Nothing in his life had prepared him for things to turn out right.  Whey they did, he was pleased, when they did not, he was ready.”
               –Louis L’Amour  (The Quick and the Dead)

     “Remove the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith.”
               –Proverbs 25:4 (NLT)
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Friday!  Time to start thinking of the weekend but don’t go forgetting your duties and chores of the day.  Don’t be so anxious that you don’t get things done right.  I’ve been told never to purchase a car made on Friday or Monday.  People make mistakes on Friday because they are looking for the weekend.  People make mistakes on Monday because they are hungover or are still tired from the weekend.  Problem I always had with that saying is how does one know when the vehicle was made?
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                    “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.”
                                     –Proverbs 17:22 (NLT)

Take a look at these and ponder the truth.  We sure do like to make excuses instead of getting on with life.
           When a horse dies, it will do no good to:
                1) change riders
                2) move the body to a new location
                3) get a sharper pair of spurs
                4) say, “It’ll be all right.  We’ve always ridden horses like this one.”
                5) complain about the state of horses these days
                6) tighten the cinch
                7) blame the horse’s parents
                8) have a committee work out a plan to get the horse back on its feet.
                                 (Texas Bix Bender)
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     My Grandpa Adkisson was a great storyteller.  I remember him saying that the only difference between him and George Washington was that Washington said he couldn’t tell a lie.  Grandpa said he could lie, but chooses not to do so.  So when Grandpa told a story, they were true.
     He also was quick with a reply.  One time he and I were fishing up in Nederland, CO.  Grandpa didn’t talk much when fishing.  We had been there a while when I spoke up, “Grandpa!  Do you see that tick on that tree across the lake?”  To which Grandpa replied, “Can’t see him from where I’m sittin’ but I could hear him walking.”  Then he chuckled and said, “Thought you got me that time, didn’t you?”
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     I was reading from a book the other day and came across this.  “A big city preacher requested grandpa to give him a statement of commendation for his new book.  Grandpa hated to decline, but had to on the grounds that it was not exactly in keeping with his views.
     The author replied, ‘You can’t appreciate it, because you never wrote a book.’
     ‘No,’ retorted the country preacher, ‘and neither have I ever laid an egg, but I think I’m a better judge of an omelet than any hen in the world.'”  (Leroy Brownlow)

Here’s one more from Brownlow’s book.
     “A man who always prayed the same prayer word for word was leading the congregation.  They could go three words ahead of him all the way through.  Part of it went like this: ‘Oh Lord, since we last called upon thee, the cobwebs have come between us and thee.  We pray that thou wilt remove the cobwebs that we may look upon they face once again.’
     Just at this point, grandpa spoke a little louder than he intended, ‘Oh Lord, kill the spider.'”
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A little fun today.  Smile, you just might shock somebody.  And remember, “You can’t convince a rooster he doesn’t know as much about singin’ as a mockingbird.”

It doesn’t do us any good to dwell on what could have been.  We just need to make the right choices in the first place.”
               –C. J. Petit  (Ben Gray)

     “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.”
               –Romans 6:6 (HCSB)
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               “In every action we take, we are doing one of two things:  we are either helping to create a hell on earth or helping to bring down a foretaste of heaven.  We are either contributing to the broken condition of the world or participating with God in transforming the world to reflect His righteousness.  We are either advancing the rule of Satan or establishing the reign of God.”
                       –Charles Colson

               “It took one night to take Israel out of Egypt, but forty years to take Egypt out of Israel.”
                       –George Morrison

I’m currently reading a book about the reign of Nero and how he began to persecute Christians.  He took delight in watching the beasts tear them apart and used them as lamps for his new garden.  They were called “haters of humanity” by him.  Crazy as it sounds, those in authority can get people crazed for blood, and even the greatest pacifist can become vile in their sight.
     Listen to the atheists, the detractors and scorners, the pundits and the mockers, and Christianity must be lethal.  In a way it is because it scares them so they have to attack.  To attack so viciously they must have serious doubts about their own ideas, and there lingers within their hearts and minds the possibility of the truth.  It is, however, lethal to their way of life and their way of thinking.  “Do away with it,” they cry, for it affects me.  “If I deny it long enough it is no longer true,” they proclaim in their wishful thinking.  Just think of the many attacks on Jesus, the Word of God, and Christianity.  It is something that is dangerous–dangerous to their agenda and lifestyle.
     If a person is a good Christian, he is a good citizen.  How is that dangerous?  If a person is a good Christian then morality is a virtue.  How can that be dangerous?  The issue is that it is dangerous to those who choose to live an immoral lifestyle, yet it is not Christianity that is the danger, but their lifestyle.  Knowing the truth they choose to believe the lie.
     Years ago I read something from David Wilkerson.  He said, “The Holy Spirit either enrages or convicts.”  There is no neutrality when it comes to the person of Christ or the Bible.  When the heathen rage, know for certain that the Holy Spirit is at work.  They are showing their response to the truth that He brings.  I had a person argue that there is more than Christ to life.  He is too restrictive.  That says it–Christianity disrupts “their” belief system.  Beware when the decon-
structionists say this, “this is my opinion” of this or that scripture.  We do not add our opinion to what God has said.
     When you look at the dangers of Christianity it is not to society or to individuals but to the pleasures of self.  Let me, sin, but call it an alternative lifestyle.  Let me choose my own truth.  It is really after one becomes a Christian that the danger really begins.  Now the forces of the “evil one” are also against them.  To the fearmongers out there, what is it that you really fear?  Is it the day of truth that is in your future?  The only danger confronting them is the refusal of having the soul saved.  There is the danger that they know they are doomed without Christ.

Men make too much of their problems.  So many things grow small and petty when you see them through the window of time.”
               –Louis L’Amour  (Under the Sweetwater Rim)

     “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
               –John 14:3 (NLT)
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                “Ridin’ up the glory trail, spurs ringin’…
                 Afraid is what I’m not,
                 Hard times come and the trail seems always uphill.
                 Courage is what I’ve got,
                 The harder it gets, I’m cinchin’ up tighter still.
                 O Lord, I’m glad it’s true
                 It’s best to lean on You.
                 O the glory trail is a rugged trail, it’ll try you every day,
                 But the Lord is true and He’ll ride with you along its narrow way.”
                           –Jack Hannah

In our busy, urban, high-tech lives we very seldom thing of watching our backtrail.  This was not true of those who lived on the frontier and ventured to open our Western land; it was a common practice and those that did not were often never seen again.  For there were those who would not face a man but shoot him from ambush.  There were hostiles who opposed entrance to their domain.  There were renegades, those similar to the modern terrorists.  At times, animals might even be the stalker.
     How many reading this have ever thought of checking their backtrail, must less guarding it?  Perhaps we should be more alert.  I have thought of the many trails I have traveled; often too carelessly.  Thanks to the merciful Lord I’m still in the process of traveling on some new trails and also staying on that trail to glory.
     I heard some old-timers talking about some riders they thought they saw on the trail just before they crossed the Great Divide.  Miles Forrest remarked a few times about it; the thought he saw the horses in the corral, but never sighted the riders (except one).  Could it be that the horses are now mounted and being exercised?  If you hear their hoofbeats saddle up and ride!  The horses?  Watch for these:  a buckskin almost white, a wild chestnut foaming at the mouth, a haggard black, and a pale horse greenish and seemingly transparent. (see Revelation 6:1-8)
     For certain we have seen the visage of some of these riders, but never clearly as they are hooded or in darkness brought on by evil.  Fear will surely strike the inhabitants of the earth when they mount up with full vengeance, remove their hoods and bring havoc to the earth.  Possibly the rider of the whitish buckskin is around, but he is secretive, bidding his time.
     These evil, wicked renegades are definitely somewhere on the backtrail, biding their time.  One day they will put the whip to their horses and ride forward spewing vile from their bowels.  Evil, hatred, slaughter and death will be with them.  It makes me shudder and the bile rises in my throat to think of these deadly riders.  Be alert, don’t be careless on the trail, and be ready for the trumpet sound.