Riddle

Riddle. Give your answer on the comments.
What does a rich man want, a poor man has and is stronger than God.

Quote from Whitmore Winslow.

"Can a man suppose that he was made for himself?
What a glorious motto for a man, "I Live for God!"

It is religion's truest definition.

It is a motto for a life.

Can a man suppose that he was made for himself?

Miserable thought!

Yet the world acts upon this belief. They devise, and
scheme, and accomplish apparently for others; but
the spring of action and the end of action is, SELF.

This is of course abhorrent to God.

Bo says.
Im afraid I know this truth but still act for SELF.

If

If a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its butt when it jumps. Why did he say that you may ask? I don't know. Don't have any thing else to say.

I saw a cool sign yest. "Today is the tomorrow you were worrying about yesterday". I thought it was pretty interesting. Don't know about you but I usually can't remember what it was I was worrying about yesterday, because I am worrying about tomorrow, today.

Another quote from Mary Winslow

"What, oh what shall I render unto You for Your wondrous goodness and patience towards me? Nothing have I to render. I am poor and needy, and dependent upon You moment by moment."

I have nothing to offer to the Lord. Thank goodness he requires nothing.

Pot calling the Kettle black

or something like that. I remember a few days ago, no, waite, maybe it was a few weeks ago. Could it have been a month ago? A certain person, who shall remain unnamed, sometime ago was encouraging a certain member of his family, who shall remain unnamed to BLOG. That certain family member did blog but there were some exchanges between the two, that if you didn't know better, you might have considered..... well..... strained. I would have thought given that exchange that the party of the second part would have continued on a more frequent basis their blog whereby sharing their life experiences with all who read these blogs but alas the one blog at or about the time of the above mentioned exchange was the only one offered. Strange?
Strange. But that is only the half of it. Would you believe me if I told you that the party of the first part, after offering such encouragement to the party of the second part to blog, has sense become even more lax in blogging than the party of the second part. Go figure.

I was looking on our web site this morning and on the links that Carol has put on it I found a site called Grace Gems. I opened it and found these quotes from Mary Winslow. They are from here letters and diary. They are wonderful. Here is one I thought was particularly good.

"What a brittle thing is all the glory, wealth, and honor of this vain world! How empty, and what trash does it appear! And yet men sell their souls to grasp it, and at last pass away from it and find it all a phantom. How unceasing is Satan in forever bringing it before our eyes, in some form or other! What is all the pomp and wealth and rank of this poor fleeting world, in contrast with the glory that shall soon be revealed in all those who love His appearing?"

Here is a
Link
if you are interested in reading more.

Eye of the beholder

There are many words, which have different meanings to different people. People view different situations differently depending on all sorts of influences in their lives. I think they mainly define and interpret all things depending on how it may effect them, or maybe better how they may like for it to effect them. Like the quote from Abraham Lincoln's "Address at sanitary Fair" depicts men's interpretation of Liberty.

"The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name---liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names---liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of , hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the people of Maryland have been doing something to define liberty; and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary, has been repudiated."

Perhaps the greatest source of this type of interpretation or divergence is the Bible. Gods Holy Word. Man, how we can be so far apart is something else. Like the meaning of 2nd Peter 3-9 "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Armenians use this verse to say that God loves everyone and see, He is waiting to give everyone a chance to "Come to HIm". Calvinist read this verse and say see, He is talking to his chosen people, "to us-ward", and He will wait until the final elect creature is saved.
Others look at this and say see, there is so much disagreement and controversies in the Bible that I don't think I can believe any of it.

Of course being a Calvinist myself I believe God is in control. He hardens who he will and opens the eyes of who He will. He has mercy and compassion on whom He will. He is sovereign in All things. Romans 9:15-21" For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
[16] So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
[17] For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
[18] Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
[19] Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
[20] Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
[21] Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Some will say then what is the use of Preaching, what is the use of seaking, if God only chooses. It's His will. Do it. He tells us to preach and by preaching he will bring people to believe. He tells us to seek him. And those who do will find Him. Not because they "DO" but because He has "DONE".

More Canyon tales

Mason and Carol have both talked about our week-end on their blogs but I would like to add my two bits. We did have a very good time on Saturday. We went to the Museum in Canyon first and I enjoyed it very much. I will need to go back someday by myself as I was rushed through and not allowed to take the time to see everything and read all the captions on the displays. I am always a little surprised at the quality of the museum. It seems like it would not be as nice as it is being in such a small town as Canyon and in the Panhandle of Texas. I remember going there as a young boy, prob. around 9 or 10 yrs old. I liked it then and have enjoyed it each time I have returned. One highlight was seeing the collection of guns that my Aunt and Uncle donated. He had reminded me a few weeks ago that he had given his John Wayne collection to the museum and as we toured thru the other day Carol asked what John's middle name was. I said it was Woodsen and she pointed out the collection.
It is neat to see the display on the oil industry in the Panhandle. As a resident you know most of the names of the ones that were successful in the business but it is neat to see their pictures and the old photographs of the drilling and boom towns. I imagined my Grandparents in Borger a little after the boom.

We had a good walk. I was surprised at Masons ability to hang with us. I was afraid he would run out of gas and get to whinnying but he made it pretty well. He did go off on his own however. After he started I got a picture in my mind and after realizing I had let him start too early I got a little concerned.



I couldn't shake the picture so I climbed the mountain after him. I went on adrenalin. I kept thinking I prob. couldn't make it. My 55 year old legs got a little shaky but I kept on going. When I got on top I called his name. No response. I scared some deer and I wondered what else I would jump. I called again. My breathing was pretty loud but I thought I heard a call. I waited a minute and tried to be quiet. I heard the sound again. I hollered again and then I heard clearly a "Hello" in return. I looked toward the sound and saw a white shirt. I was so relieved. I have heard the news reports and saw the headlines of peoples kids lost in the woods and even in the Canyon. I didn't want it to be about us.
We joined up and started to look for a way down. We could see a trail way down below and knew that we could prob. join up with Carol and Corbin if we could get to it. We choose a route and started down. It did get kind of serious in one spot. Had we slipped we might have slid about 30 feet onto some rocks. Not sure how bad it would have been but certainly not a lot of fun. It took a long time to get down. When we did I quit worrying about our safety and began worrying about what Carol was going to say. I was pretty sure she would be upset at us. We got on the trail and started making our way back to where it would intersect the main path. We turned to our left and began to walk in the direction I felt would take us to the truck. We heard someone calling and looked up to see Carol and Corbin at a rest stop about 100 yards away. We had taken a wrong turn and luckily we were close enough for them to see us and get us on the right path. She was not upset. She handled waiting an hour on us very well. I was very relieved again.

Next time we will not go off individualy and we will read this link before we go.