Humility Unity - Dene's Blog

The Walking Dead

4/6/2015 0 Comments

I don’t get it. Something is very wrong when we make heroes out of monsters. First it was vampires, and now zombies. But did you know this? We have spiritual vampires and zombies out there too, and some of us make heroes out of them.

Televangelists and faith healers come to mind. Has there ever been a more despicable sort of bloodsucker? They use the desperate, the ill, the old, the ones afraid of dying without God, and steal their money and their minds, basking in the adoration of distressed souls who want just one last vestige of health and a moment of relieved peace before their deaths. Yes, a lot of it is their own fault. If they knew and loved the Word of God as they should they would not have been deluded so as to “believe a lie” (2 Thes 2:9-11). Yet Satan’s ministers are good-looking, amiable, charismatic people, and even the good-hearted can be deceived if they aren’t careful (2 Cor 11:13-15).

   But the worst are surely the walking dead. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will, John 5:21. Notice, Jesus said this well before he ever raised anyone from the dead. Most commentators believe he was talking here about raising the spiritually dead, and the full context proves them correct.

   How are we dead? Most of us can easily quote passages saying we were once “dead in sin,” but Jesus was talking to the Jews of the day, God’s people.
   Verse 16 tells us these people were seeking to kill Jesus because he healed on the Sabbath. They understood when it suited them that healing on the Sabbath was not a sin; they did the same for their animals. But their traditions outweighed the clear dictum of the Law to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” In another healing, Jesus quite purposefully called the woman who was bowed together a “daughter of Abraham” in order to shame the ruler who did not want her healed (Luke 13:15,16). Follow the man born blind in John 9 and see the ridiculous lengths they went to in order to condemn a man who could heal as no one ever had before. Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes, John 9:30. Even Jesus was amazed at their determination not to see his obvious origins, and therefore his authority to heal whenever he pleased.

That determination is shown earlier in John 5. They clearly understood that Jesus claimed a relationship with God that was above and beyond their own, yet despite the works he did, and thus the witness shown by God through those works, they denied that witness, one that shone clearly to any who dared to actually see.

Those people who thought they were the one true people of God, following the one true Law, couldn’t even tell when God was among them. What did Jesus have to say about that? Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him, John 5:24. Don’t count on your pedigree in the faith. Don’t count on following the rules. These people had the first (Abraham is our father, John 8:39), and did the second, but Jesus says to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life, John 5:24. He was calling them dead, yet they were still on this earth walking around, still in charge of God’s people, a people they disdained, John 7:48,49.

How are we doing as a people of God? Do we truly listen, or have we become nothing more than a self-righteous, unloving group that prides itself on having been baptized and following a set of rules, including a bunch we devised ourselves and then judge others for not keeping. As sad as it is, we have the walking dead still among us, and some people think they are heroes.

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you, Rev 3:1-4.

Dene Ward

Drive-In Movies

3/6/2015 0 Comments

I remember it well. Across the river from our small town, an only slightly larger town boasted a drive-in movie theater that offered a double feature for $1 a carload.   What a deal!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

   CH__CH. What’s missing? Is it you?

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

Dene Ward

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Body Language

3/4/2015 0 Comments

When Keith was still an “apprentice preacher” under the tutelage of some local elders, one Sunday he ventured into an interpretation of a passage that he knew was not the standard. As he talked he noticed one of the elders grimacing constantly, and he knew he was in trouble.
   As he tentatively approached that man after services and asked what the problem was, he was startled to hear him ask, “What do you mean?’ When Keith explained the reaction he saw, the brother laughed and said, “Oh that. I was just having some indigestion.” He added that he thought the interpretation was sound. Whew!
   Despite that little misunderstanding, the Bible talks a lot about body language and what it means.
   And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people, Ex 32:9. That phrase must be the most commonly used one I found in regard to body language. You know exactly what it means. Talk to someone you have an issue with and you will see his shoulders draw up and his chin point down, his chest poke out, and his jaws clench—all signs of tension in the neck area. It means here is a man who has already decided not to change his mind regardless what you say. Nehemiah says it this way: …and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey, Neh 9:29.
   Centuries after God’s words to Moses, we find this: Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD…2 Chron 30:8. You can only “yield” when you are pliable, and these people were rigid, determined not to listen and yield. And the trait was passed down to the sons, not because of genetics, but because children take their cues from their parents. Still later we find, You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you, Acts 7:51. Body language does not change like spoken language. It remains the same for thousands of years.
   Have you ever had a discussion with someone only to have that person start shaking his head no before you have even presented your reasoning? The Bible describes people who were just like that. But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear, Zech 7:11. You automatically know that you will make no headway with that person. In fact, you also know that you will not receive whatever benefits you might have from his study because the conversation is over before it even starts. Isaiah says it this way: They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand, Isa 44:18. You are only hurting yourself when you won’t at least listen with an open mind.
   Body language works with the righteous too. He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure, Isa 33:15,16.
   Yes, you have to be careful when judging body language. Sometimes a frown is simply a matter of indigestion. But a teacher knows when the same person wears the same look of indifference, boredom, or agitation every week. He knows when his words have struck a nerve. Most of us are so obvious it’s embarrassing. But he also knows when someone is eating up the study of God’s word, perhaps thinking of its application to his own life, perhaps eagerly wondering where a deeper study on the same subject might lead him when he returns home. A speaker sees the nods of encouragement from the older members and even the light bulbs going off in people’s minds.
   Just as so many years ago, we speak a silent language, one that is obvious to anyone looking at us, even those who do not speak English. It’s a language that God can speak fluently. Be careful what you “say.”

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, Heb 4:12.

Dene Ward

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Sensitivity Training

1/13/2015 0 Comments

If there was ever a new church that struggled with its spirituality, it was the church at Corinth. Paul scolded them: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. [Read that: “you are acting like a bunch of big babies,” and you will get the picture.]   I fed you with milk, not with meat, for you were not yet able to bear it, no, not even now are you able, for you are still carnal, 1 Cor 3:1-3. We have a tendency to think of things sexual when we see that word “carnal,” but Paul tells us in the next phrase or two what it really means: “walking after the manner of men,” in other words, being physically minded instead of spiritually minded. He then spent most of that first letter telling them how to become more spiritually minded.
   Their struggle over spiritual gifts surely has to be the most obvious example. They actually rated them as to importance, using, of course, carnal measurements--the flashier and showier the better. So Paul spends most of chapter 12 telling them that no one is more important than anyone else. Everyone is useful in the body of Christ, and if any one of them was not there, something would be obviously missing. In chapter 14, when their sense of importance is leading to a confused and disorderly assembly because none will yield his “gift” time to another, he actually gives them specific instructions about how to order things, all of which are pure common sense if you have the correct object in mind, the edification of the church rather than the glorification of the individual. He even spells it out several times: if there is no edification, let them keep silence.
   And of course, there is the pitiful business with suing one another, letting things of this physical life effect how they dealt with spiritual brothers and sisters.
   Those poor Corinthians at whom we so often shake our heads are not the only ones with these problems. We are beset by the same weaknesses, and the same feelings. In fact, as I was reading and thinking about these things it suddenly struck me that almost any time I take an idle remark as a personal attack, it falls right into the same category.
   I believe there is such a thing as being sinfully sensitive. Think about it. How many times could Jesus have “gotten his feelings hurt” or “felt insulted?” You could make a list as long as an entire book in the Bible, but he did not allow his feelings to keep him from completing a mission that was more important than anything else in the world.
   When I commit myself to being his disciple, don’t I promise to follow his example? The problem with being too sensitive is that it causes me to stop what I am doing and spend time on nothing but myself, usually moping or pouting, or even beginning a campaign against the other person. Nothing anyone says to me or about me, or that I might even possibly construe to be about me, is an excuse for setting myself up as more important than my mission as Jesus’ disciple. As a mature Christian, those things should roll right off me, because my concern is God’s glorification, not my own. That is what spirituality is all about. And if we cannot even begin to get a handle on it here, why should we be allowed to live in that exalted state for an Eternity?
   Something to think about as we interact with one another today.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, Phil 2:3.The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult, Prov 12:16.

Dene Ward

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An Observation about Giving and Receiving

1/5/2015 2 Comments

Today I have a short observation to share with you. We all know that “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” but no one is going to be blessed if there is no one out there ready to receive! It should go without saying that I am not talking about people who go around with their hands held out, but I learned a long time ago that anything that should go without saying probably needs to be said anyway, so consider it said. Now to today’s point…
   I hear people ask you, “Is there anything I can do for you?” I know what you are going to say because I have said it too: “No. We’re fine.” A lot of times we aren’t fine, we’re just too proud to accept help, or we have the mistaken notion that humility involves sitting quietly in the background without complaint, even when we are in desperate need. If we do ask for something it’s only, “If it isn’t any trouble.”
   Brothers and sisters! God expects us to sacrifice for one another. He expects us to generously give to those in need and serve those who are afflicted. Indeed, He expects me to go to a lot of trouble for you—it doesn’t count as sacrifice if it isn’t trouble. I can’t do that if you won’t let me. You can’t do that if I won’t let you.
   When people ask what they can do for you, tell them! It may go against your grain to accept help, but you need to get off your high horse and let God bless those givers by your willingness to receive. In fact, it may be more than your physical needs they are meeting. It may be just what you need spiritually—a recognition that you actually need someone else’s help.
   Your turn to help will come. It has probably already come, again and again for years, which is probably the reason you find it so hard to turn the tables and accept it now that you need the help. Accept it, not just gratefully, but graciously too. This is, in fact, another way you can give to others—both the pleasure of helping someone and the blessing God promises to the givers. Don’t deny them that blessing with a stubborn refusal to admit you need help.
   May I just paraphrase 1 Cor 12? “If all the world were givers, where would the receivers be? If all the world were receivers, where would the givers be?” It happens to us all sooner or later. When your turn comes, be generous enough to allow others the same blessings you have been receiving as a giver for years.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith, Gal 6:9,10.

Dene Ward

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The Car Seat

12/30/2014 1 Comments

A few years ago we traded cars. The new one had a few new gadgets on it. You can raise and lower the driver’s seat, as well as pull it forward or push it back. You can position the steering column up or down, in or out. Unfortunately I had not yet learned how to do that the first time I climbed in to drive when Keith was at work.
   Instead of sliding onto the seat, I fell into a hole. If the seat was not actually sitting on the floorboards of the car, it was close. As I tried to slide my legs under the steering wheel, I realized that it was practically resting on the seat. I sat for a minute fumbling around, and never found the right button, knob, or lever to fix anything. Needless to say, my driving experience that day was far from relaxing. Every time I got in, I fell in, squeezed under the steering wheel, and then spent the entire drive doing pull-ups on it so I could see where I was going.
   All of that is because Keith is nearly six inches taller than I, and apparently his favored driving position is sitting on the floor with his knees up around his ears. That is why they make those seats movable—no two people are the same size and shape, and we all have our own definitions of comfort.
   We tend to forget that with one another in the church. Depending upon when we first came into contact with the gospel, and the background we brought to the baptistery, we are all in different places in our faith and understanding. While the New Testament strongly hints that God has put a timetable on our learning (“when by reason of time you ought to be teachers”), it may not be my place to judge your progress. True, if one has been a Christian forty years and still craves the milk of the word rather than the meat, there just might be a problem, but most of my impatience with my brothers and sisters has little to do with circumstances so obvious.
   The job of the priest under the old law was to bear gently with the ignorant and erring for he himself also is compassed with infirmity, Heb 5:2. Aren’t we all called priests of God under the new law, (1 Pet 2:5)? And Paul says to the weak I became as weak so that I might gain the weak, 1 Cor 9:22. He did not look down his nose at one who did not yet have his knowledge and comprehension of the plan of God through the ages.
   When the church is growing spiritually and has reached a point that change in its traditions becomes expedient for the progress of the gospel, some people have problems with it. They are stuck in a place where traditions in their minds have become laws. It becomes more difficult for them to change those things. Are we patient in our teaching?   Do we make ourselves “weak” by understanding how difficult this is for them, and so guide them along with compassion?
   Mind you, we are not talking about changing the rules of the road or even how a car operates. You must still drive on the “right” side of the road. You still have to press the accelerator to go and the brake to stop, but some of us shift gears smoothly and automatically, while others need to do it manually, slowly and methodically, one gear at a time.
   I usually see all those cars that impatiently pass me a little further down the road. Sometimes they sit on the shoulder with another car behind them, flashing its blue lights. Other times I quietly pull along side of them at the next stoplight as we both obey the law, idling in our separate lanes. So he got there ten seconds ahead of me—big deal. We both followed the rules and ended up in the same place.
   We must patiently show one another how to move the car seat so we can all more easily see down the road, so none of us is left sitting in a hole, awkwardly doing pull-ups on the steering wheel, trying to see where he is going.

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 have fallen on me, Rom 15:1-3

Dene Ward

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Hamming It Up

12/22/2014 0 Comments

Mothers must do a lot of acting. I remember an elementary school art class I was in. We filled coke bottle tops, those old metal ones that had to be pried off of the green glass bottles, with plaster of Paris. I dyed my plaster bright yellow, then laboriously applied glue and green glitter in the shape of Christmas trees. When they had set, we glued earring clips on the back. I wrapped those hideous things and put them under the tree as my gift to my mother.
   You would have thought they were encrusted with diamonds the way she went on about them. And then she wore them to church the next morning, showing them off with pride. I still cringe when I remember those earrings. Now that was an Oscar-worthy performance by a mother.
   Every Sunday, in many churches, other performances are not so worthy. When two men in a church have a personality conflict, or simply a disagreement about a passage of scripture, it does not take an expert to tell. What do they do? They may shake hands politely when they pass, but they never cross the room to do so with an outstretched palm and a genuine smile. They never make a point to amen one another in Bible classes about the things they do agree on. They never find ways to compliment one another when one has done a good job with a prayer, a talk, or anything else. They certainly never try to encourage one another. Rather, they take issue with one another at every opportunity. And they think no one notices. They think their acting job has us all fooled.
   They might as well be wearing tee shirts imprinted with “I Don’t Like Brother So-and-so.” I have had new people in a church say to me, “What is this that’s going on between those two?” I hope they would be ashamed to know that.
   When Paul told the Corinthians they should speak the same things…be…of the same mind and the same judgment, 1 Cor 1:10, he did not mean we have to agree on everything. Just a few pages later, in chapter 6, he tells them exactly how to act when they disagree with one another. He never told either party to change their minds, but he did tell them they should respect one another and get along anyway.
   “The same mind” we are to be of is a mind to make this body work, to put Christ’s mission for us ahead of our own rights, opinions, and desires. It’s the mindset we tell our young people they must have when they marry: I will do whatever it takes to make this marriage work. Then they see us tear apart the Bride of Christ because we didn’t get to lead singing as often as Brother So-and-So or think Brother Whozit is all wet in his views about the Holy Spirit.
   Paul uses the Lord’s Supper and the image of the body of Christ to tell us the importance of our unity in 1 Cor 10:16,17. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break is it not a communion of the body of Christ? Seeing that we who are many are one bread, one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The sacrifice of that body, the shedding of that blood is what made us one, and we remember it every Lord’s Day.
   When I divide that body, whether in actuality or simply in spirit, I am saying that my likes and dislikes, my interpretation of scripture, my status in the body, is more important than the sacrifice that saved me. Who would dare? Unfortunately, too often, we all do.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Eph 4:1-3.

Dene Ward

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The Hero of the Story

11/25/2014 0 Comments

I have a problem. I believe that life is a book and I am the hero of the story. Everything anyone does is done with me in mind because I am the central character. Any time I rub shoulders with another person in my daily life, that person did it solely because he wanted to hurt me, or inconvenience me, or insult me, or otherwise bother my life.
    What is really happening is that person thinks his life is a book and he is the hero, and I am the one causing him trouble. The things I often get so upset about are nothing more than an accidental crossing of paths or an idiosyncrasy that, in my own self-centeredness, I have decided to take as a personal offense when the other person was not directing it toward me at all.
    And in the same vein, I think everything is supposed to turn out wonderfully, a happily ever after for all my goodness and faithfulness, because I am the hero after all. Admit it: you have the same problem, and it can cost us our souls if we are not careful.
    I think of John the Baptist, a man whose birth was announced by the same angel who announced Jesus’ birth. He gave up any semblance of a normal life to fulfill the mission God gave him. If not for John’s preaching, what would have become of Christianity? If it took several years for the men who actually walked with Jesus to figure things out, what of the masses if John had not worked so hard to prepare them for the coming of the kingdom? The thought of 3000 being baptized on the Day of Pentecost would have been nothing more than a pipe dream.
    John also gave up what others might have expected in the way of glory. He watched Jesus begin his ministry and gradually take away many of his own disciples. For all his sacrifice this is the thanks he gets? John did not look for thanks. Indeed, as his ministry waned and an unjust death at about the age of 31 loomed, his remaining disciples came to him complaining about Jesus’ growing popularity as if it were an affront to John. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:27-30.
    It may have been written many years after his death, but John understood the true meaning of to them that love God all things work together for good, Rom 8:28. He understood because he recognized the part that we ignore: according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified, vv 29,30. John knew he was not the hero of the story. He knew that he need not expect this life to be a bed of roses with a happy ending.
    He also knew that the purpose of God for which he worked was to give everyone the opportunity to be saved, and that was the good for which all things worked together. If it took his not being able to have a family, if it took living a meager existence in the wilderness, if it took his murder, he was willing to bear it.
    If John could have that attitude, a man who lived a short, strange, sacrificial life and died a martyr by the hand of a ruthless woman and her weak husband, why can’t we who live relatively normal, happy, safe lives?
    There will be trials. There will be moments of grief. The life we live here may not have the happy ending we always dreamed of, but the purpose of God will make it seem like a mere trifle if we just stop thinking everything is about us, and remember who the real Hero is.

Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, Heb 12:1,2.

Dene Ward

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Three Ways to Profane God's Name

10/24/2014 9 Comments

Have you noticed that no one can speak two sentences without taking the name of the Lord in vain? Even children are uttering a phrase that once was never spoken in polite company, that men begged a lady’s pardon for saying, that television censors bleeped. When you have an abbreviation for it, it has become entirely too common. I have a friend who wants to make tee shirts with “omg” under the universal “not allowed” sign of a circle with a slash. But that three word monstrosity is just the first, and most obvious way to take God’s name in vain.

   Recently, while I was doing some research, I came across a website called Judaism 101. At the top, the following phrase caught my eye: Please note that this page contains the name of God. If you print it out, please treat it with appropriate respect.

   Oh, how we need this lesson today, and I don’t just mean the heathen out there in the world.

   The name of God stands for far more than just what to call Him. It stands for His essence and nature. It represents His history and reputation. And I will sanctify my great Name which has been profaned among the nations, Ezek 36:23. How would you feel if your “good name,” as we speak of this concept, were thrown around carelessly, used in sarcastic movie or book titles, or joked about? Yet it goes much farther than that.

   In Judaism, any act that causes God to come into disrespect or a commandment to be broken is often referred to as profaning the name of God. This makes sense when you realize that any good deed we do is spoken of as “sanctifying” or “glorifying” his name. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven, Matt 5:16. One is just the opposite of the other, and there you have the second way to profane the Name of God—disobey or cause someone else to disobey Him.

   Number three hits a little closer to home. The Name of God stands for His Authority. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord, Col 3:17. If a policeman yells out, “Stop in the name of the law,” he is telling you that the law of the land gives him the authority to stop you, and you had better do it or pay the consequences. Too many of my brethren are out there pooh-poohing God’s Authority these days, as if “authority” were a bad word. When you act without God’s authority, you are profaning His Name as surely as if you spoke it in vain. You have no respect for that Authority, nor, thus, for His Name.

   The website I mentioned listed several things that orthodox Jews will and will not do in reference to the Name of God. Some of them seem awfully, well, Pharisaic comes to mind. But at least they have the right idea, while we bandy about The Name of God as if it were just any other word, then profane it with careless, or even scornful attitudes, disobey His commands because they don’t suit us, and rationalize our way out of a life of sacrificial service because it’s “too hard” and “makes me feel like a failure.” Disrespecting the authority of God is one and the same as profaning His Name, and conservative fundamentalists take part in it every day. Number three is the scary one because it is so easy to fall into and still think you are just fine because you are so prone to shout Amen and Hallelujah.

   God is Holy. His Name is Holy. His essence is Holiness. Anything I say or do that detracts from that Holiness profanes His Name. It can be a careless phrase. It can be downright disobedience. It can be deciding for God what He will and won’t mind. Meditate on that awhile. Stand in awe of a God whose Name is so powerful it created the worlds, and be just a little scared of how you treat it.

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. Psalms 86:8-12

Dene Ward

Trolling

7/9/2014 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 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 fogies, who are usually viewed that way because they believe in stodgy old things like Biblical authority.

            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. If someone tries to get you involved, walk away.

           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