The Building Blocks of Heroism

        Let me begin by stating that I am a Hypocrite! If you scroll down to my previous post and skim over the content about not using tools the Lord has given me, then check the date in which it was written - you'll then see why the previous is true. As a matter of fact, since the last post, I had all but forgotten that I even "owned" a blog, let alone utilized it.  To make excuses, I have been too caught up in all the joys spring brings (calves,green grass and a BABY on the way). It was not until this week that I had a request for the link to access this page that I had even remembered it existed. I must admit at this point that those circumstances in which that request was made are the reason for this post.


           This week we will once again lay one of my hero's to rest. As I thought about his life and the affect it had on my own and most likely others, over the last couple of days I begin to notice how different my views of a hero are today than what they were as a child. As most kids growing up in the presence of a TV, A hero took on the character of someone who was never defeated, had strength beyond belief and sometimes wore a cape. Its this mindset that I think sometimes spills over into adulthood and causes men to want to pull their selves up by their boot straps, never show emotion and most certainly hide all fears. If you step back and compare these attributes to what the Lord so clearly defines as a Godly man, none of these are listed.  So how is it that my idea of a Hero went from being a Superman like figure to a persona such as a feeble man with a wrench in his hand?

            There is a point in which you realize that the will of a man is nothing, the Will of the Lord carried out by the man is everything. For me, it was the first time I really listened to him pray! If there is one thing I will miss most about this man, it is the faithfulness, honesty and humbleness that was in every prayer, and was never rehearsed! As a Christian child growing up, it was one of the duties of my parents to teach me how to pray, and they did. However, it seems like we all fall into a "rut" or "routine" from time to time when praying, essentially saying the same thing in the same tone and format day in and day out. Its as if we make this privilege a laborious task. This is one thing I cant say about him. There was no script to his prayer nor was their fancy rhythm, rhyme or a certain number of "Father God's" thrown in meet general "prayer requirements" Nope, he expressed the needs of his fellow Christians and himself in an honest and humble format without sugar coating.
      
            ----- As I'm writing this, I reminded about a story I read of girl who wanted her own "prayer language" that only she and God could understand. Still to this day, I ask why even make that request of  God? He has given each of us a language suitable to Him - be satisfied with it!! Truth is, it has nothing to do with language when praying! It is the condition of your heart in which we bring our request and praises to the Lord. Humble Ourselves and be honest with God verses fitting a format. He knows how many hairs are on my head and he knows my heart even before I pray, so why not be honest, faithful and humble? ----- (I'm done with my rant)
            
              So why do I look at him as a hero? Can you in vision a man who has for years been challenged with health issues, had numerous surgeries, had more broken ribs than you can count and endured pain that those around him probably will never know the likes of --- and still bowed down to the Lord our God, never once blaming Him for these afflictions nor making excuses for them. He persevered not by his own strength but his by Faith in a crucified and risen Lord. He knew the Lord was bigger than the hurdles he had to jump and that's why I believe wholeheartedly that he prayed the way he did. The fact the he knew who he was and he had faith in who the Lord is allowed him be humble and honest with himself, those around him and God. Thus in my mind as I see it today, FAITH,LOVE, HONESTY and HUMBLENESS are the building blocks of a True Godly Hero and its my prayer the God will use the lives of men such as him to inspire generations to come, in order to fulfill the Will of the Lord!


God Bless!!

Untitled Realizations..

So today, I realized that it had been months since my last post and as I went in circles for the last twelve hours cutting hay, I thought about what to share. I came up with this catchy title and found away to forward my thought in the text, but in the middle of writing it tonight I had to stop and ask the question, does this really glorify my God? I decided it didnt and erased it even though I was pretty proud (pride is the root of evil) of my one liners injected into storyline. So I sit here for a minute, and started a few other thoughts, then I realized what I should write about. I should do a post on me completely neglecting the opportunity to share Christ and my relationship with Him via          C-C-C's for the past several months.  This is pretty typical of me, I catch myself going long periods of time keeping Christ in a box on my shelf and every now and then, I take Him out and dust Him off and show Him to a friend or two. How dare me! What if an unbeliver was missed by me not using the opportunities given to me to share the Gospel of Christ. Could there have been someone who did not know Jesus died for them due to the sin we commit. I encourage you not to be like me in this. I turn your attention to this:

 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
 “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
  and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
  so he opens not his mouth.
 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
  Who can describe his generation?
 For his life is taken away from the earth.”
 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

(Acts 8:26-40 ESV)


Just as Philip did, run to your fellow man and beginning with scripture, share the Gospel of Christ.


Go forth and make disciples of all nations.........


God Bless!!

An Abundance of Faith and a few inches of rain..

(this was written for NCBA Young Producer's Council Blog - but I thought it may apply to others as well)

Answers come from an abundance of Faith and a few inches of rain…….

For starters, I was given this topic to write in order to diversify the postings on this blog, so hold on – it might be a trip for some!  The question is, “what makes things grow?”  Many agriculturalist would provide the common answers, essential nutrients and DNA, yada yada yada.  Let me take another approach. At some point, everyone in the agricultural industry has resorted to hoping or praying for rain. This is for me is one of the most humbling experiences encountered in life! The reason being is that it is completely out of my hands! I cannot arrange clouds over pastures and hay fields on a regular basis, so I am truly at His mercy! He provides rain on His schedule not mine! This one thing really makes our industry different than any other in the world!! We cannot feed the nations without His help! In a way, even as I write this, I’m amazed by the fact He has complete control!! Its almost inconceivable for me, that anyone it the ag industry could deny His involvement! So for me the question is “Who makes things grow?” not the contrary.

               So this question of how my faith is involved in my production system has been asked on a few occasions. The only analogy that is even close is this: my faith in Him is unequivocally more important than the very soil which all other life depends on! For example, The very day I purchased my farm the rain stopped, grass died and ponds dried up for four months. In turn, cows began to suffer and I trucked water until midnight each night almost to no avail. The fertilizer I had invested in (which wasn’t cheap!!) essentially gave no benefit to the crops and hay disappeared before our eyes! At that point, your check book is taxed, exhaustion sits in and worrying becomes a constant. So whats left? Faith! That’s all for me!! I relied on the only true and predictable constant in my life.  I had the fortune of being taught about Him and His will and the fact that all is worked for His glory – not my prosperity! There is something extremely comforting about that and it makes praying for Rain a pleasurable experience not a daunting task! As I look back on that period of time, I often find myself forgetting that He did provide, and He will again during the next drought!

               Its continually said that we as producers have the hardest job on earth – whether that be true or not, I know one thing. I could not do it on my own. I would succumb to the daily curveballs thrown at us by nature as well as carry unneeded life shortening stress around. I would submit to you that we have a hard job, especially away from Him- but with that said, we also have the indescribable opportunity to witness His creation and participate on a first hand basis!  If you think about it, we as producers are involved in so many miraculous occasions from the birth of calf to a summer rainstorm, and for those I can only thank Him! So for those non-ag-affiliated reading this I make one suggestion. Don’t thank a farmer or rancher only, thank the Lord for allowing some of us to farm and ranch!

God Bless

The Often Untold and "Uncool" Testimony....

For starters, I don't believe that it has been an coincidence for writing this today even though it is on Mother's Day and a portion of the sermon I listened to this morning had everything to do with the subject. I believe it to be divine planning and I feel privileged to be a part of this.

A little background ----- Over the last couple weeks I have heard some amazing testimonies on how God brought ("or bought") someone out of tragedy and then opened their eyes to the truth of Christ. A vast array - varying from cancer survivors to underprivileged and non-educated people have voiced their stories. I along with most, are often taken back by the fact that when someone is at their worst, God is at His best and grants forgiveness. The more dramatic the story, the more amazed I find myself and the more likely I am to regurgitate the account to any and possibly everyone I come across. This led me to wonder about my own testimony.

If someone asked me today to share my testimony, would my story be "interesting" enough to captivate their attention. Better yet, have I even offered to tell someone about my path to Christ?  You see, there has been no palpable tragedy in my life (personally), no life threatening disease and I cant recall a time where I've reached that point of no return. So my second thought, do I even have a testimony? (--Don't get me wrong - I was a sinner --condemned to Hell before I accepted Christ.---)  The answer to this after a lot of thought (tractor time) is Yes!!  You see my testimony is by worldly standards - the uncool and boring kind! I am the product of a Christian home. One with a Father and Mother who were BOTH Christians and taught me about Jesus. How did my parents become Christians? They are the product of Christian homes with Fathers and Mothers that were all Christians and taught their children not just to recite a dinner time prayer but about who they were praying to! (Can you see a trend?) Rarely, have I heard an individual publicize their testimony when they coincide with mine (me included!) But why not? Have we got so hooked on the flair of the dramatic that we often over look the miracle which is the Christian home. With a divorce rate of 50%, is it not a miracle from God that multiple generations of a family evade separation? Absolutely!!( Before I go on --The important thing is that an individual knows Christ, not necessarily the path to Him.)

The point is this -- Teach your children to pray and about who their praying to in order that they may teach theirs the same!!


Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
(Proverbs 22:6 ESV)




An example (one of many in my life) of Christian parenting -- the day I left for college, I visited my grandparents. About the time I was to leave, my grandfather shook my hand and said this : "We're proud of you ---God gave you a good head and if you stay away from alcohol and drugs -- you can use that thing and go somewhere.." Two things with this... there was absolutely no Hypocritical statements made and due to this  - I believed him! Because of the example my parents and grandparents set in a Christ-like manor - I never once drank alcohol or turned to drugs - and still haven't!  Thanks be to God for this - and its one of many instances when Christian advice was passed along and displayed for my viewing!

If I had to tell you the one greatest thing my parents and grandparents have done for me - and Lord knows they've done a lot -- they not only acted like Christians, but proved that they were in the their actions and praise of Him - furthermore being a witness to me! This removed every last plausable excuse for me not knowing Christ!!


In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.
I have been as a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength is spent.
For my enemies speak concerning me;
those who watch for my life consult together
and say, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.”
O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
who seek my hurt.
But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.
You will increase my greatness
and comfort me again.
I will also praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.
And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
who sought to do me hurt.
(Psalm 71 ESV)


A closing thought: Even the Uncool testimony Glorifies God and needs to be told. As our world continues  on its Hell bound path, the Christian Family will continue to be a minority and a those that exist are Miracles!!

Feel free to comment at your leisure.


God Bless!!!

I hear Heaven is nice this time of year.....

Shall I pose a question to you... Why do you really want to go to Heaven? I recently asked our church youth group this in an evening bible study. I got what I would expect to be answers common to most of us. Read through this list:

I want to go to Heaven because...

- there is no pain or suffering.

- its the "finish line" to my goal.

- its paradise.

- I want to be reunited with friends and family already gone on.

- its a "mystical land" - amusement park of sorts, never rains out the rides.

- I want to see God.

I  think most would agree that you probably recited at least one of these in your mind. I'm guilty as well. But, as I read the book of Revelation - which is the account of an vision of Heaven given to John, as well as letters to seven churches addressed from Christ Himself - there is a noticeable repetition of events that reveal themselves. Time and again, John views people worshiping God and giving praise to Him. Several times through the text we see the phrase,"and they fell down and worshiped."(5:11-14,7:11-12,). After reading this over and over, I've come to the conclusion that if I love my Savior to the degree which He deserves, the weather in Heaven is meaningless. Furthermore, If I am reunited with family and friends, let us be there together in worship to Him. I should want nothing more/nothing less than to be able to fall down and worship. " Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and honor and glory and blessing!''(5:12). 

Since He has allowed my mindset to change from an personal accomplishment to an glorious opportunity, I have noticed a difference in how I valued my Christ and His duty on the cross. I find myself taken back - often to tears -knowing that He died not only to save from the depths of hell (which I deserve) but to give me an opportunity to praise my creator forever and ever! Its also at this point when I realize that He is growing (further occupying) within me. This leads me to the next realization that He has allowed me to decrease in order for Him to increase. Humbling is an understatement when searching for adjectives!!  

To tie all this together, lets, as Christians strive to be with our God, to praise Him and to glorify Him, rather that to take the selfish road of wanting to chill in paradise! Every knee will bow!!

Hope this provoked some thought..

God Bless!!!

Not Another Missed Opportunity!

I think (or hope) that at some point in most Christian's walk with the Lord our God, there is a crossroad encountered. That would be the one where our passive, politically correct thought process intersects with that of the mindset - "I have got to tell someone about Jesus - or I'm going to scream!!" I personally catch myself traveling through the aforementioned  quite often. It seems like I'm perfectly content with the day to day meaningless conversations until God abruptly reminds me I'm here for His service!! Its always a deflating realization for me when the "light bulb moment"  reveals the numerous opportunities to share His message that I neglected to do so! Yet, I always notice that after this turn of events, I come away with a deeper longing to speak boldly about my God as well as find greater confidence in my faith! I guess these neglected opportunities lately have been the focus of my thought and it angers me (internally) that I continuously fail!! My inward appraisal is one of the things that caused this blog to clutter your screen - but with that said, today I familiarized myself with the readership of this blog. I guess I was taken back by the fact that it has been read in 12 different countries as of today. Please understand, this is not a bragging point - (To God be all the Glory!) this is a point of opportunity!
It is my duty at this very moment to share the gospel with all those who take the time read these words. Yes, it is Easter, and I'm sure for some, this will be a redundant speech for you today but nevertheless, I dare not miss the chance!!

Jesus came to earth as the Son of God. He stayed among mankind and remained perfect, sinless and blameless to the temptations that we as humans fall trap to each day. God, being perfect - requires from us perfection to live in heaven with Him for eternity, not one person - other than Jesus, has or can accomplish this! So, through the un-describable love of our God, He sent Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for us! He took the place for us. We should one day, hang on a cross and die an agonizing death due to the despicable deeds we commit day to day - but because Jesus took that punishment for us - we may have everlasting life and the joys of worshiping our God in heaven if we have FAITH in the deed Jesus did for us!-- That's it, FAITH in the fact that Jesus died for us - that we may enjoy heaven with our Father. Just as on Easter morning when Jesus arose from the grave and only His stained garments were left, we -who have faith in Jesus's death and resurrection - will depart to our Heavenly Father leaving our sins and transgressions behind.   Understand this, I do not deserve to spend eternity in heaven, I do deserve a one way ticket to HELL!! But because of Jesus, in God's eyes, I will be found not guilty - Scripture makes that promise. You can have the same!! There is no one sin greater than another - nor are there any sins that weren't erased by the blood of Jesus-- You can have this too!!


(Romans 5:1-11 ESV)
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

After reading this, You may have realized that you need Jesus to take the cross for you, if so, I encourage you to pray the following prayer as well as find a Christian to talk to about your decisions. I will be more than happy to help anyone begin their walk with Christ --feel free to contact to me anytime, anyway!!

Believer's Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, I know that I am a sinner deserving of a life in hell, and that I have fallen short of the glory of God. I wholeheartedly BELIEVE and have FAITH that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me, that he arose from the grave - that my sins have been erased and want You  - from this point further - to live inside me, to take hold of my heart and draw me closer to You. It is these things I pray in Jesus's name, Amen.



God Bless!!!

Evan M Tate

I got a Bible and a Donkey..How Much Proof Do You Need?

Where to begin?? I guess I am amazed by people!! Why in the world do they meander without direction for an entire lifetime looking for the 'source' of life and/or the meaning of life. The human race has always been unwilling as a whole to accept that God created the earth and everything in it!!! The complexities of life and all the interactions on this earth just happened by random occurrence...... Bull Butter!!!!   My first semester in college, for extra credit, I attended a seminar one night. I had no clue what the subject was, but I listened intently to soon realize this cat was trying to sell the fact he found out how the earth was created.. My first thought was, "I could have saved him years by giving him the book of Genesis" (which in its name - means creation!). But no, if anyone who crossed this mans path in life had told him of our God, he had obviously rejected the notion that Someone (GOD) could be smarter than him! He(should be lower case) had it all figured out--- the world was created from a spark off of the tiniest of molecules which could only -barely- be seen with the strongest of microscopes!! Sounds great --- where did that molecule come from??? -- That's the problem!! As much of a fan of the Scientific process as I am, you only answer questions with other questions and hypothesizes. Scripture is much different. It is definitive! All answers and no questions!! The speaker was an SCA (stone-cold atheist)! He knew how the world was created(as he thought) --probably read the Bible in order to disprove it---but he had no clue about a Donkey!!! How about that curveball?? What does a Donkey have to do with an SCA and his nuclear phys. degree???  A donkey (yes the equine) has everything to do with it! First, the Lord our God created earth and its inhabitants for His glory. Next, let me remind you of the story of Jesus's birth! Mary, being great with child rode a DONKEY into the town of Bethlehem where our Savior was predestined to be born(Matthew 1:18)! Now take a good look at a donkey. No matter the color of the hair coat on a donkey, when viewed from above (His vantage point) has a stripe of darker hair running from the poll to the tip of the tail. Perpendicular to that is another dark defined line of hair that stretches from the animals shoulder over the back and down the opposite shoulder. Lets visualize: two lines that intersect at perpendicular angles form what? ----Pick me ---Pick me----- A CROSS!! To complete this thought, our God knew that Jesus (born of a virgin) who was carried in the womb on a donkey, would later be commissioned to a cross in order to save you and I 2000+ years later and the vary donkey he rode in on was stamped with a cross and still is today!! One of the coolest things to me about this is the fact I don't have to wrestle a donkey under a microscope to see the cross on his back - its there for the world to see!!

Now lets digress for a minute. First, if this man has not  come to have a faith in the fact that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, he is condemned to Hell.(Facts are Facts!)(Revelation 20:7-15) Second, I failed! Here is a man who I know does not know Christ, and I left there that night with out telling him about Jesus. (Matthew 28:16-20)-- I had the chance to use the knowledge He blessed me with to further God's kingdom  and I blew it!! Third, Even though we have a Donkey as a "sign" for lack of better terminology - We shouldn't need it! His word is ENOUGH! When He opens our hearts and lends our ear to His word, and gives us the ability to accept it, We do not need a sign!!! If we rely on signals from God, how stout is our faith? Not very!?!? Its my prayer that in all these ramblings, you see that what you cant see is most important and if you need teaching tools to help relay God's infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, just grab your Bible and a donkey--thats what they are for!