Month: August 2023
Echoes From the Campfire
All a man can leave to his children is the little he’s learned, and maybe what he thinks in his mind and feels in his heart.”
“Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
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I am going to borrow a story from William Petersen for this portion of Psalm 103. Perhaps you have had a smart-alek teacher in your past. One of those who think they know it all. I had one in seminary who proudly proclaimed that he “doesn’t test the obvious.” I always wondered, “why not?” Are we as students not supposed to know the obvious? Instead he would test the obscure, the captions under photos, things like that.
So on with the story. There was a second grade teacher handing out an arithmetic test to her students. Upon receiving the test the students looked at it in wonder. There were all types of x and y, plus many other symbols. It was a college-level calculus test and they couldn’t understand the symbols much less solve the problems. They were ready for two plus two, or maybe a perplexing, two plus three. One student bravely raised his hand, “Miss, we can’t do these problems.” To which she snapped. “What’s wrong with you? You’re supposed to be smart kids. If you ever want a degree in math, you’ll have to solve problems like this. Get busy!”
Hold on. These are second graders. They need a teacher who understands their level. Now, let’s look at the next portion of Psalm 103.
8 — The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 — He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 — He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
11 — For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12 — As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 — As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him.
14 — For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. (NKJV)
God is not overdemanding! He does not insist on perfection, but He does expect to see growth–maturity. He understands our weaknesses and He reacts as a loving Father. He does not treat us as our sins deserve as He sent His Son to take care of that penalty for us. “Infinite and vast is God’s eternal love for His own…. God knows our finite, human limitations and remembers that we are as fragile as dust.” (Steven Lawson)
Let’s look back at what God, our Father has done for us (verses 1-14) (Thanks to George Wood).
1) He forgives all our sins. He forgives sins of omission and acts of commission. “He frees us to start over after failure, cancels all indictments against you, and discharges all our debts.”
2) He heals all our diseases. We must take the long view in regard to this–healing will come even if a person ultimately has to wait in glory. Our definition of disease must be broadened to include any “deterioration which diminishes your well-being and wholeness.” It can mean a bad attitude, an unforgiving spirit… “In Jesus…He works to liberate us from these deformative and degenerative diseases so that on the inside our personality and disposition increasingly resemble that of Jesus.”
3) He redeems our life from the pit. The pit represents the abyss from which you cannot escape. “He reaches His long arm into the pitch-dark hole of depression or despair where you lie helpless and imprisoned, grabs you strongly, pulls you up, and sets your feet on solid ground. in the sunlight of His presence.”
4) He crowns your life with love and compassion. God has good gifts for us, and His gifts are far better than those that the world has to offer.
5) He satisfies your desires with good things. The horror of depression is its lack of hope. “God is committed to bringing good into your life.” There is no disappointment in Jesus.
6) He renews our life like the eagle’s.
He takes care of us. He is our heavenly Father, and He will not only give us good gifts, He will give us better gifts. He has removed our sins, our transgressions from us and we now live in the hope of His return. He will not give us more than we can handle, nor will He allow temptation to overcome us. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father and we can go to Him with assurance. Oh, what wonderful grace–oh, what a wonderful Father!
“O how in this thy quire of souls I stand–
Propt by thy hand–A heap of sand!
With busy thoughts–like winds–would scatter quite,
And put to flight / But for thy might;
Thy hand alone doth tame
Those blasts, and knit my frame.”
–Henry Vaughan
Coffee Percs
Have you crawled out of your bedroll in the chill of a spring
morning with the crisp air fresh in your lungs and the sound of
running water in your ears? Have started a fire and made coffee, and
broiled your venison over an open fire? Have you smelled ironwood
burning, or cedar?”
–Louis L’Amour (To Tame a Land)
Ahh, Pard, listen to that sound. No, it’s not a babblin’ brook, yuh
ninny. That’s the sound of pure delight–the sound of coffee perkin’.
But since yuh mentioned it, the sound water cascadin’ over rocks in a
stream does have a nice sound. I remember, it was early in the 1970s,
Annie and I hiked back into the Indian Peaks Wilderness and camped
along a stream flowing from a snowbank. The water actually came from
Blue Lake, but it appeared to be right from the snow. The elevation
dropped quickly so the water rushed down. Our camp was right at
timberline, plenty of wood there, and we stayed for a few days.
It was a fun trip, but I was always accused of puttin’ the
fryin’ pan in Annie’s pack. However, those days are gone. To camp
fifty yards off the trail is unheard of today, and to make a fire, oh
my, for goodness sakes, NO! Use a back-packin’ stove. Now, Pard,
I’ll admit that there are good reasons for the restrictions; it’s
because of the stupidity of people who camp. People who have no clue
how to treat nature properly.
Those nights, around the campfire at timberline we could hear
the water rushing by a few yards away. In the silence of the night,
with only the fire for light, we could hear the marmots cry as the
wood crackled and popped in the fire. Pard, we had plenty of good,
strong coffee made right from that rushin’ stream. I’d get up in the
mornin’, get the fire goin’, then go to the stream for water to fill
the pot. Before long the coffee was boilin’ then Annie would start
breakfast. Days, long ago, but still held in the memory.
Good days, Pard, good memories, but yuh know, those things
won’t matter much when we get on over that Glory Trail. There is
little description of what heaven will be like, but if it’s anything
like that garden God placed in Eden it’ll be somethin’. It’ll have to
be grand to match up with some of the majestic places here on earth.
But we know it will be so, for the Bible says that, “the eye have not
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared from them that love Him.”
Think of that Pard! No matter how good the bacon and biscuits
smell, no matter the sound of coffee perkin’, we can’t even imagine
what the Lord has prepared for us. It must be somethin’ special;
well, of course it is. Think ’bout it Pard, yuh won’t have to worry
’bout checkin’ yur cinch up yonder.
Vaya con Dios.
Echoes From the Campfire
He reminded himself that love will always overcome tragedy.”
“Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you.”
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They used to tell you to tie a string around your finger to remind yourself to do something. The problem I have now is wondering why I have the string on my finger. But it is important to remember. There are times we have to remind ourselves over and over to do something. It’s funny though, there are some things that I never had to remind myself of. If I had a ball game, I never had to think of when it was, but then there are other occasions where I must constantly remind myself.
Long ago, I got into the habit of writing daily reminders right after my devotions in the morning. I set aside in my notes, to write at least ten things that I needed to get done that day. It was a good, quick reminder of the plans for the day. I never was one to prioritize, but if something didn’t get accomplished, it went on the list for the next day. Maybe this is a good time to remind ourselves of priorities. #1, Urgent and Important, #2 Urgent not Important, #3 Important not Urgent, #4 Busywork that still must be done, and #5 useless work. If we are not careful, #3 can quickly upgrade to #1. Get the picture? Today, I still jot down my daily reminders in the morning. Often there are not ten of them, but it is still a help. At the close of the day, or the next morning I check to see what I accomplished.
In our spiritual journey we should have reminders. “Then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deuteronomy 6:12, NKJV). Sometimes it is good for us to remember what the Lord has done for us. He took us out of the bondage of sin, out of the evil, world system, and made us a new creation in Him. We do not want to become lackadaisical in our Christian walk, so we need to be reminded from whence we came. Also, we are reminded that we are to work out our salvation, “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today” (Deuteronomy 8:11, NKJV). As humans, sadly we have a tendency to forget so we need to be reminded.
It is good that we are reminded of how God met with us in the past. It is good that we are reminded of His blessings and deeds to us in days gone before. A reminder is not like a day of remembrance such as Memorial Day, but a day in which you remind yourself of God’s goodness to you. God even had to remind David that he was once a shepherd.
“Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth.”‘”
–2 Samuel 7:8-9 (NKJV)
We can get so caught up in doing the Lord’s work that we forget that it is He who guides us, sustains us, strengthens us, and saves us. Even more so, it is easy to get caught up in careers, making money, or just surviving and we need to be reminded of the Lord’s faithfulness.
In the many moods that we can have, in the myriad emotions that come our way throughout the day, or the season, we need to remind ourselves that we are children of God. Go back, read 1 John, read Psalm 119, or other familiar and favorite portions of the Bible. Remind yourself of your kinship with the heavenly Father. Remind yourself, as Paul writes, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6, NKJV). Remind yourself that God will be with you, will guide you, will protect you, and will complete the work He has started in you.
We need reminders. We need to stop when we are in turmoil and remind ourselves that there was a time when the Lord took care of me in a similar circumstance, or go to the Bible and see where He helped others in the same situation you may find yourself in. Look back at what the Lord has done for you and in your life, let those be reminders that He will do it again if need be. Remind yourself of His great faithfulness, and that His mercies are new every morning.