Author: Ira Paine

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

We were men without threats. We were men who talked little of the deeds to be done.”
                    –Louis L’Amour  (Silver Canyon)

       “So you may walk in the way of goodness, and keep to the paths of righteousness.”

                    –Proverbs 2:20(NKJV)
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               “Look what the Lord has done,
               Look what the Lord has done…”
                        –Mark David Hanby

Can you imagine Caleb sitting with his grandsons and explaining how the Lord helped him through the wilderness?  Or Joshua, telling about traveling through the wilderness, then about the walls of Jericho falling down.  Maybe your mind wanders to Gideon, holding a youngster by his side, explaining how the Lord delivered Israel with only three hundred men.
       Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?  Try and explain its majesty to someone who has not been there.  Even with photos it is not the same.  Now, with our study last week on “wonderful” we can give a better description but still cannot relay the magnificence of the Lord and His deliverance or miracles.  This is what Psalm 114 is about.  Deliverance, telling about the wonders of God.

          1 — When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
          2 — Judah became His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.
          3 — The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back.
          4 — The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.
          5 — What ails you, O sea, that you fled?  O Jordan, that you turned back?
          6 — O mountains, that you skipped like rams?  O little hills, like lambs?
          7 — Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
          8 — Who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters.  (NKJV)

       God takes care of His own.  His children are precious to Him and He will not allow enemies to crush them.  Lawson writes, “When God delivers His own, He opens a door that no person can close, ushering them out of their predicament.  He then goes before them, leading them into the safety of His will.  No obstacle is too great for God to overcome.  No enemy is too great for Him to defeat.”  God is with His people.
       Too often, we whine and moan about the troubles that confront us.  How soon we forget the wonders of God.  How soon we forget the deliverance of His power.  Think for a moment of the miracles, the deliverances, the times He was there with you in the midst of the storms and calamities.  Let’s finish the chorus by Hanby:

          “He healed my body, He touched my mind,
          He saved me it was just in time;
          I’m gonna praise His name,
          Each day He’s just the same,
          Come on and praise Him,
          Look what the Lord has done.”

       In times of troubles and doubts, remember what the Lord has done.  Not only for Israel as depicted in Psalm 114, but also in your life.  Get rid of the fears, the anxieties and the doubts and know that the Lord has dominion over the problem, the earth, and your life.  Allow Him to function and show His deliverance.  Not only will our enemies flee, but notice in this Psalm that even the seas and rivers “flee” at His command.  
       So pass on the Word of the Lord to your children and grandchildren.  Pass on those remarkable wonders that the Lord has done for you throughout your life.  Let them see the power of God and know that as He delivered you, they can trust in Him for deliverance in their lives.  Perhaps the questions are:  How are you passing God’s remarkableness on to the next generation?  How are you conveying it to those you see every day?

          “The sea beheld his power and fled;
          Jordan ran backward to its head.
          The mountains skipped like frightened rams;
          The hills leaped after them like lambs.
          And all things, as they change, proclaim
          The Lord eternally is the same.”
                     –Charles Wesley

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

I poured myself another cup of coffee and sat there musing over the day.” 

                    –D. C. Adkisson  (Mal de Ojo)
 
 
Come join me, Pard.  I was just a-sittin’ here, musin’ over the day yesterday and the past fifty years.  Yep, time does fly by an’ it’ll leave us wishin’ we’d taken more notice if we’re not careful.  Try the coffee, some of that Abeantogo coffee, an’ do some musin’ with me.
       Yep, Pard, I remember that day well.  My first born gal appeared on the scene.  It happened to be Good Friday, and we were fortunate that she was born on Friday, ’cause that night we got twenty or so inches of snow and would not have been able to get to the hospital.  While Annie was in the hospital room, they used to keep yuh in there for a few days back then, she had several four legged visitors come to her window.  Guess they wanted to check out the goin’s on.
       Then the time began to fly by.  We did the best we knew how to raise her in the admonition of the Lord, and must have done alright.  “Course, it was mostly the Lord’s doin’ we just tried to follow His directions.  From the first Sunday she was home she’s been in church.  No matter what folks say, yuh need to raise yur yunguns in church.  They need, more than ever now, the teachin’ of the Word of God.  Let me tell yuh, Pard, those early songs learned in Sunday School stick with yuh.  Simple, but loaded with truth.  Simple, but they teach yuh that yuh can be a-trustin’ in the Lord in and through every situation.
       My mercy, speakin’ of time flyin’, has it been less than a week since the hubbub of the eclipse?  Prophecies, omens, fears, and hoopla and some foolish notions were gathered ’round that day.  Sure it was a unique experience, but we forget that the Lord set it in motion those years ago when He said, “Let there be light…” and created the heavens and the earth.
       Pard, not only does the time fly, but lookee here–the coffeepot is empty.  Yuh must have been guzzlin’ it hard.  Ha, hit yur good spot down in the gizzard did it?  We don’t want to be wastin’ time, so I need yuh need to be on yur way, but on the other hand, we need to be enjoyin’ our time together and this wonderful brew that the Lord provided.
He also provided yuh with a noggin’ with some gray matter so youse could remember to check yur cinch.  Don’t want yuh leavin’ before yur time.
          Vaya con Dios.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Life’s too important and too wonderful to throw away on things that don’t really matter.”
                    –Kenneth Pratt  (The Wolves of Windsor Ridge)

       “‘Why do you ask My name,’ the Angel of the Lord asked him, ‘since it is wonderful.'”

                    –Judges 13:18(HCSB)
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               “His name is Wonderful, His name is Wonderful,
               His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord….”
                         –Audrey Mae Mieir

Wonderful–how this word has evolved in meaning, like so many other words.  The Oxford Dictionary defines it this way, “inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good; marvelous.”  So when we say that the name of Jesus is “wonderful” are we meaning “inspiring delight or pleasure”?  When used the way it is now there is some removed from the original, literal meaning.
      Merriam-Webster says that the “frequent use of ‘wonderful’ led to a dilution in the literal meaning ‘full of wonder.’  I like the term “dilution.”  The meaning is still there, just watered down.  Let’s look at the following verses:

               “You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’  Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”  –Job 42:3
               “Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.”  –Deuteronomy 28:59
               “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land.”  –Jeremiah 5:30

Now put the dictionary definition to the word in the verse.  Job, “things too inspiring…things extremely good.”  The verse in Deuteronomy, “thy plagues are inspiring…thy plagues are extremely good.”  Hmmm.  Now to the words of Jeremiah, “an inspiring and horrible thing…an extremely good and horrible thing.”  Wait a minute.  Plagues are good?  What is happening in the land is “extremely good”?
       Let’s go back to see the original meaning.  All the instances of wonderful in the King James Bible are used to mean “astonishing.”  They are not extremely good nor always inspiring.  Wonderful is something that is extraordinary.  Someone has said that “wonder invites us to be surprised by God’s mystery, to let God be big…”  Think for a moment on the awesome power of God.  It is indeed “wonderful”, but more than that; it is astonishing and extra–ordinary.  The thought of God’s omnipresence is a mystery of which we only can partially understand.  The concept is wonderful; it astounds us that God is in the past, in the present, and also already in the future.  He is with me, and with you, and with a believer over in Armenia.  
       His name is ASTONISHING, His name is EXTRAORDINARY, His name is a MYSTERY.  Does that make us want to worship Him more than to just say, His name is extremely good, or His name is inspiring?
       One glance at the New Testament word–wonder.  The New Testament teaches that “signs and wonders” shall follow those who believe.  What then are those wonders?  Vine states, (teras) “something strange, causing the beholder to marvel.”  He explains further, “A sign is intended to appeal to the understanding, a wonder appeals to the imagination.”  Another word for wonder is (thambos) and means “amazement.”

               “He’s the great Shepherd, the Rock of all ages, Almighty God is He;
               Bow down before Him,
               Love and adore Him,
               His name is Wonderful, Jesus, my Lord.”

His name goes beyond inspiration; it goes further than simply something extremely good.  His name is astonishing!  One more example of the astonishing, awesomeness, and extraordinary name…
               “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse.  And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns.  He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God….  And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:  King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
                         –Revelation 19:11-13,16 (NKJV)

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Good days are measured by two factors. How much work did we get done? How fast did the time fly?”
                    –Stephen Bly  (One Step Over the Border)

        “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

                    –Romans 13:8 (NKJV)
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               “He paid a debt He did not owe
               I owed a debt I could not pay,
               I needed someone to wash my sins away.”
                         –Ellis J. Crum

The Bible speaks in many places concerning debts.  Debts to others, debts because of loans or bills, and that debts are to be paid back in full.  However, there is a debt we could never pay back, a debt that we could not even pay–that is the debt of justice.  It was/is impossible for us to pay that debt, the debt of God’s justice.  We all have broken His commandments and therefore are debtors to His justice which we are not able to pay.  We need someone to pay that amount for us.  Let me borrow from Charles H. Spurgeon, “But of the Christian it can be said that he does not owe God’s justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt His people owed; for this reason the believer owes the more to love.”
       However, we are still debtors.  Spurgeon continues, “I am a debtor to God’s grace and forgiving mercy; but I am no debtor to His justice, for He will never accuse me of a debt already paid… we are debtors to God’s justice no longer.”  Stop, think on that, praise the Lord for that.  We are debtors to His grace and mercy.  We cannot fathom that, we accept it.  We do not deserve it, but He loved us and paid our debt.  WOW!
       But there are still debts that we owe.  Borrowing again from Spurgeon, “What a debtor thou art to divine sovereignty!  How much thou owest to His disinterested love, for He gave His own Son that He might die for thee.  Consider how much you owe to His forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts He loves you as infinitely as ever.  Consider what you owe to His power; how He has raised you from your death in sin; how He has preserved your spiritual life; how He has kept you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your path, you have been able to hold on to your way.  Consider what you owe to His immutability.  Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once.  Thou art as deep in debt as thou canst be to every attribute of God.  To God thou owest thyself, and all thou hast–yield thyself as a living sacrifice, it is but thy reasonable service.”
       As Christ has forgiven us, we are to forgive others.  Remember the words from the Lord’s Prayer, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12, NKJV)  Hmmm, do we really want to pray that?  Do we really mean that when we pray?  What would it be like if God forgave us the same way that we forgive others?  Ah, but that is the subject for another Echo.  Right now, consider the debt you have.  Paul writes, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors–not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.  For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  (Romans 8:12-13, NKJV)  No longer, get that–no longer are we debtors to the flesh, that debt has been paid by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  However, we are to put to death the deeds of the flesh.  We are to give our bodies, our lives, as living sacrifices to the Lord (Romans 12:1-2)  .We are debtors to Him–“to obey Him with all our body, and soul, and strength.” (Spurgeon)