DONKEYS AS TEACHERS

All images courtesy of: www.Pixabay.com

Generally donkeys are just considered "dumb animals".

We think of their chief characteristic as "stubborn".

See, just like humans.

But, even these dumb stubborn animals God was able to use.

There was the time that God used a donkey in correcting an

errant prosperity preacher.

..."but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking

with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet."

(2 Peter 2:16 NKJV)

[You can read the full story in the book of Numbers, 

chapters 22 - 24.]

When the creator himself was here on earth as a man, he chose

a donkey to ride on in what we call "The Triumphant Entry

into Jerusalem."  Yes, it was to fulfill prophecy:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,

'Behold your King is coming

to you.

Lowly and sitting on a 

donkey,

A colt,  the foal of a donkey"

(Matthew 21:5 NKJV)

The point here is that the donkey was submissive to the 

will of it's creator.  That is better than what a lot of us do.

Are we going to let donkeys be more useful to God that ourselves?

God said through king David:
"I will instruct you and teach
you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.
Do not be like the horse or
like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed
with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you."
(Psalms 32:8,9 NKJV)

"A whip for the horse,
A bridle for the donkey,
And a rod for the fool's back.
(Proverbs 26;3 NKJV)

DIY

DIY

DO IT YOURSELF.

I  am a do it yourself fan.  That is why I have a scrap metal
pile, usable lumber around the shop and boxes full of bolts,
nuts and nails.  It hurts me to have to buy something.

However, so many of the do it yourself articles I see on
the internet make me wonder.  What's the gain?

Let me illustrate with one of my many, many interests.
The lowly worm.  I have raised various types of worms
on and off for over forty years.

All images courtesy of:www.Pixabay.com

Suppose you want to go fishing and need worms for bait.

I do not know what a can of bait cost now.  But I saw

65 worms advertised for $5.99 plus $3.39 shipping.

Not on your life.

Not when I can raise my own worms.

So,

DIY.

We could make a simple 4' X 8' X 12" worm bed for only 

about $60.00 worth of lumber.  And it we want a lid on it,

that would only be about $75.00 more in 1" X 12" lumber.

Then by today's standards we need a lot of peat moss.

[I do not remember every buying any myself.  But that's

the way you are "supposed" to do it.]

Locally I can get 3 cu. ft. of peat moss for only $10.77.

It probably is compacted so we may not need to by the

ten bags to fill our 32 cu. ft. bed.

Or you may choose to do it in a much smaller scale buying one 

of those ready made worm bins.  These can be purchased any 

where from about $30.00 to over $100.00.  Then you might only

need the 8qt. size of peat moss for about $4.77.

Don't forget.  Worms have to eat.  So there is ready made worm

food call "Worm Chow".  A 5lb. bag of this can be had for only

$8.99 plus $5.95 shipping and handling.

Are you getting the point???

That is the way it is with "religion".

All your ceremonies, rites, rituals, forms, sacraments,

programs, titles, grandeur and good works are only 

"Do it yourself" stuff.  And all you will get out of it is 

worms.

Instead,

turn from the way you have been living to God.

Believe him when he said,

"For by grace you have been saved 

through faith, and that not of yourselves;

it is the gift of God, not of works lets

anyone should boast."

(Ephesians 2:8,9 NKJV)

Submit yourself to His control and forget about

all the "Do It Yourself" baloney.

You will be glad you did.

NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING

IS IMPOSSIBLE.

You are looking at the proof of it.

Those of you who have had to use the services

of a hospital know they never can get enough

money from you.  They will bill you.  Bill you

again, and double bill you.  Then make up something

to bill you about.  There simply is no end to it -

other than dropping dead.

A short time back here came another envelope from

them.  The billing had slowed up so I could not help

but wonder, what is it this time.

It was a refund.

  Can you believe that?

A refund from a hospital.

If it did not mess up their book work,

I would not cash it.  I would frame it

and hang it on the wall as proof 

that 

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

I must confess. I had been praying
that God would help slow the bills up.
And, of course, nothing is impossible
with God.

Thank God for the impossible.
Even if it is only $3.54.

THE PROBLEM OF THE BEAN

All images courtesy of: www.Pixabay.com

WHY THE BEAN?

It's this way.

I like to read.  One, it is enjoyable to me.  Two, I can learn "stuff".

Three, it is a vanishing skill that I want to keep alive.  You know 

how it is today.  Everything has gone to videos.  And videos are

made by people who cannot write for people who cannot read.  So,

I want to be different.

And, in my reading I ran into some fascinating "stuff" about the

old earth we live on.  As Eric Metaxas points out,

"As scientific knowledge increases, we have more evidence,

not less, pointing to a creator."

Consider some of the things that are absolutely necessary

for life to even exist on this planet.

The speed that our old earth rotates.

If earth rotated slower.  Days and nights would be too 

long allowing the temperatures to be too extreme for

life to exist.

And, if it rotated faster, the winds would be so extreme that

it would blow you clear off the earth along with your hat.

The size of our planet.

If our old planet earth were larger, gravity would be too

strong.  And if the earth were smaller, there would be 

insufficient gravity to hold even the gases in their proper

places - let alone you.

Our moon.

I understand that we are the only planet in the universe that

has only one moon.  And you know the effects it has on seasons

and tides even better than myself.

I understand that now scientists know of about 150 things like this

that if not as they are, life here could not exist.

They further explain that this happening by chance or random

mutations is:

1 in

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

That is a very, very, very slim chance of life happening by 

accident.  It is no wonder that John Lennox said:

"The more we get to know about our universe, the more the

hypothesis that there is a creator God, who destined the universe

for a purpose, gains in credibility as the best explanation of why 

we are here."

Again, why the bean?

All this neat scientific stuff is way over my head.  It makes

my brain hurt just to think about it.  So I decided to concentrate

on just a simple old bean instead of the earth or the universe.

Where did the bean come from?

About the only answers I have found to this on the internet are

two areas where the bean "allegedly" originated.  One, the 

Andes mountains of Peru.  Two the Lerma - Santiago basin 

of Mexico.

Then the two gene pools "allegedly" diverged some 11,000 years

 ago.  Now that would have been exciting to see.  Two gene pools

diverging.  More fun than a foot ball game.

Remember this is science stuff right out of the computer.  Some

one else said:

"The earliest people in the Americas were people of the 

Negritic African race, who entered the Americas perhaps 

as early as 100,000 years ago, by way of the Bering straight. 

These people would have been the first to plant beans."

Now that's science.  Ten thousand years, a hundred 

thousand years.  Years are cheap, how many do you want?

So, beans were domesticated 11,000 years ago or 

100,000 years ago.  Take your choice.

But where did the beans come from to be domesticated?

I know.  This image is not a bean.  Those are acorns.  You know

seeds for an oak tree.  And beans are the seeds of bean plants.

I wanted to find the good picture of a single bean, but did not.

So, those acorns will have to do.

Buy now, even the origin of the bean is too much for me.

But I did find an explanation.  The caption for the image

below was "bean factory".  So beans come out of a factory.

I can understand that.

Now all I have to do is find out where the bean factory came from.

In fact I have a better idea.  A simpler and more exacting one.

"Then he [God] commanded, 'Let the earth produce all kinds of

plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit' - and it was

done.  So the earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was

pleased with what he saw."

(Genesis 1:11,12 GNT)