Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
I think most all church members are familiar with the story of the prophet Nathan confronting David after David’s sin with Bathsheba. (2 Sam. 12:1-7a) We know God sent Nathan to David. We know the story that Nathan told David about the rich man who stole the pet ewe from his poor neighbor rather than taking from his own multitudinous flock to feed his visitor. We know how David, in righteous anger, declared that rich man worthy of death and passed the sentence that the man would repay his poor neighbor fourfold. We know how Nathan then looked in David’s eye and said, “Thou art the man!” My question is, how excited do you think Nathan was to get out of bed that morning?

Think about who David was at the time that Nathan confronted him. He was the warrior hero of the nation and the scourge of all the surrounding nations. When David took over as king, Israel was in sad shape. The entire coastline and all the coastal plains were occupied by the Philistines, the Canaanites, and the Phoenicians. Syria had taken over most of what should have been Israel’s land north of the Sea of Galilee, and Moab, Ammon, and Edom occupied Trans-Jordan and large parts of Southern Israel. The Israelites occupied only the mountainous interior and were subject to constant raids by their neighbors. When David first became king (of Judah only for the first seven years) it seems that the Philistines considered him a vassal king. Then David defeated the Canaanites, the Moabites and Edomites. He conquered the then existing two Syrian kingdoms. He pushed the Philistines back into their five base cities and denied them any further expansion. David also received tribute from the Phoenicians (Tyre & Sidon) and the kingdom of Hamath. At the time of his sin with Bathsheba, David was completing his last major conquest (Ammon) which would ensure his kingdom’s security. He was at this time just over 50 years old. He was the revered hero of his nation. He had also already murdered Uriah to keep the secret of his sin with Bathsheba. So, do you think Nathan was at all worried about confronting him? If David had truly broken with God, Nathan likely wouldn’t survive the day. I think I’d be nervous.

While it is unlikely that we will ever have to confront a warlord about his adultery and murder, we are commanded to correct erring brothers: “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) This obligation often makes us uncomfortable because we are nervous about how the brother or sister might react. Sometimes we avoid this duty because we don’t want to deal with the drama that might result. Maybe we are afraid this person won’t be our friend anymore. They will yell at us, hurt OUR feelings, and then things will be awkward forever after that. Regardless of all that, which are legitimate fears, the Bible makes it clear that confronting erring brothers is an obligation placed upon us by God. Rom. 15:14, 1 Thess. 5:14 and 2 Thess. 3:15 all show that part of our duty as Christians is to admonish one another.

Our obligation goes beyond just “getting on” each other. Among other passages, 1 Thess. 5:11 and Heb. 3:13 teach us that we should be exhorting each other. Heb. 10:24-25 tells us that the whole reason we are to attend church services is to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works”. We should be thinking about each other and trying to find the best ways to encourage each other as we work our way to Heaven. And, as needed, we should be admonishing and confronting each other about sins we might become caught up in.

One other reason we shy away from this uncomfortable duty is the fear that if the erring brother is offended, he might leave the church. While that would be sad, if the brother is so caught up in his sin that he won’t repent, he needs to be removed from the church anyway. Paul discusses this exact scenario in 1 Cor. 5: “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (vs. 7-8) Just as God commanded Nathan to go to David, we are to go to our erring brethren and do our best to bring them back to the fold.

The other side of this story is, of course, David’s reaction. He didn’t become angry. He didn’t act affronted. He didn’t try to lie or cover it up. In 2 Sam. 12:13, he admitted his guilt. We know from other passages, notably Ps. 51, that this wasn’t a bare admittance of guilt, but the beginning of a true and deep repentance. Just as we can learn something from Nathan’s courage in confronting David about his sin, we can learn from David how to handle it if we are ever on the receiving end of the admonishment. The natural reaction to having a brother tell us he thinks we are in sin might be, “How dare you accuse me?!” But this should not be the reaction of a Christian whose primary motivation is to please God.

While the conversation will probably catch us off guard, and our first reaction might be to deny, these opportunities are the perfect chance to check up on ourselves. After all, 2 Cor. 13:5 does teach us to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” If your brother comes to you with a concern, think about it. Examine yourself and test yourself out. Your brother might be wrong. He might have misunderstood. He might even have poor motives in telling you. Weighed against the possibility of losing your eternal soul, however, none of that matters much. Consider carefully whatever he or she said to make sure you are still in the faith. After all, we are to “. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). If, upon contemplation, you discover that your brother is right and you are erring, repent and fix it. If you realize that your brother made a mistake in admonishing you, thank him for his concern. After all, it wasn’t easy for him to confront you. He was likely just as nervous, uncomfortable, and even scared as you would be if you were to have to confront him. He loved you enough to overcome that fear and come to you anyway. That kind of love is precious.

Like Nathan, we have obligations to confront erring brethren. Like David, we should listen, consider the admonishment, and if sinning, we need to admit it, repent, and move forward. In all this, our love for each other and for God should be the over-riding motivation.
 
Lucas Ward

Sometimes I think in our efforts to be so careful about doing exactly what God has said to do, we ruin perfectly simple commands with all sorts of convoluted logic.  I recently heard one of those old notions again:  since we cannot pray 24 hours a day, “Pray without ceasing,” must mean to be in a prayerful attitude all the time.  When I was a child I never did understand that, but I assumed I would when I grew up.  I still don’t.  It says “pray,” not be in a prayerful attitude, and exactly what is a prayerful attitude anyway?  I know for a fact that you cannot be in a prayerful attitude 24 hours a day any more than you can pray like that.

Have you ever tried to play a 40 page Beethoven sonata from memory?  Believe me; trying to remember the fingering and the notes, not to mention getting the nuances just right, takes all the concentration you can muster.  How about singing German lieder?  As an American who does not speak the language, trying not only to remember words that sound like gibberish to me, but knowing when the “ch” sound is a frontward cat hiss and when it is a backward throat scrape, takes all the brain power I have.  I am sure that some of the things you do take equal concentration—one cannot do them and pray at the same time, nor even have a prayerful attitude.  And I defy anyone to have a prayerful attitude while he is asleep!

One of the works of the Holy Spirit was to take God’s words and put them into words we humans could understand, 1 Cor 2:6-13. The way to understand 1Thes 5:17 is simply to use words and phrases the way they are ordinarily used.

Suppose you have a checkup with your doctor.  He says your cholesterol and blood pressure are both up, and asks, “Have you stopped taking your medicine?  Have you stopped exercising?”  No, you tell him, but instead of believing you he says, “How can you lie to me like that?  I am standing right here in front of you and you are neither exercising nor taking your medicine at this very moment!”  I hope you would get a new doctor immediately because you certainly cannot communicate with this one.  You have not stopped taking your medicine because you still take every dose on schedule.  You have not stopped exercising because you walk every morning.  Nothing has caused you to change those habits.  Just because you are not doing it at that particular moment does not mean you have “ceased,” and anyone with common sense would know that.

How about a Biblical example?  Daniel prayed three times a day, Dan 6:10.  When his enemies tricked the king into making the law that anyone caught praying to anyone besides him would be cast into a den of lions, did Daniel cease to pray?  We all know he did not. He still prayed three times a day.

So the passage means “Don’t stop praying.”  If you begin to have one problem after another, don’t blame it on God and stop praying.  If unbelievers make fun of you, calling you a superstitious fool for believing in a higher power, don’t be embarrassed and stop praying.   If you have great successes, don’t start relying on yourself, forgetting that God can take it away in a flash--remember the great privilege you have, and don’t stop praying.  Pray without ceasing.
 
Bow down your ear, Oh Jehovah, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.  Preserve my soul, for I am godly. Oh my God, save your servant, who trusts in you.  Be merciful unto me, O God, for I cry unto you all day long, Psalm 86:1-3.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward

The last several of my entries have used the lives of people in the Bible as illustrations of eternal Biblical principles. I want to try that again, using a lesser known Biblical person. This man is so obscure that even some of the better read Bible students out there might not know much about him. His name was Abraham. *Wait for laughter to die down.*

Of course, we all know of Abraham. The father of the faithful. When we first meet Abraham (then called Abram) in Genesis 12, his faith is already at a legendary status. God tells him to leave all he knows to travel to a foreign land, which he as yet knows nothing about. Abraham then leaves! In leaving Ur, Abraham left a surprisingly modern city. There is archaeological evidence of indoor plumbing among other conveniences. When he left, he lived the rest of his life in a tent. A very nice, very plush, very comfortable tent, but a tent is still a tent. A house is much better. In leaving Haran, Abraham left his family and all he knew to be a stranger and live among strangers. Abraham’s faith in God and His promises was so strong that he willingly left all.

As strong as it was in the beginning, Abraham’s faith had room to grow. Many of the stories of his life over the next 25 years deal with his struggle to understand God’s plan and to even help it along. We first really see this in Gen. 15:1-4:

“After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.’ And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’”

Notice that this isn’t a lack of faith, but rather a question that Abraham is asking God. God’s promise requires Abraham to have children. As of this point, he has had none. It was customary at that time for the chief steward of a wealthy man to inherit if the wealthy man had no heirs, and so far Abraham’s designated heir is Eliezer, his chief steward. Abraham doesn’t doubt God, but he can’t see how the promises are going to work out, so he asks. God tells him that his very own son, proceeding from his bowels is the literal translation, will be his heir. And so Abraham continues, some of his questions answered. In the next chapter, though, we see Abraham starting to try to help God’s plan along:

Gen. 16:1-4a. “Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived.”

It’s been 10 years of waiting. Ten years of living in a strange land, surrounded by strange people, because of faith in God’s promises, and yet nothing has happened. Maybe Abraham and Sarah were thinking that God was waiting on them to have the faith to step up and get the ball rolling. Who knows? What we do know is that Sarah was desperate. Desperate enough to try to capitalize on a custom of the time that said that any child born to a wife’s servant was legally the child of the wife. We see this illustrated in the competition between Leah and Rachel, the wives of Jacob, as each gave Jacob their servants to obtain children from. Not surprisingly, tension builds between Sarah and Hagar, but what I want to focus on is that Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 (16:15-16). Abraham now has a son, his own son, issued from his own body. He thought things were now set up for God’s promises to commence. Thirteen years later, God again appears to Abraham, repeats the promises, institutes the covenant of circumcision and tells Abraham that Sarah will bear him a son. (17:15-16) Abraham then falls on his face laughing at what God has said! From a logical standpoint, this is understandable: Abraham was 99 years old and according to 18:11, Sarah had already undergone menopause. It made no sense that Abraham would have a child by Sarah. He just couldn’t understand how that could be. He believed in the promises of God, but he thought it made much more sense for those promises to flow through Ishmael. In fact, Abraham pleads to God for that to be the case: Gen 17:18 “And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’” God replies, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” (vs 19). And so, about a year later, Isaac is born to Abraham by Sarah. (21:1-3)

The promised child finally arrived 25 years after the initial promises were made, but it seems that Abraham might still have been hedging his bets. Child mortality rates were high in those days and Abraham might well have been thinking that, if anything happened to Isaac, he still had Ishmael. There is an indication of this when Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. She had seen Ishmael mocking Isaac and demanded that they be sent away so that Ishmael would not inherit with Isaac. Abraham doesn’t like this because if nothing else, Ishmael is his son. He doesn’t want to send him away any more than any father would want to send a son away, but from God’s response, there might have been more than just that: “But God said to Abraham, ‘Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’” (Gen. 21:12) The fact that God saw fit to reiterate that Abraham’s seed would go through Isaac seems to indicate that, just as Abraham tried to help along God’s plan by having Ishmael, he now was holding a back-up plan for God, just in case. He never doubted God’s promises, he just wanted to understand how the plan would unfold. He wanted to help nudge it along on his time-table, not God’s. He wanted the reassurance of a back-up plan. God has now stripped him of all these things. The next thing recorded is, of course, Abraham’s biggest test.

In Genesis 22, God tells Abraham to offer Isaac to Him as a sacrifice. What must have been buzzing around in Abraham’s brain? Not only would he have been suffering as any father under those circumstances, he would have been wondering about the promises. Ishmael is gone, sent away at God’s command. He has no other sons. God promised that the blessings would flow through Isaac. In this test, we see the culmination of Abraham’s faith. When Isaac asked his father where the lamb was for the offering they were on the way to make, Abraham answered, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” (Gen. 22:8) Essentially, Abraham turned it all over to God and trusted that God knew what He was doing. Yes, we know from Hebrews 11:19 that he thought God would resurrect Isaac after he sacrificed him, but, whatever Abraham’s guess was, he turned the solution of the problem over to God. He no longer needed to understand the plan. He no longer needed a back-up plan to reassure him. He just trusted God to handle things and turned it over to Him. "God will provide”.

That complete trust of God to handle things we can’t understand is the whole point I wanted to make with this. I could have started out by quoting Rom. 8:28 (“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good”) and cited several other passages dealing with trust in God and had everyone reading this saying “Amen”, but it might not have had the punch of seeing Abraham go through the process of reaching that point. I could have gone to Heb. 12:7-11 and written about how God disciplines all His children so that the end result would be their attaining the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” and everyone would be nodding their heads, but then we leave the computer and enter the real world. Romans 8:28 sounds good until you are burying your first grandchild. Discipline for the ultimate fruit of righteousness sounds ok until you are watching your spouse slowly die from a wasting disease. When the career I thought I’d follow my whole life suddenly dries up and I find myself delivering pizza to make ends meet, how does that work for my good? It’s easy to read these passages and say “Amen” in church on Sunday. It is harder to remember them and understand how it works Monday-Saturday. The life story of Abraham shows us that we don’t have to understand it. We just have to believe. When Abraham was trying to understand God’s plan, when he tried to help it along, that’s when he got himself into trouble. It was only when Abraham stopped trying to understand and just trust in God to work His plan that God said to him, “now I know that you fear God”.

So, when the economy changes and I lose my house, how does that help me? How does it work for my good? I don’t know, but I believe that God has a plan and He is working it. When I get passed over for promotion, or even have my hours cut because I’m talking too much about God, how does that work for me? I don’t know, but I trust that God knows and He is working His plan. We are not promised answers in this life. We may never know why the horrible things that happen to us happen. We are told that God is in charge. That God knows what He is doing and He is working for our good. We just have to trust in Him. If we do, and cast our cares on Him, we are promised peace in this life.

Phil. 4:6-7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Lucas Ward

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live (Exod 1:15-17).
            Those verses seem straightforward enough, don't they?  So I thought until I started digging a little deeper.  Imagine my surprise to find out that several conservative Bible scholars, meaning they believe that the Bible is actually God's Word, say that the Hebrew here is in the genitive case and can be translated "midwives of the Hebrew women," meaning [Egyptian] midwives who served Hebrew women. Logic also comes to play in that how could Pharaoh have expected Hebrew women to kill the infants of their own people, and that the Hebrew women themselves, were probably toiling as slaves for Pharaoh rather than working in service roles to others.  However, Keil and Delitzch, two of the most notable conservative scholars of their time, come right out and say, "The midwives were Hebrews." 
            So why does any of that matter?  Just this:  if these women were Hebrews, they as a nation understood the sanctity of life as far back as 3000+ years ago.  If they were Egyptians, we can be even more amazed that pagans believed in the sanctity of life.  Some things were just understood—you don't slaughter babies. 
           Fast forward a couple thousand years and you will find Cicero, the Roman statesman, lawyer, and scholar, stating in his On the Laws 3.8, "Deformed infants shall be killed."  That "deformity" included an unwanted child, a sickly child, a deformed child, or simply a child of the "wrong" gender.  Seneca, the Roman philosopher said, "…mad dogs we knock on the head…unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children at birth who are weakly and abnormal."
            After reading that, it is surprising to find that a few centuries before, killing infants was not looked on favorably.  The Etruscans were notable in that they raised all the children borne to them.  These people influenced the Roman Empire until about 400 BC, and things seemed to take a downhill turn from there.  By the time of Caesar Augustus, the one who taxed the Roman world in the first century, the institution of the family had become so endangered that he enacted laws against adultery and "unchastity."  Epictetus, a stoic philosopher of the same era, stated that even a sheep or a wolf does not abandon its own offspring.  Thus the "progress" of the Roman Empire was actually seen as their downfall by some of their own.  Not every Roman believed babies could be killed just to suit their parents' lifestyles.
            And what has happened to us?  Have we "progressed" like the Roman Empire?  Are you aware that some infants are born alive after abortions and then left to die?  If this is progress, I want no part of it.  And neither did a lot of pagans. 
             
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them  (Rom 2:14-15).
 
Dene Ward
 

I have been doing a lot of outside reading for some classes I am teaching, and find myself reading blurbs on the backs of these books at odd times, usually when my mind needs a rest from all the scholarly stuff my old and feeble brain is trying to make sense of.  I saw this one a few weeks ago and it stopped me in my tracks.
            “In Story as Torah Gordon Wenham showed how biblical narrative texts little used by ethicists, can inform Christian moral teaching.”  John Barton, University of Oxford.
            In other words, the man has written a book in which he uses the Bible “stories,” as we are prone to call them, to teach us right and wrong.  First, I do understand that the word “inform” has a special meaning in scholarly circles, but it still seems plain to me that the critic is saying that using the Bible this way is highly unusual, in fact, a groundbreaking idea. 
            I sit here wondering why they are reading their Bibles at all if they have not figured this out before.  We do this every Sunday in Bible classes.  I did it every day when my children were growing up.  I do it now when my grandsons come for a visit.  We talk about the Bible narratives and how they teach us we should be behaving in our lives.  We talk about Noah and how “everyone is doing it,” proves that “it” is probably wrong.  We talk about Daniel and how important prayer is, and how God takes care of the faithful.  We talk about Elijah and the One True God.  We talk about Judas and betrayal, about Peter and impetuosity—and then forgiveness.  We talk about Jonah and God’s love for everyone and our responsibility to share that love.  My children grew up knowing what the Bible is for.  What in the world did these people think they should do with it?
            And we can laugh at them and think ourselves so much better than they, but are we?  We know the Bible is to be used to “inform” our lives, but does it?  Does the sermon go in one ear and out the other?  Do the Bible classes become exercises in finding yet another way to bring up my pet hobby, or to show everyone how much I know instead of finding something I need to improve on?  Do I give the right answers and then go out and live the wrong ones?
            Before we laugh at men who have become a little too smart for their own good, let’s check our own behavior.  We may know better, but are we doing it?
 
Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come, 1Cor 10:6-11.
 
Dene Ward
 

I have had occasion to teach this quite recently so it is fresh on my mind.  Please consider with me this morning one of the biggest spoiled brats in the Bible—King Ahab.  Every one of you has had to discipline his character out of your children, successfully, I imagine, but for some people it just doesn't take and you end up with a big baby for all of your trouble.  Let's see if we can enumerate his problems.
            1.  "When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals. " (1Kgs 18:17-18).
            Ahab blamed everyone but himself for his difficulties.  Here his disobedience has led to God allowing three years of drought in the land, but it was "not his fault."  Our culture is big on blaming everything and everyone else, from parents to society to some neurosis that means, "I couldn't help it."  In the spiritual realm I have heard people blame the church for their children leaving, blame teachers for their lack of Bible knowledge, blame elders for disciplining the wayward as the scriptures plainly say they ought.  I have even heard people say they don't know who is to blame, but it certainly is not them.  Accountability is a hallmark of maturity.  These people have none of either.
            2.  "And he said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.’” And the king of Israel went to his house vexed and sullen and came to Samaria. " (1Kgs 20:42-43).
            Once again Ahab has failed in his obedience to God, so God sends a message of rebuke.  Does he repent?  Does he give an apology for exactly what he has done wrong?  No, he goes home "resentful and angry" (HCSB).  Resentful and angry never has found forgiveness with God.  God expects His disciplined child to come to Him with humility and genuine remorse.  Once again Ahab has failed.
            3.  "And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food. " (1Kgs 21:4).
            Everyone knows this story, how Ahab coveted the vineyard belonging to Naboth.  It was a matter of the inheritance laws, not just stubbornness.  Israelites simply could not go around selling their property willy-nilly, even if it was the king who wanted it.  So what does Ahab do?  Lie on the bed and pout and whine and refuse to eat.  A king, mind you.  This man wasn't even king material! 
            Have you seen grown men do the same?  I have.  It isn't pretty.  In fact, it is downright embarrassing to be around, and you wonder why that man doesn't feel embarrassed himself. 
           4.  And then when the pouting is over, just as Jezebel used the Law of God to get rid of Naboth by hiring false witnesses to testify against him, I have seen people suddenly begin to quote scripture, wresting it to fit their situation in attempt to justify themselves and condemn those who are trying to win them back.  You have never seen such hermeneutic corkscrewing in a blatant attempt to excuse oneself.
          Judge not that you be not judged is a favorite.  Meanwhile, the same person judges you for daring to try to correct him.  Suddenly you are a hypocrite and traitor.  Anyone messing with the sacred Word of God had better be careful. 
          5.  Then, of course, we have Ahab allowing his wife to go to any lengths, including murder, to give him what he wants.  Does it matter that it is sinful?  No, not as long as he gets his way.  When he doesn't get it, see #3.
            6.  And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house.” (1Kgs 21:27-29).
            Finally, it seems, someone has reached the heart of this evil man.  Even God is impressed with his repentance.  So what happens next?  Steadfastness and commitment are not his strong suits.  In and out, up and down, his faith is nothing more than an EKG of his emotions, all of which depend upon whether or not he can do as he pleases rather than take up his cross and follow the Lord he once claimed.
           7.  And then, in chapter 22 he becomes angry with the prophet of God and throws him in prison.  He doesn't like the message so away with the messenger.  You are no longer his friend and he will heap abuse on you daily, including name-calling and false accusations.  The harder you try, the more he will refuse you, accusing you of being the Devil's tool in discouraging him ("poor little me"), when he is doing a bang-up job of doing that to you himself.
            I am positive you have seen this man.  He throws a fit when corrected, runs people out of his house, gets rid of the preacher if he possibly can, creates a faction in the church, whatever it takes to rid himself of anyone who dares to tell him he is wrong and must change. 
           And notice this, through six and a half chapters, Ahab never improves.  The one time he actually seems to repent, it is short-lived.  Commitment is a foreign concepts to him, but then you wouldn't expect it of a child either. But most children (except Peter Pan) want to grow up.  This one thinks no one has any right to expect him to show improvement.  It is perfectly fine, just as Ahab thought, to keep falling the same way again and again, and still be accepted by God and his people.
            Look back at those underlined phrases.   Do you see why I call him a spoiled brat?  A big baby?  This isn't a man of God—it isn't even a man.  Men of God have accountability and self-control, they repent with humility and remorse, they accept those who correct them with love, and never use the Law of God in an attempt to get away with sin.  They wouldn't be caught dead whining and pouting like a little kid and they show improvement through the days and weeks and months of their growth as Christians. 
            I know "children of God" has a special meaning in our relationship with the Father.  But for this morning, think about it this way.  Getting rid of these characteristics is how "children" of God become "men and women" of God.
 
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  (Col 1:28).
 
Dene Ward

We just returned from a birthday party—a double birthday party, which meant twice as many guests, twice as many cakes, and twice as many gifts.  It also meant twice as much time unwrapping the gifts. 

That last part did not bother Silas at all, but it seemed to bother Judah a little.  He started playing with one gift and then was handed yet another to unwrap.  So he had to stop playing and unwrap.  Once it was done, he started playing again, sometimes even went back to the first one he had unwrapped, but then he would be handed another.  You could almost see his little brain forming the thought, “There is such a thing as too many gifts.” 

The next morning even Silas had trouble with the number of gifts.  I sat and watched him go from one to the other, back and forth.  I wondered if he wasn’t finally realizing, you can only play with one toy at a time.

Have you ever read Proverbs 31 then slumped your shoulders in defeat and thought, “I can’t possibly be that woman?”  Take heart.  God does not expect you to have every gift this woman has, nor to play with them all at once.  Just think for a minute:  what does he tell those Corinthians in chapter 12?  Some of you have this gift; some of you have that one.  Some of you have yet another.  Don’t try to be what you are not—just use what I give you the best you can (the Ward version).

Cooking I can handle, most of the time.  Bookkeeping I have down pat.  But the only things I can do with a needle and thread are sew on a button, take up a hem, and mend a seam.  I can’t darn, quilt, crochet or knit.  I have made clothes and worn them, but I consigned them to an early death as soon as I had replacements.  I have finally learned to master the pressure canner instead of cringing in fear, but I couldn’t decorate one wall much less a whole house—I have no eye for it.

Do you see the point?  The Proverbs 31 woman is the ideal.  God lists it all, and it gives us some sense of duties in the home.  What it doesn’t do is command us to be some sort of Jill-of-all-Trades Renaissance Woman.  It just says, this is where the center and purpose of your life and everything you accomplish in it must be—your family.  Be the best cook or the best seamstress or the best gardener or the best organizer or the best comforter or the best home businesswoman—or maybe two or three of those--whatever present God has given you to unwrap.  Do that, and you have “done what you could.”
 
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness, Rom 12:4-8.
 
Dene Ward

Monday morning I was outside for a good while, exercising Chloe, feeding the birds, pruning some dormant perennials in hopes of a good summer’s bloom.  While I puttered around, my mind wandered here and there, but eventually stayed on an idea for a devotional.  By the time I finished I had the thing half-written in my head, a good introduction, a nice outline, and even a punchy ending.  But I came in needing to study for my Tuesday morning class, a study that took nearly three arduous hours and left my brain frazzled, my neck aching from poring over the books and papers, and my eyes needing to do something besides focus so intently.
            The next day I spent in town, our usual one day a week of Bible class and all the stops we need to do at once to save the gas required for more than one sixty mile round trip.  Then Wednesday we left early for a dentist appointment that was one of the worst ever, leaving me fit for nothing but going to bed with a pain pill.  Then Thursday we had more appointments and by the time I sat down on Thursday night to type, my half written devotional was nothing but a vague memory in the back of my mind.  I sat for nearly half an hour trying to grab onto it as it floated just out of reach.  Finally I gave up and here I sit without that wonderful piece I was so excited about.
            I know this forgetting thing happens to you too.  Do you know how frustrating it is to teach something in a class, then six months later when it comes up in a sermon by a visiting preacher you can hardly get your next class started because everyone is so excited about this new truth they "just heard" the past Sunday morning?  I find myself sitting there thinking, “Where was your mind when we did this six months ago?”
            Keith feels the same frustration when he un-teaches a faulty concept that many have grown up with, watching the light bulbs go on one by one, only to have those same people repeat that faulty concept yet again the next time that passage comes up.  Yes, it happens to all of us—we forget what we have learned all too easily.
            Do you know how to avoid that?  I keep a notebook handy to jot down ideas that come up in my head when I don’t have time to sit down then and write.  The problem last Monday was not getting inside as quickly as usual and so forgetting to even put the idea in my notebook. 
            Learning involves some work.  I just sat through a wonderful class on a prophetic book I have never studied before, and never heard taught in any church anywhere.  What amazed me was the fact that only two of us were even bothering to take notes.  How much do you think the others remember now, several months later? 
            Come let us reason together…God says to His people in Isa 1:18.  That Hebrew word also means argue, convince, correct, dispute, judge, and many other words that involve thinking.  God will not listen to anyone try to argue, dispute, or convince Him of anything if that person has no clue what he is talking about.  I will be that clueless one if I do not study the Word of God and meditate (think) on it.  I will be equally clueless six months later if I have done nothing to help myself remember what I have learned.  I certainly won’t get it by osmosis from the pew I am sitting on or by an airborne germ just because I am sitting in the building where it was taught.
            Rene Descartes was the French philosopher who came up with this famous notion:  I think, therefore I am.  The guy did a whole lot of thinking his whole life long, but on February 11, 1650, he stopped thinking.  He died.  At least he had that excuse.  What’s yours?
 
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen, 2 Pet 3:15-18.
 
Dene Ward

She took him into her home.  She fed him.  She offered him a place to rest, a place he felt safe.  Then, when he was sound asleep, she knelt next to him and pounded a tent pin through his temple. 
            Many times I have heard Jael, the wife of Heber, described as a sneaky, devious, blood-thirsty woman.  We in our civilized, politically correct, white collar world decry any ancient blood-letting as barbaric, even though people of our own era commit atrocities, from the mega-massacres of Stalin and Hitler to the mob mentality that runs rampant in both the inner cities and suburbia at the lowest flashpoint, be it outrage or fear.  So, in our blindness to our own hidden savagery, we read the account in Judges 4 with a jaundiced and arrogant eye.  If we had spent any time at all on the song of Deborah in Judges 5, we would have avoided contradicting divinely inspired opinion about Jael’s actions.  Blessed above women shall Jael be, v 24.
            Certainly that should settle the matter.  Just for the added emphasis of common sense, though, let’s ponder this question:  What was this nomadic shepherd woman, alone at home, supposed to do?  Should we require that she meet a trained warrior, the captain of a mighty army, in a fair fight?  Indeed, I read that the customs of the day said for a man to force his way into another man’s tent, or to merely enter that same tent when the man was not at home, was an action worthy of death. 
            But how do we reconcile this type of behavior with Jesus’ teaching.  I say unto you, love your enemies, do good to them who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who despitefully use you.  To him who smites you on the one cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your cloak, withhold not your coat also.  Give to everyone who asks and from him who takes away your goods, ask them not again.  And as you would that men should do to you, do also unto them likewise, Luke 6:27-31.  Some would say, “Jael was under the old law. Things are different now.”  While that is so, it only skims the surface of the matter.
            Old Testament Israel was a physical kingdom with a physical king sitting on a physical throne.  They fought physical wars using physical weapons.  Isaiah prophesies a coming kingdom where they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, 2:4; a kingdom that would have no physical boundaries, but would encompass the whole world, one into which all nations shall flow, 2:2.  Jesus established that kingdom, the church, his throne not on this earth but in Heaven.
            Yet we still fight battles.  Paul spent a good amount of time detailing our armor (Eph 6), our weapons and battle tactics (2 Cor 10), and the characteristics of a faithful soldier (2 Tim 2). 
            Every time we overcome temptation, we win a battle; every time we speak of our faith to others, we take an enemy captive; every time a Christian leaves this world, having been faithful to the end, we pound a tent pin into the temple of Satan.  If we are too politically correct to fight a battle, if we are too finicky for hand-to-hand combat, if we are too “civilized” to pick up a sword and slash our way through the enemy forces, we don’t have what it takes to be a follower of Christ.
            Make no mistake about it.  You are going to war today.  Be prepared to fight in it.
 
Suffer hardship as a good soldier of Christ, for no soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier, 2 Tim 2:3,4.
 
Dene Ward

“Do you love me, Peter?”
            “Lord, you know I love you.”
            “Feed my sheep.”
            Most of us are familiar with the scene on the seashore recorded in John 21.  I think we make a lot of fuss over the word “love” in its various permutations because we have read a Greek dictionary and think we have suddenly become scholars with great insight.  In reality there is considerable disagreement about what Jesus and Peter may or may not have intended. 
            However, most people agree that Jesus repeats the question three times because of Peter’s three denials.  Peter had already repented in bitter tears and was surely forgiven, but this gave him the opportunity to make amends in another, more direct way.
            Peter takes a lot of grief for his failings.  I have heard many say, and have more than likely said myself, “Peter gives me hope.  If the Lord will take him, surely he will take me.”   Why do we think we are any better than Peter? 
            Is it any less a denial of the Lord as the master of my life when I fail to act as He would?  Is it any less a denial when I fail to speak His word in an age of political correctness?  Is it any less a denial when I fail to follow His example in forgiving my neighbor, my brother, my spouse, or simply the other driver or shopper or the waitress or store clerk?  Is it any less a denial when my life matches the world instead of my Savior’s?  I may stand up and confess His name on Sunday morning, but it’s how I live my life the rest of the week that truly tells the story, and neither the circumstances nor the provocation matter.  All of my reactions to the circumstances of life and to other people are either a confession or a denial of Jesus as the Lord of my life.
            How many times should the Lord ask me, “Do you love me?”  How many second chances do I need?  How many will I need just today?
 
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isa 53:5,6.
 
Dene Ward