Made Complete by Our Union With Christ

Christianity is not a philosophy, a system of rules, or an austere way of life.  It is a vital union with Christ.  The believer is in Christ, and Christ is in the believer and in God the Father. (John 14:20)  Through our union with Christ, Christians are also able to fellowship with the Father. (Colossians 3:3)  When we live in Christ, we have fellowship with God.

As followers of Jesus Christ, God is working in Christians to give us the desire and power to do what pleases Him. (Philippians 2:13)  We ascribe not to a religious system, but rather we surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit.  When led by the Holy Spirit, the Christian is no longer irresistibly drawn to serve sin.  Our desire is to please the Spirit.  (Romans 8:5-14)

“I want you to know how much I have agonized for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for many other believers who have never met me personally.  I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.  In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.  For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.  For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.  So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.  For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.  He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.  In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.  For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.  Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud,  and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as,  ‘Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!’?  Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.  These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.” [1] (Colossians, Chapter 2 NLT)

 

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[1] https://biblehub.com/nlt/colossians/2.htm

 

The Owyhee Mountains

The Owyhee Mountains are located in Southeastern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho.  The highest point is Hayden Peak, (8,403 feet or 2,561 meters).  Although a number of peaks reach 7,000 – 8,000 feet in elevation, most of the range is somewhat lower. [1] My own estimate is that those elevations range from 3,000 – 6,000 feet. 

Some of the higher elevations are forested with evergreens, but the rest of the range is covered with sage, other kinds of brush, and with grasses. In the spring the grasses are green, but they turn yellow and tan by mid-June. 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leases the public land to ranchers for grazing.  It provides revenue to help with the cost of managing the land.  In the past, overgrazing damaged the native grasses.  Consequently, the land is overrun with invasive species of grass and weeds.  That contributes to the rapid spread of wildfires in the dry months, and large wildfires are not unknown. 

The climate is dry to desert-like in the Owyhees, and so is the scenery. The average annual precipitation in Owyhee County is 9.04 inches. [2]  It is dryer down by the Nevada border.  In July and August temperatures can exceed 104 F (40 C). 

The Owyhees are beautiful, but their beauty is an acquired taste.  There are incredible rock formations and deep gorges. Your first impression, however, may be that they are desolate. 

Lower elevations notwithstanding, the Owyhees can be very rugged.  There are a number of wilderness areas where travel by motorized vehicle is prohibited.

Although there are maintained dirt roads that can be driven with regular passenger vehicles, high clearance four-wheel drive vehicles, or Off Highway Vehicles (OHV’s) and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV’s), are needed on the backcountry roads.  In some areas, there are no roads at all, or there are only “two tracks.”  The BLM restricts vehicles to established roads and trails. 

Much of the Northern part of the range is public land, but there are also large tracts of privately owned land.  These are mostly ranches and irrigated farms.  A few areas are owned by mining interests.  The Southern part of the Owyhees is primarily public land that is managed by the BLM. 

Some parts of Southwest Idaho are remote.  There are places where you may stand on ground that almost no one has stood on before.  It’s quiet there … so quiet that it can bother people who are not used to it. For me, it is a tonic for my soul. You can have some good talks with God there.  What is truly important is seen more clearly in remote, rugged places. 

If you like to observe birds and animals, viewing is good in the early morning and late evening.  My opportunities are limited because I am the primary caregiver for my wife, who is disabled.  Nevertheless, I have seen birds of prey, quail, pheasant, rabbits, a rattlesnake, foxes, coyotes, deer, and antelope (pronghorn).  God is good – all the time. 

I cut my backcountry teeth backpacking in the high-country wilderness in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.  It would be a mistake, however, to compare the Owyhees to those areas.  The Owyhees are an entirely different environment and should be taken on their own merits.  I have come to enjoy the Owyhees for what they are … a challenge. 

I’m not necessarily urging people to visit the Owyhees.  A lot of people wouldn’t like it.  If you do visit, bring extra food, water, and gas.  There is no place to get them once you leave the highway. 

Always pack out everything you bring in.  Please pack out any trash others may have left behind as well.  Ethical use calls for the land to be preserved in its natural condition. 

The Owyhee mountains may appear to the uninitiated to be a “wasteland.”  They are not.  They are a large, arid ecosystem, much of which belongs to the public.  Public lands belong to each and every American citizen, and they must be preserved in their natural condition for use by the public.  Our public lands are our heritage, and public ownership of these lands is our children’s inheritance.  If federal agencies mismanage public lands, then we must fix it – not give it to the state governments to parcel out to moneyed private interests.  That is my last word on it. 

 

Note: Owyhee is an early anglicization of Hawaii.  The area is named for three Hawaiian trappers who entered it in the 1800’s and were never heard from again.

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[1] https://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/6338-2/ 

[2] http://www.usa.com/rank/idaho-state--average-precipitation--county-rank.htm#google_vignette

 

Memorial Day 2024

There are a number of articles on the Internet that show the number of Americans who have been killed or wounded in all of our wars, and other military actions, throughout our history.  The numbers don’t always agree, but you can get a general understanding if you look at a few of them.  I found the chart on: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war 

to be the easiest to read.  According to: 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/many-americans-died-u-s-wars  

over 1.1 million Americans have given their lives for our freedom in all of our wars combined. 

It is sobering to think of the enormity of that loss.  The injury is aggravated when we think about the grief of family and friends. 

The cost of lost potential is staggering.  We will never know how much our fallen heroes might have contributed to society.

Our gratitude also goes out to those who were wounded, and to all those who served.  God bless you. 

Memorial Day is a national holiday, so enjoy yourself if you have some time off.  Those who served did so in order that you can have the freedom to enjoy all that our wonderful country has to offer.  Please take a few moments to remember those who died for our country.  Please pray that God will protect us in a dangerous world.  Pray for peace.

 

As if We Needed A reason

Please read this online article regarding President Biden’s threat to withhold all military aid from Israel if they attack the Hamas forces that are hiding behind the Palestinian civilians in Rafah: The West will soon pay for Biden’s betrayal (msn.com)

We have multiple reasons to vote Joe Biden and the Democrats out of office in November.  Yet, if this latest blunder were the only reason, it would be enough.

New Life in Christ

There are days when we feel like we have lived too long and seen too much.  We grow weary of our struggles with life’s troubles, and we long to be in heaven with the Lord. 

There is good news!  Jesus has overcome this world and the problems of our old life. (John 16:33)  Believers have a new life in Christ, and we are seated in Him at the place of honor at the right hand of God the Father in the heavenlies. 

The burdens we carry now may become tiresome, but we can lay them down at Jesus’ feet.  Having done so we can rejoice in the new life He has given us.  Praise the Lord! 

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4 NIV) [1] (See also, Ephesians 2:6)

He Hideth My Soul

By

Fanny J. Crosby (Lyrics) and William J. Kirkpatrick (Music)  

1. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
   A wonderful Savior to me;
   He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
   Where rivers of pleasure I see.

o    Refrain:
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
And covers me there with His hand,
And covers me there with His hand.

2. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
   He taketh my burden away,
   He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved,
   He giveth me strength as my day.

o   Refrain

3. With numberless blessings each moment He crowns,
   And filled with His fullness divine,
   I sing in my rapture, oh, glory to God!
   For such a Redeemer as mine.

o   Refrain

4. When clothed with His brightness transported I rise
   To meet Him in clouds of the sky,
   His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
   I’ll shout with the millions on high.

o   Refrain [2]

 

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[1] https://biblehub.com/niv/colossians/3.htm

[2] https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/He_Hideth_My_Soul/

 

 

 

Humility

Christians have the mind of Christ. (1Chrinthians 2:16)  When we put our self out of the way, we can think as Jesus thinks.  The way we think in our hearts, molds who we are. (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)  It is only when we are yielded to the mind of Christ that we can emulate His humility. (1John 2:5-6) 

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,  complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11 NASB) [1]

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[1] https://biblehub.com/esv/philippians/2.htm

 

Useful Idiots

In December of 1966, the rock group Buffalo Springfield recorded a song by Stephen Stills called, “For What it’s Worth.”  The song was written in response to what were called curfew riots, which were happening on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.  Young people had been gathering on “The Strip,” and curfew and anti-loitering laws were passed to discourage it, resulting in demonstrations and riotous behavior. [1] 

The song was often regarded as a protest anthem, especially by the growing anti-Vietnam war movement.  I was a freshman in college at the time, and I was in R.O.T.C.  I aspired to a military career after graduation.  I took a lot of grief from my friends.  The girls I dated just couldn’t let go of questions like, “How can you be a part of an unjust war?” 

We had anti-war demonstrations in those days, which were composed for the most part of young people, and especially of college students.  The anti-Israel demonstrations that are happening at many of our universities now remind me of the divisiveness and acrimony that we had in the ‘60s demonstrations. 

The Tet offensive in 1968 was a military defeat for the Vietnamese communists.[2] The NVA and Viet Cong forces were decimated, and they fled into sanctuaries in Cambodia.  Because of the widespread anti-war sentiment then, Congress would not approve pursuing the NVA and Viet Cong into Cambodia and the increased troop levels needed to do it.  Instead, the Johnson Administration asked for peace talks, which was like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. 

After a peace agreement was reached in Paris, the United States withdrew the lion’s share of our troops from South Vietnam.  Not long after that, the North Vietnamese communists violated the peace agreement and attacked.  The South Vietnamese were holding up pretty well until Congress bowed to anti-war sentiment and refused to fund additional military aid to South Vietnam.  The South Vietnamese lost because they lacked the war material they needed to continue to resist.  Sound familiar?  I am still ashamed of Congress for abandoning South Vietnam. 

So, What’s the point?  A useful idiot is defined as “a naive or credulous person who can be manipulated or exploited to advance a cause or political agenda.” [3] In former times, hard core communists, particularly in the USSR, used the term to describe Marxist and leftist sympathizers in the Western Democracies.  THE POINT IS that the useful idiots who are demonstrating against Israel, and for the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, are playing into the hands of forces that want to destroy – not only Israel – but the United States as well.  Further, the useful idiots would be among the first to get their throats cut if Iran and its proxies were ever to take control of the United States. 

These kids have been indoctrinated and are being manipulated by people who want to take America down, destroy it, and remake our country into something our founding fathers wouldn’t even recognize.  The demonstrators were wrong in the 1960’s, and they are wrong again now.  Back then we gave up the fight when we almost had it won.  Now, the Biden Administration is pressuring Israel to give up the fight when they almost have it won. 

Fellow citizens, a (silent) majority of us support Israel.  Please elect people to national office who share that support in November. 

For What it’s Worth

By Stephen Stills

 

[Verse 2]
There's battle lines being drawn
And nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Are gettin' so much resistance from behind

[Chorus]
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down

[Verse 3]
What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and a-carryin' signs
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" [4]

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_What_It%27s_Worth

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive

[3] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/useful%20idiot 

[4] https://genius.com/Buffalo-springfield-for-what-its-worth-lyrics