"Learning to do, doing to learn, learning to live, living to serve."  Such is the motto of the National Future Farmers of America, as the organization was originally called.  It was established during its first annual convention, attended by 33 young farm boys from 18 different states.  That first convention took place around November 20, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri, with the final banquet occurring on that date.  The stated goals of the new organization were to further personal growth and career success through agricultural education.  The name was later changed to the National FFA organization to represent growing diversity in agriculture.
            Today, let's focus on their motto, especially that last phrase, "living to serve."  If anyone should have such a motto, it's the Christian.
            We are a self-centered and selfish culture.  If you think that has not found its way into the church, you are wrong.  If you think it hasn’t found its way into your own heart, you are probably wrong again.  Have these words ever left your mouth?  “No one came to see me when I was sick/injured/in the hospital?”  There is your evidence right there.
            God meant for us to minister to others every day and in every circumstance of life.  Too often, if we see our lives as a ministry at all, we see it as periods of service broken up by periods when we cannot serve—for example, when we are ill.  In other words, when things don’t come easily, when things are not perfect, we are “on break” or “out to lunch.”  
            If anyone had an excuse for taking a break, it was Paul while he was in prison.  Yet he tells the Philippians that he was fulfilling his mission to preach the gospel, “this grace,” even while imprisoned, Phil 1:5-7.  God recently taught us this lesson of perpetual ministry in a way we will not soon forget.
            Keith had major surgery that kept him in the hospital five days.  In fact, it kept me in with him since I can more easily communicate with this deaf spouse of 46 years than anyone else can, and I took care of many basic nursing chores too. 
            We have always made it a point to treat service people as people, not personal slaves or furniture.  Many waitresses have told us they remember us from earlier visits precisely because of that.  We tried to do the same with the hospital medical staff.  We didn’t complain; we didn’t make demands; we took care of our own needs as often as possible, and said please and thank you when we had to ask for something.  We never really thought about that—it’s just something we do because the Lord would have us treat everyone kindly and with respect.
            One night one of the nurses took me aside and asked about our “religion.”  “There’s something different about you,” she said, and gave me an opening to talk with her about the Lord and our church family. 
            Another night one of the nurses stayed in our room talking to us far longer than she needed to accomplish her task.  Finally she said with a sigh, “I need to go check on the others, but I’ll be back to talk more when I can.”
            Yet another day, one of the nurses who had been with us for three days was leaving for four days off, and knew that she wouldn’t see us again.  She made a point to come say good-bye. 
            While we were there we handed out tracts and blog cards.  We wrote down church addresses and website addresses.  We gave out email addresses.  Although we had taken those things with us “just in case,” I was shocked at how many we were able to give out, at how many people wanted to talk.  We thought we needed their care, but God gave us a pointed lesson on how to give it right back.
            What is happening in your life right now?  Don’t assume that you cannot serve when you are physically indisposed.  Don’t hang an “out to lunch” sign on your life because you have too much going on right now to pay attention to anyone else.  What did Jesus do while he was hanging on the cross?  How many did he minister to?  His mother, a thief, the very men who drove the nails, and all of us as he died for our sins.
            Jesus expects us to live as he did, thinking of others’ needs first.  If you have done it long enough, it comes without thought, even in turbulent times, painful times, sorrowful times.  The trick is to do it while things are good.  Do it in the grocery store.  Do it on the freeway.  Do it at school and work and when you speak to your neighbor.  It must become natural in order to come automatically in trying circumstances.  Any difficulty you have, especially when things are easy, is a telling factor—it shows how little you have been working on it.
            Service, first, last, always--and regardless of circumstances—that is the motto of a true disciple of Christ.
 
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, Philippians 1:12-13.
 
To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak, Ephesians 6:18-20.
 
Dene Ward

Did you know there are 336 species of hummingbird in the world?  The United States is home to 16, but Florida to only 3, and two of those, the black-chinned and the rufous, are rarely seen, and then only in the winter.  The ones who visit our feeders are all ruby-throated hummingbirds.  These little rascals are about three inches long and weigh about ¼ ounce.  Everyone loves hummingbirds.  "Widdle buhds," my grandson Judah called them when he was two, and, "Oh, so cute," all the adults say.  Well, guess what?  As a Smithsonian article I once read said, ounce for ounce, hummingbirds are the most vicious creatures on the planet.
            If you have ever watched a hummingbird feeder, you have seen the aggression.  And who can really blame them?  Their wings can beat 80 times a second and their hearts can beat 1000 times a minute.  They must eat every 30 minutes to get enough calories for that high metabolism. They have no down under their feathers, which helps them fly because they are so light, but it does little to keep their tiny bodies warm.   When they sleep at night, they are in danger of dying from starvation or cold, so their tiny bodies go into a state of torpor that slows their heartrate and lowers their body temperature.  And how many calories do they need?  Usually they take in 3-7 calories a day in nectar, which may not sound like much, but when you translate that to something the size of a human it is 155,000 calories a day.  We can easily see why they are so aggressive at feeders—it is literally a matter of life or death.
            They are especially aggressive in early spring when claiming territory.  Females are more aggressive in protecting the walnut-sized nest after she lays their eggs.  Then, as they prepare to migrate in the late summer and early fall they must put on 40% more of their total body weight to survive the trip, often as far south as Central America.  They will fly over the Gulf of Mexico rather than following the shore around it, 18-72 hours of nonstop flying over open water.  No wonder they do not want to share!
            A hummingbird's aggression increases by stages, depending upon the results he gets at each level.  First he will sit off to the side of the feeder, buzzing and chirping and squeaking, gradually increasing volume as the intruder feeds.  After that he will "posture."  He may flare his gorge, spread his wings or his crown, or point his sharp little bill like a sword.  If you see one diving at other birds on the feeder, he has moved on to the third level of aggression.  If you are in the middle of filling the feeder, or simply standing too close by, he may dive at you too.  If the dive does not get rid of the interloper, he will actively chase him away, following him for several yards to make sure he is gone.  And finally, when all else fails, hummingbirds will fight, and fight to the death, using their talons and beaks as deadly weapons.  On occasion ornithologists have actually found two dead hummingbirds, one dead with the other's bill through his body so far that the attacker could not extricate himself and died too.  See what I mean by "vicious?"
            But here is the thing:  hummingbirds are wired that way by their Creator.  It is the only way they can survive.  If somehow you could stand there and say to them, there is plenty for all of you and I promise to keep filling it up, none of them would understand.  It is the bird's job to survive in the ways he has been given and to see any intruder as someone who could cause his or his lady's death.  You simply cannot change the nature of a hummingbird, and no one would expect you too.
            We are not like that.  God expects change from us.  "But that's just the way I am," won't cut it with Him.  He knows who and what you are, and what you can and cannot do, and He has said from time immemorial that He expects us to change.  The word "repent" is found 105 times in the KJV Bible and that doesn't count the various forms of the word like "repentance."  And what does that word mean?  To put it simply, "change."  And it wasn't only the doom-saying prophets and so-called angry God of the Old Testament who said this.  "Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish," said Jesus, not once, but twice (Luke 13:3,5), and in other places as well.
            What did he say to the woman taken in adultery?  "Go your way and sin no more" (John 8:11).  Sounds like a change to me.  In fact, he constantly demanded such complete commitment (change) that many turned and left.  "Let the dead bury the dead."  "Go sell all you have."  "Hate your mother and your father."  Become "a eunuch for the kingdom's sake."  "Take up your cross [crucify yourself] and follow me."  Jesus never coddled anyone into the kingdom.
            So here is our question for the day.  Are you a wild creature who has no sense of right and wrong and therefore, no self-control and no self-determination?  Or are you created in the image of God, a creature who can not only know right from wrong, but can actually choose which one to do?  If you don't know, God does.
 
Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. He will repay each one according to his works  (Rom 2:4-6).
 
Dene Ward

Sitting on the back of our carport in our lounge chairs with a final cup of morning coffee, we look straight at the little wooden shed Keith built over thirty years ago.  Just on its front left is the sour orange tree I wrote about so long ago.  It is as high as two sheds now, and that's after Keith cut the top out a few years back because we could no longer reach the oranges to pick them.  Behind the shed stretches the long spreading arm of the live oak that stands well to its left.  After that the yard is empty for maybe fifteen feet before another live oak, this one not nearly as old or large, grows just to the left of the equipment shed.  Then the woods start in earnest, around the fire circle on one side and our doggy burial ground on the other, off to the creek and then the neighbor's own forested patch.
            Most of the time, all you see is green—branches, limbs, sprigs, leaves, air plants, mold on the bark, all shades of that cool, verdant color.  But early in the day, especially in the summer after a nighttime rain or a heavy dew or during a suffocating humidity, all that green literally drips with jewels.  Most of the time we see "diamonds."  As we sit there sipping we are facing east and the sun seeps through the cracks between limbs and leaves and refracts through the drops of water.  Of course, the sun is still rising, and as it gradually moves up the angle will change sometimes just for a moment, but other times for several minutes.  Suddenly the tree is dripping with sapphires as a pale blue light appears on each leaf.  And when you are really lucky, a ruby shows up, glinting in the morning breeze and the slowly moving sunbeam, winking at you like a flirting girl.
            We have a lot of fun looking for the hanging jewels on our trees.  Which one will be lucky today and get a ruby?  Who will only have plain, old sparkling diamonds?  It matters where you sit, you see, and how the light hits those water drops from your particular angle.  But, in truth, all of them are beautiful.  Even a tree full of diamonds is far prettier than a plain old tree with no jewelry at all.

            And how we look also depends upon how the Son shines on us.
​And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ​For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God (John 3:19-21).
So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them (John 12:35-36).
For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light  (Eph 5:8).

            These passages make it plain that we can't just hang about like dewdrops on a tree waiting for the Son to shine on us.  We must actively seek his light, showing it through a life of faith and good works.  But once we do, once we submit ourselves to Him, He can turn us into diamonds, sapphires, and rubies, beautiful hearts living beautiful lives, sharing His light with the world.  No matter how you started out, God can turn you into a gem.
 
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12).
 
Dene Ward

“What do you think about the role of women in the church?”
            The subject is a minefield.  No one seems to be able to keep their own prejudices and sore spots out of it.  Women are quick to point out the failings of men as if that undoes the dictates of God.  Men are quick to pontificate about the worst of women, even straying into women in the work force and the evils of abortion as if that had anything to do with the issue.  Not a few pat themselves on the back about how well they treat women and why would any woman want anything more than their wonderful selves?  (Am I not better to thee than seven sons? Elkanah asked Hannah.)  Everyone wants to add the “what ifs” and invent artificial boundaries that the scriptures never speak of.  And we think the Pharisees were ridiculous with their traditions. 
            But I am asked—often.  So here is, not what I think, but what it seems obvious that the Bible says.
            Do women have a leadership role as Christians?  Yes.  “Children obey your parents” Eph 6:1, obviously includes mothers who, last I checked, were all women. 
           The older women are to “train the younger,” Titus 2:4.  When I teach my Bible classes, I have control of the students.  I am the one who directs the discussion and sets its boundaries in time and content.  I am the one responsible for correction if error is spoken.   Sounds like leadership to me.
Women are to “rule the household” 1 Tim 5:14.  A lot of men completely miss that one.  It means she has a domain and he has no business micromanaging her in it unless she is doing a poor job of stewarding his provision for the family.
            On the other hand, whenever the church is talked about as an assembled group, things are much different.  Women are specifically told to “learn quietly with all submissiveness” 1 Tim 2:11.  As to the command in 1 Cor 14 that women are to “be silent,” we need to recognize the context and pull out every other time that two word phrase is used in that same context before we make blanket statements about women not opening their mouths until the “amen” has been said.  But that does not undo 1 Timothy 2 in any way.
            I could go on about Paul’s statement that a woman is not “to teach nor have dominion over a man.”  I could talk about parsing the sentence.  I could just bypass that and go to the obvious point that the preposition “over” has to go with both “teach” and “have dominion” or else the Bible contradicts itself.  Priscilla obviously helped teach Apollos and if all teaching is forbidden to women then that includes teaching children and women (which we have already seen is commanded) and singing (“teaching and admonishing yourselves in songs…”—the Greek word is the same in both passages) and you know what?  Everyone would have to completely ignore all godly women because their example teaches even if they never open their mouths.  But don’t you see?  There is something much more basic going on when we take issue with the scriptures.
            Whenever I hear women trying to sidestep 1 Tim 2:11, when I hear them rationalizing about their talents and how God wouldn’t want them wasted, when I hear them talking about Paul as if he were not an inspired apostle, when I hear them listing the failings of the men in their group (as if they had none) and dreaming up everything they can possibly think of that might make an exception, I think of Psalm 119:97:  Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.  When I try to weasel my way out of God’s commands, when I try to avoid them in any way possible, what does that say about how I feel about them?  Doesn’t much sound like "loving His law" to me.
            God is my Lord, not the other way around.  He has told us exactly how He wants things to be done.  I have no business telling Him that my way is better or that He ought to accept my way because I did it with a good heart.  I have no business railing against Him about why He gave me a certain talent if He won’t let me use it the way I want to use it.  I remember a few men in the Old Testament who learned that lesson the hard way.   Ladies, God will treat you equally.  Isn’t that what you want?  Or is it?
            If I love the law of God, if He is my Lord, I will not try to worm my way out of His commands, no matter how many men or Pharisaical Christians abuse them.  THAT is my answer to the question.
 
I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies! It is time for the LORD to act, for your law has been broken. Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way.  Ps 119:125-128
 
Dene Ward

A good neighbor gave us some of the seed pods that had fallen beneath her live oaks, so that's where we put ours, too.  We thought they did well that first fall, growing to about three feet tall, red-tinged dark green "fingered" leaves, and then in October some dark red blooms that looked like half-size hibiscus blooms.
            We wanted to know more but could not find them under the name she called them, October Roses.  After a whole lot of trying, we finally came upon them at a nursery website from Australia:  hibiscus cannabinus.  Yes, that is a suspicious name and the leaves looked a bit suspicious too, but no, they are not that illegal plant you instantly thought of when you saw that Latin name.  If you are really interested in all their uses, which include salad leaves, cooking oil, paper, cordage, varnish, and diet supplements, go to this Aussie website:  https://fairdinkumseeds.com/products-page/brassica-lettuce-and-asian-greens/hibiscus-cannabinus-red-kenaf-brown-indian-hemp-seeds/ .  It's an interesting read.
            We also discovered that they are "full sun" plants, and here ours were in the deep shade of a live oak tree, just like the neighbor's had been.  So last spring we moved them.  Those three foot high plants have shot up to nearly 9 feet tall and they appear to be climbing.  I can hardly wait to see what happens with the blooms now that they are where they belong.  Things always do better when they are placed where God intended them to be.
            I have seen some brothers and sisters who seem to think otherwise.  I can look at Facebook, for example, and see where they hang out and with whom, not to mention what they are doing.  The language of the people they mingle with in their comments also makes it readily apparent that this is not where a Christian belongs.  Don't give me the usual, "But Jesus ate with sinners," excuse.  Jesus ate with sinners so he could teach them and reach them and bring them to repentance.  How much teaching are you doing?  How many have repented?  Let me tell you what those friends of yours whom you are not teaching think about you.  They think you are a hypocrite who claims to be one thing while living another.  They evidently know better than you that you ought not to be in that place, nor doing those things.  Just ask them what a Christian should and should not do and see for yourself.
            That is only the most obvious way that we plant ourselves in the wrong places and then wonder why we don't grow.  Who are you dating?  Who did you marry?  The answer to those questions will dictate the focus of the rest of your life.  The focus for a Christian should be serving the Lord, something that a married person can only do to his absolute best when married to someone else with that same focus.  I know some sad people who will tell you not to make the same mistake they did.
            What about the occupation you have chosen?  Some things may not be wrong, but they have a tendency to put you in places you don't need to be, places and situations far too dangerous for your soul.  The same thing is true of hobbies and special interests.  Be careful out there, and don't fool yourself for a few fleeting pleasures.
            Where have you chosen to live?  Do you have a group of strong, faithful brethren you can spend your spare time with, go to for advice, and lean on in times of trouble?  Or are you forced to go it alone, trying your best to be what you need to be with no help within a couple hours' drive?  Most folks my age can make a list of people who thought they could "start a church there," only to completely fall away from the Lord within a couple of years.  All for a well-paying job or "great opportunity."  Opportunity for what, exactly?
            It really does matter where you plant yourself.  You may grow three feet tall and put out a few blooms and think you are fine, but tell me why your Heavenly Father should be satisfied with that when He meant for you to grow upwards of ten feet tall, covered with blooms?  Don't plant yourself in the dark shade when you were meant to be placed in the full light of the Son. 
 
They are planted in the house of Jehovah; They shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and green: To show that Jehovah is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.  Ps 92:13-15
 
Dene Ward

Just because I get bored cooking the same old things over and over, I wandered over to my cookbook shelves last week and ran my fingers over them all, thinking.  Most of the time these days I use Cooking Light cookbooks, trying to bolster our health and trim our waistlines, but I also have others that include the family favorites.  I have started listing the recipes I use again and again on the front flyleaf of my cookbooks now, because it dawned on me that as many books as I have, the boys will never be able to find their favorite recipes otherwise after I am gone.  Some of my cookbooks are at least forty years old, and that doesn't count the two or three of my mother's I saved, which are nearing 80 years old.
            A few months ago, I was talking about recipes with another woman and she asked me, "Do you still eat casseroles?"  She went on to explain that when she takes food to families with sick mothers or to after-funeral dinners, when she asks if there is anything they do not like, "casseroles" was a common complaint.  Some of my favorite meals from childhood were casseroles, but, I realized, I hadn't cooked many of the things myself lately.  Squash casserole during garden season might have been the last one.  But I do still cook them.  Turkey pot pie, turkey divan, beef and noodle surprise, baked ziti, and who can even exist without lasagna?
            So as I was running my fingers over my cookbooks that day they came to rest on the Favorite Recipes of America Series, Casseroles volume (copyright 1968).  Suddenly I made the decision.  This week will be retro-casserole week!  And we have thoroughly enjoyed the memories these old dishes have brought back to us.  One of my favorites has been a slightly updated "green bean casserole."  How is it updated, you ask?  Throwing together homemade mushroom cream sauce (rather than a can of cream of mushroom soup), and adding some buttered panko crumbs to the French-fried onions to make an extra crispy topping.  Green Bean Casserole is once again in my regular repertoire.  The best part?  It's still green bean casserole.  Nothing I did changed what is essentially beans, mushroom cream sauce, and fried onions.
            Have you noticed how old things are brought back in style lately and labeled "retro?"  As long as you smack that title on it, people will accept it.  Except, it seems, religion.  Such has always been the case.  God's people tired of His simple, solemn service and His carefully followed rituals.  They much preferred the excitement that their neighbors' idolatry brought.  It began with gradual changes—but things that were actually changes, not simply a better tasting mushroom cream sauce.  Jeroboam put up golden calves in both Dan and Bethel, to worship Jehovah, mind you, in much more convenient locations (and places that kept them from being tempted to join back with Judah).  Then he changed the Levitical priesthood.  Then he changed the feast days.  The ones who knew better, mostly the priests, left for Jerusalem, which accounts for the need to begin a different priesthood than the Aaronic.  There were few of those left.
            But before long, even that wasn't enough.  Convenience was good, but excitement was better.  And idolatry delivered that in spades.  Just look at the famous contest on Mt Carmel.  We think all that jumping around and hollering was because the false prophets couldn't get their god to answer them.  Perhaps a little, but it was normal for that kind of worship.  And once Jehovah answered Elijah's call, what did the people do?  We stop reading far too soon because of the chapter division.  All that yelling, "Jehovah he is God," fit right into their new style of worship service.  It probably went on for hours.  They probably screamed it and cheered every time Elijah lopped off a head.  "Hey!  Now this is what we had in mind.  This is real worship," they were probably thinking.  These people were not brought back to repentance one little bit.  And how do I know?  Because when Ahab got home that night and made his report, nothing had changed.  Jezebel was still in control—and the people allowed it.  Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. (1Kgs 19:2).
            Elijah knew the score.  And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.  (1Kgs 19:3-4).  These people wanted nothing to do with bringing back the old ways, with worshipping God the way He had instructed them so long before.  And it only continued throughout their history until finally, they went too far and He destroyed most of them. 
          We need to wake up, people.  I am all for updating that green bean casserole—but not for changing its very essence.  If you take out the beans and add carrots, it is no longer green bean casserole; it's something entirely different.  When I can no longer tolerate vegetables at all, but want a dish full of cotton candy, I am just catering to an immature intellect that mistakes emotion for true reverence.  It isn't about what I like.  It's about what God commands.
           As you can tell, my week of retro-casseroles has brought up a lot more than good memories.  Let's take some time to examine what is happening around us and make sure we haven't thrown out our Casserole Cookbook just because of some fad diet that everyone has glommed onto.  Good nutrition for the soul is not always popular, but it is always healthy.
 
Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, "We will not walk in it." (Jer 6:16).

Will we?
 
Dene Ward

I was ten years old the first time I remember anyone calling me “ugly.”  It was Sunday night, just after services had let out, sometime during the school year.  We all stood in pools of manmade light around the little rock church building, the adults talking and laughing together, the children scampering about in the front yard of the lot, usually girls together and boys together, except for the teenagers who stood together in a group off to one side, aloof from it all.  I didn’t do much running because of my vision, so it was easy for a boy to sneak up behind me, pull my hair and say that awful word.
            No, he did not have a crush on me.  That’s what they always told girls like me, that and the ugly duckling story.  I was overweight with a head full of frizzy hair, and big coke bottle glasses that made me look bug-eyed and a little stupid.  When he said it, he meant it.
            Despite my precarious vision, I fled around the side of the building into the blackness of the back yard—no lights to see here, either ugly me or my ugly tears.  I would never have gone back there for any other reason—it was far too scary and I tripped over things right in front of me even in broad daylight, but that dark, shadowy place was where I thought I belonged, because I had seen myself in the mirror and I believed him.  I had also heard several adults talk about my “ugly glasses,” and what a shame it was I had to wear them.  What they didn’t realize was since I could not see at all without them (a +17.5 prescription), they were as much a part of me as my nose or any other part of my face.  They were my eyes, and if they were ugly, so was I.
            Child psychology has come a long way.  We know that children believe what others say about them.  If you tell a child he is bad, he will live up to it.  And if you tell a little girl she is ugly, it will take her decades to get over it.
            So why do we do this thing to ourselves?  Why do we go on and on about being “only human,” as if being made in the image of God were a bad thing?  Why do we constantly tell one another we are “not perfect?”  Why do we introduce ourselves as “sinners?”  Okay, maybe it is a humility thing, but I see too many times when it is something else entirely—it’s an excuse for not doing better.  And the more often we give ourselves those excuses, the more often we will need them.
            Listen instead to the Word of God:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Rom 8:16.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…Eph 2:10.
And, having been set free from sin, [you] have become servants of righteousness, Rom 6:18.
…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God, 1 Cor 6:11.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, 1 Pet 2:9.
            That’s what you are—God’s work, God’s children, chosen, royal, holy, righteous, sanctified.  Tell yourself that every morning. Look in the mirror and say the words aloud.  We are “called saints” right along with those Corinthian brethren, 1 Cor 1:2.  Stop calling yourself a sinner all the time.  If that is what you believe, that is what you will do, and then find yourself running back into the darkness trying to hide from it all.
            Turn on the light and call yourself by the names God does.  This is an “Ugly Duckling” story that has really come true.  You are His child, and that makes you beautiful.
 
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure, 1 John 3:1,2.
 
Dene Ward

Today's sobering post is by guest writer, Keith Ward.
 
I’ve seen it on Facebook more than once: “I can’t wait for 2020 to be over.” But there is no magic in the turning of a page on the calendar.  Maybe it is time to take stock carefully from a biblical perspective.  Maybe the times we face are partially the result of, “Be careful what you pray for because you might get it.”

We look around us and everywhere there is wickedness.  When was the last time we voted, whichever party, for a person we believed in rather than the lesser of two evils? And speaking of two, now man has proclaimed there are 5 or 6 or more sexes.  Homosexuality is not just accepted but imposed.  Murder goes unpunished, victims do not count.  Abortion destroys millions of new lives every year.  Violence runs riot in the streets.  Lies and deception are the currency of both politics and business.  Hatred and racism explode.  Truly, things have become so bad that no one can conceive of a solution: there is no way back.  God is a foolish myth and crutch in the minds of the majority and the Bible is a collection of myths that were only needed by more primitive societies.   Religion is mocked, immorality praised, pornography runs rampant and a “relationship” is sex with the same person exclusively for at least a week.  When was the last time there was a nuclear family on TV that was not a 50s re-run? How can we repent when we “call evil good and good evil” (Isa 5:20)?

I have prayed about it, as have you.  I am not even sure what to say anymore when I pray for our country because everything has become so wicked. 
So, now, what if God has heard all our voices and this is the beginning of His reckoning with our nation, the beginning of “the day of the Lord, a day of darkness and not light” (Amos 5:18-20)?  If 2020 is the best year of the rest of our lives, how do we as Christians prepare?

Priority has to be to build our faith and that of our families.  I have served God fifty years and I am not sure I am ready for days like those of Habakkuk and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel: days of persecution from “the people,” uprooted and cursed and hated.  I like to think I could do it, but I will be upping my level of preparation.

How can one stand such trials when he has never put himself in the trial of opposing abortion openly? Or homosexuality? Or immorality?  How can one stand up with a faith prepared to die for the Lord when he rarely opens his Bible between services and never stands up for Jesus by declaring the truth of the gospel to fishing or football buddies?

We want our children to go to heaven in spite of such trials, but we have not helped them with questions about the reliability of the Bible, or the science that supports the Bible, or the history and archaeology that do the same because we have not learned these things ourselves.  We have not opposed the arguments against God with sound reasoning for God, so how do we or our children “stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand?”  (Eph 6:13).
 
We want to stand the trials, but have not exercised spiritually to prepare for a hard race.  We have not memorized scriptures to call to our minds for strength, we have not studied and meditated to strengthen our confidence in our tie with God, we have not prayed the hours necessary to strengthen our holiness before God. 

When we do an honest analysis, many of us in many ways have not done all that well with the moderate trials of 2020.  We bicker whether the one wearing a mask or the one not wearing one has the most faith rather than loving brethren more than our opinions.  We complain about restrictions.  We are not picking up the slack in our ability to assemble by studying more, praying more, growing more.  Instead, many have become comfortable with TV church in our pajamas.

2020 may be, in fact, God’s grace, God’s “not willing that any should perish” warning, and time to face the judgment on our nation in our times.  If so, have you missed the opportunity?
 
"And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.  " (Jer 8:11).
 
"For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay hath taken hold on me.  Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? " (Jer 8:21-22).
 
"For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ….  Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: " (2Pet 1:8-10).
 
"I know thy works, that thou hast a name that you live , and you are dead.  You be watchful, and establish the things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.   " (Rev 3:1-2).
 
Keith Ward

I don’t get it.  Something is very wrong when we make heroes out of monsters.  First it was vampires, and now zombies.  But did you know this?  We have spiritual vampires and zombies out there too, and some of us make heroes out of them.
            Televangelists and faith healers come to mind.  Has there ever been a more despicable sort of bloodsucker?  They use the desperate, the ill, the old, the ones afraid of dying without God, and steal their money and their minds, basking in the adoration of distressed souls who want just one last vestige of health and a moment of relieved peace before their deaths.  Yes, a lot of it is their own fault.  If they knew and loved the Word of God as they should they would not have been deluded so as to “believe a lie” (2 Thes 2:9-11).  Yet Satan’s ministers are good-looking, amiable, charismatic people, and even the good-hearted can be deceived if they aren’t careful (2 Cor 11:13-15).
            But the worst are surely the walking dead. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will, John 5:21.  Notice, Jesus said this well before he ever raised anyone from the dead.  Most commentators believe he was talking here about raising the spiritually dead, and the full context proves them correct. 
            How are we dead?  Most of us can easily quote passages saying we were once “dead in sin,” but Jesus was talking to the Jews of the day, God’s people. 
            Verse 16 tells us these people were seeking to kill Jesus because he healed on the Sabbath.  They understood when it suited them that healing on the Sabbath was not a sin; they did the same for their animals.  But their traditions outweighed the clear dictum of the Law to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  In another healing, Jesus quite purposefully called the woman who was bowed together a “daughter of Abraham” in order to shame the ruler who did not want her healed (Luke 13:15,16).  Follow the man born blind in John 9 and see the ridiculous lengths they went to in order to condemn a man who could heal as no one ever had before.  Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes, John 9:30.  Even Jesus was amazed at their determination not to see his obvious origins, and therefore his authority to heal whenever he pleased. 
            That determination is shown earlier in John 5.  They clearly understood that Jesus claimed a relationship with God that was above and beyond their own, yet despite the works he did, and thus the witness shown by God through those works, they denied that witness, one that shone clearly to any who dared to actually see. 
            Those people who thought they were the one true people of God, following the one true Law, couldn’t even tell when God was among them.  What did Jesus have to say about that?  Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him, John 5:24.  Don’t count on your pedigree in the faith.  Don’t count on following the rules.  These people had the first (Abraham is our father, John 8:39), and did the second, but Jesus says to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life, John 5:24.  He was calling them dead, yet they were still on this earth walking around, still in charge of God’s people, a people they disdained, John 7:48,49.
            How are we doing as a people of God?  Do we truly listen, or have we become nothing more than a self-righteous, unloving group that prides itself on having been baptized and following a set of rules, including a bunch we devised ourselves and then judge others for not keeping.  As sad as it is, we have the walking dead still among us, and some people think they are heroes. 
 
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.  Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you, Rev 3:1-4. 
 
Dene Ward

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, Matt 6:10.
            All my life I have thought of this in a passive sense.  I pray for something, just as the Lord did in Matt 26:39, 42, and then add, “But thy will be done,” as if God is the only one who is expected to do His will.  Then suddenly one day I thought, “Doing God’s will is the simple definition for obedience.”  If I am praying for His will to be done, I have an obligation to do that will myself.
            I cannot pray, “Thy will be done” if I look at one of his commands and say, “But God wouldn’t mind if…”  I can’t expect an answer to my prayers if my answer to His will is, “I do well at everything else and this is such a small thing.”  If I do not obey in even one instance I am not doing His will.
            So I did a quick little study.  I may have thought that “God’s will” had more to do with what He does, but I was wrong.  Notice the following.
            “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, Matt 7:21.  A lot of people out there go around doing “good deeds,” but if doing God’s will doesn’t come first, it isn’t worth a thing.
            For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother, Matt 12:50.  You are not in the Lord’s family if you are finding excuses for your disobedience.
            Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work, John 4:34    If you want to follow in his footsteps, doing the Father’s will must become an essential of life, every bit as much as food.
            If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority, John 7:17.  You can’t go around claiming to know and teach about Jesus if you are not obeying the Father.
            Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect, Rom 12:2.  The only way to know God’s will is to change your life.
            For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, 1Thess 4:3.  You are not doing the Father’s will if you are engaging in sexual sins of any kind.
            Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, 1Thess 5:18. You are not doing God’s will if you are whining and complaining about your station in life, about your trials, about the suffering you must deal with, especially those due to your faith.
            For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised, Heb 10:36.  It isn’t always easy to do the Father’s will and the task is never completed.  One good deed doesn’t mean your work is finished.
            [God will] equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen, Heb 13:21.  No matter how hard it seems, he will see that you have whatever you need to do His will.  If you didn’t manage to do it, it was your fault, not His.
            The next time you end a prayer, “Thy will be done,” remember that you are as much responsible for that as He is.  If you aren’t willing to do His will in every aspect of your life, why should He believe you mean it when you pray?  And why should He do what YOU want, when you won’t do what HE wants?
 
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, 1Pet 4:1-2.
 
Dene Ward