Northern Farmer

I’m a little tired tonight, in fact I’m really tired but all is well around here. Truthfully I’d better not complain about being tired because I always like living the old time way and that’s sure how we’ve been living lately. Been butchering and cutting up a couple of pigs yesterday and today, nice ones too! We do everything ourselves, from start to finish, doesn’t cost a plug nickel for that job. Getting kinda good at it, one bullet for hog number one and two for hog number two. Butchered the first one outside using the front end loader on the skid steer to raise it up, but by the time we started on the second one I decided Minnesota isn’t outside butcher friendly and we moved into the heated garage/shop. It’s one of the buildings heated by the outdoor wood boiler and it was around seventy above in there. Much nicer on a Minnesotan’s bones. Plus the funny thing is, the second hog took less than half the time to butcher because we didn’t have to be bundled up in heavy clothes and shivering. Ain’t really cold out around here, but the cloudy days and damp east wind cut down to the bone after a while. Today everything got cut up and wrapped, put in the freezer and done with, except for future jobs with sausage and the like.

Then last night after butchering and quickly finishing up the little bit of afternoon chores around here we headed off to our Wednesday evening church service. I found out at noon yesterday that the service would be changed, with J.C. Smith coming back to preach while he and his family were still in Minnesota. I knew that would be a special night to say the least. Now I don’t know how many out there have ever heard powerful preaching, but that is what this consists of, about as powerful as it gets! No compromise preaching, the old fashioned way, out of the Word, the Word that can’t be disputed! Well, that service lasted much longer than a normal Wednesday evening service. It’s amazing with only eight hours or less notice the church was able to pull together and get so many people there! And when things like this happen time doesn’t exist. Nobody cares about the clock, nobody has it in their mind that they worked all day, some pretty hard, kids were in school and the like, but nobody took notice! That’s what I mean about old fashion!

Because years ago people went to church because it was the main thing in their life, not a one hour obligation, (if that), once a week. Nope, years ago them farmers, tradesmen, store owners and the like would be in church all the time. And I’ve dwelled on that allot over the past couple of years. But to be truthful, I always dreamed it would happen in our lives, but like so many things nowadays I figured maybe I was only wishing for something that didn’t exist any more. But much to my surprise it is happening around here, and I ain’t kidding! I stand in awe as I see what God is doing. Now many folks have told me over the past that they wish that they had something like that where they’re at. I used to also, and I praise God for leading us there. It’s still kinda unbelievable how it all happened and continues to happen. There is a warning in all of this though! If a person is seeking something like this it will consume you when you find it. This ain’t “church” as usual, far from it. Take last night’s service, a spur of the moment thing that lasted a long time, many churches couldn’t handle something like that because it would take them out of their comfort zone. But I wouldn’t have it any other way! Cause this is how the oldtimers did it and this is how we do it!

Them old farmers would sometimes hold a snap service like last evening’s and sometimes it would go on every night of the week for weeks. And those folks worked hard, but they’d be there every night till late, and the next day be right back to work and then right back to church. Remember, this could go on for weeks and weeks. Now the way I figure it, this is something that we’ve really lost, a huge loss. Just think about it, those folks were happy! Much happier than folks today. I’ve noticed this sometimes in the blogs, including this one too, that we are very self absorbed in our own pursuits. We want what they had years ago, but are unwilling to take it when it comes right down to it. This doesn’t only mean all the material things that we have now, it means our time, it means our very lives. What are we willing to sacrifice for this?

If I had a dollar for every e-mail from folks wishing they had a church like that I’d be able to have a pretty high dollar steak and seafood dinner at a fancy restaurant. There’s allot of folks that have this same dream, allot. This is why I write about it sometimes, because I know the yearnings of allot of folks. Whew, I am tired tonight, but if they’d do it all over again tonight I’d be the first there! Powerful preaching, the best music from our little praise team, and people with a heart for God! I was just getting ready to write about our services this past December, the preaching, the healings, some very dramatic I might add, then it all started over again last night and I’m in a daze! Folks, I try and try, but it’s just durn hard to describe what it’s all like. But no matter what, rest assured that this is what I’ve always hoped for, what I hoped to live to see. And the amazing thing is, it’s only beginning! The one thing that I know for sure is that this is the only way for us out here in the middle of no where!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.