I love those mountains; they’re so restful, so…enduring, and timeless.”
–Louis L’Amour (Kilrone)
“Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.”
–Psalm 16:9 (NKJV)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World
Key Verse: “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” –1 John 5:19 (ESV)
Recently I have written about how to have fellowship with God and how vital it is to our walk, and to our survival in this evil world. We must understand God, we must seek God, we must contemplate God, we must desire God! One of the easiest ways to keep God in the forefront of our minds is by music. Take a break from the cares of this world, rest in the the words of the songs below.
A friend of Jesus, O what bliss,
That one so vile as I
Should ever have a friend like this,
To lead me to the sky.
A friend when sickness lays me low,
A friend when death draws near,
A friend as through the vale I go,
A friend to help and cheer.
A friend when other friendships cease,
A friend when others fail,
A friend who gives me joy and peace,
A friend who doth prevail.
A friend when life’s short race is o’er,
A friend when earth is past,
A friend to meet on heaven’s shore,
A friend when home at last.
Friendship with Jesus,
Fellowship divine,
O what blessed sweet communion,
Jesus is a friend of mine.”
–J.C. Ludgate (“Friendship With Jesus”)
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What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Ev’rything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Ev’rything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev’ry weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with the load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.
–Joseph Scriven (“What A Friend”)
Rest today–the battle will still be there, but take time to ponder the words of these great songs. Remember, as you walk through this life you need a Friend–you have a Friend, know that Jesus is with you.
Month: April 2021
The Saga of Miles Forrest
I could hear the whack, whack, whack as Queens was attacking Fernando. Rushing in he turned on me smacking me alongside the neck driving me into the bars of the cell. Charlie then jumped on his back, Queens roared swinging around trying to loosen him, but Charlie hung on. After shaking my head, I drove a fist into Queens jaw causing his knees to stagger, then Charlie grabbed him throwing his arm around his neck choking him. Finally, Queens succumbed and lay still, but not unconscious.
My attention went to Fernando, who was still trying to cover himself up. “Easy, boy, easy, I’m not goin’ to hurt you.”
“Queens!” yelled Charlie, “What in the world are you trying to do?”
There was no answer forthcoming as he pushed himself off the floor. He pushed Charlie away and started out the cell. I moved to my feet and grabbed him spinning him around. As he was spinning I pushed him into one of the other cells and onto the cot. With him face down on the cot, I pulled his gun from his holster.
I moved out of the cell; he jumped up coming at me so I slammed the cell door catching him in the face. A curse exploded from his mouth, “Forrest, I’ll get you for this!”
“Lucas, get out in the office!” I ordered and pointed. Then I glanced at Charlie and nodded toward Fernando. He stooped to help him up on the cot while I went out to talk with Lucas.
He was standing there, trembling, eyes wide. “Okay, son, what went on in there?” I asked softly trying to settle him down.
Lucas just shook his head. “I’m not sure,” he said, almost whimpering. “Fernando asked for a cup of water. The marshal muttered something about him being a “beaner” but brought a cup. As he was handing it to Fernando it hit the bars and spilled it on the marshal’s shirt. That threw him into a rage.”
He was beginning to settle down so I pulled out a chair. “Why don’t you sit, and settle yourself.” Then I half-sat on the corner of the desk.
“The marshal, he opened the cell door then grabbed me hitting me and throwing me out of the cell. Then he turned his anger on Fernando. He had something in his hand, a quirt maybe and started hitting Fernando,” he paused to look up at me. “That’s when you came in.”
“Forrest! Let me out of here! You can’t hold me like this! Forrest!” came the voice of Queens bellowing from his cell.
Charlie brought Fernando out to the office and tossed a quirt that he had picked up from the floor of the cell to the table where I was sitting. “I need to take him over to Doc’s office. Some of those cuts need tending to.”
I nodded, “Get him tended to, and I’ll meet you at the diner. I’ll have Lucas with me. I’m not goin’ to subject him to Queen’s rantin’.”
“Forrest! You can’t leave me in here like this!” he ranted as Lucas and I left the office. “You’ll pay for this! Forrest!”
We walked down the street toward the diner, Lucas rubbing the side of his head where Queens hit him. “Has this happened before?” I asked as we continued down the street.
“No, but he, what you say, stormed at us, always threatening,” replied Lucas.
Walking in the entrance Molly saw us immediately. She knew something must be wrong with Lucas being with me and rushed over. Of course the first thing she saw was the bruise on the side of his head. Putting her arm around him she hurried him over to the table. Lucas sat down as Molly rushed off to the kitchen. I pulled a cup off the shelf to pour coffee before sitting down.
Molly had gone to the kitchen and returned with a piece of chocolate pie for Lucas. I looked at her longingly, but she scarcely even noticed. “There’s only one piece left, and that’s for Fernando,” she informed me.
Lucas had taken a couple of bites while Molly and I set there and watched him before Charlie came in with Fernando followed by Doc Jones. As they were approaching the table Molly stood then went to the kitchen for Fernando’s pie. Doc came straight to Lucas.
“Put down that pie, I want to check the side of your head,” he stated brusquely.
I watched him, then had to ask. “How does lookin’ in his eyes help you check the side of his head?”
Doc gave me a glance then went back to his examination. He gave a short grunt then looked at me. “How about a cup of coffee?” Then he asked Lucas if he was dizzy.
Lucas shook his head, “Is it okay to eat my pie now, Senor Doc?” he asked.
Scratching his chin, then he pulled at his eyebrow, then with a wink, “Go ahead, eat your pie.” Sitting down he took a sip of coffee then turned his attention toward me. “Something has to be done with that man strutting around as town marshal,” he snapped. “Using a quirt like that he could have put the boy’s eye out. As it was he cut him some.”
Molly returned with Fernando’s piece of pie and Doc looked at it with hungry eyes. She looked at him, then over at me, then up to Charlie. “I suppose you all want a piece now? Well, I have apple, buttermilk, and butterscotch left. You first, Doc.”
We gave our orders with a smile; Marta had come over to check on her brother then looked at me with concern. “He’s not in any more trouble is he?”
I started to answer when Charlie interrupted to informed me. “I thought you might be interested that when I brought Fernando into the diner I saw Stanley Offut rushing down toward the jail.”
Bringing the piece of the butterscotch pie to my mouth, I smiled…
Echoes From the Campfire
There was a special feeling as the wind blew across those miles of grass, a wind so cool, so deep down inside you that every breath of it was like a drink of cool water.”
–Louis L’Amour (The Sky-Liners)
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
–John 3:8 (NKJV)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World
Key Verse: “We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.” –1 John 5:19 (HCSB)
Several years ago I attended a church where some strange phenomenon was happening. I talked with the Pastor and he said that this is the “new wine,” a new work of God. I replied with a question, “Are you telling me that this is a ‘third testament’? So this is a new, new wine?” It didn’t go over so well, but I said that to warn against the mystic.
Mysticism definitely is involved in Christianity, however, I said that as a warning for it can go overboard. Much is done in the name of the Holy Spirit that isn’t very holy. The person that says he has a new and fresh message stay away from him. “The danger of mysticism is to concentrate so much on the Lord’s work in us that it forgets the Lord’s word for us.” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones) One thing that is easy to see regarding the mystic is their view on the doctrine of sin. Rarely are they strong on the doctrine of sin. They want short-cuts to great experiences. This is not the true “mystic” in the Church for they will spend hours of meditation and solitude waiting for a clear word from the Lord.
“The mystic tends to come and say, ‘Look here, you have nothing to worry about. If you want to know God just as you are, you have to start getting into communion with Him, and He will speak to you and will give you all the blessings.’ They never mention the doctrine of sin in the sense that the guilt of sin is such a terrible thing that nothing but the coming of the Son of God into the world and the bearing of our sins in His own body on the cross could ever enable God to speak to the soul.”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Those that follow the “mystics,” those who have a “new way,” rarely regard the holiness of God. They may nod their heads recognizing that He is holy, but forget that they are to be holy as He is (1 Peter 1:15) People need to start with themselves and get rid of self-centeredness, they need to focus on God.
“They [cults, etc.] tend to come to us in terms of our need. That is why they are always so popular and so successful; they seem to be giving us the thing we want. We have our needs, and they seem to offer us everything just as we want it without any pain or difficulty. There is no more thorough-going test, therefore, of the truth of the faith and of the religion that we may be concerned with than this.
Primarily, the initial test, the characteristic of the revelation of the Bible, the first crucible, in a sense, of the Christian faith, is that it starts with God. We are silenced, we are put into the background, we are not considering man first and foremost. It is God, it all starts with Him.”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The person who is truly seeking God and hungering after His righteousness will be one who thinks of God. There must be contemplation of God in three ways: first, to know Him through His Word; second, we need to see ourselves in sight of God; and third, we need to be confronted with the truth of God’s Word.
“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord… For our God is a consuming fire.”
–Hebrews 12:14, 29 (NKJV)
The way we are to be guided in this world, the way in which we must be guided is by the light of the Word of God. “We either regard the Bible as authoritative, or else we trust to human ideas.” When we turn to human ideas there is nothing but confusion and chaos.
“Our thoughts lie open to thy sight;
And naked to thy glance;
Our secret sins are in the light
Of thy pure countenance.”
–John Greenleaf Whittier
Coffee Percs
We sat there, drank some coffee, and counted our blessings.”
–D.C. Adkisson (Mal de Ojo)
Come on in Pard, the coffee’s on the stove waitin’ for yuh. Do yuh remember ol’ Stiff-Lipped Lou and Skinny Thompson? They came by last week with mopey looks on the faces. There was always was something fearful ’bout Skinny. I was concerned that he’d fall through a hole in the seat of his pants and choke himself to death, but guess he checks his britches regularly.
Go ahead an’ take a sip while I continue. They were goin’ on ’bout the fact that taxes are goin’ up, that the price of groceries are goin’ up, that gas is goin’ up. I listened to their moanin’ noddin’ my head now and again. Lots of things are changin’, why them power-hungry bureaucrats are wantin’ a vaccine passort. Talk about anti-American. Imagine what our forefathers would have thought about that. Yuh cayn’t travel from place to place without yur shot passport. I don’t like the idea of the bureaucrats tryin’ to manipulate us.
Pard, let me refill yur cup. I then went on to remind them that they are not in the dark like those disciples of Jesus on that dark Saturday after the cross. Imagine them, fearful, lackin’ in faith, sittin’ in a little room. They probably looked at each other, questions in their eyes, with hope lost. Here we are, knowin’ the story and ol’ Lou and Skinny were fearful ’bout the future. Hope is alive, I told them, have faith that the Lord will take care of their needs.
Well, enough bein’ said. That Good Friday, which the disciples might at that time called “Dark Friday” finished the purpose of our Lord comin’ to earth. Pard, things were dark then, but I told them Sunday’s comin’. Things might be dark in their lives now, but yuh know, there’s a bright tomorrow waitin’ for us.
Pard, yuh best be gettin’ out an’ buyin’ yur sweetie an Easter lily. Don’t get yurself in such a hurry that yuh forget to check yur cinch though.
Vaya con Dios.