Last Day of April
4/30/07 - 2nd Day - Midday. We had about an inch of rain last night and this morning. I had to bail out the front catchwaters at a little past 5:30 this a.m. Our large catchwater is sitting back at about 2200 gallons (out of a capacity of 2500) which is virtually full. We really needed the rain. The gardens got a good soaking, as did all the fields. This morning, things are pleasant and the birds are making jungle noises.
Speaking of birds, Danielle put out a hummingbird feeder a week or so ago, and all of a sudden we have hummingbirds around it all the time. That seems like it is the way it should be, but I still don't get it. Where have they been all this time? If I put out a bear feeder, or a wombat feeder, would we suddenly have wombats and bears? I can only conclude that putting out sugary water in a readily available feeder PRODUCES hummingbirds from thin air. Ok, maybe not. Now I just have to figure out what cigars eat and I'll be sittin' pretty. More on birds... I looked out my window while I was working today and saw a woodpecker pecking on my firewood pile. Interesting. Part of me is very hopeful that he eats all the termites out of the woodpile - and part of me hopes he isn't going to reduce my whole woodpile to sawdust. If you listen to the 2nd part of the Idolatry sermon series, you will hear this same woodpecker squawking in the background during part of it. By the way, part 1 of this series is now up and ready. Hope to have part 2 up soon, so you can hear the woodpecker chirp.
Well, 3 more days until we take 2 of our hogs to the "processor" (when did these guys stop being 'butchers'?), which is good - and we could use the meat. We're splitting the 2 hogs between 4 families here in the community.
Oh, forgot to say that the men here in the community visited a Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Coleman, Tx on Sunday morning. We had seen the building in Coleman for well over a year, and were curious. For a long time there was the phone number of the preacher, and we intended to call, but never did. Then, this past week, one of the guys saw a man mowing the lawn and stopped to check things out. They told us they were still meeting there at 11 a.m. on Sunday, but they currently did not have a preacher. Anyway, we decided to drive over there after our own singing fellowship on the Lord's Day morning, and see what it was all about. The folks were nice, the singing was good... they had a guest preacher, and he was a cardboard cutout of every modernist preacher in America today. He actually apologized for being "overdressed" for the occasion. He was very slick, he raised and lowered his voice dynamically, had very practiced hand gestures and intonation, began with a slight joke, added plenty of personal anecdotes, etc., and he let us know that he preached a lot in Germany, where it is easier, because there aren't as many distractions over there. He also preached for an hour and a half on 2 verses. Not that he drew any meat out of them, but he actually "performed" for 90 minutes with only two verses. Here are the two verses:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34-35)
We learned that unity is good, and that if Christians will be in unity, then God will "bless us with souls". We learned that when "sinners" come through the doors of the church, they can automatically tell if the church is in unity. You see, "sinners" are not stupid like some people think they are. "Sinners" are very, very intelligent. The drug dealers in a park in Germany allowed this preacher and his friends to preach to them, because they didn't treat "sinners" like they were stupid. Other preachers were kicked out of the park because they were not "for real". This preacher quoted Spurgeon, and said that schism and division always comes from pride. I wondered what he would have thought about Spurgeon and the "Downgrade Controversy". I wondered what he thought about the Reformation. He said that unity should never be "at the expense of truth", but he did say that we ought to be willing to drop our "convictions" in order to have unity. I wondered how that is possible. He said that most people want to put God in a "theological box" (the old "God in a Box" ploy), and I wondered if that could possibly be true. I believe that theology describes what God has said about Himself, and attempts to define the box that God has US in. Generally when someone says that "you can't put God in a box", they don't like something God has said about Himself, and don't want dogmatism in any form to damage the picture they have of a box-less "god". Believe it or not, God is quite often pretty dogmatic about Himself.
Anyway, he was a guest preacher, and he is probably a perfectly nice fellow - but I am not sure I could listen to him preach again. We might visit again soon, just to get to know the nice folks that are regulars there at the church. Maybe they will have a different guest preacher. I hope it is not a 90 minute sermon on "Jesus wept".
Your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
Speaking of birds, Danielle put out a hummingbird feeder a week or so ago, and all of a sudden we have hummingbirds around it all the time. That seems like it is the way it should be, but I still don't get it. Where have they been all this time? If I put out a bear feeder, or a wombat feeder, would we suddenly have wombats and bears? I can only conclude that putting out sugary water in a readily available feeder PRODUCES hummingbirds from thin air. Ok, maybe not. Now I just have to figure out what cigars eat and I'll be sittin' pretty. More on birds... I looked out my window while I was working today and saw a woodpecker pecking on my firewood pile. Interesting. Part of me is very hopeful that he eats all the termites out of the woodpile - and part of me hopes he isn't going to reduce my whole woodpile to sawdust. If you listen to the 2nd part of the Idolatry sermon series, you will hear this same woodpecker squawking in the background during part of it. By the way, part 1 of this series is now up and ready. Hope to have part 2 up soon, so you can hear the woodpecker chirp.
Well, 3 more days until we take 2 of our hogs to the "processor" (when did these guys stop being 'butchers'?), which is good - and we could use the meat. We're splitting the 2 hogs between 4 families here in the community.
Oh, forgot to say that the men here in the community visited a Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Coleman, Tx on Sunday morning. We had seen the building in Coleman for well over a year, and were curious. For a long time there was the phone number of the preacher, and we intended to call, but never did. Then, this past week, one of the guys saw a man mowing the lawn and stopped to check things out. They told us they were still meeting there at 11 a.m. on Sunday, but they currently did not have a preacher. Anyway, we decided to drive over there after our own singing fellowship on the Lord's Day morning, and see what it was all about. The folks were nice, the singing was good... they had a guest preacher, and he was a cardboard cutout of every modernist preacher in America today. He actually apologized for being "overdressed" for the occasion. He was very slick, he raised and lowered his voice dynamically, had very practiced hand gestures and intonation, began with a slight joke, added plenty of personal anecdotes, etc., and he let us know that he preached a lot in Germany, where it is easier, because there aren't as many distractions over there. He also preached for an hour and a half on 2 verses. Not that he drew any meat out of them, but he actually "performed" for 90 minutes with only two verses. Here are the two verses:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34-35)
We learned that unity is good, and that if Christians will be in unity, then God will "bless us with souls". We learned that when "sinners" come through the doors of the church, they can automatically tell if the church is in unity. You see, "sinners" are not stupid like some people think they are. "Sinners" are very, very intelligent. The drug dealers in a park in Germany allowed this preacher and his friends to preach to them, because they didn't treat "sinners" like they were stupid. Other preachers were kicked out of the park because they were not "for real". This preacher quoted Spurgeon, and said that schism and division always comes from pride. I wondered what he would have thought about Spurgeon and the "Downgrade Controversy". I wondered what he thought about the Reformation. He said that unity should never be "at the expense of truth", but he did say that we ought to be willing to drop our "convictions" in order to have unity. I wondered how that is possible. He said that most people want to put God in a "theological box" (the old "God in a Box" ploy), and I wondered if that could possibly be true. I believe that theology describes what God has said about Himself, and attempts to define the box that God has US in. Generally when someone says that "you can't put God in a box", they don't like something God has said about Himself, and don't want dogmatism in any form to damage the picture they have of a box-less "god". Believe it or not, God is quite often pretty dogmatic about Himself.
Anyway, he was a guest preacher, and he is probably a perfectly nice fellow - but I am not sure I could listen to him preach again. We might visit again soon, just to get to know the nice folks that are regulars there at the church. Maybe they will have a different guest preacher. I hope it is not a 90 minute sermon on "Jesus wept".
Your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 4/30/2007 09:24:00 AM
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