I am not a gun nut.  I don’t know a whole lot about shooting.  But I do know some things that should be obvious, yet apparently are not.  When you shoot a gun, the bullet has to come down somewhere.
            We live in the country.  That means we do not have to worry about the laws against discharging a weapon in the city limits.  Since we have a lot more poisonous snakes, rabid coons, and bobcats ravaging the chicken coops than they do in town, that is a good thing.  Still, we must be careful.
            One reason many people use shotguns out in the country is that the load will scatter and not do much harm after a few feet.  If you shoot a rifle, you must constantly be careful of what is behind your target and the pitch of your gun barrel.  It must be pointing down so that if you miss your target, the spent bullet will hit the ground harmlessly not too far beyond.  If you miss what you are aiming at, the bullet keeps going until it either runs out of energy or hits something else.  And yes, even those supposedly harmless shots they fire in the air in all the old Westerns do eventually come down, and can still kill someone.  Evidently people who are not gun nuts, and certainly not physicists, write all those scripts because they regularly show their ignorance in these matters. 
            Words are like that.  Too many times we become angry, carelessly “shooting from the lip” or firing a few verbal bullets into the air, unaware of how those words may hurt those who may be within earshot.  Even words meant only for ourselves can cause damage to others when spoken aloud—there is always the chance that someone else will hear.  If a target needs a well-chosen word, chances are something spoken in haste was not well chosen anyway.  I need to keep it to myself until I am certain my aim is correct, the background is clear, and no one else is in danger.
            Just like a bullet, a word can come to rest in the heart of an innocent bystander.  Be sure you don’t make a tragic mistake.
           
I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned, Matt 12:36,37.
 
Dene Ward

When we first moved here, the land was a pristine wilderness.  We were the only ones back here in the woods, half a mile off the highway.  People often asked, “How in the world did you even find this spot?”  If it hadn’t been for the sign on the highway, we never would have.

            Fast forward a few years.  The deeds on the rest of the parcels of acreage are finally clear and others have bought and moved in.  Oh, for the money to have bought it all way back then…

            As you come down our drive now, you pass one plot in particular where you wonder if you missed the “Junkyard” sign.  Empty fertilizer sacks, empty feed sacks, broken buckets with all their pieces, torn potato chip bags and candy bar wrappers, shattered plastic milk jugs, toys in various states of disrepair, gardening tools, rusty tractor parts and old horse trailers, torn screen segments, pieces of hose draped over fences, broken down appliances, seldom- or no longer-driven vehicles including a burnt-out semi tractor, and piles of pure garbage dot the landscape.  I knew we were in trouble the first week these folks moved in, when a used disposable diaper sat in the yard for days, and then they mowed over it, scattering it to the winds. 

            When you say anything to them, the standard reply is, “This is our land.  We can do with it what we want.  It’s no business of yours.”

            But it is, and do you know why?  Because every time the wind blows I must go around with a trash bag and pick up the litter than blows over or through the fence onto our property.  Every time a strong rain comes, more is washed down around the gate.  And should we ever decide to sell, the mere fact that any prospective buyer must go past that mess to get to us, will lower our property value.  Keith explained this last fact to them one day, and they said, “Huh?  Why?”

            Do you know what?  Sometimes I also fail to see how my life is anyone else’s business.  It’s easy to say, “This doesn’t hurt anyone, so why can’t I do it?” or, “Why does it matter how I let my attitude show?  They can just ignore me.”  In real life, that is impossible.  I do affect everyone who comes into contact with me.  I can make their days better or worse.  I can say something that will help or hinder.  I can do something that comforts or hurts.  What I cannot do is something that has no affect at all—it is simply impossible.

            My trashy neighbors have actually done me a lot of good.  I find myself thinking about these things more and more, wondering whom I am affecting every day, and hoping it is for the good.  I hope hearing about them will help you today too.
 
Your boasting is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.  For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.  Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, 1 Cor 5:6-8.
 
Dene Ward

For the past few years wild blackberries have been rare.  The vines are there, full of their painful and aggravatingly sticky thorns, but the fruit dries up before it can fully ripen.  First the drought of the late 90’s, and then the following dry years of this regular weather cycle of wet and dry have meant that when the time is right, usually early to mid-June, there is nothing to pick. The few that might have survived are devoured quickly by the birds.
 
           This year Lucas found some on a nearby service road, and Keith picked enough for one cobbler for the first time in years.  Probably because it has been awhile, I think that was the best blackberry cobbler we ever had.  Maybe next year I can make jelly too.

            Blackberries are a lot of trouble.  The thorns seem like they reach out and grab you.  I have often come home with bloody hands and torn clothing—you never wear anything you might wear elsewhere when you pick blackberries.  But that is not the half of it.

            You must also spray yourself and your long-sleeved shirt prodigiously with an insect repellent, and tuck the cuffs of your long pants into your socks.  No matter how hot the weather, you must be covered.  Without these measures chiggers will find their way in and you will be revisiting your time in the woods far longer and in more unpleasant ways than you wish.  Ticks are also a problem.  Make sure you pick with someone you don’t mind checking you over after you get back home, especially your hair.  More than once I have had a tick crawl out of my mop of curls several hours later. 

            Finally, you must always carry a big stick or a pistol.  I prefer pistols because you don’t have to get quite as close to the snake to kill it.  Birds love blackberries, and snakes like birds, so they often sit coiled under the canes waiting for their meals to fly in.  Keith has killed more than one rattlesnake while picking wild blackberries.

            Because of all this, since I have Keith, I seldom pick blackberries any more—I let him do it for both of us.  Especially since I stand for hours in a hot kitchen afterward, it seems a fair division of labor.  When I am making jelly, straining that hot juice through cheesecloth to catch the plenteous seeds and ladling that hot syrupy liquid into hot jars isn’t much easier than picking them.  But wild blackberries are worth all the trouble.  Their scent is sweet and heady and their taste, especially in homemade jellies, almost exotic. The purple hands, teeth, and tongue blackberry lovers wind up with are worth it too.   If all you have ever had is commercially grown blackberries and store bought blackberry jelly, you really don’t know what they taste like.     

            Why is it that I can make myself go to all this trouble for something good to eat, and then throw away something far more valuable because “it’s not worth it?”  Why does teasing my taste buds matter more to me than saving my soul?  How many spiritual delicacies have I missed out on because it wasn’t worth the trouble? 

            Serious Bible study can be tedious, but isn’t having the Word of God coming instantly to mind when I really need it worth it?  When I have taken the time to explore deeply instead of the superficial knowledge most have, isn’t it great in the middle of a sermon or Bible class, to suddenly have another passage spring to life right before my mental eyes?  “So that’s what that means!” is a eureka moment that is nearly incomparable.  And while increased knowledge does not necessarily mean increased faith, faith without knowledge is a sham.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, Rom 10:17.  The more scripture you know, the stronger your faith because the more you know about what God has done for us, the more you appreciate it and want to show that appreciation by the service you willingly give.

            So many other things we miss out on because we don’t want to go to the trouble—cultivating an active prayer life, socializing with brothers and sisters in the faith, helping a new Christian grow, serving the community we live in simply because we care--while at the same time we go to all sorts of trouble for earthly pleasures—sitting in the hot sun on a hard bench amid crude, rowdy people to watch a ball game; searching for a parking space for hours then walking ten blocks in high heels for a favorite meal at a downtown restaurant; standing in long lines at an amusement park, while someone else’s ice cream melts on your shirt, and at the same time juggling your own handfuls of fast food, cameras, and tickets, and trying to keep up with rambunctious children.  All these things are “worth it.” Did you ever ask yourself, “Worth what?”  And how long did that pleasure, or whatever your answer is, last?

            I would never go to the same amount of trouble for rhubarb that I do for blackberries.  That doesn’t mean I don’t like rhubarb—I make a pretty good strawberry rhubarb cobbler.  But rhubarb cannot match blackberries. Spiritually, we too often settle for rhubarb instead of blackberries. You can always tell the ones who don’t “settle”—the “purple” fingers from handling the Word of God, and the “purple” teeth and tongues from taking it in on a daily basis and living a life as His servant, give them away.
 
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life, 1 Tim 6:17-19..
 
Dene ward
 

              We live on a slope.  The grade is gradual, so gradual you don’t really see it until it rains one of those sub-tropical downpours for which Florida is famous.  When four inches comes down in less than an hour, the property becomes a river two or three inches deep flowing downhill to the run, just past the property line.

              After the rain stops, the draining continues, though it slows to three or four tributaries and eventually two larger “rivers.”  One runs through the front yard, between the bird feeders, down around the house, across the septic drain field and off the property.  Another slants southeast through the PVC pipe culvert Keith installed under the road thirty-four years ago, down the berm on the top, north, edge of the garden and on east.  

              Usually within a couple of hours most of the water has drained, but puddles still fill a few low areas, and you learn where and how to walk for the next day or two.  On sandy land, the puddles dry up quickly, unless it’s the second weekend in a row with a four inch toad strangler.

              We learned early on to avoid those low spots for several days.  We first met one of our neighbors when we asked him to pull our car out of the mud with his tractor at least three times in one week.  Two months ago, for the first time in many years, he had to come down and do it again.  I knew what had happened when, after two deluges in one week, I heard the truck engine roar and looked out the window to see the back tires spinning and mud flying ten feet behind them.

              When you are stuck in the mud, you can’t move.  The wheels may rotate but all you do is dig ruts and uproot grass.  The harder you press the accelerator, the deeper the ruts and the less you move.  Even rocking the truck back and forth becomes impossible.

              Sometimes we get stuck in the spiritual mud.  It comes first with complacency.  We are happy with what we know and where we are, so we sit down, clasp our hands, and contentedly lean back with our feet up on the desk.  Proverbs speaks of the results of being a complacent “sluggard.”  Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest; so shall your poverty come as a robber, and your want as an armed man, 24:33,34.  Tell me the same thing won’t happen when we stop working on our spirituality.

              It isn’t just a matter of continuing to learn, though that is important.  An older woman in one of my classes has expressed appreciation for the new things I teach her.  “At my age it’s hard to find something new,” she said, “but you have given me that and it’s wonderful.”  Yes, the older you are, the more difficult it should be to find something new to learn, so you certainly cannot sit back and fold your hands in slumber—you must work even harder to find those things and they will be even deeper than the “first principles,” and require yet more thought and labor.

              But it is also a matter of progress.  I see people who haven’t changed one whit in thirty years, who still fight the same battles, who still fail the same way again and again.  I see people who still gossip, who still judge unfairly, who are still oversensitive and too easily offended.  I see people who still have their priorities upside down instead of finally learning the higher value of the spiritual over the carnal.  I see people who have come no closer to mastering self-control than when they were young and foolish—they just become too weary to go at it in their old age and that is all that has moderated their passions.

              So today, check to see where you stand—or wallow.  Are you stuck in the mud of worldliness and pleasure?  Are you glued in the mire of wealth and possessions and financial security?  Are you floundering in the quagmire of man’s philosophy and false theology?  Pull yourself out and start moving again.  If you cannot do it alone, call a neighbor to help.  That’s why God put us all here together. 

              And when the storms come into your life again, use your head—stay away from the low spots.  Find the high ground of spirituality and keep on climbing. 
 
I waited patiently for Jehovah; And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay; And he set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: Many shall see it, and fear, And shall trust in Jehovah. Psalms 40:1-3.
 
Dene Ward

It happens every time Keith and I walk the property.  Suddenly I find myself pushed into the rough while he walks the path.  I learned a long time ago to just push back and he immediately realizes what he is doing.

              Keith was raised in the Ozarks, born in a farmhouse in the back country, down a rocky lane and across from a cow field lined with wild blackberries, a steep hill rising straight from the back porch.  As a boy he walked the woods, his feet naturally finding the easy way among all the stones, limbs, and golf ball sized black walnut hulls and acorns as he gazed upward into the trees.  If he doesn’t actively think about what he is doing, his feet still do that from long ingrained habit.  He’s always embarrassed and aggravated with himself when he realizes what he’s done to me, and he appreciates the nudges when I find myself knee high in briars. 

              Life is a little like that.  Most of us live everyday muddling through as best we can, oblivious to anything but our own cares, our own needs, trying to make things run as smoothly as possible.  What makes “a bad day” for us?  When things don’t go smoothly—a malfunctioning coffee pot, a stubborn zipper, a flat tire on the way to work, a traffic jam that makes us late when we had left in plenty of time, a spouse or toddler who had the ill grace to wake up in as foul a temper as we did. 

              It takes active thought to control your selfish impulses and consider others.  It takes effort to accomplish the difficult—self-control, self-improvement, compassion for people who, like us, don’t deserve it.  But that’s exactly what our Lord expects of us.  This is exactly the example he left us.

              Even under a weight of responsibility none of us can imagine, he gave his disciples his careful attention and encouragement.  Even in tension-filled situations he showed compassion to both the sick and the sinner.  Even in tremendous pain and weakness, he remembered his mother and forgave the pawns of a murderous mob.

              If Jesus had looked for the smooth way, none of us would ever have hope of one.  But if all we look for now is the smooth way, we may as well enjoy it while we can.  It’s the only smooth way we will ever have.
 
Enter in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Matt 7:13,14.
 
Dene Ward
 

We have a secret for lighting fires in a flash, no pun intended.  It's fat lighter.  It actually isn't much of a secret if you were born in the country or do a lot of camping.  Also known as fatwood, lighter wood, lighter knot, pitch pine etc., it is a resin-rich piece of wood that lights as well, or better, than paper.  Remember all those torches people carry in the old, black and white movies?  That's a piece of fat lighter.

              Whenever a conifer is injured, the resin in it, rushes to the injury site to seal the wound.  That section of the tree then becomes resin-rich.  When the tree is cut up, you will see the difference in the wood, a shiny reddish hue, and you will smell it instantly.  Though there are no chemicals or petroleum in it, that is exactly how it smells.  The resin usually concentrates in the knots and in the base of the tree.  If it is cut down or felled by storm or disease, the remaining stump will usually be full of resin. 

              Living in the piney woods of North Florida, we have an almost endless supply of fat lighter.  Besides what we find on our own property, a neighbor always saves the stumps for us when he clears land.  We can start a fire with a match and a sliver of fat lighter in about 10 seconds, assuming we have the twigs and logs to lay on top ready at hand.  We have at least a ten year supply right now, despite using it profligately just so we can sit by a fire on cool mornings or evenings.  I priced it on Amazon and found 10lbs for $30 plus shipping.  We could finance a year or two of our retirement with the fat lighter lying on our property.

              But not all fat lighter is created equal.  Some is richer (fatter) than others, which became quite apparent a few mornings ago as we sat there shivering in our pjs waiting for the fire to get going. 

               Keith actually used two small pieces.  The first lit immediately with a strong bright blaze.  He set it in the ashes and reached for the second.  It would not light quickly, but took most of a whole match to finally start.  Even then it was a meager flame.  A little exasperated, he lay it next to the first piece and it suddenly shone much brighter.  After a few seconds, he tried to move it away and it immediately began sputtering and smoking, but put it back by the richer piece and it once again burned brightly.  At that point he simply began adding twigs, then limbs, then larger logs.  It had been about five minutes and he moved that second piece of lighter back to the other side of the fire.  Then and only then did the flame keep going and actually start the fire on that end.  As I said, some pieces are richer in resin than others.

               If Jesus were to walk the North Florida woods, he would probably tell a parable about far lighter, and the point might be this.  Some of us are richer in resin than others.  Some of us can burn brightly even when we stand alone.  But others of us need a little help.  Maybe we are followers instead of leaders.  Maybe we are more timid.  Whatever the reason, we do just fine when we are surrounded by our brethren, but when all that support leaves us, we sputter and smoke and maybe the flame goes out completely.

              We must each examine ourselves to know what we are made of.  If you cannot see, and admit, that you might not be as rich in resin as others, you will inevitably put yourself into a position that leaves you weak and alone and unable to shine the light for the Lord.  It takes an awful lot of resin to stand alone day after day after day, especially when you face trials in your life.  Some people have it, but it is no shame to recognize when you do not.  What is a shame is to put your soul in danger.  Maybe someday after you have stood with a strong group for a long while, watching how they do it, learning and growing, you will finally be able to keep the fire going on your own.  In fact, that is probably the case.  God expects, and allows for, growth.

               And if you are good and "fat," then look out for the ones who are not.  Don't leave them sputtering alone in the dark.  Shine the light to show them how.  Stand as close as you need to help that flame get going on its own.  A piece of fat lighter, no matter how rich, is no good to anyone if it doesn't start a fire.
 
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, Phil 2:14-15
 
Dene Ward

It has been 2 or 3 years or maybe longer, so it was a little surprising.  Keith was headed for the equipment shed, the one furthest from the house.  We had a cold spell and now, two or three days after the coldest temperatures, the sky was ice blue but the surrounding air relatively mild, warming in the day, as long as you stayed in the sunlight.  Which is exactly what attracted that cottonmouth.  There he lay at the front of the shed, half in and half out of the sun.

             Keith returned to the house and picked up his .22 rifle, loaded with "rat" shot.  Usually one straight to the head leaves them so dead they don't even do their customary postmortem writhe, but this one turned around and headed to the shelter of the inner shed.  Keith was sure he had not missed.  After changing to his steel-toed work boots and clanging loudly around the riding mower which stood square between him and the direction the snake had crawled, he climbed aboard, started it and backed out.  There it was—right up against the back wall.  Another shot to the center of his body and it barely raised its head.  A final one to the head for the coup de grace. 

              A Florida winter is not bad by northern standards.  Even here in north Florida where we might have several frosts and freezes a year and occasional snow flurries, we still see Northern transplants in shirtsleeves, especially in the warmer afternoons, while we natives are still shivering in sweaters or windbreakers.  The cold-blooded reptiles feel the same way about it we do. 

               We always told our boys they could go out in the woods if the temperature was 50 or under—they would be safe from the snakes.  Any warmer made things much more dangerous.  Cold air makes snakes sluggish.  A bright sun is a much friendlier atmosphere for them.  They will crawl out of their holes to try to warm up their blood.  An open sunny field in the winter is much more dangerous to walk in than the cooler shadows.

              Have you noticed that Satan doesn't have to hide anymore?  Our culture has become much friendlier and hospitable to him than ever before.  Things that used to be hidden because everyone knew they were wrong, are done right out in the open.  Just turn on your television.  All you have to watch are the commercials to see Satan reigning everywhere.  No longer do you have to go to "the wrong side of town" or down dark alleys.  He is everywhere and everyone welcomes him like a long lost brother.  Maybe that's exactly what he is to our culture.  ​Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush…says the LORD. Jer 6:15.  Neither does our culture—they are downright proud of their sin.

              Suddenly the righteous man is the one who has to hide, who has to live in the dark alleys so he won't be persecuted for his godliness.  Suddenly our society is no longer hospitable to the good, but only to the evil. 

               So what should we do?  Be careful out there.  Don't fall prey to the desire for popularity or simple companionship.  Keep yourself holy in an unholy world even if it becomes dangerous, even if you must sacrifice for the Lord, the one who sacrificed for you.

              Snakes are crawling around everywhere.  Be careful where you step.
 
…“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. Ezra 9:6
 
Dene Ward

The Environmental Protection Agency was established on December 2, 1970, at the call of President Richard Nixon to seriously address, at a Federal level, the problems arising from factory pollutants, automobile emissions, overuse of pesticides, dangerous practices in waste disposal, and oil spills.  Most of us have benefited from its oversight in areas of which we are not even aware.  But occasionally, they do seem to get a little unreasonable, in the same ways as anyone who tries to make rules in places they have never been and do not understand.

            Campgrounds, for example, have a lot of aggravating rules.  Some of them are just plain ridiculous, obviously made by people who sit behind a desk and have never camped in their lives.  Yet, I understand the problem.  Too many thoughtless people have no concept of picking up after themselves while being careful where they dump things. 

              Most state parks have a place to dump “gray water.”  We aren’t talking about raw sewage.  Gray water, as defined, includes the dishpan of water you washed your dishes in.  Ever carry a couple gallons of water 500 yards in an awkward dishpan you must hold out in front of you, trying not to slosh it all over yourself in the cold?  Nearly impossible.  And who, living in the country, doesn’t know that wash water works wonders on the blueberries and flower beds?  At least the last park we stayed at had dispensed with the gray water rule.

              I think some of these things bother me because, as country people, we are always green.  We are careful what gets dumped where, even if it means having to load it up and cart it off to the landfill ourselves; you don’t want your groundwater polluted, especially uphill from the well.  We rotate crops.  We even rotate garden spots. We use twigs to dissuade cutworms rather than plastic rings or metal nails. We mulch with the leaves from our live oaks, which we then turn under to enrich the ground after the garden is spent.  We dump the ashes from the woodstove into the fallow garden.  I am sure Keith could add even more to this list.

              God expects his people to be “green.”  Good stewardship of his gifts has always been his expectation, from our abilities to the gospel itself.  You can even find sewage disposal rules in the Law.  Cruelty to animals was punished under the Old Covenant.  That same principle of stewardship follows into the New.

              At the same time, God said, “Have dominion over [the earth] and subdue [the animals],” Gen 1:28.  He said to eat of the plants and the animals, 1:29; 9:3.  God meant this to be a place we used for our survival, not a zoological and botanical garden where nothing can be touched.  When we carefully use the resources of the earth, it will continue to furnish us with the things we need.  So we eat sustainable seafood.  We hunt in season, and eat the meat we bring home.  We raise and eat animals fed with garden refuse.  We carefully sow and reap so the ground will continue to be arable.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that.

              Sometimes, though, the people who claim to be green are no longer flesh-colored (in all its assorted hues).  They care more for animals than people.  I know that is true when I see a “Save the Whales” bumper sticker on the same car touting “The Right to Choose.”  Let’s save the animals, but the babies are fair game.

              Shades of Romans 1--Paul speaks of the Gentiles who had rejected Jehovah throughout the ancient days and eventually arrived at the point that they “worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” 1:25.  Our culture has come dangerously close to that.  The environment has become the cause du jour, and while I certainly agree that we should care for the beautiful home God gave us and not be cruel to animals, it is because I am grateful to the God who made them for me, not because I have less regard for humans.  I have always been that way, not just recently, yet I still know that people are more important than sea turtles, and unborn children more so than polar bears.

              So let’s be green, just as God has always expected—but let’s be flesh-colored too, caring about the people, and their souls even more than the animals.  And let us also be as white as snow—an obedient people who worship and serve the God who created it all.
 
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.  The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works, Psa 104:13,14,16-18,21-24,31.
 
Dene Ward
 

We had people coming for lunch and Keith was helping me clean the house, particularly the heavier work.  As he walked past the dining table he happened to look at the fixture there, six of those candle-flame shaped bulbs surrounded by twelve rectangular glass plates etched with flowers.  “Looks a little dusty,” he said, and proceeded to clean them one at a time. 

              After he finished he turned on the light and I nearly grabbed my sunglasses.  I had not known the fixture was so dirty.  Those glass plates didn’t look that bad, hanging up above my head.  Boy, was I wrong.  The thing sparkles like it hasn’t in years.   Since I use that table for most of my Bible studies, maybe I won’t have so many headaches now.

              It’s not like I didn’t know it was there.  Certainly I understood the fixture could become dirty.  I have lived here for thirty years now and I know how much dust settles.  On the other hand, it is far above my head.  Like the top of the refrigerator, I never notice how dirty it has become.  I simply take the light for granted—after all, I can still see.

              Have you ever picked up something written by a skeptic or talked to one about the scriptures?  How they see the Bible will amaze you.  “What?”  I have thought many times.  “Where did they come up with that?   How did they get that out of that passage?”  It isn’t just the ignorant taking bits and pieces out of context.  It is their way of thinking that skews their viewpoint.  Of course a “free-thinking, free-loving intellectual” will see the morality of a Christian as a prison.  It takes a man who understands the integrity of temperance to see that other lifestyle as enslavement to self-indulgence.  “I will not be mastered by anything,” Paul says, and we who practice that understand the true liberty found in Christ.

              So how do we clean off the dust and see the light?  Peter, in speaking about the prophecies of Christ, makes a powerful point when he calls the word of God a light to which “you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place” 1 Pet 1:19.  We live in the country.  The first comment most of our city-dwelling visitors make after an overnight is, “It sure is dark out here.”  We have learned to see in the starlight, but after hearing them bump around in the night so often, we now lay a small penlight on the bedside table in the guest room.  The dark can be dangerous—anyone can trip and fall.

              The Word does for us what that light does for our guests.  It opens our minds to the Truth; it helps us see things as they really are, not as the Prince of Darkness would have us think.  It shows us first and foremost our leader and his example.  “I am the light of the world,” Jesus said (John 8:12). “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”

              But having the advantage of that light places obligations on us.

              For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light, Eph 5:8-13.

              You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do [men] light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shines to all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven, Matt 5:14-16.

              Do all things without murmurings and questionings: that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life…Phil 2:14-16a.

              Look at your light this morning.  Is it dimmed with the dust and film of everyday life?  It is easy to take for granted the life we live in the Lord, to be satisfied with our lack of “big, bad sins.”  We may not be associating with the “unfruitful works of darkness,” but are we “reproving them?”  We may not be doing wrong, but are we doing right?  We may not forget to study our Bibles, but are we “holding forth the word?” 

              Maybe it’s time to do a little cleaning.  I wonder if your neighbors will need their sunglasses when you do.
 
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father…Matt 13:43.
 
Dene Ward

Thirty-three years ago we moved onto this "back forty," across a grassy stretch between two fences, over a low rise deep into the live oaks, around the moss-laden corner and down the hill to what had last been a watermelon field.  We mowed it little by little, landscaped it with a wheelbarrow and a shovel, and began planting—a garden first, then roses, azaleas, blueberries, grape vines, crepe myrtles, daylilies, amaryllises, jasmine, jessamine, and finally, a few annuals.  Then came the trees—a few oaks, including a huge acorn we brought back from a camping trip in north Georgia, a sycamore, a maple, a couple of apples, a peach, and then two pecan trees, right in the middle of the west field.  Finally we had our dream property, but nature refused to cooperate on a few things.
 
             First the apple trees died, then the peaches.  "Too close to oak trees," the county agent said.  Now the blueberries have stopped bearing, and yes, they are right next to what used to be a small oak—but that was three decades ago.  It now towers over them.  And the pecans?  They might be six feet tall after all these years, and we haven't had the first pecan.  "Too close to the pine trees," we were told, pines that at the time were hardly more than fat sticks in the ground, but are now well over forty feet tall.  "They have ruined the soil for pecans."

              So what can we glean from this?  What are we surrounding ourselves with?  What has "ruined our soil?"  What has made us completely unfit for the kingdom?

              The first thing that comes to mind is, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, you make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves. (Matt 23:15).  If we aren't careful, we can stunt the growth of new Christians.  Barnes says they Jews did this by converting for the sole purpose of inflating their numbers and then not teaching the former pagans how to live by God's law.  Add to that, when a hypocrite converts someone, just exactly what does he probably teach them to be?  Another hypocrite just like he was.  So in either case, we have left them as weak pecan trees in the midst of stronger pines who ruin the soil in which they have been planted.

              But let's not forget the obvious application.  Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals. (1Cor 15:33)

               This is not about whether or not you should go out into the world to make contacts and teach.  Of course you should.  But soil is where a tree gains its nutrients and its life-giving water.  When I talk to my neighbors, when I work with my colleagues, where do I go for sustenance?  Do I stay with them and imbibe their values, or do I return to my core group, to my support system, to regain my strength?  Am I careful to monitor myself for signs that I may be taking in the wrong kind of nutrition and passing it off as "seeking the lost?" 

               The area in which we plant ourselves should have access to light, not be dwarfed by taller, stronger trees who smother us in their own values.  WE need to be the oaks, not the pecans, the ones who influence the weak, not the other way around.  Just who is influencing whom in your case?

               Stop and check yourself today.  It did not take us thirty years to know we had a problem with these trees.  When a five foot tall tree has not grown an inch in a year, something is amiss.  Have you grown?  Have I?  Are we better than we were five years ago?  Or do we still fight the same battles in the same way with the same meager results—or even fail? 

               So ask yourself, who had you rather spend time with?  Who do you go to for advice?  Who influences your behavior more than anyone else?  If the answer is NOT "godly brothers and sisters," maybe you are nothing more than a stunted pecan tree.  If you think those towering pines and oaks who are affecting your growth have any real respect for you, you are sadly mistaken.  They see you for what you are—a weak, scrawny pecan tree.  So does God.
 
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. (1Cor 3:18)
 
Dene Ward