Friday, October 09, 2009
An Old Friendship Reborn
Recently I had the chance to tour a modern gin and see how computers and a half century of experience have revolutionized the industry. For me it was better than Las Vegas and Disneyland rolled into one. Well, maybe that is just a country assumption, as I’ve never seen (nor care to see) either one.
A life-long friend, Rex Johnson, started his ginning career 53 years ago when 100 bales could be ginned in a 12-hour shift. Today his much improved equipment and a handful of knowledgeable workers can turn out 100 bales (fully compacted) per hour. He furnishes module builders to the farmers so there is no need for trailers that have to be pulled to the gin by farm wives like me. His trucks may drive 50 miles or more to retrieve the modules, as his is the only gin in the area. In my day, each small town had at least one gin. Flomot (where we both grew up) had two.
As an added bonus to the guided tour, the richness of a reborn friendship has emerged, and in our long, pleasant visit I even learned some new things about my dad’s last years in farming. Old age can be quite an adventure!
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Saturday, September 12, 2009
A Love-Molded Heart
The old fool no longer seeks knowledge
and follows his own winding way.
A self-centered life is a wasted life
where “do your own thing” holds sway.
Contentment is elusive,
authority reviled,
with maturity reverting to
the thinking of a child.
For the goodly favor of God and man,
kindness and truth must be sought,
keeping close within the heart
those things that Christ has taught,
growing in his wisdom
as he writes on our tablets of clay,
creating positive patterns
that mold our lives day-by-day.
Depending on his counsel
in all aspects of life,
we will make the righteous choices
that prevent mayhem and strife.
We don’t have to wander the drunken path
that takes us nowhere fast,
aging prematurely
while running from our past.
God is a pillar to lean on,
dependable, strong, secure .
Acknowledge him in all your ways,
forever to endure.
There true prosperity is found,
the deep veined gems of peace.
Total confidence he offers
in his gift of full release.
Obedience to his perfect will
heals body, mind and soul.
Generosity of spirit
brings us closer to the goal.
Open hearted, open handed,
grasping nothing as our own,
nothing clutters up our vision
as we race home toward his throne.
From a sermon by Roger Holm
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Saturday, July 04, 2009
More Than Conquerors
His greatest challenge is a faithful soul.
Ten days of trial for the church tested those at Smyrna,
but “faithful unto death” would be their goal.
Ten times poor Jacob’s wages were changed by crafty Laban,
yet Jacob flourished with God’s tender care.
Accused ten times by his best friends, Job’s patience stood the test,
and greater blessings yet God would declare.
When we travel the road of adversity, the Lord helps carry our load
and as our faith is focused, vision clears.
There is eternal purpose in the discipline of saints,
seen better through a mist of sweat and tears.
Adversity can show us just where we stand in Christ,
yet is limited in harshness by his love.
We can stand more than we think, though our bodies may be frail.
Strength and wisdom fall like showers from above.
Self will is not sufficient to produce a saintly soul.
It takes a lifetime with the Master Potter.
After being broken many times, the final state is best,
secure from Satan, evil’s master plotter.
Now is the time to use our faith in a brand new way.
Unnecessary traits will have to go.
The negative can bring us down, old fears can paralyze.
Exercise will help faith’s muscles start to grow,
overcoming fear that just projects the worst scenario.
Clean out that space, let confidence move in.
Let God strip off the grimy layers of defeat and pain,
expose the hidden beauty of your grin.
As Joseph was shaped through hardship beyond his normal self,
God pushes us to limits past our dreams,
brings out the best that we can be, the image of our Savior,
by using wisely Satan’s wildest schemes.
Winning is a habit, not a one-time act,
requiring every fiber of our being
True soldiers are made in the heat of battle, and the battle belongs to the Lord.
We’re conquerors of worlds beyond our seeing.
Cora Gail Trent
From a sermon by Roger Holm
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Stepping Outside Decorum
“A man after God’s own heart” was David, Israel’s king.
Relocating the ark of the covenant made him dance with joy and sing.
Wife Michal was embarrassed at this undignified celebration,
inappropriate for his regal position as head of God’s chosen nation.
King David’s response to Michal? “I celebrate here with God
and will do even more ridiculous things than dance in a priest’s ephod.”
“But everything shall be done in a fitting and orderly way.”
Do we sometimes take this scripture beyond its intent today?
Worship can become like a funeral when spontaneity dies,
choking out vitality and joy, enthusiasm, surprise.
We can’t stand any type of change, must stay in our old rut
that soon becomes much like a grave, our minds and hearts long shut.
Christ stepped outside decorum in his ministry on earth,
gave a whole new view of compassion, exploding into rebirth.
He shocked the scribes and Pharisees by touching a loathsome leper.
The paralytic healed on the Sabbath became an instant high stepper.
Levi, a hated tax collector, extorter, Jewish traitor
was chosen as a disciple and became an apostle later.
Forerunner of the coming Christ was his country cousin, John,
who lived out in the wilderness, no normal clothes to don.
Eating locusts and wild honey, and never drinking wine,
he served in his own peculiar way, which seemed quite out of line.
He oft was called a nut and maybe crazy as a loon,
but he believed God’s promise that the Christ was coming soon.
We should enjoy the Christian walk, not stifle our spark of life
in dignified stoicism with no happy trumpet or fife.
New converts’ enthusiasm often is put to death
by the old and staid and cynical before it can hardly draw breath.
We must examine ourselves each day, our motives to discern,
looking for ways to grow and change, never too tired to learn.
Do we encourage, like Barnabas? Gladly suffer like Paul?
Give aid to the poor and downtrodden with their backs against the wall?
Can we dance with joy like David, or act like his hateful wife?
Rededicate, rejoice, re-spark, reclaim a redeemed new life.
God gave us a song; we should dare to sing and praise the sacrifice
he gave for our salvation–victorious Jesus Christ!
Cora Gail Trent
From a sermon by Neil Swain
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Friday, March 20, 2009
Drivers Beware!
Our son-in-law had only a small sports car, so when he needed to take his large, crippled dad to Arizona, I suggested he use our minivan. But we didn’t think to tell him about the back doors that didn’t always lock electronically. After his return, someone in his neighborhood discovered this little loophole, crawled over the seats and unlocked the hood.
Later, when we started to town, the brakes began to lock down. Our excellent neighborhood mechanics found a foreign substance in the brake fluid, evidently put there by some malicious malcontent. It melted all the seals in the brake system, requiring a very costly repair job. When the fluid was poured into a jar, it separated like oil and water, so the insurance adjuster agreed that this was vandalism, and Allstate paid all our expenses. Similar cases were reported in Albuquerque.
Driver beware; lock your doors!!
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Monday, March 09, 2009
The Most Amazing Creature on Earth
The Most Amazing Creature on Earth
If you were asked to nominate a form of life to be given the title of “most amazing creature on the earth,” what would be your choice? In this column, we have explained some pretty bizarre creatures over the 30+ years we have been writing. Some have been amazing in beauty, some in strength, some in what they can endure, and some in what they provide for us and other forms of life on the earth.
Cyanobacteria is the oldest form of life to appear in the fossil record. These life forms were present shortly after the earth was created, and they have come through time unchanged. The forms living today look no different than their ancestor from the beginning of the earth’s history. Evolution has not happened to cyanobacteria. In addition to this, they are the most resilient of all life forms on this planet. We find them in hot springs, in ice capped Antarctic lakes, in barren deserts, inside rocks, at the bottom of the oceans, and even in nuclear reactors.
Dr. Donald Bryant at Penn State University has detailed the reason for the resiliency of cyanobacteria. (1) Their nutritional needs are extremely simple. “All they need is light, CO2 and mineral salts like iron, phosphate, or sulfur.” (2) They can get along without water for huge periods of time—up to thousands of years. (3) They can adapt to all kinds of environments.
What is cyanobacteria good for? Well, for one thing, it has produced 20% of the oxygen in our atmosphere. Cyanobacteria provides a basis for all other life forms on this planet, concentrating nutrients and providing a foundation on which all other life functions. Cyano-80-80 bacteria can repair radiation damage, and they can stabilize other cells around them. They are getting a lot of attention from NASA because they may be useful in the colonization of other places in the solar system. And what is cyanobacteria? You know it as pond scum. These amazing creatures are part of the design of the whole biological system of the earth. They not only provide oxygen, but form the base of the food chain nourishing all forms of animal life. Scientists speak of pond scum “inventing photosynthesis,” but mindless bacteria do not invent. They are carefully designed and planned life forms that provided the foundation upon which all other living things exist. They speak eloquently of the planning and engineering that allow life to exist.
Source: “Scientists See Amazing Saga in Pond Scum” by Robert Boyd, South Bend Tribune, March 18, 1999.
—John Clayton, Dandy Designs, July/August, 2000
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
Friday, January 30, 2009
Gardens of Suffering
Gardens of Suffering
Sweat drops of blood wet Jesus’ brow, as in the garden he prayed,
yet he endured the cross with joy, for there our souls were saved.
The weight of our sins was agony, too much for a mortal man,
but he gladly shouldered all the blame, working God’s eternal plan.
Partaking of his body is to share his righteous goal.
To weekly drink his precious blood is cleansing to the soul.
Remembering the sacrifice so gladly offered there,
with humility and thankfulness, we breathe an earnest prayer
that we will gladly suffer the death of our own will
to follow in the path he trod up Golgotha’s hill.
Before producing any fruit, a kernel of grain must die.
Continuing in our selfishness is His love to deny.
In baptism we are buried with Christ and raised to start anew
as saints and priest in the kingdom, fresh as the morning dew.
The gift of the Spirit revives us, nourishing new life within,
no longer burdened with the guilty verdict for our sin.
The cross represents redemption, the empty tomb our hope.
Though we can’t explain all that happens to us, we have a telescope
that helps us see the outcome, the victory in Christ,
eternal bliss in heaven bought by his sacrifice.
We have different ways to share the Bible’s news of resurrection--
Reasoning and common sense are great for introspection.
We can teach by testimony of how our lives were changed
by the Spirit’s sweet in-dwelling, our thinking rearranged.
Like the Samaritan woman at the well, we can invite–Come see!
Or by serving others, like Dorcas, or Jesus on bended knee.
Only by showing that we care will folks care what we know.
In dying to self and living for Christ, we can his righteousness show,
planting the seed of grace and truth in the garden of the heart.
By discipline and example we can His love impart.
Cora Gail Trent
(From a sermon by Roger Holm)
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net
