Life on the Boat
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:4 NASB
Entangles – Don’t be empleko, says Paul. The verb paints an important picture. It means to be braided into. Imagine you are vacationing on a Caribbean island beach. Along comes a woman who offers to braid beads into your hair. It’s an island thing. You agree and she begins to entangle you hair with beads. When to try to remove them later, you will find the process more difficult than you thought. Paul uses the same imagery in his instructions to Timothy. Don’t get the things of the world braided into your hair. Remember that you are a soldier. Stay focused on the war.
My daughter Rachel served on the John C. Stennis nuclear aircraft carrier for two deployments in the Persian Gulf. On board ship, it’s all business. Sixteen hours a day on the flight deck. Eight hours to sleep, eat and get ready for the next sixteen. Living by the book. Orders given. Orders taken. Life on the boat has no time for civilian distractions. And if by chance you should get entangled in civilian endeavors, you put others at risk because you are not paying attention to the task at hand—war! You can be a civilian when you are home, but not on the ship.
So what about you? Are the world’s distractions braided into your life? Are you entangled with career, shopping, raising children, cleaning the house, making money, cutting the lawn, vacationing, watching television or the hundreds of other civilian activities the distract you from the task at hand? Oh, none of these are sins. None are unimportant. None are insignificant. They are just distractions that could prevent you from paying attention to the life and death battlefield.
One time when Rachel was on the flight deck, she thought her Chief was motioning her to cross to his side of the runway. She walked out on the deck just as a Hornet was about to land. Panic! The pilot had to abort. Someone could have died because Rachel was just for a moment distracted. Lesson learned. Every moment demands maximum attention when lives hang in the balance. Every moment as a soldier is a life and death moment.
Of course, we aren’t built for one hundred percent attention all the time. God knows that. So we do have time for civilian activities. But we are at war even if today it feels relaxed and comfortable. The issue is not about having civilian responsibilities. We all have them. The issue is how tightly they are braided into your hair. The issue is how quickly you can remove yourself from any distraction when you are called on to fight. Maybe today is a day for asking, “If I were called into action right now, what would hold me back?”
Topical Index: entangle, empleko, braid, war, 2 Timothy 2:4
Finally. There ARE benefits to being nearly bald!
:-)))))
MARCHING ORDERS
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”
“And do not be conformed to this world”
“Therefore you also be ready”
“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk
just as He walked”
“As I have loved you, that you also love one another”
“Follow Me”
It is true that we are all at war.
Lets remember that we don’t all have the same job in that war.
The only civilians are the children.
And they are only civilians until the DIs (moms and dads)are able to prepare them for war.
I’m not certain that raising children and all the tasks that go into it would go on my list of worldly distractions. 😀
I agree, Pam. While it is “distracting” to be a parent, I think it’s an assignment of Godly proportion. Having said that, I also know that the idea that we can multi-task is a myth. We can flit our minds from one topic to another quickly, but some level of focus always suffers. I think that is Skip’s point — being single-focused is essential on the battlefield, and that is not a possibility when you are minding a toddler. 🙂
Truth Suzanne. Toddlers are more like being on the aircraft carrier. You need to be single minded about staying alert to everything going on around you. LOL
I agree with Skips point. We don’t take our role in the war very seriously because we keep forgetting we’re in a war. I’m blessed to have a Sudanese friend that reminds me often. But most of us in the US are oblivious and our faith is the bless myself variety. A little honey is good for us but we tend to be glutenous with it. I’m as guilty as anyone.
And I totally agree multi-tasking is a lie.
Skip, I have lost track of Rachel. Where is she now? Does she still want to make a career in the Navy? I have prayed for her endurance, both spiritually and physically. Brave young woman.
Tom
Skip, or anyone else, I have an odd question that is totally off this subject but it’s something I’m wrestling with and would like an opinion. I have been increasing my gardening areas and am in a dilemma of sorts concerning fertilizer (manure). The distinction I wish to address is whether manure from “unclean” animals (ie. horses) is adequate for a food garden or should it be only clean. I know it sounds like a silly question, but it concerns me insofar as the kingdom is concerned. What triggered this is the fact that I was quite comfortable going down to the river and getting silt for my herb garden and not knowing what is really in it and began to look more closely at my other practices in the same regard. I thank anyone for their response and considerations
YHWH bless you and keep you…..
I am tempted to say, “Bull____ is not my speciality” 😉 I really don’t know what to tell you about this. Maybe Paul’s advice. If you don’t know for certain, then you are free to treat it as if it is not true.
I have been interested in this one, too. Thanks for bringing it up! Here’s a few of my ruminations (haha) so far on this subject in general, for what its worth:
It’s obvious that pig manure is so close to human that there is no essential difference. So many diseases can pass through, and parasites, too, that communicate with us. In progressive countries, pig farms are often required to be connected to municipal waste processing. The other animals that share so much of our diet with us, like the carnivores, also have such unclean waste that it is noxious and toxic to us, too.
There probably is not nearly as much difference between the different ungulates (multiple stomach ruminants) as there may be between, say, bat manure vs. bird manure. It seems to me llama or camel manure (4 stomach and cud chewing but not splitting the hoof) is not that different from sheep or goat manure.
Horse manure is considered a ‘hot’ manure, because it has more nitrogenous value than, say, cow manure, and can damage plants of it is not completely broken down; but, then, chicken manure is even ‘hotter’.
In general, though, ‘clean’ animals are preeminently designated so around their digestive systems; an efficient system being one that breaks down matter most completely and also transforms toxins and parasites into less harmful substances.
Ok, somebody don’t tell me that the only reason for us to not eat unclean animals is because we are told not to. Sure, that is good enough for me, but isn’t it COINCIDENTAL that the breakdown in relatively greater health benefits also falls on the same lines? I mean, isn’t that even nicer?
One of the questions being, for me, anyway, is: are the systems of conversion for waste matter to be broken down in nature efficient enough to keep the last round of toxins and general load on the liver out of the next link in the food chain? That is essentially what this question for me has been. There is a good reason for the prohibitions that exist.
There are some purists out there who have decided (and not without some research data that backs them up) that animal manures in general, which decompose by means of mainly bacterial action, are not as healthy for plants as plant manures are, which break down mainly by means of fungal action. The fungal world, in general, shares less crossover issues with us than the bacterial one. Ever heard of vegan compost? Well, now you have!
I am in the middle of making the next round of decisions for my small farm, and one of them is whether I should just tear down my livestock fences and convert the whole acreage to plants instead of animals, and just step outside the animal chain altogether, and, yes, the kosher considerations are one of the larger parts of what I am using to drive my considerations.
SO, Robert, I am interested with you!
On the river silt thing, if I were you, I would be interested in how the water tested in that river. Fish guano is one thing: municipal or industrial waste would be quite another for me!
P.S. I have started experimenting with sea water to replace mineral losses in my soil. I just went to the coast and came back with a load of water that had been filtered through the marshes up behind the Sapelo River (it is about half salt, or brackish). I know I am a lot more concerned with organic and contaminant purity than I am with whether or not that water has been passing through what some consider the best oyster beds on the Atlantic Coast. I consider the marshes a plus as they filter out impurities, and those oysters do a real good job!
P.P.S. I don’t eat those oysters!
Thank you Laurita, I’m much along the same lines as you are. The other considerations I have are the responsibility of what I grow and share with others. I know there’s that road kill thing but on the other hand, giving someone (even “goyim”) poison ivy as spinach is criminal! 🙂 BTW if your not aware of it Hawaiian Healing tree has a link for starting your own em-1 inoculant, which is used for bokashi (veggie/meat) compost. Here’s the link if your interested, it’s started with lactic “gobbledegook” but it’s pretty amazing stuff. Anyhoo..thanks again for your very insightful comments. Laurita’s never boring!! 🙂
YHWH bless you and keep you…….I know I tag that to all my posts but I really mean it.
Thank you, Robert! I am going to look right now, and, btw, I am in continual need of blessing and keeping…
ok, I went and checked and it looks like just what I have been looking for this week! Thank you! I was looking at making my own rooting compound to start a whole bunch of trees because the commercial stuff is just too pricey and also questionable in the ‘organic’ sense, too. I have been eying the willows encroaching my pond, because willow tea is supposedly the cat’s meow for rooting medium, but what you sent me is so much more! I love the foliar tea, I was also looking for a recipe for that. We have a huge problem in the South with disease now; so bad we are only able to find tomatoes from Canada in August here. I am working on several ways to beat the disease problem, with trace minerals being one of them. The fermented teas also introduce friendly competitive organisms that combat problem ones. I believe in the double-barrel shotgun approach, so thanks for more ammo!
Shalom and may your thumb shine green!
As a side note Laurita, you probably already know this so I’ll only mention it in passing. Concerning tomatoes and other such delights, use only heirlooms (or as close as possible) and as quickly as possible push 2 or 3 generations up using the seed from them for the next crop. Adding inoculants and microbes to your soil and if you can find it, lava rock (crush it) it will begin to heal your soil and thus the plants also strengthening the disease resistance of the plant. Ancient forms of grains had a much higher resistance to disease than modern versions (closer to the creation original) and I would bet my bottom dollar that the fruits and veggies were in the same condition. Back to the beginning……..
YHWH bless you and keep you……
Hey, I just found lava at my friendly Lowe’s being sold as mulch. I promptly dug some into my Olive tree pots. Love love lava! Everything grows in it, I agree! I like heirlooms; that’s why I am working so hard to find the ways to grow them. The tomato varieties being pushed now to overcome the weird viruses and the like are various forms of cardboard. A plant can build its own disease resistance given the correct building blocks, which are those friendly populations, but those organisms also need building blocks. Minerals, etc.
I had a 5-gallon bucket of corn given to me by an old man in NC years ago; seed that had been in his family for 150 years. I gave him some game chickens in appreciation. Well, I had grown out a small field of the ‘perfect’ corn (you know, the kind that is named some number, its so high-falutin’) to feed the mules. I would throw it over the fence and they would mouth it, and kernels would dribble out of their mouths. I got mad at those ungrateful beasts until I put some in MY mouth. Plastic-covered chalk. I spat it out. Next year I planted a field of the heirloom corn, and it was so palatable the mules would eat the stalks and cobs over the kernels! That corn grew 15 ft tall with almost no fertilizer and held one year, in milk stage, through several light frosts. We picked and ate corn on the cob at Christmas. I would be happy to share some seed with others. It is good fresh or dry, and hangs in the field all winter, which means you don’t have to shock it. I think it is a variant of, perhaps, Stowell’s Evergreen. It was grown to adapt to the mountains of Tennessee, but it likes Georgia all right too!
Its been fun talking to you, too, Robert.
I would definitely like some seed corn. My gardening friends and I could tell you many tales of growing heirloom corn as opposed to the hybrid and GMO corn out there. We grow white corn and grind it for our own corn meal. Last couple of years I have grown a red cob white corn. We love the white corn and so do the animals we have around. One of my friends was feeding 18 hens comercial laying mash this fall and getting 2 eggs a day. When we got thru grinding our heirloom corn for corn meal he declared he was taking his welfare chickens off commercial feed costing him $10 a week and feeding them the siftings from the corn meal. His hens immediately jumped to 8 eggs a day on the mill scraps and have continued all winter so far. I will be going to Lowe’s for lava rock too. I would be happy to pay all cost involved in sending me the seed corn. I would also be happy to send you some pole bean seed. I have blue ribbon seed (a brown bean) which I have not seen anywhere in 15 years and a 100yr + white pole bean that is much better than half runners. The blue ribbon seed is from my 2014 crop, but what I planted last year had been in my freezer since 1991 and I think every bean germinated. I collect and freeze every kind of seed I can get access to, both vegetables and flowers.
Sounds like a great even swap to me! Here is my email address. Send me your address and I will send you some seed. It is time to grow out another batch. The seed has been in the freezer but the germ rate is going down. I would really treasure the pole bean seed! This corn is white, too, and very fine flavored, both fresh and meal. The animals love it and they know best! lauritahayes@gmail.com
To Laurita, Robert, John and all the agricultural gurus out there…I have really enjoyed reading your posts regarding growing food and caring for the land! I have no clue to the details that you shared but found it absolutely fascinating! I’m a city girl, so I’m sure you understand! ☺️ Thanks!
Inetta, come on in. The water is fine. There is a whole other culture out there that you didn’t know existed. Gardeners are really down to earth people (pun intended). It is a culture of kindness and sharing that you don’t see in society today. We are under the radar.
“Every moment demands maximum attention when lives hang in the balance. Every moment as a soldier is a life and death moment.” As in the physical, so in the spiritual realm- Life and death lies in the tongue. Wrong words and actions can kill.
Pro 25:11 (AMP)
11 A word fitly spoken and in due season is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
“A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!” Pro 15:23