Month: July 2022

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

The lesson of faith is not what turbulence you face but how you wind up on the other side.”

                         –Cliff Hudgins  (Grandpa’s Legacy)

       “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him…”
                         –Job 13:14 (NKJV)
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I was doing some reading this week and a thought struck my mind.  How many idols are there in our homes?    Most would probably say “none.”  We are more enlightened, we know that there are no gods depicted by wood or stone, but wait a minute my friend.  What actually is an idol?  First let me draw your attention to Proverbs 25:14, “Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give.” (NIV)
       Okay, I can hear you.  What does this have to do with idols?  This is speaking about clouds, rain, gifts, and not giving, what does that have to do with idols?  Let me give you a simple definition of an idol used by Bob Beasley, “[An idol] is someone or something which boasts of gifts that he or it does not give.”  An idol, a false god promises to give gifts which there is no way that it can fulfill.  People flock to false promises–they are idols for the promise cannot be fulfilled.  Idols then are deceptions.
       Idols are those things in which you put your trust over God.  Many people put their trust in wealth, a bank account, or the stock market.  There is a false promise there.  Sure there is nothing wrong with money, but our trust is not in money, but in God.  Others put their trust in the government and the leaders of that government.  Governments change, governments fall, and the people there, well, they’ll promise you everything, but will not fulfill that promise–an idol.  Sports figures, entertainers can become idols if a person’s heart is continually dwelling on those individuals.  In other words, an idol is something which controls your heart.  Jesus warned, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21, NKJV)
       Beasley writes, “We are idolators because of the sin that is in our hearts.  Given the chance, we often run to the first promise that looks good, forsaking the promises of God.  And when we place our hope in anything over and above the promises and providence of God, we are into idolatry.”  Where do you run in times of trouble?  Where do you go when there is a storm on the horizon?  What is it you seek to help satisfy your longings?  Perhaps we turn to idols.
       There are four terms used for idols in Scripture.  1) terapim–symbolizes a god, or a divine presence.  They were often kept in households.  2) gillulim–this term appears 39 times in Ezekiel.  It is a disdainful term originally meaning “dung pellets.”  3) ‘elil–this is the word for a false god; it can mean “naught” or “vain.”  4) eisolon–this is a New Testament term used to depict a false god.  The term means “an idea, fancy.” (Vine’s Expository)  Look at the idols of today–into which category do you see them?
       Paul refers to idols as “vain things.”  It was something that was a phantom, something that could not bring about its promise.  Peter and Jude refer to false prophets “as clouds without rain.  I like what Jeremiah called idols, “scarecrows.”  They cannot speak, they must be carried to the place where they are to stand, and they are to do something that they cannot do. (Jeremiah 10:5)  So I ask again, where is your trust?  Is it in idols, man-made ideas or creations, or is it in the word of God?   Do you turn to God or a person or a bank account in times of trouble?  Where is your heart?

 

The Saga of Miles Forrest

by Ira Paine, Posted on
Marshal, you lay a finger on that boy, and you’ll have worse than a broke arm,” I warned him while raising the Greener ready to strike.  “If it wasn’t for him, who knows what might have happened, perhaps a dead U.S. Marshal for you to explain.”
       He scowled then said, “I don’t want that Mex kid in my office.  He doesn’t come in here unless it’s to spend time in one of those cells.”  He paused to look at Elfego, then began his little tirade again.  “And I don’t reckon it’ll be long before he pays a visit.  Now get him out of here!”
       I was doing all I could to stay calm, but I was ready to give Marshal Udall a good thump or two.  I nodded at Elfego, and he turned to leave.  However, he stopped at the entrance to look at Udall.  “I won’t come here again, Marshal,” he said, then smiled.  “Until the time it becomes my office.”
       With that he walked out.  I thought that the Marshal was fit to be tied.  If I hadn’t been standing there he would have gone after the boy.  I waited a few seconds before asking to see Adams, his prisoner.
       “What for?” he asked, still in a snarling mood.  “This is town business, not federal and I’d ask you to stay out of my affairs.”
       He was getting closer and closer to a thump, but I stayed cool.  “I just want to ask him about the extortion business he’s involved with.”
       “You’re crazy!” barked Udall.  “What extortion?”
       I tried to stare daggers into him, but he wouldn’t meet my eye.  “Marshal, either you don’t know your town very well, or perhaps you’re involved in it…”  I let that statement hang watching for his reaction.
       There was none, or very little.  “Go ahead, ask Adams your questions.  He was seeing a federal marshal hassle his friends so he came to help them.”
       “Hmmm, that’s mighty interesting.  He tell you that, Marshal?  He couldn’t even see me inside the store and his friends were still outside trying to gain entrance when the shooting started.”  Upon seeing him lying on the cot, smoking, his hat half pulled down over his face.  After inhaling and removing the smoke I could see an arrogant look on his face.  I turned around to reach for the keys.
       When I opened the cell door, he jumped up, his hat flying off to the floor.  The arrogance was gone and replaced by fear.  “You, you can’t…”
       “Can’t what?” I questioned.  I slapped the barrel of the Greener into the palm of my left hand.  “I just want to ask a few questions.”
       He had now gotten up and backed himself into the corner.  “You ought not to intimidate a prisoner,” he whimpered.
       “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, Mister.  I just want to know who you’re workin’ for.”
       He looked down, looked around, looked at my shotgun, looked at the ceiling, even looked for help from Udall, but he never would look directly at me.  He finally spoke, but it was so low I couldn’t hear him.  “Out of work, don’t work for nobody,” he said in a croaky voice.
       I smiled, then imparted a few words of wisdom.  “I’m goin’ to visit your friends, an’ if they give me a story different from yours, well, let’s just say it won’t go well for you.  I can’t abide liars.”
       As I stepped from the cell, he hollered, Anton Knaught, Insurance, Security, and Protection Services.  It’s three blocks down, around the corner from the Shady Nook Saloon.”
       Remaining at the door to the cell just having closed it, I inquired, “What about Stinson?  Who is he?”
       He shrugged his shoulders, and had a puzzled look on his face.  I tipped my hat with the end of the barrel, “Be seein’ you.”
       I walked out hanging the keys back on the hook and on out the door not bothering to look at Udall.
       A half block away, Elfego was sitting on a bench in the shade.  He didn’t move as I approached him.  “Can you show me Anton Knaught’s office?”
       He didn’t answer, but looked up at me with a somber face.  “Marshal Forrest, you don’t think of me as a little kid, do you?”
       It had bothered him when I called him a boy back in the marshal’s office.  I sat down on the bench beside him.  “No, you’re not a little kid, or a little boy either.  You’ve got some growin’ to do, some learnin’ to do, but you handled yourself like a man back in the store,” I said, then frowned at him.  “I don’t know how it happened, but one thing I should tell you is that I don’t cotton to anyone takin’ my gun from my holster.  Savvy?”
       There came upon his face that large grin.  “Sorry, but it seemed the thing to do at the time.”

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

The old Romans built what they had by being strong, inside as well as out, and they lost it when they began giving in, going the easy way. They lost everything when they ceased to be men, and a man is one who does what he has to do when it has to be done, and does it with pride.”
                         –Louis L’Amour  (Bendigo Shafter)

       “Lord, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me. Let your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me.”
                         –Psalm 40:11 (NLT)
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How many sins have you committed in your lifetime?  Let me ask it differently.  How many sins got Adam thrown out of Eden?  Whether it’s one sin or many we are in a world of hurt, in fact, there is no hope–Paradise is lost.  There was/is no hope for man, for me, for you unless we come to Christ.  I look at Psalm 79 and see it as one of woe, of sin and failure, and no hope.

          1 — O GOD, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
          2 — The dead bodies of Your servants they have given as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
          3 — Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
          4 — We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those who are around us.
          5 — How long, LORD?  Will You be angry forever?  Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
          6 — Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know YOU, and on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name.
          7 — For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.
          8 — Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us!  Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low.  (NKJV)

       Perhaps you have heard the sayin, “He would steal the pennies off a dead man’s eyes.”  They used to put objects, such as pennies, on the eyes of the dead to keep them closed.  A person just didn’t want the dead to be staring at them when they went to pay their last respects.  To steal something like this is the lowest of the low.  When conquering a village or city, people would not only kill the soldiers, but they would steal anything of value off their body.   Asaph says this is Israel after Jerusalem was conquered.  The bodies just laid around, food only for the scavengers.
       What good is our life?  We are sinful people.  We may have suffered a great deal, and feel like we are but food for the vulture.  What’s the use in trying?  Over and over you may have fought the battle, but you always seem to be losing and on the edge of death.  I’m reminded of a boy who was always in trouble, and therefore, his father was always taking him out to the woodshed.  One day the father instead of whipping the boy, gave him a bucket of nails.  “Every time you sin, or do something wrong, I want to you take a nail and hammer it into the fencepost,” instructed the father.  By the end of the week, the post was full of nails.  The father would glance at it from time to time, then on Sunday he took the boy out to the woodshed.  There was fear in the boy’s eyes, then the father showed him the fencepost.  The nails were all gone.  Oh yes, there were still scars from where the nails once were.  The father then told the boy, “that is grace.”
       One sin or many sins.  They must be brought to the Father in repentance so that the “nail” can be removed.  Look at the words of Paul,” “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all me, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.  For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18-19, NKJV)
       Can you hear the anguish in the voice of the writer of this Psalm?  “Do not remember former iniquities…!”  The the pleading cry, “Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us…”  Pull the nails from the my life and make me whole.

                    “If a sinner such as I
                    May to thy great glory live,
                    All my actions sanctify;
                    All my words and thoughts receive;
                    Claim me for thy service, claim
                    All I love, and all I am.”
                              –Charles Wesley

 

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

He flicked his tin cup toward the fire, the coffee that was in the cup making a sizzling sound as it struck a burning cottonwood limb.” 

                         –Wayne D. Overholser (Day of Judgment)
 
Pard, we lived in a self-centered, insane world.  Here, sit yurself down, so’s I can unload on yuh.  Don’t be frettin’ I’m gonna pour yuh a cup first.  Great stuff this mornin’, all the way from Portugal.  My son-in-law was there on a mission’s trip, and thinks enough of me to bring me a pound of coffee.  And see, I’m sharin’ it.
       But back to my point of what I want to be gettin’ at.  There are plenty of proud people walkin’ around in this world, struttin’ like a peacock.  But what is gettin’ back are those arrogant prideful people who take it up to the next step.  That’s where a peacock in all its plummage thinks it’s an eagle.  It’s all around so don’t think yuh can be escapin’ it.  Let me give yuh a prime example.  Yesterday mornin’ I was drivin’ the ol’ blue steel mount on a two lane road.  A car came up behind me and started to pass–pass where there is no passin’.  Why if’n a car had been comin’ up the hill from the other side that man would have been in a world of hurt, along with the guy passin’ me and he would have took me right along with him.  
       Now why would a man take a foolish chance like that and on top of it break the law?  It has to be arrogance.  The idea that “I can do what’s I want to do, and phooey on you.”  Pride is a deadly sin.  A man who thinks more of himself than he ought is a dangerous man.  Go ahead and swaller yur coffee, I’m goin’ to continue to rant for a spell.  Man wants to be his own god, that’s shown right off the bat back in the Garden.  “You shall be like God!” came the voice of ol’ slewfoot, and Adam and Eve reveled in that thought.
       Hold on a minute Pard, I’m gonna drink this down and pour me another cup.  Can I get yuh a refill?  I found out somethin’ else last week.  I was readin’ some news.  Accordin’ to one of them know-it-alls, man can get pregnant and have a baby.  When she was challenged the woman got all huffy–arrogant and stated that she was most definitely right.  The problem was that they were not communicatin’.  She was talkin’ about someone who was “trans”, ah. yur’ gettin’ the picture now.  Her opponent said that there were only two biological sexes.  She wanted to argue more.  See, Pard, crazy, insane, arrogant.  Yep, Pard, it’s what that ol’ preacher Paul wrote, “Professing to be wise, they became fools.”
       Seems like all I can do anymore is shake my head at all the foolishness that seems to be aboundin’.  A man can get pregnant, because he is not really a man, but a woman who thinks she is a man, therefore she is.  Am I makin’ any sense?  How long, oh Lord, how long?
       Pard, I’ve known folk who sneer when I remind them they ain’t king of the saddle.  That they have to stoop down a bit to check that cinch first.  No use tryin’ to do any hard ridin’ with a loose cinch, but Pard, doggone they will give it a try.  At least yur not arrogant when I remind you.
        Vaya con Dios.