God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, thought the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
March 2016 - GraceAndWorks
The Lord lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation, the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me, who brought me out from my enemies; thou didst exalt me above my adversaries, thou didst deliver me from men of violence.
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.
Awww you say. What’s this all about? If you are a farmer, chances are you know what Black Rust is. If not, you probably have no clue. So let’s learn a little today. As you learn about Black Rust, I want to tell a story.
My Dad was a farmer and every year about 10 days to 2 weeks before wheat harvest, we would go to the Rocky Mountains for a vacation. It was in the summer of 1963 that we took that trip to the mountains and when we got back home Dad was told that Black Rust had gotten in the wheat crop. There are 2 types of rust that hits wheat, Red and Black. Red Rust is not much of a problem, whereas Black Rust causes a lot of damage. You see, Black Rust is a fungus. Wheat normally weighs 60 pounds per bushel. Black Rust causes wheat to dry up and hurries the final stages of filling the berry. Thus causing the berry to shrivel up and lose weight. When we harvested this wheat the weight was only 48 pounds per bushel. Needless to say it wasn’t worth very much money on the market at the time of harvest. Being that the value was next to nothing, we put the wheat in grain bins that were located on the farm. In January, the wheat market was such that there was some profit in selling the wheat that we had put in the bins. As the bins were becoming empty, Dad and I were inside scooping the wheat to the augers. There was a lot of dust and we were not aware how dangerous it was. Remember, Black Rust is a fungus. Long story short, it put Dad in the hospital with dust pneumonia with long term affects of scarred lungs. Dad passed some 30 years later with congestive heart failure due to the scarred lungs. We had no idea in 1964 how dangerous this Black Rust was and the fungus it produced.
I told you all of that 1st) so you could learn something and 2nd) the dangers we encounter without even knowing. As we go through life, we have things that happen that may scar us as the Black Rust had done to my Dad. Satin can get to us as the Black Rust did to the wheat. He can take a good plant and shrivel it up and make it worthless and priceless just as the Black Rust had done to the individual kernels of wheat. The difference is that God can heal us against what Satin has done whereas there was no hope for the scars my Dad incurred.
When you get scarred and have that shriveled up feeling, instead of throwing your hands in the air and giving up, let God be your Doctor. He will heal you!!
SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.
For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on it’s own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophesies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pas away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So FAITH, HOPE, LOVE abide, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE!!
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it. He who trusts in his riches will wither, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. He who troubles his household will inherit wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but lawlessness takes away lives. If the righteous is requited on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!
By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is mightier than a strong man, and a man of knowledge than he who has strength; for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory. Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth. He who plans to do evil will be called a mischief-maker. The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to men. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
It was December in the mid 1990″s. My wife and I left Las Vegas on a Christmas trip to Lincoln, Nebraska. The trip was going fine and was uneventful. We stopped in Rawlins, Wyoming for gas. It was cold, dark and stormy. We got back on the interstate and went about 30 miles when we rounded a corner and there was danger on the highway. There had been an accident and the highway was blocked with Semis. We had nothing to to but go in the ditch. After an abrupt stop by a guard railing, we were unharmed. The car was a total wreck and as we sat there wondering what to do, a patrolman came to the car and took us to his vehicle. We told him what had happened and he then called a tow truck to come get us and the car. The tow truck driver then took us to his little truck stop out in the middle of nowhere (About 60 miles from Laramie). He and his wife were lifesavers as they took us to Laramie on icy roads, late at night and found us a motel room. Thank you Mr. tow truck driver and your wife for being so gracious in the time of a cold, dark, stormy night. The rest of the story is we rented a car and went on to Lincoln and had a wonderful Christmas with our kids and Grand kids and made it back to Vegas safely.
The reason I told this story is because life can also become cold, dark and stormy. We find ourselves traveling along just fine. Then around the next corner we find danger and find ourselves in the ditch and get stopped abruptly. This can happen from a multiple of things. The loss of a job, alcohol problems, drug addiction, suicidal tendencies, family problems, etc. The thing we need to realize is, God can calm the seas. He can calm the winds. He can make the storms stop. He can turn the darkness to light. IF WE WILL LET HIM!! Let God be your tow truck driver, and He will be the same gracious person that will help you and put things back in line so you can get on with your life in a timely manner. God says, “Obey my commands and I will prepare for you a place,” One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 2nd Timothy 2:15 and following. It says to study and show yourself approved. If you do that, you will know the commands God wants you to obey and your life will be warm, filled light and calmness. I can say this because I have experience.
SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.
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