Flight Paths

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

I don't like change.  Mom says I've been that way since I was a baby.  I liked the same books read, the same routines, the same songs sung; I found comfort in the normal.  That continued as I grew up.  I had opportunities to move to nicer apartments when I lived in Gainesville as my career moved forward, but I was comfortable where I was.  Honestly, a big reason I never married is because that would be too big a change.  It is not commitment that is scary, it is change.  When Mom and Dad moved from the home I grew up in, that they lived in for nearly 40 years, to a newer, better, bigger home nearer to their grand-kids and to medical care and with other benefits to them as well, it really shook me.  This big, tough man who won't admit when he is hurt or sick, riding a bike twelve miles with a fever or swimming with a shoulder so bad I can't lift my arm, this guy sat down and cried for over an hour.  In some ways, I still haven't forgiven them for leaving home, despite being happy for them for all the ways the new place is better.  I don't like change. 

This extends, of course, to church services and practices.  I have always preferred the two songs, prayer, song, Lord's Supper, song, sermon, song order of worship, twice on Sundays with Bible class beforehand in the morning.  Then the church I grew up in changed its service order.  Two worship services back to back in the morning, with Bible class crunched between and the services were ordered differently to boot.  No evening worship.  There is nothing scripturally wrong with such a thing.  The elders believed it would better serve the majority of the members.  I didn't like it; it was different.  Now my brother's family and my parents worship at a congregation that has a mid-afternoon service with none in the morning or evening.  Heresy!  And yet it is not, it is just different. (And I don't like it.)

All of this leads to 1 Cor. 9:19-22  "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some."  When Paul mentions Jews and then those under the Law he is speaking of the same group, but it is best understood as cultural and religious.  When with Jews, Paul followed typical Jewish protocol and went through the motions of keeping the Mosaic Law. In Acts 21:18-26, Paul participates in offering a sacrifice at the Temple to placate Jewish Christians.  This is the same Paul who wrote in Galatians 5:4  "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace."  But remember "not being myself under the law".  Paul never tried to be justified by the Law, but if he could reach more by going through the motions, he did. 

Then Paul discusses life among the Gentiles, "those outside the law".  Paul, who declared himself a Hebrew of Hebrews and a Pharisee (Phil. 3:5), would live as a Gentile.  He ate things sacrificed to idols (1 Cor. 10:27) in the homes of Gentiles, which Peter said was against Jewish law (Acts 10:28)  Do you think he kept the Sabbath while teaching in the school of Tyrannus?  There is no way to know for sure, but since he was teaching Gentiles in the school building of a Gentile I doubt it, especially in the light of 1 Cor. 9.  Can you imagine how hard this would have been for Paul?  Being raised to look down upon and scorn Gentiles, to keep the Law  above all other considerations except perhaps to keep the traditions of the elders which were held even higher than the law in the mind of some Pharisees.  For that man to live as though without law would have probably hurt, literally, in some psychological fashion.  Yet he lived that way, so he could teach more about Christ.  The key here is that he never left the law of Christ.  He gave up the Law of Moses and all Jewish traditions and customs, many of which must have been dear to him, to reach more people.  "That by all means I might save some." 

The Restoration mythos in the United States was "Where the Bible speaks, we speak.  Where the Bible is silent, we are silent."  As a whole what has become known as the Church of Christ is very good at speaking where the Bible speaks.  We teach the truth of the Lord's Gospel well.  What we fail at miserably is being silent where the Bible is silent. If the Bible says nothing at all about a topic, for or against, then we shouldn't be making rules about that topic.  We can have opinions, personal likes and dislikes, but we need to take care not to enforce personal preferences on others (Romans 14:1-10).  Ultimately, if Paul was willing to make himself very uncomfortable to have a better chance at preaching the Gospel to lost souls, shouldn't we be willing to change how-we've-always-done-it to have a better chance at preaching to lost souls?  (1 Cor. 11:1) 

The bottom line is most people you meet everyday are lost souls who will be damned to hell for eternity if we don't teach them the Gospel.  Are we willing to make ourselves uncomfortable to reach those souls?  Go to a religious Christmas party, without participating in erroneous worship, because it opens the door to speak of the Gospel.  Be willing to sing newer, more up beat hymns while also teaching why the old standards became old standards.  Be willing to change the order of worship/time of worship/types of services if it helps bring in sinners to hear the Gospel and better edifies the church, all while maintaining an orderly worship (1 Cor. 14:40).  I don't like change, but Jesus died to save these people.  Are we willing to be a little uncomfortable to teach them the Gospel?

 1 Cor. 9:22 ". . . that by all means I might save some."

 Lucas Ward

This is one of our favorite times of the year—the garden is booming and dinner will always be a treat of things we can only enjoy now, when the vegetables are truly “vine-ripened” and the price is perfect—just a lot of sweat.

 One night we will have stuffed bell peppers in a fresh tomato sauce with green beans on the side.  The next we will have eggplant parmigiana with a squash casserole on the side.  Later in the week it will be a country veggie plate of butterbeans, sliced tomatoes, roasted corn, fried okra, and a big wedge of cornbread.  Pasta night will feature a fresh tomato sauce with fresh oregano and feta cheese or a simple cherry tomato sauce with fresh basil.  Then there will be the times we try something new, like today’s grilled eggplant and red onion sandwich on a toasted multi-grain bun with lemon aioli and a big slice of tomato plus pita chips and baba ghanoush (a dip of grilled eggplant and tahini) on the side.  As the rest of the vegetables die off, we will still have the Italian plum tomatoes and enjoy a pizza with homemade crust and homemade tomato sauce, plus a few late season peppers and some Italian sausage.  A few nights later, we will do the same thing, but fold it over and make a calzone out of it with the sauce on the side.  Yes, this is one of our favorite times of the year.

 But now we are seeing that it will have to end sometime in the near future.  Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s our age, maybe it’s a combination of the two, but all this good food isn’t worth sacrificing our health for, much less our lives.  Someday soon we will have to buy canned and frozen foods at the store like everyone else instead of using the preserved items we have labored over for three months every year. 

 Which all serves to remind us of what we have lost and why. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” Gen 3:19. 

 We sweat a lot over this garden.  Some days I think it is watered more by us than the rain.  That is as it should be, for sin deserves far worse punishment than that and every one of us has participated in it.  It is by God’s mercy that we plant in the spring when we have a cool breeze and a sun that is not directly over us.  That same mercy grants us a salvation we do not deserve, and the help to make it through a life we have all but ruined from the beginning.  Why should we expect a perfect life now?  Why should we expect that things will always turn out right?  Someone has not been reading the same Bible I have.  It is grace that promises us that there is a perfect place in the future.  Don’t look upon that hope with ingratitude because you cannot have it now.  We have only ourselves to blame.

 But in the midst of the toil, the sweat, the thorns and thistles and weeds, we enjoy a few weeks of some of the best meals in the world—not gourmet feasts, not something concocted by a celebrity chef—but the plain and simple fare that comes straight from the ground and reminds us of the provision God has made “for the just and the unjust,” not because He had to, but because He wanted to.  It also reminds us of the garden we will return to someday, and never have to leave again.  If you don’t have your own garden, head to the farmers’ market this week and remind yourselves that God still loves us.  This is the way it is supposed to be, and it can be again.  It’s up to you whether you get to enjoy it.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many…For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ, Rom 5:12,15,17.

Dene Ward

Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah, who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, ‘You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.’” Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.” When the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries,.” 2Chr 12:5-8.

 It’s easy, when you find yourself in a trying situation, to make excuses for your behavior; to say, “Woe is me,” and expect everyone to sympathize with you and pat you on the back, not just occasionally or even often, but almost as if it were a daily penance on their part because you have to deal with the difficult and they don’t—at least in your mind.

 “Why is this happening to me?” can become a mantra if you aren’t careful.  Maybe God, in the passage above, answers that question.

 Judah repented when they learned the consequences of their disobedience and God repented their destruction.  But He did not stop their servitude to the king of Egypt.  “This way they will learn how to serve me,” he told the prophet.

 Did you ever think that maybe that “unjust” master (boss) was there to teach you service?  Or that difficult spouse? 

  Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly, 1Pet 2:18-19.

 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct, 1Pet 3:1-2.

 Did you ever think that maybe that obnoxious neighbor or ornery brother in the Lord might be there to teach you patience and forbearance?

 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing, 1Pet 3:9.

 In fact, doesn’t God expect us to use every situation, whether blessing or trial to improve as His servant?  The sufferings we endure are meant to be opportunities for growth, not merit badges on a boastful sash.

 Suffering does not make us exempt to the call to service.  People in all situations of life have been serving God as hard as they can for as long as they can, whether rich or poor, sick or healthy, hungry or full, old or young, even in slavery, for thousands of years.  The place God puts us is the test of our faith.  Will you pass the test? 

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you, 1Pet 5:10.

Dene Ward

You may not be in this blessed situation, but I am confident you know someone who is. Please read through the following written by a godly grandmother and a dear friend of mine. Perhaps you will have occasion to share some of her information with someone who is in pain and feeling lost and alone. Joanne Beckley

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I know parenting my grandchildren is the hardest thing I have ever done! It is harder than raising my own children. I have had to raise my grandchildren with both parents in the home, with just my husband and myself and then with just me and my son. Each phase had challenges. In living through our situations and in talking to others who have had to raise their grandkids, I have learned a few things.

Each situation is different. Pretty basic but true. There isn't going to be a road map. We are living in a time when the number of grandparents raising grandkids is growing. It could be as simple as both parents having to work and needing free daycare, or as complicated as the heartbreak of sin crushing the family, but parents are being called upon to play the role of parents, round two. Satan knows our weaknesses and will have PLENTY of opportunities to test our faith no matter what the situation. Remember, whatever we are called upon to do, God will be with us IF we put Him first with any situation we are presented, and if the solution is based on the principles of God's word.

The first step is to PRAY! If you find yourself raising grandkids you need to pray often and pray specifically. Talking to God allows you to be honest and put order to your situation. If the home has been torn apart by sin there may be things happening behind the doors of your home you don't want to share with others, but God not only can carry the burden,  He wants to. Let your grandkids see you in quiet, personal prayer and let them hear you pray. Let them know you are praying for them and their situation and for strength from God to do good toward EVERYONE involved. (Not always easy when sin is involved, but possible, plus right doesn't always equal easy.)

REST... This is certainly harder than it seems. You are approximately twice the age you were when your kids were the age of your grandkids! You are probably under stress. You have other stresses in your life than you did when raising your children. Sometimes rest is more of a nightmare than a pleasure. But whether you have the children part of the day or they live in your home, you need REST. Simplify other areas of your life as you can. Find outside help if it is available. I know it is easier to write this than it is to actually get the rest.

What you can OFFER... As I said before, each situation is different. Are the children babies, toddlers, school age? Why are they in your home? Is it permanent or temporary? What kind of stability are they coming from? Remember, no matter what the situation you have something to offer them–GOD. Teach, teach, teach. Let the children know GOD LOVES THEM. Let them know the security and love you have for them comes from a source that is overflowing with love. All children need to know and feel God's love for them but children who are outside the family structure God created have a greater need to fill. If their parents are in and out of their lives, the children can carry a misplaced burden of responsibility and feel less than secure. It has become your job to fill their bucket but to also let them know God is the source of all love.

Structure... It is up to you to give structure and routine to their lives. This includes day-to-day but also includes preparing them for changes. If you have been made a guardian or if one parent has custody, there may be visitation. If courts are involved, there may be visits by governmental agencies. If sin is involved that includes illegal activity, it may even mean visitation to jails or prisons. Each one of these and more presents challenges of explaining the situation to the child, making sure the child understands it is NOT their fault, and dealing with the emotional stresses the child is going to have. Children hurt, are embarrassed, or as one 4 year old said, "I just want my old life back!" They are dealing with adult situations and don't have the wisdom and knowledge to order their emotions. DO NOT, however, let the situation rule - don't let the situation take the blame for bad behavior. Use the time you have to talk about why the child is with you and that CHOICES were made by their parents (without laying blame) and their choices have consequences. Good choices - good consequences, bad choices – bad consequences. Choices affect those around us in good and bad ways.

Attitude... One of the hardest parts of raising the grandchildren in my situation is MY attitude. Much of my prayer life is in trying to adjust my attitude. I slide in and out of emotions: anger at the situation, guilt that I didn't do a better job with my children and that's why I'm where I am today, embarrassment at the choices that created the situation in the first place, anger that I don't get to spend my time as I would like, worry I'm doing the right thing or in some situations whether the kids are safe, frustration toward various and sundry, etc. The apostle Paul called on us to be content but when we are doing what we know is the God given role of another we struggle with how and why we are to do it. Satan is a master of twisting our emotions and wasting our energy on emotions rather than solutions. It's not that we aren't to have emotions, just don't let them paralyze you, but instead, spur you to prayerful, godly action.

If you have one parent (or both) living with you, make THEM responsible for the decisions involving the children. It is easy to answer by default but it is not right. You may be a caregiver but you are not the parent. It is the parents’ decision as to whether or not the child gets the flu shot, goes to a sleepover, takes a class, participates in an activity - not yours. They should consult you if it involves you, but the decision is theirs and the responsibility is theirs to pay for, transport them to, or do what ever is required to fulfill that decision. Make them responsible for the care of the children and the belongings of the children. Yes, they may work all day but if they didn't live with you, how much more would they be called on to do. Allowing them the opportunity to succeed and fail is a gift you give them. You are saying to your child, "I see you as an adult and believe in you and your abilities. I know you will succeed and fail and in both you will learn and grow to be a better person and a better parent." If you have the children living in your home, keep pictures of their parents in their room. Don't talk about the family, legal, or medical situations in front of them. Avoid saying anything against either parent in front of the children. At the same time don't feel you have to "create" good parents for the child. Their parents are who they are. They probably have both good and bad traits. We all do. Creating a totally good parent by not discussing bad behavior gives the child a false picture as does focusing only on bad traits.

Be honest in conversations. One hard thing for me is to keep your business, your business. Family and friends mean well but not all of them want to know everything. Most of the time if they ask how things are going they just want to know degrees--good, better, best-- not details. That being said, have a friend you can bare your soul to. Let children know they can talk to you but don't try and force conversations. Often at bed time when lights are out kids will open up with questions and comments. Try to keep time open in the evening to sit with the children as they go to bed and listen to them. 

I don't know if these are helpful. They are what I have learned and observed. I am sure there are a thousand more things that could be said, but basically it is just be godly, be there for the children involved and for the parents, and be open to God to lead you through.

Courtesy of Joanne Beckley

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, Matt 6:10.

 All my life I have thought of this in a passive sense.  I pray for something, just as the Lord did in Matt 26:39, 42, and then add, “But thy will be done,” as if God is the only one who is expected to do His will.  Then suddenly one day I thought, “Doing God’s will is the simple definition for obedience.”  If I am praying for His will to be done, I have an obligation to do that will myself.

 I cannot pray, “Thy will be done” if I look at one of his commands and say, “But God wouldn’t mind if…”  I can’t expect an answer to my prayers if my answer to His will is, “I do well at everything else and this is such a small thing.”  If I do not obey in even one instance I am not doing His will.

 So I did a quick little study.  I may have thought that “God’s will” had more to do with what He does, but I was wrong.  Notice the following.

 “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.  A lot of people out there go around doing “good deeds,” but if doing God’s will doesn’t come first, it isn’t worth a thing.

  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother, Matt 12:50.  You are not in the Lord’s family if you are finding excuses for your disobedience.

 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work, John 4:34    If you want to follow in his footsteps, doing the Father’s will must become an essential of life, every bit as much as food.

  If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority, John 7:17.  You can’t go around claiming to know and teach about Jesus if you are not obeying the Father.

  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect, Rom 12:2.  The only way to know God’s will is to change your life.

 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, 1Thess 4:3.  You are not doing the Father’s will if you are engaging in sexual sins of any kind.

 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, 1Thess 5:18. You are not doing God’s will if you are whining and complaining about your station in life, about your trials, about the suffering you must deal with, especially those due to your faith.

   For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised, Heb 10:36.  It isn’t always easy to do the Father’s will and the task is never completed.  One good deed doesn’t mean your work is finished.

 [God will] equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen, Heb 13:21.  No matter how hard it seems, he will see that you have whatever you need to do His will.  If you didn’t manage to do it, it was your fault, not His.

 The next time you end a prayer, “Thy will be done,” remember that you are as much responsible for that as He is.  If you aren’t willing to do His will in every aspect of your life, why should He believe you mean it when you pray?  And why should He do what YOU want, when you won’t do what HE wants?

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God, 1Pet 4:1-2.

Dene Ward

The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it—admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively over the long haul. Building the church with superficial “conversions” and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifying love will build an assembling of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism—all of these things, and many more, can destroy a church. And to do so is dangerous: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:17).” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 83–84

Things change so rapidly these days it seems impossible to keep up.  I had carefully collected a library of classical music LPs for my students to listen to.  By the time my studio was large enough, with students advanced enough to get much use out of them, I was collecting cassettes.  Before long I had to switch to CDs.  At least I don’t have a collection of 8 tracks collecting dust as well.  Somehow I missed that phase.

The same thing is happening in the church, and I don’t mean changing doctrine to suit the situation, I mean changing the means by which we teach that unchangeable Word, and the ways we edify one another while still clinging to the constraints of obedient faith.

Gone are the charts drawn on white bed sheets and the overhead projectors flashing carefully covered up lists, revealed one line at a time when the speaker moves the sheet of paper he laid on top.  Now we use power point and remotes.  Even my three year old grandson Silas knows to pick up something rectangular and point it at his make-believe screen when he pretends to preach like Daddy.

We must beg people to use the carefully selected library of books we have in the back hall—they are happier with the internet and Bible study programs, not to mention Kindle and Nook.  Even the riffling of Bibles during the sermon has decreased—many now have all 66 books on something the size of a wallet.  You are more likely to hear beeps or mechanized “plops” than the quiet shuffling of pages.

Now the preacher doesn’t just have to raise his voice when an infant begins to cry; he has to raise it when someone forgets to turn off his cell phone.  Now the song leader must wrestle with an audience who not only wants to sing at their own pace regardless of his direction, but with the ones who cannot for the life of them understand or “feel” syncopation.  Fanny Crosby would never have set words to a syncopated tune.

But some things will always be the same.

Children whose parents tell them to “Listen!” will still come up with ways to keep their wandering minds on the sermons, counting how many times the preacher says certain words or writing down every passage he uses, and in that play will begin to memorize scriptures that stay with them for a lifetime.

Someone will still sniffle a bit during the Lord’s Supper, and someone else will momentarily hold up the collection while he tries to persuade his two year old to put the coins in the plate, and the children will learn what is done and why.

A deacon will stand in back and count while another one makes last minute notes for the closing announcements, those precious words that help us “weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice.”

Serious men, in khakis and open neck shirts instead of suits and ties, will still listen carefully to the preacher while their wives juggle their own listening with trying to decide if a requested potty trip is really necessary or just a ploy to get out of this boring seat for a few minutes.

People will still ask for prayers when life deals them a harsh blow, and brothers and sisters will gather round with hugs and tears, and offers of help.

Excited new converts will still sit closer to the front than old ones, listening with rapt attention, diligently taking notes to study at home, and thinking up questions that will keep the elders busy for weeks.

Young parents will be suddenly motivated to attend regularly for the first time in their lives by the responsibility of the small souls God has placed in their hands.

Widows will contentedly sit, patiently waiting for the time when they can meet their mates “at the gate,” as my mother asked my daddy to do just moments before his passing.

Older couples will do as I do, looking around at all the new but still seeing the old in spite of the new, comforting themselves that God’s way still works, even in this perplexing age of technology and unparalleled advancement.

As long as there are people to hear it and hearts to believe it, planting the seed will make Christians spring up out of any plot of good soil. It has worked for nearly two thousand years now and we, in spite of the wow-factor of our inventions, will never outdo the results God can get with one Book.  If you ever forget that, then look around some Sunday morning, not for the differences, but for the things that never change, and that never will as long as faith exists on the earth. 

"O my God," I say, "take me not away in the midst of my days-- you whose years endure throughout all generations!" Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you. Psalms 102:24-28

Dene Ward

On June 4, 1876, the Jarrett and Palmer Special Fast Transcontinental Train crossed the country from New York City to San Francisco in 83 hours and 39 minutes.  Actually it involved several engines and several crews, but the point was to make it as quickly as possible as publicity for a theatrical production the acting company was to perform less than a week after the previous one on the East Coast.  The play was Henry V, not as if that really matters after all these years.  The only thing that matters this far from the event is the time and the speed.  They traveled 3000 miles at an average speed of 40 miles per hour.  You and I would probably go nuts, but for those people it was almost a miracle.

 How were they used to traveling?  A wagon train usually left from Independence, Missouri, so add the time to get that far to the usual 4 to 5 ½ months it took to reach the West Coast.  By stagecoach it took four weeks to traverse the country and at a far steeper price.  By boat you had two choices.  If you stopped at the Isthmus of Panama and traveled across it by train, picking up another boat on the other side, it took 45 days to go from New York City to San Francisco—there was no Panama Canal at that time.  If you sailed on the same boat all the way around the tip of South America it took 200 days.  So you see what an important thing it was when this transcontinental train arrived so quickly.  And there, perhaps, we can see the seeds of our culture's penchant for speed, which filters all the way down to our children at vacation time—or any time they get in the car for that matter.  "Are we there yet?"

 God's people have always had the same question.  “How long?” David asks, not once, but four times in the first two verses of Psalm 13.  Habakkuk’s psalm begins, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?”Hab 1:2. The martyrs pictured around the throne of God cry out, “O Sovereign Lord...how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Rev. 6:9,10.  “How long” is indeed a common complaint in the scriptures—I found it listed 52 times!

 And the point is this, these people are undergoing not just trials, but long, drawn out trials.  “Time flies when you’re having fun,” we often say, and that means it crawls when you aren’t.

 “It is not under the sharpest, but the longest trials that we are most in danger of fainting,” Andrew Fuller says in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David.  It is so true.  Just last week I nearly lost it over something small and inconsequential. 

Being married to a deaf man can be extremely frustrating.  Three times in one hour Keith and I had a misunderstanding based totally on the fact that he could not hear what I was saying.  If he could have heard just three words, none of it would have even mattered, but because he couldn’t, it made the situation more and more complex, and more and more exasperating as it went on.  And the reason I couldn’t handle it that morning?  Not because it was three times in one hour, but because we have been dealing with it for  over fifty years now.

 But who am I to complain?  The woman in Luke 8 had her issue of blood for 12 years.  The woman who had the spirit of infirmity in Luke 13 had been suffering for 18 years.  The man who lay at the pool of Bethesda (John 5) had done so for 38 years.  The blind beggar in John 9 had been that way from birth.  Sarah had waited for a child for decades.  The people of God waited for a Messiah for thousands of years!  These people had far more reason than I to ask God, “How long?”

All of us are prone to ask, “Are we there yet?”  and sometimes the answer does not come in this lifetime.  That may be the most difficult thing to deal with.  Some are born into suffering and never get out of it.  Some, due to random accident or maybe even their own bad choices, suffer for the remaining years of their lives and never see a reason.  God has His plans and we are not always privy to them. 

 But one day we will receive the answer we want to hear: “How long? Now! We are there!”  The waiting will be over, no more suffering of any sort, even the petty little annoyances that no one else can understand, that drive you up a wall on a bad day, that fill you with guilt when your mind clears and you finally recognize just how blessed you truly are. 

 Some day we will arrive, and we won’t be going on any more long difficult journeys ever again.

It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8.

Dene Ward

After a few years of working at it, my flower bed is now one mass of yellow every spring.  We planted a few of those daisy-style flowers known as rudbeckia several years ago and they have gradually increased over time.  The gallardia died off, the coreopsis moved to the back field, and even the “invasive” Mexican petunias have waned as the more commonly named black-eyed susans exercised dominance in the bed.  Even most of the weeds gave up.  These flowers are here to stay now, and they are gradually spreading, with just a little help from us, over other areas of the property.

But come the end of June the stems turn gray and furry and the flower heads brown as they “go to seed.”  It’s a long couple morning’s work to pull them up and toss them out to the field southeast of the flower bed.  We’ve noticed over the years that things tend to spread to the northwest, and sure enough, if we toss things to the southeast we will get an even fuller bed the next year.  What would happen if we just left them?  Ugly, is what would happen, and that is not what flowers are for.  Something has to be done if we want them to continue to flourish.

I’ve noticed the same about churches.  The longer you sit on your pews with no winds stirring, no rainstorms, no blight to kill off the weak plants, no insects to fight, no cultivating to uproot the weeds, the more likely you are to go to seed.  Every church needs a good stirring up once in a while if it wants to survive.  When a church starts to “go to seed,” it can get just plain ugly.

I’ve seen a church become the property of one family, where visitors aren’t welcome and no one even thinks about reaching out to the community.  It’s just there for convenience as they “fulfill their Sunday duty.” (Amos 5:21-24)

I’ve seen a church become so set in its ways that, while still claiming expediency, things are done in as inexpedient a way imaginable because it would upset anyone to change a tradition.  In fact, they come close to considering it a sin to even think of it. (Matt 15:7-9)

I’ve seen a church become, not the pillar and ground of the truth, but a source of hatefulness and division.  They call it standing for the truth when it’s really just barring the doors to anyone who might need a little more help than the type of new convert they would prefer.  (I Cor 6:9-11)

I’ve seen churches so interested in keeping peace, they sacrifice purity, or let an obstinate brother have his way, even if it hurts the mission of the church in that community, or a weaker brother. (James 3:17)

I’ve seen so-called sound churches spout nothing but memorized catch-phrases and slogans with the requisite “proof-texts,” none of which they can explain or use in its true context.  They talk about “no creed but the Bible” while explaining to every visitor an unwritten creed of do’s and don’ts if you want to be accepted by “us.” (3 John 9,10)

And I’ve seen many, many churches become so afraid of doing something wrong they never manage to do anything good.  (Matt 23:23,24)

The first of July I start pulling up plants and tossing them to the southeast.  Then Keith will come along a day or two later and run the mower over those old plants to help disseminate the seeds for next year.  For a while my bed looks pathetic, but soon it will be a sea of bright yellow waving in the spring breeze once again, in fact, it will be fuller and brighter than ever.  That will only happen after I turn it upside down and inside out.  Maybe a few more churches need to do the same thing.

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment learned by rote, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden,” Isa 29:13-14.

Dene Ward

We planted the main garden the second week of March.  It looks great this year, and I have already put up what we need and more, and shared with people who probably wish I wouldn’t any more.

When the cantaloupe row came up, which is Keith’s baby, he was happy to see it full with no bare spots.  I heard about it the day he saw the first bloom.  Then a couple of weeks later he came in with a funny look on his face. 

“Let me show you something,” he said, and I followed him out the door straight to that row of cantaloupes.  “Look at those baby cantaloupes.”  So I bent over, lifted the leaves and looked, only to discover baby cucumbers instead.  He had gone out to plant without his glasses and used up the remains of what he thought was a packet of cantaloupe seeds on the first two hills.  Turns out that packet, which did not have a picture let me hasten to add, must have said, “Cucumber.”  So the first two hills in the cantaloupe row are cucumbers.

Is that bad?  Well, yes and no.  I already had plenty of cucumber hills planted, and these two extra hills are some of the most prolific bearers I have ever seen.  I have made my pickles and still my refrigerator is overflowing. 

And it turns out these two hills are the best tasting of the bunch.  But since he tossed that empty packet of “cantaloupe” seeds, we have no idea what kind they were.  I have been experimenting with new varieties the past two years and these were leftovers from the year before.

Then there is the fact that his row is two hills short of cantaloupe, which to him is a catastrophe.  So what can we learn from all this?

Well, I doubt he will ever forget to wear his glasses when he plants the garden again.  But what about us?

I suppose the obvious point is this—you will reap what you sow.  Thinking it is cantaloupe won’t make cucumber seeds produce them.  That old “sowing his wild oats” adage is the stupidest thing I ever heard.  All he will get, whoever he is, is wild oats.  You don’t “get it out of your system” and think you will produce anything else.  “Be sure your sin will find you out.”

What are you sowing in your children?  What do they hear you say?  Please do not make the mistake of thinking they do not pick up on sarcastic comments and hypercritical statements, even at a very early age.  Children tend to think that everything that goes wrong is their fault, usually because they have to deal with the foul tempers of parents who take it out on them.

What about their entertainment?  What words are being sown in their active little minds?  What ideas?  What priorities?  What character traits?  Do you even know what they are watching? 

What about their friends?  I have had children in my home whose parents never once called or even darkened my door.  One time I had a young man for the whole weekend.  He came home with my sons on the bus on Friday and we put him back on the bus Monday morning!  We didn’t mind a bit, but where was his mama?  I still haven't met her.

What about yourself?  What are you sowing?  What is your entertainment?  What is your reading material?  Where do you go and with whom?  If you find yourself saying things you never said before, maybe it’s time to change friends.  They are sowing more in you than you are in them.

Check the seed packet this morning before you go out.  Check it again when you come in.  Make sure you are sowing the seed of the Word of God, not only in your friends, but in your children, and in yourself.  And put on your glasses when you do.

For they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind…Sow to yourself in righteousness, reap according to kindness…Hos 8:7; 10:12.

Dene Ward