Clem is the steeds name in the picture. He is our oldest and most reliable trail horse. He is mister automatic on the ranch trails. He never bucks or raises a ruckus. The only downside to old Clem, or "Clam" as our grandson Conall calls him, is keeping weight on him. This winter we had to separate him from the rest of our horses, and pour the alfalfa cubes to him. There is an upside and a downside to every age, for horses, and for people. SERMON
4-1-07
How old do you think you'd be if you didn't know your age?
SOMEONE ASKED BILLY GHRAHM IF ANYTHING IN LIFE SURPRISED HIM AND HE REPLIED “THE BREVITY OF LIFE” HE WAS SURPRISED BY HOW QUICKLY HE HAD GOTTEN OLD
James 1:9-11
9 Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his elevation [as a Christian, called to the true riches and to be an heir of God],
10 And the rich [person ought to glory] in being humbled [by being shown his human frailty], because like the flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun comes up with a scorching heat and parches the grass; its flower falls off and its beauty fades away. Even so will the rich man wither and die in the midst of his pursuits. [Isa 40:6,7.]
AMP
If we fully comprehended the brevity of life, our greatest desire would be to please God and to serve one another.
James C. Dobson (1936- )
Ps 71:5-12
5 For You are my hope, O Lord GOD;You are my trust from my youth. 6 By You I have been upheld from birth;You are He who took me out of my mother's womb.My praise shall be continually of You.
7 I have become as a wonder to many,But You are my strong refuge. 8 Let my mouth be filled with Your praise And with Your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age ;Do not forsake me when my strength fails. 10 For my enemies speak against me;And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together, 11 Saying, "God has forsaken him;Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him."
12 O God, do not be far from me;O my God, make haste to help me! NKJV
THERE IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING EVEN OLD AGE AND ECCLESIATES TELLS US THAT EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL IN ITS TIME
Eccl 3:1
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born And a time to die; A time to plant,And a time to pluck what is planted; 3 A time to kill,And a time to heal;A time to break down,And a time to build up; 4 A time to weep,And a time to laugh;A time to mourn,And a time to dance; ………….
Eccl 3:11
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.
NKJV
Isa 46:1-9
46:3 "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,And all the remnant of the house of Israel,Who have been upheld by Me from birth,Who have been carried from the womb: 4 Even to your old age , I am He,And even to gray hairs I will carry you!I have made, and I will bear;Even I will carry, and will deliver you.
5 "To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal And compare Me, that we should be alike? 6 They lavish gold out of the bag,And weigh silver on the scales;They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god;They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship. 7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it And set it in its place, and it stands;From its place it shall not move.Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer Nor save him out of his trouble.
8 "Remember this, and show yourselves men;Recall to mind, O you transgressors. 9 Remember the former things of old,For I am God, and there is no other;I am God, and there is none like Me,
NKJV
Age is a quality of mind.
If you have left your dreams behind,
If hope is cold,
If you no longer look ahead,
If your ambitions' fires are dead-
Then you are old.
But if from life you take the best,
And if in life you keep the zest,
If love you hold;
No matter how the years go by,
No matter how the birthdays fly
You are not old.
Ps 92:12-15
12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bear fruit in old age ;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
15 To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
NKJV
'Tis sweet to grow old in the fear of the Lord,
As life's shadows longer creep.
Till our steps grow slow, and our sun swings low-
He gives his beloved sleep.
John Wesley (1703-1791)
Manhood in the Christian life is a better thing than boyhood because it is a riper thing; and old age ought to be a brighter and a calmer and a more serene thing than manhood.
Frederick William Robertson (1816-1853)
Deut 34:6-8
7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished. 8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended.
NKJV
AND YET WE HAVE ISRAEL --- ISAAC
Gen 27:1-4
27:1 Isaac Blesses Jacob
Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, "My son."
And he answered him, "Here I am."
2 Then he said, "Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. 4 And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die."
NKJV
WHETHER WE ARE VIGOROUS AND STRONG IN OLD AGE OR FRAIL AND WEAK WE CAN FLOURISH AND PRODUCE FRUIT
CORRIE TEN BOOM SHARED THAT THE MOST DIFFICULT TEST OF HER LIFE EVEN MORE THAN NAZI INCARCERATION WAS WHEN SHE BECAME FRAIL AND IMMOBILE AT THE END OF HER LIFE --- BUT A FRIEND REMINDED HER, EVEN OUR FRAILTY, IF GIVEN TO CHRIST HE WILL BE GLORIFIED
The average life span of a woman is constantly increasing, thus enabling her to stay twenty-nine much longer. (A MERRY HEART DOES GOOD LIKE A MEDICINE LADIES)
Eccl 12:1-7
Ecclesiastes 12
12:1 Seek God in Early Life
Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,Before the difficult days come,And the years draw near when you say,"I have no pleasure in them": 2 While the sun and the light,The moon and the stars,Are not darkened,And the clouds do not return after the rain; 3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,And the strong men bow down;When the grinders cease because they are few,And those that look through the windows grow dim ; 4 When the doors are shut in the streets,And the sound of grinding is low;When one rises up at the sound of a bird,And all the daughters of music are brought low. 5 Also they are afraid of height,And of terrors in the way;When the almond tree blossoms,The grasshopper is a burden,And desire fails.For man goes to his eternal home,And the mourners go about the streets.
6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken,Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,Or the wheel broken at the well. 7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
NKJV
A description of old age in its frailty: The keepers of the house (arms) and the strong men (legs) are weak and trembling; the grinders cease (teeth) and the windows are darkened (eyesight dimmed), the doors shut (ears are deaf), the grinding low (slow and tedious mastication); the easily startled nerves, and the loss of voice, the inability to climb, and the fear of highway traffic, the whitened hair like the almond tree in blossom when any work seems a burden, and the failing natural desire, all portray the old man nearing the end of his earthly journey.
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
Lev 19:30-34 HONOR TO THE ELDERLY
30'You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.
31'Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
32'You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD.
33'And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. 34 The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
NKJV
THERE IS A STORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT --- HIS AGED FATHER WAS ABOUT TO MOUNT HIS HORSE --- ALEXANDER (RULER OF THE KNOWN WORLD) CLIMBED DOWN ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES THAT HIS GRAY HEADED FATHER COULD USE HIM AS A STOOL TO MOUNT HIS HORSE
Acts 2:14 ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
NKJV
JUST AS WITH OUR HORSES, THERE IS A PLACE FOR THE YOUNG, AND THE OLD
Between the ages of seventy and eighty-three Commodore Vanderbilt added about 100 million to his fortune.
Kant at seventy-four wrote his Anthropology, Metaphysics of Ethics, and Strife of the Faculties.
Tintoretto at seventy-four painted the vast Paradise, a canvas seventy-four by thirty feet.
Verdi at seventy-four produced his masterpiece, Otello; at eighty, Falstaff; and at eighty-five, the famous Ave Maria, Stabat Mater and Te Deum.
Lamarck at seventy-eight completed his great zoological work, The Natural History of the Invertebrates.
Oliver Wendell Holmes at seventy-nine wrote Over the Teacups.
Cato at eighty began the study of Greek.
Goethe at eighty completed Faust.
Tennyson at eighty-three wrote Crossing the Bar.
Titian at ninety-eight painted his historic picture of the Battle of Lepanto.
THIS IS EDITORIAL SO TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT --- BUT ONE OF THE REASONS I BELIEVE WE DON’T HAVE MORE ELDERLY PEOPLE EXCELLING TODAY IS BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF HONOR GIVEN TO THEM AND THE GENERAL LACK OF EXPECTATION OF WHAT THEY CAN ACHIEVE
MY DARLING WIFE WROTE THE FOLLOWING LETTER TO GOD
March 31, 2007
Happy Birthday, Cherry, Heather!
This morning I was looking through a couple of magazines that I’d missed. One was Mother Earth and had interesting articles about solar heating. The other was Perfect Horse with a large article on longeing and another on paddock care. It used to be (or in the words of an Oklahoman -- use t’ could) that I would be very enthusiastic about trying these wonderful ideas, but now… It tires me to even look at the pictures. I must be feeling my age – probably good preventative medicine!
Maybe, if I’d spent more time in front of the mirror over the past years, I would be better prepared for this aging “thing”, but being one who was in too much of a hurry to worry much about appearance or make-up application, I didn’t take the time to become familiar with all my wrinkles and sagging skin. Now, it comes as a shock to see an old lady look back at me when I catch sight of myself in a mirror.
And, now, my joints and muscles are starting to make their presence known in painful ways. Lifting heavy objects has become a thing of the past except when I forget and put my back out. My right hand is swollen and in pain from some forgotten obligation put upon it (probably in conjunction with misusing my back muscles). I’m getting used to having an arthritic toe, but it took several years to admit that it was not going to get better.
Oh, I can still do most household chores – never my favorites! – but the fun stuff, like building pens and things, is getting beyond me. Fortunately, with the help of my little “Bad Boy Buggy” and its winch, I can still move stock panels. I can still drive the tractor, but to fill the front end loader with feed I must now use a smaller bucket and it takes forever. Opening feed sacks, amazingly enough, is one of the hardest things on my right hand!!
God, how did I get so old without knowing? What wonderful new projects do You have in store for me? I know that I will never retire from Your service and I know it will always be exciting, fulfilling work. Help me to come to terms with my diminishing physical strength, to know my capabilities. Help me to let go of the things that are beyond me, now.
Help me to learn and practice new skills. Please, Lord, give me a desire and a talent for organizing the office, paying bills, registering horses and then selling them, scheduling services like hoof trimming, vetting, feed delivery, purchasing feed, planting, etc. Help me to find enjoyment in organizing the housekeeping for accommodation and help me to get excited about restocking supplies. I know this sounds impossible, when at the moment canoeing, paintballing, riding, go-carts and playing in the woods seem like far more fun, but, God, You can do the impossible.
And, Lord, help me to find the time to write: to You, to my children, my devotionals and even a book, if that’s Your will. Also, help me to get my journals sorted and edited. I think I actually, finally, have everything here in Oklahoma – let my globe of the Earth remind me of that when ever I look at it!! (Lord, where is my print from the Yukon?)
God, You are so patient with me. You must really love me. Give me more opportunities to express my love to You and to share Your love with others. I love You, God – with all my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength. Help me to love others as myself, to put their needs before mine.
In Jesus name, Amen.
PS Father, what shall I do with Shadow? (OUR STUD HORSE) Geld him? Sell him as a stud? Advertise him standing at stud? I know – put an ad or several, for that matter, on Tradio!!
