Category Archives: building a log cabin

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Don’t Let Your Heart Grow Cold and Bitter

How God Keeps Your Heart "Warm"

Merry Christmas!  And then you hear “Bah, Humbug!”  Well, that’ll just ruin your day.

My, my, you’ve got the Christmas Spirit.  You’re wanting to spread joy and good tidings, (and hot chocolate).  Then after a day of seeing scrooges, hearing all the bad, (spilling the hot chocolate and COFFEE!!) you’re ready to give up.

Your heart that was warm and toasty is now beginning to get cold, it’s turning bitter, it’s growing numb……… your heart is turning hard.   That’s what happens when exposed to the cold ,cold world.  You better find a way to “warm things back up”.

This is how I “warm things up” in the log house we’re building.  See all those pipes, tubings, pumps, electrical dodads.  Well, that’s infloor heating for ya!  The pipes are going through the concrete floors warming the floors up.  This radiates to me and you in the room.  It’s comfortable.  It’s warm.  It’s a pleasure especially when it was -9 degrees outside.  When Mike the plummer was explaining to me how it worked………… well, he must have seen my eyes glaze over.  He’s explaning how the boiler heats the water and the computer gizmo activates the valveamabob.  Then the whatchamacallit releases the thingamado………….shoot,….. my head is still hurtin’ from all the info.

So finally Mike says, “Just trust me, all you need to do is work the thermostat.  If you’re cold turn it up!”   Hey, I can understand that!!!  If I get cold, just turn it up.  Easy enough.

So, when you and I start feeling cold spiritually, do we “turn up the thermostat”?  Sounds easy enough.  But for some strange reason, (probably that we are human), we tend to stay in our own little world and grow cold.  Then grow colder.  Then grow bitter, then stone cold, then HARD!!

 

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused;   they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,  understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. Matthew 13:13-15

What Jesus is saying here is “I will heal you”.  He will make our lives better.  We hear but don’t understand. (Mike the plummer just as well to have been Jesus because I was hearing, but I sure ’nuff wasn’t understanding!!!)

Ok, how do we HEAR from God??   By Believing and trusting!  There are those two little words again.  Seems like they are always somewhere close by when it comes to taking a Christian journey in this world.  I can’t see or understand with my own eyes.  But, if I use my Heavenly Father’s eyes it gives me a whole new vision.  It restores my soul.  It warms my heart.  It gives me back my Christmas Spirit.  The true C H R I S T mas Spirit.

“Lord, I know sometimes these true stories I share with readers are really simple.  But you speak to me with these everyday happenings.  I’m asking that You speak to the one reading this prayer.  Give them the gift of seeing with Your eyes.  Give them a moment when they feel your presence in an everyday activity of their own.  Keep their heart from growing cold.  Let an opportunity happen today when they feel your “warmth” in their heart.  Amen”

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher

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I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

You Are Not To Be Alone In This Christian Journey

It’s My log house!  But I need help from my friends to complete it.  I’ve built it, but I needed help with the construction up high, (since I’m scared of heights).

I also needed help with the tedious, hard to fit, most precise pieces of this puzzle that I call a log home.  I’m not good with exact measurements.  “Eyeball” measurements are what I use.  Make it close enough and that’s good enough.  If I’m building this house and make a measurement and it’s within a half inch of what it’s supposed to be, then “nailer tailer”.  That means it’s close enough, so to me it’s good enough!!

But not my friends from the construction crew.  Nope,….. Stuart, Chris, Rip, and Scott want the best for my log house.  They want the best for me!!!

Being within a half inch may be “good enough” for me, but it’s totally unacceptable to these guys.  Get this.  They will saw, cut, measure, move, pry, measure, shimmy, adjust, measure, and then measure again until it’s within an eighth of an inch!  That’s the space between these to lines. (II) In a house measured in feet, they won’t stop until what they are constructing measures to within 1/8 of an inch of being exact, of being perfect.

They are my friends.  I’ll admit I couldn’t do this without them.  They can see things that I wasn’t looking for or even that I myself wasn’t even aware of in my own log house.

They are able to make My log home even better than what I myself could be doing.  Why are they doing this?  Like I’ve said, they are my friends.  They want what’s best for me.

Well, that’s great and all.  But it’s my house, and honestly I grow tired of waiting.  I grow impatient.  I grow “antsy” because it’s taking too much time.  I grow restless, I grow annoyed.  But I grow,…….hmmm I grow to be more exact and perfected.

Don’t get me wrong, this log house is full of crooked logs, bent, scarred, and full of (Character/flaws).  But with the help of my friends, it’s being “perfected”.  Kinda like how our lives as Christians are being perfected.  You and I are all full of scars,we are crooked,we have flaws (or character) and yet, God is “perfecting” us each day.  Lots of times, it’s with the help of our friends.

Hey, I know, you and I don’t enjoy having other people tell us what to do.  We certainly don’t like people telling us how to live our lives.  I’ll confess. I’m at the top of that list.  But I’m not talking about people in general.  Not the know- it-alls, the busybodies, the do-it-my-way people.  What I’m talking about are the true friends.  Friends who care about you, who want the best for you.  Friends whether they realize it or not,………..that are being used by God to “make you a little more exact and perfect”.

James 1:4 and let steadfastness have its full effect,that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Proverbs 19:20  Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.  Many are the plans in a persons heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Is my log house perfect?  N0 way!!  But with the help from my friends, it has become more exact and more close to perfect.

Is my life perfect?  No way!!  But with the help from my friends, It is growing to become more exact and more close to what God wants me to be.

This coming week, I’ll be at a men’s retreat with a bunch of guys who are my friends.  The Noble Heart is an online group of guys who help each other with their God given calling.  They help each other continue on this Christian journey, they offer support, they pray.  They are true friends.

Is your life perfect?  Aw c’mon no way right?  Do you allow your friends and family to offer help and advice on how to live your life?

Maybe, just maybe one of those “good for nothing” friends is actually being used by God to make an improvement in your life.  Maybe just maybe one of those family members may be God’s way of getting through your thick skull so that you can be made better, more exact, even more perfected.

Think about it.  You belong to God.  He wants the best for Himself.  He will perfect you and make you more exact to what He wants you to be.  In spite of ALL your flaws, He is in the being made perfect and whole business.  Don’t rob your friends and family of the opportunity of letting God use them to speak some words of advice to you.

It’s your house, I mean it’s your life.  You must decide who,what, when to listen to.  Your friends just may be how God chooses to GROW you.

“Lord, I thank you for my friends.  Help me to know and understand when You may be speaking thru them to get to me.  Help me become more exact and “perfect” to what you’ve created me to be.  Help me to truly care for others so that You may use me to speak to another.  Amen.”

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher

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Sharing Lives and Dreams Together

We Are a Team in This Dream

WARNING****  This blog is full of love, devotion, trust, and living an abundant Christian life.  If all you are use to is the hate, arguing, tensions, bitterness and divisions that you see in the news and in the world today, well friend, you may not can stomach what’s fixin’ to be said.

Staci is my team mate on this dream that we are living.  She is my soulmate on this Christian journey we are on.  She is my “bestest friend” and that makes things “gooder than good”.

This chapter in our lives of building a log home in Colorado has been a cherished time of excitement.  It’s also been a time of waiting,……. and waiting some more.  Like I’ve said, we are living the dream and that will include both good and bad, thick and thin, for better and worse.

Scratch that “for worse” part out.  I’m learning it’s all about your perspective.  It’s how you see things.  Times may not always be the “bestest”.  But being blessed with someone who is there no matter what, now that’s for better or “bestest”. ( I know you English teachers cringe when I write like this, but it’s how I talk, so buy a bridge and get over it 😉    )

Staci, the pioneer woman, has been the ultimate team player with me on this dream adventure.  She picks me up when I’m down, she provides valuable input and insight.  She will even wrestle with the chainsaw and other log tools.  She’s able to explain to other folks what we’ve got going on much better than I.  She does all the everday mundane chores and still finds time for me.  I love her more than I can say.  I know it looks like I’m obsessed with her, infatuated, devoted, caring, and just plain whooped because of her……… Well I am!

We make a good team.  I pick her up when she’s down.  I share with her my input and insight.  We LIVE together, not just exist.  We laugh, we cry, we pray, we love, we share, we ah,well, ya know, we do any and everything together.  We are a dream team.

Funny how with all the billions of people in this world, God chose two teenagers who only lived  4 miles from each other to become soulmates.  Now 7 dating years and 35 married years later,………well, they still act like two teenagers.

I wake up every morning and fix her a cup of coffee. (Dudley the dog, gets his coffee too).  It’s another small way of showing affection.  It’s my time to say thanks to God for this wonderful gift He gave me.  As I’m filling the coffeemaker with fresh grounds and water, I’m quietly giving thanks each time to God for her.  It’s one of the few religious rituals I do.

I will forever be devoted to her.  Whether it’s building a log home, or taking a  trip, or just everyday mundane activities my life would be void and empty without her.  She brings me out of my shell.  She inspires me.  She makes me laugh.  She brings more life to me.  She has been the answer to my prayer.

I guess I’m getting mushy and “lovey dovey” with my sharing of what Staci means to me. If this TRUE LOVE we are living is too much for you,…….buy a bridge and get over it……… cause we ain’t about to stop it!

Whatever we are doing, have got going, or are facing,….. both good and bad, knowing she is by my side is the greatest feeling in the world.  It’s the BESTEST feeling in the world.  Thank you Lord for giving her to me.

Proverbs 31: 10, 12  Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.  The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need for regret.  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.