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More Western Wisdom

As Cody stepped from the door, followed by John with his rifle and Amanda with her shotgun, they saw a tight group of riders gathered in the yard, eleven in all.
 
“Hi Dodge,” said Cody. “Haven’t seen you for a while.”
 
“Well, Cody Smith, what are you doing here?” Dodge pushed his hat up and moved his hand back over his pistol butt.
 
“Just stopped by for some coffee. Would you like some?”
 
“No, can’t say I do. Don’t eat with sod busters. We’re just coming back from checking on our cattle over beyond the river. Wanted to make sure this sod buster got our message loud and clear.”
 
“Sure did,” said John.
 
Cody spoke up, “Now, Dodge, what’s your motive for threatening this good man and his family? As you can see, he’s put a lot of work into setting up his outfit here.”
 
“You know perfectly well, Cody. He’s on my land, taking over one of the springs I use to water my cattle. He’s in the way and I want him out! I don’t want any more like him coming in!”
 
“How many acres do you use for your cattle? And how many watering places are there?”
 
“I don’t know about acres, but the range is at least fifty miles square. There are at least twenty watering holes in that.”
 
“And how did you come to have the right to use this wide and long land?”
 
“Why, I was here first; there was no one within a hundred miles. I fought off the Indians who tried to chase me out. I won the right to this land with blood, sweat and tears, and no one is going to take it from me!”
 
“Interesting,” Cody drawled. “Hadn’t heard that you staked claim to any land out here.”
 
“You know what I mean,” snapped Dodge, “My herds have grazed this land for twenty years, it’s mine and this man has no right to any of it!”
 
Cody turned to John, “What makes you think that you have a right to settle here?” he asked.
 
“Why? Well, I registered my deed for this spot with the land office at Fort Wayne. I have the papers to prove it. I followed the legal steps to have this land put in my own name, including the spring.”
 
“What do you think about that, Dodge?” Cody asked.
 
“That’s a lie, there is no such thing as claiming land like that!”
 
Cody smiled, “You obviously haven’t kept up with the law. This here’s now the state of Oklahoma and the state has made new laws.”
 
“I’m the law out here! What I say goes!” Dodge was obviously getting impatient, as were his men. He wheeled his horse and rode away, his men following.

“He looks like a bad storm coming our way. I’m sure he’ll be back and ready to enforce his threats,” said Cody, “but we may be able to resolve this standoff if we continue to

follow Heavenly Wisdom.”

Picture:the  approaching storm over John’s farm (from the internet)

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A Tragedy or a Triumph?

It is hard to understand why some active, godly, useful servants of God are taken in their youth. We think in terms of their loss of years on earth, of our loss of their presence, help and service.
 
But God has a much higher and broader view. He knows what is coming in the future and makes preparation. As it says in Isaiah 57:1, “The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.”
 
A child dies, a teen-ager is taken in an accident, cancer strikes down a young mother, a heart attack kills a father not yet forty—believers all. Tragedy on a human level–but a rescue mission on a Heavenly level.
 
God knows what evil awaited that person and those around him; so He protected them all by taking that person home—and does so in the best way and at the right time.
 
Those saints left behind are heir to God’s rich grace to carry them through the loss, to be deepened spiritually, to see all their needs provided as they trust and praise Him by letting go of the loved person now departed.
 
Failure to let go can bring more evil. When King Hezekiah was fatally ill, he begged God for more years, and God gave him fifteen more. But during that time Hezekiah fathered the boy who became the worst king that Judah ever had, an evil God was seeking to avert.
 
To pray for someone seriously sick, “Lord spare his life—but not my will, let your will rule,” is a prayer of trust, of humility and wisdom, just as Jesus prayed in the garden, “Not my will but yours.”
 
Lord God, you are the only truly wise One, you are the only Knower of the future, so we can trust you in your Goodness and Grace, your Revelation and Release of your children from this world.
 
Praise you for this high and holy perspective you give us on death. It is not the end, but the beginning of all the goodness you have stored up in eternity for those who love your Name. Glory be to you for your great goodness and graciousness.
 
May be an image of tree, nature and sky

End of Fear

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9
 
Praise be to you, O Heavenly Father, our wise and all-knowing God. Your perspective is high and wide, long and deep. You understand and know all the aspects of every situation. You have seen all the past, you already see what will happen in the future.
 
You know all the facts and your will is fully informed. Therefore, whatever you decree, whatever you allow, whatever you choose to bring is good, a part of your overall plan.
 
Your decisions may be painful to us, the opposite of what we desire, but because you are God–the Good, Great, Glorious and Gracious One–we can trust you in each situation.
 
Psalm 116:5 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Most of the time, death is a bitter experience for human beings; for those who do not follow Jesus, it is an end without hope. In you, however, death is full of hope.
 
You, Lord Jesus have defeated death, you have broken through the wall of hopelessness, making a doorway into eternal life. In God’s eyes, the death of a believer (all of whom are saints) is a precious and wonderful thing.
 
You are in the process of bringing them from a narrow, restricted, painful, difficult situation into a rich, broad, powerfully pleasant, gloriously positive, wonderfully wide place.
 
To move from this sin-shackled, superficial, sullied and selfish world, twisted and warped by the fall, into the perfect, sinless, holy and pure heaven, into the presence of the Great King of all, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Ender of time—what a wonderful happening the death of a saint is!
 
God knows the contrast: to bring another one of His children out of the darkness and dust of the dungeon of death on earth into the light and lavishness of our loving Lord—what better thing can He do for us?
 
So we have no need to fear death, but can positively anticipate it, like my friend Norm West, who, when he was told after he got cancer that he had only 6 months to live, responded, “Praise God, I’m going home!” This is living in faith, something we should all do.
May be an image of nature, grass and tree

More autobio

After my return from Germany we prayed that my work visa and residence permit would be granted before the two months were up, but as time got closer, it was clear that I would have to make an exit trip.
 
Another worker also needed to go, so we decided to drive to Greece together. On one flat, straight stretch I came up behind a big truck traveling about 50 miles an hour. I peeked out from behind and saw that there was a car coming, but it was a long ways away, leaving me plenty of time to pass.
 
I pulled out and stepped on the gas and slowly gained speed; that small Volkswagen motor was faithful, but not all that powerful.
 
As I got half way past the truck, I saw that the oncoming car was going much faster than the speed limit of 65 mph, and I began to suspect that I wasn’t going to make it past the truck in time. So I slammed on the brakes, hoping to get back behind the truck, but the weight of the engine in the rear of my car slung the back end around so we were skidding sideways down the road.
 
Instinctively I made the proper correction with the wheel, but nothing happened. The oncoming Mercedes was almost upon us and didn’t seem to slowing down one bit.
 
Then at the last second, my car responded to my corrections and swung back around, slamming us up against the truck, while the Mercedes slipped by on the shoulder and disappeared in the distance. This was a definite God sighting!
 
The truck driver didn’t slow down either, didn’t even seem to notice what had happened. After taking a second to recover, I also decided to keep going.
 
In the next town we stopped to inspect the damage. The passenger door had a big dent in it with black marks from the truck tire; however, the door still worked. The back passenger side window was smashed, but since it was one that didn’t open, it wouldn’t be too difficult to fix. We asked around, found a window repair shop, and had the glass replaced.
 
Counting our spinning on ice into the gas station on our way to Tarsus, this incident was the second of eleven accidents I had in Turkey. Only in this one did I have any fault. The rest were caused mostly by other people running into me. Driving in in this country was certainly dangerous. So was parking.
 
One day I parked in front of John’s house, which was across the street from a reasonably steep side street. As I was walking toward the house, a car came over the top of the hill and down to the stop sign, but instead of stopping, it slid right across the street and rammed into my car!
 
The driver hopped out, angry at me. “This accident is your fault! If you hadn’t parked there I wouldn’t have hit you!” he yelled.
This, we found, was the common logic here and according to that, he was right. If I hadn’t parked there, he wouldn’t have hit me, but he also would have driven off the four-foot high wall and landed into John’s yard!
 
In one of the more interesting of my accidents, I was waiting to turn left at a stop light when a police car came zooming across the intersection and hit me head on!
 
The driver was a mechanic who was testing the car and the policeman was riding along with him. But the mechanic ended up fixing the car for us at his expense, although it took him two months to do it.
Adjustments
We had come from a place where I had had lots of satisfying physical work in a lush, pleasant rural setting, to a crowded, polluted, dark city of a million people where the only tasks I had before me were the mental work of teaching English and learning the local language. We were without all our normal means of emotional support, including peanut butter, our favorite snack and comfort food.
 
In addition, there was the stress of adapting to this new culture where we had to make a thousand new little adjustments every day. Each one took some energy, so by the end of the day we were exhausted, even though we hadn’t done much.
 
This was all part of the Lord’s plan to mature and deepen us. To keep ourselves from wearing out emotionally and spiritually, we made sure to keep up our quiet times and our prayer life. We tried to give God praise in all situations, as well as to think in terms of God’s truth. We tried to consistently encourage each other. There was no other way for us to survive the challenges of our new environment.
 
The civil war in the country continued, with bombs going off in around us almost every night, but we found nothing in the newspapers to tell us about these attacks.
 
The weather was cold, often below zero and we froze in our house because there was a shortage of fuel oil and coal. Often the only heat we had came from lighting our stove’s oven which worked on propane gas that the city sometimes provided. We would huddle around its open door in the kitchen, trying to get warm.
 
Many foods were hard to find. Every Saturday we would go with John to an open air market for fresh vegetables, and then to the one real supermarket to choose from the limited stock.
 
The one “comfort food” that was available to us was cornflakes. Granted they tasted a bit like soggy pieces of cardboard, and often had dust in with them, but it was a touch of home to have a nice bowl of cereal and milk, even if the milk did have a strange taste.
 
Since peanuts were available, we decided to make our own peanut butter. We would sit in a team meeting, peeling the red husks off the peanuts, then take them home with us and put them through a grinder, along with some margarine. It didn’t taste like Jiffy peanut butter, but was sure better than nothing.
 
As I think about that early time of adjustment, it was like having a pall of darkness hanging over us, like we were dragging ourselves through a heavy, black, smog– which often was literally true in the city–but this darkness was more than physical, it was mental, emotional and spiritual. However, the Lord sustained us and carried us through. He had called us, so there was never a thought of retreating.
 
The boys didn’t seem to mind the changes that our move from farm to city brought with it. Nat was less than two and really didn’t remember much of Connecticut. Josh missed his aunt Marcia and his grandmother more than anything else.
 
When he would start to complain about how hard things were, we’d interrupt with, “Yes, but in Connecticut could you look out your living room window and see a shepherd with his donkey and herd of sheep? And could you buy pide?” This was a flatbread topped with cheese or hamburger, a kind of simple pizza, which Josh loved. These questions would help to bring him out of his negative thoughts. We practiced this method ourselves, focusing on the positives before us, not the negatives or the things we’d left behind.
Picture: Steve shopping in the veggie and fruit market
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Psalm 37:16

It is wonderful, Lord Jesus, that we can praise you now for whatever you will bring into our lives—for, what you give is always good in the end, no matter how painful and difficult it may be in the moment. I thank you, Lord,
Here at the beginning of a new day, we ask that you guide us, Lord, that we may accomplish all that you desire. Help us
to keep our eyes on you,
to rest in your greatness,
to trust in your wisdom,
to rejoice in your power.
 
I praise you now for the answers you will give, for the protection you will offer, for the progress you will grant us.
We can trust you because we know that you are
good, always;
that you are wise, always;
that you are holy, always;
that you are infinitely powerful, always–
and that you win in the end, always.
I praise you for how you will demonstrate your grace in all today. Help me to live in faith, offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving in all, so that I may continually bring honor to you.]
May be an image of 2 people, including Stephen M. Wibberley and indoor

Psalm 37:16-17

 
Psalm 37:16 “Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked;”
[Better $15,000 a year than $200 million–if the difference is between righteousness and wickedness. This is thinking with an eternal view, a judgment based on the unseen.
 
To decide for this truth requires faith, rejecting what we can see and touch, to receive what we know, resting on the Word of God. Praise you, Lord, that you have revealed this perspective in your Word. Help us to always decide for it.]
Psalm 37:17 “for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.”
[The power of the wicked was broken at the Cross. You, Lord Jesus, won in the midst of what seemed certain loss. You defeated sin and Satan, death and despair. You upheld righteousness, and made it available to all those received you by faith.
And now you give us the privilege of living out, every day, the reality of your upholding the righteous. This involves walking in your Spirit, drinking in of your Word, and deciding consistently to follow you rather than the world, the flesh or the devil.
 
Praise be to you for
the Light,
the Freedom,
the Love,
the Hope,
the Power,
the Future
you have given us out of your gracious heart.
 
Help us to live in them.
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Our Powerful Creator

I praise you, Lord Jesus, for your active, creative, persistent work in our lives. I praise you for your powerful patience, for your careful working as you woo and win many for your Kingdom. At the same time, you allow the headstrong and unbelieving to reject your offer, to continue on in their rebellious, evil ways and thereby inflict pain, suffering and sadness on your heart.
 
Praise be to you that you give every person many chances to believe, that your Spirit works with each one, giving them enough light to pursue–and will give them more if they follow it.
I praise you for your compassion released upon your creation through your giving justice its due on the cross. I praise you for your love setting fire to our hearts when we begin to grasp our own depravity and your great, costly forgiveness. I praise you for your graciousness in granting us all we need to live a godly life for you.
Praise you for being
the Powerful Creator,
the Lover of sinners,
the Faithful Savior,
the Redeemer of all, especially those who believe,
the Wise Shepherd,
the Righteous Judge,
the Beginner and Ender of Time
and the Lord of eternity.
To you belongs glory, honor, power and praise.
So, I bow before you this morning, confessing my total unworthiness to be your son, while rejoicing in your qualifying me to be a partaker in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light.
 
I rise up to obey you in all I know to be true, submitting to your authority. May I lift your name on high today, bring you much glory and proclaim your greatness to all around.
May be an image of flower, tree and nature

(Untitled)

More from the cowboy with heavenly wisdom.
 
Cody was explaining what Heavenly ‘wisdom is: first of all pure, then peace loving, then sweetly reasonable–sometimes translated as gentle—approachable and submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”
 
“That’s a beautiful list; I like it!” said Amanda.
 
“Yes, it is beautiful, both in word and application. If we follow this wisdom, it is possible to resolve many conflicts before they escalate.”
 
“Mr. Cody,” said Sam, “You know those verses by heart!”
 
“You bet, Sam, a man can’t always be looking into his Bible during the day when he’s out punching cattle or going on a drive. So, I memorize the passages that are important to me, that way I always have them with me.
 
“Reading through the Bible is important, and memorizing, praying and personalizing passages are more important, very important.”
 
“How many passages have you memorized?” Sam asked.
 
“Well, I don’t rightly know, never sat down to count them, but there’s a number. It took me a while to get them down. I try to memorize one verse a day with the goal of learning a whole chapter. I’d copy the verse down on a bit of paper and carry it with me into the day. When there was a pause, I’d get it out and practice it.
 
“What’s your favorite passage?” Amanda asked.
 
“There are a number of my favorite passages which I’ve memorized, like Psalm 1, 23, 37, 62 and 86. Each one gives me insight into different situations. For instance, Psalm 37 helps me with conflict between me and others.
 
“And in the New Testament, Matthew 5, 6 and 7, Romans 1, 8 and 12. Ephesians 1, 2 and other parts.
 
Sam’s eyes were wide, “That’s a passel of verses,” he said. I don’t think I could do that!”
 
“Of course you can, Sam. It’s just like eating a whole buffalo, you do it just one bite at a time, one verse a day, and then after memorizing a section, reviewing the whole passage every day for a couple of weeks, then going on to another.
 
Cody drank the last of his coffee. “There’s a saying, ‘A lake is formed drop by drop.’ Your grasp of God’s Word comes the same way, one little bit at a time.
 
“You’ve got a Bible. Start reading a chapter a day and memorizing a verse a day. That will take you about ten minutes.
“Start memorizing Psalm 1, then 23. Those are easy because they paint word pictures.”
 
Cody leaned back in his chair and looked at Amanda. “Any more coffee? I can always use another cup!”
 
“Of course,” said Amanda, “we always have plenty on at meal time.” She brought him another cup and he drank it black.
 
As he was finishing his cup, there was a clatter of hooves outside. “Guess we’ve got visitors,” he said, reaching for his rifle.
 
As Cody stepped from the door, followed by John with his rifle and Amada with her shotgun, they saw a tight group of riders gathered in the yard, eleven in all.
 
“Hi Dodge,” said Cody. “Haven’t seen you for a while.”
 
“Well, Cody Smith, what are you doing here?” Dodge pushed his hat up and moved his hand back over his pistol butt.
 
“Just stopped by for some coffee. Would you like some?”
 
“No, can’t say I do. Don’t eat with sod busters. We’re just coming back from checking on our cattle over beyond the river. Wanted to make sure this sod buster got our message loud and clear.”
 
“Sure did,” said John.
 
Cody spoke up, “Now, Dodge, what’s your motive for threatening this good man and his family? As you can see, he’s put a lot of work into setting up his outfit here.”
 
“You know perfectly well, Cody. He’s on my land, taking over one of the springs I use to water my cattle. He’s in the way and I want him out! I don’t want any more like him coming in!”

Picture: Cody, John and Amanda on their porch talking with Dodge

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Amazing Faithful God

Praise be to you, Lord God, the Triune One, for you keep your word forever. Like the coming of the dawn, you are ever faithful.
As Solomon proclaimed in 2 Chronicles 6:14,15, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth—you who KEEP your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You have KEPT your promise to your servant David my father; with your mouth you have promised and with your hand you have FULFILLED it—as it is today.”
As Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist said in Luke 1:68-79:
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he HAS come and HAS redeemed his people.
He HAS raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(AS HE SAID through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath HE SWORE TO our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to ENABLE US to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
 
And you, my child [John], will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
As Simeon said when he saw baby Jesus in the temple: “Sovereign Lord, as YOU HAVE PROMISED… my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32)
This, Heavenly Father, is the fulfillment of your word given way back in the beginning: “And I WILL put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he WILL crush your head, and you WILL strike his heel” (Gen 3:15).
Yes, you Lord God, always fulfill your promises, you bring to pass what you desire, your timing is perfect, and therefore you are the one to be trusted and glorified. You HAVE SAVED us all, both Jew and Gentile, from our enemies and those who hate us—that is, Satan and his hordes.
I praise you that we can now walk
in the light of your presence,
in the warmth of your love,
in the illumination of your Word,
in the fullness of your Spirit.
 
I praise and extol You, I lift up your Name and exalt your Word. May I continually walk in the shining light of all this truth so that you be glorified in my life today.
May be an image of nature and grass

 

Psalm 34:13,14

Written many years ago, but still valid today!
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Psalm 34:13,14
 
“You don’t tell me as many things as you used to,” Barbara observed as we drove along.
 
I was silent for a minute, and then replied, “That’s because I’m editing out most of my negative comments!”
 
That was a startling thought: probably fifty percent of what I used to say was negative! Much of it was just observations, like: “What an ugly coat;” “Look how crooked the windows are in that building;” “I’d never get a haircut like that!”
 
Others were judgmental, such as: “Where did that idiot get his driver’s license?” “That’s the worst job of painting I’ve ever seen;” “Who’d ever want to buy something like that?”
 
None of these comments were necessary. Even correct comments, like how society is going downhill, often end up dragging us down with them.
Think of all the time, breath, energy and brain cell-space I’m saving by eliminating those unnecessary, unhelpful utterances! And just by being quiet on those points I am influencing people positively, eliminating another unedifying force in their lives.
This is not to say that we should never utter anything negative; there are definite times to point out, judge and condemn what is wrong, such as this statement: “Being negative about your wife is not going to help you love her more! Rather than dwell on what you don’t like about her, make a list of her positives and your own negatives that she has to deal with!” We need to be positively sure that a negative statement is constructive in nature and intent.
 
It is necessary to consistently remind myself to not give vent to negative statements, and the Holy Spirit certainly prompts me to edit them out—if I am open to His leading.
 
Memorizing and meditating on Scripture helps. Right now, I’m working on 1 John 3, which starts with: “How great is the love the Father lavishes on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!” There is beauty, edification, joy and stimulating truth all wrapped up in two short sentences.
Let’s cooperate with the Spirit and continually move towards Truth, which is twinkling on the pathway ahead. As the Word says, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever more brightly until the full light of day” (Pro. 4:18).
 
Prayer: “Lord, make us sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in avoiding speaking and thinking negative, destructive, selfish, judgmental statements that lead us and others away from the light. Amen.”
May be an image of tree, body of water and nature