Today is National Bacon Day, not to be confused with International Bacon Day which is celebrated on the Saturday before Labor Day.  Bacon has become a gourmet treat these days, added to practically every kind of sandwich, salad, and some casseroles which would otherwise have nothing to do with bacon at all.  Personally, I think it might be a little overused, but I realize that might be heresy to some of you out there.  Yet bacon does have its various legitimate uses, of which I am a big proponent.
           I was reading the Q and A column in a cooking magazine based in Boston.  “You’re kidding,” I spoke aloud when a reader asked how to dispose of bacon grease without clogging her sink.  Dispose of bacon grease?  Keith was equally appalled, but on a whim he asked a friend, who is originally from New England, what he did with his bacon grease.
            “Why?’ he asked with a suspicious look on his face.  “What’s it good for?”
            What’s it good for?  I guess this is one of those cultural things.  Bacon grease to a Northerner must mean “garbage.”  Bacon grease to a Southerner means “gold.”
            My mother kept a coffee can of it in her refrigerator.  I do the same.  My grandmothers both kept a tin of it on their stovetops.  They used it every day, just as their mothers had.  In the South bacon grease is the fat of choice.  In the old days only better-off farmers had cows and butter.  The poorer families had a pig, and they used every square inch of that animal.  Even the bones were put into a pot of beans and many times the few flecks of meat that fell off of them into the pot were all the meat they had for a week.  In a time when people needed fat in their diets (imagine that!), the lard was used as shortening in everything from biscuits to pie crust.  And the grease?  A big spoonful for seasoning every pot of peas, beans, and greens, more to fry okra, potatoes, and squash in, a few spoonfuls stirred into a pan of cornbread batter, and sometimes it was spread on bread in place of butter.
            I use it to shorten cornbread, flavor vegetables, and even to pop popcorn.  Forget that microwave stuff.  If you have never popped real popcorn in bacon grease, you haven’t lived.  I am more health-conscious than my predecessors—in fact, we don’t even eat that much bacon any more.  But when we do, I save the drippings, scraping every drop from the pan, and while most of the time I use a mere teaspoon of olive oil to sauté my squash from the summer garden, once a year we get it with dollop of bacon grease.  Any artery can stand once a year, right?
            As I said, it’s a cultural thing.  Things that are precious to Southerners may not be so to Northerners, and vice versa.  Don’t you think the same should be true with Christians?  What’s garbage to the world should be gold to Christians.
            One thing that comes to mind is the Word of God.  In a day when it is labeled a book of myths, when it is belittled and its integrity challenged, that Word should be precious to God’s people.  David wrote a psalm in which at least seven times he speaks of loving God’s word, Psalm 119.
            We often speak of “loving God” or “loving Jesus,” but you cannot do either without a love of the Word, a love shown in obedience.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the words that you hear are not mine, but the Father’s who sent me, John 14:24.  Jesus even defined family, the people you love more than anyone or anything else, as “those who hear my word and do it,” Luke 8:21.  Surely the ultimate love was shown by the martyrs depicted in Rev 6:9 who were slain “for the Word of God.”
            Do we love God’s Word that much?  Then why isn’t it in our hands several times a day?  Why aren’t we reading more than a quota chapter a day?  Why can’t we cite more than one or two proof-texts, memorized only to show our neighbors they are wrong? 
            Bacon grease may be gold to a Southern cook, but it is hardly in the same category.  Yet I think I may have heard Christians arguing more about when to use bacon grease than when to read the Bible.  Maybe we are showing the effects of a culture other than a Christian’s.
 
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." John 14:21
 
Dene Ward

I think most Christians understand courtesy.  Granted we have somehow raised a generation that must be reminded sometimes to consider how their actions affect others, but most of the time that reminder works with young Christians, bringing about a surprised look and a hasty, "Oh, I never thought of that."  Courtesy and consideration should be a hallmark characteristic of a Christian, especially courtesy where it is not deserved. 
            And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ​Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. (Matt 5:40-42)
            To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? (1Cor 6:7).
          Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. (1Pet 3:9)
          But for some reason we seem to have trouble with this in our homes.  Think about this:  we often talk to our spouses worse than we do to perfect strangers.  Instead of asking politely, we issue orders.  Instead of a please, we bellow, or screech, as the gender may be. 
           I have heard men talk to their wives like slaves, "Bring me a coke, get me the paper, where did you hide my ________," as if its disappearance could only be her fault.  I have heard wives talk to their husbands the same way: "Go get me this, go get me that, go do this or that for me, I can't believe you did that in my house," as if it were not his house, too.  I even stood in a kitchen once while a wife berated her husband in front of half a dozen other women who were also embarrassingly caught in the onslaught.  We talk to the people we claim to love worse than we would ever speak to someone we don't know, standing in line at the grocery store.
          "If I can't be myself at home, where can I be?" I've often heard as an excuse.  Where you are is not the issue, but who you are.  A kind, courteous person will be that way anywhere.  To anyone.  But especially at home.
 
Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. (1Cor 13:4-5)
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

Sometimes we focus too much on theology and theory.  Trying to understand the why’s and the methods by which God works can be illuminating. We understand that a man is saved by grace; that he is saved by faith. But some go too far in their assertions of what those mean in relation to the life a Christian must live. Their theories state that one cannot overcome sin on a regular continuing basis.  Their theories begin to usurp the place of plain statements of scripture and often excuse a careless attitude toward God’s demand for holy living. And, make no mistake, it is a demand.
 
Not to dismiss the passages on grace and faith from which the theology proceeds, let us consider some of the “on the other hand” applications made by the same writers inspired by the same Holy Spirit.
 
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us CLEANSE OURSELVES FROM ALL DEFILEMENT of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.  (2 Cor 7:1)
 
Sort of absolute, “all.”  Perfecting is not "one and done," but is ongoing as is the cleansing—get clean and stay clean.
 
For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2: 11-12)
 
Grace instructs all to live righteously, godly. Not much wiggle-room for the "We all sin every day" statement we hear so often.
 
Holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith  (1Tim 1:19)
 
So, one could go a whole day, or longer with a good conscience! In fact, the grace of God can be so powerful in one’s life that he has to “thrust” a good conscience away, shove it aside in order to fall.
 
For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye ABSTAIN from fornication (1Thess 4:3) ABSTAIN from every form of evil.  (1Thess 5:22)
 
We understand this means to abstain from evil in every shape it comes in. Again, the Holy Spirit is absolute, but we make excuses, "That is just the way I am," "I am doing the best I can and that is all God requires."
 
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry  (Col 3:5)
 
Kill it. Don’t just reduce it. Kill it. Don’t be satisfied with being better than last week or last year, KILL IT! (Repeat all the excuses above for your comfort in your status quo).
 
Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things WILL NOT INHERIT the kingdom of God  (Gal 5:21)
 
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  (Rom 6:16)
 
LET NOT SIN THEREFORE REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY, that ye 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 ye are not under law, but under grace  (Rom 6: 12-14)
 
Grace is the power to choose whom you serve. To sin is to serve sin and to prove oneself not under grace. Sin is the choice to obey oneself instead of living in Grace.
 
But I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected  (1Cor 9:27)
 
If Paul had to work at it this hard, we know that it is not easy. To buffet is to beat like a boxer. No nonsense about that approach. And not much room for "back row Christians."
 
With all the theorizing about grace and faith, that one cannot achieve sinlessness, even for a short time, we discourage others from doing what the Scriptures clearly command. Perhaps we could even say, grace has become a cloak to cover impenitence.
 
To repent means to STOP what one repents of. That is clearly the import of these passages and dozens of others.
 
The sermons I have heard that use these verses usually go on to say that we all know we cannot really do this! Really?! Are they not saying to just keep sinning and praying for forgiveness that grace may abound (Rom 6:1)?
 
If God said it, he gives us the power to do it. Doing it is a daily effort. These verses were written to people who had been Christians for some time. Therefore, Grace does not magically make us okay despite the sin, or cause God to ignore the sin on the basis of Christ. God expects us to overcome our sin.
 
Yes, I struggle; more, perhaps on that later. Overcoming is no easy task and getting old is not a solution or else 75 is still too young. The solution is to effectively use the grace of God to renew our minds and transform ourselves.
 
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has CEASED FROM SIN, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you  (1Pet 4:1-4).
 
Keith Ward
 
 

On December 27, 1933, the Sinaitic Manuscript, one of the great ancient manuscripts of the Bible, arrived at the British Museum in London.  It had been purchased from the Russian Government for 100,000 pounds, which was then a little over half a million dollars.  More than half the purchase price was donated by the public.  It is said that the manuscript was greeted by a large crowd and that all the men removed their hats as it passed by them.  Respect.  For the Word of God.  Less than a century ago, by the way.
            The Sinaitic Manuscript is the earliest complete copy of the New Testament, and also contains a portion of the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint.  It was originally found at St. Catherine's Monastery at what is believed to be the original Mt. Sinai.  Later it was sent as a gift to the Russian Czar, Alexander II.  Later of course, after Marxism took control (please note:  socialism does not like religion), first under Lenin and then Stalin, it became something they were happy to dispense with, especially at the price believers were more than willing to pay. (Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible)
            And what is happening today?  Even by people who study it as their career, it is called a book of ancient myths, full of errors, and certainly not authoritative for our lives.  You can find websites that regularly poke fun or ask ridiculous questions (that only show the askers' ignorance) designed to denigrate the Bible.  Moses did not write the Pentateuch.  Abraham never really existed.  The Gospel of John is anti-Semitic.  Daniel is history written to look like prophecy.  Isaiah was written in two or three sections, some much later than the other.  Those last two are supposed to undo the great evidence of prophecy in both of those books.
            When I was a child, I heard someone famous, I don't remember who, say on television that one day the Bible would be banned in America but eagerly read in Russia.  That was the height of the Cold War and an unthinkable idea.  Now I am not so sure.  So what do we do about it?
            People have denied, defamed, and even destroyed Bibles for a long, long time.  Stop, take a breath, and calm down.  This is the Word of God we are talking about, a Word He has kept safe for us through thousands of years in ways no one can legitimately deny.  It will not cease to exist no matter what happens in our time.   Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away (Luke 21:33).  Show that Word the respect it deserves in your keeping of it, and in your speech about it.  Study it like it actually means something to you and follow it no matter what it costs. 
            Take off your "hat" in your heart whenever it passes by.
 
For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever, 1 Pet 1:24.                        

 Dene Ward        

Since most folks will be spending a good deal of time either welcoming in family or traveling to family in the next week, plus an inordinate amount of time shopping and cooking, it seemed best to take a break rather than use up new posts when few if any will be reading them.  So I will not be posting again until Tuesday, December 27.
          In the meantime, if you are still reading over this week, and I hope many of you are, please check out either the archives or the categories, both on the right sidebar.  If you are a new reader, you have missed roughly 1,000 posts!  So count this as a time to catch up.  If you are an old faithful reader, you will be surprised at what you have forgotten, especially if you are my age!
          Whatever may be the case, I hope you have a good season of family gatherings and I will be back with you before you know it!

Dene Ward

There has always been an "In Crowd".  I'm not sure exactly how it starts but by middle school—junior high in my day—it's in full bloom.  It doesn't stop there.  It continues into adulthood—in colleges, in neighborhoods, in work forces, anywhere people congregate.  Adults, mind you, who are still judging people by the same immature standards they did as children.  If you are different in any way from their "ideal," if you act differently—too quiet or too obvious—if you dress differently, if you are too intelligent or not intelligent enough, if you speak differently, and especially if you look different, if you have a health problem and especially if that problem makes your behavior, speech, or appearance different from others, you are not and never will be part of the In Crowd.  It's just another form of bigotry.
            And here is the saddest truth of all:  it even exists among the Lord's people.  When people began to follow Jesus in earnest, the scribes and Pharisees—the In Crowd of the day—said, "This multitude that does not know the law [like we do] is accursed" John 7:49.  It really had nothing to do with the Law, but everything to do with their view of the Law (traditions) and the power they wanted to wield as the elite.  They had nothing but contempt for the people they were supposed to be leading.
            In their day it was a matter of status and power and wealth.  When Jesus' preaching ripped them to shreds and left the common people feeling the hope and joy of acceptance by God, he was signing his own death warrant.  When he ate with publicans, spoke to and accepted financing from women, taught Samaritans, healed lepers, the epileptic, and the demon-possessed, and forgave the vilest of sinners, he was announcing that he had no use for the superficiality of those who considered themselves God's gift to—well, God Himself.
            And it happens in the church too.  I've seen doctrinal matters decided not by scripture, but by who knows what Big Name Preacher, on which wealthier family believes what, or on who liked whose personality better—in short, on who was in the In Crowd.
            And just like in the world, it starts with the children.  If there was ever a group that should not have its share of "mean girls" (or boys), it's the disciples of a Lord who went out of his way to accept the ones who were outside looking in.  There's no excuse for us allowing our children to grow up thinking they can shun or ridicule someone who isn't "cool" or "pretty" or "fun," or who doesn't wear the latest styles, or like the coolest teen idols, or any other such shallow reason.  They will not outgrow it.  They will just turn into the adult version, just as shallow and sometimes just as mean.  Those adults will avoid speaking to and even do their best to avoid running into the ones who are not on the right list.  And those poor folks will sit alone at services, stand alone afterward, and, as a result, feel alone in the midst of a laughing and chattering crowd.
            You may not know it is happening.  Could I suggest that it might be because you are already in the In Crowd, too happy to even notice the others?  If we are to nip this in the bud, do this today:  Ask your child, "Is there anyone in your Bible class that you never talk to?  Anyone you will not sit next to?  Anyone you and your friends talk about and even laugh about?"  Then make sure they are telling you the truth.  (Joanne Beckley recently wrote a powerful post on how to tell if your child is lying to you.)  If they have sat in Bible classes long enough, they will know the right answers whether they are doing the right things or not.  But this is important and you need to make it clear to them.  If they are old enough to be baptized believers, tell them that such behavior is not following the steps of the Lord they claimed.  It is bigotry every bit as much as racism.  And it is not acceptable; it is sin.
            Then look at yourself and see if you are the one who taught them such behavior.
            When we persist in these things, we may be the ones who, on that last day, find ourselves on the outside looking in.
 
I myself will feed my sheep and I myself will make them lie down, declares the sovereign LORD. I will seek the lost and bring back the strays; I will bandage the injured and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them – with judgment! (Ezek 34:15-16)

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. (Matt 4:23-25)
 
Dene Ward

I was ready to tell you that this one might be difficult to find, that you might have to look on used book sites like Thriftbooks and Abebooks, or that you might have to scour used book stores, or perhaps the used book section in the Florida College Chatlos Library.  But guess what?  I found it on Amazon! 
            So what is it about?  The complete title might help:  Attitudes and Consequences in the Restoration Movement.  If, like me, you are a third generation Christian and wonder exactly how you got where you are, this book might answer the question.  It will also answer a few other questions you might have like, "Why have people called me a Campbellite?" and "Is the Christian Church related to us in any fashion at all?"  Yes, it is a history of the 19th century movement called, at first, the Reformation, but later, the Restoration Movement.  The point is, to not just reform Protestant religions, but to scrap everything and start over completely, restoring the New Testament Church and its pattern in worship, work, and living.
            The book does get bogged down occasionally with extensive quotations from various preachers, but no one can accuse the author of misrepresenting anyone that way.  He tells it warts and all, it seems to me.  In some cases I was a little aghast at statements those old fellows made, though they were not old when they made them.  These were zealous men in the prime of their lives who saw no religious group following the New Testament pattern and sought to change that in an effort to promote unity among everyone claiming to be a Christian, for the sake of spreading the Gospel.  But when people would not give up their cherished beliefs, no matter how wrong they were shown to be, they settled for gathering the ones who would and became a strong movement for the Truth of the Word.  They were ridiculed by many, but many others joined the choruses we have heard all our lives:  "Where the Scripture speaks, we speak; where the Scripture is silent we are silent," and "For every action we must have a 'Thus saith the Lord.'"  It is the development of that attitude that the book follows.
            As was even the case in the First Century, there was a falling away, and the author chronicles that as well.  Those who were born after the original printing of this book (1945) can tell of similar problems that have risen in their own lifetimes.  If nothing else, the book encourages us to stay faithful.  It may not be for everyone, but for those of us who "have always wondered," it could be a profitable read.
            Attitudes and Consequences was republished by Truth Publications in 2011.
 
Dene Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward

Moses was the leader of the children of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness.  He was the law-giver, the one who judged between the people and the one who consecrated the priesthood.  To worldly eyes, he was in all intents and purposes a king.  In fact, that was the gripe that Dathan and Abiram had with him when they joined Korah in his rebellion.  They thought Moses had gotten too big for his britches.  God, of course, showed them otherwise.  One might look at all this and think, "Wow, what authority!"  But look at these passages:

Num. 9:6-8  "And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.  And those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the LORD's offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?”  And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you.”" 
Num. 15:32-35  "While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.  And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation.  They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him.   And the LORD said to Moses . . ."
Num. 27:1-5  "Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.  And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the chiefs and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying, “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin. And he had no sons.  Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brothers.”  Moses brought their case before the LORD." 
Num. 36:2-5  "They said, “The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.  But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.  And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”  And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the LORD"

            Do you see the common thread in all of these passages?  In each of these cases something came up for which God had not yet issued a commandment.  Surely Moses, in his wisdom and in his place as trusted servant of God, could be trusted to make the judgment himself, right?  Yet Moses never did this.  In every case we see him going to God to ask, or waiting for God to speak.  Moses never usurped God's authority, never added to what God had told him to say, never took anything away.  When Moses spoke, he "commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the Lord." 
            Most of the religious world needs to relearn the humility and dedication of Moses.
 
2 John 1:9  "Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son."
 
Lucas Ward
 

A few weeks ago we piled into the car and headed off for town.  As we reached the western end of the driveway, we saw a stack of pine limbs, 12-15 feet long and still green, as if someone had simply cut them off and laid them there.  Keith stopped the car and stared.
            "What happened here?"
            We went over it together.  I had been by the spot late the afternoon before and seen only the usual foot high field of grass shaded from the afternoon sun by the line of oaks and wild cherries along the west fence.  We had a few gray clouds that evening, as we do nearly every afternoon and evening in the summer, and maybe a quick shower, but no thunderstorm.  Once the evening deepened into pure night, all was still and warm and humid—nothing unusual at all.  It may be five acres, but the distance from the house near the eastern side and the pines on the west is not really that far.  How had this happened without us knowing it?
            Obviously, a small eddy had blown through the pines, and sixty feet above ground it was stronger than you might imagine had you been standing beneath.  I have seen those eddies before.  Sometimes they stir up the dust out in the field where there is no shelter from the trees, but where the trees are thick, they stay aloft.  For it to tear large green limbs meant it was a strong one, but also localized.  Spread out it would not have done any damage.  And so it left us with a neat pile of limbs that Keith hauled to the fire pit for the coming fall.
            When these eye crises first began to hit me, my whole world turned upside down.  I couldn't keep house or cook, I couldn't teach Bible classes, and I had to close my music studio.  Eventually I missed three months of assemblies because of the pain and the appointments and the surgeries and the medication schedule.  When I did make it back and the announcements began I had a bad moment or two.  That week was a baby shower.  The next week was a wedding.  In two weeks was a potluck.  My poor little me self said, "How can they keep on having fun like this?  Don't they know my world is a shambles?"
            Of course that didn't last, but it did come to the surface.  When you are having your own personal storm, you wonder how anyone else can remain unaffected.  Don't they see how miserable you are and how dire the situation?  Don't they care anything about you at all?  Something selfish inside you wants everyone to cry with you.  Maybe that's where the old saying comes from:  Misery loves company.  I was having my own little storm in a localized area and it wasn't affecting anyone downwind.  Or so it felt.
            Okay, so where do we go with this?  First, I am reminded of the injunction to "Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep" (Rom 12:15).  We are all to share in one another's burdens.  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1Cor 12:26).  Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body (Heb 13:3).  Knowing that others care about what is happening to you makes the trials somewhat easier to bear. 
            But there is always, as I said above, the selfishness that must be overcome.  I may be having a storm in my life.  That does not mean that anyone who does not know about it and act like the same storm is ruling their lives doesn't care.  Too many times we act like we have been specially set up to judge others in how they offer their compassion and help.  If it doesn't come when I want and the way I want, they are unloving.  And that of course, can lead to the excuse so many use for leaving the church.  "You didn't come visit me when I was in the hospital.  The elders didn't call, the preacher didn't hold my hand and pray over me, none of the members sent me a card."  Yet, when pressed in the matter you will usually find out one of two things:  the problem wasn't ignored; it was unknown because it was not shared.  Somehow everyone should just "know"—if I have to say anything, they aren't caring enough.  Or, "no one" is a gross exaggeration.
            And it also insinuates that because no one helped me the way I expected and thought they ought to, that I am now excused for any bad behavior.  For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Heb 2:18).  That passage seems to imply that one of the purposes of suffering is so we can learn to help others who are also suffering.  That's what it did for the Lord I claim to be following.  I am supposed to be learning something here, not judging others.  And if I really do learn it, then it becomes my responsibility to do better than the ones I think left me high and dry--not castigating them or using them as an excuse for my own bad conduct, but showing them the way.
            Once my mind cleared that morning, I knew that others were affected by my storm.  They came in droves with hugs, welcoming me back to the assembly.  They had sent me off to difficult surgeries with hugs and money in my pockets for the expenses.  They had fasted and prayed during my scariest operation.  They had taken turns carrying me back and forth to the doctor after Keith ran out of leave time to do it.  That is usually the case when you let your brothers and sisters know your needs, when you share your fears and troubles.  If no one knows you are in a storm, that's your fault entirely.  Don't let a few moments of self-absorption steal the joy of brotherhood.
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal 6:2)
 
Dene Ward

…the Sermon on the Mount is not a soporific sentimentality designed to induce a kind of feeble-minded do-goodism.  Nor do these chapters tolerate the opinion that Jesus' views on righteousness have been so tempered with love that righteousness slips to a lower level than when its standards were dictated by Law.  Instead we discover that the righteousness demanded by Jesus surpasses anything imagined by the Pharisees, the strict orthodox religious group of Jesus' day.  Christ's way is more challenging and more demanding—as well as more rewarding—than any legal system can ever be.  Moreover, his way was prophetically indicated before it actually arrived; as Paul says, But now a righteousness from God, apart from the Law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify (Rom 3:21). 

The Sermon on the Mount, An Evangelical Exposition of Matthew 5-7, by D. A. Carson