Miracles still happen

12/22/11 Thursday
We are blessed. There are so many times that it seems we can never dig our way out of a hole. Money is tight, will we be able to buy food? Can we even afford the gas we need to go get food or other essentials? Can we pay the electric bill, because it is more than what we have in the bank? So many questions, so many concerns, and so much stress for Cherie and I, but we are blessed. Our God is real and He does supply our needs according to His promises to do so. I believe we are being trained by God for the hard times that are coming, being taught to learn what it really means to trust in the Lord with all our heart, to not lean on our own understanding, so that in all our ways we acknowledge Him, and so that we can have confidence that God will direct our paths.

Here is an example of that. I learned this year that I can grow watermelons and cantaloupe with the salty well water so made the decision that next year I would focus on that. In order to do so I must install drip irrigation over the 5 acres we have cleared to farm. But money is tight. There is no way I can afford to buy the hoses and drip fittings required to do that. Not even close. So what do I do? Because I do trust in God and have faith in Him I talk confidently of my plans, but don’t talk about the seeming impossibility of being able to do it.

Here you can see the irrigation tubing laid before the furrows I plowed days ago.

So last week there was a Kairos prison ministry council meeting, where we began to make plans for next year. In the course of conversation Ken, a fellow Kairos member and tree farmer, tells me “I have a mountain of drip tubing that I no longer use. You can go get as much as you want”. Come to find out it has drippers placed every six feet, exactly the spacing I would use for the melons. I had already plowed the furrows needed to install the tubing, despite not having any and not knowing where I could get it, just a few days before.

This is miraculous provision folks. Some would say it’s just a coincidence and that I am reading into this something that is not there, but it’s not a coincidence, it’s a Godcidence. See, there is that word I had to invent because so many things happen in our lives that after a while one must realize that these things cannot all happen by chance, that there is a real supernatural hand putting these things together.

There are three sections just in this pile. I estimate it would cost me $100 dollars a section to put this together. Multiply that times 7 and you can see the Lord's blessings we have received. So much of what we have is others' leftovers and it is always just enough just in time.


So we are blessed. God loves us and has a plan already made out for our lives. But with that comes problems as well. Just as God is real so is our enemy, Lucifer. How easy it seems for the devil to manipulate others to work against us. He places seeds of doubt and judgment in their minds and encourages some to gossip and spread the poison that judgment is, staining the souls of those that receive this poison. There are some who promise to help but never do, and then there are the religious ones, the saddest part of this story.

Jesus said “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”. What is the will of the Father? It’s pretty simple, Jesus left only two commandments, to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then to “Love your neighbor as yourself”. How is it that the religious people, who are “all that” in church, some pastors, some teachers, many good friends and followers of the others, don’t understand that when you talk bad about others, gossip about them, look down your nose at them, and think you are better than they are, you are not loving them at all. To love someone means you care how they feel, to truly love someone means that you will make the effort to help them be better people. Reach down and pick them up when they fall, feed them when they are hungry without worrying why it is they have no food. Real love requires action.

This is the Model AA 1929 Ford I get to work on. I told the owner that my fee is easy. I will do the work, keep tract of the time and materials used, and when done he can pay me whatever he feels like paying, if at all.


Jesus said clearly that the way we treat the “Least” of His little children is how we treat Him. Who is the least of His children? The ones with the most problems, the ones many of us think the least of, aren’t comfortable around, these are children whom God loves dearly. Understand that children require the most effort. They must be fed, protected, taught, and also understood. For a child often doesn’t comprehend that it is not good to get angry, jealous, or to not share his or her toys with others. The same is true with spiritual children, who despite being much older in years are still not mature in the things of God. Greed, selfishness, covetousness, are all issues many of us face no matter how mature we think we are in the Lord, along with many other issues. It is real love that helps us overcome these things, that motivates us to put forth that extra effort to help another. Real love requires sacrifice. Without sacrifice it is just empty talk.

Enough said. I have farm work to do as well as to go visit the guys in jail. It’s getting chilly these days so I must get some anti-freeze for the tractor because the last thing I need is a broken block because it froze up. With the Lord’s help I hope to start a bible study in Stanton, as well as at the prison in Lamesa. There is so much need for the basic truths of our faith to be presented. I understand that with that will come more attacks and opposition from the devil, so pray for me if you could. Nothing good comes without a cost.

Remember, God is good, He loves you so much He sent His son to come and die, so that you can have life. This is the truth of Love, showing us by His example how we should behave towards each other.