Time to Pay the Fiddler
April 26th, 2008 by Northern Farmer“Nothing but the principles of the Bible can save our happy nation or the world…” (Peter Cartwright).
As I write this late afternoon the wind is howling outside, snow is blowing and things are just downright miserable. I just got done packing the cowherd and the calves that have been born so far into a barn that’s a bit small for them all. But when a person is between a rock and a hard place you just gotta hope you make the right decision. But that’s farming, a person is at the mercy of the weather, like it or not. But when this thing blows itself out things will return back to normal rather quickly.
I very seldom get involved in political things on this blog, and I won’t now. But there’s been a couple of posts that I want to link to that will set a person down and make them think a little bit. Or at least I hope so. One is an eye opening post from the Missouri Rev and it hits the nail on the head. It can be viewed here in its entirety. Herrick Kimball also wrote an excellent article over at the Deliberate Agrarian blog. Herrick has the gift of writing that I sorely lack and I’ll link there because it saves me the attempt to write such a good article.
These two writings are very, very good and thought provoking to say the least. As the opening statement on this post says, “Nothing but the principles of the Bible can save our happy nation or the world…”, written by a circuit riding preacher in the 1800’s and more relevant today than ever. Sometimes a sadness comes over me when I see how modern day Christians are so sucked in by the modern world. And how they believe that we’re going to live this way forever and ever. Wasting the earths resources like never before. Total materialism at its worst. And over the past few decades a new religion has sprung up, a religion that’s totally false. It says that God wants us all to live like millionaires. That He wants all Christians to be rich and have everything this society promises us that we should have. That bothers me, bothers me allot. Because when I read my Bible, nowhere does it say anything like that. But I do believe that its the answer that people want nowadays, a perfect blend of so called Christianity and pure paganism.
At the same time, here and there, I’m seeing people that are waking up, the scales are falling off their eyes. And they’re starting to see the falsehood of this newly established American religion. False prophets everywhere are proclaiming this prosperity lie to the masses and its being sucked right up by a huge number of Christians. Because it goes right along with their doctrine, that’s the doctrine of the modern American media that pumps these lies to the masses day in and day out. As I said though, some folks are waking up and they can feel that huge changes are coming whether we want them or not. I for one want these changes back to reality and back to the Word of God being the main thing in life.
So as the wind continues to howl outside I’ll cut this one short. Get me some supper and then head back outside into that misery. But its moister and hopefully this will make some grass.
April 26th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Amen, Tom!
Pretty strong storm system, eh? It’s blowing and howling clear over here too. Been snowing and sleeting on and off all day. Just had two lambs born this morning and boy were they cold.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Russ,
I sure wish spring would sprung again! This is insane!! I just got back from checking a very large cowherd in a small loafing barn, they’re pretty packed to say the least, but the calves are dried off and ain’t shivering bad now. I’ll release them in the early morning when I roll a bale of hay out for them. This is the first time in years I had to give in and bring in the herd, but they’re alive and well now, (the little, once very cold and wet calves that is). That wind was brutal!!
Good luck and God Bless over your way!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Tom,
Thinking while I was shoveling silage this evening, how similar agriculture and christianity have become. Both have been torn from the hands of the little guy, the one whom both benefit the most, and held by the “experts” who tell us what to think, plant and believe. How blind have we been, letting these people lead us by the nose when the truth was always there in front of us, all we had to do was open our eyes and claim the prize!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Brent,
Me too, thinking about that while working today. The funny thing is, when studying about early America and all of that, everytime there was an expansion in Christianity it was always out in the countryside, of course that’s where the population was back then, and always with the non mainline churches. The big churches were so set in their ways and were only catering to the rich and powerful, (sound familiar?), but faith spread through the back regions other ways than what was thought of as the norm. And mainline religion hated it, just like today’s modern church hates when the Gospel is preached. They’d rather have you getting a suburbanized religion with all the materialism that goes with it. Same with farming as you stated, the very same. Now if you even talk like you and i we’re labeled heretics, lunatic and whatever else they can come up with. The only thing is they can’t come up with an answer when its stated that a nation of small, (and I’ll add this in here), Christian farmers there could be four times the production we have now with out big ag’s inputs. I just love that statement because it’ll either catch a person’s interest, or make them madder than heck at me. And if they’re madder than heck at me and that statement or think I’m nuts, that’s the first sign that they are being led by the system that wants to destroy them and their families and is doing an excellent job at it I might add!
But we have the truth, and we have the Gospel and what else does a person need? Just gotta beller it out and one place for farmers to start is in the local meeting places for farmers like farm supply stores and co-ops. And don’t forget to lay out the truth in church because if we don’t nobody else will and if we don’t we have no one to blame as the churches go in their downward spiral following the culture of death. If they don’t listen, well, shake the dust from your feet. But even when it seems like no one cares or is listening, there’ll be a few that really are, surprising really! Silence from us is the enemies greatest victory, can’t let him have that!
April 27th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
It sounds so cliche, but Jesus is the only answer. When we reject the rich poverty and humility of the the Gospels, we reject Christ himself. The United States and the rest of humanity isn’t so much different than Israel; when we are blessed by material wealth and riches, we erect idols and begin to worship false gods. In modern times our idols may or may not be of clay or gold, but It seems to me that we have erected the Temple of Ego. Where we worship ourselves, fulfilling all our passions and lusts to the greater pleasure of me. Pain and suffering is viewed as a curse from the loving God, a sign of one’s lack of faith in the Almighty, and not an opportunity for uniting oneself to the Loving Christ. Man is headed for destruction, as it has been said so many times before in the past, but as it was true in the past times, it is true today.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I couldn’t have said it better myself Troy! You wrote simply and to the point. That’s what is needed more than ever nowadays! We don’t have to get all fired complicated because Jesus never did. Just spread the truth! The new pagan Christianity says that we are all going to be rich if we follow Jesus, by that they mean we will be the envy of the world because we will be living more pagan than they will be living. Its amazing what the new religion is preaching and also no wonder the younger generation is falling away. They will always fall away when they aren’t hearing the truth. My BIble doesn’t say anything about us getting filthy rich and being the envy of the world. It says we will be hated by the world for speaking the truth. And we will also be hated by the pagan church, more so than the world hates us.
One of my favorite things to study and read is about John Wesley back more than a couple hundred years ago and how he took the gospel to the countryside and how the church got so fired up angry at him! How dare he preach the truth to farmers and common people when it was reserved for the rich and famous! This is what is needed badly again, people to preach the truth to the masses that aren’t getting it from corruption in a modern materialistic church. What would this do to the countryside if the truth was preached by a few brave souls that would take on big ag, that would take on a diseased modern church and change the lives of people in the countryside? To quote him;
“Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth.”
April 27th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Although John Wesley and I differ on many things, the chief of which is ecclesiology, I admire him for his zeal for souls and unique (unique to his Protestant environment) approach to the Gospel.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Troy,
The Wesley I admire is the one you admire, that zeal. And it should be an inspiration to folks. I’ll throw in this quote;
“The founder of what would become the Methodist Church, the man who would ride over a quarter of a million miles on horseback, who would preach over 40,000 sermons to often jeering crowds, had been convicted of this simple truth: salvation is by grace through faith.”
Now, I ain’t a Methodist, but what catches my eye is how a man that has that zeal to spread the Gospel can get er done. His methods have never been improved on quite simply because they were biblical. Reaching that many people in his time wasn’t easy, it required work, work that few are willing to do today. Imagine preaching in front of jeering crowds, crowds sent by the modern church to stop a person. See what I’m getting at here? I’ve come to the conclusion that many people misunderstand me around here on this blog and I’d like to explain and it is biblical. Besides farming I have a strong draw to evangelize. And if anyone knows anything about evangelists its they can’t see any other way. I realized that the other day, when thinking about some of my rants. Am I wrong when I rant about reaching out? No. But people that do not have the draw or the gift of evangelism will not see it my way all to often. The gift of evangelism is a strong force in a person, a driving force and I do quite a bit in every direction. But I must understand most folks cannot and do not see things the way I see them. Just like I could never, ever pastor a church, most pastors could never evangelize with a fervor. So upon seeing a mistake on my part in writing I decided to change my tune a bit. By understanding where most real Christians are coming from.Someone with a strong gift of evangelism has a hard time many times trying to understand why everyone isn’t tearing into it and hitting the trail, shouting out the Word. And once I realized this fact, which I’ve known for a long time but didn’t take it serious enough, life got easier. Even a week ago I was still ranting, but I think God has set me back and showed me some truths. Instead of demanding evangelism from all, I’ll just do what I have to do. Just like Phillip in the Book of Acts when he went to Samaria, he spread the Word, and the church of Jerusalem took care of the rest. Very shortly now this Northern Farmer blog will get a huge change, its already in the works. Its going to be allot more user friendly, especially for me. More information, more photos and many, many more things with the main message being Jesus Christ and living the way the Bible says to live. I won’t care about denominations, in fact I could care less because the above should explain that. I don’t know how this will be excepted by the others in the Christian Agrarian community but a call is a call and man has very little to say about it. Its my prayer that I only shout out the truth, get people swept into the kingdom, and help them simplify their lives from things written here and on all the other blogs on the blogroll here. Every blog on the blogroll is there for a reason, to help people. And its my prayer that it becomes their top priority. Even when we sometimes don’t see eye to eye on some issues that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we’re called to do. We all will have to answer for this blogging someday too!
Hmm, now how did I get going on all of that??
Thanks for the comment and jump in anytime!
April 28th, 2008 at 7:58 am
I admire them for their zeal as well. I was once told that “While the Methodists were setting the world on fire with the gospel, Presbyterians were busy studying the match.” There is enough truth in that to sting just a little
Though we do have our differences on doctrine and such, I admire your work here very much Tom. We are all after the same thing, converting the world to Christ and making disiples of the nations. I look forward to seeing the changes you were mentioning on site. Hope the snow melts soon, we are now grazing full time again. Oh, it feels good!
April 28th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Morning Scott!
Got three pastures with stockpiled fall grass and will section of just a few acres in each one till the rest of the pastures catch up and flourish. So….the plan is to start moving the pairs out tomorrow with some proven good mother cows also that can calve without any problem far from home. Gotta use all the smarts that God gave me this year, but hopefully it will be on cruise in a few days! Take care out your way!
Hey, do you realize in a couple days this blog will be three years old and I still remember stumbling onto your blog and that got me all fired up in starting this one! Its been a ride, that’s for sure!
That zeal is what I want to place here in this blog! Its been working on me for a long, long time but I’d never get around to doing it, but I think I’m ready now. And I feel your blog is an important one for folks to go to to get straightened out from this modern culture of death too! So, lets just pray all works out well.
I’m going to pull a trick around this place and start getting cattle on grass tomorrow. Wishful thinking when I look outside and still see snow! But I have some tricks up my sleeve and a dwindling hay supply to spur me on