A long time ago when I was a young mother, a wise, older woman made me stop and think with a few words that might have sounded harsh, but which she couched with an attitude of love and concern.  I had not taken a meal to a sick or grieving family for a long time; I had not taught a children’s class for about a year; I had not had anyone in my home for several months; I hadn’t even sent a card or made a phone call for awhile.  I was a busy young mother.  I had laundry to do every day including piles of diapers that never seemed to diminish, meals to fix, a baby to nurse and tend and a toddler to care for and teach, and a home that needed putting in some sort of order if just so we could keep track of where we put things, like the bills that needed paying. 
            Had this woman had the same problems years before when she was a young mother?  I suppose so, but I never even thought about that—all I thought about was my own problems, all the things I needed to do, how tired I was, and how I could not possibly do any of those other things because of the demands of my family and home. 
            She knew all this, but she still asked this simple question.  “What if,” she quietly said, “God decided to help you out by taking away all of your excuses?”
            After a moment of shock, I suddenly saw my children and my home in another light.  Here I was claiming to love them more than anything else, while telling everyone what an obstacle they were in my life, maybe not in words, but certainly in deeds—or lack of them.  Yes, serving my family is also serving God, but isn’t it hypocritical to then turn around and use that service as a reason not to serve others?  The last thing in the world I wanted was for God to take them away from me, and I determined that they would no longer be the excuses I offered for not doing what I could. 
            No, I could not spend hours and hours away from them, nor several hours caring for others directly, but surely I could pick up the phone or write a note when the babies were napping.  Surely I could fix an extra casserole when I made one for my family, and send it with someone else to a home where a mother was too sick to do it and the father was out working all day.  Surely, I could find something I could do.
            I think something else happened to my attitude that day, too.  I was suddenly aware of all the things that needed doing for others, and looking forward to a time when I could, instead of sitting at home, selfishly wondering when I would ever have “me time” again.  My home was where I wanted to be, but I also knew that I wanted to be doing what I could for others, when I could, for as long as I could, just like that kind sister who taught me a lesson with a simple question. 
            What kind of excuses have already come out of our mouths today?  What if God took them away in the blink of an eye so we could do those things we claim to want to do “if only…?”
 
But he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many: and he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a field, and I must needs go out and see it; I pray have me excused.  And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And the servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame... For I say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper. Luke 14:16-21,24.
 
Dene Ward

"He knows better than to do that in my house." (A Christian speaking of her husband.)
            This one I heard at a church potluck, and some might say it's not fair to use something spoken in an informal setting, so let me clarify the situation.  Seven or eight of us ladies were standing behind the long table, laden with all the wonderful dishes everyone had brought—from deviled eggs, layered salad, and broccoli salad to ham, fried chicken, lasagna, hash brown casserole, and a pot of pork laden collard greens to pecan, apple, and pumpkin pies, chocolate layer cake, Texas sheet cake, earthquake cake, carrot cake, Italian cream cake, and cheesecake.  As we stood there, having sorted and laid things out in an orderly fashion, people constantly passed in front of us, dipping, scooping, stabbing, and otherwise loading their plates.  We were not exactly alone and out of earshot.  And really, where does formal end and informal begin?  When people can hear what I am saying, I am influencing them whether I want to admit it or not.
            I once asked a class in a different time and place, "What is wrong with that statement?"  Half a dozen voices immediately spoke up with the obvious:  "It's his house too."  While I understand, and teach all the time, that the home is the woman's domain and he has no right to micromanage it (1 Tim 5:14), part of her management is making it a comfortable place that the entire family wants to be at not a photo shoot for House Beautiful.  If he ever strays because he found a woman who simply let him be comfortable instead of worrying about "messing up her house," this wife will carry some of the blame.  These are the kinds of small things that wear on a relationship and can eventually erode it to its bare bones.  Usually they are symptoms of something far more important as well.
            One of those things might be this other issue.  How exactly is this an example of a submissive and respectful attitude toward one's husband?  I say it again and again:  anyone who has trouble with submission has trouble being a Christian at all because Christianity is a religion of submission and service.  How can anyone read that scene in the upper room with the Master washing the servants' feet and not get it?  That statement at the top is simply disrespectful.  Period.
            So let's be careful about our attitudes toward our husband, but also what we say, where we say it, and who is present at the time.  Several younger wives heard that comment, which was made by a wife of several decades.  That afternoon, her light certainly did not shine.  It may even have put a few others completely out.
 
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord…(1Pet 3:3-6).
 
Dene Ward
 

I published my first book of Bible class literature when I was 25 years old.  It has weathered well, but I still rewrote the teachers’ manual just a few years ago, giving this as one of the reasons:  “I have found things I hope no one thinks I still believe.  I really have learned better, I promise!”
            That is embarrassing, but I suppose it would be even more embarrassing if I had not learned better.  That is one problem with writing things down when you are young.  They follow you your whole life.  I worry about the folks who still have that old manual.  What I worry most is that they will have discovered better all by themselves and any influence I may have now will be destroyed because they think I still believe those wrong notions.
            When I was young, I was happy to give advice, too.  I thought I knew every answer because to me everything was cut and dried, black and white, and I was happy to share my vast knowledge.  Unfortunately, my vast inexperience got in the way.  I am no longer eager to give advice.  When someone approaches me asking for some, I instantly send up a prayer, “Lord, please let it be an easy one this time.”  I am willing to help whenever someone needs me, but now I take greater care with my choice of words.  If you are still eager to offer advice, even when it is not asked for, you need to take a step backwards and think awhile.  Realize that God will hold you accountable for the results.
            Nowadays we have something else to worry about—the blogosphere.  I know many who accomplish good things with their web logs, but like anything else we do, we need to be careful.  You never know who will read it, how young they might be, how inexperienced, how ungrounded, how fragile their souls.  Unless you have a foolproof way of limiting access to it, your blog needs to be exactly the way God expects your life to be—a good example that will help and serve, not a poor example that may lead someone astray. 
            Your blog does not come with a built in “tone of voice.”  It does not come with a commentary that spells out exactly what you might mean when something clearly has more than one meaning.  And realize this:  what you perceive as the only possible interpretation of what you have said isn’t!  Your background, culture, and personal baggage make you unable to see in your words alternate interpretations which may be perfectly obvious to others. 
            I have learned all this the hard way.  Not only do I have a blog, but the many words I have written in class literature, devotional books, and periodicals, and the many I have spoken in classes and speaking engagements have sometimes come back to haunt me, though I regularly pray over them, and have others read them first for any problems they might see.  So take this advice, something for once I am happy to share if it will save you from some of the problems I have had—be careful out there.  The world is a smaller place than ever before, and you never know who is listening.
 
Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment, James 3:1.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer, Laurie Moyer.

My Dear Sister in Christ,

I consider you my friend and confidant. There are so many things I can bring to you and I know you will understand me and want to help in my moments of trouble. But as much as I value our friendship, I trust you will understand when I say that another is my best friend. Jesus is the best friend any of us can have, but only second to Him is the friendship I have with my husband. He does not hold that place in my heart because he always understands what I feel. We often think differently and hold varying opinions. Our friendship is a bond of the will to be closer to each other even when it takes effort. We must carry through on the promise we made when we married to forsake all others. That is not just a determination not to let another man come between us, but that no one would occupy his priority in my life.

Most of us think of our fiancé as our friend. We went through a process of getting to know them that will only deepen as your married life continues. You talked about what is important to you and wanted to hear what matters to him. You set goals that align with each other’s. You planned a future of being together and helping each other go to heaven. You must not lose that when you get married. Too often the familiarity of his presence or the little oddities we used to find endearing become less enchanting. It is easy to gravitate toward our female friends to have hobbies independent from our spouse. Girl-time is not wrong, but it can corrode our marriage if it is not limited.

Children have a monopolizing claim on our time, and it is easy to allow their urgent needs to take precedence over the needs of a loving and selfless husband who understands and shares our concern for their welfare. I beg you to fight against allowing this to replace him. Children require our time, but you must make the time to show your husband by your actions that he is important. This can be clarified in simple ways like who gets served first at dinner time, or not allowing children to interrupt your conversations if it is not an emergency. Love your children, but don’t sacrifice your love for your husband. Not even for their sake.

You need to spend time with your man. When you were dating you had many things in common that drew you together. Please be cautious about past times that will pull you apart. Both of you can help this continued bonding process. You can learn to like the things the other has interests in. You can find new activities you both enjoy. Better yet, your family can do bonding things. Camping, board games, reading out loud, and joint activities, are all good ways to have fun as a unit- But we also need to have our “alone time.” You need time to yourself, but also as a couple. A get-away for just the two of you may not be practical on a weekly basis, but make it happen when you can. That is an investment in your closeness and your future. It may just be spending time talking together behind a closed (locked) door. While 1 Corinthians 7 emphasizes the need for physical intimacy between you, the traditional expression of “knowing” a spouse is revealing. Your physical oneness is supposed to teach you about each other in ways that create a link that is like no other relationship. You did not marry just to have children. You married him to be his helper- not a slave who does not interact with the master, but a helper. How can you help him if you don’t know him? How can you know him if you don’t elect to spend time together

Even though men and women are very different in tastes and attitudes I can always spend time with my husband and find things to talk about and enjoyable things to do. I will not replace him with other women because they are more like me. What God has joined together I must not separate.

Your loving friend,
Laurie Moyer

His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend… Song of Solomon 5:16

Laurie Moyer writes on her husband's blog, Doy Moyer's Searching Daily.  This post and others can be found there on the "For the Ladies" page.  You can easily access that blog by clicking on Recommended Sites on the left sidebar.

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

You can blame this one on my brother, who gave me the idea.
            Throughout the Bible, and especially the Old Testament, the image of God as a warrior king is prevalent.  In fact, one of the most common "the God who" phrases in the Bible is the God who will fight for His people, just as we studied last time.  Over and over, He fights for His people:  Deut. 1:30; 3:22; 20:4; Joshua 23:3,10; 2 Chron. 32:7-8, and Nehemiah 4:20 are just some examples.  But why does God fight for His people?  It is because of the covenant relationship He has with His people.  God makes promises to protect and care for His people and His people promise to obey His commands.  Ex. 24:7 "All that Jehovah has spoken we will do."  This leads to the Blessings and Cursings of the Law.  To oversimplify, if the people obey God, He will fight for them:
Deut. 28:7  "Jehovah will cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thee: they shall come out against thee one way, and shall flee before thee seven ways."
            But if the people disobey God, He will fight against them:
Deut. 28:25  "Jehovah will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out one way against them, and shalt flee seven ways before them: and thou shalt be tossed to and from among all the kingdoms of the earth."
          This concept is seen most clearly in the Exile of the people from the Promised Land to Babylon.  Jeremiah clearly saw what was taking place:
Jer. 21:4-5  "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel . . . I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation."
          This is repeated in Lamentations:
Lam 1:15  "The Lord hath set at nought all my mighty men in the midst of me; He hath called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men: The Lord hath trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah."
Lam 2:5  "The Lord is become as an enemy, he hath swallowed up Israel"
           In the Exodus we see God as Israel's warrior who led His people from slavery with a strong right arm.  In the Exile we see God as Israel's enemy who fights against His rebellious people and sends them back into slavery.
          Why?!  Why is God fighting against His people?  It is a simple answer.  They broke the covenant.  In Deuteronomy 28 you can find the main list of blessings and curses and if you read it over carefully, you will see that what takes place as the Israelites are sent into captivity is almost word for word exactly what was promised as the punishment for breaking the covenant.  You see, God keeps His promises, even the ones about punishment.  Again, Jeremiah understood this:
Lam 1:18  "Jehovah is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment"
          This concept is also made clear in the New Testament.  We have extraordinary promises made to us -- look at the first 12 verses of 1 Peter 1 -- if we will follow Him.  We are told, however, that if we enter into a covenant with Him and then break that covenant, things won't be good.
2 Peter 2:20-21  "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first.  For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them."
Hebrews 6:4-6  "For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
Hebrews 10:28-31  "A man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses:  of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?  For we know him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
          This is why Jesus told His disciples to count the cost and make sure before they began to walk with Him (Luke 14:28ff). 
           If you are God's, He will fight for you.  Nothing will stand against you.
          If you turn away from your covenant relationship with Him, God will fight against you. 
 
Lucas Ward

Yesterday I was sweeping, an almost daily chore when you have laminate flooring and live in the country.  Even though we have outdoor shoes that we leave on the porch and change to indoor shoes as we enter, we still track in more dirt and sand on our dress shoes than seems possible.  The dustpan seldom contains less than a quarter cup per room.
            As I bent down to scrape that quarter cup into my dust pan one day, Phil 3:8 suddenly flashed through my mind.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Phil 3:8).  That dustpan was holding what my ESV calls "rubbish."  When I was a child I know that word in my little white KJV was something else entirely, but in either case it was something one would definitely want to be rid of.
            But what did Paul say that "rubbish" was?  "…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless (Phil 3:4-6).  Paul was talking about his religious identity, his claim to be a man of God, and his accolades under the Law—as a zealous student of Gamaliel he was destined for greatness in Judaism. 
            So what does that mean my own personal dustpan is full of?  My "pedigree," my education, any awards and accolades I have gained in my fields, even my wealth and possessions.  Paul gave up all those things for Christ, but does that mean I have to?  When push comes to shove I most certainly do.  When my faith causes me to be reviled and persecuted (Matt 5:11), insulted (1 Pet 4:14), to suffer "the plunder of my property" (Heb 10:34), to be imprisoned (Heb 13:3), or even to be killed (Rev 12:11), then that is what I must endure.  Everything I have I should count as "rubbish."  Whether it's a beautiful home I love, or status in the community, or friends, or a bank account or stock portfolio—it should all be rubbish in my eyes.  
            Paul gave up everything for the Lord.  The next time you sweep, mentally place in that dustpan everything he put in it—and mean it.  If you haven't done it already in your heart, should the time ever come for you that finally came for him, you will never be able to follow his example.
 
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Phil 3:7-8).
 
Dene Ward

I told you yesterday that I had googled “reasons for abortion” and had found a couple of articles, but in that post I only told you about one of them.  I also found one of the most self-serving articles I have ever read with a title so long I won’t bother now to type it out, but it started, “Ten Reasons I am Pro-Abortion,” and the author is Valerie Tarico.  Let’s just go over some of her statements today.
            1.  Abortion is “fundamental to female empowerment and equality.”  What is this world all about any more except me and my rights?  We fight this in the church all the time, just as Paul fought it in the first century.  We are to be willing to “suffer wrong,” actually yielding our rights for the sake of others--I Cor 6,8, Rom 14, Phil 2—need I go on?  The whole mentality is the opposite of being Christlike.  Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me. Rom 15:1-3.  Yielding our rights and subjecting ourselves to one another, whether male or female, is what Christianity is all about.
            2.  Taking pregnancy “as it happens” instead of planning it, and by inference removing what is unplanned, “trivializes pregnancy.”  On the contrary, treating pregnancy like something listed on a schedule trivializes it.  Babies are not some kind of item we need to remember to pick up at the market before we get home, or can toss in the trash if we don’t want them.  Even when it just “happens,” the people of God have always considered …children a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Ps 127:3
            3.  “Real people” are more important than a fetus.  And there you have the perennial justification.  A fetus is not a person.  God says otherwise, period.  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you… Jer 1:5.  But our society no longer has any respect for God or his Word, and with that perspective it can justify anything.  This woman even compared an unborn child to a hamster, and the hamster came out ahead.
            4 and 5.  Abortion can “fix our mistakes” or “fix tragic accidents.”  We now live in a society that blames our mistakes on others, or that thinks we should bear no consequences from them.  Unfortunately life is not like that and trying to pretend that it ought to be is foolish.  Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Gal 6:7.  Indeed this argument is not about fixing mistakes or accidents, but about making me unaccountable for my sin.  There we go again—sin, a horribly old-fashioned word for something that no longer exists anyway, not to a godless society.
            6.  Abortion is “good economics.”  And by that of course, we are talking about having the money to raise a child.  I am so happy for her that she is part of a family that can eventually reach a point where they can “afford” a child.  If we had waited till we could have afforded them, we would never have had children at all.  Is she saying in all her wisdom that poor people should be neutered?  My children survived on hand-me-downs and happiness.  I do not believe either one of them feels deprived.  ​“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ​Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matt 6:25-30.
            7 and 8.  Abortion is “a way to form a family of your own choosing,” and not having access to legal abortion would be “a violation of our values.”  Let me be clear that I am not against contraceptive measures being used by a married couple.  I am not against choosing the number of children you want to have as far as you can control with those contraceptive measures.  Medical science has made that possible today without the killing of conceived infants.  However, notice the attitude in these two statements.  It’s all about me and what I think, not about the eternal principles of right and wrong.  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Isa 5:20-21.
           9 and 10.  Abortion is for the sake of the “happiness of the unborn” and to “give them a healthier start.”  What we’re talking about here is aborting defective babies.  As someone who was born with a birth defect, let me tell you exactly how angry this one makes me.  Does this writer think I am not happy?  Does she think I was not loved and cared for like a “perfect” child?  How dare she make those judgments for me and intimate that it would have been better for me if I had not been born!  How dare she say that I was not worth the trouble and expense to my parents or society!
          But folks, we will never win this argument because as Christians we will never come at it from the perspective of selfishness, materialism, and irreverence.  And we have no hope against someone who claims that her views on abortion prove that she “believes in mercy, grace, and compassion.”  We obviously do not even speak the same language.
          At some point, our task becomes one of keeping ourselves from being infected by this insidious attitude.  We must avoid anything that smacks of selfishness.  We must treat all things spiritual as the priority in our lives.  We must hold God and His Word in reverence, obeying every command and living a life of holiness and righteousness.  We may never change the minds of the godless, but we can keep our own hearts pure, and our actions and attitudes mirror images of the Lord’s. 
 
 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1Pet 2:11-12
 
Dene Ward

It was my ten year high school reunion, the only one I have ever attended.  I graduated in a class of 800 so I wasn’t exactly pining to see a lot of close, old friends.  I did manage to find four I had known fairly well, but even that turned into a bit of a fiasco.  That sweet girl, someone I thought of as like-minded in her dress, speech, and actions, whose boyfriend became a West Point cadet, both of whom were decidedly to the right in their politics, was now, ten years later, an abortion clinic nurse.  I was absolutely flabbergasted and physically ached when I heard it.
            So then my dear husband began talking about a “case” he knew of.  He told her about this very young teenager who had gotten herself pregnant, but not by her fiancé.  She was very poor, and she was from a town where the social ramifications would be devastating.  “What would be your advice?” he asked my old friend.
            “An abortion,” she immediately replied.  “Teen pregnancies are dangerous to both mother and child and how will she support it?  Assuming her boyfriend and she do eventually marry, how fair is it to expect him to raise someone else’s child?  And why put herself through the torture that we all know society wreaks with unfair judgments?  Her life will be ruined.”
            All of a sudden I knew exactly where this was going, and waited for him to deliver the punch.  “The young woman’s name was Mary and you just killed Jesus,” he said.
            Even though this was in the 80s before search engines ever existed, all you have to do is google “reasons for abortion” and you will find his points exactly.  I did.  One article listed these:  poverty, teen pregnancy, relationship issues, parental upset and fear of what others will think.  There it is in a nutshell:  Mary, who would have entered betrothal to Joseph at about 13 (the kiddushin), who was so poor she had to offer the “poor people” sacrifices at the birth of her son, who lived in a society where she would have been stoned had not the Romans forbidden it and where even her betrothed was planning to divorce her—that’s how binding a betrothal was.  And every abortion doctor in the world would have advised her to terminate that pregnancy.   
And where would we all be because, congratulations!  You just murdered the Messiah. 
            Aren’t we glad she did not?
 
And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit; and she lifted up her voice with a loud cry, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Luke 1:41-42

Dene Ward

This is one of those announcements that is difficult to make without it sounding like something it is not.  It is not meant to be an advertisement or solicitation of any sort, and certainly not a plea for sympathy.  I hope you will understand as I explain.
            If you know me personally, or have simply read the About Dene page on the Flight Paths blog, you know that I have vision issues.  God has been gracious to me, allowing a very long reprieve as these issues have progressed.  As always, my prayers have been, "Thy will be done," so if He chooses to end this reprieve I can only thank Him for the extra time He has given me to teach and write, when I have been told that I should not have been able to see past the age of twenty, and, "This usually lasts 3 to 5 years" fifteen years ago. Things are beginning to change.  I am praying that these "things" are inconsequential as they have been for so long, but when your doctor says, "You are no longer stable—you are worsening," they might have more meaning than one would wish.
            That means I have new motivation to teach and write.  I am now working harder on a new lesson series after having several ask me to have it printed.  The Teacher's Manual is in progress and I am hoping for everything to be ready to go to print next summer.  And now that Covid is also slowing down and things are getting back to normal, I actually have speaking engagements on my calendar.  As to that…
            If you have ever considered it, let me encourage you, due to my doctor's warning, to stop putting it off.  Nothing thrills me more than to meet the people who read my blog and others who just love to learn about the Word of God.  There are so many hungering for deeper study and meditation.  But let me quickly talk about some of the questions you may have.
            It doesn't matter how many.  I have spoken to as few as 9 or 10 or as many as 300 women.
            It doesn't matter where we do it.  I have spoken in college auditoriums and in church auditoriums.  I have spoken in lodges and in Bible class rooms.  I have spoken in hotel ballrooms and even in a rented monastery.  One of the church "auditoriums" I spoke in was actually the family room of a house the church was then meeting in.  I will emulate Lydia and meet by the river if we need to.
            It needn't be elaborate.  Sometimes it is an overnight affair in a hotel.  Sometimes it is a morning of two or three sessions followed by a potluck put on by the class members.  Sometimes we all go out to a local restaurant afterward and enjoy a Dutch treat lunch together.  More than once I have shaken everyone's hand as they left and that was that.  See?  Anything goes with these things.  As long as I get to teach I am happy.
            You do not have to scour the landscape looking for other speakers.  Several times I have done the whole day all by myself, as many as three sessions with 10 minute breaks in between.  And I now have a daughter-in-law, a professor, who has begun doing these things as well.  We laughed and said we could do a whole day together and bill ourselves as "Ward Women for the Word!"
            Timing is not that much of an issue.  One time I taught all Saturday morning in one place, then got in the car and taught all Sunday afternoon 200 miles south of there.  I am very flexible and we can work things out.
            You do not have to come up with elaborate themes unless you want to.  I can certainly do a requested topic, but I also have twenty+ years' worth of speeches I can sift through and give you choices from.  Or you can just trust me to know what is needed everywhere, because believe me, people are all the same—except maybe whether or not they like sweet tea or grits.
            And it doesn't matter if I have been there before.  I have been to several areas more than once.
            If you have other questions, please put them in the comments section.  I am sure someone else has the same questions.  And remember, I have no idea how much time I may have.  My eyes are already "living on borrowed time," and I want to help as many as possible before it is too late.  And let's make this the lesson for the day—none of us knows what changes tomorrow may bring to our lives, and none of us knows how much time we have left.  Act today as if you knew there would be no tomorrow, because there might not be.
            Thank you all for your support and the kind messages and comments you often send.  Meanwhile I am praying harder for this notice to have been totally unnecessary.  On the other hand, if I get to meet more of you wonderful sisters sooner, well, maybe it was worth writing.
 
I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my [eyes may] be soon… (2Pet 1:13-14).
 
Dene Ward

"Why do you have to know that stuff anyway?"
            This one I heard after we had studied the Minor Prophets on Wednesday evenings several years ago.  Why should we be studying all these old stuffy hellfire and brimstone preachers when they aren't even talking about us anyway?
            Aren't they?  The biggest mistake we can make is to assume that things in the Bible do not apply to us.  Why in the world do we think God saved them for us?  For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Rom 15:4).  By studying how God dealt with those people we can learn the character and nature of God.  We can learn what pleases and displeases him.  Sadly, we can learn that we aren't really any different from those people and our nation is going the way of that one.  That makes those passages a warning we need to heed if we hope to survive where they did not.
            But sometimes I hear from young women teaching my own Bible study material in other places that they not only hear that question, they also have people actually becoming upset because things are being taught that they never heard before, and that their old view of a specific Bible event was inaccurate.  Never mind that these "new things" are solidly supported by scripture or other documentation.  If they didn't know it or never heard it, it can't be true or if it is, it can't be important.  That is exactly what our friends and neighbors do when we try to teach them the truth of the Bible.  Any excuse is good enough if it gets us off the hook.
            But why would anyone want to find an excuse not to learn something new?  Yes, it changes a lot of preconceived notions and wrong pictures we have in our heads about Biblical narratives when we do a little study of culture, when we carefully read and reread the scripture and actually find things we have missed all these years.  And that means we have probably been teaching our children wrong things, too.  Check those Bible story pictures we put out for them to color.  A lot of them are just plain wrong!  Don't we want to teach our children correctly?  We had better because God will hold us accountable for what we teach.  Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness (Jas 3:1).
            "But it's such a little thing," I often hear about some of the things that I point out.  Well, it may be, but what about the next thing and the next?  As one of my newer students said in class one day, "You keep getting the little things wrong and soon the whole thing is wrong."  As another one put it, "Knowing things like ages [that take time and math to figure out] can help you understand motivations better.  Suddenly it makes sense that Rebekah would follow her husband's instructions about pretending to be his sister when you know he was old enough to be her father and she was very young."  It might not make it right, but you can see how it would happen much more easily.
            And really, how can anyone ever say about the Word of God, "Why do we have to know that stuff anyway?"  Doesn't that display an attitude we should abhor?  There may be deeper things that we can learn over time because they do not affect the "now" urgency of salvation, but that doesn't mean we ignore them forever.  It should mean we are more eager to get to them than ever before.
 
Give instruction to a wise person, and he will become wiser still; ​​​​​​teach a righteous person and he will add to his learning. Prov 9:9
 
Dene Ward