Flight Paths

Today's posts is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

Luke 21:1-4  "Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.  And he said, 'Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.'"

  The custom of having a box at the entrance to the temple in which any who wished could donate money for the upkeep of the building dates back to the reign of King Jehoash.  (2 Kings 12:9)  As happens, and similar to what Jesus taught against in Matthew 6, some made a show of their donations.  Jesus is watching the rich drop large sums into the box, and perhaps He is even formulating another rebuke against acts of worship for show, when this widow comes up and drops in two small coins.  Several weeks ago, when teaching this in class, I calculated what these two "mites" were worth in modern American money based on buying power.  (If a denarius is one day's pay for a laborer, and minimum wage is $13/hr, then figuring for an eight hour work day a denarius is approximately $100.  Before anyone scoffs, think of your weekly grocery bill, and monthly rent and tell me that a day's pay back then was significantly less than $100 in America today.)  I read somewhere that these mites (leptas) were 1/64 a denarius.  Do the math and two mites is about $3.25 in today's money.  It's hard to buy a candybar at the gas station for that price! 

 Perhaps the widow was a bit ashamed, watching the rich drop in large sums, while she had so little to offer. Jesus, instead, extols her to His apostles for giving all she had.  From what is written, it makes me wonder if she didn't skip eating that day so she could give something to God.  Her gift was small, compared to the gifts of others.  Her gift was immense when compared to her ability. 

 So, the lesson is don't get discouraged because you can't do everything that others do.  Do what you can do for the Lord, however small that may seem.  Nathan, my brother, is a preacher, a Bible professor, an author of biblical books, a publisher of even more biblical books, and a husband and father.  I look at my accomplishments for the Lord and feel inadequate by comparison.  However, none of us are judged by comparing to others.  How did Jesus judge the widow's gift?  By comparison to what she could offer.  She gave all she had.  The rich gave of their excess.  Jesus judged her more worthy. 

 Do what YOU can for the Lord.  Do ALL that you can for the Lord.  This is not an excuse for laziness.  Don't be discouraged that you can't keep up with others, but don't whine about how you "did all I could" while you spend 35 hours watching TV each week either. Examine yourself (2 Cor. 13:5) and ask if there is any more you can give to the Lord.  If yes, do so.  If no, then don't worry about those who have been blessed to be able to give more.  Jesus won't compare you to them, so don't you either.  Work for the Lord; the Rest is coming.

Heb. 4:9,11  "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God . . . Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience."

Lucas Ward

Keith noticed it first, a dove that sat quiet and almost still on the ground beneath one of the hanging bird feeders.  While other doves and a bevy of cardinals hopped around him pecking at the ground, then flying up and down from the feeder, he barely moved a foot in two hours, and always one small, hesitant hop at a time.  By late evening most of the other birds were gone, finished with their free supper and off to find a good roosting place for the night, but he still sat there.

 By then I was a little worried.  I grabbed the binoculars for a closer look.  He had puffed himself up twice his size as birds will do in the winter to keep warm.  But it was still early September and the humid evening air hovered in the upper 80s.  Suddenly his head popped up, stretching out his neck just a bit, and then immediately back into the folds of feathers around his shoulders.  As I continued to watch I noticed it every five minutes or so.  It almost looked like he had hiccups, but somehow I did not think that was the problem.  Something worse was happening.

 Near dusk he suddenly flew straight up to the feeder itself.  Instead of perching on the outer rung designed for a bird to curl its feet around and be able to lean forward to eat from the small trough that ran around the bottom of the feeder, he flew into the trough itself, hunched down, and leaned against the clear plastic wall of the feeder.  Then he became completely still—no more twitching or bouncing.  I watched until it was too dark to see any longer. 

 The next morning I went out with my pail of birdseed to refill all the feeders around the house.  There beneath the feeder lay the now much smaller body of the dove.  Sometime in the night he had died and fallen off the feeder.  We carefully disposed of the small body for the sake of the other birds and our Chloe just in case it had carried a contagious illness.  It was a sad moment.  I couldn’t help but think, “You weren’t alone, little guy.  We watched you and we cared.”

 We weren’t the only ones watching.  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father,Matt 10:29.  God notices when every little bird falls to the ground.  And never forget the lesson Jesus draws from that:  But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows,Matt 10:30-31.

 Dying alone has become a metaphor for a purposeless existence. “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone,” (Orson Welles).

  It’s used to depict life and death as a beginning and end that you cannot effect one way or the other.  “Don’t expect anyone to stick around.  You were born alone and you will die alone,” (Anonymous).

 It’s used as a desperate pitiful plea for someone to care:  “I just don’t want to die alone, that’s all.  That’s not too much to ask for, is it?  It would be nice to have someone care for me, for who I am, not about my wallet,” (Richard Pryor).

 It’s used to show the meaninglessness of life:  “At the end, we all die alone,” (Anonymous).

 Is it any wonder that skeptics and atheists commit suicide?  None of these things is true for a Christian. 

 For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever…Ps 37:28.

 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,Heb 13:5.

 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go,Josh 1:9.

 Sometimes we can quote passages like these until we are blue in the face, but when the hour of trial comes, any sort of trial, and no one stands with us, we allow the physical eye to fool us into believing we are alone.  We need to learn to see with spiritual eyes like our Lord did:  Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me,John 16:32.  We are the only ones who can take that promise away—when we don’t believe it.  With God a believer is never alone no matter how much vacant space surrounds him.

 If God promised to watch for every fallen bird, He will watch for me.  Even if someday I breathe my last breath in an otherwise empty room, I can know that Someone cares enough to be nearby, watching and waiting to take me home.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints, Ps 116:15.

And I will gather you to your fathers…2 Chron 34:28.

Dene Ward

 I am not a tennis fan.  I can figure out most of the rules by watching a couple of games, but to tell the truth, I only do that if I am home sick and have nothing else to watch on television and don't feel like straining my eyes to read.  But I do remember the Battle of the Sexes.

 At least I remember the second one.  I had no idea that a first one ever happened.  Probably because it did not end the way the media wanted it to, not to mention all the women in the sports world.  The first one took place on May 13, 1973, at the San Vicente Country Club in Ramona, California.  Bobby Riggs, a 55 year old tennis champion from the 30s and 40s played Margaret Court, an Australian women's champion who had won 89 of her previous 92 games—before taking time off to have a baby.  Their style of play was different and reportedly Riggs had the court surface redone so it played "slower," and that undid Court's usual style of serve and volley, giving him time to get to a shot and put power behind it.  He wound up beating her 6-2,6-1.

 Immediately, he asked Billie Jean King for a similar match-up, one she had previously turned down.  Maybe Court's defeat changed her mind, or maybe it was something else, but she agreed to the match-up.  That game took place at the Houston Astrodome on September 20, that same year, and she beat him 6-4,6-3,6-3.  That is the battle I heard about, not the first one.  Frankly, it wasn't King I was rooting for but Riggs I was rooting against—he was such a loud blowhard that he deserved to lose in my mind.

 Of course those are not the only times we hear about competition between the sexes.  Maybe it's the abuse women have suffered for centuries, even millennia, from overbearing men in every culture who treat them like personal slaves that causes women to constantly rebel and need to show how good they are.  But it has reached the point that it is no longer the aim for women to be treated fairly and equally.  Feminists want to make sure people know that women are simply better than men. 

 This is not the way God wants it.  Man and woman were designed to be two halves of the same being.  And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one fleshGen2:21-24.  The Word of God variously describes God in terms of a loving father and a loving mother, and uses the same word to describe the divine Beings—One—as he does to describe the two marriage partners.  Just as God demands unity in His church, He also demands it in a marriage.  Marriage is designed to complete the image of God in which we are all created.

 If anything will help you determine whom you marry, perhaps this will.  How can you be "one" with someone who does not have the same commitments, the same purpose in life, and the same determination to serve God if you are not both children of that God?  Are there instances of Christians being married to unbelievers in the New Testament?  Of course there are, but I would guess that most of those were cases of an already married couple where only one was converted and the other not.  The questions Paul answers seem to indicate that, especially in I Corinthians 7.  "Now that I am a Christian and he is not, should I leave him?" 

 This morning please consider this one thing.  Are you and your spouse truly one or is there a battle of the sexes going on in your home?  I hear too many listing faults, complaining to anyone and everyone about pet peeves, and shaking their heads in annoyance over every little thing.  Ask yourself, what do my friends hear me saying about my spouse?  Are they surprised I ever married such a no-good boor?  Because, instead of the astonishing oneness God intended, that may well be the impression you are leaving.

Live joyfully with the wife whom thou love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity: for that is your portion in life, and in your labor wherein you labor under the sun  Eccl9:9.

Dene Ward

We swapped computers in 2015.  The new one was supposed to be so much better for someone like me, someone whose vision is becoming more and more limited.  Why, it has no wires!  You could pick it up and carry it around with you and no, it was not a laptop.  It was one of those new “all-in-ones.”  Part laptop, part tablet, but with a screen the size of a large desktop.  You didn’t even need a mouse and keyboard.  Rrrrright.  In my viewpoint it will take them a few more years to make this no-mouse-no-keyboard thing work smoothly enough that you don’t find yourself wanting to throw the whole thing through the window at least once a day.

 But it would have been a much easier transition if it hadn’t been a Lenovo.  Does that ring a few bells with the techie crowd?  In 2014, Lenovo began building a third party adware program called "Superfish" into its consumer PCs.  If you have read anything about it, you already know where this is going.  There was so much adware embedded in this thing we couldn’t even read a line of text without pop-ups flooding the screen.  If the cursor ran across a magic word, another would instantly appear.  And the thing kept track of every website you visited, producing even more ads.  Sometimes they popped up so quickly that when you were trying to click on something on the legitimate page, you wound up clicking on an ad instead.  We couldn’t even load our desired programs for all the pop-ups.  But this wasn't the worst of the problem.  This adware made it much easier for hackers to break through HTTPS entirely, and such an attack occurred shortly after the program became public.

 As far as I know, we were never hacked, but this stuff was so deeply embedded that it took at least three trips to Geek Squad to get it out.  And after every scrub, we had to spend time loading the programs we wanted yet again.  The first four months we were actually able to use the computer about 4 weeks. 

 Satan embeds his adware into our culture the same way.  When you can’t even watch a hamburger commercial without “soft” porn invading your living room, when the teasers for the shows you avoid include language your mama would have washed your mouth out with soap for using, and when we are constantly told that we aren’t hip, cool, smart, happy, or the most interesting people in the world without beer, hard liquor, cigarettes, or dancing the night away in skimpy clothes on a rooftop somewhere exciting where whatever you do stays, then you need to watch out for your souls more than ever before.

 The world will laugh at you if you mention Satan.  He isn’t real, we are told.  Only the ignorant believe in a mythological character like that.  If you are a Christian, you must believe in Satan.  If you don’t accept that part of the Bible, why would you accept any other part?

Growing up I thought the only New Testament verses that mentioned Satan were the ones around Jesus’ temptation and the good old roaring lion in Peter.  Imagine my surprise when I looked it up.  I counted 19 outside the gospels, less one for the Peter passage we all know, for a total of 18 others.  Then there were the ones who called him something else like “the god of this age,” and “the Devil.”  And many of them talk about his “adware.”  Check a few of these out.

 2 Cor 2:11 mentions the “devices” of the devil.  Eph 6:11 speaks of his “schemes.”  2 Cor 4:4 tells us he “blinds the minds.”  2 Cor 11:14 tells us he “disguises” himself.  All I have to do is look around and see those devices and schemes every day, not just on television but in the speech and behavior of people who have already been taken in.  Have you ever seen the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”  Some days I feel exactly like Kevin McCarthy, looking over my shoulder to see where the pods are, and wondering which of my neighbors have been replaced.

 One of Satan’s devices are his ministers.  The New Testament warns again and again of false teachers, false messiahs, false prophets, and false apostles. They fashion themselves as “ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor 11:15).  Not only do they appear to be doing good, they even look good.  False teachers on the whole are good-looking and charismatic.  A lot of what they say sounds good and is, in fact, good.  But 90% of rat poison is good too.  It only takes the 10% to kill the rats.  When you keep finding the good in a man you know is teaching error, maybe Satan’s adware has taken hold of your heart already.

 Our culture has become embedded with evil masquerading as good.  We had to have our computer “scrubbed to the bones” to get rid of the adware.  Maybe it’s time we all used a spiritual scrub brush on ourselves before we are taken in too.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 2Pet 2:1-3.

Dene Ward

Every afternoon following our midday meal, we walk our property, counting new blooms on the roses, smelling the jasmine, and looking beneath those large scratchy leaves for new squash blossoms.  Usually I end up with a handful of wildflowers, blooms so tiny I cannot see them until Keith hands me one I can pull up close.

 Do you know what I see?  Blooms of all colors--red, pink, blue, white, yellow, orange, purple in all shades and combinations—and shapes—bells, tubes, bowls, cups, stars with five or six points, some flared, some rayed, some as complex as orchids.  And did you know that even the stems are different?  Some are wiry, some are leafless, some are hairy, some sprawl and others stand up straight, and some are square!  Some of these flowers are exquisite, but most of us don’t know that.  We’ve never taken the time to bend over and really look.

 A long time ago a woman who has since become a close friend, told me that looking across the pews at Keith had made her think he was stern and unapproachable, and so she had decided to make it a point to get to know him.  It wasn’t really Keith’s fault.  He has large, piercing blue eyes that look like they’re boring into you, a strong Roman nose, and a voice that, because he is profoundly deaf, is always in projection mode.  Even when he isn’t, he often sounds disapproving, and is always loud, which is often translated “angry.”  A lot of people just go with that first impression.  This woman did not, and she proclaimed that year of getting to know him “delightful.” I wonder how many others have missed out on that delight, how many have formed an opinion, and kept it despite what others might have said.

 How many do we overlook?  The elderly because we think them dull and uninteresting?  The teenagers because we’ve branded them all shallow and naïve?  The disabled because we think they have nothing to offer?  The scholarly and intellectual because we think those dry old men can’t possibly know how to have any fun?  The ones who seem so well put-together that we think they wouldn’t possibly want anything to do with “someone like me?”  None of these judgments is fair.   

Jesus told the Jews, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment,” John 7:24.  Maybe I should take the time (sacrifice) to bend over (be humble) and examine (make some effort) a few wildflowers out there, instead of passing over them (negligence) as if they weren’t worth my trouble (arrogance).  When I think of it that way, I finally understand why judging by appearance is NOT righteous.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”  1Sam 16:7 

Dene Ward

We have grown some of the ugliest tomatoes you have ever seen.  Some of them have lobes that distort their perfect globe shape into something that looks like a mutant in a horror show.  Some of them have brown creases.  Some are crescent shaped instead of round.  Some have “noses.” One in particular had the ski nose of a Bob Hope caricature.  Some look like Siamese Twins.  Excuse me for this, but one looked like it needed a bra!  Usually they have spots of some sort—brown, black or white, depending upon what caused the spot.  Often they sport a bird peck or two.  If you were standing in a store looking at these things, you would turn away and look for something prettier without even giving them a sniff.

 And you would miss out on some of the best tasting tomatoes we have ever grown—especially the Cherokee Purples.  We usually have a platter of sliced tomatoes on the table every day during garden season, and many of those slices are far less than perfectly round.  It isn’t just the odd shapes, it’s also the bad spots we cut out.  As long as it hasn’t spread to the pulp, you can often save half or more of a wonderful tomato--sweet, juicy, slightly acidic, with a full round tomato flavor.

 And many times we stand in the “store” we call life and pick out the worst people just because of how good they look.  This lesson is as old as the hills and one of the first our children are taught. No one thought David could possibly be the king God had in mind but he was because, “man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart” 1 Sam 16:7.

   But no, we haven’t learned it any better than our children have.  We still ignore the ones who stand on the periphery, who don’t share our standard of living, who don’t speak exactly like we do, who don’t dress like we do, who certainly aren’t the good-looking extroverts everyone praises and wants to be around.  We live in a society that idolizes celebrity and we do the same in the church.  Even the preacher has to be handsome, or at least famous, or we won’t invite him for a gospel meeting.

 Israel did the same thing and look what they wound up with:

And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people, 1Sam 9:2.

Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him, 2Sam 14:25.

 Then there was Jesus.  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ​He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not,Isa 53:2-3.  Do you understand that means you would have thought him plain, maybe even a little homely?  Would you have turned away from him the way you do from that one who stands off to the side at church or neighborhood or school gatherings?  Singles out there:  Does a young man or young lady have to be “hot” before you will even talk to them?

 Yep, we still stand at the tomato display looking for perfectly round red tomatoes without a single blemish and wind up with bland anemic knots that, in a blind taste test wouldn’t pass for a tomato any more than a watermelon would.  Look around you today and use the insight God gave you.  No, you can’t look on their hearts, but you can sure look a whole lot deeper than you usually do.

Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment,John 7:24.

Dene Ward

 Silas and Judah stayed with us for nearly a week one summer, and boy, do I have some tales to tell—and their ultimate lessons to share.

 The first morning we gathered up swimsuits, towels and water toys for a trip to their great-grandmother’s (“Gran-Gran”) in a subdivision with a pool at the community center.  We nabbed the pool pass off her wall and headed down the shady lane with mounting excitement only to find a sign posted on the gate to the pool:  “The pool is temporarily closed due to health concerns.”

 They did as well as they could, for a five-year-old and a two-year-old, at hiding their disappointment, but on the trip home Keith and I were desperately trying to come up with a solution.  Finally we hit upon one.  Our neighbor owns a veterinary supply business.  Many of his products come in bright blue plastic barrels slightly larger than 55 gallon drums, which he empties as he fills smaller bottles for his customers.  He often gives us the empties which we wash out and use for all sorts of things.  We happened to have two that were cut down to about two feet deep.

 Granddad rolled those tubs out to the yard in the shade of the huge live oaks on the west side of the house and filled them with water.  Then we divvied up plastic cups and water guns and plopped a little boy in each tub along with all the paraphernalia.  As children will, especially kids as bright as these, they soon had a good game or two going, and we grandparents managed to stay out of the way of most of the water, if not all of it, especially those extra long squirts from the water guns.

 Then Silas, the older boy, came up with the best game, the one that splashed the most water and got him the wettest.  He stood up as tall as he could, and to the cry of “Cowabunga!” lifted both feet in a big jump and landed on his seat in the tub.  The water displacement alone was awesome, especially for such a skinny little boy.  He usually wound up with his head barely above the water, even choking on it occasionally.  Good thing those tubs were well-washed.

 Judah adores his big brother.  If Silas does it, he does it.  If Silas says it, he says it too.  Or at least tries.  But he is not without at least some measure of caution.  I watched as he considered his brother’s maniacal call and monumental splash.  He seemed to weigh things for a moment and then finally came to a decision.  “Cowabunda!” he cried, which was a little easier to say, then jumped up in the air, landing on his feet and squatted carefully in his own little blue tub.  Even being several inches shorter, more of him stayed out of the water and the splash was much less.  He may have imitated his brother’s actions, but he had not made the same commitment.

 And that is often where our Christianity stops.  We make a good show of it, but the heart isn’t there.  When the time of sacrifice comes, when we might end up floundering in deep water, it’s asking too much.  Which is exactly what the Lord does ask for—everything.

 In those classic commitment passages of Luke 9 and 14, he makes it plain that nothing can be more important to you than he is.  Not comfort and convenience (9:57,58); not family (9:59,60; 14:20); not business (14:18); not possessions (14:19); nothing can get in the way.  Then we have one that I had a hard time figuring out.

 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  Luke 9:61.  We already have several references to family relationships, especially when you add “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,” and the like.  Then I remembered the call of Elisha.  He too asked Elijah if he could go home and kiss his parents goodbye, and yes, Elijah allowed him to not only do that, but to prepare a feast with the very oxen he had been plowing with at his call (1 Kgs 19:19-21).  Surely Jesus was referring to this well-known bit of Jewish history when he said, “No, you cannot go home and say goodbye.”

 So perhaps it means, “I am even more important than a great prophet like Elijah,” the one most Jews considered the greatest prophet of all.  To make such an assertion was astounding, and to follow Jesus as he required meant one accepted that claim too.  Yes, Jesus asked for it all, even placing your social and religious life on the line by accepting his teaching and claims.

 You can’t dip your toes in the water and claim to be his disciple.  You have to take the plunge, even if it means landing hard and choking on the water when you do.  If you’re scared of making waves in your little blue tub of a world, chances are you have never made the commitment you should have.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.  For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels, Luke 9:23-26.

Dene Ward

…after the crucifixion it took a miracle to generate the church—indeed even to generate the inner circle of Jesus' followers.  Our earliest sources, by their own confession, are clear that almost the entire inner circle of male disciples denied, deserted, or betrayed Jesus, while the women watched him die and then went to lay a wreath, as it were, on the tomb.  It is the historical event we call Easter that reversed this drastic trend, without which the story of Jesus would have been left in the dustbin of history.

Ben Witherington III, What Have They Done with Jesus? Beyond Strange Theories and Bad History—Why We Can Trust the Bible

Zucchini's popularity can be explained primarily by both its ease in growing and its bountifulness.  It may not be that one zucchini plant will yield 100 of the things, but it sure seems that way, and that is how the recipe for zucchini bread was born—a gardener going out day after day hoping for something else but finding nothing but zucchini, and you have to do something with them!  Your neighbors learn to run when they see you coming with a sackful, or they cower inside pretending not to be at home when you knock.

If you are a gardener (or know one), you have probably made your fair share of zucchini bread.  We quit growing zucchini a long time ago.  We prefer yellow summer squash instead.  At least it has a little flavor.  But it also works for zucchini bread, and I have found a way to make that little loaf that is actually worth baking, no matter which you use.

 Most zucchini (or squash) bread is compact and dense, and just about flavorless.  Try this instead.  Take your usual recipe.  Cut the amount of oil almost in half.  Use brown sugar instead of white granulated, and at least double the cinnamon.  If you use nuts, toast them first.  Then here is the big trick—put all that grated zucchini in a dish towel and squeeze as hard as you can over a sink.  You will get anywhere from ½ to 1 cup of water out of that squash.  No wonder the loaf was flavorless. It was literally washed out.

 Now you will have a lighter loaf that is still plenty moist and actually has some flavor instead of that compact brick that hardly rises above the top of the pan.  In fact, you won’t mind serving this one to guests, and they won’t run away and hide when you mention it either.

 Modern organized religion has suffered the same fate as that old zucchini bread recipe.  It is literally washed out from all the additions men have made.  Just as schools are now expected to teach the things that parents should teach at home, churches are expected to right the social injustices in this world and support every worthy cause in manpower and money.  You can read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation and never find half the things found in a modern denomination.  But then these are the same people who, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, expect a physical kingdom on this earth.  They’ve stopped hoping for Heaven and settled for a poor imitation right now.

 My kingdom is not of this world, Jesus said, John 18:36.  Jeremiah prophesied that no one from the lineage of Jeconiah (the kingly line of Judah through David) would ever sit on the throne reigning in Jerusalem, despite the beliefs of thousands of dispensationalists, Jer 22:31.  The work of the church is not about feeding the hungry—it’s about feeding the soul.  It’s not about making sure everyone has a fair shake in this life—it’s about enduring that injustice and making ourselves fit for the next life.  Check this out yourself:  churches that are sold on the social gospel no longer preach much about heaven.  To them this life is what matters and that’s why they are so hung up on it.  That’s why their religion is so waterlogged with extraneous rituals and activities.  That’s why so many of the “un-churched” are turned off by the dense brick of bread they are handed instead of the bread of life.

 Get out your Bibles and examine your church against the one in the New Testament.  Look through Acts and see how they converted sinners.  Here’s a hint:  it wasn’t with soup kitchens and Wednesday night potlucks.  Now look through the epistles and see the work they did.  It had nothing to do with gymnasiums and playgrounds.  See what they did when they met together for a formal group worship.  It wasn’t about entertainment.  Now maybe you can see the difference between an oily sodden brick of bread and a light flavorful loaf that actually appeals to the appetite.

 But then maybe it’s your appetite that is the problem in the first place. 

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.  Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed,John 6:26-27.

Dene Ward

For anyone who just happens upon this review:  if you are a scholar of Biblical Studies, you want to just skip this.  I am no such thing.  I just enjoy reading, especially books that will build my own knowledge and understanding of God's Word.  That means that sometimes I get hold of a book that is a little beyond me, but that's who I am writing for on my own personal blog—people who are not necessarily erudite but who want to challenge themselves with something that is far above the fluff one usually gets at the supermarket bookshelf or even the chain bookstores.

 I am glad I read it after I read the same author's Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels rather than before.  This one, the Letters of Paul, actually came out before the other.  In it he carefully describes what he is doing and how he goes about it.  You would think that would make this one easier to digest, but that was not the case for me.  If I had read this one first, I would never have picked up the second one on the Gospels, which I enjoyed and will probably make use of in future Bible classes.  This one was so much more difficult that I could barely manage 10-12 pages at a sitting and even halfway understand what I was reading.  I looked up the same words again and again and still cannot be absolutely sure that I remember what they mean!  Words like adumbrate, metalepsis, kerygma, heuristic, etc.—I have reached the point that if I see them in a sentence I can figure them out, but all alone and out of context?  No more than a couple.

 If you do want to give it a try, you absolutely must understand that the word "Scripture" has a narrow meaning in the context of this book; here it refers to the Old Testament scriptures only.

 Once the author gets into the actual letters of Paul and begins to go back and forth between them and the Old Testament passages they "echo," you really can learn a lot.  Most of the things he pointed to I already knew, but he takes it much deeper and sees more than I ever have before.  You and I already know and believe what he is trying to prove in most cases.  The author is just showing you how you got there, and adding a few details you might have missed.

At the end he seems to be arguing about whether we can take the same "liberties" Paul did in interpreting scripture.  Let's face it:  you and I are much more simplistic.  We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to see these things whereas Jewish rabbis before him did not.  That answers the question for us.  But a few things like that do not mean you cannot learn things from this book if you want to try.  You had just better be ready to go at it with a figurative pickaxe to mine the gold in it. 

 Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul is published by Yale University Press.

Dene Ward