Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

I first heard of Tony Campolo in 1985 when watching a video of a sales inspiration speech he gave. He told the story found in this book of a "preach off" where his Pastor beat his best with a sermon of this title.  I thought the sermon idea deserved more than use as a cheer for salesmen and developed it. When our preacher was at a meeting, I preached it in 25 minutes. He heard about the rave reviews, listened to the tape and went 45+ minutes. He said the reviews were not as good. I replied, "You told them too much, you need to rely on what you know that they know."

For years I searched for the book. Then Google came along and I learned that the original sermon was by S.M. Lockridge and is less than 4 minutes. With the help of captions, I listened to his version but have not yet "heard" Campolo's. If it is printed in any of his books, I have not found it yet.

If you want the sermon, you need to go to the youtube. It is not in this book. However, Campolo uses the theme as the basis for a number of excellent lessons teaching that Jesus answers our needs. His chapter defining the difference between romance and love is worth the time to read all 120 pages. But, the rest is hardly just filler. He will make you think, inspire you, maybe even change you into someone more zealous for good works and more focused on Jesus and eternity.

Keith Ward
 

I used to prefer studying the Old Testament.  It was so much more interesting.  I am afraid I always thought the Gospels a little “ho-hum.”   Then I actually sat down and started studying—and discovered my error.  The Gospels are a great place to study.  Unfortunately, it is where a lot of folks make a huge mistake.
            The first three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, share many of the same narratives, but if you have read them at all, you know that they often contain different details.   While skeptics seize upon this fact to discredit them, they studiously ignore what every crime novel and crime drama aficionado knows—when the stories are exactly the same between witnesses, the police know something isn’t right, most likely criminal collusion.  Their very differences are testimony to the Gospels’ accuracy.  But that isn’t my point today.
            Each gospel writer wrote to a different audience and with a different aim in mind.  Probably the most obvious is that Matthew wrote to Jews to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the King of God’s restored Kingdom promised over and over in the prophets.  He begins his account with the genealogy of Jesus, something important to all Jews, and without which none of them would have even begun to entertain the thought of who this Jesus person might be.  He carries that genealogy through Joseph.  Though we know that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, establishing him as the legal father was important to show he was in the royal line of Judah, with the legal right of inheritance.
            Matthew uses more than fifty direct quotations from the Old Testament and even more allusions to connect Jesus to the Jewish prophecies, than any other gospel writer.  Even in the gospels themselves we read about the false Messiahs running around during the first century.  Matthew more than any other writer did his best to ground his readers in the idea that Jesus alone fulfilled prophecy and had the credentials to be the promised Christ.
            Each gospel writer had his own purpose based upon his time and audience.  When you are studying one of the gospel books, you will completely lose this if you insist on bringing in every other account of the same incident as you go along.  Matthew chose his events and his details to accomplish something.  Don’t make it all in vain.  Look for the clues.  Remember the audience.  Get out of Matthew what Matthew intended you to get.  You are NOT smarter than an inspired apostle.
            There may be a place for a Harmony of the Gospels study, but if that’s all you ever do, constantly flipping over to the other gospels “to get all the facts” you will miss something significant.  If the Holy Spirit had not intended that we study them separately, resisting the urge to flip, He would have written one all-inclusive gospel.  Again, we are NOT smarter than the Holy Spirit.
            Having said that, let’s say you are studying, not a whole gospel, but a single event in the gospels.  Now is the time to compare all accounts.  I like to make columns, one for each book that contains the event, and then write down the verse citation and exactly what is said or done there.  You will be surprised at even the minute differences. 
          You would do well to ask yourself, “Why did Matthew say this and Mark something else?”  For example, in Matt 9:18, Jairus is called “a ruler” while Mark calls him “one of the rulers of the synagogue” (5:22).  Why would Matthew leave out the identifying phrase?  Remember who Matthew is written to—Jews.  What ruler would they automatically think of?  Mark on the other hand is written primarily to a Roman audience.  They had all sorts of rulers, and might never have thought of a ruler of the synagogue.
            Also, Matthew specifically says that Jairus “knelt” before Jesus, while Mark and Luke talk about “falling before him.”  The latter speaks of desperation, the first of humility and respect.  For a ruler of the synagogue to kneel before Jesus would be a powerful testimony of Jesus’ identity to a Jewish audience.
            So once again, here is the basic rule:  If you are studying a book, stay in the book.  Find out who it was written to and ask yourself why this event and these details would matter to that audience.  What is it that the writer wants you to learn?  Study the various events in the same book and look for connections between them.  Keith recently discovered just by doing this that Matt 19 is not about divorce and remarriage, which is all anyone ever seems to mention.  Look at all the events in that chapter and you will see that it is about what you should be willing to give up for the kingdom’s sake:  your sexuality, your self-esteem, and your material possessions.  You keep hopping around and you won’t see it.  You lose sight of the purpose of the book—the King and his kingdom—and you won’t ever get it.
          If you are studying an event in particular, by all means, compare accounts so you can get all the facts.  Just don’t ever think you know more than an inspired writer and the Holy Spirit who directed him.
 
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)
 
Dene Ward

The term “hermeneutics” comes from the god Hermes, the messenger and interpreter of Jupiter to man.  As such, it is a fitting word to describe the principles by which we interpret any piece of written material, especially the one from God.  The textbook I told you about yesterday gives a list called “Helps in Understanding the Bible.”  I think it is a remarkable list because we can all do these things.  It isn’t difficult.
            First, Professor Dungan says we should use plain old common sense.  I often find myself thinking that scholars try to muddy the waters just so they will be the only ones who really know what’s going on, but this one makes the specific point that the Bible was given to the common man to help him in his every day life, so it had to be practical.  Common sense in interpreting it is expected.
            Then he says something else you seldom see from a Biblical scholar these days, at least the ones on the Discovery and History channels—if you want to interpret the Bible correctly you must believe in its Divine inspiration.  I have often thought, “If you don’t, why bother?” and evidently the author agrees.
            He follows this with something that will be less popular—to interpret the scriptures you need “mental industry.”  By that he means the willingness to work at it, to expect something besides an easy-read comic book or pulp fiction.  Didn’t Jesus speak in parables for precisely that reason—so that the ones who cared enough to work at it would, and the rest, the unspiritual, would just ignore it?  You have to wonder about the sincerity of someone who always wants the easy way out.
            When I read the next one, I questioned him for the first time:  “spiritual purity.”  Not that I don’t believe we need to keep ourselves pure, but how can that help or hinder our understanding?  His reasoning reminded me of those same parables and the reason Jesus taught them.  “The gross mind will not apprehend the pure teaching of the Spirit of God.  Men may hear but not understand and in answer to the carnal wish, God may send a strong delusion, and the god of this world may blind the eyes of the unbelieving.”  That quote, alluding to Paul’s statement in 2 Thessalonians 2, makes excellent sense.  If I cannot understand the Bible, maybe it is because I don’t like what it says.  That passage should also scare me just a little.
            We are also told that we need a “correct translation.”  So many of these points build on one another.  If I want an easy read, I will probably wind up with an incorrect translation, and that desire for a no-work/easy-read probably says a lot about my lack of spirituality to begin with.
            Then he points out perhaps the most obvious thing:  if we want to understand the Bible, we should expect to understand it.  Would we ever read any other book expecting NOT to understand it?  In fact, I have put down books for that very reason—in trying to be “artistic” they have simply become incomprehensible.  The Biblical writers were not worried about “art.”  They all expected their readers to be better informed when they read their epistles.  “When you read this, you can perceive my understanding” Paul told the Ephesians (3:4).  The writer of my textbook says the Bible is “a sensible communication from God.”  To believe otherwise, turns God into a cruel and petty tyrant. 
            If you are having trouble figuring out what the Bible is all about, maybe you should check yourself against this list.  God wants a relationship with his children.  When my boys were young, they knew exactly what they could and could not get away with.  They knew exactly what was expected of them in any given situation.  They knew all of that was for their good, because we loved them more than our own lives.  Why would we ever think anything less of God?
 
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. John 8:42-43
 
Dene Ward

That was my reaction the first time I heard the word, “hermeneutics.”  Then Keith told me what it meant: rules of interpretation.  Immediately I was skeptical.  Just who determines these rules, especially when we are talking about interpreting the Bible?  So he bought me my own hermeneutics textbook entitled, appropriately enough, Hermeneutics, A Text-book, by D. R. Dungan.  For a textbook written by a professor it is one of the most practical books I have ever seen.  I was thrilled to discover that no one has determined the rules of hermeneutics.  The author simply sorted out and listed the rules we all follow every day without thinking about it.
            Last year I received a letter that told me I was to receive $700.  I could have approached that letter in many different ways.  I could have said, “This is a hoax,” and thrown it away.  I could have said, “This must be from a friend who knows we have a lot of medical bills,” and kept it, eagerly awaiting the gift.  I could have thought, “Keith must have applied for a loan,” and then sat down with the books and tried to figure out how we were going to repay it.
            So what did I do?  I looked at the return address—Internal Revenue Service.  I looked at the date—two weeks after I had mailed in our tax return.  I scoured the letter for clues about why I was to receive this money—I had made an error and they caught it.  Then, and only then, did I decide what to do about it.  Let them send me the extra money!
            I applied the principles of hermeneutics to that letter.  I asked myself, who is this from, when did they send it, why did they send it, and let that determine what it meant.  I do it every day.  So do you.  So does everyone else.  But for some reason people think you aren’t supposed to do that with the Bible.  They treat it like some big book of riddles that is impossible to figure out, or that each one of us can interpret to mean whatever we want.  Tell me, just how capricious do you think God is?  Will He say, “You have to please me to get to Heaven so here is an enigmatic book of rules.  Good luck figuring it out!” or will He give us a perfectly comprehensible guide for success?
            God is not willing that any should perish, Peter tells us.  He loved us enough to plan our salvation before he even made us, several writers say.  The Spirit, who knows the mind of God, inspired men to write the things we need to know so that we can say with full assurance, “I am saved.”  No one ever needs to wonder, or wish, or simply dream about having a relationship with their Creator.  It’s all down in black and white.  You can apply the same principles you apply every day of your life, and correctly interpret how to please God and receive the reward.  It may have been a mystery once, but now we know “whodunit” and why.
            Tomorrow we will talk a little more about how to interpret.
           
But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"-- these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 1 Cor 2:9-12
 
Dene Ward

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11)
 
            “Examining” the scriptures—think for a minute your reaction if you had been feeling ill for weeks--fever, nausea, exhaustion, pain in some specified location--and your doctor examined you the way you examine God’s word.  If you didn’t sue for malpractice, you would at least change doctors.  At least that’s the way most people study their Bibles. 
            We simply do not think it’s that important.  Don’t object—if it were important, you would find the time and do it that way, a deep examination.  Jesus said of the Jews, You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, (John 5:39).  At least they had the right motive, eternal life.  At least they did the work.  We can’t even seem to get that part right—we’re too busy, and memory verses are for kids, right?  What their children memorized in the synagogue schools would put us to shame.
            But putting forth the effort is only half the battle.  In the next verse, Jesus says they missed the obvious—Him!  They could quote till Doomsday and still not get it right if they did not open their minds to what the Word teaches.  Opening the mind isn’t as easy as you think it is, and most of us not only don’t do so, we don't even realize we haven't.
            A few years ago I had a request for study tips.  I think now I am ready to share what has taken me so long to figure out myself.  A couple of years ago I had a five or six part series that took you through a basic method I use, step by step.  If you are interested, you can find it by clicking on Bible Study on the right sidebar and scrolling down till you find it.  This time I will be sharing little tips I use all the time almost without thinking because they have become so automatic, rules (yes, there are some), and also the results of my studies that might be new to you.  What is learning for, if you don’t share it? 
            Those posts were originally scattered throughout a couple of years, here and there.  Now I want to try to get them a little closer together for you.  This week we will cover the first four, and then I will try to do the same thing next month and the next, until we are finished.  Look for the opening tag “Study Time,” as in the title above.   If you think you might have missed some, you can always check the archives under Bible study.  I post five days a week, I just don’t link them all, so you can also check up on other articles about other subjects that you might have missed.
          Just remember this, if our opening passage means anything it means that God judges us by our Bible study.  If we want Him to find us “noble,” and if we want to “find Eternal Life,” the way we dig into the Word of God will show it.
 
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. (Ps 119:97-99)
 
Dene Ward

Charles Edward Coughlin was one of the first to broadcast religious programming over the radio, beginning in 1925.  He eventually had up to thirty million listeners in the 1930s.  He was a Roman Catholic priest, but his programs were more about politics than religion.  He began with a series of attacks on socialism and Soviet communism and moved on to American capitalism.  He even helped found a political party—the Union Party.  Finally, due to some not-so-latent anti-Semitism, he was forced off the air, announcing it in his final program on September 23, 1939.
            Others have stuck with religion and fared much better, Vernon McGee, Oral Roberts, and Billy Graham among them.  Many went on to television, but for a couple of generations, a lot of folks got their weekly dose of religion from the hump-backed radio they carefully tuned in amid high-pitched whistles and static.
         When I was young, radio evangelists were fond of ending their broadcasts with the directive to “put your hand on the radio and just believe.”  That was supposed to instantly transform the person who did nothing but sit in his recliner with a cup of coffee (or a can of beer?) into a Christian, a true believer, a person of “faith.” 
            Most mainstream denominational theologians believe in this doctrine of “mental assent.”  Faith is nothing more than believing, no action required.  Surely that must be one of those things spawned by the itching ears of listeners who wanted nothing required of them.  Just look at a few scriptures with me.
            For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Galatians 5:6.  What was that?  “Faith working…?”  Faith isn’t supposed to “work,” or so everyone says.  Did you know that Greek word is energeo?  Can you see it?  That’s the word we get “energy” and “energetic” from.  I don’t remember seeing too many energetic people sitting in their recliners.
            Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, Philippians 1:27.  Striving for the faith?  Even in English “striving” implies effort.  In fact, the Greek word is sunathleo.  Ask any “athlete” if mental assent will help him win a gold medal or a Super Bowl ring and you’ll hear him laughing a mile away.
            Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all, Philippians 2:17, ESV.  Now that can’t be right.  Everyone knows faith has nothing to do with outward observances of the law like sacrifices.  Well, how about this translation?  The ASV says “service of faith.”  Anyway you look at it, whether sacrifice or service, it requires some sort of action on our parts.
            Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses,1 Timothy 6:12.  Faith is a “fight.”  That Greek word is agon from which we get our word “agony.”  If you are a crossword puzzler, you know that an agon was a public fight in the Roman arena.  Anyone who did nothing but sit there, with or without a recliner, didn’t last long.
            To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12.  And there you have it in black and white:  “work of faith.” 
            Nope, some say, the trouble is you keep quoting these men.  Jesus never said any such thing.  Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent, John 6:29.  If faith itself is a work, how can we divorce the works it does from it? 
            We do have examples of mental assent in the scriptures, three that I could find easily. 
            You believe that God is one; you do well: the demons also believe, and shudder. James 2:19
            But certain also of the strolling Jews, exorcists, took upon them to name over them that had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, who did this. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? Acts 19:13-15
            Those first two examples are powerful.  The devil and his minions believe in the existence of God and the deity of Jesus.  In fact, they know those things for a fact.  They even, please notice, recognize Paul as one of the Lord’s ministers.  So much for not paying attention to his or any other apostle’s writings.  Then there is this one:
            Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; John 12:42.  Those men believed too.  They would have been thrilled to know they could put their hands on something in the privacy of their homes and “just believe.”  They could have had their cake and eaten it too—become followers without actually following.
            And therein lies the crux of the matter.  It’s easy to sit in your recliner and listen.  It’s too hard to work, to strive, to sacrifice and serve, and way too hard to fight until you experience the agony of rejection, tribulation, and persecution.
            Guess what?  Some of us believe this too.  We just substitute the pew for the recliner.  It doesn’t work that way either.  God wants us up and on our feet, working, serving, sacrificing and fighting till the end, whenever and however that may happen.
 
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5
 
Dene Ward

I always had themed recitals for my students, including skits and ensemble numbers.  I seldom had to hear parents complaining about boring recitals. 
One year we had one called "Mystery!"  All of the songs and piano pieces had titles like "Spooky Footsteps," "Descent into the Crypt," "Through the Night Mist," and "Dixieland Detectives."  All the students came dressed as a famous detective from TV or fiction.  We had Sherlock Holmes, Dr Kay Scarpetta, Magnum PI, Columbo, and Miss Scarlet from the Clue game, among many others.
            Nathan was home from college that week and he and I worked up a special duet.  First, I put him in his college chorus tuxedo and introduced him as the detective whose theme he and I would be performing—Peter Gunn.  If you don't know the name, Peter Gunn was the first detective created for television rather than being adapted from some other media.  The show starred Craig Stevens and Lola Albright, who played his girlfriend Edie Hart.  It debuted on September 22, 1958 and ran for three seasons.  Even if you have never seen the show (I never saw one until I was grown and saw it on the oldies channel), I bet you have heard the music.  Talk about modern and catchy—this one has it all.  Blue notes, syncopation, quarter note triplets against a steady eighth note beat.  You can't help but move something when you hear it—a toe, a knee, a shoulder or two.  It won an Emmy and two Grammys for Henry Mancini and was performed and recorded by many others.  Nathan and I have played it in a couple of places since then, and it is always an audience pleaser.
            Audience pleasers.  That's a good phrase when you are talking about a concert performance.  That's what a concert is for—pleasing the audience.  That is NOT what worship is about.  Worship is about pleasing God.  I happened to think about that when a song leader I know, a trained musician, by the way, who does an outstanding job of leading, told me that he was criticized for leading "boring songs."
            First of all, who exactly is being bored?  If it's the audience, then maybe they should remember what they are doing—worshipping God not pleasing themselves.  That ought to take care of the "boring" problem right there.
            Second, why is it "boring?"  If it's because they don't have enough Bible knowledge to recognize Biblical references, nor enough depth to their thinking to understand the allusions and feel the goosebumps at some of the most beautiful poetry ever written, then they should be ashamed of themselves.  The Bible may be easy to understand, but it is not a comic book.  Nor is it a See-Jane-Run first grade primer.  The older I get, the more I love the songs that speak the Word of God in lyrics that truly make me think and keep me thinking long after the last chord has rung in the rafters. 
            Neither the song leader, the prayer leader, nor the preacher should have to try so hard to keep our attention if our worship is sincere.  If the only things that keep me interested in either the singing or the sermons and classes is laughter-inducing stories, toe-tapping rhythm, and shoulder-lifting blue notes, I may as well roll in a piano and have Nathan come with me and play a rousing rendition of "Peter Gunn."  I promise you'll like it and won't be bored.  Whether or not you get anything spiritual from it, whether or not you hear any teaching and admonishing, whether or not God is pleased, is another matter altogether.
 
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.  (Heb 5:14).
 
Dene Ward

I grew up in Tampa.  I learned to drive down Busch Blvd when there were actually empty, weedy lots between Temple Terrace and Florida Avenue.  I drove on I-75 with a learner’s permit, what is now I-275, and even into downtown Tampa where my eye doctor had his office in a 20 story “skyscraper”—by Florida standards anyway.  I drove down 75 past Howard and Armenia to shop at the only mall in town, Westshore Plaza, in an era when sometimes you wouldn’t see more than 3 other cars on your side of the interstate.  Yes, it was a long, long time ago.
            I took Driver’s Ed at King High School.  They had a little driving course in the back of the school.  A two lane “street” painted on a parking lot with stop signs, yield signs, diagonal parking, and pylons for practicing parallel parking.  I could drive that course without a hitch and usually even managed to parallel park without crushing a pylon.
            But we never practiced U-turns.  So one day after I had passed my exam and had my own brand new driver’s license complete with the requisite peon-home-from-working-the-field picture, I was headed west on Busch Blvd and realized I had passed my turn-off.  Time for my first U-turn.  I pulled into the left lane and patiently waited for the traffic on the other side to clear.  It may have been years ago, but traffic was not kind that day.  Those cars were spaced just so that I had to wait far longer than if it were a normal left turn.  I knew I needed time to straighten out the car and get back up to 45 mph before any oncoming traffic reached me.
            Finally there was a break, just barely big enough for me to maneuver, if I hurried.  So I spun that wheel hard to the left and pulled out and hit the gas.  My little Mustang made it to the far right lane before completely turning, but almost immediately I was in trouble.  I had kept the wheel turned too long.  The tires screeched as I crossed back over all three lanes and was headed for the median.  Even though I needed to let go of the steering wheel I couldn’t.  I had thrown myself nearly into the passenger seat and was hanging on for dear life.  Thoroughly panicked, I finally let loose enough for the wheel to slide between my hands and allow the car to straighten.  I took my foot off the gas and shifted back into the seat just in time to miss the median and straighten myself out in the left lane.  No one and nothing was hurt but my pride.  I slunk in the seat as the oncoming traffic caught up and passed me, hoping no one I knew had seen that.
            That’s what a lack of experience will do for you.  I was old enough to drive.  But I had never performed that maneuver before, and had probably never paid enough attention to my parents as they did.  “It’s just a longer left turn,” I thought.  No, it’s a bit more than that.
            U-turns in life can be difficult too.  I have seen so many young people completely disillusioned because they thought making those U-turns after their baptism would be a cinch.  Now that I’ve turned my life over to God I won’t feel those temptations any more, they think.  I will suddenly be a changed person, able to live perfectly from here on in.  Once again a lack of experience is showing.
            We can be forgiven from our sins, but very often the consequences are still there to live with.  That can mean things as difficult as serving jail time or fighting addiction or dealing with people we have hurt physically or emotionally.  It can also mean the urges of a besetting sin.  You will still have to work on it.  You may need to change not just your life, but your schedule and your friends in order to see a difference.  The same things that tempted you before will continue to tempt you, and the Devil will try even harder because he thinks he might have lost you.  Why work on the ones who are securely under his belt?
            Tell your children these things.  Tell that neighbor you are trying to convert.  If they are not prepared for reality, they may lose hope.  But also tell them that now they will have help, help that can strengthen them enough to overcome anything—not necessarily easily, but certainly.  Help that understands what you are going through and will bear with you as you learn and grow with experience.  You may throw yourself across the highway the first time or two, but eventually you will learn to navigate the roads of life, and those U-turns will become easier to make. 
            And, if you have been “raised in the church,” you may find that the U-turns you need to make are of a completely different sort.  It is all too easy when you have never been involved in what we call “the big bad sins” to look down one’s nose on those who came from that background and judge them unworthy because they still struggle.  That is the U-turn you must make:  away from a judgmental attitude toward compassion, the same compassion Jesus showed for an adulterous woman, a thieving publican, and a convicted criminal.  Your U-turn may be the most difficult of all, but he still expects you to make it.
 
But [I] declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. Acts 26:20

Dene Ward

I started teaching women’s classes far too long ago.  I was too young to have any idea either what I was doing or even what I was supposed to be doing.  But at the first place Keith preached—it was a part-time position under the oversight of elders—one of those elders asked me to teach the teenage girls.  I was only 20, but he said no one else would do it.  Then at the next congregation the ladies elected me the first night I attended the class that was already in existence.  Even though there were women forty years older than I, they thought that being “the preacher’s wife” made me automatically qualified.  I, who should have been sitting at the feet of older women, was frantically learning as I went.  I cringe sometimes wondering how many women I confused or misled with my inexperience and lack of wisdom.

I hope I have improved.  I certainly have age and experience now, but the wisdom is an open question—always.  One thing about the age factor:  I have heard every excuse there is for not attending the women’s Bible study.  Are there truly valid reasons?  Yes, of course there are.  But there are far more of the other kind.  Let’s examine a few.

“It’s so difficult to pay attention with the little ones in tow, and it’s so embarrassing when they cause distractions.”  Yes, it is difficult, but there is no need to be embarrassed.  Over thirty years ago when my current Tuesday morning class started up, we all had children still at home.  We made comments over the heads of playing toddlers and it was not uncommon that a few mothers would occasionally have to throw down their books and Bibles and run comfort a crying baby or settle a small-fry squabble.  We were all in the same boat and understood, but we never let our children be the excuse we gave the Lord for not finding time to get together and study.

“But these lessons are so hard and take so long to do.”  I am afraid my lessons do tend to be this way.  But really now, what kind of hours would you expect to put in if you went back to school either to improve your job (vocation) or to get a promotion?  This is your spiritual education we’re talking about, and what you know will make a difference in how you conduct yourself in your spiritual vocation (Eph 4:1; 2 Pet 1:10) 

A long time ago a brother went to the elders about one of Keith’s classes.  “It’s too deep,” he complained.  Those good shepherds were wise enough and strong enough to tell that brother what he needed to hear instead of what he wanted to hear.  “If I had been a Christian for forty years like you have,” they said, “I would be ashamed to say something in the Bible was too deep for me.”  Are you aware of Jesus’ statement when the apostles asked him why he spoke in parables, making it harder for people to understand?  Because the ones who care enough will work hard enough to understand it, he told them.  Do you care that much?

I don’t make my lessons hard on purpose.  They seem difficult because the material is new to you.  I am trying to teach things you do not know, not rehash the things you do know.  That really would be superfluous and not worth a busy woman’s time.  Isn’t gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Word of God worth rearranging your schedule, both in time to study and time to attend?  Can’t you give up something in order to study—like a TV show in the evenings?

“Well they are so hard I don’t even know what to write down in the blanks.”  Ask anyone in the class how I run it.  Despite the reputation I must surely have for being a mean old lady who likes to mortify people, I never put anyone on the spot.  If you don’t know the answer, leave it blank.  But how will you ever find the answer if you don’t come and listen for it?  A good percentage of the class does exactly that, and one even laughs about how much erasing she has to do.  Now that’s a great attitude.  Can’t you follow her example?

“My schedule is just so full.”  So is mine.  So is everyone’s.  The difference between those women and the ones who do not come (but could) is priorities.  They decided to make the time in their schedules for a Bible class.  They schedule things around it instead of the other way around.  They have trained their families to know, “Oh! It’s Tuesday,” or “the third Sunday,” and it really wasn’t that hard to do when they insisted on it.  And let’s just put this out there in black and white, plain and simple:  if you are too busy to study the Bible, you are too busy, and yes, maybe even sinfully busy if it causes you to neglect your Lord and His Word.

“Once I get older and have less to do, then I will start attending ladies’ Bible class.”  Wait a minute!  Who are the older women told to teach?  Not the older ones who “have less to do” but the younger ones, that’s who!  The things we older teachers have to tell you will actually help you during your younger years.  If you listen and use these things, you might just avoid the problems that so many of your friends have.   What good will it do you when you finally come to class and all you have to offer are the things you have learned not to do from hard experience instead of wise teaching?  All my “old faithfuls” began young.  The vast majority have stayed with it—that’s why the class looks like a bunch of older women, not because they are the only ones who have time. 

Many of the ones we have lost have moved to other areas.  I regularly hear from them how much they miss a class where they actually learn something new.  “We don’t have deep classes like this,” a visitor to our class once told me.  But here it is free for the taking to anyone who cares enough—and so few do. 

I know I am not some popular, funny, good-looking teacher.  I know my lessons stomp on toes because I make applications that are real to life instead of feel good fluff.  The truly good teachers I know do the same.  We want to help you.  We want to share with you what we have worked hard to obtain, what means the world to us and should mean the world to you. 

We also want to find young women who can take our places someday.  You simply must start early if you ever hope to do that.  I was 21 when I began serious, deep Bible study, and there is still so much left for me to learn and to share.  You could carry it on if you prepare yourself, but I can only give it if you are there to take it.
 
Older women likewise…are to teach what is good and to train the young women…Titus 2:3,4
And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful [women] who will be able to teach others also. 2Tim 2:2
 
Dene Ward
 

The Adventures of Superman first debuted on television on September 19, 1952.  At least that is the generally accepted date.  Others dispute it, but we are going with that one today.  Based upon comic book characters created in 1938, it starred George Reeves and Phyllis Coates the first year, then Reeves and Noel Niell afterward as Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane.  The show ran for six seasons.
            I realize I am dating myself but I remember afternoon showings in the 60s (reruns) of the old black and white version.  I enjoyed it at that age, but I never really understood how Superman could change clothes in a glass phone booth and no one notice, and why everyone was fooled when Clark Kent took off his glasses.  Then I started wondering how many suits he had and where they went to in all those phone booths.  I realize that I am not supposed to wonder those things, just accept that a man can transform himself instantly into an unrecognizable superhero with a clothes change and a laughably minimal disguise.  At least when Captain Marvel came along in my own children's time, a lightning bolt transformed him instantly.  Now that made more sense.
            But I have seen instant transformation before.  Some kind and pleasant folks, when they get behind the wheel, instantly become impatient, self-centered monsters.  It's all about their schedules, their convenience, and people in their way.  I have also seen it in check-out lines at the grocery store.  The same man who kindly reached a box on a high shelf for me, or the woman who asked a question about which brand of coffee I preferred and then politely thanked me for the information, will, when the line is long and the progress slow, begin huffing and puffing in irritation, heave great sighs of annoyance, and constantly look over to other lines to see if everyone is as slow as this old person in front of her who can't seem to find her wallet in that monstrosity of a carpetbag.
            The Bible does talk about transformation—but not those kinds. 
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2Cor 5:17).
…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and…put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:22-24).
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:2).
            Those transformations often take longer than a lightning bolt or even a clothes change, but our commitment to Christ at baptism is supposed to enable it along.  Renewing our minds in study and meditation, living lives of righteousness and holiness rather than clinging to the old worldliness, and striving to do the will of the Father, Paul tells us in the above passages, will all help us in that transformation.  And whenever we find ourselves in those situations that used to transform us into ogres instantly, plan ahead, think ahead, and remember that we are no longer that old person.  We tossed him in the garbage where he belongs.  We are new creatures.  We don't need a phone booth on the corner because this transformation should be forever.
 
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).
 
Dene Ward