If you think helping a toddler dress is hard, you should try undressing a goat! Having now done both, I recommend toddlers.
In other news, Billy Goat Sunday has now found greener pastures in the sky, and his body has been donated to... well, food science. At his request there will not be a funeral.
Praise the Lord that He provided the fuel for us to run the generator to print tracts for visitation this weekend. We printed them today, and the generator finally gave up for good I think, halfway through. It seized up and won't turn over anymore, and another part broke off in the process.
BUT, God gave us a very sunny day, and so the solar was just powerful enough to finish printing the tracts! Thank you all for praying.
There was rain in the forecast, so we prayed. We have been told that we can't meet for services in the park, because, "what about the rain?" Yet in the 1 1/2 years that we've been meeting for church in the park, we haven't been rained out yet, and it is because of answered prayer. Sometimes we have seen it rain right next to us, but not on us. We've had every bench and table around us soaked, but not the ones we were meeting at.
We prayed, and we went to church. When we began to start services, I noticed 4 drops of rain come down on my notes. We stopped and prayed that God would hold back the rain. The rain stopped.
Half-way through preaching, six more drops hit my notes. I stopped and asked the Lord to hold it back. We remembered how the Lord rebuked the storm in the boat with the disciples, and how Elijah prayed and stopped the rain, and how James said that we are of alike to Elijah when it comes to being able to have prayer answered.
And God held back the rain. 10 drops in total.
Faith still works.
Miracles often have little show to them.
God still answers prayer.
I'm very grateful to see how the Lord provides step by step as we obey him. Being a church planter / pastor does not somehow make it so that you no longer have to live by faith - quite the opposite actually.
Last week-end, in preparing for services, we weren't sure, humanly speaking, how to pull it off. We asked some friends to pray, and we prayed, too. We were out of fuel to run the barely-working generator to print tracts. We prayed, and God helped us fight it until it worked, and it quit the very moment the last tract was printed!
We barely had enough fuel to make it into town, much less get back home onto the farm. Yet, somehow, God carried the vehicle in, through door-knocking and visitation after church, and back home - about 100 miles beyond what we had in the gas tank.
We returned home to find the door kicked in, and all the food that we had dumped all over the living room. We prayed, and God provided unexpectedly. All through this week, God has gotten us to the next step, and we praise Him for it.
How can we teach people to trust God and live by faith on Sunday, if we are not willing to do so ourselves throughout the week? The ministry that we had on Sunday was so important - and an encouragement to us - that we wouldn't have wanted to miss it. I'm glad that God provided miraculously so that we didn't have to miss it.
Psalm 78:4, "We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done."
Prayer request for today: I need wisdom as I attempt to rebuild our generator today. I've rebuilt it several times over the past few months due to sabotage and it's barely hanging on. Last night it started smoking and clanging and using about 4x normal fuel and only output about 1/3 normal power. I'm not sure what can be done, but I'm going to attempt another rebuild today, because it is critical that we have power. Prayer would be appreciated.
UPDATE: We've done what we can for the generator. It has some fuel leaks and problems that I don't think are reparable, but praise the Lord it made it through the night. We will work toward replacing it when we can. Thanks for praying. Electricity makes it much easier to minister and work here.
My son just rescued Woody Woodpecker from some barbed wire. Did you know that woodpeckers sqwack loudly when wrapped in barbed wire?
I think that our animals are more organized than we are. I got a camera alert this morning, and when I pulled up the camera I found that the Mama Pig had gotten her gate open and was marching her piglets single-file to... the dog house. So, where was our Great Dane? I pulled up the other camera to find her lounging luxuriously ... in the pig pen. They organized a housing swap!
A few years back, I won a hatchet-throwing contest at a men's retreat and was awarded this machete. Today, I was very grateful for it, as I used it to kill a rattlesnake that was pestering my kids and animals. I'm super thankful to God for His protection, and let me tell you: it was way more exciting than watching a nature documentary. Boy can those things strike!
First, I cut it in half with my machete. Then we stoned it with large rocks. Then Enoch cut off its head with a shovel. Then we beat it to death some more. Then we drowned it in a bucket of water for five or ten minutes. Then we beat it even more. Now the boys are out digging a deep hole in which to bury its head.
As a preacher, I got so many sermon illustrations out of this experience. For example, when the old serpent (the devil) raises its ugly head in your life or family, you better go after it and MAKE SURE it's really dead. As you wield your machete of Scripture, you can use the tools of honesty, diligence, accountability, and humility to beat the living daylights out of that sin problem!
Best we can tell, it was a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, which rarely grow above 2.5 feet. This was a big one, though. According to my tape measure, it was 39.5 inches long, and a little more than 3 inches around in the middle. I included a basketball in the picture for comparison.
Allow me to brag on God and the power of prayer. We needed some clothes for the boys, and they just weren't in the budget. The farm and remodel are kinda hard on clothes. We prayed every day last week, specifically for this need, among others.
So, Sunday, after church at the park, someone randomly came up and asked if we could use some clothes for the boys, which of course we did.
They proceeded to give us several bags of clothes that were EXACTLY the right sizes, much of which appear to be brand new. There were work / play clothes, dress clothes - even a new suit for one of the boys - and more.
I don't think that it was random. I think that it was orchestrated by God in response to specific prayer. Thank you, Lord, and thank you, Random Person who listened to the Lord and met a need!
God still answers prayer. Within seconds of gathering the family to pray about a specific and urgent need, God answered it precisely in a way that was clearly only God.
Dare to teach your kids that God hears and answers prayer, then live it by praying specifically and watching God work.
Faith = Hearing from God + Believing Him + Obeying Him
Every day, we have been gathering as a family to pray for some specific requests. Today, God poured His blessing, and showed us in minute detail that He answers detailed prayer. Over 34 specific prayer requests were answered today, some of which were seemingly small and insignificant, while others were so large that they were beyond our human means, yet God cared about every one of them.
Psalm 68:19, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah."
This just "goats" to show that new age thinking is a mess.
Also, introducing... KFG - Kentucky Fried Goat!
