Deeper Furrow

  Suggested Listenings Audio Adrenaline – Hit Parade: The Greatest Hits NEEDTOBREATHE – The Outsiders      It is necessary to acknowledge influences.   Positive  entertainment is hard to come by.   Like looking for heath food in the supermarket, sugary substances hang about every checkout.   The real food is hidden in aisles called, “Homegrown” and “Prepare it yourself.”   Hunt and pick then consume contents, sometimes on the premises.      With sixteen immediate eyes watching me, I paraded before my family a man carried away by a muse.   Dancing in the kitchen to AC/DC and banging my head to Metallica did not bring me the respect I desired.   Who would acknowledge a dad given to embarrassing moves in front of their friends?   Did I dance?   Yah, I was caught up in this.      2022 COVID brought a change in me.   I lost much of my long-term memory.   Short-ter...

  A Good Name Proverbs 22:1 “ A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches , and loving favour rather than silver and gold. ” 1 Timothy 3:7  “ Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. ”       We spend years crafting our names.   At the very sound, what impressions flash into hearers’ frontal lobes?   What others think about us matters.   However, as Man is handicapped in his perception, our esteem shall not ride on the opinions of our neighbors.   A battered ball on the court of life, we shall not be.       Those we hold in respect; we look up to and value their evaluation of us.   Those in the outer circles we can dismiss because they do not know us.   But what happens when we draw fire from friendly forces in close trenches?   The noise of exploding shells about us threatens shock and send us crying...

  Honey, Wife, Sister, Woman, Property Genesis 14: 14  “ And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. 15  And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. 16  And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. ”      She wears a lot of hats.   She is many things to many different people.   These five things she remains to me.      Pillow talk and kind expressions of the day converses her in Honey, Honey Bunches, Hon, etc.   Wife she understands in subjection.   What is her proper place in respect to me?   She should know it is at my right hand.   “Yes, Sir” earns this spot as I take the lead. ...

  And What Am I To Do With You? Mark 4 “Our choice.”   That’s what the pastor said.   What we do with Jesus is up to us.        30, 60, 100?   His word is to bear fruit, but first comes the roots.   Without understanding, we suffer when trials come.   No water up from beneath.   We lack and wither.   Winds blow and threaten.   Our relationship with Him solidifies a base.      What do roots look like?   They look like the upper plant.   The plant is the manifestation of the root and soil agreement.   The plant is simply the interaction with the sun.   The trials of the sun will always be there.   Healthy roots yield a harvest.      What does it mean to be rooted in Christ?   More than head knowledge and memory verses.   More than church attendance and Bible studies.   More than the religious activities we busy ourselves with. ...

  Conflict Resolution In The Marriage Relationship Ephesians 5:28  “ So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. ” Ephesians 5:33  “ Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband . ”      At eight-years-old, I remember playing with my friend’s Evel Knievel stunt motorcycle. It would fit in its floor stand.   A side crank would spin up its internal flywheel.   At max speed I’d trip the release lever, the wheel would grab sending the bike racing across the floor.   The back tire had tremendous torque.   I kept fingers clear of pinch points.      Marriage conflicts are similar.   Situations put our vehicle in the trapped stand.   An invisible hand cranks the handle.   Low sleep, previous unresolved issues, or immediate needs spin the cycle faster.   Torqu...

  Why Corporal Punishment Is Necessary      Children understand pain.   They also understand comfort after an infraction.   If done appropriately in accordance with the individual child’s temperance, this manner of correction is most advantageous.      This society seeks to embolden the child’s rights at the expense of the caretaker’s hand.   Castration is the norm as eunuchs line the daycare walls.   Mom and Dad are absent.   Being the only ones with hopes of parental rights, they pass off this to outsiders.      Do I want strangers hitting my kids?   No.   But no governmental authority should reach its hand into my house to usurp the authority I establish.   DHS, last I knew, drew the line with a mark still present after twenty-four hours.   That seems reasonable for I do not seek to torture my children, only to stop their action in a “pause, prompt” nature.  ...

  Waiting With God      God doesn’t find fun in keeping us on the edge of our seats.   Being the master of time, He does not need to consult Timex before He makes a move.   Yet, His plans can be thought of as a complex zipper bringing together events as meshed gears in box.      Drive must meet driven and the clutch is ridden sometimes.   First to second then third.   Fourth meets fifth when the interstate calls.   To get the craft to cruising speed, quite often we need sling-shotted around Saturn’s second moon.   In other words, events come to accelerate as a catalyst in our reaction.   Sudden explosion blows in a direction we need to escape the terminal velocity of wonder.   Solidity sets down a firm calling as the roller coaster car hitches underneath pulling up the initial climb.   But what are we to do when floating down the plume not feeling grab of God?   We are sickened with the un...

  What We Owe God Exodus 20 -   23:9 Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy       Wasn’t it enough that God spoke to Israel from the mountain giving the ten commandments?   Wanting to craft a nation out of the lump of indigenous clay brought up from the bank of the Nile, He started the molding spin working from the base up.   Of course, all this followed a slamming down of the mass to the wheel when He showed His might with the plagues.   With elbows into His side, Our Father leaned over the piece to convince the gyrating clod it had boundaries.   The ten commandments centered the work upon the turning table.   But what He did next set Him off as a particular God with vested interest.      Not content with clay merely conformed to center, He saw more in him.   Plunging His thumbs down, outer walls formed as God showed Israel what vessel he was to be.   Through the judgements following the comman...

  A Bridge Too Far Mirage: illusion or delusion depending on one’s state of mind. Ephesians 2:8  “ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ”      “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”   I heard that phrase somewhere and it keeps coming back.   Someone always foots the bill.   Blessings here come only here through sacrifice.   Riding on the backs of ones letting the blood, a dinner tray makes its way to our mouths.   Take from the rich and give to poor?   A simple shifting of goods.   Substance gathers feet and runs to the pump.   Concentration driven by pressure sees to it an even spread.   In other words, osmosis through a semipermeable membrane is not the mechanism as higher moves naturally to lower.      Playdough’s levered extrusion machine neatly forms a line of compressed dough emanating from a selected die.   A once un...

  Aren’t We Like Demons? James 2:19  “ Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe , and tremble. ” Believe: to accept as true. Genesis 15:6  “ And he believed in the  Lord ; and he counted it to him for righteousness. ” Ephesians 1:13  “ In whom ye also trusted , after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, ”      Something that goes beyond the Roman Road is bare bottom trust.   No scripture recited over and over again can meet the basic desire which fills.   Sometime in this life we must make a choice about the nature of God.   Will the levered lie keep us from exposing ourselves fully to Him?      Demons do not trust the nature of God.   They accept some skewered truths about Him. Matthew 8:29  “ And, behold, they cried out , saying, What ...

  Must We Have A God Encounter?        When Jesus talked with Nicodemus, He was addressing all the Israelites that had ever come before him.   Being a humble man who kept the Mosaic law, he still was inadequate.   Was he indeed a child of God?   Israel in totality was known as God’s son.   Together they kept that identity, but what reassured them individually?      Jesus said, “ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ”   Jesus goes on to say a man must be born of the Spirit.   To enjoy the kingdom reign, a man must have this personal relationship.   Jesus addressed this as fundamental knowledge since it was in Adam all fell away.   Consequently, He rebuked Nicodemus’ lack of understanding in being a teacher of Israel.      If needing only the Old Testament to be assured of sonship, why would many verses in the New Testament be dedicated to this? ...

  The Baptism Of The Holy Ghost Ephesians 1:5  “ Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ” Romans 8:15  “ For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. ” Ephesians 4: 5  “ One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6  One God and Father of all …”      Upon a recent reading of Ephesians, the work of the Spirit came to me.   In understanding His preliminary function, before teaching us and bringing us into all truth, He must lay the concrete floor.   The dirt work being done by the Son, an excavated hole pierced though hardened ground.   Violent hash marks of the digger’s claws slashing tree roots and scouring vertical bedrock walls.   Down deep came the Earthmover till what could not settle provided a solid base.   When the General Foreman procl...

  It’s About Time 2 Corinthians 6:2  “ (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation.) ” Hebrews 4:7  “ Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day , after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. ”      We can only push God off for so long.   He comes to us in delicate offerings then a louder voice if we turn.   We hear Him in the corrective voice of our parents.   A further straying takes us to bounce against the church walls.   Smoking weed gets us on the wrong side of the school.   Finally, state’s wisdom lights up our rearview mirror.      In America, we have the fourplay option.   From parents to police, He can come to us even if we do not listen.   How blessed is this nation!   Four safety n...