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Gleanings From The Word

Category: Animals

  • Busy Beaver – another helper

    Busy Beaver – another helper

    We need the Holy Spirit

    Beaver

    One summer in my late teens, I worked for an oilfield service  company. I was a grunt laborer and traveled into the field doing whatever necessary and unpleasant work needed to be done.

    For a while, we had a beaver problem. Beavers are one way God uses His animals to mold and shape His creation. Their system of dam building can transform an area incredibly over time.

    This particular beaver had decided to dam a culvert on a small creek, causing the road to flood. I’d get out of the truck, don hip waders, and pull the dam apart. In a day or two, the busy beaver would have it rebuilt. Various crews tore the dam down on multiple occasions.

    The company I worked for even brought someone in to dynamite the dam and the beaver’s lodge. Even that didn’t work. The determined rodent started to rebuild. In the end, they called a trapper in and removed the beaver from the area.

    Sometimes, we can be like that very determined rodent. We slave away at things, only to have them fail. Then we do it all over again and wonder why it doesn’t work.

    Author Rita Brown once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”It’s a profound quote often falsely attributed to Albert Einstein and others.

    We try to live and serve under our own direction and power rather than relying on the leading of the Spirit. It’s a form of insanity.

    Only God’s plans are infallible. Only God’s ways will lead us to the right place. We need the Spirit.

    We were given the Spirit as a helper.

    And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever. John 14:16 ESV

    …the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26 ESV

    Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27 ESV

    But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Acts 1:8 ESV

    All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 1 Corinthians 12:11 ESV

    As believers, we have choices. We can work feverishly but in futility. Or we can trust the Spirit to lead and trust the Lord to produce fruit.

    I pray we are all a little less like that beaver and a lot more like Jesus.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed, 

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  • Birdsong – Thoughts on the complexity of the created order

    Birdsong – Thoughts on the complexity of the created order

    White crowned Sparrow
    White Crowned Sparrow

    I stumbled out of bed for a few minutes around 4:30 this morning. Although the sun didn’t officially rise until 6:59, it was already getting light out. I opened the door and listened for a while. As expected, I heard the wonderful sound of birds singing. It was an early morning serenade.

    The birds love greeting the day, or so it seems. Yet, there is more happening than the birds visiting. Bird calls travel further early in the morning because of differences in barometric pressure. 

    Some studies have also shown that many plants begin photosynthesis up to 30 minutes earlier if they hear bird calls. I don’t know how plants “hear” such things, but the result benefits both birds and plants. Earlier photosynthesis means earlier flowering, flower opening, and increased production. It is similar to the response to plants growing with classical music playing.

    I am always amazed at how our Creator intricately designed the systems of life. The details are often so much more complex than we see on casual observation. The systems are far too sophisticated to have randomly evolved “by chance.”

    Everyone and everything in creation is linked together in some fashion. Each impacts the other.

    The entirety of the complex systems the Lord designed eagerly awaits God’s restoration of all things. Our very home planet is harmed by the sin of mankind.

    Paul writes,

    For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Romans 8:18-22

    That knowledge shouldn’t turn us into Earth worshippers, but help us remember to be good stewards. It should also help compel us to work to see God’s kingdom come in full

    Paul goes on to say,

    And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

    When you hear a bird sing or see a flower blooming, may it remind you of the God we serve and help steer us on the path of becoming more like Him.

    Be blessed

    Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

    Kevin

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