Echoes from the Campfire

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

There was no telling what one man might accomplish. It was as if doubt and fear had never tortured him.”

                    –Zane Grey  (Stranger From the Tonto)

       “So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel.  And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.”  
                    –1 Samuel 7:13 (NKJV)
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Veterans Day is now past; are you thankful that we have had men and women sacrifice time, effort, and blood for our freedom?  My, what a blessing!  In fact, what a blessing we have that we live in this country despite all the nonsense we see happening.  We could have been born in Somalia or Bangladesh.  Or, shades of George Bailey, wish we had never been born at all.  Do you remember the story of Philip Nolan, the Man Without a Country?  He hated his homeland and was forced never to set foot in it again.  Oh, my friend, count your blessings!  And where do all these and all other blessings come from?  They come from that Fount that is continually flowing.
     Robert Robinson composed this wonderful hymn in 1758.  I remember singing this song in church as a child and it was usually around Thanksgiving time.  A few years before he heard a sermon by George Whitefield that caused him to deeply reflect, and a few years later he wrote this wonderful hymn.  Fix the words in your heart and mind for the Holy Spirit still flows.

          Come, thou Fount of every blessing; tune my heart to sing thy grace;
          Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
          Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above;
          Praise the mount!  I’m fixed upon it, mount of God’s unchanging love!

Every blessing, every good thing comes from the Father above.  Streams of mercy, and oh, how we need it.  Yet so often we don’t think we do, we ignore it, or take it for granted.  No, it should cause us to sing to heaven because of His wonderful fount that flows with mercy that never ceases.  Think of that–never ceasing mercy…that is, unless we reject Him in this life.  Right now, fix your life, your mind, your heart upon God’s unchanging love!

          Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come;
          And I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
          Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;
          He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

“Ebenezer” is a word seldom used.  My Grandpa Jones had a cat named Ebenezer, and I know of Ebenezer Scrooge, but what does it mean?  “Stone of help”–it was a place we find in 1 Samuel 4:1, “Israel went out…and camped at Ebenezer…”  This area was a place of springs and fertile land.  Later we see in Samuel that he set up a stone of remembrance that “The Lord has helped us to this point.”(7:12)  Then the battle raged the next day, and “the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines that day and threw them into such confusion that they were defeated by the Israelites.”  Are you getting the picture?  Raise your Ebenezer as a testimony!  In the time of trouble, help will surely come.  It is “an enduring monument to perpetuate the memory” of victory.” (Expositor’s Bible)
     Look back at your conversion; it is an Ebenezer, a stone of remembrance.  Look back at some special experience the Lord gave you; it is an Ebenezer, a stone of remembrance.  From where does the victory come?  From where does the fount of blessings flow?  God met with us, He takes us through life’s situations and will in His good pleasure take us home.

          O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
          Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
          Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
          Here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.

Without a doubt God is with us every minute of every day.  Without a doubt we know that He has intervened in our lives numerous times along the journey.  Think of the debts we owe Him, any of those times He could have said, “Sorry, not today, you’re not on my “to help” list.  But know, His blessings flow down to us.  I like this last verse, grace chains us to Him.  We are prone to wander, prone to sin, but He has, with His grace, chained us to Him so that we cannot be swept away by the cares and evils of this world.  Let those blessings flow over and through you this holiday season.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

The situation was in control of a man not in any sense ordinary”
                    –Zane Grey  (The Mysterious Rider)

       “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
                    –Romans 1:20 (NKJV)
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          22 — The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old.
          23 — I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning before there was ever an earth.
          24 — When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water.
          25 — Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth;
          26 — While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world.
          27 — When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
          28 — When He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep,
          29 — When He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth,
          30 — Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him,
          31 — Rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men.
                         –Proverbs 8 (NKJV)

Is this the personified Christ?  Most likely, there are theological arguments whether it is or not, but that is not my purpose.  When the Lord speaks, it is wisdom pure and simple.  His words are altogether wise.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2, NKJV)  The Word, the “Logos,” entails the idea of wisdom.  This could read, “In the beginning was Wisdom, and Wisdom was with God, and Wisdom was God.”  Get the idea?  
     Bob Beasley writes, “The truth of the Creator is self-evident in what He has created.  Yet people suppress this truth, and the other truth that God has revealed to them in their unrighteousness.”  Truth is there, wisdom is there, right in front of us all.  Clear and easy to see, why is it then that men are so blind?  The magnificence of the Creator stands before all creation, man and beast, to be seen and recognized, not ignored.  We know this Person who created and ordered it all.  We know Him through the natural laws we observe every day.  “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:3, NKJV)  Even more, we can know Him personally through the Savior, Jesus Christ.
     Ponder this, wisdom is not God, do not think it is, but wisdom is God’s.  Wisdom directs us to the best ends and we see that wisdom was involved in creation.  “The LORD possessed…” can mean “brought forth” or “created.”  “God, who is ever wise, produced wisdom…  Wisdom had a beginning only in the sense that God singled it out for special display at that time; insofar as it is one of God’s perfections, it has always existed.” (NKJV Study Bible)  Wisdom was there, literally meaning, “it was anointed from everlasting.”  Read the above verses again in light of the “Logos.”  Another good thing to compare this with is God’s answer to Job, beginning in Job 38, “where were you Job?”  But here in Proverbs we see that wisdom was there.
     One more deep thing to have your mind wrap around and wrestle.  Dan Dick says, “The mind of God is amazing.  From the very beginning of time, God has had each and everyone of us in His mind.  He knows us completely.”  Before the establishment of the earth and universe, we were on God’s mind.  Yes, He might have even chuckled at the thought of some of us.  There was nothing, it was even before those words of Genesis, “The earth was without form, and voice, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:2, NKJV)  Here, in the above verses we see, “with wisdom’s skill, God created the universe.” (NKJV Study Bible)  However, even before that you were on His mind, I was on His mind, and more than that, He had the plans of salvation in His mind.  Oh!  What a magnificent and awesome God we serve!

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

I know the content of my heart.  I am a good soldier.  I go where I am ordered.  That kind of loyalty, at least, is noble and vital for the preservation of freedom.”

                    –MSgt. Roy P. Benavidez          

       “…I plead with you to give your bodies to God.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will accept.  When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?”

                    –Romans 12:1 (NLT)
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Sorry, Miles Forrest is busy with marshaling and I need to get out my traditional Veterans Day poem.

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.
* * * * * * * * * *
For some reason we need to be constantly reminded of the sacrifice of those who served to keep this country free.  There are those who bombast America for its faults, but there has never been a country that has done so much for the world in regard to freedom and sending out the gospel.  Today, remember those who put on the uniform, took up the weapons to fight the foes that sought to destroy this country.  Maybe also put it in a spiritual sense and see how much Satan has tried to destroy this country because of its dedication to missions work.  Good thought to ponder.
     Two thoughts for today, and I’ll be brief.  First of all, those words in the last stanza hit home.  We, all veterans, have done our time, did our duty, and passed the torch on to protect freedom.  Is this generation prepared to handle the responsibility and the obligation of taking the torch and holding it high?  Is it too much for them?  I recall the words in Judges 3:1-2 where God said that the people of that generation needed to learn war as they had no experience in battle.  But the question I have is, will they fight, take the torch, or just give in to the enemy?  Woe to us if that happens.  Woe to this country if faith is broken with the veterans of the past.
     A second thought–those in the military used to be called “serviceman” or “servicewomen.”  Get that–service!  Veterans have provided an important and dire service to this country.  Whether in combat or support roles there was a call, a need to be met.  Time, effort, sweat, tears, and blood were needed to fulfill the need of the hour.  Yes, it was truly service.  Now ponder this: in the Bible service is the term that comes closest to the idea we have of worship.  Service, not hip-hopping.  Service, not prosperity.  Service, not comfort.  Service, not idleness.  Service to the point of giving their lives.
     I think it is appropriate that Veterans Day begins the holiday season.  Take time to be thankful for their time, effort, and sacrifice.  This is a time of the year that we are brought to the idea of Thanksgiving and giving itself; the veteran gave.

 

Echoes From the Campfire

by Ira Paine, Posted on

Nobody ever believes it until it is too late. Everyone has the same idea: that it could not happen to them.”

                    –Louis L’Amour  (The Man From Skibbereen)

       “I will shout for joy and sing your praises, for you have redeemed me.”
                    –Psalm 71:23 (NLT)
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Over the hill?  In reading this psalm by Zechariah in Luke, I was reminded of that phrase.  When is one over the hill?  Zechariah, an elderly priest was ready to serve his time in the Temple.  There were twenty thousand priests, so at his age he might have wondered what good was he?  He and his wife, Elisabeth, had no children, none to celebrate with, none to enjoy, hmmm, what good was he?  Perhaps he thought that no one would miss him if he were gone. (Petersen) This song is called the “Benedictus” which is Latin for “blessed” or “praised.”  They are the first words in Zechariah’ song found in Luke chapter 1:  

          67 — Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:
          68 — Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people,
          69 — And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David,
          70 — As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began,
          71 — That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,
          72 — To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,
          73 — The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
          74 — To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear,
          75 — In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
          76 — And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
          77 — To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins,
          78 — Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
          79 — To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.  (NKJV)

     Read the whole story of Zacharias and his wife.  Old people, over the hill?  Not quite for the Lord still had something for them to do.  Our work is not through until that last breath is taken.  Granted it may change through the years, but our obligation, our duty is to remain faithful in our service to the Lord.  Think about it!  The role of Zacharias and Elisabeth in the plan of God.  John, would prepare the way of the Lord.  No wonder Zacharias sang at his birth.
     A forerunner, a preparer for the Lord.  John would be that one and Zacharias sang praises unto the Lord.  Many thought that it would be Elijah returning to announce the way of the Messiah, but no, Zacharias saw in his son the one who would prepare the way for the coming of Jesus, the Lord and King.  All his life Zacharias had done his duty, he worked in the Temple, performing the priestly office.  His life was preparation, and the Lord was watching.  As Barclay writes, “In life God is working all things together to bring us to Christ.”  We perform our task, we sing praises unto the Lord, yes, sometimes because of duty, but mostly because of a love to the One who has redeemed us.
     “Praise the Lord,” said a teenage Mary.  “Praise the Lord,” said the senior citizen Zacharias.  “No matter your age, God wants to use you to bring Him praise.” (Petersen)  Take time to read these wonderful verses of Scripture.  Dissect them, contemplate of all the truth that they hold, and praise the Lord.

               “This is he whom seers in old time
               Chanted of with one accord,
               Whom the voices of the prophets
               Promised in their faithful word;
               Now he shines, the long-expected;
               Let all people praise the Lord.”
                     –Aurelius Clemens Prudentius