During my childhood when we lived near the Gulf Coast about forty miles south of Tampa, we often went to Anna Maria Island to swim.  The beach there was the usual white sand, blue-green water beach, but unusual in that it was nearly empty of tourists.  Every hundred feet or so, low concrete walls divided the beach into sections, with huge rocks piled around them from the edge of low tide to the edge of high tide.  It was like having our own private beach.  A few other local families came as well, but if at all possible, we left one "beach" between us—it was an unspoken rule.  After a day of swimming, floating, playing tag with the waves, and building sand castles, Daddy pulled the grill and the charcoal out of the trunk of the car, and we ate hamburgers as the big orange sun set into the Gulf.
            The sea always seemed alive to me as a child.  For one thing it breathed, or it sounded like it in the night as wave after wave crashed onshore.  If you stood in the shallows where the waves came up to your ankles, as it receded again, you could feel the sand under you shifting, the water pulling it out from beneath your toes, the balls of your feet, even your heels, like a critter trying to escape.  And then there was the sand.  When I got home I could never figure out how it got in all those places, despite tight elastic. 
            There was yet another thing I could never figure out as a child, not being too adept at physics and water mechanics, and that was how you could do absolutely nothing to propel yourself in the ocean water and still wind up far away from where you started.
            I do not recall ever having to worry about jellyfish, red tide, or sharks.  So my favorite thing to do was grab an air mattress and lie on it, well past the breakers, floating up and down, up and down on the swells, nearly falling asleep in the heat and gentle rocking.  But after one particularly scary moment, I learned not to lie there too long without checking my bearings.  My mother's beach towel had been right there, straight in front of my floating hammock, and now, suddenly, it was way back there, a good fifty feet up the beach.  The surf was smooth, the winds calm, and I had not used my arms and legs to push myself in any direction at all, yet there I was, far, far away from my safety zone.  It usually took a good amount of effort to get back where I started.
            And of course that leads us to the usual old warning about drifting.  Drifting happens when you don't realize it.  When your life is in an upheaval, when you undergo trials and temptations, usually you will be on the lookout.  But when things seem calm and routine, your spirituality can get away from you before you realize it.  A good warning still, but one that may have grown too banal and underwhelming.
            So, I wondered, trying to make this warning mean something again, why do we drift?  And that's when I found this:  Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw to the desert wind. (Jer 13:24)  With just a little research I found out that was referring to the chaff the grain thresher is trying to rid himself of when he tosses the grain up into the breeze.  Really?  Yes; we drift like chaff on the breeze when we become useless to God.
            So then I looked at that Jeremiah passage again.  He may have been talking to Judah, the people of the southern kingdom who had finally become wicked enough for God to destroy, but can I become just as useless?  With some trepidation, I checked the context.
            They had become haughty (v15ff).  They were great, not because God had blessed them, but because of their own hard work, they were sure.  Or else it was because of these exciting new gods they worshipped instead. 
           They had not taken responsibility for the ones God placed in their care (v 20).  Their wealth was not something to share with the needy, but something to wallow in, fulfilling their own desires with no thought for anyone else.  They would even hurt the helpless in order to increase that wealth.
          They no longer recognized their own failings (v 22).  God's prophets were run off, imprisoned and killed for daring to tell them the truth.
           They had become accustomed to evil (v 23).  Used to it.  Inured to the filth all around them.  In another place Jeremiah says they had forgotten how to blush.
           They had removed God from their lives (v 25). 
           Sexual sin ran rampant among them (v 27). 
         If you cannot see our culture in this description, you are in danger of drifting too, because the first symptom may be to no longer recognize the difference between good and evil.  And when we become complacent, satisfied in our own spirituality regardless of the fact that we no longer cringe at foul language, blush at filthy jokes, nor live completely different lives from our neighbors, we might as well join them. 
        But, we are similarly in danger when we think that because we don't behave like them then God owes us for our faithfulness and holy living.   We are lying on exactly the same raft, drifting away from the shore, or, in the metaphor of Jeremiah, just as useless to God as the chaff drifting away in the wind.
            Drifting—maybe it's more dangerous than we ever thought before.
 
The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish. (Ps 1:4-6)
 
Dene Ward

I recently ran a reminiscence of being so different in high school that a teacher gave me a special poster to celebrate it.  Somehow my parents taught me to be different and not care that I was different.  One reader made the comment on this blog's Facebook page, "We cannot teach our children to be different if we don't learn the lesson first," and now that I think of it, that may have been the key for me.  My parents thought nothing of being different.  If you were a disciple of Christ, that's how you lived.  And so I fell into it quite naturally.  Unfortunately many of my brethren must not have been taught that.
            The recent political campaigns have nearly made me ill.  Seeing Christians spew out unverified rumors, innuendoes, sarcasm, threats, blatant disrespect, and just plain nastiness, all in the name of standing for the truth, appalled me.  I wondered what our first century brethren might have thought about the whole thing.
              Did you know that first century Christians in a world even meaner than ours (though by less and less everyday), often gave themselves away because they did exactly what no one expected them to do?   They were kind to those they disagreed with, including idolaters.  They assisted and served those in need, even those who would later turn them in for being Christians—an illegal activity.  Scorn, ridicule and disdain were not a part of their vocabulary or lifestyle.  They were different because they followed a Savior who was different, one who "when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to him who judges righteously," 1 Pet 2:23.  THAT is what it means to be different.
            If you have been struggling to conform yourself to that image, maybe it's time for a little more effort.  You may have finally learned to speak kindly, even to the unkind and unfair among us, when it is face to face.  But how are you doing when it is not a "person" but a car you are railing at?  How do you do when it's a faceless voice on the phone?  How does your pen react when some impersonal corporation has treated you unfairly?  How does your keyboard click when you are posting a diatribe against whatever political side you deem evil at the moment?  In all those cases, someone—an actual person--is noticing how you behave, even when you think your identity is hidden.  Think about it for a minute—Facebook posts your name and picture at the top of every one of those angry posts.
            We recently did some painting in the house.  I went to the paint department of the local home improvement store, picked out a color card and handed it to the man to mix my paint.  When the paint went up on the wall, I was sure it was darker than the card I had chosen.  But when I laid that card up against the wall, it completely disappeared—it was exactly the same color.  It blended right in.  Sometimes we are nothing more than a color card at the paint store.
            I am supposed to be different from the average Joe, even the relatively good citizen out there.  I am supposed to act (not react) as a follower of my Lord.  I am supposed to be willing to suffer wrong or even loss to show that difference. 
          If being a Christian does become illegal someday in this country, I should be giving myself away by my kind words, by my willingness to yield rather than argue, and by my acts of compassion even to those who do not deserve it. I am not supposed to be blending in with all the other pagans, disappearing like a color card from the paint store into a wall of humanity who are a perfect match.
 
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1Pet 2:11-12)
 
Dene Ward

I always had themed recitals for my students, including skits and ensemble numbers.  I seldom had to hear parents complaining about boring recitals. 
One year we had one called "Mystery!"  All of the songs and piano pieces had titles like "Spooky Footsteps," "Descent into the Crypt," "Through the Night Mist," and "Dixieland Detectives."  All the students came dressed as a famous detective from TV or fiction.  We had Sherlock Holmes, Dr Kay Scarpetta, Magnum PI, Columbo, and Miss Scarlet from the Clue game, among many others.
            Nathan was home from college that week and he and I worked up a special duet.  First, I put him in his college chorus tuxedo and introduced him as the detective whose theme he and I would be performing—Peter Gunn.  If you don't know the name, Peter Gunn was the first detective created for television rather than being adapted from some other media.  The show starred Craig Stevens and Lola Albright, who played his girlfriend Edie Hart.  It debuted on September 22, 1958 and ran for three seasons.  Even if you have never seen the show (I never saw one until I was grown and saw it on the oldies channel), I bet you have heard the music.  Talk about modern and catchy—this one has it all.  Blue notes, syncopation, quarter note triplets against a steady eighth note beat.  You can't help but move something when you hear it—a toe, a knee, a shoulder or two.  It won an Emmy and two Grammys for Henry Mancini and was performed and recorded by many others.  Nathan and I have played it in a couple of places since then, and it is always an audience pleaser.
            Audience pleasers.  That's a good phrase when you are talking about a concert performance.  That's what a concert is for—pleasing the audience.  That is NOT what worship is about.  Worship is about pleasing God.  I happened to think about that when a song leader I know, a trained musician, by the way, who does an outstanding job of leading, told me that he was criticized for leading "boring songs."
            First of all, who exactly is being bored?  If it's the audience, then maybe they should remember what they are doing—worshipping God not pleasing themselves.  That ought to take care of the "boring" problem right there.
            Second, why is it "boring?"  If it's because they don't have enough Bible knowledge to recognize Biblical references, nor enough depth to their thinking to understand the allusions and feel the goosebumps at some of the most beautiful poetry ever written, then they should be ashamed of themselves.  The Bible may be easy to understand, but it is not a comic book.  Nor is it a See-Jane-Run first grade primer.  The older I get, the more I love the songs that speak the Word of God in lyrics that truly make me think and keep me thinking long after the last chord has rung in the rafters. 
            Neither the song leader, the prayer leader, nor the preacher should have to try so hard to keep our attention if our worship is sincere.  If the only things that keep me interested in either the singing or the sermons and classes is laughter-inducing stories, toe-tapping rhythm, and shoulder-lifting blue notes, I may as well roll in a piano and have Nathan come with me and play a rousing rendition of "Peter Gunn."  I promise you'll like it and won't be bored.  Whether or not you get anything spiritual from it, whether or not you hear any teaching and admonishing, whether or not God is pleased, is another matter altogether.
 
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.  (Heb 5:14).
 
Dene Ward

I imagine you have heard it being said yourself for the past two or three decades.  We are "dumbing down" America.  Because our education system has left the classical learning methods and begun to "teach to the test," because it is interested in having everyone pass, even if it leaves some 32,000,000 American adults still unable to read* (roughly 10%), many of them college graduates, we are no longer the leading country in public education.  In fact, we are way down the list.
            The term "dumbing down" is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content for some agenda or other.  It happens in many ways.
            "The term 'dumbing down' was a secret code used by film writers in the 1930s to revise scripts to appeal to viewers of lower intelligence…today's Americans are in serious intellectual trouble…in danger of losing all cultural and political capital because of illogical rationalism, diminished civic education, false idealism, and lowered expectations…Cogent knowledge is replaced with rumor, gossip, half-truths and non-truths."**
            This is not a political page and I do not ever intend it to become one, but this springboard will help us in a spiritual area as well.  In several ways, we have started "dumbing down" God's people. 
            Recently, I posted a quote which suggested that the Scriptures should make us uncomfortable, undermine our complacency, and upend our usual pattern of behavior.  It was meant to be a wakeup call, something we need in an era where no one wants to upset anyone, and certainly not warn them about God's righteous indignation.  And, as I should have expected, someone came in to remind us that God is a loving God and his Word will encourage and comfort us, too.  Of course it will, but that comment completely undermined the effects of a needed message.  A young man once told me that he listened to sermons his entire life that never made him straighten up despite the fact that they were entirely scriptural.  What finally changed him was sermon after sermon by a man who was not afraid to say, "Repent or perish," just like Jesus did.
            This has been a problem with God's people for centuries.  Look at these passages below, all of them spoken to the people of God by the inspired prophet Jeremiah.
            They have contradicted the LORD and insisted, “It won’t happen. Harm won’t come to us; we won’t see sword or famine.” The prophets become only wind, for the LORD’s word is not in them. This will in fact happen to them (Jer 5:12-13).  No matter what Jeremiah told them, they would not listen.  "God won't do that to us."
            Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and there call out this word: Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD. “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your deeds, and I will allow you to live in this place. Do not trust deceitful words, chanting: This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD (Jer 7:2-4).  They still had the Temple.  How could God ever destroy it and them, his chosen people, they asked in wide-eyed wonder?
            For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have treated My people’s brokenness superficially, claiming, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace (Jer 6:13-14). And I replied, “Oh no, Lord GOD! The prophets are telling them, ‘You won’t see sword or suffer famine. I will certainly give you true peace in this place.’ ” (Jer 14:13).  This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are making you worthless. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the LORD’s mouth. They keep on saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said: You will have peace.’ They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ”  (Jer 23:16-17).  Just like today, they had people who wanted to focus only on the goodness and mercy of God.  "God is a loving God.  He would not want us to be unhappy."
            What did Jeremiah say about all of that?  Your prophets saw visions for you that were empty and deceptive; they did not reveal your guilt and so restore your fortunes. They saw oracles for you that were empty and misleading (Lam 2:14).  When we focus only on the kindness and mercy of God and forget his promise of punishment to the disobedient, when we do our best to take away the sting of some difficult passages because we "don't like them," or when we undo the warnings of the men of God who preach them, we are no better than the false prophets of old.  We have successfully "dumbed down the church" with a diet of pablum instead of the meat they need to chew, and chew hard on.
            The next time you see or hear a tough message, thank God that someone still has the chutzpah to preach it, and then make yourself a little uncomfortable by heeding it.
 
Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. (Rom 11:22).

*Statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
**William Haupt III, "The Dumbing Down of America" in The Center Square.
 
Dene Ward

Read these lyrics and tell me what this hymn is about:

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I’m upward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan's darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till Heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

            I bet nearly every one of my readers said, "It's about Heaven."  That's what I thought, for years.  But check out the line in the second verse that says, "Though some may dwell where these abound, my prayer, my aim is higher ground."  Then look at the third verse, "I want to live above the world."  This song is NOT about going to Heaven.   It's about living in this world but with a spiritual mindset on a spiritual plane.  This song is about those somewhat mysterious things Paul calls in Ephesians "the heavenlies" (1:3; 1:20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12).  Some of you may see "heavenly places."  The word "places" is supposed to be understood, but few of us have any idea what this is at all.
            Whatever "the heavenlies" are, or wherever they are, that is where our spiritual blessings originate (1:3).  It is where Christ sits (1:20).  Right there you are saying, "See?  It has to be Heaven."  But keep going.  It is also where we now sit with Christ after having been raised up, not from physical death, but from the death of sin (2:1, cf Rom 6:3,4).  It is also the place from which the spiritual beings look down on us now in the church (3:10) to see the wisdom of God, and it is the place where we daily fight our battles against Satan and his demons (6:12).  It is a place that only the spiritually mature are aware of, and it is the place we long to live ("above the world") so we can keep our minds on God and Christ and the mission we have as their servants, and with their help, win those battles!
            Romans 8 says it like this:  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:5-6).
            Philippians says it like this:  Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5), and …whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Phil 4:8).
            If you look hard enough, you can find the idea all over the New Testament.  Now go back and read those lyrics again.  We must be spiritual enough not to let this world distract us—trials, sorrows, persecutions, politics, economics, nor any other purely material and temporary thing.  Then we can truly see what this life should be all about.
 
So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God (Col 3:1-3).
 
Dene Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

The title is the theme of the book of Leviticus. "And the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying . . . You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses.” (Lev. 10:8, 10-11)  The most basic job of the priests was to learn the difference between the clean and unclean and the holy and common and teach that to the people of Israel. 
            Everything in Leviticus relates in one way or another to this central premise.  The first seven chapters detail the different types of sacrifices: how each is to be performed, which animals may be used, how they are presented to the Lord and exactly where they are to be slaughtered (some animals were presented/killed at the door of the tabernacle, others on the North side of the altar), which parts are to be burnt on the altar and which are to be eaten by the priests and/or the offeror.  The same animal might be offered in different ways depending on the type of sacrifice being made.  Every word of instruction for the sacrifices is about cleanliness and holiness.  Sacrifices to the Lord were not to be treated casually as if all that mattered was the heart of the worshipper. They were not common, but holy. the animals used must be clean animals, but also holy: not spotted or blemished, not halt or lame, not sick.   
            Chapters eight through ten instruct how to consecrate the priests.  The overriding emphasis here is on the holiness of their office and the absolute need to maintain their ceremonial cleanliness.  So holy was the High Priest that he was not allowed to even participate in the funeral of his own father because to handle a dead body would make him unclean. 
            Chapters eleven through 15 enumerate the laws of cleanliness (far more involved than just which animals belonged in which category) and chapters 18-27 contain the laws of holiness.  The holiness laws were different from the regular civil laws contained within the Law of Moses because the explanation of these laws was simply "I Am YHWH!"  Many don't even have punishments for breaking the law just the statement that the law is basic to the character of God.  Chapter eleven contains the famous command "For I am Jehovah your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves" (vs 44) while in chapter 20 God says, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am Jehovah your God." (vs 7) 
           Finally, chapters sixteen and seventeen describe the Day of Atonement.  This day was dedicated to the re-sanctification of Israel each year.  Atonement was made for the nation's sins.  The tabernacle was sanctified again.  This day and its events were emblematic of the effort to remain clean and holy before the Lord.  In like manner, the entire book of Leviticus teaches the people how to remain clean and holy and shows just what an effort that will take. 
            So why did I just waste your time going through all of that?  The priests were to learn all these arcane rules and teach them to the people, so what?  1 Peter 2:9  "But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light".  Just as the priests were to learn to distinguish between the clean and unclean, the holy and common and teach the people, so we, as part of Christ's new kingdom of priests, are to maintain our own holiness and proper standing before the Lord and teach the world about the expectations of God.  When people ask if it really matters to act only in the manner authorized in the New Testament we can say, "Yes!" because the authorized manner is the teaching of the Lord.  Just as in Leviticus, what the Lord teaches is the holy way He wants things to be done and any other way would be unholy, common.  Is maintaining my sexual purity really that important?  Yes, because we are to be holy, not commonly had by all in the world.  Our speech is to be clean, not vulgar, because we are the priests of God and the first responsibility of priests, even before teaching the people, was to maintain their own holiness.  Then, while maintaining our cleanliness before the Lord, we spread across the world His word, showing forth His excellencies. 
 
Psalms 24:3-5  "Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? And who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, And hath not sworn deceitfully.  He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, And righteousness from the God of his salvation."
 
Lucas Ward 

My mother recently moved and among the things she left behind were half a dozen old cookbooks printed in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.  I spent a few minutes leafing through them.  Our culture’s tastes have certainly changed in the past fifty or sixty years.
            Most of the recipes I found were for simple fare with plain ingredients.  When I was a child, my mother’s favorite market did not have an “International Foods” aisle.  The only pastas available were spaghetti and elbow macaroni.  The only salad dressings were Italian, Thousand Island, and that bright red-orange French.  All olives were green and pimento stuffed.  The only baked beans were Van Camp’s pork and beans or B & M baked beans, which none of us Southerners liked.  There was only one kind of rice and no couscous to be found.  The most exotic ingredient any of my mother’s favorite recipes called for was La Choy soy sauce.  No one had ever heard of Kikkoman.
            Yet each recipe in those old cookbooks was headed by a comment like, “Very filling,” or “Easy and good,” or “A family favorite.”  And I know those statements were true because I remember eating some of those recipes and even the dishes they were served in on our family table.  Not only were they good and filling, they were inexpensive, even in today’s dollars.  But would anyone even be tempted to use those old recipes today?  Would we serve them to guests?  I doubt it.  Somewhere along the line we’ve become status conscious, even in our food preferences.
            How about our spiritual tastes?  Just look at a modern worship service.  Would that “mega-church” down the road be satisfied with congregational singing and a simpler sermon loaded with scripture?  No, they demand a praise band for entertainment and a comedian/motivational speaker for their “pep rally.”  It is no longer about carefully approaching a Holy God with reverence and fear to offer our gift of worship, but all about how it makes ME feel and what I get out of it.  It’s about whether I approve instead of whether God approves.  Unfortunately, we seem to be falling into the same trap.
            In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people came together to worship, standing for hours as the Law was read (Neh 8).  Then the Levites explained it, “they gave the sense” (8:8), what we would call a sermon.  No praise bands, no shouting, no dancing in the aisles, just a calm, intelligible sermon.  And how did that sermon affect them?
            And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. Neh 8:12
            How about us?  Do we expect, even demand, something besides plain food with simple ingredients?  Are we dissatisfied with the old hymns because we are so Biblically illiterate that we cannot comprehend their depths?  Do we complain about simple old-fashioned sermons because they’re boring? 
            Would we ever stand for hours listening to the Word of God being read, then go home to Sunday dinner with rejoicing just because we were able to hear His Word?  Or would we cover our meals with the gravy of griping and serve dessert on a platter of complaints?  Is it all about ME instead of all about HIM?
 
Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jer 6:16
 
Dene Ward

I believe I have mentioned this little guy before, a migratory visitor who, despite his love of worms rather than birdseed, stopped by our homemade aviary one day a couple of springs ago.  He looks like nothing less than a little old man—scrawny legs, pot belly, and three stripes across his pale head like the sparsest comb-over you ever saw.
            As he walked across the area outside my window, he stopped occasionally and poked his long thin beak into the ground like a cane.  Occasionally he stopped and pumped it, up and down, up and down, then pulled it out and walked on.  Finally I saw him stop, poke, pump, then stand very still with that beak still in the ground.  Suddenly he began to pull and pull and pull, and gradually a long black earthworm appeared, rising a quarter inch at a time out of the ground.  That worm hung onto the dark earth for all he was worth, stretching like a piece of melted mozzarella.  Suddenly, he ran out of dirt to hang onto, sproinged out of the ground like a rubber band, and the woodcock swallowed it in nothing flat.  Then he continued his stroll, poking and pumping every foot or two.
            Sometimes we can be just like that worm, hanging onto the world for all we are worth while claiming to have left it all behind.  We may be at the assembly of the saints every time the door is open, but our lives during the week tell stories on our "devotion" to the Lord.  We get as close as possible to people and things that taint our purity.  What kind of movies do we watch?  What kind of television shows?  I have heard people discuss things that even the world calls "racy," and "suggestive," while claiming to live lives of purity and holiness.  What kinds of clothes do we wear?  Do they adorn a chaste character or do they suggest exactly the opposite?  What do we talk about?  Are we all about money and status and the latest gizmo or does our love of the Lord and spiritual matters monopolize our conversation?  We may be just like that earthworm, struggling to hold on to this world and its cares while the Lord is doing his best to pull us to him. 
          Ultimately, Christ won't be like that woodcock.  If we want to leave completely, he will let us, just like he did those supposed disciples in John 6.  They left and he never chased after them.  He simply turned to his disciples and asked, "Are you leaving, too?"  It's time to make a decision and mean it.  Are we for the world and the ruler of this world (John 12:31), or are we for the Lord?
 
Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 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 (1John 3:7-9).                                   

Dene Ward

Last fall I saw an article which asked, "How many pounds are you planning to gain over the holidays?"
            "What?" I thought.  I wasn't "planning" to gain any, but I knew I surely would because I always do, usually 8-10 pounds, which I then spend January and February trying to take off.
            But then I thought about the point, which I am not sure the author of this article was actually trying to make, but which occurred to me almost instantly.  If you are not planning how to keep the weight off, you might as well plan to gain it, especially after a certain age.  There must be a preventive plan in place to keep that from happening.
            So let me ask this:  How much are you planning to sin this week?  I see your reaction was the same as mine to that other question.  And once again, the point is, if you are not actively trying to avoid sin and even temptation, you will probably fall right into it sooner rather than later.  How do you avoid it?  Different things probably work best for different people.  For me it's prayer, study, meditation, and keeping myself busy with the Lord's work, especially teaching, writing, and serving.  It's more difficult to fall into sin when you just spent an hour or two writing lessons on spiritual maturity.  Others might need other types of help.  You know yourself best.  It's just being honest with yourself that becomes the problem.
            As far as the holidays go, we made a plan.  When I made the usual holiday goodies, I took them somewhere else and left them there rather than bringing home the leftovers.  That way my children and grandchildren still got what they love without too much harm to us.  And we only got "careless" about our eating on the actual holiday rather than the whole holiday season.  It cut my usual weight gain by less than half and it was gone before the end of January.  The plan made the difference.
            So make your plans this week.  Not about your eating, but about avoiding sin.  You still might slip, but I bet you get further into the week with less error than ever before simply because you are more aware and thinking about it.  If you do slip, acknowledge it and repent right away, and begin again.
            How much do you plan to sin this week?  Tell yourself, "Not at all," and then do your best to make it happen.
 
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (Rom 6:12-14).
 
Dene Ward
 

I was raised that way and I bet you were too.  I imagine my boys remember that when guests were present we used different dishes, different towels, different manners, even different tones of voice.  We were more careful in our personal habits and ate not only “fancier” food, but more of it.  A meat and two sides was fine for a weeknight family meal, but when guests came Mom added more sides and a dessert, sometimes two.  Instead of the plastic pitcher, we used the glass one.  Instead of everyone’s favorite glass that didn’t match another, we got out the good set that did.  The meat was sliced neater and the mashed potatoes piled higher, and we put a tablecloth on the table.  We always treated guests as more important than ourselves. 
             It is not an un-Biblical way of thinking, not only in how guests should be treated, but especially in how God should be approached.
            Our culture has become far more casual than ever before.  Even in the days when everyone in the neighborhood was poor, they all had one pair of overalls that was saved for special occasions.  They may have been denim.  They may have been patched.  But they were cleaner and the holes were all mended.  Nowadays you buy them with the holes already in them and leave them that way.
            And in all this casualness I wonder if we haven’t lost something, especially our sense of reverence and respect.  Ezekiel said it this way of the priests who had neglected their duties:  Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Ezek 22:26.
            Can we even comprehend the meaning of this passage?  Are there really things that are holy and things that are not?  Under our new covenant it may no longer be a matter of a holy building, but on the other hand it is a matter of a holy spiritual edifice.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Eph 2:19-22.
            So as part of that spiritual and holy building I must be aware of keeping it holy.  When God’s people profaned his physical Temple, he left it.  Do you think He won’t do the same to us if we cannot even define holiness, much less recognize it?  So how do we keep it holy, how do we make a distinction between the holy and the common?
            Peter tells us that our conduct can keep us from being holy.  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1Pet 1:14-16.  That ought to be obvious.  But how about things not quite so obvious?
            Ezekiel tells us that it is possible to profane the name of God by the gifts that we offer (20:39).  In his day the people were guilty of worshipping God on the Sabbath and then worshipping the idols the rest of the time.  That made their Sabbath service “unholy.”  What do we worship?  On what do we spend far more time, money, and energy than we do serving God?  When God is neglected, the things that fill our time, even things that might not be wrong things, make our service profane.
            Here is another example:  You shall not bring the hire of a harlot, or the wages of a dog [a male prostitute], into the house of Jehovah your God for any vow: for even both these are an abomination unto Jehovah your God. Deut 23:18.  If the gift I give comes from an unholy place or method, God will not accept it.  It matters what we do for a living.  It matters where our offerings come from. 
            Consider all the things that God designates as holy—His Temple the church, the offices in that church, the commandments, the Word, the scriptures, the Law, the priesthood and nation (also the church), our greeting to one another, and I could go on and on.  Just run a search on the word “holy” with a Bible program as I did and you will find all these and more.  We are to show somehow that we understand the difference between these sacred things and the ordinary things of the world. 
            So what does that mean in daily life?  I think it might mean something different in each culture.  It might not mean that I must put on a three piece suit to bring my offering, but it certainly means I must clean up my heart before I even attempt to offer it.  Didn’t Jesus say to leave one’s gift at the altar and first make amends with a brother?  Surely the state of my heart affects my gifts in several ways. 
            As for the gifts of worship themselves, it may not mean we must sing four part harmony in straight quadruple rhythm at a constant adagio (slow and somber) pace, but maybe it means I must be careful about singing the Holy Word of God to something that sounds like it came out of a jukebox on the “Happy Days” set.  Here is what worries me the most:  can we even see that some things might be inappropriate?  If Ezekiel told us we were no longer making a distinction between the holy and the common, would we have any idea what he was talking about?  Do we make the arrogant and presumptuous mistake of saying to God, “Your thoughts are my thoughts and I’d like this gift, so surely you would?”  Did that work when you bought your wife a vacuum cleaner for your anniversary?
            When I bring my sacrifices to God, whether it is a life lived in holiness or my songs of praise or the gift of my increase, I must realize that this is something special in the eyes of God, that He expects me to bring it with holy hands and a holy heart and the seriousness that speaks of recognizing my obligations before a holy God.  Moses was told to take off his shoes because he was standing on Holy ground.  What are we willing to shed to show God the reverence He has always required of His people?
 
There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God. 1Sam 2:2
 
Dene Ward