Have you noticed that no one can speak two sentences without taking the name of the Lord in vain?  Even children are uttering a phrase that once was never spoken in polite company, that men begged a lady’s pardon for saying, that television censors bleeped.  When you have an abbreviation for it, it has become entirely too common.  I have a friend who wants to make tee shirts with “omg” under the universal “not allowed” sign of a circle with a slash.  But that three word monstrosity is just the first, and most obvious way to take God’s name in vain.

              Recently, while I was doing some research, I came across a website called Judaism 101.  At the top, the following phrase caught my eye:  Please note that this page contains the name of God.  If you print it out, please treat it with appropriate respect.

              Oh, how we need this lesson today, and I don’t just mean the heathen out there in the world.

              The name of God stands for far more than just what to call Him.  It stands for His essence and nature.  It represents His history and reputation.  And I will sanctify my great Name which has been profaned among the nations, Ezek 36:23.  How would you feel if your “good name,” as we speak of this concept, were thrown around carelessly, used in sarcastic movie or book titles, or joked about?  Yet it goes much farther than that.

              In Judaism, any act that causes God to come into disrespect or a commandment to be broken is often referred to as profaning the name of God.  This makes sense when you realize that any good deed we do is spoken of as “sanctifying” or “glorifying” his name.  Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven, Matt 5:16.  One is just the opposite of the other, and there you have the second way to profane the Name of God—disobey or cause someone else to disobey Him.

              Number three hits a little closer to home.  The Name of God stands for His Authority.  Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord, Col 3:17.  If a policeman yells out, “Stop in the name of the law,” he is telling you that the law of the land gives him the authority to stop you, and you had better do it or pay the consequences.  Too many of my brethren are out there pooh-poohing God’s Authority these days, as if “authority” were a bad word.  When you act without God’s authority, you are profaning His Name as surely as if you spoke it in vain.  You have no respect for that Authority, nor, thus, for His Name.

              The website I mentioned listed several things that orthodox Jews will and will not do in reference to the Name of God.  Some of them seem awfully, well, "Pharisaic" comes to mind.  But at least they have the right idea, while we bandy about The Name of God as if it were just any other word, then profane it with careless, or even scornful attitudes, disobey His commands because they don’t suit us, and rationalize our way out of a life of sacrificial service because it’s “too hard” and “makes me feel like a failure.”  Disrespecting the authority of God is one and the same as profaning His Name, and conservative fundamentalists take part in it every day.  Number three is the scary one because it is so easy to fall into and still think you are just fine because you are so prone to shout Amen and Hallelujah.

              God is Holy.  His Name is Holy.  His essence is Holiness.  Anything I say or do that detracts from that Holiness profanes His Name.  It can be a careless phrase.  It can be downright disobedience.  It can be deciding for God what He will and won’t mind.  Meditate on that awhile.  Stand in awe of a God whose Name is so powerful it created the worlds, and be just a little scared of how you treat it.
 
There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. Psalms 86:8-12
 
Dene Ward      

Stomach trouble seems to run in our family.  I remember my Daddy eating Di-gel tablets like they were candy.  Then I inherited his problem and had my first ulcer at 23.  Way too much acid that was aided and abetted by carrying a 9 ¼ lb, 22 inch baby so high I looked like a walking beach ball.  My younger son picked up the acid problem with an acid level even higher than mine.  On my mother's side everyone had gall stones, so I followed suit as did my older son.
 
             No matter how healthy you are, stomach trouble can debilitate you, in sometimes embarrassing ways, and it is almost always affected by what we eat.  I remember introducing my first baby to sweet potatoes.  His little tummy rumbled and grumbled in such an alarming way that I was sure any second that child would launch out of the infant seat and orbit the kitchen.  He certainly had enough propulsion to do so.  At least that experience benefited his little brother.  I mixed his sweet potatoes with other mashed veggies the first time, like carrots or peas, though I would never recommend the color that peas and sweet potatoes make when mixed together for any painting project.

              As many times as the metaphor of eating is applied to the Word of God, those memories made me sit back and think a bit.

              God once told Ezekiel, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. "So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. Ezek 3:1-3

              John had a similar experience.  So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey." And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. Rev 10:9-10

              Both of those prophets had a great respect and love for the Word of God.  That's where the "sweet as honey" comes in.  But neither one of them loved the message they had to deliver; John, one of an upcoming persecution greater than God's people had ever experienced, and Ezekiel, trying to convince a hardheaded people that Jerusalem would indeed be destroyed in a most horrible way and that they were the true remnant, the only hope for God's people and the World.  Yet both of those men, because of their devotion to God, fulfilled their missions.  Their abiding love for God made their prophecies palatable.

              I have heard both preachers and elders, lately, beg a congregation full of God's people to "get into the Word."  When we have to beg, when we have to bargain like a parent with a toddler—"Eat just one bite and you can have some dessert"—how much love for the Word are we exhibiting?  How much commitment to our Savior do we really have?

              If we are what we claim, we should long to fill ourselves with those words.  We should clamor for more.  If nothing else, like an adult we should understand that eating our vegetables is better for us than eating French fries, desserts, or candy, and do it without needing a bribe.  At least one has a hope of developing a taste for the profound, the spiritual, the Truth if he tries it once in a while. 

              My mother used to mash the carrots and potatoes from the pot roast and mix them together so I would eat the carrots.  Now I have matured and do just fine, thank you.  What won't you eat, even for the sake of saving your soul?
 
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Ps 119:103
 
Dene Ward
 

If you missed yesterday's post, stop here and read it now, or this one may not make much sense to you.  We have been discussing spiritual maturity, but you need to see the background work we did in order to really understand.

              The passages I have for you today all touch on a similar topic.  Let's get them all before us.  Be sure to read carefully so you can find the word that means "mature."

              …until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (Eph 4:13-15).

              Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. (Col 4:12).

              By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. (1John 4:17).

              All of these passages speak to a mature mindset in a child of God.  If we are not mature, we will be easily deceived, believing one thing one day and another the next, always in danger of losing our souls to the next conman who comes along.  We must teach our children not to help the stranger find his puppy.  We adults see right through the trick.  We must do that spiritually, too, becoming so familiar with God's Word that it becomes practically impossible to deceive us. 

              In the second passage, the issue is standing firm, fully assured.  Having doubts along the way may be perfectly normal at the beginning.  But as you mature in Christ, studying and learning and growing, those doubts should melt like Frosty on a warm morning.  If, after many years, those doubts still pester me, I did not grow up in Christ, I stagnated on the pew.  It's time to get to work.  Maybe I need to work on the things we talked about yesterday.  Maybe I need more training "to discern good and evil" (Heb 5:14).  Whatever it is, I need to attack those doubts before Satan uses them to attack my faith.

              The third passage then follows logically.  When I have grown to a full assurance, I will be able to stand before God on the Day of Judgment without fear.  Just as I grew out of my doubts about Him, I will have grown out of my doubts about myself.  I will understand grace and love like the babe I used to be could not.  Finally, I will stand next to my Big Brother and be able to measure myself against his maturity and though I may still be an inch or two short, at least I will have narrowed the gap.

              And there you have it in two relatively short posts—how to measure your spiritual growth.  I hope you toes aren't too sore to stand up and measure yourself every day and see how far you have come.
 
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:2)
 
Dene Ward
 

Do you remember all those great events in your life, the ones that changed your status one way or the other?  The day you were baptized into Christ?  The day you got married?  The day you turned, legally, into an adult?  The day you had your first child?

Do you remember the sudden change?  Do you remember thinking, "Wow! So this is what it feels like to be an adult," or a wife, or a mother, or a Christian?  Do you remember how different the world looked, and how different you felt inside? 

No, I don't either.  What I remember feeling was a little disappointed.  I saw the same world with the same eyes, had the same feelings, and thought the same thoughts.  But my status had changed.  Finally, I realized it was up to me to change with it.  It was my job to be that Christian, that wife, that mother, that adult, and somehow along the way I figured out how.  Well, let me help you with at least one of those things this morning.

…till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: Eph 4:13.

Do you see that word "fullgrown" in the verse above?  The ESV translates it "mature manhood," in other words, an adult.  I looked up the word and was in for a shock.  You know all those times the Bible talks about being "perfect?"  (At least many of those times.)  It's the same word.  You could easily substitute "mature" for "perfect."  Sometimes it is translated "complete," and we often hang our hats on that peg in order to avoid the cop-out, "I can't be perfect," which we think excuses us from even trying.  But try substituting "mature" instead.  While every one of us will deny we are "perfect," if we have been Christians for any length of time, we all want to think we are mature instead of the oft maligned, "babes in Christ."

So I looked up passages that use that word and did my little substitution trick and suddenly I had a list by which to gauge my spiritual growth.  That list also did more than step on my toes; it veritably stomped them to mush.  Come limp along with me this morning.

​“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 5:43-48)

Look at the end of that passage.  "Be perfect."  There is the word, the one that is translated fullgrown or mature in Ephesians 4.  One way to see if you have matured in Christ is how you treat your enemies.  And may I suggest that it also applies to how you treat a brother you may have a problem with.  The things I see on Facebook in the political season tell me that some still have a lot of growing up to do. 

Here is another:  Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Matt 19:21).

There it is again, "if you would be perfect."  Substitute mature and you have it.  Obviously Jesus does not teach that it is wrong to be rich.  Many wealthy people helped him survive during his ministry.  Paul talks about how the rich brethren should live in 1 Tim 6.  But this young man, the one we commonly call the rich, young ruler, had an obvious attachment to his wealth and property.  What Jesus is teaching us here is that our earthly attachments can tell tales about our lack of spiritual maturity.  It might not be wealth.  It might be a career.  It might be a person.  It might be status and power.  Paul counted these things "as loss" when he became a Christian, and he had far more to lose than many of us.  If you would draw a line anywhere in your service to God, he will sooner or later bring you to that line and demand that you cross it.  That is your test of spiritual maturity.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (Jas 1:2-4)

Do you want to show your maturity in Christ?  Then you must endure trials and come through them with your faith intact.  You may ask why, you may complain—Job did that--but his faith and trust in God never wavered, not even when the one who was supposed to be his helper encouraged him to "curse God and die."  And you will be tested.  When God said we would have thorns, thistles, toil, labor, sweat, and pain, he was not talking about planting a garden—he was talking about life!  To expect anything else is also a sign of immaturity.  Only children expect fairy tales.

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. (Jas 3:2).

And yet another way we can measure our spiritual growth is by whether or not we control our tongues.  Yes, that word "perfect" is the one we have been discussing.  If you are able to control your tongue, you are mature.  Children will react, but a mature adult will think before he speaks.

And this is only part of the list I found.  Check with me tomorrow morning and see the rest.
 
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Col 1:28)
Dene Ward

Taking “in an unworthy manner” has nothing to do with how hard we think about Jesus on the cross for a few moments before and after we feast, and everything to do with how we live the week before and after.

Keith Ward

 For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, let us keep the feast [week of unleavened bread that followed the Passover] …with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor 5:7-8).

Vengeance is ultimately self-destructive.  You cannot exact vengeance in kind, whether in traffic, in business, or in life, without becoming what you hate.

Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.” Prov 24:28-29

Dene Ward

When you have a blog, a lot of strangers find you.  I am constantly surprised by some of the emails I receive from people who want to use this forum for their own purposes.  I have always felt an obligation to my readers to be careful what I post, and most of the time I turn those requests down.  Few of them are even spiritual in nature anyway, and that is what we are all about here.  Practical, yes, but above all, spiritual.

             However, I recently received a request that made me sit back and think.  And think some more.  While I still did not allow that person to post on my blog, I did see that his own website might be of some use to some of you who are dealing with issues so few of us really know how to help you with.  I have been trying to figure out an easy way to post a recommendation ever since, one that will keep the recommendation before you every time you visit the blog.

              And that made me think, "What else can I recommend that might be of use to the people who read this blog?" 

              A lot of social media is pointless, useless, negative, even divisive.  I have yet to see an argument won regardless the evidence given.  So why not, instead of being just another negative post, offer something helpful?  That is what I will try to do.

              On the left sidebar, look for the new page "Recommended Sites."  You will find a list, with thumbnail sketches and links, of sites you might find helpful in your life or the life of someone you know and love.  Please feel free to use them, and I would appreciate any feedback as well.  If you know other sites I should consider for that page, please click on "Contact Dene" and send them on.

              Please take a minute now to check them out.
 
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1Thess 5:11
 
Dene Ward
 

Most families have just returned from a road trip of some variety this past summer.  You may not realize it, but this is a fairly recent development.  We seem to think that the Declaration of Independence lists our inalienable rights as “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and a thousand dollar (or more) family vacation every year.”  When I was growing up we might have gone on two or three “vacations.”  The rest of the time we visited family, and that involved nothing but visiting—the adults talking and the children playing together.  Anywhere we might have gone while there was a free day trip—no admission fees—and lunch was usually a picnic we packed ourselves. 

              If it hadn’t been for discovering tent camping, my boys would not have had vacations either.  In those days you could pitch a tent in a state park for $7.00 a night, and cook your own meals over the campfire instead of eating out.  We also did our share of family visiting.  Although you hate to view your family as a “free motel,” it was the only way we could see them at least once a year.

              I like to think of this life as a road trip.  Too many people consider it the destination and that will skew your perspective in a bad way.  If you think this life is supposed to be the good part, you will sooner or later be severely disappointed.

              As we go along the road a lot of things happen.  We will be faced with decisions that are not easy to make, and which may turn out badly.  Sometimes we are too easy on ourselves, making excuses and rationalizing.  But other times we are entirely too hard on ourselves.  If you look back on a decision you made years ago, and find yourself wishing you had done things differently, that doesn’t necessarily mean you were wrong then.  Sometimes it simply means you were without experience, a little naïve, a lot ignorant.

              Let’s put it this way.  I live almost an hour north of Gainesville, Florida.  If I leave for Atlanta at 8 AM, it’s no shame if I am not even to Macon by 10 AM.  On the other hand, if I leave at 5 AM and haven’t even made Macon yet, something is wrong.  I’ve been dawdling over gas pumps, stopping for snacks too many times, or wandering through tourist traps that have nothing to do with the trip itself.  The question, then, is not where you are on the road, but when you left in the first place.  You can’t expect yourself to know what to do in every situation of life when you haven’t even experienced much life.  The decision you make today may be completely different than the one you made in the same situation twenty years ago, but twenty years ago if you did the best you could do with what you knew, you did well.

              And what are we doing on our road trip?  Are we wasting too much time at tourist traps?  Life is full of distractions, things not necessarily wrong, but which may not help us on the trip at all, or may even do harm by skewing our perspective.  It really isn’t important where you live and what kind of car you drive in this life.  If you think it is, you’ve forgotten where you’re headed—the here and now has become your goal instead. 

              If you want to keep your mind on the goal, ignore the billboards life puts out for you and spend time with your atlas.  Nothing helps me get through a long trip more than watching the towns go by and following them with my finger on the map.  Every time I check the mileage we are a little further on, and soon, sooner than you might think, the destination is in sight.  That’s why you started this trip in the first place—not for the World’s Largest Flea Market, or the Gigantic Book Sale, or even the Only Locally Owned Canning Facility and Orchard (with free samples). 

              Watch the road, use the map, avoid the tourist traps.  Make the best decisions you can at every intersection.  This is the only road trip you get.  Don’t mess it up.
 
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. Proverbs 4:25-27
 
Dene Ward
 

Self-control—a virtue our society no longer practices or teaches.  Instead, we reward jerks and boors, and idolize intemperance.  Prodigality and lavish lifestyles are our measure of success; striking back is our measure of character; throwing tantrums is our measure of strength.  Mature behavior is seldom praised and never popular.  (from Growing Toward Spiritual Maturity by Dene Ward) 

God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2Tim 1:7

The past few years big black gnats have reached almost plague proportions.  Generally they begin about May and before we know it we are swatting in the kitchen, under the lamps, and especially at the table.  You look down and if you aren't quick enough, the one that lands in your soup drowns in it.  If you talk too much, you swallow one, and you never, ever leave a piece of pie sitting out for longer than five seconds without covering it up.  They breed in the garbage can, in the bathroom drains, and in the burn box.  Every fruit fly trap holds forty bodies in one day's time, and still you swat.

              So we replaced our defunct atomizer, the one that puffs out a spray of insecticide every 15 minutes from its place high on the book case—and noticed no difference whatsoever.  Until we went south to babysit for three days.  When we arrived back home, we trudged in, bodies weary from child love and heavy traffic, and came to a complete halt.  The floor was covered in dead gnats.  You couldn't walk through them without smashing them and tracking them everywhere.  A broom and a dustpan garnered us a half cup of dead gnats.  Now that is a load of bugs!

              You can think you don't make a difference in this world.  Your kind deeds to your neighbors, your level of patience in restaurants and doctors' offices and on the road, your invitations to worship or Bible study, your words of encouragement to a brother or sister in distress seem small and insignificant.  But they are not.  They add up and they will have an effect. 

              You may never know about it.  I meet people all the time who, when discovering who my parents are, suddenly pour out their appreciation for things that I never knew about.  I hear about their love, their generosity, their encouragement, their examples.  I hear praise and gratitude for people I never really thought of as great heroes of faith, and why?  Because I was watching them one puff at a time.  I never saw the floor full of gnats that accrued after a lifetime of righteousness.

              The same thing can be true of you.  You may not be able to teach a Bible class that converts a dozen sinners in a month, much less a day.  You may not have the time and money to give much more than a couple hours a week to serving, and that scattered about among a large bunch of needy folks.  But you can puff out a kind word here and there, a card of encouragement every week or so, a visit or two every week, a meal for a sick family when needed, and a consistent example of faithfulness in your meetings with the assembly and your daily example of life. 

              So a half a cup of dead gnats is not exactly the metaphor you want to be remembered by, but consider this.  Every dead gnat is a defeat for Satan; a bout with selfishness or an impatient lack of consideration or the distraction with the world that you have overcome by your faithfully pursuing righteousness in your life, one word or deed at a time, again and again and again.  Satan tries to tell you that it won't matter, it's all too small to make a difference.  Show him your dustpan and gloat in his face.

              One puff at a time will get you, and maybe a few others with you, to Heaven.
 
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