We were hiking a mountain trail, sometimes straight up, sometimes straight down.  A babbling brook ran to our left at the bottom of a fifty foot ravine, making miniature waterfalls over rocks and roots long before we reached the larger and taller falls, weeping into a pool and running on down the hill.  As we made our way over another rise and around a bend, the leaf-strewn trail suddenly dipped and we found ourselves in a cypress swamp.  What?
            Oh yes, I remembered, we were not in the mountains after all; we were in Florida.  Yet it would have been easy to have fooled a person who had slept through the trip over rivers with names like Suwannee and Ocklockonee, traveling deep into the piney woods of the Big Bend, down to the swamplands.  If they had wakened in the campground on the ridge overlooking the river valley below, and walked the first mile of the path, they would have thought they were on the Appalachian Trail somewhere.
            But the sight of those huge cypresses, the bottoms of their trunks billowing like the folds of a skirt in the water, their knees standing two and three feet high around them, would have given pause.  Suddenly they would realize the shrubbery beneath the trees in the woods wasn’t rhododendron and mountain aster, but palmetto and needle palms.  The ground wasn’t hardwood leaf mold over rock, but pine straw matting over red or yellow clay and sand.  This is Florida—perhaps different from most other places in the state, but Florida nevertheless. 
            Where are you spiritually?  Are you where you think you are?  Or did you sleep through the first half of your life, and when your spirituality awakened, look around and at first glance think, “Yes, this is the right place,” when it was only a close facsimile?  Did you find yourself among people who seemed to be doing the right thing and so fail to take a really close look at your surroundings? 
            Why are you where you are?  Is it just because this is where Mom and Dad put you, or because you checked the map and stayed awake for the trip, knowing why you made which turns, and not only how to tell others to get here, but why they should be here with you?
            If you are in the mountains of Appalachia, you will need to look out for a few rattlesnakes and copperheads, but those are shy reptiles that will usually run if given the opportunity.  In a Florida swamp you will also need to watch out for cottonmouths and alligators.  Cottonmouths are notoriously aggressive—they will charge from cover, and then chase you.  And alligators move faster than anything that ungainly has a right to.  If you are wary of the wrong dangers, you are much more likely to be taken unawares. 
            God expects you to know where you are spiritually and why you are there.  He doesn’t want people who are where they are simply out of convenience and family tradition.  Where is the service in that? 
            He expects you to look out for the dangers that might surround you.  How can you be alert if the dangers you expect are not the ones in that area?
            And how will you ever find God if you are not where you thought you were?
 
From there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul, Deut 4:29.
 
Dene Ward

Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing.

            2 Samuel 24 relates the numbering of the Israelites as commanded by David.  To make a long story short, this sin caused a pestilence sent from God as punishment.  God then told David to offer up a sin offering at a threshing floor owned by Araunah. 
            Aranauh saw the king’s entourage headed his way and went out to greet them, wondering what he could do for his king.  When David explained and asked to buy the property so he could offer the sacrifice, Araunah said, “Oh no, lord.  Everything is yours for the taking, including the oxen for the burnt offering.”
            Then David uttered those words above, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord which cost me nothing.”  It isn’t worship, David meant, when it isn’t mine to give.  It isn’t worship when it’s an extra I keep on the shelf for emergencies.  It isn’t worship if it isn’t something I need for myself.  Service to God should cost me something.
            I wonder what David would say were he alive today.  I bet I know some things he would not say.
            “We have a gospel meeting this week?  I’ll go if it’s convenient.”
            “The price of gas has gotten too steep to make that extra Bible study this week.”
            “That’s just too early for me to have to get up in the morning.”
            “It’s a song service tonight?  I don’t like to sing anyway.”
            “It’s on the way to my activity, so I can stop by the hospital for a quick visit, otherwise...”
            “My neighbor mentioned wanting to ask me about some problems he is having, and I wanted to watch that ball game.  Maybe tomorrow night.”
            It doesn’t have to be inconvenient to count as service; if it did, the most pious time to assemble would be 2:00 AM.  However, if convenient service is all we ever give, you wonder if it truly deserves that description, “service.”
            Did you ever offer assistance and have someone say, “Well, only if it isn’t any trouble?”  Have you said it yourself?  Don’t deny someone the right to “pay” for the offerings they give.  It is often trouble to help someone out—it’s supposed to be!  How much trouble they go to for someone else is a measure of their commitment to the Lord (Matt 25: 40).  The same standard is a measure of your commitment as well. 
            Since we do operate our assemblies on a system of expedients, it is too easy to think that everything should be convenient.  Surely God doesn’t really expect our service to Him to cost us time, money, or pleasures and recreation that are good and wholesome.  We may understand the concept of sacrificial giving on the first day of the week, but how much do we understand the concept of sacrificial giving every day of our lives?
            Because of all He has done for me, I should be willing and anxious to say, “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing.”
 
Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:28,29.
 
Dene Ward

"That's where I draw the line."
            I suppose you are wondering about context.  Context doesn't really matter here.  This was a Christian who, in the course of a class discussion, let everyone know that when it came to serving the Lord—it didn't really matter what area--there was a line she would not cross.
            The problem is that Jesus does not allow his disciples to draw a line.  He expects us to give him a blank check.  We are to choose him over family, over wealth and status, even over our own lives.  Again and again he tells those who won't put him first that they are "not fit for the kingdom."
            ​Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Matt 10:37).
            No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money (Matt 6:24).
            As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:57-62).
            And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me " (Luke 9:23).
            Jesus does not want half-hearted disciples.  They had to be fully committed to him.  He expects them to eat and drink him, i.e., live on him, survive on him and him alone—the true meaning of John 6.  And that means there must be no drawing of lines.  Just to be plain about it, if I won't give him that, he doesn't want me.  When everyone left after that difficult sermon, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked, "Are you going, too?"  He wouldn't even cave for his favorites.  They understood that when you commit to Jesus, that's that.
            I have a theory about all of this.  If there is a line I will not cross when it comes to my service to the Lord, sometime or other in my life, he will make sure I come up against it.
 
…But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life, Rev 2:10, NLT.

Dene Ward

On June 15, 1215, on the banks of the Thames River at Runnymede, England, King John of England was forced by a bunch of rebellious barons to sign the Magna Carta.  Although it was annulled by Pope Innocent III two months later, it set the foundation for the future English legal system and influenced our founding fathers in the writing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Precisely because of the Magna Carta we have freedom from unlawful search and seizure, the right to a speedy trial, the right to a jury trial, the writ of habeas corpus, and protection against the loss of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, among other things.  For a "failed" document, it certainly accomplished a lot.
            However, as we often point out, while we should be grateful for our rights under law, claiming our rights at the expense of souls is wrong, not right.  For instance…      
            When Covid began its ugly reign, we had a problem.  Wearing a mask was everyone's handy-dandy solution.  Not in this house.  When one of you is deaf and needs to read lips, it simply won't work.  And then there is the issue of claustrophobia I have had my whole life.  Warm stale air equals suffocation to my mind.  HOWEVER…
            When we go out, when we buy groceries, when we have a doctor appointment, when we assemble with the saints, if we are asked to wear a mask, we do.  Some people think that makes us "sheep."  Why would we act this way?  It's simple if you read your New Testament.
            When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!  (1Cor 6:1-8).
            No, masks have nothing to do with suing one another—at least that I have heard of yet.  (But give it time.)  The passage is not really about that.  The prohibition against making lawsuits against a brother is just one specific example of ceding my rights because the mission of the church and its reputation in the community around it is more important than anyone's rights!  It is the Lord's church and the mission He gave that body of believers that matter.  Notice what Paul says:  "Why not rather suffer wrong?"  When I demand my rights about anything that hurts the cause of Christ, I have forgotten not only who I serve, but the very definition of being a disciple—following in your Master's footsteps.  What if he had claimed his rights as Creator instead of climbing up on that cross?  Where would we be then?  He suffered wrong, and was defrauded, to save us.
            Paul goes on to say in that passage above, that when I claim my rights regardless of the consequences, I am actually defrauding my brethren because of how I have made them look to the outsiders around us.  I am the one who has wronged them.
            When I do wear a mask, I am being the follower of the Suffering Servant, who, by the way, was called the Lamb of God.  If voluntarily wearing a mask makes me one of His lambs, I am happy to be called a "sheep."
 
A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. (Matt 10:24-25).
 
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.  (1Pet 2:21-24).
 
​To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.  (Luke 6:29).
 
Dene Ward
 

I’ve done it and I bet you have too.  You turn to Acts 2:38 and read, “Repent and be baptized for the remission of sin.”  It’s a simple math equation.  Repent + be baptized = remission of sin.  I’ve shown it to my classmates in high school, to my neighbors, and even to my bosses.  It amazes me that they can say, “I don’t see it that way,” just as it amazes you.  I shake my head and say, “I’m not seeing it any way.  I’m just reading scripture,” and still they ignore it and go on their way.
            Guess what?  We do the same thing.
            Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Jas 1:27
            Here’s the math in that one:  visit the fatherless and widows + keep yourself unstained from the world = pure religion.  Let’s simplify it even more:
            Take care of the needy + live a moral life = pure religion.
            Do you know what we do?  We go to church on Sunday.  If we are especially spiritual, we don’t do the big bad sins—we don’t lie, cheat, steal, or commit adultery.  But when was the last time you just spent an evening visiting, for example, a lonely widow?  Yes, “visit” in that passage stands for more than just dropping by.  It means seeing to their needs too, but let me tell you something.  They need a visit a whole lot more than we seem to think they do.  Not a call, not a card—a visit.  They need companionship, something you take for granted and even try to get away from occasionally. 
            Older people love to have someone to talk with.  They love to have someone actually sit and listen to them as if they were more than something taking up space.  They love for young people to ask them questions, to ask for advice, to ask about the “olden days.”  Young people make them feel young again too.  They will talk about that visit for weeks, that’s how much it means to them.
            They used to be young.  They lived every bit as exciting and busy a life as you do.  They’ve been through things you never experienced and have come through with their souls and sense intact.  You would do well to take what they say with more than a grain of salt, and use it.
            So remember your math.  No matter how many sins you successfully overcome, no matter how “unstained” you are, if that’s all you have, you still do not have pure religion.  No more than your unbaptized friends and neighbors have remissions of sins!
 
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1John 3:17-18
 
Dene Ward

God has tried again and again to give us the perfect place.
            It started with Eden.  All of our physical needs were met in a place of perfection.  And the God who loved us came to walk with us every night "in the cool of the day."  But what happened?  We messed it up.  We listened to the one who did not love us and believed his lie.
            Then God took us to a land flowing with milk and honey, the place he had promised Abraham 400 years before.  And what happened?  We messed it up.  Even though God had shown us His power again and again—the plagues, the Passover, the Red Sea—we failed to trust that He would help us win the land.
            So forty years later, God tried again.  The Jordan parted.  The walls of Jericho fell.  And what happened?  We messed it up.  We failed to drive out the sin and the sinners, but took it all into our bosoms and nurtured it.  Once again we discarded His perfect Plan A and drove God to Plan B, judges to deliver us when the oppression got so bad that we actually repented.
            And you are saying, "What?  That was them, not us."  Really?
            One more time God has given us the perfect place.  A kingdom that cannot be shaken.  A King who is King of kings, who sacrificed himself for us, and ever lives to make intercession.   A place of righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit.  And what happens?  We mess it up.  We fail to "be of the same mind," to do "nothing of faction or pride," to "each count the other as better than self" (Phil 2:2,3).  We forget to "be kind, tender-hearted, and to forgive" (Eph 4:32).  We certainly never "take wrong" for the good of the kingdom and its mission in this world (1 Cor 6:7).  We ignore God's authority because, "God wouldn't mind if…" and "God wants us to be happy! (Col 3:17)"
            Every time we misbehave in this ideal kingdom God has blessed us with, we are Eve taking a bite of the forbidden fruit, we are the 10 craven spies shaking in our boots, we are the unspiritual men who failed to drive out the pagans and their worship from the Promised Land.
            But this time, we can still be part of that perfect kingdom.  God is gracious and forgiving.  His lovingkindness endures forever.  And even in Sardis, there were …a few names…that did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy (Rev 3:4).  I can be one of those few, even amid a crowd of the others, and so can you.
            God is giving us one more chance with his perfect kingdom, the one his Son died for and now rules over.  Don't mess up again.
 
​The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. ​You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you (Isa 62:2-5).
 
Dene Ward

I hear an awful lot these days about people being “stuck in a rut,” especially when it comes to their religious practices.  For some reason that is supposed to excuse every departure from the scriptures.  Some groups, for instance, have decided that the first century practice of taking the Lord’s Supper every Sunday must be changed to monthly, quarterly, or only on certain holidays.  When one does it too often, they say, it becomes merely habit and loses its meaning.
            Others, who claim to understand the importance of following the pattern God set for group worship, still want to change things around on a regular schedule, the incidental things that scripture does not regulate.  That’s fine.  I am the last person to bind where God has not bound, but consider a few things with me.
            The way we are doing things now in my church family, while still scriptural, is not the way we did them when I was a child.  It is not the way my grandparents did them.  It is not even the way we did them fifteen years ago.  Society and culture have changed and so have the various expedients we use to fulfill God’s requirements.  So what is this about ruts?
            When Jesus appeared on the scene in the first century, the Jews had been practicing the same law, including a Sabbath every Saturday, for 1500 years by a much more exacting standard than we have under the new covenant.  “Aha!” some will say, “and look what happened.  Along came the Pharisees to whom the Law was nothing but a set of rules to keep.  It had totally lost its meaning to them as a religion of the heart.”
            Had it?  What about Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea?  What about Saul of Tarsus who “lived before God in all good conscience,” Acts 23:1?  Surely they were not the only Pharisees to whom the Law still meant something.  And what about the rest of the people?  Did Anna, Simeon, Zacharias and Elisabeth, Mary and Joseph, Salome and Zebedee, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus practice a religion out of habit that had totally lost meaning to them because they had been stuck in a rut for a millennium and a half?  How in the world did Jesus manage to find 12 apostles if everyone practicing Judaism was “stuck in a rut?”
            It seems to me that when someone complains that his religion no longer has meaning for him because he is “stuck in a rut,” it says more about him than it does about the religion he practices—or doesn’t practice.  While babes in Christ may need special care, mature Christians should be past the need for coddling.  It is my responsibility to keep my heart and my attitude right in my service to God and to keep myself out of the rut of rote ritual, even if God tells me to do exactly the same thing in exactly the same way for ten thousand years.  Exactly who is it that is being worshipped anyway?  It certainly isn’t me and my likes and dislikes—at least it shouldn’t be.
            If we need to change the things we can change, by all means, let’s change them.  But when the reason becomes “how I feel” instead of what is best for the body of Christ and the mission God gave us and always--always—according to God’s Word, we need to stop and take a better look at ourselves.
            Today I will strive to put my heart into my service to others and to God, even if that service is the same as yesterday’s, or last week’s, or last year’s.  That is, and will always be, my responsibility and no one else’s.
 
And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you this day for your good, Deut 10:12,13.
 
Dene Ward       

When my boys were still at home, family meal time was important.  We all made an effort to be together as many nights a week as possible, even as their schedules became busier in the high school years.  The majority of the time, we managed to do so. 
            I recently read a couple of articles discussing the importance of families eating together.  A family that eats together has better nutrition and the girls have fewer eating disorders.  The children do better at school.  They develop better language skills. They are less likely to take drugs, smoke, or drink.  Eating together, especially the evening meal, helps maintain accountability.  It is a “check-in time” which fosters a sense of togetherness.  (www.sixwise.com)
            “Dinnertime should be treated like a reunion, a respite from the outside world, a moment of strengthening relationships, and a pleasant experience that should always be cherished,” Ron Afable, “Eating Together as a Family," www.adam.org.
            When I read that last quote I was stunned.  Was he talking about family dinnertime or the Lord’s Supper?  God tells us we are to have this meal when we are “gathered together,” not each in his own home.  The reasons are precisely those reasons.  When I walk into the church’s gathering place I should have a feeling of relief, a “Whew! I made it!” moment.  This is my haven; these people are my support group; this is where I gather the strength to face another week of trials and temptations.  Is it any wonder God chose something that was part of a family meal to celebrate our one-ness with Him, with our Savior, and with each other? 
            The denominational world says that having this meal as often as the first Christians did—every Sunday—makes it less special, yet what does the world say about families having meals together on a regular basis?  Surely that applies here as well.  We are better nourished spiritually, we grow in the knowledge of the Word, we sin less because of the accountability regular meetings require, and we develop stronger relationships with one another.  Funny how God knew what He was doing, isn’t it?
            We often say that we should forget the outside world during this special time, but more than that, we should remember our “inside world”--our bond with one another.  Disagreements should melt away.  Aggravations with others should be covered by our love.  Personality problems should take the place they deserve—the bottom of the barrel.  To do otherwise is to make a mockery of the feast, and “drink damnation to ourselves.” 
            Our Father calls us to this special suppertime to reunite, to rest and recover, and to remember who we are and how we got here. This special dinnertime should always be cherished.  Don’t make a habit of missing it.
 
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ; the bread which we break, is it not a communion with the blood of Christ?  Seeing that we who are many are one bread, one body, for we all partake of the one bread, 1 Cor 10:16,17.
 
Dene Ward

On our last camping trip to Blackwater River State Park we had reserved an especially good site, along with its neighbor for Lucas, three months in advance.  We arrived and after three hours were nearly set up when the ranger arrived to tell us that the next day a controlled burn was scheduled right on our edge of the campground and we would have to move.  It was not a happy event.  Not only would we have to tear down and start again less than an hour before sunset, but none of the other sites were as private. 
            Privacy is not that important when you sleep in a trailer or RV, but in tents with paper-thin walls it makes a difference.  Our new sites were smack dab in the middle of the campground and so small and close together that I could hear Lucas snoring in his tent next site over.  In fact one night, he and Keith were snoring in rhythm, and the night after Lucas started a snore on the inhale and Keith finished it on the exhale, perfectly synchronized.  Yet when the controlled burn passed the campground we were glad we had moved.  Even with the wind blowing in the opposite direction, the ash would have fallen on our equipment and melted holes in it.
            This is one of the things you must be ready to deal with in a State Park.  The point of a state park is conservation.  There will be more rules than a commercial campground, rules that when broken actually make you a lawbreaker.  But state parks have the nicest facilities for the money that you will find, along with well-maintained hiking trails, nature walks, and all sorts of other free amenities.  We do our best to follow those rules because those parks are part of God's Creation, and we want them to last. 
            Florida has one of the best, and most awarded, state park systems in the country.  The idea was proposed during the Twenty-Sixth Regular Session of the State of Florida House of Representatives on May 2, 1935, and we are thrilled that it was later passed.  In our thirty years of camping, we have certainly made good use of the resulting parks.
            And on that particular trip we learned a lot about controlled burns.  There are two reasons for controlled burns.  When the underbrush is allowed to spread unchecked, all that extra fuel makes wildfires more destructive.  Also, in a pine forest, the controlled burns keep the hardwoods from taking over.  The day after the burn every small hardwood was smoking and burned to a crisp while the pines stood tall and strong, if a little charred on the bottom.
            As Christians we must experience times exactly like these controlled burns.  Perhaps the most difficult “burns” to understand are the problems among God’s people.  If the church is the body of Christ, why do people behave badly?  Why do divisions happen and heresies lead people astray?  The Proverb writer tells us that God will use the wicked, whether they want to be used or not, Prov 16:4.  Paul says in 1 Cor 11:19, For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 
            The question is not will there be problems in the church?  The question is, when there are problems will we be able to “recognize” those who are not genuine believers?  I fear that too many of us look to the wrong things. 
            Do I believe one side because they are my friends, never even questioning their words, while automatically dismissing the other if among them is a brother I don’t like too much?  Does “family” make the decision for me?  Am I relying on how I “feel” about it, instead of what the Word actually says?  Does it matter more to me who can quote the Big-Name Preachers instead of the scriptures?  Is one side more popular than the other?  Will it give me more power if that side wins the fight?  When I rely on those types of things, I am the one who is showing myself to be a less than genuine believer.
            While these things are necessary, it doesn’t mean God likes them, any more than he liked the Assyrians who fulfilled their purpose in punishing his wayward people. 
            Ho Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he means not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few... Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the Lord has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks, Isa 10:5-6,12. 
            Jesus presents a similar viewpoint when he says in Matt 18:7, Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion comes!  These things have their place and their purpose, but God will punish the ones responsible. 
            Now the hard part:  The apostles did not tell the early church that it was understandable to become discouraged and leave because their idea of the blissful, perfect institution was often marred by sin.  They said to use that experience to double check where we stand, to make sure we are among the true believers, the tall pines that withstand the blaze instead of the scrub brush and interloping hardwoods who try to destroy Christ’s body.
            Those controlled burns in the pine forests happen every three years.  Who knows how often the church needs cleansing but God himself? For me to give up on the Lord and his body because someone causes trouble, because peace among God’s people sometimes seems hard to come by, means I am giving up on God, failing to trust that he knows best. You may get a little singed, but it is a cleansing burn, far better than the eternal burn that awaits the factious.
 
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit…Therefore by their fruits you shall know them, Matt 7:15-17, 20.
 
Dene Ward
           
 

A national day for zucchini bread?  You bet, but first a little history.
            Zucchini is not a European native, at least it wasn't at first.  It is a Western Hemisphere plant the seeds of which have been found in Mexican archaeological digs dating back as far as 9000 BC.  All of those Italian and Spanish explorers who sailed around and hiked all over the New World took back the first ones when they went home, Columbus among them.  Even then they thought it was a melon!  The Native Americans used a word for it that meant "to be eaten raw," which may be the worst way to eat a zucchini.  Maybe that is why it was some time in the 1800s before zucchini became a popular vegetable in Italy where it was called zucca, which means "squash."  "Zucchini," is the diminutive form and is plural because an Italian word ending in "i" usually is.  (You ate one panino at lunch, not one panini, no matter what the menu says.)  On what date did all this happen?  I have no idea, and neither did anyone I consulted.  April 25 seems an odd day to choose, since they aren't producing yet, not even here in North Florida gardens, but so be it. 
            Zucchini's popularity can be explained primarily by both its ease in growing and its bountifulness.  It may not be that one zucchini plant will yield 100 of the things, but it sure seems that way, and that is how the recipe for zucchini bread was born—a gardener going out day after day hoping for something else but finding nothing but zucchini, and you have to do something with them!  Your neighbors learn to run when they see you coming with a sackful, or they cower inside pretending not to be at home when you knock.
If you are a gardener (or know one), you have probably made your fair share of zucchini bread.  We quit growing zucchini a long time ago.  We prefer yellow summer squash instead.  At least it has a little flavor.  But it also works for zucchini bread, and I have found a way to make that little loaf that is actually worth baking, no matter which you use.
            Most zucchini (or squash) bread is compact and dense, and just about flavorless.  Try this instead.  Take your usual recipe.  Cut the amount of oil almost in half.  Use brown sugar instead of white granulated, and at least double the cinnamon.  If you use nuts, toast them first.  Then here is the big trick—put all that grated zucchini in a dish towel and squeeze as hard as you can over a sink.  You will get anywhere from ½ to 1 cup of water out of that squash.  No wonder the loaf was flavorless. It was literally washed out.
            Now you will have a lighter loaf that is still plenty moist and actually has some flavor instead of that compact brick that hardly rises above the top of the pan.  In fact, you won’t mind serving this one to guests, and they won’t run away and hide when you mention it either.
            Modern organized religion has suffered the same fate as that old zucchini bread recipe.  It is literally washed out from all the additions men have made.  Just as schools are now expected to teach the things that parents should teach at home, churches are expected to right the social injustices in this world and support every worthy cause in manpower and money.  You can read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation and never find half the things found in a modern denomination.  But then these are the same people who, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, expect a physical kingdom on this earth.  They’ve stopped hoping for Heaven and settled for a poor imitation on this earth.
            My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus said, John 18:36.  Jeremiah prophesied that no one from the lineage of Jeconiah (the kingly line of Judah through David) would ever sit on the throne reigning in Jerusalem, despite the beliefs of thousands of dispensationalists, Jer 22:31.  The work of the church is not about feeding the hungry—it’s about feeding the soul.  It’s not about making sure everyone has a fair shake in this life—it’s about enduring that injustice and preparing ourselves to be fit for the next life.  Check this out yourself:  churches that are sold on the social gospel no longer preach much about heaven.  To them this life is what matters and that’s why they are so hung up on it.  That’s why their religion is so waterlogged with extraneous rituals and activities.  That’s why so many of the “un-churched” are turned off by the dense brick of bread they are handed instead of the bread of life.
            Get out your Bibles and examine your church against the one in the New Testament.  Look through Acts and see how they converted sinners.  Here’s a hint:  it wasn’t with soup kitchens and Wednesday night potlucks.  Now look through the epistles and see the work they did.  It had nothing to do with gymnasiums and playgrounds.  See what they did when they met together for a formal group worship.  It wasn’t about entertainment.  Now maybe you can see the difference between an oily sodden brick of bread and a light flavorful loaf that actually appeals to the appetite.
            But then maybe it’s your appetite that is the problem in the first place. 
 
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.  Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed, John 6:26-27.
 
Dene Ward