Arguing with the Fence Post

Don't Argue with the Fence Post!

When I was growing up, and still at home with my parents I loved the stories my dad could tell. He surely had a colorful life. He had grown up in the "depression years" and knew how hard it was for many people to feed their families back in that day and hour!
But for sure, he had a story to tell about the things that one might take for granted. He loved showing young boys how to build a fence, how to rope a steer and how to drive a semi tractor trailer. Still he had a love of horses and for laughter. Our kitchen was the gathering for those times of laughter. Especially in the summer, our dad would bring home some of our cousins who would either be at the feed store or the chicken farm. These young boys would dress in their denim jeans like Levi's, wear those cowboy boots and have a hat that matched.
They would gather around the table, although too antsy to sit, but close enough to hear the stories my dad could tell. I was reminded of this verse from the Bible.
Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

In this we are reminded it is a good thing to laugh. It works like a medicine. It seemed that we spent many hours laughing at the things that make one forget the gray areas of life. It was not about strife or criticizing others but generally how my dad would get into stuff and have to "figure the way out" of that thing.
For some folks though it is hard for them to laugh about some of the things they have done in their lives. For many they want others to remember them for their "good only" and not some of the mistakes they have made in their lifetime. I certainly would not desire to speak on some of the goofy things I did, but I can say drugs was never a part of my life. I was told early on in my life that my parents would know if I did "something stupid" and then I would answer for it and not sit down for a week. I believed them!
But all people can and do make mistakes at sometime or another in their life and never desire others to know of the "stupid is as stupid does" kind of thing.
Still others like notoriety. They like being right and was thinking of Balaam today and the donkey speaking to him. Now Balaam was a prophet and he ignored God's will, so God opened the mouth of his donkey to rebuke him. Still, within the enormity of this supernatural element of a talking animal, it was Balaam who began to argue with a dumb beast. (Numbers 22:25-30)

It was one hot day I believe in the summer of"68 and my dad was building fence. He had added some livestock, and was having our cousins help him build a stronger fence.  Now when my dad built a fence, the cedar posts for the corners was put into cement and was expected to be there for many years.

Now of this one specific day, one  of the young fellows was not agreeing with the work ethic. For my dad, integrity was important as was the quality of work to be done. Every "man" was expected to do his fair share of work if being paid for doing it!

The other variable was of teamwork and somehow one member was not up to the job or work to be done! So yes, a story came out about it. Yet, all of us at some time did not like the work that had to be done, but someone has to do it. YOU can find that out when you and your husband have given birth to a baby and when it is time to change "the baby's diaper".
One such day I remember being at work. It was like the beginning of a new year. People were excited, talking fast about their new year resolutions and losing more weight to gain more muscle mass. Anyway, this young boy decided to be "sick" in the very middle of the room where we had about 20+ kids playing. With rain outside and some high wind, it was not good to take the kids out of doors. Still the room had to be cleared and some of the adults moved as fast as they could to get some of the younger kids away from "the sick" on the floor!
Many of the "kids" were moved to another area of the main office.
Left standing there were two of us adults. YOU guessed it...we cleaned it all up and sprayed the carpet and sprayed the air then we sprayed our clothes.....Yikes!

Yes, some people have their ideas about work and that work ethic includes: integrity, teamwork, but it also includes quality and discipline for that job. But when our dedication to the job is beyond ourselves, then we can do for others. For we should not be like Balaam who argued with a donkey nor we would or should we be arguing with a fence post or arguing with an animal.

Today, I can look back and hear some of my "dad's tales" and remember he had some mistakes in his life, but he learned from them and made people his priority. We too can see things that should be done but will require some discipline rather than just thinking of that "paycheck" but it is about people's lives and helping them be better too! In allowing laughter, we can see the mistake and avoid it.

I long for the laughter to fill our house as it filled my parent's home those summer days. I long to see people filled with the Holy Spirit and to know that God has a place for them when they receive His Son. For within our existence, we learn many things, but family and laughter is key. To do anything less is sin! Without laughter we stagnate the atmosphere. If we abide in doom and gloom we will fall victim to our own abilities and our own way of doing much like Balaam did!


For each of us face hundreds of choices and decisions daily. Fortunately most of them are not life-altering.

Should I go with veggies for all my meals only today or "all week"?  Should I get the ultra-whitening toothpaste or the kind of vitamin that restores brain cells? Oh yeah, I need to lose about five pounds of weight!

But just as surely  as the new year begins, many of us face difficult and life-changing decisions. I’m so grateful for God’s incredible promise in Psalms 32:8:I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

As my father taught us to laugh, our Father God teaches and guides us for his own glory. Our Father desires to lead our lives of maximum effectiveness and fruitfulness for His glory. He desires to display his goodness, kindness, mercy, and transforming power through us. God wants to counsel us more than we want His counsel.

He shows us the way to go because He is a loving Father. 

Let's not argue with God our Father about anything. Let's just do what He asks us to do. My father asked that we obeyed His instructions and when it was time to leave home, we knew a job was a good thing, being married to the right person was a good thing as well and laughter would add zest to our lives.

Laughter is a good medicine for us everyday. Let us find that merry heart in God, obey His commands and expect laughter to invade our homes. Truly the joy of the Lord is our Strength: The spirit of rejoicing, joy and laughter is our heritage. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty….an emancipation from bondage………… Maintaining that walk as the son is by the Holy Spirit and it is by our remaining in the joy of the Lord who is our strength! Amen

New teaching at: Voice of Prayer  

The Wonder of God & His Instruction

https://youtu.be/BrnI4LPfL2k

You can also visit my You Tube channel Voice of Prayer 

for more teaching at:  http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV

New teaching at: Life Giving Wells

In Order With God: Being Established

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2It_I6W1-g&t=180s

Also visit Life Giving Wells You Tube Channel for more teaching:

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Cable Butler

Anyone like a good movie to watch on a cloudy and rainy afternoon?
What about a good mystery of "who done it" type involving about ten people and they all seem like the "bad guy"?
What about a movie of someone dealing with an illness? No! Well, how about the "Avengers"? Too much action for you, well, how about a movie for the younger generation like something called "Ice Age"?
No, can't do the animation type thing?

How about grabbing the "cable butler" and let him lead you over the channels available to you from the service you pay for?
If you do that for very long, frustration can set in! You can find the channel finder exposing what the world sees as entertainment. How about ghosts today or some zombie flick? NO! How about another shark movie? How about another "mummy type" movie? NO!
What else is on? Well, the history channel sometimes has some informative things of the past generations, we could look at that for awhile. There is something about UFO's on as well!
What about the news channel? What about the Travel Channel? Have you seen that channel, you know, the one on all those fancy pools being built? Was wondering if any were being built in California. A thought of pools and all that water needed to fill a pool and with a water shortage going right now in California would seem just wrong, would it not?

Yes, the Cable Butler is there to guide you into T.V. paradise, mummies and all! Looking for the packages of the Youth, or those packaged for R. , the Cable Butler, that handy little remote control, will take you where you desire to go visit!

aah, but .....we have apps for free T. V. and movies. Wow! Awesome. You will get there even faster.  Is it possible that Cable Butler can get us into trouble or even those free apps for phone users wanting to catch a  T. V. series and movies?
Yes, gazing for hours into that "wide screen" or your little phone screen, can certainly make you feel at home away from the theaters.

Yes, we have cruise control in that handy Cable Butler!
But what moments are we missing by gazing at the "wide screen"? Is it possible that which we are viewing could change our course forever, or even for some time? What are we allowing to broadcast into our homes and into our hearts that might stop our walk with God? This is just a question, okay?

We are told that a "table is prepared" for each of us in the presence of our enemies. That means the adversary knows what is ahead on the path for each of us. He has spent thousands of years getting to understand the "human" and see how he operates. We saw what happened when he went to Eve and that all transpired to living out of the garden of Eden to working for a living, tilling the ground, and ultimately see that we needed a Savior.


Psalm 23:5........5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.  NKJV

enemies: tsarar pronounced- (tsaw-rar'.....meaning to cramp. 
Other meanings: to shut up, to distress, to bind up, trouble

Have you ever tried running as your form of exercise? It can take some time, and you start out slow. You can ask my daughter about that one. When she was in Jr. High and High School, I ran some for exercise. I had started out slow, and she would go with me. She would ride her bike and make some blocks and come back to check on me. Sometimes she would stay with me and we would talk, but mostly she liked the hills and loved riding as fast and furious as she could on those high hills that surrounded our neighborhood.

Once in awhile, when running, I would notice a cramp in my calf muscle.  I would find my warm -ups needed to be lengthened before walking out the front door. So I found relief from the cramp thing by spending more time warming up and stretching. Then after more weeks passing, the cramp returned, but now was at night. So looking for more relief, vitamin E came to the rescue.
The thought here is that running the race, we require a need for some space, some equipping in good running shoes, some preparation like stretching, and of course, some right eating as in a good diet with all the good vegetables and wholesome meats like chicken and fish as part of that preparation for a race.
Remember what Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 .....................24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.      NKJV

People watch us daily. We have opportunity to minister life to them. Just like Paul spoke about, we have to discipline this body as to not become disqualified for that which God called us. And everyone is called to something specific as the Body of Christ!  It takes discipline to prepare to do something God has for us to do. So am I taking in the right things to minister the life that Jesus gave His life for to see us with Him forever? What am I allowing to 'broadcast' into my heart that should not have an opening ever into my heart?

In 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 25, we are told to run in such a way that is temperate in all things. Hummm......temperate. What has being temperate have to do with running a race? 

temperate:egkarateuomai and is pronounced (eng-krat-yoo'-om-ahee) to exercise in being self-restrained and in chastity.

When we look that word chastity up, it brings up both marriage and crimes. 

Interesting that Paul talked about running as one being self-controlled and chaste. In looking up chaste, we find,  morally pure in conduct and thought. So running a race, of which God has placed for us, involves being morally pure in both conduct and thought. Reasonable and discreet also sum up being temperate or self-controlled.

Titus 2...............2:1 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: 2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; 3 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things-- 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. 6 Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded, 7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, 8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. 9 Exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.    11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. 15 Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. NKJV

Yes, we find that word temperate and chaste found in verses 2 and 5 of this passage of scripture.

2 Timothy 4:1-8................4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

6  For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.   NKJV

What we remember about Paul before his name change, was that he harassed Christians. He spoke threats against them and then chased them down!  Reading about him in the book of Acts and chapter 9, we find him getting letters from the high priest to officials in the synagogues. He wanted to bring those following Jesus bound to Jerusalem. But what stopped Saul in his tracks against someone else?

Acts 9:1-10............9:1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" 5 And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." 6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" And the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." 7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. 8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.   NKJV

Now Saul who became Paul, was raised as a Pharisee. He was in memorization of the LAW some eight hours a day when he was some 3-4 years old. He knew how to be a Pharisee and to operate there. They took of what was from the Word we know as the first 5 books, The Law!

But Jesus desired Saul to move into a place to minister and that was TO those outside, those Gentiles, yes, it was the rest of the world!

Paul tells us of his soon departure. He had fought a good fight of faith. He told us that he had finished his race .....(2 Timothy 4:7)... 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 

Paul had to contend against an adversary who wanted his attention somewhere else. Paul had to labor fervently to finish what he knew God had given him to do in this life.
The enemy certainly put a "cramp" in that which Paul was doing before Jesus came and spoke to him on the road to Damascus.

Did Paul know a lot about the books of the Law? He surely did! Do we think we know all that we need to run the race set before us? Paul told us he had to keep the faith he had for what he believed. He told us that he kept the faith and it is that which he had to watch and guard!

have kept: tereo (tay-reh'-o) to watch, to guard from loss

Titus 2:8 mentions that shame should come on the opponent, the one who opposes us. So in all this, we are to run like Paul ran when he got the "right course" set for him to run. We are to keep the faith by keeping guard of it, and as we keep watch of that faith, we move toward the victory line, that prize as those who are self-controlled and chaste.

As in preparing to "take a run" for exercise, we should also consider how we are running this race before us. Are we on the right path? Are we staying within the parameters that God has set for us? Are we taking up other things like the "Cable Butler" and feeding our hearts with too much other stuff of the world? We should consider what and how much do we take in on a regular basis. God surely wants us to enjoy life, but not give our souls into hell while enjoying too much of a good thing, we think we deserve.

Father, thank You for the examples of those who ran their race for You and have received their crowns of righteousness. Truly those who have gone ahead of us and stayed their course have their victor's crown. We pray for the patience and the courage to keep running the course You have set for each of us. We pray over decision-making as to what we put before our eye-gate. We know there are probably hundreds of choices that are not life-altering. But some may be life-altering to the plan You have set for us to run. Today, we stand on the Word that You will teach us in the way we should go; and that You will counsel us with Your eye upon us. (Psalm 32:8) We are thankful for Your wisdom today and it will guide us in decision making for this day. Today we expect to have those hearts that are counseled by You in our time together. Father, we pray to be those who will display Your goodness, mercy and transforming power to others. We pray to be obedient at every spoken word You give to us. Help us when we feel like the going is hard. Help us know Your truth concerning YOUR will for our lives. We know You have good things for us.....help us, build within us that fire that never goes out, but will accomplish what YOU destined us to do for YOU in this life. In Jesus' name we pray and believe our best days are ahead for victory in YOU. Amen.

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