Leverton Blog

Early summer report

2007-06-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the long absence. These long early summer days keep rather busy it would seem. We've been getting a little hassled with the slow, dial up internet and it seems as if the blogger site is not designed for those with the slower internett access.

It's been a hot week here in the midwest and we could really use some rainfall. The garden is doing well, although I have been competing with the chickens a bit. Someone was not responsible enough to get a fence erected in time! I've scaled back a bit compared to other years because I have so much shop work to do.

The chickens are still doing well. Our batch from February are doing well and are achieving young adult status. The little roosters are starting crow and they look like they will be nice looking birds to show at the fair. The egg production is down a bit - I think the hens are thinking about molting, but I am not sure. We've had a fox in the yard several times causing a bit of mayhem, but he has not been seen for a week or so.

It seems as if the deer population is really growing. Rachel hit a deer with the van a couple months ago and it seems as if each week we are having close calls with deer. I also saw a rafter of turkeys just down the road. (who makes up these names for flocks of birds...I can understand a gaggle of geese, a parliament of owls, and a paddling of ducks, but what's with a rafter of turkeys?!)

I recent read a book by Eric Brende entitled "Better Off". He and his wife spent a year and a half shutting off the power while they learned to live off the land within an Amish (or perhaps a similar group) community. The book is an enjoyable and thought provoking read as a young couple used to the amenities that electricity provides learns to do without. After the experiment, he determines that they were better off.

We have always assumed that we would have a constant supply of cheap fuel resources and we have become very dependent upon electricity and crude oil. The recent spike in gasoline supplies have forced some of us to conserve, but as one who tends to lean toward the validity of the peak oil thoery, I don't really believe we will receive any meaningful reprieve from high prices. In fact, it is my thought that within the coming decades rising oil costs will significantly impact our lives.

I have some pictures to share, but I'll wait for a later time. Hopefully I'll be more faithful to contribute to this blog in the weeks ahead.

A time to plant

2007-04-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

It has finally warmed up to the point that I decided it was time to work up the garden and get some dirt under my fingernails. I let the boys do some of the manly work, mainly wrapping their hands around the handles of an old Montgomer Ward rototiller that does a fine job of tilling up the soil if you can handle the obnoxious thing. It weighs about a million pounds and is self propelled. Once the garden is worked up a little, it works well, but if you're working up sod or hard soil, it's debatable whether or not the actually tilling is done by the tiller or the two furrows made by your feet as you try to dig in to keep the the tiller from dragging you across the yard.

The girls helped do the planting, which thus far consisted of onions, beets, carrots, radishes, and potatoes. We'll wait a week or two before putting in the warm weather crops.

Some folks talk about the size of chicken brains and their knowledge to get in out of the rain. I couldn't help but observe that while we were laboring under the warm April sun, they managed to find a place in the shade to relax and watch.

April Update

2007-04-22T03:39:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have contributed to the blog. We are all alive and well, eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring. We've had a few nice days in April, although the nice weather was interrupted by a snow storm and about 10 days of cold weather. Warm weather has returned and with it marked the beginning of the garden and mowing season. The grass was mowed a couple days ago and the garden is now tilled. I planted a few rows of onions and hope to soon contribute radishes and potatoes to the mix.

The kids are withing a couple weeks of completing their school assignments. The boys spent the dad with their grandpa - his job was to "work the living tar out of them"! They'll be busy here as well. I have a good bit of wood to cut and a neighbor nearby asked me to clean his timber up.

Our work schedule is filling up nicely. We have a few new projects to begin this month and the woodshop seems to be as busy as ever. I'll try to post a few pictures of recent projects soon.

I recently traveled to Holland, Michigan, to visit a friend of mine who has been struggling with his health. The trip began sluggishly as the transmission went out of our old van. I've found another van to replace it. The new van has high miles and we'll hope I picked one that has some life in it yet.

It seems like these days one can hardly miss a day without a horrific new story. There is a great need in this country for revival. In the same sense that as the apostle Paul prayed that his country men would be saved, I think it is time for those among us who profess the name of Christ to earnestly plead that God might show mercy upon this land and bring about revival through the working of His Spirit.

Of course, history reveals the constant rise and fall of civilizations. It could well be that God intends to bring this nation to her knees. We as a people have grown coveteous and have erected idols of our own making. Our society seems to frown on authentic Christianity and lawmakers pass laws that call good evil and evil good. I once heard a prominent Christian educator remark that our society is now for the most part biblically illiterate.

The saints of God must not lose hope. The weapons of our warfare our powerful and the gospel of Christ is well able to melt the hearts of the most wicked men. Saul of Tarsus was heading to Damascus to pillage and plunder the church of God and on the way the Spirit of God transformed his heart and he became the apostle Paul, planting churches rather than destroying them and writing Scriptures proclaiming the gospel of Christ rather than trying to eradicate those who confess Christ openly. May God do such work across this land.

March is here!

2007-03-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

Well, March is finally here, but really so you would notice. The first day of March held some indication of spring with a high temperature above freezing and some rainfall. Thunderstorms were near enough to hear thunder in the distance. Winter was not to be shoved aside so easily, as this first picture indicates. March 2 saw a day of snow and wind, with drifts closing some rural roads and making travel miserable. This morning, the temperature stands at only 7 degrees.

February was cold and snowy, in fact, it was the fifth coldest February on record and the third snowiest. Nearly half of the month so lows below 0. Cabin fever begins to set on because there was only so much you can tolerate to do outside when the wind chills are 40 below 0 and the snow is knee deep. The girl snuggle up on the couch to keep warm, trying to catch a little heat from the fireplace. Our woodstove does a nice job heating our house most of the time, but when it is below 10, the cold begins to creep in from the walls and the house heats rather unevenly.

The animals survive the best they can, sometimes casting a woeful glance into the house, wondering where the kids are and smelling the wholesome smells of supper cooking and bread baking. The eyes of this cat don't show up in this uploaded picture, but the little angry slits seemed to indicate an intense jealousy for those basking in the heat of the fire. I don't mind pets, but I can't tolerate them indoors. The chickens handled the cold quite well. We lost none and they continued to lay between 30-36 eggs each day.

After working the shop, I enjoy coming in and reading to the kids. Sometimes I will sit in my Amish hickory bent rocking chair, but if its chilly, I'll lay on the couch and get underneath a blanket. The kids pile on as listen as I read to them. In this case, I was reading one of the books in the Little House on the Prairie series. They are delightful stories and it had been a long time since I last read them. When I was a youngster, I was fascinated by the Old West and often dreamed that I had a nice little homestead somewhere. Maybe if I was honest, I would confess that I still do!

Given my past knowledge of March, I anticipate that one day it will warm up and the snow will begin to warm. I need to start thinking about pruning the apple trees and raspberry bushes. We have 20 new little chicks and I need to make a new pen for them when it gets a little warmer to keep them separate from the rest of the chickens. I've thought seriously about getting a hive of honey bees, but I haven't quite decided on that for sure. I love honey, but I am kind of afraid of bees - and I really hate being stung. I was reading an article on raising bees, I read that even a gentle bee keeper will "inevitably get stung." Hmmm.

Pa Ingalls went out into the big woods and loaded the buck board wagon with honey from the big honey tree. Upon cutting down the tree and scooping out the contents, he commented that "Bees never sting me." Well, Pa, if I get bees, I hope I am like you!

Brrr....

2007-02-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

It's been kind of an odd winter. After five weeks or so of very mild weather, it has turned cold and snowy. We've had temps below 0 now for the past week or so. Yesterday about 6" of fluffy snow fell. I don't mind the cold weather at all, but it is really hard on things. Our van's brakes seem to be awry and we've had some frozen water lines.

The critters around the house seem to handling the cold rather well. The hens are still laying. One decided to lay a rather enormous egg. Speaking of eggs, we took some to be incubated, but we have yet to hear how many of the eggs are fertile. One of the boys wants to have chickens for a 4-H project, so they need some chicks that are hatched fairly early in the year.

We finished building a covered roof over a cow lot for a farmer who had issues with the EPA after a heavy rain storm washed cow manure from the lot into ditch, which ultimately emptied itself into a yard on the edge of a small town at the bottom of the hill. It was pretty cold work, but at least the lot was frozen, so it wasn't too messy for working.

This week we framed up walls in a basment for some folks who wanted to finish their basement off. That project is waiting for the electrical and plumbing to be installed.

In the shop, I am working on a two piece desk and a kitchen island. I hope to conclude both projects within a week.

Journal Entry

2007-01-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

Winter has finally returned after about a month's absence. We received about 4" of snow last week and with it arrived colder weather. It continues to snow - there is a pretty decent snow cover now and with the deep snow cover on clear nights it has been below 0. We have a good supply of firewood and with the furnace heating the wood shop which is on the northwest of the house to 45 degrees , we haven't even had to use the house furnace yet.

The kids continue to read and do their school work, mingling in ample time to play in the snow. The boys finished reading a book on Davy Crockett and are now reading Up From Slavery. They get to pick their fictional reading, which I notice has been trending toward Louis L'Amour stories. Of course, each day they do their math assignment as well as a writing assignment.

I have been reading to them a book by Bruce Chadwick entitled "The First American Army". It is a good story on some of the men fighting under Washington. I was delighted to discover a new American hero named the Revered Ammi Robbins.

He was a Congregationalist pastor that pastored in Connecticut. I did a bit of research on him and I believe his family traveled across the ocean aboard the Mayflower. Many of the Robbins men were pastors and eventually held offices at various colleges. Rev. Robbins volunteered to serve as a chaplain, enlisting four different time in spite of the horrific things he endured as a chaplain. He was with Arnold's troops during the disastrous campaign to invade Canada. He labored among men dying of small pox and was sick several times himself. He was a very revered chaplain who went beyond the call of duty in comparison to most chaplains.

He left behind a journal which seems to no longer be in print. This book quotes the journal often and I would love to get a hold of a copy. He had a great love for the troops and at times was able to preach before crowds of thousands. He was often praised for his powerful preaching, to which he replied "May I be more concerned to please God and less to please men." He was advised to not reenlist due to his health, yet he was moved with compassion due to the plight of the men and their need for prayer. At a visit to the hospital at Ticonderoga, he remarked "Never was such a portrait of human misery as in these hospitals." He prayed with them and preach with them, urging them to "Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer."

Our hens continue to lay well. We are preparing to deliver some eggs to a neighbor that has an incubator. The neighbors 4-H projects require birds for showing at the fair this fall to be born this year. So we are going to take 3 dozen eggs and see if any birds hatch. This family has a lot of knowledge in raising birds and it sounds as if they were surprised to hear how well they were laying and how quickly they reached a nice butcher weight (for a dual purpose heavy breed.)

It's in the dead of winter, but I have started getting seed catalogues already. I love the cold and snow but I did notice that I was looking at the one of the spring catalogues the other night! Thinking of spring got me thinking about hunting for mushrooms. Mmm!

Wheat, flour, bread

2007-01-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

For thousands of years, bread has been a staple food product for people all over the world. Scores of different grains have been harvested and ground in some form or another to create a flour with which bread can be made. With the augment of the bakery evolving into the industrial food industry, the art of grinding whole wheat flour and baking fresh bread soon was lost, first to the wealthier class and finally to all but a few.

We recently purchased some different kinds of grains and a grain mill so that we could try to make our own breads and noodles. Rachel has tried a few different recipes, using different varietes of wheat, with some working well and others not working so well. I have yet to try my hand at making a loaf, although I hope too soon.

There are a lot of steps required to turn wheat into bread. It first has to be harvested and then the kernels need to taken from the stalk. The kernels then need to be ground into a flour. Our ancestors took a handful of stalks and beat them upon ground to separate the kernels from the head. The kernels were then ground by hand, simply by beating the wheat with a stone, which was first operated by hand until the stone mill was invented.

We chose a more modern method - we bought a Bosch Grain mill that utilizes an electric current! Some of the kneading can be done by the Kithcen Aid. After the dough is ready, we put it in an electric stove and bake it until its fragrance demands that we take it out! (Now that we can fancy ourselves to be fine agrarian bakers, we have to admit that our skills are made possible by the power lines outside!)

The kernel consists of three parts, the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. All three parts have a specific nutrient function. Bread available commercially typically uses white flour, which is made specifically of the endosperm. The governments mandatory enrichment program insists in adding back some of the nutrients that are lost, but there can be no denying that a loaf of bread made out of whole wheat flour is more nutritious and more flavorful. The dawning of the of commercial food production is actually a rather interesting study. We invented so many "helpful" techniques in commercializing the production of foods that it was noticed in the 20's and 30's that people were suffering from poor nutrition. The government finally determined that they had better step in an require certain food products, like flour and milk, to be enriched.

There was a time when bread baking was a staple part of the domestic life. It's fascinating to observe that in our age of knowledge and information that most of us have no idea how to turn a kernel of wheat into a loaf of bread. Most of us don't have the time to take to make it. We load up with bread from the super market, with its plastic wrapping and 100 ingredients that are difficult to pronounce.

Last Saturday, the house smelled of fresh bread. Three of the four loaves are pictured above. I fear that they have somehow mysteriously disappeared!

Football, anyone?

2006-12-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

As my father enjoyed football, we grew up watching football. While we all had our favorite teams (Bears, 49ers, Broncos, Titans), we were willing to watch any match up.

Usually this time of the year our family gets together for a meal and the 8 boys to hit the gridiron, although sometimes a cousin, neighbor, and now sons join in the fray.

The weather is immaterial - we play in mud, snow, grass, or whatever the day affords. We are older now. Some of us are slower and

smarter. Well, maybe slower anyway! The ladies question the smartness. Today we hit the field and after picking teams (picture one) we were underway. I shortly hit my brother Joe for a nice gain (picture 2) Before he blew out his knee (he can rotate his patella between his ankly and waist), he was truly an incredible athlete. Long ago in a game on a 5th down and the whole field to go, I hollered to the defense I was throwing to Joe rather than punting. Amidst quadruple coverage, he leaped up, tipped the ball to himself, and scored. The knee has slowed him a little, but he is still the favorite target.

We get a little too excited and rowdy and the young kids still are a little intimidated to get too close. We tried handing the ball off to Jesse and have him run behind us in an old "Flying Wedge" play, but he got scared and got sacked for a loss. Here we have him doing something (picture 3) I am not sure exactly what. Surely celebrating a splendid play by his father.

Picture four reveals a great defensive play on my part, in which I rushed in and sacked my brother Mike for a big loss. He "slipped" prior to the

sack, although I suspect he actually fell rather than face my furious rush. I gave him a nice slap on the hinder to accentuate my continued domination, even in my old age!

When will we quit playing? My wife has no sympathing for my aching back and sore knee. She seems to think that one day I should grow up and put away childish things. I have just too many fond memories playing with my brothers while we were growing up. If you throw in my sister (who plays like a girl) we grew up with enought for a baseball team. I have a lot of fond memories and even a few injuries left from an endless number of historic skirmishes. I suspect that 40 years from now we will be out with our canes and wheechairs arguing whether or not we tottered across the line. I doubt that we will have gained any sympathy from our wives yet at that point, but I sure hope they will come out and help us find our dentures after we are done!

There was a very grievous conclusion to the 2006 skirmish. Wishing to take a few photos of our athletic prowess, I set my digital camera on top of one my brother's vans. With a shock of dismay, I recalled my action right after they had left. Two miles down the road I located the camera, which was sadly worse for the wear. Evidently foreign camera makers cannot make a camera suitable to withstand the rigors of falling six feet at 60 miles an hour onto the blacktop.

As we opened up our Bibles for our evening Bible study, we read Proverbs 1 and in defining the words discretion and judgment I used my nearly four hundred dollar lapse of judgment as an example to define what good judgment and discretion mean. I knew better than to trust my absent minded brain to leave it there, but really, could I risk missing a play if I were to take the time to set it safely inside?! No way! "Hike!"

December update

2006-12-22T03:49:00.000-08:00

We survived the first midwest snowstorm, although the effects of that storm are now memory. A week of mild weather has melted the snow and now things are muddy mess.

Work has slowed down and I have ben spending more time in the shop. Soon I'll post a few pictures of some of our last projects.

The kids have been healthy and continue to work in their schooling. Since the aunts have been complaining about the pictures of bird, I though I'd better shape up and show a couple of the kids!

Now how did this get here?!

Finally, a decent snowfall!

2006-12-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

We managed to get clipped by the midwest snowstorm that made the news, although we were right on the edge. We managed to get 4" here, although 20 miles to the west there was nothing and just 10 miles east there was 8"

Following the snow were very cold temps - with the morning temperature only 7 degrees. A distant memory are the nice 55 degree days we enjoyed earlier this week!

The hens are tucked in their chicken house with care. I insulated the ceiling and have the water heater on. They are a little grumpy about not being let out to forage around the yard, but I am thinking they would not find much for now. With 42 hens, we've been getting about 3 dozen eggs a day.

From fall to winter

2006-11-30T03:50:00.000-08:00

The midwest has enjoyed an unusually warm stretch of weather which was accompanied by a good bit of rain. It was a nice rain to soak into the ground before the winter considering the fact that the fall has been quite dry. An arctic front pushed through yesterday dropping the temperatures and changing the rain to ice and sleet. Tonight's forecast suggest a significant snow by morning.

Over thanksgiving, I finished a few fall projects that I had not gotten around to. I spaded up my flower garden and separated some iris bulbs and planted some tulips and crocuses. I also put some insulation board on the ceiling of the hen house. The chickens have enjoyed the mild weather, scratching around to find some seeds, grass, and a few bugs that resurfaced during the recent warm spell. Our 42 hens are netting us between 30-36 eggs a day.

A friend of mine gave me a few books written by Eric Sloane, a New Englander who wrote about early AMerica in the 40's - 60's. He was a pilot/meteorologist who wrote fondly of past days and early American traditions. I detect in his writing an individual wired very much like myself. How could I help but to select "A Reverence for Wood" as the first one to read?

I was especially amused by these paragraphs on p 45: "During the period of the Civil War, the upheaval of American society resulted in much ugliness and some detioration of taste. Before that time, agriculture and the preservation of tradition were a cherished part of the good life, but from then on the philosophy of "change for the sake of change" became a dominant force in American thinking.

Hardly were the battles over when the iron factories, which had been making the hardwares of war, began seeking inventors and inviting them to set their sights on peacetime production. For a while there were born countless intricate machines devised to do any job faster and poorer. By 1865 there were four hundred and fifty two all metal apple-parers invented, yet the old timers preferred the paring knife. William Morris recognizes his age, remarking that the great achievement of those postbellum days was "the making of machines which were the wonders of invention, skill, and patience, used for the production of measureless quantities of worthless makeshifts."

Today we build additions and garages for people to store their measureless quantities of worthless makeshifts. People gather before store fronts hours before they open so that they can buy the latest round of electronics that are obsolete by the end of the year. Shopping carts are full of worthless goods that the buyers actually can't afford and end up purchasing on credit. There will be a flurry of gifts opened in a few weeks, to be looked at and discarded for something new in a few weeks. The credit cards will be maxed out but the closets will be full.

I like trinkets and gadgets. I just purchased Rachel a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook and a pasta attachment so that we can make our own breads and pasta. I have also ordered a grain mill so that we can grind our own grains to make our flours and meals. Not only is there much nutritious value in preparing your own foods, there is something very enjoyable and wholesome in laboring with your hands to use God's creation to make something useful.

Let us not lose sight of the word "labor." It takes time to plant a garden and trees, to tend and nurture them, to preserve the food, to do the chores, gather the eggs, and butcher the meat. Yet there is a wholesome enjoyment in laboring with your hands, exercising dominion over God's creation by taking raw materials and transforming them into usable entities. It gives the kids an opportunity to do chores and to learn how to create.

A friend of mine who used to work in the grocery store industry told me once that at any given day, there exists on a two to three day supply of food on the shelves of the stores. Due to the conveniences of the modern age, we have become wholly dependent upon what we presume to be the immediate and exhaustive supply to the point that it is rare to find someone who stores goods for a rainy day. While the early American labored the whole summer to set food by for a long winter, we assume that nothing could possibly happen to our economy, our dollar, and our system of goods and services. If we were to wake up one morning and find the shelves at the store empty we would be in immediate trouble. We have placed a child like faith on the availability of electric power, available food, etc. As I consider our society, I am often reminded of the children of Babel. What would happen should God be pleased to visit our proud and defiant culture with the rod of adversity?

Projects

2006-11-17T04:25:00.000-08:00

Although it is nice to be able to work in new construction and nice rennovation projects, the rural area in which we reside requires us to be willing to do some not so glamorous projects in order to stay busy. This year in particular has seen a marked slowdown in new constructions and we have built several farm buildings and have done a lot of roofing to fill in the slack.

Yesterday, I finished a project yesterday that entailed building a shed out of second hand materials. This particular farmer has provided us with a lot of building projects over the years. He travels to auctions and buys seconds, leftovers, and damaged building products and stores them until he has enough on hand to put up a building.

Typically, the buildings are overbuilt and the mystery is unveiled when the finish siding products are brought out of the shed. Usually, they consist of a wagon load of industrial steel contained in a myriad of colors. This garage boasts around 15 different colors. And while the look might not be up to some folk's standards, the fact of the matter is that it will make a nice shed and the materials were purchased for pennies on the dollar!

While some carpenters hate working on the farm, I have never minded it. This particular place is about an hour from my house and is out in the middle of nowhere. It is a quiet place in which to work. The only curious bystanders are the mules and horses, who curiously wonder what we are up to as they contemplate being hitched up to the plow in the spring.

6 month report on raising chickens

2006-10-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've been asked a few times what I've learned in regard to raising chickens, so I thought I might share some of my musings here. I am not an expert and am learning as I go. My opinions are based mostly on what I have read and heard.

We have enjoyed our birds and I would recommend raising them if you are interested in raising your own food. Chickens do not require a large amount of space or time, so they may be a good starting point to work yourself into a "doing chores mode."

We purchased a straight run of Plymouth Barred Rocks from Cackle Hatchery toward the end of April. We purchased a 100 and we received 105 chicks. We lost four over the first couple days, but overall I was quite happy with the quality of the birds. We were able to obtain a wooden chicken coop, equipped with a wooden floor, two windows, and a row of wooden nesting boxes. There are a lot of ideas floating around as to the best structure for raising hens, but I have to confess that I think a permanent wooden structure is the way to go, especially if you live up north in the cold country or in the country where there are varmints looking for a warm chicken to eat.

I have a series of fenced off pens for grazing, although the first day I let them out a predator ran off a couple of birds. As I had all young birds, with no hens or rooster to protect the flock, I bought some plastic netting and put a "lid" over the pens so that I wouldn't have to worry about the predators. Now that they are approaching full grown size, they are able to forage on their own and we have not had any problems with predators.

We fed the birds an organic grain/mineral mix to supplement their foraging. There are those that advocate letting the birds just forage on their own, which I suppose is sufficient, but I think that supplementing is ideal for optimal growth. We were able to purchase an organic grain mix from some folks from our church that operate an organic farm. They are also a wonderful disposal device of left over garden plants and produce!

We found our first egg about three weeks ago. Now we are receving about a dozen eggs a day. Most of the first eggs were rather small, but now some are already "large" and we have found a few "extra large" that were double yoked. They lay brown eggs and I am impressed with how incredibly smooth the shells are.

After about 14 weeks, we started to butcher the roosters. At 14 weeks, they dressed between 3 and 4 pounds. At 17 weeks, they were between 4 and 5. The last batch I did averaged nearly five pounds. The Barred Rocks are a dual purpose bird. We have been happy with the quality of meat - the drumsticks are longer but the breasts are smaller than the hybrid meat birds.
We butchered 46 roosters, leaving three roosters with the flock.

The Barred Rocks are, in my opinion, a breed worth investigating. While i have no ability to compare and contrast, thus far I have no complaints. They grew just a little slower than I expected, but they also are a very calm and mild mannered breed. We had no trouble at all with pecking and fighting. From chick to adult, they are very nice looking breed.

Soon I will learn how they do during the winter! I plan to do a bit of insulating on the ceiling and I turn the light on around 5:30. I plan to plug in a heat lamp during the colder winter days. Check back in April and I will share what I learned!

Taste of Winter

2006-10-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

I was somewhat surprised to see the scattered flurries forecast for last night end up coating the ground nearly an inch early this morning. Today was early December cold, with afternoon highs reaching only the middle 30's and not even melting the snow in the shaded areas.

We gathered all the potatoes early in the week and everything was basically out of the garden and the fruit trees. I butchered the last 13 of our roosters a couple days ago. We left three roosters with the flock and the past two days we have gathered two dozen eggs.

This might be the earliest I can recall seeing the ground white with snow. I recall some snow on the ground a couple times near the end of October, but not this early.

I enjoy the fall and winter seasons very much. The wood stove is hot and the house is warm. The aroma of woodsmoke outside reminds me to rejoice in the blessings of winter.

It felt good to come in and stand next to the wood stove!

Thoughts on education

2006-10-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

We recently acquired about 30 DVD's worth of homeschooling DVD's that contains 150,000 written pages of reading materials. The DVD's were assembled by the Robinson family and the course of study, which emphasizes self teaching, is entitled "Robinson Self-Teaching Home School Curriculum." While we do not fully rely on the self teaching method of study, we are using the curriculum extensively. Not only have the three oldest children been reading from the book list, I have to confess that there is a lot on the disks that interest me! We also paid extra to purchase the G. A. Henty collection. Our evening reading consists of reading Henty's book on William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. (Now we are ready as good Scottsmen to repel the British!)

When I am out and about, I am often asked about my children and quickly the question seems to be asked "Where do your children go to school?" When I answer that my wife instructs them at home, sometimes I am greeted with a flood of question while others turn white and begin to cower and look for a place to hide. The questions that follow are often difficult to answer, particularly if you are speaking to an unsaved individual.

Homeschooling is becoming increasingly popular. While it is true that most homeschoolers tend to be religious in nature, there is an increasing number of families who are disgusted with their local options and opt for alternative opportunities other than the local government school. Many religious families will answer that they homeschool because of various issues they have public schools - sex education, thoery of evolution, bad habits of students. Other just prefer not to delegate the training of their children to others. While all these things can be rightly considered as things to ponder, our reasons for choosing to homeschool are, I believe, much more deeply rooted.

All of education, regardless of the philosophy implemented, is concerned about uncovering and unfolding three basic questions: what is true, what is good (moral, right conduct etc.), and what is beautiful (literature, art, etc.) It is impossible to establish a course of curriculum without attempting to answer and reveal the answers to these three questions. Even a course of curriculum that claims to be tolerant and embraces every system of faith or belief as a viable form of life expressions subtly teaches that that which is true, good, and beautiful cannot be truly known or expressed, rendering that such elements are defined only by the particular beliefs that an individual or a culture express.

As a Christian, I hold to an exclusive definition of what is good, true, and beautiful. While there is a segment of Christianity that is bothered by being accused of being intolerant and exclusive, we understand that Christ spoke an exclusive word in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me." I consider the Christian Scriptures, the Bible, to be the authoritative rule for mankind. I believe the Bible to be the very Word of God, written by men who were inspired by the Spirit of God. The Scriptures for me are my rule of faith and practice.

Truth, goodness, and beauty are thus defined by what God has said. To dig even deeper into these things, it should be said that these three things exist only because God is. Truth, goodness, and beauty are not established by an aribitrary set of standards, but rather are established because they are defined by and flow through the very essence of God Himself. Because God is true, good, and beautiful and has been pleased to reveal Himself and His will to mankind, we can, as those who bear the image of God, attempt to define these three elements as we seek to live our our days on this earth.

King Solomon wrote "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." While education certainly can and does help to establish a civilization, intrinsically an education apart from the fear of God is an empty and vain thing. "What does a profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Knowledge is established and ultimately profitable only as the student begins his course of education by acknowledging that God exists and has set the standard as to what establishes truth, goodness, and beauty.

It is our desire to raise children that will love God and neighbor. It is our hope that we will leave behind a legacy of godly children that will marry godly spouses and raise up godly children of their own. We hope that they pattern their lives after the Word of God and that through them God will be pleased to confound the wisdom of the world. We pray that God might be merciful to us and pour out His grace upon our children and our children's children as we strive to be faithful to raise up our children in the way they should go.

Proverbs 23:24 "The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice." When we turn old and gray, I imagine the glow of the temporal pursuits that we have labored over throughout our lives will begin to fade in importance and relevance. As a carpenter and craftsmen, I know that some of the things that I have made and built will outlast my lifetime. Yet all that these things that these hands of mine can produce ultimately will be destroyed. As I sit in my rocking chair, I am hopeful that I can rejoice greatly in watching my children raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What point is there, ultimately, to leave behind a bunch of cabinets and a few houses? How will these things ultimately better my land and my countrymen? The answer is that they will not - what is of greater importance is that I leave behind sons and daughters that will work with their hands to the glory of God and will preach the gospel both in word and deed. I want them to grow up knowing that it is the fear of God that is beginning of knowledge.

As my children study history, they are going to understand these things not as the chance meanderings of the world of men, but rather as the unfolding of God's sovereign will as He unfolds His plan of redemptions and established a house for His name. They are going to be raised with the understanding that it is God who establishes and destroys both men and civilizations. They are going to understand the laws of science and mathematics are established becuase God exists and has made them and decreed them into existence. They are going to be taught that truth is established by the Word of God and that they should regard God as true and every man a liar. They need to be instructed how to live and how to formulate opinions as to the rightness of a situation by what the Scriptures declares. They need to establish beauty as it is defined by God himself. What makes a successful individual? What marks a beautiful woman? All of our works, even our poems and drawings, should be done to the glory of God.

"In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." It is our belief that even our education, regardless of what it make look like in the details, should be grounded upon the fear of the Lord and acknowledge God as the creator and sustainer of the universe. Our edcuation should be steeped in the gospel of Christ. I have friends and relatives that choose not to educate their children themselves, preferring rather to make use of the public school system. It is not my desire to impugn their motives and desires for their children and I do not beat down their doors to complain about and mock their choices. Such a choice cannot be my own, however, for I cannot bear the thought of delegating the responsibility of shaping and training of my children to those who have no fear of God before their eyes, nor can I see any wisdom in rearing children within an educational system that is godless.

The souls of my children are precious to me and unfortunately, the parents of my children are weak and beggarly. There is much that we have yet to learn and we tremble before an Almighty God and earnestly enquire that He might guide and sustain us as we attempt to raise the children that He has given us for His glory. The shaping and nurturing of our children's heart belongs ultimately to God and I pray that as we are faithful to teach and preach Christ that God might be pleased with our efforts. We both fear God - and this is the beginning of knowledge.

Chicken butchering

2006-10-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

We found time to butcher about 35 roosters the past week or so. The boys selected the biggest of the roosters two at a time, which I inserted into the killing cones. Once inserted, I cut their throats and let them bleed out for a minute of so. Some folk just simply cut their heads off and let the headless birds flounder around, but I have read that cutting the vein produces a more effective bleed. I prefer having the blood all poured out into one place rather than having it scattered all over.

After the birds have bled, I scalded them in water heated in a large electric pot. 140 degrees does a good job of loosening the pores so that the feathers can be plucked off. I borrowed a plucker from a farmer that I worked for. The rubber fingers rotate and do a good job at removing the feathers. After removing the feathers, my neighbor (some of his boys are pictured) and I cut them up. I checked for any remaining feathers and cut off the head and feet while Art gutted the birds. We have consumed a couple of them now, one of them baked in the oven and another deep fried. Both of them were excellent!

We raised barred rocks, which are combination meat/egg bird. Most of the birds butchered weighed betwen 4-5 pounds dressed. We are gathering eggs now. Yesterday I found 5, which marks the most we have found thus far in a single day.

It is enjoyable to be able to tend some creatures and to use the land that God has given us to provide some of our food. I am elated that our kids have a chance to learn from these experiences that there is a reward for laboring with our hands.

Harvest Time

2006-09-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

We spent the day working around the house harvesting fruits and vegetables from the garden. This day is the first time in a long time that I recall devoting strictly to household chores.

I started the day running into town for some additional canning supplies. We have been busy this summer (Rachel more so than me) canning jelly, apple sauce, apple pie filling, and salsa. Our apple trees are loaded with nice apples and we have been working diligently to try to harvest

them.

We picked a bushel and a half of apples today and made cider for the first time. The kids picked the low apples and I set up a ladder and picked the high ones. Jesse dumped the barrels of apples into the cart.

We opted to can the cider rather than freezing to save on freezer space. At the end of the day, we had 21 quarts canned and a pitcher of cider in the fridge. It is very delicious.

The apple pie and suace is delicious as well. The kicthen has been a breeding ground for a myriad of tasty apple desserts. I turn up my nose at none of them! (My bellow tends to grow out though!)

I also picked another row of red pontiacs, which more than filled a 5 gallon pail. The onions are harvested and while the tomato vines are starting to thin, we have a lot of tomatoes yet to harvest. The pepper plants are still growing and healthy. The butternut squash is beginning to turn a nice pale brown color, so perhaps soon we will sample one.

We also, in addition to the cider, made about 10 pints of grape jelly. My brother has a nice supply of grapes and we traded a bucket of grapes for a bucket of apples.

I am very thankful for a bountiful harvest, as well as the opportunity that God has given to us to enable us to raise our kids in the country. I have always enjoyed an agrarian way of life and am pleased to have a spot on this earth to labor with my hands and to enjoy the fruits of that labor with my family. The kids love (ahem!) when I have a rare day home so I can put them to work!

You know, if I could be home all the time, we could grow enough meat and food on these three acres to sustain the needs of our family. It is a lot of work canning and preserving food. I have spent many evenings helping Rachel canning or freezing various things. Sometimes I calculate the actual cost of the canned goods and consider that their market value is far less than if I were to spend those hours working in my shop. Yet I believe there is something wholesome in laboring with your hands and working with your family to put some food in storage for the winter. It is an enjoyable and rewarding labor and I am pleased to be able to till this patch and to see God bless our labors. I hope that I can instill this same love for the land in the hearts of my children. They are a bit confused for now....I was in the garden digging potatoes with Mahaela and she when she saw some freshly dug carrots, she asked me, "What aisle are the carrots in?" I pointed to where I dug them and suggested that "We call them rows around here!"

Barn rennovation

2006-08-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

I showed a picture a month of ago of a barn we are rennovating. The first half of the crumbling foundation was removed and now a new concrete wall has been poured and a framed wall built on top to support the northside. This barn is attached on the east side of the Rilco Rafter barn. This barn is a post fram barn and is in dire need of work. This barn would be considered by most to be unworthy of the money required to restore.

The bottom picture shows the second phase of installing the new foundation. This was rather ambitious, for we tore out over half of the old foundation on the Rilco Rafter barn and a good part of the post form barn. The footing is poured and is awaiting the concrete walls to be poured.

The barn is supported by jacks and temporary posts. Up in the loft, three cables are installed to tie the rafters together so they do not spread on the bottom. I drilled holes in the concrete floor and tied cables to the wood plate at the bottom of the roofline to a pin inserted in the hole in the concrete.

We have not had any severe winds with the wall out, but the building has shifted a little while being suspended by the jacks. Hopefully the walls will be poured so that we can get the building supported on the new foundation.

The post form barn is going to take a lot of work to straighten. The west side of the wall has settled about six inches, causing the barn to lean to the west about the same amount. The top picture shows the east side of the structure and gives you an idea of how out of plumb the building is.

The heat and humidity have retreated to the south. We have had a nice string of warm days in the 70's and lows in low 50's. Nearly everything in the garden is ready for harvesting. Tomatoes are still being produced and my butternut squash vines are alive and produce some nice looking squash.

I was really pleased with the potatoe crop this year. I dug one row of red pontiacs and gleaned over a 5 gallon pail full of very nice sized potatoes. With the tomatoes we are making juice and salso. You couldn't knock the smile off my face with a 2x4 as we begin harvesting apples, pears, and plums from our fruit trees. Rachel has been making applie pies for the past couple weeks and last evening we made some apple jelly and some apple sauce. There is not a more tasty treats that fresh, warm apple sauce. Or maybe the applie pie with a hefty pile of vanilla ice cream! We are harvesting Macintosh apples now, but soon we will be dealing with a lot of Golden Delicious.

The chickens have yet to be sampled, but this shall not be the case for long!

Summer Update

2006-08-05T03:58:00.000-07:00

Well, summer has expanded into August already. It has been a rather hot summer here in the midwest, but unlike the previous couple years, we have had ample rainfall and it has been a good growing season. We have been harvesting sweetcorn, greenbeans, and summer squash. Soon we will be picking some tomatoes and digging potatoes. The trees are loaded with apples and we have a few pears and plums. I am looking forward to making some applesauce, jelly, and cider later this fall.

Our chickens are growing and soon we may butcher a few to sample the quality of the meat of the Barred Rock breed. They are beginning to fill up the brooder house when they come into roost! We have had good luck with them, loosing only a few as chicks and a couple to a predator. Hopefully, in a few weeks we will begin finding some eggs.

We found out in late April that Rachel was expecting. Unfortunately, a routine trip to the doctor revealed that the heartbeat was no longer present so she had a procedure to have the baby removed. She is nearly recovered from the surgery. Such things cause some disappointment, but we are both resolute in our belief that God works all things for our good.

I recently read a delightful little book entitled "Letters from a Confederate Soldier" which was compiled by Judy Inman. The letter provide some insight to the life of Isaac Yaokum, a young confederate soldier from Fannin County, Texas, who served in the 11th Texas Calvary. His father, Adam, settled in Texas in 1845.

The letters reveal his love for his family, their land, and the South. They detail his involvement in the Battle of Pea Ridge, the Siege of Corinth, and the Battle of Stones River in Murfeesboro, where he was twice wounded and later died. Most of the soldiers that left the Fannin County area did not return.

His family was deeply religious and a friend of Isaac who wrote his parents to report his death reported that he was a good soldier that was loved by his company and that he "was ready to die." He died with an optimistic view that the South would prevail against the invaders from the North.

Tractor days

2006-07-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago several farms get together and provide a forum for people to bring their tractors for display for people to look at. This year there was a fine collection of antique tractors with each farm hosting a particular manufacturer. The technology of the tractor has really advanced over time. A nearby neighbor recently bought a new combine and he went to attend a class so that he could understand how to utilize the computer technology!

Independence Day

2006-07-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Last July 4th while sitting and watching the fireworks, I couldn't help but wonder how many believers were considering the state of the country while celebrating the anniversary of Independence Day.

In 1781 John Newton preached a sermon entitled "The Guilt and Danger of Such a nation as This" I read this sermon years ago and I still enjoy reading it from time to time. The exhortations that Newton delivered to his English congegration are well fitted to the saints of 2006 in this land. Sadly, many churches merely mimic the shallow patriotism of the world, contemplating nothing but their desire to see "God bless America" in spite of the fact that she insists in despising God. "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

These words were spoken by the prophet Jeremiah to a sinful, adulterous Israel. I believe that Jeremiah's words are a fit reminder of God's wrath toward sinfulness. These words are not merely to be applied Israel, but to any nation "such as this."

The nation of Israel was founded because of God's grace. He set His favor on Abram and told him that he would be the father of many nation and that through him all the world would be blessed. To the nation of Israel God gave His Word and through Israel He sent the redeemer. The nation of Israel tasted of God's grace and mercy and His mighty works were displayed as He removed their enemies from before them. They turned against God and chose rather to worship the gods of Canaan. Godly constantly chastened the nation until finally he destroyed it at the hand of the Romans.

Much like Israel, America has an advantage in every way. It was founded by men who had deep roots in the Christian faith. It is said that the Bible was the most quoted source in the writings of the founding fathers. While the founding of our nation is not without error, there is much to admire in our history and it is saddening to see how far we are removed from our moorings. The Scriptures openly warn the wicked that they will one day be overthrown. What has happened to the great empires of history? The SCriptures declare that the Lord reigns, that he does what he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No wisdom, understanding, counsel, or power can prevail without his blessing. As righteousness exalts a nation, so sin is the reproah and will eventually be the ruin of any people.

I trust that we will be upon our knees praying that the gospel of Christ will be thundered from the pulpits of our churches. We need to pray that the saints will repent of their worldliness and beginning recognizing that they are peculiar people that have been bought with a great price. We must pray that if God be pleased that He would send forth revival throughout this land.

Barn jobs

2006-06-27T05:08:00.000-07:00

Our works is not always defined by new construction. We service several farm accounts, which, in this area, is necessary if you want to remain busy all of the time. This first picture reveals my brother Tom waiting for the last piece steel to conclude the upper portion of the barn roof. We nail 2x4's into the rafters to serve as a nailer to screw the metal roofing to.

The second picture show us in the process of replacing a crumbling foundation. We have to go inside and do some bracing and hope that the

building stands when the old foundation is ripped out. A new foundation will be poured (if the wind doesn't blow the thing over before hand!) and hopefully this old barn will last for a long time. We have done several of these projects and we have never lost one, but sometimes you feel like holding your breath until it finally sitting on the new foundation.

We have to feed our brother Josh every now and them and we sure hope his arms don't give out! I enjoy working on these old building, even though it is hard work and the old dust bothers my allergies. I think sometimes of those commuting into Chicago or working with the noise of the factory while I am working in the solitude of the country. The road next the barn getting the new roof is traveled maybe 15 times over the course of the day. The only sounds we hear, besides my singing from time to time, are the sheep and the goats lined up at the fence calling out to us, hoping we might be kind and feed them!

2006-06-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

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My dad has long enjoyed the hobby of scouring the area barns and ditches for the vesitiges of yesterday's farming equipment. I spent many a winter afternoon as a young lad holed up in the shop or barn fixing up these relics so that they could embark upon yet another journey in this late stage of their life, heading out east to be purchased by Amish and Mennonite farmers who will revive these old tools into 21st century farming implements.

I have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with old equipment. I enjoy history and I like seeing and learning about this old, horsedrawn equipment. I sometimes wish that I lived back in a simpler time that saw the landscape dotted by small farmsteads that were ran by families laboring together to live off of the land. These were not simple days, no doubt, for to survive required the sweat of the brow and the blood from wounds that were the result of hard, rigorous labor. Yet I have heard the old farmers sit around the tables at the local eating cafes speaking of getting together for the purpose of harvesting crops and raising barns. These days one rarely feels the need to know his neighbor, unless, of course, it is for the purpose of suing him when his dog leaves a deposit in the freshly groomed yard.

Yet I have a certain hatred for this old equipment. When one looks at my dad's barn full of old farming equipment, a quick, straight forward glance reveals the nostalgic impression of farming days gone by. You can smell the vesitiges of deisel fuel and boiled linseed oil liberally applied to old rusty chains and weather wearied boards. The smells of old twine and equipement would bring back a smile to many an old time farmer. I know better, however, than to be fooled by the Norman Rockwell-like display of American nastalgia, for when you turn your back, the old implements turn into snarling demons. Grease, rust, and grime are awaiting to soil your new pair of work jeams. Sharp, jagged lances of rusty iron are glistening with the thought of ripping clothing assunder and tearing gaping wounds into the flesh. Rust and corruption are giggling at the thoughts of the torn and lacerated knuckles that would dare to remove old bolts. Then there is the weight of the iron itself.... there is no plastic on these relics! No aluminum, no styrofoam, no, nothing at all that is easy to lift. It is just back-breaking, muscle-straining, fiber tearing sheer masses of incredibly dense and heavy iron. Yes, I carry the scars and wounds of fighting with these old dinasours, my dad, brothers, and I doing the manual labor of loading these things - staggering weights that would make a modern crane stand proud at the thought of moiving.

The first picture is a picture of a very nice McCormick grain binder. Cyrus McCormick first developed the first reaper, which took the place of using a hand swung sickle to cut the grain. The reaper slowly evolved into the binder when components (rollers, chains, tying device) were added to tie the grain into bundles with twine and a carrier was added to stack 5 or 6 bundles until they could be dropped off to make a schocks. Shocks varied from 6-9 bundles and they sat into the fields waithing for the threshing machines to separate the grain from the stalk. The threshing machines were first powered by steam and then later powered by a large belt driven by a pully mounted on a tractor. The binder was pulled first by horses and later by a small tractor. A steel wheel meshed with a series of gears powered the binder as it moved across the field.

I'll not be dishonest. I like to travel quickly, I enjoy air conditioning, and I like my electric powered wood working tools. I also enjoy using the computer. Yet for me real joy is derived as
I sink my hoe into my garden. I like to sit back and smell the freshly turned earth and listen to the sound of the corn growing in the ros. enjoy sharpening a plane iron and testing its edge on a piece of oak, smiling to myself as the keen edge takes off a whisker-thin shaving. I enjoy taking my dovetail saw and cutting some hand sawn dovetails to put a drawer together. Yes, I have a router jig, a dovetail router bit, and a router and I use them nearly exclusively when I want to put together a dovetailed drawer. But sometimes I like to turn off the radio, unplug the router, and take off my hearing protectors, and listen to the grating sound of a sharp saw cutting wood. Oh yea, there is then the feeling of the sweat beading upon my brow and running down my temple. It's labor, and sometime it hurts, but it is part of our portion that God has given us as we live out our days under the sun. And it is glorious...

Book review.

2006-06-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

It has been several months now since I set up this blog. Even though I do not spend a lot of time on it, I have grown to enjoy sharing a few of my musings every now and then. Although my father in law prefers the pictures to my musings, I guess he will just have to endure this blog entry. No pictures!

I have thought I might add a couple of items for the benefit of those that take of their time to read this. The greater benefit of this blog, though, is that it serves somewhat as a journal. I have always enjoyed the concept of a journal, for it affords you the opportunity to go back and review your journey through life. I would like to share with you occasional book reviews, partly to inform you as to what I am reading and what I thought of it, but primarily to chronicle the shaping of my thinking in light of what I have read. ( I suppose I should print this blog off from time to time, and perhaps when my children grow older, I can send them to their room and make them read my journal as a form of severe punishment!)

The last book I finished was book written by S C. Mooney entitled "Usury - Destroyer of Nations. The consideration of a biblical view of economics has been something that I contemplated much the past couple years. While the content of this book was not so startling to me as I have pondered the issue of usury (or interest) the past couple years, I can honestly say that this book is far removed from what we see in our society.

Mooney discusses the topic of usury through the form of five chapters in this small paperback of 238 pages entitled: Definition of Usury, history of Usury, Survey of Biblical Texts, Popular Excuses for Usury, and Choose This Day Whom Ye Will Serve.

We live in a society that is established upon an economy that thrives upon debt and usury. I would suggest that most of us have borrowed money at one time or another and that many of us have opened up saving account that have netted us a small percentage of interest on our money. In other words, we have either paid or received interest. Loaning money for interest was a subject that I had never considered until recently. In fact, I am not sure that I have ever heard the subject brought up in any teaching session at church.

The Scriptures say much about usury, although all of the passages are negative. The children of Israel were commanded not to charge interest to one another. (Ex 22:25, Lev 25:35-37, Deut 23:19-20) In Psalm 15, David asks, "Who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell on Thy holy hill?" One of his answers: "He who does not put out his money at interest." Wise King Solomon instructed his son that "he who increases his wealth by interest and usury, gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor."

The children of Israel were greedy and decided at various times that they should charge a fee for the use of money. The prophets had stern words for them: "You have taken interest and profits, and have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression, and you have forgotten me." and "if he does not lend money on interest or take increase, if he keeps his hand form iniquity and executes true justice between man and man, he is righteous and will surely live." Ez 18 and 22.

Wow! This is some disturbing instruction, considering how even most of our churches probably have money stashed in interest bearing accounts. This has not always been the case. For centuries, the church has sharply spoken out against charging interest. In fact, a few early confessions actually list usury as one of the violations of of the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal."

I cannot in this place rewrite his book, but I commend the book as an interesting read and I personally agree with much within it. Mooney writes: "covetousness breeds usury. Covetousness is more than simple desire. For the righteous, the desire for good which he does not own is what motivates him to produce those goods, or to produce other goods which he may trade for the goods he desires. There is nothing wrong with such desires. Covetousness, however, is a desire for something that belongs to another, which one would acquire unilaterally - apart from any production or trade. It is the germ of thef. It is a lusting after that which one cannot lawfully obtain. Covetousness is conceived of evil motives. In the case of usury it emanates from a natural desire for wealth that is tormented by an antecedent despising of work. Wealth comes from work. Ultimately, all wealth comes from the hand of God. As it is His decree that we work in order to live, in our experience the wealth which we acquire in this life is gotten through someone's work. The usurer avoids work, for he is under the delusion that his "money" is working."

Hmm...strong words. I think this is a subject that the church desparately needs to explore.

2006-06-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

We have had some splendid weather these past few days, with pleasant highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. The sun has been shining and the humidity is low - just perfect weather for getting some things accomplished around the house. I have taken a couple weeks off from the shop to get some outdoor chores accomplished.

The garden is now planted and many of the crops are beginnning to poke through the topsoil. We are still harvesting rhubarb and aspargus and soon we will have some radishes to eat. There is Basil to begin to harvest and dry, as well as chives.

The fruit trees are just loaded with fruit. Considering the past two years have seen killing frosts during the bloom, I have ceased being optomistic about the need of finding bushel baskets to store a robust crop, but now I am hopeful that we shall enjoy some fruit this fall.

The raspberries are blooming as well, and are, in fact, loaded with blossoms. Saturday morning I cut in a new door in the brooder house and allowed the flock to go out to pasture. Within two hours, a wild cat had managed to scale the 4' high fence and killed two birds. The flock had retreated to the indoors and were in the corners huddling together when I came up to check on them. I am not sure that there is any way to circumvent the wild critters that would enjoys a tasty chicken for lunch, so I believe that I will put up a poultry netting to serve as a "roof" to keep the unwanted varmints out. Eventually, we hope we will have some grown roosters and hens to serve as protectors. Having 100 chicks growing by themselves without any natural protectors means that they are rather defenseless on their own. They are growing quickly, as the picture can attest to.

Of course, summer now marks for more opportunity for fun and advntures for the kids. I have purchased a bow and a bb gun for the boys, although they can't use it apart from adult supervision. For some reason, good sense and reason are not easily attained by young creatures of the human male species. Each year they learn a little more....

One of our favorite stories from last year involved our youngest son, Jesse. He and the neighbor boy were outside hacking down tall grass when the neighbor boy pointed out some poison ivy. Jesse, skeptical of his friend's ability to identify possible danger, ginergly put forth a finger and touched a leaf. There was no lightning strike, no noise, no pain - nothing at all had happened.

Thus began an argument often heard among children (but occasionally among those discussing great theological truths): "Is not!" "Is too!" Jesse, his confidence in his botanical recongition skills bolstered by the unharmed finger, grabbed some leaves and rubbed them up and down his legs in a defiant show of evidence supporting his claim. Had he any prophetic skills to go along with his botanical skills, he may not have engaged in such a display of argumentation, for by morning he had one of the nastiest outbreaks of poison ivy on his legs that you have ever seen. I trust this year, he may be a bit more careful. But then again....

What happened to May?

2006-05-31T03:25:00.000-07:00

The end of May finds me with most of the garden planted. I have to plant some tomatoes and peppers yet, as well as my butternut squash. We had decent rains once again this month, in fact, we have had above normal rainfall for the past three months. This is resulting in a lot of lawn duty, as well as an increase in the number of mosquitoes.

The chickens are entering puberty! They are growing very quickly and have most of their feathers by now. The boys and I built a fence for them last Saturday and I will soon let the chickens out of doors. They are rather comical to watch, although I have to confess that it takes little to amuse me!

The boys are turning into good little workers. Their grandpa always tells me to "work the living tar out of them." While building fence, Aaron wanted to know if this counted. Not being much of a softy, I told him "No, this is still like playing!"

I built the fence by bolting treated 2x4 to steel posts. This should provide a long term rigidity for the 4' tall poultry netting. It will also make it rather easy to adjust the penned in area for size. Presently, the fenced in area is 13 by 16. I could also add a screened "roof" rather easily if I so desired. I am not sure that we want 101 chickens running wild over our place, so for now I am kind of planning to keep them within the confines of the house and pen.

We found out that Rachel is pregnant. She has had some complications, but everything is fine for now.

We have been discussing eschatology the past few Sunday evening at church. I presented the view referred to as postmillennialism, which I might add is a view that has a lot of appeal for me. In a nutshell, postmillennialism views that Christ will return after the millennium, a period of time in which the gospel will slowly advance throughout the world until the world is largely Christian. It considers much of the prophetic passages contained in the Olivet Discourse and the book of the Revelation of already being fulfilled during the destruction of Jerusalem. This is a view that I hold to as well. I have little time for the "Last Days goofiness" that we see prevalent in the church today.

I also have been teaching through the book of James, which is a wonderful book full of simple exortations that are difficult indeed to observe. James warns us to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. We always like to discuss and debate matters of the SCriptures. There are those times we need to just be quiet (James urges us to be "quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath) and start putting into pratice that which we are reading and being taught.

Rain

2006-05-16T03:45:00.000-07:00

Considering that the past year and a half have offered drought conditions to the midwest, it is pleasant to see a rainy spring for a change. These past few weeks the faucet has rarely shut off, which has contributed to our catching up on the rainfall deficits.

I have done nothing in the gardens due to the mud. The potatoes are coming up and the peas and radishes are marking the rows well. Not to mention the rain, it has also been cold - with the past several days only realizing highs in the 40's. One night last week we actually even had some snowflakes!

The mushroom season is nearly over. The abundance of rain has led to nice morel crop. I probably had overall my best year hunting them. A friend of mine found one the other day that measured 10" tall!

Our chickens are growing quickly. They have feathers on their wings now and they are really starting to go through the feed. I enlarged their pen the other day and raised the heat lights up a notch. I suppose it won't be too long and I'll be wanting to make a pen for them out of doors. I kind of enjoy having a few "livestock chores" to do in the morning!

The kids are nearing the end of their school year. We do give them a break for the summer, although they still are required to maintain a daily reading regimen. They are looking forward to concluding their remaining text books.

We received our property tax bill in the mail yesterday. It was up a significant percentage. I also noticed it is taking over a $50 bill to fill the van up. It would seem that the time is coming that due to inflation and rising taxes that soon the average working guy will not be able to own a home, unless he decides to get into one of those treacherous interest only loans. Considering the tremendous debt load of America and her citizens, I have concerns that our days as a prosperous nation economically are nearing a close. "The borrower is the lenders slave." Thus far our slavery has not appeared particularly onerous, but I fear that we be filling the bite of usury soon.

Farming?!

2006-05-02T03:49:00.000-07:00

This past Friday we received a shipment of 104 Barred Rock chicks. They were desposited into our brooder house and now they are running around investigating their pen as they hop from feeder to waterer.

We purchases a straight run and we intend to butcher all but a couple of the rooster and to attempt to keep the hens to see if we can a get a few eggs. We wouldn't mind seeing the hens set on some of the eggs to sustain our floc, but since we are rather new to raising birds, I suppose time will reveal how successful and industrious we are.

The kids, of course, are rather infatuated with them. A few days into the project and we have had already had to compile a consitituion and a bill of rights. We have had only two birds die thus far, but perhaps their biggest challenge will be surviving the love that kids can offer! We also will need to see if we can afford the feed at the rate the kids get it spilled all over the place!

We are grateful that the kids have an opportunity to be around some animals. Rachel and I have always desired to raise kids out in the country where they can play in the dirt and learn how to enjoy the fruits of an agrarian lifestyle. The kids are already efficient little laborers...they have carried and stacked several loads of firewood and sometimes I am amazed at what they can done. Of course, sometimes I am amazed at how desparate they are to try to get out of it as well!

Morels, anyone?

2006-04-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I wish this beauty would have been behind my camera today, but I was not quite so fortunate! I did march through the woods with the boys this evening and was rewarded with one black morel that was about 1" tall. It was not much, but we put it over the hot coals that cooked our hamburgers and ate it. I had to share with two kids, so I suppose that to say that I had a "taste" of mushrooms this year would be a bit of hyperbole!

I dearly love looking for and finding these rascals! I generally find myself on the short end of the stick and outside of one bountiful year, I generally have had to ration my findings. It is just a delight, however, to consider the wonders of the created world and to marvel at the beauty of what God has done.

A couple years ago I had marched many miles it seemed and had not one mushroom in my sack. I sat down on an old fallen log for a breather and spent some time in prayer, rejoicing in the day that He had made. While praying, I felt compelled to selfishly ask for some mushrooms. I guess if He can direct the disciples where to cast their net, I thought that perhaps God could direct my feet! Wouldn't you know that a few moment later I looked off to the right and spotted a beauty?! In but just a few minutes, I found about 20!

Another time my brothers and I were looking and found the mother lode in an old orchard. We picked a couple sacks of huge yellow morels. Most of the time all I gather are scratches from the briars and deet ticks, but what is a little blood and a few blood-sucking parasites for the taste of these wonderful 'shrooms!

Spring Projects

2006-04-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

We have had a string of uncommonly warm days for northern Illinois with warm highs in the 60's and 70's. Persistent thunderstorms this past Sunday brought much needed rainfall - with widespread amounts over 2" - and around 3 1/2" at our place. Some of the water ran off, but the most noticeable result of the rainfall was the growth of the grass. We even had to get the mowers out!

The garden has been tilled and planted potatoes and onions early this week. We set about 100 hills of potatoes and planted 200 onions. My neighbor and I have been working on wood and I am pleased to be able view nearly two years worth of wood now split and stacked. It's a lot of work, but it is nice to have so much done.

We were able to procure a chicken house for the hauling and $50. My dad and I took some time one afternoon and hauled it here, bending a few road rules in so doing. I have repaired the windows, added some electrical wiring, and built a temporary pen to house small chicks. We opted to order some Barred Rocks and are hoping to receive a straight run of 100 chicks. This is the first experience I have had with birds, so I suppose we shall wait and see how it goes.

Gardening already

2006-04-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

We know that the Scriptures say that life is like a vapor that appears for a short time and vanishes away. I think of this each time it time to plant the garden, recognizing that before long, it will be time to harvest. It is hard to believe that we are thinking of gardening already. The boys and I raked the remains of last year's garden and I fired up the big Montgomery Ward tiller that belongs to my dad. I have a love/hate relationship with that thing. It does a wonderful job at tilling when it runs, but it seems that every year something breaks and halts the operation. The thing weighs more than three men should lift, but fool that I am, I try to manhandle the thing every spring. I got half of the garden tilled and then, guess what? It broke down!

I am nearing completion of a couple pretty good sized cabinets jobs and now I need to turn my gaze to projects here at home. I would like to plant some of the cooler weather crops soon and there is a chicken house to get ready so that we can orders some chickens. We got a nice brooder house for $50 that needs a bit of repair and then we are hoping to order some chickens.

I am glad to be able to live in an area in which it is possible to teach the kids how to do some of the more staple things in life like planting a garden and taking care of some animals. This provides and opportunity for them to do some chore and to learn how things work. As we labor together, it gives time for us to speak of things that God has done, in allowing us to have the ability to use our hands for the purpose of laboring and to have an opportunity to praise Him for what He has done.

A Visit to a Maple syrup farm

2006-03-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

It was another chilly day today, but at the least the snow showers had stopped. We took occasion to take the kids to a nearby maple syrup farm so that they could see how pure maple syrup is made. I took this picture there as they stood next to this old McCormick bulldozer.

The farm is situated on 20 acres and they make their living selling their maple syrup products (syrup, candy, creams, sugar etc) as well as cutting and drying wood. My eyes lit up as we drove in when I saw logs, sawdust, and drying kilns! The kids stood around and waited while I toured the woodshop where molding, flooring, and paneling are made.

They receive up to 700 gallons of sap each day and they boil it in this wood fired stove here. They can boil of about 40 gallons every hour. It is a family ran business and the kids all play their part in doing their various chores.

One of the youngsters whose job is to stoke the stove and siphon on the syrup at the appropriate times managed to memorize both of Paul's epistles to Corinthians!

We came home with a gallon of syrup and a tub of maple cream (this stuff is to die for!) I came home with a price list for various lumber, moldings, and cutting/drying rates! I admire those who are able to put forth some ingenuity and a lot of hard work and make a living by working on the family farm.

As far as our "farm" goes, I have been pretty busy working on various cabinet jobs. I did go out in the snowflakes the other day and pruned the fruit trees and the raspberry plants. I eyed the gardens, which could have been tilled, but I passed for a warmer day. I also eyed a lot of other spring projects and wondered when I would get a chance to get at them. The boys got one of the wagon loads of wood unloaded and got started on the other one today. They complained that it was a bit too cold, but at 40 degrees, I decided not to be merciful! Get to work!

March

2006-03-17T04:18:00.000-08:00

"The stormy March has come at last,

with, wind, and cloud, and changing skies;

I hear the rushing of the blast, That through the snowy valley flies."

William Cullen Bryant

March is one of the my favorite months, for I greatly enjoy its temper and violence that is played out in the weather. The first Sunday of a month brought a widespread blanket of snow across the area, up to 5 inches locally. A week later we were in the 60's and I saw the first crocus blooms of summer. Last weekend, a supercell thunderstorm shown here delivered golfball size hail and 107 mile an hour winds in the Quad Cities. A few hours south tornadoes were wreaking havoc through central Illinois. We enjoyed nothing quite so violent, but did receive nearly three inches of much needed rainfall.

Yesterday saw a day of giant snowflakes, which deposited a couple of inches by day's end. The next week looks pretty cold as well, so any gardening and landscaping projects will have to wait until a nice spring day!

Sundry thoughts

2006-03-03T19:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Mariah turns three!

2006-02-17T04:44:00.000-08:00

A trip to Holland!

2006-02-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

Well, to make sure that I am not misunderstood, we were able to journey this past weekend to Holland, Michigan, and actually, there was about three inches of snow on the ground and the trees were dark and ghastly, seemingly void of any life. While we were there, we observed a massive army of squirrels, and if they are as fond of tulips as are the ones that dug mine up a couple years ago and ate them, I am uncertain whether this spring's tulip festival will be anywhere near as grand as the photo!

I enjoy visiting Holland, Michigan. In fact, setting aside the area in which we reside, I think this area is one of the most agreeable habitats that I have observed. It is bordered to the west by Lake Michigan, which tempers the bitter bite of the Midwest winter winds, but also serves to cool the hot, southwest winds of summer. The sandy soil of the region and the ample rainfall provides a favorable environment for fruit production, and within the city limits you can find acres of orchards, blueberries, and vineyards. I am rather partial to the blueberry fields and am intrigued by the vineyards. I have planted both on our property and thus far I have had no grapes, 5 pea sized blueberries, and 5 fat rabbits who constantly worry them. Thankfully, our friends pick some blueberries and freeze them for us so that we can enjoy their bounty when we visit. In fact, as I type this, I find my belly swollen with the two slabs of blueberry pie that Rachel made for me today!

We visited some dear friends of ours, Vic and Bev Edwards, who were the first people that we met in person after establishing an internet relationship. Our frienship was established back in the day of the 2800 baud modem, thanks to the invention of a former vice president who was at least engaged in some activity while his boss was chasing around the college interns. They (The Edwards, that is, not the politicians) are both dear friends of ours and have shown our family an incredible display of kindness and generosity. We have been able to help them on a few projects and every visit, whether for work or play, are centered on discussions (sometimes lively arguments!) over various theological topics.

Vic pastors Spurgeon Heritage Church, a baptist church much like ours that seeks to embrace and teach the doctrines that once defined the historical Baptist chuch. You can find Pastor Vic's blog here: http://xchristianity.blogspot.com He describes himself as a small "r" reformed, but capital "B" Baptist. While I prefer "R"eformed "b"aptist myself, we find much to agree and even those occasions in which we don't, I am pretty sure that he secretly believes that I am right but feels that he is to old or stubborn to admit it!

One of my favorite things in this world to do is to meet the saints that are faithfully serving and worshipping God. It is a great joy to enjoy the sweet communion of the saints and I was pleased to be able to attend services there Sunday morning and to even have an opportunity preach a message there. I am saddened for the listeners, for they were forced to endure what the people in our church have to put up with this week, but I trust that they were to find something of use in the words that were shared. I rejoice and praise God for these dear saints and I trust that God will be pleased to bless them as they labor to advance the gospel and to train and edify the saints that God adds to their church. I trust that you will be faithful to pray for the dear saints that labor faithfully around this globe.

Nehemiah - a Godly patriot

2006-02-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

I have been teaching through a series on Nehemiah and thought I would share some of my thoughts here for those interested in reading. My comments are largely derived from the first chapter.

There is some dispute as to the details surrounding Nehemiah. Most commentators agree that he was not a Levite and some suggest that he descended from the tribe of Judah. As we see the unfolding of that part history of Isreal while under the Persian captivity, we observe the grand display of God's gracious use of godly men. We find in Nehemiah a godly man who exhibited a godly outlook and was used mightily by the Lord. Even though he was able to accomplish much, he always attributed any successes as flowing from the hand of God.

Through God's providential working, Nehemiah finds himself first a captive, but ultimately a captive with a daily audience before one of the most powerful kings of the time. His conduct much have been upright and although a slave, he conducted himself with a godly nobility. Upon hearing the news of Jerusalem, a disheartened countenance was such a rare display that even the king took notice.

While many men have corrupted themselves by striving for every mastery that can be had at a kings court, Nehemiah's heart still belonged to his God and his countrymen. Observe some of the characteristics of a true patriot:

1) He has no desire for personal advance, but rather concerned himself with the affairs of his countrymen.

2) He is moved with true sympathy over the plight of his people. His thoughts and motives are not directed toward his own personal state, but immediately are bent toward the benefit of his people.

3) He is cognizant of the fact that God remains sovereign over the affairs of man and country. When he hears of the sad report of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, he falls to his face in prayer and acknowledges the God who causes calamity to fall upon a city.

I am often very disturbed by the conduct of those who profess to know God and would suggest that they would seek the high moral path. Nehemiah bowed himself to the will of God and purposed in his heart to do whatever task the Lord had need of. We seem to spend much time in voicing opinion, deriding those we deem to be in theological error, and mocking those with whom we disagree. We are often filled with a haughty pride that fills us only with a desire to do much talking, yet accomplishing little of substance. We have recorded for our own instruction the actions of a righteous man and there is much that we can learn.

Nehemiah was a man of prayer:

First, let us observe the reverence with which he yeilds his heart in prayer. He acknowledges the Lord by recognizing that He is greatly to be feared. He recongnizes Him as the High and Lofty one who inhabits the Heavens. Nehemiah himself falls prostrate before His holy name.

Second, we do well to notice his persistence in prayer. Nehemiah was truly grieved and diligently besought the Lord, day and night. "The fervent prayer of the righteous avails much"

Third, observe his penitence in prayer. He is woefully aware of his personal sin, the sin of his father, and the sin of the land. He would seek to confess these sins before God and to cry for His forgiveness.

Fourth, we note that he was biblical in his prayers. This was not the prayer of a foolish man asking for things so that he might consume them upon his lusts. He knew and understood that God was in sovereign control of all things and that He was faithful to chasten those who disobeyed and that He would keep His covenant with those who obeyed Him and kept His precepts.

Fifth, he was direct in his prayer. He was sensitive to the task before him and he knew what he must do. He understood that God had providentially placed him into a position that he make a difference. He was willing to use these means, but knew that he could only prevail as God's mercy and grace smiled down upon him. He must speak to the king, but he did not desire to trust in his own ability or to lean upon his own understanding, but desired instead for God to direct his steps and to light his path.

Do we hate every false way?

2006-01-21T16:53:00.000-08:00

Psalms 119:104 "Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way."

One of the wonderful truths about the gospel is that it will cast down every vain thought and imagination of man. The gospel is a precious thing and it is in this gospel that asserts that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners that we most certainly believe. Through faith we march with the saints, choosing rather to believe in the promises of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for season. We understand that the gospel came at great cost, indeed, even the life of the very Son of God. Therefore we are to live our lives in such a way as to glorify God and to show testimony or evidence of the work of God in our hearts.

The question that I have been musing of late is whether or not the saints realize what it means to hate sin? Sin is an ugly thing - we can see its staining and ruinous effect in the world in which we live. Even though we have been delivered from the bondage of sin and are told that sin no longer has dominion over us, we sadly even observe sin within the assembly of the saints. What believer who has been saved for any amount of time has been immune from terrible schisms and fights even within local assemblies?

The arminian gospel that has unfortunately invaded the church in modern times tends to not like concepts like repentance and the acknowledgement of Christ's Lordship. This watered down gospel, sometimes referred to as cheap grace, tends to mention that we are sinners and need to trust in Christ. This is true enough as it stands, but this gospel tends to minimize repentance, preferring to place its weight on the recitation of a sinner's prayer. "Every eye closed, every head bowed..." says the good evangelist, "If you just pray the sinner's prayer you shall have life eternal."

Now to be sure, there have been many people converted under ministries that do not embrace the doctrine of God's sovereignty in salvation, often referred to as "the doctrines of grace" or "Calvinism." Even as Paul rejoiced when Christ was preached, even if it be in the spirit of contention, we rejoice, yes, and do rejoice. But sadly enough, the fruits of cheap grace that was popularized by the revivalist Charles Finey and men of his ilk has manifested itself in the church today. Much of what passes as Christianity is sickening indeed. Instead of treating men as vile wretches who need to repent of their false ways and who need to lie prostrate before a God who is a consuming fire, many modern churches defile the holy things by bringing a god down more to the liking of a wretched and seething humanity. Some may think I am an exclusive grouch by so saying, but I am convinced that some of what passes as religion today is nothing more than a false gospel, for they seek to worship a god that they have invented.

There are those who feel that the gospel is no longer relevant for today's seeker. It seems as if lost men in this age don't prefer the preaching of the gospel, which commands people to repent of their sins and warns that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all those who work unrighteousness. Do you suppose Jonathan Edward's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" would be well received in many modern churches? Hardly! Old Mr. Edward's evidently has never heard of the doctrine of positive thinking. How dare he refer to me as dangling from a slender thread over the fires of hell!

Somehow, churches have been established that lost men can actually enjoy attending. Sensitive seekers feel warm and cuddly as the handsome ministers, with their silk suits, large gold rings, and winning smiles, encourage them by telling them that they are quite alright. The lost man does not understand the things of God. In fact, Paul tells us it is impossible for the lost man to comprehend spiritual things. Jesus warned the disciples that the world will hate them and will hate the light. The gospel is to the Jew a stumbling block and to the Greek foolishness. The lost man, apart from the regenerating work of the gospel, is going to hate God, hate the church, and hate the gospel. These are the true, hard facts. The church is for the saints of God. The church is to be filled with godly people who love and worship God. The elders of the church are to be instructing and exhorting the saints so that they can out and teach others. We've forgotten this lesson, so when youth pastors observed that their rebellious, lost teens actually got bored sitting in Sunday school class learning about being kind and patient, they decided that if they could get the kids interested in jumping up and down in unison to the pounding of drums and the screech of electric guitars that perhaps they coulds see some growth. "We need to be relevant! Kids don't like the old hymns and preaching.", they decided.

We must learn to hate every false way. We first must search our own hearts. We tend to love sin too much. Oh, we hate the really bad things that we don't commit, but we are rather content with our own sins. We don't cheat on our spouses and we are not homosexuals or thieves, so we tend to think of ourselves as quite alright. We must love God's Word and apply it to our lives. We must repent of each and every sin and learn to hate it. We need to learn what it means to weep over our sin and iniquity, to learn what it means to fall prostrate before a holy God, covering ourselves with sackloth and ashes.

We need to learn how to serve God acceptably, with a holy fear, understanding that God is a consuming fire. God has prescribed how He is to be worshipped. It is not up to worship leaders to concoct new and effective ways of modern worship. God is Holy, we are worms, and He has ordered how He is to be worshipped. We most regard worship as a most holy thing - and not follow after the pattern of Nadab and Abihu, who offered strange fire to the Lord which the Lord commanded not. I personally embrace the old doctrine of the regulative worship principle, which states that we must worship God only in the manner in which he has prescribed.

We need to consider every area of life and see as to whether or own lack of knowledge has caused to embrace false ways. Our nation is not Christian. It is wicked to the core. Our lack of Bible knowledge has made it possible for us to embrace much of what is in actuality a pagan culture. How do we buy and sell? How do we till our fields? How do we run our businesses? How do we order our homes? Have we diligently sought out what it means to live in a holy and acceptable manner before God? Does our life's practice look like its ordered through a principled understanding of the precepts of God or does it look like it follows after a postmodern Western ideology?

We have a lot of work to do - in our own hearts, in our families, in our churches, and in our respective work places. We have more to do than we know. This is not a daunting task, however. Let the gospel do its perfect work. Be sensitive to the spirit of God. Learn to hate sin. Learn to love God's Word. Stop doing things just because it is the American way - start purposing in your heart that you are going to do things in another way - a way that lends toward acknowledging Christ as your Lord and Savior, as your sovereign King, for the glory of God.

2006-01-17T04:25:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, the Lord was pleased to beging blessing Rachel and I with children. We are very thankful that God has been pleased to give us four children and we pray daily for wisdom so that we might train them up in a godly fashion. Aaron, our oldest son, just turned ten years old! It is hard to believe that so many years have already passed. He stands chest high to me now - but it does not seem that long ago when he as an infant slept on my chest as I laid on the couch!

Who says that kids need a lot of expensive toys to keep them busy?! Mariah enjoyed playing with this empty box for nearly a day before she had it destroyed. Sometimes in the evening I will rock her in my favorite rocking chair, but this night I had to rock her as she sat in her box! We praise God for little moments such as these, for as insignificant as they may seem, they fill us with great joy!

What happened to winter? We had three weeks of winter that began the last part of December, but now for three weeks we have had mild temperatures. The snow has melted and the ice on the rivers has broken up and floated down stream. This fuzzy picture as it appears here was a very stunning early morning photo of the setting moon.

Some thoughts on debt

2006-01-10T17:14:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest challenges that I think we face as believers is figuring out to glorify God through the manner in which we govern our finances. In order to glorify God, we must understand that we must obey Him. God has actually had quite a lot to say about the subject of money, but unfortunately, we are more prone to govern our life by our understanding of the Wall Street Journal than through our knowledge of the Scriptures.

There are a lot of tough passages to weigh out as we consider our approach to money. They are perhaps not so tough to understand, but difficult indeed to properly apply.

“The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

We know that we humans are impressed with the things that glitters and shine. We also know that is really hard to be content with just food and clothing, unless of course we find ourselves starving and naked. We should understand that money is not intrinsically evil, but rather the love of acquiring it and storing it. We are actually commanded to labor with our hands so that we will have something with which we give. John Piper commented somewhere that an increase in wages had better adjust our style of giving rather than our style of living.

It’s difficult to keep the scales balanced - if we listen specifically to the word of Christ, not weighing them in the context of his message, we might end up as the Thessalonians, not working and not worrying about what we are to wear and what we are to eat. Isn’t Jesus coming back tomorrow?

On the other hand, we could observe Joseph stockpiling the grain for the years of drought and we might consider the ant, as we are commanded, who labors wearily through the heat of summer to provide for their winter’s sustenance and find that we are working 17 hours a day and have stored up great wealth only to discover when we are old and gray that we have wasted our lives accumulating that which moth and rust corrupts.

I am convinced that our country has become enslaved to the gods of Capitalism and Industrialization. We have forgotten how to live frugally and the mountain of debt has grown so large that it is blocking out all but a slight amount of the glory of the sun. I believe the cold nights of winter are quickly approaching. Our gods are about to demand their due - and I fear we will soon learn exactly what it means to be the servants to our lenders.

I have recently read reports that the Bush administration has in the last four years borrowed more from foreign investors than all the preceding presidents combined. Credit card debts are weighing down the average family with a burden over $8500. People are flocking to take advantage of the “sure” investment called inflation and are borrowing money in which they need not pay any of principle. For 85 years or so our government has been creating money out of thin air through fractional reserve banking and it is nice to know that our federal reserve notes have no more intrinsic value than the paper they are printed on. (The new watermarks are pretty cool, though!) It’s to bad we forgot about the old US Coin Act that legislated the amount gold backing the currency and even threatened those who tampered to be guilty of treason and put to death!

In the Old Testament, Israel was forbidden to loan money out at interest to their country men. They were permitted to lend at interest to their enemies, and this was in fact part of their covenantal blessing conditioned upon their obedience. So long as they kept the Word of the Lord, they would be lenders and not borrowers.

David asked the question as to whom would be able to enter into the temple and ascend unto the holy hill and one of the several answers given stated that it was the man who did not put his money out at usury.

Nehemiah was appalled when he came back to Jerusalem to find that some of the wealthier Jews had loan money at usury and he condemned them for it and demanded that it cease and that everything be returned. The interest rate was a meager 1%. 1% or 100%, it didn’t matter, for they were sinning against God.

What principles apply to us today? Surely, the discontinuity between the Old and New Covenants permits us to allow our money to go to work for us! Besides, how would we have ever managed an industrial revolution without the rise of the banking elite? How could we have fared in a capitalistic global economy if we were committed to having as a country an economy that was established upon honest weights and just measures? How could we fair if we actually saw to promote the good of our countrymen rather than to beat them down by loaning our money out to them for gain? Oh, we have gained our nuggets that makes us forget about our taskmaster, but if the banks were to fail tomorrow, what would be the result for most of us?

Historically, the ancient church was strongly opposed to debt and usury. In fact, you can hardly find any admirable thoughts about usury until the end of the middle age and economies were beginning to take root. Luther and Calvin, while opposing lending with interest on some levels, began to embrace that maybe, just maybe, it would be ok for business loans. Christians now had a bit of a foundation. Yes, borrowing and lending seems to be good and necessary for our economies to grow.

Modern day commentators have all bought into the wonderful lie that claims that a debt-based economy is good and necessary. The Old Testament principles are rendered as superfluous, necessary only for those old saints under the Mosaic administration. The golden rule, doing to others what we would have them to do unto us, is now a slippery slope that is difficult to scale and define. I want interest on my money and I’m putting it in the bank! What do I care about the neighbor who borrows it and finds he cannot pay it back and loses all that he has? Tough luck! Or as Judas was told, “What has that to do with us? You see to it!”

What about Romans, the passage that says “owe no man anything, except to love one another?” Again, modern day commentators say that it means nothing about our debt-based economics. We just have to pay our debts - and to love, especially. We can love while ignoring the tremendous bondage that we and our countrymen are shouldering. Older commentators were more grouchy, though, and say that we shouldn’t be in debt at all. But what did they know? They plowed with horses, worked with their hands, learned to enjoy the bounty of the land through their work, got to work with their children, and endured all kinds of other icky, primeval things.

Charles Spurgeon was especially grouchy: "Without debt, without care; out of debt, out of danger; but owing and borrowing are bramble bushes full of thorns. Scripture says, `Owe no man anything,' which does not mean pay your debts, but never have any to pay. My opinion is, that those who break this law ought to be turned out of the Christian church."
(This is from his “John Ploughman’s Talk” which is really a delightful read.)

I am unfortunately in debt, but have recently begun to seriously think about these things. It is not my intent to operate on a slavish fear of what may come to pass for it is not my part to be anxious and desperate, but I do wish to honor God in all that I do, even in how I receive and use money. When our giant industrialized nation crumbles, I doubt seriously that I’ll be able to do much about it, but I do wish to be able to know while I go out to look for a grub to eat that I attempted to glorify God by all that I did - and that I took the time consider His precepts and to live accordingly. I have more questions than answers, but I am glad for the conversations I’ve had with other saints that have at least allowed a breeze to blow off some of the status quo fog that had surround me.

Every thought captive...

2005-12-26T20:44:00.000-08:00

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Some time ago, God spoke with a man and told him to go to a country that He would show him. He told him that he would become great and that his descendants would number as the sand on the seashore. He promised that through him, all of the nations of the world would be blessed. We are later told that this man believed in the promise and that he was justified by his faith. “He staggered not at the promise of God in unbelief.”

The book of Hebrews gives us an account of some of the wonderful expressions of godly men and women who, like Abraham, believed in the promises of God. Their faith enabled them to perform great and mighty things, and while some were destroyed by wicked men for their efforts, the fact remained that the world was not worthy to receive them.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Churches abound in every city and in some cases, every block. Scores of professing saints flock into homes, old church buildings, cathedrals, warehouses, etc and claim that they believe the gospel and profess faith in God. I am always grateful when Christ is preached, and when he is preached, I rejoice, yea, and do rejoice. Yet, I judge their fruits and find that some of them are really odious. I am skeptical and sometimes irritated by much that I see in this army of God, for I fear that we have forgot what our ensign is. We have love sight of the banner. Banners and ensigns are kind of old relics, and we are told that we need to be relevant for postmodern minds, so we come up with purposeful schemes, flashy bands, and even coffee houses so that we can really be comfortable as we head out to battle. The world doesn't care much for the Man on the white house with the flashing eyes and the sword in His mouth. They prefer only the blue eyed man in the paintings with the soft expression in his eyes and the sheep on his shoulder. "Consider both the goodness and severity of God."

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. It would be difficult to leave our homes and to follow after a promise. Faith gives evidence to things not seen, and provides substance to things hoped for. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. But what can we hope in? We are perplexed daily by such questions Some say that the rapture cometh. Beware, and don’t polish the brass on a sinking ship. The wicked are waxing worse and worse. Some turn to the prayer of Jabez and others decided that they need to be filled with purpose. Many are buying into every religious fad and a few are chuckling as they run to the bank. The world looks on, points, and laughs. John the Baptist was to be feared. The king shook at the thought of him. John Knox feared not to pester the wicked queen. The courts was disturbed. The world today sighs and relaxes. “We need not fear them,” they think, “for they dwell among us. They have married our sons and daughters, buy our crummy music and watch our lewd films, and really seem a lot like of us. (Oh, they did vote for Bush, though. I guess they thing his party will save them)”

The church needs to be reunited with the gospel. We have hope in the glorious promises of the gospel. God has established his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The church is a mighty army, marching as to war. Sometimes, we are not like Abraham and we really do not believe that through the preaching of the gospel, that the whole world shall be blessed. We cannot grasp that God is building His Kingdom and that all honor and glory has been bestowed upon King Jesus, who reigns on His right hand waiting as His enemies are made His footstool. He has given His army weapons, but “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” We need not trust in chariots and horses. Not even in helicopters and tanks. But our weapons are “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.“

This is starting to sound exciting! Do you mean that we, the church, can by His grace and truth advance against the darkness of this world? Does this mean that we can truly be light and salt? Can the gospel of Christ truly overcome the wicked one? Can truth overthrow the idols? Christ has crushed the head of the serpent and He has conquered death. He has poured out His spirit among his chosen vessels and they are preaching a powerful gospel. Oh, there are some who have set it aside, for the gold is heavy and offensive. The fool‘s gold is bright and shiny, and is not nearly so heavy to carry. The iron pyrite does not nearly have such an impact upon us. It changes us little and we can be like them.

Some have not bowed the knee to Baal, and they are laboring in the gospel with delight. They carry the banner and ensign of their King and Savior. They acknowledge him as their Lord and they believe that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. They know there is much work to be done.

I think of the prophet who spoke of the water pouring out of the temple. It was only ankle deep. Rivers of life giving water are flowing from this temple that was destroyed, but in three days was rebuilt. Those that are drinking from this water never thirst again. The prophet travels a 1000 cubits, and another line is drawn. The water is now up to the knees, but still the prophet travels on. Another 1000 cubits and the water is now waste high. Finally, the water is deep. It’s covering everything and the prophet finds that he now has to swim. The Spirit of God is stretching flesh and sinew upon the very old and dry bones that are in the valley and they are worshipping God. The small rock that shattered the kingdoms of clay, brass, silver, and gold is becoming a great mountain in the earth. The saints of the Lord rejoice, and are glad.

I am not sure how deep the water is 2005, but I know that it is much deeper than when the disciples ran out of the garden. It is deeper than it was when Luther was writing some objections to the church. The light of the gospel is encircling the world. There is a lot of work to do, but I have faith in God and in the power of His Word. Finally, we are told that this gospel is “ bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” This gospel is casting down the strongholds and shredding the vain arguments. This gospel is even laying its grasp upon every thought. I trust that we love His Word and that we love our King. “If you love me, keep my commandments.” It is time that we ask the question, “How then should we live?”

We wish to cast down our pagan temples and we must begin considering how we should live in light of the Word of God. We must erect biblical screens through which we filter every aspect of our life. Let us take our instruction from the two testaments of the Scriptures and allow our subscriptions to “Fashion”, “Vogue”, and “The Wall Street Journal” to expire. I am not sure that we will find much help there. Let us bend the knee before our king and let us desire that our every deed, our every word, and our every thought be held captive to His will.

Christ is our King - and He shall do valiantly. Hear ye Him!

some wintry pics

2005-12-21T21:04:00.000-08:00

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?

2005-12-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

(Note: For some reason the option of adding photos is not working - I'll try later on to include a couple....)

I believe this morning will mark the winter solstice and herald the beginning of the calendar winter. Even though I really do not endulge in many winter sports and activities, outside of shoveling, I have always enjoyed the winter months - and the colder and snowier the better. There is just something about the beauty of the snow and the sharp bite of a bitter cold air that creates in me an overwhelming desire to rejoice in what God has done.

It has been a pleasant winter thus far. While the past few winters have been very mild and dry, this month has thus far been one of the coldest and snowiest months that we have enjoyed for a few years. We've had temperatures below 0 twelve days this year and we had had nearly 18" of snow. In fact, as I type this, the mercury already has tumbled to -3.5.

The Scriptures are not silent about the snow. We see God's sovereign work in sending the snow as a blanket to cover the earth: "For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength."

God, in his series of questions put forth to Job, enquires: "Hast thou entered into the treasuries of the snow?"

Finally, David (who must have enjoyed God's creation much like I do) remarks: " He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:"

When I see the crystals sparkling like diamonds, I am reminded of God's marvelous handiwork in this world that God has made. Not only does this wintry landscape remind me of God's creative works, I am reminded of God's redemptive work by some of the metaphors that we read in the Scriptures concerning snow:

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Once, a long time ago when I was working on repairing farm equipment for my dad after school, I found myself one winter afternoon painting a running gear red and noticing some red paint that had spilled out on the snow below. (I know the directions on the can said not to paint below 50, but sometimes the directions don't always get followed!) I thought of the verse above and poured a little of the bright crimson paint on to the ground. The red on white was a stark contrast and I rejoiced that my wickedness could be forgiven and my iniquities cast as far as the east from the west.

" His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;"

There are, of course, many verses that utilize various metaphors and other descriptive forms to describe the Person of Christ, snow not excluded.. These verses often come to mind when I am gazing at the snowflakes tumbling from the sky.

Our lives are but vapors and before we know it, these cold days of winter will soon pass and the snow will melt and the blade and bud will shoot forth and I will be looking for my gardening tools. I will look forward to the garden, but the days of heat and biting bugs will give me pause, and I may even sigh and long for the coming winter, but I hope to learn to enjoy each day that the Lord has made. This day was sunny and very cold. It was the day that the Lord has made, I shall rejoice, and be glad in it.

A new table

2005-12-03T04:05:00.000-08:00

A couple years ago I purchased some roughsawn red oak boards with the intent of making us a nice dining room table. I selected boards that had been quartersawn, for I have a tendency to enjoy the furniture that was developed through the arts and crafts style. Perhaps you have heard rumors to the effect that the cobbler's children were often in want of good shoes?! Well, the rumor is often correct!

I decided four years ago to purchase some woodworking tools and while it was my intent to try to produce some of our income from home, I had hoped to be able to make things for my wife, family, and friends. I have been able to build a few pieces in these categories, but since I have purchased my tools, I have always had paying jobs on the docket!

I finally took a break and decided that two years was a long enough wait, so I spent a couple weeks building our table. Although we both liked the idea of having a solid, massive table, our house just doesn't have the space to accomodate. I compromised by building the table with two leaves. When fully extended, it measures 42" wide by 96" long. For everyday use, we take one of the leaves out. We are now using it and I have only a couple odds and ends to complete, but now Rachel can enjoy setting a table that does not always have a leg falling off!

That our daughters may be as pillars, Sculptured in palace style;

2005-11-29T05:05:00.000-08:00

My parents decided to wait until they had 8 sons before having a daughter. I was 17 years old when my sister was born and never had an opportunity to live in a house with little girls until God was pleased to send a couple daughters to my wife and I. I’d like to share a few of my thoughts on raising daughters, knowing that they are wildly unpopular by today’s standards and sadly, even resisted in many of today’s churches.

It is our desire to raise our daughters according to what God has revealed through His Word. I reject the notion of beauty that is described by the pictures of the sundry magazines you will find by the checkout counter and would consider that true beauty is realized only when men and women accept and embrace the biblical pattern of life that God has ordered for them. Thus is is the deire of my wife and I to raise our daughters so that they will be virtuous women who fear God and whose works will praise them in the gate.

1 Timothy 5:14 Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”
Titus 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
1 Peter 3:4-5 rather let it (the adorning of the woman) be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands,

I share just a few of the many Scriptures that deal with what God has intended for the woman. From these verses, and other similar ones that support them, it is obvious that God generally desires that daughters grow up to become wives and mothers. It is our desire that our daughters grow up and desire to marry, to be obedient to their husbands, to bear children if God would be pleases to grant them, and to be keepers at home.

As we labor as parents to this end, we will train our daughter in just such a fashion. Already our oldest daughter spends much time with my wife, and at age 6, is already a great help around the house. We educate her in the same manner as we do the boys, and she helps me in my projects as well, but all the while we are teaching her that God has designed specific roles for both man and woman.

It is also our desire to see our daughters grow up to greatly value the instructions of conduct that are outlined in the Scriptures. We wish for our daughters to be virtuous, chaste, and lovely. These are ideals that are mocked by the world and we can rest assured that world will war against us as we strive to maintain godly habits..

One of my favorite passages pertaining to chastity is found in the Song of Songs:

THE SHULAMITE’S BROTHERS We have a little sister, And she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister In the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, We will build upon her A battlement of silver; And if she is a door, We will enclose her With boards of cedar.

Here Solomon speaks of a question that his brother in laws would ask when their sister is young. They recognize that there is a duty for the family to consider in the upbringing of their daughters. He uses two metaphors to describe these duties as they prepare their daughters for the day in which they will be spoken for, the fortified walls designed to protect the city and the door that will be closed until the day in which God joins her to a man and grants only that man at that day the key to let himself in.

Our families must see to it that we rear our daughters within the confines of this great wall of protection. Her father and brothers must man the battlements of the wall, armed with bows and buckets of boiling oil, to keep within the bounds of the metaphor, to see to it that their daughters are not defiled. These daughters must be taught that only the marriage bed is honorable and that they are designed to be chaste, moral, and upright of character.

Sadly, as we observe the ladies of the land, we rarely observe fortified cities and closed doors. The walls are in ruins and the doors have been burned. Godless individuals walk in and out of the ruined and wasted cities, committing all manners of sexual sins, delighting in their wickedness rather than ruing the destruction and misery that has fallen upon them.

Even those within the church, rather than weeping over this destruction as did Nehemiah when he heard of the destroyed walls at Jerusalem, are often found gazing upon the ruins with somewhat of a wistful glance, even daring to approach it if they can. Through their entertainments, Christians often find great pleasure in these ruined cities, for while perhaps they may claim that they view adultery and fornication as sinful and have not committed specific acts themselves, they allow all manner of such acts to be displayed via their television sets and through the lyrics of their music. Rather than viewing such sins as an abomination, we find ourselves desiring to be entertained by them.

Often our styles of clothing reveal our desires to reject the biblical ideal of modesty and chastity. We may have erected a wall of sorts and perhaps there is a door, but we have chosen to discard the lock and to leave it ajar. I have observed many a Christian women wearing clothes that are so tight and immodest that one wonders what it is that they are wishing to display.

Solomon reveals, however, that this desire to protect and defend the honor of our daughters is a thing of beauty. We are not speaking here of an image of sons and fathers with missing teeth armed with shotguns while their daughters are locked in the cage. We are speaking of a glorious picture of very true beauty as we accept in delight in the law of the Lord. These battlements upon the wall are made of silver and the doors are carefully crafted with cedar. This work is a beautiful work that honors both God and man. We are seeking to protect our daughters for that day in which God is pleased to make them one with their husband.

THE SHULAMITE I am a wall, And my breasts like towers; Then I became in his eyes As one who found peace.

There is a day coming if the Lord will in which we will give our daughters to another. I pray that we will be faithful parents and that God will bless our efforts and that we will be able with great pride deliver to our new son a daughter who will become in his eyes as one who found peace, a virtuous woman, a loving and obedient wife, and a godly mother, who will bless her mother and I with grandchildren when we are old. Please pray for us as we embark upon so difficult a task.

Unto thee, God, do we give thank!

2005-11-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

As we are about to enjoy the American holiday referred to as Thanksgiving, I thought it might good to reflect a bit upon the history of the holiday, as well as consider what biblical duties the saints have regarding being thankful.

Many of the traditions of our modern holiday result from the evolving of a holiday over time than it mimics the thanksgiving feast that William Bradford called for in 1621. The original “day” of thanksgiving was a three day feast that the Puritan pilgrims established for the purpose of thanking God for a good harvest. There are only a few remaining eyewitness snippets detailing this feast, the most notable coming from Edward Winslow:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. “

Edward Winslow was an English Puritan who refused to conform to the state church of England. They determined that their need to worship God as the Scriptures commanded was so great that they purposed to settle in the New World. The majority of the people didn’t survive the first year. Even Winslow lost his wife on the trip and remarried one of the widows. What is so moving about this feast of thanksgiving is that these Christians were thankful in the face of great adversity and hardship. Their thankfulness was not based upon a mere observance of a holiday, but rather upon a genuine thankfulness with the knowledge that God had poured out His blessings upon them. God had first tried them through the fires of great affliction, but they remained faithful and obedient and they had learned to be thankful for the most basic of divine blessings. In a letter to a friend, Winslow described their bounty:

“Our bay is full of lobsters all the summer and affordeth variety of other fish; in September we can take a hogshead of eels in a night, with small labor, and can dig them out of their beds all the winter. We have mussels ... at our doors. Oysters we have none near, but we can have them brought by the Indians when we will; all the spring-time the earth sendeth forth naturally very good sallet herbs. Here are grapes, white and red, and very sweet and strong also. Strawberries, gooseberries, raspas, etc. Plums of tree sorts, with black and red, being almost as good as a damson; abundance of roses, white, red, and damask; single, but very sweet indeed… These things I thought good to let you understand, being the truth of things as near as I could experimentally take knowledge of, and that you might on our behalf give God thanks who hath dealt so favorably with us.”

We are command throughout the Scriptures to be thankful. Thankfulness should be a recurring theme in the lives of the saints. Even the pagan can gather around a turkey, the family, and the football game and profess to be thankful for one day. There are a few things that we need to keep before us to enable us to understand that we must always give thanks.

First we need to recognize that apart from God’s grace we would be nothing but a despicable wretch dead in our trespasses and sin. We would be alienated from God, a people without hope and purpose, receiving only the wrath of God that is poured out upon the unrighteous. Then we need to realize that everything that we have, we have only because God has been pleased to give it to us. We need to recognize that we have been richly blessed of God. Thus we rejoice in the wife of our youth and we consider our children to be great blessings from God. We recognize that our gifts and abilities have been given to us from above. We recognize that God has formed and fashioned us and even as he holds all things together by His solemn decree, that all things work together for good to them that love God.

Finally, we need to realize that our life is but a vapor and that the things that we have been given have no guarantee of tomorrow. It is only as we trust in God and lean upon His faithful Word that we can truly free ourselves from anxiety and worry. We recognize that we will one day die. We know that our children may not wake on the morrow. Our homes can be destroyed through fire and pestilence. We know that grass withers and that the flower fades, but that our God and His Word will endure forever. We know that God will preserve His people and we grasp all of God’s precious promises with eyes of faith.

Why are the saints of God thankful? Because God has richly given us all things. We serve a God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can even ask or think! Give thanks, for “He is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” Christ has shed His blood for His church and we can enjoy the sweet fellowship of the saints. “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.”

“Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.”

Contentment?

2005-11-16T04:09:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest difficulties that I think that I have struggled with in my Christian life is determining whether I am seeking first the kingdom of God or laying up treasures that moth and rust corrupt.

Sadly, our society has been entrained to work feverishly and to borrow a lot of money so that we have the appearance of great wealth. No longer are we content with a chicken in the pot, but rather we strive to have the new house in the new section of town with two nice, new vehicles in the garage next to the boat and the golf clubs.
Out country certainly has the appearance of being very rich, but the majority of the people that I know, while having a lot of possessions, are far in debt and working as much as they can to get by.

I am not opposed to money or things per se. Solomon told us that it is good for a man to enjoy the fruit of his labor. It is good for a man to rejoice in the wife of his youth, to consider his children as his heritage, to eat his bread and drink his wine with joy, and to even enjoy his sweet sleep after his day of labor. We are commanded to work - and even have been given six days to do so. We are to work with our hands so that we have something to give. In other words, we work so as to not increase our style of living, but rather our style of giving. We are reminded that we brought nothing into the world, and that we will take nothing out. Therefore, we should be content with such things that God has given. "Seek first the kingdom of God!" Are there any who are truly so doing?

The above photo is a picture of a home we are in the process of building. I enjoy my labor very much and truly enjoy seeing these projects evolve from a hole in the ground to a lovely home for some family. Sometimes I wonder as I am working on them how the people are going to pay for them. It is so expensive these days to build even a modest home. Today's house plans are typically quite large with at least a three stall garage, three bedrooms, a huge living room, and a couple of bathrooms. They have all of the modern conveniences that we can hope for. In a nearby town, there is a small log home that is on display that is about the size of a modern day living room. One hundred years ago, a family raised seven children in this 200 square feet. There was a fireplace, a loft, and a couple of shelves. I imagine even today we could a home like this for but a few thousand dollars.

In order to live in ourwell- stocked, montrous homes, we become for the most part the slaves of a bank. We forego having children and send our wives to work so that we can afford to maintain our lavish existence. The family of eight in the log home had a small farm. I imagine they worked from sundown to sun up to scratch out a meager existence. There was no debt and not many provisions, but mom was in the house making soup on the fire, dad was out behind the horses turning up the sod, and the kids were in the barn cleaning up the pen. The family was home and working together - the parents could speak of things of the Lord in the morning when they arose, over lunch, and in the evening as they walked through their fields.

I know that the house above, as nice as it will be, will one day return to the ground. Consider this old homestead below. Once there was a family who with great joy and excitement labored to build a house, a barn, and a shed. Money and effort was spent on their dream of having a farm of their own. As I have driven by this place hundreds of times, I have often wondered who they were, what they did, and what became of them. The house is now gone - all that remains is a few limestone rocks that composed its foundation. The shed and the barn are slowly groaning under the weight of age. Bit by bit the elements worry the old structures and I know that soon even they will collapse to the earth.

This is the ultimate end of all that glitters in this world. Yet sadly I see believers working unto great weariness to maintain our supply of possessions. The debts are huge and there is little that we have available to give to the poor and needy. Our time is consumed with fulfilling the obligations of our taskmasters (our debts) and sadly, we have not time to enjoy the wife of our youth and the children that God has given. We are to busy to help our neighbors. We are to busy to enjoy a breakfast or make a visit with our pastor. We have no time to be hospitable. We convince ourselves, however, that we have all and abound. Our life is but a vapor and we have such a short time to accomplish good for the sake of God's kingdom. What kind of stewards are we of the time that God has given?

Some thoughts by a carpenter

2005-11-11T05:15:00.001-08:00

I am told that my family settled in southern Wisconsin well over a century ago. My forefathers traditionally were farmers and carpenters. One thing that I am now grateful for is that my dad, who owns a small construction company, insisted when I was but yet a lad that I needed to learn how to work and to learn his trade. It did not require much of a stint at college to reveal to me that I truly did love working as a carpenter.

I am presently working on a dining room table for my wife. I will soon share some pictures and some construction details for those who might be interested to see how one would go about building a table. For now, I would like to share some thoughts on woodworking and the trades in general.

While I have to say that I employ and even enjoy many of the “fruits” of an industrial era, I am dismayed by what seems to be a continuing decline of skilled artisans employing their hands and tools in an effort to produce a quality craft from which they can derive their income and contribute to the local community and economy.

Our postmodern society has become obsessed with a fast-paced, self-seeking, disposable culture that emphasizes immediate and momentary gratification. We no longer enjoy working or waiting, thus we are content to amuse ourselves by the cheap and trite offerings that a fast-paced industry is pleased to cast our way. We gorge ourselves with rotten, greasy food from the local fast food shack because we have no time or patience to sit down to a quality meal made with care. We have no desire to wait three months for a craftsman to build us a quality piece of furniture. We opt rather to throw some money for some cheap stuff made out of glue, sawdust, and plastic paper with an imprinted woodgrain. We know it won’t last, but it was cheap and we didn’t have to wait for it. It does not dawn on us that while the generations of the past were able to pass down quality goods that we collect now as antiques, there will be nothing left for us to give to our children. The particle board bookshelf would have sagged its way to the landfill by then.

When I build things for my family, I prefer to build pieces in the arts and craft style. The arts and craft movement, while employing a rather diverse spectrum of style, was unified in its abhorrence to Europe’s shift from a rural and agrarian culture to an urban and industrial one. William Morris, while born in the industrial privileged class, embraced the writings of John Ruskin (who viewed the results of industrialization as disastrous by way of destroying individual craftsmanship and local economy) and was instrumental in forging the styles of crafting that we now call Arts and Crafts.

The furniture of the Arts and Crafts movement is rather diverse, but could be described briefly as a form that emphasizes simple, solid, straight lines while employing the time-tested traditional joinery methods as well as the need of a skilled artisan to create it. Therefore, each piece usually displays exposed joinery. The movement desired to maintain the tradition of skilled craftsmen using hand tools rather than turning the artison into a factory worker that fed skilled machines!

For materials, many chose to use locally available domestic timbers such as oak and ash. Quartersawn oak was popular, particularly in America. Many pieces utilized other mediums such as custom made glass, leather, and fabrics. Hardware was often hand forged.

While I may not be able to bring back the cobbler, the blacksmith and the tailor, I hope that in some small way I can at least use the hands that God has given me to work and to exercise dominion over God’s creation. The earth is the Lord’s and all the fullness thereof, yet God has been pleased to enable us to do such things as till the land and to build things! I hope that if God is willing to allow me to live long enough, that I shall be able to pass along my meager abilities and knowledge to my own sons, and that perhaps someday a great grandchild can share with a friend, “My great grandfather built that!”

bob

What is truth?

2005-11-02T03:42:00.000-08:00

Perhaps you will recall when Christ told Pilate: "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." that Pilate goes on to ask the question that has confounded the philosophers throughout the ages: " "What is truth?"

We can answer the question in a couple of different ways. We can confess the fact that as Christians, we believe that all truth flows from God for He alone is true. We know that His truth shall endure for all generations. His Word and Law are truth.

We also believe that the gospel is exclusive. Jesus cries in John 14:6 "I am the way, THE truth, and the life. No man come to Father, but by me." We recall the sermon in Acts 4: "that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. "This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

We know from Romans 1 that the lost man will always exchange what truth he is given for a lie. Except the Spirit of God quicken his wicked heart, he will choose to worship the creature rather than Creator. The fool will say in heart, "There is no God."

It is this exchange of truth for lie that we see in startling fashion among the pagans. In this country it would appear that we cannot simply know what the truth is. Even if we do know what the truth is, we dare not treat our knowledge as truth and must supress it, rather than to share it, for to do so is to needlessly and shamelessly violate the rights of our countrymen.

It is now difficult to even interpret our laws and it is only with great deliberation that the Supreme Courts labors to figure out what the Constitution means. Even our words, such as "marriage" carry much baggage that is difficult to discern what is intended by the word as judges strive to interpret what parties can lawfully marry.

We are commanded to honor and fear the powers that be. We pray for our leaders, beseeching God to turn their hearts toward him and to write His laws in their hearts. While wee groan in anguish as we see our leaders striving with all diligence to remove any element of truth from the public's eye that they can, we rejoice that the "heart of the king is in the hand of God, like rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wills."

Our President professes to be a Christian. His actions betray his words, for rather than portraying a man who fears God and believe that His Word is true, he instead chooses to speak lies and further obscure the truth. The photo above show a picture of Bush signing the registry at a Shinto shine. He goes on to bow before the sign, clapping his hands to awake the spirits, as the ritual goes. This all happens while the Japanese delegate remains outside, for it just wouldn't do for him to mix religion with politics. Bush goes on to comment that the Shinto religion is very much like the Christian religion. Let's not mention that 60 years ago Japanese and Korean Christians were killed for refusing to bow before these shrines.

This defiance of the gospel is nothing knew. Just last year President Bush opened the doors of the White House to the Hindu Diwali festival, during which Carl Rove lights the 'dipak' as part of the ceremony. Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal, the president of the Association of Indians in America exuberantly declares: "President Bush deserves our sincere ´gratitude´ for creating history by opening the door of The White House for a Hindu ceremony.."

The presidents affection for Islam is well known. He has often remarked that both Islam and Christianity are identical faiths that worship the same God. Once again he opens the doors to the White house to honor the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. His intent is clear: "I want to thank you all for coming to celebrate an honored tradition of the Muslim faith, and wish you a, 'Ramadan Mubarak'" He then pauses, like a good Muslim cleric, to offer a benediction: "As we celebrate this special Iftaar, we renew the ties of friendship that bind all those who trace their faith back to God's call on Abraham. We recognize the many hopeful works we have achieved together. We look forward to learning more from each other in the years ahead.
I'm so grateful that you joined us today. I wish you a blessed Ramadan, and may God bless you all" Earlier in the speech, with exuberance he declare that for the first time, a copy of the Koran has been placed in the Presidential library.

There is much more that can be shared, but istis apparent that we have a president who is an idolator and seeks to destroy the gospel by expressing his polytheistic views. The truth of the matter is that "You shall have no other gods before me." It is a shame to see our President violate the truth of God's law and to use our public buildings as forums to celebrate false religions.

It drives me crazye to observe that inspite of these idolatrous lies that many people within the evangelical Christian community view this man as their champion to hold up the truth of God's Word. Millions of Christians cast their votes for this man, believing confidently that this man of faith would defend the Word of God that they hold so dear and establish principles of righteousness.

We must be wiser than this. We must render to our President all that is due - " ...honor to whom honor, fear to whom fear...", It is easy to scorn and ridicule, but I believe that our efforts would be better spent in praying for the salvation of his soul. God will cast down the wicked in their futile imaginations, we can be sure of that. We may be disturbed by the movement in this country to steer away from the principles of God's Word, but rest assured that God's Word will endure forever. Do not lose heart and recognize that it is our duty as churchmen to thunder the truth of God's Word everywhere. Yes, our faith is exclusive and we believe that truth is represented only through the God of The Bible. We preach His precepts and we delight in His law. Let the wicked rage and imagine their vanities while we proclaim the truth: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life - no man comes to the Father, but by me."

Signs of Fall

2005-10-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

As the calendar nears November, the signs of fall are visible everywhere across Ilinois as the farmers continue to harvest their crops and the leaves continue to display a splash of autumn colors.

Last weekend, we took a trip to the Mississippi River and toured some various river boats as well as examined a museum detailing a brief history of man's dealings with the big river. It was very beautiful along the river with an abundance of colorful leaves and waterfoul gathering to embark upon their yearly migrations.

Another reminder of the cooler weather is the fact that the house is starting to get chilly! One of today's chores will involve getting the fireplace ready and lighting the first fire for the fall season. We have burned wood for several years and find it a nice alternative to the ever increasing costs of LP. It is a lot of work and as we utilize a fireplace insert in the living room, all the wood has to come in to the house and all the ash has to be carried out! It's somewhat dusty and occasionally I let some smoke into the room when collecting the ash, but it is a warm, cheap fuel.

The boys have chores stacking and carrying firewood from where we store it to the house. I enjoy cutting and splitting wood, although my work in my shop sometimes leaves me little ttime to spare. Thanks to the help of my neighbor and a couple of windstorms, we have more than enough wood for the winter with a random assortment of oak, elm, maple, and birch cut, split, and dried and ready to make heat!

As a final completely unrelated remark to the midwest and fall colors, I just read that Hurricane Wilma has deposited 64" of rain north of Cancun. That's incredible! "The Lord has his way with the whirlwind, and the clouds are the dust beneath his feet."

From death unto life

2005-10-19T03:48:00.000-07:00

When our family drove through Death Valley last spring, we were fortunate to have visited following one of the wettest winters on records. The desert floor was full of various species of blooming plant life and it was truly a beautiful sight to behold. I was amazed to see flowering plants thriving out of a sandy and rocky soil that seemed like it would be impossibe to sustain vegetation.

We visited during the month of April and the temperatures were only around 90. Soon the searing heat and dry conditions would have their toll and the plants would cease flowering, go to seed, and die - leaving behind only a lanscape void of life, a vast collection of sand, boulders, and rock. Hidden to the human eye, though, would be seeds covered by a waxy material that would protect the seed from the harsh elements, lying dormant for as long as 30 years awaiting another wet winter in which they would sprout and once again cover the desert valley floor. That God could be pleased to display His glory and majesty by so clothing the desert floor is one of the reasons that we delight to praise His holy name.

The greatest display of God's grace and mercy is His desire to save His people by sending His spirit to regenerate the wicked the hearts of those who are dead in their trespasses and sins. What a delight it is to know God's transforming saving grace in giving us the ability and desire to behold the beauty of His Son. How marvelous it is that we, who were once enemies of God, hating the light which is Christ, are the very instruments that God uses to preach the gospel to those who are as yet dead in their trespasses and sins.

I list one of my favorite passages below, a prophecy by the prophet Ezekiel in which he speaks of the delivery of Israel from their captivity. The prophecy also aptly desribes the regenerating work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and portrays the power of God, in whom we have placed our faith and believe that He shall be able to raise us up in the last day.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

¶ The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the
Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full
of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there
were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.

And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "O Lord
GOD, You know." Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to
them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to
these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall
live. "I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with
skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am
the LORD."‘"
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as
I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them
over; but there was no breath in them. Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."‘"
So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, "Son
of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones
are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ 2 "Therefore prophesy
and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, O My people, I will open your
graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of
Israel. "Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. "I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the LORD.’"

The beauty of Ecclesiastes

2005-10-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

I was sharing some thoughts about Ecclesiastes with a friend of mine and thought I might share them here.

It is important to understand the construction of the book of Ecclesiastes because you can really come away with some bizarre opinions if you do not. I've heard some pretty awful interpretations of the book because of a lack of understanding of its intent as a whole. Two commentaries that really helped my get a good grasp of the book were Charles Bridges commentary "Ecclesiastes" and Doug Wilsons "Joy at the end of the Tether."

We know from reading in the chronicles and kings that Solomon devoted a goodly portion of his life to the pursuit of pleasure. The book of Ecclesiastes was written late in life and serve as a reflection of what he had learned. There are two key phrases to keep in mind as one reads the book "under the sun" and "the gift of God."

The book could be outlined in this way:

First, he describes that joy and satisfaction in life cannot be truly obtained and enjoyed by our own power and ability. "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."

Second, he teaches that God is sovereign in all things. He also answers some objections to this truth. "To everthing there is a season.... He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

Third, he shows that only by understanding and believing in God and his sovereignty can we enjoy life "under the sun." " I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God."

Finally, the book closes with sundry thoughts and applications.

In short, here is a brief description from my point of view:

There are many things that are similar between the saint and the pagan. We are born, we eat and drink, we marry, have sons and daughters, we labor, we laugh and cry, and we die. To enjoy our life under the sun, apart from a saving knowledge of God and a belief that He is in control of all things, is vanity, a mere grasping of the wind. "What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" There is nothing but futility in life apart from God. The lost man strives with all of his effort to obtain for that which perishes. The new car that he purchased 15 years ago is probably in the junk yard. The clothes he bought 15 years ago are either worn out or out of style. The hopes of marriage for the lost man often end in divorce. He can work his whole life to save and collect a fortune and in the end he dies and his possessions may pass into the hands of a fool. Solomon addresses this fact through portions of this book. Everything is vanity if it is not redeemed by faith in God. Labor and living for him are toilsome, monotonous, cumbersome, and useless, because in the end we die and it is forgotten.

This is not so for the man who trusts in God and fears his commandments. He still buys clothes that wears out and his cars break down as well. He understands that that which can be purchased for gold and silver ultimately is destroyed by moth and rust. The believer, though, enjoys his life under the sun as a great gift from God. He knows "that God gives wine to make glad the hearts of men and oil to make his face shine." He knows that he can enjoy his food and drink because they are God's gifts to the man that lives under the sun. He can rejoice in the fruits of his labor. He enjoys the wife of his youth that God has given him under the sun. He enjoys her embraces, her love, her body, her work, and the children that she bears him. It is his portion under the sun.

You know that I enjoy working with wood. I share a picture above of a desk that I made my mother a year or so ago. I can identify the species of wood by its smell. Many times during a project after I cut a board, I enjoy smelling the fresh cut. I enjoy looking at the grain and the color, recognizing that every board has different characteristics. I enjoy taking a pile of rough sawn wood and turning it into something useful. If I was a thoughtful pagan, I would think, "What's the use?" It will soon enough be broken and need to be destroyed. It’s not lasting or permanent. As a saint, though, I know that I am exercising dominion over creation and thus obeying the command of God. I am working with my hands, striving to do all things for His glory with all my might. I worship the Creator as I smell the enticing aromas of cut wood and as I marvel at the pattern of the grain. Thus my labor is not a mere grasping of the wind because I rejoice and worship my Creator as I labor.

I cannot know how God has directed my paths, but I do know that He has! I can work with great peace and joy because I know that all that comes to pass in my life has been ordered by the Lord. I know that all things work together for good for those who are the called according to His purpose. So I rejoice in what God is doing and has done. I will not fear what man can do to me. This why we can truly be anxious for nothing and why we never need despair. God has appointed all the times and seasons - a time to be born, a time to die; a time for laughter, a time for tears; and so on.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

In Christ,

Bob

The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few

2005-10-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

Cooler weather has finally arrived in northern IL and the fields, as is this one next to our home, are beginning to be harvested. I have always enjoyed observing the weather and appreciating the world that God has made. The more I read the Bible and the more I read of how often God was pleased to have the writers of Scriptures draw from the created world principles to help explain spiritual truths, my observations of the created world often remind me of the Scriptures. When I hear the wind blowing through corn, I am reminded of the psalm that says: " The valleys also are covered with grain; They shout for joy, they also sing." It is a marvelous thing to behold that which God has made and this created being praises his God for it.

As I observe the machinery moving slowly down the roads en route to the fields and later opserve grain carts heavily laden with corn and beans, I am reminded of the many passages that speak of harvest time. I enjoy this time of year, partly because I really dislike the heat and humidity and enjoy the winter. The first chilly, fall days fill me with an anticipation of winter. I like the long nights, the crisp mornings, and white snow. The coffee tastes better and in the winter I sometimes actually can find an evening with nothing to do but read a good book!

Paul reminds the Corinthians that those who sow sparingly shall also reap sparingly. If these farmers put forth no effort and expense in the spring, they could leave the combines in the barn when harvest times comes. I pray that God will instill in our hearts the desire to be full of good works. I hope that we all will be a people that sow bountifully.

I am also reminded of Christ's words to the disciples: "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest."

Our church subscribes loosely to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of faith. We are among the minority of Baptists these days that believe that God is sovereign in all things. Historically, the majority of Baptists embraced the doctrines of grace, but sadly through the period of Arminian-based revivalism that surfaced in the late nineteenth century, the Baptist denomination spiraled downward into Arminianism.

Many of those who resist the doctrines of grace often accuse Calvinists of being unwilling to evangelize. This is actually a slanderous accusation, considering the fact that the vast majority of Calvinists do believe in the free offer of the gospel and that some of the greatest lasting revivals occurred under the preaching and teaching of Calvinistic men. Spurgeon once commented that if God had chosen to mark the elect with a red X on their backs that he would run around London pulling up their shirts. Since He did not, he added, he would preach the gospel to every creature and allow God to give the increase.

In the area in which I live, it would seem that conversions are scarce these days. It saddens me that we have seen so few brought to a saving knowledge of Christ and added to the church. Our church has grown - babies are being born and occasionally a family who is distraught with the lack of teaching in their own church seeks refuge in ours. I am content to allow God to build the church as He sees fit, but I also wish to make sure that I am faithful to preach the gospel of Christ. Hopefully, we both recognize and believe that our life is but a vapor. We have heard it said a million times before, but each day people from the area breathe their last and slip into eternity.

Let us pray that God will aid us in being faithful laborers and that we would truly be willing to plant and water, leaning upon God's soverein good pleasure to give the increase as it pleases Him. Paul said, " How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

My prayer is that I simply would be one who sows much - and that I would be faithful to preach the gospel. I trust that you will pray with me, in entreating our Lord to send forth laborers into the harvest.

Bob

Faith - the Substance of things hoped for

2005-10-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone is familiar with the beautiful passage in Hebrews 11 that describes the nature of faith as well as provides a snapshot of the faith of the saints. We know that "without faith it is impossible to please God" and I hope that we often imitate the disciples when they asked their Master, "Lord, increase our faith."

I have recently been preaching on a series on biblical stewardship (I hope to post some of these messages soon) and will soon be examining some of those things that can serve as an obstacle that prevents us from giving. For some, there is no interest in giving, which is of course a great contradiction of what God requires. For others, previous financial decisions have led us into so much debt that our obligations prevent us from having much left over to give. Perhaps some of us have never recognized that we acutally have a very small amount of faith when it comes to giving.

There is no doubt that the people of God have always been required to give tithes and offerings. There is also no doubt that the people of God have often been too greedy to give to God what He has required. The prophet Malachi wrote to the children of Israel: "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the LORD of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it!"

I believe this may be the only place in the Scriptures that God invites us to try or prove him in the matter of His desire to pour out blessings upon those who give. In similar fashion, the Apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Cor 9 (take the time to read the passage) "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." I pray that God will instill in us a great desire to labor on this earth so that we might accomplish much for His glory as obedient saints. Faith is required to accomplish this, as well as such resources as time and money.

We all exercise faith in varying degrees. We go to the store and buy a can of green beans for our meal and it does not cross our mind that we may not have succeeded in our efforts. We place our faith in the testimony of the label that surrounds the tin can. We cannot see or smell through the confines of the container, we simply trust in the testimony of the label that reveals both a picture and a label that reads "Green beans."

Great things have been accomplished by men who had great faith in their cause. I have been reading a book entitled "1776" by David McCollough and I have marveled at the great faith of General Washington as he took over the ragged Continental army, which was nothing more than some rabble in arms. There was really no reason to believe that they might win a war with Great Britain, which was surely a much more efficient and formiddable force. They had little artillerly, hardly any gunpowder, and the troops were raw and undisciplined. It was reported that when Washington was given command and he saw how meagerly supplied the army was and how undisciplined the soldiers were, that he fell silent, unable to even speak for the space of an hour.

Of course, when we open up our tin cans with beans we always find that we were actually successful in accomplishing the mission. We know that General Washington was able to lead his army to victory. Of course, these examples of faith had no real guarantee! We often exhibit great faith in things that in essence offer us no guarantees. I am to be numbered with the foolish ignorant fans that look with anticipation at the dawning of every new Chicago Cubs and Bears season! These teams have proven to be repetitive losers, but this does not prevent us from following with interest their seasons, until we discover that in reality, no, once again, this is not the year - but just wait until next year!

Why are we so reluctant then to place our faith in God, the one whom we know will lift us up and whose Word is sure? Why do we struggle and resist against the promises of God? Why do we so often prefer to trust in our own wisdom and to lean upon our own understanding when we are invited and commanded to trust in God? I fear that we often expect little from God for we are to faithless to attempt much for Him. Our God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. He has promised us much and we need, like the saints that have gone before, to sieze these promises with eyes of faith and to continue to march forward into battle. We need not go alone. We must always pray, "Lord, increase our faith."

In Christ,

Bob

My family

2005-09-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Rachel and the kids - Aaron, age 9; Jesse, age 8; Mahaela, age 6; and Mariah, age 2. The picture was taken last April when we were vacationing in northwest California. Rachel is a "stay at home mom" where she keeps busy tending to the needs of the house and educating our children.