Entitlements are the biggest government programs in the US.  In 2016, the Social Security program cost $916 billion, Medicare $595 billion, Medicaid an estimated $651 billion and all other welfare programs an estimated $433 billion.  What began as an almost negligible part of the national debt in 1900 is now an estimated 17% of all national spending.
            When did this happen?  The largest jump in entitlement spending occurred during the Great Society programs of 1964-65, but most people trace the root back to the Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal programs.  Just to have a date, the Social Security Act was passed January 17, 1935, with the creation of the original "Welfare", AFDC, and the relief programs we have today.  At that time "relief" was $18 per month for one child and $12 per additional child.
            Entitlement programs are not necessarily bad.   When a man has had his wages taxed his whole life, I see little wrong with his picking up a Social Security check.  He is, theoretically, just getting his money back, money he loaned to the government for their use and which they are returning.  But entitlement in general has become a bad word.  To most of us it means "the belief that one is inherently deserving of special treatment," and not because it is earned.
            I wish I had a nickel for every conservative politician, even every Christian, I’ve heard complaining about people who have entitlement issues.  The ones who act like the world owes them a living; like they should never have to reap the consequences of their sown wild oats; who think that having money or, interestingly enough, NOT having money, makes them exempt from the laws of the land.  While I find myself agreeing with most of those opinions, I also see this:  every one of them, politician and Christian alike, has an entitlement issue of his own.
            First there is the husband who wants everything done in a certain way, even if it is a lot more work for his wife; who demands certain foods cooked a certain way and served with certain other foods or he refuses to eat it; who requires every item of clothing pressed, even if they are permanent press and no one else will know the difference; who wants his big boy toys because he’s “worked hard and earned it,” even if it means others in the family will do without needs.  After all, he is the head of the house.
            Then there is the wife who wants everything the neighbors have, even if the neighbor makes a lot more money; who thinks she must have plenty of time and money allotted for preening; who considers sacrificing for her family a kind of torture; who believes that life is for recreation and begrudges every minute she must spend caring for the children or keeping the house or cooking meals; who recites her list of woes to anyone who will listen every time she has the opportunity so she can be properly pitied and praised for dealing with them.  After all no one should have to go without a new pair of shoes for every outfit.
            And don’t forget the children these two raise:  selfish, materialistic whiners who are never satisfied; who think that their parents owe them every new electronic gizmo the world creates; and who never once utter the word, “Thank you,” much less actually treat their parents with enough respect and courtesy to even look up from their phones and carry on a civil conversation.  After all, they didn’t ask to be born so they deserve everything they want to make up for it.
            Do you think these attitudes haven’t invaded the church?  Where do you think we get those members who refuse to do as they are asked for the sake of visitors from the community?  Why, no one can have my perfect parking place (under the shade tree) or my perfect seat (in the rear).  Why do you think we have people who treat their precious opinions like the first principles of Christianity—basic and undeniable, and shame on anyone who isn’t as enlightened as I am?  Where do they come from, the people who will raise an argument about the trivial just to show their smarts and regardless of who may need the larger point being made?  Or the ones who, when they suffer, raise their fists at God and complain, “I’ve served you all my life.  Why me?” as if they could have ever earned any blessing at all?
            And why do you think we have such a hard time overcoming a single besetting sin?  “That’s just the way I am,” we think, as if the Lord should count Himself blessed to have us and overlook it.
            Yes, we are all guilty.  And what does Jesus have to say about that when he hears us pontificating about “those people” with entitlement issues?
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye, Matt 7:3-5.
            Be careful the next time you rant about entitlement.
 
Dene Ward

I love shortbread—at its simplest, real butter, flour, sugar, in a ratio of 3 to 2 to 1.  Pat it in a pan and bake it in a low oven.  With black coffee, or hot chocolate, or hot tea, or even good old Southern sweet tea to wash it down, I am happy.  And today makes me especially happy because it is National Shortbread Day.
            What does this have to do with history, you ask?  Like most other things, shortbread has a history.  It was invented sometime in the 12th Century by Scottish women who took leftover bread dough, sweetened it, and then dried it out in the oven to form something called a "rusk", a twice-baked biscuit.  Over time, the yeast in the dough was traded out for butter, and that suddenly made this an expensive treat saved mainly for special occasions.   Everyone loved it, including Mary, Queen of Scots, whose bakers refined the cookie to suit her tastes in the 16th Century.  She was especially fond of a version called Petticoat Tails which were flavored with caraway seeds.
            As to why January 6 was chosen for National Shortbread Day, I have been unable to find the answer.  I wondered if Queen Mary's history had anything to do with it, but no, neither her birth nor death date is January 6, nor was the date of her ascension to the throne.  So we will just be satisfied that today is the day and not worry about why.  Any reason is a good one for eating shortbread.
            One thing I like about shortbread is its versatility.  You can pat it in a round cake pan and cut it into wedges after it is baked.  You can pat it into an oblong pan and cut the finished cookies into fingers, triangles, or squares.  You can roll out the dough and cut it into shapes before baking.  You can stamp an emblem on it.
            Add some chopped toasted pecans and you have pecan shortbread.  Roll those into balls, and roll the baked cookies in powdered sugar and you have pecan sandies.
Exchange almond paste for some of the butter.  Leave out the vanilla and add almond extract; brush the dough with egg white and sprinkle with sparkling sugar and sliced almonds.  Suddenly your simple shortbread is almond shortbread.
            Add the grated zest of a lemon instead of vanilla.  Slather the cooked bars with a glaze made of the same lemon’s juice and some powdered sugar—iced lemon shortbread bars.  (Warning:  this is an adult cookie; kids are not crazy about it.)
            Cut your plain old shortbread into fingers.  Then, after baking and cooling, dip one end into melted semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate.  Leave some plain chocolate.  Dip others in chopped nuts before the chocolate sets.  Plain shortbread has suddenly become elegant.
            You can even use shortbread dough as the base for a layered dessert.  Just bake it and cool it first, enough to cover a 9 x 13 pan.  Add chopped nuts or not before baking as you please.  The layers can be three or four of your choosing—various flavors and mixings of pudding, peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, fruit pie fillings, drained crushed pineapple, sweetened whipped cream, chopped nuts, toasted coconut, chopped chocolate bars, whatever you can imagine.  Chill and cut into layered squares, either light or rich, depending on your choices.  And it all started with a base of butter, flour, and sugar.
            Any time I hear someone say the Bible is no longer relevant, I think of shortbread.  It doesn’t matter for which of life’s situations you need guidance, God’s word contains something to help you.  Not only does it include the principles of marriage, but several real life examples as well—everything from good, sound marriages to marriages dealing with unfaithfulness and abuse.  The same is true with childrearing.  We are not stuck with abstract ideas like “raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”  We have examples of parents who made a mess of things—favoritism, lack of discipline, provocation, poor teaching.  We have parents who loved too much and in the wrong ways.  And we have the results of all those mistakes in heartbreaking detail.
            We have stories of neighbors who couldn’t get along and how they settled things.  We have stories of servants (think “employees”) who served well, and those who didn’t, and what made the difference.  We have stories of good masters (employers) and bad.  We have stories of those who handled power well and those who did not.  And if you can’t find exactly the same circumstances you need help with, “As you would that men should do unto you, do you also unto them,” covers a whole lot of territory, including email and cell phone etiquette.
            Just as shortbread can fit any situation from a children’s lunch to a family meal to an elegant party, God’s word works no matter what situation you find yourself in.  Keep a close eye out and I think you will find that people who think the Bible is irrelevant simply don’t want to follow its guidelines.  It isn’t that God says nothing about their situation; it’s that they don’t like His solution.
But that is nothing new either.  Ahab, one of the wickedest kings in Israel’s history, said of the prophet Micaiah, “I don’t like him because he never says anything good about me.”  There was a way to fix that; Ahab just didn’t like the remedy.
            God does not leave his children without guidance in every situation they might encounter.  It is up to us to find that guidance and obey it.
 
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy;
They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness, Psalm 111:7,8.
 
Dene Ward
 

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live (Exod 1:15-17).
            Those verses seem straightforward enough, don't they?  So I thought until I started digging a little deeper.  Imagine my surprise to find out that several conservative Bible scholars, meaning they believe that the Bible is actually God's Word, say that the Hebrew here is in the genitive case and can be translated "midwives of the Hebrew women," meaning [Egyptian] midwives who served Hebrew women. Logic also comes to play in that how could Pharaoh have expected Hebrew women to kill the infants of their own people, and that the Hebrew women themselves, were probably toiling as slaves for Pharaoh rather than working in service roles to others.  However, Keil and Delitzch, two of the most notable conservative scholars of their time, come right out and say, "The midwives were Hebrews." 
            So why does any of that matter?  Just this:  if these women were Hebrews, they as a nation understood the sanctity of life as far back as 3000+ years ago.  If they were Egyptians, we can be even more amazed that pagans believed in the sanctity of life.  Some things were just understood—you don't slaughter babies. 
           Fast forward a couple thousand years and you will find Cicero, the Roman statesman, lawyer, and scholar, stating in his On the Laws 3.8, "Deformed infants shall be killed."  That "deformity" included an unwanted child, a sickly child, a deformed child, or simply a child of the "wrong" gender.  Seneca, the Roman philosopher said, "…mad dogs we knock on the head…unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children at birth who are weakly and abnormal."
            After reading that, it is surprising to find that a few centuries before, killing infants was not looked on favorably.  The Etruscans were notable in that they raised all the children borne to them.  These people influenced the Roman Empire until about 400 BC, and things seemed to take a downhill turn from there.  By the time of Caesar Augustus, the one who taxed the Roman world in the first century, the institution of the family had become so endangered that he enacted laws against adultery and "unchastity."  Epictetus, a stoic philosopher of the same era, stated that even a sheep or a wolf does not abandon its own offspring.  Thus the "progress" of the Roman Empire was actually seen as their downfall by some of their own.  Not every Roman believed babies could be killed just to suit their parents' lifestyles.
            And what has happened to us?  Have we "progressed" like the Roman Empire?  Are you aware that some infants are born alive after abortions and then left to die?  If this is progress, I want no part of it.  And neither did a lot of pagans. 
             
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them  (Rom 2:14-15).
 
Dene Ward
 

On August 27, 1776, George Washington and his troops retreated from New York City across the East River as the British swarmed the city.  On September 15 the redcoats raised the Union Jack and, for the rest of the Revolutionary War, New York served as the British Army Headquarters.  For seven long years the citizens endured poverty and mistreatment along with a devastating fire that left them all living in shacks made from old ships.  Over 10,000 American POWs died on prison ships floating in New York harbors.
            Finally, in mid-August, 1783, the British commander was given orders to evacuate.  England was giving up on the recalcitrant rebels.  The city had become a haven for loyalists so besides evacuating 20,000 British soldiers, the commander also had to make arrangements for those of his supporters who took advantage of England's offer of relocation.  Over 29,000 Tories were eventually evacuated to places like Nova Scotia, East Florida, and the Caribbean.
            The last British soldiers left on November 25, 1783.  Everything was timed so that as the last of them left, Washington and his troops would enter.  The time was set for noon.  A near disaster occurred when it was discovered that the British soldiers had left the Union Jack flying and greased the pole and removed the climbing cleats so that no one could take it down—several had tried and merely slid back to the ground.  A mad dash to a local hardware store ensued and just as Washington and his procession headed up the street, an army veteran named John Van Arsdale installed cleats one by one, climbing until he could reach the hated flag and tear it down.  Finally the American flag once again flew over New York City.
            New York Governor Henry Clinton arranged a dinner that evening in Washington's honor at Fraunces' Tavern in Lower Manhattan.  It is reported that 13 toasts were made in all, so we know the spirits were flowing.  For dessert Molly O'Neill reports that Washington was fed carrot cake, and that this is the first mention of that dessert anywhere (American Century Cookbook by Jean Anderson, p 435).  However, that tea cake, as it was called, was probably far healthier than the three layer carrot cake we know and love now.  Undoubtedly it was made with whole grain, rather than refined white flour, and since cream cheese had not yet been invented (1872), it was probably served quite plain.
            I still occasionally hear people talk about carrot cake being healthy.  The average slice of carrot layer cake with cream cheese frosting has about 580 calories, 30 grams of fat, 87 mg of cholesterol, and 415 mg of sodium.  Okay, it does have 105% of the required daily allowance of Vitamin A, thanks to those carrots, but only 1.5 grams of fiber to try and offset 73 grams of carbs. 
            We fall for these things all the time.  How about the Impossible Whopper?  Totally vegetarian, if not totally vegan.  (It is prepared on the same grill as regular Whoppers and thus absorbs some of that meat fat.)  But while a regular Whopper has 660 calories, an Impossible Whopper still has 630—not exactly diet fare.  A regular Whopper has 40 grams of fat, but the Impossible one has 34—not a huge savings.  But get this—a regular Whopper has 980 mg of sodium, the Impossible Whopper has 1080!  It has to—so it will taste decent.  (Double check—I found slightly different numbers on different websites, but they are all similar.)
            And we fall for these things spiritually as well, and the Devil is as happy as the Burger King adman is.  We think we can stay spiritually healthy with an hour or so in the Sunday morning worship.  We believe that as long as we "think about God" in our lives, it has the same benefit as personal Bible study and prayer.  We think that keeping our radios set on the Christian music station will help us stay holy, even if the lyrics spout unbiblical notions and unscriptural dogma—a spiritual carrot cake loaded with cream cheese frosting if ever there was one.  We think that because we pray at our meals, we are truly a spiritual family.  Meanwhile our children grow up starving for the meat of the Word and the company of strong Christians, people we had rather avoid because they make us feel uncomfortable with their obvious Christianity.
            Evacuation Day was a great event for those New Yorkers.  They still celebrated that day a century later, and they had every right to do so, even with a calorie and fat-laden modern carrot cake if they had had one back then.  But I doubt they would have eaten it every day thinking they were being "healthy." 
Too many of us eat spiritual carrot cake every day and think we are just fine.  Think again.
 
Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.  (Jer 15:16).
 
Dene Ward

"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

On November 18, 1928, Steamboat Willie, AKA Mickey Mouse, made his film debut in the animated short called by that name.  Although he had appeared in two other cartoons before that, Walt Disney considered this one his "birthday" possibly because it was the first to use synchronized sound.  The "sound" was actually Walt Disney himself making an assortment of grunts, whistles, and laughs—there was actually no dialogue at all.  Steamboat Willie was a smash, and Walt Disney began a career that led to at least 142 films earning Walt Disney himself 26 Oscars, and eventually to Disneyland and Disneyworld.
            Those two amusement parks earn their big, big dollars with the concept of making dreams come true.  Where else would you find the castle that inhabits every little girl's dreams and the spaceships that fly little boys into space?  Where else can you see ghosts and not be harmed, fly in a magic car, and wander around a treehouse for castaways that has all the comforts of home?  "If you can dream it," Walt Disney famously said, "you can do it."  And everyone has heard Jiminy Cricket advise us that "If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish can come true."  Maybe it depends upon what you are dreaming about.
             We have done a lot of babysitting for the grandchildren over the years.  The spring Judah was twenty months old, we kept them for a week.  Every evening he climbed into my lap as I drank my last cup of coffee.  It took me a minute to figure it out the first time his little hand reached out into the air.  Finally I realized he was trying to catch the steam wafting over my mug, and was completely mystified when it disappeared between his little fingers.
            A lot of people spend their lives trying to catch the steam, vapors that seem solid but disintegrate in their grasping hands.  They do it in all sorts of ways, and all of them are useless. 
            Do they really think they can stop time?  Over 11,000,000 surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures were performed in this country in 2013, and we aren’t talking medically necessary procedures.  The top five were liposuctions, breast augmentations, eyelid surgeries, tummy tucks, and nose surgeries.*  I doubt the number has decreased any.
            Then there are the folks chasing wealth and security.  Didn’t the recent Great Recession, as it is now called, and the economic problems of 2020 teach them anything? 
            Others are striving to make a name for themselves.  These are usually the same folks who tell Christians how pathetic we are to believe that some Higher Power would ever notice we even exist on this puny blue dot in the universe.  Yet there they all go, looking for fame, fortune, notoriety, beauty, or even their version of eternal life.  All of it is nothing more than a dream.  It will disappear, if not in a natural disaster or an economic meltdown, then the day they die—and they will die no matter how hard they try not to.  They are the ones grasping at dreams which are only a vapor that disappears in a flash.
            Our dream isn’t a dream at all.  It is a hope, which in the Biblical sense means it is all but realized.  Sin and death have been conquered by a force we can only try to comprehend, by a love we can never repay, and by a will we can but do our best to imitate.  Yet there it is, not a wisp of white floating over a warm porcelain mug, but a solid foundation upon which we base our faith.  Heb 6:19 calls it “an anchor.”  Have you ever seen a real anchor?  If there is anything the opposite of a wisp of steam, that’s it—solid and strong, able to hold us steady in the worst winds of life.  Tell me how a pert nose and a full bank account can do that!
            It's time to leave the amusement parks and the words of cartoon characters.  The world thinks it knows what is real while we sit like a toddler grasping at steam.  When eternity comes, they will finally see that they are wrong.  Spiritual things are the only things that last, the only real things at all.
 
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal, 2 Cor 4:6-8.
 
*Information from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
 
Dene Ward

On November 3, 1906, a clinical psychiatrist and neuroanatomist reported a peculiar and severe disease process of the cerebral cortex in one of his patients.  She had been admitted to the Frankfurt Psychiatric Hospital for paranoia, progressive memory problems, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, and aggression.  He described her case at the 37th meeting of the South West German Psychiatrists, and attracted little interest at the time. 
            Five years later, that first patient, Auguste Deter, died at the age of 55.  Her doctor, Alois Alzheimer, kept up his research and treatment of similar patients.  Emil Kraepelin, another doctor, suggested that the new disease should be given the name Alzheimer's disease after the doctor who first recognized it.  Today, the methods for diagnosing the disease are still basically the same as those that first doctor himself used over 100 years ago, which in itself is amazing given the advances medicine has made.
            Alzheimer's may be one of the most feared diseases there is.  I know it scares me to think of still being alive and yet not being who I am any longer, being a burden to my family, or even mistreating them because of it.  We focus on the memory loss, and that may be the worst part.  18 years ago Keith suffered something called Transient Global Amnesia for about five days.  That was scary enough.  I think we just don't realize what a blessing memory is, even a memory that is a little faulty as we age normally.  At least something is still there.  But every time we suffer a lapse, we wonder…
            I walked into the kitchen and stopped, looking around at the counters, the stove top, the sink, the pantry. 
            Keith came in behind me and asked, “What are you looking for?”
            “I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t remember,” and nothing lying around in plain view had jogged that memory, one that couldn’t have been over a minute old.  I have finally reached that stage when my memory is as fragile as my old lady bones.
            My short term memory, that is.  My memories of childhood, school, early marriage, and raising kids are firmly intact, and so are the memory verses I learned decades ago as a child.
            For a while there, memory verses seemed to be out of style.  I even heard a sister in Christ say their value was “overrated.”  She was even older than I.  I wonder how she feels now, especially during long nights when she can’t sleep, as happens so often to the elderly.
            Those memorized verses are invaluable to me.  They instantly spring to mind when I await another scary test result (“casting all your cares on him because he cares for you” 1 Pet 5:7); when the aches and pains of old age slow you down and you can no longer do what you have always done (“For this perishable body must put on the imperishable” 1 Cor 15:53); when friends and family pass on before you leaving a hole no one else can fill (“That you may not grieve as those who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” 1 Thes 4:13,14); when you suddenly realize you’ve reached an age where anything could happen any time (“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord” Rev 14:13).
            All my life during times of temptation, suffering, and betrayal, but also joy, hope and thanksgiving, those passages memorized so long ago have kept me going.  They’ve helped me answer a skeptic, refute false teaching, encourage a suffering friend, and edify my sisters in Christ.  If I lost them all due to a disease, I cannot imagine how empty I would feel.  Those words etched on the hearts of you and your children are anything but overrated.  Fill up your children now, and while you’re at it, fill yourself up before your memory, too, becomes as fragile as your bones.
 
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, Deut 11:18-20

Dene Ward

While the Catholic Church will tell you that the first Pope was Peter and he reigned in the first century, church historians will tell you otherwise.  In the first place, the New Testament never calls Peter a Pope.  In fact, he seems to put himself on exactly the same plane as every other elder (bishop, pastor, presbyter) in 1 Peter 5:1:  The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed…
            So who exactly was the first Pope?  Well, it might amaze you to know that all bishops were called "popes" in the beginning, from the Latin Papa or "Father."  But the first Bishop of Rome to take that title in the way we think of today was Leo I, "the Great," who ascended to the papacy on September 29, 440 (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol 3, p 315).
            But do you know what?  A lot of us also use faulty information when we just repeat what we have heard for years without checking it out.  Are you still using the old argument, “Reverend is only found once in the Bible and it refers to God, so men should not be called reverend?”  If so, you need to shelve that one.  It is a specious argument based totally on an accident of the King James translation.  The word is only translated “reverend” once in that version.  The Holy Spirit originally used the Hebrew in Psalm 111:9.  That word is yare, and it is used by the Spirit over 300 times in the original Hebrew Scriptures.  Some of them refer to men, including righteous men like David.
            But in Matthew 23:8-12, Jesus gives us the same concept.  Be not called Rabbi; for one is your teacher and you are all brethren.  And call no man your father on the earth, for one is your Father, even he who is in Heaven.  Neither be called masters for one is your master, even the Christ.  But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.
            Now some people do call their earthly father, “Father,” and there is nothing wrong with that.  The point, you see, is not the word, but setting someone up as better than his brethren by the use of a [capitalized] Title, be it Father, Holy Father, Reverend, Most Reverend, Most Right Reverend—you get the point.  The New Testament has no concept of laity and clergy at all.  To be quite honest about this, it is even possible to misuse the word “brother” in the same way, by applying it only to people we consider to be worthy of it due to their knowledge or role in the church.  Jesus said in that quote above, “You are all brethren.” 
            Let’s take this a step farther.  I have an aunt and uncle who both have doctoral degrees in chemistry.  They both taught at a prestigious university and one was even head of the department for many years before retirement.  You know what?  No one in the family calls them “Dr. Ayers.”  They would be insulted.  They accept the title only in the realm of academia, but never in the family circle.            
            The church is our spiritual family circle.  We were all born again, raised to walk with Christ as a new creature, and when that happened, we were all “created” equal.  Just as my aunt and uncle would not want anyone in the physical family to use their academic titles, I don’t think I know a true brother or sister in the Lord who would ever expect the family to use their earthly titles except in the worldly realm in which they apply.  As Jesus so clearly explained in Matthew 23:  whoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and whoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.
            One of the greatest Bible students I know has a high school education.  But he has studied so hard for so long on his own, and has developed such great insight, that I would sit at his feet to learn at any opportunity.  Others, who sport more letters after their names than if they spilled a bowl of alphabet soup, make it obvious in their teachings that they spend more time studying things other than the Word of God.  Those things may have their place, but it is not as a substitute for the Truth.
            The only titles we wear are Christian, child of God, saint, heirs and joint-heirs with Christ.  Truly, among the family of God, that should be all the honor any of us needs.
 
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, Gal 3:26-28.
 
Dene Ward     

Have you fallen prey to it yet?  You post something on Facebook and then sit back and wait.  You check it every five minutes at first, then maybe stretch it out a bit, and before you know it, you have sat there for an hour or two and what have you been doing?  Waiting to see if someone “likes” you.  Yes, the quest for popularity affects the masses, and many make use of that pathetic craving of ours. 
Political pundits say that the first really obvious affect of popularity was the Kennedy-Nixon debates.  On September 26, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Richard M. Nixon participated in the first televised presidential debates in American history.  Suddenly election strategy changed.  A carefully manufactured public image and media exposure became essentials for every candidate. 
            Kennedy had only a single and unexceptional term as a Senator on his resume.  Nixon had eight years as vice-president, following a career in the Senate in which his domestic and foreign experience trumped anything Kennedy had.  He was a great opponent of Communism in a time when that really mattered, and even helped uncover the alleged traitor Alger Hiss.  By the summer of 1960, Nixon had gained a lead in the polls.  Then he landed in the hospital with an infection in August and came out pale and 20 pounds underweight.  And so on debate day, a young, bronzed Kennedy confronted a gray Nixon, who was still running a low fever from the tag end of the flu as well.  He had just come off an exhausting campaign trail while Kennedy holed up in the hotel the whole weekend resting.
            After the first of four debates, the pundits scored their politics even, or Nixon slightly ahead.  On Election Day, though, Kennedy won and exit polls showed that politics is not what won the election.  Kennedy was more telegenic.  Over half the voters said the two disparate images during the debate had influenced their vote.  Historians say this was the first time popularity struck a blow in politics.   They are wrong about that.
            After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,” Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.” And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel, 2 Sam 15:1-6.
            Absalom made everyone feel “liked” and that “stole their hearts.”  But Absalom wasn’t even the first.  In Judges 9:3 the people of Israel had “hearts inclined to follow Abimelech.”  Both of these men were wrong for God’s people and were eventually killed, but that didn’t stop the people from falling prey to what was “popular.”
            Do you think that hasn’t happened to you?  Why do you wear what you wear?  Why do you watch the television shows you watch?  Why do you go to the restaurants you do?  Whatever is popular at the time steals our hearts because we think that by doing the popular thing we will become popular.  The problem comes when that affects us spiritually.  If I am wearing clothing I shouldn’t because everyone else is, I need a stronger character.  If I am watching inappropriate entertainment, I need to remember who I claim to follow. 
            The people of Israel were taken in by what was popular over and over again.  Ezekiel tells us “their hearts went after their idols” and “covetousness,” 20:16; 33:31.  Jeremiah talks about them “going after the imagination of their hearts,” 9:14; 13:10.  And why did they do those things?  Not only because they were the popular things to do, but because falling in with the crowd made them popular too.  Simply put, you can’t be different and popular in the world at the same time.
            What is your heart going after?  If it’s popularity and wanting to be “liked,” then you are prey to popular evils just like 99% of the rest of the world.  God calls us to be different.  A Christian doesn’t need to be “liked” on Facebook or anywhere else as long as God “likes” him.
 
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ, Gal 1:10.
 
Dene Ward

On September 12, 1959, Bonanza made its debut on NBC.  This Western saga ran for fourteen years, and sat in the Top 10 for ten of those years.  It was the most watched show on television from 1964-1967.  It even affected the growth of color television!  Very few homes had a color TV before it premiered, but that changed almost overnight.
            The producer, David Dortort, had a set of values in mind when he created the show.  He wanted Ben Cartwright, the patriarch, to be a strong, wise, and competent man, the father who could teach and discipline and set things right within the family.  He wanted Ben to be a kind and generous man as well.  He might be wealthy, but he was neither selfish nor arrogant, and he raised his sons to be the same.
            Contrast this to 2011 when TV Guide Magazine called the new television season "the emasculation of men on TV."  Christian Kachel of the Washington Times has said that the template for the prime time sitcom is "immature, usually overweight, lazy, spineless men navigating life by accident, dumb luck, or with the help of superior female characters."  Hanna Rosin in The Atlantic characterizes the shows like this:  wives working double shifts and getting promotions while husbands sit around confused; husbands lying to their working wives about how much hockey they watch on TV while they are supposed to be tending the baby; sisters doing homework and brothers feeding the dog their orange juice.
            But all of this is just a reflection of society, I am afraid.  It has become such an issue that books and articles have been written by the dozen with almost the same title as this essay.  When celebrities like Bette Midler are quoted (in the National Review) as saying that "men and religion are worthless," what can you expect?  Ben Shapiro states in the same source that there is "indication of a general belief…that masculinity itself is toxic and must be quashed," citing quotes by such people as Hilary Clinton, using exactly that type of language ("toxic").  He continues, "While they champion the notion that women can do anything they set their minds to (true!), they simultaneously castigate men as the barriers to progress and masculinity as a condition to be avoided."  They believe that boys should not be told to "be a man," but rather should be feminized, because, of course, women are not just equal, they are superior, and all the ills of the world come from men.  According to Kachel, "rambunctious" boys are prescribed Ritalin to calm them down two and a half times more often than the same level of "rambunctious" girls.
            There is now an organization called "Single Mothers by Choice."  These women believe that the only role a man should play is "sperm donor."  They plan to have children and raise them without a father from the outset.  It isn't that something bad happened in their lives and now they have to do this monumental task alone—they believe they can do it better alone.  Now think about the subcultures within our own where the men are noticeably absent and tell me those children are less prone to violence, drugs, and crime, and that they are more likely to grow up to be well-educated and successful in life.  Keith ran an unofficial poll in his work as first, a probation officer and then, a classification officer doing intake in prisons.  He believes that probably 90% of the felons who sat across the table from him were raised without a man in the house.  Maybe those "Single Mothers by Choice" are all professionals who have the money to hire nannies, send their kids to private schools, and then make sure they get into an impressive college.  But what about the single mothers who wait on tables, load the shelves at Wal-Mart, and check out groceries?  Most of them wear themselves out young just trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their children's heads.  They are every bit as handicapped as a man who has lost a leg or gone blind.
            And what does God say about it?  He designed a nuclear family with both a mother and a father.  He gave them roles to fulfill so their children would be raised to succeed in life, but more important, so they would become faithful, righteous children of His own.  The Bible has no trouble at all saying, "Act like a man! Be strong!" (1 Cor 16:13).  And it takes a real man who knows the struggle to teach a boy how to harness his energy, his aggression, his sexuality, and how to get through the curveballs that life will throw his way.  It also takes a man to show a girl what to look for in a mate, by setting the example of provider, protector, spiritual leader, and the one who will "dwell with her according to knowledge," "nurturing and cherishing her."  It is sad when it doesn't work out that way, not something to be celebrated.
           Fathers have a specific role as the authority in the family, and through that role teach their children exactly what to expect from their Heavenly Father.  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.  (Heb 12:7-10).
          It's too bad that David Dortort is no longer producing television shows.  But if television truly reflects our society, that is even sadder.  Today I celebrate my man of God.  Promise me you will celebrate your man of God, if you have one, and tell him how grateful you are before this day is over.
 
For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice… (Gen 18:19).
 
Dene Ward