Richard Craig, Author at GraceAndWorks - Page 44 of 60

Hailed Out!!

Posted by | Life Blogs, Variety Blogs | 2 Comments

It was late June in the mid 1960’s and I was farming with my Dad. It was getting close to a mid July wheat harvest. I was about 20 miles south of home and town working in a field driving the tractor and tilling the ground. I had fueled the tractor and greased the machinery and set to go back to work. I pulled back in the field (about 1:00 pm) and about an hour later there began developing a huge bank of clouds in the west. As time went on the clouds got bigger and closer. I thought to myself, this is going to be a bad one. The wind was starting to blow and I’m about a mile from the pickup. I turned the tractor around and headed back to the pickup. By the time I got there it was starting to rain. I pulled up close to the pickup and shut the tractor down. It was raining a little harder by now and the clouds were really dark. I thought , this is getting bad!! 1st the wind, then the dark clouds, now the rain. I’m in the pickup now and the rain is REALLY coming down. BOOM–a huge clap of thunder and now the bad part was happening. HAIL!! The size, a little bigger than a pea, and it wasn’t stopping. Oh no, this is not good. When the storm had blown through and stopped, the wheat crop was gone. The hail had pounded the wheat plants to the ground and there was nothing left. What a sickening feeling to just sit there helpless and watch your wheat crop go from almost in the bin to having nothing. DEVASTATING, to say the least. Now to head home and tell Dad. HAILED OUT!!

I tell you this story because it is true and because I’ve watched peoples lives get “Hailed Out” just like the wheat. Life is going along fine, then all of a sudden you see the clouds starting to grow. The light is getting dimmer and it’s getting hard to see what is happening. Now comes the wind and you start getting tossed to and fro and listening to “Stuff” you shouldn’t be listening to and doing things that shouldn’t be done and all is getting messed up. The wind continues, the rain continues, then BOOM the hail hits. You are DEVASTATED and beaten to the ground.

The difference between you and that stock of wheat is–you can get back up. You can get up, right? Come on get up, it will be OK. 1st Corinthians chapter 10 God tells us he will put nothing more on our shoulders than we can handle and He will show us a way out. Come on, get up, and talk to God. You start talking to God and the storm starts to stop. Finally it has blown through. The sun is shining and everything is getting better. Thank you God!! The storms of life will beat you down, but, they can’t keep you down because God will help you. (If you let Him) I would say, “Good luck to you in these storms”, but it has nothing to do with luck. I will say though, “Through your Faith let God help, He will make everything good again.” I can say all this because I have experience both in farming and in the “Storms” of life.

Proverbs 13: 5-8

Posted by | Daily Bible Verse | No Comments

A righteous man hates falsehood, but a wicked man acts shamefully and disgracefully. Righteousness guards him whose way is upright, but sin overthrows the wicked. One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth, but a poor man has no means of redemption.

Philippians 4:4-7

Posted by | Daily Bible Verse | No Comments

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Clone The Shepherd!!

Posted by | Life Blogs | No Comments

I just finished reading a fine article by a brother about the dangers of cloning and the sin involved if it is ever done for the wrong reasons. But part of his article made me think of one way in which we have a great need for clones in the church. In the article he said, “Especially pertinent is the question of human cloning. Newsweek asked the question, `Today the sheep tomorrow the shepherd?` Yes, clone the Shepherd!!”

Too many in the church are cloned from other sheep or those in the world. We want to LOOK like everybody else, DRESS like everybody else, SPEND like everybody else, BE like everybody else. When others change, we change. We do everything we can to fit in with the Smith’s and keep up with the Jones`. We are simply cloning ourselves after sheep.

There are examples of those in the Bible who had a choice between being cloned after the sheep or the Shepherd. In 1st Samuel 15 Saul had a choice to make: utterly destroy the Amalekites as the Lord instructed (vs 3) or spare the best as the people desired (vs 21). We know his choice (vss 9, 24). He was cloned after sheep. We also know the result–he was rejected from being King over Israel.

The rulers in John 12:42 faced much the same decision. They heard the word of the Shepherd proclaimed and believed it. But would they be cloned after Him? At present they were cloned after the Pharisees. They decided to stay as they were, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (vs 43).

It is time to clone the Shepherd!! The Apostles were His clones. In Acts 5, they are being persecuted for following Him, but in verse 29 they boldly say, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Oh, for more people with that attitude today!!

Paul makes it clear after whom he is cloned. In Galatians 1:10 he says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” Notice that Paul admits at one point in his life he was cloned after men (“if I still pleased men”). But in Acts 9 the Shepherd comes into Paul’s life, and he becomes a changed man. In 1st Corinthians 11:1 we see the cloning of Paul to be like the Shepherd when he says, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”

Can we speak like Paul to others? Are we imitating the Savior to that degree? Have we cloned the sheep or the Shepherd? CLONE THE SHEPHERD!!

This is shared from the Desert Church of Christ bulletin. Pahrump, Nv.

2nd Samuel 22:2-4

Posted by | Daily Bible Verse | No Comments

David said, “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; thou savest me from violence. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”

Psalms 34:1-3

Posted by | Daily Bible Verse | No Comments

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

Psalms 46:1-3

Posted by | Daily Bible Verse | No Comments

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.