What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

WORD From The Woods



1 John 4:7-21

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”



I talked about love a few couple ago. As I’ve said before it’s not something that we talk about a lot as loggers, especially with the guys we work with. But, love is something that John talks about a lot in this book. He says over and over that if we don’t love our brother then we don’t know God. That’s a pretty clear statement! I don’t always see a lot of love displayed between guys in the woods. Even among Christians there seems to be a real lack of brotherly love. I’m guilty of it myself a lot of the time. It’s so easy to fall into things like gossip and tearing people down behind their backs or handling conflict with anger instead of love and kindness. When John says that a man who doesn’t love his brother doesn’t know God, I think we should take it very seriously and examine our heart carefully. If God is love and we have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, then we should treat others with love no matter what. We should be displaying the light of Christ in our everyday life in front of the guys we interact with each day. When we have a conflict with someone, it’s really easy to want vindication. We want everyone involved to know that we’re right, because that’s only fair right? Let me tell you what is not fair but it’s the greatest example of love the world has ever known. It wasn’t fair when the Creator of the universe condescended into sinful humanity to live among us only to be beaten and despised, all the time knowing that it was for those very people (and you and I) that He came to save. When John tells us that God is love, he’s talking about the same God that offered His only Son as a sacrifice in our place so the He could have a loving relationship with each on of us. When we put things in that perspective it should change not only the way we think about God, but also the way we look at the people around us. This week especially, as we prepare to celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, remember what He did for us on the cross and remember that as followers of Christ we are called to display His love and character in our own life.



God bless and have great week! -Terry

 

I certainly hope not!!!

 

What a wonderful dream and gift from your wife. Thanks for sharing.

 

And remember Dennis, dreams come true. At this point you are physically separated but one day you will be reunite. No time in the near future mind you, there’s still work here for you to do.

 

I do recall and a door would be much better.. Good thinking..

 

No not ever.

 

Interestingly enough our group study tonight was on 1 Corinthians 13 Thanks for posting this.

 

It was a blessing for sure. Hoping for many more.

 

As you are well aware, crows and blue jays can be some noisy SOB's...especially when you are trying to catch a last couple winks in the morning!

 

A couple weeks ago we picked up a couple goats for the kids. Going to try to get them bred and milk them next spring. Spent Saturday and last night building a pen and a 5x9 shed for them to live in. Few little things left to do, but they are moved in there now.

I wasn't about to pay for lumber at these prices so I used literally every last scrap from the shop and had just enough lumber. I had to buy metal for the roof and walls and that stuff has gotten expensive too.

Got a few other outdoor projects to do then back to putting finishing touches on bedroom #3 and starting in on bedroom #4.

There aren't enough hours in the day.

 

We used to live close to an intersection and had a woodpecker that loved the stop sign at sunrise. 3:30 am and that thing would start in. The wife took care of that one. She used a little too heavy of a shot though, kinda destroyed the stop sign.