We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
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We have about ten acres of pasture on our farm that I tend to every summer. We run a few head of cattle on them and they always make things interesting. They are very curious animals and are constantly getting into trouble. So far this summer, I have cut the pasture twice in an effort to keep it looking nice and to keep the weeds down and the grass fresh for the calves. In my shed I have a couple of old tractors that I like to play with from time to time. One of them is a 330 International...
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic,” (James 3:13-14 NIV). Satan is the prince of this world and any wisdom apart from God’s wisdom, is not wisdom, it’s demonic. It comes straight from the devil himself. And the onl...
Sometimes it’s the simple pleasures in life that mean the most. If you’re a regular reader of this column you may have heard about my love for the Chicago Cubs as a child and how that carried over into adulthood and was passed down to our own children. But, during and after Covid, with the way our country’s politicians politicized everything, including baseball, the game became repugnant to me, and totally lost its appeal. So, I abandoned it. Not intentionally, it just left me disillusioned and...
When I first started thinking about July 4, I looked at the calendar and saw that it was on Thursday this year, so I assumed all the celebrating would be taking place this coming weekend. Boy was I wrong! The celebrating began last weekend and for the most part has been going on all week and is now already mostly over - except for the fireworks. Ever since Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the National Anthem in 1814, fireworks have been a major part of our country’s 4th of July c...
There was a moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what His name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name He gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH. In order to pronounce it we added the vowels A and an E to get YAHWEH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels but scholars and rabbis have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds or aspirated consonants. When pronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing. YH (inhale) WH...
I’ve been doing some marriage counseling via Zoom for a couple who live out of state who are getting married soon. It’s kind of a unique situation. I am not officiating at their wedding, but they still wanted me to give them premarital counseling (the groom is a member of Martintown Church, but they are getting married in the South). After they are married, they will be living in Pennsylvania where they both have jobs waiting. One of the questions they asked me during a session was what advice c...
Someone has aptly said, “There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who don’t know what’s happening.” I’d like you to meet some people in the Bible who made things happen. In Hebrews 11, we are introduced to a man named Moses where it says: “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.” As a prince, Moses had all kinds of wealth and prestige and everything else. But he had a choice to mak...
Disclaimer: Today’s column may emote strong emotions from friend and foe alike. Read at your own discretion. The other day I saw a news clip where our President was making fun of pro-lifers and mocking the Bible. According to Yahoo.com, “President Joe Biden on Tuesday tore into Donald Trump for his role in getting abortion rights overturned … referring to the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade. ‘Maybe it’s coming from that Bible he’s trying to sell,’ Biden said as the crowd laughed...
One always meets some very interesting characters when traveling. My wife and I do our fair share of traveling at this stage of our lives. We have family that live in all parts of the United States. Besides Wisconsin, we have family in Tennessee, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, Alabama, Louisiana, and Montana. We’ve been to most or all of those places to visit at one time or another. Sometimes we drive. And other times we fly. It just depends on the situation and t...
Someone called the other day asking if I had time to come over and chat for a while. We worked out a time and before we hung up I asked him if there was anything in particular he wanted to talk about. He hesitated for a moment and then said, “Yes, my funeral.” I get those kinds of calls every once in a while. People want to get their affairs in order and they figure the best person to talk to is the preacher. When I talked to the gentleman mentioned above, we had a grand old time going back ove...
I keep busy all week long being a shepherd for my church flock. I have always loved people and God has really blessed us with people from our church. In my spare time, I like to be a farmer. I have a skid loader that is about 20 years old but is still in pretty good shape. My dad gave it to me when he no longer needed it. When he had it, it burned up in a fire but he bought it back from the insurance company and fixed it all up. I’ve had a few problems with it over the years, but mostly m...
One Sunday a grandma came to church with two of her grandsons who were about 13 and 15 years old. We hit it off right away and invited them all over for Sunday dinner and football. Grandma liked Westerns better than football, so she passed on the invitation and went home and watched John Wayne movies instead, but the boys were happy to come over. They were good kids but had no farm experience so when 5 o’clock rolled around and we told them we had to go out and do chores, they were very c...
Why did Beethoven get rid of his chickens? All they said was, “Bach, Bach, Bach.” Well, it's springtime and that means there’s work to be done outside. Last winter early on, when we had a bunch of deep snow, our heifers decided to get out. My pasture has a permanent fence on two sides and a two-wire electric fence around the rest of it. For the most part, the fence holds the cattle in. Occasionally, a calf or maybe two will find a way to get out, but usually it's no harm done - They get out and...
The check is in the mail. Somebody did some work for us and when he was done, he sent me an invoice. I wrote out a check and mailed it to him. As a joke, before I sent it, I took a picture of it in the mailbox and said: “The check is in the mail.” About three and half weeks later he sent me a text asking if I’d mailed him the check. Of course I had. So, I did a quick search and discovered that it hadn’t gone through the bank, so I guessed it got lost in the mail. As I was preparing to cancel...
Last week was a busier week than normal - what with Easter and all. We had special services at church - more than usual, and more sermons were prepared than what I usually prepare in a week. People came to church from communities near and far. People also streamed us online from, literally, all over the world. We’ve had viewers in Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, and England, not to mention here in the U.S. from sea to shining sea - from New Jersey to Oregon. From Montana to Florida. From Texas to N...
Well, here we are in the middle of Holy Week. This week, Christians the world around are celebrating the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. In this column today, I will talk about death and life and how it relates to Christ and us. Death is nothing to trifle with. Death causes us to be confronted with our need for the gospel. If it were not for sin, we would not have to die. If it were not for sin, we would not deserve to die. Death reminds us that without the gospel, we could not be...
Recently, I inadvertently came across an old copy of a magazine called Birds & Bloom. The magazine is all about just that – birds and blooms. The subheading under the title says “Beauty In Your Own Backyard.” As I thumbed through the magazine, the beauty of God’s creation overwhelmed me. By now, the attention to minute detail that went into all of God’s creation shouldn’t surprise me, but for reasons beyond my comprehension, it does. This magazine was a self-help guide for all bird and garden...
Farm kids are in high demand when they grow up and go out into the working world. The obvious reason is because most of them know how to work. Early mornings, late nights, and all the hours in-between teach a person a lot. The responsibility of taking care of animals carries much responsibility. The lessons learned involving the farm animals makes the reality of life and death very real. When a mamma cow dies after giving birth - the ultimate sacrifice - it makes one realize the value of life....
A few years ago, I was interested in purchasing a vintage pickup. There was one in town that I drove by several times a week. It was a 1946 Dodge with the double front grill. It sat in a lean-to beside an old, weathered barn. It had been neglected for so long that a tree had grown up through the front bumper and all four tires were flat. One day I stopped at the house to inquire on the truck’s status. An elderly gentleman and his spaniel/collie mix met me at the door. I stated my business and he...
This has been quite the winter so far. We had lots of snow to start out, the ground beneath the snow never did freeze. While moving it along the edges of the lawn and the driveway I ended up accidentally making huge divots in the yard. When the snow melted, I put them back in place. The snow melt did not cause flooding, it all soaked into the ground. Somebody told me the other day that this February was almost exactly the same as February 2012. His point was: expect a drought. But I say,...
Both of my parents are from large families as are most of my aunts and uncles. I am also am from a large family. There was never a shortage of cousins in my childhood and we always had lots of fun – especially when they came to the farm for a few days. My brothers and I were normally fairly well-behaved, but when our cousins were around we always managed to get into a lot of trouble. Dad would have to “take us aside” and remind us that just because our cousins were there, that did not mean...
When my son was still in high school, he and I set out to restore a 70 year old tractor. This tractor was manufactured during the World War II years and had been neglected for about 40 when we got our hands on it. Well, we stripped the thing down to nothing more than a pile of parts with labels, organized an inventory of what we needed, took the engine to the machine shop to get it rebuilt, and that’s when we got a little distracted. What happened was, shortly after we started working on the t...
Several years ago, I read a book authored by a man named David Hansen, titled The Art of Pastoring. The story-line in the book is his day to day routine as he pastored two rural churches in Montana. The theme he threads through each chapter is how to be a parable of Jesus Christ every day. One particular pastime this pastor enjoyed was trout fishing when he had a day off. He would travel up into the mountains and walk a mile or so into the back country to his favorite fishing spot and throw his...
Many years ago, my wife and I were driving through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It was at night and a winter blizzard had blown in. We were on the switchbacks, winding our way down the mountain. At times the road was clear and we could see well. At other times, the falling snow was so heavy and thick and blowing, it was a total black out behind the wheel – like someone had thrown a blanket over the windshield. During those times, we were just guessing at where the road was. Off to our l...
You can’t make everybody happy. You’re not a taco. We have a friend, Ed, who served in combat in Vietnam. We first met about 8 years ago. When he found out I was a pastor, he said that he wrote God out of his life when he was on the battlefield in Vietnam. My wife and I invited him and his wife to church. She was happy to join us when she could, but Ed wasn’t much interested, although he was a bit curious. Then one day he came up with the idea that he would come to church and afterward, we wo...
