End of a Blog

A few weeks ago I decided to shut down all my existing blogs and start one and only one. Northern Farmer will be shut down very shortly also. The new blog is called Christian Farm and Ranchman. I’ve been trying to get links up and all, but things take time so I hope anyone that follows this is patient, especially this being my busy time of the year!

I’ve really enjoyed this blog, it was so kicked back and relaxed. But being overwhelmed with maintaining multiple blogs has been wearing me thin. So its down to one and only one. Click here if you’d like to take a gander. If not, its been fun and I thank you!

Dead Broke Horse

With March here now thoughts are turning to getting some seed together. I’ll be working on that the next few weeks and also doing some tests on it to see the germination rate of our corn seed that I’m selecting out of the corn crib. Better to be safe before putting it in the ground. I’ll be updating on that as time goes on. Spoke yesterday in church and I ain’t ready to jump off a cliff so that’s an improvement to say the least! All went smooth in that department.

A thing keeps coming back, over and over in my mind today. Its the phrase “Dead Broke Horse”. A while back I had an e-mail sent to me that was and is still very special, and in that e-mail the person called me a “Dead Broke Horse” as far as faith matters go. Now to an old farmer this is one heck of a good compliment to say the least. And I ain’t getting no big head with this or anything like that, but a compliment every once in a while sure don’t hurt. Most of the time its the other way around where a feller just has to turn to Jesus to keep me going. But even in this compliment I give it to the Lord cause without Him there would be nothing, nothing at all.

So as I said, while doing chores today this kinda came to me strong. Thinking about a dead broke horse. The best horse a person could ever get. Sometimes the term fools people that aren’t used to the lingo, but dead broke means totally reliable, and nothing spooks it. I don’t think I’m to that stage yet by any means but I’ll take the compliment with a blessing going back to the folks that gave it!

Dead broke, I don’t know why, but instead of thinking of a riding horse, I’m thinking a work horse. Could be plowing or could be cutting hay. Thinking about that horse going exactly where he’s supposed to go, pulling the plow or whatever. No noise spooks it, a pheasant bursting out of the grass almost in front of its nose doesn’t phase it. A big old horse fly taking a chunk of flesh out of the horses butt doesn’t make a wild runaway. Oh, the skin will flinch, that tail whoosh , but no run away from a dead broke horse. Or thinking about a team of horses pulling a wagon in a small town parade and someone throws firecrackers out there into the street and those horses never miss a beat. Now that’s dead broke!

I just want to be a “dead broke” Christian! One that don’t flinch when something is thrown at me. One that don’t spook even when some setback bursts right up in front of my face. No, just keep pulling that plow, that Gospel plow, don’t look back, just keep going straight ahead and finish the job in front of me. And speaking of Gospel Plow, I’ll throw a little link to some Bluegrass, a song with the same name. Its recorded by my friend Rick Saenz down Kentucky way.  Here’s the link, Gospel Plow.

Gonna Pick Up and Move

Finally getting around to writing on this old blog. Been busy with all sorts of stuff and trying to keep up at Northern farmer. I’ve been chewing on the idea of switching back to blogger because its so much more user friendly and might start soon. Gotta update the links and all on the old Healing Waters blog, do a little housecleaning. I don’t know what it is but I have a hard time on WordPress and blogger is getting so durn easy lately. I hope folks don’t mind having to follow my moves around but that’s what seems to be happening. Never did shake many off by the moves to WordPress so I figure a little inconvenience won’t last too long for folks.

So until I do the official switch in a few days keep on commenting here and I will notify when I move back to the original Healing Waters. Got some housecleaning to do over there, or should I say “barn cleaning”, but I feel really good about this return home!

A Short One

Amen! Taxes are kinda done and I don’t have that hanging over me now! Now to get back to the good life! Praising the Lord and living simple. Reading the Word and spreading the Gospel!  There’s not many things I enjoy more than getting into the Bible and let er flow. Funny, how years ago it didn’t make much sense and now its life itself! And what goes in must come out, in actions and speaking. The Word just gets into the very marrow of our bones, and we become carriers of the Word of God.

Brad mentioned a camp meeting this summer and its stewing in me, allot. This gets me going, things like that! But first I’d better see if I even survive this week in church. I guess I did last summer so I’m hoping this one is a little easier.  Now for some reason I just love allot of the old fashioned ways of faith and I guess this cuts me out from the normal crowd these days. I like it simple, down to earth, not all sofisticated and pleasing to the world. You take  a camp meeting for example, no sound systems allowed! Why? Cause they didn’t need them years ago and folks were saved by the hundreds! They didn’t have them in the Book of Acts and they turned the world upside down!

Oh Glory! Keep it simple, keep it in the Word and let er rip!

Busy!

Its been really busy around here the last few weeks and it might show in blogging. Its taken all I had just to keep up here and on Northern Farmer and it don’t look like its going to calm down anytime soon now that the weather broke and I can do things again that need doing. Plus in any spare time I’m painting in the inside of the house, the living room to be exact. In one part there’s a really high ceiling that takes forever to do anything with. Just got done struggling for a few hours on it now. I hope to continue a second coat tomorrow evening if I possibly can.

Then there’s tax time coming, yuck. Gotta get going on that stuff. But with all the extra things in the basket my main thing is putting together Bible Study type things for small groups plus work a bit on a sermon for a couple weeks from now. I already have an idea what I’ll talk about, basically the same things that interest me here. And I ain’t talking about painting either! I’m talking about the huge moves of God in the past and in the present in different parts of the world and how in America and the Western World we’re falling far short of these things. This blog has kinda become a circuit riding archive  and that is one of my main interests. The reason being there was such a huge expansion in Christianity because of it during that era. And how the folks would fall under the power of God with the simple, powerful preaching of basically ineducated preachers that loved God with all of their hearts! This is my interest and my passion, to see something like that go into effect again.

And the way things are falling into place every way I turn tells me something is up if a person has the guts to purue this way of thinking. Its not popular, in fact its probably laughed at by many but that’s the way it is sometimes when a person is following a dream God has placed in them. This is what I’ll do come hell or high water and I’m determined to do so, no matter what. I’m getting help from so many unexpected people out in cyberspace it just warms my heart.

I pray a year from now that the writings here will be somewhat different, an established way of ministry that will find its way when there’s not so many to follow out there in this present day and age. But that’s what makes it interesting, not being normal.

Some Links and Stuff

Tonight I’m kinda bushed. Was making fence today with the ground frozen around four inches deep, took allot more pounding getting them little electric fence posts in, three quarter mile’s worth. Plus wearing heavy coveralls and a winter Carhart jacket with hood don’t really make a person flexible like summer time. Plus triping over corn stubble, but before dark the job got done and even though I’m all tired out, I’m well satisfied. This evening I sat down and am having a cup of coffee to keep me going till an early bed time, (I hope).

Just before starting to write I stumbled upon a site that has me thinking. Its about bi-vocational pastors and church planting. Here’s another. As usual I’m putting links here for when my wonderful Windows Vista crashes and I lose all my links and history about once a week. (Grumble, grumble.) Also, another link, (for me), one with some good music for downloading especially if your country folk like me. There, that should take care of working around a crashing computer.

This week later we’ll be working the calves, Friday to be exact, cause folks ain’t working too much that day at their jobs so I can get some help. That’ll be another load off of my mind. Lets see, corn is done, fence is up, corn stalks are baled, yup the work load is dwindling. Praise the Lord. Of course there’s about fifteen cord of wood to make yet.

On the ministry side things are developing, there’s places to go, folks to see. One thing I gotta do is get more organized and I think I’ll start to attempt that as soon as I get done writing here. Get some Bibles in order for giving away and some other stuff.

Well, I’m flat out tired and its harder than heck to even attempt writing so I’d better end it all right here. Get some sleep in a little bit.

Declaring the Kingdom of God

We’re going into deep fall around here and the temps just keep edging downward. And through it all we’re trying to get the jobs around the farm done before winter hits. Corn picking was finished up yesterday and today I chopped corn stalks with the hope of making that field into big round corn stalk bales for both feed and bedding for the cattle. Let me tell you, you spend a whole long day in full dress coveralls and its below freezing with a strong wind and that’ll make you tired in the evenings!

Once in a while a person walking the Christian walk gets hit with things. And the other day I got hit! Now on these blogs I never hardly truly talk about what we do because of issues of privacy for folks. Just general thoughts and all of that. Things are expanding rapidly in many different directions with ministry. All small potatoes I reckon compared to other ministries but I don’t really care or worry about it all too much. Last summer when the area was beautiful green and things were growing we went to a high school graduation party that was put on by some church folks who are very good friends of ours. It was in a small town a few miles away, a town I’ve know well all of my life. It was a great get together and being run by real church folks it was good for every age. On that beautiful summer Sunday afternoon I was standing outside in front of the community building that held the get together and across the street was an old bar that I used to frequent many years gone by. There were folks going into it and some motorcycle folks stopped in there too.

As I stood outside I remember saying that God would be moving in this town. And believe me, it sure didn’t look like it. I also said there would be Full Gospel church services there in the future, something totally unheard of in that neck of the woods. Well, the other day I was floored, all these months later. The bar owner changed the bar from serving drinks and getting everyone into sin to changing the whole place over into a cafe that served home cooked meals!

Now I know to some this is really not earth shattering, but to me, well it hit me like a ton of bricks. This was almost impossible for the human mind to believe. That bar was there what seemed like forever. And now the bar owner, or should I say, former bar owner is Christian and totally changed the place for the good! The other night I stopped in there and was more impressed than before! Now I know there’s really something to all of this, something to speaking out the Kingdom in the open air, declaring the Kingdom of God in the most unlikely places! I’ve known this as head knowledge for quite some time, about speaking forth the Word, or declaring the Kingdom in the most unlikely places. But to see it come true before my very eyes is just awesome!

As I said, there’s allot to do in this area, more than I can possibly imagine, but a person just gotta do what they gotta do! Funny, before all this came together the last couple of posts were about a preacher in the olden times speaking forth the Word and declaring the town for God’s Kingdom. Funny how this all fit together for me. I had know idea that something similar would pop up, similar to what I’d been writing about but God’s ways ain’t my ways and I’m humbled and also deeply in awe! Today while going out to the field I grabbed a little booklet written by Kenneth Hagin called “In Him”. An incredible little booklet that I’ll send to anyone that asks for it. (I gotta whole bunch from church), and this booklet covers what happens when a believer declares the Kingdom of God, starting with declaring Jesus as Lord to just about everything in life. An excellent booklet!

“I have come in the name of Christ”

Jess Walker, a circuit rider of the early nineteenth century, entered St. Louis in 1818 with the words, ” I have come in the name of Christ to take Saint Louis, and by the grace of the God I will do it.” God was with him in his efforts, for within a year he had a church of sixty members and a free school for poor children. It was this same man who introduced Methodism to a tiny settlement perched precariously on the south shore of Lake Michigan in 1830; the cluster of cabins later became known by a universally recognized name-Chicago.

I found the statement above on the internet and it interests me greatly. Over the last few years I’ve read book after book on faith and matters that pertain to it. I’ve studied with Bible College studies and such, but nothing has struck me as deeply as the faith these folks had that spread the Gospel over our land. How could a bunch of basically unschooled ministers make such a tremendous impact on Christianity as they did? This is the question that I keep asking myself. They were scorned by many of the “established” churches for not having seminary training. And what could drive men to go and go and with any luck at all receive fifty or sixty dollar for their years labors? Many times it wasn’t even that much. The married ones would more than likely have a farm where their wife and kids would work trying to raise enough to stay alive. And when the husband was home he’d work like a bear trying to get the place in order, the crops put away and all so he could get back out in a land of people that didn’t know very much of God.

The statement above struck me though, what he said as he came into St Louis, he proclaimed to the heavens and earth that Christ’s Kingdom had arrived. And that gets me back to so many books I’ve read over the last few years, about speaking out your faith. They kinda give the impression that its almost a new discovery, but the more I dig back, the more apparent it becomes that these folks were much more advanced than modern day Christians give them credit for. In fact, maybe more advanced than modern day Christians. It almost looks like the modern day church has taken a step or two backwards. It seems like nowadays folks are busy “binding” demons, but when I look back, or read the Bible, they weren’t doing that. They were much, much more advanced than that. They were walking in authority, on the offense for the Kingdom, not the meekly defense that’s the norm nowadays.

This will probably dig me down deeper, but I want to be on the offense! And I am so blessed that our little country church understands and encourages this. Every once in a while I give a little report on what we are doing, quietly to those with authority over me, and there’s always encouragement and support. By quietly I mean I don’t go bellering it to everyone in church, in fact most don’t even have any idea I’m even in the ministry yet. And that’s fine with me, cause my job ain’t in the walls anyhow. Its outside of the walls. Over a year ago I wrote something titled that without the slightest idea that it would become our ministry in a way. Funny how that works. Never had the slightest hope that I’d ever be in ministry for that matter.

And writing and writing about circuit riders became a passion of mine, mostly because I saw something so incredibly different in their manner and faith. And the end results were staggering, just like in the Book of Acts. I was pumping water for a half hour today and just skimming through the Book of Acts while the generator was roaring away out in some nice seventy degree sunshine. And it floored me, I’ve read the book of Acts time after time, I’ve even studied it here and there, the same principles they used are what the circuit riders used. They proclaimed Jesus Christ to any and all! And they boldly proclaimed Christ to the most powerful folks there were, without hesitation. They weren’t hiding in the walls, on defensive, they were offensive all the way. Now this is just an observation I have come up with and I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. The folks that are hiding behind the walls are always binding demons, figuring there’s demons coming in from every direction. Which might be true as far as that goes. And them demons just love it when the church folks are busy binding demons. Quite simply because if the church folks are busy doing that all the time, they ain’t doing any harm to the powers of darkness. In the Book of Acts they rarely wasted their time doing these defensive measures, they were on the offense. They were proclaiming Christ and one way I read it described it as the spiritual warfare H-Bomb. This is what the powers of darkness never want to see a Christian do, never. They are happy as little devils keeping folks hiding in church, doing church stuff, having programs, but never doing the one thing Christ commanded them to do, spread the Gospel.

” I have come in the name of Christ to take Saint Louis, and by the grace of the God I will do it.”

The circuit riders were light years ahead of much of today’s church. They employed the H-Bomb of spiritual warfare!

Just Like An Old Country Preacher

Oh Lord! I’m still in a whirl from last evening’s Children’s Church where the presence of the Holy Ghost was strong. Stronger than for a long time, Glory! Was making wood most of the day today with an extra spring in my step! now, sometimes Children’s Church can drag a feller down, bit by bit, but last night all that dragging down just got blowed away by the Holy Ghost! Yee Haw!! I’m on fire today! Even with these sore old bones doing farm work all day and cutting and splitting wood.

So tonight after eating a good supper, some roast beef and taters, gravy and peas, and a fresh warm loaf of homemade bread, (for dunking in the gravy), and firing up the wood furnace for the night I just gotta sit back a few minutes and dwell on all of this. Don’t even have my heavy work boots off yet, just came in and settling down. Glory to God, I don’t know what’s happening in Washington, I don’t know what’s going on at Wall Street, but I do know what’s happening out in the countryside as far as the Holy Ghost coming on strong! Now, I keep track and do my best in what I believe in as far as this country goes, but I do realize I’m only one person and I can’t make a hill of beans difference in Washington, even though I do always vote and do all of my duties. No, there can be a difference in spreading the Kingdom, one person at a time if that’s what it takes!

Wall Street will come and go, nations will come and go, but the Kingdom is forever and ever! Wall Street will never have anything for me, neither will Washington, never have anything of lasting value, only God does. Retirements aren’t safe, nothing is safe except for a person’s standing in God!

This Sunday will be my third birthday in Christ. Oh I went to churches here and there all my life but three years ago October 19 I was born again to the bone in our little country church on a dark Wednesday night. The next day I knew I was born again but didn’t feel to much different but as days went by a never ending hunger was gnawing at me and it has never stopped to this day. A driving force that literally drives me to get into the Word, to investigate faith matters tirelessly. It has never stopped or slowed down. Oh, sometimes I wanted to just throw everything out the window, just give up, but that driving force would always get me right back up and running the race, whether I felt like it or not. A force that pushes me to share Christ with folks. A force that wants me to speak out every thing that I absorbed from the Word of God. It just doesn’t stop, ever.

Now three years later I’m in the ministry. Never, ever, did I think this was possible, never! I used to read about them old country preachers that were on fire with the Holy Ghost, how they got converted and just dug into the Word and very soon were preaching the Word. How they’d just be simple farmers or country folk that didn’t have much learning but that never slowed em down, nope not one bit! And the Kingdom grew because of these simple folks that let nothing stop em from spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many were just plain poor folks that worked very hard day in and day out, but always had time to do what they had to do for the Lord! Oh how I wrote about them folks, how I dreamed about that, how I wished that I could have been in those days where such a thing as that was possible. But to my surprise, in this day and age, it happened!

Yup, making wood, digging taters, picking pumpkins and squash today I feel like them old time Holy Ghost preachers, work hard and when the work is done, do the Lords work, the work He called me to do! I was thinking about all of this today while still on a high from last night’s Holy Ghost Children’s Church! Thank you Lord for allowing such a simple person as me to serve you!

Setting Back

Just got done with one of my “stomp and snort” posts over on Northern Farmer. Whew, haven’t done that for a bit. That’s what making wood most of the day does to me I probably will lose 99% of my readership on that one, but that never stopped me before. I tell you, when I get that stomp and snort, hellfire and brimstone feeling watch out. These typing fingers can really move, both of em.

Wrote about the old Holiness, about the moves of God back then that are so very rarely seen today. About the faith they had and the small remnant that’s around today. But I’m calming down now and just came in from putting the ducks away for the night so they don’t become food for something other than humans. Plenty of predators around here let me tell you! Even the Bald Eagles have been eying my dozen ducks, then the ducks go hide in their shack for quite some time. Gotta give em credit for that!

Well, I’m all tired out now. Hard day of working. I do want to get back to both of my different studies, the Bible studies and the Bible college studies. Maybe I can finally finish off them college studies this winter. I must admit, they’re much easier now than when I first started them a couple years ago. Still on schedule with the daily Bible readings too. Hard to believe I almost made the year. Especially after the rough start through the books of Moses. Although all these prophetic books don’t really hold my interest either. But you never know until a person reads em over and over. I figure I’ll stick to the books that make sense to me when it comes to teaching and preaching.

Yup, just give me that good old Gospel and I’m happy with it! I know the other parts are really important but there ain’t nothing quite like reading about Jesus Himself, or reading about the Apostles and all they did after Jesus rose to heaven.