Month: September 2025

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

We travel a lot better with a little coffee and bacon.”

                    –Lou Bradshaw  (Hell’s Gates)
 
Don’t be a-worryin’, Pard, I’ve a full thermos of coffee, and if’n I’m needin’ more there’s plenty of way stations along the way.  It’s not like it used to be when I would stop alongside the road to make a cup or two.  Headin’ back home, but have a couple of thoughts to share before mountin’ the ol’l steel strawberry roan.
     Pard, the aroma of coffee perkin’ is grand, but think of what kind of aroma yuh give off.  Some folk carry around on them the odor of a skunk, whooee, that’s something that’s hard to rid off.  Some delicate ones carry the fragrance of a rose while there are others with the smell that comes from a workin’ person.  Most importantly, there is the smell of the Holy Spirit in our lives that goes up before the Father as a sweet scent.  Ol’ Paul said it this way:
               “Now thanks be to God who always lead us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”  –2 Corinthians 2:14, NKJV
 
     A couple more thoughts before sayin’ adios and hittin’ the trail.  First, those in this country who want Sharia law would be breakin’ the 1st Amendment.  See, Muslims do not believe in separation of church and state; to them they are one in the same.  Religion and politics are not separate so don’t be foolin’ yurself with their blather.
     And ponder this, the left–the Marxists–are complainin’ ’bout the illegal migrants leavnin’ and no one to do the menial jobs.  Ponder that for a moment…listen to what they’re a-sayin’.  Isn’t that slave mentality?  Isn’t that sayin’ they’re nothin’ but peons?  Put some of the deadbeats to work.  Get them off their duffs and make them give something back to society instead of just takin’.  Put in those hands that are outstretched for their government checks and food stamps, a shovel or hoe, or something they can use, perhaps a computer.
     Pard, there’s plenty of work to be did, sometimes a person just has to be persuaded to get it done.  And I refer back to Paul again, you don’t work, you don’t eat.
     Be seein’ yuh down the road.  Yuh hang on tight to the reins, be wary of the road in front of you.
      Vaya con Dios.

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Life’s a bit too short to take the long way around the barn.”
                    –James Leonard  (The Neglected)

       “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
                    –1 John 5:12 (NKJV)
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Boy howdy, was there a mistake on yesterday’s Echo!  I don’t know how, or why, but I do apologize for my error.  It aggravates me to the core when I do something like that.  The quotation by Cliff Hudgins should have been:  “The real strength is in depth.”  For some reason the Bible verse I used at the beginning of the writing ended up as Hudgin’s quotation.  Now onto the thought of the day.
     Perhaps one of the saddest stories in the Bible is found in Numbers 14.  “And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt!  Or if only we had died in the wilderness!  Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims?  Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’  So they said to one another, ‘Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.'” (14:2-4, NKJV)  Be careful–the Israelites would get their wish!
     Remember that Egypt is symbolic of the world system.  John tells us “do not love the world [Egypt] or the things of the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15, NKJV)  Abraham went out looking for a city, he understood that he was but a pilgrim in this world, but in Numbers we see that the people are so attached to the world that they would rather die in it.  They savored the leeks of Egypt more than the manna from God.  Paul deals with this concept in Romans, we are free from the bondage of sin, from the power of “Egypt.”  Why then do we want to go back to that bondage?  The people of Israel shouted when they left Egypt, but now they are moaning and wanting to return.  It sounds crazy, but many believers do the same thing.  See when people who are free in God still seek the pleasures of sin, God will send them into the wilderness, and, sadly to say, many will die there.
     We are free!  No longer are we bound to the chains of sin.  No longer should we want anything to do with the lifestyle back in Egypt.  The words by Margaret J. Harris come to my mind:
               I followed close beside Him, and the land soon found
               I did not halt or tremble, for Canaan I was bound;
               My Guide I fully trusted, and He led me in,
               I shouted hallelujah, my heart is free from sin.
The place where we walk is supposed to be holy ground, not the sand of Egypt.  Listen, and I’ll tell you straight, don’t look for me way down in Egypt’s land.
               You need not look for me, down in Egypt’s sand,
               For I have pitched my tent far up in Beulah land.
It should not be our lifestyle to boast of things of the world.  We should live close to the Lord, do away with foolish and evil ways.  Egypt get behind me!  Onward and upward I will go.
 ****** ******
(Some of the thoughts are from my new book:  “New Trails Through the Old Hymns”)

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
                    –Cliff Hudgins  (Viejo and the Ranger)


       “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”
                    –Proverbs 24:10 (NKJV)
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“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
          –Mark 12:30 (NIV)

Sometimes I wonder how the Lord puts up with any of us.  I look at myself and have to shake my head.  Then when I seek some of the “things” out there, and hear the lies spewed by those in the media.  Well, I continue to shake my head.
     Fascists!  That’s what the right is being called.  I want to ask a question here, if we are called fascists, why don’t the right call those on the left by their rightful name–Marxists?  They agree that socialism is better than capitalism–they are Marxists.  And when they speak of fascism, most of them are actually describing socialism.  They don’t even know who they are.  
     Dictatorship!  Honestly, I must shake my head again.  If there really was a dictatorship, and it was fascist, they wouldn’t be able to say the things they are saying.  See, thinking to be wise they have become fools.  A dictator would not allow some of the things that are being said to continue.  
     Let me ask, despite the lies of one politician, what side/group does most of the shooting?  Who is targeting those on the right?  One man just said that just as soon as President Trump is out of office, he is going to pull every ICE agent from their home, and put them to death.  Shades of Stalin–Marxist.
     Look at the anger on some of the faces of these “Marxist” leaders, and I will ask what is that has-been still spouting her mouth on public media?  Talk about a Marxist?  She is not progressive, she is a self-serving, power-hungry Marxist.  (Now you guess whom I am speaking of)
     Now a brief look at the verse from Mark.  Throughout my life I have heard many say that they love God with all their heart, and that is good.  But I have yet to hear someone say that they love God with all their will, all their mind, and let me tell you that the battle is for the mind.  We need, no we must, look for ways that the Bible helps us understand and explain our world.  That is one of the problems that I have seen, people do not know true theology, they do not have a biblical worldview.  Listen, you cannot live bad theology.  David Gill said, “If our minds are fragmented and disjointed, our life may be the same.  If your thinking is full of errors, look out for your actions!”  No wonder there is such violence coming from the left.
      C.S. Lewis wrote, “Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”  I heard a student once, supposedly a Christian, say that she hoped that Jesus wouldn’t be a king because all kings in history were bad.  I wonder where she came up with that idea?  Who were her teachers?  Her pastors?  I will close this mostly political “Echo” with these words of warning:  “We are in a battle.  Take aim or take cover!”

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Some things a man can’t do. But some things he’s got to do.”
                    –Ernest Haycox  (Wipe Out the Brierlys)

       “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
                    –Mark 1:15 (NKJV)    
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Why did Jesus come to this earth?  There are many reasons but one is found in Mark 1:38, “But He said to them, ‘Let us go into the next town, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.'” (NKJV)

     With that I would ask, what is your purpose on this earth?  I read this recently, “Action, the desire to accomplish, impels each of us.  Confusion arises because we are not sure which action to take.  We lack a firm basis for decision.” (Orris E. Kelly)  Chaplain Kelly continues on to say, “To move into the world we must have a base.”
     Then I will follow up with another question, what is your base?  That is the foundational question.  If your base is self-seeking don’t be surprised if you are frustrated with the results, and when you come to the end of your life you will find it is full of regrets.  If your base is self-serving don’t be surprised if you find life lonely.  Oh, you may say you are doing things for others, but the deeper reason is that you are seeking to satisfy yourself.  Instead life should be filled with serving others.
     Make your base, your foundation, the Word of God.  Understand that when we center our lives, make God our base, we become free from self-anxiety. The action of our lives finds purpose in serving the kingdom of God.  Since our lives now have focus and a base we can push forward with purpose and make life meaningful.  Our service, our attitudes, our focus must find its basis in knowing God.  Then, and only then, can we find true purpose which will bring happiness and joy to our lives.