What A Day

After taking a thrashing at work yesterday, my wife knew exactly what I needed when I got home...BLT's. With fresh, whole wheat toast, fresh garden tomatoes, bacon right off of the pig last week and....store bought lettuce (can't win 'em all). She knew I had a rough day and she did her best to make it better. Our oldest son even let me beat him in Battleship last night. I praise God for a great wife and family.

 

troy

When I Hear the Praises Start

My son, My son, why are you striving
You can't add one thing to what's been done for you
I did it all while I was dying
Rest in your faith, my peace will come to you

For when I hear the praises start
I want to rain upon you
Blessings that will fill your heart
I see no stain upon you
Because you are my child and you know me
To Me you're only holy
Nothing that you've done remains
Only what you do for Me

My child, My child, why are you weeping
You will not have to wait forever
That day and that hour is in My keeping
The day I'll bring you into Heaven

For when I hear the praises start
My child, I want to rain upon you
Blessing that will fill your heart
I see no stain upon you
Because you are My child and you know me
To me you're only holy
Nothing that you've done remains
Only what you do in Me

My precious bride, the day is nearing
When I'll take you in My arms and hold you
I know there are so many things that you've been hearing
But you just hold on to what I have told you

For when I hear the praises start
My bride, I want to rain upon you
Blessings that will fill your heart
I see no stain upon you
Because you are My child, and you know Me
To me you're only holy
Nothing that you've done will remain
Only what you do for me

 

Keith Green

Fluff and Stuff

In honor of the last commenter (which I have a strong suspicion is my wife...she's such and exhorter), here is the next installment of "Fluff and Stuff".

 

There's a guy here at work who always comes in first thing every morning and pours the remainder of yesterdays coffee into his mug and microwaves it. 24 hour old coffee sounds kind of gross to me; but he does the same on Monday mornings as well. This means the coffee has been sitting in the coffee pot since Friday morning. 72 hour old coffee not only sounds gross, but it sounds unhealthy to me. He survived Vietnam, so old coffee's probably nothing to him.

 

This ends this installment of "Fluff and Stuff".

 

troy

Scriptures for thought...how much still applies today?

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:

Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.

For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.

 

Psalm 122

 

 

Scriptures Through Pictures

Genesis 1:28
"(And you)...have dominion over...every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Acts 10:13
"And there came a voice to him, Rise,...kill and eat."

Any other appropriate scriptures you can think of to describe this picture?

My Wife, the Poet

Received this e-mail at work this afternoon from my wife ...quite sickening, frankly.

 

Hahahahahah!!!!!!!! You are a caged bird and I am soaring on freedom's wings under the azure sky! Can you hear the sweet melody of the birds and smell the tantalizing smell of wildflowers? Can you see the trees bursting forth their aromatic scent? When my precious little Susanna plays on the lush velvety carpet of God's perfection my heart soars in gratitude towards the Lord and my husband for their gifts to me and I relish my freedom as I get the joy of surrounding myself with beauty daily. Thank you, dear husband, as you sacrifice your freedom so I can soar.

Love,
Eshell

 

Why isn't she in the house making biscuits or something?

A Time for Evaluation

We had a shake-up in our church this week. One of the families have a daughter that ran away. She left a lengthy note explaining how she fears God but she doesn't really trust Him. This was her way of learning to trust God. She's fifteen years old, so she couldn't (or didn't) drive. They found her the next day a town or two away. She comes from a nice family. They always appear happy. She seems like a smart young lady. They homeschool her. I was left wondering "What's going on?. They appear to be doing things right." Things were a bit stressed at home. Dad works in Wisconsin and mom goes with him for the week sometimes. It's about a six-hour drive from their place in north-east Indiana. Is this the reason? Or a part of it? She has an older sister that stays with her when mom and dad are gone. They have a farm they are trying to sell in Indiana so they can all move to Wisconsin. During a men's meeting two weeks ago the men suggested to him that he is too focused on the farm and not enough on his family. This might be the case.

All this rattling through my head takes me back to something the elder of our church said shortly after we started attending. He looked out across the congregation and commented on how nice the children looked and behaved. They wear the right clothes. They say the right things. They're all homeschooled so they have a good education. Well mannered. "But what's the state of their heart?" Ooh. Wasn't really expecting that. They can quote passages of the Bible, but is it in their heart?

Every family in our church homeschool their children. Not that it's mandated, that's just the way it's worked out so far. Some very large families. They, once again, appear Godly. An area a lot of "conservative" families fail miserably is TRAINING our children. We do train them. We train them what to say. We train them what do. We insist they memorize mass quantities of scripture. We scold them or spank them when they act up. Many homeschool children fear their parents. Possibly an un-healthy fear. We have abused our parental role. We have manipulated them into little "Yes-men" or robots. Our fear of looking bad in public (pride) has caused us to sever any friendship or attachment we once had - could have - should have with our children. There needs to be a time for this type of training. There also needs to be time for bonding. A time for fellowship. If you don't know your children, how do expect to know the state of their heart? How can you know if their hurting? If their doubting God? If their contemplating running away? Some people have a business of child-rearing as opposed to a family. The calendar hanging on our kitchen wall speaks to this. It has a quote on it this month along the lines of "Don't tell me how many children you birthed; how many are walking in truth?" It's kind of a new way of looking at things. We primarily focus on the outward obedience of our children and not on the in-ward state of their heart. I know it has made my wife and I stop and think about our interaction with our children. Do we have their hearts? Do they love and trust us or just fear us?

So many things to evaluate. By God's grace, we'll get through it.

Changes

I've made a few subtle changes to my blog. I want to make more but have a fear. A lot of "casual" bloggers, I have noticed, will make a bunch of changes as a last ditch effort to motivate themselves to blog more. Usually it ends up as a dead blog. I would like to change the template, but don't really like any of bloggers "ready-made" templates...and besides, changes that drastic means certain death.

Seriously though, we have been going through a lot of changes. We have seen God work so much in our lives recently that it's amazing. He truly does take care of his children. Maybe I'll take some time and post about some of the areas He's working. And not just our lives, but friends and family around us, too.

This is a picture of our pet turkeys that were supposed to be butchered for Thanksgiving last year. This picture shows them at probably a couple months old. Tommy and Yap-Yap have been very good pets. Tommy turned out to be such a friendly turkey that we decided not to "invite" them to Thanksgiving dinner last year. Tommy was a bit compulsive about pecking people on the back-side, but despite that, she was very fond of humans. She would follow you around the yard and plop herself down wherever you were working. She especially liked sitting right behind your feet. A 40-50 pound bird is easy to trip over. She was very fond of sitting in mud puddles(?). I had to put Tommy down this weekend for some health reasons that I wont go into. I know it sounds extremely odd, but it was kind of hard for me. Tommy was like a friend. She was there when I was splitting wood. She was there when I was working on the van in the freezing rain (although she kept pecking my hand every time I went to grab a tool). She aloud you to pick her up and carry her around (although the older she got the harder it was...once again, 40-50 lbs.). She will be missed. By her sister, Yap-Yap; by the children; by myself and my wife; by anyone who has tripped over her or been pecked in the back-side by her.

Well, that's all for now. I have much more to say but have to get the older kids up to start math with them. It didn't happen yesterday. I inadvertently slept in. I don't feel bad though, it was my birthday; which my wife and kids made very special. They are the best!

God bless.

Fun Raccoon Facts

We learned some interesting facts about raccoons this last weekend.

• Dogs don't like raccoons sleeping in their dog-boxes.
• Raccoons don't like to play with dogs while cornered in a dog-box.
• Dogs don't like to play with raccoons while raccoons are cornered in a dog-box.
• They bare their teeth and growl: both.
  
• Raccoons like peanut-butter sandwiches.
• You can use a peanut-butter sandwich to lead a raccoon to a live trap.
• You can use a peanut-butter sandwich to lead a raccoon to a live trap until you grab it by the head and try to shove it in.
• Raccoons don't like to be grabbed by the head.
• Dogs like peanut-butter sandwiches.
• Dogs won't go into a raccoon infested dog-box for a peanut-butter sandwich.
  
• A shovel doesn't work well to try to pull a raccoon out of a dog-box.
• A garden rake works well to pull a raccoon out of a dog-box.
• Dogs like to play with raccoons when they are not in their dog-box.

I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.

A side note: We are not typically cruel to animals, but when a predator comes around that might threaten our chicken, turkey and guinea flock, we need to do what we can to protect them. Except maybe for the guineas. I could probably let a few of those go.

Fullness of Joy

Psalm 16:11
Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

There are a few things that I've learned about joyfulness. For one, joyfulness is not a condition resultant of your external experiences. Another way to say it is that your not only joyful when things go well for you. Joyfulness is a consistent condition of your heart regardless of your external circumstances. This passage says that your joy will be full if you are in the presence of the Lord. Using deductive reasoning, it would be safe to say that if you are not joyful, you are not in the presence of the Lord. Whom do you think moved from who's presence? You or the Lord?