I was reading the Q and A column in a cooking magazine based in Boston.  “You’re kidding,” I spoke aloud when a reader asked how to dispose of bacon grease without clogging her sink.  Dispose of bacon grease?  Keith was equally appalled, but on a whim he asked a friend, who is originally from New England, what he did with his bacon grease.

              “Why?’ he asked with a suspicious look on his face.  “What’s it good for?”

              What’s it good for?  I guess this is one of those cultural things.  Bacon grease to a Northerner must mean “garbage.”  Bacon grease to a Southerner means “gold.”

              My mother kept a coffee can of it in her refrigerator.  I do the same.  My grandmothers both kept a tin of it on their stoves.  They used it every day, just as their mothers had.  In the South bacon grease is the fat of choice.  In the old days only better-off farmers had cows and butter.  The poorer families had a pig, and they used every square inch of that animal.  Even the bones were put into a pot of beans and many times the few flecks of meat that fell off of them into the pot were all the meat they had for a week.  In a time when people needed fat in their diets (imagine that!), the lard was used as shortening in everything from biscuits to pie crust.  And the grease?  A big spoonful for seasoning every pot of peas, beans, and greens, more to fry okra, potatoes, and squash in, a few spoonfuls stirred into a pan of cornbread batter, and sometimes it was spread on bread in place of butter.

              I use it to shorten cornbread, flavor vegetables, and even to pop popcorn.  Forget that microwave stuff.  If you have never popped real popcorn in bacon grease, you haven’t lived.  I am more health-conscious than my predecessors—in fact, we don’t even eat that much bacon anymore.  But when we do, I save the drippings, scraping every drop from the pan, and while most of the time I use a mere teaspoon of olive oil to sauté my squash from the summer garden, once a year we get it with dollop of bacon grease.  Any artery can stand once a year, right?

              As I said, it’s a cultural thing.  Things that are precious to Southerners may not be so to Northerners, and vice versa.  Don’t you think the same should be true with Christians?  What’s garbage to the world should be gold to Christians.

              One thing that comes to mind is the Word of God.  In a day when it is labeled a book of myths, when it is belittled and its integrity challenged, that Word should be precious to God’s people.  David wrote a psalm in which at least seven times he speaks of loving God’s word, Psalm 119.

              We often speak of “loving God” or “loving Jesus,” but you cannot do either without a love of the Word, a love shown in obedience.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the words that you hear are not mine, but the Father’s who sent me, John 14:24.  Jesus even defined family, the people you love more than anyone or anything else, as “those who hear my word and do it,” Luke 8:21.  Surely the ultimate love was shown by the martyrs depicted in Rev 6:9 who were slain “for the Word of God.”

              Do we love God’s Word that much?  Then why isn’t it in our hands several times a day?  Why aren’t we reading more than a quota chapter a day?  Why can’t we cite more than one or two proof-texts, memorized only to show our neighbors they are wrong? 

              Bacon grease may be gold to a Southern cook, but it is hardly in the same category.  Yet I think I may have heard Christians arguing more about when to use bacon grease than when to read the Bible.  Maybe we are showing the effects of a culture other than a Christian’s.
 
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. John 14:21
 
Dene Ward

Four year old Silas and I were visiting one of the rooms depicting the ten plagues during Vacation Bible School.  Number seven was hail with thunder and lightning and fire running along the ground, the robed narrator told us as he stood before drawn curtains.  The lights were dimmed, one of the curtains pulled open, and suddenly white hail fell from the sky, and glowing fire ran along the floor.  The children oohed and aahed and squealed with delight.  Then the curtain was drawn again, but not quite before the lights came up and I saw white ping-pong balls scattered all over the floor.  The narrator quickly continued the tale, moving onto the plague of locusts depicted behind the other curtain in the room.
            Several minutes later we left for the next stop on our “journey” and, as we did, I leaned over and whispered to Silas, “Wow!  Did you see that hail?”
            “Yes,” he said, and then added, “Hail looks a lot like ping-pong balls, doesn’t it?”
            I wasn’t about to ruin the magic of the evening for him.  The point of the week was to learn that God was the only God and He protected His people, and the church was doing an admirable job of it.  Me?  I never would have even thought of using ping-pong balls. 
            But sometime in the future it will be time to teach Silas this lesson:  if someone tells you it’s hail, but it looks like ping-pong balls, check it out yourself!  Do you know how many people have been deceived by false teaching, even though the truth was plainly in front of them, just because they wouldn’t question their “pastor,” their “elder,” their “reverend,” or their “priest?”  Keith and I each have held studies where the student said, “Yes, I can see that, but that’s not what my _______ says.”  Before much longer, the studies stopped.  Why do we think our leaders are infallible?
            Look at Acts 6:7.  So the word of God continued to spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem continued to grow rapidly. Even a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.  The priests were teachers of the Jewish faith.  Yet even they could see when they were wrong and convert to the Truth.  Why not your leader, whatever it is you call him?  Instead, Keith was told one time, “How dare you argue with a priest!” 
            Paul was a man well-educated in Judaism, a man who lived “in all good conscience,” yet even he was convinced that he needed to change.  He was also a Pharisee, one who respected the Law and knew it inside out.  Many others Pharisees were also converted to Christianity (Acts 15:5).  Despite their advanced knowledge, they discovered they were wrong about something and had the honesty to change.
            God will hold you accountable for your decisions, for your beliefs, and for your actions.  Anyone who taught you error will also pay a price, but their mistake won’t save you.  Jesus said, If the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit, Matt 15:14.
            Don’t believe everything you hear.  If it looks like ping-pong balls instead of hail, check it out yourself.  Don’t fall for a lie because of who told you that lie.  Doing so means you love that person more than you love God and His Truth. 
 
With all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thes 2:10-12.

This is why you should invest in a numberless Bible.

Segmenting [the Bible into chapters and verses] may have been a boon for checking references, but it was otherwise a disaster.  It encouraged proof-texting, obscured the integrity of narratives, and dismembered cohesive discourses under the control of inspired authors into fragments manipulated by uninspired readers. 

Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

I have had some wonderful comments come up in my classes.  Women who were not too embarrassed to share a moment of vulnerability, a mistake in judgment, or a light bulb moment have all had great impacts on their listeners.  I have come to love these women who have faced adversity in many ways and kept their faith, who have handled doubt and come out stronger.  Without these students, my classes would have been ho-hum at best.
            I haven’t much to add to this after the last subject we discussed.  Comments can be motivated by practically all the things that questions can be, both good and bad.  As we said last week, we won’t discuss the negative attitudes.  No one who cares enough to read these things is likely to have bad attitudes.  The same guideline goes for this topic as that one:  think of your classmates when you make your comments.  I honestly believe that love is what has made my best students so willing to share—to keep others from the same painful mistakes or help them through similar experiences.
            I especially appreciate a student who sees that I have not communicated well and has a simpler way to say what she has understood.  More than once it has instantly cleared confusion from the other faces.  When you do this, though, please make it brief.  Too many times we spoil what would have been wonderful by adding too many unnecessary words, words that dilute the effect of the simple explanation and make it once again muddled. 
            “Muddled” is the perfect word.  When you put fresh mint, for example, in the bottom of the pitcher and pound on it with a wooden spoon, you are “muddling” the drink you are making.  Instead of being plain tea, it will now be mint tea, or peach, or raspberry, or whatever else you “muddled.”  It will no longer be plain and simple tea.  In fact, you might not be able to tell what the initial beverage was before you “muddled” all those flavors in it.  The simpler the comment, the fewer the words, the better.
            And may I say this as kindly as I know how?  Class is not the place to show everyone how much you know.  I have been in mixed Bible classes where people in the class practically took over and taught it from their seats.  I call these “preacher comments.”  I’m sorry, dear brothers.  I have the utmost respect for what you do, but you are definitely the worst offenders.  Then there are the ones who seem to think no one can say it as well as they can.  As in the first instance, comments should be brief and to the point.
            Comments should also be on the subject.  Any time I hear, “I know this is off topic, but...” I groan inwardly.  We are supposed to be learning what the teacher is supposed to be teaching us, not some other lesson someone in the pew decided on.  The elders have a reason for the classes they choose—at least they should—and no one else should decide what needs to be taught.  The shepherds are feeding the flock the things the flock needs, from careful observation and thought.  The man in the pew may be feeding them what he thinks they need, and in reality, what he wants them to hear, usurping authority in the process.
            And we should make this clear too—just because a class was full of comments does not mean it was a good class.  It may very well mean the teacher completely lost control.  If you remember nothing else, remember this:  anything anyone can come up with off the cuff is far less beneficial than the things the teacher has spent hours preparing—at least it had better be.
            So, comments?  Yes, please.  Brief, on topic, clear and helpful.  Always think before you speak—but then that is perfect advice any time.
            My students excel in all the areas we have discussed.  They are excited learners who work hard and consider one another before themselves.  Together we make a safe place to discuss the things we have all wondered about or that trouble us, without having to worry about anyone judging us or spreading our comments and private experiences beyond the classroom doors.  What is said in class, stays in class—that is our rule.  If every Bible class followed their examples, the church would be more knowledgeable and more loving, just as these women are becoming week after week.
 
Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me, Rom 15:2,3.
 
Dene Ward

I love students who ask questions, and most of mine do.   Please ask your questions.  Many times when one of my students asks a question, someone speaks up and says, “I was wondering that too.”  A teacher who doesn’t welcome questions ought to have a seat and stay there.  Questions show you have been listening, and even better, thinking about what you have heard, the answer to every good teacher’s prayer. 
            My classes are peppered with questions.  I am thrilled that these ladies are not too embarrassed to ask, and confident in how I will accept those questions.  Yes, there are unwelcome questions, but the difference between them and the good questions should be obvious to anyone. 
            This guideline takes care of almost everything: don’t be selfish in your questions.  Consider the effects on the other class members.  Consider who might be listening to you, including babes in Christ and outsiders from the community.  Remember that there may be visitors passing through or people moving in, “shopping” for a new church home.  Consideration for others should be the main characteristic of a Christian, even in Bible classes.  I seldom have a problem with questions like that, unlike my brothers who teach auditorium classes, and my wonderful students deserve all the credit for that.  Here are some other guidelines, most of which I have never had to deal with.
            Questions that are so far off the subject they give everyone mental whiplash are not appropriate.  One wonders, in fact, if the student has been listening and considering the class material at all, or simply letting his mind wander.  A good teacher arrives with a goal and a plan to reach it.  When you dig a pothole in the road with an unrelated question, you can seriously hinder progress in the journey to that goal. 
            Recently a teacher I know was asked, “Would you please comment on…” and because the subject was totally removed from the point of the lesson and not one he could have intelligently answered without study, he simply said, “No, that’s not something I am prepared to talk about.”  Some might criticize him, but I won’t.  He had the best interests of the class at heart.  As their leader, it was up to him to reach the goal of the lesson, not be sidetracked by something that didn’t even have a black and white answer in the scriptures.  It’s time we supported our teachers and the risks they take to their reputation, when anything they say can be misconstrued and often is, instead of sitting back taking the easy, judgmental way out and joining the bandwagon in criticizing them.  If you have one of those questions, please save it for private conversations with the teacher.  Do not disrupt the learning of others because you have a private problem. 
            This is especially true in the Sunday morning adult class where you never know who may be there.  A smaller class with a defined sub-purpose of encouragement may stop for a moment if someone is in need.  Many of my women’s classes have done exactly that, but even then, we were conscious of who was present.  If I deemed it inappropriate at that particular moment, I gently suggested a private moment after class.  Usually several others, mature women who made it a point to be aware of what was going on, stayed with me and the one in need received the attention she required.  I learned this the hard way, after allowing classes to continue on a distracting course, which ultimately led to damaged relationships because I was too afraid of hurting feelings.  Tell me which is worse, a permanently injured bond between sisters in the Lord or a momentarily bruised ego that was soothed as soon as possible?  We have said this before—teachers must sometimes make hard, spur-of-the-moment decisions.  If you can’t, then you shouldn’t teach.
            Then there are those who seek to mask an agenda with their questions, or who have a major hobby they wish to broach at every opportunity, or who have a vendetta against the teacher.  I would assume that none of those even care to be reading this, so we won’t deal with them here.  Let me just add this:  I have seen young teachers in adult classes discouraged to the point of never teaching again because no one but him was brave enough to take on a sinner.  Shame on the leadership of a church when that happens.
            As I said, the wrong questions are usually obvious.  Sometimes, though, an honest person simply needs a little direction.  It is easy when you are in the middle of a personal problem, to forget one’s obligations to others. 
            A class full of questioners is a teacher’s dream, a dream I have fulfilled every week by some wonderful women.  Don’t be embarrassed to ask the questions that need asking.
 
After three days they found [Jesus] sitting in the Temple, listening to them and asking them questions, Luke 2:46.
 
Dene Ward

One thing I seldom have is an unprepared student.  I don’t think it’s because my lessons are so interesting.  I don’t think it’s because they are so much fun to do.  Most of the time they take a good hour, and often more.  Yet my students show up again and again with something written down.  It may not always be what I am after, and usually that is my fault, but at least they tried and I am grateful to them for the effort. 
            Every teacher appreciates a prepared student.  If you are given something to read, then read it.  If you are given an outline, then go over it.  Make a few notes, look up the scriptures cited, and list any questions that might have risen in your mind.  The teacher may answer them in the class, but then again, s/he may not. 
            I usually write my own Bible class material, including scriptures to read and questions to answer.  I try to design questions that will lead the students to their own discoveries.  I know it has worked when they arrive excited, hardly able to contain themselves over the things they have learned and the ideas they have unearthed in all that digging.  Usually those ideas are what I am aimed at, but we cannot get there if the preparation wasn’t done beforehand, and these women usually have.  If we had to spend the time on the fundamentals for the unprepared, the excitement would die in those who have done the work.  In fact, I usually continue on for the sake of the prepared.  If someone is left behind because of their own laziness, why should the others suffer?  Maybe they will do better the next time.  Sometimes being a teacher means you must make hard decisions, and sometimes it means a little discipline toward the student.  But I seldom have that problem due to these dedicated students.
            As to those who do prepare but feel like they must have missed something: it may very well be the fault of the person who wrote the material—in this case, me.  Sometimes a question is poorly worded.  I know that despite copious and careful editing, I still cannot see every way that a question might be interpreted.  So answer to the best of your ability—that’s what my ladies do.  Why should you be embarrassed if it’s the questioner’s fault and not yours?  I can guarantee you that even if you missed the point, you still learned something from reading the Word of God and thinking about it.
            But there is an even more important preparation—an open mind.  An openly skeptical student usually thinks he is keeping a teacher humble, or being careful with the truth, either of which excuses his behavior, to him anyway.  What he’s really doing is hurting himself because he is refusing to consider anything he hasn’t already learned.  Certainly a student should “beware of false teachers,” but everyone deserves a fair hearing.  Skepticism has already judged and convicted before hearing a word.  Any teacher who has spent hours preparing and dares to put himself in front of a group deserves better than that.
            Especially in an ongoing class of busy women, teachers understand when preparation time is sometimes impossible.  As a teacher whose lessons are more complicated than most, I understand better than most.  So should the student stay away if she is not prepared?
            Absolutely not.  Many have come on anyway, and for that I thank them.  If you have that open mindset, you can still learn.  They always bring a pen and listen and write.  If you have done this and still find yourself hopelessly lost, rather than delay the rest of the class, ask for a private session.  I have held those more than once, and teachers should be happy to do it.  But don’t ever deprive yourself of an hour of encouragement and exhortation with your sisters because you feel embarrassed.  Have you caught onto this yet?  Embarrassment will get in the way of your being a good student more than practically anything else.  Don’t let the Devil have his way with you.  You can still learn something, even if you have not prepared the lesson.  Your mind will be stimulated to greater understanding and insights. 
            So here is your first lesson, care of my wonderful students:  Prepare your lesson as well as you are able; prepare your mind every time.
 
…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, Eph 6:15.
 
Dene Ward

I taught my first Bible class when I was sixteen and an elder pulled me out of the high school class because the third grade teacher hadn’t shown up.  I had no material and no prep time.  Why he chose me when there were plenty of able-bodied adults in a congregation of 150, I still don’t know, but the children and I got through the ten plagues with a combination of raucous laughter and wide-eyed amazement—them at God’s power, and me at having survived those forty-five minutes.
            I’ve been teaching ever since, from the baby class when mine were that size—and don’t let anyone tell you a one year old can’t learn anything—all the way up to middle school—another place we seriously underestimate the capabilities of our children.  I wrote a workbook for them called “Did You Ever Wonder?” exploring all those things you wonder about in Bible class but are afraid to ask.  It was given to someone else to teach once, who said, “There’s no way these kids will get this,” even after I had taught it twice myself.  So the book came back to me and I taught it yet again to a group who “got” every bit of it. 
            I’ve taught at least one women’s class everywhere I have been.  That’s a group not only underestimated, but which often underestimates itself.  Most of the material for women, a sister I recently met said, is “spun sugar.”  In some places women’s studies are limited to being a good wife and mother, which leaves a lot of women out.  Yes, those things ought to be taught, and recently have not been.  It has become too popular to follow the mainstream media and disparage the men, which is exactly why I have written a study for wives.  It, too, is deeper than the standard work on the subject, because women can dig just as deeply as the men.  Their minds are just as capable of complex reasoning.  They must be or they couldn’t run their homes.  That’s exactly who I cater to in my classes—meat eaters who are tired of milk, or even the glorified milk called custard.  Women are not spiritual invalids.
            I have had to drop my children’s classes since 2005.  Children need dependable continuity, and with my health issues and increasing disability, I cannot be counted on.  Adults can understand if an emergency arises, if a weak body just cannot manage on a particular day, or if a medication wreaks havoc instead of comfort.  Children can’t.  I nearly cried when a recent group graduated that I had never taught.  But such is life; things change, and most of the time people get along just fine without you.
            Along the way I have had some wonderful students, and it seemed good to tell you about them, so they will get the thanks they deserve, but also so you can learn from them how to be a good Bible class student yourselves.  Don’t think that this is self-serving.  By emulating these women, you will get far more out of your classes, and so will your classmates.  People who disrupt classes, even accidentally, are hindering others, not helping, and we all know how Jesus felt about people who cast stumbling blocks in front of others, particularly the babes. 
            So please join me this week.  I hope that what you learn from these remarkable women will help far beyond these few weeks.
 
Help me to understand what your precepts mean.  Then I can meditate on your marvelous teachings, Psalm 119:27, NET.
 
Dene Ward
 
 

Today I am giving you a list of passages.  You may look at them and say, "So what?"  It may look like a bunch of useless information to you.  But first, should we automatically discard anything in the Bible and label it useless?  And second, wait till you see what I can do with these.

All of these passages are in the book of Genesis:
11:26 Terah was 70 when he had his first son.
11:32 Terah died at 205.
12:4 Abram was 75 when Terah died and he left Haran.
16:16 Abram was 86 when Ishmael was born.
17:1ff Abraham was 99 when circumcision was instituted and his name was changed.
17:17; 21:5 Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90 when Isaac was born.
23:1 Sarah was 127 when she died.
25:7 Abraham was 175 when he died.
25:20 Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah.
25:26 Isaac was 60 when Jacob and Esau were born.
26:34,35 Esau was 40 when he married to the two Hittite women.
30:25,26 Joseph was born at the end of Jacob's 14 years of labor.
31:41 Jacob was in Haran 20 years altogether. 
35:16 Benjamin was born on Jacob's trip home.
35:28 Isaac was 180 when he died.
37:2 Joseph was 17 when his brothers sold him.
41:46 Joseph was 30 when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream.
45:6 Joseph was 39 when the family moved to Egypt.
47:9 Jacob was 130 when the family moved to Egypt.
47:28 Jacob died at 147.
50:26 Joseph died at 110.

               So what is the point?  I imagine that you are just like me and have mental pictures of the stories in Genesis because of the way they were told to you as a child.  Some of those mental pictures are completely wrong.  Here are just a few things you can figure out using the list above.
               Abraham could not possibly have been the eldest son and if Haran, who died in Ur, was the oldest, then nephew Lot, Haran's son, could have been older than Uncle Abraham!
               When Pharaoh thought Sarah was so beautiful that he whisked her into his harem, she was 65 years old!
               When Isaac said, "I am old," in 27:2, he was indeed 137, but was certainly not on his deathbed because he lived another 43 years.
               Jacob was 77 when he fled to Haran and 84 when he married Leah and Rachel.  He had been in Haran a month before he fell for Rachel and bargained his labor to marry her.  So much for sweet young "love at first sight."
               Jacob and Esau were 15 when their grandfather Abraham died.  That means they had plenty of time to hear the old stories, including how their grandfather had felt so strongly about finding the woman who became their mother that he wouldn't even let Isaac leave the land.  Yet, Esau still married Hittite women, a tribe of Canaanite, whom they should also have known were cursed since the flood. 
               Isaac was alive when Joseph "disappeared," but died 12 years before he was found in Egypt.
               Joseph was 56 when Jacob died.
               Depending upon how much time you want to put into it, you can figure out a lot of other things too.  In fact, you should probably print this list out and then keep it tucked into your Bible in the book of Genesis.  It will not only give you a more accurate picture of these events, but it might help you see them as real people, people you can learn from in far more ways than you ever thought possible.
 
These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come 1Cor10:11.

Dene Ward

We just spent a week with the grandkids.  When it comes to food, they are just like mine were at that age.  They prefer their oranges out of a can, their macaroni and cheese out of the blue box, their chicken cut into processed squares, and their potatoes long and fried.  Forget the complex and strong flavors of Parmagiana Reggianno, feta, and bleu—they want American cheese, thank you.  And all their sauces must be sweet—about half corn syrup.  True, these two enjoy olives—but they need to be canned and black.  A strong, briny kalamata is summarily thrown across the table.
            Children have immature palates.  For the most part strong flavors are out and bland ones are in.  Sugar, salt and fat make up their favorite seasonings.  And it must be easy to eat.  When you can barely hold a spoon and get the food on it and into your mouth, you prefer things that are solid without being hard and which fit the hand.  We would never give a child a fresh artichoke to eat, with instructions like “Peel off the leaf, dip it into lemon juice and melted butter, put it between your teeth and pull it out of your mouth, scraping the good part off as you pull, then discard the leaf.” 
            One day they will understand the pleasure of different tastes and textures.  Their palates will become educated to appreciate different foods and even different cuisines.  Even the pickiest of childhood eaters usually learn as adults to eat new things, if for no other reason than to be polite or keep harmony in the home.  When a woman spends hours a day cooking, she wants more than a grunt and food being shoved around the plate in an attempt to disguise the fact that very little of it was eaten. 
            But sometimes people become set in their ways.  They decide they don’t like something, even if they have never tried it.  They won’t entertain the possibility that their palates have changed, and so won’t keep trying things as they become older.  When I was a child I hated every kind of cheese, raw onions, and anything that contained a cooked tomato.  Now I eat them all.  Imagine if I had never found that out.  No pizza!
            What about your spiritual nourishment?  Are you still slurping down canned oranges and packaged mac and cheese?  Do you still think instant mashed potatoes are as good as real ones, and Log Cabin as good as real maple syrup?  What if the Bible class teacher taught a book you had never studied before?  Would you learn with relish or complain because you actually had to read it instead of relying on your old canned knowledge?  What if he showed you a different interpretation of a passage than you usually hear?  Would you chew on it a little and really consider it, or just dismiss it out of hand because it wasn’t what you already thought you knew?
            Keith and I have both experienced complaints from people because our classes were “too deep” or “too hard” or “took too much study time.”  Really?  It’s one thing to have an immature palate because you are still a babe.  It’s another to have one because you haven’t grown up in twenty, thirty, forty years of claiming discipleship. 
            The spiritual palate can tell tales on our spiritual maturity in every other area.  Jesus expected his disciples to mature in just a few short years.  “Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me?” he asked Philip (John 14:9).  If we don’t know his word, we don’t know him.  If we don’t know him, we have no clue how to behave as Christians.
            An educated palate for spiritual food is far more important than whether you have learned to like liver yet.  Become an adventurous spiritual eater.  You will find this paradox: though you become hungrier for more, you are always satisfied with your meal.
 
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:12-14.
 
Dene Ward

On February 2, 1839, Edmond Berger is said to have invented the spark plug.  I say it that way because of the differing accounts I found.  In fact, the first mention of this I saw gave the date as February 3 and said he actually patented it that day.  Several other places said the date was the second of the month and he never patented it at all.  Perhaps the most reliable citation I found said that he invented it on the second, but since he was in France he did not patent it with a US patent, and that since the internal combustion engine was new at that time and extremely unreliable, the spark plug he invented would have been experimental at best.  So we will leave it at that.
            What I want to consider this morning are mental spark plugs.  When I sit down to write, especially after all these years of doing so over 300 times a year, I often need a spark of an idea to get going.  The ancient Greeks knew the problem and came up with the nine goddesses they called Muses.  These, they said, were the inspiration behind all the Sciences, Literature, Poetry, and the Arts.  No one could create any of these without their motivating spark.  Which also gave you someone to blame when nothing came to you when you needed it, I immediately thought.  Might come in handy—if only they were real.
            And so I looked to the Scriptures to find anything about "sparks" that the Word of God might mention.  As you might suspect, no spark plugs—or Muses—were mentioned.  But I did find this verse:  O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you (1Chr 29:18).  David was finishing a stirring prayer after calling the people to give of their means for the building of the new Temple after his death.  He worried that the emotion of the moment would fade and that Solomon himself, a young man, would falter in his determination to build what amounted to a Palace for God.  So he prayed that the spirit that was then moving the people to give willingly and to support this monumental task would continue.
            But notice:  the fact that David prayed for this to continue in itself shows that this attitude is a choice.  We are not talking about the Holy Spirit coming in and forcing His will upon us.  In fact, Satan can come in as a "muse" and lead our thought astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ (2 Cor 11:3) in the same way.  If one is a choice we make, so is the other.  Our devotion is likely to fluctuate.  That is perfectly normal, I think.  But we have the choice of which "muse" we choose to allow to ignite our thoughts and deeds.
            God promises He will help us out—without forcing us.  Jeremiah tells us that we cannot walk in our own ways and do well (10:23), so it makes sense that if we have anything like a Muse in the Christian walk, it is the Word of God.  Seek God's way, obey His commands, listen to His voice.  With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped (Ps 17:4-5).  Indeed, that is the only spark plug that amounts to anything at all.

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple (Ps 119:130).
 
Dene Ward