Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.“ (John 5:39-40).
 
 These scribes and Pharisees were serious students of the OT and could quote extensive portions of it. Further, they could show proof-texts for all their positions. They were especially particular about worship and respect for God as regards the Sabbath.  But, with all their knowledge, they failed to see the Messiah of the Old Testament standing right before them. They knew what the scripture said and they were certain that Jesus was not it.

Before we point fingers, perhaps we should consider. We are very certain about the five acts of worship and can offer proof-texts on them all. And we are right. We are careful about how we spend the collection for the work of the church, and again, we are right to do so. But, did you know that if we consolidated all the passages that speak of the work and worship of the church we would have no more than 2 or 3 pages in the average Bible?  Shocking? Well, read on.
 
We search the scriptures and we are exceeding careful to do our worship correctly. We urge everyone to be in attendance to worship God. We debate over the proper actions of worship and in more recent history how to do the “work of the church.” By the latter, we mean how we are to spend the money collected on Sunday.
 
I keep telling my inmate church that the most important question, really the only question, is “What does it say?” Not, “What do you think it means?” Not, “What did you learn in the past?” But, “WHAT DOES IT SAY?”
And, the truth of the matter is that the New Testament says little about our together worship or the work of a local church. Read it!
 
Meanwhile, somewhere we have lost the beatitudes. When Jesus preached the kingdom of heaven, this is the whole of it: Poor in spirit, Mourn, Meek, Hunger and Thirst for righteousness, Merciful, Pure in heart, Peacemakers. If you are a Christian, these are who you are every day, everywhere. All the epistles restate and reemphasize these basic character traits. They tell us how to implement these in our lives. The majority of the rest of their words motivate us by telling of God’s love, mercy and grace. Whole books of the New Testament never mention the work and worship of the church.
 
And, when it comes to the final judgment scene, Jesus does not speak one word about what the church did, or one about whether we sang without instruments as we ought, instead, "For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ " (Matt 25:35-36).
So much of our religion centers around what we do at church. Certainly we should be correct in that. But, is that really what the New Testament says? Is that what Jesus and his apostles talked about?
 
It truly is a lot easier to be right about church than it is to get our lives in order:  when we drive, when we interact at work, when we post on social media, when we spend our time, energy and money on everything but what Jesus says in Matthew 5 and 25.
 
We search the scriptures because we know that in them we have life and they testify about so much that we leave undone.
 
For, He that would love life, And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips that they speak no guile: And let him turn away from evil, and do good; Let him seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears unto their supplication: But the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil. (1Pet 3:1-12).

Finally, be ye all likeminded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tenderhearted, humbleminded: not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling; but contrariwise blessing; for hereunto were ye called, that ye should inherit a blessing.  (1Pet 3:8-9).
 
Keith Ward

I have an unusual first name.  Sometimes that is a good thing, sometimes not.  When I was a child and someone told the teacher I had done something, I could not say, “It was the other Dene, not me.”  There was never any question which “Dene” it was because there was never any other “Dene.” 
            On the other hand, I remember the year that Miss America was Debra Dene Barnes.  Now that was exciting.  When someone asked how to spell my name, I just said, “You know, like Miss America does.”
            In a new doctor’s office I can always tell when it’s my turn before the nurse even calls me, poking her head out the door with file in hand—she always hesitates.  I have been called “Den-ay,” “Dee-nah,” even “Danny” once.  You can always tell who learned to read with phonics—long “e” plus silent “e” always equals the correct pronunciation. 
            Sometimes I wish I had chosen to go by my middle name, Teresa.  At least all these doctor appointments would have been easier on everyone.  When I was young, I even looked like I thought a “Teresa” ought to look—long curly black hair.  Now I just look like Mother Teresa.
            Some time ago, I started pronouncing it by the pet name my parents always called me, and which Keith has taken up, “Denie.”  For some reason, when people look at “Dene” that makes more sense to them.  And so “Denie” I have become, though still spelled “Dene.”  It is still fairly unusual and I cannot hide behind the anonymity of a common name.
            Names have always been important to God.  He has even changed people’s names to suit himself when he thought it was important.  But far more important is for us to be called by God’s name.
            Under the Old Covenant people understood that being called by God’s name offered them protection (Deut 28:10).  They understood that being called by God’s name meant bearing the responsibility to act in certain ways (Isa 63:19), and that wearing his name was not permission to wander from his commandments without consequence (Jer 14:9ff).  
            But it also meant that He would have compassion on them, that He would love them even while they sinned, and that He wanted their repentance as much as any Father could want his wandering child to return home. 
            Today we still wear the name of God, Christian.  Wearing that name still means all those things it meant so long ago.  Are we living up to the responsibility that demands, or is God out there calling us back home?  After all, in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven that is given among men, wherein we must be saved. Acts 4:12.
 
Fear not; for I am with you: I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west;  I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; every one that is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, and whom I have made. Isa 43:5-7
 
Dene Ward

I don’t know how many times in my life I have heard unbelievers make fun of the scriptures, but they obviously do not realize what they show themselves to be when they do.  Most of them would call themselves intellectuals, but the statements that come out of their mouths prove they are simply ignorant—at least of the thing they have chosen to ridicule. 
            Have you ever heard them talk about “the God of the Old Testament” and “the God of the New Testament?”  They do this to “prove” that our beliefs are based upon our society, subject to change just as society does, which means that it is all an invention of man.  Everyone knows, they affirm, that the God of the Old Testament was a cruel, angry God who punished indiscriminately for even the most minor infraction, while the God of the New Testament is a mild, friendly, grandfatherly sort who forgives anything whether we repent of it or not.  Study the two paragraphs below for a few minutes this morning.
            And Jehovah passed before him and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.  / Jehovah is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression. / Know therefore that Jehovah your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness to those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. / The earth is full of the lovingkindness of Jehovah, / Your lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies. / Great are your tender mercies, O Jehovah. / Jehovah is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.
            And these shall go away into eternal punishment. / where their worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. / with angels in flaming fire rendering vengeance on those who know not God and obey not the gospel. / It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. / Our God is a consuming fire. / But the fearful and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
            If you know your scriptures, you probably recognize that the first paragraph is taken entirely from the Old Testament and the second from the New.  In fact, I found that the Old Testament uses descriptions of God like “merciful, gracious, and lovingkindness” 312 times, while the New Testament only uses them 200 times!  Considering that a good portion of the Old Testament is history rather than teaching about God, that seems significant.  So much for the intellectuals and all their theories about God. 
            Do you want to see a God full of compassion and mercy?  Read the book of Hosea (an Old Testament prophet) and hear the ache in God’s voice as He describes His people, first as a wife He loved who betrayed Him (2:19) and then as a son He cared for and taught, who turned against His father (11:1-4).
            Remember Jonah, that Old Testament prophet who tried to run from his mission to preach to the wicked city of Nineveh?  What did he say about why he ran?  I hasted to flee to Tarshish because I knew you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and would repent of the threatened judgment, Jonah 4:2.  Jonah knew God would forgive, and he didn’t want those people saved!
            God has not “changed with the times” because He was not invented.  Look at the Greek gods through their mythology and see what types of gods men create.  The true God could never have come from the mind of any man, no matter how intellectual he thinks he is.  A God who gave His creatures the freewill to reject Him?  A God who gave up His Son for creatures who did not deserve it?  A God who lowered Himself to become human, and allowed those same creatures to torture Him? 
            Don’t let the ignorant fools of the world steal your faith.  They have no answers at all for what they believe.  Our God loves us—look at what He did for us.  But our God will only save those who trust Him, obey Him, and live faithfully.  His prophets have been speaking this message for thousands of years--the same message, an unchanging message, a message so far above the intellect of man that no man anywhere could have made it up.
 
Where is the wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the disputer of this world?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the thing preached to save those who believe.  Seeing that Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men, 1 Cor 1:20-25.
 
Dene Ward

“A wall of fire about me, I’ve nothing now to fear.”
 
            If I were surrounded by fire, I would probably be scared to death.  Obviously this figure is meant in an entirely different way.
            And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst, Zech 2:5.
            Zechariah was a minor prophet who prophesied shortly after Haggai.  In fact, you can think of him as writing the sequel to that prophet’s book, Homer Hailey once said.  The Jews have returned from Babylon and are in the midst of rebuilding the Temple.  Zechariah’s job was not only to encourage them to finish the task, but to look ahead to the glorious coming of the promised kingdom.  But here they were, a small remnant (42,360, Neh 7:66, out of an estimated million in Babylon), with no armies, no weapons, and not even a wall around their old city. 
            In the vision Zechariah sees a young man trying to measure the city, as if it were a finite place.  In verse 4 God says Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it.
            “My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus told Pilate.  It would not be a physical, measurable location at all.  The Jerusalem God had in mind was one too big for walls.  It is open to multitudes of peoples.  And the only wall it needs is the protection of God Himself.
            The Hebrew writer calls the church “the heavenly Jerusalem.”  We are in that city and we do not need stone walls or mighty weapons of war.  We have “a wall of fire about” us in the person of the Almighty God.  That fire represents not just the protection, but also the glory of our Savior.  Even as we approach what could be a new era of persecution in our country, if we have faith in those promises, what have we to fear?
            Of all the old hymns we sing, I can’t think of another with as many scriptural references as The Lily of the Valley, over forty if you count them all.  Wouldn’t it be a shame to assign this one to the trash pile just because it doesn’t have modern rhythms or harmonies?  And isn’t it shameful to us if we can’t understand what these lyrics mean?  Jesus should be to us and to our descendants in ages to come “the fairest of ten thousand” to our souls, and God “a wall of fire about” us.
 
What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also, 1 Cor 14:15.
 
Dene Ward

He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morningstar,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.
 
            Three phrases, three passages, two in the same book.  This will take some explanation.
            The old view says that the Song of Solomon was an allegory of Christ and the church.  Fewer people accept that any longer, and though it may have sparked the original lyrics, I am not certain they were meant in precisely that way.  For one thing, the analogy doesn’t hold up.
            I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys, Song of Solomon 2:1.
            My beloved is white and ruddy, The chiefest among ten thousand, Song of Solomon 5:10.
            In the first passage, the shepherdess is talking about herself.  In the second, the shepherdess is speaking about her beloved, the shepherd (or Solomon if you prefer that interpretation of the book).  Those passages are about two different people in the narrative, so how could the poet be following the old interpretation of Christ and the church in the hymn if the analogy does not hold up? 
            Here is the point we are so bad about seeing sometimes:  they are figures of speech.  The lyricist has borrowed various phrases out of the Bible to depict how wonderful Christ is to the believer.  Did you catch the Rose of Sharon reference too?  These are poetic metaphors.  Making literal arguments from figures of speech is something we ridicule our religious neighbors for doing.  Why do we?  Jesus is like a beautiful flower.  He is so fair (as in “Fairest Lord Jesus” too, by the way) we could say he is the fairest among ten thousand. 
            Does that mean number 10,001 is fairer than he is?  Of course not, not any more than the other phrase means he has a stem and petals.  None of these is meant to be taken literally whether you believe in the allegorical version of the Song of Solomon or not.  As it happens, I don’t.  I believe it is in there to show us how to order our romantic marital love.  If that isn’t what it’s about, then God left something awfully important out of the Bible and I don’t believe that for a minute.  He tells us too many times that it contains everything we could possibly need in any circumstance.  And if Paul can talk about the church being the “bride of Christ” why can’t I use these terms for my spiritual “husband?”
            Then we have the “Bright and Morningstar.”  What is that all about?  Balaam prophesied, “There shall come forth a star out of Jacob,” Num 24:17.  Peter tells us, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,” 2 Pet 1:19.  The Morningstar, or daystar, was a bright star that appeared just before dawn at certain times of the year, Venus I read in one place, which at other times of the year is the Evening Star.  Jesus is our Morningstar. He appeared before the coming of his kingdom, the “day” Joel speaks of in Joel 2.  He will appear again on the “day” he takes us to our promised rest.  When we accept him in our hearts, he “appears” to us individually (and figuratively) on that “day” as we enter his spiritual body.  Take your pick of interpretations and “days.”  Any of them satisfy the metaphor.
            That leaves us with just one more wonderful phrase to cover next time, a promise that should encourage us all.  But for now, dwell on these a little while.  Is Christ that important to you?  Is he that beautiful to you?  Would these figures of speech rise from your lips?  Or are we a little too ignorant of the Word and a lot too embarrassed to say such syrupy words about a Savior who gave up everything for us?
 
Dene Ward
 

I have found a friend in Jesus, He’s everything to me,
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;
The Lily of the Valley, in Him alone I see
All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole.
In sorrow He’s my comfort, in trouble He’s my stay;
He tells me every care on Him to roll.

• Refrain:
  He’s the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star,
  He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.

He all my grief has taken, and all my sorrows borne;
In temptation He’s my strong and mighty tow’r;
I have all for Him forsaken, and all my idols torn
From my heart and now He keeps me by His pow’r.
Though all the world forsake me, and Satan tempt me sore,
Through Jesus I shall safely reach the goal.
(Refrain)

He’ll never, never leave me, nor yet forsake me here,
While I live by faith and do His blessed will;
A wall of fire about me, I’ve nothing now to fear,
With His manna He my hungry soul shall fill.
Then sweeping up to glory to see His blessed face,
Where rivers of delight shall ever roll.
(Refrain)

            I bet you have sung that song all your life.  It’s one of those old ones that so many sneer at nowadays.  Yet this song does something very few of the new ones can. It contains a different scriptural reference in nearly every line.  Take a minute and look at the song.  Can you find them?  Here is the shame on us—in the days when this song was written, everyone who claimed to be a Christian, even some we would not classify as “New Testament Christians,” could find them all—they knew their scriptures that well--while we sit here at best thinking, “That sounds vaguely familiar.”
            Obviously I don’t have space to go over them all.  Let me do the obvious ones quickly, and then we will spend two more sessions on the rest.
            “I have found a friend in Jesus,” Matt 11:19.
            “All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole,” 1 John 1:7; Acts 9:34.
            “In sorrow he’s my comfort, in trouble he’s my stay;” you will find this sentiment all over the psalms and the prophets, too many to list.
            “He tells me every care on him to roll,” 1 Pet 5:7.
            “He all my griefs has taken and all my sorrows borne,” Isa 53:4.
            “He’s my strong and mighty tower,” Psa 61:3.
            “I have all for him forsaken and all my idols torn from my heart,” Ezek 36:25; Hos 14:3,4.
            “He keeps me by his power,” 1 Pet 1:5.
            “Through Jesus I shall safely reach the goal,” Phil 3:14.
            “He will never never leave me, nor yet forsake me here,” Heb 13:5.
            “While I live by faith” Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38.
            “Do his blessed will” Matt 7:21.
            “With his manna he my hungry soul shall fill,” nearly two dozen verses from Exodus 16 to John 6 along with Matt 5:6.
            “To see his blessed face,” Rev 22:4.
            Did you catch all those?  I defy you to find more than a few songs written after 1960 that have that many scriptural references in them, unless they repeat one Biblical phrase over and over, or are lifted whole cloth out of the scriptures.  It’s time we learned what those old songs were about before we go throwing them out just because we think them “old” and “archaic” and “boring.”  Maybe they wouldn’t be so difficult to understand if we knew God’s Word like we ought to. 
            And these phrases were just the easy ones, the ones you can probably figure out for yourself with no help.  In the next two days, the two remaining posts on this hymn will begin to get a little more difficult.  While you wait for those, though, spend a little time with the scriptures listed above and ask yourself, “Could I even begin to do the job this poet did?” 
 
Dene Ward

I was flying back from a retreat in Pennsylvania where I had spoken twice to a great bunch of sisters from all over the Northeast.  My traveling companion, a good friend and also a sister in the Lord, sat next to me and we were laughing yet again about something that had happened at that fun and edifying event.  We had left snow on the ground in the heavily wooded hills of the Poconos that April morning, but now it was full afternoon and we sat on the west side of the plane, already feeling the Southern heat as we crossed the Mason-Dixon line. We both reached up to adjust the small round overhead vents to blow away the warming, stale air around us.  Out the small window the cloud shadows painted the rolling landscape and then the waters of the Chesapeake Bay as we flew on over the Washington Navy Ship Yard. 
            About forty-five minutes north of Atlanta, our stop to change planes, the pilot came over the intercom.  "Ladies and gentlemen, we have just declared an emergency.  Please follow the directions of your flight attendants as we will need your cooperation."
            Suddenly, all talking ceased.  We looked at one another as did many of the other passengers in the seats ahead of us.  As I recall, the flight attendants walked up and down the aisle once to reassure everyone that we had great pilots and were in good hands, never losing the smile on their faces, then sat down and strapped themselves in.  We heard a cough or two which seemed like a signal because once again people began to talk, in a much quieter and calm way than I would have expected after such an announcement.  I even heard a chuckle or two from somewhere behind us.
            A lot of things ran through my head in the next forty-five minutes, but as my friend said, "There really isn't anything we can do about this. If we go down, we go down."  Airliner crashes seldom leave survivors.  So we sat and continued our talk as we had before, and so did everyone else.  No tears, no screams, no panic of any kind at all.  And on we flew.
            Just before we reached Atlanta, the pilot spoke again.  All other planes had been told to circle and wait until we were safely on the ground.  We were to all keep our seat belts fastened and remain in our seats as the plane landed and came to a stop.  (If we made it down safely, he did not say but most of us were thinking) we would not be taxiing to the gate.  Instead, an emergency crew would circle the plane.  When we were deemed "safe" to be in close contact with other planes and passengers, we would approach the gate and disembark.  And that is exactly what happened.  We landed in a normal manner and came to a complete stop in the middle of the runway.  We all watched out the windows as three or four trucks, including a fire engine, circled us at a snail's pace.  Then they moved off to the side and we taxied to the gate and unloaded.  Somewhere along the way we heard that it had all been because of a faulty indicator light that showed that the plane was on fire.  Evidently, it was not.
            But what if it had been?  Let me tell you something, folks.  When you have a near miss, you get real serious about your life.  Even though you think you have been doing just fine, suddenly every mistake you ever made comes to mind.  And you find yourself thinking this, "Have I done enough?"
            And the unequivocal answer is, "No.  I haven't."  Not because I don't try.  Not because I don't do the best I can every day.  But because the best I can do is still not good enough.  At some point, we have to learn to trust God's grace.  Too often, young people "raised in the church," listening to prayers about how "we sin all the time," have been made to feel that there is no hope.  That they must try and try and try and no matter what they will still fall short and they just might not make it to Heaven.  Well, you know what?  You will fall short, but that does not mean you won't make it to Heaven.  God did not leave us in a hopeless situation, and He certainly didn't dangle an unreachable carrot in front of us for His own amusement.  In fact, His word speaks of hope constantly--one of the biggest differences between Christianity and other religions.  We consign grace to Jesus on the cross and fail to see it in his example of overcoming, of praying, of knowing the Word so well it springs to our lips constantly.  We fail to see it in the help of the Spirit as we live and the offer of mercy when we fall. 
            You will not be perfect, but you can overcome, you can grow and get better, and even when you slip, you can be forgiven.  If the plane starts falling out of the sky, you don't have to scramble around trying to ask forgiveness for every single thing you think you have done wrong lately before it hits the ground.  Let the "God of hope" fill you with peace.  Trust Him and say, "I tried, Lord.  I did my best.  Please take me home."
 
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Rom 15:13).
 
Dene Ward

I hope and pray that someday soon this one will matter once again in our lives.

When I was a child we often visited friends and family, all the kids sleeping in the living room floor on piles of quilts.  It was fun because it was different and exciting, and not one of us complained.  Dinner was never fancy because none of us were wealthy, but all my aunts could cook as well as my mother and we knew it would be good whatever it was.  We practiced the hospitality shown in the Bible to our families, to our neighbors, and to our brothers and sisters in the Lord.  What has happened to us?
            Even if we aren’t particularly wealthy, we have fallen for the nonsense that because we cannot offer what the wealthy offer, we should offer nothing at all.  How do we excuse it?  I don’t have a spare room.  I don’t have a bathroom for every bedroom.  The spare room I do have is too small.  The bathroom is too tiny.  My grocery budget is too small and my time too little for cooking.  I work.  I have an infant in the house who still wakes up at night.  And the perennial favorite, “You know, times are different now.” 
            Not so much, folks.  Lydia worked, yet she made Paul and Silas an offer they couldn’t refuse—she told them they would be insulting her faith if they did not stay with her.  Unless I am reading something into it that isn’t there, Priscilla worked right alongside her husband, “for they were tentmakers.”  Yet Paul didn’t stay with them for just a night or two—he lived with them for a good while.  Abraham was a very busy man—he had more employees than some towns in that day had citizens, yet he not only offered hospitality, he actively looked for people who might need it.
            “But they had servants!” some whine.  If you don’t think your modern conveniences fill the place of servants, you have never thought about what it took back then to cook—they started with the animals on the hoof, people!  Their cooking involved building a fire from scratch, sometimes in the heat of the day.  And here we sit with the meat already butchered in our electric refrigerators, ready to put in our gas or electric ovens.  We clean with our vacuum cleaners, pick up ready-made floral arrangements at the grocery store, make sure the automatic shower cleaner and the stuck-on toilet cleaner are still in service, and stop at the bakery for the bread. Then, when it’s all done, we put the dirty dishes in our dishwashers, and we do it all in our air conditioned homes.
            Part of the problem may also be the expectations of guests these days.  It isn’t just that people are no longer hospitable—it’s that people are spoiled and self-indulgent.  They don’t want to sleep on a sofa.  They don’t want to share a bathroom with a couple of kids.  They will not eat what is offered.  We aren’t talking about health situations like diabetes and deadly allergies.  We are talking about people who care more about their figures than their fellowship; people who were never taught to graciously accept what was placed in front of them, even knowing it was the best their hosts could afford, because, “I won’t touch_______________,” (fill in the blank). 
            We once ate with a hard-working farm family who had invited us and two preachers over for dinner.  Dinner was inexpensive fare--they had five children and had invited us six to share their meal.  Later that evening, when we had left their home, we heard those two preachers making fun of what of they had been served and laughing about it.  I hope those poor people never got wind of it. 
            When we raise our children to act in similarly ungracious ways, when we consider them too precious to sleep on a pallet on the floor, as if their royal hides could feel a minuscule pea beneath all those quilts, what can we expect?  Do you think it doesn’t happen?  We once had a guest who told me she had rather not sleep where I put her.  It was the only place I had left to put her.  I already had four other guests when she had shown up at my door unannounced.  She was more than welcome—I have taken in unexpected guests many times--but where were this one’s manners?
            Do you know how many times we have been told, “Do you know how far it is out there?” when we invited someone thirty miles out in the country to our home for a meal.  Excuse me?  Of course we know how far it is—we drive it back and forth at least three times a week just to the church building, not counting other appointments.
            This matter of hospitality worries me.  It tells me we have become self-indulgent and materialistic when it comes both to offering it and accepting it.  God commands us to Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, 1 Pet 4:9.  What has happened to the enjoyment of one another’s company, the encouragement garnered by sharing conversation and bumping elbows congenially in close quarters, and the love nurtured by putting our feet under the same table, by opening not only our homes but our hearts? 
            What has happened to the joy of a pallet on the floor?
 
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us, Acts 16:14,15.
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
Let's begin by stating the obvious: Solomon was very wise. Yet for today, we need to go through the exercise of showing just how wise he was so that we can draw some necessary conclusions from this later on.

In 1 Kings 3:5-14 God appears to Solomon and asks what he would like from God. Solomon declared that he was just a young boy who didn’t know how to be king to this large nation he had inherited and asks for wisdom, discerning, and understanding so he could be a good king. God was very pleased at this and promised to make Solomon wiser and more discerning than anyone before or after him. The last half of this chapter is an example of Solomon’s discernment. A familiar story to most of us. Two prostitutes who lived together had sons within days of each other. One rolled atop her child during the night and accidentally suffocated him. She then switched out the babies and claimed the living one as hers. Unsurprisingly, the mother of the living child knew which was hers and knew the dead child wasn’t hers. Also unsurprisingly, no one else could tell the children apart. Newborns tend to all look alike, and in a tribal society in which all are related if you go back far enough, and all had Semitic features, it wasn’t easy to tell one dark haired, dark eyed child from the others. This was a classic she said/she said scenario. None of the lower judges of the country could figure out how to handle this issue, so the matter came before Solomon. After Solomon heard the case, he almost mocks the ladies in vs 23. ‘One says this, the other says that!’ One can almost hear his exasperation. He then calls for a sword and orders the baby cut in half. I’ve recently heard a lot of nonsense about this, people accusing Solomon of being cruel and bloodthirsty. Solomon had no intention of killing the baby. He wanted to watch the two women as he gave the order. Sure enough, the true mother – who like all mothers would do anything to keep her child alive – began begging for the child to be turned over to the other woman as long as it was alive. The mother of the dead child had no such strong reaction and so Solomon solved the unsolvable case, figuring out which woman was the real mother. This display of discernment was so great that the last verse of this chapter tells us that all Israel feared the king because it was so obvious that the wisdom of God was upon him.

This is far from the only indications we get of Solomon’s wisdom and learning. 1 Kings 4:29-34 gives us some of the stats of his career. Solomon spoke over 3,000 proverbs, meaning we only have some of them recorded in the Bible. He wrote 1,005 songs, again meaning we only have a small portion of his work preserved. In addition to this, he gave discourses on what we would call botany and zoology. And just to beat a dead horse a little deader, the first ten verses of 1 Kings 10 record the visit of the Queen of Sheba. She had heard of Solomon’s wisdom and his works and decided that she wanted to see for herself. She came to visit and to test Solomon’s wisdom with hard questions, the kind of things that one mulls over in the dead of the night. Hard questions of the heart. In verse three we see that all her questions were answered. “. . .there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her.” She exclaimed in verse 7 that the unbelievable stories she had heard about him hadn’t even told the half of what he truly was. Think about that. How often does anything live up to the hype? Solomon far surpassed the hype.

I think it is fair to say that Solomon was incredibly wise and full of understanding.

So how do we explain 1 Kings 11:1-8? This tells us that Solomon loved many foreign women. Egyptian, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women are listed in verse one. We are told he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines (vs. 3). These women turned Solomon’s heart away from God. He began to follow the Ashtoreth and Milcolm, gods of Sidon and Ammon. He built temples and high places for other gods so his wives could worship their various idols (vs 4-8). Vs. 6 sums it up well: “So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.”

Do you think Solomon knew he shouldn’t have married those women? Aside from the fact that the Law specifically forbade intermarrying with foreigners (Deut. 7:1-4), do you think Solomon was wise enough to recognize the dangers? Of course he was. Do you think he knew that building temples for other gods, even if he didn’t worship them, would anger God? Of course he did. Do you think he knew it was foolish to worship those idols he did follow? Of course he did! He was Solomon, the wisest man to ever live! He knew these things, but he sinned anyway. Sometimes knowledge of God’s word isn’t enough. Sometimes wisdom to know the right course to follow isn’t enough. Regardless of knowing the right thing to do, at some point I have to decide to do that right thing. I have to utilize the self-control to follow the wisest course. Knowledge and wisdom won’t help at all unless I decide to make use of my knowledge and wisdom.

Let me pause for a second to say that I am in no way denigrating knowledge and wisdom. These are needful things. After all, in 1 Kings 3:10 it says that God was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom and discernment. Hosea 4:6 tells us that knowledge of God is essential to salvation. Throughout the New Testament we are told to pursue knowledge and wisdom. For instance James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”  Also Paul tells Timothy that in order to be approved, he had to be able to handle the word of truth. That takes both knowledge and wisdom, right? 2 Tim. 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” In 2 Peter 1 we find knowledge right in the middle of the list of “Christian virtues”. It is clear that knowledge of the truth and the wisdom to utilize it are pursuits that all Christians should participate in, yet the clear example of Solomon is that knowledge and wisdom alone aren’t enough. We all know of very capable Bible students who have left the Lord. Without racking my memory, I could tell you of an Elder who left his wife and the Lord. Also, one of the best adult Bible Class teachers I know left his wife and the Lord, though praise God he later repented and returned to each. I’m sure everyone reading this could add to these stories. So following God takes more than just knowledge.

First we need to know where true knowledge and wisdom originate: Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” and Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” If our knowledge and wisdom isn’t based in a fear of God, it isn’t going to help us much. For instance, there are professors of Biblical Studies throughout the Ivy Leagues who have dedicated their lives to studying the Bible and probably know more about it than 99% of Gospel preachers and yet they don’t believe in God. (This is totally mystifying to me.) Do you think their immense Biblical knowledge is going to help them much? Probably not as Heb. 11:6 says that in order to please God one must believe that He is. Unbelieving knowledge often leads to sinful pride. If we aren’t careful, this can even befall believers, as they come to rely on their knowledge rather than on God. This happened to Solomon, as seen in 1 Kings 11:9-13, 40. When he was rebuked by God and told another would rip most of the kingdom from him, Solomon had the temerity to try to kill Jeroboam and thus undo God’s plan. In his pride, he thought he could thwart God. So, as our knowledge of God increases, so must our humility before Him. James 4:7a, 10 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

At base all knowledge, however pious, won’t help if we don’t have self-control. We sometimes pray for forgiveness for any sins we might be unaware of, and that’s fine, but let’s be honest for a moment. Most of the time we sin we know we are being tempted, we know that to give in would be a sin, and we decide to do it anyway. Our knowledge didn’t help us then, did it? Except to make us feel that much more guilty later. We need knowledge and wisdom, but we also need to decide to follow that wisdom and knowledge. We need the self-control to follow through on what we know. Unsurprisingly, this is discussed in the scriptures:

Isa. 1:16-17 “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.”

God here tells His people to stop sinning. He doesn’t tell them to study more. He doesn’t give them strategies for better success at overcoming temptation. He just tells them to stop. “Cease to do evil.” It is a matter of deciding. To steal from Nike, “Just do it.” Paul also calls for determination:

1 Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

We are to be “steadfast, immovable.” Nothing should shake us from following God. Being immovable doesn’t take gigabytes of knowledge or even the wisdom of the sages. Being immovable just takes a decision and then some stubbornness. (So what’s my excuse?) We need to know God, decide to follow Him, and then be too stubborn to quit. If we follow that formula, we will win. Notice what Peter and James say about the Devil:

1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Yes, he is dangerous. Yes, he is trying to devour us. Yes, we can resist him. If we do, he will flee. Others are going through it too. Others are winning. So can we. We just have to decide.

I’m proud to be a part of a congregation that makes an effort to have in-depth Bible studies. That is important. However, paying attention in these classes twice a week and listening to two good sermons each week isn’t enough to keep me in the Way. At some point, I have to decide to follow God and to stand fast, immovable.

Lucas Ward

And He said to them, let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also, for to this end came I forth, Mark 1:38.
           
            Jesus was a worker.  He got up early (Mark 1:35), and sometimes even missed a meal because He was so busy working, (John 4:31-34.)  He was always ready to move on to the next place, the next group of people.  His philosophy seemed to be, “There’s not much time so let’s keep working.”  Why?  Because He understood His mission:  this is why I came.
            That is not today’s philosophy.  Instead I hear, “There’s plenty of time to work, so let’s go play,” or “Life is short, so have fun.”  Maybe we don’t work like we ought to because we don’t know our mission like He did. 
            In our culture everything is about me--whether I am happy, whether I get to do the things I want to do, whether I feel fulfilled--and the things that we find fulfilling are usually money, fame, and pleasure. 
            We are simply too rich.  Ask a Christian in a third world country what his mission in life is and you are far more likely to get the right answer.  He scarcely has a roof over his head, much less one over a couple of thousand square feet of luxury home, and his leaks!  His existence is day to day, hand to mouth, and he works longer hours for a minuscule fraction of your pay—if indeed he has a job—than you think is humane.  Yet all his spare time is used studying his Bible, attending Bible classes, and speaking to his neighbors.  We can hardly find the time to simply sit in the pews, even though we probably work more than a dozen hours less a week than that man.
            We seem to be teaching our children the same mindless egocentrism.  They “deserve” to have fun.  They are so busy with earthly pursuits every minute of the day that they don’t even spend thirty minutes a week filling out a Bible lesson—and their parents are too busy to check to see if they did, or sigh with regret and say, “But they needed a little down time.”  Can’t their down time involve something spiritual?  Can’t we teach them how satisfying it is to take meals to the poor, to visit the elderly and the sick, to do their yard work and run errands for them?  If they are not learning it now, when will they?  If they are not learning it from you, then who will teach them?
            Four times the Hebrew writer says Jesus “sat down,” 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2.  Jesus did not sit down because He was tired and needed to rest, or because he needed some time to Himself.  He sat down because He had accomplished His task.  He told His disciples, We must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day; the night comes when no man can work, John 9:4.
            My mission is not about me.  My mission is about Jesus and His family—serving Him by serving them; serving Him by serving my friends and neighbors.  When you know what your mission is, you are more likely to keep working at it, and less likely to worry about whether you are having enough fun.  Those things become your “fun;” they become your fulfilling moments; they become your treasure stored in Heaven.          
            Accomplishing those things will finally give you the opportunity to sit down and rest.
 
He who overcomes, I will give to Him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in His throne, Rev 3:21.
 
Dene Ward