I Do Everything I Can

When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.  I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:22-23

It was so windy out today that we scrapped chopping corn. No sense in letting the wind make fools of us, we can handle the fool making part pretty well ourselves. The weather is looking good for tomorrow though and we’ll hit er hard when the day comes. So tonight I’m around here,laying low as the wind blows. Today, this afternoon to be exact, I started the outdoor wood boiler cause there was a little chill settling into the house the last day. Everything is working good in that department and the chill will be beaten back as I write here.The verses on top were something that caught my eye today. In fact I could of, or maybe should of had more verses that go with it but figured I’d settle for this. Paul’s talking about how he just gets in with the folks.How he doesn’t come trying to hammer a religion into them. I figure there’s folks in this world that sure would get harmed reading these verses. The reason they caught my eye though was, I was doing a little research this afternoon on the internet. You know, country churches, cowboy churches, backwoods churches. The typical stuff that interests me and I came across this on a cowboy church website.

I don’t know what everyone’s feelings are about cowboy churches and it really doesn’t matter to me either way. More power to em I figure! If they’re spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ how dare I find fault with them. The same goes for any other kind of churches or gatherings in the mighty name of Jesus! Basically I’m a simple fella, or so it might look. Get teased a little for being a hillbilly and such by folks I know, of course these folks aren’t considering the thought patterns that it takes to farm all of this and also try and stay ahead of a few hundred beef critters who’s main reason for being is to outsmart their owner! The verses above and all the verses that go with them had me thinking today about how Jesus handled the situations that He was in too. I was reading the other night that the Gospel of Luke is sometimes called the Gospel of Outcasts and I tell you, that caught my eye for life!

So take a cowboy church, it might not be most everyone’s cup of tea, but it don’t matter to me one way or another as long as they are pointing to Jesus. It don’t matter to me if there’s a deep inner city ministry that would make some of us country folks gasp because of the different way they do things from mainstream Christianity in order to point people to Jesus. I was doing some self examining today. Mostly to see how much religious garbage I have clinging to me, and there is quite a bit. A little over a week ago we were involved with a Hispanic service in an area where there are no Hispanic churches to our north east. And I tell you, it was different from what I’m used to and the thing that struck me was how they were really worshiping God with all their hearts.

So am I on the narrow road yet or am I in a ditch? This was my question to myself. Am I satisfied with nice church services or do I want to see things get radical? You get into the Gospels and there’ll be an overload of radical when you read them with eyes to see and understand! So radical it got Jesus nailed to a cross! Amen? I want radical!

¹⁹ Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. ²⁰ When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. ²¹ When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.

OK, I just had to put a few more verses in there on this line of thought. And getting back to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus wasn’t going for the nice people of society that had it all together! I wonder what a person would think if we could actually see the Gospels as they happened. I’d bet we’d be totally thrown upside down. We’ve made a comfortable religion  where we are nice church folks, have nice churches, do and say all the right things, but we are a far cry from the Living Gospel.

In the countryside there’s a vast assortment of folks. From kinda high class suburbanite people that love their stuff to the poorest of the poor, there’s church folk everywhere and many of them fit in nicely with the new American religion of “I can live like an absolute heathen and still make it to heaven”.  The last place a person sees what I call “junk yard dogs” is in church. Then there are the dopers, the addicted. They’re everywhere. The abused families, the laid off folks. You name it. But church is always nice and churchy, and there’s churches everywhere around here. But mostly when I go into churches I have a hard time finding God there. And don’t you dare break a rule in some of them!

Old Paul, he became, he was able to fit in with the people he brought the Good News to. Not the other way around. And if a person reads the Gospels with open eyes we’ll see a Savior that never passed up an opportunity to stop and help the lowest members of that society. Many times causing heated debates with the “good folk”.  The more and more I dwell on all of this the conclusion is becoming clearer each day. To spread the Gospel as Jesus did, to spread it like Paul did! And it ain’t going to reach the folks that Jesus and Paul pulled from the grasp of hell if the only work is in the church building! If that’s the case and the church is where a person spends their ministry life there will not be a Gospel ministry.

Boy, am I long winded tonight! As folks know, I love church, no question about that. But the preaching of the Gospel, followed with signs and wonders, (God backing up His Word), does not happen in the church very often, nor was it ever meant to. If I’d write some of the things that happen to us outside the walls it would blow many readers away! And I will debate anyone about the false religion where they say that only happened in the days of the Apostles! Maybe someday I’ll share some of them as this all grows and grows.

Holy Ghost Weekend

It’s a rainy Sunday evening in these parts, windy too! From the northwest, pretty strong. Well, back to chopping silage tomorrow after chopping for six days straight. We’ve already got a new record for the amount of silage chopped this year and still have a long way to go. I’m hoping to get er done this week and then the rest of the fall should be on cruise. Just some field work and a lot of cattle work to keep me out of trouble.

I’m hoping to get back in the saddle here a bit more often than what I was writing this past week. Its kinda tough to write when working till 9 or 10 in the evening but there’s only a few days of that left. I tell you, morning sure does come fast in harvest season! But soon will be winter and the work days are fairly short then and I can recover at that time. Today was a pretty good day. Church was really good from start to finish and one must remember that this is not some bigtime production. Just a small countryside church that has a desire to go after God. The sermon,or teaching, was on the Holy Spirit and this was the second week laying out the base for the teaching. Some of it stuck to me today and will the rest of my born days. From Acts 2:

³⁸Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

³⁹For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.

That was a promise for then and now! Amen! There’s a whole bunch more and I hope to get to that as time goes on. This is what separates stale and dry religion from really chasing after God! The Holy Ghost, the promise, the infilling of power. Funny how power isn’t mentioned so much anymore but the early church was getting continually filled with Holy Ghost power.Not a one time event either. In these day when darkness is spreading over the earth there is really no hope in man’s system, there is no answer in politics, there is no answer in economics. But there is an answer in God!

And we need power, a power that the world and man cannot give to keep on going in these times.There is no doubt about that and I for one am not going to rely on man or me in any event. just give me God and all is well no matter what is happening in the world.This will be short tonight but as I wrote, I’ll be back to normal in a few short days and this subject and some of the ones I was writing about will continue.

What Did You Do With What I Gave You?

Its raining a little outside so I’m inside this evening with a few moments for the old computer. I tried out the silage chopper this afternoon and chopped six large loads and everything worked just fine. But I quit around four cause it was a little to wet with the rain and all. When it clears up a bit I’m ready to roll!

Last evening I was reading in my “farmer’s devotional”, a book I received back in spring written by Angus Buchan, that South African farmer/preacher who’s heart for the Lord is something I envy. A good envy too! The book is called, “A Farmer’s Year” and I mentioned it a few months back. And just because I haven’t mentioned it for a time doesn’t mean that it was thrown in my famous “pile” of books and other papers. I’ll write a quote from that book which is so special to me.

Perhaps we need to sit down today and take account of what we are actually doing and giving, not of our money, but of ourselves. God is going to ask us one question when we arrive in home in heaven: “What did you do with what I gave you?”

Yup, last evening as I was paging through the pages of that book, one of my favorites, this really spoke to me. This is the believer’s judgment that Angus is talking about. Many folks just believe that we are going to waltz into heaven being that we are saved, forgetting what the Bible repeatedly tells us about. There are parables that tell us this same thing. Many of them. God asking us, “What did you do with what I gave you?”  And face it, if a person is reading this, they are rich compared to most of the world.

But this isn’t about giving money as stated in the quote. It’s about ourselves. Its about giving our time, our very lives. Now that’s something for a farmer to chew on working all day in the field. Working in a bumper crop, worrying how I’ll get it all in. I shouldn’t be worrying and in fact I worry allot less than I did years ago. And I do hear the voice of the Holy Spirit telling me not to worry. Just do it!

OK, then let’s get on with it. The Bible says, and I’ve heard it a thousand times or more, And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” – Acts 20:35  But do we really believe it? Do we really live it? I know a couple of years ago I really wanted to climb the ladder in ministry, but looking back I was probably doing it for myself more than for the Lord. A while back I kinda got set free when I decided, yes, a person has to make their own decision, I decided I’m going to just follow the Lord and become a servant. In our church for example I don’t worry about if they do this or that. I have no desire to have my way of church being thee way. And a feller gets set free when that happens. When I speak in church I’m starting to understand that its to an audience of One.  I’m not worried so much what people think.Its more important to give the Word, even when a person is stumbling through it, than to worry about how this or that will make me look.

Church though is the smallest part of the whole equation. I love church, that’s for sure, but its the outside that calls me. The one thing I’ve learned in this whole process is that when one is not worried about this or that in church, God moves in ways that few church folk understand. You don’t have to look for opportunities, because they will literally pour out on you. And I mean bigtime. When folks, and that includes me, figure they’re going to make things happen in church, it very seldom happens. Why? Because it’s not in the proper order. The Bible talks allot about that too. Mainly in the gospels. To be the least is where a person wants to be, then if your called up to the head table its an honor, but trying to get a good seat at the head table can lead to some embarrassing moments when asked to step down and get where you belong.

To be a servant,not a master. Our Lord Jesus taught this over and over. Its so simple but we have such a hard time getting that into our heads. I pray that at the believer’s judgment that I can say that I gave and gave. That the seed that our Lord gave us was planted and reaped a huge harvest. And I know that God doesn’t want all the seed planted inside church. That seed He gave for us to plant and tend is for outside the walls. Farming presents a huge opportunity to spread the Gospel. To help people in many ways much of society can’t. It continues to amaze me how city folk just love the farm. I can only speak from the farming angle because that’s what I am, a farmer. But it really doesn’t matter who or what a person does. The opportunities are abundant to take what God has given us and use it for His Kingdom. And I’m not talking about selling everything a person has and giving it to the poor. I’m talking about using our over abundant resources and continually planting the Kingdom’s seeds.

Just dwelling tonight on a wet night. Getting back to the basics. Its so easy to get in a rut and not be operating in these simple basics.

Come Some Happy Day

Come some Happy Morning,

Come some Happy Day!

Those are some of the words to a song I’m listening to as I type. Good old fashion blow the shingles off the church building music, the kind I like! Amen! Never was to much for an over abundance of funeral music in church. I love the old hymns and stuff but what really gets to me are some of the more regional songs from a few decades back. I love them things. From the time when the Holy Ghost came back with power through America’s heartland! Every once in a while I stumble across a blog, a Christian blog, where about all they do is nit pick apart other denominations. Was just on one a bit ago and I told the wife I had such a pressure in the gut when reading such stuff that I thought I was getting sick. That’s the Holy Ghost saying, “Tom, get your eyes off of such garbage!”, and I gladly comply.

I guess when a person is just an old fashioned Holy Roller it doesn’t matter to much what anyone says any more about it. Funny part is I never knew what real joy was till these last few years! I’m perfectly at ease with the path we are taking here. Now that’s not saying that “I have arrived”, mercy no, its from now through eternity getting to know the heart of God. I’m just saying that I know that I know that things are right. And when a feller knows that then its time to get on board and follow Jesus with everything a fella got!

I ain’t looking for theology’s and man’s wisdom. No sir, I’m just chasing the Lord in joy. Now sometimes though it ain’t all joy like when a person asks God to show me what’s wrong in my heart. He will show a person and it ain’t pretty! Even if its so ugly a person can barely take it its all for the good because then a person knows that no matter what he or she does it ain’t good enough. Ain’t good enough doing anything with our own power cause we will fail no matter what in the light of eternity.

But that joy comes in the morning when we just give it to God! And I can testify that since getting into the habit the days go a heck of allot smoother. The burdens are lifted, the work gets done one way or another. Things work! The evening rolls around and a person just can’t wait to get into the Word of God. Throw a little old fashioned Holy Ghost music into the mix and I don’t care what the world does! Now that’s joy in the Lord!

I just pray that with blogging and such some of this gets through and folks can feel it too. Like I wrote, I pray that this blog never gets religious, or political for that matter cause I really don’t see any answers in man. Our answers are in God. Man’s answers are going to burn up, but God’s ways are forever!

People Who Know Their God

A hot day around these parts and I sure am waiting for the temps to take a step down. Thinking silage. And I don’t really feel like chopping when it’s in the eighties. I’d rather have it cooler so I could live a few more years! Gets hot in that tractor that does the chopping and if it’s in the sixties for a high I’ll be in a good place. If not, well…..

Get that silage under the belt in a week or two and I’ll be one happy man! Well, I am happy now, that’s for sure but one more hurdle done for the year and a fella can settle in for the approaching winter. Glory to God! I’ll be one happy guy when that happens! Until then things keep on pluggin and I can’t complain about nothing. All is well, in fact better than well. Both at home and at our little country church. There’s a feeling in the air, a good feeling and I’m all excited! The Word is being preached and it’s getting soaked up by the folks at church. Change is coming,for the better. God is preparing His people for the days ahead.

Ministry opportunities keep plopping down right in front of a fella’s nose.I can’t believe it sometimes how that works but I know that’s God’s way sometimes and I just gotta try and keep up with it all. And keep up a person can cause when it’s really God’s work, not our own work trying to build our own ministry, things go allot smoother. Our God is not a God of disorder but a God of order and He ain’t about to screw up the family, the farm, and everything else in order to have us do our duties. No, when a person is following His will things go allot smoother. How can that be? Well, I tell you, more often than not things are of our own design, and I’m really good at that! But by giving it all to God, that’s when things happen that just blow a person away!

A verse, or should I say part of a verse caught my eye the other day. It’s in the Book of Daniel, chapter 11, verse 32.

but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.

That’s a lifter upper if ever there was one! Amen! This is one of the verses I was dwelling on this past week while working around the farm.Oh, there’s allot more verses that catch my attention during the week too but this one kinda stuck this evening. Notice it says, “the people who know their God”. It doesn’t say church people, it doesn’t say people that know how to make all the right moves in a public church setting. It says the people who know their God! I’ve spent considerable time in the Old Testament stories reading about David and lately Moses. I’ve wrote about them, how they chased God with everything they had. They didn’t give a hoot what anyone thought about it!

So how do some simple country folk go about something like this? Well,looking back at David, he was about as simple of a country boy as it gets.Old Moses was a tad bit different cause he spent forty years in pure luxury in Pharaoh’s palace and estates. But when he had to go on the run and head out into the wilderness and meet a good lookin shepherd gal at a well, get married,settle down and just run a bunch of livestock for forty years without the worry about urban sprawl I figure old Moses became about as country as it gets!

Now,neither David or Moses was a bigshot in the world’s eyes when they started out doing the ministry that God had them do! But both of these men loved God, more than likely in a simple way.They had no bigtime school training in the area of our God.Nope. They were out on the land,doing what they had to do.More than likely just dwelling on God things most of the time. More than likely having those country boy conversations out there in the wide open range where no one else was except themselves and the animals. Day in and day out just doing what they had to do and walking and talking with God. And the more they did that the more they got to know God. I highly doubt if they were sitting around reading book after book quite simply cause there probably weren’t no books. They didn’t really get to go to most of the organized religious services, in Moses case there probably wasn’t nothing like that in the area and in David’s case, well he was at the bottom of the totem pole and got stuck with the sheep while every one else in the family looked good in the local eyes.

I would say that both Moses and David really fit that verse above to a tee! They knew their God! But that verse above is part of an end time prophecy that is more for our days. And I believe with all my heart in these last days of creation as we know it there are going to be greater exploits than anything recorded in the entire Bible! It ain’t over, its just beginning! When reading the Book of Revelation I used to get a bit nervous, but nowadays I get excited! These times a coming are going to be the times of the greatest exploits ever to be done in the history of creation! Instead of being fearful its the greatest honor to be placed here by God in these times! And who will be strong and carry out these great exploits? The answer according to the Word of God is, those who know their God! That’s why I’m after God’s own heart!

Psalm 71
¹⁷ O God, You have taught me from my youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
¹⁸ Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.

Thinking About Moses

It’s still warm and dry up here in this neck of the woods. yesterday we were literally invaded by Asian Beetles and I tell you it was miserable! Of course we declared absolute war on the little stinky invaders.Now I ain’t much for using sprays on stuff but I tell you I was a madman yesterday spraying around the outside of the house and later my better half found the better spray and did it all again around the house.I even dreamt of the stinky little things last night sleeping.I was dreaming of billions of the things lifting up from the neighbors soybean field and circling our house at a higher altitude and making noise and gradually coming down on the place. Yuck! Bad dream. But apparently the spray did its job cause today there ain’t hardly any around the house. Now I do not believe this dream had any spiritual significance, just overwhelmed by having dozens of them beetles at a time on my face down my shirt, driving a person almost stark raving nuts.And having literally masses of them on all the outside walls of our house. But peace is here today, Praise the Lord!

As I said, it’s still warm out and I for one am looking forward to some wind from the northwest to cool things down a tad so I don’t get so sweated up working. I guess they’re talking that it will cool down a tad in a few days so that’ll be a relief! Today, sawing wood and splitting wood I was working up a constant sweat. But as usual as I’m working I’m pretty much always thinking faith matters,cause that’s the important stuff and I do believe that if a person goes after God everything else in life falls into place a whole lot better.Well, it might not seem that way in our eyes at the moment but if we are following God,handing it over to Him you can bet the farm that He’s going to make the path straight for us and for our eternal destiny. Something that we ain’t very good at doing on our own. Lately I’ve mentioned David quite a bit and I do love reading and studying about Him but this afternoon I was thinking about Moses.Now usually I don’t think of him all that much.I mostly know that in the beginning of the year, when reading the daily Bible readings a fella spends a few months getting through the books of Moses and sometimes it can be the best medicine for falling asleep that a farmer can find.

This year was a whole lot better getting through those books cause I was using the New Living Translation which made a whole lot more sense than the King James did the year before. At least things were explained in terms a po’ farmer could understand! ut back to what ever it was I was writing about. Now old Moses was a man after God! I never really understood that as well as I do now. The life he lived following God and also being the pastor for a congregation of around three million rebellious folk makes a person wonder if he shouldn’t get the pastor of the millenium award!

Then when God was so sick and tired of that congregation rebelling and grumbling and saying they figured it should be done this way or should be done that way, God said I’ve had enough of you nutcases! (Well, this is from the THT, Tom’s Hillbilly Translation). God said I’m out of here. You folks can still kinda be my people but I ain’t going to be around you no more! I’ll send one angel to take care of you folks and your on your way! Old Moses wasn’t going to settle for that, no way! Moses told God,“If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”  (Ex. 33:15)

What made old Moses say something like that to God. Well, God said in Ex.33:3, “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people.”

Moses didn’t think twice about his answer to God. He would even have a second thought about remaining in the hot desert, a miserable place, but having the presence of God with Him was all Moses wanted. He didn’t care about going to a good land if God wasn’t going with them. Yup, this had me thinking today. Allot! Moses knew God. In the beginning of the exodus out of Egypt God had wanted for all the people to come to Him and to experience His presence, to experience His Glory. But the people refused to come close, told Moses, “you go for us”. What a terrible loss for those folks, a terrible loss. The God of the universe wanting them to come and know Him, and they refused. Wanting comfort in their own selves. Not wanting to give up the Egypt inside of them and get something countless times better.

Yep, this is what I was thinking about cutting and splitting firewood during the heat of the day today. Are we willing to give up the Egypt in us and come up to an Almighty God that wants for us to give it all to Him. There’s allot of stuff in the Old Testament that really pertains to today I tell you. In fact when read with the real reason it was written, to bring us home to God, its something a person cannot afford not to read and learn from. It ain’t no different today then it was then. God wants His people to come to Him.

“Nothing”, They Answered

It sure was warm and humid today. I was splitting some firewood, red oak, and this was the second day in a row where I became a little tipsy from the heat and humidity. I don’t know why, but there’s something about September warmth and humidity that is different than summer type of humidity and a feller just can’t wait for some fresh western air to blow away this stuff. Oh to feel a fresh westerly breeze again! But through it all a lot of hard work got done and I am thankful as always to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Last evening at church I was amazed! Now I don’t amaze very easy but let me tell you, we are getting some of the best messages I have ever heard in all my born day! The kind of messages that cut deep to the heart and place the truth of the Word permanently into our spirits! I often wonder what other churches would think of such straight forward preaching and teaching such as this. Not off to the right nor to the left but down the straight and narrow, with everything totally backed up by the Word of God, several times. And these teachings are on CD so a fella can listen to them over and over!

Then when that is all said and done there’s the reading of the Word at home every evening, plus a good book on faith matters to top it all off. Now currently I’m re-reading the book called the Midas Touch, by Kenneth Hagin. Its one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read on giving and tithes. And the purpose of its writing was to set the record straight, to avoid the ditches on either side of the path on this journey we Christian’s have. It’s so loaded with Bible verses to keep a person straight that it’s truly a treasure. Plus it don’t hurt to brush up on some of this when doing the tithing and offering part of the church service every once in a while.

Last evening a verse hit me, I’ve read it many, many times before but that’s how it is, all of a sudden a verse or two just seems to come alive and speak to a person! This is from Luke 22:35,

Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.

They answered, “Nothing!” Funny, I never noticed that before! And then another couple of verse in Matthew 6,

³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Now I don’t know about anyone else but durn it, these are some pretty good words coming from our Saviour! Amen? And I got to thinking about it, how much do I hand it over to God and trust Him in all matters and a fella gotta admit that if you can trust Him with our needs than we have pretty good faith in Him. That’s always been a rough one for me, a person that has to do everything by myself cause I figure I’m thee only one who can do it right.Anyone else ever had that problem??

Nowadays its fashionable in Christian circles to think that God is a heavenly vending machine who’s only purpose is to give us everything our hearts desire. I ain’t talking like that here cause it sure is not the case. What I am writing is that God knows our needs before we even do. And His way of thinking is a whole lot different than the carnal nature of man’s way of thinking. His way of thinking is for the best possible life possible for us in fulfilling our eternal destiny. So will He provide absolutely everything we need to be the person God has ordained us to be before the beginning of time? The answer is a big YES! Everything! When we hand over our lives and problems and joys and sorrows to God, allowing Him to do the work that we will miserably fail at, the out come will always be the greatest!

Now this is where we miss it most of the time. We want what we think is the best for us, and many times it just plain ain’t. Last night’s teaching was an absolute life changer for me I tell you, the teaching in church that is. And it fit perfectly with what I’ve been reading on different subjects. When we give God our all, He will always take it and the outcome will always be what He desires for us, not to mentioned those around us. I durn near started shaking in the pew last night when those words were coming forth! Lately I’ve wrote about going after the heart of God and when a person gives it all to God that’s when God can do His work in us, unhindered! Glory to God!

Some of the oldtimers had this figured out, but I had never really thought of it much before! I even used to give the advice, “give it all to God”, but never quite understood what I was saying. Now I do, more and more! This is exciting, this subject of going after God’s own heart and it sets the stage for many wonderful things coming from God because quite simply, we’re allowing Him to do a work in us, and a greater work cannot be imagined than letting God form us into what He desired from before the beginning of time!

This is getting more and more into my heart! It will continue in one form or another as the days go by. This is a faith builder if ever there was one! Hallelujah!!

Sunday Evening Preaching

Feeling pretty good today after last night’s ten hour sleep.Longest sleep I’ve had in years after the shortest sleep in years the night before. Reckon I’m pretty well recovered now! The weather is just good up here in this neck of the woods the last few days which is moving the corn along nicely. It won’t be too much longer and we’ll hit the corn fields chopping.Don’t know when yet but it will come.In fact I hope when we chop its a little cooler out.Gets pretty durn hot in that old tractor cab with the engine running full throttle all day long chopping corn.

Its been a good summer here now that Labor Day weekend is here and a fella can look back. It started pretty iffy but straightened out and it never stopped being perfect for the pastures and crops, Praise the Lord! And the abundance does make for allot more work than during the droughts and I ain’t complaining either! Through it all there’s been church work coming more and more frequently. I guess now I’m up front every other week which is fine with me cause its starting to get easier and easier.Which isn’t to say a person can’t have a complete stall out up in front but at least there is much less nervousness the hours before a service.I tell you, there were some times in the past when I wondered what the heck was wrong with me for getting myself into this all! I had never talked in front of folks in my life so this was a life change of the highest degree.

But the Lord works in mysterious ways they say and I guess He sure does in this case. It’ll get better and better cause after every time I know where I screwed up and will try to eliminate those as I go. This past weekend I had that little voice tell me something in the big city. As I looked at the buildings around us, which was mainly looking up, Matthew 24 came into my thoughts.

¹ Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ² And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Now,Jesus was talking to the disciples about the temple in Jerusalem, I understand that, but this verse came to me in the big city as I have mentioned. The towering sky scrapers, monuments to man’s engineering and wisdom, will they out last everything? I think the answer is no.Then when I got back home to the farm I was dwelling on this. How man works and makes these things and how creation works away at them. Take the big city for example. How long would it truly stay intact without constant maintenance to keep everything from falling apart? In a year or two there’d be plant life where there is no plant life now. It would start in cracks in the concrete and what ever and gradually take ahold. The man made structures and pavements would gradually get busted up and creation would gradually take over. Concrete would crack and crumble, steel would rust. Things would gradually fall apart. Over decades and hundred of years it would get to the point where a person would have a hard time even finding evidence of a city because of over growth and crumbling. How fragile things are that we make, thinking it is something great. Thinking that we are so smart and powerful.

I looked on the city and thought these thoughts and I took them home with me. The farm is no different. There would be very little sign of it after a long time without man battling the creation to keep things the way we like it. And after a few years or decades we leave this life and its all done with as far as this life is concerned. This just tells me that the most important things are the eternal things. But this is no excuse to stop working and give up, cause we toil by the sweat of our brows on this earth to make a life for ourselves and our families. Its just that we must realize its temporary. The real value of it all is what is it doing for the kingdom of God. Whether it be farm or city, the kingdom is all that matters, the kingdom is all that is eternal and everlasting!

What I got now, no one will give a hoot about in fifty years. As far as worldy things go, no one will even remember me in a hundred years. And in this society today folks aren’t very interested in their ancestors as they were in times past. Its always racing ahead, not looking back. Its not so much trying to learn from the mistakes of the past anymore. Its seeing what I can get for myself tomorrow that seems to matter now. But those cornerstones in faith that we plant in the folks around us will have lasting effects, eternally. Not only by spreading God’s Word but by our very life, how we act and live every day of the week, not only Sunday mornings. People around us are watching, watching much closer than a person sometimes realizes. The world, I am convinced, is hungry for eternal truth, but is turned off by the average Christian for many,many reasons. And I truly can’t blame the world for rejecting Jesus Christ when the only way they have of learning about the truth is through the church folk. Whether it be from getting turned off from some grumpy legalists to getting turned away from church folks that live absolutely the same as the world. No different what so ever.

There is nothing more important than Jesus Christ, nothing! There is nothing more important than His followers actually following Him, not just putting on a show. There is no better life on earth than following God, going after the heart of God. To give every problem to God, to give every praise to God. To make God our everything! This is when eternity truly begins. It doesn’t begin after death. It is NOW! And the one guarantee when going after God’s own heart is, a person will find it! Imagine, getting to know the Creator of the universe and everything in it! Something the scientists will never accomplish in this life time I tell you!

How could I want anything less than the greatest thing there ever will be.You can have your toys, you can have your big vacations, you can have your recreation, TV, games, retirements, investments, etc. They are all going to crumble away, many in this lifetime yet. I want something bigger, in fact I want the biggest, the greatest thing in the whole universe. I want the heart of God! And He promises to meet anyone sincerely seeking Him! This, yes, this is the ultimate in this life! Where everything else is of no lasting value. God is ever lasting and those that seek Him will find Him, and a better life is impossible on this earth. If your church doesn’t teach this, find one which does. Throw away the religion and go after God.

Big City Weekend

Amen! We got back home a bit after noon today from right smack dab down town Minneapolis! Of course we were only gone 24 hours but it seemed longer than that. In reality though it was one of the best times we had this year without a doubt. Went almost dead center, down town, where the big tall buildings roam and were at a wedding in a high class hotel. Never was to anything like that before! Got the meal served to a person and everything! Around here most traditional weddings are just line up at the trough and fill your plates with traditional wedding food like some fried chicken and some real good ham with all the fixins to go with the meal. Those city folks don’t do it like us simple folks though.Its more high class which means I won’t get fat out of the deal! Had a fiddle player there that didn’t play real fiddle music but that’s OK cause I must remember that folks down there ain’t as exposed to real music as us folks out on dirt roads are. All in all it was a really great time though! And the best part is, we get to come home, back out to the country where we belong! No pressures here, I’m talking traffic and such, I counted three cars go by on our road this afternoon, well two were pickup trucks.

Ah yes, there’s no place like home! So I figure that this is the last official weekend of summer and now the season of hunting season is almost upon us. That’s when the weather gets cooler, the trees turn color and there’s some farm harvesting to get done too! A change of direction as far as work goes. The hay is pretty well done made and now the only major harvest left is silage and that is much more intense. Once a person starts there’s really nothing else done on the place, barring emergencies, till the job gets done. Also there’s what a person could call “calf harvesting”. Gotta wean them things from their mothers sometime in the fall season. Then get them going on their own, barring the milk!

Tomorrow’s church of course, Sunday, and I’ll be doing a little bit there during the service. Kinda nice to be able to do so much here and there in the services and there ain’t the longer prep time that it takes for an hour or more sermon. And now that we were gone to the big city and got reminded of how the majority of people live its time to count our blessings out here in fly over land. One thing that got to me yesterday at the wedding. It was a roof top wedding on top of one of them big buildings in down town Minneapolis with a garden on top of it, although I couldn’t locate no tomaters or sweet corn. Never the less they call it a garden, but the size of the trees that were up there is what we call brush on the farm. About every two and a half minutes during the wedding service and the refreshments before the meal there would be a big jet coming ion for a landing at the airport a few miles away. A feller could hardly hear himself think! And I thought our JD 4320 was noisy! Always noise, and more noise. Plus my eyes started to water and I wasn’t crying for the bride or anything like that. It was the city air burning these country eyes that ain’t used to burning chemicals in the air around me. Amazing how a body that ain’t exposed to the big city very often can really be affected by it when immersed into it!

And I wonder why I love the life of the country and small towns! Why I love our little rural church and all the people in it. Now that’s the point I’m trying to get to in this post. The folks of our little church. Many,many of our church folks were at that wedding yesterday and I tell you, it really opened my eyes. What a joyful bunch! And when we’d get together it wasn’t like some church folks just meeting, it was a tight knit family and that really includes the kids too! What a joy to see! And a person notices it when surrounded by a sea of humanity. Its almost like I didn’t even see the city around me. We were set apart from it all. We were there but separate even when not trying to be. God’s simple children having joy in the Lord! There was no one drinking liquor, there was no cussing or swearing from our church bunch, but let me tell you, the wildest and funnest folks were from the little country church and that includes the kids that had me laughing so hard I ain’t recovered yet. Simple joy in the Lord. Now the world can look at us kinda strange cause we ain’t acting like we’re supposed to be acting in their eyes, but it don’t matter none to me! There’s something way better than the best society can dare to offer a person. Get some simple born again, fire baptized believers together, and it ain’t something the world can offer and the world can never compete with the down right fun and honest love these folks have for each other and for their Lord!

It ain’t complicated, it ain’t some hum drum religion, it ain’t like what the world and religion offers. Its life. An abundant life of friendship, love for one another, and down right fun! Lord, how I remember years ago when I thought church people were boring, or were a bunch of hypocrates. In reality many, many were. Including me. But these last few years I’ve seen the difference between religion and real faith. Religion is boring, its painful. It never, ever satisfies the heart like Jesus does. There’s no joy, there’s no child like fun that we live now. There’s no “can hardly wait to get to church” in religion. Yep, I think about what I wrote about these last few years in different posts on different blogs. About that old time faith returning, about the joy returning to church. I’m seeing it happen right before my eyes! Oh Glory to God, thank you Jesus!