Friday, February 26, 2016

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)

Friday, February 19, 2016

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.

Friday, February 12, 2016

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.

Friday, February 5, 2016

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)