Keith and I have wondered out loud lately, how a word that should be a compliment, “adult,” has come to mean something bad--adult bookstores, adult movies, adult shops.  If a person knew no better, and walked into one of those places what would he see that could be described as “mature” the way the scriptures use the word?  It reminds me of Isaiah’s warning:  Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put sweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet, 5:20.

            I think there should be a new movie rating:  AM.  It stands for “adolescent mentality.”  Any movie that uses such a meager vocabulary that most of the words have only four letters, that has no dramatic, tension building dialogue lasting longer than ninety seconds before throwing in an explosion or gunfight to get the audience’s attention again, and of course, one that attempts to satisfy the prurient interests of the hormonally-explosive adolescent would get my new rating.  Then those of us who want to behave like real adults, who have larger vocabularies, who don’t need voyeurism to get our kicks, and who have an attention span longer than a minute or two can actually enjoy real adult entertainment.

            The problem with having an adolescent mentality when it comes to entertainment is that it is not confined to that arena.  Can I sit still long enough to pray?  Make yourself pray at least ten minutes today, by the clock.  Can you?  You see, once you get past the standard phrases, two minutes at most, you can really open up to your God, and talk to Him.  If you cannot sit still that long, you may have never really prayed.

            Can I follow a rational argument long enough to study the first 11 chapters of Romans, arguably Paul’s greatest thesis?  Can I study without being led by the hand, or do I simply rely on someone else to do it for me?  Do I have the maturity to honestly examine myself and actually try to do better?  Being a Christian may mean fighting some important battles, but the biggest are usually fought inside yourself and against yourself, with quiet implosions, not loud explosions.

            When we start out, we are all babes in Christ, but He expects us to grow up eventually.  That means some tedious work listening to sermons, attending classes, doing our own Bible study.  Adults understand that not everything can be fun.  It means some long, quiet moments with God.   It means some painful moments of self-discovery.  Are we adult enough to handle it?  Our society’s brand of entertainment speaks otherwise, and unfortunately, society usually winds up worming its way into the body of Christ. 

            When Paul told the Corinthians to Act like men, in 1 Cor 16:13, he was bringing the epistle to its logical end.  While Act like men refers to courage under fire, maybe it can mean something else as well.  In chapter three he calls them “babies,” but now perhaps he is also saying, “Act like adults.”  Would he say the same thing to us? 

But I, brothers, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as carnal, as babies in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not with meat, for you were not able, and even now you are not able, for you are yet carnal…For everyone who partakes of milk is without experience in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.  But solid food is for full-grown men who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil…Be watchful, stand firm in the faith.  Act like men, be strong.   1 Cor 3:1-3; Heb 5:13,14; 1 Cor 16:13

Dene Ward

Keith loves tomatoes, which accounts for the fact that we have 95 tomato plants in our garden. In the summer, his supper is not complete without a heaping platter of sliced tomatoes, assorted colors and varieties—Better Boy, Celebrity, Big Beef, Golden Girl, Golden Jubilee, Cherokee Purple—all full sized, some even the one-slicers: large enough for one slice to cover a piece of bread.

So when the first tomato ripened this year and he let me have the whole thing to myself everyone was amazed. “What a generous husband!” some exclaimed. Then I told them the rest of the story. It was a Sungold Cherry tomato, more like a grape tomato, less than an inch in diameter.

“What a generous husband!” they again exclaimed, with a slightly different inflection on the “generous.”

It was a joke and everyone knew it, including Keith. How sad that so many do not see the joke when it’s the tomato they’ve been offered.

Do you want wealth and fame? Here, have the whole tomato.

Do you want career, status and power? Here, enjoy this, it’s all yours.

Do you want pleasure of every kind, fun, and excitement? Here, it’s ripe and ready and yours for the taking. Eat every bite.

Isn’t life wonderful? Isn’t the world an amazing place? Isn’t the ruler of this world the most generous being there is? Don’t bet on it.

Look at the size of that tomato again. Now look at what you lose when you accept it: family, love, redemption, hope, your soul. My, how generous that offer was—one measly little bite that is gone in an instant for the price of everything eternal.

That tomato may taste pretty good. It may be the best one that ever grew in any garden anywhere. But I’d rather take my Father’s offer—He has a whole garden to give me.

And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and his servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever, Revelation 22:1-5.

For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life? Matthew 16:26.

Dene Ward

I have been studying giving lately and came across an interesting tidbit.  In 2 Cor 9:7, when Paul says God loves a cheerful giver, the Greek word there, translated “cheerful,” is hilaron.  You can see it, can’t you?  Two English words we get from that are hilarious and hilarity.  God loves a hilarious giver!

It isn’t enough not to grumble when we give, no matter what we are giving or when, be it money, time, goods, or encouragement, on Sunday mornings or individual opportunities during the week.  It isn’t enough not to begrudge the things we are giving up when our sharing deprives us of them.  One of the reasons God says we should work is so we will “have whereof to give to him who needs,” Eph 4:28, not so we can have everything our hearts desire.

Would you say a movie was “hilarious” if you chuckled once or twice?  Would you call a joke “hilarious” if it simply made you smile?  The word is a joyousness that bubbles over, that cannot be controlled, that you do not want to control.  Vine’s describes it as a “joyfulness that is prompt to act.”  You don’t need a cattle prod to make this person give; the joy he feels in giving takes care of it automatically.

I grew up seeing someone stand before our assemblies saying, “Separate and apart from the Lord’s Supper,” just before passing the basket.  But no matter how much I heard that phrase, as a child I always thought there were three elements to the Lord’s Supper.  And though now, as an adult, I know better, the fact that we often pass the plate within minutes of that ritual keeps me quiet and solemn when I put that check in.  I wonder if we ought not to at least smile when we do it.  Look at one another and share the joy of sacrificing a little something to the Lord.  In this blessed country we get precious little chance to feel any pain on his behalf.

On Sunday morning, when that basket comes by, look at someone near you with gladness in your heart.  And if you hear someone laughing, smile. Maybe someone’s joy has finally overflowed.

But this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.  Let each man do according as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful [joyous, bubbling over, prompt to act, hilarious] giver, 2 Cor 9:6,7.

Dene Ward

People always call places like Tennessee and North Carolina “God’s Country,” but no one says anything like that about rural north central Florida.  All we have is swaths of lacy Spanish moss dripping off huge, ancient live oaks, whose wingspan is broader then my house, tall pencil-slim pines standing like silent rows of soldiers in the woods, knobby-kneed cypresses wading in the swamps whose heavy silence is punctuated only by the plop of bullfrogs in the water, rolling green pasture land dotted with grazing black Angus, and always something green and always something blooming, no matter what time of year it is.  Even in January the birds flock by the dozens around my feeders, the resident hawk couple circles overhead screaming hello as they look for nesting sites, and by February, when everyone else is still in the throes of winter, the hummingbirds are back, and the azaleas flowering so heavily you can’t see a single green leaf.  Not too bad for a place no one calls “God’s Country.”

But neither here nor any of those other places compare to the real “God’s country.”  God promised Abraham a land He later described to Moses as a good land and a large...a land flowing with milk and honey, Ex 3:8.  Abraham’s descendants waited over 400 years for that Promised Land., but even Abraham knew that the real Promised Land was still to come. That is why he could endure, stay faithful, and even pass the horrible test of offering his son. 

Paul had to scold the Corinthians more than once for having “carnal” minds.  Not carnal in the sense of illicit pleasures, but carnal in that they were more concerned with this life and the physical aspects of it than in spiritual things.  Only carnally minded people become jealous for showy spiritual gifts, sue one another, brag about who baptized them, and bring enough to feed an army for their family’s Lord’s Supper, just so they can show off.  Too often we, too, get caught up in the here and now and forget that this is merely a short motel stop on the way to a far better and permanent home.

Today would have been the 91st birthday of a man who understood that.  I first met him a week before I married his son.  He never lived in a fancy home or had an expensive car.  He often worked two jobs to keep his family fed.  He landed on the shores of Northern France in June 1944 and marched all the way to Berlin.  He buried a ten year old daughter who had been stricken with a horrible disease.  But he would have told you he lived a good life because he knew the physical doesn’t last.  His eyes were focused elsewhere, and nothing that happened here could get him down. 

We should all learn what he knew:  no place on this earth should mean more to us, no person should come between us, and no thing should ever deter us from our journey to God’s Country. 

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he went.  By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God…they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one, wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.  Hebrews 11:8-10, 16.

Dene Ward

In his third epistle, John prays what has to be the most frightening prayer in the Bible.  Beloved I pray that in all things you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers, v2. 

Have you ever wondered what might happen if God suddenly answered that prayer—that your body and your economic life may be as healthy as your soul?  Those of us who prosper financially, might suddenly be living a hand to mouth existence, while others who can barely make ends meet might find their bank accounts overflowing.  Are we more concerned with our IRAs, annuities, and money market accounts than with the unfathomable riches of Christ, Eph 3:8?  What was it Jesus called the rich man who was more concerned with his physical wealth than his spiritual wealth?  You fool!  This night is your soul required of you, and all the things you have prepared, whose will they be then?  So is he who lays up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.  Luke 12:20,21

But what about the physical health angle of that prayer?  Some of us who are fat and sassy might instantly become pale and emaciated.  Some of us might even fall over dead!  But there might be others, frail and chronically ill, who suddenly become as hale and hearty as the great athletes of the world.

If we want to be able to pray John’s prayer, we need to get our souls in shape.  Do they get the proper nourishment or do they fast several days a week?  Do our souls have to be force-fed?  Do we “exercise our senses” every day, “discerning between good and evil,” or do we sit like couch potatoes, taking in with a glazed look everything the world has to offer?  Are we willing to take our medicine when we need it, or do we deny our faults and blame everyone else as if that will make them go away?

If a righteous man stands up Sunday morning and prays this prayer fervently—that everyone there will suddenly be as prosperous in wealth and healthy in body as they are in soul--will we jump up and beg him to stop because we know the results of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, James 5:16? 

Think about it; it might change your life.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father from whom every family in heaven and in earth is named, that he should grant you according to the riches of his glory that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.  Eph 3:14-19

Dene Ward