I did a comprehensive study on faith several years ago.  I think I have even written a few posts on the things I learned, but I don't think I ever did one on this aspect of faith.  If I did, it was before I reached the startling conclusion that faith, far from being some sort of mystical quality that can be difficult to define, boils down to simple trust.  Trust that God knows what He is doing, no matter how it feels to me at the moment.  Trust that He has my best interests at heart in a spiritual way, even if it looks like my physical life is falling apart.  I love making discoveries when I study, and I love sharing them.  So here goes.
            I saw many occasions in the Scriptures where things like this were said:  O ye of little faith; I have not seen so great a faith; and Increase our faith.  In some way, faith can be quantified, and, more important to us I think, it can grow.  A little more searching and pondering and I came to the conclusion that some things take more faith (trust) to handle than others.  So maybe we should take note of those things so that our faith will not fail because we were unprepared.
            And as they went on their way through the cities, they delivered them the decrees to keep which had been ordained of the apostles and elders that were at Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily (Acts 16:4-5).  When we exercise a particular muscle, that muscle will usually be sore the next day.  We can either stop exercising and see an actual decrease in strength, or we can keep exercising and grow stronger.  It seems to me that exercising our "learning muscle" can work the same way.  Sometimes learning hurts because it shows us our weaknesses, our faults, our misunderstandings of the Word.  So what will we do about it?  Keep working and studying and learning, or quit because we don't want to learn something new or what we learn—some "decrees"--may not be to our liking.  So learning new things not only requires us to trust that God knows best whether you agree with Him or not!  Only those without that kind of trust (faith) will rebel.
            We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring (2Thess 1:3-4).  Paul tells the Thessalonians that he boasts about their growing faith and love for each other.  But what is it that is making that faith grow?  Persecutions and afflictions.  I suppose this ought to be a no-brainer.  Of course it requires more faith to handle persecution and afflictions, and those very things are also making their faith and love grow. 
            Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:3-5).  I have always found this passage hilarious.  Jesus says we are to forgive again and again and again, even for the same sin, and the apostles immediately cry out, "Lord, increase our faith!"  These men knew that it would take a lot more faith than they had at the moment to obey that command.  Faith to forgive?  Yes.  Remember, faith is trust, and it takes that kind of faith to rely on God to take care of the wrongs done against us.  Vengeance is mine, he says in Romans 12:19, I will repay.  Do we trust Him to handle our affairs, or do we think we need to take care of it ourselves?  If we find ourselves unable to forgive, then maybe we don't have enough faith (trust) in God to do so, no matter how much we protest otherwise.
            But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life (Jude 1:17-21).  This might be the most obvious case.  We need a strong faith to handle it when people scoff at our beliefs.  How many have fallen because someone called them stupid for believing in God?  How many could not stand up to the crowd and dare to be different?  And how many times have divisions in the Lord's body caused the weak to falter and eventually leave.  "If this is the Lord's church, I don't want any part of it."  If only they had worked harder on "building up" their faith instead of allowing others to tear it down.  When you see these things happening, pray for God to "Increase our faith."  We are trusting in Him, not in fallible, flawed people, because that is what the church is made of.  If you want the perfect group of people, then you had better stay away from it yourself.
            Remember when these times come to shore up your faith.  In fact, start working on it now before the hard times come.  Lack of preparation is no excuse.  If I can find over 200 passages on faith, what it is, how to build it, when we need it most, and the wonderful things it can do for us, so can you!
 
And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt 17:14-20).
 
Dene Ward

We eat a lot of soup.  It’s cheap, filling, and healthy.  Even a 400 calorie bowlful is a good meal, and most are far less.  You won’t get tired of it because of the nearly infinite variety. 
            We have had ham and bean soup, navy bean soup, and white bean and rosemary soup.  We’ve had cream of potato soup, baked potato soup, and loaded baked potato soup.  I’ve made bouillabaisse, chicken tortilla, pasta Fagioli, and egg drop soups.  For more special occasions I have prepared shrimp bisque, French onion, and vichyssoise.  We’ve warmed our bones with gumbo, mulligatawny, and clam chowder.  I’ve made practically every vegetable soup there is including broccoli cheese soup, roasted tomato soup, and lentil soup.  And if you want just plain soup, I have even made chicken noodle.  You can have soup every week for a year and not eat the same one twice.
            Not only is it cheap to make, it’s usually cheap to buy.  Often the lowest priced item on a menu is a cup of soup.  I can remember it less than a dollar in my lifetime.  Even now it’s seldom over $3.50.  So why in the world would I ever exchange a bowl of soup for something valuable?
            By now your mind should have flashed back to Jacob and Esau.  Jacob must have been some cook.  I have seen the soup he made that day described as everything from lentils to kidney beans to meat stew.  It doesn’t really matter.  It was a simple homespun dish, not even a gourmet concoction of some kind.
            Usually people focus on Jacob, tsk-tsk-ing about his conniving and manipulation, but think about Esau today.  Yes, he was very tired and hungry after a day’s hunt.  But was he really going to starve?  I’ve had my men come in from a day of chopping wood and say, “I could eat a horse,” but not only did I not feed them one, they would not have eaten it if I had.  “I’m starving,” is seldom literal.
            The Bible makes Esau’s attitude plain.  After selling his birthright—his double inheritance—for a bowl of soup, Moses writes, Thus Esau despised his birthright, Gen 25:34.  If that inheritance had the proper meaning to him, it would have taken far more than any sort of meal to get it away from him.  As it was, that was one expensive bowl of soup!
            The Hebrew writer uses another word for Esau—profane--a profane person such as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright, Heb 12:16.  That word means “unholy.”  It means things pertaining to fleshly existence as opposed to spiritual, things relevant to men rather than God.  It is the exact opposite of “sacred” and “sanctified.”  Jacob understood the value of the birthright, and he also understood his brother’s carnal nature.  So did God.
            What important things are we selling for a mess of pottage?  Have you sold your family for the sake of a career?  Have you sold your integrity for the sake of wealth?  Have you sold your marriage for the sake of a few “I told you so’s?”  Have you sold your place in the body of Christ for a few opinions?  Have you sold your soul for the pleasure you can have here and now?
            Examine your life today, the things you have settled for instead of working for, the things you have given up and the things you gave them up for.  Have you made some really bad deals?  Can you even recognize the true value of what you have lost?  Don’t despise the blessings God has given you.  Don’t sell your family, or your character, or your soul for a bowl of soup.
 
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Phil 3:17-20.
 
Dene Ward

We had our first opportunity for an overnight with our grandson Silas when he was two.  It was better than a trip to Disneyworld, better than a vacation in an exotic place, better than dinner in a five star restaurant, better than just about anything you could possibly think of.  Do I sound like a doting grandmother yet?
            When he woke the next morning, he remembered that it was the two of us who put him in the crib the night before and he called out, “Granddad!  Grandma!”  And there was that smiling face and those big blue eyes under a head full of tousled blond curls. 
            My one concern that weekend was understanding what he was saying.  He has been talking since he was one, but sometimes in a language we can’t quite figure out.  It sounds for all the world like a real tongue.  It comes complete with hand motions and facial expressions and he is quite fluent in it.  Unfortunately, we aren’t.
            The last year he has gained more English and less of his personal argot.  For two years old, as he was then, he had quite a vocabulary.  We were doing shape recognition, and he pointed to one and said, “That’s an oval.”  I hadn’t quite gotten over the shock of that when he added, “And that’s a rhombus.”  I quickly flipped through my own mental file card index, trying to remember that one from high school math classes. 
            That morning after we got him out of bed, he turned to me and said, “Can I have bussenwuddy?”
            I was stumped.  Maybe I didn’t hear right, I thought.  So I asked, “Bussenwuddy?”
            His little eyes brightened and he started jumping in my lap.  “Yes, yes!  Bussenwuddy!”
            Okay, now what?  Bussenwuddy...  I flipped through those file cards in my mind once again.  What have I heard him talking about that sounds like bussenwuddy?
            Finally it came to me.  “Buzz and Woody?” 
            Another excited little bounce.  “Yes, yes!  Bussenwuddy.  Can I?”  He wanted to watch the Toy Story DVD.  I felt like a successful grandmother--I had figured out what my two year old grandchild wanted.  Do you think anyone but a grandparent would have tried so hard?
            God is trying to talk to us every day.  He has put it down in black and white.  All we have to do is pick it up and read it.  Some of us won’t even be bothered with that.  Then there are the ones that will pick it up, but then put it back down in frustration.  “I can’t understand this.”  Well, how hard are you willing to try?
            I have had women leave my classes because “They’re too much work.”  Keith has had people complain about his classes because, “They’re too deep.”  Really?  I would be embarrassed to say such a thing if I had been a Christian for two decades or more. 
            Don’t I care enough about my Father in Heaven to put a little effort into it?  It isn’t that He expects us all to be scholars, who love to put our noses in books for hours on end.  But He does expect us to care enough to spend a little time at it.  He expects us to be willing to push ourselves some. 
            No, it isn’t all as simple as, “Do this,” or “Do that.”  Sometimes He throws a bussenwuddy in there (Matt 13:10-13; 2 Pet 3:16).  But if you really care about communicating with your Father, if talking to Him really excites you, if He is the most important thing in your life, then you will exercise that file card memory of yours and flip through it occasionally, striving (a word that denotes effort, by the way) to learn what He expects of you. 
            Knowledge alone doesn’t make you a faithful child of God.  You don’t have to be a genius with a photographic memory, but you do have to love your Father enough to be willing to work at building a relationship with Him.  Pick up your Bible today, and show Him how much He means to you.
 
And he said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel-- not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. Ezekiel 3:4-7
 
 Dene Ward

Some have called eggs the perfect food with their own perfect container.  I recently heard a TV cook say they are “hermetically sealed.”  Eggshells themselves are stronger than their reputation says.  After all, birds sit on them for days, and it takes a good deal of effort for a baby bird to peck its way out of one.
            However, it doesn’t take more than one instance of carelessness to discover just how easily they will break.  Mine usually make it home from the grocery store in one piece, in spite of being placed in a cooler with a couple of bags of groceries and an ice block, and then traveling thirty miles, the last half mile over a bumpy lime rock lane.  Only once in nearly 30 years have I opened my cooler to find eggs that have tumbled out and cracked all over the other groceries.
            You must also be careful where you put them on the counter.  Most recipes require ingredients at room temperature, so I take the butter and eggs out a half hour or more before I plan to use them.  I quickly learned to put them in a small bowl so they couldn’t possibly roll off the countertop onto the floor, even if I did think I had them safely corralled by other ingredients.  Somehow they only roll when you turn your back.  As I recall, that recipe required a lot of eggs, and suddenly I was short a couple.
            Because of their relative fragility, we have developed the idiom “walking on eggshells.”  When the situation is tricky, when someone is already on a short fuse, we tread carefully with our words, as if we were walking carefully, trying not to break the eggshells under our feet.  Sometimes that is a good thing.  No one wants to hurt a person who has just experienced a tragedy.  No one wants to carelessly bring up a topic that might hinder the growth of a babe in Christ.  Certainly no one wants to put out a spark of interest in the gospel.  But sometimes the need to walk on eggshells is a shame, especially when the wrong people have to walk on them.
            I suppose every congregation has one of those members who gives everyone pause; one who has hot buttons you do your best not to push;  one who seems to take offense at the most innocuous statements or actions.  The shame of it is this:  in nearly every case I can remember, that person is over 50, and most over 60.  “You know old brother so-and-so,” everyone will tell newcomers.  “You have to be careful what you say around him.”  Why is it that younger Christians must negotiate minefields around an older Christian who should have grown in wisdom and forbearance?
            Do you think God has nothing to say about people like this? 
            The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult. Pro 12:16
            Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. Pro 10:12
            Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. Pro 19:11
            Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Cor 13:7
            Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Pet 4:8.
            Now let’s put that all together.  A person who is quick to take offense, who is easily set off when a certain topic arises, who seems to make a career out of hurt feelings is a fool, imprudent, full of hate instead of love, divisive, and lacking good sense.  That’s what God says about the matter.  He didn’t walk on eggshells.
            On the other hand, the person who overlooks insults, who doesn’t take everything the worst possible way, who makes allowances for others’ foibles, especially verbal ones, and who doesn’t tell everyone how hurt or insulted he is, is wise, prudent, sensible, and full of love.  Shouldn’t that describe any older Christian, especially one who has been at if for thirty or forty years?
            So, let’s take a good look at ourselves.  Do people avoid me?  Am I defensive, and quick to assume bad motives?   Do I find myself insulted or hurt several times a week?  Do I keep thinking that everyone is out to get me in every arena of life?  Maybe I need to realize that I am not the one that everyone always has in mind when they speak or act.  I am not, after all, the center of the universe.  Maybe it’s time I acted the spiritual age I claim to be.
            Maybe I need to sweep up a few eggshells.
 
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Col 3:12-14.
 
 

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
As I opened the door to let Dene into our car, I felt something rip at my sleeve near the shoulder and felt the scratch on my upper arm. A large dog had lunged through the partly opened window for me. He broke the rain/sun guard over the window. No blood. Not even a real scratch mark. We were at a medical center, where else these days, and I went in to complain at the desk. Part of being deaf means that I am seldom soft spoken and I was still scared and worried, "What if it had been Dene?" When I got back out, I met the man coming from rolling up the window to leave a smaller opening on his little pickup. I said, unnecessarily since he had obviously come from the lobby where I complained, "Your dog almost bit me, did get his teeth on me." He was apologetic, but I just got in our car and drove away. A few blocks up the road, I put my hand on Dene and said, "I sure hope he never comes to church!" Another block or two, "I should hope he does so I can apologize."
 
Now, you know that I know better if you have read any of my devos. I have preached better for 50 years and done better at least as often as not, but, I have a good excuse, in fact, two or three of them. My adrenaline was still high, I have been bitten before, one requiring stitches, whereas, it is evil to leave the windows up in Florida heat with any live thing in the car, a gap that wide for a dog that big and aggressive is inexcusable, etc.
 
But, do you remember WWJD? Bracelets. Yes, Jesus was angry, but not over a personal injury but over indifference to the disease of a fellow and the refusal to believe (Mk 3:5).
 
So, how many people would you be ashamed to have see your car and the partial plate number they remember in your church parking lot? Or, someone who heard how you spoke to your wife? Maybe a co-worker who sees your goof-off work ethic?
 
If my man did walk in, would I have an opportunity to apologize or would he turn and leave when he saw me across the room?
 
We are responsible for our deeds (Mt 16:27).
 
"Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. " (Prov 14:29).
"​A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention. " (Prov 15:18).
"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: " (Eph 4:31).
 
Keith 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

Wrens are known for building nests in odd places and we have a couple who have proven the point.  They can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to building nests.  And fast?  In less than an hour they are ready to set up housekeeping.   Anything that is left open and alone for that amount of time is fair game.
            We’ve found nests in boxes of empty mason jars in the shed, and on the lawn mower seat under its protective tarp.  We’ve found them on the bristles of the push broom which hangs upside down near the ceiling of the carport.  We’ve found them in roof gutters, and draped plastic sheeting.  We’ve found them in flower pots, tomato vines, and empty buckets.
            We usually buy dog food in 50 lb bags at the feed store and keep it stored in a large plastic garbage can in the shed.  We carry Chloe’s daily allotment in an old three pound coffee can, which we then shove sideways on the handlebars of the old exercise bike until the next day’s feeding.  Last month we found a wren’s nest in that can, obviously built after Chloe had been fed the day before, hanging precariously, rocking in the breeze. 
            Immediately Keith duct-taped it more securely to the handlebars so it couldn’t be blown or jostled off, and found another old can to use for Chloe’s feed.  It has become something of a joke now—remember to put up the [whatever] before the wrens find it.
            This doesn’t happen just once a year.  The mother wren incubates the eggs for about 2 weeks and then both parents feed them until they can fly, about two weeks later.  Often, the last few days of feeding, the father takes over completely so the mother can start another nest.  In our Florida climate, they often build a third nest after that one.  They are like little nest-building machines—wherever they can, whenever then can.
            Isn’t that the way we should be about the gospel?  Too many times we’re out there making judgments about where to sow the seed instead of strewing it about everywhere we can.  We decide who will and who won’t listen and worse, who we deem “worthy” to hear.
            That certainly isn’t what Jesus did.  He taught dishonest businessmen and immoral women.  He taught the upper class and the lowest of the low.  He taught the diseased and the disabled, as well as the hale and hearty blue collar workers.  He taught people who wanted to hear and people who just wanted to make trouble for him.  Shouldn’t we be following his example?
            Too many times we worry about the reception we will get.  When Jesus sent out the seventy, he didn’t say, “If you don’t think they’ll listen, then shake the dust off your feet and go elsewhere.”  What he said was, “If they don’t listen,” which means everyone had a chance to decline if that is what they chose to do.  We can’t seem to stand the possibility of rejection, not an auspicious trait for disciples of the one who was “despised and rejected of men.”
            We should be like wrens, speaking about our faith anywhere, even the most unlikely places, to anyone, even the most unlikely people.  Over and over and over, like we can’t help ourselves, like our lives depended upon it, because maybe they do.
 
Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.  Acts 20:26-27.
 

 

Today's post is by guest writer Doy Moyer.

Justice is a common desire. When someone has committed a terrible act against another, we want to see justice done. We know there is something wrong about someone getting away with a criminal offense. Consequently, societies have systems in place in order to try to bring about justice for the offended. Since they involve humans and human governments, these systems are imperfect. We don’t always get the resolution that we desire, and sometimes we err. Yet we continue trying because it is the right thing to do. 

If we, as human beings, desire justice, then how much more shall we think that God desires justice? God was certainly concerned about justice under the Law (cf. Exod 23:2, 6; Deut 10:18; 16:19; 24:17; Isa 1:17, and… so much in the prophets!). His desire is, always, that His people “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). 

Unlike mere human beings, however, God knows the way of perfect justice. He knows the beginning from the end and knows the hearts of all. He sees what we cannot see, knows what we cannot know, and has the perfect wisdom and understanding to carry out judgment and justice without the finite flaws of imperfect societies. Consequently, when God brings judgment, it will be right. We may not always be able to understand or see why God judged a nation at a particular time, but those calls are His right to make. Our lack of knowledge and understanding hardly constitutes reason to call God into question over His judgments. God owns life and death (Deut 32:39). He is the Creator, the Potter, the King, and the Judge. 

Abraham understood that God had the right to judge the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. He pled with God, to be sure, hoping that God might spare the cities if only only ten righteous people could be found. “Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen 18:25) He was calling upon God’s just nature, hoping to spare his own family from what was about to happen. The ten could not be found. Yes, the Judge of all the earth will do what is just. He will make no mistakes in carrying out justice so it should not surprise us when God finally brings down the gavel. 

Why would God bring such judgment? When human beings are violated, we rightly want justice. Again, how much more ought God to desire justice, especially when He has been violated? This is the nature of sin, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Sin violates the nature and glory of God. Just as crime against other humans violates human rights, God has “divine rights,” and these are violated when we sin. In detailing the sins of God’s people, Isaiah said that they were being judged “because their speech and their actions are against the Lord, to rebel against His glorious presence” (Isa 3:8, NASB). 

Shall we, then, think it right that we would “get away” with crimes against the Almighty Creator? Shall we think to remove His divine right to judge? Should we think that He is out of place for bringing justice and doing so perfectly with complete wisdom, knowledge, and understanding? He could do it with the nations and He can do it with us. One day, there is, indeed, a final day of judgment coming. As Paul told the people of Athens, God “commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31; cf. 2 Cor 5:10)

This can be rather frightening, especially when we realize that our crimes against the Divine Glory, when met with justice, means suffering “the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thess 1:9). 

Yet here is where the Gospel becomes so powerful. God Himself stepped in, took on human flesh (John 1:14), and suffered as a sacrifice on our behalf so that He would be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). By doing this, He does not give up being just while forgiving the sins of those who turn to Him. His justice stands. His holiness stands. His glory stands. His grace is magnified. To God be the glory! 

God’s right to judge is established by the fact that He is the Creator. Just as human beings expect justice when human rights are violated, so God brings about justice due to His divine rights beings violated. He does this with perfect knowledge, wisdom, and power. Will the Judge of all the earth do what is just? 

He already has, and He always will. 

Doy Moyer

Taken from Doy's blog, Searching Daily

When we lived in another state many years ago, we had two hydrangeas, one flanking each side of the patio steps.  I loved those plants.  They took little care and for that meager effort produced huge balls of blue blooms all summer.  So I decided a few years ago to plant a couple here.
            I understand that there are white hydrangeas that are supposed to be that way.  They are often used in weddings, which seems appropriate and lovely.  But most hydrangeas are not supposed to be white.  Instead, the color of their blooms depends upon the pH of the soil.  If there is plenty of aluminum in the soil, you get blue blooms.  If aluminum is lacking, you usually get pink. 
            If you do not get the color you want, you can change it yourself.  Mix one tablespoon of aluminum sulfate per gallon of water and use it during the growing season.  (Be sure the plant is well-watered beforehand or you could burn your plants.)  If you prefer pink blooms, use dolomite.  I really don’t care if I get pink instead of blue, but I did not want white.  White is what I got.
            Some people can’t seem to make up their minds about serving God.   They show up on Sunday morning, but you would never know it if you saw them the rest of the week.  Their dress, language, recreation, and opinions match the world around them.  Like God’s people of old, they “fear the Lord, but serve other gods,” 2 Kings 17:33.  Instead of being either pink or blue, they try to be neutral, thinking it will help them get along with both sides.
            Jesus addressed their descendants in Matt 6:24--“You cannot serve two masters,” something we often try to do ourselves, giving our time and energy to the material and only the leftovers, if there are any, to the spiritual.  That is why our prayers are often useless.  We know we aren’t pink or blue, so we pray with “doubt,” like the “double-minded man, unstable in all his ways,” James 1:6-8.
            That wasn’t the end of passages I could find.  “How long will you go limping between two sides?” Elijah asked in 1 Kgs 18:21.  “Choose this day whom you will serve,” Joshua demanded, 24:15.  The Lord doesn’t want white hydrangeas any more than I do.  He wants people who can make a decision and stand by it, people who care enough to go all out, not just dabble.  We cannot be wishy-washy.  “If you aren’t with me you are against me,” he told the disciples, Luke 11:23. 
            One of my hydrangeas has finally developed a light blue tint.  Then I got my acid and alkaline colors mixed up and had Keith put hydrated lime on it.  So tomorrow it may turn pink.  But it really doesn’t matter—one or the other, pink or blue, just not white.  I didn’t plant it to get some neutral color, and that isn’t why God put us where He did either.
 
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth. Rev 3:15-16
 
Dene Ward

We talked once before about the need to teach facts as well as attitudes.  You have nothing to base your attitudes on if you don't have the facts.  But there is one real problem with facts-only teaching.  You can know the story of the Good Samaritan so well you can quote it, but can you put feet to it?  Can you look at your own life and apply it to your situation?  Over and over I have taught the lives of various women in the Bible only to have an entire class look at me with a blank stare when I ask how it applies to their own lives.  If we want people to learn this skill, we need to start teaching it to them as children. 
            Keith and I are team-teaching a class.  When we went over the Parable of the Sower (or the Soils), by the time we had finished they could tell you about each soil in depth.  So the next class, I wrote descriptions of different people, giving these imaginary people the sort of names their own friends and classmates have to make them seem more real, and asked, "Which soil is she?"  "Which soil is he?"  Once they got the hang of it, they could answer with only a few seconds thought.  Finally I had them do it.  "Tell me how someone would act if he were…" fill in the blank with whichever soil you care to name.  They did very well.  I had to laugh though when we asked, "What would someone look like if he were good soil?" and one of them answered, "Us!"  I hope he is correct, and at least at this point, I think he is.
            This past week we tried something else.  First I had them name various things Jesus taught in short phrases:  love your enemies, let your light shine, enter the narrow door, do unto others etc., and be wise as serpents— you can easily come up with more.  Then I handed each a situation they might someday be facing if not in exact detail, then something similar.  We asked them what they would do in that situation and what thing Jesus taught had led them to that solution.  They gave us good solutions to the problems.  The difficult thing was finding something in Jesus' teaching that would have helped them know what to do.  As we talked together, if we mentioned one they could instantly see how that tenet of teaching informed the situation.  They could also see that sometimes there was more than one right way of handling the situation and not to be judgmental if someone did something else as long as they did not sin.   We will be repeating this activity again and see if things are improving.
            As many times as Keith has visited fallen away members and read passages to them only to be faced with that same blank stare, I wonder if maybe it's time to give us grown-ups a dose of the same medicine.  Don't think for a minute this is kids' stuff, but maybe if we taught our children this way, there wouldn't be so many adults who are clueless about, as we so often have heard prayed, "applying these things to our daily lives."  That is certainly what God expects us to do.
 
For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake (1Cor 9:9-11).                                                                                          
 
Dene Ward