Views and Visions - Now and Not Yet

This afternoon there's been a steady stream of traffic going past Hebron, possibly due to a detour or an event further down the road, but whatever the reason I've never seen so many cars.  It made me wonder if one day in the future we will see a similar stream of traffic turning into Hebron to celebrate Sukkot.

In the meantime we are the blessed few who get to enjoy this property any time we want. 

View looking towards next door neighbour

All tanks are full and ready for a hot summer

I've planted approximately 60 lucerne seedlings this month

View from top of the Sanderston hill, overlooking a neighbour's property.
I just love the rock wall that is being steadily restored.

View from the road

Gulliver and Don Pedro in their favourite paddock.

At this week's shabbat gathering we discussed the advice Paul gave to Timothy in 2Timothy 2 and how we too need to follow the pattern that has been laid out for us.  The example of those who have gone before us is an encouragement to keep our eyes fixed on our Messiah Yeshua and look to Him for our sustenance, healing, guidance and provision.  In the busyness that comes with life this can at times feel like balancing the now and the not yet but simply being reliant on Yeshua means the yoke is easy and the burden is light.  

Contented flock

Below is an article written by G.D.Watson (1845-1924), who was a Wesleyan Methodist 

minister and evangelist based in Los Angeles.

OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOT

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, 

and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes 

to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My 

sake will find it. 

(Matthew 16:24-25) 

If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, 

He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He 

will put on you such demands of obedience that you will 

not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He 

seems to let other good people do things which He will not 

let you do.

Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push 

themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their 

plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with 

such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you

sorely penitent. 

Others can brag about themselves, their work, their 

successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow 

you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead 

you into some deep mortification that will make you 

despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of 

money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having 

luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day 

basis, because He wants you to have something far better 

than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen 

treasury. 

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while 

keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to 

produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, 

which can only be produced in the shade.

God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let 

others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will 

make you work and toil without knowing how much you are 

doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will 

let others get the credit for the work which you have done; 

this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and 

something of the value of being cloaked with His nature. 

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a 

jealous love rebuke you for careles

s words and feelings, or 

for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem 

distressed over. 

So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign 

and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that 

He may not explain to you a thousand things which may 

puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. 

God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell 

yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous 

love and let other people say and do many things that you 

cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the 

HolySpirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue 

or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which 

others are not dealt with. 

However, know this great secret 

of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed 

with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, 

pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, 

jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit 

over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, 

the high calling of God.

Hebron is such a blessing to me and I find immense satisfaction seeing
the trees grow and infrastructure develop.