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 

 On March 1, 1692, ignorance and superstition came to the forefront as the Salem Witch Trials began.  The legal papers make a horrifying read—innocent until proven guilty was not the code back then, but the opposite:  if you came to trial you were assumed guilty.  Evidence from children as young as 9 was accepted.  Given the mass hysteria, it was probably impossible to find a child who was not willing to make accusations just to get the attention.  As far as evidence—when visions that no one else can see are counted as good evidence, there is no end to the mischief that can arise.  Unfortunately, 19 people died because of things like this.  Everyone listened to obviously made up stories with no concrete evidence because it was exciting, and in some cases, making the accusations was all that kept one from being accused herself.  Remember what caused this all—ignorance and hysteria, the exact opposite of clear and logical thinking.

 Don't think this kind of thing hasn't invaded the church today.  I have heard more than one preacher or teacher accused of teaching false doctrine when that was not the case at all.  Someone took something out of context or someone else jumped to an unnecessary conclusion and that was all it took to ruin a reputation.  When we pass these things along we are no less guilty.  The rule should always be, go to the person involved and check it out yourself.  I will always be grateful to a brother who did that for us.  He had heard something completely false 150 miles away from us, a rumor that could have ruined my husband.  As it turns out, someone had said something happened which most certainly did not happen, and then the next person decided to do a little embroidery that made the original accusation even worse.  Not only was it untrue, but we had witnesses.

 Sometimes an outright lie is involved.  When a man is accused of teaching something he flatly denies, has never taught in all his years, and the people who regularly listen to him will vouch for him, that ought to take care of it.  Instead, we hear of elders in one church telling another church they should withdraw from the "false teacher" or he will withdraw from them.  Talk about ignorance.  No elder in one church has any right to tell another church what they should do (1 Pet 5:2), and no one in the New Testament ever withdrew from a church—you simply cannot find it. 

 Often the problem is that one does not interpret a certain scripture exactly as the other, even though he agrees with the fundamental point, and always has.  A good friend and I interpreted a certain passage completely differently from each other, but we both agreed with the point each was making.  We just disagreed about which passages proved it.  So?  I never called him a false teacher and he never called me one.  Someone has forgotten just exactly how important unity among His people is to God and the Lord Jesus, and how angry they must surely be when we misuse Scripture to cause dissension.

 The Salem Witch Hunt was polar opposite of the way God intended for His people to handle questions we might have about teaching in the church.  Those people even used Scripture to accomplish what turned out to be murder (Ex 22:18; Lev 20:27; Deut 18:10,11).  They used God's Holy Word for evil.  Let's make sure we don't do the same.

Give diligence to present yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. But shun profane babblings: for they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as a gangrene: of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus 2Tim2:15-17.

Dene Ward

You’d think they would learn.  You’d think they would figure this out, especially people who are so smart, with so many letters after their names they could start a new language.  Yet for a long time the existence of the Biblical Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham and Sarah’s hometown, was denied.  Several excavations were begun in the early twentieth century, but Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, a British archaeologist, finally put the question to rest.  From The Bible As History by Werner Keller: “Under the red slopes of Tell al Muqayyar lay a whole city…awakened from its long sleep after many thousand years…Woolley and his companions were beside themselves with joy…for before them lay the Ur of the Chaldees to which the Bible refers.”

 Where today sits a railway station 120 miles north of Basra, Woolley found many closely situated private homes along with their broken pots, cuneiform texts, and even some gold jewelry.  He found silver lyres and other musical instruments and even a royal game board, complete with “men” to travel the wooden board. 

 What he discovered, in essence, was the ancient Sumerian civilization, He also discovered royal tombs dating from 2700 BC.  It became apparent to these scientists than these tombs also contained the king’s personal retinue, people buried alive in a form of large scale human sacrifice.  Is there any wonder God would have called his righteous servant away from that society?  And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many, Josh 24:2,3.  And so the Bible once again is proven not only accurate, but logical.

 Woolley’s faith may not have been as fundamental as we would like--he discovered evidence of a great flood in the area but you and I would not have agreed with all of his conclusions in that regard.  However, he seemed to work like this:  the Bible says it existed so he went looking for it.  How many others deny the witness of the Scriptures until their noses are rubbed in it?

 Charles Woolley died on this day in 1960.  Perhaps we can use this as a reminder.  More and more the world considers the Bible as anything but the Word of God.  Instead, they say, it is a book of myths and interesting stories.  Jesus was not the Son of God either; he was just a good rabbi.  Maybe it is time we spoke out more.  Are we embarrassed to be seen as ignorant yokels because we believe the scriptures to be the authentic and infallible Word of an Almighty Creator?  Do we water down the truths revealed in it because they are no longer politically correct? 

 It was easy to believe when most of our neighbors did.  It was easy to say, “The Bible says…” when we knew that statement would carry some weight.  Despite the fact that over and over discoveries are made to prove the factual content of the Bible, people still find reason not to accept it.  They always will.  Just read the first few chapters of Exodus.  Just read the gospels.  When people do not want to accept the accountability demanded of us by the Bible, they will reject it.  They will find every excuse in the world to say, “That’s different,” when the only difference is it refers directly to their lifestyles and habits. 

 Say thank you today to Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, but only if you will use his discovery to cement your faith and allow it to change your will.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house, Ezek 3:27.

Dene Ward

After seeing a performance of Verdi's Aida, 17 year old Giacomo Puccini decided to give his life to writing operas.  Now we know him as the composer of some of the most beloved operas—La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, and Madame Butterfly.  But none of those were well-received in the beginning.

 Madame Butterfly premiered on February 17, 1904, at La Scala in Milan.  The audience hissed, booed, and even yelled.  Many walked out.  It was back to the drawing board for Puccini, who went to work on a revision.

 Several things had to be fixed.  The staging was abysmal.  He seemed to have fallen into a rut and this opera was too much like all the others.  The second act was ninety minutes long.  So first, he divided that act in half.  Then he added a different sort of musical piece called "The Humming Chorus" which became very popular.  Of course, the staging was fixed pronto, or should I say, "Presto!?"  Along with a few other minor changes, the second performance on May 24 was a grand success with extended applause, repeated encores, and ten curtain calls for Puccini himself. 

Suiting the audience is as it should be for operas, but can you imagine a church service that did the same?  Encores by the song leader, curtain calls by the preacher, and a long standing ovation before the final amen.  Of course not!  Pleasing the audience is not what a church service is about.  Or is it?

The problem is we mistake the performers for the audience.  You and I are not the audience.  God is.  We are the performers and it's our job to do whatever we can to please Him.  Puccini obviously liked his second act and all the staging, but his audience thought otherwise.  He fell all over himself trying to change things to please them.  When I pick a church because I enjoy (feel entertained by) the service, then I have missed the whole point.  I need to be choosing a church that acts as the New Testament has shown me is pleasing to God—whether I personally like what they do or not.  Which church is it that follows the guidelines set for pleasing Him? 

The question is not, and never should be, did the preacher/songleader/Bible class teacher perform well enough to please me ("What did I get out of it")?  The question is, and always should be, did I perform well enough to please my Audience—God. 

But the hour will come, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth John4:24.

Dene Ward

 On January 23. 1874, Prince Alfred, the son of Queen Victoria, married Marie Alexandrovna, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.  The marriage is pictured as a political one, an attempt to calm relations between Great Britain and Russia after the Crimean War, even though the couple had met when she was 15 and fell in love immediately.  Unfortunately, the couple's own developing friction between themselves began to undo those initial feelings and kept much from being accomplished politically.  The continued tensions in Asia and other realms, didn't help much either.  If ever there was an example it's this—what began as a passionate love affair ended with a philandering, and possibly polygamous, husband, and a princess-wife who was a spoiled Daddy's girl" who had absolutely no one in her new family or country who liked her  They stopped trying to please each other and spent their time pleasing themselves.  Even ropes of precious jewels, royal title after royal title, and crowns in her carefully done hair did not give this lonely woman a happy life.  Her oldest son eventually committed suicide and her unfaithful husband died one month after a diagnosis of throat cancer.

 But the rest of the world got something pretty nice from this affair.  For the wedding, two bakers, James Peek and George Hender Frean created the Marie biscuit in her honor.  "Biscuit" in England is what we Americans call a cookie.  (Our "biscuit" is what they call a "scone," simplistically speaking.)  This particular "biscuit" is lightly sweetened and crisp and became an instant hit.  They are still eaten today, even in other countries than England.  Spain has its own special version called Maria cookies.  We have friends from Zimbabwe who have them at tea most afternoons.  If you care to look, you will find recipes all over the internet. So this couple did not leave much of a dent in history, but their cookie did.  It might be a small legacy, but it is keeping their names alive, especially hers.

 What kind of a legacy are you leaving?  Will people still talk about you after you are gone?  I am old enough to have lost quite a few friends to death.  They certainly live on in my memory, but they also live on in the memory of others.  In our women's class we still talk about a widow who spent her last years putting things in order in the meetinghouse every Monday and Thursday.  Lesson plans and bulletin boards were carefully filed, and new letters for those same boards cut out when old ones had finally become too soft and raggedy to use again.  Even a couple of years after her death, we were finding notes she had left on walls and in the storage room about where to put what and how to use those letters without sticking holes in them with tacks!  Another good sister's name always came up when we were coordinating meal lists for the sick and bereaved.  We missed the dishes she always brought, and that made us stand and talk about our favorites of hers for a few more minutes.

 After both of my parents died, people came up to me again and again as we traveled, or sent me notes or emails when they heard the news, telling me about the wonderful things they had done.  I had grown up watching them serve, of course, but I never heard about the things they did in later years after the money crunch eased up some.  They bought pews and hymnals for small churches.  They would walk up to a preacher who had minimal support that he could lose with hardly any notice, and hand him a check "for something special."  They were the first to donate when a need arose.  And when my Daddy was dying, a hospice worker came to check on him one day, commenting on the big shop fan he had in his garage.  "Wish I had one of those," she said.  "Our air conditioner is out."  When she left that day, he insisted she take the fan.

 My mother passed 8 years after he did.  When I was writing her obituary, it suddenly dawned on me that every one of her children, grandchildren, and their spouses were all faithful Christians.  If ever there was a legacy that speaks on for years afterward, it's that one.

 So what are you leaving behind you?  It doesn't matter that you are still young.  When do you think my parents started working on their legacy?  It certainly wasn't a last minute chore.  Those legacies took years to create, and those years pass far more quickly than you will ever believe—until it happens to you.

 If my children and grandchildren remember my cookies, that's fine but I hope they remember the love that baked them.  And I certainly hope you and I both have a far better legacy to leave the world than a tea biscuit.

“Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.Deut4:9

Dene Ward

On January 14, 1973, Public Television aired the final episode of The French Chef, hosted by Julia Child.  It was the first cooking show of its kind on television and had aired for ten years.  Julia went on to write several books and host other shows, the last of which, Julia and Jacques, with Jacques Pepin, spawned a cookbook I have on my shelf.  If you want great instructions and well-prepared food, it's the one to have.  It is especially interesting to see the comparison between the two chefs' ways of doing the same dish.

 Julia was quite a personality.  She was born on August 15, 1912, to a well-off family, attending private schools throughout her growing up years, but expelled from one for insubordination.  Having watched her cook and listened to her give her opinions in sometimes humorous ways, I can well imagine that happening!  During World War II she was an agent for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.  She was six foot two and athletic.  Her role was the communication of top secret documents between government officials and intelligence officers.

 As an agent, she met her husband and fellow-agent Paul Child in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and they were married in September of 1946.  Paul was assigned to Paris, where Julia decided to attend Le Cordon Bleu, the famous cooking school.  Afterward, she and two fellow-students, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholie, wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking, from which Julia's television show came.  Suddenly, American women were cooking French food and reciting French phrases.

 One of those phrases has become common on every cooking show you will watch:  mise en place.  It is something that every cook does, whether they know the phrase or not, or even how to pronounce it.  It means "set in place," and refers to the practice of gathering every ingredient needed for a recipe in one place so you don't have to run back and forth to the pantry or the fridge throughout the cooking process.  We all do it.  In fact, I have taken it to the next level—I read through the recipe and if several things are added at the same time, I put them all in the same small bowl.  It is so much quicker and easier to throw in the required measure of cumin, coriander, fennel, salt and pepper from one custard cup than having to stand there measuring it out as you cook.  Sometimes those few seconds can make a difference in how things turn out.  And if, like mine, your pantry is across the room from the stand mixer or the range, you can wear yourself out going back and forth.

 All of this came to me one Sunday as my husband was preaching on the phrase "the Lord is at hand" from Phil 4:5.  Some say this is evidence that Paul was expecting Christ's return any day.  He was "at hand."  But no, what it means is that he is always with you.  You could reach out your hand and he would be there.  Just like all my ingredients, he is handy when I need him.  When life is difficult, he is there to comfort: when I am tempted, he is there to strengthen; when I am lonely, he is there to show me I am loved.  But it is also a reminder than wherever I go, he sees what I am doing.  When I am driving, he is in the seat next to me; when I am talking to my neighbor across the fence, he is standing there too; when I must face a situation that might develop into bad feelings, he is there reminding me to be gentle for the sake of a soul that needs saving.

And of course, the passage itself tells us how knowing he is so nearby should affect us.  We should rejoice—if one cannot rejoice in such knowledge, something is wrong!  We should not fret but pray—just turn right around and talk to this ever-present Lord!  Wouldn't it feel awkward if you were walking with someone all day long and never said a word to him?  We should be grateful, and such knowledge should grant us peace. 

 Mise en place might be a catchphrase for a chef, but it should mean everything to a Christian—a disciple of Christ.  The next time you gather all of your ingredients together for your favorite dish, remember who else is "at hand," sitting in place right next to you.

Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.  In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus, Phil 4:4-7.

Dene Ward

If Type 2 Diabetes has not become an epidemic in this country, I would be surprised.  Our poor diets, full of processed food, excess fat and sugar may very well be killing us.  It is actually possible to undo the effects of that disease with a little care and self-control.  My own mother managed to do that, in fact.

 Then there is Type 1 Diabetes, a far more serious problem.  I'm told that it has three stages, the final being the one that requires daily insulin injections.  Before insulin, diabetes was a death sentence possibly within months and seldom more than a year away.  It was treated with an extremely low carb diet, sometimes leading to literal starvation. 

 However, after years of research, Frederic Banting and Charles Best, working in the laboratory of John MacLeod, developed insulin.  On January 11, 1922, fourteen year old Leonard Thompson, a patient at Toronto General Hospital, drifting in and out of a diabetic coma, became the first patient to receive an insulin injection.  After the second within 24 hours, he had improved dramatically, and his blood glucose levels had dropped.  He went on to live thirteen more years, dying at 27, not of diabetes, but pneumonia.  Banting and MacLeod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1923.

 While Type 1 is an autoimmune disease, Type 2 is a metabolic disorder.  Although genetics can impact it, lifestyle is more the determining factor—diet and exercise—too many simple carbohydrates and not enough activity.

 The same thing can affect us spiritually—too much "smooth" (easy to eat and digest) teaching, and not enough exercise.  The Israelites were condemned for complaining to the prophets God sent, …Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceitsIsa30:10.  The Christians the Hebrews writer addressed were condemned for their lack of "exercise."   For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food…But solid food is for fullgrown men, [even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil Heb5:14.

 When you hear complaints like, "This Bible class is too hard," or, "too much work," "The preacher stepped on my toes," or "He wasn't uplifting," then a case of spiritual diabetes is soon to follow.  A dear friend of mine once told me, "I want to be challenged to do better, not patted on the head like a child and told I'm just fine the way I am."  Seems like Jesus thought that way too when, "loving" the rich young ruler, he told him, "One thing you lack" Mark 10:21.

 Too many carbs in your spiritual diet will give you a deadly case of spiritual diabetes.  Too many sit on pews in a diabetic coma, coming around only when the praise band gets loud enough.  Maybe it's time for a shot of spiritual insulin.

And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who when they were come thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.   Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were soActs17:11,11.

Dene Ward

 Most of us have heard of the Braille system of printing and writing used by the blind.  In several public places you will even see room numbers printed in Braille to the side of the door.  Since I have eye problems and could someday be blind, I have often put my fingers over those Braille numbers and tried to tell the differences between them.  Perhaps it is because I am not versed in the system at all, but I find it difficult to feel any pattern to those raised dots.  Maybe it's one of those things that becomes easier when you actually need it because it has certainly been used to great effect by millions of blind people.

 Braille was invented by Louis Braille, a Frenchman born on January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, France.  Louis invented the system when he was only 15 years old!  He was not born blind but became blind in one eye in an accident with a stitching awl in his father's harness making shop when he was three.  The eye became infected, and the infection spread to the other eye, causing blindness in both.  He attended a regular school until he was 10, learning by listening.   Then he received a scholarship to the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris.  While there he learned a 12 dot cryptography system from an army officer name Charles Barbier.  By the time he was 15, he had developed a similar but simpler system using only 6 dots, which could be read by using only one index finger.  It was introduced to his classmates in 1824 and used by them for several years.  Then a new director arose at the Institute and, in true bureaucratic style, he "banned it in 1840 because he was afraid that there would be no need for sighted teachers if everyone who was blind could read as a result of using Braille." Louis continued his education and actually taught at the same school.  He was forced to retire because of tuberculosis and died two days after his 43^rd birthday on January 6, 1852.

 Jesus dealt with all sorts of blind people.  Some were healed of their physical blindness, such as the man in John 9 who was born blind, but it was those who were spiritually blind who upset him the most.  For judgment came I into this world, that they that see not may see; and that they that see may become blind. Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said unto him, Are we also blind? Jesus said unto them, If you were blind, you would have no sin: but now you say, We see: your sin remains, John 9:39-41. 

 The prophets also talk about spiritual blindness.  Listen, you deaf ones! Take notice, you blind ones! My servant is truly blind, my messenger is truly deaf. My covenant partner, the servant of the LORD, is truly blind. You see many things, but don’t comprehend; their ears are open, but do not hear(Isa 42:18-20).  It isn’t just that some people cannot comprehend God’s word—they blind themselves to it when they do not want to see what it says. 

 Peter also mentions people who are spiritually impaired in 2 Pet 1:9.  For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins (2Pet 1:9).  And then we have Paul:  But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God(2Cor 4:3-4). And John as well:  But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes(1John 2:11).  You can find more passages about spiritual blindness than any of the other senses.

 We really do not need a system like Braille to see and understand God's Word.  What we need is an open mind and heart, one that wants to comprehend what God would have us do.  And that will not happen until we open those spiritual eyes as wide as possible, seeing, as James mentions, what is in the mirror and not forgetting what we see (James 1:23-24), but doing our best to change. But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does (Jas 1:25).

 Be careful when, in a spiritual discussion, you find yourself uttering the words, “I just can’t see that.”  It may be that you have become spiritually blind.

They do not comprehend or understand, for their eyes are blind and cannot see; their minds do not discern(Isa 44:18).

Information from the Foundation for Blind Children and the Imperial County (California) Office of Education.

Dene Ward