In 1854 the United States bought a rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay called Isla de los Alcatraces—the Isle of the Pelicans, originally a seabird haven founded by Juan Manuel de Ayala.  On August 11, 1934, 137 prisoners were installed there in what had been turned into a maximum security federal prison--Alcatraz.  Al Capone spent time there, as well as George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”  36 attempted to escape and were caught.  In 1962 three men did escape, and were never found.  To this day no one knows if they drowned in the cold bay waters or made it to safety and successfully hid.
 
             We don’t like to think about being a prisoner.  As Americans we bridle against anything that affects our freedom, our “rights.”  As Christians we proclaim that we have “freedom in Christ,” Gal 2:4; 5:1,13.  Maybe we were once “slaves of sin,” Rom 6:16-18, but no longer—we are free, free, free!

              Let’s just assume that we are free from sin, that we overcome more often than not, that it certainly isn’t a habit any longer.  Oh, if that were the only thing we needed to free ourselves of. 

               Far too many I know are still slaves of others’ opinions, of some rigid
sense of dignity, and of an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy when confronted once again with the mercy of a loving God. 

              Being inordinately worried about what others think is simply a brand of egotism.  We are placing our own expectations of them on a pedestal.  We are afraid of what they think about us, when they probably don’t think about us one way or the other.  Yet we hear one statement, view one action, and suddenly we concoct a whole scenario about their opinions of us that may or may not be—in fact, probably are not—true.  It rolls around in our minds over and over to the point that we cannot sleep, cannot eat, or we even make ourselves sick over it.  What did Jesus say to Peter when he asked about John’s future?  “What is that to you?”  We would do well to remember that line far more often than we do.  Stop being taken prisoner by others.  Fulfill your obligations to them, but do not try to take responsibility for theirs.  “What is that to you?”

              And then we find ourselves in the prison of dignity.  I vividly remember walking through the Philadelphia Zoo on the first weekend of our honeymoon.  It started to rain, and I was busy trying to find shelter “so my hair won’t get wet,” I told Keith. 

              “Who cares if your hair gets wet?” he asked as he grabbed my hand and we went running down the sidewalk in the rain.  We found our way back to our midtown hotel drenched, but laughing all the way.  When your dignity keeps you from enjoying life, from playing with your children, from worshiping your God, it’s time you let yourself out of prison.

              But the most ironic slavery we have placed ourselves in is also the saddest.  Here we have a God who loves us enough to die for us, yet we tie ourselves up in knots over our inability to repay Him.  Instead of joy over our salvation, we cringe when we think of our unworthiness.  We try and try and try to be perfect, always knowing it’s an impossible task, and so “hope,” instead of being the “full assurance” the New Testament teaches us, becomes a miserable “maybe.”  We find ourselves praying that when we die we will see it coming so we can fire off one last frantic prayer for forgiveness. 

              Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, 2 Cor 3:17.  Funny how some of these people who spend so much time worrying about whether they “do” enough for the Lord are some of the very ones who talk the most about the Holy Spirit.  My Bible says their fretting is a sure sign they don’t have the Spirit. 

              The New Testament plainly teaches that we are to have self-control.  That doesn’t just apply to alcohol, drugs, gluttony, sexual immorality, and the other “fleshly” sins.  For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved, 2 Pet 2:19.  Did you catch that?  It can be anything, whether sinful or not.  A relationship, an attitude, a habit, your upbringing, your past mistakes--whatever controls your life makes you its slave—its prisoner. 

              Let it go.  There is truly only one Master worth serving.
 
"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are expedient. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything, 1 Corinthians 6:12.
 
Dene Ward

Nothing annoys me much more than a chirping smoke alarm.  Yes, yes, yes, I tell it.  I know you need a new battery.  I will get to it as soon as I can.  But aren't we glad we have them?
 
             It has taken a long time for affordable, reliable, home smoke detectors to hit the market.  The first fire alarm was invented and patented by Francis Robbins Upton, a friend of Thomas Edison, in 1890.  George Andrew Darby of Birmingham, England invented the first smoke detector in 1902.  Both items were too basic to be reliable and marketable.  In the late 1930s a Swiss physicist named Walter Jaeger attempted to invent a poison gas detector.  It didn't detect the poison, but the smoke from his cigarette did set it off.  This one was too expensive to produce to have much impact on the market.

              I was finally able to find a patent given to inventors Randolph J. Smith of Anaheim, California and Kenneth R House of Norwalk, Connecticut on August 5, 1969.  Their model was evidently the first battery-powered residential model that was actually affordable and reliable.  It emitted a piercing alarm at the presence of smoke.  And yes, I suppose it did that annoying little chirping thing, too.

              Maybe it’s because I am the only one around here who even needs the smoke alarm.  Keith not only can’t hear the chirping, he can stand under the thing when it goes off and not hear it.  As long as I am in the house I can wake Keith up and get both of us out in time should a fire start.  If only the toaster and the broiler and the occasional spillover on the burners didn't set it off too.

              Warnings are often annoying.  How about the various beeps in your car?  For us, it’s just the ding-ding-ding when you leave the keys in, but I have friends whose cars ring, buzz, beep, or whoop-whoop-whoop when they back up too close to something, pull in too close to something, swerve a little too close to the lane markings, let their gas tanks get too low, open the wrong door at the wrong time…  Honestly, I don’t know how they stand to drive at all.

              But only a fool ignores warnings.  And there are quite a few of them out there—fools, that is.  Just try warning someone about losing their soul, and you may well lose a friend.  They get mad, they strike out with accusations about your own failings, they tell everyone how mean you are.  Trouble is, ignoring the warnings won’t get them anywhere they want to go. The danger is still there.

              If I don’t answer the call of the chirping smoke alarm with a new battery, I may very well burn to death one night.  Telling everyone how annoying the thing is won’t change that at all.  If I don’t answer the warnings of someone who cares enough about me to brave losing his reputation and being hurt, my end won’t change either.  It doesn’t matter whether I thought he was mean or whether he needed a warning just as badly as I did.  I know the first reaction is anger.  I’ve been there myself.  But anger never saved anyone, nor accusations, nor whining and fussing about my hurt feelings.  There is a whole lot more at stake than a few feelings.
 
             Heed the warning when you get it, no matter how you get it or from whom.  It may be the only one you get.  People aren’t like smoke alarms.  Not many of them will put up with your bad reactions.  They’ll either stop chirping now, or never chirp again.  Then what will you do when the fire starts?
 
"Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life, Ezekiel 33:2-5.
 
Dene Ward

I made a Peach Melba crisp this summer that was pretty good, and something a little different from your ordinary peach cobbler—fresh peaches, fresh raspberries, and a crunchy topping.  I knew the original Peach Melba dessert was named after Nellie Melba, Australian born soprano, but I did not know the whole story.  Even after some research, I still don't.  It's one of those he said/she said things, as well as a few problems with the dating.  But it goes something like this.
 
             Nellie toured the world in her prime.  She sang at the Met in New York, at Covent Garden in London, at the opera house in Paris, and at La Scala in Milan; she even sang for the tsars in Russia.  Covent Garden became one of her regular stops every musical season. 

            Nellie actually had a small repertoire for a diva—she only sang about 25 operatic roles—but one of them was Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin.  In fact, that might have been the only Wagner she sang.  The chef at the Savoy Hotel where she stayed while in London, Auguste Escoffier, was so enthralled with her rendition of Elsa, he named a dessert after hearing her, Peach Melba—peaches and raspberry sauce over vanilla ice cream.

              And here is where things get sketchy.  The last date I can find that Nellie sang Elsa in London in the early 1890s was July 27, 1891.  Supposedly, the very next day Escoffier created the dessert.  However, he says he did not meet her until 1893.  What is the solution?  Maybe he heard her that evening in 1891 and it took two more years for him to come up with the dessert.  Maybe it was a different role two years later that finally brought the dish into being.  Maybe he, or she, misremembered.  We do know this—he did name the dessert for her, and that is not the only thing this renowned chef named for Nellie.  There is also melba sauce, a puree of raspberries and red currants.  Then we have the ever popular melba toast, a crisp and dry—very,very dry—toast.  And finally Melba Garniture, which is chicken, truffles and mushrooms stuffed into tomatoes with a velote sauce.  Whatever you might think of Nellie's singing, she certainly inspired a lot of creativity in the kitchen.  Escoffier, in particular, was smitten.

              And that makes Nellie an eponym, a person after which something is named.  Many scientists and inventors are eponyms—Louis Pasteur, Alessandro Volta, Andre-Marie Ampere, Georg Ohm, Nikola Tesla, Karl Benz, and closer to home, Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds. 

              The Bible has a few eponyms too.  Everyone understands what we mean when we say, "She is a Jezebel."  That woman, whoever she may be, is a wicked, immoral person.  Or, "He's a Jonah," which means he is a jinx.  And of course, someone who is a "Judas" is a traitor.

              So if you were an eponym, what would your name have come to mean?  I find myself using the names of those who have gone on exactly that way at times.  When I see a woman who constantly serves others, who is in the kitchen cooking for someone practically every minute of every day, whether because they are ill or just because she wants to do something nice for them, who puts thousands of miles on her car taking people to the doctor, who sews, and repairs clothing for others, and who still manages to keep a spotless home, too, I say, "She is a Melvene Wallace."  If you were blessed enough to have known that good woman, you know exactly what I mean.

              When I see a kind, gentle man, who is always looking after others, visiting the sick and the widows, inviting college students into his home for a meal, helping others with such mundane tasks as digging sweet potatoes or stacking wood, taking literal boatloads of fathers and sons on fishing trips, scheduling his vacations around gospel meetings so he can attend every night, and always in a pew with a smile when the doors of the meetinghouse are open, I say, "He's another Cedell Fletcher."  And once again, if you had known him, you would instantly recognize the kind of man I mean.  I miss both of those people so much that some days it physically hurts.

              So here is your task for the day:  What would your name be an eponym for?  Recently, I had someone talk about hearing a "Dene-ism."  I am not sure what to make of that, except maybe I talk too much!  Some of us may not be known for anything particularly bad, like Jezebel, but are we known for anything at all?  If someone tried to describe us by our demeanor and actions, would anyone say, "Oh yes, I know her."  Or would they stand with a blank look on their faces, completely at a loss for words, "Who?"

              You don't have to be a famous singer like Nellie Melba.  You just have to be someone who does good for others in whatever way you can, whenever you can, for as long as you can.  If no one else can make an eponym out of you, God will.  You want it to be a good one.
 
Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:13-14)
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

In our culture, most history books are written to record events for posterity.  Often, great pains are taken to give a balanced, nonpartisan account of those events.  Sometimes history books are written with the aim of bolstering a political viewpoint, but largely academic histories are written with the intent to simply tell what happened.  This is not the way ancient historians wrote history.  From Herodotus to Plutarch and on to the end of the Roman Empire, histories and biographies were written to teach life lessons. A great man’s heroic qualities were held up to be emulated and his failures were studied to be avoided.  For some reason all this occurred to me as I was reading David McCullough’s book on the Wright brothers.  So I read the book to see what I could learn from it which could be applied to my life.

The Wright brothers were known for their work ethic and their patience.  The Wrights were industrious almost to a fault.  Before they took it upon themselves to invent aeronautics, they started a newspaper while still in their teens.  They started their bike shop, working 10-12 hour days, and then went home to work on renovating their house.  When they decided to learn how to fly, they continued to run their bike shop and worked on their flying machines in their spare time.  It took better than 10 years before they perfected their flight method.

Not only were the Wrights willing to work hard, but they were patient in the face of numerous setbacks. They first learned to control a glider in flight using a method of wing warping that closely mimicked what birds do to maintain balance in flight.  The theory was good, but implementation was an on-going process that involved several minor crashes.  They would get up, dust themselves off, repair the damage to their glider and make whatever revisions experience taught them were necessary.  

They discovered that the mathematical tables in text-books regarding the shapes wings needed to have to maintain lift were wrong.  They set about to re-do the experimental work necessary.   They built a small wind tunnel and spent many hours over a period of weeks making their determinations.  Once they had a successful powered flight, in 1903, they continued to work, finally showcasing their flyer before the world in 1909.  While others had made flights in the interim, the Wrights set and reset every record for length of flight, altitude achieved, and duration of flight while stunning all on-lookers with the complete control they had over their craft.  Their patient, steadfast work had borne fruit; they ushered in the age of mechanized flight.

I hope the application to the Christian life is obvious.  We are to patiently work for our Lord.  Not that our works can earn our salvation, no, but as servants of God, we are to be busily serving Him.  A few passages to make this point clear:

2 Tim. 2:15 “Give diligence to present yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.”

The word translated “give diligence” in the ASV is defined by Strong’s this way: make effort, be earnest, give diligent, endeavor. The bing internet dictionary defines diligence as “constant and earnest effort”. So, becoming an unashamed workman who can properly handle the word is an on-going struggle.  I can’t cram it down in one all-nighter.  It takes the patient work of years, overcoming many obstacles along the way, chiefly my own ignorance and arrogance.

But wait, there’s more:

Heb. 4:11 “Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience.”

Having just discussed that there awaits for us a more perfect rest (Heaven) than the rest obtained by the Israelites, the Hebrew writer enjoins us to work that patient work to ensure we can enter into that rest. Then there’s

2 Pet. 1:10 “Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never stumble”

Here Peter sums up his discussion of the “Christian virtues” by exhorting us to be diligent in our efforts to acquire those virtues ourselves. Why? So that we “never stumble”. Peter also tells us to be diligent to be found without spot or blemish in the day of the Lord:

2 Pet. 3:14 “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, give diligence that you may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight.”

So, from these few passages we can see that the Christian life involves diligent effort to learn to properly handle God’s word, diligent effort to obtain the virtues all Christians should share, diligent effort to be ready to meet the Lord, and diligent effort to enter into His rest.  It seems that the Wright brothers, with their patient and steady effort, make good role models for Christians, the difference being that our triumphant flight through the air won’t be in a bi-wing plane:

1 Thess. 4:17 “then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Lucas Ward

Eduard Friedrich Poeppig was born July 16, 1798 in Plauen, Germany.  He studied and qualified as a physician by 1822, but evidently that is not where his heart lay.  Immediately after graduation he made a 10 year expedition to the Americas, spending several years in Cuba, Philadelphia, and South America.  He was only the third European to travel the entire length of the Amazon River.
His trip was financed by several friends in return for plant specimens he discovered in each of the areas he visited.  In all he sent back or took home over 17,000 of them.  When he returned to Germany he became the Zoology professor at the University of Leipzig for the remainder of his life.

              One of the plants he discovered on a hillside in Chile was the amaryllis hippeastrum, one of the most beautiful plants in the world.  I have well over a dozen now, in a bed begun after a piano student gave me one for Christmas one year.  The deep solid red is probably the most common, but I have that and everything from pale pink and bright apricot, to stripes of white on red, pink, and apricot; pink throats on a pristine white, or white throats on deep orange or red as well.  They are gorgeous, but sometimes they don’t bloom, and that leaves me disappointed, usually with half the bulbs every year.  So I decided to find out what keeps amaryllises from blooming to see if I could remedy the problem.  Here is what I discovered and what I extrapolated.

              Amaryllises will not bloom in full shade.  They may not need full sun, especially in this sub-tropical environment, but they need enough light to draw that big thick stem up out of the bulb and through the soil and mulch.

              The New Testament tells us we need the Light, too.  John says that as long as we walk in the light, we won’t stumble (1 John 2:9-11).  It variously calls us sons of light and children of light; it says we are “of the day not the night.”  And because we have that Light and live in it, we then become “the light of the world.”  Certainly a Christian who does not live in the light will never bloom.

              Amaryllises need sufficient nutrients.  Just as a larger animal needs more food, this large flower needs good soil, and ample food and water.  Many of my amaryllis bulbs were as big as softballs when they came out of the package, and many of the blooms are broader across than some of Keith’s garden cantaloupes.  Especially in this poor sandy soil, we must be sure to supply the proper nutrition if we want anything to come out of it.

              We need nutrition too.  Peter tells us to “long for the pure spiritual milk that by it we may grow up into salvation” 1 Pet 2:2.  How can we do that if we neglect all the feeding opportunities our shepherds have offered us?  How can we do it when we shun the healthy spiritual food and feast on the junk in this life?  I have seen many brothers and sisters go hog wild with the organic, all-natural, non-preservative craze when taking care of their physical bodies, yet starve their spirits with skimpy servings and junk food.  No wonder their blooms are so scarce and puny.

              This might be surprising, but not allowing them to rest will also keep amaryllises from blooming.  You can force blooms at certain times of the year, but then you must prune both the stem and leaves and water them prodigiously until they go dormant.  Then leave them alone! 

              God did not rest on the seventh day because He was tired.  He rested because He was finished, but in that rest he also ordained a day of rest for His people.  Do you understand what that means?  In that ancient time, the common people lived hand to mouth and they worked sunup till sundown seven days a week just to survive.  But not God’s people.  As long as they observed their commanded Sabbath, He made sure they had plenty.  God knows what you need and sometimes you need to rest.  It may no longer be a religious observance, but it is certainly a matter of health.  And rest doesn’t mean going on a vacation that leaves you more worn out than rested.  It means a day with no schedule, no stressful situations, nothing hanging over your head that “just has to be done.”  Spend some time with your family—just one full day a week, any day—rest your body and your mind, and talk of the blessings God has given you all, especially the time you have to be together because He has taken such good care of you.

              And this last one really surprised me.  If you take your amaryllis bulbs out of the ground and store them in the refrigerator, you should not store them with apples.  Apples will make an amaryllis bulb sterile, or so I have been told.  Apples?  Apples are good things, right?  But even things that look good can make a plant sterile and unproductive it turns out. 

              Haven’t you seen the same thing happen to Christians?  They become so involved in things of this world, good things, that there is no time left for producing the fruit God wants from us.  Or they hang around with people who are not their spiritual brothers and sisters to the point that what matters most to those people becomes what matters most to them.  Other people, people who do not understand that we are to encourage one another and build one another up spiritually, who care nothing for the spiritual warfare we are involved in, who would, in fact, think you are nuts to even talk about such a thing, can hinder your productivity for the Lord.

              So take a look at your amaryllises today if you have them.  Think about the things that affect those gorgeous blooms.  See if any of them are affecting you too.
 
And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful, Titus 3:14.
 
Dene Ward
 

In 1950, Tulsa police officer Clinton Riggs produced the first Yield sign.  It was yellow and keystone-shaped—I actually think I remember some of those in the deep dark recesses of my mind.  That first one was placed at the corner of 1st Street and Columbia Avenue, one of the most dangerous intersections in Tulsa at the time.  The Yield sign worked like this:  Drivers were expected to slow to 10 mph and look for other vehicles before proceeding through the intersection.  If an accident occurred after the driver went through the intersection, it was automatically assumed that he had violated the law.

              Officer Riggs was born July 15, 1910.  After serving with the Tulsa Police Department for three years he then joined the Highway Patrol in 1937.  During World War II he served as an intelligence officer for the Army Air Corps, and then returned to the police department afterwards.  Somewhere along the way he got his law degree from the University of Tulsa.  He retired from the department in 1970 and passed away in 1997.  Quite a life, but he is remembered by us all as the father of the yield sign.

              The Bible has its own yield sign and it works pretty much the same way.  We are to "subject ourselves one to another" Eph 5:21.  We are to give up our rights, even take wrong (1 Cor 6:7), for the sake of our brother (Rom 14; 1 Cor 8).  We are to count others as "better than ourselves" Phil 2:3.  And why?  Because that is what the Lord we claim to follow did.  "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus."  He yielded his rights as Deity when he became human and he did it for us.

              Some of the men's business meetings I have heard about need to post a yield sign on the wall.  The conduct in them grieves the Holy Spirit and disgusts the Father who watches his children's actions.  But that's not the only place we need a sign.  Anywhere we push our opinions, demand our rights, and look down our noses on any who disagree with us are dangerous intersections where a collision could easily result in a spiritual death. 

              Anyone who has a collision with another soul after going through an intersection where a yield sign is posted, is automatically deemed guilty of breaking the law.  God's law:  Yield right of way.
 
And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. (1Cor 8:11-12)
 
Dene Ward

On June 6, 1933, Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive-in theater.  Camden, New Jersey, was its home and the price was twenty-five cents per car per person.  That night the movie was "Wives Beware."

               I remember those theaters well.  Across the river from our small town, an only slightly larger town boasted one that offered a double feature for $1 a carload.   It was thirty years later so naturally the price had risen, but still, what a deal!

              Our family usually arrived about fifteen minutes early to procure the best spot.  If you were too close all we kids in the backseat could see were headless actors.  But you certainly didn’t want to end up on the back row or next to the concession stand amid all sorts of distractions.

              Once you found a decent spot, you checked the speaker before anything else.  If it didn’t work, and some did not, you went on the hunt again.  Once the speaker situation was in order you spent a few minutes edging up and down the hump to raise the front half of the car to just the right angle so the line of sight worked for everyone.  (That first New Jersey drive-in did not have the hump.  I am not sure how anyone actually saw the movie.)  Then you had to deal with obstructions.  Our rearview mirror could be turned completely vertical, but other cars had one you could fold flat against the ceiling.  Headrests on the front seat would have been a catastrophe, but no one had them back then so we avoided that problem altogether.

              Now that set-up was complete, we rolled down the windows so we could get any breeze possible in that warm humid night air.  Along with the chirping crickets, the croaking frogs, and the traffic passing on the street behind the screen, we also had to put up with buzzing mosquitoes.  My mother usually laid a pyrethrum mosquito coil on the dashboard and lit it, the smoke rising and circulating through the car all during the movies, the coil only half burned when the second “THE END” rolled down the screen.

              At that price we never saw first run movies.  Usually they were westerns with John Wayne or Glenn Ford or Jimmy Stewart, or romantic comedies with Rock Hudson and Doris Day.  Occasionally we got an old Biblical epic like David and Bathsheba or Sodom and Gomorrah, both about as scripturally accurate as those westerns were historically accurate, which is to say, not very.  The only Disney we got was Tron, but that was back when it was a bomb not a cult classic.  Still, we enjoyed our family outing every other month or so.

              And we got one thing that I am positive no one born after 1970 ever got.  When the screen finally lit up about ten minutes before the movie started, after the Coming Attractions and ads for the snacks at the concession stand—and oh, could we smell that popcorn and butter all night long—was the following ad, complete with voiceover in case you missed the point.  “CH__ CH.  What’s missing?  U R.  Join the church of your choice and attend this Sunday.”  And that was not an ad from any of the local denominations—it was a public service announcement!

              But this is what we all did—instead of being grateful that anything like that would even be put out for the general public, we fussed about its inaccuracy.  We were bad, as my Daddy would say, about living in the objective case.  When that’s all you see, you miss some prime teaching opportunities.

              So let’s get this out of the way first.  It isn’t our choice, it’s God’s.  It is, more to the point since he built it and died for it, the Lord’s church.  We should be looking not for a church that teaches what we like to hear, but what he taught, obeying his commands, not our preferences.  And you don’t “join” it.  The Lord is the one who adds to the church, the church in the kingdom sense, which is the only word used in the New Testament for what we in our “greater” wisdom call the “universal” sense.  But that’s where we miss the teaching opportunity because for some reason we ignore this verse:

              And when [Saul] was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: and they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple, Acts 9:26.

              Did you see that?  Immediately after his conversion, Saul tried to join a local group, what we insist on calling “placing membership” in spite of that phrase never appearing anywhere in the text.  (For people who claim to “use Bible words for Bible things” we are certainly inconsistent.)  The New Testament example over and over is to be a part of a local group of believers—not to think you can be a Christian independent of any local congregation or simply float from group to group. 

              Why do people do that?  Because joining oneself to a group involves accountability to that group, and especially to the leadership of that group.  It involves serving other Christians.  It involves growing in knowledge.  It means I must arrange my schedule around their meetings rather than my worldly priorities.  The New Testament is clear that some things cannot be done outside the assembly.  I Cor 5:4,5; 1 Cor 11 and 16, along with Acts 20 are the obvious ones.  That doesn’t count the times they all came together to receive reports, e.g. Acts 14:27, and plain statements like “the elders among you” which logically infers a group that met together.  Then there are all those “one another” passages that I cannot do if there is no “one another” for me to do them with.

              We are called the flock of God in several passages.  You may find a lone wolf out in the wild once in awhile, but you will never find a lone sheep that isn’t alone because he is anything but lost.  It is my responsibility to be part of a group of believers.  We encourage one another, we help one another, we serve another.  Our pooling our assets means we can evangelize the city we live in, the country we live in, even the world.  It means we can help those among us who are needy.  It means we can purchase and make use of tools that we could not otherwise afford.  It means we can pool talents and actually have enough members available for teaching classes without experiencing burn-out.  It means we are far more likely to find men qualified to tend “the flock of God among them.”

              So while God may add me to the kingdom when I submit to His will in baptism, it is my duty to find a group of like-minded brothers and sisters and serve along side them.  Serve—not be served.  Saul had a hard time “joining himself” to the church in Jerusalem because of his past, but Barnabas knew it was the right thing for him to do and paved the way.           

              CH__CH.  What’s missing?  Is it you?
             
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all, 1 Thes 5:11-14
 
Dene Ward

The first time I ever voted we used something called the Meyers Automatic Booth.  I walked in, pulled a lever which simultaneously closed the curtain and enabled the machine, pulled more levers to vote, then pulled a last one to both open the curtain and disable the machine, rotating the voting and recording mechanisms to be ready for the next voter and to keep the previous votes from being tampered with.  I was surprised to discover that the system was first used in Lockport, New York eighty years before.  Then I found out that Thomas Edison’s first patent, registered on June 1, 1869, was for an electric voting machine.  So why wasn’t that being used?  Because no one wanted to.  Perhaps it was mistrust, surely neither the first nor the last time that word has been used with the word “politics.”
              As of 1996, 1.6% of the registered voters in the United States were still using something called the Australian ballot, an official uniform printed ballot first used in Australia in 1856.  In our tiny rural county, we have used an Australian ballot for the past thirty years, voting in a three-sided cubical set on four long wobbly aluminum legs, marking the long piece of paper with a black pen.  Yet I think the mistrust is still there for people no matter how simple or how complex the voting method.
              Politics, probably because of the mistrust it engenders, has become an excuse for bad behavior, even in Christians.  Because we disagree with a politician’s morals, because we can cite scripture to prove that they are sinful, we think we have the right to revile, vilify, disrespect, and show contempt for the public figure who practices them.  God says those very actions are sin themselves.
              Camp awhile in Romans 13:1-7.  We often use that passage to justify capital punishment.  The ruler “bears not the sword in vain” v 4, but the same passage will condemn us if we are not careful.
              Romans 13 tells us to “be subject to the governing authorities” v 1.  It tells us to pay our taxes, vv 6,7.  And yes, it tells us that the civil government is “the avenger of God” on the criminal element of society, v 4.  It also tells us that we are to respect and honor that government, v 7.  In fact, it says that to do otherwise is to resist God and to invite his wrath, vv 2,5.  Remember, Paul was writing this to people under the rule of the Caesars, grossly immoral men who actively persecuted them.  If it applied then, it certainly applies in a democracy.
              We are blessed to live in a society that allows us to vote our convictions.  But the freedom of speech guaranteed by our constitution does not undo the principles God gave for how to speak about that government, any more than the laws it might pass undo the inherent immorality of abortion.  God still expects us to honor and respect our rulers, even if they won’t put us in jail for doing otherwise.
              Why?  Because God is the one who put them in power.  “Whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed, and whoever resists will incur judgment” v2.  God had a reason for putting that particular man in charge at that particular time.  We may not understand that reason, but it is God’s reason, and He expects our submission. 
              Jesus said to Pilate, the man who turned him over to a murderous mob, “You would not have power over me except it were given you from above,” John 19:11.  God had a plan for Pilate, and in hindsight we can see that he fulfilled his purpose.  God has plans for every ruler of every physical nation on earth.  Christians accept God’s plan whether it makes sense to them or not.
              Habakkuk had a similar problem.  God told him the Babylonians would come to destroy Israel for their wickedness.  “How can you do that?” Habakkuk asked.  “Yes, your people have sinned, but how can you allow a nation even more wicked to destroy them?”  God’s answer seems almost like a non sequitur.  “The righteous shall live by his faith” 2:4.  Trust me, God was saying, I know what I am doing.
              Even today, as our country looks like it is falling farther and farther away from God, we have the same answer from God.  “Trust me.  Live a righteous life and let your faith in me and my decisions get you through this.”  The way we treat the rulers God has placed over us shows exactly how much faith we have in God.  It is that simple.
              If we lived under the Law of Moses, many churches would find their rolls decimated--many of their members would have been stoned for “reviling” their rulers, Ex 22:28; 1 Kgs 21:13.  I hear it all the time.  We cannot say it was different then because the rulers were righteous.  You can count on your ten fingers the righteous men who ruled God’s people and have digits leftover.  That law applies because of the chain of command.  They only rule at God’s purpose and pleasure.  To revile them is to revile God, just as Paul reminded those Christians who would someday be persecuted to death by the same rulers.
              We are blessed to live in a country where we have the right to vote.  Be sure you do that very thing, voting your morality and your righteous beliefs.  Then trust God and don’t speak against Him when the results are announced.  He knows what He is doing.
 
 
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’ (Dan 4:17)
…till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. (Dan 4:25)
…until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” (Dan 4:32)
…until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. (Dan 5:21)
For God is the King of all the earth: Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations: God sits upon his holy throne. Psa 47:7-8
 
Dene Ward

On May 22, 1990, Donald Rose and Daniel Wilkins were charged with the robbery and murder of William Dabbs. They were members of the East Coast Crips gang and Wilkins teased Rose that he had not yet proven himself.  He handed him a .22 and together they headed for rival gang territory.  Along the way they ran into Dabbs at a phone booth where he was trying to find a ride after his buddy had been picked up by the Highway Patrol and he was left behind.  The cousin on the phone heard an argument and two gun shots.  Several months later, Dabbs having died at the hospital of a gunshot wound to the stomach, Daniel Wilkins confessed to aiding and abetting Donald Rose in both the robbery and murder.   Donald Rose did not confess, and at a trial was later found not guilty.  Wilkins, having already confessed was sent to prison.
            He appealed.  How could he aid and abet a crime where the other was found not guilty?  The California Penal Code reads:  All persons concerned in the commission of a crime…whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission, or, not being present, have advised and encouraged its commission…are principals in any crimes so committed."  Federal law, 18 USC Section 2, states that anyone who aids or abets another in the commission of a crime can be punished as though he committed the crime himself.
            I wonder if we realize how many times we aid and abet the enemy of the cross?  Usually we are too wrapped up in ourselves to comprehend the perceptions of others and the effects on them.  Our American “rights” tell us we can do and say as we please and it’s no one else’s business.  When you become a Christian, you give up those rights.  The rights of others always supercede yours.
            How do people perceive you in a crisis?  Are you the one who stays calm?  The one whose language never slips?  The one who refuses to fall into a pit of despair?  What happens when you are caught in a mistake?  Do you lie about what happened?  Do you blame others, or do you calmly assume responsibility, offer an apology, and work hard to rectify the mistake?  When you see a person in need, do you step in and offer help?  Do you treat others well, regardless how they treat you?  Do you give to all, not just your friends?  How do you handle disagreements or insults?  A Christian never bases his behavior on how others have treated him, but upon what is right and what is wrong.  “But he made me mad,” means someone else is controlling you, and Christians always practice self-control.
            If you have ever claimed to be a Christian, these things can very well effect whether anyone will ever listen to you again, or even whether anyone else from the church will ever reach those people.  Too many times I have talked to people only to have them tell me about “someone from your church who…”  Our behavior may have successfully aided the Devil in capturing one more soul.
            Sometimes when we think we are doing the Lord’s work, we are really aiding the enemy.  When you talk to people about the church and the gospel, how do you go about it?  It may be extremely uncomfortable, but also eminently practical, to ask others how you are perceived when you teach, when you preach, or just in casual conversation.  Do you notice how many times you use the word “I?”  Do you know whether you tend to be loud or sound bossy?  Does your manner reek of arrogance or sarcasm?  Do you go on far too long, drowning important soul-saving concepts in a sea of words?  When you talk to folks who aren’t Christians (sometimes even when they are), you can’t count on them to be spiritual enough to endure the off-putting habits you might have.  Am I too proud to learn to do better?  If so, I have just aided and abetted the Enemy of the cross of Christ by refusing to “become all things to all men.”
            Most people who try to edify others and save the lost are good-hearted individuals who have no idea they come across in these ways.  They would never knowingly aid and abet the enemy of our Savior.  But that enemy is smart—he will use our weaknesses to his own advantage.  Nothing is said or done in a vacuum.  If you aren’t helping the cause of the Lord, you are hurting it, and it can happen even when you think you are doing His will, just by failing to notice what is going on or refusing to listen to those who might have some pretty good advice about how to better go about it.  Don’t commit treason against the Lord.
 
To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the gospel's sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof. 1 Cor 9:22-23

I did not watch any television to speak of for about twenty years.  A few football games here and there, and a couple of educational shows while the children were small meant that I knew more Sesame Street characters than characters on any of the popular series.   I suppose the last shows I remembered well before then were the original Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and Hawaii Five-O.

              A few years ago I turned on some show—I don’t even remember what is was—and I nearly went crazy.  The scene shifted every thirty seconds.  You no longer had dialogue that built dramatic tension over a five minute time span.  Instead you had 15 seconds of verbal staccato followed by an explosion or a gunfight or a chase scene.  They tell me this is all because of the video game generation—people who cannot sit still longer than a minute at a time without some sort of excitement to keep the adrenaline pumping.  In fact, in the spring of 2015, a Microsoft Insights Group reported that humans now have an attention span even shorter than a goldfish.  Time Magazine reported their findings in their May 14, 2015 issue.  In the next couple of years, several people debunked the findings.  After all, it was aimed at advertisers, didn't even define "attention span" in a scientific way, and when you examine it closely, the study is not based on any recognizable research at all. 

             But let's just assume for the sake of argument that our attention spans have shortened a bit over the past couple of decades—maybe not as small as a goldfish's but a little bit.  Maybe I am an old fogy, but it seems to me that instead of accommodating it, we should be teaching people how to overcome it. 

              The problem with short attention spans is that you do not listen long enough to get below the subject’s surface.  God spent 1500 years writing a book that you cannot read and understand in fifteen second bursts.  He has already accommodated us with an incredible sacrifice.  Seems to me we could learn to accommodate him and the way he communicates with us.

              Parents, have you even thought about helping your children develop a longer attention span and a desire for greater depth in their studies?  Instead of saying, “He just can’t sit still,” how about saying, “Sit still!”  Instead of saying, “I can’t get them to listen,” say, “Listen!  This is important!”  Or don’t we believe it is? 

              Yes, I know all about ADHD.  I have a son who has it.  The doctor said that the reason he was so well-behaved and did so well in school in spite of it was because he had a verbal, educated family that believed in loving discipline.  Was it easy? No, but no one ever said parenting was supposed to be.  It takes patience and diligence—a long parental attention span!

              It isn’t merely my idea of what does and does not constitute good behavior.  I worry about children who cannot sit still long enough to learn a Bible lesson and the accompanying applications to their lives; who cannot concentrate long enough to memorize a verse that might help them in a tempting moment; who actually think the world revolves around them and needs to run on their frenetic schedule with a lot of excitement or it isn’t worth their notice.  Keith has a lot of them sit across the desk from him in the prison—they usually have manacles on.

              How do you think Moses managed 40 days of taking dictation from God on Mt. Sinai?  How did Joshua abide the boredom of marching around Jericho everyday for six days, much less seven times on the seventh?  How could Paul have fasted and prayed for three days straight without needing to get up and run around for awhile?  How could those early churches sit and listen to an entire epistle being read to them at one sitting, and actually make heads or tails of it?  How in the world did Noah spend 120 years building a giant box no one had ever seen before and couldn’t imagine the need for?  Would any of this generation be able to?

              Prayer requires long quiet moments with God.  Meditation requires thoughtful time with the word of God.  Commitment requires a lifetime of doing what needs to be done even when it is tedious and you don’t want to do it.  Help your children learn those things.  Don’t give in to yet another method for Satan to steal them away from us.
 
So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. Neh 8:2,3.                         
 
Dene Ward