Rain and Books

Our fiscal year ended on September 30.  Since we have had a couple of weeks of rainy weather, I have been doing bookwork to close the year.  I remember again why I am not an accountant.  This year we are using a new computer program for our recordkeeping, so that has made some of the work easier.  But it has made some of the work more complicated also.  I do think I have everything pretty well wrapped up now.  Unless the FBFM field man or our accountant have questions.

October mushroom

When daughter #1 was here this past week to get the rest of her stuff out of our attic, it motivated me to go through the old books I have up there and our other bookshelves to see if I could weed out any books.  It has been painful, but so far I have 136 books boxed up and ready for Goodwill.  Unfortunately (actually not), that is just a small fraction of the total books still in the house.  Even after our two oldest left the house and moved their books out, we probably still have a couple thousand left!

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Far more seemly were it for thee to have thy study full of books, than thy purse full of money. ~John Lyly

No person who can read is ever successful at cleaning out an attic. ~Ann Landers

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
John 21:25

Pork Stewardship

According to the Met Office (U.K.'s National Weather Service), there has been 0 global temperature rise in the last 16 years.  There was a slight rise in the previous 16 years, and a slight decline in the 40 years prior to that.  They analyze 3000 measuring points on land and sea around the globe.  The computer models used to predict global warming are flawed and have failed in their predictions.  The alarmists who believe man predominately affects climate change (rather than God's natural change) have and will continue to cost society a lot of money with their agenda.

As for pork production's environmental impact, there is good news!  In the last 50 years, land use for feed has decreased by 78%.  The Carbon footprint of pork production has been reduced by 35%.  Water usage has decreased by 41%.  Pigs per sow per litter has increased 30%.  Today it only takes 5 pigs from breeding to market to produce 1,000 lbs. of pork, compared to 8 pigs 50 years ago. 
And pork is 31% leaner than it was just 20 years ago!

  And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
Luke 12:42

Blessings and Sorrow

We finished harvest this week (all except a small field of double crop soybeans that won't be ready for another week).  We are not sure what we did wrong that we finished before some of our neighbors!  We are usually the last ones done in the neighborhood.  I guess getting rid of our sows, trading combines, and the reduced yields all played a part.  Corn yields ended up 15% below average, and soybeans were a little above average.  We feel blessed because we expected less as a result of the summer we had.

We had two funerals in church in the last week and a half.  The first, a Christian father who leaves a wife and 4 young boys, who lost a battle with cancer. The second, a dear old sister in the Lord who lived a long, fruitful life.  The first, a real sorrow and loss.  The second, a peaceful passing.  Both blessed our congregation.

We spent a blessed day of worship and fellowship today in T-town.  They hosted the "Illinois Potluck".  Every fall, a host church invites 5 couples (families) from every Apostolic Christian Church in the State of Illinois (19) to church for the day followed by a lunch call, supper, and singing.  We are one of the core couples, so we try to attend each year.  It's a slightly different group each year and we enjoy the food and fellowship.  We have made a lot of great friendships over the years.
And we got to spend time with our daughter and son-in-law and see our granddaughter!

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

Tozer

In my spare time recently, I have been reading from a couple of books by A. W. Tozer.  I will share some short quotes, and hopefully sometime will figure out how to share some longer ones.

“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.”


“Rules for Self Discovery:
1. What we want most;
2. What we think about most;
3. How we use our money;
4. What we do with our leisure time;
5. The company we enjoy;
6. Who and what we admire;
7. What we laugh at.”

“We can be in our day what the heroes of faith were in their day - but remember at the time they didn't know they were heroes.” 

“We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.” 

“Teach us to know that we cannot know, for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.” 

“I believe that entertainment and amusements are the work of the Enemy to keep dying men from knowing they're dying; and to keep enemies of God from remembering that they're enemies.” 

“We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals...The tragic results of this spirit is all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies...the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities....salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease.”

 “...the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity whose hands are indeed the hands of Abel, but whose voice is the voice of Cain. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before the cross it bows and toward the cross it points with carefully staged histrionics--but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” 

“Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith.” 

“Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God.” 

“The best book is not one that informs merely, but one that stirs the reader up to inform himself.” 

“The believing man does not claim to understand. He falls to his knees and whispers, "God." The man of earth kneels also, but not to worship. He kneels to examine, to search, to find the cause and the how of things.” 

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Psalm 139:23