Come, we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known;
join in a song with sweet accord,
join in a song with sweet accord
and thus surround the throne,
and thus surround the throne.

Chorus:
We’re marching to Zion,
beautiful, beautiful Zion;
we’re marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God.
Let those refuse to sing
who never knew our God;
but children of the heavenly King,
but children of the heavenly King
may speak their joys abroad,
may speak their joys abroad.

The hill of Zion yields
a thousand sacred sweets
before we reach the heavenly fields,
before we reach the heavenly fields,
or walk the golden streets,
or walk the golden streets.

Then let our songs abound,
and every tear be dry;
we’re marching through Emmanuel’s ground,
we’re marching through Emmanuel’s ground,
to fairer worlds on high,
to fairer worlds on high.

            We sang this song not long ago and I paid more attention to the words than ever before.  As a result I found so many new things in it that I sat there stunned and missed the first few minutes of the lesson that followed.  When I got home I did some research and found scripture references on a couple of websites that I might not have found all by myself.  But before we get to that, let’s build a foundation.
            We have been studying the prophets lately and have hung our interpretive hats on Hebrews 12:22-29.  In a day when the Messianic words of the prophets are construed every which way but the correct one, this passage can be a lifesaver.  Just read through it and you find that all of the following phrases are synonymous:  Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and church of the firstborn, [those] whose names are written in heaven, the [unshakable] kingdom.  None of these things have to do with a millennium at the end of time—they are all Messianic in the prophets and occur now.  If we are faithful believers, we are these things.
            Now look at Psalm 137:  By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
            This psalm is written of the exiles in Babylon.  Their despair is palpable.  They no longer have a country, much less a city.  Their temple on Mt Zion is in ruins. They have no king, no worship, no way to sacrifice to God or even try to keep the covenant if they were of a mind to—and many were not.  And so they gave up.  They hung up their lyres on the willow branches and sat down and cried.  They “refused to sing.”
            How many times have we done the same thing?  How many times have we looked at the rampant sin around us and, instead of continuing to do our best, we not only quit but wallowed in our misery, complaining loud and long about the hopelessness of our situation?  How many times have we almost gleefully whined to one another—in Facebook posts by the score--about the perfidies that surround us and the moral turpitude of our culture?  Our delight is no longer in the law of the Lord but in recounting the iniquities of others. 
            But how can we keep singing?   The psalmist said if those exiles could not remember their own city of God, their own Mt Zion, their own Jerusalem, then let their fingers lose their musical skill and their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths.  Is that what we want to happen to us?  Even your memories are enough to sing about, he told them.
            We still have plenty to sing about too, if “we love the Lord.”  We are “children of the heavenly king.”  We “know God.”  We have been given “a thousand sacred sweets” before we even get to Heaven—prayer, spiritual blessings, physical blessings, a spiritual family, and salvation, a beautiful world to live in and joyful occasions in our lives.  “Every tear” should be dry because we are “marching through Emmanuel’s ground”—“God with us”--a Lord who came and died for us, who acts as our high priest, who intercedes, who takes every care of ours on his shoulders.  And we want to sit by the waters of Babylon and cry?
            Shame on me if I do not “set [the heavenly] Jerusalem above my highest joy.”  Shame on me if I cannot sing this song with the unmitigated joy it deserves.
 
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Ps 84:1-2
 
Dene Ward

Let us admit it—by and large we are quick to be angry when we are personally affronted and offended, and slow to be angry when sin and injustice multiply in other areas.  In these cases we are more prone to philosophize.  In fact, the problem is even more complicated than that.  Sometimes we get involved in a legitimate issue and discern, perhaps with accuracy, the right and wrong of the matter.  However, in pushing the right side, our own egos get so bound up with the issue that in our view opponents are not only in the wrong but attacking us.  When we react with anger, we may deceive ourselves into thinking that we are defending the Truth and the right, when deep down we are more concerned with defending ourselves.  The Sermon on the Mount, An Evangelical Exposition of Matthew 5-7, by D. A. Carson

I saw this post on Facebook recently: "’Let’s see who’ll read this’ at the beginning of your post virtually guarantees I won’t read it.  Ever.” 
          I’m a little the same way.  That phrase, “Let’s see who’ll read this,” is supposed to make you feel guilty if you pass it by, nagging at your conscience to the point that eventually you scroll right back up and read it.  The same thing is true of all those “Copy and paste this if you are a real Christian/patriot/friend, etc.”  Now that one really bugs me.  If copying and pasting something is how someone else judges my Christianity, or my patriotism, or my friendship, then I am not the one who needs to feel guilty.
            God never used either of those things to get people to read His Word.  He simply laid it out there and the ones who cared enough to read and learn from it gained more benefits than they could have ever imagined.  God never tried to “guilt” anyone into doing anything for Him—he knew it wouldn’t be sincere if He did.  Josiah tried that with the people of Judah.
            Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their fathers. 2Chr 34:32-33.  No, they did not turn away from God—not as long as Josiah was alive to make them behave, but he was hardly cold in the grave before they were just as bad as before.
            A long time ago, my eleventh grade Advanced English teacher taught a unit on advertising and semantics.  I will forever be grateful to her.  I learned about the Straw Man, the Bandwagon, Bait and Switch, and a host of other sales/debate techniques I have forgotten the names of.  I see them on Facebook, on television and in flyers all the time, and thanks to her I seldom fall for them.
          But I never see them in the Bible, except when some evil man uses them to tempt God’s people away from Him, like the Rabshekah in Isaiah 36.  God never uses those deceitful techniques, his prophets never used them, his preachers never used them. 
         Jesus never used them.  In fact, he taught in parables to weed out the ones who would not care enough to try to understand them (Matt 13:13).  He didn’t want them if they didn’t want him.   Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you. Matt 7:6
         It’s up to us to read God’s Word ourselves, not to be forced into it by a guilt trip.  It’s up to us to live by them.  And a simple copy and paste won’t proclaim our faith in our Lord.  It takes a lifetime to do that.
 
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. ​For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Matt 13:16-17
 
Dene Ward

I knew a woman once, a faithful Christian, who believed that crying over the death of a loved one was sinful.  She bravely, some would say, faced the loss of a child to a dread disease with a smile.  No one ever saw a tear leave her eyes.  I know a lot of people who agree with her, a lot of people who would applaud her as “strong and full of faith.”  I don’t.  In fact, that erroneous belief of hers affected both her physical and mental health for the rest of her life.  It also made her unsympathetic to others she should have been best able to comfort. 
            God created us and He made within us the impulse to cry, just as He made other appetites and needs.  He never expected us not to cry, not to mourn, and not to grieve.  Do you want some examples?  Abraham cried when Sarah died, Gen 23:2.  Jonathan and David cried when they realized they would not be together again in this lifetime, 1 Sam 20:41, and David cried again when he heard that Jonathan, and even Saul, were dead, 2 Sam 3:32.  Hezekiah “wept bitterly” when he heard that he had a terminal illness, 2 Kgs 20:3.  Paul wept real tears when he suffered for the Lord, Acts 20:19, and he wept for those who had fallen from the way, Phil 3:19.  Where do we get this notion that righteous, faithful people never cry?
            1 Thes 4:13 does not say we sorrow not over the death of loved ones.  It says we sorrow not as others do who have no hope.  “As” means in the same manner.  Yes we sorrow, but not in the same way.  We know something more awaits us.  Our sorrow is tempered with the knowledge that we will one day be together again, but that does not mean the sorrow ceases to exist—it simply changes. 
            I cried often after my Daddy died, usually when I saw something he had made for me, or given me, or repaired that I had thought was a goner.  He was handy that way, and I miss the care he showed for me in those small gestures.  Even now, writing these things makes my eyes burn and water just a bit, several years after his passing.  But I do not, and I have never, let grief consume me and keep me from my service to God and to others.  I have not let it destroy my faith—my hope—that I will see him again and be with him forever.
            Anyone who thinks that crying is faithless sits with Job’s cold, merciless friends.  Job did cry.  Job did ask God why.  Job did complain with all his might about the things he was experiencing, yet “in all this Job sinned not with his lips” Job 2:10.  What did he get from his friends?  Nothing but accusation and rebuke.  “Have pity upon me, oh you my friends,” he finally wails in 19:21.  Paul says we are to “weep with those who weep,” Rom 12:15.  If weeping were sinful, shouldn’t he have told us to, as Job’s friends did, rebuke them instead?  No, God plainly says at the end of the book that Job’s friends were the ones who were wrong.
            And, of course, Jesus cried.  I have heard Bible classes tie themselves into knots trying to make it okay for Jesus to cry at the tomb of Lazarus.  How about this?  He was sad!  To try to take that sadness away from Him strips Him of the first sacrifice He made for us when He carefully and deliberately put on humanity.  Hebrews says He was “tempted in all points like us yet without sin.”  That means He experienced sadness, and people who are sad cry.
            Do you think He can’t understand our specific problems because He never lost a child? 
            And when he drew near he saw the city and wept over it…O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you would not, Luke 19:41; Matt 23:37.  When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them... How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender, Hos 11:1-4,11.
            Anyone who cannot hear the tears in those words is probably not a parent yet.  God knows what it is like to lose a child in the worst way possible--spiritually.  Don’t tell the Lord it’s a sin to cry.
            I have seen too many people nearly ruin themselves trying to do the impossible.  I have seen others drive the sorrowful away with a cold lack of compassion.  Grieving is normal.  Grieving is even good for you, and God knows that better than anyone since He made our minds and bodies to do just that.  How much of a promise would it be to “wipe away all tears from their eyes” if He expected us to do it now?  In fact, David asks God in a poignant psalm to collect his tears in His bottle—don’t forget that I am sad, Lord.  Don’t let my tears simply fall to the ground and dry up, keep count of them—“keep them in your book” Psa 56:8.  Do you think He would have preserved that psalm for us if crying were a sin?
            If you have lost someone near and dear, if you have received a bad diagnosis, if you have been afflicted in any way, go ahead and cry.  This isn’t Heaven after all.  But don’t lose your faith.  Sorrow as one who does have hope, as the father of the faithful did, as the “man after God’s own heart did,” as one of the most righteous kings Judah ever had did, as perhaps the greatest apostle did, even as the Lord did.  Let it out so you can heal, and then go on serving your Lord.  His hand will be on you, and one day—not now, but one day--He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4
 
Dene Ward

I have heard it a lot lately:  "I hate to think what kind of world my children will have to live in when they grow up."  I have said it myself about my own grandchildren.  I think what goes unsaid by most is this:  "Will they be able to stay faithful and endure?"  Finally, the answer came to me one day as I sat musing, or actually brooding, about the direction our country seems to be taking recently, "Of course they will.  They have parents who teach them every day, who live godly examples in front of them, and grandparents who do their best to reinforce those values.  Of course they will make it!"
            Yet that sums up the problem most people have—they do NOT do those things and when they stop to think about it honestly, they know it.  No wondered they are worried.
            I daresay that upwards of 90% of all parents train their children about "stranger danger."  They probably know not to talk to someone they do not know when their parents are not with them, not to go with anyone who is not their parents or someone they are positive their parents sent (we had passwords for that), and to never let anyone touch them in private places.  Those who have firearms in the home probably taught them gun safety from the time they could walk.  Those with pools probably put locked gates around them.  We are always safeguarding our children's lives.  We should also be preparing them to handle persecution and temptation. 
            Now is the time to talk to them, not some distant day in the future.  Sit down tonight and review stories of faithful people who said "No!" to idols, "No!" to evil rulers, and "No!" to Satan.  But even better than that, show them a life of devotion.  Show them a servant who sacrifices for his God.  Show them someone who studies and prays daily, who discusses Bible subjects with his family, including the children, and with other Christians.  Have Christians in your home and show them that others believe this, too—they are not alone.  But even if they are, they have a Father who will not forsake them.  And teach them the hope and the glories of being in Heaven with that Father.
            Do you want your children to survive the world that's coming?  When we might be persecuted or at least scorned publicly for believing in God?  When believing what God says about morality will get us not only ridiculed but hated?  When we might lose our possessions because we do not fall in line with the status quo?  They say that the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 against the Stalinist Hungarian government happened because, despite the Communists' control of the schools and universities, parents taught their children at home about the old Hungary and the freedoms they had enjoyed then.  Though the Soviet Union put down that revolt, 30,000 refugees fled to the United States.  The seeds of that revolt ended in the Republic of Hungary, established in 1989—all because parents did what parents are supposed to do, teach their children at home constantly the things they want them to know.
            Ours will not, and should not, be a military uprising.  But teaching our children at home the things they should know is something we need to take seriously.  "I don't have time," won't be a suitable excuse.  "I don't know how," will not get the job done.  If you are truly worried about the world your children and grandchildren may have to live in someday, then do something about it now.  It may well be that their souls will depend upon it.
 
But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all (Ps 103:17-19).
 
Dene Ward
 

Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you,” making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, ​because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. ​Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame? Jer 20:14-18.
              
I can remember times when Keith knew he had to confront someone, either about their lives or their teaching.  I remember how quiet he became before he left the house, how pensive he looked, his inability to eat or laugh or even smile, and the amount of time he kept to himself in a back room with the door shut, praying. 

A preacher’s job is not an easy one.  Look at Jeremiah in the passage above.  This man was vilified, threatened, imprisoned and virtually kidnapped all because he preached the message God sent him to preach.  And he knew what was coming—because it always has come since the days of Noah’s ridicule to now.  Especially now, when the world, and often the brethren, have deemed that the worst crime of all is to "offend" someone by telling him he is wrong. But a man who has dedicated himself to the Word of God cannot turn from his God-given mission.

The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the LORD being strong upon me. Ezek 3:14.  God told Ezekiel from the beginning that his was a hopeless task.  The people would not listen.  They would be “hard-headed,” and to help Ezekiel, He would make him just as stubborn as they.  But still he did not want to go.  He went “in bitterness of spirit.”  Yet this man, of all the prophets to God’s people, was probably the most successful.  Pay attention:  success does not make it any easier.  It was years before Ezekiel was respected by his countrymen, and then only after he was proven correct by the fulfillment of his prophecy.  In all the years before he was a nutcase, a lunatic, at best a fanatic who was woefully misled. 

Amos was flat out told to leave.  “Go home, you country bumpkin and preach there.”  And Amos replies, “Hey!  This wasn’t my idea…”

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Amos 7:14-16a

Of all places for God to send this unsophisticated southerner, the urban capital of the northern kingdom, where people lived in luxury and only listened to prophets who praised them really stretches the understanding.  But God knows what we need better than we do, and those folks needed a plain-spoken man of justice whose objectivity might possibly reach a few.

So let me leave you with a couple of thoughts.

When the preacher comes to see you, or when he simply preaches a tough sermon that steps on your toes, be kind.  He is not “out to get you.”  He does not want to hurt your feelings.  What he wants to do is obey His God and save both your soul and his.  It was not easy for him to say, or preach, what he did.  Give him the benefit of a doubt.  Appreciate what he went through before he even got there, and the fact that he cares enough about you to say anything at all.

And remember—this isn’t just the preacher’s responsibility.  It’s yours too.  Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Gal 6:1.  If you are a child of God, you will be putting yourself on the line too.  Just remember what it cost you as you fulfilled the mission when the preacher stands in the pulpit.  He does it every Sunday, and every other day of the week when you are not even aware.
 
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Jas 5:19-20
 
Dene Ward

Yesterday, several of my sisters in the Lord met for an intense Bible study.  We were at it for well over an hour.  We opened our Bibles and read and discussed topics that were deep and heavy.  We came away with many new insights, some of them probably different than if it had been a mixed class or a class led by a man.  Women do have a different perspective.  The Tuesday before that we did the same thing, and the Tuesday before that, and the one before that, as far back as 25 years.  We call it the Ladies’ Bible Class, not because it is some organization separate from the church which has a name, but just to identify to others who might be interested what it is, a group of women, Christians with the same roles in life and the same problems those roles entail, who meet and study together. 
            But let’s just consider the past two months’ worth of classes—about 12 hours.  What if, instead of meeting 8 times for an hour and a half each, we met two days for 6 hours of study and discussion each day?  Would that be wrong?  If we are studying the same thing, participating in the same activities, why isn’t it just another means to edify?  And if, because we have a chance to study without children sitting in our laps (due to Christian husbands who are concerned for their wives’ spiritual education), we decide to have it someplace besides the meetinghouse, but we each pay our own way and nothing comes out of the church treasury, isn’t that too just another ladies Bible class?  That is exactly what a women’s retreat is—time to get away from the distractions of life for an extended period and do some in-depth Bible study and encourage one another.
            These groups are not making themselves into an organization of any kind at all.  They are simply doing what the word says—retreating.  Jesus “retreated” when he went to be alone and pray.  Isaac “retreated” when he went out into the field in the evening to meditate (Gen 24:63).  Did that make what they were doing an organization?  Even if they had taken a friend to discuss spiritual things with them, no organization existed, just a few people who were spiritually minded enough to set aside the time to study together or pray together.
            I have also read the accusation that any time women retreat for Bible study it shows a dissatisfaction with the edification the church can provide.  That the church is supposed to be where we find all our spiritual blessings, including prayer, teaching, and encouragement.  That women who do these things may have good intentions, but they are doing it in an unscriptural, unauthorized way, separate from the church where they should be finding all their needs met.
            The Bible tells us that some of the church in Jerusalem met in the home of Mary the mother of Mark to pray for Peter when he was in prison (Acts 12).  Was that wrong?  We can easily infer that it was not the whole church—no one’s house is big enough for that.  That means a group of Christians that was not the church met for something besides the regular worship, not because they didn’t pray enough at their assembly, but because they felt the need to pray even more.  Does that mean they were not satisfied with God’s arrangement?  Are we not allowed to come together for even more prayer than we have on Sundays?
            A few members of the church meeting somewhere besides the appointed meeting place for more study does not constitute setting up an organization.  If women’s retreats, or week-ends as they are sometimes called, are wrong, so are Ladies’ Bible Classes.  So are Men’s Training Classes.  So are gospel sings in people’s homes or out in the park or in an auditorium somewhere.  So are personal Bible studies.  But of course, none of those things are wrong.  God has ordained that the older women and men teach the younger women and men, that children be taught, the unbelievers be taught by all of us, not just the preacher.  In the early church they often met “house to house.”  Weren’t their needs being met in the assembly?  Of course they were, so this is obviously something other than an attempt to go beyond the purpose of the church.
            And then we have that group of men who met to show others exactly what God wanted them to do about Judaizers and their demand that Gentile Christians be circumcised (Acts 15).  They did that with a long meeting where they gave approved examples, read the scriptures, discussed and prayed.  It was not the church.  In fact, it was members of more than one church.  Some people call it a Council.  What people call it does not make it what it is not.  These men “retreated” from daily life for the sake of edification.
            “Women’s retreat” is not a name any more than “church of Christ” is a name.  Both are descriptions.  Maybe some of us need a little more edification about that. 
            Some of us have become so wedded to our traditions that we have forgotten what is and is not tradition, “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.”  Fulfilling generic commands to teach and edify with “new” methods does not make them automatically wrong or you had better take that power point away from your preacher. 
             And just what makes this retreat thing “new” anyway?  Aside from all the Bible examples already given, Lydia met with a group of women down by the river.  I think we are in good company.
 
Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, Acts 16:24-25.
 
Dene Ward

After one particular surgery a few years ago, I had bled far more than the surgeon expected.  I needed a transfusion, he said, but given the state of the world these days, and the fact that a couple pints would have done the job, he took the conservative approach instead.  For the next few months I took a prescription iron pill, one more easily absorbed by the body than the over the counter varieties.  I don’t claim to know the entire effects of “running a quart low,” but I do know this.  I started every day tired and it only got worse.  And I was constantly cold.  Even though it was summer in Florida, I was wrapped in a blanket most of the time.
            Aside from the obvious Biblical applications about atoning blood, I find another worth mentioning.  John 6 is not about the Lord’s Supper.  John 6 is about commitment. 
            A sizable crowd had begun following Jesus on a regular basis.  They had been hanging around long enough to see several miracles, hear several parables, even be fed at his hand from five small loaves of bread and a couple of fish.  It was time, Jesus decided, to ask them to be more than hangers on, more than groupies enamored with the publicity of the local celebrity.
            Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 6:53-55.
            Far from believing he meant this literally, I think when they said things like, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they were just trying to avoid the obvious.  They were not in this for the long haul.  They didn’t want to get that involved.  They just wanted something fun and interesting to do for a few days.
            Jesus forced them to a decision.  This is not something you can do half-heartedly.  This is not something you can do while giving a lot of yourself to something else too.  I must be your sustenance, he was saying to them.  Nothing else should matter to you. 
            And they knew exactly what he meant. After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him, v 66. 
            I am afraid some of us are not even that honest.  We want to pretend we are living off the Lord, eating and drinking him night and day, when it is merely a pleasant pastime on the weekends, a source of comfort should a family member become ill, and a handy group for wedding and baby showers.  (Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves, v 26.)  The Lord tells us we might as well leave with the rest of the crowd.
            Why?  Because when we are running a quart low of Jesus, we will be too weak to withstand temptations and trials.  When we are running a quart low, our zeal will eventually grow cold.  We need as much of him as we can hold to overcome, to grow, and to change our characters, ready to live faithfully even to the point of death.  We cannot do it any other way.  
            Lev 17:11 says, “The life of flesh is in the blood.”  I have a new appreciation of that fact since that long summer of anemia.  Don’t make yourself spiritually anemic, and then expect God to reward you with eternal life.
 
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." John 6:57,58.
 
Dene Ward

The long subtitle says it all:  "How my minister father molested kids in our home and church for decades and how I finally stopped him."  Let that sink in for a minute.  Then chew on this for a while—churches of all stripes (and that includes "us" as many of my readers might define it) have become havens for pedophiles.  This book tells the story of a man who refused to have it so and fought back.
            Along the way you will read his heartbreaking story, discovering that a father he loved and admired was one of the wolves Jesus constantly warned about, devouring the innocent of the flock again and again.  Then you will find out about the courage it took for him to turn his father in and the toll that took on him.  Everyone pays a price when they are related to the Devil.  And finally you will read about the flack he takes from leaders in churches, who constantly want to welcome and shield the abusers while shunning the victims, all in the name of grace.
            This quote is typical:  "It's strange to me when church leaders' theology is 'grace for all' except for victims who were raped as children and have the guts to speak up about it.  Many survivors have told me that they, not their abusers, were removed from church because they were 'causing problems' by speaking up about their abuse and crying out for help." 
            Every preacher, elder, and deacon in the Lord's church, and perhaps every parent, need to read this book, no matter how unsettling it may seem.  Our children are worth it.
            Mr. Hinton regularly consults with churches who call on him.  He is ready at the drop of a hat to train a congregation in spotting pedophiles.  He has a blog called jimmyhinton.org with relevant posts.  Click on services to contact him.
            The Devil Inside is published by Freiling Publishing and is available on Amazon.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
A few questions:
Why did Jesus so often say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” instead of, “Your disease be healed?”  Why not heal everyone?  Not only did he leave many for the apostles to heal, there is no indication they cleaned up all the rest.
 
Of course, one of the reasons he said “sins…forgiven” is to emphasize to the scribes and Pharisees that if he could do one, he could do the other.  Certainly, since he healed one leper, he had the power with a word to heal all lepers, or to heal all blind.  The power was there.  The compassion that moved him to heal had to also tug at his heart in relation to all the un-healed lame and sick.
 
The questions bring our focus to the simple truth that sickness/infirmity was not the problem, sin was.    The compassion was moved within him to bypass these small things and focus on healing the root, the cause of all the misery that comes on man.  Healing the few he did was a pledge toward the healing of sin.
 
Sickness is really a part of death.    Healing is life triumphant, but Lazarus, the blind man, the 10 lepers, all still died.   Now, because he is the great physician, death is destroyed and we are all healed of death, not merely of a symptom like disease, and we will be raised (1 Cor 15:50ff).
 
So, the last question, "What occupies the bulk of your prayer time?"  A list of sick church members and friends?  Or, a list of sins and sin-sick souls?  I think my answer leaves me on the wrong side here.
 
Yes, I know the prayer of faith will heal the sick and I am by no means suggesting that any of us diminish that part of our prayer life.    I am thinking that I will greatly increase the part of mine that focuses on sin and the healing of sin and death.
 
"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places," (Eph 1:16-20).
 
"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Phil 1:9-11).
 
Keith Ward