The sun is shining brightly over our neck of the woods.  Lots of snow is accumulating in the mountains and it would appear we will have the needed water in reserves for our agriculture brethren as well as those of us who have gardens.

Carla’s tomato plants are coming up and are now over a couple inches high.  Peas should be starting shortly.  We have a lot of work to do before Deed and Josh come down to till the garden and the snow set us back a bit, but it is getting better – so far.

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Numbers 14: 19-23   KJV  “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

²⁰ And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

²¹ But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

²² Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

²³ Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:”

Moses stood before God on behalf of the Hebrews.  But, God had all He wanted of those that continually denied His deity and refused to obey Him, complaining and griping about everything they could think of.

Because they chose not to obey, but to challenge His authority in doing so, He chose to punish them by forbidding them to enter the Promised Land – all that were twenty years and older would wander and die in the wilderness.

We all too frequently take for granted the mercy and forgiveness of our God.  After all, when we sin all we have to do is ask forgiveness in Jesus’ name, and He will forgive us.

Moses stood between God’s wrath and judgement and the people who continually disobeyed Him.  They eventually suffered for it.

Who is standing between God’s wrath and judgement and the American people right now?

As the country continues to disavow His deity, continues to disregard His warnings in both the words of Bible believing Christians and the carnage that is what we call ‘normal’ everyday occurrences – who is standing before God and pleading to Him asking Him not to destroy our country?

When Christians are openly condemned for saying they speak to God, when Christians are bullied because they preach God’ Word, where God is better known as a curse word than the one true God, when is God going to say it is enough?

Psalm 106:39-43    KJV  “Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

⁴⁰ Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.

⁴¹ And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.

⁴² Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.

⁴³ Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.”

God turned them over to their desires and they felt the results of the removal of His blessings, finally, realizing they needed Him, once again asked for forgiveness and gave Him His due.

Is that what is going to happen to our country?  Do we have to reach that point where He completely cuts us off and allows us to wallow in the sinfulness of man until we come to the realization that without Him we shall be completely destroyed?

There is hope though, the leaders need to confess the sins of our nation, they need to stand before God and ask His forgiveness on their behalf.

Psalm 106:44-48  KJV  “Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry:

⁴⁵ And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.

⁴⁶ He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.

⁴⁷ Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.

⁴⁸ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord.”

That is my prayer today.

And while I am not the leader, I know that there are literally millions more Christians feeling the same burden, we may not be Moses, but we do know God listens to His children.

Later, Art (-:

Greetings and Salutations from the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous, once again!  It has been an interesting time in our neck of the woods.

My old computer became unreliable and doing things on its own to the point I was never sure just what would happen.

Teresa helped me get a new one and over the past few weeks has been struggling with trying to get it set-up so I could figure things out.  Seems every time she fixed something I would find another problem, but she came over and was patient with me.

Prior to all this I was bemoaning the fact that we weren’t getting enough snow and I was concerned that the trees would bud out too early and a freeze would kill the crops for this year and that the water tables were not going to be filled where we could irrigate crops the way they should be this summer.

Things changed, a bit, in our neck of the woods.

We were dealing with the early end of winter and the too soon signs of Spring when Deed and Josh had to go to Georgia and help work on the plane she co-owns.  She asked if I could take care of her animals while they were gone.

My kids have given so much to us that I cannot ever repay them.  Helping her animals was a small matter and I readily agreed.

We live at 250 feet above sea level in a Mediterranean climate, which means milder.

They live at 2000 feet near the foot hills of Mt. Adam, closer to the Cascade Mountain range at about the same elevation as Parkdale (which is almost at the foot of Mt. Hood) and the weather while often close to the same, as ours, is a bit harsher.

First couple of days was easy.  Easy up there and back.

THEN,

Winter decided to remind us that its time was not over.  First snow was about 11 inches here.  It was going to be a long drive up to her place, where it would be deeper.

Fortunately, we have the “Family pickup” which is four-wheel drive, and we needed it to both climb the hills getting to her property and to get onto it.  Because, not only did we have that first deep snow, it snowed several more inches over the next few days. 

I had to dig a trench/path to get to their front door to let myself in.  One of their dogs loves snow, she loves to catch it as it comes her way off the shovel.  She was fine.  As were the other two – we only saw three of their five cats during the week, but it was obvious they had been around. 

The goats and chicken were quite warm and toasty in the barn, with plenty to eat and drink.

Saturday they were to fly in and then drive from Portland back home, but they would be arriving home around 2200. 

She had had a flat on her studded tires, and with the weather the way it was when they left, she just went back to regular tires.  It was an icy road getting to her place, so even though both are well versed in the driving on such roads, I was concerned.

I knew that they would be getting more snow on Friday night and it was suppose to snow more on Saturday.

However, the County Road crew did a good job of clearing the road and as long as they were careful they should be okay driving up to their place as we told them Saturday afternoon.

On both Friday and Saturday things were warming up, and even though it did snow on Friday night for about 4 inches or so, most of the new snow was melted off by 1600 Saturday, and the older snow had gone down a bit.

The warmer temperatures, along with a very high wind was effectively melting the snow both up there and here.  As a matter of fact, it has all but disappeared in our neck of the woods with just a little bit left where the sun doesn’t hit it.

I asked her to call when she got home, she did.  She said they didn’t have any problems going all the way in to their house as there was only about 4 inches of snow – not sure she will ever believe I wasn’t exaggerating earlier.

Oh, Well.

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“To teach that the filling with the Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to provide "power for service" is to teach truth, but not the whole truth. Power for service is but one effect of the experience, and I do not hesitate to say that it is the least of several effects. It is least for the very reason that it touches service, presumably service to mankind; and contrary to the popular belief, "to serve this present age" is not the Christian's first duty nor the chief end of man....

The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to restore the lost soul to intimate fellowship with God through the washing of regeneration.... God wants worshipers before workers; indeed the only acceptable workers are those who have learned the lost art of worship. It is inconceivable that a sovereign and holy God should be so hard up for workers that He would press into service anyone who had been empowered regardless of his moral qualifications. The very stones would praise Him if the need arose and a thousand legions of angels would leap to do His will.”  AW Tozer

Titus 3:5-7  KJV  “ Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

⁶ Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

⁷ That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Shortly after I was saved I was asked to teach an elementary age Sunday School Class.  They had a teacher’s manual I was to use so I could stay on track.

The philosophy of our Pastor was to get the new Christian involved in the ministry.  Give them an opportunity to serve God.

It is a good philosophy, and worked, in this case, because the church services were designed not only for the teaching of the Word, but for the true praising and worshiping of God – you cannot serve God if you don’t worship Him.

While a good idea, looking back, I think it could have been explained better to me.  The importance of service to God cannot be underrated at any point, but just to serve and not understand who God is and how important He is in our life can lead us down paths that are not constructive and can bring heart ache to both God and the believer.

We can become so ‘enthralled’ with service to God and take on many tasks, thinking that is what we should be doing, that we forget the first and the very most important thing is not to let our ‘service’ interfere with our worship.

It took me a while to realize preparing for a class or some other service – cooking, or organizing or any other tasks that we do to help others – is separate from our personal time with Him.

Service cannot take the place of daily worship, even though it can be part of that worship, it is not the same as spending time with God, each day, praising Him, worshiping Him and  contemplating what He is telling us about how we can get closer to Him.

Later, Art (-: