Monthly Archives: February 2016

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Deeply Rooted in the Rock of Ages

tree rooted

This tree is rooted in the Rock of Ages.  I so want to be just like this tree.  Everything, I mean everything, that it receives comes from  the Rock of Ages.  Its nourishment, the rooted foundation, the sustainment,…. all, I mean all that it is, or ever hopes to be……… it depends totally on the rock.

“But Dan”, some of you readers are saying, ” are you OK?”  “Look at the tree again.  It’s scrawny.  It’s feable looking.  It’s a weakling.  No strength in that pathetic specimen of a tree.  You sure you want to be like that?”

Go ahead and say it.  You see no value in this tree.   You are looking at this tree like my timber guy looks at trees.  What value can this tree provide?  How can I cut it up to make what I want out of it, is what he is thinking.  You are looking on the outside, not on the inside.

But I WANT to depend on this Rock of Ages for all that I am meant to be.  If the nourishment from this rock only allows me to survive,  Then Glory Hallelujah!!  If the “spiritual food” from this rock causes me to flourish, to grow 50 feet tall, to (in the eyes of the world be SUCCESSFUL), then Glory Hallelujah!!!!  It better be giving Glory, cause if it becomes all about me, myself, and I, that’s when that “timber man” will take notice and “cut me down”.

Sharing something personal now.  I write this wilderness preacher blog to help you (and me) take one more small step to being closer to God.  This is my way of “preachin”.  I view this blog more as sharing with you my friends. I share what “spiritual food” I receive from my Rock of Ages.  The world and honestly most people look on a successful preacher by how many numbers and how many buildings, and how many projects, and how many trips are planned.  In that case, my “preachin” tree is a little weakling,…… and scrawny.

And you???…………..You are JUST a housewife, just a secretary, just a single dad, just a mom, just a fledgling writer,  just a country lawyer, just a retiree, just a teacher, just a small time pastor, just little ole you…… a little weakling,…… and a little scrawny.

Maybe in the eyes of the world, or (Careful now, in your own eyes) you view yourself as pitiful.  Pity party time!!  “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me……. guess I might as well  eat worms.”  Never heard that?  It’s a blast from the past.

A beautiful hymn “How Firm a Foundation” has a verse that goes like this……

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.    

This song uses these verses from Isaiah 41:10  Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

A song that uses God’s own words that we in turn sing back to Him.  Now that’s what a hymn should be.  We are created to glorify God.  We use what He gave us (in scripture) and give it back to Him (in singing this hymn).  He gives to me, I in return give back to Him.  It’s such a satisfying thing.

A life and all its blessings.  He gives to me and you.  Jesus came to Earth to give life.  We in return give back to Him  each and every day of this life.  Give to Him each opportunity you face.  Give to Him each difficulty you face.  He gives to you, you give to Him…… such a satisfying thing.

You and I may always be considered scrawny, weak, insignificant,…… a nobody in this world eyes.  Wait a minute.  Not me!  Not you!  I know I’m somebody!  My roots are in the Rock of Ages.  All that is within me is  reaching up to the Heavens.  The world may not see what I get to see.  I see a wonderful and LIVING relationship between me and my God.  And I must say, I enjoy the view.

tree scenery

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, hiking in the wilderness

 

 

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Dog sledding (Press on)

These amazing athletic dogs gave us a thrilling ride

These amazing athletic dogs gave us a thrilling ride

I got to tell you, I wasn’t expecting this!!!!  (WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE END) These dogs!!!!…… these dogs live to pull and press on!

We signed up for an afternoon dog sled ride.  The owner/driver gave us a detailed explanation of the history of dog sledding. They basically can go (and haul) places that horses and heavy machines can’t.  He showed us examples of the dog teams pulling medical supplies to the far away northern towns of Alaska and Canada.  What impressed me was a picture of a dog team pulling timber(yes, downed trees!!) across frozen lakes.  You’ve heard the country saying, “That dog can hunt”.  Well, these dogs can PULL! 

Our guide, Caleb, was talking to us (Staci, our daughter Jamie, and me,….. the human cargo) about dogsledding.  Occasionally I could hear him say another word or two as he was talking to us.  Oh, I get it. He’s also giving commands to the dogs as he talks to us.  Cool!  I didn’t ever hear him say “Mush” like what you hear in the movies.  Hey, I did hear him say “Gee” and “Haw”.  It reminded me of my long ago days in the garden with our mule named Amos Moses. For real, back then we would tell the mule to “Gee”/pull right”.  Or you could tell the mule to plow to the left by yelling “Haw” meaning to pull left.  Caleb explained to me that those commands mean the same to his dog team as when I used them with our garden plowing mule. It’s obvious that his dogs listen a whole lot better than my mule did years ago. 😉

We are moving at a fast clip.  I can see up ahead a fork in the trail.  It splits right and left, no straight forward.  I’m anticipating the dog’s owner to YELL “GEE OR HAW”  He doesn’t.  He’s carrying on a normal conversation with me.  In the middle of our conversation he says, “gee”.  Caleb doesn’t yell or shout, just says his commands.  Dogs immediately turn right.  You’d have to be there.  But it was an amazing sight seeing these dogs pulling with all there might, communicating with their human leader, and they were lovin’ every minute of it!!!

We stopped for a short break.  I was fascinated listening to Caleb tell about how his dogs work.  It’s obvious Caleb loves his dogs and loves working with them as well.  It made my day when he answered my following question.  “What do you do when the dog doesn’t listen and obey?”

(time out) See, a long time ago, I saw a documentary on dog sledding.  It wasn’t a pretty site.  When the dogs disobeyed, the driver would get angry and beat the dogs.  I didn’t like that.  Poor dog didn’t know what was going on.  But Caleb loves his dogs.  He said this to me.  “When one of my dogs is not listening or obeying my commands, it means I have got to spend more time training this particular dog.  All dogs have bad days.  They can get distracted.  But I continue with proper training so these dogs will eventually “get back in line” and pull their own weight as well as what I’m needing them to pull.  These are MY dogs.  They will do what I ask of them.

I can connect with these dogs who are loved and are BEING what God created them to be.

I can connect with these dogs who are loved and are BEING what God created them to be.

His “extra training” with individual dogs may not be fun for the dog at the time.  If you and I saw them being trained we might even think that it’s punishment.  But Caleb loves his dogs.  He trains them in a way that they realize it’s wrong when they disobey and not follow the leader.

But to see these dogs joyfully pulling their weight and their load for the day (us), it brought a smile and a laugh from my innermost soul.   See, what was amazing to me was these dogs were BEING WHAT GOD HAD CREATED THEM TO BE.  They were listening to their owner, Caleb.  Not only listening but obeying his every command. Right, left…..gee, haw…… They would stop when told.  And the most exhilarating was this.  When he gave the command to go……..they gone!  If you weren’t buckled in or holding on, you’d physically get thrown off the sled.  Get at ’em dogs.  You make me come alive!!!!   This ride is FUN!  Better hold on!!

I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.  Philippians 3:14

I hurt deep inside when people think that my Lord and Saviour must beat me when I do wrong.  They must have grown up “watching a different documentary” on the subject.  My God is a loving God.  When I do wrong,  I’m in for a little extra “training” with my Lord.  Honestly, I guess at times it may look like “punishment” from the outside.  But I know for a fact that you and I get distracted, get selfish, or “have a bad day” if you want to call it that.  But God is my Master.  He knows better than me the directions to take.  I love Him.  Even love this training I’m in.  Even love those “extra training” sessions that God uses to get me “back in line”.

What about you?  Do you picture your god with a whip and stick waiting to beat you any and every chance he gets?  Or do you picture your God as a loving Master who does and will “correct” you so that you get “back in line” for your own good as well as His.  For your own glory as well as His.  Seriously it probably depends on how strong a relationship you have with your Master/Owner.  I would encourage you to “get back in line”. Stay in line, listen for the commands, obey…………….. and hang on.  You are in for the ride of your life.

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, dog sledder,  o’er the fields we go,laughing all the way

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Stay Connected

leak

I’ve got a Leak!  I’ve got a hundred things to do today.  Now I’ve got a hundred and one things to do.  As I drive down my driveway, I notice water coming from out of the ground.  Uh oh,  The water is spewing from the exact spot where my water line to the house is buried. Uh oh.

A quick trip to town and I’m back with shovel, pipe repair kit and glue, the all important hacksaw, and most important………. me wearing my repairman’s hat.  I’ll fix it myself!!!!

Naturally this happens on a very cold day.  I start digging through mud and water.  Uh oh, I find the pipe.  Uh oh, it’s seriously being choked by tree roots that have grown around the pipe and the joint that hooks the two pieces together.  Uh oh, there’s the leak.  After I move all the mud and dirt away, the water now shoots straight up (and into my face)

A quick trip to the barn and I’m now back with an axe to chop away all the tree roots from around the pipe’s joint. It’s fascinating to me how slowly growing tree roots can over time cause pressure……. pressure enough to break the bonds of this pipe joint.

But it’s Dan the repair man to the rescue!!!!   I’ll just chop away those pesky roots and ……..uh oh.  I nicked a hole in the pipe with the axe. Dang it!

A quick trip to the neighbors to borrow a cutoff wrench so that I can turn off the water at the main meter.  Uh oh I better tell Staci that the water is going to be off for a while. She asks what the problem is and my reply is something like “I’m not sure, but I’m sure it won’t be off for long.”  Uh oh……

I cut the pipe and remove all tree roots from around the pipe.  Honestly, it was a wad of roots the size of a basketball all tangled and woven in a tight mass around this pipe joint.  I placed the repair kit union over the cut pipe and join the two pieces together.  I get to yell what every repairman loves to yell.  “YEEAAAA, I fixed it!”  I turn the water back on expecting to load up all the tools, wash all the mud off of me and my clothes and continue on my day of the other 100 things to do.  Uh oh…….Oh no, I must not have tightened the repair union enough because now it’s leaking like a screen door on a submarine.

A quick trip to borrow Daddy’s pipe wrenches, and I’m back kneeling down in the muddy hole that has grown to the size of a bathtub.  Uh oh, no wait…..,this time I do fix it.  It’s stopped leaking.  “I fixed it” I whispered this time instead of yelling, just so I wouldn’t jinx it.

Lamentations 3:40 (NIV) Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.

Staying Connected……. it’s one of the most important things that we need in our lives.  All kinds of circumstance can become like those roots and choke and put pressure on our connections with God.  Uh oh.  Also the connections we have with other people can begin to “leak”.  Could be slowly over time things start “growing around the pipe”.  We don’t even realize it until well, until the “uh oh” moment.  Now we got to do some repair work.  And that’s when it gets muddy and nasty and well more “uh oh’s”

So, constantly examine your ways and test them.  By that I mean does it seems that you and your relationship to God is not as strong as it should be, or even used to be?  Uh oh, maybe there’s a leak that needs fixin’.

At the same time, what about those relationships with others in your life…… family, friends.  Over time has the connection started to leak.  Better put your repairman’s hat on.  It’s fascinating but also troubling to me how over time small things can “turn a drip, drip leak into a busted pipe” between people.  Uh oh.  Even more troubling is how those leaks and “breaks” between people cause even more leaks and breaks and broken connections between you and God.

My prayer is that you will have few “Uh Oh” moments.  But they happen.  When they do, realize it will be muddy and nasty.  Connections with other people need to be repaired.  There may be a piece of pipe or let’s say a part of your life that will not be the same because of the damage.  You yourself may even get “nicked” in the repair process.  But all in all we are all in this together.  Stay connected in some way.

I am a repairman for my connections in my own life and spiritual journey.  I have come to realize that God’s got the “glue” that works best for me to use, on myself as well as others.  If I focus on staying connected with Him, my connection with others becomes more manageable.  Always will be uh oh’s, always will be leaks.  How we repair these connections will determine if our source of Living Water becomes interrupted or can continue free flowing.

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, plumber, professional “Uh Oher”