I've been a bit busy these past couple weeks and unable to update this blog as I often as I like. I need to get some photos of the kids posted for the grandparents and a couple have asked to see some photos of my last projects that I completed. I will try to accommodate such wishes, but now I am in the middle of a couple of other projects, a new kitchen for an older farmhouse and some assorted cabinets for a bathroom/laundry that we are remodeling. We are enjoying our new table, but I have had to put my wife's list on hold for a time. I have started a nice little game table with an inlayed chessboard made out of walnut and curly maple, but I had to stop to get some paying jobs out of the way!
Please pray for my wife, Rachel, as she has had a couple difficult days with her stomach. For those who are not aware, she has had regular bouts of various stomach and digestive tract issue for the past several years that have resulted in a few hospital stays and a couple of surgeries. She recently complained of a sore spot in her side, and found that he stomach was inflamed and enlarged. She is feeling somewhat better today.
This is a wonderful time of year of meteorologically speaking. I have observed temperatures in Texas as high as 98 degrees and even a few hours south of us, it has been in the 70's. A few days of sun and highs in the 30's have taken their toll on the remain ice and snow and the return of the mourning doves plaintive call in the pine trees in the back yard is starting the spring sap to course through my veins. I am ready to prune the orchard, restore my meager vineyard, and to clear the garden for another growing season. I am still hoping for one more good snowstorm, however. About a foot would be fine!
I am really enjoying the series I have been doing on the book of Nehemiah. The enemies of the good work that Nehemiah was seeking to accomplish as he led the children of Israel in the repair of the walls of Jerusalem first resorted to mocking, then threatening with force, and finally devised a few strategies to try to put a halt to the work. Through prayer and spiritual discernment, Nehemiah sniffed out their plots and kept his mind and efforts on the work. How ironic that one of the strategies they devised was to resort to slander and libel! How often have the labors of the Christian worker been halted or even destroyed by slander and libel? Have you ever seen these ugly demons at work withing the home and church?
God hates lying lips, they are an abomination unto him. False witness was forbidden by the law and we are told that the man who hides hatred in his heart will resort to lying and slander. The saints of God are not to conduct themselves in such a manner. We are commanded to "let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, so that we may know how to answer every man."
Much sin and trouble is occasioned by sins of the tongue. Oh, yes, we profess to be taking great strides in holiness and we are often so proud of our ambitions and actions. We consider ourselves to have a great intellectual grasp of the most difficult theological topics. Sadly, we often make fools of ourselves by the manner in which we communicate. Rather than teaching our children how to speak graciously and wisely, we are running off with our mouths, chiding, jeering, and mocking, committing all manner of sins. All the while we are waxing eloquent in pointing out the errors of the other camps found throughout Christendom.
I have been grieved of late over some of what I have read by way of email and blog. Sadly, many of those who are professing to have websites devoted to godly instuction and theology seem to be more content spending their time mocking and jeering the sins and calamities of others. We must be careful in this. We need to be careful that we guard out tongues and our typing fingers and to conduct ourselves in a manner that lend credence to the gospel that we profess and preach.
