Humility Unity - Dene's Blog

Playing in the Rain

12/4/2025 0 Comments

When our boys were small, on summer days when a soft, warm rain fell, they often asked if they could go outside and play in it. I was reminded of those sweet days last spring when our grandson Silas did the same thing.

He put on his swimming trunks and headed outside, first just running a few steps out, then racing back in under the carport. Gradually he ran further and further, eventually out to the old water oak stump some thirty feet from the house, stood there a minute hopping up and down, holding his arms out to present the most skin to the sky, and laughing uproariously.

He must have gone at it for ten minutes, running back to the carport and excitedly jabbering, “It’s wet! It’s cold! It’s fun!” then running back out into the rain even further, eventually to the swing hanging from the live oak limb out past the well.

But it was still spring and his little chin began to quiver, and all too soon we had to take him in and dry him off.

Do you know what started all this? Pure, unadulterated joy. He and his little brother had been with us for five days while Mommy and Daddy were out of town, and although we had a great time, when they drove up that afternoon, it was clear who were most important in his young life. They were back and before long they would take him in his own car seat in his own “blue car” to his own home and his own room where he could sleep in his own bed. I know the feeling.

But life may have made me forget that feeling of pure joy.

Despite the troubles of life we always have real reason for joy, and God expects us to show it. David had that joy, and he expressed it before the people of Israel as they brought the Ark of the Covenant to his newly captured capital city. But he was married to someone who didn’t have it, and who did not understand. She scolded him and received this reply:

[It was] before Jehovah, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of Jehovah, over Israel: therefore will I play before Jehovah, 2 Sam 6:21.

.Do you see the word “play?” David was out there “leaping and dancing before Jehovah.” That’s how he was playing. That Hebrew word is found in Job 40:20, “the beasts play in the field.” You will find it in Prov 8:30 and 31 where it is translated “rejoicing,” and in Job 5:12 where it is “laugh.” The same attitude that had Silas laughing and playing in the rain had David playing before Jehovah--joy.

When was the last time you felt that way about God and your relationship with Him? I think we are a little like Michal—too embarrassed to act like God means that much to us. We are too conscious of ourselves and how we look, and far too worried about what other people think.

If I am too embarrassed to show the Lord how much He means to me, I wonder, on the day He comes to pick us up and take us home, if He might be too embarrassed to act like we mean that much to Him.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, I Pet 1:8.

The Sheltered Side of the House

11/19/2025 0 Comments

We live under a couple of huge live oaks, trees so big it would take half a dozen people holding stretched out hands to reach around them. That means when I planted a flower bed on the west side of the house under one of those trees, the lee side so to speak, I had to be careful what I put there. Anything with a “full sun” tag wouldn’t make it. But it also means that I can grow things outside that others might need to take inside on a frosty morning. The tree protects them with both the extra degree or two of heat it gives off and its shelter from the settling dew that crisps into frost on a winter morning.

Isn’t that how we raise our children, on the sheltered side of life, and even on the sheltered side of the church? That is as it should be. Children shouldn’t need to worry about where their next meal is coming from. They shouldn’t be concerned with the office politics their parents must put up with. They certainly shouldn’t hear about church squabbles. Your job as a parent is to protect them from those things.

But you can’t do that forever. Sooner or later they need to learn about people, about their imperfections, maybe even the danger they pose to others. That’s why we teach them that no one should touch them in certain places, that they should never get in the car with a stranger, or accept candy, or look for lost puppies. It’s unfortunate, but we do it because we love our children.

I am afraid we are not that smart about teaching our children about problems among brethren. It isn’t just the false teaching wolves we need to teach them about, though more of that would be helpful. We seem to have raised a generation that thinks everyone out there is harmless and means well because they speak in syrupy tones and sentimental mush-mouth. No, the thing we must be most careful about is how they see us handling the disappointments with our brethren. What they see us do and say can make or break their spiritual survival.

When Keith was preaching full time, we saw people who claimed to be Christians acting in every way but that. We saw couples at each other’s throats. We saw family cliques. We received physical threats. We were tossed out on our ears more than once for his preaching the truth. It may be that the only thing that kept us both faithful was realizing how these things might affect our children if we didn’t handle them carefully.

When they were old enough to understand what was happening, we never blamed the church. We never blamed God. We told them that sometimes people were not perfect, even good people--sometimes they just made a mistake. I was NOT going to let what those people had done to us cost my children their souls. They were what mattered.

As they grew older, we talked often about being faithful to God, not to a place or a group. We reminded them about Judas. What would have happened if the other apostles had let Judas’s monumental failure run them off? What about Peter, their erstwhile leader? If everyone had given up because of his denial there would have been nothing for him to return to upon his repentance. The mission of the church depended upon those men staying faithful regardless. God was counting on them. We told them over and over, you never let what someone else does determine your faithfulness. God expects you to do the right thing no matter what those people do. I had to learn to control my depression and discouragement and not give my children cause to leave the Lord.

We planted our children on the sheltered side of the house, but then we moved them slowly one foot at a time to a place where the sun would beat down on them and the cold would leave frost on their leaves. Finally they were as inured as possible from the effects of other people’s failures, including our own. If they ever fall away, they know better than to blame someone else.

Be careful what your children hear you say about your brethren. Be careful what they see in your actions and attitudes. Sooner or later they will need to stand the heat of the noonday sun and the bitter cold of a spiritual winter. Don’t give them an easy excuse not to.

For there must be also factions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you

1 Corinthians 11:19

Dene Ward

Changing of the Guard

11/11/2025 0 Comments

My high school class was just a year or two too young to lose many to the Vietnam War, but we knew upperclassmen who went, and Keith was in the Marine Corps from ‘67 to’71. My life could easily be different now.

The way those men were greeted when they came home from that horror is a shame to our country. They did not start that war; they were just pawns on a larger political chessboard. The ones who spat on them and called them names were, by and large, a younger group who had never fought in a war, never experienced any sort of economic deprivation, but rather, had their lives handed to them on a silver platter.

In 1994 another group of veterans was finally given the honor they deserved in the many 50^th anniversary observances of D-Day. They were called “the Greatest Generation,” for making it through the Great Depression and then going on to fight for their country. Many gave the ultimate sacrifice, as we call it. Of the few, if any, still left, others still suffer from the injuries they incurred. Many more still bear the pain of emotional scars from that awful conflict. Truly they deserve our respect and our gratitude.

So what has happened? 1994 is gone. I live in Florida, where a great many retirees, many of whom are veterans, finish their lives. They are regularly the brunt of jokes and disrespect from a generation that may never know the trials that group went through, solely because those people went through those trials. Funny how time can wreak such havoc with attitudes isn’t it?

Unfortunately, I have seen the same thing happen in the Lord’s body. A younger generation sneers at an older one because it is older, because it doesn’t understand that society is a bit different, and what was once expedient no longer is. Yet that older generation is the one who saw the problems in the work force during the 40s, a war machine grinding out supplies at a pace unheard of before. They were the ones who saw the need for a Sunday evening service so that those Christians who were working shifts would not be left out of the group activities, so they too could experience the encouragement that comes from praising and thanking God together.

You know what? When they came up with that idea, it was new, it was different--it broke all the traditions. Don’t sit there on your high horse and accuse them of not being able to change with the times.

That is why those things are so hard for them to give up. Yes, for some there may be an attitude problem, perhaps a willfulness or stubbornness that should be dealt with, but I would suggest that is not the case for most. Just because someone has a difficult time seeing the need for an expedient change, does not mean he is a Pharisee, which seems to be the accusation du jour. Too many times we act towards them with a disrespectful scorn and impatience, while at the same time being happy to stand on those same tired, hunched shoulders, shoulders that bore the burden of fighting the battles that have kept the church sound and faithful to the Lord. Where would we be now without them?

My generation and the one just younger need to be careful. Trying to withhold respect and honor and cloaking it as righteousness is simply another facet to the same Phariseeism we claim to abhor (Mark 7:8-13). Our Lord would not like it now any more than he did two thousand years ago.

So please, be a little more careful how you speak to and about the old warriors. Be understanding of the feelings they must have, seeing their world change perhaps more than any other generation before. Be grateful to them for what they have been through and the battles they have fought. One of these days, another generation will come along and look at you and the things you don’t want to change. What kind of example will you have left them?

You shall stand before the gray head and honor the face of the old man, and you shall fear your God. I AM Jehovah, Lev 19:32.

Dene Ward

Smoke Alarms

8/26/2025 0 Comments

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.
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, 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

Trolling

7/4/2025 0 Comments

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. I got my first really nasty comment on the blog a few weeks ago. I know, despite the obviously made up name, that this was not a Christian in any sense of the word. A Christian would never have used the language he did. I answered him politely via the email address I had access to, apologizing for his misunderstanding, inviting him to visit again, and have not heard word one back. I can't help but wonder how surprised he was when he heard from me, and even more when my reaction was probably the last thing expected.
            I understand that this type of thing is called “trolling.” Someone who has nothing better to do with his life goes combing through blogs and websites and does his best to create a controversy with a quick jab, then sits back to see “what he hath wrought.” In this case nothing. One reply by a reader showed his comment to be, not only vulgar, but completely ridiculous. I did not say what he said I did, and no one else took it that way either. And you know what? Solomon’s proverb is shown to be true yet again, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
            The church had trollers to deal with in the first century. Acts 13,14,15,17, and 21, Rom 16, Gal 1 and 2, several chapters in Timothy, and most of John’s epistles show their sinister attempts to cause controversy and divide the church. They even followed Paul around from place to place, “poisoning their minds against the brothers” Acts 14:2; “subverting souls” 15:24; “agitating and stirring up” 17:13; “creating obstacles contrary to the doctrine” Rom 16:17; and “distorting the gospel” Gal 1:7.
            And we still have trollers today—people who go from house to house spreading dissatisfaction, who stand in the parking lots campaigning against the leadership of the church, who even have websites devoted to dispensing discontent with spurious arguments and unsubstantiated accusations, usually about their own pet concerns. And who are the victims? “The naïve,” Romans 16 tells us, usually those who are young and easily swayed by a handsome fellow who seems far more “with it” than the stodgy old nay-sayers.
            And how does that passage describe these trollers? They are “puffed up with conceit,” gathering to themselves a rah-rah club to satisfy their egos. They “understand nothing” while at the same time claiming to be more enlightened than anyone else. They have an “unhealthy craving for controversy,” unhealthy for those whose hearts are deceived, unhealthy for the body of Christ, and certainly unhealthy for their own souls.
            Trolling—no, it’s not new, and neither is this: God hates it every bit as much now as He did two thousand years ago.

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. Titus 3:9-11.

Dene Ward

Ordeals and Suffering

5/9/2025 0 Comments

     I thought about it a few years ago when a younger generation began talking about how hurtful it was when someone disagreed with them or told them they were wrong, and people actually took it seriously, as if it were a wound as bad as a bloody, gaping gunshot wound. All of a sudden they needed counseling to get over the ordeal of being disagreed with. In fact, it was no longer considered politically correct to disagree with anyone. Suddenly, a job evaluation, a common way to determine whether someone deserved a raise or even perhaps, should be let go for not doing the work they were hired to do, was a grave injustice and should be discontinued. I said then, "Someday this will infect the church and correction will become a dirty word among us. It will be impossible to 'reprove, rebuke, and exhort' as the New Testament teaches that we should, and might even get the church sued. Well, it seems to be happening almost as I predicted.
     First, this is not about sexual abuse in the context of the church, usually by church leaders of some stripe. That is a case where the perpetrator deserves prison and the victim deserves all the counseling s/he needs and the love and acceptance of the group where it happened. Who knows how many others might be saved if we quit closing our eyes to things that most certainly do exist whether we want to believe it or not? No, this is not about that.
     I have experienced all sorts of hurt in my life, hurt perpetrated by Christians. As a preacher's family we were lied about, slandered, gossiped about to the point that a close friend who lived 150 miles away called to ask what was going on. That's how far it had spread. We have received death threats that wound up with an FBI agent standing at our front door. Once, a group of elders was so angry that the church was growing under Keith's tutelage and everyone loved him and our family that they threw us out during the holidays. We found a new place, but we were within two days of becoming homeless. So, yes, I understand how it feels when the people who are supposed to be closer than family and support you through thick and thin betray you. I know countless preachers and elders and their wives, as well as Bible class teachers who have been through the same thing. It did not make us special. Even the apostle Paul dealt with "false brethren" (2 Cor 11:26).
     But none of that gives any of us the right to denigrate the body of Christ for which he died; the body of Christ that is part of God's plan since before the world was made (Eph 3:10,11). Just think for a minute if the apostles had reacted as some do. One of their very own not only stole from them but put them in a dangerous position when he betrayed the Lord. Why do you think Peter so suddenly denied being one of Jesus' followers? Surely it crossed his mind that they were now all in danger and he could be standing up there next to Jesus during the trial, scourging, and ultimate crucifixion if he did anything else. Think for a minute how Jesus' murder affected them all—Peter saying, "I'm going fishing," as if it were time to get back to normal, and the hopelessness of those on the road to Emmaus, ("we had thought"). Think how all of those women felt who stood there looking at the gruesome bleeding wounds and watching him take his last breath? Don't you think these people were traumatized?
      How do you think people felt when they actually watched Ananias and Sapphira fall over dead? When it says "great fear" came on the church, it certainly wasn't mere reverence. How did it feel to the non-Palestinian Jews whose widows were completely left out of the serving, good women, older women who could have starved because they left all meaning to return but never got to after Pentecost? Wouldn't that have cut to the heart? Sometimes I wonder about us and the generation we have raised who cannot stand to be disciplined or simply disagreed with because it just hurts so much that I can no longer function as the Lord expects me to. What?!
     How did Paul handle his hurt? Not by spreading it everywhere, telling everyone about the horrible people he had to deal with. Paul understood that the mission God has given us is far more important than our feelings. To place ourselves above that mission is nothing more than pride and self-centeredness. The way to get past these things is not to malign God's plan—which is what you are doing whether you want to believe it or not—but to press on with the work He has given us. If I am busy in the kingdom, how will I have time to mope about people trying to help me improve myself? Even if they do it in a ham-handed fashion, at least they care enough to try. If the method is particularly strong, perhaps we need to take a really good look at ourselves and figure out why they did it that way. More than once I have found myself recognizing a need for change because someone cared enough to say something about it.
     God's organization is perfect. Unfortunately, it is filled with flawed people. I dare anyone to find any organization that is filled with perfect people. It simply doesn’t exist. The Lord's body is the closest group you will get. The best friends I have are every one of them Christians. The best people in the world are in Christ's church. As I said, we have had some hard and hurtful things in our lives, but we are careful what we say about them—you notice I have not mentioned any names or places here--and we never mention them to people we are trying to convert to the Lord. My feelings are never more important than I a soul I am trying to save.

This is why I endure all things for the elect: so that they also may obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory (2Tim 2:10).

I'll Never Forget

4/8/2025 0 Comments

Oh, so many years ago we moved up to the frozen tundra. At least that’s what north central Illinois felt like to this Florida native. Keith worked with a small church there and I experienced blizzards, snowmen, and sledding for the first time in my life. I also experienced a grudge-holder to end all grudge-holders.
            An older fellow, a corn and soybean farmer, invited us to visit and before we had time to warm the seats of the chairs in his white two story farmhouse, he proceeded to give us some “important information.” Another family in the church, he proclaimed, was not the faithful, unselfish, godly family they claimed to be. Then one by one he listed all the “wrongs” they had done him, most of which amounted to being more prosperous than he. They surely must have sinned to get that way!
            Keith was older and more experienced than I. He saw through the “helpful” manner this man had adopted, and before his list was complete, Keith had asked a few probing questions that left him flummoxed. Somehow this was not going the way he expected it would. When we left that day, he had not accomplished his mission at all, which is entirely as it should have been. When someone comes running to pour garbage on you, step aside as quickly as possible. The truth will out, and before long the fruits we saw in both families made apparent who was and was not “faithful.”
            If I had just finished the faith study I had written back then, it would have been obvious to even me. After all that research, the huge lists of passages I had, and the categories I eventually sorted them into, I found several mentioning circumstances that require “extra” faith to handle. One of them made me laugh out loud at first, then it made me sit back and say, “Well, of course.”
            In Luke 17, Peter, somewhat proudly, asked the Lord if forgiving someone seven times wasn’t a “gracious” plenty. No, Jesus tells him. Not seven times, but seventy times seven. I am positive Peter got the point—there should be no end to forgiving others; there must be no “last straw”--because he immediately exclaimed, “Lord! Increase our faith!” He understood that a failure to forgive is a sign of weak faith.
            I have puzzled over how those two things are connected for quite awhile now. Finally I see two possibilities.
            First, God says He will avenge me; I don’t have to worry about doing it myself. Not to believe that is to question the love and care God has for me, a love He demonstrated in no uncertain terms when He gave His only begotten Son. Of course He will avenge me. If I don’t believe that, I may as well not believe the incarnation of the Lord.
            And then this: do I believe that God will forgive me an infinite number of times? I am supposed to be His child, striving to become like Him. If I can’t forgive, then maybe I don’t believe He forgives, and if He doesn’t forgive, then my whole belief system is flawed. Why do I bother?
            Our American culture tends to laud as strong those who fight back, take revenge, and hold grudges. “That’s going too far,” and, “I just won’t take that,” has been uttered in countless movies by “the strong, silent type.” And what do we all do? We applaud the man who finally refuses to turn the other cheek. We admire the man who fights back. We approve the man who chooses not to forget the sins against him—the one who says, “I’ll never be hurt again.”
            What if God said those things about us? Aren’t you shivering in your boots to realize where you would be if God hadn’t said instead, “Your sins I will remember no more,” and “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow?” Aren’t you thrilled beyond measure to read the inspired words of John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness?” (Jer 31:34; Isa 1: 18; 1 John 1:9)
            Do you ever find yourself wanting to tell everyone about the people you think have mistreated you? You and that old Illinois farmer are standing in the same shoes. Take off those shoes for you are standing on the Holy Ground of a God who loves and forgives to an infinite measure. If you want to stand with Him, you must forgive in the same way.
            “Lord, increase our faith.”

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Romans 12:19.

Dene Ward

April 6, 1896—Without a Blow

4/4/2025 0 Comments

            On April 6, 1896, the first modern day Olympics opened in Athens, Greece, after a break of 1500 years. You will find varying accounts but there were 240-280 athletes from 13 or 14 countries who participated in 43 events. The games were organized by the International Olympic Committee, created by Pierre de Coubertin. First place received a silver medal and second a copper medal. The IOC has now retroactively awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals as the custom came to be. So with that in mind, at the first modern Olympiad, the United States won the most gold medals at 11, but the Greeks won the most overall at 47. The games were so successful that they continued every four years with the exception of 1916 (World War I) and 1940 and 1944 (World War II).
            While I was doing the research for this post I came across a reference to an athlete from the original Olympics period, the 207th Olympiad in 47 AD. Melankomas of Caria won the boxing event. Legend has it that he won without dealing a single blow and without being hit. He trained day and night and his endurance was such that it is said he could hold up his arms to defend himself and dodge blows for two days straight until the opponent simply wore himself out and could no longer fight. Obviously there were no time limits or rounds in those days. A good discussion of the man and the history of Greek boxing in general can be found on WordPress, "The Arms Man" and "The Greatest Boxer of All Time." You will also find more varying information about exactly when he boxed, for even that information is a little unsettled.
            After reading this piece I found myself reciting Isaiah 53: He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, Isa 53:7. Jesus won the battle with Satan not by striking him down but by taking our punishment upon himself; not by fighting back but by rising from the dead. The "blow" Jesus dealt to Satan was a sinless life and the resurrection from the dead.
            Melankomas was not the first boxer by that name in the ancient Olympics. The first was his father, and he simply took up his father's occupation and perfected it. Jesus asks the same of his disciples. "Follow me," he said again and again. And "Turn the other cheek," "Love your enemies," "Reconcile with your brother," be willing to "take wrong" and "be defrauded" for the kingdom's sake. Again and again we are taught not to strike a blow, but to take one without striking back, to give more than people ask of us and to share with the needy. And if we do, we will find ourselves winning the race just like he did, never striking out, never taking revenge, but giving good to all.
            Our Olympiad occurs every day. Let's fight as he did, as Paul did, and win the gold.

Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? Even so run; that ye may attain. And every man that strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they [do it] to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air: but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected 1 Cor 9:24-27.

Dene Ward

Prisoners

3/6/2025 0 Comments

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 worshipping 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

Lessons from the Studio: It Isn't Perfect

2/21/2025 0 Comments

     When I was a music teacher I maintained membership in three different organizations, each of which had a local group, a state affiliate, and a national affiliate. I filled out application forms of several pages length, provided my resumes, and paid what at times was a hefty fee to be a member.   Because I was a member of these groups, my students had far more performing opportunities, learning opportunities such as master classes, activities like summer music camp, competitions they could enter, and scholarships they could earn.
     Was any of these organizations perfect in the way they were run or the people who made up their membership? Not a one, but I never expected them to be. They were made up of human beings who by definition are flawed and imperfect. Sometimes the means they used to determine things seemed not the best, even open to things like favoritism and other bias. But we all made the best of what we had, focusing on the strengths of each association and using them to serve our students as best we could. We understood the original purpose behind these organizations and focused on that, not the imperfections.
     We all understand things like that. Who is not a member of a professional organization that leaves them wanting occasionally? Yet we all put up with it for the good we know it will do us. That is why I am a little impatient with people who seem to think they should be able to demand a perfect body of people to place their church membership with or else they shouldn't have to bother. As an old preacher said so long ago, if you go looking for a perfect church you will never find it; but if you do, once you join it, it won't be perfect any longer.
     Let us hasten to add, Christ's church by design is certainly perfect. Its very existence and function makes known the manifold wisdom of God, Eph 3:9-11. The problem is the same one that organizations always have—it is made up of people who are not perfect, who forget its purpose, who decide they know better than God, who think they are the only ones smart enough to do things "right." Certainly it should be our business to correct any practice we find that is unauthorized, correct—or remove--any unrighteous behavior, and constantly tweak the way things are run so that it comes as close as possible to God's original intention. But when all is said and done, it is still a group of flawed people, people who still make mistakes, and who still sometimes show themselves to be less than they ought to be. So what? Find me a perfect group of people anywhere and then we can talk about it. More than that, show me that you don't put up with flawed, imperfect people in any other context. Of course you do—starting with your own family.
     So let's cut out the nonsense. It isn't that you wish to avoid being part of a local congregation because the people are so imperfect; it's that you just don't want to be accountable to a group God specifically designed to help you grow and improve. You don't want to have elders prying into your life because God holds them accountable for your soul. You don't want people to love you so much that they come asking what's wrong when you are trying to so hard to pretend nothing is. You wouldn't even want to be part of God's perfectly run church of perfect people if you could find it.
     Think today about how much you put up with everywhere else yet won't put up with even a smidgen of when it comes to God's church. You know in your heart that, as imperfect as they are, no better group of people exists on the planet than those in the Lord's body. Stop trying to pretend otherwise and use what He has given you for your soul's, and your family's good.

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. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1Thess 5:12-18).

Dene Ward