Someone once posted on Facebook about "the scariest day of his life."  That instantly made me wonder what mine was.  When you reach my age, you might have a variety to choose from.
            There was the day I found myself alone and cornered in an office by someone twice my size, who had evil intentions toward me.
            There was the day I found myself looking straight through the windshield into another windshield just seconds before we hit head-on.
            There was the day the telephone operator broke through my conversation with one of my piano student's mother with an emergency cut-in.  Within minutes I heard that my husband had been shot in the line of duty, and I jumped in the car for a sixty mile trip to the hospital, not knowing what I would find when I got there.
            Then there was the week afterward when, because he was under threat from the family of the felon who had ambushed him, and because he had five bullet holes in him and was certainly not able to do it himself, I sat up by the window, keeping watch every night.
            There was the day I received another phone call.  My husband had been found lying in the middle of the highway having convulsions.  I followed the ambulance to the hospital and sat for hours wondering how my life was about to change.
            There was the day I signed page after page after page, including handwritten clauses going up the side of the paper saying, "I understand that no one knows how this material will interact with human tissue."  Then I went into a first of its kind surgery with a surgeon who, though one of the best in the world, still had to practice two or three times (on pigs' eyes!) before he touched me, and I was wondering if I would ever see again.
            Yes, there have been many scary days in my life.  But I can think of nothing scarier than this:  facing my death knowing that I am not right with God.  I will do my best to see that that does not happen.
            How about you?
 
For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1Pet 4:17)
 
Dene Ward

Recently I had occasion in a ladies' Bible class to use an event from a congregation "long ago and far away" as an example.  As usual, I mentioned no names or places or even exact dates.  Some concepts are difficult to convey without a real-life Illustration.  Unfortunately, I have had to do that more than once during the subject we are now studying and I realized what it might sound like to the class.  I hastened to add, "I know it sounds like we went through the mill in a lot of places,  so let me tell you this too:  we have also had some wonderful experiences that I would not have wanted to miss, and met some of the best people in the world, many of whom we still count as friends."  No place is perfect—and neither are any of their preachers.
            That led me to remember the times we have been asked to leave a congregation under less than ideal circumstances.  I was young, naïve, and far too full of myself, but somehow I did remember this:  The cause of Christ is not about my glory or my feelings or even a wrong done to me and my family.  I must not do anything, regardless the circumstances, to harm the mission of the church in a specific area.  So when neighbors or family who were not Christians asked me why we left, I was very careful in what I said.  Usually, it went something like this:  "We have been here a few years and the church felt it was time for a change."  No one ever questioned me more, and I was relieved.  The gospel was not going to suffer in this area because I felt a need to cry on someone's shoulder.
            Paul is the perfect example of this.  He talked about "false brethren" in his list of trials (2 Cor 11:26).  He mentioned preaching brethren who did their best to cause him trouble while he was in prison (Phil 1:17), but he always kept things "in house."  He didn't go around telling the people he was trying to convert how awful these people he wanted them to be a part of had treated him.  That would defeat the purpose of preaching, don't you think?
            He mentions in 1 Corinthians 7 that he wishes that everyone would remain unmarried.  No, not just in the case of persecution, but even before that in the chapter.  And why?  Because you have others to be concerned about.  Though the distractions in that chapter have to do with caring for a family and persecution that might affect that family, I can apply that in a host of ways, including this one.  If a church mistreats a preacher, it is not just mistreating him, but also his wife and children.  So, he says, make sure you can handle what might come not only your way, but theirs.  Not even innocent children have the right to harm the cause of Christ.
            Paul also mentions suffering at the hands of brothers in 1 Corinthians 6.  It is a "shame" to have outsiders see us squabbling, he said.  Better to choose to suffer wrong, or even be defrauded, than have the spread of the gospel harmed by insisting on my rights in the matter.  In fact, he says that when we put ourselves forward like that we are "defrauding" the church with the consequences it brings. (1 Cor 6:7,8)
            "Discretion is the better part of valor" comes from Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1, (sort of) and is meant to be a joke.  Falstaff is saying that keeping his mouth shut has saved his life, NOT that being quiet is the most important part of bravery.  But I think in our case, it is not a joke at all.  We are being discreet about what has been done to us because we recognize that we are not the center of God's plan to save man.  To put ourselves in that position is nothing short of arrogance, but to be discreet enough that the cause of the gospel will not be hurt takes a special sort of selfless bravery.
            We all have that obligation, not just preacher's families.  We should be spreading the word about the good things the local group has done for us, not talking up the bad.  How do we ever expect our neighbors to want to be a part of a group that we have nothing good to say about?  It is far easier—and a lot more satisfying—to be the drama queen who can raise a ruckus about my mistreatment.
            Paul's example says, "Don't do it.  Be discreet.  Put the gospel before yourself and even before your children.  If you can't, then either don't get married or don't preach."  We would all do well to remember that.
 
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Rom 12:17-19)
 
Dene Ward
 

Lydia McGrew has written four evidences books that I know of.  This is the second I have read, and it is every bit as good as the first one.  Her aim every time is to prove that the Gospels are reliable reportage about what happened in first century Palestine with Jesus and his apostles.  Most of her books are accessible to the average reader and this one is no exception.
            Ms. McGrew makes new arguments and revives older ones that have been abandoned to show why we can trust the "four evangelists," as scholars call Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  And she shows without much regret why modern critical scholars, some of whom she names, are "all wet."  Her chapters include things like Undesigned Coincidences, Unnecessary Details, Unexplained Allusions, and Unexpected Harmonies among others, to prove that what the gospel writers have left us is absolute truth, not made up stories.  Some of these are things you and I take for granted, never realizing their value as evidence material.  You will be emboldened by her arguments and ready to face your skeptical friends with new vigor.  And you will learn more about the gospels than you ever have sitting in an auditorium Bible class!
            Testimonies to the Truth is published by DeWard Publishing.
 
Dene Ward

If you "grew up in the church," if you have been a Christian for 20 years or more, you certainly know Hebrews chapter 11.  Some people call it the Faith Hall of Fame, as good a description as any, I suppose.  If I asked you to list the names in that chapter, you probably could.  But even though we are all familiar with it, I am not sure very many of us really understand what it means to our lives.  After all, we aren't great heroes of faith are we?  We certainly ought to be!
           So I have taken a liberty or two—or three, or four—and with your kind indulgence present the following, hoping it will help not only me, but you also.

            By faith the young mother arises to another day of endless chores, sick babies, and not enough time to handle it all, knowing in her heart the importance God has set on her managing her home and teaching her family, and willing to work hard at it even when it seems to present no immediate rewards.
            By faith the father returns to a job he doesn't really like, among people who are godless, immoral, often foul-mouthed and intemperate because he realizes that God has given him a family to support and children to raise.  He won't quit because he doesn't enjoy the work or the boss doesn't treat him right, but will keep on working "as unto the Lord."
            By faith the teenager takes the mean teasing of his so-called friends and still refuses to participate with them in their filthy language, immodest apparel, drinking, drugging, and sexual immorality, valuing his purity as a vessel fit for God's use rather than his own comfort among his peers.
            By faith the single child of God serves even those who constantly pester him about his choices in life, making him feel useless or immature as a Christian, simply because he has not married.  He takes it all with equanimity and grace, accomplishing just as much or more than they do for the God he loves.
            By faith the widow arrives at the meetinghouse on Sunday morning, sits where she has always sat with an empty place next to her, and sings with even more spirit the songs of a loving Savior and the promises he has given us, planning to meet her life's love at the gate where she is sure he is waiting.
            By faith the woman whose husband has forsaken her, who now faces a life of hardship and perhaps even poverty, understands that she still has children to raise, and who, despite a life that has completely fallen apart, a broken heart, and endless, but hidden, tears, raises them to be good citizens, good servants, and even to respect a father who has deserted them because that is what God expects her to do.
            By faith the man who receives a terminal diagnosis faces it with strength because he believes in the hope God has promised, and sees it as his responsibility to set the example for others.
            By faith the couple who lose a child, despite the most horrible pain imaginable, teach their remaining children about a God who loves them and a sibling who will be with them again someday if they will only be as true and faithful as the example their parents are setting before them.
            I will let you supply the names to these people.  I know them all.  Some of them are you.
 
And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens. Women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth. And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Heb 11:32-40)
 
Dene Ward        

I have already written a post about women's roles in the church.  If you would like to see it, or refresh yourself, it was posted July 3. 2015.  Go to the archives (could be on the right sidebar or at the bottom, depending on which device you are using) and click on July 2015, then scroll down.  You will have to click on "Previous" at the bottom two separate times before you arrive at "The One Question I Always Get."
            But something else came to me in the past couple of weeks as I mulled this over when the question came up yet again.  Women are the ones who always question the limitations God has placed on them.  I find that odd because God has placed limitations on a whole lot of other people too. 
            Bachelors are not allowed to be either elders or deacons.  Camp awhile in 1 Timothy and Titus and tell me which of the qualifications a bachelor cannot have as well as a married man except being the husband of one wife and ruling his house well.
            A godly couple who have no children are not allowed to serve this way either, no matter how many other of the qualifications they meet. 
            A man who was given the spiritual gift of tongue-speaking was also limited.  This was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, yet if there was no one who could interpret his tongue he is told in 1 Cor 14:28 to sit down and be quiet!
         God has always placed limitations upon people.  Under the Old Covenant, you could not be a priest if you were not from the tribe of Levi, and not only that, but also from the family of Aaron within that tribe.  That left a lot of people out, and some of them took issue with it.  Korah and Dathan and Abiram complained, saying they were just as good as those God had chosen for the priesthood.  Listen to Moses' reaction:
            Moses also told Korah, “Now listen, Levites! Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community to bring you near to Himself, to perform the work at the LORD’s tabernacle, and to stand before the community to minister to them? He has brought you near, and all your fellow Levites who are with you, but you are seeking the priesthood as well. Therefore, it is you and all your followers who have conspired against the LORD! As for Aaron, who is he that you should complain about him? ” Num 16:8-11
            May I just paraphrase a little?  Ladies, isn't it enough that God has separated you from the world to bring you near to him as his children, able to be a part of his church at all, and given you the hope of salvation?  Yet you will stand up and conspire against the Lord?  It isn't men you are complaining about, any more than it was Moses back then—it is God.
            Look at the rest of the story:  Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD sent me to do all these things and that it was not of my own will: If these men die naturally as all people would, and suffer the fate of all, then the LORD has not sent me But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them along with all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have despised the LORD. ”Just as he finished speaking all these words, the ground beneath them split open. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, all Korah’s people, and all their possessions. They went down alive into Sheol with all that belonged to them. The earth closed over them, and they vanished from the assembly. At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled because they thought, “The earth may swallow us too! ”Fire also came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were presenting the incense. Num 16:28-35
            God says the complaining of those men was sin (Num 16:26).  Moses said their complaining indicated an attitude of ingratitude, and one that scorned the very service they had been called to do as Levites.  Do I want to be party to that?
            God does place limits on certain groups of people—not just women.  It is his right as our Creator to do so.  After reviewing this event from the Old Covenant, if I have ever complained before, be sure that I will never do it again.
 
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:28-29
 
Dene Ward
 

Sometime on November 8, 2018, ignited by a faulty electric transmission line, a fire that became known as the Camp Fire started in the hills of Northern California's Butte County.  A strong east wind fed the fire and it raced down into developed areas becoming the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.  The fire finally reached containment after 17 days, causing 85 civilian casualties, completely destroying the towns of Paradise and Concow, burning 18,000 structures, and covering 239.6 square miles.  The total damages came in at $16.5 billion.  In 2005, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had released a report warning that the communities there, particularly Paradise, were at risk for an east wind driven fire.  The drought added to the hazard, and all came true 13 years later.
            Our neighbors gave us a scare of our own, though happily, one with a better ending.  I stepped outside that day and saw flashing red and blue lights up the hill, far more than one vehicle’s worth.  Since the original neighbor died, his heirs have moved on to the property and begun tearing apart the old trailer he used as rental property.  First they peeled the metal off the sides and sold it for scrap.  Then they tore down the rest.  Insulation and paneling littered the yard.  The trailer itself was nothing more than a pile of rubbish about four feet high.  That day they decided to burn it.
            We have a new neighbor who lives right across from them, an older woman who raises goats and lives a quiet, orderly life.  She looked outside on what was probably the windiest day of the driest month of spring to see flames just across the lime rock drive from her own house.  So she called 911.
            That was by far a smarter move than the other neighbors had made that day, for quite soon the fire got away from them and started spreading.  Then, to cap off the whole ridiculous escapade--some ammunition had been left in the old trailer and it suddenly started going off, at least one shotgun shell and half a dozen solid bullets.  Before it was over three fire trucks, an ambulance, a forestry truck, and two deputies were crowding my narrow little road.  Somehow, no one was hurt.
            You know what?  We often play with fire exactly the same way, with even worse consequences.  The Proverb writer says, Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on, 4:14,15.  We go where we have no business being, where temptation sits waiting to strike, and then wonder how we got into trouble. 
            We turn away from good advice and listen to the bad, avoid the righteous and hang around with the wicked, because we are certain we are strong and can handle the traps.   The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death. Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.  In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly, Prov 13:14-16.  I have always thought it amusing how little God cares for political correctness and tact.  He calls us fools when we act like one.
            God even told the Israelites not to covet the idols their neighbors had.  Why?  The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, Deut 7:25.  God has always pictured wealth as a snare to his people.  Yet what do we always wish for?  What do we think will fix all our problems? But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction, 1 Tim 6:9.  Let’s not get on our high horses because we understand that a Christian shouldn’t play around with liquor, with drugs, with gambling, or with illicit sex.  For one thing, we are just as vulnerable as anyone in those areas.  For another, we are just as bad when we think money is the be-all and end-all.  We are playing with dynamite that could explode in our faces just as easily.
            Are you playing with fire in your life?  Are you too sure of yourself, so confident in your ability to overcome that you place yourself in harm’s way and practically dare the Devil to come get you?   Remember God’s opinion of such a person.  I don’t want him to call me a fool on the day it matters the most.
 
Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death, Prov 6:27,28; 14:27.
 
Dene Ward

Have you found yourself doing it lately?  Especially in the past ten years or so?  When people start vilifying the Bible with accusations about irrelevance, hate-mongering, misogyny, and homophobia, have you tried to make excuses for God?  Especially when it comes from people who claim to believe the Bible but come right out and say it's wrong, do you feel the need to apologize for God?
            I think I may have done that.  I think I may have said things that sounded like I was embarrassed by what I believed.  Finally, it hit me like a brick.  If someone were embarrassed to admit they knew me, I would just leave.  Wouldn't you?  So how do you suppose our Father feels? 
Just what are we claiming to be, people?  Disciples of Christ or not?  Servants of God or not?
            If you love me, you will keep my commandments, Jesus said in John 14:15.  Well, do you love him?
              By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. (1John 5:2)  The world will try to tell you just the opposite—that keeping God's commands means you do not love people.  Who do you believe?
            For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. (1John 5:3)  Or do you disagree with John?  Are God's commands too embarrassing to profess, too difficult in our culture's anti-morality, and too polarizing for our own comfortable lifestyles?
            Until someone else comes along who will empty himself to become a man, suffer through the undignified life of humanity and die an ignominious death for me, who am I to say I don't agree with God's morality, with commands that affect what I can and cannot do in service to him, and how much I must put up with in other people?  I will do as I am told because no one else loved me that much and no one else created me; no one else has the power to blink us all out of existence with a thought.  Just what in the world are you thinking when you go around apologizing for God and his Word as if it were something embarrassing we have to put up with?  If you hate having to live by God's rules, you may as well quit pretending. 
            This is what God told Jeremiah when he faced a group of arrogant, hard-headed, disobedient, unfaithful people, people who would ridicule and persecute him, and it would serve us well to remember it as we face that same group several thousand years later:
            Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. ​Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” (Jer 1:6-8)
 
Dene Ward

By now I can imagine some of you saying, "If their place was so perfect, why did they leave?"
            Well, obviously, there was something about it that wasn't perfect.  Our circumstances are changing—we grow older every day and our bodies weaker.  Taking care of a large property with very little power equipment had become more and more difficult.
            And then someone might ask, "If this new place is so imperfect, why did you buy it?"
            No, it doesn't have beautiful flowers.  Yes, it is a tiny yard with neighbors you can shake hands with out the windows--well, almost.  Yes, it needs a lot of work.  But you see, our priorities have changed.  We are 5-6 minutes from a son and his family.  We are 7-8 minutes from church.  We are 10-12 minutes from another excellent eye specialist.  An ambulance can probably get here in 2-3 minutes.  That's what counts these days.
            Priorities make what is unacceptable in one circumstance, acceptable in another.  And that is why it is so important that a Christian have his priorities in order.  God never promised an easy life.  Jesus reminded us to "count the cost" before making the commitment to Him.  Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2Tim 3:12).  If you don't understand that going in, you will never last when life becomes difficult.
            We sing a song with the title of this series, but take a moment now and ask yourself, when I sing that song, do I make a hypocrite out of myself?  Does my discipleship matter more than where I live or how I live?  Is it more important than who likes me and who doesn't?  If I lose everything for the Lord, can I live with it joyfully?  For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one (Heb 10:34).  Do we have the strength and spirituality to do that?  If not, then maybe our priorities need a second look—a long one. 
            This move has made us think a little harder, change a little more in that direction.  No matter where you live in this world, it is still just a motel stop on the way home.  Treat it that way and your life will be so much better in the long run.
 
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Phil 3:8).
 
Dene Ward
 

I was concerned when we left our property because it had to be done quickly, so while packing, I cleaned each shelf as I emptied it—in the kitchen, in closets, in the laundry, and in bathrooms.  Early the week we left, I cleaned all the bathrooms, and sprayed down the shower the night before.  As the furniture was being emptied out of the house, I began sweeping—the floors and even the walls behind larger pieces of furniture that hadn't seen light of day in several decades.  And because the movers told us we had to go when they did, I even left a very good friend behind sweeping the last couple of rooms I hadn't gotten to yet.  The place was as clean as I could reasonably make it without an extra day to hire a cleaning company—but the buyer was impatient and wanted in NOW!  Still I felt a little bad about it not being exactly perfect.
            Then we arrived here and I stopped worrying.  Obviously, no one had cleaned up for us even a little bit.  I suppose they had swept, but the baseboards had not been touched in years, no exaggeration.  Every room was surrounded by a thin black line a couple inches above the floor.  And the bathrooms?  One day I spent three hours cleaning top to bottom, stem to stern, on step stools and on my hands and knees, and you could barely tell it because the stains were so set in.  And I must have scraped (with a knife) a quarter inch of soap scum off each soap holder, top and bottom.  Dust was caked above doors, above electrical outlets, and in every crevice of anything that could catch it for the past twenty years.  The air conditioner filter apparently had never been changed and you might be surprised what that makes blow out of the vents across the ceilings!  No one had cleaned these shelves as they packed.  I had to clean them before I could unpack.  The concrete floor of the back porch was black when it should have been gray.  I think that's enough for you to see what we had to deal with.
            Maybe because of all that grime, whenever we came across something left behind, I picked it up with two fingers and immediately tossed it.  I wanted absolutely nothing to do with anything that came from this filthy house. 
            But did I feel that way about the house I left behind?  I wondered, when the buyer took down some of the things that were attached to the house and we were instructed to leave, if he had felt the same way about our things.  I hope that the obvious effort we had gone to made a difference, but why should it?  If he found any dirt at all, it probably disgusted him as much as this dirt disgusted me.
            And isn't that always the case?  My dirt is not as bad as someone else's.  I could even change the diapers of my own children and grandchildren a whole lot more easily than I could anyone else's children's. 
            And that makes it harder to see our dirt, doesn't it?  And when we do, much less likely to be concerned about it.  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? (Matt 7:3-4).
            But dirt is dirt is dirt, and sin is sin is sin, as James indicated in 2:11.  Yours is not worse than mine, nor mine than yours.  They are all evil in God's eyes, and when someone has the love (and courage) to tell us about them, it should be a cause for rejoicing and gratitude, not anger.  Maybe we should all work on that a little more.
          God dwells in the church, his people.  Christ dwells in us by faith.  Neither of them wants to live in a dirty house, no matter whose dirt it is.
 
Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (John 14:23).
 
Dene Ward

We finished dinner and for probably the 50,000th time, I laid my folded napkin to the side of my plate.  You could hardly tell it had been used.  I looked across the table.  Keith's napkin lay in a crumpled up wad a good foot to the side of his plate.  We won't even go into the stains, but please tell me how a dinner of pot roast so tender it fell to pieces, mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans from the garden could result in that!
            And you now know why I do not use paper napkins.  Keith would use half a dozen at every meal.  That simply does not fit into my grocery budget.  At least cloth napkins are washable and therefore reusable, and you don't have to worry about picking up the greasy white shreds that have snowed all over the floor after a meal of ribs or fried chicken.
            From the very start of our marriage we have used cloth napkins, not just for company or formal occasions—all the time.  Over the years I have amassed a stack of four or five dozen I suppose, maybe more.  And it did not take long to learn one important thing about napkins, and here it is.
            After eating with us a few times, a kind lady I knew wanted to help me out.  So she bought a remnant of permanent press cloth, a pretty floral print with a beige background.  It was actually a perfect match for my china.  She carefully cut out 12 inch squares and hemmed them on all four sides.  "You won't have to iron these," she said as she handed me a dozen beautiful cloth napkins.
            I used those napkins for years just because they were a gift, but now that sweet lady is gone and so are those napkins.  Unlike cotton, permanent press, at least in those days, did not soak up anything.  If you had a small spill, they merely pushed the liquid around.  If you had a smear of grease on your hands or face, it was still there after you wiped.  They were beautiful to look at and no, I never did have to iron them, but useless when you needed them to do what napkins are supposed to do—absorb messes.
             After forty years of standing in front of Bible classes and even larger groups of women, I can say that some women are cotton napkins and some are permanent press.  I imagine any man who has taught Bible classes, or any preacher, can say the same thing.  You can tell when someone is interested—they soak it up.  Sometimes it's the note-taking; they can't seem to do it fast enough.  Other times it's the look in the eyes, the posture, or even facial expressions.  When you are planning a speech, you expect a laugh here, a gasp there, a groan or even the feminine variety of "Amen."  You expect some sort of reaction if you have crafted your words carefully enough and chosen the scriptures that will suddenly slam the door on an attitude or behavior that needs changing.  When you get none of that, either you don't know what you are doing after all, or you have an audience full of permanent press napkins.
             Every time you attend one of these functions, every time you hear a sermon or sit in a Bible class, and every time you open your Bible for some real Bible study, it should change you.  At first the changes will be big.  You are new to this Christian business so you have a ways to go and the alterations should be noticeable to those who know you best.  Then as you mature spiritually, the changes will become smaller—maybe an attitude adjustment, maybe just a change in private behavior that few people will see, but a change nevertheless.  If that does not happen, you have become a permanent press napkin.  You might look good on the outside.  You might even match the "china" around you on Sunday mornings.  But instead of soaking up the Word, the water of life, you will just be pushing it aside out of your way.
            Even one permanent press napkin in the audience is too many.  Check your label today and see what you are made of.
 
And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Col 3:10
 
Dene Ward