Have you finished the leftover turkey marathon yet?  Turkey pot pie, turkey divan, turkey enchiladas, turkey soup, turkey salad, and anything else that will use up a good-sized portion of that leftover bird.  It seems they all have something in common—some sort of sauce, gravy, or broth to make the endlessly heated up, dried out meat palatable.  If you like turkey leftovers, it is not the turkey you like—it is what the turkey becomes, a new dish with flavorful moist ingredients that fill you up and satisfy your hunger.  You can only reheat unadorned meat so many times before it turns into sawdust.
            While my family enjoys leftover turkey dishes, God most emphatically does not like leftovers. 
            If you are a gardener, you understand the concept of first-fruits.  The first pickings, like the first serving of turkey, are always the best.  By the end of the summer the beans are tough, the corn is starchy, the squash is wormy, and the tomatoes are small and hard or half-rotten.  That is why you doll them up in casseroles and sauces.  I always make the tomato sauce in July.  The June tomatoes are ripe, sweet and juicy, far too good to turn into sauce.
            God has always expected the first-fruits from His people. The first of the first-fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Jehovah your God, Ex 23:19.  He expected the first-fruits of everything to be given to His servants, the priests, who waited on Him night and day, And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw. The first-fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him, Deut 18:3,4.
            The Israelites in Malachi’s day discovered exactly how God felt about offerings that were less than the best.  You offer polluted bread upon my altar. And you say, Wherein have we polluted you? In that you say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. And when you offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! And when you offer the lame and sick, it is no evil! Present it now to your governor; will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept you? says Jehovah of hosts, Mal 1:7,8..
            We usually cite these verses when it comes time to put money in the plate.  Certainly we should be planning ahead, “purposing in our hearts” what we will give to God, rather than reaching for the leftover change in our pockets.  But what about the rest of our “offerings?”
            Too many of us give God our leftover time.  Rather than planning to pray and study, scheduling time in the week to care for our brothers and sisters in need, and putting our assemblies at the top of our agendas, we wait till we have finished what we consider necessary, then look to see if we can give any time and energy to God.  Usually it is too late, or we are too tired, or something else that really cannot be rescheduled takes the last few minutes of our day.  If there is time, we are tired, our energy flagging and our concentration poor.  No wonder some of the children I have taught in Bible classes treat the concept of a family Bible study as something unheard of.  No wonder the adults in Bible classes sit close-mouthed with little to offer to edify their brothers and sisters, or spout out something that even a quick study of scripture would prove to be wrong.
            It only makes sense for us to give God our best.  God has given us His best too, an only begotten Son, the firstfruits of them that are asleep, 1 Cor 15:20, as a hope of the resurrection.
            God not only expects us to give our first-fruits, he expects us to be one. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures, James 1:18.  Maybe that is the problem—our lives do not match the concept.  Instead, we are the blemished fruit, the tough, small, wormy, and half-rotten.  How can we give God anything else when that is all we have to offer?  This business of leftover offerings covers far more than the collection plate, far more than we would like to believe.
            Turkey leftovers are one thing.  They have a place, especially in the lives of those trying to be good stewards of their blessings.  But leftovers in my service to God might as well be fed to the dog.
 
Honor Jehovah with your substance, and with the first-fruits of all your increase: So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your vats shall overflow with new wine, Prov 3:8,9.
 
Dene Ward

We saw that sign on the side of the road, complete with exclamation point at the end.  “Fresh Cut Firewood!” followed by a phone number.  I wondered how many people fell for it. 
 
             Here’s another one:  “Olives fresh off the tree!”  I actually saw someone fall for that one, and he never will again.

              You see what sounds good may not always be good.  Fresh cut firewood is green—it won’t burn.  Firewood needs to sit and dry out for awhile, at least a year down here in this humid climate.  In fact, when Keith cuts wood in the winter, it is for the next year, not the present year.

              When it comes to religion a lot of people fall for what sounds good.  For example, just like firewood is a good thing to have when you own a woodstove, unity is a good thing to have among Christians.  God demands it among His people.  We are not supposed to be arguing all the time.  We should not be dividing into cliques and basing that upon carnal things like status and wealth.  But God also set some qualifications on the matter. 

              The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable…James 3:17.  Unity is a wonderful thing, but you never sacrifice purity for the sake of unity.  The New Testament is full of admonitions to be pure in heart, pure in doctrine, pure in fellowship.  “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” Paul warns the Corinthians when he tells them to withdraw from the adulterous brother (1 Cor 5:6).  If you want to worship a holy Father, then you have to be holy, Peter tells his readers (1 Pet 1:15,16). 

              As children of God we hope to be like Him some day, John says, but that will only happen if we purify ourselves and stay that way (1 John 5:2,3).  Earlier in his letter he talks about fellowship with God.  Fellowship implies unity, but while unity with one another is important, unity with God is even more important and it cannot happen if we do not keep ourselves pure, or place unity with the impure ahead of unity with God.

              As to that second sign I mentioned above, olives fresh off the tree may sound good, but the informed know that they are too bitter to eat.  They must be processed first or they will turn your mouth inside out in a permanent pucker.  I am sure you could go on and on with the things you are familiar with that others might not be.  Here is the point:  don’t be taken in by how things sound.  Read the Word.  Study it and see the entirety of truth on a subject, not just one angle.  God expects you to see His angle, not the one you think sounds best.
 
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness, 2 Thes 2:9-12.
 
Dene Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

I walked down the sidewalk toward a class and one of the young men lounging against a building said, "Babykiller." It was 1971 and no secret that I had been in the Marines or that I had not been to Vietnam. The insult stung for all the buddies I had lost in that useless conflict and my step hesitated for just a second and then I went on. The class was the book of Hebrews and it would have been a shame to miss for a fight. But, I have recently decided that he was right.

Often people ask, "How could a good God let babies die," or "suffer horrible diseases." One answer is that man sinned and sin and death are in the world and since disease and death are indiscriminate, sometimes the innocent suffer. It does not seem fair to me either that the baby should suffer because some adult sinned. It is clear that sin and disease and death are not on a one for one ratio in our lives, but there is little question that death rules the world because we keep on sinning. It is not only a result of Adam's sin as Paul clearly states, "and so death spread to all men because all sinned"-- (Rom 5:12). Death and sickness and pain and loss because I sinned, because you sinned.
 
A situation in David's life illustrates how one man's sin brought destruction on others who were innocent of what he had done.  David numbered the children of Israel over the protests of Joab. God offered him 3 choices for the punishment of this sin (lack of trust in God).

So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Take your choice: three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes with the sword of your enemy overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the LORD — a plague on the land, the angel of the LORD bringing destruction to the whole territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I should take back to the One who sent me.” (1Chr 21:11-12).  David chose number three because he trusted that God was merciful. Then, as 70,000 Israelites died in the plague, he appealed to God, "And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father's house. But do not let the plague be on your people.” (1Chr 21:17). God stopped the plague. Whoever the 70,000 were, men, women, children, they were innocent of the sin that brought the plague.

If nothing else, we must learn that God is holy and even our "little sins" bring great consequences. Further, the consequences of sin are all around us in this life as well as awaiting us in eternity. Trust God's mercy and escape the eternal consequences though disease and death will haunt us and prefigure them all our days.

So, all have sinned and we are all responsible for the ugly diseases and unfair deaths that strike innocents and guilty alike. I am a baby killer and so are you. When will we recognize the "exceeding sinfulness of sin" and stop sinning through the power of the grace of Jesus Christ?

Jeremiah stood among the ruins of Jerusalem where many children had died in the siege by the Babylonians and exclaimed,  Why should any living person complain, any man, because of the punishment for his sins? (Lam 3:39).
 
Keith Ward

The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods, Psalm 24:1,2.
 
            Many scholars believe that the twenty-fourth psalm was written by David to celebrate the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant to his new capital, Jerusalem.  When you read 1 Chronicles 13 and 15 and see the great amount of singing and worshipping going on, and then read the words to this psalm, that supposition makes good sense, and the ancient writings of the rabbis attest to it as well.

            However, even here at the beginning of the psalm David sees a danger in settling this manifestation of God’s presence in one location—the people would be tempted to think that God was stuck there, that He did not reign over the rest of the earth, much less any other people.  So he begins this psalm with the passage above to remind them that God could not be put in a literal box, and certainly not in a figurative box of one’s own expectations and understanding.  God made the whole world, and therefore rules the whole world and every person on it.

            David was right to be so concerned.  Ezekiel spent several of his opening chapters trying to get the same point across to the captives in Babylon by the canal Chebar, who believed that God was no longer with them, but still back in Jerusalem.  He is right here with you, Ezekiel told them.  That is the point of that amazing vision in chapter one—God can be anywhere at any time.

            Do you think we don’t have the same problem?  We keep trying to put God in a box called a church building or a meetinghouse or whatever your own bias leans toward calling it.  That’s why we have people who compartmentalize their religion.  They think “church” is all about what happens at the building, and the change in their behavior when they leave that building is the proof of it. 

            A man who can recite the “plan of salvation” in Bible class will cheat his customers to his own gain during the week.

            A woman who can quote proof texts verbatim on Sunday morning will turn around and gossip over the phone every other day of the week.

            A couple who appears every time the door is opened will carry on a running feud with a neighbor and treat each other as if none of the passages in the New Testament apply to anyone with the same last name. 

            What? God asked His people.  Will you act like the heathen around you six days a week “and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?”  Jer 7:10.  David used the middle of this psalm to remind the people who was fit to come before the presence of the LORD—only men of holiness, honesty, and integrity, not just on the Sabbath, but always. 

            Because they put God in a box called after the covenant He made with them, they thought that their behavior only counted in His presence, forgetting the lessons that both David and Solomon had tried to teach them—God cannot be confined to anything manmade, not even the most magnificent Temple ever built by men, much less a comparatively miniscule box.  As David proclaimed in finishing Psalm 24, Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!...The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! — Selah. 

            Selah--pause, and feel the impact.
 
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? ​He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation, Psa 24:3-5.
 
Dene Ward

Summer thunderstorms are nothing unusual in Florida.  Even when we don’t have a hurricane, we can count on dark skies, roiling clouds, strong winds, and heavy downpours almost every afternoon from June through September.  This summer seems to have been worse than usual.

              Just in the past four days we have had two storms that knocked the power out for a total of seven hours, with two plus inches falling in an hour’s time.  In fact, this last time we had an inch and a half in thirty minutes flat.  The water ran down from the top of the hill in a river around the house and down to the creek just past the boundary fence.  The wind blew the rain in vertical sheets, leaving standing water an inch deep on the covered carport, and the screened porch floor wet to the wall of the house.  The wind blew in gusts that twisted fifteen foot long pine limbs off the trees—green limbs, not rotten ones.  Smaller limbs flew by as we watched, almost as thick as the rainwater.  The lightning was loud and close and almost constant.  When I stepped inside and saw the power was out I was not really surprised.  This was one angry storm.

              And suddenly I thought, “This was the kind of rain Noah lived through.”  God was angry.  He would not have sent a gentle patter of raindrops on that gopher wood roof.  His wrath would have been obvious in the gusty winds tearing roofs off houses and branches off trees.  He would have vented his anger in the boom of thunder rolling over the hills, hills that slowly and inevitably disappeared under the waves.  That last storm we had scared me just a little; I bet the one Noah endured for forty days was terrifying.

              And we need to be terrified too.  An angry God is not the God we want to face on judgment day.  Do not let the world, and sometimes even the brethren, blur your view of an irate God who cannot countenance sin.  You need that picture to keep you straight sometimes, and so do I.  It’s too easy to think, “This is no big deal; God won’t mind this once; God is a God of mercy,” and forget the God of wrath and vengeance.  Don’t let anyone turn “fear” into nothing more than respect.  You can love someone and fear them too.  Anyone who had a godly father knows that.  Don’t let them lie to you and steal your soul by telling you otherwise.

              By the end of summer I am ready for a calm fall.  I want sunny days and gentle breezes.  I am sure that’s what we want from God too, but just as those storms do good for this land—replenishing the water table and keeping the tropical plants green—remembering the stormy wrath of God can do your soul good too.  Don’t forget it.
 
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end, Ezek 13:13.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, Eph 5:3-6.
 
Dene Ward

We tend to think that legalism and emotionalism are the only dangers we need to be wary of in our worship to God.  We must be careful that the ritual aspect of our group worship be neither heartless in thought nor perverted by passion.  But in 1 Samuel 4-6, God’s people found yet another way to distort their spiritual worship.
 
           As was so often the case, the Philistines once again troubled them.  They went to battle and promptly lost 4000 soldiers.  What should they do?  Talk to God about it?  No, they said.  Instead, Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh that it may save us, 4:3.  Not that God may save us, but that IT may save us, treating it like some sort of magic charm.

            When the ark was brought into the camp, the people roared with such a shout that it scared the Philistines.  A god has come into the camp, 4:7, they said.  Note that there was little difference in the way these pagans thought about the ark and the way the Israelites did.  During the next battle 30,000 Israelites lost their lives and the Ark of the Covenant was captured.

            The story of how the ark was returned to Israel is an interesting one that would take too much time for this little essay.  Suffice it to say that when it found its way home, the Israelites who greeted it said, Who is able to stand before the Lord, this Holy God? 6:20. At least a few people had learned a lesson.

            Surrounded by paganism on all sides, they had become tainted by its beliefs, many of which were bound up in sorcery and witchcraft.  They equated Jehovah with the idols, and the rituals of His worship with the rituals of the heathens.

            Do you think that cannot happen to us today?  I have lost track of the number of times I have heard a fallen Christian end his litany of faults with the disclaimer, “But I’ve been baptized!”  Somehow that is supposed to keep him safe from the wrath of God, no matter how much he has deliberately provoked that wrath and willingly continues to do so with no intention to change.  Baptism, instead of a union of the believer with the sacrifice of his Lord and the resurrection to a new life, has become to such people a ritual performed to break a curse.  “Pour the ashes of a rat’s tail on a bird’s wing, and hop on one foot three times with your eyes closed,” would have had as much meaning.

            Then there is the matter of the Lord’s Supper.  Rather than a memorial feast we celebrate with the Lord and our spiritual family, it is treated as a magic potion.  “At least I got there in time for the Lord’s Supper,” is uttered with a “Whew!” and a sigh of relief.  Visitors come in late and demand to be served even if the assembly worship is finished.  Some members show up only for those “magical” few minutes as if nothing else were worth their trouble.

            The same sorts of things happen with prayer, as if it were some magic formula that can only be repeated in certain ways, rather than a pouring out of the heart to a loving Father.  And we think we don’t have the same problems as those Old Testament Israelites?

            Treating God as if He were on the same level as a pagan deity and could be appeased the same way earned those people some of the most scathing indictments in the Old Testament.  The danger is that one will think Jehovah can be swapped out in a fair trade.  God took care of that notion in the book of Hosea.  Israel actually thought that those pagan gods were her source of blessings, 2:5, and so God said, For she did not know that I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Therefore will I take back my grain in the time thereof, and my new wine in the season thereof, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness, 2:8.9.  Suddenly, she figured out where it really came from.

            Attitudes that treat God and His worship in such a pagan manner are no better.  Rather than reverencing God they demean Him.  Rather than showing awe for an all-powerful Creator, they minimize that feeling into nothing more than pacifying a petty, capricious tyrant.

            Serving our God is a duty certainly, but not one we can fulfill in a slapdash, haphazard fashion just so we get it done in time to avoid the consequences.  It is a service He wants us to willingly offer in a careful, obedient, heartfelt manner—an obligation certainly, but also a privilege.
 
For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain. I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right. "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; From my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. "Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory," Isa 45:18-25.
 
Dene Ward

My little guys live on a cul-de-sac.  And not just on it, but at the very end.  Understand too, apart from one next door neighbor, no one else actually lives on the circle.  The property around the rest of it is empty and meant by the builders to stay that way.  That means they have the whole end of the street to themselves to play in.
 
             And play they do, rounding the circle on scooters and bikes at speeds that ruffle the ends of blonde hair sticking out under their helmets and send their shirts flapping.  It also means they have more room besides their front and back yards for Frisbee flying and ball playing and kite sailing.  When we visit, more often than not, we wind up sitting on the front porch "spectating" while they play, their blue eyes bright and smiles big as they make turn after turn.

              Reminds me of a place my family lived a few years before we moved to Tampa, another cul-de-sac called "Bristol Court."  Only we lived at the top of the street, a hill by Florida standards, and I rode my own bike down that hill over and over.  It may have been hot, but it was still a real breeze I felt in the middle of a Florida summer, cooling the perspiration for at least a few minutes as my bike picked up speed on the downward slope.  The only difference between me and the boys?  We called it a dead end street back then.  If you had said "cul-de-sac", all of our neighbors would have looked at you with a "Huh?" look.

              I suppose someone thought all those yellow signs that labeled a short street a "dead end" were insulting to the residents.  First, they changed them to "No Outlet."  Those signs are still up, but how many people now ever speak of their dead end street as anything but a "cul-de-sac?"

              People are quick to use euphemisms, especially to put a better spin on something particularly ugly.  "Ethnic cleansing" is really genocide.  "Early retirement" often covers a company's downsizing by firing older workers.  An "urban outdoorsman" is someone who is homeless.  (Exactly how is that less heartless than "homeless"?)  "Negative patient outcome" means he died!  "Collateral damage" is also about death—the death of an unintended target.  And yet more death—"pregnancy termination" is abortion.

              All of these things are attempts to make something that is uncomfortable to talk about, much easier to discuss, to deal with, and ultimately, to do.  Satan has been doing this for a long time.  "Let us take our fill of love till morning," the temptress says in Prov 7:18.  What she means is, "Let's go commit adultery."  In a day where love is supposed to excuse every sin, where "God knows my heart" takes the place of following His will and remaining "holy as he is holy," we must be especially cautious.

              A cul-de-sac is a neat place to live and I am glad my grandsons have the same opportunity I had as a child to enjoy that safer street to play in.  But here is something funny:  the literal meaning of the French cul-de-sac, which is supposed to be some higher class word, we Americans think, is actually "the bottom of the bag."  Which is right where we will find ourselves when we try to use more palatable words to cover up our sin before an angry God.

              The bottom of the bag is still a dead end street for anyone who thinks otherwise.
 
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isa 5:20)
 
Dene Ward

On August 9, 1854, Walden by Henry David Thoreau was published under its original name, Life in the Woods.  A book categorized by various critics as autobiography, natural history, philosophy, and social criticism, it became a slogan source among the educated hippie movement of the 60s.  Thoreau had left "modern" living to stay in a hut on the banks of Walden Pond without even the minimal luxuries of his day for two years, two months, and two days.  He wanted to be away from the constraints of society and the pull of personal expectations that society places in us.  He wanted to be "different."

               When I was growing up, all young people wanted to be "different," so quotes from Walden proliferated among them, even though they did not apply at all.  As I looked around me and actually considered what was happening, it dawned on me that they didn't really want to be different.  They just didn't want rules or even societal expectations.  They wanted to be different from their parents.  But every single one of them wanted that in exactly the same way, and they all wanted to be just like each other. 

               When it came right down to it, I was one of the "different" ones.  I wore my skirts to my knees, no strapless or spaghetti straps, nor deep vee necks or backs, no short shorts, no bikinis.  I never swore, never smoked, drank, or used drugs.  And they all knew it.  But because I was not like them, I was an outcast.  So much for appreciating individuality.  They were as much hypocrites as they claimed their parents were.

              Now think a minute about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Those boys were probably the same age as our children who struggle with wanting to be like all their friends—late middle school to early high school.  Not only were they different, they reveled in it.  They forced the issue with their insistence on different foods. 

              Just to clear up a few misconceptions, vegetarianism was not required by the Law.  In fact, to be a good Jew, you had to be a meat-eater.  The Passover meal and all the sacrifices required eating of the sacrificed animal as part of the worship.  So why did these boys insist on vegetables only?  It might have been that the meats they were given were sacrificed to idols.  Part of their training was probably in the Babylonian religion.  Maybe that is why they refused the meats.  But understand this, eating any meal prepared by Gentile hands in a Gentile country was unclean, even if it was not sacrificed to idols.

              So maybe this is the point:  they were trying to show that they were different from the other young men who had been carried away from other cultures.  They wanted to be seen as different.  And before long, their God-enhanced abilities made the differences even more obvious.  God himself made sure they were seen as different!  And they didn't mind one bit.

              So here is my question for you:  Are you teaching your children not only to be different, but to want to be different?  Do they want to stand out from the world or do they want to disappear into the crowd, eventually being swallowed up by the same desires and goals as the rest, living the same lifestyle, blending in, being, in the words of the Star Trek franchise, "assimilated?"

              When I graduated from high school, my junior English/senior Writing teacher gave me a poster with this quote from Walden: If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.  I did not realize its significance at first, but my mother did.  "She knows you are not like all the rest," she told me, "and she respects that."

              Why aren't we teaching our children, not to march in step with all their friends, but to listen for that distant, and different, drummer, and keep pace with Him.  Why aren't they as determined to do so as those three teenagers from Judah who sat in Nebuchadnezzar's court.  Perhaps, parents, we need to take them on a "visit", not to Walden Pond, but to Nazareth, Gethsemane, and Golgotha.  Maybe then, they would understand what it is really like to be "different."  Maybe we would, too.
 
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (1Pet 2:21)
 
Dene Ward

Several years ago, after our carpet had become worn and dirty beyond cleaning and we had discovered that I have dust mite allergies which had already led to sinus surgery, we decided to replace it with laminate flooring.  We were prepared for the trouble it would cause—moving furniture, even packing things up to the point we might as well have moved—but we were not prepared for what lay under that carpet.
 
             I am not a great housekeeper, but I am not a filthy housekeeper either.  I vacuumed no less than once a week, using my old Filter Queen, which was about the best model out there when we bought it. Yet when the man started pulling up that carpet, carpet that had been sitting there for a couple of decades, I was horrified.  Not just a few grains of sand, but cupfuls of sand lay on top of the plywood.  I stood there numb with both surprise and embarrassment.

              "It's all right," the man said.  "This is the least amount I have ever found under a carpet," which may have mollified me a little and given me a selling point for all Filter Queen vacuum cleaner salesmen, but still left me horrified remembering all the times I had lain on that "clean" carpet, exercising, napping, or playing with children.

                "A carpet is really just a giant sieve," he explained.  "The big pieces stay on top and you vacuum them up, but all that tiny stuff just sifts right through.  No vacuum cleaner in the world can pull it back out."

              Which means, of course, that you can look perfectly clean on the outside and still be dirty underneath.  Seems I have heard that metaphor many times before from Jesus himself.

              And it makes perfect sense.  Especially if you were "raised in the church" as we so often say, you know better than to let the big stuff pass through your "sieve" (conscience?).  But what still goes on through to your heart?  The things we call "little," that's what.  Things we allow to invade our thinking and permeate our attitudes, but since we seldom, or even never, act on them in an open way, we think are "no big deal."  So why are they important?

              Think for a minute who actually conspired to murder our Lord.  Priests, scribes, Pharisees, Saducees--people who were considered the most religious of their day.  If you had asked them if they would have ever murdered someone, what do you think they would have said?  They would have been horrified that you even asked.

              So what are those kinds of things that we allow to sift through?  Pride, selfishness, self-importance, bitterness, grudges, just to name a few.  Insidious things that work their evil gradually, infecting the heart of even those we see as the most pious and godly. 

            We knew a man once who everyone would have described as "honest," yet when he was confronted with something he had said that was wrong, he lied about it—even though the statement was captured on tape.  His pride would not allow him to admit wrong and repent.  That is just one example.  I have known others who did much worse yet were considered "pillars of the church," and all because of those "little" things that sifted through the carpet of their conscience.
 
             So do yourself a favor today, and on regular occasions after today.  Pull up the carpet on your heart and search for the little things.  You might be surprised, and even horrified, at what you find.
 
​“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. (Matt 23:25-26)
 
Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
The biker leader stood before our church, beautiful "sleeves" from wrist to upper arms. His moniker is "Sober Joe" because at that time, he had been clean for about 20 years (he still is clean). Haltingly, he said how honored he felt to read the scripture because a little more than a year before, he was "among the lost. And, now, I am reading God's Word to you."

Paul commanded Timothy, "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching" (1Tim 4:13).  In that day, only a few could afford a copy of even a page of the Bible.  Thus, the reading at church was the only opportunity most had to learn the word of God.

In sharp contrast, in many churches today, the scripture reading is assigned to the men who can do little else but wish to participate in the services, or to a boy for training and encouraging purposes.  That most of the congregation turn to the passage and read along shows they have been conditioned to expect a muttered, barely understandable reading.  Does this show proper respect to God's word?  Those who read well are seldom allowed to do so for that would take something away from those who can do nothing else.  When, in fact, those often cannot even read the word with proper respect and clarity.

The reading of scripture should be a strong part of our worship.  First, we must teach this along with the proper honor and respect for God's word by both the reader and by the hearers.  Before the advent of printing, even illiterate people could memorize readings upon hearing them once.  We cannot do that, but both the reader and hearers can give that level of attention to the word of God. Joe had obviously practiced and was prepared to honor the word as God's.

In our culture, we stand to show respect, for the bride, for the national anthem, for the funeral, etc.  How much more should we stand for the public scripture reading?

Once upon a time, I insisted that the citation not be announced until after the scripture was read.  Turning to the passage to "read along" inadvertently communicates that the verbal reading is not very significant.  What is the reader's motivation to read with passion, to learn to read punctuation, to enunciate?  Those who care are reading it anyway and the others aren't listening anyway.  So, anyone who can mutter and speed read through the text and scramble back to their pew is acceptable.

Men must be taught the high honor they have been entrusted with when they are allowed to read God's word publicly.  Joe was not taught this, but knew it from his new heart.  They must see that it is not sufficient to read the passage through a couple of times during Bible class and then stand to read the Holy Word.  Young men should be encouraged to first learn to read and then be allowed to do so.

I once asked a well-spoken and knowledgeable man why he would not lead public prayer.  He replied that the prayer was so important that he knew he would be nervous and was afraid he would mess it up.  Would to God that some would adopt that attitude of importance and respect toward the public reading.

Elders can assign a young man to a good reader to practice for a reading to be done a month or more away.  They can practice together until the young man is ready.  The next time, he could be assigned to a different good reader where he will learn other facets of good reading.  If he will not make the effort or has not learned, the trainer should do the reading.  Men who will not make the effort to read well can also be asked to participate in such a learning program.  Are we more interested in not offending a member than we are in honoring God's word?  In fact, might not a negative reaction show a deeper need for spiritual training than for learning to read well?

The goal of public reading is that the hearer be able to understand without following along in a Bible (which can be problematic with so many translations anyway).  I recall an anecdote told by one of the teachers at Florida College:  In pioneer days, a blind preacher kept his youngest son home from the fields to read the scripture to him in preparation for next Sunday's sermon.  If he did not understand, he made the boy read it over and over until it was clear to him.  It was said that when the boy grew to manhood, many a dispute over a passage was settled by asking him to read it aloud.  His reading communicated the meaning so clearly that the dispute was settled without further argument.  I have tried to learn to read that way.  I believe our public readings should have that same goal.
 
And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up.  And Ezra blessed Jehovah, the great God: and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with the lifting up of their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped Jehovah with their faces to the ground…and the Levites caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.  And they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading. (Neh 8:5-8)
 
Keith Ward