Echoes from the Campfire

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

I’m thinking of taking my outfit and riding up the mountains to where the rivers are born.”

                    –Louis L’Amour  (Passin’ Through)
 
       “‘For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has mercy on you.”
                    –Isaiah 54:10 (NKJV)
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George Matheson wrote, “To seek God is a very bold aim, the greatest aim that marksmen ever took.”  But where do we go to seek Him?  Yes, it true that God is omnipresent and we can in a sense go anywhere to find Him.  The Psalmist wasn’t trying to seek God in Psalm 139, but trying to escape Him and made this statement:

          “Where do I go from Your Spirit?  Or where can I flee from Your presence?  If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”
                    –Psalm 139:7-8 (NKJV)

But where do I go to find Him?  Is it in a grand and glorious edifice?  Perhaps He can be found in nature, but what part?  In the days of the Old Testament, man could only go so far as the outer court where he could give the priest an offering for his sins.  Now, with the wondrous sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, man can go right on in to the Holy of Holies!  Why stay in the outer court when there is the Ark of the Covenant before us–the mercy seat of God?  What was once unreachable is now within the grasp of man.
       Matheson goes on to say, “Men speak of the everlasting hills; what thou needest is rather an everlasting climbing–a hill whose summit thou canst see, but canst never gain.  Christ is that hill of holiness.  His summit will be as far from thee at evening as at morning; but the climbing itself is the goal.”  I’ve been pondering the many aspects of what he was saying.  As we come closer to Christ, in one way we are truly closer, but in another since He is the infinite God we are not any closer than when we began.  
       My thoughts went to the old hymn penned by Johnson Oatman, Jr.

               “I’m pressing on the upward way,
               New heights I’m gaining ev’ry day;
               Still praying as I’m onward bound,
               ‘Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.’

                         Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
                         By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,
                         A higher plane than I have found;
                         Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Upward, always upward.  Heaven is above.  The thought that we are to be “everlasting climbing” is grand.  It is aspiring, yet remember, there are hills and there are mountains.  In studying Scripture, mountains are often referred to as the “government seat of God.”  He will rush out of Zion, and we look to the mountains.  
       But what about the valley?  Hmm, there are definitely valleys in life, but we cross them moving ever upward towards the summit.  Jack Hannah wrote,

               “The trail seems always uphill,
               Courage is what I’ve got,
               The harder it gets, I’m cinching up tighter still.”

Hang on, keep climbing, the way will be worth it once we are in Heaven.  Christ is with us, the Holy Spirit is guiding us, encouraging us.  Don’t falter, and for sure don’t quit!  We are not on the climb alone and no matter how hard the way is, “Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139:10, NKJV)

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

They had the strength to live, to endure to be. These were the people of simple tastes and simple virtues who were the backbone of the country, and not those vocal ones who were quick with words and prided themselves on their sophistication.”

                    –Louis L’Amour  (The Mountain Valley War)

       “His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun.  And men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed.”
                    –Psalm 72:17 (NKJV)
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I sent a little message out to some friends Saturday with the following note:  “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.”  Too often we forget, or we stay down, or we don’t complete the task.  The central theme of Psalm 106 is the acknowledgement of sin; it is pretty much a lengthy confession.

          1 — Praise the LORD!  Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!  For His mercy endures forever.
          2 — Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD?  Who can declare all His praise?
          3 — Blessed are those who keep justice, and he who does righteousness at all times!
          4 — Remember me, O LORD, with the favor You have toward Your people.  Oh, visit me with Your salvation.
          5 — That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your inheritance.
          6 — We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
          7 — Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, but rebelled by the sea–the Red Sea.
          8 — Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power known.
          9 — He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; so He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
        10 — He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
        11 — The waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left.
        12 — Then they believed His words; they sang His praise.  (NKJV)

     This is a psalm of sin, iniquity, forgetfulness, forgiveness and praise.  It is interesting that it begins with a declaration of praise.  To begin we must remember that praise is an act of the will.  We choose to praise, and perhaps, this psalm might imply that the opposite of praise is forgetfulness.  God’s love and mercy endure forever.  Then there is the question, who can proclaim His mighty acts?  Ponder that.  Who can?  Man cannot, for we cannot grasp nor adequately speak of His infinite being, but we can praise Him in our own finiteness.  He then speaks of righteousness and justice; “this inner purity brings inner joy and happiness” (Lawson).
     “Forgetfulness brings disaster” (William Petersen) and that is what the psalmist wants us to remember and understand.  When people begin to forget the acts of kindness of the Lord, they drift away from Him.  God sends revival, He works miracles, He provides–then they again and again forget Him.  That is one reason why we see the stories repeated over and over is that we forget. (Or maybe we don’t want to remember).
     Israel, God’s chosen people, had a long history of rebellion against God.   Verse 6 is translated by the NLT, “Both we and our ancestors have sinned.  We have done wrong!  We have acted wickedly!”  Repentance must come, for God cannot bless sin.  God provided so much in the way of plagues to the enemies of Israel, and did so many miracles to aid Israel, yet still–they forgot.  That is why we must remember!  Charles H. Spurgeon said, “We inherit from our fathers much sin and little wisdom.  They could only leave us what they themselves possessed.  The sin of the understanding leads on to the sin of the memory.  What is not understood will soon be forgotten.”  That is why a legacy of godliness is so important so that we can continue to tell the story of God’s love, power, and mercy.

               “I will tell the wondrous story,
               How, my lost estate to save,
               In his boundless love and mercy
               He the ransom freely gave.”
                       –Philip P. Bliss

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were Treated and Appreciated by their nation.”

                    –George Washington

       “… I am like a man without strength, abandoned among the dead.  I am like the slain lying in the grave, whom You no longer remember, and who are cut off from Your care.”
                    –Psalm 88:4-5 (HCSB)
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            In Flanders Fields (John McCrae)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
     That mark our place; and in the sky
     The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.  Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
     Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
          In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
     The torch; be yours to hold it high.
     If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
          In Flanders fields.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Veterans Day–the first of our holidays in which we are to be thankful.  Without these men and women who served, gave their time, their effort, and many their lives this country would have succumbed years ago.  The forces that assail our nation now are as great as they were during the highmark of fascism and communism.  New foes, but the same insidious purpose–to bring about the last bastion of freedom.  This battle is with ideas, with guns, with terror, and with blood.  Hitler, Stalin, and Mao don’t hold a candle to the evil that lurks within the menace of jihadistic Islam.  Yet, we have other foes–for the slaughter of infants is within our own country as well.  Beware–heed that last stanza.
     “Take up our quarrel with the foe…”  Don’t be naive–the enemy is real.  Don’t be lackadaisical–the enemy lurks to destroy.  Don’t be complacent and compromising–you’ll be destroyed along with your family.  The torch is yours!  Dare you hold it high?  How can we break faith, not only with those who sacrificed to keep this country great, but those stalwart men of the faith as well?  We must take up the fight, we must hold the torch high, we cannot break faith.  If we do, “A million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words:  Duty, Honor, Country.” (Gen. Douglas MacArthur)
     Whether it has been in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, or the sandbox of Iraq and the Middle East; whether is was upon the steamy jungles of Vietnam, or earlier in the South Pacific, or the frozen hills of Korea; whether is was in the desert of North Africa, the shores of Normandy, the skies or the blue deep–hold the torch, allow those who have gone before to sleep.
     This time we are fighting a war, not only with terrorists, and ideal mad jihadists, but with ideas that want to destroy our nation.  Destroy it from within, by doing away with the values that have made America great; those based on the holy Scriptures of God’s Word.  Destroy it by making a mockery of our founders, by bring in a culture that divides us and slanders the foundational thoughts of our nations.  Twisting, turning, misrepresenting those in the past.  Again, I say–hold the torch high, it is yours, it is mine.  Don’t break the faith.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

The course held its dangers, but long experience had taught him that to walk through besetting perils was less risk than to run from them.”
                    –William MacLeod Raine  (The Sheriff’s Son)

       “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.”
                    –2 John 6 (NKJV)
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I have been doing a brief study of the small, personal letters of John (2 and 3 John).  They are written to individuals and they give exhortation, especially regarding the truth, and warnings.  I want to draw your attention to a couple of verses.

          “I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father.”  –2 John 4 (NKJV)
          “For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”  –3 John 3-4 (NKJV)

That should be our goal, our expectation–to walk in the truth.  The verse 2 John is translated by the RSV as “following the truth” and the NEB puts it this way, “living by the truth.”  In this day where truth is considered to be relative, we continue to be steadfast in our walk.  We follow the truth; we live by the truth.  We obey the truth, and we seek to conform our lives to the truth.  We walk according to the ways of God rather than the ways of the world.
       To walk in the truth means that we have an authentic relationship with God.  If our walk is genuine, it must be based upon His Word, no deviations, no compromise, but steadfast in the truth.  Perhaps this would be a good time to read Psalm 119 for it deals with the Word of God and how it affects our lives and how we base our lives upon it.  Barclay says, “The truth is not simply something to be intellectually assimilated; it is the knowledge which fills a man’s mind and the charity which clothes his life.  The truth is what makes a man think and act like God.”
       This world cries for toleration, but that can go only so far.  Be tolerant until it comes to the truth!  A man came to me once with a divisive doctrinal error regarding Jesus.  I confronted him with it, and he said, in some many words, for me to compromise, to be tolerant.  He said, “Can we agree to disagree”?  “NO!”  Was my reply, “not when it comes to heresy regarding Jesus Christ.”  No matter what gospel Oprah pushes, Jesus is the only truth.  Listen to His declaration:  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6, NKJV).
       The truth of our life–our walk–should line up with that of Jesus.  3 John implies that the truth is more than just to give assent to it.  “It means to apply it to one’s behavior.” (John Stott)  There is no difference between the profession of the truth and the practical living by the truth.  These verses in 3 John could be translated, “the truth of your life” (RSV) or our “faithfulness to the truth.” (NIV)  
       So as you and I go down this pathway of life, let us stay true to the truth of God’s Word.  Let us neither sway to the left or the right, but focus our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  Walk in the way, because He is the way.  Walk in the truth, because He is the truth.  Let our lives be so guided by the truth of God’s Word that He will smile upon our faithfulness.  Stay in the way, the bright and shining way… (J.S. Torbett)  Upon reading these verses by the pen of John I am reminded of the great old hymn by J.H. Sammis:

               “When we walk with the Lord
               In the Light of His Word
               What a glory He sheds on our way!”