voting

I know, you probably are tired of hearing about anything political now. We are on campaign overload. But I gotta tell you that I just can't believe anyone would vote for OBama. In order to be fair, I don't really like McCain's ideas the best either. In fact, I haven't looked to deeply into them. But I know enough about him to know who I will choose between the two. Thus, to clarify why I can't possibly vote for Obama here is my two cents.
1. He is pro abortion. I cannot comprehend why anyone who at least makes the claim that he or she is a christian can possibly be okay with killing a baby. I don't think I need to go into detail about how they do that either. On top of that his claim is dubious at best.
2. He will, as has every other democrat, systematically tried to dismantle the military. Our national security is of utmost importance in my mind. I would much rather we be fighting over in Iraq, than here. This man doesn't even uphold a sense of patriotism or fidelity to this country, if you read about his background and his statements that have been oft quoted. The fact that according to one poll I saw, 65% of the military is pro McCain. What boggles my mind is where are the other 35%. Are their heads in the sand?
3. His idea of 'spreading the wealth' concerns me. The last thing I want is for this country to turn to communism, aka 'socialism'. I'm all for helping others out, but when, how and where I choose, not by being told I have to give so much of my income. I am not for having part of my pay check go to support someone who says they cannot work, or don't want to work. "Spreading the wealth" is just a political code word for "government theft."
4. His concept of health care for everyone as though it is a right is Kaibosh! I have to say, I do have health care. But here again, people can go to clinics like the one my wife works at and be seen by a Dr. and be on the sliding fee and if they can't pay they will still be seen. Another flaw in his thinking is that he has not said where the money is going to come from to pay for that health care. But unless you are a complete idiot you must be aware that it will come from taxes. So much for not raising taxes, heh! I have a friend who is Canadian, where they have National Healthcare and they pay 48% of their income, get that, almost 1/2 of their income to pay for it. It is noticeable that those who are for it haven't told us the price tag if that happens here.
There are many more reasons but I have to get to a meeting tonight. So I will continue this later.

harmony

Well, I have gotten my comeuppance. I think that is a word. It is I just checked. Most of you know that I have been taking a horsemanship class over the last several months. We meet once a month. I've been told I ride to stiff and that I am too, shall I say, jerky or spastic, in delivering my cues for movement. The remedy? slow down and get soft. I have been informed this is the way I am at home too, by someone close to me, whom I will refrain from naming. Anyway, I have been working on 'flowing' into my cues with Raven and have found that she is not so spastic either when I do this. When I give her a chance to catch her breath and process what I am asking her to do she responds a whole lot more favorably. Even in my riding I have become softer on the rein and softer in my seat, ie. not riding like I have a rod up the u know what. It is more comfortable for her and for me. Now I just have to develop this habit. I have noticed that when I start calmly with her and end calmly with her there is a sense of harmony defined as " >noun (pl. harmonies) 1 the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect. 2 the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole. 3 agreement or concord.
-ORIGIN Latin harmonia 'joining, concord', from Greek harmos 'joint'."
This harmony makes for a much more pleasant experience in doing my homework with Raven. It also works at home to. Life is just better when there is harmony. I'm a quick responder, you know the 'knee jerk' kind. I react and as one man pointed out the other day, it is 'just to exchange feet.' Today I commit to working on this. I want to flow in and out of situations, not bounce around like the ball in a pinball machine. So the next time you see me I hope I am fluid and not rigid in my demeanor. But enough about talking about the big log in my eye. What about yours?
Is there harmony in your home?

Double Dip

Well, I made it. Yep! it was not the most pleasant experience though. The formulation of tea was tasty for hte first glass or two, but a gallon in 4 hours, no way. I was so full that it was nauseating to drink more. I'm speaking of course, for those who now, of a 'double dip' as RN Sara put it. I call it going in both doors. Just another name for what happens when you turn fifty. The highly recommended colonoscopy and for me the endoscopy. It was just a screening for possible problems. I came out clean as a whistle. :}I recommend everyone have it done. It is not a bad idea spiritually either to do a thorough exam of self to see what is up and if you have spiritual polops to be removed git-r-done. The apostle Paul tells us to examine ourselves in this deep way in 1 Corinthians 11, so as to avoid any future judgment by the Lord. A self examination is a good idea. We do it in other areas of our lives all the time. We review our check books, credit bills etc. At least, I hope you do. We look at ourselves in the mirror daily to check for mussed up hair, face or clothes. We periodically check fluid levels and psi in our cars. We look in the rear view. We check to see if we remembered our keys, our wallet/purse, makeup, cell phones or whatever else we have deemed 'can't live without'. So why not review the most important thing in our life?Our spiritual position with Jesus Christ. He makes the claim that He is the only way. "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father but by me!" John 14:6 check it out for yourself. If you find some polops/sin then the remedy is 1 John 1:9 confess your sin and He will forgive and cleanse you. Again, check it out for yourself. All you have to do is lay your cursor over the colored verse and it should pop up for you. It's that easy. The hard part is facing reality. As I laid in the recovery yesterday morning, and groggily, vaguely heard the dr. telling Sharon that all was well, I thought to myself. 'thank You God.' Some, many are not so lucky, a polop is found or some other abnormality and the prognosis is worse. I have no explanation except the grace of God. If they would have found something that doesn't mean, however, that the grace of God was not in effect in my life or in the one whose prognosis wasn't good. However, from a spiritual standpoint, polops were found, confession made and radical elimination practiced. I have to add something in horsemanship because of the title here. The same is true in my working with a horse. I need to reexamine my style, my body language and seat and leg. Sometimes the horse is right and I am wrong. By that I mean, he is reading my seat and leg pressure and rightly discerning it, but because of my own ineptitude I am asking for a movement in the wrong way. I might be asking for a turn but she thinks, because of my seat and leg that I am asking for a leg yield. I can't get upset with her because of that. She is not the dummy, I am at that time. Thus, I need to reexamine my self to make sure I am asking for the specific movement with the correct cues. Putting it all together is as difficult as admitting my own sin, but it is necessary. Waddy Mitchell a cowboy poet put it this way, "First, I figure out my agenda, then I make it easy to embrace it and hard to resist it." God does the same with us, Solomon put it this way, "the way of the transgessor is hard."Proverbs 13:15.
So as it is with horses it is with people.
So get an examination. Examine yourself. Let the Word of God examine you. Do it today. It's for your own good.
Adios
Vaya Con Dios
Pastor Jeff
John 14:6

not enough time

Just wanted to let you know that I know that it has been almost three weeks since I last wrote. For those of you who are itching to read more it is forthcoming. I have a few ideas to write about scrambling around in my head to get to the front of the line. It seems life is real busy, but as one person retorted in response to my "I don't have time" excuse for not being able to work with her horses at this time, "get up earlier!" Well! I thought. She doesn't know what I am already doing. As I think about it though, don't we all have time to do the things we want to do? I mean, I can always find time to do something other than mow the lawns I have, or paint my porch ceiling before it gets cold. But I say, I gotta study for sermons and the study at the Jail. Do any of you know how long it takes to write a 3o minute speech? Think back to high school speech class. How long did you agonize over your presentation? The average time spent in the study for sermon preparation, from start to finish and you have it on paper is ten hours. That is not including the time to go through it before you actually stand before a group and orate. Now, add to that the odds and ends of pastoring a church, as well as being a husband, a household maintenance man, a hobbiest of horses that includes everything from riding, cleaning up after, feeding and training, then other odds and ends like writing this blog and you have a day planner that is full. So what do I do?
I guess, get up earlier!

This is Jeff signing off.
I gotta get to bed earlier if I am going to get up earlier. Wait a minute. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting up earlier?

Lessons from a dead squirrel

Yes, you read the title correctly. I was driving to my brothers house the other day minding my own business which was paying attention to where I was going on the road. My intention was to stay between the lines. When I came upon this squirrel who was a bit flittery, tail twitching. He was all the way across the road heading to my left. He was safe, out of harms way. But I could tell he was nervous, indecisive. His instincts were telling him it was safer to flee back the way he came, which meant he had to cross the road again, in front of me. It happened so fast, yet I knew he was going to try to make it. But the thump, thump I felt underneath my car and the last view I had of him or her was of a tumbling squirrel told me he made it back across the road, but not alive, at least not for long. That squirrel was operating on instinct only. If he had reason and logic to work with maybe he would have realized that where he was at he was safe and would have remained there. But alas, God didn't give him anything more than instinct. While instinct does keep animals alive longer, it doesn't always. Might I add, neither does reason. People often have good reasons to do stupid things, like ride a skateboard down a railing and wonder why the pavement is so hard when they hit it with their forehead or ride a crotch-rocket popping a wheely with the front tire or standing on the seat rather than straddling it. The Lord knows, and so do those who know me, I have done many a stupid thing. But I had good reason.
That squirrel reminds me of people, including myself who live for the moment, who don't plan and think through wha tthey are doing. So they react to lifes pressures rather than respond to them. They act on instinct rather than reason. So here are the lessons I want to point out:
1. Don't always count on your instinct to get you safely through. As with the squirrel it can sometimes steer you wrong. Don't try to fly an airplane through a cloud on instinct. Use the compass and instrument panel. In our case, let God guide you with the scriptures. Life can be foggy at times, instinct will get you into trouble, but depending on and obeying the scriptures will see you through.
2. If you have to go back the way you came, look both ways before you cross. In other words, have good reason and think it through.
3. If you have to cross the road in the first place keep on going and don't look back. Indecision is worse than no decision. Among horse trainers, the thinking is that a horse with sticky feet, that is, those who don't want to move their feet, are the ones who will explode. If you keep their feet moving then you can work through the issues bothering them. But they have to have that forward movement. It is so among us humans too. Indecision is like having sticky feet, but if you decide and move on you can at least be moving and make the changes if your decision wasn't the best one.
4. Some things are outside your control. I could not stop that squirrel from dashing under my car anymore than I could stop the sun from rising. It was in the cards, so to speak. Although that is a simplified way of saying that God divinely appointed it. After all, Jesus reminds us that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without Him knowing it. Are you not more important to God than a sparrow? (Matthew 10:29,30). But that was digression. My point is that you simply have to go on and deal with what you cannot control and not worry about it. So my life intersected with a squirrel that day. His ended and mine goes on. Yes, I was sad. I hate to have that happen. But I can't brood about it. Learn the lessons and move on. No sense in crying over spilt milk, clean it up and move.
There are probably more lessons to learn from that experience but that will be for another blog, maybe.
Until then,
Stay between the ears!
Pastor Jeff
matt. 6:33

no pain, no gain

Well, Here I sit in pain and itching to get moving and can't. I hurt my back putting my saddle in my truck on Saturday morning to go to my horsemanship class. I went anyway. By the time I arrived in Cannonsburg, I was really stiff. I did ride all day, probably shouldn't have, but I am one of those who has to get done what needs doing. Anyway, I tried everything to releive the pain and immobility. I made it through church on Sunday, tried not to let on that I was in pain. Monday I went to the chiro and got an adjustment, very painful I might add. Came home and tried to relax, to no avail. My back felt so stiff I could barely bend over to tie my shoes, or put my boots on. Tuesday was a little better so I tried to do more, I even rode Raven for a bit. but I don't think that helped. Did I mention I am in pain? I went to the chiro again this morning and got an adjustment again. I hate the long ride home because sitting for almost a 1/2 hour doesn't help. I went to turn into the gas station and hit a bump, it felt like someone just slammed my lower back into the ground like when you go to sit down and some pulls your seat out from under you. Needless to say I got home and put ice on my back. I just took it off and decided to write this. I am not asking you to join my pity party, but are there not times in your life when you find something impeding your progress or process. Some glitch in the system or a speed bump that is slowing you down a tad? I think that the Lord has me slowing down for a reason. I want to get going on Raven today, because I am learning so much about riding a horse that I am thirsting to put my new understanding to practice. However, I don't think that would be the wisest thing right now for my back. The slow way is often the best way to recovery. One of the things I am doing is more steadily, purposefully putting my mind on the Scripture, in particular Psalm 119 in an attempt to commit it section by section to memory (getting ready for Sunday services) as well as meditating on Phil. 4:8-9 getting ready for tonite's prayer meeting. Both passages are full of truth for me right now.
right now I have to live with the pain. Hopefully, it will be gone soon and I will be 'back in the saddle' again, for real. But for now I have to realize 'no pain, no gain' is the reality for me at this moment. You chew on that last one for a moment to be ready for the next bout with pain you have and see if it isn't true.
jeff
Ps. 119:5, 67

Is your life like riding a bucking horse?

Wow, I was looking at the date of my last blog, June 28th. Sorry its been son long. I have gotten a few people who reminded me they were reading my blog and checking it regularly for something new. I will try to get better at writing at least once a week.
I sent home a colt last week who was pretty good. I was pleased with him until I had the owner come to pick him up and then began to demonstrate what 'Sonny' new now that he had been under my tutelage for a month. Everything went smoothly, he did everthing I asked for from the ground on the lunge line, lateral and vertical softness, backing, standing to be saddled and have his feet picked out. I even sidepassed him on the rail a few times. His owner was impressed. The smooth sailing continued as I mounted from the off side and bent him to softness laterally, vertically and asked him to back on two reins. We moved out at a walk and then bent him to a stop, 1 rein, and then a disengagement, to show her the breaks worked really good on this colt. We even did it all from a trot. I asked for a few steps in sidepassing both directions. Then I asked him to canter. That is when it happened. He bucked, just a little, to let me know that He didn't like being asked to move faster. So I bent him to a slow trot on a circle then asked him to stretch out and canter again, then he bucked pretty good. Now this was rather embarrassing as I don't imagine a horse owner who has paid good money to have their horse trained really wants to take their 'bucking' horse home yet. However, I had this problem solved. He had done the same thing to me before, so I put an extra pad on his withers above the scapula, but that didn't work initially until I had also trimmed his toes on his rear feet. Most of us don't like to step on our toes consistently or to be stepped on so we take steps to avoid it. He was clipping his front heel with his hind foot, so taking off some toe solved that problem. The combination of extra pad, and shortened toe made asking for a canter no problemo. However, the day the owner came I stupidly decided I didn't need the extra pad under saddle. Then came the bucking and the red face. I quickly put the extra pad on and cantered away with no problem. This just goes to show you pride goes before a fall/or buck. It reminds me that taking care of the little irritants of life makes the rest of the day go lots better. What I mean is, take care of the little things, wash your underwear and socks, take a shower, eat a good breakfast, go to work, be kind to everyone, smile, change the oil in your car regularly, check the air pressure in your tires, kiss your spouse, maybe your dog and kids, go through your junk mail (you might have a hidden rebate check in one) take out the trash, do the dishes in the sink so you will have a bowl and spoon for your next meal, read your Bible and pray daily, thank God for your life and more. Take care of the little things and life won't buck you so often.
This is Jeff saying 'Starting with a good beginning doesn't guarantee a good ending but it sure helps!'
Matt. 6:33
By the way, the owner was happy with her newly trained horse. But is the horse happy with her?