Salvation - Dene's Blog

Mama Bear

9/29/2015 0 Comments

I was a timid child, especially around my peers, and I wasn’t much braver when I grew up. But God puts something in mothers that is fearsome. There is a reason people say that the most dangerous creature is a mother who thinks her young are threatened. All of us in the ladies’ Bible class call it “the mama bear” in us.

Once we lived in a big old frame house on a rural highway, a dirt road running down the edge of the side yard to its north. Lucas at four was already a tree climber and the small chinaberry in that section of the lawn was a favorite. He could reach the lowest limb standing flat-footed on the ground, then swing his legs up to it to hang upside down, pull himself up to sit or even stand on that long sturdy branch.

   One afternoon he was playing in the tree when a group of boys came walking down the dirt road. There were four of them, ninth or tenth grade teenagers, every one of them bigger and heavier than I. They must not have seen me among the sheets and towels as I hung out the last load of laundry. Surely they would have known better than to start teasing a small child with his mother present. Very quickly the name-calling and threatening turned into all four of them coming at my little guy with arms raised. What were they thinking?

   I emerged from the folds of flapping laundry breathing fire and probably screaming like a banshee—my memory of the event is just a little foggy. I do remember that four young toughs wilted before my eyes, turned tail and ran. I grabbed my baby, ran up the back porch steps into the kitchen and sank into a chair, rocking him as the slam of the screen door echoed through the old house.

   I was thoroughly shaken, not by the boys, but by my own actions. Where in the world had that come from? It came from God, the strength to overcome a timid nature and forget your own safety in order to protect your small, innocent child who is unable to protect himself. We all have that Mama Bear somewhere inside us. I doubt we could keep it hidden if we wanted to when the need for it arose.

   God put that feeling in us, so surely it must be in Him. Yet somehow He managed to ignore it. His Son’s life was not only threatened, but taken in a horrible, painful way, and He managed somehow to stifle that strong, boiling emotion that rises out of you in an almost uncontrollable manner.

   And do you know why? Because when Satan came after us, his adopted children, He didn’t stifle it, but instead gave free rein to the Mama Bear in Himself. He loved us so much He found a way to save us, even at an almost unbearable cost.

   Think about that the next time you want to rail at God for the pain you think He has caused you. We caused Him much more pain and He loves us anyway.

Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, 1 John 4:9,10.

Dene Ward

Faded Jeans

6/23/2015 0 Comments

It must be a sign of my “un-hipness.” I never have, and I suppose I never will understand the desire to buy pants that look worn out right off the rack, faded, holey and torn. Surely we have reached some sort of social neurosis when a symptom of poverty becomes the popular thing to do for even the wealthiest.

   The Holy Spirit did not go in for this obsession either. In 1 Peter 1: 4 one of the wonderful things about our inheritance, He says, is that it will not “fade away.”

   When Disneyworld opened in Florida I was 19 years old. It was the first time I had been to anything “Disney” at all, and I was entranced. As we rode in on the monorail, I swiveled my head back and forth so much that I was literally “dizzy with delight.” I laughed at all the corny jokes in the Haunted House elevator. So much for trying so hard to make everyone think I was now “an adult.” I could not get enough of all the fanciful details. I didn’t even mind waiting in line! Why they had air conditioning vents blowing out on you as you waited! Isn’t that amazing?

   The first time I took my children they enjoyed it as much as I had. We had saved money for a year and experienced that park the way it should be experienced, and it was nearly magical, even for us world-weary grown-ups, because we were seeing it again through the eyes of our inexperienced children.

   But as my boys grew up and became involved in more and more school activities, they wound up going to Disneyworld for state competitions every year, sometimes twice a year. By their senior years, it was old hat. They spent more time in their hotel rooms than in the park itself. It had become so familiar that it had lost its luster. They even had unused Disney tickets sitting on their desks at home. Can you imagine?

   Peter says that will never happen with our inheritance. It will never lose its luster. It will always be a wonder as if new, never trite or stale or boring. Imagine every moment of Eternity being like the first time a small child sees the wonder of a grand amusement park—only so much better, a thousand, a million, a billion times over because it was created by God and not man.

   That is the inheritance we have waiting for us. Somehow I don’t think we will want it to be used, torn, and full of holes. Looking fresh and new and un-faded every single moment will be just fine.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, 1 Pet 1:3-5..

Dene Ward

March 15, 1937--Blood Banks

3/16/2015 0 Comments

Medicine has come a long way since ancient times and it hasn’t stopped progressing. As a patient who has a rare disease, I have had my share of experimental surgeries and procedures, and endured experimental medicines and equipment. Sometimes it’s just plain scary, but when it works, it’s amazing. I can still see, several years after I was expected to lose my vision. It may not be great vision, and the after effects of all these procedures and medications may not be pleasant, but let me tell you, any vision is better than no vision, and you will put up with a lot to have it.

   Blood is one area where knowledge is still blossoming. But just think of this. Transfusions were not common until the turn of the twentieth century, and even then it had to be a live donor for an immediate transfusion. It went on that way for nearly four decades. Finally, Dr Bernard Fantus at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago performed several experiments and determined that human blood, under refrigeration, could last up to ten days. Still not long, but enough for him to start the first blood bank on March 15, 1937. Imagine the lives that were suddenly saved. It must have seemed like a miracle.

   Medicine has progressed even further. My little bit of research tells me that at 1-6 degrees Centigrade, blood can now be kept up to 42 days, and that some of it can be frozen for up to ten years. I wonder if Dr Fantus had any idea what he had put into motion.

   But sooner or later that blood does become stale. It is no longer usable to save lives. And if there is a sudden loss of power that cannot be maintained with a generator or other power source, all of it will spoil almost immediately.

   Imagine a blood that never loses its potency, that never becomes stale, that will always save.

   For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Heb 9:24-26.

   Jesus does not have to offer himself “repeatedly.” He does not have to keep a fresh supply of blood handy. The saving power of his blood lasts forever. And what exactly does it do?
   It makes propitiation, Rom 3:23.
   It justifies, Rom 5:9.
   It brings us “near,” Eph 2:13.
   It purifies our consciences and makes us able to serve God, Heb 9:14.
   It forgives, Heb 9:23.
   It cleanses us from sin, 1 John 1:7.

   Now understand this—it isn’t the fact that Jesus cut his finger one day and bled a little. Blood in the Bible has always represented a death. The blood that saves us is the death he willingly died on our behalf, because only a sacrificial death can atone for sin (Lev 17:11). And we don’t have to worry about “types” and “factors.” His blood will cleanse us from “all sin,” 1 John 1:7.

   Nowadays people want nothing to do with another person’s blood. Everyone wears gloves. But to gain the benefits of Christ’s blood you have to “touch” it. How do you contact that blood? You simply “die” with Christ. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, Rom 6:3,4.

   And that blood bank still works for us. It keeps right on forgiving as needed, as we repent and continue to walk in him for the rest of our lives.

   Only once--that’s all he had to suffer. Our trips to the blood bank will likely be more than once, but may they become less and less often as we grow in grace and faith and love. It will be there when we need it, but let’s not squander a precious gift, nor take it for granted.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him, Heb 9:27,28.

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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Tokens

10/7/2014 0 Comments

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   When was the last time you thought about your baptism? Did you realize that baptism is mentioned in one way or another in well over half the books of the New Testament, and that in the epistles it is a discussion directed toward those who have already been baptized? Why is it then that we relegate it to first principles only, and ignore it the rest of our lives?

   Paul told the Colossians in 2:11,12 that baptism is the “circumcision” of New Testament Israel. Instead of removing a piece of flesh, we remove the “old man of flesh.” So what was circumcision to Old Testament Israel?

   God told Abraham in Genesis 17 that circumcision was a token of the covenant between God and his people. And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant, v 14.

   The Hebrew word for “token,” OTH, is used in a variety of ways in the Old Testament. In Numbers 2:2 it refers to the banners that waved over a tribe’s encampment to identify them. In Gen 4:15 it refers to the mark God put on Cain as a sign of his protection. In Josh 2:12 it was the scarlet cord, a sign of the bargain between Rahab and the spies.   In Ex 4:8,9 God gave Moses miracles to do which showed both the people and Pharaoh that he came from God. In Josh 4:6 it referred to the pile of stones used to remember the crossing of the Jordan River, a memorial that was to be passed down through the generations.

   If it was so important, why then did the people discontinue it in the wilderness? For all the people that came out [of Egypt] were circumcised; but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the nation, even the men of war that came forth out of Egypt, were consumed, because they hearkened not unto the voice of Jehovah: unto whom Jehovah swore that he would not let them see the land which Jehovah swore unto their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, these did Joshua circumcise, Josh 5:5-8.

   Maybe I am reading something into this that is not there, but I wonder if God simply did not allow those faithless people to circumcise their children. He certainly took it seriously when Moses did not circumcise his sons (Ex 4:24-26). Only when the faithless generation of Israelites were all dead did Joshua renew this covenant and its token with their children.

   So here is our question today: If God were to take similar actions today, would he allow me to have my children baptized?   Or would he consider it a travesty of the covenant for someone as faithless as I, someone who no longer lives up to the baptism I took part in, that symbolic resurrection from the death of sin, to try to teach my children about it and what it means? How could I even hope to do so?

   The biggest insult a Jew could hurl was “uncircumcised Gentile.” That is why they stoned Stephen in Acts 7 after he said they were uncircumcised in heart, v 51. They understood that the token of the covenant with God was not supposed to be merely an outward sign, but a symbol of a faithful relationship. What is your baptism to you? Is it merely the last step on the staircase chart of the Plan of Salvation? Or is it a token, a daily reminder to live like a new person, a child of a covenant relationship with God, a relationship that is more precious to you than anything else in the world?

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, Col 2:11-13.

Dene Ward

Beach Towels

7/15/2014 0 Comments

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            As odd as it may seem for a native Floridian, I am not a beach person. Maybe that is why I made the mistake I did.

            I was away to a camp retreat for women, when it suddenly dawned on me en route that I had forgotten to pack a bath towel. Rather than delay our progress shopping, we swung by a pharmacy at an exit where we had already stopped for gas, and I picked up the only type of towel they had available--a beach towel.

            The next night as I took my turn with the shower shared by thirty other women in our cabin, I discovered that beach towels do not work like ordinary towels.   I blotted my wet skin and lifted it to discover all the water droplets sitting on my arm exactly as they had before I used the towel. I tried again, same result. Finally I tried pushing off the water. Some, but very little, rolled onto the floor. Slightly encouraged I kept wiping. Eventually I was--well, dry is not the word--but damp instead of soaked. I am positive, though, that most of the drying was a matter of evaporation because I worked at it for nearly 15 minutes.

            The strangest things can bring me a moment of inspiration. So when I got home, I did a quick study on the word “wipe.” It is an interesting word, in both Testaments.

            In the Old Testament the Hebrew word is machah. Jehovah said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book, Ex 32:33. “Blot out” is the same word often translated “wiped.” Yet in Psalm 51, David uses it when he asks God to “blot out” his transgressions, and in Isaiah 25, God says in a Messianic prophecy that he will “wipe away” his people’s tears.

            In the New Testament, the word is exaleipho. Peter says in Acts 3:19 that we must repent if we expect our sins to be “blotted out.” Jesus tells John in Rev 3:5 that he will not “blot out” the names of those who repent. Then we are told that when we reach our reward God will wipe away all tears from [our] eyes, Rev 21:4, all the same Greek word in exactly the same three uses as the Hebrew.

            God’s mercy is not like a beach towel. He will blot out my sins completely. On the other hand, if I do not live as I should, he will blot me out completely. You cannot use “completely” in one phrase without using it in the other. I cannot say, “Don’t blot me out completely. Don’t wipe my name out of your book,” while expecting God to wipe away my sins as completely as an expensive, absorbent towel wipes the water from my body because his Holy Spirit chose the same word for both actions in two separate languages.

            Justice demands that something be blotted out. God’s grace makes it possible that it not be the sinner, but merely his sins. Amazing grace indeed.

And in this mountain will Jehovah of hosts make unto all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He has swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from off all the earth: for Jehovah has spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Isa 25:6-9.

Dene Ward

Gone Fishin'

7/3/2014 0 Comments

            We have a neighbor who loves to fish. In fact, he fishes so much that he cannot possibly use all the fish he brings home. Lucky for us! I now have an unending supply, usually of sea trout and shrimp, some of the best stuff out there. When he brings it home, he even cleans it before he calls. Amazing! But someone has to do some messy work in order for anyone to enjoy the fruits of fishing. Unless you go to a fish market, or the seafood section of your local grocer, or, even easier, the freezer case.

            Maybe that’s our problem—we’ve been to too many fish markets.

            Seems like when we go fishing for men, we don’t want anything messy. The only ones we look for are the WASPs with nuclear families, unfettered by problems of any sort. That’s where we build our meetinghouses, pass out our meeting announcements, and do our mass mailings. We don’t want people with built-in problems, people overcoming addictions, people with messy family lives, people with “big bad sins” in their history. No one wants a “high maintenance” convert who needs our support, our encouragement, our patience, and certainly not our time! In fact, once a long time ago, Keith was chastised for “bringing the wrong class of people to church.”

            To whom did Jesus go? Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near to him to hear him, Luke 15:1, and I seem to remember a woman who had been married five times and was living with another man, John 4:18. Would we have even given them the time of day?

            Jesus only appeals to those who need him, and unfortunately, people who have no “big” problems, no obvious needs, seldom think they need anyone. It usually takes a crisis to wake them up. So why are we so insistent upon turning our efforts to teach the gospel to the very ones who are least likely to listen?

            Maybe we no longer want to be fishers of men. The “cleaning” is too messy, too difficult, too heart-wrenching, and too time-consuming. Instead of being fishers of men, as the old saying goes, we just want to be keepers of the aquarium, with a built-in filter (preacher) and someone else to feed the fish (elders and class teachers) so we can swim around in a pretty glass box with plastic mermaids and divers, and live our lives unbothered by things like helping one another grow to spirituality, and scraping the algae off our souls.

            Maybe we have forgotten, or never even knew, the mindset of the first century church—a dynamic group of people, spreading God’s word to everyone they met, trying to take as many “fish” as they could to Heaven with them, regardless of how messy their lives were.

            Maybe someone needs to come fishing for us again.

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and the publicans, said unto his disciples, “How is it that he eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners,” Mark 2:16,17.

Dene Ward

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Magic Pills

5/2/2014 0 Comments

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            “Lose up to ten pounds the first week! No dieting! No exercise! Eat what you like. One pill a day will give you the body you have always dreamed of!”

            It’s sad how many people believe those ads. But it is understandable too. No one wants to change his lifestyle. No one wants to go hungry and sweat. Everyone wants to eat the good stuff and take a magic pill to cure their obesity.

            I know a few people who have that problem with sin too. They don’t want to change their lives. They don’t want to admit they even need to change. They certainly don’t want to make the effort in study, prayer, self-examination, and true repentance. They think they have the “magic pill,” and here is what it is.

            I can go merrily along if I remember to pray for forgiveness every night, especially for my “secret sins.”

            I can live my life as I wish as long as I show up Sunday morning and take the Lord’s Supper.

            I can even play at repentance by talking about my imperfections and making statements like, “I know I am a sinner,” so no one can quote 1 John 1:8 at me.

            I have seen it too many times over the years. I have even done it myself. I know I am not perfect so a quick prayer for forgiveness every day should take care of the problem. Far be it from me to actually admit anything specific and work on it. Have you noticed this about people like that? Sooner or later they make a statement like this, “If I’ve sinned, I’m sorry.” They’ve taken yet another diet pill and expect a 15 pound loss of sin in one short minute.

            The real weight loss programs out there are all about accountability. You show up, you weigh in, you talk about exactly what you have eaten and not eaten, and how much exercise you have or have not had. Those people tend to lose the weight and keep it off longer. They understand that this is a lifestyle change, not a magic pill. And they take responsibility for their actions, both good and bad.

            That’s exactly the way overcoming sin works. “Confess your faults one to another,” James tells us, “and pray for one another” (5:16)   Everyone participates and everyone helps.

            “Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance,” John told the masses (Matt 3:8). A quick little prayer or a ritual offering was only the beginning of a lifestyle change that was supposed to be obvious to everyone from then on.

            I’ve heard brethren criticize the Catholic religion as one of convenience. “You can live as you like as long as you confess every week and do penance.” Some of us don’t even want to do that much. Confession is humiliating. Doing penance is hard work. It’s far easier to pray for forgiveness every night and show up every Sunday for those few magic bites. Don’t tell me we aren’t as bad they are—we’re worse!

            Satan is the one who puts out those ads for sin’s magic pills. Don’t be a “patsy.” No one is sure where the term came from. Some suggest it is from the Italian word pazzo. Do you know what that word means? “Fool.” Sounds to me like the perfect word.

For godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, a repentance which brings no regret: but the sorrow of the world works death. For behold, this selfsame thing, that you were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything you approved yourselves to be pure in the matter. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11.

Dene Ward

What Are You Looking For?

4/11/2014 0 Comments

My brother-in-law has finished his long journey. Maybe it was because both of us were the in-laws, but for some reason he was especially kind to me, and I felt comfortable with him.

            Mike came a long way in his life, all the way from atheism to Christianity. Keith had a special hand in turning him around. Unfortunately, discouragement set in and he lost his way again for awhile. When this illness hit him, with some words from his wife and Keith, he made the determination to come home. Unfortunately, he never had the chance to sit in a pew again and commune with his spiritual family after he made that decision. Things progressed too quickly and he was gone far sooner than anyone expected, including the doctors.

            When I read the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, I notice something important. The Father was out there looking for his lost son. It wasn’t just a casual glance—he saw him “afar off.” This was a Father who wanted to see his son coming home, who wanted to welcome him back. He stood there looking long and hard for the first sign of that figure trudging down the road.

            Mike’s Father was looking for him too. Mike had made that determination—he was well on the road home, even having mentioned it to some brethren who visited. Who is to say that he wasn’t close enough for God to see him coming? Who is to say that God hadn’t already started running down the road to welcome him home?

            Probably some older brother, that’s who. I have some of those—brethren who not only expect that long march down the aisle (as if there is a verse requiring that in the New Testament) before they will even consent to forgiving, but who won’t even look down the road in the first place. I have brethren who are not thrilled with the return of a lost brother but just as grieved as the prodigal’s older brother was. I have brothers and sisters in Christ who actually seem to enjoy being cynical—“it’ll never last.”

            But I praise God that He is a Father who is merciful, who wants to forgive, who actually looks for reasons to forgive, instead of reasons to condemn.

            None of us deserves God’s mercy. Perhaps if we remembered that, we would be eagerly looking to forgive too.

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful, Luke 6:36.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, 2 Pet 3:9.

Dene Ward

My Kind of Game

3/7/2014 0 Comments

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            “That was your kind of game!” Lucas texted a few weeks ago when the Gator basketball team tromped its opponent by nearly 30 points. Indeed it was, my favorite kind of game.

            The boys have taught me well, not only strategies and terms, but who to root for in football, basketball, and baseball. The Gators, the Rays, the USF Bulls, the Miami Dolphins, the Buccaneers, sometimes the Jags if they aren’t thoroughly embarrassing themselves, and any SEC team that is not playing Florida at the moment.

            But if any of those teams are playing, I do not enjoy what most people call “a good game.” Why would anyone enjoy something that causes heart-burn, heart palpitations, and heart-ache? I cringe until the score becomes outrageously unbeatable, and then sit back and enjoy the rest. That’s my kind of game.

            And though it certainly isn’t a game, that’s the way I like my contests with the Devil too. It ought to be that lopsided a score. We have a Savior who has already taken care of the hard part. We are already so far ahead, even before we start, that a comeback by the opponent should be unthinkable. We have an example how to overcome. We have help overcoming. We have a promise that we CAN overcome if we just try. We have every possible advantage, including coaches and trainers and all-star teammates, and a playbook that is infallible.

            We have the motivation too. As we said, this isn’t a game. There is no next season, and defeat is an unthinkable consequence that should spur us on to adrenalin-boosted, nearly superhuman feats. And the trophy is far better than anything offered us in this life. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one, 1 Cor 9:25. That crown is called a “crown of life” in several passages—an eternal life with our Creator.

            Do not make your game a close one. Don’t sit back and let the Adversary make a comeback. Don’t fumble the ball, or commit an error, or make a turnover out of carelessness and apathy. Victory is not handed to you on a platter. You still have to want to win, and fight like that every minute. My kind of game may not appeal to you when you watch your favorite teams play, but it should be the only kind you want when your soul is at stake.

            We are “more than conquerors” with the help of God (Rom 8:37). His game plan involves a rout, running up the score, and rubbing the enemy’s nose in defeat. And it can go exactly that way with just a little effort on your part.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"...But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:53-55, 57

Dene Ward