Echoes From the Campfire

A family is a place where a body can share the no-account things, can talk of the little matters important only to ourselves, where we can laugh and cry and tell of the day-to-day happenings and then forget them.”
              –Louis L’Amour (The Cherokee Trail)

    “Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.”
              –Proverbs 5:18 (NLT)
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If God is in charge of our lives then we should be a person, a son/daughter of obedience.  Last Monday, we looked at some facts of obedience.  Look at what we read last week to review.
         1)  Obedience is not an option.
         2)  When we obey God, He gives guidance.
         3)  God does not want to make us miserable when we obey.
Let’s look at a few other facts about obedience.
         4)  Obedience makes us free.
                  People clamor for freedom, but they don’t really know what that means.  It is when we abide in God’s Word that we truly become free.  Bonhoeffer put it this way, “If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses… .  Only through discipline may a man learn to be free.”  Hmmm, look at those on the streets protesting–do they know how to “govern their souls and senses”?
         5)  Obedience is not only done out of duty.
                  “For the love of Christ controls us….(2 Corinthians 5:14, ESV)  What is it that controls you?  It is a fact that people usually do, either consciously or unconsciously, what they want to do.  Love changes our wants.
         6)  We have a Helper in our obedience.
                  Listen, we are not called to obedience by ourselves.  When you walk down the road of obedience you don’t walk it by yourself, but the Holy Spirit is there by your side.  God is sovereign, and we cannot be obedient except through the power of the Holy Spirit.  F.W. Faber said the following:  “We must wait for God, long, meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder and lightning, in the cold and dark.  Wait, and He will come.  He never comes to those who do not wait… .  When He comes, go with Him, but go slowly, fall a little behind, when He quickens His pace, be sure of it before you quicken yours.  But when He slackens, slacken at once and do not be slow only, but silent, very silent, for He is God.”
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    “Who can find a virtuous wife?  For her worth is far above rubies.”
              –Proverbs 31:10

Well, this ol’ fellow found one 47 years ago.  Yep, it has been 47 years since we got ourselves hitched.  I remember, Pappy, Annie’s Dad, offered me $20 and a ladder to elope, but we decided on having him walk her down the aisle and give her to me.  
    It has been a grand journey, that’s for sure.  We’ve covered a few miles together, and drank more than a few cups of coffee on our way.  What a gal–she stuck with me through thick and thin and there ain’t nobody around can match her when it comes to making a pie.
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The Echoes may be a little sporadic.  We have just moved into our new house, but don’t have internet yet.  Using Annie’s phone until that happens.