We have shared our lives with a lot of animals over the years.  Two who grew up with our boys were Bart and Abby.  Bart was a big, friendly, yellow lab, who trotted up to anyone who would pet him, and wagged his tail so hard his whole rear end swayed.  Even in his senior years, he got as excited as a puppy every time any of us called him.  If you stopped petting him, he would carefully place his head under your dangling hand to remind you he was still there.

I remember one morning when Abby, the black and white “cow” cat, walked up to him.  They had already established a friendly, if cautious, relationship, even rubbing noses upon occasion, but Bart knew to stand still with his muscles bunched until he discovered what mood Abby was in.  Sure enough, Abby nuzzled sweetly, stroking Bart’s huge leg with a tiny white paw.   As soon as Bart relaxed, Abby walked around behind him, lifted a paw, and whapped his rear end hard enough to send him running.

Abby had been fooling us since we first got him at the age of six weeks.  We named him Abigail, and by the time we discovered there was more hiding beneath his fur than we had first thought, he knew his name, and we were stuck trying to find a male version of Abby.  Abigail became Abner, at least on the vet’s records.  He learned early how to get what he wanted.  If we were walking outside and he decided he needed to be held, he would throw himself bodily in front of us on the ground.  If we stepped around him, he would follow along and do it again and again until he finally wore us down and we picked him up. 

Those two pets always reminded me of Jesus’ admonition to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”  The Lord expects us to have no malice toward anyone, always willing to help those who need it, whether they deserve it or not.  On the other hand he also expects us to be on guard.  It is hard to strike an even balance.  Some lean toward naiveté and others toward cynicism, each one rationalizing himself and criticizing the other, when possibly what they both need is moderation—it isn’t that you choose only one side of this coin; it’s that you flip it as the occasion requires..  Jesus never let himself be caught in the traps of the scribes and Pharisees, but he was willingly led to the cross “as a lamb to the slaughter.” 

Sometimes I hear prudence castigated as a lack of faith.  Jacob prayed that God deliver him from the hand of Esau, then the next morning, sent gifts to appease his brother, Gen 32:11ff.  Many impugn his faith because of that.  But tell me, as my son Nathan likes to point out, if you saw a known murderer in your front yard, wouldn’t you go inside and lock the door before you prayed?  In fact, might you not call 911 as well?  How easily we judge when it is someone else’s neck on the chopping block.  Was Paul faithless when he escaped his enemies in Damascus over the wall in a basket?  Why didn’t he stay if he had faith that God would care for him?  In fact, he went on to Jerusalem after Agabus told him he would be imprisoned there.  What was the difference?  It may be difficult to know, but as long as we take the time to consider all of our decisions, putting our service to God at the top of the list instead of such things as financial success, as long as we live our lives by a faith that trusts no matter what, He will be pleased.

Jehovah is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me? It is better to take refuge in Jehovah than to put confidence in man, Psalm 118:6,8.

Dene Ward

Today’s post is by guest author Keith Ward.

I grew up in the country, hiking alone in the woods before my age reached double digits.  So when we honeymooned in the Pocono Mountains it was natural for me to suggest a hike in the woods behind the resort.  There were no established trails but that did not deter this intrepid wilderness scout.

We were soon lost.  It had seemed so simple that I had observed none of the precautions that I had learned in the Marines.  I climbed a tree to look for landmarks.  My bride hid her terror and made a fist to keep her too-loose new rings from slipping off her fingers.  As we hiked along, she was not as close behind as I thought and a branch I’d held a moment for her, slapped her in the face when I let go.  It also knocked her off balance and she plopped down unceremoniously in a large mud puddle.  Finally, through no skills of my own, we stumbled out to a road and walked back to the resort.  Embarrassing—and very humbling—to be lost less than a mile from safety.

Spiritually, I have never felt that hopelessness of being lost and without direction.  My parents raised me with God and the Bible as my compass.  I’ve wandered away a few times and misunderstood the directions on occasion, but I always knew where the road home was.

But I think I know how it feels to be lost.  A person grows up today without much teaching concerning the direction of life.  If evolution is true, God isn’t.  If God is not, there is no reward for good behavior; no punishment for bad.  One can go through life getting the degree, the job, the promotion and suddenly realize he has no value, no worth in a world of billions.

More than embarrassing, this “lost” is terrifying, destroying all self-worth and leaving one without hope, destined to be forgotten with Ozymandius in a grave where no marker will withstand the passing centuries.

God is.  God loves you.  God created you and wrote an owner’s manual to lead you in the joyful life and onward to eternal life.  The pleasures of sin are as enticing as a walk in the woods.  They always hurt you and hurt others, and leave you empty and alone in the dark woods.  You will never stumble out of the woods on your own.

God sent a light.  Jesus is the way.  Righteousness is the good life.

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:5-6

   Keith Ward

If there is one thing I have never understood about grudge-holders, it is how they can think they have a monopoly on being hurt or injured.  These are the folks that, though they profess forgiveness, and years later are acting kindly toward their victims—at least in public--can at a moment’s notice give a laundry list of every bad deed that person has done to them.  And they will, any time you want to hear it.  In fact, they will happily do so before you even ask. 

But somehow they think they are perfect.  They have never done anything hurtful to anyone, and would be horrified if you started making your own laundry list against them!  They must think that, or surely they would be more merciful, wouldn’t they?

You see, grudge-holding is the worst kind of self-centeredness.  It says, “My hurts count more than yours.”  It infers, “I have never done anything as bad as this to you.”  And then it rationalizes, “What you did to me is so bad, it does not have to be forgiven.”

If you said that to a grudge-holder, he would be horrified, especially if he claimed to be a Christian.  Unfortunately, that is another aspect of this sin—it keeps you from seeing yourself as you really are.  We become so blinded by our “injured innocence” that we cannot see the truth--no one is innocent; we all mess up once in awhile.  It is bad when this sort of selfishness causes animosity between neighbors, sad when it causes rifts in families, and tragic when it causes a lack of unity in the family of God. 

Jesus said I cannot be forgiven if I don’t forgive.  Forgiveness means I don’t spread it around, I don’t let fester in my mind, I don’t bring it up again at any opportunity, ever.  Forgiveness means I understand that I have done my fair share of hurts to others, whether intentional or not, and since I hope they will not hold them against me, I certainly won’t hold things against them.  That is exactly what Peter meant when he said, Love covers a multitude of sins, 1 Peter 4:8.  I think Peter uses that word “sin” in an ironic way.  We cannot cover real sins against God, and are not supposed to, but in our self-centeredness, we place what amounts to minimal slights in the same category as real sin.  And Peter also makes it plain that no matter what I say about the matter, if I do not forgive and I show that lack of mercy by my constant grudge-holding, I do not love.

Forgiveness means having enough humility to recognize that no one has done to me anything remotely similar to what I have done to the Lord.  Holding grudges means the opposite—I have made my feelings just as important as Christ’s, therefore I am just as important as He is—just as important as God. 

Didn’t they used to stone people for that?

(The money figures in the following passage come from Lenski’s commentary on Matthew.  Any math errors are mine.)

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven like a certain king who made a reckoning of his servants…One was brought to him that owed him [about 60,000,000 days’ pay]....The servant therefore fell down and said, Lord have patience with me and I will pay all.  And the lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt.  But the servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him [about 100 days’ pay]...and said, Pay what you owe…Then the Lord called unto him and said, You wicked servant, I forgave you all your debt…Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?  And the lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors…So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you if you forgive not your brother from the heart.  Matt 18:21-35

Dene Ward

Here’s a short one for you.
    These articles are never posted off the cuff.  I keep about 20 on hand, especially for those weeks that are busy with appointments or company or special events.  In the past two months I have written seventeen about faith, and yes, they are all different, coming at the subject from several different ways.
    What is my secret?  I studied.  Last summer I wrote our women’s Bible class material on the subject of faith and in the process looked up every passage in the Bible that contained the word.  Now here is another fact for you—I wrote those 17 articles after teaching only five of the eighteen lessons, so I imagine many more will follow.
    If you are going to write about something, you have to know something to write about.  I am not special.  I studied for hours.  Now, before I teach these lessons, I study even more hours, and learn yet more.  It isn’t fast and it isn’t easy, but it does work.
    How can you have knowledge of the Word of God?  The same way.  It doesn’t come from sitting in a pew listening.  It comes from your own direct contact with the scriptures, day after day, hour after hour.  It comes from reading on a daily basis, in some sort of organized fashion, not just hit or miss, and it comes from meditating on what you have read—really thinking about it and what it means in light of what you read yesterday or studied last week—not from memory, but from the notes you made at the time.  
    Why should you want that knowledge?
    Desire for knowledge is a sign of faith, Psa 119:66.
    Desire for knowledge is a sign of wisdom, Prov 1:22,29; 15:14; 18:15.
    Knowledge is power, Prov 24:5.
    Knowledge is more valuable than wealth, Prov 8:10.
    A lack of knowledge will destroy you, Hos 4:6.
    I found all those passages in just five minutes.  You could too.  Why is it we don’t have this knowledge?  I could list passage after passage in the proverbs about laziness, but I don’t really think that’s it.  I think it has more to do with misplaced priorities and complacency.  
    But look at that list again.  Think about the opposites:  a lack of knowledge is foolish, faithless, and weak.  Does that describe you?  It does if you don’t study.
    This post is a short one on knowledge.  Are you short on knowledge too?  Then do something about it.

And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 2 Peter 1:19

Dene Ward

Some responsibilities are tougher than others.  Some responsibilities deserve the word “onus,” a responsibility that is so big it is almost terrifying.

I imagine the first time you really understood that word was when they put that tiny, squirming baby in your arms.  Suddenly you understood that it was your responsibility to care for another human being, one who was completely helpless and dependent.  It wasn’t like a friend who was having a problem so you spent some time with him and then went home to your own life again.  This was a responsibility that completely changed your life—your schedule, your budget, your chores, even your habits. 

I bet you said, “I have to stop (blank)ing now.”  You didn’t want your child to develop those same bad habits you were always fighting and suddenly you had the motivation to deal with them.

I bet you sacrificed a lot of things.  Suddenly spending an hour to put on makeup wasn’t quite so important.  Suddenly you forgot to watch a few ball games on Saturday.  Suddenly you didn’t need to eat out quite so often, or see so many movies, or go shopping as much.

I bet you suddenly felt a love you never even knew existed before then, something nearly overpowering in its strength.  While the word onus means a “burden” of responsibility, I bet you never thought of it that way once.  You were happy to do those things for that precious child. 

I was studying a few weeks ago and came upon something that put another onus on me.  Once I really understood what I was reading, I actually shivered a little and felt a peculiar sensation in the pit of my stomach.

…That they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me, Acts 26:18.

We are “sanctified” by faith.  Okay, so we are “set apart,” (yawn).  What of it?

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, Matt 6:9. 

The Greek word for “sanctified” is the same Greek word translated “hallowed.”  We are “sanctified” just like God’s name is “hallowed.”  Do you realize the burden that places on us in our behavior?  Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, Paul says in Phil 1:27.

Suddenly our lives should have changed.  We should have been anxious to rid ourselves of the bad habit of sin.  Worldly affairs should have found their correct place on the bottom of our priority list.  Sacrificing for a Lord who sacrificed Himself for us should have come naturally, and an overpowering love and gratitude should have overwhelmed us.

That’s what should have happened.  Did it?  Maybe this little reminder will help.  God expects you to be as hallowed, as sanctified, as His name is.  We always told our boys, “Remember who you are.” 

All of us need that reminder.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Peter 1:14-19.

Now read all those underlined phrases one after the other.  That is the onus that is placed upon you.

Dene Ward

Bible study is one of my favorite pastimes.  We are blessed to live in an era when all sorts of tools are available that make research fairly easy, and much less tedious than ever before.  They also make it much more dangerous.  It is easy for me to read a commentary, lexicon, or Bible dictionary and suddenly think I have become a great scholar, when the truth is, not only am I not instantly a Hebrew or Greek scholar, I am not even a good English scholar!

Some of us studied Latin in high school and learned why it is called a “dead” language—it is no longer spoken and therefore no longer changes.  A living language changes every day.  Take the word “silly.”  We know it means “absurd, foolish or stupid.”  Did you know that it originally meant “happy and blessed?”  How about “lewd?”  It now means “sexually unchaste;” originally it meant “a common person as opposed to clergy.”  “Idiot” now has the specific meaning of “someone whose mental age does not exceed three,” and a colloquial meaning of “a foolish or stupid person.”  Originally it meant “someone in private station as opposed to someone holding public office.”  So five hundred years ago, most of us could have been described as silly, lewd idiots and we would not have taken offense!

The same changes are true of every language, including Greek and Hebrew.  When you search for meanings in a lexicon, be sure you find out what meaning the word had when it was written in the scriptures.  In fact, that is why I usually limit my studies to the various ways a word was translated into English.  Psallo once meant “to pull out one’s hair,” but by the time Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 were written it had gone through several changes and simply meant “to sing praises.”  That is why we sing to God instead of standing before Him pulling out our hair!

Another thing to be careful of is root words.  A lot of arguments have been made based on the root of a Greek word.  Let me just give you a quick example in English to show you how dangerous this can be.  Do you know what the root word for “nice” is?  The Latin nescius.  Nescius means “ignorant!”  Think about that the next time someone tells you how nice you look on Sunday morning.

We do all sorts of other things that we think are so smart and really are not.  We talk about compound words as if just knowing the two parts to one will instantly enlighten us to the real meaning of a Greek word.  Not necessarily.  How about “pineapple?”  The bush certainly does not look like a pine, and the fruit neither looks, tastes, nor smells like an apple!  Truly, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Then there are those simplistic definitions we often use.  “Faithful means full of faith.”  Really?  Ask someone whose spouse has been “unfaithful” what that word means and you are much more likely to get an accurate and useful definition.

And what does all this have to do with anything?  God chose to use His written word to communicate His will to us.  I need to be very careful how I use it.  Translations are fine.  Jesus used one—the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, completed about 200 BC.  However, I must be careful in my study lest I think that learning a few things makes me an authority.  I know it is a cliché, but it is so true—the more I learn, the more I realize I do not know.  But God has made sure I know what I need to know.

We have in our hands the Words of Life.  Be careful with them. 

…many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.  Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would you also go away?  Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  John 6:66-68

Dene Ward

I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I remember the light bulb that went off in my head.  I have taught women’s Bible studies for well over thirty-five years now.  We never have the hen parties or gossip fests that many are accused of.  We study. We learn.  We grow.  I am so proud of my women I could burst.

One of the biggest blessings of sitting in a good women’s class is finding out that many marriages are like yours, and so are many husbands, at least in some ways.  That is the light bulb moment I spoke of. 

We were studying Hannah and shaking our heads at Elkanah, who was the typical oblivious man.  Despite the fact that the scriptures call Hannah and Peninnah “rivals,” the same word used in Num 10:9, “when you go to war against an enemy,” he either didn’t notice the obvious tension in the household or he thought it trivial. 

“Why are you so upset?” he asked Hannah.  “Aren’t I better to you than ten sons?”  That was supposed to not only assuage a bitter conflict in his home, but overcome a cultural stigma that weighed on Hannah every hour of every day.  Really?

My first inclination was to call him an egomaniac (“aren’t I better…?”), then unfeeling, or at best clueless.  But another woman pointed out that he obviously loved Hannah.  Look at the special way he treated her, and the point he made of doing it before others when the family offered sacrifices at the tabernacle.  A real jerk wouldn’t have done that.  He was simply being a man.

So, over the years, we have learned to point out “man things.”  We say to our younger women, “He didn’t mean anything by it, honey.  It’s a man thing.”  The point isn’t that men do not necessarily need to learn to do better, but that women need to stop judging them unfairly, as if every time they do one of those things, they are deliberately setting out to hurt them.  Nonsense!  They have no idea they are hurting you.  They love you and if they did think it might hurt you, they wouldn’t do it.  That little bit of wisdom has brought a lot of us through some tricky moments in our marriages.

Unfortunately, we do that to one another in the church too.  It can’t be that nothing was meant about us specifically when a comment was made—it simply must have been meant as an insult or a hurtful barb.  It escapes us that we are talking about people who love one another, and even though we are supposed to be loving them too, we automatically assume the worst.  It is the worst kind of egotism to imagine that every time anyone speaks or acts they have me in mind.

I tried to look this attitude up in a topical Bible and do you know where I found it?  Under “uncharitable” and “judgmental.”  Isaiah talks about people “who by a word make a man out to be an offender” (29:20,21).  Isn’t that what we are doing when we behave in such a paranoid fashion?  It isn’t anything new.  People have been making false judgments, jumping to the worst conclusions possible, for as long as there have been people.

What did the Israelites say to Moses?  “You brought us out here to die” (Ex 14:11,12).  Really?  He certainly put himself to a lot of unnecessary grief if that was his purpose.  He could have just left them in Egypt and they certainly would have died as oppressed slaves.

Eli watched Hannah pray at the tabernacle where she and her family had come to worship and accused her of being drunk (1 Sam 1:14-17).   Talk about being uncharitable.

Actions like those do not come from a heart of love.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, 1 Cor 13:7, which means I put the best construction on every word or action of another, not the worst.  It means I am concerned about how I treat them in my judgment of them, rather than being concerned with how they are treating me.  If I am not careful, I may be the one with the ulterior motives.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses, Prov 10:12.

Dene Ward

I bet if I were to ask you which king set the standard for evil in Israel, without hesitation you would answer, “Ahab,” along with his Sidonian wife, Jezebel.  Certainly the two of them accomplished a heap of wickedness in their rule of the northern kingdom, everything from idolatry and murder to all sorts of immorality; but you might be surprised at the one who is mentioned most often as a comparison of evil in the scriptures.

Jeroboam was the first king of the northern half of the divided nation.  He feared that he would lose the support of the people and they would turn back to the Davidic dynasty in the south, regardless of the fact that God promised him, if you will hearken to all that I command you, and walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my eyes, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, that I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you, 1 Kgs 11:38.  Because he did not have faith in that promise, he changed the pattern of worship as set forth in the Law, 1 Kgs 12:25-33. 

He made a new feast day, v 32-33, so the people would not be traveling to Jerusalem with all the southerners to worship together, v 27.  He began making priests of other tribes than Levi, v 31.  He made two new places of worship, Dan and Bethel, conveniently located at both ends of the country, so the people would not feel compelled to travel to Jerusalem—anything to keep them at home and happy.  It is important to note, too, that the calves he built were not idols to be worshipped, but graven images by which the people were to worship Jehovah—something Amos and Hosea make more apparent than 1 Kings.  This was not rampant idolatry; it was just a change in the pattern of worshipping Jehovah.

So what is the problem?  They still worship Jehovah.  They still keep feasts to Jehovah, and make sacrifices under the leadership of a priesthood.  Yet these were things devised of his own heart, v 33, not things that God had ordained.  This is the difference:  God said through the prophet Ahijah in 14:14-16, Jehovah will raise up a king who will cut off the house of Jeroboam…For Jehovah will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River…and he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and in which he made Israel to sin.  From the point of the northern kingdom’s first king, God had decided their fate—they would not stand for the Law, so he would not stand for them.

Now take a few minutes and read these passages:  1 Kgs 15:3, 29, 30; 16:25,26, 31; 22:51,52; 2 Kgs 3:1-3; 10:29-31; 13:1-3, 10, 11; 14:23,24; 15:8,9,17,18,23,24; 17:20-23.  What do they have in common?  A phrase similar to this: and he walked in the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat in which he made Israel to sin.  Five times a king is said to have done evil “like Ahab,” but sixteen times the honor goes to Jeroboam.  Jeroboam single-handedly caused the destruction of the northern kingdom, and set the standard for evil among all her kings.  How?  By disrespecting the Law of God.  That is the legacy of Jeroboam.

Whether we like it or not, we are all leaving a legacy.  It may not affect a kingdom, but it will affect our children, and theirs, and theirs, till before you know it, we have affected hundreds.  The greatest legacy we can leave is to follow God’s pattern for marriage, raising children, worship, and social conduct.  If your children are small, now is the time to become conscious of the legacy you are leaving, before it’s too late.  The frightening thing about legacies is, they cannot be undone!

But when that generation was gathered to their fathers, there arose a generation that knew not God…Judges 2:10.  

Don’t let it be your children’s generation.

Dene Ward

Everyone who cooks on a budget knows what filler is.  If you called things by the order of their ingredients, I served my family dumplings and chicken, spaghetti with sauce and meat, and potato and beef stew.  At times it should probably have been called loaf meat instead of meat loaf.  Even now the two of us split a chicken breast between us or share one pork chop, then load the plate with “filler.”  Filler is the cheap stuff, the stuff that costs a miniscule amount of the protein on the plate, but fills up the eater twice as fast—potatoes, rice, noodles, bread. 

Sometimes we treat certain verses in the Bible as filler.  We skim the genealogies and miss relationships and facts that would open up the ‘more interesting” parts.  We treat the addresses and farewells in the epistles the same way.

All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all, Titus 3:15. 

I was working on some class material on faith when I read that passage and nearly skipped over it as useless.  Then I found an alternate translation, one of those I seldom look at because they are just a bit too loose, but it opened my mind to the possibilities in this verse.  Greetings to you from everyone here. Greet all of our friends who share in our faith. I pray that the Lord will be kind to all of you! (Contemporary English Version)

Look at that middle sentence:  Greet all of our friends who share in our faith.  Now read the other one again. Greet those who love us in the faith.

How many of your friends and neighbors will tell you that you can be a Christian without participating in what they sneeringly call “organized religion?”  What they mean by that is they can have faith in God without having to worry about being members of a church, answering to the ordained authority in that church, or being obligated to serve anyone else in that church.  Yet Paul told Titus that part of being in the faith was recognizing (greeting) the others who share that faith with you, those who, because of that shared faith, love you. 

Those friends will tell you, “Of course I love people,” but John said, “Let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth,” 1 John 3:18.  You can’t sit at home in your easy chair and love anyone.

The New Testament tells us in passage after passage that our lives are judged by how we treat “one another.”  Love one another, we are told.  Be at peace with one another.  Welcome one another.  Instruct one another.  Wait for one another.  Care for one another.  Comfort one another.  Agree with one another.  Serve one another.  Bear one another’s burdens. Be kind to one another and forgive one another.  Bear with one another.  Submit to one another.  Encourage one another.  Show hospitality to one another.  Confess your faults to one another.  Consider one another.  Exhort one another.  Do good to one another.  I defy anyone to do these things outside the fellowship of a group of people.

And I pity anyone who has not experienced the joy of bumping into a brother or sister as you run your daily errands, who has not felt instant camaraderie with people you have never met before when you walk into a meetinghouse in an unfamiliar city, the absolute sense of haven and relief that spreads through you simply because you and someone else are bound by the grace of God.  As Paul seems to imply in that “filler” of a verse, it cannot help but affect your faith.

…and the Lord added to the church daily such as were being saved, Acts 2:47.

Dene Ward

I put the cup of coffee down in front of Keith and he looked at it disdainfully.  “What are you?  A waitress?” 

You see, I hadn’t filled it to the brim.  Since, just like a waitress, I had to carry it from the kitchen to the table, to have done so seemed impractical to me.  Despite another snide comment about “a half-full cup of coffee,” it was plenty full for carrying, about a half inch from the top.

Everyone knows what happens when you fill something to the brim and then try to carry it—it sloshes out all over the place.  In fact, whenever Keith fills his own cup, I wind up wiping coffee rings off the table and counter, and splashes in the floor because he fills it to the top.  Filled to the brim is fine when you don’t plan on carrying it anywhere—for most things, anyway.

…And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith…, Acts 6:5.

Stephen is the perfect example of a man filled to the brim with faith.  It sloshed out all over everyone who came near him.  How can you tell?  Just look at Acts 6 and 7.

Because of being full of faith, he was also “full of the Spirit and wisdom,” 6:3.  Notice:  this was before the apostles laid hands on him, 6:6, so we don’t have that excuse for a lack of wisdom and spirituality.  We can have those things too if we are filled to the brim with faith.

Because Stephen was full of faith, no one could “withstand him” when he spoke, 6:10.  And how did he speak?  He knew the scriptures.  From start to finish, he told his listeners the history of Israel, 7:1-50.  Could we come even close?

He was unafraid of confrontation, 7:51-53.  He never ran from opposition, even when it became clear he was in physical danger.  Discretion, according to Stephen, was cowardice, not valor.  We are often full of excuses for not speaking, instead of enough faith to speak out.

Stephen was completely confident of his salvation, 7:59.  He knew the Lord was waiting to receive him.  He didn’t flinch from saying so, and certainly never hemmed and hawed around about “maybe going to Heaven if he was good.”  He kept himself so that there was never any question, and his faith was probably no more evident than in that one statement, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Can we make the same statement?

His faith also showed by his forgiving others.  Just like the Lord he followed to death as the first Christian martyr, he asked Jesus to “lay not this sin to their charge,” 7:60.  The disciples recognized their own need and begged for more faith when Jesus told them they had to forgive over and over and over, (Luke 17:3-5).  Here is the proof they were correct—a man “full of faith” forgave his own murderers.  Can we even forgive the driver in the next lane?

What are you spilling on people?  What completely fills your heart and mind every day?  Is it politics?  Is it the latest Hollywood gossip?  Is it the stock market?  Is it complaints about anything and everything?  Is it the weaknesses of your brethren, and any slight, imagined or real, they might have done to you? 

Whatever we are full of will slosh out all over everyone who comes near us.  If we are full of faith, our lives will show it.  Don’t be a waitress when you fill your cup.

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Romans 15:13-14

Dene Ward