Seems like every August one of the morning network shows will have a spot on what to do with all those tomatoes.  Unfortunately, those shows usually air from New York City where they seem to think that everyone thinks like they do and lives like they do, and that even the weather follows suit.  New York City must be the center of the universe. 
 
             Down here in Florida our tomatoes are 1 to 2 months gone by the time those shows air, depending upon the year.  We eat and give away those perfectly formed, unblemished firstfruits from the last week of May till halfway through June.  Then I spend a week canning tomatoes with the plum varieties, and a few days on specialty items like salsa and tomato jam.  Another week using up the end of the year uglies on sauce, and that’s that.  It’s a rare year that I have tomatoes after the Fourth of July.

              And guess what?  In the south part of this long state, things are different still.  Tomato season Is different for every location and climate.

              It’s like that for Christians too.  Not only do different spiritual ages have differing levels of understanding, but even different locations fight different battles.  A long time ago, we moved north.  Talk about culture shock.  Not only did I see my first snow, we had to fight heresies that had been fought down south ten years earlier.  You can see those things happen in the New Testament too, as trouble travels from city to city. 

              We can also discover exactly how patient—or impatient—we are with our brothers and sisters.  I forget how long it took me to reach this point and expect it of them in a few short weeks.  I become annoyed with their failures and with their lack of understanding.  Somehow I expect them to leapfrog a few decades and catch up.

              That is not how it works, and we must make allowances.  It may mean we are more careful in our decision making, and it may mean we give up our liberties.  It’s one thing to be held hostage by the views of the stubborn who claim they are “offended;” it’s quite another to trample on the fragile souls of those new in the faith, who are still grappling with the baggage they have not quite left behind. 

              And let us not deter, or even discourage completely, their salvation with some manmade list of things they should know before we accept them into our congregations.  Smacks a little of catechism class, doesn’t it?  Just how much do you think that Philippian jailor knew when Paul baptized him “in the same hour of the night?”  Enough to understand his need for a Savior and how to contact that redeeming blood.  He had a lifetime to learn the rest.
 
             Tomato season for me is not tomato season for you, and my Christian age is not the same as yours.  If you expect a green tomato to taste like one that has been vine-ripened in a home garden, you are not as wise as you think you are.
 
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me,  Rom 15:1-3.
 
Dene Ward

Sulky Sue is a cute little blond, whose angelic expression can turn ugly in an instant.  Whenever she doesn't get her way, she screams, pouts, holds her breath, or otherwise makes the entire family miserable.  Mom and Dad have given in to her tantrums so often that she has come to expect everything to go as she wishes.  They are now just plain scared of her.

              So what happens when Sue grows up?  She still expects to get everything she wants, and whoever is in the way will be sorry if she does not.  Complaining has become her way of life.  She is not happy unless there is something to gripe about.  And gripe she will, even to the point of public scenes.  Preachers, teachers, elders and deacons instantly tense up when they see her approaching.  Is Sue happy today, or did I do something else to upset her?

              Grown-up Sue has never outgrown the egocentrism of a child.  She sits back and watches, gathering more and more "righteous" anger each day that passes because, you see, everyone is out to get her.  Even family and friends are guilty of treating her unfairly, and with "malice aforethought."  Nothing is ever accidental, and everyone always has her in mind when they say or do anything.  

              I once sat and talked with an older woman for about thirty minutes.  In that short amount of time, she said, "_______ didn't like me and wanted to cause me trouble," three different times about three different people.  I so badly wanted to ask, "And what did those three have in common?  Having to deal with YOU."  But I did not.  Maybe I was scared of her, too.

              Sue has let bitterness soak into her soul.  She is never happy, at least not for long.  She is looking for trouble everywhere.  She takes everything personally, makes mountains out of molehills, and blames God for giving her a miserable life.  For some reason, it never crosses her mind that she has pouted and moaned herself into becoming a crabby, peevish, irritable old woman (or man), and she cannot understand why people stay away from her.  Tell her to count her blessings and you will be counting the days, months, or years until she speaks to you again.  But it will probably be a great relief!
 
              Life never goes the way we plan.  Get your child used to the fact that he will have to patiently put up with drivers he thinks are idiots, bosses he can hardly stand, teachers he thinks are unfair, and neighbors who are nuisances.  Tell him to "Get over it!"  It happens to everyone and he is not so special that it will not happen to him too. 

             God's people have hope even in the midst of sorrow.  Sulky Sue is too wrapped up in herself to see beyond this world to the glory of the next.
 
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.  2 Cor 4:17,18
 
Dene Ward

This has become almost laughable on Facebook.  Someone tries to make a legitimate point and someone else manages to find an objection to something that was not even addressed.  They wrap themselves in an aura of godliness by creating a major out of a minor and end up ruining the address of a real problem that would have benefited many.  It isn't godliness, folks; it's arrogance.

              Recently I saw a quote from someone many of us would disagree with theologically.  However, it was an excellent quote and it answered a real problem that many we do agree with may have.  Almost immediately a comment came in about not taking anything by this man seriously because of some of his other beliefs.  That turned a profitable discussion into one designed to repudiate anyone who does not fall into place down the line doctrinally.  I wonder how many who needed that quote missed its beneficial point, and how many went on their way in an error this quote might have helped, and all because someone out there had to look so righteous.

              Rather than just have my think-so about it, let's approach this scripturally and see what we can find.

              Paul quoted pagans at least twice to prove his points. 
              …for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.  Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man. (Acts 17:28-29)
              One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons.  This testimony is true. For which cause reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, (Titus 1:12-13)

              The apostle John quoted one of the instigators of the murder of Jesus, in which he said his statement was not only true, it was prophecy.  But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor do ye take account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.  Now this he said not of himself: but, being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad.  So from that day forth they took counsel that they might put him to death. (John 11:49-53)

              The book of Proverbs was Divinely preserved for us all these centuries later for the good advice within it, even though the writer, as we say these days, went off the deep end.

              And Jesus himself tells us that the sons of this world…are wiser than the sons of light.  (Luke 16:8).  In other words, learn from them.

              All of that tells me that I am allowed to make judgments about what is and is not profitable, who is and is not worth listening to, as long as I am careful.  John also tells us to "Prove the spirits whether they be from God," (I John 4:1), and if I understand the context of that epistle correctly, he had a few baptized believers in mind first.

              Even good brethren who loved him gave Paul some lousy advice (Acts 21:11-14).  That means that even a "baptized, non-premillenial believer" can be wrong.  That includes commentaries and other books by our brethren.  I have found so many mistakes in children's Bible class literature that I am appalled.  I have seen well-respected gospel preachers write that God made an exception for the Ephraimite Samuel to make sacrifices, when it only takes a few minutes of research to find out that Samuel may have lived in Ephraim, but he was indeed a Levite (I Chron 6:16-28).  And I am told that Zerr's commentary on Genesis says that Gen 3:16 means that women should not take pain killers during childbirth.  I am glad that man was nowhere near me when I needed an emergency C-section!  So much for the brethren's commentaries.

              So what does all of this mean?  You can find good, common sense advice anywhere.  You can find people you may not agree with entirely who have the ability to open your eyes to something you do agree with.  How many times have you heard our denominational neighbors used to put us to shame when it comes to zeal and spreading the gospel?  Whether friend or foe, whether pagan or believer, be open enough to hear what "the sons of this world" have to say that might help you.  And don't be so arrogant as to think you know best what others need to hear, including yourself.
 
Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Prov 26:12)
 
Dene Ward

If you missed it, see last Monday's introductory post about this series

              Look-at-me-Louie is a debonair little guy in the book.  Blond, well-dressed, riding a skateboard, a satisfied smile on his face, and his hands on his hips.  Louie will always be showing off and demanding attention.  He is sure he is great at everything, and no one can tell him otherwise.

              I am sure that you have seen grown-up Louie.  He talks constantly—about himself and his accomplishments.  Kind of like a neighbor I once had who told us often of all the money he made before he retired.  It was plain what he was proud of—his wealth, and he was happy to tell us again and again how he had gained it. 

               Grown-up Louie now sports a SELF-satisfied smile.  He can be loud at times, demanding attention not just from the one he is talking to, but the whole room.  He believes he is always the best choice for whatever position or honor comes along and can get downright ugly if he does not get it.  Kind of like a man I knew long ago and far away who started a smear campaign against an eldership because he himself wasn't chosen.
 
             Grown-up Louie does not take correction well at all.  "Why, how dare you try to tell me something when I am so much better than you are."  We once tried to help a young man whose name might as well have been Louie.  He already knew everything he needed to know, thank you very much.  "Why, I am used as the good example to everyone else!  No one can teach me anything."  He knew more than people thirty years older with decades more experience.  There was no way we lowly people could possibly help him.

              He was right, actually.  We could not help him--because he did not believe he needed to be helped.  And that is the sad truth about all the Louies you may know.  The elders cannot help them.  Preachers and teachers cannot help them.  No one can help them until they learn to see themselves clearly in the mirror of God's Word.  The only thing they will hear is praise because that is all they think they deserve.  Once you stop that, they become deaf to you.

              Some of the Louies out there will actually grow up and learn to listen, but some not.  I know a few in their 60s who still cannot stand to hear that they have made a mistake.  Suddenly, you become the enemy instead of a friend.  But sometimes something happens to wake them up.  That's wonderful, but think of all the wasted years, the things they might have learned, and the progress they might have made if they had not been a Look-at-me-Louie in the first place.

              Don't waste your life looking for praise and spurning instruction.  You will wind up being so much less than you could have been for the Lord.
 
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.  Prov 9:9
A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.  Prov 13:1
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.  Rom 12:3
 
Dene Ward

It was a couple of years before we finally had sparrows at our bird feeder.  For some reason, it took them the longest to find us.  But which variety?  I never realized there were so many until I tried to look these little guys up in my bird book.  One afternoon, a sparrow perched on the window ledge right beside me and I looked down on his tiny red-brown cap.  Aha!  He was a chipping sparrow.
 
           You know what else I noticed?  He always has friends with him.  What started out as two or three, by the third or fourth day had become a dozen, and the next Saturday afternoon I counted 21 on my five foot long feeder. 

            On our last camping trip, we threw some biscuit crumbs onto the grass outside the edge of our graveled state park campsite simply because I had heard a dove out there one morning and Keith was hoping to lure him out into the open.  I grabbed the binoculars—even though I sat only fifteen feet from that grassy spot—and saw a sparrow.  No, wait!  Not one but two, no--three, no--half a dozen.  Keith said, “Look at all those sparrows!” and I answered what I had come to know over the months, “You never see just one sparrow.”

            This, of course, made me think.  Cardinals?  Yes there were always more than one, usually a pair, and when they raise a family nearby they bring them to eat too.  They are a bit territorial, though, and will sometimes fly at other birds to knock them away from the food.  No one else is supposed to enjoy this privilege.

            Titmice?  Yes, they come in pairs too.  But when other birds arrive, they often sit off in the azalea bushes scolding them with a tiny, high-pitched screech.  Even when I go out to add more seed, though the others fly away, the titmice will sit and fuss at me.  I keep telling them, “I am giving you a free and easy meal.  Be patient!”  But scolding seems to be their nature.  Nothing anyone else does suits them.

            And the catbird?  He always comes alone.  He pecks the suet and flies away as fast as he can.  He is the biggest bird to visit my feeder, but he acts like he is afraid of them all.  He never interacts with anyone.  He is there and gone, almost before your eyes can focus on him.  I wonder how he gets any nourishment at all.

            But the sparrows? They are not afraid to sit close together and stay long.  None of the bigger birds can scare them off.  In fact, the doves, which run up and down the feeder, literally “running” birds off more than feeding themselves, cannot run off those sparrows.  I saw a dove try to run at a sparrow one day, and the sparrow just sat there, minding his own “eating” business, until the dove at the last minute had to hop over him to avoid the collision.  Meanwhile, there are more and more sparrows coming, and my birdseed bill is growing faster than my grocery budget.

            Can we learn anything from all these birds?  You can probably see these lessons as easily as I can.  Christians are grateful for what they have and enjoy feasting on the word of God.  They enjoy each other too.  They don’t have time to criticize because they are too busy with the business at hand.  And most of all, they want to share. 

            There should never be just one Christian.
 
So the woman left her waterpot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,  Come, see a man, who told me all things that ever I did: can this be the Christ?  They went out of the city, and were coming to him. And from that city many of the Samaritans believed on him because of the word of the woman who testified, John 4:28-30,39.
 
Dene Ward
 

On the date above, the Associated Press ran a story about "half-naked natators" on the municipal beaches of New York City who were being fined ($1.00) for showing up topless.  "The city fathers insist on complete bathing suits—tops and trunks, or one-piece suits combining both."
              Yes, we are talking about men here.  Before then, public morals insisted that men not go shirtless. "Are you kidding?" some of you are probably thinking, but, as a preacher friend likes to say, "Here's the deal."  Just because society's sense of modesty has changed does not mean God's has.  We point to articles like this and use them to justify some of the most immodest clothing ever worn in any society through the ages.  And why?  Because we do not want to be different, that's why.  Folks, being different is what being a Christian is all about.  It is all over the pages of the New Testament.  If you can't stand to be pointed at and derided because you refuse to act like the rest of the world, then you are not up to the task of being a Christian.
              Granted, some of us have been raised to see certain things as "normal."  Do you realize how many things a missionary has to "unteach" in a pagan society where they are accepted as "normal?"  We are just acting like pagans when we allow our society to define our morality.  It is high time we re-examined our behavior, and in this morning's post, our clothing. 
              Do you realize that European women (I read in a newspaper article) view American women as "dressed like prostitutes?"  I wish I still had that article so you would know I am not making this up.  What we like to call "immodesty" is probably better defined as lasciviousness—that which arouses lust.  Here is where fathers fail to teach and mothers fail to accept their views.  Men know exactly what other men are thinking—especially men who are not even trying to be godly.  And what do men like to look at?
              Cleavage, short shorts, any kind of swimsuit (or anything that shows an entire length of leg or even just most of one), spaghetti straps, work-out clothes, tight jeans and skirts, strapless and backless clothes, bare midriffs (and a belly chain is a special turn-on), and any item that blatantly draws attention to certain parts of the body.  Yes, immodesty is often a heart issue.  A woman who dresses with "the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit" (1 Pet 3:4) will seldom dress immodestly.  However, immodesty can also be a matter of ignorance.  Just as those pagans who thought polygamy was "normal" needed to be shown otherwise, some women think certain types of dress are normal because that is what everyone else wears.  Sometimes practicality simply demands some sort of list!
              That list above can be found in any article or book on the subject, even ones not written by Christians.  Ungodly people know what is and is not immodest.  For some reason, the list doesn't change no matter what the date of copyright.  In fact, it is the same list I saw as a teenager, oh, so many, many years ago.  So what was that about "things have changed?"  What incites lust does not change.
              "So what can I wear?" you ask pitifully.  A lot.  I haven't had a bit of trouble finding things to wear.  Neither has my daughter-in-law or my seven nieces.  There are even companies that make "modest swimwear."  Enough Christians of one stripe or another have asked for it and it is now available, if you will bother to look it up.  I did not have such a luxury and I truly looked weird in my swimming get-up, which was made up of various items of regular, modest clothing that covered me from neck to knee and was not transparent, even when it got wet.
              Another problem:  parents, please think about the extracurricular activities you involve your children in, both boys and girls, and the kind of clothing that activity usually demands.  Why would you allow your child to come to love, and even build his or her identity in something that sooner or later you will have to forbid?  Could you be any crueler?  I have reached the point that, though I enjoy gymnastics, I will no longer watch it now that half of every young female gymnast's behind is on display.  I probably should have turned it off sooner. 
              Every year that passes I see us accepting things that we should not, things we should avoid and teach our children to avoid, not excuse as "normal because everyone does it."  I remember conversations with my mother about that very thing.  "What everyone does is probably the best reason for you not to do it," she said, and she was absolutely right.
              Go look in your closets, sisters.  Look in your daughter's closet.  She will not understand when you suddenly forbid her to wear some things.  You will never be able to make her understand, probably, until she marries, and even then some women refuse to get it.  Why, their good man could not possibly have a problem with these things.  Yes, he can, and you are making it harder on him when you won't accept the facts of biology.
              We all have a responsibility to the people around us.  If we cause lust, we are "causing our brother to stumble (SIN)," and yes, it is too, our problem, not just his, because God will hold us accountable.
 
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.  For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves… (1Pet 3:3-5)
 
Dene Ward

Due to my congenital eye problems, I grew up reading in my room instead of playing outside with the other kids.  That may sound odd—reading when one has an eye problem—but, you see, reading was safe.  As long as I had my coke bottle glasses I could sink back into my imagination and see the world.  Whenever I tried to play with the other children, I always tripped over something I did not see, fell and skinned my knees, or got hit in the face with whatever ball we were playing with at the time because I could not see it coming, sometimes breaking those expensive glasses. 

            Then I married a man, and had two boys.  Here I was with a house full of men and had absolutely no experience either playing sports or watching them.  Well—I tried to watch football once when I was about 10.  It looked to me like two bunches of men who every minute or so ran into each other and fell down.  I did enough of that myself, and could not see the attraction at all.

            But I wanted a close relationship with my family, so I started sitting with them on Saturday afternoons, watching what they watched—football and basketball.  Although I still do not have any idea what a “pick and roll” is, or why in the world they call a guy a tackle and then forbid him to do exactly that, I can now identify a naked bootleg and tell when a charge is not a charge, but a blocking foul.  The boys got a big kick out of teaching these things to Mom.

            I went to that trouble because I cared about my family relationships.  Do I care for my neighbors as well? Or have I bought into the egocentric American notion that the world should operate on my schedule and according to my desires, and no one else has any legitimate problems, or any other rationale for what they do other than to aggravate me and get in my way? 

         Will I ask the man next door about his golf game, while studiously avoiding the old joke about golf being “a good walk ruined?”  When I meet the lady across the street at the mailbox, will I ask to see her latest crocheted creation, even though I don’t know the name of a single stitch, and can barely sew a straight line on a machine?  If I want to develop the kind of relationships that will become closer and deeper, and perhaps eventually lead them to the Lord, I hope I will.  These things may seem insignificant, but they pave the way for things that are anything but.

            What lives will you and I try to touch today?
 
For though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.  And to the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain Jews; to them that were under the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law as without law, not being without law to God but under law to Christ. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak.  I have become all things to all men that I may by all means save some.  And I do all things for the gospel’s sake, that I might be a joint partaker thereof.  1 Cor 9:19-23
 
Dene Ward

I know this discussion has been around for years on Facebook and probably for a couple of millennia in the hearts of those who try to excuse their behavior.  But I do not think I have ever heard it discussed this way.

              All of you have dealt with people who try to justify themselves with a statement that begins, "But God wouldn't want…"  What exactly?  Me to be unhappy, me to live alone, me to deny who I really am, et cetera ad nauseam. All of the things they are trying to excuse are plainly condemned in the scriptures.  Usually we fall into their trap and wind up saying, "Yes, God does want you to be unhappy," and even though we have a qualifying statement after that—like, if it means you can't go to Heaven otherwise—no one will listen because of our culture's blind acceptance of anything that rouses warm, fuzzy emotions.  So let's just examine those first four words and leave the rest out.

              "But God wouldn't want…"  When someone says that, the red flags should start waving in your mind.  What exactly are they doing?  Presuming to speak for God, that's what.  Presuming to know exactly how God does and does not feel, what He does and does not want.  False prophets did this when they said they were speaking for God. 

              And the LORD said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. (Jer 14:14-15)

              Presuming what God would say or do about something and then telling others in his name is presumption.  Presumptuous people did not fare well under the Law.

              The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. (Deut 17:12)

              But the prophet, that shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak…that same prophet shall die. (Deut 18:20)

              God does not take it kindly when we take His role, uttering pronouncements as if we were God Himself.  In fact, there is a word for that sort of behavior—blasphemy.  Think of that the next time you want to do something that He has plainly said he does not approve of, yet you utter those presumptuous words:  "God wouldn't want…"
 
…the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones. (2Pet 2:9-10)
 
Dene Ward

Every morning we have a special routine.  Even Chloe loves the routine. 

              She hears us moving around in the kitchen and her ears perk up under the porch.  I know because as soon as the door opens, she is out of there in a bound, up the steps, tail wagging and ears pointed to the heavens.  Her people are coming out to be with her, I am sure she thinks.  To be truthful we do enjoy our time with her too, tossing treats and watching her scamper around to find them like a fuzzy red-headed vacuum cleaner.  But the real draw is that final cup of coffee—the lazy cup, where we sit and talk and watch the morning break around us, sunbeams filtering through the eastern woods, birds fluttering around the feeders, and hawks screaming overhead.  Sometimes we are treated to a few deer creeping out of the woods, a fox snuffling through the scraps we throw over the fence, and once, a flock of eleven wild turkeys who decided all of sudden that maybe they should fly after all.  What an amazing sight that was!

              We especially love the cooler mornings of fall, winter, and spring, when we can build a fire to warm our toes while the coffee warms our innards.  The fires are growing smaller these days as time marches inexorably on and summer approaches.  Trust me, no one wants a fire in Florida after the first of May!

              One day this past winter, after Keith had gone on to an appointment in town, I picked up a small chunk of wood and threw it on for just a few more minutes of "lazy time."  I should have known from its light weight that the wood was nearly rotten.  It turned out to be not only damp, but totally saturated as well.  When I threw it on a perfectly good fire that gave off a hot and steady flame, immediately the blaze dimmed and smoke began pouring out of the wood like a thick, gray, wool blanket.  The flame gamely burned on, doing its best to keep up and catch the old log, trying to bring it to the same level of blaze.  After five minutes I knew it was a lost cause, so I grabbed the poker stick and rolled the rotten piece off the fire.  Immediately the flame increased in size, strength, and heat.  Once again my toes were warm, and the smoke had dissipated.

              And that made me wonder about me.  I am no longer a young woman.  In log terms, I am just about as old as that piece I had thrown on the fire.  So how do I affect the young Christians around me?  Am I so wet and rotten with age that all I do is dampen their enthusiasm, sending up clouds of "smoke" as I complain about their ways, about the changes in things I have grown so comfortable with that they have taken on the feel of "law" to this tradition-bound mind of mine?  And much more startling to consider, if someone rolled me off the fire and tossed me to the side, would the church be better off?

              Do I keep them from accomplishing the mission I once worked so hard for simply because they don't do it "my way" anymore?  Do I keep the light from reaching others just because I don't like the new lamps that have been chosen? 

            I can still work as an individual, using the methods and materials I am comfortable with on a personal level.  No one has any business telling an old log she doesn't matter to the Lord any more.  But surely I can avoid putting out the fire in the hearts of the next generation; surely I can encourage them as they take over the majority of the work now, cheering them on instead of stifling their enthusiasm.  This old hoary head only deserves their respect when it helps instead of hinders.
 
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and she had been a widow even unto fourscore and four years), who departed not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and supplications night and day .And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks unto God, and spoke of him to all them that were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:36-38)
 
Dene Ward

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