Bittersweet Farm

I am in my loft enjoying the peacefulness of a Saturday afternoon. Leaves are falling. Sometimes hear the whisper of their fall on the roof.

I just walked out Nantucket and back. I took a few minutes to rest on my rock in the tree-line. As I turned to make my way home I heard the drone of a single-engine plane flying north to south directly overhead. It was a tiny thing laboring against the elements. The plane growled out of site and it reminded me of a story our son-in-law Jesse told us one night early this summer when we stayed up talking into the night.

He was telling me of his four-year term of service teaching as a Christian missionary in a lonely valley in Tanzania far from anyone or anything familiar.

He had a friend with Missionary Aviation Fellowship who would sometimes fly through the valley just to encourage them and let them know they were not alone. There was no airstrip. He couldn’t land, but when Jesse would hear the drone of the engine overhead he would run out and stand in the clearing and wave to his friend overhead.

The warm human touch reminded him that he was not alone. there in that African valley thousands of mines from home and family and things familiar.

He went on that night to relate other stories of the pilot and his devotion to Christ and the people. I suppose those are stories for another day, but today walking out on Nantucket I remembered the story and it warmed my heart again.

I like to think of myself as that pilot making a gesture of encouragement to fellow humans on their often hard and lonely way.

Bittersweet Farm
October 8, 2021

Bittersweet Farm

Where every day is a beautiful day
And the little light in the kitchen is always on.

Bittersweet Journal
October 4, 2021

Good Morning Readers;

On September 24th at almost 8:00 in the morning our son Daniel and his wife Katelynn had a third child–a third son. His name is Danny Brooks. He has a head of dark hair like his dad. Mother and child are well, thanks be unto God. He is our seventeenth grandchild.. Dan and Kate live in New Mexico. I pray this child will know God with his heart and walk with Him all the days of his life.

It was four years ago this weekend we first crested the hill west of the place we now call Bittersweet Farm. That very day I handed Charles Perlos a check for a thousand dollars and he promised to sell me the home he had so beautifully restored. It was the first day of the month of October. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon in the fall. We descended through a canopy of trees and we found our home on a quiet country road in Michigan in the month of October. There was poetry in that. Romance.

It’s just past four in the morning on my day off. I’ve been going at it pretty hard for the last week and it’s nice to have what may be a full day out on Bittersweet without any pressing obligations. A man needs a day from time-to-time to just putter around a bit. I may go for a drive and move some vintage stuff for Lois. That happens a lot. Moving large pieces of furniture to re-sell is Lois’s love language these days, but other than that I’m not planning anything heroic. Hey, it’s October. I may mix a spoon full of pumpkin into my oats this morning and have a extra cup of good, strong coffee.

I may move things around the carriage house or mow, or maybe not. I may get out a fountain pen and write poetry. Autumn is the season of the year most likely to inspire poetry and it just seems right to write poetry with a fountain pen. I may putter in the flower beds and listen to Beethoven or a podcast or a sermon. I just looked at my weather app and there is a good chance of rain all day so I may just brew some coffee and do some reading. I may do some writing for pleasure in my writing loft. I love to hear the rain on the metal roof.

I hope you have a place where you can hear the rain on the roof today, or feel the sun on your neck or the wind at your back, or the whisper of the breeze in the leaves. I hope you can take some time to take in something beautiful.

There are some new writings on my site. When you have time maybe you can pay be a visit and enjoy some of them. I like to think of my place on the web as a place where you can come a sit for a while and refresh your spirit on things true and lovely.

Bittersweet Farm
October 4, 2021

If you are a Christian, and you are able, you should go every week where God’s people assemble and the word is preached. God’s people should gather around his Word every week. A church is an assembly of God’s people who DEVOTE themselves to the preaching and teaching of the Bible (the Apostle’s Doctrine), Fellowship, Prayer, and the Breaking of Bread. (Acts 2:42). Followers of Jesus gather at least weekly with other believers and help one another follow Jesus.

It is popular to say something like this: “Be the church, don’t just go to church.” While this is true, we must say that a church is an assembly, a called-out group that meets together before they scatter into the world to be salt and light. To “Be the Church” is to go to church and then scatter to obey the other commands of Christ.

The book of Hebrews warns of the danger of drifting away from faithfulness to God. It contains the warning: “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:23)

There is a great danger of drifting away from faithfulness to God. “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” (Hebrews 2:1, ESV)

In the parable of the sower Jesus warned, “The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things…” can come in and choke out the word until it becomes unfruitful.

There are times when you will need to travel or when you have an unavoidable interruption or when you must do works of necessity. Dispatch these duties and return as soon as possible to the assembly of God’s people. There are those who are genuinely concerned that they will be in physical danger because of the possibility of exposure to COVID-19. This is not what I am talking about. Everyone must be true to his own conscience on this matter.

We tend to do what really want to do, what we really value. On the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said:“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Church–assembly with the saint–is more important than visiting, camping, entertainment, hobbies, travel, sports, sports, thousand other things that are good. The health and well-being of your very soul and the souls of those you love depends on doing the Christian life the way God has commanded us to. Christians who flourish spiritually are Christians who do not forsake assembling with others Christians. We all know there are those who go to church every week who are not strong or exemplary Christians, but Christians who do not establish the habit of every-week church are likely to grow weak.

The writer of Hebrews put it this way; “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:12–13, ESV)

Bittersweet Farm
October 1, 2021