It's All About Love

My week was going pretty smoothly and then Ardella brought home this wonderful photo our daughter Connie took of the granddaughters loving on Sadie. Sadie loves these two munchkins very much and is always excited to see them arrive at our house. They return the love as you can see in this cherished photograph which I have titled, “Golden Moments." Sadie is totally immersed in the pouring out of their love; receiving it with total gladness.

The photo got me thinking about Luke 6:27 through 36. Jesus starts out by telling us to love our enemies. Now that is a hard commandment for me not to break! He told us to love our neighbor and right now mine are shooting off firecrackers even though it is extremely dry. Love can be hard for me to comprehend and convey; especially after I interrupted this writing to ask them not to shoot firecrackers, they still kept lighting them. My better judgment prevailed and I called 911 instead of going back to persuade them which would not have been good. Please God, give me new neighbors, ones easier to love.

Verse 35 says God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked and I thought how could the God of Creation do that; then realized I sometimes fall into that classification. Jesus closes this lesson telling us to be merciful because God is merciful to us. Jesus showed the ultimate example of love by nailing all our sins with him on the cross so we can be saved by God’s amazing grace. Now that is Love!

Rugged Majesty

Last Sunday afternoon we went with Connie and Thane to Farragut State Park where they launched their boat among the many people that were enjoying the great varied facilities the park offers. There were picnics, campers, swimmers, mountain bikers, and boaters spending a leisure day relaxing. During WWII, Farragut was a busy naval training camp for tens of thousands of sailors. I knew a few of them personally so the park holds a special interest for me. They would have rather visited it as a park but never regretted the job they were called to do for us.

I had never been on the south half of Lake Pend Orielle and was captivated by the rugged beauty of the mountains that plunge straight down into the clear depths of the lake. God created spectacular granite rocks that perch hundreds of feet above the lake and descend deep into the clear water. Many times when we were only fifty feet of shore the depth finder measured well over one hundred feet of water below us. One time it measured seven hundred eighty eight feet which is not the deepest part of the lake. Every bend in the shoreline had something great to offer. We stopped one a beach that was all flat skipping stone rocks. The little boy came out in me as I tried to skip each rock a little farther before it disappeared into the depths of the lake. I pictured Jesus and the disciples doing the same thing on the shores of Galilee with Peter boasting he could beat all of them.

As we made our way up the east side many old mining sites are still visible and remnants of some communities remain. Huge ponderosa pines line the shoreline like guardians of the lake. There were several dead twisted junipers that got my attention as I could see neat pieces of driftwood in them to carve fish on. Next time I will have to take a saw. On our return trip back to the boat launch we saw a family of eagles that were learning to test their wings with an adult watching nearby.

Some people would say Lake Pend Orielle was formed by accident due to some natural disaster but I believe God purposely made it for our enjoyment. I think he sat back and smiled. God made it one of the deepest fresh water lakes in the world so it would give the valleys to the south and west an abundant supply of water for crops and cities. Do you think he knew Spokane would develop into a big city someday and need a fresh supply of water? I believe he did just as he knows about our life before we are born.

Summer is marching on so take some time to enjoy God’s creation and praise Him for all the beauty.

Spud

Grandchildren can get the grandparents to do almost anything as we found out this week. Jolene and Vance own Fjord horses which are very beautiful animals. This spring they acquired a free ten year old gelding Fjord named Spud. Heidi, our veterinary’s wife says there is no such thing as a free horse and I know she is right. Spud is a little guy in size but thinks he is as big as a Belgian work horse. Their other gelding, Amos is a very big Fjord and wasn’t about to let this new guy boss him so they had to keep them separated by electric fence to prevent one from getting hurt. Vance decided that Spud had to go to a new home and thought a neighbor was going to take him but she backed out probably also knowing there is no free horse.

I didn’t know a four year old and a six year old could devise the right plan to find Spud a home. They each came to me twice in two weeks asking me if I liked Spud. Of course I said yes both times not knowing I was being set up. After the second time I said yes, they said since I liked him so much that I should take him. I told the girls they would have to convince Grandma, which only took a few minutes. So yesterday Spud arrived at our place. I thought he might be afraid of the llamas but they are afraid of him so we keep them in different pens.

Spud has a warrior heart in him not realizing he is small in size. He is a proud little horse that will follow me around the pasture like a dog. Spud seems willing to submit to me and trusts me. Tonight, I threw a pack on him while he grazed and Spud just stood there and let me cinch it up tight.

God puts a warrior’s heart in us but many people never find it. Jesus had that heart as did David, Peter, Paul, Andrew, John and hundreds of other people in the Bible. Just as Spud trusts me we should fully trust God in our lives. We are to be warriors reflecting the love of Christ to other people. Christianity isn’t a spectator sport; instead we should be on the playing field, running the ball to the goal post.

I’m sure I will learn much more from Spud in the coming weeks which I can write about. If you have grandchildren just be careful what you say yes to or you might get a free horse.

Knapweed

I have been working at a new home that sets high above the Pend Orielle River with awesome views. It makes the time go fast. I first tilled the lawn area for hydro seeding of wildflowers and also a low maintenance grass. So I set up sprinklers on timers that water the lawn four times a day and today I could see tiny plants emerging. The owners are vacant landowners so I have the place all to my self; except for the deer and turkeys.

Today I decided to declare war on the knapweed that grows profusely in the light soil around the house. Knapweed is a plant that is hard to control and can take over other vegetation in a few years. It has a long tap root that goes deep to suck water in the driest soils. The plant produces multiple flowers and each flower casts off hundreds of seeds. The plant also produces toxins that kill off good plants so pretty soon all you have is knapweed. Because of these toxins it is good practice to wear gloves when pulling knapweed.

Knapweed is similar to the sin we have in our lives. It is often deep rooted and hard to pull out. Sin can consume our entire life and suck out all hope. The toxins of sin will definitely kill us and infect other around people; spreading the sickness over a large area. What are we to do? Jesus is the only source able to pull the long roots of sin from our life. There isn’t a sin that He can’t handle or hasn’t heard of. All we have to do is ask forgiveness and put our faith in Him. Jesus will kill the ugliest of sin in our lives.

Are you ready to get the knapweed out of your life? Go to the Savoir; He is always waiting. Remember He is a relationship not a stuffy religion!

Thank You

We had a great family weekend camping and enjoying our nation’s birthday in the mountains. The granddaughter’s find nature so fascinating and come up with various insects. They both rode their new horse and I even got on her and went for a nice ride. Our camp swelled to thirteen people on Saturday.

Old Glory was erected at the camp entrance so we could remember those that have died for our freedoms. My thoughts and prayers were with a Marine Major in special ops that is in Afghanistan and emailed last week that they were about to enter into a new phase of battle. We were also visited last week by a young woman that is in the service with a squadron of top gun pilots and they could be employed to Korea. Her brother is just finishing boot camp in Oklahoma and headed to school for medics. Another young friend is headed to the Oklahoma camp where he will also become a medic after boot camp. We are very proud for these people and the rest of our military and pray God’s protection over them.

It frustrates me how we have forgotten that God lead our founding fathers in forming our country. They sought His guidance in prayer and God answered and blessed us with a mighty nation. We will only be blessed if we seek His face. I’m afraid that Americans have become arrogant and hostile to God and that we are on our way to self destruction. It is very evident that our many of our elected officials and citizens have turned from God and our nation is in a real mess. We can not heal ourselves; only God can do that as he promises in 2 Chronicles 7:14.

I want to thank our veterans and our current military for their service which has kept us a strong and free nation. They are the best of the best. Thank you!