On July 14, 1993, six year old Alex Donley died from eating a hamburger contaminated with E.coli. at a family backyard barbecue. He suffered for four days with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a kidney disease that comes with the worst E.coli infections.  It shredded his intestines, liquefied portions of his brain and destroyed his hypothalamus.  His mother Nancy has chosen to fight for improvements to the safety of the US food system ever since, and I imagine every one of us has followed the rules that have come about from incidents like this tragic loss. 
            One time I opened the cooler and looked down into the plastic bin inside and saw a bloody mess.  Immediately my mind went into salvage mode.  We were camping, living out of a cooler for nine days, and couldn’t take any chances, even if it did cost us a week’s worth of meals.  As it turns out, the problem was easily solved.
            Whenever we camp, because space is short for that much food and eating out is not an option, I take all the meat for our evening meals frozen.  The frozen meat itself acts as ice in the cooler, keeping the temperature well down in the safe zone, and we use it as it thaws, replacing it with real ice.  I learned early on to re-package each item in a zipper freezer bag so that as it thaws the juices don’t drip out and contaminate the other food and the ice we use in our drinks.  We also put the meat in plastic tubs, away from things like butter, eggs, and condiments—just in case.  That’s what saved us this time.
            Somehow the plastic bag in which I had placed the steaks had developed a leak, but all those bloody red juices were safely contained in the white tub, and the other meats were still sealed.  I removed the bin from the cooler, put the steaks in a new bag, dumped the mess and cleaned the bin and the outside of the other meat bags, then returned the whole thing to the cooler, everything once again tidy and above all, safe.
            We all do the same things in our kitchens.  After handling raw meat, we wash our hands.  We use separate cutting boards for meat and vegetables meant to be eaten fresh.  And lately, they are even telling us not to wash poultry at all because it splashes bacteria all over the kitchen.
            We follow all these safety rules for our familys' health, then think nothing of cross-contaminating our souls.  What do you watch on TV?  What do you look at on the internet?  Where do you go for recreation?  No, we cannot get out of the world, but we can certainly keep it from dumping its garbage on the same countertops we use to prepare our families’ spiritual meals.  There is an “off” button.
            Maybe the problem is that these things are not as repulsive to us as they should be.  The Psalmist said, I have not sat with men of falsehood; Neither will I go in with dissemblers. I hate the assembly of evil-doers, And will not sit with the wicked. I will wash my hands in innocency: So will I compass your altar, O Jehovah; Psalms 26:4-6.  Can we say our hands are clean when we assemble to worship God after spending a week being titillated by the sins of others?
            Little Alex Donley is a horribly sad story, but maybe if we followed some basic spiritual safety rules as carefully as we do those for our physical health, maybe we would lose fewer to cross-contamination of the soul.
 
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. Ephesians 5:11-12
 
Dene Ward

So you're hungry and decide to make yourself a quick sandwich.  Do you realize what a luxury that is?  A hundred years ago you had to either bake your own loaf of bread or go buy a whole loaf and then come home and slice it yourself.  Bakeries did not have a machine that could slice warm bread or even slice cold bread evenly.  A man named Otto Rohwedder fixed that problem. 
            Born in Des Moines, Iowa, he later moved to Davenport as a child, and eventually entered the Illinois College of Optometry.  After graduation he became a jeweler in St. Joseph, Missouri.  But he always had the dream of a machine that could slice warm bread.  Everyone told him he was crazy and no one took him seriously.  But he never let go of his dream, working at it in his spare time, even building a small factory.  One day his factory burned down, destroying both the prototype and the blueprints for his invention; his idea was put off yet again.  Finally, he came up with another prototype, a machine that would slice bread straight out of the oven without squashing it.  But no one would buy the machine.  They didn't believe it would work.
            Finally, Frank Bench, the owner of the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri, ordered one of the machines.  He sold his first loaf of sliced bread on July 7, 1928.  His bread sales increased 1000% in just two weeks.  Word spread and orders came in from across the country for Rohwedder's machine.  He had changed bread baking.  In fact, in 1943, President Roosevelt tried to ration sliced bread.  A vocal rebellion among homemakers changed his plan.  In 1951, comedian Red Skelton coined the phrase, "The best thing since sliced bread," showing just how momentous this invention was—the phrase has stuck since then.
            Indeed, change can be momentous, especially a change in thinking.  In ancient times, most people did their best to stay out of the limelight, avoiding anything that might make the gods notice them.  Gods, to the pagans, were beings who had no love for mortals and played with them like a cat with a mouse—just before pouncing for the kill.  So no one wished to be noticed by the gods.  In fact, the best life you could hope for was not to be noticed by the gods. 
          Then along came people like the apostle Paul, teaching them about a God who actually cared about them.  A God who loved them and wanted to help them and even be with them forever.  A God who would send His Son to die so all of those things could happen.  Is it any wonder that they flocked to hear about Him?  A God who would do this for you, and who promised you would live with Him in glory for Eternity, was a God worth devoting yourself to, spending your life serving, and even dying for.  And many did, in some truly horrible ways.
            To the Jews He was presented as a God who kept His promises to their father Abraham, and who would bring a kingdom that lasted forever and which no earthly kingdom could destroy.  And His Son, the promised Messiah, also died for a covenant that meant no more Day of Atonement, no more daily sacrifices, no more Passover, because, "Your sins I will remember no more."  No more weight of guilt in your life—another momentous change.
            And our grandmothers thought sliced bread was great?  Sliced bread shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as our God.  He can change your life in ways you never thought possible, and loves you far more than you deserve.  …remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me (Isa 46:9).
 
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:7-8).
 
Dene Ward
 
 
 

The Battle of Springfield, during the American Revolution, was fought on June 23, 1780, in Essex County, New Jersey.  Though not completely documented, it is widely believed that George Washington, the Commander of the Continental Army, slept at the Timothy Ball home during that battle, as well as on other occasions.  Since he was considered a fugitive who, had he been captured by the British, would have been hung for treason, he was careful about writing down exactly where he stayed.  Yet the rumor persists that he not only stayed at that house, but to keep his horse from being seen outside by enemy spies, he actually kept it in the home's kitchen! 
            The Bible tells us of another person who opened her home to an important man.  And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem where was a great woman, 2 Kings 4:8.
            Shunem was a town in the tribal lands of Issachar, three and a half miles north of Jezreel, the home of the summer palace for the kings of Israel.  If you have a newer translation, you already know that, at least in this passage, “great” means “wealthy.”  Yet this woman was great in our own vernacular as well.
            The very fact that she recognized Elisha as a man of God and wanted to help him was amazing in itself.  Israel was headed headlong into rampant idolatry and immorality.  Jehoram reigned, a son of Ahab, a king of whom the scriptures say, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.  Although he put away Ahab’s pillar to Baal, nevertheless he clung to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it (3:2,3).
            This woman, in the midst of an apostate people, managed to remain faithful to Jehovah, to recognize his servant and to offer him a permanent room on his journeys.  This was not a spare room in the house, but one she added, increasing the expense of it.  It began with her invitation to a meal, then another, and another any time he passed by.  He couldn’t offer her a schedule or phone ahead.  The terms were always “whenever.”  Thus it began and grew to the greater commitment of a furnished room.
            Unlike so many other examples of Biblical hospitality, she was the instigator, not her husband, and she did it without looking for a return.  Indeed, when a thank you gift was offered, she was surprised.  I dwell among my own people, she said, indicating she did not think herself special or worthy at all.  This utter humility of a wealthy person is amazing when you see the opposite in so many today.  And how many of us would be expecting not only a hostess gift, but the singing of our praises to others as well?  She seemed to view Elisha as the worthy one, not herself.
            Truly, her greatness was about her faith.  She served Elisha, not to gain glory but because he was “a man of God.”  She recognized that wealth was to be used in service to God not to self.
            Several years later Elisha did her a great favor, warning her of a coming famine.  Arise and depart with your household and sojourn wherever you can, he told her.  It will come upon the land for seven years (8:1).
            How many of us would have the faith to leave everything at one word, not knowing whether we would ever get it all back?  Wealth was measured in belongings in those days, land and crops and flocks and herds, not in bank accounts, investments, and stock portfolios.  She could take none of it with her.  When she left, she virtually impoverished herself.  Would we do the same, or does it all mean just a little too much to us?
            God in his providence took care of this faithful woman.  When she returned to the land seven years later and made petition to the country’s wicked king, Elisha’s old dishonored servant Gehazi “just happened” to be there, entertaining the king with stories about his days with the old prophet.
            “Why look here!” he told the king.  “This is the woman I told you about,” and being in a generous frame of mind, the king restored her land along with all the produce of the fields from the day she left till now (8:3-6).
            That “great” woman had no idea she would get it all back.  Elisha had never promised her anything except her life and her family’s lives if she left.  But she was so “great”—wealthy—in faith that God chose to reward her.
            Don’t make any mistake about it.  We fit the bill; we are the wealthy ones the scriptures talk about.  How is our faith these days?  Is it “great” or impoverished?  Are we rich toward the world or “rich toward God” (Luke 12:21)?  We show the answer by how we use our monetary wealth.  We show it by how we expect to be treated by others who are less fortunate.  We show it by the importance we place on it.
            Timothy Ball was willing to house a man important in only worldly terms.  But how would we measure up against this “great” woman who understood the spiritual far better than we sometimes do?
 
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. 1 Tim 6:17-19
 
Dene Ward
 

Old St Thomas was a town originally settled by members of the Mormon Church.  When a land survey in 1871 shifted the Nevada state line to include the town and it was no longer in either Utah or Arizona, the church members abandoned it rather than pay the back taxes in gold that Nevada was demanding.  Soon others moved in and claimed both the lands and the buildings and the town continued on, booming to a population of 500.  Then the waters of Lake Mead began rising and it became apparent that Old St Thomas would soon be inundated.  Once again people began to leave.  Finally, on June 11, 1938, Hugh Lord, the last remaining resident left as well.  The "doors" to Old St Thomas were shut for good.
            I can't imagine a greater tragedy than the doors to the Lord's church closing.  Over our many years, several of the places we have been all those years ago have done exactly that.  In other places we know about, the membership has been cut in half and is continuing to dwindle.  The ones left are the elderly.  Where will they be in ten more years?  Sadly, they will probably go the way of Old St Thomas, with the doors closing after the last funeral has been held.  So what to do about it?
            The first thing is to realize that it is not the preacher's job alone.  What happened when the Jerusalem church was scattered?  …And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles…They therefore that were scattered abroad, went about preaching the word (Acts 8:1,4).  Those who were scattered—the ordinary members—went everywhere spreading the Word.  The preachers, in this case the apostles, stayed in Jerusalem! 
            It is up to us.  If our coworkers and neighbors don't know we are Christians, why not?  We are to live in such a way that we look different and people ask about it.  If that has not happened to you, perhaps you need to examine your life.  We are to talk about our church family—not complain about them, but tell others how wonderful it is to be a part of a group who loves you and cares about you, who come running when there is a need, and that means we need to learn to be that group if we aren't.  And we should be so steeped in the Word of God that it cannot help but come out of our mouths any time we talk.  How else can we be ready always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you (1Pet 3:15).
            Many gospel preachers labor valiantly in places where the growth has been slow or nonexistent for years, where the old-timers talk about how it used to be in the old days and blame the recent loss of numbers on anyone but their own lack of effort.  But even if the effort is there, the work may seem pointless.  Be careful about your judging.  Ultimately, we are not responsible for the numbers.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase, 1 Cor 3:6.  Just do your work, making no apologies for it, and trust God to do his part.  In one place Keith worked, he advertised a correspondence course and a young man obeyed the gospel because of it.  Every week after that he sat on a pew and worshipped with the others, but a couple of men in the business meeting wanted to do away with outreach programs like the correspondence course and an article in the local weekly paper.  "It does no good," they said, with that young man sitting there among them.  I wonder how that made him feel?  Even one soul is worth whatever effort it takes to save him. 
            Let's work the work, trust the Lord, and do our best to keep those doors open.  Interestingly, Old St Thomas has begun to reappear as the waters of Lake Mead recede.  It is now considered a historic site run by the National Park Service.  There are too many congregations relegated to history as it is.  Let's not add any more.
 
They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers…And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved (Acts 2:41, 42, 46,47).
 
Dene Ward
 

On May 10, 1736, Charity Hospital opened in New Orleans.  Jean Louis, a French sailor and shipbuilder, left all his savings, which in that day amounted to about $1600, to build a hospital for the poor and uninsured people of New Orleans.  Located in the French Quarter, other hospitals were added to the conglomerate until by 1939 it was the second largest in the country with 2680 beds.  It was also one of the longest continuously operating hospitals in the United States until it was hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 
            And in case you didn't know, there were no hospitals at all in the entire world until the advent of the Christian Era.  In the last part of the fourth century, Basil of Caesarea founded the first hospital, a Christian hospital.  Monastic orders added hospitals to their monasteries in the fifth and sixth centuries.  Missionaries went on to found the first hospitals in China and Japan in the 1800s.  It was not until the eighteenth century that hospitals began to be secularized.  Say what you will, Christianity brought many good things to a world that was focused on the survival and good of self.  Suddenly, someone else cared about you, even if you were poor or sick.  Try that in a pagan society.
            It has often been said that the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.  I am not sure we believe that.  I have seen too many unwelcoming saints in my lifetime, those who would limit where they even offer the gospel at all—we want nice, middle class, nuclear families with no big problems.  "They would really help our contribution," I have also heard people comment about certain visitors.  If that isn't a mercenary motive for spreading the gospel, I don't know the meaning of the word.  But what did Jesus say to the people of his own era with the same attitudes?  …Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17).
            And then we have our own problems that need some spiritual hospitalization, the ones we don't want to admit.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed… (Jas 5:16).  Have you ever attended an assembly that actually does this?  Not unless someone "goes forward," you haven't.  And why?  We're too proud for one thing, and we are also too scared—someone might run with our confession and use it against us.  "Did you know that so-and-so has this problem?"  And so we do not get the benefit of this humbling and also encouraging command—humbling to have to admit you are not perfect, and encouraging to see that others have the same issues and learn how they deal with them. 
            A spiritual hospital is for the sinner, the spiritually sick, the one who has to fight sin and temptation the way others fight infection and disease.  And as long as we refuse to admit it, we will never get the medicine we need, for we are indeed the needy.
 
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7).                         
 
Dene Ward

On January 3, 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church and declared an outlaw who could be killed with impunity.  On May 4 of that same year, several men pretended to be robbers, and took him to the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany, where he stayed "hidden" as a man named Georg Junker.  While there, he translated the New Testament into German.  His translation, which has been lauded by scholars ever since, brought joy to the German people because the Bible had finally been taken out of the Roman Catholic pulpit and placed in their hands.  His work even led to the standardization of the German language according to Atlas Obscura.
            But Luther did one thing in that translation that left him open to much criticism.  He took Romans 3:28 and added the word "only."  We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith [only] apart from the works of the law (Rom 3:28).  Not only did he add to the Word of God, he made it contradict itself!  You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (Jas 2:24).  In a very real way, he disrespected the Word of God.
            Most of us would immediately run to the book of Revelation and quote, I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book (Rev 22:18-19).  But we need to be careful about that as well.  Those verses, in context and as John plainly says, apply to the book of Revelation.  You don't pull a verse out willy-nilly and quote it just to win an argument.  That's not a whole lot different than Luther's actions.  But the concept of presumptuous sin—and it is certainly presumptuous to think one can improve God's Word--and of false teaching runs all through the scriptures.   But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed (Gal 1:8-9).
            I am sure you have heard, if not an urban legend, what might very well be a church legend in similar vein—the one about the woman who told a preacher that Acts 2:38 was not in her Bible, and when he looked, sure enough, it was not.  She had taken her scissors and cut it out.  I often wondered if she had somewhere pasted something in as well.  If you can do one, you can do the other.  But we really don't even have to grab the scissors or the paste.  All we have to do is ignore what is written and do things our own way to the same effect.  Although I am sure Luther, were he alive today, would object, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
 
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers (1Thess 2:13).                                             

Dene Ward

I do a lot of research for these history posts.  Sometimes a short one page post takes two hours to put together.  However, one day I was looking through the historical dates in the month of May and found that one day in particular, May 3, was a pretty important day in the field of aviation.
            On May 3, 1919, the first passenger flight in American history took place between New York City and Atlantic City.
            On May 3, 1923, John Macready and Oakley Kelley made the first nonstop transcontinental flight.
            On May 3, 1932, 24 tourists started the first air charter holiday.  It ran from London to Basle, Switzerland.
            On May 3, 1952, an airplane first landed at the geographic North Pole.
            And, though it might be considered more in the line of space than aviation, on May 3, 1994, the US space probe Clementine was launched.
            If ever a day could be deemed important in the history of flight, it seems that May 3 fits the bill.
            Spiritually speaking, another day is much more important.  This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps 118:24).
            We have a bad habit of taking verses out of context to try to prove a doctrinal point or, in this case, make one of those feel-good memes.  All it takes is a close reading of the entire psalm and anyone with even a smattering of Biblical knowledge can see what it's about.  Read it right now before you continue with this and see if you can't figure it out yourself.
            I hope you have done that reading.  It was pretty easy wasn't it?  Let's just take the two most obvious verses.  Verse 22:  The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  This one is even quoted in 1 Pet 2:7, and Paul uses the metaphor in Eph 2:22 of Christ as the cornerstone.  This Psalm is about the coming Messiah.
            Now look at verse 26:  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  This is exactly what the crowd shouted as Jesus rode into Jerusalem the Sunday before his death.  Add to that the "Hosanna" in verse 25.  (Hosanna means "save" and is translated that way in this verse.)  Many already believed he was the One whose coming they had looked for over a thousand years.
            If you keep reading the psalm, it should become apparent to you that "the day the Lord has made" is the one in which salvation comes, the Messiah comes, even as it says in verse 21, I thank you that you have answered me and become my salvation.
            That is certainly the most important day in history for all mankind, the day the Messiah offered salvation to all by giving his life and then rising from the dead to defeat sin and death.  So now that it is in its proper context:  This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
 
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. ​The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us [Hosanna}, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD (Ps 118:19-26).
 
Dene Ward

Although I only watched a couple of episodes, I know from others that the television show "Seinfeld" affected society in several ways.  For example, I found an article that listed 15 words or phrases that the show introduced, like "Yada, yada, yada," "double-dipper," and "re-gifting."  Unfortunately it also influenced our attitudes about sinful things, like one-night stands.  But in a less disastrous way, it even changed what we eat.
            On April 25, 1996, the show aired its 130th episode which was called "The Calzone."  Although calzones originated in Naples, Italy, in the 1700s as small items of street food—"calzone" means "trousers" because they would fit in a pocket—they were not that common, even in Italian restaurants, (spizzicorestaurant.com).   Suddenly, as a direct result of that show, everyone wanted one of these inside out pizzas.  In American restaurants these days, they are large enough for two to share and are served with a side sauce, which Keith usually dumps all over his.  My own baked version are individual calzones, small enough for one person only. 
            So one time I had invited a couple of friends for lunch.  One in particular had been raving about a calzone I made for her a couple of years before.  So I promised her another.  I had bought everything from memory.  With the price of gas making one trip to town cost $8+, I buy everything I need for the week on one day.
            Suddenly in the middle of the night I woke up, sat up straight, and said out loud, “Cheese!”  I had forgotten the mozzarella and provolone.  How in the world can you even think of making what is basically a pizza turnover and forget the cheese?  It’s like planning to make brownies and forgetting the chocolate!
            We are no better when we try to be children of God and forget the basic elements. 
            The Pharisees thought that since they tithed even their herb seeds, they were good Jews.  They were certainly right to be so careful.  Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD's; it is holy to the LORD. You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year, Lev 27:30; Deut 14:22.  Yet Jesus reminded them that they had left out “the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness” Matt 23:23.  How did they think they could be children of a just and merciful God and leave those very things out?  It should have been unthinkable.
            John dealt with people who thought they could be followers of Christ and live immoral lives.  He was plain about their mistaken ideas.  Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 1 John 2:4.  He reminded them of the same thing Jesus reminded the Pharisees.  How can you think you are a child of God if you don’t live by his rules?   No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother, I John 3:,9,10.  I don’t know about you, but I get really tired of famous athletes who wear crosses around their necks and “thank Jesus” before the cameras, but live like the Devil otherwise.   
            It’s time for all of us to stop trying to make calzones without the cheese.  You can’t pick and choose which commandments you want to follow and then claim to be an obedient and faithful child of God.    
            Children do not tell their parents which of the house rules they will and will not obey.  They are obedient to the parents in all things, and they understand that being a child of their own particular set of parents means certain things simply are or are not done if they want to stay faithful to the values of that home.  How many of us have said or heard, “Your mother would roll over in her grave if she saw you do that?”  We understand what faithfulness to the spirit of the parent means, even if some specific idea is not spelled out in black and white.  Why are we so dense when we come to our dealings with God? 
            The next time you make your family’s favorite dish, using every single ingredient because you would hate to disappoint them, remember not to disappoint God either.
 
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 
 
Dene Ward

Most of us know that America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian who voyaged to the New World first in 1497.  What we don't know is that he wasn't much of an explorer after all.  His claim to fame seems to be that he is the first one who realized that North and South America were two separate continents and that neither were part of Asia.  But many scholars believe he was a second-rate explorer at best, even if he was (we think) the first person to discover the mouth of the Amazon River.  Vespucci died on this date in 1512.
            What many knowledgeable people remember him for now is pickles (Mental Floss, "A Brief History of Pickles" by Michele Debczak, Sept 3, 2021.)  It seems that before he began exploring, he was a ship chandler, a supply merchant to ships and explorers.  It is said that Vespucci even furnished supplies for one of Columbus's voyages.  Crossing the Atlantic took a while, and without refrigeration, ordinary food would spoil.  So ships usually carried supplies of both dried and pickled foods to carry them through.  The pickled items were especially helpful in preventing scurvy.  Pickle sellers were indispensable in the Golden Age of Exploration.  In later times Ralph Waldo Emerson called Vespucci "the pickle dealer of Seville," which was meant to be derisive, but was not untrue, except perhaps in scope.
            Pickles have been important in history since about 4000 BC in Mesopotamia.  I have even read that the "cucumbers" in the Bible were really pickles.  Once again, it was a matter of storage, but also of nutrition.  You could pickle practically any fruit or vegetable and that meant a better diet for all those folks so long ago.
            I happen to like pickles, usually dill.  But once upon a time, I discovered something a little different.
          I first had one thirty-nine years ago in a rural community southwest of here.  The farm wife put them on the table in a clear gallon jar and we dug into the neck with a long skinny fork she must have found just for that job.  They were sweet, thin, crisp, gave a crunch as loud as a kettle-cooked potato chip and left a small twinge in your jaw right under your ear from the perfect amount of vinegar.  It was the first sweet pickle I had ever liked, and I was becoming more and more adept at canning and preserving and wanted to give this one a try since the whole family liked them.
            "Could I possibly have the recipe?" I asked her.
            She hesitated and I presumed it was one of her "secret" recipes that she did not like to share, but no, that was not the problem at all.
            "It's a really old recipe with strange directions," she said, "but if you can figure out what they mean and follow them carefully, it does work.  It is very important that you follow the directions carefully and don't change anything."
            My first thought was that she could easily write it so I could understand it, whatever the problem was, but when she handed it to me to copy for myself, I saw the issues right away.
            The recipe called for "a gallon of water and enough salt to float an egg." 
            "I've never measured it," she said.  "I just keep adding salt to a gallon of water until an egg floats."
            Oh, well, all right. 
           The next ingredient was "a ten cent tin of alum."  If you have bought any groceries lately, you have probably not seen anything for ten cents, and you probably haven't seen a tin of alum either.
            "Just find a small container of alum and buy it," were her not so helpful instructions.
            At least the rest of the directions were clear—sort of.  On day four when you layered cucumbers and sugar, you assumed it was granulated sugar and you also assumed that it needed to be enough sugar to form a real layer, not just a mere sprinkling.  She didn't really help me with that one.  "Until it looks right," doesn't help if you've never seen it before.
            But I took that recipe home and went at it.
            Day 1—Wash and slice enough cucumbers to fill a clear gallon jug.  Dissolve enough salt to float an egg in a bit less than a gallon of water (because of displacement), and pour over the cucumbers.  Put on the lid and set aside for 24 hours. 
            It must have taken me 15 minutes to get the salt right.  I kept adding it by the tablespoonful, determined to find a set amount and that stupid egg kept sinking right to the bottom of the pot.  Finally I tossed the tablespoon measure aside and just poured it in.  At something just over a cup, the egg sank under the water, then slowly rose so that a piece of shell the size of a quarter showed above the surface and the egg bobbed up and down freely when I jiggled the pan.
            Day 2—Pour out the salt water and rinse the cucumbers.  Dissolve the alum in the same amount of clean water and pour it over them.  Cover and set aside for another 24 hours.  I had finally found the alum at a small town grocery store just ten miles up the highway.  Even all those years ago, its price had risen nearly 700% to 69 cents.
            Day 3—Pour out the alum water and rinse the cucumbers.  Pour distilled white vinegar over them until covered.  By that third day, they had shrunk enough that the cucumbers no longer filled the gallon jar, and you needed nearly a gallon of vinegar to cover them.
            Day 4—Pour out the vinegar.  DO NOT RINSE.  Sterilize either a gallon glass jar or several pint jars.  Add a layer of pickles and then a layer of sugar, again and again until you fill the jar(s).  Put on the lid and set it in your pantry.  By this time, the pickles are so preserved, you don't even have to seal them!  In a week or two, the sugar will have dissolved and mixed with the vinegar that remains on the pickles and make the sweet pickle juice.  Chill before serving.
            My family loved these pickles.  Some days I put a new pint jar on the table with a meal and it was emptied by the time we finished eating.  And here is the thing I want you to think about today:  it was an old recipe.  It sounded a little odd.  In fact, I had to translate it here and there into something that fit today's ingredients, like a 69 cent tin of alum instead of a 10 cent tin.  But I still had to follow the recipe to a tee for it to turn out right—nothing was intrinsically different about what I did.  And it still worked.  Never have I seen another recipe like it.  No other pickle recipe tells me I don't have to seal them in a canner so that we don't all get botulism.  The procedure preserves them that well.
            God has a recipe too.  People today think it's odd.  They look at it and think it won't work anymore.  They think they can change it and it will still turn out fine.  Certainly no one's spiritual health will suffer if we just change this one little thing to suit us.
            Botulism is a pretty nasty disease.  So is sin.  So is disobedience.  Be careful when you decide that God's old recipe is too much trouble, too hard to understand, or no longer relevant.  I'd hate for you to get fatally ill over it.
 
Thus says Jehovah, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein.  And I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken.  Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.  Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it. (Jer 6:16-19)
 
Dene Ward

There is no doubt historically that the first century church used only vocal music.
            “All the music employed in their early services was vocal,” Frank Landon Humphreys, Evolution of Church Music.
            “[Early church music was] purely vocal,” Dr Frederic Louis Ritter, Director, School of Music, Vassar.
         “While pagan melodies were always sung to instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal.  Clement says, ‘Only one instrument do we use, the word of peace…’ Chrysostom: ‘Our tongues are the strings of the lyre, with a different tone, indeed, but with a more accordant piety.’  Ambrose expresses his scorn for those who would play the lyre and psaltery instead of singing hymns and psalms…Augustine adjures believers not to turn their hearts to theatrical instruments.  The[se] religious guides of the early Christians felt that there would be an incongruity, and even profanity, in the use of…instrumental sound in their…spiritual worship…the pure vocal utterance was the more proper expression of their faith.”  Edward Dickinson, Professor of Music History, Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Music in the History of the Western Church.
            “[There was a time] when organs were very seldom found outside the Church of England.  The Methodists and Baptists rarely had them, and by the Presbyterians they were strongly opposed…even in the Church of England itself, organs did not obtain admission without much controversy,” John Spencer Curwin, Royal Academy of Music.
            From A History of Western Music by Donald Jay Grout:  Early Christian music was monophonic, meaning it had no harmony or counterpoint—everyone sang the same tune.
            Judaism had a huge influence on the singing in the early church.  Psalms were sung almost exclusively in the beginning, in several different ways.  Sometimes they sang in alternation between a soloist and the congregation.  This was called RESPONSORIAL PSALMODY.  Sometimes two parts of verses or alternate verses were sung by two groups.  This was called ANTIIPHONAL PSALMODY.  At still other times a SOLOIST sang a certain passage using melodic formulas which could be altered to suit the cadence of the text.  Because he was doing it ad lib, it was simply impossible for anyone else to sing with him.
            Early hymns were probably sung to folk tunes the people knew, and were eventually put into a book.  The oldest piece of church music found was a hymn of praise.  We have only the last few lines and it was so mutilated it could not be completely reconstructed.  It was found in Oxyrhynchos, Egypt and dated from the end of the third century (200’s).  It is known as the Oxyrhynchos fragment. 
            The emphasis of music in the early church was on ecstasy (Spirit-filled revelation) and individual liberty, 1 Cor 14:26.  It can be established absolutely that the early church sang without instrumental accompaniment.
           A capella does not mean unaccompanied music.  A capella is Latin for “in the style of the church.”  Everyone simply understood that sacred music in the church was to be sung without accompaniment because it always had been.
          When instrumental music was first introduced in the Catholic Church, it was fought vehemently, and only fully accepted several hundred years later, around the 11th century.  Even in the nineteenth century, some conservative denominations avoided it, calling it “Romanist,” as in "Roman Catholic.”
            The Greek Orthodox Church divided from the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th century.  (Today it consists of 13 branches, including the Russian Orthodox, Bulgarian Orthodox, Slavic Orthodox, etc.)  These native Greek speakers had two issues with the Romans, the use of the word baptizo and the word psallo.  They understood the original language and therefore rejected the introduction of sprinkling as baptism, and instrumental music in the singing of hymns.  They knew that the one word in the first century meant “immerse” and the other meant “sing” and nothing else.  To this day, the Orthodox Church still sings a cappella.
           
 A Personal Note
 
            Some of you might be surprised if I said, “Yes!  The early church had music.”  “They sang without music,” is a common error, and one of my pet peeves.  If you sing without music, you are a mighty poor singer!  Singing is music. 
            As someone who has been there, in college you study two types of music—instrumental or vocal.  Under the vocal division, you can sing with accompaniment or without--a capella.  So much for the piano being merely an incidental—it totally changes the type of music. 
            As a piano/vocal major, one of my music education professors reminded me not to be tempted to play the piano every time the children sang.  “They will never learn to carry a tune in a bucket,” she said, speaking of the crutch the piano would be to their ear development.  In fact, a capella choirs are considered the most elite because their singers must have a good ear to stay on pitch.  Any voice students I have had who were raised in the church singing a capella always had better aural capability than their friends in the denominations.  And I have always considered it a little presumptuous to think that a manmade instrument can improve on the one God made.
 
Dene Ward