I have already written a post about women's roles in the church.  If you would like to see it, or refresh yourself, it was posted July 3. 2015.  Go to the archives (could be on the right sidebar or at the bottom, depending on which device you are using) and click on July 2015, then scroll down.  You will have to click on "Previous" at the bottom two separate times before you arrive at "The One Question I Always Get."
            But something else came to me in the past couple of weeks as I mulled this over when the question came up yet again.  Women are the ones who always question the limitations God has placed on them.  I find that odd because God has placed limitations on a whole lot of other people too. 
            Bachelors are not allowed to be either elders or deacons.  Camp awhile in 1 Timothy and Titus and tell me which of the qualifications a bachelor cannot have as well as a married man except being the husband of one wife and ruling his house well.
            A godly couple who have no children are not allowed to serve this way either, no matter how many other of the qualifications they meet. 
            A man who was given the spiritual gift of tongue-speaking was also limited.  This was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, yet if there was no one who could interpret his tongue he is told in 1 Cor 14:28 to sit down and be quiet!
         God has always placed limitations upon people.  Under the Old Covenant, you could not be a priest if you were not from the tribe of Levi, and not only that, but also from the family of Aaron within that tribe.  That left a lot of people out, and some of them took issue with it.  Korah and Dathan and Abiram complained, saying they were just as good as those God had chosen for the priesthood.  Listen to Moses' reaction:
            Moses also told Korah, “Now listen, Levites! Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community to bring you near to Himself, to perform the work at the LORD’s tabernacle, and to stand before the community to minister to them? He has brought you near, and all your fellow Levites who are with you, but you are seeking the priesthood as well. Therefore, it is you and all your followers who have conspired against the LORD! As for Aaron, who is he that you should complain about him? ” Num 16:8-11
            May I just paraphrase a little?  Ladies, isn't it enough that God has separated you from the world to bring you near to him as his children, able to be a part of his church at all, and given you the hope of salvation?  Yet you will stand up and conspire against the Lord?  It isn't men you are complaining about, any more than it was Moses back then—it is God.
            Look at the rest of the story:  Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD sent me to do all these things and that it was not of my own will: If these men die naturally as all people would, and suffer the fate of all, then the LORD has not sent me But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them along with all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have despised the LORD. ”Just as he finished speaking all these words, the ground beneath them split open. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, all Korah’s people, and all their possessions. They went down alive into Sheol with all that belonged to them. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly. At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled because they thought, “The earth may swallow us too! ”Fire also came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were presenting the incense. Num 16:28-35
            God says the complaining of those men was sin (Num 16:26).  Moses said their complaining indicated an attitude of ingratitude, and one that scorned the very service they had been called to do as Levites.  Do I want to be party to that?
            God does place limits on certain groups of people—not just women.  It is his right as our Creator to do so.  After reviewing this event from the Old Covenant, if I have ever complained before, be sure that I will never do it again.
 
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:28-29
 
Dene Ward
 

Sometime on November 8, 2018, ignited by a faulty electric transmission line, a fire that became known as the Camp Fire started in the hills of Northern California's Butte County.  A strong east wind fed the fire and it raced down into developed areas becoming the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.  The fire finally reached containment after 17 days, causing 85 civilian casualties, completely destroying the towns of Paradise and Concow, burning 18,000 structures, and covering 239.6 square miles.  The total damages came in at $16.5 billion.  In 2005, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had released a report warning that the communities there, particularly Paradise, were at risk for an east wind driven fire.  The drought added to the hazard, and all came true 13 years later.
            Our neighbors gave us a scare of our own, though happily, one with a better ending.  I stepped outside that day and saw flashing red and blue lights up the hill, far more than one vehicle’s worth.  Since the original neighbor died, his heirs have moved on to the property and begun tearing apart the old trailer he used as rental property.  First they peeled the metal off the sides and sold it for scrap.  Then they tore down the rest.  Insulation and paneling littered the yard.  The trailer itself was nothing more than a pile of rubbish about four feet high.  That day they decided to burn it.
            We have a new neighbor who lives right across from them, an older woman who raises goats and lives a quiet, orderly life.  She looked outside on what was probably the windiest day of the driest month of spring to see flames just across the lime rock drive from her own house.  So she called 911.
            That was by far a smarter move than the other neighbors had made that day, for quite soon the fire got away from them and started spreading.  Then, to cap off the whole ridiculous escapade--some ammunition had been left in the old trailer and it suddenly started going off, at least one shotgun shell and half a dozen solid bullets.  Before it was over three fire trucks, an ambulance, a forestry truck, and two deputies were crowding my narrow little road.  Somehow, no one was hurt.
            You know what?  We often play with fire exactly the same way, with even worse consequences.  The Proverb writer says, Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on, 4:14,15.  We go where we have no business being, where temptation sits waiting to strike, and then wonder how we got into trouble. 
            We turn away from good advice and listen to the bad, avoid the righteous and hang around with the wicked, because we are certain we are strong and can handle the traps.   The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death. Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.  In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly, Prov 13:14-16.  I have always thought it amusing how little God cares for political correctness and tact.  He calls us fools when we act like one.
            God even told the Israelites not to covet the idols their neighbors had.  Why?  The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, Deut 7:25.  God has always pictured wealth as a snare to his people.  Yet what do we always wish for?  What do we think will fix all our problems? But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction, 1 Tim 6:9.  Let’s not get on our high horses because we understand that a Christian shouldn’t play around with liquor, with drugs, with gambling, or with illicit sex.  For one thing, we are just as vulnerable as anyone in those areas.  For another, we are just as bad when we think money is the be-all and end-all.  We are playing with dynamite that could explode in our faces just as easily.
            Are you playing with fire in your life?  Are you too sure of yourself, so confident in your ability to overcome that you place yourself in harm’s way and practically dare the Devil to come get you?   Remember God’s opinion of such a person.  I don’t want him to call me a fool on the day it matters the most.
 
Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death, Prov 6:27,28; 14:27.
 
Dene Ward

Have you found yourself doing it lately?  Especially in the past ten years or so?  When people start vilifying the Bible with accusations about irrelevance, hate-mongering, misogyny, and homophobia, have you tried to make excuses for God?  Especially when it comes from people who claim to believe the Bible but come right out and say it's wrong, do you feel the need to apologize for God?
            I think I may have done that.  I think I may have said things that sounded like I was embarrassed by what I believed.  Finally, it hit me like a brick.  If someone were embarrassed to admit they knew me, I would just leave.  Wouldn't you?  So how do you suppose our Father feels? 
Just what are we claiming to be, people?  Disciples of Christ or not?  Servants of God or not?
            If you love me, you will keep my commandments, Jesus said in John 14:15.  Well, do you love him?
              By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. (1John 5:2)  The world will try to tell you just the opposite—that keeping God's commands means you do not love people.  Who do you believe?
            For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. (1John 5:3)  Or do you disagree with John?  Are God's commands too embarrassing to profess, too difficult in our culture's anti-morality, and too polarizing for our own comfortable lifestyles?
            Until someone else comes along who will empty himself to become a man, suffer through the undignified life of humanity and die an ignominious death for me, who am I to say I don't agree with God's morality, with commands that affect what I can and cannot do in service to him, and how much I must put up with in other people?  I will do as I am told because no one else loved me that much and no one else created me; no one else has the power to blink us all out of existence with a thought.  Just what in the world are you thinking when you go around apologizing for God and his Word as if it were something embarrassing we have to put up with?  If you hate having to live by God's rules, you may as well quit pretending. 
            This is what God told Jeremiah when he faced a group of arrogant, hard-headed, disobedient, unfaithful people, people who would ridicule and persecute him, and it would serve us well to remember it as we face that same group several thousand years later:
            Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. ​Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” (Jer 1:6-8)
 
Dene Ward

By now I can imagine some of you saying, "If their place was so perfect, why did they leave?"
            Well, obviously, there was something about it that wasn't perfect.  Our circumstances are changing—we grow older every day and our bodies weaker.  Taking care of a large property with very little power equipment had become more and more difficult.
            And then someone might ask, "If this new place is so imperfect, why did you buy it?"
            No, it doesn't have beautiful flowers.  Yes, it is a tiny yard with neighbors you can shake hands with out the windows--well, almost.  Yes, it needs a lot of work.  But you see, our priorities have changed.  We are 5-6 minutes from a son and his family.  We are 7-8 minutes from church.  We are 10-12 minutes from another excellent eye specialist.  An ambulance can probably get here in 2-3 minutes.  That's what counts these days.
            Priorities make what is unacceptable in one circumstance, acceptable in another.  And that is why it is so important that a Christian have his priorities in order.  God never promised an easy life.  Jesus reminded us to "count the cost" before making the commitment to Him.  Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2Tim 3:12).  If you don't understand that going in, you will never last when life becomes difficult.
            We sing a song with the title of this series, but take a moment now and ask yourself, when I sing that song, do I make a hypocrite out of myself?  Does my discipleship matter more than where I live or how I live?  Is it more important than who likes me and who doesn't?  If I lose everything for the Lord, can I live with it joyfully?  For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one (Heb 10:34).  Do we have the strength and spirituality to do that?  If not, then maybe our priorities need a second look—a long one. 
            This move has made us think a little harder, change a little more in that direction.  No matter where you live in this world, it is still just a motel stop on the way home.  Treat it that way and your life will be so much better in the long run.
 
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Phil 3:8).
 
Dene Ward
 

I was concerned when we left our property because it had to be done quickly, so while packing, I cleaned each shelf as I emptied it—in the kitchen, in closets, in the laundry, and in bathrooms.  Early the week we left, I cleaned all the bathrooms, and sprayed down the shower the night before.  As the furniture was being emptied out of the house, I began sweeping—the floors and even the walls behind larger pieces of furniture that hadn't seen light of day in several decades.  And because the movers told us we had to go when they did, I even left a very good friend behind sweeping the last couple of rooms I hadn't gotten to yet.  The place was as clean as I could reasonably make it without an extra day to hire a cleaning company—but the buyer was impatient and wanted in NOW!  Still I felt a little bad about it not being exactly perfect.
            Then we arrived here and I stopped worrying.  Obviously, no one had cleaned up for us even a little bit.  I suppose they had swept, but the baseboards had not been touched in years, no exaggeration.  Every room was surrounded by a thin black line a couple inches above the floor.  And the bathrooms?  One day I spent three hours cleaning top to bottom, stem to stern, on step stools and on my hands and knees, and you could barely tell it because the stains were so set in.  And I must have scraped (with a knife) a quarter inch of soap scum off each soap holder, top and bottom.  Dust was caked above doors, above electrical outlets, and in every crevice of anything that could catch it for the past twenty years.  The air conditioner filter apparently had never been changed and you might be surprised what that makes blow out of the vents across the ceilings!  No one had cleaned these shelves as they packed.  I had to clean them before I could unpack.  The concrete floor of the back porch was black when it should have been gray.  I think that's enough for you to see what we had to deal with.
            Maybe because of all that grime, whenever we came across something left behind, I picked it up with two fingers and immediately tossed it.  I wanted absolutely nothing to do with anything that came from this filthy house. 
            But did I feel that way about the house I left behind?  I wondered, when the buyer took down some of the things that were attached to the house and we were instructed to leave, if he had felt the same way about our things.  I hope that the obvious effort we had gone to made a difference, but why should it?  If he found any dirt at all, it probably disgusted him as much as this dirt disgusted me.
            And isn't that always the case?  My dirt is not as bad as someone else's.  I could even change the diapers of my own children and grandchildren a whole lot more easily than I could anyone else's children's. 
            And that makes it harder to see our dirt, doesn't it?  And when we do, much less likely to be concerned about it.  Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? (Matt 7:3-4).
            But dirt is dirt is dirt, and sin is sin is sin, as James indicated in 2:11.  Yours is not worse than mine, nor mine than yours.  They are all evil in God's eyes, and when someone has the love (and courage) to tell us about them, it should be a cause for rejoicing and gratitude, not anger.  Maybe we should all work on that a little more.
          God dwells in the church, his people.  Christ dwells in us by faith.  Neither of them wants to live in a dirty house, no matter whose dirt it is.
 
Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (John 14:23).
 
Dene Ward

We finished dinner and for probably the 50,000th time, I laid my folded napkin to the side of my plate.  You could hardly tell it had been used.  I looked across the table.  Keith's napkin lay in a crumpled up wad a good foot to the side of his plate.  We won't even go into the stains, but please tell me how a dinner of pot roast so tender it fell to pieces, mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans from the garden could result in that!
            And you now know why I do not use paper napkins.  Keith would use half a dozen at every meal.  That simply does not fit into my grocery budget.  At least cloth napkins are washable and therefore reusable, and you don't have to worry about picking up the greasy white shreds that have snowed all over the floor after a meal of ribs or fried chicken.
            From the very start of our marriage we have used cloth napkins, not just for company or formal occasions—all the time.  Over the years I have amassed a stack of four or five dozen I suppose, maybe more.  And it did not take long to learn one important thing about napkins, and here it is.
            After eating with us a few times, a kind lady I knew wanted to help me out.  So she bought a remnant of permanent press cloth, a pretty floral print with a beige background.  It was actually a perfect match for my china.  She carefully cut out 12 inch squares and hemmed them on all four sides.  "You won't have to iron these," she said as she handed me a dozen beautiful cloth napkins.
            I used those napkins for years just because they were a gift, but now that sweet lady is gone and so are those napkins.  Unlike cotton, permanent press, at least in those days, did not soak up anything.  If you had a small spill, they merely pushed the liquid around.  If you had a smear of grease on your hands or face, it was still there after you wiped.  They were beautiful to look at and no, I never did have to iron them, but useless when you needed them to do what napkins are supposed to do—absorb messes.
             After forty years of standing in front of Bible classes and even larger groups of women, I can say that some women are cotton napkins and some are permanent press.  I imagine any man who has taught Bible classes, or any preacher, can say the same thing.  You can tell when someone is interested—they soak it up.  Sometimes it's the note-taking; they can't seem to do it fast enough.  Other times it's the look in the eyes, the posture, or even facial expressions.  When you are planning a speech, you expect a laugh here, a gasp there, a groan or even the feminine variety of "Amen."  You expect some sort of reaction if you have crafted your words carefully enough and chosen the scriptures that will suddenly slam the door on an attitude or behavior that needs changing.  When you get none of that, either you don't know what you are doing after all, or you have an audience full of permanent press napkins.
             Every time you attend one of these functions, every time you hear a sermon or sit in a Bible class, and every time you open your Bible for some real Bible study, it should change you.  At first the changes will be big.  You are new to this Christian business so you have a ways to go and the alterations should be noticeable to those who know you best.  Then as you mature spiritually, the changes will become smaller—maybe an attitude adjustment, maybe just a change in private behavior that few people will see, but a change nevertheless.  If that does not happen, you have become a permanent press napkin.  You might look good on the outside.  You might even match the "china" around you on Sunday mornings.  But instead of soaking up the Word, the water of life, you will just be pushing it aside out of your way.
            Even one permanent press napkin in the audience is too many.  Check your label today and see what you are made of.
 
And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Col 3:10
 
Dene Ward

[We} ought always to pray and not lose heart, Luke 18:1
 
Someone told us we could write a book about all the things that happened in our move and no one would believe it.  Every other day brought a glitch of some sort.  How can all of these things happen during the same transaction?  Even seasoned real estate agents with stories to tell were amazed at ours.  And so for a full four weeks our prayers were fast and intense to the point of tears upon occasion.  While we pray with regularity, this was more than the usual.
            Eventually the pieces did fall into place in what seemed a Providential pattern, but not before turning them around every which way, trying every possible configuration of the puzzle.  And pray we did, asking, begging, pleading that the latest snag in the process would work itself out.  With His guidance, it did.
            God never tires of helping His children.  He wants us to show our dependence on Him.  He wants us to recognize our need of His help and care.  Some of the most biting, sarcastic sections of the prophets concern His people going to other gods for the very things Jehovah himself had promised, and for years had furnished.  Why were they expecting anything from a lifeless piece of wood or metal, He asked?
            He told them shortly before Jerusalem's fall to the Babylonians, On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth (Isa 62:6-7).  For the faithful few, the command was simple—pray!  Ask!  Talk to me, again and again and again!  We should give Him no rest either. 
          Bother Him night and day with your cares, your sorrows, your requests.  Pester Him with your musings, your questions, your meditations, just as you would a faithful mentor or loving parent.  I promise you, He won't mind at all.
 
I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live (Ps 116:1-2).

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving (Col 4:2).
 
Dene Ward

This morning I sat outside by the remains of last night’s fire, drinking my last cup of coffee and petting the dogs.  Suddenly I heard the hawk in a tree just across the drive.  This was the closest he had come in awhile.  I do not know if it was the first hawk that grew up on our property, or his son or grandson, but it was one of those I had talked to as he sat in his nest as a baby.  He would never have gotten that close to me otherwise.
            No other bird would have talked to me that way either.  He didn’t call out with the loud, echoing cry of a mature hawk, but with the baby sounds he used to make way up in his nest as I talked to him, the same sounds he always greeted his parents with when they brought him food during the day.  This was intimate hawk talk, not formal hawk talk.  He still recognized me from his baby days, and knew I was a friend.  He knew he could let down his guard and be that little baby hawk one more time.
            Sometimes I get tired of being grown up.  I get tired of being the mature one who is always supposed to know what to say and how to say it.  Sometimes I want to be the little kid who can run to a great big grown-up, spill my heart, and have him tell me everything is going to be all right.
            That is exactly what we can do with God.  Job said, My soul is weary of my life; I will give free course to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul, 10:1.  Job said he could tell God everything, no holding back—“free course.”  David said, I pour out my complaint before Him, I show Him my trouble, Psa 142:2.  Both of these strong men of God had moments when they let it all out, just like little children who are afraid and don’t understand.  Why do I think I need to be any better than they?
            My children used to come to me with their troubles, usually small, inconsequential things.  But to them, those things were HUGE.  I never acted like they were silly to worry over them, but did my best to comfort them, and even fix the things I could fix for them.  Most of the things we find ourselves going to God with are inconsequential in His grand scheme of things, but He still treats them as important because they are important to His children.  He will listen to even the smallest concern, the pettiest, even the selfish ones, as so many turn out to be. 
            We never need to hold back with God, especially now, because we have a Mediator who understands how those small things can seem so large. We can run to God any time we need to, and talk as a child to a Father who listens and who cares.  It’s okay to have a little baby talk with God.
 
For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one who has been in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help in time of need, Heb 4:15,16.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
 Pet 3:21 “Wherein few, that is eight souls were saved through water.” 
 
The NASB erroneously translates this “eight persons were brought safely through the water.”  This may suit those who do not believe baptism is essential to salvation, since the next line is, “which also after a true likeness does now save you, even baptism.”  Are we “brought safely through” baptism?  The Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write that Noah was saved by water, not that he was saved from water.  So, if Noah was saved by the same water that destroyed the world, what was he saved from?
 
When God surveyed the world of Noah’s day, he saw nothing but wickedness.  Only Noah found favor in God’s eyes.  After Noah preached 120 years and with the ark a growing monument to the sincerity of his plea, only 7 other people believed and entered the ark.  1 year, 10 days later, they entered a world that was clean and pure, all the wickedness washed away -- exactly what baptism accomplishes for sinners.
 
God made a promise that he would never again destroy the world by water, and set a rainbow in the sky to be a sign of that unilateral covenant.  God planned to resolve the issue of sin in another way.  We tend to think that the rainbow marks an ending, but God intended it as a beginning, the hope for a world washed clean from sin. 
 
Thousands of years later, Jesus died on the cross as the fulfillment of the hope inherent in the rainbow:  that God would solve the problem of sin by means other than destruction.
 
Just as the rainbow shone with the pledge that God would never again destroy the sinful world by water, each week we take the Lord’s Supper to remind us that God fulfilled the rainbow covenant in Christ.  This bread and this fruit of the vine shine with the colors of the hope of forgiveness; not an arc of reds, blues, yellows, greens but one of redemption, adoption, reconciliation, righteousness. God made a covenant in Christ.  These emblems are the signs of that covenant to us.
 
"“This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you." (Isa 54:9-10).
 
Keith Ward

I bet you have no idea how many things you take for granted.  How many times a day do you turn a knob or push a lever and expect water in one form or another and would be completely flabbergasted if it did not come?  How many times do you flip a switch and expect light?  How many times do you toss something in the trash knowing that someone will come take it away for you?
            Living in small rural counties for over forty years has taught me better about those things.  The power goes out for sometimes no apparent reason and when you have a well, no power means no water either.  Garbage pickup is non-existent so you haul your own and suddenly become very aware of all the trash you generate and try to make it less.  So we were expecting all the paperwork involved in transferring those services from the previous owners of our new home and not upset by it or the deposits.  We were simply grateful to at long last have these sort of services on a reliable basis.
            But the post office completely let us down.  Even though we had filed change of address in a timely manner, there is no contingency for people who are between closing on the old property and closing on the new.  Surely millions like us exist, needing the money on the old to pay for the new, and thus several days with no address.  Would they hold our mail in our new city?  No, they would not.  It would all be "returned to sender."  Since we were expecting three or four bills, including credit card and car insurance bills, we were left scrambling, trying to find out how much we owed and where to send it.  Despite its slogan ("neither rain nor snow…"), it will be a good while before we take daily mail delivery for granted again.
            Even if you think you are better than most, I guarantee there is something you take for granted, a blessing that comes from God.  We may all have our troubles, but as Jeremiah reminds us, we would have only the bad and nothing good at all if it weren't for God (Lam 3:22), something he said in the middle of famine, disease, and the destruction of Jerusalem.
            Do you have a home, regardless its size and amenities?  Do you have a family?  Do you have food on your table and clothes on your back?  Can you travel to work in relative safety?  (Do you even have a job?)  Do you have the medicine you need?  Can you pay for your true necessities, if not for all the high tech gadgets you think you "deserve" simply because everyone else has them, and do you take all this for granted as if God owed it to you, if you even think of Him at all in relation to them?
            Yes, we should also be thanking God for all these relatively minor things which we too often treat as the most important of all, more important even than salvation from sin and rescue from an eternity in Hell.  But that should then lead us on to recognition and gratitude for those grander spiritual gifts which we too seldom think about, and thus, too often take for granted.  When the time comes that they suddenly loom in our consciousness, we may find ourselves wishing we had been more aware and more grateful, and hoping it is not too late.
 
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning (Jas 1:17).
 
Dene Ward