Today’s post is by guest writer Keith Ward

Laast year the Florida basketball team lost to Kentucky. Kentucky did not win, we lost. I suspect that over the next days, coach Billy Donovan pointed out in detail, and possibly at volume, exactly how the players managed to lose a game in which they were vastly superior. All year, he had difficulty getting the team to play his way. In fact, he benched players to try to wake up his playmakers once pulled a starting player for most of a game. Here is a coach who has won two national championships and numerous conference championships and is on the list of all time winning coaches and they will not listen to him! Instead of running the game the way he makes them practice, the playmakers descend into “street ball.” Only 1 of our 5 losses came at the hands of a team that played better, they had one of those Cinderella nights and just won. Many of our wins came because the team was good enough to win despite ignoring the coach, but his frustration was evident on the sideline. 

Our war has already been won. The scripture is abundantly clear that Jesus defeated Satan at the cross, and cast him down (Rev 12, Lk 17). The game has been won. There is no way we can lose, Jesus is helping and the Spirit is guiding as an on-the-floor playmaker. When we sin, one can hear Jesus saying, “What part of ‘no temptation above what you are able to bear,’ did you fail to understand? Why are you playing street ball instead of my championship game?”

“If God is for us, who is against us?” The answer is that we are. We excuse ourselves by saying the situation is different in the game, by deceiving ourselves that “we are doing the best we can,” or by our hope that if we think on the Lord’s Supper real, real hard, that will fix everything. 

Jesus has to be even more frustrated than Coach Donovan. So much more is at stake. He gave so much more to make our victory certain. And again and again, we lose games because we do not listen to our heavenly coach.

Jesus played the game on our court and HE WON. He can make us champions and lead us to victory—but we must stop playing our own game.

Keith Ward

Do you know what the acronym CARE stands for?  Cooperative for American Remittances to Everywhere.  I never would have guessed that one.  The organization is made up of several charitable groups and their first “mission” occurred on May 11, 1946.  They sent 20,000 care packages to survivors of World War II in Europe.  Those first packages were US Army Surplus meals, each originally intended to feed ten soldiers as they invaded Japan, a plan that was no longer necessary after that country’s surrender.

After they ran out of those, CARE packages were put together from other
necessities provided by donations and varied according to the disaster they were relieving.  Today that phrase “care package” has entered the language as anything sent to a person in any sort of need from anyone who loves them. 
I sent them regularly to my two sons while they were in college, and
those usually contained a supply of cookies, brownies, and other homemade
treats, as well as a check or gift card.  When Lucas moved to the panhandle, his care package contained all those things he might need the night before the moving van arrived with his belongings--paper plates and cups, plastic forks, toothpaste, toilet paper, bath soap, water bottles, plastic trash bags, and sandwich makings, along with the by now requisite cookies.

My church family and I had opportunity to send some packages to our
brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe who are having a difficult time just finding
the necessities of life.  When the women I study with every Tuesday morning asked the church for some monetary help, we were flooded with so much we were able to send more than just food, so we asked these people what they might need.

They did not ask for anything fancy, just staples like beans, rice, and
powdered milk.  They did not ask for new clothes, just needles and thread to sew up the torn gray garments they are already wearing, and safety pins to replace missing buttons.  They asked for laundry soap bars—powder doesn’t work down at the river where you beat your clothes on the rocks.  They asked for water purification tablets because they are becoming ill, and some even dying, from drinking the plainest liquid on earth.  They asked if we “might possibly” send some Tylenol to help ease aches and pains and fever, as if they were asking for a luxury.  They asked for a little Vaseline to soothe lips dried in the ongoing drought.  They never even mentioned money.

I was so amazed at these attitudes that I started wondering what I might
ask for in a care package, what my list of “life’s necessities” might look
like.  Once I asked some teenagers, Christian teenagers mind you, and was horrified by the list I got.  It included a cell phone!  I think it is a safe bet that any American reading this should not ask for anything material at all.  We have
far more than we actually need to simply survive, certainly more than these poor brothers and sisters overseas.

But what should I ask for in my care package? Probably all of us have the same needs: more love and compassion for others, more patience, more endurance during trials, more self-control during temptations, more knowledge of God’s word, more wisdom to make the decisions of everyday living, more gratitude for what He has sacrificed for me, more faith in His power and promises, more belief in the forgiveness and hope He has offered, and far more grace to cover my continuing failings.

The thing is, we already have that care package, we just sometimes forget to open it.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith  --  that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,  forever and ever.  Amen.  Eph 3:15-21.

Dene Ward

This is Part 5 of the Monday series "Whoso Findeth a Wife."

A worthy woman is a crown to her husband, but she that makes ashamed is as rottenness in his bones, Prov 12:4.

A crown shows that a man is a leader, worthy of respect and honor.  A wife crowns or dethrones her husband with her spoken attitudes and behavior.  The public often takes its cue from her, for who can respect a “man who knows not how to rule his own house?” (1 Tim 3:5).

His wife’s subjections is probably the surest gauge of a husband’s character.  Despite all her protestations, a wife who is not in subjection is easy to spot--she will not be in subjection anywhere.  In Bible classes she is controversial, opinionated, and pushy.  She speaks her mind in a sarcastic, hostile, or offensive tone of voice—and woe to the teacher who tries to point this out!  She makes public scenes either by raising her voice or by being careless of who may be within earshot.  Any man, anywhere, any time is prey to her razor-sharp tongue.

A wife’s loyalty to her husband is another way of bestowing honor on him.  Unfortunately, we who consider ourselves loyal may behave in disloyal ways without ever realizing it.  Loyalty is not confined to sexual fidelity.

A woman who does things she and her friends know her husband disapproves of is disloyal.  Do you have to hide things from him?  The phone bill? The credit card statement?  Do you keep a dress for six months so that when you finally whip it out and wear it you can “truthfully” say, “No this isn’t new.  I’ve had it quite awhile.”  You might be surprised at some of the things I have heard women admit to.  Even if his demands are unreasonable, the very fact that you gripe about them to others and then disregard them, shows that you want others to feel the same disdain for him you do.  God intended that a husband and wife be for each other, each the one the other can count on.

A gossiping wife causes others to think less of her husband.  How much would you be willing to share with a man whose wife spent half her day on the phone?  Would you go to him for help with a problem?  Would you be inclined to “confess your faults” (James 5:19)?  Gossip causes everyone to “wag their heads” (Psa 64:8), a sure sign of disrespect.

A wife surely demeans her husband by making statements that begin, “He knows better than to…” as if he should fear the consequences she might hand out.  What tales we tell about our marriages without realizing it!

Immoral behavior is probably the greatest disgrace a wife can bring to her husband.  It leaves others questioning not only his control of the home, but his manhood as well.  More Christians slip into adultery than you want to believe.  Others get as close to it as they can with their choice of clothing.  Lewd dress encourages men to think thoughts about other men’s wives that they have no business thinking.  Not only has she shamed her husband, but she has caused others to sin as well.

When a woman acts in these ways, she is telling the world, “I do not feel my husband is worthy of honor and respect.  Why should you?”  And that publicly expressed attitude, even if never spoken aloud, eats away at him: “but she who makes ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.”  Just as cancer can kill the body, a wife can murder her husband’s spirit. 

Respect your husband; honor him as head.  Do nothing that will shame him.  Be a crown, the reason others respect and honor him.  As it is said of the worthy woman:
Her husband is known in the gates where he sits among the elders of the land, Prov 31:23.

Dene Ward

We don’t travel a lot, but when we do we try to find a group of brethren who share our faith.  Most people call this looking for a “sound church.” After several unsettling experiences with so-called “sound churches” on the road, I started studying the phrase. Guess what?  You won’t find it anywhere in the Bible, not in any of the nine translations I checked.

I have already mentioned a time when we forgot our “church clothes” and
had to attend services in jeans and flannel shirts—camp clothes--and the cold
reception we received.  Another time I was in a city far away from home for a scary surgery. We remembered our church clothes, but it didn’t seem to make a bit of difference.  We walked in the front door, went down the middle aisle and sat two-thirds of the way down—Keith must be able to see faces in detail so he can lip-read.  We were at least 10 minutes early.  No one approached us, nor nodded, nor even looked our way.  Finally the woman in front of us heard Keith say, “I can’t believe no one has even greeted us,” and turned around to introduce herself.  After services we walked down the aisle surrounded shoulder to shoulder by the (still unwelcoming) crowd, stopped at a tract rack for a minute or two, and finally walked out the door before the preacher finally came out calling us to say hello.  It wasn't like we didn’t give him plenty of time.  No one else even bothered.

Contrast that to the time we entered a building thinking that we probably
didn’t agree entirely with this group because of a few notices hanging on the
wall, but were greeted effusively by every single member the minute they saw
us.  We were even invited to lunch, while at the previous church I mentioned, living in a hotel between dangerous procedures, no one even asked if we needed any help.

So when our recent study of faith came upon a passage in Titus about
being “sound in the faith,” I decided to check the entire context and see what
that actually meant.  Since I must be brief here, I hope you will get your Bible and work through it with me and see for yourself.

First, the phrase applies to individuals, not a corporate body.  Titus 1:10-16 gives us a detailed and complete picture of someone who is not “sound.” They are the ones the elders in verses 5-9 are supposed to “reprove sharply” so they may be “sound in the faith” v 13.  Look at those seven verses (10-16) and you will see a list that includes these, depending upon your version:  unruly, vain talkers, deceivers, false teachers, men defiled in mind and conscience, unbelievers (who obviously claim otherwise), those who are abominable, disobedient, and deny God by their works, being unfit for good works.  

The context does not end just because the next line says, “Chapter 2.”  In that chapter Paul clearly defines what “sound in the faith” means, beginning unmistakably with “”Speak the things that befit sound doctrine, that the older men…” and going straight into the way people should live.  Read
through it.  Everything he tells the older men and women, the younger men and women, and the servants to do and to be fit somewhere in that previous list (“un-sound”) as an opposite. 

If people who are unruly are un-sound, then people who are temperate,
sober-minded, and reverent in demeanor are sound.  If people who are defiled in mind and conscience are not sound, then people who are chaste, not enslaved to wine (or anything else), and not thieves are sound.  If people who deny God by their works and are even unfit for good works are not sound, then people who are kind, sound in love, and examples of good works are sound. 
Go all the way through that second chapter and you can find a (opposite)
match for everything in the first.

Now let’s point out something important:  if being a false teacher makes you
unsound, then being a teacher of good and having uncorrupt doctrine does indeed make you sound, but why do we act like that is all there is to it? 
You can have a group of people who believe correctly right down the line
but who are unkind, unloving, un-submissive, impatient, and who do nothing but sit on their pews on Sunday morning with no good works to their name and they are still not a “sound church!”  Not according to Paul. Nine out of the ten things on that “un-sound” list have nothing to do with doctrine—they are about the way each individual lives his life.

I am reminded of Jesus’ scalding words to the Pharisees in Matthew  23:23: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these you ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Yes, our doctrine must be sound, but doesn’t it mean anything to us that Paul spends far more time talking about how we live our lives every day?  
 
If the church is made up of people, then a sound church must be made up
of sound people who live sound lives.  That is the weightier matter of the law of
Christ.
 
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified: Romans 2:13.

Dene Ward

A young woman is making biscuits for her new husband  When she tries to roll them out she has a problem—they keep falling apart.  It is all she can do to
make them stick together long enough to get them on the baking sheet.  And when she tries to take them off, they fall to pieces.  Her husband tells her, “That’s all right. It’s the taste that matters,” as he gallantly takes a bite, and a little bite is all he can get.  They crumble so easily he cannot even butter them.  Before long, his plate is filled with crumbs and he has not managed to eat even half a biscuit’s worth.
             
The next morning she calls her mother. “Too much shortening,” her mother
says.  So that evening the new bride tries again.  If shortening is the culprit, she reasons, maybe no shortening at all would be even better.  
 
That night, as she slides the biscuits off into the basket, each lands with an ominous thud.  Her husband gamely takes a bite, or at least tries to.  They might as well be hockey pucks.  
 
I imagine that even non-cooks can see the point here. Each ingredient in the recipe makes a difference; each one is important and must not be left out—the shortening makes the biscuits tender, the flour gives them enough structure to hold together. Why are we smart enough to see that here, but forget it when it comes to spiritual matters?

One group says faith is the only thing we need. Another says strict obedience is the only thing we need.  One of them bakes crumbs, the other hockey pucks.  
             
Every generation reacts to the past generation’s errors by overcorrecting.  Each group is so afraid of making the same mistake that they make another one, and worse, usually sneer at their fathers for missing it so badly, thinking in their youthful arrogance that they have discovered something brand new. 
What they have usually discovered is the same error another generation
made long ago, the error their fathers tried to correct and overdid as well.

Why is it so hard to stop that swinging pendulum in the middle?  Why do we arrogantly suppose that the last group did everything wrong and we are doing everything right.  

Does God want faith? Yes, the righteous shall live by his faith, Heb 2:4.  
Does God want obedience? Yes, to obey is better than sacrifice, 1Sam 15:22.
Does God want our hearts? He always has, and why can’t we put it all together?  Thanks be to God…that you became obedient from the heart, Rom 6:17.

The Hebrew write equates disobedience with a lack of faith. 
And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest but to them who were disobedient?  And we see that they were not able to enter in due to unbelief, Heb 3:18,19.

Can God make it any plainer?  He doesn’t want crumbs; He doesn’t want hockey pucks; He wants a nice tender biscuit of a heart that is firm enough to hold the shape of the pattern used to cut it.  Follow the recipe God gave you.  When you go about your day today, make sure you have all the ingredients.

Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint, anise, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law.  But these
[matters of the heart] you ought to have done, and not left the other [matters of strict obedience] undone, Matt 23:23.

Dene Ward

I opened the cooler and looked down into the plastic bin inside and saw a bloody mess.  Immediately my mind went into salvage mode.  We were camping, living out of a cooler for nine days, and couldn’t take any chances, even if it did cost us a week’s worth of meals.  As it turns out, the problem was easily solved.

Whenever we camp, because space is short for that much food and eating out is not an option, I take all the meat for our evening meals frozen.  The meat itself acts as ice in the cooler, keeping the temperature well down in the safe zone, and we use it as it thaws, replacing it with real ice.  I learned early on to re-package each item in a zipper freezer bag so that as it thaws the juices don’t drip out and contaminate the other food and the ice we use in our drinks.  We also put the meat in plastic tubs, away from things like butter, eggs, and condiments—just in case.  That’s what saved us this time.

Somehow the plastic bag in which I had placed the steaks had developed a leak, but all those bloody red juices were safely contained in the white tub, and the other meats were still sealed.  I removed the bin from the cooler, put the steaks in a new bag, dumped the mess and cleaned the bin and the outside of the other meat bags, then returned the whole thing to the cooler, everything once again tidy and above all, safe.

We all do the same things in our kitchens.  After handling raw meat, we wash our hands.  We use separate cutting boards for meat and vegetables meant to be eaten fresh.  And lately, they are even telling us not to wash poultry at all because it splashes bacteria all over the kitchen.

We follow all these safety rules, then think nothing of cross-contaminating our souls.  What do you watch on TV?  What do you look at on the internet?  Where do you go for recreation?  No, we cannot get out of the world, but we can certainly keep it from dumping its garbage on the same countertops we use to prepare our families’ spiritual meals.  There is an “off” button.

Maybe the problem is that these things are not as repulsive to us as they should be.  The Psalmist said, I have not sat with men of falsehood; Neither will I go in with dissemblers. I hate the assembly of evil-doers, And will not sit with the wicked. I will wash my hands in innocency: So will I compass your altar, O Jehovah; Psalms 26:4-6.  Can we say our hands are clean when we assemble to worship God after spending a week being titillated by the sins of others?

If we followed some basic spiritual safety rules as carefully as we do those for our physical health, maybe we would lose fewer to cross-contamination of the soul.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. Ephesians 5:11-12

Dene Ward

Lynchpin—1) the pin inserted through an axletree to hold a wheel on; 2) something that serves to hold together the complex.

If the lynchpin is removed, the wheel falls off and the vehicle can longer move; it is useless.  Paul tells us that resurrection is the lynchpin to Christianity.

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.  We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied, 1 Cor 15:13-19.

I think we understand that.  If Christ has not been raised from the dead, why should we care anything about how he tells us to live?  His resurrection is the reason we believe in his Divinity, in his right to tell us how to live, and ultimately in the hope of our own resurrection.  Our whole belief system stands or falls on the resurrection.

Paul said a few other things about Christ’s death and resurrection in Romans 6: Or are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?   We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he who has died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, Rom 6:3-8.

Did you catch that?  If we were united with him in the likeness of his death, we should also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection.  That new life to which we are resurrected is not the one in the future, but the one we live now, no longer enslaved to sin.  Keep on reading in Romans 6.  Christ died once and will not have to die again because death no longer has dominion over him.  The life he lives now is a life lived “unto God.”  What does that mean for me? Even so reckon you also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts thereof:  neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under law, but under grace.

Now that I have been raised in the likeness of his resurrection through my baptism, sin should no longer control me; I should control myself because through Christ I can.  If I insist on making excuses for myself, “That’s just the way I am,” I am denying the power of my resurrection with Christ.  If I take Rom 7:15 out of its context, using it as Satan misused scriptures in Matthew 4, saying, “See I want to be good, I just can’t help it,” when Paul clearly states at the end of this passage that a solution has been found, Who shall deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ.. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, I have denied that very deliverance. 

When I continue to sin and do nothing to improve myself, I have denied the effects of the resurrection as surely as if I no longer believed in it.  It is the same lynchpin, the pin that keeps the wheels from falling off the cart, the pin that keeps my hope in salvation upright and rolling, even on rocky ground or muddy tracks. 

Remember the first time you were raised from the dead, that the life you live now you live unto God because sin no longer controls you; you, with the aid of Christ, control it. If you deny the power of the resurrection with ungodly living, then “your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”   Live instead like a resurrected creature, and you will make it to the ultimate resurrection. 

Dene Ward

This is Part 4 of the Monday series "Whoso Findeth a Wife."

God saw a need and said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a help meet for him” (Gen 2:18).  Notice, that is two words—a help meet, “meet” being the adjective of the word “help.”  Our modern dictionaries put them together as helpmeet or helpmate and define it as “wife.”  According to Mr. Webster, every married woman is a “helpmeet,” but the Bible usage involves a distinction, specifying what kind of help the woman is to be—a meet help, or as some versions read, “a helper suitable” to the man.

In one sense woman is suitable to man by her very natures, this is, because he “made them male and female” (Matt 19:4).  God made man and woman to complement one another in an emotional way as well.  Man is the idealist who sets the lofty goals; woman is the pragmatist who pulls them down to something within reach and organizes the process of getting there.  Man is the strong one who goes out to deal with the world; woman is the softer one who soothes his wounds.  Man is the cynic who, as such, is able to protect his family from those who might take advantage of them; woman is the more merciful one, who sometimes allows it to excuse faults or wrongs that need punishing.  Together they temper one another and are more than they could ever be apart. 

But in another real sense, not every woman is suitable to every man.  We would do well to teach our children this fact.  They grow up believing in “happily ever after” and “love conquers all,” but after years of picking up muddy boots and strewn clothes, listening to foul language or crude habits, and waking up at 2 am with no idea where he is, she begins to wonder if her love has enough ammunition left to conquer anything else.  We must teach them to be more objective—more cold-blooded—about choosing a mate.

What about his chosen career?  It takes a completely different kind of woman to be a doctor’s wife than to be a farmer’s wife; to be a policeman’s wife than to be a small business owner’s wife.  Each job carries demands on the man that will affect his family.  Sometimes he will be called away at a moment’s notice.  Sometimes he will be in danger.  Sometimes he will need to keep things confidential.  Sometimes she may need to pitch in and work right next to him.  Can you handle it?  If you haven’t thought of these things before your marriage, if you haven’t discussed the problems that could arise, you have been short-sighted at best and foolish at worst.

But once a woman has taken the plunge, if she is not suited to him, it becomes her duty to make herself suitable to her man, even if it means changing lifelong habits and ideas.   When I recognize a problem, it becomes my responsibility to try to solve it whether anyone else helps or not (Rom 2:6).  If I see my marriage faltering because of our differences, I need to do everything I can to repair the situation.  And most men are not as bad as some women would have us believe.  When he sees such obvious efforts on his wife’s part, the husband usually works harder himself; but even if he doesn’t, shirking responsibilities will not be excused.

Changing will easier if she is optimistic and open-minded.  If she goes into something dreading it, thinking she will hate it, griping at every little thing that does not suit her, then 99% of the time, she will hate it.  And what’s more, so will he.  He will come away dissatisfied, and she will wonder why because after all “we did just what he wanted.”  For example, in choosing a vacation trip, where they went or what they did was less the point than having a good time—with her!  Her dissatisfaction and complaining made them both miserable.

Try approaching things with a positive attitude, determined to find something in them you can enjoy, and equally determined not to gripe.  Does it require physical exertion?  Look at it as a way to improve your health.  Is he much better at it than you?  Look at it as a way to build his ego.  Compliment him fervently and he will become a gallant knight right before your eyes.  (When was the last time you gave him a real compliment anyway?)  Is it “just not the way you are?”  Then use it to improve your self-discipline (2 Pet 1:6).  None of us have enough.  Will it mess up your hairdo?  (Yes, I have actually heard that one!)  Really now, your companionship does a whole lot more for your marriage than your hairdo.  “It is not good that the man should be alone.”  Make yourself meet, suitable, for him.

There is another angle to this help business.  The very word demands that the woman not be a hindrance.  How many times have you heard it said of a man, “He’d be a good ________ if it weren’t for his wife?”  Especially in regard to his spiritual duties, what could your husband be if you were a better person?  A personal worker?  A Bible class teacher?  A full-time gospel preacher?  A deacon?  An elder?  Perhaps he needs to develop himself more as well, but will he do so if he knows that all he will get from you is criticism of his efforts or complaints about the time his new duties take or, worse yet, if he knows your character does not fit the bill (1 Tim 3:11)? Won’t you feel ashamed if your husband has to tell the Lord, “I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come” (Luke 14:20)? 

Be a help to the man you love, not a hindrance; a steppingstone on his way to Heaven, not a stumbling block over which he plunges straight into Hell.  And make no mistake about it.  If that’s what happens, you will be there too.

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his (or her) own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Philippians 2:3-4.

Dene Ward

Today’s post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

The story of Jesus as a twelve year old visiting Jerusalem on the Feast Days with his parents and being left behind has been on my mind lately.  He said at that time, “Don’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?”  What was Jesus, as a 12 year old, able to do to be about his Father's business?"

Well, where did his parents find him? -- In the temple. Doing what? -- Asking questions of the scribes and priest. Probably listening to their debates and teachings. In short, he was studying the Word of God. He was building up a bank of knowledge to be used later when he would be able to do something with it. To me, that's the lesson of the story.

When our young people decide it is time to be about their Father's business, and that's what they are saying by being baptized, what should they be doing? Realistically, most 12-15 year olds can't go on missionary journeys to Africa, South America or Asia. They won't even be very effective trying to teach in their neighborhoods because most adults aren't going to listen to a teenager tell them how they should live their lives.

So, what can they do? Exactly what Jesus did: study. Learn the Word of God. They should try to get as comfortable with it as Jesus who, even though unable to carry around a Bible, quoted it liberally and was confident enough of his command of scripture to make arguments based on the tense of a verb. Our young people should be building up a bank of knowledge now so that later, when all of the various opportunities to use it begin to arise, they will be ready. If a young person isn’t busy “about his Father’s business,” then maybe he has no business trying to make a lifetime commitment to it yet.  Jesus didn't waste his youth "hanging out." He got ready for his adulthood.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

Lucas Ward

Are you still using the old argument, “Reverend is only found once in the Bible and it refers to God, so men should not be called reverend?”  If so, you need to shelve that one.  It is a specious argument based totally on an accident of the King James translation.  The word is only translated “reverend” once in that version.  The Holy Spirit originally used the Hebrew in Psalm 111:9.  That word is yare, and it is used by the Spirit over 300 times in the original Hebrew scriptures.  Some of them refer to men, including righteous men like David.

But in Matthew 23:8-12, Jesus gives us the same concept.  Be not called Rabbi; for one is your teacher and you are all brethren.  And call no man your father on the earth, for one is your Father, even he who is in Heaven.  Neither be called masters for one is your master, even the Christ.  But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Now some people do call their earthly father, “Father,” and there is nothing wrong with that.  The point, you see, is not the word, but setting someone up as better than his brethren by the use of a [capitalized] Title, be it Father, Holy Father, Reverend, Most Reverend, Most Right Reverend—you get the point. 
The New Testament has no concept of laity and clergy at all.  To be quite honest about this, it is even possible to misuse the word “brother” in the same way, by applying it only to people we consider to be worthy of it due to their knowledge or role in the church.  Jesus said in that quote above, “You are all brethren.”  
 
Let’s take this a step farther.  I have an aunt and uncle who both have doctoral degrees in chemistry.  They both taught at a prestigious university and one was even head of the department for many years before retirement.  You know
what?  No one in the family calls them “Dr. Ayers.”  They would be insulted.  They accept the title only in the realm of academia, but never in the family circle.        

The church is our spiritual family circle.  We were all born again, raised to walk with Christ as a new creature, and when that happened, we were all “created” equal.  Just as my aunt and uncle would not want anyone in the physical family to use their academic titles, I don’t think I know a true brother or sister in the Lord who would ever expect the family to use their earthly titles except in the worldly realm in which they apply.  As Jesus so clearly explained in 
Matthew 23:  whoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.

One of the greatest Bible students I know has a high school education.  But he has studied so hard for so long on his own, and has developed such great insight, that I would sit at his feet to learn at any opportunity.  Others, who sport more letters after their names than if they spilled a bowl of alphabet soup, make it obvious in their teachings that they spend more time studying things other than the Word of God.  Those things may have their place, but it is not as a substitute for the Truth.

The only titles we wear are Christian, child of God, saint, heirs and joint-heirs with Christ.  Truly, among the family of God, that should be all the honor any of us needs.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, Gal 3:26-28. 

Dene Ward