It was almost amusing when it happened. 
            Many years ago at one of the congregations where Keith preached, one of the older men made it a point to say to him, “I know you are a hard worker.  But you still have small children at home.  You need to make sure you spend time with them.” 
            We appreciated that.  Keith was a hard worker, spending at least 30 hours a week with the Word, just as Paul told Timothy and Titus they needed to be doing as young evangelists, plus the four hours preaching and teaching in the assembly every week, and then holding Bible studies, usually in the evenings, with interested people, or looking for more interested folks as he passed out flyers and meeting announcements, sent out and graded correspondence courses, and wrote articles in the local paper.  I often met him at the local pond loaded down with old towels and blankets, especially in the winter, for a baptism.  He seldom worked less than 60 hours a week.
            Yet not long afterward, the same man’s wife came up to him and scolded him because he had missed putting an article in the paper the week we moved from one house to another.  Everything else was done, but something had to give that week, and he preferred that one article not be written rather than his boys not have time with their father.
            I fear too many churches are more like the wife of that couple than the husband.  Especially if a man is supported mainly by other churches, the pressure is felt, even if it isn’t applied.  Then there are the men who do not even need that pressure to avoid their obligations at home, using the same excuse.  Here is what Jesus had to say about that. 
            And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban"' (that is, given to God)-- then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."  Mark 7:9-13.
            Those people got out of their financial obligations to their elderly parents by claiming their money was “given to God,” whether or not it ever actually made it to the Temple coffers! 
            “And many such things you do,” Jesus tacked on the end of that. .”  As long as you can say you are using it for God, whatever “it” is, you don’t have to give it to anyone else.  Tell me that saying your time is given to God (Corban) so it’s all right if you don’t spend enough of it with your children to teach them basic skills of life, to discuss the Word of God “when you walk and talk,” to just listen to their childish concerns and give them the fatherly wisdom they crave, or enough time to nurture your relationship with the wife whom you have come to take for granted, aren’t “such things."
            I have seen old pioneer preachers lauded for sacrificing their family lives to go off for months at a time to preach the gospel.  I am not sure the Lord would have been among their admirers.  If they were single, fine, but choosing to have a family places other obligations on you.  Isn’t that what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7?  I would rather you be like me (single) so you do not have the obligations that having a family puts on you, duties which God does expect you to fulfill.  Paul certainly didn’t say those obligations were negated by spiritual things.
            Churches need to look at their preachers’ schedules for this reason:  see if he is raising his children; see if he is spending time with his wife.  The Lord made a family with both a mother and a father present in the home.  He made the woman to be a help not a substitute father.  Jesus said, “Don’t blame what you do for God as the reason you neglect your family obligations.”  He says you make void the Word of God when you do that.  Churches, do you want to be a party, or perhaps the main cause, for a man to make void the Word of God?
            And we can also say this applies to anyone who hides behind “spiritual things” to avoid his family responsibilities—he is calling his family, “Corban.”
            We call the argument about “quality time” between working mothers and their children a “myth.”  Quality time can only happen when a quantity of time is being spent.  What applies to mothers, certainly applies to fathers too.  Jesus seems to agree.
  
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4.  Read that without the parenthetical statement—just the underlined words.
 
Dene Ward

One afternoon many years ago we stopped at an Olive Garden restaurant for a late lunch.  It was about 2:30, and it would be our only meal of the day. The place was nearly empty, so we were seated at a nice table and an eager young waitress, her order pad and pen held at the ready, came to serve us.
            “We’ll start with bruschetta,” I said. 
            “Huh?  Oh!  You mean brush-etta.”
            No, I thought.  I meant what I said, “Brrroo-skeht-ta.”
            Now, you must understand that I had been teaching Italian aria and art song for a couple dozen years at that time.  My students regularly stood before judges who marked them down on mispronounced Italian, so I had studied everything I could, constantly referencing an Italian pronunciation guide, and checking with other teachers who had sung opera.  I knew exactly how to pronounce “bruschetta.”
            I had learned some lessons the hard way.  I remember one especially embarrassing and painful occasion at state contest.  I don’t recall the exact word, but somewhere in it was the letter sequence “g-i-a.”  I had the student pronounce that as two syllables:  “jee-ah.” 
            “That’s not quite right,” the judge said, as nicely as she could.  The i turns the g into a j.  After that, it has done its work, and is not pronounced.  The syllable is simply “jah,” not “jee-ah.”
            Since we’re into Italian food at this point, let me illustrate it this way:  parmagiana reggiano cheese is pronounced “par-ma-jah-nah reh-jah-no,” NOT “par-ma-jee-ah-nah reh-jee-ah-no,” and that chef named “Giada” is “Jah-da,”  NOT “Jee-ah-dah.”  Pay attention sometime when she says her name herself. 
            Now here is my point:  who should I listen to about how to pronounce Italian—a college student moonlighting at a chain restaurant or the voice judge, a woman who has sung on the operatic stage many years longer than that waitress has been alive, singing Italian for hours at a time, and who can even translate it?
            How do you choose whom to listen to?  Who gets your vote for the one to take advice from?  Is it someone your own age who has as little experience as you do?  Is it perhaps someone older, but whose only qualification in your mind is that s/he is “fun” and “cool,” and a whole lot more so than the other old fuddy-duddies?  Is it someone who gives you the answers you want, who makes everything easy, even things that are not and should not be easy? Is it someone who makes you laugh?  Is it someone who speaks in “bumper sticker?”  Or is it someone who has experienced the ups and downs of life and come through it sane and faithful, someone who may not be able to keep an audience’s attention but can tell you from a heart of concern exactly what you need to hear—whether or not it’s what you want to hear?  Most important of all—is it someone who knows the Word of God inside out and has stuck with it even when it made his own life difficult, who tells you what God says, not what he thinks or feels?
            Mispronouncing Italian is no big deal in most of our lives, but mispronouncing the Word of God can cost you your soul.
 
Listen to advice and accept instruction that you may be wise in your latter end, Prov 19:20.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Joanne Beckley.

Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
 
All of the following can be true of you or me. Please take time to read and consider.
 
Simmering Anger (bearing a grudge) is fed by emotions. Your mind has forgiven a wrong done. You have said the right words, but your heart continues to feed on your hurt. Why? In truth, full forgiveness continues to be withheld. No longer do you feel close to that sister or brother in Christ, and those feelings are destroying any trust toward that person. The days and years go by but simmering anger and remembered hurt is still there. Sadly, by now, only you are suffering.
                                                            
When a person does not let go of real or imagined hurt, repeated, unrealistic, negative thoughts and speech will begin to develop. There will always be a suspicion or the conviction that someone is going to hurt you. And so someone does...and again, another does. Hurt upon hurt, real or imagined, will be fed by a broken angry heart. It is happening and you feel friendless and isolated. Your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire glass of water.
 
Thankfully, God believes and knows your heart and mind can again begin to beat in the united way He has intended. One can indeed completely let go of self, repent, and then truly forgive and forget. Look upward and let God heal a simmering angry heart.
 
Eph 2:2-6 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places,] in Christ Jesus,

Ask yourself:
Is my anger based on assuming the best motives?
Is it driven by spiritual concern for others?
Am I grieving in unrighteousness for others and trying to remedy?
Can I trust God to heal me? To no longer live as a child of wrath?
 
 
Letting go of simmering anger is a matter of choice. I will choose to let go!! I will refuse to mentally rehearse past hurts. I will actively seek to heal any breach between us. I will learn again the joy found in loving my brothers and sisters in Christ so that we will be alive together with Christ.
 
Eph 4:1-3, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
 
Eph 4:26 Be angry yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
 
Ps 4:4-5 Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the LORD.
 
Eph 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
 
Col 3:12-14 And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things [put on] love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Joanne Beckley

“Lose up to ten pounds the first week!  No dieting!  No exercise!  Eat what you like.  One pill a day will give you the body you have always dreamed of!”
            It’s sad how many people believe those ads.  But it is understandable too.  No one wants to change his lifestyle.  No one wants to go hungry and sweat.  Everyone wants to eat the good stuff and take a magic pill to cure their obesity.
            I know a few people who have that problem with sin too.  They don’t want to change their lives.  They don’t want to admit they even need to change.  They certainly don’t want to make the effort in study, prayer, self-examination, and true repentance.  They think they have the “magic pill,” and here is what it is.
            I can go merrily along if I remember to pray for forgiveness every night, especially for my “secret sins.” 
            I can live my life as I wish as long as I show up Sunday morning and take the Lord’s Supper.
            I can even play at repentance by talking about my imperfections and making statements like, “I know I am a sinner,” so no one can quote 1 John 1:8 at me.
            I have seen it too many times over the years.  I have even done it myself.  I know I am not perfect so a quick prayer for forgiveness every day should take care of the problem.  Far be it from me to actually admit anything specific and work on it.  Have you noticed this about people like that?  Sooner or later they make a statement like this, “If I’ve sinned, I’m sorry.”  They’ve taken yet another diet pill and expect a 15 pound loss of sin in one short minute.
            The real weight loss programs out there are all about accountability.  You show up, you weigh in, you talk about exactly what you have eaten and not eaten, and how much exercise you have or have not had.  Those people tend to lose the weight and keep it off longer.  They understand that this is a lifestyle change, not a magic pill.  And they take responsibility for their actions, both good and bad.
            That’s exactly the way overcoming sin works.  “Confess your faults one to another,” James tells us, “and pray for one another” (5:16)   Everyone participates and everyone helps.
             “Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance,” John told the masses (Matt 3:8).  A quick little prayer or a ritual offering was only the beginning of a lifestyle change that was supposed to be obvious to everyone from then on.
            I’ve heard brethren criticize the Catholic religion as one of convenience.  “You can live as you like as long as you confess every week and do penance.”  Some of us don’t even want to do that much.  Confession is humiliating.  Doing penance is hard work.  It’s far easier to pray for forgiveness every night and show up every Sunday for those few magic bites.  Don’t tell me we aren’t as bad they are—we’re worse!
            Satan is the one who puts out those ads for sin’s magic pills.  Don’t be a “patsy.”  No one is sure where the term came from.  Some suggest it is from the Italian word pazzo.  Do you know what that word means?  “Fool.”  Sounds to me like the perfect word. 
 
For godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, a repentance which brings no regret: but the sorrow of the world works death. For behold, this selfsame thing, that you were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything you approved yourselves to be pure in the matter. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11.
 
Dene Ward    

This is the third book in the series I have been reading.  I had always known that the Spirit was mentioned in the Old Testament, but never realized how often, nor that there were enough passages to fill a book and even divide into topics.
            The author, Christopher J. H. Wright, covers the Holy Spirit as a creating agent (Gen 1:2, e.g.), as the one who empowers the people of God, especially leaders such as Moses, Saul, and David, as a prophetic spirit who inspires the prophets, and as an anointer.  In each section, he fills the pages with more scriptures than you would typically hear in one sermon. 
            The last section, on the coming Spirit, leaves me a little unsettled, not certain if what I am hearing is truth stated a little differently than I usually hear or perhaps a few things that might not be truth at all.  Be careful there.  But the rest of the book is one huge education in the work of the Holy Spirit all the way back to the beginning.  As with the others in this series, the author has some strong words for those who would take advantage of people with their unsound use of the scriptures, a refreshing change from many theological books.
            This book is published by the InterVarsity Press, and is also available in a three in one volume, which could save you some money.  It is also available on Kindle.
 
Dene Ward

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. I got my first really nasty comment on the blog a few weeks ago.  I know, despite the obviously made up name, that this was not a Christian in any sense of the word.  A Christian would never have used the language he did.  I answered him politely via the email address I had access to, apologizing for his misunderstanding, inviting him to visit again, and have not heard word one back.  I can't help but wonder how surprised he was when he heard from me, and even more when my reaction was probably the last thing expected.
            I understand that this type of thing is called “trolling.”  Someone who has nothing better to do with his life goes combing through blogs and websites and does his best to create a controversy with a quick jab, then sits back to see “what he hath wrought.”  In this case nothing.  One reply by a reader showed his comment to be, not only vulgar, but completely ridiculous.  I did not say what he said I did, and no one else took it that way either.  And you know what?  Solomon’s proverb is shown to be true yet again, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
            The church had trollers to deal with in the first century.  Acts 13,14,15,17, and 21, Rom 16, Gal 1 and 2, several chapters in Timothy, and most of John’s epistles show their sinister attempts to cause controversy and divide the church.  They even followed Paul around from place to place, “poisoning their minds against the brothers” Acts 14:2; “subverting souls” 15:24; “agitating and stirring up” 17:13; “creating obstacles contrary to the doctrine” Rom 16:17; and “distorting the gospel” Gal 1:7.
            And we still have trollers today—people who go from house to house spreading dissatisfaction, who stand in the parking lots campaigning against the leadership of the church, who even have websites devoted to dispensing discontent with spurious arguments and unsubstantiated accusations, usually about their own pet concerns.  And who are the victims?  “The naïve,” Romans 16 tells us, usually those who are young and easily swayed by a handsome fellow who seems far more “with it” than the stodgy old nay-sayers. 
            And how does that passage describe these trollers?  They are “puffed up with conceit,” gathering to themselves a rah-rah club to satisfy their egos.  They “understand nothing” while at the same time claiming to be more enlightened than anyone else.  They have an “unhealthy craving for controversy,” unhealthy for those whose hearts are deceived, unhealthy for the body of Christ, and certainly unhealthy for their own souls.
            Trolling—no, it’s not new, and neither is this:  God hates it every bit as much now as He did two thousand years ago.
 
But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. Titus 3:9-11.
 
Dene Ward

My grandsons love playing in the park.  Their city yard is postage stamp small without room for two active little boys to run around much, so they enjoy a place with swings, slides, jungle gyms and seesaws.  I even get on the seesaws with them, helping with the large weight deficit on their side by using my legs.
            Seesaws may be fun at the playground, but they are not God’s idea of ideal service.  Yes, we may falter once in awhile.  Many passages speak of faith in flux, but as we mature in that faith, the flux should become smaller and smaller.  David speaks of the opposite of a seesaw faith, even when he is running for his life in Psalm 57:7.  My heart is steadfast, O God, or, in several other versions, My heart is fixed.  In a time of fear, when others would have wavered, David is able to keep his faith in God steady. 
            So the question is, how do we avoid the seesaws in life?  First, let’s make it clear—you can’t avoid the park altogether.  I hear people talking about life as if it is always supposed to be fun, always easy, and always good, and something is wrong when anything bad happens.  Nonsense.  We live on an earth that has been cursed because of man’s sin.  When God curses something, he does a bang-up job of it.  To think we would still be living in something resembling Eden is ridiculous. 
            We are all dying from the moment we are born.  Some of us just manage to hang on longer than others.  Some of us catch diseases because they are out there due to sin and Satan.  Some of us are injured.  Some of us have disabilities.  Some of us are never able to lead a normal life.  It has nothing to do with God being mean, or not loving us, or not paying attention to us one way or the other, and everything to do with being alive.  Everyone receives bad news once in awhile—it isn’t out of the ordinary.  Everyone experiences moments of fear and doubt.  We all go through trials.  But just because you are in the park, doesn’t mean you have to get on the seesaw.
            We must have a steadfast faith no matter what happens to us.  The Lord is faithful; He will establish you… 2 Thes 3:3.  Our hearts can be established by grace, Heb 13:9.  But those things are nebulous, nothing we can really lay our hands on in our daily struggles.  Am I supposed to just think real hard about God and grace and somehow get stronger?  Yes, it will help, but God knows we are tethered to this life through tangible things and He gives us plenty of that sort of help as well, help we sometimes do not want to recognize because of the responsibility it places upon us to act. 
            We must be willing to be guided to that steadfastness by faithful leaders, 2 Thes 3:3-5.  We must be willing to obey God’s law, James 1:22-24, and live a life of righteousness, Psa 112:6, before steadfastness makes an appearance.  We must become a part of God’s people and associate with them as much as possible, Heb 10:19-25.  We must study the lives of those who have gone before and imitate their steadfastness, laying aside sin if we hope to endure as they did, Heb 12:1-2.  Every one of those things will keep us off the seesaw.
            Yeah, right, the world says--to change one’s life and become part of God’s people, the church—for some reason those are the very things they will laugh to scorn.  And we fall for what they preach--a Jesus who “loves me as I am” without demanding any change, and divides His body from His being, labeling it a manmade placeholder for the true kingdom to come.  “I can have a relationship with God without having a relationship with anyone else,” we say, and promptly climb aboard the seesaw, Satan laughing gleefully at us from the other end.  Guess what?  That’s who we are having a relationship with.
            Get off the seesaw now before he has you sitting so high up on it, your legs dangling beneath you, that you are unable to reach the grounding your faith needs.  You may still have moments of weakness and doubt, but those things will grow less and less if you make use of the help God has given you.  You can have a steadfast faith, even if it finds you hiding in a cave from your enemies.  My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast…For your steadfast love is great to the heavens; your faithfulness to the clouds Psa 57:7,10
 
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58.
 
Dene Ward

July 2, 1843, was a hot sultry day in Charleston, South Carolina, "one of the most oppressive days inflicted on mortal man," according to the Charleston Mercury, the local paper.  As often happens on those kinds of days, a violent thunderstorm blew up.  As a born and bred Floridian who is familiar with that sort of weather, I can not only sympathize, but also tell you that those kinds of storms can be precursors to all sorts of bad things.  This one, it seems, did far more than the usual strong winds that topple trees and ferocious lightning that can start fires.  In the middle of this storm, an alligator fell out of the sky right on the corner of Wentworth and Anson Streets.  Not a very heathy specimen, it measured only two feet, but it still shocked the town.  It was supposed that the unfortunate creature had been picked up in a waterspout, carried through the air for miles, and dumped unceremoniously.  The clipping goes on to tell us that no one actually saw this happen, but "the beast had a look of wonder and bewilderment about him" and "he couldn't have got there any other way."  The story was picked up by the Times-Picayune of New Orleans and has stayed in the history books ever since.  I found several sources.

Now you are probably sitting there laughing at the naiveté and ignorance of those people.  Such a thing could have never happened!  And in your heart, when you read of almost impossible things happening to others, you always think, "It could never happen to me."  In my many years, I have known of people or had in my family things happen that no one ever expected, and I have learned to never say, "Never happen, especially to me."  That is often said by people who are not in a good relationship with God, who want to sow their wild oats for a while before getting their lives straightened out.   "I have plenty of time," they think.

A young couple were on their way to church one morning when they were carjacked and the husband shot and killed.  Another young Christian couple and their child were killed when their home was destroyed by a tornado.  A cousin of mine was killed in an ATV accident when he was out with friends one afternoon for a little fun.  Another got in the truck with her brother to go home from school and was killed when a semi hit them.  Another cousin of mine lost her 35 year old husband to a brain aneurysm one morning.  A friend of ours from Keith's early preaching days went out one morning to buy his wife some aspirin for her headache and when he got home, she was dead.  She was about the same age as my cousin's husband.  Another couple went out for dinner one evening.  He never made it home because he had a heart attack while they ate.  "I went out to eat with my husband and came home a widow," she said.

And by now, you are getting my point.  Things happen when you least expect it.  Can I add this one, which is about as likely as an alligator raining from the sky?  My husband went out to do his rounds as a community control officer one evening and was ambushed by one of his caseload.  One of the bullets hit the Pilot clicker pen in his pocket which was just enough to turn the bullet sideways so that it plowed through his chest across the ribcage rather than going straight into his heart.  Unlikely, even impossible things do happen!

And now you are tsk-tsking me about using scare tactics to get you to straighten out your life, aren't you?  Jesus used some of the scariest language in the Bible to describe Hell, and far more of it than anyone else.  He had no problem putting a goad to people to get them to change their lives, so why should I?  If that is what it takes to wake people up, then use it.  You are in good company with the Lord.
 
​Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them.  And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find [them] so, blessed are those [servants].  But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through. Be you also ready: for in an hour that you think not the Son of man comes Luke12:37-40.
 
Dene Ward

One of the benefits of becoming a birdwatcher is learning their songs.  It’s been a few years now, and every year I learn another call or sometimes unlearn one I thought I knew.  For the longest time I thought I was hearing a cardinal, when it was really a wren, but now I know them instantly. 
            I have also learned that the same bird produces more than one call.  A cardinal will peep, one high light note at a time, or he will purty, purty, purty, or what, what, what, what, or even cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer, cheer.  It all depends upon whether he is courting a female, defending his territory from other males, warning other birds of interlopers, or just contentedly enjoying his meal.  But whichever call he uses, now I know it.
            Some bird songs are deceptive.  A mourning dove sounds like some kind of soft-spoken owl.  A blue jay’s whistle might sound a bit like a cuckoo to someone who is used to listening to cuckoo clocks.  And did you know that the movies often use a hawk’s call when an eagle is pictured because it sounds much more regal for our national bird than the squawk an eagle usually produces?  And so you have to be educated to these sounds to know them, to distinguish one from the other. 
            The same is true of the Bible.  The things I see people falling for astonish me.  How could they possibly believe such craziness?  How?  Because they have never educated themselves in the scriptures.  If you know the general teaching of the Bible, the general layout of the plot (yes, there is one), more than that, if you know the God and the Christ presented in those Scriptures, you won’t fall for the false teachings out there.  You may not know exactly what is wrong, but your mind will instantly say, “Wait a minute.  Something doesn’t sound right.”
            You can only do that by paying attention to everything Jesus says, not just the parts you like.  Too many of us don’t want a Savior who demands that we follow him only, that we give up ourselves, our likes and dislikes, our loyalties and loves, and who makes statements like, “Sin no more,” and “You are of your father the devil.”  We want the loving Jesus who forgives sins and holds the little children in his lap.  To truly accept Jesus is to accept all of his words and ways, not just the parts we prefer.  “The sheep follow the shepherd,” Jesus says, “because they know his voice” John 10:4.  Even the stern, disciplinary voice.
            Jesus is our Good Shepherd.  We must learn all of his words in order to truly know him and not be deceived.  All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen, John 10:8.  I’m afraid too many of us would listen, and become lost sheep in the process.
            Do you know his voice?  If you don’t know the whole of Jesus and God’s word, you don’t.  If I can learn a couple dozen bird calls in such a short amount of time, surely you can learn the call of a Savior who wants you to know him in even less. 
 
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

God, seated on the throne, held out a book sealed with seven seals (Rev 5). No one on earth, in the heavens, or under the earth was found worthy to open the seals.  Worthy implies the power and authority to execute the purposes written in the book. One of the elders told John to stop weeping that none was found, for the "lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David" had overcome to open the book. The expression "no one was found" implies a search – they did "search through heaven to find a savior." This search was symbolic in John's vision to emphasize that no one was able except Jesus. But, how did Jesus conquer Satan and sin and death? When John turned to see a Lion, he saw a "Lamb slaughtered," but standing alive (resurrected). Opening the seals does not refer to salvation through the cross, for the Lamb was already slain and raised and stood at the throne of God. For now let the seals remain a mystery and know that Jesus accomplished God's plan to save man by suffering. He suffered all his life at the hands of the chief priests, rulers and Pharisees. Finally, he suffered the horrific death of the cross. Jesus is our slaughtered Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7).  Suffering is God's way of conquering. The suffering saints in the arena, on crosses, burning as torches at parties conquered the Roman Empire (Revelation).

The disciples rejoiced to suffer (Acts 5:41). Peter urged Christians to follow Jesus' example of suffering and His attitude of not reviling. In fact, this IS our calling (1 Pet 2:21). We should "not think it strange" that we suffer, but bear it like Jesus and show our faith to the world (1Pet 4:12).

We are called to present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2). We, too, are to be slaughtered lambs, having hope in the same resurrection. Whether by persecution, disease, famine, nakedness, peril or sword, we must imitate Jesus.

Are we dodging the bullet of suffering by softening the message, a gospel that offends none? Do we keep quiet when subjects come up in society that might cause our rejection, even job loss? I do know that many (most) complain at even our "First World" inconveniences, much less real suffering. Maybe we need to read our Bibles instead of just listening to pleasing preaching.

If God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, knowing most would reject the gospel, how might he "give" us for the sake of saving a soul that might ultimately be lost?
 
I charge [thee] in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching 2Tim4:1,2.
 
Keith Ward