Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

In 1 Chronicles 13:1-3 we find David addressing all the leaders of his people and proposing that they bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem and to a central position of worship in the nation rather than leaving it in one man’s house. He says they need to do this since “we sought not unto it in the days of Saul.” For the backstory to this, read 1 Samuel 4:1-7:2. A quick recap: The Israelites badly lost a battle to the Philistines and essentially tried to force God into action by carrying the Ark of the Covenant into battle. They soon discovered that it is impossible to force God to do anything and the priests carrying the ark (Eli’s sons) were killed and the ark was captured. Eli died upon receiving the news. God did strike the Philistines with plagues for keeping His ark, though, and they sent it back to Israel on a driverless cart. It wound up in Kiriath-jearim in the house of Abinadab. There it stayed for nearly forty years, the first twenty of which Israel apparently didn’t even worry about where it was. Such was the sad state of the nation’s morality. David, however, was as much a moral and spiritual leader as he was a military and political one, and the time had come to bring the ark back to the people.

1 Chronicles 13:4-8 tells us of the festivities planned for this momentous occasion. David gathered all the people together from the southernmost border unto the northernmost. The ark was placed in a new cart. There was singing and the playing of various musical instruments.  Note especially their fervor: vs. 8 “And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.” They were worshiping with all their might. But, of course, something went wrong.

1 Chronicles 13:9-14 tells of the death of Uzzah and David’s reaction. Probably Uzzah meant to show respect to the ark. The oxen stumbled and the cart was bouncing, and he didn’t want the ark to fall out and break into little pieces. So he steadied it with his hand. God killed him. David is described as displeased/angry and afraid. Think about how confused he must have been. He was trying to bring God’s ark back to the people so the worship of God could be restored. He was celebrating this momentous occasion with the whole nation, all of them worshiping with all they had, praising God, and in the middle of all this, God kills Uzza. His reaction in vs. 12 is understandable “And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?” He was afraid and unsure how (or if) to proceed. He drops the ark into the nearest available house like a hot potato. It stayed there in Obed-edom’s house for three months while David figured out how to bring the ark, during which time, Obed-edom was blessed.

In that three month interlude, David twice had to battle the Philistines (chapter 14) but he also discovered how to move the ark safely. 1 Chron. 15:2 “Then David said, ‘None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath Jehovah chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him forever.’” So, the Levites were to carry the ark. How did David learn this? Did a prophet tell him? Did God give him a dream? No, it is plainly written in Numbers. 4:15. All David had to do was read the Law already given by God.

1 Chronicles 15:3-13 tells of David bringing together the nation once more and then addressing the Levites. What he says to them in verse 13 is profound “For because ye bare it not at the first, Jehovah our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not according to the ordinance.” So, they were seeking God, but God “made a breach upon” them because they did not seek according to the ordinance or the rule. Well, was their heart right? Yes, remember when they were singing and playing before the Lord, they were doing it “with all their might”, and David, their leader, was the “man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14 cf Acts 13:22). Their hearts were in the right place. Well, did they give their best to God? Yes, David did not just take a few of his buddies to pick up the ark, he gathered the nation. As king, he brought everyone, all he had as followers, to celebrate this event. And the cart wasn’t some old jalopy of a cart that had previously been used to haul manure from the stables to the back forty. It was a new cart, never used before, the best to be had for the purpose. Well, was this a grand festival designed to praise the Lord? Yes, that’s exactly what it was. But the Lord was angry and made a breach upon them because, despite all their sincerity and heartfelt intent, they did not seek Him according to the ordinance.

There are other examples of this. Nadab and Abihu were trying to light the altar’s fire so that sacrifices could be made to God but they did not do it as He commanded and were burnt up for their failure. (Leviticus 10:1-2) Jereboam changed the worship practices in fear that his new kingdom would abandon him if they continued to go to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:25ff). He was NOT changing Who was worshiped. “thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” “Gods” is merely Elohim, the typical word for God, and in every single place in the OT where the God who brought them from Egypt is mentioned, it is always referring to YHWH God. From Exodus to Ezekiel. So, Jereboam wasn’t trying to change who they worshiped, just where they worshiped him, and the priesthood that served Him, and the festivals by which they worshiped Him. 1 Kings 16:19 is one of many passages that records the result. “Israel sinned”. Many were no doubt worshiping their God sincerely, but they weren’t worshiping “according to the ordinance” and so they sinned.

Jesus Himself discusses this. Matt. 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Holding your hands high, with your eyes closed, and calling Him “Lord” in all sincerity isn’t good enough if we aren’t also doing His Father’s will. Also, in John 4:23 “. . . true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” We have to worship in spirit AND truth. We can’t leave either out.

This is important, because there are so many people today who sincerely worship God. Who regularly “play before Him with all their might” and who call out “Lord, Lord”, but they worship in ways not taught by the New Testament. The churches they attend go beyond what the New Testament teaches and/or do things directly against New Testament teaching. They aren’t worshiping “according to the ordinance.” In trying to discuss this with friends and neighbors, how many times have you heard someone say something like “Well, God knows my heart. He will look and see that this worship comes from the heart and He will accept me”. Really? He made a breach against David because he hadn’t followed the ordinance! Are they better than David, the man after God’s own heart? If God didn’t look into David’s sincere heart and accept his erroneous worship, I sincerely doubt He’ll do that for anyone else. IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW SINCERE WE ARE IF WE AREN’T WORSHIPING ACCORDING TO THE ORDINANCE. After all, He is God, not us. He gets to choose how we approach Him, not us. REPEAT: He is God, not us. He gets to choose how we approach Him, not us.

While we absolutely cannot reduce our worship to some checklist we can mark off, and our hearts must be in our worship (Isaiah 1:11-15, Hos. 6:6, Micah 6:6-8), we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without doing the will of the Father. Calling out “Lord, Lord” won’t be enough. And that’s why I’m writing all of this. Not to be mean-spirited or hateful, but because I want as many people as possible to make it into the kingdom and that can only happen by doing the will of the Father, “according to the ordinance
 
Lucas Ward

Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

My cousin Kathryn in discussing the struggle for personal growth recently said this: “But I would rather strive for a better me today than settle for mediocrity forever.” This instantly struck me as profound. “But I would rather strive for a better me today than settle for mediocrity forever.” See, one thing I’ve discovered about Christianity is that it is about constant growth toward an ideal, rather than the instant attainment of that ideal. I’m not going to wake up tomorrow morning to find that I am the perfect Christian man. Sure, if I’ve been a thief, I can stop stealing instantly, get a job, and support myself and immediately get past that sin. The same can be said for a lot of sins: idolatry, adultery, drunkenness, etc. But learning to “suffer long” with my fellow man? That takes work to make it second nature. As do most of the aspects of godly love. I can instantly stop sleeping around, but the struggle to control my thoughts regarding the women I see may take a while to perfect. Etc., etc.

We see this played out throughout the Bible. Abraham, the Father of the Faithful and the Friend of God, grew his faith over the course of almost 50 years. At the end of Genesis 11 he had the faith to leave everything he knew and go to a strange land just because God told him to and made him promises. But in the very next chapter, when famine came and he had to go to Egypt for food, he showed that his faith wasn’t yet complete. Fearing for his life, he lied about his relationship with Sarai, his wife. If his faith in God’s promises was complete, he would have avoided this. (God promised him descendants. As he had no children, God could not allow him to die yet.) Almost 20 years later, in Genesis 20, he repeats this sin. And while we scorn Sarah for quietly laughing at God’s promise when she didn’t know it was God speaking, in Genesis 17 Abraham fell down laughing at God’s promise when he did know it was God speaking.

While Abraham’s faith was great from the beginning, it hadn’t yet reached its fullness. That we see in Genesis 22. This was another 15-20 years in the future, and Abraham had seen God working in his life and had seen the fulfillment of some of the promises and his faith had grown. He knew that the promise of God was to be fulfilled through Isaac, but he didn’t hesitate when God told him to sacrifice Isaac. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham just thought that God would raise Isaac from the dead. His faith in God’s promise, to be fulfilled in Isaac, was so strong that he just assumed resurrection! But it took him 40-50 years to get to that point.

We see this played out again and again when studying God’s servants. Gideon, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Esther, etc. Some started out with strong faith and understanding and just kept getting stronger, some started out with faltering faith and little understanding and became strong. But all grew as servants of the Lord over the course of their lifetimes.

This concept of continued growth is seen in the New Testament as well. Not only are the Apostles themselves excellent examples of this, but they wrote about it, too:

“Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(2 Peter 1:5-8)

This passage clearly implies continued effort to grow in these areas. While we don’t have to take them one at a time and can (and should) try to improve in all of these areas together, none of us are going to wake up tomorrow and be perfect in knowledge. Or patience. Or brotherly kindness. But we should be continually, day by day, getting better at each of these things. It just takes work. Notice that the first thing mentioned, before faith or virtue, is diligence. The ESV says “make every effort”. It takes work, effort, to grow.

Even the great Apostle Paul, who had the confidence to say on multiple occasion “be imitators of me as I am of Christ”, knew the struggle of continued growth:

“Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
(Philp. 3:12-14)

Also, in 1 Corinthians 9, he says that he daily buffeted his body to keep it in subjection. It was an effort, a struggle, to keep growing and to keep from losing what he had already gained. But he did keep growing. He kept getting stronger in the faith. And we can too. It just takes effort.

Next year I’ll be closer to the ideal than I am this year. The following year, I’ll be even a little better than that. In a few decades, I’ll start getting somewhere.

“But I would rather strive for a better me today than settle for mediocrity forever.”
 
Lucas Ward
 

Before you decide to excommunicate me, please listen to what I have to say.  “Scribes, Pharisees—hypocrites!” is just about all most people know about that group of Jews, but if ever a group of people desired to follow the Law of God, it was the Pharisees.  Do you think that means we shouldn’t try to follow God’s law?  I hope not.  Maybe it’s time we gave them a fair hearing

            The group was formed after the captivity.  God’s people had learned their lesson--finally!  Never again did they have a problem with idolatry, and the Pharisees were one reason for that.  Their original intentions were as pure as they possibly could have been.  Everything they did was with the sole purpose to prevent another apostasy.

            Yes, but they became all about the rules, people say. Certainly it is wrong to be ALL about the rules.  The rules are only half of it.  That strict obedience has to come from the heart, as the prophets said over and over and over. The problem with people who say the Pharisees were ALL about the rules, is that they usually mean, they were all about the RULES, therefore following the rules is unimportant. 

            So let’s see what Jesus had to say about that.
            "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you…Matt 23:2,3.  He told them to follow the instructions of the Pharisees.  Why?  Because if anyone knew the Law, they did.  How would you like for the Lord to say that about you?  “Whatever he says, do it, because he knows what he is talking about.”  I would be thrilled for such a testimonial, especially from him.

            Jesus also said they were right to be picky about the details of the law.  They “tithe mint, anise, and cumin,” and “these things [they] ought to have done…” Matt 23:23.  They may have done other things wrong, but closely following God’s law was not one of them, at least not in Jesus’ opinion.

            If being a Pharisee were wrong, why did Paul count it an asset?  More than once he mentions being a Pharisee, and his careful following of the Law as a member of that sect, Acts 23:6; 26:4,5; Phil 3:5.  There were many “good” Pharisees, among them Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, and yes, even Paul, for the things he did were “in all good conscience,” as someone zealous for the Law of God.  He would have been a hero in Old Testament Israel along the line of Phinehas in Num 25, and many New Testament Jews counted him as such before his conversion to Christianity.  Other Pharisees were also converted, truly converted, not in pretense.

            The Lord condemned many things about the Pharisees, among them hypocrisy, lack of mercy, wrong motivation, greed, spiritual blindness, and arrogance.  He condemned them for placing their traditions, which were far stricter than the law, above the law, but he never once condemned them en masse for believing that the law should be carefully followed.  Sometimes their focus was wrong.  Sometimes they missed the whole point of a law.  But they kept the law and Jesus plainly told the people to obey them.  Keeping the law as closely as humanly possible cannot be wrong.  In fact, logic says that since Jesus praised that specifically, then failing to do so would have been wrong.

            So what would Jesus say about you?  Would you be lumped in with the pious, humble, righteous Pharisees who carefully kept the Law of God in obedient faith out of a sincere heart, or would you be one who “left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy and faith,” who performed to be seen of men, and whose heart failed to match the mask he wore on the outside?  Or would you just ignore the law altogether, using the unrighteous Pharisees as your excuse?

            Be careful when you start condemning people as “nothing but a bunch of Pharisees.”  Make sure Jesus would have agreed with you.
           
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you… Matt 28:19,20.
 
Dene Ward

When we first moved over a thousand miles from my hometown, I eagerly awaited the mailman every day.  As the time approached, I learned to listen from any part of the house for that “Ca-chunk” when he lifted the metal lid on the black box hanging by the door and dropped it in.  Oh, what a lovely sound!

           My sister often wrote long letters and I returned the favor, letters we added onto for days like a diary before we sent them off.  My parents wrote, Keith’s parents wrote, both my grandmothers wrote, and a couple of friends as well.  It was a rare week I did not receive two or three letters.  This generation with their emails, cell phones, and instant messaging has no idea what they are missing, the joy a simple “clunk” can bring when you hear it.

            I was far from home, in a place so different I couldn’t always find what I needed at the grocery store.  Not only were the brands different—and to a cook from the Deep South, brands are important—but the food itself was odd.  It was forty years ago and the Food Network did not yet exist.  Food was far more regional. 

          The first time I asked for “turnips,” I was shown a bin of purple topped white roots.  In the South, “turnips” were the greens.  I asked for black-eye pea and cantaloupe seeds for my garden, and no one knew what they were.  I asked for summer squash and was handed a zucchini.  When I asked for dried black turtle beans—a staple in Tampa—they looked at me like I was surely making that one up.

          So a letter was special, a taste of home in what was almost “a foreign land,” especially to a young, unsophisticated Southern girl who had never seen snow, didn’t know the difference between a spring coat and a winter coat, and had never stepped out on an icy back step and slid all the way across it, clutching at a bag of garbage like it was a life line and praying the icy patch ended before the edge of the stoop.

          Maybe that’s how the exiles first felt when they got Jeremiah’s letter, but the feeling did not last.  They did not want to hear his message.  They were sure the tide would turn, that any day now God would rescue Jerusalem and send Nebuchadnezzar packing.  But that’s not what Jeremiah said.

          The letter…said: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare… For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. Jer 29:3-8, 10.

          You are going to be here seventy years, they were told.  Settle down and live your lives.  It took a lot to get these people turned around.  Ezekiel worked at it for years.  They may have been the best of what was left, but they were still unfaithful idolaters who needed to repent in order to become the righteous remnant.

          Which makes it even more remarkable that they had to be told to go about their lives, and especially to “seek the welfare of the city,” the capital of a pagan empire.  To them that was giving up on the city of God, the Promised Land, the house of God, the covenant, and even God Himself.  And it took years for Ezekiel to undo that mindset and make them fit to return in God’s time, not theirs.

          And us?  We have to be reminded that we don’t belong here.  We are exiles in a world of sin.  Yes, you have to live here, Paul says, but don’t live like the world does.  This is not your home.  Peter adds, Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims… 1Pet 2:11.  Too many times we act like this is the place we are headed for instead of merely passing through.

          How many times have I heard Bible classes pat themselves on the back:  “We would never be like those faithless people.”  But occasionally even they outdo us.
 
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Heb 11:13
 
Dene Ward

The story of Jehu has always left me a little perplexed.  God sent a prophet to anoint him king over Israel and to give him this mission:  You shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, 2 Kgs 9:7.

            Jehu accomplished the mission God gave him, throwing King Joram’s body into Naboth’s vineyard in Jezreel, and becoming king in his place.  He went on to kill Jezebel and completely wipe out both Ahab’s descendants and the prophets and priests of Baal as well. 

            Yet, in the first chapter of Hosea you read this:  And the LORD said to him, "Call his name [Hosea’s son] Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, v 4.  Now is that fair?  God gave the man a mission and he fulfilled it, and now his descendants will be punished for the very thing God told him to do?

            No, God did not punish Jehu for his obedience.  In fact, he rewarded him.  And the LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel," 2 Kgs 10:30.  The problem was the reason he obeyed.  Later on, when far more needed doing to restore Israel to God, he failed.  But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin, v 31.  When you pick and choose the commands you will obey, you are making it obvious that you are only doing what you want to do, not what God wants you to do.  What should have been the hallmark of his obedience became the thing that made his rebellion obvious—he hadn’t really obeyed then either.

            Obedience doesn’t count when it’s what you want to do anyway.  The true test of obedience comes when you don’t want to do it, when it costs you something, when it makes trouble in your life. 

            When you say, “It’s just this time, God won’t care because I have done everything else right,” you are condemning yourself just like Jehu did.  Killing the house of Ahab made him king; of course he wanted to do it.  But getting rid of the golden calves?  Now that might have angered his new followers.  Don’t want to rock the boat, do we?  After all, God, I can accomplish more if I stay in power longer, right?  I can just imagine such rationalizations springing to Jehu’s mind, the same sort of rationalizations we use when we want to get out of a difficult moment our faith has put us in.

            Examine your faith this morning.  Why are you faithful?  Have you ever fudged a little?  Was it because of your own likes and dislikes, or maybe your fear of the consequences?  Did you fail to obey because in that one instance you simply didn’t want to?  If so, then the fact that you have ever obeyed only means that in those cases you didn’t mind doing so, and that means you were only serving yourself and not God. 
 
Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul…. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. Josh 22:5;  James 2:10.                                                   

Dene Ward      

I am a crossword puzzle enthusiast—a cruciverbalist, but that is not the extent of the word games I enjoy.  One of my favorites involves making as many words as possible out of one larger word—not anagrams exactly, which use every letter of the word and are small in number, but using the letters of the word only as many times as the original word uses them and making as many other words as possible, three letters or larger, not counting plurals, past tense, or other obvious derivatives. 

            For example, how many other words can you make out of the word “jealousy?”  Sea, use, you, soul, say, aloes, lose, louse, yea, seal, joules, lea, sole, jay, lay, say, soy—and that’s just off the top of my head typing as fast as I can.  But how about this one—joy?  Seems a little ironic, doesn’t it, that you can make joy out of jealousy?

            A lot of people get those two mixed up.  In times where we should be “rejoicing with those who rejoice,” we find ourselves feeling just a tinge of jealousy.  Why did he get that promotion and not me?  Why is she being lauded from the pulpit and not me?  Why do people run to them for advice when I am just as smart/experienced/knowledgeable/ wise, etc.?  And that green-eyed monster gradually takes over, turning us into its willing minion.  We can easily think of reasons that other person does not deserve this and spread it to whomever will listen, causing us to ignore our own blessings, steeping ourselves in ingratitude that gradually becomes bitterness, not just against the other person, but at life in general. 

            Elizabeth is the best example I know of someone who got it right.  She took what could have been a cause for jealousy and changed it into a cause for joy.

            Zacharias and Elizabeth had made it to old age without having children.  According to Lenski, Elizabeth was probably looked down on as someone who had somehow displeased God—that was the general attitude toward barren women.  Finally, after years of waiting, probably with a multitude of prayers, Zacharias came home with the good news—albeit written down, since he could no longer speak:  “We are going to be parents!”  And not only that, but this child will be special—he will be the promised Elijah spoken of in Malachi.

            Then lo and behold, six months later, along comes her teenage cousin with even better news.  She too, is pregnant, and is blessed to bear the Messiah.  What?!  Elizabeth has been waiting for decades.  She is older and wiser.  She has been the faithful wife of a priest, and borne the ridicule of an ignorant culture, blaming her for her own misfortune.  And she gets the Forerunner while this child who has scarcely lived long enough to even be considered faithful, who is fertile (in this culture the family would know her menstrual history) and will probably (and ultimately did) bare more than half a dozen children, this girl gets the Messiah?  How fair is that?

            But Elizabeth had the grateful attitude and the abiding Messianic hope of a faithful child of God.  In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Luke 1:39-43.

            Not only is she excited for Mary, she humbles herself before a younger woman, one with far less experience and far less service on her record—she simply hadn’t lived long enough to do much yet.  And her joy?  It was not a feigned, polite joy, but a joy so overwhelming that “the babe leaped in her womb for joy” v 44.  I am told that “leap for joy” is one Greek word, the same one used in verse 40, quoted earlier.  It is a sympathetic joy.  In other words, Elizabeth was so moved with joy that it caused her unborn child to move within her.  Every mother understands how her own emotions can affect her unborn baby, in the last trimester especially.  Elizabeth’s joy for her young cousin was that deep and moving.  Jealousy never entered her heart for a second.

            How does that match with statements like, “He gets to lead singing more than my husband;” “My husband hasn’t been asked to teach in a long time;” “How can he be an elder when my husband is just as good as he is and no one has asked him.” 

            Oh yes, it happens.  And it should not.  If we are all members of the same body, then if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 1Cor 12:26. 

            Love “envies not” 1 Cor 13:4.  When you do envy, you do not love as you are commanded to.  Jealousy and envy are works of the flesh (Gal 5:20,21).  Those who practice them “will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Check yourself on this.  Has your speech given you away?
T
            oo many of us get this backwards.  We rejoice when bad things happen to others and weep when good things happen to them.  What about you?
 
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Gal 5:25-26
 
Dene Ward
 

I don’t need to tell you the story of the Prodigal, or Wasteful, Son.  I am sure you have heard the lesson so many times you might shut this book if I tried.  All I want you to think about this morning is the point that young man had to reach before he could truly repent.  He had to hit rock bottom.  He had to wake up and find himself completely alone with nothing but the pigs for company and the food he fed them for sustenance. 

            We raised pigs when the boys were still with us.  Every fall we put a new one in the freezer and it kept us well fed for a year.  But after raising them, I can say with authority that it was a brave man who first ate one.  Leaning over to put the feed in the trough and coming face to face with a snorting, muddy, ugly, animal whose head was twice as big as mine, and who nose was always running and caked with a mixture of dirt and feed was nothing short of disgusting.  I never had a bit of trouble come slaughtering day, despite the fact that we named them all—either Hamlet or Baconette, depending upon gender. 

            When we have sinned against God, we need to reach the point that young man did, bending over and finding himself face to face with a filthy, reeking, disgusting animal.  We need to understand how low we have sunk.  For some it may not take as much.  Their “rock bottom” may be a realization that comes from private study and its conviction, or someone’s chance comment in a Bible class that hits the mark.  That may be enough to turn their hearts.  But for the stubborn, the arrogant, and the foolish, it will always take more.  They have to have their noses rubbed in the mud of the sty to realize that they are indeed eating with the pigs.

            But we must not think this is only for those who have “left” and then returned.  This needs to happen every time we sin, not just the “big ones.”  Why do you think those little sins keep plaguing us?  Because we have never seen them as anything but “little.”  We have let our culture and our own pride keep us from comprehending the enormity of sin and what it does to our relationship with our God.  Nothing that caused the death of the Son of God is “little.”  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Rom 3:23.  We don’t understand “glory” if we think that even the tiniest amount of sin can stand in its presence.  We have to, in the words of Ezekiel, remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations, 36:31.

            So the next time you pray for forgiveness, ask yourself first if you recognize how far you have fallen; if you understand that any sin is horrible; that even the tiniest sin, as men count them, makes you forever unworthy to stand in the presence of an Almighty God.

            Ask yourself if you realize that you have been eating with the pigs.
 
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter, 2 Cor 7:10,11.
 
Dene Ward

1 Kings 14 tells of Jeroboam sending his wife to Ahijah, the prophet of God, to ask whether his son would recover from an illness.  Shortly before, another prophet had condemned Jeroboam’s unauthorized methods of worshipping God and prophesied the end of his kingdom, but Ahijah was the one who had foretold his taking of the northern kingdom from Solomon’s dynasty.  Ahijah would certainly give him a better prediction, he must have thought.

            Yet what did he do?  Ahijah was old and could not see well.  (Perhaps he had cataracts.)  Still, Jeroboam told his wife to disguise herself.  He told her to take gifts to the prophet.  Surely he must have felt some trepidation to take such measures.  But think how ridiculous those precautions were.  If he believes that Ahijah is a prophet of the God who controls all, how will this prophet not know who is standing before him?  Sin can make you do stupid things.

            And sure enough, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another?” 14:6.

            The scriptures tell other tales of people trying to disguise themselves—Saul when he went to the necromancer at Endor, and Jacob seeking the blessing of his father Isaac, among them.  But in every case, God knows who is standing before him and his purpose is fulfilled. 

            We often act like we are better than those foolish people, but, sadly, that is not the case.  It isn’t just the obvious cases we often mention—Sunday morning Christians who seem to think that God will not know what happens the rest of the week, pew sitters whose worship is only in form while their hearts are elsewhere, the disobedient and presumptuous who think that as long as they sing loud and pray long that their deviation from God’s commands won’t matter.  Sometimes we try to hide behind other methods of anonymity.  It’s an easy thing to do these days.

            When you talk to someone on the phone, it’s easy to be someone else isn’t it?  It’s easy to say hard things because you aren’t looking someone in the eye, maybe even because they are out of arm’s reach.  When you write a letter it’s easy to go on a tirade—no interruptions, no one to gasp at your audacity or become angry at your hyperbolic accusations.  When you sit behind the steering wheel, the other guy can’t hear you curse him.  It’s easier to blast away on the horn or do unto him as he did unto you because that tinted glass gives you a feeling of security and facelessness. 

            Be careful that you don’t do just as Jeroboam did and forget that there is no anonymity with God.  There is no rationalizing with him either—he can see right through your excuses just like he can phone lines, mailboxes, and windshields.  He sees every tyrant in the letter, every harridan over the phone, and every bully behind the wheel.

            What he had rather see is our doing right.  Nineteen times in the Old Testament I found the phrase “he did right in the eyes of God.”  Jesus told us we should give in secret, pray in our rooms, and do our best not to let others know when we are fasting for religious purposes (Matt 6).  Just as God will see the wrong we try to hide, he will see the good we don’t brag about—one just as easily as the other.  Give him something nice to look at today.
 
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good, Prov 15:3.       Dene Ward

And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem where was a great woman, 2 Kings 4:8.
 
            Shunem was a town in the tribal lands of Issachar, three and a half miles north of Jezreel, the home of the summer palace for the kings of Israel.  If you have a newer translation, you already know that, at least in this passage, “great” means “wealthy.”  Yet this woman was great in our own vernacular as well.

            The very fact that she recognized Elisha as a man of God and wanted to help him was amazing in itself.  Israel was headed headlong into rampant idolatry and immorality.  Jehoram reigned, a son of Ahab, a king of whom the scriptures say, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.  Although he put away Ahab’s pillar to Baal, nevertheless he clung to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it (3:2,3).

            This woman in the midst of an apostate people managed to remain faithful to Jehovah, to recognize his servant and to offer him a permanent room on his journeys.  This was not a spare room in the house, but one she added, increasing the expense of it.  It began with her invitation to a meal, then another, and another any time he passed by.  He couldn’t offer her a schedule or phone ahead.  The terms were always “whenever.”  Thus it began and grew to the greater commitment of a furnished room.

            Unlike so many other examples of Biblical hospitality, she was the instigator, not her husband, and she did it without looking for a return.  Indeed, when a thank you gift was offered, she was surprised.  I dwell among my own people, she said, indicating she did not think herself special or worthy at all.  This utter humility of a wealthy person is amazing when you see the opposite in so many today.  And how many of us would be expecting not only a hostess gift, but the singing of our praises to others as well?  She seemed to view Elisha as the worthy one, not herself.

            Truly, her greatness was about her faith.  She served Elisha, not to gain glory but because he was “a man of God.”  She recognized that wealth was to be used in service to God not to self.

            Several years later Elisha did her a great favor, warning her of a coming famine.  Arise and depart with your household and sojourn wherever you can, he told her.  It will come upon the land for seven years (8:1).

            How many of us would have the faith to leave everything at one word, not knowing whether we would ever get it back?  Wealth was measured in belongings in those days, land and crops and flocks and herds, not in bank accounts, investments, and stock portfolios.  She could take none of it with her.  When she left, she virtually impoverished herself.  Would we do the same, or does it all mean just a little too much to us?

            God in his providence took care of this faithful woman.  When she returned to the land seven years later and made petition to the country’s wicked king, Elisha’s old dishonored servant Gehazi “just happened” to be there, entertaining the king with stories about his days with the old prophet.

            “Why look here!” he told the king.  “This is the woman I told you about,” and being in a generous frame of mind, the king restored her land along with all the produce of the fields from the day she left till now (8:3-6).

            That “great” woman had no idea she would get it all back.  Elisha had never promised her anything except her life and her family’s lives if she left.  But she was so “great”—wealthy—in faith that God chose to reward her.

            Don’t make any mistake about it.  We fit the bill; we are the wealthy ones the scriptures talk about.  How is our faith these days?  Is it “great” or impoverished?  Are we rich toward the world or “rich toward God” (Luke 12:21)?  We show the answer by how we use our monetary wealth.  We show it by how we expect to be treated by others who are less fortunate.  We show it by the importance we place on it.

            How would we measure up against this “great” woman?
 
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. 1 Tim 6:17-19
 
Dene Ward
 

In the old days buttermilk was simply the liquid left over after churning butter.  It was thin and watery, and not sour at all, unless you allowed your cream to “ripen” a few days before churning, something high end butter makers still do today.

            Nowadays buttermilk is skim milk to which cultures have been added to develop flavor and to thicken consistency.  Buttermilk has its place in the baker’s refrigerator.  It adds tang and helps the rise, especially when used with baking soda.  You will have the highest and fluffiest biscuits and pancakes you ever made.

            The word “culture” has several meanings.  A culture can be a special nutrient in which things are grown, usually in laboratories.  In agriculture it can refer to tillage to prepare the land for planting.  It can apply to a specific community of people and their shared beliefs and customs, and also the things they produce like art, music, and literature.  Can you see in all these cases a relationship to growth and improvement?  In the kitchen it certainly produces better baked goods.  But culture can be negative as well.  The culture of Sodom and Gomorrah produced a sinful lifestyle that led to its destruction.

            Ruth understood the effects of a culture.  This brave young widow was willing to leave behind her culture and embrace another just so she could worship Jehovah.  In her world, no matter the culture, widows could look forward to only two things—either a new husband to support her, or poverty for the rest of her life.  “Orphans and widows” were the symbol of helplessness throughout the scriptures.  Ruth’s best bet for a happy and prosperous life was to stay in her homeland among her own people and find that new husband. 

            But something was more important to her than her comfort zone, as we so often call it.  She completely changed her culture.  She left home for a place where she had to learn a new language, new customs and traditions, and new laws.  She left her family and her friends for a people not known for accepting strangers with open arms.  Why do you think the law is full of reminders to take care of “strangers and sojourners?”  We know the end of the story, but Ruth didn’t.  She had nothing to look forward to but a life of hard work and poverty, dependent upon whether or not these new people she was willing to claim as her own followed the laws God set up to support widows.  I think it is obvious that even if they had not, her conversion was to Jehovah, not them, and she would have continued on anyway.

            How about us?  Do we have the strength to give up our culture?  Language, fashion, music, literature, entertainment, and what passes as art these days is often completely opposed to the righteousness God expects of his people.  Can you give it up?

            I find it helps to think of it like this:  I am not giving up my culture to stand alone.  I am giving up one culture for another.  Our citizenship is in Heaven, Paul reminds us in Phil 3:20.  Just as Ruth was willing to embrace a new culture, we should too, and in that embracing we find support from those who are just like us.  We are no longer standing alone against the crowd.

            Which culture do you live in this morning?
 
But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." Ruth 1:16,17.

Dene Ward