Before we were even a country, two families had a dispute about the boundary line between their lands, the Penns and the Calverts.  Eventually it led to actual violence at the borders, including an eight year conflict called Cresap’s War.  Finally the families hired Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, English astronomers and surveyors, to settle the matter, resulting in what is now the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, plus what would become West Virginia and Delaware.  Neither family got all of what they claimed; they both gave up ground.  We now know the line those men created as the Mason-Dixon line, a line which separated the North and the South during the Civil War.  (Smithsonian Magazine, May 25, 2017)

 It seems that people are always fussing about something.  Even in the early church, in a time when their unity was crucial, someone always found something to pick a fight about.  All of those people who had come for the Jewish holidays but wound up spending far more time than expected when they heard the gospel and believed, being baptized into that first group of Christians in Jerusalem, found themselves short of funds.  They had probably saved all year for the trip, and had left behind homes, businesses, and other assets, expecting to return home as soon as possible.  Staying in Jerusalem meant no work for many, and no way to feed their families.  Many sold lands and made huge donations to feed those families, but someone evidently saw and made a difference between the Jews who lived in Palestine and those who lived elsewhere in the world:   Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution Acts6:1.  Hellenists, mind you, were still Jews—they were just Jews from somewhere else.  “Somewhere else” has long been a source of trouble for many.  Remember in the Law God had to make sure He told His people to be kind to the “sojourners,” people living in the Promised Land temporarily.  Some of His people didn’t like that.

 Then, of course, once Gentiles were made part of the new kingdom people had issues with that.  “Well, I guess it’s okay, but they need to be good Jews first.”  At least that is the gist of the feelings—read Acts 15 and Galatians, especially.  Then in 1 Corinthians we find people creating groups over who baptized them and even who had which spiritual gift—”as if you had anything to do with which gift you received” Paul tells them, more or less, in 1 Cor 4:7. 

 The last great prayer Jesus left us with spends much of its time on this very topic, unity:  that they may be one even as we are one John 17:11.  And why is it so important?    That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent meJohn17:21.  A lack of unity will impede the great mission that the Lord gave His kingdom—saving the world.  If we are busy fussing and fighting among ourselves, why should anyone else want to join us?  And what a monumental waste of the precious time we have been given to complete the job.  It is nothing short of selfishness and arrogance to put our differences and preferences and opinions ahead of the commands of the Lord to go and teach, and make disciples.

 If you are seeing differences between you and a brother or sister in the Lord, fix it now.  You do not want to have to explain your refusal to do so to a Lord who gave up everything for you.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise Gal3: 28,29

Dene Ward

 Many American home cooks have a copy of Fannie Farmer’s cookbook. Her publishers insisted that she pay for the first printing of 3000 copies because they were so certain they would lose money on it.  The joke was on them, however, because the cookbook is still being revised, revamped, and reprinted over a hundred years later.

 Fannie was both a student and teacher at the Boston Cooking School, but went on to found her own school on this day in 1902.  The New York Times credits her with inventing the modern recipe, and being the first cook to insist on precise measurements.  No more of this “pinch,” “heaping spoonful” or “enough salt to float an egg.”  A teaspoon was a certain size, the same size every time, and it took three of them to make a tablespoon and 16 of those tablespoons to make a cup—and so on.  What would we have done without Fannie?  I recall a cooking magazine I used to get where, on the last page in the bottom corner, was printed, “In last month’s recipe for (whatever), 2 teaspoons should have been 2 tablespoons.”  That might not sound like much to noncooks, but one is three times more than the other!  If it were salt, you had better believe it would make a difference.

 God has standards too.  What else is that list of commandments we so often have our children memorize but the standard of moral behavior God expects of His people? If there is no standard, why did God say three times in Exodus that Moses needed to follow the pattern he had been shown (Ex 25:40; 26:30; 27:8) for building the tabernacle?  And why, oh why, does Paul talk about teaching the same things in every church? 

  That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.1Cor4:17

  Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.1Cor7:17 

 God has a standard, a pattern, whether in the church or in our lives, and He expects us to live by it and teach exactly the same standard everywhere to everyone. 

 When I was a child, in times when most people cared to know what God did and did not want, a brother held a debate with a famous denominational preacher.  The brother talked about living according to the law of Christ.  The opposing preacher could hardly wait his turn and was on his feet objecting.  “We live under a system of grace. There is no such thing as the law of Christ!”  Our brother calmly turned to Gal 6:2 and read aloud, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” 

 Just as that gentleman did not want there to be any sort of work we needed to do (especially one in particular), many today do not want to face any accountability to a church and its elders, or any responsibility to their brothers and sisters.  Worse than that, they expect God to allow them to worship and serve Him the way they want to rather than the way He wants them to.  Yet, again and again, God has shown us that there is a standard; there is a law we must follow, and making changes to suit ourselves instead of Him, will ruin the results for us in a far worse way than mis-measuring the ingredients in a recipe.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son  2John1:9

Dene Ward

 About five years after we married, a thirty year old woman we knew lost her 35 year old husband to one of those rare heart attacks in young people.  It quickly became apparent that in his bid to be "the head of the house" he had taken care of everything except the cooking, cleaning, and child care, because the woman did not know anything about their day to day business.  She had no idea how much money was in the bank, how much outgo in regular bills they paid, whether or not they had things like life insurance, health insurance, or any other kind of insurance that wasn't required by law, nor who they had them with.  She didn't even know how to drive.  That was when Keith realized that in taking care of me he was actually doing me a disservice because if anything happened to him I would be in the same shape as she—well, at least I could drive.

 So I took over the bookkeeping after a lesson or two in how to balance a checkbook.  I now know far more than he about what to pay when and how much, plus whether we can afford a new whatever now or if we should wait till next month when we don't have the semi-annual car insurance to pay.  But all things being equal, with him six and a half years older, I am likely to be the one left behind and it is indeed a benefit for me to know where the money comes from and how much there is.  To be honest, I have a system, which I would hate for him to mess up.  Once I had to take my ledger into the bank because they insisted that we had ten cents more than my books said we did.  They took one look at my system and didn't argue with me.

 But sometimes I do make an error.  I have been known to mis-add or mis-subtract because my writing wasn't clear in that spot and I thought it was a different number than it was.  Once I was writing a check to the mortgage company and instead of writing it for the amount due, without thinking I wrote it for the amount we usually pay over every month (which is how we usually pay things off ahead of time).  The mortgage company was not pleased with the wrong, and lesser, amount, but once we explained the mistake and they could readily see by the numbers themselves what had happened, they allowed me to rewrite the check for the correct amount and didn't even charge us a late fee.

 Mistakes in accounting can cause all sorts of difficulties.  When mistakes are done purposely, we have added a criminal element to it.  Envoice has an article on their website called "The Ten Worst Accounting Scandals in US History."  Because of one of those, on September 15, 2008, Global Financial Services' provider Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. had to file for bankruptcy.  The problem?  They hid over $50 billion in loans disguised as sales, and sold toxic assets to Cayman Islands banks with the understanding that they would be bought back eventually, leaving the impression they had $50 billion more cash and that much less in toxic assets than they actually did have.

 Because of this, they were forced into the largest bankruptcy in US history.  People lost jobs, retirement savings, and homes.  The company was deleted from the New York Stock Exchange.  Ironically, the year before, Lehman Brothers had been ranked the number one most admired securities firm by Forbes magazine.  Oh well…

 Accounting "figures" in the Bible in more places than you might imagine.  In Romans 4, the word in the 1901 American Standard translated "reckon" is actually an accounting or mathematics term.  It means to run the numbers, calculate an amount, or add a credit to a ledger.  When my social security check comes in, I "reckon" it to my bank account.  When I pay a bill, I am "reckoning" it to that company's account.

 [May I just add a note here:  the later translations that use the word "as" miss this deeper sense of the word.  In fact, they give a tacit credence to Calvinism by making "faith" the same "as righteousness" rather than something that will be counted toward righteousness.]

 Think of paying your bills.  Every bill comes in with both an amount and a due date.  That due date is the "day of reckoning," the day that you must pay what is owed.  I remember a time after Keith had been shot in the line of duty.  Expenses were enormous and we were living on the fumes of money in our bank account.  The week before I had gone to buy groceries with $32 in the bank.  I carefully counted everything I bought and wrote a check for $31.76 at the checkout.  That afternoon, our well went out.  We called the man who had been taking care of us for nearly 20 years.  He arrived promptly and repaired the well.  We owed $90 and we asked if we could pay him on Friday.  Since he knew us and we had always paid in full and on time, he said, "Sure!"  After he left, we looked at each other and shook our heads.  We had no money coming in that week.  We had no idea how we would pay that bill.

 With the "day of reckoning" fast approaching, we walked to the mailbox, half a mile down our lane, on Thursday afternoon.  It seems that one of the music teachers' groups about 60 miles away had heard about Keith's shooting.  They wanted to do something for their fellow music teacher (me) and all they could think to do at that distance was to take up a collection.  In the mailbox that day we found a check for $340.  It was almost too much to take in.  The next morning we took the check to the bank and stopped by the well man's office on the way home and paid his bill.  On our day of reckoning, someone else paid what we owed.

 We all have a day of reckoning coming.  On that day, we must pay what we owe for our sins--unless someone else pays it.  When we believe and act through that belief, God graciously offers to pay that debt, to "reckon" Christ's payment on the cross to our account.  This is no error and certainly no scandal, but an unbelievable gift.  Don't neglect to take advantage of it.

For what says the scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.  Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt.  But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.  Even as David also pronounces blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckons righteousness apart from works, [saying], Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Rom 4:3-8.

Dene Ward

According to the Mankato Free Press, on August 29, 2010, a young woman who was texting, ran headlong into a motorcycle and killed the young man who was riding it.  Witnesses placed her on the wrong side of the road nearly 20 mph over the speed limit, at least one having to swerve off the road to avoid hitting her himself, and cell towers placed both the text and the accident at the same time.  She received a jail sentence of one year, followed by ten years' probation and 480 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution.  This is not the worst accident caused by cell phones that I was able to find.  A personal injury law firm in San Diego included an article on its blog that you can find at https://seriousaccidents.com/blog/top-10-worst-cell-phone-related-injury-accidents-of-all-time-prison-edition/  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in 2023 alone, 3275 lives were lost in accidents involving distracted drivers.  But this is not all the problems that cell phones can cause.

 I have been in waiting rooms a lot lately.  When you have a rare condition, you tend to be there more often and when your doctor treats only the difficult cases, the wait is longer—the corporation tends to schedule appointments much more closely than he can possibly keep up with in a timely manner—in this case, every 10 minutes.  So I regularly sit two to three hours before I even see the man, but when I finally do, he is friendly, good-natured, but serious about my problem and gives me all the attention he thinks I require, which has been up to an hour.  So he gets even more behind because of me.

 I was in that waiting room recently, along with about two dozen others.  It tends to get more and more crowded as the day wears on and the doctors lag more and more behind.  Across the room a young child, maybe 3, was obviously tired of waiting.  He was out of his chair, whining, and stamping around on his little red sneaker clad feet.  His father sat on one side and his mother on the other.  Each parent was busy with a phone.  In fact, the mother also had her laptop open.  All they did was hiss at him to be quiet and sit still and immediately return to their devices.  He was three years old!  He had been sitting fairly still for at least 20 minutes!  What did they expect?

 Parents!  Please put your phones away.  Do it right now just to prove that you can!  But more than that, put it down and pay attention to what is going on with your children.  I have no doubt you will have plenty of time to look at the thing sometime during the day, but being a parent to your children is the most important part of your day, not being a parent to your phone.  That is exactly how it looks sometimes—like the phone needs more care than the child.

 I am not unsympathetic.  My poor boys have sat with me for hours in waiting rooms because grandparents lived hundreds of miles away and we could not afford babysitters and food for them and eye medicine for me.  I did not expect them to sit absolutely still and quiet.  We took bags of Matchbox cars, books, and favorite stuffed animals.  Occasionally we all played together, but usually they did fine with each other.  I also had a couple of non-messy snacks for them, and bottles of water or juice.  When time became long, I told the receptionist I would be in the parking lot should they call me, and we went out to walk around and explore so they could get some fresh air and enough exercise to kill the antsy-ness.  The people in the office were always understanding and complimented them when finally we left.   Most of the time, all your children want is a little attention.  They want to know they matter to you. And then they can be happy by themselves a little while longer.

 I walk past mothers in the supermarket who are looking at their phones, or even talking on them.  A few times the child in the seat of the cart was about to stand up and reach for something and mom had no idea until I pointed.  Once, I was ready to make a mad dash to catch a falling child even if the mother was far closer than I was.  Put down your phone.  If it's someone who really matters, who is truly a friend, they will understand.  Talk to your children.  Listen to your children. 

 When you decided to take on the privilege of raising a soul to God, you sacrificed a lot of things, including regular "me time."  Please don't resent it; don't resent the children who are causing it.  In a few very short years they will be gone, and what will they remember of their childhood and their parents?  Watching them look at their phone all the time?  Trying to ask a question only to be met with, "Shhhh," over and over?  Needing a hug and getting a glare instead?

 Think of it this way:  you are learning to be the servant God wants you to be.  Suddenly, you won't be spending an hour putting on make-up when you go out.  You will find that instead of shopping for yourself, you are spending the available income shopping for children who outgrow clothes faster than ice cream melts in a Florida summer.  By the time those precious souls have left you, you will have grown into exactly the kind of servant God wants you to be, still serving others, even looking for ways to serve others, because you have finally grown up spiritually and understand the secret of true happiness—serving others, not self and certainly  not a phone.

 That won't happen if you look at your phone longer and more often than you focus on your child.  Nothing on that contraption is more important than they are. 

 And he said unto them, Set your heart unto all the words which I testify unto you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, even all the words of this law. For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life…(Deuteronomy 32:46-47).

Dene Ward

Although gunpowder was accidentally discovered by the Chinese in 850, the first recorded use of a cannon in battle was the battle of Crecy, August 26, 1346, during the Hundred Years War.  That is disputed by the Arabs who claim that the Mamluks used one against the Mongols in 1260.  Then there are the French who claim they used the first cannon in 1339.  But usually the English get the credit, Edward III to be specific, for the 1346 date.  In any case, cannons were here to stay after the 14th century.

Keith was having a religious discussion with someone once, a brother as I remember, but one he disagreed with.  I had come upon a pertinent scripture in my own study a few days earlier and gave him the passage.  “Here’s some more ammunition,” I said.

That word came naturally to me.  Keith was a certified firearms instructor for the state.  He taught probation officers and prison guards how to shoot.  As a probation officer he carried his own weapon, having to qualify every year.  He taught me how to shoot well enough to dispose of a dozen poisonous snakes over the years and he taught the boys, too.  So the word “ammunition” just came out.

However, it nagged at me enough that over the next few days I began wondering if we don’t have that mindset much too often,  Yes, we are in a battle.  Yes, the scriptures talk about our “weapons,” weapons God Himself supplied for our warfare.  And yes, our fight is not just with Satan, but with his ministers as well.  But look at this passage:

As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face, Jer 17:16

Jeremiah was NOT happy about Judah’s coming destruction—he did not “desire” the evil day.

There’s an old story about a man who was converted after thirty years of different preachers telling him he was lost.

“Why now?” someone asked him.  “Why listen to this preacher?”

“Because,” the old man said, “he really sounded like he was sad about it.”

Is that our problem?  Do we get too much pleasure out of the fight?  Are we just a bunch of gung-ho cowboys in our zeal?  Are we more interested in winning arguments than in winning souls?

God gave Jeremiah plenty of ammunition, and he used it well enough that he was thrown into prison for it.  But he never enjoyed the job.  In fact, a good many of the prophets disliked their mission.  “I went in the bitterness of soul,” Ezekiel said.  In his confrontation with the priest of Bethel, Amos as much as said, “This wasn’t my idea.” 

That’s a far different attitude than I have seen in some brethren, who delight in slinging bandoliers over their shoulders and spraying automatic fire in a drive-by.

We’re supposed to be saving souls, not murdering them with spiritual handguns and especially not with cannons.  Let’s take stock of our attitudes when we go out to battle today.

​Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock has been taken captive, Jer 13:16-17.

Dene Ward

 Have you heard of the Spanish Armada?  The "Invincible" Armada it is sometimes called.  If you know much about history, you know that calling it that name doomed it to an ignominious defeat sooner or later.

 Spain and England had been allies for a good while.  It seemed a good deal for England who had no empire at the time while Spain was spread all over, including large holdings in the New World.  They were both leery of France and that's what drew them together in the first place.  They made several alliances through marriages, and then the religious problem rose up to bite them both.  Soon we see a Catholic Queen Mary and a Protestant Queen Elizabeth and that was the beginning of the end for the alliance.  King Philip of Spain put together a massive fleet of huge ships, 130 in number, manned by 30,000 sailors.  They headed for England to put things in order, that is, to reestablish Catholicism as the national religion in that country.

 The underdog surprised them in the English Channel where they docked at Calais.  It wasn't time for the battle to begin in their minds, but surprise can often be an excellent weapon.  The Spanish ships may have been large, but the English ships were more maneuverable.  They also used long range gunnery rather than close quarters fighting which kept the Spaniards off the English ships and many swimming in the sea.  English "fire ships"—old or otherwise repurposed ships that were loaded with combustibles, ignited, and set to drift into the Spanish fleet--scattered them and created confusion.  Then, as the Spanish tried to flee up and around the British Isles, storms and strong winds destroyed 24 of them.  Because of the turmoil, the Spanish soon began to run out of food, drinking water, and other supplies.  Before long, the "Invincible" Armada was defeated.

 For anyone who is familiar with their Bibles, this is not an unusual story.  We have heard it again and again as the children of Israel watched the Red Sea inundate Pharaoh and his army, in Joshua taking Jericho without a fight, in Jonathan's near single handed defeat of the Philistines, David's defeat of Goliath, and the angel of Jehovah destroying 185,000 Assyrians in one night.  We have seen God send a storm to defeat the chariots of King Jabin and send the army captain Sisera running to a woman who feared God.  We have seen Elijah praying for God to open the eyes of his servant so he could thousands and thousands of horses and fiery chariots ready to defend them against the enemy.  When God leads the army and they trust in Him, they are indeed invincible, and no one can beat them. 

 Christ has already won the battle for us.  He fought Satan by overcoming sin, by dying as a perfect sacrifice, and then by rising from the dead and ascending to his throne.  Storms may come but he will still them.  With his armor and the Word we can fight against anything Satan throws our way.  We will never run short of supplies because he gives us everything we can possibly need to win, in abundance.  And we have an innumerable army standing by to help us.  All we have to do is believe in him and his victory as we fight our way through life.  We are indeed invincible when he is on our side.

But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?  The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1Cor15: 54-57

Dene Ward

 Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. Therefore he that resists the power, withstands the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgmentRom13:1,2

 On July 30, 1619 the first elected legislative assembly in America met in Jamestown Colony, Virginia.  Known as the House of Burgesses, they met for a six day session.  According to historicjamestown.org, they were tasked with making “just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there inhabiting.”

 The first law passed was that tobacco should be sold for at least three shillings a pound.  Since they grew tobacco that one seems a little self-serving.  But they also passed laws prohibiting gambling, drunkenness, and idleness, and made Sabbath observation mandatory.  While we have learned over the centuries that one cannot legislate morality, it makes a pleasant change to read of that society’s values.

 God’s ordination of civil government certainly means that a Christian is supposed to obey the laws of the land, unless, of course, those laws stand in opposition of God’s laws (Acts 5:29). The verses quoted above tell us that anyone who disobeys the law of the land is disobeying God.  Period.  No matter what we might think about a particular law.  But, even understanding that, I think we completely miss the purpose of civil government in God’s Eternal Purpose.  Take a moment and look at this:

I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth1Tim2:1-4.

 Did you catch that?  We are to pray for our leaders so that they may lead us in a way that our lives are quiet and tranquil.  And why is that?  So that we can preach the gospel without fear and disruption, so that all may “come to a knowledge of the truth.”  Simply put, so that we can sit down with our neighbor on any given night and show him the gospel without having to worry about home invasions, rioters in the street, or enemies attacking from afar.  When criminals run rampant or we must be ready to run to a bomb shelter at a moment’s notice, we certainly can’t get much teaching accomplished!

 And so in our country, even before we were a country, there was law and order.  And we should pray every day that it continues.  Even more, we should take advantage of the peace we have to talk to our neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store, the waitress at the diner, the postman making his rounds—anyone we come in contact with.  THAT is why we have a civil government ordained by God.

 Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evil-doers and for praise to them that do well. For so is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:  as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king  1Pet2:13-17

Dene Ward

 Imagine my surprise when I found out that ancient Roman women wore bikinis!  We have paintings and sculptures of the fact, dating back to 5600 BC.  Originally they seem to have been "worn" by certain Roman goddesses like Venus and her counterpart the Greek Aphrodite, goddesses of fertility, passion, beauty, and all associated things.  However, we have also found actual thongs worn by Roman female athletes.  So French designer Louis Reard, who wanted to make a splash, was not really breaking any new ground when he had his first bikini modeled at the Piscine Molitor, a popular pool in Paris.  The swimsuit was considered scandalous, which would have suited him fine.  In an allusion to the headlines he knew he would make on the fashion scene, he had newspaper type printed on the suit itself.  It was a hit, the History Channel tells us, "especially among men."  Well, duh. 

 Now of course, bikinis are mainstream, except, I hope, among Christian women.  But my hopes were dashed when one of my sons heard a young woman from church say of men, "If they can't handle it, that's their problem.  I will wear my bikini if I want to."  And so you will find various articles about modesty that divide themselves into two distinct camps.  One addresses the women only, asking them if they believe immodest clothing like bikinis and short shorts and miniskirts really befit a godly woman with a pure heart, and others that spend their time telling women they have an obligation to their brothers in Christ not to cause lust in their hearts.  Both sides tend to look with scorn on the other.  Yet both sides overlook the fact that modesty in the Bible is always concerned with overdressing, not underdressing.  It's about calling undue attention to yourselves with fine clothing, expensive jewelry, and elaborate hairstyles.  If we look at the history of the modern bikini, I believe we can see how all of these things apply.

 First, revisit the paragraphs above about the motive of the bikini's designer—to cause a splash, to make news.  The man actually received 50,000 fan letters.  As the years progressed, "bold young women" were the ones who wore them, especially in the conservative decade of the 50s.  Does any of that remind you of dressing to be noticed, the true meaning of immodesty?  Of course it does.  But one should not ignore the heart in this conversation either.  Would you answer the door in your underwear?  Of course, not, because you know that would be inappropriate, just as you would never undress in front of an open window.  Does your bikini cover more or less of you than your underwear?

 Second, those 50,000 fan letters?  Most were from men!  And anyone who scoffs at causing a brother to stumble certainly hasn't read much of the New Testament.  Jesus himself says,It is inevitable that temptations to sin will come, but how terrible it will be for the person through whom they come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea...Luke17:1,2.

   Yes, there are men who can lust simply because of a pretty face even when the body is covered from neck to toenail, but let's not get ridiculous.  Fashion designers know exactly what they are doing when they create their clothes.  It's the women who don't seem to get it, and who go right along, allowing those people to move them like a puppeteer.  And the only thing that matters to them is what they want and how they feel and how much attention they get.  Please tell me that is the character of a disciple of Christ—the Suffering Servant who gave up all for others.

 And third, as to the godliness aspect, did you know that Reard had a hard time finding a model who would wear his tiny little bikini?  He had to resort to an exotic dancer who didn't mind walking around in public nearly nude—that's what she did every night.  He couldn't get a regular model to wear it.

 Sometimes we are so busy trying to get our women to dress appropriately that we misuse Scripture.  I have seen some interpret passages with all the exegetical acumen of a 2 year old.  Words, especially words in an ancient language, are often not exactly what we would think when we see the English translation.  "Thigh" for example can be a euphemism for a man's genitals.  "Nakedness" can refer to the sexual act itself.  Be careful when you try to draw explicit lines for clothing when the clothing mentioned is 1) underwear,  2) for men, not women 3) in particular circumstances and places, and 4) carrying a metaphorical meaning. 

 What happened in 1946 was not the end of the matter.  Reard created a swimsuit with 30 inches of cloth.  He said you should be able to pull the two parts through a wedding ring!  (Funny how he chose that piece of jewelry.)  Nowadays, bikinis have gone much farther and gotten much smaller.  Yes, we need to train our young women to be godly and pure.  They need to have a healthy respect for their own bodies and not degrade themselves just to get attention.  Yes, young men need to understand that God gave them a neck so they could turn their heads—the other way—as they fight off temptation.  And let's please use Bible words the way the Bible uses them.  If you want a word for wearing something like a bikini, let's call it lasciviousness or lewdness, because that is not only what it is, but what it causes as well.

 Remember, 1946 may have been a milestone in fashion, but it was nothing new.  In fact, it was over 7000 years late.  What this date might truly be is a millstone—something that has caused many to fall into sin, others to be tempted, and yet others to cause division among the Lord's people by setting hard and fast rules that the Bible does not.  It is, as it always has been, a matter of the heart first—both godliness and love for your brethren.  Then the correct actions should follow.

Women, for their part, should display their beauty by dressing modestly and decently in appropriate clothes, not with elaborate hairstyles or by wearing gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, but through good actions. This is proper for women who claim to revere God1Tim2:9,10

Dene Ward

 On June 22, 1953, a newsboy in Brooklyn named Jimmy Bozart, dropped a nickel from the money he had made selling newspapers.  It broke in two which exposed the fact that the nickel was hollow.  Inside sat a tiny piece of microfilm.  I am assuming he contacted an authority of some sort because it eventually wound up in the hands of the FBI.  On the microfilm they found a coded numeric message containing 207 sets of five digit numbers. ”Mental Floss” tells me the case foundered after that.  Evidently there was no way to know who had paid for his paper with the hollow nickel, though everyone assumed it was a mistake. 

 Finally in May 1957, a Soviet KGB agent named Reino Hayhanen defected and provided the cipher key.  He also identified his “handler” (case manager/recruiter), Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, known by the alias “Mark”. He was arrested on June 21, 1957, and served four years of a 45 year sentence before being traded back to the Soviets in exchange for Francis Gary Powers, an American U2 pilot in1962.

 There was a time when spies were all the rage.  John LeCarre made a mint writing books about espionage.  Sean Connery and his subsequent brethren made the English spy James Bond come to life in film.  Even television went the route of shows about spies.  In the sixties and seventies we had Mission: Impossible, The Avengers, I Spy, The Man from UNCLE, and Secret Agent, the latter introduced with a song by the same name sung by Johnny Rivers.  We even had a comedic spoof of the genre in Get Smart and a Western version in the Wild, Wild West.

 Even the Bible has a few spies in it, though they had a decidedly different mission.  God’s spies were all about going to look and find out.  In Numbers 13 Moses sent 12 spies, one from each tribe, “to spy out the land.”  For forty days they traveled up and down the Promised Land and brought back the report of a beautiful and fruitful land.  But, they also brought back the report of a people who were large and strong and cities well fortified, and they lacked the faith to encourage the people to take it.

 Then, forty years later, we have the two spies who went into the city of Jericho.  Joshua charged them to “go view the land, especially Jericho” (Josh 2:1).  In both of these cases, God wanted the people to see the wealth and beauty of the land He had promised them, to become excited about taking that land and living there.  That was the result in only the second case.

 We have a Promised Land” in our future too, a city “whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:10).  God won’t be sending us there to “spy out the land” but He has certainly given us glimpses of that place in a life full of blessings sent because of His grace and mercy.

 We experience a little piece of Heaven when our marriages match His plan—when the two halves of His image become one.

 We see a piece of Heaven in a family that lives according to His plan, a home full of laughter and love.

  We have a view of Heaven in a garden that occasionally produces far more than the hundredfold one might expect, and feeds us with healthy and nourishing food.  We see it in a riot of color as the flowers bloom so much that they bend and nearly break the boughs they cover.  In those things we see the Garden we left and the one to which we hope to return.

  We get a little peek into Heaven in a church full of brothers and sisters who get along with one another, “each counting the other as better than himself.” 

 We hear a bit of Heaven when our brothers and sisters sing praises to God, not with a man-made instrument, but with the one God made, the one He most wants to hear, our voices blending in a harmony that matches the sincerity of our hearts and the harmony of our thoughts and goals.

 All these things and more give us just a small taste of what Heaven will be like, but only if they match God’s perfect design for them all.  Keep your eyes open to “spy out the land” God has in store for us, and encourage yourself to get there, not by your own might, but with the help and grace of the God who keeps it in store for us.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever Psalm 23:6

Dene Ward

On June 4, 1876, the Jarrett and Palmer Special Fast Transcontinental Train crossed the country from New York City to San Francisco in 83 hours and 39 minutes.  Actually it involved several engines and several crews, but the point was to make it as quickly as possible as publicity for a theatrical production the acting company was to perform less than a week after the previous one on the East Coast.  The play was Henry V, not as if that really matters after all these years.  The only thing that matters this far from the event is the time and the speed.  They traveled 3000 miles at an average speed of 40 miles per hour.  You and I would probably go nuts, but for those people it was almost a miracle.

 How were they used to traveling?  A wagon train usually left from Independence, Missouri, so add the time to get that far to the usual 4 to 5 ½ months it took to reach the West Coast.  By stagecoach it took four weeks to traverse the country and at a far steeper price.  By boat you had two choices.  If you stopped at the Isthmus of Panama and traveled across it by train, picking up another boat on the other side, it took 45 days to go from New York City to San Francisco—there was no Panama Canal at that time.  If you sailed on the same boat all the way around the tip of South America it took 200 days.  So you see what an important thing it was when this transcontinental train arrived so quickly.  And there, perhaps, we can see the seeds of our culture's penchant for speed, which filters all the way down to our children at vacation time—or any time they get in the car for that matter.  "Are we there yet?"

 God's people have always had the same question.  “How long?” David asks, not once, but four times in the first two verses of Psalm 13.  Habakkuk’s psalm begins, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?”Hab 1:2. The martyrs pictured around the throne of God cry out, “O Sovereign Lord...how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Rev. 6:9,10.  “How long” is indeed a common complaint in the scriptures—I found it listed 52 times!

 And the point is this, these people are undergoing not just trials, but long, drawn out trials.  “Time flies when you’re having fun,” we often say, and that means it crawls when you aren’t.

 “It is not under the sharpest, but the longest trials that we are most in danger of fainting,” Andrew Fuller says in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David.  It is so true.  Just last week I nearly lost it over something small and inconsequential. 

Being married to a deaf man can be extremely frustrating.  Three times in one hour Keith and I had a misunderstanding based totally on the fact that he could not hear what I was saying.  If he could have heard just three words, none of it would have even mattered, but because he couldn’t, it made the situation more and more complex, and more and more exasperating as it went on.  And the reason I couldn’t handle it that morning?  Not because it was three times in one hour, but because we have been dealing with it for  over fifty years now.

 But who am I to complain?  The woman in Luke 8 had her issue of blood for 12 years.  The woman who had the spirit of infirmity in Luke 13 had been suffering for 18 years.  The man who lay at the pool of Bethesda (John 5) had done so for 38 years.  The blind beggar in John 9 had been that way from birth.  Sarah had waited for a child for decades.  The people of God waited for a Messiah for thousands of years!  These people had far more reason than I to ask God, “How long?”

All of us are prone to ask, “Are we there yet?”  and sometimes the answer does not come in this lifetime.  That may be the most difficult thing to deal with.  Some are born into suffering and never get out of it.  Some, due to random accident or maybe even their own bad choices, suffer for the remaining years of their lives and never see a reason.  God has His plans and we are not always privy to them. 

 But one day we will receive the answer we want to hear: “How long? Now! We are there!”  The waiting will be over, no more suffering of any sort, even the petty little annoyances that no one else can understand, that drive you up a wall on a bad day, that fill you with guilt when your mind clears and you finally recognize just how blessed you truly are. 

 Some day we will arrive, and we won’t be going on any more long difficult journeys ever again.

It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8.

Dene Ward