Blog Archives

Just Say No

1/30/2015

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

“Buried with Christ …. Dead to the old life …of sin.”

Don’t we just wish? We sing the song. We mean it sincerely. We try to believe it really happened when we were baptized. But, the reality that rots away our hope and that Satan twists to tempt us and bring us back down is that not much seems to have changed. We proclaim that we have Christ and we come to church and we put on the front, but we are still tempted by the same old passions that we were last year, and the year before our conversion and that we did AGAIN last week and we wonder if our only hope is that our last prayer comes after the last time we yielded. Boy, doesn’t the devil just love this attitude, “Just go ahead and give up,” he says. We need to talk to each other and help each other.

Listen to the man who wrote the words behind the song above, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no more I that lives, but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.” High and noble and don’t I just wish I was on that peak?

Some time later, Paul wrote. “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” (1Cor 9:27). Though he had already penned Gal 2:20, Paul still struggled; so great a struggle that he called it beating himself into submission.

If Satan can get us depressed over our failures, we will repeat them. We can triumph, but it is not easy. It is not supposed to be. We are in training to be a spiritual elite, not SEALS, Christians; not SWAT, children of God. Tough training makes tough soldiers of faith.

Don’t give up. Try harder. Pray more. Get a fellow soldier to help and help him. Even Paul had to work at it.

“Just say NO!” Nancy Reagan was mocked for her motto. It is God’s motto. I’ve seen the billboards, “What part of “Thou Shalt Not” did you not understand?” If one believes in God, he must also believe that he is a created being, not a being that is the result of chance. God says that the beings He created have a choice. They can say, “NO!” to Satan. God gave them this power.

Stop it with the excuses.

The mystery …now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great …are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. [Col 1:26-27]

Keith Ward

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Shall We?

1/29/2015

The difference between the words “shall” and “will” is primarily a legal distinction in America today. We seldom use “shall” in our everyday speech. However, I have heard that in Middle English it was used to distinguish between intent and promise. If one simply said, “I will” do something, it only meant he intended to do so and would do his best. If he said, “I shall,” it meant that he would do it one way or the other. “Shall” meant, “I definitely will,” “I certainly will,” “I most assuredly will,” with the “will” underlined, all caps, and bolded. Think about that as you read the following passages from the King James Version, that Middle English so many decry, and think what that means about these things.

    I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies, Psalm 18:3
    Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart all ye that hope in the Lord, Psalm 31:24.
    But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, he shall receive me, Psalm 49:15.
    For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace, Rom 6:14.
    Above all taking up the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, Eph 6:16.
    But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus, Phil 4:19.
    For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, 1 Thes 4:16.
    And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away, Rev 21:4.
    And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle neither light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever; and he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true…Rev 22:5,6.

    So the question again is, “Shall we?”
    Yes, we most definitely, certainly, assuredly shall!

Dene Ward

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Confining God

1/28/2015

The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods, Psalm 24:1,2.

    Many scholars believe that the twenty-fourth psalm was written by David to celebrate the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant to his new capital, Jerusalem. When you read 1 Chronicles 13 and 15 and see the great amount of singing and worshipping going on, and then read the words to this psalm, that supposition makes good sense, and the ancient writings of the rabbis attest to it as well.
    However, even here at the beginning of the psalm David sees a danger in settling this manifestation of God’s presence in one location—the people would be tempted to think that God was stuck there, that He did not reign over the rest of the earth, much less any other people. So he begins this psalm with the passage above to remind them that God could not be put in a literal box, and certainly not in a figurative box of one’s own expectations and understanding. God made the whole world, and therefore rules the whole world and every person on it.
    David was right to be so concerned. Ezekiel spent several of his opening chapters trying to get the same point across to the captives in Babylon by the river Chebar, who believed that God was no longer with them, but still back in Jerusalem. He is right here with you, Ezekiel told them. That is the point of that amazing vision in chapter one—God can be anywhere at any time.
    Do you think we don’t have the same problem? We keep trying to put God in a box called a church building or a meetinghouse or whatever your own bias leans toward calling it. That’s why we have people who compartmentalize their religion. They think “church” is all about what happens at the building, and the change in their behavior when they leave that building is the proof of it.
    A man who can recite the “plan of salvation” in Bible class will cheat his customers to his own gain during the week.
    A woman who can quote proof texts verbatim on Sunday morning will turn around and gossip over the phone every other day of the week.
    A couple who appears every time the door is opened will carry on a running feud with a neighbor and treat each other as if none of the passages in the New Testament apply to anyone with the same last name.
    What? God asked His people. Will you act like the heathen around you six days a week “and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?” Jer 7:10. David used the middle of this psalm to remind the people who was fit to come before the presence of the LORD—only men of holiness, honesty, and integrity, not just on the Sabbath, but always.
    Because they put God in a box called after the covenant He made with them, they thought that their behavior only counted in His presence, forgetting the lessons that both David and Solomon had tried to teach them—God cannot be confined to anything manmade, not even the most magnificent Temple ever built by men, much less a comparatively miniscule box. As David proclaimed in finishing Psalm 24, Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!...The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! — Selah.
    Selah--pause, and feel the impact.

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation, Psa 24:3-5.

Dene Ward

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January 27, 1880--Light Bulbs

1/27/2015

The first light bulb patent was issued on January 27, 1880. Since then we have become almost completely dependent upon them. They have also become symbols for “shedding light” or “seeing the light” in various ways. The light bulb in comic strips stands for an idea occurring to one of the characters.
In Bible class the other morning we were talking about moments we have when we study, times when all of a sudden everything makes sense, or something new strikes us that we never thought about before. Sometimes I call them epiphanies, but more often I say I had a “light bulb moment.” You would think that the older you get, the fewer of those moments you have because you know more, right? Light bulb moments have nothing to do with how much you know. While it is true that you won’t have them if you do not learn, it is also true that you won’t have them if all you do is cram facts into your head. Light bulb moments come because you have thought about what you know. You have, as my grandmother used to say “studied on it”—by that she meant, turned it over and over, and come at it from all directions.
    If I have been a Christian for ten, twenty, thirty years and have experienced none of these moments, then maybe I need to examine my acquaintance with the scriptures.    If all I can do is recite pet phrases and scriptures, then God’s word is not living in my life as it should. In fact, it has nothing to do with my everyday life at all—maybe I just use it to prove some doctrine wrong. I don’t think that is what God had in mind.
    These light bulb moments should go off in my mind because I use the scriptures often, think about them often, and live by them every day. Paul and John both call the scriptures “the Word of Life,” Phil 2:16; 1 John 1:1, but they won’t give me life if I don’t use them regularly. If I don’t have any light bulb moments, I am living in the dark, no matter how many scriptures I can recite or how often I “go to church.”
    Luke 24:16 tells us of two men whose “eyes were holden that they should not know him.” Jesus had a reason for that, but when the time was right “their eyes were opened,” v 31. Later on as he spoke to the disciples, “opened he their minds that they might understand the scriptures,” v 45. After approximately three years of teaching, he expected them to start having “light bulb moments,” and they did. As accustomed as he was to using everyday things in his teaching, if they had had light bulbs in their homes, I bet he would have used that very phrase. Now it’s our turn to have them.

[I] cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the hope of this calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe... Eph 1:16-19

Dene Ward

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Please Like Me!

1/26/2015

    Have you fallen prey to it yet? You post something on Facebook and then sit back and wait. You check it every five minutes at first, then maybe stretch it out a bit, and before you know it, you have sat there for an hour or two and what have you been doing? Waiting to see if someone “likes” you.

   Yes, the quest for popularity affects the masses, and sometimes it isn’t for their good. Many political pundits say that the first really obvious affect of popularity was the Kennedy-Nixon debates. Kennedy was more telegenic and they believe that accounted for his winning the election, not his politics. But they are wrong about that being the first time popularity struck a blow in politics.

   After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,” Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.” And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel, 2 Sam 15:1-6.

   Absalom made everyone feel “liked” and that “stole their hearts.” But Absalom wasn’t even the first. In Judges 9:3 the people of Israel had “hearts inclined to follow Abimelech.” Both of these men were wrong for God’s people and were eventually killed, but that didn’t stop the people from falling prey to what was “popular.”

   Do you think that hasn’t happened to you? Why do you wear what you wear? Why do you watch the television shows you watch? Why do you go to the restaurants you do? Whatever is popular at the time steals our hearts because we think that by doing the popular we will become popular. The problem comes when that affects us spiritually. If I am wearing clothing I shouldn’t because everyone else is, I need a stronger character. If I am watching inappropriate entertainment, I need to remember who I claim to follow.

   The people of Israel were taken in by what was popular over and over again. Ezekiel tells us “their hearts went after their idols” and “covetousness,” 20:16; 33:31. Jeremiah talks about them “going after the imagination of their hearts,” 9:14; 13:10. And why did they do those things? Not only because they were the popular things to do, but because falling in with the crowd made them popular too. Simply put, you can’t be different and popular in the world at the same time.

   What is your heart going after? If it’s popularity and wanting to be “liked,” then you are prey to popular evils just like 99% of the rest of the world. God calls us to be different. A Christian doesn’t need to be “liked” on Facebook or anywhere else as long as God “likes” him.

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ, Gal 1:10.

Dene Ward

Playing in the Rain

1/23/2015

When our boys were small, on summer days when a soft, warm rain fell, they often asked if they could go outside and play in it. I was reminded of those sweet days last spring when our grandson Silas did the same thing.
   He put on his swimming trunks and headed outside, first just running a few steps out, then racing back in under the carport. Gradually he ran further and further, eventually out to the old water oak stump some thirty feet from the house, stood there a minute hopping up and down, holding his arms out to present the most skin to the sky, and laughing uproariously.
   He must have gone at it for ten minutes, running back to the carport and excitedly jabbering, “It’s wet! It’s cold! It’s fun!” then running back out into the rain even further, eventually to the swing hanging from the live oak limb out past the well.
   But it was still spring and his little chin began to quiver, and all too soon we had to take him in and dry him off.
   Do you know what started all this? Pure, unadulterated joy. He and his little brother had been with us for five days while Mommy and Daddy were out of town, and although we had a great time, when they drove up that afternoon, it was clear who were most important in his young life. They were back and before long they would take him in his own car seat in his own “blue car” to his own home and his own room where he could sleep in his own bed. I know the feeling.
   But life may have made me forget that feeling of pure joy.
   Despite the troubles of life we always have real reason for joy, and God expects us to show it. David had that joy, and he expressed it before the people of Israel as they brought the Ark of the Covenant to his newly captured capital city. But he was married to someone who didn’t have it, and who did not understand. She scolded him and received this reply:
   [It was] before Jehovah, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of Jehovah, over Israel: therefore will I play before Jehovah, 2 Sam 6:21.
   .Do you see the word “play?” David was out there “leaping and dancing before Jehovah.” That’s how he was playing. That Hebrew word is found in Job 40:20, “the beasts play in the field.” You will find it in Prov 8:30 and 31 where it is translated “rejoicing,” and in Job 5:12 where it is “laugh.” The same attitude that had Silas laughing and playing in the rain had David playing before Jehovah--joy.
   When was the last time you felt that way about God and your relationship with Him? I think we are a little like Michal—too embarrassed to act like God means that much to us. We are too conscious of ourselves and how we look, and far too worried about what other people think.
   If I am too embarrassed to show the Lord how much He means to me, I wonder, on the day He comes to pick us up and take us home, if He might be too embarrassed to act like we mean that much to Him.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, I Pet 1:8.

Dene Ward

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Just Becuase

1/22/2015

Do you see it? Sometimes I get to typing too fast. I want to get it down while it’s still fresh, or more often, before I forget it, and so the typos pop up all over—mistyped words, missing words, and recently, a homophone I never caught even after several edits.
   Other times, though, I have simply taught myself to type something wrong by doing it that way over and over. “Becuase” is a prime example. I type it wrong nearly every time. Even when I slow down, I type it wrong more often than not. The only thing that will ever help is to make myself type it correctly again and again and again. Guess what? I may type it wrong less often, but it will be a problem forever, something I must actively think about every time the word comes up if I hope to do it correctly--all “becuase” .I have typed it wrong from the beginning.
    Sin works that way too. If you train yourself to do things wrong, or if you train yourself not to do things right, you will have that problem for the rest of your life. It isn’t just alcoholics and drug addicts who must fight their problems every day, it’s plain old ordinary sinners too
   Have you always used vulgar language? Don’t expect it to clean itself up just because you became a Christian. The words are too ingrained in your mind. Far better to have never placed them there at all.
   Have you always given in to anger? Don’t expect to automatically ignore the annoyances of life with a shrug of the shoulders. Instead of learning self-control in the first place, you indulged in throwing a fit over every little thing far too long for it to simply disappear without any effort at all.
   Have you been part of the gossip chain for years and years? Don’t expect your ears to stop tingling when a juicy tidbit floats within earshot just because you claim to now believe in Jesus. You will find some way to make excuses for it if you don’t actively make yourself stop.
   This is not to discourage you, but to encourage you to work at it and never give up. Things may get easier, but those sins you indulged in regularly will always be a problem. We view sin far too trivially, which is why you hear nonsense like, “Let him sow his wild oats.” Sin will have its effect, even after it has been forgiven, simply from the bad habit of it, if nothing else. Usually, though, there is a something else—like pleasure or a sense of belonging, two things that are difficult to give up.
   This is also to encourage those who were brought up to know better to treat that as a blessing instead of a curse. Praise God for your good parents. Don’t throw those blessings away because you think you need to experience things in order to understand them. Don’t start a habit that is hard to break. Sin can be forgiven but the damage cannot be easily undone.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end, Heb 3:12-14.

Dene Ward

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Fresh Cut Firewood!

1/21/2015

We saw that sign on the side of the road, complete with exclamation point at the end. “Fresh Cut Firewood!” followed by a phone number. I wondered how many people fell for it.
   Here’s another one: “Olives fresh off the tree!” I actually saw someone fall for that one, and he never will again.
   You see what sounds good may not always be good. Fresh cut firewood is green—it won’t burn. Firewood needs to sit and dry out for awhile, at least a year down here in this humid climate. In fact, when Keith cuts wood in the winter, it is for the next year, not the present year.
   When it comes to religion a lot of people fall for what sounds good. For example, just like firewood is a good thing to have when you own a woodstove, unity is a good thing to have among Christians. God demands it among His people. We are not supposed to be arguing all the time. We should not be dividing into cliques and basing that upon carnal things like status and wealth. But God also set some qualifications on the matter.
   The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable…James 3:17. Unity is a wonderful thing, but you never sacrifice purity for the sake of unity. The New Testament is full of admonitions to be pure in heart, pure in doctrine, pure in fellowship. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” Paul warns the Corinthians when he tells them to withdraw from the adulterous brother (1 Cor 5:6). If you want to worship a holy Father, then you have to be holy, Peter tells his readers (1 Pet 1:15,16).
   As children of God we hope to be like Him some day, John says, but that will only happen if we purify ourselves and stay that way (1 John 5:2,3). Earlier in his letter he talks about fellowship with God. Fellowship implies unity, but while unity with one another is important, unity with God is even more important and it cannot happen if we do not keep ourselves pure, or place unity with the impure ahead of unity with God.
   As to that second sign I mentioned above, olives fresh off the tree may sound good, but the informed know that they are too bitter to eat. They must be processed first or they will turn your mouth inside out in a permanent pucker. I am sure you could go on and on with the things you are familiar with that others might not be. Here is the point: don’t be taken in by how things sound. Read the Word. Study it and see the entirety of truth on a subject, not just one angle. God expects you to see His angle, not the one you think sounds best.

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, 2 Thes 2:9-12.

Dene Ward

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Fat Free Living

1/20/2015

I accidentally made some healthy cookies a few weeks ago. I had not taken the time to pick up my glasses and the magnifying glass. I had just concentrated hard and was sure the recipe said, “1 ½ sticks of butter.” After the cookies came out of the oven, I was disappointed in their dry, cakey texture, when I had expected something chewy and rich. So I picked up my glasses and looked again—“1 ½ cups of butter.” That is three whole sticks. What I had done was cut the butter in half. Low fat cookies were not what I had in mind, but it did help to say to myself, “For low fat, they’re not that bad.”
   As Christians we often focus so often on what we cannot do—all those “thou shalt nots”—that it is amazing we can endure. Our faith becomes negative instead of positive. It is all about what we do not do, not what we do. That may explain why so many of us are bitter and why we never manage to spread the good news—to us it isn’t such good news.
   It also explains why we lose so many of our children. Your home should be a place of safety, a place of contentment, a place of love and laughter. It should be a haven for your children and their friends. Do you want to know where they are, what they are doing, and with whom? Make your home a pleasant place to be, not a prison they hope to break out of someday, and you will know where they are, because home is where they are, and where they want to be.
   Christians should be known for what they do, not for what they don’t do, for who they are, not who they aren’t. If your friends were asked to describe Christians based on their knowledge of you, what would they say? “Christians are people who don’t drink, who don’t gamble, who don’t go to clubs, who don’t curse, who don’t engage in non-marital sex, who don’t smoke or take drugs, who don’t watch certain movies and TV shows,” and on and on. Or would they say, “Christians are happy, generous people who help others whenever a need arises, who are always having people in their homes—you can hear the laughter going on all evening. They are honest and forgiving. You know you can trust them because you never hear them gossip. They are pleasant to be around and seem to be able to handle anything life throws at them, and handle it well. They are the best people on earth. I wish I was more like them.”
   God has always promised his people “fat” lives. He told the Israelites they would have a land flowing with milk and honey, Ex 3:8. When Nehemiah brought them back from captivity, he reminded them that they had taken fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in [God’s] great goodness, 9:25. But they focused only on the restraints of righteous living instead of the blessings, finally fell away to the heathens whose lives they envied, and God sent them away to punishment.
   Yet still, He had Ezekiel tell them of another good land, a Messianic kingdom that would bring joy and peace.   And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture; and upon the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel, 34:13,14. That is exactly where we find ourselves today, in that “fat” Messianic kingdom, so why do we so often insist that the life of a Christian is a miserable one?
   God has never required “fat-free living;” in fact, He has promised just the opposite. Concentrate today on the peace that living as a child of God brings to your life. Focus on the joy of salvation and the fellowship of a spiritual family. Contemplate the good in your life. The rest of the world deals with addictions, legal problems, disrupted families, purposeless lives, and finally, illness and death without hope and comfort. Talk about a negative life.
   Go out and enjoy the fat in your life today.

The thief comes not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly, John 10:10.

Dene Ward

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Catching A Dream

1/19/2015

When we kept our grandsons last spring, twenty-month-old Judah usually climbed into my lap every evening as we sat at the table for a final cup of coffee. It took me a minute the first time his little hand reached out in the air, but finally I realized he was trying to catch the steam wafting over my mug, and was completely mystified when it disappeared between his little fingers.
    A lot of people spend their lives trying to catch the steam, vapors that seem solid but disintegrate in their grasping hands. They do it in all sorts of ways, and all of them are useless.
    Do they really think they can stop time? Over 11,000,000 surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures were performed in this country in 2013, and we aren’t talking medically necessary procedures. The top five were liposuctions, breast augmentations, eyelid surgeries, tummy tucks, and nose surgeries.*
    Then there are the folks chasing wealth and security. Didn’t the recent Great Recession, as it is now called, teach them anything? Others are striving to make a name for themselves. These are usually the same folks who tell Christians how pathetic we are to believe that some Higher Power would ever notice we even exist on this puny blue dot in the universe. Yet there they all go looking for fame, fortune, notoriety, beauty, or even their version of eternal life. All of it is nothing more than a dream. It will disappear, if not in a natural disaster or an economic meltdown, then the day they die—and they will die no matter how hard they try not to. They are the ones grasping at dreams which are only a vapor that disappears in a flash.
    Our dream isn’t a dream at all. It is a hope, which in the Biblical sense means it is all but realized. Sin and death have been conquered by a force we can only try to comprehend, by a love we can never repay, and by a will we can but do our best to imitate. Yet there it is, not a wisp of white floating over a warm porcelain mug, but a solid foundation upon which we base our faith. Heb 6:19 calls it “an anchor.” Have you ever seen a real anchor? If there is anything the opposite of a wisp of steam, that’s it—solid and strong, able to hold us steady in the worst winds of life. Tell me how a pert nose and a full bank account can do that!
    The world thinks it knows what is real while we sit like a toddler grasping at steam. When eternity comes, they will finally see that they are wrong. Spiritual things are the only things that last, the only real things at all.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal, 2 Cor 4:6-8.

*Information from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Dene Ward

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