I live in rural north central Florida.  Snakes are a fact of life.  Poisonous snakes are a big fact of life.  You learn to take precautions, but even then, if you have not seen one in a while, you become careless.  Last summer we were reminded of where we live.

One morning I was walking the mown path around our property, as I do every day, six laps for 3 ½ miles.  Suddenly the weeds to the left of me buzzed.  If you have ever heard a rattlesnake in person, you know it does not sound exactly like the ones on TV.  It sounds like an angry June bug, a really big, really angry June bug.  I leapt sideways about 10 feet—in fact, if sideways leaping were an Olympic event, I would have won the gold medal that day.  

We never found that one, but not ten days later, the dog alerted us to one in the yard, which Keith shot.  Four days later, she found a cottonmouth which escaped her by flattening itself enough to get under the house.  Keith had to crawl under there with a flashlight and a pistol for that one.  A week later another rattler in the yard met him as he returned from the neighbor’s.  Four days later a black racer crossed my running path about thirty feet ahead.  Two days after that a coachwhip met me at the fence behind the old pigpen when I walked.  This was beginning to get eerie.  We had never had this many snakes in this short a time, not even the first summer we set up house in this old watermelon field in the piney woods, half a mile off the highway.  

Five days later I was folding clothes in the family room and happened to look out the window right next to me.  Not five feet from my face, a racer was winding itself up around the TV tower.  No, racers are not poisonous.  Yes, it was outside and I was inside with not one, but two, glass panes between me and it.  But something about that one sent chills up my spine.  It was almost more than I could do to go outside that day at all.  Somehow I expected to see dozens of snakes slithering up the porch steps and clinging to the screen just waiting to strike when I opened the back door.  

But when it was time to walk, I took a deep breath, got the .22 rifle loaded with number 12 shot, leaned it against the tree and set off, with my trusty canine bodyguards bounding up ahead of me to sniff out the critters and, more important, scare away the snakes.  Still, I was a lot more alert than usual.  

This was a good spiritual reminder as well.  We live in a stable society.  No natives on the warpath.  No marauders on the borders.  No wars fought on our home ground.  Have we forgotten to be careful?  There is still an enemy out there who is REAL, and he will kill our souls if we are not alert.  Are we to be so afraid that we shut ourselves away from the world?  No, for how could our lights shine and our faith be told?  But being cautious never hurt anyone.  

When you go out there today, pay attention, stay safe, and when you see the lion, who at least once has masqueraded as a serpent, either shoot him down right there or run!

Be sober, be watchful, your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour; withstand him, steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brothers who are in the world.  And the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, establish and strengthen you.  1 Pet 5:7-10

Dene Ward 

Today’s post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

Concerning EZEKIEL 3:17-21:
"Fourth, this text affirms above all else that with the privilege of wearing the prophet's mantle comes an awesome responsibility for the life and death of the people in one's charge. To be negligent in the fulfillment of one's prophetic duty is a capital crime. The prophet is to sound the horn not only WHEN God sends the signal but AS God dictates [emphasis his]. His message may not be of his own imagination OR ACCORDING TO HIS UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE [emphasis mine]. It is ultimately God's evaluation of their situation that the doomed need to hear, not the myopic opinions and panaceas of fellow human travelers. The message of God is that sin and wickedness require a radical prescription: repentance and casting oneself totally on the mercy of God. That God speaks in this situation is in itself an act of Grace."  Block, Daniel Vol 1 p 150

Seems that some preachers and elders need to apply this, especially the phrase I emphasized. Way too much thought is given to the needs of the people and not upsetting them and too little to sounding the alarm that a day is coming, "When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." (2Thess 1:7-8, ESV2011) Yes, the sweet and loving Jesus whose yoke is easy and burden is light and who loved so much he died.....

Too much unpleasant truth is soft-pedaled or not preached at all, or seldom preached, or apologized for when it is preached.

If I am too harsh in the way that I do it, then someone else step up and do it nicely, but we must do it.

By the bye--God's prophets and apostles never found that nice way.

That bears repeating: By the bye--God's prophets and apostles never found that nice way.

Many that might have repented at plain preaching will go to hell because they were lulled by the nice.
 
And, according to Ezekiel, they will meet all those nice preachers again:
 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, `You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life. Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you will have saved your life." Ezek 3:17-21
 
Keith Ward

Today I am going to take my life into my hands and offer a little motherly—oh, all right, grandmotherly—advice on overcoming this “hot mess” problem.  First, let me say this.  All these things took me years to come up with.  And lots of failures.  All I am doing is trying to save you some pain.  If they work, great, but if they don't, don't give up!  Find your own remedies.  Then you will have something to share with the next generation of struggling young women.

If your parents never gave you any real work to do, expecting it to be done well and on time “or else,” you are at a distinct disadvantage.  Learning how to work is your first task.  You would be surprised how many business owners complain about first time employees, usually teenagers working after school or on weekends, who do not understand what it even means to work, and to keep working even when they are tired, kids who do not show up for work on a consistent basis simply because “I didn’t feel like it today.”  The world doesn’t care how you feel today.  Get used to it.  “Work” means not just accomplishing what you have been told to do, but looking for more and doing “whatever your hand finds to do” Eccl 9:10.  And when you are managing a home, you seldom get a sick day off, much less a mere “I don’t feel like it” day.

            So what do you do if you feel like “a hot mess,” not just occasionally, but constantly?  Do not use it as your excuse du jour.  The young mother I quoted yesterday, Miranda Nerland, is absolutely correct in her assessment of the life God expects of us.  From the moment of the first sin, toil and labor have been our lot.  That is the reality of the situation.  So work.  Your mother got through it and so did mine.  Our grandmothers survived and so has every generation for thousands of years.  Stop acting like there is something special about you.  In fact, those earlier generations than yours and mine got through it without all the convenience items you use every day.  They washed diapers every day and hung them out to dry.  And before that, they rinsed those dirty diapers out in wash tubs while you roll them up and throw them away.  They worked on diapers for hours every day.  If they hadn’t, their children would have been running around bare-bottomed.  That task had to be completed no matter what else was going on that day or how tired they were, and that’s just one issue they had to deal with out of dozens of absolutely necessary things.

            Second, know yourself.  If you cannot talk and work, then be quiet.  Do whatever it takes to have the quiet time you need to accomplish at least the necessary.  When I see a young mother wondering why she cannot get things done and find five posts with her answering comments in 6 hours’ time, isn’t it obvious why she gets nothing done?  Unplug the land line, turn off your cell, turn off the TV for however long you have determined you need to get the absolute minimum accomplished.  It will all be there when you turn it back on.  And be flexible about when that time is.  For me, it was my children’s naptime.  As I said yesterday, that old chestnut about resting when the baby does did not work for me.  Do not be afraid to “break the rules.”

            If you are one of those folks who is constantly making lists, it’s time to work on the list.  Take that last list of “Things to Do” that has you in such a frenzy wondering how you will ever manage it, and just start doing those chores one at a time.  Mark them off as you work. 
           
            I was one of those list makers.  I would write it all down then sit there and become inordinately depressed just looking at it.  No way was I going to accomplish all this, I kept thinking.  Finally I learned to just start working and mark things off as I finished them.  I had wasted more time sitting there stewing than it took to complete some of those tasks, and once I got to work I finished far more quickly than I thought possible.  Even if you do not finish the list, seeing how much you have done will be encouraging rather than the opposite.  I loved marking things off.  Sometimes when I remembered a chore I did not have on the list, I wrote it in just so I could mark it off!  Wow!  I got ten things done today, not just the nine I had originally written down.

            If your children are old enough—which is not as old as you think need be--get them involved.  If they think they are helping you or doing a “grown-up” thing—call it whatever you need to keep them smiling--they will not view it as a chore.  Yes, you sometimes have to be creative and a little less picky about how things are done, but just the fact that they are busy gives you both more work time and more time with them.

            If you find just five or ten minutes free some time during the day, use it for another chore—a five or ten minute one.  My kitchen was swept far more often and more laundry put up because of that one little trick than if I had just sat down for those same five or ten minutes.  They usually happened for me when we were getting ready to walk out the door.  With just a little practice you will find those few extra minutes in your day.  Sometimes little things make a huge difference.

            Will this make you any less tired at the end of the day?  Not really, but you will be less stressed because you accomplished more and can see the difference.  But more than that, you will know that you are “working at home,” “managing your home” (I Tim 5:14), exactly the way God expects you to.  He does not expect you to do more than you are capable of, but most of us are capable of far more than we realize, especially when we quit whining and get to work! 

            God did not call any of us to be a “hot mess.”
 
She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Prov 31:13,15,17-19,27
 
Dene Ward

“I've been so disheartened lately by the "hot mess" mentality. The "I-just-can't-it's-too-hard-I-don't-have-time-Oh-well-I'm-just-a-hot-mess" lifestyle that so many of us are adopting under the guise of being "real." It makes us feel good to be a part of that club, but the problem is that we aren't called to be a hot mess. We aren't called to get by. We aren't called to just do the minimum. We aren't called to just keep the kids alive. We are called to work...to be "workers at home." To go to bed tired from working hard at the end of each day, like our Savior did throughout his earthly ministry. Like she [a blogger being referred to] says...we are called to "do the next right thing." This is how we redeem the time. DOING your next right thing, whatever that looks like in your world. Don't let today happen to you. DO today.”*

            The above post showed up on my newsfeed a couple of months ago and I wanted to stand up and cheer.  If there is anything disheartening about Facebook it’s how many young women whine about having so much to do for their families and how impossible it is to get it all done.  As this young mom said, it’s almost like a badge of honor to say about such things, “Well, this is what real life is like.”  Real life is evidently having your family live in disorder and chaos and bragging about it.

            Now let me tell you that this young mother I applauded has not one but two children, and one of them is a chronically ill child who requires many times more doctor appointments than yours do, including emergency room runs for things you give your child a couple of Tylenol for and hope they won’t run around too much for the neighbors or church folks or schoolmates to think they really are sick.  This young mother has excuses for a house in disarray and an overflowing laundry hamper but refuses to use them. 

            Since I had never heard of this “hot mess” phenomenon, I did a little research.  Evidently it is applied in several different areas, some that have no business in a Christian’s life at all, but the common denominator in them all is never managing to complete the tasks at hand.  I also found several lists, some meant to be humorous, others helpful in straightening out those who have this mentality, and other lists helping people to recognize that personality and keep their distance!  Here are three things that I think we can all work on.

            1.  For people who are “hot messes,” clutter and disarray seem to be second nature.  We aren’t talking about the toys being all over the floor because the kids have been playing hard this morning, or the counters covered with pots and pans because you are in the middle of an elaborate meal for guests.  We are talking about people who don’t have the maturity to organize and compartmentalize their lives, making sure that important papers like birth certificates and car titles are kept in a safe place, that the receipt you need to return that defective whatever can easily be found, or not needing to worry about what your little one might pick up and eat off your floor.  These things matter, and they are part of your job as a homemaker.

            2.  Another characteristic of a “hot mess” is that she never takes responsibility for her own actions.  “I would have but…” becomes a staple of her conversation.  After awhile you get so tired of hearing the excuses, you simply turn them off.  Bottom line:  what needed doing did not get done.   And if there is not a reason, there is always another person to blame—even one who not only does not live in the same house but whose name she doesn’t even know.  That person just had the misfortune to cross paths with her that morning and so is awarded the dubious distinction of being today’s scapegoat.

            3.  And the last one I saw that really made sense was that a “hot mess” is always a talker and never a doer.  She makes lists but it is rare she ever marks one off.  She makes plans but never follows through.  Why?  Because she is always talking.  Or posting.  Or looking at her phone to check on likes and comments and shares.  I knew a woman once who literally could not work and talk at the same time.  I went to her home to help her cook a meal for company.  Every time she opened her mouth her hands stopped moving.  I worked circles around her and cooked three dishes to her one.

            I am not unsympathetic to young mothers.  I used to be one, and not so long ago that I cannot remember it.  Not long after my first child was born something happened—I am not sure what—but suddenly I burst into tears.  “What’s wrong?” my alarmed husband asked.  I could not even answer him.  Now I know what it was—I was simply overwhelmed. 

            I had not had a good night’s sleep for several months.  I could not get anything done until nap time.  All that advice about resting when your baby does is nonsense.  It cannot be done unless you want to literally wade through laundry, toys, mail, bills, newspapers, and magazines for a year. 

            I looked at my weeping self and thought, “What in the world is wrong with you?  This should be the happiest time of your life.”  But I, too, grew up on TV shows where babies magically go to sleep when you lay them down and stay that way until you have time to play with them or feed them or show them off to your friends—another piece of nonsense.  Babies require more of you than you thought it was possible to give.  They demand your time and your attention, not out of malice but because they cannot survive any other way. 
           
            Every first time mother needs to know that it’s okay to cry.  Sometime in the first few months you will stand there like an idiot and bawl your eyeballs out.  It’s okay.  What’s not okay is to keep on doing it.  As my young friend said in her post, you’re supposed to be tired.  You’re supposed to feel inundated.  You’re supposed to fall into bed every night utterly exhausted.  That’s your job now, but you can’t just quit, and you certainly shouldn’t glory in being “a hot mess.”  You grow up.  You get better.  Maybe we will talk about that tomorrow.
 
*The post I quoted in the beginning was written by Miranda Nerland.

Dene Ward

Blackwater River State Park has become one of our favorite in-state campgrounds.  Even as small as it is, we always make new discoveries.  Down by the river, rising among the raised wood plank picnic pavilions stands the Champion Atlantic White Cedar.  What made it a champion, I wondered, and research led me to some amazing facts.

            At first I assumed that “champion” referred to age.  Online I found a list of the world’s oldest trees.  The oldest tree in Florida is a Pond Cypress called “The Senator,” reputed to be the seventh oldest in the country at 3500 years.  Evidently there is a method of determining age besides cutting it down and counting the rings.  The Senator lives in Seminole County and also holds the record for the largest tree in the state, measuring 425 inches in circumference (that’s a trunk over 35 feet around), a 57 foot crown spread, and a height of 118 feet. 

            Finding the distinction between oldest and largest eventually led me to another discovery.  Trees are labeled champions because of their size, not their age, and there is a champion for every species.  There are state champions and national champions, and Florida has more national champions than any other state.  The Senator is, in fact, a national champion.  Even my own Union county, the smallest in the state, has a Florida Champion, a Blue Beech Hornbeam, standing 37 feet tall, with a 40 inch circumference and a 36 foot crown spread.  Obviously a Blue Beech Hornbeam is a smaller tree than a Pond Cypress, so its champion is smaller as well.

            That may be my most important point this morning—God does not judge us by comparing us to others, but according to our own circumstances and abilities.  Just look at the parable of the money (Matt 25).  Each man received a different number of coins (opportunities) based on the ability the Master (God) knew he had.  The servant was not allowed to decide his abilities—if he had the ability the opportunity was given, and if he didn’t it wasn’t.  By turning away from the opportunity (burying his coin), the one coin servant was not only unfaithful, but disobedient and presumptuous as well.

            Yet I see other points also.  We often make champions of our own using the wrong standards.  Appearance has nothing to do with God’s champions.  That Atlantic White Cedar in the panhandle park is gnarly and weather-beaten, with a splintery gray bark studded with the stubs of broken off limbs.  But isn’t that what you would expect from a tree that has withstood more than a century’s worth of floods, winds, and hurricanes?

            What makes these trees champions is the fact that they survive longer than others of their species.  And ultimately, isn’t that what makes one a champion of faith?  When a person survives trial after trial with his faith intact, God labels him a champion. 

            A tree will continue to grow as long as it survives, so there is yet another element of championship—not only does your faith survive, but it becomes stronger.

            Early on, Abraham, even after receiving a promise involving his “descendants,” of which he as yet had none, felt compelled to save his own life with a lie instead of trusting God to do so in Genesis 12 and 20, and actually laughed at God’s promises in Genesis 17.  Yet by Genesis 22 he could offer his son as a sacrifice “accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead” that same son and fulfill his promises, Heb 11:19.  God had seen something in this man and patiently led him as his faith grew.  It took well over fifty years from the first promise to the ultimate test Abraham finally passed.  His steady growth made him the champion of the Jewish race and “a friend of God.”

            Who are your champions?  How do you choose them?  You probably have more to choose from than you think when you use the right standards, people standing around you within arm’s length.  Fame and fortune, even relative fame and fortune in the brotherhood, has nothing to do with it!  Choose carefully, using God’s standards, and finally, one day, become someone else’s champion, having survived the worse Satan has to throw at you, and coming out stronger on the other side.
 
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." 1 Sam 16:7.
 
Dene Ward

I had invited a couple of friends for lunch.  One in particular had been raving about a calzone I made for her a couple of years before.  So I promised her another.  I had bought everything from memory.  With the price of gas making one trip to town cost $8, I buy everything I need for the week on one day.

            Suddenly in the middle of the night I woke up and said to myself, “Cheese!”  I had forgotten the mozzarella and provolone.  How in the world can you even think of making what is basically a pizza turnover and forget the cheese?  It’s like planning to make brownies and forgetting the chocolate!

            We are no better when we try to be children of God and forget the basic elements. 

            The Pharisees thought that since they tithed even their herb seeds, they were good Jews.  They were certainly right to be so careful.  Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD's; it is holy to the LORD. You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year, Lev 27:30; Deut 14:22.  Yet Jesus reminded them that they had left out “the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness” Matt 23:23.  How did they think they could be children of a just and merciful God and leave those things out?  It should have been unthinkable.

            John dealt with people who thought they could be followers of Christ and live immoral lives.  He was plain about their mistaken ideas.  Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 1 John 2:4.  He reminded them of the same thing Jesus reminded the Pharisees.  How can you think you are a child of God if you don’t live by his rules?   No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother, I John 3:,9,10.  I don’t know about you, but I get really tired of famous athletes who wear crosses around their necks and “thank Jesus” before the cameras, but live like the Devil otherwise.   

            It’s time for all of us to stop trying to make calzones without the cheese.  You can’t pick and choose which commandments you want to follow and then claim to be an obedient and faithful child of God.   

            Children do not tell their parents which of the house rules they will and will not obey.  They are obedient to the parents in all things, and they understand that being a child of their own particular parents means certain things simply are or are not done if they want to stay faithful to the values of that home.  How many of us have said, “Your mother would roll over in her grave if she saw you do that?”  We understand what faithfulness to the spirit of the parent means, even if some specific idea is not spelled out in black and white.  Why are we so dense when we come to our dealings with God? 

            The next time you make your family’s favorite dish, using every single ingredient because you would hate to disappoint them, remember not to disappoint God either.
 
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 
 
Dene 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

It happened again.  I had thought and hoped that the habit had died out because people were finally paying closer attention to what they were reading, but no, once again I was hearing modest apparel “shoehorned” into Matt 5:27,28.  You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It’s one thing to mention in passing that the problem in question is sometimes caused by scanty clothing.  It’s another thing entirely to turn what Jesus meant to be addressed to men—that they are to practice self-control—and turn it into a diatribe against women.

            In fact, while we are on this matter of correct hermeneutics, let’s also point out that the phrase “modest apparel” in the New Testament never refers to under-dressing, but only overdressing, at least in the old versions.

            Does that mean I think women should be allowed to run around half to three quarters naked as they tend to do this time of year, especially where I live?  I was the mother of two teenaged boys.  I greatly resented the sea of shapely legs they had to face while trying to pass the Lord’s Supper on Sunday mornings.  More than once I wanted to hit the baptistery dressing rooms for a towel or two to throw over bare thighs as well as the naked shoulders and backs sticking out of sundresses.  Besides, they were the ones always complaining about being cold, so why didn’t they cover up?!

            But I can find much better passages of scriptures without trying to squeeze a topic in one where it doesn’t belong.  How about all those scriptures about lasciviousness?  That’s exactly what it is when a woman dresses to excite a man’s lust.  You fathers are shirking your duty when you let your daughters out of the house looking like that, especially when they don’t even realize what they are doing, and most especially since you are men and know what’s going on in other men’s minds.  Take your heads out of the sand and start being parents!

            Here is a passage you might not have thought of.  Because they wore those knee length ephods when serving in their duties, the priests under the old covenant had a problem women in dresses and skirts can relate to (Ex 20:26).  One must be careful where and how one stands and sits in clothes like that.

            “Moses!” God said.  “Make those men some britches!” (Ex 28:42).

            Some people will tell you that God doesn’t care what we wear, but these passages tell us it does matter to him, though perhaps not in the way we like to think.  He plainly tells us not to make distinctions in the assembly between those with fine clothes and those with poor clothes (James 2).  What does matter to him is this—we must not disrespect our service to him by what we wear during that service.  Those priests so long ago were expected to cover up what needed to be covered when they offered sacrifices.  Peter tells us that as part of the new Israel we are priests (1 Pet 2:9).  Paul says we offer up our sacrifices (which only priests are allowed to do) in our daily lives (Rom 12:1,2).  As such God expects us to cover up what needs to be covered while we are doing it.

            I am a priest whenever I serve my family, my brethren, or my community.  That means when I am shopping at the mall, working in the yard, or having coffee with a neighbor, not just in the meetinghouse on Sunday morning.  As a priest I would be profaning my sacred duty if I dressed in a way that caused lust instead of causing others to glorify God.  The same would be true if my dress aroused disgust.  And this applies to all of us, not just the women in this royal priesthood.

            Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Matthew records Jesus telling the men to control themselves.  By not mentioning any of the possible provocations, he is emphasizing the fact that none of them will excuse a man who lusts after a woman.  Neither what she is wearing nor what she is not wearing will make a difference on the Day of Judgment, no matter how many try to shoehorn it in there.
 
[The] priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them… And I sought for a man among them that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought upon their heads, says the Lord Jehovah. Ezek 22:26,30,31.
 
Dene Ward

Yes that is actually the topic for the day.  How is it that the thing that cleans us best (soap) is the same thing that makes some of the ugliest, hardest to remove dirt in the bathtub (soap scum)?  And if you do begin to get some of that flaky, grayish-white stuff removed as you scrub your knuckles off, but do not get it all, things look even worse.  How many times have I looked down, arms aching and out of breath, only to find white lines down the sides instead of a completely white tub, and had to start yet again?  Not just anything will remove soap scum. 

            Which made me sit and think awhile and yes, there may even be a spiritual application to soap scum!  Jesus told a parable about a sower.  Some of the seeds which fell among the thorns, these are they that have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.  Luke 8:14

            When we read that parable we tend to think that all the “other grounds” besides the good ground are wicked things.  Not so here.  The cares of life can be anything from worrying about paying the bills to becoming workaholics.  Riches, though dangerous, are not necessarily sinful.  Pleasures can be hobbies and entertainment.  None of these things is inherently sinful, in fact, they can be therapeutic when we need rest or when our children need our attention on a one-on-one level.  They can build relationships with brethren. They can establish bonds with neighbors who we might then be able to teach.  They can support our families.  BUT------

            If those things are not managed wisely, they can choke out the Word.  They can keep us from prayer and meditation, from study time, from extra time in the Word offered by the elders in the way of classes, lectures, and gospel meetings.  No, you may not be actively sinning, but are you neglecting God in other ways?  Are you choking Him out of your life?

            These are the hardest things to “weed out” precisely because they are not wrong.  Consider this:  don’t you as a parent look out for your child by limiting the things--the perfectly good things--he becomes involved in?  I hope you do.  No child should be robbed of his childhood by a parent who overschedules him with every activity he can find in an effort to offer him “enrichment.”  As a piano teacher I saw too many of my students nearly fall asleep on the bench because they were too tired—even 6 year olds!  More than once I told a parent that his child was not making the progress he should because he did not have the time to practice.  He might as well quit lessons—he certainly needed to drop out of something!  I even had some parents learn that the hard way when a child had what we called in the old days a “nervous breakdown.”

            Your children learn it from you.  Are you too busy to study your Bible in the evening?  Are you too busy to visit the sick and the widows?  Are you too busy to attend an extra Bible class?  Then something needs to go.  The cares and pleasures of your life are choking out the Word.

            This morning walk into your bathroom and look at the tub.  Remind yourself that even good things can produce bad consequences.  All that sudsy, good-smelling soap we use in the shower can leave an ugly scum that needs to be removed before we can even claim that our bathroom is clean.  The same thing is true of your life.   
 
Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Eph 5:15-17
 
Dene Ward

We kept seeing them on the side of the road—two to three feet high, blue flowers clustered at the top of tall stems with long narrow leaves.  We called them wild irises because that’s what they looked like, and I wished aloud that we had some.  So Keith stopped one afternoon on the way home from work and dug up a few.  I looked them up in my wildflower book and found their true name—spiderwort.  What an ugly name, I thought, and called them my wild irises instead. 

            Then we learned about them.  They spread faster than anything we had ever planted, in places we really didn’t want them, but the worst was this—they were only beautiful early in the morning or right after a rain.  Otherwise those blooms turned black and ugly by noon, earlier in the heat of summer.  If ever there was a fair weather flower, this was it. 

            Just as I misjudged the beauty of those wildflowers, I fear that some of us may be mistaken about how God judges our beauty.  Dressing up on Sunday morning is not what matters to God.  Having a tie on is not what makes a man worthy to serve at the Lord’s Table.  While I dress carefully on Sundays, one of the few times I get to wear a pretty dress these days, it has little to do with whether God thinks I am beautiful.  To God, beauty is seen in faithfulness, in righteous and holy lives, and in kindness shown to others.  In many cases, we don’t look particularly pretty while doing those things. 

            We never look better to God than when we are bruised and bloody from a fight with Satan, battered from overcoming the temptation to sin.  We are pretty when we are clad in old clothes cleaning up after our families, and handsome when plastered with sweat and dirt from doing the yard work for a widow.  We are lovely to God when we sit around in our old blue jeans talking about the Bible to a friend who asked a question, or inviting a neighbor to a Bible study.  We are beautiful to Him when our bodies are thin and our eyes sunken from facing an illness that came only because so many years ago the Devil succeeded with Adam, yet we face it with trust in a God who has a plan.  We are especially gorgeous to Him when our bodies are old and bent, and our hair gray and thin, having lived a life of faithfulness.

            Spiderworts are pretty only when things are easy, only when life is fun.  When that’s over, they live up to their name—black and ugly, a weed everyone could do without.  Don’t make God feel that way about you.
 
I am faint and sore bruised: I have groaned because of the tumult of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before you; And my groaning is not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength fails me: As for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague; And my kinsmen stand afar off… in you, O Jehovah, do I hope: You will answer, O Lord my God.  Psa 38:8-11,15.
 
Dene Ward