Month: April 2018

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

It is never a pleasure to see a ‘For Sale’ sign in a man’s eyes.”
              –Luke Short  (Saddle By Starlight)

    “But Jesus told him, ‘Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.'”
              –Luke 9:62 (NLT)
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         “These are the days of great trials
          Of famine and darkness and sword…”
                     –Robin Mark

Some of the signs of the end are famine, trials, pestilence, earthquakes, war, and that there will be a great falling away.  Yes, a great revival will occur and is occurring throughout the world, but the falling away is what alarms me.  People will say, “Where is God?” or “There is no God”.  There will be scoffers and scorners in the last days.  
    I read the other day that only nine percent of white millennials go to church or believe in the Bible.  Now, if that isn’t a great falling away, I don’t know what to call it.  Darkness isn’t always physical.  It may be a darkness of soul, or the pervading attitude of evil permeating the land.  Man cries that he is more enlightened now than ever, however, in reality there is actually more darkness.
    California is proposing a law making the Bible illegal.  GQ has said that the Bible is obsolete, archaic, and not worth the reading.  Challenges to the Word of God are rampant–that is a sign of “falling away”, a sign of darkness.
    But in this time, the job of the Christian is to be “light” and “salt” unto the world.  They are to live above the world, not be partakers of it.  When Christians begin to enjoy the pleasures and those things that were once considered sin are not practiced, then that is a great falling away.  There are true believers who are forsaking the things of the world and turning wholeheartedly to Christ.  There is a revival of the true Church.

         “Still we are the voice in the desert crying
          Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”
                    –Robin Mark

    The Lord is coming, are you ready?  Are you prepared to meet Him in the air?  Are you ready to forsake the things of this world?  Are you involved with preparing the way of the Lord?  Soon the trumpet will sound, the earth will shake, and heavens gates will open for those who believe and are ready for His appearing.

         “Behold, He comes,
          Riding on the clouds,
          Shining like the sun
          At the trumpet’s call…”
                    –Robin Mark

The Saga of Miles Forrest

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Oh, you’re back with us,” came a soft, feminine voice.  “I’ll go get the doctor.”
    I heard footsteps leave the room.  Then I tried to gather my senses.  The last thing I remember was them saying that Molly was in another room.
    In a few minutes I could hear the murmuring of voices seemingly outside my room.  “Well, welcome back to the real world,” I recognized the voice of the doctor.  “You needed to rest and sleep; you lost quite a bit of blood.”
    “Where am I? How long have I been sleepin’?  I need to see Molly,” and with that I tried to get up.  The pain hit me; it seemed the wound had not healed.
    I felt the hands of the doctor holding me down.  “Easy, easy; one thing at a time.  Nurse, help me.  Let’s see if we can get him to sit up.”
    The nurse came and held my shoulders and the doctor began to move my legs so I could better sit up.  “Here,” he said to the nurse, “you swing his legs down while I push up on his shoulder.  Now, this might hurt some.”
    It did.  I tried to help them as much as possible and finally they were able to get me into a sitting position with both of them holding me.  Slowly they released me to see if I could sit by myself.
    “Now, to answer the first question.  You are in a small hospital in Taos; really a complex made into a hospital.  There wasn’t any place to take care of you, Molly, and Mr. Billington.  To your second question, you have been unconscious for most of three days.”
    “Molly, the shipment…” I could feel myself beginning to go faint.
    The doctor reached over to grasp me.  “Nurse, some water, please.”
    This time I was able to hold the glass and I drank it rapidly.  I don’t know if water actually has a taste, but this tasted mighty good.  
    “A man from Wells Fargo stopped by.  I was to tell you that they couldn’t hold up the train and that they had to continue.”
    I nodded my head in understanding.  “Molly?”
    “Get him a robe, nurse.”
    The doctor helped me to stand.  My legs felt some wobbly, but they were able to hold me up.  With their help I was able to don it.  Each of them helped me to walk to the door and into the hallway.  Passing the first room, the door was open so I peeked inside.  Billington was laying on a bed.  I paused at the doorway.
    He must have noticed someone standing there for he turned his head.  “Forrest!” he snarled.  “This is your doing!”
    I reached to take hold of the door frame.  “Not mine, Billington.  This is all your doin’.  Havin’ someone bushwhack me and then you pullin’ a gun to finish me off.  No, the blame is entirely yours.”
    “Where’s my valise!” he shouted.
    The doctor pulled me from the door and into the hallway.  “I took the liberty of putting his valise in the bank for safe keeping.  I didn’t count it, but there must be several thousand dollars in it.”
    I looked his way with a shocked expression.  “Molly, is she?…”  My legs gave out and I almost fell.  The nurse and doctor both grabbed me to keep me from hitting the floor.
    “Think you can walk down to the next room?” he asked.
    Moving one foot, I slowly headed that way.  Both of them holding me and as I came to the room where she was, both of them grasped me firmly.  
    Looking in, I held my breath.  I could see her, laying there.  The room was without light, except for one lamp in the corner kept dim.  
    I struggled to loosen myself from their grasp.  I needed to see this for myself.  I could barely move but forced myself to take another step into the room where she was laying.  The doctor came up behind me and firmly put his hands on my shoulders.
    “She is…”
    I pushed forward, “Molly!”

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

We should have talked about dignity and freedom; those things count for more than money.  Money’s soon spent, and when it’s gone it leaves no mark.  But when a man loses dignity, that leaves a mark on him that stays.”
              –Elmer Kelton  (The Day the Cowboys Quit)

    “Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.”
              –Psalm 22:1 (NLT)
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If God is in charge why do I suffer so much?  Now, one thing for sure, suffering is a matter of perspective.  I’ve heard people moan and groan over life and I have to raise my eyebrows and wonder why.  The last decade or so, I heard kids continually moan about how bad they are treated and that their life is so tough.  It makes me wonder even more as they profess Christ.  Then there are those who may really suffer trials and yet they always carry a smile and continue going forward.
    Look at the words of the Psalmist:

         “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
          Why are You so far from helping Me,
          And from the words of My groaning?
          O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
          And in the night season, and am not silent.”
                   –Psalm 22:1-2 (NKJV)

Maybe that is the way you feel.  These verses depict Christ, but we surely, at times feel the same way.  But look around you at all the evil.  There are homeless, hungry, disease-ridden, and refugees from war-torn areas.  
    This makes the incarnation and the coming of Jesus to this world all the more amazing.  “The more I see of the real world, the more I see the amazing implications of the incarnation of God in Christ.  To enter our kind of world from His kind of world, even for a moment, is beyond our comprehension.” (Stephen Brown)  As a Christian we need to have some knowledge of God, and therefore, we must be in His Word.
    First of all, we do a disservice to tell new converts that now they will have fewer and smaller problems because they are Christians.  That is totally false.  Life happens to all, but there is a major difference.  We serve God, the One who is in charge.  People who become a Christian with the idea of no problems have an attitude and mind-set that are not based on reality.  There seems to be the idea that as followers of Christ we have a right to live in a world without any hurt.  In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite.

          “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you”
                   –1 Peter 4:12 (NKJV, also see John 15:18-20; 16:33)

    Why should we think that life would be full of roses and that we could just go our way tip-toeing through the tulips.  For often life is a walk through a forest of cholla and cacti.  But Christ is with us and the blessed Holy Spirit.  The false theology of Christians not having to hurt has probably caused more hurt and confusion than anything in Christianity. (Brown)  Because we are not in the Word, we have not taken the time to examine the “whole counsel of God.”  “The Bible teaches power under pressure, not power without pressure.” (Brown)
    Listen!  The chief end of our walk with Christ is not our happiness, but His glorification.  Perhaps one of the reasons that new believers fall by the wayside is due to untruthful expectations.  Listen!  We are not “unloved” because we suffer, in fact the opposite may be true; it may be happening because we are in God’s will.  I remember a former principal, that whenever “bad” things began to happen that it was always the devil fighting.  I mentioned to him that it may be because we were not doing things “right” or that we were right in the middle of God’s will.
    One other thing I have learned.  Don’t go to the Book of Job for answers as Job is a book of questions.  When God began to answer Job, He answered Him with questions.  He showed Job the majesty of His being.  Job should actually be a book of comfort for in it we see something of what might be happening in the spirit realm.  Never for a moment forget, that God is definitely in charge.

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

It was still cold and dark as the boys crawled from under their blankets and squatted round the fire to eat jerky, biscuits and gravy, and to drink cupfuls of hot, black coffee.”
           –William MacLeod Raine  (Wyoming)

Mornin’ pard, yep, it’s graylight.  I know that you have to get things done, but come on inside for a cup.  Busy week, and my legs are sure feelin’ it.  Sure hopin’ that one of these days you can join me for coffee at the new homestead.  Keep waitin’ for electricity.  Ain’t it somethin’ how we depend on things like that?  If the grid ever does go down, most will be in a real fix.  Hmmm, makes me wonder if folk are too comfortable in their relationship with the Lord.  Wonder what will happen if the spiritual grid would go down, or up in the case of the rapture.
    We lost a good lady this week–Barbara Bush.  Sometimes we have idiots out there; I think they just wait for events to show their stupidity.  Some college professor, remember she is supposed to have some form of intelligence, said the day after Mrs. Bush passed on that she was a racist and raised a war criminal.  Someone needs to teach her some manners.
    I played in some cold baseball games in my life while growing up.  Sure, we might complain, but we wanted to play.  But I saw where the Cubs, and I can’t remember the team they were playing, were complainin’ the other day that their game didn’t get canceled.  It was too cold.  What I think is some of the players would miss their appointment at the manicurist.  Ol’ Ernie Banks was rolling over in his grave; he would be sayin’, “let’s play two.”  Can you imagine the prima donnas of today’s game playin’ doubleheaders?  My gracious, it would take too much energy.
    I read something this week that has me just perplexed.  Maybe you know the answer, ‘specially if you’re a math whiz. Why do pizzas come in square boxes, made as circles, and eaten as triangles?  Ahh, the coffee sure is good this morning–hot, strong, an’ black.  Even in retirement, life seems to be goin’ by at a terrific rate’ just can’t seem to get everything done that I want done each day.  Yuh don’t suppose it has anything to do with age?  Maybe I need to slow down some when I go ’round the turns.
    You be checkin’ that cinch when you go out this comin’ week.  See yuh pard.