Some Beautiful Days

This week has been far above normal as far as temperatures go. A sharp contrast to the month of October which was way below normal in that department. Its down right pleasant working outside this week with very little if any wind. The last couple of days I figured I’d better get some firewood made for this house. The wood pile was looking rather small out beside the outdoor wood boiler and I had visions of digging through snow in mid winter trying to scrounge up some firewood to keep from freezing to death here. That’s all we burn for this house is firewood and a fella had better have enough to stay comfy through the winter and well into spring. In this area the elms are dying off, again, like they did about thirty years ago and most of them are standing yet and losing their bark. When they die like that the wood really gets good and dry and makes an excellent firewood in the outdoor boiler. I’d hesitate if I had to burn it in an inside stove because it sometimes ain’t perfectly dry, but out there, who cares! No worries about chimney fires with that rig.

Today I had some help around the place and to speed up the making of that kind of firewood we went out in the woods with the skid steer loader.The reason, most of those trees won’t fall all the way down because of all the trees surrounding them. So the solution for extracting all those dead trees from all over the woods and to a place where a fella can saw em up and have a wagon right along side is to pull em out of the thick stuff to openings where a tractor or a pickup can drive into. We cut allot of trees today, some barely even moving a little bit off their stump.Hook up the chain which is hooked onto the loader and pull until they fall down, (the opposite way from the skid steer), and drag em out.We then sawed up a huge truckload before calling it quits and doing the late afternoon chores.Now I’m looking forward to this job the next couple of days, talk about easy street! Just drive the flatbed truck alongside of the drug out trees and get to sawing and load em up without working in the deep brush. A fella couldn’t hardly have it any better than that in my books. Besides, its work like this that keeps me lookin so durn young, (well, I can dream can’t I).

²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

That’s from Matthew chapter 6. I think allot of folks have read this or heard it here and there.Of course these are the words of Jesus telling us not to worry, God will provide.Very true and I sure do want to get that deep in my heart too. But sometimes folks get a little over board as they do on so many things of the Word. I’ve read of folks who figure they don’t have to do anything because if they believe in faith that God will just drop everything in their lap.But the Bible sure don’t say that at all. Notice it doesn’t say that God feeds the bird in their nest. Them birds gotta get out and rustle up the food that God provides, not sit in the nest with their mouths open waiting for something to drop in! Ever think about that?

I think sometimes folks go overboard on the spiritual and can’t see the reality God has provided for them. Our needs are met, but it ain’t a handout. We are expected to do something about it too. Take getting firewood for the winter here on this outfit.God provided the wood, God provided the good weather, God provided the strength and the time to get out there and do the job, and haul it home putting it on a good big stack for the winter. Now I don’t think I’m off when I say, God has provided! Cause He sure did! That firewood wouldn’t have gotten very far if I’da sat in my nest here and spoken that I had faith that the firewood would be provided. God provides, in every aspect and expects us to do our part in the deal.

Besides, if a person really gets right down to it, there’s few jobs in the world where a person can talk to God better than stacking firewood. There’s just something about the job, getting a good healthy workout, out in the outdoors in the fresh, cool air. In these northern climates its a great time to spend hours with our Creator and Lord!

Soon winter will hit, when I don’t know but one thing for sure, it will come. Out here in the countryside with the cattle here and there all around us, the firewood pile getting bigger by the day, the work getting done job after job. This cattleman is a happy and thankful fella. Next week with Thanksgiving coming around there is allot to be thankful for. In fact most everything. This winter there won’t be no skinny cattle, the house will be warm, the days will be short for a few months so a person can regain strength for the work months. Get into the Word a bit more, get out and go from beef raiser to beef raiser,with a few horse folks thrown into the equation and preach the Good News to families that don’t even set foot in a church building, but might if a fella brings them the Good News right to their farm or ranch. Allot to be thankful for is right. God is good, all the time.If we follow Him,it will be good no matter what the world throws at us. Through ever joy, through every trial, God is good and with us all the way!

A Person’s Word

The day started off around twenty degrees, the ground froze a little bit in the early morning but by ten it was all thawed out except in the shade. Butchered two cows today for ground beef. Did a few other things and its dark outside.The days sure do go fast! I didn’t even have dinner at noon today, just worked straight through till supper. A pretty long stretch from 5:30 in the morning till 5:30 in the evening! But now I can sit back with one cup of coffee and write something or at least attempt to!

I’m hearing allot of deer hunting reports from allot of different folks in the area and the numbers harvested are way down this year. It has allot to do with all the standing corn around here. The farmers around here are combining but its going rather slow because of the long drying time per batch. But the moister did drop since early last week and the harvesting in the area is moving along and there’s a few more good days left weatherwise the way it looks. But one of these days the weather will head south and then its a whole new ballgame. There’s even quite a few bean fields in this area yet standing. They had better get going is all I got to say!

One of these days I gotta get at least fifteen yearling steers sold at the salesbarn up north. I’m getting a little over crowded here and will still have plenty of steers and heifers on hand for butchering. With later calving sometimes there’s a few born in mid summer and come time to sell the calf crop they’re just a tad bit to small for me to want to sell them.So I take the tail enders and raise em up. Being small they don’t really take much feed the first winter and come this time of year they’re pretty big and will bring a decent price.Calf prices are a little soft this year but the yearling prices aren’t really terrible so I figure it won’t hurt to get rid of a few before winter sets in. There ain’t nothing like a worry free winter in my books. Relieve a little over crowding, there’s more than enough feed to keep the whole herd fat all winter into a late, late spring, so I only have to gather a bit more dead wood for firewood and it looks like the first winter in years with a surplus. feels different, feels good!

The last post when I was writing about those cowboy Bibles really got me thinking and reminiscing. Thinking about all the cattle deals through the years, thinking about how we do business yet today. And I must say, its different than what “normal” society does. Time after time, day after day, a person does business on nothing more than their word. No contracts or written agreements, no lawyers or advisors, just done the old fashioned way. When I go to town its very seldom I even have a billfold with, or a check book. Just get what I need and pay at the end of the month. A few years ago most places of business around here came out with all these rules and regulations saying a fella couldn’t charge. When I asked,such as at the co-op which changed policy like this, they said, “That doesn’t mean you Tom, we trust you.” Well, I tell you, that was quite an honor! In fact most businesses around here have a no charge policy since credit cards came into being, but in all those places I can go in and pick up what I need, no questions asked.

But ain’t that the way it should be? I can’t even imagine not paying a bill! When I call someone up for something, they jump trying to help, cause they know my word is good. At church too, a person follows through with what a person says they’d do. After a few years it becomes accepted, trusted. The Bible says we are supposed to be Christ like. Jesus said that if you seen Him you’ve seen the Father. The Father’s Word is good. Jesus’ Word is good. So isn’t ours supposed to be good?

Trust worthiness is kinda a lost thing nowadays in many areas of life. But I believe that if a person is following Christ its one of the most important. If we are His ambassadors on this fallen world we should at least have that old fashioned way about us, our word never changing. We mean what we say and follow through. Through the years I remember so many deals that were rather large, all on our word, nothing else. Never was there a bad deal.The worst deal I ever got into was a written contract for cattle years ago, then there’s a thing the world just loves, called fine print. The trick is to get that print so fine that a person signs away what is beneficial to him so someone who’s only goal in life is to steal your money don’t get thrown in jail as they do attempt to steal you and your family’s money. I’m happy to say that I won on that deal, just by invoking the name of the state’s  attorney general. Funny how money flows when a person does that! Of course no money would have flowed back to me if I wouldn’t have mentioned that! So a person can see what kind of people these “businessmen” were. Since then its only the old way of your word and that’s it.

No, you just give me the old fashioned ways and I’m more than satisfied. Where a man goes by his word. If more folks did that there’d be allot less problems. To me this is one of the basic truths of Christianity, that our word must be good. When I sense someone’s word isn’t, I back away quietly. No sense playing the fool. Durn, I didn’t even get any scripture in here tonight. Must be the kinda night just to set down and hash over some things. They all pertain to Christianity, even if a person ain’t quoting Bible verses and such. The way I figure it,a person can help the poor, but no sense in making some money grubbers richer with our family’s hard earned money.

In ministry a person can operate on the same principles, look a person in the eye in all honesty and make one’s word the way it is. Even in ministry there’s folks who’s word ain’t worth a hoot.That’s just the way it is, every one is human, so it should be no surprise that there’s folks in ministry promising this or that and never delivering, never. As I get older and wiser I can accept this as fact. Ministry ain’t something you just trust no matter how much they don’t deliver their word, just because they say they are working for the Lord. In ministry its like anything else, they should be folks who a person could ride the river with!

 

 

Standing Behind His Word

Around the cattle yards here are heavy duty corrals. Eight foot rail road ties sunk into the hard clay ground about three feet, firmly packed every six to seven foot apart. Then there are some oak plank nailed onto them with pole barn nails. Anybody who knows what pole barn nails are knows that you can’t pull em back out. Mostly four inch long ones are used unless we run out of them and have to go with longer ones than that. The gates are steel gates, heavy duty boughten ones that don’t bend all that easy. Of course I said all that easy cause once in a while there get’s to be one bent when a cow really presses into it or smashes into it depending on the crazy thing happening at the moment.

In the summer time we take used motor oil and “paint” the oak planks. The wood soaks the oil right up and this really helps preserve the planks. Even though the oak lasts a long,long time, I like having them oiled. Plus its a good kid’s job, oiling them planks. To me a corral is a work of art, in fact any fence building with the exception of a one wire temporary electric is a work of art. Those one wires are usually put up quick and I ain’t all to worried about it. It’s the electricity that holds em in, not the wire. Even on five and six wire barb fence the work put into the detail is allot to say the least. I’m a firm believer in having a “legal” fence. Something that will hold the animals in so I don’t have lawyer worries in the future. The corner post system is strong,very strong. Again all corner posts are rail road ties, with an angle brace which is also a rail road tie that is fit in by chain sawing notches into the upright posts, sawing the perfect angle onto the brace and fitting it in there like a piece of a puzzle.

There’s nothing quite like riding around and looking at the corral systems and fences, miles of fences, and seeing the herds grazing in the grazing months. In the off season its good to have heavy duty corrals that take the worry out of raising a large bunch over winter. Its also good when there’s a spooked critter that really wants to crash through anything and it can’t. That’s satisfaction in a work of art! Over the years I’ve seen so many dysfunctional fences and corral systems that I truly wonder how anyone could attempt to raise beef like they do. Have we had wrecks over the years? The answer is yes. I’ve seen fighting bulls tear down the strongest corral! Luckily that doesn’t happen all to often!

Corral fences are also a great place to sit on! Especially if there’s another cattleman around or even a pile of kids. Its just natural for folks to climb up and sit their butt down and josh a while as they look over the cattle. Now there’s something about a bunch of beef cattle that really sinks in deep with allot of folks, and they don’t have to be cattle raisers either. There’s a relaxing thing that happens in folks. Through the years I noticed allot of folks like to watch the beef cattle while they’re talking. Of course I’m kinda used to watching them, seven days a week, year round, but they even relax me daily. They know my voice, the know the way I walk. They barely bat an eye when I’m around but if there’s a stranger they know it instantly and are on full alert for a while. Gradually they calm down but keep at least one wary eye out on things.

Today, Sunday, Sunday evening to be exact, I’m just thinking about the day to day life. Today at church the case of cowboy Bibles was waiting for me. And this afternoon while I was waiting around pumping water in the fall pasture across the county road to a bunch of thirsty cows I had myself around forty five minutes to look over those Bibles. Well, to be exact I only took one with me in the three quarter ton pickup, but I was paging through and was pleasantly surprised I could read them without my reading glasses! Of course I didn’t hold them all that close, more like pretty extended! I learned that these Bibles were exactly what I was looking for, perfect! Small, but not to small, easy to read, and with a bunch of testimonies and other stuff that strikes interest in the average cattle or horse people. Even the picture of the kids sitting by a corral fence musta struck something in me!

Yep, they passed the test! These are great! These are a good tool! Something many folks can identify with. Here’s a couple of quotes from the first few full color pages;

“The word cowboy has stood for independence, honesty and freedom for more than a hundred years. Its a return to a simpler time where the rich smell of fresh dirt behind the plow or the aroma of a new batch of grain at the feed store was all you needed. A time when a man’s life stood behind his handshake and his word was as good as money in the bank.”

I don’t know about anyone else, but this is different! This is pretty different inside of a pocket Bible! I like it and it stirs me, allot! In this business, in this way of life, just about everything we do is done on our word! I do believe there is allot of that yet in the American cattle business, in fact I know there is. I was thinking about that the other day too. About the deals struck while leaning or sitting on a corral fence. To me this is life and I know it sure ain’t the normal way of living in this day and age.

I see a difference, in ministry too. When approached from this angle. Just the dead on, at my word way of doing things. In the countryside, with beef people and horse people this is the way it mostly is yet. A man stands behind his word. Whether it’s talking about cattle, dealing over cattle or talking about the Word of God, a man stands behind it!

Heading Outdoors

Friday evening has rolled around and its a dark and drizzly night. Allot got done this week and the week ain’t over yet anyhow. The last few days in any spare moment I’ve been out cleaning up a fence line. Box elder trees mostly. Allot of branches on them things for the amount of wood a fella gets. These are younger trees, maybe less than twenty years old, they grow like weeds, especially on fence lines. Give em an inch and they’ll take the field or certainly attempt to! One thing nice, they cut easy and the wood ain’t half bad when dried down for a season. One winter a few years ago I burnt nothing but box elder and it worked out fine in the outdoor wood boiler. It’d last twelve hours between fire ups and the house was good and warm all winter. Not bad from burning a weed the way I figure it. Tomorrow catch a couple cull cows out of the herd for butchering this coming Monday and then I’ll probably fool around making some more wood if all goes well.

Rumor has it that the Bibles I ordered early in the week have arrived and I will be able to pick em up at church this Sunday, Glory! Them’s them cowboy Bibles I was writing about a post or two ago. Funny how things go sometimes, I’ve had similar things happen this past year also. Things fall into place ministry wise without any help from me. I just gotta remember to follow and do the things I’m supposed to do when they plop at my feet. I never dreamt that this is the way it works but for me things sure seem to work out this way.

Oh, I wish I could write about all of the stuff happening but I really can’t cause some of it shouldn’t be let out just yet. Kinda tough for a big mouth like me to keep quiet but I’m learning. This coming year though might shape up into being an interesting one to say the least out here in the countryside. I don’t know how far it’ll all lead but it looks like there’ll be some outdoor church services coming up. These won’t be regular church services for the regular congregation, more of an outreach at events and so forth. Farm and ranch events, to clarify it a bit. I’m really excited about that but at the same time I gotta do a little planning. Not all that much mind you, but still this is uncharted territory for me. For some reason I’m really drawn to this and I sure don’t feel bad about it.

The one thing I love is the fact that a fella will be speaking to a good percentage of unchurched, or backsliders too, and it’ll be different than being in regular church. More out in reality the way I look at it. The message can be simple, direct and not all that complicated. Kinda like some old recordings I came across of Billy Graham in his younger days. Direct, simple and with power! And all the speaking that I’ve been doing in church this past year has helped like you wouldn’t believe when it comes to speaking in front of folks. Something I never done, ever, in my whole life before coming to a little rural, Bible believing church!

Yep, it’ll be strange this coming year. Looking back over the last few years of writing I can see the hunger build to do this sort of thing. Without every realizing that it could ever come to pass. God works in ways we can’t understand or fathom. I believe with everything I got that when He puts a hunger in a person, if that person starts to follow that hunger, that God will open every single door down the path that He has pre-chosen for a fella. A person just gotta be willing to step out in faith and away we go!

Because God’s plan for us is much greater than any plan we can come up with on our own. Why fight it in life, trying to do what we figure is the best way when God’s way is always the perfect way for us. Plus the fact that when we follow God’s plan for us it does set us up allot better in eternity compared to if we go bullheading through life on our own power and plans. I have a feeling a year from now if I’m still on this earth that the writings will be kinda different than now. The same message yes, but I sit here in wonder as I see God setting up things for this coming year out in the rural area that we live in. What different experiences spreading the Gospel will there be by this time next year? Once the “safety” of the church building is no longer surrounding me. Will things look different? Will a person grow and mature more in Christ being out there?

Oh Lord, this draws me like a magnet! In the evenings a fella reads the Bible and books of faith. During the day working with the cattle and doing all the other things that need doing around this place thinking, dwelling, talking to God and the revelations come!

The Same

Another beautiful day here in the Northland! Sunny with a light wind from the south. The cattle were grazing and the deer hunting pressure is low during the week. All the field work was finished up today around this place, all the tillage is done. Cleaned off a platform where I have thirty yearling steers later in the afternoon. And I’m planning on cleaning the lower platform and corrals out tomorrow if nothing else comes up. These jobs I have to do weekly cause with so little evaporation in the air because of the coolness things get a little sloppy fast. One of our ways that we get income is by yearlings, besides selling calves. What really happens is that I take the summer born calves that are to small in my book for selling with the main load of calves and I raise em up. So instead of selling some really little summer calves they go out as some beautiful yearlings. I guess you could call it adding value. Or flat out making more money compared to selling a little thing. They do really good once the bigger calves leave. Looking so small it doesn’t take em long to pick up weight and blossom! Plus it gives me an excuse to sit in the salesbarn during the fall run. Ah, salesbarn coffee,lubricates a fella!

Also today was grinding some feed and the unloading auger literally broke off its base that’s connected to the main mixer. Was able to shut er off in time to save the gears that drive it all.Then lookin at it I figured this was a fine mess to get into. A plump full grinder mixer and the unloading auger’s base busted up.  Then after some careful looking I figures it was fixable and I drove it alongside of the shop and in a half an hour the thing worked better than it ever has in our thirty years of owning that old John Deere 400 grinder/mixer. The thing is I found out many years ago its almost impossible to get parts for that model anymore. I guess they made em to good.They last and last till the manufacturer wants to forget about them. Another adventure under the belt! That got me thinking about how many things we can fix on a daily basis! I mean,it has to be pretty complicated for us to have someone else fix something around here. Plus expensive! A fella has to know about every trade that there is to survive on a place like this. Hmm, maybe that’s why going into ministry was not so difficult of a decision.

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹ Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines.

The above verses are from Hebrews, chapter 13. For me that means the Word is the same too! I was listening to a ministry school on the internet, in fact I have it on the sidebar of this blog, it’s labeled Glenn Smith sermons but it’s really ministry training. I sometimes put links on the sidebar so I have em, in case this computer loses it’s mind or something. But this to me is the base of a Christian’s belief. What the Word says, such as in the Book of Acts, the church book I call it, is still the same today.With so many folks saying it was a thing of the past, digging deeper and deeper into man made traditions as they go, I want it known that I believe the Word as being the Word, not some guide that we can accept or discard.

This is why I sometimes do tell a real life testimony on how God works, whether it be healing, financial, whatever.With so many folks going so far into the other ditch with these things, making a formula out of them, especially TV evangelists, all I can say is I believe the Word as it is written. Does God want us healed? Yes, or else the Word is lying. Does God want us to prosper? Yes, over and over it is said in the Bible. Now I know some folks really balk at the healing part, they figure they’re glorifying God saying that God wills them to be sick. Think about this, if God wills for you to be sick then when you take a pill, go to the doctor, when you do anything to try and relieve the pain, to try and cure the sickness it is sin, flat out sin. For if it is the will of God that you are sick, when a person tries to do something about it they are directly defying the will of God!

Do you see this reasoning? If God willed it, what right have we to go against His will and still think we are following Him? But thankfully that is not the case. We live in a fallen world and Christ came to deliver us from all the curses of this world. Saved we say,we are saved. Saved from what I ask? Many folks think its just getting into heaven but Jesus came to set us free from this world system! And by that I don’t mean the government or man’s systems so much but from the curses of this world brought by sin. The government will always be over people as long as man is around and in charge, but as Christians in the countries that persecute Christians know, they have a job to do regardless of the government system in place. I look at the Chinese Christians with awe and respect! They know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.They don’t water it down with man’s traditions! And that church is so Spirit Filled it makes us in the west look dead. They accept the Word as the Word and everything the Word says becomes reality in their lives. Here we limit the Word, denying the Word in many areas. The Spirit does not move with unbelief, and that’s what it simply is in this country, unbelief. So we traditionalize it saying the mighty works of God went out with the death of the original Apostles. I can safely say that that is a lie from the very pits of hell! When someone preaches it, run from them with everything you got and don’t look back. Run to Jesus, not man’s traditions! God loves us, period! Everything they had back then is available now!

This is a message I can never back down from, never! This is reality, this is truth. This is the promise of salvation, that we are set free!

A Beautiful Day

A stunningly beautiful day around these parts today. Abundant sunshine and light winds added up to a day to cherish, especially after an October that was almost totally miserable from start to finish around here. With deer hunting going on around here I tend to stay near the yard a bit more than normal to avoid complications in my life, so to speak. It didn’t seem like much hunting pressure today compared to yesterday though,kids have to be back in school and adults mostly have to be back to work. The farmers are slowly harvesting corn around here. Its going very slow with all the moister that’s in it.

I found out that the Bibles I ordered yesterday have multiplied, over 100% multiplication, God is good! Now instead of twenty pocket sized Cowboy Bibles there’s a case of fifty on the way. I know that this is the start of something good in these parts. Every where a person looks there’s beef and horses. Small place or large, don’t matter, and I tell you, I kinda enjoy driving around the countryside nowadays and see all the places with all the beef cows and horses. It does something to the area, and its good. Every once in a while a small beef producer will really get the bug and end up turning into a big beef producer, especially for these parts. A couple miles away a younger fella started out a few years ago, plus over these past few years he’s bought a few bulls from us. Now that guy is almost as big as we are and I can tell, he’s doing most everything right. Doing it cheap! Plus with the blood he’s been buying from us he’s ending up with some sale topping calves. Last winter I was north of here around forty miles to the big beef salesbarn and was surprised to see him there too. I didn’t know he sold there but I guess I musta told him a couple of years ago that I sell there and he’s not one to learn the hard way, he listens, and low and behold his herd was there and got some market topping prices the same as us. And I tell you, there ain’t a much better feeling to a cattleman than to see someone who studied our operation run through a batch of market toppers!

Last Wednesday evening when I did the service at church I spoke about having reputation cattle. Now some might be wondering how that fits into a sermon but it does and not as an example, but just stating facts was all. Having a reputation herd opens doors in rural ministry! How you say? Well, to put it bluntly when a fella with a darn good herd speaks people know its the real thing. People listen, there’s a respect one gets from the hard work and dedication involved. Plus I never said that when I speak in church that its normal!

Those years of getting beat back by droughts really took a toll on me in more ways than one. I can still feel it very much financially, after buying all that hay, after putting in all the crops and not getting much back in return. But the Bible was the driving force for me keeping going. The herd shrunk a little, but is fast on the way to full recovery. When a person raises beef for a living they know that there will be some tough times here and there, so that’s really no surprise when it comes, but it still hurts. In that time, years really, I got born again, (before the droughts started), and I had a hunger that wouldn’t stop and it hasn’t stopped to this day, studying the Word. A strange thing happens when a person totally immerses in the Word, the Word wants to come out!

I’m still in awe at the way things are working out around here. Our little church has bent over backwards recognizing the call on my life. The support will never be taken for granted.You know, its amazing how sometimes it takes a small church for a person to take the reins and grow! There’s opportunity in small Bible believing churches that might be much more difficult to come across in a big church. And I was thinking today after I got the mail and received my minister credentials. Before I was ground level, a licensed exhorter. Well as of today, well its dated November 4th, I’m now a full fledged minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Who’da ever thought! I guess if God could knock old Saul, later to become Paul, off his high horse and make him into the great Apostle He can do the same to a northern cattleman.

I don’t really have any dress code, a suit and tie would probably kill me, but I will wear a bolo tie at formal events such as a hog roast Seriously though, this is more like being a country missionary. Working loyally out of our little church, scouring the countryside for Christ. I said in church yesterday there ain’t no farmer or rancher than can out spit me, so I figure I have some good things going for me. I can talk the talk, I can blend in. Plus being a cattleman of reputation cattle gets that respect that’s hard to get any other way to folks that don’t trust preachers in general.I gotta go upstairs and look at that big white envelope again, because I almost fall over when I look at the name and address on it.In big print the address starts off: Reverend Thomas Scepaniak. I’ll bet the mail man, who’s a beef guy a few miles down the road, took a second glance at that

The Best For Us

1 John 4:4 (King James Version)

⁴Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Mostly cloudy day here where the northern plains meet the northern woods. Folks around the area are slowly starting a late harvest with very wet conditions.The news is that much of the corn is molding on the cob out in the fields. Much of the soybean crop is still out in the muddy fields, not really drying down all to well. I thank the Lord we aren’t involved with any of those problems. Our crops are put away safe and sound, getting put in just before the rains started hitting the very beginning of October. The way it looks to me is that we’ll finish up all our fall tillage the next few days and then all the jobs I had on our list will be wrapping up for the year.Then its just the daily workload of keeping the cattle herd going, which isn’t too much of a problem with the feed supplies on hand.

Today at church we had us a great service, with the music both from the praise team and also a special singer just opening up the doors to heaven itself! Amazing what can happen in a little church out in the countryside! This evening when I finally got in I had to do some quick research in my Bibles, cause amazing things keep on happening around this place. As most long time readers know, I’m not to keen on the really modern prosperity preaching out there, especially on TV, (which we don’t have anymore by the way). Much of its in the ditch, mostly just trying to funnel money into these so called ministries. Sad, but true. The last word on the whole subject is the Bible, the Word of God, and I will say that I believe with all my heart that God wants us to prosper in every area of our lives as we run the race, the race of faith. Because without faith its impossible to please Him!

My definition of prosperity as I write is simply this, having our needs met as we follow God. Notice I’m not saying, as we want things for our own selfish desires, so that folks can covet what we have. Or another way of saying it is, things we covet. No, I’m saying in our all out pursuit of the God that created us. God promises to supply our needs, period! That don’t mean we sit on our butts expecting Him to rain money down on us, or take care of our selfishly built up bills on some credit cards or something, no, God promises to take care of our needs.

Today, after a few days of having it placed in my heart to purchase a good sized pile of Cowboy Bibles I decided to follow the unction and dig out some hard earned money and finally purchase them. This time of year is always the tightest time of the year around here for money, mainly because I sell calves in January most years. So by this time its getting what you’d call stretched. Having finally broke down and decided to do this I took a wad of cash to church and handed it to our associate pastor because I don’t have a credit card, making it difficult to order over the net. I tell you, I labored over this, parting from the money at this time of year, but decided to follow the call and trust God in it all. During the church service, after handing the money over I pretty much forgot about it because the service was so durn good! After the service a church member came up to me and said,”Tom, you got any beef for sale”, and I said yep! “I’ll take a half” he said, and I almost dropped over there in the back of the church, this amounted to exactly ten times the money that I spent on Cowboy Bibles this morning!

I have seen this over and over and over in our life. Give and you shall receive. Now let’s get to the brass tacks with this. The Bible says that poverty is a curse. Of course according to the U.S. government I’m way below the poverty line, it works that way for family farmers, believe me. But in all  reality we are not in poverty. We are exceedingly rich! There’s more to riches than just money.What I’m saying is that all of our needs are met, every single one of them! Now I know folks that make probably ten times more than us, and they are in “poverty”. Its how you look at it. Many make way more money, but end up in very dire straights financially because of living for self. When you live for God, He takes care of His children. That’s a promise right from the Bible, over and over and over!

So real poverty is a curse, and curses have a father, called the devil. Do you think Adam and Eve were created for poverty? No way! In the verse above, a very familiar verse with many believers I won’t dwell on the popular last part, I’ll dwell on the first part. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them”. Overcome who? Take a look at the preceeding three verses:

¹Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

²Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

³And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

We have overcome the devil and his demons! Amen? That’s what my Bible says! Give and it shall be given unto you! There is nothing more real than this promise from God! And to deny it must really hurt God bad, after loving us so much and wanting to provide for us, we slap Him in the face and deny Him so often. Truthfully, life is simple, God is good, the devil is bad. True prosperity isn’t wanting more and more stuff. Its wanting more and more of God, to do His will, to chase Him with all we have. The devil has already been defeated, a long time ago. And there is a loving God that wants the best for us every moment of every day, to fulfill the plan He had for us since before the beginning of the world! God wants to take care of us, if we’ll let Him!

 

 

Not Ashamed

What a beautiful day in these parts for once! I think it almost hit sixty above, its been a while since there was a day when a person could be comfortable outside! Tomorrow morning starts Minnesota’s biggest holiday, deer hunting, and I ain’t going. If I did I’d only have to walk a quarter mile to the back forty’s woods, but I haven’t deer hunted since 91 when I got that huge ten point buck in the back woods the first five minutes of deer hunting. I wouldn’t mind going but then I’d have to figure out how to get all the daily chores done and its more bother than its worth so I just enjoy watching the neighbors hunt, asking the church folk how they’re doing and such. Seen what looked like an eight point today on the back forty across the county road. Then another a little later,not the same buck though. They’re moving around! Tomorrow and Sunday I’ll keep the cows penned up across the county road, not because I’m scared of them being shot, but because the first couple of day those deer get spooked and run right through an electric fence and probably with the cow herd in hot pursuit! Naw,I don’t need that, I’ll just give em some hay for a couple of days, easier on my system!

And it looks like I’m back in the saddle around here on the blog as the workload keeps lessening, which is OK with me I tell you! This last week and a half or so was a crusher for me with allot of work, allot of church stuff and some pretty tough weather thrown into the mixture to make life more interesting. But with the workload going down and the church stuff on hold for a week or two I can finally ease back into what I call normal. This evening I gotta get my plans back in order as far as ministry goes now that my head is a little clearer.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…..

The above is from the first chapter of Romans. One of those verses that really hits home with me! “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel”. I was thinking about that today while out watering cattle across the tar road. Are we ashamed of the Gospel sometimes, or even most of the time, that we stay silent more often than not. I have discovered that the one thing I love to do is bring the Gospel out in durn near everything. First of all its really easy to bring it up any time because of the simple fact that it is life itself to those who believe. The power that propels life of a born again, Spirit Filled believer. In reality everything else pales in comparison!

Every direction a person looks there’s folks that need the Gospel. The Good News! I know I write about this quite often and will always continue to do so because it is power! Power to transform lives of those who hear it. Power,not just some different way of thinking but a real power. the Bible says so and I think we should start believing the Bible a little more if we figure we’re Christians! Here’s something I’ve come across allot. Now if a person asks the average person out in the countryside if they are a Christian they will more than likely say yes. They are on some church membership roll someplace. they probably got baptized as a baby somewhere, they probably used to go to church,or might still go but really don’t even know why except that it “lessens” their chances of going to hell the way they figure it. There’s no assurance what so ever. There’s no joy that they belong to the family of God, none.

There’s just this old tradition that says they are a Christian, with not a lick of power in it. No life changing power at all.Live almost exactly the same as the world in every way possible. It is justified in their churches by ministers and clergy that in no way attempt to tell the people the truth. Some are so humdrum that it staggers the imagination! I ain’t lying! I was coming home from a remote pasture a few weeks ago in the 3/4 ton Chev flatbed pickup and I figured being that it was Sunday morning I could catch a church program or something on my favorite country station. Well, I got a church program alright and it shocked me the unbelievable dead religion coming from it. Everything was read, everything. The pastor, the congregations response,everything.It sounded sadder than a tragic funeral and I couldn’t believe my ears than anyone could call that church. Oh Lord, I ain’t church bashing here either so please don’t take it as that. But this was plain terrible!

How could that situation ever, ever reach a lost soul.I know it doesn’t. Another denomination dying, losing all the young people,(and I sure don’t blame em). Reciting meaningless prayers and responses. Droning voices, both pastor and congregation. What about life changing faith?  What about the power from God that the Bible promises?

Looking over the countryside I know of a few churches that teach the Bible, not man’s traditions that have evolved over the centuries eating away at the Word of God like a cancer. There’s a few right around here. And I’m crossing denominational borders talking about these churches cause as any long time reader knows I couldn’t give a hoot about denominations! Why? Cause God don’t! So neither do I! I also know some churches that disregard the Bible, they say its mostly stories that are just to teach us. They have fallen into a religion that worships themselves, their wisdom, or their perceived wisdom. Here’s a test, a simple test to see if a person is leaning towards the more modern religions of man with a little bit of perceived Christianity to make it look dignified. Read this and see if you believe it. And I mean really believe it!

Genesis 1

The History of Creation

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Do we believe it? I’ve had “Christians” tell me that they believe in evolution! Really! That the early bible is just ancient stories that will probably benefit us some ways, but are just fables.

But I say there is no way a person can have faith, faith to be saved without believing this simple statement, this simple verse! But rather than sounding like I’m condemning I must say that I’m not. I’m just stating a reality is all. Our Lord is awesome, and I believe the Bible as it is written. Life sure does make sense then! No, I’m not ashamed of the Gospel. I’m not ashamed to say I believe the Bible, the Word of God! There’s power in the Word! Power that is so huge man cannot even grasp it in a small way in our small heads.

And there are folks that are hungry for the truth, the truth of the Word, the Gospel, the Good News.

 

A Short Evening

“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Amen to that! Its been on my mind for the last day or two, about the truth shall make you free. I’ve been rather busy, besides farm work there’s tomorrow’s service to get ready for. And the only time I have to do it is in the evenings when I’m kinda tired out. I ain’t complaining though. I kinda love it when there’s fairly short notice, then a person can focus better. A longer time frame and a person like me keeps changing stuff until I’m all confused. Its been raining here the last half of the afternoon. But I guess it ain’t supposed to be a long lasting thing. Not like the last few systems we had roll through here. The promise is for better days the rest of the week, we’ll see.

I kinda wonder if folks have much of idea about being set free around these parts. OK, I do believe that in every human being that God has planted a seed of knowledge, a seed of awareness about Him. Folks can disagree with that and that’s fine with me, but that’s what I believe. And besides, the Word says this,

Romans 1
¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools,

In putting together a few thoughts for tomorrow evening this is the main pull on me. About being set free. In fact as I write I’m just kinda bumbling along. My mind is on this subject. The enormous implications of it.To be set free. To be set free from the world, the flesh, the devil. This is big! To be in this world but not a part of it. I love that! The more I think about it, the less important this world is to me. There’s getting to be only one priority, and that’s the King! And when the priority is in order than everything else falls into place!

Now some folks say that once a person is a Christian that they will never have any problems, that they can live by faith and everything will go smooth. My only advice to these folks saying that is they should get on their knees and pray about being Born Again! Cause this old world ain’t exactly a tulip patch that we can go happily tip toeing through! And you get into ministry and I tell you, all hell breaks loose! Before a feller wasn’t much of a threat to the devil, but now a feller’s picture is in all the devil’s post offices.

But its an honor to be zeroed in on by that old snake cause then a person knows that he’s on the front lines, not some desk jockey nice and safe  in this war of the ages.

So this week I have two nights at church, tomorrow’s service and Thursday a meeting. Then things should calm down here a bit. With the workload not being quite as heavy and the days getting shorter there should be much more time for the blog coming up unless the Lord has other plans. But what ever His plans are they’re OK with me!

Power of the Gospel

Its raining out today and this evening and it looks like tomorrow will be too. Thank the Lord I ain’t a crop farmer cause I sure would hate to be sitting here looking at all them muddy field, crops that ain’t drying down a lick and even soybeans popping out of the pods as the beans expand and bust the shrunk down pods open. Back on September 30th we pretty well finished up chopping silage and that night it rains heavy and its never really dried out since. We got our crop taken off the fields except for around eight acres of picking corn and I get a feeling that stuff will get picked in late March or in April. It’ll be pepper dry then and its a good standing corn, the deer move out of that area in winter so there’s no worries of feeding a deer herd for months. Nope, even as sloppy, slimy, saturated as it is I can’t complain.

Well, last evening at church I did Children’s Church and I had about a five minute warning that I’d be doing it, and it was one of the best night’s I’ve ever had there! Funny how that works, when a person prepares and prepares it never seems to take off, but just let loose and preach the Word and have faith that the Holy Ghost will take over and yes sir, things happen! I just talked about what I’ve been writing about as of late and it sure did go good.You know with kids, if they’re attentive, not yawning and shifting around, things are getting through. They don’t fake it like adults sometimes do.

This past week I received the October issue of The Christian Ranchman from Fort Worth and there’s a little line in there that stuck to me.

D.L.  Moody tells of a man who said he would like to come to Jesus, but he was chained and could not break away. A Christian said to him, “But, man, why don’t you come to Jesus, chain and all?” He replied, “I never thought of that.” He came and Christ broke every fetter.

I tell you, there’s a lesson in that one if there ever was one! One time I was talking to a person, basically the same thing happened. I told him about Jesus and he said he’d have to shape up first. He’d have to get his act together before he could even consider Jesus. Now in my way of looking at things this is the most wrong way of thinking that anyone could ever have. The job of the Christian is to be like Jesus was when He walked on this earth and if I recall Jesus never told anybody to shape up first before they could come to Him. Never.

One of the books that I borrowed last week from our pastor was written by John Osteen. called, “Unraveling the Mystery of the Blood Covenant”. Very good, very simple.  Here’s a quote from there that caught my eye also.

The world is hungry to hear the Good News, but we have preached hell hot, sin black, and judgment sure. Sinners already have enough of that inside them. We are not to preach the problem, we are to preach the solution. Nobody wants to go to church and let you beat them over the head and grind them down to the ground about their problems. They go to church with a desire to hear a solution-His Name is Jesus!

To hear a solution, yes! Now this might fly right in the face of the self righteous, but this is how the Gospels operated, this is how the early church operated, this is when power flowed! The solution! I think back, and Lord I had better think back every day to how life was before jesus took over and look about me now and I know what the unsaved are feeling. It don’t matter if a person puts on a show,that they’re rough and tough, there is that emptiness eating away inside of them. All those years when I was living like I was living I heard countless preachers preaching hellfire and brimstone and it just drove me further away. There was no solution in it, only condemnation. I read around the internet today and come across things all the time, constant condemnation. But I ask, where is the Gospel, the Good News.

I have come to the conclusion that any ministry I do from now on till I’m taken home will be Biblical Christianity. Oh, I’ll have to soul search daily in order to keep myself from falling into the easy to fall into trap of self righteousness.  In the quote above I will change one thing, he says “they go to church”. I’ll change that a bit. I say most will never go to church. I know I did, but I’m a rare one. And most that are deeply troubled way down in their soul go to church to never, ever return because they just didn’t fit in. Like I say, I know the feeling, very well. So to the person that has had it with church, all I can say is church doesn’t save you. Never has, never will. Jesus saves, nothing or no one else. Jesus saves you as you are. Oh, can this fact get self righteous people puffed up ornery!

But its the fact of the universe never the less. Nothing can change that fact. To come as you are. Its not good news to go out and tell the world that God is mad at them. God is not mad. He loved the world so much He sent Jesus to die that they might be at peace with Him. The Blood of Jesus does not say God will forgive you. It says God has already taken the initiative and forgiven you. A simple fact, the gift of peace with God through Jesus’ Blood is a gift God has given to man. It is ready to be taken!

I’ll never forget when I heard a sermon preached on this very subject two years ago this month. That was probably the best sermon I’ve ever heard in my entire life, and I’ve heard allot of sermons! People were literally shaking in church as the power of the Gospel was being spoken forth! There is power in the Gospel, but very little power in old traditions of men that have evolved over the centuries. Power! The Blood. The Gift! The Good News! This is how the original church turned the world upside down!