Flight Paths

Oslo, the capital of Norway, had been declared such in 1314.  In 1524, Norway became the junior partner in the Denmark-Norway Union.  Internal squabbles had made them vulnerable to a takeover, and this union seemed the easiest way to handle it.  In 1624 the city was destroyed by a fire.  It had been a good distance from the fortress that protected it, so Christian IV, who was considered by the Norwegians a Danish king, moved it closer to its protection and rebuilt it, naming it after himself, Christiania.  (Along the way, the Norwegians decided to become more "Norwegian" and changed the spelling to Kristiania.)

By 1924, the 300th anniversary of the city, Norway had once again gained its independence and had been so for 110 years.  Being named after a Danish king wrankled a bit.  So on January 1, 1925, Oslo regained its original Norwegian name.  The name of that city meant something to its people, and that's what we are getting at today.

He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first, Gen 28:19.

Jacob had just wakened from his dream of a ladder to Heaven.  God had earlier confirmed the blessing on him that his father Isaac had given him by mistake, proving that while Isaac might have been blind, God certainly was not—the correct son received the blessing.  And so Jacob called that place “Beth-el,” the house of God.

Fast forward several centuries and Hosea goes to Bethel, where Jeroboam I had set up one of his golden calves by which the people could worship Jehovah, “the god who brought you out of Egypt.”  By the time of Hosea most of them weren’t even pretending to worship Jehovah any longer.  This was full-fledged idolatry.  Hosea refused any longer to call it “Bethel.”

…Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the LORD lives.” Hos 4:15.

Three times Hosea addresses the place that way.  It was no longer “the house of God.”  It was instead Beth-aven, “the house of vanity,” or deception, or iniquity, or evil, or several other translated words, all of which made Hosea’s point quite plain.  Bethel was supposed to be a description of who was worshipped, adored, respected, and revered in that place, and it no longer qualified for the name.  Instead of “Beth-el,” it had become “Beth-aven.”

So let’s think about this today.  We use a similar description for ourselves:  “church of Christ.”  That means we belong to Christ, we obey him, we worship him, his is the opinion that counts, not ours.  Can you still say that about the group you are a member of?  Or has it become a social group with its own rules and its own “politics?”  Has it become a place where men get together and vote on things that have nothing to do with the mission Jesus left his disciples to complete?  Can you find authority—His authority—for everything you do?  Jesus himself said in Matthew 20 that authority can only come from two places—God or man, and his acceptance of that proves that he expected you to have it.

Too many times we ask the wrong question:  what is a church of Christ?  The question we ought to be asking is this:  when is a church of Christ?  Is it time to change the sign on your door?

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Eph 1:22-23

Dene Ward

 On November 12, 1799 Andrew Ellicott, an American surveyor, cartographer, astronomer, and mathematics professor, saw the first recorded instance of the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys.  This annual event is enhanced every 33 years by the appearance at the same time of the comet Tempel-Tuttle.  Sometimes as many as a thousand meteors have been reported during one of these showers.  Ellicott reported in his journal: About two o’clock in the morning I was called up to see the shooting of the stars (as it is vulgarly termed), the phenomenon was grand and awful, the whole heavens appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets, flying in an infinity of directions, and I was in constant expectation of some of them falling on the vessel. They continued until put out by the light of the sun after daybreak. This phenomenon extended over a large portion of the West India islands and was observed as far north as St. Marys where it appeared as brilliant as with us.

 Unfortunately, according to The History Blog, from which I got the above quote, Ellicott’s journal entry is regularly attributed to his great-grandson, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, an astronomer, physicist, and archaeologist.  The blog seems to indicate that this error occurs more online than anywhere else, yet another warning about believing everything you see online.

 People have that problem theologically too.  Supposedly, Adam’s sin has passed its guilt down to all of us.  While it is true that because of Adam’s sin, we now have sin in the world and experience its effects and temptations, Adam’s sin is his own, not mine or yours.  God has made that clear for thousands of years.   The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself  Ezek18:20.

 Despite a complete theological system that pervades the majority of Protestant denominationalism, God says that my sins are not passed to my children nor my father’s sins to me.  I have had someone say to me that it only applies to Adam, not my own father.  So tell me, what about Cain, Abel, and Seth?  If the father’s sin does not pass to the son, then Adam’s sin certainly should not have passed to them, right?  I have yet to have one to agree to that.

 It doesn’t really matter that Andrew Ellicott’s journal entries are sometimes attributed to his great-grandson.  It matters a whole lot if his sins were.  My Bible says they weren’t.  Too many times we see passages that tell us that someone has chosen—notice that word—to follow in the sins of their ancestors, most notably, He walked in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, beginning in 1 Kings 16:26 and continuing throughout the history of Israel.  Still the sin was theirs, and only because they chose to follow the ways of that wicked king, not because his were imputed to them by God “just because.”

 Look at those meteor showers whenever you get a chance to.  Marvel at the awesomeness of a God who could create such a thing, but also remember those Ellicotts and the equally awesome fact that we have a just and merciful God who will not give you credit for someone else’s righteousness, but, more important, will not blame you for someone else’s sins.

 And if you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear:1Pet1:17

Dene Ward

What the gospel, therefore, cannot mean is this: When God comes to judge the world, God will treat you as righteous when you are not; you’re saved from being judged on that day no matter what you do, how you live, for whom you live; Jesus’ righteousness is enough to get you off the hook with God; God expects nothing of you. If we think this is what Paul’s gospel means for us, we have to be prepared to say that God does show partiality. God will judge his Son’s friends according to one set of standards and everyone else by another set of standards—and he will declare innocent those in the first group who would fail the test if they belonged to the second group. 

(D.A. deSilva, Transformation, 19, emphasis in original).

One of our favorite parts of camping has always been the food!  Every night we cook over a wood fire—burgers, chops, steaks--everything tastes like it came from a five star gourmet restaurant when you have oak and hickory burning under them.

Keith starts the fire about a half hour before we need it, stacking one inch square split pieces of wood in an open crisscross pattern.  The flame is often three feet high and roaring.  Do you think that is when we cook?  No, not unless you want scorched raw meat.  The fire must burn down to the point that the flames are gone and all that is left are red coals.  Now it’s time to cook.  That inch or two of quiet embers is far hotter than a three foot high roar.

He opens the folding grill over them to burn it clean, and places the meat of the night six to ten inches above the heat, sometimes over to the side if, as is the case with chicken, we need to make sure it gets done all the way through before the outside chars. 

Children look at the two fires and it seems totally counter-intuitive to them.  Surely the bright high flames make the hotter fire and the softly glowing embers the coolest.  Then they hold their hands out and discover their mistake.

Babes in the Lord can make the same mistake about the faith of others.  Surely the loud showy faith is the real one.  Surely the person who shouts amen and holds up his hands is more passionate about his love of God than the member who sits and quietly listens or bows his head.  I have lost count of the number of young people I have heard say they admired someone’s faith when it was the former type and not the latter.  The loud faith may well be just as sincere as the quiet, but if that’s all you look for, you will miss some of the best advice, the best encouragement, and the best examples of resilient faith in a life of trial that ever sat in front of you—or behind you, or even right next to you on the pew.

You are smart to look for help and encouragement in another’s faith.  Just be smart about the signs you judge it by.  Loud might just as easily be hot air as roaring fire.

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

 Reading this book is a project, all 533 pages of it, not counting notes and bibliography.  It is marketed as being “remarkable both in its depth of content and ease of accessibility.”  The first part I would agree with wholeheartedly.  The last part, well, it depends.  To be fair, I am sure it is easier for the layman to digest than most scholarly tomes, but it certainly requires all of your mind.  You cannot watch a baseball game and read during the commercials and absorb it all.  I limited myself to 10-15 pages at a time, depending upon chapter and section length and managed to stay afloat.  Do not be too proud to recognize your own limitations—it will only keep you from getting some great information.

 The first thing this apologetics novice learned is that there are many types of apologetics, and the authors go through them in an astoundingly unbiased, and thorough, manner.  I had no idea all the way through which was their preferred method until the ending gave it away.  Trying to wade through the differences was sometimes mind boggling, but the authors give you practical ways to see those differences.  Four times in the book we see a possible conversation between unbelievers and an apologist using his preferred method.  Seeing exactly how each method works in a conversation is extremely helpful. 

 Another help are the many and various charts.  At the beginning of the book (preface), you find a “Plan of the Book”, a two-page chart that tells you exactly what will be covered in each chapter.  You must read it and then refer back to it occasionally.  Then throughout the book you find yet more charts, even more toward the end, that will help you absorb what you have read and see the differences more clearly.

 Yes, you will get impatient.  Especially when it seems that some scholars are more interested in promoting their own method than in reaching the lost, you will be strongly tempted to lay it down and not pick it back up.  Persevere!  In the last part of the book, the authors oh, so carefully and respectfully, recommend that apologists of all stripes learn to see the strengths of other methods and the weaknesses of their own, putting them together in an integrative approach to...make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you1Pet3:15.

 Faith Has Its Reasons is published by Biblica Books/Intervarsity Press.

Dene Ward

 I am in the middle of editing Nathan’s next book, a commentary on Esther.  Scanning for typos, checking every citation, and offering wording options to eliminate passive voice, delayers, and nonparallel items in every series leaves my brain a little frazzled after only a couple of hours.  It has also brought back many memories and a few spiritual lessons as well.

 My writing teacher at King High School back in the early 70s must surely have been one of the best writing teachers in the entire state, college professors included.  If I gave you a list of the things she drilled into my head, I could fill this blog up for several weeks.  When I got to the local university and signed up for an expository writing class, the professor told me, after reading my turned in assignments for the first two weeks, that she had nothing to offer me.  “You could teach this class,” she said, and that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Mrs. Edna Nichols.  I did get to send her one of my books before she passed away from a stroke several years ago, a full circle moment I will always cherish.

 One of her weekly exercises had us sitting in a circle passing around our papers, and writing comments on one another’s offerings.  That was my first experience with editing an assignment .  After I left high school and went on to Florida College, she even asked me to edit some of her students’ papers—high school students as I had been long ago.  In our early years of marriage I had taught Keith much of what she taught me, and for most of the next forty years, he was the only one who could edit me in a beneficial way.  And now I find myself remembering all these things as I edit our next generation’s work. 

 One of the lessons I have had to learn is not to turn his writing into mine.  Just because I would not have worded it that way does not mean his way is wrong.  As long as his grammar his correct, his mechanics good, and his word choice accurate and evocative, his way is as good as mine.  I have helped others who had papers to write and always at some point have had to say, “If I do any more, it will be mine not yours.  This is much better than you started and fine as it is.”

 Sometimes life is that way.  While I might have chosen different words, different actions, or different timing, that doesn’t mean that mine is the only right way.  Wouldn’t that be a little like the Pharisees who added rules that were not part of God’s law?  Critics need to recognize that before they throw out their two cents’ worth, which might indeed be all their criticisms are worth.

 However, those of us who write, and are as humble as we ought to be, know that editing your own work is not the best idea.  You will miss half the typos as your brain mentally supplies the missing word, unravels the transposed letters, and gives the precise meaning and emphasis to your words that you intended—even if it can be read a half dozen different ways!  It takes a brand new eye to see the errors.

 The same is true of your life.  In my life, I am always the hero.  I always have good intentions—it’s everyone else’s fault if they see what I did or heard what I said the wrong way.  Ask someone else, someone you trust, how you sounded or what your action looked like, and you are likely to be embarrassed, if not horrified.  Just as it is a wonderful thing to have a good editor, it is just as wonderful to have a trustworthy friend who will tell you what you need to hear whether you want to hear it or not.  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; But the kisses of an enemy are profuse Prov27:6.

 Even after years of writing, I still go to my live-in editor for help.  I gladly turn it over to him and listen to what he has to say.  In the same way, we all need a good life-editor for as long as we live. 

  Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; And let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon the head; Let not my head refuse it: For even in their wickedness shall my prayer continuePs141:5.

 Reprove not a scoffer, lest he hate thee: Reprove a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning  Prov9:8,9.

Dene Ward

 I finally found out what Guy Fawkes Day is all about.  The History Channel explains it all so well.  Probably you know that England went through a period of time where Catholics and Anglicans were at war with one another over which would be the official religion of the kingdom.  This was indeed a literal war with people killing one another and the government itself hunting down whichever was not in power at the moment.

 King James I, who was anti-Catholic, learned of the Gunpowder Plot on this day in 1605, a plan to blow up the Parliament building while he sat in it with Parliament, most of whom were not Catholic.  Robert Catesby an English Catholic whose father had been persecuted by James, joined with Guy Fawkes, a Catholic convert.  They rented a cellar that extended underground as far as beneath the Parliament building, and planted 20 barrels of gunpowder there.  One of the conspirators had a Catholic brother-in-law in Parliament and he warned him not to go that day.  Suspicion was planted and ultimately the plot was discovered and the conspirators found out and captured.or killed before the plan could be completed.  Fawkes was sentenced to hang but jumped off the gallows before that could happen and died from the fall.  Guy Fawkes Day has been celebrated ever since, with fireworks and hanging effigies.  Seems a little strange to me.

 It should seem strange to you as well when people who claim to follow Jesus resort to killing the ones they cannot convert.  What did Jesus say to Peter when he physically defended him?   Put up the sword into the sheath: the cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?John18:11.

 Converting souls is not about forcing them.  It is about transforming hearts by the power of the Word of God.  If the heart is not changed, the soul still belongs to Satan, not Jesus.  The apostles never tried to change the laws of the land either because the problem is exactly the same—no transformed heart means no true servants of God.  The way to change a people is to preach to them and teach them, then the rest should follow.

 Nominal Christians throughout history have committed murders and other horrible crimes in the name of the Lord.  Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven Matt 7:21.  God will certainly deal with this travesty when the time comes for that.  We need to remember that in this day when so many Christians are losing their influence with their lost neighbors by the way they express their political opinions.  Once you claim a side in such an blunt and forceful way, you alienate half the people you might otherwise be able to save.  This world has become far too important when that completely escapes our thinking.  Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus ChristPhil 3:20.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world  John18:36.

Dene Ward

Masquerade balls have a varied and grisly history, depending upon which historian you believe.  Some say they were invented by the Venetian upper classes in the sixteenth century during Carnival season as a way to let loose without getting into trouble.  Others say they began in the fourteenth century in France when whole villages celebrated an important event, often a welcome of some high dignitary into their town.  Crimes were sometimes committed amid the anonymity, as well as immorality of all sorts, especially drunkenness, gluttony and lust.  Since no one knew who anyone was, they could quite literally get away with murder.

God’s people would never try to hide their sins would they?  The people of God have always understood that as God, He knew everything they did, even the things done “in secret,” right?

At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Arise, and disguise yourself, that it not be known that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who said of me that I should be king over this people. Take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what shall happen to the child,” 1Kgs 14:1-3.

Consider the foolishness of this situation.  Jeroboam believes this man is a prophet of God, yet he thinks he can trick him, first by sending someone instead of going himself, and second by disguising that someone.  If God can do what Jeroboam believes He can, then how will He be fooled by a disguise?

This isn’t the only instance recorded in the scriptures.  Ananias and Sapphira come quickly to mind.  But in my lifetime, I’ve seen Christians do the same thing again and again, and sadly, sometimes I have fallen into this trap too. 

Usually it’s the obvious—Sunday morning Christians who seem to think that God does not know what goes on the rest of the week, as if He is bound by the meetinghouse doors.

But there are a few more complex ways of disguising ourselves.  Some of us do the right things, but without the heart, or with entirely the wrong heart.  As long as God sees me take the Lord’s Supper every Sunday or attend whenever the doors are opened, it doesn’t matter that I hate every minute of it. As long as I give, it doesn’t really matter if I do it grudgingly or not.  As long as I shake everyone’s hand, it doesn’t matter if I hate the very sight of them.  Really?

But then there are those who raise their hands and shout hallelujah, who “give God the glory” every other sentence and hug everyone in sight, but who are quick to find an excuse for not doing exactly what God says He wants.  “It’s such a little thing…”  “God wouldn’t mind…”  “But God knows my heart.”  Yep.  He knows it’s a heart of self will that only pretends to love and worship Him as long as it gets things its way.

Hypocrisy, legalism, ritualism, emotionalism—God wants none of these disguises.  He wants people who love Him and serve Him the way He wants to be served, because He is the great and glorious God who sees all we do and knows our hearts, and He alone deserves it.  God has never gone for masquerades.

The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds, Ps 33:13-15. 

Dene Ward

Winter in Florida is iffy.  One year I was beginning to think it would never happen.  We had one brief—very brief—cool snap in November, but then summer returned.  We were still running the air conditioner in early January.  Finally, the third week of the new year we had several days with lows in the low thirties, one where we never topped 41, and even a few snow flurries.  Now, I said to myself.  Now I can prune the roses.

You never prune the roses until they become dormant.  I was not sure three or four days of cold was enough to put them in that state, but surely they were close simply because it was time, I reasoned, and the cold was not predicted to last beyond another 48 hours so my window of opportunity was small.  I took my clippers and went at it, cropping the thinner, more pliable stems and leaves—including those with some new red growth from the warm weeks before—and gave them the half to two-thirds haircut they need annually.  It will be an anxious few weeks before I find out if I ruined them.

Dormancy is an interesting thing.  Plants, or seeds right after harvest, go to sleep.  For plants it happens with adverse conditions like low temperatures, drought, or low light.  In order to conserve energy, the plant stops growing and sheds softer tissues, replacing them with hard wood, scales, and dried tissues.  It puts on this suit of armor to protect itself.  When conditions change, warmer temperatures or enough water to live on for example, the plant wakes up and resumes its normal growth.

After mulling it over one morning I decided that is our problem.  We never go dormant.  I defy you to study the Word of God deeply enough, and meditate long enough to reach new insights, by taking just five minutes a day to “read a chapter.”  It won’t work.  But instead of finding that precious time—instead of making it—we make excuses instead.  We stay too busy with life to slow down and spend quiet time with God.

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening...Gen 24:63.

I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds, Ps 77:12.

My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise, Ps 119:148.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer, Ps 19:14.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, Phil 4:8.

And those are just a fraction of the verses that tell us we need to spend far more time with God than we do.  How many times did Jesus spend all night praying?  And if you have not had your prayers drift off into meditation, that may well be why you sit there thinking, “I could never pray that long.” 

Look back at the advantages of dormancy.  Dormancy is a period of rest for the plant.  God knew we needed rest.  He gave His people a day no other culture had, the Sabbath.  When everyone else was working dawn to dusk just to survive in an ancient world, He took care of their basic survival that day (as when the manna did not spoil) so they could rest, so they could spend time with family and with Him.

Dormancy provides the plant with “a suit of armor,” protection during adverse conditions.  If you wait until the crisis arises to consider your actions, you will invariably make poor decisions.  Time to think ahead, recognizing your weaknesses and planning your “way of escape,” can be critical to your spiritual survival.  Meditation will give you that time to prepare yourself.

Dormancy gives the plant “anesthesia” for the painful tasks of pruning and grafting.  Looking at yourself in the mirror is hard enough without being forced to in the middle of a spiritual emergency.  Time alone to carefully consider and face your challenges can make the difference in whether you make the changes you need to or not.  In the face of rebuke, too many of us consider it too painful to even consider the notion that we might need a little pruning of the character to please God.

And then there is the greatest benefit of all:  time to develop a relationship with your Creator.  I knew a young couple that broke off their engagement after realizing that they had absolutely nothing to talk about.  A wise young couple, I think.  If you haven’t spent enough time in His Word to have anything to talk to God about, don’t be surprised if He doesn’t break it off with you.

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. ​I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land— Selah, Ps 143:5-6.

Dene Ward

  “I’ll never forget when she...”

 I have heard more than one person say that.  When I listened closely I realized that what they would never forget was a slight of some kind, perhaps a statement or action taken as an insult.  That person was admitting to holding a grudge, in some cases, for decades.  Let’s think about that for a few minutes this morning.

  And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?  Mark2:5-7.

 Whenever Jesus healed, particularly when he healed on the Sabbath, the Pharisees had a tendency to completely ignore the miracle and focus on things he said or did.  In this case, the healing of the paralytic whose friends let him down through the roof, they seized upon the fact that Jesus was claiming to forgive sins.  Only God can do that they said, and that makes Jesus a blasphemer.  Only God decides who can and who cannot be forgiven and then actually do it.

 I fear we miss an important lesson ourselves.  Just like the speaker of our opening sentence, we have taken upon ourselves the right to decide who we will and will not forgive.  So what does that make us when we do that?  A blasphemer, because only God has the right to do that.  But wait, I would never do such a horrible thing.  Everyone knows that blasphemy was a capital crime under the Old Law and I would never do anything that bad.  Yes, it was, and that is why none of us should ever think we have the right to hold a grudge or always remember insults against another.  It’s time we took our blinders off and realized what we are doing and stop it.  Right now.  And pray for the forgiveness we are sometimes so loathe to give.

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.  And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’  And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.  So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart  Matt18:21-35.

Dene Ward