Author: Ira Paine

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Show me the sense of bein’ sore an’ unhappy, no matter what’s comin’ off.”
                    –Zane Grey  (Robbers’ Roost)


       “Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous!  For praise from the upright is beautiful.”
                    –Psalm 33:1 (NKJV)
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“I’m blest, I’m blest, I’m blest” (or blessed); do you remember the chorus?  Perhaps it should be, “I’m spoiled, I’m spoiled, I’m spoiled…”.  This one little word in the Beatitudes has significant meaning and is often overly simplified.  It is vital that we learn the meaning of this word before continuing our study.

               “Then He [Jesus] opened His mouth and taught them, saying:  Blessed are…”

Thomas Watson sets the tone when he says, “Transitory worldly things are not commensurate to the desires of the soul—therefore they cannot render him blessed.  Nothing on earth can satisfy the souls’ desires.”  This world has nothing that can truly bless us.  Those in the world seek many things:  power, wealth, fame, fancy clothes, fine food, and other material things to try to satisfy their inner longing.  Jesus is trying to show us the true picture of what being “blessed” is all about.  
     I have heard many times from parents on various different occasions, “I just hope they’re happy.”  I wonder if they know what they are saying.  Yes, we want happiness, but we want more than that.  We want to be blessed.  Happiness is good, but it is not lasting.  That is why the translations that use the term “Happy” instead of “Blessed” are missing the mark; it is only partially correct.
     To be “blessed” goes far beyond being happy.  “Happy” does not give the complete thought, however don’t throw it out, for happiness is indeed part of being blessed.
Thomas Watson writes, “Yet many are digging for happiness here—as if they would fetch a blessing out of a curse!”  Do you get that?  How can we be happy in this cursed world, when man, himself, is cursed?  Where is lasting happiness?  It is here for a moment, like a wisp-o’-smoke or an echo from the campfire, then gone.  Happiness, therefore, is fleeting.  “Happiness by any art or chemistry, can be extracted from the world.” (Watson)  “I’m happy, I’m happy” but only for a while.
     Here is the gist of the meaning, I am blessed because of what God thinks of me.  O the blessedness of being a child of God.  O the blessedness of being saved.  O the blessedness of going to the heavenly Father.  “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” (Psalm 1:1, NKJV)  True blessedness cannot come from “things.”  Perhaps the Amplified will give us a better picture, “happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—
with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions.”  See, happiness is involved, but it is only part of what being blessed is all about.
     The problem is that we often try to fulfill our desires, to be happy, by worldly means.  The soul is a spiritual thing so how can we satisfy the spiritual with the natural?  How can we think we can gain happiness/blessedness by the riches of the world?  Thomas Watson puts it this way, “Happiness is too noble and delicate a plant, to grow in this world’s soil.”  Therefore we should not look to worldly things to fulfill this longing of the soul.  This blessedness that Jesus is speaking of is a declaration of what is truly the best way to live.  This blessedness, this joy cannot be taken away by the things of the world, the turmoils, the battles, the storms, the terror, the material things that are there.  We are blessed because we are in Christ.  Therefore, it is unthinkable to be a gloomy Christian.  We are blessed!  Man seeks for this but it is beyond his scope, his grasp.  “Blessedness is the perfection of a rational creature.  It is the whetstone of his ambition, the flower of his joy. Blessedness is the desire of all men.” (Watson)  Man desires, but he can only receive temporary happiness.
     As we delve into each of the Beatitudes it is important to keep this concept in mind.  The blessing of each is related to our relationship with Christ.  Grasp hold of the words of David, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1-2, NKJV)  The NLT translates the first part thusly, “Oh the joy of those whose sins are forgiven…”  Are you beginning to get the picture?  I like the words of William Barclay in regard to the Beatitudes, “The very form of the beatitudes is the statement of the joyous thrill and radiant gladness of the Christian life.”

 

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

He sipped the coffee and found it bitter; it had been heating too long. But it was coffee, and that was the stuff of life around most cowcamps he had ever stayed in.” 

                    –Elmer Kelton  (The Good Old Boys)
 
Pard, there’s some truth in that sayin’ above.  I heard an ol’ boy say the other day that folks often get so busy with life and the toils of life that they forget to live.  Hmpf, I see yuh made yurself at home, grabbed a cup, an’ filled it from the pot.  Well, that’s what it’s there for.  But what I’m a-sayin’ is that life is meant to be lived an’ enjoyed as the good Lord intended.  Sure there’s bad spots, but just like travelin’ down the road, there’s good, smooth roads, but then once in a while a pothole is there an’ sometimes it jist can’t be avoided.
     Go ‘head drink up; that’s good coffee.  Now as good as coffee is, an’ as much as I enjoy it, I’ve had some bad coffee in my day an’ I’m not talkin’ ’bout cinos.  Whooee, let me tell yuh, I have had some coffee so weak it would best be used as dishwater an’ I’ve had it scorched–burnt and thick.  I sure do like my coffee strong, but I’m not carin’ much for scorched coffee.
     Folks go ’round life sorta the same way.  They either don’t enjoy it, they live it weekly (pun intended).  Others are jist plain ol’ sourpusses, while some jist want to have an excuse to git their gizzard all riled up.  I figure that some folks are happy unless life treats them bitter and they show their happiness by bein’ grumpy or loud or obnoxious.
     Pard, it’s only been ten days into the New Year and I’ll tell yuh, there’s a lot of stuff goin’ on, much of it is downright stupidity.  Besides that new mayor of New York City, and few other scoundrels around the country I read that the governor of New York declared January Muslim American Heritage Month.  My mercy!  One of the audacious things she’s done is to illuminate green on Friday night the World Trade Center lights to celebrate Muslim culture.  Talk ’bout a slap in the face.  Then there’s those Somalis who are claimin’ that the Foundin’ Fathers were of Somali descent.  Sometime’s Pard, all I can do is shake my head.  Sorta of like drinkin’ scorched coffee.
     Well, Pard, I’m not goin’ to be a-steppin’ on my lower lip.  Get yur cloggin’ boots on an’ join me since we’re in the kitchen.  “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, down in my heart.”  Come on Pard, or are yuh a-waitin’ for the next verse.  Well, let’s get it goin’, hold tight to yur cup, yuh don’t want to spill any coffee on the floor.  “If the devil doesn’t like it, he can sit on a tack, sit on a tack, sit on a tack.”  Yeehaw, the joy of the Lord is our strength.  Yuh be havin’ a good week, don’t take any wooden nickels, and be a-checkin’ yur cinch.
     Vaya con Dios.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

It’s amazing how God can paint such beauty in the midst of all the terrible things that happen.”
                    –B.N. Rundell  (The Trail to Rebellion)

       “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him.”
                    –Ephesians 1:9 (NASB)
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I don’t understand it.  Man tries to explain in his feeble way.  God spoke and the worlds were created and all that is in them.  Man for some reason has trouble with that.  They instead make idols to explain.  Then as man progressed he realized that idols were not right, so he made the ultimate idol–himself, and has come up with the answer to creation–the Big Bang or other such theories.  Man wanting to be rational and logical chose not to accept the only rational and logical reason for creation–GOD!  
     Then there is the issue of evil.  I do not understand how it all happened.  Get this, evil and sin were not created!  We read in Ezekiel, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,Till iniquity was found in you.” (28:15, NKJV)  Other translations use the terms:  wickedness, evil, unrighteousness.  Here we see the only perfect being.  Lucifer–perfect in his being, perfect in his ways, who had access to the throne room.  Then…then he looked to the One on the throne and saw someone who was–more than perfect.  I don’t understand perfection, much less more than perfect.  Lucifer looked at Him, and sin/iniquity was found in him.  Paul mentions this “mystery of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians.  It is indeed a mystery.  Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit–sin came, death is now a part of life.  A mystery!
     Paul also writes about the mystery of faith, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of God.  We see now only as through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12)  It is a mystery, but as we continue in this verse we read, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (NIV)  Tell me about mercy and grace.  It is a mystery.  John Newton wrote, “We judge things by their present appearance, but the Lord sees them in their consequences…”  
     Look at the agony in Gethsemane.  What do you see?  The physical and mental anguish of Jesus.  Look at the cross.  What do you see?  Jesus in agony, brutally whipped, beaten unrecognizable, and bleeding.  But is there a mystery?  Is there something hidden from our view?  Absolutely!   F.W. Krummacher says this, “His being taken prisoner, His being brought before the bar of judgment, His condemnation by the Sanhedrin, and His passage to the cross, are only symbolical representations of infinitely more exalted events, which were behind the veil.”  We do not, and thankfully so, have the view of the supernatural at this time.  We cannot see sin as it touches the loving Savior, only in His cry, “It is finished.”  What did it look like in the spiritual realm?  Thank God, we cannot see the fullness of the agony of Christ.  We cannot see the devil, and the imps rejoicing at the death of Jesus.  I could go on–the tomb, the burial, the days before the resurrection, the resurrection itself–what did it look like in the spiritual realm?
     We must be careful.  Eastern religions and Cosmic Humanism seek to find the spiritual world.  While we are told to leave that to the Holy Spirit within us.  There is continual activity in that mysterious realm, but do not dare to enter.  One day that mystery will be opened to us as well.  “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2, NKJV)  We shall see Him in all of His splendor, majesty, and glory.  The mystery will be over.  As Jesus came in the fullness of times, the mystery of time will be over, and we will be forever in the fullness of eternity.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

We can scare ourselves into insanity if we don’t get a hold of ourselves and shake the cobwebs off. It takes courage to live this life.”

                    –Ken Pratt  (The Gypsum Creek Massacre)

       “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”
                    –Acts 16:25 (NIV)
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Listen, get real!  Quit using the excuse when you sin, “I’m only human.”  If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times.  Yes, we are all human.  We all make mistakes, pursue bad decisions, and fall into sin and the reason is that we are human.  But don’t use that as an excuse, just know it as a fact.  Then, do something about it.
     If, and when, we sin we do not lose our salvation, know that for a fact, but as Francis Schaeffer puts it, “we do have separation from my Father in the parent-child relationship.”  There is an estrangement from the Father; we remember what we had and now sin has brought tension, strife, perhaps turmoil to our relationship.  It must be taken care of as soon as possible.  I have often thought of Adam as he was walking out of the Garden.  Stepping out, he stopped, looked back to see the cherubim take their posts with flaming swords to guard the entrance to make it impossible for Adam to get back in.  There was no way back in, there was no way for Adam to have the same relationship with a holy Father.  Gone were the days when he could walk in the Garden with God.  Paradise lost–indeed, Adam and Eve were no longer welcome in the presence of a holy God.
     Woe is mankind, woe is me.  But wait!  John writes to believers, to those who have accepted the redeeming grace of Jesus that relationship can be restored.  The way is to admit that we have sinned.  It cannot be excused, it cannot be blamed on someone or something else.  We must not say, “I’m only human,” or “I’m not perfect,” but go to God.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NKJV)  Relationship is now restored; God walks with us.
     Let me say this.  In the midst of suffering and sorrow; when we have given into sin–repent, try again, and do not stop rejoicing at any time.  Read the Psalms.  In David’s woes, trials, battles, and sin did he stop playing his harp at any time?  Philip Comfort reminds us that, “We too can stop in the midst of life’s tumult and disappointment and offer this prayer:  ‘Come, thou fount of ev’ry blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.'”  Think of the times that Paul tells us to rejoice, rejoice.  We are not like Adam, the relationship can be restored.  Continue to praise and rejoice as you repent and know–know that the Father is there.

               “No ear so dull, no soul so cold,
               That felt not, friend not to the tone,
               Till David’s lyre grew mightier than his throne!”
                    –Lord Byron

     Let 2026 be known as a year of rejoicing in the Lord!  No matter the situation, no matter the circumstance, no matter the storm, no matter the battle–rejoice in the Lord!