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And While I'm At It

4/13/2022

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I told you yesterday that I had googled “reasons for abortion” and had found a couple of articles, but in that post I only told you about one of them.  I also found one of the most self-serving articles I have ever read with a title so long I won’t bother now to type it out, but it started, “Ten Reasons I am Pro-Abortion,” and the author is Valerie Tarico.  Let’s just go over some of her statements today.
            1.  Abortion is “fundamental to female empowerment and equality.”  What is this world all about any more except me and my rights?  We fight this in the church all the time, just as Paul fought it in the first century.  We are to be willing to “suffer wrong,” actually yielding our rights for the sake of others--I Cor 6,8, Rom 14, Phil 2—need I go on?  The whole mentality is the opposite of being Christlike.  Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me. Rom 15:1-3.  Yielding our rights and subjecting ourselves to one another, whether male or female, is what Christianity is all about.
            2.  Taking pregnancy “as it happens” instead of planning it, and by inference removing what is unplanned, “trivializes pregnancy.”  On the contrary, treating pregnancy like something listed on a schedule trivializes it.  Babies are not some kind of item we need to remember to pick up at the market before we get home, or can toss in the trash if we don’t want them.  Even when it just “happens,” the people of God have always considered …children a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Ps 127:3
            3.  “Real people” are more important than a fetus.  And there you have the perennial justification.  A fetus is not a person.  God says otherwise, period.  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you… Jer 1:5.  But our society no longer has any respect for God or his Word, and with that perspective it can justify anything.  This woman even compared an unborn child to a hamster, and the hamster came out ahead.
            4 and 5.  Abortion can “fix our mistakes” or “fix tragic accidents.”  We now live in a society that blames our mistakes on others, or that thinks we should bear no consequences from them.  Unfortunately life is not like that and trying to pretend that it ought to be is foolish.  Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Gal 6:7.  Indeed this argument is not about fixing mistakes or accidents, but about making me unaccountable for my sin.  There we go again—sin, a horribly old-fashioned word for something that no longer exists anyway, not to a godless society.
            6.  Abortion is “good economics.”  And by that of course, we are talking about having the money to raise a child.  I am so happy for her that she is part of a family that can eventually reach a point where they can “afford” a child.  If we had waited till we could have afforded them, we would never have had children at all.  Is she saying in all her wisdom that poor people should be neutered?  My children survived on hand-me-downs and happiness.  I do not believe either one of them feels deprived.  ​“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ​Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matt 6:25-30.
            7 and 8.  Abortion is “a way to form a family of your own choosing,” and not having access to legal abortion would be “a violation of our values.”  Let me be clear that I am not against contraceptive measures being used by a married couple.  I am not against choosing the number of children you want to have as far as you can control with those contraceptive measures.  Medical science has made that possible today without the killing of conceived infants.  However, notice the attitude in these two statements.  It’s all about me and what I think, not about the eternal principles of right and wrong.  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! Isa 5:20-21.
           9 and 10.  Abortion is for the sake of the “happiness of the unborn” and to “give them a healthier start.”  What we’re talking about here is aborting defective babies.  As someone who was born with a birth defect, let me tell you exactly how angry this one makes me.  Does this writer think I am not happy?  Does she think I was not loved and cared for like a “perfect” child?  How dare she make those judgments for me and intimate that it would have been better for me if I had not been born!  How dare she say that I was not worth the trouble and expense to my parents or society!
          But folks, we will never win this argument because as Christians we will never come at it from the perspective of selfishness, materialism, and irreverence.  And we have no hope against someone who claims that her views on abortion prove that she “believes in mercy, grace, and compassion.”  We obviously do not even speak the same language.
          At some point, our task becomes one of keeping ourselves from being infected by this insidious attitude.  We must avoid anything that smacks of selfishness.  We must treat all things spiritual as the priority in our lives.  We must hold God and His Word in reverence, obeying every command and living a life of holiness and righteousness.  We may never change the minds of the godless, but we can keep our own hearts pure, and our actions and attitudes mirror images of the Lord’s. 
 
 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1Pet 2:11-12
 
Dene Ward
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Class Reunion

4/12/2022

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It was my ten year high school reunion, the only one I have ever attended.  I graduated in a class of 800 so I wasn’t exactly pining to see a lot of close, old friends.  I did manage to find four I had known fairly well, but even that turned into a bit of a fiasco.  That sweet girl, someone I thought of as like-minded in her dress, speech, and actions, whose boyfriend became a West Point cadet, both of whom were decidedly to the right in their politics, was now, ten years later, an abortion clinic nurse.  I was absolutely flabbergasted and physically ached when I heard it.
            So then my dear husband began talking about a “case” he knew of.  He told her about this very young teenager who had gotten herself pregnant, but not by her fiancé.  She was very poor, and she was from a town where the social ramifications would be devastating.  “What would be your advice?” he asked my old friend.
            “An abortion,” she immediately replied.  “Teen pregnancies are dangerous to both mother and child and how will she support it?  Assuming her boyfriend and she do eventually marry, how fair is it to expect him to raise someone else’s child?  And why put herself through the torture that we all know society wreaks with unfair judgments?  Her life will be ruined.”
            All of a sudden I knew exactly where this was going, and waited for him to deliver the punch.  “The young woman’s name was Mary and you just killed Jesus,” he said.
            Even though this was in the 80s before search engines ever existed, all you have to do is google “reasons for abortion” and you will find his points exactly.  I did.  One article listed these:  poverty, teen pregnancy, relationship issues, parental upset and fear of what others will think.  There it is in a nutshell:  Mary, who would have entered betrothal to Joseph at about 13 (the kiddushin), who was so poor she had to offer the “poor people” sacrifices at the birth of her son, who lived in a society where she would have been stoned had not the Romans forbidden it and where even her betrothed was planning to divorce her—that’s how binding a betrothal was.  And every abortion doctor in the world would have advised her to terminate that pregnancy.   
And where would we all be because, congratulations!  You just murdered the Messiah. 
            Aren’t we glad she did not?
 
And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit; and she lifted up her voice with a loud cry, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Luke 1:41-42

Dene Ward
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The Scooters

3/31/2022

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For their seventh and fourth birthdays, which we celebrated together, we gave our grandsons scooters.  They were small scooters, starter scooters, I called them, about like a skateboard with a handle.  But they were thrilled.  If ever we got a gift right, we seem to have that time.  Before long they were zooming around like little speed demons.
            Of course, four year old Judah was not quite up to his older brother’s antics.  He tried his best to follow him in the same places, at the same speed, and usually wound up losing it on a curve.  Finally he stopped, turned down his little lip and said, “I can’t do it good.”
            Of course he could; he was doing just fine for his age.  He just couldn’t do what his big brother could.  While there isn’t much difference between forty-four and forty-seven, there is a lot of difference between four and seven.
            And too often that’s what we do.  We judge ourselves against people who are older, wiser, and more experienced.  I see this woman handling a life threatening illness like cancer and I can’t even handle the flu without getting grumpy and complaining.  One man sees another teach an outstanding class on Zechariah and he can’t even give a decent five-minute Wednesday night talk.  And both become so depressed they stop doing what they can do.
And if we aren’t careful, instead of gradually growing and learning how, we give up too.  Or we blame it on God for our lack of talent, or on our parents for not making us do our lessons as children, or for not taking us to church, or on the church for not using us as we “ought to be used,” regardless of what we can and cannot do.  Any of those is our handy alibi for sitting down and doing nothing.
            The day that Judah complained was a Sunday.  “Guess what?” I asked him. 
            His big blue eyes turned up to me as he said, “What?”
          “Tomorrow is Monday and Silas will be at school.  That means you can practice your scooter all day if you want to and before long, you will be as good as he is.  And by his age, maybe even better!”
           He gave me a lop-sided grin like he wasn’t sure about that.  “Really?” he asked.
           “Really!”  I said.  And he hasn’t given up.  He knows he needs to work at it, but he also knows that he will get better.  He already has.
           And that’s what we need to remember.  Plus this: God doesn’t compare us to brother or sister Whozit.  He knows what we can and cannot do.  He is the one who decides what we are capable of—not us!  And if we keep on trying, we will “do it good,” good enough to please a gracious Father.
 
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1Pet 2:1-3)
           
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Legacy

3/23/2022

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I bet if I were to ask you which king set the standard for evil in Israel, without hesitation you would answer, “Ahab,” along with his Sidonian wife, Jezebel.  Certainly the two of them accomplished a heap of wickedness in their rule of the northern kingdom, everything from idolatry and murder to all sorts of immorality; but you might be surprised at the one who is mentioned most often as a comparison of evil in the scriptures.
            Jeroboam was the first king of the northern half of the divided nation.  He feared that he would lose the support of the people and they would turn back to the Davidic dynasty in the south, regardless of the fact that God promised him, if you will hearken to all that I command you, and walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my eyes, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, that I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you, 1 Kgs 11:38.  Because he did not have faith in that promise, he changed the pattern of worship as set forth in the Law, 1 Kgs 12:25-33. 
            He made a new feast day, v 32-33, so the people would not be traveling to Jerusalem with all the southerners to worship together, v 27.  He began making priests of other tribes than Levi, v 31.  He made two new places of worship, Dan and Bethel, conveniently located at both ends of the country, so the people would not feel compelled to travel to Jerusalem—anything to keep them at home and happy.  It is important to note, too, that the calves he built were not idols to be worshipped, but graven images by which the people were to worship Jehovah—something Amos and Hosea make more apparent than 1 Kings.  This was not rampant idolatry; it was just a change in the pattern of worshipping Jehovah.
            So what is the problem?  They still worship Jehovah.  They still keep feasts to Jehovah, and make sacrifices under the leadership of a priesthood.  Yet these were things devised of his own heart, v 33, not things that God had ordained.  This is the difference:  God said through the prophet Ahijah in 14:14-16, Jehovah will raise up a king who will cut off the house of Jeroboam…For Jehovah will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River…and he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and in which he made Israel to sin.  From the point of the northern kingdom’s first king, God had decided their fate—they would not stand for the Law, so he would not stand for them.
            Now take a few minutes and read these passages:  1 Kgs 15:3, 29, 30; 16:25,26, 31; 22:51,52; 2 Kgs 3:1-3; 10:29-31; 13:1-3, 10, 11; 14:23,24; 15:8,9,17,18,23,24; 17:20-23.  What do they have in common?  A phrase similar to this: and he walked in the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat in which he made Israel to sin.  Five times a king is said to have done evil “like Ahab,” but sixteen times the honor goes to Jeroboam.  Jeroboam single-handedly caused the destruction of the northern kingdom, and set the standard for evil among all her kings.  How?  By disrespecting the Law of God.  That is the legacy of Jeroboam.
            Whether we like it or not, we are all leaving a legacy.  It may not affect a kingdom, but it will affect our children, and theirs, and theirs, till before you know it, we have affected hundreds.  The greatest legacy we can leave is to follow God’s pattern for marriage, raising children, worship, and social conduct.  If your children are small, now is the time to become conscious of the legacy you are leaving, before it’s too late.  The frightening thing about legacies is, they cannot be undone!
 
But when that generation was gathered to their fathers, there arose a generation that knew not God…Judges 2:10.  Don’t let it be your children’s generation.
 
Dene Ward
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Hand in Hand

1/14/2022

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A few years ago when Judah was about 2, we went down for a visit.  He had only become comfortable with me and Granddad the visit before and I did not know how much he would remember, whether it would take a "warm-up" period or not before that comfort would return.  Silas, who was 5, was occupied with his uncle and Mario Kart, and scarcely noticed when we walked in, but Judah came right up to me, grabbed my hand and said, "C'mon Grandma.  Let's go play."  My heart swelled so that it's a wonder it didn't pop right out of my chest.  We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with his toy cars and Granddad had to empty the car by himself.
            Let me ask you, if your toddler grandchild came up to you and grabbed your hand, asking you to come play with him, would you have done otherwise?  Especially since we were not sure how much he would remember us—we live over 2 hours away and only see them every 3 or 4 months—how in the world would I ever turn away from something that caused me such great joy?
            God felt that way about His children.  Notice these verses this morning:
            …Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son (Exod 4:22).
           …You have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son… (Deut 1:31).
           He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. ​Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, ​the LORD alone guided him…(Deut 32:10-12).
            When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. ​The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. ​I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them (Hos 11:1-4).
            In that last passage we see just how much God loved His people.  Even when they had scorned him, disobeyed him, betrayed him, and forsaken him for idols, it hurt him to do what he had to do to punish them.  But punish them he did.
            We call God our Father today, and he loves us every bit as much as he loved them.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:14-15).
            But just as those people had to show their love by their obedience, so do we.  What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, ​and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2Cor 6:16-18).
            Did you notice the condition in that promise?  Just as this Grandma was thrilled to have that tiny hand in hers, to have that little child want to be with her, God wants that from us too.  But we must understand the conditions a whole lot better than those faithless children of old did.  As long as things went well, they had no place in their lives for him.  What kind of place does he have in ours? 
            God walks in the door every day of our lives.  How will we greet him?  Or do we even care if he came?
 
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1Pet 1:14-19).
 
Dene Ward
 
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Get Them Ready Now

1/7/2022

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I have heard it a lot lately:  "I hate to think what kind of world my children will have to live in when they grow up."  I have said it myself about my own grandchildren.  I think what goes unsaid by most is this:  "Will they be able to stay faithful and endure?"  Finally, the answer came to me one day as I sat musing, or actually brooding, about the direction our country seems to be taking recently, "Of course they will.  They have parents who teach them every day, who live godly examples in front of them, and grandparents who do their best to reinforce those values.  Of course they will make it!"
            Yet that sums up the problem most people have—they do NOT do those things and when they stop to think about it honestly, they know it.  No wondered they are worried.
            I daresay that upwards of 90% of all parents train their children about "stranger danger."  They probably know not to talk to someone they do not know when their parents are not with them, not to go with anyone who is not their parents or someone they are positive their parents sent (we had passwords for that), and to never let anyone touch them in private places.  Those who have firearms in the home probably taught them gun safety from the time they could walk.  Those with pools probably put locked gates around them.  We are always safeguarding our children's lives.  We should also be preparing them to handle persecution and temptation. 
            Now is the time to talk to them, not some distant day in the future.  Sit down tonight and review stories of faithful people who said "No!" to idols, "No!" to evil rulers, and "No!" to Satan.  But even better than that, show them a life of devotion.  Show them a servant who sacrifices for his God.  Show them someone who studies and prays daily, who discusses Bible subjects with his family, including the children, and with other Christians.  Have Christians in your home and show them that others believe this, too—they are not alone.  But even if they are, they have a Father who will not forsake them.  And teach them the hope and the glories of being in Heaven with that Father.
            Do you want your children to survive the world that's coming?  When we might be persecuted or at least scorned publicly for believing in God?  When believing what God says about morality will get us not only ridiculed but hated?  When we might lose our possessions because we do not fall in line with the status quo?  They say that the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 against the Stalinist Hungarian government happened because, despite the Communists' control of the schools and universities, parents taught their children at home about the old Hungary and the freedoms they had enjoyed then.  Though the Soviet Union put down that revolt, 30,000 refugees fled to the United States.  The seeds of that revolt ended in the Republic of Hungary, established in 1989—all because parents did what parents are supposed to do, teach their children at home constantly the things they want them to know.
            Ours will not, and should not, be a military uprising.  But teaching our children at home the things they should know is something we need to take seriously.  "I don't have time," won't be a suitable excuse.  "I don't know how," will not get the job done.  If you are truly worried about the world your children and grandchildren may have to live in someday, then do something about it now.  It may well be that their souls will depend upon it.
 
But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all (Ps 103:17-19).
 
Dene Ward
 
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I Want to Be the Daddy

10/8/2021

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A long, long time ago as I sat in the car with my two little boys, waiting for their father to lock up the house before we left that morning, one of them, whose name will remain unmentioned, said, "I can't wait to be the Daddy.  Then I will get to do whatever I want!"  Teaching moment, I instantly thought, and proceeded to use it.
            "You know, Daddies really don't get to do whatever they want."
            "They don't?" he asked in a skeptical little voice.
            "Well, for example, when the weather turns cold in the middle of the night and we all curl up under the blankets in our beds staying warm, who gets up in the cold, shivers while he builds a fire in the wood stove, then stays up the half hour it takes to get it going and finally turned down before he can go back to bed?"
            "Daddy," he said a bit reluctantly, but I could tell he still hadn't gotten my point.
            "And who, when it's pouring down rain at church time, drops us off under the cover, then parks the car and runs through the rain getting all wet and cold?"
            "Daddy," not quite so loudly and with a slightly bowed head. 
            "And who is the one who never gets a Saturday off to watch cartoons like you do, but works to chop more wood so we can stay warm and works in the garden so we can eat?"
            An even softer, "Daddy."  He had finally gotten it, but just to make sure--
            "Daddies have to do whatever is the best thing to take care of their families, whether it's what they want to do or not."  Silence reigned in the car until Keith finally got in, and I never heard another thing about wanting to be the Daddy.
            What he was too young to understand was perhaps the most important thing.  When you are the head, the buck stops with you. 
            President Harry Truman was famous for having a sign on his desk that read, "The buck stops here."  He was referring to the old phrase about "passing the buck," which meant passing on the responsibility.  He knew that as President, he couldn't do that—he was the highest in the chain of command so he was responsible, no matter what happened or who else goofed.  In the home, it works the same way.  If the Father is the head of the house, he is also responsible for everything that goes on in that house.  A lot of men want to "pass the buck," blaming the mother, the schools, the church, society in general.  But God says, "Fathers…bring them up…"  The father may delegate a lot of the responsibility to the mother, but it is still up to him to make sure the job is being done and to help however he can.  He is the one God will call to account because he is the head—the buck stops with him in the home.  In the same way, in the church, the buck stops with the elders.  They will answer for every soul under their headship (Heb 13:17).
            Anyone who thinks headship is about getting to do whatever you want has the same problem as a six year old boy I used to know.  Too much self-centeredness and not enough maturity, even if you are forty years old or more.  That little boy eventually figured it out.  I sure hope those others do before the buck stops with them on Judgment Day.
 
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Heb 12:5-11).
 
Dene Ward
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Hannah and Eli

9/10/2021

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I am sure that most of my readers are familiar with the story of Hannah, a barren woman who prayed for a child and vowed to give him back to God.  And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head (1Sam 1:11).  Hannah also included in that vow taking her child to the tabernacle to serve as soon as he was weaned.  And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. And the child was young (1Sam 1:24).
            Granted, weaning in those days took place much later than in our culture.  Age three to five was the standard, but I have read in one source that it could occasionally be stretched to age 8.  (I don't remember where I read that.)  I would never ascribe my own feelings to Hannah, but I would say that if I were her, I would have not been in too much of a hurry!
            But here is something to think about today:  Who was she leaving this young child with?  Eli, the high priest.  Sounds like an excellent mentor, doesn't he?  But Eli himself had not done such a good job with his own sons.  Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD (1Sam 2:12).  These men were priests mind you, who disobeyed God's directions on dealing with the sacrifices that people brought.  Chapter 2 goes on to describe that and then says this, Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD, for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt (1Sam 2:17).  And this might not have been the worst of it.  Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting (1Sam 2:22).  Notice:  everyone knew what they were doing.
            In case you were wondering, Hannah and her family lived in Ramathaim (1:1), the Old Testament name for Arimathea in the New.  My Bible map shows it to be less than 20 miles from there to Shiloh where the sanctuary stood in those days.  Certainly close enough for news to travel.  Now you are Hannah and you realize the kind of men Eli's sons are, men he raised himself.  What are you going to do with the child you have promised to take and leave there?
            The first thing to notice is that Hannah did not use this as an excuse to go back on her vow to God.  She made the vow, her husband allowed the vow to stand, and that settled it.  But I bet not a day went by that young Samuel did not hear the Pentateuch quoted in his home.  I imagine his mother and father both taught him every moment they had, and even made sure to make those moments happen.  They knew that not only would they not be there to teach him, but the influence he would be surrounded by would be less than optimal, to put it mildly. 
            After Samuel arrived, God required the lives of those three men within a few short years, the father and his two wicked sons.  (I am not certain how old Samuel was at that time.  Josephus says he was 12 when Eli died, but Josephus did not live then and, although he is considered reliable in the period between 100 BC and 100 AD, for the very early Jewish history he only repeated the historical traditions.  Numbers 4:3 says that a man could not serve as priest until he was 30, and Samuel was not only prophet and judge, but also priest eventually.  That might mean that the people lived without a high priest for a period of time or perhaps another Aaronic descendant stepped up.  We simply do not know.)  Samuel lived several years in that wicked atmosphere after his mother took him there.  Yet he turned out a righteous man.  Hannah, unlike Eli, did her job and did it well.
          What we seem not to realize is this—we are in exactly the same situation as Hannah.  Sooner or later we will turn our children over to other influences, whether public school or even a religious private school, and eventually a university probably.  And that does not count the even earlier influences of society in the things they see on television, or the things they read, or the video games they play, or any number of other things.  Are you diligently preparing them for that time?  Will they be able to see wrong and know it is wrong?  Will they be strong enough to be different from their peers, even revel in the difference as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did? 
            Time flies faster than you think.  I am sure those early years flew for Hannah.  They are flying by for you as well.  Remember that before it is too late.
 
Then the LORD said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them (1Sam 3:11-13).

 

Dene Ward
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Gum in Your Hair

8/25/2021

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Chloe has nearly shed all her thick winter coat now.  It has taken three months of active shedding, clumps falling out whenever she shakes or filling our hands whenever we pat her.  Poor thing, it takes about over half the summer and then it is almost time for her to start growing it back before the first cool nights of fall.  This year, though, she has several odd mats of fur sticking out in three or four places.  I am not really certain what has gotten into her fur, but it looks a whole lot like my little friends used to look when they got bubble gum in their hair.
            I seemed to be the only one with short, curly hair when I was growing up.  Everyone else had long, thin hair, straight as a board which, as teenagers, made them a whole lot more in style than I was, but as children gave them far more trouble when they got gum in their hair.  It created exactly the same matted clumps I see on Chloe.  How it happened was always a mystery to me, but I think it was because they kept taking it out of their mouths and playing with it.  I remember their mothers going to the freezer for ice, trying to freeze the gum to make it less sticky so they could gradually untangle the chewed mass and pull it out, leaving as much hair as possible.  You can also use peanut butter, vegetable oil, or vinegar, but none of my friends thought those worth it.  Getting the messy peanut butter or oil out of one's hair would take several washings and who wants to end us smelling like vinegar all day?  So ice it was.
            Unfortunately, nothing worked for some of them.  Eventually their mothers had to get the scissors and cut the gum out, leaving what looked like a hole in their hair, and that usually meant getting a haircut forthwith, just so it wouldn't look so bad.  Chloe is lucky—she won't stand still long enough for me to use the scissors on her.
            Some of us do worse than getting gum stuck in our hair.  The Bible constantly warns us about becoming entangled or snared.  A snare in Biblical times often involved a noose, so "entanglement" is an apt word for them as well.  Notice these passages:
The graven images of their gods you shall burn with fire: you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it unto yourself, lest you be snared therein; for it is an abomination to Jehovah your God (Deut 7:25).
You have been snared with the words of your mouth, caught with the words of your mouth (Prov 6:2).
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (1Tim 6:9-10).
And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature (Luke 8:14).
            Do you see how easy it is to get yourself stuck, tangled, snared, or choked?  All your "stuff" can do it—even if you don't think you are rich.  All the things that keep you too busy to spend time with the Word.  All the things you put before such spiritual obligations as raising your children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."  Even your own words can trip you up and catch you like an animal in a trap.  A "web of lies" comes to mind.  We can easily add a "web of excuses."
            And getting yourself untangled can be just as messy in a figurative way as getting gum out of your hair.  You may have to apply some self-discipline.  You may need to humble yourself and make a few apologies.  And you may have to get out the scissors and simply cut some things out of your life—or some people, if necessary.  When anything becomes more important than service to God, it has snared you and "become an abomination."
            Far better to keep things in their proper place, and never let them get hold of your heart.  Far better to keep the gum in your mouth and out of your hair.
 
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first (2Pet 2:20).

 

Dene Ward
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Nursery Tales

8/19/2021

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I was a lucky young mother.  When my babies were small, I worshipped with church families that had no nurseries.  I did not realize at the time what a blessing it was.
            When Lucas was a baby, we met with a small congregation that rented a union hall.  The union must not have been very popular.  At the end of a narrow hall was the only room big enough for meeting together, and thirty of us filled it up.  Five of us were nursing mothers, and since that was over half the families in the congregation, the men agreed that we should be able to simply step out of the room to get ourselves situated, then come back in to sit and listen to the sermons or Bible classes while we nursed our babies.  New babies have a tendency to nurse for long periods of time.  We might have missed a full hour if these men had not been so mature-minded, and we ladies gratefully learned early how to stay modest while nursing.  I doubt anyone walking in would have even known what we were doing.
            When Nathan was a toddler we had moved to a place with an actual meetinghouse.  It was an old building way out in the country with absolutely no modern conveniences except electric lights, and certainly no nursery.  You walked in the door and there you stood in the open auditorium.  That meant when you had to deal with unruly children, you dealt with them and then came right back into the assembly. 
            So why do I think I was lucky?  Because I did not have the source of temptation that so many young mothers must deal with today.  When you have no choice, there is no temptation.  Young mothers today must be much stronger than I ever had to be.
            I gleaned advice from several older women during those years.  My mother, for instance, was happy to tell me about how she foiled my attempts to ruin her worship services.  I always acted up and she would take me to the nursery—she lived in the city.  Finally, when I was 18 months old, she realized that she had not trained me, I had trained her—all I had to do was wiggle and squeal a little and I got to go play!  The next Sunday, she took me, not to the nursery, but outside, and applied her hand to my bottom in a less than comforting way.  Then she marched me right back into the auditorium.  She said I looked at her with outrage, as if to say, “This is NOT how it works!  You broke the rules!”  But I was not a stupid child; I learned the new rule quickly:  being taken out of the assembly is not a pleasant experience.
            I went to visit her once at this same meetinghouse.  Suddenly, my baby needed a diaper change and needed it then.  To have stayed sitting there any longer would have broken the commandment to “Love thy neighbor.”
            So I got up and took my twenty-month-old to the nursery.  I was stunned when I walked in.  Several young mothers, and a few who looked like grandmothers, were sitting in there chatting away.  A playpen had been placed in the middle of the room, full of toys.  The side of the playpen was lowered and each baby was sitting around it, reaching in and playing with both the toys and each other.  Could the women see the preacher?  Yes, there was a large picture window in front of them.  Could they hear the preacher?  Well, there was a speaker on the wall, but their talking and laughing drowned it out.
            After the diaper change, I got out of there as quickly as I could.  I recognized the siren call immediately.  I had dealt with two babies at once, while their father preached.  We never lived close to family so I never had a grandparent to help out either.  It was often tiring, frustrating and embarrassing to try to train my children to behave in the assembly.  To have a place to go where I would no longer have to wrestle with them, where they could play and squeal to their heart’s content, would have been wonderful.  But it would not have taught them how important the group worship of God is, how precious the rituals we follow, how much it meant to me and therefore how much it should mean to them.
            Being a parent is not for the weak of heart, mind, or body.  You are on duty 24/7 and you must do what you must do no matter what else is going on in your life.  Children will not wait.  You cannot easily “unteach” what you later wish you had not taught.  I would give anything to undo a lot of the mistakes I made, but it just won’t happen.  In the end you hope you did more right than wrong, and that those right things were more lasting and impressive. 
            Think about what you do, when you do it, and how.  Think about what those little eyes see and those little ears hear.  Think the most about what those little minds infer from what they see and hear you doing.  Your children aren’t stupid either.  Whatever it is you do, when you do it, it stays with them the longest.
And [Hannah] said, "Oh, my lord!  As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord.  For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.  Therefore I have given him to the Lord.   As long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”  And he worshiped the Lord there, 1 Sam 1:26-28.

Dene Ward

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    Dene Ward has taught the Bible for more than  forty years, spoken at women’s retreats and lectureships, and has written both devotional books and class materials. She lives in Lake Butler, Florida, with her husband Keith.


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