They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; (Jude 1:12)
What we want to see is more along the lines of this:
Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. (1 Kings 18:45a)
Or this!
Ask the LORD for rain In the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone. (Zechariah 10:1)
We've certainly had the flashing clouds and the result was fires all over the place. One ranch south of us was almost entirely burned up and the owner, who took to the air in a plane said it was almost like it just burned along their property boundaries. We, so far, have been spared from fires. And the weather forecast is still calling for 10-40% chances of rain every day for the rest of the week. So, while it's tough, it could be worse.
As part of the Ministerial Alliance in town I get 15 min a day on the local radio station about every 5 weeks. The above passages are probably overflow from my most recent series, which was on....drum roll... rain! I looked at a lot of verses on rain, and it was clear that God uses it to accomplish both chastisement and reward. I did the same thing in 2008 and I'll probably do it again in a few years.
This week, the 58th Annual Camp Meeting is coming up and I'm doing the daily Bible study as well as preaching the closing sermon on Sunday. In light of everyone's recent and current struggles, I'm thinking I'll look at Job, particularly:
And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. (Job 1:21-22)
and
But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (Job 2:10)
Of course, times of trouble aren't easy- Job tore his robe and shaved his head. The author of Hebrews says:
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)
So, there's not much to do here but examine ourselves, try to ride it out, and hope for better times. Hard times certainly make us appreciate the good times more. Oh wait... here's the famous 2 Chronicles passage:
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)
Well, that's pretty much my message for Camp Meeting this week! :) However, you don't get the brisket and beans that we'll be getting. Yummy.
Moving to more mundane things, a neighbor came over on Monday and we "pulled" the windmill in last week's blog. This involves hooking up ropes and pulleys and pulling the sucker rods up, unscrewing each one, laying them out carefully, and then getting to the valve which enables water pumping. There are circular leather bushings on that valve and if they get rust, dirt, and junk in them, the mill won't pump. We were getting some rust flakes when pounding on the pipe and so decided to see what was down there. Found a couple of flakes, put new leathers on, and it seems to be a little better. Sorry I didn't get pictures- next time!
On the falcon front, training of the prairie falcon is moving along. She's a little challenging, but we're starting to make some progress and I've gotten her to eat off the lure and take food from my glove. Here she is relaxing on her window perch. This is good as it shows that she really can relax. As soon as I get her out flying, she'll be able to burn off some of the energy and aggression that's causing our training issues and things should progress even better.
The peregrine is growing up:
Being taken at a much younger age, being a peregrine, and being a male, he's got a totally different attitude than the prairie. He likes to play with us, is much more sociable (which will create its own training challenges in a bit), and far more vocal. His feathers are growing by the minute and he's now moved from a creature who could barely walk 2 weeks ago to one that's flapping and running around his mews (8' x 12'). I don't think I'd been able to take him at this age!
And finally, what with our ranch income uncertain, I've been stepping up the guitar business again. My intent this year was the reverse- back off the guitars and focus more on the ranch, but it just hasn't worked out that way. So, I contacted all the people I put on "hold" and told 'em the gates were open. So far this week, I've done 2 bridges, 2 bridgeplates, 1 neck reset, 1 nut, 1 saddle, shaved a couple of braces, and I have another neck reset lined up once the guitar has a chance to react to the new bridge/plate. I like working on guitars.
Here's a 70's Martin D-41 getting a new bridge:
And, I guess that's it for today. I need to go out and "doctor" a couple of sick cattle in the pasture, do some guitar work, get ready for Bible study tonight (we're going thru Matthew, chapter by chapter, reading it, and then seeing what jumps out at everyone), and praying/hoping for rain!!! THIS is what it should look like this time of the year:
No comments:
Post a Comment