Some men are born with twisted minds, just as some are born with crooked teeth.”
               –Louis L’Amour  (We Shaped the Land With Our Guns)

     “The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”
               –Galatians 5:17 (NLT)
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I was reading one of my favorite Christian authors, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and he made me do some pondering.  He is good at that.  I remember that Pappy was always concerned about his well.  They were going to run out of water.  Well, one day he quit wondering and was forced to dig a deeper well.  
     Water is vital for life.  When a person is looking for a place to build a house he would look at the water supply or if it was feasible for a well.  He wanted good water.  Today, that is taken away with the modern water companies who do the work, but still water is vital for our well-being.
     Perhaps you have heard a sermon on Isaac redigging the wells of Abraham.  There is much to say about the story and I’ll leave a few thoughts.
 
                “So Isaac left there, camped in the Valley of Gerar, and lived there. Isaac reopened the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.”
                        –Genesis 26:17-18 (HCSB)

Isaac was forced to move.  Now he camped, but found the wells were plugged up.  These wells had been dug earlier by his father, Abraham.  Isaac then proceeded to reopen the wells so he could have fresh water for his needs.
     We know about Abraham.  Abraham walked with God; he was called God’s “friend.”  He had that personal relationship with God that we say we want today.  Today, the word is “relationship.”  The cool, refreshing, vitalizing “water” of the Holy Spirit was flowing with Abraham.
     Isaac settles and sees that the wells need to be revived.  He begins the work.  He must redo his father’s work.  He cannot live on the work that was once done by someone else; he needs to find the water for himself.  He needs a “personal relationship”.
     Each person must experience their own revival.  They cannot depend upon the experience of their parents or those who have gone before.  Each must dig their own wells and experience the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit.
     Lloyd-Jones mentioned that Isaac wasn’t looking for entertainment or luxuries.  He was looking for the essentials for life.  There is too much nonsensical “stuff” happening within churches today and not much of the Holy Spirit.  Put aside entertainment for the refreshing, life-giving water of the Holy Spirit.
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Ponder This:  We run all over the place trying to get our “needs” met.  Who will satisfy your needs at death?

Whatever a man does leaves a trail behind, and in his passing he leaves the indication of the manner of man he is, of his character, and even something of his plans.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (High Lonesome)

    “A sensible person sees danger and takes cover; the inexperienced keep going and are punished.”
              –Proverbs 27:12 (HCSB)
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Ever have a dream?  I means plans for your life, goals, aspirations?  Has God given you the desire to do something?  Then why are you not on your quest?  If it is from God, and if God is in charge, then why not dare to fulfill the desires of your heart?
If they are God-honoring and will bring Him glory, get started.
    People say I have to study and prepare myself for this task, for this quest that I have dreamed about.  Maybe that is part of the dream, but it might also just be an excuse.  Sometimes it just takes plain old simple faith.  If God is in charge then we need to know Him.
              “The LORD said to Abram:  Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”
                     –Genesis 12:1-2 (HCSB)

Abraham would not have been blessed unless he acted upon what God told him to do.  He had to leave all behind.  It has been my experience in working with Christians, especially in the last several years that they will do what God wants as long as He leaves them where they are or where they want to go.  
    Sometimes there is a risk involved when we do what the Lord wants, but not really.  If He is in charge the risk is removed.  Sometimes Christians come up with crazy ideas and get fixed on them and then tells others that God told them to do it.  They will say they are risking for Jesus when in fact they are simply immature.  We risk only what God calls us to risk.  There are two problems here:
         1)  We don’t want to risk anything.
         2)  We feel guilty so we risk in areas where God has not called us.
    There is a time to take a risk.  Remember the old Sunday School song, “Dare to Be a Daniel”?  When is it all right to take a risk?
         1)  When the Bible is clear about it.  There are definitely times when the Scripture commands us to act.  We are to stand up and take a risk when it is to witness about Christ.
         2)  When Truth is violated.  
                   “Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
                    Ye soldiers of the Cross…”.
We are to guard the Truth; that brings great responsibility, especially in regard to our children.  They must be taught the Truth.  Jesus is the “Truth…”.
         3)  When the issue is Love.  Love is a risk because it presupposes connection.  In this technical age it is easy to stay “connected” without any real relationship.  Love makes you feel what the other person is feeling.  It makes you vulnerable and there is danger.  
    We must be in the Word and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  We are to build walls when God says to, and tear down walls when He says.  What is most important to you?  Why do you fear risk?  Remember, pleasing God is of greater importance than pleasing the world.  If you are pleasing God you have nothing to lose.
         1)  You can’t lose your goods.  We place so much importance upon material goods.  In reality, we are simply stewards of those things as our treasure is in heaven.
         2)  You can’t lose your self-esteem.  Our identity is in Christ and is based on the fact that He loves us and we are joint-heirs with Him.  Remember, He died for us.
         3)  You can’t lose your sufficiency.  That is measures against eternity.  Really, self-sufficiency is a myth.  “I will do this, I will do that”; ha, only if the Lord allows it.  However, you can cope with whatever life gives, because your sufficiency is in Christ, and not in circumstances.
         4)  You can’t lose your life.  Fear of death often prevents risk.  Yet our hope is in Christ Jesus.
    Sorry, I went a little longer than normal this morning.  But take time to ponder what the Lord is wanting to do in your life and what He wants you to act upon.

To each of us is given a life.  To live with honor and to pass on having left our mark, it is only essential that we do our part, that we leave our children strong.  Nothing exists long when its time is past.  Wealth is important only to the small of mind.  The important thing is to do the best one can with what one has.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Hondo)

    “Therefore, fear the LORD and worship Him in sincerity and truth…. choose for yourselves today the one you will worship….  As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.”
              –Joshua 24:14-15 (HCSB)
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One of the “heroes” that I most respect is Robinson Risner.  I am in awe of his service to our country.  Most likely you have never heard of him–shame.  You need to read his story, “The Passing of the Night”.
    Risner was shot down while flying over North Vietnam in 1965 and was a prisoner of war (POW) until 1973.  The beatings, torture and struggles he went through were unbelievable, yet he survived.  There were struggles of body, mind, and spirit while he was in prison.  One of the worst times for him was when he was put in darkness.  He completely lost track of time.  He said that he was not afraid of darkness but this time it would not leave.  He wrote, “It was as if I had an animal on my back.  Absolute panic had set in.  The fact that I could not control this thing driving me or get rid of it caused me to be even more panic-stricken.  I could not understand it, and I could not get rid of it.”
    The only light he received was at a certain time of the day, for two hours the reflection of the sun came through a rathole and would shine on the end of his bunk.  “I prayed.  I ran.  I exercised.  I hollered and I cried, but I did not capitulate.  I was hanging on like a man hanging on to a cliff by his fingernails.”  He said he lived one minute at a time.  He was in this condition for ten months.
    He came up with four essentials that was practiced by the POWS.  He said it had to be simple and strong.  It has to set a strong foundation and definite boundaries (hmmm, quite different than the postmodern agenda of today).
         1)  We were American fight men, fighting the enemy of freedom and of our way of life.  “As prisoners of war we did not stop fighting…  All we had was our minds, our faith, our pride, our detemination–and our ‘Yankee ingenuity.'”
         2)  The second essential was duty to our country.  “In prison we had a reappraisal of values.  We had permitted the nuts and the kooks to make honest-to-goodness partiotism a dirty word…  The flag, our President and what this country represents are things to stand up and be proud of.”
         3)  We believed the American people were behind us.  “We knew America was not perfect, but we knew it was not anything like what they [communists] wanted us to believe.  We knew it to be the best place on earth.”  The news that was given to them was always tainted, twisted with an agenda behind it.
         4)  The most important–faith in God.  Many had been too busy to put God first in their lives.  The prison cell changed that.  “We learned to feel at ease in talking about God, and we shared our doubts and faith.  We prayed for one another and spent time praying together for all kinds of things.  Our faith in God was an essential without which I for one could not have made it.”
    Risner spent most of his time in solitary confinement, since he was one of the top-ranking men there.  Seldom did he get to see another person.  An amazing story, an amazing man.  I had the opportunity to meet him once at a church service.  It was a few years before he went to be with the Lord.  One thing that you could feel coming from him was humility and courage.  I would call him–extraordinary.
    In the introduction to his book, Robinson Risner wrote, “I want to show that the smartest and the bravest rely on their faith in God and our way of life.  I hope to show how that faith has been tried by fire–and never failed.  I would like to say, ‘Don’t ever be ashamed of your faith, nor of your wonderful heritage.  Be proud of those things which made American great and which can, with our help, be even greater.'”

Maybe it was a good thing that a man and his plodding horse could not see that country from the sky, as the vultures saw it.  If a man could have seen the vastness in which he was a speck the heart would have gone out of him; and if his horse could have seen it, the animal would have died.”
              –Alan LeMay  (The Searchers)

    “God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.”
              –Isaiah 40:22 (NLT)
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Trust you all had a fun and safe 4th of July.  Some of you faithful readers may have noticed that I didn’t write anything yesterday.  I took a mini-vacation from writing the Echo; back today, however.
    At first glance a person looking at the above quotation from The Searchers may say that it is archaic.  But think again.  We are but a speck on this Earth and especially in God’s universe.  What are we in comparison to the stars?  What are we when we stand and look out from the grand mountain vistas or stand on the rocky shore and gaze out upon the ocean?  
    Yet the Almighty heavenly Father knows each one of us by name and can tell us everything about us, even the things we do not know about ourselves.  He can tell us what will happen to us tomorrow, if He would so choose.  He knows if you have dimples, scars, moles and even counts the hairs on your head.
    How grand are we then?  Ponder the greatness of God and how much He cares for you.
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              “Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.”
                        –Laura Ingalls Wilder

I surely don’t miss the rush of the city.  The smells and sounds are far away now and only once in a while do I have to venture in.  The other day Annie said to me, “It sure is quiet.”  That is unless you walk outside and hear the chatter of the cicadas.  Julee, the youngest grandchild wanted to hear that sound when she stayed over the other night.  In fact, she wouldn’t go to bed until she went out on the deck to listen.
    We need to take time to stop and listen.  The problem is that very few actually stop, much less listen.  Just yesterday I sat outside doing my devotions, listening to one bird chirp while the rain was falling.  I listened to the sound of the rain as it fell through the leaves on the trees.  
    There is much to be said about the sounds of silence.  Take time to listen to them.  I like what Mother Teresa said, “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature–trees, flowers, grass–grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…  The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.  We need silence.”
    Hmmm, to be effective in our active life, we must stop and listen!  Ponder that!!!!