I will not be ashamed

10/7/10 Thursday
Another day. Every day I wake up is a gift from God and I continually remind myself of that. Read Psalm 69, 70, and 71 this morning. They talk about those who oppose or hold in disdain a righteous man, those who plot against the servants of God. In the coming days we will see this happen more, come to a focus as those who hate God, who despise morality and all it entails, revile against all that is good and from the Lord. What we see now is just a shadow of what is coming, but what is coming will be upon us before we know it. In verse 8 through 12 of Psalm 69 it says “8 I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons; 9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. 10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; 11 when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. 12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.” Thus it is now in many circles and this scorn of those who are “Too religious” will increase and be a popular thing to do. Jesus said, in Mark 8:34 “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Are you embarrassed to talk about God? Are you worried or ashamed when you know that taking a stand for what you know is right will mean you will stand out in the crowd and make you less acceptable, not “one of the gang” or part of the popular crowd? That brings me to the question I’m called to ask many “Do you really believe?” or have you accepted a feel good gospel that lets you do what you want without thought of consequences, the popular version of Christianity. The truth is the truth, whether you like it or not. You can’t fit God in a box, He’s too big and doesn’t conform to any mans thinking. Oh, I’ve heard some complex thinking from those who, in their finite little human minds, thinking themselves to be wise and intelligent, try to make God fit the image they want, make God be who they want Him to be, but God is God and we can’t change Him.
None of the thousands of corn poppy seeds I planted seem to have come up here, but lots of weeds so I'll disc it up today.

It will be a busy day as the one man show of Westbrook Farms continues. Saturday we will attend the Teen Challenge banquet and look forward to that. We’ve been blessed again with unexpected funds. Once again our needs are met out of the blue with no warning of clue it would happen. Like I said, God is God, and He promises to meet all the needs of those who live righteously, who obey the precepts of God. Like it said in the Psalms I read, though all might be against us and laugh and scoff, working to prevent our success, God is our provider and will cause us to triumph. This way the world can know He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) and my hope is that seeing this they will seek Him.
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12:45 – I am fighting another slowdown. It sure is frustrating. There have been a lot of them lately and the one I had a few days ago was particularly bad. Ran the tractor for about an hour, discing the small area I put a picture of. The tractor was spewing what looks like a mix of diesel fuel and oil out of a vent tube that comes from the top of the engine. It overheated despite this being a cool day and only doing a small area. I wish I knew more about these motors. We hope and pray the tractor will hold up. Can’t afford to have it fixed. God will provide.

Need to go to Midland and get a pull rope for the lawnmower, case of grease for the tractor, and a filter unit for the irrigation. I’m sure there’s other stuff but I’m lucky I can remember this right now. Must write it down for if I don’t I’ll certainly forget later.

These slowdowns (also known as petite seizures) wear me out, just drain the energy out of me. I so want to go to sleep right now but that would be irresponsible. Too much to do. Will life always be such a struggle? I hope not and understand that hard as it is there are millions who have it much harder, so I’ve no room to complain.