Jonathan Lost in the Mountain Woods

One morning while away in the mountains hunting, Jonathan "had a freakish thing happen" to him that he told me about on the phone.

It was a cold, dreary, cloudy morning after a very cold and windy night. 

He had walked a few hundred yards from where they were camped, 

and then started back toward camp.

Suddenly he realized that everything was fuzzy.

Nothing looked familiar.

My man who almost always has a good sense of direction had lost his sense of direction.

Somehow, unintentionally, inadvertently, he had gotten headed in the wrong direction, and now he had no idea where to go.

Unnerved, he texted his work guys back at camp, who were hunting with him,  

asking them to have the kids honk the horn of the truck.

But the guys never got the text--at least not till 4 hours later!

My man who always seems to have a good nose for directions had lost his nose AND his sense of direction.
"I must rely on the sun more than I realize, for my sense of direction," Jonathan admitted.

Carefully, he retraced his steps the best he could to the place where he had first started in a fuzzy direction.

Thankfully finding that, he began looking for specific markers that he remembered. 

And in time, he made his way back to camp.
But it had really shaken him.
 

Sometimes the best of us--the ones with the best noses, ears, eyes and hearts--
the ones with the best sense of direction--
lose our direction.

Things get fuzzy.

Stuff happens.
In the confusion, or in our own or someone else's carelessness or cockiness or haste or apathy,
we say or do something a little bit wrong or off,
or maybe someone else says or does it.
Or maybe we or someone else, in our apathy, make the mistake of doing nothing when we really ought to have stood firmly and spoken honestly, clearly and faithfully,
and we get lost in the woods.

 

Maybe, just as the sun was hidden by clouds that morning, some guiding light in our lives is suddenly (or slowly) taken away from us.

Maybe it's a wise parent, a godly friend, a trusted spouse, a courageous pastor, a zealous mission leader,

an excellent author, or someone or something else.

All of a sudden, or perhaps little by little, the clouds come.

That person or thing who used to be a guiding light moves away,

or dies,

or makes surprising changes and expects you to change your beliefs or actions along with them.

Suddenly nothing looks right or familiar.

We may sense that they or we have started heading a wrong direction,
and we don't know what to do or where to go.
Suddenly there is confusion instead of clarity.

 Nothing seems familiar or right or plain

and we don't know what to do.

And the only way to get our sense of direction back is to go back to where we started to go wrong
and  find familiar landmarks.

Those specific markers are found in God's holy Word--and nowhere else.

Other people will fail us.

Those we love and respect most will fail us. 

Our own sense of right and wrong will fail us.

Our own consciences will fail us. 

Our own sense of discernment is not equal to the task of finding our way when we have lost it.

We've got to find our direction from God's Word.

Precious Lord, walk beside us!
Protect us from getting lost in the woods of confusion,
secular opinions,
unScriptural or relativistic teachings,
and the cloudy doctrines of men rather than of God.

Teach us to rely on Your Word,

to get into it and study it and read it and follow it and obey it and trust it,

and not just be hearers but doers of it!

Bat Upside Down in Apple Tree--and Will He Find Us Sleeping?

A few weeks ago, when we were picking those many bushels of apples,

Timmy found a strange sight.

It was a bat hanging upside down in the apple tree!

He [or she] was so sleepy that no matter how Timmy and Jonathan wiggled the branch and brushed past the leaves to look at it and get a picture of it, it just stayed right there.

Even when they prodded it off the twig and snared it into our apple picker,

it just reached out for something to hang onto and wouldn't budge.

Talk about sleepy!

I've had these pictures uploaded for weeks, waiting for a thought--

oh yes, those Anna Lucas thoughts! LOL!

Anyway, I thought about Jesus' words talking to His disciples,

"Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh.":

"When I come will I find faith on the earth?

How precious faith will be to God in these last days!

We are pressured at every hand to give up our faith, but let us be challenged to keep it and hold it as precious.

"Let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober."

Let's not be like the bat hanging upside down in that tree,

so sleepy that nothing at all jarred him from his terrible, deep, deep sleep.

Stir us, Father, 

wake us from any sleepiness.

Teach us how to keep our faith in You strong and unsullied in these challenging days!

Here is a prayer that was on Jonathan's prayer app recently, which we prayed together.

It was convicting and comforting all at once.

"Change me so that I do ministry for your glory and the benefit of others, not to meet my own needs, and give me a great passion for your glory.  Help me to focus my ministry priorities, so that I do what is best to serve your purposes. Increase my usefulness and effectiveness in ministry, and protect me and my ministry. Please keep me in wisdom, gospel truth, and integrity of life and ministry. Help me love and forgive those who hurt me intentionally or unintentionally. Please make me wise in conflict. Help me trust your providential care of your Gospel work around the world, and not to confuse a good zeal for Gospel progress with an ungodly desire to get my own way. Help me to carry the burdens of ministry, trusting in your sovereign grace. Please give me a long life and ministry, and help me persevere to the end."
Amen.

The Mud That Set the Blind Man Free

A poem I felt the Lord gave me after studying John 8 in my devotions a couple days ago. I  noticed that all in the same action of passing by out of the temple and away from the Jews who were about to stone Him, ["going through the midst of them and so passed by,"] Jesus also "passed by" a blind man. The very next verse in the next chapter says, "Now as Jesus passed by..." And seeing those two very different "passing by's" I was struck with the thoughts in this poem.

The Mud That Set the Blind Man Free

They picked up stones to stone Him,

The honest Lamb of God,

He spoke truth; they disowned Him.

They said His words were flawed.

He said God was His Father.

They said, "Who do you think you are?

They did not want the bother

Of following Him near or far.

These Jews did not receive Him,

But chose their stones to cast.

The wise did not believe Him,

So through their midst He passed.

Before the stones had kissed Him

He hid and shut their eyes,

Some hardly even missed Him

When He hid and passed them by.

Oh, Father, pass this child not,

Nor go away from me.

Your truth I cling to, as You've taught,

Your truth does set men free.

It freed the blind man with his flaw,

As You went on Your way.

You left the Jews; the blind You saw

And healed him that day.

As you passed by, You saw him sit.

From birth he couldn't see.

You made a clay from dirt and spit,

A clay that set him free.

He took the spit; he washed the mud

In deep Siloam's pool.

Okay with him to bear the crud

And enter Jesus' school.

 They gathered stones; You made a clay

That healed blinded eyes.

You took a simple man that day

And made him humbly wise.

If spit and mud is all You give,

Then plaster it on me.

That hid in You, I then shall live

In truth that sets me free!

Jonathan's 5x5 Bull Elk--and Seeking to Find

Sorry, I don't have a picture of Jonathan's elk yet to put on my blog

(although it is on my phone from when he texted me from the mountains)

but he got one at 8:20 a.m. this morning!

Yesterday morning had been a busy one as Sam, Timmy, Rose and Jonathan hurried to finish packing their gear and get everything ready to go hunting. 

All they'd been able to get this year were bull elk tags, no cow elk or deer tags were they able to get.

Between that and less than ideal weather for hunting, we were not sure this hunting season would be very profitable.

Here are piles of their stuff they took along!

Jonathan called me late this afternoon as we were at his parents' place to rake leaves, 

and started telling his story about how he and Timmy were behind a blind by a meadow

and first a cow elk and calf stepped out of the woods only 15 yards away.

With elk, the head cow of a herd usually comes out first, scouting the meadow, and then other cow elk may come out.

After that, a bull may venture out, too.

But the cows usually appear first.

I am a woman, and so it seemed to me that bull elks are sissy to hunker in the shadows
till the wives go first to check for danger and take the first shots so they can save their own hides! 

But Jonathan is a man, so it doesn't occur to him that the bulls are anything but smart!

We laugh about that--how I think about them and how he does!

That's the difference between a man and a woman I guess!

Well back to my story....

Then those elk got skittery and went back into the woods, but then Timmy saw this bull elk

coming out five minutes later! Timmy's gun was ready the other direction, so Jonathan decided to do the shooting so no one would have to move. And he got it! More on that later when I have pictures.

After seeing the hunting crew off, I was really glad some friends had invited us for some time together, as that gave Danny and Hannah and Carrie (and me, of course!)  a very happy afternoon where they didn't have to feel left behind.

Danny and the boys shot with play bows and arrows...

 and a sling shot.

 I enjoyed visiting with my friend Audrey, and walking about enjoying their lovely place in the country, with a duck pond.

 Hannah tried out roller blades.

 The boys playing by the pond.

 It was such a happy day for me. 

The joy of the Lord is our strength, and that joy continues to stay with me!

Carrie and Amanda took a walk out in the beautiful sunshine.

"You shall find me," said the Lord, "If you search for me with all your heart."

Jonathan and the children and work guys who all went hunting together 

had their whole heart into this thing,

and they found what they were looking for.

Jonathan found his first thing--and sometimes God rewards our seeking immediately.

Sometimes hunters wait many hours and days,

and sometimes we must dig for the answers and help we need.

But while some hunters come home disappointed,

we will never be disappointed with God.

If we truly seek Him with our whole heart, He will be found of us!

I have found it so!

Forest Fire Down South and Hickory-Smoked Bacon

Today on our way into town to pick up our van and get some of the family off hunting,

we could see the smoke of the terrible forest fire down in Wet Mountains--

actually not so wet!

 It was hard to believe that smoke was fifty or sixty miles away.

 It seemed much closer, but that is the way it is out here on the prairie with the mountains in the distance.

 Smoke is an interesting thing.

Sometimes it rises like a pillar above a forest fire,

and sometimes it just simmers and puffs like it does in this old hickory smoker

that our friend Tim loaned us when we butchered our hog and steer.

 

You soak hickory chips in water and then light them and let them smoke in the bottom of the smoker.

The children had fun smoking bacon, beef briskets, and even some rabbit

while Jonathan and I were gone to Missouri.

I was so thankful they were interested in doing something like that!

Here is the bacon they smoked on its rack, all ready to slice.

Here is Jonathan slicing that yummy hickory-smoked bacon.

I thought you had to smoke it for days, but not so.

A few hours does the trick.

Wonderful flavor!

There may be times in our lives when, from sheer weariness or being spent, or being laid low in one way or another, we may feel that our flame of love for the Lord is reduced to smoke.

But let us remember the verse of comfort, that "the smoking flax will He not quench," and "the broken reed will he not bruise."

He knows those days when you are spent and weary, and feel more like wet hickory chips 

and smoking flax than anything else.
I felt like that last night as I came home with Jonathan from a little evening trip.
I told him that I could not see past tomorrow.
But when we got home, we told about our evening escapade to our children, laughed together,
put the little ones to bed,
and held each other--and were held by Him.

He doesn't scorn the smoking flax but fans it with His wind.

This morning, right in the middle of the kitchen, as I was meditating on the thoughts I'd posted this week about joy in trials,
I suddenly experienced something I have rarely experienced before--
a surprise sense of joy--
joy right in the midst of our trials!
God doesn't ask us to rejoice without giving us the power and energy to do it!
I never worked it up.
All I was doing was meditating on His Word, and He reached out to my obedience and gave me this bubbling joy that was unexplainable and unmistakable.
It was from Him! 
The smoking flax can become a forest afire with passion for Him!

 Timmy's newest project--he has a new one almost every day--

is to make candles out of sheets of beeswax.

And here are three of them.

They are beautiful!

Burn brightly, Lord, within my heart!

Don't let me be lukewarm to the point you are sick when you reach out to me.

Stir our passion for You, Lord, right in the midst of our trials,
 and let our lights for You be bright!

Maturity-- "The Ability to Delay Gratification"

On our way home from Missouri, Jonathan had to find a Walmart to pick up an air filter for the truck and when I saw this quilt shop on the way,

I asked Jonathan to drop me here for the few minutes while he took care of the filter issue.

I loved the many quilts and the unique fabrics.

Quilts are so homey and give one a sense of comfort.

And such comforts are certainly to be enjoyed, but I think more and more how on this earth 

we are called to be strangers and pilgrims and not to merely seek our own comforts over discipleship to Christ.

"We are immature when we think God has put us on the planet so that we might enjoy comfort and ease."--Sproul

"Ease is a poor criterion for judging the rightness or wrongness of life choices."

"Character and discipleship require that we take not the easiest, but the most fruitful path in seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are in a warfare and a race, not a kindergarten playground. We must choose that which pleases God over all our preferences. A million years from now (or even a mere fifty or sixty), we will have no regrets for having inconvenienced ourselves for righteousness’ sake."  [quote from http://www.thenarrowpath.com/ta_divorce.php]

"We are mature when we understand that the greatest gift we could be given is that we might be more like Him.

Comfort and ease makes us fat and temporarily happy. 

...Trials mature us, making us...fit and holy."

Sproul, in the same book I quoted from in my last post, writes that there are only two times in the whole New Testament that God's people are called to rejoice and be exceedingly glad. 

The first, in the Sermon on the Mount, where He lets us know that when we are persecuted for His sake, we can know that our reward in heaven is great.

"Indeed, at least part of that great reward is that we will be made like Him.

And the more like Him we are made, even while we are here on earth,

the more we experience heaven on this side of eternity."

"On this point, Jesus may well be pointing to one of the defining qualities of maturity--the ability to delay gratification."

"Maturity...is the fruit of seeing with the eyes of faith.

Children gasp and cheer over magic tricks precisely because they believe what their eyes see.

...God calls us to believe not what we see but what God says. 

Mature people look at what they see,

at their circumstances, and stand firm on the promises of God."

They..."look both backward and forward: 

back to God's faithfulness and deliverances in the past,

and forward to His promises yet to unfold." 

"Those who are mature experience...being hard-pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down--but they manage to not be crushed, not be in despair, knowing God has not forsaken them."

"Children sometimes throw tantrums when we don't allow them to have their own way. 

Those who are mature, however, are patient and wise and know the good that will come from the hardships they suffer."

"When we are mature, we are able to make careful, rational comparisons between today's hardship and tomorrow's promises.

"That path to spiritual maturity, says James, is trials." James 1:1-4

The sign that we are on the path, however, is that we rejoice even in the midst of those trials."

This is not about "the will to keep a stiff upper lip" or merely "to endure, to persevere...to practice mind-over matter." 

Rather we can and should consider it a reason for joy when trials and difficulties come our way because they test our faith, and that testing produces patience...Patience results in its perfect work, making us complete, lacking nothing--in other words, mature."