I looked out the window one spring morning in time to see a cardinal hop from the ground to an azalea limb.  It was a windy, March day and the limb was small as a wire.  The bird may have hopped up to get away from the dangers on the ground, especially Chloe, nosing around under the bushes, but the way that small branch bobbed back and forth under its weight made me wonder how safe the cardinal actually felt.  It must have recognized its relative safety compared to things on the ground because it clung for dear life.  Eventually the wind calmed and the branch stopped swaying, and the cardinal found its way to a stronger branch and eventually to the feeder.

            Becoming a follower of Christ can be a little like that.  You jump up out of the big bad world, expecting safety and peace, only to find your life in an uproar.  Your friends are standoffish and your family actually angry with you.  They take your actions as a judgment against them or a sign of mental instability, or both. 

            Or perhaps you find yourself in a group of God’s people who are themselves in the midst of a crisis.  They are not as spiritually minded as they ought to be, they fuss and fight among themselves and even bicker in the parking lot. 

            Or maybe the group is as faithful and mature a group as you can imagine, actively seeking the lost in the community—that’s how they found you after all.  But some elements of the community are not pleased with their efforts, and so rumors are flying, perhaps labeling them scandalous and frightening names, or simply “spinning” things to sound as bad as possible.

            Whichever is happening, you find yourself on a thin limb blowing about in the winds of trouble.  What do you do?  How do you handle the turmoil? 

            One day when the apostles were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, a strong wind suddenly swirled around them.  These were not inexperienced sailors.  They understood when a wind was dangerous and when it wasn’t.  Luke 8:23 tells us they were “in jeopardy.”  The boat was filling with water.  What boat?  The same boat in which Jesus lay fast asleep on a pillow.  Jesus may have accused them of having little faith, of not realizing yet who he truly was, so amazed were they that he could actually calm the wind, but at least they knew where to go.  They knew that if anyone could do anything, it was he.

            What do we do when the church finds itself in turmoil?  Too many just bail out with the excuse that if this is the church, they don’t want any part of it.  “Fair weather Christians” seems a good description.  Yet it is only in the storms that we can show the Lord, and ourselves, we are truly his disciple. (Gen 22:12)

            That cardinal knew that regardless the wind, being above the ground was safer than being on it.  Do we understand that regardless the problems it may face, being part of Christ’s body is safer than being out there in the world, with the Prince of this World for company?  Do we have enough faith to go to the Lord for help?  Will we ever reach the point that we are no longer frightened by things that should not matter to believers, or would he say to us as well, “Why are you afraid, oh you of little faith?” Matt 8:26.

            When we jump up to that spiritual Branch and find ourselves tossing in the winds of trouble, will we bail or have the faith to hang on tighter and never let go?
 
But you have come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb 12:22,23.
 
Dene Ward

The more I study the more I find passages that mirror each other from the Old to the New Testaments.  I sat in a class on the Sermon on the Mount many years ago, and was startled to hear the teacher say that every time Jesus said, “You have heard from old…but I say unto you…” that he was not changing the moral law, he was simply putting it back to rights, the way God had intended it all along.  As he quoted verse after verse in the Law that plainly showed him to be right, I started noticing other parallel passages.

            I have just found another set.

            But seek first His kingdom and all these things [food, clothing, shelter, etc] shall be added unto you, Matt 6:33.

            You have sown much, but bring in little; you eat, but have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but none is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put into a bag filled with holes.  You looked for much and lo it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it.  Why? says the Lord of hosts.  Because my house lies in waste while you run every man to his own house, Haggai 1:6,9.

            The first chapter of Haggai is a rebuke from God to those who returned from captivity and, though they had professed a desire to rebuild the temple of God, had neglected it.  Instead they spent their time on their own needs and desires.  The needs were legitimate, but they had lost their sense of priority, and ultimately their trust in God to provide for them.  And so, since they took from God their time and service, He took from them His blessings. 

            “My house comes first,” God was saying.  “If you trust me to take care of you, you will have plenty of time to build it.”

            Four hundred years later Jesus tells us the same thing.  God’s kingdom, His “house” (1 Tim 3:15), is supposed to be the priority in our lives.  The mission of that house is our mission.  He will clothe us, Jesus says.  He will feed us, He will put a roof over our heads as long as we put His house first, (Matt 6:25-34).

            But like the Israelites, we often neglect the kingdom while we pursue our “necessities.”  Perhaps the problem is that we are not satisfied with a “roof;” we want the upscale model in the “right” neighborhood.  We are not satisfied with sustenance; we want to eat out five nights a week.  We are not satisfied with “raiment” as fine as the lilies; we want designer duds.  And so we spend more and more of our time working to pay for those things and the house of God, and its mission, are ignored.  Surely God will understand, we say, and reach for a handy verse just as Satan often did:  “It is written,” we piously comment, “if any will not work, neither let him eat,” 2 Thes 3:10!

            If we neglect God’s house, He will stop sending blessings as surely as He stopped sending them to those materialistic Israelites of old.  “First” means first, not second, not if there is enough time, not if I get the kind I want.  It means we adjust our wants to suit Him, not the other way around.

            What is truly “first” in your life today?
 
Trust in Jehovah and do good; dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Commit your way unto Jehovah; trust also in him and he will bring it to pass. Better is a little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.  I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread, Psalm 37:3,5,16,23.   
 
Dene Ward

On April 2, 1931, Jackie Mitchell, a seventeen year old rookie with the Southern Association’s AA Chattanooga Lookouts, was put on the mound in relief when the Yankees stopped by for an exhibition game on the way home from spring training. 

            The first batter to face Mitchell was Babe Ruth.  The rookie pitched a ball.  Then came a swing and a miss, twice.  The next pitch was a called strike.  In four pitches the teenager had struck out Babe Ruth.

            Next up was Lou Gehrig—three swings and three misses—OUT. 

            Did I mention that Jackie was a girl?

            Before the game Ruth had commented:  “[Women] will never make good [in baseball].  Why?  Because they’re too delicate.  It will kill them to play every day.”  Then he and his fellow future Hall-of-Famer were promptly struck out by a woman, and a teenage rookie at that.

            And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of fair countenance.  And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog that you come to me with staves?  And the Philistine cursed David by his gods, 1 Sam 17:42,43.

            Goliath had the same problem Babe Ruth did.  He thought he was invincible.  Certainly a young, inexperienced teenager couldn’t beat him.  Even some of God’s own people thought the same, especially David’s brothers.  “What are you doing here, you little twerp?  You left your work just to come watch the battle, didn’t you?”

            We say all the time that we have faith, that we know God can handle anything.  Yet when we see God’s methods, we instantly doubt.  “This can’t be right.  It’ll never work.”  We find ourselves standing with the Jews who rejected our Lord.  “Who does he think he is?  He’s just the carpenter’s son.  This is God’s idea of a king?” 

            What kinds of giants are you attempting to slay in your life?  Anger, depression, addiction, foul language, a persistent sin that it seems you can never control?  Are you in the middle of a painful and debilitating illness?  Have you lost someone close to you, someone you are not sure you can live without?  Has a long persistent trial depleted you of spiritual energy?  If a teenage rookie can strike out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back, something God doesn’t even care about, much less would intervene in, why can’t I strike out the problems that beset me when the Almighty God has promised to help me do just that? 

            How many times has God conquered a nation with just a handful?  Review today the stories of Gideon, of Jonathan and his armor bearer, of the angel of the Lord who struck down 180,000 Assyrians in one night to save the besieged nation of Judah.  Think about Esther who saved an entire race of people without a miracle, about Jehosheba who thwarted a massacre by stealing a baby away in the night thus saving the Messianic dynasty from the pollution of Ahab’s sin.  Remember the many parents who raised children in faith, children who grew up to save countless numbers with their preaching—Zacharias and Elizabeth, Eunice, Mary of Jerusalem, and of course, Mary and Joseph, insignificant people making a more than significant impact because they trusted God to help them.

            God can accomplish anything He wants to accomplish, any way He wants to accomplish it.  If I think otherwise, I might very well be keeping Him from accomplishing something wonderful through me.  Open your heart this morning.  Un-tether your faith from thoughts of impossibilities, and fasten on to a God who knows no limits. 
 
And Asa cried unto Jehovah his God and said, Jehovah, there is none besides you to help, between the mighty and him that has no strength.  Help us, O Jehovah our God, for we rely on you and in your name are we come against this multitude. O Jehovah, you are our God, let no man prevail against you, 2 Chron 14:11.
 
Dene Ward

This is part 4 of a sporadic series on lessons the inspired writers thought important enough to “rerun.”
 
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly, 2Pet 3:1-7.

Before we get to the meat of the matter, please notice the beginning of this little reminder Peter wrote.  He wanted us to remember “the commandment of our Lord and Savior through your apostles.”  Did you catch that?  A lot of people out there insist on red letter editions not so the words of Jesus will be obvious to them, but so they can ignore anything in black and white.  “Only the words of Jesus,” they say, are worth listening to.  The apostles and their teaching do not matter.

Oh yes we do, Peter says.  Where do you think you got those words of Jesus?  We reported them to you.  We wrote them.  As Jesus Himself said (in red letters) “Teach them to observe all things I command you,” Matt 28:20.  If you ignore the words of the apostles you are ignoring the words of Jesus, whether they are red or purple or blue with pink polka dots.

And his words continue on to remind us that God will indeed destroy this world.  When?  That we are not told, but do not, Peter says, forget it.  Do not count God as unfaithful to His promise.  The people in the time of the flood didn’t believe either.  And they only had 120 years to wait.

But think of this:  the Jews had been waiting for thousands of years.  They waited through the times of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the growth of that family from one “only begotten son” to a clan of 70.  They waited through the slavery in Egypt, about 400 years.  They waited through the times of the Judges, another 350 or so.  They waited through the united and divided kingdoms, another 400 plus or minus.  Then they waited through a horrible destruction, captivity, and eventual restoration, and finally they waited through 400 years of absolute silence from God.

Yet the faithful were still looking when the Messiah came upon the scene.  Some seem to have given up, but the Joseph and Marys, the Zacharias and Elizabeths, the Simeons and Annas, the Salomes and Zebedees, there were enough still waiting, still believing, to form that first church on Pentecost.  And they found yet more.

We have been waiting about the same amount of time they did, and we have something more.  We have the examples of promises fulfilled, from the flood, to the Abrahamic promises, to the coming of the Messiah.  God kept all those promises and He will keep this last one. 

Our unbelieving society will tell you it’s just a myth, it won’t happen, if it does, it will be man’s doing and not God’s.  So go ahead and live your life as you please.  You are not accountable to a mythological being who doesn’t really exist anyway.  That is Satan talking.  He will use every ruse in the book and making you feel foolish for your faith is just one of them.  Don’t climb on the bandwagon with the rest of the world.  God has given us evidence.  Clear your mind and examine it. 

You can be among the faithful few who still looked, who still hoped, who still dreamed of the day when their Lord would come in power and glory.  They saw that Messiah come to earth, perform miracles, teach Divine truths as they had never been taught before, and rise from the dead.  Don’t give up hope, Peter says.  Remember all the times God kept His promises.  Remind yourself often.  It may be the most important rerun of a lesson you ever hear.
 
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed, 2Pet 3:9-10.
 
Dene Ward
 

My boys were typical boys.  They played outside more than in.  They had their own variations of football, baseball, and basketball for two players, or three when their dad was home.  They swam like fish, climbed trees, and traipsed through the woods exploring.  Since they have grown up, my hair has turned grayer and curled tighter listening to some of the things they did that I never knew about. 
 
           Their Dad encouraged them in their daring feats.  He wanted them to grow up to be strong men who would not flinch when a job needed doing, even if it was dirty, difficult, or a little scary. 

            I remember many times when he would hold out his arms and they would jump into them.  As they learned to swim, he stood out in the deeper water and they leapt as far as they could, with him reaching to pull them out before they went under for good.  Gradually he moved back farther and farther, and they were swimming to him before they realized it. 

            Once Lucas climbed a tree with a rotten limb.  He found out when the limb beneath his feet broke under him, leaving him hanging by the limb above, the bottoms of his feet a good twelve feet off the ground.  We were sitting nearby when we heard the crack and the “whump!” of the falling branch. 

            Keith walked over to see what he could do.  Nothing, as it turned out, except stand beneath his son to break the fall.  When he was certain he was in the right place, he told Lucas to let go, and he did, nothing doubting—and nothing broken on either of them when the whole thing was over.

            My sons never doubted their father.  If he told them to jump, they did.  If he told them to let go, they did.  They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would catch them and keep them from harm.  Why can’t we have that same faith in God?  Keith could have made an error in judgment; he could have miscalculated what needed to be done to save his sons, or just missed when they jumped.  God can’t, and He won’t.

            How would you feel if your child told you he did not believe you would help him?  How would you feel if he showed absolutely no trust at all in your promises?  How do you think God feels when we do that to Him?

            It’s called a “leap of faith” because that is what it takes—faith.  When we won’t do it, we don’t have it.  It is as simple as that.  It has nothing to do with wisdom or good stewardship or common sense.  It simply means we don’t trust God enough to take care of us.  Sometimes what He asks of us seems foolish and impractical.  Those words mean nothing to Him, except to describe the people who think their own wits are better than His promises.  How foolish and impractical can you get?
 
For you are my lamp, O Jehovah; And Jehovah will lighten my darkness. For by you I run upon a troop; By my God do I leap over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: The word of Jehovah is tried; He is a shield unto all them that take refuge in him. For who is God, save Jehovah? And who is a rock, save our God? 2 Sam 22:29-32.
 
Dene Ward

Maybe this is one of those urban legends that everyone has heard from someone.  I am really not certain, but Keith’s mother once told us about a young woman who began attending services with them with her three young children, the oldest about 6.  She arrived just on time and left quickly.  But unlike many of those types, she was always there, her children knew the basic Bible stories, and she herself was attentive to both class and sermon.  In fact her keeping to herself seemed to be more a product of embarrassment than anything else.
 
           My mother-in-law, astute observer that she was, had noticed something.  The children were always neat, clean, and combed except for one thing—their clothes were always wrinkled.  This was back before the day of permanent press and polyester.  There is nothing quite as wrinkled as old-fashioned cotton—except maybe wrinkled linen—which was way beyond this woman’s means.

            I forget now how she managed to ask.  Maybe it was the offer of an iron, which I know she was generous enough to do.  Knowing my mother-in-law though, she probably just came out and asked.  However she did it, she got an answer.

            The woman’s husband was not a Christian.  He not only refused to attend services with her, he refused to get up and help her get the children ready.  So every week after their Saturday evening bath, she dressed them for church and then put them to bed.  The next morning it was easier to get the three tykes up and fed and herself dressed for church.

            After all these years, I’ve heard nearly every excuse in the world for missing Bible classes or the morning services altogether.  This young woman could have easily pulled two or three off the list and used them.  So why didn’t she?  I can think of three good reasons.

            First, she loved the Lord.  Nothing and no one was going to come between her and her Savior.  She knew the perils of allowing excuses to keep her away from the spiritual nutrition her soul needed, and she was not so arrogant as to think she could feed herself with no help at all.  “I can have a relationship with God without the church,” I have heard more times than I can count.  She knew better.

            And because she had her first priority correct, the others fell right in line.  She loved her children, but more than that she loved her children’s souls.  She had to combat not only the usual onslaught of the world, but the huge impact of a father’s bad example.  She was still in her early 20s so she had probably married quite young, too young to really understand the challenges of this “mixed” marriage, maybe even so naïve that she thought “love would conquer all” and he would change easily.  Now she knew better, but she was more than ever determined to save her children.

            And despite it all, she loved her husband and his soul too.  She knew that any little chink her armor would allow him the rationale he needed to remain apathetic to her faith.  She understood Peter’s command in 1 Pet 3:1,2,  Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.  The more he resisted, the stronger she needed to be, and if taking her children to church in wrinkled clothes did the trick, then that’s what she would do.

            This young woman shows us all that excuses can be overcome by pure will.  Certainly we are not talking about the truly old, ill, and otherwise unable to go out either regularly or on occasion when there is truly a “bad day.”  We are talking about people who allow a little, or even a lot of trouble to become too much trouble to serve God.  I know many who work around the hurdles and snags that Satan throws in our paths.  It costs them time, money, and a whole lot of extra energy, but they have their priorities straight.  They know who comes first, and they understand that our modern “sacrifices” are an insult to the word. 

If finding excuses comes easily for me, maybe I need to consider wearing some wrinkled clothes.
 
And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he said unto him, A certain man made a great supper; and he bade many: and he sent forth his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse…And the servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed and blind and lame.  And the servant said, Lord, what thou didst command is done, and yet there is room.  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.  Luke 14:15-24.
 
Dene Ward
 

And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray you. And the man refused to smite him. Then said he unto him, Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion shall slay you. And as soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him,   1Kgs 20:35-36.
 
           If you know your Bible, you know that is only the beginning of the story, but it was certainly the end of it for that second young prophet.  Here is the hard lesson we all must learn:  serving God is NOT for wimps.  Sometimes God asks for difficult things.  Sometimes they seem impossible.  But God expects the impossible from us—the things you cannot do alone, He will help you with.

            First century Christians understood this.  Many of them converted knowing they might be thrown into prison or even the arena within a week.  And us?  We want promises of health and wealth.  We demand a life where no one contracts a serious illness, where our homes never blow away in hurricanes or tornadoes, where jobs are never lost, accidents never happen, and babies never die.  We want the reward now—the perfect life in the perfect place.  Then we will consider serving God.

            It doesn’t work that way and it never has.  This prophet could not believe that God would ask him to strike his fellow prophet.  “Why God would never…” you can hear him thinking just as so many say today.  He found out there was something a whole lot worse when he didn’t have the gumption to do as he was told. 

            I have a feeling that a whole lot of people are going to meet the same lion he did.
 
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God,” Luke 9:57-62.
 
Dene Ward

One Sunday, a newly married young woman named Jessie Pounds did not feel well, so her husband went on to church without her. When he returned. she had written the words to this hymn.

Somewhere the sun is shining,
Somewhere the songbirds dwell;
Hush, then, thy sad repining,
God lives, and all is well.

Refrain:
Somewhere, somewhere,
Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!
Land of the true, where we live anew,
Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!

Somewhere the day is longer,
Somewhere the task is done;
Somewhere the heart is stronger,
Somewhere the guerdon won.

(Refrain)

Somewhere the load is lifted,
Close by an open door;
Somewhere the clouds are rifted,
Somewhere the angels sing.

(Refrain)

            Because it is well over a hundred years old, the song contains a couple of words that might be unfamiliar to us.  Do you know what it means to “repine?”  The song gives us a clue with the modifier “sad.”  I doubt I am doing anything joyful if I am repining.  No, the word means dejection or discontent. 
And how about “guerdon?”  The song says we “win” it, whatever it is.  And if you look it up you will find the terse definition “reward.”

Obviously young Mrs. Pounds was allowing her illness to depress her, and the act of writing this song, reminding herself of the hope she had as a Christian, cheered her up.  She wanted to share that hope with us. 

I can already hear some of my brothers talking about how “unscriptural” this song is.  Where does it say there will be songbirds in Heaven?  And certainly Revelation says there is no need for sun because God is the light.  May I just say this?  Those literalists are missing the whole point.  John’s Revelation uses figurative language to describe Heaven.  If you think there will be pearly gates and streets of gold, you are just as mistaken as Mrs. Pounds.  But somehow, I think she knew that; I think she was motivating herself with her own special view of what Heaven must be like.

The descriptions in Revelation are about motivators.  Those first century Christians lived a day to day existence.  They prayed for their “daily bread” because they had no idea if they would have enough that day, let alone tomorrow.  The farmers among them existed at the mercy of the weather and natural disasters.  The shopkeepers and artisans lived at the mercy of the economy.  No one was going to “bail them out.”

            To those people, a place so wealthy that gold and precious jewels were used as construction material, meant security.  It meant rest from working long hours day after day to simply survive.

            Those people lived under the rule of a foreign king.  Doubtless they had all seen wars and battles.  They knew, in fact, that the Barbarian Hordes could still come over the mountains and wipe them out.  Did 9/11 cause you some concern?  Has it made you worry more about the possibility of terrorists under every bush?  Those first century Christians lived with that sort of uncertainty every day of their lives.  In fact, they probably had more safety as a conquered people than ever before.  But the picture of a huge city with huge walls meant safety and peace forever.  Security—that is what those pictures of Heaven were all about, not materialism.  I have no doubt that if John were writing to us, he would use other motivators.

Frankly, I feel we should give ourselves motivators that mean something to us personally, and we should do the same for our children.  “Getting to worship God forever and ever,” translates to a child as having to go to church, listen to sermons, and sit still forever.  If you think that will motivate them to want to serve God all their lives, you didn’t have any business becoming a parent in the first place. 

And that is what Mrs. Pounds has tried to share with us.  On a day of illness that drug her down, she went to the best place to pull herself out of it—thoughts of Heaven, the reward, the “guerdon.”  Perhaps if we sang more songs about the reward, we would do a better job of gaining it.
 
…we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven…Col 1:4-5.
 
Dene Ward

When I was a child I would often hang my head off the edge of the bed and look at the room upside down.  Suddenly the ceiling was the floor and the floor was the ceiling.  I imagined what it would be like to walk on that new “floor,” high-stepping through doorways and making my way around light fixtures.  The windows would come nearly to the new “floor” instead of being three feet above it.  And it certainly would be easier to clean the cobwebs out of the corners.  I would lie like that for nearly half an hour as my mind suddenly saw things from a new perspective.

            As I have grown older, dealt with people who had many different problems, and had far too many “exciting” experiences myself, my perspective on life has shifted as well.  In fact, if a person finds himself with no new insights on life, especially after the age of forty, he has probably not grown a spiritual inch.  And as you grow, your thoughts should begin to shift.  Things that look plain and simple when you have never experienced them have facets you never saw before.  Suddenly you notice the light fixtures, the exhaust fans, and the part of the doorway that hangs nearly a foot from the ceiling.  They were always there but because you never hung your head upside down you never saw them.

            As a Christian my perspective must be spiritual, not carnal.  It must be with a view toward Eternal Life, not life here on earth, something that could easily be described as looking at things upside down.  As Paul tells us in Romans 8, we must have the mind of the spirit, not the mind of the flesh. 

            The correct perspective is a powerful tool in defeating Satan.  In Hebrews 10:32-34, those Christians looked ahead toward a “better” and “abiding” possession.  With that thought firmly locked in their minds, and from that perspective, they could endure imprisonment, ridicule and scorn, loss of their earthly possessions, and physical persecution.  With the same perspective Christians could face hungry lions while singing hymns and praying.

            On the other hand, a person whose perspective is only on earthly things will not be tough enough to give up the praise of men.  He will not be strong enough to apologize.  He will be intimidated by the thought of losing acceptance in his community.  Living “the good life” will have a stranglehold on him and any trial of life will defeat him.  A wrong perspective can turn us into weaklings.

            Perspective affects every part of one’s life.  Think about Jesus’ perspective on wealth  (Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth...but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupt…), insults (who when he was reviled, reviled not again), status (he counted not being on equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself), his own desires (And Christ pleased not himself but [others]), and death (the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many). 

            No one understood Him because from their perspective he looked strange.  He was walking on the ceiling upside down.  We must be striving to get up there with Him, and when we finally make it, things that look so difficult from down on the floor will suddenly be much easier.

            A correct perspective may be one of the most important things a Christian can have because it changes everything—every opinion, every moral, every purpose in life.  It will determine the state of one’s heart, and therefore, the state of one’s soul. 
           
…They dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the rulers of the city and cried, These who have turned the world upside down have come here also, Acts 17:6.
 
Dene Ward
 

I started jogging and working out when I was 29.  By the time I was 30 I jogged 30 miles a week.  Oh, to have all that energy again!  I still work out, but several surgeries, medications, and bad vision make it impossible to do what I used to—not to mention age, which will tell on even the healthiest of us.
            Some days, usually Mondays when I have had a couple days off the elliptical machine, I do well, finishing my chosen program two or three minutes ahead of schedule.  Other days I just plod on through until the programmed timer goes off and I notice that I was a quarter mile short of my programmed distance.  But I got it done.  I sweated and I panted and my muscles burned for the allotted amount of time.  Mission accomplished.  Maybe I will live an extra day because of it.
            Some Sundays I have no trouble at all keeping my mind on the worship. I am full of spiritual pep and vitality.  I sing with gusto and listen attentively to the classes, prayers and sermons, even making connections I never had before and priming myself for more study when I get home.  Other Sundays It’s all I can do to just be there.  My mind is as lethargic as my body.  I hear, but I don’t really comprehend.  When I leave I wonder if it did me any good at all.  Surely God is upset with my poor showing that day.
            Is He?  If the day was difficult, but I made it anyway; if it was a struggle to worship “with the spirit and the understanding;” if the “all” I had to give was very little, was my service to God a failure?  I don’t think so.  We have no trouble understanding the concept of the widow’s mite in a literal way.  She gave all she had that day, and Jesus praised her for it.  Some days the spiritual mite is smaller than others.  If I give it all, why isn’t that what God expects of me?  Won’t God be pleased that I still tried as hard as I could with far less available than usual?  If God goes by effort, I worked harder that day than on any day when it was easy, didn’t it?
            And if this sort of thing worries you, if you find yourself thinking you have failed because you weren’t at your spiritual peak, then you have certainly shown the heart of flesh that God told His people He wanted from them.  You didn’t feel like it, but you still obeyed God’s instructions in your service.  And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, Ezek 11:19-2.  Obedience—that’s the heart of flesh.  A hard heart can shout amen and sing the rafters off the roof in the middle of blatant disobedience.  God made it clear which He prefers.
            By the end of an exercise week I am really dragging.  My legs feel like lead and my lungs seem starved of oxygen.  But I still go at it and get it done.  It still does my body the good I intended.  If you are dragging at the end of some spiritual interval, a time that might have started out with all the vitality you could have wanted but gradually wore down, just keep on plugging.  The energy will return and you will be back where you want to be.  That does not mean that you are not where God wants you to be.
 
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint, Isa 40:28-31.
 
Dene Ward