Month: March 2025

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

How almost impossible to exercise eternal vigilance! Habit was more powerful, in the long run, than the most implacable of wills.”
                    –Zane Grey  (Arizona Ames)

       “Serve the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling.”
                     –Psalm 2:11 (NASB)
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Many people will not read or they will skip over this portion of Scripture.  Some wish that it was not in the Bible.  It is a harsh set of verses, verses that depict the hardness and evil of the world.  However, we should not be quick to dismiss Psalm 137.

          5 — If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!
          6 — If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth–if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.
          7 — Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze it, raze it, to its very foundation!”
          8 — O daughter of Babylong, who are to be destroyed, happy the one who repays you as you have served us!
          9 — Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!  (NKJV)

     “Remember,” a word that is used three times in the psalm.  One thing that should come to our attention is the fact that we should remember.  I could go into several reasons that we should remember, but sufficient to say that it is good that we pray that the Lord remembers us.   The psalmist is saying that is “if he should forget Jerusalem, then he has no real reason to play his harp.  He must play for the glory of God or not play at all.” (Lawson)
     In my studies concerning the Vietnam POWs, one thing that the majority of them said was that they knew that the country would remember them.  That gave them hope.  They had faith that the nation would one day, not knowing when, but there would be a day when they would be released from their captors.  In these verses we see the concept of loyalty.  Because of their hope, because they knew they would be remembered they would continue to be loyal to their country.  This is the thought that echoes in these verses.  The psalmist will not play for the taunters and mockers of God.
     Remember, he writes, those who tore down the holy city, the temple, and the walls.  George Wood writes, “We do take solace in the truth that the Lord will prevail ultimately, and that His judgments are true and righteous.”  We are in a strange world, like the psalmist.  We are waiting for the return of the Lord, but in the meantime, what do we do?  Remember the words of Paul, “‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19, NKJV)  Only God can show true and righteous justice in His wrath.  He will not forget us in this evil world.  He will return for His Bride.  There will come a time of divine justice.
     Remember the warnings that prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and others gave to the people.  They boldly preached the Word of God to them, they warned them of what was coming if they did not repent.  The psalmist is remembering now, I am sure of those prophecies.  But he also remembers the Lord’s mercy, and that He will not forget His people.  Justice is coming to the evil of this world, to the mockers and blasphemers of God.  God will remember His people in His divine justice.

               “Come, y disconsolate, where’er ye languish;
               Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel;
               Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
               Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.”
                      –Thomas Moore

 

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

If I get my druthers, we’ll sit here and drink coffee all day instead of being out in that bitter wind.”

                    –Duane Boehm  (Shooting Star)
 
     “Oooooo — oooooo,”  What do yuh mean, what’s that?  That’s the sound of the wind howlin’ through the tops of the tall pines.  Don’t yuh recall the words from that ol’ sage, Bob Nolan?  “Ooooo–oooo, listen to the wind, wonder what he’s sayin’, oooooooooo”
     Yuh thought I smashed my toe.  Pard!  That’s the wind.  This is March, the month of the wind; it comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.  The wind comes and goes, and my oh my, I’ve been in some winds in my lifetime.  Yuh know, my hometown of Boulder was known for its wind that rushes down through the canyons.  
     When I hear the wind or feel it against my skin, when I have to hold on to my hat so it don’t blow over God’s creation, well, Pard, I’m reminded of that verse in Acts.  There was the sound of a rushin’, mighty wind.  It was a violent wind, an’ I’m sure those in the upper room were a mite concerned when they heard it.  The wind can come in and destroy, but this wind was the Holy Spirit, and yes, Pard, in one way it blows through our soul to destroy the evil within us and then to sanctify us.  
     Lookee up there at the tree tops a-swayin’.  Yuh can see movement, but yuh can’t see the wind.  The same is true of yur soul.  There is movement within as the “Wind”–the Holy Spirit blows and sweeps through cleanin’ it up, but yuh can’t actually see the Spirit.  Why Pard, think of it.  Way back in the beginning, the Spirit moved upon the waters.  He wasn’t seen, but there was action takin’ place.  Tell me, Pard, have yuh ever seen grace?  But it’s real all the same, the Spirit brings the washin’ of the blood and activity is takin’ place though not seen.
     Maybe yuh might take a good notion, the next time the wind comes a-blowin’ to be thinkin’ what the Spirit is doin’ in yur life.  Listen, oooooo-oooooo, the wind blows out all that chaff that has accumulated in the old life.   Listen, ooooooo-oooooo, there is a refreshin’ takin’ place; the smell of the old man is gone, now we have the wonderful breeze of the Holy Spirit guidin’ us through this wearisome land.
     Still don’t like my singin’?  Well, Pard, it’s better than listenin’ to the wind that yur a-bellowin’.  Call yuh Windy Bob, or Windy Jim, or Windy whomever, it’s a wonder yuh can keep yur feet on the ground with all that hot air yur holdin’ in.  No wonder yuh have to be a-spewin’ it out once in a while.  But let me tell yuh straight, it ain’t the sound of a rushing, mighty wind.  An’ Pard, don’t be usin’ it as an excuse for the knots on yur noggin’.  Don’t blame it on the wind that yuh forgot to check yur cinch.
        Vaya con Dios.