If there is one thing the world has wrong about Jesus it’s this:  the idea that Jesus not only accepts us as sinners but allows us to keep on sinning because He is so kind and loving.  And one of their favorite examples is the adulterous woman in John 8. Nonsense!

In the first place, Jesus’ attitude toward sin is really just a side issue in this narrative.  This is about the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus yet again, and His being able to avoid the snare yet again.

They brought Him a woman who had committed adultery “caught in the very
act,” they said.  “The law of Moses says we should stone her.  What do you think?”

Jesus first did what we ought to do 90% of the time.  He kept His mouth shut. 
When your mouth is shut, you can think better.  And this was an obvious trap, if you just thought about it.  His silence also did this:  they kept pressing Him until it must surely have become obvious to many who were listening exactly what their motive was as Jesus calmly stooped and wrote in the dirt.
             
And what was so obvious about the trap?  He was approached while he was
teaching, a time when there would be many to see and hear His downfall (they
hoped), and whatever He had been teaching at the time would have been made ineffective.  He was not asked what the Law said, but what He thought. 
Asking rabbis what they thought about scriptures was not unusual, but if
anyone disagreed with Him, perhaps they would no longer listen to Him.  They said she was caught in the very act, so where was the man?  According to the Law they seemed so concerned about, Deut 22:22, both should have been brought for judgment, so it was obvious that doing right was the last thing on their minds.

This was the trap:  if He says that she deserves to die, He has pronounced the death sentence without the permission of the Roman authorities, which the Jews were not allowed to do, so He is in trouble with the powers that be. 
If He says otherwise, He is in trouble with the Jewish people who held
Him to be a prophet and a righteous man, because He has disobeyed God’s
law.
             
But with one sentence, He turns the whole thing around on them.  He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.  I find it hard to believe that these men who would soon murder Him and within a short time afterward imprison, abuse, and murder His followers were at all stung by a guilty conscience.  His few words remind them that the Law says they are to carry out the sentence because they were the witnesses, the ones who caught her “in the very act,” Deut 17:2-7.  The Law says Jesus could not lift a hand against her until they cast the first stones.  So now who is in the trap?  Are they willing to follow the Law in spite of the Roman dictum against capital punishment?
             
And so Jesus once again stooped down to scribble in the dirt, and when He
looked up, everyone was gone.  And now, He could not accuse her, not because He condoned sin but because there were no witnesses; and He could not stone her, for the same reason.  He would not have participated in a travesty of justice anyway, but now He simply could not, according to God’s Law.
             
But what does He say to her?  Go thy way and sin no more.
             
Jesus never has and never will accept sin.  He will accept sinners, but only if they change their lives and begin to live righteously.  Even then, when
they slip and fall, He expects remorse, repentance, and growth that make those sins farther and farther apart.  For each of us, when we lay our sin at His feet, the answer is the same:  Go thy way and sin no more.
             
I bet that woman of so long ago did her best not to let Him down again.  Can we do any less?
 
My little children, let no man lead you astray.  He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.  He who does sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning.  To this end was the Son of God made manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3:7,8.

Dene Ward

This is especially for all those young ladies who try to be righteous—they don’t dress like the other girls, or talk like them.  They respect their parents and follow the rules.  And their peers make them pay for being so different.  They often feel unpopular with girls their age, ignored by boys their age, and unimportant to anyone.  This one’s for you, girls.

The Bible is full of teenaged girls who made a difference.  When you realize that the custom was to marry at puberty, the list becomes longer than you thought:  Esther, even five years after being chosen queen, was probably no older than 19 when she took her life in her hands and stood before King Ahasuerus.  Mary traveled on that donkey (I assume she did not walk), nine months pregnant, and probably already in labor, at about 14 or 15.

And do you know about the daughters of Zelophehad?  Tirzah, Mahlah, Noah, Milcah, and Hoglah—not names we are likely to give our own daughters, but good girls, nonetheless.  We know they were not married, so, given the customs, the oldest was probably not more than 14.  Their father, unfortunately, was one of that generation that died in the wilderness, and they had no brothers; they were left alone at the end of the wilderness wandering. 

The law, that new thing they were all becoming accustomed to, said that only sons could inherit.  When  a daughter married, she was automatically absorbed into her husband’s tribe, so allowing a daughter to inherit land would have caused all sorts of confusion, with bits of one tribe now belonging to another, and on and on as it happened again and again until the whole land was a mess.  But inheritance was important to the Israelites.  It meant the name of the father would not die out as they all awaited a coming Messiah. 

So what did these young girls do?  They went to Moses and calmly presented their case.  Our father was not one of the rebels who gathered themselves against Jehovah in the company of Korah, they explained.  He was just one of the regular sinners who died in the wilderness.  Why should his name die out just because he had no sons?  Num 27:3,4.

Imagine that.  Five young girls approaching Moses, the venerable 120 year old leader.  I would never have had the courage, even if I felt my cause was just.  I might have asked someone to go for me, but by myself with only four sisters even younger than I?  Moses, and more important Jehovah, listened.  And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: you shall surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and you shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them, vv 6,7. But what about the problems that would cause?

Zelophehad was from the tribe of Manasseh.  When it came time to parcel out the land, “the heads of the fathers’ houses” went to Moses.  My lord was commanded by Jehovah to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.  And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.  Num 36:2,3.

Now we are back where we started, with the problem of land shifting ownership between tribes.  And once again Moses goes to God for the solution—a pretty good lesson to be learned in itself.  This is the thing which Jehovah commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them be married to whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they be married. So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe, 36:6,7.

So the problem is now solved by five teenage or younger girls, who had the courage to bring up something they saw as unfairness—not toward themselves, but toward their father and other men in his circumstance.  They went to Moses in an orderly fashion, presenting sound reasoning.  They were not riotous, disobedient or disrespectful.  When they received the inheritance they asked for, they had the maturity to realize that privilege demands responsibility.  What did they do? Even as Jehovah commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad: for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father's brothers' sons. they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father. 36:10-12.  If there is any question at all as to their motive, surely their following of the new law concerning the marriage of inheriting daughters, then quietly going on with their lives settles it.

One wonders how many family names were kept alive because five adolescent girls had the chutzpah to speak up, the grace to do so respectfully, and the maturity to take on the responsibilities of their answered request.

Are young women important to God?  I think they are important to us all.  Let’s make sure they know it.

Dene Ward

I had a piano student once who tested my patience often.  One day she hopped off the bench, ran to the window, and looked out.  “Mom’s back,” she announced.  “I told her to come back late so I would have time after lessons to play on the swing!” 

I looked at her and said, “It’s not the child’s job to tell the mom what to do, it’s the mom’s job to tell the child what to do.”  She looked at me like I was from another planet.  I am happy to report that the story ends well.  She learned some discipline and respect for authority, and we developed a good relationship.

But this little girl was right in tune with the times.  How often have you heard someone say, “I just can’t believe in a God who would…?”  Seems they forget who is the Creator and who is the created.  People have been making a god to suit themselves for nearly as long as there have been people.

That is one reason Jesus was rejected.  He didn’t suit their idea of a Messiah.  They wanted worldly might, worldly wealth, and worldly status.  He was a poor man with no army, who constantly talked about humility.  They came to Jesus and said, “Show us a sign and we will believe.”  What had he been doing but showing sign after sign? 

One of my favorite people in the Bible is the blind man of John 9 whom Jesus healed.  He is also one of the bravest in the Bible.  The rulers questioned him again and again.  “How are you able to see?  Where did this man come from?”  They even brought in his parents and accused them of pretending their son was born blind.  These men were so desperate to find a way to discredit Jesus that they were coming up with absurdities.  Finally the man looked at them and said, “Here is the amazing thing—you don’t know where he came from, yet he opened my eyes!”  And this man, whose life was really just beginning, was thrown out of the synagogue, ending any sort of normalcy he might have ever had.  I think I know who one of the 3000 on Pentecost was.

Are we any better than those hardheaded rulers of Jesus’ day?  Do we try to make the church into something other than God intended?  What we usually want is a social club with rules of our own making, including what to wear, what to say, and how loudly we can say it.  What God wants is a dynamic group of believers, whose minds are on the spiritual world not the physical; who understand the severity of God’s judgment and believe it is not only their mission to make sure they are saved, but to try to take others with them; people who understand that their worship must include a life of service to others, and who put the unity and good of the body before their own likes and dislikes.

Being a child of God means we don’t tell God how to do things; He tells us.

Woe to him who strives with his Maker!  A potsherd among potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to Him who fashions it, “What are you making?” Does your work say, “He has no hands?” Woe to him who says to his father, “What have you begotten?” or to his mother, “What have you brought to birth?”  Isa 45:9,10

But now, O Jehovah, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you the potter, and we are all the work of your hand.   Isa 64:8

Dene Ward

A few years ago Keith dug up a plant he found out in the field far from the house, surrounded by stinging nettles and poison ivy.  He had thought it looked like something besides another weed.  When I rubbed the leaves between my fingers and sniffed, I discovered it was spearmint.  So I potted it and put it next to my herb bed, where it comes in handy every so often, and grows so bountifully I have to give it a haircut once in awhile.

Imagine finding a useful herb in the middle of a patch of useless, annoying, and even dangerous weeds.  I thought of that mint plant a few days ago when we studied Rahab in one of my classes.  I have written about her before, and you can read that article in the Bible people category to your right, “The Scarlet Woman and Her Scarlet Cord,” but something new struck my mind in this latest discussion. 

God told Abraham his descendants would not receive their land inheritance for another 400 years because “the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full,” Gen 15:13-16.  The people of Canaan, the Promised Land, were not yet so wicked that God was ready to destroy them, but the time was coming. 

If there is a Bible definition for “total depravity” perhaps that is it:  “when their iniquity is full.”  That had happened before in the book of Genesis—to Sodom in Genesis 19, and to the whole world in Genesis 6 when God saw that “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (v 5), another fine definition for total depravity.

Both times God brought about a complete destruction—except for a tiny remnant that we can count on our fingers in each instance. That means that when God finally brought the Israelites into their land, the Canaanites’ iniquity was “full” and those people must have been every bit as wicked as the people of Sodom and the world in general in Noah’s day. 

Yet right in the middle of Jericho, the first city to be conquered, a harlot believed in Jehovah God.  A harlot.  Would you have bothered speaking to her if she were your neighbor, much less invited her to a Bible study?  But she outshone even the people of God in a way that made God take notice of her.

Thirty-eight years before, when those first 12 spies came back from their scouting expedition in Numbers 13, ten of them, the vast majority, gave a fearful report.  Look at the words they used:  “we are not able;” “they are stronger than us.”  Look at the words Rahab used when she spoke to the two later spies:  “I know the Lord has given you the land;” “our hearts melted and there was no spirit left in any man…because the Lord your God he is God.”  The earlier Israelites raised “a loud cry,” “wept all night,” and “grumbled against Moses and Aaron” (Num 14:1-4).  Rahab sent the spies safely on their way and hung a scarlet cord in her window, patiently waiting for the deliverance promised by two men she had never seen before in her life, but whose God she had grown to believe in with all her heart.  The difference is startling.  If you didn’t know anything but their words and actions, which would you think were children of God?

And a woman like this lived in a place determined for destruction because its iniquity was “full,” plying a trade we despise, living a life of moral degradation as a matter of course.

Who lives in your neighborhood?  What kind of lives do they lead?  Rahab had heard about the God of Israel for forty years (Josh 2:10), assuming she was that old—if not, then all her life.  Have your neighbors heard about your God?  Have they seen Him in your actions, in your interactions, and in your absolute assurance that He is and that He cares for you, even when life deals you a blow?

Do your words sound like the faithless Israelites’ or like the faithful prostitute’s?  Would God transplant you out of the weeds into the herb garden, or dig you up and throw you out among the thorns and nettles where a useless plant belongs?

Don’t count on the fact that you aren’t a harlot.

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14.

Dene Ward

Today’s post is by guest writer, Keith Ward.

What could Cain have been thinking?  Why kill Abel?  Detectives look for motives and usually trace them to money or sex.  The record shows that neither played a role in the first murder.

Both Cain and Abel brought offerings to God.  God respected Abel’s offering but not Cain’s.  Cain was upset and depressed over this and God said, “Why are you angry and why is your countenance [face] fallen?  If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up?” (Gen 4:6-7).  From this we can infer at least two things: first, Cain had a great desire for God’s approval and second, God had told Cain and Abel what to do.  Even a human father would not tell his son, “If you do right, I will reward you,” unless the son had been told what the right way was! Thus, Abel offered in the way God describes as “doing well,” but Cain offered in another way and was rejected.

Though he was unwilling to do things God’s way, Cain still wanted God’s approval.  As there were only two of that generation in the world, it must have appeared to Cain that if Abel were taken out of the picture, God would have no other choice but to accept him.  Besides, no man likes to be upstaged by his little brother.  In his wrath over being rejected and in his desire to be approved by God, Cain slew Abel.  It seems so tragic--how much simpler to just do things God’s way and live in peace.

Following God’s rules is called “walking by faith” (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 11).  Today, many people still seek to gain God’s approval without the sacrifices involved in walking God’s narrow way. They look just fine to themselves and to each other; they may even congratulate themselves on being “better than average.” They are religious and sincere.  What more could anyone ask? Usually, they are even admired by the “average” folks.

Then appears a righteous man who obeys God’s word exactly from a sincere heart.  As a result, like Cain’s, others’ offerings are exposed as inadequate.  If Abel could do it right, Cain could have also.  If a man can live “holily and righteously,” walking by faith in all the ways of God, then so could these “religious” men.  All too often they go the way of Cain and kill the righteous – by slander, by persecutions, by mockery, by ostracism.  Why not repent and follow the example of the “Abel?”  Because “their works are evil;” they are set in their hearts to do things their own way. The Cains see the Abels as an accusation against their religion, label them “narrow,” “bigoted,” “judgmental,” “legalistic,” and thus they seek to justify themselves.

Researching Bible history appears to establish that everyone is a Cain or an Abel.  Not everyone actually murders an Abel, some “just” applaud, or stand by indifferently.  Insofar as meeting God’s standard is concerned, being an Abel is not so difficult, but it takes much courage—there are a lot of Cains in the world….and many that are innocently called, “brother.”

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. Hebrews 11:4

Keith Ward

I wonder how many of us are so enamored by what we consider a “beautiful” love story, that we miss an even better one.  It really should tell us something when we read that Jacob loved Rachel because of her looks.  Since when do we teach our children that outer beauty is all that matters?             

After the marriages, Leah had children almost immediately.  Rachel, of course, wanted children too.  Her first resort was to demand them of Jacob, Give me children or else I die!  Gen 30:1, as if a man who had already fathered at least four were at fault.  Am I being overly critical or doesn’t she sound as childish as a little girl threatening to hold her breath if she doesn’t get her way?

Then she gave her handmaid to her husband (v, 3) for in that culture, the children of one’s handmaid were legally your own, and the family already had precedent for such a thing in Hagar.  Of course that was less than satisfying, especially since her sister could do the same. 

Then she resorted to mandrakes, the local aphrodisiac of the area, v 14, not too surprising from a woman who would steal her father’s household gods, I suppose.  As you go through chapter 30, pay special attention to the names of the children, what they mean, and what each mother said when they were born.  That speaks volumes in itself. 

Finally Rachel went to Jehovah.  We really have no record of her doing that, but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt since the scriptures do say and God hearkened to [Rachel] and opened her womb, v 22.  Still, her attitude is shown when she greets that child with Jehovah, give me another one! and names her son that very sentiment, “Joseph,” may God add, v 24.  Compare that to Leah who, when she named Judah, and called to her son every day afterward, was “praising” Jehovah.

Is that how we treat prayer as well, a last resort?  Does God only hear from us when we get desperate or scared or so distressed that we finally realize we have no other hope for a happy ending?   Do we demand help from God, then angrily complain when that prayer, which may be the first we have prayed in a week or a month or even longer, does not accomplish what we want?  And when we finally do get the desired answer, do we act entitled and fail to express any gratitude at all?  After all, we serve God and therefore He is supposed to take care of us, right?  If we don’t get what we want, why should we bother?

Ultimately, Jacob seems to have learned who the better wife was.  When Rachel died, she was buried where she fell, even though it was only a day’s walk from the family burial plot at Machpelah.  Jacob himself expected his sons to carry his body back all the way from Egypt.  And hear what he says about that:  there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, and there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah, Gen 49:31.  Jacob wanted to be buried next to Leah, the woman he had chosen to place in the family tomb.  Finally, he could see a beauty that mattered.  I imagine his change of heart had a lot to do with their shared faith in God, and their recognition that He was responsible for every good thing they had.  (Study those names!)  And didn’t God choose Leah as well?  For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah, Heb 7:14, who was Leah’s son.

God will notice our faith, our desire to talk with Him, our recognition of His providence and care.  Prayer is not about entitlement, but gratitude. 

Oh give thanks unto Jehovah, for his lovingkindness endures forever.
Oh give thanks unto the God of gods, for his lovingkindness endures forever.
Oh give thanks unto the Lord of lords, for his lovingkindness endures forever.
Psalm 136:1-3

Dene Ward

People always call places like Tennessee and North Carolina “God’s Country,” but no one says anything like that about rural north central Florida.  All we have is swaths of lacy Spanish moss dripping off huge, ancient live oaks, whose wingspan is broader then my house, tall pencil-slim pines standing like silent rows of soldiers in the woods, knobby-kneed cypresses wading in the swamps whose heavy silence is punctuated only by the plop of bullfrogs in the water, rolling green pasture land dotted with grazing black Angus, and always something green and always something blooming, no matter what time of year it is.  Even in January the birds flock by the dozens around my feeders, the resident hawk couple circles overhead screaming hello as they look for nesting sites, and by February, when everyone else is still in the throes of winter, the hummingbirds are back, and the azaleas flowering so heavily you can’t see a single green leaf.  Not too bad for a place no one calls “God’s Country.”

But neither here nor any of those other places compare to the real “God’s country.”  God promised Abraham a land He later described to Moses as a good land and a large...a land flowing with milk and honey, Ex 3:8.  Abraham’s descendants waited over 400 years for that Promised Land., but even Abraham knew that the real Promised Land was still to come. That is why he could endure, stay faithful, and even pass the horrible test of offering his son. 

Paul had to scold the Corinthians more than once for having “carnal” minds.  Not carnal in the sense of illicit pleasures, but carnal in that they were more concerned with this life and the physical aspects of it than in spiritual things.  Only carnally minded people become jealous for showy spiritual gifts, sue one another, brag about who baptized them, and bring enough to feed an army for their family’s Lord’s Supper, just so they can show off.  Too often we, too, get caught up in the here and now and forget that this is merely a short motel stop on the way to a far better and permanent home.

Today would have been the 91st birthday of a man who understood that.  I first met him a week before I married his son.  He never lived in a fancy home or had an expensive car.  He often worked two jobs to keep his family fed.  He landed on the shores of Northern France in June 1944 and marched all the way to Berlin.  He buried a ten year old daughter who had been stricken with a horrible disease.  But he would have told you he lived a good life because he knew the physical doesn’t last.  His eyes were focused elsewhere, and nothing that happened here could get him down. 

We should all learn what he knew:  no place on this earth should mean more to us, no person should come between us, and no thing should ever deter us from our journey to God’s Country. 

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he went.  By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God…they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one, wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.  Hebrews 11:8-10, 16.

Dene Ward

I was driving back from Bible class, coming down the last hill before the river, rolling green fields dotted with black cattle on the right, and a couple of old trailer houses perched on the left, their yards littered with rusty old farm equipment, screens hanging loose on porches covered with peeling paint, and black and brown frosted-off weeds standing knee high.  It may surprise you that I was driving.  I have reached that point where the doctor is the one who decides if I can have a driver’s license, and it seems the general consensus is that it doesn’t matter if you can tell if that thing by the side of the road is a garbage can, a mailbox, or a midget, as long you know it’s there and don’t hit it.

But I was really tired.  Most of my medications are beta blockers of one sort or another, or poisons that affect my heartbeat.  Sometimes I am lucky to have a pulse rate of 52 and blood pressure just scraping the bottom side of 100, the top number that is.  The bottom one might be half that. 

I had just bought groceries for the week, picked up a prescription and some dry cleaning, stood in line at the post office for twenty minutes and taught a Bible class, not to mention driving the hour and a half round trip back and forth to town.  I was ready to sit out the rest of the day, after I got home and unloaded.

But my weary mind forgot that I was driving and told me to lean back and relax.  I know my eyes weren’t closed longer than half a second, but when my brain caught up with what I was doing and I snapped to, my pulse was racing along just fine.  Good thing I was only five miles from home. 

And that’s when I forgot that these medications are a blessing, that without them I wouldn’t see at all, and wouldn’t have for several years now.  That’s when I railed against a gift of God.  It’s not enough that I have no energy.  I must also put up with the discomfort of follicular conjunctivitis every minute of every day as a side effect, and nearly constant headaches from the blurry vision that accompanies it.  How can this be a blessing?

Down days happen, usually when things pile up.  Once again we needed something we couldn’t afford.  Once again we had received bad news about a parent’s health.  Once again something broke down.  My vision had decreased another line at my last checkup.  Keith’s RA had broken through the latest, the third, layer of medication and we weren’t sure it could be knocked down without another layer.  And now I come dangerously close to an accident that could have hurt not just me but an innocent bystander.

So down I spiraled.  When even blessings—like the medications that keep you seeing—become something you want to curse because all you can focus on are the side effects, you are too far down, and it’s time to find your way out.

Down days aren’t so much about a lack of faith as they are about a moment’s forgetfulness.  They are about looking for the wrong things, or looking at the right things the wrong way.  This wretched medicine makes me feel horrible, I sometimes think on a down day.  On an up day I remember, this wonderful medicine has kept me seeing long enough to see my grandchildren.

I don’t for a minute compare myself to John, and I certainly have no idea what his feelings were, but if I had been in his shoes—or in his cell—I might have needed a reminder too.  He had given up so much to fulfill his role in God’s plan as the forerunner of the Messiah.  Yet now, when he has done all that was expected of him, he is cast into prison for speaking the truth.  Surely God would save this righteous man, the one of whom the Messiah himself would say, “Of those born of women, none is greater than John,” Luke 7:28.  But no, day after day he languishes in a prison cell at the mercy of a wicked woman and her weak husband. 

I would have had a down day or two as I came to realize that my work was finished, that perhaps I, too, was finished, at the completely un-ripe young age of 31 or so.  I don’t know if that is why or not, but he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one, or should we look for another?” (7:20) 

The Lord sent him what he needed to hear.

"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." Luke 7:22-23.

John already knew those things; he had probably seen many of them.  He just needed to be reminded, and there is no shame in that. 

God can remind each one of us too.  He does it by the providential words and actions of your brethren.  He does it when a hymn suddenly wafts through your mind.  He does it by giving us His Word, a resource of constant refreshment when we need it.  How many of us don’t have verses we go to in difficult moments?  If you don’t, then you need to make some time today to find one.  Find it before you need it.  Find it, and let the Lord remind you about all of your blessings, both now and to come. 

You can come up from a down day, but only if you reach out and take hold of the help that is offered.

They who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31.

Dene Ward

His name was Joseph.  He came from an island off the coast, but had family in the city, and had come to worship at the two feast days, probably staying with his close relative Mary.  While he was there he saw and heard amazing things:  people speaking languages they had never studied, something that looked like fire but wasn’t, something that sounded like a windstorm but wasn’t, and a sermon that both astonished and convicted him.  He wound up staying in town, along with several thousand others who had become part of God’s new kingdom, the one they had been waiting for so long. 

Despite their previous plans, they all chose to stay so they could learn, so they could grow, so they could mature before they went off on their own to spread the word in a world of sin, a world, they were told, that would reject them more often than accept them.  It wasn’t long till the practical needs of several thousand homeless people with no income could no longer be ignored. 

Those who lived in the city helped as much as they could.  They took people in and collected funds to buy extra food and clothing.  Men were chosen to see to these needs.  Joseph helped as well, selling off extra property he owned, and donating the full amount to the group. 

But that was not all he did.  Here was a man who excelled at encouragement, consolation, exhortation.  He was the first to give a pat on the back when it was needed, a hug, a kind word, a stern word, a teaching word, a “rah-rah” from the sidelines, a second chance to those whom others had given up on.  In fact, he became so good at it that the apostles gave him the nickname, “son of encouragement/consolation/exhortation,” whatever your version says in Acts 4:36.  And forever more in the scriptures, that is how we know him—Barnabas.  Did you even know that was not his real name?

Whenever I think of that man, I wonder what nickname the apostles would give me?  Whiny Winnie?  Gossip Gail?  My-Way Marian?  Grumpy Gert?  Cold-hearted Catherine?  Hotheaded Harriet?   Wondering about that will give your character a real shot in the arm.  I’d much rather have something like Generous Joyce or Compassionate Kate. 

Today, try to figure out what they would call you.  Be honest.  You can always change that name, just by changing yourself.

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold,  Prov 22:1.

Dene Ward

I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I remember the light bulb that went off in my head.  I have taught women’s Bible studies for well over thirty-five years now.  We never have the hen parties or gossip fests that many are accused of.  We study. We learn.  We grow.  I am so proud of my women I could burst.

One of the biggest blessings of sitting in a good women’s class is finding out that many marriages are like yours, and so are many husbands, at least in some ways.  That is the light bulb moment I spoke of. 

We were studying Hannah and shaking our heads at Elkanah, who was the typical oblivious man.  Despite the fact that the scriptures call Hannah and Peninnah “rivals,” the same word used in Num 10:9, “when you go to war against an enemy,” he either didn’t notice the obvious tension in the household or he thought it trivial. 

“Why are you so upset?” he asked Hannah.  “Aren’t I better to you than ten sons?”  That was supposed to not only assuage a bitter conflict in his home, but overcome a cultural stigma that weighed on Hannah every hour of every day.  Really?

My first inclination was to call him an egomaniac (“aren’t I better…?”), then unfeeling, or at best clueless.  But another woman pointed out that he obviously loved Hannah.  Look at the special way he treated her, and the point he made of doing it before others when the family offered sacrifices at the tabernacle.  A real jerk wouldn’t have done that.  He was simply being a man.

So, over the years, we have learned to point out “man things.”  We say to our younger women, “He didn’t mean anything by it, honey.  It’s a man thing.”  The point isn’t that men do not necessarily need to learn to do better, but that women need to stop judging them unfairly, as if every time they do one of those things, they are deliberately setting out to hurt them.  Nonsense!  They have no idea they are hurting you.  They love you and if they did think it might hurt you, they wouldn’t do it.  That little bit of wisdom has brought a lot of us through some tricky moments in our marriages.

Unfortunately, we do that to one another in the church too.  It can’t be that nothing was meant about us specifically when a comment was made—it simply must have been meant as an insult or a hurtful barb.  It escapes us that we are talking about people who love one another, and even though we are supposed to be loving them too, we automatically assume the worst.  It is the worst kind of egotism to imagine that every time anyone speaks or acts they have me in mind.

I tried to look this attitude up in a topical Bible and do you know where I found it?  Under “uncharitable” and “judgmental.”  Isaiah talks about people “who by a word make a man out to be an offender” (29:20,21).  Isn’t that what we are doing when we behave in such a paranoid fashion?  It isn’t anything new.  People have been making false judgments, jumping to the worst conclusions possible, for as long as there have been people.

What did the Israelites say to Moses?  “You brought us out here to die” (Ex 14:11,12).  Really?  He certainly put himself to a lot of unnecessary grief if that was his purpose.  He could have just left them in Egypt and they certainly would have died as oppressed slaves.

Eli watched Hannah pray at the tabernacle where she and her family had come to worship and accused her of being drunk (1 Sam 1:14-17).   Talk about being uncharitable.

Actions like those do not come from a heart of love.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, 1 Cor 13:7, which means I put the best construction on every word or action of another, not the worst.  It means I am concerned about how I treat them in my judgment of them, rather than being concerned with how they are treating me.  If I am not careful, I may be the one with the ulterior motives.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses, Prov 10:12.

Dene Ward