Month: December 2022

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

You can’t just think your way to something, you have to act, do, and that takes a man of action and patience because great things don’t come instantly, they come from time and effort spent.”

                    –G. Michael Hopf  (Last Ride)

       “But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners.  Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.”
                    –1 Timothy 1:16 (NLT)
————————————-
“I want patience so give it to me now!”  Have you ever heard anyone say those words, or imply them in some manner?  Patience is a fruit, it must grow.  There are different things that help us gain patience:  a good heart (Luke 8:15) and trials (James 1:3-4) among them.  I came across an article written by an early church father–Cyprian.  I enjoy his writings.  He lived around 200-258 and was well educated.  He became a leader in the church in Carthage and eventually became a bishop there.  During the reign of Decius, Cyprian had to hide in a place near the city and led the church from there.  He was exiled in 258 and soon beheaded.  Ponder the words, take time for this is the last Echo of 2022.  Be patient…

       Let us stay alert and hold fast to Christ’s patience, but which we can reach God.  This patience, abundant and diverse, is not restrained by narrow limits, nor confined by straight boundaries.  But the virtue of patience is demonstrated widely.  Even though its fertility and liberality come from a single source…patience both recommends us to God and preserves our relationship with Him.  It relieves anger, bridles the tongue, governs the mind, guards peace, rules discipline, and breaks the force of lust.  It represses the violence  of pride, extinguishes the fire of hostility, checks the power of the rich, and soothes the needs of the poor.  Patience protects the blessed integrity of virgins and the careful purity of widows, and those united under a single affection in marriage.  It makes men humble in prosperity, brave in adversity, and gentle towards wrongs and disrespect.  It teaches us to pardon quickly those who wrong us, and, if we do wrong, to beg earnestly for forgiveness.  It resists temptations, suffers persecutions, perfects passions and martyrdoms.  Patience firmly strengthens the foundations of our faith and elevates our increasing hope.  It directs our actions so that we hold fast to the way of Christ while walking by His patience.  While we imitate our Father’s patience, we persevere as sons of God.

       The new year is coming–have patience, it will soon be upon us.  The old year, with all that happened in it is almost over, passed away into history.  The new is upon us with all the decisions that have to be made because of circumstances brought to us in the new year.  One thing not changing is Jesus Christ–He will be the same Savior and Lord in 2023 as He was in 2022.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

I ain’t got no money, but I’ve got somethin’ better. I’ve got friends.”

                    –Elmer Kelton (The Way of the Coyote)

       “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
                    –John 15:15 (NKJV)
——————————–
Prayer, what a force!  Prayer plus reading God’s Word–a force that cannot be reckoned with–too powerful for natural understanding!    Add the power of the Holy Spirit and we can be “more than conquerors.”
       The other day my eldest granddaughter and I were having a conversation about prayer.  She said it was “crazy” in today’s vernacular.  “Why pray when God already knows, yet I know we should.  It was a good discussion.  Prayer is one of the most vital spiritual disciplines yet is one of the most neglected.  I told her that indeed God already knows but when we pray we are building up a relationship.  Everyone is saying that Christianity is a relationship, not a religion, but only, only if we pray and read the Bible.  That is how the relationship grows.
       How prayer works is for the most part a mystery.  God is omniscient, therefore, as my granddaughter said, He already knows, yet there must be more to it.  The more I contemplated it over the weekend, the more I began to think that there is indeed something more that happens when we pray.  Because of prayers, we see needs met, lives changed, miracles happen, but that is what the eye can see.  What about the spiritual realm?  What happens there?  I have come to the conclusion that prayer not only builds a relationship with Christ, but that there is something taking place in the spiritual realm.  Something far beyond our understanding.
       Prayer is simply talking to Christ, or to the Father.  Now don’t get me wrong, there is a time for formal prayer, and there is nothing wrong with the habitual prayer said over meals as long as it is meant and not perfunctory.  However, the stronger relationship comes through conversational prayer; talking to God in a conversation.  The more you know your Bible the better and easier this becomes.  Talk to Him as if He were beside you and a friend, for He is.  Your personality will dictate greatly to how you pray.  I remember a well known preacher lying in bed after heart surgery.  In walked one of his colleagues and began to shake the walls of his infirmity down.  He was a boisterous man and so was his prayer.  A while later another colleague came in and prayed over him, “Father, this is Joe.  My friend is in need…”  Get the picture?  Neither prayer was wrong.  Don’t let the devil trick you into thinking that God can hear only certain types of prayers.

               “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.  And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
                          –Ephesians 4:14-19 (NLT)

 

The Saga of Miles Forrest

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Well, at least you made it back before Christmas,” stated Molly firmly.  She looked at myself and Charlie, both us a little dilapidated sitting by the fire.  She arched her eyebrow and continued.  “Don’t look like you’ll be much use tomorrow for the Christmas dinner.  I don’t think there will be as many as there were on Thanksgiving.”
       Charlie and I came back on the last train out on Christmas Eve.  It was late when we got back to the station.  I helped Charlie to his home, then trudged on up to our cabin.  I had to bang on the door several times before Molly got up to answer it.  Sometimes when she gets to sleep there’s almost nothing that will wake her.  The cabin felt warm and cozy after being in that rail car for several hours, then out in the cold and snow taking Charlie home, then sludging through it to get home.  I added a couple more logs to the fire and sat down in front of it, slowly taking off my boots and outer clothes.
       “Want me to boil some water?  I’ll make some tea,” exhorted Molly as she went to the barrel to get water for the kettle.
       “Tea?” I questioned, but then decided it sounded good.  “Yes, tea sounds good.”  I’m normally a coffee drinker whenever it’s available, but once in a while a cup of tea hits the spot.  I was shivering when the water started to boil, I added another log to build up the fire.  The cold had worked its way into my bones it seemed.
       “You look a fright.  Let me get some cloth and clean you up some,” she offered, then went to light up the two lamps in the room.  “It was bad, then?”
       I hadn’t felt my bruises, because I was so cold, but when she put the cloth she had wetted on the gash on my brow, I winced.  “Be still, there’s dirt in there, I need to clean it out.”  Out gently as she knew how she began to wash out my injury.  “How’s Charlie?  I do hope you brought him home, Marta has been in a tizzy.”
       “He’ll make out.  He was already injured when I arrived.  I found him on a cot in a vacant warehouse that was being used by miners and their families.  He had dislocated his left shoulder and was thumped on the head by someone, but he was conscious and not bleedin’ anywhere.”
       “Want to talk about it?” she asked.  “They really didn’t evict those poor people just before Christmas and in this horrible weather,” she wondered out loud, not really asking a question.
       I gave her a sorta smile before answering.  “Well?  What happened?”
       “When I arrived, I was taken to Charlie.  There had been a struggle.  It seems that Hoskins and that lawyer, Wilson, had hired a bunch of thugs to clear out the houses.  There was quite a fight; Charlie tried to put it down when he was slugged on the head with a blackjack.  Welsh miner by the name of Bryn Evans brought me the contract to the house,” I said to stop so I could take several sips of the hot tea.  Molly had been able to put just a dab of honey in it.  My bones were beginning to warm up.
       “There was a clause that read that if the miners were fired or laid off, that they didn’t have to leave their homes for ninety days.”
       “But you said, they were forced out!” she interrupted.

       Lifting the cup to my mouth I took a long swallow this time as it had cooled off some.  “The next mornin’ I went to see Hoskins regarding the contract and was met by a couple of burly men, not miners, but hired men used to fightin’.  They let me in to see Hoskins when I showed them my marshal’s badge.  That weasel Wilson was there with him.  I told them about the clause, but all Wilson did was laugh.  He said, ‘that’s intended just like it said, for men fired or laid off, not for those who quit their jobs.'”
       I took another swallow emptying the cup.  “Molly, it took all I could to not slap him silly.  Some folk are just an irritant, and he was one of them.  Hoskins hadn’t said anything, and every time he tried he was shut down by Wilson, reminding him that he spoke for the owners.  He followed me out of the office, and as I stood between the two burly men I told him, that I was allowin’ the miners to go back to their homes until a court could decide the issue.”
       “‘Marshal, this doesn’t concern the federal system.  Don’t try to put those miners back in those houses!’ which sounded like a threat to me.  I happened to notice him noddin’ so I jammed the barrel of the Greener as hard as I could into the gut of one of the brutes, then brought the stock up catchin’ the other one under the chin, he fell hard off the steps.”
       “More tea?” she asked as she reached for my cup.  I nodded, then continued with the story.
       “I went back to gather the families to tell them to move back in when a miner came runnin’ into the warehouse.  ‘Marshal, they’re comin’ for yuh!’  I checked the loads in the Greener then my pistol.  I told the miners to stay in the warehouse, that I’d take care of the situation.”
       “What I hadn’t counted on was a couple of dozen, hardcases comin’ my direction with Lawyer Wilson in the lead.  I started toward them and noticed that Charlie was up next to me.  I told him to go back that he was in no condition, but he said that his right arm wasn’t hurt.  I smiled at him, and we went to meet them ready to smite them hip an’ thigh which we ended up doin’.”
       Molly handed me the cup full of tea.  It was a little sweeter this time as she had set the honey jar next to the fireplace and it had softened considerably.  “I’m tired,” I informed her.
       “Miles Forrest, you’re not stopping until you tell the rest of the story!”
       “I lifted the Greener and the crowd stopped.  A double-barrel shotgun will have that effect.   I told them to go home, told them of the situation, the contract.  They didn’t care.  They were hired by Wilson in lieu of the owners.  Molly, I warned them, I sincerely did.  I even told Wilson that he would face the first blast from the Greener.  He hollered, ‘Shoot them down!’  My first barrel caught him and those next to him about chest-high.  Gun-firing had commenced, and I hadn’t realized that the miners hadn’t obeyed my order for they were behind me shootin’ back at the thugs.  I cut loose with the second barrel then pulled my pistol after droppin’ the shotgun.  From then on it was ‘Katy-bar-the-door’; it was mayhem.  When all was done, probably close to ten people were dead and several others injured.  I saw movement from Wilson which surprised me.  He raised his arm as I approached.  His eyes were glassy, as he opened his mouth, but nothin’ came out, he died lookin’ up at me.”
       I handed Molly my cup.  “Could you get a blanket for me, please.  I’m still cold,” I said looking into her face.  “The good Lord was sure protectin’ me and Charlie.  Neither of us caught a bullet, and the miners are back in their homes.  Joe Hoskins agreed to meet with Bryn Evans to discuss what might be done.
       She covered my shoulders with a blanket, then put her hands on top of them…

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on
The best gifts around any Christmas tree:  the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”
                         –Burton Hill
 
       “Thank God for his Son–a gift too wonderful for words!”
                         –2 Corinthians 9:15 (NLT)
——————————–
MERRY CHRISTMAS!  to one and to all.  This is the time of year to take time to understand and appreciate all the benefits that Christmas brings to us.  There are many, both grand and small.  The primary, numero uno, most wonderful benefit is to recognize the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  But also look up at the stars, not only that they are magnificent in their creation–a word spoken by God, but they also remind us of that one star–see that bright one?  Hmmm…
       Go someplace, take a drive (weather permitting) and see the lights.  Our square here in Coldspring is brightly decorated.  The courthouse lights are beautiful and the nativity is brightly lit.  My first word was “pretty” upon seeing the pretty lights at Christmas.  Then there are the smells of Christmas.  Yes, we have to put up with exhaust if you’re living in the city, but out here, we can go out in the cold and the air seems fresher and cleaner.  Walking back inside, what is that smell?  Could it be an apple pie, or pumpkin?  Christmas morning will be the tradition of beignets, bacon, and coffee.  Ahhh, such a benefit.
       Christmas brings a smile as we remember the Christmases of the past.  However, the smiles don’t stop there, for they continue with the giving of gifts and watching loved ones open them.  They are all around the table as the turkey, ham, dressing, and all of the other bounty are there.  Look at each other once in a while, and enjoy their presence as they eat.  Oh, and let me say one thing–put away the phone!  It has been a blessing, but also a handicap.  
       Christmas is a time to remember to enjoy life as the One who gave life came into the world as a baby for the purpose of redeeming mankind.  Remember the past, but value the present.  Christmas teaches that we need to thank God for the things of the day; live in the present by giving thanks and sharing not only gifts but one another.
       Be as the wise men when the star again appeared to them.  “It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!” (Matthew 2:10)  Seize what God has for you this Christmas season–be filled with joy.  That joy is unspeakable and full of glory as is the knowledge of His Son.
       This is the last Echo until after Christmas.  I’m not sure what will be out the week afterward; it will depend upon whether or not my mind takes a vacation and I want to get up early to send out my morning note.  So don’t get up early and anxious next week to read my thoughts, but still be ready in case they come your way.  I wish I had the ability to send all my friends and readers a present, but you’ll have to take to heart when I say I pray that your Christmas is full of the wonder of Christ and of family and friends.