On March 13, 2014, Walter Williams, a seventy-eight year old Mississippi farmer, died.  It was the second time.  On February 27, he had been declared dead when neither the coroner nor attending nurses could find a pulse.  He was transported to the funeral home.  While workers prepared to embalm him, he suddenly began kicking in the body bag.  An ambulance was called and he was taken to the hospital.  He survived another two weeks before death finally claimed him.  What happened to this man is sometimes the stuff of my nightmares.
           Beta blockers are wonderful things if you have high blood pressure.  They block the effects of the hormone epinephrine, which we usually call adrenaline.  In doing so they lower both your pulse and your blood pressure and open the blood vessels allowing blood to flow more easily, at least that is what the Mayo Clinic website tells me.
            I do not have high blood pressure.  I do have narrow angle glaucoma, complicated by severe nanophthalmus and a handful of other things, so I take four eye medications, several of which contain beta blockers to help lower eye pressure.  So, because my blood pressure is not high, it is now very low, as is my pulse.  High these days is 100/70 and it often runs 90/60 with an accompanying pulse no higher than 60—and that’s when I am excited.  It usually runs much lower than that.  In my recent bout with kidney stones, the alarm they hooked me up to in the ER kept going off because my pulse kept dropping to 40.  Even experienced nurses have difficulty finding my pulse and it often takes two or three tries to get any blood pressure reading.  I told Keith a few weeks ago, if I ever pass out, please make sure they call an ambulance instead of the coroner’s van.
            Needless to say, I do not have much energy these days.  I wear out quickly and my vision begins to fade.  Doing anything in the evening when the usual weariness of the day compounds the problem is a major ordeal.  But do I mind?  Not on your life—I can still see well enough to function, something no one would have predicted 40 years ago.  But I do have to fight exhaustion constantly.
            Sometimes our spiritual vital signs sound an alarm to the people around us.  We may not notice, but they can see the flagging interest and sagging strength.  So I wondered what sort of spiritual beta-blockers we ought to be looking out for.
            The biggest may be distractions in our lives.  It is possible to be too busy—not with sinful things, but completely neutral things, maybe even good things.  Work, entertainment, exercise, travel, sports, the hours we spend on social media and keeping our eyes glued to a screen of some sort all rob us of time we could be spending on thoughtful meditation or  becoming more familiar with God’s word.  Shame on us, we do it to our children too, and often as yet another status symbol.  We enroll them in everything possible and rob them of their childhood by running them back and forth and driving them literally to exhaustion—not to mention the pressure on them to succeed in every single one of these activities.  Do children even know how to play anymore?  I remember having voice students nearly fall asleep standing up!
            Failure to communicate with God may be one of the biggest spiritual beta blockers.  How can we expect to know Him, to know how to please Him, to know why we should want to please Him, to know the direction He wants us to take when we ignore His Word and never speak to Him except at meals—if He’s lucky!  Of course our faith will weaken—our faith is in a Who not a what, and knowing that Who is absolutely necessary to keep from losing it.
            This one may sound a little strange, but bear with me.  Sometimes our busyness is not a busyness in worldly endeavors, it’s a busyness in good works, and even that busyness can weaken us. 
            In Twelve Extraordinary Women John MacArthur says, “It is a danger, even for people who love Christ, that we not become so concerned with doing things for Him that we begin to neglect hearing Him and remembering what He has done for us.  We must never allow our service for Christ to crowd out our worship of Him.  The moment our works become more important than our worship we have turned the true spiritual priorities on their heads…Whenever you elevate good deeds over sound doctrine and true worship, you ruin the works too.  Doing good works for the works’ sake has a tendency to exalt self and depreciate the work of Christ.  Good deeds, human charity, and acts of kindness are crucial expressions of real faith, but they must flow from a true reliance on God’s redemption and His righteousness…Observe any form of religion where good works are ranked as more important than authentic faith or sound doctrine and you’ll discover a system the denigrates Christ while unduly magnifying self.” 
            I have seen people literally work themselves to death for others, visiting, carrying food, taking the elderly to the doctor, cleaning houses and doing yard work and then when their lives take a tragic turn, fall completely apart.  In all their “doing” they had neglected to shore up their own faith with time for prayer, personal Bible study, and taking a real interest in the studies offered during the usual assembly times or extras on the side.  Their lack of theological understanding left them floundering for answers they had never taken the time to look for and learn, and then when they needed them, they had nothing to lean on.
            And so in all these cases, the blood pressure plummets and the pulse fades and soon they may be gone.  I am sure you can think of other spiritual beta blockers.  Today, for your own good, look for them in your life.  How long has it been since you gave yourself a good shot of spiritual adrenaline—zeal? 
If you suffered a spiritual collapse, should we call an ambulance or a hearse?
 
…“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Eph 5:14-16
 
Dene Ward

On February 26, 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault first opened.  In case you are mystified, this seed vault holds samples of as many seeds in the world as the operators can lay hands on.  The point is to have a way to restore plant life if some cataclysmic event destroys it all on this planet.  Maybe I remember my biology class wrong, after all it was over fifty years ago, but I thought that if there were no plants, there would be no humans either so who will plant those seeds?  Well, actually, that's not the only point.  It seems someone who is supposed to know about these things and probably knows far more than I, says that 90% of the plant life that has ever existed on this planet is now extinct so they are also trying to keep the rest from becoming extinct.
            Many seed banks exist in the world, but all the others exist in places where the building itself can be destroyed—and then what happens to all those seeds?  This one is located in the side of a mountain in an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, about halfway between continental Norway and the North Pole.  Even if the machinery that runs the freezers were to break down, the seeds would stay frozen because the temperature in that mountain is below zero.  Which also makes me wonder why they need the machinery, but I'll be nice and move on.
           Inspired by this amazing structure and its mission, Nabisco has built a Global Oreo Vault (no, I am not making this up) just down the road from the seed vault in which they have placed their famous recipe along with a large stockpile of Oreos "in case of asteroids" or other doomsday event on Planet Earth.  We may all be dead, but there will always be Oreos.  Who will make more of them with that recipe no one has said.
            I should mention that those Oreos are wrapped in Mylar that will protect them from moisture, air, and chemical reactions, and from temperatures ranging from -80 degrees to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  And yet someone will still be alive and caring whether or not they have Oreos?  In the interests of fairness, Nabisco did this with a bit of tongue in cheek humor, but still it was done and it does make for a good lesson today.
            We are just as silly, and actually mean it, about our material wealth.  Silly enough that Jesus reminds us, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal (Matt 6:19-20).  We might think we would never build a Global vault of our own, but the truth of the matter shows when we spend more on our own pleasure and entertainment than on spiritual matters, when those in the world who know us personally would never think to describe us as generous and charitable, and when a downturn in the stock market scares us more than a sermon about Hell.
            I recently found a passage in Job that blew me away.  If I have made gold my hope, And have said to the fine gold, You are my confidence; If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, And because my hand had gotten much; If I have beheld the sun when it shined, Or the moon walking in brightness, And my heart has been secretly enticed, And my mouth has kissed my hand: This also is an iniquity to be punished by the judges; For I should have denied the God that is above (Job 31:24-28).  Many of us are so ignorant of scripture that we miss the references here.  Idols were "kissed" (1 Kings 19:18; Hos 13:2), and here we have someone kissing his own hand, the hand that "had gotten much" or in our words, was responsible for all this person's material blessings.  His wealth was his "confidence" instead of God, and therefore he was worthy of judgment—for idolatry.  He was his own idol.
            If you had one of those Global Vaults, what would you put in it?  Even if you did have one, it won't do a bit of good when the True Cataclysmic Event takes place.  You might as well have put Oreos in it.
 
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God  (Luke 12:15-21).
 
Dene Ward

I was watching a ball game a few weeks ago when the school promos aired.  Evidently one of them now has the slogan “I can only count on what I earn.”  I must have heard it ten times in that thirty second spot.
            Every Christian ought to jump back in horror when they hear such a thing.  What I earn?  My life is a hopeless downhill plunge to destruction if I am counting on what I earn.  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Rom 3:23.
            Okay, you say, but they are talking about getting along in life, not the afterlife.  Really?  I can count on my money, my career, my social status?  All these things can be taken away in a flash by an illness, an accident, a bad investment, a downturn in the economy, even someone else’s crime.  How can I count on those for anything?  You see, that is the problem when you don’t believe in God, as a good many professors no longer do.  What a miserable life to live. 
            What’s that?  You are not miserable because you can do what you want to do instead of answering to a higher power?  I suppose, but then you live a life without hope, without purpose.  One of these days that will hit you right between the eyes and you will be miserable.  All the intellectualism in the world has yet to find a cure for that. 
            I can only count on God, on His help, on His promises, on His love and grace and mercy.  A God by the way, who changes not, who has proven Himself to His people for thousands of years.  A God who is always there regardless of the balance in my bank account, the progress of my career, or my status in society. 
            What are you depending on today, a life of uncertainty, or a God who inhabits eternity and controls it all?
 
But now being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom 6:22,23.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

For those who have never tented, campgrounds have bathhouses. The people with RV’s or tow-campers also have a bathroom in those. But they often use the Bathhouse to avoid having to empty their sewage tanks.
 
Bathhouses are usually at reasonable intervals, each one serving a set number of sites. We have never preferred sites near the bathhouse since everyone in your loop walks past you several times a day—no privacy. But, this last one set a record. We camped in Black Rock Mountain, a state park on the Eastern Continental Divide. We had stayed there the past year and as our custom is, walked through and picked the best sites. Even the hosts said that our #21 was about the best, though they slightly preferred #16.
 
#21 is the highest site, a constant uphill walk, a steep incline.  Though we were a bit cramped with our huge tents (for comfort), we had a marvelous view every day of the mountains to the East and every night 3000ft straight down to sparkling city lights. It was situated so that a shoulder of the hillside protected us from the winds. But there was that hill to the bathhouse. You think, “No problem going down.” Hah! That shows your lack of experience. Walking down a steep hill stresses the muscles in a different way, but still leaves one sore. The climb up was difficult. The hill was about a 30 degree incline except in the steep spots (In some spots, even the rotund could have touched the ground by reaching downward only a few inches—it was right out in front of you.) I counted 140 left steps when going up. On level ground, you can tape measure my military correct paces at 30”. Correcting that due to the grade still leaves the uphill climb at 150 yards or more, several times a day.
 
I would carry Dene’s necessary bag down for her and wait to carry it back when we brushed our teeth morning and evening. I carried it down earlier in the evening for her shower and got the fire going and the coffee on and returned to carry it back (40 lbs penalty weight kept my pace down with hers).  Even so, sometimes we’d stop and catch a breath on the way back up (Of course, I was just being gentlemanly and courteous to wait for her).
 
Adds new meaning to, “I’m pressing on the upward way….”
 
Would we do it over, certainly. The good stuff is at the top. Views do not come cheap.
 
Breakfasts alternated between 1) bacon, eggs, biscuits. 2) sausage & pancakes 3) sausage gravy and leftover biscuits, and repeat. One day, fried apples by the fire for dessert—yes, dessert for breakfast.
 
I grilled over open coals from oak kindling for our evening meals—chicken, pork chops, steak with baked potatoes done in the coals, burgers, chopped sirloin, except for one night when we had spaghetti and another with sausage and peppers we packed from our garden.
 
Thanks to the hill, we gained little, very little, weight.
 
People want to reach goals without paying the price. Trying to be spiritually healthy without climbing the hill means you will just become a fat pew potato. Dene and I are often told, "I wish I had your Bible knowledge." We did not levitate to that site and the knowledge came step by painful step. Often, we paused for breath and wondered whether we would make it. People with strong faith usually climbed over some tough times, those who express tenderness and lovingkindness often got there by overcoming the same natural reactions that plague us all.
 
The quiet times, the good food and the view allowed us to "catch a gleam of glory bright." Who will pay the price to enter the narrow door without the glimpses of the hope that God has laid up for us in every beauty of life?
 
 "And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are saved?” And He said to them, “STRIVE to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will SEEK to enter and will NOT be able. “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank the Lord's Supper, and You were taught in our church’; " (Luke 13:23-26, modified, kw).
 
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, " (Rom 5:3).
 
Keith Ward

I saw a new tech at the eye clinic the last time I was there.  Most of the others know me by sight and name, but this one couldn’t pronounce my name, so I knew she had not been there long, and certainly I had never been prepped by her before. 
            She nearly dropped my chart and said, “Wow!  This is a huge one.  Have you been coming here all your life?”  No, just eighteen years now.  If I had been going there my whole life, the chart would have been in volumes instead of just four inches thick.
            You see, everything to do with my eyes is in that chart—every test, every procedure, every surgery, every referral, every appointment of which there have been as many as three dozen in one year.  The doctor regularly writes two or three pages of notes at every visit. 
            That always makes me think of that other book being written that does cover my lifetime.  I know there are pages in it I would love to remove.  If I want them removed, imagine how a holy and righteous God feels about them.  Doesn’t that make it even more amazing when we realize that He has taken out so many?    I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed you, Isa 44:22.   I hope when He finished blotting out the bad, it wasn’t totally empty, that there was at least a page or two of good left.
            We sometimes seem to have that mistaken belief, that God has all the good stuff written on one side and all the bad written on the other, and that as long as there is more good than bad, we’re safe.  Wrong.  If He has any bad pages left, that means we haven’t repented of those evil things.  Sin is so bad that it only takes one unforgiven sin to cost us our souls.  When I say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die, Ezek 33:13.  We simply don’t understand the enormity of sin when we treat any of them as small and inconsequential. 
            The next time you visit the doctor, take a look at that chart.  How large is it?  Imagine one a hundred times bigger, and then remember that probably a million or so pages have been removed due to the grace of God, and rejoice.
 
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works…And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire, Rev 20:11,12,15.
 
Dene Ward

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

While he is doing this, half a dozen folks start milling around, unsure of where they belong.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ​I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

The uncertain ones, who do not know exactly where they should line up, hear the commendation of the sheep and step into line behind them.  “Surely this is where we belong,” they assure one another quietly.  But the Lord leaves them standing.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

“Wait,” one of them finally speaks up.  “We certainly don’t belong in that group.  Where is the other line?”

Finally the Lord seems to notice them.  “I don’t see another line.”

“But there must be!” they all insist with one voice.

“So,” said the Lord, “tell me what line you think is missing.”

Finally feeling a bit more confident, one man stepped up and said, “The one for people who get mad.”  Suddenly he realized how that sounded when he said it out loud, and quickly explained. 

“I was a Christian for years but things got rough in my life.  I couldn’t quite get myself turned around and I—uh—well, I’m afraid I left the church.”

“Yes,” the Lord said quietly, “I know.”

That didn’t even seem to faze the man and he went right on.  “Well, brother ________ came to talk to me.  I did not like the way he did it.  He told me I was wrong and I needed to straighten up my life, that I knew better than that.  He made me so mad I just couldn’t go back, ever again!”

“I see,” said the Lord.  “You know, he spoke to me about that before he went to see you.  He asked for help to say the right things.  I’m sorry you didn’t like the way I helped him.  And you sister?” he asked, turning to the next person leaving the first man sputtering.

“Sister _____________ came to me and she really hurt my feelings when she told me I should think about the clothes I was wearing.  What I wear is none of her business!”

“Actually it is,” replied the Lord.  “You see I told the older women to teach young women like you.  She risked losing your good will to try to help you, and you have a remarkable lack of gratitude.”

He turned to the next young woman.  “And you?”

“The same as her, sir, except it wasn’t about my clothes.  I dress modestly all the time and,” she added, pointedly looking to the first man, “I never miss a service of the church.  But she had the nerve to tell me I should be careful in my speech.  I do NOT use bad language, just maybe I talk a little too much, especially about other people, but I mean no harm!  I’m just trying to help.”

“Ah,” said the Lord.  “So what did you do then?”

“I told everyone exactly how mean she was to me and how much she hurt my feelings!  And you know what?  All my friends agreed with me!” she crowed triumphantly.

“So let’s see.  You went around slandering her to everyone, is that what you are confessing to?”

The woman’s smug look suddenly disintegrated into one of uncertainty.  “Well, so many agreed with me.”

The Lord looked over his shoulder to the line on the left.  “The people who did not try to save your soul, who, in fact, urged you on in your sin by refusing to correct you, are right over there with the other goats.  You just thought they were your friends.” 

Then he looked over the whole group, which had begun increasing in size when the conversations had first begun as many left the left line suddenly seeing a way out.  “And the rest of you?  Same problem?  Someone ‘made you mad” or ‘hurt your feelings?’ And so you are looking for another line to stand in?  What should we call it?”

They all stood there looking at one another and finally the first man spoke again.  “Well, we could be the ones who get in because someone was mean to us.”

The Lord shook his head sadly.  “So how someone else talks to you—even someone who meant well and did their best, and even asked for my guidance in speaking to you—and because you did not like how they did it but got your revenge in slander and then remained in your sin, you still get to spend Eternity with me?”

They looked at one another, hunching their shoulders as if trying to hide, no longer as sure of themselves as they had been.   

“Let me tell you something,” he said.  “I saw every one of these ‘mean’ people in action.  I know their hearts.  Only a tiny fraction of them had a bad attitude, and they are over there in the left line where they belong.  You might recall Paul talking about some of them in Phil 1:14-18.  He didn’t care how those men spoke, just that the truth was being taught.  That’s the attitude you should have had.  There are a whole lot fewer of them than there are of you.  Nearly every person who tried to help you is in this line on the right.

“So--if I can say, ‘well done,’ to you, then get in the line on my right with them.  But if I can’t say ‘well done,’ because you used someone else’s actions as your excuse and refused to change, get in the other one, right next to all my people down through the centuries who stoned preachers and killed the prophets who told them to repent. 

“You see,” he finished, “there is no third line.”
 
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matt 25:46.
 
Dene Ward

"I am not a child.  I don't have to learn memory verses."
            I am happy to report that this one was not said anywhere I have been a member of the Lord's body, at least that I know of.  It was reported to me by a reader.  Evidently, the preacher or Bible class teacher had asked everyone to memorize a verse each week.  One member was not happy about this and expressed that unhappiness with the comment above.
            I do recognize that as we age, memory becomes more of an issue.  But despite that, how many things have you committed to memory anyway?  Your address, your land line number, your cell number, your office number, your social security number, your date of birth, perhaps a safe combination, various passwords, all of which have become much more complicated by adding symbols and numbers, your security code for the alarm system, the entrance code if you live in a gated community, maybe even a credit card number.  Need I list more?
            So what kind of examples do we have in the Bible?  The apostles remembered Jesus' words (Luke 24:8; John 2:22; John 15:22; Acts 11:26; Acts 20:35).  Joshua told the Israelites to remember Moses's words (Josh 1:13).  In fact, to this day, traditional Jews still recite at least a portion of the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, daily.  Their rabbis recite that plus Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41 twice a day.  The Psalmist meditated on the Word of God (Psalm 119:48, 97).  How could he meditate on something all day long that he had not committed to memory, at least the gist of?  And why did he want to meditate on it?  Because he loved the Law of God enough to do so (Psalm 119:127, 159, 165, 167).
            Notice:  none of those people were children.  They were all adults who understood the importance of having God's Word spring instantly to their lips when they needed it.  They had enough love for the Word of God that they studied it constantly, and thought about it while they lived their daily lives.  The apostles were even able to recall a verse from the thousands in the Old Testament whenever an event in Jesus' life reminded them of it (e.g., John 2:16,17).
            Unlike those people from so long ago, we are lucky enough to have the Bible sitting on a shelf in our living rooms or bedrooms.  Some of us have a dozen or so counting all the versions and styles.  That does not let us off the hook if we can't find what we need when we need it.  The Devil won't wait until you have everything at hand so you can fight him off easily.  He will wait until you are alone and away from your inspired Help, and then he will plant that thought in your mind—you are not a child; you don't need to know all this stuff anyway.  The thing is, you really do.
 
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you (Ps 119:11).

Dene Ward

We have always shared our garden produce.  We have never had a lot of disposable income, but every summer we have extra beans, peas, squash, cucumbers, corn, cantaloupes, okra, peppers, tomatoes, and melons.  Every trip into services includes handing out bag after bag after bag of whatever we are inundated with that week.
Once we gave a friend a bag of fordhooks.  Knowing she was a city girl, we did not do so without instructions.
            “You will need to shell them tonight, or if you must wait until tomorrow, then spread them out on newspapers.”
            A week or so later we asked her how she liked the beans.  Her red face and downcast eyes told the story before she said a word.
            “I left them in the bag overnight on the kitchen table and they soured and sprouted.  I’m so sorry.  I thought you were just exaggerating.”
            Yes, we still speak and are still good friends.  In fact, she is not the only one who has ignored our instructions and lost good produce as a result.  All these people help me understand a couple of verses in the book of Hebrews.
            And to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that were disobedient? And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief. Heb 3:18-19
            In one verse, the Hebrew writer accuses the Israelites in the wilderness of disobedience and in the next of unbelief.  To him they were one and the same, and my disbelieving non-gardening friends prove the point.  When you do not believe what you are told, you will not do what you are told.
            Now granted, Keith and I are just ordinary people who might possibly be wrong, but you would think that forty years’ gardening experience would make us at least a little credible.
            And certainly God should have been credible to people who saw Him send the ten plagues, part the Red Sea, send water gushing out of a rock, and rain manna night after night.  But people always have an excuse if they do not want to obey.
            “It can’t be that important.”
            “God doesn’t care about such a little thing.”
            “God is merciful and loving.”
            “After all, I have done so many good things.  That ought to count more than this.”
            And so they deceive themselves into believing that the beans won’t spoil.  And their unbelief becomes disobedience, something God has never tolerated for an instant.
            Believe it!
 
For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Heb 4:2,11
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is part of a continuing series by guest writer Lucas Ward.

Lev. 20:24b "I am Jehovah your God who has separated  you from among the peoples."
            The story of the OT is largely the story of God attempting to have a relationship with the people of Israel.  To that end, God freed the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them with power to the Promised Land.  "I am Jehovah your God who has brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Lev. 19:36 AND 26:13 among many others).  He freed them because He wanted them to be His people.  Ex. 6:7 "And I will take you to me for a people and I will be unto you a God."  God also wanted this to be a relationship closer than merely Master/servant.  He describes His intents in terms of close friendship and uses imagery from the Garden to get the point across:  "And I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people."  (Lev. 26:12).  The references to this relationship between God and Israel continue throughout the OT:  2 Sam. 7:8, 1 Kings 6:13, Ps. 50:7 etc, etc. 
            There was one slight hitch in these plans, however.  God is a Holy God (Lev. 11:45), and His chosen people were not.  As God could not become less than holy, nor could He remain holy if He closely associated with the unholy, God emphasized the need for His people to become holy and lead holy lives. 
Ex. 22:31 "And you shall be holy men unto me, therefore . . ."
Lev_19:2  "Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy; for I Jehovah your God am holy."
            This is what God meant when He said He had separated them from the peoples.  To be holy is to be set apart; to be designated for a special, specific use.  As God instructed Moses in how to build the Tabernacle, He repeatedly stated that the articles of the Tabernacle were "Holy to the Lord" (Ex. 28:36, 31:15, 39:30).  Those things were only to be used in the service of God.  In like manner, the people were to be holy and to live only for Jehovah, not for any lesser God or lesser purpose.  They were to learn to make a distinction between the holy and unholy, the clean and the unclean (Lev. 10:10, 20:25).  They were to keep themselves apart from the nations surrounding them (Ex. 34:11-16).  God had separated them from among the nations to have a relationship with them and they were to maintain that holy status in order to sustain that association. 
            All of this is instructive to us as members of the Kingdom of Heaven.  As God separated the Children of Israel from the nations, so we have been called out from among them (Rom. 1:6).  We are to be Holy, as He is (1 Pet. 1:15, 2:9).  We are His, and can only maintain that closeness if we remain separate from the world (Col. 3:12, 1 Cor. 3:23; James 4:4).  The Children of Israel failed to remain separate from the world and lost their relationship with God.  We are heirs to a better salvation and a closer relationship, but we, too, can lose that if we don't maintain our holiness.  We should learn from Israel's mistakes so as not to earn their fate, but instead, to one day be glorified with Him as His called out people.
 
2 Cor. 6:16  " . . . for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Lucas Ward

We make one mistake in our Bible study over and over and over, and because of it we often miss the lessons we need the most.  What mistake is it?  We fail to make it “real.”  We see the words and know their meanings but never place it into our culture and our times.  Let me show you.
            Just a few weeks ago we talked about the Good Samaritan.  We mentioned that he left “two denarii” to care for the injured man.  So he was generous, we say, and move right along, missing just how generous he was.  Put it into our language.  A denarius was a day’s wage for a skilled laborer—not an untrained ditch digger, but someone like a mason, or a welder, or a carpenter or plumber.  Now think in your mind, how much an hour do those people make nowadays?  What would that be for two days’ labor today?  Relatively speaking, that’s how much the Samaritan left for a perfect stranger, and one who was his enemy at that.  Would we do that for, say, a Muslim we encountered in need?
            Here’s another one for you.  The early church sold property to provide for the needs of those who had come only for the feast and wound up staying far beyond that, with no work, no place to stay, no way to provide for their families.  Obviously those in Jerusalem did not sell the houses they lived in.  That would have exacerbated the problem with more homeless people.  But if they had another piece of property outside town, or maybe some rental property on the other side or even down the street, that’s what they sold.  Have you priced houses and acreage lately?  We are talking tens of thousands, maybe over a hundred thousand in our day, and the cost of living in their time would have made it relatively the same amount.  These were not paltry gifts.  Now you understand a little better the temptation that Ananias and Sapphira gave in to.  And doesn’t that make that instant excuse we fall back on so often when even a small need arises, “I have to be a good steward of my money,” just a little ridiculous?
            Sometimes we need to understand the culture in relation to people.  Young men were expected to be mature enough to begin a family and support that family with an occupation by the time they were in their mid-teens.  Young women were expected to marry at puberty and begin raising a family immediately.  John MacArthur says that girls in first century Palestine entered the betrothal (kiddushin) at 13 and married at 14.  Young people were expected to understand making a lifetime commitment well before we expect that of our own children.  Make it real:  13 back then was more like 19 or 20 now in regard to maturity.  Think about that before you begin pressing your child about baptism before he is even out of grade school.  Don’t make it a contest to see whose child is baptized first.
            A book of the customs of Bible times is an excellent investment.  When we do not know those customs we miss the bravery of women like the one in Luke 7.  The fact that she even got into the house to see Jesus took guts and what could have happened to her and been condoned by those in charge will fill you with shame at the times you have cowered in the back corner instead of admitting your faith.  How about the blind man in John 9?  Do you know what it meant to be cast out of the synagogue?  It meant no social and no business life—and that meant poverty.  And here he was just now able to have a normal life for the first time since his birth and he sacrifices it all when he puts those rulers in their place with the statement, “Here is the amazing thing—he made me see and yet you do not know where he came from.”
            When you make these things real, when you make them relate to something you actually know and experience, the application to your own life will become real as well.  In fact, it may hurt a little more.  It may hurt a lot more.  Maybe that’s why we don’t do it.
 
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Rom 15:4
 
Dene Ward