John 4); He healed a lame man, (John 5) and a blind man (John 9); He wept with the mourners (John 11:35); loved a rich ruler who left him (Mark 10) and many more. And, ultimately, he died knowing that few would be saved. He suffered the cross in a way that was personally aimed at those who choose to hear and obey, that these few, as he did, may conquer suffering and Death.

Life is not fair and asking, “Why?” may be the wrong approach. God never answers why there is suffering in the world. He does not intervene to end all sickness and injustice. He just wraps us up in the arms of His love that sent his only begotten Son. Jesus demonstrates absolutely that the God of this awesome universe cares, and that he cares more than any man ever cared, and that HE cares about you personally.

The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are his. 2 Tim 2:19 

Keith Ward

Keith began losing his hearing in his early 20’s.  He received his first hearing aid when he was 27, and we had only been married 6 months.  At this point, nearly 33 years later, the doctors say he is now “profoundly deaf,” which means he has reached the 90% mark. 

He can stand next to the phone and not hear it ring.  He can wash his face, reach for the towel, and walk out of the bathroom, not realizing the water is still running full blast.  He has a tendency to be loud and sometimes monotone because he can no longer hear himself or his tone of voice.  If he were home alone and a fire broke out while he was asleep, he would not hear the smoke alarm even though it hangs right outside our bedroom door. 

He used to play the violin more than passably well, but violin requires an ear.  He used to lead singing, but now he changes key in the middle of a phrase without realizing it.  He can no longer hear prayers, sermons, announcements, or comments in Bible classes without reading lips. Hearing is a constant crossword puzzle where his mind fills in the blanks left by his hearing and lip reading –often creating humorous misunderstandings, but that is another story.  All this means that in order to hear he must work hard.  You think a conversation with friends is relaxing. For him it is exhausting.  If he is not feeling well or is already tired, he cannot hear at all, period, because he is not up to the wearying chore of “listening” to all the other things he must besides words.

All of this breaks my heart because I can foresee a time when this man, who loves Jehovah God and his word more than life itself, will no longer be able to actively participate in the group worship of his brethren.  Michal, the wife of David, would be thrilled to be in my shoes—for there to actually be a time coming when her husband could no longer worship with passion. 

She was Saul’s daughter, a princess royal and now a king’s wife, enamored with the dignity of her position.  How do I know?  Look at 2 Sam 6.  She was married to a man who loved God with all his heart, a man who wrote poetry to God by the yard and sang to Him every day.  Mothers, here is the role model for your little boys.  David was a man’s man in every sense of the word—a warrior king who killed wild animals practically bare-handed, and engaged in heart-pounding, daring battles with the enemies of God--but a man who did not believe that religion made him a sissy.

After David captured Jerusalem, he brought the ark of Jehovah in, and was so thrilled that his passionate worship had him dancing in the street.  Michal saw him from her window, and later scolded him, “How you distinguished yourself in front of the maidens of Israel today, like any other common man in the streets!”

David answered, It was the Lord who chose me…I will celebrate before the Lord.  I will become even more undignified than this—I will humiliate myself in my own eyes, but by these same slave girls I will be held in honor. 

David understood two things.  First, that it was not his dignity Michal was worried about, it was hers. And second, God demands that pride be left behind when we worship him.  God wants worship with passion.  Despite what you may have heard about the Old Law, He always has.  If I let my pride hold me back, I may as well not bother.  I have always found it interesting that the passage telling us to do things “decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40) is in the same context as the one that makes it plain that amens from the assembly were the rule not the exception (v 16).

Do you elbow your husband when he says, “Amen?”  Do you shush him when he sings loudly because you think he is off-key?  Is that any different than Michal?  If you have found a man who understands that faith has nothing to do with weakness and everything to do with strength, who loves the Lord enough to humble himself and worship unashamedly, praise God for your good fortune and encourage him in his worship.  You never know when he might no longer be able to do so.

As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?  My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is your God?  These things I remember and pour out my soul within me, how I went with the throng and led them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday. Psalm 42:1-4

Dene Ward

Three year old Silas has learned to pray, and often sits at the table, eagerly clasping his little hands together, looking back and forth at his parents, hoping they will ask him to say the blessing. 

“Do you want to say the prayer?” his daddy asks, as if it weren’t obvious, and he gets a big nod and off we go.  It’s never about the meal.  To him it’s about talking to God and saying thank you for something, for anything, for whatever happens to be on his mind.

“Hey God!”  Read that the way an excited child would greet his grandparents, not the way a New Yorker would yell, “Hey Mac!”

“Thank you for sisters,” although he has none, but one of his little friends does, so he wants to mention it.

“Thank you for blue, and red, and yellow,” the colors of the containers he puts his blocks in.  He doesn’t complain about having to pick up his toys.  He thanks God for something to put them in, and that’s the one that really made me think.

I wonder how many of our complaints could be expressed as thanks with just a little thought.  Dealing with rush hour traffic?  Thank God you have a car to drive through it in.  Complaining about the stack of ironing?  Thank God you have that many clothes to wear.  Griping a little about picking up your husband’s shoes?  Thank God he is alive and well enough to leave them in the middle of the floor.

I thought about this again yesterday when I was blowing off the carport.  We didn’t have one for years, and sometimes I think that all getting one did for me was give me something else to keep clean.  But last week when one of our usual summer gully washers came through, I could unload the groceries and stay dry. 

Then I came in and heaved a sigh at the extra dirty floor.  That happened because we saved enough money to buy a new vanity for the bathroom and the plumber tracked in sand going in and out. 

Stop and think today about the things you complain about.  How many are caused by blessings you could have thanked God for instead?  How many extra chores do you have because God has provided you a home and a family?  I never had to wash diapers until I had babies.  Do you think for one minute I would have given them back? 

If ever anyone had something to grumble about, it was Daniel when the other two presidents and the 120 satraps tricked the king into making the law against praying to anyone other than him.  How did he react instead?  And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Daniel 6:10.  Surely if Daniel could say thank you at a time like that, we can in this relatively easy time in history.

God is patient with us as we daily grumble our way through a life He has blessed in thousands of ways.  You have to go to work?  These days especially, be grateful for a job.  Gas prices too high?  You’re still buying it, aren’t you? 

Maybe we should be a little more like a three year old.  “Hey God!  (I’m so excited to talk to you!)  Thank you for all you have done for me, for the things you have given me that I don’t deserve and forget to be grateful for.  For all those extra chores, because they mean you have blessed me beyond measure.  For all my pet peeves, because it means I am able to be up and around and go to those places where they happen.  For the fact that I have to work so hard to lose weight, because it means I have plenty to eat.  For people who get on my nerves, because it means I have friends and family and neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ—I am not alone.”

Today look at everything you gripe about and find the blessing.  You will be amazed--and probably a little ashamed.  And maybe those gripes will go away, for at least a little awhile.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, 1 Thes 5:18.

Dene Ward

I have done more traveling than I really care to lately—in less than two years’ time 7000 miles to either family funerals or experimental surgeries, and all in an automobile. I have started noticing place names that are a bit unusual.  Now Florida does have its own peculiarities.  Have you ever heard of Two Egg, Florida?  As we traveled through Mississippi recently, we came across an exit for Dry Creek Water Park.  I am not sure I would want to go down their water slide.  Then there was Aux Arc, Arkansas.  If you have not had French lessons, or, as in my case, taught French art song, where the judges dock your students severely for mispronunciation, you may not get it.  “Au” in French is pronounced “oh”, and an “x” at the end of a word is not pronounced at all unless it comes before a word beginning with a vowel, in which case it is pronounced as a “z.”  So Aux Arc is pronounced “Ozark.”  Sounds like someone got a little cute.  Then there was Toad Suck Park.  I do not even want to contemplate how that one got its name.

I am reminded of my readings, in Genesis especially, how various places were named.  Almost always it had to do with something that happened there, and in the case of God’s people, usually included a reference to God in their lives.  

 After Abraham offered Isaac (Gen 22) in all but actual deed, he called the mountain “Jehovah-jirah,” meaning “Jehovah will provide,” for indeed God did provide an offering.  When Jacob fled Esau, he dreamed of angels ascending and descending a ladder, and the next morning set up a pillar, poured oil upon it and called it “Beth-El,” meaning “house of God” (Gen 28).  When he returned to the land 20 years later, he called for all the foreign gods to be disposed of, for his family to purify themselves, and built an altar, calling it “El-beth-El,”  “the God of Bethel” (Gen 35)  In 33:20 he bought a parcel of land and spread his tent there, calling it “El-Elohe-Israel,” “God, the God of Israel.”

So if we were going to name our homes, whether they be small apartments in the city, homes in the suburbs, or acreage in the country, what would we call them?  Is God a big enough part of our lives to figure in their names as He was to the old patriarchs?  Would “Beth-El” be suitable because God is regularly spoken to and the Lord is spoken of in our homes?  Could we call it Jehovah-jirah because we understand that all we have is provided by God?  Could we call it “El-Elohe-Ward,”  “God the God of the Wards” (or your own particular last name)?   Or would we, as Isaac did when the Philistines feuded with him over the watering holes, have to name our wells “Esek,”  (“Contention”) and “Sitnah,” (“Enmity”) (Gen 26)?  What emotions are our homes filled with?  

 It is an interesting exercise to think about giving our homes a name.  Try it, and see if it doesn’t help you make yours a better home for your family, and a wonderful place for anyone to visit

But will God in very deed dwell on the earth?  Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!  Yet have respect unto the prayer of your servant and to his supplication, O Jehovah my God, to listen unto the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you this day:  that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day …and hear in heaven your dwelling-place, and when you shall hear, forgive.  1 Kgs 8:27-30

Dene Ward

Sometimes you read a passage of scripture for years without seeing what it really says.  I suppose it was only seven or eight years ago that I really saw Gen 21:11.  Sarah had had enough of Hagar’s attitude, and Ishmael she viewed as nothing but a competitor to Isaac.  She wanted to send them both away.  And the thing was grievous in the sight of Abraham because of his son. 

“…because of his son.”  For the first time ever it dawned on me that Abraham loved Ishmael.  Of course he did.  This was his son!  In fact, when God backed up Sarah’s wish with a command of his own, he said, Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the lad and because of your handmaid, v 22.  Hagar had been his wife, (16:3) for eighteen to twenty years, depending upon Isaac’s age of weaning.  A relationship had to be broken, two in fact. 

Now look at Abraham as he sends the two of them away, particularly his oldest son.  Do you have a child?  Can you imagine knowing you will never see that child again, and how it must have felt as Abraham saw their departing figures recede into the heat waves of the Palestine landscape? 

Too many times we look at Bible people with our “super hero glasses” on.  We fail to see them as real people with real emotions.  Of course they could do as God asked.  They were “heroes of faith.”  When we do that, we insult them.  We demean the effort it took for them to do what was right.  We diminish the sacrifices they made and the pain they went through.  And we lessen the example they set for us.

That may be the worst thing we do.  By looking at them as if they were “super” in any way at all, we remove the encouragement to persevere that we could have gained.  “There is no way I could do that.  I am not as strong as they were.  I’m not a Bible super hero.”  If you aren’t, it’s only because you choose not to be. 

Those people were just like you.  They had strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures.  They had problems with family, with temptations, and with fear of the unknown.  You have everything to work with that they did. In fact, you have one thing the Old Testament people didn’t have—a Savior who came and took on the same human weaknesses we all have (Heb 2:17; 4:15), yet still showed the way.  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps, 1 Pet 2:21.  If you belittle the accomplishments of those people as impossible for you to copy, you belittle His too.

Take off the glasses that distort your view.  Instead, see clearly the models of faith and virtue God has set before us as real people, warts and all.  They weren’t perfect, but they managed to endure.  Seeing them any other way is just an excuse not to be as good as we can be.

Brethren, be imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as you have us for an ensample, Phil 3:17.

Dene Ward

When I was a child, we read the tales of fairies and genies, and talked about the things we would wish for if we had three wishes. It was not long before I realized that three would not be enough!  Soon I learned to wish that all my wishes would come true, but, later, I added a special formula to avoid the “Midas Touch” dilemma.  [I didn’t really want my sister to turn into a cockroach forever.]

Even adults spend some time wishing.  I would wish to be able to hear music and for my wife to see well, for youth, for wisdom, for wealth, for perfect weather and for….you see, three would never be enough. 

Then, wisdom strikes (rarely) – I am wishing for all the wrong things and all the things that matter have already been granted--I must just wait a little while with faith.

We will live forever in perfect health in bodies of a totally new kind that make these look like tents (2 Cor 5:1-4).  There will be joy and peace and plenty so far beyond our understanding that it is described as the streets being paved with gold and rivers of waters of life flowing from the throne of God.  No one will die or even get sick.  Beauties beyond mortal vision will thrill us.  A life super abundantly beyond all that we can think to wish for us awaits us (Eph 3:20).  And, it never fades or diminishes in its delights for the soul as it does on earth where, once we receive them, we often tire of the things we had wished for. (1 Pet 1:4).

Can you believe it; many people think they can do better!  They feel the cost of a life of righteousness is too high and seek their joy in the pleasures of sin.

Sin is for the young and healthy. Its pleasures are real but fleeting, and just as an addict must use more and more of his drug to achieve a high, so must sinners “wax worse and worse”  to achieve their pleasure (2Tim 3:13).  Sin inevitably hurts others and ruins the psyche of the sinner.  Then you die and comes judgment.

A life of righteousness builds one’s inner man and his relationships.  Joy and peace accompany the righteous in sickness and health and whatever circumstances life brings, for he looks for “a city whose builder and maker is God;” and “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” Heb 11:10, 1 Tim 4:8.  Then you die and all your wishes do come true and beyond that, glories you never imagined to wish for.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 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.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, the tree of life, which bare twelve kinds of fruit, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the peoples.

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 for ever and ever. (Selected from Rev 21 & 22).

Keith Ward

Several years ago, a prominent female politician angered many American women when she answered a reporter about her choice of career over homemaking by saying, “Well I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies.”  Most of us read a sneer in her tone and, as I remember it, her office was inundated with homemade cookies baked and sent by outraged homemakers.

One of the things I decided to do as a homemaker was to keep a cookie jar filled with homemade cookies, and for the most part I have.  Chewy oatmeal raisin, spicy gingersnaps, crumbly peanut butter, sparkly snickerdoodles, decadent triple chocolate, wonderful almond crunch cookies that always surprise people and steal the show, and all those variations of the All-American chocolate chip:  Toll House, Neimann Marcus, peanut butter chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, and death by chocolate chocolate chip.  My boys would come home from their friends’ houses talking about how deprived they were—all they had were Oreos.

My younger son Nathan was especially fond of cookies.  As a toddler, he would pull up a chair to stand in so he could “help” me make cookies—help that usually involved tasting the dough to make sure it was good, and then “cleaning” the beaters.  When he was in high school, I bought him a shirt that said, Life’s Greatest Questions:  Who Am I?  Where Did I Come From?  Why Am I Here?  WHERE ARE THE COOKIES? 

Eventually that chubby, tow-headed, blue-eyed cherub became a long, lean man who went off to college.  The first time he came home he brought a friend with him.  He immediately led the buddy to the counter where the cookie jar always sat.  “See?  I told you there would be cookies.”  Until he married I would bake cookies and save a dozen each week in a freezer bag until I had 4 or 5 kinds, then mail them to him and start all over.  This was one serious cookie connoisseur.  I am not sure what else made an impression on him, but I know he will remember that I loved him enough to make cookies for him.

I am reminded of David after his small army defeated the Amalekites.  Not all of his men were as righteous as he.  Several “wicked men and base fellows” did not want to share the spoils with the men who had stayed at camp, guarding their belongings.  David said, You shall not do so, my brothers, with that which Jehovah has given us…the share of him who goes down to the battle shall be the same as he who tarried by the baggage; they shall share alike, and it was from that day forward a statute and ordinance in Israel.  1 Sam 30:23-25.  David understood the value of those who did the behind-the-scenes work, the jobs others considered less important, and which seldom received glory or recognition. 

Think about Dorcas.  Stephen, the deacon and great preacher, had been killed not long before. James the apostle, a cousin of Jesus himself, would be next.  But who did Peter raise from the dead?  Not the powerful speakers who performed miracles, but a widow who made clothes for the poor, Acts 9:36-42.  Surely God was saying that what we consider small and unimportant tasks are actually some of the greatest of all.

Never underestimate the importance of “baking cookies.”

For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink because you are Christ’s, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward, Mark 9:41.

For the recipe accompanying this post, click >> Dene's Recipes page 


Dene Ward