Greenstone’s Perspectives #31

HISTORICAL.  We found in Chapter 8 of 1 Samuel that the elders of Israel came to the Prophet Samuel and wanted a king to rule over them.  The Lord told Samuel that the people had rejected Him as their ruler, and to give them what they want (1 Samuel, chapter 8).  Samuel explained to the people what the king would demand of them of labor and a 10% tax of everything.

The prophet Samuel, who was called a Seer (1 Samuel 9:9) anointed Saul, who was head and shoulders above every one else, to be the first king.  This tall, humble young man (1 Samuel 9:2) was given a new heart and was changed into another man!!  (1 Samuel 10:6,7,9)  Samuel again warned the people of their wickedness for wanting a king, and also promised the people the Lord’s protection if they would serve Him in truth and obey the commandments. (1 Samuel 12:20-25)

Saul, however, did not perfectly follow the Lord’s instructions, and spared the Amalekites King, and the best of the sheep and livestock (1 Samuel 15:7-8), which displeased the Lord (v.15).  Saul tried to justify his actions, and Samuel responds with remarkable words which culminates with “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”  Saul is then stripped of his kingship, and told it would be given to a neighbor of his.  (1 Samuel 15:28)  And Samuel would never again see Saul until the day of his death. (v.35)

EXPERIENCES.  It never ceases to amaze me of the power of children’s prayers.  Back in 1972 I had been accepted to enter the Doctoral Program at the University of Oregon.  I had given notice of leaving my position of Community School Director at Edmore, Michigan, and advertised the sale of our farm. 

I continued to go to my office and take care of correspondence, and to take care of any transition of the Directorship to whoever might take over the position.  The Superintendent, Morley Webb, told me he wouldn’t even look for another person “until I see the moving truck leave your place because I don’t even want to hire anyone else!”

Several weeks went by and we had no prospects of selling the farm, which meant we would not have the funds to either move or even sustain our five kids (we had just completed the process of adopting our two girls) and two black Labrador dogs), and the two of us.  We had completely run out of money, and could not even advertise the farm or buy food or other essentials.

The kids were all primed to move to Oregon, where they could see the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and go rock collecting.  Barbara and I made it a matter of prayer.  We were desperate, and needed Divine Intervention.  There were those times when we hugged each other and wondered if God was really with us in this move.  I remember one time that I tried to console my Sweetheart and said, “Don’t worry, Honey, God knows how it’s going to turn out.”  She looked up at me, with tears in her eyes, and said, “I know he knows how it’s going to turn out, I just wish he’d let me in on it!”

We finally decided it was time to call the family together, and tell them we couldn’t go to Oregon.  We called a family meeting up in the 3 boys’ bedroom.  It was bedtime and the five kids, ages 5 to 14, sat around in their pajamas, and I broke the news.

“Kids: we haven’t been able to sell the farm, so we are now unable to go to Oregon.”  It was a big shock!  One of them said, “We thought that you said that God was leading you go to Oregon.”  I said, “Well, I thought He was, but for some reason it hasn’t worked out.  I’ll have to go down to the school tomorrow morning and sign my contract for another year so we’ll have money to live on.”

The oldest son, J, said, “Can you wait until noon?”  I replied, “Yes, but why wait until noon?”  He responded, “Because we will pray that God will send someone tomorrow morning to buy the farm!” Immediately, all five of them said, “Yes!”, and dropped to their knees, and one at a time poured out their hearts in prayer.

Barbara and I stood there, and held each other close.  I wondered, “God, we’ve taught these kids to have faith, and now look at them, why they believe that it’s going to happen, and it looks like the time is past.  How can you do this to them?  This will destroy their faith.”

The next morning we were all just finishing breakfast when a car drove in the driveway.  I told Barbara that it was probably someone needing direction, and I’d go see what they wanted.  I went outside, and someone rolled down their car window and said, “Is this place for sale?” I said it was, and turned to Barbara and said, “I’ll show them the property.”  I only got about 50 feet and another car drove in. “Is this place for sale?”  Barbara just got started with them, and another car drove in. “Is this place for sale?” Before they could get out, the second people said, “We want it and we just sold our place, and we’ve got the cash, and how soon can you leave?”

We met at the local bank two days later and finalized the transaction, and five days later we were loaded in a large moving truck and our station wagon, and we left the farm.  We will never forget the power of our kids’ prayers.

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING.  I find that several things are important for survival and enjoyment for my side trips. I melt paraffin and dip matches in it to keep rain and dampness away so the matches will light, and the paraffin makes the matches burn longer, anyway. I can store them in a waterproof pill bottle. A salt shaker really comes in handy many times.  I remember different times that I would be way in the backwoods fishing, and could catch a fish, gut it, impale it on a stick, and cook it over a small fire (that I started with my paraffin matches), and season it with my salt shaker!

It is really satisfying to have that fresh, delicious food right out there in God’s Nature!

A couple of good-sized trash bags are very useful, too.  You can use one a rain coat by cutting a hole in the middle of the closed end for your neck, and the corner opened up for arm holes. You can also open up one bag and use it for a covering when sleeping outside.

A good folding jack-knife, a small pair of pliers, and a small spool of wire for making snares, and a small spool of braided fishing line, will help round out your necessities.

Until next time, GREENSTONE.

Greenstone’s Perspectives #30

HISTORICAL.  Moses told the people several times to love the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul (Deuteronomy 30:2, 6, 16).  And yet, he also prophesied that they were, and would be, rebellious (31:27, 29), and evil would befall them in the latter days!

I would suggest that you familiarize yourself with Moses’ song found in 32:1-43.

Joshua was faithful, and after he led the people across the Jordan he commanded the people to obey the words of the Law (Joshua 23:6-9) and possess all the lands that have been given to them for inheritance, and also serve God with sincerity and truth (24:14-27).  And then he set up a stone and said it was a witness of the words of the Lord!

True to Moses’ prophecy, the people began to drift from the commandments.  They didn’t completely drive out the other nations, and began to accept their cultures.   Judges 6:1 tells of their evil, and from verse 10 on we find the calling of Gideon, who was mighty to save Israel.  And again, we find Israel was wicked, and God raised up Samson to be a deliverer.  Read Judges Chapters 13-16.  Over a period of several hundred years they had many struggles.  They went through a system of Judges, then the old prophet Samuel came along, and the people wanted a king.  The Lord spoke to Samuel and said it was not right to have a king over them rather than Himself, but told Samuel to tell them why it was not right to have a king, but to do what the people wanted.  Read 1 Samuel Chapter  8, it reminds us of our time!

EXPERIENCES.  Joan (real name withheld) had been a good employee.  She was a beautiful blonde girl, on the honor roll, a cheerleader, popular, and well-respected.  She was used to supervise roller skating, and keep track of fees paid for skating, swimming, teen center, and children’s activities.  Money started coming up missing, and a trap was set.  She was caught transferring money from the swimming activities to her locker in the girls’ locker room.  I had her brought into my office and questioned her.  I confronted her with the numbers of people that had signed in for several times of skating and swimming and what the total amount the fees should have been, and the fact that witnesses watching through the coaches’ office in the swimming area saw her transferring swimming fee money into her own locker.  She calmly denied the charges, and continued to do so in spite of repeated questioning.

I realized I was getting no where, and in my desperation I swiveled my chair around, bowed my head, and silently prayed, “O lord, I need your help in getting this thing resolved.  Please help me.  In your name of Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen.”

I turned back around, and said, “Joan, did you take the money?”  She calmly replied, “Yes! In the beginning I took it because it was so easy, and then I just couldn’t stop.  I have all of the money home, and I can bring it back.”

I took Joan to see the superintendent, and he said we should take her to the police station, and asked me what I would like to do about it.  I said that she had been a good employee and if she went to the police station she would have this on her record.  I said what I would like to do is have her continue to work in this program for the rest of the school year – about 4 months – and if she had no more problems I would not keep a record of this.  Joan was happy to agree to this, and she continued to be a good employee.

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING.  Earthworms are miraculous for gardening!  We lived in Eugene, Oregon some years ago.  Our oldest son, J, had a lemon tree that he had been raising for a couple of years.  It had stopped growing and did not look good.  J and I went to the back yard and sifted out some sand and put a layer about 2” deep in the bottom of a 12” square wooden box, then put a 4” layer of garden dirt heavily mixed with leaves.  We dampened it real good with water.  We dug out 100 earthworms from the garden, cleaned the dirt off them, and weighed them on our postage scales, then put them in the box.  The worms quickly disappeared into their new home.

One month later we carefully took one handful of dirt out of the box and separated out the worms.  We were amazed to see that they had doubled in weight in that time!  In addition, they produced many worm capsules, which look like grayish grains of rice. These capsules each contain  2-4 ‘wormlets’ (small worms), and would soon hatch out many worms in a short time!

Most people fail to have success in raising worms because they don’t know that worms have a ‘crop’ like a chicken does!  They need sand.  The bits of organic material that the worms eat go into the crop, which has some sand in it, and the churning of the crop causes the sand to grind up the materials until it is easily digested.  So we put sand in the bottom of the box.  The worms eat the dead leaves and other organic material on top, then burrow down to the bottom to eat some sand and then leave their ‘castings’ (their manure) while they are there.  These castings are the richest, most assimilable food that plants can have!  The light-colored sand that we had in the bottom was now black, rich dirt.

We took the lemon tree out of the tub, re-potted it with the black soil, and in a couple of weeks the tree sprouted many new twigs, and many bright, shiny, green leaves!  Earthworms are powerful gardeners.

GREENSTONE.

Greenstone’s Perspectives #29

HISTORICAL. Under his direction and guidance, Joshua led the House of Israel across the Jordan River on dry ground to the promised land (Joshua 3:15-17, 4:23). They no longer ate manna, but began to eat of the old corn of the new land. When they warred against the inhabitants of the land, they not only would win the war, but would kill every person: man, woman, and even the children!

I don’t understand why the Lord would order those who confessed their sin to have them and their children killed, as with Achan (Joshua 7:19-25), or with the city of Ai (8:24-26), and even houghing (hamstringing!) the horses (11:6, 9). I guess it’s hard for me to reconcile the love of Jesus Christ with the Law of Moses. Why was it necessary to kill confessed sinners, or innocent children, and to cause the cruelty of animals?

However, God is Just, and His ways are marvelous to me, and seeing the love for me in the eyes of Christ in a dream, I know He will reveal all truth to me sometime.

Joshua read the Law that Moses had written (8:30-35).

And we find in Chapter 10:12-14, that Joshua commanded the sun and the moon to stand still for a whole day. This was proven by scientists recently when they had found through computer research that there was a day missing and they finally realized that it was the day that Joshua had ordered!

A list of all the kings that the armies of Israel commanded by Joshua had killed is found in Chapter 12:7-24. There was still much land to be won in war, and Joshua was getting old, so many of the tribes themselves had to destroy many cities to claim their inheritances. You can read of these in various subsequent chapters.

Joshua pronounced a tremendous blessing to the House of Israel in Chapter 23. Please read it.

And just before he died at 110 years of age (24:25-32), Joshua set a ‘stone for a witness that heard all the words of the Lord’. (This reminds me of the time that Christ said even the rocks could speak. You can read about this in PERSPECTIVES #5.) Then the people buried him in Mount Ephraim, and buried the bones of Joseph where his father was buried in Shechem.

EXPERIENCES. In the late 1980’s we had rain and more rain one spring. The heavy clay soil turned to mud and got to be unbearable. When you walked it would bind with the dead grass until your boots would be balled up with this adobe until they weighed an extra several pounds. I remember getting so frustrated that I kneeled right out in the middle of the barnyard and prayed, “Lord please let there be a drought!” And it happened! – much like the one we are having now in 2012! The heavy clay soil dried and shrunk and cracked. There were many large cracks. You had to be careful when you walked so you wouldn’t step in one. You could twist an ankle or lose a boot. It got so bad that I remember going out one night with a flashlight and a tape measure. One crack was about four inches wide at the surface and six feet deep!

I remember kneeling again and asking the Lord to send 4 inches of rain. A single small cloud appeared in the west and traveled eastward and soon was over our property. It dumped 4 inches of rain! A friend came to visit right after the rain stopped. He said the road was all dry until it got to our place! The Lord did it. He certainly can be in charge of the weather!

The next day I drove to the feed store, which was about 6 miles away. The owner was complaining about the drought. I told him about the nice rain we had received. He said why did we get the rain, and he didn’t. I told him about praying for the rain. He asked if I would pray for rain on his place.

I told him I would teach him how to pray so he could do it. He was not interested in that!

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING. I remember fishing at the park in Greenville, Michigan. I had run out of bait, and was just sitting on the ground watching the robins. They would hop on the ground for a ways, cock their head sideways, then poke their beaks into the ground, and start pulling our earthworms. They would pull and pull, and the worms would get all stretched out and finally the worms would get tired and release their tail holds and pop out of the ground. I watched while one robin pulled a large earthworm almost out of the ground. I ran over to where the bird was and it flew away. I finished pulling out the worm and went fishing again.

Earth worms are sensitive to vibrations. A lightning storm will drive them out of the ground by the thousands. When we lived in Michigan and in the Eugene, Oregon we would go out on the side streets after a storm and the streets would be littered with large worms (night crawlers). The worms were slippery and difficult to pick up. However, it was easy to use a little broom and sweep them into a dust pan. If you didn’t want to use them for fishing, the bait shops would pay for them. Sometimes it was easy to make good money in just a couple of hours!

If the ground is damp, and there is good soil, you can push the tines of a pitchfork into the ground and just wiggle it back and forth for several minutes, and earthworms will come out of the ground. It doesn’t damage the soil, and the earthworms will soon replenish the area.

‘till next time. GREENSTONE

Greenstone’s Perspectives #28

HISTORICAL.  Now we pick up the history with Joshua, he whom Moses laid his hands on (ordained, Deuteronomy 34:9) to be his successor and led the house of Israel to their inheritance that was promised to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob.  Joshua was promised that the Lord would be with him as He was with Moses (Joshua 1:5), and the people promised to follow him as they did Moses (Joshua 1:17).  The people were told to prepare food for 3 days because they would then pass over the Jordan River to the promised land.  Here again we find the importance of 3 days of preparation to receive a blessing from the Lord.

We also see another blessing that would take place —this time with another harlot!  The first time was with the woman who played the part of a harlot (Tamar) in Genesis 39, and gave birth to High Line and Low Line Judah, and the Low Line son had a scarlet thread placed on his hand.  In this case, Joshua sent two men to spy out the land of Jericho, which was on the other side of the Jordan.  They lodged in the house of Rahab, a harlot. Once again a harlot comes to the rescue!  She hides the two men from the king who would kill them.  And after the king’s men were gone, she let them down with a scarlet rope.  Joshua’s two spies made a covenant with her that whoever of her relatives that were in her house when the House of Israel came to destroy the town would be spared when Israel saw the scarlet rope in the window.  Once again the scarlet rope (or thread) would play an important role in Israel’s heritage! (read Joshua 2:12-21)

In three days the House of Israel passed over the Jordan on dry ground, and again the waters of the Jordan stood as a wall, like when they came through the Red Sea, while this event happened! (Joshua 3:14-17)

Joshua Chapter 6 is about the people circling Jericho in silence, except for the priests blowing 7 ram’s horn trumpets once each day for six days, and circling the city seven times, the seventh day, with the priests blowing their horns. And at the end of the seventh time they all shouted and the walls of Jericho fell down flat! Then the men all went straight in and destroyed every living person. All valuable treasures went into the treasury of the Lord.  Only Rahab and her people were saved, and they became part of the Lord’s people.  The City of Jericho was then burned.

EXPERIENCES.  Some experiences with God are so gentle, and pleasant to remember.  Our 4-year-old granddaughter, Ashley, wanted me to take her fishing, so I told her I would take her to our special pond.  We took a 5 gallon bucket with a small tackle box and a can of bait and a bottle of water inside, and carried our fishing rods.  As we walked the path to Special Pond we walked across the dam of a small pond that was only about 100 feet from the house.

“We can fish here,” she said.  I told her there were just small fish there, and that we must take the path on to Sacred Grove, where some of our friends and us would go to meditate and discuss things.  Sacred Grove had a giant cedar tree in the center with the lower limbs about 8 feet above the ground that reached out about 15 feet.  Other cedar trees grew tightly around the edge making a shaded cathedral that was pleasantly cool in summer.  Sometimes as many as 25 people would assemble there with lawn chairs and blankets to sit on and visit.

“Grandpa, is it far to Special Pond?” she asked as we walked through Sacred Grove.  “No, I replied, it’s just a little farther through the deep forest, and you will see it down the hill a little bit.”

Soon we were at the pond, and baited our lines and cast them out and waited for the fish to bite.  She became impatient and said, “Grandpa why won’t the fish bite?”  I told her she would have to tell them to bite, so she shouted out, “Fish! Bite my hook right now.”  Then we soon caught several nice-sized fish.

As the sun sank a little lower, the frogs started to become more vocal.  She said, “Grandpa, what are the frogs saying?”  I told her to watch my hand.  When one croaked, I moved my forefinger.  “That one is a green frog, and it says Gunk, Gunk.  He’s telling you there’s mud underneath him, and don’t walk there or you’ll get your feet stuck!!”

I moved my finger again.  “That one is a leopard frog, and it says Knee Deep, Knee Deep.”  I moved  my finger again and said, “And that one with the big booming voice is the bullfrog, and it says, “Better go ‘round, Better go ‘round!”  She laughed at the illustrations.

By this time the sun was low on the horizon, and as it shone against her sun-bleached hair there was a brilliant gold halo around her head!  I sat there on the bucket, and she stood tightly against my side and put her hand on my back and gently patted it, and said.  “Grandpa, this is a great thing, you and I fishing here at Special Pond!”  Indeed it was, and I’ll never forget it!  Thank you, God, for times like these!

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING.  Frog legs are delicious, and certainly find their place on gourmet menus. Usually just the hind legs are skinned, fried, and eaten.  Being cold-blooded, they tend to wiggle a little bit when being fried if they are very fresh!  Sometimes really fresh fish will also wiggle a little bit while being fried.  Larger frogs of Bullfrogs and Green frogs are best and have the most meat on them.  They are easily taken at night using a flash light and a canoe paddle to swat them with.

They are regulated with certain seasons in some states.  I remember catching a couple dozen Bullfrogs one night in the Ozarks when I had taken my college students on a camping trip.  When I was dressing them out, a forest ranger watched me, then disappeared for about 15 minutes, then came back with a ticket for killing Bullfrogs because the season didn’t open for another week.

I asked to see the Judge, because I needed to take my students back to Iowa the next day.  He told me that I would have to see the Judge in Saint Louis at a later time.  I told him that there were no rule book available at the tackle shop, and he told me he didn’t have one either.

I wrote a letter to the Judge, and explained the whole situation to him, and explained that I was a biologist, and that large Green Frogs could not be distinguished from Bullfrogs unless a person was well-trained and had close observation, and the forest ranger was never closer than about 12 feet away.  The Judge wrote me a letter and said the case was dismissed!

Regulations for harvesting them are usually found in state fishing regulations.

Happy eating!  GREENSTONE.

Greenstone’s Perspectives #27

HISTORICAL.  A final prophecy is given by Moses to the tribes of Israel in Deuteronomy 33:6-25.  It is similar in many ways to the prophecy given by Israel (Jacob) in Genesis Chapter 49, which was, in fact, also written by Moses who wrote the first five books of the Bible (known as the Pentateuch).  In more particular, I will quote the prophecy about Joseph – vs. 13-17, because of his birthright and his relationship to America, us, and the Native Americans.  I will interweave my comments in parentheses.

And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land…

(interestingly, Joseph is the only tribe out of the 12 tribes specifically  mentioned to have a special land!)

for the precious things of heaven, …

(the precious things of heaven means spiritual gifts!)

for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,

(there is NO OTHER COUNTRY that has the combination of riches of coal,

natural gas, oil, and precious gems, that is available in the Americas!)

And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things

put forth by the moon.

(citrus fruits in the south to Saskatoon berries way up in Canada are governed

by the sun, and the growth of roots in the lack of sunlight in darkness and moonlight –  potatoes, for example grow tremendously in the dark. As a matter of fact, twigs grow  longer on the dark side! This is why trees lean toward the sun!)

And for the chief things of the ancient mountains,…

(among the oldest mountains are The Black Hills of South Dakota, which has

a great variety of precious and semi-precious gems, from gold to agates, etc..

The Appalachians, of course, are known for its wealth of coal, as is the Rockies

from North Dakota to Colorado.)

and for the precious things of the lasting hills.

And for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof,…

(James 5:7 says the Lord is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth which

will bring the early and the latter rain. We find in Psalms 85:11, “Truth shall

spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.”

This, of course, means there will be the good news of the gospel that will come

out of the earth, and Moses is aptly describing America!)

(Zechariah Chapter 4, tells of the two records – one on each side of the earth that will bring light to the whole earth.  If you look at a globe of the earth, you can see that the opposite side of the earth from Israel is indeed in the area of New York where great understanding came forth for America.  More clarity will be given in the future PERSPECTIVES.)

…and for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush (whom Moses saw!):  let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph (Ephraim), and upon the top of the head of him (Manasseh) that was separated from his brethren.

(Isaiah, chapter 29, tells us of a book that would come out of the ground in a country whose inhabitants are under siege from ‘forts’.  And Ezekiel, Chapter 37, tells us of the stick of Judah, which we know as the Bible.  (The Bible, Old and New Testament, was all written by Jews).  It also tells us of the stick of Joseph.  By studying JUDAH’S SCEPTER AND JOSEPH’S BIRTHRIGHT we know the tribe of Joseph went to the British Isles, and Ephraim has split off to America.)

( And, true to prophecy and as shown in the original pattern of the birth of Joseph’s  children, Manasseh, was here first, and is known as the American Indians, who rightfully know themselves as FIRST NATION!  I will go into much more detail on the stick of Joseph in future PERSPECTIVES.)

His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns:  with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

(First of all, a bullock cannot have ‘horns’ like unicorns.  “Uni” means “one”, so that concept is wrong. The bullock has two horns. Secondly, the Lord impressed me to        search out the Hebrew word that was used for unicorn, and it is “Reem”.  The Greek  didn’t know what a Reem was, so they gave it the name of one of their mythological                    characters:  unicorn!  However, the true understanding of Reem is an ‘ancient bison’!   Thirdly, the Reem was thought for many years to be extinct!  However, a few years ago,   National Geographic did a special on a recently discovered herd of bison in the Black  Forest in Germany.  I saw this special, and they look exactly like the American Bison  except the hump on the shoulders is not quite as high!  Moses knew what he was      prophesying about! Indeed, Ephraim knew of the Black Forest bison of Europe, and             Manasseh was well acquainted with the Black Hill’s bison of South Dakota!)

To me, it is no mere coincident that the British has the name ‘John Bull’, the stock  market has a ‘bull’ market, policemen are known as ‘bulls’, and the ‘buffalo’ (bison!) is the symbol of power to the First Nation people – the Native Americans (Manasseh)!

Yes, there is no doubt that there is 10 times as many of Ephraim in America as there is Manasseh, but we do know that the time will come that the two of them will grow into a   multitude in the midst of the earth. (see Genesis 48:16)

And the great visionary/prophet of the Sioux, Black Elk, in the book about him, called  BLACK ELK SPEAKS, said that when he stood on the highest point in the Black Hills  of South Dakota, he stood at the center of the earth.  Indeed, it is a short distance       to the north of that very spot that the exact center of the United States is found today!

Archeologists have found many ancient records, instruments, etc., that have shown  advanced civilizations, some superior to current societies, have already lived in the   Americas.  (The Ten Commandments, written in ancient Hebrew on a large rock near Los Lunas, New Mexico is just one example.))

I will cover much more about the native people toward the end of PERSPECTIVES.

EXPERIENCES.  Our friend Tillie Goff was 49 when she found out she was pregnant. The doctor told her and her husband Fred that her heart was so bad that she would not live through the delivery. The doctor advised them that she should have an abortion.  They made the decision to have the baby.  The only one they told of their situation was their oldest child, my friend, Glenn.  They did not tell the other three children or anyone else.

During the delivery, Tillie died.  As her spirit raised up from her body, she could see her body and the doctors and nurses surrounding her body and trying to do things.

A personage appeared and took her through the air to another place. She said that it was so beautiful and peaceful with all the flowers and greenery. The person next to her said, “Oh, you’re from the little world of clocks!”  She could see points of light coming from the earth, and when they got close to the ‘planet’ she was on, they opened up like fireworks.  She asked what that meant, and she was told, “They are the prayers from people, and all of them are recorded!”

She could see the earth, and felt a pulling to her family.  The person next to her said, “But we have this!!”  And she realized that for the first time in a long time that she had no pain, and what a wonderful feeling it was!

Then she saw her son Glenn.  He was kneeling and praying for her.  The person next to her said, “You have done a few good things.  Now we will see how strong is your faith.”  She woke up, and the doctors and nurses jumped back, and one exclaimed, “We thought you were dead!”  The first words she spoke were, “What time is it?!” (Indeed, she was back to the little world of clocks!)

She placed a call to Glenn as soon as she could, and he confirmed to her that he was in the Arboretum of the University of Wisconsin kneeling on the floor praying for her at the exact time of her experience!  He finished his Doctorate in Botany while at the University.  Tillie did give birth to a wonderful daughter, which she named Janie Lynn Goff, and lived for some years after that.

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING.  In most places in North America there are native plants that are good for food, medicine, or products to help us live.  One example is the common cattail that grows along the shores of lakes and rivers, or, in the case of Minnesota where we lived for a couple of years, covers endless bogs and swamps.  As they develop the spike on top, and it matures, it has a fuzzy crown about a foot long.  It is somewhat fire-retardant, and provides such insulation properties, that the U.S. Government seriously considered using it for sleeping bags and clothing during WWII.  They finally chose to use synthetics, but it does give us a clue of something that would be very useful in a time of emergency.

In his book, STALKING THE WILD ASPARAGUS, Euell Gibbons, has a whole chapter on the cattail called ‘Supermarket of the Swamps’.  There is much information on the use of cattail’s many parts from the root to the fuzzy top from making flour to making weaving supplies.  His opening statement says it all: “For the number of different kinds of food it produces there is no plant, wild or domesticated, which tops the common cattail.”  You might want to borrow the book from your library and copy that chapter.  Or better yet, buy a used copy over the internet as Gibbons covers a wide variety of many useful plants.

The whole book is a treasure trove of using wild plants for everyday use and survival.  It’s been a common source of information since I bought it new 45 years ago.

‘Til next time, GREENSTONE.

Greenstone’s Perspectives #26

HISTORICAL.  The Ten Commandments are given in Deuteronomy 5:6-22.  Beyond that, Moses wrote an endless stream of Statutes (rules and regulations).  The Law of Moses includes all of these.  

          A list of clean and unclean foods are found in 14:3-21.

          Rebellious sons who showed disrespect to parents were stoned to death (21:18-21).

          Persons hanged on a tree could not remain all night on the tree, but must be buried    

                   that day.  Christ’s death was an example.

          Transvestites were an abomination to the Lord (22:5).  Combining different

                    fabrics such as wool and linen, were also an abomination (22:11).

          Rules on marriage and sexual relations are found in 22:13-30, 24:1-5, and 25:5-10.     

         And going back to Leviticus 12:1-8, we see that a woman who had a male child was

                   “unclean” for 40 days, and she was unclean for 80 days if she had afemale child!

                   Nor could she come into the sanctuary! (Is this sex discrimination?!!) She would be punished with an extra 40 days of non-intimacy with her husband, and 80 days of separation from the congregation (church!)!

                  Men who had injuries to their genitals could not enter into the congregation of the Lord, neither could a bastard “even to the tenth generation.” (see 23:1-2)  (And because  I don’t know who my biological father is – I’ve had three fathers – so there’s no hope I could be of service to the Lord, according to the Law of Moses.)

          The priests were to be without blemish, and certainly if the same rules were applied today  there would be fewer ministers! Read Leviticus 21:17-21.

          The law on usury is found in 23:19-20. The law of just weights and measures in found  in 25:13-16.  Blessings for being obedient to the Law are found in 28:1-14, and  cursings are found from v.15-68.

With all of the blessings and miracles heaped upon the House of Israel, Moses informed them “Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.  And I have led you forty years in the wilderness:  your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot” (29:4-5).  So 40 years wasn’t even enough to change the attitude of the House of Israel!

In Chapter 31 Moses says he is 120 years old, and the Lord said he could not go over to the promised land.  (His sin:  he did not praise God for bringing water from the rock, Numbers 20:4-12).

 God is definitely exact in His requirements for blessings.  Praise is very important.  Praise was an important part of a vision I had.  I saw a small group of people that were blessed with protection and peace in a time of great tribulation.  There were no gifts.   There were no burnt offerings!  They were singing songs of praise!  God was pleased with that. He simply wants our hearts! 

Which brings us to another prophecy given through Moses.  In Deuteronomy 4:30, he said, “When thou art in tribulation, and all these (destructive) things are come upon thee, EVEN IN THE LATTER DAYS…”   If you turn to God and be obedient, He is a merciful God and will remember the covenant.

There are some people who believe that the “good” people will be raptured up and only the bad  people will be left behind.  In a later PERSPECTIVES I will show 16 scriptures in the New Testament that totally refutes that concept!  As we have seen, the House of Israel through their continuous murmuring were given a harsh law to keep them remembering God until the time that God (Shiloh) would come to them.  This will be discussed in more depth after we get to the life of Christ in later PERSPECTIVES.  Moses’ last prophecy has many implications to Native Americans, and because of its length will be given and commented on in PERSPECTIVES #27.

EXPERIENCES.  Some years ago I attended a workshop in Spokane, Washington on the use of essential oils.  A woman in northern Idaho drove down to Spokane to talk with me.  I had sold her a buck kid goat some weeks before, and we had had some interesting discussions over the phone.  We agreed to meet in a public place, and met in a grocery store parking lot.

The conversation started out with light talk, and soon I became aware she was carrying a heavy burden.  As the burden became more clear in my mind, I finally said.  “Amy, I feel you have been carrying a heavy burden for a long time.  It has to do with a little girl.”  At this, she began to sob and cried out, “Years ago I had a little girl about two years old that wandered out into a street and was hit by a car and killed.  I’ve always wondered, will she ever be able to see me in heaven?”

She had been told that because the little girl had not been baptized that the little girl would not be able to see her in heaven.  I explained to her that the concept of infant baptism was an evil doctrine. It was instituted so parents would bring their babies for ‘baptism’, this would keep the families in the church and keep control over the lives of the people!

(Note: in spite of the scarcity of water, baptism by immersion only was the method used in the early church.  John baptized with immersion, and Christ himself walked about 70 miles over rough terrain to be baptized, and did it “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).  See also the account of Phillip and the eunuch where they both went down into the water and they came up out of the water!  (Acts 8:36-39) (Sprinkling and pouring were not used for centuries.)  

Jesus Christ NEVER baptized little children, but He did pick them up and BLESSED them (but DID  NOT BAPTIZE THEM!)  and said they are of the kingdom of heaven, and their angels always see the face of God.  (see Mark 10:13-16, Matthew 18:10, 19:13-15)  I then explained to Amy that her baby was already in heaven, and that she needed to prepare her own life so she could be in heaven and be with her daughter.  Amy felt relieved of this lifelong burden and was very happy.

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING.  Sometimes the best way for survival is to leave Mother Nature to do what is best!  At our little farm everyone is told to leave the black snakes alone.  Those snakes not only keep the rat and mice populations down, but also kill and eat the poisonous snakes.  A friend of ours sent us a video of a black snake attacking and swallowing a rattlesnake.  We have seen black snakes 6 feet long, and they get much larger!  They are cold-blooded and have ‘indeterminate’ growth, which means that they never stop growing as long as they live!   

A friend of mine, who lives in southern Indiana, told of his wife screaming and laughing out behind the barn.  She had hold of a monstrous black snake by the neck, and had it wrapped several times around her body.  He went and got a tape measure, and they straightened it out, and it measured 9 ½ feet long!  My neighbor saw one cross our driveway, and he got out of his car to look at it. Its head was off on one side of the road, and its tail off on the other side, so it would certainly have been that long, also!

They are tremendous climbers, and it’s a little  unnerving to look up and see one coiled up between the rafters, and the next day have one slithering between your feet on its way over behind the sacks of feed to hunt for mice.  They seem to recognize that we are ‘friends’, and are not too disturbed to find us in ‘their’ home!!

May His peace be upon you, your family, and property, and possessions!  GREENSTONE

Greenstone’s Perspectives #25

HISTORICAL.  We will now continue the works of Moses, the meek, humble, obedient man who talked with God face to face.  He begins in Deuteronomy by telling the House of Israel to get ready to go into the Promised Land. However, they became fearful and murmured.  This habit of constant murmuring from the time of the exodus is also known as the ‘time of provocation’.  And this time God told them that none of the adults would go into the Promised Land, and they were told to turn around and just constantly travel for the next 38 years until all the adults had died.

 

Moses stated in Deuteronomy 4:2, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it…”  Consider this:  while some groups may say “you cannot add to or take away from the Book of Revelation 22:18-19, inferring that nothing could go beyond John’s writing, that would mean that when the Bible was written centuries later that The Book of Revelation would stand alone! We couldn’t have the 4 gospels, nor the writings of Paul, nor Peter, James, John, and Jude!

 

Consider then what Moses wrote.  If we accepted the same warped logic, as some apply to Revelation 22:18-19, then nothing more should have been written in the Old Testament!  And therefore there would be No New Testament!  No Jesus Christ! No crucifixion, No resurrection, No eternal life!

 

Moses also warned them about worshipping celestial bodies; i.e., the sun, or the moon.  These heavenly bodies are simply used for times and seasons – not for worship! This is reaffirmed in Isaiah 1:13-14, where the Lord is tired of all the falseness in their worship, and simply tells them in v.17, “Learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow.”

 

Moses also tells them in Deuteronomy 4:35 & 6:4-5 that there is only one God, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (see also 10:12-13)  Before the PERSPECTIVES are finished I will give many, many references to PROVE that, in fact, there is only One God, and He is Jesus Christ!

 

Deuteronomy 4:37 says that God LOVED THE FATHERS!  Always remember that.  Moses made that distinction, and then said in 5:2-3 “The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.  The Lord MADE NOT THIS COVENANT WITH OUR FATHERS, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.”  Remember, the fathers who the Lord loved did not have, nor need, this whole system of laws that Moses gave to those who came from the exodus!!

 

So why did the Israelites with Moses have to have this law, when the people who God LOVED did not need it? 

 

Chapter 9 identifies them as stiff-necked people (v. 6), rebellious against the Lord (v.7), doing wickedly (v.18), and Moses said, “Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.”  (Which was while they were still in Egypt.)  Also the people are described as being stubborn and wicked (v.27).  Thus we will see in the next PERSPECTIVE that this blind, wicked, rebellious, stiff-necked, murmuring people will be given a harsh law, a “school master”, a physical law that results in “death” and is anti-Christ!  We will eventually compare this with The Law of Christ, which is the spirit of the law that results in “Life”.

 

EXPERIENCES.  We got a call from a person that had attended a class I was teaching in a home.  Mary was frantic, and said her husband had fallen from a 3-story house where he was repairing the roof.  He landed flat on his back on a piece of ground about 6 feet square 20 feet from the building. This alone was a miracle.  Even though she barely knew me she called to ask me to come and pray for him. 

 

When I got to see him at the hospital, it did not look good.  Richard was unconscious and bleeding from the eyes, nose, and mouth.  His head was swollen.  Initial X-Rays showed his whole skull was cracked all over like an egg shell.  I laid hands on him and prayed for a blessing to be bestowed on him in Jesus name.  The next morning new X-Rays revealed that all of the cracks were gone!  His full recovery was slow, but eventually he got well and was able to perform his construction skills very well.

 

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING.  Color is a powerful source of energies.  Dinshah Ghadiali, in the book about him called LET THERE BE LIGHT, did marvelous things in healing all sorts of maladies.  He provided the healing of hundreds of conditions. (Our medical profession called them diseases!)  THOUSANDS of people were healed of them.  There is no cost beyond an incandescent light bulb and a set of color jells (the kind used for theatrical work)!

 

The principle is this:  light shown through the selected color jell onto the appropriate part of the human body transmits the exact frequency, or energy, the body needs for that condition.  For example:  any type of burn on the body produces the color red, which is the color of hydrogen.  When the color blue, the color of oxygen, is shown against it, it produces H2O (two hydrogen combined with one oxygen), which is water!  This film of water covers the nerve endings, which modifies or stops the pain.  Other colors can then be used for healing.

 

Different colors, or combinations, heal, or cure (yes, I said CURE!) just about any condition you can think of.  Ghadiali, of course, was persecuted, and prosecuted, of course, but his work is still available.  He was NEVER convicted of causing harm, ONLY of being in competition with the medical profession!!

 

Get the Book.  With the events coming to a conclusion in our world today this information is essential.  An incandescent light bulb, 25 watt or above, will be sufficient and has all of the wave lengths of sunlight.  Sunlight, of course, has all the wave lengths.  As you know, sunlight shown against a prism is divided into a rainbow of colors.  Each of these colors (or frequencies, or wave-lengths, or energies) has profound effects on the body.  These are each described in the book.

 

For example:  In France, a person that suffers from low blood pressure would be put in a pool that is colored red, which would be an excitant.  A person that suffers from high blood pressure would be put in a pool colored blue.  Green is the universal equilibrator, and this is why the green that is expressed in spring is so important in relieving the stresses of winter, and the colors of fall build up our energy stores for winter!  I remember traveling through Pennsylvania in October some years ago.  The red, yellow, and orange colors were so brilliant, that they filled my senses (it has been said the eyes are the windows to the soul), and they seemed to shout, SING!  What a marvelous experience!

 

Again, GET THE BOOK!  It can be essential for your health, your enjoyment, your survival.

GREENSTONE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greenstone’s Perspectives #24

HISTORICAL.  After Moses had prophesied and a number of miracles were fulfilled;  i.e., frogs, lice, water turning to blood, etc., the final miracle was that all of the first-born of Egypt – livestock and children were killed.  To protect the Hebrews, Moses issued the commandment to take the blood of an unblemished lamb or kid goat, and smear it on the lintel (upper crosspiece of the door) and the two side posts.  When the Destroyer sent by God would see the blood it would pass over that home.  This was called “the Passover”.  The Lord’s people were then ordered to eat all of the meat before morning.  This was then commanded to be a yearly “feast”.  Then another feast was also instituted:  the feast of unleavened bread.

After the exodus, Moses led the people to the Red Sea.  He was not allowed to number the House of Israel, however he did count the men who qualified for war.  They were between 20 and upward (Josephus says to fifty years of age), in good physical condition.  This did not include those younger or older in age, nor females, nor those who had health problems, nor those who had just planted a vineyard, or had just gotten married, or were fearful, or were of the House of Levi.  Thus if we figure those not included, we could reasonably estimate the total to be four times the men Moses numbered for war. (see Numbers Chapter One) Therefore, the 603,550 men (Genesis 12:37-38, Numbers Chapter 1:46 would easily represent 2,400,000 people, AND we would also have to add all of their livestock!

(The enormity of the size of this group is just about unimaginable!  For example, if you put all those people in rows 1000 wide and 10 feet apart (remember, they were carrying their belongings also!), you’d have a train of 2,400 rows of people 4-5 miles long, and then you would also have the herds and flocks of sheep, cattle, and goats!  The thoughts of keeping them fed and watered is mind-boggling, much less finding places for 100,000 children, women, and men to take toilet stops at the same time!)

He then lifted his rod, and divided the sea, and the children of Israel walked across on DRY ground. My own experience has shown me that reservoirs or lakes that have been drained takes WEEKS or months for the bottom to dry – and God did this OVERNIGHT! The water stood as a “wall”, which helps us understand that the descendents of Joseph would go beyond the ocean (the wall!) to a new land (Genesis 49:22).  When the Egyptians followed, Moses was commanded to raise his hand again and the sea returned to its normal level and all of the Egyptians were drowned.

Moses then established the materials and dimensions of the tabernacle and appurtenances,  and gave the laws on eating in Leviticus.  There were laws against eating pork, coney (rabbit), sea foods (eels, shrimp, etc.), catfish, etc. However, locusts were O.K.

Deuteronomy will be covered in the next PERSPECTIVES.  This will wrap up the works of this mighty, but meek, man of God, who affected the beliefs of HALF OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION, which began when he saw the Angel of God in the POWER OF GOD in a burning bush.

EXPERIENCE.  The Lord blessed me in my work as Park Naturalist for the State of Michigan at Ludington State Park.  I was not allowed to discuss God.  But the Lord finds other ways.  I had set state records for attendance in evening programs and seasonal records in attendance in which I showed people how to catch and clean fish, and understand many things about nature.

But what about the relationship of God in the succession of plants in man’s history?  Forest fires had gone from east to west five times all across the state of Michigan in its early history, but does nature show God’s hand?

I led 140 people, another state record, out into the sand dunes for a lecture.  I led them to a large ‘bowl’ (the depression between the dunes), and we went inside the rim and I led them around until we made a circle.  I had them all sit down in this ‘amphitheater’. I stood in the center so everyone could see me and hear me clearly.

It was sunny and warm and quickly everyone was playing with the sand while I lecturing.  This is what I wanted, because I had observed many times in my teaching:  when the hands are busy, the mind is open! Many teachers don’t understand this.  However, this is important in learning and therapy. It was amazing to see that even adults were so occupied in keeping their hands busy, that some had dug down until the hole was up to their arm pits!

I explained to the people, (children to senior citizens), that we see the barest of earth, the sand that has been driven inland by the wind. A little farther inland we see some grass, then a little farther inland we see a few flowers, then a little father inland we see some sun-tolerant trees (wild cherries), then we see a little farther inland some intermediate species of trees (aspen), then we see, where the soil is even older, more shade-tolerant trees (oaks and pines), and when we get farther into the forest where the soil is the oldest, and there is much shade, we see the trees of the climax forest, beach, hard maple, and hemlock. The shade is so great that the sun-tolerant and intermediate trees cannot live. There is no underbrush AND VERY LITTLE WILDLIFE!  There’s no food or cover for deer or low-level birds.  If you’ve ever been in a climax forest, you know it’s a quiet and somewhat dark place.

And when a forest reaches that stage – the climax forest – it remains in that stage, and when the trees get old and die and fall they are replaced with the same kind of climax forest trees. Michigan WAS JUST ENTERING that stage when the loggers were coming in. This is critical to remember. There were almost no deer, and some early surveyors went mad from not seeing the sun for days.

Scientists believe it takes 2,000 years to reach the climax forest from bare sand.  So I ask you, this being 1970 A.D., what great event, or catastrophe took place about 2,000 years ago?”

The response was wonderful.  As one elderly man said, “I haven’t gone to church for many years because they are so boring.  But this is the best sermon I’ve ever heard.”

I responded by saying, “There is no better place to worship than in that which He created!”

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING. Vitamin C is essential for your survival.  I had taken my college students into the boundary Canoe Waters on the Minnesota-Canada border, and after going through a dozen lakes, and fishing and swimming in each one, we were approaching the shore line of another lake where a young woman was standing and watching us.  When we landed, and she came near I could smell the “flu” on her, and she appeared to be very weak.  She said she had been sick for several days and she was alone.  I asked her why she was in the wilderness alone, and she replied that she was challenging nature!  My students were interested in her situation, and I told them, “Never challenge Nature – she has nothing to lose, and sooner or later YOU will lose!”

I gave her 3,000 units of chewable Vitamin C, and in 15 minutes gave her another 2,000 units, and in about 20 minutes gave her another 2,000 units.  She was alright in about an hour.  I didn’t want to leave her there alone, so we packed up her stuff, and she continued with us for the rest of the trip. She was an excellent canoeist, and later took over one place in a canoe when one of the young men had injured his hand. If we hadn’t taken care of her, and brought her with us, she would likely have died there!

The cells in the body have microscopic holes that selectively allow nutrients to flow in but screen out bad stuff (like bacteria, etc.).  When the cell walls are deficient in Vitamin C those holes become large and irregular, thus letting in the bad guys.  Vitamin C kills off the bad effects, and normalizes the holes. The Vitamin C is used up in combat, and while the body handles 2,000 units at one time, that is instantly used up when the need is there; hence the need to replace it until the bad guys are totally destroyed.

If your body is acid pH, then we use an alkaline Vitamin C, which is made by cooking green onions until they are ‘bleachy’ looking, and draining off and drinking the broth.

You can get pH test strips at the local pharmacy.  Just a touch of urine will change the color of the test strip, which can be compared to the chart on the box.  If you show an acid ph, this is probably why you’re sick in the first place!!  By the way, almost all disease and cancer thrives in an acid environment!  The 48 page paper I wrote called EXTEND YOUR LIFE tells how disease develops and the foods necessary to keep you healthy and is free of charge if you want one.  I compiled it from many excellent sources.

I would suggest you keep a bottle of chewable natural Vitamin C on hand.  GREENSTONE

Greenstone’s Perspectives #23

HISTORICAL.  We continue our research on Moses.  We’ve seen that his life was spared from the edict of Pharaoh to have all the Hebrew male children exterminated.  His early childhood years was spent under his Hebrew mother’s nurturing influence, and certainly was taught of his Hebrew heritage.  Then he was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, and was taught in all the “wisdom of the Egyptians” until he was about 40 years of age.  Then he killed an Egyptian task master who was abusing one of his Hebrew brethren.  He fled for his life and went to the land of Midian, where he successfully drove off shepherds who were controlling the well that was to provide the water for the sheep that belonged to Jethro the priest of Midian.  Jethro, whose daughters were watching his sheep, told him of the event, and Jethro then had Moses stay with them and Moses was given Zipporah, a daughter, for a wife.

Moses stayed at Midian for the next 40 years until he had the experience of the Angel of God speaking out of the burning bush.  What is NOT taught is that Moses heard, AND SAW, the IMAGE of God speaking out of THE POWER OF GOD.  God is described as a consuming fire, and we recognize that the term “right hand” means “full authority”.  When Christ is said to ascend to the right hand of the Father, it means He assumed the FULL AUTHORITY of God himself.  Christ was, IN FACT, God in the flesh (the earthly realm); and when He ascended to heaven (the Eternal Realm!), He was again the FULLNESS of God!!  When He came to earth in the flesh, he was limited in time and space, and therefore he could suffer hunger, pain, fatigue – all the things that we suffer from.

He who caused the separation from the Garden of Eden is THE ONLY ONE who could pay the price for mercy FOR THOSE WHO WOULD ACCEPT HIS SACRIFICE.  His sacrifice paid for the Law of Mercy to overrule the Law of Justice.  I will go into more explanation on the differences between The Law of Mercy and the Law of Justice later.  Right now, let me state that Moses was to tell the House of Israel that THEY should know him as YHVH, THE REDEEMER, or DELIVERER.  Previous to that time, when the Lord LOVED the fathers (Deuteronomy 4:37), they called Him GOD ALMIGHTY! (Exodus 6:3)

As you will see in forthcoming PERSPECTIVES, the new name was given to a blind, rebellious, stiff-necked group of people who would always stone the prophets and reject the truth.  They would even reject Christ and condemned him to be crucified, and ALL the people even stated, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” (Read Matthew 27:19-25) Much more to come in the following PERSPECTIVES.

EXPERIENCES. Shortly after I met Barbara, the semester ended where we were going to college.  We were engaged to be married and I stayed at her folk’s place and helped her father get some farm work done before they would take Barbara and I to Michigan to get married.  It was hot and humid, as usual, in southern Iowa, and as the day was closing Barbara said it would be fun to cool off by going to the “strip pit” and go swimming.  (The term “strip pit” conjured up all sorts of images of what the Iowa kids do in their spare time, but it was explained to me that the coal company had stripped soil down to where the layer of coal was, and the pit had filled with water.  The local kids took advantage of this and used it as the local swimming hole.)

The water was cloudy from the clay soil, so you could only see into it only a couple of inches, like looking into coffee that had some cream in it.  It was warm and enjoyable.  As we swam around, Barbara was laying partially on an old 2”x 10” wooden plank.  She wasn’t aware that there was a nail sticking through it.  She came up behind me, and thinking she would help me, shoved the end of the plank between my legs.  When the nail poked me in the inner thigh I pushed it back and down.  She hung onto the other end of the plank and was pushed down under the water.  When I turned around, she was gone!  All I could see was bubbles coming up!  Most people don’t realize that when a person expels the air from their lungs they no longer have buoyancy and will sink almost like a rock!  She was going down fast, and no one knew how deep that pit was.  I dove down and immediately it was dark.  It was not like the Michigan lakes I grew up with where I could see for 10-15 feet in the water.  I was frantic!  My sweetheart was drowning.  I took a few more strokes downward and realized I was out of air.  I asked God to help me.  I felt a few bubbles come up against my face and I took a couple more quick strokes downward and reached down and felt her hair in my fingers.  I clutched tightly and swam up to the surface.  She coughed for a couple of minutes, and then was O.K.  She has now been a blessing to me for 55 years. Thank you, Jesus!

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING.  Insects can make life miserable, and sometimes can cause health problems.  Besides flies and mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers are just plain nasty!  A bar of sulfur soap is very valuable.  I get ours from the drug store:  it is a sulfur and salicylic acid (aspirin!) combination.  Just make a little lather and wipe it on your feet and legs.  It smells a little like a box of matches – which is from the sulfur.   It is very healthy and soothing, and the bugs don’t like it.

When a bug bites you, your body reacts by sending histamine to the spot, which attracts water, which causes swelling, which makes you itch!  We just dab on a little straight ammonia (which doesn’t have soap or detergent in it) on the swelling, and Presto! –the swelling goes down and the itch is gone!  You can buy expensive products to put on the bites, but they probably are primarily just ammonia, anyway!

Until next time, Greenstone.

Greenstone’s Perspectives #22

HISTORICAL.  Jacob (Israel) lived to be 147 (Genesis 47:28), and the family took his remains back to the land of Canaan where the fathers and their wives were buried (Genesis 49:29-33).  Joseph lived to be 110, and he was buried in the same location as the fathers (Genesis 50:22, Joshua 24:32).

We will now begin the study of Moses.   To understand how he fits in that time, let me toss out a few dates and numbers.   Jacob was born about 1856 B.C., lived 147 years to 1711 B.C. Joseph was 32, when Jacob was 130.  Joseph died at 110 years of age, or about 1650 B.C. Moses was born 1593 B.C., less than 60 years after Joseph died!   This would have been about 140 years after the house of Israel went to Egypt.

A King arose that didn’t know Joseph, and he became concerned because of the tremendous increase in the Hebrew population, and decided to make them work hard, and also ordered the extermination of all newborn male children by throwing them in the Nile (full of crocodiles!) (Exodus Chapter one).   A man and a woman of the house of Levi, however, had a child, and to save him the mother made a small boat and placed the child in it and put it in the rushes at the water’s edge  (Once again, an ark was used for salvation of the Lord’s people!)   A daughter of Pharaoh saw the child, and had compassion for it. The child’s sister was watching, and arranged for the mother to nurse the child (Exodus 2:1-10).

As a child, he was under his mother’s care, and was certainly taught of his Hebrew heritage.   Then he was brought to the Pharaoh’s daughter and became her son and she named him Moses “because I drew him from the water.”   We find in the Book of Acts 7:22-36 that Moses was then “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”   So he was well versed in history, science, and religion!

When he was 40 years of age he went to visit his Hebrew brethren (see the previous reference) and seeing one of them was being abused by an Egyptian taskmaster, he slew him (Exodus Chap. 2).   He then fled from Egypt to the land of Midian and defended the daughters of Ruel, the priest of Midian, who was also called Jethro.   He then was invited to stay with them, and was given one of the daughters (Zipporah) for a wife.  At the end of spending 40 years with them, he had the experience of seeing the angel of the Lord in a burning bush.  God then told him what he was to do, and that God would be known as the Deliverer or Redeemer to the Hebrews.   Further explanations will be given in the next PERSPECTIVE.

EXPERIENCE. My dad was a remarkable person, evidently learning his faith from his parents.  When I was about 4 years of age we lived in Belding, Michigan.  Dad came home from work one day and informed Mom that the factory had laid off the workers.  There was no such thing as unemployment benefits, and there was no savings account, and Mom said, “What are we going to do?” Dad’s response was, “We’re going to go on vacation!” And we did!

Dad had borrowed a tent, a Coleman cook stove, and a couple of used tires.   Packed with some food supplies, and a couple of cane poles for fishing, we headed for the west coast of Michigan, also known as the fruit belt, which was about 100 miles away.

Dad would stop at orchards and ask if they were hiring fruit pickers.  There were very little migrant workers at that time and many orchards were looking for help.  Dad had certain requests before he would work.  First of all, he informed the owners, “We’re on vacation.” Then he would find out if we could camp in the orchard, and we would want to be paid each day.   The orchard always had a hand pump for drinking water and a two-hole outdoor toilet, and of course fresh fruit to eat!  I can just barely remember Mom and Dad discussing each evening where we would want to go the next day where fishing was good, and how much money we would need to get there and buy a few groceries, also.   So, the next day Mom and Dad would pick the necessary boxes or bushels of fruit to make the money they needed.

I remember sitting in the outhouse and singing.  It’s a great time to sing, after all, when you know you’re loved and there are other kids to play with!  One day when people were lined up to use the outhouse, I was busy singing.   Some lady got impatient, and said, “Little boy, you will have to come out so other people can use the toilet!”  I swung the door open and said, “You can come in, there’s another place in here!”   Well, Mom came to the rescue, and peace and comfort was restored to the camp!

We were on ‘vacation’ for about 3 weeks, picking fruit in various orchards, and fishing in a number of different lakes.  We had a wonderful time! When we got back home there was a letter in the mail box telling dad to return to work the next day When he went to work, the other employees were complaining how tough life had been with no money and no job.  They were astounded when they asked Dad how his family made it, and he replied, “We went on vacation!”  Dad was always willing to do anything to support the family, and had the faith that we were always going to make it O.K.

SURVIVAL AND TIPS FOR LIVING. A big part of camping is the campfire.  There are different types of fires for different purposes.  Of course, a bigger fire is nice for groups having singing or discussions.  Smaller ones are for cooking.  When I took my college students camping in the Ozarks in Missouri, or canoeing in the Boundary Canoe Waters on the Canadian border of Northern Minnesota, or backpacking in the wilderness of the Colorado Rockies, I taught them many things about fires.  I often heard them repeating what I taught them:  “White man build big fire, stand way back, and burn food.  Indian build small fire, stand up close, cook real good food!”

I don’t think there is any better tasting food than fresh caught brook trout fried in a little butter, over a small fire!  To make sure your matches will not be wet, and will work very nice, dip them individually in melted paraffin and store them in plastic containers that pills come in.

Spend time in nature.  When I was park naturalist in Michigan I told the people, “There’s no better place to worship than in the place that He created.”  It’s way better than spending time in plushy pews looking at stained glass windows!  Research has proven that the songs of birds stimulate healthy tree growth.  I believe those songs make us more healthy, too.  The song sparrow is aptly named Melospiza melodia.   As I listen to the various songs I see those birds in my mind.   Yes, as my Indian friends say, “They are my relatives!”

‘Till next time, GREENSTONE