God's Green Earth

Wife Wanted

2012-05-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

I recently posted an ad in the personal sections on Craigslist, I've gotten a few responses. Here are a few questions for those of you who responded and things I believe.

What really matters when it comes to marriage are your beliefs and your habits. Especially what one believes. The “American” way of dating and marriage is not in line with the Holy Scripture. This idea of waiting on “the right one” comes from psychology, not from scripture.

We can begin our relationship by answering a few questions, of which the following are among them.

Do you believe the Holy Bible, as written in the original languages, is the literal, inerrant, infallible, inspired [meaning God-breathed] written word of God?
Do you believe in the Holy Trinity, the Tri-Unity, God the Father, God the Son [Jesus] and God the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers?
Do you that Jesus is the only way to heaven and that there is no salvation in anyone other than Him?
Do you believe that salvation by grace alone through faith [belief, trust] alone in Jesus Christ alone?
Do believe that there are two types of sinners, lost and saved and that a Christian is simply a sinner saved by grace. That though we do not live in or practice sin after we are saved, we still sin, we still err from the faith and are therefore still sinners?
If he were a repentant Christian and compatible in every other way, and you got along with him well, would you be willing to marry Charles Mansion? If your answer to this question is no, then you are not a compatible match for me.
Do you believe that the wife is to be submissive to the husband and that the husband is head of the household? Christ is the head of the man,the man is the head of the woman, and both are to be submissive to each other in Christ.
Do you believe that anyone willing to accept Christ as his or her personal Lord and Savior can be saved? This includes Charles Mansion, Tanya Harding, Casey Anthony and whosoever will. Whosoever believes may come to Jesus for salvation, including the vilest of sinners.
Do you believe that counseling should be pastoral or Christian and that Psychology should be avoided because psychology is from satan?
Do you believe the doctrine of self-esteem is a false, anti-scriptural doctrine based in psychology rather than God's word? If not, we are not compatible.
Do you believe that scripture does not teach that you need to love yourself before you can love others, and that self-love is a false and anti-scriptural doctrine? If you do not agree with this we are likely not compatible.
What translation do you prefer? I prefer the King James Version and have no objection to other “word for word” translations such as the Amplified and American Standard Version. I consider so called thought by thought translations, such as the NIV and the Living Bible to be commentaries and not real translations.
Do you believe that scripture teaches that in so much as it depends on us that we are to do good to all [not some] men,[people] especially [not only] those of the household of faith?
Do you believe we are to entertain [not avoid] strangers?

Politics:

It is helpful to know what one's political beliefs are, but except in areas where they are obased on Christian beliefs, it is not essential to agree on politics. And there is some crossover.

Pro-Christian freedom, though our nation is no longer a Christian nation, but a socialist one, our nation was founded on Christian principles, including the freedom of religion, that means the freedom to pray wherever one is. In schools, hospitals, council meetings, hospitals, at work, wherever. We do not separate our Christianity from who we are away from the church.

Pro-Life. Abortion is the murder of an unborn child. It is a forgivable sin, but still a sin and still the taking of a life.

Homosexuality is sin. It is not discrimination to speak out against the sin of homosexuality any more than it is sin to speak out against the sin of murder.

War: We need war, we need a military force in the United States, but I am not convinced that we need what would be called a “strong” military. If God is leading us into war, then the military and those that serve.

I tend to lean conservative and sometimes Republican, but I will not vote for Mitt Romney, I intend to in the fall vote for Virgil Goode, the Constitution Party candidate.

Personal Habits:

Well, this is where we may need to date to really get to know each other. Some habits may need to be adjusted, others can be tolerated and some should be overcome.

I have a few goals, but scripture does not teach us to set goals or want to know where we want to be next year or five years down the road, etc. These ideas come from psychology, not scripture.

My basic goals are to find my brother again, get married to someone I find easy to get along with, where we mean the same thing (sort of) when we say the same thing, to finish building my house in Lockhart.

If you are a teacher you can answer my craigslist post if you wish, but because of my past, I would not be a help to your career. Society would make sure of that. But Christian teachers are often courageous, so reply if want to take that risk.

Suggestions for Using Craigslist

2012-04-30T06:02:00.000-07:00

I have enough projects going on around my house that when I have the transportation available to get what I want or need for certain projects, I often use craigslist. For example, if you are a gardener, someone on craigslist may have some pots or plants to sell or give away.

In a sense, craigslist is the answer to everything non-spiritual. However, like anything created and run by humans it has it's problems. One of those problems is in the free column, which I use a lot. The problem is when someone post something in the free column and tells you not to bother knocking or ringing the doorbell.

One post actually said the item did not belong to the homeowner. If doesn't belong to people living in that house, what is it doing there? Now, don't get me wrong, many of these post may be legitimate. But telling in your posts to not contact someone at an address published in your post is a tell-tale sign of dishonesty.

1) The item(s) may be stolen and 2) It could be a prank by neighborhood kids or someone else.

Suggestions: 1) If the post gives a phone number, call it before leaving. 2) Take a printed copy of the ad with you if you can. 3) Knock or Ring Doorbell anyway. Now I'm not suggesting that if you go at 4 in the morning that you wake the people up. Having a printed copy of the ad will help (I think) should you be questioned by authorities or the homeowner. It will at least explain what you're doing and that your intentions are honest.

While not everyone who post that does not want to be bothered is dishonest, most probably are not. However, the risk is to great to just take something without some sort indication that it is legitimate. A sign on the items that says "Free" is usually helpful. Yard and Garage sale leftovers with a sign that says "Free" is also helpful, in my opinion. If you post something for free on Craigslist, we appreciate your generosity, but please never ever tell us to not knock or ring doorbell.

Garden

2012-04-15T04:35:00.003-07:00

We've definitely been blessed with rain and I still want more. Most the garden is not doing as well as it was, but my "square foot" garden did a little to good. The lettuces bolted, in the ground they are covered with weeds. I've also added 3 more fruit trees, an apricot, a supposed Meyers lemon, but the fruit to me is green and looks more like a lime to me, but as far as I know I have never seen a Meyers lemon, and something called Sasuma Omari, which is suppose to be like a tangerine (and I'm afraid I forgot the spelling of the first word).

My sister gave me about 40 oak trees that were only a few inches tall. They had grown in the ground from Acorns which fell from her big Oak tree. About half survived. I also planted 28 trees from Native Pecans which I got from Pecan Barn on East Highway 20 in Lockhart, Texas. About half germinated, I planted two in the ground and gave some away to friends.

If I ever get my place cleaned up enough I will try to get some pictures on here of my garden and my place.

My Garden

2012-02-18T19:11:00.000-08:00

Though far from perfect, my winter garden is doing well this year due to the recent rains here in South Central Texas. I have so far planted Spinach, Kale, Turnips, 3 kinds of lettuce, Corn, Carrots, Strawberries (planted them in Early February, a little late for this area), Cabbace, Bush Peas, Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, Asparagus and Red Potatoes, plus some seeds I do not know what they are.

God has blessed us with so much rain it is wonderful. Though I knew I wasn't suppose to, it's not good for the bugs in the dirt, also known as "life in the soil", I planted most of this when it was wet. And prayed to God for it to keep on raining. And I hope he continues to do so.

I also planted 3 new fruit trees, a Santa Rosa Plum and two Peach Trees, one Texstar, the other Junegold. That is in addition to the two Pear trees and an Apple Tree I planted last year.

The two Lettuces I planted early enough and Spinach are doing OK, as is the Endive (not mentioned above, I forgot). The Turnips and Broccoli are doing well and the Radishes. The Beets and especially the Swiss Chard are doing poorly.

I also started a 4 foot by 4 foot square foot garden to demonstrate to my Pastor what can be done in a small place. I have the Endive, Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Buttercrunch Lettuce and 13 other plants planted there. My Pastor, a wonderful person and a great Pastor seems to think there is no way a person can grow enough food to feed a family in such a small place. So I decided to demonstrate. Broccoli, Cabbage, Spinach, Carrots and Cauliflower are among the other 13 edibles I have in that space. Also Coriander [Cilantro] and Parsley.

The Strawberries, Asparagus and technically Potatoes [Seed Potatoes] were planted from plants, everything else was planted from seed. I also planted Onions and Leeks, the Leeks were planted from seed and the onions from both seed and plants.

My soil is sand in the top 18 inches and then a different kind of substances similar to but not clay, clay when you make a ball out of it will stay together when it's wet, this does not do that, so it may be some sort of darker sand, then it alternates back and forth till about 6 feet deep (a neighbor dug a hole about that deep a few years ago just to find that out).

Some things have not come up yet because they were recently planted. Though they should be up soon. I bare rooted all my fruit trees and later found out it is not as important to bare root the fruit trees as the big old shade trees.

I'm trying to grow Pecan Trees from the nuts, the native Pecans. That's experimental and I'll wait and see what happens. Though not in the form of a lot of money, though I was blessed there too, God blessed me so much last year. So far He has blessed me and the others in this area with lots of rain which came and currently seems to be coming at just the right time. The rain is so wonderful and Thank God for it. I couldn't do much, if any of it, without the wonderful rain, as I do not have a Well, a Cistern or Metered Water. Currently no running water at all. I collect rain water in small barrels, trash cans and buckets, buy my drinking water and have to go elsewhere to get other water [as most my next door neighbors do]. I do know that God provides, and I think Home Gardening can be a way to get off food stamps.

Please allow me to introduce this blog.

2011-08-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm reorganizing my blogs, to hopefully go along with my article writings. Who knows what will be in here, but I'm hoping to connect much of it with my AC (Associated Content) articles. When I signed up with Blogger in 2007, I had a "real" job and frankly forgot about blogging for a while and also tried other things.

The blog will be about whatever I think of to blog and write about. Hope you enjoy it.

Butch