I’m a Lumberjack…

by | Nov 30, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized

What would any sane person be doing when it is 14 degrees F outside on a late November evening? Why, marching through a snowy field looking for a Christmas tree!

I had thought about cutting a fresh tree down this year, as we had a nasty dry tree last year. Needles everywhere. After getting home today I heard that my friends were going to a place called “Chop N Shop”. No joke. They were wondering if we wanted them to pick us up a tree, as we don’t have a truck (almost a sin here in Idaho) and they often help us out with pick-up related duties.

Well, it’s hard to have someone else pick out a Christmas tree for you, so we bundled up the crew and followed them out to the country. A retired gentleman was raising trees on his property. He was a little surprised to see us at night. He figured it was kinda hard to see out there, but gave us sharp instruments, told us to watch for stumps, and to have fun.

We tromped around a little bit, checking out contenders. No one fell and got impaled, which I take as a successful night. Finally we settled on a 6′ spruce, and I did my best Monty Python imitation. The boys and Beccy skipped back to the van to be warm, while I laid on a blanket in this field in order to bring our Yuletide timber home.

It was a prosperous expedition, and I am ensconed at home all warmed up (though a mug of hot chocolate sounds nice.) The tree is in our front yard, as I’m too frazzled to set it up tonight. But I am confident we will have a nice fresh Christmas tree this year. Maybe I’ll post a pic when it is up and decorated.

…and I’m okay.

I’m a Lumberjack…

by | Nov 30, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized

What would any sane person be doing when it is 14 degrees F outside on a late November evening? Why, marching through a snowy field looking for a Christmas tree!

I had thought about cutting a fresh tree down this year, as we had a nasty dry tree last year. Needles everywhere. After getting home today I heard that my friends were going to a place called “Chop N Shop”. No joke. They were wondering if we wanted them to pick us up a tree, as we don’t have a truck (almost a sin here in Idaho) and they often help us out with pick-up related duties.

Well, it’s hard to have someone else pick out a Christmas tree for you, so we bundled up the crew and followed them out to the country. A retired gentleman was raising trees on his property. He was a little surprised to see us at night. He figured it was kinda hard to see out there, but gave us sharp instruments, told us to watch for stumps, and to have fun.

We tromped around a little bit, checking out contenders. No one fell and got impaled, which I take as a successful night. Finally we settled on a 6′ spruce, and I did my best Monty Python imitation. The boys and Beccy skipped back to the van to be warm, while I laid on a blanket in this field in order to bring our Yuletide timber home.

It was a prosperous expedition, and I am ensconed at home all warmed up (though a mug of hot chocolate sounds nice.) The tree is in our front yard, as I’m too frazzled to set it up tonight. But I am confident we will have a nice fresh Christmas tree this year. Maybe I’ll post a pic when it is up and decorated.

…and I’m okay.

Armed for Battle

by | Nov 27, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized

1 Chronicles 12:33
Men of Zebulun, experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon, to help David with undivided loyalty – 50,000.

The context of the above verse is when men armed for battle came to David when he was at Hebron after Saul died, to turn the kingdom over to him.

When reading that in my quiet time recently, it struck me about the aspect of being prepared for battle with every type of weapon. In the Christian life, we have spiritual warfare in our lives. We need to know about this, and understand how to battle for the Lord in this aspect.

But I think Christians ought to aspire to be like the men of Zebulun. I was in a church once where the pastor disparaged using the mind. He felt that it got in the way of the Spirit, that we couldn’t be really used of God if we did anything with our minds.

I had a hard time with that then, and have become convinced since then that he was wrong to say that. Now I know how the Word says that our hearts our wicked and we can’t even know them ourselves. But He does give us minds to reason and to know Him. He is a God who reveals Himself so He can be known, at least to a degree.

I’m saying all this to ask, what weapons should we be able to fight with? I think that it can be summed up in one term: Biblical worldview. If we understand a Biblical worldview, how the Bible deals with life. From art to justice to helping the poor, we can understand Biblical principles to use as a framework for whatever we come up against in our culture. We shouldn’t live in a Christian cocoon, but understand the ideas that are being presented in our world and see how the Bible applies to them. No, the Bible doesn’t discuss every idea out there, but it does provide a framework to analyze any situation we can find ourselves in.

Warriors of worldview can go into any aspect of society: politics, academics, entertainment, literature, science, education. We can help shape the ideas of our times, which would be better than always reacting after the philosophies are out there.

If we can make the most of every opportunity and be prepared in season and out of season, we can stand and fight the battles in our world today. We know our battles are not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. This means we need to fight the spiritual battles in the heavenlies, but we also need to stand against the ideas that are counter to what God reveals in His word. We don’t fight the battle against the people, the proponents. But we speak with knowledge and with power, like Paul. Then we will be like the men of Zebulun, “prepared for battle with every type of weapon”.

Armed for Battle

by | Nov 27, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized

1 Chronicles 12:33
Men of Zebulun, experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon, to help David with undivided loyalty – 50,000.

The context of the above verse is when men armed for battle came to David when he was at Hebron after Saul died, to turn the kingdom over to him.

When reading that in my quiet time recently, it struck me about the aspect of being prepared for battle with every type of weapon. In the Christian life, we have spiritual warfare in our lives. We need to know about this, and understand how to battle for the Lord in this aspect.

But I think Christians ought to aspire to be like the men of Zebulun. I was in a church once where the pastor disparaged using the mind. He felt that it got in the way of the Spirit, that we couldn’t be really used of God if we did anything with our minds.

I had a hard time with that then, and have become convinced since then that he was wrong to say that. Now I know how the Word says that our hearts our wicked and we can’t even know them ourselves. But He does give us minds to reason and to know Him. He is a God who reveals Himself so He can be known, at least to a degree.

I’m saying all this to ask, what weapons should we be able to fight with? I think that it can be summed up in one term: Biblical worldview. If we understand a Biblical worldview, how the Bible deals with life. From art to justice to helping the poor, we can understand Biblical principles to use as a framework for whatever we come up against in our culture. We shouldn’t live in a Christian cocoon, but understand the ideas that are being presented in our world and see how the Bible applies to them. No, the Bible doesn’t discuss every idea out there, but it does provide a framework to analyze any situation we can find ourselves in.

Warriors of worldview can go into any aspect of society: politics, academics, entertainment, literature, science, education. We can help shape the ideas of our times, which would be better than always reacting after the philosophies are out there.

If we can make the most of every opportunity and be prepared in season and out of season, we can stand and fight the battles in our world today. We know our battles are not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. This means we need to fight the spiritual battles in the heavenlies, but we also need to stand against the ideas that are counter to what God reveals in His word. We don’t fight the battle against the people, the proponents. But we speak with knowledge and with power, like Paul. Then we will be like the men of Zebulun, “prepared for battle with every type of weapon”.