The same moral law which God has revealed in Scripture he has also stamped on human nature.  He has, in fact, written his law twice, once on stone tablets and once on human hearts.  In consequence, the moral law is not an alien system, which it is unnatural to expect human beings to obey.  The opposite is the case. God's moral law perfectly fits us, because it is the law of our own created being.  There is a fundamental correspondence between God's law in the Bible and God's law in our hearts.  Hence we can discover our authentic humanness only in obeying it.

John Stott, Authentic Christianity

Every so often after a shirt slips over my head and rests on my shoulders I know instantly that I have put it on backwards.  The neckline chokes me while my upper back feels a draft.  Even a crewneck tee shirt is a bit lower in the front than in the back!
            However, I have a blouse that has inspired even perfect strangers to inform me that I put my shirt on backwards.  The blouse is a deep pink, with an embroidered vine trailing down the right side on the front, studded with shiny silver beads, the flowers themselves a raised pattern of brown felt and the leaves an olive green.  But that same vine also crawls up over my shoulder and falls down the back.  And thus we have the problem.  Most people’s shirts have the design only on one side, while mine is on both.
            I was actually standing at a supermarket deli, waiting for my number to come up when a lady tapped me on the shoulder and whispered conspiratorially in my ear, to save me embarrassment, I suppose, “Honey, you put your shirt on backwards this morning.”  At that I turned around, smiling, and she was suddenly no longer so quiet.  “OH!” she blurted out, and then it was her turn to be embarrassed when she saw that my shirt was on frontwards after all. 
            I had no ill will toward her.  She was only trying to help.  And this morning she is helping us see something very important.  Too often we judge other people’s affairs from our perspective.  Somehow from where we sit, we can figure out all the “right” ways to handle things, the “right” things to say, the “right” things to do.  Too often we are looking at the back of the shirt while judging it to be the front.
            I suppose I had my nose rubbed in that lesson for the first time when I became a young preacher’s wife.  Everyone in the church could tell me exactly what I ought to be doing, what my husband ought to be doing, what my children ought to be doing, what I should and should not spend money on, how many hours my husband should spend in the church office, and whom we should visit.  They could also figure out how much time it took my husband to prepare his sermons and Bible classes. 
             At some point along the years, a brother suggested that Keith should be receiving $800 a week (it was a good while back).  Another man stuttered out, “Wh-wh-why that’s $200 an hour!”  In yet another place a man said that all the visiting requirements of the New Testament should be handled by the preacher “because he has so much time left over”—that’s after those four hours he works on Sundays and Wednesdays, I suppose.
            I really think as a whole the church is much more informed about the work a preacher actually does, the time he must spend studying in order to answer all those “Bible questions” off the top of his head and to preach intelligible lessons, the personal Bible studies he holds as well as the one-on-one counseling sessions with struggling brothers and sisters, and the 24/7 on-call nature of his work.  But until you have actually done the work yourself—or seen your husband or father do it—you don’t really get it.
            And when we see our brothers and sisters struggling, it’s easy to think we know the right things to say to comfort them and the right advice to give.  We are often mistaken.  Until we have experienced something similar we need to be cautious in our words.  Having said that, let me reassure you that truth is still truth whether I have experienced exactly what another has or not, but compassion and empathy can go a long way in helping a hurting soul do the right thing no matter how hard it is to do.  Acting like an unmerciful, self-righteous know-it-all can do far more harm than doing nothing at all.
            Sometimes the shirt is on frontwards after all.
 
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. (1Pet 3:8)
 
Dene Ward
           

This book is part of brother Mott's Thinking through the Bible Series, several of which I plan to read and review in the future.  I chose this one first because Keith and I had a deep study of 1 John last year and I wondered how we would match up with it. 
            Brother Mott keeps everything in context.  His context at times includes the gospel of John—that author has a tendency to use terms in exactly the same way whether in his Gospel or his Epistles.  For example, after a thorough reading of practically every place he uses the terms "light" and "walk", "walking in the light" becomes much easier to understand, and the surrounding verses add to that understanding instead of obscuring it.  Mott keeps terms like these in front of us constantly as we move from chapter to chapter, reminding us what they mean as we go.  In fact, after this sort of study I really wish those chapter divisions were gone altogether!
            Brother Mott truly understands the concept of expositional study.  He rarely, if ever, leaves the texts that John has written and his easy divisions make it simple to follow along in your Bible, reading a bit at a time there and then in his study guide.   Sometimes it made me want to go back and reread a section of scripture to see the full effect of what he had pointed out.  Any Bible study book that keeps putting you back into the text rather than have you hanging onto the guide has its priorities in order.
            For every problematic verse you thought these epistles contained, you will find a logical and plausible explanation.  You will also find a few verses we have misused in our misplaced zeal.  I look forward to more study with the books in this series.
            The copy I have of this book was printed by Sunesis Publishing.  DeWard Publishing Co is also printing several in the series.
 
Dene Ward

I have been griping about it for years, and it used to be that several of my brothers and sisters did the same.  Nowadays, most people don't even see the problem.
            All those pictures we give our children to color in Bible classes to finish out the last five minutes or start the first five while we wait for latecomers to make it are usually inaccurate.  Why does it matter, you ask?  Because those pictures stay in your head and color everything about the Biblical narratives you read for the rest of your life, and that causes you to miss many others things as well.  Then there is the simple matter of being careless with the Bible.  How can you expect your friends and neighbors to trust you if they catch you in an obvious mistake?  It isn't "just being picky" if Jesus used the tense of a verb (Matt 22:31,32) to prove a Biblical point and the apostle Paul used the number of a noun (Gal 3:16) to do it as well.
            So which picture am I talking about, you ask.  Oh, if only it were one.  Let's start with the stable where Jesus was born.  Recent discoveries have shown that our Western idea of a stable was probably not at all what the Oriental writers had in mind.  And please—Jesus was not born in a manger, he was laid in one after his birth.  Can any of you women imagine giving birth in a box smaller than even a twin bed?  But besides that, when you see the wise men show up on Jesus' night of birth, along with the shepherds, you know someone has not read Matthew 2 often enough.  The wise men went to "a house," and Jesus had been born long enough, based on their first sighting of the star, that Herod ordered all babies two years old and younger to be killed.  I am sure he stretched things so he would not miss the one he wanted, but that still means that Jesus could have been 12-18 months old, I think, not a newborn.  Those wise men simply do not belong in the usual nativity scenes.  If we fail to make connections in something as simple as that, what else, perhaps more important, have we missed?
            Let's head to the Old Testament now, where probably the majority of these errors occur.  Every picture you see of Hagar and Ishmael being sent away depicts Hagar with a sweet little boy no more than 8 or 9.  Read Genesis.  Ishmael was 14 when Isaac was born.  He and his mother were not sent away until after Isaac's weaning celebration, which would not have been until he was between 3 and 5, all my cultural sources tell me.  Add that to 14 and Ishmael would have been a strapping young man between 17 and 19 at the least!  Yes, the verses afterward picture him as weak and helpless.  Now you have the task of figuring out why that was.  Did he gallantly give his mother all the water while he did without?  You can probably come up with other scenarios.  We simply do not know, but don't paint an obvious lie by using a picture that is inaccurate.
            Now let's look at Isaac himself.  Again, every picture shows a young Isaac, perhaps 8 to 10, carrying a few sticks of wood up Mt Moriah with his father.  As someone who has heated their home with wood for four decades now, let me tell you that wood is heavy.  My boys could not have carried enough wood to burn that wet a sacrifice, much less carry it up hill, until they were older teenagers, say 18 at least.  And that adds to our understanding that this was also a test of Isaac.  At some point, he surely must have figured out what was going on, yet he did not run. He did not overpower his aged father and leave.  He trusted him, just as Abraham trusted God.  Do your children trust you that much?  And has your example taught them to trust God that much?  Do you see the lessons we miss when we are not accurate about even the tiniest things?
            How about the ark?  You know, that ubiquitous travesty of a picture with the giraffe's head sticking out the top of it.  You certainly don't grasp the size of the thing and the incredible task Noah and his three sons had before them when they built it when you see that.  In the first place, an "ark" was a box, not a boat.  In fact, in Latin "arca" means "chest."  Think the Ark of the Covenant.  Noah probably built a giant box, and that is exactly what it should look like.  And none of the animals was as tall as it was, not even a giraffe!  No wonder everyone {probably} thought Noah was nuts.  Not only was that ark monumental, so was the strength of his faith to build it!
            I could go on and on, but here is one that knocks people's socks off.  When Jacob first met Rachel, we automatically think of a hormone-influenced young man falling madly in love at first sight.  Actually, Jacob should have known better by then because, you see, he was 77 years old!  And how do I know that?  You have to start from his age when he goes to Egypt.  Then you carefully back up, subtracting years, and trust me, if you read those last 20 chapters of Genesis, you will reach the same conclusion.  If I get enough requests for it, I will tell you the passages, but I still want you to do the work.  It will be good for you, and maybe, just maybe, you will get the point. 
         Don't be careless with the Word of God--especially when you are teaching our children!  No, not knowing Ishmael's age at Isaac's birth or his weaning probably won't cost you your soul, but an attitude that simply thinks it too trivial to care just might.  If God made it possible to figure it out, just maybe that is exactly what He wants us to care enough to do.
 
Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts (Jer 15:16).
 
Dene Ward
 

When my mother moved from a house into a one bedroom apartment it meant some serious downsizing.  We went through her things, pricing them for a yard sale, and the memories come flooding back as I handled them. 
           I can tell you what she served in every one of her serving dishes and which casseroles bubbled away in which pans.  I pulled a few things out for myself and last week I cooked a pot roast in her Magnalite roasting pan, used her pale blue plastic shaker to mix flour and water for the gravy, and then poured that gravy into her small blue bowl, just like she did for us Sunday after Sunday for years.  And I remember the Sunday, under her compassionate direction, we carted all that food to a neighbor whose husband had been killed in an automobile accident the night before.
            I emptied a file cabinet that held a folder for every major appliance in the house, plus its manual and even the sales slip with either her or my daddy’s signature on the bottom.  I found a letter sorter with “Gulf Oil” etched on it, a tape dispenser with “Gulf Credit Union” and its phone number taped to the side, and even a Gulf Oil hardhat with “Gerald Ayers” on the front of it.  And I remembered the people at that company who learned to respect a man who was honest in everything and whose language was pristine.
            I found a recipe card collection that I remember from my early teens, containing some of my favorite recipes.  Some are printed cards with color pictures, but others are handwritten, including one for “Rice with Backbone.”  Tell me where you will ever find that recipe anywhere else.  In fact, tell me where you will find backbone!  And I remembered all the recipes she made for company who graced our table, family, brethren, college students who loved having a home cooked meal, and the showers she hosted, the gospel sings, and the meeting preachers.
            And that’s not the half of it.  I found myself tearing up again and again as the memories came roaring in, memories of a loving family and an extremely blessed childhood.  How many times have I thanked God for the parents who raised me, who taught me right from wrong, who turned me into a responsible adult, and most of all, who taught me about God.  And here is the fruit of it all:
            My parents raised two daughters.  Each of those girls married a godly man.  Between them they have raised 9 grandchildren, all of whom are Christians.  Of the four married grandchildren, all married Christians as well.  And now seven great-grandchildren are being taught the same way we were.  My parents’ progeny speaks well for them.
            They were not famous.  They were not influential in worldly ways.  But each one of us carry memories of them that keep us on the right track, memories that inspire us and make us want to be like them.  No, they were not perfect.  Show me anyone who is.  But they did what was necessary to raise us in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to teach our children and those children teach theirs what they need to know to serve God. 
            You are creating memories for your children.  One day, they will go through your things.  What will mean the most to them?  What will they think of when they see your signature, when they read a letter you wrote, when they pick up a bowl or a mug or even a wood-cased thermometer that used to hang in your shed by a piece of green twisted wire?  What have you taught them about serving God?  You have taught them something, whether you intended to or not.  Maybe it’s time to spend a little more time on the eternal things.
 
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children-- Deut 4:9
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

When we realize that the terms, "cross" and "crucified," are only used in a possibly negative or sad way two times in all the epistles, it changes our whole view of, "This do in remembrance of me" (1Cor11:24).
 
Rather than feeling sad at the foot of the cross, we should join the apostle Paul, "But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal 6:14). Certainly, we must consider that our sins caused his suffering to bring about appropriate repentance. But, Paul's every remembrance of the cross is not only positive, it is boasting in victory over the world of sin and emptiness.
 
In the Bible, blood always means death, not the red liquid. (In Gen 9:6 Is one innocent of "shedding blood" who strangles or poisons another instead?) Thus, it is by the "blood of the cross" that "we are reconciled to God through the death of his son" (Col 1:20, Rom 5:10) as he "Poured out his soul unto death" (Isa 53:12). Every passage we consider after the resurrection speaks only in the same manner, leaping and shouting for joy for this victory, "and he has taken it [the Law] out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col2:12-15). Triumph! not sorrow; "I WIN!" not mourning.
 
Jesus who endured the cross despising shame in his lifetime demanded that disciples take up their cross and follow him. That concept has been cheapened by calling our illnesses or self-generated problems, "our cross to bear." Bearing our cross in victory means emulating the apostles who after being beaten, went "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name" (Acts 5:41). Suffering for Christ wins the victory of the cross. The communion commits us to hold fast that confession that we began with baptism.
 
That remembrance should lead us to a life of triumph in Christ that causes the world about us to view us as a sweet smell to the good and the smell of death to those who refuse truth (2Cor2:14-16). Without the sense of victory engendered by the Lord's Supper, we soon are overwhelmed by life's challenges and fears. Our hearts must always focus on that firstfruit of our victory "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
 
We may be scorned for speaking and living that which we believe in a world where tolerance is the only rule; we may lose jobs, suffer isolation, or even go hungry or homeless. But silence is refusing the cross of the Lord's Supper, the cross of triumph over death.
 
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" (1Cor 15:52-54).
 
Keith Ward

I have a pretty amazing recipe for peanut butter cookies.  Here it is:  peanut butter, sugar, and an egg.  Period.  You do add a mere teaspoon of vanilla, but no flour at all, no salt, no soda or other chemical leavenings—that's why they are "unbelievable."  They are nearly pure peanut butter, but somehow they hold together.  Do you suppose that is why they taste so good?  Nothing else to dull the flavor.  If you are a peanut butter fanatic, you will love these cookies, just like my little Judah does.
            When I first saw the recipe, I said, "No way.  They forgot the flour, at least."  But then I read the recipe itself and right there in the text was the statement, "No.  I did not forget the flour."  Then, and only then, did I try them.  They remain to this day, the only peanut butter cookie I make.  I have a few other cookie recipes where peanut butter is an ingredient, but none other where the peanut butter is the star.  And I am here to tell you:  it works!
            A lot of folks seemed to think that God got the recipe wrong too.  Seeing that Jews ask for signs, and Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (1Cor 1:22-24)
            God becoming man was unthinkable.  The Creator dying on a cross at the hand of his creation was ridiculous to even contemplate.  A kingdom "not of this world" became, and still seems to be, a bone of contention for the religious world.  The kingdom must be a physical kingdom here on this earth, the same problem the Jews had, and even the apostles at the beginning.  The pure and simple gospel of a risen Savior and a spiritual kingdom just can't work, the world continues to say. 
            And the pure and simple kingdom, the church, is no longer relevant in a complicated world, they maintain.  So they add things God never seemed to think of, believing they are improving things.  They change the structure and even the mission of the Lord's body because they know better—better than God does, evidently.
            And yet I have continued to see God's way work just fine my whole life.  I grew up in the arms of parents who carried me to an assembly of the Lord's people every time the doors were opened, who taught me the way at home, and who showed me with their lives what it meant to be a part of that kingdom—a pure and simple kingdom run the same way it did when it began two thousand years ago.  I know it works, firsthand.  The people I worship with today know it works.  We see it all around us.  And as we grow and make new disciples, we see their amazement at the simplicity of the gospel, and watch while they learn what should be obvious to everyone who even claims to be a believer:  God knows what He is doing.  He doesn't need our new-fangled notions and the arrogance that thinks it is wiser than the Creator of us all.
            The simple purity of a life and worship ordained by the authority of the Word of God and the approved example of first century believers instead of the think-sos of men will thrill your soul.  It may be unbelievable at first, but if you stick with the recipe, it will all hold together and you will finally believe.
 
For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1Cor 1:18,19,25)
 
Dene Ward

We often go out for breakfast every second or third month, usually after an early doctor appointment, one that also includes fasting labs.  By then, we are hungry enough to really enjoy it.  We have four favorite places to go and alternate as the mood strikes.  One is standard diner fare, but a diner with a lot of variety and imagination.  One is a little more upscale, including things like shrimp and grits and Eggs Benedict.  One is a simple café attached to a bakery, but they make their own bread, muffins, and bagels.  It is the only place I will ask for "wheat toast" instead of a biscuit because the bread is so good.  The fourth is a bit whimsical.  Every kind of French toast, every kind of waffle or pancake, all with toppings someone made up at midnight and possibly under the influence.   Caramel Turtle Waffles.  Bananas Foster Pancakes.  Raspberry Cream Cheese French Toast.  That sort of thing.
            So after a long hiatus from it, we went to that fourth restaurant one morning, fresh from the lab.  Our waitress was young and pretty and friendly beyond "greet the customers with a smile" friendly.  When she brought a refill on the coffee almost impossibly soon (yet we were ready for it) I said something on the order of, "Your parents must like coffee like we do."
            "Not so much," she said.  "I'm a single mom, putting myself through school.  I am the one who drinks so much coffee.  I need it!"  She said all this with a big friendly smile, poured our second cup and was on her way to her next table.
            It impressed Keith that she was not bemoaning her state, or griping about it.  It simply was her life and she did not let it ruin her day or affect her customers at all.  She maintained a good mood despite what must have been a weary mind and body.  So near the end of our meal, after she had filled us up at least five times, he handed her a $20 bill wrapped around one of my blog cards.  "I am going to put a tip on the bill like I always do, but this is for a single mom who is doing her best for her family." 
          She was stunned.  "But you don't have to do that," she managed to stammer.
          "I know," he said.  "But you aren't complaining or griping about things, just accepting life with a good attitude, and it made me want to help."  Her eyes filled, but she managed to say, "Thank you so much," before she left.  When we finally finished our meal, with her tip written in on the credit card slip, we left and she gave us a wave as she was waiting on another table, mouthing, "Thank you again."
          That, my dear readers, is grace.  Though she did an excellent job for us, but she did not earn a 100% tip, which is just about what that twenty and her regular tip added up to. 
          God gives us grace, too—not because we earn it.  That undoes the very meaning of the word.  We did not deserve it.  We were not perfect.  For by grace have you been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory (Eph 2:8-9).  None of our righteous deeds mean that God now owes us.  For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:23-24).
          Sometimes I hear people who are facing a trial say things like, "How can God let this happen after all I've done?"  That person has not yet learned the lesson of grace.  While it is true that the one who has been saved will show his gratitude by doing everything within his power to obey and serve God, he still has not, and never will, earn his salvation.  None of us will.  God owes us nothing.  Anything good in your life is His grace.  Maybe this little waitress will help teach us what that means.
 
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7).
 
Dene Ward

"I wouldn't want to be a member of it."
            The above comment came after a Bible class in which we studied and discussed the very first church, the one established on Pentecost (Acts 2).  Because it began with a membership of 3000 and quickly grew to 5000 men (Acts 4:4), which could easily have translated to 10,000 when counting wives and widows, this comment was muttered by one of the women sitting in the class.  She didn't like "big" churches, and evidently that included the congregation founded on the Day of Pentecost.  Can you imagine saying that you would not have wanted to be a member of the first church, the one where the apostles themselves did the teaching, where miracles were still performed, and the Holy Spirit made himself evident?  Unfortunately, I think I have a lot of brethren who feel the same way whether they say so or not.
            They want a small congregation so they can become "involved" and, though they probably won't say this, "important."  They want a church where they can know everyone personally and have close relationships with everyone.  They want a church where what they say and think matters and where they have as much say-so as the next guy because there are no elders.  Do you think I exaggerate and presume?  I have heard all of these things.
            We forget what the church is.  Jesus did not die for a social club where we get to make the dress codes and decide who can belong based upon the severity of their problems or their social stratum.  (When we fail to meet and greet certain ones in a friendly fashion, that is exactly what we are deciding.)  The church does not exist so we can all get a turn showing off our perceived talents and abilities and garner praise from everyone else, or so we can be sure to have a group who will give our children a wedding shower or a graduation present, or so we can have people to cater the family meal after a loved one dies.  Those are simply the side benefits of being in a body of Christians.  And if those things do not happen for us, we do not have an automatic right to leave the Lord.
            What Jesus died to establish is a dynamic group of believers whose minds are on the spiritual world (the "heavenlies") not the physical; who understand the severity of God's judgment; who believe it is not only their mission to make sure they are saved, but also to take as many as they can with them; who believe their worship must include a life of service to others; and who put the unity and good of the body ahead of their own likes and dislikes.  When we reach that point, statements like the one at the top of this post will simply disappear.
 
But you have come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warns from heaven…Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:22-25,28-29).
 
Dene Ward
 

Suppose someone places a blank piece of paper in front of you.  How would you feel about it?  What thoughts come to mind?  It all depends upon the circumstances, doesn’t it? 
           Novelist, short story writer, and playwright Truman Capote spent the last ten years of his life battling that blank piece of paper--writer's block.  He told everyone about his upcoming masterpiece, but after his death on August 25, 1984, the so-called masterpiece, published posthumously, was little more than a collection of four previously published pieces mocking his rich friends.  Those same friends ostracized him after the original articles appeared in Esquire, and it is supposed that is what led to both his writer's block and what some believe was a nervous breakdown.  Writer's block for anyone can be rough, but for someone who makes his living that way, it can be disastrous.  (mentalfloss.com, 10 Cases of Extreme Writer's Block)
            So back to that blank piece of paper.  If you are in a classroom on the day of final exams and that piece of paper is meant for your answers to half a dozen essay questions, it might raise your blood pressure a little.  If you were prepared for that test, maybe it would not rise quite as high.
            If that blank paper were a signed blank check, your excitement might know no bounds, unless, of course, it was a check drawn on your own meager bank account.  That could be disappointing.  
            A blank sheet might signify good news—no demerits, no criminal record, no symptoms.  What a relief!
            A blank piece of paper might mean the same writer’s block Capote experienced if it has been sitting there awhile—10 years for him.  I know from experience that frustration usually accompanies that problem.  It could also mean great potential if inspiration has suddenly struck.  When that happens I am eager to get to work, usually stopping whatever else I am doing immediately to get to it.
            Even with God that blank piece of paper could mean different things.  It might mean a lack of authority.  Jesus said in Matt 21:25 that there are two places from which to receive authority—from Heaven or from men.  Either God authorized the action or men did, and the people he spoke to, who neither liked nor respected him, didn’t bother to argue because the point was axiomatic.  God expects every aspect of our lives to be lived according to His authority.  Whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…Col 3:17.
            He expects us to respect that authority, doing exactly what it gives us permission to do, but, in the case of a blank piece of paper, doing nothing.  When God told the Israelites that the priests were to come from the tribe of Levi, he did not have to list all the tribes they could NOT come from.  That is the Hebrew writer’s precise point when he says of Jesus, For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, as to which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priests, Heb 7:14.  The very fact that God said in the Law of Moses, “Levi,” meant Judah was excluded, and that in turn means that for Jesus to be our new High Priest the law itself had to change.  We could go on and on with this point, but suffice it to say that when God gives you a blank piece of paper, He does not expect you to fill it in with your own choices.
            But He does give us a blank piece of paper that is amazing and wonderful—a page wiped clean of its list of sins, so clean there are not even any erasure smudges on it.  When God forgives it is as if He crumpled the old list and destroyed it, pulling out a fresh new clean sheet from an endless supply.
            Start today with that blank piece of paper.  Fill it with as much good as you can because, you see, a blank piece of paper is one thing God will never accept from us.
 
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean.  Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes.  Cease to do evil; learn to do well:  seek justice, relieve the oppressed, bring justice to the fatherless, plead for the widow.  Come now and let us reason together, says Jehovah.  Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red, they shall be as wool, Isa 1:16-18.   
 
Dene Ward