Flight Paths

 On March 1, 1692, ignorance and superstition came to the forefront as the Salem Witch Trials began.  The legal papers make a horrifying read—innocent until proven guilty was not the code back then, but the opposite:  if you came to trial you were assumed guilty.  Evidence from children as young as 9 was accepted.  Given the mass hysteria, it was probably impossible to find a child who was not willing to make accusations just to get the attention.  As far as evidence—when visions that no one else can see are counted as good evidence, there is no end to the mischief that can arise.  Unfortunately, 19 people died because of things like this.  Everyone listened to obviously made up stories with no concrete evidence because it was exciting, and in some cases, making the accusations was all that kept one from being accused herself.  Remember what caused this all—ignorance and hysteria, the exact opposite of clear and logical thinking.

 Don't think this kind of thing hasn't invaded the church today.  I have heard more than one preacher or teacher accused of teaching false doctrine when that was not the case at all.  Someone took something out of context or someone else jumped to an unnecessary conclusion and that was all it took to ruin a reputation.  When we pass these things along we are no less guilty.  The rule should always be, go to the person involved and check it out yourself.  I will always be grateful to a brother who did that for us.  He had heard something completely false 150 miles away from us, a rumor that could have ruined my husband.  As it turns out, someone had said something happened which most certainly did not happen, and then the next person decided to do a little embroidery that made the original accusation even worse.  Not only was it untrue, but we had witnesses.

 Sometimes an outright lie is involved.  When a man is accused of teaching something he flatly denies, has never taught in all his years, and the people who regularly listen to him will vouch for him, that ought to take care of it.  Instead, we hear of elders in one church telling another church they should withdraw from the "false teacher" or he will withdraw from them.  Talk about ignorance.  No elder in one church has any right to tell another church what they should do (1 Pet 5:2), and no one in the New Testament ever withdrew from a church—you simply cannot find it. 

 Often the problem is that one does not interpret a certain scripture exactly as the other, even though he agrees with the fundamental point, and always has.  A good friend and I interpreted a certain passage completely differently from each other, but we both agreed with the point each was making.  We just disagreed about which passages proved it.  So?  I never called him a false teacher and he never called me one.  Someone has forgotten just exactly how important unity among His people is to God and the Lord Jesus, and how angry they must surely be when we misuse Scripture to cause dissension.

 The Salem Witch Hunt was polar opposite of the way God intended for His people to handle questions we might have about teaching in the church.  Those people even used Scripture to accomplish what turned out to be murder (Ex 22:18; Lev 20:27; Deut 18:10,11).  They used God's Holy Word for evil.  Let's make sure we don't do the same.

Give diligence to present yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. But shun profane babblings: for they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as a gangrene: of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus 2Tim2:15-17.

Dene Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.  As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preaches unto you any gospel other than that which you received, let him be anathema(Gal 1:8-9).

How long since this passage was preached where you are? The word anathema literally means, "accursed" and is often so translated. The problem is not that any particular one of these passages is not preached. The problem that screams "Danger!" is that the N.T. contains so many such warnings and they are seldom cited at all.

Further, note that the problem is not just a small adjustment needed. Another gospel is being preached. This gospel is so opposite Christianity that Paul warns them, "I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel."  They are no longer in the grace of Christ, no longer in God who called them (cf Gal 5:8).

Now, be aware that the apostle nowhere accuses that they denied Christ, that they ceased to observe the Lord's Supper, that they changed any of the things we do in together worship in any manner. Yet, they left the grace of Christ for another gospel. How? They allowed themselves to be coerced into adding a step to the plan of Salvation, circumcision. The false teachers said that to be true Christians they had to be circumcised. Paul said that to accept part of the law for salvation meant they must keep it all and that no one could be saved by law. Well, why make a big deal, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love(Gal 5:6)." That reinforces that current status has nothing to do with salvation and one need not change. The one who requires circumcision is a false teacher with a message other than the gospel.

So, what does that have to do with us today? Looking around society, we find many teachers with popularity teaching a Jesus who is only accepting and loving toward sinners.  One need not read far in the God-inspired gospels to learn they are not teaching the Jesus of the Bible. In many other ways, popular religion changes the Bible picture of God or Jesus into another gospel. Is anyone calling these men out as Paul did those who deceived the Galatians? Are you being taught how to counter these false views when you discuss Jesus with friends?

Even the conservative denominations who mostly present a Bible view of God and Jesus have changed the plan of salvation. No, they did not add something to it, they subtracted everything but faith. I have heard men who ought to know better commend in the Lord's church the leaders of such groups by name.

Once churches of Christ grew by converting people. Now, it seems that many are determined to grow by never offending anyone. In our modern world, tolerance means we must accept people as they are, not challenge them to repent. In the past, people tried to bind "the way we have always done it" as though it were written in the Bible. As our culture creeps into the kingdom, we face a greater problem of the failure to preach boldly and forcefully, and confront both sin and changes to the gospel.

So, can you even see the shore from the distance you have drifted?

Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, You shalt surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you hast delivered your soul. Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you hast delivered your soul (Ezek 3:17-21).

 Keith Ward

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  Psalm 95:1,2.

 Psalm 95 is generally thought to have been one sung during the Feast of Tabernacles.  Meribah and Massah are used in its body, a time in the wilderness when God taught His people a hard lesson.  But this psalm starts just as you would expect a festival psalm to.  Come let us sing, let us make a joyful noise. 

 Just as an interesting point, the Hebrew word translated “sing” in this passage is not a musical word.  Ranan means to emit a stridulous sound (not exactly how I would want my singing described) or to shout, and is indeed translated shout, cry out, rejoice, joy, or triumph half the time in the KJV.  And that makes that opening couplet much more parallel to the second one, “make a joyful noise to him.” 

 About that “joyful noise:” that particular Hebrew word means to mar, especially by breaking, to shout, or to split the ears.  In our words we might say, “He burst my eardrums he was so loud.”  Think about standing at a football stadium in the middle of the game, or beneath a jet engine as it revs for take-off.  That’s the noise we are talking about.  In fact, this word is translated “blow an alarm [with a trumpet]” a couple of times.  As the second verse continues, we are to do this in psalms of praise so singing is involved, but the point of these two words is not the melody but the volume, caused by unabashed joy and celebration.

 You find this often in the psalms.  Noise and clamor seemed to be a part of the Jewish worship.  Perhaps the psalmist, and God as his inspiration, had noticed.  Right in the middle of the psalm, he throws what amounts to a cold bucket of water on all the festivities. 

 Their celebration of the feast had made them forget what the wandering was all about—and it wasn’t fun and games.  An entire generation died because of their faithlessness.  Toward the end of verse 7 he interrupts their self-congratulation that God loves them and cares for them with, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof.   

 Yes, God made a covenant that He would be with them and protect them, but only if they performed their half of the contract.  Their ancestors did not.  God goes on to say that He loathed that generation.  That English word, I am told, is far too mild for the Hebrew idea.  It means they disgusted Him, they nauseated Him, as in “I will spew you out of my mouth” nausea.  Because of that, they did not receive the promised rest, a rest like God’s, a Sabbath rest not because you are tired, but because have finished the task (Heb 4:1-11).

 Those people seemed to think, as the prophets testified, that all it took was loud worship to please God.  The tendency is to judge our own worship as lacking because of this, too.  We ask, “Why don’t we ever do that?” as if anything solemn and quiet is not sincere worship and certainly not acceptable to God.  It is easy to think, as they did, that volume is all that matters. 

 “If you hear his voice” the psalmist says and then makes it clear that hearing involves reverence and obedience.  In order to underscore this emphasis, the psalmist does not go back and say, “Okay, get on with the celebration now.  I just wanted to interject a warning.”  No, this is where he ends it.  He wants this to be the last thing on their minds as they finish singing this psalm:  “Therefore I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.”

 What started out as a jubilant service ends up with the wrath of God.  I am sure their songs were not quite so ecstatic, their noise not quite so loud, for who can be carefree when he contemplates the wrath of the Almighty, the one the psalmist has already reminded us created everything and holds it in His hand? 

Take away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols. But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream, Amos 5:23,24.

Dene Ward.

 “The God whom Jesus shows on the cross is one who defeats evil by taking it to himself, letting it do its worst to him, and then overcoming it. ... What other faith has at its heart a writhing body, torn flesh, shameful desertion and disgrace, anguished desolation, and darkness that can be felt? But what other faith has a God who so takes evil into himself that the day of the death of all deaths becomes the day death died?” (O. Guinness, "Unspeakable," 147–148) via Nathan Ward.

A few Sundays ago the chill weather made it possible for me to wear my best suit, one a little heavier than anything else I have, one a little more expensive, but a hand-me-down from a friend.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a couple of limited time specials.  That’s one way we stay financially afloat—picking up specials when we are already the thirty miles into town for assembly.

 So we were loading the trunk and as she passed, a stranger said to me, “That’s a lovely suit.  You’ve been to church, haven’t you?  I apologize for being nosy, but would you mind telling me where you attend?”

 Would I mind?!  Of course I spent the next five or ten minutes telling her where I attend, when we meet, who we are, and what we do.  Then I handed her a blog card and pointed out my contact information in case she had more questions.  “Please email me or just call.  I can give you more detailed directions,” I finished with.

 I know a lot of people who no longer “dress up” for church.  They certainly have that right.  But I know a lot of others who go even further—who tell those of us who grew up doing it that we are wrong, that we are trying to be Christians on the outside instead of the inside.  I have yet to figure out why wearing my good suit on Sunday makes me a hypocrite any more than someone who thinks sitting on the pew in jeans on Sunday then dressing up for the boss all week makes him a Christian. 

 In fact, tell me this.  If you were this woman and you were searching, who would you ask on a Sunday around noon at the grocery store—the guy in shorts, tee shirt and flip-flops or the man with a tie on?  The lady with a dress on or the one with cut-offs and an oversized shirt hanging over her waistline?  Maybe there is something to be said after all for making it obvious on a Sunday that you have been to church. 

 But then we have this point—it isn’t what you wear on Sunday that makes the Christian; it’s what you wear every day. 

 Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do you: and above all these things [put on] love, which is the bond of perfectness, Col 3:12-14.

 My neighbors need to see these spiritual clothes every day.  There can be no “dressing down” spiritually after you have “put on Christ” in baptism, Gal 3:27.  The people I work with, the people I go to school with, the people I come into contact with, especially on a regular basis, should know by my speech and my actions that “I went to church on Sunday.”  God won’t accept a “casual Friday” set of spiritual clothes any day of the week.

 I’ve had a great many things make people ask me questions—maybe that’s a good subject for another day, but it all boils down to this—I have to look different.  Whether it’s how I act, how I speak, how I run my family, or any number of ways, it needs to be obvious.  Let’s stop making judgments about one another’s literal clothes, and just go out there and show people who we are with the spiritual wardrobe of a child of God. 

The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to [fulfil] the lusts [thereof]Romans 13:12-14.

Dene Ward

 2 Kings 18 and Isaiah 36 show us yet more ways that Satan tries to deceive us.  This time we see them in the person of the Rabshekah, a diplomat or high ranking court official for King Sennacherib of Assyria.  Already the Assyrians have not only conquered Samaria in the Northern Ten Tribes, but also most of Judah's fortified cities.  Next they come up against Jerusalem.  Evidently we see some sort of face-off between the Rabshekah and King Hezekiah's emissaries, Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah.  One has a mental picture of a man with a bullhorn standing outside the closed city gates.  I doubt that is even close to accurate, but you get the idea of what is happening.  Notice all the "devices" used to persuade the Judahites to simply ignore their king and surrender.  (All the following verses are from Isaiah 36.)

 In verse 4 he does a subtle putdown of their king by giving King Hezekiah no honorific at all—he is simply "Hezekiah," while he calls Sennacherib "the great king."  It reinforces the idea that the Assyrian king is stronger than the King of Judah and therefore unconquerable.

 He continues to try to make Hezekiah suspect in their eyes in verse 7, when he asks why they should expect their God to come to their aid when their king has torn down all the high places where they worshipped him.

 In verse 8 he uses sarcasm to create doubt:  "I will give you 2000 horses, if you can find enough men to sit on them."  You can hear the heh-heh in his words.

 He claims, in verse 10, to have God's support in his attack.  "God told us to do this," and how could they argue about what he was told (they might think).

 He speaks in the common man's language so they can all hear what he is saying.  When Eliakim asks him to speak in Aramaic, evidently the diplomatic language of the time, he just shouts louder (verses 11ff).

 Then he verbally attacks Hezekiah himself, claiming he is deceiving his own people and does not have their best interests at heart, verses 14 and 18.

  He lies in verses 16,17 about how wonderfully the King of Assyria will treat them if they just leave Jerusalem and surrender, but by now he hopes they feel so desperate they will believe it.

 After laying this foundation he comes to his final point in verse 20.  None of the other gods has beaten us.  How can you think yours will?

 All through this, the man uses ridicule, half-truths, threats, and lies to try to get the people on his side.  He blasphemes God by equating him with the idols of the nations around them and shows his complete ignorance of God when he talks about the high places as if God approved of them.  Don't believe for a second that Satan won't use the same things against you, and he will do it with people you know, and with some you like or even trust.  You simply must be wise enough to see what is really being said, and strong enough to stand against it.  Now, more than ever, the world will blaspheme God and ridicule you for believing.  They will call you stupid fools and ignorant rubes while showing themselves to be totally ignorant of what they mock.  Hang onto that when you hear it.  They are ignorant.  They do not truly know what they are talking about, so how can you trust anything they say?  Those people so long ago did not do very well very often, but this time they were not taken in and stood firm.  Be sure you do, too.

“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “a special possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.  So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him  Malachi 3:17-18  

Dene Ward

You’d think they would learn.  You’d think they would figure this out, especially people who are so smart, with so many letters after their names they could start a new language.  Yet for a long time the existence of the Biblical Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham and Sarah’s hometown, was denied.  Several excavations were begun in the early twentieth century, but Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, a British archaeologist, finally put the question to rest.  From The Bible As History by Werner Keller: “Under the red slopes of Tell al Muqayyar lay a whole city…awakened from its long sleep after many thousand years…Woolley and his companions were beside themselves with joy…for before them lay the Ur of the Chaldees to which the Bible refers.”

 Where today sits a railway station 120 miles north of Basra, Woolley found many closely situated private homes along with their broken pots, cuneiform texts, and even some gold jewelry.  He found silver lyres and other musical instruments and even a royal game board, complete with “men” to travel the wooden board. 

 What he discovered, in essence, was the ancient Sumerian civilization, He also discovered royal tombs dating from 2700 BC.  It became apparent to these scientists than these tombs also contained the king’s personal retinue, people buried alive in a form of large scale human sacrifice.  Is there any wonder God would have called his righteous servant away from that society?  And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many, Josh 24:2,3.  And so the Bible once again is proven not only accurate, but logical.

 Woolley’s faith may not have been as fundamental as we would like--he discovered evidence of a great flood in the area but you and I would not have agreed with all of his conclusions in that regard.  However, he seemed to work like this:  the Bible says it existed so he went looking for it.  How many others deny the witness of the Scriptures until their noses are rubbed in it?

 Charles Woolley died on this day in 1960.  Perhaps we can use this as a reminder.  More and more the world considers the Bible as anything but the Word of God.  Instead, they say, it is a book of myths and interesting stories.  Jesus was not the Son of God either; he was just a good rabbi.  Maybe it is time we spoke out more.  Are we embarrassed to be seen as ignorant yokels because we believe the scriptures to be the authentic and infallible Word of an Almighty Creator?  Do we water down the truths revealed in it because they are no longer politically correct? 

 It was easy to believe when most of our neighbors did.  It was easy to say, “The Bible says…” when we knew that statement would carry some weight.  Despite the fact that over and over discoveries are made to prove the factual content of the Bible, people still find reason not to accept it.  They always will.  Just read the first few chapters of Exodus.  Just read the gospels.  When people do not want to accept the accountability demanded of us by the Bible, they will reject it.  They will find every excuse in the world to say, “That’s different,” when the only difference is it refers directly to their lifestyles and habits. 

 Say thank you today to Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, but only if you will use his discovery to cement your faith and allow it to change your will.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house, Ezek 3:27.

Dene Ward

We have two wild turkey hens coming to the feeder these days.  We knew they were out there in the woods—you can hear the toms gobbling and the hens clucking early in the morning and in the first hours of dusk.  Then last fall we saw four traipsing across our garden in the middle of the day.  A young visitor that day heard Keith and her father talking about “turkey season,” and I heard her whispering, “Run turkeys!  Run!”  And they did.

 Then in the middle of winter one morning I looked out and there stood a turkey hen under the south feeder pecking at the fallen birdseed.  She visited every day for awhile and eventually found her way around the house to the other two feeders.  Gradually she became used to us, and now we can go out on one side of the house without her leaving the opposite side at a “turkey trot.”  She will even let us move by the window inside, where she can see us clearly, without running away.

 Then one afternoon there she was again, only she looked a little different, didn’t she?  Maybe her neck was thicker we said, and then one of us moved in our chairs and she ran down the trellis bed and actually flew over the fence.  Turkeys do not like to fly, so she must have been terrified.  That’s when we put two and two together and realized we now had two turkeys, one with a thinner neck who has learned that we won’t bother her, and one with a thicker neck who still thinks we are some sort of predator out to get her.  Isn’t it odd that it’s the skinnier turkey that is the least frightened?

 That is an apt metaphor for the people of Israel.  They were the country with the skinniest neck, yet throughout their history they routed huge armies or saw them turned back by “circumstances.”  They watched God’s power work when no other country their size, nor even some larger, could withstand the enemy.  But despite that ongoing evidence, only a few learned to depend upon God, only a few saw the chariots of the Lord on the hilltops around them (2 Kings 6:12-18).  Only a few of them had faith and courage like this:

 And Asa cried to the LORD his God, “O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, 2 Chron 14:11.

 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright, Psa 20:7,8.

 Eventually there weren’t enough faithful to save them from destruction.  Eventually God had to remove the ones He thought had some potential and send the prophets to ready them for a return, but even then only a small remnant came back.  Many of them were still frightened turkeys, and they were well aware of how skinny their necks were.

 Learn the lesson those people didn’t.  God has given you evidence every day of your life that He is with you.  If you think otherwise, you just haven’t noticed.  Trials in your life are not an indication that He is not with you.  Paul told the Romans that “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword,” none of those could separate us from the love of Christ—not that they would never happen! 

 Be ready to stand against whatever army Satan throws at you, knowing that ​the chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; [and] the Lord is among them, Psa 68:17.

Dene Ward 

I don’t get it.  Something is very wrong when we make heroes out of monsters.  First it was vampires, and now zombies.  But did you know this?  We have spiritual vampires and zombies out there too, and some of us make heroes out of them.

 Televangelists and faith healers come to mind.  Has there ever been a more despicable sort of bloodsucker?  They use the desperate, the ill, the old, the ones afraid of dying without God, and steal their money and their minds, basking in the adoration of distressed souls who want just one last vestige of health and a moment of relieved peace before their deaths.  Yes, a lot of it is their own fault.  If they knew and loved the Word of God as they should they would not have been deluded so as to “believe a lie” (2 Thes 2:9-11).  Yet Satan’s ministers are good-looking, amiable, charismatic people, and even the good-hearted can be deceived if they aren’t careful (2 Cor 11:13-15).

 But the worst are surely the walking dead. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will, John 5:21.  Notice, Jesus said this well before he ever raised anyone from the dead.  Most commentators believe he was talking here about raising the spiritually dead, and the full context proves them correct. 

 How are we dead?  Most of us can easily quote passages saying we were once “dead in sin,” but Jesus was talking to the Jews of the day, God’s people. 

 Verse 16 tells us these people were seeking to kill Jesus because he healed on the Sabbath.  They understood when it suited them that healing on the Sabbath was not a sin; they did the same for their animals.  But their traditions outweighed the clear dictum of the Law to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  In another healing, Jesus quite purposefully called the woman who was bowed together a “daughter of Abraham” in order to shame the ruler who did not want her healed (Luke 13:15,16).  Follow the man born blind in John 9 and see the ridiculous lengths they went to in order to condemn a man who could heal as no one ever had before.  Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes, John 9:30.  Even Jesus was amazed at their determination not to see his obvious origins, and therefore his authority to heal whenever he pleased. 

 That determination is shown earlier in John 5.  They clearly understood that Jesus claimed a relationship with God that was above and beyond their own, yet despite the works he did, and thus the witness shown by God through those works, they denied that witness, one that shone clearly to any who dared to actually see. 

 Those people who thought they were the one true people of God, following the one true Law, couldn’t even tell when God was among them.  What did Jesus have to say about that?  Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him, John 5:24.  Don’t count on your pedigree in the faith.  Don’t count on following the rules.  These people had the first (Abraham is our father, John 8:39), and did the second, but Jesus says to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life, John 5:24.  He was calling them dead, yet they were still on this earth walking around, still in charge of God’s people, a people they disdained, John 7:48,49.

 How are we doing as a people of God?  Do we truly listen, or have we become nothing more than a self-righteous, unloving group that prides itself on having been baptized and following a set of rules, including a bunch we devised ourselves and then judge others for not keeping.  As sad as it is, we have the walking dead still among us, and some people think they are heroes. 

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.  Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you, Rev 3:1-4. 

Dene Ward

After seeing a performance of Verdi's Aida, 17 year old Giacomo Puccini decided to give his life to writing operas.  Now we know him as the composer of some of the most beloved operas—La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, and Madame Butterfly.  But none of those were well-received in the beginning.

 Madame Butterfly premiered on February 17, 1904, at La Scala in Milan.  The audience hissed, booed, and even yelled.  Many walked out.  It was back to the drawing board for Puccini, who went to work on a revision.

 Several things had to be fixed.  The staging was abysmal.  He seemed to have fallen into a rut and this opera was too much like all the others.  The second act was ninety minutes long.  So first, he divided that act in half.  Then he added a different sort of musical piece called "The Humming Chorus" which became very popular.  Of course, the staging was fixed pronto, or should I say, "Presto!?"  Along with a few other minor changes, the second performance on May 24 was a grand success with extended applause, repeated encores, and ten curtain calls for Puccini himself. 

Suiting the audience is as it should be for operas, but can you imagine a church service that did the same?  Encores by the song leader, curtain calls by the preacher, and a long standing ovation before the final amen.  Of course not!  Pleasing the audience is not what a church service is about.  Or is it?

The problem is we mistake the performers for the audience.  You and I are not the audience.  God is.  We are the performers and it's our job to do whatever we can to please Him.  Puccini obviously liked his second act and all the staging, but his audience thought otherwise.  He fell all over himself trying to change things to please them.  When I pick a church because I enjoy (feel entertained by) the service, then I have missed the whole point.  I need to be choosing a church that acts as the New Testament has shown me is pleasing to God—whether I personally like what they do or not.  Which church is it that follows the guidelines set for pleasing Him? 

The question is not, and never should be, did the preacher/songleader/Bible class teacher perform well enough to please me ("What did I get out of it")?  The question is, and always should be, did I perform well enough to please my Audience—God. 

But the hour will come, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth John4:24.

Dene Ward