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

 I remember when it happened.  He was probably the most famous and commercially successful magician at the time.  David Copperfield, born David Kotkin, believed in big illusions.  He made a Learjet disappear, walked through the Great Wall of China, and levitated over the Grand Canyon.  At least it looked like he did all those things.

 On April 8, 1983, he made the Statue of Liberty disappear before a live audience.  Oh so many years later, I found an article that told how he did it.  David Copperfield was a storyteller.  He never just did a trick.  He talked his way through it and had you focused on him and completely involved in his words.  Unbeknownst to his audience, they were sitting on a platform that revolved at an imperceptible speed.  By the time David finished his story and lowered the screen he had raised over their view of the statue, they were facing a completely different direction where no statue existed!  Reddit has someone who was there telling about a helicopter he also used to focus a bright beam of light on the statue, which also moved in a way no one could perceive so it's relative position to the audience never changed, and the bright light kept the changing skyline in the background invisible to the audience as well.  All the audience saw was black space where before Lady Liberty had stood.

 Simple right?  So why didn't the audience notice?  The same reason we do not notice when other people try to trick us, or when Satan tries to trick us.  Sometimes we are so naïve that things slip right past us.  Sometimes we want to believe in people so much that we blind ourselves to things that should be obvious.

 Jesus was not too sympathetic with that.  Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pitMatt15:14.  He expects us to beware, to be careful who we listen to, to examine everything we hear and not be deceived.  In fact, he expects us to love the truth so much that we cannot be misled. 

 The New Testament is full of warnings, full of ways to know whether or not we are hearing the truth. 

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world1John4:1. 

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do [men] gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them  Matt7: 15-20.

 Those magicians out there will get you to focus on a different standard than the one God gives us.  Gradually we move from the place we should be, drifting so slowly and imperceptibly that before we know it, we are so far off that we can no longer even tell the difference.  Paul talks about people who "compare themselves with themselves" instead of with the One who should be our Model.  Anyone can look right by doing that.

 It is our responsibility to protect ourselves from the illusionists out there—the ones who try to rob us of salvation with smooth talk and false teaching.  God also expects us to train ourselves in the ways Satan tries to trick us.  That takes time--time to learn His Word and learn Him.  But if it saves your soul, it is time well spent.

I have done this so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes  2Cor2:11.

Dene Ward

We all know about Paul Revere.  But have you ever heard of Sybil Ludington?  She was born on April 5, 1761, and on the same night as Paul Revere, April 26, 1777, sixteen year old Sybil rode 40 miles—over half again the length of his ride—to rouse her father's militia unit to delay the British army in its march toward Danbury, Connecticut.  In driving rain and darkness, over unfamiliar terrain, she sounded the alarm with the same results as that more famous gentleman.  She did the same job and received no recognition for it until early in the twentieth century.

 That is what I like about Sybil.  She did not need to go out and march on a courthouse or a congress hall or anywhere else in order to do her job.  She just did what needed to be done.  If I remember correctly, she wasn't even asked to do it—she volunteered.  Then, after the Revolution, she lived a perfectly ordinary life, marrying and raising a son.  She died at the age of 77 in Unadilla, New York.

 Many people try to paint the Bible—and God--as misogynistic.  They are showing their ignorance of what they revile when they do so.  The laws that to an uninformed person who is virtually ignorant of ancient cultures seem "anti-woman" were actually placed there to protect women from any man who would misuse his place in the hierarchy God set about in Eden.  As Jesus eventually said about divorce under the Old Covenant, there will always be hard-hearted men and God did His best to protect His women from such.  The other things women fuss about are simple common sense.  We have adages that state the same thing, some made up by those same hard-hearted and biased men:  "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians," for example.  Someone has to be in charge if you want to get anything done.  But God's women all over the Bible, under both covenants, have not let those hard-hearted men who abuse God's system keep them from doing what needs doing when it needs doing.  You will find the toughest women you can imagine in the pages of the scriptures, all of them honored by God when He memorialized their deeds in His Word.

 Jael, left alone to face an enemy army general, fought him the only way an unarmed woman could have.  Inspired Deborah said of her, Blessed among women shall Jael be Jud 5:24.

 Abigail, who heard the foolishness of her wicked husband, immediately set about trying to undo the harm, carrying gifts through the hills and throwing herself on the mercy of a warrior who had sworn to kill them all.  Not in subjection you say?  She did [her husband] good and not evil all the days of his life (Pro 31:12), which included saving his.

 Rizpah, in her torment and grief for her dead and hanging son, sat in the open for as long as 6 months, warding off scavenging birds and beasts until David finally noticed and buried his and the others' bones.

 I could go on.  None of these women were prima donnas, divas, or hot house flowers.  They were women who understood that when something needs doing, you do it; no matter how difficult or uncomfortable or disgusting it is, no matter how tired you are, no matter your grief or hurt; you just get up and do it.  And none of them looked for praise or recognition.  As true servants of God they simply did the work set before them and served others.  And as true servants of the Suffering Servant who gave His all, let us do the same.

 In fact, all of us should be this way, not just women.  But if we will lead the way in anything, ladies, let's show the men how this is done.

A worthy (also translated strong, valiant, able, powerful, mighty) woman, who can find?  Her price is far above rubies Prov 31:10.

Dene Ward

Medicine has come a long way since ancient times and it hasn’t stopped progressing.  As a patient who has a rare disease, I have had my share of experimental surgeries and procedures, and endured experimental medicines and equipment.  Sometimes it’s just plain scary, but when it works, it’s amazing.  I can still see, several years after I was expected to lose my vision.  It may not be great vision, and the after effects of all these procedures and medications may not be pleasant, but let me tell you, any vision is better than no vision, and you will put up with a lot to have it.

 Blood is one area where knowledge is still blossoming.  But just think of this.  Transfusions were not common until the turn of the twentieth century, and even then it had to be a live donor for an immediate transfusion.  It went on that way for nearly four decades.  Finally, Dr Bernard Fantus at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago performed several experiments and determined that human blood, under refrigeration, could last up to ten days.  Still not long, but enough for him to start the first blood bank on March 15, 1937.  Imagine the lives that were suddenly saved.  It must have seemed like a miracle.

 Medicine has progressed even further.  My little bit of research tells me that at 1-6 degrees Centigrade, blood can now be kept up to 42 days, and that some of it can be frozen for up to ten years.  I wonder if Dr Fantus had any idea what he had put into motion.

 But sooner or later that blood does become stale.  It is no longer usable to save lives.  And if there is a sudden loss of power that cannot be maintained with a generator or other power source, all of it will spoil almost immediately. 

 Imagine a blood that never loses its potency, that never becomes stale, that will always save. 

 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Heb 9:24-26.

 Jesus does not have to offer himself “repeatedly.”  He does not have to keep a fresh supply of blood handy.  The saving power of his blood lasts forever.  And what exactly does it do?

 It makes propitiation, Rom 3:23.

 It justifies, Rom 5:9.

 It brings us “near,” Eph 2:13.

 It purifies our consciences and makes us able to serve God, Heb 9:14. 

 It forgives, Heb 9:23.

 It cleanses us from sin, 1 John 1:7.

 Now understand this—it isn’t the fact that Jesus cut his finger one day and bled a little.  Blood in the Bible has always represented a death.  The blood that saves us is the death he willingly died on our behalf, because only a sacrificial death can atone for sin (Lev 17:11).  And we don’t have to worry about “types” and “factors.”  His blood will cleanse us from “all sin,” 1 John 1:7.

 Nowadays people want nothing to do with another person’s blood.  Everyone wears gloves.  But to gain the benefits of Christ’s blood you have to “touch” it.  How do you contact that blood?  You simply “die” with Christ.  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, Rom 6:3,4. 

 And that blood bank still works for us.  It keeps right on forgiving as needed, as we repent and continue to walk in him for the rest of our lives.   

 Only once--that’s all he had to suffer.  Our trips to the blood bank will likely be more than once, but may they become less and less often as we grow in grace and faith and love.  It will be there when we need it, but let’s not squander a precious gift, nor take it for granted. 

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him, Heb 9:27,28.

Dene Ward