The Way of Holiness

Our church service this morning was opened by our assistant pastor with Isaiah 35:3-10.  After many songs , prayers, and testimonies I was asked to take the pulpit.  I was blessed to speak on how "the way of holiness" begins right here and now for the Christian, jumping off from the Isaiah verses and using Ephesians chapter 4 verses 23 through chapter 5 verse 7 as my text.  Instead of typing out a sermon or any lengthy comments, I feel like just recording the Holy Scripture for this post, and allowing the verses to speak for themselves.  These are both awesome passages!

Isaiah 35:3-10

3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Ephesians 4:23-5:7

23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

27 Neither give place to the devil.

28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.


Thank you, Lord, for your Word and for our Saviour Jesus Christ, who makes the way of true holiness possible!  He is, after all, The Way!

An October Dawn At Pure Water Hollow

It was a marvelous dawn this morning, in the woods of Pure Water Hollow. As the darkness of night began to give way to a dim, fog shrouded forest, I began to notice several small woodland creatures arising to greet the new day. It was a chilly 42 degrees according to the thermometer at the house at 5:40 when I began the trek that ended under this protective ledge that we call the West Cave.

I had at first gone past my destination because it was so difficult to see, even with a good flashlight. The heavy fog acted as a wall to my flashlight beam and I had never tried to hike up there in the dark before! I was finally in position around 6:00a.m., which would be a full hour and twenty minutes before I could recognize the dawn. I was armed with my muzzleloader with which I hoped I would get a good shot at my first deer when it walked by on the trail below. Yes, this was my very first adventure as a deer hunter! Months earlier I came to the conclusion that if I could provide meat for our table from wild game on my own land it would be a very good thing.  It would save us money and help us move closer to being self-sufficient.  Today was the day to begin!

This rock-house seemed to be a good spot because I would be well hidden, there would be no breeze from behind me that could carry my scent to an alert deer, and my black powder gun would be able to stay dry since there was a threat of rain. The mighty buck that would provide meat for our table did not appear on the trail where I envisioned him, but I was blessed by my time spent watching, nonetheless. I stayed there for the next 5½ hours, and just took in the whole marvelous scene that God rolled out before my eyes and ears.

A gray squirrel high up in the tops of the trees was the first animal to seem to say, "Good morning", when he caused several leaves to flutter to the ground.  He shook the limbs, jumping from one to another with ease. The dew was dripping so furiously from the trees that it sounded like a steady drizzle of rain, making pitter-patter sounds on the blanket of fallen leaves laying all around; the squirrel didn't seem to mind at all. I suppose he was used to it. This was his world; I was the foreign guest here, recognizing God's grandeur in ways I seldom have the chance to in the world of civilization.

Gradually, little by little, the night continued to retreat against the mounting army of dawn's light. At first I could only make out the silhouettes of the nearby trees and branches above me, and they were not even definite forms because of the heavy fog. It was a wondrous experience to observe the fog slowly disappear as more and more trees and rocks were revealed! It was as if I was looking through a camera lens that was out of focus at first, but then gradually adjusted until the foreground came into perfect clarity, with the background farther away still a blur. It wasn't long before a chipmunk could be spied running back and forth across a long, half rotted, log.

This old log itself seemed to tell a story. It had many years ago given up the fight to remain a towering tree, and was now content to be a home for small, furry, grounded creatures instead of highflying birds or acrobatic squirrels. The sights it had seen during it's existence!

As the forest floor came more and more into focus, I began to notice not just one, but three chipmunks, all of them scurrying around amongst the logs, rocks and leaves. I could see a greater abundance of the tree limbs of the forest tops and they began bouncing and swaying and showering leaves from several squirrels now. I got a very good look at one squirrel in particular when he stopped in a tree in front of me, not much higher than my eye level, and looked at me. I sensed that his eyes met mine, but he did not seem to be alarmed. After a few seconds he jumped to another limb.

The continual dripping of the dew became less and less pronounced as the light continued to gain command of the situation. Not only was light obliterating the darkness, but it was also driving the fog away; the noise-making dew seemed to be running away with the fog. The sound of birds singing in the new day soon began to replace the dawning dripping pitter-patter of the dew.

The most pronounced cry of the morning was that of a Pileated Woodpecker from the other side of the hollow. Another Pileated Woodpecker, which was above and behind me somewhere, answered his call. As the morning progressed, more and more of my view from this ledge came into crystal clarity with the foggy background moving farther and farther away.

I heard some definite leaf rustling noise across the trail and on the other side of the hill, below the point that was in my direct line of vision. I could tell it was getting closer and closer, coming up the hill. Soon it would emerge on the trail right below me! I cocked the hammer back on my gun and was ready to take down the deer that I knew would appear. Then I saw a strange oblong shape on a stick moving back and forth. As it came a bit higher and closer to the trail I realized it was the head of a wild turkey, which was scratching in the dirt and leaves! Soon there were two magnificent birds on the trail below me. I thought about touching one off, but at that point I still had hopes of getting a deer. I thought that the deer might hear the turkeys and not notice that I was up there, too. Maybe the turkey noises would make the deer feel as though everything was normal, I thought. The turkey must have noticed me when I slowly lowered my gun because they went back over the hill and disappeared silently and quickly.

As the day became brighter and the sun began to push it's golden rays through the canopy of leaves above, I couldn't help but notice the variety of different shades and colors of the leaves all around me. I thought that last weekend the woods were pretty, but this spot, at this time, was far more dazzling than anything we saw last weekend! The variety of golds and oranges and light greens of the poplar, beech, hickory and oak were complimented wonderfully by a couple of deep red maple trees. I thought to myself that I would be happy to stay here forever.

I may have been able to stay much longer, had it not been for my being so cold and hungry and stiff. I finally decided that it was not meant for me to get a deer at this time and place, so I got up and stretched my aching legs and back. I soon began the hike down the hill and to the clearing. I still had my gun ready, and decided to go along the Split-Rock Trail to see if I might scare up a deer or two there. It is a wide bench with many deer trails through the beech and birch trees. This would be my next pick for a perfect place to get a deer and some day I will try to hide out at Split-Rock much like I did this morning at West Cave.

I found no deer along this trail and decided to set the hammer back to the lock position as I came through the pine tree covered decent to the barn, because of the possibility of slipping. By this time, I had given up on the idea of getting a deer. It was about noon now. I was ready to get to the house so I was no longer walking stealthily. As soon as I crashed carelessly through the woods onto the dirt road in front of the barn I saw something across the ravine! It was two white tails bounding along the Pear Tree trail directly across from me on the other side of the ravine!

I didn't have much time to think, and had I been able to get the hammer up in the firing position quicker, I may have had a chance. There were many small trees and brush in my line of fire, and the deer were on the run, but I got off a shot in their direction anyway. Both deer dashed away, unharmed.

My muzzleloader, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. I'm not sure why it happened, but the nipple that the hammer strikes to send fire to the powder to shoot the ball was somehow blown away! I had been target practicing with the muzzleloader several times this week and did not have any trouble with it but this was the first time I tried it out in the field. The nipple was gone, and without that nipple, the gun is dead. So instead of killing a deer I somehow killed my gun! That meant I could not go back out tonight deer hunting like I had planned.

(Instead of hunting this evening, I went out and bought our first two pigs! I will write about that in my next post, maybe tomorrow.)

In conclusion, my first attempt at deer hunting was not a success. Or was it? After being out in God's nature all morning, I have come to a conclusion about the hobby of hunting. (My brother philosophized to me in a similar manner about golf last weekend. I don't play golf, but do people really just like to chase a little white ball around, or is there something deeper?) Hunting is such a popular hobby for many people not because they like killing animals, but because it gives them an excuse to experience the world outside an office the way God intended. A world without the phone ringing or the TV blaring or all the stress that goes with living in the modern rat race, when you don't even know the difference between night and day because of all the artificial man-made lights and stores that are open 24 hours a day. Hunting gives people a chance to get closer to the God that created them, and to see Him at work in ways that we usually do not even recognize. If I shed that light on this morning, then my first try at deer hunting was a great success indeed!


1 comment
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Renee on October 23, 2006 at 6:55 am
Congratulations on your new addition! My mom and dad had pigs for a while. They are so cute when they are little pigglets.

You are well on your way to being really good homesteader's:)

Love and Blessings,

Renee

Without Christ: A Sunday Sermon

(I have been trying to post this for over an hour now! Terrible problem with pop-ups and computer crashes. I am starting to think that Satan does not want anyone to read this post!)

Nearly every Sunday you will find the Pure Water Hollow clan leaving the homestead for a time of community worship, prayer and fellowship. We currently drive about 15 miles to the church that God has placed us in at this time. We pass many other Bible believing churches on our way, but we are confident that we have found the one where God wants us to serve. In this small country church I am one of three preachers. None of us are seminary trained and we all earn our living in the secular world, although I am not opposed to those who are in the ministry “full time”.

I am usually called on to preach about two to four times a month, most of the time with no advance knowledge. The church believes strongly in the man of God being “instant in season and out of season.” Last Sunday, both our pastor and the other preacher were out of town, so I had a pretty good idea that I would be asked to deliver the message. The Lord gave me a good sermon and I have decided to share the basic sermon I preached last Sunday here on the Pure Water Hollow Homestead blog. It is not a word for word transcription or anything like that. (We do not tape the sermons, even though that is a great idea!) But rather what I am posting here is the basic gist of the message, and perhaps some of the points are ones that I now wish that I had given Sunday, but actually only thought of them while typing this. God knows what we need and when! The basic 5 points are the same I gave Sunday; they are just maybe elaborated a bit differently here.

I enjoyed receiving this message from God and I enjoyed preaching it. I have also thoroughly enjoyed typing it all down for this blog, even though it is taken a vast amount of time! I originally split it up into two posts so that neither one would be so long, but I later went back and combined them like they should be. I hope and pray that it will encourage those of you who need encouraging and convict those of you who need convicting!



What is it like to be without God? What would it be like if Jesus Christ was not a part of my life? In Ephesians 2:12 we read a description of what it is like:

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the common wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
This is a bleak picture of what life is like for those without Christ. They are aliens to God’s people, strangers to God’s promises, and they have no hope! I’m glad the passage continues in verses 13 and 14:

“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;”
What a difference Jesus Christ makes in a person’s life! Yet many people are without Christ in their lives today. They feel that they cannot do without so many things, yet choose to do without the one most important thing! I’ve heard many people comment that they could not do without their television, or computer, or their morning cup of coffee. What about Christ? Also there are many people who do belong to Christ, yet choose to live their lives so far below what He intends for them, that they are living their lives as if they were without Christ! What a shame!

There are many things we could say about life without Christ, but I would like to compare what it was like for the apostles to be without Christ, literally, after He died and before His resurrection, with what it is like to be without Christ today, in our own lives.

We will look at John 20:19-31 and find that without Christ we are living life without 5 important aspects that we need in order to have a home in heaven and to be able to serve Him properly on earth. Without Christ we are:

I Without Courage

II Without Peace

III Without Joy

IV Without Purpose

V Without Forgiveness
This passage (John 20:19-31) shows us what the disciples were doing 3 days after Jesus had died. They did not understand that He had to die to be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. They did not understand that He was going to be resurrected on the third day. At this moment, at the beginning of the passage, they were confused and had little hope and probably thought that they may be the next to be put to death. But I am glad most of them assembled together. I believe we need fellowship with other believers, especially when we are confused and down heartened. We need one another. (But that is going off into a different sermon.)

I. Without Christ, We Are Without Courage
V19a “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,…”As far as they knew they were assembled without Christ and since the scripture states that they kept the doors shut because of their fear we can see that without Christ they were without courage. It is true in our lives as well. There is a type of courage that people can have and not necessarily have Christ in their lives. I thank the Lord for men and women who have the courage to run into a burning building to save lives, or the police officer having the courage to make the drug bust to keep the community safe. They do their jobs, even though they are putting their own lives on the line, and they need a type of courage to do it.

But the kind of courage I am talking about is a moral courage. Like the courage to take a stand and do the right thing, even when it is unpopular. Having Christ in our lives gives us the courage to be honest when everyone else is cheating, or to stand up for the lives of the unborn when all around us are pro-abortion, or to stand up for the Biblical definition of marriage as being one man with one woman, even if people accuse us of hate speech, or to take a stand against the sale of alcohol when there is much community pressure to have it legalized. (I am thankful that we still have dry counties in eastern Kentucky. We live in one and our church is in another, but the forces of evil never cease attempting to get liquor in our communities. Every so often there is a concerted push to make alcohol sales legal and if the Christian community ever fails to use the courage that having Christ affords, we will see liquor stores and bars around every curve!)

Another area that comes to mind this time of year where true courage is needed revolves around the celebration of Halloween. My family took the unpopular stand long ago to not join in with the world concerning celebrating Halloween. We have never decorated for the holiday, our children have never gone trick-or-treating, and we do not attend any parties that may contain Halloween “fun”. It is not right for Christians to celebrate the day that practicing witches and Satanist consider their most sacred high day of the year! It is a glorification of the dark and evil world of the occult. I know that the Christian “church” attempted to take the holiday back from the pagans by calling November 1st All Saints Day and the 31st All Hallows (Saints) Eve and that kind of a celebration would be fine. But the idea did not stick. I’ve not heard of anyone dressing up like a ninja turtle and going house to house yelling “trick or treat” in honor of their dearly departed great grandmother who was a Christian! Even trying hard to leave out all the witches and ghosts, most of the time Trick-or-Treating only teaches children to be greedy and demanding and to be upset if someone gives them an apple instead of a Resee Cup! Very little good can come from the celebration of Halloween. If you must participate in Trick-or Treat I would suggest investing in some kid-friendly tracts from your local Christian bookstore and along with the candy, drop a tract about salvation into their bag. There has been other years that I have preached whole sermons about the evils of Halloween but that is not what this sermon is about, and I have chased that rabbit long enough!

We are talking about moral courage to go against the world’s values, and if you take a stand against a popular, fun holiday like Halloween, or you stand up for anything that is contrary to the world’s perverted sense of right and wrong, you will need the courage that comes from having Christ in your life!

We could go on and on with examples of times that we need the moral courage of Christ to take a stand. Those instances are not comfortable and it is easy to be silent, but we do not need to fear if we are with Christ!

“God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind.” 2nd Tim. 1:7And as Moses told Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” Deut. 31:6

II Without Christ, We Are Without Peace

V19 “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”
Peace is something the world is looking for. Peace in the Middle East, yes, but also peace down in our individual hearts. A deep settled peace that causes you to know that all will be ok, no matter what. Peace in knowing that everything is in the master’s hands and that I have a home in heaven! Without Christ it is impossible to have peace with God.

Jesus spoke about peace. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27
Wow! Did you notice that Jesus said that we could have His peace? He exhibited peace even in the midst of being beaten and spat upon. He could have called the angels to take Him off that cross and destroy the world if He wanted to, but he opened not His mouth against them. He had peace in knowing that He was accomplishing the Father’s will. We, too, can have that kind of peace, if we are with Christ! Even when taking unpopular courageous stands, we have peace because it is His peace. “My peace I give unto you.”
Jesus also recognized in that verse that the world has its brand of peace and that His is far superior. His is a lasting, eternal peace, while the peace the world offers is fleeting and worthless. People look for peace in the bottom of a bottle of alcohol or pills and they may feel some type of peace as long as they are in a stupor and forget about their problems. But when the "buzz" is gone, the problems are still there. Some people seek peace through divorce and believe they will have a peaceful life with a new spouse, only to find things much the way they were before. Spending thousands of dollars to satisfy all of one’s material wants does not bring about the desired peace, only more debt.

Homesteading and living close to nature will not bring lasting, eternal peace, either. You can feel so much closer to God when living a simpler life and there may be many peaceful moments. But if you don’t know where you will spend eternity after you die, you will not have the peace you need. Without Christ you are without peace.

“These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
The Bible also points out that this kind of peace is hard to understand in Phillipians 4:7:

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep you hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

We can see in verse 19 that the disciples were without courage and without peace when they were without Christ. We, too are without the moral courage to do what is right and without the eternal peace that passeth all understanding, when we live our lives without Christ. As we continue with verse 20 we see that...


III. Without Christ, We Are Without Joy
V20 “And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”
Joy is closely related to peace and is also highly sought after by the world. Many people mistake joy with happiness. Happiness is dependent upon outside circumstances while true joy is dependent on that inner peace we were talking about. You cannot have fullness of joy in your life apart from God.

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11
Drugs, alcohol, new sex partners, material goods; none of those sorts of things really bring joy either. There can be joyful moments even in those things, but fullness of joy is with God. Jesus discussed full joy:

“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11
Both of these verses are true because Jesus and God is one. Notice that in the Old Testament fullness of joy came about by being in the presence of God but in the New Testament full joy comes about by God’s presence being in us!

Before, Jesus had said, “My peace” and now He says “My joy”! What a privilege to have His peace in us and also have His joy in us! When thinking about what the “My joy” Christ was referring to we recall an interesting verse in Hebrews 12:2:

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
There is a lot in this verse but notice that it links Christ’s joy with the cross; “the joy that was set before him”. What joy could there be in the cross for Him? It was an excruciating, humiliating death! The joy was in obeying the will of His father and seeing the salvation of you and me!  He also knew that the "throne of God" was set before Him, which brought Him joy. There is joy in the presence of the angels when one sinner repents! (Luke 15:10) When a person repents of their sins and comes to Christ for salvation is what brings God joy!

So true, full joy is knowing Christ, doing the Father’s will, and seeing people saved, but to grasp the whole depths of what that deep settled joy is all about is difficult to form into words! The apostle Peter worded it this way:

“Whom having not seen, ye love: in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1 Peter 1:8

So, without Christ we are without peace and joy. With Christ we have a peace that passeth all understanding and a joy unspeakable and full of glory!


IV. Without Christ, we are without Purpose
V21 “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”
Without Christ and His salvation, it is very hard to sense any real purpose for our existence. One’s life purpose is especially elusive if you listen to some in the world of science who have pushed the theory of evolution into all aspects of society. If there is no Creator and everything in the universe came about by some cosmic “fluke”, then why are we here? If mankind is only a highly evolved animal, why should we live any differently from the animal kingdom?  No purpose in life.

People sometimes try to find their purpose in life through their occupations and their whole identity is surrounded by that job. If they loose that job or when they retire, they tend to loose all sense of purpose for their life! We allow our occupation to define us too much I think. Without Christ, that is probably the best we can do.

Since becoming a Christian, a whole new world of living has been opened up to me! The knowledge that God loves me so much that He sent Jesus on the cross to die for me is exhilarating! The first and foremost purpose for my life involves asking for the forgiveness of my sins and repenting, and accepting the free gift of salvation offered by Christ through the cross! The knowledge that I was created in the likeness and image of God, on purpose and for His purpose, is liberating for me! I know that whatever occupation I may currently hold, the real purpose for me is to serve God by serving mankind, wherever I am! Jesus had a purpose for those early disciples and He has a purpose for my life as well. Without Christ, I was without any real purpose, and I was miserable, not understanding what my role on planet earth was supposed to be. Solomon summed it up this way in the beginning of Ecclesiastes:

"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher , vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" Ecc. 1:2-3
But by the end of the book, he understood what the proper purpose of man was intended to be:

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecc. 12:13

V. Without Christ, we are without Forgiveness
As we continue in the passage from John 20 we see that Thomas was not with the other disciples when Christ appeared to them. He is still without Christ a week later. Not only is he a doubter at this point, but he is without courage, peace, joy, or purpose!

V24,25 “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Did’-y-mus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
We refer to this disciple often as “Doubting Thomas” but he was really “Unbelieving Thomas” which is far worse. The sin of unbelief is the sin that causes a person to be damned in Hell! We all love John 3:16 because it is so uplifting and encouraging. Read John 3:18, just two verses later in the same passage:

“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
So at this point we could call Thomas “Condemned Thomas” instead of “Doubting Thomas.” I am glad that the verse also said, “He that believeth on him is not condemned.”
You probably know the rest of the story about Thomas from the passage we are looking at in John 20. In it I see forgiveness that can only come from Christ.

V26-29 “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
Without Christ in our lives, we are without forgiveness. This is very bad because we know from the Bible and through observation that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”( Romans 3:23) and “The wages of sin is death”(Romans 6:23).
Without forgiveness through Christ we are found guilty in our sins, and in no way worthy enough to enter heaven and be with God! But just like Jesus gave Thomas another chance, He also will give us another chance. The Bible tells us that God “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2Peter 3:9) Longsuffering means that He is patiently waiting for you to see your need for a Saviour and come to Him. We need the forgiveness that only comes from repenting of our sins and accepting Christ as our Lord and Saviour!

There is one last verse in this text that we need to look at, and it is a fitting conclusion.

V31 “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
With Christ we can have real life! A life of courage, peace, joy, purpose and forgiventss!

Without Christ, we are without courage, peace, joy, purpose, or forgiveness. With Christ in our lives we have His courage, His peace, His joy and we can take part in His purpose! All of this is possible because we have His forgiveness!

So why are so many people set on living life their own way? They have nothing that really matters! You can do without many things, but you should not do without Jesus Christ as your Saviour! Repent of your sin and accept Him today!

And why are so many “Christian” people living their lives as if they do not have Christ on their side (or inside)? They have no courage to stand up for what is right and they live their lives in fear and anxiety. They are stumbling around without God’s purpose in their lives and some even go back to a life of sin as if they had not experienced His forgiveness. This should not be! Even though you call yourself a “Christian”, if you look like the world, act like the world, and live like the world, then you might just be, in fact, without Christ in your life! Repent of your sin and come to Him today!

My wife, Life, sings a song you may have heard before:

Without Him, I could do nothing,
Without Him I’d surely fail;
Without Him I would be drifting
Like a ship without a sail.

Without Him I would be dying,
Without Him I’d be enslaved;
Without Him life would be hopeless,
But with Jesus, thank God, I’m saved.

Jesus, O Jesus!
Do you know Him today?
Do not turn Him away.
Without Him, how lost I would be.

The Sky Is Falling

Rat-a-tat-tat-bing-ping-bing "Watch out, cover your heads!"

No, we were not under enemy fire from some hillbilly feud; it was just the sky falling!

Actually it is our chestnuts raining down from above! The three chestnut trees are right next to our house and on the other side of the trees there is an out building with a metal roof and when these chestnuts fall they make all kind of racket! Everyday there has been 5 to 10 chestnuts on the sidewalk leading to our front porch and we have even had chestnuts shoot up off a bounce and land on our porch before!

Do you know how heavy these chestnuts are falling? Why, a person could say that these chestnuts are falling at such a heavy rate, all you have to do is set a dozen or so empty bowls down under the trees and leave them there. Come back in 5 or 10 minutes and the bowls would be overflowing with nuts! But that would be exaggerating some... I could continue the tall tale by saying that these nuts are sooo big and heavy that they put dents all over the car that might get parked underneath the trees! And a person needs to be under a strong umbrella when they are collecting the bowlfuls or else they are liable to get knocked unconscious! But those statements would be exaggerating some too...

Actually it has been fairly hard work collecting the chestnuts because of all the stooping over to pick them up, and those sharp prickly hulls always hurt somehow, even wearing gloves! Also it takes quite a bit of searching through the grass and under leaves to find the chestnuts. They are all over but you still have to search them out. You also have to pry the hulls away from some of them to get the 2 or 3 nuts out. If I am collecting them by myself it takes about an hour to get the equivalent of a gallon bag full. I am trying to only keep the best ones and dispose of those that are already getting a bit moldy or if they have any crack or hole in it. I am also filling up large buckets (old 20 lb birdseed buckets) with the hulls to clear the yard so we can see when new ones have fallen. So far I have dumped 6 bucketfuls of the hulls across the road. (It just crossed my mind that they might be good in a compost pile? We have never done composting but it seems like it would be a great idea). We have been putting about a gallon bag of good looking, clean chestnuts in the refrigerator every day and we have 4 or 5 bags full now. (We still need to clean today and yesterday's harvest and put them in bags.) We read in The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery that you can keep them for several months in the refrigerator in bags with holes in them for air, and even longer in the freezer! We will see.

Tonight Lisa is trying a Chestnut Puree recipe from the Emery book to go with our supper. I am traditionally not a big nut eater but I really like the idea of eating good food that God is literally allowing to grow on trees for us and all we have to do is pick them up! Some sources call chestnuts "Tree Corn" because of all the excellent nutrition they contain and so many possible uses for it!

Eight-year-old Christina has had the most fun with the chestnut hunting and has been the biggest helper collecting them. She has not likened it to what I am about to mention, and Lisa thought I shouldn't point it out to her, either, because of our feeling toward it. What I am talking about is that searching through the grass for the nuts and being excited when you find some, reminds me of an annual spring event that my family does not partake of; an Easter Egg hunt.

It looks like this is a good time for me to chase a rabbit trail.  Call me strange if you want, but eggs and bunnies really have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I think it is a tragedy that the "church" allows its children to get so excited about Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs and Easter candy. When they get older and can no longer participate in the egg hunts, just celebrating the resurrection of Jesus is boring for them and not very much "fun". At our home we try to keep the focus at Easter on celebrating Christ and do not want our children distracted with the nonsense of the world. The one or two egg hunts we did participate in left a bad taste with us, especially when the church does the hunt immediately following the Easter morning worship service! The children are generally not interested in the worship, only when it will be over so they can have fun. At least the church we are attending now does their egg hunt on Saturday and tries to use it as an outreach to the community. There are many children around who do not come to church except for things like that and it is possible that they will hear the gospel explained, but is seems difficult to me, and we did not participate. I did not mean to editorialize so much here. Maybe I will share more on our thoughts about Easter in the spring? This post is about our chestnuts! Anyway, my whole point is that it has been kind of fun searching for and finding the chestnuts. Children can have fun without all the worldly mechanisms in motion.

We would still like to hear from anyone that may have some experiences with benefiting from chestnuts and could suggest anything that may be helpful for us. There are still very many nuts on the trees so it looks like we should have several more days of collecting them. Other years we have collected the nuts, only to let most of them ruin. We are going to try hard not to let that happen this year!

1 comment
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mc2rwe on September 28, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Well I have no comments on the chestnuts but I applaud you on your lack of "bunny belief". We never allowed our children to participate in egg hunts or halloween celebrations. Much to the horror of most of our family… About a year ago my second son asked if he could have his share of the money that we saved on not buying all of that stuff when they were little… we just laughed.

Kathy

The LORD of Pure Water Hollow

We recognize that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17).


By referencing the "Father of Lights" I am not speaking of Allah, or Buddha, or of the Watchtower, or of some spirit being that was once like us, and that we will one day be like. I am speaking of the one, true God of the Holy Bible who created the world and all that is in it in 6 literal days; who saved Noah and his family through a cataclysmic global flood when He destroyed the earth because mankind’s deeds were evil continually; who loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect sinless sacrifice that was needed as an atonement for sins; who saves whosoever will come to Him with true faith and repentance. I could go on and on, but I am talking about a God who is powerful and a Savior who is personal.

Salvation is one of those good and perfect gifts that only He can give. I am saved and on my way to Heaven, not because of any good thing that I have done, but because of what Jesus has done in me! When I claimed His blood on my life and repented of my sins and asked Him to come into my heart, He did!  God declared me righteous from that moment on. A holy and just God looks at me now, and He does not see my sin and shame, but He sees His Son’s righteousness and sacrifice. Praise Him forever more!

Since every good and every perfect gift comes from God we are keenly aware that He has given us the piece of land we now call “Pure Water Hollow” to take care of. It is really His and we are to be good stewards of it! He is the Lord of Pure Water Hollow and we give Him all honor and glory for creating such a wonderful place and allowing us to be a part of it.

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev 4:11)

Each success that we have, we will give credit to the Lord. He sends the sunshine and the rain; He sends the harvest’s golden grain! Every failure we experience we will thank Him for the lessons we learn.  Everything we do here, we want it to glorify God in some way.

Before we moved here in 1993 we made it a matter of prayer. It seemed that God had worked a miracle to allow us to be able to buy this property for such a low amount. We had no doubt that it was God’s will and His timing so we went ahead. There turned out to be some trials before we even closed the deal but God helped us through them! When it was finally time to begin moving into the house we decided there were some things we should do first. Before we moved any items into the house I made a point to hold out a Bible in front of me as we walked into the door for the first time as “owners”. This was to symbolically state that the Word of God was the first and foremost occupant of our new home. We prayed for God’s protection and leading and blessing on this place. We prayed that He would help us to have a Godly home and that this place would be pleasing to Him for as long as we were here. We gave the house and all the land back to Him before we even took possession of it! We knew, even as a young Christian couple, that

“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it”(Psalm 127:1)

God has greatly blessed us over the years that followed. Each of our four children in turn gave their hearts to the Lord and was saved in that very living room where we prayed that first blessing on our home! Glory to God in the highest! Thank you Jesus! The words in Joshua 24:15 were always true for us, but they became even more special after our fourth child was saved.

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Before we had children, my wife and I had already given our lives and future to Him when we were married. Jesus Christ is at the center of our marriage as well as at the center of our family and of course, the center of anything we do here at Pure Water Hollow!

There is only one Lord of Pure Water Hollow and thankfully it is not I, but the Great I Am!

1 comment
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Homestead Originals... on September 24, 2006 at 9:31 am
Have a blessed day in the Lord

Lisa