Rushing out of the telegraph office and stepping on the boardwalk I saw a man run across the street into the cantina. Shortly afterward, Jens stepped out of the hotel and leaned against a post. I moved on up to him noticing that blood was beginning to show on the front of his pants. Subconsciously, he rubbed the front of his leg then brought his hand to look at the blood.
I could see that he was in pain as he held tightly to the column. Pointing with his gun toward the cantina, he hollered as I approached. “Miles, the cantina. Careful, he’s wounded.”
I started moving slowly across the street. “Find the doctor, and bring him back with you.”
Leaning against the wall outside the cantina, I took a deep sigh, breathed a little prayer then walked through the open doors. Ramon was standing behind the bar.
“Ramon…” I began but he cut me short.
“Senor, please…”
I was now rightly irritated. “You disgust me! You whine and complain about justice, and when you have the opportunity to help you cover your head like an ostrich.”
The pretty, dark-haired girl who waited on me yesterday came out from the kitchen. “Sit down, por favor,” she suggested pointing at a particular table. “I will bring some coffee, but you must be patient, it is not quite finished.” She nodded toward the table again before disappearing in the kitchen.
I took a chair, looking at the bar. “Ramon, Marshal Blasco and I are tryin’ to help you.”
He began to shake his head. “Senor, marshal, you simply do not understand our situation here.” It was then that I noticed his eyes kept darting downward.
“On the contrary. I live in Durango. We have a similar situation there, but we are learnin’ to work together.”
The senorita came out and stood off to my right. “Sorry, the coffee, it is so weak. Go ahead, take a sip and see for yourself.”
She didn’t bother to give me the cup, but nodded toward the bar. Quietly I moved out of my chair and moved to the end of the bar. Laying on the floor with a pistol in his hand was the man I was chasing. The gun was pointed at Ramon, but his hand was wavering. Looking down I could see a pool of blood gathering.
He still didn’t hear me approach, I withdrew my pistol holding it a few inches from the back of his head and cocked it. That made him jump and I slashed out with my gun across his wrist forcing him to drop his gun.
Reaching down I grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him up to the bar. He was weak; I realized that the bullet from Blasco’s gun must have cut an artery and he had almost bled out.
“Who?” I started to ask when he slumped forward. Dead.
I grabbed him by the collar again dragging him out to the street. When I got halfway across I dropped him and went in search of the doctor.
* * * *
He didn’t look like a miner; his clothes were too clean. There’s something about him that didn’t quite fit that of a cowboy, but he had been in here for the last four mornings, always eating at a different table. Molly was thinking about the man sitting two tables away from her while she held her coffee cup in both hands peering over it.
“Marta, have you ever seen that man before?”she asked.
Marta turned to look at the man. “Only since he has been coming in here. Why?”
“I don’t know. Something familiar about him,” Molly responded. “Hmmm, he had a beard…”
He caught her staring, he smiled, stood up, tipped his hat, then…
Month: March 2020
Echoes From the Campfire
There wasn’t all this worry about who was right and who was wrong. You just knew.”
–Elmer Kelton (The Far Canyon)
“Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.”
–Deuteronomy 12:28(NKJV)
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“It is only man’s world that is cramping. Human fickleness makes a drooping contrast to God’s towering covenant love and faithfulness; human standards, where all is relative, are a marshland beside the exacting, exhilarating mountains of His righteousness.”
–Derek Kidner
This world is in a mess. No one can deny it. Wherever one turns there is havoc, mayhem, doom, and the tentacles of evil reach out to clutch all it can. Look at the first few verses of Psalm 36. Doesn’t that describe humanity? Man, trying his best, or worse, to undermine God, and it seems that anymore when man gets in trouble instead of turning to God, he turns to man causing more bickering and strife. Thank the Lord for a President who has called for a National Day of Prayer (but what does he receive for it–bickering and strife).
1 – An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked person: There is no dread of God before his eyes,
2 – for in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to discover and hate his sin.
3 – The words of his mouth are malicious and deceptive; he has stopped acting wisely and doing good.
4 – Even on his bed he makes malicious plans. He sets himself on a path that is not good
and does not reject evil.
5 – Lord, Your faithful love reaches to heaven, Your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 – Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments, like the deepest sea. Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 – God, Your faithful love is so valuable that people take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. (HCSB)
Verse one shows that man doesn’t care what God thinks. Whereas the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7, NKJV); man just scoffs. Man does not hate or acknowledge his sin. Right or wrong, man says it is all relative. “God, ha, who is He?” is the cry of modern man.
Don’t worry about anything. Lies will take care of everything. Lie about this, lie about that, get them so confused that they will either believe nothing or they will believe anything. Honesty is “old school,” lie to get ahead, to cover wrongdoings, to get your agenda accomplished. Man will not heed the Word of God. “Little do I realize such sin perverts my personality so much that I am no longer capable of discerning or desiring good.” (George O. Wood) That is where man is now. There is a determination to do evil, to plan what is wrong. If Plan A doesn’t work, go on to Plan B.
But thank the Lord, in times like these we can trust in God’s amazing love and His faithfulness. God cleanses evil from the believer–righteousness and justice will prevail. No matter what type of evil tries to beset us, we have the Lord Almighty looking over us.
“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice which is more than liberty.
For the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.”
–Frederick W. Faber
Coffee Percs
I sat there listening and drinking bad coffee. It was hot, but it could have been much stronger for my taste, needed to boil longer.”
–D.C. Adkisson (Trouble at Gregory Gulch)
Come in, Pard, and sit yurself down. Say, I had one of those ol’ codgers I used to hang with in San Antonio come by to share some coffee. Ol’ Mac warned me that he just might show up some day for a cup of coffee an’ shore enough, he did. It was a grand time, we chewed us up plenty of fat, an’ guzzled a pot of coffee.
I wrote in my last book about Elias havin’ to suffer through drinkin’ some bad coffee. Well, methinks that this hooey or hype, whichever yuh prefer, ’bout the virus that is a pandemic is like bad coffee. If he wasn’t in polite company he might have spewn it out of his mouth. Yes, there is a little coffee flavor, and it’s hot, but that’s all. Calling this a pandemic–hmmm, the flu of 1919 was a pandemic killing around 70 million. Now if you want to fret and panic go right ahead, if’n yuh run out of toilet paper corn is on the market and the trees are startin’ to get their leaves (but watch out–leave those poison ivy leaves alone).
Say, yuh remember Y2K? How ‘ bout the H1N1 virus under Obama in which 12,469 died in the U.S.? Oh, yuh do recall Y2K, but not the other virus. Hmmm, funny how the media controls information. We live in unsettlin’ times, but the Lord will take care of us.
Pard, yuh better be ready for church on Sunday, that is if yur state is allowin’ yuh to have services. Fact of the matter is that our church will not be openin’ its doors. Another sneaky way of shuttin’ down the church, but besides that there is some of that weak coffee goin’ on. I saw somethin on facebook about the correct and incorrect way of greetin’ people at church. Some are callin’ it “No-Touchin’ Sunday.” My mercy, what next?
What about the layin’ on of hands that Paul admonishes? Oh well…hysteria reigns.
Pard, yuh just be careful where yuh go, what yuh handle, and who yuh touch. ‘Course we should be doin’ that anyway. Mind you, it’s sorta like checkin’ yur cinch. Most of all…be trustin’ in the Lord! He’s got everything under control.
Echoes From the Campfire
If trouble rubs the polish off a man he ought to stay home.”
–Frank Bonham (“The Seventh Desert”)
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
–1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)
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Do you want the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s will and purpose in your life?
If so, then look at the road you are on. If you are on the right road it is called sanctification. That’s a term not heard much in churches today. It is a doctrine that is largely ignored for it has no hoopla and people much prefer to do “right in their own eyes.” Most will cry “legalism” when sanctification is preached. The truth of the matter is that sanctification is actually obedience, growing in grace, doing the will of the Lord.
There is an urgency and a necessity for a life in the fulness of the Spirit. It is not the waving of hands, the hopping up and down in front of the church along with a feel-good sermon. It is not listening to “worship” music, and feeling good all over. No, it is an onward and upward trek guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
Today, there is an “awful blindness to spiritual matters and to spiritual needs amongst the people of God.” (T. Austin-Sparks) This was written over half a century ago and it is even more true today. The tragedy is that people are ignorant of the fact or they disregard it; for them their “feel-good” Christianity is enough.
In the message to the lukewarm Laodicean church (Rev. 3:14-22) there is a very important phrase found in verse 21, “He who overcomes.” The person who overcomes the lukewarmness. Sparks does better explaining it.
“Overcometh what? This awful state of things, this tragic spiritual weakness; this decline; this blindness; this indifference! The Spirit says in effect: ‘In the midst of this, I want some to rise up and throw this thing off, and get to God in desperation to save the situation.’ Will that have our response? The Spirit said, ‘To him that overcometh.’ Do we respond? Have we an ear to hear what the Spirit saith?”
The devil has deceived many with the idea that sanctification is legalism. Ponder the two verses I leave with you in closing today’s Echo.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
–John 14:15 (NASB)
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.'”
–1 Peter 1:14-16(NASB)