Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

As Jesus came down from the mount of transfiguration, he met a man whose son was demon possessed.  The nine apostles had not been able to cast out the demon and Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith.  After he had cast out the demon, the nine disciples asked Jesus why they had not been able to do so.  Jesus replied, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” (Mark 9:29).  [Peter, James, and John were on the mount with Jesus and had not failed, or even tried.]
 
Despite the popularity of this movie genre, demons do not possess people today just as they did not do so in the Old Testament.  Demons operated for a short time to show the power of Jesus to control them.  The only Old Testament  passage to use the expression "unclean spirit" which is found so often in the gospels states that they will end in "the day" a fountain is opened for sin (Zech 13:1-2).  In fact, neither demons or unclean spirits are mentioned in any of the epistles as possessing people as they do in the gospels and Acts.
 
Nevertheless, I believe that we are possessed.  Not by spirit beings but by decades of sinful habits or by years of thinking evil thoughts so that our minds are grooved into following those paths.  Often, when we decide to turn over that new leaf, we find that we cannot cast out these "demons." Just like the nine apostles, we have expected it to be easy.  We sowed the wind and find we have a tornado in our soul that we cannot control (Hos 8:7).  Neither baptism nor genuine intent to change is a quick fix for cleansing our souls of these sins.  This kind comes out only by prayer.
 
But, a quick prayer when we are already halfway into the situation will not suffice.  It did not for the nine and these quick patches on a bleeding wound of the soul will not work for us.  And, somehow, I suspect God becomes weary of prayers for forgiveness when there were few or no prayers for strength before we sinned.
 
Our regret for this habitual sin should bring us to the knees of our heart continually throughout the day begging for strength from the Lord.  This earnest care to be pure will have us making time for studied lengthy prayers about our specific sin.  Our indignation that Satan still seeks to use the same old weakness against us again must motivate us to learn scriptures to enrich and strengthen our prayers.  The fear of God's wrath should have us examining the situations that lead us to fall and praying with zeal to prepare for them.  Our longing to be pure before a holy God will lead us to make the time for these prayers, no excuses, no exceptions.
 
Actual unclean spirit demons may not inhabit humans anymore, but the demons we have created by our careless certainty that God will keep on forgiving can be as hard to cast out.  Unless we do, we will not see God.
 
Set your hope perfectly … as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.  And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.  (1Pet 1:13-17)
 
Keith Ward

We live thirty miles from the meetinghouse, about forty minutes with good traffic flow and no construction.  Otherwise it can be up to an hour. 
 
             To make the before-services meeting of the men who will be serving that day, we usually leave our house about 7:45 every Sunday morning.  One Sunday we passed a hitchhiker at the four-way stop a couple of miles from the house.  He was an older gentleman, decently dressed, holding a sign that said “Gainesville.”  So we stopped and picked him up.  We understood that he was taking a risk too, so as he settled into the backseat we mentioned that we were on the way to church and pointed out our stack of Bibles next to him.  This instantly set him more at ease, and he talked with us some. 

               He was on his way to work at Sears, a good thirty miles from the corner where we had picked him up, and several miles opposite where we were headed.  He didn’t have to be there till noon, but since he did not know how long it would take to get a ride, he had left his house on foot at seven-fifteen and made it to the corner where we found him.  His car had broken down and he was only able to buy a part a week as his paycheck came in, so until he fixed it, he was hitching rides.

              “But just take me as far as you can and I’ll thumb another ride and another until I get to the bus stop in front of Wal-Mart.  If I make it there by eleven I can get the bus I need in time.”  We took him all the way to Wal-Mart.

              Now just imagine this:  you find out your car doesn’t run on Saturday.  You live way out of town where no one else does.  How early would you be willing to get up to hitch a ride to a nine o’clock service?  That isn’t the half of it, people.  What other things do we miss doing for the Lord because we aren’t willing to make a sacrifice like that, because it’s so easy to say, “I can’t?”  This man was nearly 70 years old, yet he spent nearly five hours every morning getting to work, working a whole nine hour shift, and then more hours getting home after work—in the dark.  Have you ever gone to that much trouble for the Lord?

              The next Sunday the man was once again at the four-way stop.  We picked him up and dropped him off at Wal-Mart, after inviting him to sit with us at church till eleven, with an offer to take him straight to Sears afterwards.  He politely declined, and also declined to tell us exactly where he lived when we offered to pick him up and take him to work every day.  But he did tell us that his wife had died several years before and he had lost all his savings paying for her medical care.  “I have to have this job,” he said.  “I am only six payments from paying off my mortgage, but without a paycheck I will lose my home.”

              Ah!  There was the real motivation.  He didn’t want to lose his home, an old double wide on a rural lot.  He got up at 6:30 every day for a job that didn’t start till noon, so he could be sure of getting there.  And he did it so he wouldn’t lose a humble, barely comfortable home.

              We have a home waiting for us too, far better than that man had, a home that is eternal, “that fades not away.”  He didn’t want to lose his home.  Don’t we care whether we lose ours?
 
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God, Heb 11:8-10.                      
 
Dene Ward

I don’t know where that sobriquet came from, but I think of it every time I read Matthew 6.
 
…Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? …Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all, Matt 6:25-32.
 
              Jesus is making a point we often miss in that passage.  “For the Gentiles seek after these things,” He says.  The pagan gods were notoriously capricious, vindictive, and malicious.  The whole idea was to appease them.  The best a Gentile could hope for was that the gods wouldn’t notice him at all.  If he kept his head down, minded his own business, and made the required sacrifices, maybe he could stumble his way through life without too much trouble.  Certainly no one expected those gods to actually care enough about him to provide his needs.
 
             Then Jesus reminds his disciples, “Your heavenly Father knows…”  Did you catch that?  Your God is not a capricious god; your God is your heavenly Father.  If He is your Father, of course He will take care of your needs.  Any time we worry—just like the Gentiles worried—we are insulting God, calling Him no better than those heathen gods who didn’t love their subjects, and certainly never thought of them as beloved children.

              What would your earthly father have thought if, as a child, you came home from school every day and wondered aloud if there would be any supper on the table that night?  How hurt would he have been if you didn’t trust him to love you and provide for you any better than that?  Why do we think God would feel differently?  Why would He not only be insulted, but angry, and wouldn’t it be understandable?

              We may not have everything we want.  Some of us will be more comfortable than others.  But God is your Father, a Father who is able far beyond any pagan god to care for His people, and not only that--He wants to.  Don’t insult Him, treating Him like nothing more than an idol, and a spiteful one at that, by worrying about the necessities of life.
 
 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust, Psalm 103:13,14
 
Dene Ward

Rahab was a harlot, what we would call a prostitute.  I have come across many commentators who have tried their best to turn her into an “innkeeper,” but the word just won’t allow it.

            The Hebrew word in Josh 2:1 is zanah.  It is also translated commit fornication, go awhoring, play the harlot, play the whore, whorish, whore, etc.  It is used in Lev 19:29; Hos 4:13; Ex 34:16; Isa 23:17 and many other places where the meaning is quite clear.  In the New Testament, the word is porne, in James 2:25 for example, and I do not imagine I need to tell you the English word we get from that Greek one.  This same word is translated whore in Rev 17:1,15,16; 19:2.  Rahab was a harlot, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

            So what is the problem with commentators who insist on “innkeeper?”  The same one the Pharisees had.  If Jesus was the Messiah, how could he possibly associate with publicans and sinners?  If Rahab was a harlot, how could she possibly be in the genealogy of Christ?  Yet they talk about the grace and mercy of God like they understand it better than we do.

            And sometimes we are no better.  Whom do we open our arms to when they walk through our doors?  Whom do we actively seek and label “good prospects for the gospel?”  Yet the people we choose to shun are the people who understand grace because they understand their need for it.  We are a bit like the rich, young ruler, who, though he knew something was missing in his life despite all the laws he kept faithfully, still thought his salvation depended upon something he could do.

            Rahab showed her dependence on God with a scarlet line she hung from her window.  Did you know that word is only translated “line” twice in the Old Testament, counting this occurrence in Josh 2:21?  The other translations are expectation (seven times such as Psa 62:5), hope (23 times, such as Jer 17:13; Psa 71:5), and the thing that I long for (once, Job 6:8).  I do believe it was a literal rope of some sort, but it seems more than passing coincident that the word most of the time has those other meanings.  I have often wondered what her neighbors thought of that cord hanging there, but every day Rahab was reminded of the salvation she did not deserve, that she hoped for, longed for, and expected to receive when those people marched into the land. 

            When we get a little too big for our britches, a little too proud of our pedigree in the kingdom, maybe we need to hang a scarlet cord in our windows to remind us what we used to be, and what we have waiting for us in spite of that.
 
But when the kindness of God our Savior, and his love toward man, appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  Titus 3:4-7
 
Dene Ward

Once before I gave you a set of short statements from a class I had taught that I called “Gleanings.”  It was well-received so I thought you might enjoy this latest set from the year and a half we studied faith—65 pages covering every single passage in the Bible that uses that word.  It has been a while since I learned so much, and I believe we all left it with knowledge that has impacted our daily walks—and isn’t that the purpose of studying God’s Word in the first place?

              First you must understand how this class works--we use the Word of God to determine the truth, NOT what Mama said, what the preacher says, what I’ve always heard, or what I’m comfortable with.  We learn—which means sooner or later we all completely change our minds about something, and ultimately the way we live our lives.  Light bulbs pop on regularly.

              So here is the latest list of “gleanings,” capsule statements that summarized whole lessons.  As usual feel free to use what you like.  Everything here came directly from specific scriptures.

              Faith is inextricably bound with hope.

              Both faith and hope involve full assurance, not just wishing.

              Faith can fluctuate but should be growing so that even today’s down times are higher than those in the past, maybe even higher than yesterday’s up times, and the fluctuation should gradually decrease.

              More faith is required to handle difficult times.

              Faith can completely stop, but it can also be revived.

              Faith is active and visible in a person’s life.

              There are such things as “works of faith.”

              True faith is accompanied by positive character traits like courage, morality, love, and forgiveness.

              Faith is a continuing condition in life, NOT a single instance that occurs early on and that’s that.

              Faith obeys.

              Faith protects.

              Faith is an asset in difficult times, not a burden.

              We live by our faith—spiritual survival, not physical.

              Faith progresses, i.e, it grows and matures.

              Faith fights and overcomes.

              Faith doesn’t expect Heaven in this life.

              Faith does not equal righteousness, but leads to it.

              Faith responds in obedience.

              Faith involves commitment, trust, reliance and acceptance of things we don’t like or understand.

              Our faith is in a Who not a what.

              Faith has less to do with great courageous feats than with an everyday recognition of God and His plan and His promises, and allowing those things to direct every decision, every action, and every word.

              Faith in God is not just about believing that He exists.  True faith is about becoming like Him.

              “O ye of little faith” was always spoken to his closest disciples.  God expects the most from those who claim the greatest faith.

              True faith is a product of humility.

              “Sound” faith in the New Testament is only applied to people who live sound lives.  A sound church, then, has more to do with how its members live from Monday through Saturday than with how it conducts itself on Sunday mornings or how it spends its money.

              Abraham became the father of the faithful only after decades of growing in that faith until finally he surrendered his life and his need for logic in two statements on Mt Moriah:  God is able (Heb 11:19) and God will provide (Gen 22:8).  He trusted God to do what He had promised whether he understood how or not.
             
Dene Ward

I learned as a child in the Florida school system that Juan Ponce de Leon was the first Spanish explorer to land here.  No records are available but he was believed to have been born in July, 1474, and traveled with Columbus as a very young man before ultimately setting off on his own.

              He had heard stories about a magical spring that could cure diseases and make you young again, so he began the search, finally sighting land on March 27, 1513.  A few days later he landed; no one is sure the exact date except that it was “late March,” and obviously after the 27th.  The land he set foot on somewhere near St. Augustine was so beautiful he called it Florida.  Spring in Florida is beautiful.  I understand why he was impressed.  If he had landed in July, we would have had a much different name.  (What’s the Spanish word for “sauna?”)

              We do have a lot of natural springs in Florida—probably half a dozen within 30 miles of where I sit—but none with the magical powers he looked for.  I can find a Fountain of Youth quite easily, though.  I have it laid out right next to me as I type.  The eternal life promised to the faithful may be the most obvious application of that concept, but I can think of yet another.

              As I watch my grandsons play I find myself remembering my own childhood, realizing as an adult how unfettered it was by worry, pain, and sorrow.  I never for a moment wondered where my next meal was coming from.  I never worried about storms, not even hurricanes.  I never worried about bad people doing bad things to me.  I had a Daddy I trusted implicitly.  He would take care of me.  That’s what Daddies do.

              Once when I was still in early grade school, I had a bad dream.  My Daddy came in and sat on the bed next to me, asking me about the dream and then carefully undoing every worry it had evoked in me.  When he finished I could go back to sleep because of his reassurances.  That’s what Daddies do.

              One morning in first grade I was upset about something—I don’t even remember what now.  But my Daddy noticed that I had tears in my eyes when I got out of the car at school.  As I stood in front of my classroom, waiting for the bell to ring, I looked up and there he was, striding down the sidewalk.  He had parked the car and come looking for me to make sure I was all right.  That’s what Daddies do.

              Daddies provide.  They protect.  They comfort.  Do you want a Fountain of Youth?  Stop worrying about things you cannot fix.  Stop being afraid of things you cannot handle alone.  Stop wondering how you will manage.  Cast your cares on a Father who loves you.  Once again become a little child who has a Daddy who will always be there, always watching out for your needs and taking care of your problems.  If you don’t have that, it’s only because you insist on ignoring His outstretched hand.  You insist on trying to control everything yourself—as if you were the Daddy. 

              Do you begin your prayers, “Father in Heaven?”  Then act like He is your Father.  Trust Him.  Begin this day with a new exuberance, one born because you have surrendered your cares to Him and finally found the Fountain of Youth.
 
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:14-16.
 
Dene Ward

We sit on the carport most spring mornings with a last cup of coffee, looking for the first sign of spring green in the trees, patting Chloe on the head, and planning our day.  This morning a light breeze ruffled my hair and I shrugged my shoulders against the bit of chill left from the last cold front that had blown through earlier in the week.  A light tinkle made my eyes wander up to the new wind chimes hanging above my head, not your ordinary bong-y wind chimes, but a delicate, more musical note that had gotten my attention the first time I heard them.
 
             I have a friend, a sister in Christ, who crafts these things herself from antique flatware and keys, glass jar lids, beads, and anything else she can find as she wanders through flea markets and small dusty shops.  Mine has all these beauties hanging from an antique silver salt cellar, something I must explain to anyone younger than 60.  All of her creations are beautiful and unique, and mine has that particularly melodious sound that made me choose it from its fellows.

              Outward beauty does not determine the sound that a wind chime produces.  It can only make the sounds that its various elements make.  You won’t get the same sound from iron bars that you will from silver and glass.  Ever do the trick with your glassware, pinging an empty one to see if it’s truly crystal or just ordinary glass?  That’s the way it is with wind chimes, and that’s the way it is with you and me.  A stony heart will not produce the same fruit as a soft one.  An iron heart will not act the same way a heart of gold will.

              You also know this:  the harder the wind blows, the louder the chimes.  When it seems like the storms of life blow us about the most, those are the times that what we are becomes most obvious.  Those are the times that people see what we’re made of.  Even if they don’t really care about the faith you may have tried to share, it becomes so obvious they cannot miss it.  The wind blows where it will, and you hear the voice thereof, but know not from where it comes, or where it goes; so is every one that is born of the Spirit, John 3:8.  People will not see the Spirit within you personally, but they will see its effects on you.  You cannot disguise whether or not you are filled with the Spirit of God.

              If you would like one of these beautiful chimes, just get in touch and I will share my friend’s contact information.  But today think about this far more important thing—you are God’s wind chimes.  People will not be satisfied with your appearance.  The point of the chimes is the sound they make.  What sound does the Wind produce in you?
 
And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you, Rom 8:8-11.
 
Dene Ward

Chloe is afraid of everything and everyone.  The meter reader, the FedEx man, every repairman we have ever had, every visitor, and every family member, except my older son, all scare her to death.  I have often wondered if we actually had cattle, whether this Australian Cattle Dog would be afraid of them, too.

             What did all these people do to Chloe?  Nothing.  They simply exist in her world.  So when the grandchildren come visit, she is extra terrified.  After all, little boys are not still, quiet creatures.  Not only are they in her world, they are in it loudly and rambunctiously.  We will often tell her when our older son is on his way.  She knows his name and when she hears, "Lucas is coming," she runs to the edge of the carport, faces the gate, and waits until he arrives, joyously running up to greet him.  She does not know our grandchildren's names.  She thinks they are little monsters, though they are not at all.  They are actually sweet little guys, but to her "monsters" is the name.

              But there is one thing about this scaredy-dog:  when we tell her they are coming "tomorrow," it doesn't bother her a bit.  She still sits between us at the morning fire, relishing a head pat, a belly rub, and a tossed treat.  The thought of the monsters coming doesn't keep her from enjoying today.

              We need to be more like that.  Jesus told us that in almost those exact terms.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble [monsters]. Matt 6:34.  Handle today's problems today.  Let tomorrow take care of itself.

              Easier said than done, I know, but consider just two short things in the same passage.  First, worry shows a lack of faith (v 30).  God has promised to care for his people.  He has promised to hear our prayers.  He has promised he will never forsake us.  No, he has not promised to fix everything exactly how we want it, nor has he promised we will never have trials and difficulties in life.  But what he has promised will be far more help than worry ever could be.  Trust him to help you and be with you through it all, and the monsters will be easier to bear.

              Second, only pagans should worry (v 32).  Any time we fail to trust God and become so anxious that we can no longer even function, we are showing ourselves NOT to be children of God, but children of the Devil.  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Matt 6:32.  Unbelievers have a father who doesn't care about them.  You have a Father who gave His Son to save you.  What would He NOT give you if you are faithful to Him?

              Remember Chloe's lesson for you this morning.  Take care of today.  There are head pats and belly rubs and treats to be had—don't ruin them by worrying about the monsters of tomorrow.
 
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  Phil 4:6
 
Dene Ward

Keith was counting out pennies the other day and suddenly he called me to the table. 

"Have you seen these?" he asked, and lying there were four fairly new pennies with different images on them than we had grown up with.  One had a log cabin.  Another had a young rail splitter, taking a rest to read a book.  A third had Lincoln standing in front of the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois, and the fourth the US Capitol.

We wondered if they were real, so I looked it up and yes, indeed, they are real, minted in 2009 to celebrate the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln on February 12, 2009.  The four images show the various stages of his life, from childhood to the presidency.  Then I found another article about a new Lincoln penny minted the next year, a union shield with a draped scroll to celebrate Lincoln as the preserver of the Union.

But tell me this, when was the last time you even looked at a penny?  Most of us don't even pay with them anymore.  We hand the cashier a bill and take the change, and maybe that change gets thrown on the dresser or in a jar, and maybe every year or so you throw them in a change machine and replace them with bills again.  While I would not want anyone to do away with pennies—everything rounded up to the next nickel could get expensive, and don't for a minute believe that a merchant is going to round down—I really don't find much use for them.

A favorite tactic of the atheist is to talk about the little blue dot, which is what they call Earth, a mere "penny" in the vastness of outer space. 

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
“The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable."  Carl Sagan, A Pale Blue Dot:  A Vision of the Human Future in Space.

The atheist believes that since this earth is such a tiny spot in this immense universe that we don't count for anything.  How, he asks, can a Deity, if there is a one, even take notice of us when there is so much more out there?  Really, he says, we need to grow up and stop believing myths.

I am here to tell you, that you may be just a penny on a pale blue dot, but God does care about you.  He does know what is going on in your life, the sorrows, the pain, the misfortunes, and the joys as well.  If you can tear yourself away from their fables long enough to examine the evidence around us and in the Word, you will see the proof of our importance to him in his constant dealings with man through the centuries, and the sacrifices he made to save us.  Why would he have done that if he didn't care, if you didn't matter, if he had so much more on his mind than this pale blue dot? 

The fact is the atheist cannot conceive of a God so much larger than himself, so much more compassionate, so much mightier and awesome.  When all you rely on is your puny little human mind you are kind of stuck that way.  Evidences and apologetics may never convince the skeptic, but you are not one of them or you wouldn't even be bothering with this tiny little blog in a huge cyberspace. 

When you open your mind and your heart to a revealed Word, and a Savior who knows exactly what living on this pale blue dot is all about, you can accept the infinite possibilities a whole lot easier.  And you can be sure that God looks at even his seemingly worthless pennies, and does so constantly.  You matter to him.

Think about that the next time you pull out a pocketful of change.
 
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. (2Chr 16:9)

“For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps. (Job 34:21)

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, (Ps 33:18)

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. ​ When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. (Ps 34:15,17)

For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. (Prov 5:21)

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Heb 4:13)

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. (1Pet 3:12)

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1Pet 5:6-7)
 
Dene Ward

It has happened again.  We have lost another old friend.  This one fired up his tractor and pulled us out of the mud half a dozen times the first month we lived here.  We were young, 38 and 31, and still new to North Florida—though I am a Central Florida native, it is not the same.  We had never lived half a mile off the hard road, across a field, up over a rise, and through the woods.  No real road meant we were subject to the weather far more than we had realized we would be.  Wayne Smith never said a thing except, "I'll be right there," when we called, and he was, his tractor roaring across the ground, heedless of the mud.
 
             He never will be again.

              And so we have lost our "bookends."  Wayne and the other neighbor we met before anyone else, Tom Hill, are both gone now.  We still find ourselves thinking, "We need to ask Tom about that," or, "Let's go see what Wayne knows."  Habits, even of thought, die hard.  Unfortunately, people do not.  Life is fragile, and we have been slammed with that truth far too often lately:  a good friend and brother in the Lord, one you could talk to about anything, one we raised pigs with, and with whom we raised our children; a sister who carted me back and forth to the doctor after my worst surgery—a trip that put 100 miles on her car every time she did it, over and over again, who advised me on these posts—"Make them challenging," she told me, "That's what we need"—who supported me in my classes, who advised me in cooking, cleaning, sewing, and hospitality; and now our two best neighbors, the first two we met here, who never let us down, and were the epitome of "a good neighbor."

              I noticed this morning as I walked Chloe that even the property looks different now.  Instead of the warm fuzzy feeling of home, it seemed unfriendly and almost unfamiliar.  That's what happens when someone you have grown to count on is no longer down the drive or across the field, when you realize you will never have the pleasure of their talk, the security of knowing help was just a phone call away, nor the benefit of their common sense advice again—for not all of these people we have lost were believers.  That fact makes the hurt so much worse.

              And all of these losses also brings home the fact that our turn is coming.  ​What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? — Selah, Ps 89:48.  It may be quite a few more years; but then, it may be tomorrow.  And though we have known that all our lives, suddenly it seems so much closer.

              Now is the time we lean on those promises. 

              Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Ps 23:4

              ​For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive…The last enemy that is abolished shall be death.  1 Cor 15L21,22,26

              But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1Thess 4:13-18

              And so as this world becomes less and less hospitable, as it seems more and more alien to us, it becomes easier to imagine that day, whenever it may come, however it may come, as a blessing.  And just as losing these people has left us with a hollow, empty feeling, may we strive more and more to be that to others—someone they will miss, someone they will wish to see again, and maybe in that desire, they will find it easier to overcome that old Serpent, so they can see us again someday too.
 
Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Ps 73:23-24
 
Dene Ward