The Beginning

The Beginning

A friend give me 10 words to use in a poem: white, heaven, darlin, creation, danger, thunder, captive, victim, innocent. This is what I came up with

The Beginning
Oh the glory it would have been to see

the Lord creating our home to be.

The thunder so loud and lightning so bright;

innocent eyes held captive by the sight.

Dark clouds parting then fading to white

as heaven appeared from a glorious light.

“Now go Adam and enjoy this place.”

God must have said with happiness on His face.

“But be warned of the danger of eating from yonder tree.

The fruit it bears is not for you. Just let it be.

”But not long after Adam and Eve were to meet

Do they fall victim to Satan’s deceit.“

Oh Eve my darlin, what have we done?’

Nothing worse could we do under the sun.

”The moments intense as they waited for Him;

punishment to come would be just, not on a whim.

Now we ask forgiveness, pull weeds and give birth.

We praise God and all He does for us while we’re here on Earth.

(Inspiration From Genesis Chapters 1 through 3)

We might think we know best but are we listening?

We might think we know best but are we listening?

Jim Bull is a horseman from Kentucky who writes, The Bull Pen for the Cowboys of the Cross website, devotions meant to teach and encourage through illustrations from life.

Jim Bull is a horseman from Kentucky who writes, The Bull Pen for the Cowboys of the Cross website, devotions meant to teach and encourage through illustrations from life.

By Jim Bull / Cowboys of the Cross

As a teenager, I thought I knew what was best for me, at least what little I knew about what I wanted.

Admittedly, I really had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I was content to wander aimlessly through it without much consideration to my future. When my mom would ask me about my plans I would give a lame thought or brush it off completely. When she would try to help me think about a job that would lead to a career or at least something that would make me happy and I would be good at, I knew she had my best interest in mind. But I wasn’t ready to listen. I would feign interest just to please her then go about my haphazard way of life.

This shows there is a difference between believing someone knows what’s best for you and listening to them. The same way there is a difference between believing in God and bowing down before Him.

Satan himself believes in God. James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Satan has talked to God and been in His presence. The belief Satan has is based on knowledge and does not include trusting, following or having a union with Christ. Satan’s belief does not lead to a changed life. That belief, or knowledge does not lead to salvation!

Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

However, your wholehearted, biblical belief in God through Christ will show itself in a spiritual and moral transformation. You shouldn’t need to tell someone you believe in God, they should be able to see it.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

God puts the pieces together perfectly even when we can’t see the big picture

God puts the pieces together perfectly even when we can’t see the big picture

God can put the pieces together to form a picture we can’t even begin to see. A cowboy church devotion from horse man Jim Bull.

 

By Jim Bull / Cowboys of the Cross

 I’ve known something for a long time and finally come up with an illustration that gives an idea of the complexity of life.
  When you were a kid,  do you remember putting together jigsaw puzzles that had a board with a curved border that all six pieces had one obvious spot for it to go? And do you remember putting every piece in the wrong place and turning it in a complete circle three to five times before either putting it in a different place on the board and  spinning it again or putting it down and getting a new piece or giving up and finding something else to play with that didn’t hurt your brain?
  Move forward a few years.  Do you  remember trying again to put together jigsaw puzzles? Only now you’re skilled and working with 500 pieces or one thousand or you like the challenge and go for puzzles with ten thousand pieces! You start with the boarder pieces or a specific color or whatever is your preferred method to make sense of the madness.  Now it’s because you enjoy the challenge so you don’t give up,  you just keep plugging along, piece by piece till you proudly look upon a finished puzzle.
  Now we’re going to look at God.  He takes all the millions of pieces of our lives such as who we meet and when and where we are, what we pay attention to. The good things and the bad; all the things that make up a life. It’s like the pieces are in a bingo ball scrambler cage, He reaches in and pulls one piece out and places it on a blank table with no border in the exact location it belongs.  No twisting or turning or spinning or searching for a boarder or color.  He just knows where it belongs.  Then He grabs the next piece of the puzzle and places it perfectly.  He is an amazing God!
  But wait!  That puzzle with millions of pieces is just your life! He also mixes your puzzle pieces with all of the people you are affected by or have an influence on or that influence you.  Now it’s a puzzle with billions or trillions of pieces and it’s in 3D and he’s still pulling them all out of a bingo ball scrambler cage! You can look up awesome in a thesaurus and use every word it has and still not get the full picture of how great God is.  Praise Him and worship Him for He is worthy! He knows your every hair, thought and action,  inside and out.  He is the master of your puzzle.
 Luke 12:5-7 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who,  after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are numbered.  Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 

An encouraging word strengthens a relationship

By Jim Bull / Cowboys of the Cross

Jim Bull is a horseman from Kentucky who writes, The Bull Pen for the Cowboys of the Cross website, devotions meant to teach and encourage through illustrations from life.

Jim Bull is a horseman from Kentucky who writes, The Bull Pen for the Cowboys of the Cross website, devotions meant to teach and encourage through illustrations from life.

I finally worked up the nerve to talk to my now wife, Laura, on September 22, 1999. Just over three months
later was New Years Eve and we, along with her roommate, were hosting an End of the Millennium
party. Some of the girls’ closest friends were there and I had come to know and respect them. During this
party, one of their friends pulled me to the side to tell me how happy she was for Laura and me; how
great we were for each other and how great I was to her.
I remember the feeling of the grin that spread across my face. The assurance, from a woman I barely
knew, was a great boost to my ego but, more importantly, made me want to do better. A little
encouragement goes a long way to building relationships, your own, as well as people you know or
encounter.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good
deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-
and all the more as you see the day approaching.”
My wife and I have been married for 16 years. In that time, we have had great moments of expressing
our love for each other. We have also had times of complacency, when we knew we loved each other
but failed to make the effort to show it unashamedly. I have had times when I felt I was a failure as a
husband because I knew my wife was feeling lonely and abandoned because I was wrapped up in work
and not putting forth the effort to show how much I needed her; how much I loved her. I have also felt
lonely, like a hired worker or a servant. It is in these times we were lacking communication and the
expression of our love, not that we were ever lacking the love itself.
Proverbs 31:28 says “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her”
We are to tell our wives how blessed we are to have them. We should tell them all the wonderful things
we see in them; not just their outer beauty but inner beauty as well. We should tell them of the great
care they take of us, tell her you see her hard work and that you appreciate the effort she puts in daily
to take care of the family and household. Be sure to acknowledge her being a lady so she will continue
to be a lady.
After all this time together, after all the changes we have both made with our interests, habits and
looks, we are still blessed to have each other and work to acknowledge each our need for each
other. My advice to anyone in a relationship or looking for that special someone in the future is to not
be afraid of stepping outside your comfort zone when telling that person how you feel about
them. Also, we need to not be ashamed to tell friends that we see the way they are with their spouse or
girlfriend. Be supportive in the relationships of people you are around. You never know when you will
say something that they need to hear to motivate a fresh start to a stale relationship.
1 Peter 4:8 tells us “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

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