Year: 2019 (Page 2 of 6)

David’s Digest: Satan’s Devices & Biblical Remedies: Repentance is Easy, Part 1

November 12, 2019 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

As noted in a previous blog post about him snaring people into sin by painting God as all mercy, Satan uses wiles to try to work people to hell, and is constantly in this effort:

1 Peter 5:8 – “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:“

But we are to resist…

James 4:7 – “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.“

Ephesians 6:11 – “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.“

…but only with God’s help:

Psalm 28:7 – “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.“

That last set of blog posts are taken from Puritan Thomas Brooks excellent book called “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”, where he identifies the various ways Satan goes about his work, and offers remedies to help against those devices.

The following is another of those devices, where the devil entices people to sin by suggesting that repentance is an easy thing, and remedies against that device.

You can listen to it here:

or download it:
Download

The entire book is scanned in here: https://archive.org/stream/completeworksoft01broo/completeworksoft01broo_djvu.txt…

…or you can listen to the entire book on this page:
Thomas Brooks – Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

From Thomas Brooks:

The sixth device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is,

Device (6). By persuading the soul that the work of repentance is an easy work, and that therefore the soul need not make such a matter of sin. Why! Suppose you do sin, saith Satan, it is no such difficult thing to return, and confess, and be sorrowful, and beg pardon, and cry, “Lord, have mercy upon me;” and if you do but this, God will cut the score (footnote: this references notched sticks by which debt accounts were recorded anciently), and pardon your sins, and save your souls, etc.

By this device Satan draws many a soul to sin, and makes many millions of souls servants or rather slaves to sin, etc.

Now, the remedies against this device of Satan are these that follow:

Remedy (1). The first remedy is, seriously to consider, That repentance is a mighty work, a difficult work, a work that is above our power.

There is no power below that power that raised Christ from the dead, and that made the world, that can break the heart of a sinner or turn the heart of a sinner. Thou art as well able to melt adamant, as to melt thine own heart; to turn a flint into flesh, as to turn thine own heart to the Lord; to raise the dead and to make a world, as to repent.

Repentance is a flower that grows not in nature’s garden. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil”, Jer. xiii. 23. Repentance is a gift that comes down from above. (footnote: Fallen man hath lost the command of himself, and the command of the creatures. And certainly he that cannot command himself cannot repent of himself.) Men are not born with repentance in their hearts, as they are born with tongues in their mouths: Acts v. 31, “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” So in 2 Tim. ii. 25, “In meekness instructing them that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.”

It is not in the power of any mortal to repent at pleasure. (Footnote: it was a vain brag of king Cyrus, that caused it to be written upon his tombstone, I could do all things; so could Paul too, but it was “through Christ, which strengthened him.”) Some ignorant deluded souls vainly conceit that these five words, “Lord! have mercy upon me,” are efficacious to send them to heaven; but as many are undone by buying a counterfeit jewel, so many are in hell by mistake of their repentance. Many rest in their repentance, though it be but the shadow of repentance, which caused one to say, “Repentance damneth more than sin.”

Go on to Remedy 2!

— David

Diamonds Are Not a Girl’s Best Friend

October 29, 2019 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

One night late, when it was dark, Sue heard what sounded like what I call heat bugs (I think they’re cicadas) out here, that make a constant higher-pitched sound. But then she thought, that wasn’t quite right…not quite their sound.

She looked toward the sound, and saw about 15-20 feet from the east side of the porch of our house our new resident stray cat laying down looking at something in the direction of the noise. Sue got closer, and realized he was only maybe 4-5 feet away from a very big diamondback rattlesnake! Wow!

Sue came and got me, and I got the .22 rifle out (thanks again to grandpa Bernie!), and we went out there with headlamps on. Because of the situation, I decided I needed to shoot even with the cat still there.

I did. The cat bolted away. I got closer, and took another shot at the head, although I think I actually got him in the head the first time, because the second shot to the head didn’t seem to make any difference. At any rate, I finished it off by using a shovel to mostly detach its head.

The cat ended up ok, no bites and no bullets, and we were thankful it appeared no other damage from the snake or otherwise.

But wow again! It was a biggie! Probably the biggest we’ve seen around here, perhaps at least 2 1/2 inches across at its widest:

And what was that I was saying about diamonds and girls? (BTW, this was an action unsolicited by me 🙂 )

Also, I ran a video of it so you all could see. Remember, snakes’ nervous systems aren’t only in their heads, so they keep moving a lot, even after being dead (which is kinda what makes this video fun, IMO, in a creepy sort of way 😀 ):

In the end, we are very thankful to the Lord nothing appeared to get hurt, that Sue saw it, and that we were able to remove a deadly creature from the land. We thank God for His mercies!

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2019 6th Chick Hatching & Protective Mama

October 15, 2019 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

The Lord again graciously granted another set of chicks to be hatched out this 2019, 6th for the year — 10 from a very protective mommy hen! And all 10 are still going today.

Here are a couple of pictures:

And here’s their video, including mama attempting to send me packing after I had to collect one of her chicks from outside the cage area! 😀

As always, we thank God for these little gifts, and the continued provisions, and we pray for their continued health and safety, according to His will!

— David

Garden – Summer 2019

October 7, 2019 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

Being 14 years here this year, we took a sabbath year off for the gardens, and took the opportunity to do a complete re-covering of mulch on top of the garden beds, having started this process of “forest bed” mulching, which is laying down the mulch so that it composts over time and helps keep in moisture, back in 2012.

One thing the Lord has graciously granted is that prickly lettuce, which is a wild lettuce, grow here.

And wow, did it grow here this year! All that jungle basically is prickly lettuce! But, I needed it weed-wacked, so I worked to that end:

Cutting Garden Overgrowth of Prickly Lettuce

And here’s a quick video of that during that time:

And here it is after the fact:

Then, it was time to cover it all:

And then onto garden 2, which was overgrown the same way as garden 1. Once mowed, thankfully, I was able to cover it in only 4 trips:

Finally, God has graciously granted a few volunteer sweet potato plants! We look forward, Lord willing, to maybe a few bonus side dishes! 😀

We thank the Lord for the resources to accomplish all of this, and we pray He applies the mulch and all of the micro-biology that He provides in His creation!

— David

Announcing Audio Readings of Christian Writings

September 24, 2019 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

If you’ve read any of the David’s Digest blog posts, you would see many references to Puritan writings, including Thomas Manton, the latest from Thomas Brooks, etc. I have put these out because I have believed they are important topics for those who take the name of Christ to be exposed to.

The reason I have known about them myself is because I have read the printed volumes from which they come, and the Lord has very much blessed me through them.

There are many things from them I would really like to put out on the blog, but then I would be often just posting whole sermons and books. 🙂

But, I thought that, given the easy availability of digital media, and the convenience and preference for some to be able to listen while doing other things, I would just start reading these publications while recording them, and then post them on our website.

And so, I have begun to do just these things, which are now available on any page of our blog on the right side under the “Soul Info” section (or at the bottom on any mobile device) and the link Audio Readings of Christian Writings.

I’ve currently started Thomas Manton’s Commentaries on James and Jude, Thomas Brooks’ “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices” (from which I did my last Digest blog posts), and Thomas Watson’s “10 Commandments” book. If you’re interested, please feel free to check in on the page for the latest readings as we plan to continue to put more out as they get done, as the Lord wills.

It is our prayer that God bless these to someone, bring them to Him in salvation, and/or grow them in truth and holiness. May He grant the hearers ears to hear and by His graces apply His word to the hearts of the listeners, and may the name of the Lord be glorified and magnified!

— David

Providence’s Prerogatives: Tasha’s Two 2019 Turkey Chicks & Tragedy

September 17, 2019 / David & Susan Sifford / 0 Comments

Those who follow our blog might notice the difference in the title. Usually for these types of blog posts about God providing perpetuation provisions, we include that exactly in the title. However, this situation sadly ended up a little different than normal…

Tasha, one of the offspring from the heritage breed Black Turkey that showed up on our homestead one day, and the Tom we got as her mate, got broody, sitting outside somewhere, and I was thankfully able to grab her and the eggs and get her into what has become our brooder building (formerly known as our summer kitchen…it’s just worked out that way 🙂 ).

And in due time, she hatched out 4 turkey chicks! (I call them “turklets”, like “chicklets” 😉 )

But, through experience, we have come to understand that these turklets are quite fragile, or they get eaten by a snake (I’ve done some filling of the wall gaps in the brooder building to try to help with that, and we put a lantern in there at night so the mommy can see and perhaps fight off the snake), and for any of them to make it seems something extraordinary. 2 indeed did die, but 2 continued to make it.

Here’s one early on. You can see how tiny they are:

And then both a little older with their mommy:

When they got to be about the size we usually let them out, it was time to do so. And we did, and they began their adventure in God’s creation, where they should be. And at night, we’d make sure they were in the barn for hopeful safety.

But that has sadly not always turned out to be the case (see the loss of Gigi our goose). A few days later, I went into the barn in the morning to let all the animals out, and I discovered one of the turklets was on the ground with its little head weaving back and forth across its back, which is a sign of something severely wrong; and the other turklet was nowhere to be found. I rushed the injured one into the brooder building, and tried to care for it as best I could, but indeed whatever happened to it was serious, and it died I believe by the next day. And we never found the body of the other turklet, although there was the smell of death near the front walk-in door (that’s real life on a farm), but after searching extensively, still never found anything.

We still don’t know what happened. But it was a shock, and very sad.

But here is the important point:

The God of all creation owns it all as such, and it is His for Him to disperse and dispense with as He wills. I would encouurage you to read all of Job 1, which some would say is the first book of the Bible actually written. Satan asks God’s permission to tempt Job (notice even the devil must take leave of God before acting), the Lord grants it with limitations, and almost everything Job had was taken from him — his animals, servants, and even his children. Not quite like losing a couple of turkey chicks, but with those much greater losses, what was Job’s response:

Job 1:20-22 – “20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,

21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.“

And there you go. He was sad, but submitted to God’s sovereign providences willingly, not murmuring, and even worshipping the Lord in it.

May this be our response to the hand of God in like situations. And may we recognize His mercies in these things too — He could have taken the whole flock but didn’t. And may the Lord grant us a true faith to trust Him in His perfect, wise, good, loving, and sovereign will under all circumstances.

And even though the little turklets aren’t with us anymore, I still wanted to share the 2 little gifts God granted for a while, which, since He is all wise and good, we pray He has graciously granted some good to our souls through the losses of them.

It’s always amazing to me how a little creature can be stuffed into that little egg-chamber (if you’ve ever seen them in there, they’re very scrunched up) and make it’s way out. And then to watch them grow…all these miracles of Providence along the way.

But without anything further, here they are on the day we let them out of the brooder building for the first time:

Still More 2019 Young Heritage Breed Turkey

And then here’s their video:

Again, we thank the Lord for His many gifts, and thank Him for His graces and mercies in all things, especially to those He grants for our spiritual benefit, most of all the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit, the greatest gifts ever!

— David

A House – Update LII – Bathroom Cabinets & Library Bookshelves

September 9, 2019 / David & Susan Sifford / 2 Comments

It’s been over a year since our last house update, so I thought we’d catch up everyone as to the latest progress…

We took a little break from doing anything on the house, but earlier in the year added some cabinets to our bathroom area. Sue felt best to have something enclosed as things get dusty around here so quickly, being on a farm:

And then recently we finally got the library going as I’ve kind of always wanted. Mostly it was just getting the bookshelves into place, and then we could move the books from the other pre-made shelves into them, and then clear out all kinds of stuff from tubs we brought when we moved here almost 14 years ago!

We had to move out the current portable bookshelves. Here is where they were: