A Pleasant Read

We are out in a rural area, with mountains to the north, south, and west. The only way we could have TV signals is if we signed up with the local satellite TV service. We had that in the house in Salmon Arm. We were disgusted with the poor programming. Like, every month, they programmed a week of The Green Mile. It wasn't just one channel either, try six. So, when we moved to the new house, we both agreed that satellite TV wasn't going to get our support, and we do without it.

Instead of turning on the "tube" for a relaxing break, we pick up a book. We have a little library of perhaps 500 books. (I know, it is too small, but I am working at building it up.) About 350 books are related to knowing God and Christian living. The others are about architecture, art, gardening, history, hunting, archery, and First Nations studies.

I recently picked up a book on Ebay, about the life of a hero of mine from my childhood. It was about Daniel Boone. The books I read about him in the school libraries painted the romantic adventurer in the lush forests of Kentucky. This new book, 430 pages, was written by John M. Faragher. His historical work stripped away the romantic and revealed the rheumatism, lice, starvation, and gore which was common at the edge of the frontier.

I chose this book as a pleasant read, but it has turned out to vex my soul. I read about naked aggression from my hero, who pursued taking lands which were occupied by Shawnee People. It wasn't that the land was vacant and so Daniel and thousands of other white people simply occupied it. He was met and clearly informed by the Shawnee where their land was and to stay off of it. Heedless of the warning, the land grab was on, and blood flowed on both sides.

When I look at it from the Shawnee view point, I think their response with war against the invaders is reasonable. The Shawnee were a private "keep to themselves" people. They didn't meddle with the neighboring tribes, which in the end contributed to their defeat. If they had joined the Iroquois Confederacy and the British, they would have had enough power to not only save their homes and lands, but the history of the USA would have developed quite differently; but they didn't.

I try to understand the mindset of the white pioneers at the frontier. It was a very different time. A time when "them that had the weapons, made the rules." It was like, "might made right." I don't agree with the utter contempt that the pioneers had for the Indians. Maybe it was the idea of Manifest Destiny which excused the treaty breaking, murder, and conquering of the Shawnee lands.

I sit and read about a tragedy. A tragedy for the Shawnee People. It was a tragedy in Daniel Boone's life, too. His brother and two of his son's perished in the land grab wars. I thought it would be a pleasant read, but it isn't. What makes it worse is that it is a true story.

Rev.21

I was fixing breakfast, before going hunting. My back was sore, and I was moving slowly, warming up to the day. A day with daylight still two hours away.

While I was sipping my warmed over coffee from yesterday, I was thinking again about dikaiosune. I was wondering about God...just imagine a God who would be willing to impute His righteousness to us. We, slaves to sin, and loving it; trapped in our desire to do the opposite of good. Like a news report I read yesterday from the UK, on the BBC news service online; of two old guys that committed a theft. They admitted the crime to police when caught. When asked why they would do it, one said he got a thrill from breaking the law. Well, each of us has that nature at birth, the desire to find the limits, and then break them.

So, it is to us, rebels from birth that God extends His perfect love and goodness. The angels, just imagine the mind bending that the angels must experience as they watch in wonder as this drama of reconciliation goes on to completion. Which brings me to Revelation 21:5, "Behold, I am making all things new!" Do you think Jesus says those words in a conversational voice? Or, perhaps, with eyes flashing and a glimmer of a smile He bellows out so all of Creation can hear, "I am making all things new!"

The earth, so scarred by weather, earthquake, and war, will be made new. The old, with all the signs of sin and death will be no more. An earth, so beautiful, that I cannot imagine it, will be restored to its original design.

Well, time to warm up the truck. Even if I don't bag a moose, I have a feast I chew on for a while.

Dikaiosune (Greek)

I have been travelling lately. Meetings here and there. So, not much to report except that I've been thinking, thinking about Ephesians 4:24. "...and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. The Greek word for righteousness in this text is dikaiosune. This is what the lexicon says about this word:

from dikaios, righteous, and dike, justice or righteousness. It is the essence of to dikaion, that which is just, or dikaios, of him who is just or righteous. Righteousness fulfills the claims of dike, which in the case of a Believer is a fulfillment of God's claims. Dikaiosune, righteousness is thus conformity with the claims of a higher authority and stands as the opposite anomia, lawlessness. In both the O.T. and N.T., righteousness is the state commanded by God and standing the test of His judgment. It is conformity to all that He commands or appoints. Since God Himself is the standard for the Believer, the righteousness of God means the righteousness which belongs to God or God-like righteousness (Matt. 6:33, James 1:20). The righteousness of God is the right which God has upon man. In order for man to recognize and fully submit to the right of God up his life, he must receive God who offers Himself or His righteousness to man as a gift (Rom.5:17). The recognition and acceptance of the claims of the law upon his life. Man in his natural, fallen condition tends rather to accept his own set of standards, creating his own righteousness (Rom.10:3). Such behavior, however, is not really righteousness (Rom.10:5) and does not satisfy God. God's righteousness is imputed and imparted as a gift to man but can not be earned. It results in God's act of justification of man by his faith through Christ. Man only needs to accept the claims of God upon his life and repent of his sin, receiving Christ as his Savior by faith, thus becoming a child of God. The result is the realization of God's claims upon him by the miraculous regenerating action of the Holy Spirit, (Eph.4:24).

So, if are really a child of God, and His righteousness really is present in us, then it makes perfect sense what follows in the next verse, put away lying and speak truth to every man. Lying, stealing, anger, malice, greed, fear, cowardice, etc., are incompatible with dike and dikaiosune.

Well, that is what I have been dwelling on, whether driving between meetings, or working around the house and shop.

I went hunting this morning. I drove about 12 miles back into the mountains to the south of my house. I picked an interesting area which had a convergence of three ravines, and no road access. "Ah, that looks like a nice place for moose to hide," I told myself. I started my decent without a sound. I was wearing moccasins, which helped me be very quiet. Slowly, I blended in with the landscape, moving slowly, and ever deeper into the wild.

I found deer tracks, and moose sign, too. The moose sign looked rather recent, which was good. I marveled at the beauty of the changing colors of leaves. The birch and the thimble berry plants were turning yellow.

After an hour, I had gone about as far as I wanted. I didn't want to follow the same route back, so I checked the sun, and picked a heading that would take me back to the truck faster. I crossed a large cut-block, and expected to be in sight of the truck. Instead, there were more trees, and steep ravine which I didn't remember seeing before. I didn't want to push my skills with cross county navigation, especially since my present attempts were not working out, so I back tracked. I came to a low tree which I remembered crawling under. I felt a little relief, especially since I had left my hunting pack, with the compass and matches back with the truck.

But when I came to the overturned roots of a fallen tree, I thought, "That was on my right, when I came here, so I should put it on the left to leave." But that didn't look right either.

I criss-crossed the area, always coming back to the fallen tree and root pile. With each trip, I was changing my memory of the area. Now, it all looked right and wrong at the same time.

I looked around, a bird was signing, but it didn't know the concern I was having at that moment. I was at least twelve miles from a paved road, with mountains to interfere with my sighting. I had to admit there was a chance I would be staying over night if I couldn't get this sorted out.

I decided to gain ground so I could see above the cedar and fir trees. Maybe I could see a road or my truck. I chose to follow a old dirt road bed that was left over from when the area was logged 20 years ago. I figured that I could remember that easy enough once I got my bearings. As I got higher, I caught a glimpse of a pickup truck passing by. If I were closer, I would have hitched a ride and found my truck with help, but that wasn't going to happen. The truck vanished from sight and was gone, without ever knowing I was there. I kept walking.

I walked another 200 yards and I was getting closer to the dirt logging road. I came around a tree and what did my wondering eyes see? My red truck was parked just up ahead. Then it all made sense. The old road I was on was the original path I took down into the hunting area. The lay of the land forced me to travel in a circle over a mile area. The circle trek was gradual enough to feel like it was more or less a straight travel, but it wasn't.

Daniel Boone, and American pioneer back in the 1730's, during the time of flintlock gun ignition, was asked if he had ever been lost. He said, "I was bewildered for three days once, but I wasn't lost." Well, I was bewildered, and it was feeling on the scary side of "lost". I was very pleased to hear the truck engine fire up once again. I had had enough adventure for the day. I went home and grilled a hamburger on the BBQ grill.

Isaiah 8:19b-20

Should not a people seek unto their God...To the law and to the testimony:

if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Home on the range...

I am bushed. I was in the bush, which is how I came to be bushed. The bush is my back yard. The pine beetles have killed some pine trees and with a strong wind, the dead standing trees fell into, guess??? Yep, two trees fell into two more dead pine trees. I had a dangerous problem. The trees were leaning over a trail. That was dangerous enough to demand a response, but "leaners" are dangerous problems. When cutting the othe dead standing trees, a "leaner" can shift, and fall onto the cutter below...which would be me. Not good.

So, I put on my safety equipment, like eye protection, gloves, and my orange Husquavarna hard hat, grabbed the chain saw and went to the tree problem. I back cut a notch half way through the standing tree, and then began cutting the other side. When I saw the saw cut begin to widen, I jumped back to watch the whole thing fall over. Nothing happened.
I quietly sneaked up to the tree, glancing up to make sure the leaner had not shifted, and began to cut again. The cut widened some more, so I jumped back. Nothing. The tree stopped tipping, even though less than one inch of wood was supporting the leaner. They say the third time is the charm, and whoever "they" are, they were right. The third cut removed enough wood and the whole mess fell over...into another dead standing pine tree! I was not amused!!

I started to repeat the process with the new leaner problem and then stopped. "Hey, I better see where this mess is going to fall," I said to myself. I looked down range, and guess what? Yep, another dead standing tree, just waiting to catch the next tree and make another leaner problem. "Oh yeah...I don't think so," I told myself.

I went to the dead standing tree five yards away and deeply cut it. Then I went back to the leaner trees and did my cut, jump away, cut, jump away, and finally success. The mess fell over into the standing tree, which then snapped off and fell over, too. The problems with the leaners was finally over. Then came the work of bucking up the wood from five trees, and hauling away the branches. I still have a couple of hours of work to do in bucking up the trees, but such is life. Firewood is a twice warming fuel. It warms you up as you cut and split it, and it warms as it burns. I am grateful to have a wood burning stove in the work shop area. Now I have plenty of wood to heat that area in the winter, too.

Tracks

The forest fire evacuation alert is finally recinded. The road security, helicopters, and water bombers have moved on to some other needy area. Thank the Lord for safety for the fire fighters that served here. As far as we know, no one was injured, even though one water bomber crashed into the lake.

We went to the little lake nearby this morning. Jennifer made plaster casts of animal footprints. We have prints from coyote, deer and bear.
I searched the shoreline for arrow heads, but didn't find any. I did find volcanic rocks, which surprised me a little. We are at least 15km from Mt.Ida, the location of an ancient volcano. I guess a volcano can spew rocks a long way if it wants to.

Jannie is feeling pretty well. She is enjoying the grandkids, and sewing something for Emily now.

Today is the opening season for hunting moose and deer. I won't be going out today, but maybe tomorrow afternoon/evening. The days are seasonable cool now.