I was born legally blind.  In those days, they did not check children like they do today, and I learned to feed and dress myself, and played happily in my bedroom with no one the wiser.  Finally, when I was four, my parents noticed that I kept getting closer and closer to the television.  Don't judge them harshly.  They loved me and cared for me as any parent would.  They just did not recognize the problem because of how well I coped.  And I coped that well because I assumed everyone was like me and so never raised a fuss. 
     I got my first pair of "coke bottle" glasses when I was 4—and it was still nearly 50 years later before the doctors came up with a name for what was wrong with me. But those glasses were pretty amazing.  My mother said the first thing I did when we left the doctor's office with them was to lean over and look at the ground.  Finally, she came to see what I had found and nearly cried when she realized it was the first time I had ever seen ants. 
     I spent a lot of time looking at things after that, and seeing them for the first time.  My daddy, who was a car guy, was especially tickled that I learned all the identifying characteristics of the different models of cars.  Back then, there were not as many as today, so a four year old noticing a "Winken" and "Toodebaker," which for some reason I also called a "backwards forwards car," was not all that amazing.  I also remember when Edsels came out.  That big horse collar of a grille was easy to see for a four year old who paid attention to things like that.
      But Ford had goofed in their research.  They were aiming at people who would buy mid-priced sedans.  Time magazine says they spent $250 million dollars on research and advertising, but by the time the car came out, the country was in a recession and people were looking at compact cars to save money.  The Edsel came out on September 4, 1957, and was discontinued on November 19, 1959.  The car's name has come to mean "a dud," in our slang, and people will always remember it that way.
     The last thing any of us should want is to be remembered for our worst mistake.  In the scriptures, Jeroboam probably has that distinction.  In order to solidify his reign and hold on the people, he introduced things to the worship of God that were considered from then on as some of the worst abominations in the land, particularly the golden calves in Dan and Bethel.  I counted at least 25 times that these sins were listed in the historical books as they described the kings who reigned after him--he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.  God had promised him a dynasty if he only obeyed, but he did not trust God to keep his word, and so he lost that promise.
     We can make life-changing mistakes ourselves.  Whom you marry is probably one of the most important decisions you will make—it can determine your eternal destiny, AND your children's.  "But I can change him," has about as much chance of happening as snow in Tampa—which has happened only once in my lifetime.  How you choose to raise your children is another one.  What you do and don't do, and who you listen to can determine their whole lives.  The career you choose can also be important.  Even the congregation you choose to be a part of can make a difference if all you want is entertainment or "easy listening."  Whenever you find yourself saying, "But I will do better than all those others, it won't affect me that way," you have put an Edsel on the assembly line and are likely to have the same results.
     Please be careful.  Young people, please listen to those who are older and have come through the same stages of life you are in now.  They care about your souls and they want to help you.  You don't want to be remembered as the biggest dud in history, and you don't want the eternal results that might lead to, especially for those you love.
 
An ear that is hearing the reproof of life lodges among the wise.  Whoever is refusing instruction is despising his soul, and whoever is hearing reproof is getting understanding  Prov15:30-32
 
Dene Ward

     A couple of centuries ago, Passenger Pigeons were the most widespread bird in North America, estimated to be 25-40% of the entire avian population, roughly three to five billion.  When they passed overhead, the skies darkened for up to an hour, the time it took for one flock to pass by.  Someone said they sounded like a thousand threshing machines, a thousand steamboats, and a thousand trains all at once. They ranged from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River and from the Great Lakes to the southern United States. 
     The birds flew far in their migration and when they returned in the spring, the settlers in the early days of this country jumped for joy—free protein after the near starvation of winter.  The birds flew so low and so thick that you could swing a pole and kill enough for dinner.  With the advent of the telegraph and railroad, the hunting of passenger pigeons by both amateur and professional sportsmen flourished with numbers nearly as many as the birds themselves, until by the mid-1890s, only three captive breeding flocks were left.  On September 1, 1914, the last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.  She was about 29 years old and had never laid a fertile egg.  Efforts to save them had come too late.  (All information courtesy of Audubon, the e-magazine.)
     What are you doing to keep Christianity from going extinct?  Or do you just expect others to do that? 
     Think first about your family.  Are you teaching your children at home, not just expecting them to pick it up in church Bible classes, but spending regular time every day talking to them about God in any and every way possible, praying with them, reading the scriptures to them, helping them to begin to make small decisions that a Christian must eventually make in his life in a much larger way? 
     How about your neighborhood?  Does the man across the fence know you are a Christian?  Does the woman down the street whom you pass as she weeds her flowerbeds, the couple who take a walk every evening on the sidewalk that runs past your house?  Does the friendly cashier know that you are on your way to Bible class and just stopped to pick up a couple of things you forgot?  Does the UPS man know that you are pressure cleaning the sidewalk because you expect some folks to come that night for a study?  Or are you hiding your allegiance to the Lord, and if so, why?
     What happens at work?  Does the boss know that staying late on Wednesday night is not a good option for you?  Does she know that you will miss the company picnic because you will be worshipping God on Sunday?  And maybe more important, do they know they can count on you to work hard and do things right precisely because you are a Christian.  That you won't be making flimsy excuses for missing work, possibly even lying about being sick? 
     Will any of that keep Christianity from going extinct?  Why do you think people ask you about your religion?  Because, as a nurse told us once after several days in the hospital, "There's something different about you."  You'd better believe it will help.
      But for today, just think about your home.  The first step to extinction is when the next generation is lost.  What's happening to yours?
 
And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, that knew not Jehovah, nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel. And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim; and they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them: and they provoked Jehovah to anger.  And they forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth Judg2:10-13.
 
Dene Ward

     Most of us over 60 grew up watching Westerns on television.  Marshall Dillon, Cheyenne Bodie, and Rowdy Yates were our heroes.  We also watched a show called "Wagon Train," but only occasionally as it aired on Wednesday nights.  We had to be sick at home to see that one.  Otherwise we would have been at Wednesday night Bible study.
     None of us were told about the real adventures and tragedies of the Old West until we grew up and read some of them.  I am sure you know of the infamous Donner Party, a group of emigrants traveling west to California that wound up trapped by snow in what is now called "Donner Pass."  Unable to get through the mountains, their situation led to disease, starvation, and ultimately cannibalism to survive.  Of the 87 who began the trip, only 45 reached California.
     Could it all have been avoided?  On August 6, 1846, they came upon a note from their guide, who had gone ahead.  The note told them that the route was worse than he had thought, possibly impassable, and they should wait for him to return.  After 8 days, he sent another message to follow yet another trail and they did.  Now we view their guide, Lansford Hastings, as an unscrupulous man, completely unconcerned with their safety.  The route was not better, had never even been blazed for something like a wagon train, and cost them 18 days, putting them squarely into the winter in those higher elevations. 
     It is difficult to say that they should have known better, that his words about the pass being impossible to travel should have sent them scurrying back to safety, rather than forging on ahead with this guy.  It remains a tragic episode in the history of Westward expansion, the site of which is now the Donner Memorial State Park.  Not only does it commemorate this particular event but all the trials of all pioneers in the nineteenth century.
     It is easy for us to look back and criticize.  It is even easier to say, "I told you so," which helps no one at all except perhaps a weak ego.  But it also serves to remind us to pay attention to all the warnings in scripture.  Look through the prophets and see warning after warning, not only unheeded, but the messengers persecuted.  Surely we, who pride ourselves on our "superior" knowledge would do better.  Would we?
     Do you realize that wealth in the New Testament is never pictured as anything but dangerous?  Yet, we all confidently affirm, "I would do better than they did, Lord!" as we work ourselves into a frenzy to make more money.  False prophets are shown to be handsome, friendly, and flattering, tickling ears with their smooth speech.  "We wouldn't fall for them Lord," and yet knock one another over like a snaky row of dominoes as they stroke our feelings and condemn those who disagree with them.
     Do yourself a favor this week.  Run a search and see all the things we are warned against.  Put them into categories so you can get the brunt of the impact for each.  These things God warns us against.  Don't make a fool of yourself by arguing against God's opinions.  His "I told you so" could be the last thing you hear.
 
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray Matt24:4.
 
Dene Ward
 

July 2, 1843, was a hot sultry day in Charleston, South Carolina, "one of the most oppressive days inflicted on mortal man," according to the Charleston Mercury, the local paper.  As often happens on those kinds of days, a violent thunderstorm blew up.  As a born and bred Floridian who is familiar with that sort of weather, I can not only sympathize, but also tell you that those kinds of storms can be precursors to all sorts of bad things.  This one, it seems, did far more than the usual strong winds that topple trees and ferocious lightning that can start fires.  In the middle of this storm, an alligator fell out of the sky right on the corner of Wentworth and Anson Streets.  Not a very heathy specimen, it measured only two feet, but it still shocked the town.  It was supposed that the unfortunate creature had been picked up in a waterspout, carried through the air for miles, and dumped unceremoniously.  The clipping goes on to tell us that no one actually saw this happen, but "the beast had a look of wonder and bewilderment about him" and "he couldn't have got there any other way."  The story was picked up by the Times-Picayune of New Orleans and has stayed in the history books ever since.  I found several sources.

Now you are probably sitting there laughing at the naiveté and ignorance of those people.  Such a thing could have never happened!  And in your heart, when you read of almost impossible things happening to others, you always think, "It could never happen to me."  In my many years, I have known of people or had in my family things happen that no one ever expected, and I have learned to never say, "Never happen, especially to me."  That is often said by people who are not in a good relationship with God, who want to sow their wild oats for a while before getting their lives straightened out.   "I have plenty of time," they think.

A young couple were on their way to church one morning when they were carjacked and the husband shot and killed.  Another young Christian couple and their child were killed when their home was destroyed by a tornado.  A cousin of mine was killed in an ATV accident when he was out with friends one afternoon for a little fun.  Another got in the truck with her brother to go home from school and was killed when a semi hit them.  Another cousin of mine lost her 35 year old husband to a brain aneurysm one morning.  A friend of ours from Keith's early preaching days went out one morning to buy his wife some aspirin for her headache and when he got home, she was dead.  She was about the same age as my cousin's husband.  Another couple went out for dinner one evening.  He never made it home because he had a heart attack while they ate.  "I went out to eat with my husband and came home a widow," she said.

And by now, you are getting my point.  Things happen when you least expect it.  Can I add this one, which is about as likely as an alligator raining from the sky?  My husband went out to do his rounds as a community control officer one evening and was ambushed by one of his caseload.  One of the bullets hit the Pilot clicker pen in his pocket which was just enough to turn the bullet sideways so that it plowed through his chest across the ribcage rather than going straight into his heart.  Unlikely, even impossible things do happen!

And now you are tsk-tsking me about using scare tactics to get you to straighten out your life, aren't you?  Jesus used some of the scariest language in the Bible to describe Hell, and far more of it than anyone else.  He had no problem putting a goad to people to get them to change their lives, so why should I?  If that is what it takes to wake people up, then use it.  You are in good company with the Lord.
 
​Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he comes shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them.  And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find [them] so, blessed are those [servants].  But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through. Be you also ready: for in an hour that you think not the Son of man comes Luke12:37-40.
 
Dene Ward

"Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."  It has changed now and again from that day over two centuries ago, but the American flag still means to us what it did then—a symbol of a new nation, no longer a colony belonging to a mad king.
            The thirteen red and white stripes represent the original thirteen colonies.  The fifty stars represent the fifty states in the union.  Even the colors are symbolic.  Red symbolizes hardiness and valor.  White symbolizes purity and innocence.  Blue symbolizes vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
            The symbolism of flags and banners is nearly as old as man himself.  In Num 2:2 we see that every tribe of Israel had a banner, a flag, which flew over their encampment.  Like the American flag, the images on the flags were symbolic.  Unfortunately we do not have a Biblical record of those symbols.  The best we can do are various rabbinic lists, and some of them do make sense.  The image on Judah’s banner, for instance, was supposedly a lion, taken from Jacob’s description of Judah in Gen 49:9 as a “lion’s whelp.”  Benjamin’s flag pictured a wolf, we are told, based on his description as a “scavenging wolf” in 49:27.  The odd thing to me is that some of these symbols are anything but complimentary.  Dan’s symbol, for example, is a snake:  Dan shall be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That bites the horse's heels, So that his rider falls backward.  49:17.
            And so I found myself wondering what if God ordered a flag act, requiring us to fly a banner outside every meetinghouse?  What would be on them?  What would represent our “tribe” of God’s people?
            I wonder if we could somehow depict the city of Gibeah (Judg 19) on every flag outside an unwelcoming group of brethren, people who ignored the ones who weren’t dressed well or who showed up in leather and covered in tattoos?  Maybe we could put a whitewashed sepulcher on the flags of those who sit in the pews on Sunday but live like the Devil the rest of the week.  Perhaps phylacteries would be the picture on the flag of those congregations who could quote verse after verse, but who never served their neighbors or each other.  Maybe we could put a big puff adder on the flag of those who were “conceited and puffed up” with “an unhealthy craving for controversy,” 1 Tim 6:4.  And don’t forget one with a rendition of Judas kissing Jesus for those congregations who betray God by ignoring His authority in all they do.
            It would certainly be handy wouldn’t it, far better than those “directories.”   Then we could look for flags showing foot washing—truly a church of servants.  We could look for flags depicting an open Bible for those known for their love of the Truth and spreading it.  We could even look for embroidered hearts denoting love and sincerity. 
            I am sure you are sitting there right now trying to decide what should be on your congregation’s flag.  Here is something even more important for you to consider for the rest of the day:  what would God put on your own personal flag, the one flying right outside your home?
 
You have given a banner to them that fear you, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Psalms 60:4.
 
Dene Ward

If you grew up during the Cold War, you know about the Berlin Wall.  After World War II, the political ideologies between the USSR and most of the West became more and more at odds.  Finally, Communism overtook Eastern Europe and most of Asia.  Nikita Kruschev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party in the USSR, made it plain that their goal was to completely conquer the rest of the World.  We all grew up a little anxious.  During the Cuban Missile Crisis, which we explored in another post, we were a hair's breadth from World War III.  All of the school children in my Florida county wore dog tags, had a stash of canned goods with their names on it in the classrooms, and practiced diving under their desks whenever a plane flew over.  Many of our neighbors built bomb shelters in their backyards.
            One of the symbols of Communism and the terror it caused was the Berlin Wall.  After the war, Germany was divided into East (Communist) and West (free) sections.  And the capital city Berlin was divided into four zones, three controlled by western powers and 1 by the Communists.  After East Germany lost 1/6 of its population (4 million) to those who were escaping, the leaders decided to build the wall.  It went up in one night, August 12-13, 1961, first as strands of barbed wire.  As time went on, buildings were torn down to add two concrete walls, dog runs, bright lights, even mine fields, and "the order to shoot" was given to the guards.  The wall ran 155 km in length straight across the city center and around West Berlin.  At least 140 people died trying to cross the wall.  70 tunnels were dug, only 19 of which were successful, but over 300 people managed to escape that way.
            The Berlin Wall stood for almost 30 years.  Along came Mikhail Gorbachev, and a new policy called glastnost, a new openness in Soviet government.  A few people were no longer terrified to say a few things against the system.  Still, many were afraid to cause trouble.  Perhaps it was the leftover fear from the Cold War, but perhaps it was just the usual fear that leads to something called "diplomacy," which too often means compromise.  Finally an American president stood up to the system he dared to call an "Evil Empire."  In a speech in Berlin on June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan said: 
"Behind me stands a wall that circles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe…Standing before the Brandenburg Gate,every man is a German, separated from his fellow men.  Every man is a Berliner, forced to l ook upon a scar---As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind…
            "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.
            "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!
            "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
            The fall of the "Iron Curtain," as Communism had begun to be called, began 2 years later, and the wall was down by 1990.  Most historians say this speech helped to that end, even though many of his own advisors tried to stifle President Reagan, even on the very day he gave it.  To the East Germans it was liberation.
            Christians are aware of another Wall that has come down, a wall Jesus himself brought down.  Wherefore remember, that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, [so] making peace Eph 2: 11-15.
            The wall between Jew and Gentile was a wall far larger than any other has ever been.  It began back in Genesis as God whittled down the population into the one group through whom the Messiah would be born.  Nation after nation was rejected and the Jews, rather than being the light to the Gentiles, did their best to alienate themselves from them, creating a hatred that lasted through the centuries.  Now Christ has torn down that hated wall and made freedom available to all--the greatest freedom we can imagine—freedom from sin and death.  I am one of the liberated, and perhaps you are too.
            People today may have forgotten the horror of the Berlin Wall, but the destruction of that other wall should never be forgotten, and no one, regardless his race, gender, or status in life should be denied the description "child of God."  Praise God for tearing down the Wall and making us all one new people.  Let no one separate us from each other again.
 
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many as were immersed into Christ put on Christ; there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither servant nor freeman, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus; and if you [are] of Christ then you are seed of Abraham, and heirs according to promise Gal3:26-29.
 
Dene Ward
 

I was a college girl, just a year older than Patricia Hearst, the heiress to the Hearst publishing empire, when a group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped her from her off-campus apartment in San Francisco.  Two months later, on April 15, 1974, she appeared on grainy black and white security camera footage helping those same captors rob a bank.
            She was eventually captured and sent to prison for awhile because the jury could not accept the psychiatrist’s diagnosis of Stockholm Syndrome, a malady officially named after a bank robber kept hostages in a Stockholm bank vault for 131 hours.  Like Patty Hearst, they emerged from the ordeal exhibiting sympathy for their captors.  The mind does strange things when under stress. 
            Doctors say this happens when the abductors constantly tell the victim there is no hope, that no one knows where he is and no one will rescue him.  They spin lies about their own “mistreatment,” while abusing the victim at the same time.  They tell the victim he is going to die, repeating it not just once, but over and over.  Then for some unaccountable reason they do something nice for that same victim.  The victim grows not only to depend upon his captor, but to identify with him as well.  That is Stockholm syndrome, and anyone who has struggled with sin should recognize the symptoms.
            But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members, Romans 7:23.
            In meekness correcting them that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth, and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will, 2 Timothy 2:25-26.
            Sin abducts a man and tells him lies like the one Satan told Eve—“God is just selfish, you won’t die--you’ll be just like him.”  It tells him he’s stupid to listen to anyone else.  It tells him that no one else cares, that no one can save him, and that he will die anyway, so why not die having fun?  Satan, the father of all lies, tells the captive that he is the only one who really cares and the only one who can do anything for him.  Satan is the one who started Stockholm syndrome, not that bank robber in Sweden.
            We tell people over and over that sin is deceptive, that once you are in you may never get out.  Sooner or later you reach a point where you won’t listen to anyone.  …being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, Ephesians 4:18-19.
            What scares me is this doesn’t have to be heinous sin to work.  People who spend their days gossiping will become impervious to any sermons on the subject.  Satan has told them, “You’re only trying to help,” and they believe him.  People who begin every sentence about a person with, “I’ll never forget when he did [this] to me,” will never heed the lesson about the unforgiving servant who was handed over to the torturers for his lack of mercy.  “That’s different,” Satan tells them, and they believe that too.  Any sin can deceive you.  Any sin can take you captive, even the smallest.
            What can we do?  Never excuse sin in yourself.  Look to Jehovah, the Psalmist says in 25:15, and he will pluck you out of the net—he’ll rescue you from those abductors.  Exhort one another, the Hebrew writer says in 3:13, so that you won’t be so easily deceived.  Prove the spirits, John tells us in 1 John 4:1, and look for the way of escape Paul adds in 1 Cor 10:13. 
            Don’t open the door when Satan knocks.  Don’t let yourself be taken captive.
 
But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord...There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 7:23-8:2
 
Dene Ward

            On April 6, 1896, the first modern day Olympics opened in Athens, Greece, after a break of 1500 years.  You will find varying accounts but there were 240-280 athletes from 13 or 14 countries who participated in 43 events.  The games were organized by the International Olympic Committee, created by Pierre de Coubertin.  First place received a silver medal and second a copper medal.  The IOC has now retroactively awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals as the custom came to be.  So with that in mind, at the first modern Olympiad, the United States won the most gold medals at 11, but the Greeks won the most overall at 47.  The games were so successful that they continued every four years with the exception of 1916 (World War I) and 1940 and 1944 (World War II).
            While I was doing the research for this post I came across a reference to an athlete from the original Olympics period, the 207th Olympiad in 47 AD.  Melankomas of Caria won the boxing event.  Legend has it that he won without dealing a single blow and without being hit.  He trained day and night and his endurance was such that it is said he could hold up his arms to defend himself and dodge blows for two days straight until the opponent simply wore himself out and could no longer fight.  Obviously there were no time limits or rounds in those days.  A good discussion of the man and the history of Greek boxing in general can be found on WordPress, "The Arms Man" and "The Greatest Boxer of All Time."  You will also find more varying information about exactly when he boxed, for even that information is a little unsettled.
            After reading this piece I found myself reciting Isaiah 53:  He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, Isa 53:7.  Jesus won the battle with Satan not by striking him down but by taking our punishment upon himself; not by fighting back but by rising from the dead.  The "blow" Jesus dealt to Satan was a sinless life and the resurrection from the dead.
            Melankomas was not the first boxer by that name in the ancient Olympics.  The first was his father, and he simply took up his father's occupation and perfected it.  Jesus asks the same of his disciples.  "Follow me," he said again and again.  And "Turn the other cheek," "Love your enemies," "Reconcile with your brother," be willing to "take wrong" and "be defrauded" for the kingdom's sake.  Again and again we are taught not to strike a blow, but to take one without striking back, to give more than people ask of us and to share with the needy.  And if we do, we will find ourselves winning the race just like he did, never striking out, never taking revenge, but giving good to all. 
            Our Olympiad occurs every day.  Let's fight as he did, as Paul did, and win the gold.
 
Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? Even so run; that ye may attain.  And every man that strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they [do it] to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.  I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air: but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected 1 Cor 9:24-27.
 
Dene Ward

Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president during the height of the Great Depression.  Eight days after his inauguration, he began a series of radio broadcasts called "Fireside Chats."  The country had faced a month long series of bank closings.  He closed the bank system on March 6, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act on March 9, and he gave his first Fireside Chat on March 12, 1933, explaining his policies and actions.  He had a tone and demeanor over the radio that showed his own self-assurance and made people feel as if they had a closer relationship with him than one might think of a president.  And they grew to trust him.  More people listened to the fireside chats than to the popular radio programs of the day.
            Of course, he used these things to his political advantage as well.  Besides explaining his policies, he quelled rumors and countered the conservative media.  Yes, conservatives ran the media in those days.  His own press secretary Stephen Early said, "[Radio] cannot misrepresent or misquote."  FDR was a liberal in a conservative world at the time and faced the same things conservatives face today in reverse.
            Fireside chats also helped him as governor of New York against a conservative legislature.  One historian says that the first actual fireside chat was given by Roosevelt as governor on April 3, 1929.  His presidential fireside chats ran from March 12, 1933 till June 12, 1944, thirty in all, though different scholars count between 27 and 31, running 11 to 44 minutes in length.  From what I could find, the scripts for the Fireside Chats are stored in the National Archives, though I am sure the recordings themselves must be stored somewhere as well.
             Keith and I have our own version of Fireside Chats.  In Florida they are limited to winter, or our version of it—any time it is cool enough to enjoy a steaming cup of coffee after breakfast.  The smell of wood smoke and the crisp air that nips your nose and chaps your legs even through pants make them all that more enjoyable.  And despite that cold we seem to sit even longer while our cheeks turn red from the heat of the flames as, conversely, our toes slowly freeze into ice cubes inside our socks.  We talk far more then than any other time of day.
            And talk and talk and talk—sometimes as much as an hour.  Many a good teaching technique and blog post have come to mind as we bounce ideas off one another.  I ask for help with studies that are more in Keith's area and he asks for help for those I might possibly know more about—which is certainly not many.  Together we hope that our resulting classes are easier for others to listen to and absorb.  Isn't that what Christian couples are supposed to do? 
             In our earlier years, when sitting by the fire for a cup of coffee was only a Saturday event due to work and children, we also talked about child raising.  As a stay-at-home mom with a home-based music studio, I could watch firsthand our boys' progress, could see any problems that might be developing in their characters, and could then pass that on to Keith so we could brainstorm ideas for correcting those things.  I could correct immediate things and then report to their father what happened.  The father is the spiritual leader of the home and more often than not must delegate some of that authority to the mother because she is with the children more hours than he.  So our talks often centered around the spiritual atmosphere of our home then, but we did talk, even if it meant waiting until the little guys were in bed.  Isn't that what Christian couples are supposed to do?
             We share any problems we have with others and ask one another for advice.  We share experiences and look for support.  We share memories and build our love.  Isn't that what Christian couples are supposed to do?
            Sometimes I wonder how many out there actually do these things.  More than once I have mentioned something to one spouse, knowing the other already knew about it, only to have that spouse say, "What are you talking about?" because the information had not been shared.  If somehow these two do have time together, what do they talk about?  Do spiritual things matter at all, or is it just the mundane?  Do they ever work on building their faith, share a Biblical discovery, make a plan for how to serve others that week, or schedule some family time?  Do they ever sit and just have a good discussion about a Bible topic, with neither one allowed to get upset if he is disagreed with?  Aren't Christian couples supposed to do those kinds of things?
            If you are dating a young man and find that you cannot talk about spiritual things, maybe you should take a second look.  You should certainly talk about how your living will be made, where you will live, and how you will raise your children.  Those can have spiritual ramifications—but if you are only talking about the standard of living you expect, about the number of children you want and your worldly ambitions for them while your hopes for their spiritual destiny never enters the conversation, something is out of whack.  Marrying a man who has no interest in spiritual things at all, who, if he attends services at all, sits there bored with the sermon, never sings a hymn, and gets impatient if you want to attend a women's study, will be the worst mistake of your life.
             If you are both Christians and you have never had conversations like these, now is the time to start.  It may not be too late to make a difference in your marriage and in the lives of your children.  At this point, you will probably need to plan it—make it part of a date night if it takes that, and do it just like any other important appointment you keep no matter what.  It is important.  More than you ever imagined.
 
For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit (Rom 8:5).

Dene Ward        

On Saturday, February 24, 2024, 19 year old Trent Degulis, who calls himself a social media influencer, climbed a 1600 foot cell tower in Riverview, Florida, south of Tampa.  He said he "wanted to see the sunset."  Claiming it was the first time he had done it, when he reached the bottom he was arrested for misdemeanor trespassing.  He told police officers that yes, he did indeed reach the "top-top" of the tower, and then live-streamed to social media from that spot. 
            The first commercial cell tower was built in 1983, and was analog, what we would call a "1G," or first generation.  When my probation officer husband had to check out and use a department cell phone while making his rounds as a house arrest officer in the mid-90s, it looked like a brick and weighed two and a half pounds.  And those first cell phones cost right at $4,000.00!  My, my, have times changed.
           We went a long time before we finally gave in and bought a cell phone.  It was an expense we did not need, and an aggravation we did not want.  I am not the servant of my phone and will not allow it to have me running at its beck and call!  But finally the phone companies took down most of the phone booths I had used when there was an emergency or I just needed to make some unexpected last minute arrangements.  I had to have a phone for those things. 
           It still isn’t the cure for everything, especially where I lived then.  While I may be one of the only people in the state of Florida to actually use her cell phone for emergencies only, when I need to use it, I really need to use it.  Then it becomes more than a little aggravating to get only one or two bars or worse, the big red X—no service.  Wherever that tower was, it was to the southwest of us, and I have spent a lot of time wandering around in my southern field trying to turn that red X into at least three bars so I will hear more than static and be less likely dropped. 
            Once I was meandering with such rapt attention on that tiny little screen that when I finally got my three bars and stood stock still so I wouldn’t lose them, I found myself jumping around a moment later, covered in fire ants.  The only place I could get reception was in an ant bed!
            But cell towers do not matter when you need the Lord.  Whenever His children need Him, he is just a word or a thought away.  You don’t even have to dial, and you certainly don’t have to wander around outside in the heat or cold or rain trying to get a signal.  “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” James tells us (4:8).  Indeed when I looked up the word in a concordance, I discovered that the only reason God is ever “far” from us is because we have gone far from Him (Isa 29:13; 33:13;  46:12; etc.).
            The next time you pull out that little monstrosity, remind yourself how blessed you really are.  You have a Father in Heaven who will answer your call no matter how many bars your spirit has left within you.  He will hear you, even if you only have strength left to whisper.
 
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need, Heb 4:16.
 
Dene Ward