Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite television cook is Ina Garten of “The Barefoot Contessa.”  I have saved very few recipes from the Food Channel, but of the few I have, the vast majority is hers. 
            One of my favorites is her “Ultimate Ginger Cookie.”  This is just about my favorite cookie ever, which is saying a lot for a cookie that doesn’t have chocolate in it.  It’s a chewy cookie, something else I like, and I have added my own little twist by rolling the balls of dough in sparkling sugar before baking them.  But what makes it “ultimate?”  Not only does it have powdered ginger in it, but also over half a cup of chopped crystallized ginger.  There is no question what kind of cookie this is—it’s a ginger cookie.
            I have several recipes with that word “ultimate” in the title.  My “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie” is good too.  Not only does it have half again more chocolate chips than the usual recipe, but two kinds, bittersweet and milk chocolate.  My “Ultimate Fudge Brownie” is maximum chocolate with minimal flour.  My “Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookie” has no flour at all—just gobs of peanut butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Do you get the picture?  “Ultimate” in a recipe means “a lot,” “more than usual,” and “well above average.”  “Ultimate” means there is no question what kind of cookie this is.
            I started thinking about the word “Christian” in that context.  Technically speaking, the word means “a disciple of Christ.”  That is not the way we use it today.  “Christian” gets tacked on to anything that is even remotely religious.  People can claim to be Christians just because they believe in a few of the Ten Commandments, which in itself is ironic when you understand the relationship of Christ to the Old Law.  In our culture’s vernacular, Christians do not even have to be members of a church.
            To keep that from rubbing off on us, maybe we should start thinking in terms of recipes.  We should be “Ultimate Christians.”  If we are really followers of Christ, we should be different from those who merely claim the name with a few allusions to prayer and God in their vocabulary.
            Real disciples of Christ, by the definition of the word “disciple,” are trying to be as much like their teacher as possible.  They talk like he does and behave like he does.  They know what commitment means—they serve as he did, sacrifice as he did, and fight the Devil like he did every day of his life.  In fact, they are not afraid to acknowledge the devil as a real and dangerous being (like He did), even when others laugh at them for doing so.  They condemn hypocrisy, especially among those who try to claim the same discipleship. They abhor sin, yet seek the vilest sinners in their own environment, knowing they are the ones who need their Master the most.  They have compassion on the ill, the hated, and the lost.  They will yield their lives to their Teacher by yielding their rights to others.  They live by the Word of God, take comfort in the Spirit of God, and glory in their fellowship with them.  In every decision, every event, and every aspect of their lives, they ask themselves how their Lord would have handled it.  They are completely consumed with the spiritual; nothing else matters.
            So, the question today is are we Christians in the modern vernacular, or are we real Christians, “Ultimate Christians?”  Maybe if more of us started showing the world what the word “Christian” really means, we could stop making distinctions. 
 
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked...A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher, 1 John 2:6; Luke 6:40.
 

Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity (Acts 9:36).
            Joppa was the main seaport of ancient Israel, the place from which Jonah fled the Lord when he refused to preach to Nineveh.  It is now called Jaffa.  A disciple named Dorcas lived there.  Notice, she is called a "disciple," not a "woman."  Perhaps Luke is stressing the truth of Gal 3:28: There is now neither Jew nor Greek…slave nor free…male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And to cement the notion, notice later in the text that two men went after Peter when she died.  Two men thought this woman was important enough to try to persuade that great apostle to come to their aid.  I am not sure that would have happened in the Old Testament or anywhere else in the Greek or Roman world.
            We know very little about her.  Some assume she was a widow since no husband is mentioned.  We do know that it is the widows who showed Peter all the clothes Dorcas had made for them.  Since our social lives tend to revolve around those with like circumstances, widows and other singles are often left out of the couples group and must resort to gathering with their own kind, but none of this is definitive.
            The real point is this woman's service to others.  Luke tells us she was "full of good works" making her the epitome of verses like, …women should adorn themselves…with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works, 1 Tim 2:9,10.  Do we really have any doubt at all that she was a godly woman?
            Many might wonder why Peter would bother to raise from the dead someone so ordinary, a disciple to be sure, but one who was not famous, who did not travel around preaching, who did not, it seems, even keep preachers in her home.  After all, Stephen, the deacon and great speaker had been killed not many years before.  Not long after this, James, Jesus' own cousin and one of the Twelve, even one of that special cohort of three who often accompanied the Lord, would be killed.  But who was raised from the dead?  A woman who was "full of good works."  A woman who simply helped the poor.  If you are familiar with the prophets, with God's special concern over the injustice among his people perpetuated by the rich against the poor, this should not be such a surprise.  Maybe we need to go back and read those books again before we dare to make judgments about exactly who is and is not the most important disciple among us.
            God thought the church needed Dorcas, so He sent her back at Peter's call.  Would anyone think the same about me?
 
The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people (Titus 3:8).                                                                           
 
Dene Ward

Keith recently showed me the following quote by John Stott:  "A servant girl who was once asked how she knew she was a converted Christian replied: 'Well you see I used to sweep the dust under the mat, but now I don't.'  It is possible to visit somebody else as if Jesus Christ lived there, to type a letter as if Jesus Christ were going to read it, to serve a customer as if Jesus Christ had come shopping that day, and to nurse a patient as if Jesus Christ were in that hospital bed.  It is possible to cook a meal as if we were Martha in the kitchen and Jesus Christ were going to eat it."  Authentic Christianity
            The thought was so good I wondered if we might expand it this morning. 
            It is possible to drive as if Jesus Christ were in the car in front of us.
            It is possible to call a company we had a beef with as if Jesus Christ were going to answer the phone.
            It is possible to greet the cashier as if he were Jesus Christ, or to stand behind a slow customer in the line as if that customer were him as well.
            It is possible to speak to the waiter in a restaurant as if he were Jesus Christ, even if we need to return an unacceptable dish.
            It is possible to speak to a neighbor whose dog woke us up in the night as if he were Jesus Christ.
            I believe you could add a few yourself from your own experience.  The Lord is at hand, Paul tells us in Phil 4:5, which means he is always within arm's reach any time you have any of those situations listed above happen to you.  And isn't it interesting that the first half of that particular verse is, Let your forbearance be known to all men.  "Forbearance" means reasonableness, moderation, graciousness, gentleness.  And truly isn't that what we want the Lord to see in us in all those situations?  If not, why do we even bother to call ourselves his disciples and wear his name?
 
But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ​Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. ​“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ​so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ​For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ​You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:39-48).
 
Dene Ward

The competition weekends I have often judged were always fun and uplifting.  It is wonderful to hear the future stars of the concert stage make two full days of beautiful music.  Which does not mean it was an easy weekend.  90% of the performances we heard were mechanically and technically perfect.  Memory lapses were rare and finger slips even rarer.  So how do you choose a winner?

Actually, at the end of each session when our panel of three compared notes, we had all picked out the same three or four that distinguished themselves above the others:  pianists who played with feeling; who made the melody sound like someone singing; who understood how to shape phrases, not just separate them; who had the musical ear and technical ability to voice their chords; students who played the non-melody hand so far in the background it was as if it were in another room; who knew the difference between a Mozart forte and a Beethoven forte; who understood that rubato meant a proportionate time-stretching like the lettering on an inflated balloon, not just a rush followed by a drag.  In short, the winners were those who played not only with perfect mechanics, but with artistry as well—they put their hearts into it.

God’s people seem to have had a problem with that for a long time.  The prophets were constantly reminding them that while God expected absolute obedience, form worship was not acceptable.  If perfect mechanics were all that mattered, he could have created a world full of robots to fill the bill.  I hate, I despise your feasts and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies, God told Israel.  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts, Amos 5:21,22.  Why?  Because it was a mechanical following of ritual. All during their “worship” they were saying, When will the new moon be gone that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, dealing falsely with the balances of deceit; that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat, 8:5,6.  Their religion did not affect their hearts and certainly not their everyday lives.

Jesus dealt with their descendants, not only by blood, but in attitude.  Were the Pharisees right to require exact obedience to the Law?  Jesus said they were:  The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.  All things whatsoever they bid you, these things do, Matt 23:2,3.  He even praised what we might consider petty exactitude:  you tithe mint, anise, and cumin…these things you ought to have done…Matt 23:23.  But like their ancestors, their heart was not in it.  Hear Jesus’ whole indictment:  Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint, anise, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith; but these things you ought to have done, and not left the other undone.

Correct mechanics are important.  A lot of folks in the Bible learned that the hard way.  But our hearts are more important, according to Jesus.  It is easier to just go down a list and do what we are told than it is to monitor our hearts and keep them in line—but God has never had much truck with laziness either.  I didn’t give out any prizes for mechanical playing those during those competition weekends.  What makes us think God will give them out for mechanical worship?
 
“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?  Shall I come with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil?  Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:6-8
 
Dene Ward

My class has spent several weeks on some women in the New Testament whose lives barely cover three or four verses.  But the number and depth of the lessons these women have taught us is staggering.
            Can we start with Lydia?  Evidently, Lydia was a believer in God, but a Gentile.  Paul encountered her in Philippi, down by the river where several other women like her met together on the Sabbath.  So what, one may ask.  First this, Lydia was not from Philippi, she was from Thyatira.  For some reason or other she had relocated and set up shop.  That involves a whole lot more than you might think.  According to Everett Ferguson in Backgrounds of Early Christianity, that meant she had to go through the same red tape we would have to today, first joining a guild of dyers and second, applying for permits and probably paying a fee to set up her business in the agora.  And that means she must have been a successful businesswoman if she was able to do all that.
            Yet, she is also a believer in God somehow.  Whether she encountered the teaching in her hometown or in Philippi we don't know.  But we do know that she knew enough to worship on the Sabbath and cared enough to find a community of believers (since there was evidently no synagogue) and meet with them.  The first lesson she teaches us is to always travel with the Lord.  She didn't leave him behind and she never "went on vacation" from Him.  Perhaps those other women were all like her—Gentile believers, another thing we don't know.  But we do know that she accepted the gospel and became part of the fledgling church in that town.  Even Jews learned in the Scriptures had a hard time doing that, and so her open-mindedness is another lesson.
            And here may be her biggest lesson of all.  Immediately after her baptism, she looked at Paul and Silas and said, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us  (Acts 16:15).  When Paul taught her the gospel, he taught her that it was not about what she could get out of it; it was about following a suffering servant by serving others, and she did so, insisting she be allowed to, immediately.  I have actually heard Christians tell elders exactly what they expected from the church now that they were members.  Others may not say it, but certainly act like it.  Lydia knew better.  She was so grateful for her salvation that she couldn't wait to give something back, even knowing it would never actually repay the bill.
            So she took Paul and Silas into her home, and here we see another lesson.  She may have known these two men, but did her neighbors?  More important, did her customer base?  All they knew were two rabble rousing jailbirds, but Lydia had no qualms about taking them in or the effect it might have had on her reputation or business.  This was how she helped spread a gospel that had saved her, and she was ready to sacrifice whatever necessary.
            All those lessons from the three verses that mention her name, Acts 16:14,15,40.  Lydia was truly a remarkable woman, one who deserves far more notice than she is usually given.  If we learn her lessons, we can be too.
 
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).
 
Dene Ward

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”
           
Benjamin Franklin included the above words in Poor Richard's Almanack in 1758, along with the proverb, "A little neglect may breed great mischief."  It hung on the wall of the Anglo-American Supply Headquarters in London to remind people of the importance of what seemed like trivial parts (citadel.edu).  A machine may be made of a literal million parts, including small nuts and bolts, but lose one of them and the machine will no longer operate at full capacity.
            The same is true of people.  In God's kingdom, everyone is important.  Everyone has a function, a role, a purpose in His plan, according to his abilities.  I might think my ability so small that it won't matter if I ignore it, and so just sit back and watch everyone else work.  Jesus said, "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward" (Matt 10:42).  So if I don't do that small insignificant thing, what does that mean about my reward? 
            For the next several weeks, usually Monday or Wednesday, we will have a series I call "Some Really Big Little Lessons."  Each one includes a Bible person we seldom think much about because so little is said about them, but we will discover how important they really were in the things they did and especially the examples they set for us today.  And in the process, I hope we will all learn that judging our abilities and actions is not our job, but God's, and that if we just have the faith to do what little we can, He is powerful enough to use it in a way we could never have imagined.
 
But now finish the task as well, that just as there was eagerness to desire it, so there may also be a completion from what you have. For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have (2Cor 8:11-12).
 
Dene Ward

We love this season.  You never know what will pop up where.
            Several years ago we started planting wildflowers, a patch here one year and a patch there the next, babying them for exactly one summer, then letting them do their own thing.  Every spring we eagerly await the results.  Last year black-eyed Susans sprang up where we had never planted them.  This year rain lilies rose in a larger clump and farther from the original bed than you would have thought possible.  The year before a bright yellow coreopsis suddenly bloomed way out in the field amid nothing but grass.  It’s exciting to see what can happen over the years from just one seed sown in the middle of five acres.
            I have had the same experience lately with my old Bible class literature.  Suddenly I received a drop ship order from one of the Bible book stores to an address nearly 2000 miles distant.  Yet the last name, an uncommon one especially considering the relatively small size of the brotherhood, was familiar.  It was the first name I didn’t know.  Was this the daughter, or maybe the daughter-in-law of a woman I taught thirty years ago?  Imagine that.
            Don’t you think the apostles had the same feelings when, years after they had sown the seed in a rough Gentile town, they had news of another group of disciples, or maybe several groups, in the same vicinity?  The power of God’s word screams out from the growth of the church in the ancient world and the way it changed history itself.
            I have had people who knew my parents in their younger years tell me of the things they did for them, things they still remembered and that obviously meant a lot.  Keith has had people come up to him and say, “I still have that letter you wrote me years ago.  It changed my life.”  And, “I remember that class you taught.  It helped me through a rough time.”
            We have opportunities every day to make a difference in someone’s life.  Too many times we ignore them because we don’t believe anything we say or do will make that much difference.  Let me tell you something.  It isn’t yourself you are demeaning by thinking that way—it’s God’s word and His power through that word.  When you help someone, when you speak a word of encouragement, when you act with kindness in a situation where no one else would have bothered, you are tapping into that power yourself and spreading the grace of God to others.  It may be just the “cup of cold water” Jesus mentions in Matt 10:42, but that cup can change a life. 
            I have lost count of the times people have said to me, “I remember when you…”   You know what?  Most of the time, I don’t remember it, but I thank God for sending some small amount of inspiration for me to say the right thing, even though I was perfectly oblivious at the time.  Truly He helps us in every circumstance.   
            When our lives are over, we should be able to walk out into the field and find little patches of grace that came from some seed we sowed, however inadvertently, years before.  Yellow daisies, white rain lilies, blue bachelors’ buttons, pink phlox, red cypress vines—you never know what you will get when you spread the word with an act of kindness or word of compassion--no matter how small it may seem to you!
            So put on your gardening gloves this morning and start planting.
 
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isa 55:10,11.
 
Dene Ward

If you haven't heard this old spiritual, you need to.  The words say it all, and it ought to be our mantra every day.  Just a few of them as an example:

Lord, I keep so busy servin' my Master
Keep so busy servin' my Master
Keep so busy servin' my Master
Ain't got time.
'Cause when I'm givin' my all, I'm serving my Master,
When I'm givin' my all, Lord I ain't got time to die.

            I am supposed to be so busy fulfilling my purpose for God that I don't have time for carnal things.  John understood perfectly.  When his disciples seemed jealous of the success of Jesus' teaching, he told them, He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).Not long afterward, Herod had him killed, but he had used his entire life fulfilling a purpose for God.  Just because ours doesn't seem as important to us, and usually seems completely unknowable, doesn't mean we don't have one.  ​The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble (Prov 16:4), reminds us that not only do we have a purpose to fulfill, but when we choose not to, God will use us somehow or other anyway. 
            And exactly what is that purpose?  We may never know.  My job is to do what God puts in front of me, knowing that he will never give me an opportunity I am unable to handle, and then let Him make the proper use of it.  But that means I am "so busy working for my Master" that "I ain't got time to die."  I am not serving myself, spending my last hours and dollars trying to give myself one more fling to make myself happy.  Instead, I am spending my last hours working for the Lord until I can no longer do so.
            David made a lot more mistakes than we seem to talk about.  Not only did he fail with Bathsheba and Uriah, he failed when he numbered the people, he failed with Absalom, he failed with Amnon, he failed his daughter Tamar, and he failed with Adonijah.  Sounds like a normal man, just like one of us, doesn't he?  But he served God with all his might until he couldn't serve any more.  For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption (Acts 13:36).
             Contrast that with our culture's "Bucket List"—things you want to do before you "kick the bucket."  Something about that has always bothered me a little.  God made a beautiful world, probably close to 99% of which I will never see—even if I don't go blind.  But what will it matter when we see the glories of Heaven?  How in the world can anything be more glorious than God's dwelling place?  When God decides He is finished with me, then I will be happy to go and see it.  Meanwhile, "I ain't got time to die!"
 
​Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand (Prov 19:21).
 
Dene Ward

Old St Thomas was a town originally settled by members of the Mormon Church.  When a land survey in 1871 shifted the Nevada state line to include the town and it was no longer in either Utah or Arizona, the church members abandoned it rather than pay the back taxes in gold that Nevada was demanding.  Soon others moved in and claimed both the lands and the buildings and the town continued on, booming to a population of 500.  Then the waters of Lake Mead began rising and it became apparent that Old St Thomas would soon be inundated.  Once again people began to leave.  Finally, on June 11, 1938, Hugh Lord, the last remaining resident left as well.  The "doors" to Old St Thomas were shut for good.
            I can't imagine a greater tragedy than the doors to the Lord's church closing.  Over our many years, several of the places we have been all those years ago have done exactly that.  In other places we know about, the membership has been cut in half and is continuing to dwindle.  The ones left are the elderly.  Where will they be in ten more years?  Sadly, they will probably go the way of Old St Thomas, with the doors closing after the last funeral has been held.  So what to do about it?
            The first thing is to realize that it is not the preacher's job alone.  What happened when the Jerusalem church was scattered?  …And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles…They therefore that were scattered abroad, went about preaching the word (Acts 8:1,4).  Those who were scattered—the ordinary members—went everywhere spreading the Word.  The preachers, in this case the apostles, stayed in Jerusalem! 
            It is up to us.  If our coworkers and neighbors don't know we are Christians, why not?  We are to live in such a way that we look different and people ask about it.  If that has not happened to you, perhaps you need to examine your life.  We are to talk about our church family—not complain about them, but tell others how wonderful it is to be a part of a group who loves you and cares about you, who come running when there is a need, and that means we need to learn to be that group if we aren't.  And we should be so steeped in the Word of God that it cannot help but come out of our mouths any time we talk.  How else can we be ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you (1Pet 3:15).
            Many gospel preachers labor valiantly in places where the growth has been slow or nonexistent for years, where the old-timers talk about how it used to be in the old days and blame the recent loss of numbers on anyone but their own lack of effort.  But even if the effort is there, the work may seem pointless.  Be careful about your judging.  Ultimately, we are not responsible for the numbers.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase, 1 Cor 3:6.  Just do your work, making no apologies for it, and trust God to do his part.  In one place Keith worked, he advertised a correspondence course and a young man obeyed the gospel because of it.  Every week after that he sat on a pew and worshipped with the others, but a couple of men in the business meeting wanted to do away with outreach programs like the correspondence course and an article in the local weekly paper.  "It does no good," they said, with that young man sitting there among them.  I wonder how that made him feel?  Even one soul is worth whatever effort it takes to save him. 
            Let's work the work, trust the Lord, and do our best to keep those doors open.  Interestingly, Old St Thomas has begun to reappear as the waters of Lake Mead recede.  It is now considered a historic site run by the National Park Service.  There are too many congregations relegated to history as it is.  Let's not add any more.
 
They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers…And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved (Acts 2:41, 42, 46,47).
 
Dene Ward
 

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Matt 11:11)
 
            Did you ever stop and think about that statement?  This is John, the blood cousin of Jesus, we are talking about.  John, the great preacher who gave up any semblance of a "normal" life--family, a comfortable home, a business, even the standard fare of the day that most of his Jewish friends and family enjoyed—all for the sake of his mission as the Forerunner of the Messiah.  John, the brave martyr who dared speak against an evil and sinful woman and her weak and ignominious husband.  Yet the least in the kingdom is greater than he?
            I am not going to define either "the least" or "the kingdom" in any sort of theological way.  I am sure great scholars could write pages about it, but I am not sure it would do me the same amount of good as simply considering these phrases at face value.  Are you in the kingdom of his Son?  I am, or so I claim.  I certainly do not claim to be the greatest.  I am much closer to the least, but greater than John?  I would never in a million years claim it, yet both Matthew and Luke record Jesus saying it.  It must be true in some way.
            I don't know about you, but that statement does not make me puff out my chest in pride.  Instead, it makes me hang my head in shame.  I have never lived up to John's example and I probably never will.  But when I think of what Jesus says here, it certainly makes me want to try harder.
            How about you?

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1Pet 1:17-19)
 
Dene Ward