On Being The Watchman

Today almost everyone from our church had the wonderful experience of meeting for the first time, a missionary that we support over in the Philippines. His name is Carl Henderson. He brought a message today that I would like to share a brief overview of it with you.

I want to start out with a Bible verse, and then a question;

6. "But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’
7. “So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul."
11. "Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’"
~Ezekiel 33:6-9,11

So I ask you, what does this verse mean? Notice verse 8. It is saying that if we don't share the gospel with others, their blood will be on our hands. God is telling us through Ezekiel that if we pass up an opportunity to share the word of God with others, than He will hold us at fault for not witnessing to them. You may start to say, "I just don't feel led!" or "I was just waiting for the right time" but guess what, God never said "Go tell others about me when you feel like it and if you do your best than your good". No, if that watchman in verse 6 sees the enemy coming, it's his primary duty to warn others of the coming danger. I don't think it would go over well with the judge, if there was one left in that city after it had been pillaged and destroyed, if the watchman said "I just didn't feel like it". Well, as you can obviously see, it would have been his fault for not sounding the alarm! God is the one to do the saving of souls, but he has given us the duty to be the "watchmen" and sound the alarm of the coming day in which each and every non-believer will be cast into the eternal and unquenchable fire. God doesn't take delight in the death of the wicked as is stated in verse 11, but when they reject the warning from God's children who try to share the gospel with them, they aren't rejecting the one sharing the gospel at all, it's really God whom they are rejecting. Then the blame is not to be found on the Christian for not sharing, but on the unbeliever for hardening their hearts.
Pastor Henderson also talked about how if we share the gospel, hopefully God will use the message to plant a seed into the heart of that person. There's a statistic that says a person on average hears the gospel 7.5 times before yielding to Christ. If that's the case, then when we help bring someone to the Lord, most likely the first thought to cross through our mind would be "Oh yeah! I've just brought this person to Christ!" when really, you were probably the person who happened to be the last in a line of others who sowed seeds of God's promises into the heart of that person. It reminds me of the song "What if I'm 15". The great news is that you will be able to reap rewards in Heaven. By doing this you are obeying Matt. 6:19, by laying up treasures for yourself in Heaven. Because everything on earth will be destroyed, but in Heaven, you cannot lose what you have received. We must also be aware that the seeds we plant into peoples hearts may not sprout till another person comes along, so you may not see the results, but they happen.
Another thing Pastor Carlson touched on was the fact on how Christ should be self evident in your life. He told a story on how this person went to Canada and visited stayed with some lumberjacks then came back telling stories of how terrible the lumberjacks would treat Christians, and went on and on about it. Well, the pastor put his arm around the man and asked him how the lumberjacks treated him, and he said "Oh, they didn't bother me, I was only there for two years so they never found out". Now I'm not sure if this story was just a story or it had actually happened, but I'm sure there have been scenarios that have been similar to this in real-life. How terrible a thing it is to have been in a place for two years and no one ever realizes that Jesus Christ lives in you! Talk about hiding your light under a bushel! Christ should be evident every hour of our lives, let alone ever day.
It's getting late, so I need to bring this to a close, but all I know is that one thought that just kept going through my head after hearing Pastor Henderson's message; "How many people's blood do I have on my hands for not sharing the gospel of Jesus with them, or for not making Christ in me evident to all in the way I look and act?"

Capital Punishment in the Animal World EXPOSED!

Out in the middle of a cornfield, the body of Sammy the coon, hung from a telephone pole. No one knew what the vicious woodland creatures did to those who would not comply.

Enjoying Summer

The lighting was right, and the summer blooms were awesome, so here's a glimpse into the flower garden through my eyes....

Catch-up

Hey Everyone, I know I haven't posted for a while, partially due to the reason that I've been so busy, and also that my camera hasn't been working well enough to suit me. So the following will be kinda random, but it will just give you a few glimpses into my summer. Enjoy!


This photo doesn't do this plant justice in the least, but this is the second time I've tried growing a "Love Lies Bleeding" Amaranth plant and I was pretty pleased with the results. :)

Sorry about the poor quality of this picture, but at the pumpkin festival we were able to see the Budweiser Clydesdales.


This is our to-be castle wall for our church's "Reformation Day Faire" that will be held on Oct. 23-24.


Pepperoni is trying to catch a butterfly. I thought it was so funny how he stood on his hind legs ready to pounce. Not to worry, the butterfly made it away safely.


Again, I wish I had more pictures to share of this wonderful event. This was our church's 1st Multi Church Jubilee Picnic. We had members from 5 like-minded churches attend this at Birchwood park here locally in Morton. Again, check out Sierra's blog for more pictures and info.


Now the following pictures are from on top of the King's "Harvestore" Silo. Sierra and I climbed all the way to the top and believe me, it was quite an accomplishment. :) Quite unnerving when you look down, and even scarier if you look down on the way up climbing that ladder. (thankfully it had somewhat of a guard that surrounded you, and the ladder)






This is a picture from our "Soda is Evil" shooting session, we took soda, shook it up in the can, and then shot it with my air pump gun. You can check out Sierra's blog for more on that.

This is Mai Kyono from Japan! She was our neighbor's exchange student and was visiting the U.S. for about a month.

Tremont Turkey Festival

Last night we joined some of our wonderful friends, the McDonalds and Riggenbachs at the Tremont Turkey Festival. It was an evening filled with fun and laughter. The girls decided that they wanted to start out on the "Comfy Couch" ride. Caleb and I watched from the sidelines and took a few pictures. After that, Jessica and Sierra were ready for something a little more adventurous, so they decided to try the "Orbiter". I enjoyed my one-funnel-cake-of-the-year and smiled and waved at the two girls being flung about in such a savage manner that one would be afraid to vomit for fear of it being "mixed" all over oneself. After seeing the ride demonstrated by the two dizzy, but enlivened girls stepping off the ramp to leave the ride, Caleb and I decided it was worth the five tickets. Once the ride got up to speed, we could not stop laughing while Jessica and Sierra were screaming their heads off. (I admit to at least attempting a scream, but it came out more like a weird sort of croak).
The girls decided to sample a few other rides, while Caleb and I used our tickets on the rides we already knew were our favorites, namely: "The Gravitron", "Orbiter", "Zipper" and the couch was tried once. The Zipper is another ride that violently swings you up, down, and around in a pod that will flip around on it's own set of spokes, making for a very fun and freaky ride.
We ended the day by going to "Pinky's" which is a local ice cream shop, and is very popular around Tremont. After all those rides we felt the need to let our stomachs settle, but Lenna told us we would feel better if we ate something as she had felt the same way. We had small cones and that actually did do the trick. Following the ritual of saying good-byes, we left very satisfied and happy for a wonderful evening with friends.

Thanks to Sierra, Lenna, and Caleb for helping take some great pics!

So long!




I love Hannah's expression in this one.


The girls on the "Comfy Couch"

The girls with their "stunned look on"


Enjoying the "Orbiter"

Our favorite place to gather on these kinds of evenings

Meet The Puppies!

Cooper


Cappuccino


Diesel


Moto

The Puppies Are Here!

Hey everyone! As many of you know by now, Lady has had her puppies. They were born 5-01-09. They are pure-bred, to be AKC registered, Standard Poodles. There are two creams and two blacks and all males! Unfortunately one was stillborn,(also a cream male). We named him "Baby Bourne".
We haven't named the others yet, but once they're personalities start to come out, we might land a temporary name on them. :)

A Week At The Barn

I hope to post a few pictures later, but for right now I hope you enjoy this little vid. As many of you know, I helped out for about 3 years at Mr. Diemer's barn, so when his Daughter, Stacy and family (the ones who usually are active with him in taking care of everything) went on a trip, Sierra and I had the opportunity to go over there to help with the chores, feeding, ect. and also were blessed to have a few lessons in long-lining (me), and longeing (Sierra).

Blog Catch-up

I meant to post these events earlier, but hadn't gotten around to it until now, so the posts below are in the succession they would have been in if I had posted right after their happenings. Enjoy!

Random picture of the post: The light was shining in at just the right angle to create the illusion that we had a candle in there. I mainly took this picture though, because of that little ball of light at the top of the neck of the candle holder.

Spring is Here!......... Or Not!

I wake up to the creaking of my door as it slowly opens, and hear the voice of my dad say in a quiet, but a bit surprised, "We have about three inches of snow outside!" I could barely manage to be able to groan out a "nooooo".
Wanting to see it for myself, I staggered out of my room, and glance over to the window to find the "hooligans" (cats) staring out with almost the same amount of surprise on their faces as I had. I heard that we were supposed to get it, but with the nice day before, I just couldn't believe it was going to happen. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening.





I wonder which way the wind was blowing? :)




The lilac blooms just starting to come out.

Black Olive Studios Photo Shoot March '09