Lead me on level ground

Hear my prayer, O Lord,
Give ear to my supplications!
Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!

And do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
For in Your sight no man living is righteous.

For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
He has crushed my life to the ground;
He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.

Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;
My heart is appalled within me.

I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your doings;
I muse on the work of Your hands.

I stretch out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You, as a parched land.

Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails;
Do not hide Your face from me,
Or I will become like those who go down to the pit.

Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning;
For I trust in You;
Teach me the way in which I should walk;
For to You I lift up my soul.

Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies;
I take refuge in You.

Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

For the sake of Your name, O Lord, revive me
In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.

And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies
And destroy all those who afflict my soul,
For I am Your servant.

(Psalm 143, NASB)

On being saved and brought into the fire

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

In the whole land,” declares the Lord,
“two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.

This third I will bring into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’ “

Zechariah 13:7-9

The Old Farm

Last weekend, Tim, his family, and I went down to southeast Ohio to see his cousin get married. Tim and his brother-in-law were excited to show me “The Old Farm” that his grandpa Hogue owned. We didn’t get to it until the last day, and I couldn’t figure out what would be so thrilling about going to see an ordinary farm.

It turns out that not only is it an old farm, it’s an abandoned farm. The farmhouse has been uninhabited for over 30 years. It was built in 1905, and the house that was there before it was the original house, built in the 1700s when the Hogue family was granted a piece of land (Tim’s uncle has the original sheepskin deed) by president John Adams.

Both Tim’s dad and grandfather grew up on this farm, so I imagine they both have stories to tell, but we had not the time for any.

I took pictures because of the unusual setting of the farm. We took the 1/2 mile driveway back into the fields and trees, past several plots of land that were sold off years ago, reducing the farm from the original 250 acres to 75 acres. There are rolling hills everywhere in southeast Ohio, it was pretty magnificent.

The driveway stopped at the entrance to a large field, which bordered a forest. The rest of the driveway led into the forest, and wasn’t passable, so we walked alongside it in the field until we finally saw buildings a ways into the woods. We had to hike down a steep ravine to get down to the farmhouse.

Here are pictures of The Old Farm, now in the middle of the forest.

Somebody was fired over this…

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the treasured Bee Bop Video, and how it was recorded over by mistake.

My sister sent me an email, saying “Remember how we thought it was a pretty big deal that we taped over the Bee Bop Video? … NASA taped over the moon landing.”

Yup, that’s right. Read about it here.

When life feels tiresome…

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

“According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

(1 Peter 1:3-9, ESV)