NEARLY GONE

I know.  To you kids this is just the sun

going down on a winter day.  Big deal.

But for myself I see a different symbol.

The Scriptures tell us;

"Seventy years are given to us!

Some even live to eighty.

But even the best years are filled

with pain and trouble;

soon they disappear, and we 

fly away."

(Psalms 90:10 NLT)

Now I have passed seventy years and

I have passed eighty years and am 

much closer to ninety years.  That 

means my days are numbered.  So I

see it more as life it's self.  You know:

Spring has come and gone.

Summer has come and gone.

Fall has come and gone,

and I am in the winter of life.

Soon the sun will go down for me.

So, for you kids I'll just say;

"Don't let the excitement of 

youth cause you to forget

your Creator.  Honor him in your

youth before you grow old and say,

'Life is not pleasant anymore.'"

(Ecclesiastes 12:1 NLT)

 

THE DELUGE

Years ago I managed to buy a small tract

of woods for just the taxes on it.  My purpose

was for a place to go hide.  You know, get

out of town.  Well, I don't live in town, but

things are building up too much here to suite 

me.

As I begin to explore around the property

I kept running into these fossils just laying

around on the ground.  That is several acres

with them just laying here and there.

I ask the neighbor who lives behind me if

they had the same situation.  They have about

eighty acres and yes, they also have fossils

just laying around on the ground too.

So, what's the big deal?  People scoff at what

we call Noah's flood, or the deluge.  Well,

laugh away.  But I personally own proof that

it happened.  Consider this.

My property with all these fossils on it is

about half way between Clifty and Forum

Arkansas.  The government topo map shows

my property to be at an elevation of 2000 feet

above sea level.  I do not know how far I am

from any ocean, but I would guess about

600 miles.

Genuine sea shell fossils don't come from the 

mail order catalog and get scattered around by

birds.

"When Noah was 600 years old, on the 

seventeenth day of the second month, all

the underground waters erupted from the

earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents

from the sky.  The rain continued to fall

for forty days and forty nights."

(Genesis 7:11,12 NLT)

"Finally, the water covered even the 

highest mountains on the earth, 

rising more than twenty-two feet

above the highest peaks."

(Genesis 7:19,20 NLT)

 

THAT WAS CLOSE

THAT WAS CLOSE

I just started to go out the back door

when I heard that one hit.  Of course

I did not know where it hit, but when

it hit with no warning I knew it was 

close.

It was a few days before I spotted it.

It was about sixty feet from the house.

But, it was across the fence in the 

neighbors field.  I did not have to worry

about cleaning it up, he did.

I have lived on this property for about

fifty years.  We are near the top of a hill

which may make the difference.  But 

there has been lighting strikes at least

two other places on the property in the

time I have lived here.

When I consider these lighting

strikes over the years, I realize that

all three of them have been within

a radius of about one hundred feet.

And, I an sitting in the new house

almost over where one of those 

strikes was.  Perhaps I should go 

down to where the old house was 

and pitch a tent there.

.
 

MISSED IT.

Yes, we live on a narrow road.

This is only a couple of hundred

yards down the road from the house.

And, this is right on a curve.  But,

still some body missed the road.

It is so much like the world today.

Everybody is so intent on; money,

pleasure, sex, popularity etc. that

they actually are missing out on 

true life its self.

"You can enter God's Kingdom

only through the narrow gate.  The

highway to hell is broad and its

gate is wide for the many who

 choose that way.  But the gateway

to life is very narrow and the road is

difficult, and only a few ever find it."

(Matthew 7:13,14 NLT)

 

THE FIRE

Years ago I had a friend who rode his motorcycle

home through the rain from two counties over.

Something happened during that ride and he was

not able to start the motorcycle again.

I was wanting to make a motorcycle up for long

distance touring.  So, I bought the motorcycle off

of him.

What got me in trouble was that he, myself and 

another fellow or two got together one night a 

week to have a meal together and talk motorcycles.

So, "pride" took over in me.  I wanted to be able

the next time we got together to just casually say,

"Oh yaw, I got it started.", or some such remark.

Because of my extreme desire to start it where he

had not been able to, I got over zealous with the 

starting fluid.  That made it backfire and start a fire

in number one carburetor which of course was

 under the gas tank about half full of gas.

By instinct I started trying to beat the fire out 

with a shop rag in my hand and especially to keep

the fire off of the gas tank.  That was not working.

In years past as an auto mechanic I had simply

blown out fires in carburetors when an engine

would back fire with the air cleaner off. You 

had to blow real hard, but it worked most times.

But this time - it only singed my eye brows.

Back to beating the fire with a rag.  I finally 

spotted my fire extinguisher.  I grabbed the

fire extinguisher, pulled the pin and pulled the

trigger.  NOTHING.  The fire extinguisher had

simply sit around too many years and lost it's

pressure.

Back to beating again I begin to consider simply

pushing the motorcycle out of the shop and let it

burn up.  But, my car was sitting just outside of the

shop door.  And if I pushed it past the car and over 

the drive way it would be close to the house.

As an old man I was getting very tire of beating

at the fire and not knowing what to do.  So I simply

cried out loud enough they could hear me in heave

above,  "JESUS HELP ME."

I no more than got the prayer out of my mouth and

the fire went out with out me doing a thing.

THANK YOU JESUS.

 

WHAT IS IT?

 

WHAT IS IT?

I have driven past this old building many

times over the last ten years.  But what 

is it for?

The community I live in is (was) like so

many in this area years ago.  We have a 

community building, several churches and

a lodge.  But driving by the above area

it is not even obvious that it is a community.

So what is the building for?

Since taking the above picture they have

repainted it.  It probably was during the

repainting process that I drove by one day

and the door was open.  I could see pews

inside.  Then I pulled it up on a Google map 

and they show it as "Lone Star Church".           

So, it is a Church.

I kind of like that.

No big signs with service times,

who is speaking,

or even who the pastor is.

Just sitting there being used

week by week for what

it is intended for.

DECEPTIVE

I think it is cute.

Obviously it is a raccoon that is in jail

for destroying property and stealing food.

Over the years from time to time it has been

necessary to trap a varmint for one reason or

another.  This one has been tearing up the 

place for several days and stealing food.

I think of all the "critters" I have had to 

trap over the years this was the most vicious

one of the bunch.  It is hard to believe that 

something this small and this cute could be

so mean.  So, I hauled it twenty six miles 

away and let it loose in the woods.

Is it possible that we some times allow 

something this cute and destructive in 

our lives?  Paul the apostle tells us that 

"Even Satan disguises himself as angel

of light."  Does my life actually line up

with what God wants, or am I being 

deceived by Satan's tactics.