It happened again the last time I went in.  I got another new resident assigned to do the preliminary work-up.  Since it was a cornea appointment instead of a glaucoma appointment he had not even planned to check the pressures.  I mentioned that my vision was foggy and my eye felt a little different.  Could that be caused by higher pressures?

    “Oh no,” he confidently asserted. “Your pressure would have to be over 50 for that to happen, and you would be throwing up by now.”  

    I looked at him and said, “I’ve been at 70 before without symptoms.”  I am not sure he believed me until he went to the next hall over and pulled my other file, the four inch thick one with more notes than he had probably seen on any six patients put together.  He read for several minutes and discovered that the obvious course of action for most patients is the worst course for me, and quietly took my pressures.  They were indeed high.  If nothing else, that day he learned that not all patients follow the rules.

    We can be a little like that inexperienced young doctor when it comes to following God’s law.  We so badly want it all spelled out in black and white for every situation life hands us--it’s so much easier than having to think and examine our hearts.  That’s why we who have led sheltered lives, perhaps growing up in the church as second, third, or even fourth generation Christians who have never had a drink, never let a bad word slip, and never even considered breaking one of the “big” commandments, can be so judgmental about others who still struggle every day.  A young Christian who came from a rough background recently said to me, “People in the church look down on me when I talk about battling sin.  They say if my faith is genuine, it shouldn’t be that way.”  We carry our rule books, measuring everyone around us, instead of using the sense God gave us, and the love and encouragement he expects of us.

    Rule Book people have another problem as well. Despite their protestations of having a true faith because it does so many works, many never truly believe in the grace of God.  Some of these poor misguided people worry themselves silly wondering whether they are truly saved.  They second-guess every decision they make; they are never confident that they are doing well.  Someone has forgotten to read John’s first epistle to them, which he wrote “so you may know you have eternal life,” 1 John 5:13.

    Finally, those folks work so hard to get every little detail right that they often miss the point of the commandment they are trying to follow.  The Pharisees are the ultimate example.  Even though they began with the simple and righteous desire to follow God’s law exactly, they eventually reached the point that they totally missed the focus of the Law.  It became a study of minutiae instead of concept.  I once read a bit of one their documents discussing the passage, “I meditate on thee in the night watches,” (Psa 63:6).  The point of the passage is to be thinking on spiritual things all through the day and night, but the next four pages were devoted to various rabbis’ arguments about how many night watches there were so they could be sure to meditate exactly that many times! That is what happens when you focus only on the rules and never the heart.  Surely none of us wants to be in a group Jesus called “a brood of vipers.”

    Do not misunderstand me.  I believe God has a set of laws He expects us to follow to the letter, but life is not always simple.  Sometimes a situation arises that is not cut and dried.  We have to actually think about what the right course of action is and make the best possible decision.  Sometimes what I feel is right for me may not be what you feel is right for you.  It is not situation ethics.  It is simply a place where God has not spelled things out, but has left us as His children to pray and meditate, and make a decision from a heart of love and good intentions, and then to trust His grace if we have made a mistake.  To do otherwise, or to simply do nothing, would be the sin, and to judge otherwise, would be the self-righteousness Jesus despised.

And he spoke also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at naught: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say unto you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one who exalts himself shall be humbled; but he who humbles himself shall be exalted, Luke 18:9-14.

Dene Ward

I saw a new tech at the eye clinic the last time I was there.  Most of the others know me by sight and name, but this one couldn’t pronounce my name, so I knew she had not been there long, and certainly I had never been prepped by her before. 

            She nearly dropped my chart and said, “Wow!  This is a huge one.  Have you been coming here all your life?”  No, just eleven years now.  If I had been going there my whole life, the chart would have been in volumes instead of just three inches thick.

            You see, everything to do with my eyes is in that chart—every test, every procedure, every surgery, every referral, every appointment of which there have been as many as three dozen in one year.  The doctor regularly writes two or three pages of notes at every visit. 

            That always makes me think of that other book being written that does cover my lifetime.  I know there are pages in it I would love to remove.  If I want them removed, imagine how a holy and righteous God feels about them.  Doesn’t that make it even more amazing when we realize that He has taken out so many?    I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed you, Isa 44:22.   I hope when He finished blotting out the bad, it wasn’t totally empty, that there was at least a page or two of good left.

            We sometimes seem to have that mistaken belief, that God has all the good stuff written on one side and all the bad written on the other, and that as long as there is more good than bad, we’re safe.  Wrong.  If He has any bad pages left, that means we haven’t repented of those evil things.  Sin is so bad that it only takes one unforgiven sin to cost us our souls.  When I say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die, Ezek 33:13.  We simply don’t understand the enormity of sin when we treat any of them as small and inconsequential. 

            The next time you visit the doctor, take a look at that chart.  How large is it?  Imagine one a hundred times bigger, and then remember that probably a million or so pages have been removed due to the grace of God, and rejoice.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works…And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire, Rev 20:11,12,15.

Dene Ward

(For hints, help, and instructions on using this blog, click on the FAQ/Tutorial page on the left sidebar)

            I knew he was wrong.  I had bought more Aleve just the week before, yet Keith was fussing because we had run out and I needed it after surgery.  I pulled myself up out of the chair, went into the bathroom, sat in the floor and began systematically emptying the cabinet under the lavatory, determined to prove him wrong.  No Aleve.  Four bottles of Advil, but no Aleve. 

            So later in the evening Keith handed me the pharmacy flyer.  On the sixth page I said, “Aha!” and showed him the ad.

            He gave me a funny look.  “Don’t you dare buy any more Advil,” he said. 

            I yanked the paper back and looked again.  Sure enough, there was an Advil ad where seconds before I was certain I had seen an Aleve ad.

            “Well,” he muttered, “now we know how we wound up with so much Advil.”

            Please don’t tell me you haven’t done the same thing; it will ruin my illusions.

            Yet too many times we do this with the scriptures, and the practice is not new. 

            If anyone thought they knew God’s Word, it was the scribes, Pharisees, and priests.  Yet Jesus told them in John 5:38, 39, You have not his word abiding in you: for whom he sent, him you believe not. You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me.  Notice:  Searching the scriptures is not the same thing as abiding in them.  They searched the scriptures, just as we claim to do, and still didn’t see what was right in front of their noses.  Here is the problem:  You must want to see the Truth before you can see it.

            I wanted to see a sale for Aleve.  The fact that both products started with a capital A, had five letters, including L and V in each, and each came in a blue or blue-ish carton did not make them the same thing.  My pharmacy was not going to give me one for the price of the other, or allow a coupon for one to be used on the other. 

            Do you think it is easy to give up long held beliefs?  I once taught a class where I gave evidence that something they had heard all their lives might not be right.  The tenacity with which they held on to that old belief, trying to find excuses to still believe it, was amusing because it was something that did not really matter.  Yet these were honest women who had time and time again shown a willingness to accept a newly discovered truth.  If that can happen so easily to the honest and sincere, just imagine what might happen if you went into your Bible study having already decided what you wanted to find. 

            You may wind up with a bottle of Advil instead of Aleve, and it just might make a big difference.

But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears that they might not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which Jehovah of hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets: therefore there came great wrath from Jehovah of hosts, Zech 7:11,12.

Dene Ward

            We are a self-centered and selfish culture.  If you think that has not found its way into the church, you are wrong.  If you think it hasn’t found its way into your own heart, you are probably wrong again.  Have these words ever left your mouth?  “No one came to see me when I was sick/injured/in the hospital?”  There is your evidence right there.

            God meant for us to minister to others every day and in every circumstance of life.  Too often, if we see our lives as a ministry at all, we see it as periods of service broken up by periods when we cannot serve—for example, when we are ill.  In other words, when things don’t come easily, when things are not perfect, we are “on break” or “out to lunch.” 

            If anyone had an excuse for taking a break, it was Paul while he was in prison.  Yet he tells the Philippians that he was fulfilling his mission to preach the gospel, “this grace,” even while imprisoned, Phil 1:5-7.  God recently taught us this lesson of perpetual ministry in a way we will not soon forget.

            Keith had major surgery in May that kept him in the hospital five days.  In fact, it kept me in with him since I can more easily communicate with this deaf spouse of 40 years than anyone else can, and I took care of many basic nursing chores too.  

            We have always made it a point to treat service people as people, not personal slaves or furniture.  Many waitresses have told us they remember us from earlier visits precisely because of that.  We tried to do the same with the hospital medical staff.  We didn’t complain; we didn’t make demands; we took care of our own needs as often as possible, and said please and thank you when we had to ask for something.  We never really thought about that—it’s just something we do because the Lord would have us treat everyone kindly and with respect.

            One night one of the nurses took me aside and asked about our “religion.”  “There’s something different about you,” she said, and gave me an opening to talk with her about the Lord and our church family. 

            Another night one of the nurses stayed in our room talking to us far longer than she needed in order to accomplish her task.  Finally she said with a sigh, “I need to go check on the others, but I’ll be back to talk more when I can.”

            Yet another day, one of the nurses who had been with us for three days was leaving for four days off, and knew that she wouldn’t see us again.  She made a point to come say good-bye. 

            While we were there we handed out tracts and blog cards.  We wrote down church addresses and website addresses.  We gave out email addresses.  Although we had taken those things with us “just in case,” I was shocked at how many we were able to give out, at how many people wanted to talk.  We thought we needed their care, but God showed us how to give it right back.

            What is happening in your life right now?  Don’t assume that you cannot serve when you are physically indisposed.  Don’t hang an “out to lunch” sign on your life because you have too much going on right now to pay attention to anyone else.  What did Jesus do while he was hanging on the cross?  How many did he minister to?  His mother, a thief, the very men who drove the nails, and all of us as he died for our sins.

            Jesus expects us to live as he did, thinking of others’ needs first.  If you have done it long enough, it comes without thought, even in turbulent times, painful times, sorrowful times.  The trick is to do it while things are good.  Do it in the grocery store.  Do it on the freeway.  Do it at school and work and when you speak to your neighbor.  It must become natural in order to come automatically in trying circumstances.  Any difficulty you have, especially when things are easy, is a telling factor—it shows how little you have been working on it.

            Service, first, last, always--and regardless of circumstances—that is the motto of a true disciple of Christ.

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, Philippians 1:12-13.

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak, Ephesians 6:18-20.

Dene Ward

You know that fellow who pulled out in front of you yesterday like he didn’t see you?  Maybe he didn’t.  In Florida it is legal to drive if one eye can be corrected to 20/40 and the other 20/200, or both at 20/70.  There came a point before my last surgery when I quit driving for awhile, not because I was no longer legal, but because I no longer felt safe.  It’s one thing to value your independence enough to risk your own life; it’s another to risk someone else’s.

            There are times in my life as a Christian that I must make a similar choice.  The world may have a list of things they think a Christian should or shouldn’t do which are not actually spelled out in the scriptures.  I may have brothers and sisters in the Lord with the same mistaken ideas.  In an ideal world, we are all packaged in bubble wrap—nothing anyone else does effects us.  Unfortunately, since Adam and Eve were banned from Eden, the world is no longer ideal.

            The Lord never meant for the weak to rule the church, which is what happens when we allow every little “that offends me” to determine the actions of the church.  For some reason those people only read half of Romans 14:3:  “Let not he who eats [meats sacrificed to idols] set at nought him who does not,” while ignoring, “and let not he who does not, judge him who does, for God has received him.”  “Offend” in the older versions means “sin.”  Anyone who uses “I’m offended” to get his way must, by definition of the word agree that first, he is sinning, and second, he is a weaker brother according to that passage,   Maybe I am being cynical, but it seems to me a lot of people would complain a whole lot less if someone pointed that out to them.

            If we all simply refrained from taking part in things we are not comfortable with instead of raising a ruckus every time, the church would, in fact, come much closer to the ideal community Christ gave his life for.  Don’t you think that Simon the Zealot and Matthew the publican, two ideologically polar opposites, still had some fundamental differences even after three years of serving the Lord?  Yet they put them aside to try and save the world.  The problem is that we think our likes and dislikes are more important than the Divine mission we were given by God.

            Like those two martyred apostles, I must occasionally make the decision to give up my rights for the sake of someone’s soul.  No, I cannot worry about the busybodies who observe my life through a telescope just looking to find a flaw.  No matter how hard I try, they will eventually succeed in their task.  And no, we must not allow the mission of the church to be set aside for the stubborn few.  But the question is, what about the good and honest hearts that I personally may affect for the worst?  Driving down my chosen course may be lawful, but is it safe to those around me?  A good question to consider as we go through the day.

And when they came to Capernaum, those who received the half-shekel came to Peter and said, Doesn’t your teacher pay the half-shekel?  He said, Yes.  And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke first to him saying, What do you think, Simon?  The kings of the earth, from whom do they receive toll or tribute, from their sons or from strangers?  And when he said, From strangers, Jesus said to him, Therefore the sons are free.  But lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first comes up; and when you open his mouth you shall find a shekel.  Take that and give unto them for me and you, Luke 17:24-27.

 

Dene Ward

(For hints, help, and instructions on using this blog, click on the FAQ/Tutorial page on the left sidebar)