Author: Ira Paine

The Saga of Miles Forrest

by Ira Paine, Posted on
The man jerked his arm off Molly and swung a roundhouse at me.  Easily I ducked under it, but I had to do something quick with the other men who were rushing me.  Fortunately, one ran into the man who took the swing and I was able to grab a chair that was there against the wall and with all my might I struck the man.  He went down in a lump and laid there, giving me a moment to get my bearings.  The chair had broken off and I still had a piece of it in my hands.
       It wasn’t looking good, but at least one was out for a little while.  I’m not a big man, but I’ve been in my share of brawls and I’ve found that often the first to strike and to do it with audacity often wins the fight.  Both of the men I was facing were bigger than me, but they also had a little too much of the devil’s juice in them.   Instead of letting them come at me I rushed swinging the chair leg like a club.
       I concentrated my blows on the man who accostosted Molly, but that left my side vulnerable to the blows of the other man.  They weren’t expecting my aggression and both took a step backward as I rushed.  The man I was bludgeoning backed away holding his head, that gave me time to concentrate on the other.  I wasn’t fast enough and caught a fist alongside the jaw.  One thing, even though the smaller man, I was able to take a punch.   Instead of swinging the chair leg like a club I used it as a spear and rammed it right in the breadbasket then followed with a thrust toward the face catching the man’s lower lip taking out some of his teeth.  Both of them were bent over holding their injuries, the one bleeding from the mouth.  The shame of it was that the man who started it all came out the least hurt.  
       Glaring at him I faked a step toward him, but a grunt from the man on the ground took my attention.  I looked at him then thumped him once more on the head.  The other two men started backing up.  I threw the chair leg as hard as I could toward the instigator hitting him square in the back.  They took off, almost knocking people over who had stopped to watch the fracas, leaving their compadre unconscious.
       I looked over at Molly who was giving me a look somewhere between a frown and concern.  I just had to give her one of my grandest smiles, then took her arm.  “Come along, dear.  Let’s move away from these ruffians,” I said with a snicker.
       “Miles, we’re in a strange town and you find yourself in trouble.  Why am I not surprised?”
       “Trouble?” I responded.  “Tweren’t nothing, but I was a mite concerned with three of them.  Good thing they were some tipsy or it could have gone the other way.  I’m still hungry, how ’bout you?”
       The crowd was now dispersing, the fun gone, and let us through.  We walked down three buildings where we entered the cafe.  A matronly-looking woman came to take our order bringing coffee with her.  Molly settled on the rainbow trout and I ordered a porterhouse.  She wasn’t unfriendly, reckon she had things on her mind, but I couldn’t get a smile from her.  I stopped her before she went to the kitchen, “Be sure and save a piece of pie for me.”
       I looked around the room and nodded at some men at one table, and a couple sitting at another.  Always try to put out my good side.  The waitress returned.  “No pie!” she declared.  “The last piece was et this mornin’.  Try Cecil’s Eatery, she tries to keep pie on hand.”
       That name sounded familiar, but I just couldn’t recollect.  Been a lot of names through the years and they’re floating around in my noggin not lighting anywhere.  “How about Tor Vincent, he still sheriff?”
       She shook her head.  “He was jumped a year ago outside the Silver Slipper.  Beat to death he was.  Sheriff now is Bill Turner.”  Before I could say anything else she turned back toward the kitchen.
       When I turned back to look at Molly she was slowly shaking her head.  “The Lord sure does smile down on foolish men,” she declared.
       I gave her a quizzical look.
       “Three men jumped and killed the sheriff…”

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

I think we all should go to the mountains more often. We should stand alone and look on the peaks and the valleys.”

                         –Louis L’Amour  (Under the Sweetwater Rim)

       “The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.”
                         –Psalm 14:2 (NKJV)
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       “True revival always returns God’s people to fresh and vivid emphasis on the holiness and righteousness of God, His judgment on sin, true repentance, and the overflowing effect of personal conversions to Christ.”  (Max Anders)  Psalm 85 is a cry for revival.  Revival always starts with the individual, with the heart.  Often we get sluggish in our life regarding our walk with God and we need the flame kindled anew–that is revival.  Revival is when the warning in Revelation given to those who lost their first love find it again and live like it.  Eugene Peterson wrote, “O God, when my faith gets overladen with dust, blow it clean with the wind of your Spirit.  When my habits of obedience get stiff and rusty, anoint them with the oil of your Spirit.  Restore the enthusiasm of my first love for you.”

          1 — LORD, You have been favorable to Your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.
          2 — You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin.    Selah
          3 — You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger.
          4 — Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease.
          5 — Will You be angry with us forever?  Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?
          6 — Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
          7 — Show us Your mercy, LORD, and grant us Your salvation.  (NKJV)

       The people must have been experiencing some great difficulty.  It seemed as if the anger of the Lord was upon them.  But, remember, if it comes from the Lord it is to teach a lesson, to discipline, to help us grow, and above all to bring us closer to Him.  Whether it be a national calamity or personal, God wants repentance and for us to draw close to Him.  The Psalmist prays that God will restore.  That indicates that there was once right relationship.
       People are often unforgiving, but not so the Lord.  He is ready to forgive when there is true repentance.  When there is the heart’s desire for renewed and righted relationship.  God is forgiving, why?  Because of His mercy, or as some versions translate, His “unfailing love.”  Through God’s mercy sins are forgiven.  We need to pray honestly that God would work through our sluggishness and disregard for His Word and a personal relationship with Him and “grant us your salvation out of our present problems and spiritual apathy.” (Anders)
                       
               “Many mighty men are lost,
               Daring not to stand,
               Who for God had been a host
               By joining Daniel’s band.
               Dare to be a Daniel,
               Dare to stand alone!
               Dare to have a purpose firm;
               Dare to make it known.”
                        –Philip P. Bliss

 

Coffee Percs

by Ira Paine, Posted on

He brought a coffeepot from his gear and dipped water from the stream. He was a practical man, and he liked his coffee.”

                         –Louis L’Amour  (The Key-Lock Man)
 
Pard, can’t get the words out of my mind.  Go ahead, the coffee’s on the stove.  Those words by that ol’ Wyoming cowpoke LeDoux keep singin’ in my mind, “I can’t ride the broncos anymore…”  Yuh remember it?  “There’s a lot of parts on me that don’t work no more.”  My aches and pains remind me of those days, and my land, let me tell yuh that I even have to hang on to the rockin’ chair.  Sometimes it gets to movin’ an’ I’d swear it was tryin’ to throw me.
       What’s yuh smilin’ about?  Jist you wait, one of these days yu’ll be ridin’ that wooden frame.  They’ll probably have to add a seatbelt to keep yuh in that chair.  Nah, just kiddin’ with yuh, drink yur coffee.  By lookin’ at yuh, I reckon yu’ve got at least fifty or sixty miles left in yuh.  At least yur not out runnin’ with the rats.  Oh, and speakin’ of rats, remember election time starts next week here in Texas.  We sure want to keep home and hearth safe for there’s a push to bring in those fuzzy thinkin’ liberals.  Wish we could throw all those ideas in the trash can.  Once a people move away from God…well, it’s easier to keep moving thataway.  
       Ahhhh, that coffee’s good this mornin’.  I’m not doin’ any worryin’ over the outcome.  The Lord’s in charge anyhow.  My mercy, though, ain’t the country goin’ crazy?  All kinds of shenanigans happenin’.  Need to pray for an awakenin’ like the such that’s happened before in this country.  That’s the only way to keep from the Lord’s judgment.
       Say, Pard, yuh be doin’ right!  The road is still before us, we just don’t move as fast as we used to on it.  But those words by LeDoux keep ringin’, “Well a man can’t spend his life in reflection, just thinkin’ about the way things used to be…”  Yeehaw, hang on Pard, the Lord is gettin’ ready to ride!  Yuh best check yur cinch now.
         Vaya con Dios.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

A man ought to get wisdom when he’s young, not when he’s too old for it to matter. We spend a lifetime learning, then we get old, and most of our livin’ is done and it don’t seem like there’s any use for what we’ve learned. It’s like skinnin’ a frog: takes a lot of time and work, but when it’s done what’ve you got? There’s no use for a frog hide.”

                         –C.M. Curtis  (Return of the Outlaw)

       “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.”
                         –Acts 1:7 (NKJV)
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“O the sighing of the pines
Up here among the timberline
Makes me wish I’d done things different
But wishing don’t make it so.”
       –Ian Tyson

       As the years roll on by, what does one do?  Do they waste away the hours twiddling their thumbs while sitting in the rocking chair moaning. . . moaning about the things they wish they had done, or about the things they did?  Do they look in a new direction for sure the body can handle the pressure and the exertion it once did?  What is the answer?  In coming to some sort of a conclusion let us look at what Peter has to say,

               “Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.”
                                 –2 Peter 3:8 (Amplified)

       In my way of thinking, Satan made a mistake (of course he did) when he took the Lord and offered Him all the peoples of the world if He would bow to him.  Jesus looked out upon the scene.  He didn’t think of grandeur, He didn’t think of power (remember, He was a man when tempted in the wilderness).  When he looked out, “He saw the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time–not in their glory but in their unrighteousness.” (George Matheson)  Seeing the kingdoms only helped Him in His resolve to carry out His purpose.
       Can we not have a new glimpse of life in the later years?  I remember being told by many folks older than me back when I was in my prime that time passes faster as you get older.  Hmmm, I didn’t believe them, and I know that it doesn’t, or–does it?  How many hours were wasted in the past?  How many weeks and months were wasted on activities that didn’t help the Kingdom of God?  Those hours can never be retrieved.  Matheson writes, “In age I have the sense of wasted years and little time to retrieve them.  I am deterred from amendment by despair.  How can the short time at my command outweigh the long years I have squandered!”
       Oh me, oh my–the days of my life are shorter.  The end is closer than the start.  Do not let me despair.  Ahh, but the Lord has the answer with the verse above.  It is as if the Lord is saying to me, to us, that He doesn’t measure our path by length of time.  “One day in My courts can retrace the steps of a thousand days outside My courts.” (Matheson)
       In the eleventh hour of life what is the Holy Spirit speaking to you?  He is saying that “one hour with Me will redeem a thousand erring years.” (Matheson)  In other words, life for the day–life is living.  Life in the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Let Him direct your steps, and more important let Him direct your mind and heart.  Make today count–make it worth a thousand years.