Author: Ira Paine

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

The good smell of them [pancakes] mixed with the good smells of fried salt pork and boiling coffee.” 

                    –Laura Ingalls Wilder  (The Long Winter)
 
Mornin’ to yuh, Pard.  Yep, coffee’s ready and waitin’ for yuh.  Been expectin’ yuh to show up.  Goin’ to be a grand day and week.  Soon as yuh leave, the missus and I are headin’ over to the youngest daughter’s house for a birthday celebration.  Her husband is gettin’ up in years, an’ we need to be headin’ his way.  Shore don’t want him to be throwin’ a hip out of joint celebration’; someone needs to be there to keep him in line.  He’s gettin’ up there in age to be called a young, ol’ codger.
     The quotation above reminded me of our traditional Christmas breakfast.  I’m already lookin’ forward to it.  Plenty of bacon and either beignets or donuts do go along with it.  We started the beignets when we lived down in bayou country, Baton Rouge to be exact.  Probably some cranberry bread along with other Christmas fixin’s.  It’s almost better than Christmas dinner.
     A couple of things I want to say to yuh, Pard.  First, in this evil, wicked, and sinful world, remember that is the reason for Jesus to come to this earth.  He came, not to rid the earth of evil, but to offer a solution–one for all of eternity, and Pard, let me tell yuh, if’n yuh don’t know, that is a long time.  The Gift is given, so all folks have to do is reach out, repent, and accept it.  My what an easy thing to do.  Easier than I’ve seen some folk try to unwrap a present.  My jackknife is always in use on Christmas.
     The second thing is that in the midst of yur celebratin’ and it’s alright to be doin’ that, don’t forget that Christmas should also be a solemn occasion.  Take a moment an’ think along with me.  Eve was deceived, but sin came when Adam ate.  That ‘Postle of old, Paul wrote, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12, ESV).  God placed a curse on both Adam and Eve, but did yuh notice that the promise will come through Eve.  It will be her seed that the Messiah, Jesus our Savior would come.  It seems that the spiritual DNA is carried through the man.  It would be the seed of the woman that would bruise the serpent’s head.  Just wrap yur noggin’ ’round that thought.  Then we hear the angels tellin’ those mutton-punchers, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”  From the womb of Mary–the woman, came the birth of our Lord.  Amazin’, simply amazin’ if’n yuh ask me.
     So again, have loads of fun, but take time to ponder an’ contemplate the meanin’ an’ the significance of this wondrous event.  And in the midst of all the fun, hubbub, hustle and bustle, and gobblin’ down the goodies and pies and cookies, and turkey that when yuh go out in the cold that yuh don’t forget to be checkin’ yur cinch.  Shore wouldn’t be a good way to end the year.  So Pard, an’ to all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
    Vaya con Dios.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.”
                    –Frank McKibben

       “And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you.  I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart.”
                    –Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT)
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Murders, hatred, bitterness, racism and everyone is looking for excuses, trying to rationalize it in some fashion, or blaming others.  Fix this, fix that, and it will all be better.  Give them better housing, give them free food, give them, give them, give, give, give.  But no, that is not the answer.  Anything man tries to do is only like putting a band-aid on a cancer.  “The basic problem of the human race is sin and guilt–a real moral guilt, not just guilt feelings, and a real moral sin, because we have sinned against a God who is there, and a God who is holy,” so wrote Francis Schaeffer.
     Sin, a term that is not to be used today, but it is the problem.  People bemoaning their condition, when the root of it is sin.  Think of the time when Jesus was born.  “Three-fifths of the world was in slavery.  The clanking of chains could be heard and slaves–human beings–were bought and sold as oxen, and they were beaten and bludgeoned and killed without hesitation or compunction.  There was a law among the Imperial Romans, that if a man killed an ox–just an animal–the death penalty followed for such an awful thing, but if he killed a slave, his fellow man, it was passed by and nothing thought about it.” (George Truett)  This was the world into which the holy Child was born.  Think of what happened right after the Wise Men came–Herod had the babies in the region of Bethlehem killed.
     Children were not often welcome in a home at that period.  They were regarded as a burden, they were in the way in many cases, and they were just another mouth to feed, especially if the child were female.  (Truett)  A woman was little better off than a slave.  She was a burden-bearer, not a homemaker.  Think of what women are doing with their “freedom” today, they are again choosing slavehood in Islamic beliefs and countries or they are choosing slavery to career, clock, and gain. Truett said, “How can any woman keep from loving Christ, can keep from bowing before Him, from accepting Him as Lord and Master, is a deeper mystery that I can understand.  The supreme champion of womanhood is Christ!”  Read the Gospels and dare to find a place where Jesus spoke harshly to a woman.
     How do we live like we are supposed to live?  By ignoring sin?  By deleting the term from our vocabulary?  By hiding our heads in the sand, saying that sin doesn’t exist.  Man is the solution to his own problems.  “Christ gives us the right perspective, the right estimate, the right measure of a human being,” (Truett) and He begins by calling us to repentance.  Man is eternal and cannot solve eternal problems.  Do not let the devil confuse your mind and thoughts.  Enjoy Christmas, think of Jesus coming as a baby, don’t get caught up in the false hubbub of the season.  Celebrate, but mindfully.  Understand that the Babe in the manger was God in the flesh.  The Incarnation, oh what a glorious mystery!  Never forget that “Jesus had to be fully human to step in as our substitute and sacrifice, and fully God to make that sacrifice count for eternity.” (James Merritt)
     As man looks for answers, as he sometimes declares that he has the answer, know this–the answer was given to us that day long ago that we celebrate on Christmas.  When you hear “give, give, give,” understand that the Gift has already been given.  God sent His Son to take care of sin, not place a bandaid on surface problems.  Why do people reject this wondrous Gift?  John tells us, “This is the verdict:  Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (3:19-21, NIV)

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Everytime we love, everytime we give, it’s Christmas.”
                    –Dale Evans Rogers

       “Give, and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure–pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
                    –Luke 6:38 (NASB)
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Materialism!  That’s all Christmas has become.  It’s all been commercialized.  Bah Humbug!  Yes, there is that aspect of materialism and commercialism at Christmas.  The businesses will try to sell their wares and the consumers, well, it is up to them whether or not to buy.  One thing for sure, as Bob Welch points out, “Materialism shackles us to self.  It diverts our attention from the things that matter most:  our faith, our families, and our fundamental responsibility to help those less fortunate.  It promises much but delivers little.”  People end up loving things that cannot love back, or loving the money in which to buy things.
     It is important to realize that you cannot purchase joy and happiness, and it is bought only for the moment.  In fact, the buying can become a sort of idol.  Some get caught up in the idea that they can purchase love.  Buy the most expensive gift, the most gifts, or the best gifts.  That will only produce a pseudo-love.  A false love that will haunt throughout the life if it is not stopped.  I knew of a man who in his business made $50,000 a week, but in the process lost the time with his family, which ended in divorce and his two kids on drugs and serving jail time.  Which ended up costing more?
     Then we have the other side–Scroogism, I’ll call it.  The love of money so dear that it is not spent, but hoarded.  Bah Humbug!  Welch writes in his book about Dicken’s, “A Christmas Carol, “I wonder how many people, at the end of their lives, wind up regretting that they lived to work instead of worked to live.”  Perhaps you’ve heard the little quip, “Nobody, on his deathbed, ever says, ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.'”
     Someone said that, “Joy is having all you want before unwrapping a thing.”  We are to be proper stewards of the time, the resources, and yes, the money that God has given us.  It is not to hoard, but is to be enjoyed within a proper setting and within proper bounds.  Giving is not wrong, but making it the sole purpose, such as, “I’ll give for their love,” is definitely moving along the wrong track.  To not give is entirely wrong as well.  As Christians we are to be giving people as our heavenly Father is giving.
     In other words, keep a proper balance.  Enjoy the wonder of the season, just don’t let your mind get off the true Gift that the season is for.  This wonderful season, this time of year should not come only in December but should be found in us all year long.  Wilfred A. Peterson reminds us as he was reminded, “Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It’s lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy play a vital part. It’s a higher thought and a greater plan. It’s the glorious dream in the soul of man.”  Joy to the World!  Let that be your theme.  Don’t give with wrong motives, or overgive, but on the other hand do not be like Scrooge whom Dickens wrote, was as “Solitary as an oyster.”

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

The only key out of that jail is truth.”

                    –Ron Schwab  (Old Dogs)

       “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
                    –3 John 4 (NIV)
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In these last few verses from Proverbs 9, we see that Folly promises sweetness and delicacy but delivers death and hell.  Bob Beasley says, “Folly is just like those she calls, and she’s heading ultimately to the same place.  She is undisciplined and knows no shame, nor has she knowledge of the Holy One.”

          13 — A foolish woman is clamorous; she is simple, and knows nothing.
          14 — For she sits at the door of her house, on a seat by the highest places of the city.
          15 — To call to those who pass by, who go straight on their way:
          16 — “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here”; and as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,
          17 — “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
          18 — But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell.  (NKJV)

The “clamorous,” which means “violently excited” or “bustling”.  I like the way the NLT translates this verse.  “The woman named Folly is loud and brash.  She is ignorant and doesn’t even know it.”  The path to wisdom, we have seen, is intentional.  “We don’t drift into holiness, and we don’t drift into a life marked by wisdom.” (Mike Leake)  We instead have the tendency to drift towards the banquet hall of Folly and as the Prodigal we must come to our senses.  Dan Dick warns us, “When we allow ourselves to be distracted from our pursuit of God, the results can be disastrous.  Sin, which leads us from our pursuit of the Lord, can pull us into situations that we don’t want to be in, but before we can change them we are trapped.”  Therefore, be forewarned and listen to godly instruction.
     The foolish woman doesn’t go out and seek, people come to her.  Foolishness (Folly) runs a college, it sets forth what appears to be a marvelous feast; one that is appealing to the senses.  “Turn in here,” might be better said, “Come in, ignorant people!”  Or maybe better yet, “Come in dummy, and taste.”  Remember what I wrote earlier in our study, “You can fix ignorance, but stupidity is fatal.” (Don Edwards)  Her call is as the mirage of the desert, promising relief to the weary soul, promising refreshing, but it is phony and deceptive and its end is death.  
     “The power of sin lies in its pleasure” (Arnot).  This foolish woman holds her hands out, promises secret enjoyment.  Hmm, notice the folly offered by the serpent, the deceiver in the Garden.  The serpent offered the deception and Eve fell for it.  “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.  For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'” (Genesis 3:4-5, NKJV)  Here, God is holding back on you.  Here, eat the forbidden fruit; taste that it is good.  However, that taste, that bite would lead to disaster, and the way to hell was now open.
     The words of Lord Byron relate strongly to this passage:
               “My days are in the yellow leaf,
                The flowers and fruits of love are gone;
                The worm, the canker, and the grief
                     are mine alone.”
Take time to compare and contrast the Way of Wisdom with the Way of Folly.  Examine your walk.  “Though she gets lots of attention, her appeal makes sense only to him who lacks understanding.” (NKJV Study Bible)  Heed the words of the Lord.