I suppose it has not escaped your notice that I do not write what I call, “Feel Good Fluff.”  I do my best writing when I am scolding myself, and unfortunately, that means you get scolded too.
            I am more concerned with becoming a better person than with feeling good.  Maybe that is because I seldom feel good physically any more, so I am not wedded to the idea that I must always be pumped up spiritually in order to become a more spiritual person. 
            I have written a few things that I hope have encouraged you.  I have written a few things that have made some of you cry, good tears, not bad ones.  However, a friend told me once, “I want something that challenges me,” and I found myself agreeing with her, and that is what I have tried to do more than anything else.  If I keep saying that you are just fine the way you are, will you even bother to try to improve yourself? 
            As a result, I have lost readers.  It makes me think of Ahab who described the prophet Micaiah this way, “I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil,” 1 Kgs 22:8, and who once greeted Elijah, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”  18:17. Too many folks ignore the fact that they are causing their own problems.  Like Israel of old they want preachers who say, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace,” Jer 6:14.  Like the Galatians’ behavior toward Paul, they make those who simply want to help them wonder, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Gal 4:16.
            Pats on the back are good.  They serve a purpose.  A sermon that makes you shed a tear for the sacrifice that saved you is a helpful thing.  It might just sustain you through a temptation that comes your way soon after.  I think that is one reason we remember that sacrifice every week. 
            But emotion fades.  That pumped-up feeling can deflate quickly when the realities of life puncture your balloon.  You must often sustain yourself with the knowledge that comes from the hard, and often tedious, work of Bible study.  You must have the word of God saturating your mind so much that it bubbles up and out of you just when you need it most.  You must have prayed often enough that a quick one automatically comes to your lips in difficult circumstances.  You must believe because you know logically and with sound evidence that these things are true, not because someone sent you a piece of feel good fluff that won’t stand up to an argument by a knowledgeable minister of Satan.
            Most of all, you must be willing to listen to those who love you and care about your eternal destiny, whether you want to hear what they say or not—and, in fact, whether they have your good will at heart or not.  God has often used the wicked to send his message.
            Don’t be afraid to be challenged.  Don’t be afraid to examine yourself for your faults.  It will work wonders for your soul.
 
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Gal 6:1,2.
 
Dene Ward

On May 10, 1736, Charity Hospital opened in New Orleans.  Jean Louis, a French sailor and shipbuilder, left all his savings, which in that day amounted to about $1600, to build a hospital for the poor and uninsured people of New Orleans.  Located in the French Quarter, other hospitals were added to the conglomerate until by 1939 it was the second largest in the country with 2680 beds.  It was also one of the longest continuously operating hospitals in the United States until it was hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 
            And in case you didn't know, there were no hospitals at all in the entire world until the advent of the Christian Era.  In the last part of the fourth century, Basil of Caesarea founded the first hospital, a Christian hospital.  Monastic orders added hospitals to their monasteries in the fifth and sixth centuries.  Missionaries went on to found the first hospitals in China and Japan in the 1800s.  It was not until the eighteenth century that hospitals began to be secularized.  Say what you will, Christianity brought many good things to a world that was focused on the survival and good of self.  Suddenly, someone else cared about you, even if you were poor or sick.  Try that in a pagan society.
            It has often been said that the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.  I am not sure we believe that.  I have seen too many unwelcoming saints in my lifetime, those who would limit where they even offer the gospel at all—we want nice, middle class, nuclear families with no big problems.  "They would really help our contribution," I have also heard people comment about certain visitors.  If that isn't a mercenary motive for spreading the gospel, I don't know the meaning of the word.  But what did Jesus say to the people of his own era with the same attitudes?  …Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17).
            And then we have our own problems that need some spiritual hospitalization, the ones we don't want to admit.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed… (Jas 5:16).  Have you ever attended an assembly that actually does this?  Not unless someone "goes forward," you haven't.  And why?  We're too proud for one thing, and we are also too scared—someone might run with our confession and use it against us.  "Did you know that so-and-so has this problem?"  And so we do not get the benefit of this humbling and also encouraging command—humbling to have to admit you are not perfect, and encouraging to see that others have the same issues and learn how they deal with them. 
            A spiritual hospital is for the sinner, the spiritually sick, the one who has to fight sin and temptation the way others fight infection and disease.  And as long as we refuse to admit it, we will never get the medicine we need, for we are indeed the needy.
 
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7).                         
 
Dene Ward

Did you brush your teeth this morning?  Are you sure?  Do you really remember it, or are you remembering yesterday morning, or a morning last week?  How many other things do we do automatically, without thinking?  How about those scary times when you have been driving 10 or 15 minutes and suddenly realize you don’t remember that stop sign half a mile from the house or anything else between there and here?
            How about your spiritual life?  How many things do we do automatically?  We have a tendency to condemn that sort of thing, acting without thinking, as if it is hypocrisy, but is that always the case?
            I have always been in the same place every Sunday morning of my life, barring illness or injury.  No, the physical location may not be the same, but anyone who knows me, knows that on Sunday mornings I am assembling with my brothers and sisters in the Lord at wherever I happen to be.  There is never any question what I will do on Sunday morning if I am at all able.
            I used to worry about falling asleep in the middle of my final prayer of the day.  Surely, “pillow talk” is a close, intimate form of communication.  In fact, it is one thing we miss in our marriage—you cannot whisper to a deaf man.  So why should I be remorseful about falling asleep while having a comfortable, private moment with my Father?  Yes, there are times for more formal, reverential prayers, but who else would I rather be speaking to in my last conscious moments of the day, and why should He be upset with me if I feel so comfortable and easy with Him?  It’s not like it’s the only time we speak.  It is, in fact, second nature for me to do so.
            “Second nature” is defined as an acquired behavior or trait that is so long practiced as to seem natural or inborn.  It comes from an old proverb, “Custom (or usage) is a second nature,” which was first recorded in 1390. 
            “First” nature, then, would be things we do instinctively, that are inborn.  When we are born again into the kingdom of God, it becomes our responsibility to change our behavior, practicing it so frequently, that it eventually becomes our “second” nature, something we do automatically, with hardly any thought at all, but which we had to learn. 
            In the beginning of my life as a Christian I must consciously make decisions about how to react to others and how to order my new life.  Eventually, though, if I am practicing these things on a regular basis, that should become easier and easier.  How long have I been a Christian yet I still fly off the handle, still say things I should not say, still lower myself to the level of the world by seeking revenge over the silliest things in the most childish ways?  I must not be working hard enough to change those habits, for that is what they are, and they can be changed with enough effort, and with the help of Christ.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me, Phil 4:13.
            This does not mean there will no longer be moments of weakness, times when I am more susceptible to my old behaviors.  But if those old behaviors are still constant in my life, where is the transformation Paul talks about in Romans 12?  Why have I not become more closely conformed to the image of his son, (Rom 8:29)?  Something about me is supposed to have undergone a permanent change!
            Certainly, I must have my mind on my prayers and the words I sing.  I must listen consciously and carefully to those who seek to edify me.  My worship must not be rote.  But there is something to be said for operating on automatic pilot in my spiritual life. At some point it must reach past what I do, and become a matter of who I am.  If this never happens, then something is missing, and I need to find it—and fix it—soon.
 
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new, 2 Cor 5:17.
 
Dene Ward

As I look back over a long "ministry," I know that I have often failed to love the brothers, and that over differences that were not near as weighty as the doctrinal issues dealt with in First John.  If I were as bold as John, I expect I would call my treatment of them by its right name.  Some may think I am overstating the case.  I never used the word "hate" with reference to the brothers.  But the teachers John has specially in mind may not have used the word either; and the arrogance, self-righteousness, and contempt that we manifest toward others are really expressions of hatred.  We can be real clever at concealing ugly attitudes under cover of high-sounding, noble words. 

L. A. Mott, Jr., Thinking through John's Epistles

We had a storm a few days ago.  That in itself is not unusual.  Summer afternoons in Florida often include thunderstorms that go as quickly as they come.  But it reminded me of one we had a few years back, when Magdi, our first Australian cattle dog, was still alive.  It was not an ordinary storm. 
            You could hear it coming for about an hour, thunder in the distance, black clouds boiling in an increasing breeze that brought the smell of rain and ozone.  Finally the bottom fell out.  You could hardly see the bushes right outside the windows it was raining so hard.  Afterward, checks on the clock and the rain gauge would show that it rained 1.9 inches in 20 minutes.  Before long, we saw the fruit of Keith’s hours and hours of backbreaking labor, hauling dirt with a shovel and a wheelbarrow, creating a berm around the house.  It looked like we were on an island in the middle of a river, its strong current at least four inches deep as the water rushed down the slope, around the house, and toward the run to the east of us.  It would keep running nearly two hours after the rain stopped, and we drained just fine, but meanwhile I found myself humming, “The rains came down and the floods came up…”
            Suddenly lightning struck in the trees just across the fence to the north.  The clap was so loud I screamed, and even Keith, out in the shed without his hearing aids, heard it, and saw a ball of fire at the top of a pine at the same time.  He said Magdi shot out from her favorite place under the porch, eyes wide as saucers, circling here and there in the pouring rain looking for someplace safe.  He called her into the shed, normally a forbidden place, and petted her dripping and quivering sides until she calmed down.  We never saw Chloe until after the storm, but when we did, her tail was plastered down hard between her legs, the end of it curled up under her belly.  It didn’t come back up for two days.
            That reminded me of the Israelites’ reaction to God at Mt Sinai.  They were so terrified of the darkness, thunder, and lightning that they begged Moses that God would no longer speak to them.  I find Moses’ reply interesting:  Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you that you may not sin, Ex 20:20.
            I think that might just be our problem.  We aren’t afraid enough any more. 
            I can remember when a certain phrase was not only forbidden in polite society, it was certainly never said on television or radio.  It was considered “taking the Lord’s name in vain.”  Now I hear it all the time, even from children.  When ten-year-olds have an abbreviation for it in their text messages, “omg,” something has been lost in our reverence for God.
            The Word of God is called a book of myths, even by people who claim to live by it, even by some who claim to be its ministers.  Religions people are pictured in fiction and drama as bigots, fanatics, hypocrites or maniacs. God, Jesus, Satan, and the struggle against sin are used as comic foils by entertainers.  When I start thinking about how far we have gone down this road, it’s a wonder to me that lightning isn’t popping around us constantly.
            We, the people of God, have even taken the concept of “the fear of God” and watered it down to the point that it means nothing more than the respect we might show our own fathers.  Isaiah, when he had seen merely a vision of God said, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, 6:5.  Isaiah was feeling a whole lot more than simple respect.  If there was ever a time when he could overcome sin more easily, it was probably in the weeks and months after that vision. 
            I have a feeling that if we ever stood in the presence of God we would finally understand what the fear of God is all about.  Some day we will.  I just hope it is not too late.
 
Any one who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.  How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine.  I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb 10:28-31.
 
Dene Ward

On January 3, 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church and declared an outlaw who could be killed with impunity.  On May 4 of that same year, several men pretended to be robbers, and took him to the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany, where he stayed "hidden" as a man named Georg Junker.  While there, he translated the New Testament into German.  His translation, which has been lauded by scholars ever since, brought joy to the German people because the Bible had finally been taken out of the Roman Catholic pulpit and placed in their hands.  His work even led to the standardization of the German language according to Atlas Obscura.
            But Luther did one thing in that translation that left him open to much criticism.  He took Romans 3:28 and added the word "only."  We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith [only] apart from the works of the law (Rom 3:28).  Not only did he add to the Word of God, he made it contradict itself!  You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (Jas 2:24).  In a very real way, he disrespected the Word of God.
            Most of us would immediately run to the book of Revelation and quote, I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book (Rev 22:18-19).  But we need to be careful about that as well.  Those verses, in context and as John plainly says, apply to the book of Revelation.  You don't pull a verse out willy-nilly and quote it just to win an argument.  That's not a whole lot different than Luther's actions.  But the concept of presumptuous sin—and it is certainly presumptuous to think one can improve God's Word--and of false teaching runs all through the scriptures.   But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed (Gal 1:8-9).
            I am sure you have heard, if not an urban legend, what might very well be a church legend in similar vein—the one about the woman who told a preacher that Acts 2:38 was not in her Bible, and when he looked, sure enough, it was not.  She had taken her scissors and cut it out.  I often wondered if she had somewhere pasted something in as well.  If you can do one, you can do the other.  But we really don't even have to grab the scissors or the paste.  All we have to do is ignore what is written and do things our own way to the same effect.  Although I am sure Luther, were he alive today, would object, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
 
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers (1Thess 2:13).                                             

Dene Ward

I do a lot of research for these history posts.  Sometimes a short one page post takes two hours to put together.  However, one day I was looking through the historical dates in the month of May and found that one day in particular, May 3, was a pretty important day in the field of aviation.
            On May 3, 1919, the first passenger flight in American history took place between New York City and Atlantic City.
            On May 3, 1923, John Macready and Oakley Kelley made the first nonstop transcontinental flight.
            On May 3, 1932, 24 tourists started the first air charter holiday.  It ran from London to Basle, Switzerland.
            On May 3, 1952, an airplane first landed at the geographic North Pole.
            And, though it might be considered more in the line of space than aviation, on May 3, 1994, the US space probe Clementine was launched.
            If ever a day could be deemed important in the history of flight, it seems that May 3 fits the bill.
            Spiritually speaking, another day is much more important.  This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps 118:24).
            We have a bad habit of taking verses out of context to try to prove a doctrinal point or, in this case, make one of those feel-good memes.  All it takes is a close reading of the entire psalm and anyone with even a smattering of Biblical knowledge can see what it's about.  Read it right now before you continue with this and see if you can't figure it out yourself.
            I hope you have done that reading.  It was pretty easy wasn't it?  Let's just take the two most obvious verses.  Verse 22:  The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  This one is even quoted in 1 Pet 2:7, and Paul uses the metaphor in Eph 2:22 of Christ as the cornerstone.  This Psalm is about the coming Messiah.
            Now look at verse 26:  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  This is exactly what the crowd shouted as Jesus rode into Jerusalem the Sunday before his death.  Add to that the "Hosanna" in verse 25.  (Hosanna means "save" and is translated that way in this verse.)  Many already believed he was the One whose coming they had looked for over a thousand years.
            If you keep reading the psalm, it should become apparent to you that "the day the Lord has made" is the one in which salvation comes, the Messiah comes, even as it says in verse 21, I thank you that you have answered me and become my salvation.
            That is certainly the most important day in history for all mankind, the day the Messiah offered salvation to all by giving his life and then rising from the dead to defeat sin and death.  So now that it is in its proper context:  This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
 
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. ​The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us [Hosanna}, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD (Ps 118:19-26).
 
Dene Ward

I found a verse the other day that intrigued me--for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, Rom 14:17.  While the meaning is obvious—in the context of eating meats sacrificed to idols, Paul is telling them that being in the kingdom is a matter of the inner man not the outer man—I still wondered why those three things were chosen among the many traits describing Christians.
            Before much longer I found Romans 5:1-3.  Those three things are not three separate items, as if they can be chosen one without the other, they are a chain reaction.  I am justified (made righteous), and as a result have peace with God, and that creates joy in my life. 
            Keep reading down to verse 5 in Romans 5, then add 12:12 and 15:13 to the mix and you see that joy is inextricably bound with hope.  The Greeks did not use “hope” the way we use it, a wish for something that could go either way, but as a confident assurance or, as Keith likes to say, “a vision of a certain future.”  Along with the apostle John in 1 John 5:13, I should be able to say, “I know I am saved; I know I have been forgiven; I know I have a relationship with God; I know I am going to Heaven.”  Is there anything that should inspire any greater joy?
            Being joyful does not mean we may not face sad times; it does not mean we must not ever grieve in a trial.  What it does mean is that we will bounce back from those times because joy is the foundation for our lives.  If, instead, I come through a trial with an attitude only toward myself, what I have endured, and what I believe others should be doing for me because of it, my joy has turned into bitterness.  In fact, I have not successfully endured that trial at all. Whenever I allow something to smother my joy, in at least that much I have allowed that thing to be more important to me than my relationship with God. 
            This is easier said than done.  I used to wonder how to have this joy that everyone kept telling me I was supposed to have.  God does not leave us without direction.  Col 1:9-14 gives us several techniques for having joy.  Be filled with the knowledge of Him; walk worthily of the Lord; bear fruit in every good work; give thanks for our salvation.  Do you know what that boils down to?  Focus on the good things and stay busy serving others. 
            Joy is like a glow-in-the-dark toy.  The more I focus on what God has done for me and what he expects me to do for others, the longer I sit in the light and the stronger my glow will be when the dark comes.  But if I sit too long in the shadow of sadness and grief, focusing too long on myself, my joy will begin to fade until eventually it is gone altogether.      
            If you find yourself alone in the dark today, it’s time to come back into the light before your joy disappears, along with the hope that reinforces it.  This is a choice you make, one that has nothing to do with what happens today or what anyone does to you, but with the path you choose to take regardless.         
 
That the proof of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ:  whom not having seen you love; on whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory:  receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:7-9.
 
Dene Ward
 

They tell me that May is National Salad Month, and indeed, if you go online you can find websites that give you a different salad to try every day of this month, for a total of 31.  Unlike some "national" days or months, the timing on this one makes sense. At least here in Florida we are beginning to get some really good produce.  I have just discovered National Salad Month, but we have always enjoyed salads this time of year, sometimes as sides, others as main dishes—a cucumber salad with Vidalia onions and a sour cream and fresh dill dressing, taco salad loaded with sweet juicy tomatoes, Greek salad of red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta cheese, lettuce wedges dripping with a homemade Basil Green Goddess dressing.  One of my favorite main dish salads is Panzanella.
            Maybe it's the change from heavier winter meals like chili and stews that make it so good, or maybe it's just the good fresh vegetables.  Whatever it is, panzanella really hits the spot the first time you have it in the summer.  And I often make it more filling with a can, or better, a jar of high quality tuna.
             In the bottom of a big bowl, pour in a couple tablespoons each of olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Add a small handful of chopped fresh basil and parsley, 1 tsp of salt and a half teaspoon of black pepper.  Whisk it all together.  Now add about half a red onion sliced thinly and stir till the onion is coated.  While you finish the rest of the chopping, the onion will mellow out a bit in the acid.
            This next part can be changed up according to what you have available.  French bread is good.  Focaccia is good, and I usually have some leftover somewhere because it is so easy to make.  Cube 4 cups of some sort of hearty bread and put it into a 325 degree oven for about twenty minutes.  (If you want to be a little extravagant, drizzle it with olive oil and toss it with your hands before putting it in the oven.)  It does not need to brown, just dry out a little and become crunchy, and then it needs to cool while you do the rest of the chopping.
             Now peel, halve lengthwise, seed, and slice enough cucumbers to make about 4 cups.  Throw that on top of the onion-dressing mixture, but don't mix it up yet.  Dice a large red pepper and throw that in.  Chop 3 or 4 tomatoes and add them.  Now drain the tuna, if you are using it, and add it in chunks to the bowl, along with a quarter cup of chopped Kalamata olives.  Toss the whole thing and let it sit a few minutes.  Between the tomatoes and the cucumbers, it should begin to exude a lot more liquid than you first put in there.  (Note:  the tuna is not an ordinary part of panzanella and you can leave it out if you wish, but if you have never tried the jarred higher quality tunas, this is your perfect excuse.)
            Finally, add the cooled bread cubes and toss.  Yes, it will look like it's mostly bread, but it really isn't.  Once that bread starts to soak up the juices it will begin to shrink a bit.  Sit down and eat immediately.  The bread will be half soaked and half crunchy, which is perfect.  The more you eat, the more you will want to eat. 
            And now you are waiting for the spiritual lesson I somehow manage to find in the most mundane things, right?  Usually I can come up with something in a day or two, if not right away.  Well, I have been looking for it for over a month now and it still hasn't come to me.  I have made lessons out of everything from chicken and dumplings to cherry pies, from shedding dogs to dead possums, but for some reason this panzanella has evaded me.  But today I suddenly thought—maybe that's the lesson!
            I am big on finding a purpose in your life that will help promote God's plan to save man.  If you have studied my Born of a Woman class book you know that.  My purpose in God's plan may be as simple as the Samaritan woman's, who ran and told her neighbors, Come see a man who told me all the things I ever did.  Can this be the Christ? (John 4:29).  Or it may be as complex as Joseph's, who over 20 years' time and the freewill actions of a couple dozen different people managed to be in a position to save God's chosen nation, and more specifically, the line of the Messiah.  …For God sent me before you to preserve life (Gen 45:5).  God does intervene in our lives through the freewill actions of others and in His great power and wisdom makes things happen according to His will.
            Some of our purposes are fixed by the choices we make.  When I marry, I have the obligation to be a helper to my husband, helping him get to Heaven being the most important purpose.  When I choose to have children, I have placed upon myself the divine purpose of raising those children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
            But sometimes things just happen.  Sometimes it may even be a result of someone else's poor decision.  Like the man who decides he is not too drunk to drive and crashes into a minivan filled with a family of five, or runs down an innocent pedestrian.  My part in God's plan has suddenly changed if I survive that.  Now I have the opportunity to show His grace by the way I handle this adversity, by the way I refuse to give in to despondency, by the way I forgive, and a host of other things.
          And this may be the hardest thing to accept:   sometimes there is absolutely no rhyme nor reason for any of it.  I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. (Eccl 9:11).
            I hear people giving comfort that I am not sure they should give.  "God has a plan," we tell our distraught friends.  Yes, He does, but do not be so arrogant as to presume that you know exactly what it is or that this tragedy is even part of it.  As much as I believe that God will use what I do to further His plan, I would never decide for Him what that use should be.  I would never assume that my feeble mind can even begin to comprehend His glorious thoughts.  And I would never, ever tell someone who has experienced a calamity that this is God's Eternal Purpose at work.  The only thing I could ever be sure of is that this is my chance to comfort a soul, and I would do that the best I could.
            It may be admirable to constantly try to find the spiritual benefit in every little thing that comes along.  In fact, I hope it is.  It is certainly better than thinking evil, or even just idle thoughts all the time.  But sometimes panzanella is just panzanella.  Nothing more and nothing less.  Just a tasty salad that reminded me to thank God, not only for his great and marvelous plan to save us, but for the simple things that make this sin-cursed world a little easier to bear.
 
​Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.​  The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.  Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished. (Prov 16:3-5)
 
Dene Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

For so long as I can remember hearing the term, devotional has been a synonym for "religion lite." It refers to something that touches the heart and makes one think about God and being a better person.  Many "devotionals" are sugary and full of cotton candy.  But when one reads a few of the places in the Bible where devote, devout and devoted are used, a much stronger concept emerges.

Jericho was devoted to God which meant it was to be utterly destroyed and all within belonged to God (Josh 6:17, 19, 21).  Achan was himself utterly destroyed for taking from the devoted things.  Anything devoted to God was holy to him and for his service or for the priests (Lev 27:28, Num 18:14).   Should a city in Israel be proven to be idolatrous then it was devoted to God, that is, utterly destroyed, all inhabitants killed and the city never rebuilt (Deut 13:12-18, Lev 27:29). 

Although the N.T. does not impose such temporal penalties, the words imply such dedication as to be described as fanatical.  For the feast of Pentecost, "devout men from every nation under heaven" gathered to hear the first gospel sermon.  These were so fanatical that they traveled for days or weeks at great expense to spend a few days in the holy city.   Cornelius was so extreme that he deserted the religion of his family and world to do good for a despised people, the Jews, and converted some of his soldiers (Acts 10:2-7).  Further, his devotion influenced his family and friends to be there to hear Peter 10:24).

Jesus demands the utmost devotion, an all or nothing zeal, "You cannot serve God and Mammon" Mt 6:24).  "No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God (Lk 9:62).  Paul exemplified such devotion, "It is no more I that lives, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20).  Every Christian is required to devote himself in this absolute way, "Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth;" "Therefore" refers to, "If then you were raised together with Christ" (Col 3:5, 1).  The Holy Spirit leaves no room for sometime or somewhat religion: Kill yourself or lose all hope.

Devotion begins with the mind, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." A Christian is not even allowed to think what he wishes.  His heart belongs to Jesus.  But further devotion comes with Paul's next exhortation, "The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil 4:8-9).  We are not free to do as we wish, not if we are to be described as devoted.  Nearly every epistle makes the same statements using various figures from slavery to "Walk as he walked" to "Present your bodies a living sacrifice" and more (1Jn 2:6, Rom 12:1).

Given these and many similar passages, how did devotional ever come to mean something "feel good"? Many of the sayings of Jesus and of the N.T. are far from nice.  They are demanding in a "get busy rowing or get out of the boat" way.  A devotional should call on Christians to give their all to be holy in the service of God.
 
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever (1John 2:15-17).

Keith Ward